December 15

Ahh how much I love this Christmas season in Merida!! it's super fun to see all the fire works at night. I give a good laugh to everyone because I jump at noise of the fire crackers. jaja. its been cold this week (well like 80) and I've been putting those sweaters to use! hahah im a Yucatan :) 

Super great to see the fam at the jazz game! I hope Heston and Saren had a wonderful birthday and hoooray for the end of finals for everyone! muy bien, lo hiciste muy bien! 

This week was super great. El es La Dadiva has been going wonderful!! It is so fun talking with everyone about our Savior Jesus Christ. I had a pretty cool moment while we were teaching yesterday. We were teaching David and Gabby our family of gold. He has been out of a job and found one.. but works sundays. but told us he will give it up. he would give up everything to follow Christ.. to be baptized into the only true church. it just made me realize that THIS is why I am here on a mission, to find the prepared. To invite them to DISCOVER, ACEPT, and SHARE the gift. The gift of JESUS CHRIST and his restored gospel. There are people all around us. Not just people, but our brothers and sisters.. I love being a missionary and for the opportunity to dedicate every hour I have here on the mission to my Lord. I invite everyone of you to share the gift!! look for small and simple ways to share the gift, because for small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

This week we will be going as a zone to one of the areas to sing and share the gift with others! I'm super excited we are going to have the video playing, members singing with us, and missionaries contacting. Missionary work is so fun! and the spirit of hymns is very strong. 

I will be calling home on the 25. I'm not sure what time yet, but we havent gotten any more news than that. cool news is i found a mayan nativity :) Thank you mom for sending me a package, and it wont matter what day it gets to me, Christmas isnt about the presents, or the lights, but its what we have in our hearts, who we are with, WHO we celebrate. and this christmas I am exactly where i want to be. I do miss all of you, but I couldnt imagine my life without these people I have grown to love here. I love Merida. I love Kanasin. I love my Saviour Jesus Christ. and I love all of you. I hope you all have a great week!!! 

Look for ways to share the gift!!!!!! 

December 8

My heart is full this week..

first - LOS CAMBIOS.

I will be staying in Kanasin for the holidays!! but sadly without Hermana Arriaga.. this transfer was super hard saying goodbye to her. BUT its not over! She is the new sister training leader (all my companions leave me to be leaders, its so great that im being trained from the best) and she is over my zone! So I will be doing intercambios con ella. I'm super excited for that. my new comp is Hermana Penguilo de San Antonio Texas, she doesnt know the fam from there. I'm the senior comp and a little bit nervous but good nerves. I know whom I have my trust and I know that God is always with me.

second - I WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!

Like I said last week, they didnt let anyone in who had mistakes, but turns out that would have been a sum of 0 people. and pres. decided to have mercy upon us because he saw our efforts, he knew how hard we had worked, and he had so much love for us.. it taught me so much. we can not return to the presence of our father in heaven without a Savior. Without someone who has mercy and love upon us, who sees that we have done all that we could. and after we have done all that we can, the atonement kicks in. I was so pained when I found out the news that I couldnt go to the temple because I had made some mistakes.. but when our district leader called us and said, hermanas! planchan su ropa blanca! Van a entrar van a entrar! my joy couldnt have been more.. 

I have learned so much about my Savior, about my brother, about Jesus who is the Christ. He is the Gift, the greatest gift that we have ever received. through him we can be purified, through him we can receive a remision de our sins. we had the opportunity to go to centro de merida en  the gran plaza y sing to all who were there and to contact all and invite others to discover, acept, and share the gift. The church is truly inspired with this campaign. There have been many blessings that have already come from it, and I know that the Lord is preparing hearts in this season for US to find, for US to invite and to share!! 

The video is very powerful, and i invite all of you to share it! facebook, and whatever social media site there is now days! 

ill be seeing you all on skype in a couple of weeks. love you much :) 

December 1

Bienvenidos Diciembre!!! 

wheres the snow?? this week has been super great just like always! im still finding myself in shock that its already december.. its really weird for me to see people decorating their houses and putting up trees because there is no snow! i never thought I would miss it :) 

tuesday we had a reunion about the 8 principios with another zone. We talked about 4 of them and did a ton of practices. It was super fun!! I love getting together with the missionaries, its always fun to see familiar faces and to learn from each other. There were a lot there from my generation and we all took a pic together! tuesday was our official 5 months in the mish! crazy

wednesday night we got a call from hermana tania saying that we need to come to the house right now because daniel really needs to talk to us (he has refused to take the lessons) and so we were super nervous wondering what it could be! we didnt have any set lessons, so we ran to their house and turns out Tania and some other members had a little party for Hermana Arriaga and her birthday!! we couldnt do anything thursday because our day was booked and tania knew wednesday we were proselitiying. it was such a fun surprise for hermana arriaga!!! we celebrated her birthday in style with preaching the gospel, and eating cake! we ate with the family romero thursday and as well they made a delicious chocolate cake! and then when we got home, we bought some pan dulce y tacos and celbrated together. i really love hermana arriaga. i have learned so many things from her. we have transfers this next week and we dont know what is going to happen.. im praying we stay together again!

