Elder May - January Email

Love this Elder to pieces – he is amazingly selfless and helps all those around him. He also is a wonderful example to those that are looking to him as a representative of the church.  So proud to be his momma and love him so much! 

Hey there!

Things have been going well for me this month. Just working hard as a new district leader! It is fun too juggle time with Save the Family and being with Elder Haws and Elder Hayward, being a district leader, school and family. I feel like I get to be constantly busy all the time and it is working out really well for me. 

Save the Family has been going really good. I have been able to change and organize their whole file room so that they actually can use the room again. I have been able to help upstairs and help out when they need me downstairs as an extra hand and they love having me around and I still love being there.

Last Friday, we had an employee named Sarah Hock, leave the company and head to the Inhumane Society of Arizona so she can help there. Her and I had become good friends while we were both there at work and I even talked to her before i left that Friday and she told me that she had always seen Mormons as the most judgmental people who were just the most rude religion except for her aunt ho was always really kind to her and such and she said that because of my example, she knows now that there are more Mormons out there, like her aunt, who are kind and selfless and just want the best for others so that was a real testimony builder for me because now I know that I making changes and I am making waves here in other people's lives; both for the people I help downstairs so that they can change their homeless situation but also that I am making waves to people that I work with and that I can be a light to them as well. Also side note, she told me that her and Jeff Flake are first cousins so in case I ever need anything, I have an in now so that is good to know too!

Anyway, I hope that I continue to help this mission in any way I can. I truly know that I am helping people come unto Christ and though I am not inviting people into the Lord's vineyard, I am one of the people in charge of taking care of the vineyard and caring to it as other missionaries are in charge of inviting people to the vineyard. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can do to help.

Best regards – 

Elder Bryson May

Elder May - December Email

This month was challenging for Elder May.  He had some rough days/weeks with his asthma.  But through it all, he continued to serve and work his calling by going to the foundation and the temple.  He is truly a blessing and we love him to pieces.  Enjoy!

Hello Everyone!  Happy New Year!

I know it's a little past December but with all the holidays and such, I kind of forgot to write an email until now. Thinking back to December, there were only a few events that came to my mind regarding my mission. My birthday and the Christmas Delivery Days that we did regarding Save the Family.

My birthday was amazing. Save the Family decorated my office with a banner and a seat covering and everything for me. I think I ended up getting like 4 bags of presents from them too. All chocolate and different kinds of M&Ms, just the way I like it!

The Christmas Delivery Days were amazing and insane at the same time. The way it works is that different groups of people call us and ask if they can buy gifts for families, we give them the wish lists for each family and then on the delivery days, they bring us the wrapped gifts and we organize them and deliver them to the families so every family can still look forward to the holidays. It was amazing because so many different people had sponsored and wanted to give families so many gifts. It was insane at the same time by how many presents there were and how quick we had to be in order to keep it all organized enough that we would still be able to function properly. Unfortunately, I was unable to go on any deliveries but it was still a lot of work even staying there and helping out with the rest of the staff. During the last hour, I believe I had an unaware asthma attack as for what seemed like no reason, my heart rate wouldn't go any lower than 140 beats per minute. I went inside and started doing regular work and it still wouldn't go any lower. I have finally started to recover from that during this week while as the last few weeks I have been stuck doing treatments every few hours and taking a bunch of different medicines and stuff like that. Luckily, with the New Year and all, I have been able to completely recover and be ready to continue my work with Save the Family.

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful 2016. Lot of change for me and probably too much to take in one year but I am ready for the new challenges that face me in 2017!

Love Elder May

Elder May - November Email

This Elder is truly a light in our home.  His tireless missionary service is second to none and it is such an amazing experience to watch all his service and missionary work from our own home.  We sure love Elder Bryson and are so proud of him. 

Hello Everyone!

I feel like every month is like the greatest month of my mission. I was able to create friendships this month and be able to go to side activities where I'm still serving but it isn't a set list on what I'm doing every day. I feel like I'm becoming more helpful in people coming back to Christ either through inactivity as I am a ward missionary, or through my example and answers questions for people at Save the Family, or even across at the Spirit World through the veil as I go various different Elders each week through endowment sessions. I feel like I'm evolving each month and I'm just working myself harder and becoming busier, week by week. 

As a ward missionary, I work with the mission leader, Brother Erickson and him and I do the temple prep classes and do splits with the missionaries. We will go to their homes for temple prep and teach them kind of the quick basics of the gospel. It is tremendous to see the progress we can make. I went with one Elder and the family we went to, the Donn family, Tanner and Hannah, were super inactive from the church. Then that next Sunday, we saw their whole family sitting in sacrament meeting and that was a beautiful moment for me. Then, Bro Erickson and I went over there for a few weeks and taught them through temple prep and now they're being endowed this month! I am able to see change happen, including changes of hearts. I am able to help people grow. 

