Best Christmas Day 2013!

We had so much fun chatting with Nathan on Skype for Christmas. He smiled the entire time and it made my day! Love this boy! His positive attitude is contagious. Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas from Elder Hyde

Well last week was a pretty slow week but we are still doing great so I am really happy. Last P-day Elder Maughan and I got matching Duck Dynasty ties! They are super awesome and my new favorite tie :) That night we taught this crazy guy that looked like a Hispanic Albert Einstein haha He said he loves learning about religions and showed us huge bags of books from different religions that he has read. We tried to give him a pamphlet and he said this is baby stuff where is the real stuff. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us that was more like it haha funny guy. He told us to come back with lots of scriptures ready but when we went back he wasn't there. Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting on the Holy Ghost and went to Buffalo Wild Wings because 3 people in our zone "died"(finished their missions) and that was their last wish. It was way good! That night we found some new people to start teaching but they weren't too interested so I hope they are there when we go back. We got to talk with Zaira's dad, Armando. He has some friends he wants us to talk to because of the amazing change he has seen in his daughter, he wants the same change for others. We also had a sweet lesson with Paniagua and it finally clicked for them that God has a body of flesh and bones. It is awesome to see people actually understand what we teach and see that "lightbulb" turn on in their head. Thursday we had our Christmas Party with about a third of the mission. It was super fun and we got to sing tons of hymns and watch Despicable Me which was really funny but really weird watching a movie...haha We also had a super awesome lunch and then we watched Joy to the World and President Bowen and his wife shared their testimonies about Christ and it was a really nice relaxing party :) After the party we went and helped this lady in our ward hang up lights and helped another lady move. Friday with weekly planning, facebook, and the ward Christmas party not a ton happened except for all of the people that told us would come to the party didn't show, but oh well. Saturday we got to teach Luis and his family and they fed us Strawberry Tamales! I didn't know they even existed but she made pineapple, strawberry, cinnamon, and two normals kinds and even though we had dinner right after we had to try some haha During dinner we got a call from the bishops wife to go sing at her daughters fairwell party and so we ate really quick and got over there to sing Called to Serve in front of the whole ward. When we got to the church we saw these kids huddled around another kid and all of their bikes in the road so we went to see if we could help them. The kid had crashed on his bike going down a big hill and landed on his face. His face was covered in blood and he had some crazy road burn on his back and leg that burned through his clothes to his skin. We helped him into the church to clean up and it was crazy, he had a major concussion and we called his dad to take him to the hospital. His dad saw him and just said "If you would have been wearing the helmet I bought you!" haha The kid should be alright tho. Then we had to go sing haha Sunday was pretty normal. Elder Maughan was feeling pretty sick tho so we stayed in to let him rest. Yesterday was fun, we got to go caroling and had our last 2 hour facebook training. I'm super excited to skype my family tomorrow! Merry Christmas :) Love you all! Elder Hyde

Baptismal Dates, 12 shirt & Facebook

Well it's Tuesday, sorry I was late writing but since we are going through facebook training here I will have P-days on Tuesday's for the next three weeks. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :) and last Monday was awesome! Almost every door we knocked we taught a lesson so we only had to knock on like 5 before it was time to leave but wow it was a really good start to the week! I also opened my 12 shirt from my mom so that made me super happy :) Tuesday was pretty down, people were really closed off and it wasn't anything too exciting. Wednesday was pretty slow but we were able to stop by a member and teach them and wow it was an amazing lesson. Best one with a member I have ever had. The Spirit was soo strong and it was a cool experience. On Sunday we found out that the lesson we had with them helped them out a lot more than we even knew and I know we were inspired to go teach them even though they are active members. I think everyone can use a good missionary lesson every once in a while because even if they know everything that we say, it's not us or our words teaching them. It's the Spirit and what they feel that helps them. So that was a really good experience for me to realize the importance of helping all members out and in return they help us with our work :) Thursday was really slow and hard to talk to anyone because everyone was getting ready for their worship parties for Mary. So we stopped by Paniagua to see how they were doing and answered some of their questions about prayer. Well it was ridiculous all of the huge statues and idol worshiping that we saw plus how all of them were drunk while worshiping. It didn't make sense haha This world is super fallen. But I know that this gospel is what brings TRUE and EVERLASTING HAPPINESS. Friday we had facebook training! It is super weird that we will now have an hour a day to use facebook. They want me to let you all know that I will and should be adding family and friends but I shouldn't be chatting with you unless it is strictly about missionary work. I am going to be focusing on my area but they said if there is somebody at home that is interested I can teach them over facebook and I will be probably be able to Skype them with my companion and teach them to prepare them to meet in person with their local missionaries. It got me super pumped hearing all of the success stories and everything. Also they want friends and family liking and sharing any of my posts that I their friends can see it and the hope of the whole facebook and missionary idea is to create a huge social media burst of good, uplifting posts and to share the gospel in new ways. Our mission is one of 30 in the world who has the opportunity to try it and I am super excited, we also will get our ipads or android tablets in January. Saturday we got to teach Zaira with the awesome Plan of Salvation visuals that the Hamideh's sent me. It was awesome we basically had Zaira teach her little sibblings the Plan of Salvation and we helped her a little bit. Super awesome how much she has grown in the gospel. We also had a really good gospel conversation with her dad who used to hate missionaries and there has been a huge change in his heart. He accepted a Book of Mormon and is excited to learn more. The Paniagua family fed us that night and we also got to review the baptismal interview questions with them and they are sooo ready to be baptized on January 5th!! :) Sunday we pretty sweet. we had dinner with this member Hermana Connie and she invited a friend and basically ended up teaching the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and much more during dinner haha She is an awesome member and all we did was bear testimony and invite her friend to read some of the Book of Mormon and she was way interested. It is so much easier to work with people through members friends. Too bad she isn't in our area but I think the elders in her area are going to start teaching her now. That night we went to visit Luis because he didn't come to church or the Christmas program like he told us he would. He felt really bad for not coming but he had starting reading the Book of Mormon and praying every night so that was awesome. He wasn't understanding very much of what we read so we helped him understand what he had already read and read more with him explaining it as we went and it was sweet. Then we taught him the second half of the Plan of Salvation and it was sweet, when we asked him if he would prepare to be baptized on January 12th. He said yes, I asked him why and he told us because he wants to make it back to the celestial kingdom with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and hopefully his whole family. It was so cool, he is going to be a huge example for his family and most of his family is pretty open so I think the whole family is going to have baptismal dates soon :) Well this week was awesome! Thanks for all of the Christmas cards and everything! I know this gospel is true and I am so lucky to have this opportunity to share it with others. Love you all! and add me on facebook ahha my name is Elder Nathanael Hyde :) Love, Elder Hyde

Needed a tissue today....another great missionary week...Meeting Mike

This week I get to start with a miracle and probably one of the coolest moments in my mission. So last Monday we had just finished emailing and went to get some lunch at Five Guys. We were in line about to order and this guy comes running up to us "Are you guys Mormons?!?" we told him that we were and then he tells us that his name is Mike and that he needs to be baptized. He told us that some of him family was LDS and that he felt like he needed to be baptized. He said that he had been looking for missionaries for a while now and he was so happy to have found us. He is just getting over some drug and alcohol addictions and said he has almost completed his AA program and is changing his life around. He ended up eating lunch with us and even singing happy birthday to one of the sisters in my district. It was so awesome! He calls us every single day to tell us how he is doing and talk to us about the gospel and what he is learning. He loves how simple the gospel is and how it all makes so much sense to him. The very next day the English sisters taught him and they set a baptismal date for Dec. 22! He is so cool and just makes me soo happy! Tuesday I had my 9 week follow-up so we got to have some awesome lessons with President Bowen and his wife and also the assistants taught us too. President Bowen really loves all of his missionaries and it's so great to feel the love he has for me and the love of our Heavenly Father that you can feel when he bears testimony. That night we found this less-active lady that we have been looking for. She is super awesome and really wants to come back to church but is just scared to. We were able to give her a blessing and it was awesome! She asked me to give the blessing and it was a really cool experience and the first blessing that I have been able to give since the CCM. Wednesday we taught the Paniagua family and they set their own baptismal date for Jan. 5th! They are so ready to be baptized, I just hope we can keep them on their goal and help them to be ready to make the sacred covenant of baptism. Thursday I got to see President Bowen again because we had President interviews and they were super awesome! He is an awesome man. We also got to teach a father(Enrique) and his son(Luis) about the restoration focusing on the Godhead and they said they have never thought of the Godhead like that before and they really liked it. They said they would start to prepare for baptism but they wouldn't set a date before they got to read and pray about it. Julie got to stop by Friday and give me the bags of presents, thanks mom! :) That night we taught this awesome dude named Gabriel and this guy Carlos that lived with him absolutely loved us and knew everything about missionaries and Mormons because he told us he used to be dating a Mormon before she died. He had a lot of questions about why her family wasn't sad at the funeral and other things. He had trouble hearing so we kind of had to yell about the plan of salvation to him but he was really interested. We also told him about some classes we have to learn sign language and he was super excited about that. We might have to go translate the class for him since he only speaks Spanish so that should be fun :) Rain. Saturday it rained a lot in the morning and soaked us to the bone. It wouldn't have been so bad but there was a lot of wind that made it pretty cold on bikes. To make it worse nobody we went to see was home, so that kind of stunk. Then we had a lesson with this guy who wouldn't listen to us or pray about what we shared but told us he was good because he liked what he believed and didn't want to see us again. Sunday we called lots of people to invite them to church and 5 of the 6 people we called ended up dropping us and telling us they weren't coming to church and to never stop by again because they didn't want to make time for us. Good thing for the Christmas devotional and a after an awesome lesson with Luis to bring our Spirits back up :) This morning we finally went inside the Lamborghini dealership across from our apartments. It was sweet! Sounds like it is nice and cold in Utah :) But at least you guys will have snow for Christmas!! Cali is awesome though. This week I have been studying about Hope and what we hope for in life. We should hope for eternal life through the atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be receive eternal life. When I was studying hope, in the TG is says hope is also expectation and so I started plugging that into scriptures and it opened a whole new window for me on hope and how when we are obedient to God's commandments we can hope/expect for these great things like eternal life. Always have hope because when we have hope, we have everything :) Love, Elder Hyde

