Week #25: November 28 2016

Hola Todos!

I have had a way busy week that has been way fun as well! For starters, My new companions are Elder Southwick and Elder Jun! Elder Jun is a fresh missionary right off the block and my trainee! Elder Southwick is just about ready to go home but has the energy of a bunny rabbit! They are way fun and I am learning lots. Elder Jun is from Orem, UT but was born in Korea. He speaks fluent Korean and now will be trilingual! All of the members keep giving him weird looks because he is an Asian speaking Spanish. Elder Southwick is from a little town called Battleground, WA. He is way awsome and loves to work hard. Side note, as a companionship we have been playing a game called 'what are the odds'. Long story short it is a little bit chancy. I lost and had to super glue a bottle to my face, but Elder Southwick accidentally got it in my hair and now I have this funny hard spot in my hair that won't come out. Luckily it isn't noticeable to see, but it is kinda awful in my hair. Though, Elder Southwick got the worst of it and let's just lave it at he had to do some crazy stuff! Elder Jun has spunk and is just plain awesome. We met up the other day with my old companion Elder Baum and his companion Elder Bowcutt to go and eat while they were down on a medical trip. We took our lunch and Elder Baum happened to bring his Flashbang hot-sauce.This stuff is CRAZY. I had to try it of course because there aren't many opportunities to try a sauce that hot. 1 drop will make a whole gallon of food be spiced up big time. Elder Jun took 4 and hardly flinched. He was like, "wow this is really hot"...went and got some Horchata... "Wow this is REALLY hot!" I took 2 drops and it immediately sent me into a teary hiccuping fit where everything was liquid flame and my insides just wanted to be on the out. My tummy ached super bad, but in the end it all worked out. Elder Jun said it!

Events and stuff this week!

Monday and Tuesday were a little stressful getting everything ready for the transfer, Wednesday we had meetings and transfers and fun missionary stuff. Thursday, we weekly planned then had a very fattening day. We started out early with a lovely breakfast with one of the members named Isabel Lopez and her Husband Andrew and her daughter Emma. (Pancakes, Sausage, yogurt, fruit,) LAter after planning, We had a dinner planned with our investigator Yotsy and Liz and their family. It was a jolly ole time! We arrive and they had started early, the only time Latinos start early is to eat..., but the had three ginormous plates with rice, purple looking potatoes, some sort of Peruvian steak stuff that was the bomb, Latino turkey, and this dessert that was like a cinnamon roll but different. Dinner 1. While their we had some awesome discussions and it was way helpful in building relations with them and discussing the gospel. Dinner 2. Directly after we headed to a part member family's house, Lino and his wife. Lino is Spanish, but his wife is from Cambodia! So, there were lots of fun people to talk to there. We had Asian food for this one which all tasted really goo, but we were already stuffed to the bone. We leave and they hand us huge pieces of cake as we walk out. Dinner 3. We head then to our Branch Mission Leader Alex Ventura's home for dinner 3. We get there and I am dying. We set out and there is lots of turkey and Spaghetti. I get to the point where I just say, "this food is really wonderful and I don't want to waste i, could I take it home with me?" Relief! My companion was being funny and decided to dish us up huge helpings. Funny thing though, he gave our new companion the throat and didn't tell him. The Venturas kept telling him, Elder Jun, that he didn't have to eat it, but he didn't know what they were saying and just nodded his head and said si. Way funny and a great day. Friday we went out and did service, had correlacion, dinner with a member, then we had some cancellations. Saturday was a day full of miracles where we were able to meet and teach most of our investigators. We had help fro the members and we found some new people to teach. Sunday, not a ton happened, but it was not near as exciting as Saturday. All in all a pretty awesome week.

Things I learned

1. Don't do dumb things. Slightly dumb thigs can turn to really dumb things fast and leave glue in your hair.

2. I appreciate healthy eating habits much more.

3. We for some reason didn't actually set our goals and write them down for Sunday. Setting goals is a way we show our faith that even though we might have cancellations, the Lord will make it possible anyway. There was an insane difference in that and just by showing the Lord that we are putting it in His hands. It wasn't that we didn't have good plans or not write them dawn, rather we simply forgot the numbers. The numbers though are a big way to show trust in the Lord. Just interesting.

All in all, things are going well! I am loving Frederick and Miracles are happening!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

I am not sure if I sent this to you but there is a 12 mile per hour sign that just gets me every time I pass it.

Me, Elder Southwik, and Elder Jun

Elder Southwick lost and had to eat 2 boxes, and then 1 more box of Fruity pebbles in one sitting! He was sick that night...

