A wonderful week of some great Christmas miracles! Most of which
came from caroling, and sharing people the He is the Gift video. I
love this time of year to be able to help many people come closer to
Christ and the real meaning of Christmas. I really appreciate the
opportunity to be here in California serving as a full time
missionary. It has filled my soul with great joy serving these
wonderful people whom I have come to love. Even though I am in a new
area and with a new companion, I really do feel the love that our
Savior and our Heavenly Father have for the people here. As we were
able to go caroling a few times this week and it was great how happy a
few simple songs can make somebody.

Our mission is starting something called "Just serve" which is an
initiate to get us out serving a lot more in the community and I'm
really excited for it. We should be doing at least an hour of service
a day with a maximum of 10 hours of service a week. There have been
huge success stories in other missions and while it was hard to find
much service this week I'm really excited for it to get picking up to
show the community that we are here to serve them.

Being able to Skype home was way awesome and I love you so much
family! You guys just make me so happy and it was great to see and
talk to you all. I know that we belong to the the true church of Jesus
Christ and the He is our Savior. I love you all.
Elder Hyde

Merry Christmas!

I am so excited to talk to him, I got emotional just reading this weeks email.... Merry Christmas to All...my your homes be filled with our Saviors Spirit all year!

Hey Family!

I am really excited to skype this Thursday! It will be
great to see your happy smiling faces!

As for this past week it went really well, just a lot of new
changes. Haha missions are full of them. I have been sick with a sinus
infection all week but I got some medicine today so I hope I will be
better by Thursday! :D Santa Ana 10 is an awesome ward thought and I
have never seen such an organized Spanish ward in my life. They are
all very involved with missionary work and know their roles as
members. We had some awesome experiences with some of the members this
week and they are great to take out to lessons.

We are teaching this older lady Estefani and she is really
struggling bad with her testimony of the Book of Mormon and the
restoration but after a gospel principles class taught to her needs
about the Book of Mormon and hearing testimonies of it she said in the
closing prayers that she knows the testimonies of the class were true.
It was a huge answer to prayers and now she is probably going to be
baptized this Sunday.

Christmas time is amazing and last night we went caroling with our
ward mission leader and an area seventy that is in the ward and their
families. It was amazing because we had 2 guitars and were singing fun
Spanish Christmas hymns. It was a great night and we found 5 awesome
families that want us, or missionaries in our district, to come over
and teach them. It was a great night! I love this ward and am super
happy in this district.

I can't wait to see you this Thursday and will tell you more then!


Love you so much!
Elder Hyde

Wedding, Christmas Party, Baptism & Transfers - Santa Ana 10

Hey! So I only have 5 minutes but this week was really awesome and
I have some news about transfers! So after 20 weeks with elder Kemp,
we are being separated right before Christmas. :'(
He is staying in Santa Ana 11 and I'm going to Santa Ana 10. Another
Santa Ana ward? Yes!! :D I have only heard amazing things about this
ward and I'm super excited to serve there. I will continue to be
district leader and I will be greeny breaking(first companion after
training) with Elder Gardner!

He is from St. George and did cross country and track before he
mission. I'm really excited to be serving with him. We also had a
wedding this week for the other elders investigator and less active
member and then she got baptized on Sunday. I got to interview her
before and she is one of the most ready people I have interviewed
before. She has really been changed by the restored gospel and can't
wait to see them blessings for her young children.

We had a Christmas party with half of the missionaries in the
mission and usually we would watch a movie but president Taggart
decided this year we would sing hymns instead. To be honest I was a
little disappointed at first but after we started I was super glad we
had that chance to sing together and feel the spirit which we most
likely wouldn't have had anything close to as good with a movie.

Then on Sunday we had three investigators and church and it was a
great opportunity to see their progress and desire to learn. I was
also asked to share my testimony and it was a great experience to do
so one last time in that ward. I really love that whole ward and am
going to miss them so much. But I know The Lord needs me in other
places. That night we got some other investigators to a stake
Christmas play about the Book of Mormon testifying of Jesus Christ and
His birth and far exceeded expectations. It was awesome and we met
this lady who looked lost with her family. She said she worked with
one of the actors that gave her a Book of Mormon the other day and she
has been reading it and loves it. Long story short missionaries in
Costa Mesa will be visiting her soon. :)

I will see you on skype next week, I love you all!

Elder Hyde

Share the Gift

This week was all about sharing The Gift of Jesus Christ with
everybody. So I hear that you guys received some cards about sharing
The Gift in he Ensign. Well we as missionaries got 10 each day for the
month of December and wow we have seen some amazing miracles from
doing that. It has been a great blessing to have iPads to be able to
share the video right at the door. Almost every single door we knock
will at least let us show the video with them and most are way most
open to the restoration because of it. So go watch it if you haven't
yet! :) christmas.mormon.org

We got some rain this week and surprisingly it helped us to get into
even more houses because they didn't want us to be out in the rain. :)
We got soaked but it was a lot of fun and we had a lot of success.
This week I got to interview one of the sisters investigators named
Ricardo. He has been taught the entire time I have been in this area
and have overcome drinking, smoking, and a lot of others things and it
was amazing to see him finally be ready to be baptized. As we finished
the interview he acted surprised that we were done and he wanted me to
keep asking him questions. So we sat there and talked about his
testimony of Jesus Christ. He is awesome! President and sister Taggart
came to the baptism and it went great. Except that the water heater
wouldn't turn on and so they had freezing water walking into the
baptismal font and their faces were priceless.

Zone meeting was really great this week and president even came to
that as well. We saw president a lot this week which was a great
surprise. This month we are focusing on helping our investigators
understand the importance of church attendance and I'm really excited
for it! Next week is going to be packed with a Christmas celebration,
district meeting, a wedding for the other elders investigator and less
active member, transfer calls, leadership calls, and continuing to
share the gift!

I'm sorry that my letter is so short this week but I am love the
work and am really happy! Thank you for the really awesome package
last week. Everyday Elder Kemp and I have been enjoying a new little
gift and hopefully this week or next week we will be having a
"snowball" fight. :D I love you much and hope you have a wonderful
week and don't forget to share The Gift.

Love,
Elder Hyde

Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving! Or more like happy December! I hope you all had a wonderful week of lots of Turkey and wonderful food. I ate way too much. But it was a great week and we have a lot of exciting news for the holidays.

I will start from the beginning. Last Monday night we had two set family home evenings set up but both of the member families had to cancel last minute and we weren't sure what to do. So what evened up happening was we had a family home evening with the investigator families and then they became friends! :) It was a lot of fun to teach them all together and it was a great night. Tuesday basically everything fell through and then Wednesday everything and more went through and it was good to learn from both. This week for district meeting I had to come up with the whole thing myself and as I sought revelation for my district it was a great learning experience. It took a lot of effort and I felt like almost nothing was coming. Most of what I felt was right wouldn't come until the last 5 minutes of my personal studies each day and then 2 days before I changed the whole thing but as the meeting came and I could share that experience with the district I really felt like it was what the district needed. We went over the power of the spirit in conversion and how sharing our testimonies and how we came to know things are true can help our investigators know how they can receive their answers. It was a really good meeting and I really enjoyed it.

Thanksgiving was awesome! We had planned a huge service project but last minute it felt through. So we ended up spending the morning surprising two families that couldn't afford a turkey and gave them one. They were very grateful for it and I felt really good helping them out. Later we went to the Honda center in Anaheim where the Anaheim Ducks hockey team plays and we helped clean up from a thanksgiving service they did there feeding thousands of people. It was huge and there a ton of other volunteers that helped us missionaries as well. After that service we went to the house of the family Granja, who is the old bishop, and they had a feast for us. Not turkey, but ribs! :) Ribs, mash potatoes, rolls, brussel sprouts with asparagus covered in greasy onions, and avocado pie! The first time they made avocado pie I guess I looked like I loved it a lot and so every time I eat with them they make it for me. :D they are so nice! That night we went to visit some people that didn't have their family to be with and we had some really good lessons just sharing what we are grateful for. One family shared a really touching experience of how they met. She had been really sick for many years and lost her hair but her family wouldn't take her to the doctor. They met on a bus and then she invited him to a party and after she explained her sickness he asked her to be his girlfriend so that he could take care of her and help her become healthy. They are the sweetest young couple ever and now they have been married for about 4 years or so and her hair is starting to grow. She still needs a liver transplant and is working with doctors to see if she will be available for a transplant soon. It was a really touching story and they are so awesome. They don't have very much but they give everything they have to each other and to everyone else.

