Changes and fresh starts...in Cornelius

Hi everyone!

I apologize once again for my lack of email last week.  We went to Newberg to go see President; that's why we didn't have a chance to send emails.  And I'm so sorry for my short email again this week. I was driving all day and got very, very lost on the way home (so lost, in fact, that we ended up out of the mission- yikes!)

Today was transfer day. Sister McCrite and I were not transferred; however, both Sister Barrios and Sister Bate were. They are now bringing Spanish Elders in to work with the branch. It's really sad but it makes sense. One of the other consequences of transfers is that our district was split. So now, instead of having 16 people in our district, we have six. It'll be interesting for sure!

 Half of what used to be our district

Things are going really well here, though. We're making a more concentrated effort to really talk to more people that we see on the street. This isn't just an effort by Sister McCrite and me; mission-wide we're trying to open our mouths and talk to everyone. It has been hard and intimidating but really, really good. We've had amazing conversations with amazing people. It's funny, too, how when you LOOK for people to talk to, you seem to find more and more.

I'm so glad that I'm staying in this area. I love it so much. I love the people, love the landscape, it's wonderful. It's kind of cool how every new transfer is like a fresh start, you know? We can reassess and recommit to do things better these next six weeks.

We had a baptism last week in Council Creek. It was one of the Elder's long time investigators that we worked with a few times as well. Her name is Ginger and she is just the sassiest old lady that you've ever met in your whole life.

The other day we were at a potluck after the baptism of one of the primary kids and we met this little girl named Nani. She is so cute. We started talking to her about missionaries and how, even though she can't be a missionary like us until she's older, she can still be a missionary now. She got really upset and said she COULDN'T because she didn't have a TAG like us. So we made her that little tag that's on her shirt. I think you can tell she was a little excited.

On our P-Day last week, we did service at a member's house by washing her enormous dog.  Seriously, these pictures can't even convey how huge that dog is:

 

One of the Elders kept asking me to cut his hair so finally I said, "Fine, I'll cut your hair but I'm not making any guarantees because I don't know how."  I cut his hair under the instruction of Sister Nissinen. It was actually fun; I now want to learn how to cut boys' hair.

The vitamins you bought are INCREDIBLE. they seriously give me so much energy, it's amazing. I got the shoes today, too. I haven't worn them yet but they're cute.

I love you!  Have a good week!

Hermana Meise


Note from Mom:  Hayley never has had a very good sense of direction so I'm not surprised she keeps getting lost.  They really should provide her with a GPS!

More pictures without descriptions:

 Conference with Elder Martino from a few weeks back?

 Another random selfie?

My "uneventful" week...

Hi everyone!

This week has been fairly uneventful; honestly, so sorry if this email is on the short side. 

We had Stake Conference this past weekend! It was really wonderful. I love our Stake President.  He is an amazing man. They talked a lot about missionary work and how sharing the gospel, fellowshipping less actives, and doing temple work is all the same work. President and Sister Samuelian were there as well and, as always, it's so nice to be around them.

One of the reasons this week was so uneventful in other ways is because it was so eventful in terms of bike troubles. First, my bike that I originally bought from Walmart turned out to be the worst bike ever. I may or may not have picked it out based solely on the fact that it was teal so I probably deserved it. But basically, no matter what gear it was in, I would pedal and pedal and go nowhere. Then, Sister Barrios had a flat tire.  Then, Sister Barrios and Sister Bate had their chains randomly pop off.  It was crazy. Because of all this, we ended up walking a lot. It was good though; we talked to some people and helped a lady weed her yard so it all worked out.

Thanks for the pepperoni bread recipe! I was craving it so bad. We gave one of the loaves to the Elders and they said it was the "best bread they've ever had" so I'm sure they'd want me to pass along their appreciation as well. 

Did I ever tell you about Sister McCrite? She's my companion now, of course. She's awesome. I seriously love her so much. She is one of the best question askers in the whole world. She asks the kind of questions that make you have to think through and process the situation. She also makes up incredible analogies on the spot. The other night we were teaching this less active member who really loves dogs and she came up with this perfect analogy about search and rescue dogs that really helped it click for him. She's the perfect parable maker.

