Hello, Ni How, bonjour, hola, Guten Tag, privet, emboti, and Bon Dias!

How is everyone doing?  This week it doesn't seem like a whole lot of stuff went on back home but in any case i hope everyone back home is doing well and is happy.  I am so happy to hear about all of the progression that Ryan is making and honestly it is a miracle.  So so awesome i hope that he continues on this good track to get back to normal strength.  We pray for him everynight and i know that the Lord hears prayers.  Such a blessings.

So this week has been a good week to learn and grow.  Lately we have been facing a lot of oppostion but at the same time we did see a ton of success.  We just had a ton of rendez-vous fall throiugh when normally they should have gone through. So in turn we did a ton of finding and we are receiving a ton of numbers honestly but now we just need to convert those into converts and the hardest part is that first rendez-vous apparently.  We are going forth with patience and perserverance.  This next week a young man named Lassissi will be baptized and so that will be good to see another investigator baptized here in Paradise.  Speaking of awesome it is snowing.  But yeah so that is that.  I am really excited for him to get baptized.  So yeah for the most part that is all that happened this week.  This week should be really busy.  We will be going to Paris and then to Compiègne because i need to get my French Visitor Visa Papers.  SO we will be gone Wednesday and Thursday and a part of Friday.  Busy busy busy.  And on top of that we have a baptism this saturday so that will be crazy.  I feel all will go through smoothly.

So just little side notes.  Pascal is doing great in Limoges.  Lucas and Raquel emailed me today and they seem to be doing so good!  Mom happy birthday on Saturday!  I love you and will be thinking about you even more on that day!  I hope all of the Brothers are doing good at home and not getting into to much trouble.  I love you all!  

Elder Hoopes

Hola, Como estas?

I am totally picking up spanish by the way.  Elder Gubbay grew up in Spain so we speak a lot of spanish around here and i am picking it up really well.  Cool Huh?  Well it is really sad to hear that Brother Yates passed away this morning.  I send my condolences to their family and hope they feel my love even though i amm pretty far away.  I am so thankful to have brothers that go out and help those in need.  Also ryan continues to stay in our prayers out here in Brussels and i hope that he makes some more progress soon.  This has got to be so hard for Rick and Christine but thankyou for showing them the love that i can't give from over here.  They are in our prayers for sure though.  So yeah on a brighter note that is so cool that Connor tried out for the National youth volley ball team.  Good Luck Brother.  

Bon donc pour le travail missionaire.  Missionary work this week was good.  We have a lot of ups and downs.  This week me and Elder Gubbay noticed that we needed to change the way that we did things in order to be more humble and to see more success.  The truth is is that we have a gold mine of things to do and a ton of people lined up to hear the gospel but some are better at showing up to rendez-vous than others.  We keep working hard though.  We know that the Lord is willing to bless our efforts just as long as we stay humble and work as hard as we can.  Honestly i feel like me and Elder Gubbay are the dream team because working with him is simple and effective.  He is smart and just works his tail off and sets a great example.  So yeah honestly there isn't a ton of things to tell about.  Not a ton of things really happened that were super interesting.  Andrew continues to progress well after his baptism and we plan on baptizing two more of his friends in three weeks or so.  That will be excellent!  Our zone is doing super good as well.  There is a ton of efforts being shown through out the entire zone and we couldn't be happier.  I am so proud of their work ethic.  So yeah that is about it.  This week we will be going to Liège for a training which should be really fun.  Alrighty well i think that is it.

Thank you for all the love that all of you show me and know how much i think and pray about you.  You all are so special to me.  A bientôt,

Love,  Elder Hoopes

Bonjour Bonjour!

Donc Voilà quoi!  Andrew was baptized and Confirmed this week and It was a super special service.  I loved it so much and it is crazy that so much has gone on this week!  Andrew's story is one that will go in my journal as one of the coolest if not the coolest experience of my mission.  The best part of the entire service is when he got up and bore his testimony and also told a little bit of his story.  I loved it and nearly cried.  This man is 20 and has lived through things that no one should ever have to live through in their lives.  And he just keeps going as if it is normal.  You know someone knows God exists when they say, "I look at where I am in life and i think of what i have lived through then and now and i just know that God loves me.....He loves me." He is so special to me and such a miracle i can't believe it.  

Andrew's Baptism!