On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Wagstaff one of my zone leaders in the YSA. He is such an amazing elder and I learned so much from him. We went on two exchanges back when we were both in Costa Mesa and it was amazing to share all the many changes we have seen in each other since our first exchanges together. It was a great confidence booster and also a very spiritual exchange. I loved it. And YSA is so great, we spent the whole day teaching less active and recent converts. Young people have a lot of tough trials but wow they are so ready for the gospel.

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you that the church has a worldwide Christmas initiative of "He is the gift" using the hashtag of #ShareTheGift or #ComparteLaDàdiva in Spanish. We get special pass along cards that we use and need to give out at least 10 a day to get it going. Also on the 7th of December the church bought out all of the adds on the Facebook homepage to promote the video. So if you haven't seen it go check it out on Christmas.mormon.org or lds.org or even on YouTube. It's a great video and we have shared it about 20 times in the past 3 days, it's really helping bring people closer to Christ. As you watch it think about what the greatest gift that Christ has given you personally and then post it on Facebook! :) Share Christ with everybody! #ShareTheGift




Love,

Elder Hyde

My week of Thankfulness

PDAY HIKE

I am so grateful for my wonderful family and friends and so this week
for my email I would like to follow an inspired idea I saw my friend
Elder Vierkant do a few weeks ago and just write an email of
gratitude. I am grateful for my family and their much love and
support. Im grateful for the the great privilege and blessing I have
to serve The Lord and the wonderful children of our Heavenly Father
with his infinite love that He has for each of them.

I am grateful for the investigators that we have to teach and the
willingness of the members to come out with us. This week we had a lot
of help from members coming to visit investigators and just be their
friends and be there for them to help them. I am also grateful for the
many people that allow us to come over and share this great message of
the restoration and fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week
it was heartwarming to receive a message from an investigator for
thanking her for what we had taught her. She was humbled and wanting
to repent after she realized that she hadn't always kept the
commandments earlier in her life. We shared Mosiah 26:29-30 focusing
on
"...if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the
sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him
also. Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their
trespasses against me."
I am grateful for repentance. For the ability to be forgiven for our
errors in the life is such an amazing gift and as we testified of the
Saviors Atonement and the power of repentance to this investigator the
spirit testified to us and her that we can be forgiven and that the
Savior wants to forgive.

I am grateful for my companion and for the many things that he
teaches me every day. Elder Kemp and I are very different but it has
been a great learning experience to be with him for almost 4 months
now and be able to learn his strengths and how to use them in
missionary work.

I am grateful for my health and for the life that I have been given.
There are so many people that we teach that have poor health or have
problems with being happy with their lives or being positive and so
I'm very grateful for the growing up with the gospel in my life. I
have been so blessed in my life and taken most of it for granted.

I am most grateful for my Heavenly Father and for His great love for
us by sending His Son Jesus Christ to suffer the penalty for all of us
and gives us the strength to overcome our challenges and trials in
this life. I love you all and I am very grateful for YOU!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Elder Cardon is a very inspired man...

Sorry that I am writing two days late. Our Pday got changed because
we have Zone Conference with Elder Cardon from the first quorum of the
70 on Monday so our Pday is today. I will get more to that later but
it was an amazing conference.

Last Monday we were invited to family home evening and a newer family
in the ward had invited a part member family whom we have been trying
to contact for months. The family came and they shared a great lesson
about faith and we got to meet a great part member family. The next
day we had to go to the doctors with one of the elders in our district
who has been having back problems. Then we received a text from other
elders in the mission telling us that a less active member needed a
blessing in our ward. We went and found her and she called us Angels
sent from heaven and was amazed that we had come right when she was in
need of a blessing. Her husband isn't a member but after the blessing
he said the missionaries could come by to teach his whole family. She
is the only member so I'm excited for the sisters to go teach them. It
was a great experience to give a blessing to someone I had never met
before and just feel the spirit work through me. The whole day was
very guided by the spirit as we tried to put our training of relying
on the spirit into play. I can tell you that the Holy Ghost will guide
us if we listen. That night we were completely guided where to go and
found some great people. We were also guided to a part member family
we have been working with and just stopped to see how they were doing.
We just started testifying of the Savior and the wife opened up
telling us she had been reading about repentance in the Book of
Mormon. It led in perfectly to baptism and we invited her to be
baptized. She thought about it and then with a reassuring husband at
her side said she would. It was a great lesson and I'm really excited
for Maria Muñoz. In our past lessons we had focused on temples, and
families being sealed and so she said she really wants that. A
wonderful night of miracles.

The following day we had a meeting with all the district leaders in
the mission and we could tell right away that it was going to be a
different meeting than usual. Usually the assistants take half an hour
to go over some attributes of a good leader and then president has
twenty or so minutes to share some thoughts. This time the assistants
went through their part in less than ten minutes and left the rest to
President Taggart. He got up with tear filled eyes and talked about a
group of 5 missionaries that he had to send home that morning and how
much it broke his heart. He told us his tolerance level is at zero and
that we needed to let all missionaries know that if they leave mission
boundaries, they are on the next plane home. Also if anybody is
involved with secret groups on Facebook they will be sent home. Normally we
want to keep those things quiet but this time he told us to let people
know. It was a powerful meeting and the spirit was really strong. I
came out of that never wanting to ever even think about being
disobedient.

Our whole district has been pretty sick this past week. I think I am
the only one who didn't get sick. So almost everybody in the district
needed a blessing at different times this week and so it was a good
opportunity to serve. But we had a few more trips to the doctors and
so that wasn't too fun. We also were involved with about 6 hours of
service at a community center this week planning and decorating for a
big fundraiser event to help out the community. It was a lot of fun
and good to get out and do service. Soon we will have to be putting
service hours in as part of key indicators(numbers that we report each
week). As part of the "just-serve" project that will be starting in
the next few weeks.

We had some amazing experiences this week, including an early
thanksgiving feast, giving more blessings, teaching some amazing
people, and another great family home evening with the same part
member family and one of the bishopric members family. So I wish I had
more time but I probably can only talk about the Zone Conference to
finish off.

So to start we also had a meeting Sunday night with all recent
converts/less active members that could come and we had two families
that came. The Marin family and the De Leon family(the one who lost
their mom to cancer a few weeks ago). Elder Cardon had some recent
converts share their testimonies and then he gave an amazing discourse
of the restoration and how to know if what we share is true. The next
day we had a 6 hour zone conference generally based on recognizing the
spirit. He started by going over some amazing information about the
Abrahamic covenant and really just made the scriptures come alive. He
shared some amazing experiences of working with the twelve and first
presidency. His testimony is really powerful about their callings as
prophets, seers, and revelators. He meets with them and all of the
quorums of the seventies every Thursday in the Salt lake Temple to
discuss many wonderful and great things. They also have their own fast
and testimony meeting every first Thursday of the month in case some
of them don't have the chance to partake of the sacrament with so much
travel, which has to be so amazing. In one of the stories he shared,
an apostle was selecting where missionaries were supposed to be called
and one he just couldn't quite pinpoint where the missionary should
serve so he said he would come back to it and in the beginning of the
next application he just blurted out a mission and said that it was
for the previous missionary. Then he turned to Elder Cardon and said
"Sometimes it's as important to know when God isn't speaking as it is
to know when He is speaking." Wow. What a wonderful saying, especially
when recognizing the spirit. Then we went on with how the training has
been going and then he shared something else that I really liked. He
said "you are all here more for what you have felt than what you
know." And it's so true, we can have all the knowledge in the world
but if we haven't received a witness from the Holy Ghost then it means
nothing.

I have run out of time but I love you and know that The Lord loves
us, knows us, and will give us comfort, guidance, and confirmation of
the truth through His spirit.
Although I may be far away, I feel all your love every single day.

