From Alec: September 22, 2009

Hello Everyone,
It's almost General Conference!!! We are way excited for that to come - it is such an amazing time that we have to listen to what really makes our religion Christ's true and living restored church. Even with the Book of Mormon we're not too different from most Christianity (the BOM and Bible are very similar, considering they originate from the same time period) except the fact that we claim, rightly, that we have a Prophet (and others) who has the authority to run the church directly from Jesus Christ himself. By the way - it is a great thing to invite people to, a very good missionary tool. You can rely on the fact that there are people who would be curious to hear what our prophet has to say.

Anyways, things are going pretty well here - last week was the first normal week that we had since the 2nd week of the transfer (weeks 3 & 4 were crazy). We also had two exchanges. On Monday we had our district leader, Elder Harrison come - that was a good day, he is a great missionary. Then on Thursday we had one of our Zone leaders, Elder Coffman, come with us. That was very awesome too. Then Friday was ZDM (zone development mtg). That was great - had some good instruction and it is always good to have an interview with President Bassett, he is just a great person.

Saturday consisted of getting ready for J's baptism. It went great too - J got baptized and everything went just smoothly. It was all her decision too, as was her coming to church 3 weeks in a row now. Her confirmation was great as well. Now that whole family (two sons and J) is baptized, which is a very good thing.

We had a great opportunity on Sunday as well - in 1st ward we got to pass the sacrament, and that was the first time since I was a deacon (I don't think I ever passed as a teacher) to do so. I loved it, you really gain an appreciation for the sacrament as a missionary. You try to bring investigators to it and it is directly linked to the main thing we are focused on - the covenant of baptism.

I also had an increase in testimony on the principle of fasting. This last Sunday I fasted for D. - because we don't really know (not that we don't have faith it can or will - we do) how to help him have the faith to make the right decisions in his life (i.e. baptism). We trust it will happen as we teach with the Spirit and are led by it, but at the moment we don't know. So 3rd ward fast and testimony meeting this Sunday was probably the most powerful one I have been in. I didn't even think about it until halfway through that it was an answer to my fast and prayer for him. He then stayed for Gospel Doctrine and that class was a very Spirit-filled class as well. One of the better ones I've ever attended. It was on the saving of souls (as taught by President Young in SLC) in relation to the pioneers and their story (so the handcart companies' story was part of it). If there's something that needs the extra help, for example something that you have need help overcoming in your personal life, then fasting is a great option. It has helped me quite a bit along the journey of my life.

Well, Love you guys and hope that you have a great week preceding and following General Conference!

Elder Hoopes