4 June 2012

Hello Hubbard´s,
So as I went to the mission offices this morning to renew my visa I realized that I have actually been in this place for a while. It seems like I just got here and I have to go sign for it again! I can´t believe it. And then this month I will have a year down. Elder Herman was there and he is also pretty amazed.
We did something super fun this week to find new investigators. In our area there is a huge market in a street called Sur 16. The market is almost all inside a building but there are a lot of people passing by outside. So we bought ourselves some sidewalk chalk and drew the Plan of Salvation right there on cement.  We just had some circles thrown down, some lines, and then a huge sun, and a little star and moon. Then we just started teaching anybody that would stop for a few minutes. Right there in the street we taught the plan that Heavenly Father made especially for us. The same plan that comforts us when everything seems like it´s lost. The Plan of Hope. The Plan of Eternal Families. Nothing is more valuable to know than the circle and lines we put there. When we know it, our afflictions can be swallowed up in the joy of Christ.  It got me so excited to be teaching these things to anybody that would listen.
We also had an experience with the Book of Mormon this week. We have been teaching the Cruz family every since we have gotten here. They are really nice and always accept us but never really progress. Never come to church and just don´t understand very well. But the dad, his name is Sirilo, has been reading the Book of Mormon in first Nefi. He told us when we came this week that he thinks he knows for himself which church is the great and abominable church. He told us who it was and was exactly right. Then he told us how that ever since we started coming there and he started reading the Book of Mormon, he has felt a huge change in his character. He used to be in the army and was pretty rough around the edges, but now I can´t even imagine that. He is way nice. We helped him recognize that he already knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he is progressing lot.
This week we went and visited Fernanda. She is a 14 year old sister of a future missionary from our ward and isn´t a member of the church. He is leaving in July. We have been teaching her for a while and she always comes to church but something has held her back from being baptized. This week her brother talked to her and helped her out. When we went to visit them she told us that she had some news for us. She wants to get baptized this Sunday. It was such a blessing to hear.  It shows how much more important the members are than the missionaries when it comes to sharing the gospel. So give the missionaries at home some referrals!
One of my favorite parts of the week was being able to see The Testaments with some investigators. It is such a powerful testimony that God love´s the whole world, so he sent Jesus Christ to the whole world, not only to Jerusalem. I can not wait for that day when I can see Him and kneel at His feet. Then everything that is not fair about life will be made right. That is the simple and glorious truth of His atonement.
I love you all! Have a good week.
Con cariño,
Elder Hubbard

What is that? A chicken foot? I don't know!

28 May 2012

Hubcaps,

This has definitely been an enjoyable week. I went and got the birthday package that you sent me today in the morning. I loved all of it! Thanks for the tie, the twistables, the shirt, and the journal. I am going to make the cake next monday with the relief society president. I love confetti cake. Doesn´t exist here.  So Elder Ferrin in my district finished his mission this week and went home today.  I have never seen a missionary so sad to being going home. He was a great example to me. But the good news is that Elder Leyva had special changes and is now in my district! Haha. I am pumped. It is going to be good to be able to see him again. 

I got sick on Wednesday and woke up with a fever. I felt so week all day. Since then I have been sick in just about every way possible. But we just kept working and popped a few pills. Today I feel way better and I will be ready to go for the week tomorrow.  It is funny when I get sick here because all of the members tell me how I look so sick and every one tries to diagnose me and give me pills. Haha. They worry a lot. I think I may need to take a pill to flush my system out.

We contacted the poorest, most humble street in our whole area on Tuesday. We knocked every door. Not one of them rejected us. We just went from one to another for like an hour and a half. We have already started teaching a few of them and they seem like they will be really good.  It felt like I was in Topilejo again.

