February 10

What a week!!!

 

   Well I now have a new companion. haha he came early before transfers. Elder Hill got called to be a 3rd assistant to the mission president and I received a new zone leader named Elder Bassett he's from Utah and is a great guy he's got a lot of love and I'm excited to have him up here in the great zone of Sinton.

 

   It has continued to be pretty chilly this last week we've had a couple days in the high 50's or 60's but there's been some 30's it could have snowed one day when it was jumping from 30 to 35 but the coldness is nothing it's the humidity that makes it go to the bone it feels more like in the teens to me. haha but i'm living and surviving it should be getting a lot better.

 

   We had quite the miracle with a lady we've been teaching just the other night. She moved into the ward about 2 weeks ago and we've been teaching her and we've been throwing members at her right and left so she hasn't came to church yet but she knows more than half the relief society already. She has been investigating the church for about 2-3 years now or at least attending and was engaged to a member to be married but the guy passed away about 2 weeks before the wedding. She's 78 years old and is such a spiritual lady you can feel the presense of the spirit with her so strong and everyone loves her and her stories........ So we were working on her to accept a date and be baptized she received answers that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true but she's already been baptized 2-3 times which includes the Jordan River once. So we had an FHE with the bishop at his house Sunday night and him and another member from Corpus that is this lady's close friend helped us teach a lesson and she got her answer that she wanted to be baptized she wanted to do it in April on a specific date that ment something special to her but the members helped us a ton and taught clear doctine on acting as soon as possible rather than pushing it off and she agreed and the lord prompted me to ask her about the following week (BTW we had planned to share a scriptue in msh 18 vs 8-11, as soon as the doubt came up for april the member sister rich shared those specific verses and asked her the same question we were about to on "what would impede you from being baptized if this is your desire" it was crazy the spirit must have shown her our lesson plan. haha we told her that the lord really wanted her to hear that scripture tonight because we had planned that very verse.) and she said yes...... following question was "Who can baptize me can I choose?" we said yeah so she asked if she could make a call and she calls up her adopted son in Corpus and he started crying at the news and he started spreading the news over there, Bishop made some calls to get it all planned, The other member Sis. Rich starts planning a potluck. And we start making calls to let our members know! It was such a spiritual experience to be there  and to see how quick the spirit can make things happen..... At the end of the lesson Bishop thanked us and Joyce and said as he teared up "Thanks Joyce you were an answer to my prayers... I had prayed to have  a missionary experience and I got it with you" The spirit was flaming by this point and tears were shed and we are now planning on a baptism this Sunday! So moral of the story when missionaries and members work together and are unified the spirit becomes the real teacher and the lord's purposes and plans become fulfilled.

 Members homes are like home field advantage when we get an investigator in a members home they instantly feel the spirit. Joyce herself said those words and said she knew she'd be ready to be baptized as soon as she entered in the home.

 

Invitation: Host an FHE with the sister missionaries investigators or.... still host an FHE and invite as many less active or non members to the house for the fhe and have a fun little object lesson and teach a gospel principle so the spirit can testify to those that come that there homes can be the same as ours with the spirit there.

 

Love you family have a great week

 

Elder Hobbs

February 3

Well sounds like there's quite a lot of big news back home another marriage I've missed, congrats to Annelise.  But that's good news about college i'm breathing a sigh of relief.....

 

This week was a crazy one we've had a lot of things go down and a lot of miracles. The family that we had just baptized had some personal problems go on within the family and now have been debating on moving to Oklahoma or staying here in Texas and so me and Elder Hill have been heart broken if we're going to have to see them leave but it'll be ok if the lord has that in his will so we gathered them up one night and had a little pow wow and got the oppurtunity for them to seek revelation on what they should do and it was a very great opportunity to feel the spirit working with them there they all knelt down and the father asked the questions and they were all deciding as a family what to do after the council. The revelation I received is that it wasn't my revealtion to receive but that the family was going to be able to handle either decision as long as they were as unified as possible.

 

My testimony has truly grown on the doctrine of fasting and it's something that our misison president has been driving home for his entire stay here. That through faith, fasting, praying, and good works we can see the miracles we're looking for and that we can have our prayers answered. This past Sunday we had the opportunity for both of the things we fasted for fullfilled. We had a member bring her niece to church and we our working on baptism with her and we receied a refferal from Corpus that has already been to church for weeks that lives in our area but hadn't been taught. I would highly suggest that next family home evening the doctrine of fasting gets taught and that you seek the scriptures to support your teachings there is a great chapter in Isaiah 58 ? that drives home the promised blessings of the fast if you'd like to give that a look.

