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