We are still working with Jose Luis to dejar tobacoo. He is starting to smoke less and sunday he went all day without one! We{ve created goals to help him and his desire is SO strong. his testimony in christ has really strengthened mine. 

to answer some of your questions mom :) the weather is like spring or fall right now. its still hot in the afternoons, but it cools down in the nights! ive been sleeping with a blanket in the nights. the thing is its super humid and so it like magnifies the heat and the cold. the strangest food... i have really loved everything! only theres a type of cheese here thats native to yucatan and they use it in cakes. but its nasty. everyone loves it, ive only ate it once, but it was just super strange to have cheese in my cake.. hahah but i eat everything. i havent had problems with the food either making me sick wichi is wierd! i bathe out of a bucket. we water here has clorine in it and it is supppper freezing. the mision provided a heating thing that we heat up the water in the bucket and then use an old yougurt container to pour it. 

with the scriptures we had the final test today.. i learned all 25 of them and memorized them but we could have NO errors. like the ahora bien, pues he aqui all of these little words. i had lots of little errors because im still learning spanish. i dont know if ill ever reach the state of being fluent, but i can communicate with people. but this whole process of learning the scriptures has helped me SOOO much! not only with memorizing things, but also in the lessons. they come to my mind clearly when i need them, and the lord has truly helped me with this. even though i may not be going to the temple tomorrow, it has helped me become a better missionary, and thats why i am here. i dont need to do work for the dead because im doing it for the living :) 

i love you all! 

con amor,

hermana hobbs

November 24

So happy to celebrate Thanksgiving this year in Mexico!! 

This week I have many things to be grateful for. things are continuing to be well in the area! sad that Mexico doesnt celebrate Thanksgiving, but me and Hermana Arriaga will be celebrating because its her birthday Thursday! im so excited to share this day with her in the mission. We are our family here with the members and investigadores. there are so many Christmas trees already decorated! members are already talking about Christmas plans, its so crazy. we have transfers in 2 weeks which will determine where we will spend Christmas! ahh. 

This week has given me many reasons to be thankful. we lost our baptism dates with Jose Luis, he has a problem with smoking that we are helping him overcome right now. But what amazes me is his desire to do so. He has already stopped drinking for 3 weeks!! just working on this problem, but i know he can do it, he knows he can do it, and with the ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ, he can do it! 

We lost the baptism date with Gabby and David as well. they are still super super super excited about the gospel, but there are some things that we need to be worked out before they can be baptized.. earlier this week we were teaching the plan of salvation, and gabby opened up to us about something that happened early in her life that has caused her a lot of pain and greif and is one of the reasons of her depression. my heart has never ached so much.. she has been carrying this load for 8 years. she told us this gospel has been the only thing that has given her the peace away from this pain she has felt.. so we are postponing their baptism, and helping her through the process of repentence.

This lesson was probably the most powerful lesson I have had in my mission so far. It helped me understand the depth of the atonement. I could feel that pain and the ache that gabby has had to deal with for so many years thinking that she is a horrible person and that God will never forgive her.. but the spirit was so strong as we testified of the atonement of Jesus Christ and the love he has. How he willingly gave his life and his blood so that through him we can be forgiven.  We need not suffer because He already has.. my testimony has grown so much through her.

I pray that we always remember this redeeming love of our savior. that we truly use the atonement every day in our lives. I promise that if we use the atonement every day and submit ourselves the Savior, we can find this happiness and peace in our lives that only the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. 

I love you all so much! eat lots of turkey for me :) I am truly truly grateful for my family. 

November 17

All good news this week!! 

JOHN 14:26-27 la paz os doy... 

We had 5 investigadores en la capilla!! Magy, she brought her brother in law Aaron, (a new invest. for us), Jose Luis, David y Gabriella. It was such a blessing for us. We are really having success in the area right now. I am truly a witness of His love and His miracles. I know that when we put ourselves in His hands, when we put our faith in Him, his timing and everything, he ALWAYS blesses us. The meetings sunday were super powerful too. There being 6 missionaries in our ward, its pretty common for us to speak. haha. Elder Peterson (the future AP, bien poderoso) spoke at the end of the meeting and bore a super strong testimony about our Savior and how truly wants us to come to him and find peace. in gospel principles the spirit was equally as strong about the tribes of israel and the gathering of. and the FRUITS of the evangelio. The maestra, Hermana Rubi asked a lot of our investigadores, recent converts, what their experiences have been since they have come in contact with the gospel..

and I will tell you how its been & what they said.. 

David y Gabriella

gabby has depression, can hardly sleep. David doesnt have work. they have a 4 year old son. gabby from her depression suffers a lot of emotional problems. she doesnt like to talk to other people, let ANYONE in the house, or leave the house. she wouuld sleep for most of the day and wasnt happy. david has been her rock, her best friend, and her only support. but i will tell you, this is not the gabriella we know. since we have been teaching her, she is SO happy! she always invites us to come to her house and eat, is eager for us to leave her and david chapters and stories in the book of mormon to read, is so excited to go to the activity for R.S. and play volleyabll and make ornaments for christmas. she also is sleeping well when she does her prayers. she has said that she has never felt this way before about any religion and howshe is proud to tell people that she is listening to the mormones :) 

Jose Luis

jose luis has schizophrania, and hasnt had work for 4 months. he has sold everything he has. his fridge, all of his clothes, his tools to work, because he was that desperate. he hasnt had money for his pills either. his daughters and wife have abandoned him and he is always alone. most nights he would only sleep for an hour or two because of his disorder. He too has a love for the book of mormon, and is soooo willing to follow our Savior and to have this perfect brighness of hope in Him. We read alma 7 and mosiah 24 with him this week. in church when hermana rubi asked him how he has felt he was almost in tears saying that he feels peace like he has never felt before. 

Magy! 

magy is such a blessing. we lost her date of baptism for the 22 though.. she is having problems with her son and her husband. her son is from a differnt father. she has some things that we are going to help her fix before her baptism, but she wants to change. and she realizes that she can be made clean through the atonement of christ. she is our miracle. 

