Chapter 33: Agency.

I have to admit, if agency wasn´t such a great gift, I would be really sick of it by now. On Tuesday, we went ot Aglaece´s house, super excited after the great lesson we had with her about the Word of Wisdom. The next lesson was the Law of Chastity, but we figured that she wouldn´t have a bit of a problem with it since she is slightly anti-man... haha She has told us that she thinks that men are just a political figure in the home. I guess she has had some bad experiences.  We decided to just teach it straight up since she sometimes gets our Spanish mixed up since she speaks....Portuguese –sort of.  What a mess!! We walked in the door, and I could sense something wrong....She could not even walk straight. Oh NO. I was just thinking, “Oh my goodness. She is drunk!” Well, here is where you just have to learn from your mistakes. Being the...determined missionary that I am, I decided to continue with the message. Ok, ok I know what you are all thinking right now -bad move. It was, I admit it. However, she wasn´t drunk as we came to find out, we just weren’t sure what was wrong with her.  Anyway it was an awful chastity lesson, so we asked if we could come back in a couple days. I was not happy with her for one, and so I lost the spirit trying to teach her. When we came back two days later, we decided to re-teach the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. We took it from a different approach though and told her that she is a Daughter of God. She told us that she has never taken drugs, she hasn´t taken a drink of alcohol since we told her not to same with tobacco, and has limited her coffee to once a week. So what on earth made her act like that in the last lesson?!! Then a thought came to me to ask her if she slept ok the night before. Uhhh....I was thinking that is the weirdest question in the world; there is no way I am asking that. But I guess I have asked stranger things, so I asked her anyway. She told us, “Well, I haven´t been sleeping right, so I have sleep medication to help me.” Well, that answered the fact of why she was acting so weird the day before! So, we still have hope with her, but I am not really sure how to approach the fact that her sleep medication makes her crazy! Oh well, she is still super great. She accepted the Law of Chastity, finally, and recommitted to live the word of Wisdom. It was a much better lesson! This week, we have really been working with less active members. We met with the bishop to see how we could really help some of the inactive sisters, because for some reason, there are a ton! He said that no matter what age the woman is, to work with them about the Young Womens theme. I thought that was a little strange at first, but then he went through each of the values and described the importance of them for staying active and strong in the church. Focus on faith, then divine nature, etc. I was really excited to see that it actually has been working! I never realized how important or inspired those simple values are. It was the best thing to see a couple of the girls we have been working with show up at church this last Sunday. None of our planned investigators showed up, but I will take it! We had Stake Conference in Valencia, and so we all got on a bus to get there as a ward, and one of our investigators showed up that we have only taught once equipped with a white shirt and tie (that is a big deal.) And to top it off, a member brought us an entire family of investigators. It was like Christmas morning!  Especially since this week has been really hard. We saw rejection after rejection after rejection! We´ve been trying to find new investigators, but the Jehovah Witnesses have given us a bad name I think.  I feel like I can handle the rejection side just fine, it´s the fact that we have nothing to do if we aren´t teaching people, and we are just on the street or trying to get into buildings to knock on doors. A lot of people told me that Spain would be really hard because there are so many Catholics, but the problem is with the Atheists! I have never seen so many atheists in my entire life! I feel like it´s a disease swarming all over this country sucking the faith out of everyone. It´s honestly a relief just to hear someone say they still believe in God. However! I was praying one day just to find one person that would be willing to listen to us. And that is when we found Fernando. Oh Fernando. He is from the Domincan Republic (and don´t we all know how much I love my Domincans) and he talks a little bit like Darth Vader mixed with Batman, but that´s ok, because he is simply great! He said he would read, pray, and go to church. He called us Sunday morning and said something came up with his kids, but at least he called! I am really excited to continue to work with him. That night, bishop took us with the ward mission leader and his wife to go visit a menos activo that lives about an hour away in a little town on the coast, and he said he wanted to show us something really quick. We got out of the car and walked into this lush Spanish garden filled with fountains and thousands of twinkling lights. Then he told everyone to be still for just a second, and you could hear the sounds of the gentle waves of the Mediterranean Sea crashing on the moonlit coast. It was a moment from a movie—there was even the ever so slight strumming of the Spanish guitar in the background. In that peaceful moment, I knew that God was here watching out for me, and that I felt so much more at peace. Then it was back to work! When we got back, we still had an hour left of the day, and we felt like we should call our Spanish investigators to make sure they are doing ok. Sometimes I think they enjoy our company more than our lessons, but we felt particularly prompted to give them a call. The grandmother, the most Catholic of them all, answered the phone and said, “Oh I wish you would have called a few hours earlier, I am tired and I don´t have time for you to come over tonight.” I felt this strong feeling that I should keep the conversation going. We kept talking about how her week was, and how her family was, and then she broke down. I just heard sobs over the speaker and she said, “I have lost my faith, I have no desire to pray or anything, please come over right now!” Well, that was a change. So we rushed over there to find this poor woman bawling in our arms, and asked for us just to sing to her hymns. So we did, and slowly the tears stopped, and she decided she was going to read and pray again. The miracle kept going though because we thought this family wasn´t really paying much attention to what we were teaching, but then the daughter comes in with Book of Mormon in hand and said, “I was actually hoping you would come by sometime, I had some questions about this book...” It ended up being such a great, spiritual lesson, and they all said they would try coming to church. It was a hard week, but there seems to be a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel from these last couple weeks. Our mission President said this week that the success isn´t in the results, but it is in the effort. I have really seen that so far in my mission. Even when it´s hard, I know that God is there. I love the work here in Castellón, I can´t even imagine leaving now! Thanks for all the prayers,

