Well this is the end....‏

Hey everyone!  So yes this is the end and all i can say is that this has been they best two years for my life.  I have loved my mission so much and would not change it for the world.  It is wonderful.  It sucks having to go home and everything but with that brings new experiences and learning oppurtunities.  I just wanted to say for the last week of the mission, we taught 20 lessons, found 3 new investigators, fixed a miracle baptismal date, and baptized and confirmed 2 people.  Honestly it was wonderful hitting the standards of excellence and being able to feel the feeling of accomplishment. I have only taught 20 lessons one other time in my mission so that was a big deal.  President even called with all of the Office and his wife to congratulate us.  It feels good and i am glad that i worked my hardest.  It is not to feel prideful but i feel good knowing that we wanted to hit a goal and the Lord made it happen.  It was so wonderful and it was quite the way to end.  I loved my mission so much and will miss it so much.  I think that is all i am going to write.  See you all next week!

Au Revoir pour la dernière fois en tant que,

Elder Hoopes

Francois

Steve and Gretel's Baptism

The Fountainbleu Castle

1 more to go.......‏

Bonjour!  So yeah lots of weird mixed feelings i am not gonna lie.  I really want to be home but at the same time that scares me so much!  I feel like i am leaving for a whole new mission that they never prepared me for. UGH!  I am really stressed and to be 100 percent honest i think the most stressful part for me is coming home and dating again.  I am so scared.  School no problem, job no problem, family NO poblem, but girls yes.  I just could ramble on and on about all of the fears but in any case it needs to happen.  I just don't want to finish the mission.  I want to stay in france so bad!  

I think it is cool that mom and dad will be up on sunday!  Holy Cow!  I will be in paris also monday, tuesday and wednesday but for fear of a potential before thursday running into each other i can't tell you were i will be.  I also want the thursday to be a big fun moment!  Also MOM, Elder Gubbay asks if you could bring him some crunchy and creamy peanut butter!  He has been begging me to ask you!  You will get to meet him and a couple other missionaries that i served with/around!  Elder Gubbay is the assistant and cannot wait to see you guys!  Also you'll probably see Elder Petersen and maybe a couple others!  You should come check out the visitor center in Paris!  It is 12 rue St Merri!  It isn't far from Chatelet les Halles.  You will get to know all of that!  Ha So yeah i am really excited to see you guys!  I think it will be a good transition to going back home.  I need to also get up to date on new members of the family and stuff, if you could bring photos that'd be so great!  Um other things??? new garments? yes, um yeah i think that is it.  Oh yeah and just so you know we are eating with families, Thrusday, Friday, and Sunday! It is going to be so much fun and like i said just love the country and get ready to try some fun cheeses!  I want to show you guys some of my favorite things that you can only get in France!  

Next thing. Homecoming, do you think that will be the sunday following when we get home?  If so what am i talking about, should i be preparing something? Just so you guys know the very FIRST thing i do when i come home, even before getting released, is get a FILIBERTOS Bean Burrito and a Shrimp Quesadilla. Everything else is up to you guys.  Also how will i get released?  All the logistics i would like to know :)  Elder Awerkamps family wants to come to my homecoming as well just FYI so when you figure out if you could tell them their number is 480-503-3246 :)  I think that would be great to meet them!  Also, i have said so many alsos!  If you guys could buy a nose hair trimmer that would be fantastic!  LOL i know it is weird but it is a much needed gift for a missionary i love in this mission!  His birthday is the 4th of August! Voilà thank you!  Nothing crazy of course just something simple!

So ok now to the work side of things.  Here things are going!  Unfortunately Arlette can't be baptized because she and her "husband" aren't legally married.  They are married african style but they have to be married French Style because they were married in France.  It stinks but is normal.  However, Steve and Grettel are still good and the service is going to be great.  I am really excited for both of them!  We have some other good people who are on the baptismal train but who are still trying to organize living and life circumstances.  So yeah but this last week was really good and we got a ton accomplished!  I am so excited to see what will happen in the future i just pray that President sends a hard worker down here!  On verra bien!  Donc voilà c'est tout pour le moment!

I am happy to hear that the homecoming for Grandma and Grandpa was really fun!  I can't wait to see them!  And also i was shocked to see that dust cloud that came in!  That was so cool and i can't wait to come home to cool weather again!  I think it is great that you guys are all reading as a family!  I am also reading! I just started 3rd Nephi and I am in Joel in the Bible. I hope to finish both the Book of Mormon and the Bible before i come home!  That should be cool!  I love the book of mormon because of it's doctrinal detail.  Frankly i am sick of hearing how horrible Israel is......but it is coming along.  Haha  So there you go i think that is all!  I love you and will see you......Next Week

Elder Hoopes

#2

Hello hello!

So i am sorry that i don't have a ton of time to write today unfortunately but just to let you know everything is going great and the investigators who will be baptized on the 28th are doing great!  This week i was able to do an exchange with Elder Petersen and it was just like old times and such a relief to be with him again!  He is so awesome and the whole experience was spiritual!  We talked about some of the simplest parts of the gospel in detail and honestly when you study chapters of the Book of Mormon like 2 Nephi 2, Alma 40-43, moroni 7, Mosiah 3 things like that you see how incredible the Gospel is and how lucky we are to have it in our lives!  Thats why we need to share it!  So yeah being with him was wonderful and we were also able to see Arlette the one who came to church last week and check out what happened!

