Chapter 11: They Call Me the Baptism Singer

Chapter 11: They Call Me the Baptism Singer

Yes, I have heard of the Wedding Singer, but my new nickname around the district is the Baptism Singer. For every event that the missionaries plan, I am now asked to sing at it. haha We had a wonderful baptism of the Elders´ last week, and they asked me and Elder Thompson (the senior missionary) to sing I need Thee Every Hour--now that I have my voice back it wasn’t quite so daunting. Well, I thought it wasn’t going to be so daunting. Our investigator, Francisco, showed up to the Baptism, and it made me so nervous to sing! Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do. It has been a slightly traumatic week for our teaching of our platinum investigator. Let me just play this out for you: We had an appointment with our dear Francisco on Monday night after preparation day last week. We have to have a woman, member with us for every lesson. So, we invited Hermana Popo...oh my goodness. NEVER will we invite our spicy Colombian friend to an important cita again. haha We love her SO much, don’t get me wrong. But, you can’t try to teach investigators false doctrine. They spent the first 15 minutes bantering back and forth about if John the Baptist was born before Nephi. Unfortunately, it was our investigator that knew what he was talking about. Hermana Popo tried to convince our investigator that John the Baptist gave Nephi the priesthood. Madre mia.  Luckily, we had another member there with us, Jorge, who is best friends with Francisco now. He straightened it out with Hermana Popo and showed her the dates on the bottom of the pages. My companion and I, for the record, did try to say something when she brought it up the first time, but like I said, Hermana Popo is fiery! haha She’s so funny. But, Francisco reads the Book of Mormon so diligently that I am not too worried about that anymore. Did I mention last week that he volunteered to clean the church last Saturday?? We called him to see if we could get an appointment with him on Saturday after the Baptism, and he replied, "Sorry Hermanas, I can’t. I signed up to clean the church after the Baptism, but I can meet with you an hour before the baptism if that works."  He is more active than most of the members here. haha The only problem has been for him to accept a date for Baptism. He says that it is so sacred to him that he wants to make sure he is ready. I assure you, he is ready. Well, after the Baptism the Bishop wanted to meet him, and he told the Bishop he indeed had a date and was getting Baptized in a couple weeks!! I leaned over to my companion and asked, "Can we just take a minute and jump up and down??" We were SO excited!! And President Pace and his wife were there and they were SHOCKED of how great he is. President Pace came up to us after and said, "How have you taught this man??" I assure you, it is not us teaching him. Well, at least it is not me, because I can’t say much. haha Then on Sunday, he was asked to give the prayer during Sunday School, and he gets up and before he says the closing prayer he says,” I would just like to thank all of you for giving me this opportunity to pray to our Father in Heaven today" Then he began the prayer. Wow. The Pace’s were there in church as well, and Hermana Pace said she looked over at me and my companion and said we looked like proud mothers. I bet it is a similar feeling! 

 Speaking of the language, sometimes I think I am finally getting it, and sometimes I think I am getting worse. It’s weird, when it comes to listening to American’s speak Spanish, I can understand almost everything. When the natives speak Spanish (or Castiano as it is referred to here), it might as well be Russian!! I can’t wait for that moment when I can feel like I can really connect with people and listen to their concerns. As for now, I was to work with the few translations I get from my companion during our lessons. Speaking in a different language to an investigator is like performing for a million people. Well, at least that is how I imagine it would feel like. It is like having stage fright and forgetting the words to one of my songs. For example, I have great conversations in my head in Spanish, but as soon as it comes to actually speaking it...well...Let’s just say it’s less than impressive. But I am working hard, and I know it will come. I just hope it comes before my last week before I go home! 

Mucho Amor!!

