Monday, May 26, 2014

Elder Hyde - Memorial Day!

This week I feel like I wasn't in my area very much haha We had
exchanges with the other elders in our district and with the zone
leaders so it was a fun week! When I was in my area we were working
with the Lopez family who is less active. They have a special needs
kid named Nacho and he is sooo awesome! He reminds me of Cody from
special needs mutual from home. (Nathan served 2 years in the special needs
youth program before he left for his mission)

He is way funny and always just puts a
smile on my face when I get to spend time with him. Tuesday we had
some miss communication with a member that turned out to be really
good. We asked him to come out with us to a lesson at 8 but he came at
7 and decided to just start talking to people around the appointment.
He found this really awesome guy and we showed up and jumped in the
conversation and it was sweet. Members are so crucial to missionary
work and so many people are more open to listening to someone like
them. I think most of the people that are being prepared right now
will be found by the members through their efforts to reach out to
their coworkers, family and friends.

Cool story. The sisters in our ward had a baptism this week and the
guy, Rufino, who was baptized was found by a member named Nick at his
work. Nick didn't know if the guy spoke any English so he got a
Spanish Book of Mormon and used google translate (Because he didn't
know any Spanish at all haha) to write a brief testimony in Spanish
inside the cover. Then a year and a half later and a lot of tracking
down by the sisters he was able to come and share his experience at
the baptism and someone translated for him. He was so happy that the
small act of giving a coworker he didn't know a copy of the Book of
Mormon gave Rufino a chance to better his life and come closer to
Jesus Christ. We can all do this :) By following the spirit and
continuing to read scriptures and pray for opportunities the find
those people that we can share the gospel with.

This week I went on exchanges with elder Etchart and it was a lot
of fun. He used to run cross country in high school so we got to talk
about running a ton. He has to stop running because of super bad
stomach problems. Kind of what I went through but worse. He is a
really good missionary and is super knowledgable about lots of random
things. I also had exchanges with zone leader elder Gallego. My
highlight of the exchange was teaching this awesome investigator named
Patty. She is working on overcoming her same sex attraction but she
has a lot of faith and I sure she will if she lets her Heavenly Father
help her. She is hilarious and has a really good feeling for the
gospel. We taught her about repentance and how she can be forgiven.
She is awesome!

So this week was really awesome with everything. Today we have a
huge stake party at the park. It's called the Elota and all the wards
are there playing soccer and eating tons of food. We stopped by for a
minute this morning but are heading back right after this. It's been
fun the see all the Costa Mesa members and all the Spanish
missionaries in the mission.

Love,
Elder Hyde

Monday, May 19, 2014

more from Santa Ana...

Hola!
This week was actually pretty long. Last P-day we found this lady
that is learning Hebrew and reads the bible in Hebrew with her family.
They believe Jesus Christ's real name is Joshua because that's what it
is in Hebrew. We had a really interesting conversation but I don't
remember what religion she is. Haha. We also taught this less active
and they haven't been able to come to church because someone stole his
identity and spent thousands and he is worried so he is working every
hour that he can just in case he has to somehow try and pay it. We are
trying to help them work everything out with the court system because
they don't speak English.

Our last zone conference with President Bowen was this week. The
Spirit is so strong when he speaks and testifies, he is an amazing
president but I'm also excited to meet the new one. President Taggert
will be here in 4 weeks and I think things are going to change quite a
bit. That night she we found this lady Ruby who almost broke down
crying because she told us she felt like we were sent just for her. I
have a lot of hope for her and she wants us to meet her family, who
really needs what we share. I went on exchanges with Elder Sorensen
this week. He is 6' 8" and it was fun being with someone tall again.
He is a big little kid. Haha. We had a really good exchange and found
some really awesome, elect, people. This lady told us she had been
searching everywhere for which church was true but hadn't been able to
find it. She loved everything we taught her about restored truths.

It was a really hot the first half of the week, got into the 100's 3
days and it was fun being on bike :) with the heat I have been trying
to teach the Lomeli girls and their cousin on Facebook which is going
pretty well. We have been given orders from our stake president and
President Bowen to get all members on Mormon.org so we have been going
to members helping them get on and make a profile so we can show them
to people we meet and to our investigators. So if you aren't on
Mormon.org yet you should make a profile! :)

Saturday we were knocking and were trying to teach a lady at the
door that didn't seem very interested but as we were teaching and
testifying of our loving Heavenly Father a lady in the back seemed to
just be mesmerized by us at the door but she was really interested and
was one of the most engaged door lessons I have ever had. She told us
she has tried to follow what God wants her to do. That night we had a
Mother's Day party with the ward. Our investigators didn't show up but
we got two less active families there that also came to church the
next day so it was a success. :) I love the Spanish culture because
during the party they read poems about their moms and sang karaoke to
some sweet old Spanish songs haha. This week we are planning on a lot
of finding because the investigators we have aren't progressing very
much so next week I should have a lot of new people to talk about. I'm
excited :) Also our mission nurse told us we have been gaining a lot
of weight as a mission so we are going on a get healthy plan, so we
are running every day this week and I just bought some good fruits and
veggies :) time to get healthy haha
Love,

Elder Hyde

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mother's Day, Santa Ana & Elder Richards

This week went by super fast with all the new changes. My new area hasn't seen much success and hasn't had a baptism in forever so my companion and I are really excited to get this area going. There is tons of potential and as we have been working with the members this week we have been able to find some cool new investigators. It was amazing to Skype with you guys and see that you are all doing great! Sorry the Skype cut out haha but I will try to go somewhere with better wifi next time. But that will be in 7 and a half months so I have some time to find a better place haha :) There is a cool less-active family that we met this week. The dad has been less-active because he was in prison for 5 years but he is super excited to come back to church and bring his whole family. He got out this last Saturday so we went over to his welcome home party and he is pretty awesome. I will have a lot more to say next week but thank you for the support in this great opportunity to serve the Lord.

Love,

Elder Hyde

Monday, May 5, 2014

First Transfer - Santa Ana, RATS!, Mother's Day

This has been a crazy week because of transfers. I left Costa Mesa and now I am in Santa Ana. About 2 miles away from my last apartment. Not very far but hey, a new area, new ward, new zone, and new companion so it will be nice to have some change :) my new companion is Elder Richards. He was last companions with Elder Maughan so it's pretty funny that I took his place. Elder Richards is District leader and it will be cool to learn from him. Fun stuff! :) my first move has been pretty crazy but it's been a lot of fun. I hope Alan has an amazing birthday this week and I'm super stoked to skype on Sunday so I'm sorry that this is a short email but I will see you on Sunday!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Elder Neil L Andersen, Newport Beach, Exchanges

So I have to start this week with last P-day. We rode our bikes to
the beach together as a district and it was a ton of fun. It feels so
nice down by the beach :) our mission rule is that we can't touch the
sand but we found a nice grassy spot by the beach and just got to
relax next to a sleeping homeless man and watch the waves. A couple
elders and went on a run for a couple miles along the Newport Beach
trail and it was super nice and I realized how terribly out of shape I
am haha that night we got to stop by and see Zaira. She is really
struggling with school and basically becoming the mom of the family.
She does all the laundry and cooks all the meals for her dad and
brothers because her mom is off doing her own thing. So to try and
help her out we are going to go over 2 to 3 times a week now and just
help her with whatever she needs help with. Cooking, cleaning,
homework, it's fun service :)

This week we have been trying to help one of our investigators
overcome same gender attraction and it's been a new challenge that I
have never had to help somebody with so we have had to really rely on
the spirit to know what to say. We had interviews with president Bowen
this week and it was the last one that we will have with him. He took
us out to lunch and I got to sit next to him and talk about Idaho and
track and how I used to run at Idaho state every year. He talked to me
about how he did high jump in high school and it was before they would
go over backwards. He is such an amazing president and it will be sad
to see him leave.

