January 26

Happy week everyone!

This week we have had lots of blessings and tender mercies. I am so grateful for my heavenly father who keeps us humble and who always shows his love, lots of time through the most difficult of times. I am sure you have all heard about Elder McBride. I had the great opportunity to serve with him here in Kanasin for a transfer and he was one of my really good friends. We taught classes of English together to the ward, well mostly him because I still couldnt speak spanish. He was such an example to me, and to everyone. It was really hard when I heard what had happened.. but The lord needed him in the work of salvation there.. 

Lucy has her date set for the 7th of December. She is progressing SO WELL. her mom as well, just hasnt accepted completley to be baptized. she has a testimony, its just hard because there are lots of problems in the home with her husband and shes scared to make the decicion.. but he has been very supportive of us. we just need to teach him to win him over! so lucy's little sister Ana is 5 and she is my little friend. she is sooo cute and she loves me so much hahah.everytime we come to teach she comes running to me and tells me how much she loves me. Sunday i made the mistake of sitting on the corner edge of the aisle in sacrament and the whole time i had little kids coming up to me to try to hug me, sit with me, and talk with me. jajaj. theres like 50 kids in the primary and they tell me im like their little muñeca :)  so we had a lesson about the word of wisdom with this family and little anna basically gave us the review about the plan of salvation, the whole thing! and was talking about how we need to care for our bodies because we are like temples and we need to return to our Dios-cito. i felt the spirit so strongly.. children are so in tune with the spirit.. she was in charge of the prayer in primary so we were helping her practice but she didnt even need our help :) 

We also had a really cool lesson with Jose Alberto. hes one of the rentors from Hermana Hilda. He is from Tobascao, and to be honest when we first talked to him, i didnt think he was going to be someone to progress because of the first impression. but that was so wrong of me.. he has been doing his family history and has been reading the book of mormon every night! he came to church last sunday and had tons of questions about the sacrament.. he said he didnt feel worthy to take it, but his desire to know more about God and how he can change is strong.. it was really cool experience for me. LET US ALWAYS HAVE HOPE. esperanza por Dios y por todos los hombres.. (2nefi31)

I have loved working with family history.. tomorrow I have another opportuniyt to go to the temple! to do baptims for one of our family members. Pres. Garcia has given us the opp. every month to go to the temple but the catch is there is always a requisite. to make it something we have to work for. ( I love pres. with all my heart) and one of the ways we could go is if we were to find names from our own families. I found the name of Glen Hobbs who needs all of his ordinances, one of my bisbisbisabuelos.I was writing in my journal last night about the experience and I couldnt help but cry because i truly felt the spirit of elijah. the spirit of Glen Hobbs and my heart turning tohim.. although I dont know much about him, i know he is aware of me, and he has been waiting patiently for this day. for tomorrow tobe set free.. to be reunited. I want to invite you all to experience this change of heart. experience the spirit of ELIJAH. There are many ways to be involved in the family history work, and I know with all my heart that the adversary will have no power over us if we involve and focus ourselvesmore in this cause.

I love you all and I'm so grateful for the letters, the love and support that I have recieved. I'm so happy for Karma and Debbie. SO happy that they are recieving the fulness of the blessings from going to the temple. Nikki is always in my prayers. please send my love to their family. she is a fighter and I know everything will work out for the best.

MUCHO AMOR

hermana hobbs

January 19

Well we got our cambios... nada! 

I can´t tell you how happy I was last night when we got our phone call. Hermana Pinguelo and I will be here another transfter together! I´m super glad because I don´t feel like ive done all the work the lord has for me here.still things that the lord needs me to learn. Kanasin is truly progressing..The missionaries that come to Kanasin have a rep for staying here a long time. Elder Echeverria, our old zone leader just barely got transfered after 9 months. jaja. the members always joke with me and him that we should just buy our property here :) 

Our baptism fell through with Daniel..we were pretty bummed. But we are now working with him for the 31. Lucy is progressing so well! we had a super powerful lesson with her about the restoration, and at the end she asked us how she could be a missionary like us. she is the age of heston and she reminds me so much of the little sister i never had.i love her :) jose the husband of magy, is doing suepr well!! he is going on 1 week now without smoking and magy is helping him so much. it has been such a cool experience to watch how their relationship is changing and how magy is such a little example for all her family.love them so much.

