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

New Companion Elder Lindsay...Surpirse Luau for Pres & Sis Bowen

This week started out really crazy with a surprise Lu'au for President and Sister Bowen and it was a lot of fun. We had each language do a dance representing our culture to send the Bowen's off with a party with tons of food and fun. I am going to miss them a ton. They leave this Thursday and a new president is going to be very interesting.

My new companion is Elder Lindsay and he is awesome! Super different than any other companion I have had so far but he is a great missionary and this transfer is going to be awesome together. I really love how we teach together and how we can push each other to be our best. We had a lot of meetings this week and so we really had to make the most of the time we had to teach our investigators but it went really well. The Gonzales couple is doing really well. They were able to come to church, they love the testimony that Joseph Smith gives in the Book of Mormon, and they feel good about everything we teach.

We did a lot of work with members this week since we are both really new to the ward and all the members. It helped to have a Father's Day party to get to know the members more and spend some good time with them. They were a lot of really good experiences this week but one that was especially cool was with Orlando. We hadn't seen him all week and were worried about him so we stopped by last night and actually found him! He told us about how he has read up to 1Nehi 8 and loves the Book of Mormon because of how he feels when he reads it. He also told us that he has prayed about it and said he just felt so good about it after he had prayed. He says that was his answer that everything we are teaching is true! We are helping him talk with his boss to let him come to church on Sundays so that he can continue having spiritual experiences. He has trouble comprehending everything that we teach but he is humble and has really awesome desires to do what is right.

It was a really good week but we have a lot to improve on. I am really excited with all of the people that have been prepared in this area and to be able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ and His gospel is the most amazing thing in the world! :)




Love,

Elder Hyde

Transfers, President Bowen, Momma's Birthday & Father's Day

Transfers are today and things are a little crazy because this is
President Bowen's last one and he leaves in 10 days. So Elder Richards
got called to be a Zone leader up north and so he will be leaving and
I'm staying here in Santa Ana 5. Elder Lindsay is coming in with me
and he will be district leader here. I'm gonna miss elder Richards but
I hear elder Lindsay is a stud so I'm really excited for him to come
in here with me. The new assistant to the president is my old
companion elder Arèvalo. I think that will be really good for him but
it was really surprising because he is still really young.
As for the week it was a really cool week. We have a lot of people
we are working with and a lot of good things are happening. The
Gonzalez family(the old couple) accepted a baptismal date for July
20th and are looking really good. The Alegría family that we have been
working with told us they are moving to Mexico this Thursday so that
was disappointing because they are super ready to receive the gospel
and were receiving it so well. But we are sending missionaries to them
once they get down there so I hope that goes well. We got to visit
this members friend from work that was in the hospital and she is a
super nice lady named Eva. She has so much faith and she really wanted
to be healed. We gave her a blessing and shared some scriptures about
the atonement with her and the spirit was so strong. She has been
through a lot in her life and was sad she hadn't made enough time for
God and had worried about too much about work. She was really grateful
we came by and was looking really happy when we left. She had been in
the hospital for a few weeks but later that night she was released to
got back to her house with her family :) it was really awesome!
I don't have a ton of time today because of transfers but everything
is going great here and I love you all a ton. I hope you had a great
birthday momma, and that all the fathers had a great Father's Day!
Love,
Elder Hyde

***NATHAN SENT ME TONS OF PICTURES FOR MY BIRTHDAY*** TOO MANY TO ADD
IT WAS A GREAT BIRTHDAY GIFT***

Another great week of teaching and sharing...

*Missing him more than usual this week. Love Mondays!!!***



Hola! This week was really great :) Most high schools had their prom yesterday and it kind of freaked me out that I went to prom and graduated a whole year ago. Feels like yesterday haha So I guess I will share a quick funny story. Last week when we were shopping right after we emailed, this semi-homeless guy named John came up to us telling us how he loved Mormons and was wondering why Mormon families seem so much closer and more happy than other families. He was so excited to see us and very animated in his actions it was awesome. He
said he wished that his family could be like a Mormon one and so one of the sisters in our district invited him to be baptized. It was pretty awesome.


