June 20, 2016
Subject: Re: Happy Father's Day
Mom and Dad!
Taylor's friend was SO
happy to see me, always lovingly received by his friends in Karlsruhe [see picture below. Karlsruhe is the area next to Heildelberg and where Taylor spent his last months]. That's
cool that we have a Chinese speaking missionary [DN: an Elder currently in Hayden's home ward was assigned to the Irvine Mission Chinese speaking].
Have Austin send me
things about High Adventure [DN 36 miles, 5 days, around Mt Langley].
Spanish is going well, I
can speak Spanish, it just takes more time.
I've heard things are
going well with Savannah, so excited for Taylor! Looking forward to getting to
know her better.
This week was wonderful in missionary work. Spending time with and supporting the members is
a big focus here. The ward leadership is focusing a lot on the basics (may or
may not have mentioned this part last week) and we are working on prayer,
scripture study and spending time with the missionaries. We took this
invitation and focus from the branch president as a personal challenge and
tried to meet with the whole branch, we had 10 member lessons planned and had 7
last week, almost did it. It was a lot of fun, I love this ward.
About 4 weeks ago we met
a man on the street who hasn't been to church in about 10 years. We had a first
lesson with him and talked about desires, desiring to come closer to God and
our role as missionaries in inviting and helping him to come closer to Jesus
Christ. We talked about the importance of simple things like prayer and
scripture study in doing this. Between that appointment and the next he had
read! Keeping commitments! We met again about a week after that second
appointment, this last Friday, and this time we met in the church. Side note,
meeting at the church was a big step for this man who hasn't been to church for
10 years. Our first appointment was at McDonalds (classic) our next was in a
park and for this appointment he made it to church. We had a really powerful,
spiritual appointment and were all really open. At the end we invited him to
church and he said, "Well, I guess I should have expected this. What time
does church start?"
Church started at 9:30
and he made it! First time in 10 years! Sometimes I kind of laugh about how
excited we are to bring people to church, but at the same time it is a really
important step.
The exciting part though
isn't just that he's reading in the scriptures now and coming to church, it has
been wonderful to see this man change and grow, to feel him come closer to God.
The basic things bring us peace and a relationship to God. Sincere prayer,
thoughtful study of the scriptures, service.
Have a great week, I
love you!
Hayden
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