He's coming home!!!

We're trying to get the word out the best we can.  Thought it would be good to post it here as well!  We are SO excited!!

Last Transfer!

Elder Hyde is on the final transfer of his mission!!  We (as his family) are so excited but I think he is enjoying it so much and would stay longer if her could.  In fact, the plan right now is for our father to go and get him and spend maybe two weeks there.  His release date is April 10 but if everything works out we will not see him for a few weeks after that.

I havent' been great about updating the blog but he doesn't write much so I'm going to blame it on him. :) He mostly just answers any questions we ask him.  He is still in the same area (Mildura) with the same companions.  I guess the only change last week was that they got a new missionary in the area and so now they are no longer a threesome.  There are two companionships and Elder Hyde is still with Elder Tuiluaai.  Here are a few highlights from the past months with some pictures:

3/4/2013
There are twins in the branch that are priest age. They were less active and so we decided that we wanted to take them out teaching.  One of the twins is more active then the other and he was always keen to come out with us when we asked him, but the other twin would never come with us, we kept trying and he kept saying next time. Finally we got him out one time and he loved it, he has been out with us teaching a few times now and is active to mutual and to church. He shared his testimony that he was less active and doing the wrong things then when he went teaching he could see the blessings and that changed him. He now has the missionary spirit and shared it with the whole branch in his testimony yesterday. How great is our joy to have helped this young man come back to the fold and now he will help others. Glory to God!

2/18 and 2/25/2013

We had a cool celebration where we invited a nonmember youth to church and she is really shy, we taught the mom and the brother but they were both not really interested, but the girl came to church and she knew a lot of the other youth, then when she went home she must have told her mom about it because we got a text from the moms auntie who is a member and it said that the mom wants to come to church now so that was a cool celebration. It made our week. The members still feed us to much. Another thing we went to Robinvale again this week and whenever we go down there we always find someone down there that they eventually baptize and we found 21 potential investigators while we were down there so hopefully they get the same results. Other than that we are doing our best and the lord is blessing us. So Robinvale is 1 hour from Mildura and there are 2 missionaries there and they are in our zone so we go down there every once and a while to help them with the work or make sure they are still working. ha. And provide them with some more company. Mostly Tongans live there because there is a lot of picking like grapes and almonds and oranges. So much potential there because the people are always way nice in little country towns so they are easier to talk to and get along with and get members to fellowship and stuff.

1/21/2012

You must have been inspired to ask if there was something funny that happened this week because there was something quite funny that happened actually. We went to Robinvale to interview a baptism candidate and while we were there Elder Visesio told us he had a dream that he gave a talk in sacrament and that the people were wondering why he was talking again because he already got called up to bear his testimony the week before. Well on Sunday we were sitting in the chapel and all the sudden we hear " and our second speaker will be Elder Visesio". We just started cracking up at him. He wasn't told he would be speaking but he should have listened the dream. The whole time he was talking we were laughing at him.
This week has actually been pretty rough, we have been doing a lot of finding and people just slamming the door and stuff but we had a couple of experiences that made it all worth it one of them was this: All of our appointments fell through so we were stuck and didn't really know what to do. So we had about 30 minutes and we set some goals for this half hour. We wanted 1 other lesson and 1 new investigator. So then we thought of some names that this could happen with, when we visited that name, the person asked us if they have to take lessons before being baptized. She wants to be baptized, we will be teaching her this week.

He told me that this is a picture of some "models" that he happened upon

Christmas Pics, Mid-December Baptism

Elder Hyde sent some pics.  He also had a baptism in the middle of December!

Different Christmas Traditions

Elder Hyde's letter from December 3

I didnt realize how close christmas really was. You asked what traditions are different, um santa wears a speedo and rides a surf board, I don't know how that works with kids sitting on his lap that would be a bit weird with hairy legs or something, but I don't want to think about it too hard. They have the same music and stuff, it has been pretty weird to walk in the shopping centre and hear the christmas music playing for the past couple months. We will have christmas in adelaide, so I will be able to meet up with Elder Nngawaka, he just got sent to Adelaide. And yes the weather is a difference, I thought since I was out of Tennant and Alice that it wouldn't be as hot but I was wrong it was way hot the other day it was hard to breathe because the air was hot.  Keep smiling! Share the joy. Love yas, tell the kids hey for me.
Love Elder Hyde

New Companion(s)

Elder Hyde's companion got transferred last week and he was placed in a 3-Elder companionship.  Here is what he had to say about it!

They are Elder Tuiluaai straight from Samoa, a couple transfers ago, and Elder Mafi, a Tongan from Sydney. They are both funny and like to joke around so we have a lot of fun, but are able to get a lot of work done also. They were glad because they both can't drive so they had to ride bike but the weather is getting so hot that it would be hard to ride in. But luckily they get to ride in the car now, who knows one day I might accidentally lose the keys to make us ride the bike. Ha. We have been focusing on helping members mostly and helping them receive ordinances and it was cool this week. We had 2 ex-members get rebaptized and 2 baby blessings for less active members this week so the work is continuing to move forward and the Lord is opening the doors for us to bless the lives of his children.

Zone Conference in Adelaide

We had a sweet zone conference this past week in Adelaide. Elder Pearson came, and he just smashed us as a mission, he told us that we could be doing a lot better. He was speaking very bold too, telling us to repent and stuff. I was watching Sister Carter and it looked like she was going to cry for us because he wasn't taking it easy. I reckon that is what we needed though because we were all excited to get out and do the work after that. Another cool thing that we had was a musical fireside with the branch here. We set up for some members to sing and they are mostly islanders so they have way good voices. We had a pretty good turnout to that. Other than that things are still great. I just wanted to send this picture, it is of when we went to Adelaide.There is 4 of us missionaries here in Mildura, we aren't in a 4 some like in Alice Springs but we stay at the same flat and stuff, and we don't have split area. We work the same areas but it is just like whoever finds the person teaches them, so we are motivated to find a lot so that they don't get taken by the others. ha. The other 2 are Elder Mafi and Elder Tuiluaai. Love ya!
Love Elder Hyde

Transferred!!

Last week Elder Hyde wrote to us.  About two sentences.  He said that he couldn't talk long and that he had to catch a plane to Adelaide.  We weren't able to get any more details than that!!  We were excited to talk to him this week and get some more details.  Here is what he said:

Well the info you may have been waiting for. Leaving from Alice was way hard. I got a call from the members up there just a couple days ago. They called the mission office to find out where I was and they got the number from them. They just said they missed me and wished me luck and that I have to go back after the mission. Ha. But anyway after leaving Alice I got to Adelaide and stayed the night there with the assistants waiting for transfer meeting, where I was told that I was heading off to Mildura, it is about 5 hours drive away from Adelaide, in Victoria. There are heaps of islanders so it is good. I have never eaten so much fast food. We have tea dates a lot and sometimes they feel lazy to cook so when we show up they take us to KFC or Maccers or something. Its crazy. I will probably put back on heaps of weight but oh well.

I couldn't ask for a better companion.H name is Elder Ngawaka, from Auckland, New Zealand. He is a mix of Aussie, Maori I think, and Cook Island. He is the man. I just wanted to share this experience with you real quick, probably the most spiritual experiences I have had:

We had a great experience this week with a referral. We were going to have a lesson with her so we were looking for members to go with us, unfortunately the members that can usually come were all busy so we were struggling to find someone. We had a feeling to keep trying and we got ahold of a member that could come. We showed up at her house and she was going through a rough time, family was yelling at each other and it wasn't a good situation so we were thinking that maybe we should leave and set up for another time, but the member said lets wait for just a few minutes and stick it out. She invited us in and she let us know her situation, it turns out the member that the Lord provided knew exactly this situation and had been through it before. He was able to deliver doctrine to her needs and bear testimony of personal experience. This was something as missionaries we probably wouldn't have been able to do as well. During the lesson she broke out in prayer as tears filled her eyes. She felt the spirit strongly and invited us back, we committed her to read and pray. On the follow up visit we went back with the same member and his wife. She came out to greet us as happy as could be, with the light of Christ brightening her face. It was truly amazing to see the change in her. Straight away, before we could ask she told us that she prayed and read the scripture and has never been so happy. And even without us saying anymore she told us she wanted to come to church the next day (which the members jumped on and told her that they would pick her up) she didn't even stop there though, she said that she wants to be baptized without us even discussing that before. It was one of the most amazing experiences. She came to church and it was the primary program, she cried throughout the whole sacrament meeting. Glory be to the Father. If it wasn't for this specific member and his experiences, then I don't believe this would have happened. The Lord provided this member at this time to help this lady. I know the Lord provides the way as long as we try our best and dont give up.
That is a terrible description of what really happened and the efforts that were put into it and there were many more little details that all fit together for this to happen, the Lord provided it to happen though and I am grateful I was a part of it.
I love you all and hope you have a great week. The time is a half hour different I don't know if it is behind or ahead, but yeah.
Love Elder Hyde