This week was an awesome week ending with the baptism of the Young family. It has been really, really, really cold out here, but we are still keeping really busy. We have been super blessed with some amazing people to teach.

On Monday we were able to teach Thomas again. He is doing a lot better with not smoking and he is excited for his Baptismal date. When we got there he was rubbing some lotion on his grandma's feet because they had red lumps on them. He said that he was wearing gloves because he didn't know if it was contagious or not but then we would rub the left over lotion on his face... So if he has red lumps on his face the next time we see him, it was contagious haha. I love Thomas a ton though. I don't know if he has had many friends in his life so us going over there and showing him that we care is making the biggest difference right now. Missionary work can be done in so many ways. For Thomas, he just needs to feel like he has a friend. So we have been calling him every night to see how he is doing. It has been really fun. He laughs super easy so I feel like a comedian by the time that I am done haha.

Wednesday we met with an Atheist named Marqueese. He is honestly one of the coolest guys I know. He wants to know if God exists but in order for that to happen he wants a sign. I don't think Heavenly Father works that way. We don't make the terms for how things are going to work in life. We are going to see him on Wednesday so we will see how that goes.

On Friday we had an awesome Lesson with Fernando. He is progressing great and he just loves the way he feels as we meet with him and as he comes to church. I love being able to teach all of these amazing people that the Lord has prepared for us. It is very humbling to me the think that Heavenly Father is trusting us with his children that he has prepared. But I love being able to meet with them and Testify with all the sincerity that I have that this church is true and that God lives and loves us. Fernando is awesome and I can't wait to keep meeting with him.

Saturday was the Baptism and lets just say Satan was trying to do everything that he could to stop it from happening. The Young's have a hard time when the weather is bad because they have a hard time getting around. That morning it was snowing super hard and it didn't let up. Also the Transformer blew so there was no power to the church. We didn't have any lights or hot water to fill up the font. The Youngs and the Sister Missionaries decided to do it anyway. They knew the Lord would provide a way. There faith was awesome. We were able to get half of the power back to the church and we got warmish water in the font. They were right, heavenly father provided a way. It was super cool to baptise them. It was different baptising a man with one leg and one in a wheel chair. I had to improvise quite a bit but it all worked out good and Elder Hoyt and I were able to confirm them the next day as well.

Later that day was a huge miracle. We met with one of our investigators Josh for the first time. We were teaching him the restoration and when we got to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, it pretty much turned into a testimony meeting. He told us that he had been to Lds.org and that he had watched the Joseph Smith movie and that he loved it. He said when Joseph Smith saw the first vision it was an amazing experience for him. So that was awesome but then we started talking about the Book of Mormon. We turned to Moroni's Promise and he said he already knew what that was and that he had done it already. We asked him if he had gotten an answer and he said that he knew that it was true and that he was so grateful for the opportuninty he has to read it. We asked him to be baptised and he said absolutely! That was so awesome!

I was reading in Alma 5 today and it talks a lot about changing your heart. I was thinking about that a lot this morning. It wasn't saying to change your behaviour for a little bit, but to change who you are. Following Jesus Christ is something that has to be a part of who we are. It can't be dependent on who we are with or what circumstances we are in, it has to be our nature. That is when we will be able to feel true happiness and peach as we constantly strive to do his will and become the person he wants us to be. I love you all. I hope you have a great week.

Elder May

So this week has been freezing cold!! With wind chill it was like -10 degrees the other day. But we survived so it's all good. We got cut like 150 miles this month so we are back to walking just like the good ole' carless days with Elder Taylor haha. But I actually kind of prefer that. Well at least when the weather gets warmer anyway. 

But this week has been great and full of miracles. On Tuesday we had our lesson with Thomas and we read Alma 24 when the Anti Nephi Lehis bury there weapons of war. So Thomas took all of his cigarettes outside and we dumped them on the ground and then smashed them all. It was pretty fun actually! It is a pretty satisfying feeling to smash cigarettes to pieces especially when they are preventing your investigators from getting baptised. 

On Wednesday we met a referral we had gotten named Josh. Someone in our ward had given him a Book of Mormon and he had already read all the way through 1 Nephi by the time that we saw him. He said that he loved everything that he had been reading so far. He is so awesome and I can't wait to be able to meet with him. He has been prepared so much! 

