She Came!!

Another email what a treat!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Ok, so I realize that this is a pretty ambigious heading to start off my email with. So what on earth could I be referring to by simply saying, "She came!" ? 

I find it somewhat ironic that after talking about the difficulties of getting people coming to church (my analogy of performing a show at the circus), we finally got one of our amis, Stephanie, to come to church! And not only that, but we got her to come with her 3 kids. A little bit of fellowshipping by members, encouragement, a car with two carseats and some faith later...and she came to church and loved it! (Pictures to come next week).

I couldn't help but just sit there at church beaming with happiness and joy for her. The entire ward just swooped in and received her with love, warmth and welcome. It really is wonderful to tell people about the blessings of the gospel and the church in their lives, but until they experience it for themselves, there really isn't any other way to explain it. 

Many a wonder experiences this week, going out to teach someone specific, the rdv falling through and then something impromptu follows. We ended finding some really cool new people to teach!

On one particular day, we'd set up a rdv with someone and it ended up not working out. So while we were out there in their neighborhood, we decided to talk to some of her neighbors...lots of real gems. One man promptly swings open his door and, with no hesitations, says, "Please come in!" All I'm thinking is, "We haven't even introduced ourselves yet?" haha He was still very nice though. Another lady, after her cat ran out, told me "not to touch it" to which she commanded it back into the appartment. A sweet young mom poked her head out the door and told us to come back. And then at the bottom stairs, we came across a man named Allen and his 90 year-old mother, Lucy who invited us in. As soon as he saw our tags, he said, "Oh, mormons." We ended up teaching them the entire first lesson about the restoration of the church. Lucy told us all about her experiences growing up going to catholic school and living during the aftermath of world war II. It felt so great being able to spend a moment with them and bear testimony. They even gave us something to eat!

Keep on Keeping on! Embrace the Week and really take advantage of every opportunity to love, lift and strengthen!

With Love,

Soeur Hopkins

P.s. I had to get a library card and the librarian tried to spell my first name. Nice try...it was never easy explaining it to anyone. haha