August 16h & 23rd emails

Well Elder Hobbs is doing well, he has not reported very much over the last several weeks. And he was being transfered on the 30th of August so I haven't hear from him at all. He did talk about a young man he was teaching. Apparently this investigator is not very well off, but seems to really enjoy being taught. Elder Hobbs says it is fun to teach him. He has little stories about people he is meeting, he is really getting to know who he is serving. I had a phone call from a member that had Elder Hobbs with him, he was needing his Aunt Kat's phone number so they could set up a meeting. He was able to see her briefly before he transferred. She said he was doing well and it was good to see him. He seemed happy and enjoying his work, she also said that she got to meet his companion and the family he was with. I am grateful that she spent some time with him, just to see how he is!
So he is being transferred to Loveland, CO. He should be there and hopefully we will hear from him soon. He should have a new companion also. I have been sending care packages with food and fun stuff. If any you can do this also, I am sure he would love it. I will post more when I hear!!

August 2nd & 9th Emails

Both of the emails from Elder Hobbs the last two weeks have been similar. He is doing alot of service, his days are busy, but he is happy. They moved in with a different family and he says the conditions are better so it is good. He is enjoying his new companion, they are even writing songs together. He sent some picture of them doing a service project of removing shingles from a roof. So he is working hard!! He said it was very hot in Colorado, but I am sure that will change!! They are still doing a lot of service, for members and the stake and weekly at the food bank. He says the people are being good to him there. Hopefully we will hear more about the work they are doing!!!

July 26th

Received an email from Elder Hobbs today. He really likes his new companion, Elder Liufau. He says he is an awesome guy, but that he too will be leaving to go home soon. Unfortunately Elder Liufau sprained his ankle this week and they had to get him to the doctor, but he should be fine. Elder Hobbs said that they will be moving in with a new family this week and they are looking forward to that. They had a district meeting with all the new members of their zone as pretty much the entire zone changed last week, so lots of new people.
Other than that he is doing well and seems to be enjoying his work. I will be posting some of the pictures he sent soon. He looks pretty good!!

July 19th

Elder Hobbs emailed today, it was brief, but still good to hear from him. He has a new companion now, Elder Liufa from Texas. His prior companion, Elder Slezack was done with his mission and went home. He said he had a good week and that they had a baptism in their area. He said he was tired, due to preparing his companion to leave, but otherwise he was well.

July 15th

Received an email today from Carolyn Forbes, someone that Elder Hobbs has spent time with in Colorado. I will post her comments and the picture they sent. How wonderful to receive such kind words about him!!

Hi Karrie,
We are the Forbes family from Arvada and we have had such a great time getting to know Elder Hobbs. He’s such a kind young man and we love having him in our home. Our son, Bennett, whom you’ll see in this photo, just returned from his mission a month ago from Toronto and then our 13-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Elder Slezak are in the photo as well. Thank you for allowing us to have Elder Hobbs in our midst for this short time and we wish you and your family all the best!Daren and Carolyn Forbes

July 12th

Got an email from Elder Hobbs today. He is so good to email each week, we are so grateful to hear how he is doing. He says that he really enjoys all the service that they do. It is possible his companion, Elder Slezack will leave this next week and he will get a new companion. The mission President told him he was staying in that area, so he is waiting to find out who with! He says that he has been sick and still is not getting enough rest, but hopefully he will adjust soon. He very much likes the work he is doing and is very confident he is doing the right thing, but gets tired. I received a memory card from him that contained over 300 pictures of what he has been doing since he left, what a silly guy!! So many that make you laugh, but mostly it was just good to see him. There were a few where he and his companion played 'dress up' with some knight costumes, they were quite hilarious. Other than that he says they are doing the pretty much the same things every day. They have a few investigators which is exciting because they haven't had any in a very long time. In the end he just says he cannot complain and that all is well!!!

July 5th

Once again I will just let you read Elder Hobbs' latest email, he seems to be doing well, lots of service!!!


last pday we were on bike so we biked over to derek holtzs house who is awesome. us derek and 6 other missionaries went to buffalo wild wings for all you can eat wings i had 30 and other people had like 42 and stuff so that was fun. then we biked the 8 miles home. that night we did exchanges. they stopped doing them for some reason except for APs to ZLs and ZLs to DLs and my companion is the DL so we still get to do them. i was with the jr comp elder edwards, and he has been in a car his whole mission of like a year and we biked like 20 miles that day. mostly because it was on the far side of our area, i got kinda lost... but it was fun we had a good time. i introduced him to one of our crazies, which was hilarious cause he was just like, that guy is crazy, which is true. then i got elder slezak back. we visited rachel, i cant even describe her she just is, rachel. then wednesday oh idk we had district meeting and the sisters gave all the elders a box full of like stuff that one of the sisters left with them. so i got lotion and perfume and highlighters and a lint roller. then 2nd ward had a baptism for the first time in like a year which is cool. it was hilarious the elder doing the baptism asked her name, snaps his fingers while raising his hand, and just kept going. us three elders were just laughing, inside of coarse till it was over. thursday we got more miles YEAHHHHH!!!! so we did service at this really awesome place, were helping install a solar water heating system. then we visited our investigators who are really cool. but they're moving on thursday but they dont know where yet so we will see. friday more service all day. saturday was fun. we got special permission to be Mark Holtzs escorts at his endowment so which was really fun, but intense. you might be asking your self how is a temple trip intense, let me explain. marks oldest sister who other than his mom is the person in his family who can go the temple, and that was our whole group us two him his mom and sister. his sister has seizures. she had a mild one in the car nothing to serious shes had them since she was 34 so like 2-5 years now im not sure. so she was still kinda out of it cause after wards shes kinda like not really completely coherent for like 20 min. so in the session right before people start going up to the veil, MASSIVE seizure. she started screaming just shaking like crazy and like spitting blood up. the other people are started freakin out. except for her mom who was just like totally calm helping her and the 3 of us, in a totally crowed session 3 other people were going through for the first time too. so then she was unconscious for a while till the could safely move her. then sunday was the usual except for no one was home so all our appointments fell through. we werent supposed to watch fire works, oh yeah it rained like crazy hard yesterday. but we had a lesson outside last night in a park while lighted explosions happend to be going off. then this morning we hiked a mesa i guess you could call it and saw some deer and coyotes. got some cool pics of it though. now doin this. so that was the bulk of my week just doin what we do. good to hear that reunion went well. on saturday night i got sad because i realized that the football game was probably going on. but i hope all else is going well. tell everyone i say hi and all that good stuff. love you bye bye

Email today, I'll let you read it.... sure do miss him!!

i meet a elder Elder Cash he got there right before i left, in the MTC who was from grants and he knew the Clawsons and had been up to the reunion place we go to before. but yeah im exausted i dont remember if i told you that ive been biking. but last monday he decided he didnt want me to use his nice bike so his son in law gave me this lil tiny one to use, size wise its ment for a person thats like 5 6 which is a foot shorter than i am so, we bike like everywhere cause we are out of miles till the first so basically ive biked all day every day on a bike that is way to short. so my back and my legs a really hurting we biked here to the library which is close to ... 8 10 miles and we have other things to do today so great fun! so monday for a district activity we played frisbee golf for a long time a park which was fun for the most part. tuesday we had lunch with the stake president our whole zone. then we visited people. wednesday more meeting and biking to visit people. thursday, awesome day. us and a friend from the MTC had a temple trip so we where there from like 8 to 5 so it was good day. friday was a crazy day we did our usual service at the food bank and the we had some issues with a member that we had to deal with, not fun. then we had dinner at applebees, a member had to cancel so they gave us a gift card and went with some other people. saturday even more service this time it was yard work for a single mom. an appointment fall through with some investigators.:(. sunday we had meetings till church in which i had to give a talk, the youth speaker before me talked for 1 min so i ran out of notes and stuff i only had to speak for 12 min and like 15 min into it there was still a 30+m minutes left, so i just started saying random stuff for like 5 mins, but the guy after me gave an awesome talk. which was great because had two potential investigators at church. for the record our ward hasnt had investigators for like a year. they had two converts in the last 2 years, jamie whos a lot of fun kinda older 50s youthful though, but kinda slower hes all there hes just, Jamie. and another one who instantly went inactive and commited suicide like a week before i got here. so the people had an awesome time at church and want to come back and we have a meeting with them tuesday night. so thats really good news for us.but doin okay i got your package, i forgot to tell you i bought the jesus the christ thing at the mtc, but its okay theres a kid leaving on his mission in a month that dont have it so im giving him the copy i bought so its okay i paid like 4.50 for the whole set at the mtc. and thank you for the other thing you included. but yeah so i will probably be here till about december if i follow the common trend of the other elders here. and i havent mailed that card yet but i will soon. but tonight i do an exchange with the ZLs till Tuesday night so im in charge of what we do, and that should be interesting becasue hes been in a car most of his mission and well be on bike allday. to all of you i love you all very very much and i hope all i well with you.

June 21st email

Received an email from Elder Hobbs today. He shared a little about the area he is in and the people there. He went to zone conference in Aurora, CO which he said was like the ghetto, northeast of Denver. He states that he got to see some of the others he came out with. He says that they do a lot of service, visiting families, some everyweek and others every other. His district name is Quail and they have a list of things they do, people that will help them and such. They helped at the food bank this week and participated in a service project.
Right now someone is loaning him a bike and they bike alot. He is adjusting to this!! He says he is better at running than biking. He says his "legs were on fire!" He wrote a short note after his email stating the when they are on bikes, mean people swear at them and hot girls cheer!!
Elder Hobbs has had his first "birthday", when he was out one month. Just 23 to go!! He also got to go on his first date as a missionary as the 2nd ward there to them to a steak house for dinner after they helped at the food bank. Also he has given his first blessing and has since then done three more.
He has met several people from here in Arizona and people who know some of his friends, it is a small world he says.
He says he is doing fine, but not getting near enough sleep at night.

Also just a note to everyone, again, he misses everyone and would love to hear from you!! Please email me if you have any questions!

June 14, email

A short email from Elder Hobbs today. He said that he got cussed out at his 2nd door!! But he is really liking his Trainer, Elder Slezak, "pretty cool" he says. But otherwise he says that nobody listens but that is understandable. He likes the ward and the members there, they are treating him well.

June 7, 2010 email

I received a brief email from Elder Hobbs stating that he was in Arvada, CO and that all was well. He sent another one asking to please help him buy a bike!!! He will need anywhere from $300-400. I don't know if he is happy about riding a bike on his mission, we were thinking he would be driving, at least in most areas.

June 7, 2010 Phone Call

I got to talk to Elder Hobbs this morning. He had left the MTC and was at the Salt Lake City airport. It was so good to hear his voice, but tough on me to say good-bye. He sounded wonderful and excited. He was traveling with 15 others on their way to Denver, all going to his mission. He told me that I would never get the letter telling me he wanted to come home, a nice reassurance that he was feeling strong and confident about what he was doing. It was a wonderful conversation and will be our last on the phone until Christmas.

Letter May 29th

A LETTER!!



Elder Hobbs' emails have been brief, but we received a very nice letter from him talking about many things happening in the MTC. He said he had a rough first few days, but since then his experience there has greatly improved and he is loving mission life. He is always happy, he loves his district and his leaders. He states that they sing Hymns all the time and have be told by several people that they are the best singing group ever!! He states that he is kinda suprized by some of the deep important experiences he has had.
He shared that one of his teachers told him that he was one of the happiest, excited and most loving missionaries he has ever met. And says "it is true I tell everyone I love them".
He asked me to share the following with everyone:
"I do love this though. I'm happy that I made this decision, I feel honored to have my name next to our Saviors for all the world to see. For the loving examples that I have been blessed with. The encouragement and support I have been given. Elder K----- in my district says he went on a mission to make his bishop happy and to please him. I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the love of Bishop Williams and his gentle but powerful love for me. I am not here to please anyone other than myself and God. Through him he will make weak things strong. I have gained a firm testimony in the power of the Spirit and how it can lead me. Not a day goes by that I don't miss those I have left, but not a day goes by where I don't know that they are being cared for. My sincerest hope is my mission will bless others more than it will me. I know that we have a loving Eternal Father in Heaven. That he has give us families and loved ones to bless us for eternity. He would not give us such important relationships if they weren't for a reason. I know Christ came to this earth and atoned for our sins to prepare a way back to him. That that way has been restored in its fullness through the Book of Mormon, which was resorted through a true Prophet called of God, Joseph Smith. That following the commandments and upholding our covenants we can have eternal life. I love you with all my heart and miss you more than you can imagine. I testify these things to you in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Catch UP!!

Elder Hobbs left home on May 17, 2010. He traveled with his friends Nick & Josiah Tingey to Provo, Utah. He spent that day and the next with his friends, they went to the Salt Lake Temple and did various things before he reported to the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday May19th. His friend Daniel Bond took him there and he said his final good byes to his world as he knew it.

On Monday May 24, we received a letter from Elder Hobbs. It was nice to hear from him, even though he was adjusting to MTC Life and not super excited. He was tired from lack of sleep and "paper thin" blankets. But he assured us of his commitment and his belief that he was doing the right thing.
".... that is why I am here, to help me, the people I serve with, the people I teach and most important is you all and all of my family and friends. Because I know that will bless all of you more that I could by myself during these two years."