The Seventh Epistle of Elder Hobbs

Gee I really need to come up with some better titles

Check the previous epistles on either your email or mariohobbs.com for google photos links

A great deal happened this week.

Monday

It was a lovely P-day, many a person wished me happy birthday since messenger had my birthday a day early for whatever reason.

We went to Slim Chicken's for lunch. Then we did the usual board games & basketball. However, there was a minor birthday celebration. A cake was eaten, and Elder Ethan Freeman gifted me a d20 (very nice).

Tuesday

We drove to zone conference at the mission home in Minneapolis. It took around 75 minutes. The entire ordeal was rather boring, but some notable things occurred. I got a ton of birthday congratulations, and the entire group of people sang me happy birthday.

A great deal of focus was put towards the fact that we should be striving to help people come unto Christ, and not just fulfilling quotas. However, it is also important to set goals, and use goals to stretch you. We watched a video wherein Elder Kearon spoke of his experiences as branch president wherein 2 missionaries prayerfully did the will of the Lord and doubled the size of the branch (in England nonetheless!). Surely if they could do that in England in the 90's, I can do that in Minnesota in the 20's.

Then some quotes:

The Lord will perform his latest miracles in these last days, but we need to do our part too; to act by the Spirit is to exercise the greatest faith.
The label of doubt yields unto the label of faith.
This is the Lord's work, we are simply tools in his hand; don't be dull.
Doubt thy doubts. Doubt not an area, and never think to label an area as a lost cause.
Faith is a principle of action and power.
Keep your living space clean, all things must be done in cleanliness before God.
A testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.
God will keep His word.
Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.
The world teaches us to look down on others; that is Satan's way.

Then we had a training about some new video monitoring equipment in the cars to replace the old video monitoring equipment in the cars.

The Camera Doesn't:

- Record Sounds
- Allow Live Streaming
- Automatically upload video

Generally they made a large emphasis on the fact that the camera doesn't have a live or recorded feed like CCTV, and that it only records the 15 seconds before or after a "Safety Event". It's mainly a thing for the church's insurance cases probably. When I asked my companion why they put such an emphasis on the lack of streaming to some watching corporate overseer, he told me that supposedly many missionaries had a habit of changing in their cars for service projects and p-day/sports, so it'd be quite bad if that was constantly recorded; especially with the sisters.

Then after the meetings we grabbed our mail and packages and drove back to the apartment.

So I'll share what those are, to bring honor back home to the origins of the parcels. Else the shipping fees would be for naught.

My grandmother on my mother's side send me a lovely card with a very nice message; and a great sum of money contained within. Therefore I verily thank you abuela Tata, for it is well received and well enjoyed.

My mother sent me a package, and I have a small suspicion my father also contributed, but I know not for sure. Contained therein were several ties adorned with an icon of a kind of fish, and several ties unadorned; a lovely leather-bound unruled notebook (potentially a sketchbook); a small bag of chips ahoy (this being the presumed evidence of my father's involvement, for I remember prior to my departure his pantry was overflowing with such cookies); the curse of glitter (all my clothing will now sparkle in the light, for the span of several weeks in the least); a lovely card; a beauty mask for feet (I did not know there was skincare for such an ugly appendage. Next is perhaps elbow skincare, ear skincare, the part of the neck that connects with the torso skincare, and hand skincare); beanies of nice conservative colors; and a "lip butter balm" set.

My grandparents, (or perhaps just my grandma) on my dad's side also sent me a package. Contained therein was: a massive hexagonal staff of Toblerone, a great brick of Biscoff cookies; wool socks so I perisheth not in the winter, and finally the crowning objects: songbooks. There were 5 songbooks, two Pete Seeger songbooks, two Woody Guthrie songbooks, and finally a Simon and Garfunkle songbook. Before I describe the songbooks I shall describe Seeger and Guthrie so as to inform the uninformed on the matter of folk music. I know little of Simon and Garfunkle so they are saved of my over-generalizations. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were both folk singers, following in a long tradition of abolitionists, union men and others; they were firm social justice advocates. However, each had different opinions on how to get the job done. Written on Pete's banjo was, "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender". On the other hand, Woody Guthrie's guitar had written on it, "This Machine Kills Fascists".

