A Very Merry Chistmas

Hey my fam. What’s up, it was so good to hear from you all on Friday and especially the little critters. They are growing up so fast I think when I left Tyson and Chloee couldn’t talk. So it was different to hear their voice. It was fun to hear them sing and talk about the things they are doing. They are so cute. The swimming pool that you have there is about the size of my house. We walked from one side to the other counting the feet and there are only 20 to 23. It’s huge.

Well Monday we had p day and it went good, we watched remember the titans and then did some other important stuff for the zone. I took out money from the bank to give to the elders so they could get reimbursed for the things that they buy like water to drink and other things important like that. Sorry if that is written in Spanish way, I can’t help it. It just flows a little bit easier out of my head. I don’t know if you caught it but I think I talked better in Spanish and than I did in English. Sorry about that. I hope you understood.

Well Tuesday we had a Christmas talent show, we did a few acts like one of the fast contacts, we acted out in a funny way the way that we do our contacts. We also did Robin Hood, two of us acted rich (of course it was the two gringos) and then one rob us he said ¨I rob the rich to give to the poor¨ and my comp acted poor. Robin Hood gave him all our things and when it ended, my comp said I am rich, and so Robin Hood stole him and that is how it ended. It was fun. The other one was a little gross. So I won’t explain it. Well I guess I will. One person was sitting on a bench and one by one we went to sit next to him. We then smelt something and thought it was him. But when all had sat next to him, he started to smell something too, but it wasn’t him, he looked around and then just left. And when he left somebody came out from behind the bench and was doing up his pants. Ja ja funny. Nobody really got it though. We did these skits Tuesday and Wednesday. We did it in the two branches that are here in Moyo.

We ate with the fam Cubas Thursday and sang songs with them, and played uno. It was fun we stayed out till 11 and then came home and slept. Like I said in the phone that family is really humble and they are fun to be with. It was a good experience for me to be able to buy dinner for them and spend the night with them. They said it was the best Christmas they have had in their life’s. it was great to be a part of that. I guess where they were at it wasn’t that big of a holiday and they just spent it with their family doing a whole lot of nothing.

Friday we talked with the family and it was great.

Sunday we got surprised because the branch pres said we had talks this week but he told us half way thru Sunday school. We did ok, I talked about the atonement and how it has cleansed us from our sins and how we are examples of the way that others too, can be cleansed. My comp talked that all of us are members and for this we are all angels that the Lord has sent to preach the good news. It went well. We had great week. For us it was a very merry Christmas and we will have a great new year. We are going to work really hard to have a lot of success this next month.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE THAT ALL GOES WELL IN THIS NEXT WEEK AND HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR.AND ALDEN YOU PLAY THE GUITAR REALLY GOOD. YOU SHOULD TRY TO FIND THE SIMPSON SONG AND PLAY THAT.

Looking Forward to our Christmas Call December 21 2009

Hey my favorite fam. I hope all is well there, all is well here in moyo. A little warm but all is good.

We have had an ok week. It ended a little hard. We had a few dates that fell because they didn’t come to the chapel. Yesterday nobody wanted to listen to us. We felt a little rejected but it is pday and it is almost Christmas and we are so stoked. I didn’t receive the candy I hope that they didn’t eat it in the offices. I still don’t have my calling cards but today I will be purchasing them.

Monday, you know what we did Monday, we ate with pres and then traveled home. The highway is beautiful just a little scary.

Tuesday thru Saturday we worked all day, we had our reunions. It has been rainy a little all week. Every day it has been sprinkling. It doesn’t get too cold but it does get you wet. We have been working to find new investigators all week and it seems that the work here is a little slow but we are going to turn that around. It is a little hard in this time of year because everyone is drinking and leaving. Our members our very good but have a hard time giving us references.

I HAVE A LOT OF THINGS GOING THRU MY HEAD AND I AM HAVING A HARD TIME REMEMBERING ALL THAT I DID THIS WEEK. I HOPE THAT YOU CAN FORGIVE ME FOR NOT WRITING A WHOLE LOT. WELL IF YOU HAVE QUESTION PREGUNTAME FRIDAY. I WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU HAVE. I HOPE THAT ALL GOES WELL BETWEEN NOW AND THEN. ENJOY YOUR VACATIONS AND I WILL TALK TO YOU FRIDAY.

Well love you all hasta luego until Friday
Elder Hyde

Dinner with President Perez, Package from home and Baptism. December 14 2009

What’s up sorry it is so late we just got done with interviews and eating with President Perez. We had chicken cordon bleu. It was delicious.

Wow. It has been a long time since Alden spoke in church. My farewell was almost 18 months ago. I don’t think I have gone more that a month and a half without talking in sacrament meeting. I almost fee like Dad now.

We are eating on our own. We could get a pension but for right now I think we will keep cooking because it is a little bit easier for us. In the nights, sometimes we go out to eat and we get 1/8 of chicken for $1. It is cheap. Sometimes we get hamburger, A Hawaiian Hamburger with pineapple and peaches inside it might sound weird but it is delicious. You asked what kind of cereal and milk do you eat. There is a cereal brand that is called angel and they have bunch of different flavors. We usually get a variety of flavors. I am sorry but my English is horrible. I have forgotten how to spell. (Good thing mom knows how to correct his spelling)

We have 8 Somos (Elders?) in our zone. There are two Gringos here me and Elder Crum. He is from Arizona. He is new, he has two changes and is still picking up on the Spanish.

Today the President came. We just got done saying goodbye to him. I got one package that looks like a Melaleuca box. The next package I will get will be Jan 13. 2010. That is when I go to Lima for our meetings if I stay as lider de zona.

This week we had the baptism of Walter, he has 16 years. At first he was a little doubtful, or a little disappointed that the other elders left. But we got his excitement up and he entered the water and it was a wonderful experience.

My time is just about up. I am glad that all is well there. I am glad that mom is alright. I told pres today that all is well and that mom is getting better. (Interesting that he told the President this when he did not know the results of the scans showed that the chemo is shrinking the tumors. I will be asking him about that!)
Love you lots,
Elder Hyde

Sad to Leave Converts and Members, Love the Jungle! December 7 2009

Yes I love it in the jungle. It is really pretty here. I could move here after the mission. ha! ha!

Wow, what an interesting week. First we spent Monday and Tuesday visiting and saying goodbye to my converts and also the members. It was really hard, I have really grown to love the people there, they were so kind and loving. It was especially hard to say goodbye to the family that we lived with they had been so good. I almost started to cry, but i left the room as fast as I could so they couldn’t see me.

My comp left early Wednesday morning so I took him to the offices and hung out with some other missionaries waiting for the change meeting. When we finished the meeting, my comp and I went to McDonalds and ate ice cream and then went and rested the rest of the night.

Thursday we had a meeting with all the zone leaders that lasted almost the whole day. We ate after that at papa john’s pizza, it was really good.

We caught our flight at 8:00 pm and made it to Tarapoto at 9:15, took a taxi to Moyobamba and that took about 2 hours, it was a pretty drive even though it was dark and I was half asleep. It was a very good, interesting but very very long trip. We had been sitting all day on our butts. My butt by the end of the day was really sore.

We will be taking the trip in the day time because president is coming next week and we will be eating with him. We finally made it to our house at 12:30 in the morning and went right to sleep.

Friday we spent cleaning the house because it was a pig sty. They left like 4 bags of garbage and like 100 boxes of milk. We did find and interesting way to use the boxes though. We made a tree, it is really cool. We bought some decorations for our tree. It has lights and everything.