I went on exchanges with elder Colbert this week. He is an amazing
missionary and has a really cool conversion story. Long story short,
his girlfriend invited him to church and a year later he was baptized.
Something crazy happened, so I feel like I have knocked every Hispanic
door in my area because I have been in this same area for 6 and a half
months. But we got a referral and found two apartment complexes,
surrounded by white people houses, that are pure Hispanic, and seem
untouched by any type of missionaries. Miracle. It made me super
happy. When we starting knocking it we found this lady who said she
wasn't a member of the church...yet! She has been meeting with
missionaries and then suddenly had to move. She loves what she has
seen of the church so far and is an awesome new investigator. It was a
super awesome exchange and I learned a ton from elder Colbert.

The Lomeli girls are doing really well they just are still scared
to come to church. We taught them the plan of salvation again this
week and it seemed to finally click with Elizabeth. She thanked us
after the lesson because she said she finally understood where she
came from. It was something that hit me pretty hard. We have so much
precious knowledge that others are dying to know, and it made me want
to make sure I help everyone that I can understand God's plan for
them.

Elder Neil L. Andersen came this week for a really awesome
conference. He is a super funny guy and really brings the spirit.
Shaking his hand was cool and just being so close with one of the
twelve apostles of Jesus Christ on the earth today. He mainly talked
about how our conversion experiences are going to come one on one. And
that is how we should help our investigators have those moments of
conversion during and lessons and during their personal prayers and
study. He really focused in on helping us have the basics bring our
continuous conversion. Sincere prayer, sinking ourselves into the
scriptures and making the little changes now to have us go home from
our missions not just a little better but way better than how we came
out. He said it will come by "shaving" and "pushing" ourselves. Shave
away the bad and continually pushing ourselves to grow. Which is
awesome because it applies to us throughout our whole lives.

Happy Easter yesterday! Hope you all had a nice time to be gathered
with family to remember all that we have because of Jesus Christ. I
thought the #BecauseofHim went awesome on Facebook and it really
helped others remember all that we have because of what He overcame
for all of us. It your haven't seen the video "Because of Him" yet I
invite you to do so because it's one of the best videos that the
church has put out and it super powerful. I know that Jesus Christ is
our savior that He lives! I love Easter to focus on His resurrection
and what it means for us. I know that because He was resurrected all
of us will be too. Our bodies being resurrected is an unconditional
gift given to us as we kept our first estate before this life by
accepting Jesus Christ as our savior and redeemer and accepting our
Heavenly Fathers plan. Because of that and the atonement and
resurrection that Jesus Christ performed for us we all have the
potential to become like our Heavenly Father. I love this time that I
have to dedicate my life to bringing others to this knowledge. I feel
as Lehi did when he is talking to Jacob:

"Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he
is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice
for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a
broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of
the law be answered. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these
things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know
that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it
be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who
layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by
the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of
the dead, being the first that should rise."
(2 Nephi 2:6-8)

#BecauseofHim this is the most important work in the world :)

Love,
Elder Hyde

Monday, April 14, 2014

Angela's Confirmation...more teaching


This week was pretty slow as far as finding new investigators and
teaching a lot but you always find what your looking for. So as I was
looking back for good things this week I was able to find a lot of
things that really went well. This week we taught this part member
family a few times. The husband is a member and his wife, Lizzet, is
not. After a pretty cool lesson about the restoration with them she
told us her wish is that her kids can grow up strong in the church and
have strong testimonies that it is true. She has read and watched a
lot of anti-mormon stuff and wants proof that there were gold plates
and lots of other stuff but we helped her understand that if she can
gain a testimony and a witness that the Book of Mormon is true none of
those little doubts will matter. The family is really cool and we
can't wait to get them to church.

