Second letter at CCM....

Hola! Well thank you all for your wonderful emails, it really makes me happy to hear everything that is going on! Congrats mom and alan! :) I can´t believe that I´m going to have another lil bro/sis when I get home and I´m really excited for you guys. Well my week was really good and it went by so much faster than my first week :) It has been kind of a crazy week and I guess I better start with last friday becasue so many great things happened that day. It started off with some service, which means of course it´s going to be a good day, and then I got to go on a run :) it was only a little over a mile and it was on the worst pebble track I have ever run on in my life but it felt way good to run a little bit and I ran it in 6:15 and it didn´t even feel too hard but the elevation pretty much killed me haha it started raining like crazy so we had to go inside but I got to do core and a biking workout so that made me really happy too. We got a new teacher so now we have one in the mornings and a different one at night and I really like how they teach so different and it´s really helping me with the language. But I did find out this week that I´m not here in Mexico to learn español, there is a way bigger reason and I´m just starting to figure it all out. Anyways back to friday, so my companion (Elder Golding) and I had been feeling all day that someone really needed a blessing in our district but we couldn´t figure out who it was. So at the end of our evening study we reminded everyone that if they needed a blessing we would be more than happy to give them one, but nobody would say they needed one. We waited for the elders to leave our class and then we asked one hermana if she needed a blessing and she told us she really did need one and so it was really cool that we knew she needed one. But what we found out is that all of the hermanas in our district needed a blessing and so we gave all 4 of them a blessing. Wow, blessing are such an amazing thing. It was the first time I have given a blessing and I wasn´t sure what I was gonna say and when I started the blessing my mind went so clear and I thought I wasn´t going to have anything to say but the Spirit was so strong and my mind was filled with exactly what I needed to say. One of the coolest experiences of my life and I doubt I will ever be able to forget it. When my companion and I got back to our dorm we were asked by 2 elders for a blessing and man I am so glad to have the preisthood in my life and be able to give these blessings and do so much more. I then knew our promptings had been right because we gave 6 blessings on friday night and I loved it! Saturday was a really interesting day. Two elders in our district have not been getting along with each other and anytime we are with them you can feel the bad feelings they have for each other and it´s impossible to have the Spirit around them. We tried to talk with them and then we had our zone leaders talk to them and then the president of the CCM, president Prat, but nothing would help them. I also got to play some volleyball with elder kimball and his district one last time and that was great! Sunday was an amazing day! The Holy Ghost is way more present on the sabath. Started the day off right with breakfast with elder kimball and then right to a leadership meeting which was really good. Elder golding and I taught a 40min lesson to our district about the restoration. We really needed the Spirit because we hadn´t prepared very much but the lesson went really good. President Prat talked to us about the gift of the Holy Ghost and then we had our Sunday devotional. Which was Elder Holland and I wish I could write his entire talk because it was so amazing but if you wanna look it up it was his jan. or feb. address to missionaries and he talks about how we must convert ourselves before we can ever hope of converting others. He said whatever we want for our investigators we must first do ourselves. He told us ¨Convert yourself, obey the rules, adn teach with the Spirit and you will know you have had a successful mission¨. After that I got to go to elder kimballs casa and talk with him while he kind of packed and we had to say goodbye which was kind of hard but I´m so excited for him and I´m glad I´m really close with my companion or else it probably would have been a lot harder. The rest of my week was a lot of study and prayer and just trying to focus of preparing for those people I will need to teach once I get to Cali. In my personal study I went through chapter 4 of preach my gospel and it is really amazing and has helped make my prayers a lot better and helped me to know how to bring the spirit into my life more. The past two days I have been reading a lot. I read ¨Our search for Happiness¨ and started ¨Jesus the Christ¨. I love our search for happiness so much and I wish all my investigators could read it becasue it really is so good and teaches the basic doctrines and beliefs of our church. Jesus the Chirst is a little hard to understand sometimes but so far it has made me think a lot about Christ and how much there is to know about Him. We get new Zone leaders this week and since our district will be the oldest in our branch our district leaders are thinking my comp and I will be the next zone leaders but we will have to wait until Sunday to find out. I love you all so much and love hearing from you all :) and I´m really sorry this email is so long! Love, Elder Hyde

First week pictures at CCM...

Mexico City, Mexico

Elder Hyde and Elder Kimball together at the CCM

Elder Hyde & Elder Golding - Mexico City Temple

Nathan and his companion Elder Golding were made District Leaders there first week.

First Week at the CCM...