We tried to get to know the area but it is a little hard when the two of us are new. The other elders left with not a whole lot so, this week we have a whole lot of finding to do. I know that there is a lot of possibilities here for success. So far we only have 1 date that the elders left us but in this week we have the goal of 3 more.

The members here are really cool. We only got a little time to get to know them yesterday, but they are all very loving and something that I really like about here is they talk with a really thick accent.
It is really pretty here, it is really really green. Today we took like an hour bus ride to go to another area in our zone and oh my gosh it is so pretty. I think i took like 20 pictures. We went to a little place today and played soccer, it was really pretty and the good thing it is that we are in the rainy season and it is not to hot, and it wasn’t raining.

Well it is not a lot different being zone leader, well at least i don’t feel it yet. We have a few more reports to do, but other than that it is normal. Well the other thing is is that i have a cell phone and it is a little weird still to have it.
Here we don’t have a pension so we have eaten cereal and milk for breakfast and have eaten chicken and french fries for dinner.
Elder Garnica is good, it has been almost a year now and we are back together. We got along great and i think it will be the same this time. He is a little bit different, because he is a little trunky he is going to end in February.

Well that was basically our crazy and interesting week. I will probably have more to write to you next week, right now we are still lost.

I want to try to write a Christmas letter to all my converts. I hope I can do it so it sounds good. I will put a photo of my comp and I by our tree of milk boxes
LOVE Y´ALL
Love Elder Hyde

Two Baptisms, Changes this week. Where will I go? November 30 2009

Well we had an excellent weekend. We finished with two wonderful wet people.

First we had the sister Eustaquia Luna. This is the sister of the fam Luna, they are really cool. Eustaquia has been listening to the missionaries for over a year now. Every time she accepts a date something gets in the way. Usually it was her husband or family. She asked us if she could do it without telling her family. We said ya if you think that will help you get baptized. So this is what we did and it worked out. She is really a good lady and has a strong testimony about the church. She told us that they did their wedding the same way. The family didn’t know, they didn’t believe it until they saw the papers of their wedding. That is how we did her baptism.

We also baptized Karla, a joven de 12 years. It all started with a contact that we did when we were in a threesome. We contacted the father and he said we could teach his family. The mom was listening for a while but didn’t show much interest in getting baptized. We worked mostly with the daughter. After about two months teaching and trying to get permission we finally got it. We had a really good experience with her. She really loves music and magazines, and has magazines of a lot of artists. She loves to talk. We would go to teach and it would take about two hours to teach her and then they invited us to eat.

We had one baptism at 5 o'clock and the other at 6:30 pm. I had the privilege to baptize both of them. I only have one pair of pants and my companions didn’t fit me. So I did the first baptism, wrang out the clothes and packed them to to to the other church to do the other baptism.

Well that was basically our week. I guess I will be visiting and saying goodbye to the people that I helped baptize. I will be flying to MOYABAMBA to be LIDER DE ZONA. Zone leader with my old companion, Elder Garnica. I was with him in Pucallpa. It is going to be another adventure. I am kinda excited but also really nervous. WWWWWWWOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!
I think President is putting a lot of trust in me and I am going to do all that I can to make him proud. It will be a great change. I will miss this area and all the members that are here.
It will be great to get to know new ones.

I have had a lot of experiencias especiales. Sorry I forgot how to say that in English. I love you all very much and can’t wait to tell you about my new area.

Other fun things
Derek got our last package and it did not look like it had been gone through.

Derek attended testimony meeting for the missionaries that are going home this week. He thought there were about 22 elders going home. Four of Five of them from Utah.

President Perez mentioned that he had spoke to Former Elder Rich and that he would be visiting Peru this week.

Derek’s “Son”, the elder he trained, will be going to Iquitos. He will serve in the opposite zone that Derek served in while in Iquitos. He hopes he did a good job training him.

Tomas is baptized, Great week even with illness. November 22 2009

Holy crap, it must be cold there. I wish we had snow here, we just have a lot of pollution in the air that sometimes looks like it might be snowing in the distance.
Hey we had a weird week this week. Weird, but alright. First we had a free p-day that we could do anything we wanted, we played Uno, our pension had cards. We also went to print pictures, which took pretty much all afternoon.

Tuesday we had a reunion with the district and I talk and gave a training about the Book Of Mormon. It was really good and I found a quote in “Preach My Gospel” that says we should value The Book of Mormon because it is very special and we should present it in a very good way so the people will want to read it. I have come to love the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon has all the answers to our questions. It is a very important book in the conversion of the investigators. If they know the Book of Mormon is true they will know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the church is restored. I love the Book of Mormon.

Wednesday we had a full day of work, it was a hot day but my comp was feeling really cold. So he put on his sweater and everything. We went to teach and all was good we just couldn’t walk fast because if we did we would have to enter in the house to sit on the throne. So it wasn’t just he was cold but with the runs.

Thursday one of our dates fell because she feels bad and her husband was putting bad thoughts in her mind about baptism. We reset it for this week and she is not going to tell her husband. She has been listening to the missionaries for over a year I think and finally she is going to enter the water. She is what we call a dry member, she has assisted the chapel for a long time everyone knows her and are trying to help her get wet.
Thursday we spent half the afternoon in the house because my comp could not eat or hardly move. I did get my package, it was full of goodies, thank you. I love the shirt(BYU), the other elder gringo likes Utah and we fight some times about who is better.

Well the rest of the week we kind of took it easy because the four of us were a little sick, all have been in the bathroom and vomitando in the street. It has been a really gassy week. We have been farting and burping all weekend.(sorry for the grossness but I don’t have any other words to explain it.)

One highlight of our weekend was that Tomas got baptized, it was really good and he was one of those references that is prepared to get baptized. Bishop is a good friend of his and got to baptize him. It was really special. Other than sickness, we to had a great week.

Today we will be playing I think. I need to print some pictures so I will be prepared to say goodbye a todos here if I leave. I don’t want to leave but I have that feeling that I will be.Well my time is up but I love you very much and can’t wait to hear from you next week.
I hope you all have a great week.
Elder Hyde

Well Family everything here is going great. We had a really good week.

We have been working with our dates that we have for this Saturday, we have three. We are so excited, we announced them in sacrament. Wow speaking of sacrament, we had the primary program and it was alright but, wow first we start late. Second it is very disorganized and we didn’t finish the reunion until 12:30 when we should have finished at 11:30.
We have found a really humble family that we have taught two or three times and they are really interested in the message and baptism. We had the chance yesterday to find the father of the family and he said he has been praying for the true church. We hope to help them progress really fast. They need to get married though. So we are going to be praying they can get their papers ready and can get married and baptized.

To answer your questions.
Todavia or still I have not received a package but it is alright because they are coming really slow. One elder just barely received one that his mom sent before conference.

My comp is still Elder Rodriguez or my son. He is from Colombia.

Well my shoes are wearing out but I still think they are good. The worst part is where they are sewed and it is coming undone but we have a guy below us that fixes it really cheap. So that don’t worry about that

Well I don’t need anything but if you would like to send me some chips that would be awesome. Maybe Doritos salsa verde or something that burns. Maybe some fritos chile cheese or the other flavor.

