Elder May: Chapter 7

Not a super long email this week but this Elder is doing awesome!  He is loving the mail, emails and packages so keep them coming.  We love him, miss him but are oh, so proud of him! Enjoy!!

Chapter 7:

This week was full of miracles that we were able to see. We unfortunately did not have our baptism though. He didn't say he doesn't want us to stop teaching him though. His new date is the 25th and we do have an incredibly solid baptism that you will see pictures of next week. I pinky promise. One of the miracles that we saw was a young couple that just moved down here from Michigan. We met them

Yep!  That's Elder May ~ Already super tan!!
Love him!!

because we were bummed out because of the baptism falling through so we ate at Culver's which is delicious and amazing because a worker there was about to throw out a shake and instead looked at me and somehow knew it was exactly what I needed and just gave it to me. Oreo and peanut butter. Sorry, I am getting off topic. Anyway, we are leaving Culver's and see a car just parked there with two people in it and a bunch of laundry. We went over and started talking to them. They apparently moved because the guy got a job down here in Florida, so they packed up everything and moved here together. When they got here, the employer gave the job to someone else and left them thinking, "well now what do we do?" So they live in their car and we prayed with them and made them a promise. We said "If you take the missionary discussions, God will provide you with a job and place to live." Hardcore right? 

A funnier thing that happened is with a guy we are teaching named Darius. He is learning about the church but absolutely refuses to read the Book of Mormon. He saw a picture of it on the back of the pamphlet and said that he shuddered out of pure fear to read the book. We tried to teach him that fear only comes from Satan but he wouldn't here it. He gave us back the book we had just given him and said he will study more about our theology first and what we believe so we told him the website for the church and left it at that. We taught him yesterday and teaching him was sooooooooo difficult not to bust a gut laughing. He apparently tried to use the site and it was down at the time he tried so he watched two YouTube videos and called that his studying of the church. We get there and right off the bat he starts staying stuff like, "WHY DOES THE CHURCH NEED A HOTEL?!" because the Marriott is owned by a member of the church and he was soooo confused about the difference. He also said, "DID YOU KNOW THE CHURCH MADE A CARTOON?!?! A REAL CARTOON. IT WAS CANCELED. DID YOU KNOW THAT?! IT WAS A REAL CARTOON AND IT WAS CANCELLED!" I had no idea what to do with all this useless information. He still refused to read the book of mormon and instead he is going right to the horse's mouth. (His words). He is going to use Mormon.org to find President Monson's number and call and ask him these questions. We left at that point and said, "If you do get ahold of him, I promise he will say to you that you need to read the Book of Mormon, so call us when you talk to him. We want to hear about it and will be happy to give you the Book." That was a really funny meeting. 

Alright I have to get going soon because the senior missionary couple is picking us up. I am having trouble getting my iPad pictures onto the computer so I don't have any this week. I'll get better at it I promise.

I love you all - Love Elder May!

Elder May: Chapter 6

Wow!  6 weeks already!  In some ways, it has gone super fast but in others, well...   But Elder May is doing awesome - he had his first baptism, his first accident in the field and his first witness of miracles firsthand.  Oh, how I love and miss this Elder but oh so proud of him!

The Book of Elder May – Chapter 6

I need to point something out before I make this email. That picture of the house is not my apartment. That is a picture of a house that I took to show how pretty Florida is. I can send a picture of my apartment. One second. 

So those are the apartment buildings. Ours is a second floor apartment so the brown part of the building. Its really nice!  

On to the mission. First off I cut my eye. I was attacked. I was busy focusing on my duties as a missionary and all of a sudden, I was attacked by someone or something I didn't even see. I eventually found out what had hit me and its pretty embarrassing. Here is the story. We had a baptism!!!! His name is William Anthony Kephart and on Sunday he became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

My duty at the baptism was to open up the doors of the font to show Elder Gardner and Bill in the font and that is when the attack happened. One of the doors was locked and I was trying to open it and found out the problem was they had locks on the floor and the roof. I unlock the top and am trying to hurry and get the bottom one so they could baptize him so I move to the bottom lock and hit my whole face on the glass of the font. I didn't even realize I was cut until after the baptism. So that is the story of the cut on my eye. 

We are super excited that Bill is a member though. He leaves to Arizona on Tuesday and he is going to be working at Sky Harbor Airport so maybe I can see him while getting off the plane in two years. 

Other than that, we are planning to have two other baptisms and with any luck while any luck we can have two more on top of that. Alex, Cheryl, Fred and Angelica. I am really excited to be a part of all of this work!

