26 June 2012

Hey family,

It sounds like you had an awesome week. Shayla´s married. Mark and Bree are staying in Reno. Oliver turned 1 year old. I turned a year in the mission.  What a blessed life we have! I really didn´t deserve such a good family, but I needed it.

This week we had the farewell for President Chavez and his family. On July 1^st President Valadez will be coming in a bus from Puebla. It is really close to here.  I will definitely always remember President Chávez and be grateful to him. He taught me things that will help me for the rest of my life. Saying goodbye was pretty sad but I know the President Valadez will help me just as much.

So I can´t believe that I have already hit my year mark in the mission. It has gone by really fast but at the same time really slow. I would tell you all of the things that I have learned this year, but I don´t even understand how much I have learned yet. I know that these experiences will help me for the rest of my life.

We had some really cool experiences this week. I was able to go with one of the Assistants to his area to go work with him. The assistants right now are Elder Black and Elder Bodine and I have a lot of respect for them. They were both my zone leaders when I was in Leandro Valle.

In two days, Elder Bunker and I placed 8 baptismal dates, all for July. We are teaching some really cool people. One of them is named Sol. She lost her leg to cancer a few years ago and little by little we are helping her get out of her house and into the real world. She is already in Enos in the Book of Mormon. This week she described feeling the Holy Ghost as little droplets of light raining down on you. One of the most powerful lessons happened when Elder Manning from Las Vegas was with me. We had our first lesson with Jose Luis. A couple years ago, his wife and son were shot. It is super sad. We talked to him about eternal families, and how he can find the peace and happiness he is looking for. Afterwards he said he felt a lot of peace when we were with him. He accepted a baptismal date on July 28^th.

I know that we are all on this pursuit of happiness and we are all on different levels getting there.  But whoever wants it is free to do it. You just have to choose. It comes without money and without price. You just have to try to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Savior and walk part of the path that he walked.

Right now I am loving working with Elder Bunker. We have a lot of fun together. We keep really busy going on interchanges, to the mission offices and to district and zone meetings. 36 missionaries to be an example for. Last night we went to a district meeting that is made up of Sister missionaries. It was definitely a lot different. They just have a different manner of acting. 

So I hope all is well in Fallon. I really miss that puny little town. Thanks for all of your letters and prayers. They really mean a lot to me. Love you all!

Con cariño,

Elder Hubbard

 Mexico City (What a handsome boy!)

 the Telcel buildings

19 Junio 2012- Weddings? I love weddings...

Hey familyyy!!!

So sorry it took me so long to be able to write you. My p-days will now be every Tuesday instead of Monday.  I hope you weren´t worrying too much. I can´t believe Shayla and Jeff are getting married today! I am really happy for them. I hope it will be the best day of their life.  And Happy Father´s day to my dad! Father Sam. It doesn´t get much better.

This week was insane! We had transfers Tuesday morning. We left from the stake center and it took about two hours to get to my area.   We went up in a hippy van with no seats. Haha. My companion is Elder Bunker. He is from Rockton, Illinois which is pretty much Chicago. He will finish his mission in September so he has been on the mission for a while. He is really calm and speaks good spanish. So far I have loved being his companion. We get along really well and have seen a ton of miracles this week. Being a zone leader is a lot different than being a normal missionary. We definitely spend a lot more time making phone calls and on bus rides.  With all of our other responsibilities, it´s pretty hard to focus on our own area.

So I am in a ward called Contreras. It is city, and a little bit of little pueblos. If you want to see part of it look up the Magdalena Contreras, or San Nicolas, La Cruz, and El Gavillero. The area is huge and it is mountainy.  The people give us a lot of the fruit that grows in their yards- pears, mangos, ciruelas, peaches. They are sooo tasty. It has rained almost every day since I have gotten here and I am no longer dying from the heat. I really love this area.  I still don´t know the investigators and the members very well but the ones that I have met are really good.

There is a huge bike path that goes through our area. A ton of people are always walking on it, with the ocassional car or motorcycle that can´t follow the rules. Anyways, this week Elder Bunker and I have studied a lot about vision. In this scriptures it always talks about it. Before we do something, we have to have a vision of it or we will never accomplish anything. I am also making the vision of my life along with the plans, goals, and tasks to complete them. Anyways, we applied what we learned this week. At night during our planning session, three times we tried to imagine a person that we would find the next day that would be prepared for the gospel. We shut are eyes every time and tried to see the person. Then we agreed on how the would be and wrote down the time we would find them in our agends and where(the bike path). All three times we found the person and set up and appointment with them. Yesterday it was a lady with purple pants and slightly over weight. When we saw her walking we immediately recongnized her and she accepted.