The lesson that I liked the most this week was with Clara. We found her when I was still with Elder Gutierrez. She has had a baptismal date for June 2nd for a while now and we are still planning to have it. We taught her this week really in depth about priesthood authority. I know that the true Church has to have authority given to them of Jesus Christ to act in His name for the salvation of God´s children. This authority is greater than any king or president can possess. This authority was given to the Apostles, lost in the Great Apostasy, and then restored through Joseph Smith. That is what makes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints the only true and living church upon the face of the earth.  Clara understood the lesson and at the end teared up a bunch. I really want to see her recieve her answer and have a testimony.

Yesterday an investigator came out of nowhere and showed up to church. She contacted us to start off with. As soon as she showed up, the members finally did their job and sat down next to her and started talking to her. Afterwards she said that she loved it, and asked where she could get a copy of the Book of Mormon.  I have never had an investigator that does things by herself so much. I can´t wait to teach her this week.

Alejandro and Marcela are still going strong. Every week they are there on time even though the other members show up half an hour late. Alejandro got the Priesthood and is now a teacher.

This week I have been studying a lot about the Liahona that only talked about the Book of Mormon.   Elder Bednar talked about holding continually fast to the rod of iron. This means that we have to read it and study it every single day without fail. I know for myself that there is great power to resist our weaknesses and there is great knowledge in the pages of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true and that Joseph Smith was the prophet that translated it. I know that if we read it every day we will never stray for the straight and narrow path.  I know that life is hard and it is a struggle. But if we get through all of our useless cares and do what really matters, we will earn our great reward.

Have a good week in Rexburg, Reno, Fallon, and Las Vegas.

Love you like a love song,

Elder Hubbard

21 Mayo 2012

Hola!!!

Well, this week has been really good. We were able to work hard and find a lot of new people to teach.  I got a letter from Elder Stockard in Tampico and it sounds like he is seeing some of the things that I have gotten used to for the last 9 months. Haha. Do you know what ward he is in? My companion is from Ciudad Madero where the mission offices are. 

We had our last zone conferance with President Chávez today. It was really good. He taught us in section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants and the difference in being called and being chosen.  Just remember that it is it always better to be chosen.  He taught us the real organization of the church and how it should work. He said that we probably wouldn´t be able to change it here on our mission but after the mission we will be able to apply it to our callings.  He told us that the Lord has brought us on a mission so we can learn to build the kingdom of God on the earth.  We learned some sick thinks in Moroni 6 too. I loved it. He talked about the persecutions that are going to come and how only the strong will be able to survive in the church. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints will fill the world in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  It is such a big work.

Yesterday Marcela and Alejandro were confirmed members of the church. They are really excited and already paying tithing and going to all of the activities. I hope the members will fellowship them now so they don´t go inactive. It is really sad when that happens. The members of the Church in the whole world really need to take more of a part in missionary work. It is so much more effective with them.  They should start by converting theirselves and getting their own testimony. If you don´t, you´ll lose that battle. You´ll lose that battle 9 times out of ten.

My birthday was really good. We contacted a ton of people and like 12 accepted. It was a good change. A sister gave us pizza al pastor for La Comida which is always a good choice. And Clara, one of our investigators, gave me some birthday cake that night. It was called 3 leches. Definitely one of my favorites here in Gangster´s Paradise.  They sang me a ton of songs and tried to smash my face into the cake.

I did a baptismal interview this week for a guy in another ward. It was the first time that I did one that didn´t pass. I was glad to see that I could do my job in making sure that he was ready for baptism. I know that he will acomplish his goal soon but he needed to wait and get a stronger testimony first.

Things are going really well here in the area.  We found a huge family like a week ago and we were able to give one of the members a blessing this week. He said that he didn´t have faith at all which was a sad thing but he still wanted a blessing. His mom was there and she liked it a lot. I think we are going to be able to progress with them.

So today we went to the Ripley´s Believe it or not Musuem. It was way fun. There are some weird things there but it is super cool. I took a few pictures to send to you too. We went with Elder Call. Tomorrow he is going to recieve a new missionary to train. Stud. He is from Thousand Oaks California. Happy Birthday this week Mark!!! I mean Dr. Hubbard. Sorry.  I love you all and miss you a ton.

