During this month of
constant gratitude, our family could not be more grateful for the opportunity
that Elder May has to serve in his mission.
He has found complete joy in the journey and we know that this is exactly
what he was supposed to do for his mission.
We are incredibly blessed and grateful for the gospel in our lives and
for our two missionaries. We love him
and are oh, so proud of him! Enjoy!!
November Email:
Hi everyone! November was a quick month for me. Thanksgiving
came quickly and it just went by so fast but that’s okay. December is my
favorite month anyway. A few things happened this month. Thanksgiving Delivery
Days at Save the Family, Elder Sanders got released from my district, we had
our service project at MidWest Food Bank, we did an endowment session with a
ton of people together, and then the Gilbert Half-Marathon occurred as well.
Save the Family had done their Thanksgiving Delivery Days
again and it was my second and final Thanksgiving that I got to be a part of as
a service missionary. It was so much fun and a lot less hectic than last time.
I was also able to go on my first-ever Delivery too. We load up all these
baskets into a van and then a group of us go out together to drop these baskets
off to families that we serve so that they can have Thanksgiving as well. Most
of Save the Family’s staff is women which is super fun but unfortunately, makes
it difficult to go on a delivery run. Most runs would only have 2 people needed
and since I would need a second person to go with me, it was difficult to
actually be a part of one.
Fortunately, two of the staff were kind enough to
let me come with them, just for the fun of it. It was truly special to take a
basket and it starting out heavy but as I saw their smiling face of gratitude,
the basket started to become almost weightless. We were in the van for almost 2
hours, dropping off baskets around Mesa and with that time, I was able to learn
and listen to the stories and lives of these two staff members, Renee and
Rakesha, two staff members that I normally wouldn’t ever work with but because
of this, I was able to have two more friends that work with me at Save the
Family.
Also side story, we had a client come in a few weeks ago
with bedbugs that they had received from their apartment complex. I was put
with Ryan, the Career Services Assistant, and he and I were tasked with using
gloves and, trying to be as careful as possible, remove these car seat covers
and any possible bedbug-infested areas and try to clean them with any possible
way that we could even think of. Every car seat, every chair in our lobby or
any chair that they could’ve possibly spread to, every toy in our two
children’s classrooms, basically everything that we could find downstairs that
could possibly have a bedbugs attached to it to just hopefully ensure that all
of them were gone to stop any possible infestation from happening at Save the
Family or at anyone’s homes. Now at least each May child in our family has had
their own experiences with bedbugs at some point in our missions. That’s just
one more thing we have in common!
Elder Jackson Sanders was released from my district early
this month. We were able to have a district meeting and he was able to bear his
testimony to all of us about his time on both proselyting and his service
mission. He is truly incredible and I know that he’s going to continue to do
great things. The last thing we got to do together as service missionaries with
him in our district was the service project at MidWest Food Bank. Him and I
were in charge of taking these massive boxes that were filled with spaghetti
noodles and we had to scoop up two handfuls and put them into a bag and hand it
off to Elder Hawks to seal the bag! Talk about a workout! They weren’t tough to
pick up by themselves but when they’ve all been stuck together, it was
difficult to break through some of them to pick it up and put it into these
small bags. These bags basically looked like small Ziploc snack bags. The
MidWest Food Bank project was fun though. Altogether, we had 3 of our district
missionaries show up, including myself. It was Sister Bennett, Elder Sanders
and myself and we all just sat a table and got to know each other better. It
was wonderful. Of course though, I forgot to take a picture!
After the service project, Elder Sanders were driving back
to my house and I had realized that I still hadn’t gotten him cotton candy. So
for those that don’t know, Dayton is not the biggest fan of being awake in the
morning but I needed him to come to my lesson when I taught about YCSMs on that
5th Sunday in my ward. So in order to get him to come, I promised him that I
would bring him cotton candy. Dayton’s favorite dessert is cotton candy or ice
cream or really anything that tastes delicious and I totally get it because who
doesn’t love cotton candy? Anyway, I was halfway home when I realized I could
swing by his house and drop some off to him so it worked out perfectly and I
made sure to take a picture with him for that one! I was really grateful that he
came and for everyone else that came to this lesson. It truly was remarkable.