Also one of the amis we were teaching in Compiègne got baptized on his date as planned.  I think i told you all about Willy.  Well he got baptized so that is a miracle as well.  I think it is also so crazy that you all fasted and this is what happens.  Pretty cool huh? I have a very strong testimony of fasting as you already know but then this just reenforces it for sure.  Thank you for all your prayers that have been given in his behalf.  I'm sure he knows about it and feels of your love.  This week has been another crazy and jam packed week.  I don't know where we find the time to do it all but it just feels like so much stuff.  This week we taught 19 lessons which is the most i've ever taught on my mission.  So that is really cool not mentioning also that this week we also had a baptism and found 7 new amis.  It has just been a week of miracles and blessings and i am so grateful for all of it.  Also something that is super cool is that our Zone is just lit on fire and is taking off like crazy!  Our Zone found 1/5 of all the new amis and 1/5 of all lessons taught.  How cool is that?!  We are so proud of our Zone they are just working so hard and they are doing all that they can.  ALSO Elder Gubbay is just so super he really is fantastic.  He works hard and is obedient.  He is easy to get along with and is a great leader so i am happy.  Being with the other Elders is always fun i must add.  So yeah that is a little bit about brussels because the truth is i can't write all that i want to in the time that is given us.  I am just loving life right now and to be honest.  Brussels is the best city ever!

I am glad that Carson likes his new BouBou!  That is authentic from senegal!  Ha and i am glad to see that it fits so well.  When i get home we will have a Bou Bou party!  I think it is good to also hear the progressive but reassuring news about ryan.  It is coming back slowly but i know that he is well watched over.  Hunter check engine lights mean what they say they mean.  Sorry dad. Ha um lets see..... Thank you mom for sending all the fun pictures! I can't even recognize the babies!  it is crazy.  Next thing my shoes have holes in the bottoms again.  Do you want to see what we can do with Echo?  I believe that it is possible to get them replace after one year.  Ummm..... Quoi d'autres....????  I think that is it for the moment.  Oh yes we found the coolest little place.  It is a little mexican food shop!  I sent some pictures.  I had a Chicken and Pico de Gallo burrito!!!!!  Yes!  I loved it.  I even Drunk Jarritos!  Magic to the stomach.  That is the first thing i want to eat when i come back is Filebertos! just FYI.

I love you all so so so so so so so so so so so so MUCHO!!!!!! I am learning spanish also ha.  Seriously though i am.

Elder Hoopes

Arc de Triumphe de Bruxelles

Grand Place 2

Grand Place

Yes!

We found Mexican Food!

The Coolest Story Ever

Ok so First of all i have to say this is going to be one of the best places of my mission.  I absolutely LOVE BRUSSELS!!!!! Such an incredible city but also at the same time so much potential to improve!  I am so excited to work here and Elder Gubbay is just such a stud!  He is French, lived in Spain his whole life and then moved out to Dubai.  He is super legit, hard working, obedient and patient.  I love him.  Also the Elders we live live are fun as well.  One is named Elder Smith and Elder Marquez.  Elder Marquez is from Mesa and knows the Chapmans and the Shawcrofts.  Pretty cool hey? Also i am having to learn how to speak spanish because of how many spanish speakers there are here in Brussels.  So on verra bien!  Maybe i'll come home speaking two other languages.  So yeah just things are great and the work up here is just starting to explode!  We are expecting big things!  I am so excited.  I felt as if i just got recalled on my mission really.  It is just a totally new experience and i am already loving it so much and feeling all the great blessings coming from it.  I love it.  