I love Mondays!!!

Hola! Well the weeks are really speeding up I felt like I just wrote home haha. Last Monday for our zone activity we had a sweet turkey bowl, wasn't as fun as in Utah but it was pretty fun. Later that night we had a FHE with a family in the ward and it was really fun, e had water bottle chugging contests and shared some of our favorite scriptures. Tuesday we watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ with Zaira and all of her little sibling and it was really awesome they liked it a lot. The rest of the day was pretty slow but we were on our way to dinnner and we were going to be late but we rode past this guy and I had a huge promoting to stop and talking to him so I did and he was this awesome guy that is one of our new investigators this week named Jose. Wednesday we had an awesome zone meeting and talked about explaining the Godhead better in our first lessons with people and how it will help them become converted. It was a big answer to my prayers about how we can start helping people accept baptismal invitations. Then we had a sweet lesson with this recent convert named Robert. He is a super white guy that barley speaks any Spanish, like me :) haha, and only goes to the Spanish ward because of his girlfriend who goes haha he is super funny and has a really interesting situation because he hasn't told his parents that he is baptized yet but he really loves the gospel. He is 18 so we talked to him about serving a mission and helped him resolve some doubts he had and invited him to fast to know if he needs to serve. We also got to read some of the Book of Mormon with the Paniagua family. Then there was Thanksgiving!! :) We had dinner with the Vasquez of course and it was a super awesome day. We had a lesson/lunch with a less active family and later found out that we weren't supposed to go there because some other elders had to cast of demons or something there before. But nothing went wrong while we were there and while it was sad to hear the reason they don't come to church and one girl stopped filling out her mission papers was because they love alcohol and don't want to give it up. Really sad. But then we stopped by one of our investigators and she wasn't home but we starting teaching her son and he invited us in and seemed really interested. He said he is Catholic but it just hasn't made a ton of since to him growing up. He is a really cool dude. So Thanksgiving was awesome and I ate too much food haha but oh well. Friday was a good day we taught Belen and Efran some good lessons in the morning and we had dinner with the Paniagua family and taught they about fasting and even though they looked at us like we were crazy when we invited them to fast about if they should be baptized on the 29th of December, they accepted and are super awesome. We had volleyball that night and elder Maughan reached to hit the ball, fell, and ripped a huge hole in his pants right where you don't want them to. Those pants are done for haha and we had to hurry and get him home to change. Saturday we had exchanges and elder Wagstaff came to my area and I was senior companion for a day. It was a lot of fun and it is cool to see how other missionaries work. We found this homeless guy who was on the ground and looked like he was in a lot of pain. We stopped and tried to help him but he said he thinks he broke his left and wanted to stay there. He was starving and thirst so we gave him some cookies and vitamin water and just talked to him for a little bit but he didn't want anymore help but it was an interesting experience. I am really really blessed! Yesterday was a really awesome day, it started out as a pretty normal Sunday and when we went out knocking we just didn't feel right and we were just not teaching how we wanted to and everyone was rejecting us. We were pretty down by the time we got to dinner at the bishop's house. It was his sons birthday and we had tons of good food and cake and music after, it was super awesome and really got us pumped to go teach. We went to an referral that we got and one of our investigators sons answered and while the referral wasn't there he told us he wasn't doing anything so he invited us in and wanted to hear more. We had an amazing lesson with him and he is just an awesome dude. His name is Luis and he remembers missionaries coming to his house when he was little but now he is just trying to figure out what to do with his life. I love helping people and having answers to their deepest questions. Love the work, love The Lord, and I love you guys :) Love, Elder Hyde

Hola...Happy Thanksgiving...It's A Boy!

Hola! It's a boy :) Mom I am so excited for you and Alan and that you're having a boy! I knew it haha Well anyways I'm super excited for you and can't wait to see him! So this week was really exhausting. Last Monday was pretty sweet, I had to go to Ross and get some warmer clothes because for some reason Cali gets a little cold in the winter. Who knew? That night we had this lady drop us but we ended up finding two awesome people to teach so it all worked out. Tuesday we taught Belen the second half of the Plan of Salvation and she really enjoyed it, plus we brought an awesome member, hermano Ralegino, he is so awesome! Belen says she realized why she needs to be baptized again but this time actually confirmed. She really wants to learn more though before she sets a date on her baptism. Then we taught Derick the Plan of Salvation up to the Atonement and he although he didn't accept a date for baptism he said he would read and pray and really think about it. We also had a sweet lesson with Zaira and taught the Restoration with her and shared some of our favorite Book of Mormon stories and miracles that Christ performed. It was sweet to see how much her testimony has grown and how much the Restoration has helped her in her life already. Wednesday was amazing! We taught this less-active member and she told us how she really missed church and wanted to come back, and Sunday she did :) awesome! oh yeah, a MIRACLE happened on Wednesday too. This guy with tons of tattoos who was smoking sees us and yells "Hey! Are you guys Mormons?" We told him that we were and then he asks us "Do you have a pamphlet or something I can have?" It was soooo cool. This guy named Victor started telling us how he has made a ton of mistakes in his life but he really wants to change. He told us how he just felt like there was something more to life. He said he has seen missionaries around there a lot before and always had an urge to talk to us but it wasn't until then that he finally did. It reminded me how we need to stop and talk to everyone! He didn't have much time to talk to us but the small part we did share he really liked and he really wants to learn more. Way cool dude! We also taught this dude Armando, he loves anyone that talks about God and like to hear others beliefs, he said that Mormon missionaries are always welcome in his home. He is super nice, but it's really interesting that he doesn't like JW missionaries because they came into his house once and just went off on his how much of a sinner he is but he really likes us so that's good :) We also taught Efren and got him to pray at the end of the lesson. I think his first prayer ever. It was a cool experience! That night was awesome because we also got a referral from a Quorum of the 70 but we weren't able to find it :/ We were almost home that night when it was raining pretty good, and on the last turn to our apartment my companion slid and crashed on his bike into the middle of the intersection. It was a way crazy slide and he was lucky no cars were coming. He was fine except he said he left his dignity on that corner haha. Thursday we taught an awesome lesson to this lady named Martha. She said she had met with missionaries for a long time but they never really shared what they believed and she had never heard the name Joseph Smith before or the word Restoration. Weird situation but super awesome lesson. She told us about her childhood and wow she had a really rough life growing up and she also has had some bad experiences with other churches and the leaders so she is scared to come to church but she is really awesome. We also met this guy Efrain who really liked what we had to say and was just so awesome and prepared to hear us. That day I got letters from my awesome Mama, Cherrie and Del, and Grandma and Grandpa Grayson. Grandma sent me a lot of awesome poems and quotes that were awesome, Thanks :) The rest of the weekend was really awesome we met this really shy guy named Heiro and he had never prayed before but we taught him how and by the end of the lesson he said an amazing heart felt prayer it was so cool. We also found this guy named Oscar, he has 8 kids and that family is awesome. They are super Catholic but they love our message so we will see what happens. Elder Hawkins came back on Sunday with his dad, sister and girlfriend and a beard. That was super weird to see him and think that he was our companion 4 weeks ago. For Thanksgiving we already have breakfast, lunch, and at least 2 dinners set up so I think I might die with how much food I am going to eat that day. This week I weighed in 16 pounds heavier than when I got to Cali so I think it is time for a diet, but with the Holiday's coming up I don't know how it is possible. If I keep this up I will be 360 pounds when I get home. Fun stuff! I love Cali, I love serving a mission, and I love all of you! Thanks for everything and have an amazing Thanksgiving this week :) Love, Elder Hyde

