So Important to be Positive: Frankfurt Week 2

December 21, 2015

Mom and Dad,

Happy Monday!

I contemplated writing a really short email and just telling you what time worked for skyping but decided against it haha. The church wifi here is reliable enough and I´ve skyped from my iPad before (meetings with other missionaries).

Elder Taylor really likes food [DadNote: his companion]. He´s a great cook and cooks really healthy food. Thus we have brown rice, chicken and fitness in common. Really though, we´re going to become really healthy together. Missionary work, leadership, enjoys the scriptures. He really likes cars (that´s not really something in common, but I learned about Audi and BMW stuff today). He is good at being focused in lessons and organized in leadership/planning. He is patient and willing to help and support others.

Thank you so much Mom, that makes me happy :) [DN: comment she made in letter] I think that´s something that I´ve learned better on my mission, recognizing and praising others for their gifts, talents and goodness. It´s so important to be positive and focus on the positive in relationships with others. As much as one shouldn´t be afraid to criticize or let people know where they should improve, if we don´t show love and let them know that they´re doing well and are successful/good at things then life just isn´t as happy.

Oh yes, fun reunion when we´re all home. Glad Taylor made it safe, different having him at your adult activities?

We have a Christmas eve and a first day of Christmas member appointment here. (Christmas is 2 days). Way to go inviting the missionaries over for breakfast, they´ll love that.

We had a fun week over here. Mission leadership council, Zone conference, and being sick at the end of the week. I learned a lot about leadership, caught up on my journal, and we found a few new people who will start investigating the church this week.

Carry on, have fun, remember Jesus Christ, the best Christmas gift ever.

John 3: 16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Love,

Hayden

It´s really weird: Frankfurt/Wetzlar Week 1/19

December 13, 2015

Hello!!

Farwells were good, I got a lot more pictures this time than when I left Mainz, so that was nice. (still working on that... being better at picture taking. I just uploaded the rest of what I have, Christmas promise fulfilled.

New area, Frankfurt! It´s really weird because I used to go on Splits here when I was living in Mainz and now this is my apartment and my area, not just splits and meetings. I was always worried that it would be distracting and not good to have so many missionaries in one place, but it really isn´t bad. We´re focused and doing good work. My companion is Elder Robert Taylor from Payson, Utah (it´s funny since my middle name is Robert, and my older Brother who was born in Payson is named Taylor. Elders Taylor and Blanchard. Fun) He has 6 months left on his mission and has been in Regenburg, Saarbrücken und Nürnberg. We speak a lot of German together and do good things like that. He´s already been a zone leader for 3 transfers so that´s helpful too, we´re both just doing our best to get to know Frankfurt. We live really close to our church at Porthstraße 5.

Other questions and things to answer. Skyping. We don´t have any holiday appointments yet, so if that doesn´t work out we´ll probably just go to the church and skype with our iPads. Let me know that times are best for you (and if you could remind me of Dad´s skype info that would be helpful too) and I´ll let you know next week what works and what we´re looking at. I did receive your package and a package from Grandma and grandpa, and my companion s dad had a business trip here so he dropped a suitcase off full of stuff with President and had a few things for me in there. I haven´t opened your presents yet. Geduld :)  [patience] Yeah, it´s ok, I´ve got plenty of things to do so it´s honestly not distracting/tempting, not that I´m not excited. The iCloud thing... Well, the iTunes thing required that I use a credit card, not debit back when we got the iPad and seeing as I do not have a credit card with me and don´t want you to send specific credit card info over the internet I ended up using the family iTunes account to put apps on my iPad over here. Elder Taylor likes using the calendar app on the iPad and having our calendars synced, so that required me to use iCloud and thus the family account again. If mom is curious how I spend my time she can check that out. I think it would most likely ask for a credit card again if I tried to change accounts... Maybe something to think about for the skype call.

I don´t know how interesting 60% of this is for the blog, do what you want.

Yeah, so week 1 in Frankfurt. I got here Tuesday afternoon, Elder Taylor and I unpacked a bit, had a lesson with a nice man named Jürgen, had ward mission correlation then unpacked more. The following couple of days were crazy, so much going on. We drove new missionaries around and picked them up at the airport (Elder Hoertig from RSM, he´s in my zone too) We prepped for a Wednesday night baptism then drove missionaries and trainers to the hotel where they stay the night before heading off. The next day we spent time with leaving missionaries, driving them around, doing a street display and then driving them to the same hotel where they would spend their last night in Germany. Interesting seeing the contrast between the beginning and the end and weird being part of the process on both sides for people. We also got to know the ward at the ward Christmas party and at church. This ward is more like a ward in the states. So much bigger that you´re average German ward, lots of fun. I got to know a lot of people and I´m trying to remember a lot of new names, it was good though. Answered prayers as I was able to remember a lot more a lot faster than I think I typically do.