I have a few miracles that I can write about. First would be Ed. Ed is a nonmember but is married to a member and his son is a member as well. We met Ed because we were talking to someone else next to a highway. While we are teaching her, a big rig truck pulls off the road and the driver points at me and says, "Come here." Certain I was gonna die, I said a little prayer while walking over. Instead of shooting me he tells me that he misses the Spirit of the Lord in his home because his wife and son are inactive and he wants to have that back. Then he refers himself to us. That doesn't happen often. 

The other miracle would be Angelica. She lives in her car, and she works all the way in Tampa and drives there and back almost every day. We met her in the McDonalds parking lot and we only stopped there because we had biked for about 5 hours in the middle of a humid day. We walk over and just offer to say a prayer with her. She is now two lessons in, with a baptismal date set for July 2nd but we might be able to bump it up to the 24th of June if we meet with her as often as we have been. We meet her at the McDonalds that we first met with her at. I love so much that McDonalds doesn't kick us out of there because they easily could but we have taught probably 20 lessons in some McDonalds. I love it. Those are my two miracles that I have for the day. 

 

Also, I found this amazing trailer that I almost laughed out loud as it passed by. 

It is a septic tank removal company!!!!!! It was the best thing ever. 

I love you all and am thankful for all of the prayers and good vibes coming my way.
​

​-- 

Love,

Elder May

Elder May: Chapter 5

Elder May seems to be loving and thriving in New Port Richey especially now that he has short sleeve shirts - which was a very big deal.  Sure love and miss this Elder but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Elder May - Chapter 5

This week has been phenomenal. We had district meeting on Tueday and we set a goal for June baptisms. As a district, we are going to have 8 baptisms so two per companionship. (As a frame of reference, we had a goal of 13 for the month of May. We got 2 as a district.) So after we all felt bad for coming so short, we were able to discuss and plan ways to get to 8. Elder Gardner and I have been praying, working hard, being exactly obedient and all those other things we could be doing and as it stands, and hopefully stays, we as a companionship will have a baptism this weekend, on the fourth, next weekend, on the eleventh, the weekend after, on the eighteenth, and we have a few people who said they would be baptized on the weekend after but they aren't solid enough to be listed here yet. We might have every weekend. I am extremely excited and blessed to be in this area at a time where so many amazing things are happening. 

So the pictures are as follows: One is us with our investigator that should be baptized on the eleventh and the others are just a couple pictures of what Florida looks like. Flat and green and cloudy. That is the best way that I can describe it. 

I will tell a real quick story about effective usage of time and then hit send. So a couple of days ago we finish with all of our lessons for the day and it was 8:30 and we had to be home by 9. So to kill some time we pull into the walmart parking lot. We say a quick specific prayer, asking for just one person to listen to us and let us teach them. Fifteen minutes go by and one family let us say a prayer with them and then we mentioned the word "Mormons" and they wanted nothing else to do with us. Discouraged, we walk to the car. While walking there we see one more guy. He is getting into his car and we just say "HELLO SIR" and he turns around and says "What's up?" so we walked over and asked to say a prayer with him. That prayer turned into talking about our church, which turned into him telling us about his brother and his drug habits, which allowed us to set up a return appointment and a lesson with him right there that lasted a solid 20 minutes. Heavenly Father truly loves each of us, he answers our prayers, and blesses our lives, as long as we put forth the effort. I am glad that I am able to be here. 

Thank you to anyone that is praying for me or sending me love from home. It is truly being felt. I love you all and will email next week.

--

Love,

Elder May

Got his first flat tire and fixed it himself - got a little dirty though... 

Elder May's Apartment

  

Flat and gray alot of the time... 

Elder May: Chapter 4

Elder May has arrived in Tampa and is loving it.  He is actually in a town called New Richey Port which is very close to the water.  He is dying in long sleeves so we have short sleeve shirts already on there way to him.  He is also very sunburned- he forgot he had sunblock but he said that "He is willing to do the Lord's work, sunburned and all"  Below are some pictures and his latest email...enjoy!

The Book of Elder May - Chapter 4

He is very sunburned!

Hey everyone. I got to Tampa and I am dying from humidity but I am loving it. We have a lot of rules that aren't in the handbook but they are definitely helping the work. Apparently I have been assigned to the most successful and most hard working mission in Florida so I think that is a good thing. We get up a half hour earlier than usual but we go to bed a half hour earlier too. We aren't allowed to have dinner at a members house unless an investigator, recent convert or less active member is attending and a lesson is being taught soooooo we haven't had a member dinner yet  but we have instead set baptismal dates with 10 people I believe. We try to teach 60 lessons a week as our standard of excellence and we would have had it but this week was kind of strangely set up. I will explain in a little bit. 