So Elder Hayward and I have been doing our sessions each
Friday that we can but sometimes, it gets boring when it’s just us. We worked
together every time we met up and we came up with a date where we could go to
an endowment session with more than just the two of us. Overall, it was Dayton,
Elder Haws, Dayton’s parents, my parents and 3 of Dayton’s grandparents. We
thought this was going to be so much fun. What we didn’t know was that when we
got there, the entire chapel of the temple was packed with people because there
were 3 new endowments being done so there were tons of people that were there
to support these 3. They tried to just put us all into one session and they were
putting up folding chairs
everywhere and people were just sitting wherever that
they could find a place. Our whole group got in except for my parents which is
still a mystery to me on what happened. Dayton and I always get loaded first
and so we were waiting for everyone else and as they all started coming in,
everyone was shocked when my parents didn’t make it in with our group. Everyone
else was super worried about it but to Dayton and I, it was the funniest thing
ever. We had invited my parents to come and do a session with us and then they
can’t even make it in to be with us and they didn’t really let us leave to just
go to the next session with our whole group. Everyone was so confused about it
but Dayton and I just couldn’t stop laughing at what had happened. Anyway, we
are going to try to do that again after the holidays and hopefully everyone can
go with us this time!
Finally, I was able to make it to Dayton’s half marathon in
the Gilbert marathon. They started at Higley High School and ran all the way
over to Mesquite Junior High to be right by the Gilbert Day’s Parade. I was
able to see him at the end of the finish line and watch him cross and finish
with his teammate, Ryan, who I also learned is a super cool guy. Dayton is
absolutely incredible. Every time that I watch him cross one of those finish
lines, it just gives me hope and inspiration for myself to become better. He
truly is an inspiration to me, as I’m sure that he is an inspiration to all of
us.
Well, this is the part where I bear my testimony on how
awesome my mission is. As Thanksgiving had gone by, I was able to find the
heart of celestial happiness. I was able to tap into what exactly gives you
energy to get out of bed every morning and learn and to grow and to just become
better. The answer truly is gratitude. I’m truly grateful with where my life
has gone so far. I came home after three weeks in the MTC from my proselyting
mission, wondering if that was just a funny joke from God. I was pretty upset
and pretty disappointed with what had happened and I was very ungrateful with
being home and not even noticing the things that I should have been grateful
for. Bishop Rae asked me to speak to these people named the Pugmire’s who were
in charge of service missions. I looked up service missions before them and
they just did not seem very much like the mission that I thought I was going to
do. Finally, after a lot of discussion about it, I decided to meet with the
Pugmire’s and talk about service missions. That was truly the best decision that
I ever made. My mission is truly perfect and if anything, it is better to me
than a proselyting mission. Sure, I can’t proselyting where I work but that is
a small sacrifice for the wonderful miracles that I have been able to be a part
of.
My mission is truly the best mission. I get to work with the
two physically handicapped missionaries that are in this program. Visually,
they are physically handicapped but after working with both of them for such a
long time, one of them being my companion for almost a year and the other being
a person I get to be in the temple with at least once a week, I have learned
that they are not just people
with disabilities or that they are any less
because of their disability. They both have taught me so much about my own life
and the things that I can’t be grateful for. I was able to be the first
missionary ever to be put into a nonprofit area and be the first to work in an
area that was a non-LDS program and now I have my own district of people that
also work at Save the Family with me as well as at different non-LDS programs.
I was chosen by the Pugmire’s and by the Lord, to be an instrument and be able
to serve people at a place that had never had missionaries before me. It was
difficult and a little scary to not have a companion and to kind of be on my
own for the most part for about a year or so and to know that each of my many
decisions could have a major impact on other missionaries but I was told by the
Pugmire’s that I was doing amazing things at Save the Family that other
nonprofits had apparently noticed and had begun to ask for more of our
missionaries. That was the greatest feeling to ever receive! My mission was
important! Not only was I serving others that I knew but I was able to be a
pioneer for the YCSM program and be able to create a future for other
missionaries like me and let them have a chance to serve a mission as long as
they truly desired it. I was able to learn that my mission was just as
important as a proselyting mission and it was truly the mission that I was
called to serve at. I am so grateful for the mission that I have been able to
be a part of and I am so excited to see what else The Lord has in store for me.
Sincerely,
Elder Bryson May
