Sorry that I am writing two days late. Our Pday got changed because
we have Zone Conference with Elder Cardon from the first quorum of the
70 on Monday so our Pday is today. I will get more to that later but
it was an amazing conference.
Last Monday we were invited to family home evening and a newer family
in the ward had invited a part member family whom we have been trying
to contact for months. The family came and they shared a great lesson
about faith and we got to meet a great part member family. The next
day we had to go to the doctors with one of the elders in our district
who has been having back problems. Then we received a text from other
elders in the mission telling us that a less active member needed a
blessing in our ward. We went and found her and she called us Angels
sent from heaven and was amazed that we had come right when she was in
need of a blessing. Her husband isn't a member but after the blessing
he said the missionaries could come by to teach his whole family. She
is the only member so I'm excited for the sisters to go teach them. It
was a great experience to give a blessing to someone I had never met
before and just feel the spirit work through me. The whole day was
very guided by the spirit as we tried to put our training of relying
on the spirit into play. I can tell you that the Holy Ghost will guide
us if we listen. That night we were completely guided where to go and
found some great people. We were also guided to a part member family
we have been working with and just stopped to see how they were doing.
We just started testifying of the Savior and the wife opened up
telling us she had been reading about repentance in the Book of
Mormon. It led in perfectly to baptism and we invited her to be
baptized. She thought about it and then with a reassuring husband at
her side said she would. It was a great lesson and I'm really excited
for Maria Muñoz. In our past lessons we had focused on temples, and
families being sealed and so she said she really wants that. A
wonderful night of miracles.
The following day we had a meeting with all the district leaders in
the mission and we could tell right away that it was going to be a
different meeting than usual. Usually the assistants take half an hour
to go over some attributes of a good leader and then president has
twenty or so minutes to share some thoughts. This time the assistants
went through their part in less than ten minutes and left the rest to
President Taggart. He got up with tear filled eyes and talked about a
group of 5 missionaries that he had to send home that morning and how
much it broke his heart. He told us his tolerance level is at zero and
that we needed to let all missionaries know that if they leave mission
boundaries, they are on the next plane home. Also if anybody is
involved with secret groups on Facebook they will be sent home. Normally we
want to keep those things quiet but this time he told us to let people
know. It was a powerful meeting and the spirit was really strong. I
came out of that never wanting to ever even think about being
disobedient.
Our whole district has been pretty sick this past week. I think I am
the only one who didn't get sick. So almost everybody in the district
needed a blessing at different times this week and so it was a good
opportunity to serve. But we had a few more trips to the doctors and
so that wasn't too fun. We also were involved with about 6 hours of
service at a community center this week planning and decorating for a
big fundraiser event to help out the community. It was a lot of fun
and good to get out and do service. Soon we will have to be putting
service hours in as part of key indicators(numbers that we report each
week). As part of the "just-serve" project that will be starting in
the next few weeks.
We had some amazing experiences this week, including an early
thanksgiving feast, giving more blessings, teaching some amazing
people, and another great family home evening with the same part
member family and one of the bishopric members family. So I wish I had
more time but I probably can only talk about the Zone Conference to
finish off.
So to start we also had a meeting Sunday night with all recent
converts/less active members that could come and we had two families
that came. The Marin family and the De Leon family(the one who lost
their mom to cancer a few weeks ago). Elder Cardon had some recent
converts share their testimonies and then he gave an amazing discourse
of the restoration and how to know if what we share is true. The next
day we had a 6 hour zone conference generally based on recognizing the
spirit. He started by going over some amazing information about the
Abrahamic covenant and really just made the scriptures come alive. He
shared some amazing experiences of working with the twelve and first
presidency. His testimony is really powerful about their callings as
prophets, seers, and revelators. He meets with them and all of the
quorums of the seventies every Thursday in the Salt lake Temple to
discuss many wonderful and great things. They also have their own fast
and testimony meeting every first Thursday of the month in case some
of them don't have the chance to partake of the sacrament with so much
travel, which has to be so amazing. In one of the stories he shared,
an apostle was selecting where missionaries were supposed to be called
and one he just couldn't quite pinpoint where the missionary should
serve so he said he would come back to it and in the beginning of the
next application he just blurted out a mission and said that it was
for the previous missionary. Then he turned to Elder Cardon and said
"Sometimes it's as important to know when God isn't speaking as it is
to know when He is speaking." Wow. What a wonderful saying, especially
when recognizing the spirit. Then we went on with how the training has
been going and then he shared something else that I really liked. He
said "you are all here more for what you have felt than what you
know." And it's so true, we can have all the knowledge in the world
but if we haven't received a witness from the Holy Ghost then it means
nothing.
I have run out of time but I love you and know that The Lord loves
us, knows us, and will give us comfort, guidance, and confirmation of
the truth through His spirit.
Although I may be far away, I feel all your love every single day.
Love,
Elder Hyde
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