My testimony is growing through these people. every day. like nephi, i do not know everything, but i do know that god loves me and loves his children. i have never in my life felt more inadequate weak and discouraged, but neither have I seen such miracles and love of god in my life and in the lives of others. the coolest thing about the mission is seeing the scriptures and promises de our heavenly father come alive in the lives of others. my whole life I have had the gospel and taken this precious gift for granted. sometimes I feel like im learning everything for the first time. something our mission pres. always says is that the mission is a school or our universidad. this is the time where we learn our profesion. so when we return home, we KNOW HOW to apply all this knowledge and experiences into our jobs. not only are we preaching the gospel, but  we are preparing ourselves to be future leaders of the church, future mothers, fathers, members, this is our time to become obiedient and prepared. this is our time to prepare the world for the coming of CHRIST:

My invitation. 

read and delight in the scriptrues. meditate them and their stories. and apply them to your lives. remember that the gospel is the MOST important thing to center our lives upon. i know life is busy.. i know sometimes we think we cant find the time.. but thats not true. If we are too busy to study the scriptures, and to pray, we are far too busy than what the Lord intended for us to be. (gordon b hinckley)

I love you all so much. 

Enjoy the blessings of the gospel, seek to find the peace it brings in each and everyone of your lives! 

November 10

This week was a good one.

We had zone conference and LOTS of things changed, for the best! Pres. Garcia changed the way district and zone meetings work. They are now called consejos de districto, consejo de zona y consejo de companerismos. We established ONE vision for our mission which is moses 1:39 and we the 6 points of the obra de salvacion. I really like the new change because its a lot more like the mission. 

We had lots of cool experiences this week in Kanasin, the biggest is the promise from THOMAS S: MONSON. a couple weeks ago we had a visiting authory that was meeting with the pres. garcia and the stake presidents. Elder Mendoza said, that Thomas S. Monson himself dijo KANASIN WILL PROSPER. of all the places in the whole world he and he said the little pueblo that I and 5 other missionaries are currently serving in. Our ward has had sooo much excitement about la obra de salvacion from this and I can truly testify that the promise is coming to pass. To think about my area when I first arrived with Hermana Martinez and how we didnt have one investigator, and to look at where Hermana Arriaga y yo are right now - I truly know the Lords hand is in this work. 

We are now teaching Gabriella the wife of David! in the stake we had an activity about family history work where a member came and gave a presentation about his family history. He found that he is a descendent of the last mayan prince!!!! it was sooo cool, and the presentation that the youth put on about indexing and doing the work for the muertos was so so cool. It was like a mini play that they put on with real stories of people. This is what was the seller for Gabriella, she was crying during the program, I am sooo excited about this family!

Magy is going to be baptized the 22! She is the sister of the bishop. we are excited about her because she has been an eternal investigator but says that she feels different in the lessons that we have taught her and is ready to be baptized! so that will  be fun to look forward too!

Pres. Garcia also announced the greatest thing ever this past zone conference... Dec. 3 he is giving the missionaries an opportunity to GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!! but, there is a price to pay. For all the missionaries who memorize the 25 scripture masteries in spanish by Dec.1. when our zone leaders told us this I started to cry. I miss the temple soo much and im so excited! also so nervous because I really am the worst at memorizing things, but I know its possible with the Lord. My vision is clear and I am going to make it to the celestial room by memorizing these scriptures. :) 

I dont have much to say this week. just that I am happy and the work is great! love you all so very much!

con amor, 

hermana hobbs 

October 28

Ma¨lokinn is maya for buenas dias, o good morning :) 

Well... Im staying in Kanasin for another transfer with Hermana Arriaga!! When I realized I already have 4 months in the mission I kind of had a panic attack. The time goes too fast. I have so much to do and so many people to help but so little time! There were lots of special transfers this cambio within the mission, so there were hardly any changes this transfer which is a blessing. Within our district, there were no cambios, creo que en la zona tambien. I knew I was going to stay in Kanasin, I could feel it. So I wasnt worried about packing or anything. I feel like I'm going to be here for a long time which im super happy about. The people here have become my family, my investigadores, the barrio, the neighbors we have. Everyday I learn so much. How the spirit works, how the gospel works, how love works. This has become my area. :) Me and hermana arriaga were joking the other day because I even recognize all the dogs here. hahha I should start naming them. 

Lots of blessings this week!! 

Isabel has become our 3rd companion on Wednesdays. She presented us to lots of menus activos in our area and one hermana in particular se llama, Minerva. She actually had a fecha baptismal but her and her husband werent married and couldnt get married becuase he was from guatemala. something with the papers they couldnt get married legally. The missionaries got taken out of the area and they got forgotten about.. Her husband passed away. She has had a real hard life and misses her husband more than anything. BUT that is why we are here!! We are super excited to start teaching her.

I dont know if ive told you about the familia Romero?? they remind me soo much of our family. They are a family in the ward. Their houses are build together. 3 of the daughters served missions as well. They drop anything they are doing to help us.. We are working with the family in law of hermana Teresa, se llama Guadalope, Jose, y Magy. Guadalope says she is very Catholic, but all her beliefs are in line with the gospel. she is the closest to baptism right now. We havent been able to commit them to set date for baptism, but I think its coming soon. Keep them in your prayers! 

The familia Laura Blanco tambien, Del Fino, Margarita, Jose, y Kaela. This family is very special. Del Fino is the grandpa and dad of margarita. The first lesson we had with her all of her questions were about the plan of salvation, and wanting to know why we are here on the earth. She loves the book of mormon as well. the problem is she works on sundays.. we have been trying to help her look for another job because she doesnt want to work sundays. We really have become such great friends with this family!

Yesterday we had a lesson with Cosmo and it was such a unique experience with the spirit. He had a lot of confusioni with the Book of mormon so we were explaining it to him. His situation reminds me a lot of joseph smith. He lives alone but a lot of his brothers and sisters are of different faiths, but he doesnt agree with a lot of them. when we first contacted him in the street he was very hestitante to talk to us and was kind of mean. he was saying how he doesnt like religion because there are so many divisions, so many different ways that people choose to worship, and a lot of it is corrupt. (was very fed up with tithing in other churches for ejemplo) but as we explained to him un poco about the restoration through joesph smith his counteance changed and he started to listen to us more.. it was such a testimony to me of the scriptrue in doctrine y convenos that [they are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it). The church of jesus christ of latter day saints was not created by man. Joesph smith truly saw the father and the son, and the power of god was restored on the earth again. The power of the preisthood to act in the name of god. that is the difference. and boy is it powerful!