Les quiero,

Hermana Hopkins 

Chapter 32: Hands of Angels

Chapter 32: Hands of Angels

This week seemed like a sprint to the end! It started off a little slow, and then it just got crazier and crazier!! I don´t want to bore you all with the less exciting parts, so I will just skip to the climax. Aglaece, our sweet Brazilian investigator had some word of wisdom issues. It was a little discouraging at first because we felt like she didn´t quite get it (hence her idea last week with quitting coke and hot chocolate.) So, we planned out this great lesson all week for her. We decided that we were going to reteach her the Atonement and how Christ can help you overcome any trials or challenges that you have, and God will always provide a way for us to follow the commandments. So, we went to her piso and everything was going great, and then this idea pops into my head. I had a grocery bag in my purse (you never know when you will need a grocery bag), and I said, "Aglaece, this is a bag of your faith in the Savior. (Super cheesey, I know) I want you to put all of your coffee and tobacco in this bag and trust that Christ will heal you of your addiction if you rely on the Atonement. She looked a little bit taken back, but simply said, "Alright." And she got up got her pack of cigarettes and coffee and threw them in the bag. She then said she would try to be ready for her baptism this week. However, it´s stake conference, so we have to change it for the 2 of November. Oh well. My companion and I walked out of that lesson so composed....and then as soon as we knew we were out of eyesight and hearing of her building we just jumped up and down so excited!! I have never had an investigator progress this far with the word of wisdom that has actually had a problem with it (Francisco and Feily didn´t use any of those things).  I was really relieved that it went well. She is so sweet! During the week we have been preparing our nine year old little girl for her baptism over the phone since she lives so far away. We called her everyday and did little mini lessons with her, made sure she was reading the Book of Mormon with her mom every day, giving her a practice interview, etc. Her mom wanted this baptism perfect, and so it was a lot of pressure. We had a ward activity on Friday to help with as well. They do this international celebration of cultures activity, and let me tell you. They celebrate it more than Christmas. EVERYONE has to participate. They wanted all the missionaries from the states to do a line dance, but we didn´t have time, obviously, to choreograph such a thing, so we all did things in companionships. So my companion and I sang the Star Spangled Banner, naturally, and they called us the night before to make cookies from the United States. The Elders already were making chocolate chip cookies, and so we were trying to plan our baptism, fit in making cookies, and being normal missionaries all at the same time. The life of an Hermana. What can you do? So we decided to make peanut butter cookies, and everyone was in shock that you can make peanut butter desserts. In Spain, they only make it to use in meats. It was a success, and I felt super patriotic singing the national anthem. It was soo funny though! I looked out over the crowd and I noticed a lot of our Latin American members had their hands on the hearts, and afterwards they came up to us and said, "We just had to put our hands on our hearts because we are Americans too." Yes, if you try to tell someone that is from South America here that they aren´t American, they feel extremely offended. Whenever you say you are an American, they correct you and say you are a NORTH American. hahaha Oh well. It was really fun, and it was a great way for the ward to bring their non-member friends. We are excited to work with some of the investigators that they brought. Then Saturday it was funny, I woke up and I could just taste the baptism stress in the air. As a missionary, you want your baptisms to go perfect. Of course this is NEVER the case. Something has to go wrong. It´s just the way they work. We went out early to get everything done so that everything that night would go smoothly. We finished the programs, and went to take them to get them printed when I noticed all the papelerias (sorry, I don´t know what they are in English. I have been sitting here 2 minutes searching for the word.) And I have no idea why they would be closed on Saturday, but they were. So we were running frantically all over town looking for somewhere that would print these programs. Luckily the Elders called us and found this tiny little place that would do it for us. Actually, I should give a big shout out to the elders because they set up the font for us that morning and stayed with it all day for us. (It´s not like we have at our stake center, you have to construct this pool like thing in the church and connect it to the water) We wanted to do it in the sea (probably would have made my mission right there) but it was too cold they said and she has asthma. Another time... Anyway. We thought everything was going just dandy when I was walking by the font and I hear this little splash under my foot....and then I followed the sound and saw that we had a little pond outside of our font. Yes, the font was leaking EVERYWHERE! Oh no! So of course the elders went for the first thing they could think of. Duct tape. It wasn´t just any duct tape, oh no. They got Avengers duct tape to plaster all over the font. hahaha!! The best part is they never even found the leak, we just kept mopping and mopping for about 2 hours to keep it under control. The worst part of it is that Castellon is still really hot and really humid, and the water they were filling the font with was practically boiling I swear. After being in there all morning, I couldn´t tell if I was inside the font or outside of it. We were all drowning! Luckily, one of the Elders got the AC to work, and we had everything under control right before they arrived. The service was really beautiful. Gisela, that is her name, told us before that her favorite color is red, so we went and bought her a red ruby necklace and put the virtuous woman scripture with it and told her she is far more precious to Heavenly Father than rubies. Then during the service, one of the members gave a beautiful talk about baptism. I think I have heard this metaphor before, but it was just so perfect! She talked about baptism being the key to your heavenly mansion that God is preparing for you, and it was just so precious. Honestly, we were all bawling. Gisela´s dad is not a member either, and I know he was touched by the whole thing. Hermana Jarman and I sang "I feel my Savior´s Love", and then she was baptized and confirmed. It was so precious. Hermana Jarman turned to me after and said, "You know, at first I didn´t feel like this was our baptism since it was practically handed to us, but I guess this is one of those baptisms that we can thank our ancestors for." I really liked that idea. I know that there are angels watching over all of us, and that there are people in Heaven who love me and love the people that we are working with. Plus, I feel like one of the most important parts of a baptism is keeping an eye out after them for the rest of their lives to make sure they stay active. I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Castellon, Spain where we see the hands of angels everyday! 

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 31: 7:35 p.m.

For the record, I had a big long email all typed out, ready to send, when my computer crashed! I was so sad!  I am now short on time, so this might end up being a little shorter than originally planned.  This week was a little all-over the place, quite literally. My companion had to go to Barcelona for a couple of days to get her residency card, and I had to go to Valencia to be with another Hermana. (Our companions went to Barcelona together.) So my companion and I were sent to Valencia to meet up with the other Hermanas and we arrived at 6:40 at the train station. Their train to Barcelona was supposed to leave at 7:35. So, we had plenty of time to just wait and relax in the train stations. However, knowing me, I can´t just have a simple travel time. Right? So we were supposed to meet up with the other missionaries at 7:00 to do the trade. However, 7:00 came and went and there were no signs of the other Hermanas. I thought this was really weird, but President has been really particular about not missing trains, so I decided to just get my companion checked in and just wait there by myself until the other Hermanas got there. However, the lady checking us in just looked at me with a pained expression on her face and said, “Sorry mam, this train ticket was made for the train station across town, and it would take a miracle for you to get there in time.” Not on my watch, I thought.  I just turned to my companion and only had time to half-murmur, “run”. And we took off sprinting and I had no idea where to go! Haha! I called the Hermanas and sure enough, they had accidentally sent us to the wrong train station, and we had 20 minutes to make a 40 minute trip. They all told me to just turn back and call the office, but there was no way! I asked them to give me the directions for the quickest way there which was through the metro. So there was my companion and I, sprinting through the metro station and literally diving through the metro doors. By this time it was 7:21 and we were still 20 minutes out from what everyone was telling me. Oh ye of little faith! We got out of the metro and just sprinted through town and ran into the train station at 7:33 and got her on the train at 7:34. Thank you, thank you, it truly was a miracle.  We got transfer calls this week and we’re both staying in Castellon, which wasn’t a big surprise since I am still training her. However, a couple of our Elders were leaving, so we had a farewell party for them with the JAS. One of the Elders loves to play ping pong, and he has been undefeated for his whole time here, until I came along. Being a missionary, I am afraid has definitely not taken away my extremely competitive nature, and of course, I can’t let a challenge like that just fall away! Thus commenced our ping pong tournament. I am very proud to say that out of 8 games, I won 8. haha I am just here as a humble servant of the Lord, and I am helping others be the same. Haha :) Although we had some missionary activities this week, we were working hard as well. We are always looking out for the little miracles here. Our progressing, Brazilian investigator, Aglaece is supposed to be baptized this week. However, we found out about some word of wisdom problems that we have been trying to work through. She loves the church but she has a hard time giving up her coffee! We asked her in church how it was going, and bless her heart, she told me, “Well, I have given up hot chocolate and coke, but the coffee is a little harder.” She told me that those are addicting substances as well. Oh well. I guess it´s the principle of it. So pray for her that she will be able to resist coffee. Hussan, our Muslim investigator came home for the weekend (a HUGE miracle) and called us to see if we could run him by the Book of Mormon so he could study it! So, we might only be able to meet with him every other week, but I was content that he at least has the Book of Mormon. I love it so much! It has the power to convert far more than anything I could say. So as long as he is studying it, I know he will receive an answer. Then, I was praying for one more miracle this week for my companion. I am used to disappointment on the mission, but last week really had an affect on her. So, Sunday after church the bishop pulled us into his office and said, “My Hermana Princesses (he is so great haha!) We had a member call us that lives two hours away, but she is still in our ward boundaries, and she said she felt inspired for you two to teach her daughter who is 9 years old and baptize her this week! So now we are planning a baptism for a sweet 9 year old. (After you are 9, it is a missionary baptism)! It was such a tender mercy! So we are going to meet with her over the phone and plan it for this Saturday! It´s a little rushed, but I will take it. We also had a sweet experience the other night. We lost all of our appointments (I am a little used to it by now), and so we felt impressed to pass by a member. We passed by and we started talking about his family. He told us he has been praying for us particularly to drop by because he has 4 daughters and all of them are less active and two of them are married to non-members who are interested in the church! We told him we would be delighted to work with his daughters. He told us when he went on a mission he made a covenant with God that if he served with all his heart, that he would bless his family his whole life. His family was baptized while he was serving, and he says he knows that the Lord will keep his promise by sending us to him that night! It was so great to see how just a thought to pass by a member can be an answer to prayers. I also pray that as I am working that the Lord will bless my future family to stay close to this faith that is the most important thing in my life. I love the church because it truly is the only true church of God on the earth today. Thank you so much for your prayers, I love you all! Besos y Abrazos!!
Les Quiero,
Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 30: Another One Bites the Dust

