Ch. 44 The Light

Chapter 44: The Light

What a week. I can hardly believe it has only been a week with everything that has gone on! I don´t think I have ever been so exhausted after a week, but if you could only see the smile that I can´t seem to get off my face. As we started our week, we were desperately praying for a miracle. I want to see Cathy and Tony baptized with all my heart. I don´t know if I have ever felt so close to investigators before. We knew that the Spanish government is practically impossible to work with, but between the Spanish Goverment and God...I´ll put my money on God. (I am not so sure if gambling on God´s side is appropriate, but you get what I am saying. Haha) But, if we were going to get a miracle, I knew we would have to put some forth of effort of our own. We´ve been talking a lot about obedience in the mission field, and I always have thought of myself as a pretty obedient missionary, so nothing really stuck out in my mind... But I also knew that if I wanted a miracle, that it was through obedience that I was going to get it. So, I took a real good look at everything and realized something. There is something that all the missionaries do because everyone else in Spain does it....Walk on Red lights. Something so little, right? The thing is, it´s not really dangerous, because all the streets are practically one way and really little. But, it was a sacrifice we were willing to make. So, we stopped walking on red lights, and the day we did we went to go visit Cathy and Tony. They had two big grins just plastered on their faces. We sat down and they told us that they were finally able to get in and get the information that they needed. They said that they were told if as soon as they got their papers done, they could get married right on the spot. No agonizing waiting. Tony told us that it was an absolute miracle, and that he still doesn´t understand how that could be. I knew. But...there was a catch. To do the papers, Cathy has to fly to Romania and get her papers, and get them translated which will cost about $600 in total. Now, I want to remind you that they are so desperately in need of money right now that the bishop brought them by a ton of food to last them for the month. I feel like I had so much hope...and then bam!!  We walked a little slower home, heads down a little.  But hang on, the story gets brighter... So two days later we came back to talk with them. Cathy received news that the piso that she had in Romania owed her 500$ I could hardly believe it. The said they were working so hard to get all the money saved up so that they could go. They only needed a hundred euros. So, we talked to the bishop about it, and this Sunday was just incredible all around. We had a crazy Sunday morning, so we were in and out of the classes picking up investigators. When we walked into the investigator class, they were teaching tithing...the one lesson that we haven´t been able to teach them that we were kind of saving for last. Yes, I as afraid to teach it, I will admit it. You shouldnt´be scared, but I was. I just nervously looked over at their faces during the whole lesson. They both looked so serious....ah! Well, I didn´t get the chance to ask them about it until after church. I went and sat over by Cathy and asked her, “So, how did you like the classes today?” and she just looked over at me and said, “I understand why God hasn´t been blessing us. We haven´t ever paid tithing. I wish I would have known when I had a job because I know the Lord would have blessed us. I can´t pay any money now, but is there anything else I can donate? I could clean the chapel!” I just sat there in amazement. Could they possibly be this converted to the gospel?? The bishop said he wanted to talk to them after the meeting, so I sat there waiting with the outside the door, and they were just talking about how happy they were now. That they had looked their whole lives for this peace. Even Tony said, “I can´t explain it. I just can´t explain this inner peace that just makes me so happy. With all the problems we had, life just seemed dark, and now there´s light. The problems are still there, but now I have this hope.” I just could hardly believe it. This man who was slightly on the rough side when we first met him is a man of faith now! We were looking through of how it could possibly happen, and really it was the Book of Mormon. You just can´t not receive a testimony of Christ and His church if you are reading the Book of Mormon. Tony especially has such a thirst for the gospel. He is reading the gospel principles book, The Book of Mormon (he is halfway through 2 Nephi) and on chapter Genesis of the Bible. I was talking to Cathy and she told me, “A while ago I was praying to God. I told him that if Tony is really supposed to be my husband, then he has got to put him on the right path. Now I look at him, and he is reading more books from God than I am, and his faith is growing.” I just can hardly express how much I love them. They are so precious to me. The bishop found Tony work possibly and so it looks like that there future really is getting brighter. I can just see in their faces the change—they really just shine. We are still working on getting them to Romania, but with God, nothing is impossible. Not only them, but we had another huge miracle. Remember Husane our Muslim investigator? Well, he called me this week and he said, “Hermana Hopkins...I need to talk to you about something. When can we meet?” So we set up the appointment, and I was slightly nervous. We sat down and he says, “I have a really important question for you.” “Ummm yes??” “Are Mormons....Christian.”

