January 28

Dear Family,

     Well Rudy's is actually in my bike area if I didn't already tell you and no I haven't had the pleasure to go there we don't do too much eating out we only get 120 a month but with a few more 4 week months I'll maybe have to go hit it up.  And the weather down here is in 80's to 90's it's starting to warm up quite a bit but it feels super amazing just the other day reminded me of one of those perfect summer days.  But my companion's name is Jared Parkin and his homecoming talk will be on the 17th in the Ogden Utah Weber Heights stake it'll start at 10:50. But he's about at that trunky stage he's been a great companion and knows the bible really well I'm sure he'll give a great talk when he gets home. And that's exciting about all the baptism's back home there's nothing like working with permagators we don't really have too many in our area.

  

     But this last week I found a guy out of the norm from religion's he was Buddhist somewhat and was super open to learning one of his sons was interested in listening to us so we'll have to start working with him. We just got a new zone leader here in Brownsville and will be looking like the zone will have a lot of big changes on the upcoming transfer. The elders that we room with are going to have their area split in half with the new wave of sisters so that'll be interesting. This week we've been working with 3 young mothers that seem really really cool that have great desires and all 3 of them have went through divorces none of them could make it to church this week but they had some somewhat ok reasons so we'll be following up with them and getting them rolling.

     This last week I had the oppurtunity to get the big interview with president and to hear the advice he had to say and as we've been having the focus on the fourth missionary which is basically just purifying ourselves and developing those 3 big characeristics of christ charity, faith, and hope. It's weighed heavy on my mind how I could have the spirit more stronger with me in my daily life. As I paid close attention to the way he talked to the zone and me in my interview something that came up is basically he loves us and he knows what he's saying is true without a shadow of a doubt. That's about it. No real secrets it's charity and faith right on the dot. So I've applied it to my teachings the last week and it's came out to be real effective.

But something that president said to me in my interview really pulled me back for a second...... He said Do you think they'll ask you what your key indicators are when you get home? Or how many people came to church? Or how many People you baptized? Or how many people you taught?....... It's going to be you they look at......   And I was thinking president that's the most selfish thing I've heard. And he went on to say your mission is for you to benefit you but what you need to know is you cannot help you until you help "them". Until you turn your focus completely outwards you will not completely help yourself....... And I've just pondered on that since so I'd like to invite everyone to do that same thing work on building yourselves.

It's been a great week I love you all and hope everyone's enjoying the snow!!!

Elder Hobbs

January 22

     Well sounds like an interesting week for everyone, I got Saren's e-mail. And what is Brandon doing!!! You can't go to the 1st ward and still be a doer doens't he know that??...

 

But this week has been awesome I just got to go "Tie Digging" for the first time on p-day it was a celestial dig for one time because our zone leader is having to go home early due to some health problems and that was his dying request and president let the whole zone in on it. So we all kicked in 5 bucks in the apartment and bought 20 pounds of ties and ended up with some good looking ties to clean up and  re-pair. But today i'm writing you right before my interview with president he just got done giving the zone a training on charity and becoming the 4th missionary it was exactly what I needed to hear and everytime it seems like president talks the spirit is always there it's such a blessing to have the priesthood authority and revelation coming from those assigned to be our leaders God's organization is flawless

 

We've been making some good strides this last week  and I'm getting prepared to be taking over my second area due to my dying companion. But we've been doing great we've found about 4 young single mothers that have had some kinda connections with missionaries before and we've been working with them and they all have some really good desires. And for the most part we don't really get called up randomly to speak. The two wards are super strong and have great leadership and priesthood holders. The english ward is on fire with new converts and is actually probably bigger then our ward back home. They're looking to be making a english branch pretty soon because all of the Brownsville missionaries go there for english. All 24 assigned to the same ward. And we have the bishop in our area he's a super hard worker. And in Spanish we have both the counselors in our area. We really have a lot of solid members and have been trying to get some member work with them.

 

I did find out some really bad news this week. The family in San Benito dropped on their baptismal date..... So that's been a little rough but I can't do much other then write them a letter. But the other 2 part members were on track to get baptized I'll find out here in a bit if they make it to their dates. But we're still working on getting some progressing investigators coming to church but so far we got a few committed. It's been a great wee, you have a good one too...

January 14

Dear Family,

     It's very exciting to hear all the crazy news going on back home. I'm still super excited for Saren I'm sure she's just beamning on cloud 9. I'll have to write her sometime soon. But this week was interesting. Haha my comp went through 3 bike tires and it's still working on being fixed so we've been getting to work out the good old zapatos. President Trayner showed up to Sunday meetings and I got to talk with him a bit about Glen and him meeting in San Antonio, so that was a cool connection. It's too bad you guys didn't finish your goals about the 4th missionary article, I'll have to follow up with you on that next week. But other than the walking part it was a great week.

     Me and my comp got to visit one of our favorite less active members and had a pretty good little chat on going to hell. He also wanted to help us make plans to change the word of wisdom a bit because a lot of people get held up on that. haha We also found a guy that has been in the Air Force in some super top secret bases and had a good little chat on aliens and area 51. We gave him a book of mormon and he said it'll be done sometime next week so we can chat about it. We'll have to get him some real intent. haha also we met an elderly lady that had given us some great marriage advice (it was pretty fitting for Elder Parkin). But I just love being a missionary and being able to get to work with so many random people the diversity is the funnest part of being a missionary you talk with people from all walks of life.