District Photo!(Hermanas_Hermana Colby, Hermana Matamoros,Hermana Hart, Sister Hufaker, Sister Hubenthal, Elderes_Me, Eler Lehnig, Elder Garcia Cordero, Elder Reeder)

I am pointing at my area

One more thought! All of you need to check out the Christmas initiative! Go to mormon.org and explore. Also all of the videos are on you devices in the LDS gospel library app.

Week #24: November 21 2016

Hola todos!

Soooo, I get to stay in Frederick! I will be trio training with the legendary Elder Southwick! It is going to be way awesome! It got cold here fast! It has been a little chilly, but two days ago we biked in the morning and it was hot. in the afternoon we were about to be blown away by the cold Wyoming-like wids that were about to turn us into kites with tags! We had a miracle as we were trying to head back to get some warmer things and get off the bikes when a member, just happening to have a trailer, picked us up and took us home. The cold is weird here.

As far as things this week, Things were kind of crazy. I did not get pictures taken this week because the Hermanas had my sd card all week until yesterday. Things it appears are changing everywhere, weather, companion, and whatever else all of you are experiencing. With change comes new things and a whole lot of learning. Though things around us change there are some things that do not change. nor will they because they are the things of God. We will always base our testimonies in Christ. God is our Father in heaven and loves us. The way to happiness is through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had some really awesome blessings this week.

1. Washington. His first lesson was good, but we didn't know if he was really serious in his search for truth. (he was a little tipsy) Fun thing before the spiritual part, he says to us, "Is it bad that I help people? I mean if you want to borrow a car, go ahead I have four...(Say that part in a super humble voice...) BUT YOU BETTER BRING IT BACK OR i'LL KICK YOUR..." Super funny! He is way nice. we went back and he had read and had good questions. He is sincerely looking for truth and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to teach him.

2. Yosty, who has been having a hard time finding faith in Christ, acted on our commitment to pray and ask if He is the savior of the world! It was awesome because though he did not do it maybe how we would expect, he was able to feel those confirming feelings from the Holy Ghost. There are certain things that will not change.

3. I have been trying to better learn how to receive personal revelation this week. I found that sometimes the reason we don't receive an answer is because we choose to blind ourselves to that answer.

4. Neat experience, but I should have put it first because it is not exactly happy. Our neighbor was in a pickle. We had done all we could to help him and tried to get a hold of people that could. He was in need of a miracle. It came to the point where all we could do was turn to prayer to let Go take care of where we had failed. You have to remember that our neighbor is not a strong believer, though he has had 3 near death experiences and recognizes gratitude for it. In that moment, I promised him that if he would kneel in prayer with us and show his faith to God, he would receive the miracle he needed. He did not have the faith to do so. We still prayed, though I am not sure what happened. I believe that things mostly worked out, but I know that there were greater things that could have happened. It made me think of a few stories in the scriptures. First, I thought of the Nefites as they were about to be destroyed, and also the Jaredites. They, after having a knowledge were living in rebellion against God and would not turn to Him. In their afflictions, they cursed God instead of humbling themselves and repenting to turn to God. I wondered, is this the judgements of God coming down because his unbelief after receiving wonderful miracles? I do not mean to say this in a bad way, rather as a learning experience. As I was writing this, I thought of another story, the one of the serpents where all they had to do was look and they would be healed. I learned some really good things from this, 1. these are the last days, 2. people have agency, 3. I learned how to see scriptures applied in real life, 4. I learned what a sure knowledge feels like, 5. God has all power and knows what we need and how to help us, 6. Our access to His power is limited/based upon our faith we give Him.

All in all I am excited to begin a new chapter here in Frederick Maryland!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #23: November 14 2016

Hola Todos!

Quick miracle off the bat, I will not have to purchase a bike while out here because I was blessed to have one made available if I could fix it. Thank you Daddy for teaching me how to fix bikes. Though, tools do make it a ton easier...

This week was pretty interesting. Anyone who has been receiving these emails may have noticed that the past few weeks have been very hard as far as teaching. This week we truly had miracles.

Things I learned this week:
1. We don't receive blessings until after the trial of our faith.

It has felt like a spiritual drought, but the Lord saw fit to bless us bountifully. We found 6 new investigators this week, all with quite a bit of potential. Also, Yotsy has been praying with his family and is willing to search for truth and exercise faith to ask God if Jesus is the Savior of the World.

