Hey everyone! This week has been great! Last Monday we played a lot of basketball which was nice to do that again. Afterwards we went to Chipotle and one of our investigators, Kimberly, was working there. She hooked us up with some free burritos and drinks! That's when you know that they are truly prepared to hear the Gospel haha Tuesday we were able to do a lot of service. We helped a member load up a trailer with a lot of the stuff he had and then afterwards we want and helped Mari do some yard work. She had us trimming raspberry bushes. These things hadn't been trimmed in years so they were monsters. To get everything we had to climb into the middle of them. And apparently raspberry bushes have thorns haha. Lesson learned, don't wear shorts and a short sleeved shirt to trim raspberry bushes. But I know that service is really an awesome way to soften somebody's heart. We taught her the restoration afterward and she was super open and receptive. Hopefully she will read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

A highlight of this week was going to see Bernice. When we went to see her, her whole countenance had changed. She told us she was sick of feeling the way that she felt and that she was ready to do whatever it took to finally be truly happy. That is a huge step for Bernice. She said she was done with Satan trying to try to tell her not to do what we were asking her to, she wanted to be choosing for herself. So we invited her to a baptism the Spanish branch was having on Saturday. Well Saturday rolled around and she came! Even thought the whole thing was in Spanish, I am really starting to think I need to learn Spanish, she said she felt the spirit so strongly and afterwards she told us we better have a ride for her to get to church! These are such huge steps for Bernice and I hope that she continues with this same determination. We also did some service for Fran again. We mowed her lawn and did some yard work and while we were pulling weeds together, she told me that she was looking through some old papers from her husband who died over a year ago and she found out that he had been a member of this church and that he had never told her. She said that she was thinking about joining the church now! It is so amazing how the Savior will lead people to certain things in their lives when they are ready for it. I hope that she does get baptized because I know of the happiness that it will bring to her in this life. I can see how happy she would be as she is in the temple getting sealed to her husband. That is what this Gospel is about. It is about having true joy and happiness in this life. That is one of the purposes of our Heavenly Father. For us to be as happy as we can in this life and in eternity. I am grateful for a savior that makes it all possible. Thank you for all of your support and I hope you have a great week!

Berniece's Son

Hey everyone! This week was a great week! On Monday we went to the York County fairs 250th anniversary. It was really cool and really fun. They had this petting zoo thing where you could come and see pigs and cows and horses. Everyone thought it was super cool, but I just remembered chasing them out of my yard all the time haha. I guess I wasn't as into them as everyone else was haha. We had the Patterson  family invite us over for dinner along with one of their neighbors who is a non-member. We had a great dinner with him and talked about family history. All this talk about family history made me wish that I actually knew how to do it haha. We had an awesome message about Christ from reading scriptures in the Book of Mormon. You could tell that it hit him. He has been coming to the Family History center to do his work now so that is awesome.

On Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Garduno who is a Spanish missionary. We spent the day teaching in all Spanish. I am still waiting for my 8th grade spanish to kick in.... I actually told someone "Si" in a lesson and I realized that was the extent of my Spanish knowledge haha. It was always awkward when someone knows you don't speak Spanish so they look at you and start saying things about you. Apparently one lady thought I looked like a little baby and just started talking about that haha. 

On Friday we had Elder Stanfill from the Seventy come and talk to us. He is an amazing man and is truly called of God. But he talked about how the Savior suffered for each of us as individuals. It wasn't just a blanket atonement. It was a personal, individual atonement. He not only suffered for our sins so that we can be forgiven, which I am eternally grateful for, but he suffered our pains, sicknesses, sadness, disappointments, everything, individually! He knows us perfectly because he felt everything. And I believe that we all were there with the Savior, that we each had our own personal moment with him while he was suffering for us. I am so grateful for him and to be able to serve him. I am grateful that I can be happy because of him and I have never been more happy in my life. Thank you for all of the support! Life is truly good.

