Elder May - May Email

What an awesome experience this month to have both our Elders speaking to one another and comparing the differences and similarities in their missions.  I love reading Elder May’s testimony and feeling the power that comes from his testimony.  He is simply amazing and I am humbled to be his mom.  Love him and couldn’t be more proud of him.  Enjoy!

Hello Everyone!

Wow, May felt like a really long month for me, and I'm not exactly sure why. There was Mother's Day where I was able to talk with my brother, or the other Elder May, which was a super amazing experience. It's pretty fun to share proselyting mission stories and then service mission stories back and forth and still, they can be super weird and crazy or inspiring and encouraging as one another. You could say that proselyting and service missions are stuck to each other now like how the Bible and the Book of Mormon are stuck to each other. Both missions lift each other up and help each other now. The Bible or proselyting missions came first and are testaments of Jesus Christ and are there to help other people learn about Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon or service missions are Another Testament of Jesus Christ in how they serve and show their examples of Jesus Christ. Neither book nor mission is better than the other but they both lift each other up and are both now needed in order to support one another.

Another crazy thing was that I hit the year mark of my mission. Even though it wasn't my anniversary with Save the Family, I still had coworkers congratulate me and give me presents to honor my year mark. I posted on Facebook about the crazy transitions that my life has made in this last year and I bore testimony in our Fast Sunday meeting on this past Sunday about service missions and where my life has gone because of it and I just want to bear testimony again that my life would not be this incredible without my service mission. I absolutely love my time working at Save the Family, I love doing endowment sessions every week with Dayton and he seems to love the different people I often tend to invite to come with us or the people that we meet after our sessions that always want a picture of us or to tell us how incredible we make the sessions with our spirits. I've performed miracles on my mission and I have done things that I never even dreamed that I would get to do. I absolutely love my district and being able to be district leader over them. I feel like I have created my own district family. the more we have meetings and different district activities, I can feel the love growing that I have for each and every one of them and I feel like their love for me is also growing. I have come to be at the ready to help them at any moment in their time of need and I feel like they know that whenever they need me, I am there for them. I absolutely love my companions, both Elder Ferrell and Elder Sanders. I feel like they have both become some of my best friends and that I can count on them for help and especially as their district leader and companion, I can help and watch them grow not only to be better missionaries but also as better people.

Lastly, I love my Heavenly Father. My favorite lesson has always been the Plan of Salvation and how Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us- even me. I love knowing that Heavenly Father already has my life plan laid out for me and all I need to do is trust in Him, do what he asks me to do and just enjoy life and help other people enjoy theirs. I didn't think that a year ago I would be back at home, but I also didn't know that I was still going to be so busy with my mission that it still feels like the same thing, if not even more than a proselyting mission at times. I love my brother and best friend, Jesus Christ, who laid down his life so that I might have mine. He sacrificed everything that he had for me and wants to ensure that I can and will see him again. Even when i make the same mistake, even 10,000 times, he is still there with me, patiently helping me with even the smallest step forward. If I can make the smallest step forward, he treats it to me with the biggest milestone or celebration ever! It may seem small to me, but it means the world to Him that I am improving in any small shape or form. I know that when I help others or I help myself improve that I can feel the love just be poured out on top of me and I can feel so much greater to Him. I know that this church, that this gospel is true. I would not be where I am now without it and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Elder Bryson May

Elder May - April Email

It is amazing to see the growth in this Elder – month to month, he continues to grow and be strengthened by who he is and becoming.  We love him so much and miss him too because he isn’t home that much anymore but we couldn’t be prouder of him!  Enjoy!!

Hi everyone!

Things have been going well for my mission. Save the Family has been the same, new temple trips with Elder Haws, Hayward, and even Elder Ferrell joined us from Scottsdale and got to be a part of our session, and now I have new ideas on how to be a more effective district leader.

Save the Family has still been great. There's always good and bad days at work, but it is the place that I feel that I am needed the most. A lot of work has been done in that file room and I can't necessarily help people come unto Christ but I can however, show people where to go to conquer homelessness so that's a pretty close second to me!

 

I invited Elder Ferrell to come with us to the Gilbert to help be a part of one of Elder Hayward's temple sessions. He drove all the way from his home in Scottsdale, at least an hour away to come and be with us during the session. I helped Elder Ferrell during the session and Elder Haws took care of Elder Hayward. The Spirit was so absolutely strong to have both of them there. When you are an Elder, you carry a unique spirit but when you have anyone with you that have any kinds of special needs, either mentally or physically, their celestial spirit with the additional missionary spirit is unlike anything else. It was so amazing. It was really cool too because while Elder Haws and I were changing, Elder Ferrell drove up to Elder Hayward and kept him company and was talking to him about how awesome he is that he serves in the temple and such for his mission. No matter where we were, the Spirit was so strongly following with us. It was absolutely incredible.

