Pappa Bear,
WOW! What an eventful week y'all had. DEFINITELY looks like
a Hoopes Family hang out party. #SOawesome That calendar is quite crazy... I
hope by the time August comes around y'all will still be breathing lol Thanks
for that by the way, sometimes I just need to be told in a loving way to suck
it up and get to work. I love ya, Dad! I cant wait to talk to y'all on Sunday!
I hope its the best since it'll be the last. Thank you for your thoughts about
enduring to the end. I have been thinking about that a lot. Last night
President and Sister Mendenhall got all of us STLs together and we talked about
various things but in his closing remarks he said that the way a missionary
faces the last months of their mission will be the way they face life after the
mission. I have been pondering that a lot, about what sign I want to give
Heavenly Father by my last couple months of service and how I want to go out.
Its hard to endure well but I am trying.
This week was good. We had zone conference and man, it was
so great. The topic was COURAGE. Something Elder Law said really hit home for
me. He said, "We talk about our fear, but why not face your courage?
Embrace spiritual friction." This wasnt the first time he's talked about
spiritual friction, he did a lot when Sister Packer and I worked with him in
DenverSouth but this was the first time it clicked and I actually got it. When
we experience spiritual friction its uncomfortable, we oftentimes mistake it
for a bad experience but as we embrace it we find that in reality its just our
spirit giving our physical being an opportunity to chose the right. I am
thankful the spirit taught me that. Then, at the conference President said
something that struck me. He was talking about why he does what he does and why
he tells us no and why the rules are important etc. He said, "I want the
best for you because I know what comes next." I thought that was really
profound in a lot of ways. I thought about why Heavenly Father tells us no or
guides us in a way we dont want to be guided sometimes and its for the same
reason, He knows what comes next.
Now I want to tell you about a miracle we had this week. So,
this whole transfer has been really interesting, we have pretty much had to
build our teaching pool from the ground up. Its been really slow and really
hard especially with taking out time to help the sisters. SO, for the past
couple weeks we have been praying to find a family to no avail as of yet. SO
this week we tried so hard to find a family, we were looking everywhere, part
member families, potential investigators, referrals, anything. So we get to
Saturday, and the night before we had planned a solid day, we had planned to
contact almost every former investigator in our area book. We had 4 people to
see every 30 minutes. We were practically running all day long from door to
door and trying to talk to as many people as we saw. At the end of the day,
after expending our own best efforts we hadnt found one new investigator. Our
heads were hanging really low and so were our hearts. In my mind I was asking
God why He hadnt lead us to ONE person who was ready. We both went to bed
exhausted and dejected. Sunday morning came and I was feeling a little better,
I was over what had happened the day before and as we were walking to church
the sun was shining and I felt that Heavenly Father was aware of us and what we
were going through. The sacrament was so uplifting and I could feel the burdens
and sin gone. We were able to have good conversations with members and they
expressed their love for us which we really needed. After church we went out on
our mad search once again. We found some referrals for the spanish
missionaries, its always funny when you are trying to talk to someone who
speaks only spanish and you speak only english... Anyways, so then we stopped
by a former we hadnt had time to see the day before. We walked up to her house
and her front door was open. #BOOOOYAH So then we walked up and saw her, she
said, "Oh hi, I forgot y'all were coming, I was just about to leave but
you can come in for a few minutes." #DoubleBOOOYAH So we went in and got
to know her. READY FOR A CRAZY STORY! SO....... Remember Westminster? Okay, so
when I was there we did service at a place called ARC, its a thrift store.
Every time we were there I would always end up talking to this woman named
Verna, oftentimes she would tell me about crazy things that were happening in
her life and of course I always wanted to share something with her about the
gospel but at service we are not allowed to proselyte so I never got the chance
unless she initiated the conversation which wasnt often. When I came here I saw
a woman at the library one P-day and couldnt remember where I remembered her
from. When we went to go contact that former, it was the woman from ARC and the
same woman from the library. VERNA. So as we were in her home yesterday we got
to teach her more about what she had previously learned from the missionaries,
specifically about the Book of Mormon. She committed to listen to it on CDs
that we are dropping by her home today and we are teaching her again on
Sunday.
It was a tender tender tender mercy from the Lord and I know
that he really does see what comes next, even when we think its dark and that
we are alone. We never are.
I love ya, Dad. Thank you for all you have done over the
last 15 months to make this experience easier, more spiritual and a true
growing process.
<3 Sister Hoopes
