Adventures in Mesa: Making A Difference Every Single Day

Hi family! (10-13-14 Email)

We had a good week over here in Liahona 4th! At the beginning of the week we had a good talk about some things we could do better and try differently, and as we have been implementing it we have been seeing success. All week transfer long our areabook app hasn't been working, so this week we have gone back to the old school paper planners haha my first time using them on my mission besides the MTC. It's kind of nice because it is a lot faster and more accurate, but hard to make sure all 3 of us have the same things written down.

On Monday night we had a great Noche de Hogar with the Valdez family, Ellen and Jose (Jenny's family), and then Jose's sister & her family (Lorraine) and Jared's cousin (Sean) who are all less active came as well. It went sooo good! We talked all about faith in Christ and building a strong foundation in Him. They all set family goals to strengthen their faith in Christ, and they have been doing good! Ellen's goal was to teach the gospel to her children and they have been reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday as a family since then and absolutely loving it! And learning so much!

Gustavo's goal was to come to church again, and he did come on Sunday! We need to do more follow-up with Lorraine though.

This week we are going to the Phoenix temple open house with all of them, and I am really looking forward to that. We also set a tentative baptismal date with Ellen for Nov 29th! She really wants to get baptized, but we have to wait for them to be able to get married first. Overall though, they are doing super good and I am so happy.

On Tuesday we had ZTM and that was good. All the Spanish missionaries are dying (finishing their missions and going home) though... (The tradition is to say your testimony at your last ZTM). We had 6 going home from our zone this transfer (its Hna Leons last week :( so crazy... Then we had interviews with President Jenkins and car inspections. Our car gave us a little bit of trouble this week... Friday we had to go get the tires rotated and then on Saturday morning the battery completely died so we had to go and get the whole battery replaced. Apparently the arizona heat causes a lot of corrosion. So that was a little bit of an adventure I guess. Oh and we had a little training on how to use family history as a finding tool and got to watch Meet the Mormons afterwards. Such a good movie! I loved it.

We also worked more with Audrey Gonzales this week, she is the daughter-in-law of some members here. She is the sweetest thing. She is a teenage mom, 18 now, but has really been able to get her life together and is doing great. She's been meeting with missionaries on and off for a while, and we have been trying to casually meet with her more. She told us that she really is interested. She knows it is all true, but is scared to commit to it I think. But she loves having us come over. I really hope we can help her see how strong her testimony already is.

And then we got a member referral for this lady named Lidia who is suffering from really bad depression and health problems. The poor lady is in a really bad state and it breaks my heart. She is pretty desperate for help, but the problem is that she is looking to us to help her medically more than spiritually. As missionaries there is nothing we can do to help her medically besides get members to help her, which they already are. I really wish we could help her more and just take away her problems because it is affecting her and her children. Please keep her in your prayers. We are going to have to re-establish what our role is as missionaries and what help we can offer, and see if she would like to continue meeting with us. I just don't know if she is in a state where she can learn right now because her health is so bad.

I am so happy to be a missionary. It really is the best thing. I learn so much every day and every day I am trying to be a little better. Some days go better than others, but in the end I am learning that what makes me the happiest is being able to love and help other people. The less I think about myself, the happier I become. It is the best feeling to know that you have an important purpose and that you are making a difference in someone's life every single day. I want to be able to feel like that every day.

I love you so much and I am grateful for all you do! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes