Another Week In Saratoga Zone

This Week has been really amazing, I went on two exchanges this week, one was in the Chinese Program and that was cool although I could not teach anything but I got to go like halfway across the mission for the investigators they had.

Also we took a lot of selfies this week, I don't know why it just keeps happening.

Also we met this really awesome old couple on the street just walking by, The Wheelers. They asked us if we were Mormon and asked us if we could come visit them sometime, it was really cool.

Not much else this week, I am sick again, with a sore throat and a cold, its not too bad.

We have been working really hard and we just know we will see some miracles soon

Thankyou all so much for your love and encouragement

Love

Elder Hopkins

Yay! Food Poisoning!

Hello Family and Friends!

Well last P-day after I emailed we went to Dairy Queen for Lunch and I got really bad food poisoning, I was unable to work for a couple of days it was pretty terrible. Since then I think my stomach has shrunk and so I can't eat as much as I used to, which may be a good thing or a bad thing. We gave like 3 blessings at different hospitals later in the week, and I added a picture of the fact that missionaries get the best parking at Hospitals, Clergy Parking, oh yeah.

Besides all of that, it has been a great week, we are not able to find many people to teach but we are still working our hardest to find them, so we have been really exhausted recently.

Well that is all! Love you all thankyou for being awesome!

Elder Hopkins

ZTM!

Hello everyone!

This week has been great, I did not get to email yesterday because the Library was closed for Presidents day. This week I lead my first ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) It went really well, we taught about asking for referrals and working with members. I attached two pictures of the zone.

Also I went on Exchanges with one of our District leaders, Elder Gardner, last week I forgot to take a picture. I am currently on exchanges with Elder Feller, I did send a picture of him at his desk.

Oh also My glasses broke when I was on exchanges, I am not really sure how they just sort of exploded. 

Another cool thing this week was the stake missionary training meeting. The High Councilor over missionary work was out of town so he had Elder Faux and I lead a meeting which consisted of Ward Mission Leaders, Bishops, Full-Time Missionaries, and the Stake Presidency from the Stake and we got up and trained them all on how to better use Ward Missionaries and how to make an effective Ward Mission Plan. It was a really cool opportunity.

Being a Zone Leader has made me really really busy, but there have been all sorts of opportunities to serve and help other missionaries which has been really good. It is cool being the first companionship to be called as soon as anyone in the zone needs a blessing or has to go somewhere, it is just an honor and a privilege to serve in this new capacity.

The church is true, the organization of the church is true, Jesus Christ is at the head of it, I have no doubt about that, and the Priesthood power of God makes it all possible!

I love and appreciate you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Hopkins

Saratoga Zone

Broken Glasses (good thing he has a back up pair)

Elder Feller

New Zone! 6 Months in!

Well I am in my new zone!

Drum roll.......

I am in the Saratoga Zone! Yay!

It is the the West of San Jose, South of my old area in Palo Alto. I love being a zone leader and serving all of the other missionaries.

My new companion is named Elder Faux, he is such an awesome missionary, he knows his stuff so well. I added a picture of us at our desks.

We cover two wards, the Los Gatos family ward, which is a really big rich ward. Los Gatos is spanish for the cats which is a good name because there are a lot of stray cats here and also fat cat business people. We also cover the Monta vista Singles ward which covers the whole stake.

So my area now is huge, it is like one big confusing maze. But I will get used to it I think, We cover part of San Jose, Part of Santa Clara, Campbell, Cupertino, Moor Park, Stevens Creek, Monte Sereno, and Saratoga. I love the area, there are a lot of hills that are so beautiful and fun to drive through.

I live in an apartment with the tongan elders, Elder Muna and Elder Crawford, they are fun, they convinced me to take a muscle mirror selfie with them, so I will add that picture too.

Anyways I am just excited for the work here and the new responsibility!

I love you all thank you for all of your love and support!