We live in a house of a member. Two other missionaries live on the second floor in a small room and us in another and then the family lives on the third floor. The dog is on the fourth. It is a big house and the pension and the family is really good to us. They are very loving. We live very close to the church like two blocks. But a funny story our pension has a car and he drives two blocks to the church, no wonder he is a little fat.

Yesterday we had a mouse hunt. We finally killed it after about ten minutes of chasing it around the house.
The gringo we have in my zone, Morton, Gomez, Hill, Atkinson, Crum. No mas

Well that is about all the time that I have. I love you all and hope all goes well this week.
Elder Hyde

Workin' Hard November 9 2009

Hey my family, we had an excellent week. We ended up with three baptisms. Rosa, Monica and Maria. They were all really good. We had been working with Rosa since I have been here in Comas and even before. She had a few problems that we had to resolve and finally we were able to get her wet. It was a great experience. The other two were little girls from inactive families. They were our golden children.

We also got a reference from the bishop that is really good too. He really is a golden investigator. We first got to know him in the chapel. He lives way up in the hill and we don’t go there very much. So the first week we were not able to visit him and he came to the chapel. The next week he asked us why we didn’t visit him. This week we challenged him and he is really excited to change his life. So he is one that we will be working with this week.

Well today we are going to the center of Lima so we don’t have much time to write.

I love you all so very much…
love Elder Hyde.

Some things moms love to hear and others not so much. November 2 2009

This week was really good we had some good experiences.
A while ago I received a letter from Grandma Baker. She told me that her bishop’s son is serving in the Peru South mission. He had an experience where they were going to be attack by several people, they followed the spirit and continued past the people without incident. They felt Heavenly Father’s guiding hand in this experience. The same has happened to me.

This happened last week and I forgot to tell you. Some young man tried to rob us. He said, ¨good night, I have a pistol and so give me all you got¨. I had my camera and my credit card. My companion only had books. We didn’t give him anything because here they don’t hide the guns they pull them out and stick them to your head. He just had his hand in his jacket and he just tried to scare us to see if we were stupid and see if we would give him our stuff. We were led by the spirit that told us he didn’t have anything and that we should ignore him.

This week nothing quite that interesting happened, but that is alright. We had a lot of meetings this week, so we did a lot of traveling. The chapel of the Zone leaders is a 15 minute bus ride. The sisters that are in my district had to move to a different house. They sent me to basically hang out the window and hold on to a dresser and mattress that was on the top of the car. It was kind of fun but also scary because on one of the streets that we drove on the drivers are crazy and come really close to the other cars, so they were really close to my body. It was little scary but fun.

We have 3 dates for this wee, two little girls, de 11 años and Hna Rosa, who has been listening to the missionaries for a lot of time. We finally got all her problems resolved and she is ready for her baptism. We will be working with them to get them really excited this week. We will also be setting more dates so that we can still have good numbers.

Well this was our week, we feel that we are working good and I am so glad I have this chance to be here in the great and marvelous work, I feel really privileged to be here. Well I got to go so I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH.
Until next week,
Elder Hyde

Teaching but difficult to get commitments October 26 2009

What a week. This week was pretty good. we were able to do a lot of good things.

This week we had ward conference and so we had activities all week. Monday we did a FHE with Rosario, the sister that had a hard time getting baptized, it was really good. We talked a lot about the family.

Tuesday we had a sports night the members invited us to play a little soccer.

Wednesday we had p-day and changes, I slept all morning and I woke up refreshed we went to lunch and then went to a store to get stuff to kill fleas and also to make cookies, holy crap the chocolate chips are expensive. 8 soles for a small bag. 200grams. That is like $2.50.

We also had a lesson with one sister that had a date to get baptized but she is not married and her husband is in jail. She didn’t understand the importance of marriage.

Thursday was really good we had a mission night in the chapel, we invited all the members to come and invite friends, well a lot of members showed but friends no. We watched the movie ¨for small and simple things.¨ It was really good, the members are a little bit more excited to help us.

We are planning to set more dates with a few more investigators this week. We have some really good young people, but the problem is their parents. Even though they are members they won’t let them get baptized. The worst thing is, is that they wont talk to us.

We also have some really good adults that also want to get baptized and have told us, but the problem is that they are not married. The two biggest problems we have, permission from fathers, or they are not married. There is a law here that says that if they are not married they still have the same rights as the couples that are married.
We are teaching a young woman and her mother and they are really cool, but we can’t get them to accept a date. They invite us to eat every time that we go and they say they feel really good when they listen to us, but we need to find a good way to get them to know that, that is their answer. We are going to be working hard this next week to have some people accept a date and also to find new ones too. Well I love YOU ALL AND I hope that all goes GREAT
Love,
Elder Hyde

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Trunky Meeting. Staying put this Change. October 19 2009

Hey my what’s up.
I am doing well we had a really tiring week. I feel that we have worked hard
I hope everyone had a great week. We, (me and my son) had a great week. it was a little slow and busy but it was great.

Tuesday we had the chance to go to the temple, and like always it was excellent. We then went to Burger King and ate hamburgers.

Wednesday was just a normal day and Thursday we had also a normal day.

Friday we had the trunky hour. The testimony meeting was Friday and it was great.

Then Saturday we had a meeting in the morning at the CCM in Lima. We had a talk with Elder Christofferson, and bishop Edgley and also elder Clayton from the quorum of the seventy. It was a really great day. We woke up at 5 and got ready, left halfway dead.

This week we have not gotten a whole lot of sleep. Well my comp has not been able to sleep to great, I think he is also getting the cold. We also have been waking up really early like every other day. But it was a week, well worth it.

I am ready for Wednesday to be pday, a day of all sleep. I don’t have to worry about changes, my son and I are staying here, waaaaahhhhhoooooooyyyyyyy. Today is also just a normal day of work we have appointments all day.

I am listening to the conference and wow it is so great I want to put it on my mp3. Well we had a great week and are planning to have another great week.
I do not have the Spanish bible yet, but I have plans to get it when they have them at the distribution center
I hope you have a great week this week and I hope that all goes well.
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Hyde

The Lord Guides Us in our Paths October 13 2009

Hey family what’s up.We had a great week.
We just got back from the temple, it was amazing just like it always is!

We have been doing a lot of contacts, or in other words we have been trying to find a whole lot of new people. We are teaching less lessons but we have had really good ones. We have set a few dates too. We have worn ourselves out with all the walking we have done, and yes we are starting to go into summer and it is getting a little hot.

We found a family this week that have a lot of questions and it’s a little hard to teach them, but at least they are pretty good questions. We will be going to teach them tonight. They are going to invite us to eat. Something that we can see here is that if they like the lesson and they feel the spirit, they usually invite us to eat something or something to drink.

Something I had happen to me a lot here is the Lord talks to me while I am talking to the investigators or I find something I need while I am sharing the scriptures with the investigators. For example I was reading to one sister Alma 38:4-5 I would advise you to read it. It helped me a lot. I know it will help you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This has happened a lot.

One of the greatest spiritual experiences that I had this week was Sunday. We had a slow day and I was about to give up, we were in the house and everything, I said no we can’t give up just yet. So I knelt down said a quick prayer and asked that we would be guided right to the person that was prepared. We left not knowing where to go, just walking in the street and all of the sudden a person pops in my head. We went and we didn’t have the opportunity to teach, but I asked her if she would get baptized and she said yes. (well it is a daughter of a member less active)but it was still a really good experience and a great answer that I received from a quick simple prayer(and enduring to the end.)