Phew, an easy question. Hahaha “Yes, Husane, we are Christian. I thought you were reading the Book of Mormon...?” and he replies, “Well, I am. I am almost halfway done. I would be done by now, but I read every page five times to make sure I understand.” “And what does it talk about Husane?” “Jesus! That´s why I don´t understand why the people on the internet said you weren´t Christian!” Oh brother. Well after a good long talk, he said, “Ok, I want to be baptized.” WHAT! So, we will be working with him. I just love the Book of Mormon. It truly is the truth that you can feel in your hand! The day after we stopped walking on red lights, we got in contact with a Spaniard family that we contacted on the Three Kings Day. They are incredible. I actually was on a split and in an other cita, but my companion just comes back jumping up and down and says, “They want to be baptized, they want to be baptized!! AND they are a family of 6!!” I could hardly believe it. We really felt the Lord´s hand in the work this week for sure. When we met with them again, they believed in the story of Joseph Smith, believe in the Book of Mormon, but don´t understand why that means they have to change churches.....I don´t really understand that, but I am working on it.  It was like watching Satan work with them, but they said they would be baptized. We also have been trying to get into this family the whole time I have been in Castellón. The mom is alone trying to raise 5 girls. The two oldest are twins and 14 years old, and then a 6 year old, and then 2 twin 3 year olds. Their dad left them last year I believe, and she has hasn´t let us in to teach them. We have been teaching her best friend, and she said she would talk to her about it. Well, we felt like we should try a lesson with them both, so we got it all planned out. Well, the moms had a last minute work thing, but the mother of the 5 girls said we could come and teach the girls!! What!! It was incredible. The two oldest girls have been reading the Book of Mormon.  One of them suffers from epilepsy, and said that since she has been reading the Book of Mormon, she hasn´t had a single attack. So, if you can´t tell, I really love the Book of Mormon. Funny, but not so funny update on our Peruvian family. They called us and told us how much of an impact our lesson had on them and they want to get their family closer to God.....so they are preparing their son for the first communion. Not what I had in mind, and they cancelled on us this week.  We are going to teach them about the Restoration next and clarify a few things hopefully.  I really love this time here, and it just makes me so excited to see the light that the Book of Mormon and the Gospel is bringing into these homes.

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins 

Ch. 43: Los Tres Reyes (The Three Kings)

Chapter 43: Los Tres Reyes (The Three Kings)

Happy New Year!! I can´t believe we are already in 2014. I thoroughly enjoyed my twelve grapes with a side of “champin”, and we spent it with all the missionaries with a cute Peruvian family here. They made us rabbit (sorry Lex), potatoes, and they said they looked it up and in America we eat homemade pizza for New Years. So Homemade pizza it was. I was expecting a huge bash or crashing for the New Years, but it was a very quiet celebration here in Castellon.  A few fireworks, we could hear the bell tower do the count down, and a few shouts was about the extent of their celebration.  The work....was a little slower on New Years, but I guess that´s to be expected when everyone is sleeping the next day. Even the members had a party in the church that went until six in the morning.  So, we visited a couple members that were awake, and then had a family home evening with some of the youth in the ward at the church that night. I was just ready to get back to work though! We found this wonderful Peruvian family that are just so incredible! The only thing is they live about a half hour out of Castellón. However, we had our cita with them, and it was the cutest thing. They were talking about how they are really interested in our doctrine of eternal families. The husband was just like, “I have always hated how the marriage vows always end with death; I want my family to be eternal. If we believe in life after death, why would I want to be separated from my loved ones?” Exactly my friend, that´s what we are here for, I thought.  Well, we were talking to him briefly about some of the doctrines when I look over at their nine year old son. Get this: he had a highlighter going through the Book of Mormon asking our Mission Leader (who took us out there) for scriptures that he liked. Yes, I think we found a future missionary.  I am really excited to keep working with them. They are really special. They wanted to come to church, but the dad and the baby got really sick. The devil is sneaky one.... grr.... But, speaking of eternal families, we had an incredible cita with Cathy and Tony. They are seriously the best. They are more active than half the ward. They are at all the activities and ready to help with anything. We stopped the day after New Years to see how they were doing, and they said that they had been talking with the Bishop about some things, and in particular about the temple. I thought this was a little premature since we have only been teaching them for about a month, but they are so incredible, I guess they can handle it. Anyway, they looked at us and they said, “It would really mean a lot to us if you could be in our sealing.”

