Elder Cardon is a very inspired man...

Sorry that I am writing two days late. Our Pday got changed because
we have Zone Conference with Elder Cardon from the first quorum of the
70 on Monday so our Pday is today. I will get more to that later but
it was an amazing conference.

Last Monday we were invited to family home evening and a newer family
in the ward had invited a part member family whom we have been trying
to contact for months. The family came and they shared a great lesson
about faith and we got to meet a great part member family. The next
day we had to go to the doctors with one of the elders in our district
who has been having back problems. Then we received a text from other
elders in the mission telling us that a less active member needed a
blessing in our ward. We went and found her and she called us Angels
sent from heaven and was amazed that we had come right when she was in
need of a blessing. Her husband isn't a member but after the blessing
he said the missionaries could come by to teach his whole family. She
is the only member so I'm excited for the sisters to go teach them. It
was a great experience to give a blessing to someone I had never met
before and just feel the spirit work through me. The whole day was
very guided by the spirit as we tried to put our training of relying
on the spirit into play. I can tell you that the Holy Ghost will guide
us if we listen. That night we were completely guided where to go and
found some great people. We were also guided to a part member family
we have been working with and just stopped to see how they were doing.
We just started testifying of the Savior and the wife opened up
telling us she had been reading about repentance in the Book of
Mormon. It led in perfectly to baptism and we invited her to be
baptized. She thought about it and then with a reassuring husband at
her side said she would. It was a great lesson and I'm really excited
for Maria Muñoz. In our past lessons we had focused on temples, and
families being sealed and so she said she really wants that. A
wonderful night of miracles.

The following day we had a meeting with all the district leaders in
the mission and we could tell right away that it was going to be a
different meeting than usual. Usually the assistants take half an hour
to go over some attributes of a good leader and then president has
twenty or so minutes to share some thoughts. This time the assistants
went through their part in less than ten minutes and left the rest to
President Taggart. He got up with tear filled eyes and talked about a
group of 5 missionaries that he had to send home that morning and how
much it broke his heart. He told us his tolerance level is at zero and
that we needed to let all missionaries know that if they leave mission
boundaries, they are on the next plane home. Also if anybody is
involved with secret groups on Facebook they will be sent home. Normally we
want to keep those things quiet but this time he told us to let people
know. It was a powerful meeting and the spirit was really strong. I
came out of that never wanting to ever even think about being
disobedient.

Our whole district has been pretty sick this past week. I think I am
the only one who didn't get sick. So almost everybody in the district
needed a blessing at different times this week and so it was a good
opportunity to serve. But we had a few more trips to the doctors and
so that wasn't too fun. We also were involved with about 6 hours of
service at a community center this week planning and decorating for a
big fundraiser event to help out the community. It was a lot of fun
and good to get out and do service. Soon we will have to be putting
service hours in as part of key indicators(numbers that we report each
week). As part of the "just-serve" project that will be starting in
the next few weeks.

We had some amazing experiences this week, including an early
thanksgiving feast, giving more blessings, teaching some amazing
people, and another great family home evening with the same part
member family and one of the bishopric members family. So I wish I had
more time but I probably can only talk about the Zone Conference to
finish off.

So to start we also had a meeting Sunday night with all recent
converts/less active members that could come and we had two families
that came. The Marin family and the De Leon family(the one who lost
their mom to cancer a few weeks ago). Elder Cardon had some recent
converts share their testimonies and then he gave an amazing discourse
of the restoration and how to know if what we share is true. The next
day we had a 6 hour zone conference generally based on recognizing the
spirit. He started by going over some amazing information about the
Abrahamic covenant and really just made the scriptures come alive. He
shared some amazing experiences of working with the twelve and first
presidency. His testimony is really powerful about their callings as
prophets, seers, and revelators. He meets with them and all of the
quorums of the seventies every Thursday in the Salt lake Temple to
discuss many wonderful and great things. They also have their own fast
and testimony meeting every first Thursday of the month in case some
of them don't have the chance to partake of the sacrament with so much
travel, which has to be so amazing. In one of the stories he shared,
an apostle was selecting where missionaries were supposed to be called
and one he just couldn't quite pinpoint where the missionary should
serve so he said he would come back to it and in the beginning of the
next application he just blurted out a mission and said that it was
for the previous missionary. Then he turned to Elder Cardon and said
"Sometimes it's as important to know when God isn't speaking as it is
to know when He is speaking." Wow. What a wonderful saying, especially
when recognizing the spirit. Then we went on with how the training has
been going and then he shared something else that I really liked. He
said "you are all here more for what you have felt than what you
know." And it's so true, we can have all the knowledge in the world
but if we haven't received a witness from the Holy Ghost then it means
nothing.

I have run out of time but I love you and know that The Lord loves
us, knows us, and will give us comfort, guidance, and confirmation of
the truth through His spirit.
Although I may be far away, I feel all your love every single day.

Love,
Elder Hyde

Transfers & Halloween

First of all I have to say thank you to my wonderful family who sent me an awesome Halloween package that made my day! So normally I wouldn't be able to get mail on a Friday but the other Elders that we drive around had a meeting at the office for their training follow-up and when I went in they had a package for me so I got it just in time. :D The plastic spiders have been great to put all over the apartment to scare Elder Kemp and it was just a very cleaver and fun box. Especially since we had to be in the apartment doing weekly planning that night. I'm still not sure what to do with the glow in the dark stuff but I'm sure I will find something for it.

