More Pictures from Xochicalco!!

Good morning!!

This week was crazy!! On Tuesday we had zone conference but it was three zones so a ton of missionaries. Elder Beal, Elder Herman, and Elder Reid were all there. It was so nice to see them and hang out for a while. President Chavez spoke for most of the time- like 3 hours. Every companionship in our mission got cell phones which is going to be so much easier to find people with a lot less walking. He also asked every missionary to prepare an english 2 minute talk for our juntas, pray and sing in english always, and talk in english in our houses. He really wants the spanish speakers to learn english. Praying in english is ridiculously hard, I struggled with it this week. Also, I had to give a two minute talk last night at the District Leaders meeting last night and it was nothing short of embarrassing. Haha.
I`ve had some pretty weird stuff happen to me this week. I was teaching a lady outside her house in the doorway when a truck stopped behind me. I turned around to look who it was and some guy just took a picture of me and drove off. Haha. One day I looked in the area book that has all of the old investigators to find to teach. I found a lady and her address and went to go visit her with Elder Garza on intercambios. What I failed to read is she is pschysophrenic. We got there and things started good and ended ugly. It is an experience I will remember for sure. Haha. I learned that Satan is really destroying families in whatever way possible and almost all of them were being used in the family.  We had tons of blessings after that appointment, I think Heavenly Father felt sorry for us. We had 6 lessons and like 7 new investigators. Elder Leyva was impressed when he came back to Topilejo.
We had some good good lessons this week. I made a goal to start asking people to be baptized whenever possible. We set a date with a family of 5 this week. They came to church yesterday and loved it too. I love teaching families more than anything else. This Sunday we are going to have ask another family too.
The young man that I baptized, Brian, moved to another town here close called San Pedro. I found out where he lived and passed the reference to the missionaries there. They went and found him and like 8 cousins who all want to be baptized! I love it when I feel like I am doing some good.
On Saturday we went to Xochicalco by Cuernava, Morelos, Mèxico. It was one of the coolest things that I have seen in my life. It was just a bunch of pyramids and ruins on the top of a mountain. They were made about 700 dc. There was a part where you could whisper and a person could hear you on the highest pyramid because of the acoustics. There was also a staircase with 33 perfect steps, supposedly to represent the life of Christ. I felt like I was in a Book of Mormon video there. If there was one event I could see in history it would be when Christ came to the Americas.
Yesterday we had an investigator leave church because she thought we were Catholics, I guess we have some fixing up to do. We explained our church and everything to her. Haha.
Dad, there are no toilet seats here, you are right. And it`s really inconvinient when the soap slips from your fingers in the shower and falls into the toilet.  Transfers are a week from tomorrow. I don`t know what will happen but I am kind of ready for a change of scenery.
Sorry this letter is kind of lame but that`s all I can remember. I hope you have a good week, I love you and miss you tons.
Love,
Elder Hubbard

Email Chatting! I love it!

 I have been "Chatting" with Tyler this morning via email. I love it!! He emails each week from a borough called San Pedro Martir Tlalpan. I googled to see what information I could find. The following link has some interesting information. In Tyler's own words, "Yeah it`s a town like 30 min from Topilejo. Ghetto like always."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlalpan

Happy Nevada Day!!!!!

