Elder May: Chapter 82

 

Happy 19 months to our Elder Hayden!  (Only 5 months and a few days to go…)  We are so looking forward to talking to him in less than 4 weeks for Christmas.  We measure the year by Mother’s Day calls and Christmas calls.  He is doing so well but misses to talking to everyone so if you have a moment, send him a quick message.  He would love it.  His email is on the side bar of the blog.  Love and miss him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 82:

1) Bike Week Once Again

2) Be Grateful!

3) I’m in Alma and I think it’s true

4) “I Like To Cause Trouble”

5) We Have these three people coming today...Actually, next week. 

It was bike week again for the first time in what feels like forever. So we got to be out and about for longer periods of time and lots more people that CS. There are some pretty cool people that I can talk about in this email.

First off, we had a FHE with a member family that was taught by their 7 year old son. He taught about gratitude and did a great job! All he did was explain gratitude and ask us how we can show gratitude for things. We went around the circle of people and said things like “be kind in return”, “don’t complain”, “serve them back”, etc. then he surprised us all by asking, “Will you do the thing you said you could for three whole days?” It was pretty sweet. Mine was to serve so I had to serve for three extra days. I think every day of being a missionary is service but still.  Children make really good FHE teachers. 

Two, we got to meet with a really cool former investigator. He is in the middle of Alma because he just kept reading the Book of Mormon even though the missionaries stopped coming by. He wants to come to church and understood most of the Restoration. It went really well and we had a member of the church come with to help us out and his testimony was fantastic. The Spirit was super strong throughout the lesson. So cool. 

Three, we were able to go and visit a Less Active member and he offered to buy us milkshakes for coming by. He drove us to Steak and Shake and he was hilarious the whole time. He told us “I like to cause trouble.” After he accidentally drove into the wrong parking lot he sees one of the Salvation Army bell ringers out front of a supermarket. The person was getting his speaker hooked up and it was playing his own music instead of the Christmas ones. The member rolled down his window and jokingly yelled “What are you doing?! You’re supposed to be playing Christmas music! I’m going to call the police and have you put in jail tonight!” I put jokingly in bold to help you realize he was being sarcastic. The man just looked at the Member and said “okay...” and the member told him to have a good day. We were so confused and trying not to bust a gut laughing. 

Four, during ward council, we had just pumped everyone up about who should be coming to church. Right after we told them, I felt a couple buzzes on the phone and opened it up secretly and read that everyone we planned on coming just sending us a text saying they can’t make it. HAHA! These are things that happen as a missionary lol! We said “next week all these people will be here!” It was really funny!

That was my week! It was a good time with lots of laughs and cool people to meet. Hit me up if you want to talk!

Elder May: Chapter 81

Whenever there is a holiday, missing your missionary is even more intense.  We are grateful for those that took our missionary in and feed them... 5 times.  As a mom, what more could I ask for.  We are grateful for our missionary and grateful this is the last Thanksgiving without him.  Love him and miss him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 81:

1) I am pretty much a stay at home dad now so you can come by whenever. 

2) It’s the Missionaries!

3) Hey guys, come by one Wednesday 

4) Then Moses pushed the button

Hi everybody I have had a great weekend Providence. We are having a lot of cool things happening as we continue to work in faith and do all things that we can.

First off, we met a man that had been meeting with missionaries about two years ago and he has fallen off the radar pretty much. He just had twin baby girls and they have had a long couple complications but they’re both doing well now and he’s excited to start meeting with us again. The girls are old enough so they can take care of themselves and now they allow him to be able to sit down with us and we can teach him for the gospel and help him come closer to Christ. He has a lot of time being a stay at home dad and so he is really excited to keep learning and keep the commitments that we live with him read the book of Mormon and learning that it’s true.

Second, we had one of the coolest blessings from that I’ve seen on my mission. In Florida it gets dark at about 6 PM and when I say dark I mean completely pitch black. During that time it’s kind of hard to knock on doors and have people be OK with doing so because I have no idea who’s outside their people cause I don’t have lights and things like that and we have to try it we always stay safe and find areas that are well answer that we can be able to be as effective as possible. This last week at about 8 PM we had nothing planned. We had just met a really cool guy but after that we didn’t know what to do. While we’re driving Elder Stockham has a thought and we decided we should go in the visit a former investigator. We knock on his door and they have absolutely no idea who we are because it is so dark and there’s no light out front. After yelling it’s the missionaries a couple times they eventually look out the window and luckily I had my flashlight with me. After flashing on the light on myself they know exactly who we are as soon as they see us. They fling open the door and yell “oh he’s here right now you can come right on inside. He just sent down to have a meal, would you like a plate?” After we sit down and we have some delicious Haitian food and after that we have a good lesson and he’s halfway through the book of Mormon now and he’s excited to keep reading keep praying. We are seeing him tomorrow again and teaching we’re hoping to teach his mom as well. He is excited to learn and come to church. 

