Elder Hyde...blessings, word of wisdom, testimony

Well this week was a very full week. We had so many people to visit
and things to do, because of the lack of time that we had last week,
that looking back on the week it was just packed. Elder Hurley and I
got to go on exchanges this week and it was great to be with him. He
was a convert at the age of 15 and it's great to hear and feel of his
strong testimony. It's also very different being with someone that
hasn't grown up in the gospel and is new to the mission. I realized
how we basically have a different language as members of the church
and it helped me think of how investigators must feel if we use a lot
of new words. But we had a fun exchanged and it was fun to be part of
his first exchange of the mission.


We also had some great experiences and progress with some
investigators. One investigator wasn't following through with
commitments and so we had to have a do or drop type lesson with her
and by the end she came out of it with a new determination to read he
Book of Mormon and we even set a baptismal date with her so that was
awesome. The investigator that came to conference was able to make it to the priesthood hour at church and we were super excited. But then
the priesthood lesson turned to a why soda and energy drinks are
against the word of wisdom, which seemed to confuse our investigator.
So we will need to go over that more with him this week. We also found
a cool new family that is really active in a baptist church but was
really excited about the plan of salvation and asked us to come by
before we could even ask!


But the most impacting thing that happened this week was a two hour
trip to a hospital of one of our members in the ward. Her mom had been in the hospital for a few weeks because a tumor in her lung had become really dangerous. As we arrived at the hospital room the entire staff of doctors and nurses were with the family. The night before had been a rough one and she went from being able to see, hear, and move every once in a while to not being able to do any of that. The doctors had to tell the family that there was nothing more they could do. It was a heart wrenching feeling to see a family completely break down and not know what to do. It was one of the first times in my life that I felt
that I didn't have words of comfort that could give them the comfort
they needed. We gave them all blessings and it was a really
interesting feeling giving the mom a blessing when she was so close to
her death. The only thing we could do was testify of the plan of
salvation and especially the Atonement. It was a testimony builder to
me that the Atonement of Jesus Christ really does give us comfort,
peace, and happiness that can't come from anything else. It doesn't
mean we won't go trough hard times, mourn at the loss of loved ones,
or feel pain in the difficult times. But it means that we aren't going
through it alone. Christ has already suffered all of the pain, sorrow,
and sicknesses that we will ever go through and because of His
infinite Atonement for us we can have not only have the comfort and peace at the end of it all but also the strength to endure through the trial. I know that Christ lives. He loves us and because of His Atonement we can all feel strength, peace and comfort in the many trials we face in this life. I know that we all will live again and see our loved ones. And I'm grateful for the plan that God has given us so that we won't just see each other after this life but live together as families. I
love you all and testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ.




Amen.

Elder Hyde

Conference & The FIRE!

Well since I was able to email on Thursday the most significant
thing that happened was the amazing general conference that we had! :D
Also we had a pretty fun experience on Wednesday morning that I forgot
to share. So it's 4:00am and Elder Kemp turns on the light and says
something is wrong. I have been sleeping with earplugs because of our
neighbors that fight so I couldn't hear the fire alarm going off. So I
was telling Elder Kemp to go back to back because it was 4 but then he
opened the front door and yells that there was smoke! So that got me
out of bed and ready to go pretty past. Haha we had to hold our
breathe as we ran down the stairs and out of the building to where the
fire trucks were and so we got to chat with the English elders and
some members that came outside as well. One of our neighbors left the
over on over night and so it caught the apartment on fire. So now our
apartment still smells like smoke. Fun experience though.

Back to conference. WOW. I loved it! :D There was so many inspired,
question answering, and action provoking talks I left really uplifted
and inspired. I really liked all of talks about our ability to choose
and act for ourselves especially to face the right way, growing our
own testimonies, staying in the boat, and tools to exercise faith. We
also had a conference miracle when we were going over to the Spanish
side of the church to watch elder Martin give his talk in Spanish and
when we got in there we just see one of our investigators chilling
there watching conference. We felt discouraged that all of the time
during the week that we spent inviting people and nobody had come. But
in the last conference our investigator didn't even tell us he was
there but he was just enjoying it. It was amazing! We were so happy to
see him and then the best part is that he came for the session when
Elder Bednar gave his talk directed toward people investigating the
church. He loved it and it was a big blessing and miracle to have him
there. I hope you all enjoyed conference and your week!