                                         

Elder May

Hey everyone! This has been such a good week! I hit my one year mark this week!! I can't believe it. One year down and one year to go! Also We picked up a new investigator this week named Tim. He is so cool and so prepared. He was sitting on his porch and so we decided to go talk to him. When we were talking to him he was like ,"So, do you guys believe that there are prophets on the earth today, not very many people believe that anymore."

Well he didn't know how good of a question that was and we were more than happy to answer haha. He really opened up to us. He is excited to come to church and to hear what we have to teach him. I love this work, Heavenly Father is so involved in all that we do.

So we had a pretty embarrassing experience this week. We were out walking and this super nice lady started talking to us. She was super cool so Elder Mills and I were all excited to start telling her about the restoration and what we do as missionaries. As we started talking to her about what we do she said that she was already a member of the church.... I was hoping that it was for a different ward but nope, she has been at church every single week I have been there. I told her that she got our hopes up, we were getting ready to baptize her and everything haha. But she gave us an apple and water so it was pretty cool.

We had a really humbling experience this week. We went to go see one of our investigators with a member but I guess she forgot and she was asleep. We were standing out by our car deciding who would should go see when her daughter came walking home. We asked if we could show her a video real quick and she was okay with it. We showed her a Mormon message and after she just broke down. She has had a drug problem and she had gone to jail for it in the past and tonight she was being really tempted to do it again. She said that as she was making the decision and trying to resist the temptation when she saw us standing there it was an answer to her prayers. If she would have relapsed she would have had her kids taken away and gone back to jail. I was just thinking about the impact we might of just had on this family. What if we hadn't been there? I don't think we know how much of an impact we can have on people’s lives out here. I know that it is not us but the spirit of God that they are able to feel as we testify of Christ. I know that God is in charge out here and he will guide us to where we need to be. I am humbled that I am out here and able to be a part of this work. Thank you for all of the support. 

Elder May

This week has been great! Life is going great in York Pennsylvania. We have been teaching a new investigator named Nicole! She is super cool. We talked to her on her porch and taught her the restoration. We gave her a Book of Mormon and the next time we went over she had actually
read out of it!! She had some really good questions and we were able to answer those for her. The best part was that she agreed to be baptized! I am so grateful to be apart of this work where we are able to see all these happen. Thursday as we were planning we had the impression that we needed to
go by and see one of the active families in our ward. As we went to see them the next day they expressed how grateful they were to have us over and that we showed up right when they needed it. We talked to them for a little bit and they invited us over for dinner. So a couple of hours later went over for dinner and one of their really good friends , who is also one of our investigators was also there. We hadn't been able to see him for a really long time so it was awesome to have him there. After dinner we had a lesson on the Book of Mormon. It was so great to have a family there who had seen the blessings of this gospel in their lives be able to to testify to Barry of its truthfulness. I am grateful for the testimonies that we have all been blessed with. It is what we are able to hold onto when those hard times come. I love in Helaman 5 how many times it says the word remember. Satan tries to get us to forget the spiritual experiences that we have had. But if we remember those moments when the Holy Ghost has born testimony to us of truth, that is something that we cannot deny. I love being a missionary and I love Pennsylvania, even though I haven't stopped sweating all summer Haha. Thank you for all of the support that you give.

Well this has been a crazy week here. Elder Liston got transferred and now I am serving here with Elder Mills. He is super awesome. He is from Bakersfield, CA. He has been out for 8 months now. He is super energetic and a great missionary so I am excited to be serving with him.

We picked up a new investigator named Nicole this week. She was sitting on her porch so we went and talked to her. She is super cool and really open to what he have to teach. She said in made so much sense that God would still talk to his children and still call prophets for us today. She was super excited to read the Book of Mormon and we will be seeing her again this week. We have been able have so many experiences of being able to see Heavenly Father put people in our path to talk to. I have seen that if stop and actually look we can see so many moments where Heavenly Father is a part of our lives. No matter how big or small it may be. I was grateful for this when Thursday rolled around... 

