I'm Staying!

 Ok well i am going to stay in Cherbourg!  I am going o be Co comps with Elder Paul!  Love You All!

Elder Hoopes

Elder Jonathan Hoopes 
19, rue au Blé/ Impasse de la Prison
50100 Cherbourg France

Bonjour!

Ok so this email will probably be a lot better than the last one because i can type again on a good computer!  So this week for the most part has been pretty casual.  Not to many things new but there are some cool miracles!  We are still working our hardest and really trying to find those who are ready for the gospel so yeah on vera!  Ok also mom you should be getting a letter in the mail!  Also I AM SO GLAD THAT YOU GUYS FINALLY GOT THE PACKAGE I MAILED!!!!  I know it was kinda dorky but hey whatever it rocks just as hard!  :)  

So ok fun things that happened this week!  They do this thing here in france called Les Galettes de Roi.  They are big pastries with a little prize inside and it is called a feve.  It is in celebration of when the wisemen went and saw Jesus after his birth!  Well  I have know won 4 times!  I have crowns and everything!  Hahaha  that was just a fun little thing.  Also at football this week  I gave out two more Book of Mormon's to the guys!  I am the QB so they listen to me and respect me a lot!  It is really fun getting to play football with them and also be a missionary!  Ha this week i was the only QB and so i was running all the drills with the team and after practice the coach was talking to me and he said that he hoped that i wouldn't leave the Ville because he thinks i am super good!  I love It Woo HOO!  By the way speaking of giving out Book of Mormon's, Me and Elder Draleau have given out thirty since the start of our transfer and that is more than half of all given out by the Zone and mind you we have 6 other companionships in our Zone!  Pretty cool right?!  If it wasn't for the Book of Mormons then we wouldn't be having lots of success.  Cool stories!  

Ok so the First is Sylvie.  We gave her a Book of Mormon two weeks ago.  But after the first time we saw her we didn't see her for about a week and a half because she was out of town and everytime we passed back her house she wasn't there.  Well then a couple nights ago as we were planning Elder Draleau had the impression to pass by the next day at 6:15 exactly!  So we did just that, we went back and knocked her door.  Luckily she was there because she was just about to leave for the night.  We talked to her at the door and asked if she had read at all and she goes, "Well yeah i'm not done yet I've only read half of it so far!  I really like it a lot though."  We were like.......WOW!!!!!!  That hasn't happened to me yet on the mission and it hasn't happened with any of the Book of Mormons yet, like not many people are reading.  So we were so shocked and we are going to see her this Thursday!  

Then we had another pass back with a lady with this lady named Claudine!  She is so cool we taught her one of the best lessons we have ever taught and she got really excited and into the lesson and now we are going to see her on Friday!  It is so cool to see the blessings that come from simple testimony and from really searching for the elect.  Hopefully both of them are super stars!  Also cool news!  Remember Ousmane from Blois?  Well he is going to be baptized this Saturday!  How cool?!  I still am hoping and praying to see a baptism!  It'll come though i know it!

But really that is about it.  Me and Elder Draleau are getting along really well still.  I dont know if i am staying or moving yet so we'll just have to see.  I had the feeling i was staying in Blois and then i movedso you never know.  I'll let you know saturday if i Move!  Well I love you all so much and i hope all is well and that you are all happy and being blessed!  Au Revoir!

Avec L'amour

Elder Hoopes

Well Hello again!

Well what a week!  It was an absolute rollercoaster!  First off, if you want you can forward my letters to the family.  Secondly Hunters Paintings are so sick!  I've showed all the missionaries im around and the all think they are so cool!  My favorite one is the Hand Flowers one.  I like the other ones and i think artisticly they are solid but the Hand Flowers are so so so COOL!  I really wish i could buy it off of you Hunter.  When i get home i want one of you paintings in my house!  Thirdly Carson's Birthday!!!!!  Luckily i was able to recognize Carson's Birthday out here!  We were walking on the road exactly at 4:47 and i Yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  So now me, Elder Draleau and a lot of weirded out French People know it was your birthday!  Happy birthday carson!  I found a scripture that reminds me of you and your stature.  It's Mormon 1:2.  It is simple but pretty cool!  So yeah i think that is it for now on that stuff!

Like i said this week has been something else.  We have seen short comings and so many Blessings!  First just to get them out of the way short comings......  We had 4 innactive rendez'vous drop us, lost contact with two other amis, only taught one lesson in the presence of a member, and had a recent convert who prayed out of a book tell us he wont change and he is comfortable not receiving the Melkezidick Priesthood.  kinda sad.  But anyway not focusing on that so many good things happened and once again it is only because Heavenly Father needs work to be done and we are really just puting faith in Him.  This week we gave out nine copies of The Book of Mormon and set up return rendez-vous with all of them!  It is sick!  Also we got let into one door by a 19 year old guy named Jonathan!  Cool right?!  THEN we enlarged our teaching pool to around 20 people now and received a refferal!  I am so happy!  This last week did have lots of struggles and trials but ca va.  That is life as a missionary!  Also two other cool things.  News from Fairytale Land Blois!!!!  Ousmane has another date for baptism and willl be baptized later this month!  Also we found a man named Chris when i was there and i never got to teach him however We found him and now he has a date for February 5!  Sick right!!!!  I am pretty content on peut dire!  So yeah it has been quite the week!  But things are going well and i am really loving Elder Draleau!  He is such a nice guy and he really works super hard and has a ton of Faith.  We are making a really good team right now! 

