Bonjour à Tous!

Bonjour.  So this week was another great and beautiful week in Good ole Brussels.  Miracles just flying in from everywhere and i have no idea why.  I am definately thank ful for all of the tender mercies but I don't feel like we deserve all of it.  Honestly just so many good things are happening.  This week We were able to teach 17 lessons and have two baptisms and fix antoher date!  How great honestly!  The tough thing about baptizing is that after that you begin to lose people you have to keep teaching.  So we'll have to continue finding but at the same time all the time that was spent finding in large part has contributed to the success that is being had now.  So yes we are very humbled by the beautiful things that are going on here. 

I had the privelege this week in Baptizing both Charles and Michel.  I felt so humbled.  All went really well too.  It was funny because i had to do one baptism in English and the other one in French.  They both were baptized without any problems :)  Charles just so you all know is another friend of Andrew who got baptized, which is now the 3rd person who has come into the church because of Umaru, the friend who referred us Andrew.  Andrew is the best missionary ever.  I called him yesterday and he answered 

-"Hoopes, Sup man?"

-Nothing much how are you Andrew?

-Good good good.  

-Hey are you coming to family home evening at the church?

-Yeah yeah yeah.  I will bring my friend John.

-Great bring all your friends!

-Hoopes...You know how i do.  I'll do my best.  I have three people you need to baptize ok?

-Sounds great Andrew.  We'll see you tomorrow.

-Ok ok ok. 

I love that guy.  He just keeps bringing them in!  And then Michel is just so good.  He knocked out drinking coffee completely in one week and was baptized without problem this saturday.  I just feel so blessed that that happened.  So that was a miracle in itself but also another miracle happened this week and i think it is because of all the fasting that was done at the beginning of the month and also by Elder Petersen and I at a seperate time.  Check This out.  So on Sunday Elder Petersen and I pray and fasted seperately.  I fasted so that Kevin's dad would sign the baptismal form and let his son be baptized.  So then this thursday rolls around and we have a RDV with Kevin.  I called him before the rendez-vous to see where he was and he said he was on his way and he was coming with his dad.  Ok two things.  One kevin's dad is SO busy and has literally no time.  Second thing is he decided on his day off to take time to come with kevin to the rendez-vous.  So for us already this was a miracle but that is not all.  We have the rendez-vous and everything and most of it was just listening and trying to find a way for his dad to say yes and sign the paper because before he had said he wanted to wait about 3 or 4 months.  So we had to be patient but also just negotiate things.  All was going well and i was just relating so much with them but we weren't really making progress until Kevin said something.  He said "You know what is interesting is the more and more people i meet my age i see people that stop going to church and i don't know why." His dad replies "well it is because they never knew it was true in the first place."  Right as he said that the spirit flooded in and I said "Kim (his dad) why would your 16 year old continue living and practicing a religion he doesn't yet belong to when everyone around is telling him there is no God." He replied very hesitantly and said "he most know it's true. And i do know that it makes him happy."  He then shortly after agreed to SIGN THE PAPER!!! So kevin will be baptized on the 31st of March!!!!!!!!!!!  How cool!  The Lord totally answered our prayers and our fast.  Later i found out that that was the only thing that Elder Petersen fasted for this last time.  How Cool.  After the RDV Kim came up to me and tapped me on the back and said Elder I hope my boys can grow up to be valiant like you guys.  You don't realize how great you are.  How crazy.  this coming from an atheist who knows nothing about religion.  I'll tell you what the Lord works in mysterious ways but you definately know when he is working.  I felt so humbled by this week and just want to keep working harder and harder til the end.  

So yes that is a taste of brussels right now.  This is the best place ever.  I don't want to leave.  This is the Last week of the transfer by the way.  There is a possiblity that i will leave however the possibilities are pretty low.  So yeah if something will take more than a week to send don't send it.  Unless you get it off by tommorrow.  I'll let you know saturday what will happen.  I love you all so much and pray for you every night.  Keep being missionaries Chez Nous!

Mucho Amor Mes Queridos!

Elder Hoopes

Charles and Michel

Abdullah, Andrew, and Charles

A Week With No Toilet

So already i know this is going to be super lame but it is only because i have been working on College stuff all day.  

