Conference Weekend

I loved conference. It was such a great experience! We got to listen to it in English and it was so relaxing. I really loved the quote "Be ambitious for Christ." I just think of it when I`m in the street and it makes me want to talk to literally everyone. It is such a cool phrase! I love it. This week we also had the opportuntiy to visit a small town about two hours away called Las Toscas. The whole city smelt really bad but it was okay haha. It was a great visit. Not to much else happened this week. I got rained on pretty hardcore and we walked a lot but it wasn`t anything out of the usual. The week flew by!!! I honestly love being a missionary! Have a great week and "Be ambitious for Christ." 

Elder Hoopes

Racecars

This week was very good. We worked a lot and we diferently had some problems. Our two biggest problems were our fridge and bathroom. They both broke. So it was a little frustrating. But other than that we are doing great. I absolutely love it here. Our area is so cool!!! There is this race track that is in the middle of our area and we always cross it to cut back on time and to cross the area faster, This week they were racing and it was really cool to walk by and see on the way out to work. So our area is really cool. 

The work is great too! The people are so accepting! we found a lot of new people this last week. We have a lot of people preparing for baptism and we are really praying that they will follow through! 

I`m doing great! 

Elder Hoopes 

Me on the race track and my comp on his first day!

The Avellaneda

My new area is so cool!!! It could literally be a little slice of America. The place is super clean, there are street directions, paved roads, everything!!! It is awesome!!! The  area is cool too!!! There is a super rich neighboorhood where their houses lead to an a little runway and this last week they had an airshow!!! So for two days, we could see airplanes doing rolls and loops and people parachuting! It was so cool! The town is super small so it didn`t matter where we where, we could see the airshow. It honestly was a huge distraction but I`m very proud that I maintained focus the two days. 

My companion is pretty cool. Sorry I don`t have a picture. We are working on getting a good one. He is from texas and we get along great!! He loves baseballl and essentially is another brother now. He has an accent and it is pretty cool. I`ll send a picture when we get a good one. 

Seeing that we where white washed to our area, we had no clue one where to go or what to do. The Lord has truly put people in our path to help us. On our first day in our new area some people who had been taking the lessons approched us and let us know that they had been meeting with the missionaries. Then some members did the same and helped us to get to know the area as well. It was cool to see all the direction and help we recieved. I definitley know the Lord is helping us.

Chau,

Elder Hoopes

Transferred Again

So this week I got transfered again. I`m kinda sad because I really love it here! This area is so pretty. My new area is in the province of Santa Fe. It is a little town called Avelleneda. I`m training a new missionary so I still don`t know my new companion but I will meet him tomorrow. It is very exciting. This will be my second time training in a new area. I`m super excited. Santa Fe is pretty, so we`ll see what is like this week. 

This last week has been a great week here in Corrientes. It was an awesome week of work. We walked soooo much!!! And I actually love walking so it was really fun haha. We have been teaching a man who is probably 50 years old. He is from a very poor area of corrientes. He has been struggling with drinking and smoking and we have been helping him to overcome these problems. This last sunday he came to church! I have not seen anyone changed so much by the gospel. In the two weeks I met with he has gone from smoking and drinking and being near the point of death to walking an hour to church! It is incredible. He walked an hour to church! it was incredible to see how much his life has changed from the gospel. I`m going to miss him but the mission goes on.

I love it here. Up till this point in my mission I have had 7 areas and soon to have my 14 companion! I`m super Excited.  This week we had a service project to help some people so I was basically dora the explorer all day. (it`s the foto) haha 

Have a great week. 

Elder Hoopes

A lovely week

This week has been so muh fun!!! being in the office made me forget how much fun it is to walk and walk and walk haha. I absolutely love it. I`m definitely in one of the prettiest places in the mission. It was awesome stepping out of church on sunday and seeing the riverside. It was super pretty!! This week has been super cold. I love it! And in terms of work we are machines!!!! haha we have been contacting so many people and it has been paying off. My companion is awesome. He is from southern argentina and he just wants to work. We get along great!!! Honestly i`m just super happy.

