SPECIAL GUEST...

Hi family! I'm really sorry but this is going to be really short because of a special activity we had today. President Taggart said we were going to have a mission wide p-day activity today... We were really curious of what it was going to be because he told us we couldn't bring our iPads, phones, recorders, or cameras. We got gathered together and he announced a new mission presidency which was cool and then he told us the guest speaker was coming in. Kelsee, you are going to be jealous. Brother David Archuleta came in and we had basically 2 straight hours of hearing him speak, sing, answer questions, and take pictures with us. He is a really respectable guy and sings really good in person. I got to shake his hand and chat for a second, he speaks really good Spanish!

So that was super fun and then the week was the fastest week of my life. Activities, teaching members, and worrying about these jovenes. I feel like it is so easy to connect with them but they have many problems and struggles in their lives and so we have to be careful not to get down because we have to be there to cheer them up. :D It has been a great experience and I'm learning a ton. Plus the members are awesome and bring their friends to institute all the time. So we are able to teach them there and then invite them to the many activities. I am learning little by little what God wants me to learn in this area, which is a lot, and I am just happy in the service of the Lord. I know that He lives and is guiding His church today! Love you all!

Elder Hyde

(We sent him an Easter (Spring) countdown package and asked him to send us a picture of it hung up. Love the weights!)

I love YSA!

What a week it has been and it was amazing because we didn't have even a single normal day the entire week. Something really great about the Ward is that we have activities all the time. Every Monday we have an FHE with a spiritual thought, food, and lots of social conversion for investigators, recent converts, and for us to get to know everyone! :) Then on Wednesday we have institute and have a class from some awesome teachers. This last week we watched the best two years, with President Taggert's permission of course, and it was great! Rosi Lomeli, from Costa Mesa came and also our investigator named Brandon. He has overcome some of his huge problems with the word of wisdom and still has some stuff to overcome but he is awesome and comes to everything! He has a baptismal date for May 16 for some other reasons that are going on but he will for sure be baptized!

Then every Thursday we have a Ward activity. This past week we went to the temple, the members went in to do baptisms and we gave a temple tour to investigators. It was a really spiritual experience and it was the first time that I have given a temple tour but it went really great. This week we are having a spiritual thought and then playing sports. I'm excited because it changes every week. Then we have church on Sunday! Four planned activities every single week! It is amazing and investigators progress so fast here because they have so much time with the members not only learning about the gospel but also having fun! I absolutely love how open and willing the young adults are here. They are so amazing and make me really happy! I have been on exchanges in the Ward many times and I have met a lot of the Ward members before from their family wards and so it is great to already know so many of them and also get to know the rest.

My companion Elder Pace is really great! He is from Highland Utah and is a really smart and has been a zone leader for 6 transfers so he really knows what he is doing. He really loves basketball and kind of reminds me of the Marchants, he is really great! Our week was really crazy with all of the activities, trying to find some more jóvenes to teach, and also fulfilling our responsibilities. We are the elders closest to the airport and got a call during lunch this week that we needed to get to the airport ASAP to find a missing elder. It took a few hours but he was found, loved, and is happy to be back to normal missionary work, but wow it was a crazy day. We have a great zone and it is interesting to know that our Ward boundaries are way bigger than the mission boundaries. Good thing there are sisters in the Ward that cover the north half and we cover the south half. We still have to drive a ton but it's great because I have served in every single family Ward that we cover right now so I know their families and now I am meeting their kids that they talked about so much. We also have over 20 Ward members serving missions right now and there will be a constant flow of missionaries coming home in the next few months which is really going to strengthen the Ward.

About a year and a half ago the Ward was really struggling with only about 6-10 jóvenes coming each Sunday to church but yesterday we had 49 and it is growing so I'm really excited to be here in this Ward at this time. I know this is where I need to be and I feel super prepared that my past experiences in life and in the mission have prepared me to be here. I love it so much. This week Elder Pace and I also made some amazing plans and goals. After much prayer and planning we came up with what we call "6 weeks to conversion" which is a program that will help the members become more converted while bringing a friend to the waters of baptism. It focuses on the members reading and praying every day, and helping them learn how to extend commitment invitations to friends. We will be having the members extend the invitations to read, pray, come to church, and to be baptized. It's going to be awesome and have a huge lasting effect on not only the members but also the people they invite to hear the restored gospel. We are staring with the bishopric and prayerfully selected about 5 other members that we have stared on the program. I'm excited to see the miracles!

