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

New Companion Who Loves Cats

Oh my Lawd I have been worried SICK all week! When I street contact I usually tell people I come from a desert and then we usually talk about which one, if grass grows there, how hot it is, etc. But this week whenever I got to the bit about how I'm from Phoenix, Arizona (Below the Grand Canyon), everyone was like, " Oh my! Is you're family ok!?!? They've had tons of flooding up there, people died!!!!" and I just chuckled and said no it's a desert, we don't get flooding like that, at least not in the city, but after the 5th English person that said that PHOENIX was flooded I was so worried! I hope you're all ok!

Too bad about the car, but I'm glad George is OK. Roxy was a good car, and she died with honour. 

Don't stress George, (h'e reacting to the news that his sister totaled his car)

Ok, so the weeks gone well. Elder Amundsen is super Awesome! He's an absolutely AMAZING finder, like, he can get a conversation going in no time flat! It's been a bit of a rough week, about 3-4 hours of knocking each day, but oh well, it's all in the job. 

Benefits of having an ex Ap as your companion: You can ask all the question you have about how things work for stuff like transfers, Emergency Transfers, Planning, President Pilkington and SO MUCH TO LEARN FROM HIM, HE'S SUCH A GOOD MISSIONARY!

So yeah, I told mom, but I can't find a USB cord for my camera type ANYWHERE! So I'm going to get a card reader from ASDA and see if that works, hopefully more for y'all next week! 

I hope you guys don't mind the shorter emails to everyone. I'm trying to write more to you guys individually which makes it hard to have long big letters to everyone. 

WHEN IS NOELLE DUE, OMG SOMEBODY TELL ME PLEASE!!!!!

Alright, love you lots! 

Love Elder Hays

Chim

And the following week: 

So, Elder Amundsen is probably just about the nicest guy in the whole mission. And he's funny, sarcastic, and a freaking amazing missionary. So glad I get to serve with him. He also likes cats... no...he ADORES cats. Lol, it's so funny. Whenever we're finding (Probs for about 3 hours a day) he just meows at cats when he sees them. I don't know how to explain it, but man it's funny. 

So yeah, that's going great. 

baptism of H.

We've done a lot of finding this week which has gone great. We've found 5 new investigators, and got 4 of them to church this week which was super cool! So yeah, that was a good way to end the week. Not a ton else. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone for the letters, I really love getting them, especially the hand written ones (Thanks George for the pics, They're hanging up on my wall). Thanks Mum for the new tie, and while I love the scented markers, they didn't smell anymore when I got the letter, but I just used my imagination ;) 

Could someone tell these people at church that I appreciate their letters: 

1. Sister Suzanne Barker (She's totes awesome) 

2. Melanie Hale (When does she leave for her mission)

Gracias! Alright guys, I gotta guy, but I love you all tons! Hope your week goes well! 

1. Request, can you guys email me some pictures of YOU. Lol, I have tons of other stuff, but I want pics of you guys! Especially you mum, I don't have any big pics of you, and I can put the pics on my USB and then print them out larger at a store here so I can hang them on my wall. Love you all so much! Stay safe! 

--Elder Hays

P.S no one has still told me when Noelle is due so I'm literally sitting here trying to do the math in my head and I'm getting sometime in November. Please Clarify 

XOXOXOXOXOXooooxxxXOXOXxoXoOxOXoxoXOX

Miracle Computers

(I am back to resorting to the internet for photos of Keighley as I have no current photos from Elder Hays.  Maybe next week!)

Sooooo, to start off this email, we'll go with a miracle first. So, Elder Schwarzkopf and I got to the Library today and we tried to log onto some computers that were on and working, and they ended up not letting us log on. At that point the Sisters walked in (Sister Monroe and Howard) and we all decided to start up some turned off computers and see if they would work....they didn't. A librarian then came and told us the computers weren't working and she didn't know when they would start again. So as we all mildly panicked about what to do (Sister Monroe dies in six weeks so she was stressing because she NEEDS to write home to plan for stuff) we decided to just say a prayer. We all bowed our heads over our keyboards and Elder Schwarzkopf led us in prayer. The whole library probably thought we were crazy because we were just praying that the computers would work, and then we paused for a moment and Elder Schwarzkopf said "Now" and put his log in info in and..... IT WORKED! All of our computers let us log in after that so yeah, God answers prayers ;) 

