Wow, dad that quote was great! It pretty much sums up our past week! 

****The quote was:  

 “We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf***

Last week we saw a lot of miracles with finding the new investigators, we worked really hard and were actually the top finders in the whole mission that week. With finding all those investigators though, we needed to take it to the next step with helping them to understand the gospel and accept baptism. In weekly planning we decided to set a goal for 6 investigators with a baptismal date by the end of the week. Monday was rough because I got the stomach flu, but I was able to get a blessing from the zone leaders (Elder Fleming and Matheson) and another set of elders (Elder Brown and Elder Swenson, I came out with Elder Swenson from the MTC). I have a strong testimony of the power of the priesthood. On my mission I've felt the power and the immense love Heavenly Father has for me and all his children through priesthood blessings. Easy to say that it was an experience I'll never forget. I was able to go back out and get down to business on Tuesday. Wednesday was the MIRACLE DAY of the week. We had district meeting and Sister G taught. She's the best! The meeting was centered on the MIT (most important thing). The MIT is pretty much summed up in this sentence: Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed from sin (through faith and repentance), receive power from on high (through baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost) and qualify for eternal life (when we endure to the end. IT WAS AMAZING. We role played teaching the MIT through the Plan of Salvation. I was the investigator, I played Candice, and Elder Ard and Sister Moore (our Sister Training Leader) taught me. I was able to really feel the spirit, not so much through the actually doctrine they taught, but through the testimonies they bore of the doctrine they were teaching and how much it's blessed them. WOW, it was a neat experience. Right after that, we met with Carissa, one of our investigators. She had recently been divorced and has moved into our ward. So we planned on teaching lesson one, which we did. I was able to recite the first vision and man, the spirit was strong. Sister G bore a strong testimony and then invited her to be baptized. Before she could even finish the sentence, Carissa said, "Yes, I want to, when are we doing this thing." We set her on date for March 15th. Right after Carissa, we taught Lynne. She's still struggling with health problems but she is staying strong. We taught lesson 3, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about how living the gospel could heal her, physically and spiritually. We asked her if she came to know the things we were teaching are true and if she came to know that her Heavenly Father wanted her to be baptized, would she do it. She agreed and we are working with her so she can be baptized on March 22. Later that night we met with Jennifer Goodman, it was the first time we ever met her and she had run into the Elders the week before. She made us peach cobbler and was the sweetest lady. We taught lesson one and she fully accepted every principle and already has a testimony of most of it. She will be adopting 3 small children within this month and told us that she wanted to raise them right and raise them in the right church because she never had that. She told us she felt at peace when she talked to us and that we carried a light with us wherever we went. We invited her to be baptized and she is planning on being baptized on March 22 as well. We had another investigator come to church this Sunday, her name is Maxine. She is the most amazing lady! She loved church and we are meeting with her this week, in hopes to set her on date, and plans to be at church again next week. Sunday night we met with Dave and Kozelle Harris, members who are being reactivated and working towards being sealed in the temple. They each have amazing stories and hardships they've gone through. Our goal this week is to help them create a plan and set a date that they can be sealed in the Denver Temple. After we met them, we went to see the Lopez (or Audet family) their mother is less active, single and wanting her daughters to be baptized. Marissa and Lissan are twins and their dad won't let them be baptized until they are 18, they want to get baptized so badly, they read their scriptures, say their prayers and now we are trying to work with them to get them to come to church. They are with their dad on weekends so its hard for them to make it, but we are working with them to help them get to church and experience taking the sacrament. Yesterday we fasted for their family. We decided to make them certificates for them to hang up with the day they can be baptized on it. We went over and read a scripture with them and explained that even if they can't be baptized now and have to wait to October, we still wanted to help them progress in any way they can. We set them on date for October 25th, 2014. They are looking forward to the day they can become "official followers of Jesus Christ". It was still a week of miracles. We have so many people who are ready and willing to accept and change their lives to become more like Christ and set themselves on the path that will lead them to eternal life. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Its hard work and some days can be a little discouraging, but its times like these that make every day worth it. Dave said yesterday to us that the way he's made it through is "By just making the next right choice", i loved that. I can see that in every person working towards baptism right now. They are all just wanting to make the next right choice. I have felt your prayers and your love this week as we've worked. There's not one day that goes by where I am not thankful that I have an eternal family and that we can all be together forever. It brings me such comfort and happiness, especially every time we teach the plan of salvation. I love you so much dad! <3 HAVE A GREAT WEEK, I AM PRAYING FOR YOU ALL TOO.

<3 Sister Hoopes

xoxoxoxo

P.S. the picture is of our "top finder certificates" and the paper with the 10 on it was our goal paper that we had hanging up all week. :)