Elder Hopkins

Elder Hopkins and Elder Faux

Elder Hopkins with Elder Muna and Elder Crawford

Where in the mission is Elder Hopkins going?

Hello family and friends and well-renowned mission blog reviewers!

This week was full of stuff. Where to begin?

Monday we had a day where all of the sisters in the zone went down to monterrey and all of the elders had a team sports day, I included some pictures, it was fun.

Nose bleeds are back, funny story as I am sitting here typing this out I have a wad of tissue of my nose, how is that for real time news? Anyway I went in to the Stanford Express Clinic, they thought they knew what was going on, but after two short tests, they realized they had no idea what was going on and they reffered me to an ENT (Ears Nose and Throat) doctor. Yay... another doctor.

Also Nate Mella came and lived with us for a couple of days, he served with Elder Maxwell in Stanford for a day and he served a day with me, then we killed him missionary style by karate chopping his tie off. It was really fun having him around.

In other big news, Elder Ramirez is taking over for me as the new District Leader, I am so excited for him, and I got called as a zone leader and will be transferring to who knows where tomorrow morning. I am so nervous, I am officially the youngest/newest Zone Leader in the mission.

Also on top of the nose bleeds, I have been really sick. I completely lost my voice on Sunday and I could not even bare my testimony for my last day in both wards, so I wrote down my testimony and I had Elder Ramirez read it out loud at the pulpit in both wards. Both J. Wallace and R. Hillis were in tears. As I walked down the aisle from the stand I looked at the ward members I passed by smiling at me, and I almost cried myself. I have really grown to love the wards in Palo Alto they all came up to me and told me how much they would miss me, which made it even harder, but I know its time to move on.

Well I think that is all for this week, I will give you all my new address when I transfer!

Love you all, thank you for your love and support!

Elder Nathan Hopkins

 

 

Last District Meeting

I also forgot for my last district meeting I had everyone take pictures in front of the white board and had everyone else write words to describe them

Elder Ramirez

Elder Maxwell

Elder Hopkins

Meetings plus as much missionary work as we could find

Hello Family, friends, and Whoever else is reading this:

This week was great, as always!

Last week I mentioned I was having a lot of nose bleeds, they miraculously stopped! Yay! We were also to busy to go in to the Stanford Clinic to go get it checked out so hopefully it continues to not bleed.

We had a lot of meetings this week to work around, a leadership one in Sunnyvale, District Meeting, and 3 sessions of stake conference to go to. Stake Conference was really very good, I learned a lot, but sitting in hard folding chairs for 3 sessions was less fun. I saw Nate Mella again, he was at the leadership session.

We are working with a guy who had a baptismal date named Mark, but he sort of disappeared off of the face of the planet, that was unfortunate. In the Singles wards we are working with an investigator named Andrew who just got engaged to one of the members, awesome.

Things are going great, although transfers are coming up soon, and I am probably getting transferred.

So if you have already sent me mail and it is on its way, I should get it before I leave. If you really would like to send me mail before I get to my next area, you can send it to the mission address:

California San Jose Mission

Elder Nathan Hopkins

3975 McLaughlin Ave Ste A

San Jose CA, 95121-2631

And I can go pick it up when I go for transfer meeting. When I figure out my new address I will be sure to send it here so that people can know. I may stay here in Palo Alto 1 more transfer, but I will be able to let everyone know that in next email.

It is really weird to think that this may be my last week in Palo Alto, I have really come to think of it as my home, I love the members I've met so much and the people I have met, it will be weird to be in a new area.

I added to photos, one is the view from our apartment window from the street below and the other is a view inside our apartment, I just happen to be lifting weights in that one.

I love you all, I appreciate your support and I know that your prayers on my behalf really do help!

Elder Hopkins

 

 

Nose Bleeds for Days!

Hello Family, Friends, and anyone else who actually has time to read my weekly emails.

