April 29

April 22

Dear Family,

 

 

   Well this week has been an awesome one. We've continued to be blessed in finding new investigators and having oppurtunites to serve others. I love being a missionary. I'm finally to the point where I almost feel no miedo de hablar con la gente. I've realized that the best success in finding is just opening your mouth to the people that get put in your pathway throughout the day. And get to know them for a little bit bear witness of the message and teach a gospel principle that is indicated by the spirit and teach them..... But things are going great for our investigators we have had A come to church another week so she'll be cruising to be ready to be baptized the 12th of May. She was just telling us this last week that she has felt like joseph smith about what church to join, on her situation to leave her christian church or are church. She explained to us that this last sunday morning as she was in her service she started to develope some doubts about the church and whether or not she should be baptized and she explained to us that everytime she is in our church that she just feels so at peace and described the feelings of the spirit. So she'll definitly be ready for her baptism. We've lost contact with her brother until just last night and he'll be there for our next lesson. and we've not had the chanceto talk with her family about everything, she's been telling us that we'll need to gear up for a battle if we want to talk to them. But I just want to be intoduced to them so that they don't feel like we're trying to do everything behind there backs.

  

 I won't be getting my new companion till tommorrow but we found out that Elder Stewart will be heading over to Mission Texas to spend his last transfer..... Big news to missions world wide is that there will be STL (Sister Trainging Leaders) Which will handle training the sister missionaries and handle there problems so that zone leaders and district leaders will not have to work on correcting them. It'll be really good for the misisona and a good little change up. The mission is receiving 21 new missiionaries!!!! And there will be 5 new areas opened up... Things are going crazy the work is hastening. Elder Nielsen was at the Mission President's Training and he told the mission presidents to just start putting on your seat belts and gear up for the ride..... Things are so awesome in the field right now.... Also great news my Trainer Elder Smith just became the A.P. of the mission so I became "royalty". I'm super excited for him. You gotta love being a misisonary.

 

   Also this past week me and my companion had ran into a guy on the streets that was walking around with long white hair and a beard. We were waiting for some members to accompany us to a lesson and he came over and spoke with us and come to find out he had quite some knowledge on the bible and began to question some things that we believe and we had a fun little discussion while we were waiting for the members. But we found out that our member couldn't come with us so we no longer neededd to wait and we told him we were in a hurry and he could come to church so we gave him the info and everything and next thing you know come Sunday he was there. And we had the Stake president come visit us and he was giving the lesson for the 2nd hour and this guy kept trying to pipe in and argue and it was the coolest thing seeing a Stake President using his scriptures....... And he did it in a way to not bring the spirit of contention and he politely told him to wait till his class was over and they'd discuss some things. It was awesome to know that the lord knows how to select his leaders and how prepared we really need to be as we study our scriptures every day. It was just a great example of how important we need to be fundamentally found on our doctrine and knowledge of the gospel so that we can stay firm in our beliefs. Hel 5:12.

 

   Also i'm very proud of Sam for placing a book of mormon and doing it in a great manner. Keep me posted on how she likes it. And what awesome news that the yard is rolling. Keep up the good work. And it sounds like dad had a really good ARK that's awesome that you had the oppurtunityh to serve you never know how little things can affect others. Alma 37:6-7. Love you all and hope you keep your studies up in the gospel and remain active in living the gospel. Good luck at Utah STate Mais! And Heston you better be taking mission prep. from Sam every Monday night okay. You are going to be the best missionary of us all if you apply what others have learned.

 

Love Elder Hobbs,

 

April 15

Dear Family,

   Before you know it Heston's going to be the only one in the house.... How exciting things sound to be as crazy as ever back home thank you so much for all your prayers and for your letters. Thank you also for keeping me posted on the news of people getting their calls. I'd just like to ask that you make sure to get that family history work done that I had requested I don't want to keep them waiting any longer then they already have to get there ordinance's done.

 

   But this week went very well. We hit a bit of a hurdle with some bike problems.... Of course not mine though. My Comp got a flat and after he fixed it his other rim broke and then we had to wait for Biciycle world to fix it all up for us. So far I'm close to about being 10 - 0. My bike's tires have outlasted my comp's about 10 times over. So whoever is going to serve a mission with a bike I recommend to use the flat attack liners you had installed in my bike because those things have worked wonders for me.... Or i'm real lucky. But even though we had a bit of a struggle with time we managed to conctact a refferal a member gave us for her daughter that lived with a non member. We knocked on the door and as soon as B (the members boyfriend that is 19) answered he offered for us to come in and we came in met his sister that is 20 and had a little bit of a lesson, next lesson we set up at the church they both came  and we had great fellowship there and we ended up setting a baptismal date with them for the 12th of May. A (the sister) made it to church this last sunday and took her 4 yr. old son and just loved it. She said she enjoyed it a lot more than her other church and said she already talked to her parents about being baptized and they approved. So now the plan is to sit down with the parents when they won't be too busy. (They own Clubs around South Texas) Also B is super solid he'll just need to overcome some ley de castidad issues and come to church with us. Him and his girlfriend went up to San Antonio for his birthday.

