February 18, 2011

Family!

Out of the weak things the Lord makes them strong....and thus it has been this week.

On Monday, I went to the health clinic, because I had pressure in both ears and a sore throught. My temp was 99.9 and my blood pressure was 117 / 72 . . . and a pulse at 64 ish. The doctor told me that all I needed to do was to take some decongestants and it would all be good . . . so far . . . I am waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. After looking in my ears he said that I didn't have fluid behind my eardrums, but my eardrums were swollen and redder than they ought to be . . . but he told me to wait it out and it would go away, that it was some virus going around the MTC, that a lot of missionaries have. Lately, I have developed a cough at nights, so I am dead tired, but come what may and love it! They asked me if I wanted to use my families insurance or the missionary insurance, and so I decided to use the missionary insurance, because it was a $10 co-pay and everything else was covered . . . including return visits. . . but I would like you to send some more airborne if you would

Dad, how did you cope with hard companions? So, in other words, the lord has sort of forced me to become weak. Every week as district leader, I get to meet with the senior companions and discuss their companionships and stuff. I learned that as a district we have become more and more sickly and companionships are beginning to have their tuffs. Our branch president has let us know that it is our responsibility to help them work it out, and I have been trying, but it is hard.

I guess that after I am weak, the lord will raise me up to be strong . . . and if I am lucky, that strength will come in Portugueese and Physical strength. My companion is fluent in Spanish, and so he has picked up Portugueese really quick, and during practice door approaches, I don't say as much as I would like to.

I go to the temple every Friday. I miss having dad sitting right next to me in the endowment room and being able to have him right there by me. 

The lord is not only building an army of missionaries. . . he is building us

The lord has built us up and has helped us so much, but he has been building some of us up through trial and sicknesses . . . only to raise us higher  . . . the whole "if you endure this well, you shall be exhaulted on high"

We have an English progressive investigator that has been reading the Book of Mormon, and we are going to talk to him on Tuesday about the Plan of Salvation and maybe challenge him to baptism next week on our visit on tuesday or thursday.

Megan, get better soon, bronchitis is no fun . . . I know. If I can give you a suggestion it would be to stay in spanish, and learn spanish well, It will an invaluable trait of yours.

Jessica, I will really send the pictures this time, I forgot, and the only day I can send letters is on Friday. The MTC, you cannot leave MTC grounds except to go to the temple on P day and sunday. That means that you don't get to go to walmart either or into the "real world" until you get into your mission , but the MTC has everything you need.

Greta, thanks for giving me the paw!

Mom and Dad, I found dad's garments in a group with mine, so I will send those sometime before I leave. I am also sending this early today because we have other things to do later and so this is an exception to the regular time I send my emails. Also, I plan on sending a letter to you . . . soon as well as a package with dads garments, but I don't know when, I think I willl wait until the end of march to send it, so I can send the things I don't need back all at once. Thank you so much for the thoughts on valentines day.

may the lord bless you

Elder Hope

**Editors note: Just kidding! Jessica's note!! Every time we have sent Nick a letter, we have included Greta's pawprint. It hasn't been easy getting her to stay still long enough to do it and I end up getting more pawprint on me than on the paper :)

February 11, 2011--He sent us snail mail...

I have to summarize the news that he sent because it is mostly in Portuguese.

Apparently, one of the Elders in his district, Elder Gibson started speaking French at a door approach, so there is a new district goal: No speaking French!!

He also said that he is "too busy to think about my family or friends until late at night."

"Portuguese is still hard, I had to ask for help on words but it is coming slowly but surely"

I guess that is all the news for this week. It was good that we got the letter when we did because the last email just seemed a little short!

Greta and Nicholas

Those of you who know Nicholas, knows that he loves his little dog!! He once texted someone and told them that he had a girlfriend who was short with brown hair and brown eyes. She likes to cuddle and hangs out with him all the time! Of course, he loves his dog! I found this on my phone the other day and decided to share it with everyone!!! Sorry about the video. It won't turn around. You will just have to turn your monitor or your head!! your choice!!!

The Second Email!!! February 11, 2011

Let me first start by saying that we have decided as a family that we will send him snail mail because he only has about 20 minutes at his computer. We don't want him reading all the time. We want news! Here is his second email!!!

Family! This is great, I love the MTC and the time I get to spend with my district.

We were doing door approaches in Portuguese and I said that we have a massage for you rather than a message for the investigator. . . oops!

 

I absolutely love my district and how great they are too

 

I love the gospel and got your letter.

 

Ok, so Greta . . . Thanks for giving me the Paw!

 

Megan, dad knows where to find my passwords, and I am glad to hear from you.

Jessica, I will save my letters and send them to you.

