Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Meet the Dynamic Duo.....AKA Hoopes and Harvey





 Apparently the girls had a "campout" in their apartment, wearing ugly Christmas sweaters and they made smores over the stove...the fire alarm went off, so when they do this again, it may have to be without the smores :)
Here is your tour guide along the sidewalks of gospel doctrine lol.

And here is the first stop on the tour.  Nice artwork girls!
#templechallenge.  Accepted sis! :) 




Daddy-O, 


This week has been full of wonderful things! We've tracked just as much as we normally do, possibly more, we taught, but the thing that's made the difference has been that we've felt the spirit more as we've worked this week. On Monday we taught a lady named Joyce Lawson. She is a catholic and a very very kind woman. We found her in our potentials section of the area book and decided a couple weeks ago to see her and Monday we had a return appointment. We taught her about the restoration and especially the apostasy. She could not believe we thought that the authority of God was taken from the earth. We just seemed to go in an endless circle with that one... After the lesson we just knew that we couldn't go back to see her. As we walked out and got in the car Sister Harvey told me that the Book of Mormon she had in her bag fell out and the spirit told her not to pick it up. So at least Joyce has a Book of Mormon in her home. :) On Wednesday we taught a woman named Ramsee, she is a Presbyterian Christian. She is also very kind and welcoming. We found her in our formers section. Ramsee has been meeting with missionaries for 11 years... CRAZY. After we met with her we were both baffled as to how that even happened. Last week when we met with Ramsee, we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon, that it is the word of God and that its true. We invited her to read it and when we met with her this week we got there and she had her bible open with a list. I asked her what the list was, if she had questions etc. She said the list was scriptures she found in the bible about how we should only rely on the bible and the bible is all you need to know god and all of this stuff. We were both crushed. We really felt the spirit last week when we testified and we thought it might change her. However, we also came to the conclusion that Ramsee was not "elect" at this point in time. We have both learned that Heavenly Father knows and understands each of his children and just because we stop working with someone doesn't mean that God gives up on them. He continues to work and work and work on them, on us. Sister Harvey taught me what real compassion looks like. I have been let down enough by now to not take it too hard when someone is uninterested or we can't keep teaching them but Sister Harvey's heart is so tender and when we got back in the car from talking with Ramsee she just cried for a little while. It broke my heart, but it taught me a lot. We taught the Jungs, Yun is doing really well. Su has requested to push back her date. She said she still wants to be baptized but she doesnt feel prepared right now. We are hoping to set her back on date tonight when we meet with them. We have been practicing I am a Child of God in Korean to sing in church the day Yun is confirmed. We recorded it so I will try and send it today. On Thursday morning at district meeting Sister Harvey and I have a training on how to find people to teach. As I was studying I came across a scripture, D&C60:13 which talks about how we should share the gospel. WHat I learned from it is that we need to use our individual gifts and talents to invite others to come unto christ. We are not meant to fit into this predetermined "perfect missionary" mold. Heavenly Father has given me, you, Sister Harvey, mom all these amazing talents that we learned to use before the life even began. He fully intends we use them to help people accept the gospel. We made this the base of our training and gave missionaries the chance to look at their talents and come up with ideas as to how they could use them to find people to teach. Sister Harvey and I used ours this week and WOW, was the spirit strong. "Finding" took on a new meaning for us, we didnt feel like it was hopeless or meaningless.  We really felt that we were being lead by the Lord. Did we find anyone to teach, no, not YET. But we certainly are on the right path. We got to attend the womens broadcast on Saturday night, I loved it. I love contuning to learn about the temple, especially since my temple going life has been quite short, there is SO much to learn and I love it. I love the temple. On Sunday, we had the best Sunday since I've been here. We had a great spirit in ward correlation and just felt very.... just awesome really. We were able to meet with the Bishop and MAN, was it great. For... well ever... since I've been in Broadlands, we've felt a disconnect from the ward and especially the Bishop. We had prepared several days before of things we would say and talk about with him. Before we went in we prayed and I felt SO peaceful. We were able to go in, talk about the STRENGTHS of the ward and how we could utilize that in bringing more people into the gospel. It went sooo well. I am so thankful for the spirit leading us in what to say and helping our words be peaceful and powerful. We now have more direction in the way we want to go and more confidence that we have the support of the ward and the bishop. MIRACLE. 

On another note, Sister Harvey and I have been doing a lot of family history work, with less actives non members, just everyone basically and the other day I had the chance to find a name... serveral names. I have printed them off and I am sending them your way. There is a female name and a male name. I dont know if it'd be possible, but for the female name it would be awesome if Hailey could be baptized and confirmed for her and if y'all could send it back so I could do the endowment? Its Tresee Mae's daughters' daughter. I'm pretty sure... Her name is Solomia Lucas. I have really felt the spirit of Elijah! #TEMPLECHALLENGE. 

Love you all to the moon and back!  Sister Hoopes

2 comments:

  1. I love your blog! Keep up the great work, McKenzie! It reminded me of a story I read in the Ensign....here is the last part of the story about a Lebanese man who had been taught the gospel several times and finally came back in earnest to learn it. It was so good.... (Ensign, Oct 2008, "Finding What Was Missing")
    ...It wasn’t until later, after his marriage had failed and another relationship had ended, that Jim was ready to accept the gospel. When a former girlfriend, with whom he had been occasionally attending a different church, suggested that he find another church to attend after they had stopped dating, Jim knew where to go. A short time later, while returning home from work in May 2006, he saw two full-time missionaries on bicycles. To their surprise, he honked, pulled over, and gave them his name, phone number, and address.

    “This time I was determined to go through the process,” Jim says. It became clear to him that the restored Church had been organized the way the Savior intended it to be. Only one thing held him back: “I really felt that I had to become an expert on the Church before I could truthfully step forward and say, ‘OK, I’m ready to be baptized.’”

    After receiving the missionary discussions and sincerely praying about his decision, Jim received a strong impression. “The impression was of someone holding in his hand a piece of paper from a university. A voice said to me, ‘Is he holding a diploma, or is he holding a letter of admission?’ That’s when I realized that I had been thinking of baptism as a diploma, whereas, in fact, it was quite the opposite—it was a letter of admission. Once I got that, I thought, ‘OK. Now I can join with a clear conscience. This is my opportunity to continue learning.’ It was the beginning of a journey of learning rather than the conclusion of it.”

    He called the missionaries and scheduled his baptism, which he describes as “a wonderful experience.”

    Jim is grateful for the gentle, quiet, and consistent confirmations that have followed his baptism, and he is grateful for opportunities to serve. Service, he says, allows the Church to be an ongoing part of his life and provides him with an expanded family. He is also grateful for personal improvements made possible by the Spirit.

    “I’ve tried to show what it means to be a member of the Church by example,” he says.

    To investigators who may be hesitating, Jim says, “They really need to join the Church in order to understand what it will mean to them to be a member. They just have to take a leap of faith and do it. My testimony is that they will be very glad they did. Their only regret will be that they didn’t do it sooner.”

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  2. Hi, McKenzie,
    I got your note about doing temple work. Stella and Mandie still need their work done. So I will print up cards for them. I will send them to Hailey so she can do the baptisms/confirmations. I'll ask her to send them to you when she's done. Carrie must have been done because I don't have her on my temple list on Family Search. They drop off when complete. So....I hope that's what you wanted me to do. Let me know if I can help you in any way. Love you to bits! Gma

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