Yuvia Baptism....JOY!

So much has happened since the last time I emailed I don't even know
where to start. :D but since we went to the temple today we don't have
a whole lot of time to email. So I will start with the highlight! So
on Sunday I got the opportunity to go back to Santa Ana 5 to baptize
Yuvia Alexandra Sánchez. There were three people being baptized. Yuvia
and her sister Crystal and then a members son named Greg that is about
15 and the last member of his family to be baptized. It was a really
wonderful experience. The best way I could describe it would be that
my heart felt like it was going to burst with joy! :D Little Yuvia and
Crystal were just so excited and happy and it was wonderful to see
them and their whole family. Their mom wants to be baptized as well
but she is just trying to get her divorce filed and then get married
to her boyfriend. So that was the reason we referee to them as the
Ramirez family because half of the kids last names are Ramirez and he
other half Sánchez. Just to clear that up. Haha But I just absolutely
love that family and the many ward members that we there that we
worked with to help the family feel so loved and welcomed by the
church. It was really the members that made the difference.


Some other wonderful miracles that we have seen lately have come from
talking to people about general conference. We have seen a lot of
people open up and a lot of the investigators actually commit to
coming when they are never sure about coming to church. So I'm really
excited for general conference and to see a lot of people come to hear
from the prophet and apostles. We have seen a lot of success already
with trying to involve the members more in our finding. At dinner
appointments we share a message and instead of asking who do you know
that needs the gospel or needs help or however we would normal say it.
We invite the head of the house to offer a kneeling prayer with us and
the whole family to ask our Heavenly Father where we should go and who
we should visit and invite everybody to listen to wherever or whoever
comes to mind. We have found a lot of success from this and have seen
The Lord hastening his work through the members. Because even if they
don't have a referral the might have a street or an area they feel we
should check out. When we go try where they tell us we have been
finding new investigators, less active members, and just success. Then
when we report the success to the member in the area they told us to
go it gets them excited to come out with us and join in the work. We
are looking forward to continuing to do this and I think it's an
awesome way to involve members.


Also on a funny note we have been teaching this less active fourteen
year old who loves us coming by but has a hard time understanding and
applying the scriptures. So while we were planning to teach him and we
didn't know what we should do. Then we saw the bag of frooties candy
that the family Marchant sent to me and so we had the great idea to
help him teach scripture stories. We spend a couple days the past week
explaining to him the story when Nephi and his brothers go to get the
plates from Laban using frooties as the characters. Now he is able to
pay more attention and understand the scriptures more fully. Plus if
he understand what goes on he gets candy at the end. So that's been a
fun new challenge. But he is a great kid so it's a lot of fun working
with him.


This week we had the opportunity to also see a movie! We got to watch
"Meet the Mormons" with half of the mission and it is a great movie!
Mom, you're going to laugh, cry, and want to bring all your friends. I
think is it really top notch and to quote my mission president it's
like "An I'm a Mormon video on steroids." So invite all of your
friends, family, and everybody to see it! Well thank you for your
emails, prayers, and love. I feel really blessed to have such an
amazing support system. Especially my Heavenly Father and savior Jesus
Christ. Serving a full time mission is tough, tiring, and even at
times discouraging. But the rewards extend on for eternity and I feel
the most blessed that I have ever been in my life.


Love,
Elder Hyde

1. Familia Ramirez/Sánchez. The kids Crystal is in back, Yuvia in
front of me, and then Richard, Kevin, Javier, Jason, Marisol(mom) and
grandma. 2. More ppl including Greg who got baptized also