Week #51 May 29 2017

Hola Todos!

This week was the bomb! We worked super hard, and had miracles. I don't know why, but we were blessed abundantly. We had a very interesting week with district meeting, a special exchange, correlation, and finding tons of people this week. Basically the takeaways are: Seek the Spirit and follow the impressions. It is that simple and it works like a charm! the reason for the special exchange was for training purposes with some of the best missionaries in the mission. They came to train us for leadership because most of the leadership in the mission will be leaving in the next 2 transfers. On top of that, there is a lack of seeking of the Spirit in the mission. It seems that most of the missionaries are settling with what has already been done and are not seeking the Spirit for direction in how to approach the new pace of the mission. the big focus of late then has been to receive revelation, to teach the doctrine and help others to seek their personal guidance from the Spirit. Here is an example from the week. We are building the kingdom here! We have so many new and solid people that I don't know what to do with all of them! Yordy is super solid and will open up his family to finally being baptized. Giovani is very stoked for baptism and is ready to learn. Manuel is a little tougher, but he has high desire. If we have to move his date, hopefully it will cause the rest of his family to come around. We had a super awesome experience this week! Well, really the whole week was cool. We just were teaching like crazy and had an awesome exchange with the special assignment missionaries. Then we had a super awesome miracle after church. We had a fun branch activity with our investigators and then were heading to an appointment with a man some other missionaries said to stop by. We had tried by, but nobody was there until sometime last week his wife opened the door and told us a time to stop by. This was the appointment on Sunday. We get there and... nobody answers. So we move on to our back-up plan and go find the apartment of a less-active in the area. We then both decide to go stop by one of our investigators that we hadn't planned on seeing today that missed out on church. We pass by and there are a ton of people on the porch and we somehow manage to get in to the kitchen where our investigator is. She had been taught years ago by missionaries in Puerto Rico, and had loved it! We get in and she is cooking and it is a pain to do anything, but we get everything going. So, the main people that participated were her son and daughter(30's and 40's or something like that), her sister (who mostly listened and nodded, but didn't want to do anything because she already had her religion) and herself. We manage to teach and sort of shout teach just to be heard through the first parts, but they all were loving it. We get to the first vision and it is like Jesus calmed the sea. It was beautiful. Afterward, we invited them to be baptized and if they would like very soon with our other investigators on the 24 of June. They were all on-board! They seemed pretty excited about the prophets still talking with God bit and so we shall see what happens. The cool thing about all of this is that the son, Hector, is the referral guy that missed out on his appointment! I guess the Lord knows how to find people. Overall, that just was the cherry on top for finding this week.

I am very happy with my mission and know that it really is not mine. All I am doing really is doing my best to be obedient in all things, to seek and then follow the Spirit. I can't do anything unless I have the Spirit in this work because it is not mine. All in all, a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #50 May 22 2017

Hola Todos!

I am having a little bit of writer's block so bear with me. This week was pretty stinking amazing. We have a pretty tough mission overall here out east. What I mean to say is that in some areas, it is very difficult to find people to teach, some where they find maybe one new person to teach a week. Our mission president has put a standard of Excellence of 2 per week and for some it is difficult to achieve. The interesting thing is that that standard has been established as a promise from the Lord that we will be able to find that many each week. I have seen this to be true. Pretty much since I got it in my head that the Lord always fulfills His promises, I have not missed a week to reach this standard; many weeks exceeding it. An interesting thing though is that the same applies with our goal setting. One sister pointed out that if we really have the faith to reach our goals, then we should be getting many more investigators because one should never have a goal not to achieve, or rather 0, meaning 7 per week. That was a very interesting thought! Once we started doing that, we started really striving to keep our goals, and for the most part, we fulfilled them. It doesn't mean they aren't a stretch, but we strive to do all we can to make it happen. I guess what I am trying to say is that the Lord magnifies our efforts and our faith. This week we were able to help our good friend Manuel accept a baptismal date and come to church. It is amazing how much people are able to progress by exercising faith. Then, on Sunday evening, we found this young man Yordy who had met before with missionaries and come to church 3 times, but we don't have his record anywhere. Also, it was weird to find out that he really had not been taught about the doctrines behind the Restoration. We simply taught him what we know and bore our testimonies. He accepted a date as well as Baptism and was very excited to meet with us again. I am grateful for the Spirit because that is the only way anything happens out here.

A couple random thoughts that all the women in the world might appreciate. Women were the last creation during the periods of creation, and it is interesting to note that the most precious parts of the creation were saved for last. As well on this note, Women are the portal to creation. These were some thoughts that were said in priesthood meeting this week.

I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #49 May 15 2017

Hola Todos!

This week was pretty great, though I am not sure what to write about being as that I said pretty much everything yesterday getting to talk to my parents. I suppose that is because the work goes on and doesn't stop. we welcomed some new people to our District this week as transfers were this past Wednesday. I and Elder Patience are both still here in Lancaster! Then on Friday we had a very long missionary meeting that was 2 hours away so we did not do a whole lot that day. It was pretty cool though in the meeting to feel the strong Spirit there. There was a moment that I received a very strong prompting and am grateful to know that our Father in Heaven communicates with His children. Sunday we had some very good meetings, though there was a little bit of a dispute on something, though I am not really sure what. Angry Hispanic women are not to be messed with, but I can say that repentance is for everybody! On a more serious note, Jose shared a really cool experience in Gospel Principles class. He shared how prayer really helped him be able have peace and give him strength. For some reason or other he really felt like he didn't want to come to church and I think he may have been a little upset with his spouse. he decided though to pray and ask for peace and strength. when he did, all of those bad feelings fled and he felt the strength to come. The Lord truly does answer our prayers when we ask in faith. I know the letter is short this week, but I got to forget myself and go to work!

