January 27th 2014

Another Update from Hermana Hopkins!

We had two exchanges this week, one was with the AP-STLs (The assistant to the President sister training leaders) and the other was with one of the companionships we are over. On tuesday I was with Sister Christensen and I learned to just answer people's questions instead of beat around the bush and tell the whole story, some people just want a straight answer! Haha. Then on Thursday we had zone conference and I learned that there is a big difference between weaknesses and wickedness. We as humans are made weak so that we can exercise our faith and trust in God to become strong and overcome those weaknesses. Wickedness is willfully rebelling against God, sinning. We need not repent for weaknesses, God gave them to us, but we do need to repent for willful rebellion. We ask for the strength to overcome weaknesses, not for them to be taken away. That way He builds us and we learn to overcome that and any future trials or challenges. I am grateful that the Mission President gave us that extra insight, it really clicked. I understand Ether 12:27 a little better now. On Saturday we did another exchange and I was with Sister Reimer. It was good fun. We taught Joseph who is a 19 yr old who is letting his mom live with him instead of on the streets. She has a great faith in Christ and told us that she prays before she reads the bible so that she can understand what God wants her to understand. We were so impressed! We taught them both the Restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon. They were excited to do so and Joseph came to church the next day and loved it. A member said "See ya next Sunday!" and he replied "See ya next Sunday!" He had a great time and was excited to make a lot of new friends too. We are going to see what the moms interest level really is to see if we need to refer them over to the family ward sisters. Families should be taught together! She didn't come to church but we will probably refer them over to the other sisters anyway so they can progress together.

My companion helped me to understand yesterday the need to communicate about everything to about the Spirit to each other. That's how we stay connected and are able to understand each others feelings and help each other out when things get tough. We tell each other everything so that we don't have to play the guessing game. It's something great that I am learning.

I would write more but I have already taken too much time on the computer today haha. Know that I love you all and think of you often. Little things here and there remind me of you and I use a lot of our experiences together as helpful stories or examples in lessons. Keep on being the great examples that you are!

Hna Hopkins