July 28

Well not much to say this week it's been a great two years it's literally been a flash! Thanks for the e-mail you sent me and for all your love and devotion and support you've given me over the years to help me be the missionary i am. I'll be excited to see you and sad to leave but just as i accepted the call to come so will i accept the call to come home. Les quiero muchismo. Y les veremos pronto. 

Elder Hobbs

Jake will arrive home Wednesday July 30th-HOORAY!!!!

July 21

Dear Friends, Family, and fellow servants of the lord,

I felt today would be a good day to send out an e-mail and to describe a little bit about what my mission has ment to me. I will be ending my mission on the 30th of this month. My mission has been the greatest blessing of my entire life. I am eternally grateful for the temporal, spiritual, and eternal lessons i've learned and blessings i've received. Of the which i'd like to share some of the most important things i've learned for you to apply in your missions or life.

-Success begins with the companionship

   If you cannot love those closest to you it'll be real hard to have true love/charity for those you teach and come in contact with. As well a husband and wife dictate the success that the family will be likely to have. The companions that i've got along with the best and worked in unity with were often those that i saw the most success with. Never waste your time being ununified because it'll affect your work/stewardship.

-Making and Achieving Goals

   I've learned from Presidente Maluenda that a goal without a plan is a wish. I can have a goal to baptize 5 people in a month but if i don't have a solid plan than it's just a wish or desire. The plans need to involve all aspects of the work.... finding, teaching skills, member relations, personal obedience, receiving and contacting referrals, and teaching pool of investigators. I can as well set a goal to be a professional Pitcher in the MLB but if i don't have plans to pitch everyday, workout, get recruited by colleges, get myself known, and learn different pitches. Than it's just a desire or a wish. Goal, Plan, then MAKE IT HAPPEN! It applies to everything.

-Killer Instinct/Make it Happen attitude

   At the end of the day you just gotta put on your pants and get stuff done. A good example is Moroni in Alma 51 runs train on the realistas that wanted to have a king. Moroni didn't wait to see what would happen. He didn't have an attitude of we'll see what happens. He went and cleaned the inner cup of the Nefitas because the lamanites were coming to battle. We cannot wait around and wait for life to come to us or baptisms to come to us or baptismal doubts to solve themselves we need to go forth and make it happen and get it done!

-Having a good Attitude

 In the Truman G. Madsen discourses there's a story of Joseph Smith that talks about him telling a close friend that if the mountains of Nova Scotia were piled on top of him he would have the faith that he'd come out on top..... The world has so many downs but the nice thing is we have the chance to choose when to get back up. "Your area doesn't make your attitude, your attitude makes your area" (Revised Quote book  of Elder Hobbs).

-The Atonement is Real

  I have a testimony that our Saviour Jesus Christ Lives. And because he lives we will too after this life and we will all have the chance to live again with our families. Through the Atonement we can become clean of our sins, our short comings and errors. And all those we see on the street and road as well our entitled to those blessings as they obey the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are called to teach.

Elders, Brothers, and Sisters the mission is like an unending well of knowledge and experiences we are the ones who decide how much water we want to bring up from the well. It requires lots of effort but you can never receive or learn enough there's always more. The only catch is a mission is a limited amount of time so aprovechenla! Take advantage of every moment you can! I love you all and look forward to seeing you all. For some sooner than others. Enjoy your missions, enjoy your lives, and always know that your Father in Heaven loves and cares deeply about everyone of you!

Elder Hobbs

July 14

What a week!!! Things have been great here in Texas there's been a lot of talk about the border lately from members and contacts of all kinds of crazy things going on i'll give you more details when i get home so i don't dive to much in to politics. The other Announcement i have for you is that i am not really going to have souveniors of my mission due to the fact that i went shopping for them early today and it reminded me of the strong dislike i have for shopping. haha but thank you for the letter nothing like reading a big long letter i as well got the opportunity to read Maisie's letter that's great that she's been hitting the ground running and getting a lot of great work done in the MTC. I'd love to work in the MtC but seeing that there's no reason to be in Provo for me  quien sabe. Maybe when i transfer there when i get my associates here at UTB in Brownsville.

But we had a bapitsm this week with Araceli the granddaughter of the member we've been working hard with and we were as well supposed to have a baptism with Isa she got married on Satruday and was planning on baptism this sunday but get this. So thursday she twisted her ankle bad enough that when she wwas walking she couldn't even fit into her shoes, then at the reception she got shot with a BB gun by the neighbors who were mssing around and then on the way to the baptism the next morning they got a flat tire to there car. Crazy! Satan sure had a few tricks up his sleeves. but next week she'll be planning on getting baptized along with another grandkid of Polo we will be looking good to have a baptism. As well i found a family from Utah that is just visiting for the summer and i'm gonnna get them to the ogden temple open house and even bribed them to go to the Treehouse Childrens museum.

Love you all have a great week

Elder Hobbs

July 7

Well I'm glad you were satisfied with your last letter because that's the last detailed letter you may be getting. haha jk 

Well this week has been really good. We had some miracles in the church with members bringing some family members and as well a former investigator came and had a great experience. We will be planning on having 2 baptisms this upcoming sunday. We decided to put off Araceli's baptism for this week due to her mother getting out of prison so she can see and support it. Her mother is already a member and has supported her through letters in her progress towards the gospel.

We spent the 4th of July in our apartments to avoid being hit by a potential drunk on the road and as well being shot or hit with fire works. We cleaned up our apartment real nice. I've prided myself in cleaning and leaving apartments nicer then I found them since about half way through my mission. So I cleaned and took apart our vacuum, through away a bunch of clutter and cleaned up  any other problems around the apartment that were present.

