Elder May: Chapter 79

We received this picture from a ward member - Love this boy and his Hadlock smile!! 

18 months for this Elder!  

We joked with him saying if he was a girl, he’d be on his way home.  He said “LOL, but I am not… “ – typical Hayden humor.  Boy, do I miss this boy!  I miss his humor and his positivity.  He did tell me that he is going to be a Facebook missionary along with a proselyting missionary for the remainder of his mission so that will be really cool as well.  I loved seeing Hunter post each day – it helped me to know he was okay and doing well.  We love him and miss him so, but we are oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 79

1.            So much happened on Tuesday.

2.            Wednesday we went 3/4 on formers

3.            Will you please just baptize me already?

4.            Trunk or Treat for the win! 

5.            We love that idea! But can we change it a little bit? 

Hi everybody! A ton of stuff is happening in Providence and they are all good things!

Tuesday was a super busy day. We had an invitation on Tuesday to help us be even more motivated to talk with people in our district Meeting. However, we were so busy, we didn’t even get a chance to talk to anyone that wasn’t already planned to have a lesson. We taught quite a few people and they are progressing very well. 

Ready for the local food bank

Our main person, Danny, is doing a great job and if all goes well this week should be baptized on Saturday. Let me tell you a little something about Danny. He’s doing great. We taught all of the “difficult” commandments and we thought the word of wisdom would be hard for him. We taught it and his “hold-ups” were tea and coffee. Instead of setting up some plan to wean himself off them he

just told us “just take them”. He then proceeded to bag up all of his coffee, tea bags, creamer, and other things that he had just bought at the store. Then poured out his coffeepot that had coffee still in it. He said we could donate it at the food bank we volunteer at. He also committed to live the law of Chastity and Tithing after he is baptized. Like we said good to go if all goes well.

Wednesday we actually had some time that we tried to visit some former investigators to get in the general vicinity of new potential Investigators. We chose four people that lived nearby one another and visited them. Of those four, three were very interested in meeting again. They also each set up a time we could come by. They had their copies of the Book of Mormon and one person had finished reading it as well. That rarely happens but it makes my day when it does. 

On Friday some cool blessings came our way. We called a part member family who told us we could meet on Friday. It is a sister who was baptized about 10 years ago and her daughter has not been baptized yet. After getting to know one another I asked “now, we know you’ve met with missionaries in the past and wanted to be baptized. Is that still something you’re wanting?” She quickly responded, “I’ve wanted to get baptized since my mom was but I was 5 or 6 at the time and couldn’t. I’ve met with missionaries so I could get baptized but you all stop coming by after a while. Will you please just finally baptize me?” Trying to play it cool we told her we would and joyfully finished our lesson.

Later that night we had our ward Trunk or Treat and many non-members were there! We had a portion of a family of five that were being taught and then stopped learning show up and they are interested now, Danny came, our bishops neighbors both came, two or three non-members from different part member families came, etc. and it was just awesome to be able to have them all there in one place to talk and fellowship. 

Then on Sunday we got to have a lesson with a member family that are great missionaries. They both are returned missionaries with a young family and just want to help us out. We asked about their neighbors and they had one neighbor that they know very well and has come to many ward events. We shared with them an idea that a Seventy brought to us to try to help members be more involved and they absolutely loved it. Then they said “wait, my daughter is having a birthday in a couple weeks and we are going to invite her and couple member families to come. Maybe you could come to that so she can see that you are normal first and then when we invite her over to have dinner with y’all she’d be more open.” We thought it was a great idea and planned to do that. They are champions. 

I love you all and pray for you daily. Thanks for all you do to plant seeds and live the gospel so missionaries, or even yourselves, can harvest the blessings of new people joining the church. It helps us out a lot. Please keep it up! 

Love, Elder May

Elder May: Chapter 78

I loved waking up this morning and having Elder May’s email in my inbox.  He was only going to be online for a little bit today and wanted to make sure he got his weekly email out.  Boy, how we love this young man.  Love seeing his smiling face and love hearing his experiences.  We love him and miss him so, but we are oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 78

1.  This is the new district!

 2.  We were referred to a pastor and met with him in his church building

 3.  So much service, AND I LOVE IT!

 4.  Danny is a champion!

 5.  *read this in an English accent* “Dad, you’re living in a tent. What on earth are you doing?”

 6.  This guy wants a Book of Mormon. Can you two handle that?

Hi everyone! We had a lot of stuff we got done and stayed busy all week long. It was a good time!

First off we have a new District! There is eight of us now and to be honest it is way nicer than having only four of us. We can expect more opinions, participation and I can talk less haha! This is us!

Secondly, a member of the ward here dishes out Referrals as often as a lunch lady dishes out gross food. One of them he told us about is a pastor at a different church that had talked with missionaries and really likes us! We got to go down and meet him on Wednesday and he is super cool. He was telling about some of his experiences having missionary trips in the Congo, about his family, about how he came to be the pastor at the church and we got to introduce ourselves and talk about why we are on our missions. He was one the kindest people I’ve met and it was awesome to have him not try to argue or become confrontational.

We got to dress down a bit and do some service a couple times this week. One was for a member of the church who had us come by and rip out his front yard. It was super fun because we had these little trees that we were trying rope around and attaching to his truck so he could rip them out of the ground. We also got to go to a place called feeding Tampa Bay, that most likely partners with feeding people everywhere, like we do every Friday but this time was cool because all the missionaries north of us, in what is known as the Brandon north zone, were there too. Which means I got to see a couple of former companions. We all took a picture before we left but I didn't get it. I can try to though. The picture of me in service clothes is from after helping the member with his yard he had a unicycle that worked like the hover boards and he let us ride it.