So Elder Bunker and I have to direct a Zone Council every Sunday night. There are about 180 missionaries in the mission and 10 zone leaders. So sunday nights, we look at the results with the district leaders. My job is to help them to be able to help their missionaries. So we talked about having a vision of the future and also of the present. Because we can´t get better unless we really know our weaknesses.  Anyways, I though it went pretty well. We also have to go to the mission offices every monday to report to on of the Assistents. I have to report to Elder Bodine who used to be my zone leader. I look up to him a lot and he always teaches me something. Monday nights we go to one of the district meetings in the zone to see how the district leader is doing. This time we went to San Pedro, where I used to go when I was in Topilejo on p-days. It was good to see it once again.

This week I have learned so many things, I am not even going to try to tell you everything. I am definitely a better missionary now than I was a week ago. Somebody told me that serving 1 year in a mission equals 25 years in serving in other church callings. I have felt like I have definitely matured a ton in this year on my mission.  And by maturing a little bit, I have seen how much I still have left to be able to be a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a never ending task, and I will never reach anywhere close to perfection in this life. But I can´t definitely try.

So I hope everybody enjoys the wedding today. It makes me happy to know that my sister will be married in the temple for time and all eternity and be on the track that leads to exaltation.  It´s a tough one. I hope mom and dad don´t cry too much, unless they are tears of joy. I guess I´m the only single Hubbard left! Haha.  I love you all! Eat a ton of cake! Give Shayla a big fat kiss on the cheek from me!

Love,

Elder Hubbard

11 June 2012 T-t-t-t-trrrransfers!!!!

Family!!!!

¿Qué dicen?! It´s been a great week and it was so good to hear from all of you once again.  Last nast we found out the transfers because once again 6 weeks have past. They could be the most anticipated part of the mission, full of drama, disappointment, anger, relief, and wonder. Haha. Not really. But I´m outta here. I have been called to serve as a zone leader in Contreras with an American named Elder Bunker. That was the zone I was in when I was in my first area and I remember going to Contreras to times with Elder Vial. I honestly can´t wait. It´s on the west side of the city, up in the hills. I know Elder Bunker and we will definitely be a good companion. I am also a little nervous to be a zone leader since I will be in charge of like 30 missionaries now. But we´ll just do work.

This week I was able to go to Granjas with my good old friend Elder Leyva.  We have both gotten to be a lot better missionaries than we were before in every part. One of the things that we focused on was the Book of Mormon. We used it in contacting, in teaching and everything. The Book of Mormon is the key to everything. If it´s true, everything is true. That´s why it´s important for everyone of you to read the Book of Mormon every single day and ask Heavenly Father if it´s true. It doesn´t matter how many times that we have asked Him before, He is always willing to confirm it to us once again.  If you want to know anything about this Church, start with the Book of Mormon. I know it´s true.  Elder Leyva is still a really good teacher, and just like old times, we got drenched by the rain. I was standing on the curbed and a car came out of nowhere and sprayed me. I just laughed.

I also went to an area called Iztacalco with our zone leaders for interchanges. I went with Elder Mata from Ciudad Juarez. Kid´s such a gamer. Such a stud. We contacted pretty much non stop. In one of those contacts some guy told us that he has exactly 17 translations of the Bible. Pretty impressive. We told him that we know that the Bible is true but that the Book of Mormon was only translated once. I had the book in my hand and after hearing our contact and giving us his direction, he literally took the book out of my hand and walked off. Robbed. Haha. That was a first.

Yesterday was the best day of the week. Fernanda, a 15 year old girl that we have been teaching for a few months and Arturo, a 50 year old weight trainer, were able to be baptized. Most of Fernanda´s family are members of the church and her uncle is the stake president. She never wanted anything to do the the LDS Church and liked to go to the church that her mom goes to. We were able to help her see the truth and simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was an awesome baptism there with all of her family supporting her. Her brother, Joel, baptized her. He is about to go to Oaxaca, Mexico on a mission. Arturo has came to church for a long time with his wife who has been a member for all of her life. He finally made the decision to carry on and now they are on track to having an eternal family.  It was a great blessing to see this right before leaving Leandro Valle and Agricola Oriental.

So that´s how my week was. I am really enjoying my mission right now and still trying to be better every day. That part will never end. I now understand that missionary work only works if the members to their part. They should live their lives as an example of the believers and talk to their loved ones about the Plan of Happiness that only a few people in the world are blessed to know. The missionaries should only have to teach them. The members live with their family and friends for a life time while the missionaries are there for a few months. I invite you all to share this message with the people that you love most and remember that it´s getting late.

Love,
Elder Hubbard

 Baptism of Fernanda

Baptism of Arturo. He is big.

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