Sad news! Elder Schwarzkopf has been called to serve in Sunderland, so we'll part ways tomorrow at transfer meeting. Good news, he's being made District leader! So that's awesome for him and I'm way excited for him. He's taught me a lot of great things, and he's been a super amazing companion. I've learned a bit of German from him too (How to say stuff like, " I hate apple pie"). So I'm losing my pops this week :( 

Good news! My new companion I'll be getting tomorrow is Elder Amundsen (I think that's how you spell it). He's Norwegian and is a super strong missionary, like, the strongest. One thing that's a bit nerve wracking... he was made Assistant to the President when I came in my first transfer and was just released so I have an ex AP as my companion. So I hope I make a good impression! I think I'm getting him because Elder Schwarzkopf and I have been the most productive team in the Zone all transfer (Taught 22 lessons this week which means we passed our goal of 90 lessons this transfer and taught over 120!!!) and I feel like I'm being slightly tested in a way to see if that was just Elder Schwarzkopf, or if Elder Amundsen and I can recreate, or exceed that. I know we can if we work hard, pray, and hold on for dear life!

So yeah awesome stuff. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had a baptism two weeks ago. H. was baptized and it was super super cool to see. She's gone from atheist to full blown christian in 3 weeks. Quit smoking cold turkey, and has almost read through the whole Book of Mormon. It's been a privilege to teach her. 

Love you guys! 

Elder Hays 

Elder Hays exhibits sketchy math skills and experiences suit distress...

Hey y'all! So, as you can probably tell by the subject line to this letter, I've passed my 4 Month mark! That's CRAZY! Lol, it sorta completely snuck up on me! Actually Elder Schwarzkopf was the one to point it out to me the other day! Lol, time flies when you're having fun (and are being yelled at by homeless peeps >.> ). Hahaha, I realized that now that I've passed my 4 month mark, I'm 1/6th of the way done with my mission. [mom's note, he gets his terrible math skills from me, but even I can figure out straight away that 4 months on a 24 month mission is 1/8....]Which means that I'm 16% done with my mission! In 2 more months I'll be 1/4 done with my mission! [his math improved here]  CRAZY! So yeah, that's pretty cool. It really does go by as fast as everyone says it does. I can't tell if it's because we're constantly working, and so we don't really have time to think about it, or if it's because God does missionaries and their families a solid by making the time fly. Probably a mixture of the two! 

So GOOD NEWS!!! H. IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!! YAY! Lol, she's so great! She moved her baptism up to the 30th and has given up everything cold turkey and is sticking to it! She's halfway through the book of Alma, which means she's halfway through the book of Mormon! She's only had the book for three fetching weeks! So that's really exciting. Elder Schwarzkopf will actually baptize her (She requested him since his family is converts and she thinks that's more symbolic), but I don't really care much who baptize's her, so long as she get's dunked! 

We got a call today from President Pilkington... I panicked! I don't know why!  But it was just to give us a call of congratulations. Apparently for the second week in a row we're the most productive district in the Zone, and we're the most productive companionship with 25 lessons this week. So that's cool! (We pray for humility every day because we just know this can't last for long!). 

So yeah, that's awesome/pressuring! 

Besides that everything is going well. It's COLD. HOLY FETCH IT'S COLD. Mum, if you could find my Winter coat and send it over I'd super appreciate it. I almost don't want it though, because I keep getting told that they can have an Indian October here, which means a warm October, but Idk, I'll just deal I guess.

Besides that everything's going great! I've lost almost 20 pounds now since going on my mission! 

Love you guys lots! Talk to you next week! 

[I also got one other personal email from Brennan and basically it was all about how he really needed a new suit but he couldn't quite figure it out and discussing options for finding an affordable suit because his are wearing out waaaaaay more quickly than we planned, partially this is due to the fact that they are not allowed to ever wear just their pants and shirts but they always have to be in full suits, which means he has a bunch of pants he can't really wear because they don't have jackets to go with the pants and basically I am regretting spending the large amount of money I did on the suits because while they are very pretty suits, they are apparently not meant to be worn in the UK rain everyday...and then, the following showed up on facebook that week...]