 

   So it was awesome A is super committed to church and already has a spiritual confirmation about being baptized we'll get her a spiritual confirmation on the restoration this next week and she'll be golden. She actually ended up attending her church from 12 to 1 and then ours from 1 to 4. And then came back to see a baptism from some other Elders at 5 so she almost spent the entire day there and loved it. So we've been very blessed to have found her. And we have lost track of our family for a bit the father has been pulling double shifts and works till arund 10 at night so we've decided to give them some time and then try by. Also our other Investigators have been hard to come across but we'll see what we can do this next week to get back in touch. It's just part of the work sometimes you have to let investigators go that you love.

 

   Also this week has been pretty funny because we've been bringing out "Brother Jared Parkin" to our lessons with us he came to visit the mission for about 2 weeks and spend time with members or what not and he didn't take in to count that he'd need to kill some time here and there so he offered his help to us. Also he took us out to Rudy's for the first time!!! It was great i can finally say i've been there on my mission. He's been some great help teaching these 2 new Investigators so we'll be sad to see him go. You oughta reimberse him for Rudy's by having him over for dinner sometime.

 

   But that's basically been our week i've improved on taking pictures but I forgot my camera I'll work on getting some pictures back home with for you all to put some face's to the names i've been throwing around. But i'd just like to close by saying how blessed we've been to have a member reach out to give us that referral that we would have never found on our own. Often times we know the people who are prepared  a lot more then the missionaries it's just that the members don't have it on their minds. So Family please help the sister missionaries by referring them to friends that will be blessed by you spreading the news of the gospel. But thank you so much for the love that you've showed to me and I'm super excited to be a part of something so great. To be in the lord's ranks. So I hope you know I'm doing really well excited for what's to come. Love you all and have a great week i'll let you know if i'm leaving or not... Transfers will be this Tuesday. But I have a pretty good chance I'll be staying where I am. Love you all and don't forget to study the scriptures.

 

Elder Hobbs

 

P.S. tommorow I'm headed to McAllen for a training. I just got news last night I'll be training this next transfer. I'm super excited, nervous, and happy about it. Iknow i'll be qualified for the call according to my diligence/obedience. But I could use some extra prayers this week i'm still a bit shaky en el idioma. But i'm super excited and I know me and my new companion will have a lot of growing to do together.

  

  

April 8

Querido Familia,

 

     Well what a great conference we had and how grateful I am to not have to worry about the media and what's going on with all of that. I really loved Elder Hale's talk on how the world has been moving overtime to worse and worse and how god and his church never move. It was also an interesting talk by Elder Perry on the Commandments and on how they never change everthing makes perfect sense now and why they had been directed to speak on those titles. I loved the talks and the sense of missionary work indicated for members to participate in. (speaking of member missionary work how have you been doing with making that list for the newly arriving sisters for the stake????) But we were very very excited to get to see conference and I hit my key indicators I found Melanie Wilcox and I'm pretty sure I saw Mr. Hadley. I love hearing the words of prophets.

  

   And as for teaching pool.... The family couldn't meet with us too much this last week they were busy with a birthday and the husband had to do some remodeling in the appartments complex that he works in. We also found a former investigator that lived in a different area her name is josefina and went to church for about 2 months and didn't get baptized because her husband wouldn't let her. But now they're divorced and we have been working with her and her 2 kids and have a baptismal date with them and we're very excited to work with them. We'll just need to get some members to come around for our lessons with her so we can enter. We have also been working with a lady named pat that is also coming off of a divorce that we met in the park she has a baptismal date and has spoke of having peace in her life we need to get her some real intent and help her to act she's just been wanting to put her toe in the water thus far so hopefully we can hit her mainstream need with a good lesson coming up. Other then that those are our only investigators that we've consistently been meeting with a couple other potentials. We're still working on a B.D. with the garcia family they are just a bit catholic right now they don't understand that they're less active dry mormans. And none of them made it to conference... we had them all committed but  no one showed. We couldn't get our prophet present lesson with them. It would have been so perfect because Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the 3rd session would have been perfect for Pat and Josefina....... Good thing we have the internet in our days and we'll have to pulll it up for them to listen to.

 

   But other then that that's been the week. I've revised some of my mission goals since my last interview with President and also from conference. One of my goals is to write a letter each week to someone and to take a picture a day so hopefully you'll be able to see the fruits of those. I've been wondering on a few of my buddies and there mission calls i know that trav was getting close to fillin out the forms and also cooper and Tayson  Also we've been doing some family history work with one of our members that's less active to get him some goals to do some names of his ancestors in the temple. And i pulled up my profile to show him how to do some stuff and I realized I had some people locked that are waiting on me to free them up. I was wondering if i could leave you my password and to have you guys take those names to the temple for me that'd be great if you could help me with that. 