Every day is an adventure here in the mission! every day we have youth come with us to work, they are preparing for their missions, its been super fun! i wish i would have taken advantage of going out with the missionaries before my mission more. just some funny stories i want to tell real quick.

So Tuesday we had a lesson with Lucy and a youth in our ward, Manuel was going to come to the lesson with us after he was with the other missionaries. so when we got there he had told us how when he was with the missionaries, he helped this lady get rid of an iguana in the fence thing in front of her house. hahaha he showed us the pictures of the two missionaries and him literally yanking this iguana out of a brick wall. the lady told them that they could keep it. I told him how i love the iguanas.there are tooooonnnns of iguanas everywhere and ive always wanted to try to catch one. hahah the next morning we get a call from hermana rubi saying that manuel was in her house with the iguana for us to hold..itslittle legs were tied up and everything. i will have to send the picture. :) 

Other funny story - yesterday we had an acitivity in the stake center for family history (SO FUN.we have been helping all members and less active and inv. do their family history) we had like 5 inv/menos activos that were going to come with us. Hermana Rubi said that she could take us in her van. but her mom is the one who has alzheimers and she is very protective of this van. where the van goes she goes. and we all had to walk away from the house so she wouldnt see us get in the van but hermana rubi hit the panic button and she came running out of the house. and said that hermana rubi couldnt take itwithout her. when we got in the van she was yelling at all of us saying that we couldnt get in and that she was going to charge everysingle oneof us. van a pagar voy a cobrar! jaja but when we got to the activity she was fine. I love her so much. :) we were late, but it was a fun little experience. our investigadores loved it too :) 

I love you all so much. pray for opportunities to do family history work and to share it with others. and GO TO THE TEMPLE. find the time, and the lord will bless you in ALL aspects. I know that. love you all. sorrydont have much time this week :) 

hermana hobbs

January 12

This week was another wonderful week filled with lots of blessings like always :)

Magy was baptized saturday! It was such a blessing. we visited with her all week, and she was so ready. it is so crazy to me how much she has changed when i first met her. The baptismal service was so beautiful. Her brother (our bishop) did the ordinance, you could see the pure joy in his eyes.. to see his little sister have a testimony in christ. they both were crying.. we are working with all of bishops family right now! Her mother who is super catholic even said the closing prayer in the service. Magys husband as well is progressing. he needs to quit smoking, but he has the desire. we are praying for 24th :)

Just a little story.. so their was a lot of oppostion with magys choice as well.. after she was baptized her son and her nephew starting ridculing her and the church saying awful things.. the next morning the nephew woke up with SWOLLEN lips. like they were HUGE. he couldnt even speak! and the son had the flu all day and was throwing up.. it was just a little crazy to me.. reminded me of when Alma was struck dumb from his iniquities.. even magy herself said her testmiony grew from this little experience. but she is firm as rock ready to move forward.

This past week in zone conference we go news from Elder de Hoyes of the area to start working more in LA OBRA DE SALVACION de RETENTION. "La clave de la retención es el TEMPLO." We have started to utilize the pamphlet of my family to contact and we are pushing for family history work. I have started to fill out my own folleto with stories of my antepasados.. Im sure you can all imagine how excited I have been this past week 24/7 talking about family history work and temples. we have been given an extra hour ourselves to be doing family history work. We have citas planned this week to take our inves. to get started with their own. THIS IS PART OF MISSIONARY WORK. i know how easy it is to say " well everything is already done. i cant find any names" thats satan talking. the work is never over. search names, upload stories photos to family search, take names to the temple. free those who are anxiously waiting for you. this is the restored gospel. we have the keys on the earth to bind families forever. we were in practices today and i was able to share the story about grandpa earnies "change of heart" conversion story. even though it was just in the practices with the other missionaries i felt the spirit of elijah so strongly. "we discover something of ourselves when we learn about our ancestors" -Pres. Thomas S. Monson

I love my family. :) i love my family here in Kanasin as well. we have transfers this week.. i know the lord will put me where he needs me but i still hope its here. love you all so much. do your family history work! share the gospel using it. the lord has people prepared all around us, we just need to open our mouths to share the joy that we have with others. LOVE YOU ALL. here are some scriptrues I found this week that i really love.

