Chapter 41: ¡Feliz Navidad!

Twas the week before Christmas, when all through Castellón,

All the missionaries were working, indeed all of the zone.

The citas were were handled and taught with much care,

In hope that a baptism we would soon need prepare.

Yes this week definitely proved to be a trick! Everyone was working, preparing, finishing finals, and getting ready for the holiday. Which also meant that no one was available to meet! Oh well, at least we kept the spirit of the holidays in the work. The ward was preparing their big Christmas celebration/ talent show, and so the missionaries decided to just invite the world! Haha Ok, maybe not quite that many people, but we focused all of our contacting and many of our lessons with investigators on getting them to the church to see this great Christmas program. So obviously, if we were going to invite so many people, we had to make it good. The missionaries all did a musical number of the 12 days of Christmas remixed (choreographed, might I add), but that´s not all. There are only two of us “gringo” missionaries in the district, so we decided to do a taste of Christmas from the states. We made a medley of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Deck the Halls, Dashing Through the Snow, Let it Snow, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, Rudolph, The Christmas Song, O Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, Joy to the World, and finishing with the First Noel. Not to brag, but it was pretty awesome, and it definitely used all the creativity that I have. It ended up being so great! We had so many investigators that came! Ana, my Spaniard grandma, even came!! I can´t believe we got her out of the house. She said she just came to here me sing and nothing else, but I know she felt the spirit throughout the night! And she brought her granddaughter, Cristina, who also seemed to really enjoy the evening. I really love this ward! We have also really been focusing on our new family Tony and Kati and Gemma. I honestly just love them so much! We had a couple really good lessons with them this week (yes, it would be appear that they are the only people in Castellón that were available these last couple days). We taught them the plan of Salvation, and Kati practically jumped out of her chair at the end and bursted, “I want to be baptized. I know this is exactly what I need.” Tony, although not quite so explosively, also nodded and said he would like to be baptized. I could hardly believe it. However, they will be a little bit more difficult than I originally thought. We came back a couple days later to teach the Restauración. I wanted Gemma to be involved in the lesson (she is four years old), so we came up with the idea of using little plastic cups to teach it. (build a pyramid with the priesthood as the middle bottom cup, then the 12 apostles, then the gospel, then a few points of doctrine, and you top the pyramid off with Christ. When you this example of apostasy, you pull out the priesthood and the church collapses, and you build little churches.) It was great! They understhood it perfectly. Even Kati said that this explains why she never felt right in the Orthodox church. Then we explained the story of Joseph Smith. We got to the part of the first vision, and after we said, “Este es mi Hijo amado, Eschuchalo” (This is my beloved Son, hear Him) there was just a silence. Then I looked up at Kati, and she had her hand kind of over her heart and gasped a little. Oh no. I had a fear about this. Orthodox are so strict on no one seeing God the Father (and Catholics aren´t so great on it either, so I was keeping my eye on Tony). After another pain-stakingly long moment, she looked at us with tears in her eyes and just said, “How pure. How pure Joseph Smith must have been.” Phew. I glanced over at Tony now, and he just said, “I know people have revelations. I don´t think I will see God the Father, but I had a dream before my daughter was born that I would have a child, and so I know God talks to us.” Ok, so at this point I was just so excited!! They love the Book of Mormon, and now they understood a little more of where it came from. They informed me that they are on like chapter 20 of Nephi (This is after 2 days of receiving the book). Tony said that he loves the Book of Mormon because it is so relatable to his specific needs, much more than the bible. Score!  Afterwards, we rebuilt the church with the cups so that they apostles now showed the faces of the modern day apostles, and the top of the church is President Monson with an upside down cup that says revelation with Christ once again on top of the church. They said they knew it was true. So they are so golden. Kati said the closing prayer, and she pled that they would be ready for their baptism. After we said Amen, the thought came to my mind, “Ask them if they are married.” Oh no. I fought with the thought back and forth for a minute since we just had an incredible lesson with them, but the Spirit is never wrong. I asked them, “So…how long have you been married?” And they both replied together, “We´re not married.” NOOOO!!! Sigh. However, I have hope because they continued, “Marriage has always been in the plan, we just have been so busy and stressed this year that we haven´t gotten around to it.” We explained to them that in order to be baptized, they needed to be legally married because the gospel is for the family. We testified of how from the view of children, having parents married has been a great blessing to us of security and love. It was funny, Kati turned to Tony, and said, “Well, what are you waiting for, propose to me!” haha  So, we will be planning a wedding before the baptism, but I just love that family. They have a lot of family problems (neither of their parents want them to get married for one), but I know that with God they can over come anything. We have also been working with Ana, our recent convert. We decided to read with her Lehi´s dream this week, and she just said how she wants us to work with her family more, and of course we are more than willing! I am so excited to finally be working with families. Aglaice´s sons are coming for Christmas and planned a party for the young adults in the ward to come and introduce them to the church. Everyone is just getting into the missionary spirit! Towards the end of the week, all the missionaries realized that normal proselyting was just not going to work before Christmas, so we decided to do something completely original. Ok, so not so original, but we have been going caroling in all of our areas with the ward. On Saturday, we visited the nearby towns and sang to them, and on Sunday night, the ward choir wanted to do it as well. So us missionaries and about a fourth of the ward went around to all of our recent converts, less actives, and investigators and sang to them some Christmas songs. I think it was the most success I have ever seen in one night. I am always shocked by how music really invites the spirit, and seeing the support from the ward was incredible. (We even had a traveling piano. Yes, we do caroling the fancy way hahaha) It was such an amazing experience. I guess it really made me think about Christmas. I really have had a hard time thinking about Christmas away from my family this month, but this week was different. I realized that this is the only Christmas that I will be set apart as a missionary of Christ´s church to give people the greatest gift they could possibly imagine. It really did bring me a lot of joy. I think this was kind of like the midlife crisis that I hit this week. haha Yes, I am halfway through the mission as of this week, and I can hardly believe it. It has been so hard, but I am just starting to see how incredible this work really is, and I love seeing it bless families. I am so grateful for the church, the gospel, and the Savior in my life because it really has been the greatest gift.