I have absolutely loved my mission so far. I love that I get to work at Save the Family and help change people's lives both coworker and any clients that may come in. I love that I get to take Elder Hayward to the temple at least once a week either with or without Elder Haws. I love being able to meet new people and their families and be able to grow and be more able to do hard things and strengthen my testimony so much. I love my mission. I know that Heavenly Father always had this plan set in stone for me and now I have to help carry the work forward. I have to be a pioneer and continue to help pushing the work forward. I have to help bring the program of Young Church-Service Missionaries to people around the world. I absolutely love my mission that is just for me, I love my companion, Elder Ferrell, and I feel honored to be chosen to continue to push this work along. 

I love you all and I can't wait for the next month. It's my favorite because it's my last name!

Love Elder May

Elder May - March Email

Words cannot express the love that I have this for Elder.  He has grown in so many ways since starting his mission and getting to see that growth firsthand is awesome.  We love him so much and are very proud of him ~ Enjoy!!

Gosh, it's hard to think of everything to say in an email to everyone of what happens in a month. There was at least a district devotional, a possible transfer, a new Elder, just a lot of stuff going on but it feels like it's just breezing on by! 

Elder Jackson Sanders not only joined my district now, but he also now works at the save the Family Foundation as well! He goes in three days a week for about 4 hours each day and helps over across the street at our homes in the Escobedo properties. We did a district devotional and got everyone to come and just Facetimed Elder Ferrell into the meeting and the Mortenson's came as well and overall, I think it went very smoothly. We all got to meet each other, talk about what we do at each place and receive a bit of training from the Mortenson's as well.

Because of the major safety concern that happened at Save the Family just a few months ago, I was thinking of transferring to the Scottsdale Mission Office. My heart was set on it and I felt like that was the best thing for me to do especially with my anxiety being crazy there. Then just two days before, while I was working at save the Family, everyone talked about how much they enjoy having me at Save the Family and all of the amazing work and progress that I have done for them and how much they appreciate me and I feel like that just outweighed it. My anxiety seemed to have gone down after that. I met with president Robinson on Wednesday and it just seemed like after prayer on that day, that I am supposed to continue at save the Family instead so when i got there, after talking with my companion Elder Ferrell, he and I decided and i turned down president Robinson's offer and i am going to continue to hasten the work at Save the Family. I think this was an answer to prayers for the last few weeks and I feel like they still need me here and I can continue doing amazing work here to get other Elders and Sisters down in this area like Elder Sanders and Sister Bennett so that more work can be done here as well.

Can I just take a moment to brag about my new companion? Elder Ferrell is absolutely amazing. He is easily my favorite companion so far. We think a lot alike, he is hilarious and I just love to be around him. The more that I have learned about him, the more honored I feel to even get to meet him, let alone be able to have him as such a wonderful friend to me! As I help him with anything he might need physically, he is there for me as a complete help to me mentally, as either a help to calm me down and feel important again or just another person to laugh at all my jokes and such, to even just being a second opinion. We talk with each other a lot and I am so grateful that I get to be his companion.

Conference was amazing too! I was able to watch all 5 sessions and there was actually a few that really helped me out. Elder Holland's was absolutely my favorite. Just him saying the words "You are unique." really hit me. I loved hearing that everyone has their own voice in the choir as we are all a different variety of voices and if you miss something or don't feel important, just know that every voice is unique to the choir and that everyone is affected by your absence in the choir. That made me feel important and useful in my work. Elder Bednar's was helpful because it doesn't matter where I serve but what matters is that i am serving and helping to push the Lord's work.

This feels like a short month as I continue to work. It seems like the same old work every week but when I look through my reports, I can see my own change occurring and that I feel like I am just being so useful here. The longer I am home helping people, the more I feel like this literally is why I came home. Even though I wasn't invited to the outline of my life, I am being given more and more pieces of it for me to know that this is the right call for me and this is Heavenly Father's will for me. It's weird how we never have any answers but the more we blindly follow with faith, the more it is shown to us that it's what Heavenly Father wants us to do. I am so grateful to serve. I love my district, I love Save the Family and Dayton and Elder Haws, and I love my companion, Elder Ferrell. I love my family and I love my Heavenly Father.

Love,

Elder May