Dad, Quero uma mensagem em computador de meu familia todas as semanas porqe e muito triste cuando nao tem uma mensagem (I don't have my notebook for accents and tildes)

Mom, I was glad to hear from you too.

 

Love:

 

Elder Hope

Our First Email!!! February 6, 2011

That's right everyone, we found out that Nicholas can send us emails in the MTC we are pretty excited!! We had just sent off a letter to him the day before!! Here is a copy of the email that he sent to us:

Family!

Guess what?! I can email from the MTC! My district is really cool and I am in the same zone as elder Brown in the 1st Ward!

Ok, so because we only get about 20 minutes to mail, I am going to compose this in the format of bullet points and I can only have one person as the recipient on this computer for some reason:

- Ok, so on wednesday, as I was flying to the Salt Lake City, the guy sitting next to me and I were talking, and ou conversation turned into families and temple work! because of that I talked to him a lot about those things and was really excited until I realized I didn't have a pass-along card.

- In the middle of the night I stubbed my toe and lost the nail on my right pinkie toe... and yes....if you were wondering...it hurts a lot. Mom, I put collodial silver on it to help prevent infection and am going to go to the health center when it opens on monday with my companions, but Come what may and Love it!

- I was called as the District Leader by the Branch Presidency and really enjoy the time I have to spend with my little band of valiant elders.

- I have 2 companions: Elder Whitaker and Elder Searle.
     Elder Whitaker is a stud! He is a powerhouse in gospel matters and is excelling in portuguese. He learns really quick because of his Spanish background. By the way, Elder whitaker is the son of the mom that emailed you on missionary moms! We are in a pilot program variation class where our teacher teaches us in Portuguese. . . it is hard to understand them, but elder whitaker is a master translater and is really good at it. He is also a really good basketball player. . . all in all, he is a strength to each of us.
     Elder Searle is another great missionary who is sort of quiet (which doesn't bother me. . . he is a good listener!)

- As district leader I get to authorize exchanges with my missionaries I am in charge of. One group of missionaries, Elder Hawkins took a shower after playing basketball, and his companion forgot to take the key with him, so for all intents and purposes, they were locked out of their room, with Elder Hawkins without any clothes and the other companionship was away . . . unknown where they were. So Elder Palmer and I had to go and find a key for his companion who was in nothing but a towel. It was funnier when it happened.

- I am stuggling with Portuguese, but I am learning it slowly but surely. Luckily I am not the only one. One of the elders in my district was saying the prayer and prayed by saying "Nosso pé celestial", when he should have said "Nosso pai celestial". . . I thought it was quite humerous after we learned that pé means foot!

-Elder Manon, the other district leader for the Brazil Säo Paulo North Mission and I says that he sends his love . . he is a great elder who is really big and has an even bigger heart

- All day we study, eat, and then study again . . . and it is hard to stay focused sometimes, but it is so well worth all the learning that happens.

- Of the 11 elders in my district, Elder Hawkins is my right hand man. He is so knowledgeable on the MTC rules and requirements. The zone leaders ask for my reports, and then I have to ask what reports.

- Dad, I have made a few transactions, and I know there area few more that need to be made, but I have had to make them in small increments.

- Just for your information. My P-Day is friday from now until I leave the MTC. And my email time is from around 4 - 4:30 ish or 4:30 - 5 ish or 5 to 5:30 ish. Just depending on which order I get for the computer.

-my MTC address has changed slightly. the POR-PORT 0406 is changed to POR-PORT 0405. I am expected to leave the MTC on April 5th. They are planning on letting us know on the 1st or so if we have our visas or not, but the travel office doesn't see an issue.

I know that the lord loves each and every one of us and that through his help I can understand Portuguese to an extent further than I ever thought possible. He loves us more than what we know.

Love

Elder Hope

February 2, 2011

We got at 3:30am this morning to take Nick to the airport. That's right, today is the day that we send him on the airplane to the MTC. We had our final, final family prayer in the car that we would be protected driving to the airport because the weather had been so bad and icy. We had the day off before from school and it looked like it would be cancelled again today. (side note, the weather was so bad that school was cancelled from Tuesday to Friday that whole week)

