Elder May - Chapter 53

It's already getting so hot for this missionary.  Please pray for cooler temperatures, less humidity or long-suffering for Elder May.  He is doing awesome and loving his mission.  We are beyond proud of him and love him to pieces.  We miss and love him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Elder May: Chapter 53

    1.      8 hours of biking can cause issues

    2.      That fantastic moment when your mission president gives you a fist bump!

    3.      Is it because you would be so blinding white in your bathing suit?

    4.      Dripping with sweat, feeling alright.  

This week was our bike week and if you've never been slapped in the face with Florida humidity, let alone had to bike in it, let me tell you it is a ton of fun. Our highest miles count for one day was 19.4 and that was on Friday. Good day nonetheless. Each house we knocked on said "oh geez do you want a paper towel or water bottle because you are sweating pretty badly." I had a lot of water bottles that day.

My first quote though goes with the picture of my pants. That is what happens after you catch the pant leg in your gear six times in one day. I am going to tuck the leg into my sock from now on.

Secondly comes from Thursday which was my one year mark. I actually had interviews with my mission president that day and when I mentioned it was my year mark he gave me a fist bump and said "fantastic work Elder May" which was an amazing thing. What a great way to be congratulated on being here for a whole year.  

Next is from yesterday when we went to Kim's house and we actually started talking about some of the rules that we have as missionaries. She asked why we don't have the car all the time so we told her that we share it and that sparked off the fact we have lots of fantastic rules. One of her favorites was that we can't go swimming and she didn't understand why we couldn't. She asked if it was because we are so white that we would blind people when we get into a swim suit and I figured that would make it on the quote board. 

  

Lastly is also from yesterday after we finished biking for the day. Elder Swapp and I took this great picture to commemorate a fun bike week. There were many times I would take my helmet off and feel three or four drops of sweat go directly down my face. Great times.

Other fun moments is when you see this or any other car driving around your area blaring music or you have this many coupons in the mail room so you grab ALL of the fast food ones that you can and take them home. It was a good week.

I love you all so much!  Take care!

Elder May

Happy "HUMP" Day ~ One year down...one to go!

 One year ago today was one of the most difficult days in our families lives ~  Elder Hayden May left our family for two years to bring other families into the gospel for eternity.  Sounds like a small sacrifice until you are asked to make it.  For those missionary mommas who have kiddos serving, the loss you feel is like a piece of you until they return.  You are excited, proud and heartbroken all in one emotion.

Fast forward, but not really fast, to a year later.  Your missionary is thriving, their testimony is solid and strong.  You know that the sacrifice is worth it.  Doesn't change how much you miss them - only that they are doing what the are supposed to be doing and the Lord is well pleased.  

Here are a couple of photos from a year ago, the pictures that we put in Elder Hayden May's hump day package (one which will explain why we call it Hump Day) and a collage of some of his best pictures over the past 12 months.  

Love him, miss him so but oh, so proud of him!  We love you Elder Hayden!  Happy One-Year Mark.  Enjoy

Happy Hump Day Elder May!  We sure love you!!

Elder May - Chapter 52

 

I have waited a whole year for this letter… Elder Hayden is heading onto the down hill slop.  One Mother’s Day call complete and one Christmas call complete.  We are almost over the hump.  I get asked a lot “Does it feel fast to you?”  The answer I give is always no! J  But the reality is that the days go slow but the weeks really go by quickly.  And remembering back to Hunter’s mission, this part goes even faster.  Love him, miss him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Week 52:

1.      OH I LOVE THIS BOOK!

2.      Thanks Elders...My family has been pretty anti for most of their life.

3.      Yeah I've read to Alma 40 or so when I was reading it before.

4.      Exchanges!!!

5.   I found a baby blue jay!!

Happy year mark to me! This Thursday is my year mark and that is super exciting! Even more importantly, it's my parent’s anniversary today. Thirdly important is that it is the anniversary of when I gave my farewell talk. This is a big week for all of us. 

The first quote comes from a fantastic lady we are teaching, Sylvia who is an awesome 49 year old woman with 32 grandchildren, who after some patience and trial and error for finding out when she is home, we finally have had a couple of appointments and she is reading the Book of Mormon now. She read 1st Nephi 1-3 the first time we came by and we called her on Saturday and she has it on her phone now and she is at chapter 9. She exclaimed to us that she absolutely loves it. In her own words she said, "Oh I love this book! It's beautiful! He had to chop his head off! How beautiful!" As a piece of advice for anyone giving someone a book of Mormon have them download it on their phones. We've been doing that recently and people are much more open to that then a Book because they can carry it anywhere and adjust the font size and stuff. Lastly for this quote, she pronounces Laman as "Let-a-man." Every time. It's fantastic. 

Next was a really cool, but interesting experience for Elder Swapp and I. We were asked to give a blessing after zone conference this Wednesday up north of our area. We waited for a bit but the lady, I'll call her Nancy, eventually got to the assisted living facility and walked us to the room. We were asked to give a blessing to a frail older woman who was about to pass away. Before we started, Nancy said "don't use oil, just a blessing and my uncle will stop you if you say anything he doesn't agree with." We give the blessing and he doesn't stop us at all but afterwards Nancy tells us that her whole family in that room was against the church and she had explained to them we can give a blessing and after a little reluctance they agreed. It was a good experience though. 

Third is when we went to a new investigator family that we moved in on my birthday. We talked with them for a good while to find out some concerns and other things and he told us that he was just about to be baptized and then a couple of things came up and he decided against it but he had read more than half the Book of Mormon so we gave him and his wife another one, and he also asked for all the pamphlets again so he could do some reading of those so he can refresh his memory. They are making us dinner tonight. 

Fourth, I got to go on exchange here in Clearwater with one of my zone leaders Elder Stout who is a fantastic missionary. In the zone picture I sent he is the one in the very top left. We went finding like crazy, were setting appointments with former and just overall seeing absolute miracles. One that we saw is that we went to subway to grab dinner and before we left the car he grabbed two restoration pamphlets and we walked up to the door and talked to a group of five guys just standing there and while he was talking another group of four people walked up and said "Hi Sir." To me and I asked if he knew who we were. He said "the Mormons right? I had missionaries coming over. I love the Book of Mormon. I have had so many blessing come since I started reading it but I left my old one in my dad's house when I moved." So I got him a new one and his face when he saw it was complete awe that he finally had a new Book of Mormon again. He was so grateful and we got his address to the missionaries in his area. Such a blessing. After subway, Elder Stout invited the people making the food to church and gave one of them a pamphlet with the church address on it. 

Lastly is a cool thing that I saw today and it is a blue jay. I'll start taking pictures of all the birds Florida has. They are weird but blue Jays look awesome.

Anyway that was a brief rundown of my week. I love you all and appreciate the prayers. I definitely need them, as we all do. 

I love you all!  Take care!

Love Elder May