A new Bishop and a Pitch Fork: Mainz Week 4

March 24, 2015

Hello Mom and Dad,

Happy Tuesday, happy P-day :) Haven't gone to the temple yet, but that will happen in a few hours. To answer your question as far as food with members, we have member contact almost every day, I haven't kept track day by day as to how many times per week we eat with members, but we are fed well in the Mainz ward :).

Fed well physically and spiritually :) This ward is so strong and good! We had a potluck again after church because a new Bishop was called on Sunday. Bishop Nabrotski is amazing, he led the ward so well and really magnified his calling as Bishop. He'd been Bishop for about 7.5 years (first in the Wiesbaden ward, there was a split) and now Bishop Staiger will be leading the Mainz ward. The Lord really prepares and qualifies those whom he calls. It was also such a sweet Sunday because so many less-active members came, 3 people with whom Elder Fitzgerald and I are working and a woman who is investigating the church, being taught by the Sister missionaries came.

Again, loving the sacrament [sacrament meeting] and really taking that time to reflect on the week, reflect on the Savior and his sacrifice for each of us. The Sacrament, renewing the covenants that we make with our Father in Heaven when we are baptized. One of my favorite passages regarding those covenants is Mosiah, when the people whom Alma taught were taught about those covenants that they were entering into. 

Mosiah 18:8-11

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.

Read the rest of that Chapter for family scripture study or home evening! So good, so important to understand. These promises that we make at baptism are so real and powerful, we will be divinely supported as we always strive to live up to this covenant.

Sidetracked by good things :) I'm adjusting well, loving Germany, progressing in German, in understanding of the Gospel and in inviting people to come unto Christ. Answered prayers :)

Glad Austin is liking his new team and Emily is enjoying track and other fun things she works on, staying busy.

Yesterday we spend most of the day working on a member's farm. Clearing leaves and such, (I got to use a pitch fork, that was fun). Elder Fitzgerald and I had both prayed about it and felt good, even though it is kind of different to spend a whole day in physical service rather than talking with people and teaching lessons as we normally do. It was so sweet and so much fun, again, such good people here! On the train ride there, looking around I noticed a friendly man, we smiled at each other and boarded the train, not much past that. At night, heading back, I saw him again so I decided to go see how he was doing, start a conversation. We chatted for a while traded information, He was busy at the time, but gave us a card for the restaurant where he works, said to stop by and that we may be able to meet on a Monday or Tuesday sometime. The good of service, and the opportunity that we would not have had if we were not on the train. Proverbs 3:5-6. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not on thine own understanding. We had a good, inspired day :)

Have a great week, be safe, have fun, have Austin and Emily tell me some stories.

Love,

Elder Hayden Blanchard

Week of Service - Mainz week 3

March 16, 2015

Hello Mom and Dad!

Thanks for the email and glad you liked the photos, success there :)

What a wise beehive  [check link for definition. Hayden’s Mom teaches a this age group at church], such an important principle. We definitely can pray to help forgive others! So important. Thinking about Christ like attributes and spiritual gifts, growing and improving in general, we can pray for all of these things. Faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge and so on. SO many good thing that Heavenly Father will help us to achieve. Setting good goals and really praying for help and support, involving our Father in Heaven is so important.

Yep, Mainz does have their own ward [congregation]. Although when we do exchanges [missionaries pairing off with a different companionship]  I will be in Langen, so I will likely get to say hi to people who knew Taylor on his mission. Next door to his first area :) As far as exercise, the time for exercise is from 6:30-7, then we start on breakfast, showering, etc, getting ready for the day. The alarm goes off at 6:30, getting that much needed sleep :) I made some fitness goals and wrote out a general work out plan (Monday jump rope, Tuesday chest and back. that sort of overview) and morning exercise is going really well haha.

This week was solid. We made a goal to have contact with ward members every day, either stopping by or teaching a lesson (or both of course) and achieved that, so that was a lot of fun. Our ward is amazing! I love it so much! SO helpful, supportive and good. They love missionary work, it's so exciting to help here. As far as the subject, week of service: we helped hand [hang] a picture (big metal picture of Mainz, drilled holes into a concrete wall) and Elder Fitzgerald helped with some computer problems at one man's house. The next day we dug holes in Bruder [Brother] Meyer's backyard (kind of like roto-tilling I guess, just digging small holes with a shovel) and the next day we helped with a Saturday morning move. Lots of fun! And the second 2 were solid 'service lifting' opportunities. Getting a nice mid-day workout :) sore feet from walking and sore back from lifting boxes, I slept really well :)

As far as studies go, I just started reading the Gospel according to Mark. Reading in the Book of Mormon daily and reading about the life of Christ is wonderful. I decided to highlight the words 'immediately' 'straightway' and anything like unto those. 1st chapter alone there were so many. Marks writing is a great reminder of how we should immediately obey when given commandments. Both from the scriptures and from prophets today. Immediately course correct as we make mistakes. Immediately follow Christ, just as his disciples did when he called them. Ask yourself personally, 'what more can I do to come closer to Christ? How can I personally follow Him, live my life in accordance with his doctrine, with the principles that he taught?'