D&C 127:4
And again, verily thus saith the Lord: Let the work of mytemple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, becontinued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and yourperseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and youshall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts. And ifthey persecute you, so persecuted they the prophets and righteousmen that were before you. For all this there is a reward in heaven.

Heb. 11:40
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Lucas
1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

January 5

Recuerda: "Todo lo que has tenido que pasar para llegar hasta aqui.. Tu y Tus seres amados has que cada momento valga la pena.."

happy new year everyone! im still in shock that a whole year has passed. so glad everyone passed for a good new years eve. sad that the family got the sickbug! ive been having one myself.. jaja. for new years we were on divions, so i spent it in another area with 4 other sisters. it was pretty fun but i was a little sad to be away from my comp and my area! I was with Sister Kaitlyn Price from syracuse, Hermana Allen from Oregon and Hermana Sanchez from Chile. We partied it up until 10:30, but quickly were awoken to the fireworks and the music from the the neighbors. hahah the music didnt stop until our language study the next day when i think the neighbors crashed. it was fun :) 

the divions were super good.. i learned a lot from these 3 hermanas and lots of things that they have had to pass through here in there missions as well as their lives individually. The quote that I shared with you, Hermana Sanchez shared with me and it has been like a motivation for her her whole mission. her mom got cancer before she came out and her dad just lost his job and shes the oldest.. there was a time when she tried to go home, but through much prayer, and after talking with pres. she realized what she would be sacrificing. she shared a powerful testimony with me of the blessings come after our trial of faith (ether 12:6) and I KNOW THAT IS TRUE. with our natural eyes we cannot understand the blessings and glories that will come, maybe not even here in this life, but truly we are laying treasures here in the mission. every person{s mission is indivdual here in the earth, but like Christ did when he was here, he understood the will of the father, understood his individual mision, we too must understand our PURPOSE, our DIVINE POTENTIAL so we can do the fathers will. 

we changed houses this week too that was stressful. we had lots of help of the members so that was good! haha. we are excited because we have plans to baptize every week before transfers. we are working with Magy, Daniel (the husband of Tania) and Jose Luis. We had a super powerful lesson with Daniel the other day about familias eternas. He has until feb. off from his work in plataforma so he wont be traveling to and from these months which is so good! he has commited to be baptized 17 enero and even paid his tithing this sunday. Tania has been such an example to him these past months, and truly their family is so happy. tania cried to us in the lesson because for the first time this new years and christmas daniel wasnt drinking ( he has totally stopped) and He told us that he has realized that he doesnt need those things to be happy, that he just wants to have this love in his family always. what a blessing!! El evangelio is an amazing thing.. i love watching it change the lives of others.. watching it change my life. 

that is my invitation to always focus on APLICATION. always think, how can this apply to me personally? and how can i act upon this gospel principle? i know if we do so, our relationship with god will grow, and we will come to know him more.. we will grow a greater love for him. our love for God is what motivates everything. motivates our desire to be obedient. i know god and our savior loves each and every one of us so much. i have been so blessed to "feel my saviors love, the love he freely gives me" every day here on the mission.. 

LOVE YOU ALL.

heres a pic of our old house. so sad to move... :( 

Magy y Jose

Romero family

December 29

Hope everyone had a great CHRISTmas filled with the spirit & spending time with the family. My christmas was super great! It was so good skyping home and seeing that everyone is doing so well. I think that is the grandest gift I have received, is my wonderful family. 