I'm doing my best to stay focused and not get carried away with the future. Our president has been having us make plans in our personal study and I was just recently delegated that ability so it's going to be weird planning stuff but that's basically all I got for this week the gospel's true the church is true and I love testifying to people and letting them know the truth. I as well love changing things up in contacts and being real and bold with them not rude but bold. The work is true and we are always entitled to the blessings of the gospel as we keep the commandments and apply the scriptures in our life. if you desire success, happiness, whatever it is you have to be willing to do the things tha't';ll bring success to you you can't just expect it. Anyways that's my preaching for the week love you all have a good week!

Elder Hobbs

June

June 30

Querida Familia Hobbs,

How exciting another missionary down and another one to go whose going to make you cry the most so prepare yourself now for what's to come. I still remember that day like it was yesterday getting dropped off at the MTC and thinking mom why aren't you crying. Sometimes it's a little depressing being the middle child. haha But just to remind you of the words you gave me that day mom there's nothing to cry about the lord has made your children into men and women  of god. To give them up for two years is to give them the best experiences, lessons, and opportunities you have to offer. Just remember our father and heaven had to send us out as well to learn so the mission is no different! I'd invite you to assume your personal responsibilities as the matriarch of the family this week and to realize your daughter is going to be receiving and giving many blessings for herself and the family. It's not a time to weep it's a time to have joy!

This week we had zone conference and it was my last one so i got to share my dying testimony for sake of time i only got to have 1 minute to share it but i felt so much power from the holy ghost spilling out of my mouth as i bore my testimony. It was very fitting to be here in the harlingen stake center in order to go out with my testimony.... I've spent 10 of my 16 transfers serving in this stake so it'll always be a special place in my heart... Especially when i move down here in about 5 weeks! But it's been fun to reflect on the mission i've decided that there's a great analogy to describe the mission.... It's like drawing water from the ocean there's so much to learn and obtain but we are the ones to choose how much water we want to draw and the bigger the jug the more the work but the more the rewards you get what you put into it... the only catch is you only get to draw water once...... As i approach the end of my mission i know that i won't be a perfect person i will still have much to work on but i do know that i have water to satisfy my thirst and the thirst for my future wife and kids.

Anyways so that's been my little trunkiness thanks as well mom for your july 30th comment. Me and my comp are getting along great like i said he went to Northridge highschool and i've played sports against alot of his good friends and i already have a dinner planned at his mother's home. We have hit it off real well and he's a real humble hard worker i've learned a lot from him and it's my pleasure to have him be my last companion. As for investigators we will be planning on a baptism this week and 2 the following week and we have some people we're working with for the end of the month but they'll need to progress or we'll need to find some new people i really really want to have a baptism my last week of my mission so i'll be working hard for that i just want to find a prepared family that can enter into the temple in a year from now. So i'll need to get them to church in these next two weeks for me to be here and see it but if i'm not here ta wueno. 

But that's basically how life has been going on the mission.... i got to go to stake conference and see a lot of familiar faces members and even some old investigators of mine and others for the time that i've been here in the mission. As of Requests for the upcoming weeks i don't know if i should still be waiting patiently for that birthday package??? haha jk don't worry about sending me anything... I'd like for you to just make sure i'm registered and as well have some potential places for me to live up in USU if i decide that's where i need to be. Not to get too far into the future but i'm gonna want a lot to do when i get home so i was thinking it'd be fun to play demolition on the old roof in our attic.

Anyways i love you all and have a good week and tenga animo y felicidad mom your daughter made a great decision to bless her life!

Elder Hobbs

June 23

Well this week has been great we have had a lot of good stuff going on! I got my new companion his name is Elder Brock Embley he is from Layton and went to Northridge High. I have almost had every companion from Utah up to this point crazy.

Well we are teaching a couple of awesome people right now we have continued to work with a referral we got from some Dallas missionaries. We just found an active member who wants all of his grandkids baptized so we have been working hard on that one will be getting baptized in July and as well we are still pending a couple getting married so they can be baptized.

 I can't believe that my mission has 1 month left it's been a flash. President Maluenda has all the old missionaries begin to make plans with what they will be doing when they get off the mission so just a warning i may be e-mailing you about college things since that applies to future plans. I'd just like to invite you guys to make sure i'm registered for classes and just in case have some good leads with people to live with or apartments in Logan.

Anyways i hope your all doing well and working hard with the sister missionaries Have a good week love you all

Elder Hobbs

June 16

Wow whole world just got flipped upside down back home! I can't believe that my bishop will be released and my stake president what a crazy change. They may be releasing the stake president here in Harlingen as well he has been in for about 9 years and they have an unexpected stake conference here on the 29th in June so i’ve been thinking that's what they're up to this upcoming sunday. 

As for this week it's been really good. It was Elder Bawden's last week here in Texas and he has been excited and sad to go so we had a lot of members give us some special treatment through buying us dinner or cooking special meals for us so we’ve been getting the hook up. It's kinda thrown my stomach off a bit so i've had a real upset stomach all week in fact a couple days ago i woke up in the middle of the night and had to hurl my companion sang me some hymns while i was having my moment he couldn't quite  sleep during the night. haha

We as well had quite a few miracles this week. Through gettting to know all of the members we've found out  we have a lot of part member families to work with we have found an active member who has 3 grandkids that he wants to have baptized that lives with him. We as well have found out a couple other sweet part members and as well we received a super cool referencia from some dallas elders that were teaching a man that is just fascinated with the book of mormon and wants his children to be involved in church activities and we have invited them to be baptized and they're very excited about getting that opportunity so we're seeing lots and lots of miracles. I found out my new companion will be Elder Embley i've never really met him but i'me real excited the mission has been the best thing in the world i'm so excited for maisie to go and reap the blessings for those she serves and for herself and for her future family!