I am getting worse and worse at knowing how to start letters off so I`ll skip it and get right to the good stuff. This was kind of a weird week and we didn`t really get to teach a ton of lessons.
On Monday after I wrote we had the Junta and then afterwards Elder Leyva bought me some tacos for his birthday. I love tacos. The good thing is that they are so different than Taco Bell that I will still like Taco Bell when I get back. What a relief huh? Taco Bell is about as far from Mexican food as you can get.
On Tuesday we were contacting in the morning and talked to a lady who said her mother in law wanted to talk to missionaries. We went to her house and nobody was there so we left. We were walking along later and recognized a lady from the bus that we could not find her house. We talked to her and realized that she was the same lady who we had been looking for earlier. I guess we are meant to talk to her. We set up an appointment for this Wednesday and I`m pumped.  We had an appointment that morning with a lady that was really interested in listening to us. She read the pamphlet about the Gospel and everything. But then she told us that her husband got really mad and we can no longer teach her. It was so sad.  We found another lady on the street who got excited to see missionaries and invited us in to teach their family. We were all excited thinking they were prepared when the husband started naming the religions he hated and included mormons. That was weird, and awkward. We finished our lessoned and left. That guy didn`t know what hit him. Hermano Oscar bought us some more tacos that night. Haha.
On Thursday I went to good old Ajusco. The land of the hills and the Catholics. Nothing wrong with that. I worked with Elder Garcia from Canab, Utah. He has been on his mission for 15 months. It was a lot of fun. We walked the entire day and finally got our first lesson at 6 ish. Then we got two more after that. One of them we explained to a lady why it was important to be baptized by someone that has the authority from God. The Spirit was really strong and I asked her if she would be baptized. She said yes but we didn`t put a date. Elder Garcia was really good to talk to and I learned to be more friendly to the people I teach.  I bought him some tacos that night because in Ajusco there are no members and they starve.  There is also no hot water in Ajusco so we have to fill up a 5 gallon bucket and use something called resistencia-resistence to heat the water up with electricity.
On Friday morning we had interviews with President Chàvez. I love that guy. You should here is voice, it`s so funny. Buenooo....Haha. He asked me how contacting was going, studying, and the companionship. It went really well and I`m ready for transfers in two weeks. I am excited for a change. Afterwards Elder Leyva and I went to San Pedro to get the baptismal font ready. We have to turn on all the boilers and clean all the bugs out of the font. It`s a lot of work. Hermana Katia brought us some Domino`s to eat. Mexicans eat their pizza with ketchup and salsa. Disgusting. We baptized Paula-72 year old, her daughter Irais, and grandson Gerardo. We have been teaching them since I got here and we finally baptized them. Paula has a ton of faith-a ton. Irais had to quit smoking which took a lot of work. And Gerardo is just nuts. Elder Leyva baptized Paula. She was under for like 5 seconds and he was using all of his back to get her up. Finally she came up and used the railing on the side of the font to pull herself all the way out gasping for air. It was scary slash hilarious. Haha. I baptized Irais with no problem but with Gerardo I couldn`t say his name right. After like the 5th time messing his name up he finally said it and starting going down into the water! I was like "Who does this kid think he is baptizing himself?!" Haha. I finally got it right after that.
On Saturday I helped confirm the son of the Branch President as a member of the Church. That was a first. The family downstairs gives us breakfast every morning and dinner every night. Breakfast is usually eggs with tortilla or bread and chorizo too. Dinner is usually bread with chocolate milk or a sandwich or leftovers. There is roughly 13 pesos in one dollar and we get 1200 pesos a month. I get my money out at an ATM with a debit card. We have to use most of our money for the bus, food, and things for the house.  Right now we have about 12 progressing investitagors. The closest think to a ward mission leader is Hermano Carlos. I sent pictures of him. He just comes with us random days and we get lessons with a member present.
That`s all for this week. Once again we changed our P-day for this Saturday to go to the pyramids since our ride couldn`t go on Saturday. It is going to be sweet! Halloween here is called Dia de Muerto and people loving hanging dead people repilicas from their houses. It`s just great. It sealed Halloween as the worst holiday ever invented.
I am so glad to be a missionary. I love studying and preaching the gospel and I will be blessed the rest of my life for it. I know that Jesus is the Christ and I cannot wait for Christmas music. I love you!
Elder Hubbard.

Hey family!!!

