Sunday, February 14, 2016

Week 26

Hi Mom!!!!!! :):)

It's so good to hear from you!! I'm glad everyone is nice and busy! :) Thank you for praying and fasting for me and my investigators! I fast for you and the family every month, and I pray for you every day!! This week with the investigators was a little slow, but not too bad. We had minimal lessons, just cause people were sick/busy. We had a great lesson though, with Corinna and Leivinna, a mom and her daughter. I don't know if I told you this, but a couple weeks ago we were tracting before an appointment, and Corinna called us over and said "My daughter has been asking me questions about God, and I don't really know how to answer them...can you come teach us?" and we were like "Nope!" Haha, just kidding, we were SO excited, and we've had a couple good lessons with them. They were going to come to church yesterday, but a family problem came up; but they're so nice and we're excited to keep teaching them! We had a good lesson with another investigator that has depression, and it was really cool as we read in the Book of Mormon with her and helped her feel Jesus' love for her. She has a hard time accepting that God and Jesus really exist, but from the things she says, her heart just wants so much for them to be real. She's a little stubborn and hasn't accepted to pray - yet. But once she does, I just know she'll feel God's love and be so accepting of the rest of our message. Yesterday, we actually had a former investigator come to church! She's really silly, cause she really loves the church, and even told us "If I had heard about this church 20 years ago, I probably would have joined" but she's too comfortable in her Catholic practices. But we're hoping if she keeps coming to church and reading the stuff we give her (we don't teach her but we visit her occasionally), she'll eventually realize the change is worth it. She's so sweet and we've really come to be super good friends with her! As far as our district goes, we had another Sister get sick, one fall off her bike and pass out, and an Elder crash on his bike pretty bad! They're all doing ok luckily - but it's been interesting! :) That's so true what you said about how we can't find the answers for other people - they have to be the ones to find out for themselves. But once they make that commitment, the Lord always answers! That's a good reminder that I need to be constantly praying for people's hearts to be softened!

Those are really cool thoughts with all that symbolism! I love Lehi's vision! I especially appreciate and love sharing with members the verse where Lehi says the fruit was so desirable and delicious, and all he wanted was to share that with his family. We're all one big family - God's family - and we need to have charity and love others and desire their eternal happiness! That's cool though how you contrast the tree of life with the great and spacious building! This weird part of me deep down almost thinks the great and spacious building sounds kinda fun and cool - but really the fruit is the end goal that brings so much joy and happiness - the exact opposite of what the building brings! And it really is so desirable and incredible! And thank you for your testimony of the Book of Mormon! I've come to love that Book so much over the last several months! It really does bring so much peace and direction into our lives, and brings us closer to God! I've been learning a lot about personal revelation lately. God is so good and always answers our prayers! I find myself doubting that He will this time, or next time, but He always does when I exercise faith and ask! Not only does He give us revelation, but also blessings! We were trying to get our mail the other day, and the lock would not open! So after about 5 minutes of struggling, feeling pretty silly about praying for such a trivial thing, we prayed that He would open it. And about 10 seconds later, the we turned the key and the lock opened! It was really cool :) Anyways, tangent aside, reading in the Book of Mormon brings so much opportunity for personal revelation, and it's so amazing! I read the beginning of Doctrine and Covenants 138 today, and President Smith goes through the same situation - he ponders over the scriptures, remembering the Savior and His sacrifice (like Moroni suggests we do in Moroni chapter 10), and his mind is opened up line upon line by the Spirit. I thought that was such a good example of how God speaks to us!

So, thank you so much for sending Elder Moreno a package! He goes home in 4 weeks!! It's crazy!!! And this will be perfect for a going-away present! And thank you for sending me one! Oh, and can you please tell Angie thank you for the one she sent me a while ago? I got it and LOVED it and I'm so grateful for her!!

Thank you for loving me so much! :) Haha I hope that doesn't sound weird, but I just can always know that you love me, and it means more than you know! Thank you for your beautiful emails and everything you do for me!! I'm so blessed!! :) Thanks for all your sacrifice and faith and kindness and example and love! I really look up to and admire you! I'll be excited for next Monday! I love you SO MUCH!!! :)

Love,
Elder Connor Hopkin :)

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