Week of Service - Mainz week 3

March 16, 2015

Hello Mom and Dad!

Thanks for the email and glad you liked the photos, success there :)

What a wise beehive  [check link for definition. Hayden’s Mom teaches a this age group at church], such an important principle. We definitely can pray to help forgive others! So important. Thinking about Christ like attributes and spiritual gifts, growing and improving in general, we can pray for all of these things. Faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge and so on. SO many good thing that Heavenly Father will help us to achieve. Setting good goals and really praying for help and support, involving our Father in Heaven is so important.

Yep, Mainz does have their own ward [congregation]. Although when we do exchanges [missionaries pairing off with a different companionship]  I will be in Langen, so I will likely get to say hi to people who knew Taylor on his mission. Next door to his first area :) As far as exercise, the time for exercise is from 6:30-7, then we start on breakfast, showering, etc, getting ready for the day. The alarm goes off at 6:30, getting that much needed sleep :) I made some fitness goals and wrote out a general work out plan (Monday jump rope, Tuesday chest and back. that sort of overview) and morning exercise is going really well haha.

This week was solid. We made a goal to have contact with ward members every day, either stopping by or teaching a lesson (or both of course) and achieved that, so that was a lot of fun. Our ward is amazing! I love it so much! SO helpful, supportive and good. They love missionary work, it's so exciting to help here. As far as the subject, week of service: we helped hand [hang] a picture (big metal picture of Mainz, drilled holes into a concrete wall) and Elder Fitzgerald helped with some computer problems at one man's house. The next day we dug holes in Bruder [Brother] Meyer's backyard (kind of like roto-tilling I guess, just digging small holes with a shovel) and the next day we helped with a Saturday morning move. Lots of fun! And the second 2 were solid 'service lifting' opportunities. Getting a nice mid-day workout :) sore feet from walking and sore back from lifting boxes, I slept really well :)

As far as studies go, I just started reading the Gospel according to Mark. Reading in the Book of Mormon daily and reading about the life of Christ is wonderful. I decided to highlight the words 'immediately' 'straightway' and anything like unto those. 1st chapter alone there were so many. Marks writing is a great reminder of how we should immediately obey when given commandments. Both from the scriptures and from prophets today. Immediately course correct as we make mistakes. Immediately follow Christ, just as his disciples did when he called them. Ask yourself personally, 'what more can I do to come closer to Christ? How can I personally follow Him, live my life in accordance with his doctrine, with the principles that he taught?'

Enjoy, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Blanchard 

Ward didn’t link well so here is definition, sorry if it’s a repeat.
Wards

As in the ancient Church, members of the Church today are organized into congregations. Large congregations (approximately 300 or more members) are called wards. Smaller congregations are called branches. A ward is led by a bishop and two counselors, who constitute a bishopric. Branches are led by a branch president and two counselors. 

Taylor sent us this picture and said 

"We [the missionary with Hayden] served in the same zone for 4 months while I was in Hamm and in the same ward for 6 months in Karlsruhe.