We also stopped by the Garza family this week. It's the family
that was a referral from a traveling seventy and has the super funny
autistic kid named Mason. We passed them to English forever ago but
they didn't get along with them very well so they were happy to see
us. It amazes me how important those little spiritual experiences are
for everyone. Some not so good news this week. Olis pretty much
dropped us this week. We assume she tried talking to her husband about
baptism and it didn't go so well. She told us she would let us know
when things cool down :( but I think we will be able to teach her
again soon.

This week at volleyball a members step daughters boyfriend came
and it is so awesome to see how prepared people are when they have
members that bring them to activities or have already fellowshipped
them. His name is Jesus and we gave him a church tour and had a really
spiritual lesson in the chapel. He told us he had some questions that
no other church has been able to answer for him. The first one was
"why are there so many churches?" Which is one of the best questions
he could have asked haha :) so that was basically how the whole lesson
went and even though he doesn't live in our district we set him with a
goal to be baptized. The chapel is so amazing to have lessons in, it's
amazing how rooms that are set apart really do make a difference.

Yesterday I got to confirm Angela is sacrament meeting. To be
honest I was a little nervous because the chapel was packed and well,
it's a really special thing. But I loved it and it was a super good
growing experience. Angela has changed so much and now she has the
gift of the Holy Ghost so I can't wait to see her understanding of the
gospel grow even more. This week she has been trying to share the
gospel with everyone around her it is super cool to see how much the
gospel means to her that she wants to share it with others. Have a
great week!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Monday, April 7, 2014

Conference & Baptism....

What a weekend! Sunday was super amazing with general conference
and Angela's baptism in between the sessions. It was super
overwhelming trying to do a baptism in between conference sessions. I
don't think I ever want to try that again but it was super amazing!
She seemed so happy and nervous and told us about how she has been so
excited all week for that great day. When she came out of the water
she was so happy and as she was walking out of the font she started
weeping and praising her Father in heaven. It was such an amazing
experience to see her so filled with joy and happiness. She also
already started become a member missionary because she invited every
friend, co worker, and family member she had and about 25 non member
friends and family came. It was awesome to see the support she had
from them and then since the whole ward was at the baptism the non
members got to meet the ward and it was a great experience. Some of
her sisters really felt the spirit and were overcome with tears. We
hope to start teaching some of them really soon :) plus it helped all
of her daughter say that baptism is their goal in the near future as
well.

So this week was full of getting Angela ready for baptism and
teaching her about missionary work and why it was important to invite
people to her baptism to feel the spirit. She must have understood
because she invited lots of people and many of them showed up. We also
had a zone meeting where we found out that Elder Neal L. Anderson is
coming to speak to us the 19th of April. So we get round two of
conference in less than two weeks! :) we found some cool new
investigators this week. This guy Manuel told us almost his whole life
story and how he has some really sick friends that need our message of
hope. But he wasn't there when we went back :/ then we found a really
cool new family. This guy Joaquin was interested in the fact that we
have a prophet and was interested in learning more. He said he used to
be catholic but didn't like how people would go to church and then not
live the commandments throughout the week. Excited to share with his
whole family this week :)

We brought the twins Jacqueline and Stephanie to Olis this week and
taught her about fasting. We are going to fast with her this week
about her husband. She wasn't able to come to conference because her
little boy got sick but other than that she is progressing really
well. She keeps expressing to us her desire to be baptized and is
willing to do whatever she needs to in order to make it there. I got
to see elder Maughan a lot this weekend and it was nice to catch up
with him and a lot of other missionaries I haven't seen in a while.
Conference was full answers to the many questions that I went in with
and we are so lucky to have a prophet and so many wonderful leaders in
the church the follow the spirit and be mouthpieces to The Lord. Just
as The Lord tells us "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my
servants, it is the same." Now we just need to follow up with
ourselves as we apply and live what we heard :) also I just remembered
that someone talked about everyone that has a missionary serving
should be studying preach my gospel. I was wondering if you guys were
studying it. If not, no better time to start then right now :)

Love,
Elder Hyde