4 Decimiembre 2012

Que hay. That was a long week!! So many things happened that I probably

won´t be able to tell you about to much. Reading mom´s letter, I think she

thought I would have to travel a long ways to my new area. But our mission

is one of the most tiny ones in all of the world and we never leave the

city. We took a taxi from Contreras to a huge stake center named

Churubusco, and then from there went in micro, or a little bus, to my area

in Xalpa, Iztapalapa. I am pretty close to where I was in my second area,

Leandro Valle. My new companion is Elder Herrera from Jalisco. He is a good

guy, a little dramatic, but a good guy. To each his own. He goes home in

June too.

The first few days I didn´t really feel too comfortable in my area. I think

sometimes my shyness comes back to me. The house we live in was super messy

when I got there, which doesn´t help either. But as I was with a new

companion, in a new area, with new investigators, and new super chilango

members, I remembered that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite and

unchanging. The same things that have comforted me for my whole mission,

continue to do so now and more than ever.  It´s a good anchor that got me

through this week and now I feel just fine. Mom would be proud of me

because I went and bought cleaning supplies and just did work. It reminded

me of some of those BYU clean checks that Elder Special K and I dominated.

 A clean house always helps.

My area is straight city, except for some huge hills that jet out of

nowhere. There is one of them that has three crosses on top. The people

sing as they talk and use a ton of slang. That´s why I said they are super

chilango. We have some cool yellowish water too, and right now are without

electricity and hot water. There are a lot of upsides too. The stake center

here is the prettiest one that I have seen in DF. The members give us a lot

of referrals.  The area is small too, but with the hills, my legs will be

as big as ever. Haha. Oh and I am pretty sure our bishop is black. That

might be false doctrine though. My zone is really small now. In Contreras I

was in charge of 38 missionaries, and here in Paraíso, 14 missionaries.

Only three districts! I like it because I can focus on them more. I feel

like this zone hasn´t really started working with the members and less

actives very well so we are going to hit that hard.

We are teaching quite a few people here in Xalpa. One of them is Cristina,

who is scheduled to be baptized on Sunday. I shared with her Abraham

3:22-23 in our first lesson, and she started crying a ton. She said that it

was the third time that people have told her that she is escogido.  I am

trying to get to know the rest of the investigators, but we also are

teaching a guy named Xavier who accepted baptism this week.

So a lot more happened this week too. For example, Elder Herrera and I ate

outside yesterday because we couldn´t go inside with the hermana who was by

herself. So we just ate in the shade looking over the great DF. Just eating

some chicken and tortillas. Out of nowhere, about 5 dogs made a suprise

attack on us trying to get our chicken. I stood up and scared them off, but

it was pretty funny. Who do they think they are?! Haha.

Thanks for your letters this week. I love to here from you. Somebody told

me that I have a package in the offices too! So have a good week. Remember

that faith is important but faith in Jesus Christ lets us return to live

with God. Look to become more like him in this Christmas time. I love you!

Elder Hubbard

26 Noviembre 2012 - Cambios!!

Hey Hubbards!!!

So my time is up in Contreras and with Elder Jones. We had a good six weeks together and we could say that Contreras is officially our stomping grounds. Haha.  The APs told us yesterday that I will being going to an area named Xalpa. Pronounced with H like Hahlpa. It´s right in the middle of the city in la delegación Iztapalapa.  It´s gonna be sweet! I am going to a the senior zone leader with Elder Herrera. I already know him a little bit but not too much. So today I have been packing my bags and tomorrow I will be heading out. I am really excited for new challenges and new places.  I didn´t sleep very well last night because I was thinking about it so much. My zone´s name is Paraíso.

This week was a lot of fun. Elder Jones and I decided on Thanksgiving that we wanted to make the box of brownies that I had in my suitcase. The bad part here is that almost nobody uses ovens to cook. If they have an oven, they usually use it as storage. Haha. So we decided to experiment and we ending up cooking them in the microwave. I was shocked to find out that it actually worked and we enjoyed every bite. I forgot how much I love brownies. For Thanksgiving we ate an investigator´s house, Yolanda. She gave us one of my favorites, pozolé and tostadas with creme. I want to learn how to make it. She invited her daughter and her husband to and we taught them for the first time. We shared the last verse of the BM and explained them what our purpose is as a missionary. Jorge, the husband, said, "Oh, so your purpose is to help the judgement bar be pleasing for me." I thought he understood it pretty well.  Yolanda has chosen her baptismal date to be on December 8. She has gone to church a ton of times and there is nothing stopping her from being baptized.

On Friday, we took a suprise trip to Topilejo and got there at about 8:20 am and found some pretty shocked missionaries. Haha. We had to talk to them about being more obedient and focused in the work. They are really good elders with some personal challenges. I think that we were able to help them more. Topilejo is still the same and everybody was excited to see me.

