Stress, New Companion & District & Driving a Chevy Cruze 2013

This week had to probably be one of the most stressful weeks of my
mission for sure. But it was good stress and really pushed me to learn
and grow a lot. So the name of my hijo is Elder Kemp! :D He's an
awesome elder from plain city Utah, which is up by Ogden. We have a
lot of things in common. He ran cross country and track in high
school, loves ultimate frisbee, and has a lot of puns. We work really
well together and we also have a lot of fun! Elder Kemp is a really
goofy, fun, lovable guy that I am really excited to have at least 13
more weeks with him!


Surprisingly this week was also one of the longest weeks on my
mission so I will go back to what seems like an eternity ago to last
Monday. I was in a trio with elder Diaz and elder Sylvester for a
night back in my old area in Costa Mesa. They had a family home
evening set with the Lomeli family and so it was a lot of fun being
able to go back and see all of them. It was really awesome to see how
happy they were and how happy I was to see all of them and be back in
their home. The next day we had a little time still in a trio while we
waited for my new companion to get here and we were able to help a
members friend move. Then we went to the office and got to meet our
new companions. Right when I saw him I knew I was going to be training
him, it was super excited to be back at presidents home and remember
the fun experience I had getting here from Mexico.


His first night in the field we got to go find some of our
investigators and just talk to as many people as we could. It was a
lot of fun the whole week just trying to find our investigators and in
the process we had a lot of success finding new people as well. So the
first couple days were filled with meeting for training and district
leaders and it was a big overwhelming but nothing unbearable. Then the
morning of district meeting when I was supposed to have time to plan
for it, the sisters called and we needed to go give blessings to a
part member family that was going through a difficult time and really
needed some guidance. The father needed to move to Mexico for his work
but his young family really needed him here. The spirit was really
strong as I gave them blessings and after a lot of prayer and fasting
they were able to make the decision that Heavenly Father wants for
them. It was a cool experience to see them work through a trial as a
family.


So anyways because of that I only had a couple minutes to plan an
entire district meeting. Most weeks the district leaders receive an
outline of what to teach, including scriptures to use, questions to
ask and quotes to share. But this week was district leaders choice. So
I had to come up with everything. :) it ended up going really well
though and I was really relieved at how well it went. I had been
stressing out about it too much and I just needed to let the spirit
guide everything. By the way my district is awesome!! It elder Kemp
and I, and then hermana Galicia, Jones, May, Noel, and Schobert. They
are super hard working sisters that love each other a ton and just
work super hard all the time. I am really blessed to have such a
wonderful district.


I really love training and being able to help and serve my
companion and also my district. I also had my first baptismal
interview on Saturday. This baker name Arturo Gomez, he has a cute
little family but is the only one that has received the gospel so far.
When I asked him why he wanted to be baptized he told me because he
wanted to be clean from his sins and he knew it would be a blessing
throughout his whole life. A really nice, humble man and it was a
pleasure to meet him. His baptism was awesome and he fits right in
with this awesome ward.


Something I learned this week is that God will never give us more than
we can handle and even though we may have trials, stressful weeks, or
whatever it may be we will always be provided with a way to work through
it. Plus those are the moments in which we grow and learn the most.The
bishop here is really excited about missionary work and it has
changed the whole mindset in the ward. They all want to help and do
their part and because they have been working so hard with the
missionaries we have at least one baptismal service set up for every
single week in August. I love this area and all of the members and I
know that there are a lot of people here that are waiting for elder
Kemp and I to go find them! :) love you all!


-Elder Hyde

P.S. Driving a 2013 Chevy Cruze around instead of biking is really
going to make me fat :D

Changes! DL, New companion, New District

Well this week was full of ups and downs. We didn't get to teach
quite as much as we would have liked but we saw some really good
progress with our investigators. On Thursday night I learned that I
would be training and district leader and from there everything has
been a blur. Haha it's been a really humbling couple of days and then
when I learned I was leaving to another ward it was really hard to say
goodbye to such wonderful families and a great ward. I'm not sure why
I am going but I know that The Lord has a plan and so in going where
ever he wants me to go. Tomorrow I pick up my new companion and I'm
really excited to have a lot of opportunities to learn and grow
together. I'm staying in Santa Ana but going to the 11th ward. I am
also doing a "white wash" of the area which means neither of us know
the area or the ward. It's going to be a challenge but I'm super
excited! :) My district has five sisters and then me and my companion
so that will be very different.

