Another Epistle of Élder Hobbs

Good wednesday morning to all reading this epistile. There were many an individual who did not recieve my previous epistle due to issues of file size caused by photographs, so I will provide this Google photos link instead: photos.app.goo.gl/ffTdfUoqUfe9ysnD8

I've also made a photos link where I'll upload images from my sketchbooks: photos.app.goo.gl/gd9QLB9Et3ck3no49

I've also put some comments on some of the photos too.

After calling my parents this P-day I realized most are unaware of the restrictions placed upon missionaries, and I shall detail such now as they are in the MTC

The only information we can get from the outside world is church newsroom, the word of incoming missionaries, and emails from others.

We can only send emails, and call+text with family on P-day (Though we can read them throughout the week).

We have Google but every site that isn't a utility or a church site is completely blocked.

The only music we can listen to is the stuff on gospel library, and whatever our fellow missionaries can remember to sing from heart.

We are not allowed to leave the MTC except to visit the exercise field. This is enforced by cameras and the security team.

We are not allowed to recieve visitors or have packages delivered to us in person (packages from home are delivered and then we pick them up from the mail room)

When it comes to purchases, we are given small debit cards with $10 of credit for elders and $12 for sisters weekly. We can spend this money at the MTC store, the BYU creamery express, and various vending machines scattered across the MTC. We luckily are also allowed to use our personal cash, credit, and debit cards.

We are not allowed to recieve doordash or any kind of food or supply deliveries except through the mail.

In other news, I've been continuing my sketchbook and I've been practicing my songwriting. I'll upload the bits of my sketchbook from the mission to the Google photos. Below the songs are pasted, they're just new words and a new meaning to some old songs. I've been singing these versions I wrote instead of the originals since the originals aren't exactly mission appropriate.

Zion's Army is The Strongest:

Words by Élder Mario Hobbs.
To the tune of: The red army is the strongest

Sing Triumphantly!

Chorus:
Let Zion's army, take in its journey,
The sword of faith in humble hand,
That we may labor, and never waver,
As we endure to the end.

1 Cruel is the Army and wicked the foe,
That wants to bring forth Satan's goal,
But from the valleys to mountains on high,
The ranks of the faithful will swiftly reply:

2 Onward ye saints, overcoming sin,
Following Christ, The Redeemer of Men,
Fighting Temptation both near and afar,
Heralding the love of god:

3 Words of our prophet, leading our march,
The Lord's gospel has been made whole,
We know the truth, so share it abroad,
The Lord's word must be shared by all!

4 No worldly riches can tempt our souls,
Satan's kingdom shall yield no reward,
Christ is our portion, so we needn't want,
Exaltation is our only goal!

Let us Dwell Together:

to the tune of smuglianka.
Words by Élder Mario Hobbs
Sing joyfully

Chorus:

Let us dwell together, on earth and heav'n above!
Tender warming, surrounded by the love of god, love is blooming, we love him and he loves us, christ's atonement and love unyielding,
We must love every one!

1 One fine morning just at daybreak,
I knelt upon the floor,
Arms together spoke a prayer;
Offered to our loving god,
My heart leapt with sweet confusion,
Suddenly the words burst out:

2 One fine morning saw my neighbor,
Carrying a great pall,
To her labor I assisted,
Prompted by the spirit's call,
When she asked me why I helped her,
The spirit's word's made swift reply:

3 One fine morning I went walking,
When I saw a homeless friend,
So I clothed him and I fed him,
He was overjoyed and kind,
When asked why I should help him,
The words of christ came to my mind:

And that's all I've written so far. It may not be much, and it may not be very good songwriting, but it's leagues better than listening to a youth album. Two weeks without music may be driving me mad.

Anyhow I've found a decent food. The loaded potato soup here looks utterly unremarkable, however its taste far surpasses any other food within this place.

However my meals now look quite sad, I'm having a soup with a soda, a pack of saltines, and some kind of dessert. It's actually kind of funny.

On friday we finished a quick overview of the 3 lessons of preach my gospel. There is a 4th lesson but supposedly we're simply meant to learn it in the field.

Now that we've finished with our basic core stuff we'll stop having preach my gospel lessons. Now, instead, we'll have two 3-hour spanish classes in the day. 6 hours of Spanish a day is quite the adjustment.

On the night of P-day we had a spanish class, it was quite simple, just changing the verb ending for command form. However something about P-day must have killed our ability to learn because everyone in class (including myself) seemed to struggle until the teacher literally walked us through it.

On Saturday we had an English fast wherein we refrained from speaking English entirely. It was helpful though i ended up using a lot of German filler words to get through things, which made me even more difficult to understand. I gotta get better at spanish.

On Tuesday we saw an apostle so that was neat, he gave a devotional.

I dunno how to finish this, I got this scheduled to send for Wednesday but I don't really have much else to say.

Have a good week!