April 13, 2015

Dear Family and friends,

This week has been a tiring one. There has been so much new work in my new area that every day we are almost running to keep up with our appointments. That is a GREAT tired feeling though!

On Tuesday, Elder Almeida (my new companion is from Brazil) was showing me the area and introducing me to our investigators and it was wierd for me because I had visited this area one time with another elder about 2 months back and it is strange because now I am here. As I said before, the work is rigorous and on Tuesday night we taught 8 lessons and for anyone that has not served a mission, that is a lot of lessons to teach in people’s homes. The reason is because we walk everywhere and sometimes it takes 15 to 30 min to arrive at every person’s house.

Wednesday there was a missionary that returned home from her mission. She completed her time in Curitiba which is one of the more wealthy areas in Brazil. It is funny because the ward has a fun nickname for her. Her given name is Karol but the people here call her Lorak. Also I met a member named Marcelo. He speaks English, served his mission in Argentina and is a fanatic about helping us here in the Brasilia mission. Also he was an elder that baptized a member in my last area. That was amazing!!

For those that have served missions they already know this but this could be a great reminder. For those that have not what I am about to say is one of the greatest blessings I think the we receive while serving on a mission. Out here in another state, country with a new language or the same missionaries are always meeting new people and showing them the Light of Christ. It doesn´t matter if you met the person 2 seconds ago in the street or knocked on their door, it doesn´t matter if you can or can´t understand what they are saying, it doesn´t matter how tough you are at holding a straight face but one of the greatest blessings the we missionaries get here in the mission is the POWER TO FEEL THE HOLY GHOST AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD BY OUR SIDES AND IN OUR HEARTS!! When I got into the mission I missed a lot of things from back home and a lot of things that I could do and I still do. But every day for me the greatest thing I have ever received out here on my mission is this wonderful feeling!! Sometimes I couldn´t understand what the people were saying or how bad my Portuguese was but one thing I knew is that they could feel the Spirit and Love of God touching their hearts and that they know the things we talk about are true.

For me I love the mission because I have felt this feeling so much and also the mission has been fun! An example is on Wednesday night when we went to meet the sister who returned from her mission and it started to rain outside. It was raining hard. We had to run back to our house that night which was like running from Fry’s grocery store in my hometown to my house!! We all got home completely soaked and it was so much fun!!!!

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday were so busy that I didn´t have time to write notes but we have been teaching so much and right now we have 3 people lined up for baptism on the 19 of this month (April).

On Sunday I got to meet the ward and this is the biggest ward I have been in yet which is about 130 - 145 people. This Sunday we had 4 investigators in church and it was so amazing to see hard work finally pay off.

I love all you guys and miss you but time is flying by so fast. I can’t believe I have already been out 7 1/2 months in the mission.


Love,
Elder Hoopes