Well Mom I am so sorry for not sending you a card for your birthday, this week has been terrible. Just with all of the moving and cleaning. Missionaries had been living in that apartment for 4 years and they had so much crap in there left over the years that it took us 3 days of non stop cleaning and moving crap. In between it there were so many important and long meetings we didn't even get much time in our area. Then on top of that we all got sick! :p so this week was stressful, but the week looks promising. We just need to get healthy. So all in all, I absolutely had no time to do anything this week. :p I am sorry!
So what did you all do for the 4th of July and for your birthday? We had a member invite us over and we had some awesome burgers and fruit. It was good! Then we just went and crashed! Luckily the members have been hooking us up with some medicine. We will just keep pushing forward!
What was really cool is that we were able to have 4 investigators at church this Sunday which is a lot for this mission. Even though we only had time to see those people the Lord blessed us by having them coming to church!
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Now here is a super cool miracle that happened! (I am including a string of Emails all dealing with a woman that I taught in Hillcrest named Alicia)
Alicia's baptism last Saturday in Logan Heights
>>> [Elder Hulet] "Couldn't have happened without you! Thanks Elder Hays!
>>> [Me] "Thank you so much Elders. She is such a special person. Her story is definitely a miracle. All starting with weeks of not finding anybody to teach and weeks of tracting with no success. Then one day we say this Mexican lady outside, we contacted her and lo and behold we found that apartment complex full of Mexicans one of the very few in that part of the area. Then we knocked on Alicia's door, but it was her mom, that answered. Her mom Gloria had been watching the kids while Alicia was in SLC for work. We started teaching the mom and she was reading from the Book of Mormon and committed to being baptized, then she moved back to Mexico a couple days later. We then came back and started teaching Alicia. Ever since then the gospel has been a part of her life. Thank you so much for all your hard work with nurturing the seed of faith that was in her heart and supporting her on her way to make a sacred covenant with our Heavenly Father. Thank you. Since day one I have pictured her in white in the baptismal font and one day in the temple. On Saturday half of that dream came true. Thank you."
>>> [Elder Hulet] "The day you (Elder Larsen my previous companion) and i were teaching the word of wisdom and she figured out she had cancer and was super humble changed everything. She was just ready to accept what was coming her way. The Wednesday after you left we went with Pres. Lopez to give her a blessing and teach. Pres. Lopez went so hard and the spirit was so strong she immediately felt accepted and was so open to a baptismal date (after she attended three times, she said "then we will talk" haha) she cracks me up so hard i love her. She casually set a baptismal date for the 28th of June and progressed toward it. She came to church for the first time with her two ninas it was a special day. Had to go march the next Sunday and has come all of the Sundays she has committed to which have been the past 3. She accepted Thomas s. Monson as a prophet after we watch the lords errand and the medinas helped sooooo much! They testified of the restoration and of Joseph smith and hno. medina gave her a blessing the day before her surgery. She has completely recuperated and i am convinced that god sent that to her for a reason. She has gone up and down with her education and a lot of trials have come because of it. The girls went down to mexico for the summer and she has been super lonely. But lesson after lesson and visit after visit she was getting more and more prepared. the wow was taught in Sunday school and she accepted it and we went and followed up with the browns and she took it pretty hard that she had to stop drinking coffee (apparently we didn't make it clear that you have to stop to be baptized :) she was upset but she spent the following week working really hard and has not had coffee and says she feels so much better.) She loves her girls and is trying so hard to overcome this part of her life to bring stability to them. The Lord has prepared her for this time and i know she is going to make it! The baptism was beautiful, hermana medina and elder mcchesney spoke and it was a great spirit in the room. We did it at Trojan and basically the whole ward council was there! It was a great turn out and she felt a lot of support. The morning of she actually got in a fight with a friend that was trying to take her to a picnic the day of her baptism. CRAZY. She said she felt so peaceful and was mingling after with the ward members. Her confirmation was awesome and she brought a friend with her to church. She is doing wonderful and sent me a text saying how she was running and she came to the top of a hill and the sun was shining and she told God she would turn her will to his and she was tired of fighting against the world. She wants to be so much more positive and expressed her gratitude for all that has happened. It was a sweet moment and there is so much light in her future!"
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So that really made my day I mightv'e had a couple of tears seeing this picture. It is crazy to think off all the hard work and the prepared people that were in my last area. I am so proud to have been the Lord's Instrument for those people. I don't say this to look down on the elders after me, but they took the elders out and dissolved the area into other areas of other missionaries. So there aren't really any missionaries there now, because they felt that there was no more work... It is just a crazy thought
Well I love you all and hope you can find a home! you all are in my prayers! :)
Love Elder Hays