I really have seen a grand change in my life. I feel so happy and feel so strong. I don`t know if it`s cause I been working out more or because I have really found strength in the gospel. I would say it is the later. I think one thing that I have seen in the mission is the great sense of happiness that comes with the atonement of Jesucristo. The albility to change and be better is really the best part. I love the mission. It has been incredible.

ELDER HOOPES

LA COSTAÑERA

So this morning I left for my new area. I`m with a Latino. His name is Elder Salasmora.  He is from Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. He is awesome!!!!  We are also in one of the prettiest areas as well. our new area se llama La Costañera. It is in the province of Corrientes. It is a part of the city Corrientes, the provinicial capital of Corrientes. I`m super excited to be here. After being in the office for so long, I`m really excited to get out everyday and walk, work, teach, and have fun!!! 

I`m super happy to be here and I love being a missionary.

Elder Hoopes

 aqui abajo esta un foto de mi y mi companero

I´M WRITING MONDAY FROM NOW ON!!!!!!! SO WIRTE ME MONDAY!!!!!

Well I still haven´t left the office yet... IT IS SO AGONISING. Why is it agonising? because for the last week I have been told that I leave this monday to my area but I have no idea where my new area is, so for this last week I have only thought about where I´m going. It is killing me. So this takes me to my next point, I´M WRITING MONDAY FROM NOW ON!!!!!!! SO WIRTE ME MONDAY!!!!! 

For me this last week has been very relaxing as well aside from the new area thingy. My companion has learned everything, I have packed my bags, and now I just wait until I get sent out, it is very nice.

I´m very excited to go back out. PLEASE write me monday!

Elder Hoopes

 

Here are pictures of me and people from our ward that I really love. 

Training Week

This week has been super chill. It was super chill due to the fact that I am training and have been able to delegate/ train my companion on how to do everything. Sometimes it is weird because I have done everything so regularly that when I´m not doing it, it is awkward. I still don´t know when I´m leaving or where I´m going but it doesn´t bother me that I still don´t know. But overall it has been a very nice week. I love you all. 

ELDER HOOPES

The foto is me and my companion that I´m training. the other foto is of our family. My trainer, my trainer´s trainer, and my son

my second quad companionship

So last week I talked about how I got my trainer as my companion AGAIN. Well this week, President told me that he needed me to go back out to the field, so I´m training my replacement so I can go out as soon as possible. President told me that I´d be here for 5 weeks but that could change and we´ll see what happens. I´m super excited. I don´t know where I´m going but it´ll be fun! So this week was really interesting. I´m in a companionship of 4 now. For the second time!!! It is so much fun!!! Being in a companionship of four is fun because it is like having your best friends always. We just move around in our little squad all the time and it is a ton of fun. I really like it a lot! The mission is awesome! 

Have fun!! 

ELDER HOOPES

I have another companion, but not a new one.

So this last week was super FUN!!!!! I loved it so much! It was transfers. It was so hectic, long, and fun. I got another companion, but he has already been my companion. Elder Higuera, my trainer, is replacing my current companion as the financial secretary so we are companions again. It is so much fun. Literally have my two favourite companions at the same time.I´m super excited for this transfer because well, I´m with my best friends here. 

I also really loved transfers because I got to coordinate the movement from the terminals to terminals. Usually, I make the lists of buses and schedules and send them to the zone leaders and let them coordinate from the terminal but they usually get confused.... BUT since I made the schedule and lists, I went to the terminal and played "air traffic controler" and moved everyone from bus to bus and called the other provinces to advise them of the transfers of the elders. It was so much fun. Actually it was super chaotic but to me it was fun to me. 

I wish I could tell you all about how much I love it here and how much fun I am having. But I´m doing great!!! 

Elder Hoopes

Misión Argentina Resistencia

Last week of the transfers

SO this was the last week before the transfer. I honestly thought it would be way more hectic,but it wasn´t. It was really nice. We were able to get out and teach this week. We didn´t get out everyday like we wanted It seemed like when ever we were about to go out, something came up so we couldn´t, but nonetheless we still got out a few of the days and when we did, we were able to teach. It was awesome. 