Daniel is back from plataforma! he arrived very tranquilla y very ready to learn  and change. He has such a good heart. If not this time that he is home I think the next time he will be baptized! keep praying for this good family. Tania is such an example for them.

I love you all so much, I truly know that God hears our prayers and ANSWERS them. God is truly a God of love, he is just, but his love for us is perfect. And that is love is there for us whether we think we deserve it or not.

Indiabibech!

Hermana Hobbs

October 20

well... its official, i'm not gonna be a baby anymore! This is my last week of entrenamiento. In the mtc I thought by now I would know everything, but its funny how different the mission really is than what I had originally thought. It is sooo much more, and so much better/harder. I have gained a new love & understanding for the phrase of line upon line precept upon precept. with myself, the mission, and investigadores. 

I GOT THE PACKAGE. it was such a fun thing to read all your letters!! It was super funny because hermana Arriaga read all the letters as well and loves hearing about our family. I always tell her funny stories about my crazy family in spanish to practice, and it was the icing on the cake receiving Sam's tarea. jajaja enrrrrrriiqqqqqqqqque is our favorite punchline. It was so fun to talk to Isabel about all of you and share her experience. She shared her experience in R.S. about our family and the others she stayed with and I was tearing up becasue she said the exact same thing grandma Hancock said in one of her letters. sometimes we think that our little bubble is the only bubble that exists, but really there are truly good people all over the world. I love all of you muchismo and I'm so grateful I am around such good people here. We ate lunch yesterday with the family Romero and they asked me what you sent me, I told them I recived like 3 sweaters (and all the other stuff) and they started laughing as I told them how concerned you are about me freezing. DONT WORRY MOTHER. I have enough sweaters to keep me warm for the 3 days here that are cold. I have not had one day yet where I have been cold. :) 

This week we have cambios, I dont feel like I will change and I am praying that I dont. This week was super hard, but i feel like its just about to peak in our area. Our progressing investigador Ivonne was set to be baptized this week in the noche de blanco. where our mission pres comes to the stake and all the missionaries baptize this week who have people. We were super excited because Wednesday, Ivonne recived her answer and cried with us in a lesson saying how she wants to be baptized. This was SUCH an anwer to our prayers. she has been asisting the church for like a month now, going to all the activities, but her progress has been a little slow becasue she is supppper shy and hasnt recived much support from her family. it took us like 6 lessons to have her finally say the prayer, but it is so easy to see the light of christ in her. she started working this week because her family is in desperate need of money. the people here are so poor. and started working sundays..... we havent been able to meet with her all week because of her work and we were so devestated. she was so excited for this night of white and to be baptized.. we were able to meet with her yesterday and she understands the importance of the sabbath and is going to try to get sundays off. please pray for her.

I've learned a lot about the spirit this week.. how its so important to be in tune with the spirit and to rely on him. how great it is that god has given us a member of the godhead to be our constant companion! that is such a big deal. in 3 nephi 19 after christ visits the americas talks about how the gift of the holy ghost is what the pueblo desired most. I desire the holy ghost. as we all should. god truly knows us. he knows our needs and feels what we feel. he doesnt want us to be discouraged,  feel inadequate, feel like we dont measure up in the eyes of the world. he wants us to be happy, to KNOW how much he loves us. I love this opportunity to share this with people. fore them to truly know that GOD LOVES THEM. ahh how sweet is the work! 

gracias por sus oraciones y por la amor me muestran. se que con todo mi corazón que el Señor nos guías en la vida si nosotros permitimos. Solamente necesitamos abrir la puerto de nuestros corazones por El. Te quiero mucho!

con mucho amor,

hermana hobbs 

October 13

What a week!

wow reading your letters made me extremely happy this week I got Sarens dear elder and it was exactly what I needed. I'm so grateful to have such a loving family and that you were able to enjoy and make time with Isabel. My heart is truly touched that you were able to do that for her. We ate lunch with her daughter Sunday and she said that Isabel was in heaven this past week. I'm so glad she was able to see my life. I love what you said mom about looking into others peoples eyes to see the world and how you were able to love the mountains all over again.. thats something that I've been trying to work on a lot here. To have the same eyes of our Savior and of our Heavenly Father. To see people's divine potential and how much LOVE our brother and our father tienen por ellos. 

This week there was a lot of adversity.. but thats life, thats the mission! and if ive learned anything, in the midst of great adversity, are great miracles. a veces we are too distracted with the adversity that we dont see the miracles. We had lots of people turn us down, and had to dejar lots of investigadores because they werent progressing.. We were filling a little low Sunday night because of this, but when our lider de distrito called for our logros, he could tell we were a little discouraged and asked us what we had seen this week that strengthend our testimonies and miracles in our area. As we were reflecting, there were many. one, Wednesday we recieved a call from a man named David that we contacted on a bus una vez that said he didnt want us to teach him, but took one of our cards. He called and said he visited mormon.org and changed his mind, wanted to take lessons. he isn't in our area, but this was such a powerful thing to see. No effort of ours is wasted, by the smallest of things, of leaving a mormon.org card with him with our names and numbers the spirit was able to testify to him that this is what he needed! 

We had some bien poderoso talks yesterday. we had a reunion en centro de merida with Elder Mendoza of the 70s, hes a former mission president of where my comp is from and our pres. Garcia. oh how much i love pres. Garcia and his wife. It was ALL about member missionary work. so so so important. We only have like 5 members that live in our area because this ward covers lots of area, so we know how important it is to utilize the members. the elders had a baptism this saturday and the family mendoza (they are serously so great) had a dinner after and invited the ward and the newly converts to come! we had hamburgers and fries, a little taste of home yucatan style. there is no greater joy that comes than seeing members with arms open wide to our investigadores and recent converts. 

