#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