My trainers name is Elder Gardner and we are in the Hudson area for our mission. The mission area map that I got only shows the town called New Port Richey on it and that is the only town name I recognize and that is where I am at. He has been out for a year and six months and really good at talking to people. He has also been teaching me to make food cause I don't know how to. I now know how to make eggs and french toast soooooo I am getting there. 

First I want to talk about a few of the people we have been teaching. First is Bill. He is a labor worker that has been being taught by the missionaries for a while now and the only thing that he hasn't done is go to church enough times. He WILL be baptized by the first weekend of June. (He counts as my baptism because I am in the area and helped teach a couple lessons.) Next we have Sheryl, and she is extremely solid and ready to be baptized but she is waiting for her friend to come into town and that will be happening at the end of this next month. The 28th I believe. Third is Alex and this kid is super cool. He is as old as we are and recently worked as the sign guy for Little Caesars. We were biking to an appointment and saw a guy walking in the sonic parking lot and yelled "Can we say a prayer with you?" and he said yes and then after that we have been teaching him since. He is amazing at keeping commitments. He read the restoration pamphlet and asked us for a Book of Mormon to read after that and showed up at church on Sunday so he is fantastic. We are teaching him again today. He has a date set for the 18th of June. Fourth was a media referral from Church HQ. We just get a text that someone wanted a free bible and so we brought it to him. His name is Michael and his girlfriends name is Kim. He is so interested in the church that he invited us in, we taught him, gave him the

bible and the next day he asked if he could have a tour of the church and a Book of Mormon and you should never say no to that so we did! Finally is a guy named Greg and we call him Greg Miracle. We were riding our bikes and suddenly we here "HEY ELDERS!" and we turn around and talk  to him and he says "I have been taught for a long time and I am ready to be baptized. In fact, I would drive the elders around all the time to appointments and sit in them with the elders and be taught while teaching someone else. The only problem is I am on probation still so I don't think I can be baptized yet." So we are waiting for him to not be on probation anymore. 

Those are the main experiences. We mainly just ride around and offer prayers, let them know we are christian and then talk to them about Jesus. There are a lot of Cubans and baptists out here so a lot of people love Jesus so that helps. 

The weird schedule came from an event that came to the mission for one day. Gladys Knight is LDS and she came, with her choir named Saints United Voices, and bore their testimony in word and in song. It was held in a church chapel to accommodate people and let them into the church to show them that we aren't weird or anything. In the program we had a little piece of paper that they wrote their name and address on and we got about 18 referrals from doing that and I am excited to go out and utilize those. 

I love this work and I am so very excited to be here. It is always fun and I am constantly smiling. Funny story really quick, we called a guy that left us his phone number and the second we say "It's the missionaries" ; he hangs up and we laughed soooooooooooooo hard!

Love you all. Here is the address if'n y'all wanna send me a little something. I don't really talk like that and no one out here does. 

7732 Isabella Drive Apartment G

New Port Richey, Florida 34668

love you all - Elder may

Elder May: Chapter 3 - Elder Hayden May Heads Out To Tampa

"I Love To See The Temple" and this handsome Elder! 

Tuesday, Elder Hayden will be leaving the MTC to begin his mission in Tampa, Florida.  He won't have a P-Day so no email but we plan on talking to him at the airport so that will be awesome.  He leaves on Tuesday and his younger brother, Bryson arrives on Wednesday so they miss each other by a day but I am sure that Hayden has already sent Bryson a list of things to embrace and things to watch out for.  Elder Hayden was able to send Bryson a pic to wish him good luck on his farewell talk so I thought I would post because it is so classic Hayden!  Love this boy!

Elder May: Chapter 2

Boy, how we love this Elder.  Today, he found this picture in the MTC and loved it so he sent it to me.  It is a picture by Simon Dewey called "...that ye may know" and I think that is so poignant to have in the MTC.  When I think about Elder May being a mouthpiece for the Lord, this is what I would envision.  

We spoke to him on Sunday for Mother's Day and what an amazing experience.  Anyone who knows Hayden knows that he is very quiet and introverted.  Except at the MTC.  He has found his voice and is loving to preach the gospel to those that are listening.  He has really come out of his shell and we couldn't be more pleased.

He has decided he wants to do his blog entries like chapters where each week will be a chapter in the book.  So below is the the first chapter in the book of Elder May.  Enjoy!