Enjoy, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Blanchard 

Ward didn’t link well so here is definition, sorry if it’s a repeat.
Wards

As in the ancient Church, members of the Church today are organized into congregations. Large congregations (approximately 300 or more members) are called wards. Smaller congregations are called branches. A ward is led by a bishop and two counselors, who constitute a bishopric. Branches are led by a branch president and two counselors. 

Taylor sent us this picture and said 

"We [the missionary with Hayden] served in the same zone for 4 months while I was in Hamm and in the same ward for 6 months in Karlsruhe.

different people but we share beliefs - Mainz week 2

Mar 9 at 5:34 AM

Mom and Dad,

I actually didn't get this email till today, wasn't in the inbox last week! Sorry, I thought that you just left it at the letter from President Stoddard for the week! My companion is from Orem and he's been out for 6 transfers so far. Church was so much fun, yesterday and last week. Fast and testimony meeting last week and this week was ward conference. Love this ward, they are so strong and love each other so much :) German is great, really hasn't been a worry or a struggle at all. Doesn't mean that I don't have plenty of room to progress, but I can communicate well with people - they understand me, I understand them, it goes well.

The weather is great, no complaints over here! A lot warmer than I expected actually. And as far as interviews, etc. everything went really well. Anmelded (announced my residence in the city [registered his current location with the local government])  going to work on a visa this week and start the process for a driver's license as well.

So many questions :) We're working on finding investigators and I think we'll have at least one by the end of this week, doing good work with less active members and bonding with the ward though. Story on less active friend later.

Street contacting is very different. I'm comfortable talking to strangers just as a general idea, but directing the conversation to be more gospel and Christ centered is a change of course. Often people don't have time or aren't interested, but the times when we can share our testimonies, experiences with prayer, try to help others come closer to Christ, those can be really sweet conversations.

Thanks for the updates! Mission prep, Austin's soccer, Cooper, family updates, Glad everything is going well!

Love,

Elder Blanchard

Mar 9 at 7:03 AM

Mom and Dad,

Yep, Elder Fitzgerald is my trainer. From Orem Utah. He loves dance, he's good at cooking (sometimes we do our own thing and sometimes we share food wise) and he loves the gospel. As far as exercise, It's hard to be awake enough right after hopping out of bed to get really good exercise, we both exercise in the apartment though, nothing to crazy. We're very different people but we share beliefs, a desire to love and serve the people of Germany, and love of the Savior.

Got the pictures loaded to the canon cloud today, success! post some to the blog if you want, there were a lot. Not too many of Germany yet. We visited an Evangelisch Kathedral for P-day last week. So there are some pictures of that. Lots of MTC pictures, people there, etc. Enjoy!

Nice to hear news regarding family happenings, way to go Emily! Track star. No shin splints or anything like that going on? Driving, CCP and the ACT, staying real busy over there!

Taylor writes me consistently even with his busy schedule :) I appreciate it. Seems like he's having fun, learning a lot, enjoying dating. Happy and healthy. Looking forward to possibly seeing him here when he comes for an internship.

Mainz is really close to the temple, about an hour away, we can go one P-day per transfer. The weather is great, no snow. Heating up fast over here.

So much is going on at home!!! Thanks again for your email and glad everything is going well on the home front.

This week was a lot of fun, hard work. We're still working on finding new people to teach, we try to see ward members some time each day as well. Last week we had a really cool experience with a less active member. We taught and discussed together the restoration of the Gospel, such a good lesson. Always a good reminder is the principle of prayer. Receiving answers to prayer and praying with real intent- intent to act on the answers to prayers- is so important. Prayer and really building a relationship with our Father in Heaven is so important. Trusting in the Lord. Proverbs 3:5-6.

Have a good week, have fun, love each other!

Love,

Elder Blanchard

1st Week in Mainz

Monday, March 2, 2015

Mom and Dad,

Happy Monday! Monday is my P-day. (and forgive me in advance for any typos, especially mixing up the y and z, German keyboards have some differences).

I got your letter when I got to Germany, I was too tired to focus very well on anything, but did my best. The first two days were still good and fun, just harder to focus. I'll try reply to some of your comments in the letter I got when I got here then talk about the week- organization. I'm glad that you're happy to read my letters! Start your Monday mornings with a letter before gym time ;) (Morgensport!) [Morning Exercise]

That is very true, Dad, there is always more that can be done to prepare, at some point though the day comes and the adventure truly begins! Yes Mom, Dad, Bishop- church member's and some people in the street that we've talked to have made sweet comments about my smile :D.

Yes. I Love the Book of Mormon, it is definitely my favorite book. So much more than the stories, it has power to bring people closer to Christ. A man can get nearer to God by ABIDING by it's precepts than by any other book. Joseph Smith. My Book of Mormon teacher at BYU, brother Sackett really liked to emphasize the 'abiding' part. Reading helps, but application, living what we learn is what really makes a difference. I'm excited to help people to come nearer to God, to change. to grow. to be happier. here in Germany.

Sooo, some highlights from the last few days:

The last few days at the MTC were packed. (Packed cause they were so full of activities and also cause we packed our bags- ba dum chee). Finished everything by 12ish on Monday night and got up at 5 the next morning, took the bus to the train station, walked to the airport and started to drop off our bags. Then Elder Garcia realized that he had his expired passport. He must have accidentally put the whole punched one in his passport holder and left his good one in his bags or at the mtc. After searching through all of his bags we still came up short. Elder Garcia would have to wait. (It sounds like he will be here by Tuesday, he's just coming a bit late in the transfer) . Made it through security with a kindof temporary companion/my-travel-group, made it onto the flight. On our the flight Elder Blau and I enjoyed chatting with Greg who sat in between us (unique experience, surrounded by missionaries on a plane!) Layover in JFK New York. We arrived close to 9 AM German time and lived most of a day after getting off the plane. (went to bed at 7, it was great) This really is the best way to get over the Jet lag. By Friday I was doing great with sleep, feeling well rested.

This email will probably be a little bit longer/detailed, lots of firsts this week. Wednesday consisted of a lot of orientation activities, bike and car safety videos, financial information, then talking with people at a street display. Interesting experience, lots of people weren't interested at all. A bunch were curious and we talked a lot. One man was really interested in our family history, genealogy programs and shared a lot of stories about his heritage, we told him about the church's family historz resources and invited him to visit familysearch.org. We chatted and had interviews with President Stoddard, met a lot of people, tried to stay awake slept great that night.

Thursday morning, after a pairing meeting with our trainers we went to the train station and our respective areas. For at least (likely more) the next 6 weeks I will be serving in Mainz, a large city between Rhein and Main rivers, pretty close to Frankfurt. Taylor's first area, Langen is right next door, I'll get to do exchanges there! After the meeting we took a train to our appointment then had an eating appointment with Tom, a man from Poland who is going to be baptized soon. He is so great! He has such a strong testimony, loves Christ, listened and enjoyed the lesson (the lesson felt more like a conversation/discussion, which was wonderful) and fed us so well! I maybe ate half of what was on the plate, I was a little embarrassed. (We had breakfast at the hotel and I wasn't very hungry by 2 o'clock, sitting a lot). I sat next to him at Sunday dinner and at church. I love Tom! We had dinner at the Himioben's home the same night and I wasn't very hungry yet but I did my best. They were lots of fun, love missionaries, love to joke, just great people in every way.

Friday was spent working on finding new people to teach. We posted fliers at the University inviting people to Family home evening, (young single adult Monday night activity, food involved) and talked to a lot of people in the streets. After a hard working day full of walking I ate A LOT when I got home, and I sleep great every night :).

Saturday was spent primarily doing service. Suellen (pronounced soo ellen, not sure on spelling), who is from America originally (not sure where), needed help around the house. We cut a lot of bushes and raked them. I broke a rake... yep. Helped fix a few cabinets. (Herk!). One of the cabinets had a countertop that was too much longer than the cabinet without having support, so Elder Gubler (senior missionary who had been an electrician and was directing us) had us go find a piece of wood. we needed a 32 inch piece, found a 35 inch piece and needed a saw. After checking with neighbors, Suellen brought us a saw, but it was one of those long saws for cutting tree branches, shaped like a bow (maybe a bow saw, not sure). Anyways, Elder Fitzgerald and I managed to cut it fairly straight. We found a post, braced at against that and I sat mounted on this board as Elder Fitzgerald cut a few inches off. Wish I had pictures, it was a funny scene. Also got to climb into a cool attic, eat lunch (tasty Broccoli soup and home made pizza) and share a spiritual thought. A set of sister missionaries was there, my companion and I were there and the Gublers were there. The Sisters shared Moroni 10:32, talking about coming unto Christ and being perfected in him, and I shared part of Alma 32 (I think 21 and 22) talking about faith. The spirit was really strong, such a privilege to be there and serve.