[I can't post the video here but it was the ice bucket challenge and I thought that was swell but at the end of the video they get flour dumped on their heads. ...and of course...on one of his only two pairs of pants...]

so yeah...

I panicked and sent him a suit the next day through Tesco

So, super short letter! So no big letter this week. I just emailed ______ a long letter because she needed it. 

So yeah, I hope all is well with you! Keep up the good work! You're a huge inspiration to me! 

OK, I ALMOST FLIPPED AS WELL. I was worried about the suit and then I kinda go this feeling like, ok... it's gonna work out. Don't know how butttt. And then the next day I got the suit and it fits PERFECT! Have to hem the pants, but such a great suit! Like the best one I have! You're such a flipping genius! 

The flour washed out. I'm getting it dry cleaned and hopefully it'll turn out ok. 

So yeah, not much more time. Once again thanks for the suit, it's awesome! We may just do it that way from now Love you sooooo much! Talk to you soon!  

Tearing Down Walls for Jesus

 

[mom's note: this email continued MANY photos of a wall being torn down and only two that kiiiind of show Brennan and his companion.  What I'm saying is that I now have lots of pictures of a wall in various stages of destruction.  Bless this child.]

So, it's pretty flipping cold right now! We've caught the tale end of a hurricane (I think it's called Bertha, which makes me think of a big black lady who don't take no nothin' from no one, but at the same time will make you sweet tea and biscuits) so it's pretty windy (VERY WINDY) and quite wet. I (Praise da Lord) luckily found my rain jacket again after having lost it in the move, so I only got a little (A lot) wet this week. I don't really want my winter coat sent over yet because it's not really cold enough to justify a massive coat like that... but soon.

So yeah, this week's been very productive. I guess I haven't told you guys all that much about what I actually DO each day, so here we go. 

6:30am- Get up, pray, fall asleep while praying 

6:40am- wake up from prayer and justify that God got the gist of what you were trying to say 

6:41am- Exercise (60 pushups, 60 squats, stretching, 60 jumping jacks)

7:01am- Groan from aching muscles

7:10am- Shower (Use Sister missionaries good smelling soap they accidentally left) 

7:40am- Stare at fridge and debate if you can afford to eat breakfast that morning

8:00am- Personal study (Preach my Gospel, Scriptures, Study journal)

9:00am- Companionship Study (Read White handbook, Prepare lessons for the day)

10:00am- Go out and street contact for an hour

11:00am- Lunch (Once again, stare at fridge and ask yourself if you can afford to each lunch today)

12:00-4:30pm- Teach investigators and LA's, Groan loudly when everyone flogs you, get a few doors slammed in your face, stare at a Scottish woman as you try to figure out what the heck she is saying, Finally understand that she's telling you she hates religion, wish her a good day, avoid crazy Austrian lady on the way to Woodhouse, get caught by Austrian lady and learn about how the cars driving on the road are ruining her house's foundation (11th time told story, house still looks fine)

4:31pm-Travel to tea

5:00pm- Take tea

6:00-8:50pm- Teach (See 12:00-4:30pm, repeat steps shown) 

8:59pm- Run home (Literally RUN) because you're companion believes that if you're not in by 9pm, God stops protecting you and you can get killed more easily (It's sorta rubbed off and now I believe it too...) 

9:00pm- Plan for tomorrow

9:30pm-Call district leader

9:31pm- Groan because the Sister's got to the district leader first and they take FOREVER to follow up

10:00pm- Finally get a hold of district leader 

10:05pm- Hang up on district leader by accident

10:06pm- Call him back and say "Love ya bye" and then hang up

10:10pm- Stare at fridge and ask yourself if you can afford a midnight snack

10:15pm- Stare at your companions food in the fridge and ask yourself if you can get away with eating his

10:20pm- close fridge and drink 3 glasses of water to satisfy hunger

10:25pm-Pray

10:27pm- Companionship prayer (More then likely one of you will sneeze on the others bed while kneeling)

10:30pm- Sleep

10:40pm- Yell at chav downstairs who thinks it's ok to build a wardrobe with power tools this late at night

10:50pm- Really fall asleep

So yeah, that's my day! 

