More Hub Pictures~

 What a handsome missionary!! Notice the poinsettia's?

A LEGO Nativity!

I found these pictures in my email this evening. What a GREAT surprise!!

12 Deciembre 2011

Hey family!

This was another good week in Mexico City. Time doesn`t really feel like it exists here. It still feels like it`s June and no time has passed in my mission. Topilejo is getting better but it`s seems like we haven`t been able to make any progress in the last couple of weeks. We have taught good lessons and found new people but we can`t seem to get them to go to church. I don`t know what we should do differently.

On Tuesday we were teaching Juana, Mauro`s aunt about the Restoration. It was going pretty rough and very effective. Then I said a prayer in my head to help us get better and help her feel our message. It got way better almost instantly. I think she felt the Spirit and committed to baptism on the 17th. But she didn`t come to church yesterday so that will have to change. She has only came one time. My stomach started feeling weird on Tuesday and I still don`t think it is back to normal. I ate salsa verde I think that messed it up. Mexico is rough on the stomach.

On Thursday we taught Mauro`s parents. His dad can`t read and his mom has already prayed and feels that the Church is right. When people can`t read we have to explain very simpily with pictures and we will use videos this week too. So the thing is they have to get married so they are going to talk about it and we are going back this week. Mauro`s dad looks way different than the first time I saw him. There is more light in his face and in his eyes. It`s the weirdest thing.  We also had a really good lesson with a lady named Alejandra. Ale-alejandra.  She told us about how she doesn`t think the cross is right to wear and worship because Christ died there. Her son was so pumped when we told them that Christ is going to come again. Haha. I love so many people here.  Then we found an old investigator that has already read the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. He knows and believes them but we asked them to pray to know if they are true and if he should be baptized. I think he could be bishop here one day.

On Friday we went to the temple! I love that place more than any other place in the world. I was walking up the stairs inside and felt just a relief come over me. It is so peaceful, I love it.  It was so beautiful too, inside and outside. Presidente Chàvez went with us and his wife along with like 70 missionaries. Elder Herman and Elder Reid were there too. It was a little different having it all in spanish but I understood all of it and went through for a guy from Spain born in 1660. Afterwards we took pictures and went to the temple store. I bought a bible for Mauro but on the metro some guy started begging me for it and I gave it to him and took his name and direction.  When we got back to Topi Town we taught Alvaro and Taide-the parents of the huge family. We taught them about how we can tell something is good if it has good fruits. We talked about the Book of Mormon and they are  going to read and pray about it. Alvaro went to church yesterday and for the first time ever our branch did well in fellowshipping them. I hope thinks go good with them this week.

On Saturday we taught a guy named Fransisco about the Word of Wisdom. He is the one who had open heart surgery and wants to get baptized. He said I used to be an alcohilic but I quit because of my pride. I used to smoke 20 cigarrettes a day but I quit because I my lungs started working. I used to drink tea but I quit because it makes my blood too thin. I used to drink 5 cups of coffee a day but I quit because I had to have heart surgery. Haha. He knows all the hard ships of not taking care of his body but now will see the blessings the Lord will give him by taking care of it. I am suprised he is still alive.  That night we were at Paula and Irais`s house when everything started moving. It wasn`t a ton because Topilejo is up high but there was definitely a temblor. I guess it was like 6.4 in some parts of Mexico City.  We heard the music stop during it next door and then start again right after, like nothing happened. The world will be in for a wake up call when Christ comes again.

This morning we went to a huge mall called Perisur. I found a backpack finally but no pillow. We went to walmart too for some shampoo. Thanks for all of your letters. I miss everyone a ton. I love you all and Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Hubbard

Merry Christmas from the Hubbard's!! What's going on with us.....

Tyler finished up his first year at BYU. He absolutely loved it. He received his mission call to serve in the Mexico City South Mission. He entered the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah on June 22. He has been in a small town called Topelijo since August 22. He is having a fantastic time. 

Shayla graduated with her Associates of Science Degree in Nursing in April. She passed her Registered Nurse licensing Exam in May and worked at a nursing home in Fallon for the summer. She returned to BYU-Idaho in September where she is finishing her Bachelors degree and will graduate in April 2012.

Mark and Bree were married on August 7 at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno. We are very happy to have her in our family. Mark is finishing up his PhD. He will hopefully graduate in May. Bree is working on her Master’s degree. They work in the same lab at UNR.

Aaron, Lynze and Oliver are still living in Las Vegas. On June 23 our sweet Oliver Samuel entered this world. Aaron is still working for Outdoor Promotions as the director of sales and marketing and is starting graduate school in January at UNLV. Lynze loves being a stay at home mom!!