So working with the less actives, we have found a lot of new good investigators. It is always interesting to hear their reason for not going to church. This week I heard a new one, "They changed the cover of the Book of Mormon." Por favor!!  We go to church to be forgiven of our sins and to follow and remember our Savior, not because of the color of the BM, or because our family are members, or for any other reason!! I wish I could get people to understand that. It´s frustrating.

It´s always weird to leave an area behind, knowing that I will probably never come back here. But the work of the Lord will roll on. Nothing can stop it. I love you all!! I am glad you had a good Thanksgiving. You all sound crazy with all of the guns you are shooting. Remember that we don´t point potatoe guns at people´s faces. Haha.

Elder Hubbard

20 Noviembre 2012 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Hubbardazos!
It was nice to hear that all is well at home. Dad is still the funniest guy I know and Shayla has some Legolas swag going on. And I´m sure that mom will be making some goood food this week. You can always send that in air mail. I had a really good week too. Things are kind of crumbling in our area right now and we are experiencing some growing pains in our new and improved way of working. But we do see little small miracles that keep us hungry for more.
The cool thing about working with menos activos is that it´s not working from 0. I hope that makes since in english. They are already familiar with the church and we can be more bold and direct with them. Elder Jones left the homework to one of them to read the Book of Mormon and mark all of the times that it talks about God, Christ, or the Holy Ghost. After years of not being able to read the BM, she started and is loving it.
We taught Kimberly this week two times. Our ward has done a great job in fellowshipping her. The young women´s president came with us to a lesson with one of Kimberly´s friends from the ward and she loved the Restoration. The last time we taught her was on saturday in the church. When we opened the doors to the baptismal font, we could feel the Spirit gushing out. It was sweet. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted it but afterwards we saw that she is really worried about her family since it is obvious that they don´t want to go back to church.
We are also teaching all of the members the Restoration. We taught our bishop and his family this week and it went really well. We almost recieved some referrals too but we are going to check on them this week. They gave us some churros and hot chocolate after the lessons which is always a nice touch.
One of my favorite experiences this week was that I finished the Book of Mormon once again in Spanish. As I prayed afterwards, I realized that the BM is another testament of Jesus Christ and as a testament, it does the same things that Christ does. Christ frees us from sin, temptation, and pain, and the BM, one of His representatives, works in the exact same way. When we read it we recieve the power and knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we can reconcile ourselves with Him.  I know that that book is from a divine origin and we must read it to be able to know Christ.  Say no more.
Elder Jones and I also gave a zone training this week about teaching members of the church and also helping them be able to talk to their friends and family about the church. It went really well and I feel a lot more confident teaching big groups than when I was first a zone leader.  President Valadez himself showed up with his wife, and of course, gave us a doctrinazo. I have know idea how to say that in english, but to be short in writing, he taught us well. He said that when we left to go on our missions we left some things behind that we will never return to. True that.
So when we get text messages, the phone has the same ringtone as are wake up alarm in the morning. To make a long story short, we got some text messages at 11:30 on sunday night, and we got up, said our prayers and almost started doing excerise when we realized that we had only slept for one hour. Who´s the funny kid texting us at 11:30 at night? Haha.
Well, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I am definitely thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that comes through Him. I am greatful for all of you too. The old me would have said my peeps. The new me says the same. Have a great week and watch a lot of football. Also read your scriptures. I love you!
Elder Hubb ard

 Ajusco strikes back

 smurf car

13 Noviembre 2012

Que húbole.

I was reading some of the letters from the boys and read that Elder Stockard was sitting in a small internet café thinking about how fast and well the week went by. I know exactly how that feels. I know that we are going to have some stuff to talk about when we get back. I think I got lucky on how nice my weather is here. It´s a good sixty degrees I would say but people are bundled up. We should snag about 10 chilangos and put them in Rexburg, Idaho for a week. I want to see what they would do.  I can´t believe that Elder Special K Christiansen and I have been out for so long. I hope we some how get on the same flight home.

We had a sweet zone leader meeting this week with Presidente Valadaz. Él se la rifa.  He´s a funny guy. What I liked most is when he taught us about the Plan de Salvación. He said that there are a ton of pictures of the plan but the are all wrong because none of them have the Atonement of Jesus Christ at it´s center.  I also had an interview with Presidente Valadez yesterday and he taught me even more.  He also got a little off subject talking about snow chains, iPads (does anyone in our family have one of those things?), and when he met Elder Richard G. Scott. 

This week I really tried to help one of the elders that has been struggling that´s in our zone. I went on exchanges with him to his area. He is from Brasil and kind of dificult to understand since he spoke portuguese for all of his life. I saw some things that I thought would help him so we put some goals.  He is going to memorize the missionary purpose in English and Spanish, study the missionary lessons every day, and learn how to speak in Usted form better. The tu form doesn´t cut it as a missionary.

