Half Day Spanish: Heidelberg Week 1

April 18, 2016

Hello family!

You have lots of questions this week haha :)

To start from the beginning: Elder Clemente is from Boise, Idaho, he is currently starting his 5th transfer on his mission (I feel old, #11 over here, transfers typically last 6 weeks, this one is 7 by the way). He has already been in Heidelberg for 2 transfers and was with Elder Garcia, one of my MTC companions. Elder Clemente's dad is Spanish and grew up speaking Spanish, so he's pretty much a native speaker. We have so much in common, it's a lot of fun. Elder Clemente's mom did early childhood education and so did mom, his dad did electrical engineering. He grew up playing soccer then stopped in high school and did a little bit of rugby. He isn't a big fan of shopping. He ran a half marathon in 7th grade. Took 4 years of German in high school then did an exchange program for 3 weeks in southern Germany. Basically mom and dad compared, made notes and then did their best to give us the same growing up years. He's great, really positive and patient with Spanish, serves me all the time and is just so excited to learn, grow and do his best. [DadNote: its really amazing, Hayden’s list for Elder Clemente could be Clemente’s list to his parents about Hayden...except for the spanish]

The branch is wonderful. The members are so loving and excited to have missionaries. It's different being in Spanish culture and language but I like it here a lot as well. Most of the members are from Spain but there are also some members from Ecuador, Mexico and Argentina (for example Taylor's friends, the Fragapanes, however they typically go to the German ward. Brother Fragapane is a high councilor and they visit the branch once a month), definitely more, but I don't know people or places well enough yet to say. President Heckman, yeah, I haven't met him yet, but that's cool, another connection :) [DN: Taylor met him for some medical related visits while in Karlsruhe] The Fragapane's were So excited to see another Elder Blanchard, I felt so loved. I don't know what Taylor did in Karlsruhe, but they love him. Missionaries who serve there and in Hamm [DN: Where Taylor served before Karlsruhe] will tell me how both of those wards still talk about Elder Blanchard and how much they love him.

                                                                                                                                            

Heidelberg has lot's of everything. I believe that it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in Germany. It has some city, but it isn't nearly as industrial as Frankfurt of course. It has mountains as well (the word Berg means mountain, fun fact) Elder Clemente and I are starting to run on the little hills near our house and in our neighborhood. 1 day last week. 3 this week, 5 next week and then we'll just go cross country status and run every day! 

The weather rains a lot and is starting to warm up more consistently. Investigators. There was one guy with whom Elder Clemente had met once and there was a baptism in March, past that, We recently found two people, a man from Nigeria who will be baptized while we're together and Mr Z, don't know him too well yet, but we'll have an appointment on Wednesday.

Pause for Mr V the Nigerian man: We finished up at church, walked out and stopped a person on his bike. After talking about how we can be forgiven of our sins and made clean through the atonement, we invited him to be baptized on May 28th, he's excited to meet with us and come to church and find out if this is for him. We're meeting on Tuesday. That was a cool miracle of the week.

The church isn't across from my house as it was in Frankfurt, but it's still significantly more convenient than it was in Wetzlar. The problem in Wetzlar as well was that the WiFi took 1 hour to do like 5 pictures.

We can teach anyone who wants to learn, no language restrictions here [DN: answering one of my many questions]. Elder Clemente and I speak half of the day in German and half Spanish with a break at night for some English. Helping him with his German and me with my Spanish, it`s great.

Well, I'm running out of time, but I'd just like to add that counting your many blessing as saying prayers full of gratitude helps to see the sun, even on rainy German days ;) Prayers sometimes only to say thank you are really good.

I love you! 

Hayden

Todd K, Elder Cemente and Hayden.  Todd sent this to Hayden's Dad (4/18/2016) with the note, "Look who I ran into in Heidelberg last week. He is doing great and says hi!"  


 

Moving to Heidelberg:Frankfurt Week 18

April 11, 2016

Hello!

I'll start with news first and then let you know about the awesome week over here. News: I'm moving to Heidelberg!!! I'll be serving in the Heidelberg Spanish branch with Elder Clemente and I'll be praying that he has patience with me learning Spanish :)

As Zone leaders in Frankfurt we help a lot with the new missionaries coming in and such [DN: new arrivals to the Frankfurt Mission], but in our mission we don't do special splits with new missionaries. Honestly my missionary work as a zone leader isn't really different, we plan monthly Zone training meetings, have Sunday night call ins with the district leaders in the zone, visit district meetings and have a monthly mission leadership council. The day to day is pretty normal, find, teach, [and] invite to be baptized. We also do not call in every night when we get home, sounds taxing.