So we go to her house and right off the bat we said well you know what we want to talk about!  We said tell us what happened in your prayer.  She told us that she got an answer and that she didn't feel ready but she knew what she needed to do.  That was it.  That was all that she said to us unfortunately.  So then me and Petersen went old school Bruxelles on her and started teaching about baptism.  It was so GREAT!  There was a strong spirit and everything.  So then this is the cool part! I started testifying to her.  We said Arlette what do you want to leave behind when you leave this earth? What is your purpose?  She said that she wanted to leave this life and be remembered as a witness of God.  Elder Petersen said well you know how we do that?  Lets look her in the scriptures at why Christ was baptized.  We read how it says that he was baptized to testify to the Father that he would do his will.  We said Arlette that is your next step and i testified again and said "Arlette everything in your life has brought you to this moment.  Everything! Your child baptism, your study of scriptures, your meeting with the missionaries, but if you are now baptized by the proper authority which we claim to have you will reach a whole new spiritual plane." She said je vous coupe toute suite, which is i'm gonna stop you right there.  That was literally word for word my answer  to my prayer.  I know what i need to do and i know the next step is baptism.  I have to work things out personnally but i know that i need to do it.  So she accepted to be baptized the 28th of July as well!  How cool!  Honestly this is the result of a lot of fasting and praying and i am so happy for her and the decision she has made!  Keep her in her prayers honestly!  

That was our experience for this week!  There were some other great things that happened but that was the coolest!  This is of course the end of my mission and i am going to work so so so hard all the way til the end!  I love you all!

Peace, Elder Hoopes

#3, wow..... Miracles, Miracles, MIRACLES!‏

Bonjour Tout le monde!  Well first off thank you for your wonderful letters!  I really appreciate them!  Mom and Dad thank you for your emails!  I hope mom that my email helps clear things up for you and all your plans. Voilà  I am glad the brothers are staying busy and mom i love to hear that you are taking carson to the batting cages.  That for me just lets me relize all those moments where you guys helped me to be better and grow and it is fun to see it from another view.  Outside looking in you know.  Now i realize all that you guys did do for me, and like always i feel bad for being horrible to you guys.  But i do love hearing that Carbob, Connor and Beautiful Snoub are doing well.  By the way I really would love to get home from my mission and that same week have hunter open his call.  Time things right so that happens!  I want to be there for that!!!!!!!  Ok so i think that is it right now! I have some really cool things to share with you guys this week.

We have had an incredible week!  Blessings like none other.....  Prayers and Fasts being answered the works.  First things first.  Grettel our Cuban investigator is doing great!  I have gotten a lot better at speaking spanish thanks to her.  Dad in your letter you said that every french word you try to say sounds Spanish, for me it is the opposite haha but she understands and that is the KEY!  She is doing wonderful and WILL be baptized on the 28th.  our date for the 14th isn't going to be able to do it because of his muslim mother..... She will put him out of the house and could do worse if we puch anymore so we are going to go easy with him.  Francois our super solid invesitgator is still waiting to move out.  His Girlfriend needs to get a job so that Social Care can pay for the apartment allowing him to move out.  He i think may be baptized the 28th as well we will see.  I pray for it every night.  Arlette, she is the wife of a part member family that we have been working with super closely and patiently and SHE came to church sunday!  Why is this huge well let me tell you.  

She told us at the beginning of the transfer that she didn't want to do anything because she "couldn't believe Joseph Smith was a prophet."  So we told her she had to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon first.  She told us no i don't like reading it, i don't ever feel inspired.  So i said oh yeah?...  I will show you inspired and i listed a ton of scriptures over time we have been reading the Book of Mormon with her and she has been making a ton of progress!  She is getting more and more inspired from reading!  I even told her to admit it and she did haha.  So our last meeting with her. She read Mosiah 2-5 the day before and when we came over she told us that she loved the reading.  She said this litterally spoke to me and told me how i need to be a better Christian.  She said the morals that are shared are the same ones that i have and i was just so touched by the scriptures.  So we capitalized on this and said Arlette why do you think this is happening?.... She said with a big smile, almost acting as if she knew the answer i wanted to hear "well it must be the word of God..."  We testified and said Arlette will you follow these feeling and prepare yourself for Baptism the 28th of July?!  She said she would pray about it.  Well then sunday she is at Church!  This is huge because she hasn't come yet since i have been here because well she didn't believe in what was being taught, BUT she came this sunday and so i said Arlette it is nice to see you here!  Did you pray like we asked you too and she said "yes" so i then asked did you as about being baptized? She said "yes" so then i said Well?..... And she said with a big smile we will talk about it more tuesday!  So i am so stoked!  She was gleaming at church and so i really hope that all is good with her and that she will be baptized the 28th! This is the beginning to many prayers and fasts being answered!

So that is huge miracle for me! Next one is literally is a Bruxelles miracle and yes it has to do with a Nigerian Brother! No relation to other "Brothers" but he will be a part of them soon.  His name is Steve and Steve came into the church for the first time wanting to know more about the Chruch and Joseph Smith and all these things.  Luckily the members found him and directed him to where he needed to go and gave him a super nice welcome!  We got to know him a little bit and we decided to talk more after Church.  so we had a rendez-vous with him afterwards and it was so awesome!  He told us how he had a feeling a little earlier on that he needed to find a Church, because he believed in God but he never went to Church.  So he started searching.  He went to Jehovah Witnesses, Protestants, Evangelicals but he didn't find anything there that he liked.  He told us he hated it because it was all about money!  So he came to our church because he remembered speaking with missionaries a long time ago.  So he came and he told us that He LOVED CHURCH!  He said in the middle of the Sacrament Meeting he had this feeling that came over him and told him that this was where he needed to stay! He then told us that he felt an emptiness filled within him.  He told us that he felt peaceful, happy and full of life.  We told him it was the spirit and he said yeah i know! Ha he will be baptized on the 28th of July as well.  He is like a mixture of Dablo (Charles) and Michel!  He is so solid and i can't wait to teach him more!  

So there you have it!  I know that is an enormous letter and my wrists are hurting but it is just so cool honestly how much the Lord is helping us here.  I really hope to see 4 baptisms on the 28th.  That would be so rad seriously!  On verra bien!  Anyway that is it for this week nothing else really just those two big miracles!  I love you guys so much an i'll talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Hoopes

#4

Bonjour Tout le monde!