So, especially during this Christmas time,

I hope you can feel of my love through this little rhyme,

I´m  grateful for you, and I hope your tidings are glad,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a Feliz Navidad!”

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins 

Chapter 40: I´m Dreamin´of a White Christmas

I still can´t figure out how it happened. As I look back over last week, it seemed to be just a blur. We had zone conference and preparation day for Monday and Tuesday, so we didn´t really get to work until Wednesday, and just because I know Wednesdays are normally hard days to work, I made sure we had good citas that I knew would not cancel for almost every single hour. They all cancelled. Usually this wouldn´t be too horribly surprising, but this week was different. We had a baptism to plan for, and our baptismal candidate was no where to be found Wednesday afternoon. She has never cancelled on us. Not once. And now, she was missing in action. Alright, so slightly dramatic, but we had 3 days to get her prepared for her baptism, and she had never even heard of tithing...so to say I was stressed was an understatement. So, we said a prayer that we would be able to find her, and if it be God´s will, that all would fall into place for her baptism. So, we decided to pass by her piso once again later that night. We went up to her door, knocked, and waited. And waited. And waited. My companion looked at me and said, “Well, now what do we do?” Me, being frustrated and having no idea what to do replied, “We are going to sit down on these stairs and give me five minutes to figure out what we are going to do.” So, we sat down. About three minutes later, my companion said, “Alright, let´s go. We´re wasting our time.” I normally am the one more like that, but I just didn´t feel ready to go, so I told her to give me two minutes. About a minute and a half later, Ana walked up the stairs. It was a miracle. (So, being lazy isn´t always bad.) haha She said how she had to run somewhere, and her phone was broken so it was such a good thing that we were there. We rescheduled for the next day, and everything went smoothly. We taught her everything else that she needed to know, and she accepted it all (even the law of tithing!).We asked her to say the closing prayer, and it was so cute! She just said, “Father, please open the hearts of my family so that they will receive the blessings of this gospel like I am.” She then had her interview Friday, and then Saturday afternoon, she was baptized.  Her husband, who has been absolutely closed to the idea, came to her baptism and started asking some questions afterwards (it was slightly bad because they had to baptize her about 5 times because her dress kept ballooning up in the water.) But, he genuinely sounded interested afterward. She gave her testimony after, and it was simply beautiful. I loved that she said she was excited that God was giving her, “a little angelito to put on her shoulder” as the Holy Ghost,  to help guide her family to heaven. It was interesting, when she was confirmed on Sunday, the Bishop blessed her that the Holy Ghost would help her maintain her future sealing to her husband, and that she would have an eternal family. Everyone’s heads kind of shot up a little bit, because I have never heard of a confirmation blessing like that! But, the miracle doesn´t end there, in fact, it was only the beginning. But I have to rewind a little bit. In the beginning of the week, we found this family knocking on doors. (Well technically, it was when I was still sick, so my companion found them). They asked about the ward choir, and started coming to practices. The dad is Spaniard, the mom is Romanian, and they have the most beautiful four year old daughter I think I have ever seen. However, you have to realize that this couple makes an impossible team. Spaniard=Catholic. Romanian= Orthodox. Both extremely stubborn religions. However, the ward just loved them in the choir, and they were all shocked that we brought this family. We had a lot of lessons planned on Friday night, so my companion and I were on splits again, and she got to go teach them. She said she just talked about their relationship with God and the Book of Mormon. Well, the dad started crying as he said the closing prayer, and the mother said, “You knocked on the right door. I know that you didn´t do that by coincidence.” They came to the baptism, and you´ll never believe it. The mom came up to me after me, and asked, “What do I need to do to be baptized?” I was so shocked I could hardly answer. The elders told me that they both had been talking in the back about this is something that they think they really want for their family. They love that they can choose for themselves to be baptized. They also came with us to Valencia for the Stake choir performance. I feel like they are more members this week than half the ward. I am really excited to actually get to teach them more. My goal my entire mission is to invite a family to be baptized. The Lord is really blessing us here in Castellón. As I thought of Ana in her white, baptism dress; her future family in white temple dresses; and the new family in their own white attire, I couldn´t help but think, “I´m dreamin´of a white Christmas.”

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins 

Chapter 39: God Loves His Missionaries

As many of you already know from my photo shoot, I got a few days off this week. I thought it was slightly strange that the ward members that were with me wanted to take so many photos, and then one of the sisters that stayed with me told me, “Oh hold up this book that your mom made you, it will make her cry!” And that is when I realized, to my complete horror, that they had been posting those photos on Facebook. So, sorry that many of you had to witness me sick on the couch for the weekend. But, let´s start at the beginning of the week. My luck of last week seemed to have seeped over into this week as well. We were just not getting anywhere! However, then Wednesday came and we met with Ana. I have been really nervous about the next few lessons with her, because she was ready for the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity—the scariest lessons. Ok, maybe I shouldn´t say that...but, in my mind, they are. I wasn´t too worried about the Law of Chastity since she´s married, has a family, etc. However, judging by the wine bottle display she has in her living room, I was slightly worried for the Word of Wisdom. I knew that her scheduled baptism was only a week and a half away, and if she had any problems with the Word of Wisdom, then it would make it really difficult. So I was actually really nervous when we started the lesson. However, we asked her about her Book of Mormon reading, and she replied, “Well, I didn´t really have the opportunity to read as much as I would have liked....” then she pulled out her Book of Mormon, opened it, and there was the first 10 chapters of Nephi marked, highlighted, with little notes in the margins. I knew that the next two parts of the lesson would be fine. You know if your investigators are reading the Book of Mormon sincerely, and wanting to know, that there is no way they won´t be converted. (So the issue really is as missionaries is to help them gain that desire to read). Law of Chastity was a breeze, and then came the Word of Wisdom. Gulp. After reviewing a little bit about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we had her read in a little pamphlet we have what exactly is the Word of Wisdom. She looked down at the pamphlet, looked back up at me, looked down, looked up at the member that was with us, looked down....(holding my breath the whole time), and she looks up again and says, “Well, that seems simple enough, ok.” What?. That´s it?? It was almost too easy...she continued, “I don´t really like tea or coffee, never been on drugs, smoking is disgusting, and I only drink on Holidays....so...yep.” YES! I could barely hold in my excitement. So we are still on for her baptism this Saturday. Baptism weeks are always so crazy. The Elders also had a wonderful baptism Saturday that she was able to attend and know how it will be for hers. (Fun fact: 80% of investigators who attend baptisms, whether they have received the lessons or not, will be baptized!) So that was definitely the highlight of my week. As I said last week, I have been fighting the Spanish flu...Ok, so really just a bad cough. Well, Wednesday night I was seeing little improvement, and Thursday was even a little worse. So, Friday morning, I was finally convinced to call the mission nurse. Our conversation went something like this, “Hi Hermana Clark, it´s Hermana Hopkins *cough cough*.” She shortly replied, “Hermana Hopkins you sound absolutely awful.” Thank you, that´s always something you want to hear. “Well Hermana Clark, I sound worse than I feel. Really I don´t feel that sick, I am just wondering what I should take to get rid of the cough.” She then sent me on a wild goose chase for this medicine to get from a farmacia, on a holiday, thank you, all across town and demanded that I stay in piso for the next 3 days. I was totally bummed!! I only got permission to leave for the Elder’s baptism they were having and Church. I hated the idea of staying inside, especially when I didn´t really feel all that sick. I almost went out anyway, but decided to be obedient. Instead, I decided we were going to enlist the young womens and the young adults to help us out for three days so that my companion could go out and work, and the members