The Book of Elder May

Chapter 2

1) I, Elder May, having been born of goodly parents have had an amazing opportunity to come to the MTC at this time and in general. Everything I have in this life comes from the gospel and my loving Heavenly Father. It has taken me a long time to realize that but I do know that it is true. These past few weeks have been, by far, the most spiritual of my life. Anytime that we are able to talk about something important and essential to His Plan, the power of the Spirit comes rushing in. The feelings that I have here strengthen my testimony every moment that I am here. I know that this is the best place for me to be and the right one to help me the most.

2) In the short time that I have been here, so much has happened. We have learned to testify and follow the promptings of the Spirit. We have taught investigators the things they need to hear because of that Spirit. We have studied the Book of Mormon and learned countless new things every day. We have experienced a taste of God's love as we meet new missionaries, teachers, leaders, and investigators. We have had scriptures, experiences, and analogies brought to our head immediately when we needed it. We have bonded as a district solely because of the knowledge that we are all brothers and sisters. 

3) We have the chance to meet those that need the gospel in something called TRC. I have no idea what it stands for but I do know that I love it. We have taught a total of four people and been able to have them feel the Spirit. They have all had a desire to change and take what we have that we are letting them know of. The best experience I have had so far was that we taught a man named John that has ADD and a six year old son. While we were teaching, he learned of the importance this gospel has for families and eventually, after the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, accepted the invitation to be baptized. I am thankful for all the ones I have and love this gospel. 

4) I know that this church is true. It is the only way to attain salvation and feel of His eternal and never- ending love. I love this Gospel and am extremely excited to share the message with the people I come in contact with.

5) Thank you to anyone extending me blessing because they are being received very well. I am grateful and love you all.    

Elder May: Chapter 1

Today is Elder Hayden May's first P-day!  He seems to be doing amazing and is loving the MTC.  He gets along really well with his companion which, as a mom, makes me very happy.  He even sent pictures.  I can't believe it has only been a week but at the same time, it has already been a week.  Love this boy and love his desire to serve the Lord.  Enjoy!

***Best news - he gets to call home on Mother's Day which we didn't think he would get to since he is in the MTC!!***

Hey Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my first P-Day that I have. The weirdest thing ever is to be in street clothes with a name tag on. I wanted you to be the first one that I email because I know you're the one that wants to hear from me most. I am having such a great time here. The Spirit is felt constantly and I am really glad that I was able to recognize how to feel his presence before I left. Things have been absolutely amazing here. I love my Elders and my Sisters in my district. We have been here and met all of each other 144 hours ago and we act like we have been friends for life. I have a few picture on my camera of all of us together during our temple walk but I didn't bring it to email because....I forgot. I will send them though. 

Where to even begin. There are eight of us in our district and its a split amount of Elders and Sisters. Three of the sets of companionship's are going to some area in Florida and one set is going to Dallas. Are teachers are great and I just love being here. We actually went as a district today and did an endowment session and we get to go one or two more times before we leave. We all participate as a class and something weird has happened to me. I am open, I talk to everyone, I discuss my thoughts and feelings about the things we talked about. On a multiple occasions I get told, "When I first met you, I thought you were going to be shy and quiet but you are definitely not." It is just super strange how this happened to me and I am glad that it did. 

Elder Peterson and I are still getting along extremely well. We laugh and joke and have fun and then its time to get serious and we flip a switch and can talk openly about the gospel. We have two TRCs that we have assigned to us. (I don't know what the acronym stands for but it is basically a person that you teach the gospel and you don't know if they are an investigator or not.) Both of them are amazing people. One is an ex-cop who needed to retire because he had pneumonia for a year and he wants to learn about God and how he can talk to him and while we were teaching him we showed him a pamphlet and he got choked up and cried. He accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know it is true. The second guy has ADD, a six year old son, and works at a nursing home where his mom lives. He asked, "What kind of God would have his children suffer and then not help them out of it." and I was able to testify of how pray and faith will allow him to deliver us through our trials and afflictions. The spirit was there and he is going to read and pray as well. 

I do miss everyone back home but I truly know that this is the place to be for me. I love the Spirit that is here and what it can teach each one of us. Thank you for your help in getting me on my mission. You truly are the best mom anyone could ask for and I love you. 

I do have two things though. First off, Elder Peterson's mom is going to friend you on facebook. Secondly is there any way you can send a black or dark blue pair of basketball shorts? I have red shirts that I can't wear with my red basketball shorts. Thank you so much.