This week has been awesome, although not without its challenges. I did not mention it last week because I did not think it was a big deal, but I was getting a lot of nose bleeds, which was unusual for me, because I never ever get nose bleeds, ever. I can't remember one time before my mission. Over the past couple of weeks I have had 13 or more nose bleeds that have been really bad, a couple led to some funny stories, a couple while I was at members houses for dinner and I end up just laying on the couch while my companions eat.

I called the mission nurse to ask her what I should do, so she sent me to a clinic in San Carlos, where we waited for an hour and were told to go to Stanford Hospital to get an answer, so we are going to call in and set an appointment soon to figure out why my nose is bleeding all of the time, cause it is pretty annoying.

On top of that I was pretty sick again this week, that was a bummer. But now I am feeling much better.\

On the bright side, we had a really good meeting in Los Altos it lasted about 8 hours and it was a lot of changes President Mella is making in the mission. We have had two dinners almost every night because Stanford Meal Calendar and our Meal calender was full before we combined so we eat two dinners a night.

We also went on a hike this morning and it was raining, we saw a lizard, also I included a picture of the spider that lives in our bathroom, we named him Mr. Rogers, he is our friend.

Love you all thank you for your support!

 

 

Facebook, The Bay, and a really awesome Baptism

This week was really awesome. Last P-day I went to Facebook HQ with one of our members and it was so insanely cool. Facebook blows Google and Apple right out of the water. Facebook was like Disneyland. There are like 5 restaurants, several dessert places, and all sorts of other food all over the place, and what makes it the best: It was all free. Everything was free. On the FB campus there was also a bank, hair salon, a hospital, a jumbotron, an arcade, a gym, and much more. It was so unbelievably cool.

Later on in the week one of the Zone Leaders had to go home due to medical reasons, since I am his District Leader, he joined with us, but in all reality we joined with him because we moved out of the cottage into his place which is an actual apartment with a real kitchen, more than one sink and not a bunch of random junk sitting around everywhere it is pretty nice. We will be serving all 4 wards, Palo Alto 1 and 2 family wards and Stanford Singles wards for the next 3 weeks. If you want to send me mail continue sending it to my old place for now, We swing by there every once in a while.

So yeah covering 4 wards now. It is a lot of work.

Also we had this baptism last minute at 9:30 at night in a swimming pool, for S. Kauffman, He has ALS type symptoms so he is really weak so they held the baptism privately it was so cool.

Also I have some pictures when we went down to the Bayside in EPA. Enjoy.

We also had the missionary department come and talk to a handful of missionaries including all of the Zone leaders and some of the district leaders in San Jose about a completely new teaching style that we are looking forward to spread through the mission, although it was a 7 hour training. that was crazy.

Well that was my week, Thank you all for your emails, letters, prayers, and other forms of support, your support keeps me going strong and I thank you all for it.

Love,

Elder Hopkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ring Out Wild Bells

It's 2015!!!

That is super crazy. This week has been awesome. Some of the members are still out of town, but a lot of them got back which was really great.

A couple funny stories from this week:

1. Saturday: we were walking through EPA when this guy yelled from across the street, "Elders!" We turned and saw a man pulling up on his bike in full winter gear (keeping in mind it is winter here, but there is no snow and it is not very cold). He ran across the street avoiding the cars, he grabbed our hands and began to pray, he offered one of the funniest prayers I have ever heard then he got on his bike and rode off. As he was disappearing I yelled after him, "Are you a member?" he answered, "no." I said, "Do you have a phone number?", he replied, "No." I said "well can we meet with you sometime?" and he shouted back, "I am homeless, but my name is Joshua," and then he was gone.

2. On New Years Eve we spent the night hanging out with the elders from RedWood City, so they came over, but it was too cold and too small, plus part of our power and our heating has been out so we spent the night in the Stake President's attic. And at Midnight, we heard many gunshots across the bridge in EPA. It was great.

Well that's all for now, love you all!

Elder Hopkins