Elder Neil L Andersen, Newport Beach, Exchanges

So I have to start this week with last P-day. We rode our bikes to
the beach together as a district and it was a ton of fun. It feels so
nice down by the beach :) our mission rule is that we can't touch the
sand but we found a nice grassy spot by the beach and just got to
relax next to a sleeping homeless man and watch the waves. A couple
elders and went on a run for a couple miles along the Newport Beach
trail and it was super nice and I realized how terribly out of shape I
am haha that night we got to stop by and see Zaira. She is really
struggling with school and basically becoming the mom of the family.
She does all the laundry and cooks all the meals for her dad and
brothers because her mom is off doing her own thing. So to try and
help her out we are going to go over 2 to 3 times a week now and just
help her with whatever she needs help with. Cooking, cleaning,
homework, it's fun service :)

This week we have been trying to help one of our investigators
overcome same gender attraction and it's been a new challenge that I
have never had to help somebody with so we have had to really rely on
the spirit to know what to say. We had interviews with president Bowen
this week and it was the last one that we will have with him. He took
us out to lunch and I got to sit next to him and talk about Idaho and
track and how I used to run at Idaho state every year. He talked to me
about how he did high jump in high school and it was before they would
go over backwards. He is such an amazing president and it will be sad
to see him leave.

I went on exchanges with elder Colbert this week. He is an amazing
missionary and has a really cool conversion story. Long story short,
his girlfriend invited him to church and a year later he was baptized.
Something crazy happened, so I feel like I have knocked every Hispanic
door in my area because I have been in this same area for 6 and a half
months. But we got a referral and found two apartment complexes,
surrounded by white people houses, that are pure Hispanic, and seem
untouched by any type of missionaries. Miracle. It made me super
happy. When we starting knocking it we found this lady who said she
wasn't a member of the church...yet! She has been meeting with
missionaries and then suddenly had to move. She loves what she has
seen of the church so far and is an awesome new investigator. It was a
super awesome exchange and I learned a ton from elder Colbert.

The Lomeli girls are doing really well they just are still scared
to come to church. We taught them the plan of salvation again this
week and it seemed to finally click with Elizabeth. She thanked us
after the lesson because she said she finally understood where she
came from. It was something that hit me pretty hard. We have so much
precious knowledge that others are dying to know, and it made me want
to make sure I help everyone that I can understand God's plan for
them.

Elder Neil L. Andersen came this week for a really awesome
conference. He is a super funny guy and really brings the spirit.
Shaking his hand was cool and just being so close with one of the
twelve apostles of Jesus Christ on the earth today. He mainly talked
about how our conversion experiences are going to come one on one. And
that is how we should help our investigators have those moments of
conversion during and lessons and during their personal prayers and
study. He really focused in on helping us have the basics bring our
continuous conversion. Sincere prayer, sinking ourselves into the
scriptures and making the little changes now to have us go home from
our missions not just a little better but way better than how we came
out. He said it will come by "shaving" and "pushing" ourselves. Shave
away the bad and continually pushing ourselves to grow. Which is
awesome because it applies to us throughout our whole lives.

Happy Easter yesterday! Hope you all had a nice time to be gathered
with family to remember all that we have because of Jesus Christ. I
thought the #BecauseofHim went awesome on Facebook and it really
helped others remember all that we have because of what He overcame
for all of us. It your haven't seen the video "Because of Him" yet I
invite you to do so because it's one of the best videos that the
church has put out and it super powerful. I know that Jesus Christ is
our savior that He lives! I love Easter to focus on His resurrection
and what it means for us. I know that because He was resurrected all
of us will be too. Our bodies being resurrected is an unconditional
gift given to us as we kept our first estate before this life by
accepting Jesus Christ as our savior and redeemer and accepting our
Heavenly Fathers plan. Because of that and the atonement and
resurrection that Jesus Christ performed for us we all have the
potential to become like our Heavenly Father. I love this time that I
have to dedicate my life to bringing others to this knowledge. I feel
as Lehi did when he is talking to Jacob:

"Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he
is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice
for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a
broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of
the law be answered. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these
things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know
that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it
be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who
layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by
the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of
the dead, being the first that should rise."
(2 Nephi 2:6-8)

#BecauseofHim this is the most important work in the world :)

Love,
Elder Hyde

Angela's Confirmation...more teaching

This week was pretty slow as far as finding new investigators and
teaching a lot but you always find what your looking for. So as I was
looking back for good things this week I was able to find a lot of
things that really went well. This week we taught this part member
family a few times. The husband is a member and his wife, Lizzet, is
not. After a pretty cool lesson about the restoration with them she
told us her wish is that her kids can grow up strong in the church and
have strong testimonies that it is true. She has read and watched a
lot of anti-mormon stuff and wants proof that there were gold plates
and lots of other stuff but we helped her understand that if she can
gain a testimony and a witness that the Book of Mormon is true none of
those little doubts will matter. The family is really cool and we
can't wait to get them to church.