 

This past Saturday we had the oppurtunity to put new shingles on the house in which we live in. We had a decent turn out from the ward and the four of us had to work on it but we shingled the whole thing from about 8 till 5:30 and we only took about a 30 min. break to eat lunch. But I now feel pretty comfortable in putting shingles on roofs. I'm glad that I've gotten to learn a few trades on our own house and the mission house in Robstown. The most important lesson that I've learned from it all is the echoing words of my father "This is why you go to School". It's nice to know how to do it but it's not the job for me. But I will say I still remember how to swing a hammer and balance on a roof. haha

 

But that's basically it, I love being a missionary and I celebrated my sister mark last Saturday by putting on a new roof so that's how we do it in southern Texas. The zone is going to be celebrating by having a little barbacue for the month of January. 

Love you all have a great week.

Elder Hobbs

January 27

Hey thanks for the e-mail this week it was a good one... I appreciate you not getting trunky in the e-mail thanks for that! 

 

 But I'm going to need to write a letter to Heston about Girlfriends......jk but that's funny to hear about Heston make sure you give him the dating talk and any other talks that a young man would need. haha

 

This week was a great one we've really been working hard with the members and taking them out to lessons with us and making sure we're visiting them often to help them do some missionary work or what not. This week we had 9 confirmations in the sacrament meeting at the Robstown ward for the family we had helped be baptized and the family some other elders had taught so it was quite the sight to see there was only one speaker that talked for about 15 minutes. haha and then there was 6 people that received the Aaronic Priesthood in Opening Excercises. So half of church was spent in a priesthood circle. I can tell I've been getting pretty soft after getting the shakes in my arms during the priesthood blessings. haha so it was great it gave a big boost to the ward we're very excited about all the things going on and our zone baptized 10 to end the month which is something that's never happened in our little zone up here on all the records that we have so what a big miracle! The lord continues to bless more and more people it's so great to be involved in channeling the love the lord has to others. We almost get the chance to be mirrors on the mission to reflect the love that our saviour has for everyone every day the people just need to open the window to let it all come in and drench them spiritualy!

 

But I hope you all have a great week and continue to support, refer, and offer your house to the missionaries that serve in the ward and help them to have success in fellowshipping those that they teach. Love you all have a great week! Thanks for all your love and support to me.

 

Elder Hobbs

 

January 21

Dear Family,

 

Pues speaking of Ogden I was wondering how the Ogden temple is coming along in it's reconstroction and if that'll be my first stop when I get home or not.

 

   But this was a great week we had some baptisms! We helped Trey Garza get baptized a 15 year old and the rest of a different family which was Nick, Adam, Bobbie, Savannah, and Jose Pena.  We helped the young mens double in size and then the ones we have baptized have helped the ward reactivate a family because they knew the kids that were in the family and they invited them to mutual and church. The Pena family has been helping us out a lot lately so far we have been teaching their in laws and we've had some good time balling it up with their friends at mutual and on P-days so we've been using our talents. The other little girl that was baptized by her step father has also been doing really well we're still teaching a few different members in that family so we've just tapped into some gold mines for finding lately. haha but the ward has been doing great and have had an increase of excitement to do missionary work. We had close to 100 people at the baptismal service so it was well supported and the newly baptized converts have been well known and well received by the ward.

 

Things have been really fun up here so far I've really come to love working with members up here it's so mucho fun and so easier to do the lord's work when we have everyone involved in it so I've been impressed with the coordinated efforts that the ward has been doing lately so we've received lots of blessings as we've worked as a team.

 

As for me my spanish is getting a bit worse... But my study habits have been getting a lot better because I have to study a lot harder to retain my spanish up here becuase we just never speak it other than in the companionship.haha but we've have been getting fed well and have been getting taken care of Elder Hill has been gung hoe about excercising in the mornings so we have been getting up a little eariler and doing sprints, or jogging or playing basketball I've been enjoying it I gotta get in shape myself. But that's basically it i've loved the work and I don't want to leave it ever in my life. Please support your local missionaries in any way you can. A refferal is worth a lot more than dinner I'll just let you know that! 

