September 28

buennnnnnno. 

Hna. Valdez & I will be staying in Motul juntas. whhhhooooooooohooo. im really excited, its a great area and we are truly seeing those fruits. Im pretty sure I will be finishing my mission here. I love my little pueblo. 

Wow what great blessings came this week.. first. Mauricio was baptized.  YAYYYYY. the exclamation point doesnt work on this keyboard so I cant show my emotion how Id like. jajaj. but I am really excited. It was so beautiful, he was so ready and so nervous.. its funny how it is. There was a good number who came to his baptism, both from motul 1 and motul 2. His girlfriend and an ex misionera gave the talks in the service... SO POWERUL. We had a lesson with him earlier in the week and said that when he comes up from the water, that he will be the cleanest person in the world.. and to pay attention tothose special feelings.. on sunday we had a family dinner with him and paloma and he shared with us his feelings and testimony.. HOW GREAT IT IS TO BE A MISSIONARY. When him and paloma get married i already promised to come back for the sealing.. oh que lindo. he is also going to be called as one of the counselors in the quorom of elders.. so thats exciting. many miracles are unfolding. on sunday the stake pres. asked him to say the prayer in the capacitaion, and with shaking knees he did it. jajaja i love mauricio. 

We also had our activity of the hisotria familiar on friday.. we had a whopping audience of 6. sad thing is when the rain comes out, everyone stays in. I was a little bit dicouraged because our members were so excited to be a part of the activity and had reherearsed so well and hardly any members came. but Mauricio did come so that was good. I was a little dicouraged, but the obra was seriously SOOO beautiful and so real that it made up for it, and the members who were involved felt the spirit.. after we were walking home with a hermana who is like a hero to me, and made a comment that really made me think..  she was |one of the actresses, and said that althogh we didnt have tons of people who came, SHE was the one who was touched. it made me realize once again that NUMBERS DONT MATTER. what matters is the individual.. what matters is the spirit. there are so many successes and accomplishments that you cant measure with numbers. I feel like thats sometimes one of the biggest temptations in the mission is to work for numbers, and not for individuals.. we are more worried at the end of the week if our ZL are going to planchize us than it is to be where we are with who we are with and help them feel the spirit.. that is also something I learned in the conf..

Saturday I loved loved the conference, my favorite part is singing in praise, united with all the good women around the world. i loved knowing that I was singing with my family ahi in salt lake. I loved the talks about our divine nature... of our little EVE. Jacee reminded me how simple they were but how POWERFUL. the lord is simple, and the gospel is simple, yet it leaves such a powerful effect upon us. love that.

SUNDAY. Efren and his wife Conchie came to church and LOVED IT::::: YAYAYAYA. it was such a blessing from our father. They still havent commited to baptism but they are following the paths to be there. I love seeing and teaching them because they know and feel its true.. just arent willing to accept completely. but I know they will. keep praying for my little friends. It was also the primary program on Sunday so it was a special spirit that was there. It always makes me cry seeing the future in those small little hands. I LOVE IT:

I love you all. hope all is well. keep being examples to all those around you. there are those who need your love. LOVE YOU.

hermana hobbs

September 21

EN UN DIA FELIZ, UN/A NIÑO NACIO, QUE SE LLAMA MOM & DAD, Y QUE SEA FELIZ! AL PARTIR SU PASTEL, UN DESEO PIDIO, QUE SE CUMPLA EL DESEO, Y QUE SEA FELIZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AY AY AY AY!! 

Yay!!! (that is the birthday song here in yucatan, its super fun :) 

Just wanted to wish my two favorite people in this world HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I am so blessed to have such wonderful parents who have taught me to love the Lord. We sang I am a child of God with a little girl this week and asked her what she liked in the song. She told us the part that said that god sent her to parents kind and dear. It made me realize how much I love my father in heaven, for sending me to parents kind and dear. It made me love my favorite hymn all over again. :) 

This week was such a good one! We were able to stay in Motul without traveling, so we got a lot accomplished. MAURICIO will be baptized this week! We did a family home evening with him and the family of his girlfriend about the atonement. It was super powerful. Then Sunday after church we had a lesson and he cried to us saying how thankful he was for his two three angels who have brought the gospel into his life.. Those are moments I live for. To feel as an instrument in the Lords hands to help others have this happiness. We are so excited for him. He is truly converted! he has given up working on sundays and is paying his tithing, and he is seeing the lord fulfill with his promises as well. I love seeing this miracles!! 