Exciting and disappointing...but lots of good things

Howdy Y'all This week was pretty exciting and also pretty disappointing. I will start with the good stuff and work to the disappoint stuff because that's the order that it happened. So last Wednesday we had a sweet district meeting and I was asked to talk for about 5minutes about how the Book of Mormon has helped me make sacred covenants and how it has helped me in my personal conversion. Wow, I'm not sure if what I said helped anyone but I know it helped me a ton. Just pondering and thinking about the Book of Mormon and everything it means to me was a wonderful experience and I know sharing experience makes your own testimony grow. Just like speaking, teaching a class, sharing your testimony with someone, or going out or your way to give service or be more Christ-like. When we stretch ourselves or do something that is hard for us we become better and grow the fastest. I love the many opportunities that we have to grow and stretch ourselves to really progress in this life how our Heavenly Father wants us to. So back to Wednesday, I got my frosty from the push-up challenge :) Then the rest of the night all of the people we went to see fell through until we had our weekly set appointment with the Paniagua family. We brought hermano Salgado, our mission ward leader who is a boss, with us and it really showed me how important member present lessons are. So we went in to teach them about faith and acting on their faith since they still have had the same doubts about being baptized for 6 months and we felt like they needed that. Well, God had other plans because when we followed up with them about how taking a question to church went, they told us they felt really good but they felt like they haven't received their answer yet and still had the same doubts. As hermano Salgado tried to answer her questions about the temple and other things the Spirit was really strong and we asked Carolina Paniagua to offer a prayer and ask right then. We all got on our knees and she offered the most sincere pray I have ever heard her give and she asked a lot of amazing questions. After that she opened up a ton and talked about how she has felt alone in her life and hasn't really felt God's love and we basically just testified and shared experiences and wow it was amazing. We invited them to be baptized on Nov. 24th and they accepted as long as they had received an answer to her prayer by then. I felt like that lesson was her answer. Thursday was a little discouraging but we found this sweet guy named Derick who seems pretty interested. He is in his 20's and just seems like he is searching for more in life. Boy do we have what he needs :) I'm pumped to teach him more. Friday we fasted for Max and Carolina Paniagua to help them see their answer and be ready for baptism. Fasting helped us to be really spiritually in tune and all of the people we went to see weren't home but we found two people by some of the houses we went to and this one guy Ralio was working with his son on his bike and they seemed really interested and just their eyes were so bright when we left they seemed really happy about what we shared. Saturday was awesome! We found a jackpot of hispanics and we only covered like a fourth of the area we wanted to but it was awesome because we were teaching so many lessons and we found two whole families that just seemed kind of lost and want to know more. We also learned that night that Elder Maughan and I are together for another transfer which is sweet, we get to have Thanksgiving and Christmas together in this amazing area I'm excited! It was an amazing week and then we get to Sunday. Sunday was fine until we got to priesthood meeting and when some guy asked Max about his baptismal date, he said he didn't have one and so we talked to him and his wife after church and they said they just aren't ready to make that commitment yet. It was really hard to hear. They have come to church almost every week for about 4 months and they believe in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and they are just so ready, it is really confusing why they are so hesitant. Well I'm out of time but this week was pretty great, just a little discouraging. This week we also met this girl in her late 20's that just loves us haha Her name is Martha and when we knocked on her door she told us how she had met with other missionaries before but then she started inviting us over for Thanksgiving and Christmas and wants us to sing for her family haha When we invited her to church she said she would rather go to English because she hates Spanish but when we told her we were Spanish speaking elders she changed her mind all of the sudden and wants to come to our ward haha She is funny and really made us feel right at home. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!! Love, Elder Hyde

P-day after Veteran's Day....

Hola! Sorry that I'm a day late, but all of the libraries were closed yesterday because it was Veterans Day. This week has been pretty great. Last Tuesday we started the week off amazing and even though most of our plans fell through, we ending up getting 3 new investigators and some really great lessons. Elder Maughan and I are getting a lot better at teaching together and our lessons have really improved. The Lord has really prepared a lot of people in this area for us, we just need to have the faith that things are going to work out with all of them. I got a letter from the Kimball family and that was a sweet pick-me-up so thank you for that :) Wednesday we had a sweet district meeting on the Spirit and Prayer. It was exactly what I needed. The rest of the day...wasn't as good. Nobody really wanted to listen to us that day and we weren't feeling too good from some of the Mexican food we ate Tuesday night and so it was a rough day but at night we got to teach the Paniagua family. We had a sweet lesson planned on faith and baptism and were hoping to set a baptismal date with them for Dec. 15th but when we invited them they kind of exploded with tons of doubts and confusion they have about the church. It was a really difficult lesson because they had so many weird questions and it was really hard. We really feel like they are ready, they have been going to church for over 4 months or so and they believe in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They quit drinking coffee and are trying to live all of the commandments, but they are letting their doubts take over what they believe. It reminds me of this last conference where someone, maybe Uchtdorf, said "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." So we are trying to help them to act on their faith, but so far we haven't had any luck. Thursday we had a sweet lesson with Zaira, we are teaching her about scripture study, missionary work and enduring to the end. It is amazing to see the changes she has made and the influence the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost has been in her life already. She told us about this experience where she was at school and her friend was struggling with some bullies and the first thing she thought of was how Nephi was being bullied by his brothers in the wilderness and so she shared and read a whole chapter in 1Nephi about what he did when it happened and it just made me so happy to see her using the scriptures in her life. She really tries to liken the scriptures to herself and those around her and it's awesome. Not a ton happened on Friday because we had weekly planning and our appointments fell through but we had a sweet lesson with a family in the ward and they ended up giving us two referrals so it worked out well. Tons of people showed up for volleyball that night and we were able to talk a lot with Zaira's brother, who we are hoping to start teaching soon. Saturday the Vasquez family made us a huge breakfast and then we helped them out with some service it was a really good day. Sunday was pretty normal. We invited the Paniagua family to come to church with a question in mind, preferably why do I need to be baptized or something but we told them they could choose whatever they wanted and see if it would be answered during church. They said they would and so I hope it was answered and we will see when we meet with them tomorrow. I think it's a great idea to go to church with a question. So if you think church hasn't been as spiritual of an experience and you would like it to be I invite you all to try going to church with a question. It is an awesome experience and can made church more exciting, especially when you are trying to help other people go to church even when they might not enjoy it as much. Yesterday was probably the best P-day I have ever had! We were able to go to Red Robin for lunch, which was wayyy yummy :) After that we had our push-up contest follow up and I got second so now my companion and get a frosty soon! I just realized how much I talk about food. I love food. Now I know why I gained 10 pounds in my first week in the field haha Then once I got to our zone activity, which was 3 hours of basketball :), I got a huge package from my family, I love you guys! :) Amazing letters from Marta and Jessica! And even a wedding invitation ahah I can't believe Holly is getting married this month! Crazyness! Then to the best part of my day, teaching! That night we went to visit this lady who wanted us to teach her sons but said she wasn't very interested. We got to the house and started talking to one of hers sons but he said he was busy. We decided to share a little bit and once he heard more he invited us in and said what we had to say was more important that the homework he had to do. His name is Gonzalo and he is so prepared to hear the gospel. He had so many questions about God, different religions, and life. The Spirit was electrifying and it was by far one of the best lessons I have been a part of out here. It was a really emotional lesson. He was really confused with how leaders in other churches got money for what they did and was confused with why people were trying to change the bible so much. It was amazing because when we were teaching him he just kept saying, wow that makes so much sense. He felt more comfortable with us speaking English, which was interesting because it was only the second or third time I have done the first lesson in English.When I shared the first vision we were both almost in tears and it was amazing how strong the Spirit was. God really does answer our prayers and I am out of time so I need to go but I love you all and pray for you every day. Love, Elder Hyde

Super Awesome Week! Super Awesome Son!!!