Love you all

Elder Hobbs

January 13

Dear FAmily,

Sounds like everything is fun back hom huh! it's been pretty cold over here still but is recently been warming up. haha I keep getting tempted to buy warm clothes but then tell myself no cuz I just have a few weeks left but it's in the 60's and 70's now so I've been loving it.

This week was pretty fun we had our family we've been teaching show up to church and they will be planning on getting baptized this Sunday to come. We will also be working with 2 other people who will be baptized this Sunday that have been coming to church we'll just need to work out some commandment issues and with the other one we are just working on meeting with him he's a busy guy.

I've so far loved Elder Hill as my companion he's a great guy and very diligent so we've been working really hard together and have been very involved with our zone. We are still arguing who would have won that championship game if jordan would have beat Bingham my junior year. haha

 We got special permission to go to McAlllen this past Sunday to have Elder Hill do a baptism for a couple he had taught down there and it was a good trip we rode with a member who was a gangster and a guy who had been in prison for over 10 years.... haha it was a fun little trip and to tell you the truth a pretty spirtiual one we got to hear the story of both of their lives changing and the influence of the missionaries in their lives it built my testimony on the doctrine of repentance. My favorite part of the whole thing was that they never knew the missionaries names(when missionaries strories are recounted in conference you seldom hear the names of the missionaries) and as I thought of that I told them that that was my favorite part and the reason behind that is cuz there's only one name on our badge that matters for the two years and it's the name that few people truly recognize of who we represent and it just meant a lot to me of the actions we need to take in order to carry the name with pride and with honor.

But that was my little lesson for the week I love you all and hope you all have a great week and stay safe. 

Elder Hobbs

January 6

Dear Family,

   It was nice to see you all on skype and see how well your all doing. This week has been quite the adventure me and Elder Hill have had tons of fun we've been getting along well and talking trash on each other for the little Jordan and Fremont rivalry we had and have had some good times already. I'm very excited to have another companion with a very good work ethic and great attitude.

   We had a baptism this last Sunday. We helped Delylah get baptized by her father who received the Aaronic Priesthood the day of so it was very special to see the baptismal service they were both on a very spiritual high. After that all of Delylah's little brothers and sisters were wanting to get in the water it was super funny to see their excitement and desires they had to get baptized also but they'll just need to wait till they're 8.... haha but she's  one of the pioneers for the family we've now been teaching 3 other people in her family that want to be baptized also so that's created a wildfire in the family. haha

   We also had a kid named Trey come to church who is a solid guy he'll be preparing for baptism for the 19th and already loves the church and comes to church activities we'll just need to work on helping his family support him and come out to it. And than the Pena family has been being worked with also but they have missed church for a couple of weeks for different reasons each time but they're committed to come the next two weeks Bro Pena has decided to finally give it his all. (He's a very busy man they're working on moving in, he's working, and taking care of a family of 8 that lives in 3 different places for the moment. haha)

   Our mission ended the year with 995 baptisms out of the goal of 1000 so it was a bummer we were short by 5 but that's the second highest number the mission has baptized so we weren't super bummed.

   But I hope you all enjoy the new years and have made those new years resolutions for big old 2014! 
Love you all have a good week

Elder Hobbs

December 30

Dear Family,

   I hope that everthing is OK with y'all this week cuz i didn't get an e-mail. Maybe the letters just aren't going through I know how mom and dad are with technology. haha. But cool news. We will be able to watch a video for new years eve. The lion king, mulan, or finding nemo so we will be deciding on that. Also transfers are happening tommorrow I will be staying and receiving a new companion. Some of you may have already heard of him his name is Elder Hill and he was acctually the qb for Jordan high my junior year the one that beat us in the 1st pre-season game. He's a good missionary and I'm very excited to go hard with Elder Hill. We are still working on the same investigators they have been busy trying to move into a house so they've been working on Sundays but they're still wanting to do it.

  But thank you for the skyping it was lots of fun to get to see everyone. It seems everyone is doing great. Everyone looked the same other than Heston looked like he's been eating his veggies and Sam looks like he's hit the gymn since last I saw him. haha but hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a Happy New Years and enjoy life. Make sure to find the time to study during the holidays. 
Love you all!!!