Isela is building up her faith in the Lord. and we did a church tour with Efren this week. they are progressing, surely but slowly. The Lord is preparing their hearts. :) 

We had a little cool experience Saturday in our class of english. A guy that I contacted in the combi like a week or two ago came! his name is Raul! we started talking and we gave him a book of mormon and invited him to the english classes and he came! when we first contacted him, he wouldnt let us take hsi number because his family are catholics, so we left him the direction and everything. Saturday said he was interested in learning more, but that wed have to teach him in other parts! how cool. we just never know who the lord is preparing, that is why we love talking to everyone :) 

Today we got permission to go the the puerto! Ill have to send you pics. We were only able to walk out half way on the dock, but it was SOO pretty. I love my little yucatan. 

I am also so excited for the conference!! I love preparing, studying, and searching questions for others and for myself and taking them to the lord. I am always amazed at how he answers us. 

LOVE YOU ALL

hermana hobbs 

September 14

VIVA MEXICOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! 

This week was such a good/busy one with mighty miralces from our Father in Heaven. 

All started with our 8 principios in Merida! we traveled the whole week in the mornings to have our capacitations with 3 other zones. it was fun because I was able to see Hna Arriaga and Hna Pinguelo who are finsihing up this transfer! how fast the time goes. Its always fun when we are reunited :) On thursday I was in charge of giving the capacitation on revelation through prayer, it made me reflect how prayer has been such a key element in my entire mission, with the inv conversion and my own. 

Efrain!!! we had our lesson with him on Tuesday and boyyyyy was it powerful. We went over the restoration and it was amazing to see how he lit up when he understood. I think thats my favorite part about teaching, about being a missionary, when the light of christ LIGHTS up in them :) He loved the story of joesph smith and asked us the question, how is it that this young boy who started out in such circumstances was able to establish a church so grand hoy en dia? because our heavenly father is who directs us in this work. The spirit filled the room & Efrain was eager to ask god for himself.. we had an appt on thursday but he got the chincangua, the sickness that is going around thats like west nile virus, so we left him with the joesph smith story. keep him in your prayers! 

Isela! she is the girlfriend of our ward missionary leader. she has been an eternal investigador but accepted fecha this week! the lesson was super powerful with her. taught her there in the church ( i love teaching in the church becasue the spirit is always super strong!) we found out why she hasnt been commited to be baptized.. every time she has read the book of mormon she has had nightmares where her family has had accidents or bad things have happened and feels like these things will come true if she accepts the gospel.. it is super crazy to see how many ways satan works among the children of men.. i feel like because we were in the church building, and por causa del espiritu, she could feel like these things were good, and felt that hope and little seed growing inside of her. faith conquers fear!

Mauricio! he is the boyfriend of miembro paloma (we are teaching all these boyfriend and girlfriends to have forever families jajaj ;) Hes awesome!! he hasnt wanted to accept fecha because he still feels like he needs to learn, etc etc, but last week he went to the stake conference and felt the spirit, and helped him realize WHY WAIT??  why wait to recieve these blessings the lord has for you? his desire is to change, but we cant change completley unless we have the help and covenant with our lord. read with him in mosiah 18 and about nefis sueno and boom. the spirti worked in him! he accepted in 2 weeks! so right before cambios we are working to have a baptism :) 

This week has been super fun super full of the spirit! Yesterday we were able to go to the dedication of the temple in mexico, jeffery r holland gave a talk that i will never forget. we were blessed to come in these days when the gospel is fulfilled to help our families be together froever. the day we accepted the plan is the day this work not only became the work of the father or of jesus christ BUT THE WORK OF EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US WHO ACCEPTED THIS PLAN. we promised our heavenly father that, and promised our families we would strive to find them! how great and heavy is our calling. Let us all press on in the work! Who directs us? the god of israel!! 

also we ate an iguana for lunch today so that was super cool. with our family itza! they wanted me to tell you they love you :) its my little family here in motul. We took pictures with the iguanas when they were living and then when we ate them. Ill have to send them to yall sometime when my compa passes them to me. :) 

Happy Indepence day of Mexico tomorrow. eat lots of tacos!! there are so many stories of great faith and sacrifices of the members here in mexico and all around the world. I encourage you all to live your stories of faith and sacrificies for the LORD! 

love you all. 

hermana hobbs

September 7

Happy Happy Week All :) 

Okay first off.. we contacted a person who had a dog who looked a lot like Walker, and I remembered that I missed my little crazy puppy. jajja so maybe he missed me too and ran off to mexico. espero que le encuentren rapido. 