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Hobbs

June 9

Dear FAmily,

This week was great! We have continued to work hard with our auxilary leaders and have continued to try to get more involved with the units. we have recently created a map of all of harlingen for the ward units to see who there missionaries are and as well we will be fixing with one of the bishops to get a sign up sheet to feed the missionaries. I have continued to not have problems eating with members we get lots of food and we almost never have to cook for ourselves so all of my cooking skills i've acquired are being put on hold thanks to the generosity of the members in Harlingen. We have continued to find member after member in our area that hasn't been visited we cover basically half of the English ward and i'd say a third of the spanish ward i'm trying to suggest to the Assistants to split our area due to the overwhelming amount of members we have. haha but it's nice to have them all it's just hard to get those solid relations with limited time..... I've decided i don't want to talk to any members about when i go home in order to keep the conversation on missionary work... And yes Elder Bawden will be finishing up his mission not this wednesday but the following wednesday and he has been going on strong he's a great example of enduring to the end.

Right now our family we;re teaching is in need of some understood principles/commandments..... they are not wanting to get married and we haven't been able to help them get over that but they still love us a ton and feed us and even invited us to this big fiesta at his brother's house but right now we're trying to get the bishop involved and some other members who have been married/have a bit more experience being married.

I got the e-mail from all the friends it was good to see that everyone is working real hard on there missions and seeing great miracles and experiencing the gospel in there lives.... One thing i've learned recently comes from a talk from Elder Nelson.....

 Is that obedience to commandments = blessings every time    

 Lack of obedience to commandments= loss of blessings every time

So many people need so much help but they are digging themselves there own hole by not receiving divine help from the lord. Pride is the biggest thing that brings people down and putting themselves and there abilities before the lord. Or it's the lack of understanding those simple things so that's where missionary work comes in is calling people to repentance so they do those little things to change there life in order to put themselves on track!

I love you family thanks for sending me the pictures and keep working hard as member missionaries!

Elder Hobbs

June 2

Dear Family,

this week has been great we had the Torrez family show up to church they're are little miracle family that we had made the plans to find and we ended up finding brother torrez siting down on a bench at his house and there is 8 in the family! Pretty sweet right? The family loves us to death and all the kids have loved playing around with us and they;ve been reading in the scriptures and praying together up to this point and as well bro. torrez works at a restaurant and he invited us over to eat and he cooked for us so now we have a hook up to a super nice mexican restarurant and more importantly a super awesome prepared family. We made them some cheesecake for little anthony's fifth birthday they didn't have money so couldn't really throw a celebration but he loved it and we sang to him and had a good time he kept fighting with me to sit on my lap.... haha and i kept pushing him off and finally i gave in and said it's your birthday and my companion laughed his head off. So i already repented of that but it was a great night we've already had like 4 lessons with them and we are starting to make some marriage plans..... we as well have another couple that will be getting baptized in july that have been taught everything they are just waiting on there big wedding plans they came up with. As well Maria Ramos the mother of a member in our area got baptized this sunday by her son so we've been seeing lots of success and the lord continues to bless us.

We've continued to work hard with leadership in the wards we cover to get everyone op to par we've helped the elders quorum pres get families and assignments assigned for hometeaching and have been making some plans so that there are at least 2 to 3 companionships to each missionary area so that we can pick a night out of the week and just go blitz there areas with them to help home teaching get done and as well help us in fellowshipping inv and finding them friends. i can't tell you how much a friend helps an investigator in the church i'd take a solid couple of friends over a real solid spiritual confirmation almost every single time....

love you all have a great week!

Elder Hobbs

Rest of May

May 26

Well what a week where should I start.... We had 3 day training in McAllen and it went really really well I got to work with Elder Livingston again for the 3 days and spend the night with him and his companion at his apartment it was a blast to be with him again and see how much we've both changed since last I trained him he'll be a great friend of mine after the mission. I was as well put on the spot with what my biggest goal is right now as a missionary and president told me I needed to think about it cuz I don't have much time to be planning. haha it's crazy to be the 2nd oldest group in the mission it feels unreal... but anyways I told him that I wanna help a family join the church that can enter in the temple in 1 year!

   So me and my comp as we got home we made plans to find that family seeing that he only has 3 weeks left of his mission we had to make are plans pretty fast acting in order to include him on our plans..... i'll come back to that in a sec...

   So we as well had a marriage and a baptism back to back this last satruday and sunday! It's the first time I've helped someone get married on my mission so that was really really cool and the baptism was very sweet they're a great couple and the English ward has fellowshipped them really well. There names are Cody and Amanda. We should as well be having a baptism in the coming week with a members mother they've had to put it off due to the members sons being really really sick they have to drive far and they haven't been able to make it out here.

We've been working really really hard in the Spanish ward due to lack of knowing members in the past and even going to the ward so we've already gotten to know some auxiliary leader in our area that haven't been visited in months..... It's like putting Babe Ruth on the Bench.... So we're starting to get things rolling in the Spanish ward and getting to know all our members and i'll also come back to that in a sec....