I had actually already seen most of the zone, Mainz is part of the Frankfurt zone, so I'd been to the Frankfurt chapel and area a lot earlier in my mission. My whole mission I've gone to Offenbach for Zone conference since Wetzlar is only one stake and one zone away. In Frankfurt I've had fewer exchanges and less travel for exchanges than I did in Wetzlar. That was a big district.

Mom, that's so good that you've been going to the temple so consistently and magnifying your calling. Over here missionaries do their best to make it to every ward council . In Frankfurt we take turns because there are 4 companionships in the ward here. Having members at lessons is really helpful for all sorts of reasons, one of which being that church is also social and it's important to have friends there. Something really nice is to invite the missionaries to bring an investigator over for dinner or to have a friend and the missionaries to dinner together. We love that :)

Similarly to home, the ward councils here try to help us have members at lessons. They also ask us to visit less active members to help come back.

In answering some of these questions and as a result of a chat with another missionary this week I want to pass on this talk.

Elder Kopischke 2007, October. He's talking about how awesome preach my gospel is and how it strengthens members and missionaries and helps us to be more unified in missionary work. It's really good, you should check that out for Family Home evening or something.

As far as lessons and friends this week: We met with Mr Z twice and he is doing great. He's a bit stressed with working on his masters papers, but we have noticed and he has as well that his faith has grown as we've been meeting. Mr Z believes that there is some sort of higher power, not really sure what and has learned/ is learning a lot about the nature of God and has received answers to lots of his questions. 

Mr M is from Nigeria, he is so down to earth and treats everyone like family. We had a really powerful lesson with Mr M and he accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 28th.

We had contact with Mr V again! He had turned off his phone because he is hard at work on his Dissertation. 

Overall this was a solid week full of miracles, answers to prayer, happiness and fun! I know that God answers prayers. He helps each of us, he draws nearer to us as we draw unto him and his love is always there for us. 

I love you!

Hayden

We Meet Decisions: Frankfurt Week 17

April 4, 2016

Hello Family!

Every week I sit down to write emails and can barely remember the highlights of my week. Time flies and when it flies it also blurs.

Mr M. He comes from Nigeria and we met him a few weeks ago. He spent a few years studying at a seminary but left that and is working on art now. He loves God and is really excited to learn more. We met with Mr M and he brought a friend with him as well, the friend mentioned to us that Mr M usually isn't the sort who meets with random strangers, but he made an exception for us.

Mr Z. We taught him the restoration and he´s working on reading and praying. He´s a good one.

PHD, Mr V, we haven´t had much contact with him for a little while.

This week is the last week of the transfer, by next Pday I'll know if I stay or if I go.

General conference is wonderful, it´s like a missionary holiday, just getting wonderful revelation, an outpouring of the spirit and the pleasing word of God. We watch it in English, one session Saturday night, 3 on Sunday, then 1 more sometime later.

Some of my conference highlights and personal answers etc: I need to pray more, pray always, always carry a prayer in my heart, pray without ceasing, or however the scriptures choose to say it. Praying from the heart is how we come closer to God. The importance of our divine heritage is huge, the family/marriage. The restoration of Priesthood authority. :) "If there were a perfect women, do you really think that she would be interested in you?" "Forgiveness is the very reason God sent his Son" "Baptism is a point of departure" "Es gibt nichts gutes, außer man tut es" [DN: There is nothing good, unless you do it]. I also found that really interesting that President Monson spoke again about decisions, Elder Taylor and I checked and it looks like President Monson has talked about Alice in Wonderland and decisions at least 7 times, maybe more. Important words from a prophet. I definitely have a testimony of that, the impact that decisions have on our lives and the importance of them. Whether we choose to read the scriptures, to pray, to serve. What we major in and do for a career, whom we marry, where to live. There are so many decisions in life. I like how the idea is expressed in German. Wir treffen Entscheidungen, we meet decisions. It's our job to choose the right, to meet God and come to him. I'm grateful for the Spirit and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the best compass out there. I love you,

Carry on,

Hayden