Funny story this week: Wednesday Hermana Arriaga was stung below the eye by a bee.. we were walking and all of a sudden she stopped and said owww and asked me to look in her eye. I guess I didnt understand what she was saying. hahaha I was like your fine, there's nothing in your eye! probably just dirt or something. then two minutes later I looked again and her eye had a huge bubble underneath it and I started panicking!! hahah it was sooo funny. We rushed to a members house who is a doctor, but she was working. We called Hermana Garcia and she told us to go to centro de salud, so we went and they gave her some pills to take. She had a black eye the next day. hahah I felt so bad after. we both laughed a ton. We said we need to start praying for more trials in our prayers so we can have lots of great experiences of the mission :) hahaha

I love being a missionary. I love going to bed feeling completely exhausted. I love sharing the love of christ with others! its the best thing in the world. I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! choose the right and look for ways to serve! 

Nikki and her family are in my prayers.. I know the lord is with them at this time during this trial. Send my love to them. 

con amor, hermana hobbs 

October 6

WOW this week was awesome. 

Started of really slow. havent been seeing too much success with our investigadores right now. but I think every one of my worries and concerns, and questions were answered in this conference. They were SUCH powerful meetings! I love that they are having people speak in their own language now!! It was fun to see that. a testimony to me that god always fulfills his promises - that every nation will recieve this good word in their own tongue. always remember that. Heavenly father ALWAYS does his part, we only need to do our part, reach up, and claim the promises.

We only had one investigador in the capilla for one session.. we were super bummed. Our area has been a little bit slow right now, but I know the lord has heard our prayers, and that there are prepared hearts here. We had a fast Saturday and when the sessions were over Sunday we went out trying to find a taxista we had contacted earlier the week. we never found his house... BUT we found 3 bien potente familias while we were asking for directions (our map has all the wrong calles) this was such a blessing. We are starting to find lots more people. I always had such a wrong perception of a mission before. It is literally like sifting through hay to find the needle. but every one of these people here are important in Gods eyes, they are his children and he has entrusted me with his care, chosen me, and promised me to help. He has asked for all my faith, giving all that I can, heart might mind and strength, and that is what I will do.

Had the opportunity as well to have intercambios con Hermana Ormeno of Peru, she is soooooo amazing. Has sooo much love and so many attributes of chirst in her. she finishes her mission this transfer and it was such a reflection to me of what a mission can become for a person. missions are meant to be a time of happiness, because thats what our heavenly father wants us to be. That happiness comes through serving others, from holding nothing back, from living with no regrets. I feel like I'm in a school to learn the things of life right now.. its such an amazing experience and I am grateful for every single day that I have! 

Sorry I don't have much time. I love you all, 

I know that christ lives, that he loves us and that god is our heavenly father who knows each of us by NAME. knows our needs, knows our desires. think about it. pretty amazing.

con amor,

hermana hobbs

prayer list: daniel, tania, alejandra, maria, david, mary, marisella, lorena, antonio, edna, sandra

September 30

Can I just say how much I love the mission?? This week was great in so many ways.

glad to hear that you guys in good ol utah had a couple of rainy days, got to experience my life for a bit :) 

So glad you had the chance to go to go to the womens broadcast!! It was seriously SO amazing, exactly what I needed, especially one of our investigadores, Ivonne. She was the only one who could accompony us, but im so glad she went. The spirit was so strong there - it always is when we talk about temples. Its funny because all this week, antes de la conferencia tambien there has been such a theme of temples. I was able to watch in English thanks to Rubi one of the mas poderoso miembros I´ve ever met. she has an ipod thing I borrowed. I loved the talk by Sister Marriott (i think her name is) the second counselor in the YW. she spoke to us in the MTC as well, loved her anology of the little boats growing into great ships :) Pres. Uchtdorfs talk was exactly what I needed to hear as well. It relates really well with one of pres. Bednars talks about doctrine. Its so important to realize the DOCTRINE behind the principles and applications. doctrine always answeres the questions of WHY. why do we do visiting teaching? why do we attend chruch? why am i serving a mission? if the reasons are for numbers, or for the approval of others, kneel, offer a prayer, and open the scriptures and think of the doctrine, think of the life of christ, the eternal perspective. I loved his stroy of the visiting teachers, really powerful and made me think of my own work here in the missionary and why I need to find people to teach, ask for referencias, be worthy of the spirit, todo.One of the many is because each soul is precious in the sight of God. and in mine as well.

We had a little miracle this week. tuesday we got a phone call from tania saying she was on her way home back to Merida!! she is here with us and so is her husband. her faith is so strong and her desire to go to the temple as well. We are working a lot with her husbadn right now, he defintly is a good seed. Ivonne right now is our only progressing investigador. We have had so much help from the barrio with her. MEMBER MISSIONARY work is SO important. With alegandra things are going slow, we can only teach her on saturdays and domingos because she works and goes to school and doesnt return hasta 9:30 in the night or sometimes mas tarde, but I think she truly has a real desire to change.

We found bien potente personas this week, but a lot were not in our area. haha we were pretty bummed about that, but one of them was a referencia de la esposa de el obispo (this family is ecactly how i want my family to be when i return) her name is Alejandra tambien. She has 3 children, 1 from her previous marriage and 2 with the man she is living with right now. He is in the military and is only home for 28 days every 4 or 5 months.. so basically she is a single mom. but she is soo good and her little children are so cute. She lives a lot of principles of the evangelio already, is very catholic but realizes that some things done in the catholic church are not right - like worshipping saints. haha its funny she has a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. we had a really powerful lesson with her the other day when we were reading out of the LDM. she has lots of questions about everything. we started talking about the temple and her face lit up and was so excited to talk about it. it was a really cool experience for me. we were only reminding her of our HOME. of where we can return. wow i miss the temple so much.. 

