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