could stay with me. It was actually kind of a fun idea. They got to be missionaries for the day, or a babysitter of a missionary. So, I was debating how much I should actually put that they did for me in my letter thinking you would all think I am a spoiled, lazy missionary, but I feel like these people deserve the shoutout. So, Friday, Melanie stayed with me and wrote me a cute letter and she taught me Spanish for about 6 hours. The next day, a member came up to me at the baptism and was trying to ask if I could come to her house instead of her coming to ours. I am pretty good at Spanish, but I couldn´t quite figure out why she wanted me to go there. However, I got permission to go there if someone drove me there. So a different ward member overheard and volunteered to come pick me up. So Rita (Tamara on Facebook) stayed with me until the ward member came to pick me up. She brought me my favorite candies and a green candied apple. When I got to the members house (Her name is Marta) she led me back to a room...and told me to get on this strange, almost hospital-like looking bed. I thought that it was the weirdest bed I had ever seen. Haha But I layed down, and then she pushed a button, and oh! It was a massage bed. Not just a masssage chair, a massage bed. So, yes. I got a two hour massage in the house of this member. She was concerned about my cough, so she got this thing that heats up that you put on our neck and chest. It felt wonderful. She just sat and told me stories of when she was in Ecuador, her concerns, how she wants to be a better missionary for her friends, etc. It was like talking with my mom again. It was really sweet. She also gave me a recipe book so I could make some Christmas goodies. When I told her I would have to make her something to repay her, she said, “Oh no! This is my opportunity to serve the Lord by caring for one of his chosen missioanries here; you don´t realize how special you are to us.” I almost got teary-eyed.  Then the other member came and picked me and Rita back up to go back and wait in our piso for the rest of the night. When I got there, Melanie and her sister had made me chicken noodle soup, and Rita had picked up some Spanish bread during my massage. Haha I felt slightly guilty when my cute companion staggered in the door, absolutely exhausted. However, I think God wanted me to stay in, because there is something I learned. God doesn´t leave his missionaries comfortless. I was being taken care of while I was sick by the wonderful members, and my companion was blessed with so many miracles. She found so many new investigators (including 2 families), and taught more lessons than we usually teach as an entire district in two days. It was an absolute miracle. Plus, she has only been in the field for a week. I was so proud of her! I was one proud trainer, let me tell you. Then Sunday came around, and an investigator came to church and said that he had been watching his friend grow in the church, and wanted to change like he had. We had a lesson with him after church, and he said he wanted to be baptized. We were so blessed this week. Really, I was praying that if I did stay inside and take a break that we would still be able to find those people who are ready. I couldn´t physically go out and work, so God put them in my path for me. It was so great. As a sad note though, Fernando´s wife called and said we weren´t allowed to bother him this month of Christmas. I was really disappointed, but I guess they have their agency. But, I wasn´t about to let that dampen my mood. J I was so excited about our new investigator Miguel. He is from Peru, and we will work with him more this week, but he is so golden! Also, after church, my edible gifts from the members didn´t cease. In fact, I was brought an entire meal including more chicken noodle soup, a chicken and rice dish, and my personal favorite, chocolate chip bread pudding with pineapple sauce. Then later in the day when Rita came to watch me again, she brought me some dinner. I should get sick more often perhaps...haha J We had Zone Conference yesterday, and I officially got the ok to go back to work, and I am really excited to work with these new investigators!! I just have felt so blessed this week. I know that Heavenly Father loves His missionaries.

Les quiero!!