It was a rainy day, when I was reminded of a part in Princess Diaries. She is driving to the ball, when her car breaks down and she exclaims, “Is this what I get for driving without a license?!” Then it abruptly begins to pour! Well, a couple of weeks ago I wrote something in this email around the lines of, “And now we have more investigators than the Elders combined!” Now, we are being humbled big time. It all started Monday night when we received the phone call from one of our investigators named Ruben. He started, “Hermanas, I really am interested in your message, but my girlfriend isn´t comfortable with your church, so I will just come by the church when I come.” It was really sad to lose that family, and little did we know that it would be a bad omen for the crazy week that was awaiting us. The next day we were on our way over to teach Aglaece and Mygl—our most progressing investigators that we have. As we walked up to the door of the building, we noticed Aglaece was just leaving, and she was just like, “Oh sorry Hermanas! I completely forgot that we had that cita today! Can you meet tomorrow at the same time?” That was just fine with me, but then I asked, “That´s fine, but where is Mygl?” Then it was like a movie: there bursting between us with all his scrawny strength is Mygl. I barely had time to catch myself from falling backwards to realize that he had a suitcase in hand and he was going faster than I knew a 60 year old man could go!! I just looked frantically back at Aglaece, and she had a smirk on her face, and I asked her, “What just happened??” and she said, “He hasn´t been paying his rent for the past couple months so I kicked him out.” Little did she know she just kicked out our investigator preparing for baptism this week. The only Spaniard, interested investigator was running away from Castellón. Naturally, my companion and I took off, running down the street as fast as we could screaming, “Mygl, Mygl!! Espere!! (wait)”, but our frantic shouts were to no avail (not to mention slighly embarassing), and that was the last time we have seen our little Spaniard, and he won´t answer his phone. However, I knew that the next day would have to be better because we were meeting with Hussan, our Muslim investigator with a thirst for Christianity. So, this whole last week we were scrambling to find an Arabic Book of Mormon, and although difficult, thanks to some connections I have with the mission office, we received an Arabic Book of Mormon. We were on our way to drop it off at his house, practically skipping since we were so excited to show him the Book (he´s been asking about it incessantly) when we received a call....with his name on the caller I.D..... I almost didn´t answer it. This feeling of dread just filled me. Oh. No. I answered it very hesitantly, and this is the horribleness that met my ear, “Hermanas! I just wanted to tell you that I got a job is Valencia, and I have no idea when I will be back. It could be days, weeks, or months.” Well I said, “Hussan! We just got your book for you today and were just on our way over to your house to drop it off to you, are you still home?”. No, no he was not home. He replied, “I just got to the train station 5 minutes ago. I´m sorry, and we´ll be in touch in the future.” My companion and I just sat down on a bench and just stared out into the smokiness of the common, empty, European street. We were being struck down for my snobby comment I knew it. I just turned to my companion and said the words to the classic ballad of Queen, “Another one bites the dust....” Disappointed, we continued our days of knocking on doors and street contacting to try and find new investigators. The next morning greeted us with a bitter overcast. I knew it was going to be a good day, it just had to be right? We had two different appointments scheduled with Romanian families that we were excited about. I love teaching families, because I love testifying of the blessings of the gospel for the family. Well, we rang the bell at the bottom of the building, when this voice comes over the speaker and says, “Who is it?” we replied cheerfully, “Hi