This week was a good one, we had lots of meetings so spent a lot of time  traveling, but still we got some things accomplished in the area. we are working to try to find new investigadores.

Tuesday we had our leadership training and it was really spiritual. the spirit is always super strong with Pres. Garcia. it amazes me how wise he and hermana garcia are. :) we talked a lot about personal purity.. its something that seems so common, but in the mission and in life its something that we constantly have to be striving to have. our virtue. the way we think, dress, act, everything. its the way we obtain the spirit and it is so imortant as missionaries and members that our glass is pure so that we are teaching with pure water.. we must be clean before we can invite others. hermana valdez and I gave the little lesson in our zone conference on wednesday and did a little demonstration with vasos de agua. it was fun! we are continuing with our purification challenge in the zone. 

We found efrain this week! he is a reference of a member. he had lots of questions about christ coming to america. A couple years ago a friend gave him a book of mormon and he read some stuff but didnt really understand and heard rumors about mormons and left it aside. in the lessons it was super powerful and his mind is super open to learn.. pray for him!! we will see him tuesday.

This week we also had our stake conference!! it was super powerful. we are about an hour from our estaca so sunday we rented 3 buses to take all the members there! we didnt fill up all the buses like we planned.. but motul definitly was represeting sunday morning. we arrived early in mexico terms so we were all sitted in front. :) I LOVED THE MESSAGES.

Saturday night we were able to go and the 70 ( i forgot his name and didnt bring my notebook) did a live interaction thing the same way bednar does and spoke a lot about consejo de barrio and the way leaders should work. I learned soooo much. sometimes we forget how much work really goes on behind the scened of the work of salvation. every little detail. he also reminded us of our duties as WOMEN of the chruch that we have a huge role to play, but we must respect who has the keys. I am so grateful for the preisthood in my life. 

Sunday... MAURICIO came to the conference!! our little investigador. he was able to go with his girlfriend so that was fun for him :) haha He is progressing well! still hasnt comitted 100 percent to be baptized. (hes a little stubborn) but he knows the gospel is true. he can feel it.. and it is so important how we feel rather than what we know or say. 

Hna. Garcia spoke about the prayer and said, are we teaching our children the routine of prayer or the POWER of prayer?

I loved that! made me reflect if im really saying my prayers in power and teaching my inv to pray with power!

also the 70 shared some powerful things about how every moment in our lives the lord is preparing us for something bigger and better. that he is training us to be his leaders. he said when he was a young boy then a missionary, and a father never before thought he would be a 70, but now looking back in his life realized that every little moment, the good and the bad, prepared him for where he is now. that we must have our eyes on ETERNITY. and even when his young boy died and had the opportunity and temptation to ask god why, he had his eyes on eternity and remembered that we can no see the designs the father has for us with our natural eyes.

this wee we have our  principios. soo more traveling!! woot. :) it will be a good week. and to see hermana pinguelo and arriaga. they both finish their missiones these next two weeks.. wow. times goes super fast! 

Glad to hear everyones going well. sams new do is looking good. :) i liked moms comment and his heart and not his hair. jajaja :) 

LOVE YOU ALL

hermana hobbs

August 31

Ah I loved those pics of baby Hobbs, glad that the little outfit arrived saftely. the letters and candy were found in the box as well? I was worried about correos taking out what I had sent. little boy is growing so fast. :) 

