This has been an awesome week! We were able to find a whole bunch of people who are super open and interested in what we have to share, so we are really excited about that! The lord has definitely been blessing us with people to find. One of the cool stories was we were talking to a lady named Linda and we taught her pretty much all of the restoration while we were outside with her. As we were walking away her neighbor, who had been listening the whole time, waved us over and said he had some questions as well. He was really sincere and when we told him about the Book of Mormon he was excited to read it! Maybe we will just keep working our way down that street haha! Memorial Day was today and it was awesome! I had so much fun with the ward. We had some great food and then we played soccer and softball. Our investigator Marlon came and he just fits right in with the ward.
Everything is going great! I just love this area more and more. Have a good week everyone!

Well this was an exciting week! We started off by not knowing whether or not I was going to be in a trio for the rest of this week, or if my new companion was going to be able to be healthy enough to leave the MTC and arrive in Tuesday when he was originally scheduled. Well I went to the meeting where all of the new trainers and trainees are and my new companion was there! He got approved to leave the day after everyone else from his group had left so he flew on the red eye flight to Pittsburgh and made it right on time, with no sleep either haha. His name is Elder Halsey and he is awesome. He chipped and sprained his ankle in the MTC so he has a boot on but he will be wearing a brace it looks like now. After the meeting I was saying goodbye to some missionaries and one of the Elders who I was in a trio with, came up to me and said that during the meeting they went to see some people and had popped our tire... But he did wish us luck with the whole thing! So we had to replace a flat tire our first day together so it was pretty exciting. This week has been great finding new people to teach. Elder Halsey is really in tune with the spirit. We have had a lot of people who have said that they would love to meet with us. We were walking down the street one day and I told Elder Halsey to pick a door he was feeling prompted to knock on. He walked right up to a door and knocked on it. We met the most awesome lady ever named Carolyn, or Mama C. That is what we call her haha. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and as we were testifying of it she said she was getting goose bumps all over. I was showing her one of my favorite scriptures and after I finished, she took the Book of Mormon back and said, "Hey give my book back!" It was pretty funny and now we will be going to see her this week. Sunday was great! Our investigator Marlon came to church and had a great experience. We were super busy the rest of the day. We met with a LA lady named Stephanie as our last appointment for the night. She is going through a lot and is really determined to put Christ first in her life again. As we shared scriptures and bore our testimonies of Christ's love she started crying. She is so awesome and her goal is to make it to the temple before too long. I love being a part of this work! It is such a blessing to be able to have this time where we have opportunity to forget about ourselves and serve others, and that is one of the greatest feelings there is. Thank you everyone and have a great week!

An abandoned house in Pittsburgh with a tree growing out of it

Elder Hasley and Elder May

Well this has been a pretty crazy week! My companion, Elder Slade, had some bad kidney stones so he had to go home. We dropped him off at the airport now I am in a trio with Elder Wood and Posada. They are awesome and we have been having a good time serving with each other! We are covering Both of our areas at the same time so that has been a little bit tricky, but we are making it work. I also got a call from President Johnson saying that I will be training. I am so happy about that! By the time I am through training here, I will have been in this area for 13 and a half months. President Johnson said that I broke the record for being in an area since he has been mission president. I am so happy to be in this area though, I love it with all of my heart!

This week we were able to see so many great things happen. The best part of the week was being able to talk to my family. They are the best and I am truly grateful for them. We were able to get a new investigator this week named Mike. At the beginning of the lesson he told us about how he didn't feel good about religion because it confused him. We taught the plan of salvation and by the end, he was talking about the peace he was feeling. It was awesome to see he spirit soften his heart.

We were also able to have a family home evening with Sister Etzi and her boyfriend Bill. When the missionaries first started seeing him, he didn't know about how he felt about us. But now it is like we are best friends. We usually play a little game and then share a spiritual message with them. Sister Etzi said she wanted to read about the first vision this time. As we read Bill was really interested. Sister Etzi bore her testimony and Bill said he wanted to know for himself as well! That was amazing, we will see what continues to happen with him.

We also got the feeling we needed to go knock on the door of a man named Don. He is the neighbor of some members and a really nice guy. When we knocked on the door he saw us and said he knew why we were there and everything. We just asked if we could do any service for him. He said he could really use some help with his lawn. His health has been really bad and he could not do it on his own. He kept saying how the timing of this was perfect! We have gotten a great relationship now. It was definitely the spirit that led us to him.

Well I just want everyone to know how much I love being a missionary. For the good times and the hard times. That is what sculpts us into what we are! Thank you for all of the support!

Elder May

District picture with Pres, Johnson

District pancake making in the mission home

This has been a great week! We were able to help another couple in a pretty sticky situation move out of there home this week! They were really grateful because they had to be out by the end of the month. But I definitely learned the importance of having love in a home. We were able to see a lot of great things happen with the less active members we have been teaching. There are a few who have been coming to church and are working on going to the temple! So great things are happening there. We also have seen so many great things happen as we have been spending a lot of our time finding investigators. We have been led by the spirit to many different people who are prepared. One young man named Damon is one of them. We met him last week and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. When we went to go see him this week he said that he had been reading the Book of Mormon for an hour every night and that he had been loving it!! He said he loved what it taught and that he wanted to learn more. As we were preparing to have like the best lesson ever with him, his mom started yelling to him from the inside of the house. She chewed him out pretty bad and them came outside and yelled at us as well... So we weren't able to teach him but we will keep trying. Oh yeah miracle of the week! I couldn't find my magnet name tag anywhere and I thought it would show up eventually. Well I was on exchanges this week and apparently a less active lady came up to Elder Slade while they were in Mckees rocks and told them she had seen my name tag in a mud puddle on the side of the road. So we looked over there a couple of days later and we found it stuck right in the mud on the side of the road! But hey I found it! I lost this same name tag for all of last winter in a church parking lot and some members found it when all the snow melted. So I am still being blessed on finding my things haha. Well thank you for all the support and have a great week!