Scripture of the week: For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored. Alma 41

Love,

Elder Hubbard

 Ripley´s Believe it or Not Museum

Clara!

 Zone Conference

 Ripley´s Believe It or Not Museum

Birthday cake with the Relief Society president

14 May 2012

It was great to be able to talk to you all last night! I have a great family and friends too. I am really lucky kid. I hope my Momma had a good Mother´s day. I was glad to hear that all is well at home. So I will write a short letter this week since we talk a bunch last night.

The lessons this week were pretty much non existent. It was rough. I think we taught five the entire week. Haha. I have no idea what happened but I didn´t get discouraged. One of the best parts of the week was the two baptisms that we had on Sunday after church. It was a mom named Marcela and her 15 year old son named Alejandro. He has such a good attitude. I still remember how we found Marcela. We had been walking down the street going to look for some house when all of the sudden my nose started bleeding. I looked around fast to find somebody who could give me a napkin and found a ways behind us an a food stand and asked for them. We stood there for a little bit and then started walking. It turned out that Heavenly Father put us in the right place at the right time. Marcela ran into us, crying and asking for help with her sons. We went and since then we could see that she was definitely chosen. I baptized Marcela and our ward mission leader baptized Alejandro. Afterwards Alenjandro asked if he could now go with us to visit people since he is a member now. Stud.

I have find out here that life is what we make of it. If we have the attidude that we are going to win, we will win. If we think we are going to lose we will lose. Just ask Greenwave football. But no matter where we are in life we can turn it around and be the person that we were meant to be. We can chose eternal life. We can choose to follow the Savior. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. I know that that is true. Make some sacrifices this week.

con amor,

Elder Hubbard 

 Relief society president. We wash clothes here and called you from here.

Our street

Our house

Metro Bus

Marcela and Alejandro

Our Chapel

 

Tacos dorados

My last district

7 Mayo 2012

Hubbard family....
Life is good. This week was good. The area is good. Companion is good. Mexico is dirty. What more can I say? It´s sounds like home is crazier now. Shayla´s getting married in a month and a half! That is crazy. She is going to be married for a year before I get back. Stud.  She could be in a Taylor Swift music video. Que linda.
Bueno. So I´ll tell you a little about my week. We are still living with Elder Call and his companion. They are still stuck with their homeless swag and are gonna be for us another week. Which means I have to be the father figure for another week with curfews, allowances, and everything. Things are pretty cramped but I am actually enjoying it. Elder Call goes home in July and I am trying to help him not be trunky. Haha. Just kidding he´s not, I love the kid. I was hoping he would be home to go to Shayla´s wedding in my place but looks like she couldn´t wait that long. Hehe. We died of heat this week. The sun is a killer here. At like 4 or 5 o´clock is the worst.
I spend the majority of my time keeping Elder Rosales from finding the ladies. He enjoys talking to 13 year old girls the most, perferibly asians. Haha. He has a nice selection of cologne, ties, and he now wears cuff links. You got to love him. Muso.
So a few days after I got here Elder Gutierrez and I contacted a lady named Clara in the street. She is in her forties, Christian, and knows a ton about the bible. She has been to church like for times now. This week we were able to teach her some lessons that I really think that she felt and is able to know for herself that there is a true church. She accepted a baptismal date for June 2 too. She makes us think a lot, but if we always have the Spirit with us it goes well. We even watched Joseph Smith- the Prophet of the Restoration this week and she loved it. I loved it too. He sacrificied his entire life to be able to restore the truth.
We did some of my favorite things this week as a missionary. We filled out three baptismal forms. One for Marcela, another for Alejandro, and another for Arturo. Arturo is a gamer. I will tell you more about them next week. They are getting baptized this Sunday after church. I can´t wait. We have been a baptizing slump for too long.
Fabiola and Rodrigo are still going strong. The are set to get married this week because they have their birth certificate now.
So I have been enjoying this time as a missionary. Sometimes the time goes by so fast and others it goes by super slow. But I love it. I feel like my one goal when I get back is to be a completely better and different person than I was before. I have done good so far but I can do a lot better. I love studying the scriptures and I have realized that prayer really is the only way of knowing the will of Our Heavenly Father. This week we are going to focus on finding new investigators. This week we found 0! Lame.
Man, a guy just walked in this internet place and gave me a stomach ache. I think he dumped on a whole bottle of cologne before he left in the morning. Calm down.
I can´t wait for this Sunday to talk to you! We´ll see how many valient members of the Hubbard family show up to talk to talk to me. Maybe Jimmer will come too...I love you all. Portense bien y cuidense mucho. I ate my first poptart today in 10 months. True love. Provecho.
Love,
Elder Hubbard

