November 25

Dear Family,

   Hijole where do I start for this week....... So the Mendez family back in Laredo got baptized all together and before I left I probably got the best complement in the world from the father. We were super tight even though we only had 1 week and a half together. But he's the man and we already were making plans for me to come back and go to the temple with them so Whoo I miss them a ton.

   Robstown.... So many crazy things going on here. haha it reminds me so much of home lots of farmlands and not really any big neighborhoods. Even the building had a little West Weber feeling to it. The people are great here! We have the bishop and the stake president in our area. Lots of powerhouse members that are super awesome. I bashed a bit my first day in the parking lot with this guy that claimed to be a member that had fallen from the church that was bashing on Joseph Smith. We had a good little talk. haha next thing you no turns out he was jsut testing my testimony and he owns the house we stay in and has done so much for the church here and loves to play with the missionaries. My companion said I was just lucky he didn't pull his shotgun move on me. haha

   We are teaching an awesome family of 7 that has some super humble parents and they are just eating up the gospel. You know people are prepared when they feed you. So there great and are always full of great questions and we finally got them to accept baptismal dates. Things are tons of fun up here lots of driving around lots of rural roads and farmers and southern accents I've been honing my southern accent. haha you gotta speak the mission language right?

   It's been like 40 degrees the past 3 days and has been raining alot. luckily we have a truck but I feel for the elders on bikes. haha our house we live in has no heating other then the 2 space heaters and the oven we have. So we've been survinving for sure it's just a little cold. One day we were following our gps that was guiding us on some back roads the day after it was raining real hard and the speed limit was like 60 miles an hour so I'm flying down this road and theres like a little canal that makes it so you cannot see the other side so as I slowed down just a little for natural precautions next thing you know I'm going about 50 miles an hour down a road that's a foot thick of mud. haha we were fish tailing just a littlely watched over by something cuz we slowly and gradually slowed down and then got stuck so we just went reverse,forward  this road for a good 10 minutes. We escaped alive and only had our truck covered in mud so that was a lot of fun to clean but that's just an example of the lord taking care of his sheep. If I would have slammed on the brakes we would have wrecked. If i had not slowed down we may have wrecked. How did I know how to do both of those.... I didn't I just did them that way. haha but me and my comp talked about it. We couldn't have prevented it cuz he didn't know the road and the gps was just guiding us but what a fun memory to always remember. 

But the work is hastening here and there's tons of good stuff going as a zone we're looking like having the potential to have a lot of success in the month of December. More than the month has ever had. So we're just helping our missioonaries understand truely what success really is.
But love you family keep on doing well.

Elder Hobbs

November 17

Hijole! My friends have already begun to get home from their missions that's super crazy! Well I got the news for the transfer!!!! I'll be headed to Robstown. I'll get to relearn my English over there because i've heard there is absolutley no Spanish at all over there so that'll be interesting. I'm super stoaked though for getting the chance to go up there I will now have hit all 3 corners of the mission so there goes one mission goal. haha And I will actually receive the calling as a zone leader to work up there and we have the biggest zone land wise so I'll be driving all over in a colorado chevy truck and i already spent 3 transfers living in the same appt. with my companion i'm super excited his name is Elder Ayers and he's from Idaho Falls. So we'll have to send over our cousins to visit his family. haha but it sure has been a quick 2 transfers in Laredo I'll miss everyone but I also konw that that's where I need to be is in Robstown I hear it's a lot of farm country too so i'll be in my element. haha

 

   But as for the week it went really well the Mendez family will be getting baptized this upcoming Saturday and they are very excited about doing so. They've seen lots of miracles in the week and a half we've taught them so it's just a great testimony to me how quick people can change. We went over for a lesson and the father and son had already been studying the b.o.m for an hour and had tons of questions for us on the reading so it was one of the moments that melted my heart and as we had them pray about Joseph Smith and everthing at the end of the lesson they all explained the peace and the spirit that they've felt and that they know he is a prophet. During the prayer I got the chance to receive some revealtion...... That this work is not my work. that I can explain/teach/share/whatever to help people understand and know the doctrine but I cannot send the holy ghost to bring the feelings of comfort to  a family or peace to a family or individual. That's how I know god lives, and how I know that this is his church because as I've done my small little part of pointing the direction to people i've been a witness of how much god loves his children and how happy he is as they follow him. My testimony has grown so much these 2 short transfers I've had here in Laredo and I know without a doubt that these things are true. Me and my companion basically had the same oppurtunity that Alma had in Alma 30 when Korihor was denying god and denying the scriptures and it was funny how we used basically exactly what Alma said  to tell her the truth and as I told her all those things I knew them I wasn't just saying them.

 

 I weighed in at 207 pounds eeek!!!! These members down here have been too good to me I'll need to start jogging with my next comp in the mornings. But love you family have a great week I'll be emailing you from Robstown next week l love you

Elder Hobbs

November 10

Dear family

 

   Sounds like you all had such a great week. As for me we saw tons of great miracles this last week. As of the lady I told you about Gabriela Mendez.... She brought the rest of her family to church and we set baptismal dates with them for 3 weeks were going to help them get baptised on the 23 they are looking super good to do it as well. We went through a baptismal checklist of what they'd need to do to prepare and the father already threw out his drinks and smokes so they are very very prepared I'm excited for this family big time they loved church to death and sister Mendez's mom got baptised last month and her sister has been a member of around 10 years so you couldn't ask for more fellowship.

This is coming from that same lady that had the church tour with over 30 people so this family has been our workhorses.

 

   We've also found a less active family that we brought to church this last Sunday that has a 17 year old lady from Honduras that isn't a member and she also has a baptismal date we'll just need to set up some plans to get some permission from her parents somehow in order to be baptised. So we've seen tons of miracles from the big fast that our misson has had. Basically if our zone steps up and hits our goals for this month we will be able to hit our goal as a mission to hit 110.

