This Elder has my
heart and exemplifies the service the Lord would perform if He was on the Earth
today. He truly is amazing and we love
him so much. As we watched General
Conference and reference was made to the number of missionaries serving, my
heart was overwhelmed and humbled knowing that Elder Bryson is one of
them. We love him so and are oh, so
proud of him! Enjoy!!
March Email:
Hi everyone! Just another classic month has just passed by
for me! March was a very long and exhausting month but just the same old events
had occurred. I don't know if it did for anyone else but for me, March felt
incredibly long. We had our leadership council, I went to Save the Family with
a friend named Emily, we had our mission conference with Elder Porter, and
finally, I went to the Easter Pageant with Elder Ferrell.
Our leadership council was super good! It was the first time
for me that I was given as assignment and I was actually able to follow through
with it. I was able to speak alongside Elder Tassainer, Elder Hawks and Haws,
and Elder Begay. I was able to speak on district meetings and their importance.
I talked for way longer than I was supposed to and I didn't even notice. I felt
pretty bad for taking up other people's time but I think that whatever God
wanted me to say during it, that it must have had some impact on the people
around me.
My sister-in-law asked me if I could take one of her
sisters, Emily who was about 16-17 years old, with me to Save the Family to
volunteer during spring break and it was so much fun! Everyone loved Emily
there. People were telling me that she was so kind and loving to those around
her, she was super smart and getting it done without needing supervision and
she just kept asking for more tasks to help with. Emily and I would talk during
the car rides and I got to know her a lot better and she would tell me all
about the service that she was able to do and how much of a difference that she
was able to make while she worked there. I had coworkers asking me if she could
come back after spring break to continue to help at Save the Family.
I was recently asked by the Pugmire's if I could give a tour
to them on Save the Family and what it is that we provide. For those of you
that don't know, Save the Family helps homeless families with minor children
find a home and reach self-sufficiency. We have classes and we do lunches for
our clients and we have case management programs and youth classes and career
development specialists and anything we can do to help out the families that we
serve. It is not an LDS charity. My service mission is involved a lot with Save
the Family and helping with whatever Save the Family might need. Anyway, when
the Pugmire's got here, they did not tell me that every single member of the
YCSM leadership was also going to be there. I had the Mortensen's, the
Thornock's, the Bradshaw's, the Pugmire's and even Elder and Sister Edwards from
the Quorum of the Seventy here to see Save the Family and what it is that we
do. It was super nerve-wracking but it was so great to see everyone be so
excited to see everything about Save the Family.
The March mission conference was a blast! I was able to
spend time with my two best friends both while serving and not serving, Elder
Taylor Ferrell and Elder Dayton Hayward. Elder Ferrell sat behind us in the
chapel with Dayton and I sitting at the front. I had kind of a unique
experience with Elder Hayward on that day. At the beginning of the meeting
Dayton kept falling asleep. I asked around on what to do and the people around
me just said to let him sleep. The longer that I let him do this, the more
uneasy I was getting and I started trying every way that I could to wake him
up. He would wake up, yawn, and then go back to sleep. That's when it hit me.
Dayton's spirit was asking me, pleading with me to try and keep his body awake
so that he could focus but his body was just so tired that it couldn't handle
being awake at the time. Dayton kept asking me and I didn't want to give up on
him so I tried every possible way that I could to keep him awake. Slowly, he
kept his eyes shut but he started to have a bigger and bigger smile with me
sitting next to him in the chapel while listening to Elder Baker and Elder
Porter.
I lied. I actually
have two unique experiences with Elder Hayward that day. After the conference
was over, people were taking things down and I had just moved Dayton to the
side while waiting for his dad to come by. Elder Baker walked up to me and
Dayton and asked me how I speak all the time to Elder Hayward. He continued to
tell me that he had watched me all day and wanted to try the same ways that I
speak to him but he wanted to see if he could have a conversation with Dayton.
I was already kneeling on the floor next to Dayton so Elder Baker did the same.
He put his left hand on Dayton's right knee and then I put Elder Baker's right
thumb into his left hand. As soon as Elder Baker grabbed Dayton's hand, Dayton
squeezed right around his hand and his whole face lit up and he started smiling
like crazy. Elder Baker started to ask him questions vocally and Dayton would
blink or not blink and then soon Elder Baker and Dayton went silent and I could
tell that they were actually talking with each other and having a conversation.
It was beautiful to watch. I am so glad that I was able to be a part of that
and I just love Dayton and Elder Ferrell. They are two of my very best friends.
My mission would not be the same without them.
Because of the vast
distance between Elder Ferrell and I, we try to do something together each month as a
companionship. I noticed that we hadn't done anything together this month so we
decided to go the Easter pageant together, just as our companionship. He had
never been there before and I had been there only once but it was a super long
time ago. We were able to go around these giant crowds and we saw one chair at
the very front row. Well, we sat there and it turns out that they were reserved
by a family. The mom asked us that the family that was coming didn’t make it
and she asked if we could stay there with her family. She has a nephew that
also has a physical disorder that causes him to use a power chair so when she
saw Elder Ferrell there, she immediately loved him and was thanking me a ton of
times for helping him as I do and for him for being there. Their family was so
kind and the Easter Pageant was spectacular!
This was a summary of
my most recent month. It’s crazy to think of the amazing experiences that I
have been able to be a part of because of my service mission. I am so grateful
for the YCSM program and I am grateful that when I came home early, that there
were people in my life that didn’t give up on me and pushed me into serving a
second mission, a service mission. I am so grateful to everyone who have helped
me get to this point and I am so excited to see where my mission takes me next!
Love,
Elder Bryson May
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