Other highlights of the week is... I had 2 encounters with big huskies one of which ended with me kicking one in the face the other a little girl saved us, as well a blue healer and a lab chased us.. I smacked it on the head with my scriptures a couple of times and it luckily dodged my homerun kick. I've learned to take no crap from the neighborhood dogs. haha

So me and Elder Bawden made our plans to find this eternal family and wrote on the left things we'll repent of like little obedience things such as speaking Spanish more often, making sure things are clean and organized, etc.... And then we made plans of what we were going to do such as open your mouth to everyone, contact every referral, work on memorizing scrips, etc.... Basically a plan to be more prepared,consecrated servants to find a prepared family.

So the other day we were walking on the street to contact a referral and we talked to a man lying down on a bench in front of his house and come to find out this man had been praying for god to send him someone to show him the way. We taught his family of 8 the restoration and they loved it and he told us it was true and he prayed about baptism and is going to do it he just needs to get work off on sunday mornings and he has a date for the 15th of june! He will be in the Spanish speaking ward the one that we have been going hard in since I got here to know them all and gain there trust and now we already have 3 families excited to help fellowship and teach them we have a FHE with them tonight with some really boss recent converts. It's been such a testimony builder to me how fast the lord reacts to our prayers and our plans we make and how important it is to be able to have a channel of support when we do get blessed with prepared people/families so make sure your being that kind of family.

Love you all

Elder Hobbs

May 19

Dear Family,

Well everything is still going really really well! we've had a lot of fun working together me and elder bawden and we've seen a lot of success in finding and bringing people to church we're working on getting a guy off of alcohol and also getting a couple married and also a member is helping his mother that is really old get baptized she knows everything and has been interviewed she just needs to come to church this week when she's feeling better to get baptized the zone is looking good to hit it's goal of 10 we have 8 companionships so 16 missionaries. I also got to go see Sanny Benito my old area and everyone remembered me and I got to t talk with some that I had taught who were baptized and that was really really cool! good to see people still active in the church! but sorry I'm gonna write a smaller letter it's a busy p-day and I've decided I want to go to UTAH STATE for college after some suggestions and pondering it out a bit i'll be going there in the fall is the plan. I'll be doing a little bit of registration as well to day to get into some classes President has given me permission to do so.

Anyways love you all and have a great week!

Elder Hobbs

May 12

Querrida familia,

Well you've already heard from me. As i've said the new area is great great great! we've had comp studies every day with missionaries, we've planned out our schedule for the month, and have had meal appointments every single day! it's been great i've had literally no time to unpack my stuff all i have unpacked is my clothes.

I got an e-mail today from Adolfo a guy i helped get baptized in Brownsville he's a secreatry over there in a small branch that he moved into and is doing great it's so good to hear when those your such good friends with are still active in the church! I also got to run into a family i met here when i was in san benito and the little kid still wears the watch i bought him so he could have all missionary like attire and his grandma that i had taught is still real active and enjoying church so it's good to see the fruits of your labors!!! I'm so happy the lord has sent me back to my greeny zone and to be able to see how far things have taken off.

You never know of what kind of affect/effect you can have on people the scriptures are so true when they talk about how joyful it is to know you've taken part in the work of salvation so continue to be involved in the work of salvation familia hobbs and support the sisters and make sure they have people to teach and ask them who they'’re teaching.

Love Elder Hobbs

May 5

Dear Family,

This week has been a good one!  I'll be getting transferred from Robstown still waiting on where  I'll be headed to the whole mission is behind schedule for transfers so will see how it turns out!

I got the chance to say goodbye to Joyce and I about bawled she really complimented me on what I have helped her find in her life and it's such a great blessing to have met her and to have had the chance to teach her in my time up here in Robstown! She will be coming to Utah this summer so I'll be planning on seeing her sometime when she visits. She's the sweetest old lady and is my mother of southern texas. haha

Anyways it's been such an honor to have served here in Robstown zone

it's been an area that has battled a lot in the past and I've felt very blessed to have been here to see a lot of that mentality change we still have alot to change but I've gotten to see the average of convert baptisms double in the time since I've been here so I know the lord is hastening his work and is bringing his prepared to the knowledge of the truth.

I love you all and I'll be excited for the chance to visit with y'all this Sunday, But have a great week and take care!

con amor,

Elder Hobbs

p.s. I found out about transfers.... they still haven't given specifics on the area... but I'll be going back to Brownsville or Harlingen zone I'll let you know next week!

April 28

First things first I'd like to give a shout out to Brad and Dori Hobbs! They broke the streek of Elder Hobbs not getting a letter in the Robstown house I almost made it two transfers without one that isn't missionary related. So thanks for the letters... Right now we have a young missionary in the house that gets letters all the time and then the other 2 missionaries have like 3 girls writing them.

This week was great though we went back to the house with all the labs just yesterday and right as we get there and get out of the truck they bolt at us... This time I was prepared and wasn't caught off guard I smacked one in the face with my backpack and was about to spartan kick the next one  but the owner called them off.... That was my Ammon moment for the week my companion and I got a good laugh about it and the old guy just told us we shouldn't have just stood there we should have kept walking and told them no and they wouldn't have bothered us..... haha but the guy let us in and we taught him about the book of mormon it went really well and he's committed to a church tour and a baptismal date.

