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