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 10: The Rain in Spain

Chapter 10: The Rain in Spain

When it rains, it pours; but, to raise the suspense, I will talk about that story later. First off, I just want to say something about one of my favorite members here, Archie. Oh Archie. He seriously brightens my life.  He is a 70 year old Filipino, and he insists on feeding us missionaries in the area every week, sometimes twice. When he cooks for us, he won´t stop feeding you until all the food that he has prepared is gone, and then he won´t let your even start to help cleaning up or he get´s really offended. Anyway, this week, he made this GIANT pot of noodles for us. My companion and I just looked over at the Elders with a I-really-hope-you-are-starving-or-have-a-plan-look on our faces. So we shoveled as much food as humanely possible on our plates, and began our feast. It never ended. No matter how much we ate, there was always more. My faith has grown of the story of Christ with the bread and fish, because wow. This food just kept growing! At one point when I thought I was going to have noodles coming out of my ears, Archie said, “Look, Hermana Hopkins! There is a tuna on the wall!!” (He speaks fluent English) Naturally, I was going to look at the tuna on the wall. While I was looking for this tuna, Archie put at least 2 more spoonfuls of noodles and rice on my plate with this big grin on his face! I completely fell for it. Hahaha But he told us if we finished our food, he would sing Michael Buble for us. (How did he know!!) So of course I stuffed it in. Unfortunately, he tricked us. He turned around and pulled out a HUGE pan of banana bread. I thought you were going to have to make me a grave that said RIP here lies Hermana Hopkins: death by noodles and banana bread. It was a miracle that I made it out of there. Oh, and we didn´t finish. He sent us home with two Tupperware containers of noodles. Hahaha I love that man. We always say, “Archie, you are the best”, and he replies, “ No, I am the worst!” Now, on to the rain story. I have never seen rain. I have seen sprinkles, I have seen a slight shower, but no. I have never seen rain. It had been raining decently hard all day, but then stopped right before my companion and I were about to set off for the tracting portion of the day. We didn´t have anything planned, so we thought we would go knock doors and contact in a part of our area that we had never seen before. Of course I thought I would be smart and wear a jacket and bring an umbrella. However, even these two items became futile in the looming rains of all rains. There we were, walking down the street when it starts to rain. I put up my umbrella and life was just fine, right? Wrong. Very Wrong. We were about an hour and a half away from our apartment (we walk A LOT) when the sky broke. Yes, the sky must have been broken. It POURED on us. My umbrella became useless when the pouring rain became best friends with the whirling gusts of wind. When this happened, my companion and I had been walking on a little path made out of SAND.  So to paint the picture, I am having water sprayed at me at all different directions, my companion actually forgot her umbrella so we are huddled under mine (which, like I said, was practically useless as this point), it´s freezing with the wind, and I am having wet sand sprayed at my legs and in my shoes. In other words, we looked like stray, wet cats stuck in kitty litter. Now, at this point, we could have gone home, but being the faithful missionaries that we were, we were determined to find someone who would at least let us into their apartment building. No luck. So after about 2 hours of this, we started back for our apartment and tried to contact the people that were just as crazy as us on the street. Which was about 3 people. At this point, we came across the Barce Soccer Stadium (which is in our area), and my companion says it will be way faster to cut across the entrance and leave through the back of the parking lot. It seemed logical. Well, we are cold, we are wet, we are shivering, we are really wet, and after a half hour of walking from one side of this stadium to the other, we found the doors to be locked. We just looked at each other and laughed. It was kind of a strangled laugh because we wanted to cry, but at that point, it was just hilarious the luck we were having. That´s when a security guard came up to us and asked how we had gotten in there and that we needed to leave. My companion was like, “Does it look like we aren´t trying?? “ He told us we had to go back in the way we came. So we trudged to the other side, once again to find those door were now also locked. Hermana Wilson thought this was really strange since they usually leave the gates open for people to walk through until pretty late. Then we turned around and figured out why: The Barcelona soccer team was being led down a blue carpet into a premier party, and there in the background is us two drenched sister missionaries. We just sat there and watched as they were led in their tuxes into a grand party with waitresses handing them glasses of…apple juice I am sure… when they walked into this grand event. So, even though we were completely miserable, it was really cool to watch. So after watching for a couple more minutes we found the proper exit. To get there, we literally had to step over the blue carpet in our squeaky wet shoes and walk past at least 15 security guards. We just kept our heads down and tried to not make eye contact haha. I bet you are all thinking that I am going to have this cool story at the end of why it was all worth it in the end because we found a golden investigator just waiting for our message in the pouring rain, but no. It´s not going to happen, sorry to disappoint. The three people we did talk to probably thought we