Hola! This week was super awesome! Last Monday we got together as a zone and played ultimate frisbee which was awesome. We also started a push-up competition and bet a frosty to the one who improves the most. That night we spent going around letting Elder Hawkins say goodbye to everyone in the ward and then Tuesday morning he was gone. Things are a lot more quiet at our apartment now but it's really good because we had been able to have some really good studies and been able to focus a lot more without Elder Hawkins there to distract us haha. I also got a sweet Halloween card from the Marchant family and it was really awesome. Monday night we were talking to this limo driver lady and she was really nice and starting telling us about her beliefs and told us that her son is a Christian rapper named cross eyes and it was funny. So Tuesday we were able to teach Zaira about temples and her confirmation that she was going to have on Sunday. We also had dinner with the Vasquez family again. Wednesday we got to go running in the morning and we had a zone meeting about going back to the basics. Our missions numbers have gone super down the past few months and we are all trying to get everyone pumped up and ready to get things going again. We had dinner with the Luna family that night and when elder Maughan shared a spiritual thought and then asked if he knew anyone we could teach, the member went off at him telling him that he has done his part and he doesn't need to do anymore. It was really sad to see that, because we are NEVER done until The Lord says we are done and He defiantly hasn't said we are done yet. Halloween!! On Halloween we went exploring a part of our area we had never been to trying to find people who speak Spanish. We were able to teach a lot of sweet lessons and got two new investigators that I am excited to teach. One guy named Efren, loves to read the Book of Mormon because a friend gave it to him but he has never met with missionaries before. He said that he doesn't understand it very much but that he just feels great when he reads it. I was able to lead a lot of then door contacts that day and it was pretty hard but I am working on coming out of my shell more and just making sure I talk to everyone I see. The Hermanas got an apple pie that they shared with us and then we just ate at home that night. Then we got permission from our district leader to go to the Vasquez's and help them pass out candy. Not one person came trick or treating to their house...haha so they few us some home made nachos and we just sent the whole night playing games with their whole family and it made me fell almost like I was at home. That day when we were knocking there was this guy who wasn't very interested and needed to get back to baking so we left and then a few seconds later he came running out to give us some warm pan dulce and it was so yummy and helped us get through tons of knocking. People are awesome. Friday we had wayyy too much sugar. We had tons of candy from the Vasquez's and they also gave us cake to take home and we make pancakes for weekly planning with candy them. That day we had a way good lesson with this lady named Vicky and she said she believes what we teach but because her dad is Catholic she wants to stay Catholic. Ugg some people are frustrating but we love them anyways. Saturday we had exchanges and our district leader came to my area so I was senior companion for a day and it was crazy hard but it was a great day. We taught some amazing people and found some new investigators. That day we had lunch with this member who we all think is gay because he always invites missionaries over for service and lunch and then tries to feel their muscles and weird stuff so we tried to get out of there are fast as we could hahaha I love the Hispanic community but one thing that drives me crazy is that none of them know how to discipline their children and it is super frustrating. Zaira was confirmed on Sunday and it was awesome, we also had a casa abierta (open house) and my companion and I taught about the Book of Mormon. Some other things I forgot to say, a few weeks ago we stopped by a Jehovah witness service and they let us borrow a copy of their "Holy scripture" which is the bible but they changed it so much that the bible association or something won't let them call it a bible anymore. It was super weird, they changed the words to be more in modern language but it was weird. We should be getting iPhones and iPads soon which will be sweet! Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week, especially my momma who is going to get better this week and my home boy lil Nate who enters the field this week!! Love, Elder Hyde

Biking to Newport, Zaira Rodriguez Baptism, the trio ends...

Hola! This week was way awesome!! I should probably start with the baptism because that was the best part. First I need to talk about the morning really quick. So I forgot to set my alarm clock the night before and Elder Hawkins had already packed his away and Elder Maughan doesn't have one so we woke up to the District leader knocking on the door at 8:30 haha we felt so bad but it was really funny. However it helped Elder Maughan to not fall asleep during church for the first time in his life...We need to work on that with him haha So now to the baptism, her name is Zaira Rodriguez and she is 16 years old. Her parents have been separated for about 4 years and her dad moves out this week, which is partially the reason she was able to be baptized. She has a big family and her sister and mom are interested in the gospel so we will be working with her family more once the dad moves out. So the baptism was huge because this couple got married at 5pm yesterday and then right after got baptized at the same time as Zaira and they all had tons of people so the primary room was so packed that a big group of us didn't get to be in the room but my companions and I saw the baptism from the hallway. We had almost as many there as we do for a sacrament meeting. For the baptism she decided to have Elder Bojorquez baptize her because he was the missionary that found her a few months ago. It was really cool and she was so happy it was great! So last Thursday my companions and I took this amazing 25mile bike ride down to NewPort beach and rode alone the entire beach trail down there and it was awesome. I got some sweet pictures and some drunk people on the beach asked us to take a picture for them and then we ended up getting in a picture with them, they were really funny and were really confused that we all had the same first name.(Elder) Then that night we had a really interesting lesson with Mo. He is interested but has a hard time with the fact that we believe in saving ordinances like baptism because he believes that by just being baptized you aren't saved, and so we tried to explain to him everything and he said he would pray about it, so we will see what happens with him. Friday we had Zone Conference with Elder Ellis of the first quorum of the seventy and he is way awesome dude. That took all day, we learned a lot about the Holy Ghost, Faith, and Staying positive and motivated. It was awesome, and after the fed us a feast with steak, chicken, potatoes, huge yummy salad, cake, and lots of other good stuff. That night we got to play volleyball with the ward and others who weren't members and just wanted to play. It's a lot of fun every week. Saturday Aunt Julie, Uncle Ferron, and Hudson took us out to lunch to this good Mongolian place and it was a good change from the normal rice and beans we eat every day. She also gave us some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that were way good! I love food. That night we helped the Vasquez family clean out their garage. They are an awesome family and we will see them at least 3 times this week with service, dinners, and we are going to help them pass out candy on Halloween which will be legit. Well that was pretty much my week, I'm glad to hear that the Marchants farewell went well, I bet they did amazing like they always do. My companions and I joke that my mission actually starts tomorrow because the first three weeks have been so crazy and fun and now that Elder Hawkins leaves tomorrow morning Elder Maughan and I are going to finally get to work without having a trunky Elder Hawkins with us. So I'm excited to finally get completely lost in the work and be able to focus on the really important things but still have a lot of fun too. Anyways I love you all and love hearing all that is going on back at home. Love, Elder Hyde

October 24, 2013 -Thursday - Newport Temple

Hola! Well this week was full of ups and downs haha It started out less than 5 minutes after I finished emailing last week, we got a text from Fabiola and her daughter Jennifer that neither of them would be able to be baptized or even meet with or talk to the missionaries ever again. :( It pretty much broke our hearts and made the rest of Pday not as good as it could have been but we decided to move on and the Lord would bless us. When we got to the Zone activity(which was basketball and volleyball) I got a letter from Jessica! :) That made my day a lot better and got me ready to get back to work. She is awesome! I have been doing a ton of biking since I have been in Cali. Two of the days we went 20miles each and in total we have gone 120miles so I have been a little sore some mornings which is good. I have also been eating a ton and I have gained 10 pounds in my first 2 weeks out here so I think I should start slowing down haha There is this family in our ward, the Vasquez family, and we see them almost every day. They are way helpful, need a lot of service, provide us with people to teach, come to teaching appointments with us, and feed us lots of food. When I heard working with the members in Conference, now I know what they were talking about because of the Vasquez family. Last week was a little discouraging because we weren't able to teach nearly as much as we wanted to and because one of my companions is so trunky it can be hard to focus at times. But we continued to work hard we just weren't seeing the results and Sunday night we felt a little down about our week. So you remember Zaira right? The one who ran away, well she had come back from running away and it was weird because her family didn't even seem to care or think that it was a big deal that she wasn't home for a few days. Anyways on Sunday night we got a call from this lady in the ward who had just talked to Zaira's parents and her dad said she could be baptized. Way crazy because her dad hated missionaries before, but we were able to talk to him and I think he respects us now and so she has been ready to be baptized for a while so on Tuesday we asked her to be baptized this Sunday and she was really excited to say yes and so it turns out I'm having my first baptism this Sunday!! :) :) This came as a complete surprise because we felt that her dad was not going to change his mind but the Lord works in interesting ways and I am just so excited for Zaira and he decision to find the truth for herself and act on her faith by being baptized. Also last week we were knocking and found this awesome Arabian dude named Mounir(Mo for short) and his is literally a rocket scientist. He is way smart, and loves the bible and knows it very well. We started talking with him and he seemed really hesitant but after a minute he became way interested and had amazing questions. We talked to him for a while and when we asked him if he would read the Book of Mormon, he told us yeah, and if it is true the Spirit of God will tell me. Then he asked us if we could come back in a week and answer any questions about the Book of Mormon and talk more. He is amazing and we are going to teach him and Zaira tonight so I can't wait for those lessons. The temple was way awesome today. It was nice to go through in English, since I have gone in Spanish my last 3 trips. I also wanted to to tell you guys about this golden family, the Paniagua family. I'm not sure if I talked about them last email but they are awesome. This guy Max, his wife, son and daughter are awesome. The parents and son are wanting to be baptized, they are just wanting to finish the Book of Mormon first to make sure they know it is true but I think they will want to be baptized in the next few weeks. They are coming to Zaira's this Sunday to see how they work and I hope that will give them even more of a desire to be baptized soon. Everything is moving along well. While the work is really hard and discouraging at times, the happiness and joy that comes if well worth it. I love being a missionary, I love just trying to continue to get better every week and I have seen a lot of improvement in myself but there is so much more that needs to take place, but just one step at a time. Love you all, that you for all the encouragement, Heavenly Father has blessed me so much to have so many that love me and that I love too. Have a wonderful week! I have Pday again on Monday so you will be hearing from me soon! Love, Elder Hyde