We looked for a lot of menos activos this week. One day we had been looking for some all morning when we decided to hike up our hill to San Nicolas (Saint Nick) to look for a family. We looked for the address and didn´t find anything so like the resourceful kid that I am, I asked a little girl in the street if she knew the family. She told us to go into a little alley way and look there. So we followed her advice and started banging on some doors looking for them. Before long, two people came by and we asked them about the family. They told us that they were that family. They let us into their house (that we would have never found on our own) and we started talking to them. The mom hasn´t gone to church for 11 years and her daughter now is 15 years old. A few days before she had been asking her mom about a picture of the temple that they have in their house and had been thinking about reading the Book of Mormon. She even has a friend in our ward that has told her about the church activities.  I know that the Lord prepares the hearts of the people that he put 2 lost white boy´s right where he needed them to find his children.  I can tell that we are going to have a lot of experiences working in La Obra de Salvacion (the work of Salvation).  We found one family that hasn´t gone to church in about thirty years. Right before leaving their house, I gave him a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation. He looked at the picture of Christ on the cover and just started bawling. He said that he had a dream when he saw Christ in the exact same way.

So things are going pretty slow in our area. As for the baptisms, we are also in a little bit of a slump but the beat goes on.  We have one planned for this saturday which is a possibility. I love the things that I have been learning and living. Elder Jones is one of my best friends and we are tearing the zone up. We have a mini zone conference this week where we are going to be training them a lot about teaching active members of the church and getting referrals. So if any of you knows anybody that lives in DF, more especifically Tlalpan and Contreras, you should definitely hit us up. And be missionaries yourselves! Just open your mouths and share the joy of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

So times up, but thanks for all of your letters. I got some pictures this week, and a letter from Mr. Elder Bunn.  Oh, and I got shots this morning so I don´t catch any diseases. I love you with all of my corazoncito. 

Elder Hubbard

5 Noviembre 2012

Sup familia,

So I can´t believe that Nevada Day is already past and gone.  Best holiday of the year.  Here they don´t celebrate it though. Weird huh? For three days starting with October 31st, they celebrate Día de los Muertos. They put a food offering with candles out for all of their dead relatives.  It´s a little bit weird and I think temple work is a lot better. One of the things that I do like is this one kind of bread called pan de muerto, or in english dead bread. It´s some good stuff.

This week really flew by especially because we had to prepare everything for the zone conference that was on Friday. On Thursday night we went to clean the stake center but when we got there, the primary was having an activity in the cultural hall and we had to wait for a while. We cleaned as much as we could and got rid of all of the extra chairs that were there too. The churches are a lot cheaper here in Mexico, that´s for sure.  In the zone conference, I learned more than any other day on my mission I think. I conducted the meeting and all went well, even my spanish. Elder de Hoyos is definitely a special witness of Christ. And his voice is really soothing to top it all of. The whole time that he talked, I understood things that I never knew that I didn´t understand before.  Most of the conference was focused in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I learned that if people don´t understand the Atonement, it is impossible for them to have faith in Christ. The Book of Mormon is so important  because it explains clearly the Atonement while in the Bible, it has been taken out almost completely.  I really know that Christ is the Savior and that every time that I have truly repented in my life, he has forgiven me. I know that I still have a long ways to go. La hermana de Hoyos invited us to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days because that´s how long it took for Joseph Smith to translate it. As we read it in a blue BM, we are going to mark all of the names of Christ so that we can show it to the people we teach.  You can all do it with me too, it will be fun.  I am really excited to read it once again.  I am so grateful to be able to learn more about the Plan of Salvation. It is really the coolest thing that anybody can learn.

I made a return trip to Ajusco this week that was part of my first area. I forgot how high the altitude is there. It was freezing. But not really.  I didn´t see anyone I knew but I did remember a lot of experiences with Elder Leyva.  I was just a boy back then. We didn´t have any time to work in our area really this week. But we were still blessed to be able to set a baptismal date with Yolanda.  She really wants to follow Christ but doesn´t understand why a true church is of any importance. We have got some explaining to do. Teaching is also the power of God unto salvation.

Yesterday after church, our bishop gave us a list of 40 menos activos to visit in our area and he wants it all done this month. We are going to be very busy.  Contreras is a really good ward and they just do work.

So that´s about all I have for this week. I am happier every day that I am here and I know that I am learning what the Lord wants me to.  I am really grateful for President Valadez because he has helped me a ton.  I love every one of you. You are a great family and I love it when you write me. Have a good week and I hope all is well.