needed a shower more than they needed the gospel…haha But sometimes, you have to have those days in the mission. Now even though this was pretty bad and it took us an hour to clean up the puddles we made when we walked into our apartment, the next morning was practically worse. Remember on Mother´s day that I was sick? Also remember how I said I was singing for a conference on Friday? Well, I woke up the next morning (Thursday) with absolutely no voice. I am brilliant, huh? So all day I was trying to sing the song but I sounded like a dilapidated rubber duck. That night it got a little better, but I could tell the Elder I was singing the duet with was a little nervous haha. It started to get a little better, but it was still pretty bad. I could get through the song, but it was far from my best. So, the Elders offered to give me a blessing. It was so sweet, and it was a really great blessing. Not necessarily because of the healing part, but another part that he said.   He said  there are people here in Barcelona that are being prepared and made worthy by your Father in Heaven. You promised them in the pre existence that you would find them, and that you would share with them the gospel.  What makes it so great is that it was the EXACT same thing that Elder Smith had said when he had given me a blessing at the CCM. (It was actually a few other sentences that I can´t remember that were verbatim what he had said.) It was just such a testimony builder of how priesthood blessings truly come from God. The next morning I woke up to a still non-existent voice. Yes, I was about to sing in front of a member of the quorum of the seventies (Elder Texiera), the mission president, and two zones of missionaries without a voice. Bring it on. I am ashamed to say I wasn’t very happy when I knelt to say my morning prayers.  I felt the blessing from the night before was so powerful, but I barely sounded any different. I pressed on with faith though…When it came time to sing, I got up there, and I was able to sing the song. We sang I Need Thee Every Hour (How fitting.) Not fantastically, because my voice really was gone. But I got through it alright and we moved on. I guess I was expecting some miracle to happen to my voice to be completely healed when I got up and sang. However, the miracle wasn´t realized until I sat down. Not five minutes later, I was even worse. My voice was barely a whisper and I was coughing and coughing and coughing. Lesson? Sometimes we don´t recognize God´s hand in our lives at the moment, but He truly is there. We just have to look back and count the blessings. It was a great conference, and we learned about the importance of praying with our investigators, and not just praying for them, but asking for certain people that they would like us to pray for. Now, it´s Sunday and my voice is still gone, and guess who was asked to give a talk? Yep, this missionary right here. It wasn´t bad enough that it was in Spanish, I had to have no voice too! I have been quite humbled with week. Haha Plus, Francisco was in church!! But something quite terrible happened after church. Francisco had been offered a blessing of health by someone who just moved into the ward last week from Bolivia. Since we are “his” missionaries, they had to ok it with us. Of course we said yes, so we went into a room after church where they were planning on giving the blessing (with another girl of course). Well the man who had offered the blessing walked in with Francisco with another man. When it came time to offer the blessing, the new man looks over at us and says that he doesn´t hold the priesthood (either he is a recent convert or not worthy, I wasn´t able to tell) and he asked us, the Sister  Missionaries, to give Francisco the blessing!! WHAT!! We were just like, are you kidding! Of course we can´t. So we frantically tried finding someone who could give our investigator a blessing. Luckily, the first counselor in the bishopric walked past with the YM president right when we needed them. So they gave him a blessing, and it all worked out. I just hope our investigator understood what was going on haha. Speaking of him, I hope that if I was not a member of the church that I would be as accepting of the truth as he is. We explained everything from God has a body of flesh and bones to Joseph Smith to Modern Day prophets to the three kingdoms and everything in between, and his usual response? Of course, that makes sense. He never even starts to question it.  And get this: he has been with his wife for 35 years. 3 years ago they were not married and he felt he should get married. He doesn´t smoke or drink. He reads the Book of Mormon more in depth than I do (seriously, he could give the lessons I feel like sometimes). He is a platinum contact, not a golden contact, he is a platinum contact. He is just afraid that he won´t be ready for his tentative baptismal date of June 8. We are working with him though. It makes me so happy to share the gospel with these people! I truly love them more than I ever thought I could. Sometimes when I am walking down the street, I just want to run up to everyone and tell them how the gospel will bless them. It´s a great work out here. A lot of people say that Europe, especially Spain, will be a hard mission, but I know that God is preparing people like Francisco that we have to go out and find. I never realized just how true it is that we don´t do the converting out here. The spirit is a more powerful witness than I could EVER imagine. Francisco is open and understanding not because of how we are explaining it, but because the Spirit is testifying that what we are saying (and it my case, what I am trying to say) is true. I love this gospel, and I love the people here. I can´t wait to see what more the future will bring—even if it that means a few more rain showers. 