I know that the lord guides us in our paths and that no matter what the problem He is there for us. Just like it says in Alma 38:4-5If we put our confidence in him. He will free us from all our trials. I have been sharing that scripture with everyone and inviting them to put it in practice, I want to make the same invitation to all who read this, that we don’t lose the confidence in God and that we don’t lose the patience in all our trials. :)

I love you all very much and hope that this week goes awesome.
Elder Hyde

Great Conference Week October 5 2009

Well it was a great week; we had a great weekend. Conference was so good. I loved the Saturday session, the morning and the priesthood session. They had really good counsels for all of us. Most of all I loved the talk of Elder Ballard (priesthood). He talked about the role of sons and fathers. It was a powerful talk by Elder Holland, about the book of Mormon. It was great.
This week was a little hard, a few things happened that screwed our time up a little. We had interviews that lasted a long time, conference and also our comp got a new comp so we spent a little time getting that changed. We have found some really good people this week I hope.

Monday- we wanted to go to this house of inquisitions, but we couldn’t the Catholics didn’t want to let us in. so we went to a coin house, where they have old coins and show how they have changed with time. It was ok, but not what I was hoping to do.

Tuesday- I tried to give my district excitement to work. We talked about referrals and working with the members. It is really important that we work with them, like we heard in conference.

Wednesday we worked a full day. We had to stay in the house a little while to fix our bathroom. It was one of the things that killed us this week.

Thursday we had interviews and we also started late.

Friday we got a new companion and lost time.

Saturday we had conference all day.

Sunday was also full of conference.

Now I am excited to get back to work. I would live to have conference every weekend. That would be the best thing ever. I think I took conference for granted at home. I didn’t get much out of it. But here in the mission they are the best.

I know that the church is true and that the Lord is always there for us. He has his arms stretched out ready to receive us when we need him.
I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord in this time and in this place, to help everyone I can in this time.
I love you all so much and hope your week is good.

Hey maybe you could do something for me. Can you find the poem “Footprints in the Sand” in Spanish?
Well I am going to run to the bank now, so I will talk to you next week.
Love you all so much, your son Elder Hyde
CH0A CHOA

Broom Hockey, Fireworks, Interviews and Baptism September 28 2009

Hey my family how is it going? This week was a little crazy, we are still in a threesome and it is going alright. We had one baptism, her name is Daniela and it was really cool.

I just have to tell you that I need to get better in writing in my journal. I am a little behind. But I have promised myself that I am going to do it this week. I am really excited for conference this week; it is going to be really good. This is what we did this week.

Monday: We played hockey with broom sticks. It was really fun, we broke like 3 brooms.

Tuesday: We had district meeting that went all right, we had a good time, I am trying to excite my district to work harder.

Wednesday: We worked really hard today, it was really fun. We had a lot of lesson today and throughout the week we had a lot of success this week.

Thursday: We also had a good day. I had interviews for my district and they were easy, they are getting easier for me. That is the one thing I didn’t like at first, the interviews, well still it is not my favorite but I can live with it.

Friday: We also had another interview for my baptism. I was able to do it because it was not my area. The thing is, is that the district leaders can’t interview their own investigators. So it was weird for me because I had basically been teaching her but got to do her interview. Sorry if this story doesn’t make sense.

Saturday and Sunday were really good we had a lot of success those days teaching and tracking. And the baptism.
Yesterday we watched a really cool catholic firework display. They had a doll with fireworks in it and It made it look like he was dancing, it was sweet.We had a really good week

Today we are going to center to look at a place where they killed people it will be interesting. Where they kill them in strange ways.

Hope this week is great for you.
Tell Courtney happy wedding and I am happy for her. Congrats.
LOVE YOU ALL GOOD LUCK THIS WEEK.
LOVE ELDER HYDE

Three Missionaries Serving together. Wonderful Stake Conference. September 21 2009

Well we had an alright week this week. Right now we have 4 baptisms. We have another one for this week and we are trying to get permission from a father for 2 others. We have another sister that wants to be baptized and can this week, we just need to find her.

One of the highlights was stake conference. It was a really great conference. It was one of those multi stake conferences that is transmitted from Salt Lake. We had President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland talk to us. It was really cool I didn’t know that elder Holland could speak Spanish. It was funny to hear him try to mumble, he speaks like a gringo. It was funny. They pressed really hard on the subject of paying tithing. We need to pay tithing to enjoy the blessing of the temples and all that good stuff. Here there is a small problem with tithing.

It was a really strange week, one of the elders went home and his comp is now with us until we can find a comp for him. It is really weird in a threesome. I don’t know if I told you but my comp reminds me of elder Noble (Cameron). It is kinda weird too.

How is Cameron(a cousin that is coming home from Tempe Az on Oct. 22nd) doing, is he trunky yet. He will be finishing this change, no. Wow time flies when you are having fun. Hey, have you heard anything about Danny? I need to write him. I just have no time. I will be writing letters today.We have been having a lot of fun this week, and we will start having more this one. We are going to try to do family home evening with the families in the ward. It will be awesome.

I love you all very much and hope all is just dandy alli.
Love Elder Hyde

Training a New Companion. Baptisms September 14 2009

We had an excellent weekend. We had 4 baptisms, 2 that we set this week. It was really cool.

My companion is Elder Rodriguez, he is from Colombia and the work is going really good. I am having a great time being a father.(When a missionary gets a new missionary to train they consider it as being a "father".) It’s a little bit more responsibility but it has helped me a lot. I have found things that I have not been doing well and I have been trying to fix them. It is going to help me a lot.

My shoes are alright solo the inside is going bad I will try to do something to get them fixed today or sometime this week.

We made cookies and they were good. I think I will make the other package today.

I have been taking pictures and I will be trying to send some home sometime this week. I don’t feel very safe carrying my camera all over. So I haven’t taken as many but I will try harder.

It has been a really great week and I hope that this week is even better.

I hope all goes well this week for you.
Love elder Hyde

Elder Griffen says hi, he is the other district leader in the zone.

Lots of Meeting.....Short Week......Short Letter.... September 7 2009

Hey we had a busy week. We had a lot of meetings this week. We went to the bank and also had a reunion Tuesday.
We had the temple on Wednesday; Friday we had a farewell for the elders and sister that are ending. Not much more happened this week than that.

We had some really good experiences teaching this end of the week. We tried to get a young woman to accept a date, but she still has a few doubts.

I don’t know why but I don’t have a lot to write. We found out our changes and it says I am going to................................................................................................................................................................stay and get to know my area a little bit better. I am finally going to get my newby well I think. I am going to have a kid.

Well about the comment about the dad wanting to pay for the baptism. We challenged the kid and asked the dad to sign permission and then the dad asked how much does it cost to baptize in your church. For his baptism I guess he had to pay. So he was expecting to pay for his son too.

I love you all tons and hope that everything goes alright this week. Sorry that my letter isn’t that long. It’s only been like four days since the last time I wrote so that is why it is short.

LOVE ELDER HYDE

Into the water......finally.....yes and even under the water....September 2 2009

Hey my family how is everyone?

We had a great week. We finally got the sister in the water that we have tried for the last 2 weeks. But what is the chance that it wasn’t easy to get her under. We had entered the water and I said the prayer and went to dunk her but she stiffened up and I wasn’t able to do it. She was really scared about me dropping her. Well we had a bigger elder that just happened to be with us that day, get in and get behind her for support, but still nothing. About 20 min passed and the ward was trying to help her but nothing. So I told her watch I am going to practice with Elder Sanchez which was bigger than her. That was a mistake, his feet came up and we both slipped, but at the last second he came up and said look how easy that was. I don’t know if it helped or if it scared her more. Well after that she finally let us dunk her. Satan was working hard with her. She is going to be a really strong member. I am glad that we finally got her baptized.