Well I'm out of time but I am really excited to get working hard
with my new companion, thanks for the love and support, love you guys!

-Elder Hyde

Wedding & Church...

Already 5 days since I last wrote but it feels like yesterday. We had a service packed weekend as we basically planned and decorated a wedding within 36 hours. The lady who was getting married told us she wanted her wedding to be a finding activity for us and that she wanted us talking with all her family and friends and sharing the gospel with them. They even made an announcement at the beginning of the wedding service by announcing who we are and what we do. She also wanted us inviting our investigators and everyone that we could to come to her wedding. Hispanic wedding are very different than any other wedding I have been to but they are super fun. We hung some pretty impressive decorations and improvised a ton from the random stuff we found in the relief society closet to get everything together but it was really cool. I will send some pictures of it in a minute. It was a pretty good success as we had two of our investigator families(Lourdes's family, & Delpilar family) come and we got to introduce them to a lot of ward members and help them just have a fun time at the church. We met some really nice family members that don't live in our area but hopefully the missionaries in their area will be able to teach them more. I was really happy to see the couple get married finally. They had been living together for a few years without being married so he wasn't able to have the priesthood and they missed out on a lot of blessings. But now they are doing awesome and it's good to see them married. :)

We had a really good lesson with the Ramirez family and finally met the husband of the 6 awesome little kids. He is a really good dad and I am really relieved at how open he is. It was a lesson with 13 of us and so it was a little difficult to manage trying to involve everyone. Especially trying to help the little kids stay interested without being so basic that the parents got bored. Plus trying to involve the 3 members that came with us. By the end it seemed to have worked out really well because everyone of baptismal age accepted a baptismal date for August 24th. We also had an ward exercise activity with Zumba, P90X, health smoothies, word of wisdom dodge ball (hosted by us! :D), and more. The only problem was that not many people showed up. :( There were a decent amount of ward members but no investigators showed up so that stunk but we did get to help a lot of members recap what the word of wisdom is. Some have some miss conceptions on what the word of wisdom is and what it says we should eat and what we should avoid. So at least we got to help out with that.

Sunday we had some awesome miracles. The parents of the Ramirez family had to work but they had the uncle that was watching them brought them to church and it was so cute to see the little bundles of joy sitting in sacrament so excited to learn and sing the songs. Also the Garcia family(Lourdes and her family) all showed up. They seem to be really enjoying church a lot more, it's just hard for them to stay all three hours because they didn't grow up with religious parents so they never went to church. With the progress we have seen in them already I think they will be able to stay for all three soon. We aren't sure why the family Delpilar didn't show up but we will work with them this week. We have been super blessed. I am really excited for the people that we are working with and I'm and really grateful for all the support I receive from all of you. Thank you!

Elder Hyde

Love,

Elder Hyde

Temple week, New families

This week was really amazing for finding families! We found all of
them by just talking with everyone. :) Heavenly Fater really put a lot
of people in our path this week to help and to talk to. Oh yeah, the
reason I am emailing so late is because we got to go to the temple
early this morning and it was a really good experience.

The Ramirez family was one of the really cool families we found this
week and we are sooo excited for them. Plus the fit right in with the
ward since the bishop and ward mission leader here have the same last
name. They have 6 kids, all 11 or younger and it was a lot of fun
teaching them. They are some really intelligent kids. I love teaching
kids because they are so sincere and open. They have such a sweet
spirit and it so much fun to help them learn more about God.

The Delpilar family is also super awesome and the mom, Reina, is
probably the most prepared person I have met on my mission. The first
time we met her we only had a few minutes so we left her with a
restoration pamphlet and set another day to come back. When we came
back she was so excited to see us and introduced us to her whole
family. She had read and highlighted the pamphlet like crazy and had
questions written down all over. When she read the pamphlet she said
the spirit testified to her that it was all true and with the help of
the spirit she had not just memorized but had learned and understood
the restoration. Her biggest questions were about where is the book of
Moroni located, and how she could learn more about Joseph smith. She
even bore her testimony with her family and told us she wants to share
this testimony that she has with everyone. She is going to make a
great ward missionary someday soon. :)