Friday we were preparing for our lesson with Chris. We felt for some reason that we really needed to teach him in tithing. We had been studying for something else but we decided to start studying on tithing instead. We got a feeling that it was what we needed to do. When we got there his whole family was there and they were going to sit in on the lesson. That was the first time his wife has ever sat in and we were so happy for that. She kept talking about how she wanted to grow closer as a family and we were able to teach her about how the gospel blesses families. After the lesson we were wondering why we felt so strongly to teach tithing. As I was thinking about it, a thought came to me. Maybe we were supposed to plan on teaching tithing because when we got there, it was so obvious that it was not what we should teach. If we had gone with our original lesson plan, maybe that would have seemed okay to teach in that situation but it wouldn't have been what she needed to hear. Us going there and knowing for sure that we shouldn't teach tithing made it so we had to listen and try to teach to what she needed to hear. I hope that makes sense but that was so cool to me. The spirit works in so many ways and we just need to put our full trust in god and allow him to work miracles.

Saturday we had lunch with our Spanish Investigator. She made us cow tongue... and I loved it!! It was good! So that is the first meal I want when I get home mom. Just so you know ;)

This week I will be baptizing 3 of the sister missionaries investigators. I am really excited and touched that they asked me to do that for them. They are one of the coolest families that you will ever meet. But it will be interesting because one is in a wheelchair and one doesn't have a leg. So we will see how this goes. It will all be good though. The spirit will be there as these 3 people are making the decision to be baptized which will be the most important decision they will ever make in there lives. I love this church and I am so grateful for the blessing that I have to be out here serving. The relationship that I have been able to gain with my saviour is something that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Thank you for the support that you all give me.

Elder May

This has been an amazing week out here in Wheeling! The work is picking up like crazy and it is so cool to see that as we work hard and be the most diligent we can, that Heavenly Father is just waiting to bless us with miracles.

So on Tuesday Elder Hoyt and I decided to contact this referral that we had received from this guy named Robert. He is probably in his late 70's and he is kind of starting to lose it a little bit. But anyways, he took us to the room of the referral, they lived in the same apartment building, for us to meet him. He knocked on the door and the guy opened it. He was an old guy too in an electric wheelchair. When he answered the door Robert was like, "Hey I brought some guys over to save your soul, and to make it so you can walk again." Right after that I was just thinking that this wasn't going to end well. The guy we went to visit just started yelling and swearing at Robert and Robert started yelling and swearing back at him. Things were starting to escalate, I knew it was only a matter of time before Robert got ran over by the guy in the electric wheelchair, so I grabbed him and pulled him out of the guys house just as he went to slam the door. It was pretty intense! I thought there was going to be an old man brawl for sure haha.

On Wednesday Elder Hoyt and I were looking through our former investigators and we decided to visit one of them named Jasper Grubb. As we were visiting other people throughout the day, we got a call from Jasper Grubb. We hadn't called him or texted him or anything, we were just going to drop by and see him. But he called us that same day and asked when the Book of Mormon class was. He said that he had felt like he should call us for a couple of weeks now he finally decided to. I told him how we had actually planned on seeing him that day and he couldn't believe it. He wanted to meet with us right then, so he decided that we should meet up at McDonald's. So we went to Mcdonald's and had a lesson with him. It was pretty cool having a lesson there, not going to lie haha. It is amazing to me to see how Heavenly Father works. He had been prompting us while he had been prompting Jasper. I know without a doubt that this is his work and the he is directing it.

Saturday was awesome! We were able to have a lesson with Paloma again and it went really well. We are learning how to teach her despite her not speaking very much English and It is going really well. She really opened up to us this lesson and told us some of the different trials that she has been going through. We were able to give her a blessing afterwards and she said she could just feel it working in her. It was an awesome experience.

After Sacrament meeting the sister's asked us to give some of their investigators a blessing. They are teaching the Young family and they are close to being baptized. They needed some help with not drinking coffee so we were able to give them a blessing for that and also for strength to make it to baptism. It was such a spiritual experience as we were able to give each of them a blessing. One of their sons Chris is in a wheelchair and he was telling me what he needed the blessing for. He told me for strength to quit coffee for comfort, and then he sat for a second and said, "And do you think that you could make it so that my legs will work again?" I didn't know really what to say haha, I guess I was supposed to heal someone and make them walk this week. But I was able to give him a blessing and it went really well as well.