This week we also found a really cool family. One of the kids wants to get baptized and his father was willing to sign the permission and also was willing to pay for his baptism. We are trying to get the whole family but the dad says he has other religion and the mother is not married with him, so we are trying to get all the kids baptized.

We have a lot of families that we are teaching and hopefully we can get something going with them, most of them need to get married first. It kinda sucks here because they just don’t know better.

I am getting the hang of my job as district leader and I hope I am helping everyone else.

I think that letter from Jose is really funny. Did you understand it. if you want tell him. "HEY, ESCRIBANOS EN ESPAÑOL, PODEMOS ENTENDERLE" and Joe can translate the letter for you. He told me that he wanted you to find him a chick that wanted to teach him English and he would teach her Spanish it was a little mixed up in the letter, in other words he is looking for a wife. Jaja

Well we had a beautiful day at the temple and we will be watching a movie that I bought about President Monson.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK. CHOA CHOA. LOVE ELDER HYDE....

Interviews with the President, Cookies and Flour Sand Castle August 24 2009

Hey my family,
This week was really good we had a good fun week. Well it was all good until Saturday, the baptism fell thru again. This time few members showed up but also we couldn’t get into the closet where the clothes were. The good thing is that she is still excited to get baptized, she came to church yesterday. The only thing is this week, I am going to do all I can to get members there. I am a little tired that they are not coming. Well we had interviews and president sends his saludos or hellos. They were very good interviews and I felt really good afterwards.

One thing fun that we did this week is we made a list of all the people that we wanted to contact. Like 2 pregnant women or 3 baldies, stuff like that to make it a little more fun to contact people. It worked really well.

We had a really good FHE this week, we had a thing of flour and made it like a little sand castle and put a ten cent piece on top. And we took a knife and started cutting it. And well the thing is that we imagined the flour as our foundation and us as the 10 cents. And eventually as satin (knife) cuts our foundation deep and we fall. Then we did another but didn’t take away the top and it had a picture of Christ on it and we taught that when we are built upon Christ rock we are saved and satin has no power. It was really good. I hope you can imagine what I was explaining.
Tuesday we had district meeting and it went alright we mostly talked about our investigators and what their problems or difficulties are and we all tried to help solve their problems. I also bought cookies for everyone to get them excited. I think it worked because most had higher numbers this week. Or maybe it was because pres burned us all.

We had some good laughs this week including one lady didn’t want to let us in her house because she thought we were going to steal something. You can see in what kind of world we live in. A lot of things happen here, so really you can’t trust anyone.
Hey what does your tattoo look like if you had a choice you should have got CTR tattooed there. Ha ha. ( Elder Hyde's mom is having radiation for a tumor in her lung. I have a small dot as a tattoo)

Sorry if this letter is not to great. I have a lot of things running thru my head right now and I think I will just go to sleep all day.
Well all here is well and I am enjoying my time and I LOVE YOU ALL TONS. LOVE ELER HYDE

I WILL MAKE MY STUMBLING BLOCKS BECOME MY STEPPING STONES, TO KEEP GROWING August 17, 2009

Hey sorry for the delay. Today we left early to go to the center of Lima to take pictures of the different buildings and churches and stuff. We also climbed a really tall steep mountain that has a cross at the top, I was so glad when we finally climbed in a car. It was a great day. We ate for lunch papa johns pizza.

Our week, well it started out really well with my first district meeting and my first training that I gave to my district. I think it turned out pretty good. We then did a few practices. Well it just happened to be that the assistants showed up for a surprise visit. Elder Rich and Elder Santiago, I talked to E Rich a little, it was great to see him again.

This week I did a work visit with one of the elders in my district (Elder Hill) and it turned out alright and we had a lot of fun, that day I cursed myself, I told him I hope we don’t eat fish. Guess what we ate for dinner, FISH. Well Elder hill is from Oregon but lived in Clearfield Utah for a while.

This week we climbed a lot of hills in our area we basically went to the top of all of them that we have. There are like 4 or 5. We did a lot of contacted this week because the appointments that we had fell thru. It seemed like the higher we went the more humble the people were. It’s a little different from the states usually there the people higher are richer.

We had a few challenges this weekend, we had a baptism planned and she passed her interview and everything, come Saturday, (by the way it was horrible for us; few lessons, people that didn’t want to let us in) we show up to the church at 6 30 and get ready for the baptism and get our excitement up. And we waited until 7 when our baptism showed up ready to get baptized. But where was everyone else, we had told them throughout the week that there was a baptism and including that afternoon we stopped by a few to remind them. But come 7:45 only two sisters show up, we had no priesthood to help us so we called bishop and he said he was on his way. But by the time he came it was 8 and we had to be in the room so we asked Rosario if we could do it next week and luckily she was alright with it. So we announced it good in sacrament meeting.

Well come Sunday we also had a little bit of a bad day. Nobody that we needed to go to church went to church. So we were a little bummed. We even took a picture of us that looked like we were hanging ourselves with our ties :( Then we went home said a little prayer and started singing some hymns to get a spiritual boost, and really I know that our prayers were answered. We contacted a lot of people that had gone to church and that have heard from the Elders before but were not baptized before and so we still have a chance to get in some baptisms for this month. I love the hymns they are so powerful. Well despite the disappointment at the end of the week we are started a new one and it will go better.

Today we had a great time in the center of Lima and I bought two new shot glasses and some really big socks that will keep me warm at night. Dad about the idea of the notebook, I did start one in Pucallpa just because my comp made me. I was thinking why, but now I know why and I am glad that he made me, for the same reason that you said. (This notebook contains testimonies of members and new converts. We think that he has a testimony of his friend that was killed in an accident while he was in Iquitos.)

WELL LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE THAT ALL GOES WELL THIS WEEK AND I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR LETTERS NEXT WEEK. :)

LOVES AND KISSES ,

FROM ELDER HYDE

Search Ponder and Pray, Teaching and Baptisms Walking up steep hills August 10 2009

Hey this week was very, very good. We ended up having two unplanned baptisms, which the story is really cool. We visited them Monday and they didn’t want to accept a date. We then tried to teach the restoration telling them that we are unclean because of sin and that only thru a baptism correct could we return to the presence of our father. We told them that we had planned baptism services every Saturday this month and they could pick whichever they wanted, I guess that they understood really well because they said this week or in three days they wanted to get baptized. It was amazing.

Well we also have planned for this week 1, and she is really prepared for her baptism she really understands the importance of repentance and baptism. I was thinking that when I left the jungle that I wouldn’t find many baptism, just because it a little bit harder here, but come to find out, if we are obedient and put our trust in the lord, he will bless us for our work.
Well in my district the numbers are really low right now, I don’t know what happens. But everyone is doing really well, I am trying to get them excited for the excellent change that we are going to have here and I am going to do my best to help everyone.

My comps returned to Bolivia, and now I am with a mini missionary, he lives here close, he has 17 years and this is his second mini mission. He teaches pretty well I was surprised. Still he has got a little to learn though.

