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