Last week I talked about how Elder Stout and I had taught a lesson where the discussion was very good, united, and spiritual. I guess the lesson left an impression on the family because the husband came to church!!! It was awesome! Then by coincidence (which I don´t think it was coincidence) his friend at work turned out to be in our ward and they were able to talk and have a good experience. So that was a super nice part about the week.

Honestly, I wish I had more to share but if I shared about things in the office, I don´t what I would say or what I want to say, it´s either boring or confidential. BUT this next week will be super fun. So I´ll share more then. 

Elder Hoopes

Misión Argentina Resistencia

The calm before the storm...

This week has definitely been the calmest week ever in my mission. Literally nothing happened. President and the assistants where gone for the majority of the week and it was basically just preparations for next week. We got to our area a lot and had some great lessons. It was super cool because during one of the lessons we had a devote member of the evanglical church sitting in on our lesson and railing on us with questions. It was super cool to see the responses we were giving and the unity in our responses that we gave. The lesson wasn´t a bible bash, fight, or argument. The whole lesson was like a dissection of every little belief in what we taught. It was super cool. I gained a ton of respect for  my companion as a teacher. We left the lesson with complete confidence and peace that there was no doubt in what we taught was true. It was a great teaching experience. 

Well as my subject title indicates, the calm before the storm, next week is transfers.... 😵 or in other weeks, complete and absolute chaos. But it won´t be as bad as last time  because transfer day isn´t a holiday this next week and I have made more plans as to be more prepared for the changes. I have been working all last transfer long as to complete all the necessary tasks and busy work as to be on top of the ball. SO I hope that this goes better.

Anyway I´m doing great and just enjoying the mission. This week marks one year since I made it Argentina. It kinda makes me sad to be honest. Not sad that I have to be here another year but sad that I only have a year left. I have really come to love being here. Not as much as the physical location as here but here as in being a missionary. Being able to serve to, to teach, and to just have all these adventures. 

Sorry I didn´t get any pictures...nothing happened to take pictures of. haha Next week,,, maybe.. 

Chau, 

ELDER HOOPES 

Mision Argentina Resistencia

A week without President´s cell phone

So this week our president took a trip to visit the most north area in the mission. The village is called Portrillo. It is a little Indian tribe that is in the middle of nowhere. It is a 10 hour drive to get to this little village and our president didn´t have the phone. It was an interesting situation we found ourselves in. We had to make a lot of the executive decisions then explain them to him later. LUCKILY the mission didn´t fall apart. 

But because President was gone with the assistants, we where spread thin in our work causing us to work in other positions where we normally wouldn´t work. It was interesting. I got to help doing the tramites. I essentially took some missionaries to go get legal to help one of the other secretaries. It was pretty fun. 

We were able to get out this week and we found some great people. I´m super excited to see what happens with them. This week was super chill and I´m really excited for the next few weeks because we will be able to get out and work in our area more. 

Anyway I´m doing great.

Chau,

Elder Hooeps

A MCDONALD'S WEEK

This last week was pretty fun and busy! I don´t even know where to begin! I´ll begin with the 4th of July!!!  We of coursed played patriotic music every second of the day but the best part was definitely McDonald's. We were in a normal weekly correlation meeting with President Franco and he was like "field trip to McDonald's, the most American thing we can do here." so we took a field trip to Corrientes, the neighbouring province and had lunch!!! It was awesome!!! It is the only McDonald´s here and it was great!!! That turned out to be the first of the three times I would visit Mcdonald´s this week. Now you might think, why is McDonald´s so important, well after not having american food for a little bit, McDonald´s is incredible. So I went two more times because of the tramites. Being that we are here on visas, We have to be legalised every so often. Well this last week we were super occupied and I had to go to Corrientes to help. Which entailed McDonald´s. haha so that was super fun being able to travel a lot this week. What made this week busy was the amount of phone calls I have had to make. I´m pretty sure I have never made so many phone calls in my life. The branches are reporting their normal quarterly reports as to show the changes that have occurred in the last three months. Well I got to call ALL of the branches to begin the collection of this reports. It was a lot of phone calls.