Hermana Hopkins  

Chapter 38 A Long Week for a New Missionary

Chapter 38: A Long Week for a New Missionary

I was really thinking about what I wanted to share this week in my email, and I wasn´t quite sure. It´s been a long week. For starters, I spent a couple of days in Barcelona so I could pick up my new missionary trainee! I still couldn´t believe I was training again. I felt like I was at the meeting for trainers just a week ago. I can hardly believe it´s already been 3 months. Well, I was really nervous because I was told that I would be training a native. I don´t know why it made me more nervous, but it did. What´s really weird is my entire district is training. However, I had nothing to fear when I found out I would be training Hermana Portas. She was (let´s make sure I get this right) born in Venezuela, her mom is from the Dominican Republic, her dad is a Spaniard, she was raised for 10 years in New York, and then moved to Madrid. She is 23 years old, and her English just cracks me up. It´s perfect English, but a heavy New York accent haha but we are officially the youngest district in the mission. The district leader and I came in to the mission together, and we have the most time. It´s a little crazy. Anyway, we were told to pray for a miracle during our first week, and that we should also pray to see a baptism during our first month together. I felt like that was no problem since we were supposed to have three people getting baptized next week. That is, until one of them fell off the face of the earth, one of them had to reschedule, and one of them hasn´t come to church and so they can´t be baptized. It was definitely a bummer. Ok, so it was just down right depressing.  However, this is why I was debating what I should say in my weekly email. I feel like most missionaries try to make it sound as great as possible in their emails, and then all the other missionaries feel like they are the only ones suffering judging off the other emails. So, here is me being real this week. It was really hard. It was the first week in my mission where I haven´t had a whole lot of desire to work. After two out of our three baptismal candidates said they couldn´t meet with us this week, the distant Christmas decorations in the window started to haunt me. haha It was really hard not to think of the festivities that would soon be taking place at home. Not only that, but I´ve been sick for three weeks now, we were breaking cold temperature records, and it was the first week of training. During the first week of training, you always feel more pressure to be obedient, to be excited about the work, and show what the field is really like. Well, as you can probably tell, it was much easier said than done. Also, you don´t really appreciate your old companions until they are gone. I forgot how hard it is to be the only one who knows the area.  It´s funny because once your cita cancels, you kind of look at each other like, “what now?” and I was the only one who knew the area enough to decide where to go next. So I decided we would work with my Spanish Grandma this week. (The one that tried to teach me the Paso doble last week.) We had a three hour long cita and she said she would come to church! ( Yes, three hours). Normally, I wouldn´t try to work with an 80 year old woman so fervently, but then I heard this story from a Spaniard in our ward this week, and she told us that her grandma got baptized when she was 80 years old, and then her mom was baptized soon after. Obviously, I thought, this was a sign for me. She asked us to come back the next day, and after eating chocolate con churros (a Spanish winter favorite) she told us how she couldn´t come to church because she felt like she was betraying the Catholic Church, and it was too cold. I was so upset! However, there was one bright spot in our week. We have been trying to catch this family that we found contacting on the street for the last 2 months and they were never home! The mom´s name is Milagros (which translates to miracles in English), so it was obviously a sign! We went and started just teaching them a little, because they said they had received lessons before from the missionaries. The mom seemed a little less than enthusiastic, but reluctantly invited us back as she was cradling her crying two year old between her knees.  However, her 13 year old niece was also in the room, and when we talked about the Book of Mormon, we asked Milagros if she thought the Book of Mormon could be true, and the little 13 year old piped up from the corner and bursted out, “Yes! I believe it´s true!!” We were definitely taken back. She is just this tiny 13 year old that looks like she is 8. Oh well, I´ll take it. She said she wants to come to church (she didn´t show up though.) and that she wants me to teach her English, and she´ll read the Book of Mormon. It just makes me realize how strong the faith is of a young girl. I hope that if I wasn´t born in the church that I would be able to recognize the truth when I heard it and stand in front my entire family and tell them I know it was true before even reading it. It was really great, and I´ll be excited to meet with them this week. As for Ana (our progressing Peruvian investigator) she went out of town, but will be back this week, and Fernando. Oh Fernando...we tried to meet with him 3 times this week, and do you know what his excuse was?? He had to pick oranges and take a shower. If that´s not the worst excuse I have ever heard, I don´t know what is. Well, hopefully this next week we´ll see some more success and a little bit more cheer from the Scrooge. Haha  Aglaice called this morning very concerned about my health and gave me a care package to help me get better, so no fear. No forces are going to get me down.  Les Quiero!
Hermana Hopkins