Love,
Elder Hyde

Transfers & Halloween

First of all I have to say thank you to my wonderful family who sent me an awesome Halloween package that made my day! So normally I wouldn't be able to get mail on a Friday but the other Elders that we drive around had a meeting at the office for their training follow-up and when I went in they had a package for me so I got it just in time. :D The plastic spiders have been great to put all over the apartment to scare Elder Kemp and it was just a very cleaver and fun box. Especially since we had to be in the apartment doing weekly planning that night. I'm still not sure what to do with the glow in the dark stuff but I'm sure I will find something for it.

Even though transfers weren't until today I will start with that. Elder Kemp and I will be together for at least another 6 weeks! I'm sure glad we get along really well and I love that man because we will be together for at least 20 weeks. Which is quite a long time to be with someone 24/7 but I'm really glad to be able to keep learning from him and be able to see him grow so much! With the district we only have one change. Hermana Jones is leaving to Costa Mesa, where I was born, and Hermana Russell is coming in. She was also in my district in Santa Ana 5, so it will be good to have her back.

This week we had some really great experiences and saw The Lord blessing us with many miracles. One of our investigators named Elsa called us this week saying that we couldn't come teach her at her house anymore, we think it's because of her husband, but that she wanted us to come to her daughters baptism in the YSA ward this Sunday! It was a really spirit filled baptism and we found out that a good chunk of her family are members and they talked to us a lot about how much they have been trying to share the gospel with the family and it's amazing to see the change in the whole family from doing so. Then we had a huge miracle, an amazing member family from our ward was at the building and as the baptism ended and it just so happens that they live right down the street from our investigator. Then they invited her over to be taught at their house and it was just great to see them connect so well.

Jildalgo is doing really well and went off on a 25 minute story in the middle of the lesson about how stressed he had been a few days earlier because he haddn't been able to get work for a few days and everything felt that it was coming down on him at once. Then he remembered to pray and he said it completely changed his day and then he got work for 3 days in a row, which hasn't happened in weeks! He was able to pay the rent and get food for his family and he just said it really strengthened his faith. He is doing great and reading and praying often. :) The only problem is that he got called into work Sunday morning and so he couldn't make it to church.

We are also getting ready for a member of the seventy to come next week which is really exciting. We are having the Zone Conference on the Holy Ghost and I'm excited to learn a lot from it. Plus we all get to write talks about how we have come to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost on the mission and then he will choose a few missionaries on the spot to share them. Which is great because I know that it's the Holy Ghost that guides us in The Lord's work and so as we can better recognize and follow His promptings we will become more effective missionaries overall. I think the biggest thing that I have come to find on the mission about the Holy Ghost is that He guides us way more than we think, and that He is always willing to help us if we are willing to listen. Keep the commandments, listen for promptings, act on every good feeling or impresson and our loving Heavenly Father will never let us down.

Love,

Elder Hyde

So Exciting....

So this week I wanted to start out with the response of one of our
investigators. During a lesson we asked her what it would mean to her
to have a living prophet. She exclaimed "it would be exciting" and it
was such a powerful moment to be able to testify to her that God has
called a prophet and He is guiding His church on the earth today. She
is devote in her baptist church but she has a wonderful understanding
of the importance of prophets. We have high hopes for her and her
awesome family that just moved here from Colorado.

We have been receiving some great opportunities to do service the
past few weeks and this week a member took pictures of us and printed
it out with our numbers on it offering free service and put it in the
laundry room of the complex so I hope we will see some fruit from that
soon.

I went on exchanges with Elder Randall this week and we had a really
fun day on bike. I miss being on bike. But we taught a member how to
use Facebook to share the gospel with his friends and then went
knocking and found a pretty cool family. That night we had an awesome
lesson with a guy named Jeri. He owns close to absolutely nothing and
lives in a tiny garage in an alley. He is a really humble guy that is
really looking for purpose and direction in his life. We committed him
to be baptized and it was a really humbling experience to see him and
hear his story. We even brought him soap so he can do his laundry
which he hasn't done in a very long time.

Jildalgo is doing well but the only time we taught him this week was
when I was on exchanges in the other area so I wasn't able to see him.
But he is really loving the truths that the gospel is bringing to his
life. So many wonderful people we are teaching but they don't come to
church because it's "too far" or "too early" for the to make it. So I
guess it's time for us to get out and find this week and help more
people feel how exciting it is to have a living day prophet!

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of The Lord and that he
receives the revelation to guide us in these latter-days. I love you
all and hope you can keep studying the words of the prophets that we
received just a few weeks ago, because their words are glorious.

Love,
Elder Hyde

P.S. We also had our Halloween party this week so I will send some
pictures. It was one of the most well put together Hispanic party that
I have had on my mission!

Teaching & Teaching...

This week was just teaching from appointment to appointment. Almost
all week we had our appointments go through and we just were able to
teach a ton! It made the week go by really fast and kind of blurred a
lot together but it was wonderful. It was also elder Kemp's last week
of training so he is finally done and now we will have another hour
every single day to find, teach, and help people prepare for baptism.
Yay!

Some random things that happened this week were, finding maggots and
bugs in some rotten potatoes in elder Kemp's food cabinet, having an
IPad as our ward pianist on Sunday, and digging some trenches for some
trees in a members yard. The maggots were really gross and got some
disgusting slop all over. It was fun to clean up. And since the one
person who can play piano in our ward was sick we had the bishops iPad
next to the microphone playing the hymns, it was great.

On Sunday we got to go back to Santa Ana 5 and I got to confirm
Crystal Yulisa Sánchez, Yuvia's sister. Their family is great and it's
always a blast to see them. Plus confirming just makes me so happy to
bless these wonderful people here, and she was so excited. By the time
we got back to our ward we found Jildalgo already in sacrament meeting
just enjoying the talks with the ward and he was able to stay for all
three hours, which was a first for him. He loved it but it kind of
seemed like a lot to him to have three hours but the priesthood lesson
was way better this week so he likes that class now.

Congratulations to Clark and Kim! That was fun to see some of their
wedding pictures, and I hope Kim is doing alright. I love you all and
am doing great, I just don't have a ton to write about this week. Have
a great week!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Elder Hyde...blessings, word of wisdom, testimony

Well this week was a very full week. We had so many people to visit
and things to do, because of the lack of time that we had last week,
that looking back on the week it was just packed. Elder Hurley and I
got to go on exchanges this week and it was great to be with him. He
was a convert at the age of 15 and it's great to hear and feel of his
strong testimony. It's also very different being with someone that
hasn't grown up in the gospel and is new to the mission. I realized
how we basically have a different language as members of the church
and it helped me think of how investigators must feel if we use a lot
of new words. But we had a fun exchanged and it was fun to be part of
his first exchange of the mission.


We also had some great experiences and progress with some
investigators. One investigator wasn't following through with
commitments and so we had to have a do or drop type lesson with her
and by the end she came out of it with a new determination to read he
Book of Mormon and we even set a baptismal date with her so that was
awesome. The investigator that came to conference was able to make it to the priesthood hour at church and we were super excited. But then
the priesthood lesson turned to a why soda and energy drinks are
against the word of wisdom, which seemed to confuse our investigator.
So we will need to go over that more with him this week. We also found
a cool new family that is really active in a baptist church but was
really excited about the plan of salvation and asked us to come by
before we could even ask!


But the most impacting thing that happened this week was a two hour
trip to a hospital of one of our members in the ward. Her mom had been in the hospital for a few weeks because a tumor in her lung had become really dangerous. As we arrived at the hospital room the entire staff of doctors and nurses were with the family. The night before had been a rough one and she went from being able to see, hear, and move every once in a while to not being able to do any of that. The doctors had to tell the family that there was nothing more they could do. It was a heart wrenching feeling to see a family completely break down and not know what to do. It was one of the first times in my life that I felt
that I didn't have words of comfort that could give them the comfort
they needed. We gave them all blessings and it was a really
interesting feeling giving the mom a blessing when she was so close to
her death. The only thing we could do was testify of the plan of
salvation and especially the Atonement. It was a testimony builder to
me that the Atonement of Jesus Christ really does give us comfort,
peace, and happiness that can't come from anything else. It doesn't
mean we won't go trough hard times, mourn at the loss of loved ones,
or feel pain in the difficult times. But it means that we aren't going
through it alone. Christ has already suffered all of the pain, sorrow,
and sicknesses that we will ever go through and because of His
infinite Atonement for us we can have not only have the comfort and peace at the end of it all but also the strength to endure through the trial. I know that Christ lives. He loves us and because of His Atonement we can all feel strength, peace and comfort in the many trials we face in this life. I know that we all will live again and see our loved ones. And I'm grateful for the plan that God has given us so that we won't just see each other after this life but live together as families. I
love you all and testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ.