The first Pete Seeger songbook was a lovely general singalong book with chords. Containing also many stories and explanations relating to many a song. The second Pete Seeger songbook contained many of his most famous songs, with both sheet music and chords, but with fewer songs than the previous book.

The first Woody Guthrie songbook was a nice one with sheet music and chords, arranged to be clear and easy to play. The second Guthrie songbook had sheet music and chords, photographs of Guthrie's life, some fun sketches Guthrie did and pasted into the margins, and a wider array of songs (albeit with some questionable choices in musical arrangement).

Finally was the Simon and Garfunkle book. It has many songs, I only knew of Sound of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water so I got to learn the rest without prior knowledge. The book has 3 lines of sheet music; I think 2 lines for piano, and a line for melody / singing. There is a wide variety of songs represented. They also got me a lovely card.

Yesterday I received a d20 from Elder Freeman, which was super awesome. And the final birthday gift I received was the 12 string guitar I purchased on behalf of my parents as an early gift to me earlier this month.

Now to thank those who wished me a happy birthday, thank you:

Paul Brennan Miner (MTC comp),
Lucy Faith Eleanor Tanner (member of my MTC familia),
Jared Michael Hobbs (dad),
Jessica Dunlap (aunt),
Graham Richard Patch (childhood friend),
Asher Harmon (childhood friend),
Ryan Miner (father of my MTC comp),
Eileen Hart (mission health advisor),
Jenny Francisco Sandoval Hobbs (mami),
Juliana Sandoval (Abuela Tata)
Celestine Hobbs (Grandma Hobbs)
Michael Lane Hobbs (Grandpa Hobbs)
Mason Sadler (Current Comp)
Quincy Brown (Missionary)
Maxwell Nelson (Missionary)
Hemi Noble (district member)
Emily Clark (district member)
Ethan Freeman (district member)
Jacob Clarke (district - ah screw it I'm lazy).
Ella Miner and everyone else I forgot to mention.

The list was getting too dang long. I'm on a phone screen here; I'm going to get carpal tunnel.

Then I forgot to eat dinner as I practiced the new songs. Then we got some Jersey Mike's and taught people some English on English Connect. The group we taught was surprisingly good at pronouncing their j's and g's. I can't even pronounce them half the time. Then I was asleep.

Wednesday

Cleaned some countertops, cleaned the microwave, and read and played from the new sheet music books. There is a song called, "Which Side Are You On?" that I'd played frequently, but I knew not the story behind it. I'll write the explanation as it is in the book here:

"Which Side Are You On?" is a miners' song written in 1932 in the midst of the bitter struggles of the miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. The mine owners, unyielding in their opposition to any unionization of the workers, carried out a campaign of violence and terror to smash the union. At least a dozen miners were killed by deputies hired by the operators, but none of the deputies were indicted.
The song was written during one of the many terroristic raids by the Sheriff [J.H Blair] and his deputies on the miners' homes. They came to the home of Sam Reece, one of the leaders of the National Miners' Union, but he had been warned in time and escaped. They poked their shotguns everywhere, under the beds and into the closets, even into the piles of dirty linen, searching for the miners' leader. When Reece's young daughters, aged 8 and 11, started crying, one of the deputies laughed and said: "What are you crying for? We don't want you. We're after your old man."
After the deputies had left, Mrs. Florence Reece, wife of the rank & file leader, was seething with indignation. She tore an old calendar off the wall and on the backside wrote the verses of the great labor song, which she put to the tune of an old Baptist hymn she had known from childhood. The song was immediately picked up by the striking miners after it had been sung at the union hall by Mrs. Reece's two little girls. From Harlan County it spread throughout the entire labor movement.

Which Side Are You On?

1 Come all of you good workers, good news to you I'll tell,
Of how the good old union has come in here to dwell

Chorus:

Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on boys?
Which side are you on?

2 My Daddy was a miner & I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the Union 'til every battle's won,

3 They say in Harlan County, there are no neutrals there,
You'll either be a union man or a thug for J.H. Blair

4 The bosses ride their horses, while we walk in the mud,
Their flag's the old red white & blue, while ours is dipped in blood

5 Oh workers, can you stand it? Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab, or will you be a man?

6 Don't scab for the bosses, don't listen to their lies,
Us poor folks haven't got a chance unless we organize!

Then I read some Doctrine and Covenants for personal study. I've decided I'm going to read the whole thing within the next month.