We got going and we drove to steak and shake. I must first explain why we went to steak and shake. I think Nick explains it best in his video below but I will try to here as well. Before Nick left for Rexburg, he wanted to go to happy hour at steak and shake. Now, Steak and Shake has happy hour between 2AM-4AM and 2PM-4PM. Nick didn't want to go to any happy hour but the 2AM happy hour! Doesn't that just sound like him? The roads were slick but we finally pulled up to drive thru window. We got there at 4:01am and the guy told us that we couldn’t get the shakes at half priced. After all that work and we got up really early! We asked him to please make us an exception and he did. Nick got his final request! He got a mint chocolate chip milkshake and Megan got her cookie dough. Dad, mom and I all got peanut butter. They were delicious but a little sweet. I think there were a few questions as to why we got the shakes because it seems like it is the coldest day of the year. It is about 12 degrees outside. The roads are pretty icy so we had to take it slow even to get to the airport.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and took pictures of Nick with Mom and Dad. We also got a picture of us as a family but it didn’t turn out so great. We sat around for a while and then Dad turned to Mom and said, “any final words?” She told him that she had taught Nick throughout these years and there wasn’t really much else to say. Dad’s final words were “remember the good things”, mom’s final words were “if you get homesick, you aren’t working hard enough”, my final words were, “forget yourself and go to work”, and Megan’s final words were, “don’t come home.” I had to keep reminding her that she needed to add early to the end of it but she felt that saying, “don’t come home” was sufficient. We got back out to the van after making sure that Nick made it through security. We said another family prayer that our Heavenly Father will bless that boy. His flight left a little late due to weather but he was out of her by 6:24am.

His Shake

 

Mom really wanted to talk to Nick one last time when he got to Utah but Nick had already called Dad and did not call again. Mom did call Grandma Hope’s cell phone and we got a chance to talk to Aunt Dorothy and Grandma Hope. According to Grandma, Nick had started talking to a lady on the airplane to Salt Lake. Nick talked to this lady about the importance of families. Nick also had said that he wished he had a pass-a-long card for this lady because the spirit was really strong and this lady and him were both almost to tears! I guess Nick has already started his mission. Mom talked to Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Dorothy told mom how Nick just paced her kitchen because he was anxious to get going.

Apparently, they were able to stop by Uncle Sperry’s house and Uncle Sperry came home on his lunch break to get a chance to say goodbye to Nick. Then Uncle Gary, Aunt Dorothy, and Grandma and Grandpa Hope took Nick off to the MTC. Nick got his luggage out and headed towards the door without looking back. They were trying to keep the cars moving and so they didn’t have a chance to talk to anyone or say goodbye. Grandma did say that it was a good visit with Nick and that he is ready to go! We are so proud of him!

February 1, 2011

We had a fun day. We found out that Nick had some clothes that needed to be mended prior to the mission. I cannot believe that he would have been willing to go on a mission with some holes in his pants! I guess that means he is definitely all male!

Tonight, we called Grandma and Grandpa Hedelius, Grandma and Grandpa Hope, and Uncle Sperry’s family. There were some neat things that were said to Nicholas that I want to record for him. We talked to Grandma and Grandpa Hedelius first. We sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa and Grandma. We told them that it was the very last time that they would hear all five of us sing to them for a while. Grandpa Hedelius said that he might not be around. I told him that we really wanted him to be and he said he was planning on it but he wasn’t going to make any guarantees. Grandma Hedelius told Nick that, “You will do great because you are a positive person and you will do much good.” Grandpa Hedelius said, “We Know you will do well” That is a lot coming from Grandpa but it was a good thing for Nick to hear.

Dad's Nametag in Portuguese,
Nick wore it today to be Elder Hope

We didn’t talk to Grandma Hope but we did talk to Grandpa Hope. We gave him Nick’s flight information and other such logistics because he told us that he is planning on meeting up with Nick at Uncle Gary’s house tomorrow. That will be very special for Nick. All five of them are planning on going down to the MTC tomorrow!
We then called Uncle Sperry and Aunt Teresa. There were some funny things said like, “don’t get any taller. We like your height where it is at” (Aunt Teresa). There were also some serious things said. Aunt Teresa was really on a roll. She promised Nick that Heavenly Father will bless him as he needs it and remember that work makes the time go faster. She also told him to write down names and addresses of people. Uncle Sperry had some great advice too. He told Nick to journal and write things down. He said that was a regret of his but that he is grateful for the letters that he sent off because they help him remember. He told Nick to just remember the good things (kind of like how Dad always said to learn the good things) and he also said “Learn to be yourself. Live the mission rules as you. Incorporate the rules to be your life.” Basically he was saying that you shouldn’t just live the rules because they are there but to live the rules because that is who you are. I liked that.
After dinner, we watched the Nest living scripture, Helaman one last time. We were reminded how much Nick loved this tape and it was fun to watch. I reminded Nick that Helaman was the prophet and the 2,000 stripling warriors chose the prophet as their leader.
Dad gave Nick a father’s blessing. President Alleman had suggested it last night. President Alleman said that he may have insight as to Nick’s service but Dad would have insight into Nick’s soul. He said that this was like another patriarchal blessing. Dad gave Nick a beautiful blessing. The spirit was so strong. Dad reminded Nick that he has two names on his name badge. He has his own and his family’s name on there and to make the Hopes’ proud but he also has the Savior’s name on his badge. Dad promised Nick that there would be hard times but to look to the mission president for guidance and to the Lord. Dad promised that as Nick was obedient, he would be blessed. Dad also promised that there would be the good times and plenty of opportunities to learn!
After Nick’s blessing, Nick turned to mom and asked if he could give her a blessing. Nick gave a beautiful blessing and told mom that God had not forsaken her and that both of her children would serve. He also said that God would stay with her and that there may be sorrow but there would also be joy and we would be reunited as a family again.
Because we are getting up so early, we said prayers as a family. They were the last family prayers with all of us together for two years! It was a special time to ask the Lord to bless us all as we go our separate ways. Then we did family huddle time. We have all changed in heights but it is still fun to get into a big group huddle!
I have to put in that I love my little brother and I am so glad that he is going first on his mission. I am glad that I get to share in all of this. There are so blessings here for me to be able to leave after he does!

