Chapter 29: Cumpleaños Feliz

I have officially entered the Roarin´ Twenties! Watch out Spain!! Haha I think I am aging a lot faster here, because I don´t think I have ever felt so tired in my entire life!! But thank you all for the birthday wishes. It was a really special day. Everyone kept telling me to enjoy my one and only birthday in Spain, and the ward members definitely made sure I did just that! The morning of my birthday, one of the girls called me to ask if I could come and help with a musical number that the Young Womens were doing the next day. When I entered the chapel, they all started singing my favorite hymn "Come Come ye Saints", and when they finished they broke out in “Happy Birthday.” I turned around and they had made a giant cake out of my favorite Spain candies!! It was so sweet!! It was truly a memory that I will hold very dear to my heart for the rest of my life. Then for lunch we ate with a really sweet family who, for my birthday, tried to make some American food which consisted of french fries, fried chicken, and cheesecake. It was super funny because they forgot the candles, and so she came out first with this big table candle, and we were just laughing so hard! One of the daughters found a "18" candle, and we all joked that I had lost a year instead of gaining a year. Then, all of our actual missionary work that day went down the tube! All of our appointments cancelled on us! Rotten luck! So, we spent the night contacting and knocking doors. Definitely not my ideal way to end a birthday night, but I guess you can´t have everything. So that was my birthday! Also, the young adults threw me a little birthday party for family home evening on Sunday night! Complete with a giant cake and 20 candles this time. I really love this ward! As for the work this week, it was definitely better! I have mentioned Hussan, our Muslim investigator before and he is slowly becoming my favorite investigator! I have never had to teach someone completely about Christ before, and it´s incredible to see how a little bit of faith completely changes your countenance! He just glows when we talk about Christ! It´s like he is a little child learning something incredible for the first time! It cracks me up too that his roommate is such a bitter "Catholic" (I am fast learning that when people say they are Catholic, 50% of the time they are atheist). And they just debate about Christ´s role in their lives, and our investigator seems to have so much more faith then this self-proclaimed Catholic! But slowly yet surely, we are going to break down her walls as well! Then, we visited the Spaniard three amigas, as I call them, and they just make me smile! They are the most loving and open people I think I have ever met! Every time we come over they are just so open and welcoming! They want their daughter to start coming to mutual activities, so that will be great to see. I really hope that the ward members can really reach out to them and show them what it means to be true disciples of Christ. Also, MYGL CAME TO CHURCH!! I was so excited when he walked in the door, and I think all the ward members practically were climbing over themselves to meet him. It´s a very rare thing to have a true Spaniard as an investigator. We will meet with him tomorrow, but I think he enjoyed the spirit there. After church, we have the opportunity once a month to visit a pueblo about 2 hours away, and it was so weird! It felt like a family road trip with the bishop, ward mission leader (who is the bishop´s father), two of the elders, us, and a recent returned missionary, Roxanne, all piled into a van! The weird thing though was the scenery! I thought I was driving through Utah! The pueblo was really dry, cool air. I thought for sure we had driven to Utah! haha But it was really sweet. There are three families out there that can´t make it to church every week, so we do a sacrament meeting with them once a month since they aren´t quite big enough to make a branch. It was sweet and simple. I really love the work here in Castellón! It´s very diverse here, and our investigators are from all over the world (Romania, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Peru, Spain, etc. just to name a few) and I just love them all! I don´t know how much success we are actually having, but I know that I will never forget this feeling of love that I have the opportunity to feel with the people that I am serving here. Something that I will never forget!!

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins

Ch. 28 Just come to Church!

Chapter 28: Just come to Church!