Love
Elder Hyde

Yuvia Baptism....JOY!

So much has happened since the last time I emailed I don't even know
where to start. :D but since we went to the temple today we don't have
a whole lot of time to email. So I will start with the highlight! So
on Sunday I got the opportunity to go back to Santa Ana 5 to baptize
Yuvia Alexandra Sánchez. There were three people being baptized. Yuvia
and her sister Crystal and then a members son named Greg that is about
15 and the last member of his family to be baptized. It was a really
wonderful experience. The best way I could describe it would be that
my heart felt like it was going to burst with joy! :D Little Yuvia and
Crystal were just so excited and happy and it was wonderful to see
them and their whole family. Their mom wants to be baptized as well
but she is just trying to get her divorce filed and then get married
to her boyfriend. So that was the reason we referee to them as the
Ramirez family because half of the kids last names are Ramirez and he
other half Sánchez. Just to clear that up. Haha But I just absolutely
love that family and the many ward members that we there that we
worked with to help the family feel so loved and welcomed by the
church. It was really the members that made the difference.


Some other wonderful miracles that we have seen lately have come from
talking to people about general conference. We have seen a lot of
people open up and a lot of the investigators actually commit to
coming when they are never sure about coming to church. So I'm really
excited for general conference and to see a lot of people come to hear
from the prophet and apostles. We have seen a lot of success already
with trying to involve the members more in our finding. At dinner
appointments we share a message and instead of asking who do you know
that needs the gospel or needs help or however we would normal say it.
We invite the head of the house to offer a kneeling prayer with us and
the whole family to ask our Heavenly Father where we should go and who
we should visit and invite everybody to listen to wherever or whoever
comes to mind. We have found a lot of success from this and have seen
The Lord hastening his work through the members. Because even if they
don't have a referral the might have a street or an area they feel we
should check out. When we go try where they tell us we have been
finding new investigators, less active members, and just success. Then
when we report the success to the member in the area they told us to
go it gets them excited to come out with us and join in the work. We
are looking forward to continuing to do this and I think it's an
awesome way to involve members.


Also on a funny note we have been teaching this less active fourteen
year old who loves us coming by but has a hard time understanding and
applying the scriptures. So while we were planning to teach him and we
didn't know what we should do. Then we saw the bag of frooties candy
that the family Marchant sent to me and so we had the great idea to
help him teach scripture stories. We spend a couple days the past week
explaining to him the story when Nephi and his brothers go to get the
plates from Laban using frooties as the characters. Now he is able to
pay more attention and understand the scriptures more fully. Plus if
he understand what goes on he gets candy at the end. So that's been a
fun new challenge. But he is a great kid so it's a lot of fun working
with him.


This week we had the opportunity to also see a movie! We got to watch
"Meet the Mormons" with half of the mission and it is a great movie!
Mom, you're going to laugh, cry, and want to bring all your friends. I
think is it really top notch and to quote my mission president it's
like "An I'm a Mormon video on steroids." So invite all of your
friends, family, and everybody to see it! Well thank you for your
emails, prayers, and love. I feel really blessed to have such an
amazing support system. Especially my Heavenly Father and savior Jesus
Christ. Serving a full time mission is tough, tiring, and even at
times discouraging. But the rewards extend on for eternity and I feel
the most blessed that I have ever been in my life.


Love,
Elder Hyde

1. Familia Ramirez/Sánchez. The kids Crystal is in back, Yuvia in
front of me, and then Richard, Kevin, Javier, Jason, Marisol(mom) and
grandma. 2. More ppl including Greg who got baptized also

Transfers & Stake Conference

First of all I would like to wish my wonderful sister a happy
birthday today! Happy birthday Kelsee! 24. That's getting pretty up
there! :) and also a big happy birthday to Blake! :D He is growing up
so fast and I can't believe he is already 4!