January 31, 2010

Nick had to double-check his list and get everything bought and packed that was on it. He was busy packing for most of the day and he had to go to the store for some last minute things and get stuff for the family.
One thing that has been a little scary is that there is supposed to be bad weather the next couple of days. Mom felt strongly that we should get Nick set apart tonight. Of course, that meant that Nick didn't get a chance to say goodbye to everyone that he would have liked to. I am sorry to those of you that happened to but we didn't realize that the weather would be as bad as the weather reports are now reporting.
We all got dressed in our Sunday best and we went to a restaurant in Dallas called Rafain’s. This is a restaurant of Brazilian foods and meats. It was delicious and we probably ate way too much again! I really enjoyed the meats but they also had delicious cheese bread and friend bananas. They also had yummy desserts and we all got the guarana (Brazilian pop) that we love so much!
After dinner, we drove to President Alleman’s house. I still cannot say how much I love that man! He took Nick aside to give him another interview while we talked to Sister Alleman. President Alleman returned and asked dad to stand with him and set Nick apart. My brother is now Elder Nicholas Evan Hope. President Alleman said some strong things in his blessing but he made some strong promises. He promised Nick that if he followed the mission rules, he would be safe. He also promised him that he would have trials and difficult companions but that he could overcome them with the Lord’s help.
I talked to Nick afterwards about the promise that if he would follow the counsel of his mission president, he would be safe. I told Nick that it reminded me of the time that he went to high adventure and he listened to Bishop Platt and didn’t cliff dive even though he wanted to. Bishop Platt later told Nick that if he had not listened, Nicholas would have been seriously injured. I told Nick that he was blessed for following his leaders.
I am grateful that Nicholas is ready to serve a mission in Porto and I know that he is worthy. He loves the Lord and the Lord can do much good with him.

January 30, 2011

Today was fast Sunday and that is why Nicholas spoke in church the week before. I am the chorister of my ward and I chose the music. The last hymn we sung was hymn 152 God Be With You Till We Meet Again!

God be with you till we meet again;
by his counsels guide, uphold you,
with his sheep securely fold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Till we meet, till we meet,
till we meet at Jesus' feet;
till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

God be with you till we meet again;
when life's perils thick confound you,
put his arms unfailing round you;
God be with you till we meet again.

God be with you till we meet again;
keep love's banner floating o'er you,
smite death's threatening wave before you;
God be with you till we meet again.

It was an emotional song as we knew that Nicholas was leaving us for the next two years but we also knew that he would be protected by the Lord. God will be with him till we meet again.

Getting Started!

My name is Jessica Hope. I am Elder Nicholas Evan Hope's older sister. I will be updating this blog for a little while as well as other members of my family. Let me first start by saying how much we love Nicholas and we are sad and happy for him to leave. You can tell that he is ready to leave in a lot of ways but the idea of two years without very much contact seems like a lifetime!

I am creating this blog for Nicholas to help keep track of some memories that anyone has of him throughout his time as a missionary.

I would first like to mention his farewell that he had on January 23, 2011. Our younger sister put together a beautiful musical arrangement of a youth choir and an Elder in our ward (Elder Grondel) of an EFY song, Praise the Man. Megan did this because Nick loves the song Praise to the Man so much. Nicholas got up and talked about a talk that President Boyd K. Packer gave on "Finding ourselves in Lehi's dream."

The Link to the talk by President Packer is http://lds.org/ensign/2010/08/finding-ourselves-in-lehis-dream?lang=eng

Nick first quoted Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Come what may and love it"

Nick quoted Winston Churchill saying "There comes a time in a young man's life when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and given a chance to do something great. What a tragedy it would be if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour." Nick said that this was his moment, and he hopes that he is prepared to serve the Lord and the people of Porto, Portugal.

Nick gave a great talk about where we should be in Lehi's dream. He also talked about his testimony that Christ lives and loves us!

It was a very special day for all of us!