 

Good news though! Our investigator H. is doing AMAZING! She's scheduled for the 6th of September and is so determined to make it she's deciding to go cold turkey on her smoking a week earlier then planned! She's quite coffee too, and alcohol! She went to church this week and loved it! AND GUESS WHAT! She's had the BOM for 2 weeks and she's already halfway through Mosiah! So good! She know's the chapters better then we do! She can recount almost every story perfectly all the way up to Mosiah! It's a flipping miracle too because she's certifiably blind!!! Like seriously, terrible eyesight, but feels the spirit so strong when she reads that she just powers through it! So great! She's 100% Prepared and we're aren't even teaching her really, she's teaching herself! It's great! 

  

It's been a busy few weeks. We've taught 23 lessons this week and 21 last week so 44 lessons in total so far this month. We're aiming to teach close to 90 lessons this month. 

 

 

 

 

Well, love you lot's! Bye!

The Tale of Pinkeye, Old Blind Dog, and Mini Hurricanes.

Soooooooo, I have unfortunately contracted Conjunctivitis which pretty much means my eyes are puffy, blood shot, red, itchy, and all around awful. It feels like there's a nail stuck underneath and behind my eye, so every time I look up or down my eyes water because it hurts somethin' awful! So that's been a wonderful addition to my week ;) Lol, honestly I'm alright. Its hard to proselyte like this because I'm pretty much useless when it comes to actually SEEING people to talk to, but Elder Schwarzkopf just kinda leads me around like a blind old dog so it works out in the end ;) Lol, I went and saw the emergency GP the other day to get it looked at, and he prescribed me some thing that I later learned when I went to the pharmacists, you could buy over the counter, and it was 3 pounds cheaper that way! I will add that I first went to that same Pharmacist and learned that because of new laws, THEY WEREN'T ALLOWED TO SELL ME ANYTHING OVER THE COUNTER!  So yeah. A miracle definitely happened though! I was told that going to the EGP would cost me nothing, I then got there and learned that because I'm a foreign national it costs 25 pounds to be seen. I luckily had JUST that because it was the beginning of the month and I'd only spent 80 pounds on my Bus pass for the month, and 10 pounds on food for the week, so I just barely had enough for it! So yeah. One small problem, it hasn't exactly gotten any better... apparently after 3 days if it isn't healed, I need to go back in sooooo my eye's have 16 hours to get 100% healed. So that sorta sucks. (Parentals: If I do have to go to the Doctors, I will have to pull out personal funds to pay for it (Shouldn't be more then 25 pounds again) but it is reimbursable, so I'll put it back into the account when I get paid back by the mission. I would just have to do that If I need to go back and I haven't already been reimbursed for the 114 pounds I'm sending in today (Takes about 3 days to get reimbursed) ) So yeah, that's been interesting. Besides that everything is going well!

Mum: 1. So, I'm not sure about the suit thing. I think I'm just going to wear the suits till their dead and keep trying to repair them as I go along. Hopefully I can make them stretch another 3 or so months, and then maybe I could get a new suit and we can just count it as my Christmas Present. 

 

2. We had to move flats because that's what Jesus wanted (Seriously I have no idea why.) On a side note, the flat is 100% haunted (We rededicated it though). 

Dad: I got your pictures, look's like you're all having fun!

Love you guys lots! I've got to go! Talk to you next week! 

 

(PS: To add the legitimacy of my haunted flat statement, about 4 sisters have gone home early while staying in that flat, and 3 have been injured while staying there to the point they had to go home. Also, I've now learned it's been rededicated twice by the ward, because other sisters have also said it's haunted before I came here)

 

[mom's note: after worrying about him having pink eye and living in a haunted flat all week, I was relieved to get this weeks email full of good news]

 

 So yeah, my eye's are 100% better. I ended up getting about 20 home recipes from different families (One Jordy women rubbed a gold ring on my face) so I guess one of them worked! 

