Looking Up

What a week of changes! The mission can teach you many things, but one of the major points that the mission teaches you is CHANGE. A change of cities, change of companions, change of culture, etc. For me last week, it was a change of companions and so far this change has been one that I've adapted to pretty quick.

After being in a trio for 6 weeks, it felt a little odd to be with just one other person. Sœur Biggs and I went to drop off Sœur Kabongo off at the airport on Tuesday morning and 2 hours on a very crowded RER with 3 suitcases is a very interesting way to start your day. To save you all the details of that ride, I'll just say that we made it safely to the airport to have a bitter-sweet farewell. It was sad to see Sœur Kabongo leave but the St. George, Utah mission needs that wonderful personality of hers, so it was a happy moment for her to be going to her assigned mission. The following day, I helped Sœur Biggs bring her suitcases into Paris because she was transferred to a new ville. It was sad saying bye to 2 companions, both Sœurs Biggs and Kabongo were fun comps and I'm so happy that I was able to be with them for 6 weeks. After dropping off those two comps, I picked up my new comp so I bet you're asking the question, "Well Sœur Hopkinson, who is she?". I'm glad you asked folks! Allow me to introduce you to my new companion Sœur Fears!

There is a lot to say about this soeur! She hails from Las Vegas, Nevada (Henderson area/non-Utah comp. #3), she loves to cook, loves to work hard, has a huge love for missionary work, and had an amazing trainer right before serving with me here in Evry. Sœur Fears is in transfer 3...wow I feel so old on the mission now #transfer 10. After a missionary is trained for 2 transfers they go into the next stage which is being polished by another missionary. One way I can describe being polished on the mission is being tested on what your trainer taught you during the last 12 weeks, at least that's it felt like for me when I was in that stage. I'm not sure what it feels like for Sœur Fears but she is already such an amazing missionary! I hope that I can be a good polisher for her! She loves the ward and our investigators already, so I think this transfer has a lot of good things in store for us!

This week in one of my personal studies I read a conference talk titled "It Is Better to Look Up" by Carl B. Cook and I recommend reading it! I can for sure say that there have been hard days on the mission where things just sometimes don't go the way I would like them to go. It's in those moments where I can see myself looking down and asking myself if I was doing something wrong. What was I not doing right to captivate the person's attention in a contact? I bet you that I was staring down and walking on a street avoiding gazes from everyone all around me. As I read this talk, what stood out me was a tip that really gave me a spiritual slap to the face. Somewhere in the talk it says that we need to have the faith to look up and the courage to follow where it is Heavenly Father needs me to go. I sat there  once again in awe with how I got an answer to something I needed to learn. I made a goal for myself, that whenever my comp and I get rejected in a contact to not look down and be distraught, but to keep my eyes up and find the next person Heavenly Father wants us to speak with. In the talk it says that as we look up, we are remembering Christ. We remember the love that He has for us and that He wants us to be happy.

Here's my invitation for you all, whenever you have a bad day or are in a bad mood: LOOK UP. Don't let your head hang low, just look up and ask yourself what you can be doing to be feeling better than you do at the moment. It's something I'm working on for this week so you won't be doing this alone!

I love and miss you all! It's super crazy having only 4 months left! I've loved my mission, every single moment of it, good or bad. I know that as we look up and thank Heavenly Father for all that we've been given, we will feel the love that He has for us. I know that this gospel is true and that the happiness that comes from it is an everlasting happiness.

Have a great week! I'm sorry for the lack of photos! I will make up for that next week I promise!

Love,

Sœur Hopkinson

samantha.hopkinson@myldsmail.net