Oh, how we love this Elder of ours! As we are approaching the 100-day mark, it
has really started to hit me how much of a piece to our family puzzle Hayden
is. His love and acceptance of everyone
along with his ability to find the good or positive in everything is something
that I miss on a daily basis. I miss his
face peering into the kitchen asking what is for dinner every night around 5pm
and I miss hearing him playing Madden with his dad while his brothers are playing
video games as well. With all that being
said, I wouldn’t trade his experiences and growth in the last 100 days for him
being home for anything. He is truly a
disciple of Jesus Christ telling people about the only true church on the world
today.
He told me in my own personal letter that there were so many
times that he heard certain things like “The church is true, the people are not
necessarily as well” and other phrases we have all heard but he didn’t realize
how true it was until he was out serving.
I know that our Heavenly Father is watching over him and helping to
teach the people of Tampa Bay but also us as his family as well especially his
momma. We love him to the moon and back
hundred times, we miss him terribly but we are oh, so proud of him! Enjoy!!
Hello Everyone!
"And we did go forth suffering atheists in order to
find the miracles. Of which there were many."
This past week, as always, was fantastic. I SET A PERSONAL
RECORD! 5 people came to church. That's right! 5! It doesn't sound like a lot,
but I have never had over three sooooo pretty cool actually. There is actually
one of them that I will talk about later named Gene.
This week though was pretty awesome! We taught a lot of
lessons, set a lot of baptismal dates, had a lot of appointments where they
didn't answer the door but a lot that did as well. We actually had a member of
the church that is one of the greatest people ever. Specific Shout Out to
Brother Anzures who came out and drove us around to any appointment that we had
from 12 noon-8:50 at night.
I love my area by the way and next week is transfers and I
am very nervous I will get transferred and not be able to continue to watch
these wonderful people I get to meet progress but that is the way the mission
works pretty often. Either way is okay with me. Also I might be training but I
don't know.
Unfortunately Veronica dropped us and she had to leave
Florida because she missed her court date.
The pictures are my district, that's me on the far right
with much shorter hair, and the other is our investigator Eddie because we
needed him to learn how to tie a tie.
Alright lets talk about some miracles.~
Raquel: This is the miracle that gave inspiration for my
verse for this week. We just got out of church, taught a guy the plan of
salvation, turn down a road and talk to this guy and offer a prayer. He starts
laughing all crazy and asks "Why do you do this? Why do you believe it
will work? Who told you to do this? etc." He then tried miserably to
diminish my faith and try to make me question my beliefs (Didn't work) all the
while Elder Gardner is busting a gut in the drivers seat because this guy is so
insane. We eventually just cut him off and said God bless to him. The next guy
we meet is more polite but still said he was an atheist. The third guy we meet
didn't specifically say he was an atheist but he didn't say no to prayer pretty
quickly. Then came Raquel. We offer a prayer to her and it takes a few tries to
get her to here us and she says "Oh I am already praying with my son on
the phone." So we just told her to put it on speaker and we can all pray
together. So she did and afterwards she is soooo excited and acts as if she
just won the lottery and sets up that we come by on Tuesday to teach her more!
Gene: Gene is a 100% miracle. We taught a lady who we have
since dropped but driving away from her house we meet a guy named Gene. I
offered a prayer and he said "I have no faith in Christ. I haven't for 30
years. Just say a prayer for me that someone with some authority shows up and
fixes this situation I am in. Without being too annoying I asked if he wanted
to say that prayer right now with us. He said "I guess so." We then
said the prayer, and he tells us more about his situation. He was trying to do
a good deed of letting a homeless guy live with him. After about a month, the
homeless man started hitting himself, called the police, told them Gene did it,
and Gene was taken to jail. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
all about faith (we are out of restoration pamphlets so we can't teach that
very well.) After that we drive away and he halfheartedly walks away. The next
day we get a call from him. When he got back home, there were three police cars
there and the police officer tells Gene they are going to evict the man from
Gene's home and they believe his story. He now lives back in his home and we
are teaching him about the gospel. He now reads from the Book of Mormon and
attended church yesterday and loved it. We are super excited for his baptism on
the 27th.
I am very grateful to be a missionary in the Florida Tampa
Mission where miracles happen on the daily. It is very humbling but awe
inspiring at the same time and I love it. I am thankful for the prayers and
appreciate all of you. Thank you all for being so inspirational to me in
helping me to desire to serve a mission.
Love you all –
Elder May
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