First Pday in Anaheim....off to a great start

I'm in Cali!!!! This first week in the field was so amazing! I have so much to say and I hope I have time to write everything that I was to. I haven't been able to write since before conference so I hope you were all able to watch it because it was such an amazing conference. Well it was a little sad saying all of the goodbyes at the CCM but it was so exciting to get out here so it was worth it. Elder Golding and I gave each other blessings the last night we had together and it was an amazing experience but because of that and packing, punch dancing in the forest, and all of the other crazy stuff we didn't get to bed until like 12:30am and I had to wake up at 1:45am to be on the bus and to the airport so I was super exhausted haha I got to call mama at the airport once I got to Dallas and it was really nice to hear from her but it made me homesick for a couple minutes but then I realized how amazing the work is that I'm doing is and I was fine. On the plane ride to Santa Ana the guy I sat next to a member and we had a really nice chat. When I got to Santa Ana the only missionaries were myself and hermana Smith and we found the driver and he took us to President Bowen's house and they had a really good lunch set up for us and 8 other new missionaries. It was way good to have some American food and talk to some new people. Later I met my new companions! My trainer is Elder Maughan, I call him mom, and Elder Hawkins, who is dad. Elder Maughan will be training me and Elder Hawkins finishes his mission in two weeks so he is almost done. Elder Maughan has been out for 7months and is 6' 7" and don't worry he isn't very tall because in our district alone we have a 6' 8" kid, and a 6' 10 and 1/2" guy who is huge. Elder Hawkins is way cool and is fluent in Spanish which helps a ton and knows how to teach the gospel really well so he helps us out a lot, even if he is really trunky(which is what we call Elders that are so excited to get home they are already kind of home in their mind haha). Both of my companions are super awesome and I'm really glad I am with them. After I met them we took my stuff back to the apartment and we didn't even have time to unpack because we had to go to dinner with a member family that had a non-member over for FHE. We had a really good lesson and they made us some good food. But when I thought I was back in America we have rice and beans every single day so I kind of feel like I'm still in Mexico haha but it's all really good food, just really spicy. Well by the time we got back and I got unpacked and such I had been up for over 24 hours so I was exhausted. Congratulations to Marta who will be serving with Erik in the Chile Vina Del Mar mission!! That is way crazy but I'm super excited for her and know she will be an amazing missionary. The area I'm serving in is called Costa Mesa 4 North and we have an amazing ward. There are lots of good members and a lot of people to help us with our Spanish. Well throughout the week I have already had some pretty random and funny stories. I got a sweet new bike and we rode about 35miles this week and I have a feeling we will be biking a ton. We have dinner with a member every night they are all so great. So this week went pretty well, we taught 8 lessons, most in Spanish, and we have had tons of meetings but this week should be better. So Thursday we stopped by one of our investigators named Zaira, she is 16 and has been wanting to be baptized for a while but her dad won't let her until she is 18 and out of the house. We stopped by to meet her dad and ended up having over an hour long conversation with him and he finally agreed to let us come by twice a week to meet with her. But either that night or Friday night she ran away from home for some reason and nobody has heard from her and we still don't know where she is so that is kind of scary. We have a lot of investigators that are way interested but then end up saying they are Catholic and they can't change so it makes it difficult to find Hispanics that are willing to listen to something different. Saturday was a way good day, so this girl Jennifer about 18ish is going to be baptized soon but she is being taught by the singles ward missionaries because she is in that age range but she wants her mom to have the gospel too so we stopped by to teach her mom the first lesson(restoration) and she loved it. It was all in Spanish and I was able to say the first vision, bear my testimony, and I invited her to be baptized and she accepted for Nov. 17th. Her only concern is her husband but we hope that his heart will be softened enough to let her be baptized then. We went knocking that night and there was this one house that we knocked at and then for some reason we starting singing "We wish you a merry Christmas" and the second story window opened up and a girl about 15yrs old asked us what we wanted my companion said trick or treat and then we told her we had a message about Jesus Christ and she and about 5 others girls, I think it was a sleepover or something, looked at us and one of them said "I think they're on drugs" hahahaha Well it has been a super good week and I love being a missionary! :) By the way my P-days are now Mondays but next week we get to go to the NewPort Temple so it will be Thursday next week but it should be on Monday from there on out. Love you all so much, thanks for the emails and package! Love, Elder Hyde

Hey mom I made it to Cali and I'm loving it! I got a little more sleep on the plane ride to Santa Ana and the guy that checked one of my bags was a convert 3 years ago and he was happy to see a missionary so we talked a little bit and the guy I sat next to on the plane was a member so it was cool to talk to him about everything. Sister smith and I were the last two of all the new missionaries to get to the presidents house and we had lunch and such. We watched some safety videos and played some ping pong and I am going to meets my trainers in like 20 minutes but I know I'm going to be part of a trio and I will have two trainers for a while and then one of them will leave in like 4 or 5 weeks or so. Well 9 other missionaries came to the mission today, 6 girls and 4 boys. Fun stuff, I will send pictures next week probably. Well he said we probably have lessons and appointments tonight so I'm excited to get out to do some work, te amo mucho! Love, Elder Hyde LOVE HIS MISSION PRESIDENT ALREADY FOR LETTING HIM SEND THIS QUICK MESSAGE HOME! THAT'S WHAT MOM'S NEED TO KNOW THEY ARRIVED SAFELY!!!

Oct 8th....Elder Hyde is off to Anaheim

I received a happy phone call today from my awesome son! He was waiting for his flight in the Dallas airport. It is always good to hear from him but to know he arrived back in the United States safely warmed my heart. He sounded very tired from a very early start. I hope he received a little more sleep on the flight to Anaheim since I am sure he will hit the group running when he arrives. He mentioned he was tired of rice and beans and hoped to eat at a Panda express soon. I am sure food he was familiar with was his utmost desire after eating cafeteria food for 6 weeks. He asked about family and the baby. We talked a little about how the baby will be over a year old when he returns. We talked about the wonderful conference we enjoyed this past weekend. I told him I thought of how we must be watching at the same time but in different countries. He loved his companion but said he was ready to move on to the next step in is mission journey. We will anxiously await his next letter to hear how the remainder of his day went and all the fun adventures he may be having today. Love you son!!!

Oct 3, 2013...last P-day in CCM..

