I Just Thought Missionaries Walked Around All Day

Hi Mom,

Joe is coming along, He is just getting everything in order that he needs to do and he’s working on becoming a better member, ha-ha. He says he is already a Mormon, which he pretty much is. He has an aunt named Kathy that reminds me of you. So I have started to call her mom. I already call his Grandma, Grandma so it’s not that weird. They say me and Joe are just brothers from other mothers. It is pretty great. The other families are coming along. This has been probably the best time on my mission and some of the hardest. I was not used to the whole like teaching thing it was weird; I just thought missionaries walked around all day ha-ha.

Lisa is just falling right back into going to church, and Angel is doing great in the youth program. So well he is now dating one of the young women...... so I am worried that it could be a good thing or a very very bad thing cause well yeah teenage relationships are like gunpowder ...... they aren't stable and very volatile.

I am staying on bike for another transfer. The new people showed up today and transfers are tomorrow. Elder Hui is moving on to another bike area. Um I will tell ya who I get next week I guess. I am staying.... and both the Sisters are moving, too. They are staying together but just leaving the area. They had a small problem with an investigator not understanding why sisters go to his house. So yeah, we aren't sure if we are getting sisters here or elders here. So once again I am the only missionary left in a ward. It kinda happened in Granada Hills. We had a 6 weeker and a trainee and then Chapman and me... so yeah here goes nothing. I love and hate that President knows I can handle pretty much whatever he throws at me because I just put my head down and keep going.

I was sick this whole week so we didn't do much. On Wednesday though, we get to view the new movie “Meet the Mormons” so that will be cool.

I love you Bye

Visit from Elder and Sister Carlson

Hi Mom,

I am enjoying my new CDs, thanks. The EFY one is different than the last one and so I am getting used to it, and the other one, I listened to only once so far, and that was while cleaning, so not very much got in. It sounded good; I just haven't sat and listened to it much. We don't have as much time for that here as I have in other places. We had the assistants call and congratulate us again on having a really good week. I don't know if they make rounds now or something or we are actually just doing really well. We only had 2 investigators (yeah only 2 that sounds so dumb. I remember when I was ecstatic if we had one or even just a less active) oh and we had 3 less actives at church. Well, 2 and a half, but one we had dropped because we couldn't get in contact with him after the first lesson. But then he came to church yesterday after not even seeing him for like 6 weeks. Yes, he is friends with one of our investigators and all but he came for the first time, so that is cool. Our ward is really trying to reach out and help in the work, which is a really big change since I got here. We are apparently going to have like Joe and then 2 or 3 of the young men and then the young men's councilor all at this next meeting with Angel. When I said we need to get more members to lessons, I was meaning more members to different lessons. Not like 10 to just one lesson, ha-ha. We got a ride from President Clink Yesterday, he is our Stake President, and he said he was grateful that we were hard working brethren.

We went hiking over on the Burbank ridge as a zone, we were south of the big white B for Burbank (which throws me of every so often, thinking somehow I am in Bountiful). It was a terrible hike because there was a fire maybe 5 years ago so the trail used to be almost completely shaded but now is barren and an oven.

Well here is kinda my week:
We gave a mini lesson at church to a member’s friend right after opening exercises. The teaching situation was weird, cause some how it worked out to be Sister Ogilvie and I teaching as a companionship. Elder Hui and Sister Hardy were talking to the member’s daughter that got back from BYU-I. I moved over to see what was happening with the nonmember. So yeah ..... it was weird. She was Seventh Day Adventist so her question was the same as others: why Sunday not Saturday. I gave a logical answer and a scriptural answer and told her to pray. Logical answer: because during the time of Christ, Saturday didn't even exist yet. Scriptural answer: Mark 2: 27, as well as that Christ said that he came to fulfill the law of Moses not break it, and so thus the Sabbath no longer would have been as the Jews had it.

As well as we had a hand off lesson with the Spanish elders they gave us a man named Lance who they found. He is interesting because he lives in a group home and it is a narcotics anonymous home as well, as for mental and physical disabilities, so we are still trying to completely make sure he is accountable.

