Letter Four...12 days left in CCM

Hola! Wow! Thank you all for your emails :) I got the most this week than I ever have before and it´s really great to hear from all of you! This week felt extra long for some reason but it was really good. I went to the doctors last Friday and found out I have a sinus infection and so that´s why I have been so sick but I got some medicine and I am almost completely over it now. That night my companion and I had 3 race walks and 2 of them were at least half a mile each so the next morning we woke up way sore in the most random places haha we are kind of crazy and weird. Friday I was also able to give this kid in my district a blessing because he was really struggling. He has a lot of self esteem issues and I worry about him a lot because his companion isn´t very nice to him and won´t really talk to him so we have been trying to fix their relationship still because they haven´t gotten along ever. The blessing went really well and later that night we gave all the hermanas blessings because yet again they were struggling with a lot of different things. Every Friday I feel like everyone goes crazy around here! Anyways it was good to help and we let some other elders in our district have the opportunity to help out with those blessings. Also Friday night we got to study chapter 17 of ¨Jesus The Christ¨ and we talked about REAL HAPPINESS versus FALSE HAPPINESS. There are so many things in this world that can ¨make us happy¨ but we need to find the things that really make us happy eternally and help others to find that for themselves. Saturday was filled with helping our districts companionship's and getting some study in. Sunday we had a branch leadership meeting mainly about my district and the one companionship that is really struggling. Then we had a priesthood lesson on the oath and covenant of the priesthood and it was really good. Then my companion and I had to teach our district a 40min lesson about commandments and we totally forgot to prepare for it so we were a little worried and right before the lesson started the presidency told my companion that they needed him to help plan the next couple weeks because he is the branch executive secretary and so I was left alone to teach the lesson. I know the only way I was able to teach that lesson was because of the Spirit, I couldn´t believe where I were getting the things I was saying and it ended up being a really good lesson. In sacrament meeting my district was in charge of the special musical number and we sang a cool rendition of Asombro Me Da (which is I stand all amazed for those of you that didn´t know). I really liked it even though I probably didn´t sound very good because I was so stuffed up. I heard Kelsee and Derek did great on their talks, I´m so proud of those two :) haha That means Kelsee spoke on her birthday right? welcome to the club Kelsee and I hope you had a great birthday! The beginning of this week was really hard to stay focused and study because my sickness was making me exhausted and giving me really bad headaches but I made it through it and towards the end of the week had some of my best studying and I can even roll my R´s sometimes which is crazy because I used to never even be close to doing that. We have heard some amazing talks this week and I really loved this one from Elder Bednar and he said that as missionaries we need to stop worrying about whether it is the Spirit telling us to do something or our own thoughts and we just need to have faith and just do it. We also heard an amazing one from Richard G. Scott about prayer and another by Elder Bednar about listening to conference and gave us a guideline to help us take better notes. He said 1. write the doctrine they are teaching, 2. write their invitation to us, and 3. write the promised blessing from doing what they invite us to. Then he went deeper into it saying don´t write the words they say, write the words you FEEL. He also told us not to write down exactly their doctrine, invitation, and promised blessing. But to write down what doctrine we need, what action we are going to do because of their invitation, and how we personally will be blessed. Be personal and specific in your note taking and it will make it easier to remember and you will be more likely to actually do something after conference is over. This week my companion got the opportunity to teach a member that lives in Mexico City and came inside the wall for us to teach her. It was an amazing experience and I really felt like a missionary during our lesson. I was amazed with how much I could understand and the Spirit was really strong. I didn´t realize it but I tend to say more things in a southern accent than I realized, like twelve, left, yes, well, and many many other words for some reason and it is really funny because it is rubbing off onto my companion. We now say a lot of things in a southern accent and we even try to talk is español in a southern accent which is pretty hard. My companion and I get along really well and I can´t believe I´m going to have a new one in a week and a half, I´m gonna miss elder Golding a bunch, we are way similar and we love the same things and the only big difference is that he is way into World of Warcraft so I might have to get into that when I get home ;) haha Congrats to Nick for getting his mission call and it´s crazy he is going to the same mission as trevor and I can´t believe he leaves so soon! I hope you all have a wonderful week, things are going great! I got to have a good chat with Elder Vierkant yesterday and it was great to catch up with everything that is going on at home. Way to go Utes!! I´m glad they were able to win, I heard it was an intense game and it was really funny because Sunday morning in our sacrament meeting the presidency member that was conducting is a huge BYU fan and he got up to do announcements and told us who won and he said, ¨Last night Utah beat Byu 20-14, but don´t worry the church is still true!¨ It made me laugh :) Well I love you all so much and I am thinking about you all(not too much because I´m focusing on the work) and praying for you all, have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Hyde

Elder Matt Vierkant and Elder Nathan Hyde in the CCM