What?  Did I hear that right??Yes, yes I did. I was completely shocked. In fact, I couldn´t respond. I just stared at them for about 10 seconds probably with a look like I had just won a million dollars (except it´s way better). I responded, a little choked up, that I would do everything in my power to be there. The only problem is we are still waiting on the papers here before Cathy can go to Romania and finish her papers there, then she has to bring them back, and then they have to submit everything here to the Spanish Government which can take up to 2-4 months before you can get married. I´ve never been a fan of the drive through weddings in Vegas, but all of a sudden, they are looking quite ingenious... haha Anyway, I will be opening my Send-Hermana-Hopkins-Back-To-Spain-2015 fund reserve promptly.  Just kidding, but I am quite determined to do everything I can to at least get them to this first wedding. They are my only investigators that I can count on being at church every week.... As to Miguel, we still can never meet with him! He has proven to be slippier than grabbing a bar of soap with wet hands. We found out though from one of his friends in the church that he has a really bad drinking problem that he is trying to get over, which would definitely explain the strange behavior. I have seen crazier miracles though. We are working with a few families in our area, and the work is really growing. I feel like with all the Peruvians we´ve been finding that we might have to open a Peruvian branch. J

Saturday was the day we receive transfer calls. It´s probably the one thing that I simply will not miss on the mission. I am a nervous wreck all day. You just think about if you are going to stay, are you going to go, where you could possibly go, the goodbyes you may be saying. Ok, maybe I am just a worrier, but I can´t stand it! So that night I practically jumped on the phone when the district leader called. He knew I was nervous, so he made it as painful as possible...

“Hermana Portas. You are staying in Castellón. Hermana Hopkins. Sorry, but you aren´t so lucky...”My heart stopped.  “Just kidding, you´re staying too.” So, I will officially be spending a third of my mission in Castellón, and I dont´mind one bit!

Yesterday was the Three Kings Day which is the biggest holiday here in Spain. It´s the sixth of January, but the fifth is when the three kings come (really, there are three kings and they come in the train station) and everyone goes crazy! They have a big parade and everything to greet them in. Then the morning of the sixth the kids open their presents (like Christmas) and the kings go around in cars led by police officers throwing candies in the streets and they have a big lunch and dinner. It was really fun because we got to spend the big dinner with one of the Spaniard families in the ward and celebrate it authentically with all the missionaries. It was so fun. I thought I was going to have to roll home because they fed us so much, but it was so worth it. It was definitely a holiday season that I won´t forget! I love you all so much, and I am so grateful for the blessings I receive from your prayers.

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins 

Chapter 42: 12 Grapes

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas holiday! I know that it was a Christmas that I will never forget. All of Christmas Eve I was making Oreo truffles (thank you Laurie Petersen-your truffles are officially world-famous haha) with the Elders. We made about 300 truffles to pass around to the members, less actives, and investigators as we carolled to them. It was really fun! That evening, we celebrated the “noche buena” with one of the families I am really close to, and it was a feast! They ordered in a turkey just for us. You can´t really find turkey here in Spain since the special or traditionial  “Christmas food” is more seafood. They were so cute! Then on Christmas our district got together in the church and had a big Christmas breakfast and listened to Christmas music, afterwards, we went out and continued our carolling fest, and went to a member´s house for dinner. Really, I feel so blessed to have these great members here. Then I got to skype home, and oh my goodness, it felt unreal!! It was almost like being home for Christmas seeing everyone´s faces. I can´t believe that in 9 months (well less than that now) I will be home again. But, we don´t need to talk about that now. However, I had a not so great Christmas present that arrived to me in the form of a text that evening. Remember my “Island Carol” from last summer and the horrible intercambio experience? Well, I had a real scroogey moment when I was told I would be doing an intercambio the next day with the same training leader. NOOO!! Haha I was not happy. First of all, I didn´t get any heads up, and I wanted to have some good appointments for when she comes, and it was the day after Christmas. Really?? Is anyone that cruel!! Luckily, God´s got my back. I don´t know why I worry. We had a really productive day. In fact, we had so many appointments, that we had to have members come with us and do splits. We were really blessed. The rest of the week we thought would be really hard, but actually it ended up being really productive. I was really shocked. I guess everyone was really tired from the holidays and decided to stay home. J Well, we saw a lot of Christmas miracles. (Like people we have been trying to get a hold of for months now were at home and ready to accept the lessons.) We had four miracles that come to mind.

1.  We met with Ana and her son was there and finally accepted to listen to us. His friend, Adrian, was there as well, and he was the most prepared twelve year old boy that I have ever met. He said he wanted to learn more and would ask his mom permission. It was seriously just a beautiful lesson we had with them explaining why Christ was important in their lives. I love how the gospel is for everyone—young, old, big, and small.

2.  We also had the opportunity to meet with Hussian this week! My favorite Muslim investigator. Honestly, I was so excited. We met with him, and he said, “I am on the road....what´s the word again? Hmm...I have the faith now in Christ....I saw this on a television program....” and by this time we were like, what? Haha But he continued, “... Oh! That´s it! I am on the road to conversion.” I was really excited. He just soaks up everything he can about Jesus. He is reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon side by side for the first time in his life, and he loves to talk about how it all just makes sense that Christ is the savior of the world. He said, “I wish I could just open the eyes to my people, the Muslim people, of the beauty of this message, the divinity of Christ, and that he is the Son of God and suffered for our sins. Except, they are just too afraid to listen to it.” I was so touched. He really is one of my favorite investigators (I know, you probably shouldn´t pick favorites, but I do)

3.  We were going to Grou, a little pueblo on the beach outside of Castellón to go visit some people that the mission leader wanted us to meet. We ran back to piso to grab some extra Books of Mormon, and the thought came to me to bring a Romanian book of Mormon. I thought it was such a strange idea since we were going to go teach some Colombians, but I followed the prompting and grabbed the Romania Book of Mormon. When we got to the house, the lady we were trying to meet wasn´t there, but the owners were there. They were Romanians. I almost freaked out right there, but we gave them the Book of Mormon, and explained about the history of it. I am not sure how interested they were, but it was really cool none-of-the-less.

4.  Cathy and Tony are just so wonderful. They are progressing so much!! They are going through a really hard time though right now. They told us that his mom left him when he was 9 years old. About five years ago, he lost his job and recently, Cathy had an operation and can´t work. So, they are really struggling financially. Tony´s mom came back into the picture and is trying to get custody of their precious daughter Gemma because they can´t support her. We are praying so hard for them. They told us they are going today to get the papers filled out to get married. We had a family home evening with them and the bishop´s family yesterday, and Cathy just said, “I just want my family to be brought up in this church; I want a family for the eternities.” I didn´t get to pay a whole lot of attention to the message though, unfortunately, because Gemma was playing hair salon with my hair. She is just too cute I couldn´t resist! Haha But I really love my little Spaniard and Romanian family. Not to mention, I am going to have a lot of fun planning a wedding here. J

This week we are preparing for the New Years. We pretty much are spending New Years Eve and New Years day with members, and it will be so fun. My companion and I bought our non-alcoholic Champagne to get ready for the celebration. Also, a tradition they hold here in Spain is that with each of the 12 strokes before midnight, you eat a grape. So, get your 12 grapes ready, and Happy New Year!!

¡Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins 

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