Week 13 NYNYS

Hey everybody,

This week has been pretty busy! At the beginning of the week I had a great experience in a lesson. We taught a father and his son, who were taught months previously by missionaries, but they said they couldn't get in contact with them. We found them in our area book and gave them a call. They said they would love to have us over and said they weren't sure where the other missionaries went. The son has even read the Book of Mormon and knows it is true! It was the best lesson I have ever taught. The spirit was so strong! The entire lesson was very inspired, and they both felt the spirit very strong. They both accepted the invitation to be baptized as well. I feel very blessed to have had this experience. I have never met these two men before in my life, but because God knows them and loves them perfectly, He was able to let them feel that through me. I knew what the Lord needed them to hear at that time through the Holy Ghost.

We had an awesome Zone Conference given by President Calderwood and the Assistants. President shared an analogy, about the Plan of Salvation that really got me thinking about our life here on Earth much differently than before. We all lived in heaven with God before we came to this Earth. He is literally our Father and we are His spirit children! We were taught everything that we needed know to reach our full potential and to receive the fullness of joy that God had. This is the analogy that helped me to really understand this. He said it is like you are trying to learn how to play the violin by reading a book. You can have all the knowledge you need to understand how to read the notes and where your fingers go to play them and to understand the music theory, but until you actually pick up the instrument and play it is the only way you will be able to master the art of playing the violin. There is no way that I could learn how to play with all the different bow techniques, vibrato, proper posture, and rhythm without actually practicing! This is exactly how it is for our lives. There is no way that we would have been able to take all the knowledge we gained in heaven and really understood it without a body! It was a really cool insight that I especially loved since I am a violinist. He has been using violin analogies a lot with me, I love it. I have been really studying the Plan of Salvation and it is truly and wonderful plan! It is amazing how much I am learning about it as I have been diving deep into the doctrines behind it.

As of right now, we have 4 investigators we are working with who I love very much! They are all great people and I look forward to seeing them succeed and make the church apart of their lives and seeing them experience the joy that comes from making and keeping covenants!

The rest of the week went a little slow. We spent 4 hours cleaning our church's kitchen! It hasn't had an operating sink for almost 2 months so it was bad news! At our zone conference, President Calderwood, after preparing food in the kitchen, was like you guys need to do a service project in here! Now it is shiny in there.

We have been doing a lot of fearlessing, which is simply approaching people on the streets and talking to people while they walk. We have been doing Book of Mormon street sweeps, game nights in the subway and also on the streets. We also have been trying to do church tours and invite people outside the church to come view the inside. It has definitely gotten the community familiar with us too!

The weather is finally starting to agree with me! It is starting to warm up and not be so freezing. However I believe we are going to be hit with a nice storm this week which I am not looking forward too!

I am still doing very well in New York. I sure do love it here! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,

Elder Hooper