Anyway, this week was great. I definitely got fatter.

Chau,

Elder Hoopes

Super tranquilo week

So this week was a great respite from the transfers last week. It was a great time to get reorganised and start anew. Nothing super crazy happened administratively but out in our area we had two cool experiences. 

The first experience happened Saturday. We were walking out to our area like always when I felt tthe impression to go visit a person that we had previously been visiting. She had already told us that she wasn´t really interested but nonetheless we decided to follow the prompting to go visit her. We followed the prompting in hopes that she had a change of heart, that there was a reason we needed to be in the area, or that there was someone in that area that needed our help. Well, we arrived at her house and she declined our visit BUT we went and visited a recently reactivated member close by and she told us that she had been needing help and we showed up. It was awesome! It was cool to be used as an instrument to go and help someone in need. 

The other cool experience is how someone helped us. We had received a reference to house that is literally in the boonies of resistencia. So we prayed for direction and help to find the house and started the long walk out to contact the house. As we we getting close to the area, a member from the ward was walking by and called out to us. He asked where we were going and he gladly accompanied us. The house ended up being in a further location than what we thought and if it wasn´t for the member who showed up, we would of never found this reference. It was cool to see an answer to a prayer.  

It was a great week and an awesome testimony builder. To see how the Lord will answer prayers through ones own decisions and through others assistance. 

I´m pretty sad Argentina lost the finals AGAIN! In the same way! Literally Messi´s kick could of taken them to the moon it was so high off. Anyway, I´m doing great and really love it here. I love being used as an instrument in the hand of the Lord to bless others. 

Have a great day. 

Elder Hoopes 

Transfer Week!

Well this week was pretty crazy!!!! Transfers turned out to be super loco! Where do I even begin. I feel bad because we weren´t able to get out and visit people but it was really busy.

I´ll begin with the nuevos. Starting with the americans from the USA. Their flight had been delayed from Salt lake City to Atlanta due to some mechanical malfunctions. And because of this they missed their flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. Well at the same time, the Brazil MTC sent the new brazilians to Buenos Aires but had some miscommunication in arranging someone to be there to help move the missionaries. So in this great mix up of flights and confusion. The brazilians, and the new missionaries from the states both missed their flights here to Resistencia. Then due to passport issues, the Brazilians got even more delayed!! So we had three different groups of missionaries coming at three different times between two days. So that was one huge aspect of transfers that was pretty busy. Trying to keep count of where all the news where, their arrival times, where they will be serving and just all that jazz.

Then along with those complications, we had transfers. We had fairly large displacement of missionaries. That in of itself wasn´t stressful, what was stressful was that the transfer fell on a holiday. It was hard because some buses that we were planning to use were either filled, or didn´t show up at all. And all the buses we called to confirm the night before, weren´t showing up either! It was literally as if if the schedule was a recommendation and it was luck if you could even catch the bus you were looking for. It was crazy!! We had to make a trip to Corrientes, the capital of the neighbouring province, the same day as to try to fix problems. That we were encountering due to all of the complications. 

Then with the missionaries going home, due to sheer quantity of people was fairly difficult. We had to move luggage all day. We had wake up super early at 03:00 in the morning to take them all to the airport then stay up work all day. We then would finish working all day and go to bed at 11ish after picking up the first group of nuevos.

It just turned out to be a very long hard week. But I didn´t die so that is great!!!! I loved the package I got this week and I´ll send pictures!! 

Elder Hoopes

It is officially my year mark!!!!!!!

Well today marks a year since I left home. And I cannot even express how much fun I have had!!!! Literally it seems like it has flown by. It feels like last week that I had just barely finished high school.