Amen.

Elder Hyde

Conference & The FIRE!

Well since I was able to email on Thursday the most significant
thing that happened was the amazing general conference that we had! :D
Also we had a pretty fun experience on Wednesday morning that I forgot
to share. So it's 4:00am and Elder Kemp turns on the light and says
something is wrong. I have been sleeping with earplugs because of our
neighbors that fight so I couldn't hear the fire alarm going off. So I
was telling Elder Kemp to go back to back because it was 4 but then he
opened the front door and yells that there was smoke! So that got me
out of bed and ready to go pretty past. Haha we had to hold our
breathe as we ran down the stairs and out of the building to where the
fire trucks were and so we got to chat with the English elders and
some members that came outside as well. One of our neighbors left the
over on over night and so it caught the apartment on fire. So now our
apartment still smells like smoke. Fun experience though.

Back to conference. WOW. I loved it! :D There was so many inspired,
question answering, and action provoking talks I left really uplifted
and inspired. I really liked all of talks about our ability to choose
and act for ourselves especially to face the right way, growing our
own testimonies, staying in the boat, and tools to exercise faith. We
also had a conference miracle when we were going over to the Spanish
side of the church to watch elder Martin give his talk in Spanish and
when we got in there we just see one of our investigators chilling
there watching conference. We felt discouraged that all of the time
during the week that we spent inviting people and nobody had come. But
in the last conference our investigator didn't even tell us he was
there but he was just enjoying it. It was amazing! We were so happy to
see him and then the best part is that he came for the session when
Elder Bednar gave his talk directed toward people investigating the
church. He loved it and it was a big blessing and miracle to have him
there. I hope you all enjoyed conference and your week!

Love
Elder Hyde

Yuvia Baptism....JOY!

So much has happened since the last time I emailed I don't even know
where to start. :D but since we went to the temple today we don't have
a whole lot of time to email. So I will start with the highlight! So
on Sunday I got the opportunity to go back to Santa Ana 5 to baptize
Yuvia Alexandra Sánchez. There were three people being baptized. Yuvia
and her sister Crystal and then a members son named Greg that is about
15 and the last member of his family to be baptized. It was a really
wonderful experience. The best way I could describe it would be that
my heart felt like it was going to burst with joy! :D Little Yuvia and
Crystal were just so excited and happy and it was wonderful to see
them and their whole family. Their mom wants to be baptized as well
but she is just trying to get her divorce filed and then get married
to her boyfriend. So that was the reason we referee to them as the
Ramirez family because half of the kids last names are Ramirez and he
other half Sánchez. Just to clear that up. Haha But I just absolutely
love that family and the many ward members that we there that we
worked with to help the family feel so loved and welcomed by the
church. It was really the members that made the difference.


Some other wonderful miracles that we have seen lately have come from
talking to people about general conference. We have seen a lot of
people open up and a lot of the investigators actually commit to
coming when they are never sure about coming to church. So I'm really
excited for general conference and to see a lot of people come to hear
from the prophet and apostles. We have seen a lot of success already
with trying to involve the members more in our finding. At dinner
appointments we share a message and instead of asking who do you know
that needs the gospel or needs help or however we would normal say it.
We invite the head of the house to offer a kneeling prayer with us and
the whole family to ask our Heavenly Father where we should go and who
we should visit and invite everybody to listen to wherever or whoever
comes to mind. We have found a lot of success from this and have seen
The Lord hastening his work through the members. Because even if they
don't have a referral the might have a street or an area they feel we
should check out. When we go try where they tell us we have been
finding new investigators, less active members, and just success. Then
when we report the success to the member in the area they told us to
go it gets them excited to come out with us and join in the work. We
are looking forward to continuing to do this and I think it's an
awesome way to involve members.


Also on a funny note we have been teaching this less active fourteen
year old who loves us coming by but has a hard time understanding and
applying the scriptures. So while we were planning to teach him and we
didn't know what we should do. Then we saw the bag of frooties candy
that the family Marchant sent to me and so we had the great idea to
help him teach scripture stories. We spend a couple days the past week
explaining to him the story when Nephi and his brothers go to get the
plates from Laban using frooties as the characters. Now he is able to
pay more attention and understand the scriptures more fully. Plus if
he understand what goes on he gets candy at the end. So that's been a
fun new challenge. But he is a great kid so it's a lot of fun working
with him.


This week we had the opportunity to also see a movie! We got to watch
"Meet the Mormons" with half of the mission and it is a great movie!
Mom, you're going to laugh, cry, and want to bring all your friends. I
think is it really top notch and to quote my mission president it's
like "An I'm a Mormon video on steroids." So invite all of your
friends, family, and everybody to see it! Well thank you for your
emails, prayers, and love. I feel really blessed to have such an
amazing support system. Especially my Heavenly Father and savior Jesus
Christ. Serving a full time mission is tough, tiring, and even at
times discouraging. But the rewards extend on for eternity and I feel
the most blessed that I have ever been in my life.


Love,
Elder Hyde

1. Familia Ramirez/Sánchez. The kids Crystal is in back, Yuvia in
front of me, and then Richard, Kevin, Javier, Jason, Marisol(mom) and
grandma. 2. More ppl including Greg who got baptized also

Transfers & Stake Conference

First of all I would like to wish my wonderful sister a happy
birthday today! Happy birthday Kelsee! 24. That's getting pretty up
there! :) and also a big happy birthday to Blake! :D He is growing up
so fast and I can't believe he is already 4!

So today is transfers and so I don't have a ton of time to write
because we had to move some of the sisters in our area up to the most
northern part of the mission (we are in the most southern zone in the
mission). So our district of only 5 missionaries is now going to be 6.
Two sisters are leaving us and 2 elders and a sister are coming to
join us. I am really going to miss my Hermanas that are leaving us.
But they are super young in the mission so I will see them around. But
it is exciting to have elders in the district now so we get to go on
more exchanges, which always brings a lot of miracles! But our
district right now is super young. 2 are being trained, and 2 just got
out of being trained so it's going to be a lot of fun with them all.

This weekend we had stake conference and it was so great to see the
members from Costa Mesa, and Santa Ana 5. We also received some
awesome training and words of council from the stake presidency and in
the adult session on Saturday night we all got to actually do
practices with the members on how they can answer simple questions
that their friends might have to turn it into an opportunity to invite
them to listen to the missionaries. It was great! And we got to hear
an amazing testimony from a recent convert named Jose that was in a
bad accident when he was hiking a few years ago. Now he can't walk and
has trouble speaking and controlling movements of his body. I got to
meet and talk with him in my last ward and he is really such a sweet
kid. He shared his conversion experience and it was one of the most
touching testimonies I have heard in a while. He is such a strong kid,
I really love him.

Then on Sunday we heard some really inspired words from our stake
president. He shared a really cool experience about his daughter who
has had a lot of medical issues in the past and has always kept happy
with a smile on her face. So he asked her how she had gone through it
and always stayed so happy. She told him that she realized that she
had known that there were going to be really difficult trials and
difficulties before she came to this life, yet she still accepted her
Heavenly Fathers plan to come to the earth and be tested. If she could
make that decision before coming to the earth she knew that she had
enough faith in our Heavenly Father back then so why wouldn't she
right now? It was a really cool experience and the spirit really
testified to me how wonderful the plan of salvation is and how with
the knowledge that we accepted the plan before this life. Even though
we knew we would be tested and that it would be tough. We knew God
would be there for us to help us through any difficulty. I know that's
true. Our Heavenly Father loves us and is always willing to help us. I
also know that His plan is perfect and because of our Saviors
atonement we can all receive His enabling power to overcome anything
in this life.