Sam and Shelly are still working at the junior high and are still adjusting to having no children at home. Shelly had to have her appendix out the end of March. That was not a lot of fun. We started serving in the Reno Temple on Saturday mornings and absolutely love our time there. Life is good! We are richly blessed by the Lord. We are grateful for our sweet little family.

La Cuidad de Mexico

Angel de Independencia

Today we went downtown. This is called the Angel de Independencia. It is right in the middle of everything. We went to Wendy`s for lunch. Thank you. I also bought ties with my missionaries from the chinese people. So cheap. Haha.  I found Elder McAllister from my district in the MTC there. He is in the West mission. It was so good to see him. Love ya.

Hey family!!!

How`s life? It`s already December! That`s nuts.  I have been in Topilejo since August. Since Shayla`s birthday. By now I am guessing the 4th addition of her Christmas list has already been given to mom and dad. Hahaha. Love you sis;) Some people have Christmas lights up here now and I have seen some other Christmas trees. It still feels like it`s the middle of summer. My face is so burnt and I had a sun spot on my hand that finally went away after a month. But don`t worry, I put sunscreen on every day.  Monday and Tuesday we had to leave our heater on all day with the door shut because it was freezing at night. But the sun still burns. It`s so weird.
On Monday night Elder Leyva and I taught the rest of the district in our meeting about having the faith to find people to teach and helping them.  The district meetings and the meetings with the zone leaders on Sunday nights are some of the best things about the mission.
On Tuesday Hermano Carlos went with us all day and we got a ton of lessons with a member present which is always good. Hermana Angeles` grandson was in a coma with chicken pox so we prayed and fasted for him. He got better but he is still in the hospital. (We live in Hermana Angeles` house.) He is a cute little kids like six years old. We were all pretty worried for him. 
In Mèxico, people have to have water brought to their house in big trucks called Pipas. They just unload the water into big tanks under the houses. On Wednesday, the drivers all thought they were funny and decided to go on strike. So nobody gets water! We saw like 60 year old ladies carrying two five gallon buckets each of water up the huge hills in Topilejo. Elder Leyva and I helped them and contacted them too.  The old ladies here are beasts. But the strike is over now so its all good. 
On Thursday we had to go to Correos de Mèxico to get my package! Thank you so much. Elder Leyva really likes his shirt and he loved Kristi`s jerkey. Tell her thank you.  I love the package though, definitely good to have some candy not covered in chili powder. Haha.  That night we taught Alvaro and Taide and their 5 sons and one daughter. It was our second lesson with them and we taught the Restoration. They accepted it really well. I hope they get baptized. It would help our branch out a ton.  Right now they are praying to know if Josè Smith was a prophet.  We also taught the boy`s we just baptized that night with their mom. We gave her a Book of Mormon and some reading to do.
Yesterday we didn`t have any investigators come to church. I was bummed! We went to pick them up and we didn`t find any. It was stake conference in San Pedro so that might have had a lot to do with it. Lazy bums. Presidente Chàvez was there and talked. I love that guy. His talk was straight power too.  He could be the best teacher I have ever met.  Then last night after the meeting with the zone leaders we watched the Christmas devotional. We watched the first part in spanish and the second part in english.  I miss the Christmas devotional at home with the family, the pellet stove, and cookies and hot chocolate.  Oh well.  Their talks were all great. I am so glad I get to spread the message of Christ with the people here and tell them that He lives, and loves them, and wants them to be healed of all their problems.  I liked how President Monson said, "Become more interested in people more than in things." I have prayed so much while I have been here to love the people and little by little I feel my love increase. The pure love of Christ is what makes people happy to live and we need to feel it for everyone.
For Christmas here some people believe in Santa Claus and other people have the Tres Magos. They are like the three kings and supposedly bring presents to the kids.  The family downstairs wants to do a gift exchange and I drew a 12 year old named Christian.  I don`t know what to get him.  You will have to call me at Christmas or Christmas Eve at our house. We can`t skype or anything cool like that. Our mission president is pretty strict if you haven`t noticed. We can`t even drink coke!  That would be enough to send some people home. Haha.
Alright that`s all she wrote for this week. We are going to the centro now to find some 30 peso ties. I had a dream I got robbed by two little kids last night so let`s hope that doesn`t happen. Haha. Actually I threw my cell phone in one of the kids face and ran from them. Anyways...awkward. I love you!
Elder Hubbard

Oh my doctrine for the week is Mosiah 27:14! More pics!

Elder Shirley from LOVELOCK!

