New Area and I Miss Being Called Names (sorta!)

[I am sorry for being a bit behind on posting these again but here are a few weeks worth of Elder Hays - during this time there were a lot of emails about his niece being born who was due on December 4th, rumored to be arriving sooner than that, but who in actuality ended up making her way into the world on December 7th]

AGGGGHHHHH! I was so hoping that Ruby would be born by now!

So, the reason I'm emailing on a Wednesday is because it was transfer week. On transfer week our P-Day's are usually on Tuesday, but yesterday when we went to email I was able to log on, and I emailed President Pilkington and a couple of missionaries and some friends, and at the end of the hour long session for email (I just log off and log back on and it gives us another hour, which I use 30 minutes of) IT WOULDN'T LET ME BACK ON! I then learned that I had been the only missionary able to log on at all, so yeah, I'm emailing my 30 minutes I missed today because I didn't write my FAMILY; which is kinda the whole point of us emailing

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 

I HAVE FINALLY LEFT KEIGHLEY!!!!! I HAVE TRAVELED TO THE DISTANT AND FAR OFF LAND OF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Skipton....

Just fyi Skipton is about 10 minutes away from Keighley, and it's in my district sooooooo I haven't really moved at all. I'll probably be in Keighley for Pday, District meeting, and baptism's which means I'll be there at least 2, sometimes 3 times a week. So yeah. 

 I've been on exchange to Skipton like 8 times, so I pretty much know most of it. 

Not to say that I'm not excited though! I'm serving with Elder Hoareau (Definitely just snuck a look at his badge to spell that), who is from Bordeaux, France. I've learned my two years of French was pretty much pointless, but it's still going to be good! He's a really nice guy, who has a pretty good handle on the language. Probably the funniest thing about him is that when he's talking about Jesus Christ he just says, "And the Christ". It's so absolutely French I can't stop from giggling when he does it 

Skipton is a fairly small town, it's very touristy though because it's the entrance to the Yorkshire dales, which makes it a pretty Idyllic town. It's pretty much one of those old people towns that is super well cared for and has a lot of small shops and markets everywhere that make your heart stop because everything is hecka expensive. It'll be interesting serving here, because it's a branch, and I've never been in a branch before. I'm curious to see how so few people can handle all of the positions necessary for a functioning church, and I'm more curious to see how a branch supports the missionaries versus a ward.
 

Elder Innis is staying in Keighley, and has been called as a district leader, which all of us saw coming from a mile away, and he's getting a new trainee (We call them stars in this mission). It'll be really weird going on exchange, because more then likely I'll be either with Elder Innis, or I'll go back to Keighley, so either way it'll be a bit bizarre. 

MAN OH MAN! IT IS COLD!!! Holy nutcracker I think Satan must be taking a holiday or something because I swear it feels like there is no heat anywhere on this frozen planet. We woke up this morning and there was ice everywhere, and all of the puddles had frozen, and most of the Ponds had a layer of Ice on them!!!!! Brrrrrrr. Don't worry though, I'm keeping warm. My Cole Haan coat is perfect! So long as it doesn't rain, I'm A ok! [can you sense the massive eye roll his mother just performed right about here? WHAT?  Oh sure, like it's never going to RAIN in England in the winter...I feel so much better knowing that coat will work just swell as long as it doesn't rain...]

So yeah, that's enough from me, hope you all are doing well! I love you guys lots! I hope Noelle and the baby are ok, and that everything goes smoothly!

Love you all lots!

--Elder Hays 

[the following week]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOSH I WANT TO CUDDLE THAT LITTLE BALL OF CHUB SO BAD!!!!!!!!

She looks so adorable!!!!! I can't believe she's finally here! I can't wait to see her more properly in a few weeks when we Skype! I'm so happy!!! All I wrote my mission president about pretty much was on how happy I was about Ruby!!!! 

So besides that awesome part to my week! I'm now in a trio with Elder Flake (From New York) and Elder Hoareau (France), and that's been loads of fun! 

It snowed for about 2.2 seconds this morning, but it still snowed! Nothing stuck, but who cares! I'MMMMMMM DREAMING OF A WHITTTTTEEEE CHRISTMASSS! JUST LIKE THE ONES I USED TO KNOW!!!!!! 