So Thursday was probably one of the craziest days of my mission. So we have had a clogged drain in our kitchen for a while now and we have tried everything to get it out. We finally thought we had it fixed when we got a snake and pulled out a huge glob of gross stuff. But we tried doing the dishes right after and it was still clogged. Well while we were studying we hear this gurgling noise coming from the sink. We were pretty sure that sinks didn't make that sound so we went in to check it out. When we looked in the sink was filling up with with dark brown moldy water(we had no water running in the house)!! It stopped right at the top of the sink so Elder Mills and I started scooping out the water with cups, dumped it in buckets and then we would dump it outside. We were making really good progress but then it came back with a vengeance. Water started filling up the sink at a rapid pace. Elder Mills and I were scooping as fast as we could, but it was all in vain. The water filled up over the sink and poured all over our kitchen floor. So our land lord called a plumber and now it is all good. Later on Elder Mills ripped two pairs of pants and a dog peed on my shoe. But the awesome thing was throughout the day we met a couple people who were prepared to be taught at this time. Miracles happen every day, even on our worst ones. He is a part of everything we do and loves us more then we could ever know. I am grateful for the hope that I have and will always have because of the love of Jesus Christ. I know He lives. Have a great week everyone, and if your sink gurgles on you, grab the biggest bucket you can find.

So transfers is this week and I will be staying here in York but Elder Liston will be leaving.... I am going to miss him so much. He has been one of the best examples to me and one of the best friends I have had! He is going to do great things wherever he ends up!

This week has been an awesome one to end this transfer on. Monday we went golfing and that was so fun to be able to go again. We actually did pretty good! We almost got par one time haha. 

We got a new investigator this week named Joanna. She is from Greece and is super cool. We had breakfast with her and we talked about what we believed and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was super excited to read it and even kept on hugging it! I am excited to meet with her again and see if she has been reading and praying about it. 

We also met with Domonic again this week. He came to church last sunday so we were talking to him about the experience that he had. He said it was awesome! He said, "You know that warm peaceful feeling that you guys always talk about? Well I felt that at church for the very first time in my life!" That was so cool and he it great to see that he is feeling the spirit and now he knows what it feels like so he can continue to look for that as he reads and prays about the Book of Mormon.

It is so cool to God playing apart in his life as he is trying to grow closer to him. The mission has really testified to me of God's love. It is always there for us even if we don't feel we deserve it. I know greater happiness awaits us as we fully embrace this Gospel and act on the things that we know to be true. It isn't enough to believe, we need to be motivated by Christ and all that he has done for us. To have our greatest desire to be to live with him someday and to help bring as many people as we can. Have a great week everyone! 

Elder May

Hey Everyone!

This has been another great week out here in York. I am loving it out here with Elder Liston. He is such a great companion, I am definitely grateful to be serving with him. We were able to do a lot of service this week. On Friday we helped Mari with some more yard work. She has had some pretty difficult health problems this past year and she has been receiving citations from the city for her yard so she has had to be out working in the sun with her health problems. Elder Liston and I saw her out working one day and we asked if we could help. It has been awesome as we have been helping her out how much we have gotten to know her. We have a special relationship with her and I know that is because of service. As we were talking to her we ended up figuring out that she thought we were Jehova's Witnesses. We told her that we were actually Mormon and her response was so funny. She was like, "Oh what a relief, just your everyday Mormon's." Haha I have never gotten that response from someone when they have found out that we were Mormon's! But we gave her a Book of Mormon to read and she is super open to reading it. We had an awesome training on the Book of Mormon this week and it has reaffirmed my testimony of it. I know that it is true and that it is the word of God, and that all who read it will come to know of it's truth if they read with a sincere heart and real intent. That is so reassuring to know that whoever does those things will receive an answer. I am grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon. So many blessings will come as we read from it's pages. We will feel closer to Christ and we will feel of the peace and hope that come from a knowledge of his Atonement. Thank you for all of the support!

Elder May