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!"
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!"
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