Week 59

Hey Mommy! 

Have I ever told you how wonderful you are? Well you and absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for the birthday gifts! I got the football and the shorts, thank you!! :) They are perfect!

WELL CONGRATULATIONS ON SELLING THE HOUSE!!!! The house that you sent pictures of is beautiful! Is that in St. John's county? because that is amazing!!!!!! I would never leave that house lol. you would be stuck with me forever. hahahaha Well this week was pretty cool Yazmin got baptized!! She is so happy so now the whole family is baptized and they are working on getting sealed together in the temple! I am so proud of them!!! :D The baptism went great. The spirit was super strong and I won in rock paper scissors against my companion so i had the reward of performing the ordinance. So that was really special. WE ARE DEFINITELY VISITING THEM AFTER THE MISH!!! (They can speak english lol) Also have you gotten her friend request? She has been trying to get in contact with you, after the baptism she was really happy and wanted to send you a picture of her baptism, so I gave her your cell number to text the pic. I really hope you don't mind. I apologize for not asking first, but since it dealt with your baby (That's me lol) I figured you would appreciate it :)

This week was bleh like usual good of course, but nothing super big to report. But Sunday was good (FOR ONCE! :p).

MCRD:

Well 2 of the recruits I am teaching are graduating this friday so I had my last lessons with them. It is sad that they are leaving but it is good, they both plan on getting baptized in their hometowns so we will see if they actually do it hahaha. I ain't trippin though. But I had a really unique experience though! I have a new recruit that I am teaching who is straight from the Navajo reservation in Arizona!!!!! It is kinda a funny thing. So 2 weeks ago i was introduced to him by a member of the branch presidency, and I asked him "Would you like to learn more about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ?", he looks at me and waits, then quietly and politely declined. So I thought he wasn't interested. So then this past week, he came to church again, and i was so confused. Then a senior missionary comes up to me and said he was interested! So I thought that was great! So I pull him off to the side where it is a little quieter and we start to talk. I then find out he is straight from the Rez! The thing is, he knows nothing about God, Jesus Christ, The Spirit, nothing! Absolutely 0 about Christianity. I say all this because i think it is awesome! Like if you were to read in Alma 22 Ammon teaches the Lamonite King Lamoni and even the King believed in a great spirit! Monroe (that is the recruit's name) only knows about Navajo traditions! But it is amazing how some o f the traditions are based off of old testament beliefs! I had never had to teach so simply. 

All in all it was so difficult, but it was such a great experience :) He said the reason why he goes to our church is because i stumbled upon it, because he didn"t know where else to go. So that is such an evidence of God's hand in this. He also say he feels so good at church and that is why he came back. he had no idea why he felt this way (because he has no idea what is going on lol) then he said his first prayer and then afterwards he just look sat me and say "I have never felt this good before" and you could tell that he got rocked! :D Well i love being a missionary! It is the best decision of my life! I also realized that the reason why he declined the first time is because he had no idea what I was asking of him lol! :)

Love you and thank you for the bday wishes!

Elder Hays

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Week 58

This was definitely "HELL WEEK" :D hahahaahahaahaha we had meetings up the yin yang! But it was a week full of miracles and we should have 2 baptisms this Saturday! Her name is Yazmin Alvarez (Formerly Contreras, she just got married 2 weeks ago so she could be baptized!) She also wants you to add her on FB so she can send you pictures ("Yaz Alvarez").  

I am glad you got the picture! I am always happy lol! even though I get stressed out lol I am always happy! :D Tell all the kids that I miss them! They are the coolest kids in the world!

Things in my area have been good. This past week despite all the meetings and planning we got to teach a good amount. We had a lesson with Chris (The ex-Boyfriend of Yazmin's daughter). They are all on good terms.Since Chris lives with all of them Kathy (the daughter) (who also got baptized in April with her brother Chuy) had to break up with him so they can be keeping the law of Chasity so she could get baptized. Anyway we went over and it was just him and we were able to ask him about his testimony of the church. It went awesome and the spirit was definitely there, we read with him about Captain Moroni he loved it and says that he wants to be someone in life and he knows that it comes through baptism! So Chris and Yazmin should be getting baptized this Saturday, if not Chris will be baptized next week the 21st. 