We had the most amazing activity in our ward this week where we were able to have so many investigadores in the capilla! It was a night all about the book of mormon. the YSA put it on, they decorated each room in the church about a different story of the book of mormon, moroni, king benjamen, the savior vising americas, arbol de vida, lots of good things and in each room there were the youth as the people. The 6 missionaries in our ward we were the tour guides through each room. We took groups of about 5-6 people and would explain each story. it was soooo beautiful and the spirit was so strong. Everything focused on the Savior. I was so excited too because I could speak Spanish enough for my groups to understand me or a member to understand me enought that she could add whatever I missed in explaining :) mom you shuold suggest this for an event for the youth, it was so awesome and all the members brought some one who didnt know the church, or investigador! 

All is good in mexico, i love it so much. I dont think ill ever be used to the heat, but im learning to live with it haha :) I still feel like I'm standing in front of a fire hydrant that is exploding. There are so many things I want to learn and so many things I want to change muchas cosas. but I know I need to be patient, use the atonement, give my best, and little by little I will continue to progress into the missionary the Lord wants me to be. thats what is so great is that there really is no ending, there is no destination. its a never ending journey, and its along the way that we progress. once we accomplish one thing, theres always something else to look forward to. always something else we can do to reach our diving potential. life is great isn't it? :)

hope you all have a wonderful week! 

con amor, 

Hermana Hobbs

prayer list: Tania, Daniel, Alejandra, Hermana de Alejandra, Alejandra, Ivonne, Juan Carlos, Lorena, Edwin, Monica, Rosaura, Ceaser. 

September 22

Hola mis vidas,

gwoah donde debo comenzar? Earlier this week I was reading the Liahona, and found this little piece of gold that Id like to share.

"The struggle to break out of the cocoon develops the butterfly so it can fly. Without the adversity, the butterfly would never have the strength to achieve it's destiny. It would never develop the strength to become something extraordinary." Joesph B. Worthland

I love this a lot. Last week I was really nervous with the cambios, a new companion and me having to take the lead in showing her the new area and everything, but just like the quote says, the adversity is was develops us, what gives us strength. Hermana Arriaga has been such a blessing! Her personality reminds me a lot of Saren, very loving, patient, kind hearted, and wouldnt say one bad thing about anyone. She is 22 and is an elementary teacher, and is a muy muy buena misionera. 

Last Monday was the day of independence for Mehhico so our barrio had an activity Tuesday morning. It was a "swimming" activity so we couldnt really participate, but we went because the members were bringing their friends so we could contact them. which was a HUGE success. The ward is seriously so great and so enthusiastic about missionary work. One funny thing, me and hermana arriaga were talking with a joven and eating lunch meanwhile one of the hermanos in the ward was singing on stage. Hes part of one of those typical mehicano bands like of of nacho libre and has a really pretty voice. So he was singing, i wasnt paying much attention, but slowly started to realize that everyone was staring at me and chucking.. haha i look up to see the hermano serenading me and singing about my "blue eyes" hahaha it was super funny but at the same time felt super uncomfortable. :) but next week we have another actividy the YSA is putting on about the LDM, theyre acting out stories of it and describing what the LDM is. its a bring your friends kind of night tambien so we are super excited about it. Kanasin reminds me a lot of West Weber. A lot of the people here as well. The ward is like a big family, everyone looks out after everyone, especially the missionaries. 

We've been working a lot with Ivonne this week and her family, but mostly with her. Its been hard because shes the only one progressing, but the family is our goal. we are hoping for a baptism soon and for it to be an example. The other day we went with a member, Angela, to contact one of her neighbors. she wasnt in her house, but another one of her friends was walking by so we decided to contact her. She{s gold. Her name is Rosaura. The first lesson was really and we felt the spirit a lot. We taugt about dios and the LDM and invited her to read chp. 37 of alma. the next visit we had she had read 15 more chapters in alma and said how the way we pray is so beautiful and she felt something really special when she prayed. Her husband drinks and smokes but is super nice. he was a little drunk when we went and taught the second time but promised he would be sober for the next. he loves to cook and wants to feed us so i can taste mexico. hahaha im really excited about this family. 

Things are great here in mexico, I have so much to learn, and so many things I want to learn sometimes its hard to find time! but that has been my favorite thing is learning. spanish, doctrine, this culture, everything. I love the people here. I had an immigration appt. on wed. and went into the main part of Merida where there is a walmart. WALMART. i felt like I was in america. We had to take photos for my visa. but that part of Merida is beyond beautiful.. holy moly. I told my comp. im moving here after I return home. I love everything, especially the people. 

So great to hear about the temple.. i miss it so much. I hope you and dad had a great birthday!! I was thinking about you both all day. In fact, Saturday when we ate with one of the members, it was her birthday as well and we had a cake. so in a way I celebrated your birthday too dad. :) love you all so much. sounds like everyone is doing spendid!! continue to do the little things!! 