This week was a good week.  It had it's ups and downs but all in all it was a solid week.  We are getting ready for the baptisms of two men Charles and Michel this week.  Pray for them and we will see how that goes.  All of our other amis at the moment are doing well and we hope that this young kevin will get permission from his father soon.  Frankly this is so frustrating having to wait on that i mean the kid is ready to be baptized! So yes but that is it for the moment.  Nothing much.  Kinda of depressing news is that we are going on 1 week without a toilet and this is not easy.  And because public restrooms are not found in Europe we have secluded to using the shower and trash bags. The plumberr is taking his time getting a hold of us.  We have talked with him daily and he still is "not available to see us" or "he doesn't work that specific day."  Customer service how i miss you.... Luckily the church is where we spend most of our time but from the hours of 9:30pm-11:00am the next morning it's either no toilet or it's the trash bag special.  Oh memories....... So i know you're probably saying what happened????  Well lets just say 4 men and a lot of African food one night maybe the culprit......  We tried plunging it but then the plunger broke....  SO i bought 2 more plungers after a long and painful, in every sense of the word, search and that didn't work infact we found out that there is a gaping crack in the pipeline.  So yes... we flushed the toilet and water went everywhere.  I can honestly say i have never heard an italian scream so loud.  But we are getting along.  All is well that ends well... most of the time

I miss you all dearly and i pray for you every night.  Sorry this isn't long but i will have so much more to talk about the next week!  :)

Love, Elder Hoopes

Bonjour bonjour!!!!‏

Bonjour tout le monde!  How is everyone doing!?  It sounds like everything is going well!   Carson i am so glad to hear about your awesome homerun and it is also cool to see that connor is just tearing it up on the volleyball team!  I am so proud of the hard work that is being put into each of their respective sports!  Also mom thank you so much for the great little talk!  I wish you could be out here on the mission with me because you would be shocked at all the talks and all the spiritual things we discover out here.  Its funny because just as i am out here changing a little bit i can see that you are changing too.  I don't remember the last time you watched a talk on BYU Channel!  That is so fun!  I don't know if i would even do that!  ok so maybe i would now but still i think it is great that you found some time to go and watch that.  Dad i am glad to hear that training is almost for the stinkin french plane.  If it is as intelligent as the french roads, french government and the french mindset on who God is, then i equally feel you pain.....  I hope that all is good and that you can get some nice rest soon.  I assume that'll be much needed :)

So as usual things in Brussels are just the best and super miraculous!  This weekend we baptized a man and also the other companionship baptized the sweetest mother and her daughter.  It was so great and honestly the spirit was so so so strong!  It was just the best in all honesty and in a couple weeks we will have the baptisms of two other men.  Kevin, the 16 year old is going to have to wait for permission from his dad so as far as baptism goes for this weekend that probably wont happen but maybe the 24th of next month.  The kid is just so stellar but is just having to wiat for the date.  That is ok though.  He is in God's hands.  So yes like i said Two more Baptisms on the 17th!  That will be for ANOTHER one of Andrew's friends!  he is jus the best i'll tell ya!  He is just sharing the gospel with everyone and i just love him.  When people say that miracles don't exist they have no clue what God can work in the lives of others.  So his name is Charles and if he wants to he could be baptized this weekend.  We'll see.  Also the other man is named Michel.  Ready for a miracle story?! 

SEPERATE PARAGRAPH!!!!  So this man michel.  The very first day Elder Petersen and I were together we were helping people get through brussels.  Well we went to the Station to wait for a train and it was supposed to come in like 10 minutes and so we decided to go and contact while we had remaining time.  We go out and contact a man named Michel, get his number and then have time to go back inside.  Soooo finally we get a rendez-vous with this guy and he seemed pretty interested so we were excited.  So we went and had our lesson and it was one of the best first lessons ever taught!  So good!  The spirit was so strong.  He even brought his Book of Mormon to the Rendez-vous.  KEY!  So we bear testimony about the restoration and all and he is just loving it.  So then he wants to bear testimony.  Now, let me tell you something.....When a person who isn't a member wants to bear testimony to a missionary, MOST of the time, not all but most of the time, either they are crazy, two think we are jehovah witnesses, or three want to start preaching to us, SO we weren't super at ease when he said that.  However his was nice.  He said that he had been Catholic his whole life and he even provided a church for a Pastor one time.  Well this pastor after aquiring the chapel kicked out Michel and other men who had helped get the chapel.  He basically just through them all under the bus.  So he continued being faithful through it all but he definately left that congregation.  So that all happened in 1998.  Well this Christmas he had what he called a revelation, where God told him "You need to find a church and you will then also receive something precious."  He said it was weird because i kept playing that through my head and i looked.  He even went to Sacré Coeur in Paris to find more direction and then of course we contact him just after.  He then tells us that this PRECIOUS message is exactly what he was looking for.  Elder Petersen and i both immediately had the strongest impression to invite him to be baptized with a specific date.  So we said March 17th and the accepted.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!!!!!!! GOD ANSWERS Prayers!!!!  I loved it so much.  Since then we have seen him 4 times and he has come to church.  He even said that he wanted to stay in the church to the entire elder's quorum when introducing himself!  I love him and it is just such a miracle. 

My heart is filled with so much joy!  I can't even tell you!  I love you all so much.  I will being seeing you guys soon and i just can't wit to share all these things with you in person.  So Yeah i love you and we'll talk to you soon!

Elder Hoopes

YaShu, greek for Hello.

Bonjour Bonjour!  

how is everyone doing!  Still just loving brussels so much.  Our apartment has really livened up and everyone is hilarious!  Things with amis are going great and i am just loving it so much.  Just also something else that is cool is that i am speaking spanish to more and more people!  I couldn't spell or write things to save my life but i can hold conversations.  I can't explain myself very well but i can understand about 80 percent of everything.  Super cool.  One of my goals is to come home tri lingual!  That'd be cool.  But yeah all in all brussels is so cool.  I just love everyday hear.  I love my comp, I love the ward, I love the people and just everything is going super well.  

This week we will have the baptism of one Andrew's friends.  He will be baptized on the 3rd and then there is another boy who's name is Kevin who is the sweetest kid ever.  He is 16 and wants to be baptized on the 10th of march!  We need his father's permission to be baptized and so we are waiting on the ok.  Just keep his father in your prayers and ask that his heart be softened.  I want him to be baptized so badly i can't even tell you, but also it isn't in our hands.  His father must say yes.  So we'll see.  I pray that all goes well.  But yeah that are some of our strongest amis at the moment.  The Wone also as a whole is on fire and just doing great great work!  I love it so much and could not be more proud of them!  So good just so good!

That is about it for the moment.  I am so excited to hear that connor is on Varsity!  That is so cool!!!!!!  I knew it would happen it was just a matter of 1 or 2 games.  He is a skilled kid.  Is he a freshman this year?  and what grade is carson in?  Carson congrats on your arrow of light!  I still have mine at the house!   Haha keepsakes!  Ummmmm and i think that is about it for the moment!  I love you all so much and i hope to hear some good news as well next week.  OHHHH YES DANNY AND LAURA!!!! TWIN BOYS!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!  that is so so so so so cool i can't even explain!  How fun!?  I hope everything is going well and we'll talk next week.

Love, Elder Hoopes

Hola!

Hello every one! How are you all? I hope everyone is going good and
that everyone is loving life just as much as i am! Things are going
great honestly! Just so good. I love Brussels like crazy and
honestly i have never had a better time in my entire mission. I am
learning so much and feel the most change in myself here. I think it
is because if i don't take who i am to a new level in this calling and
in this situation then i fail and so I am having to make changes to be
better and i feel like i am becoming more quickly the person i have
been wanting to become. Unfortunatley i don't think that i am ever
going to be exactly who i WISH i could be but honestly i just feel
like i am growing up so much. I am so thankful that the Lord had the
confidence in me to send me here to do this work. I just Love IT LOVE
IT LOVE IT! Even being rejected by people on the street here is nicer
than anywhere else i've been. It's all a mentality but it's going
great. And from what i am hearing about everything from back home you
guys are trying to be great missionaries too! Don't let up. Here
comes a random tangeant!

