Week 90 Temple week

As predicted this week was a little challenging because of all of the
members that we usually work with going to Madrid to go to the temple,
but is was a good week still. We had transfers and we had a lot of
changes continue to happen throughout the week. We now have a new
elder that is in our house that is from Canada.  He is a really cool
and he already understands the language really well.  It helps him out
that he already speaks french and English fluently, but he really is
an example.  he has been here a week and I still have not had to speak
to him in English and it is the first week of his mission and he is
able to understand us all well enough to keep up conversations with us
all day long.

Oh by the way Ihita went to the temple and then bore her testimony
about it in sacrament meeting. I got to translate her testimony for
her which is super challenging because her English does not make all
that much sense most of the time, but it was a cool experience with a
unique spirit there.  Her husband Evan went with her as well and just
sat on the temple grounds while she was in the temple. It was really
cool to get to see the glow in their faces as they came back. They
really do love the church and each other. they have lots of challenges
and really rough life, but they are almost always happy and they find
that joy in really simple things as the trust in God to lead and guide
them. We also had 4 members that went and did their endowments this
week as well as two of them are about to leave on their missions to
cabo verde and Mozambique.

we have been seeing some really cool people recently.  We got to know
a little better a member here that is a little less active and seems
like a really simple man especially because he has a hard time
speaking Portuguese because he is from gunie bissao but he is a really
amazing artist and he is also a musician.  Sometimes I get a little
bit distanced from the people as we are trying to get them to accept
to hear about the gospel and they consistently are rejecting us, but
when I take a minute to step back and to remember that these are
amazing people that I am getting to know and getting to talk to.  When
I have those moments and remember that I have the opportunity to bless
the lives of these people all day every day even if it is just because
I can give them a joyful smile when they are having a rough day. It is
really an amazing opportunity to get to serve a mission and be out
here with these people.

Yesterday we had a meeting planned with the stake president and
President Tavares, the mission presidente, with the other zone leaders
in the stake, and we all were there except for president tavares.  I
gave him a call to see where he was and he had completely forgotten.
Funny thing to get stood up on the mission by our own Mission
president not something that happens every day.  It sure gave me a
good laugh and humanized him a bit more when I heard him make a yelp
on the phone when he realized that he had completely forgotten about
the meeting.

We have been studying a ton of Elder Bednar's talks about faith and
prayer in preparation for his visit this week.  It has been wonderful
to get to really focus so  much on these gospel principles that are so
basic seeming but really are the essence of everything and the doorway
to everything else.  I am really enjoying as I am trying to do better
with my prayers so that I can really pray with faith looking to make
actions and align myself more with the savior.  I am really looking
forward to getting to hear a little more about these super important
topics this week personally with Elder Bednar.  I am going to get to
see him on Friday and on Saturday since Bishop asked that my companion
and I helped out on the bus that we are taking for the devotional that
is for the members.  The other missionaries are not getting to go the
the second meeting but since we had a special request from our bishop
and from the stake president as well to do this we get to go to the
second meeting as well.  I am super excited for this week.  It is
going to be hot and sunny and we are going to be getting to see an
apostle several times so I am not sure what could be much better then
that.

Love you all
Elder Hobson