ps 5 de Mayo is not legit.

30 April 2012

Shayla got engaged?!!?!?!? What the heck?!! I am so happy for her and will be glad to have Jeff in the family.
Speaking of weddings, I love weddings, this week we almost had a wedding! Almost. Fabiola and Rodrigo were all ready and on Saturday we went down to Reyes La Paz in the state of Mexico to marry them. To marry them we have to pay 500 pesos, and they have to have ID and their original birth certificates. Really easy. But when we got there we found out that Rodrigo brought some other thing called is Recognition Act. Sadly, we weren´t able to marry them. I was sooooo bummed. But they still want too and we are planning to be able to do it this Saturday if everything goes perfectly. We spent a lot of time with them this week, teaching the word of wisdom and watching the Restoration video with them. They are such a good family.
I was also able to do two baptismal interviews for the the Paseos Elders this week. The mom was born and raised in El Salvador. It is weird to think that I can talk to almost any person in the Americas now. I love doing the interviews. All went well and they were baptized. It is really cool to see how each person recieves their own testimony.
Elder Ferrin and I had interchanges this week too. We had some really cool experiences in my area.  First of all, we studied Elder Bednars article in the April Ensign which was way sick. It talks about the Atonement and how we can use it to become better. Elder Ferrin and I saw a miracle happen. We were walking down the street to visit who knows who when an other elder from my district who is having a hard time called me to ask for help. For some reason I decided to stop on the corner and talk with him. I was there for like ten minutes and then we started walking again. It just happened that we walked by the house of a recent convert and her mom who isn´t a member. Right as we were walking by, the recent convert Guadalupe walked out. We started talking and she told us how her mom, Carmen, was in bed, unable to walk, because he back hurt so bad. We offered to give her a blessing and she said yes. We went inside and Carmen starting crying, telling us how she never expected or imagined that we would show up. She was really happy to see us. Carmen goes to church with us every Sunday, she just hadn´t felt the desire to get baptized yet. After the blessing we talked to her. Through all of her pain she said, If I get better, I´ll get baptized. And I know that she meant it. It was so powerful to see how Heavenly Father guides us by His Spirit and puts us in the right place at the right time.  She hadn´t been progressing, but He knows what she needs to keep progressing. I´ll let you know how the story ends.
Yesterday we were in church and found out that this huge, Muscle Man guy named Arturo that always goes to church with his wife, wants to get baptized next sunday. Sweet! We have never taught him and he has only talked with missionaries like three times but we are going to try to get him ready by then. It was a nice suprise and a tender mercy of the Lord.  We had a new record of 11 people at church. All progressing investigators.
On a side note, the famous Juana Romero was baptized in Topilejo this Saturdy.  I remember the first time she went to church and left angrily because she thought we were Catholics and found out otherwise. Joke was on her. Hehe. I love that lady like my gramma.  And we don´t have transfers, so another 6 in the Agricola Oriental. Leandro Valle.
Happy Birthday this week dad! Good luck in the MTC, Elder Magill. I love you all and thank you for all of your prayers. The mission is the place to be, even if my family is growing in numbers rapidly. Over and out.
Elder Hubbard

 These are all of the district leaders and their companions in the Ermita zone.

Writing a letter