I've been working out a lot in the mornings and trying to get back in shape. We've also recently gotten the chance to receive 40 referals in a week so that was quite a miracle I've never done that before... Almost all of them came from a member that is our ward mission leader. We drew up a family with him we'd like to find and baptize around his city area and told him to start writing down addresses of people who fit that description and people he talks with in the mornings when he goes on his long walks and he hooked it up for us so far most of the people have rejected us because it's a lot richer of a neighborhood but we've found some really cool potentials and now have an inn to an area that hasn't really been worked very hard by missionaries for a long time. We just end up talking to alot of preachers around the area.

I've had an interesting week with coming across other religions.... we saw a jehovah witness bash with a catholic nun across the street from our house Saturday morning for a good 20 minutes, and then got to talk with the lady that knocked on our door. I was on a split with a priest in the ward and we went to his friend's house that's baptist and we answered all his questions about the mormon church and that went well the baptist church trains up there 16 year olds to ask those hard questions. haha but something I've learned is that the church always has an answer, there is always doctrine behind everything and sometimes the answers cannot be understood by the listeners just think of Christ and his teachings none of the pharisees understood anything he said because they didn't have open hearts, ears, and eyes so some answers take people back a bit if they're not understood by the spirit or pondered out in thier minds. It's been a testimony builder to me to be on the mission and come across so many different types of beliefs and different churches and to know that there's only one that has the fullness of the gospel, only one that can open up the gates to the celestial kingdom for individuals.

Other than that that's basically how my week went lots of random things happening to us. I've been working on slimming down and getting my muscles toned I also don't wanna be a dead missionary so I'm gonna continue to work my hardest and get the most out of these final strides. Heston's gonna have to start working out cuz I still got the belt that we stole from Sam before he left. Hope you all have a good family home evening tonight and also work on making sure the family is really strong in the relations which we have always make sure that Christ is the center of our relationships. Like mosiah 2:17 says when were in the service of our fellow man we're in the service of our god..... so if were in the service of helping ourselves then were serving ourself so make sure you serve your lord by serving one another.

Have a great week I love you all!

Elder Hobbs

April 21

Dear Family, 

Well what a great week! We had an interviews with president and it was a great one! False alarm on the "talk". I learned a ton from President he's such a great guy he'll be the first Chilean apostle. haha I've truely been blessed to have two great great mission presidents. I've loved pres. Trayner and I’ve loved pres. Maluenda and I've learned so much from the both of them from what they've said and what they haven't said. I'm glad that the lord has blessed me with 2 great spiritual leaders for my mission.

It's been a fun week dodging cascarones and having a few close encounters with some neighborhood dogs I was chased for the first time on my mission by a team of yellow labs.... We knocked this door out in the country that we were referred to and no one answers and we walk into the driveway and there waiting was about 4 grown labs and 10 good sized young labs that just went after us. haha I was def. caught off guard but we escaped with no bites.

We've had the blessing of sharing a lot of Easter messages with others... I remember a letter that Sam wrote me early on in the mission about using holidays to our advantage and that was basically the door approach for the week. WE"RE SHaring AN EASTER MESSAge can we come in? And we saw a lot of success in doors being opened and the spirit being felt. My go too scripture for Easter is Msh 16:7-8 and compared sting of death to how one feels when a loved one passes on.... And then we'd ask the gente if we could share more with them and then go to the restoration and it worked well. A family told us they were catholic and weren't interested and we offered an easter scripture and luego 15 minutes later they all have a baptismal date after the message of the restoration. I really like offering a scripture in contacts it helps you discern real quick if come by another time is really intended or if they're nicely saying get lost.

Anyways Easter went well and we've been doing good. We had quite a full house this last Sunday with all kinds of people so that was great too see the ward is definitly growing and I received some good revelation on how to work areas that haven't been worked too much so i'm real excited to go out and make some things happen in some of these smaller towns i'd like to invite you too look up these following cities Petronilla, Driscol, Banquete. These are some towns we've been trying to hit up a lot more lately.

Anyways love you all and have a great week!

Love Elder Hobbs

p.s consider it an iron chef challenge Heston vs. Elder hobbs

April 14

Dear Family, 

This week has been quite the adventure. We had a special fast for the zone to bring investigators to church that could get baptized this month and we had a great turn out I have a strong testimony of fasting! This week we found 16 new investigators in the surrounding cities of Robstown and found people who didn't even know who the mormons are..... it was pretty exciting. Like dad always says it's easier to teach a pitcher who has no bad habits likewise it is to help someone who isn't blinded by false doctrine. So the lord has blessed us with some really cool families scattered throughout the area so our mile budgeting will have to be a lot more careful.... We were recently just given the responsibility of making sure our zones stay under there mileage allotment. 

This upcoming week we'll be having interviews with president and also an exchange with the assistants so i'll be excited for that. President is notorias for his famous marriage talks in some of the final interviews so i'm hoping i don't get the talk yet. haha If there's one thing i've learned from president is that you have to have a solid plan in the things that your doing recently we've learned alot about setting goals.

The weather is hot some days and then it's also been really rainy down here which is good for the farmers because they don't really irrigate too much so the crops have been looking good under neath these Robstown skies. I've recently felt like I've lost some weight i've def. lost a lot of muscle for not being able to work out and having to shower first in the order (4 missionaries shower from the hours of 645 to 730 in our house in the same bathroom). But I do feel like I've been slimming down I've been eating healthy and trying not to overdue it at some of our members homes.

