Elder May - July Email

One of the highlights this month for Brian and I was we got to attend the temple with Elder May and Dayton.  What an awesome experience.  I knew what Bryson told me about the way that they communicate but to see it in action was humbling and amazing.  I am so grateful for the YCSM program and the opportunities that it affords our missionary.  Experiences that he wouldn't have in a traditional proselyting mission.   It reaffirms my testimony that Heavenly Father is deeply aware of us and our needs.  We love him and are oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Hello!

July was honestly an interesting month for me. I am serving and I am back up from the fight, ready to be district leader and to help push the work along. I took Dayton to the temple on July 21 and he helped pray with me and I got my answer on what I needed to do. It seemed so simple to do but at the time that I felt it, it was pretty difficult for me to do but now I'm back to normal.  

During the midst of this, a woman came up to us while Dayton and I were in the celestial room with tears in her eyes. She kept saying that we were an answer to her prayers. I asked what she meant and she held my hand and told me that she her son, Tony has special needs like Dayton. She was concerned with how Tony would do if he went to the Tucson Temple Open House. On the same day as her concerns grew more and more, she came to an endowment session on May 19th, a day that I took Elder Ferrell and Elder Hayward to the temple and helped get both of them dressed before myself. She came that day and saw me take care of them and knew that God would take of her son. She told me that I was the answer to her many prayers. It made me feel absolutely incredible and after that, Dayton could not stop smiling. She held Dayton's hand and spoke to him and I got to be part of that conversation as I told her what Dayton was saying. We took pictures and it was just an absolutely wonderful day. If I could get the PDF loaded, I will send you her story. 

Again, things have been going better. Please don't read this and think I am still going crazy. I am done with being the caregiver for Elder Ferrell. What seemed like something that was going to happen for 8 weeks, had suddenly been something for only 3 weeks. It was incredible though because I got super close to Elder Ferrell and he is now my favorite companion pretty easily, no offense to my other companions. While he was gone in Flagstaff, it was a ton more difficult to interact with him twice a week and I think it was more difficult for me with him being so far away than normal. I don't know, all I know is that this was a tougher month for my mission and I'm glad this month is over because it felt the longest month ever. I'm excited for August!

Thank you for all your continued prayers and thoughts.  I love you all!

Elder May

Elder May - June Email

What a crazy few weeks for our Elder Bryson May!  We couldn’t be prouder or more humbled by the endless sacrifice and devotion he shows to all his missionaries that love and depend on him.  I have learned more about our Savior’s love through watching Elders and Sisters serve in the Youth Service Mission.  If you don’t know much about it, I encourage you to learn especially if you have children that will one day want to be a part of it.  The program is simply amazing.  I am honored to be a parent to one of the missionaries serving.  Brian attended the zone conference this month and said “It was one of the most spiritual meetings he’d ever been in…”.  Grateful for inspired leaders and grateful for a son that follows his heart, even when it is difficult.  Love him and so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Wow this month has been quite the roller coaster. Earlier this year, my companion Elder Ferrell, had asked me to help him by being his caregiver over the summer so that he could continue his mission while his family was gone in Flagstaff. He didn't want to miss out on anything in his mission so he asked me to help him out. After a lot of prayer and discussion with my family and his, I had accepted to help him and it was truly wonderful. I lived at his house for about three weeks and was hanging out with him all day from when I helped him out of bed in the morning to helping him get ready for bed at night. It was truly such a miracle for me because even though there were times for both of us, that we were worried of being too much of a burden on the other person, I just want to say how much I have loved getting to know and be able to live and help Elder Ferrell. He is such an amazing person and he taught me so many things. He taught me how to be more grateful for what I have as well as being selfless and loving to everyone unconditionally. He taught me to have perseverance and to keep trying for the things that I want. I am so grateful for my mission because the more time goes on, I learn how much Heavenly Father actually knows me. He knows that my mission is always to serve and help others. 

I will admit that it has been tough for the last few weeks. My friends have been coming home from their missions and I have family with amazing news coming in and it's just tough for me to think about.  My airport homecoming was not what I had thought it would be when I left because I had only been out 3 weeks.   It's tough for me to go to certain family events and feel like I am supposed to be there. I love my time at home and I know I am supposed to be home but it still has the certain times when I feel like I shouldn't be somewhere or I don't belong somewhere which is difficult to go through. I know that Satan has been working really hard on me recently so it must mean that something awesome is about to happen to me.

Other than that though, I have absolutely loved my service mission. I love providing outreach to people and I have friends asking me questions about service missions and I love teaching people about my service mission. I have been able to be trusted more and more at Save the Family as they are giving me bigger and better projects to work on as well as entrusting me to work more and more with our client base and it is so much fun. I get a completely different perspective on life and I get to be a shining light to people and help them through whatever problems they have. The difficult part about working here is that I will never really see the progress or change that I make in people's lives but I know that I need to keep doing it. Not everyone is always ready for the gospel but everyone is always ready for service and that's why I love my mission.  I love how Heavenly Father made my life for me. He knows my struggles and my fears and right when I came home from my mission, I had a pilot program in just my state at the time with a service mission ready for me. 

I absolutely love Elder Ferrell and Elder Sanders. They are like brothers to me. I call them when I need help and they do the same thing back. They love people unconditionally and show the exact example of Christ's life to other people. I love my companions. Elder Ferrell and I find it to be insane on how we met each other. We live on opposite sides of the state and never heard about each other. I come home and start my service mission a few months after he starts his. I got put into his district after Elder Pugmire told me how he needed me at Save the Family. We met when there was a zone endowment trip and Elder Ferrell, Elder Bryson and I were the three people that were late. I helped get him dressed throughout the session. After the session, everyone left for dinner and Elder Ferrell and Elder Zollinger asked if I needed a ride which is when I learned how awesome his cars were and how awesome his power chair is and how cool of a person he was. Since then I have become his district leader, he has come with me on a few times that I take Dayton to the temple, and now we have become into a trio with Elder Sanders and we have bonded as the three of us and I couldn't be happier. 

I love Heavenly Father's plan for me and I love being the passenger as he shows me His almighty power in what he has in store for me. I love Save the Family, I love my missionaries, both my companions and my district, I love my family and my friends and I love my Heavenly Father and my brother Jesus Christ, who died for me that I may receive joy and be with my family and friends in eternal happiness as long as I do what is right and I help others. I am so excited to keep going.

District Activity - Human Foosball

District Activity - Human Foosball

My love to all of you –

Elder Bryson May

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