On the streets of down town Madrid, you meet the most interesting people. It all began on last Saturday when my temporary companion and I missed the Metro. (Yes, I struggle with the system apparently, even though it was not my fault!) We were able to find our way to the other missionaries and where they were proselyting, luckily so all was well. We were walking down the street when we came across a man. Now, this man was scary beyond all reason (get the movie reference?) I´m talking about the tattoos, big muscles, leaning against his motorcycle, don´t-talk-to-me-or I- will-take-you-out kind of attitude—you get the picture. My companion leans over and says, I really feel like we should talk to that man. My first reaction? “That man?? Do you have a death wish?” but then I realized I felt like we should as well. Sigh…So we carefully, nonchalantly walk up to him and introduce ourselves. As a peace offering, I told him I liked his motorcycle. I hate motorcycles, but it is survival of the fittest haha Anyway, we started talking about his beliefs, and he was an atheist. I hat…love atheists. But this one was different, my companion asked him why he did not believe in God. He didn´t have a reply, so we bore our testimony right there about how God lives, he loves us, and he has a plan for us through his Son Jesus Christ. He accepted the Book of Mormon and said, ”I want to know for myself.” We walked away, and then saw him on a different street about 15 minutes later still reading the Book of Mormon. Although I can hardly form the words I want to say about our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, I know that Book of Mormon can. Then about a half an hour later, a man came up to us and started asking us about our name tags. He was completely drunk, and he was smoking a cigarette, but we felt like we should start to talk to him. He said he didn´t have a religion because nobody teaches right about Jesus—rough translation. While he is talking, bits of his cigarette are flying from his mouth and hitting me in the face; I was just thinking, “Don´t grimace, don´t grimace!” I squirmed a little when I saw a bit of the ember fall into the shoe and I felt the warm goo over my foot. However, he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and find out more how we teach about Jesus. Hopefully, he still remembers that when he´s not intoxicated, but I sure had a good laugh afterwards. Well, remember how we came a little after the other missionaries? Ya… we realized once it was time to meet two hours later, that we had no idea where to meet. Haha So here we are two obviously lost Americans standing there wondering where we should go. To the side of us we hear, “Are you two girls lost?” Instead of turning and replying, we turned and simultaneously said, “ENGLISIH!!” We were so excited to hear English words that we could understand. Haha Well, we see this cute, spunky Mexican lady that was so enthusiastic. We talked to her for 15 minutes about our missions, and Utah. She loves Utah because she came all the time to visit family and that is how she learned English. (her English was impeccable, I was shocked to find out she was Mexican). It was mostly just small talk with her, but she was a doll! My companion and I felt so inspired at the same time to bear our testimonies about Eternal Families (it felt so good to do so in English!) and she just so excited! She said , “Girls, give me everything you got, because you shine, and you have a sparkle in your eyes!” We gave her a Book of Mormon and a Family Proclamation. She just kept hugging us and saying, “I am so grateful for you two, I love that you are doing this!” Golden I believe. She said she was going to stop by our temple as well to learn more (because we had been talking to her before about Temple Square). It made my day. Once we got home, we watched the Saturday morning session of Conference which was so inspired. Oh my goodness. There is nothing quite like watching conference in the MTC with aspiring missionaries. On Sunday, we watched the Young Women conference for relief society…and it was honestly incredible. We all were taking notes like crazy, and crying even crazier haha. The video that comes on (I believe Lex and Mom would know what I am talking about) depicts a girl going to the temple and her journey of life to get to that point. I realized that the temple has gotten me to that point as well. I wrote more about it in my letter to Lex. Speaking of temple, there is honestly nothing quite like attending a session and walking into the Celestial Room that is full of missionaries. We are all praying so hard for the Lord´s guidance, that I have never felt his presence quite so close. It is truly amazing. And get this, the walls in the temple are all marble. Not just faux paint, it is real marble. It´s incredible. Last week, we were able to take a temple tour and we went into one of the sealing room, and President Sitterud gave us a spiritual thought, and he told us all to remember that feeling of being in the sealing room because it will show on your faces the joy of eternal families when you teach. So cool. The rest of my week has been pretty…slow. A lot of studying, a lot of sitting, but it will be so worth it soon. I had one night where we were teaching one of our investigators, and I totally bombed the lesson. I could not answer anything in Spanish, and when I did, I had about five umms in between each word. I was pretty frustrated. I knelt down that night and just prayed with all my heart, “Please if you are there Heavenly Father, let it be known to me! Help me with this language!” (I know, I know it was kind of a drama queen moment). Anyway, the following moment we had a devotional with Hermano Ajorno that was supposed to be about teaching the Restoration. We all sat down there, and he took one look at me and announced, “I originally wanted to talk about the restoration, but I feel strongly prompted to speak about the love of God for you missionaries.” Wow. My favorite thing he said was, “There will be times on your mission when it will be hard, and you will fall on your knees and weep; but remember, the Father and the Son weep with you.” So mom, I am being watched over here, no worries :D. I love you all so much, and am very appreciative of your support!!
Mucho Amor,
Hermana Hopkins
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