I love you all so much and I want you to know how much joy and happiness comes to those that share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is something that has completely changed my life and I know it will change yours as well. If you are ever looking for more purpose, happiness or fulfillment in your lives you will find it as you share the wonderful truths of the gospel with those in your life. I love you all, I know that God trusts all of us in the places that He has placed us and that He is always there to help us. President told us something this week that really helped me. "You know enough right now to do all that the Lord expects of you today." I know that is true and I have seen it on the mission.

Love,

Elder Hyde

A new week and a new beginning...WOW!!!

This week was one of beginning anew a getting ready for change. On
Tuesday we had an entire mission technology conference with Elder
Nelson of the first quorum of the seventy and brother Heaton from the
Provo MTC. Wow, it's such a great privilege to have the entire mission
all together at once. It was a really great training about how we are
going to turn a new page with the technology phase. They told us we
were one of the test missions of 33 and they had no idea what they
were doing when they gave us iPads and Facebook. A year later, now we
have training guides and we know how to and how not to use this tool
to bless missionary work. I am really excited for all of the new
things we learned and for the guideline and help that they are giving
us to help everybody stay safe and be productive online and with the
iPads. We were basically told to forget everything we did before and
re-train our brains. So that happened Tuesday, we left Facebook and
then got new iPads on Thursday. Which I learned that I will be part of
the first group that gets to take their iPads home. I am really
grateful for he privilege I have been given to use it and I know it
will be something that I will be able to take and teach to many others
even after the mission. It's not just going to bless our lives now but
so many in the near future.

For that it was a crazy week along with a new trainers meeting
because Elder Gardner will be training!, and I got a call from
President asking me to be a zone leader. Later on Saturday I learned I
will be going to the barrio de los jóvenes adultos solteros (young
singles adult ward)((YSA)). I feel like I just got here and I'm kind
of sad to have to leave so many wonderful members and investigators. I
love this ward so much! But I know the Lord needs me elsewhere and I'm
excited for the new opportunity. My new companion is Elder Pace, an
awesome leader and I'm really excited to learn from him.

As for the week, Elder Garner and I had an amazing last week
together as we had a lot of members come out with us and really
friendship our investigators. Lorena is doing great and as we read in
the Ten Commandments about keeping the sabbath day holy she told us
that she wants to stop washing and shopping on Sunday before we even
had taught her about it. I know it's because the spirit was really
strong there and the spirit is by far the best teacher. I also know
that when we learn the gospel of Jesus Christ we automatically want to
follow his teachings and become better. I am really excited for this
transfer and for the opportunity to work with the young adults. My
area will now be bigger than half the mission so we will be driving
while the other is texting all of the awesome youth. There is so much
to learn and I am just looking toward the future with faith that the
Lord will guide us and help us know what to do. Have a blessed week!

:)
Love,
Elder Hyde

Elder Gardner and Elder Hyde

Elder Maughan, Elder Hyde and Elder Kemp

District Elders

New Members of Santa Ana 10

Teaching Families :)

His spirit inspires mine each week but this one was a tear jerker for me! Prayer works! ~Cindee


Hi family!

I feel like I just email you so I'm not sure what to say.
Elder Gardner and I have been so blessed the past few weeks and we are
seeing so much progress with our investigators it makes me really
happy! Lorena has had a pretty tough week but her testimony of the
power of prayer grew a lot. One day she was just really down when we
went over because of some things that had happened that day. She
prayed earlier and said that helped her but by the end of the lesson
she told us about an unexplainable joy that had come over her. It made
me feel so great as the spirit was able to comfort her and give her
joy. Then another day she was excited to see us to tell her of a
miracle. Her husband lost his wallet and they hadn't been able to find
it for three days. She and her husband had been praying(he never
prays) so that they could find it. Then somebody knocked on their door
and returned it without wanting anything in return. They were so happy
that God had answered their prayer and the husband acknowledged that
it was an answer to his prayer. He even told us he was happy to see us
and joined us for the first few minutes of the lesson before he went
to work. He is changing so much! :)