Hola Hola! This is my last P-day in the CCM(which stands for Centro de Capacitación Misonal Mexicó) and it is crazy how fast it has gone by. Am I ready? Of course not, but I´m excited to face the struggles and the fun times that will be coming soon! So my week has been really good, a few days have been hard to study because our district is so excited to leave but other than that it has been really good. I haven´t felt too sick this week except for eating way too much dairy which has caused my stomach to die really bad this week but oh well that´s life haha My week started off really good with a letter in the mail from Megan :) It made me happy and then we had an amazing lesson and the elder that has been struggling shared one of the most sincere and powerful testimonies I have ever heard. He talked about how he used to feel like he had nothing to offer because he was bullied and tons of terrible things have happened in his life but because of a small feeling of love that he felt from his Heavenly Father he was able to get through it and wants to help others. We all felt the Spirit and as a class we talked about teaching from the heart and if we will open up like he did we will probably be able to get our investigators to open up too. Friday we had a lesson on our goals and without goals we will not reach our full potential and so I have been trying to come up with some good long-term and short-term goals. That night we got to order leather scripture cases that are hand made and I am way excited to get it when it´s done. I will send pictures when I get it. Saturday our teacher asked my companion and I to teach our investigator Cristina in front of the entire class for about an hour, her lesson was on unity and having the Spirit, and I am honored that she picked us. We have a really strong companionship and so it helps us to have pretty good lessons even though we are probably the worst in our class actually speaking español, the Spirit is a universal language. That is why I try so hard to have the Spirit with me, and I have a lot of work to do with that because a lot of the time it is hard to but I know I´m getting better at it and so I just need to keep working on it. We also got to teach our other investigator Guadelupe and it was a powerful lesson, the first one the I have full out cried in. We talked to her about trials and showed her ¨Mountains to Climb¨ which is a Mormon message and I recommend watching it. She is getting married soon and so we also talked to her about marriage and love and showed her ¨Enduring Love¨ which is also a Mormon message. Those two are definitely some of my favorite and be ready to cry if you watch them, but I recommend to watch both of them. It was great we knew exactly what we needed to say and since all three of us were crying I think it was exactly what she needed too. After we went to this grove of trees that we love to pray in and wow I what an amazing experience. That same night we talked about faith and read over Alma 32 which really helped my faith. The hermanas needed blessing that night and I feel like I am getting a lot better at listening to the Spirit during blessings and really saying what our Heavenly Fathers wants for them and I love being able to be an instrument in His hands. Sunday was my last sacrament meeting here and someone tried to play a prank and set out grape juice for all of the branches to pick up instead of water for all of the sacrament meetings but our branch president said we needed to get water which I felt like was appropriate because the only time not to use water is when you don´t have water with you but it was pretty funny that someone switched it. Anyways Sunday was great and we had a really young devotional speaker that talked to us about Lots wife and how she turned into salt not just because she looked back but because she longed to go back and wished she wouldn´t have left in the first place. Right then half of the audience turned into salt!! Haha Just kidding but I think a lot of people needed that talk, and I realized I need to let go of home more and be looking ahead not behind. Monday was kind of a blurr but I remember that our night teacher Hermana Castillo gave us an amazing lesson about how we can be really creative with our lessons and I feel like I need to change all of my lesson plans haha After the lesson though she talked to us about how she loves us a ton but she is kind of disapointed because we haven´t been progressing with our español as much as we should be and in other things and she knows that we can be so much better. Even though she said it with love it hit one of the hermanas kind of hard and so I gave her a blessing after and she seemed a lot better. My teachers Hermana Bair and Castillo are amazing and I wish I could have them in the field to help me but I can have the Spirit which is the best teacher so I´m not too worried. On Tuesday my companion and I went out during out language study and talked with some native workers and I was suprized with how well we could understand them and communicated back with them. The first guy was a member but we still talked to him and gave him a mini lesson and then we talked to this guy named José Gonzalez and he wasn´t a member but he was really interested when we talked to him about prophets and then we talked to him about general conference this weekend and he was excited that the prophet and apostles in our day would be speaking to us. We gave him tons of info and got his information to the missionaries in the area and so I hope that things go well with him but I will probably never find out :/ but at least we got to talk to him. We also tried to give him a L.D.M. but I guess some other missionaries gave him one the day before or something haha We had a devotional that night and the speaking was way cool. In our DDR(District Devotional Review not Dance Dance Revolution) we took some time by ourselves to pary about and write down questions we have going into conference and so I should challenge all of you to write down ANY questions that you have about ANYTHING and if you listen to the Spirit and ponder those questions they WILL be answered. Wednesday we got to teach some first week missionaries and it was fun except for they couldn´t really understand anything we were saying it was frustrating haha I got to go to the temple this morning and I could understand most of it and I was really happy with that. Also thanks mom for the letter and card that will help me a lot thanks! Well hope you all have a wonderful week and have a great conference experience. I love you all mucho! I´m not sure when my P-day will be out in the field so I´m not sure when I will be able to email again and how much time I will have but I will email as soon as I can and thank you for all of the emails they make me really happy :) Love, Elder Hyde

Letter Four...12 days left in CCM

Hola! Wow! Thank you all for your emails :) I got the most this week than I ever have before and it´s really great to hear from all of you! This week felt extra long for some reason but it was really good. I went to the doctors last Friday and found out I have a sinus infection and so that´s why I have been so sick but I got some medicine and I am almost completely over it now. That night my companion and I had 3 race walks and 2 of them were at least half a mile each so the next morning we woke up way sore in the most random places haha we are kind of crazy and weird. Friday I was also able to give this kid in my district a blessing because he was really struggling. He has a lot of self esteem issues and I worry about him a lot because his companion isn´t very nice to him and won´t really talk to him so we have been trying to fix their relationship still because they haven´t gotten along ever. The blessing went really well and later that night we gave all the hermanas blessings because yet again they were struggling with a lot of different things. Every Friday I feel like everyone goes crazy around here! Anyways it was good to help and we let some other elders in our district have the opportunity to help out with those blessings. Also Friday night we got to study chapter 17 of ¨Jesus The Christ¨ and we talked about REAL HAPPINESS versus FALSE HAPPINESS. There are so many things in this world that can ¨make us happy¨ but we need to find the things that really make us happy eternally and help others to find that for themselves. Saturday was filled with helping our districts companionship's and getting some study in. Sunday we had a branch leadership meeting mainly about my district and the one companionship that is really struggling. Then we had a priesthood lesson on the oath and covenant of the priesthood and it was really good. Then my companion and I had to teach our district a 40min lesson about commandments and we totally forgot to prepare for it so we were a little worried and right before the lesson started the presidency told my companion that they needed him to help plan the next couple weeks because he is the branch executive secretary and so I was left alone to teach the lesson. I know the only way I was able to teach that lesson was because of the Spirit, I couldn´t believe where I were getting the things I was saying and it ended up being a really good lesson. In sacrament meeting my district was in charge of the special musical number and we sang a cool rendition of Asombro Me Da (which is I stand all amazed for those of you that didn´t know). I really liked it even though I probably didn´t sound very good because I was so stuffed up. I heard Kelsee and Derek did great on their talks, I´m so proud of those two :) haha That means Kelsee spoke on her birthday right? welcome to the club Kelsee and I hope you had a great birthday! The beginning of this week was really hard to stay focused and study because my sickness was making me exhausted and giving me really bad headaches but I made it through it and towards the end of the week had some of my best studying and I can even roll my R´s sometimes which is crazy because I used to never even be close to doing that. We have heard some amazing talks this week and I really loved this one from Elder Bednar and he said that as missionaries we need to stop worrying about whether it is the Spirit telling us to do something or our own thoughts and we just need to have faith and just do it. We also heard an amazing one from Richard G. Scott about prayer and another by Elder Bednar about listening to conference and gave us a guideline to help us take better notes. He said 1. write the doctrine they are teaching, 2. write their invitation to us, and 3. write the promised blessing from doing what they invite us to. Then he went deeper into it saying don´t write the words they say, write the words you FEEL. He also told us not to write down exactly their doctrine, invitation, and promised blessing. But to write down what doctrine we need, what action we are going to do because of their invitation, and how we personally will be blessed. Be personal and specific in your note taking and it will make it easier to remember and you will be more likely to actually do something after conference is over. This week my companion got the opportunity to teach a member that lives in Mexico City and came inside the wall for us to teach her. It was an amazing experience and I really felt like a missionary during our lesson. I was amazed with how much I could understand and the Spirit was really strong. I didn´t realize it but I tend to say more things in a southern accent than I realized, like twelve, left, yes, well, and many many other words for some reason and it is really funny because it is rubbing off onto my companion. We now say a lot of things in a southern accent and we even try to talk is español in a southern accent which is pretty hard. My companion and I get along really well and I can´t believe I´m going to have a new one in a week and a half, I´m gonna miss elder Golding a bunch, we are way similar and we love the same things and the only big difference is that he is way into World of Warcraft so I might have to get into that when I get home ;) haha Congrats to Nick for getting his mission call and it´s crazy he is going to the same mission as trevor and I can´t believe he leaves so soon! I hope you all have a wonderful week, things are going great! I got to have a good chat with Elder Vierkant yesterday and it was great to catch up with everything that is going on at home. Way to go Utes!! I´m glad they were able to win, I heard it was an intense game and it was really funny because Sunday morning in our sacrament meeting the presidency member that was conducting is a huge BYU fan and he got up to do announcements and told us who won and he said, ¨Last night Utah beat Byu 20-14, but don´t worry the church is still true!¨ It made me laugh :) Well I love you all so much and I am thinking about you all(not too much because I´m focusing on the work) and praying for you all, have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Hyde

Elder Matt Vierkant and Elder Nathan Hyde in the CCM

Third Letter from the CCM...more than half way...

