I love being a missionary . . .

D*** was baptized yesterday!  It was so wonderful and so spiritual.  He is not a very out spoken person but for some reason today he was just so happy and loving.  When he came out of the water, he gave me the biggest hug and just kept saying thank you thank you.  I was so grateful to be apart of all of it.  At the end of it all he got up to bear his testimony and he said that he was so grateful to be apart of this big family with such loving people and he was excited to be called Brother D*** now.  He thanked me for giving him the truth and I just started crying.  I know, I know...I just couldn't handle it!  It was wonderful.
  

On top of all of that spiritualness, they also had the primary program yesterday.  I couldn't handle that either because not too long before I left, our ward in America had one as well!  Cried during that as well.  It was just the cutest thing to hear in German as well.

This week was great because we also got to see everyone from the 3 zones in our area.  It was good to see old companions and friends.

I got up during testimony meeting during zone conference and I gave testimony about giving testimony.  It was super spiritual and I told everyone that people are going to critizice us, our church and our God.  They have their own free agency and so do I when I respond.  One man said fiercly as we were on the street that there is no God because of all of the children that are killed, he then went on to say that we are terrible for what we do.  I didn't say anything after that and just walked away.  Two minutes later I had a fire burn inside me, exclaming to me that whenever that happens again, bear strong, powerful testimony.  I promised my self then and there that whenever that happened again, I will shake the ground that this man stands on.  I will tell him what I know and put fear into his eyes with the power of the all mighty God.

I love being a missionary :D

Elder Hays

Prayer

I want you to know that I truly feel the power of your prayers.  I see them everyday.  Sometimes as diciples of Christ, at the end of some days we really feel like we walked off of the battle ground of war.  We get really spiritually beat up, shot at, hit, abused and sometimes killed. I was thinking about this the day before yesterday and I was asking myself, "If I can dodge a punch in real life, why can't I dodge a punch from the spiritual adversary?"  I came to the conclusion that with a lot of training, practice and wisdom, a soldier could withstand anything thrown at him because he will expect everything and be ready for it.  The more we spiritually train ourselves to get faster, jump higher, and gain wisdom, the more ready we will be to hit the ground without a doubt or fear in mind.  The more ready we will be to, not exactly fight back, but to dodge these things that the adversary throws at us.  The better we get at doing this, the better we will be able to help dodge these malevolent blows.  My point that I want to say now is that your prayers are the things that give us armour.  Your prayers send Angels of God to stand on the right side and the left side of us.  Your prayers give us the will power and the bravery to lead these languid people to the God that created them.  We feel your prayers so thank you.

This week has been a good one.  The member work has really started to blow up and these members are really prepared for this.  The problem that some members have is that they think that they have to somehow convert their friends.  This is not true.  This is the reason why we have missionaries.  The only thing that the members have to do is really just get the friend and the missionaries somehow together.  Whether that be a dinner or a bowling activity or if that be an invitation to church.  The only thing that the member has to do is to create a social relationship with the missionary.  The missionary will then introduce the spirit of God into their lives, which taste is more ambrosial as any thing you could ever conceptualize.  We walk around all day trying to construct a social relationship with someone we met 7.5 seconds ago and try to gain their trust, so that we can share something close to our hearts with them.  All the members have to do is cut this step out.  They will already have this social bond with friends and future friends.  After this is established, then we come in with an invitation to learn more about their eternal Father.  

D___ IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!!!

I am so excited for him and I'm glad that he is excited as well.  He will be such a great addition to this ward and we actually may be starting a chinese branch here in Dresden.  That would be really cool.  The rest of my mission will be preparing these members and commiting them to bring their friends to come to Christ.  I don't know if I will be able to see the fruits of this work that we are starting on my mission but the years after will definitely see them.  I can't wait for it all to come forth.  

Well I love you all and hope that you have a peachy week.  

CAN'T TOUCH US HERE IN GERMANY!!!  WE GO TO WORK!!

Love, Elder Hays

m o r e p i c t u r e s

Elder Fuller and Elder Hays -   friends from home

Dear friends from Groitzsch     Omi and Enrico

After doing some Family History, I just told Brandon his 3rd Great Grandmother is German!

HI MOM!!!!

I don't know why I got really excited all of the sudden but believe I did!!! 

So I picked Elder Young up from Berlin on Thursday!  That was so fun.  On Wednesday Elder Breitenstein and I went to Berlin and served with Elder Fuller for a day and then picked up our new missionaries the next day!  It was such a fun meeting.  

Elder Young is from Salt Lake City (legitimately) and he is such a baller.  I'm a mission Daddy!  He plays soccer and he likes to ski.  He is actually a lot like me haha.  We get along really well and look forward to these next few months training him.

I do write in my Journal just about every other day.  It is really hard to write in it everyday with planning and everything that we have to do before 10:30.  The Journal that I have is just about full now!  I never thought that I would write in my journal but I'm doing it! 

What else happened this week...Oh yeah...we went to a funeral for a senior sister missionary who died in our mission this last week.  There was about 60 missionaries there from our mission and we all sung in the choir.  It was so amazing!

We live in a 4 man apartment as you know and Elder Stephens was replaced by Elder Rückauer.  He is a German!  I'm so excited for him to help me learn more and more about Germany!  We keep our apartment really clean by the way, unless we have card wars, then it gets super messy...don't judge me...

On Sunday we taught Deng, who is on baptismal date for the 22 of this month, about Prophets.  A member who could speak chinese (Weicheng) helped us out with the lesson.  It is a ton of fun and super awesome becuase we will explain something in German or teach a principle and then we will ask Weicheng how he had come to know that it was true and he would do it in Chinease and Deng is just always so impressed and is understanding things a ton better as before when it was just German.  We only have to teach him about fasting until the 22 and maybe go over a couple of other things and then he will be baptized!  It is so cool to see the faith that is shown from these people who are only learning about things outside of this world.  Definitely a testimony builder for me.

I love you!  

Elder Hays

Saying Good bye

Buddies meeting up in Berlin

New Companion - Elder Young

Grüß aus Gemeinde Dresden!

Well this week Dresden had a baptism!  The Zone leaders baptized a brazilian lady named D****.  She is so wonderful.  When I was doing her baptismal interview, she had such a strong testimony!  It was so beautiful to hear.  She went on a trip to Jeruselem a while ago and had the thought that she needed to get baptized again because she wants to be the one making the decision, compared to being baptized as a baby.  Anyways, she had this feeling and the Zone Leaders found her on the street like a month ago, taught her and she got baptized!  She says it was an answer to her prayers.  I got to translate the whole baptismal service too!

Let see...what else happened this week...on Saturday we had the opportunity to go on a Temple walk with the young men and young women.  It was such a blast and we really got to connect with all of them, strengthen their testimonies about a mission and really just got to know them.  We walked for about 3 hours and then had a huge barbecue at the end of it.

On Saturday we also had transfer calls!  Elder Ashmead is being transfered to Magdeburg and I will be training a new missionary and still be the district leader.  fun right?  I am so pumped.  I actually get to go to Berlin with my best friend on the mission (Elder Breitenschein) a day before the new missionary conference.  We go on Wednesday morning and get to work with Elder Dallin Fuller all day!  On Thursday morning we go to Lankwitz and I get my new comp for the next 2 transfers.  Couldn't be more excited. 

Anyways I love you all!  

Elder Hays