The couple I spoke of a few weeks ago are doing well. This past week when we went over, we purposely went with the intent of splitting the mom and dad up so they would each have the opportunity to speak. Sister McCrite and I took the dad and he was telling us about his desire to share the gospel but the fear that holds him back from telling those he knows about it. Sister Barrios and Sister Bate took the mom and talked to her about patriarchal blessings and she was so adamant about wanting one. We figured out where there is a Spanish patriarch and hopefully we'll be able to set that up for her in the next few weeks. Seriously, what better to help you know for sure that God is aware of you than a patriarchal blessing?

Hudson is SO CUTE. I'm so jealous you all were together without me. I can't wait to see him when I get back. When are they coming back to visit again?

I'm so sorry about the cars but, honestly, I just echo what Dad said, at least it wasn't one of us. (I backed into my husband's car on Sunday so we now have TWO damaged cars.  Ugh.)

I love you guys. I'm so sorry I don't take more pictures! Here's a couple of us berry picking and another random one.  I'll try harder to take more.

Love,

Hayley

Diligence, Miracle of the Miles and Rainy Days on Bikes

Hi everyone!

This last week a Member of the Seventy came and spoke to us! His name is Elder Martino. It was an all day conference and it was so, so good. Beforehand, we had been asked to study diligence and when we got there that day we were told by the APs that a Sister and an Elder would be called on by President Samuelian to give short three minute talks on the spot on that topic. This was a group of about 100 people so I thought for SURE I'd be safe. I should've known better. I was very grateful for the opportunity but I'll just say it is more than a little intimidating to give an impromptu talk in front of a Member of the Seventy. It was fine, though. I talked about how, in reality, our role in missionary work as a missionary is very small. Heavenly Father prepares the people, the Spirit witnesses of the truth, and the investigator uses their agency whether or not to accept and act upon the truth. All we do as missionaries is be in the right place at the right time and open our mouths. We don't even have to come up with the words to say because the Spirit takes care of that as well. Our part is really very, very small so we should be diligent in that very small part we play. I also talked about how Heavenly Father didn't have to call me on a mission and how, for most of my life, I didn't even want Him to but how so very happy I am that He did. My diligence is a way of expressing gratitude for this opportunity.

I really loved what Elder Martino had to say, though. He talked a lot about how members are absolutely essential in this work. He talked about Alma and Amulek. Amulek was the member that Alma brought with him to teach. He related Alma 11:46 and pointed out that it wasn't Alma who astonished Zeezrom even though he was a seasoned missionary. It was Amulek. He said that it is the same in our work today; the member is the one who will be able to astonish people. He related several stories where this was the case and stressed the importance of prayerfully selecting that Amulek member or family.

We kind of had a miracle this week with our miles. This might sound silly but it was actually incredible. With all the meetings and transfers and exchanges that we had this month, we were running incredibly short on miles. We're only allotted a certain number every month. That's a big part of the reason I had to buy a bike. We literally had enough miles to take us straight to Newberg and back for the conference with Elder Martino. On the day of the conference, we had a lot of unexpected things happen like getting lost, having to stop by the mission office, etc. We got out of the meeting so late that, by the time we got back to Cornelius, we had to immediately go to dinner and then straight to the English class. We weren't sure whether to bring the car back to the apartment and bike to dinner and the class which would make us extremely late for both or whether to just drive. We ended up deciding to drive because there was no way to make it to both on bikes in any reasonable amount of time. At the end of the night when we finally pulled back into our parking spot at the apartment, we had used 999.1 of our allotted 1000 miles! It sounds so silly but, after all the unexpected detours and trips that day that we hadn't budgeted for, it was a miracle to us that we had still stayed within our budget.