This Sunday I also got to go see Lourdes's husband be baptized. I
taught his and Lourdes in Santa Ana 5 for a while and it was amazing
to see the change in him and how far he has come. At the baptism elder
Lindsay told me that Crystal and Yuvia from the Ramirez family that we
were teaching there asked that I come back next Sunday to baptize both
of them! It made me sooo happy to hear that and I am really excited to
go back next week and see the cute little family. The mom is working
towards being baptized but the girls want to be the example and go
first. They are adorable! I love you all very much!

Elder Hyde

Watch out for that spider, It's getting hot, ice & Is that the Work & The Glory?

This week we had a lot of random fun adventures and random
experiences so it was a good week. The first one came from Tuesday
night when we contacted this really young, struggling mother that was
with her kids. She told us about all the bad things that were going on
and how she was raising them by herself and didn't have money to pay
for everything they needed and was just very discouraged. It was
really powerful as Elder Kemp and I taught and testified of the
atonement to her. Then Elder Kemp noticed a spider about the size of a
dollar coin right behind her and her little kid playing next to it. It
was funny as we had to move our conversation away from this big spider
but she was really cool.

This week I got to go to the doctors to have a check up on my poison
oak and ended up learning a lot about headaches, canker sores, and two
types of being lactose intolerant. That night we had a cool lesson
with a part member family about the Book of Mormon. We have really
been struggling to help people keep their commitments lately and
actually finding people willing to act. But this last week for
district meeting we focused on our own finding efforts and building
the faith to find. Now this week we are going to be focusing on using
to members to really find those who are prepared. During Elder Kemps
training follow up this week president talk about finding through less
actives and recent converts. He said they are the "gold mines" for
finding. I really think that was inspired so we got a list of all the
less actives in the ward and are going to go find them. President
Taggart also shared with us that we should tell them that we are in
training and need practice teaching the lessons. As we teach them they
will feel the spirit and know who we can visit to share the gospel
with. The problem with finding through active members is that most of
them have tried sharing the gospel with most of their friends and
family and so it can be hard to find people to teach from them but
that the less active and recent converts have many non-member friends
really to receive the gospel.

On Sunday we had some fun experiences. Nobody came to church but we
saw some awesome growth in some of the recent converts. Our ward
mission leader, who was baptized a year ago, gave the gospel
principles lesson and although it started out choppy he learned a lot
from it and by the end he finished really well. Then his brother that
was baptized in June gave the priesthood lesson. It was probably the
best priesthood lesson on the plan of salvation I have been a part of.
It is amazing to see how a real understand of the plan of salvation
really can change everything about a person. It made me excited to go
help others come to an understanding of the plan that our Heavenly
Father has for each one of us. That night it was really hot as we were
walking along a busy street when a car drove by and chucked a thing of
ice at us. It was nice of them because it was so hot. Haha after that
we visited one of our investigators and he said he had been reading
the Book of Mormon during his lunch hour and really likes it. Then we
hear a loud "come and visit the D.I." From the t.v. and it caught us
off guard. We kept talking to him about his reading when he pointed us
to the t.v. Talking about the show he was watching about a young man
who had a vision. He was watching The Work and the Glory! It was so
amazing that he had stumbled upon the BYU channel and was loving the
show. It's a great lead into talking about the restoration and just
made my day. :D

I love you all and I know that the church that we represent is
guided by Jesus Christ himself. We went over the statistics of convert
baptisms over the past few years and about 14 years ago Gordon B.
Hinckley said that through member missionary work we could double the
300ish thousand that were baptized that year. Since we have only
passed 300,000 one other time. I know that it's through the members
that we can reach his goal for us.People are being prepared everywhere
in the world and if we do our part as missionaries and members I know
that the prophetic promise that was given by President Gordon B.
Hinckley that we can have 600,000 baptisms in a year. Keep up the
great work of salvation!
Love,
Elder Hyde

Dia de Hispanidad & crazy drunk people

Every week there are so many good and bad things that happen but I
will try and focus on the positive stuff. This week was difficult for
the district because hermana Schobert, a sister in my district, went
home because of some family issues that happened and it was really sad
to see her leave. When she first came she hardly knew anything about
the gospel and was struggling a lot but by the time she left she had a
deep love for the scriptures and a desire to serve with her whole
heart. I think it was a really good experience for her and it will
bless her family. Especially since most haven't accepted the gospel
yet. So now our ward is down to 5 missionaries and the sisters have
two areas to cover for the week so it is a little crazy.

This week we had Día de Hispanidad which is a huge stake activity
where we celebrate lots of different Hispanic cultures and there was
all different types of food and dancing and craziness that we only saw
a small part of because we got to get out and work. :) but next year I
want to come back for sure to do the 5k in the morning, then stay from
1-9 eating and dancing and enjoying all of the wonderful people. But
this year I was a missionary so we only had our dinner hour to enjoy
all the fun. It was a lot of fun to see the families from Costa Mesa
and Santa Ana 5, old companions and people that I have really come to
love on my mission. :) plus it was really missionary focused for all
the members to bring their friends. I heard good amount of success has
come from it but from our ward most of their friends didn't end up
coming. But it was missionary focused and we got to talk with a lot of
great people.

This week we found some really cool new people. This guy named
Ascensión met with missionaries a while ago and has since read the
entire Book of Mormon. He is struggling to recognize his answer that
it's true but he wants us to come help him figure it out. He doesn't
have support from his family but he is excited to learn. Plus he
talked about Alma and how much he loves it, just says it's a little
long. Haha We were excited for church this week because 4 people
committed to come but none of them showed up... Oh well. We will just
keep inviting and doing our part and they will come soon.

Last night we had a bit of a scary situation. The sister trio needed
to go sync their iPads to get everything in for the week but they
didn't want to walk in our area alone because it is a little crazy at
night. So we were waiting for them and a really cool Jehovah witness
came up to us and was asking where to by a "clean flicks" type thing
that turns rated R movies to PG13 and he knew Mormons would probably
know where to get one. So we are talking with him and he is super
awesome, then a drunk guy comes up and starts telling the Jehovah
witness guy that he should be a Mormon. By this time the sisters were
there and talking to the awesome guy with us. Then out of nowhere this
lady comes up from behind and wraps her arms around elder kemp and I
around the waist so we jump away from this lady and then this drunk
guy starts telling us how crazy Mormons are and saying really vulgar
stuff in from of the sisters so we and the Jehovah witness dude tried
to tell him to go away and he did enough that we could enchange info
with the other guy and direct him to a desert book. So he leaves and
we walk away to sync they drunk guy, girl and some other people start
following us yelling at us. It really scared the sisters and so I
don't remember everything that happened but I was standing between
these drunk people and all the sisters hiding behind elder kemp and I
and basically told them we were servants of The Lord and they needed
to leave and then we kept going. They almost immediately turned around
and left us alone and I really felt the protection of our loving
Heavenly Father. Sorry that was really long but it was an experience
that made me realize how much we are loved and protected by our
Heavenly Father and about how he is always looking over us. It also
made me realize really how much I hate drugs, especially alcohol and
how it can change a decent man into someone who can't control
themselves. The gospel is true. I know the word of wisdom and the
commandments that we have been given are from God and are to help us
be happy in this life. Love you! And don't worry the area I'm in is
really safe during the day :D
Love,
Elder Hyde

Ramirez Family, One year mark & Car Towed...

So this week was full of many ups and downs but I think I learned
a lot this week. :) From being towed to seeing Juan come to one of the
sisters baptisms it was pretty crazy! We taught this new family this
week that we found street contacting. They had met with missionaries
before and they said they really got through some tough times with
them and having them come over helped. They are super busy so we can
only meet with them once a week but they have a lot of promise since
they remember a lot of what we teach. The Ramirez family is also doing
good. We mainly teach the three daughters, one of which runs cross
country for Orange County College, but the parents are also really
nice and open. We had a really powerful plan of salvation lesson with
them and it was amazing to feel the spirit work through me as I
testified to them about the love that our Heavenly Father has for
their family. They love that families can be together forever and they
were really excited about familysearch.com and even created accounts
right after the lesson.