 

This week's been amazing. God's answered Elder Schwarzkopf and I's prayers in so many ways. We met 3 Less actives this week, all of them Less active for decades, and one of them who we gave a blessing to yesterday felt that God was telling her she should go back to church (SCORE ONE FOR THE BIG GUY), so yay for that! Our investigator H. is progressing super well. She read all of 1st Nephi this week and is on 2nd Nephi already! She says that she feels as though God is answering her prayers and he's preparing her to join the church (HUZZZA!) And another of our Investigators R. is scheduled for the 6th of September and has committed to stop smoking (which is a BIG deal because the Dude's Scottish). So yay, lot's of prayer answering! 

 

 The flat's no longer haunted! Yay! 

So yeah, I got SOAKED yesterday! Like seriously, I got so wet you could see through my shirt! There's a mini Hurricane type thingy over England right now, so there are winds reaching up to 60-100 MPH winds in parts of England! I think we got a taste of it last night because when we were walking our investigator H. back to her flat, I got picked up a bit by the wind and had to put my feet down really quick before I got pushed back any further and toppled over! My hair was just ruined which was the only part I was mad about because my hair had been on POINT that day. 

So I felt a bit sad yesterday though. We were with the LA we gave a blessing too, and she had no money. Here meter for electricity had 50p in it and it was going to run out any second, and there was nothing we could do because the bishop couldn't help her that night with the Welfare Program. I felt so helpless and I felt really sad thinking about the 3 pound I spent on food the day before, and how that's what this women has for the WEEK! *sigh*.

Wow! Melanie Hale is going to Czech/Slovak! That's amazing! We teach quite a few Slovaks here in England (There's actually an Ensign talk a year or two back about a Slovak branch they opened in Sheffield). They're a good people. The biggest thing to get into a Slovak home is just to say "Jesus Christ?". and they rush you inside with open arms. They LOVE JESUS! Lol, whenever you see a Slovak or a Chinese person, you just immediately rush to them because they're so willing to embrace the gospel, be baptized, and stay solid members!  So yeah, got to go! Love you all lots (I'm buying an umbrella today, in preparation for more mini hurricane) ttyl!

Elder Hays Finds Some Flogged Pants

Okay, so I'm pretty short on time. One hour is really not at all long enough to write to everyone AND write home a big letter. The reason I didn't email yesterday is because every six weeks is transfer week. And, at least here in England, when it's transfer week we take our Pday on Tuesday instead.   SO Yeah I actually have a lot to write about, but not much time. 

So first, the results of transfer week! Elder Schwarzkopf and I are staying together in Keighley for one more transfer! We're both ok with that, because we've started to have a lot of success, and we would like to progress the new people we've found before we leave. We've found 4 new investigators and about 5 potential investigators. So we always have someone we can visit on top of the Less actives and Recent Converts we can see every now and again. 

Something weird did happen though. WE HAD TO MOVE AGAIN! The weird bit though was that we were asked to switch flats with the sisters, so the sisters new home is really masculine (Blues and browns), and ours is really feminine (Pinks and yellows), but I mean it's not like that is much to complain about!

 The weather has been HOT. I know, I know, I'm spoiled over here. But seriously, walking up and down hills in 25 Celsius with a stupidly high humidity point is TIRING. I don't think I've sweat this much in ages!

 I hope you're birthday went well mum, and I hope you're birthday Wednesday (mom's note: we celebrated twice) goes well as well! Jordan, I'm glad you're done with work! I hope you get a bit of a relaxing break before school starts! Senior year is great, and I'm sure you'll love it. It's a bit weird at first because you realize that a lot of the people you knew when you were younger have graduated and moved on, but that's why I loved things like Speech, you got to be with Kids from all years, and you didn't have to feel weird about being friends with say a sophomore, because you knew them from speech. Be kind to everyone, just remember how you felt your first year, and that'll help you to reach out to others. 

Holden & Noelle - I hope the pregnancy is going well! Whats the due date? 

Dad, I'm still not getting any letters from you soooooo?

Mom, I love you so much, stay happy, I know that everything happens for a reason. You're such and amazing person! 

Alright guys, gotta go! Love you bye! 

Here are some photos: 

So these are some pants we found that were flogged at the Bradford flat. (Flogged means left behind) they're a skinny fit size 38 waist. I had to struggle to get them on, but they're on! Lol, I'm using them as a pair of goal pants for now! 

It was the hottest day of the week and our train was delayed by 25 minutes with no air conditioning and I was on FIRE!!!!  

Leeds A Zone