8 mayo 2013

Familia!!

Sorry for writing so late! It feels like I haven`t had a p-day for about

two weeks! But here I am finally. We had a leadership council yesterday so

we couldn`t write. The Leadership Councils in the mission are now composed

of zone leaders and sister trainers. That may or may not be how you say

that in English. It was a lot of fun. There are a ton of new zone leaders,

including Elder Chronister from Aaron`s ward in Vegas. I ate lunch with him

yesterday.

So week 1 with my cool companion from Lovelock was awesome. We taught 26

lessons. In most of them we taught active members of the church and tried

to strengthen them. We still aren`t really repping in the investigators

category but we`ll get there. People from Nevada are athletes in the

mission field.

We had a ton of stuff to do this week as zone leaders. A bunch of

paperwork. I think Elder Shirley was pretty tired. He sleep walks every

night! Scares the bejeebees out of me. The first night I saw him walk into

the kitchen and in the morning a banana was on the floor. Haha. But I

already found the trick. He is really obedient so I just tell him to go

back to sleep. He just says okay...Haha.

Laura and Michel, our recent converts, have signed up to give us La Comida

every day this week. Word.

It`s gonna be another crazy week! I am so excited to talk to you on Sunday!

Travis better be there too. I love you and miss you.

Elder Hubbard

29 abril 2013

Happy Birthday dad!!! Biggest stud I know. I meant to tell you last week but at the last second I forgot. Sorry.  So my last transfer of the mission has officially begun. I didn´t get transferred but sadly, Elder Lee did. The goods news is that Fallon and Lovelock Nevada are now united here in Iztapalapa! My new companion is Elder Shirley from Lovelock. The Lord likes to do funny things like that.  It will be his first time being a zone leader so I´ll show him what we have to do. It will be tons of fun to be with him because he is normal and obedient.

I had a really good week. Elder Lee had to go to the doctors at the temple and there I bought a bible, triple and hymnbook for Laura. Better said, Mom and Dad bought it for her and she says thank you. Haha.

On Friday we didn´t work because we were puking. Elder Lee in the bathroom and I right on some plants that are outside the house. It was fun though. We don´t know why we got sick.

Socorro and Marisol are still going to church. Socorro said that one night she prayed to know if the church was true and she woke up in the morning with a train of thoughts. First-I´m gonna die. Second-God. Third- I need forgiveness. Fourth- I need to be baptized. And fifth- The elders. Haha. That´s a great way to start a day off. We invited them to a baptismal service of a little girl in the ward and they went and liked it but they still don´t want to do it. I have faith though. It has been such a fun project teaching them.

We have been teaching a lot of active members of the church and we find interesting things and have great lessons. For example, one marriage told us that they were sealed 7 years ago and haven´t gone back to the temple since. What are you people doing?! Go to the temple! It´s the best place in the world! Finally, an inactive family that we have been teaching for 2 months came to church on Sunday  It´s such a sweet feeling to see them back at the Lord´s Table. Well, actually only half of them went. But it´s alright for now.

Yesterday I had to take care of a problem of a missionary using his own cell phone to watch an ab workout video. What are you doing?! Haha. He´d better have a six pack.

Elder Lee and I played basketball at church today. It is the only church that I have seen here that as an indoor court. They´re ballers on budgets here in DF. Oh well.

I love every one of you almost as much as my investigators. Haha. JK. Love you.

Elder Hubbard

p.s. You should all make mormon.org profiles if you haven´t yet!

23 abril 2013

Dear Hubbard family,

Que hay. Sorry that I am writing kind of late today but Elder Lee and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology and to Wendy´s this morning. It was the biggest museum that I have ever been too. Elder Lee took some pictures. I am actually super tired now. The metro was packed.

This week flew by. It´s already the last week of the transfer.  We taught a lot of lessons in our area this week but we haven´t been able to help anybody accept a baptismal date. Maria del Socorro and Marisol went to church for the 4th time this week but they still don´t understand their need to be baptized. They are just really social and like going to our church.  We were teaching them on their 4th floor department on Sunday night when all of the sudden I got really dizzy. Then we all realized that it was a little earthquake. It felt so weird. It stopped so we finished our lesson. Haha.

Laura and Michel are still on fire. Laura received an assignment from the bishop to visit a sister this week and Michel is going to go to do baptisms at the temple today. I love to see them progressing. They are in Mosiah right now in the BM.

We had another zone conference this week. We have 40 missionaries in the zone right now. President Valadez is really good at making things more efficient. He talked to us about teaching by the Spirit and about teaching the doctrines of tithing and repentance better.

I keep trying to be a better missionary each day but I feel like I always come up short. It´s kind of frustrating.  I have been a missionary for so much time and I still mess up in just about everything just about every day. But I´m still trying. This week I finally got into the whole parting your hair thing. Word.

The pictures I got this week of Lucy Mae are so cute. Ánimo!

Love,

Elder Hubbard

Me at the National Museum of Anthropology

16 abril 2013

It was a fun week. The best part was easily Laura and Michel´s baptism on Thursday night. They are going really strong and now have many friends in the church. The Sister who gave us the referral also came and participated in the service. I went on exchanges with Elder Mata again this week. He is the AP who I was with for a couple of days in Febuary. He is from my generation too so it is a lot of fun. We had to go to President Valadez´s house to drop him off of few things. He was there in a Cruz Azul soccer hat, shirt, and shorts. I had to keep myself from laughing. I think I am going to give him the Cruz Azul jersey that was given to me in Topilejo. I am more of Pumas de UNAM fan. Haha. Elder Mata and Elder Bass also went to our baptism. Good news, the water in the font was clear, not green. Always a plus. Wow, I can´t think of anything to write today. We´ve been juggling our responsibilities as zone leaders and in our area. We have about 4 investigators right now that are making a lot of progress and have now gone to church four times. Elder Lee and I get along really well and have a lot of nerdy conversations. He has taught me how computer programing works, how 3D images work, the list goes on. That´s about all I got. Enjoy the pictures I sent.