Mucho Amor!!

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 9: It's starting to sink in...

Chapter 9: It’s starting to sink in

Yes, I believe this week it is finally sinking in that I am a missionary! This has both good and bad meanings. Bad? I definitely am going to miss my family for the next year and a half. Good? I love being able to share the Gospel with the people here in Barcelona. There’s no other time in my life where I will have anything similar. For instance, we contacted a man in a wheelchair the other day. He said he had heard about the church a lot, and would really like to attend on Sunday. Well, unfortunately we found out that he lived in the Hospitalet zone, so we had to give him over to the Elders there. One of the Elders, though, and been in the same area about a year ago, and had just gotten back. When we told him about the man, he said he would go call him. Turns out, he had contacted the same man the year previous, knew he was interested, but had lost him and had no way of contacting him! Little did we know this miracle would happen on one of our really hard days. Yes, Hermana Wilson and I had just tried to go to two appointments, and neither appointment had shown up. So we were a little bummed trying to contact in the street for the last hour or so. We were on our way to another appointment when we came across this man. God was definitely guiding our footsteps during that time. By the way, the next appointment -  cancelled on us right before we walked to the doorstep after 45 minutes of travel. (That was the last straw!) So, to drown our sorrows we went to good old fashion McDonalds (I know, the first time I have eaten there for years) and then went and got ice cream. It was definitely needed. haha Speaking of food, it has definitely taken some getting used to. For instance, as I am walking down the street I notice all the little cafes say: Bikini 2 euros.  I am just thinking to myself, "Why on earth would they be selling bikinis in cafes??" Well, when I was eating dinner at a member’s house, they asked me if I would like a Bikini. And again I just thought of all things for a member to ask me!! Turns out, bikinis in Spain are really paninis--the little sandwiches. I had a good laugh over that one. Much of our week has been going all over the place. A member asked if we would accompany her on a walk (which turned out to be a 2 hour straight speed walk), we had a few appointments with investigators, and of course the mission is getting ready for our big mission tour this week. My favorite investigator, Francisco (is it bad to have favorites?) is so great and attended church again, is diligently reading the Book of Mormon, and praying to find out if it is true. I can’t wait to see what the future will bring for him. For p-day, we went to the Arc de Triunf (yes that is spelled right!) Turns out they have a beautiful one here in Spain and it has the most beautiful gardens behind it with exquisite fountains and is just so lush. We had a picnic there with a bunch of missionaries and had a great time. I loved being able to call home on Mother’s Day to see my families´ beautiful faces. I love you all so much!! Sometimes, ok all the time, I wish you were here to see it with me. Love you!!

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 8: Hola de Barcelona!! May 6, 2013

Chapter 8: Hola de Barcelona!!

