Chapter 62: The name´s Hopkins, Hermana Hopkins
I
often feel like a secret agent or detective. I have my list of people that I am
given by the bishop, and I am supposed to go see if they are still alive. Ok,
that´s not my only objective.
You
see, the ward lists here in Spain seem as if they haven´t been updated since
the first missionaries came into Spain. (That´s not even being sarcastic) So
lately, the missionaries have been given the task to hunt down the people that
nobody knows who they are on the ward list. We have done a pretty good job at
cleaning out the list, until we got down to a few pesky names that we could not
confirm if they still lived where it said they lived. We passed by, and no one
was home. We passed by their neighbors, and they didn´t know the name of the
people who lived next to them. Wow, friendly neighbors. Haha My entire time
here in Vilafranca we have been working on this little list of people and
slowly but surely we have been eliminating, until the final name.
Antonio.
We
passed by and passed by and nothing!! Finally, on Friday night our last cita
cancelled on us. It 9:30, and we only had a
half an hour until we had to get back to piso. I had this feeling come over me
that we should go back and try knocking on the door (that we had already
knocked on earlier in the day). I went back and forth questioning if it was
really a prompting, or if it was me just trying to come up with something to do
for the last 20 minutes of the day. We decided to go. We rang the bell....and
waited....and waited....and I was just opening my mouth to say, “It´s time to
go,” When a voice came over the speaker, “Hola?” I jumped straight up and told
him we were looking for Antonio. He said that it was him, and he let us in. We
couldn´t stay long since we had to go home, but we asked if we could come back the
next day. He said yes!! Right before he left he asked me for my name,
“Hooopkeenz.....Jopkinss.....”
I
quickly replied, “Hopkins, Hermana Hopkins.”
I
really felt like I need the 007 theme song in the background in this moment. We
had successfully found our missing man! When we came back the next day, I saw
hope in reviving this fallen soldier (sorry I really am into this secret agent
thing). He told us that he still reads the Book of Mormon when he can, he just
stopped going to church about 4 years after getting baptized because of work,
and now that he doesn´t have any work, he just feels like it´s been so long
since he has been “practicing religion” that he doesn´t know if he can go back.
Well, that´s where we step in! I am really excited to see how it goes with him.
I think we can help him get back on the path.
We
also met with Bryan´s brother, Eric this week. His is a very interesting
case...he too investigated the church about 3 years ago, and he was almost
baptized with his friend who actually was baptized (who is now the ward
missionary). When his friend who was recently baptized left for Perú, he
randomly went and got baptized in the Pentecostal church. It didn´t make any
sense. Anyway, so we retaught him the Restoration, and he said that he never realized
before that our church had the same organization that the church Christ
established had. (Way to go past missionaries....just kidding...sort of …) And
that he said he would pray about it, and he would tell us this week what his
answer is. I see a lot of potential in him as well!! Of course, we had a cita
with Marlon this week, and he just tries to complicate everything! Haha Every
little thing he tries to come up with some philosophical explanation! He said
that every night he gets on his knees and he really feels like he is going to
receive an answer to prayer, but as he begins to open his mouth to pray, his
mind just keeps telling him all the feelings he could feel based on chemical
reactions in his brain, and he stops praying. AHHH!! I don´t really know how to
get through to him. We have really spiritual lessons with him every time, but
he just refuses to accept it. It could just be that it´s not his time...but I
have a really hard time accepting that as a missionary. I think I have had a
hard time with that my whole mission! However, even though I am Hopkins,
Hermana Hopkins; I know that God´s timing is a whole lot better than my timing.
I have had that witnessed to me over and over and over again. I know that this
is His work. I think about Albertha, our cute little Africana who the
missionaries first found over 8 years ago, and she was prepared right when I
got here to Vilafranca. She told us a cute experience this week she said,
“Hermanas, the other night I woke up really sick. And I mean really sick. I
didn´t want to feel like this while being pregnant, because being pregnant is
hard enough. I woke up and I said, `God. I need you to heal me. I am going to
go back to bed, and you can heal me during the night, ok??' When I woke up the
next day, I felt fine. God healed me! God is wonderful, isn´t he. Yes, God is
wonderful.” It just put a smile on my face and she said, “No, it´s true! He is
just wonderful. Sometimes, when I sit down to pray, I pat the couch next to me
and I say, 'God you can come sit down. I need to talk. It´s going to be a long
talk.' Then, I tell him all of my problems, all of my worries, and we go
through them together, and he helps it all work out. Yes, God is wonderful.” It
just was such a faith booster to me that when we have faith in God, He really
does step in, and He loves us so much! God truly is wonderful.
Hermana
Hopkins, over and out.
Les
quiero!
Hermana
Hopkins
No comments:
Post a Comment