I can't remember if I already told you this but one of the APs was actually in my freshman ward at BYU. He came up to me at the Zone Conference and said, "You do know I was your Sunday School teacher freshman year, right?" I'll be honest, I have no recollection of that but still cool. He's a good guy and an amazing Elder.

We were rained on pretty bad on our bikes this week. Like, pounding rain the whole time we were riding. After reading Dallin's letter, though, I don't feel bad for myself one little bit. I actually laughed out loud at the story of the cat birth, too, and how he was so "Dallin" about it. We actually teach a less active who can't stop herself from feeding everything and everybody so she leaves cat food outside and has SO MANY cats that just live outside her house. One of those cats just had kittens as well so we play with the only surviving one left all the time.

Mom, can you send me the recipe for pepperoni bread? I've been craving it so bad lately. Also, thanks for emailing me every week. Believe it or not, most of the other girls' parents don't email them every week. I really appreciate it. But I miss hearing from you too, Dad!

I got Sister Hawkins' package and it was AMAZING. It was all healthy food (which is exactly what I wanted) in the cutest bag ever.

Have so much fun with Hudson! Love you guys so much!

Hayley

Note from Mom:  Saved this email from last week hoping for related photos but didn't get any. (sigh)  She sent these this week.  Apparently, they like to take a lot of selfies.  I'm not going to complain; just happy she's so happy!

Dallin's family and ours are very close.  He is serving as a missionary in the Marshall Islands and serves in much more tropical, primitive, and difficult circumstances.  I shared his weekly email with Hayley.  With permission, here is an excerpt from his email with the story she was referring to:

"Before I talk about anything that happened this week, I must tell a terrifying story. Our cat, Ginger, who lives in our house is a wonderful cat. She's super nice and always likes to be petted. However, we thought she was getting super fat. Turns out, she was pregnant!  Sunday, she had two baby cats. They were super gross. Thankfully, she had her babies in a random box, so they were safe.  HOWEVER, this morning, we woke up to Ginger making all kinds of evil hissing noises, and it was really loud so we looked over at her box. There were four crabs inside our house all making war trying to get into Ginger's box to eat the baby cats! It was terrifying! So we jumped out of bed and tried to kill the crabs, but then they started attacking us! They were big, and had big claws. So we took sticks off of our walls (since our house and the walls are made of sticks) and started trying to beat them. Ginger continued to make evil noises, and the crabs are going everywhere. The worst, most scary, thing was that one climbed straight up the wall, like up to eye level, and then climbed out the window. It was terrifying. In the end, if you hit them once hard on the head, they kind of go limp for a second, so we would have to hit them and then flick them towards the door and then hit them again until they were outside of our house. At which point, we smashed them. It was really scary because the sun wasn't quite up at 5:45, so we weren't sure if we got them all. Crabs are definitely evil animals. They're like armored and weaponized spiders, and apparently the ones that live here can climb walls. So I have a new phobia." 

I'm glad Hayley realizes how easy she has it in comparison to others and that she can endure rainy days on a bike with a good attitude.

Faith is at the root of every miracle

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lame email last week! It really was such a busy day.

Anyways, my last two weeks have been really good. Ismael is doing well; like, so well. 
Last week we had a lesson and the first thing he said was, "I was reading the Book of
Mormon and it says you don't have to know everything to be baptized!" and in our heads 
we thought, "That is exactly what we've been telling you for two months!"  Ismael is funny
because he really does receive his answers through the scriptures.  Things don't click for
him when we say it but it does when he reads it.  So right now he is praying about being
baptized which is super exciting.  

We had President Aguilar, one of the counselors in the Mission Presidency, come to our 
area on Sunday to go teaching with us.  He is one of the most outgoing people in the 
whole world.  He will talk to everyone.  Several times he pulled the car over to the side of
the road so we could get out and talk to people.  He also has such a way of putting
people at ease.  It really taught me a lot about talking to everyone and showing genuine
love and interest in people.  