Yesterday was really cool we found a really cool family, the parents and their three daughters. We taught them and they almost accepted, but still have a few doubts, so we told them, read, ponder and pray are the things that they must do, the spirit will guide and deep inside they’ll know these things are true.

Well like I said we had a really fun, interesting week full of adventure (and lots of hill climbing, in this area you are either going up or going down there is no level ground) My zone is Tuhantunsuyo but I am in one area in comas, with lots of hills everyday we climb up a steep mountain. It is really good exercise. but they feed me so much that I will not lose weight here.

The weather is good, in the mornings it is really cold. (when I got to lima I got a surprise from one of my comps that returned home. Elder Torrejon left me sweaters, shirts, and some other stuff to. I am soooo glad because now I have something to keep me warm.) We even have hot water in the morning. It is so nice, we live in a mansion.

Well this it all I remember this week right now.
LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH AND HOPE THAT ALL GOES GREAT.
LOVE ELDER HYDE

Comas, New Companions, Exciting Week. Aug 3 2009

Derek was expecting to be a trainer this change. He thought he would get a new missionary right out of the CCM to train. When this happens they become a "papa" to the "new kid". He talks about this in his letter and I thought it might need some explanation.

Hello my family.
All is well here. We had changes on Wednesday and it was a little sad to leave Iquitos. Monday and Tuesday we spent saying goodbye and getting ready, I didn’t get to bed until 1:00 am because I was packing and writing goodbye letters.

Tuesday the leaders called me and told me I had an abortion, my son didn’t show up. He didn’t get his visa I think. I don’t know if he was gringo or where he was from.

So right now I am with two gringos who will be leaving to go back to Bolivia tomorrow. So I will have a new comp or I will have a mini missionary for the change.

Well I am really busy in the night and I don’t have a lot of time to write in my journal but I will try to get better and faster as time goes on so I have more time. Right now I am in an area called Comas. We have had a lot of success this last four days. We went on divisions for an hour yesterday and had a lot of success; It is a really good ward that we are in, a lot different than the jungle. They are a little bit more spiritual here, maybe because they have a temple close.

It has been a little crazy with two gringos, but also a big help, they have been leaders here, but now were taking down to junior so they could leave, so that has been a big help for me they are training me.
Speak about training I guess I have had two abortions, the two of them had problems with visa I think. I guess I am just not ready to be a father. Oh well I am a little glad because I was a little scared with all the new responsibility.

Well this week we had a family that they have been teaching for a little while that are amazing. We went Saturday to do service, and they promised to come to the church. Come Sunday we waited and waited and waited and half way thru sacrament they showed up, it was awesome to see them, today we will set a date with them. Well we are also teaching a women named Rosario and she is amazing. She is defending the church, and she basically taught her brother lesson one using the index. We also have 3 young people that have members in their families, that we will start teaching and baptize. I have really been blessed with a good area.

I hate to see my comps go because they have really been a great help for me. Elder McGary and Elder Mangum. McGary is from Taylor (really close to us.), and Mangum is from Ohio. Mcgary has 18 months and Mangum has 14 one change more than me. We are having a lot of fun here. I will miss them. We will see I think we are in for some big surprises this week.

I love you all TTTTTTTOOOOOONNNNNNNNSSSSSS
LOVE YOUR SON AND BROTHER
ELDER HYDE

I asked Elder Hyde several questions that he answered in a separate email.

He has lived out of one suitcase since November because he has been in the jungle. I asked if he got his other suitcase.
I DID AND I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE WHAT I HAD LEFT.
He doesn’t need shirts, pants or shoes, but he would like some UNO playing cards.

What is your area like?
UP AND DOWN BUT MORE UP. YES IT IS BASICALLY HILL, AND UP HILL IS WHERE WE GO MOSTLY.

How many companionships in your district?
I HAVE FOUR ELDERS AND FOUR SISTERS. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH IT IS A BIG DISTRICT, THE REASON I SAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH, NOT ONLY FOR THE SISTERS. THE DISTRICT DIDNT HAVE GOOD NUMBERS THIS WEEK IT WAS A LITTLE SCARY I HOPE IT GETS BETTER.

Excellent Week. Leaving Iquitos....going to Lima July 27 2009

Well we ended the week with excellence. We spent all week spending time with our investigators that got baptized so that they didn’t fall thru. So it was a really busy week. We had 6 baptisms and one of them was the father of my friend that passed away in the accident. They have been waiting for that moment for a long time. It was a really neat baptism that we had. One thing that hit me was when he gave his testimony, before he was saying “um I don’t have that great of a testimony”, but that testimony that he shared was AMAZING.

Well it will probably be my last baptism here in Iquitos, because I am leaving to go to Lima. And the scary part is that I will be DL (district leader) and I will have a kid (I am going to be a papa (trainer). AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH well I am going to do the best I can because the lord has called me. I know that some challenges lay ahead but also some wonderful experiences. I can’t wait. Well I am a little nervous.

We had been working really hard in the area and have had a lot of success. It was an amazing change we had a lot of fun and success. We helped strengthen the members and investigators. We had a few weeks of slow and tiring work. But that time paid off. We ended this change with 11 baptism. I am really going to miss this area. I have so many converts. I have more than 30 and I won’t have time to say goodbye. I will do my best and if not I will leave them a note with my companion.

We had a really cool activity this week, we called it eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. We tied in the plan of salvation. What we did is everyone started out with some money and we had a store and a dance club and also a theater where they watched “Ice Age 3” we told them to go wild and spend their money. Then after an hour or so we turned off everything and told them that they died. We moved to another room and separated them in the kingdoms depending on how much money they had. We said that sometime we have a little to much fun here in the world and we will have to pay the price for that we the lord comes to judge us. It was really fun.

I forgot to tell you that last Monday we had the privilege to watch "night at the museum 2" we are the highest baptizing zone here in the zone. It was funny.Have you guys seen that or Ice age 3? I think here it comes out on disk before it comes out in the theaters. Here they don’t have ratings on the movies.

The area that I am going to is called Tihuantunsuyo. (TI-WAN-TUN-SUYO) I don’t know my companion yet because he is a newbi and it still in the CCM. I should leave on Wednesday.

I should be able to get my suitcase that I left in the mission office. I think I will be leaving a lot here so that I can take my hammock and all the stuff I bought here in Iquitos.

Well, Talk to you all next week. I just want you to know that I love you all so very much and hope all is going well there. Love you all and pray for you everyday.

Love your son, brother, and uncle,
Elder Hyde

Awesome week Family Home Evening with Families July 20 2009

We had an awesome week. We ended it with two baptisms. One that his family are members and the one that we have been working with to get married. It was great. I also saw a family get baptized that I had been working with but they are from another area. They were living in our area while their house was flooded. We got all their papers for their marriage and taught them. Then they moved back to their house and it was a free baptism for the other missionaries. We had a massive baptism; with like 15 people it was awesome.

It had rained a lot this week again. But also it was freakin hot. When the weather is like this it tires you out. Every night we go home plan and want to hit the sack.

We have had a lot more success this week, which is good. We have also had a little fun Because this week is going to be stressful, we have like 6 baptisms planned.

This last p day we played in the mud, it was mud soccer. It was a lot of fun, slippin and slidin. We finally won the other Zone. It was really fun, we also got permission to watch batman. It was an awesome movie.

Well I have a feeling this is my last week in Iquitos. I think I am heading to Lima. Even though I don’t want to. Every one tells me I am going up to district leader, but I really don’t want to. But I will take whatever calling the lord wants me to. I know that the lord prepares a way for all his children to fulfill their callings.