We also had a great time at the Zone Conference. Elder Carlson’s wife, Sister Carlson, stood up and pretty much chastised us and said; all the rules apply to you. You can think that the rules don't apply to you, but they do. Then she gave some weird examples, like a guy in the Air Force who wanted to buzz his parents’ home and was told no. But apparently all he heard was blah blah blah and thought the rules didn't apply to him. So he went to buzz the house and made a pass. While turning around, his wing clipped a tall pine tree in the yard, and he crashed in front of his parents’ house. She gave some other examples. So we all thought, if that was the way she is then holy crap, what is the general authority going to be like?! So he got up and started and the gist of what he said was in a very nice manner: be obedient ... it's smart, ok, and then moved on. Ha-ha, so yeah, it was weird but pretty cool. He was a funny guy who didn't completely want to be a general authority. He said it was never a plan or on the radar or the top ten on the list, it just wasn't even on the list. So yeah, he was kinda cool.

Love
Elder Hyde

Top 10 of the Week and Big Changes in the Mission

A friend sent him their top ten events of the week. Here are Elder Hyde's Top Ten from this week:

Top Ten

10. Waking up

9. Walking

8. Biking

7. Shaving

6. Studies

5. Sitting

4. Talking to people

3. Eating

2. Sleeping

1. Preaching

Well, I have been here for 3 months and things have been alright lately, here is a summary of life.

We have seen a lot of people come and go and we have some people that have been around for a long time. But we have one guy named Joe, his whole family is members but he wasn't baptized because his parents were having some marriage issues and to spite the mom the dad said Joe couldn't be baptized. So he kinda took a hard left turn in his teenage years. He had to come live with his grandma because he decided he needed to change. So he has gone from doing everything you can think of, to now coming to church for 3 months straight. He will be baptized in the coming year-ish. He has some things that he needs to do before he is able to be baptized so we are just teaching and fellowshipping him for the time being, so that is pretty awesome. He has put some spirit back into this ward which has 4 people under the age of 40 that attend regularly. We have 8 people over 90 and 14 people over the age of 80, so yeah we have an old ward..... But we are trying to help this ward come back.

Yeah it is either the less-actives hates you or love you or just try to act as if you have the wrong person. One of the easiest I have seen was when we walked down the street and a lady flagged us down. Then we taught her and her son and they came to church 2 weeks in a row and then missed 2 weeks in a row. But it was because of travel, so I guess that is ok. But we will get them coming again this week. Yeah, it was pretty great. We just keep trying to help them come closer to Christ and Satan is like, “no don't go closer to Him” and we are all like Yes, Yes come closer to Him. So yeah, that is annoying when Satan gets all up in our business.

We have no idea what is going to happen this transfer since, we had some stuff go down in the mission lately. We had a zone leader emergency transferred and have had so far 4 elders sent home, sadly including one of my former companions, and there might be more, it just hasn't happened yet so we aren't sure. So I might be staying in my area or I might be going, so who really knows. I kinda feel like I might be the one heading on out but who knows. We find out the Saturday after the one coming up.

We also have a Seventy coming to the mission, Elder Carlson. It is on Thursday at The Granada Hills stake center. I can never get away, can I? Then we have one more week and then it is transfers and it is going to be an interesting one. Supposedly we are going to find out about iPads this month too, so this is a crazy month. Just like last year how we had 50 missionaries come in and Elder Miller and I opened an area and yeah, Septembers are a crazy month.



I have 10 months left, so it’s kinda soon, kinda not so long. I am an old man in the mission now, I'm 20 and I am over a year...... so yeah it is scary now. All of the missionaries that were here when I showed up are now leaving and it is like I don't know anyone anymore. The Sisters that came out with me only have 4 months left so ahhhhhhhh. Everyone has started to do the thing they did to Elder Mudrow, “How long you been out Elder, 14 months? Oh, so you are almost done?” No, stop saying that! I thought that would never happen to me, I would joke with him about it and now the exact same thing is now happening to me.....

I am just at the point where every day feels the same. They all mesh together and I sweat a lot. There are small differences, but nothing really major lately. So I enjoy watching the new missionaries have such drive and excitement. It is interesting and kinda sad to slowly watch that drive and excitement dim. They kinda see the real missionary life and realize that missionaries aren't some super people. That everything isn’t just smooth and there are no problems.



My bike is doing ok, it needs a tune up bad, but a real tune up not just me put some chain oil on and cleaning it off, so yeah, I am going to ask President if I can take it to a member in the Granada Hills ward who has been riding bikes for over 60 years now and fixes missionary bikes for free and I like free, free is good. Yep I have a new suit and I got new service shoes now I need to get some sport shoes, and my normal (normal is a relative term, I mean church shoes) are holding up ok, They are good old missionary shoes they are kinda tired but are still good.

I go fine, I'm a good old missionary, really tired but am still good. Life just keeps pulling along.

Love ya

Elder Hyde