Hola Familia y Amigos! I can´t believe it has already been a week since I last emailed! Time is going a lot faster now that we have gotten into a routine and that we know what is going on now. My companion and I are getting a lot better at teaching in español :) Our first few lessons we had to have either preach my gospel or a full page of notes to teach our lesson but now we just go in with a Libro de Mormon and the Spirit and we can teach for over 30 minutes about something. The Spirit is the most important thing in our lessons and so we always sing a hymno and say an oracion before we teach and to begin our lessons. Our mission presidente told us "The Spirit doesn´t withdraw from us, we withdraw from the Spirit." I know that to be true. Sometimes it can be hard to always feel the Spirit but I just have to stop and think of what I´m doing wrong that had made the Spirit withdraw from me. Everyone that is baptized has the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with us ALWAYS, as long as they are following God´s commandments, so I have been trying to remember that especially when I take the sacrament. So I guess I should tell you about my week. Well last Friday I weighed myself and I´m 152 pounds which means I´m almost back to normal yay :) We had an amazing lesson with our district that night. Our teacher told us we were going to find something that we could do better as a district and she told us to get down on our knees and pray with a sincere heart to find out what we needed. After we prayed the Spirit told me to go to Christ like attributes in preach my gospel and Patience stuck out like crazy. The teacher then said we were all going to share, starting with me and so I talked about patience for a minute and my companion was just looking at me with him jaw down because the only thing he could think of was patience. (my companion and I have a saying throughout our district that we are of one heart, one mind, one foot, and one tie because we always think the same things, feel the same way, and we have the same shoe size and so the hemana´s said they want to buy us matching ties) Anyways, as we continued throughout the class almost everyone was directed to a scripture or a thought about patience and wow it was amazing how strong the Spirit was and how true it was that we needed patience. This week we have all been trying to work on our patience and wow I have needed it this week because I have been pretty sick all week, a companionship isn´t going very well in our district because this elder is a jerk to his companion and won´t treat him well at all, an elder locked my companion and I´s room as a joke but neither of our keys could open it and he had to try and kick the door down and eventually broke the handle enough that the door opened and many other wonderful things. Back to Friday, after our amazing lesson, all 4 hermana´s needed a blessing and so my companion and I gave them blessings and it was another great experience with blessings. We then felt prompted to go to the companionship that is struggling and challenged them to stay with each other and try and find common interests and just help each other. We promised them that if they would do that they would be blessed and would become a close companionship. They both agreed but the next day they were right back to not trying :( They frustrate me a lot haha This weekend we celebrated Mexico´s Independence Day and it was crazy! They have a tradition in Mexico to go outside and shoot your gun into the air and yell "Vive Mexico"!! So the nights were way loud and pretty crazy. On Saturday we got to watch a big celebration with a lot of performers dancing and singing and going crazy! Too bad missionaries can´t dance because we all wanted to haha On Sunday night we all gathered in the gym to watch live TV of the celebration of Mexico´s Independence, which started at 11pm and was just the President of Mexico saying vive and then a persons name and then we woull repeat it back and then he ended with vive Mexico three times. It was interesting, and it was manditory to be there so we all broke mission rules that night and we didn´t get to bed until midnight. When we left they told us to get to out rooms as quick as possible so we wouldn´t get hit by falling bullets. Yes falling bullets from all of the crazy people shooting into the air that night especially because of the live thing we watched on TV, that made us feel safe haha The rest of Sunday was amazing of course, we had a really good leadership meeting and got to talk about the companionship that is struggling in my district and the President had to meet with them twice that day for at least an hour each time and they seem like they kind of get along now....kind of. Also on Sunday my companion and I taught a lesson on the plan of salvation which went really well, We had a devotional that night which was Elder Hollands 2011 January devotional. Elder Holland is amazing and his talks to missionaries are amazing just like his conference talks are. Monday started off a little late for me because my alarm clock changed time in the middle of the night and my comp woke up at 6:30 and went right into his prayer and didn´t realize I was awake until he ended his prayer at 7:22. So I slept in until then, which was nice because I was sick but I felt way bad for not getting up on time, and he said a nice prayer for 52min. His prayers are getting longer almost every day, I can´t believe it haha The rest of the week has been pretty hard to study and teach because I have felt crappy but we have had some of our best lessons. One of our investigators is our teacher and usually our teachers play an investigator that they had on their mission or someone they know, but this time she is being herself. They don´t tell us who we are teaching so we went into the lesson asking what she knew and were figuring out she knew everything and then she told us she had been baptized in the LDS church. So we thought, oh a less active member and asked her to come to church and she was like yes I love church I go every week. So we were stumped, she was a member, went to church every week, she told us she was going to be married in the temple in December and we realized that she was playing herself. So our second lesson we had no clue what to teach her. What are you supposed to teach the person that teaches you??At first we felt like she wasn´t a missionaries responsibility and didn´t know what to do but we just planned a lesson anyways. So we had this lesson planned and then 2min before we were supposed to teach I felt like we needed to change our whole lesson so that´s what we did, we decided we needed to talk about temples and then what she was gonna do after she got married and we found the problem. She really wants to go to medical school but she also wants to have kids and she doesn´t know what to do. We had a way emotional lesson and we were all almost crying by the end and when we ended we asked her to pray but she couldn´t speak so we had to say it. Wow I love the CCM and the many experiences I have had here already! We went to the temple today and I understood so much more than the first time and I was able to do so much more by myself it was a great feeling. Today I finally feel like I´m getting over my sickness and this morning I got to see Elder Vierkant at breakfast and that was fantastic!! I´m glad he made it and I can´t wait to catch up with him soon but I´m not sure how often we will see each other because while Elder Kimball and I had similar schedules, Elder Vierkant and I don´t :/ Well I hope Blake had a wonderful birthday! Happy Birthday this week Kelsee! I love you all and love your emails! adios :) Love, Elder Hyde

CCM pictures...

Elder Hyde & Elder Kimball the night before Spencer when back to the states...

Elder Knight, Elder Hyde, Elder Smith, Elder Kimball - CCM

Second letter at CCM....

