1 Cor. 13:8 - Charity Never Faileth

So, the main big news of this week is that I have a new companion: Elder Philip Dela Cruz from Honolulu Hawaii! Elder Threet is getting the Big Transfer back to Arizona. It's going to be good to have a new companion to help me in the Meridian North area. Elder Dela Cruz is a good teacher and is really bold, which is good. We hope to find a lot more people to teach this transfer. In fact, the whole mission does. We had a mission-wide fast to help us find new investigators this past Sunday. So far, we've already seen the hand of the Lord bless us with new families to teach. What a blessing.

One thing I've really enjoyed studying lately is the doctrine of charity, or the pure love of Christ. In the New Testament, we are taught that the two great commandments are "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." (Luke 10:27) These two commandments pretty much sum up every other commandment we are to live by. If we truly love the Savior we will keep his commandments (John 14:15) and if we truly love our fellow men, we will strive to serve and help them in any capacity we can, overlooking their inadequacies as God overlooks ours.

A scripture I really like is 1st Peter 4:8 which reads: "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." Another translation reads "...for charity preventeth a multitude of sins." I love that. Having love for others not only helps us, but prevents sins from happening. If we loved our neighbor, we would never envy the things that they have to the point of stealing, because we respect them too much to do so. If we loved our neighbor, we would not want to say an unkind remark about them, whether in their presence our without their knowledge. If we loved our neighbor, as Peter writes, a multitude of sins could be avoided.

Want a guide to self-improvement? Try substituting your name for the word "charity" in these verses from 1st Corinthians 13:

4 Elder Hopkins suffereth long, and is kind; Elder Hopkins envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not [his] own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Do all those characteristics match up to your traits? Probably not. Me neither. But that's ok, because that's what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. We realize we're not perfect and we can't be without some help. In fact, in this life, we will never be. But because our Savior gave up His life for us on the cross and suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, he fills in those imperfect gaps we all have in our lives through his grace and love. As the ancient prophet Moroni said:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32)

I know I have flaws. I know there are PLENTY of things in my life I've done wrong and regret. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can be cleansed from sins and return to live with my Heavenly Father again someday. Because of what Christ did, I can be with my family forever. I know God and the Savior love us despite all of our mistakes and because of that, I try harder to love other people as much as God would. To truly see them as brothers and sisters. To see them as children of God.

Thanks to all of you who still care about me despite my frailties and mistakes. You mean more than you realize. Hope all is going well in your part of the globe!

Until next time,

Elder Hopkins

Letter - 3/1/11

We had some interesting stuff happen this week, a lot of which had to do with new investigators. We've been praying a lot for new investigators, and Heavenly Father sure delivered. We had two this past week and have about 3-5 more we'll be contacting soon as well as plenty of member referrals! Good stuff.

One of these new people interested in learning about the Church is named Maxx Brown. We met with him and he asked what he had to do to be baptized right off the bat! When we were talking about the Book of Mormon and told him he could read and pray to know if it was true we said

"You can read and..."

"I'll read the whole thing!"

It was pretty funny that he just busted in and said he'd read it all. We told him that was awesome, but he didn't necessarily have to read all of it before he prayed to know if it was true. We've since seen him again and he's well on the road to conversion.

Another funny thing that happened this last week happened on Thursday night. We had an appointment with Paula Edmonds and JP, her son. We had planned to have the Crawfords - a dad and his son - come with us to the lesson since we can't go in where there's no adult male. About ten minutes before the lesson, they cancel. So we call our Ward Mission leader. He's not home. So we call the other setof missionaries serving in our Stake. They don't answer. About this time, we're desperate because we don't want to give up our appointment. Just then, we drove by the Seminary building at Centennial High and there were lights on. So I hit the brakes, we flipped a U and parked on the side of the road and ran inside.

We get in the classroom and realize it's an Institute class. We walk up to the front of the room and the teacher asks "Elders! What can I do for you?" We explained our situation and asked if anyone would go with us to a lesson. Of course, we thought, we'll get plenty of volunteers. Wrong! No one raised their hand. After a second, a guy in the middle of the room got up and said he's go. His name was Clint.

Clint went with us to our lesson and did an awesome job and saved the day. He lives in a different area off Boise than where we serve, so I doubt we'll ever see him again. So, wherever you are: Thanks Clint!

As a last note, check out this crazy story my companion forwarded me from his parents:

Read The Caption on the first photo ....then look at the second photo

Look at the picture above, and you can see where this driver broke through the guardrail, on the right side of the culvert, where people are standing on the road, pointing.

The pick-up was traveling about 75 mph, from right to left, when it crashed through the guardrail.

It flipped end-over-end, bounced off and across the culvert outlet, and landed right-side-up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which the driver was traveling.

The 22-year-old driver and his 18-year-old passenger were unhurt, except for minor cuts and bruises. Just outside Flagstaff , AZ on U.S. Hwy 100.

Now, look at the second picture below . . .

If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he believes now?

Thanks for reading and thanks for all your support!

-Elder Hopkins