We went to visit some members with President Aguilar.  They're having a hard time
right now because their two teenage boys are making really bad choices.  We started  
talking to the parents and the mom just broke down in tears.  It's hard, especially
because the parents don't really have a good relationship so the mom doesn't feel
like she has anybody to talk to about it. We went over again on Saturday and the mom
started crying again saying that she doesn't feel like God is listening to her.  It seriously
is heartbreaking.  It's hard because there's nothing anyone can do to affect their choices.
Mom, could you send me the titles of some conference talks that you think would help 
and I'll find and print them in Spanish for her?

We also had Zone Conference this last week which was amazing!  We had talks from
President, Sister Samuelian, the APs (Assistants to the President) and one of the STLs 
(Sister Training Leaders).  It was so uplifting.  One thing that one of the APs said that was
just so cool was that pride is Satan's facsimile for faith.  Why is pride at the root of every  
sin?  Because faith is at the root of every miracle.  He related the story of Ammon in the   
Book of Mormon when he was rejoicing so much about all of the people who had joined
the church and his brother, Aaron, was chastising him for being prideful but, in reality,   
he was being faithful.  It was so incredibly interesting.   President talked a lot about love.
He said that this work is a work of love and that's why Satan hates it; because he hates
love. He can't understand it.  He said that love needs to be our motivating force always.
It really was an incredible conference.  He talked about how Heavenly Father could do
this work all by Himself and He could do it a lot better than we can but He allows us to
participate because it helps us to learn, to grow, to love.  President is the most prophetic
person I have ever met.

Congrats to everyone who got their mission calls, that's so cool!  Missions are amazing!

I got my Ipad back! Super exciting but we don't have WiFi in our apartment anymore.  It's
not a big deal, though.

Hahahaha, Mom!  I was literally just telling my companions all about your flower thieving
habits so your email cracked me up and I read it to everyone.

Here are some more pictures from our hike a few weeks ago: 

Last week on P-day we went to a member's house who has a skate ramp in their garage:

Just a little P-day fun... (if you can't open, try Internet Explorer or another browser) 

We saw this guy walking down the street with ducks following him.  He said they are his  
pets and they think he is their mom!

S'mores Oregon style at a member's house!

Love you guys!   Happy Memorial Day!

P.S.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY about the accounting!!,!,,!,  

Note from Mom:  We just told her we found out she was accepted into the Accounting

Program at the BYU Business School.  She will defer until Fall 2015, of course.  I also

found out from our email "chat" that they are on bikes most of the time now.  She says,

"It's just so beautiful out. It's amazing to be on a bike!"  And, just for the record, I plead

the fifth on the flower incidents.

A quick check-in

Hi!

Today was literally the longest, least restful, day in the world and we are just now barely getting a chance to breathe.

We rode bikes all day (btw, I bought a bike today), then got locked out of our apartment and taught English class.  It was just a running-all-over kind of day.

So sorry I didn't get a chance to write more today. I don't have a lot of time right now, obviously, because it's almost bedtime but I just wanted to write really quickly to let you know I'm not dead/injured and that everything is going really well. Hopefully, on Wednesday at Zone Conference I'll get my Ipad back. I promise to be working on your letter during the week so it'll be nice and detailed next week.

I love you so much! 

Love,

Hayley

Note from Mom:  She wrote this from her companion's Ipad which is why she was able to write at all.  I'm looking forward to the "nice and detailed" email next week (with pictures, I hope)! 

Another great week!

Hi!

My Ipad had to be sent back to Salt Lake because some of the configuration features were off so I only have a little time to write at the library right now.

We had interviews with the President on Tuesday and that was another amazing experience. He is seriously the most incredible man and I love him and his wife so, so much. We talked to him about the English classes we're teaching at the church and he gave us some really good ideas about how we can expand it into something really big and really great by including  classes about legal services, citizenship process, job fairs, etc. He told us to put ourselves in the participant's shoes and think about what keeps them up at night and then base the class around that. We're really excited for all of the potential that it has. We had our first English classes this past week and it went well. The hardest part is having people on different levels and making sure that we're meeting their needs.