Hola! Well thank you all for your wonderful emails, it really makes me happy to hear everything that is going on! Congrats mom and alan! :) I can´t believe that I´m going to have another lil bro/sis when I get home and I´m really excited for you guys. Well my week was really good and it went by so much faster than my first week :) It has been kind of a crazy week and I guess I better start with last friday becasue so many great things happened that day. It started off with some service, which means of course it´s going to be a good day, and then I got to go on a run :) it was only a little over a mile and it was on the worst pebble track I have ever run on in my life but it felt way good to run a little bit and I ran it in 6:15 and it didn´t even feel too hard but the elevation pretty much killed me haha it started raining like crazy so we had to go inside but I got to do core and a biking workout so that made me really happy too. We got a new teacher so now we have one in the mornings and a different one at night and I really like how they teach so different and it´s really helping me with the language. But I did find out this week that I´m not here in Mexico to learn español, there is a way bigger reason and I´m just starting to figure it all out. Anyways back to friday, so my companion (Elder Golding) and I had been feeling all day that someone really needed a blessing in our district but we couldn´t figure out who it was. So at the end of our evening study we reminded everyone that if they needed a blessing we would be more than happy to give them one, but nobody would say they needed one. We waited for the elders to leave our class and then we asked one hermana if she needed a blessing and she told us she really did need one and so it was really cool that we knew she needed one. But what we found out is that all of the hermanas in our district needed a blessing and so we gave all 4 of them a blessing. Wow, blessing are such an amazing thing. It was the first time I have given a blessing and I wasn´t sure what I was gonna say and when I started the blessing my mind went so clear and I thought I wasn´t going to have anything to say but the Spirit was so strong and my mind was filled with exactly what I needed to say. One of the coolest experiences of my life and I doubt I will ever be able to forget it. When my companion and I got back to our dorm we were asked by 2 elders for a blessing and man I am so glad to have the preisthood in my life and be able to give these blessings and do so much more. I then knew our promptings had been right because we gave 6 blessings on friday night and I loved it! Saturday was a really interesting day. Two elders in our district have not been getting along with each other and anytime we are with them you can feel the bad feelings they have for each other and it´s impossible to have the Spirit around them. We tried to talk with them and then we had our zone leaders talk to them and then the president of the CCM, president Prat, but nothing would help them. I also got to play some volleyball with elder kimball and his district one last time and that was great! Sunday was an amazing day! The Holy Ghost is way more present on the sabath. Started the day off right with breakfast with elder kimball and then right to a leadership meeting which was really good. Elder golding and I taught a 40min lesson to our district about the restoration. We really needed the Spirit because we hadn´t prepared very much but the lesson went really good. President Prat talked to us about the gift of the Holy Ghost and then we had our Sunday devotional. Which was Elder Holland and I wish I could write his entire talk because it was so amazing but if you wanna look it up it was his jan. or feb. address to missionaries and he talks about how we must convert ourselves before we can ever hope of converting others. He said whatever we want for our investigators we must first do ourselves. He told us ¨Convert yourself, obey the rules, adn teach with the Spirit and you will know you have had a successful mission¨. After that I got to go to elder kimballs casa and talk with him while he kind of packed and we had to say goodbye which was kind of hard but I´m so excited for him and I´m glad I´m really close with my companion or else it probably would have been a lot harder. The rest of my week was a lot of study and prayer and just trying to focus of preparing for those people I will need to teach once I get to Cali. In my personal study I went through chapter 4 of preach my gospel and it is really amazing and has helped make my prayers a lot better and helped me to know how to bring the spirit into my life more. The past two days I have been reading a lot. I read ¨Our search for Happiness¨ and started ¨Jesus the Christ¨. I love our search for happiness so much and I wish all my investigators could read it becasue it really is so good and teaches the basic doctrines and beliefs of our church. Jesus the Chirst is a little hard to understand sometimes but so far it has made me think a lot about Christ and how much there is to know about Him. We get new Zone leaders this week and since our district will be the oldest in our branch our district leaders are thinking my comp and I will be the next zone leaders but we will have to wait until Sunday to find out. I love you all so much and love hearing from you all :) and I´m really sorry this email is so long! Love, Elder Hyde

First week pictures at CCM...

Mexico City, Mexico

Elder Hyde and Elder Kimball together at the CCM

Elder Hyde & Elder Golding - Mexico City Temple

Nathan and his companion Elder Golding were made District Leaders there first week.

First Week at the CCM...

Hola! Well the last 9 days were probably the longest days of my life but I really loved almost every moment. I guess I should start with the first day. So the flight here went really well, it was crazy to see Mexico City from an airplane! It´s huge!! There were just buildings as far as you could see and as tightly packed in as you can get. At the airport they checked my bags when I got to Mexico and when they saw all of the food I had they gave me a really funny look but I just told them that I was a hungry growing boy and they laughed and let me keep it. I flew in with about 35 other missionaries and I am the only one that is going to Anaheim, even now I haven´t found another person going to Anaheim but I hear rumors that someone else going to be serving there as well. So when I finally got here President Prat was waiting to welcome us and it was super exciting. They gave us a big packet, let us send a quick email and then we were on our own. I found my companion and we found our apartment and room. My companion is Elder Golding, he is from Washington and will be serving in the Richmond Virginia mission. He is way cool and I am super glad that he is my companion. So after we found our room we hurry and got to a live broadcast devotional and when I walked in I saw Quincy, Spencer, Parker, and Logan right away and it was so great to see all of them. The first day I realized missionaries aren´t perfect. Actually not even close haha I was suprized that they were pretty crazy and some things I saw were suprizing. For example right when I got there and was looking for my companion these girls were trying to flirt with me and it caught me by suprize that here the girls flirt way more than the guys. The next couple of days they had us in a room with an español teacher and right away she was only speaking español and I feel like all I did the first few days was learn spanish, eat, sleep, repeat. Especially since we didn´t get gym time until Thursday. Learning a new language is really hard and I have been struggling a lot with it but I think a lot more has been starting to stick the past few days. My companion is the only one in our district that hasn´t taken a spanish class before and we had to teach a 30min lesson on our first Friday there. It was really broken spanish and was pretty rough but we made it through it. By the time Sunday came we could pray, bear our testimonies, and had taught 2 lessons to our investigator, Ignacion. Yes ignacion. AKA nacho :) As for the food, the first few days I loved it! But then it met my stomach and had other plans because it has made me really sick most days but it still tastes good so it´s a really interesting love/hate realationship. I´m really glad I brought so much food because it has helped out a lot. The second night we were here they told my district they were going to interview everyone and then choose a distrct leader, and they picked me. I was way shocked and already felt way overwhelmed by learning the language but I accepted and now have the responsibilities of picking up the mail everyday(thanks for the early letter mom), leading our study times and providing a 45min district meeting lesson every Sunday, and well as many other random little things. I really love my district and companion and I am enjoying the CCM a lot. So a normal day goes like this. Wake up at 6:30am, pray and then get ready for the day. My companion prays for at least 30min morning but he usually falls asleep during them so it´s pretty funny. We have breakfast at 7:15am and then personal study time, language study, coaching, and more study until 12:15pm. Lunch at 12:15, which ALWAYS includes rice and beans, which taste amazing, but make you pretty sick if you eat them a few days in a row. TALL for an hour from 1:15-2:15, TALL is a language program on the computer that makes you really tired. Then we have more personal and language study until 4pm when we have gym. I have played tennis, ulitmate frisbee, basketball, and most of the time my companion and I join Elder Kimball and his district for some volleyball. We have gym for 45min and then we have time to shower and do our daily planning until 5:45pm when we get to have dinner. After dinner we either teach our investigator, Ignacion, or we have some sort of devotional. we have taught Ignacion 4 lessons now and they keep getting better each time and we even committed him to baptism last night but now we have to teach him about commandments and see what he thinks about that. He will be our new teacher in a few days, so no he isn´t a real investigator, and so he likes to really try and mess with us. Especially my companion and I because our español is very limited. Last night after he asked why baptism is impotant and we told him it would wash away his sins and help him to return with his Heavenly Father, his family, and our favior Jesus Christ, he told us he didn´t have any sin and that he was already baptized when he was a baby. So he tries to make it difficult and real and he is a really cool dude. So after that we just have personal time and companionship prayer and go to bed. Thank you all for the support, Sunday was a little tough because it finally hit me I was really gone, but knowing you are all there for me and for all the reasons I came our here I have been doing great ever since. I have also been able to see Elder Smith and if you know of anyone else coming down here let me know so I can look for them :) I love you all so much! LOVE, Elder Hyde

The SLC Airport....and Elder Nathanael Clark Hyde is off to serve the Lord ***

So I was dreading the airport farewell...but my sweet boy was ready to go. His confidence gave me strength to know with out a doubt he will be watched over and protected for his obedience and choice. He glanced back briefly to flash that awesome Nathan smile. We were so excited to receive his first email in the CCM (mexico mtc). He told us he met one of the sisters from the previous day at the temple on his flight. He also had his luggage searched in Mexico. They asked him,"Why do you have all this food?" and he replied, "I am a growing hungry boy." He said they laughed and let him keep all the food we had packed for him and his best friend Elder Spencer Kimball who was waiting for him in the CCM. So he is already having a great start to the mission. I love being a missionary mom already!

A day to always remember....August 26, 2013

We shared a wonderful day with Nathan at the Salt Lake Temple. We arrived five minutes late to the session so we wanted to make the best use of our time. We chose to do sealings. We were inspired. It was a wonderful experience and there were 2 sisters preparing to leave the next day for their missions too which made it fun. We then enjoyed our time in the temple. Afterwards we ate at the Lion House, we ate too much food but enjoyed our time together. Nathan then made the trip to see his "girl" friends before he was set apart. His emotions were full when he returned home and we then witnessed him be set a part as a missionary. The spirit was strong and as his mother I knew he would be watched over and protected as he serves the Lord. We will miss his presence in our home but we know his decision will bring forth blessing for all of us.

Farewell...

It was a beautiful day for a farewell. Nathan and one of his best friends, since 4 years old, Garrett Nielson were able to share the day together. Garrett will be serving in Tokyo, Japan. We had a house filled with family and friends to wish him well. Everyone was so generous and kind. We will miss Nathan but know his mission will be filled with wonderful experiences that we look forward to hearing about.

Last Bro 5k before the missions...

"The Crew".....

Each of Nathan's friends received their call and are starting to leave one by one...Brian, Spencer, Garrett, Nathan, Erik and Nathan....