Even though transfers weren't until today I will start with that. Elder Kemp and I will be together for at least another 6 weeks! I'm sure glad we get along really well and I love that man because we will be together for at least 20 weeks. Which is quite a long time to be with someone 24/7 but I'm really glad to be able to keep learning from him and be able to see him grow so much! With the district we only have one change. Hermana Jones is leaving to Costa Mesa, where I was born, and Hermana Russell is coming in. She was also in my district in Santa Ana 5, so it will be good to have her back.

This week we had some really great experiences and saw The Lord blessing us with many miracles. One of our investigators named Elsa called us this week saying that we couldn't come teach her at her house anymore, we think it's because of her husband, but that she wanted us to come to her daughters baptism in the YSA ward this Sunday! It was a really spirit filled baptism and we found out that a good chunk of her family are members and they talked to us a lot about how much they have been trying to share the gospel with the family and it's amazing to see the change in the whole family from doing so. Then we had a huge miracle, an amazing member family from our ward was at the building and as the baptism ended and it just so happens that they live right down the street from our investigator. Then they invited her over to be taught at their house and it was just great to see them connect so well.

Jildalgo is doing really well and went off on a 25 minute story in the middle of the lesson about how stressed he had been a few days earlier because he haddn't been able to get work for a few days and everything felt that it was coming down on him at once. Then he remembered to pray and he said it completely changed his day and then he got work for 3 days in a row, which hasn't happened in weeks! He was able to pay the rent and get food for his family and he just said it really strengthened his faith. He is doing great and reading and praying often. :) The only problem is that he got called into work Sunday morning and so he couldn't make it to church.

We are also getting ready for a member of the seventy to come next week which is really exciting. We are having the Zone Conference on the Holy Ghost and I'm excited to learn a lot from it. Plus we all get to write talks about how we have come to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost on the mission and then he will choose a few missionaries on the spot to share them. Which is great because I know that it's the Holy Ghost that guides us in The Lord's work and so as we can better recognize and follow His promptings we will become more effective missionaries overall. I think the biggest thing that I have come to find on the mission about the Holy Ghost is that He guides us way more than we think, and that He is always willing to help us if we are willing to listen. Keep the commandments, listen for promptings, act on every good feeling or impresson and our loving Heavenly Father will never let us down.

Love,

Elder Hyde

So Exciting....

So this week I wanted to start out with the response of one of our
investigators. During a lesson we asked her what it would mean to her
to have a living prophet. She exclaimed "it would be exciting" and it
was such a powerful moment to be able to testify to her that God has
called a prophet and He is guiding His church on the earth today. She
is devote in her baptist church but she has a wonderful understanding
of the importance of prophets. We have high hopes for her and her
awesome family that just moved here from Colorado.

We have been receiving some great opportunities to do service the
past few weeks and this week a member took pictures of us and printed
it out with our numbers on it offering free service and put it in the
laundry room of the complex so I hope we will see some fruit from that
soon.

I went on exchanges with Elder Randall this week and we had a really
fun day on bike. I miss being on bike. But we taught a member how to
use Facebook to share the gospel with his friends and then went
knocking and found a pretty cool family. That night we had an awesome
lesson with a guy named Jeri. He owns close to absolutely nothing and
lives in a tiny garage in an alley. He is a really humble guy that is
really looking for purpose and direction in his life. We committed him
to be baptized and it was a really humbling experience to see him and
hear his story. We even brought him soap so he can do his laundry
which he hasn't done in a very long time.

Jildalgo is doing well but the only time we taught him this week was
when I was on exchanges in the other area so I wasn't able to see him.
But he is really loving the truths that the gospel is bringing to his
life. So many wonderful people we are teaching but they don't come to
church because it's "too far" or "too early" for the to make it. So I
guess it's time for us to get out and find this week and help more
people feel how exciting it is to have a living day prophet!

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of The Lord and that he
receives the revelation to guide us in these latter-days. I love you
all and hope you can keep studying the words of the prophets that we
received just a few weeks ago, because their words are glorious.

Love,
Elder Hyde

P.S. We also had our Halloween party this week so I will send some
pictures. It was one of the most well put together Hispanic party that
I have had on my mission!

Teaching & Teaching...

This week was just teaching from appointment to appointment. Almost
all week we had our appointments go through and we just were able to
teach a ton! It made the week go by really fast and kind of blurred a
lot together but it was wonderful. It was also elder Kemp's last week
of training so he is finally done and now we will have another hour
every single day to find, teach, and help people prepare for baptism.
Yay!

Some random things that happened this week were, finding maggots and
bugs in some rotten potatoes in elder Kemp's food cabinet, having an
IPad as our ward pianist on Sunday, and digging some trenches for some
trees in a members yard. The maggots were really gross and got some
disgusting slop all over. It was fun to clean up. And since the one
person who can play piano in our ward was sick we had the bishops iPad
next to the microphone playing the hymns, it was great.

On Sunday we got to go back to Santa Ana 5 and I got to confirm
Crystal Yulisa Sánchez, Yuvia's sister. Their family is great and it's
always a blast to see them. Plus confirming just makes me so happy to
bless these wonderful people here, and she was so excited. By the time
we got back to our ward we found Jildalgo already in sacrament meeting
just enjoying the talks with the ward and he was able to stay for all
three hours, which was a first for him. He loved it but it kind of
seemed like a lot to him to have three hours but the priesthood lesson
was way better this week so he likes that class now.

Congratulations to Clark and Kim! That was fun to see some of their
wedding pictures, and I hope Kim is doing alright. I love you all and
am doing great, I just don't have a ton to write about this week. Have
a great week!

Love,
Elder Hyde

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