Sounds like you had a nice relaxing busy week. We have been having FHE every night with members, it has been a really good week with that. We have been able to get to know the members and also have some fun with them. We had one this week that I was getting pick on in the games. We played hot potato and every time you lose you get painted with lip stick. I was covered this day in lipstick my whole face was red.

Another one we got a young women soaked. It's called a trip to the stars. You put a shirt on the head and on the count of three they look thru the sleeve just as you pour water down it. It is really fun. That was basically our week. It was a really good one, and I hope this next one is just as good.

LOVE YOU ALL AND I PRAY FOR EACH AND EVERYONE.
LOVE, ELDER HYDE

Letter for the participants of Aaron's Camp Derek's Testimony

Our Stake has a week long camp for the young men 16 years and older. This is a spiritual camp where they teach each other from "Preach my Gospel". Many lives are changed because of the spiritual experience the young men have while participating. Derek attended this camp for three years before going on his mission. He was asked to write a letter for the camp this year.

HEY AARONS CAMP,
I HOPE THAT ALL IS GOING WELL UP HERE AND THAT YOU’RE KEEPING THE FIRES UNDER CONTROL.

WELL I WANT TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT AARONS CAMP FOR ME HAS HELPED ME SO MUCH. WHEN I PARTICIPATED, I LEARNED A LOT. IT HAS REALLY HELPED ME BE A BETTER TEACHER OF THE GOSPEL.

HERE YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN THE LESSONS THAT YOU WILL BE TEACHING IN THE FIELD. PAY ATTENTION TO EVERYTHING AND TRY TO BE LIKE A SPONGE, SOAK IT ALL IN. I HAVE HAD SOME REALLY GOOD EXPIRIENCES HERE IN PERU AND A LOT OF THESE EXPIRIENCES REMIND ME OF THE SPIRITUAL EXPIRIENCES THAT I HAD AT AARONS CAMP. I KNOW THAT AARONS CAMP HAS HELPED ME AND I KNOW IT WILL HELP ALL OF YOU IF YOU LET IT. DO ALL THAT YOU CAN DO TO LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT AND TO THE TEACHERS.

I KNOW THAT THIS CHURCH IS TRUE AND I KNOW THAT OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST LIVES AND LOVES EVERY ONE OF US. I KNOW THAT JOSEPH SMITH WAS A PROPHET CALLED OF GOD TO RESTORE THE GOSPEL IN THIS TIME SO THAT WE COULD ONE DAY LIVE WITH GOD AGAIN. I KNOW THAT IF WE JUST ENDURE TO THE END WE CAN HAVE ETERNAL LIFE AND ALL THAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS. I KNOW THAT THE LORD IS WATCHING OVER US AND WANTS US TO BE HAPPY. I KNOW THAT PREACH MY GOSPEL IS A BOOK THAT WAS WRITTEN BY PROPHETS TO HELP US IN THIS WORK, STUDY IT, READ IT, AND ENJOY IT. I KNOW THAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD AND HAS AND WILL CONTINUE BLESSING THE LIFES OF MANY.

ENJOY THIS TIME THAT YOU HAVE THIS WEEK, BECAUSE IT IS REALLY SHORT. SINCERELY ELDER HYDE

HOT Rainy, Family Home Evening, Massive Marriages July 13 2009

Hey my wonderful family. I hope everything is going great. We had a really busy week. I started writing in my journal again and regret not writing for the last month. I did put a few experiences that I do remember though. The last week ended up a little sad because we had no baptismal dates set. The president said to the leaders that he was a little worried, but it was just a bad week.

This week we have set 6 dates and they are for the next two weeks. We have also been organizing a massive marriage, that we finally had Saturday. We had one couple that got married and she will be baptized this week, but also we had a family from another ward that we found that got married and will be baptized. It was really cool to help them, but with that came a lot of stress. We ran here and there trying to get things ready, finding papers and all that junk.

We found a young lady that we started to teach and right off the bat she said I want to get baptized, it was cool. I have seen the blessing of the lord this last week. It has shown me that when your mind is in the work and not in the house, the family, or other things, the work moves forward.

We did another activity this week. We dressed up as the book of Mormon and the bible and went out and passed out pamphlets with the youth. It was an alright activity. I felt a little strange but it was fun.

Youth conference is this week huh sound that the food is going to be good. I miss your good cooking, when I get home I am going to get fat. (Shane and I are going to Youth Conference to cook the meals for the youth.)

These last two days have been really freaking hot. I was out for half hour and my whole body was wet. I was sweating so bad, I couldn’t believe it. We were suffering, until all of the sudden it started to rain. Saturday before the wedding it started to rain. And yesterday it started to rain really hard. We had to walk about 1 mile in the rain. We were soaked.

This week we have been working really hard with the members doing FHE with a different family every night. It has been a really good thing for them, well and for us to. It gives them a chance to invite someone, so we can then teach them.Well we have had a great week and will continue having a great month. And also a great year.

Love you all a lot Love Elder Hyde

Sticky Fruit, Great Companion, Short Letter July 6 2009

Well our last two weeks have been really good. We have had three baptisms and we have been enjoying our change together. My companion and I are getting along great, he is really funny. We have a a little bit of a drought with investigators. We are finding more this week that we will put with a date.

The weather here is a little rain and it is getting really hot. Everyone is telling me I am getting skinnier. I kinda hope so.

I have gotten really bad at writing in my journal. I haven’t written in it for the past three weeks. So one of the days I am going to go back thru and remind myself what has happened. It will be easy because we have our agendas that I will be able to look at to remind me.

The last week we went to a little place in the jungle and ate a fruit that when you eat it closes your mouth. It leaves a really sticky liquid on your lips and feels like you can’t open it. We also played a little soccer and a little volley with a less active family.

We had a really cool activity this week. We got the ward together and had a night of games. We had an eating contest, played musical chairs, pie in the face, arm wrestling, and balloon popping contest. It was really cool, we had a great turnout. And the members enjoyed themselves and told us we need to do it again. So I think we will start doing more activities like that.

Well we have got to go, sorry if this is not a great letter. I promise that next week will be a lot better.
Love ,
your favorite missionary,
ELDER HYDE

Short Letter, Website problems June 29 2009

Hey how’s it going? Everything is good here. We are having problems with the web site so I think we will return later to write.

I just want you to know that we are doing excellent and that we had a good week we ended with 2 baptisms. I am really good health wise and MOM YOUR ALWAYS IN MY PRAYERS!!!

LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH
Love, Elder Hyde

New Companion Going to Celebrate Hump Day! June 22, 2009

Hey my family, how is everything going? It has been a wet week here too. Either it is raining or you’re sweating really badly. Either way you’re wet.

Everything here is great. My new comp is awesome. Elder Lazo is from Arequipa, in southern Peru. He is really cool and is helping me a lot. We had a great week and found and set a few more baptism dates. He has 5 months in the mission but he teaches really well.

Last week Elder Portilla left and went to Lima where it is really cold. I am glad that I stayed and am not in Lima.

This week I have been learning, in my free time, how to make a hammock. The kind of hammock that I sent you guys. It is going to be sweet. I got the package and I love it. I love the m&ms and the camel. I really love it all, the pictures are awesome, but what happened to dad´s hair?

Hey I was wondering how Cameron is doing. Haven’t heard anything of him, and all the other cousins either.