Section 3 feels like a warning to Joseph Smith, not only about the 160 pages but also about future events.

Thursday

A day where many things happened. During lunch and Spanish study I got packed for the exchange, and I'm getting a heck of a lot quicker at packing. In the evening we drove to a graveyard and I was exchanged to be with a ZL to live a day in ZL land. In the evening we sat around and talked while I played my 12 string. Earlier as we were exchanging, Elder Familia mentioned some church libraries & media centers might have the cables that could connect my guitar to the church speaker systems. So that could be neat.

Friday

Today t'was an exchange with ZLs; I was with an Elder Freeman. We went to a ward's Family Search center, wherein we could use the computers for the preach-my-gospel call led by President Allred. Then we had a Spanish call lead by my temporary comp. The calls went well, but they were only secondary in my mind. Above the computers was a notice along these lines:

"NOTICE ELDERS AND SISTERS - Your mother will not come to clean up after you. Do not leave messes. If you want to be treated like a young adult, you need to act like you deserve the trust we place in you. People who aren't members come here to use the Family Search center as well; your actions reflect upon that of the church"

And my gosh, how ever foolish and ever prideful were these people. Sure, missionaries leaving behind some trash could put a negative image of the church in some people's minds, but do you know what'd be worse? What's worse is printing out a notice, that insults the missionaries, and talks down to them by insinuating they are irresponsible children who are undeserving of respect. And not only doing this once, but plastering 4 of them on cupboards around the room, printed in large bold text that anyone can see. Missionaries certainly aren't perfect, but we're representatives of Jesus Christ and His church. We were sent here by order of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and we have consecrated our labors and 18-24 months of our lives in service of our God. These notices directly attack the church's missionaries, and therefore they attack the church as well. They revile against the holy calling of missionary work, and they more than anything will shine poorly on the reputation of the church. If you are willing to revile against the servants of God, then what stops you from reviling against the poor? Against the homeless? Against the migrant?

To whomever printed out the notice, I hope they may find the joy of Christlike love, and the beauty of humility before their stiffneckedness and pride lead them into the fiery pits of damnation. Judge not lest ye yourself be judged. Speak not evil of thy neighbor, nor bring him to harm. Cast the beam out from thine own eye before removing the dust mote from thine brother's.

Anyway, that's my righteous anger of the day.

Then we went and ate Culvers. Then we went to the public library for our personal study. I am fairly certain at this point that the machine in our cars can read lips. It is an evil machine.

Then we went to a member's house to teach some members. Then we went to a café for studies, and I taught myself to read bass clef for guitar stuff. So I could, with practice, potentially play the treble and bass lines on a hymn. But that seems a bit tough.

I had a lovely local root beer called 1919. Then after a full day's work we went back to our normal arrangements.

Saturday

It was Halloween, and like many a holiday, missionaries don't celebrate it. First we worked out, then we did some studies, then calls, then we drove to eat. We ate at a member's apartment building for a small feast. It was mostly Philippinos so mostly food of the Philippines with some American tossed in. Many of them assumed I was from the Philippines based on my appearance, which was quite unexpected. I also tried some hot dish and it was surprisingly good too. Then we went to the Mexican Day of the Dead festival in Mankato. Most Latinos there were sadly 2nd generation and thus spoke English. But at least we got to see luchadors fighting and it was just like Nacho Libre. Then we did some calls at the church.

Sunday

We fasted, we prayed, we ate a lovely pizza dinner with some members, then we taught a lesson. The people we were teaching agreed on a baptism date in 6 weeks!! Please pray for the mother Sandy and her daughter Ruby if you'd please. It'd be nice to have these first baptism date folks go through with it. Then we went home, and I practiced Praise to the Man, which was originally intended with the tune "Star in the East", and I kept the 2nd line "stain Illinois" in. Then I finished this weekly epistle and sent it out unto you. I invite ye to not grow disheartened if blessings do not come, for the Lord knows when it's needed a heck of a lot more than ye do. And actually fast on fast Sunday, 2 meals no food or drink if you're capable of it.

I say these things in Jesus' awesome name, Amen!