Training or Being Trained?: Wetzlar Week 7

September 21, 2015

Subject: training or being trained?

Hello,

Oh my, what a a wonderful week and how time flies. I feel like I just started working with Elder Domine and now I´m training! Elder Regehr is my new companion, he´s from Sandy Utah, grew up playing soccer and is overall awesome, I´m learning so much from him. I´ll attach some pictures of the two of us as well. That bird came back the other day while we were at the church, companionship tradition at this building :) It´s a magpie I guess, likes shiny things and was probably attracted to the iPad the first time it came to us [dad note: I plan to post a short video with Hayden and this bird soon]. It came to the sisters this last sunday and then taunted a cat, that was a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, Elder Regehr, he took no German before the MTC, but for 6 weeks his German is really solid. The gift of tongues is real! It doesn´t have to mean that you will wake up one day and be fluent (although I´m sure that isn´t impossible, just not the most common) but that as we work to learn the language and really communicated with people God will bless us with an increased ability to communicate. I am learning so much, speaking more German and explaining concepts is improving my German as well. Knowing that our time together will be truly the foundation of his mission, I´m that much more motivated to work hard and be my best.

Other things from this past week.. I ate fufu, a tasty African food (search it on the internet, really tasty, fun experience) with a man in the ward named Thomas, from Ghana. Elder Domine enjoyed saying goodbye to some of his favorite people. Elder Regehr arrived, fun with the ward and fun teaching.

We´re teaching a man named Mr S, he´s from Eritria (by Ethiopia) he doesn´t speak much German at all and it´s hard for us to understand each other´s Englisch as well. We had started chatting and really on
both sides were struggling to understand each other, prayed to start the lesson and asked for the spirit to help us understand one another and we all really noticed a difference, not perfect, but better, especially for Mr S. Immediate answers to pray, Heavenly Father is so helpful.

Have a great week! Carry on!

Love,

Hayden

PS. Could you send me that video from the Jujitsu tournament, the guy I fought who had corn rows? He arrived in this group of missionaries but looks a lot different now :)

Nashville tribute CDs would be awesome for my birthday/Christmas, Taylor gave me one CD but the files don´t work on the DVD player I have in the apartment. Nerds rope (it´s Elder Regehr´s favorite
candy). The bigger of the two family pictures please. And I have always wanted a Christmas package from a primary class... That would be cool... My Green journal that I left at home that doesn´t have many entries in it, if it takes too long to find don´t worry about it at all. Should I keep brain storming over here? Let me know. Thank you!

Gifts and a Golden?: Wetzlar Week 6

September 14, 2015

Subject: gifts and a golden?

Hello Family!

Happy Monday! To answer some of Mom´s questions, I don´t really know what I want for my birthday or Christmas... McCormick rubs would be nice, BBQ, maple brown sugar(or something like that). I´m not a big fan of the mesquite or the hamburger rub. Some cholulu (spelling probably wrong there) sauce, it´s a red spicy sauce, kind of like tabasco but not. I would love a more recent picture of the family (the one I have was taken before Taylor left on his mission). I´ve always wanted a christmas package with letters and stuff from a primary class, that would be pretty awesome :) Other than that... amazon.de is a good option, much less on shipping and pretty reliable I´m sure if you have any other ideas.

Elder Mann asked me if there was anything he should do specifically while in our area, so I gave him a suggestion ;) nothing crazy, don't worry. and yes, my address is east of Wetzlar. [Note: Elder D Mann is serving in Hayden's home ward and visiting his parent's-us]

News from transfer calls: I´m staying (surprise), Elder Domine will head off to Frankfurt so we´ll still see each other for zone conferences (Frankfurt and Friedrichsdorf zones are together for that). AND, I´m Training!!! Ahhh! I´m so excited :) Nervous too. A big mix of emotions, but mostly excited. I feel like I´ve barely been with people other than my trainer (since I have, two transfers, two companions in between) and now I´m training. I have heard of people who trained right after they finished being trained, I´m glad I´m not doing that, I feel a lot more prepared today than I would´ve been then. I´ll pray a lot and give my best to give this new missionary a great start to his mission. Or maybe he´ll be a German who has already served a bunch of mini missions and he´ll be the one training me. :) I´ll learn a lot either way, I´m sure.