September 15

Sounds like I wasnt the only one with miracles this week, im so very glad to hear jacob is okay. i hope he is doing well and the other family as well. i know my family is being watched over, and that is very comforting. 

este semana... gwoooah.. im not sure where to start!! so many miracles. We had Elder De Hoyes que is the presiding 70 over mexico come and speak, i have a NEW TRAINER HERMANA ARRIAGRA y the most exciting.. TANIA WAS BAPTIZED!!!! I cant even begin to tell you how much of a miracle this was. this week was super fun teaching her, things were going so well, we would go and she would explain to us the 12 chapters she read every day in the LDM. Taught her mandamientos y todo. Saturday we had an appt, with her a las 4 y when we arrived she was crying and talking on the phone. Come to find out her mom is not doing well at all and she made the decision to return to Veracruz for 4 months to help care for her and was leaving the next day. My heart was literally breaking when she told us this because she has progressed SO much these last couple of weeks and we had planned for a mexico fiesta on sunday lunch in honor of dia de mexico!! and now she was going to leave.. but right after she told us this while we were all crying, she asked if she could be baptized in the night. Of course me and hermana martinez didnt hesistate to say YES. there was a baptism planned at 6 pero it was cancelled because the parents of the young girl changed thier mind so at this point tania hadn{t had her interview for baptism, the font was as dry as a bone, and she had no white clothes but we knew that the Lord would provide. We started calling everyone, bishop, the leaders de the zona, hermanas in the ward, everyone. All odds were against us, but we had the lord on our side. and i am more than grateful,happy,speechless to say Tania Diaz Suarez was baptized at 8:40 that night. I have never experienced anything more beautiful. Me and martinez walked into the bathroom to find her on her knees praying to heavenly father all dressed in white right before she was going to be baptized.. i cant even put into words what i felt.. so much peace in my heart. so much peace porque she is a true fruit... we left her with tons of pamphlets and extra LDM becasue she is eccited to share this gospel with her family in Veracruz. I promised her as well that I wouldnt leave Daniel solo. he returns the 23 of this month and i am hoping and praying that lord is preparing his heart while he is away and that I can be an instrument in converting his heart unto the Lord to complete this family.

My aproxima news.. I have a step mom!! Hermana Arraiga de Norte Mexico about 1 de McAllen Texas! she is so sweet and i am so excited to have her! and also soooooo scared. haha. I am now showing her the area, (Im still in Kanasin) explaining everything with the invesigators, introducing her to members, leading in the lessons, everything.. All this week I kept having the thoughts about the story of Brigham Young and the rescueres when he asked for people to go for the saints and asked when the brothers would be ready and (ephraim i believe) said, I am ready now. I kept having the feelings that I needed to prepare myself so when the Lord calls I am ready. this was the spirit working in me. but at the same time i kept thinking there is no way that they will change me or my comp! im still in my trainging, hardly know the language, opened the area, etc. If anything, pres. will change me to a new location and leave hermana martinez here. but as always, the lord had different plans for me. So, Im ready. ready to work hard, ready to really let go of myself and my fears. theres no room for that here. Our call of transfers came at 11 p.m. sunday night and my first reaction was tears when i heard the news.. hahah both of joy and fear. i have loved being comps con hermana martinez. she is the new sister training leader of campeche. so that tells you how amazing she was. i learned a lot from her that i want to apply into my work. we were talking after while packing her bags. Never before had she been in an area for only 1 cambio and how this has been her cambio of milagros as well as the most dificil. Tania was our miracle. and hermana martinez said that she is convinced that she was in Kanasin solo for Tania.. and that there is nothing more for her, that I am ready and here because i am needed because there are hearts here for me. so no time to be afraid, only to rely on the Lord, for he calls the weak and qualifies them. 

We found 2 families this week that im super excited about. Edwin ( contacted him because he was playing catch with his son and wearing a boston red sox hat, so we talked baseball for a bit) and Maria de Carmen. We havent had a lesson with Edwin yet, but with Maria de Carmen felt the spriti super strong in that lesson.. we invited her to pray for the closing prayer and never before had she prayed in her life, but it was the most beautiful prayer ive ever heard. she was in tears when she finished and i asked her how she felt and she all she could say was peace. Testifies that it was the spirit. Hopefully we{ll have a baptism soon. 

I love being a missionary! Glad to hear Jake is still being a missionary too! Love all you. cool story as well. people in merida know me! hahah one of sams mission comp. has been asking about me with Hermana Sanchez that we went to lunch with before the mission. I saw her at the conference and she was saying how there have been like 3 people in her ward who have asked if she knows me. So hopefully one day ill get to meet him! It was fun to hear that. Hope the family is doing well. love you all more than anything, pray for you every night! Quick recovery to jacob! 

read your scriptures!! 

mucho amor,

hermana hobbs

September 8

ah que cosas!! sounds like the fams been busy with brocs wedding. loved the pictures!! everyone looks great :) and HESTON. so proud of you!! sounds like youre the allstar of the team! keep working hard and continue to better yourself. in total aspects :) 

i can´t believe i´ve been in mexico for a month! this week will the last of week of my first cambio! so crazy. i don´t know what to excpect. i don´t feel like im going to be transfered but we will see! so many changes in so little time. this week was filled with tender mercies - i think my favorite part of being a missionary is seeing how the gospel works in others. seeing how god´s love can make someone whole. 

this week we were super excited because we were meeting with Daniel and Tania and hoping to continue on with them. Tania´s baptism was set for this week but it didn´t happen.. and from this ive learned that the lords timing is not always the same as ours. tuesday we met with tania and it was one of the most powerful lessons. we taught about faith and the atonement. spirit was super strong. that night we recieved a call at like 10:20 which was weird from the esposa de obispo. i answered because its my job to attempt to talk on the phone with people but quickly handed it to hermana martinez because i knew she needed to talk to her. come to find out Tania had gone out to buy comida porque she was going to cook lunch for us the approx. day and saw her husbands mototaxi outside of the bar. tania has a very strong character and went into the bar and yelled at him. one thing led to another and he beat her pretty badly.. when i heard this i could hardly believe it because he is the most calm sweetest guy - but thats what alcohol for ya. she was bruised pretty terribly.. it broke my heart. but im really glad this all happened. that sounds terrible, but i mean it in the best way. sometimes we have to hit rock bottom to realize that we need to change. and thats what needed to happen. Daniel and Tania have come to this fork in their marriage and from the last couple of lessons we have had with them have been bien poderoso. They both want to work together to fix this. Daniel as well accepted a fecha baptism. its been sooooo humbling and soooo amazing to see this change take place. to see how the gospel has worked how the atonement is working. even though we didn´t have the baptism at the time we hoped for, this is the lords plan for them. Sometimes he brings us low so he can lift us even higher. 

