Mission Leadership Council with the Proselyting department

This wonderful week had some ups and downs but looking back on it I
sure did learn a lot. We had three family home evenings within the
past week and those have been some of the greatest blessing for some
of our investigators. I really love this Ward and their desire to
bring souls unto Christ. We also starting teaching a members
girlfriend named Kimberly this week and she is really interest in the
gospel. Plus her boyfriends mom is a ward missionary and so she has
already been reading from the Book of Mormon and has some general
knowledge about what we believe. I love teaching people that want to
learn and are willing to change. She doesn't have much of a religious
background and seems worried about all that she is going to change,
but after just a week and a half of knowing her she has changed so
much it's amazing. The spirit is really working inside of her.

So also this week we had the wonderful privilege of having some
guys from Salk Lake from the Proselyting department come and share
some insightful tips and insights on how we can improve. A while back
all of the missionaries in the mission took a basic missionary survey
about teaching, learning, and a lot of random things. They also went
out to teaching appointments and finding opportunities with selected
companionships. Then they compiled the results from the survey and
proselyting, prayed and studied about what they should share and came
with a mountain of information, spirit, and great ideas on how we can
improve. They were very straight forward on some things that we aren't
doing very good as a mission and then gave us great feed back and
ideas on how to improve it. I loved it so much. Their names were
brother Jackman and brother Donaldson and they are great men. Brother
Donaldson was a missionary president in the San Diego mission when
they filmed the well know missionary footage of "The District 2" and
wow he sure knows his scriptures.

It was really fun to hear all of his stories about the behind the
scenes action of what happened during the filming of it all and what
he learned from the whole experience. Oh by the way, the meting we had
was 7 hours long... With a really short lunch break because they were
running behind on everything they wanted to go over. Some of the most
important things he shared with us was that our investigators can't
access the power of the Atonement without us. We receive the power of
the Atonement through the covenants we make with the correct authority
of God. Like baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the sacrament,
priesthood ordinances and temple ordinances are how we can receive the
power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. Without these
ordinances we can't unlock the power of the Atonement. It really
touched me with how important our work is as missionaries, we are
literally helping other access the power of the Atonement in their
lives. I can't think of a better thing we could be doing. The point of
the restoration was to bring the fullness of the gospel back to the
earth, we cannot receive the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ
without the Atonement, and it's through the ordinances we make that we
are about the unlock the power of His sacrifice for us.

There are many things he shared especially about how us, and all
missionaries share way too much information with our investigators. We
aren't there to teach them just information, we are there to help them
feel the spirit, and know why they need to be baptized. After baptism
and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost they will be able to learn
the doctrine a lot easier. They shared a new way to teach using the
pamphlets by basically just using the pictures. You can teach a simple
restoration with a baptismal invite in about 6 minutes that will be
way more productive and engaging for the investigators than a long
restoration lesson where they are filled with information and are left
confused. We use the pattern of when the angel visited Nefi in chapter
11 of first Nefi. We ask them to look at the picture, ask them some
inspired questions and then teach and testify of simple and true
doctrine. I really love teaching that way from the pamphlets and we
have seen a lot of success from applying it. When we do it, they
understand restored authority, and the need to be baptized. We haven't
had a lesson with a pamphlet since without inviting the investigator
to be baptized and so far they have all said yes.

I love this work, I know that our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus
Christ live. They know us, and love us and They want us to be happy
through obedience to the gospel.

I would like to leave you will an amazing quote from Elder Scott
"Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the
scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of
God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television
shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your
priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do
it!"

Make time to study the scriptures! I love you all! :)
Èlder Hyde

The last 3 days...

So I know I just wrote Friday so I will keep this short and sweet.
:) I would like to start with an experience that I had last week that
I forgot to share. We didn't know where to go so we prayed for
guidance. We saw a big complex and decided to knock it as we were
knocking in this big complex we came upon a family that looked really
tired and wore out. We share the He is the Gift video and by the end
the mom was crying and the 4 younger girls were filled with emotion.
We testified of Jesus Christ and asked them what how they felt. They
explained to us that they were going through a tough trial and didn't
know where to turn. They felt the peace and comfort as we shared the
video and our testimonies with them and they said we were an answer to
their prayers. We gave them our information and tried to help them out
as much as we could but they didn't tell us very much about what they
were going through. The next day we received a phone call and they
wanted us to come by again. They had been advised that they would have
to leave their apartment in 2 days and would be homeless. The husband
lost his job and they had nowhere to turn. We worked with ward leaders
and we were put I change of finding a place for them to live. We
worked with other ward members and their family to move their
furniture and find them a place to live and there were a plethora of
miracles that weekend as we helped them out. We found them a place in
my old area where Elder Kemp is and now they are teaching the family!
:) it was great to feel of the love and appreciation that they had and
for Heavenly Father sending us to them. Prayers answered.

We have been really busy these past few days setting new ward
mission plans, working a lot with members, and just loving the work. I
know that God is looking over us, He feels sorrow when we pass through
difficulties, and He also feels joy when we are happy. I love you
family!

Elder Hyde

Just Serve! Finding Families and the Holiest Place on Earth

Well today is Friday, not Monday but it has been a glorious day
because we got to go to the Newport Beach temple today. It really is
the holiest place on earth. Today I really strengthened my testimony
of personal revelation at the temple. It really is the house of The
Lord. President Taggart has asked us to take our new mission motto
(Covenant keepers bringing a souls to Christ) to the temple and help
us relate the covenants we make in the temple to missionary work. It
was a very insightful trip to the temple and I know that God will give
us personal revelation and guidance if we truly seek Him.

Yesterday Elder Lindsay, my old companion in Santa Ana 5, and I got
to go on exchanges and we had a good day up until 8 but didn't feel
like anything miraculous had happened. We really tried to focus in on
where Heavenly Father wanted us to go and a family came to mind that
we haven't been able to teach since I have come to the area. We found
them home and they expressed some amazing miracles that had been
happening in their family and how prepared they have been by our
Heavenly Father. The mom said her son in Mexico has now read the
entire Book of Mormon and invited her family to read it. Then the
daughter told us how her really good friend just got married in the
temple. Then they just started asking us questions about the
difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible and who Mormon
was. Then they taught themselves as we read the introduction together
and it was a great lesson. I'm really excited to work more with them.

Another great success we has was trying to put more emphasis in
service. We went and picked up trash around a neighborhood and right
when I was lacking faith that nothing good was coming from it a guy
came up to us telling us he was less active. He asked for a copy of
the Book of Mormon, asked us where the church was, and asked us to
come by to teach his part member family. What a miracle! The other
good service opportunity came from the sisters in our district. They
found a soup kitchen in our area and we are now going to be going
Tuesday's and Thursday's for 3 hours each day. I am really excited to
have more service and the people at the soup kitchen are wonderful. It
makes me so happy to serve! :)

It was another crazy preparation day and so that's all the time I
have but I hope that all is well. I love this work and I know that
Jesus Christ is our Savior.

Love,
Elder Hyde