That is pretty much it to be honest not to much else.  But really i have to testify that miracles will always come after the trial of your faith.  The work here for me is not done until i leave so i am not going to say that this is our highest point yet but here i have seen it really low and reallly high!  When i see it high it is when we are obedient, prayerful, and ambitious in exercising our faith.  When its low i am not being the missionary i could be.  So yeah that is my little thought for today and this week!  I hope all is going well back home and i miss you all really bad but it is ok!  

I LOVE YOU

Elder Hoopes

Ok so this year has gotten off to a pretty crazy start!  This week i Travelled over 820 miles.  I played piano, blessed sacrament, taught priesthood, and bore my testimony, I have seen both rain and snow here this week and the work here is skyrocketing!  

So first my trip i had to take.  So this last wednesday i had to get legal in Belgium.  Well he have district meeting on tuesday in Caen and then there is no train that leaves Cherbourg early enough to get to paris and then go to brussels in the morning so i had to stay the night in PARIS!!!!  So tuesday we went from Cherbourg to Caen, Caen to Paris spent the night then in the morning on wednesday Paris to Brussels, Brussels to Paris and then Paris to Cherbourg and we caught our train to Cherbourg with Just two minutes to spare which is lucky and a blessing because the next train that left for cherbourg was three hours later and would put us into Cherbourg around 11 at night!  So yeah it was pretty hectic!  But we did get to see lots of Paris on tuesday!  We had about 4 hours of free time that we could use to explore and stuff so we went to Champs Elysées and to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomph.  It was pretty sweet!  We saw some cool things!  Ha this one lady came up to us and started yelling at us in SPanish and french and i was like What?!!!!!  Turns out she was a member that wanted to be Excommunicated and she was from Columbia with her Family (They took a picture with us before we left HAHAHA) and yeah she starts going off on how we worship a Prophet and dont read the bible!  We obviously were like lady you crazy and i left her with a scripture from the Bible to study when she gets home!  Romans 1:16!  Ha it was pretty funny actually!  But yeah then brussels we couldnt really see because we went strait to the consolate and didn't see anything else before we headed home.  So that was a bummer but yeah that was that trip.

New Years we didn't do anything we just had a pday and we caught up on some much needed sleep.  But anyway speaking of the work here.  Things are clicking!!!!!!  Me and elder Draleau have decided to be strickly obedient and not waste any time.  The blessings are already coming.  When he came in we only had 3 people in our teaching pool and after only 4 real days of work we now have 10 Sold people we are going to teach!  Also the less actives and other innactives are starting to let us in and some are coming to church!  Really it is such and amazing blessing.  So hopefully this next week we can have lots of success!  We are just relying on the spirit and on its guidance.  COOL STORY TIME!!!!!!

Ok so this week at our district meeting President was there and we were all having interviews and he gave us a training on Spiritual planning.  So we decided to put that into action and try it out.  So we started planning and in the middle of the planning we prayed and asked Heavenly Father to tell us where we needed to go and who to find.  So we thought a little bit after the prayer and thought and thought and we both got two little feelings.  I felt we needed to porte this specific apartment building the thrid white Batiment and Elder Draleau felt we needed to go to the pier.  So we planned on sunday to go and do those things.  So sunday rolls around and we do just a tad of planning and then we have a RDV at 3.  Well it was 2:30 and we had to go.  So we start going to the RDV and we just felt like we needed to go contacting just out by the Pier before we left.  So we hurried over there because from the pier it is then 15 minutes to the RDV so we just decided to hurry.  Well we get there and we contact one guy but he wasn't interested.  So then we go to turn back to the RDV but i felt something pulling me and telling me to stay out on the Pier.  It said "go back, go back, go back."  So i told Elder Draleau i felt we needed to stay 5 more minutes.  So he agreed and we walked out there and keep in mind there is no one around.  Its sunday you know.  Well all of a sudden this guy comes walking up so we contact him and turns out he is interested and wants a Book of Mormon.  So we placed a book of Mormon and are going to see him later this week!  Cool huh!  Then Later on in the Night we went Porting and we went to the Third white Building.  We knocked and knocked and knocked but nothing.  So its time for us to leave and we just decided to do the last floor.  Well the last two doors we knocked were interested and we placed Book of Mormons to both of them and are seeing them next sunday!  Cool thing is they are Neighbors too so it is easy to just pass back and do RDV's with Them!  So yeah how cool is that!  The spirit literally told us where to go and what to do!  I know that the Spirit will guide us when we are obedient and when we strive to leave the best we can by keeping the commandments.

So yeah that was a super cool spirtual experience this week!  I love this work and finally in Cherbourg things are happening.  It is realy just because we have know become worthy vssels for the Spirit.  I love love love IT!!!!!  Totally worth two years away from home HAHAHAHA!!!!!!  Well i miss you all so much and i hope you get my package soon because i sent it a while ago!  Anyway i love you and miss you all!

Love 
Elder Hoopes