weve been finding lots more people to teach, just sifting through the ones who truly have desires to change their lives. there´s lots of menus activos that are starting to come back to church too which is super good. the family we´ve been working with - our neighbors, nearly all have dates for baptisms. the two jovenes Ivonne y Julio are super excited about everything. we are working really hard with the parents right now because they arent married and they don´t believe its important to be married. they think if they get married they will just want to be divorced and they don´t have money to do that. but theyve been together for 30 years. its going to happen though, i have faith!! 

we had intercambios this weekend with one of our sister training leaders, Hermana De Leon (from tampico!! sams mish. can´t remember the actual ciudad she was from thought) she was the companion of my companion from the mtc before she went home. she is super solid! taught me a lot. mostly to be direct and sort of blunt with people. we were teaching Jose Oscar on sunday, he´s 26 and he drinks alot and she was so blunt in the most loving way about how he needs to stop drinking. i need to work on a little more direct with people. hhaha 

ahh so many things to say, but these were some highlights of our week. im starting to feel better about my spanish! it´s starting to be fun, specially when i make funny mistakes. i literally feel like im in the best 2 years sometimes in mexico. i love it here! 

hope you all have a fantastic week, keep up the good. find someone to serve everyday, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel. i can promise that our father in heaven will give them to you! te quiero mucho! 

hermana hobbs

September 1

Well...I can't believe how fast time goes!

Its starting to rain soooo much here. which is my favorite type of weather. its lots better than sweating your eyeballs out. haha. so for a little experience this week we were at a members house eating this week and on our way walking back it started to DOWNPOUR. the kind of rain that in 3 minutes could flood the whole world. while we were running in the rain  another member hollered for us to come inside to wait for it to clear up. we were super glad because were were probably 20 minutes away from our next appt. house. as we were waiting in the house she shut the doors and the windows because the rain was muy fuerte meanwhile cutting onions to make salsa. hahah if you remember my eyes are super super sensitive to onions. so there we are with 9 people crammed into a little room and me crying my eyes out becasue they stung so bad. they were getting a kick out of it! i wish i would have brought my camera because my eyes were literally bright red. even when we left they were watering for like 10 more minutes. hahaha

This week has basically been a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. Last week was pretty hard because we didnt have many people interested in hearing us and had a lot of people shut us down. So me and hermana martinez decided to buckle up and work hard this week, so we did just that! We contacted more in the streets, and started using Jake{s technique of singing a hymn and having the members let the spirit work in them and write down someone who needs the gospel in their lives. We had lots and lots of references which is what we need. we set 9 new dates for baptism this week!! we were really excited. i hope it all works out.

We are working really hard right now with Tania. Her baptism is set for this thursday so we are trying to get her all ready. We had a little miracle with her this week. Like I said, her husband came home this week from his work and they have been having problems. We had lunch with them on friday and it went really well! His name is Daniel and he was really receptive to our message. They both came to church with us this week and it was so touching to see how different their little boy Paulo acted as well as Tania. Usually Paulo is super crazy during church and is running all over and Tania is a little irreverrant trying to calm him down. But with Daniel their all Paulo wanted to do was sit on his lap. I could tell Tania was much more at ease as well.. It was a testimony to me about families and the roles of parents. Marriage is meant for man and wife because they compliment each other and are there to support one another. I think its really hard for Tania to have her husband away for work, as well for Paulo. This is a good family - the temple is the goal. for them to be together forever.

Weve also been working hard with our neighbors. We contancted the mom the other day, Asuncion, and had a lesson just with her. She has 9 kids the oldest is 29. We only know him, Juan Carlos, the second oldest, Ivonne 17, and Julio 10. The mom is pretty hard right now. She believes her baptism is correct and she doesnt need another one, but none of her other kids are baptized. She really likes us and likes talkign to us which is good. We are going to work on her. Ivonne and Juan Carlos both accepted a fecha which we were super excited about!! Ivonne and Julio, the two youngest are so cute. Ivonne is very timid and quiet but so willing to do everything and really has a true desire to know about this gospel. Julio reminds me so much of Cy! he is so cute and funny and carries his soccer ball everywhere. We invited them to a ward activity thursday and they were both super super excited to go and they came to church with us on Sunday as well!! Funny story. So Ivonne, Julio, Tania, y Daniel all came with us to the church. Daniel is a taxista (those little carts that nacho libre drives in the movie is what a taxi is here) so Tania offered to take us to church. So all 7 of us piled in. hahahha it was a sight to see!! i think we were only going like 2 miles per hour because the thing weighed so much. it was way fun though. the family is pretty poor and ivonne hasn{t had many friends. she bonded instantly with another YW member and it was perfect! she is now going on a little overnight activity with the young women and wants to come to church every sunday. it reminded me so much of all your little young women girls, mom. keep working on all those in west weber who need the gospel!! invite people to activities because it all can start there! We are really excited to see what happens. They are good.

There's lots more things and people I want to write about but I dont have much time left. Thanks for all the words of encouragement and help. Everything is going well, i have good days and bad days with the spanish but im learning line upon line precept upon precept. The temple looks beautiful!! i love seeing the pictures of it. I still have my bottle of water that you gave me from the open house. im saving it for a special day when i need the holy water. or clean water. haha :) love you mucho! hope the wedding goes well! wish grandma happy birthday for me! love you all more than anything.

con amor,

Hermana Hobbs

p.s. mom & dad i am teaching english classes. which are way fun!! what is the sound about apples and bananas and vowles?? do you know any good activities to do or have any good ideas? i need my creative parents help once again :)