Elder Domine and I do a lot of contacting (finding, tracting [door-to-door], looking for people to teach, whatever you want to call it). We´ve found more people to teach during this one transfer than I have during the rest of my mission so far, it´s been awesome. We don´t have any people who we consistently teach yet, but it´s been so cool to be led to these people who have been prepared, who listen to us on the streets and occasionally in their homes even. As I´ve worked to talk with, to share with more people I´ve found that I have more faith that there are people prepared to lesson, I have more love for these people who are almost strangers (so many people are so open in some of these conversations on the street, strangers doesn´t quite fit) and enjoyment in contacting. I know that I have a purpose out here, that God leads and guides this work and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

Liebe Grüße!

Hayden

Grateful : Wetzlar Week 5

September 7, 2015

Mom and Dad,

Hi :) Happy Birthday Mom! It sounds like you did a lot for your birthday, good friends and good stuff going on with the family too. Thanks for the updates all around. To answer some questions, my address is

    Elder Hayden Blanchard

     Karl-Sack- Straße 15,

     35398 Gießen

     Germany

    (remember those funny looking ß  can be double ‘s’ (ss) ).

As far as ward council, ward mission and other things going on in the ward: since I´ve been here I´ve been to two funerals and one ward council, August is the vacation month in a lot of Germany so less of the ward is there, but from the people whom I have met so far I like this ward a lot. We´ve found a few investigators (told you about a few- with whom we met but no longer are meeting with). And don´t really have anyone consistent yet, but we´re working on it :) It´s probably better to send packages to the office and letters to the apartment, except close to the end of transfers. This is the last week of the week of the transfer, oh my how it has flown! The bishop made some comments this past Sunday about serving and supporting immigrants with so many refugees coming in.

Other things going on, grateful for the ward, grateful for finding people, grateful for my supportive, fun, honest, sweet companion, for the district that I´m in going on splits, and for journal writing. In the past couple of busy weeks I´ve gotten behind on my journal and I recently made some time to catch up (since it´s honestly more about Making time than Having time, we "find" time for the things that we really want to do). I´ve seen very clearly once again how so many of my prayers have been answered, to be able to help and support Elder Domine, to get to know the area, to have more joy in missionary work, to find people to teach. At so many levels :) I know that God answers our prayers, he cares about us and what matters to us, not only that we read our scriptures and get answers to lifes biggest questions (he most definitely cares a lot about that, put God first!) but he cares about what matters to us, our day to day happiness, our relationships, the decisions that aren´t necessarily good or bad but matter to us (career, hhhmmm, engineer or school teacher?) I´ve really seen that personal love that Father in Heaven has for me and for each of His children so much.

Have a great week!

I love you!

Hayden

James and the Atonement: Wetzlar Week 4

August 31, 2015

Subject: James and the Atonement

Hello!

Glad to hear things are going well, transitioning back into school, new car (send me a picture, please!) Brother Hada teaching [sharing during Sunday school] from Acts, there are some Intense things in there. I´ve really enjoyed reading the New Testament more this week again.

Emily and Austin both scored big time on teachers this year. Teachers, school, studies. Studies on my mission are so different than ever before. I know I write about studies all the time. I just love to study the scriptures, to discover, rediscover and let my understanding of so many beautiful, eternal truths expand. I was reading in the Bible, the German Bible has a little intro to each book/section and that was really cool. I was pondering words, James 3:2 "For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body". Also the Tongue of Angels talk from Elder Holland (classic, highly recommended) and how by words things are created, faith is expressed, people are healed and so on. Totally changing direction, but that´s why I was reading in James, I was reading in the intro and it was talking about how faith without works is dead. Often that may be seen in opposition to Romans 3:28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So true on both sides. Read Romans 3:21-31 with James 2:14-25, then Galatians 5 (emphasis on verses 5 and 6. Anyways, Paul's point, and why it doesn´t conflict with James at all, but really works beautifully together, is that people often focus too much on the law. Too much on what they need to do, the commandments that we need to keep and so on. We are justified freely through the Grace of God, through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. As important as it is to keep the commandments (Christ wouldn´t have taught them if we they didn´t matter) it wouldn´t matter if it weren´t for his infinite atoning sacrifice. We need to have faith and show are love and gratitude through what we do and how we live our lives, that just isn´t the Reason or way by which we can be saved, by which we can come back to our Father in Heaven. Jesus Christ lives. His atonement is real. What a privilege to share.

I just love studies. Other things going on... Still enjoying having bikes in this area. We biked to a cool little castle today, I think it´s called Gleiberg. Splits continue to be a pleasure. We used to do two splits every 6 weeks with Langen. With 4 companionships of Elders in the district (including my own) We go on 7 splits every 6 weeks (1 with Zone leaders). Hanau and Wetterau. Then Friedrichsdorf as well. Kind of a long email today, hope you got to the end ;)

Carry on!

Love,

Hayden