     As missionaries we like to invite people to write a question to think about and ponder during church and I thought to myself well I can't expect my investigators to do something that I don't do myself so I decided to write me a question down and see what answers I could get. (And by the way both of our wards got new bishops, our English speaking bishop moved to Mexico and the Spanish  speaking bishop went to the English ward and the Spanish moved to be the mission president's counselor) but anyways I had the question how can I feel the spirit stronger in my teachings and be able to recognize the promptings because I have recently been feeling a little less of the spirit in my teachings and the retiring bishop of the English ward answered my question word for word what I needed. He said "As we truly love the people we are trying to help, the spirit testifies to us how we can truey help them". (something like that) And I realized that that is what's been holding me up in this new area the most is I don't have that genuine love that I had for the people in my last area and at times I have caught myself   wondering how so and so back in San Benito is doing but that's not my area. So I've been super excited at the church revelation I received and I feel that much more confident in extending that committment to investigators. And I know I've been full of committments lately but maybe you guys oughta give it a try. Just write a simple question down and write down (what the spirit says, someone says, your thoughts that come too you, ETC,.,) It's really been a game changer the last two weeks I've done it because as a missionary sometimes I get caught up in well I just gotta worry about who's in the audience but it's important that we receive revelation for ourselves and make it an experience to be at church ourselves. But that's all for the week have a good one
Love you all.

Elder Hobbs

San Benito

January 7

  Well what exciting news.. Saren's getting married, Elder Stephens can start putting the title on soon, and Sister Hancock is getting suited  up for the big mission.  It's also very exciting to hear that you've been making goals for the new years (especially related to missionary work). I've had such a testimony builder on how goals can effect us in our lives. For example....... In the fourth missionary that president has been having us read before all of our interviews coming up it talks a bit on making goals and i'll probably not quote it straight on so i'll have to send you guys a homework assignment to look it up online or somehow. But it's titled the Fourth Missionary.

     But anyways it talks of setting goals throughout it and it says something along the lines of "If you don't have goals you don't have a vision of who you want to become and therefore we subject ourselves to what our environment makes of us." For example we our not progressing to become what the lord wants us to be and we are not treating our future as important as it should be. Because when you come to read the talk (Which i would love to commit you to read and find somehow...... And read it with the intention of "The fourth Person/LDS) you will find out that our biggest work on this earth or project is US!!! What habits we decide to get, the knowledge we attain, and the people we become. Everything we do, the decisions we make are shaping us into who we are, who we will be, and how we're going to effect those around us. And if we don't set goals and have that vision we are basically saying I'll take what the world has to offer i'll become what the world says i should become. There is no foundation.

     There's also a difference between setting goals and being connected to our goals for example we can set a goal to have 5 investigators at church...... All this is is a number on a piece of paper. It's a number until you put forth the faith to arrive at your desired destination. And that faith requieres works as you all very well know and when we don't put forth the works, show the faith, and do all we can to arrive at our destination we may as well not even set that goal. And grant it there's going to be times throughout life we don't exactly hit the goals we're seeking or do the things we had had planned but at least we're giving ourselves a vision of what we want to do and who we want to become. I'd like to invite the family to find some time to make some goals this next week and connect yourselves to them. And make them to stretch yourselves. the lord's vision for us as we know  in Moses 1;39. Is to inherit what he has for us. But as a coach has a vision for his players, or a father has a vision for his son...... The son's or player's cannot become the people that they have in mind if they don't follow the council or teachings of the coach or son. So i'd like to invite everyone to make goals in accordance to the vision that our father in heaven has for us as his sons and daughters and please report to me on them next week.

 

        But this week was ok. It's hard to feel really successful as a missionary when people aren't there on Sunday..... Sunday's are very very stressful and basically determine your success of the week (Or at least that's how it seems). But as I mentioned before there are a ton of members in our area. We have been trying to get to know the ward real well and make plans with them and I can't tell you how many times we've dropped in on people and they say oh we thought the missionary's forgot about us. haha so it's a lot to manage but we got it. But it was a great week just really really cold. haha but hope you have a great week set some goals and don't get to many white hairs from being potential grandparents. 

Love you all.

 

Elder Hobbs

 

January 3

Dear Family,

     Well sounds like a lot of crazy news!!! I'm excited for Jacee to get to go to Oregon I hear it's really beautiful up there we just helped a member move a while back that was from Oregon. But it's also exciting to hear about everyone else putting in their mission papers or what not. It's such an exciting time to be missionaries the lord is truly increasing his work among us. I'm excited at how many people have been answering the call of the prophet we are about to get 10 new sisters to the mission on the next transfer and then our numbers are going to be increasing from there. We're looking at adding a few new areas or what not.

     But I hope you'll all enjoy the pictures sorry about not being able to send them earlier. And i also realized I haven't been too much of a picture taker. Maybe I'll have to do a little repenting or what not. But hope you all enjoyed the new years and will be enjoying the oppurtunity to make new goals and what not keep in mind your missionary work goals also.

     But just some quick new news about what's been going on in the area..... We knocked into a super less active that hadn't been to church since see was 13 and we got them to church this last week and are working with her 2 daughters and they're super excited about coming back to church next week they all had a great experience. We're also working on a part member family with her daughter and cousin and they're doing pretty good also theyt couldn't come to church due to a wedding last week. But the lord has been blessing us. We just need to continue to live up to the blessings we've been receiving. We've had a lot of plans we've made with members too. We've been trying to get members rolling on missionary work and they're all responding real well. Our two wards are very missionary minded and it's been really exciting to work with them. Hope you have a great week and enjoyed the pictures.

-Elder Hobbs.

p.s. ask the Hobbs in Idaho if they know Moaky McIsaac he's a member in our area.