Anyway this week was awesome!!!!! Probably the highlight of this week was our mission president's birthday. We had a blast! we had lunch with him and it was super cool. He shared his experiences that he has had with apostles and it helped me to understand the privilege I have to work so close with him. Also, since the Copa America is in progress he  showed us some awesome clips of Messi's goals. President Franco is such a great man! 

This week also is transfers. Tomorrow I get the great opportunity to start carrying out the changes. It will be pretty crazy! We have 168 missionaries right now. We will have 20 going home with 13 news. The problem is, of the 20 leaving some 15 of them are Zone leaders so we will have to replace them, and we will need 13 trainers as well. The bigger problem is the next transfer we will have 18 leave with 24 coming. So I say all this because tomorrow I'm going to be coordinating a lot of bus schedules for a lot of changes.

In terms of missionary work (that isn't administrative) we have been working super hard. We have contacted like crazy. The other day we turned the street to look for people and we realized that we have already contacted every house on the street. So we went to the next one, and the same!!! So  we tried the next street and we realized we contacted every house for three streets. It was super weird. Like it is great that we contacted that many houses but at the same time it is weird that we have contacted entire streets! So we switched up our strategy and tried to stop people in the street. Like people by bus stops, smokers, anyone that is essentially doing nothing on the street, and we found a lot of interesting people. One man told us that we are terrorists. Haha! It was super weird. 

Anyway I'm doing great! I absolutely love it here. I'm just super happy. I love you all and Hope you all have a great week. I'd love to hear back!!!

This week was pretty random. I received two awesome things in the mail this week. First thing and the best was a wonderful birthday package. It was awesome!!!!!!  I also got my identification. It looks pretty good 

This last week we deep cleaned the house. We live in a house with 8 missionaries and it is very difficult to keep clean. But starting some time in the near future all of the office elders will be re located to different pensions to work more efficiently in their own areas. The process has started and President informed me and my companion that we will be staying in the house for a little longer than everyone else. So I´m super excited because we have a super clean house to just the two of us. It is awesome. 

On other randomness that happened this week I cut my hair the shortest it has ever been. It shockingly looks the same. Honestly I was disappointed that nothing changed,.. But whatever. I have almost finished all the busy work President has given me to do this last week and it is really relieving. I talk to Salt Lake as well and they helped guide me through some computer things that also made my job a lot easier. So I´m super happy. 

Elder Stout and I are doing awesome. We have gotten out to the area and are working so hard. It  has been a little difficult getting in. There has been nights where we have just walked non stop from 4:30 to 9:00. But it has really paid off. We have gotten the area going and we are excited to see the yield here soon.

I really love it here. 

So this last week has been pretty chill. It has been great. I have worked on a lot of the little tasks that needed to be done before transfers this last week. This last week we also have had some awesome progress. We have worked in our area a lot this last week and we contacted so many houses. I have not had so much rejection haha. But we have had found some awesome people. One of them is named Luis. He has a Hitler moustache and he's awesome. He is an Argentine whose parents are Italian and he speaks Italian, German, English, and Spanish. He has a cat as well that only responds in German commands. He looks kind of like he would be a good villain from Despicable Me.  He is kinda different but he is super cool. He is sincerely looking for the truth. Luis has some doubts obviously, but we hope that he can let his faith overpower his doubts. He is super awesome. 

So this next week will be super fun. I´m excited for all the meetings and chaos of transfers. I´ll call home while I´m organizing all the movement of missionaries so it´ll be a fun break. 

Have a wonderful week. 

Elder Hoopes

Some pictures at the museum. 

A small Taco statue 

I haven´t gained weight... I´ve gained muscle. and all the fotos are bad angles. 

