Chapter 5: If the Savior Stood Beside Me

Chapter 5: If the Savior Stood Beside Me

In a word, this week was all business! As the new Training Sisters (it´s been changed from coordinating sisters to training sisters—we are the first of this calling in Spain, and first batch around the world), we have had a fun time getting to know all the sisters here and have personal interviews with them to see how they are all doing. The other sisters here are so inspiring, and they make me want to be a better missionary. Well…most of them. No, I am just kidding—they are all great. Haha So last P day we got to have some good old fashioned girl time and go shopping in Sol! Although I did buy a couple cute shirts, the greatest prize of the day was the churros con chocolaté! We do not know churros, my friends. Essentially, they are deep fried croissants dipped in a dark chocolate fondue like sauce. Absolutely scrumptious, but I could feel my cholesterol increasing by the chocolatey mouthful. (Let me indulge myself, I am slightly malnourished here.) Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the park again to proselyte. This time, I had a different experience. Usually, and not to brag, I have some of the highest numbers (yes, I know it´s not about numbers, I am just stating facts here). However, this Saturday, my temporary companion, Sister Bracken, felt more inspired to have deeper conversations with just a couple people. We talked with some lovely people from Finland. Yes, I was blessed with the gift of tongues to speak Finnish. Ok, so I wish that was the case, they just spoke English. And they were more interested in the customs of our church, but we weren´t able to give them a Book of Mormon. Then, we moved on to a girl who was 18 years old. At first, she didn´t seem very interested. We talked to her for a little bit, but she seemed a little distant. Then, I felt like I should tell her about how the Book of Mormon is about Christ´s dealings with the people in the Americas. Immediately she seemed more interested because her family was from Venezuela. Then a miracle happened. We were talking about the similarities between our church and the Catholic Church, and my companion brought up abortion (she speaks more Spanish than I do) and I panicked. I was thinking, “What on EARTH are you doing??” BUT I was sorely mistaken. It was inspired. The girl practically grabbed the Book of Mormon out of our hands and said she wanted to read it to know of its truths. She said she admired our boldness. Oh my goodness. Haha We only talked to one other man that day, and he was the same way—didn´t seem very interested. We asked him about his family, and he said he was sad that he wasn´t able to see them very often. I bore my testimony of how through Christ, families can be together forever. His face completely changed. Hope filled his eyes when I showed him a picture of the temple, and he is going to accept the lessons. Sometimes it´s hard to just bear your testimony to a total stranger (and if you had asked me a few months ago, I would have even said it´s kind of crazy), but you have to have faith that through your testimony, the Holy Ghost will bear a powerful witness of the truths that we are spreading through Spain. Then Sunday...Oh Sunday. Actually, it all began Saturday night. An hour—AN HOUR—before I was going to bed, Sister Sullivan asks me to sing a solo in Church. The. Next. Day. I said, “Sure, what hymn?” I assumed, wrongly, that the song I would be singing was a hymn. After further discussion, I learned the song I was to sing was a special arrangement of If the Savior Stood Beside Me. I was so glad I was familiar with that song. So I had one hour the next morning to learn it with the accompaniment. I guess as a missionary we are supposed to be ready at any time to receive any call, right? Haha The funny thing is, I was already singing at the Devotional in a group, and still had to finish learning THAT song. Luckily, they chose I Need Thee Every Hour. It ended up being really pretty, and I was glad I had the opportunity to sing it…even if I only had a half hour to get it down. Haha Alas, my day of Music is not yet over. That night, the entire MTC (thank goodness, I was getting a little tired of solos) sang on the street in front of the temple some hymns. It was really kind of fun! As we sang, people watched out there balconies of nearby apartment buildings, and people pulled over to hear us sing. It was so great. That night, we had a fireside of some missionaries that served here (actually the Elder that served here knows Brother Lisonbee) and his Wife is an opera singer. She sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul, O Divine Redeemer,and Joseph Smith´s First Prayer. It was super beautiful. Then Sister Benson and I walked around the temple until we had to go back. It has such a wonderful spirit here. We honestly had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission thus far standing outside the temple and just feeling the power and joy of the eternities radiating off the white stone of the temple. We felt so comforted that the language would come when we had our focus on helping our investigators feel what we were feeling. The rest of the week has been full of studying, studying, oh! And studying. We also have to practice teaching our fake investigators, which can be extremely annoying, but I guess practice makes perfect, right? We had the Italian missionaries arrive this week, and they are so cute! Not like that, they´re just sweet. Haha We have one who is staying in our room temporarily until her companion from Argentina arrives. I am picking up some Italian, but mostly working on my sign language. Haha No she´s great, and she speaks quite a bit of English. When we can´t communicate in English, we go to Spanish because they are so similar, and if that doesn´t work, we resort to charades. She´s really funny, but she doesn´t like bedtime…As a result, I have not slept this much these last couple days. Haha I love the CCM, not the food, but the rest is great! I can hardly believe that this next week will be my last full week here, and then it is off to Barcelona!! I love you all so much, and I love getting your letters! (Hint, hint) haha hasta próximo semana!!

Os amo!!

Hermana Hopkins

p.s. The first counselor in the CCM presidency has a blog with pictures!! It´s called thesullivans inspain.blogspot.com you can see some of the pictures that I have been failing to send. ;)