Monday, February 13, 2017

AUSTRALIA - TEXAS - IRELAND and other things



Personal Feelings + Personal Understanding + Personal Testimony = Personal Growth


















Ok  ---- get ready everybody.  This week was a busy week! 

Monday was Pday and it was a blast. 

We had a lesson with Chris about himself preparing to go to the temple. Before the lesson though we had to answer a few questions about the Plan of Salvation. Some of the questions he asked were stumpers. I asked him where he heard this stuff and boy! A member was teaching his own opinion about that point of doctrine. He got really confused and had to ask us. One of my first thoughts was - who is this person? The other one was  -- wow! Sometimes it seems that church members want to know everything or seem like they know everything. Which is pretty common, it's hard to say you don't know something. But all we really just need to do is to stick to the basics doctrine.  We don't have to go down into the deep stuff to know the gospel is true.  Just stick to the basics -- the rest will come when we are ready for it.


Tuesday was MLC so that meeting was awesome!! 
Like always it's nice to see the missionaries I used to serve with and etc. ... We learned more about the importance of teaching repentance from out of the Book of Mormon. We need personal feelings, personal understanding and personal testimony. We did role plays to help us. Speaking of role plays.... so at one moment in MLC there was a role play to show personal understanding  -- President Jardine decided to pick on two lucky missionaries to role play personal understanding in front of the rest of the MLC (missionary leadership counsel). He paused -- looked at the other side of the room ( I though I was safe ) and then he said - Sister Hyde and Sister Davis will you please do that. What! First I was like no problem then when I was walking up there I was nervous because I was never really good at remembering scriptures and such. But as I sat down and said a little prayer, Sister Davis and I pulled open to a scripture and went with the spirit.  It was amazing! Oh! Other major detail  -- we had to role play to Sister Jardine as the investigator. .... cool! She is awesome! At the end of the role play we had to receive feed back from the missionaries and one of them said that we reminded him of his mom. It's not everyday another missionary says that you and your companion remind him of his mom. Super funny right? So, anyway, those three personal things are all we need as missionaries, investigators and even members to progress in the Gospel. 

We met with the zone leaders after MLC to see how we can take this info to the missionaries up on El Dorado. Super exciting! Right?

Exchanges with Sister Brown ! 
I heard so much of her and wanted to serve around her and now I do! We had a great day! We had some lessons with members helping building their faith in Christ, testifying of him and the importance to turn to him... Repentance in other words. Loved it! Heard one of the members conversion story and she got baptized in the Salt Lake City temple! That had to happened because her family was going to get sealed and she was over the age of eight and wasn't baptized yet. So a general authority interviewed her, she got baptized then got sealed to her family for forever. Crazy awesome right!?! Cool lady too!! 
Another experience that day was something else. So we stopped by the Theodore's house to see how he and his wife is doing. He was sick so they were going to the doctors but invited us in real quick to get us out of the rain. Minutes passed and we asked if we could say a prayer. He just looked at us and pretty much said that he didn't believe in God and that he tried telling the past missionaries but couldn't. He said that years ago God took his first wife, left him in a difficult circumstance and that he hates him. My heart literally broke. To see his eyes not of this light and .... man. We tried to testify but he wouldn't have it. Even when we said that he would see her again. His heart has harden by hate and .... I started to cry because there is so much hope and love that he is missing out on, because he doesn't have the gospel in his life and that he was done trying. Sister Brown and I sat in the car in silence. Said a prayer for him then went out to help more people. 

Friday was zone training and not going to lie but Sister Davis and I felt a little unprepared but..... it was amazing! The missionaries participated, shared experiences, role plays were awesome and boy! It was Awesome! That's all I can say, oh, and they are doing great on teaching repentance out of the Book of Mormon. 
Funny story! So Sister Davis wants to eat more healthy ( only one serving at dinner, healthier snacks, more veggies and fruits etc) so to help her do that we came up with a code phrase. It's - how fun!. Because I say that a lot.. haha. One night we were at the Krugers, having curry and she reaches for the second helping of rice. I say how fun, which totally fits in the conversation and look at her with a smile on my face. She looks at me, smiles, and whispers oh shut up. I busted up laughing which made my food spit out of napkin, which made the Krugers start to laugh and ask what happen. We explained and oh! That was such a funny night! 
Saturday we did team ups with sister Kearl and sister Wilkins. Love those too! Great day of biking too because the rain cleared up and was sunny! 

So we don't have many people to teach and those we were teaching have stopped contacting us and answering the door. A real bummer.  But on Saturday, Sister Davis and I prayed for a miracle and made a goal of sacrifice for the next four weeks of this transfer to do. We have so much faith that something will happen I just know it! 

Yesterday was awesome! The lessons were amazing! Loved Relief Society about cultivating an attitude of optimism. President Gordon B. Hinckley is a great teacher! I learned that it's  all about the gospel, it's all about having the joy in our lives... now turn your thinking around, let your light shine as you face trials. Turn to the lord and and he will make you burdens light and you will truly live life in happiness. We live in the fullness of times, where the gospel is on the earth. So if You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen. A comment was made when a teacher asked her students " if you could travel to any point of time, what time period would you go to?" One of the students said " probably Thursday because life is good and yup" ..... how cool right!? That should be our answer. 

Anyway! Hope you all had a great week! 
Can't wait to hear from you and hope all is well! 
Love Sister Hyde
Pics: El Dorado zone.. some of them are goofing off are being series... funny...
Sister Davis and I pics, and pics of some sisters and us 

Saturday, February 11, 2017

No Easy Road

This week was a good week. We just had a lot of meetings this week. 


Some of them were with the zone leaders --  about setting our goal to help others come to the waters of baptism and to see how we can help the missionaries in the El Dorado zone. We have a lot of great missionaries up here who work hard and are a blast to be around. 





We had a stake missionary dinner in Wednesday and to see a lot of people geared up to help the Lord in His work is such a great sight to see. 

One great day when it was raining and cold so we went to Safeway got us a hot bowl of soup, ate it, then back out to work. Let me say it does help to work more efficient when you have a full belly. Hahaha. 

We visited Sue this week and every time we come over her and her husband are warming up to us more. That is great news because that means her heart is softening!!!


Super Bowl Sunday  .... no one opened their doors. We heard the tvs going and everything with everyone we went to. In the end it was a big laugh to me. One guy opened his door and said "look ladies now is really not a good time...  (he looked back to the t.v, then back to us, his face showing how desperately he wanted to watch the game).  He told us a day we could come back. 

We will go back but just how funny that happened ... hahaha. 

Our area is a gorgeous place we just need some more people to share the gospel too. So we met with the bishop -- who is super cool! He has met everyone on the Ward record and knows them! So when we went over to see how we can help him he already had things lined up, people for us to go see and everything! Super cool! Love this Ward so much! 

District meeting was awesome! We have Elder Calvert as a District leader, and he was my district leader some transfers ago. We had a great district meeting. We focused on sharing our expectations with our investigators. 

Chris blessed the sacrament this Sunday! So proud of that kid. He is getting more engaged in the church activities. He even participates in class, sometimes he talks a lot on a answer to a question. This kid is awesome! Now we working to help him get to the temple to do baptisms and such! Super excited for that. 


One thing that I was focusing on this week 
was what am I suppose to become. 
Our Savior helped the apostles, 
and us, see that we need to become our best self 
and by doing that,  ultimately, we become like him. 
Like when he says, "come follow me". 


I love this quote and it pretty much summed up what I learned ...

" Men and women who 
turn their lives over 
to God 
will discover that He can make 
more out of their lives than they can. 
He will deepen their joys, 
expand their vision, 
quicken their minds 
and strengthen their muscles, 
lift their spirits 
and multiply their blessings, 
increase their opportunities, 
comfort their souls, raise up friends, 
and pour out peace. 
Whoever will lose his life in the service of God 
will find eternal life. " 
  • President Ezra Taft Benson

We were also driving down this one road and found this sign... image1.JPG


 yup... and that road wasn't an easy one
but it opened up to a nice green pasture 
and looked out to this amazingly gorgeous sight 
and it got me thinking... which isn't the best sometimes .. haha but yah! 
Sometimes we may be on a not so easy road but when we rely on the Lord 
and trust Him then will our blessing be great! 

Hope you all had a great week and wish you the best for this next one!