So missionary work.  We are doing a lot of finding and contacting but also teaching a lot.  It's iin large part thanks to what Elder Gubbay and his companion did before i got here.  So now it is our responsiblity to keep it going and make this place just absolutely EXPLODE!  Do you want to hear a miracle?  This is the Coolest story ever.  Ok so i don't think i ever told you guys the story of back when i was in cherbourg but when i was there one day we had to go to Caen for interviews.  Upon arriving we found that some of the other elders had brought some amis to the interviews.  Well these investigators were not just any ordinary amis.  They Were refugees.  The leader of the two named Saledine came from a prosperous family in Sierra Leon.  He somehow figured out that christianity was true and converted however his muslim father was not happy and searched to KILL HIM.  So he flees the country to Greece were he is held in a refugee center there.  Well one of the roomates in that room knew about the missionaries and they all took the lessons.  They were 14 in total.  this one who knew the missionaries was named Isaac.  so they are all taking the Rendez-vous and are even going to get baptized.  3 of them did however The rest did not. Why?  Because one week before their baptism, they are shipped out to other countries to live.  Some to Germany, some to france, some to netherlands so on and so forth.  Well In the train up to Caen Saledine is praying so much so that he can find the missionaries and be baptized.  Upon arriving in Caen, they get off the train and go to the tramway and there is standing the missionaries, going to interviews!  How cool!  they were baptized by Elder Reuckert Two months later.  Fastforward to US!!!!!! So this thrusday we meet a man named Umaru.  He was contacted by Elder Gubbay and his other companion on New years.  We meet with him and he says Com and preach the word of God to my brothers in the refugee camp here!  We are 500!  We didn't think that was a good idea because well one there are tons of Muslims there, 2nd he seems a little off.  So we said "Umaru just bring a couple friends to the next rendez-vous and then we'll see."  So then this saturday we go to see him and he has brought a friend named Andrew.  Andrew says he is also from Sierra Leon.  We asked if he had ever met the missionaries and he said to us "Yes I have. I have read the Book of Mormon and I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God."  He were STUNNED!  We then asked where he had met the missionaries.  He said that he had met the missionaries in Greece.  I made the connection and sure enough he was one of the original 14 that took the lessons and one of the ones who couldn't be baptized.  We asked him if he would be baptized this saturday and he accepted.  He will be baptized on this Saturday!  How incredible!!!!!!! and one cool note is that he is one of the last ones be found by the missionaries.  All of the others, found and baptized in their respective countries!  HOW INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!  I was just so incredibly thankful for this experience and also so humbled that the Lord would be so merciful as to help us in his work.  Just such an amazing story!

So sorry that took up a ton of space but that is just so cool!  Carson Happy Birthday!  I love you so much!  Mom thank you for the video!  It was hilarious!  Who is "new brother not from mom brother?"  Anyway he should be getting something from me soon.  Ryan is still in all my prayers and i hope that he starts making more progress.  I will be sending home a package soon with stuff i don't want to carry with me any more but i will tell you when i send it.  Anyway i love you all so much and i pray for you daily!!!!  

Love Elder Hoopes

Belgium Waffle!  Magic in Mouth

Dude So HIGH! Surfing on the Metro

Hal Porte

Me and Elder Gubbay in our BouBous

The Bruxelles Elders

The Mannekin Pis

Bonne Année!!!!

Haapy New years Everybody!  Holy cow it is currently 2012!  Insane. simply insane.  It certainly ended with a bang.  I am really sad to hear about what happened with Ryan and he is definately in our prayers.  I like getting updates by the way.  I am sad but at the same time comforted that he is not dead.  I realize there is nothing physically i can do so i will just pray so hard for him so that he can at least feel the love of us all spiritually.  This brings me to rememberance of how incredibly fragile life is and how at any moment it can flee from us.  Alma 34:32 "this time is time for [us] to prepare to meet God."  We never know when he will call our name so let us always be ready.  My prayers and best hopes go out to Rick and Christine's family.  let them know that i am thinking about them a ton right now.  On a brighter note the anouncement of Twins!  How incredibly fun and what a shock!  I am so excited that i will get to be home for two new babies!  I left when there was two and now i will be coming home to two.  Such a fun blessing.  Also talking about things back home, calling home was so much fun and i loved it so much.  It was the first time that i have called and felt just a little homesick afterwards because it just felt like we were all just talking again like normal.  It was fun!  We get one more of those before we can really see each other again!  crazy huh?!  I think it is so crazy how quick everything is going to pass honestly.  How ever at the same time it is kinda bitter sweet because i am going along now with an eraser and every new day will be a last at the end of the night.  So that just reminds me to not let one things pass by.  I have only 5 transfers remaining and i think it is nuts that i have finished 11 already.  I just need to keep on going without stopping.  No regrets.  I am doing well so far.  So yeah i will see you all soon.