Third, as were driving to one of our appointments I decided to call a former investigator that we had. We were meeting with him right when I got here and he got really busy and didn’t have time to meet with us anymore. We call him and before the phone even rings for the first time he answers and says “what’s up?  He remembers us perfectly and told us to come by on Wednesday he set up a time right then and there and he’s excited to learn more so hopefully that works out as well.

Fourth, the Brandon stake had a stake conference this weekend and we got to see Elder Costa again. The adult session, as always, was really really good and he was at the pulpit explaining how we need to have family home evening, daily family prayer and daily scripture study and he was telling us how it shouldn’t be as hard as we always think it is. He said when kids are young you can read three verses and work your way up to a chapter or whatever the circumstance allows. Prayers only need to be 3-5 minutes. He also told us how we need to make sure in our personal scripture studies we personalize them to ourselves and he was telling about how we need to think about how we should liken ourselves to Nephi, Laman and Lemuel. He’s a very good storyteller and was able to really bring to life that first couple chapters of Nephi as Nephi is going with Lehi back-and-forth to Jerusalem, then into the desert and back to Jerusalem and back to the desert and how we are usually like Laman and Lemuel you wake up at five in the morning when your dad tells them “I just had a dream and we need to walk out to the desert for three days” and we would lay back over and say that I’m not gonna go and do. It was pretty good because he was making scripture study realistic and helping us to relate to the Scriptures better and he invited us to start doing that when we read the Scriptures. I thought I’d share that with you. The fourth quote specifically is from when he was telling us how a family he knew family had a family home evening and a young boy told how Moses crossed the Red Sea. After pharaohs Air Force was attacking and they built a big bridge and cross the Red Sea and then afterwards Moses hit the button and destroy the bridge to drown pharaohs army’s. It’s smart to always remember that family home evening we are having our children teach we shouldn’t take it too seriously. It was hilarious. 

I love you all. I forgot to take picture but I love you and will talk to you later. 

Elder May: Chapter 80

 This Elder is staying another 6 weeks in Brandon and is staying with his companion.  He is loving it and happy to be staying.  We love him, we miss him but we are oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Elder May – Week 80

1) I just want you both to leave so I can read the Book of Mormon.

2) Service, Service, Service!

3) Teaching Primary was a ton of fun

4) Come back Thursday!

5) Y’all can come back anytime, you are truly a blessing to come to our house

Hello from Florida everybody! Funny thing, my companion, Elder Stockham, has it hit him every once in a while that he’s not in Utah anymore and just says, “Wow Elder, we’re in Florida. Isn’t that crazy? We are in Florida.” It’s pretty funny to listen too because he’s still somewhat new. We had a great week here in the Providence area. There were a lot really cool things that happened and that is what the verses are for. 

First off, we met a really cool guy. Elder Stockham and another missionary met him while on an exchange and we just decided to go by one day. He was just loving everything we said. We taught him about the organization of Christ’s Church, we taught him about the priesthood, he asked us how to tell a true prophet from a false one, we told him that there was a man like himself that wanted to know what church is true. He prayed to God and got his answer from the source of all truth. He told us he got the chills and wanted to know if it is true. Then asked us to leave so he can read and learn if the Book of Mormon is true. 

Second, we had a ton of service that we were asked to help with. From ripping out corn plants, to cleaning out sheds, to working at a food bank, to cleaning get up a huge downed tree branch. It was a lot of fun but I am pooped haha! 

We were also asked to teach primary on Sunday and that was really good. The whole time we were teaching they were really calmed down. A ton of participation and a lot of answers that were on point. We taught them how they can be missionaries now by inviting their friends to church or their upcoming Baptisms and we also taught them the golden phrase that every member of the church should know, coined by President Russell M. Nelson, “Lets ask the missionaries. They can help you.” If your friends ever have a question on something about the church, or a doctrine, etc. they can ask the missionaries. If we don’t know, we know someone who does know or we can Study it and find out. 

Really cool thing that happened yesterday is that everybody who we met with set a return appointment for Thursday afternoon. We have an appointment for 12, 1 and 1:30 on Thursday. It is crazy sauce!

Finally, we met with a really cool family that has some members and some not. They made us dinner and we had a great visit overall. We talked about a couple of concerns that they have and also answered some questions. Then we were able to talk more with them and after the closing prayer one of the nonmembers told us that we are gigantic blessing us coming by and bringing them the gospel and just fellowship being with them. He was really excited for us to come by the next time and is excited to learn and inevitably be baptized.

This is been a fun week with a lot of ups and downs but we are excited for the different people that we’ve been able to me. I took quite a few pictures this week and I’ll attach them in the email as well such as shaving my head and other things. I love you all and will talk to you next week! Thank you for the prayers and support.

Love you all!  Elder May

"Before Haircut"

"After Haircut"

"Most OCD moment of my life..."

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