Another week passes in the office

This was another good week in the office. So typically this past week in the office is kinda like the dead week in the transfers. It's dead in the sense that its in the dead middle of the transfer so my work with moving elders her and there doesn't really happen. BUT this last week was anything but dead. We have Elder Salas from the Seventy coming down to visit the mission. He will be visiting during the last week of the transfer, which is my busiest time. So for his arrival we will be hosting multizonas (multi-zone conferences) in different provinces where he can go and visit the large expanse of the mission in addition to visiting with missionaries. All this requires lots of planning. Seeing that his visit will happen the week of transfers and Skype weekend , AKA Mother's Day or call home day, the last week will be super hectic. So I have worked all this last week to plan for the next week so I will be ready for the last week. It is pretty exciting though. We get to visit with a member of the Seventy and Skype home on Mother's Day. I´m super excited to Skype. It will be so much fun.

The sisters in our area also had a baptism this last week and they asked me if I could baptise, which is always an honour. It was a great little baptism. Plus we didn't have to fill the font by buckets...which was great.

Anyway I'm doing great. Im super happy and I'm just enjoying all the adventures. 

Love Elder Hoopes

Proselyting

Just another week of missionary work! This week has been awesome. I have finally been able to leave and proselyte. It is awesome. The last two weeks, president has assigned me a lot of work, and this last week I have been able to work through a lot of it and get out of the office and teach. We only got let in once, but we are working so hard to find new people. I´m so glad that I could get out finally and try to find people. This last week I was sick as well. I literally slept through two days. President saw that I was super exhausted and he let me return to the apartment to rest. I ended up sleeping till the next morning, then the next morning as well. It was not fun being sick but it was nice that I rested so well and feel better now. 

The sisters in our ward also have a baptism tomorrow. Well, some punks stole the church´s water pump. Yeah they stole the pump from the church. It is the third time it has happened. The THIRD TIME!!!! its super crazy. Anyway, moving on, we ended up having to fill the baptismal font up with these gallons of water things. Let´s just say it took a very long time. But we solved the problem and the baptismal will go on.

I would share more but I can´t really share exactly what I do here. But trust me, in the office I have a lot to do. President Franco is a great mentor, leader, and man. He has shown me a lot and I´m so thankful for the opportunity I have to work so closely with him. 

Anyway, I would share more but there isn´t much more that I can share. I love and miss you all. 

Secretario del Presidente

Elder Hoopes

Mision Argentina Resistencia

General Conference

General conference was wonderful for three reasons. Numero uno; we got to listen to wonderful talks in english and feel the spirit. Numero dos; we had a good classic sunday morning breakfeast with waffles and everything. We also got to eat it in the mission home with President and his wife. It was awesome! Numero tres; I got to hang out with my cousin because we are in the same zone. It was super fun. It was a wonderful weekend. 

This week we had consejo (council). This is where all the zone leaders meet up to learn from president to improve the work. It was a great experience. I got to do a presentation and I got to help teach the zone leaders. It was super fun. And the food was really good. I had to buy all the food and everything to prepare for consejo like a party planner or something but the food was super good. Not much else happened this week other than normal mission secretary stuff. 

Anyway I´m doing great and I love it here. I love you all. 

Elder Hoopes

This is a picture of my companion, Elder Stout and I.

Post Transfer Week

This last week was one of the craziest, funniest, and greatest weeks in the mission. We had 47 of the 169 missionaries move and had 7 new missionaries come into the mission with 10 leaving. It was so much fun. I got to coordinate more than a third of the mission change areas and I got to see the difference of brand new missionaries entering the mission and the strength of missionaries leaving. It was cool to see how my plans fell perfectly into place then see how fast we could correct and react to situational changes. We only had less than 10 missionaries miss buses or who were late. Which is super good because it was the buses faults and we were able to divert missionaries and move them to different areas without problems. It was super cool to see how we all worked together then see the fruit of our planning. 

This last week brings to mind the simple principle of God´s hand in our own work. The principle that when we try our best, put our faith in Christ and put our faith in action and go to work, God will sanctify our work. 

But this last week was super fun, hectic, and super great. I also called my friends in brazil and had lost of fun calling people and trying to communicate with people who speak Portuguese. We ate great this week and my two other companions went out to the field.(the tallest in the foto and the shortest in the foto) My companion and I (the one in the sweater in the foto) received another companion. So I´m in another trio. This is my third Trio I have been in.

Anyway, I´m doing great and love this work. I love you all. 

Secretario del Presidente

Elder Hoopes

Misión Argentina Resistencia

Oh Portuguese

Well I have a had a great week. I would say the highlight of my week was calling out to the Brazil MTC. It was super funny. No, I don´t know Portuguese, that is what made it so funny. I had to call because I was looking for someone. Since I do not know Portuguese I had to talk in Spanish. Well to complicate the situation the brazilian didn´t know Spanish either. It was a fun conversation to have. So I asked them for someone who knew Spanish or English and he told me, "I don´t know Spanish" BUT IN ENGLISH... It was super funny.

Anyway this week has been pretty awesome. I do a lot of the same work everyday and its just fun. I like being in the office and being close to president and having "the-in." But I´m doing great and Me and one of the assistents have started working out hard core and It´s awesome. Anyway I´m super happy here. 

I love you all.

So in order From left to right. Elder Stout, financial Secretary the next two are leaving monday from the office. The taller Elder Bess, he is the old financial secretary. The one in the blue is my position. Elder Jenson. Elder Tippetts is in the Capitan America shirt and he is the Housing secretary. Then me, then one of the assistants, Elder Dangelo. He is from Mesa. The first three on the left are my companions. They all love starwars. They are great companions

The Office Life

It is kinda good that I`m in th office becaus ethis last week I`ve been a little sick. It is just a cold and nothing to worry about but being in the office has helped a lot with getting better. 

It`s really different being in the office. For one thing, all of my work is online. Which is super different than walking and proselyting everywhere. I`m also living with 7 other elders. And we have elders pass through for legal stuffas well,  so somnetimes we  have 10 or more sleeping with us as well.  I`m currently in a companionship of 4 elders. Literally the computer says the four of us are companions and its super funny. 

Its fun being in the office and workiong though. For example, during this last week another mission in Ecaudor called me asking about travel information for one of our sister missionaries. Well after talking to the other Elder over the phone. I found out that he was a companion to one of my friends in that mission. It was pretty cool. It is just being fun being in the center of the mission and being able to see all the weird and cool things in the mission. 

Some fun things I get to do:

 

When some one gets robbed, I report it to the church headquarters. But the fun part is I can access all the church files and look up all the accidents,everywhere in the world. It is actually super funny because I can see all sorts of things. A lot of stuff happens in the Mesa Temple. Usually some one falling or something like that. 

We also get to call and verify when phones are robbed. Its like prank calling but way more fun. When we tell the person its a robbed number, its so hilarious because we get all sort of responses. 

I also get to hear what is happing with contracts and water bills. For example some missionaries didn´t have power for 5 days because they didn´t pay the bills but didn´t tell us till like the 3rd day. We also had a pension catch on fire. It is just super weird what happens. 

Its just super fun because we get to know everything and do everything. This is just a fun snippet of what I do. 

I still have a week left until I transfers. I´m actually super scared for transfers cause I have to organize all the transfers for all the misionaries moving. Like new ones flying in, missonaries leaving, and then the bus schedule for all missionaries moving to different areas. Its a huge, real life sudoko with people and argentine bus system. 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week. 

The Office

Well this week I had a pretty big change. First and foremost, I got transferred to the mission office. President Franco called me on Sunday night, then by monday morning I was in the office. My new position is the Secretary to the President. It sounds all big and glorious but really i´m just a flight agent. I´ll be organizing all the transfers and movement of missionaries with in the mission and I organize all the new missionaries and missionaries leaving as well. Other than that, I´ll do other miscellaneous tasks but that will be the majority if my work. Its pretty fun. 

I honestly was kinda sad to leave Saenz Pena because well, I had just learned the area and we were teaching some great people.  I was sad because we had gotten pretty close with Guido. But he is super cool.We were teaching a young man named Guido. He is awesome. He was reading and studying a lot. We would leave him with reading assignments and then when we would get back he would have questions for us. So the only hiccup that he had was a smoking problem. But through many prayers and a lot of faith he overcame the smoking addiction. He is awesome. I probably spent the majority my mornings while in Saenz Peña teaching him. Seeing that it was a hour walk to his house and a hour back.