Well, this week was a little disappointing after last week. But, these weeks come and go during the mission. It´s not that it was a bad week, just a little slower than usual. I think I should count my blessings though, because we really had some great lessons. The only problem is that nobody came to church! The only one that came to church is Aglaece, our sweet Brazilian lady who we found Gospel Caroling last week. She wants to be baptized the 12th of October and she is super great. Her piso roomate, Mygl, is a different story. He also wants to be baptized the 12th of October, and he really loves learning about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, he doesn´t love coming to church! We went to pick him up for church, and he told us he got called into work, and that he will come next week. He also had told us before that he doesn´t work on Sundays, and he has done this two weeks in a row...I think I am just going to drag him out of his piso next week. haha After finding so many new investigators last week, I was really thinking this week that the work would just explode. However, it seemed like all of our appointments fell through, and we had zone conference this week, so we had to cancel a lot of the appointments that we had for that day (it was moved up a week). However, we did find a cute very extremely Catholic family. Actually, it is just a grandma, mom and granddaughter that are living together. We are still moving forward in our Gospel Caroling approach, and they let us in. The mom said to me, "We want to hear you sing again, but just to let you know, we won´t be changing religions!" Well, it was a start, so we went in and sang a couple hymns, and then they started asking us questions about our church. We were really careful to be very positive about the Catholic church and just say how grateful we were to see a happy, practicing religious family. BINGO. They started asking more doctrinal questions, and after we got past the fact that my companion and I did not share a husband, we really started making some progress. They invited us to come back, and the thing that made them really interested in the church was, you will never guess, the visiting teaching program! They thought it sounded like an inspired program of how to take care of the women in the church, and that they were really lacking that unity in the Catholic church. So yes, we have 3 new investigators based on the idea of visiting teaching--who would have thought! haha Well, I accidentally left my little hymnbook in their house, and so we had to go back the next day and get it, and they were so sweet! They were just saying, "Now, where are you going to eat today? Do you have members in your church feeding you? We were just making paella and would love to share it with you." So sweet! Unfortunately, we were just on our way to eat with a member--I love paella! (it´s a rice and chicken and vegetable dish extremely popular in Spain). I love the people here in Castellón. Most of them aren´t that open, but we will see what we can do here. They wanted to come to church, but they said they all accidentally slept in. I think sleeping has been Satan´s greatest tool here! We are going to keep working with them, though and really get them involved in the ward. I think I am just starting to get used to the area here. It was really scary for the first couple weeks when neither me nor my companion really knew how to get around or knew anyone, but the ward is really incredible. The bishop has been calling a lot of the young adults in the ward to be ward missionaries to help us out, and we are becoming really great friends with them. All the missionaries are really putting an effort to strengthen the Young Adults and The Young mens and Womens programs. They are incredible here, and they just make me laugh!! They are so funny! I love that I am getting to the point where I know enough Spanish that I can understand their jokes. Not completely, but most of the time. haha I think the biggest problem here in Castellón really is just getting people to church! It´s funny how there are different problems in each area. They are much more open here, but something always just happens to come up! It seems that no matter how much we drill church attendance, how many people we offer to help get to church, the results is just the same. So, this week, our focus will really be on just coming to church!! I never realized just how important it was before my mission; It´s really hard to build your testimony of the Lord´s church without attending! Oh well, the work goes on. Aglaece´s got our back! haha Our Ward Mission leader is seriously an angel dropped from Heaven. He just talks to the ward members about helping our investigators feel really loved when they come to church so they want to come back. When Aglaece walked in, he went over and put his arm around her and said, "Welcome to the Lord´s house. I hope you feel of our love for you here." I love that man! Well, hopefully next week we will be able to get more people to church! It´s a tradition in the mission that when you have a lot of appointments cancel on you, or you just have a bad day, you go get ice cream. We had to put an end to this tradition this week in fear that I won´t be able to fit into my skirts. haha But there´s always next week. Thanks for all the prayers!

¡Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins

Ch. 27: Soy un Hijo de Dios

Chapter 27: Soy un Hijo de Dios

I have never particularly enjoyed knocking doors. Maybe it´s something to do with the door-slamming, spitting, yelling. I am not sure. Instead, I find that my time is better used working with members, less active families, and part member families, with a hint of street contacting on the side. However, in our district meeting this week, our District Leader asked us to knock doors. Honestly, I just rolled my eyes. You have got to be kidding. But, being the obedient little missionary that I am, we decided to find some time to knock some doors this week. However, we were going to do it a different way. My companion and I were thinking of a way that we could knock on doors that would have a better result than the usual, "I don´t have any interest." Finally I exclaimed, "If only we could go Christmas Caroling!! Everyone loves caroling!!" And then it hit us. We decided to go Gospel Caroling! haha Now, we realized that the only logical reason we must be companions is that she loves to sing Alto, and I am a Soprano. Obviously this is what God had instore for us. 