I've learned some good cooking methods of how to survive at least I can't say i've perfected any real good meals but it's been going pretty well. We have a crock pot and I've been making alot of BBQ chicken or salsa and chicken and then cooking ricearoni mixed with bell peppers and onions in bulk and then steaming vegetables for my meals so I've been tearing up the kitchen I would however like you to send me the recipe for the chicken and rice casserole so I can try it out on a Sunday perhaps that'd be much appreciated.

I really love the ward here they're doing really great we have a member in the high council that just told us the number of convert baptisms for the stake and was bragging that the Robstown ward was number 1 in the stake by a long shot so we're pretty excited about that. Our ward mission leader has recently magnified his calling and we've noticed a real emphasis on working with missionaries so it's real exciting to be here right now I love it. The members have also picked up a lot in feeding us and this last week we scheduled some appointments and it's looking like we are overbooked almost every single day. haha so that's real fun. And members have continued to shower us with random food pantry stuff so missionaries have life made in the Robstown ward.

But that's about all I got. Love you all and have a good week!

Elder Hobbs

April 7

Dear Family, 

Well what a week and what a great conference.... We had the opportunity to watch all of conference we watched it at members homes and also at the church on Sunday. There were some very very good talks. I really liked the talk on the priesthood by Dallin H. Oaks in the Priesthood session. We also had been blessed with an investigator that came. His name is Chase he played college football and is now in a semi pro league he's super huge and plays tight end and is african american with super sweet dreads he's already given me a few bro hugs and he just loves us to death he's baptist but before he knows it he's going to be a member of the lords church we've had a few lessons with him and were about to the point of helping him get  over some big obstacles in his life so he can get baptized. We also have had a miracle HQ referral from Oakland, California Temple of a very very prepared family the only problem is she wants to wait till her husband comes back from work he's in Minnesota so I may be transferred by time her husband gets back and it's a family of all boys about 7 in all.

We've recently been having a lot of success in all phases of key indicators/#'s but getting people to church so it was good to see chase come to church and enjoy it so much. We've found a couple of really cool families and i've also had quite a few experiences journal worthy such as a man judo chopping my companion and trying to teach us snake jiu jitsu and then kissing our hands..... He asked if I was wearing cologne and I said no he then said my body smelled beautiful.... haha but we've been teaching his friend and it really helped us break the ice with his buddy and everytime that we come by he stabs at that joke of my body smelling beautiful and so does my comp so elder Hobbs is still the center of jokes... haha

I love the mission so much we were eating at the stake president's house not to long ago and he was talking about missionaries when they come home and how they all ball their eyes out when he takes their tags and I about started crying myself just thinking about it..... So I stopped thinking about it. haha recently in the mission President Maluenda made some changes to rules in the mission... When he came in he made some changes for elders and sisters to be a lot more open to listen to whatever music as long as it was missionary appropriate, etc.... So in last MLC meeting we got together and he defined everything and debujo the lign in the sand for different things and talked about importance of being focused and also cracked on other little missionary traditions so it's been fun talking about it with each companionship about it all and training on obedience so basically the mission is being purified an it's real exciting.

But congrats to Sam for the senator position that's really cool. It appears that Heston may be getting a bit taller huh... And Sam looks super old now. It looks like you took the picture at the old famous Hobbs Family spot at the conference center.

Anyways take care love you all and apply what you heard about missionary work and get Heston and Maisie studying up on PMG so they can discuss it with the missionaries.

Love you all/ y'all

Elder Hobbs

March 31

Dear Family, 

   Well it has been a great week we've had a lot of fun and have been working hard we had an exchange over the weekend and I got to work with some elders and go to church with them and it was a good experience.... We've been flying around and training on this new way of teaching basically to everyone we can in the zone. Everyone knows it but it's still new to everyone and everyones still working on getting kinks out and new things come up from president and the assistants and we've been kept on our toes. I actually got to work with an Elder that was an ambassador from USU and had heard of Maisie but wasn't sure if he met her. I also found out that we finally got some Fremontites into the mission. We've been surrounded by Weber kids and Alta and all other schools but finally I heard that there's some elders in the valley (Mcallen area) that went to Fremont, So it's a small world I may never run into them due to the fact we're up here on the north border and never really go down south other than for an occasional meeting but hey there's still hope.

As for the release date..... Nothings been officially stated they let elders know 90 days in advance but it's looking like the 30th of July as I wrote to sam in a letter ( may not have made it out of Robstown postal service....) and I will have no choice whether to extend or not Pres. Maluenda has stated we need to accept the call from the Lord to go home so whatever your priesthood keys say is the way to follow. 

Now this is some advice to Sam and was actually something that I learned this week in Sunday. One of my favorite sections in D&C is in 121 where it talks about the importance of using our priesthood, ruling in righteousness, and being what thou art and then acting the part (the characteristics of being a priesthood leader are in the section). So the Branch President in Alice was discussing vs. 46 and it hit me pretty hard what the section may be implying there.... but it says along the lines "let the holy ghost be thy sceptor".....and he asked who holds a sceptor?..... answer A king/queen. and then discussed bad leaders who ruled in tyranny and then good leaders. And it's been my experience that if you are all over someone trying to make them do things then they don’t respond as well but if you show them how to do it, guide them, and encourage and support them then they  are very more likely able to do what you ask of them.