The Contreras family that is living with a recent convert is doing
really good even though they have their doubts they are reading the
Book of Mormon. If they continue to do that and pray, all of their
doubts will go away. They are a great family and we really became a
lot closer to the dad Eduardo this week. He even wants to be baptized
and accepted a baptismal date for March 29th. He and his wife will
need to get married before then but I have faith that he can make it.
The other two families we are working with are the Perez family and
the Gonzalez family. They are the two families that both lost a
daughters in a car accident last October. They are progressing very
well! One family is on date for the 29th of March and the other knows
that we were sent from God to teach them His gospel. I can't even
express how happy these families make me. It is such a privilege to be
a missionary, I know that it not only is completely changing my life
but the lives of many others. I am but an instrument in the hands of
the Lord, but I know that each one of us can do much good! :)


I have an Esteban quote again for this week. Somehow we were
talking about cavemen and we asked Esteban if he knew what that was
and he told us "yeah, a caveman is like a bear but it's not a bear and
it comes out of a cave and eats meat." Haha I love that kid. Have a
wonderful week and always remember who you are and that I love you.
And even more importantly you have a Heavenly Father that loves you.
:D


-Elder Hyde
P.S. I won't be on Facebook for a few months. We are having a big
meeting tomorrow for new technology training. I'm excited!
P.P.S. I almost saw Elder Holland this week. He came to speak at a
Chapman University that is in my ward boundaries but the investigator
that was going to come with us cancelled last minute so we didn't go.
But a lot of the ward members went and they said it was great! :)

Week of Conferences!

Hey family! We had a lot going on this week and it went by really
fast. We had an amazing zone conference with President Taggart on
Wednesday. We mainly reviewed all of the training that we received in
the specialized leadership training with the brethren from Salt Lake.
It was really good and there is so much that I feel like we will be
using that training we received for the rest of the trainings this
year. I really love it! It really is helping us teach simply and to
their understanding.

This week I got to go on exchanges with a new elder in the
district, Elder Valenzuela. He is sooo awesome! He just came from
Guatemala three weeks ago and it was so much fun being with a native.
He has great english because his school growing up is a bilingual
school, but he hasn't had to speak it in much conversation so it's a
lot of fun to help him learn, but I learned way more Spanish than he
probably learned English. My Spanish has come a long way. But he is a
great missionary and had prepared a lot with his two older returned
missionary brothers and dad so he already knows a lot of great
teaching and finding techniques. Plus he is contagiously happy and so
it was a really fun exchange. We taught a part member family, found
some families, saw the spirit work on a guy during a door contact that
was really great, and just taught with Elder Valenzuela and his
"greeny fire" for missionary work.

I also met one of the happiest kids I have met in my life this
week. Two weeks ago we heard a mom and daughter arguing about cleaning
the back porch so we poked our heads over a fence and asked if we
could help. They declined but said if we came back the next week they
would find something for us to do and that they would be interested in
listening to our message. So we went back and the daughter and her
little brother Jaime were waiting for us to come. They had finished
their project already but the kids knew we were coming so they had a
bag of trash ready for us so that we could take it out. They were
awesome! The whole time Jaime just had the biggest smile and he had so
many questions. It just made me so happy teaching them and I can't
wait to teach their whole family this week.

On Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference and had the
privilege of one of the seventy named Elder Packer to speak to us. He
still has very good Spanish from serving a Spanish speaking mission.
We also had the temple president, our mission president, Elder
Acosta(the area 70 in our ward), and another leader that spoke. All,
except for Elder Acosta, being very white and it was very interested
to hear them all speak Spanish. They did great though! Also all of
their wives spoke and some of them had never said a word in Spanish
before. I really loved it! Hearing them was amazing and at one point
he had all of us missionaries stand up and made us a promise that came
completely from the spirit. Elder Packer is an amazing speaker and it
was powerful when he testified of how the Book of Mormon came from
their ancestors. A young couple about to get married also spoke, and a
recent convert in our ward that has a rock solid testimony. We also
hear from a loving bold stake president that really knows the people
in the stake. He is an inspired man. What a great week and weekend to
hear from such wonderful leaders and members from the stake. It really
strengthened my testimony to hear so much testimony being shared. I
think there were only about 4 scriptures shared in the 4 hours that we
attended, and that shows how much was pure testimony sharing. I almost
felt like it was a stake fast and testimony meeting.