Elder May - Save The Family

Save the Family had their Thanksgiving Delivery Days back on the Monday before Thanksgiving. As

a quick summary, we have sponsors call us and tell us that they want to create a Thanksgiving basket of items for one of our homeless families that is in our client roster. I was able to be a part of the Delivery Days by greeting sponsors and helping deliver the baskets to various locations across Arizona. In total we had about 200 different sponsors asking us to donate and 300+ families that were blessed to have their own Thanksgiving this year. I was able to be part of one delivery and as we were delivering them across the street, kids and families would be so excited to see us and asking if they could take it from us. I was fine with it but apparently there were rules about it so it was good to learn!

Last night, Elder Hayward, Haws, Ferrell, Zollinger and I went to the Gilbert Temple and did an endowment session together. It's fun to go to the same appointments every week but it's weird how much more fun it is when you plan the same exact thing but go as a group of friends instead of being all about business. It's crazy how little a change that is but how big of a change the outcome can become. It amazes me how I have become good friends with each and every one of them. I'm glad to have found them in my mission and getting to know them. I'm grateful to not only have companions but be able to create my own mission friendships, outside of companionships. I've been able to learn so much about the four Elders listed above and I'm so grateful for their unconditional love that I can feel from them for me. 

For this month, I made a goal to at least make it to the temple twice in the month and to further increase my hope for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can happily say that my hope for Him has increased tremendously as I have gone not only twice but at least four times, twice in a week! I'm so grateful to know of his plan for me and I'm grateful that he has planted such wonderful people, not only wonderful Elders but also wonderful people outside of their missions, to help strengthen and lift me up. I'm grateful that I am able to further continue my journey as I help others come unto Christ. 

I love you all and hope you all had a wonderful November!

Sincerely,

Elder Bryson May

Elder May: October Email

I love to read Elder May's emails because even though he is at home we  don't always here the experiences he is having. We think he is simply amazing and we are so proud of our Elder- enjoy!!

Wow this was a crazy month. I had weddings, I went to my first Mission activity and met all of the Elders and Sisters of our wonderful mission, and I went for the first time to the temple with Elder Hayward and Elder Haws. Overall, it was a long month but it was so rewarding!

So the weddings. The first one was of my brother Hunter and his new wife, Alexiss. I was able to take part of her endowment session and even be in the sealing room with them and it's cool how you can have fun in the temple by doing family names and being with other people while also giving people a chance to receive the gospel in the spirit world. I then went to celestial room and prayed there for comfort and the ability to become more humble throughout my mission and letting the Lord's Atonement guide me and the Spirit was so strong with me after those endowment sessions that I know them to be true.

I will touch on my experience with Elder Hayward and Elder Haws. Probably not just touch because it was incredible but I assume you know what I mean. The entire experience was amazing. Elder Haws is so kind and caring and selfless. He would tell Dayton everything that he was about to tell me and keep him in the loop of what was happening. As I was in that session, we sat in the back and they gave us a screen so it was easier for Dayton to watch but I had noticed that I was watching off the smaller, closer screen with the subtitles more than I was watching on the big screen. It is now weird for me to watch it without subtitles being shown!

The longer throughout the session, I started to care more and more for Dayton as I could feel his spirit soften my heart and pierce my soul. Elder Haws told me that sometimes Elder Hayward couldn't control his left hand and every time Elder Hayward couldn't do so, Elder Haws would gently grab his left hand and just hold it on Dayton's leg and to me that was just another Christ-like attribute that Elder Haws was showing to Elder Hayward. The ordinance workers at one point asked Elder Haws and Hayward if Dayton would like to be in the circle and when Dayton blinked, Elder Haws could not hold his excitement in because it was going to be Dayton's first time doing so and it was not only incredible for that but as soon as Dayton went into that circle, his hand stopped shaking and he had control of it for the entire duration of the circle and then as soon as they were done, his hand started to move again. It was just amazing incredible Dayton's spirit is. I want to come and go to more of those with both Elder Haws and Elder Hayward because they are already such amazing example of Christ to me. They carry the Spirit with them wherever they go and I want to be around them more for that Spirit that they hold. They have made me want to change and become not just a better missionary but be a better friend, a better person and just a better example of Christ.

Lastly, I think I am supposed to touch on my strengths and my weaknesses. I guess for my strengths, I have become better acquainted and loved by those at Save the Family. I am helping them with any task at this point and they are becoming more and more aware of me here. I feel like I am developing more traits of love as well as more ways to feel the Spirit, especially while listening to instrumental music and General Conference talks to and from my commute to work. I would say that my weaknesses could be having low self-esteem or low self-worth maybe, as well as trying to increase being humble and loving to everyone me, just being able to let the Spirit enter my heart better but I will try to make those my strengths by changing my perspectives in the upcoming times of my mission. I am excited to keep working with save the Family and continuing to go with both Elder Haws and Elder Hayward in the temple!

Thank you for all your paraders and support - I love you all!!