On my year mark we had a pretty good district meeting and then got
to get out and work really hard that night. We found a guy named
Ernesto whose family line of fathers had all been heavy drinkers,
including himself and his son. But one day his son decided he was
never going to drink again and helped his father quit too. Just
because he felt like it was the right thing to do. He and his son have
been sober for a few years now and really wanted to come to church but
hurt his leg at work and wasn't able to come. :( Then on Thursday we
had a ward baptism that one of investigators named Jaime came to and
it was good to see him trying to make some steps in the right
direction. He has been through everything épée have to teach him but
he just hasn't shown enough fruit yet to be baptized. But I think he
will be there soon. :)

Friday at dinner our car got towed. It wasn't a fun conversation
with our vehicle coordinator but everything worked out fine in the
end. We were actually really blessed that it happened because we had
to walk that night and ended up blessing a members non-mother who has
been sick for years and is getting really bad. We got the whole family
gathered around, about 8, only 2 members. It was a really cool
experience and everyone felt the spirit. It's the most interaction the
family has ever had with missionaries and was a big step for all of
them to be so open. The older lady that I gave the blessing to even
told us that she would like us to come teach her what we taught her
daughter. Her daughter was baptized just over a year ago and is one of
the most solid recent converts I have ever seen.

Saturday we had a nice trip to get our car back and then a really
good lesson with Juan about the law of chastity. He has a lot of
desire to change and be forgiven and is still really open to being
baptized but his work schedule got set for the whole month of
September and so he won't be able to come to church for a while. It's
really frustrating. But we are praying for a miracle so he can get
work off. :) He also came to the baptism on Sunday with his son and
really enjoyed it and was able to get a lot more comfortable with the
church building and what we do each hour. It was a really good week
even though we didn't get anyone to church. Next week we will get one!

:D
Love,
Elder Hyde

Wonderful Birthday Week!

Dear Family,
First of all I need to thank you all for the wonderful birthday
wishes and letters that I received. I truly do appreciate all the love
that I feel from all of you. Especially my wonderful family with so
many fun little pictures of them forming letters with their bodies, or
the wonderful memory that they have of the treats that I love. It was
a wonderful birthday, thank you all so much! :D With the surfboard
piñata that you sent we set it in a tree and just like kicking a field
goal we kicked a soccer ball at it. Oh course the elder from Peru was
able to kick it down and then I chucked it in the air and it smashed
open for everyone to get the candy. It was a lot of fun! I got sung
happy birthday many times that day and the Calderon family had us over
for a few minutes to eat s'mores with them. That night we didn't have
too many birthday miracles because we had to let some investigators go
that weren't progressing. But we did find a really cool guy named Jose
who loves missionaries, he is just a little too focused on aliens.
Haha
This week we had Zone conference and it was a very interesting one.
I really enjoyed it but you could tell it was president and sister
Taggert's first one. They talked to us a lot about gates and how we
shouldn't be satisfied to only have the investigators dressed in white
once but to help them go through all the necessary ordinances that we
need in this life. Then we had a training from the assistants,
including my former companion elder Arèvalo. It was also a great lunch
to be able to catch up with Elder Lindsay and my old district and see
how all of the investigators are doing in Santa Ana 5. Lourdes and her
husband are looking really solid to being baptized in the next couple
weeks.

We had some vey interesting lessons later in the week. One with a
recovering meth addict and it was sad to see how badly she has been
affected by drugs and alcohol in her life. It's going to be
challenging to help her comprehend everything that we teach. We also
were asked by the bishop to take over the teaching for one of the
sisters investigators. He has been taught everything but the bishop
doesn't feel he has shown enough fruit and so we have to be very
upfront with him and try to find where his desires are at. Really nice
guy but just can't see to take anything serious. But I think as we
show love for him and his desire to be baptized he can make the
necessary changes. The other sisters have had some problems with an
investigator and so every time from now on that he is taught we need
to be there for everyone's safety. A lot of interesting situations but
also a lot of progress with people this week so it has been worth it.

I got to interview this 14 year old kid Ignacio this week. His
whole family (of 6) was baptized in April but he didn't want to be
because he didn't have a testimony of the gospel. I really admire him
for now making the decision to find out if it was what he needed to
do. He is a really humble kid that really wanted to be baptized to
obey his Heavenly Father and all of his commandments. I absolutely
love being able to interview people for baptism and feel of the love
that these wonderful people have for the gospel. He was baptized
yesterday and President and sister Taggart came and even shared their
testimonies in Spanish. It was really awesome! Plus President Taggart
is way awesome and invited and challenged everyone there to learn
English and that it would be blessing to their family in the future
and give them more oportunies to provide better for their families.
People were really surprised but it was defiantly done with the spirit
and it was a neat experience.

As for our area we found a few new families that have some
potential and an older lady that lives with a recent convert that says
she has met with missionaries before and has never felt ready to be
baptized but she thinks she is now ready and so that was a big
blessing to find her. Again nobody came to church, but the sisters
investigator that was passed to us came to the baptism and had a good
experience there and even joined the ward choir this week and came to
the practice.

We also had exchanges with the zone leaders this week and it was a
really good experience to see a lot of good things that I do well and
even more things that I can improve on. :) Elder Harvey came to our
area and we had a lot of fun talking to a lot of people and helping
the sisters teach that investigator about repentance and what he can
do to overcome those feelings of guilt that he still has. He even
talked to the bishop on Sunday and seemed really happy with the whole
experience. I think he is truly changing. I am reminded of an inspired
part in a talk by President Thomas S. Monson. He shared

"Another principle of truth which will guide us in our
determination is that boys and men can change. I’m reminded of the
words of a prison warden who taught this fact. A critic who knew of
Warden Duffy’s efforts to rehabilitate men said, ‘Don’t you know that
leopards can’t change their spots?’ Warden Duffy responded, ‘You
should know I don’t work with leopards. I work with men, and men
change every day.’"

I add my testimony that men and women can change and I have seen it
time and time again on my mission. If our desires to serve God and
keep his commandments become great than our desires to do anything
else, then we can see the biggest changes. I love this gospel and the
opportunity it gives us to change and better ourselves daily. Because
of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be forgive for anything and
leave it behind us. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Also if you would like to read that from President Monson it's called
"To the Rescue" and here is the link.
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/04/to-the-rescue?lang=eng

New Area...Lots of Pictures = Happy Mom!

I don't have too much time this week but I did manage to send lots
of picutres, I hope you got them. :) So this week had a lot of ups and
downs. Ups because we have been working really hard and have people to
teach and have been blessed a lot. Downs because most the people right
now aren't keeping commitments and there hasn't been an investigator
at church from our area for quite a while now. So that is are main
focus this week to get people to church. We are committed to do what
it takes and I know we will be blessed as we do everything we can to
help people come to church. So I thought I might ask you all a
question. Why is going to church every week so important to you? And
what is it that keeps you going?

So this week we had some really special lessons. We taught this guy
named Robert, who we found last week, and he is awesome. He is going
through a lot of trials right now and he has always turned to drinking
and bad friends as his solution but he had a change a little bit ago
that has really prepared him for us to teach him. He has two teenagers
and really wants to change for them and he knows that it's through
God's help that he can do it. He also is struggling because he had to
amputate his leg last Fourth of July because of a shotgun wound in the
street. He has been stabbed multiple times, one resulting in losing a
lung. To add more his ex-wife is trying to put a restraining order on
him so he can't see the kids because she fears for their lives because
of his past life. He has a lot of pain but it has been an amazing
oportunity to teach him. We focused on two things with him that really
opened him up. First the atonement and how Christ has felt everything
he has gone through and wants to help him through it. You could see
the emotion in his eyes and the hope that came to him as we read Alma
7:11-12 with him. Second we testified of the resurrection and what
that means for us. Alma 40:23 made him so happy that he will receive a
perfected body someday and it was a really cool lesson.