And especially under Pres. Maluenda I've learned how much he trusts his leaders in the mission to go and take care of issues i've felt a lot of weight on my shoulders at times but it's been for great experiences. Experience is one of the best teachers and the way i see Pres. Maluenda guide and lead the mission it has a phrase in chapter 4 of PMG pondering in my mind... Joseph Smith said it and I'm paraphrasing of course.... but it says along the lines "the way the kingdom of heaven is run is through personal revelation to your own assigned stewardship." (please look that up and read it I didn't do the quote much justice. hahaha) So I feel the lord has intended for us to understand what the holding the Priesthood on earth is preparing us for and how important it is to seek your own personal revelation and use the talents and gifts in which you possess. So Sam be a righteous Senator and you'll be able to accomplish much more personally and in the fields in which you are assigned to render service to.

But that's my letter for the week..... thank you for your prayers and thank the family also for those that have kept me in there prayers I feel everyones love and support.

Love "y'all"

Elder Hobbs

March 24

Dear Family, 

What news huh, Heston has a giant house all to himself! That's going to be quite exciting who knows if I'll be joining you I might just move down to Southern Texas and work in the oil company there's quite a bit of business to be made and you don't even need to have a degree so who knows haha.....

But this week has been good we've had a great week and we've been teaching a few people here and there we're still struggling on getting people to church but the ward has been doing well. We just had stake conference and we had a 70 named Al Wright come and speak to the stake and it was wonderful! I learned so much from him and the re-occurring theme that I've been focusing on ever since is that the most important thing is who you are and how you treat others so that's going to be the focus of the rest of my mission.  He also talked a lot about charity patience and being an eternal companion so that'll also be the focus of after the mission but that won't need to be worried about for a while. haha

We got transfer news I'll be staying here in Sinton Zone in Robstown with Elder Bassett for another transfer we're both excited to be here still there's still plenty of work to be done and plenty of miracles to make happen.

General Conference will be coming up and i'm super excited for it. I'm almost more excited to be able to study the liahona in spanish and re read the talks there's lots of knowledge to be attained from Apostles, Prophets, and 70's. I have also been studying a lot in the Teachings of the prophet manuals I've almost finished Joseph F. Smith and I’ve also been using a Book of Mormon study guide that I had ordered it has helped me a ton to understand things in the el libro de mormon. But I love the mission, I love my life, and I love the lord!

Elder Hobbs

March 10

Dear Family,

 

Thanks for the e-mail this week sounds like some cool things are going on back home and that mom is still bringing home crazy stories everyday from school I'll always remember the lunch box left on the playground story. haha FYI my body is still suffering from gag reflex just like it did back home. haha.

 

But this week was a great one we had some good things going on and the zone is looking really good to hit our goals for the end of the month. All the cool new changes have been helping us out quite a bit. The ward has really rallied behind the missionary work in Robstown and the leadership is starting to step up the game. This next week I landed a talk in sacrament this will actually be the first time on my mission that I'll have spoke.... how crazy right. I'm pretty excited for it and i'll be thinking about what the ward needs to hear....

 

We've been teaching some kids right now that live out in Petronilla a tiny town in our area and lots of kids are into a card game called magic. Just so happens my companion is super into the card game and has some really good cards so we've been workin on setting up a big tournament on p-day to have  "Come beat the missionaries at magic day."  haha i've been having to learn a little bit every p-day so I can go for the title. haha It's quite the nerdy game but anything to find more investigators or have some small talk with all the kids that are friends with our investigators. haha

 

There's not really any crazy stories for the week other than we were on our way back from a meeting in McAllen and we decided to go out to eat and I pulled up on the GPS Rudy's bbq so I was talking it up the whole time and was very very excited to bring everyone to Rudys, we pullled up to where the GPS was guiding us and come to find out... it was some little po dunk, closed down building that said Rudy's BBQ nothing like the real deal. my comp and everyone with me burst into laughing and I've recently just got out of depression about the whole experience. haha but it was standing joke in our house for awhile.

 

Well the gospel is true and I know that those who accept our message are very blessed. Continue with your efforts with the sisters back in West Weber and make sure that you are sharing your testimonies without words.... I love you all

 

Elder Hobbs

March 3

Dear Family,

 

   We had quite the week lots of crazy stuff happening in the mission and in the area/zone. We had 2 guys from the mission department come check out the mission and made some changes in the way we teach and in the way we do things as missionaries so we have quite a few new things to be training on and basically everything I've learned since I've been a greeny has changed so it's kinda funny/humbling but I'm willing to follow the council of the lord even if it means changing everything I've done up to this point of my mission but the changes will be really really good and help out a lot of new missionaries and los viejos tambien.

 

   But Joyce got baptized this Sunday my 78 year old grandma I found here on the mission. haha she's a great lady and is really faithful and is a great example of doing the lord's will. I got to speak at her baptism so it was an honor. It's been a fun time teaching her where she already had so much faith and knoweldge of the gospel we went pretty into depth in a lot of different lessons. But when all was said and done it came to her acting on the answers that she received to her prayers and the love and support that members gave to her.

 

   So with the help of the lord and 3 companionships of missionaries at the Robstown ward it's only been 2 months but we are about half way in to the wards convert baptism goal.  The most exciting part of it all is that all of the members have been getting on the same page as us and the priesthood auxilaries have really been stepping it up which bishop has been very excited about that has been his focus for quite some time now.