Then Friday (06/06)  we had our Zone Conference (conference not meeting, they are different, yes it is confusing haha) It was the last on that the Clayton's will be having! It was a pretty good 6 hour training lol but nonetheless it is sad to see them leave. It ws weird though because President gave sister Clayton permission to hug all the Elders and for him to hug the Sisters so that was weird to see hahaha!

Then right after the conference we went out to contact a referral that we had received and it ended up being a pretty sick miracle! We get there and she was already waiting at the door. She told us how her less active mother in law took her by the temple after a food fair that they had and then Crystal gave her info to the missionaries there and that is how we knew to go see her. So she starts to tell us how her future in laws were sealed in the temple but are less active, and how she wants to reactivate them! Which is super cool because Crystal of course is not a member. Even cooler though is that Crystal told us right off the bat that she wants an Eternal Family! Elder Karlinsey and I looked at eachother and I said, well we are the right people for the job. So she wants to get baptized! We have another appointment with tonight so we will follow up and prepare her for baptism somewhere around July 19th.

Then Saturday (06/07) was the father's day BBQ, the food was delicious! we had carne Asada AGAIN! That is all Mexicans eat is Carne asada tacos hahaha with rice and beans but it is so good! Well as you SHOULD REMEMBER ;) I met the Garcia family (My recent converts, just in case you didn't remember ;) )  in Calexico were found at my first father's day party in the mission. So I was expecting a miracle of course haha. Well I got just that, so there is a lot of back story so i am going to try and keep it simple to understand. 

So last January Elder Larsen and I got a call to give a baby a blessing that was in the hospital in our area. So we went. It was for a young couple of 16 years old and and their newborn was experiencing heart and lung problems. So I gave the baby a priesthood blessing, then we left to let them and the rest of the family rest. 

A couple months afterwards I bump into a lady at the Trolley station and she says that I look super familiar and that she knows me from somewhere. I didnt recognize her at the time. She said that she was a member of the Bonita 3rd ward. I told her that I have never served there, but she kinda looked familiar. We just could figure out how. 

So then this past April once I arrived in Bonita 3rd ward I saw her in sacrament meeting and we laughed how we met again. Still we didn't know how we knew each other. I also saw her son and his girlfriend with their little baby, and I didn't think much of it. 

Then we were at the party and we see this family we sit down with them and they said to me *(in spanish of course lol) "Elder Hays, we all finally remember how we know you, you gave the baby a blessing when he was in the hospital!" then BOOM I remembered! They continued, "we realized this in a funny way. we noticed that everytime the baby sees you, he stares at you, and every time he sees you or hears you speak he starts to have this huge smile. Then after a few weeks of this we put it all together." I was floored! Then the mom said, "Elder Hays we have a son who is 9 that is not baptized, who are his elders?" They are in our area! and the funny part of the miracle.... they are ANOTHER GARCIA FAMILY!! (Not related to the ones in Calexico though). So we will be having a baptism for their son Yael at the end of this month!  Isn't that crazy! Oh yeah they told me that the baby was released a couple of days after I had given the blessing and he is happy and healthy now.

This work is true!

Love Elder Hays

This is a picture of my zone after Zone Conference

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Week 57

Well this week has been super crazy! (When is it never not crazy!?)

Wednesday and Thursday we had what is called MTE's they are these 2 day events in that involve about 60-70 missionaries. On Wednesday we went to another stake center nearby and had 3 hours of training from the AP's (Assistants to the President) and President Clayton himself. Then we went on a giant exchanged that was pre-planned by us Zone Leaders a couple weeks ago. So my proselyting area got shut down for the day because I went with 2 missionaries from the Chula Vista Stake to their area to be a "coach" where we focus on the things that were brought up in the training and I spend the night with them and everything. So it ended up being super sweet. We were able to teach some pretty sweet people and also saw some cool miracles. Then on Thursday we share those miracles with all the missionaries and then receive some further training from President Clayton. But then we were stuck at enterprise the rental car place for like 2 hours about the rental car we had so we didnt really get to visit anyone that day :p

The next day i went on another exchange with our district leader in his area. It was cool because some of the members in his area were having a little mexican BBQ and this guy and lady were arguing on how to cook the meat so I got but in charge hahaha. It turned out good!

