The Book of Mormon

Hey everybody! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, cards,
and prayers. I feel really blessed to have so many family members and
friends who care about me. You're all amazing!

This week was a little tough physically. I feel like the mission is
finally taking its toll on me. Haha I had a few days this week of
complete exhaustion and it wasn't very fun. But it helped me learn a
lot and I'm really glad I went through it. One of the things that
helped me through it was studying the Book of Mormon. Reading the Book
of Mormon brings us closer to Christ and Christ can help us overcome
anything. This week we had zone conference and learned about the Book
of Mormon and it was amazing. This Saturday we started the Book of
Mormon from the beginning as a mission and are going to read 4 pages a
day so we all finish by Christmas. :) you should all do it too! We are
highlighting specific things such as when it mentions Christ, when He
speaks, His attributes, and when it talks about the gospel principles
in the missionary purpose. Doing so has made me addicted to reading
the Book of Mormon. I don't want to put it down. It's given me
strength, helped me feel the spirit and now I just want everyone to
read it. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. And I know that if we
read it every day we will be happy and everything will work out. We
will still have trials, but we will know that we aren't alone to face
them.

This week it was a lot of fun to focus on the Book of Mormon with
those we taught. We had some amazing miracles finding a handful of
young people this week. One was an investigator that we haven't
visited in a long time because we had to stop teaching her because she
wasn't keeping commitments. But we had some great lessons with her and
she showed some amazing sacrifice of things that she loves to do so
that she could progress in the gospel. We also have a miracle baptism
that is probably going to happen this weekend. A member that came from
Peru doesn't have a record and our Ward has been looking for months.
So he is probably going to get baptized this week. I have been praying
that I could finish by helping one last person to be baptized and hey
it looks like it is going to happen. Maybe not in the way I expected
but the Lord always provides. :)

I know that God loves us. He wants us to be happy. Jesus Christ is
our Savior and by following His gospel is how we will truly be happy.
We learn His gospel best by reading the Book of Mormon. So if you want
to be happy, read it. :) As much as I don't want to leave, it's going
to be great to see you all. But before that I have an amazing week
ahead of me! So hold on a little longer, I will see you next week!


Love,
Elder Hyde

Salvador Got Baptized!!!

Salvador got baptized yesterday and it was super awesome! We met with
him a lot this week and he is so ready to be baptized. His cousin
Pablo baptized him and it was crazy because he just got baptized 4
months ago and then he got to baptize his cousin Sal. It was a great
Sunday leading up to him being baptized. The gospel principles class
was about baptism and she mentioned that leading up to baptism satan
will try and distract you or put trials in your path to prevent you
from getting baptized. After she said that he looked at me and said
"leading up to me baptism I have only felt good and the spirit
confirming what I am doing is right, but I feel like it's just the
warm before the storm. And I'm ready to meet the storm!" Then he
shared his testimony with the class of how he know that God allows
trials into our lives so that we can grow and become who He wants us
to and said that he loves trials because that is how he learns. He is
amazing.

Other than that we are finding new people to teach. Almost everyone
we are teaching isn't keeping their commitments, or has gone on
vacation for over a month. But I know that the Lord is preparing many
people to receive us so I'm excited for a really good week of finding!
This past week we had president interviews and it was a great
experience to sit down one on one with presidente Taggart. He shared
great insight as always but one thing that really stuck out to me is
when he said "By celebrating what's right we find the energy to fix
what's wrong." What amazing council. Our numbers as a mission have
been going down a bunch lately and many missionaries are being really
hard on themselves for the lack of success. So as leaders he has asked
us to be extra positive and focus on the good things that are going
on. Because there are some amazing miracles and life changing
experiences that are happening every day here. If we don't stop to
appreciate the small things in life, I don't think we will appreciate
the big things. Or as nearly as much as we should have. Like Salvador
got baptized this week, that is amazing! We could get down on
ourselves because we didn't teach very much and we don't have any
investigators but then we would have missed the great joy of seeing a
saving ordnance performed and enjoying the wonderful spirit we were
able to have this weekend. No matter how difficult our lives may seem
we can always find something to be grateful for. Then when we
celebrate those small achievements and growth we experience. As we do
so we will be more capable and strengthened to make the changes we
need to and be able to accomplish Gods work. Take some time to focus
on the good things that are happening in your life. I promise it will
help you feel more joyous and happy in this great journey of life we
are all on together. :)

Love,
Elder Hyde

Elder Hyde, Sal, Pablo & Elder Cottle