Tuesday was fantastic. One of those days where you feel so happy and accomplished because you know you did everything that you could do that day to help others come closer to Jesus Christ. I love that feeling. We found this funny older couple, the Gonzales family, that
was just chilling in their garage and they were so nice :) immediately they said they would come to church and they actually did! We also brought over a really old awesome couple, the Cifuentes, from our ward to teach them this week and they got along so well it was sweet.
Hermano Cifuentes even sang a solo for them at the beginning of the lesson. Also found this girl Jasmine who has a brother and sister who are members. She seems super ready to finally receive the gospel. We also got to translate for the Irvine mission assistants to the
president this week. It wasn't too exciting though. We just found out the mom of the kid they are teaching doesn't want anything to do with the church but she said her son could go to whatever church he wanted to.


I went on exchanges with Elder Etchart in my area and it went super well. We found another crazy guy named John :) He said he used to be Mormon when he was baptized in the 1980's but that he lost his Mormon bible. He was super happy when we gave him a Book of Mormon and had no clue that there was a church so close. He was really proud of his old car and had nothing but good things to say about us so it was fun. We taught Lurdes that night and she is doing really well. She is accepting everything really well. It also helped that her brother Noé just got baptized and she wants the same changes she has seen in him. We also got to help a couple ladies in our ward learn some English this week. Like how to pray in English and study for their citizenship interviews. So it also helped me brush up on my history. :)


Sunday we saw how sneaky satan really is. We had a lot of solid people ready and committed to coming to church but after a trip to Disneyland, emergency hospital trip, delayed at work because of a cut foot, most of them couldn't come. On a good note, the Gonzales couple came and really enjoyed it. That was pretty much my week. We found out that president Taggert will arrive June 26th and so he will be here soon! Transfers are next Monday already, and since the Spanish program needs a new AP and 8 new zone leaders within the next 7 weeks there are going to be a ton of changes. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Especially you Mom, Happy Birthday this week! Happy Fathers Day to the amazing fathers I have you guys are the best!


Love,

Elder Hyde

Elotada & Miracles

So last Monday was the Elotada! So basically the whole Spanish stake gets together at this huge park and we chat with everyone, play tons of soccer, and eat a lot of food, especially corn on the cob covered in mayo, lime juice, and chili powder :) haha that may sound gross but it's actually super good! It was an exhausting day and a lot of fun seeing all the other missionaries and members from Costa Mesa. Throughout the week you could tell if a missionary was in the Spanish program because we were all super red and burnt. I even got a sunburn where my watch usually is because it's so white. :)


This week was also a really good week for missionary work and we saw miracles often. We found & started out finding this really cool family. We found them out in their front yard playing with their little kids and we mostly taught the father. He was going through a pretty tough day and said that spending time with his family is the most important thing and said it really helped him that we stopped by. Wednesday was our biggest day for miracles because it started out really slow because all of our appointments were falling through and nobody was home. We decided to stop by Orlando, a guy we found street contacting with a member last week, and we had a really cool lesson with him. He wants to be ready to be baptized July 13th and I'm really excited for him! :) He is gonna need a lot of help but he has really good desires. Right after that we were unlocking our bikes and we were trying to figure out how we were going to visit this less active mom and daughter because we needed a member to go into the house but the member that was going to come cancelled. Anyways, so we get this random call and at the same time this guy down the street starts waving his hands at us. Elder Richards is talking on the phone and I am talking to this awesome guy named Jose who had moved here from Guatemala and was looking for the church or missionaries for a long time. The phone call was from a random member who wanted to come out with us and so we had two awesome miracles at the same time. We had a lot of experiences like that this week and we were really blessed.


This awesome member named Noe who was baptized in English a few months ago, who is way more comfortable speaking in Spanish but didn't know there was a Spanish ward...haha, introduced us to his sister, Lurdes, and his friend who are both pretty awesome. They have seen such an amazing change of happiness and hope in Noe and they want it for themselves. He is a way good example of just living the gospel and others will notice and want to learn more. We worked a good amount with less-actives last week and a lot of them came to church so it made me super happy to see them happy to be back. So much happens every week I love it! I hope you all have a great week!


Love,

Elder Hyde