We also taught this cool guy named Juan and taught him in a bug
infested basement. Huge dead cockroaches everywhere and little bugs
crawling on us. But we got past it and realized how humble and nice
this guy was who let us into him home. He told us right away when he
met us we had a glow of happiness and he could tell we were servants
of God. He told us he wants what we have and he really loved the
restoration. He told us humbly that he couldn't believe he had never
heard about the Book of Mormon and was one of the most excited people
I have seen that wants one to read it. We have a lot of hope for a lot
of our investigators we just need to help them act more and show their
faith. This area is a lot of fun and we get to meet all sorts of
people. It's a really good variety here. :) mom, you asked about the
guy in my profile picture. His name is nacho and he makes my day every
time I see him. He is a very high functioning autistic bundle of joy
in his mid 30's and surprises people every day. When he was a baby,
his parents were told that he would never be able to talk, walk, or do
really anything by himself. But now he talks all the time, is really
good at drawing, bathes and dresses himself, even cooks a little bit,
and loves giving nacho hugs and gives everyone a nickname. His
nickname for me is"Flash" haha He is one of the most active members in
his family and even holds the priesthood. He is a big inspiration to

me and I love him. He lives in my old area though so that was my

goodbye picture with him. I love you all so much have a wonderful
week!


Love,
Elder Hyde

Lopez Familia & Nacho...

Poison oak stages 1.2.3...

Ramirez Familia

Sealing Celebration

Noche de hogar la Lomeli familia

Stress, New Companion & District & Driving a Chevy Cruze 2013

This week had to probably be one of the most stressful weeks of my
mission for sure. But it was good stress and really pushed me to learn
and grow a lot. So the name of my hijo is Elder Kemp! :D He's an
awesome elder from plain city Utah, which is up by Ogden. We have a
lot of things in common. He ran cross country and track in high
school, loves ultimate frisbee, and has a lot of puns. We work really
well together and we also have a lot of fun! Elder Kemp is a really
goofy, fun, lovable guy that I am really excited to have at least 13
more weeks with him!


Surprisingly this week was also one of the longest weeks on my
mission so I will go back to what seems like an eternity ago to last
Monday. I was in a trio with elder Diaz and elder Sylvester for a
night back in my old area in Costa Mesa. They had a family home
evening set with the Lomeli family and so it was a lot of fun being
able to go back and see all of them. It was really awesome to see how
happy they were and how happy I was to see all of them and be back in
their home. The next day we had a little time still in a trio while we
waited for my new companion to get here and we were able to help a
members friend move. Then we went to the office and got to meet our
new companions. Right when I saw him I knew I was going to be training
him, it was super excited to be back at presidents home and remember
the fun experience I had getting here from Mexico.


His first night in the field we got to go find some of our
investigators and just talk to as many people as we could. It was a
lot of fun the whole week just trying to find our investigators and in
the process we had a lot of success finding new people as well. So the
first couple days were filled with meeting for training and district
leaders and it was a big overwhelming but nothing unbearable. Then the
morning of district meeting when I was supposed to have time to plan
for it, the sisters called and we needed to go give blessings to a
part member family that was going through a difficult time and really
needed some guidance. The father needed to move to Mexico for his work
but his young family really needed him here. The spirit was really
strong as I gave them blessings and after a lot of prayer and fasting
they were able to make the decision that Heavenly Father wants for
them. It was a cool experience to see them work through a trial as a
family.


So anyways because of that I only had a couple minutes to plan an
entire district meeting. Most weeks the district leaders receive an
outline of what to teach, including scriptures to use, questions to
ask and quotes to share. But this week was district leaders choice. So
I had to come up with everything. :) it ended up going really well
though and I was really relieved at how well it went. I had been
stressing out about it too much and I just needed to let the spirit
guide everything. By the way my district is awesome!! It elder Kemp
and I, and then hermana Galicia, Jones, May, Noel, and Schobert. They
are super hard working sisters that love each other a ton and just
work super hard all the time. I am really blessed to have such a
wonderful district.


I really love training and being able to help and serve my
companion and also my district. I also had my first baptismal
interview on Saturday. This baker name Arturo Gomez, he has a cute
little family but is the only one that has received the gospel so far.
When I asked him why he wanted to be baptized he told me because he
wanted to be clean from his sins and he knew it would be a blessing
throughout his whole life. A really nice, humble man and it was a
pleasure to meet him. His baptism was awesome and he fits right in
with this awesome ward.


Something I learned this week is that God will never give us more than
we can handle and even though we may have trials, stressful weeks, or
whatever it may be we will always be provided with a way to work through
it. Plus those are the moments in which we grow and learn the most.The
bishop here is really excited about missionary work and it has
changed the whole mindset in the ward. They all want to help and do
their part and because they have been working so hard with the
missionaries we have at least one baptismal service set up for every
single week in August. I love this area and all of the members and I
know that there are a lot of people here that are waiting for elder
Kemp and I to go find them! :) love you all!


-Elder Hyde

P.S. Driving a 2013 Chevy Cruze around instead of biking is really
going to make me fat :D

Changes! DL, New companion, New District

Well this week was full of ups and downs. We didn't get to teach
quite as much as we would have liked but we saw some really good
progress with our investigators. On Thursday night I learned that I
would be training and district leader and from there everything has
been a blur. Haha it's been a really humbling couple of days and then
when I learned I was leaving to another ward it was really hard to say
goodbye to such wonderful families and a great ward. I'm not sure why
I am going but I know that The Lord has a plan and so in going where
ever he wants me to go. Tomorrow I pick up my new companion and I'm
really excited to have a lot of opportunities to learn and grow
together. I'm staying in Santa Ana but going to the 11th ward. I am
also doing a "white wash" of the area which means neither of us know
the area or the ward. It's going to be a challenge but I'm super
excited! :) My district has five sisters and then me and my companion
so that will be very different.

Well I'm out of time but I am really excited to get working hard
with my new companion, thanks for the love and support, love you guys!

-Elder Hyde

Wedding & Church...

Already 5 days since I last wrote but it feels like yesterday. We had a service packed weekend as we basically planned and decorated a wedding within 36 hours. The lady who was getting married told us she wanted her wedding to be a finding activity for us and that she wanted us talking with all her family and friends and sharing the gospel with them. They even made an announcement at the beginning of the wedding service by announcing who we are and what we do. She also wanted us inviting our investigators and everyone that we could to come to her wedding. Hispanic wedding are very different than any other wedding I have been to but they are super fun. We hung some pretty impressive decorations and improvised a ton from the random stuff we found in the relief society closet to get everything together but it was really cool. I will send some pictures of it in a minute. It was a pretty good success as we had two of our investigator families(Lourdes's family, & Delpilar family) come and we got to introduce them to a lot of ward members and help them just have a fun time at the church. We met some really nice family members that don't live in our area but hopefully the missionaries in their area will be able to teach them more. I was really happy to see the couple get married finally. They had been living together for a few years without being married so he wasn't able to have the priesthood and they missed out on a lot of blessings. But now they are doing awesome and it's good to see them married. :)

We had a really good lesson with the Ramirez family and finally met the husband of the 6 awesome little kids. He is a really good dad and I am really relieved at how open he is. It was a lesson with 13 of us and so it was a little difficult to manage trying to involve everyone. Especially trying to help the little kids stay interested without being so basic that the parents got bored. Plus trying to involve the 3 members that came with us. By the end it seemed to have worked out really well because everyone of baptismal age accepted a baptismal date for August 24th. We also had an ward exercise activity with Zumba, P90X, health smoothies, word of wisdom dodge ball (hosted by us! :D), and more. The only problem was that not many people showed up. :( There were a decent amount of ward members but no investigators showed up so that stunk but we did get to help a lot of members recap what the word of wisdom is. Some have some miss conceptions on what the word of wisdom is and what it says we should eat and what we should avoid. So at least we got to help out with that.

Sunday we had some awesome miracles. The parents of the Ramirez family had to work but they had the uncle that was watching them brought them to church and it was so cute to see the little bundles of joy sitting in sacrament so excited to learn and sing the songs. Also the Garcia family(Lourdes and her family) all showed up. They seem to be really enjoying church a lot more, it's just hard for them to stay all three hours because they didn't grow up with religious parents so they never went to church. With the progress we have seen in them already I think they will be able to stay for all three soon. We aren't sure why the family Delpilar didn't show up but we will work with them this week. We have been super blessed. I am really excited for the people that we are working with and I'm and really grateful for all the support I receive from all of you. Thank you!