We had a few lessons and talked to some people on the street too, on that note I think I´ll share some thoughts about teaching. Teaching isn´t nearly as hard or as stressful as I thought it would be before I left on my mission. Of course it´s not easy, you don´t just go over to people´s homes to chat with them, but it is very simply and when you teach by the spirit, very powerful as well. Simply asking questions and listening are seriously the most important.

from the last Liahona "President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, said, “To ask and to answer questions is at the heart of all learning and all teaching.”"

If you don´t understand and care about someone it´s just a bit more complicated to teach something personally applicable that will help them build faith and answer their personal questions. We need to teach simply and personally. Bearing testimony of truth in a way that invites the spirit and speaks to peoples hearts. As we ask thought provoking questions and listen, we invite people to take the learning upon themselves, to learn for themselves and understand in an applicable way. Telling alone is not teaching. Teachers invite people to act (Bednar). Ask. Listen. Teach. Testify. Ask/check for understanding. Invite. I love it. Teaching the simple, pure doctrine of Jesus Christ is such a privilege and a blessing. I know that what I teach is true. It is powerful because it´s God´s truth. Jesus is his son, they´re there for us and they love us.

Have a great week,

Love,

Hayden

Pondering Intent, Motivation, and Love: Wetzlar Week 18

December 7, 2015

Hello!

Pictures, I uploaded a bunch on Sunday and I think one of them, the one in October, should be good. More on the way, but I think that will be good for the family Christmas card.

Investigators and progression through gospel topics. All in Preach my Gospel, we typically start with the restoration because that talks about some key things that set us apart from other churches. (Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, priesthood authority, modern day revelation) then plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ with commandments interspersed. Part of the difference in Preach my Gospel is that it focuses more on the individual needs of the investigator and of the missionary more, following the spirit being the most important thing. I believe there is a line in Preach my Gospel where it says that the spirit is the most important element of the work, so even though we typically go through in that order we always make sure that what we teach is personally applicable and helpful and truly what they need to hear. If people don´t keep their commitments we normally don´t move forward and really introduce new doctrine. If you haven´t read from the Book of Mormon (or whatever the invitation may be) then you aren´t doing what you need to do to truly learn. Teachers invite people to act (Elder Bednar said something like that at mission conference) if people don´t do what they have committed to then it´s hard to move on. We typically review or do their reading with them and help them to understand how to relate the scriptures to themselves or make that a meaningful experience, whatever it may be.

Yes, definitely taking advantage of those :) [exercise stuff] I´m back down to 1??! Yesterday I wore some pants to church that I haven´t worn since the MTC! Better Sport in the morning, healthier eating through the day- mostly just less food and portion control, haven´t gone off of sugar or anything like that. Ok, I´ll follow Maddy´s example and be patient with my Christmas package when it comes.

I´ll get that really soon, Because......

I´m moving to Frankfurt! Off to the hub of the mission and European stuff in the church. If you send me packages or letters I´ll have them really soon, the church is also right next to the apartment building so it will be easier to send you pictures and things like that. I´m looking at another big change in life. (I´ll be a zone leader too, don´t really know totally what to expect but I´m excited to learn and grow more and be able to do so much with and for so many missionaries). I don´t know yet (of course) who my companion Elder Robert Taylor and I will be with or how that will go for Christmas, maybe we´ll skype from our iPads in the church. Schauen wir mal [We’ll see].

Glad to hear you had fun at the temple and are doing well :) How´s the family mission plan going? Maybe mix some Preach my Gospel in with family scripture study, I´ve told you before and I´ll write it again, I wish I´d studies that more before my mission. I love it, it is so simple, foundational and really applicable for anyone in so many areas.

This week I´ve been pondering intent, motivation, and love a lot. Why do missionaries (or whoever it may be) do what they do? Do you talk to people on the street so that you can tell mission leaders about it, have cool stories for the family, be a hard working missionary, or truly out of love and hope for the people with whom you talk? The first things aren´t bad, I´m definitely looking forward to telling stories and like writing good stories in emails, but that can´t be the primary motivation to do missionary work. Love. The true motivation needs to be love, intending to lovingly help people as we invite them to come unto Christ.

I think that´s a really good thing to do in life, ask ourselves why we are who we are and why we do what we do, make course corrections. Be what God would have us be and do what he would have us do. Have joy in it :)

Have a great week! Love,

Hayden

Oh yeah, I ended up giving my talk without notes because I had lost my iPad. I left it on the train on the way to church. Mighty prayer (Grandpa)- mostly out of not wanting to make mom sad, since I weirdly wasn´t too stressed that I had lost it and wasn´t worried that I wouldn´t get it back- and I got it back on Tuesday. Some angel who works for Hessischelandesbahn turned it in. Prayers answered. Oh, also, a really nice woman who Elder Regehr talked with on Saturday night (we were home at 11:30 last week, missing trains and stuff, but with purpose it turns out) has a baptismal date now and is loving the Book of Mormon. till next week for real this time. miracles..