I feel like each month I say that my heart is full or my cup runneth over when I read our Elder's monthly email but this month, it is even more so. I have seen more service from Elder May, much more than he even added to the monthly report. Anyone who knows him knows that he is the first to lend a hand or offer help but more than that, he feels the needs through his Christlike love for others.
For those interested
in knowing more about the Arizona Young Church Service Mission (AYCSM), please
ask Elder May or myself. It is such an
inspired program plus it is one of our favorite things to talk about. We love him and oh, so proud of him! Enjoy!!
Hi everyone!
Wow, this was a
wonderful month. Not a whole ton happened for me, which is probably a good
thing! There were a lot of things that happened for other people that I was
able to be a part of and this was probably the busiest month for my mission
that I had to start planning things out and make enough time for everything.
Actually the biggest bulk of my time was with Elder Hayward and all of it was
just so much fun. In February, there was Elder Hayward's birthday and dinner
with his family, there was the YCSM Mission Olympics, there were times that I
went proselyting with a missionary who needed a companion, and then there was a
big anniversary party for my Operations Manager at Save the Family, a talent
show that I got to support and be a part of, and finally, the last Saturday of
February where there were so many things going on that I was awake for 20 hours
straight, 4:30am-12:30am!
Elder Hayward's
birthday was on February 5th. He invited me to his house to celebrate a chunk
of his actual birthday with him! I was able to go with him and his caregiver,
named Hayden, and the three of us went to Institute together. It was a lot of
fun and I really enjoyed the teacher there and as a bonus, my aunt Verla was in
that class too! After that, we had some extra time so we went to the park right
by his house and fed the ducks and went around the giant pond that they had
there. Hayden taught me how to use Dayton's left hand just a little bit more.
Together, Dayton and I would put part of a cookie into his left hand and then,
when I would flick Dayton's wrist, he would let go. Together, Dayton and I fed
cookies to a bunch of ducks at the park. It was insane how many ducks started
showing up once they knew that we had chocolate chip cookies for them!
As I was driving home from Dayton's house, I had the most
perfect birthday idea for Dayton! I got two white T-shirts and went over to the
Atkin's house. Elder Atkin and I have been friends for over 10 years so I am at
their house pretty frequently these days. We took markers and outlined the
number "21" and wrote "I Am" on it so that Dayton could
have a shirt that said "I am 21" on it. After making Dayton's, I
didn't want Sister Hayward to feel left out. Her birthday was only 2 or 3 days
before Dayton's so I wanted them to be able to have matching shirts so I made a
shirt for her as well. We drew different lines around the numbers and I had the
idea that missionaries should color in those boxes with their own designs and
then sign their names on it so Dayton could remember who wrote on them. I felt
like people from Dayton's district and zone should be the ones to color them
in. The next day, I went to House of Refuge first to get missionaries at that
district, and then I went to the Gilbert Temple for more missionaries there.
After that, I still needed and wanted more people so I went to Lauren's
Institute and got a TON of missionaries there to sign it.
Elder Hayward had
asked Elder Haws and me if we could join him to celebrate his birthday with his
whole family. I was able to give Dayton his gift then and he and his mom loved
them. After that, we drove to his dinner. I don't think the three of us were
expecting to be a little bit further from each other as expected but I got to
bond a lot with Dayton's youngest siblings, Colt and Talya. They both wanted to
sit by me so I sat in the middle and I got them both to just want to talk with
me and I not only love Dayton now but I love their entire family so much! Every
time that I talk with Sister Hayward on the phone, I can hear Talya asking if
it’s me and when I’ll be back at their house with her.
It was only a short time after that before I got to spend
more time with Elder Hayward. Elder Haws became busy in helping out with the
Mission Olympics so I got asked if I could spend some more time with Elder
Hayward! He and I were on Team Canada and overall, we won like two or three
medals. For the ski shoot, I would push Dayton to the next target and then he
and I would put the gun in his left hand and shoot all the targets. Our team
got the silver medal in that.
My favorite event
that day was the Ice Skate Race. This was the event when people would have to
slide in their socks to the end and then turn around and come back. Elder
Mortensen told me that I should just sprint Dayton to the end and then sprint
back. Well, when I did that, everyone on Team Canada just assumed that that was
actually what we were supposed to do. So Team Greece is going all slow and
sliding in their socks or whatever while Team Canada doesn’t play by the rules
and we just sprint back and forth and Elder Mortensen wasn’t able to stop their
enthusiasm. Needless to say, Team Canada easily got the gold medal on that
event.
So I haven’t really
gone proselyting at all since I’ve been home except for to just be there so
there’s the companion part but I went out on Saturday, February 17th. I was
with an Elder McKee and he had only been out for 4 months and he’d never really
talked to people and I had no idea what the sayings were but I was fine with
talking to people. It was kind of fun to not even talk about the gospel with
these random strangers. People kept saying no to us, and it was starting to
mess with Elder McKee’s motivation. Just a piece of background, I guess we had
like 7 or 8 appointments or visits to go check out and everyone said no to us.
I still had like 2 hours left with the guy, so we decided to just start
tracting. I don’t know who even came up with that word. I know what it means
for missionaries but it’s not even a word. I’m curious about that. Anyway, all
the other stuff that I haven’t said about this is just details that you don’t
need to worry or ask about.
Very last house. That’s always how it starts. We walked up
the driveway, there’s overgrown weeds everywhere and cigarette butts all along
the ground. Also there’s a weird like burnt oil drum on their driveway? You
know how people do those fires in an oil drum looking thing? I think that’s
what it was. He had told me that they’d tried this door before but the guy
always said that he wasn’t interested. Well anyway, we knock on the door and a
woman answers. Elder McKee does all the sayings and she says she knows exactly
who we are. She’s not interested in the church but she knows the missionaries
and she said she was fine with doing dinners and giving them rides and whatever
they needed, but she wasn’t interested in coming back to church. Elder McKee
almost started talking again but I butted in and asked her why she wasn’t
interested in the church. I guess you also normally don’t do that but I just
went with the HG okay?? She told us that she used to be LDS, she quit going to
church because people had said mean things to her because she was a single mom
with two kids and that since they didn’t know her story, she was very hurt that
no one was helping her and everyone was being mean to her. So she’s been
technically inactive for about six years. And that’s why she wasn’t interested.
Elder McKee had no idea what to do. He told me he grew up in Utah, never even
questioned about leaving the church and that he’d always grown up in it. I told
her that it is very hard when you feel alone and that I know what it is like
when wards don’t want anything to do with you or that you feel judged for your
every move. I told her that these wards aren’t like that though; they are the
most welcoming wards that I have ever been to. She heard my story and then
finally got it. Like GOT IT. We, as missionaries, aren’t just robots telling
people to join the church, but we are all humans with different stories and we
want to share how the gospel has helped each one of us grow more. After hearing
my story, she asked Elder McKee if he could come back next week and start up
the missionary discussions and she will start reading the Book of Mormon again
and she will start thinking about going back to church. It was so awesome.
My operations
manager, Laura, has now been with Save the Family for a grand total of 26
years. On the day of her anniversary, I was working here and secretly made her
a gift. I took a deck of cards, took 26 card out of the deck, hole punched each
one, ran a binder ring through them and then glued pieces of paper to each one.
I then had different coworkers of Save the Family write different notes on
these pieces of paper on why they appreciate and are grateful for Laura. As far
I’m aware, Laura loved it when I gave it to her. She truly is the best
operations manager for me. She listens to all of my stories, she laughs at all
of my jokes and she pushes me to be better. She gave me the opportunity to
serve my mission and I will be forever grateful for her. Not only that, but we
were able to plan this giant surprise party for Laura. It was pretty fun! About
half, if not more, of the staff was able to be in attendance and we all got to
have lunch and listen to the different stories and adventures that Laura has
been able to be a part of.
That same day, Elder
Hepfinger invited me to his talent show for the different kids that he is able
to mentor and I loved the activity there. They were all so funny and enthusiastic
and Elder Hepfinger did such an amazing job. I was also was able to see Vasa
there and be able to get to know him a bit better. I think it’s crazy that he’s
at that program too!
Last but not least, my Saturday. A few days after Elder
Hayward’s birthday, they asked Elder Haws and I if we wanted to go to the
Phoenix marathon for Dayton as he tries again to qualify for the Boston
Marathon with his friend, Ryan. Last year when Elder Haws and I went, him and I
got caught in a ton of traffic and road closures that we weren’t able to make
it until after Dayton had crossed the finish line so this year, I was a little
over-prepared. I woke myself up at 4:30am and left my house at 5am. I drove all
the way out to Phoenix and got through a ton of traffic, using one road that
wasn’t closed off, getting myself into the prefect parking spot at about
5:40am. The race didn’t event start until 6am. I was going to just sleep in my
car but that’s when I realized that I could see the finish line from my car and
the announcer starting talking through the microphone and all of the speakers
were booming around everywhere. So, I did what anyone else would do and I
played on my phone for about an hour before getting bored and decided to go
wait outside. I am so glad that I brought a jacket as it was only 30 degrees
outside and I couldn’t feel my fingers. Anyway, I was just walking around for
multiple hours waiting for people that I decided to start helping random
strangers with setting up their booths and things like that.
Sister Hayward had crossed the finish line right around 8am
and that’s when her whole family showed up and time went by a lot faster.
Dayton crossed the finish line at around 9:12am, qualifying him for the Boston
Marathon! He was so excited! He had the biggest smile that I have ever seen on
his face. I loved it so much and I am so proud of him for qualifying for the
Boston Marathon. His smile was so infectious! Every time that I saw him, I
started to smile and just wanted to be next to him, talking with him about how
proud I was. He is just so amazing and I love the bond that we share. People
often ask how I am able to communicate with him and it is definitely through
the Spirit and guessing. He is just so awesome. There are not enough compliment
words that I can think of to describe him.
After that, as I was driving home, I was asked by Elder
McKee if we could go out proselyting again. That took me from 12pm – 3pm. Then,
after that, I was helping set up a game night that I did with a few of the
district leaders and some close friends that I have been friends with since
before my mission. We just played games for a long time during the night and
they were there from 4pm – 9pm. After that, I was taking people home and
listening to their stories which didn’t get me home until midnight. Then, after
cleaning up and everything, I was in bed at 12:30am.
So, as you can see,
my month had a lot of things to do as opposed to last month. There was a lot of
craziness and a lot that I needed to plan for but I am so happy and grateful
that I got to be a part of it all. Service to me has become second nature and
the more I think on it, the more grateful I am for my Heavenly Father and all
of the miraculous things that He has given me. I am so grateful for my family
and for my friends. The longer that I have been on my mission, the longer my
email list gets of people that I wish to hear my stories. I love you all and I
am excited for March!