So today is transfers and so I don't have a ton of time to write
because we had to move some of the sisters in our area up to the most
northern part of the mission (we are in the most southern zone in the
mission). So our district of only 5 missionaries is now going to be 6.
Two sisters are leaving us and 2 elders and a sister are coming to
join us. I am really going to miss my Hermanas that are leaving us.
But they are super young in the mission so I will see them around. But
it is exciting to have elders in the district now so we get to go on
more exchanges, which always brings a lot of miracles! But our
district right now is super young. 2 are being trained, and 2 just got
out of being trained so it's going to be a lot of fun with them all.

This weekend we had stake conference and it was so great to see the
members from Costa Mesa, and Santa Ana 5. We also received some
awesome training and words of council from the stake presidency and in
the adult session on Saturday night we all got to actually do
practices with the members on how they can answer simple questions
that their friends might have to turn it into an opportunity to invite
them to listen to the missionaries. It was great! And we got to hear
an amazing testimony from a recent convert named Jose that was in a
bad accident when he was hiking a few years ago. Now he can't walk and
has trouble speaking and controlling movements of his body. I got to
meet and talk with him in my last ward and he is really such a sweet
kid. He shared his conversion experience and it was one of the most
touching testimonies I have heard in a while. He is such a strong kid,
I really love him.

Then on Sunday we heard some really inspired words from our stake
president. He shared a really cool experience about his daughter who
has had a lot of medical issues in the past and has always kept happy
with a smile on her face. So he asked her how she had gone through it
and always stayed so happy. She told him that she realized that she
had known that there were going to be really difficult trials and
difficulties before she came to this life, yet she still accepted her
Heavenly Fathers plan to come to the earth and be tested. If she could
make that decision before coming to the earth she knew that she had
enough faith in our Heavenly Father back then so why wouldn't she
right now? It was a really cool experience and the spirit really
testified to me how wonderful the plan of salvation is and how with
the knowledge that we accepted the plan before this life. Even though
we knew we would be tested and that it would be tough. We knew God
would be there for us to help us through any difficulty. I know that's
true. Our Heavenly Father loves us and is always willing to help us. I
also know that His plan is perfect and because of our Saviors
atonement we can all receive His enabling power to overcome anything
in this life.

This Sunday I also got to go see Lourdes's husband be baptized. I
taught his and Lourdes in Santa Ana 5 for a while and it was amazing
to see the change in him and how far he has come. At the baptism elder
Lindsay told me that Crystal and Yuvia from the Ramirez family that we
were teaching there asked that I come back next Sunday to baptize both
of them! It made me sooo happy to hear that and I am really excited to
go back next week and see the cute little family. The mom is working
towards being baptized but the girls want to be the example and go
first. They are adorable! I love you all very much!

Elder Hyde

Watch out for that spider, It's getting hot, ice & Is that the Work & The Glory?

This week we had a lot of random fun adventures and random
experiences so it was a good week. The first one came from Tuesday
night when we contacted this really young, struggling mother that was
with her kids. She told us about all the bad things that were going on
and how she was raising them by herself and didn't have money to pay
for everything they needed and was just very discouraged. It was
really powerful as Elder Kemp and I taught and testified of the
atonement to her. Then Elder Kemp noticed a spider about the size of a
dollar coin right behind her and her little kid playing next to it. It
was funny as we had to move our conversation away from this big spider
but she was really cool.

This week I got to go to the doctors to have a check up on my poison
oak and ended up learning a lot about headaches, canker sores, and two
types of being lactose intolerant. That night we had a cool lesson
with a part member family about the Book of Mormon. We have really
been struggling to help people keep their commitments lately and
actually finding people willing to act. But this last week for
district meeting we focused on our own finding efforts and building
the faith to find. Now this week we are going to be focusing on using
to members to really find those who are prepared. During Elder Kemps
training follow up this week president talk about finding through less
actives and recent converts. He said they are the "gold mines" for
finding. I really think that was inspired so we got a list of all the
less actives in the ward and are going to go find them. President
Taggart also shared with us that we should tell them that we are in
training and need practice teaching the lessons. As we teach them they
will feel the spirit and know who we can visit to share the gospel
with. The problem with finding through active members is that most of
them have tried sharing the gospel with most of their friends and
family and so it can be hard to find people to teach from them but
that the less active and recent converts have many non-member friends
really to receive the gospel.