So it was so great seeing everything from the court of honor!  Congrats brothers for being eagle scouts!  You're done with scouts!!!!!!  WOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The decorations were fantastic and everything looked so wonderful!  I loved seeing the brothers honestly!  I don't have any real up-to-date pictures of them!  It is crazy that the next step for connor is driving and hunter is mission!  Dude i am predicting Hunter is going to Iceland!  Yes i am calling it!  In any case everything looks like it is goinng great and i am super excited to be a part of home life in a couple weeks!  As far as other things go for back home i can't think of anything else i need to comment on haha......  

SO This week was a great week honestly nothing to crazy happened.  We taught a lot of lessons and are starting to teach more in the prescense of members which is helping them build their confidence in us and stuff so yeah.  Grettel is doing super well.  She is our cuban investigator.  My spanish has been getting better and she is really progressing.  She even said how have you learned spanish so quickly and i honestly don't know how except that every time i go into a rendez-vous with her i pray alot!!!!!! It is definately the power of God and it is cool to see it in action.  It's humbling more than anything else.  As far as everyone else goes, things are going well but each one of the strongest of our amis seem to have one large obstacle stopping them from being baptized.  We are working on it.  Ummm voilà sorry there isn't more that would be interesting to all of you but it was just a normal week of work. :)

I sent mom a letter telling her about the sight-seeing and visiting after in a couple weeks. i hope she gets that soon.  I have planned most of it out i am just waiting till it gets closer to plan more precisely.  Donc voilà i hope to hear from you guys soon and we will talk later.

Elder Hoopes

Road of our Efforts

The Christ Flower

#5

Wow..... any way so i thought i would start of by telling mom how long her letter was holy cow!  I won't be able to answer all of those questions now so i will send you a hand letter tonight!  :)  But as touching some of the things!  I think it is so great to here about hunter's papers, Congratulations to Connor for becoming a priest, and the whole thing at Farnsworth is crazy!  That is just crazy!  Thank you for signing we up for classes already and thank you for the advice for BYU.  I still want to come home, do MCC, then go elsewhere after the semester.  I feel i need to come back to arizona first.  So yeah also i think it is fun that you saw Ean!  I miss that kid a lot!  ummmm what else....I do don't know oh YES!!!! RAQUEL HAD HERE BABY!  She had him all the way back on May 29th but they finally had some time to themselves and wrote me :)  Her name is issaya and she is super cute!  I sent a picture!  they are doing so good and i am so happy to hear from them!

So voilà i am short on time so i will relate two awesome experiences with you guys!

So this last week we set two baptismal dates! One with a young man named Ibrihim, who comes from the Ivory Coast and is 19!  The kid is awesome and wants to become a Christian.  He will be baptized on the 14th of July!  It was great because we have worked through a lot of people trying to find someone who would be ready for baptism and voilà!  So now the next one is crazy cool!  So i told you that i was learning spanish and i even told dad that we would be teaching an all spanish lesson.  So yeah i have been learning spanish and it's been kinda random but i have been trying and finally here in Evry comes the niece of a member who is from Cuba and will be spending the summer and maybe longer here in France.  I tried talking to her in my broken spanish and i didn't make a ton of sense but i tried my best and we became friends haha.  So Then last sunday we felt the spiritual impression to go ask her if she wanted to take the missionary lessons with us.  She agreed and said yes :)  Well so that meant i had to learn how to speak better spanish.  Luckily her aunt was there to translate if i needed help with things.  So we get there and we start talking and we tell her why we are there and everything and about 20 minutes into we start to get on the subject of Baptism.  She lives in Cuba and will probably never have the chance to ever meet the church again and she says, "i want to be baptized...." Tears filled her eyes and started in mine but i didn't cry cuz i'm so tough!.....;) But she said i need to do that so my problems will be solved and i said well gretyl if they aren't solved will you regret your decision to be baptized and she told me, "No.  What better way to plea your case before the Lord, than to say that you have already committed to follow him by baptism." I was convinced!  HA she accepted to be baptized the 28th of July my 2 year mark as a missionary!  So yeah there is the story!  She is so great and it is wonderful to see how the Lord gave me the gift of tongues to be able to speak at least a level in which the spirit could bear testimony!  It was awesome!

Donc Voilà c'est tout pour moi maintenant!  I think that is it because i am short of time but thank you again for everything that you do and i will write you soon mom!  I love you!

Elder Hoopes

#6

So hello everyone,

I will be staying and finishing my mission in Evry just to let everyone know :)  Which i think is great.  It is a great city and things are moving and going well so it'll be nice.  I don't talk about the ward hardly ever but it is the best functioning french ward that i have ever seen.  They are great and know how to do everything well!  So yeah i don't talk about them much because well i don't need too :)  Missionary work is moving.  It is best discribed as fragile.  We have to be 100 percent obedient and really do things perfectly so that we can see results here.  The Area is not a hard area at i would say it is just a mixture of a lot of different things, stress about coming home, trying to build a solid missionary base, things like that and it doesn't help that there is not a lot of support from my comp.  I have to say he is fun and does try hard it is more so that he is learning how to do everything because he never did it before.  It is like retraining but he is great just having to do a lot for him too.  I also just got called as district leader by the way.  That will great because that will really keep me busy for the next 6 weeks :)  So yeah i think that helps illustrate the situation. I really do enjoy Evry it is just different and interestingly timed in my mission experience but i am growing a lot from it.  Nothing will ever compare to how hard Cherbourg was.  That was difficult.  Mais voilà quoi.

Cool things that are going on as far as the work goes.  We have 3 real progressing amis and several others but these 3 are so close to baptism they just have big concerns that are stopping them.  One is living with his girlfriend, another lives far and has 5kids under 9 and has a tough time coming to church, the other has been baptized twice before that and is hestitant to take that next step.  So pray for them and think about them often and i know that good things will happen.  God put us here to baptize and that is what we will fight for!  Honestly it is inspiring to see what is happening in our mission as a total.  This last week we found 150 new investigators and this time last year we were only finding 55 a week!  How crazy?!  I am stoked for it and it makes me want to work even harder so that i can be a part of it!  It is so cool honestly to be a part of this mission and to have leader like we do.  When i first got in the mission it was honestly a joke.  People were so disobedient and just didn't care but now President is calling the best of the best to Train, be Zone Leaders, and District leaders and is really helping us see the possiblities that can be achieved!  I think it is so cool and i am grateful to be a part of it!

Other than that things are going well, nothing to crazy.  I can't believe that is so close to the end.  I can't wait to see you guys again.  I miss you a lot and i really am really anticipating see you.  Mom i can't wait to take you to some of the boutiques in Paris and trust me you might think oh man we will have to drive a ton..... Nothing is more beautiful than the french countryside!  Oh!  I am so excited to schare all of it with you all!  It will be great!  So yeah there is that and i think that is all. Nothing to crazy.  I love you all.  talk to you soon!

Elder Hoopes

Classic French Beauty!

The Art Quartier literally one of my favorite spot in France

The top of Mont Martre!

#7

Hello Everyone,

This week has been one of the most trying weeks of my mission.  The nice thing is that we ended up just laughing and smiling at how horrible it turned out but you know we were blessed in comparison to other missionaries in the mission so we can't complain.  We also had a super cool miracle happen in the mission to that i will share later.  All in all things are going well and the countdown for coming home unfortunately begins next week.  This is the last week of the transfer so i COULD move but i don't think i will.  If i moved i'd be shocked! So there you go.

This week we got stood up by 14 times.  That is the most that i have ever had in one week in my mission.  I don't know why that happened but even confirming the day of or a night in advance couldn't prevent the falling through of rendez-vous.  I don't know what it was but it pushed me to really reflect a lot on the church and what it is in my life.  We got to go to a 7th day adventist church this week as well and that opened my eyes to their religion/version of Christianity.  It was fun we sang and hooted and hollered Amens the whole time and we prayed a ton and stuff like that.  It was fun but it was missing something.  The week before we also went to a catholic mess, it's just next to our house, to see what that is like and i felt the same lacking.  All in all they were lacking the Spirit.  Now i don't want to sound like i am hating on other religions but honestly, I know that every person can feel the Spirit of God when talking and thinking about Jesus but without the constant companionship we can never feel complete.  Even though it was great seeing a lot of people who believed in Christ, the thought kept coming to my mind, they have now idea what they are missing.  This is what compelled me to think about the church so much.  Why is it that everyone in France/ the world Hates us?  We are not weird, we don't do anything bad to people, frankly our religion is so chill compared to others!  The media i feel is one of the WORST influences on the church and unfortunately people are dumb enough to hear everything that comes out of the television.  People have no idea who we are.  When we were at church sunday i really tried to focus on my feelings and i was so calm and at peace.  I needed that.  The Spirit was so strong.  I don't know why it was stronger than usual but i knew that it was good you know.  There is a verb in French that goes, faire le clown, meaning to act like a clown or in a nonsensical way.  One investigator told us It's different in your church, you are very modest, polite, and you don't faire le cown.  I loved that and i know it is true.  I love our church because not only do we show a reverance towards sacred things, but we are also very complete.  I feel like i can find any answer through the gospel and the more and more i study the more and more i find that you really can.  That is how i know that it is true, along with the testimony that i have already aquired. Also i love that the church doesn't participate in any type of war against other Christian faiths. I feel like the people that hate us the most are our own Christian brothers, and i am so glad that i belong to a church who could care less about what people say about them because we know who it is we represent more than any other Christian faith. I love the people in other christian churches but there is no church on the earth except our that will get you closer to Christ.  That is why i love the Church, that is also why i ramble sorry..... hahaha

The cool miracle that happened this week in the mission was this.  Last week was the first week of the year in which our mission didn't have a baptism planned for the weekend.  Also we are really doing very well in comparison to where we were at this time last year.  So president asked that the whole mission to pray and to ask all those ready for baptism to be baptized on the Weekend.  We were all a little surprised but we all looked over our potentials and did the best we could to find people.  The zone leaders then asked each companionship to find a quite place and to kneel and pray that people would get baptized that weekend.  So we did that and this morning we found out that the mission had 5 baptisms this weekend!  How cool huh?!  Unfortunately we didn't have a baptism but the prayers were heard!  How cool. I was super happy when i saw that!  Our mission is doing really well as of late and i see it only getting better and better!

Anyway so that was the week a bit.  I love you all and am so grateful for you!  LOVE,

Elder Hoopes

WET

#8

Alors j'ai seulement 8 lettres qui me reste.  WOW! Only 8 of these left!  Crazy huh!?  Well all good things have to come to an end.  But i will for 8 more weeks just work it.  I am doing well.  This week i got extremely fatigued.  Like honestly i was mentally, physically, and emotionally drained and so i took it slower so that i could give my mind some rest.  I was getting pretty burned out from doing so much so right now we are going to do things a BIT differently so that all goes by a little smoother.  But other than that the week was good.  We had Elder Texiera and his Wife came down for the mission tour and that was nice. Unfortunately i didn't find it the most ravishing.  I went in with questions that never got answered mostly due to a lack of time and a something coming up to where he couldn't stay the entire time.  But whatever. I talked with Elder Nelson, one of my best buds bout the stuff and he helped me see some of the answers which was nice.  I was able to see him, Elder Awerkamp, Elder Gubbay, and a lot of my other buddies from around the mission.  It turned out to be good in all but it's true i wasn't super inspired....  I think that happpens from time to time.  But you know there were a lot of good things that were said in anycase. 

So this week wasn't to crazy i honestly don't have a ton to write home about.  We do have some people that are progressing toward baptism but it is taking a bit of time.  More news on them to follow in the future.  However there is a fun story that happened while we were walking the other day.  We passed this Arab couple holding a 2 year old baby who was crying, crying, crying.  Then as we got closer she looked at us stopped crying immediately and said to her parents Yasu or Jesus in Arab.  Then her parents smiled and said yes yes sweetie. How fun is that.  I don't know what it was.  We didn't even say anything to the kid but somehow she recognized Jesus in us even from being in a muslim home.  Interesting. Children have a special connection with things like that.  

Another fun thing that happened is Kevin's little brother Bryan got baptized in Brussels this weekend! And guess who baptized him??? Kevin!  Kevin was able to baptize his little bro.  That made me so happy talking to Elder Petersen about that.  Talking to him in general was fantastic!  He is such a great guy.  Apparently a couple of the brothers are having difficulties but it's ok.  Their choices you know but Andrew, Dablo, Michel, Kevin, and now Bryan are doing excellent.  Carlos apparently according to Dablo is "drinking a little and is hanging out with chicks." He is just caught up in little antics but he'll learn.  Hanging out with chicks lol of Dablo!  I still can't wait to see them soon!  I love those guys so much!  Ummmm so yeah brussels is just the best still.

I Want to make sure that connor knows i am thinking about him and WISH him a super happy birthday!  Joyeux Anniversaire!!!!  Also tell laura congratulations on having the twins how fun!!!!!  They are adorable i said to you earlier mom!  Well i love you all and i hope that all is going well back home!  See you soon!

Elder Hoopes

p.s  This week it rained harder than any other week before.

# 9‏

Well hello everyone!  First off it is great to hear that everything back home is going nice and smoothly.  It is also nice to see the House repainted!  It looks super nice and connor and carson make two really good old timers!  REally though it is always nice hearing from everyone back home.  So this week was an interesting one i must say.  We had some cool success and saw a lot of really cool things however, we met two really interesting people.  We'll talk about that later. But on a fun note i am the lowest weight that i have been since Senior year.  I am at 196lbs right now!  I've shredded weight here in Evry!  I have just eaten a ton of fruits and veggies Carbs if any early in the day and LOTS of protein throughout the day not eating much if at all after 5!  So it is cool.  My goal is Between 180 and 190 so we'll see how that goes.  And another fun thing yesterday there was a group of 25 spaniards who came to the Chapel.  They were members of the church in the South of Spain but in anycase i was able to speak with them and communicate totally in Spanish!  How tight?!  And now i am going to try to learn a little bit in Japonese!  Haha a member wants to teach me!  So i said YEAH!  Ummmmm other random things before i tell you the funny people we met.....I don't think so if i remember i'll write it later.  

So anyway this week we met a man who was part of a secret magic society cult of which i won't say.  BUT HE was one of the head men in it, he said he got to the point where with enough initiation and time and other disclosed practices he became "Master."  He watched the Joseph Smith prophet of the Resoration video on youtube and got really interested to learn more and so we are now currently teaching him.  We will see what happens but he was interesting.  He was Really nice and super funny, total normal guy too.  He studied to be a pastor, saw the flaws in the bible, turned to other churches, didn't find what he wanted so he turned to the world of sorcery and stuff.  He is a nice guy and got out of that stuff but i still feel he is holding onto a lot of the things he learned out of obligation.  So voilà.  

Next man we met.  He came to our rendez-vous and the minute he came in we felt something.....different but continued anyway.  He came to us and told us that he wanted to really better his spiritual life and he said that more than anything he wants to find out who he really is.  After a little bit of talking he came out and told us that he believes that he is the "Second son of man."  Yes you got that right.  He told us that he was basically the new Jesus on the earth.  He didn't claim to be "THE Son of God" but he did say that at his birth he was born with a glowing light around him and that he disconected himself from the ambilical chord of his mother in the womb before he was born.  Apparently also Japanese doctors delivered him......don't know why that is relivant.  I don't think i have ever been so direct, bold, and crushing as i was at that moment.  The poor guy.  We asked if he was scitsophrenic (if that is how you spell it), if he did hard drugs and all that stuff, because he told us he did hear things in his head all the time.  I wasn't rude but i definately wanted to know how he found this to be true and he just said that he had meditated on it and that was all.  I then proceded to site scripture after scripture and he said well yeah but i don't believe that.  I said to him that he could not at all make such a claim if he didn't even know the scriptures, what they are, what they represent, and who they come from.  We told him that he could be believe what he wanted but not to say another word about it until he had read the scriptures.  So voilà.  Our second interesting man.  He takes the trophy for most interesting person i have ever taught.

So yeah there you go.  That was our interesting people report for the week.  The week itself was long and trunky i must say but at the same time we worked hard and still found 5 new investigators and taught more than last week.  So we are making some really good progress!  But yeah that is about it! still am working on getting that package!  They never even came even after i coordinated with them!  so i will give them a piece of my mind!  It's to bad dad can't call HAHA!  Anyway i love you all so much!  This week Elder Texeira of the 70 will be coming and so i will have cool things for you next week.  I love you all so much!

Elder Hoopes

Lady Bug Riding!  It's the mascot of the department. HAHA

Me and Elder Collett

#10. 9 of these to go.‏

Ok voilà

So i know that i didn't write last week but of course that was because we talked on the phone instead and that is totally cool!  SO just because i don't have a ton of time i will have to be pretty quick, but i do have a pretty cool story to share about prayer that will blow your socks off.  So ok normal things this week lots of contacting, but we did find 3 new amis, set a date with a guy, (deets to follw) and we taught 3 times as many lessons this week than we did the week before.  So things are good.  Still a lot of oppostion but i can't say that during my mission it has ever been easy but we are working through it.  Things with Elder Collett are good too.  We are getting along well.  He is a young missionary and still has a lot that he needs to learn but he is coming along really well. Also I had a great birthday!  We had Himalayain Buffet and then Cheese and Baguettes (my favorite) for dinner!  Super nice i must say!  Haha it is cool now that i am 21.  

Me i have really been thinking about the future.  I am focused on the mission but naturally like at night and when i have free time i tend to plan and think about what is coming in the future and i feel fairly confident about what is coming but still it is weird thinking about that.  I have to be honest one thing that has been really bothering me not bothering but causing lots of reflection is who i want to marry.  I am not choosing right now.  I haven't even been on a date in two years.  I guess the question i have been reflecting on is Who is the man that my future wife prays to have?  Who do i need to become in order for her to be as crazy for me as i will be for her.  Things like that, so i am taking the time to really form my character before i get home so that when that moment does come, Heavenly Father will have helped mold me into who i need to be. One for my future wife but i guess the over lying factor is who is the priesthood holder i need to become.  Voilà c'est ça la question.

So to Share the story that happened.  So this is a story about prayer.  We have had nothing since we got here but from the start we knew that we could ffind someone to get baptized otherwise we wouldn't be here.  So we prayed really hard last wednesday in order to find someone that would be ready to be baptized.  So we prayed specifically for that and asked the Lord to provide someone for us to baptize.  So we got home late from something last wednesday from our normal plans and we had an left to contact so we went and contacted everyone that walked our way and we found 3 new numbers.  We also set a rendez-vous with one guy named juvet for the following day.  So it was on my birthday, we went to his house and taught him.  Within the first 10 minutes i would say we felt totally pushed and impressed to give him the baptism invitation with a baptismal date at that time.  Before teaching any principles too.  We said to him "What kind of relationship would you like to have with Heavenly Father?" And he said i want to be closer to him, i want to HAVE a relationship with him.  So we told ok well you do that by being baptized.  That is the way we come closer to Christ.  We take his name upon us and are baptized and so he accepted for the 16th of June.  I was so shocked and amazed really that it all happened so quickly!  It was wonderful.  So yeah that is the miracle, that Heavenly Father answers prayers and, you know even if Juvet for example doesn't want to do it in the end, heaven forbid, God will have still answered our prayers.  Cool Huh!?  I love it.  I am going to mis having these kinds of experiences.

Voilà! C'y était la semaine.  I love you all so much and i hope all is going well!  You're all so great!  Talk to you later!

Elder Hoopes

Bonjour!

Hello Everyone.  So as you know i will be leaving Brussels or as i like to call it, the Land of Promise.  It stinks not going to lie.  I get sick of the daily routine sometimes but still you can't acruge with the blessings that you recieve here honestly.  So yes i said goodbye to the ward and to the recent converts.  Carlos, Charles and Andrew (of the brothers), Michel and Kevin were there, so i will be seeing Lassissi and Abdullai tomorrow before i leave.  It has been a bit hard.  Still the hardest place to leave has been Limoges i don't know why but definately these people are they who i will miss the most.  I cant wait for you to meet them.  They are great!  So yeah i still have some goodbyes to say and you know what is also funny???  In this ward even though i worked my butt off i thought that i had gone unnoticed by the whole ward like they didn't even care that i was there but there were many families who came up afterwards and said some very sweet things to me that made me feel so loved.  A couple of people came and told me that they looked up to me and admired me and that they were so thankful for the work i had done in the ward and honestly that made me feel so good inside.  The thing i hate the most about a mission is not being accepted by the members that you serve which is quite often the case.  However here i feel like they do accept me and are proud of the work that we did.  So yeah it will be hard to leave but i am going to the only other part of the mission that is call Heaven on Earth and that is Évry.  

15 kilometers from Paris, huge ward, great members, and good work.  We are pretty much whitewashing in which means that they are pulling out two missionaries and putting in two as well. So hopefully we are not walking into nothingness but probably we are.  they don't just whitewash to whitewash.  All i know is that i am going to work these last 12 weeks to the bone!!!  My new companion is from Kaysville, Utah and his name is Elder Collett.  He is apparently a nice kid and his MTC comp loved him but i have never met him before. He is a young Missionary i think in his 4th Transfer.  So we'll see how that goes.  I am looking forward to the new experience.  

The Baptism went super well and i able to give him the Holy Ghost on Sunday.  The spirit was so strong in both meetings and especially when we gave him the holy ghost.  so that was super great!  Ummmmmm anything else i don't think so i will be talking to you all on Sunday anyway so we'll see you then.  I love you all

Elder Hoopes

Biran(kevins brother who will soon be baptized now), lemy (friend who converted them), and KEVIN

Carlos Yotat Murphy

Carlos, Charles, and Andrew

Charles's first recent convert!

Story of our Transfers HAHA 

I am moving!!!!!!!!

Uhhhhhh..........  I am moving to Paris!  My city is in the surrounding area of Paris in a city called Évry.  It is about 20 minutes by metro from Paris.  My new address will be 

Elder Jonathan Hoopes
17, cours Monseigneur Romero
91000, Évry
France

There you go i will be moving out on Wednesday!  It will be hard saying goodbye to all of the brothers let me tell you......

Elder Hoopes

Hello Hello

Sorry for writing this on Wednesday.  We were in Paris on Monday and yesterday was labor day and so today we are taking our P-day.  How is everything going.  I hope everything is good and that everyone is happy and well.  Things here are going well.  It is the last week of the transfer and chances are that i am leaving so heads up who knows where i could be heading off to.  I don't know.  That is for sure.  Hope to go to a city called Strasbourg but i don't know what will happen.  We'll just wait and see.  Ummm....  Oh yes so the brothers got your package!!  they loved it and they loved how personal it was for each one of them they want to write back to you and thank you.  They felt so much love and honestly they say that they feel like they are a part of the Brothers.  For each one of them their favorite part is not the ties or the shirts it is the picture of the brothers.  they feel so much love from the fact that you are thinking of them.  Charles told me when they got the package they started dancing and singing because they were so happy!  So funny.  Really that was such a sweet package and each one of them is so thankful for it.  They all are looking forward to meeting you guys.

So this week was cool.  We were in Paris for our mission council which went well and then we came back to brussels and got started working right away.  Last week we taught for the first time in my mission a 20 lesson week.  We got in fact almost all of the standards of excellence in the mission which was really cool and satisfying.  We did work hard last week.  Things with me and Elder Petersen are fantastic.  He is such a great Elder and we get along very VERY well.  He is super great.  Things here are still kickin and Carlos should be baptized this weekend.  Another one of the brothers!  Haha they are so great and each one of them is actually staying active.  Also Michel has now the Aaronic priesthood and is just so great. He is the man and such a miracle find.  Other than that not much has happened.  I feel the end getting closer and closer and i don't like it.  I also have been weighed down by these thoughts of breaking up with Afton and that is actually weighing me down a lot too but i am trying to keep on going.  I need to work HARDER!  I don't feel super effective right now and so i need to change.

Well We are in may and that means it is almost MOTHER's DAY!  I get to call home.  I was planning on doing that around 4 or 5 our time so 7 or 8 your time.  I hope that works.  I will try to call with skype but you never know if we'll find someone.  We'll plan more next week but yeah i really look forward to talking and opefully seeing everyone!  That will be such a blast!  I also loved the videos that were sent!  Carson is a baller!  Connor that is cool that you are working so hard on your eagle scout and that is so great that you are looking out for others!  Keep it up brother.  Well i love you all so much and i am so thankful for all of you!  We'll talk to you later

Elder Hoopes

Well i'm going to acutally start this off a bit diferently.  This week has been very stressful.  LOTS on my mind as everyone is quite aware. It makes me sad and i worry but it is suppose to be like this.  Also we have had a lot of administrative things we've had to do.  All in all however things are good.  Work is going really well also.  We just set another baptismal date with a guy which i will talk about later and Carlos is doing well. So yeah this week we had interviews with the president and those went really well.  I was able to get my temple recommand renewed and it is in french too.  How cool!  So yeah that was really good.  this week we also did an exchange with some Elders and yeah a bunch of other little things here and there.  

This new guy is named Alphonse and he is really nice.  the sister missionaries passed him to us and we met him and taught him for the first time.  Ironically enough in the rendez-vous we both felt impressed to talk about baptism right off the bat with him.  In fact it was pretty bold.  I don't know why it had to be like that but we said within the first five minutes of meeting him, Alphonse we are here to help people get closer to Christ by baptism, so when you know this is true will you yoursel be baptized and he accepted.  We taught a very interesting first lesson with him because we found ourselves mentioning a lot of different things that one would think couldn't go together.  But at the end of the lesson it all made perfect sense and we fixed a date with him to be baptized on the 19th of May.  honestly it was so cool to see how the Holy Ghost was working with him and us.  It seemed to guide the whole conversation.  Very touching.

Ok so the last name of the brothers are all in the last email i sent to mom.  Not the most recent but the one from last week.  Also dad asked what my most memorable mission moment has been.  I don't have one but right now i have 4.  I will tell you all of them on mothers day. :)  One has to do with my testimony being confirmed, one andrew, michel, and the last with charles but in honestly there are so many and i wouldn't have missed out on things if i had never served a mission.  This is the best thing i have ever done.  I love you all so much and miss you so much.  Keep being great examples for me.  I love you

Elder Hoopes

Hello

Hello everyone,

Hey well i will start of just talking a bit about this week.  so on Saturday of last week Trams, metros, and buses got shut down do to an accident and a strike so we had to walk every where and it stunk so our week was hindered but the highlight of the week was definately this sunday.  Testimony meeting was great.  Charles got u and bore his testimony and it was so so sweet honestly.  I love that guy.  He just talked about how the church has really taught him about real happiness.  He said before i was baptized i thought that material things brought me happiness but now i see that the gospel of Christ is the path and the way to true happiness.  It was so good.  It was the second time that i have heard one of my recent converts bear testimony and it is at that moment that you feel the most accomplished as a missionary.  You see how you have helped change there lives and the blessings that that can bring someone and honestly you don't get to see that often enough. I love those guys so much.  I can't wait for you to see them.  They asked me this sunday if i could just choose to stay here in Bruxelles and not leave.  i told them that God would probably call me elsewhere and them they were ok.  Say God tells you to do something and they won't argue at all.  I am going to miss them so much when i leave.  Unfortunately sacrament meeting was ruined when an inactive member of about 5 years, who smokes, drinks, and probably is gay got up and confessed passed sins at the pulpit.  he said before i was baptized i did some bad things, i sold myself to men, i heavily durgged myself and did other worse things (who knows what he would be capable of???????????) but i know that things in this church are good, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.  I don't think i've been more embarassed for our investigators honestly in my life.  Oh dear...... the guy is just psycho.....  Oh well now he'll most likely be shunned from the Bruxelles 2 ward and we wont have to worry about that again.  so yeah kinda a funny story.  Moving on......
 

So i think that it is great that i got accepted into BYU idaho.  I think that would definately be a cool option.  I think i need to pray about it and give it some real reflection.  I am pretty positive that i want to be a student at BYU Provo in the winter but in any case we'll just see what happens and hope for the best.  In any case thank you for doing everything you have done to get this process moving.  I don't know i'd also like to know your opinion and judgement in going to byu idaho and all.  because if i can go to MCC and then Provo later that'd be cool.  I'd have some time at home to see everyone and be home with the brothers, but also i want to know the acceptance rate for people who apply twice.  So if you could tell me what you think would be best i'd like to know.  I also want to know what patrick plans on doing.  Maybe getting back and doing MCC would be cool because he'd get home and we could chill and then i would go up to Utah with him and Awerkamp.  Who know's????  We'll see.  Anyway.  I respect you're opinion.  Also about you coming out to visit.  This is my wish and desire for when you come out to get me.  I want to be able to show you Limoges, Compiègne and Bruxelles.  Limoges because of Lucas and Rachel and hopefully pascal and then we could make our way through the Loire valley.  Go through Paris and see Qiong-ji in Nogent see her and then go see a couple members in Compiègne and then make our way up to Bruxelles so you can meet all the converts up here.  I think coming home on the next monday would be ok.  I guess with school starting and everything that stinks that it can't be longer and i don't really care about a big welcoming party.  I want to be able to show you mainly the people here in Bruxelles, Compiègne and Limoges.  You know even just Limoges and Bruxelles but i have to see Lucas and rachel, Qiong-ji, and Annette and The Brothers up here in Bruxelles.  So think about that but whatever you chose is best i think.  All the other places have special people but as far as journying goes that would be tough.  So voilà....

ok i think that is it.  I probably should be moved on the 8th of May.  Otherwise i'd stay here for the rest of my mission and i don't think that is likely.  Mom i know that i will be home in 3.5 months but i don't think you need to worry at all about not having a spiritual paradise for me when i get home.  That's why i left to serve a mission.  However i know that you are wonderful and want me to be like this forever but that is up to my diligence and efforts in reading the scriptures, praying, and going to church.  I just want you to love me when i get home.  That is all i want from you.  Nothing more.  I love you so much and look forward to being home with all of you.  Trust me it hasn't made me "trunky" knowing i go home soon.  I'm holding up pretty well.  I'll see you soon enough for mother's day anyway!  I can't wait.  ok well that is it. I love you so much.  thank you for all that you do for me.  I'll talk to you later.

Elder Hoopes

Hello!

Hey Everyone!  

Thank you for all the wonderful emails that you sent me.  I really appreciate all the time that you put into writing those letters for me.  So thank you Mom and Dad for sending in my applications to all those schools.  I know that class picking for the fall semester has already started and so i don't know if i will get in.  I hope so BUT at the same time i would not mind coming home going to MCC and working and then going up to BYU in the Winter semester and living in Elder Awerkamp's condo.  His parents bought a nice little condo up next to campus for elder Awerkamp and they are going to rent out the other rooms.  So I talked with him and maybe that would be a nice way to go.  Live there and go to school.  Also we could just work it all out with the Awerkamp's opposed to the school.  I really am just excepting whatever happens as a blessing.  I really hope that all turns out well and that there is no issues in the future.  In anycase thanks for everything that you do and everything you are helping me with.  So yeah that is that.  Honestly thank you so much. :)  Speaking of the Awerkamp's, the also wrote a similar email to Elder Awerkamp about seeing connor at the Easter Pageant.  They told him that they thought connor was awesome and that he was a very nice looking boy :)  Small world i love it.

So news from me and the mission.  There is some fun news from Limoges actually!  First one is that a member from down there, a daughter of the Garant family is getting married to a member from our ward up here in Bruxelles and so the entire family will be up here and i will get to hear from them and talk to them about Limoges again which i will really enjoy.  Also even better news a girl that we taught for about 3 months down there before i left, Qiong-ji, who i remember talking so much about, will be GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 14TH!!!!!!!!!!!!  How fun is that! After 10 months finally she came around and is getting baptized!  I honestly can't tell you happy i was.  In fact, first thing that i did was call elder Awerkamp and told him and we basically screamed and spiralled into a crazy hysteria of JOY!  I was so pumped.  She is just the best and to this day is still probably my favorite investigator i ever met.  She was just searching searching searching.  She didn't even know who God was when we started and through reading the Book of Mormon and Praying and Church She came to know that one God is real and he loves us, two Jesus is the center of the entire human history and beyond, and three that he leads and guides his church today through a living prophet.  Such an awesome conversion.  I just wanted to share that with you all.

Now onto Bruxelles.  Same old same old.  PARADISE!  We just set two more dates for this transfer with two friends of, yes you guessed it, andrew.  Of course the rest of the brothers too but Andrew is the one who started it all.  Ones name is Carlos.  Fun story.  He is 17, from cameroon and here on his own.  He is super intelligent.  He really didn't want to be baptized again.  We taught him three times and each time he declined baptism and in fact the last time he just told us no that is not what i need, i was already baptized.  Ok no biggy.  So we left it in the hands of the brothers.  I told Charles, you make sure this boy knows you have a testimony.  and So what do they all do.  that night the brothers hold a testimony meeting.  This is all done and run by them and we had no idea.  the next day we were teaching with Andrew and as we were walking there he said so did you hear about the good news for Carlos.  We said no what?  Remember he rejected the invitations only two days prior.  He says yeah he wants to be baptized.  He wants to know if he can do it tommorow.  HAHAHA We said um no but we will baptize him ASAP.  So then we called Carlos to make sure everything was factual and he said yeah I felt the Spirit tell me that it was true and so i can't resist i need to do it.  So yeah his faith is so large that he just immediately acts on promptings of the Spirit.  How cool huh?  So he will baptized on the 21st of April.  

That is just good old brussels for you.  Paradise.  This weekend was also the Easter weekend and i am so thankful for the chance we had to reflect and feel the overcoming power of Christ's atonement.  Super nice in fact.  I loved this weekend.  We were able to celebrate/commemorate this day with Three american families in the ward.  We went and ate at their place and it was just like home!  Mashed Potatoes, Spiral Ham, ROLLS, green beans, salad, everything because they get to shop at the american army base here in bruxelles.  So everything was american.  It was delicious and i decided that when i come home, first thing i want to eat will be a Burrito from Filebertos, Second i would love to just have a typical american dinner.  I missed that so so so so much.  So yeah it sounds like the easter weekend was great for all you as well.  I miss you all so much and can't wait to talk to you soon.  I love you all so much.  


Elder Hoopes