This week was a good one. we had our baptism of BRANDON! yay. it was such a special day. Brandon is the cousin of Ryan, (his reference). it was as well a PF and has been such a blessing to me seeing this change in his family. We finally had the opportunity to meet his father in his interview (his mom and father have been seperated for quite some time for alchol) We had a little lesson with him and it ws really impressing to see his desire to help his little boy. I think he opened up his eyes a little bit. His father Gelasio came to church sunday and stayed all 3 hours and even participated in the classes. It was a true step of repentance. We are excited to be working with them! In the baptism of brandon him and his sisters invited A TON of their non member friends and we have actually been teaching some of them! Its been fun to see them get animated to share the gospel as well :) 

Tuesday we did divisions with some Hermanas this week. I stayed in the area with the Hermana Renteria, shes my friend from zona Lakin :) we found some new investigadores that we are working with to progress, Jose Ismael and his family. His baby boy passed away about 2 years ago in an accident that left his wife part of her face paralized. They were super receptive so we are working with them! 

Hermana Valdez is super fun! jaja she has such a little attitude and were always enjoying ourselves. I think every night we come home more and more tired. jaja Luckily the rat hasnt been found but we have found 2 tranchulas. This week we did a lot of contacting because a lot of the citas were falling through, but we are working on finding new investigadores. 

Mauricio is progressing super well! He came to our church this week! we were super eccited because he has been asisting with his girlfriend in barrio 1, but came to our services. :) Also it was fun because wednesday while we were teaching him in the home of his GF, I saw the hermana Pinto! One of my good friends from kanasin. :) she is from motul and was visiting with her family so it was really cool to see her! Mauricios testimony is growing so much, he is reading the BOM like crazy. Yesterday when we were talking he told us how he loves the gospel because everything just makes sense. I loved that, because truly it is so simple. The the gospel just makes sense because it is who we are, it is the plan our father has given us. It awakens our souls :) 

LOVE YOU ALL

hermana hobbs 

August 24

Update on the rat:

We have had no visual encounters with the rat.. only the mess it leaves behind. today we spend like 6 hours cleaning the clothes and house because it had left a mess in the clothes as well so thats sweet. jajaja ive always loved my hamack, but ive loved it more this week. :) 

This week was a blur but super awesome! La hermana Valdez works super hard and is so coachable, has such a desire to learn and to reach her potential - Im learning a lot from her. her mom was baptized about 3 wees ago so that was something really cool! Not all are members in her family, but she has been able to see the blessins from the lord while being out here in the field. Im really excited for this transfer!

Tuesday we had a little sad experience.. we were in the comida with the members and got a call from Juanita, the wife of jose rafael asking if we could come right now to visit them. our appt was at 6, but we made a few arrangements and went. We arrived and their little kids came running out saying that their dad was drunk.. my heart dropped because he had nearly gone 2 months without drinking and his baptism was going to be this saturday.. thats when satan attacks strongly. Juanita and Juanita ( the wife and mom, like mama joanne and grandma joanne :) ) were super upset because of the things that happened while he was drunk.. we were able to comfort them. we were heartbroken but know that its just a trial. when we visited him after he sobered up he just cried to us becasue of what he did. but we are helping him through it. were just trying to get the ward to help him out.

RYAN! our little recent convert is doing super well! I love his little family. mama conchie has been changing as well. the primary had an act this week where they went to the temple. they had to wake up at 4 in the morning to go, but before they could leave the house he reminded his parents that they had to pray. it was super cute. He has read into 2 nefi! it amazes me how pure children are!

Our little Brandon will be baptized this week! His mom Yara was finally able to come to church this week as well! it was a blessing so great! and they brought a friend, Saul! On tuesday his sisters and brandon have all invited a friend to come to the lesson so that they can help share the gospel. We will be teaching saul and 2 other amigitos! i love seeing the work rolling out like this :) 

We had our leadership meeting on thursday and talked a lot about the AUTOSUFICIENCIA. goes with part of the plan de area that we are focusing a lot on. It was really powerful. I love being taught by pres. it was also fun seeing hermana falcon again, even though it had only been like 4 days apart. jaja. I always miss my comps so much. 

This week we have seen a lot of setbacks, and triumphs, heartbreaks and joys, but through it all the hand of the lord. I think thats what I love most about the mission - through all the changes, changes of comps, areas, inv. progressing or no progressing, succes or no success, there is one thing that is always constant - and that is my Savior Jesus Christ. He is my rock and he will strengthen me help me and cause me to stand.. He will never move from us.

LES AMO

hermana hobbs

Aug 24