CHEF BOYARDEE

Then Sunday was super rough :p we had to wake up at 5:45a to be at the Stake center for the Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting at the stake center at 7a then right after that we booked it over to the MCRD at 8a where we had 3 hours of church/teaching then we raced over to our church building to ward council at 11:30a then from 1-4p we had church services then from 5-6p we had a meeting with the stake high councilor over missionary work! We were also fasting all day so I was flipping destroyed in our teaching appointments that night. Then we had nightly planning from 9-9:30p then District Leader Weekly call in reports from 9:45-10:30p so it was super crazy! But I slept good that night and I woke up refreshed for Mission Leadership Council (MLC) that morning from 10a-4p (We had lunch in between).

MLC was pretty good we discussed all the things going on in the mission, but what was really crazy is how this was President and Sister Clayton's last one. The new Mission President, President Schmitt will be arriving to the mission on June 28th so I will be having a new mission president! Crazy right!? 

Well that was pretty much my week, super crazy busy with a lot of little things!

Well love you!

Elder Hays

Week 56

Hey I actually have some time today to email! :) But still not the full 2 hours :p 

This week also flew for me too! So this past week has been go go go like usual. We have been visiting a lot of people. One of the member families that we saw is the Blanco Family. they are super cool and they are super missionary work oriented. They shared with us there conversion story which was super sick! They said one day they were just sitting at home when they heard a knock at the door. The wife answers the door and recognized them as missionaries and said that they would have to talk to her husband. (Keep in mind that Brother Blanco looks super intimidating) He goes up to the door and asks them what they wanted (and he said that they looked sooo scared and kept stumbling over their words). They then told him that they (the missionaries) had said a prayer that the next door they would knock on would be a prepared family. The missionaries told them that they were about a mile away when they said that prayer and this was the first door they knocked on since. (And the Blanco family lived down the hall on the 3rd story of one of the many apartment complexes on their block). So brother blanco let them in and 3 weeks later they were baptized and were sealed in the temple and are very active in the church!  So that was super cool to hear!

Then we were able to see this kid named Rafael who is 14 and we are teaching his family. So we went by and brought Danny from the young mens and we had a super awesome lesson. We read about Abinadi and after we asked Rafael to ask in his prayer if the Book of Mormon was true, and during his prayer he said "Well, I already  know the book of mormon is true, but I just am double checking." haha it was soo cool! 

Also our investigator Yazmin is getting married this saturday and baptized the following week. (oh yeah did you get her friend request for FB?) she is doing good! She says she wants to send you pictures of me everytime she feeds us! 

Well I gotta go!

Love you all to pieces!!

Elder Hays!

Week 55

Week 54

Week 53

Hey I love you all! We have been so crazy today so I have no time to email.  we went to the temple, and had to get mail. yeah super crazy today! So the email is short... But I get to talk to you this sunday yeah!! So after everything that is going on I will talk to you at 8pm Eastern Standard Time I will also text you sunday to confirm just like last time. But here is a run down of the week:

So this is the "big mama" a 4lb California burrito! QUE GRANDE!!!!

So for my year mark I wanted to do something memorable! So we went to my favorite taco shop and got this behemoth that no one has ever finished!

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Then this past Monday (yesterday) We had the opportunity to listen to Elder Ballard. It was soo cool to see him again. I of course got to shake his hand! I also had the privilege of sitting in a couple pews in front of him as he spoke at the pulpit. It was so amazing! He talked about internalizing our purpose as missionaries and dedicating all of "our" time (it really isn't even ours) to the Lord. He also spoke about how we must follow the promptings of the Spirit. I loved it! Then we went to the temple today! I am doing super good and i am super excited to talk with you sunday at 8pm EST love you! Love dad! Love Brock! Love Ashlyn!

-Elder Hays