Yes, my first area in the mission is Barcelona!! At first I was slightly disappointed (because of Catalan), but I have gotten to love it and realize that most people speak Spanish. My trainer is Hermana Wilson. She is fantastic, and we are going to be great friends. It’s weird that I am almost the youngest Hermana here, but that will change when we have 20 hermanas coming in during the summer through September (in case you don’t realize how great that is, it’s huge. Especially since we only have about 30 in the entire mission). Now, on to the bigger and better things. My area is Barcelona two. Aka--a little more of the rough area. So, it’s not the plush Barcelona that you see in travel commercials. For instance, we cannot drink the water. (Even though most of the missionaries in the entire mission can’t either--only in the North where it’s the really nice areas like Bilboa and San Sebastian.) I feel like I am in the CCM all over again, relearning everything and know nothing. haha My first couple days for instance, I forgot Spanish. Whenever I was contacting in the street I was like, "Somos misoneras por la iglesia de Jesucristo....uh....uh...." and Then I would look over frantically at my companion with a look of I-have-no-idea-what-to-say-next in my eyes. BUT we did contact this man named Fransisco from Peru, and GUESS WHAT. He came to church! Without even having a cita with him (cita means appointment). We just asked him to come to church and he showed up for all three hours. Hopefully, that means we will be having a baptism around the corner. Other than that, we have been meeting with a lot of menos activos (less active members). Actually, my first cita of my mission was with a "menos activos". She is an Evangelical. Apparently, that only makes her menos activos. hahaha Anyway, she was a hoot. She is like 80 years old and has a lot of spunk. Sunday was a little hard because it was their Mother’s Day here, so the primary children came in and sang all their cute songs. Really? My first week out in the field and you are singing about mothers? Yes, I cried. Don’t judge me. I hope the kids just thought I was feeling the spirit. Then we had a cita with a reference, and she wants to know about the Book of Mormon, so she is officially our newest investigator. That’s pretty exciting as well. We had FHE with the Paredes family (I believe he is either the first or second counselor in the Bishopric) and it was so much fun. We played Book of Mormon Headbandz and had dinner with them. They don’t speak any English, but I was pretty much able to understand what was going on. They were shocked that I only had 6 weeks of language training, so I guess that’s a good sign that I am picking up the language. Today was P-day and we went to Mt. Tibidago (I think that’s it). It’s a cathedral on the highest mountain in Barcelona. It was super pretty, but I just don’t like cathedrals very much. They are super dark, and they have a lot of gruesome depictions of Christ. I much prefer our churches and temples, obviously. But it was still way pretty, and we got to hang out with all the missionaries in our area. We all get together every Pday and go to a sight in Barcelona. Also, my companion and I had a startling experience. There we were, walking down the street from a cita with one of our Filipina members (that’s how you say and spell it in Spanish, don’t judge my spelling), and we just see a bunch of Spanish FBI like cars go by with sirens blaring and blocking off streets, and I was like great. I am going to die. Anyway, it was just kind of weird. Five minutes, or so, later their bomb squad goes flying by. And then we heard it. A big bang and everything went white. Ok, so that’s a little dramatic, but there was a big bang. My companion and I just grabbed each other and started booking it towards our piso (apartment). We noticed nobody else was running though, and we were like, "ARE YOU BLIND AND DEAF??" Then, we realized that up the street there was a protest with fireworks...and that is it. Apparently, the police force here is like it is in Highland. We realized that they were protesting the treatment of prisoners in their prison though, and that’s why they had tons of policemen because it’s a sensitive subject...? I don’t know. It was a "Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore" moment. haha But, the Lord protects his missionaries. I know this work is so important. I love it. I don’t think anything can quite prepare you for how hard it is going to be: frustration with the language, waking up thinking you’re at home and mom is fixing breakfast (that’s happened twice to me and its awful), rejections, etc, etc. BUT I also know that there is no other time where I could become this close with the Savior. I love you all, and can’t wait to talk to you more about my adventures in BARCELONA.

Last picture of Alma District before heading to Barcelona! April 30, 2013

Chapter 7: Adios Madrid and Hello...?

Chapter 7: Adios Madrid and Hello...?