Lourdes and her whole family came to church and her husband liked
it a lot and wants to start joining our lessons with her. We have also
been working a lot with the less active Lopez family. We have been
able to help them out a lot this week, including blessings, scripture
study, lots of yard work, and even exercising with Nacho! :) It has
just been a wonderful last few weeks. One other really fun thing
happened yesterday when we got surround by over twenty little kids
that were really crazy. We tried to teach this huge group of kids and
it reminded me on what Elder Kimball's experience must have been like.
It was really nice to have an iPad because the pictures really helped
them stay somewhat focused. But then they started stuffing our shirt
pockets with candy, trying to take selfies with us in the background,
comparing me to the new Spider-Man actor (I have no clue who he is),
and trying to ask us tons of random questions. It was a lot of fun and
actually pretty productive. We got a handful of families to go try and
visit and some of the orders ones want us to bring the a copy of the
Book of Mormon. Little kids are the best! I'm probably forgetting
something but I will write about it on Monday because it's so soon
anyways. I love you all!

-Elder Hyde

4th of July Craziness and Rosi gets baptized

Missionary work is the best! This week was super exciting with the 4th of July and then ending it with a blast of the past at Rosi Lomeli's baptism. Remember her? The family Elder Maughan and I found back in Costa Mesa. One of my favorite families ever and I believe that one by one they will all be baptized. :)

As missionaries with such a party/family gathering holiday like the 4th of July, we had a lot of work to do. We had an early barbeque with a member and their family and actually ate really American food except for some elote covered in mayo and chilly powder, my favorite! :D I also got to eat a fig for the first time in my life. We picked them right off of their tree in the back yard and they were delicious. The rest of the night was pure madness! We handed out over 60 pass-a-long cards and had about 50 conversations with all of the Hispanics that were lining all of the streets. So many people and so many names but it was the best situation the contact people in my mission. All was fine and dandy until it got dark. Then the real show began. I have never seen so many fireworks and so many all at the same time. Most of the Hispanic here go to black market vendors to get tons of loud, crazy, and very illegal fireworks. And we got to bike home through it all. :) It was really fun! Fireworks playing in front of our faces and them going off all around us. I felt like it was a war zone. But it brought a really successful night and we found some awesome investigators. We talked to this one lady and the first thing she asked before we shared anything with her was if we go to houses and teach the word of God and when we could come teach her and her son. A lot of cool stories and miracles from talking to so many people, I wish I had time to tell all of them. We even had a couple people add us on Facebook as we told them that we had them.

This week we also taught a music class and got a picture to send to Salt Lake so that they can start sending us keyboards and more equipment to further our ability to teach them how to lead music and eventually play the piano. We are hoping to receive keyboards in the next few weeks. Looks like I might need to learn how to play! Haha

On Sunday we had a huge feast with the Cifuentes family and they made us Guatemalan tamales which take most of a day to make. Hermana Cifuentes slaved away all of Saturday and they tasted really good. They are a lot more work than Mexican tamales but I'm sure they are worth how long they take. But it was a super nice gesture from an awesome family in the ward and it is always fun to try new food. :) That night was Rosi's baptism and it was one of the happiest moments of my mission. Her whole family was there and it was soooo great to catch up with them and their crazy Lomeli family adventures. Elder Maughan and Arevalo came and they are doing really well. President Taggart and his wife also came to support her. They both can speak Spanish and wanted to show their support to Rosi which was super nice of them. There were a ton of people and Elder Maughan and I got to share our testimonies with them and just how much happiness this day has brought us. It was a really spiritual experience. I know that this church is true and it has been manifest to me in the changes and happiness that the gospel has brought to this wonderful family. It was a wonderful week and I am so happy to be a missionary and be a part of this work. I know that it is God who has prepared many wonderful people here and I am humbled to be an instrument in his work of salvation. I love you all, have a joyous week! :)

Love,

Elder Hyde

Goodbye Bowen, Hello Taggart

This week was full of a lot of miracles. Last P-day was really crazy with the world cup in swing and Mexico playing. We could always tell when they would score because all the cars in the streets would start honking and when Mexico had won their game they were doing donuts in the middle of the streets. Hispanics were flooding certain streets with flags and loud yelling. I can't even imagine how crazy it was down in Mexico. haha Good thing they lost yesterday so things can calm back down to normal :)