So that was cool! I screamed like a school girl when I saw it! 

Besides that not much else has happened. I'll be at a baptism for Melissa and Josh, two people I taught back in Keighley, on Friday, and Josh has asked me to baptize him, so that's going to be nice. 

Mom, is my grammar still terrible? I realized I still don't know half the time when to use a comma, I just do it when it feels right ;p 

I'm getting colder and slightly grumpier as I slowly but surely turn into Elsa from Frozen, but Elder Flake and Elder Hoareau are my Anna's who cheer me up. I'm staying warm though Mum! 

So yeah, one other cool thing that happened, the missionaries in our Zone sang at a huge Church sponsored event celebrating the Christmas Truce during WWI, we sang It's a long way to Tipperary and Pack up your troubles. It was really cool. I naturally cried my eye's out when the Choir sang Noel in French (Did I ever tell you guys that that song makes me cry? Like, every time with out fail. There's just this one part where the notes go slightly off key and clash a bit at the climax, the line in English is "Fall on your knees, and hear the angels voices", and I always cry at that part, wow I just started tearing up when I wrote that line and heard it in my heard ;p ) so it was a beautiful night, there were well over 300 people there, and even the British Legion was represented and various other dignitaries came. 

 

That's been my week! Not much else to say! I love you guys so much! I'll talk to you soon! (I don't have any pics because my cameras dead and I have to buy more batteries)

[and the following week]

So, I haven't been called a bible basher all week, primarily because Skipton is 80% people knocking at deaths door, but also because it's pretty posh. 

...I have a confession... I miss the Chav's of Keighley, I miss being called a bible basher every 10 minutes or so, and having people randomly plow into me and murmur "God Squad"! 

 But Skipton is great! The members are absolutely delightful, and they can COOK! Lawd almighty can some of these members cook! Also, the dales of Skipton are probably one of the most beautiful areas you can possibly serve in in our mission, so I'm soaking it up! 

It's snowed a bit this week, but not to bad! The canal next to our flat froze over, so I threw some coins on top to see if I could break the Ice, but it was too thick! (Mum, spell check. To, or too right there. I think it's to, but I have a feeling I could be wrong) 

 Our investigator Rebecca quit her Job so she can come to church starting in January, so that's pretty awesome! I mean, not awesome that she quit her job, but awesome that she trusts the lord enough to see that Church should come first.

I was able to pop over to Keighley and baptize my investigator Josh, while Elder Innis baptized Melissa (another investigator I taught). It was really cool though to be there because I realized that I've been present for every single investigator baptism Keighley has had this year. I'm really happy for Josh and Melissa, and I know they're starting their life off together on the right foot!  I'll attatch a pic!

Love you guys so much! I hope everything is going super well with little Ruby! If you want to, you can blow up a wall sized portrait of me and put it in her Nursery! ...then again maybe don't... I think that would be a bit too North Korean, all hail to our glorious Leader Chim jung un type of thing. 

Just a thought -

Love you all lots!

--Elder Hays

Miracles & a Baptism

So, Elder Innis and I are having loads of fun. We've had a great time teaching. We're still developing a rhythm to our teaching, which is pretty hard to get, but we're working on it. With Elder Schwarzkopf I was new so I pretty easily adapted to his teaching style, with Elder Amundsen I liked his style more and we seemed to just kinda click when It came to passing off, but with Elder Innis we've both been trained differently, so we're still trying to find a good balance and rhythm. But we've started teaching a family this week which has been really cool. It's a single Mum and her 4 kids, and it's been really gratifying to see the peace the gospel is bringing to her life. She said after our first prayer together when she was super worked up, "Wow...I feel so calm. That's amazing. I feel like I'm on top of a cloud"., So that's awesome. Besides that all is well. OH, I guess I'll address the changes in the mission that happened a few weeks ago. 

So 

1. The number of zones went from 11 to 7, which means Zones are huge now. Our Zone is 41 missionaries. 

2. All of the dropped Zone Leaders were made trainers last transfer 

3. District leaders were given increased responsibility

4. President has said that by dropping the Zone Leaders he's showing us that titles mean nothing and that the mission needs to be less title focused, so yeah. 