I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the power that it has in each of our lives. I know that it has the power to bless us in our lives, but more importantly we have the opportunity to help and others and serve others the way Jesus Christ would. I know that he leads this church and we will all one day see him again. Thanks for all that you guys do!

Elder May

Well this week has been a crazy but an amazing week. My new companion is Elder Hoyt! He is from Saratoga Springs! I am really excited to be serving with him. As I was sitting in the trainer meeting, I definitely didn't feel like I was ready for it. I still like I need training a lot of the time and I was pretty nervous to be training someone else. But I knew that if Heavenly Father wanted me to train, it would all work out. This has been one of the greatest blessings for me though. I know that I can not do this on my own, but it has been so cool to see that as I have relied on the savior, he has lifted me up to do things that I could never have done before. I can see his hand so much in my life and that is an amazing blessing.

On Tuesday we went to the Oliver's for dinner. This was Elder Hoyt's first dinner appointment and Brother Oliver was on one. He kept coming up to us and trying to attack us with some Kung fu moves or something. Don't worry we held him off though! But it was definitely a good first dinner appointment.

The highlight of the week was setting two investigators with a date. One is Fernando and he actually came to church on Sunday. He was a media referral and he had actually referred himself. We went over to teach him and the spirit was really strong. He said that he loved the happiness and peace he felt. He said the he just wants to follow God the best way he can. He is an amazing guy and I know that he can be ready for his baptismal date.

The other one we set with a date is Chris. He has been taught by a lot of other missionaries in the past and he said that missionaries always come into his life when he needs it the most. It was pretty funny, he asked if baptism was the same as it was back in John the Baptist times because back then people could just go up to him and say that they wanted to be baptized and they could be baptized right then and there. He was wondering because he wanted to know if he could do that haha. We told him that he there was a couple things that he had to do first, but we would definitely help him get there as fast as we could.

This has been another great week out here in Wheeling!! The snow is coming down like crazy! I don't even know if we will be able to get any pie today... Mortality is so hard sometimes...haha. 

So I got a call from President Johnson yesterday and he said that I will be training and that I am going to be District Leader. I am pretty excited! I am so excited to be able to go out and work our hardest every single day and to wait and see the miracles that can and will happen as we do so!

On Tuesday we decided to see a lady named Lequetta. We had tried her a bunch of different times and nothing ever worked. So we decided that this would be our last time trying. We knocked on the door and she said that right now wasn't a very good time. But then she paused and said that it was never a good time so that she might as well let us in! It was super cool to see! I think that the Holy Ghost was working on her and helped her decide to let us in. She didn't have much time so we taught her a little about the Book of Mormon. She said that she was really excited to read it. She said her Brother is a member and that he was really happy and she noticed that in him. It is amazing to see how the last time we were going to try her  was the time that she let us in. I know that isn't a coincidence. 

We were also able to teach Thomas this week. We were asking him how smoking was going and then he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Then Elder Watts held out his hand and was like "Give them to me." Thomas was really torn for a second, but then he gave them to Elder Watts. It was funny how fast Elder Watts took those things. It definitely looked like he had done that before.

Today I will be helping Elder Watts pack. I'll be getting rid of my third companion this transfer. I am excited that next transfer will be less crazy and that we will be able to really focus on the work and give the Lord everything that we have. I know that Christ lives and that he loves us. I have seen his hand guiding us so many times out here and I am so grateful for that. I know that if we give everything to the Lord, he can make us into what he wants us to be, and that is way better then we could ever do on our own. 

Elder May

Elder May and Elder Belk

Elder May and Elder Taylor

This has been a great week! We took Elder Belk to the Airport on Wednesday! That was pretty weird taking him to the airport ourselves. Now it is just Elder Watts and I... Until next week at least until I get a new companion. This transfer has been so weird. I hope that things will start to be a little more normal once I get my new companion!

On Wednesday we had a Zone Training on Finding. Afterwards Elder Watts and I decided to go visit some Former investigators to try and find new people to teach. We saw one name in our area book that really stuck out to us and we decided to go visit him. When we put it in our GPS we realized that it was a pretty long dricve away so we decided to do it another day. But we kept feeling like we really needed to go visit him so we decided that we were just going to do it. When we got there we knocked on the door and answered the door. We asked if his name was Chris and he just stared at us with a weird look on his face and he invited us inside. 

