This has been another great week. Monday we didn't have a PDay since we went to the temple on Saturday. But we were able to do some service for this one lady who was doing some construction on her house. It was kind of fun to do it again. Tell Charlee not to worry, I am just as good at picking up trash now as I was 6 months ago haha.

 

Monday we had FHE at Bishop Orban's house with Josh. His family is so awesome. They fellowshipped him so well. That is how missionary work needs to be done. When the member are involved, that is when the work really progresses. Josh is kind of shy, but being there at bishops he really opened up and he had a great time.

 

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders since they are the only ones in our District. I went with Elder Miller. He is from Canada, but other then that he isn't too bad haha. Just kidding it was awesome serving with him. I definitely wouldn't mind if we were companions in the future. The next morning we had gotten a bunch of snow, so we couldn't exchange back. So a lot of the next day with him to. But it was great.

 

Saturday Fernando and Thomas had their Baptismal interviews. Fernando is going to be Baptized this Saturday! It is going to be awesome. He is amazing. Thomas is going to be ready in a couple of weeks as well.

 

Sunday Josh, Thomas, and Fernando were all at Church. Finally with good weather people are actually showing up. Josh came up and asked what we did for tithing since he didn't see a donation box going around or anything. We haven't taught him tithing yet so I explained what it was really quick and showed him where the tithing slips were. He pulled one out, filled it out and gave it to the Bishop. He is so awesome!! I am so excited to be teaching him.

 

The work here is going great! We have been sooooooooo blessed by our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for him. I know that as long as we give our whole heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord, he will continue to bless us.

 

I know that this Church is true and I am so grateful to be serving here in Wheeling WV. If I never left this area, I would totally be okay with that. I have learned so much out here, it is crazy. I can promise you if you come out here with a sincere desire to serve out Savior, you will receive a million times more then you will ever sacrifice. The time is flying by way fast. It has been the fastest 6 months of my life. I hope you all have a great week.

 

Elder May

Another great week here in Wheeling! There have been so many miracles happening. God is moving his work forward here and it is awesome to be a part of. Thomas, Fernando and Josh all have baptismal dates this month and they are doing great! We taught Fernando the WOW this week. I was kind of nervous at first because he was doing amazing and we knew that he had problems with it. When we taught him it he was a little surprised about the coffee thing. But when we asked him if we would live the WOW in his life, he looked at us like we were asking a dumb question. He looked at us and said, "Well yeah, I want to follow Jesus Christ so I will do anything I need to." That was a week ago and he had only one cup of coffee the next day. He is doing great. One of the most humble faithful people I have ever met. He has a date set for the 14 of March. He is definitely going to make it!

We taught Josh the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome. He said that it all just made sense. He said that he knew what we were teaching is true. We committed him to be baptized on March 28 and he said "Absolutely". He already has an amazing testimony and we are so lucky to be teaching him right now.

Thomas has a date for March 14 as well. We have been calling him every night to see how he is doing. On Friday he gave us a call and said that he wanted to push his date back. We asked if we could see him real quick and he said we could. He told us that he bought some E-ciggs to help him quit smoking. He said that he didn't want us to plan a baptism just for him to mess up and then having to cancel it. We told him that it was up to him but we shared some scriptures about faith as well. We testified that if he had the faith that he would be ready for baptism on the 14 but we told him we would do what he wanted. He stood up and handed us his cigarettes. So that was his answer! It was awesome. We gave him a blessing after that he would have the strength to make it to the 14th. I feel so blessed to be here right now. I don't feel like Elder Hoyt and I even have to do anything. These people are so prepared and awesome it almost feels like they are teaching us sometimes. I love seeing our Saviors hand in everything we do. It is truly his work.

Saturday was amazing. We got to go to the temple. I love the temple so much and the things that we are able to learn there. The peace that abounds in those buildings is amazing. It is a testimony to me of the reality of Jesus Christ and that this really is his restored church. As we were sitting by the doors ready to leave, the doors opened and the Turners walked in. They are the most amazing couple ever and Elder Taylor and I had a great relationship with them. They were one of the hardest families to say goodbye to before I left and there they were at the temple. I was sooo happy to see them. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done to not give sister Turner a huge hug. But I gave brother turner one so it was all good haha. It was such a tender mercy! this church is true. I know it is. We are so blessed to be a part of it. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder May

Columbus Ohio Temple

Elder May with the Turners

Elder May and Elder Hoyt

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