Hope all is going well with you! Love you! 

No pics today, not enough time!

[and from the following week]

Ok, so I've learned from my previous companion Elder Amundsen that he found a cat farm in Florida with over 60 adorable cats on it, and now I'm super jealous. I now have to deal with that jealousy all week...yay. 

So it's been a WEIRD WEEK! 

Alright, here's what's up. We got a phone call from the AP's during district meeting this Wednesday, and they said, "There is somebody in one of your teaching pools that needs to be baptized next weekend. Find them, and get to it", so when they hung up I immediately said, "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THEY THINKING!!! WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO ONE THAT CAN BE READY FOR BAPTISM NEXT WEEK!". Elder Innis, being the spiritual saintly giant that he is, made us go through our list of investigators, and lo and behold I WAS RIGHT! Sooooo we decided to try by all our formers, all of the area book formers, and pretty much just try to find SOMEONE who had at some point been taught by missionaries, and now wanted to be baptized in a week. Two stipulations for baptisms. 1. They must have attended church twice, 2. They must be living gospel standards (Word of Wisdom, law of chastity, etc.) 10 day's prior to baptism. Those standards pretty much mean that we couldn't just go out, find the first person we see and convince them to be baptized.  So we wen't through the whole day finding like crazy and at the last hour we had NO ONE. So, we wen't to our appointment with R., an eternal investigator that has WoW issues, and hasn't been to progressive for a few months annnndddddddddd

he had decided to quite smoking that day

he felt more sure then ever that he should be baptized

he had been to church more then twice

has a testimony of Jesus Christ 

and he felt ready to finally move on in the gospel

So yeah, R. is getting baptized on Friday. 

MIRACLE

I'm exhausted, this has been stressful as all get out, but ya know what, the Lord gave us a goal, we did everything we could to hit that goal, and in the end, he provided the Ram. 

Love you guys!!!

 Elder Hays

P.S NOELLE YOU HAVING A BABY!

and later - this photo of the successful baptism: 

Elder Hays Starts off the week Cold, but his testimony grows.

I'm cold!

So, Elder Innis and I have been having a really good week. It was pretty slow at first, it seemed like everything we did, or decided to do either didn't pan out, or just didn't go as planned. However, during the middle of the week onward's it went pretty great. We found 3 new investigators, and got one of them to accept a baptismal date, that doesn't say anything about actual missionary work, because numbers don't really matter that much, but it's still a good foundation to base our week off of. 

 

One of the members here in Keighely's Mum died last night. That was really difficult. She would be completely fine and joking one minute, and the next she'd be crying her eye's out on the couch. I didn't know what to do, or what to say, and I felt like anything I did say would be insulting to even insinuate that I could comprehend her pain. So we just sat quietly with her till she felt better. Man, I wanted to hug her so bad. Sometimes though, we just can't take the pain away. It's one of the suckiest part of God's plan for us, that we have to feel pain so hard that it literally feels like our chest is caving in, but it's sign as well of the best of God's plan for us, that we can feel love so strong that it causes grief so sharp. 

 

I'm really trying to feel the spirit more as I go throughout my day. I've been having these really vivid dreams all week about the spirit and missionary work, and there's always someone in the dream that tells me I need to seek the spirit more, so I'm trying really hard to find the spirit and let it into the work more. It's been a struggle, because too often I just am not listening as much as I should, but hopefully I can learn to get there. 

 

I love you guys so much. 

 

Elder Amundsen sent a pic of him on the beach in Florida this morning, so he's not helping that much in the "feeling cold" department! ;) Lol. Hope everyone's week is going well!

 

Love you lot's!

Meow

-Elder Hays

[then we received this email in the middle of the week]

 

 Hi there, so I know that this isn't on our usual day for email, but it's for a reason. We had Zone conference the other day, so all of the North of the mission met in Billingham for 6 hours to receive instruction. The North part of the mission is around 140 of the 270 missionaries in the mission. And wow was it amazing. 

