weather has been beautiful and lots of good things have been
happening. My new companion is Elder Odd, he is from Seattle,
Washington. He has been on his mission for 10 months. He's awesome! We
both teach really well together and our personalities mesh to make us
interesting and fun. I learned a lot this week.
I had the chance to go on an exchange with Elder Baker, the Assistant
to the President. I have a lot respect for this missionary. He had a
dislocated hip when he was a baby and the doctors didn't catch it, but
when they did, they broke his femur trying to reset it which caused
lots of issues. Ouch! He is a powerful missionary with a strong
testimony. He still plays basketball and everything! We had an awesome
lesson together that night as well- It was just powerful. Barbara and
Jessie; they just wanted to learn more and said they would be
baptized. They also said they believe what we are saying. It was just
so cool! I felt my testimony confirmed by the Holy Ghost of Jesus
Christ when I shared my testimony. It was such an awesome lesson that
was guided by the spirit. They caught the vision and understood.
Finally someone understands how amazing this is! God has reached out
to us again by calling another prophet. One cool part of this lesson
was when Jessie asked a question about Christ appearing to Joseph
Smith. What was interesting was that I immediately knew what he was
asking- his question came clearly to my mind and I knew he was
thinking that this experience was the second coming. I asked him if
that was what he was thinking and it was. We addressed it and we just
answered all his questions and his mind was at ease when we told him
the second coming has not happened yet! He is baptist so the second
coming/rapture is a core belief of his.
Here are some important lessons I have learned. They aren't grand or
miraculous, but they were really cool to me. The Holy Ghost is
teaching me more as I have been trying to humble myself. There was a
man that I saw in his driveway reading and I just had this strong urge
to talk to him that wouldn't go away. I at first was just like, nah
this is me, but I decided to listen to this feeling thinking it could
be the Holy Ghost. We parked the car and approached the man and he was
very friendly. Once the small talk was out of the way, I told him that
"The Lord loves you because when I drove by, your Heavenly Father told
me to come talk to you". I think he then recognized us as servants of
The Lord and he said "when I saw you guys get out of your car, I knew
you were coming to talk to me". It was just awesome! God is preparing
people! I had another similar prompting/feeling regarding going to
Buffalo Wild Wings. I felt uncomfortable about it, but ignored it and
went anyway. While there I felt that I shouldn't get Mtn Dew. I
ignored that one too. These were feelings that weren't from me. I
ignored both and oh, I felt the repercussions. The wing sauce
destroyed my digestive system and the Mountain Dew made me super
shaky! I didn't feel good the rest of the day. I am learning to
recognize these feelings and I feel they come because of my desire to
learn and follow God humbly.
While at transfer meeting, President Calderwood said that the
missionaries going home served honorably and did great things for the
mission. The impression that came to me was "how will I end?" These
next four months are going to be great! Time has gone by too fast.
During my quarterly interview with my mission president, I asked him
to renew my temple recommend. He gave me a cool insight I thought was
cool. He said the first 4 questions are all testimony based and the
other 11 are worthiness. The first four questions regarding testimony
ask about our belief and understanding of the Godhead, the Atonement,
the Restoration, and living prophets. He told me that this is all the
Brethren bear testimony of during conference. He committed me to bear
testimony only of these things and nothing else. I gladly accepted. I
thought that was cool!
Well, I love you all very much and hope you remember how awesome you
are. Seriously. You are God's greatest creation! 😛
Love,
Elder Hooper
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