I love you all and keep you in my prayers!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie

Week #48 May 8 2017

Hola Todos!

This week was interesting and not a ton actually happened. It rained and I think Past Subjunctive started to really click. I learned how to say the question, "What would it mean if our message was true?" I learned why no one ever understood the question and that was because I have been saying it wrong the whole time and never knew! It makes way more sense, and since then, people have been able to take that question way better. Also this week, I finally got my box back from the sisters that I made to protect my scriptures. I convinced them to decorate it for me because they made fun of how it looked before so they decorated it. The cost, though free, was a moth without my box. Worth it? It looks pretty cool. As you may have noticed, this letter is pretty practical. That is because I try to make the letters fell how it is to be on a mission. Though we have many awesome experiences, sometimes there is simple and pure joy in the simple things in life. Transfers did not really affect us this time as we are both staying! I am excited because we are on fire right now and we will see some pretty amazing things this next transfer. 

Okay some actually uplifting stuff! We had a neat experience teaching the Plan of Salvation yesterday to a man who has some very deep questions. It is sometimes hard to teach him because he comes up with questions that distract from the main point of the message and don't allow for principles that need to be taught to be taught. For this reason, he has not progressed when missionaries have worked with him in the past. It has been interesting to watch how as we carefully answer his questions, and hold others for another time in order to keep the focus, he at the end is much more satisfied. For instance, he at the end of teaching said that he had always felt that God wanted to save all of his children and not just a few. Also, we had a regional broadcast on Sunday and were able to hear some speakers fro the General Authorities. I don't have the name super well, but The first counselor in the Primary General Presidency gave some wonderful insights to having our own light of Christ in our lives, versus borrowing the light from others. One of the Seventy that spoke referred to 8 different repentance stories in the Book of Mormon. It was not so much the topic, but the Spirit that bore witness to me that Repentance is real, for everybody and helps us to be happy. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is for all of us and I am so grateful for it.

All in all, I love you and your support. Let us all keep an eye out for God's hand in our lives this week as we go forth and serve!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie​

Week #47 May 1 2016

Hola Todos!

This week was awesome! I heard that everything got rainy in Missouri, but here though we had some storms, it wasn't anything too bad. Also, drivers here are horrid! They do relatively well to avoid accidents, but it is a mess. Especially in the deep city. They also do this funny thing out here in the East. They have tons of parking/ no parking signs and for some reason people think that if they pull off just a bit and then turn on their hazard lights that they can park. Also, if they are about to do something they shouldn't, they raise their hand up and waive. This week though, was great! It started with Monday. We went to a family home evening after visiting Jose and Glenda. We were able to meet a new investigator who had come to church the previous day and had just moved from Puerto Rico. His family are all converts and are super solid. We had a wonderful lesson that just amazed me at how essential it is to feel God's love. When someone feels how loved they are by our Heavenly Father, there is no stopping the Spirit from guiding their thoughts and actions. Giovani is the same. He is ready for the gospel and is excited to learn. Friday was pretty great! Some other Elders had arranged for a tour of the church for some Juniors in high school. We were able to participate and it was a cool opportunity for people to see what we actually do and believe. I had the chance to share my testimony there and I was grateful for the power of the Spirit to carry the message across. Saturday was the Baptism! I love how things somehow always work out. Even when you are prepared, something goes amiss, but it always turns out alright. I had the opportunity to baptize Jose and got very wet myself because he is a pretty big man. He is like a gentle giant. The first try though his toe came up so we had to do it twice. The second time he went down, but coming up I basically hugged him as I hauled him out of the water. Despite all that, the look on his face and the smile in his eyes were enough for me. My companion Elder Patience baptized Glenda. She was good the first time and it was wonderful to be by Jose as he watched his loved wife go down as well. After the service, I had a meeting, then we were given pizza by a member, then we went to visit another to discuss some upcoming events and our day of course ended up not how we thought. We did make it to another appointment that day with a man who his wife is an inactive member. We were able to teach him and though he has been taught before, some very key parts were missing. We were able to share them with him and it started to make all the difference. It did get to the point where he had a lot of doubt and all I could do was bear my testimony. The Spirit was with me as I shared my feelings about the restoration, about the prophet Joseph Smith and about the Book of Mormon. It is interesting to note that whenever I get strong feelings from the Spirit, my language becomes clearer. My grammar no longer is a barrier and the words fill my mind as to what I need to say. Sunday came and we had a combined meeting with both sides of the branch. It is strange, we meet in two different groups, but are part of one branch. We had combined meetings and Jose and Glenda were able to be confirmed. I am just very grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to serve these people and help them find happiness in this life, and in the life to come. I love you all lots!

Sincerely,

Elder Haynie