And so commenced our week of Gospel Caroling. 

The challenge with knocking doors is you have to find a way into the building. Usually, we just stalk a street and wait for someone to come in our out of a building, and then sprint up behind them, and slyly sneak into the closing door. So, we were moving forward with our plans when we were sneaking in behind this onery Spaniard, scrawny man of about 60 years old who hissed us, "psh, mormones!!" and glared at us all the way down the street. Eh, I didn´t really care. He walked out of an apartment building full of apartments, so it was like Christmas morning. So we began at the top floor and nobody was home!! We had made it down about 2 floors when we realized there is nobody home and I just thought we were wasting our time. Then while we were on the 4th floor, we were just lifting our hands to ring the door bell when the elevator doors open, and Mr. Sunshine that we had met on the street walks through. Oh. No. hahaha. My companion just looked up at me with huge eyes, and I just bursted out, "Hi we´re missionaries...." and he just shouted, " I know who you are and get out of here!!" Usually, I would have scattered off, but I felt impressed to stay this time. I said, "Sir, We would like to share a song with you." He was going off on something, and stopped mid sentence, looked up at us and muttered, "Huh? You want to do what??" "Sir, we would like to sing a song for you."

So we sang Soy un Hjio de Dios (I am a Child of God)

I have never seen a man completely change in a period of a 30 second song like that moment. After we concluded the song, he looked up at us, and said, "Usually when I see your kind (felt a little bit like an animal at this moment) all you want to do is shove your bible in people´s faces. Never have I heard anyone try to sing..." So, we kept talking with him about Spain and the beautiful cities, our families, and so forth. He asked us about a couple of our beliefs, and I think he was taken back with how open we were to his ideas, and we would just mix it into our ideas! haha For example, he said you just believe in your bible, right? and we said, "Yes! We do! We also have a Book called the Book of Mormon, and if you read them both, you can come to know your Savior more." We knew that´s not what he meant, but we had him hooked! His name is Mygl (Miguel) and he is progressing towards baptism for the beginning of next month. But, the miracle doesn´t end there. As we were walking away, his Apartment door opens (we had been standing in the entry this whole time) and his piso companion (someone you share the rent with) comes and out tells us, "Who are you? I don´t know what church your from, but I would like to come with you this Sunday. I am from Brazil, and I was praying that someone would come by and help me find a church. As soon as I ended my prayer, I heard you singing in the entry." So, both of them are really open and learning a lot. The rest of the week we continued our tactics of asking if we could share a song instead of a message. We now have more investigators than the Elders combined, not to brag, because we know it all came from God. But still. It´s amazing what can happen with a little song!! :) One of our new investigators is name Hussan. He is...well...he´s an interesting one. haha He is from Morrocco, and born Muslim. He is the most open person I think I have ever met. He really wants to know about the Book of Mormon and our church. The appointment we had with him was a little strange though. There we were, teaching him a lesson just about Jesus Christ. We felt it was important that he develop a Faith in Christ first. Then, his piso companion comes in and she is a staunch Catholic, a staunch, bitter, Catholic. So let me just paint this image for you. We are teaching this Muslim who wants to be Christian (he says he believes Christ is divine and the Koran is wrong and that he doesn´t want to be affiliated with that religion anymore), she is trying to convice him that we are up to no good and just want to baptize him, and he is telling her that he wants to change religions and he wants to know if this one is right with a cigarette in his right hand and a glass of wine in the other. Oh my goodness. haha the kind of things you find knocking doors. Well, I am sure all his lessons are going to be an adventure! My next task is to find a Book of Mormon for him in Arabic so he can better understand. He says Spanish is his third language and really wants to know the truth. What a crazy week!! I am really excited to see where our new investigators go, and I think I will take the advice of my friend from Finding Nemo:

Just keep "singing", just keep "singing". 

Les Quiero!!