 

To start off, it was the 11th of November the other day, which meant it was remembrance day. On remembrance day, during the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the country stands quiet for 2 minutes out of respect for the fallen soldiers of the UK. So, after receiving a bit of instruction, we, as a mission, stood for those two minutes. It was a very sobering experience, especially when coupled with Sister Pilkington's talk on how the wars we were remembering (Most specifically WWI and WWII) was not only a fight for individual countries, but was a fight for agency as well. She wonderfully contrasted the story of the World Wars, with the scriptures in Moses regarding Lucifer's rebellion. It was so amazing because the spirit was IN that room. As she discussed the horrors of both wars, she quoted a World War marching song that says, 

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile.
Don't let your joy and laughter hear the snag
Smile boys, that's the style
What's the use of worrying
It never was worth while
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And smile, smile, smile.

It was a chilling and humbling experience to see the horrors of the war shown and discussed, and then to hear her quote a line of the song, and continue forward in that fashion. After her talk, she had all of us stand up and sing the song with one another. The spirit of brother and sisterhood in that room was palpable. Elders were swaying back and forth in huge lines and everyone was giving it their all. I'm so grateful that I am serving this mission. It has changed me, and it has changed me for the better. I do not want to be the same person that I have been before, I do not want to wander around lost, trying to find peace and happiness elsewhere. This is it. There is no other way to find lasting peace and happiness in this life, or in the life after. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can truly be happy. This may sound like I've changed into some religious Zealot, but I haven't, I've just finally realized that this is going to be hard. Life is going to be hard, God has given all of us trials that are unique to us, but he trusts us. We are the most selfish and terrible creatures sometimes, but GOD TRUSTS US. I love you guys, and I just wanted to share that with you. I love you so much.

-Elder Hays. 

Brennan the Popsicle, Scary Kids Scaring Kids and Impressions.

So in one my emails to Brennan I asked him the following questions:

1.  Funniest thing that has happened on your mission so far (or one of the funniest)

2.  Weirdest situation you've been in

3.  Best meal you've had

 

His response was: 

 

 1. When I got punched by a member over and over in the arm while I was praying as he screamed, "GO PURPLE HAZE GO PURPLE HAZE GO". 

2. When a teenage girl we'd given a Mormon.org card to with our number called us that night and tried to flirt with us. 

3. I had a REALLY good roast dinner this week with one of the families in the ward. Super good!  

email from November 3rd: 

 

 

Hola! How's it going! Just writing you from the coldest climate on earth! Just a big Brennan Popsicle up here! Lol, the weather has gotten pretty cold in the last few days, and VERY WINDY, so Elder Innis and I have been FREEZING! Hahaha, Elder Innis is thin, 6 foot 5 and is from Sydney, Australia. 

We're pretty convinced that God is just up there chuckling at us. He's sent a boy from the Sonoran Desert, and a kid from the unbearable heat of Australia to freeze to death in Northern England. Happy thoughts! 

 

 

So, this week has been great. It's been amazing getting to know Elder Innis more. It's so funny because we have so many things in common that we didn't know. Like, there was a song playing in the flat underneath us REALLY loud one night, and I wasn't paying much attention until I started to think, "Hey, I think I know this song", Elder Innis looked over and saw me pretty intently trying to listen, and he asked me what I was doing, and I told him it sounded like my favorite band back home, and he asked what band it was, and I said, "Oh, it's not a very well known one. It's sorta a Screamo band, but not quite, and they only released one album quite a few years ago. They're called Scary Kids Scaring Kids", and he just paused for a really long time and said, "Straight for the deep end?" (Which is a song of theirs). And I freaked out! Lol, apparently we both like that band, and he's the first person I've EVER found who even knows who they are! Hahaha, so sometimes we sing a few songs under our breath while we knock houses. 

So yeah, that's been awesome! 

Spiritual thought for the week. 