I am nervous because literally I have no clue what the secretary´s job was but now i´m okay. It will be a great learning experience. I'm looking forward to it. 

Have an awesome week  I´ll be writing on fridays now.

Elder Hoopes

The office elders in Subway!

Thanks to my Mesa Aspen Ward Beehives for the hugs!

With Guido

Sáenz Peña

I love Sáenz Peña. Its really cool. This area is awesome. It´s kinda big, but its great. Elder Regan is super fun. The city is super cool. We are in the down town area and essentially have the whole half of the city. So we travel by bus and walk a lot, I think this has been the area where I have walked the most. I finally cut my hair this last week. After 4 and a half months of not cutting the top, I cut it. I didn´t do to bad. I think... Our neighbors are our zone leaders, so we all jog down to the park and play basketball every other morning as well. Its super fun. And as this last week goes, we have hit a pancake crave. So we have made pancakes, A LOT! its great! Its just awesome.

So we have a member of the branch who was recently baptized. Her name is Romina Zanatta. She has a son named Lauri and he wasn´t baptized but he comes to church with her all the time. Well this Sunday was my first sunday in the branch and he comes rolling up like a boss to church in a Darth Vader t-shirt. So I thought to my self, I should ask him about starwars. So I struck up a conversation and he turned out to love Star Wars. Him and I are pretty chill friends now. And on the topic of Star Wars...We work literally in the down town area and we walked by this shop and the had these vintage Star Wars comic books that were super cheap and written in Spanish. They were super cool. 

This week we have baptisms planned and we will see if they go through. I´m super excited to be serving here and hope that my little friend can progress. 

I honestly love serving. Its super hard, but totally worth it.

Elder Hoopes

Transfers and a Baptism

This week was very great. We had transfers and had another baptism. I returned to the province of Chaco and I am in the city of Saenz Peña. I´m super excited to be here. While I was in my last area before clorinda, Campo largpo, we visited Saenz Peña all the time. Now I´m here and super excited. I got a new companion. He is named Elder Regan. He is super chill. Unfortunately I can´t attach any pictures because we haven´t taken any yet. But I´m excited to work here. The pension is really nice as well. 

This week we had three bautismos in the zone. One of the people that got baptized was kinda our investigator. She is named Yanina and she is 14 years old. She lives in our area and is super cool. But she can´t really focus with us when we teach so we let the sister misioneras teach her. So technically she is the hermanas investigadora but I got the privilege to baptize her. And we taught her a lot before we handed her off to the hermanas so it is kinda like we taught her. haha Anyway it was super cool week. 

Honestly I´m sad that I got transfered out but at the same time I´m excited to work here. Its a nice area. I´m excited to see what happens in the this transfer.

Have a great week.

Elder Hoopes

Carnival/Valentine's

The wonderful week of Carnival. This week was a very interesting week. This week we traveled down to Formosa capital for Multizona with all the missionaries in the province and it was super good. We talked so much of Christ´s sacrifice for us and how we literally have the responsibility to help the people come to know and to utilize the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was so good. The spirit was super strong and helped me come to feel and understand the love of Christ. It was fun. 

On top of all that it was Carnival this weekend.  Carnival is essentially Marti Gras where everyone just parties and dances in the street. So we had to go to our pension early the last three nights. It was so hard to sleep because it was really crazy. Then to top it off, there was Valentine´s day. Which, like me, gets forgotten. hahaha But like always, I´m doing great. I´m happy, healthy, and working. 

In terms of work, things are progressing. Our friend Javier is getting there. He likes to read in the Book of Mormon but he just can´t make it to church. I´m a little worried because transfers is this week and I don´t want to leave him but I might be transfered, I don´t know. But we are doing great. 

This week turned out to be a great. Feliz Dia de San Valentin. 

<3

Elder Hoopes