On Sunday we had some fun experiences. Nobody came to church but we
saw some awesome growth in some of the recent converts. Our ward
mission leader, who was baptized a year ago, gave the gospel
principles lesson and although it started out choppy he learned a lot
from it and by the end he finished really well. Then his brother that
was baptized in June gave the priesthood lesson. It was probably the
best priesthood lesson on the plan of salvation I have been a part of.
It is amazing to see how a real understand of the plan of salvation
really can change everything about a person. It made me excited to go
help others come to an understanding of the plan that our Heavenly
Father has for each one of us. That night it was really hot as we were
walking along a busy street when a car drove by and chucked a thing of
ice at us. It was nice of them because it was so hot. Haha after that
we visited one of our investigators and he said he had been reading
the Book of Mormon during his lunch hour and really likes it. Then we
hear a loud "come and visit the D.I." From the t.v. and it caught us
off guard. We kept talking to him about his reading when he pointed us
to the t.v. Talking about the show he was watching about a young man
who had a vision. He was watching The Work and the Glory! It was so
amazing that he had stumbled upon the BYU channel and was loving the
show. It's a great lead into talking about the restoration and just
made my day. :D

I love you all and I know that the church that we represent is
guided by Jesus Christ himself. We went over the statistics of convert
baptisms over the past few years and about 14 years ago Gordon B.
Hinckley said that through member missionary work we could double the
300ish thousand that were baptized that year. Since we have only
passed 300,000 one other time. I know that it's through the members
that we can reach his goal for us.People are being prepared everywhere
in the world and if we do our part as missionaries and members I know
that the prophetic promise that was given by President Gordon B.
Hinckley that we can have 600,000 baptisms in a year. Keep up the
great work of salvation!
Love,
Elder Hyde

Dia de Hispanidad & crazy drunk people

Every week there are so many good and bad things that happen but I
will try and focus on the positive stuff. This week was difficult for
the district because hermana Schobert, a sister in my district, went
home because of some family issues that happened and it was really sad
to see her leave. When she first came she hardly knew anything about
the gospel and was struggling a lot but by the time she left she had a
deep love for the scriptures and a desire to serve with her whole
heart. I think it was a really good experience for her and it will
bless her family. Especially since most haven't accepted the gospel
yet. So now our ward is down to 5 missionaries and the sisters have
two areas to cover for the week so it is a little crazy.

This week we had Día de Hispanidad which is a huge stake activity
where we celebrate lots of different Hispanic cultures and there was
all different types of food and dancing and craziness that we only saw
a small part of because we got to get out and work. :) but next year I
want to come back for sure to do the 5k in the morning, then stay from
1-9 eating and dancing and enjoying all of the wonderful people. But
this year I was a missionary so we only had our dinner hour to enjoy
all the fun. It was a lot of fun to see the families from Costa Mesa
and Santa Ana 5, old companions and people that I have really come to
love on my mission. :) plus it was really missionary focused for all
the members to bring their friends. I heard good amount of success has
come from it but from our ward most of their friends didn't end up
coming. But it was missionary focused and we got to talk with a lot of
great people.

This week we found some really cool new people. This guy named
Ascensión met with missionaries a while ago and has since read the
entire Book of Mormon. He is struggling to recognize his answer that
it's true but he wants us to come help him figure it out. He doesn't
have support from his family but he is excited to learn. Plus he
talked about Alma and how much he loves it, just says it's a little
long. Haha We were excited for church this week because 4 people
committed to come but none of them showed up... Oh well. We will just
keep inviting and doing our part and they will come soon.