 

   But the 2 guys that came into the mission had us change the way we've taught and the order in which we've taught. One of them was Greg Hill or something like that he grew up near Holley's car shop place and knew Blair and a few others from the West Weber area so it was exciting to tell someone I'm from West Weber and have someone finally tell me they knew where that was. haha But we will now be teaching the restoration on every first lesson which was something not done before(we we're free to teach whichever doctrine we felt was most fitting for connecting investigators needs to the invitation to be baptized) unless there is a great exception to someone whom the spirit guides us strongly to teach something else too. We will also be teaching in this order which may be subject to change at certain circumstancias: restoration,b.o.m., church tour, plan of salvation, gospel of christ, comm. etc.... We were also trained on how to teach restoration in 7 minutes using the pamphlet and teaching off of the pictures to involve investigators a lot more it's a simple fun yet hard to master in way of teaching. It requires great great questions me and my comp are at about 10 min. in English and 12 or so min. in Spanish but we've only practiced at it in 3 comp studies so far but we've taught the lesson about 4-5 times and it's been real successfull it brings the spirit and involves the investigatro and keeps the lessons focused.

 

But it's been a fun and interesting week I'm excited for all the great changes and I love the mission. Hope all is well back in the home stakes.

 

Love You

 

Elder Hobbs

Pictures from Robstown

Energy Sword, House they roofed, Deylah, Muddy Truck, Pena Family

February 21

Dear Family,

 

I'll be a little bit brief due to sending all those pictures i've realized I need to take more pictures of what's going on it's just that i've never been a picture guy but i'll make sure i'll get more to send home to y'all!

 

These last couple days have been some of the craziest of my mission. Friday and Saturday we were driving all over for interviews with investigators of other missionaries and making up the work for not being able to work in our own area for 3 days. We're still working on contacting a bunch of refferalls from the Cavasos Family.

 

The 3 day trainings were very uplifting and it was exciting to work with Elder Hill again. I actually worked with one of our assistants.

 

The mission has a huge focus on receiving referrals. We got to share our experience we had with receiving 18 referrals from the Cavazos family in front of the missions leaders. We now have the standard hiked up to receiving 25 referrals in a week!! pretty big but that's what the focus is. We saw a huge miracle in our own area we were talking with a guy Saturday night that was working on his house. He wasn't at all interested but we started bombing him with who do you know questions (such as someone who's had a death in the family, struggling with drugs, moved in, had a baby) and he reffered us to a buddy of his that's mom passed away recently we went to the house he let us right in shared lpart of the plan of salvation and he accepted the invitation of baptism so i have a testimony that we are very blessed as we listen and apply the council from our spiritual leaders and respecting there keys and authority. Lots of great principles to learn on the mission i'm blessed to be a missionary and receive these blessings.

 

Thanks for the e-mails from Sam and Saren it was good to hear from you both i'll make sure to get back to you next week. Love you all take care.

 

Love Elder Hobbs

February 17

Querida familia,

 

Gracias para su carta hoy dia y por las noticias del mundo. Well the week was good. We have been doing well and the weather has gotten a lot better it's in the 70's with a slight breeze so it's perfect weather now it should be heating up and getting into the 90's soon but we'll see how it goes. 

 

Well our investigador that came through and decided to get baptized decided not to do it ... she also didnt' come to church and has been feeling really uneasy. She has some family opposition and wouldn't decide to tell her kids anything about the baptism and wouldn't want to do it without their consent so she is kinda in limbo and feels like we've been pushing her but that's what were here to do in a loving way so she decided she wants to get baptized on the 2nd of March instead so that was a little bit of a bummer but she'll come around.  We on the other hand had a different investigator come to church who really really enjoyed it and found out one of her old high school friends attends church so that was pretty exciting to see unravel so she's looking at getting baptized in about 2 weeks.

 

We have had a really big focus this last week about getting refferals in the mission our Mission President has the leaders report to the assistants how many we receive each day. So we were at a members home with a 17 and 19 year old in the middle of no where ville or in other words Petronilla population 200. And it's a little city I've tried to work before but it's literally almost impossible to go in there blind and we have no formers or potentials there or hardly any members. But this family was talking with us about their friends and they didn't know where any of them lived so we offered to drive them around with us in the truck to get all of the addresses about an hour later we had received 18 refferalls (quality member refferals with descriptions and already built friendships) to people all across this little rancho city type place (almost like West Weber without any surrounding cities). Next Friday we have plans to contact all these refferals with them and we're going to go on splits with some members in order to do so for about 4 hours. Number wise and statistically speaking about 1 and every 3 member refferals gets baptized so we're pretty excited about our odds right now. So thank you to all those members who freely give refferals to the missionaries it can really make our calling a lot easier.  What a blessing to have a truck to be able to drive members around with us it's great that the church has the resources to support us on our missions with such great finding tools.

 

 

These following 3 days we will be in McAllen during a 3 day leadership conference it'll be exciting, it'll be a great opportunity to learn and receive trainings on how to be abetter missionary and to help others learn and grow as missionaries. I really wish the missionaries would have helped me do missionary work or at least understood how easy it is to do so as members you just need the mentality and the willingness to pop the question on people or invite them to a family home evening or event at the church. I'd just like to invite you all to work on having that family home evening I'd talked to you about and invite nonmembers/all of Heston's friends and make it a fun little event you can't go wrong with that. An interesting story one of my companions shared with me that was that his dad and his old mission companion were eating lunch together somewhere and they noticed the waitress struggled speaking in English the both of them learned Spanish on their missions and started speaking to them and they told her how they learned and asked her why she wasn't a member..... the waitress responded I don't know no one has ever asked and I've never went to church. A couple weeks later she was baptized by some missionaries after being reffered by the retired missionries or should I say the still proselyting missionaries. But as we have the gospel on our mind it will give us opportunity to make it out of our mouths to those we speak with throughout the day.

 

-Elder Jacob J. Hobbs original

 

I love you all have a great day and week.