Hola mi familia! I was so grateful that I was able to talk to you this morning! Apparently, it only worked for two other missionaries. I know you are all anxious to hear the news, but let´s start with last Saturday. It was my last time to go proselyting in the Parque Retirlo, and we were able to go with our regular companions. Yes, Hermana Benson and I are power companions. There is nothing more I can say.  The best experience of the day happened on the Metro ride to the park (no, my purse had nothing to do with it). Rewind to last week--Hermana Wirthlin and I had found this man who was semi interested, and we had both felt impressed to give him a Book of Mormon? Did we? No. We both got scared--fear is the enemy to missionary work. We kicked ourselves for the rest of the day. Fast forward to this week, and play. There we were, sitting on the Metro, and a man comes and sits by me. Yes, you guessed it. It was the same man that I had felt impressed to give the Book of Mormon to. You better believe I was not going to let that opportunity pass me up again. We actually stayed and talked to him 6 stops past the one we were supposed to get off and gave him the Book of Mormon. Always listen to spiritual promptings, but God knows we all make mistakes. So, he just had to put him back in my path once more. Our park experience was a little rough. There was a lot of Australians there (who´d guess?) and they are so anti religious! For instance, there we were talking to this older couple and we were just pulling out some small talk. Then, we started to introduce the gospel into our conversation, and they were slightly antagonistic. Did that stop us? No way. So we asked them if they believe that families could be Eternal, bore our testimonies, and what does that lady have the nerve to say? And quote, "We don`t believe in that garbage. After this life, you just slip into oblivion. Good day." Not only was that just sad, but really?? How could you want that, or believe that for your family? Well, like I said, God guides our steps; you just have to keep walking. So right around the corner is this shining family who was completely receptive to our very choppy Spanish version of our message. They even wrote down a time they wanted the missionaries to come and visit them. With these experiences, I can see why it is so important to have a firm testimony of the Gospel before you leave on your mission and not just expect to gain one once you get here. It´s hard to have someone tell you to your face that what you believe is nonsense, but at the same time, I have never seen the hand in the Lord so much in my life (and I haven´t even made it out into the field!) Funny little story from the park as well. We came across a cute little Korean woman who had a Book of Mormon from some different missionaries in the park. Well, we thought that since we sing hymns after we are done proselyting, that she might enjoy coming to hear us sing. We soon came to find that her Spanish was about as good as ours. No, actually it was worse, and it she kept on adding Korean words. haha Well, we invited her to come hear us sing, and she just starts frantically shaking her head and going "NO NO NO" and my companion and I just looked her and was like,"What did we say??" haha And seeing that I don´t have much Korean under my belt, we just left it at that... Well here is the funny part. Another companionship met us at the fountain where we sing about 3 minutes later asking which sisters asked a lady to come hear us sing. My companion and I just turned to each other and asked why. Turns out, the little Korean woman didn´t know what the conjugation of cantar that I had used meant, and from my actions thought I had asked her to sing to us. hahaha She was cute, but I don´t know how she´s going to learn very much from a Spanish Book of Mormon. The rest of the week was hectic getting packed, finishing classes, and saying goodbyes. It was really hard to say goodbye to my family at the CCM. Really Hard. I know I will have some lasting friendships though, and hopefully I will see them all the time around the Mission. The Zone leaders gave me and my companion priesthood blessings, and it brought me a lot of comfort. It makes me so grateful that wherever I am in the world, there are worthy priesthood holders. Now, the time you have all been waiting for...I have no idea where I am serving. Sorry. BUT I am in Barcelona right now!! First impressions? Way different than I thought. They have incredible buildings--much prettier than Madrid here and there. The rest of the building seem to be very Latin American influenced. So, not as European as I was expecting (the streets that I have seen that is). We took a bullet train here (that I barely made due to this morning´s phone call), and it was pretty exciting. Clumsy moment going up the escalators though. Hermana Benson was struggling with her third suitcase, and thinking that I am wonder woman decided to try and help her with them. So I took her third with me and my two other over-stuff suitcases. Well, as I took hers my big one fell over on my legs causing me to trip and drop the other two suitcases (just imagine me going up an escalators while trying to climb over my suitcases like a mountain climber with falling rocks impeding my climb). I was laughing so hard that I could barely make it up the escalators. Well, as I stumble at the top, I am met by none less than my new Mission Presidents, the Pace´s. So, I will not be surprised if I am put with a senior companion who is very athletic so I can practice my walking. It was very embarrassing, but you know how I am. I like to make a lasting first impression. We then got on a bus which took us to the top of a castle. Yes, a top of an ancient castle overlooking the Mediterranean and the City of Barcelona. Don’t worry, I have pictures. Then, we went to the mission home and had a wonderful lunch. Except any food right now is wonderful.  Ahh...it was so great to have a nice salad. Anyway, we had our interviews and then got put with temporary companions for the night. Did I mention they live about a block from the Sagrada Familia?? Yes, I stood next to that today as well. It is so incredible. So I get to stay there for the evening and then later, after emailing, we are going out to work. I have been here for less than 6 hours and I am going out to work. I hardly know any Spanish, and every one speaks Catalan. What am I doing. hahaha It´s a little, ok a lot, overwhelming, but I know with the Lord anything is possible. Also, tonight we are going to this thing in downtown called Singing with the Angels (ironic huh?) and it is where all the missionaries get together and sing hymns with the Missionaries that will be leaving tomorrow. It´s sweet. :) Then tomorrow after orientation we get put with our real companion and are assigned our areas. Am I freaking out a little? Yes. Am I praying a lot? Yes. I think that´s how it goes on the mission. I love you all and I am so excited to get out (even if it´s the scariest thing I have ever done!)

Os quiero!! 

Hermana Hopkins