 I love you all and i'm grateful for your  support. I hope you've all applied things from the talks we've heard and will always resist your environment. That's something that I felt like I had gained as a bigger message is to really resist the environment in which we are placed in to use our god given blessing of agency for good. To follow that which is good and to do that which is good. I also loved the talk given in the priesthood session on administering Heston.... That talk was for you. Seek ways to administer amongst your friends don't give into the crowd of being cool for that which is right that is exactly how the world pulls us away from what we know to be true. Stay firm in the foundation which has been revealed to us and remain stead fast and immoveable. Make your own path for others to follow. And Maisie I've loved your last letter you wrote I'm proud of your decision to make the choices that you know are right and continue to make those righteous decisions and be an example to those who need to follow better examples. And my family please please please remember every member is a missionary seek ways in which you can give others the oppurtunity to learn of the truths which we hold dear to our hearts. And love one another. FOLLOW THOU ME is the call and we must all head it. Love you all and have agreat week.

Con Amor,

Elder Hobbs

 

p.s. Pulling weeds builds character.

April 2

Querido La familia Hobbs,

    WEll it's good to hear everyone's having a great time back home. Here in the mission we had a great week. We had Zone conference and just had interviews just today. It's been very very exciting to be around president so much in this past week. Also we have conferencia general en esa semana viene...... Que Padre how exiciting. I hope everyone decides to take notes and comes up with some questions before it all starts so start thinking of those preguntas inspiradas. I don't have any crazy stories for this week so i've decided to give a discussion on easter so i hope you'll all enjoy it.

    

    Espero que su pascua estuvo disfrutado.... What a great sunday we had just had to get the oppurtunity to focus on the real reason we celebrate the easter season. How blessed our we as members to know the blessings that come from the Atonement and what our elder brother Jesus Christ has done for us. It was a great blessing to represent the lord this past week. Me and my companion took advantage of the holiday and through our findings and lessons with non-members and members we changed it up a bit and had decided to share an easter message with everyone. My favorite scripture that i came up with through my studies that really hits la pascua on the head is in mosiah 16 vs 7-10(read it) How blessed are we to know as members of the church that death is swallowed up in christ and that when a loved one passes away we know that he/she will be resurected because god loves us enough to provide us a plan. And center to that plan was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And that that lifts the burden of Death that we as humans have no way in overcoming on our own. But as it teaches us in vs. 10.... that we also need to do our part in order to fully accept gods plan completely we need to show obedience to the commandments in which we have..... A great analogy is that god's plan is like a plan that our earthly parents set for their child to receive an education. They work as hard as they can to receive the funds possible to give us that oppurtunity to suceed at the next level. They pay the price for us to go to school. But as kids we need to fully accept what has been set apart for us through our obedience. We need to first show obedience to the commands of our parents around the house in order to show love to our parents. But also we need to show obedience through our actions by getting the grades we have and taking part in that sacrifice our parents gave us by actually going to receive that education...... But as we have just enjoyed the easter holiday i'd just like to invite everyone to really consider the blesssings we have and the knoweldge and comfort that the atonement gives each one of us. And ponder on how that knoweldge would tear us apart if we didn't have it. Lehi truely made it known how important the atonement was in Lehi ch2:6-8. How great are these things to be made known unto our bretheren. Nephi also taught this same principle and worked as hard as he could so all could know 2 Ne 25:26. He knew that as parents that's the best knoweledge we can give to our children..... I would just like to conclude my discussion by sharing some thoughts that occured to me in a gospel principle class. The ATonement is the foundation of the gospel(fe,arrepentimiento, bautismal, H.G., y preseverar) and the gospel is what gives us a purpose here on this life and points us to the eternal motives to make it to the temple. And really this knowledge all comes back to the foundation of the atonment without the atonment we wouldn't have the gospel, nor a purpose to be here on the earth and as you see the great blessings we have i'd love to invite you to share these great blessings with those around us. Msh 16:7-10 really gives me comfort to know that i'll be able to see grandpa again. And  a grandma i never met. And all those loved ones that will and have passed away. And to think of those who don't have that knowledge to make it through such a trial is a bit gut wrenching to me. So consider the love and the blessings we have as members of the church and knowledge we have and count those blessings because we truely are blessed.

Love Elder Hobbs.

 

P.S. We've found a family that we've been working with and it's been exciting teaching them. They have a catholic background and we'll be having a lesson with them tonight at the chapel during mutual so we're very excited and they loook like they'll have some great potential in making that covenant of baptism. I'm still kicking down here in Brownsville. We've had a miracle last week some elders pulled of f 2 baptisms that were fence sitters and we hit our goal of 14 and the mission went above 100 for the first time in a while. So we'll be excited to keep the train rolling and bringing souls unto repentance. Me and president had a great e-mail and i'll be making some goals towards becoming un nativo speaker and also with teaching and having the spirit in more abundance. Me and Elder Stewart are still working together and we had the oppurtunity to do exchanges with the zone leaders and i got to go on an exchnge with my grandpa in the mission....( the elder who trained my trainer.) It was exciting and a good joke for us. But i'm loving the work and it's been very very exciting i've been working on ways to really consecrate myself and magnify my calling. I'm def. open to suggestions if you have any shoot em my way next e-mail. Love you all and have a great week.