Magdelena, it´s the missionaries!” Normally, the door clicks meaning they let you in, however the voice replied, “Uh....this isn´t Magdelena...this is...uh someone....she is in the hospital...don´t know what she will be back...” It was obviously our investigator. Right then someone else walked out of the building, so we snuck in and went up to the door and she answered it with a look of “Oh man I have been caught”, and told us she just doesn´t want us to come over anymore....This week was turning into a joke! So we walked over to the next family, and we get up to the door and the mom answers and says, “ You know what Hermanas, we just don´t have  time to listen to your messages anymore. I am sorry.” And another one goes, and another one goes...... My cute little companion turned to me and said fighting back tears, “Hermana, what are we doing wrong?” and I was just thinking, “I don´t know. God is probably just punishing me for being a horrible, arrogant trainer.” haha But I replied, “Sometimes you have to go through humbling times as a missionary to recognize the good times.” I think I only meant that half-heartedly because I seriously thought we must being doing something wrong as well. Haha So, my objective for the rest of the week was simply to make my trainee feel a little bit happier. I have 5 bits of advice for missionaries to stay sane/happy:

1.       It´s ok to stop and get chocolate. It always helps.

2.       With number one, once you have lost most of your investigators, chocolate only gets you so far. Buy ice cream and sit down and enjoy the company of your companion.

3.       Belt Disney songs that make you smile. While you are at it, quote your favorite Disney movie. We quoted Emperors New Groove about 3 times this week. “Llama, he´s supposed to be dead!” :)

4.       Now, you are probably all thinking this is why they don´t have any investigators, but then comes this next piece of advice—recognize that God loves his missionaries and is with us every step of the way and that this is His work, and He doesn´t send us here to fail. Whenever you need reminding of God´s love for you, just pray and read the Book of Mormon. There is so much power in that book.

5.       Count your many blessings!

6.       Ok, so really I have six. Don´t be afraid to laugh. Really. This was an awful week, but there was definitely some funny moments. For instance:

We were knocking doors when this woman opens the door—calm, cool, and collected—when we proceeded to tell her that we were missionaries and we had a song about God´s love that we wanted to share with her (remember Gospel Caroling). She promptly responded, “I am sorry, but I was just about to throw up, can you come back another day?” Ummm....yes....we will leave you right to that. Haha!
Then, the next door, was this half-naked super grumpy looking man that looked like he was a little damp. We started telling him that we were missionaries (just because I had no idea what to say when I saw him, and I was trying not to laugh) when he interrupted us and said, “I was right in the middle of a shower, if you will excuse me!” and slammed the door in our face. We just looked at each other and laughed so hard! Then the next day we were doing the same thing when this cute little grandma opens the door with glasses bigger than her face and when we told her who we were and what we wanted to do, she just shouts in the graggly, shaky voice, “NoOOoo! Not the Mormons!!” tried to close the door quickly, but didn´t quite have the strength and continued her half shout; “Nooo!! Nooo!!!” we slowly backed away and we could still here her protests two floors down the builidng hahaha Needless to say, not a successful week, but some very memorable memories. Haha I guess what I am trying to say is that we had an awful week, but we tried to make the best of it. I know the Lord is guiding His work, and we are going to work harder than ever to get it going here in Castellón, Spain. The ward here is incredible, so I know I have been so blessed. I love you all and can´t even express how grateful I am for your constant support and prayers. Les Quiero!!

Hermana Hopkins