 I love you and miss you.

Elder Hubbard

 Presidente and Sister Valadez, with son Yair

9 abril 2013

Dear Hubbard family,

I was so happy to be able to listen to the Lord´s voice this weekend during General Conference! There is nothing better to know than that we are children of God, and He does everything He possibly can to forgive us and make us happy. His Plan is so real and we are right in the middle of it. It truly gives us peace to know that Heavenly Father is happy with our actions and that He will always take care of us. I loved Elder Cook´s talk when he said, "Peace is not just safety or lack of war, violence, conflict and contention. Peace comes from knowing that the Savior knows who we are, knows that we have faith in Him, love Him, and keep His commandments, even and especially amid life's devastating trials and tragedies. The Lord's answer to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail brings solace to the heart: 'My son, peace be unto they soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high'" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8).

We watched General Conference at our Stake Center in English. I enjoyed all of it. There are really prophets and apostles in the world today. Laura and Michel went to both sessions on Sunday. They are going to be baptized this Thursday! I can´t wait. They are two of the most prepared people that I have met in my entire mission.  Their baptismal interviews are tonight and they are completely ready. It has been an awesome experience going to their house every day and teaching them. In three week from the day we met them, they will be baptized. That´s how powerful missionary work is when members invite the people they know to hear the gospel. In Conference they said that with all of these missionaries, God is preparing more people´s hearts to hear the Gosple. I am sure that that is true.

We saw how Heavenly Father uses His children to help His children this week. With things so simple like a bag of tomatoes. I will tell you really fast. We were going to an appointment with our bishop one night and a guy stopped us and asked us to help him jump his wall to get into his house. The houses are built like prisons here and he was locked out. Hoping that that was actually his house and that we weren´t assisting a robbery, we gave him a boost and he got in. He opened the door from the inside and asked us if he could help us in anything. He sells fruit and veggies and asked us if we wanted some. There is a sister in the ward that really needs tomatoes so she can sell chilaquilas but they are too expensive. So the guy said that we could come by the next day and he would give us two kilos. We knocked on the door and he opened it with the tomatoes in his hand. We taught him and then took the tomatoes to the sister. She was so glad to have them. I am convinced that miracles for us is just logic thinking for God. He just moves his chess pieces.

All of our investigators are finally coming back from vacation so this should be a sick week. Mexico City is still nuts. Hot. Cold. Rainy. Sunny. All of that in the same day. And then there are all of the sounds you here in the street. All weird and funny. The gas has a sound, the tamales have another, the old steel trucks yell something else, then there´s the water and the bread boy, and the garbage bell.  It´s an endless stream of noise and people and all of them need the healing and redemptive power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the people who stand in the streets all day offering to clean your windshield. Live and share the Gospel! I love you and pray for you.  Les mando un abrazote!

Elder Hubbard

2 abril 2013

This is going to be a short email! We went to the MTC this morning and President Valadez told me that while we were there that we could go to the temple! I feel so good right now. It´s like I got put on a spiritual IV. I hadn´t gone since December of 2011. Way to long. I love the temple and going inside. I saw my ward mission leader from Contreras while we were there and we talked to some missionary couples from the US that are serving there in the temple. They said that it was good to speak English with somebody.

In our area this week, we just kept visiting Laura and Michel each day. All we have left to teach them are some commandments. They didn´t go to church on Sunday and we don´t know why. But they are studs.

We had our interviews with President Valadez yesterday which is always fun. He such a cool guy and way funny. He asked me to move his van for him, so for the first time in almost two years, I drove a mini van! It´s like a space ship.

I told you that this would be a short email! We still have lots to do and no time to do it. Enjoy every single session of general conference! I know that prophets speak today. And enjoy Christ´s real birthday on April 6th. Les amo!

Elder Hubbard

26 marzo 2013

We had some really huge blessings this week in our area. We contacted a referral that we received from another ward and it was straight cash, homey. We made an appointment and went to visit them on Thursday. We met Laura and her daughter, 15 year old daughter, Michel. There are few times that I have met people on my mission like them. Laura is a widow and only has Michel to look after. She works in house keeping and goes to a member's house once a week to clean. It was the first time that she has known anything about the church. In our first appointment, we got to know them and they accepted a baptismal date right off the bat. They even like the Beatles and are looking for any opportunity they can find to give us something to eat.  We taught them on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Sunday they went to church, and we taught them yesterday with the young women's president there with us.  They both have said in these exact words that "the Holy Ghost has manifested himself"and they know that our message is true.  So the baptismal program will be on April 13. The key was that a member did missionary work and we are reaping the blessings.  So if you haven't done missionary work yet today, find a way to do it before the day is over.

Our friend, Lourdes, also received her answer that the Book of Mormon is true this week. About a year ago her mom died, and Lourdes has been really sad about that. She was reading the BM and asked if it was true. Nothing happened. So she went to bed and she dreamed a dream. She said that she got to her apartment and found her mom there. Sitting next to her was a missionary that I had brought with me that day, and he was showing the BM to her mom. Her mom was smiling and very happy. Was that an answer from God? Do woodchucks chuck wood? Pues, sí!!!

The only bad thing is right now it is la Semana Santa. People here in Iztapalapa are going to be carrying crosses up hills and reenact the crucifiction. Plus, almost all of our investigators have left on vacation.  So we'll see what happens this week.

Love you!!

Elder Hubbard

Tyler made tortillas!