So this week we talked with our bishop and we thought of all the ways
we could help missionary work and we thought of this. One of the
biggest difficulities that we run into is trying to work with the
members in missionary work and you know why? Because they are too
busy, or they don't "know anyone" who could use the Gospel, or they
just don't trust that the missionaries are the right ones to teach
their friends. You know before the mission i saw people like marc
ellsworth and others like him who were always inviting people to see
the missionaries and i think 5 of the people who knew the missionaries
through marc were baptized. I thought it was so cool yet i would
never have given my friends to Higbey or FlOOOOOck! I thought they
were weird and i didn't trust them but you know what? I was totally
selfish and prideful. I hope that i am not like that when i go back
home. These missionaries that appraoch members wanting to work with
them are GOOD missionaries. Think about the risk they are taking in
asking you to come over and talk (of course not you personally but in
general). I wan't to be that member that every missionary turns to and
can count on, like Merlin and others. If we really love those around
us we'll take more chances on them. If they don't except such is
life. We take it and move on. Think about this. Each one of my
baptisms on my mission has come from referals. Crazy huh? Speaking
of which, we have another baptism on the 4th of March. He is a friend
of Andrew. To hear that you invited the sisters over to teach Erica is
so so so so GOOD! You have no idea how mush those missionaries are
thanking Heavenly Father for how you've opened this door for them.
You will be so blessed for trusting them but in also allowing Erica to
have this chance of an eternity really haha. Keep being great and
always try to help the missionaries in anyway you can. Everytime you
talk with them think about how you hope i am being treated out here.
Just a tangeant. We really are going to work with the ward this
transfer. That is for sure. So many blessings wait in store.

So the new elders in the apartment is a change. Last apartment was
just a party all day! We have three new elders and so we are all still
trying to get to know each other and trying to figure out everyones
habits and things like that. However it is going well and they are
great elders. Elder Petersen, my new companion comes from Utah and
the other elders are Elder Webber from utah and Elder Dickataldo from
Italy! we eat a lot of pasta. Hahaha! But voila quoi. For the
moment that is about it. Everything is going really GREAT! I love it
and I love the work. So yeah! I love you all so much and i pray
about you EVERY night!

Love, Elder Hoopes

Hi Family!

Comment t'allez vous tout le monde!?  how is everyone doing?  I miss you all quite a bit.  So i going to stay here in Brussels for the next transfer with Elder Peterson!  He was is my old district in Compiègne and he is just a work horse!  I am so stoked to have him as a companion.  I am really sad that i will be losing Elder Gubbay though.  Also Elders Marquez and Smith will both be leaving so 3 new missionaries are coming up to our apartment.  Crazy sauce!  One is a cool italian kid and the other is just another American.  Mais bon!  Je suis content d'avoir les nouveaux visages.  So yeah news news.  Well just on a fun side note i am learning a lot of new things in Spanish and i can follow conversations and bear testimony in Spanish.  Um also this week we had to do a ton of baptismal interviews and i have to say that it is so much fun seeing all of these people who want to be baptized and have strong desire to follow Jesus.  So cool i must say. I love it.  

So things going on here in Brussels.  Brussels is so cool still and i just love it so much.  I can't tell you how cool it is to go out and just find people to teach.  This week had some cool miracles.  Ok so in Brussels we are the only one with a credit card and so we have to buy everything for everyone.  So tuesday we spent the whole day shopping with the senoir couple here because they are remodeling their apartment and then also we had to go down to a city called Mons and do an interview.  So we stayed the night there and then Friday we got my foot checked out and by the way the is going well don't worry about sending stuff, and we did another interview and then sunday we were in another city called Liège for ANOTHER interview.  So this week it was a lot of Zone leader stuff and not as much just pure missionary stuff during the week.  Well because we did what we were supposed to some cool things happened.  This weekend we had 3 people come up to the church asking to be baptized!  and these people aren't crazy either.  One is a spanish man who has had the lessons before and then moved.  He found the church and asked to be baptized.  The others are both friends of members who have been sharing the gospel and both of them wanted to take the lessons and be baptized.  Cool Huh!?  So we will see what happens but all i know is that i feel super blessed and super humbled.  This week has been hard because not only has it been hard just finding the time to do things but it has been so SO SO cold!  Were talking like -10° celsius with humidity and wind.  BRRRRRR!!!!!!  Still i could be Bubba in Ukraine so i am happy but the point is is that if we keep working and just puting our heards down and going forward we won't have anything to worry about the Lord will take care of us.  I love this work so much and i appreciate my mission more than anything!  

Things like i said are just going great and i will be sad stay here without Elder Gubbay but in anycase the Lord needs him back in Paris for Chinese work.  Also just to let you know there were no problems with the Fed Ex package! Thank you so much for sending me all of the stuff!  I loved it so much and i am so thankful that you sent it to me!!!!!  Well i love you all so so so so so so so so so so so so so much!  Merci pour tout ce que vous faites!

Je vous aime tous!

Your First Born haha