It was another week of pure sun, work, walking, and tacos. It feels good to be a missionary.  No baptisms, but I now have been gone for four months and each week is getting faster and faster.  I can`t even remember what happened this week, that is why I am rambling through this beautifully written introduction.  This week we got out the area book and started looking through old investigators there. There are a million names in the binder but not as many directions which makes things difficult. We know that there are people in there that are ready now to hear the gospel but we just have to find them. Tudesday we walked the entire morning and afternoon finding them. So far they`re all duds.  Every day 2 Nephi 28 and 29 are my life. We have a bible!! I don`t want anything else. I love seeing scriptures fulfilled. The best part about the mission is everday I have the oportunity to learn from other people`s mistakes. I get to see what kind of person I don`t want to be. I get to see that wickedness never was happiness. The best is when we can help other people realize that too. Yesterday Mauro got the Aaronic priesthood. I remembered the first time we taught him and I didn`t really think it would go anywhere. But the Gospel is for everybody and can make everyone happy. And he as he starts this path all by himself is starting to feel that happiness.  On Thursday night we met the zone leaders at a bus station called La Joya and I went with Elder Vial from Oregon to his area in Contreras. I woke up at like 3 in the morning and had a horrible stomach ache. When I woke up in the morning I was still sick. We called the doctor and we went to one of these shady pharmacies that you don`t need a prescription to go to and got some meds. It was just like dramamine and something else for my stomach. The doctor told me to drink watered down gatorade and not eat the whole day. After an hour I felt pretty good and we went out to work at 10 am.  We had 0 lessons. Okay we had 1 lesson. We walked and walked and I was dying. Haha. We had some really good contacts though who had been looking for the missionaries. Elder Vial was a lot of fun too. His first area was Topilejo.  We had a good time.  We met back up with Elder Leyva that night and I was hungry so I ate tacos. My stomach as been pretty good since but a little delicate.  We had another good lesson with the Zapetero Ramòn yesterday before church and they are coming to church with us next week. We didn`t have p-day today because this Saturday Elder Leyva and I are going to go to some pyramids in Morelos!! I can`t wait. Hermana Lulu`s brother is going to take us and we got permission from President Chavez and everything. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Read it. I love you all and have a good week. Sorry this letter was boring.
Love,
Elder Hubbard

Hello.

Another week just flew by and I am here to write again. How is everybody? I hope good. Okay this Tuesday I got to go back to Ajusco for intercambios with Elder Garza. I like teaching with him a lot but I´m not gonna lie, I didn´t miss Ajusco and all of her hills.  I taught Elder Garza to pray in english a little bit and he taught me to say some dialect words here. Like Popocatepetl. It´s the big volcano here. I sound legit when I say it. On Wednesday we taught a fifteen year old investigator that we have been teaching for like a month and a half the commandments. Afterwards he needed help with math so I taught him with Elder Leyva. In spanish I taught him about cubic centimeters and how to find the volume of little wooden trucks. It was tons of fun. Haha. Dad should be so proud of me. I would teach a little part and then Elder Leyva would testify of what I said was true. Haha. He´s getting an A on his next test for sure.  Afterwards we got rained on. We always do but this one is worth mentioning. Umbrellas only go so far before they can´t handle it. The streets were rivers and we were completely soaked. It was great fun.  On Tuesday we went to Ajusco and interviewed Joselín-the little girl we found through the taxi driver and walking up her street and back down and her mom yelling at us-for baptism. She passed!! Haha. And then our zone leaders came to Topilejo to interview Mauro for baptism and he passed too!  So they both got baptized on Saturday in the same service. We spent the whole day trying to get the font ready and everything which is kind of difficult here. Mauro´s whole family came and they aren´t members. His mom wants to be baptized but hadn´t been able to listen to us as much or go to church.  We showed them the church and I think we will have more success in their family. Joselín´s dad also isn´t a member and he came and should get baptized soon.  I gave a little, unprepared talk on faith and repentance to start. Elder Leyva said it was good.  Elder Leyva baptized Mauro and Elder Garza baptized Joselín. It was such a good day.  Yesterday Mauro was confirmed in church with the Holy Gost and as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints with his mom and dad to watch. It was during ward conference and the Casa de Oración was packed. People here make a big deal out of ward conferance. Allll white shirts and ties, show up on time, and they show up. It´s amazing. There are more members here than I thought, they just have to come.  So Elder Leyva always goes to this Zapatero who fixes his shoes. We have been there a ton, and the last time we contacted him. He said we could come over Sunday morning. We went and had a lesson with with his wife and daughters. Three daughters. It was about the Plan de Salvación. He told us that his daughter just had surgery and he had promised God if she lived he would get closer to Him. And he said we are his answer! It was so sweet. I´m pumped.  It´s great to find people ready for the gospel. Yesterday I fasted to know how I could recieve personal revelation better for myself and investigtors. In a meeting with the zone leaders last night I realized I need to study Preach My Gosple more and that is my answer. It is the most important tool for me as a missionary.  Last night Elder Leyva said I talk in my sleep all the time. Sometimes in english, sometimes in spanish, sometimes neither. Haha. He probably thinks I am crazy. Poor Peruano.  My knees hurt a little bit more every day. I think it´s more standing on buses than anything. And the hills don´t help. We played basketball this morning and now they don´t feel so good either.  Oh on Saturday we had La Comida and the hermana gave us a full plate of pasta, (We eat something like spagghetti-o´s before most meals), and then a full plate of rice, and then a full plate of la comida. I had to pound it down. I hate it when people think we need 50000 calories to survive! Haha. I got a letter from Tommy this week and I am so pumped to have another bro in Mexico. Tell Tommy, Ryan, Stu, Hadley, Miles, and Travis that I love them. And get ready for that mission. That´s all I got for this week. I love you!