Once we got inside he looked at us and said that missionaries always seem to show up in his life when he needs it the most. He said he could make a book of all the times that he was praying for help and the missionaries always showed up. I was so pumped when he said that! God was directly answering his prayers everytime by sending missionaries and I think that he is starting to realize that now. His wife came into the room to and she stayed for the lesson. They said how they wanted to do things together and they said that they were going to start reading the Book of Mormon together. I was so excited!!! I have the strongest testimony of the Holy Ghost and that Heavenly Father has prepared people for us to teach. It is so cool to me that we were prompted to see someone and when we did, it was exactly what he needed at that time!

We also taught Thomas Sayers. He is an investigator and he hasn't really been progressig lately. But this lesson we read 2 Nephi 31 with him and he started to just talk about his life and how hard it was growing up and all the trial that he went through. It really meant a lot to me that he told us the things that he did and the things that he is stuggling with. Elder Watts gave him a blessing and we told him that if he ever needed anything to give us a call. That night we got a call from him saying that he had thrown away all of his cigarettes and his Cigars! That was a huge miracle!!

On Saturday we taught Paloma our Spanish Investigator. Unfortunately I think my spanish got worse since our last visit so I didn't understand anything... But towards the end of the lesson, a member that was there with us to help us teach, turned to me and said that Paloma wanted to hear my testimony. So I bore my testimony to hear in English. I tried my best to express to her my love for this church and especially Jesus Christ. After she said something to Sister Murphey and she said that Paloma said thank you for my testimony. She said that it really meant a lot to her and she could tell that I was sincere about it. I thought that was really cool. I don't know how much she understood of what I said, but the Spirit was able to touch her as I was bearing my testimony. I am so grateful to be a missionary. i wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

Elder May 

Man this has been the weirdest week on my mission for sure! It was so weird to be inside cleaning all day instead of being outside working! As much as I love cleaning, it was hard doing that all day long. But when we finally got out after scrubbing toilets all day, it felt that much better to be doing missionary work. And despite the limited time we did have to work, we were able to teach a pretty good amount of lessons which was a huge blessing! 

So while we were cleaning on Tuesday, I got a call from my mission president. He called me and told me where I am going! So I will be serving in Wheeling, West Virginia! I will be going there tonight! So I am leaving the good old state of PA. I am really going to miss being in Pittsburgh, it is such a beautiful place. Every time I pas Heinz Field, I think of Jeff and how jealous he would be. And that was always nice haha. But I am excited for my new area. It will be an opportunity for me to learn and grow and rely on the savior more then I ever have. 

I will actually be serving in a trio when I get there. I will be serving with Elder Watts and Elder Belk. Elder Belk will be going home 1 week from today so I wont be with him for too long. And then Elder Watts is going to be going home at the end of the Transfer in 3 weeks! So In 3 weeks I will need to learn the whole area and be able to help my new companion out when he gets there. It will be really tough but I know that heavenly Father will strengthen me. Even though I wouldn't be able to do it on my own, I know that I can with his help.

On Saturday ward members came and helped us move all of the furniture out and helped us deep clean the place. I didn't know that there were so many things to clean. And just so you know, if you ever have to clean an oven, it is not as fun as you would think. I am sooo grateful that Elder Taylor was kind enough to let me do that haha. But by about 2:00 we had nothing left in our apartment. So we have been sleeping and eating and studying on the floor. I feel like a little homeless guy! No bed, no tables, no couches, no car.... Haha I cannot describe how happy I will be to be able to ride in a car again! I have had to resist stealing this little kids scooter on multiple occasions.

Sunday was the best/hardest day for sure. We went and said goodbye to all of the members and all of our awesome investigators. I never thought it could possibly be this hard to leave the people I have met. But I love them so much! We said goodbye to the Clark family and before we left, we had a little testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong and before we left they kept saying how much they loved Elder Taylor and I and how grateful they were to have met us. And I feel exaclty the same way. I know that the Lord has prepared them and I just hope that I can go back for their baptisms.

After that we had dinner with the Kronk family. That was probably the hardest goodbye. They have honestly been my family out here. They are so funny and such great examples to me. They were definitely the hardest to say good bye to. Mom and Dad, when I come home we have to come back so I can show you and have you meet everyone. 

I know that this church is true and I am grateful for every experience I have had out here. My testimony has grown so much and I am so grateful for that. Wish me luck out in West Virginia! 

Elder May

Our sleeping arrangements

Bro. Rossignoli and Elder May