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter 26: Bitter Goodbyes and Sweet Welcomes

I can hardly believe that I had to say goodbye to my wonderful area in Barcelona. I think it was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life. I feel like I was just crying all week! Since we had 44 new missionaries coming in, they had them all stay in a hotel in Barce for a couple days to get their residency all worked out. And guess who were the lucky Hermanas who got to stay in the hotel as well? Yes, you guessed it. Hermana Shaffer and I stayed in the hotel with them--I guess I got to go out with a splash! I definitely had a really hard time saying goodbye to Francisco and his family. His whole family made me a dinner the night before I left and told me they all had desires to be baptized. It was so exciting to hear, but at the same time I just wished with all my heart that I was going to be there to see it. The next day, he wrote me a letter and came and read it to me just hours before I left. I am telling you, it has been an emotional week. haha Then saying goodbye to Feily and her dad was like saying goodbye to my family in Barcelona. I really didn´t imagine it could ever quite be this hard to say goodbye to an area. (And don´t even get me started on saying goodbye to the senior couples.) But, I guess the Lord needed me somewhere else. SO Bienvenida a Castellón. It is a pretty small city (much smaller than the Barcelona I am used to) and I don´t know a soul. My companion I am training is Hermana Jarman from Arizona. She is super sweet, a little shy, but ready to get to work! She already spoke Spanish, so that won´t even be an issue either. So, we decided that the first thing to do was to start getting to know the members. I don´t think I have ever met so many welcoming people in my entire life. I called the Ward Mission Leader and he said, "Oh Hermanas!! Welcome to Castellón, and welcome to my family. While you are here, you will be my daughters, and I want you to know that you can come by at anytime because my house is your house." We went and met with him, and he is even sweeter than he was on the phone. The bishop was the exact same. Then I found out the bishop is actually the son of the mission leader, and half the ward I feel like is related to this one family. It´s super funny, and not even an exaggeration. On Sunday it was a little bit overwhelming at first: all these people running up to us wanting to get to know us in rapid Spanish. I have to keep telling myself that it will come and I will love this ward just as much as my last ward. It was super cute though, the relief society put up this pink calender to feed the Hermanas. They are very serious about it in this ward. There was one day in the entire month of September that we weren´t eating with a family, and Charo (my new favorite person) freaked out and grabbed someone and said, "It is your duty as a member of this church to serve this servants of the Lord--especially the Hermanas!". haha So, I guess my grocery bills are definitely going to go down. Then we went to dinner and to the Rojas Family. I honestly love them to death. They feed all the missionaries every week after church, and invite a couple of the ward members as well. One of them this week was Charo. Now, she was just like, "Hermanas, think of me as your new mom. If you need anything at all, let me know. I know that it must be overwhelming coming where you know nobody, so just think of me as the person always ready to help with anything." She then proceeded to go off about how the Elders should have been more helpful in telling us where we could go to visit members and less actives in our area and sat down with us with Roxanna Rojas (a recently returned missionary) and wrote down the addresses of everyone we could visit in our area and a little explaanation about them. And that is why I love working with the members! Also, the Elders gave us a sweet investigator named Geraldine. She has heard all the discussions, and is waiting for an answer to Baptism. I was trying to figure out why she wasn´t baptized yet, since she thinks it could be true and I thought about my experience with Francisco. I feel like I just met Francisco in young girl version. haha Anyway, I decided to just gain her trust for our first lesson. So, naturally we talked about our favorite food, boys and dating, and our favorite movies. :) She told me, "I have never been able to talk to the Elders like this before. Can we go get ice cream sometime?" And that is the mission work, my friends. You have to gain people´s trust! She then came with us, and brought her friend, to the young adults family home evening which she has never accepted before. I am really excited to keep working with her. I think you really have to develop a trusting friendship before you can teach the gospel, or at least at the same time. This is a gospel of love, and they have to feel that before they will join the church. Other than her, the work is obviously a little slow since we just got here, but we are praying really hard, and I am expecting some great miracles to happen. Especially with the support of this incredible ward. I love you all, and pray for me please! haha 

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins

September 2, 2013

Chapter 25: Platinum Grand Finale

Chapter 25: My Platinum Grand Finale

It was Wednesday night, and we had been meeting with Francisco and his wife all week. I had a suspicion that this would be my last week in Barcelona, so I have been praying for one last miracle. Well, my spirits were definitely down after we walked out of a meeting with Francisco and he said he had doubts about Joseph Smith and modern prophets. Where did that come from?? He was doing just fine last week! So, we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and prayer and he said he still wanted to wait to be baptized until more like November. 

Not on my watch.

So, I told him, "Francisco, we are still going to plan on your baptism this Saturday. I know that if you read the Book of Mormon and pray with real intent tonight, you will receive an answer that this is exactly what God wants for you." After saying that, we left, slightly melancholy. knowing that this baptism may not happen. When Hermana Shaffer and I got back to piso, she told me, "Hermana Hopkins, I think we need to fast." At this point, I was being slightly negative, and I just thought to myself, "Sure, let´s just add starvation on top to my disappointment." I quickly threw that thought away and realized that if I fasted, God was going to give us a miracle.

And boy did He deliver.

The next morning we felt impressed to call the Allreds, a senior couple serving here who are just the sweetest things and are fluent in Spanish, to come with us to our lesson with Francisco that night. Hermana Shaffer was supposed to be on an intercambio, but the plane she was going to go on was filled. Heavenly Father knew we both needed to be there for this visit! 

So, we got to his house, and the lesson was going just as usual until Hermana Allred bore her testimony. It was one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. She told about how she was the only member in her family, and it has been a miracle for her to have the gospel to help raise her children. We had just been explaining the Restoration of the church, and then she added her testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. Francisco´s wife had tears flowing down her face, and  Francisco just looked at us and said, "Hermanas, I received an answer that I know I need to be baptized. I know this is what God wants for me, and I know that everything is true, and I can´t deny it any longer." We had brought with us his baptismal clothes to try on, and he and his wife just started crying. Hermana Shaffer told him, "You will be as clean as these white clothes." So, Saturday morning we got ready for one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. We filled the font (the hot water was broken so we went 5 hours early to add boiling pots of water to the cold font.) and then he got there and everything went beautifully. Hermana Shaffer and I sang "Love at Home". I realized that I wanted Francisco baptized so bad that I didn´t realize a couple months ago that we needed to go back and work with his wife. This gospel is for families, and God wasn´t going to give Francisco an answer until his wife was supportive, and he was ready. During the baptism, his wife, Maria, just cried and whispered to us, "I am so happy, and sad at the same time. My husband is closer to God and can bless our family, but I can´t yet. I need to be baptized too." What a miracle!! After the baptism, the bishop invited him to bear his testimony. He got up, and had written a letter addressed to Hermana Shaffer and I and the other ward members. It was a beautiful letter about how he had learned to receive answers from God. I just sat and bawled. haha It was the perfect way to end my time here in Barcelona. It´s been one of the hardest things I have ever done saying goodbye, but I know that God needs me some where else right now. Which leads me to the next exciting news.

Saturday night at exactly 9:41 pm. we received a call from President. President never calls to tell us about transfers...unless....

Oh. My.

The conversation went as follows:

"Hermana Hopkins."

"Yes President?" 

"You have done some great work here in Barcelona, and we think that you are ready and worthy to be a Trainer." 

"Alright President, I would love to be."

"Oh and Hermana Hopkins, you will be serving in Castellón. No Hermanas have ever been there, and you will be white washing the area."

Me: "..........ok President.........." 

I am incredibly nervous, but I know that if that´s what the Lord wants me to do, well one He must have a good sense of humor haha, and two, He knows there are people there that need me. 

Sunday was a great, and soggy day haha We went to go pick up Feily like we do every Sunday, and there comes her Dad. He came to church for my last week. He just was like, "Hermana Hopsheenz (that´s how he pronounces my name--it´s my favorite haha) you better not leave me alone in the church, because this is big for me. haha" I was just so happy!! Then when we got there, Francisco was given the Holy Ghost, and ordained to the office of a Priest. I can already see the blessings God are pouring down to him. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in this wonderful ward. I love them all so much, and even though I will miss them, they will always be close and dear to my heart. It truly was a Platinum Grand Finale. 

Hang on Castellón, here I come. 

Les Quiero (and wish me luck, I am going to need it.)

Hermana Hopkins