Friday, July 8, 2011

Hola family y amigos!!
Thank you for all of the letters that you have sent me.  I love to read every one of them and I love hearing about your days. So this week was another fast one with it's good days and not as good days.
On Saturday we went for the first time to a place called the Teaching Resource Center.  It is where volunteers come in to pretend to be investigators and we contact them in a park, and then teach them a twenty minute lesson.  It was a lot of fun and was almost all in Spanish.  Our investigator started to speak some English to us so we replied in English.  We taught this girl about the Restoration and explained eternal families and the power of prayer.  It is amazing how much we can feel the Spirit during these fake lessons.  That night we had a fireside for the Fourth of July.  We sang some random songs like Yankee Doodle and a former advisor to two presidents of the United States talked to us.  He taught us the importance of knowing who we are and what we stand for just like all of the soldiers that fight in our military.  He told us some really sad stories of people without freedom.  Afterwards there was a video of the map of the world with missionaries walking in and symbolizing each mission in the world today.  As it went on we all start to stand up and cheer for our missions and the work.  It was so insane to see 3,000 missionaries cheering and pumped me up to go out and teach.  I know that this message is the most important thing for every single person in the world to hear, and that someday everyone will hear it and know that it is right.  After that they let us watch the fireworks coming from the Stadium of Fire in Lavell Edwards Stadium.  It was pretty funny.  We were all lined up next to the outer fence and it felt like we were prisoners.  There were people on the other side watching them and they were taking pictures of us like we were zoo animals. Haha.
On Sunday we had our first sacrament meeting as a zone.  It was in the main building and the power went out.  So we were sitting in a semi lighted room having a spanish/english fast and testimony meeting.  It was totally random but I loved it.  I wanted to bear my testimony but there wasn't enough time.  That night we had another fireside and Elder Oak's daughter taught us about prayer and played five songs on her violin.  She is really really good.  She graduated from Juliard which is always a good move.  I watched the Prophet of the Restoration afterwards.  I know that there is no way Joseph Smith and Hyrum would have put their families through all that pain for a made up religion.  All of it is true.
So mom, we don't have family home evenings here.  I kind of forgot those existed.  We taught one of our investigators, "Elias" about the Atonement and we committed him to baptism! We were the first in our district to do it.  We were so happy for him and for us too.  When we asked him it was the most suspensful exiting thing, I can't imagine what it will be like for real.  That night we shared pictures of our families and friends as a district and played some PIG on a nerf hoop in a room.  Which we now know is against the rules and won't be doing again. Haha.  It was fun while it lasted.
Everyday we go to the TALL lab where the Church has written a computer program based on that little small red book I have.  It is very good practice but sometimes we get off track and have sing sessions.  Not very often.  I practice what I am going to teach that day and I practice grammar a lot too.  The rest of the week was pretty uneventful.  I am hot all the time and so is every one else.  I just sweat at night and it doesn't feel like we have air conditioning.  The other night I only got like 4 hours of sleep. I was just laying there.  I have found that the MTC bookstore is legit.  It is the cheapest store I have ever been too, better that the Dollar Tree and Walmart.  We can get soda for like 30 cents.  I am so sick of this food too. Haha
So in the MTC it's stressed that we find the need of the investigators.  We teach people, not lessons.  We need to show our love for them and find why the gospel will be important in their lives and give them a reason to change.  This is what we work on all the time.  They don't teach us how to teach or what to teach.  It's all about following the Spirit and knowing the needs of the people. That is why it is so important to have love for those people.
I am running out of time. But I know Brother Marker as nothing but free time now.  Haha.  Please send me some pictures of my friends, I kind of forgot to print them. The ones before I left.  Thanks for everything, and for the package this week.  I can feel your love from here and I love you too.  I know that the Atonement of Christ can fix anything that is unfair about life and Jesucrist nos ama.
I'll try to organize my thoughts better before I write from now on.  Keep sending me questions.
 
Les quiero,
Elder Hubbard