Elder Hyde

Love,

Elder Hyde

Temple week, New families

This week was really amazing for finding families! We found all of
them by just talking with everyone. :) Heavenly Fater really put a lot
of people in our path this week to help and to talk to. Oh yeah, the
reason I am emailing so late is because we got to go to the temple
early this morning and it was a really good experience.

The Ramirez family was one of the really cool families we found this
week and we are sooo excited for them. Plus the fit right in with the
ward since the bishop and ward mission leader here have the same last
name. They have 6 kids, all 11 or younger and it was a lot of fun
teaching them. They are some really intelligent kids. I love teaching
kids because they are so sincere and open. They have such a sweet
spirit and it so much fun to help them learn more about God.

The Delpilar family is also super awesome and the mom, Reina, is
probably the most prepared person I have met on my mission. The first
time we met her we only had a few minutes so we left her with a
restoration pamphlet and set another day to come back. When we came
back she was so excited to see us and introduced us to her whole
family. She had read and highlighted the pamphlet like crazy and had
questions written down all over. When she read the pamphlet she said
the spirit testified to her that it was all true and with the help of
the spirit she had not just memorized but had learned and understood
the restoration. Her biggest questions were about where is the book of
Moroni located, and how she could learn more about Joseph smith. She
even bore her testimony with her family and told us she wants to share
this testimony that she has with everyone. She is going to make a
great ward missionary someday soon. :)

Lourdes and her whole family came to church and her husband liked
it a lot and wants to start joining our lessons with her. We have also
been working a lot with the less active Lopez family. We have been
able to help them out a lot this week, including blessings, scripture
study, lots of yard work, and even exercising with Nacho! :) It has
just been a wonderful last few weeks. One other really fun thing
happened yesterday when we got surround by over twenty little kids
that were really crazy. We tried to teach this huge group of kids and
it reminded me on what Elder Kimball's experience must have been like.
It was really nice to have an iPad because the pictures really helped
them stay somewhat focused. But then they started stuffing our shirt
pockets with candy, trying to take selfies with us in the background,
comparing me to the new Spider-Man actor (I have no clue who he is),
and trying to ask us tons of random questions. It was a lot of fun and
actually pretty productive. We got a handful of families to go try and
visit and some of the orders ones want us to bring the a copy of the
Book of Mormon. Little kids are the best! I'm probably forgetting
something but I will write about it on Monday because it's so soon
anyways. I love you all!

-Elder Hyde

4th of July Craziness and Rosi gets baptized

Missionary work is the best! This week was super exciting with the 4th of July and then ending it with a blast of the past at Rosi Lomeli's baptism. Remember her? The family Elder Maughan and I found back in Costa Mesa. One of my favorite families ever and I believe that one by one they will all be baptized. :)

As missionaries with such a party/family gathering holiday like the 4th of July, we had a lot of work to do. We had an early barbeque with a member and their family and actually ate really American food except for some elote covered in mayo and chilly powder, my favorite! :D I also got to eat a fig for the first time in my life. We picked them right off of their tree in the back yard and they were delicious. The rest of the night was pure madness! We handed out over 60 pass-a-long cards and had about 50 conversations with all of the Hispanics that were lining all of the streets. So many people and so many names but it was the best situation the contact people in my mission. All was fine and dandy until it got dark. Then the real show began. I have never seen so many fireworks and so many all at the same time. Most of the Hispanic here go to black market vendors to get tons of loud, crazy, and very illegal fireworks. And we got to bike home through it all. :) It was really fun! Fireworks playing in front of our faces and them going off all around us. I felt like it was a war zone. But it brought a really successful night and we found some awesome investigators. We talked to this one lady and the first thing she asked before we shared anything with her was if we go to houses and teach the word of God and when we could come teach her and her son. A lot of cool stories and miracles from talking to so many people, I wish I had time to tell all of them. We even had a couple people add us on Facebook as we told them that we had them.

This week we also taught a music class and got a picture to send to Salt Lake so that they can start sending us keyboards and more equipment to further our ability to teach them how to lead music and eventually play the piano. We are hoping to receive keyboards in the next few weeks. Looks like I might need to learn how to play! Haha

On Sunday we had a huge feast with the Cifuentes family and they made us Guatemalan tamales which take most of a day to make. Hermana Cifuentes slaved away all of Saturday and they tasted really good. They are a lot more work than Mexican tamales but I'm sure they are worth how long they take. But it was a super nice gesture from an awesome family in the ward and it is always fun to try new food. :) That night was Rosi's baptism and it was one of the happiest moments of my mission. Her whole family was there and it was soooo great to catch up with them and their crazy Lomeli family adventures. Elder Maughan and Arevalo came and they are doing really well. President Taggart and his wife also came to support her. They both can speak Spanish and wanted to show their support to Rosi which was super nice of them. There were a ton of people and Elder Maughan and I got to share our testimonies with them and just how much happiness this day has brought us. It was a really spiritual experience. I know that this church is true and it has been manifest to me in the changes and happiness that the gospel has brought to this wonderful family. It was a wonderful week and I am so happy to be a missionary and be a part of this work. I know that it is God who has prepared many wonderful people here and I am humbled to be an instrument in his work of salvation. I love you all, have a joyous week! :)

Love,

Elder Hyde

Goodbye Bowen, Hello Taggart

This week was full of a lot of miracles. Last P-day was really crazy with the world cup in swing and Mexico playing. We could always tell when they would score because all the cars in the streets would start honking and when Mexico had won their game they were doing donuts in the middle of the streets. Hispanics were flooding certain streets with flags and loud yelling. I can't even imagine how crazy it was down in Mexico. haha Good thing they lost yesterday so things can calm back down to normal :)

So my new companion Elder Lindsay is super awesome! He is from North Carolina, 20 years old, and knows a ton about political science. We are way different but I think that is one of our strengths as a companionship. He can sing really well and would love to go into voice acting so he has a deep, smooth announcer voice when he speaks. Since he can sing he was chosen to be part of a welcoming committee that would sing when President Taggart arrived. When we went to the practices one of the Basses didn't show up and since I was sitting there they asked me to do it. It was a lot of fun. We sang for both President Bowen and Taggart and their wives as well as the many office staff and others missionaries that were following them. We sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" and I had to sing alto an octave lower for the second verse and harmony bass the second. It was a challenge for me but it was really fun to try and work on my singing. I still have a long way to go. haha

A lot of our appointments fell through this week but it gave us a lot of opportunities to find. This week we have been focusing our street contacts on trying to get return appointments and it has been a huge blessing for us. One of the first experiences was with this lady name Alejandra that called out to us as we were riding our bikes. She yelled "Hey, Stop!" and she told us that she saw us talking to a lady across the street about Christ and then told us her son would ask her to go to church on Sundays but she didn't know which one to go to. Her son is now in juvy but she wants to be involved with a church so that when he gets out he can come with her. What a tender mercy from The Lord. The lady that we were talking to across the street had no interest in what we had to say but if we wouldn't have talked to her Alejandra wouldn't have yelled for us to stop. It has kept me reminding myself to make sure I am talking to everyone because we never know who is watching us. Maybe even the elect :)

Right before district meeting this week a guy came into the church and went right to the chapel and started praying. We went to talk to him and he told us that he had been into a life of drugs and darkness but that he found Christ in prison and hasn't touched alcohol or drugs in his 5 months of being out. But right now he is about to be kicked out of his home with his newly married wife and he had a strong feeling that he could find help in our church. I testified of the Atonement and how it could help him in his time of need as well as receiving forgivness for his past. It was a really spiritual experience and affirmed my testimony of the healing power of the Atonement and how personal it is for each one of us.

Also this week we had a cool meeting with President Taggart. He told us he expects four things from us as missionaries. 1. Be Happy 2. Be Safe 3. Be Successful 4. Be Converted. I think his remarks were really inspired and I learned a lot about each of those fours things that I can work on and really become the missionary that I can be. There were so many other miracles and it was a really amazing week. The Gonzales couple is doing really well and love church each week. Elder Lindsay and I are really good at helped each other become better and I love serving with him. Thank you for all the love I feel from all of you, you're the best!

Love,

Elder Hyde