Hola! Well the last 9 days were probably the longest days of my life but I really loved almost every moment. I guess I should start with the first day. So the flight here went really well, it was crazy to see Mexico City from an airplane! It´s huge!! There were just buildings as far as you could see and as tightly packed in as you can get. At the airport they checked my bags when I got to Mexico and when they saw all of the food I had they gave me a really funny look but I just told them that I was a hungry growing boy and they laughed and let me keep it. I flew in with about 35 other missionaries and I am the only one that is going to Anaheim, even now I haven´t found another person going to Anaheim but I hear rumors that someone else going to be serving there as well. So when I finally got here President Prat was waiting to welcome us and it was super exciting. They gave us a big packet, let us send a quick email and then we were on our own. I found my companion and we found our apartment and room. My companion is Elder Golding, he is from Washington and will be serving in the Richmond Virginia mission. He is way cool and I am super glad that he is my companion. So after we found our room we hurry and got to a live broadcast devotional and when I walked in I saw Quincy, Spencer, Parker, and Logan right away and it was so great to see all of them. The first day I realized missionaries aren´t perfect. Actually not even close haha I was suprized that they were pretty crazy and some things I saw were suprizing. For example right when I got there and was looking for my companion these girls were trying to flirt with me and it caught me by suprize that here the girls flirt way more than the guys. The next couple of days they had us in a room with an español teacher and right away she was only speaking español and I feel like all I did the first few days was learn spanish, eat, sleep, repeat. Especially since we didn´t get gym time until Thursday. Learning a new language is really hard and I have been struggling a lot with it but I think a lot more has been starting to stick the past few days. My companion is the only one in our district that hasn´t taken a spanish class before and we had to teach a 30min lesson on our first Friday there. It was really broken spanish and was pretty rough but we made it through it. By the time Sunday came we could pray, bear our testimonies, and had taught 2 lessons to our investigator, Ignacion. Yes ignacion. AKA nacho :) As for the food, the first few days I loved it! But then it met my stomach and had other plans because it has made me really sick most days but it still tastes good so it´s a really interesting love/hate realationship. I´m really glad I brought so much food because it has helped out a lot. The second night we were here they told my district they were going to interview everyone and then choose a distrct leader, and they picked me. I was way shocked and already felt way overwhelmed by learning the language but I accepted and now have the responsibilities of picking up the mail everyday(thanks for the early letter mom), leading our study times and providing a 45min district meeting lesson every Sunday, and well as many other random little things. I really love my district and companion and I am enjoying the CCM a lot. So a normal day goes like this. Wake up at 6:30am, pray and then get ready for the day. My companion prays for at least 30min morning but he usually falls asleep during them so it´s pretty funny. We have breakfast at 7:15am and then personal study time, language study, coaching, and more study until 12:15pm. Lunch at 12:15, which ALWAYS includes rice and beans, which taste amazing, but make you pretty sick if you eat them a few days in a row. TALL for an hour from 1:15-2:15, TALL is a language program on the computer that makes you really tired. Then we have more personal and language study until 4pm when we have gym. I have played tennis, ulitmate frisbee, basketball, and most of the time my companion and I join Elder Kimball and his district for some volleyball. We have gym for 45min and then we have time to shower and do our daily planning until 5:45pm when we get to have dinner. After dinner we either teach our investigator, Ignacion, or we have some sort of devotional. we have taught Ignacion 4 lessons now and they keep getting better each time and we even committed him to baptism last night but now we have to teach him about commandments and see what he thinks about that. He will be our new teacher in a few days, so no he isn´t a real investigator, and so he likes to really try and mess with us. Especially my companion and I because our español is very limited. Last night after he asked why baptism is impotant and we told him it would wash away his sins and help him to return with his Heavenly Father, his family, and our favior Jesus Christ, he told us he didn´t have any sin and that he was already baptized when he was a baby. So he tries to make it difficult and real and he is a really cool dude. So after that we just have personal time and companionship prayer and go to bed. Thank you all for the support, Sunday was a little tough because it finally hit me I was really gone, but knowing you are all there for me and for all the reasons I came our here I have been doing great ever since. I have also been able to see Elder Smith and if you know of anyone else coming down here let me know so I can look for them :) I love you all so much! LOVE, Elder Hyde

The SLC Airport....and Elder Nathanael Clark Hyde is off to serve the Lord ***

So I was dreading the airport farewell...but my sweet boy was ready to go. His confidence gave me strength to know with out a doubt he will be watched over and protected for his obedience and choice. He glanced back briefly to flash that awesome Nathan smile. We were so excited to receive his first email in the CCM (mexico mtc). He told us he met one of the sisters from the previous day at the temple on his flight. He also had his luggage searched in Mexico. They asked him,"Why do you have all this food?" and he replied, "I am a growing hungry boy." He said they laughed and let him keep all the food we had packed for him and his best friend Elder Spencer Kimball who was waiting for him in the CCM. So he is already having a great start to the mission. I love being a missionary mom already!

A day to always remember....August 26, 2013

We shared a wonderful day with Nathan at the Salt Lake Temple. We arrived five minutes late to the session so we wanted to make the best use of our time. We chose to do sealings. We were inspired. It was a wonderful experience and there were 2 sisters preparing to leave the next day for their missions too which made it fun. We then enjoyed our time in the temple. Afterwards we ate at the Lion House, we ate too much food but enjoyed our time together. Nathan then made the trip to see his "girl" friends before he was set apart. His emotions were full when he returned home and we then witnessed him be set a part as a missionary. The spirit was strong and as his mother I knew he would be watched over and protected as he serves the Lord. We will miss his presence in our home but we know his decision will bring forth blessing for all of us.

Farewell...

It was a beautiful day for a farewell. Nathan and one of his best friends, since 4 years old, Garrett Nielson were able to share the day together. Garrett will be serving in Tokyo, Japan. We had a house filled with family and friends to wish him well. Everyone was so generous and kind. We will miss Nathan but know his mission will be filled with wonderful experiences that we look forward to hearing about.

Last Bro 5k before the missions...