We also stopped by the Garza family this week. It's the family
that was a referral from a traveling seventy and has the super funny
autistic kid named Mason. We passed them to English forever ago but
they didn't get along with them very well so they were happy to see
us. It amazes me how important those little spiritual experiences are
for everyone. Some not so good news this week. Olis pretty much
dropped us this week. We assume she tried talking to her husband about
baptism and it didn't go so well. She told us she would let us know
when things cool down :( but I think we will be able to teach her
again soon.

This week at volleyball a members step daughters boyfriend came
and it is so awesome to see how prepared people are when they have
members that bring them to activities or have already fellowshipped
them. His name is Jesus and we gave him a church tour and had a really
spiritual lesson in the chapel. He told us he had some questions that
no other church has been able to answer for him. The first one was
"why are there so many churches?" Which is one of the best questions
he could have asked haha :) so that was basically how the whole lesson
went and even though he doesn't live in our district we set him with a
goal to be baptized. The chapel is so amazing to have lessons in, it's
amazing how rooms that are set apart really do make a difference.

Yesterday I got to confirm Angela is sacrament meeting. To be
honest I was a little nervous because the chapel was packed and well,
it's a really special thing. But I loved it and it was a super good
growing experience. Angela has changed so much and now she has the
gift of the Holy Ghost so I can't wait to see her understanding of the
gospel grow even more. This week she has been trying to share the
gospel with everyone around her it is super cool to see how much the
gospel means to her that she wants to share it with others. Have a
great week!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Conference & Baptism....

What a weekend! Sunday was super amazing with general conference
and Angela's baptism in between the sessions. It was super
overwhelming trying to do a baptism in between conference sessions. I
don't think I ever want to try that again but it was super amazing!
She seemed so happy and nervous and told us about how she has been so
excited all week for that great day. When she came out of the water
she was so happy and as she was walking out of the font she started
weeping and praising her Father in heaven. It was such an amazing
experience to see her so filled with joy and happiness. She also
already started become a member missionary because she invited every
friend, co worker, and family member she had and about 25 non member
friends and family came. It was awesome to see the support she had
from them and then since the whole ward was at the baptism the non
members got to meet the ward and it was a great experience. Some of
her sisters really felt the spirit and were overcome with tears. We
hope to start teaching some of them really soon :) plus it helped all
of her daughter say that baptism is their goal in the near future as
well.

So this week was full of getting Angela ready for baptism and
teaching her about missionary work and why it was important to invite
people to her baptism to feel the spirit. She must have understood
because she invited lots of people and many of them showed up. We also
had a zone meeting where we found out that Elder Neal L. Anderson is
coming to speak to us the 19th of April. So we get round two of
conference in less than two weeks! :) we found some cool new
investigators this week. This guy Manuel told us almost his whole life
story and how he has some really sick friends that need our message of
hope. But he wasn't there when we went back :/ then we found a really
cool new family. This guy Joaquin was interested in the fact that we
have a prophet and was interested in learning more. He said he used to
be catholic but didn't like how people would go to church and then not
live the commandments throughout the week. Excited to share with his
whole family this week :)

We brought the twins Jacqueline and Stephanie to Olis this week and
taught her about fasting. We are going to fast with her this week
about her husband. She wasn't able to come to conference because her
little boy got sick but other than that she is progressing really
well. She keeps expressing to us her desire to be baptized and is
willing to do whatever she needs to in order to make it there. I got
to see elder Maughan a lot this weekend and it was nice to catch up
with him and a lot of other missionaries I haven't seen in a while.
Conference was full answers to the many questions that I went in with
and we are so lucky to have a prophet and so many wonderful leaders in
the church the follow the spirit and be mouthpieces to The Lord. Just
as The Lord tells us "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my
servants, it is the same." Now we just need to follow up with
ourselves as we apply and live what we heard :) also I just remembered
that someone talked about everyone that has a missionary serving
should be studying preach my gospel. I was wondering if you guys were
studying it. If not, no better time to start then right now :)

Love,
Elder Hyde