Last night we had a bit of a scary situation. The sister trio needed
to go sync their iPads to get everything in for the week but they
didn't want to walk in our area alone because it is a little crazy at
night. So we were waiting for them and a really cool Jehovah witness
came up to us and was asking where to by a "clean flicks" type thing
that turns rated R movies to PG13 and he knew Mormons would probably
know where to get one. So we are talking with him and he is super
awesome, then a drunk guy comes up and starts telling the Jehovah
witness guy that he should be a Mormon. By this time the sisters were
there and talking to the awesome guy with us. Then out of nowhere this
lady comes up from behind and wraps her arms around elder kemp and I
around the waist so we jump away from this lady and then this drunk
guy starts telling us how crazy Mormons are and saying really vulgar
stuff in from of the sisters so we and the Jehovah witness dude tried
to tell him to go away and he did enough that we could enchange info
with the other guy and direct him to a desert book. So he leaves and
we walk away to sync they drunk guy, girl and some other people start
following us yelling at us. It really scared the sisters and so I
don't remember everything that happened but I was standing between
these drunk people and all the sisters hiding behind elder kemp and I
and basically told them we were servants of The Lord and they needed
to leave and then we kept going. They almost immediately turned around
and left us alone and I really felt the protection of our loving
Heavenly Father. Sorry that was really long but it was an experience
that made me realize how much we are loved and protected by our
Heavenly Father and about how he is always looking over us. It also
made me realize really how much I hate drugs, especially alcohol and
how it can change a decent man into someone who can't control
themselves. The gospel is true. I know the word of wisdom and the
commandments that we have been given are from God and are to help us
be happy in this life. Love you! And don't worry the area I'm in is
really safe during the day :D
Love,
Elder Hyde

Ramirez Family, One year mark & Car Towed...

So this week was full of many ups and downs but I think I learned
a lot this week. :) From being towed to seeing Juan come to one of the
sisters baptisms it was pretty crazy! We taught this new family this
week that we found street contacting. They had met with missionaries
before and they said they really got through some tough times with
them and having them come over helped. They are super busy so we can
only meet with them once a week but they have a lot of promise since
they remember a lot of what we teach. The Ramirez family is also doing
good. We mainly teach the three daughters, one of which runs cross
country for Orange County College, but the parents are also really
nice and open. We had a really powerful plan of salvation lesson with
them and it was amazing to feel the spirit work through me as I
testified to them about the love that our Heavenly Father has for
their family. They love that families can be together forever and they
were really excited about familysearch.com and even created accounts
right after the lesson.

On my year mark we had a pretty good district meeting and then got
to get out and work really hard that night. We found a guy named
Ernesto whose family line of fathers had all been heavy drinkers,
including himself and his son. But one day his son decided he was
never going to drink again and helped his father quit too. Just
because he felt like it was the right thing to do. He and his son have
been sober for a few years now and really wanted to come to church but
hurt his leg at work and wasn't able to come. :( Then on Thursday we
had a ward baptism that one of investigators named Jaime came to and
it was good to see him trying to make some steps in the right
direction. He has been through everything épée have to teach him but
he just hasn't shown enough fruit yet to be baptized. But I think he
will be there soon. :)

Friday at dinner our car got towed. It wasn't a fun conversation
with our vehicle coordinator but everything worked out fine in the
end. We were actually really blessed that it happened because we had
to walk that night and ended up blessing a members non-mother who has
been sick for years and is getting really bad. We got the whole family
gathered around, about 8, only 2 members. It was a really cool
experience and everyone felt the spirit. It's the most interaction the
family has ever had with missionaries and was a big step for all of
them to be so open. The older lady that I gave the blessing to even
told us that she would like us to come teach her what we taught her
daughter. Her daughter was baptized just over a year ago and is one of
the most solid recent converts I have ever seen.

Saturday we had a nice trip to get our car back and then a really
good lesson with Juan about the law of chastity. He has a lot of
desire to change and be forgiven and is still really open to being
baptized but his work schedule got set for the whole month of
September and so he won't be able to come to church for a while. It's
really frustrating. But we are praying for a miracle so he can get
work off. :) He also came to the baptism on Sunday with his son and
really enjoyed it and was able to get a lot more comfortable with the
church building and what we do each hour. It was a really good week
even though we didn't get anyone to church. Next week we will get one!

:D
Love,
Elder Hyde