I am so incredibly thankful for the chance i have to serve as Brussels Zone leader.  I think it is an experience that will really help me grow and give me a completely new perspective on missionary work.  We will be incharge of young adults, Two wards and also in charge of all french speaking Belgium.  It feels good that president Poznanski has trusted me and Elder Gubbay with such a big task honestly.  I am excited for sure.  I am going to miss Compiègne but to be honest leaving here hasn't been as surprising or difficult as before.  I feel like i worked my hardest here and that i did what i could.  I felt so much love and cooperation from the ward an i must admit that is something that i am so grateful for about this ward.  They showed my a ton of love and i really appreciate that.  I am ready for a new chapter however. I feel confident in leaving Elder Reed here to work with him and i feel that he will do such a great job.  they should be having a baptism here on the 14th of January.  Alors on verra bien!  This will totally be a new time for me.  

So just touching some other little things.  Thankyou so much for the package you sent for christmas. I didn't express enough about how thankful i was.  You gave me such wonderful things.  I love the Pingpong to-go packet.  That takes up no room and is totally fun for like P-day's and stuff.  However there are other things like my stocking and also and old suit i have that is to big but not ruined at all and also some other little things i need to send home.  so i will do that when i get to belgium.  Apparently there is an American Base there is brussels that we can send things home from that is U.S flat rate shipping.  SO i will try to organize that.  Also tell me how you guys feels about me leaving things behind or throwing out things here?  I am such a sentimental person and that is always difficult for me to do and especially like, if at the end of my mission you'd be like "so do you still have this thing we sent", and i'd be like no i threw it out and then it's like Oh......that's sad.  So just tell me how you feel about it.  Like for example i have no idea what to do with the christmas tree because it is so sweet and i love it but i don't necessarily need it or think that you need it so tell me your opinion.  So yeah i think that is all for the moment.  Thankyou for everything that you do for me and know that i love you all so so so so much.  Again Tell rick and Christine how much i am thinking about them and how much i am thinking and praying about Ryan.

I love you all,

Elder Hoopes

Je vais démenager!‏

I'm moving!  I am going to be the Brussels, Belgium zoneleader with Elder Gubbay, who is super tight!  I am really stoked and i will be heading out this wednesday morning!  My new address will be...

Elder Jonathan Hoopes

194/3.2 avenue de Broqueville

1200 Bruxelles

Belgium

I am super excited for this new experience to be a zoneleader and we'll just see what happens :)

Happy new years everybody!

Elder Jonathan Hoopes

Bonjour

Bonjour Bonjour!  

     Well hey i know that it is not monday but we actually got our P-day moved to today just for this week because we are going to have what is called a mini-missionary with us next week so president didn't want us doing emails with them.  Mini-missionaries are just young men in the stake who go and spend 3 days living like a missionary!  So yeah.

     Well this week has been good.  Time is flying and i am so behind it feels like.  Things are going well in any case.  I think next week is going to be fantastic!  I just bought some stuff so that Elder Reed and i can do the Christmas Eve dinner.  We are going to be going to eat with a family that night but we'll still make it so we can have left overs in the morning :)  Everyone meaning our amis are doing great!  They are staying super solid and really progressing.  We now have 6 progressing amis and a pool of about 40 who we see from time to time who aren't totally progressing like they should but are getting there.  So that is that. The ward is still doing so good.  They are really helping us out and showing us so much love.  They are also doing a lot of missionary work.  We decided this week to make cookies for all of the members! something we couldn't do back home that is for sure but here where there are 50 strong we can and did!  They loved it so much!  It is kinda tough to write when i'm not answering all of your questions..... Hmmmm... any cool stories...... not really.......OHHHH!!!! we went to The Louvre Museum this monday and then today we were able to Go through Pierrefonds, that super cool castle in our area.  They were so awesome.  The Louvre was just packed with so many things honestly and then Pierrefonds was all to ourselves pretty much.  We were 2 of The 4 people in the entire castle it was super cool!So just to coordinate every thing for sunday.  I will be calling at 8 in the morning so 5 o'clock our time.  We can talk for one hour :)  I will be doing skype too.  So be ready to see my FACE!!!!!  I am so excited to talk to you all next week and see all of you!  I really don't have much else to say but know that i love you all so much and am thinking about you a ton!

Elder Hoopes

Giant Persian Statues

Greek Hunter

If Taco werre in Egypt

Sphinx

Storm Drain Attack

THE Mona Lisa

The Mummy

The Venus de Milo