One of the people we will be baptizing in a couple weeks is named Danny and he is a champion. He's now read to 2nd Nephi and came to church for his third week in a row. During church he participates all the time and usually quotes the Bible or the Book of Mormon to do so. He was telling the Sunday school class that the Bible is missing "plain and precious Truths" and talked about how the Church is the "Church of the Lamb of God." We went through a lot of commandments in our last lessons and he is loving it. One of our lessons we had we finished with a prayer and he had a tear in his eye. We asked what he was feeling and he just said "is the water going to be deep for my baptism?" So far that has been his only concern. He has kept every commitment and is getting ready for baptism on the fourth.

We got to visit a recent convert family here in the ward and they are doing fantastic. It is awesome too because the father is from London so he has a thick English accent. We were reading the Book of Mormon with them and we read 1st Nephi 1-2 and talk about any thoughts or impressions we had. I told them how 1st Nephi 2:15 is one of my favorite scriptures because it shows how much Lehi gave up to follow the Lord. After that we started laughing at how funny that would be if one of our parents did that now and that led to the father saying "Dad, you're living in a tent. Do you even have a torch? Or toilet paper? What are you doing?! Go inside the house!" It was hilarious. Just figured I'd share that with you all!

Lastly, while we were at church we walked into Elders Quorum and saw the second counselor to the Bishopric talking to a man that seemed like he was an investigator. We walk over and talk with them and he had apparently met with missionaries in 1998 and wanted to come back to church and read the Book of Mormon! So we walked him to our car and grabbed a couple materials for him and set up to meet him at the church this Tuesday. He was a pretty cool guy and told us his brother is Robert Mathis in the NFL but I'm not sure I believe him yet. Pictures or didn't happen right?

That was my week. We also saw this sweet BMW while we were eating lunch so we parked next to it and took pictures for the little bit that we were there.

It's a pretty nice car huh? When your car looks like that apparently you can start parking in two parking spots and no one will care. I love you all and will talk to you later. We are having a zone activity day from 1-4:30 so I'm not sure I will be on email too much today but you all are more than welcome to email me whenever. It doesn't need to be on a Monday lol! I'll talk to you all soon!

Elder May: Chapter 77

 

2^nd week in Brandon, FL and he is loving it!  And… the weather is FINALLY cooling off so he has officially made it through his LAST summer in Florida – not that I am counting or anything.  He is official 10 days from being out 18 months.  I remember when Hunter was gone, once we got to 18 months, time moved much faster.  Much faster the last 6 months than the first.  Love him, miss him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 77 ~

1.  That zone Conference though!

2.  These former investigators are so cool!

3.  I don't care about my happiness anymore. All I want is for my family to be happy.

4.  Danny came to church again!

Hey everybody! We had a really good week. There were a lot of places we stopped by, people we met, and life's we blessed. First off though, I'll talk about how our lives were blessed.

We had a visit from a seventy to our mission. He and his wife came and taught us so very much! He taught us more how to work with members of the ward, how to teach by the Spirit, shared stories about missionaries he knows, and his wife told an awesome experience they had.

One of the stories they shared was that an elder walked right into another churches sermon and listened to it. Gladly he was following the Spirit when after the sermon he and his companion talked with the preacher and said "we were sent here to help you find true happiness." After they taught and baptized the preacher, the preacher closed down his church. His last sermon he introduced the entire congregation to missionaries and told them "this church is going to be closing. This is the last sermon. It will be given by the Mormon missionaries. Anyone that wishes to leave can do so but I testify that what they teach is true and will bless your life." Of the 300 members of the congregation, 200 or so listened and were baptized. Then the Church bought the building and switched out the signs out front and now that is a branch of the Church. Because those missionaries were bold and followed the Spirit.

The seventies wife then stood and told us of her conversion, and the conversion of most her family. Her brother has now been reading and finished the whole Book of Mormon but refuses to meet with the missionaries. During the zone Conference she was inspired to send a text to her brother, explaining what the missionaries’ do, why we are out here, what we sacrificed to come here, and why he needs the Church. She knows that was a prompting from the Lord and will keep us informed how it goes! So cool!

The second quote comes from this week as we have been talking to all of the former investigators that we feel inspired to visit. There has been a lot of blessings that have come our way through doing so. We will be teaching; a family of 6 that couldn't come to church because they had no car at the time but have recently bought one, an interested woman that still had her Book of Mormon, and we have been able to find in their neighborhoods and we have a lot of work to keep doing.

Third, there was an investigator that we recently found that we got to meet with who told us he just wants his family to be happy. We were teaching him about the restoration of the gospel and it was going great. He was engaged and saying things like "I think God should put some prophets or apostles back on the earth so we can know what to do." We keep going and he didn't have a ton of time so we went to the part about Joseph Smith. When he sees the picture of the first vision and reads the page in the pamphlet we gave him he says "Wait, Joseph Smith....saw....wait....what? I don't believe it." Then his phone rang and he said "hold on a second." How do you hold on a second when he just said he doesn't believe in this?! We knew that we'd either be asked to leave or we can try to understand what was wrong. We stayed cool, calm and collected, answered questions and random off the wall concerns, and eventually he understood what we believe about prophets and apostles. He told us he doesn't like reading but wants to know if this is true. It was intense but he said we can come back and share this message with his family and they can all learn and understand together.

Fourth, our investigator Danny came to church again and he loved it again. We are going by to 

finalize his baptismal date and start on the path to help him understand, live commandments, and enter the gate. I'll keep you updated on all of that. He's so cool.

I love you all and will talk to you later. Enjoy these pictures! Bye now!

Haydon Lane - so cool!