Well my comp is really funny, and he likes to laugh. We have some good laughs this week.
We are teaching a young man who has been given the priesthood but was not baptized. Don’t ask me how it happened it just happened. His whole family are members but went inactive, and now they are getting active, and they thought he was baptized. Well it will be a really easy baptism. We also found a young woman yesterday and she is excited to get baptized. She has friends in the church that have got her excited.

I am excited for this week because I can play with fire. I am going to burn one of my shirts. One of the shirts that I had before the mission is now junked up, ripped, and I am a piro.

There have not been riots lately, so there is nothing to worry about.
My suit jacket is here with me. I just don’t use it until I change.
We eat in the morning and night in the pension and it is ok food.

About the trip to Lima from here. First you have to take a boat to Pucallpa or Tarapoto.
Then from there, there is a really dangerous road to get to Lima.
I do have my scripture cases of tiger skin. And he I going to make me a tie too.
I hope you have a great week.
LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY HUMP DAY WITH THE MISSIONERIES. :) (We are feeding our missionaries on Derek’s Hump day)
LOVE ELDER HYDE

Another Six Weeks in Iquitos. New Companion and Good Friend Dies June 15, 2009

Hey hey hey. How was your week? Ours was alright. We ended the week with a baptism and finally the other was confirmed, after almost a month. We have had a little bit of a rough time these last few weeks. I don’t know if I told you but we as a mission ended may with 404. Which was awesome.

This week we had to stay in our house again because there was another riot. It’s not too bad it is just an excuse to put garbage in the streets and break bottles and play in the streets. (Soccer and volley)

Something really sad happened this week, one of our members was traveling to Lima on a bus and Thursday we heard that the bus had rolled off a little cliff and the member had passed away. We went Saturday to see his viewing and he looked pretty bad. It was kind of a sad moment for me but I knew that he was called to the other side to complete his other mission. He was a good friend and helped us a lot. Everyone says that he went knowing that something was going to happen. He told the bishop in an interview that he felt he was going to die. It was a little strange.

Well today we found out the changes and I will be staying one more change here and my comp is leaving. My new comp will be elder Lazo. I am glad that I am staying, but I am going to die of the heat. It gets so hot some days. I am just glad I am not going to Lima.

I hope you all have a great week this week and a fun one too.
love Your son ELder Hyde :)

Alligator burger and civil unrest. June 8, 2009

Hey, hey, hey, what’s up its great to hear that you got the package, have you tried out the hammock. Well those things are for y´all, you can do what you want with them.

We had a pretty good week this week. I was a little less stressed out this weekend.

Well last Monday we went to a restaurant that sells good American hamburgers. But it was really expensive but delicious. This week I think I will try the alligator burger.

I don’t know if you heard anything about Tarapoto or Moyobamba but there is like a civil war and so the other day we couldn’t leave very much. When we did it was in pday clothes. It makes me so trunky and I feel so bad when we don’t go out or when we are in pday clothes. This happened the last week too. We woke up with a bunch of garbage in the streets and people breaking glass bottles in the streets it is a little weird here sometimes. But nothing to worry about. Read more about this story http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/05/peru.indigenous.clash/index.html?iref=newssearch

We have been trying to prepare a massive marriage, and get people to obey the law and commandments, we are trying to get two couples to get married and then baptized. We went to another area to find a couple that we had been helping but we didn’t know the exact direction. We asked like 20 people where it was but they didn’t know how to give directions very good so I just got more confused. We finally asked someone if they could show us and we finally found them. It was a miracle that we found them.

On Thursday we went to the church and the bishop told us that one of our old investigators was getting baptized this week and we were shocked because he doesn’t have permission from his parents and bishop said well he is going to seminary but we cant give him credit because he is not a member yet. We are going to talk to him this week and hopefully resolve some things.

I bought a memory stick to store all of my pictures and then delete them from my cards I am running out of room on them. It is 8gb and it only was like 25 bucks. It was cheap.

I love you all so very much and hope that this week rocks.

love Elder Hyde

13 Baptisms for the month.....BUSY.....June 1 2009

Well we had a pretty good week this week. We ended up with 4 baptisms and confirmations. I got to baptize all four. It was a family of three (yesica, Melissa and Mateo.) and a kid whose sister is a member and now we are working with their mom. It was really good; we decided to do a massive baptism with all the missionaries from our district. We had thirteen baptisms together.

My comp and I ended the month with 13 baptism but as of right now only 12 were confirmed, because the other said that the bishop told him he should come to church with a shirt and tie. He doesn’t have one. So this week I will give him one of my shirts and ties.

During the week I am not to stressed, but come the weekend the stress rushes in. The last two weekends have been a little stressful, but I am sure it is just because of all the success and trying to get things done. The wards are throwing a little more responsibility on us, like they want us to teach the gospel principle class and other things. But it is all part of the mission and I am enjoying myself.

It has really been nice to sleep in a hammock. But I don’t use a mosquito net. But a lot of bug spray I do use and it seems to work good.
I did finally get the digital frame to work. I found the reset button but had a little bit of fear to push it. I pushed it and it didn’t erase anything but now it works.

I did get the package sent. You should be getting it in the next week, week and a half. It cost me 84 soles to send it. Like 27 bucks. I hope you enjoy what’s in it. The hammock doesn’t look that sturdy but it is.

I hope you all have a great week and that all goes great. I love you all very much. Love Elder Hyde

11 Months today! May 25, 2009

I am so glad that you are doing well and I am praying that it continues that way. It sounds like everyone had a good week full of things to do.

We also had a great long week fulllll of things to do. I got a little stressed out this week because of it. We had two baptisms that went great but one did not show up to his baptism, but I didn’t have much faith in him, he was an investigator that the sisters here had been teaching and they had set a date for his baptism and interviews. The first two interviews he didn’t show up. But the third he did. And he passed and he said he wanted his baptism at two. So we went to pick him up at 2 but nobody was home. He just wanted to be in the presence of the sisters. I was a Little stressed this weekend, but I am better now. One of the baptisms we had didn’t show up to church to get confirmed so we will do it next week.

Well about the goal, we had enough baptism dates to get the goal but we couldn’t lose 1 date. But some of the companionships lost dates this week. So I don’t know. Nothing is impossible for God, only if we have faith in Christ.

RIGHT NOW I HAVE 8 BAPTISM THIS MONTH WITH MY COMP BUT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE 5 MORE THIS WEEKEND INCLUDING THE CONFIRMATION WE NEED TO DO.

I have not heard anything from Set just from my comp, when I went to Lima I talked to elder Garnica about him and the other investigators that we had.

Well I am a little jealous of the central air. It is really really hot here and that would be really nice right now. So I hope you enjoy that.

Alden is ended his junior year this week. Wooooow time flew so fast when I first got here to Peru he was starting school.

Today We are going to watch a movie, I think we are watching “What a Beautiful Life."

Last week I bought a hammock and have been sleeping in it all week. Then I got a cheap one from a family and I will be sending it home in my package today. I am finally going to send a package. Sorry it took so long.

I was thinking of some of the things you could send me and I got a little trunky. I was thinking of a nice glass of milk. But real United States milk and some real American beef. But I know that you can’t send those things but I was thinking a box of cake mix with some Betty Crocker frosting. That would be awesome.

Well I love you all so much and can't wait for pictures of my baby sobrina (Brielle is Britney’s baby. It is odd to think that she will be walking when Derek will see her in person.)
LOVE ELDER HYDE