28 Deciembre 2011! (He's confused!)

Buenas Dias!!
Where is love?! Last week I had like 18 emails to read and this week like 4! What am I supposed to do for an hour? This week went by so fast! I already have been on my mission for 5 months! That`s crazy.  I get to go to the temple on the 9th of December and I get to call home when I want around Christmas. When would be good? Who is going to be there? How much will I cry?
Last Monday ended with our Junta in San Pedro. Every Monday night we have a meeting with the district to motivate us and to improve on the things we need to work on. Elder Leyva is the district leader so he is in charge. I have to help him prepare and give it too since I am his companion.  I usually love them. The Elders in Ajusco are having a hard time with the members wanting them to baptize anybody which is just a little bit weird. So we talked about how we could help them change. Here is a quote that Elder Leyva shared with us from President Monson, "Let`s tie the children of God to the post of righteousness with the chains of love." This is true. You have to show people that you love and care about them before they will listen to you.
On Tuesday I went to Ajusco with Elder Garza. He talks about his girlfriend so much but he is pretty funny so I forgive him.  All we did was look for inactive members to teach but we didn`t have much luck.  We ate La Comida at the guy`s house who they just baptized. He told me that he was baptized because he promised God he would change if his wife recovered from a sickness. She did and he didn`t get baptized so she got sick again and the same thing happened. After one more time of her getting sick, him promising to change, and her getting better, he was baptized. The missionaries didn`t even have to do much work because he was prepared.
On Wednesday we taught Mauro`s aunt Juana. She was a little embarrassed at church on Sunday because she didn`t know answers to questions and said she didn`t think she would come anymore. We taught her how to use the scriptures and comforted her and now she still wants to be baptized. But she didn`t come to church yesterday so I`m a little worried.  We also went to another Hermana`s house to talk to her inactive husband and son. They have to work every Sunday. It`s always the case here. We do so much work just trying to reactivate the members and for it is working pretty well so far. The branch is more full every Sunday.
Thanksgiving doesn`t exist here but I said Happy Thanksgiving to everybody anyways. We just worked all day and we had La Comida in Parres. It is another town that we have, I don`t know if you knew that. We went there and nobody was there so we went back to our house and ate with Hermana Lulù. She never fails us.  It definitely wasn`t a normal Thanksgiving, but I was happy to be in Mèxico.  We watched Finding Faith in Christ with a new family after that. It is a farming family of 8. They have five sons between 15 and 22. It was a really spiritual lesson and I hope everything goes well with them. The parent`s names are Alvaro and Taide.  I felt kind of like I was in the Wadsworth`s home during the lesson. Haha. We met the zone leaders in La Joya that night to have intercambios and I went to Contreras with Elder Vial.
So on Friday I was there with him. Elder Vial is so fun to work with. I hope I am his companion some day.  We had to go to to baptismal interviews and we only had three lessons that day.  They were some good new investigators but I will probably never see them again. How sad.
On Saturday we had three baptisms! A while ago I told you about a lady named Erika. She was depressed and we gave her a blessing and she felt way better. We have been teaching their family and their kids got baptized! Erika and her husband Luis Armando aren`t married so we are still working with them. It is so difficult here to marry people! I hate it. The kids names are Luis Armando, Sebastian, and Tomas. They are 14, 9, and 8. I baptized Tomas and Hermano Carlos and Elder Leyva baptized the other two.  I love these kids so much. We have had some good lessons with them and they are always happy. Sebastian was saying, "I`ve been born again" afterwards. It was pretty funny.  I can see how much happier they are than when we first started going. After the baptism I couldn`t resist and took them to pizza since I knew they wouldn`t eat much that day. It was a great day.
Yesterday they all came to church to get confirmed and just kept smiling all day. It was the primary program which I loved. Little kids are nuts here too. They sang To Bring the Worlds His Truth which was the best.  Oh yesterday I met a missionary who just got here from Lovelock! Elder Shirley. Do you know his family? I took a picture with him and sent it to you.  It felt so weird to talk about Nevada with somebody that lived there. Haha.  I don`t realize how much spanish I know until I talk to the new missionaries and they are just lost.
No mom, we do not have to do laundry. Most people here do it by hand or in washing machines from the 18th century. The aztec calendar has a huge explanation that even I do not understand. I just do my own interpretation of it which includes tortillas, and the lady that washes our clothes in the center of it.  This morning I cooked for the first time in 5 months! We made pancakes downstairs out of a bag! They were so good. I don`t think anybody else really liked them though. Haha. But yeah, we never cook, and we don`t have a stove, or anyway to cook.  Every door here is like a metal gate and the house have high walls with barbed wire and broken glass on the tops of them.  We just pound on the gates with pesos or chap stick and we yell Buenas Tardes. Then they say, "¿Quien?" and we ask for the person and they say, "No hay nadie." Haha. That`s my life. I love it.
Thanks for everything and to those of you who did write to me, more blessings for you. I still haven`t gotten the package but I am not worried. In the future you should send me some peanut butter, and make sure you send pictures in the package!  I miss you, and thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Hubbard