Elder Hubbard

Presidente Valadez

Elder Hubbard muchas gracias por todo lo que está haciendo le amo mucho, y le agradezco lo que hizo para que la Conferencia de Zona fuera muy exitosa muchas gracias todo salio muy bien gracias al trabajo de ustedes, animo!!!

Translation:  Elder Hubbard thank you very much for everything you are doing. I love him very much, and

I appreciate what he did for the  Zone Conference was very successful. Thank you very much all went very well thanks to the work of you, I encourage!

30 Octubre 2012

I am one tired kid. Yesterday morning I woke up really sick. It was because the day before an hermana gave us mole to eat. I don`t know if you are familiar with mole but it is probably definitely worth googling. I say probably because I have never done it. But seriously. Some aztec like 200 years ago had the cool idea of throwing whatever ingredient he wanted into a bowl, grinding it up, and putting it on chicken. Some of those ingredients are chocolate, chile, and nuts I think. It`s not sanitary, that`s all I am say. So I got that out of my system yesterday and all is well now. This morning we went to play basketball once again at the church. We were a lot better than we were a week ago. I love having Elder Jones as a companion. He eats corn flehh.
We looked for a lot of menos activos this week and active members of the church too. Some days we had a really hard time finding anybody but we trust in the Lord`s plan, and we won`t be doing anything else.  What I realized as we taught the members of the church is that sometimes people stop coming to church because they don`t have a reason. When people don`t understand what comes after their baptisms, they don`t know why they keep coming every sunday. But there is a ton to do in the church that is call enduring to the end. I like to think of it as progressing til the end. To help us with that, we have missionary work, callings, temple and family history work, classes, and a million other things.  It is important that we do them and understand why we are doing them. No member of the Church of Jesus Christ should be bored at any point of their life because there are some many opportunities to serve.
Our bishop when with us this week to visit Julian and Eva. It was a sweet lesson, especially when the bishop shared Abraham 3:22-23 with Julian and he started bawling like a baby. He understood the premortal life very well.  The bishop also helped us a lot because he was of the same religion as Julian and Eva before and went through some of the same challenges as them. Julian said that we gained a lot of confidence and at church on sunday, he was answering questions left and right in sunday school.  They`re in Veracruz right now and shortly after their return they will be baptized.
This friday Elder Benjamin de Hoyos is going to visit our zone from the quorum of the 70. President Valadez wants everything perfect.  Elder Jones and I have to get everything ready and I am going to have to conduct the zone conference, so pray for me. I would like to say my spanish is perfect, but I am not going to lie, it`s not. It`s got a longgg ways to go.
I love you all and I miss you a ton. Everything sounds like its good at home. Have a good week.
Elder Hubbard

Baller!

23 Octubre 2012

This was such a fun week. This morning I played basketball for the first time in about 10 months. We are only allowed to play sports with no more than 2 people.  So Elder Jones and I shot some hoops and played 21. I might way 16 pounds more that when I started the mish, but I still got some game. Anyways, right now I feel super relaxed and healthy after playing. I think it´s going to be a Tuesday morning tradition. 

Elder Jones is way cool. He´s from Rancho Cucamonga, California, and his dad is the mission president of San Antonio. That´s where Elder Cousineau is right now. I have one more transfer than Elder Jones and I really hope that we will be here till new years together.  The mission just had a ton of special transfers because we have a new assistant so I think we are going to be safe.

To start off the transfer, we had a baptism. Laura was baptized on Saturday.  I remember that when I got to Contreras, she didn´t want to talk to us at all. We always going to her house because her mom lets us use her washing machine.  So in about september, out of nowhere she asked if she could learn the gospel.  Of course! She is 26 years old I think. Her baptismal service was awesome and seh was crying a ton afterwards. Of happiness I think.

Also this week, we had the great idea to go to the bishops house. His wife, la hermana Sanchez is a family search missionary. So she showed us how we can help investigators find their anscestors. I really really liked it. I felt something really cool and I am pretty sure that I am going to help a lot doing our family history after the mission.

I also went to sign my visa for the last time this week.  I went with Elder Reid and it took all day. But the fed us Burger King afterwards so no complaints.

Yesterday, President Valadez explained to us something new that we are going to be doing. We are going to visit inactive and active members and teach them the missionary lessons. Their responsibility is to give us referrals and the ward´s responsibility is to help them progress in church with callings, ordinances, and feeling loved. We are no longer going to be knocking doors or contacting in the streets. We are going to rely on the ward and they will give us people to teach. I can´t wait and I am excited to help people return to church and help them have eternal families.  You all need to help the missionaries at home. Take them to visit your friends and family, I know they can help. 

Elder Stockard sounds like he is dominating in Ciudad Victoria. Sorry this letter isn´t so spiritual. I am still mortal. I love you all. Do work.

Happy Birthday Travis!!

Love,

Elder Hubard

 Zona Contreras district leaders

Laura´s baptism