So my new companion Elder Lindsay is super awesome! He is from North Carolina, 20 years old, and knows a ton about political science. We are way different but I think that is one of our strengths as a companionship. He can sing really well and would love to go into voice acting so he has a deep, smooth announcer voice when he speaks. Since he can sing he was chosen to be part of a welcoming committee that would sing when President Taggart arrived. When we went to the practices one of the Basses didn't show up and since I was sitting there they asked me to do it. It was a lot of fun. We sang for both President Bowen and Taggart and their wives as well as the many office staff and others missionaries that were following them. We sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" and I had to sing alto an octave lower for the second verse and harmony bass the second. It was a challenge for me but it was really fun to try and work on my singing. I still have a long way to go. haha

A lot of our appointments fell through this week but it gave us a lot of opportunities to find. This week we have been focusing our street contacts on trying to get return appointments and it has been a huge blessing for us. One of the first experiences was with this lady name Alejandra that called out to us as we were riding our bikes. She yelled "Hey, Stop!" and she told us that she saw us talking to a lady across the street about Christ and then told us her son would ask her to go to church on Sundays but she didn't know which one to go to. Her son is now in juvy but she wants to be involved with a church so that when he gets out he can come with her. What a tender mercy from The Lord. The lady that we were talking to across the street had no interest in what we had to say but if we wouldn't have talked to her Alejandra wouldn't have yelled for us to stop. It has kept me reminding myself to make sure I am talking to everyone because we never know who is watching us. Maybe even the elect :)

Right before district meeting this week a guy came into the church and went right to the chapel and started praying. We went to talk to him and he told us that he had been into a life of drugs and darkness but that he found Christ in prison and hasn't touched alcohol or drugs in his 5 months of being out. But right now he is about to be kicked out of his home with his newly married wife and he had a strong feeling that he could find help in our church. I testified of the Atonement and how it could help him in his time of need as well as receiving forgivness for his past. It was a really spiritual experience and affirmed my testimony of the healing power of the Atonement and how personal it is for each one of us.

Also this week we had a cool meeting with President Taggart. He told us he expects four things from us as missionaries. 1. Be Happy 2. Be Safe 3. Be Successful 4. Be Converted. I think his remarks were really inspired and I learned a lot about each of those fours things that I can work on and really become the missionary that I can be. There were so many other miracles and it was a really amazing week. The Gonzales couple is doing really well and love church each week. Elder Lindsay and I are really good at helped each other become better and I love serving with him. Thank you for all the love I feel from all of you, you're the best!

Love,

Elder Hyde

New Companion Elder Lindsay...Surpirse Luau for Pres & Sis Bowen

This week started out really crazy with a surprise Lu'au for President and Sister Bowen and it was a lot of fun. We had each language do a dance representing our culture to send the Bowen's off with a party with tons of food and fun. I am going to miss them a ton. They leave this Thursday and a new president is going to be very interesting.

My new companion is Elder Lindsay and he is awesome! Super different than any other companion I have had so far but he is a great missionary and this transfer is going to be awesome together. I really love how we teach together and how we can push each other to be our best. We had a lot of meetings this week and so we really had to make the most of the time we had to teach our investigators but it went really well. The Gonzales couple is doing really well. They were able to come to church, they love the testimony that Joseph Smith gives in the Book of Mormon, and they feel good about everything we teach.

We did a lot of work with members this week since we are both really new to the ward and all the members. It helped to have a Father's Day party to get to know the members more and spend some good time with them. They were a lot of really good experiences this week but one that was especially cool was with Orlando. We hadn't seen him all week and were worried about him so we stopped by last night and actually found him! He told us about how he has read up to 1Nehi 8 and loves the Book of Mormon because of how he feels when he reads it. He also told us that he has prayed about it and said he just felt so good about it after he had prayed. He says that was his answer that everything we are teaching is true! We are helping him talk with his boss to let him come to church on Sundays so that he can continue having spiritual experiences. He has trouble comprehending everything that we teach but he is humble and has really awesome desires to do what is right.

It was a really good week but we have a lot to improve on. I am really excited with all of the people that have been prepared in this area and to be able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ and His gospel is the most amazing thing in the world! :)




Love,

Elder Hyde