Elder Hubbard

Hola Familia!!!

I am soooo excited. For the past two Mondays I have been able to "chat" with Tyler via email while he is writing his weekly letter. It is wonderful to know that he is sitting at the other end actually talking to me. It definitely lifts my spirits! I love technology!!

My first Cambio ended this week!! On monday we had our last Junta as a district. We played basketball (amatuer hour) and fútbol afterwards. It was a lot of fun. Cambios were on Tuesday in an area called Texqueña. An investigator gave us a ride there. We had just started leaving when he said that we didn´t have any gas. I listened and the motor wasn´t on. We cruised down the mountain for a good ten miles without any gas. I don´t care who you are, that´s impressive. I got a little scared at some points but I couldn´t stop laughing because, ¿who drives without gas? Apparently here there are no rules.  When we finally stopped Elder Leyva and I took a can and ran and got some.  After Cambios we went and helped the new missionaries move into Ajusco. They are Elder Garcia from St. George and Elder Garca from here. Afterwards we taught some lessons, one of them in the Alchoholicos Anonimo group building. There were two drunks passed out outside. Fail. The power went out that night and it was weird to see no lights anywhere. On Wednesday, we had a lesson with a nonactive Hermana. She said something about not feeling that great spiritually. During the whole lesson there was screamo music blaring in the background and I got the most horrible feeling. Right before we left I told her if she wanted to feel good she would need to shut the music off because the Holy Ghost can dwell with it. She probably hates me now but I hate to see the home being attacked from the inside out like that. Bad music is just an environment for sin.  We then had a lesson in which we helped an investigator decide to quit drinking but its gonna be tough.  When we were walking back we were in this yard that we always cut through and it was dark. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the biggest dog I have ever seen about to jump me. It was as big as a horse! Actually it was a horse. Haha. It scared me just a little bit. Dang caballos.  On Thursday we had some intercambios. Elder Garza came to Topilejo with me. He just got here on Tuesday and I got here seven weeks ago so we were two seasoned veterans going into it. We ended up having some powerful lessons about prayer. One man we taught to pray and kneeled downed and he talked to his Heavenly Father. He didn´t even know how to do it before hand but now he has a guide and comfort for the rest of his life. Elder Garza was pretty tired by the end of the day and I am pretty sure has a bad case of shin splints. Poor kid.  He was a way fun companion.  We both have an addiction to the bread here and the song Mas Cerca Dios de Ti.  We committed a man to baptism this weeked named Alvaro. He is really humble. We taught him and I bought a drink afterwards and some maybe drunk guy asked me if he could have it. I drank as much as I could and then handed it to him. Loser.  Saturday and Sunday weren´t very eventful. We had three investigators come to church. This morning we went to Estadio Azteca and bowled too. I dominated the 4 game series as a black horse. Two turkeys. The song Living the Vida Loca was playing and I felt like it was appropriate.  I started the Old Testament this week because of Elder Scotts talk and it is way interesting. I am learning so much every day. I know that this church is true. I wish everybody in the world knew it is true so they could be happy. I have to go, but I will write a better email next week!! We should have a baptism this Saturday!!

Love,

Elder Hubbard