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