Christmas here is celebrated more on the 24, they have a huge dinner and then they blow up fireworks at midnight. We still had to be in the house at 9, but we ate with members lots of really good food, it was like thanksgiving. we had turkey and lots of different salad kind of things. I was so tired that night that I didnt wake up to any of the fireworks. hahah. #missionarylife

Saturday we had our baptism with David y Gabby!! It was such a beautiful day. Hermana Arriaga was able to come for their baptism and it was such a good surprise for David and Gabby to see her. There is a song of the nashville tribute called "the hardest thing" and it talks about the life of a missionary, the hard things we have to encounter it talks about his struggles at the first of the mission, and then how at the end how it was the hardest thing to go home.. there's a part where it talks about the "ones I've come to love all dressed in white" getting baptized. that song was on repeat in my head while I watched this family make covenenants with our father in heaven. I know in a year I am going to see them in the temple, and I'm hoping and praying that I will be able to be there with them. The lord truly has great plans for the both of them. 

2015 im welcoming with open arms. As I've looked back upon this year there have been many changes in my life.. but many more to come. Every day the lord is preparing us for something more and this year I have the opportunity to dedicate it ALL to the lord. To give everything I've got. A

nd I´m starting with trying to become more like Christ. To focus myself in gaining the attributes of him. In DISCOVErING, EMBRACING the life of him so that I can better SHARE it with others.

I hope you are all making goals of what you want to give to the Savior this year, of goals to help reach your potential and become more like HIM.. I love you all so much!!! 

con amor, 

HERMANA HOBBS 

December 23

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

I can do all through Christ who strengthens me.. 

I am so high on the christmas spirit, I love hearing how everyone is having such wonderful christmas experiences. There is truly such a sweet spirit around these months and I have enjoyed seeing it here in Merida. Hermana Isabel bought us a little mini tree and made us ornaments so we have the spirit of christmas in little home. I love her so much. 

This week was a blur.. we had lots of new lessons gracias a EL ES LA DADIVA. we have had fun teaching that lesson with using the atonement and video. It really is a powerful combination. because many people know that jesus is the christ and that he was a gift but they sometimes dont really understand the significance or how to apply CHRIST. how to discover, accept, and share his life. por medio de this program of he is the gift, I think i myself have come to understand more of how i can apply christ in my life. how i can become more like him. how i can reach my potential. 

This Saturday will be the baptism of David y Gabby!!! we are SOOO excited! I dont think they could be any more excited. Last thursday we went to centro for the interview of hermana gabby and later walked around the temple.. she was at such a peace and said she has never felt so much relief. i know that is true. that strengthened my testimony of "accepting" the gift. when we apply the atonement, we are applying the greatest gift our savior has given us, we are allowing for him to help ease our burdens. 

We also had a noche de barrio (ward activity) that was super fun! us 6 missionaries got together and did a little skit. we had two boys in our ward be the "missionaries" and we were the investigadores. The joke was that everyone of us had some kind of problem. like I was fat ( stuffed my clothes with blankets and pillows, one elder was deaf, one elder was missing an arm, one was bald, different things. And the missionaries would invite us to read the book of mormon and promise that we would be cured. But then they would inherit the problem. haha it was super fun! The ward seemed to love it.

Yesterday we had our Christmas devotional as a mission... POWERFUL. it was so fun. each zone took turns singing a different christmas song. Ours was Oh holy night. and me and another sister had a duet part that we sang which sadly... we slaughtered. hahah we came in at the wrong time like twice. it was fun :) then we had a night of talents, a real christmas dinner with turkey and mashed potatoes and everything. it was delicious. we did an exchange of gifts as a mission too. then to top it off we went to a park and sang songs of christmas and contacted people. it was super fun day. I think my favorite part was when presidente talked to us. He is such a wise man I love him so much. He gave a very powerful testimony of Christ and how we can truly CHANGE through him. It reminds me of silver bells dad sent me an email about. the message of the restoration of the church is like the sound of silver bells, it cuts through the air crystal clear, travels through great distances and once you hear it, you can never forget it. 

Jesus Christ is the Savior and I know He lives. I know that through him, I can do all and so can you. 

I love you all so very much. :) 

have the best christmas ever!