Sunday- not much time left and I want to send some pictures. Sunday was awesome. First fast sunday in Germany and I blessed the sacrament at church. I met a lot of ward members, made friends and really enjoyed hearing the testimonies of the members in Mainz. Such a strong ward, such strong, faithful and supportive people, so glad to be serving with them.

My trainer is also great. He is obedient, he works hard, he has really good German. I prayed that I would have an awesome trainer who I could learn a lot from, God answers prayers. Hoping that we can learn a lot from each other in the next 12 weeks. It's been great so far. In the Book of Mormon, we learn from Christ about prayer:

3 Nephie18: 20' and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. 21 Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.

I know that Heavenly Father loves us, his children, and wants us to speak with him through prayer, to really build a relationship with him.

Pray :)

Till next Monday, probablz won't write so much next time.

Love,

Elder Blanchard

Elder Blanchard has Arrived (Frankfurt)

February 25, 2015 

Subject: Elder Blanchard has Arrived

[we are still waiting to hear what area of Germany Hayden is in...next post. This post is just what the family received letting us know he arrived. We spoke to him between planes in JFK on the 24th.]
 

Dear Blanchard Family,

We're happy to inform you that Elder Blanchard has arrived safe and sound here in Frankfurt, Germany! He looks great, and we're thrilled to have his Positivity and talents here among us in this mission! He'll change many lives.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Alles Gute,

Germany Frankfurt Mission Office

KIRCHE JESU CHRISTI
DER HEILIGEN DER LETZTEN TAGE
Deutschland Frankfurt Mission
Missionsbüro: Corneliusstr. 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main

 

Dear Brother and Sister Brian Blanchard,

We are happy to report that Elder Hayden Robert Blanchard arrived safely today.  Sister Stoddard and I met all the new missionaries at the Frankfurt airport, and your son looked good and was happy to be here.  We are always grateful to have new missionaries come into the field as they bring a sense of excitement and a spirit of great faith.  It inspires and energizes the whole mission.

After their arrival in Frankfurt, the missionaries were transported to the Frankfurt Stake Center, where they completed paperwork so they could register and obtain their Visas to stay in Germany.  They also received their debit cards. This allows them to access their missionary support funds.  They also learned about mission transportation and apartments.   Later, Sister Stoddard and I both spent some time getting acquainted with your son.  I also took a few minutes to conduct a brief interview with him.  He is a wonderful young man; and, we are so grateful to have him here.  After a light meal, the missionaries were taken to a nearby hotel for the night.  On Thursday, Elder Blanchard will spend the morning in a meeting with the other new missionaries, where they will be introduced to their new companions.  They will have some more training and then head off to their first areas of assignment.

There is a blogspot at http://frankfurtmission.blogspot.de Shortly, photos will be posted and updated periodically.  Please refer to it throughout the mission and feel free to distribute it to family and friends.  A map of the mission, so you can see where your son will be serving, can also be located on the blog.

The mission office address is up above in the header.  Please send ALL packages to the mission office address; and, please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.  When sending Christmas packages, post them before Thanksgiving.  For special packages to arrive in a timely manner, please allow 4-6 weeks.

Letter mail can be sent to the address where your missionary is serving.  However, we recommend that you send packages to the mission office; and, we will deliver them as soon as possible.  It is easier for the mailman to deliver packages to the office because there is always someone there to receive the mail.  The missionaries email their families on their Preparation Day, which is Monday in our mission. Make sure when addressing envelopes or packages to your missionary that you include “Elder” or “Sister”, their first name, and their last name, because sometimes we have multiple missionaries with the same last name. There are a lot of these at this time.

Elder Blanchard entered this mission at an especially important time.  We pledge to do all we can to insure that he  has a chance to grow spiritually and develop a strong testimony.  We feel confident that he will be effective in this important work of teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have been prepared by our Father in Heaven.  We know that your family will be richly blessed for your sacrifice (D & C 31:3-7).  Thank you for sharing your son with us.  We will keep him constantly in our prayers; and, we promise to do all we can to help him fulfill a successful mission.

Sincerely,

President Ronald A. Stoddard

Germany Frankfurt Mission President