 

   Also this last week has been our leadership training in McAllen. It was tons of fun and I learned a lot and got to meet up with a lot of familiar faces and see how all my friends throughout the mission are doing. President Maluenda brings such a strong spirit with him and I have no doubt that he is the one that is to be guiding this mission (although i still do miss Pres. Trainer alot) haha. But it was great to learn all of the great things our leaders have for us in the mission. I have already applied a lot of the trainings to our district and we have seen a lot of success from it. All I got to say is miracles! just keep counting your blessings right? Every person I've baptized on my mission has been a miracle in one way or another I truely am deservant of nothing it's all the lords work and the members work down here I'm just here to point the way for everyone. 

 I love you all have a great week

Elder Hobbs

p.s. transfers our this Tuesday to come so I'll let you know if I stay or if I go.

November 4, 2013

Dear Familia!!!!

   Well what to say for this week. MIRACLES!!!!! We had a fast to get the mission up to our intended goal of 1000 convert baptisms to end the year in December and in order to do this we need to have a big turnout for November and December so the mission has gotten together and had a fast for us to hit this goal as a mission.... And this past Sunday was awesome!! For the 2nd branch every missionary companionship (my district of 3 companionships, and the zone leaders) had at least one investigator at church! And as a zone we ended up with 16 investigadores with baptismal dates at church. So it was super awesome. Almost every companionship in the little Laredo south zone had someone there at church!!!

   We in our area also had an unexpected investigador show up with her sister and mom at church. She was a refferall of over a month ago and we've tried and tried but no one has answered we set up an appt. they weren't there and so por fin she just showed up to church loved it to death and said that she will now be attending every single sunday..... So if that's not a milagro del ayuno no se lo que seria! We also had a permagaotor 12 year old and 9 year old show up to church that we've been trying to convert the parents of. And then we had are progressing investigador Victor de la republica dominicana that showed up and he's looking really good he's just going to be having a 10 day trip to his pais so he'll be getting postponed a little but he's going to share the gospel with his family back home and all of his kids running around over there so that'll be good. But it's just been miralcle tras miracle.

   But this week i'm very excited to be headed down to the 3 day leadership training in McAllen this one is going to be President Maluenda style so it's been changed up quite a bit. I'll be getting the chance to work the 3 days with some zoneleaders in McAllen  because we cannot drive all the way home so it'll be agreat experience to learn from some great missionaries. But i've recently studied a lot on Sacrifice and also on Fasting this last little week and i've realizedthat there are some things that i need to sacrifice and put on the alter in order of things that i do or time i could spend better that will help me receive more blessings from the lord. I also this past week traded a tie to a missionary on exchange for a picture dictionary  that has been helping me learn words right and left so i've really been seeing my spanish improve a lot and get a little bit mor polished up here in Laredo or should i say (mexico,hoduras,D.R.,El salvador,cuba,etc) Man I love the culture down here!!!!

   Also this past week I had my first barbacoa tacos that I knew of at least and tongue actually tastes pretty good. I've reflected this past week on a wish Heston gave me that i'd go to a mission where I'd eat lettuce. That prophecy has been fulfilled. I've actually eaten lettuce, onions and I actually like them on my burgers. And i'm a die hard fan of Avacoados..... They are delish. Anyways love you family have a great week tenga exito

Elder Hobbs

October 28

Dear Family,

 

   Well this week was awesome. I had an interview with President Maluenda and it went really well he just basicaly asked a lot of questions on how I was doing and if I enjoyed the mission and what not but he seemed to just be able to see into my soul. haha but yeah I got the pictures, the e-mail from April, it was so good to hear from everyone else scattered throughout the world. It's good to hear that my bretheren are still bretheren in the Lord as Alma described. But this week like I said was awesome our progressing investigador didn't come to church but a recent convert brought a group of people that live in his apartment complex of a group of 4 people that crossed the border a week ago. haha so we set a b.d. with one of him and he's very very prepared said he's looking for the truth, and loves to read the bible. So we gave him the BOM So far I've taught people from all over Central America. San Salvador,Honduras,Mexico, Puerto Rico,Dominican Republic, etc. So we've been on our toes with different accents of spanish and it's awesome to know we can communicate and talk with people from all over the world. haha

 

   Our members are still los jefes o los meros meros de la obra!!! We had a noche de hogar with a recent convert she had 2 of her sisters and 1 sobrina and they were all interested and we sent off the refferalls. We got a referral from a girl that was teaching her 13 year old friends at school and she gave them the BOM we left her. A recent convert brought a group of 4 to church like I said and another member is pulling us a chapter 14 out of PME (ask if sam or saren can translate what chapter of pmg that is). And another member is helping us out with his cousin and his cousin's family. And another is helping us teach all his friends before he leaves for his mission((he doesn't want any regrets for not sharing the gospel with his friends. So basically we are just in the area to keep track of what all our members are doing. Haha there's no other way to do the work with so much success than through your members. 

 

   But one quick principle I learned this week is how important prayer is. Really it doesn't matter if I explain that baptism is a commandment, cleans our sins, we receive the gift of the holy ghost, you'll enter heaven, follow christ, etc. IF GOD SPEAKS TO HIS CHILDREN AND GIVES SPECIFIC REVELATION TO A SPECIFIC QUESTION SUCH AS "SHOULD I BE BAPTIZED?" Then that trumps anything that be explained. Igual como jose smith, o la palabra de sabiduria o cualquier cosa. If god tells you than will you do it? Luke22:42

 

But love you all have a great week!

Nos juevos

Elder Hobbs