 

So, we've had this investigator W. now for quite a while, and in the last few weeks he's been absolutely incredible. He's been coming to church, keeping all his commitments, and trying to break all of his bad habits. It's been great to work with him. Well, he went out of town, and then had some dental surgery so we haven't been able to get a hold of him for about 2 weeks. So this Tuesday Elder Innis and I were on the bus heading to Bracken Bank, and the bus drove past W.'s street, and I just had this incredibly strong impression that we needed to try to see W. I told myself, "No, no. We're not doing that. It makes absolutely no sense. If he's not in then it messes up our entire schedule because we'll have to catch another bus, and we've already knocked this neighborhood before, so it'll just mean we'll have to stand their and wait for 25 minutes for the next bus. And he's just had surgery, so he'll be in a lot of pain. Don't bug him. This isn't a spiritual prompting, you're just thinking of him because you're passing his house." sooooo, I ignored the prompting, and we went past his bus stop. Then about 30 seconds later I just got this huge feeling of, "GO TO HIS HOUSE, LISTEN" so I slammed my hand on the stop indicator, and we got off and walked back to his house, the whole time with me apologizing to Elder Innis and just saying I felt like we needed to see W. So, we get to his door. Windows are closed, lights are off, and there's no indication he's home. "I knew it", I said to myself. I knocked on the door annnnnddddd W. answered! Yep he answered the door.... and then shoved the Book of Mormon and gospel Principles book in my hand and said, "Sorry bro, it's not for me." and slammed the door. So, yeah. I got impressed to get dropped. 

 

Lol, it's really interesting, because I say that story, and it sounds really sad in a way. Like, we lost our most solid investigator who was scheduled to be baptized in a few weeks. But really it's just a huge testimony builder to me of obeying the spirit. I don't know why the spirit decided that needed to happen. Maybe it didn't want us to waste our time on W.  Maybe W. needed to see the confusion on our faces as he slammed the door in our still halfway smiling faces, and that'll prompt him to join the church later on. I don't know - all I do know is that I trust in him and his timing.

Well, yeah. I gotta go! Love you guys loads! Hope all is well! 

--Elder Hays

Purple Haze

(two weeks in one, because sometimes mom has a hard time staying on top of everything) 

October 20th: Amen Son is the nickname one of the member has give to Elder Amundsen. My nickname is Purple Haze. It's so funny, we don't do nicknames in this mission, but for some reason that one's stuck and so a lot of the Elders and Sisters call me Purple Haze, or Momma Hays.

So, I realized I completely forgot to tell you guys, that Transfers are really weird this time. Because of the time schedule for when the new missionaries are coming in, we're not getting transfer calls until Thursday, and we're not doing Transfers until Saturday. Which means that when I next email you, not only will I know where I'm going, but I also may be in a new area. I have no idea if I'll stay or not, but It's going to be one CRAZY transfer. Because Elder Amundsen is a ex AP and he's been spending the week with the current AP's  (Did I tell you guys that???? I've been in Leeds most of the week with the Zone Leaders because Elder Amundsen has been on tour throughout the mission to give some last words of advice the the Trainers and Trainee's. Did I mention how amazing and beloved my companion is?!?!?!).  There will be some changes coming up - I'll tell you about them next week. 

Our investigator W. is doing really well, he's progressing a lot and will more then likely be baptized in the coming weeks if everything stays on track. 

Our Investigator L. came to church for the first time yesterday, which was really great.

Everyone else is doing well! Well, I gotta get some pics on here and write to president. 

Oh! I forgot, ok so all Christmas packages have to get to the England Leeds office by the 12th of December, because of how transfers are working out. And actually, I have to start my Christmas shopping for you guys this week or so as well, because next transfer is absolutely packed with meetings and I'll have no spare time to get that done really. I also don't know where/what city I'll be in, so I kinda want to get some things for you guys while I know where to go. I'll try to ship my Christmas stuff for you guys by the second week of November, so please email me in the next email anything specific you guys want. It's not going to be anything extravagant (Unless George wants me to buy here a pair of Doc Martins and somebody is willing to foot the bill), but yeah. 

 

Love you guys loads! Talk to you soon!!!

--Elder Hays 

 

October 27th

OMG YOU GUYS WONT EVEN GUESS WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW, IT'S SO FREAKING AMAZING AND EXCITING, I'M ECSTATIC I'M IN....wait for it...

 

keighley

Lol, yep, I'm still in Keighley. I'm serving with Elder Innis, who is from Australia (Sydney) and he's actually from my MTC group, which is pretty cool! That's pretty rare and doesn't happen too often. So I'm really excited about that. I think we'll get along well. He's a pretty obedient missionary, but I think I adapt well to my companions in a way. Like, with Elder Schwarzkopf was word of the Law obedient, with Elder Amundsen it was a bit more Spirit of the Law, and I think with Elder Innis I'm already back into my Word of the Law. I'm probably going to strike a balance between the two though. 

 

OK DOES ANYONE WANT ANYTHING SPECIFIC FROM ENGLAND, I NEED REQUESTS NOW!

 

Fun thing that happened yesterday, it was Day light savings time, and I forgot to set my watch to the right time, so we got to our flat an hour earlier. This system is so stupid. I'm so glad Arizona doesn't do it. Also, that makes it like pitch black at 4 in the afternoon now, bleh! 

 

This letter is a bit scattered because I have like 4 people from the mission emailing and calling me, and I think George and Mum just realized I'm online so I'm getting on line emails from them right now. 

So yeah, spiritual thought for the day. I got the chance to be there for Elder Amundsen's testimony at transfer meetings, and WOW. It was probably the most spiritual meeting I have ever been in before. There wasn't a dry eye in the chapel. At the end President Pilkington said, "I'd just like everyone to know that Elder Amundsen is one of the great missionaries of the church. No, not just of the mission... of the church". It was such an honor to serve with him, he makes me want to be a better man. 

So yeah, not a lot going on, just trucking along I guess. Investigators are doing well.

We have a new star this week in Keighley from Ogden, Utah. Her name is Sister Garrett. I think she's doing well. 

Yeah, alright, just gonna finish with pics. Love you!!!!

 

........minutes later and 3rd email 

 

NEVER MIND I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!!!

 

 

on the Keighley Moor

 

random Keighley corner

 

(so when he does not send photos I just randomly find interesting images related to Keighley on the google machine)...

More Meowing and Questionable Hiking Clothing...

So Elder Amundsen and I have loads of pics with us holding cats because that's pretty much all we do when we aren't teaching. We walk around Meowing at cats and trying to pick them up. I have lot's of pictures, and lot's of scratches.

This week is going pretty great. One of our Investigators W. has come to realize 

 

1. It makes complete sense for God to call another Prophet.

2. He needs to be baptized. 

3. He needs to quit smoking.

So that's been really awesome. He may get baptized in two weeks, but It may be a bit longer depending on if he can stay off the Cigs. 

 

Right now I'm wearing regular clothes... which is really weird. Elder Amundsen and I were going to go hiking up Malham cove today (Which is so pretty, look up pics), but It's a bit too rainy, so we're probably just going to go to Skipton and do some shopping. I haven't gotten new shoes just yet, because I'm trying to get a good deal on some ankle boots because they seem like they'll last longer and be more useful in the winter then regular dress shoes, but I'll get some today, PROMISE. 

 

BTW by regular clothes for hiking I mean black Michael Kors Corduroys and my button up teal shirt with a grey primark tie. Glamping yo. 

 

(mom's note, I looked it up and here are some lovely photos of it, and it addition, this scene from Harry Potter was filmed there) 

 

So yeah, all is well in the hood. The hood is a bit cold and all, but It's all good. 

 

AWESOME NEWS THOUGH!!!!! 

GUESS WHAT , GUESS WHAT, GUESS WHAT!!!!

My Recent Convert Helen BORE HER TESTIMONY IN FAST AND TESTIMONY MEETING YESTERDAY!!!!! I cried SO HARD! Oh my gosh she's just the most amazing person ever. I love her so much! Ugh, I didn't realize when I went on this mission that I would just end up loving the people here so much. I just love them sooooo much. 

So yeah, that's awesome. 

 

Spiritual thought for the day: 

I was reading my notes from Jorg Klebingat's talk in General Conference on spiritual confidence, and it led me to Proverbs (My fav book in the whole scriptures btw. If you get a chance, read it) Chapter 3 V. 24-26. It's all about finding our confidence in the Lord. "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet...For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy feet from being taken". 

So yeah, this letter is all over the place! Hahaha, I'll send some pics now! Love you guys so much! Talk to you soon!!!! 

--Elder Hays

Elder Hays captioned this "Stalker".

Elder Hays gets some pretty holey shoes and collects stray cats

There's a woman at the computer next to me that is yelling into her Cellphone and at her daughter in Slovakian. Did I mention that Keighley is pretty much 30% English people, 40% Pakistan, 10% Slovakian, and 20% Other.

This week has been good. We scheduled 6 people for baptism and had 3 of them at church this week, so that was cool. I would love to say that some of it is me, but man, Elder Amundsen is just a freaking lightning rod of Awesomeness! We're going shopping today in Leeds, because Elder Amundsen needs some Civilian clothes for when he goes back home. That should be fun. The Skipton Elders are coming with us, and Elder Rush is from Avondale, so it's pretty cool to hear that Arizona accent (BTW the more time I spend outside of Arizona, the more obvious the accent is becoming to me). It's awesome that I've met Elder Cole from Mesa, and Elder Rush from Avondale, we'll definitely meet up post mission probably. I hit my 5 month mark this week, which was weird. Man, this is going by fast. I really love my mission though. I realized the other day that I'm here because of a lot of reason. Support from you guys, support from Bishop Barker, support from friends, and Support from God. That's a lot of people to thank, so I guess just a blanket "Thank you, will have to do for now.". I love you guys loads!

One sucky thing this week. My RC Helen is going blind. Like BLIND blind. She's had bad vision for a long time, but she saw the Doc the other day, and it's not looking good. She may lose her vision completely really soon. It's so inspiring though to see her reaction. She's just started reading TONS. She's re reading the Book of Mormon, she's now on Doctrine and Covenants 50, and she's reading Teachings of the Presidents Joseph Fielding Smith. She's just trying to read as much as she can before she can't anymore. Pretty much made me bawl my eyes out realizing how selfish I can be sometimes by complaining that I have to study the Scriptures for an hour every morning. She's such an example to me. 

Hope you're all doing ok. Love you lot's!

--Elder Hays

PS
 BTW THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!!! Oh my Goodness you have no idea how happy that made me to have 1, clothes, 2 a big coat, and 3 FOOD!!!! Lol, Elder Amundsen and I have been snacking on it all week because he got a package with Norwegian food, so we've been learning about one another's food culture. Our is definitely better ;)

Also, thanks for the due date ;)

Love you lot's! Keep being a super Mom! 

--Elder Hays

(and the following week)

So, it's finally turned into England over here! Man, it is raining like CRAZY!!!! It's super wet and super cold!!! Lol, the water feels like little needles on my skin in the morning when I open the door. It's awesome! One minor set back...I have holes in my shoes! Lol, I've known I've had holes in them for a while now, they've been forming on the bottom on the middle front sorta, but it hasn't really been an issue... until it started raining! Lol, so I've had pretty literal cold feet for the last few days. I'm probably going to shop for some new ones today. I'll try to send you a pic of my shoes though, it's pretty funny how 5 months of wear and tear can destroy shoes pretty quick! Besides that, all is well! I can't write much, my finger that I cut is sorta seizing from the cold so I'm having to type way slower the usual, lame! Lol, hope you're all doing well! I'll send you some pics though to make up for such a short letter. Oh! Let me address some Question's though!

1. What do you cook?

-We cook pretty much anything that is fast and cheap. So a lot of sandwiches and oven chips. Also I just found the pre packaged burgers that are... ok. Lot's of pizza that you heat up in the oven. I just bought Chicken breast for the first time in 6 months, which is the first meat I've bought in six months because it's way expensive over here, and takes to long to cook, but I couldn't do another week of oven done pizza's ;P We get takeaway some days because it's not too expensive over here. We like Chinese, and Donner. Donner is some weird in between meat that I don't really want to know what it's made of, so don't tell me. More then likely rat. 

2. Fav General Conference talk?

Elder Holland's talk was my fav. I also enjoyed Jorg Klebingat. Next Uchtdorf right there. 

3. How do you watch the sessions?

We watch the sessions live, except for the Sunday afternoon one and priesthood. Still haven't seen the Sunday afternoon one, we watch it on our own using the computers, so it'll take me a few weeks to get though all the talks. 

Love you guys sooooooooooo much! Talk to you soon! 

--Elder Hays