2. If we are not grateful for what we do have, it will be taken and used elsewhere. We had not used our time very effectively on Thursday, and so we ended up giving the car to the hermanas who needed it more than we did. Because of it, they had a miracle and were able to go and put someone on date.

3. When we repent, we gain the Lord's power. We did not receive miracles until after I had repented. I don;t know about my companion, but I know that I felt the need to do so and almost immediately after I did, and that includes me acting on my desire to be better, we began to see the miracles.

4. Our leaders are divinely appointed by God. I have two stories for this one. First, we had Zone Conference Friday and I was kind of shocked at how direct the guidance we received was to my needs. Remember that zone conference is forever long like 8 hours long. It was all pure revelation for what I needed. Also, it was by acting on what I heard that I saw changes. Also, I could literally see the role change as our old branch mission leader was released and a new one called. I could see the shift of who was directing the work. It was very cool.

Well, I forgot to take pictures this week...............whoops, but I did find investigators which is the important part!

I love you all lots!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #22: November 7 2016

Rainbow Leaf!

Hola Todos!

I feel like we are all in a time of transition, but maybe that is me. This week we did a lot of finding and had exchanges. Elder Lehnig was my companion for a day, and he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. Things went well though, and all was great. A little about him, he is huge! He likes video games and things of that nature. Also he likes to talk about deep doctrine and things like that. He is sometimes a little off in some ideas, but he is very interesting company. Overall, my week was pretty long and hard. It was truly a good week, but it has been hard to meet with our investigators. I had an experience that changed my whole look on who we are as members of the church.

1. This is really the only experience I would like to share because currently, all others don't compare enough that I cannot remember them at the moment. Last night we had the opportunity to meet with a member and his family, their friends and the branch president and his family. His name is Alex Ventura. After dinner, he came with us to visit one of our investigators. Gregorio could not meet with us, so we just talked to Hermano Ventura for a minute. On Saturday, he had the wonderful opportunity to receive his endowments. I have never seen or talked with someone who has as much conviction to live the gospel, who is so committed to keep his covenants. I have never seen a person that understood so much from the temple. He is completely consecrated, and is willing to give anything to show his service and willingness. He does not want any gory for it, rather he is living Alma 29:9. It is because of his love for God and the Lord. He is a captain Moroni; if all men were like him,the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

I cannot describe the feelings of love I felt for this wonderful man. I know the Lord loves each and everyone of us.

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #21: October 31 2016

Hola todos!

Estaba pensando y quiero escribir un momento en Español. Di un discurso el Domingo durante la reunión sacramental. Estoy muy agradecido por el amor del Señor que el me has dado. El siempre está cuidándonos y podemos ver la mano de Él en nuestra vida. Estoy muy agradecido por el Don de Lenguas y sé que es por el poder del Señor que puedo comunicarme en este idioma.

I hope that some of you are able to follow that. This week we have been doing a ton of contacting, but we have been blessed. We dropped I think 5 of our investigators. That is about half of them, and three of the ones we kept are from the same family. Needless to say, we had to put a lot of trust in the Lord this week. To top it off, we as missionaries gave the talks for Sacrament meeting this week. I was assigned to speak last. Personally, I felt like it was a miracle which I will explain a little more below. This week seemed long, but it was a trial of faith.

Good things!

1. At the start of the week we visited and had a wonderful lesson with a relatively new investigator named Lorena. She was super prepared to listen and accept. Sadly, before her lesson this Saturday, she went to her own church and her pastor told her she cannot meet with us anymore. It was super sad. I learned that everyone has their agency, and that there is an opposition. Also, it testifies to me that our message is true because there is no way that this sort of opposition just happens. The converse is also true in that when the Lord blesses, there is no comparison.

2. Though we may not have had super success until the end, we were being guided by the hand of the Lord. On Wednesday, things just did not go right for us, however, we did find many people that are prepared to receive the gospel, but they speak english. Despite this, we were where we needed to be when the Lord needed us to be.

3. Blessings come after the trial of our faith. We had not had great success but had a very full day of appointments planned for Sunday. All of them fell through. We did find a less active, who I'm not sure if he remembers that he was baptized. It then rained on us. Correlation canceled. Our Branch mission leader did bring us food. Later, an appointment we had confirmed, didn't show up and there were a bunch of drunk guys. At the very end of the day, we knocked, for the second time this day, on a potential who had previously been to church and is the cousin to a more or less recent convert. She gladly welcomed us in. We taught her about the restoration and that God's authority is on the earth. We invited her to baptism and she accepted. The Spirit knows all things, and testifies of all truth.

The Lord watches over us all.

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie​