Awesome week...

Hi. This week went by super fast but I guess I will just jump right
into some awesome lessons we had and the awesome changes that I can
see in my investigators. So we were able to teach the Lomeli family a
few times this week and each time we had some awesome experiences. The
first time we taught them about prayer and how they can recognize
their answer that this is the church of Jesus Christ. Elizabeth talked
to us about how she can't go to bed or do anything in the morning or
eat food without praying. She says she just always feels that need to
pray and it was awesome how she feels the Spirit's influence in her
life to have more of a desire to read.


We taught them two other times this week, once about the Atonement
and repentance as they are preparing for baptism and making a lot of
changes in their lives. The other was about the word of wisdom. It was
ironic that people were walking through the middle of out lesson with
tons of beer and some came in late because they were getting coffee.
Elizabeth and Angelina couldn't help but laugh at how many ways we can
see people break the word of wisdom just during a lesson about it.

This week we were able to find Olis again. We hadn't had a lesson
with her in almost two weeks but she was super happy to have us back.
She has a super funny cute little 4 years old named Jared and he is
really shy but has warmed up to me now and tells me all of these
random stories and it's super awesome. He reminds me of Blake and
Berkeley. Olis told us some amazing experiences she has had from our
visits. She has found a love for the Book of Mormon because she used
to have a short temper with her husband but after we had been teaching
her one night she was about to get upset when she had a prompting to
read the Book of Mormon. She did so and told us what peace she felt
and how it really calms her down, even if she doesn't understand a
whole lot of it. She also shared how she has met with all sorts of
religions but never let's them come back. But as we started teaching
her mom Costa she felt drawn to us and feels something different when
we teach, or what we helped her recognize as the Spirit. Her husband
never seems interested when we invite him to join us in the lessons,
but she tells us that every night we teach he always asks what we
taught her and she says it's a good way for her to remember what we
teach her and slowly help her husband to have. Desire to learn more.
But she bore an awesome testimony about how she knows this is Christ's
church on the earth today.

This week we had a zone conference and learned a ton about how we
can be obedient because of our love for our heavenly and not just out
of our duty. It was a sunder cool training. A stake president also
spoke and he reminded me of elder S. Gifford Nielsen that spoke in
last Octobers conference with tons of enthusiasm for missionary work
and having a game plan to hasten the work. Anyways, this stake
president was awesome and really got us all pumped to work more with
members and some really good ideas on how to help the members catch
"the vision." Elder Maughan also got to give a talk in the conference
it was super awesome.

It is so awesome to be able to have this technology to help others
come unto Christ. This week we were able to share a few clips from the
prophet and apostles and some Mormon message during lessons. It is way
different but really awesome, especially to help others gain a
testimony that we have a prophet and apostles. Love you all, keep
spreading the gospel :)

Love,
Elder Hyde

Costa Mesa Transfers

Well I should start with transfers. I am going to be staying in Costa Mesa 4th ward and Elder Maughan is headed up north. My new companion is Elder Arévelo. He is awesome! He grew up in Florida, but his parents are from Salvador and so he is fluent in Spanish, which will help me a ton. He is our new district leader and I'm way excited to be serving with him and show him this awesome area we have. He is more quiet than most but has a lot of desire to share the gospel. It's going to be awesome to get to know him.

Elder Maughan and I really worked super hard since we figured it was our last week together and wow we were so blessed. We starting the week with lots of people dropping us and it really stunk. But every time we get dropped we seem to be able to find a lot too. So let me tell you about Jesus. We met him at church when a friend that doesn't live in our area found the ward and told him she wanted him to find the truth. He loved church and told us he was going to look for a new job so he can get Sunday's off to come to church. But a few weeks passed and we couldn't find him again. Well this Tuesday we found him and it was so awesome. We were telling him our purpose for teaching him and asked him what he was expecting from our visits. He asked us if we baptized and if he could be baptized. He was so prepared. It amazes me how when members just share little bits of testimony with their friends how much more prepared they are to hear the gospel. He also asked for a blessing as he is dealing with a divorce and not being able to see him family in Mexico. I got to give him a blessing and it was sweet how much he felt the Spirit. He wanted us to come by the next day and again during the week. We have a baptismal date set for him the 9th of March.

We also got to teach Olis a few times. We are teaching her commandments and it is awesome to see her faith through her actions to obey the commandments. When we taught her the word of wisdom she said that she drank every once in a while and had coffee or tea almost every day but that she wanted to go throw it out right then. She is making some amazing progress, but still is worried about setting a baptismal date until may-ish. This week we found a lot of people who didn't believe in God, but after teaching them at the door they said they really felt like God was there and that He loves them. It is such a precious moment to help others feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of us. This week we brought out this awesome young kid in our ward named Andy. He is 17 and getting ready to put him papers in after he graduates this year. He is going to be an amazing missionary. With him we found this awesome girl Rebecca who is Christian and thinks her whole family would be interested in learning more about His restored gospel. I'm excited to go teach her whole family. Another fun thing that happened was we knocked this door and then a guy was walking up the stairs next to the door so Elder Maughan starts contacting him but then the door opens so he got to teach the guy about prophets while I taught the lady at the door about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Teaching two people at a time :) that's how we do it haha

Well it was a really fun week, but now time for some change which I am really excited for as well. I love the work. I know the church is true and that our Heavenly Father is always there for us. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and will come again. LOVE, Elder Hyde P.S. My companion is a "tech specialist" so he has an Ipad already and I get trained and start using mine this week! So pumped :)

Thank you for the support and love everyone! Love our missionary!

It's really good to hear from my family and friends and all the support I have. Thanks so much! This week I have received a lot of strength and comfort through all of the prayers and staying focused in the work. I had exchanges again on Tuesday, got to show my District leader around my area and be the senior companion for a day. It was fun, he is a really good missionary and I learned a lot from him. It was Elder Maughan's birthday this week so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to have a fun lunch with our zone. I made him some birthday cake cookies which were super easy and amazing :)

This week we also met this awesome lady Yolanda. It was super funny, she really loves what we are doing and after 3 minutes of talking with her she ran inside to get money for us, which we had to decline and then she told us to come inside and she introduced us to her 4 daughters that are around our age. It was super funny, she was like trying to pair us off or something. Really funny experience. The family Lomeli is doing awesome! They are praying and reading the Book of Mormon together as a family every single day :) They are almost into second Nephi after just a week of reading. They also have watched like 4 church movies we have given them and they love them and tell us how sad they are that they are short movies. They have a desire to learn more, I love it.

Also this week we found a fun opportunity for service. We got to push this old truck on a super busy street for over a quarter mile and it was a super good workout. I love service so much. This week we have been focusing on how we can use the Book of Mormon more when we knock and to help people build a testimony of it. It has really helped and during our lesson with this lady Guille and her daughter Jasmine. At first they told us old to use scriptures from the bible, but as we explained the Plan of Salvation and taught them about restored truths through the Book of Mormon they opened up way more to our message and accepted the invitation to read and pray about it.

We had a really good lesson with Olis. She talked to her husband about being baptized and said it's something she wants to do in the near future but doesn't want to set a date yet. She wants her husband to be open to doing it too. Angelina and Elizabeth Lomeli are praying about the 9th of March to see if that's when they need to be baptized. This area and people here are awesome! I love the work :) This week we find out what will happen with transfers next week. Elder Maughan and I probably aren't staying together so it will be interested. Love you all, have a great week! Love, Elder Hyde