In the spirit of sharing testimony I would like to share mine about
Jesus Christ. I know that He is our perfect example, He did everything
that our Father in Heaven asked of Him. I know that He suffered a
perfect Atonement so that we could not only return to live with Him
but that we could also receive strength and help throughout our
journey here on this earth. I know that He gives us the power to
change and become clean when we accept Him into our lives. He gives us
peace in a world of trouble and hope in even the hardest of times. He
will always lead you to where you need to go. I love you all, have a
blessed week.

Love,
Elder Hyde

Menudo....

I finally ate menudo! I have heard a lot about this dish but I have
never had the pleasure of eating it. Menudo is a wonderful soup with
cow stomach, intestines, and hoof. It was surprisingly tasty and my
favorite part was the intestine. The hoof just didn't please my throat
going down. Now I wouldn't eat menudo from just anybody but it was
made from our loving Ward mission leaders wife. (You met them on the
Skype call on Christmas) So I trusted it because she is a really good
cook.

Now to some missionary work. :) This week we had a surprise 2 hour
district leaders meeting and it went really well. We are having some
changes in the way we conduct our district meetings which I really
like. We come up everything we share every single week. They used to
sometimes give us outlines but those will stop. Which is really good,
it makes us rely on the spirit while we plan and conduct the meetings
in stead of following an outline.

I would like to close by sharing a personal insight from my study
this week. I was reading in Mosiah 26 and thought it was amazing what
alma did when he was confronted with a problem. He wasn't sure how to
deal with discipline in the church and went to king Mosiah for the
answer. In verse 13 it says "And now the spirit of Alma was again
troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do
concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the
sight of God." Alma was confronted with a problem so he went to the
Lord. He ended up receiving a huge answer from the Lord from verses
15-32 but before he received an answer he did something really
important in verse 14 it says that he "poured out his whole soul to
God" I know that that is a key to receiving personal revelation. If we
really want God to speak to us and help us we must pray pouring out
out whole souls to God. That has been a huge blessing on the mission.
The prayers when I have poured out my whole heart have been some of
the most spiritually uplifting experiences in the mission. I know that
God loves us and will answer our prayers. Maybe we won't be faced with
how to lead the church like alma was but we are faced with other
challenges like how to lead our families, or give guidance and correct
to our children, family and friends. We may even face trials that we
don't feel strong enough to bear. But I know that if can pour out our
whole souls unto God in prayer, service, and sharing the gospel we
will find the happiness and direction that we are searching for. You
are all loved and prayed for every day!

Love,
Elder Hyde

In case you want to read more :D
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/26?lang=eng

Happy Groundhog Day!

Hola familia!

Well things are quite different from last week. Last week was transfers and Elder Gardner and I get another transfer together! :) I am really excited about that! Another area opened up in our Ward and so now we have a van and get to travel around us 6 elders everywhere. It takes a really long time to go anywhere and so I don't have much time today.

This week was a little difficult because we had to drop(stop visiting) a big chunk of our investigators. They just haven't been willing to act on the message and so they need some time. Because of that we had a lot of time to visit some of our other investigators and we had a some great lessons. One guy named Ricardo is really sincere. We brought this awesome newly returned missionary with us and we all were just so happy after the lesson I couldn't stop smiling the whole night. The gospel really makes me happy, and seeing others accept it makes me even more happy.

We are still serving at the soup kitchen and are getting to know the people now. The volunteers love us and the homeless people love to tell us stories and jokes and tell us all the "deep Mormon doctrine" they have heard before. It's a blast. Service can cure any sadness and really helps me feel the Saviors love. So go find someone to serve! :D

Love,

Elder Hyde