This Weekend Was Amazing

Well this weekend was an amazing experience, our investigator Stanley was baptized and confirmed! It was such a spiritual experience; you could just feel the Spirit when you walked into the room. The new stake president came, cause he was having an interview with Bishop. I only had to do it once, and didn't even have a problem with his name. He was so happy. It was so great, after the baptism he said, "I no longer need the goal to be baptized, I can have my new goal of going to the temple!" Another time he said "my ambition in this life is to be able to live in the Celestial Kingdom with our Heavenly Father!" He is one of the greatest persons I have ever met on or off the mission. It was just a wonderful day as well as Sunday was amazing. I am thankful for him and his desire now to share it with his friends and family, He started asking us for restoration pamphlets to give to a friend, before he was baptized, He is just excited to share this with his friends! I hope that I didn't sound like boasting, I am just as Ammon was in Alma 26, "...I boast not of myself, but of my God..."

Thanksgiving is an odd time for missionaries, because it is prime time for teaching because of the gratitude and such as that but also very poor time for teaching and finding and etc because no one really wants these 2 random men showing up on their doorstep the week of a holiday.

Here are some pictures

Love you
Elder Hyde

We are Starting to See the Fruits of Our Labor

I am so happy I get to stay and baptize Stanley. I am Happy for him and he is so great. I know he was one of the people I was meant to look for when we came down to earth. I know that he would get baptized even if I wasn't here cause he is so prepared. Yeah, it has been great. We can go to the temple visitors center once a transfer. So it just happened to work out that we went only 2 weeks apart ha-ha. We got the exact same sister missionaries that we got last time which was funny. We keep going with Joe. He is doing good. We are going to the temple as a mission in December.

I don't need to much stuff for Christmas. I have enough of the small fun gifts. Just maybe one or two of those and then the cd and socks but the rest of what you might use on me can go into the pool for the Hyde family service gift or whatever you want to call it.

We have had a great past transfer, we have been able to find and teach more than ever before on my mission. We are starting to see the fruits of our labors. We have 2 baptisms set up for the end of the month! It is so amazing to see people that are prepared by the Lord and the Love that the Lord has for them, so that they can come back unto the fold! This is a picture of me, my companion and our investigator Stanley! He is going to be baptized on the 22nd! It is gonna be great! We are just trying to keep up with the area, so yeah it has been fun. It was a slow / fast week so that was good. Nothing else to really report, oh Stanley told me to say Hello to my Parents! And here are more photos of stuff. I made homemade Jalapeno poppers and toast and eggs for breakfast this week. Also I made French toast for us 3 times this week. So yum.

Love y'all

Elder Hyde

Look at that blond hair! He is spending a lot of time outside. Also pictured, Stanley and Elder C.

When Seth was younger he would be cooking something yummy and look up and say, "my mission companions are going to love me, right Mom?" They sure do appreciate his cooking.

November 3 Happy Halloween

Well, we are staying together for another transfer so this is going to be my 2nd 6 month area on my mission. But this time stuff is going on so I am good with staying.

This week was a good one. I have been thinking about the commandments lately because that is what we have been teaching one of our investigators, Stanley. We taught him 4 times, 2 of which were commandments- tithing and fast and law of chastity. We also taught him the word of wisdom this morning and we set his baptismal date for the 22nd. It was going to be the 29th, then we moved it to the15th but then we remembered that it was Stake Conference. So we wouldn't have been able to confirm him the next day (however I suggested that we could always just ask one of the 70's to confirm him for us hahah but bishop said no). So now we have moved it to the 22nd. We taught him this morning and organized more about the baptismal service. It will be 5 pm, Saturday the 22nd of November. He chose to let me have the honor of baptizing him and having Brother Mariano (a Filipino member in the ward who speaks the same dialect as Stanley who is also Filipino) confirm him on the 23rd. We are so happy for Stanley as he has chosen to come unto Christ through Baptism! So that is pretty awesome.

We are just trying to keep up with the work. It is hard sometimes but we know that it is the Lord's work so He will help us do it. However, it sounds like y'all teach like crazy over there haha, English work is very slow in comparison to Zim, well not in the 2 North Hollywood areas. Every English ward, except for 2 wards, has at least 2 sets of missionaries, some wards have 3, and in Spanish wards they have 5 or 6 sets of missionaries. Each companionship has like 4 lessons in a week, that is a high teaching week. We are just trying to keep up with the work, it is hard sometimes but we know that it is the Lord's work so He will help us do it.

We had an odd experience in the Laundromat this morning. We were off to the side behind a row of tables for folding that are raised. So it wasn't easy to be seen from outside of the Laundromat, but a man comes over and asks if we are missionaries, Mormon missionaries. I, never passing up a good contact, say yes, yes, we are. He then turns and looks sternly at me and says "Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Alive! Joseph Smith is dead... Joseph Smith is dead! Brigham Young is dead. ..... Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Alive! Joseph Smith is dead... Joseph Smith is dead! Brigham Young is dead." and then walks away. About a minute later I get up to get change for the driers, and he is nowhere to be seen, not at all. So I am really confused how he could have seen us if he wasn't in there using the machines or anything. Or how he could have seen use from across the store, so yeah that was weird.

We taught a few other people and are just trying to help them progress to baptism. Well we also had a great Saturday, we filled up the font for the Sylmar Elders, since we have the keys, and then we helped put together beds for our investigator/less active now active family, and it was fun cause it felt kinda like stuff we did when we had to move. Except this time it was me saying “don't drag it you will scratch it” or “don't tighten it too much or you will crack the wood” etc. and other things Dad would say, ha-ha. We got the bed done that Brother Newman and I were doing. The other three elders needed help so we did that. It took longer because we had to take apart some stuff that was put together with the wrong stuff. So yeah, thanks for teaching me how to do things.



We had a curfew on Halloween for 7pm. We weren’t able to see Angel’s family this week. We did have dinner at Joe’s on Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome. We went to the visitors center this week on Wednesday and that was pretty cool. So it was Joe, me, Elder Tobchan, and Martin. Martin is a friend of a member in the ward, as well as a friend of Joe’s. So we taught Martin down at the temple, that was fun.

Well, It is scary I was talking with some other missionaries, and they said I was an old missionary, so I stomped my foot and told them to stop talking. haha no but They told me that I was in the top five oldest groups in the mission....... so inside I curled up and died....... Well we are hoping to have a great next Transfer, it is sad though, I have 2 companions going home at the end of this transfer, My Mighty Trainer Elder Ehninger and Elder Mudrow, so that is sad.

We had the Halloween party last week. Here are photos as well as photos of the moon and street on Halloween night.

Have a great week.

Love

Elder Hyde