Another cool thing happened with a less active member this week. This guy has been a member for eight years but fell away from the church almost immediately. He's been seeing missionaries for a long, long, long time but hasn't really made any changes. We've been talking to him a lot lately about Patriarchal Blessings and the Priesthood and I'm not sure what, but something clicked for him and he's working towards both.  He basically decided "he's in".

Today we went to Tillamook and went on a hike and then went over to the Cheese Factory to sample some cheese and get some ice cream. The hike was so pretty, Oregon seriously has the most diverse kinds of trees and plants ever.  Everything grows here and moss is everywhere. It's actually pretty cool. Afterwards we came back and had zone p-day where we all went bowling. It was fun! My zone is pretty cool.

As for next Sunday, I think we're going to end up skyping in the morning probably like 8:00 a.m. my time so 11:00 a.m. your time? Let me know if that works or if you'd rather do the afternoon.

Again, sorry this letter was so short but I love you and can't wait to talk more next week!

Hayley

Note from Mom:  I was waiting to post this email from last week until this week HOPING she would have pictures of Tillamook, eating ice cream, the rest of the week....  But, no.  She sent a few photos; most from previous week's activities, none labeled.  So, above is the ONE lonely photo she sent from her hike this week.  I'm still hoping for more!  CLEARLY, she did not inherit my photos-are-important gene.

 

His plan for me all along

Hi!

We just got back from transfers and getting the oil changed and all kinds of crazy stuff today.  I drove all day and I'm SO EXHAUSTED.  I'm sorry, but this is going to be a lame email.  It was so nice talking to you guys yesterday.  I agree, in a weird way, it felt like it hadn't been too long. Crazy to think that next time we talk I'll be halfway through my mission!

I feel like the mission has made me adopt a more "who cares" kind of attitude as weird as that sounds. Okay, so some person is really mean to us on the street...who cares? So we get rocks thrown at us...who cares? So creepy old Mexican men make weird comments to us...who cares?  I feel like none of these little things matter because if we're doing the right things, it's all going to work out in the end. 

Another thing I've come to understand is how little of this work is my responsibility.  Missionary work is God's work. He says so in Moses 1:39: "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  My job is to be here, work hard, and open my mouth.  It's the responsibility of the Spirit to actually convert these people.  It's the responsibility of these people to accept for themselves the truth of this restored gospel. We, as missionaries, are so buoyed up by Heavenly Father in this work it's not even funny.

I'm really happy to be staying here in Cornelius for another transfer. I love this place. I love the branch. I love the people. We are so incredibly welcomed and loved here. Sister Villalobos has been saying over the past couple of days that it feels like she's leaving home all over again and I think that's how I'll feel when I leave here, too.

Missionary work is really amazing.  I remember all the reasons I had growing up for not wanting to serve a mission and I look back and think how silly I was for putting those things ahead of an opportunity like this.  I know I kept using the word "enlightened" yesterday but I can't think of a better way to describe it; I feel greater light in my life. Everything just makes sense.  I see more clearly than I did before. I can't imagine not having gone on a mission and not having this experience because it's really amazing. That feeling is such a testament to me that Heavenly Father had this in His plan for me all along.

I love you!  Enjoy your time with Robyn and Jeffrey and sweet Hudson so soon and PLEASE send me pictures! Like, seriously, everyday send me a picture of that cute face.

I have not received Sis. Hawkins package yet but that is so sweet of her and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Again, sorry this email is so lame and short and that, again, there are no pictures.  As soon as I get my Ipad back I'll have the other sisters air drop all the pics to me and you'll get 50 at once.

Love you!!

Hayley


Note from Mom:  Pictures or not, I do not consider this email "lame" in any respect.  I am so grateful for the experiences Hayley is having and the "enlightenment" she is receiving.  We had a GREAT Skype chat on Sunday.  She is SO happy and that makes us so happy as well.  When asked what is one thing she has learned so far on her mission, her response was "there are only two things that really matter in this life - the gospel and family.  NOTHING else matters".  Her companion, Hermana Villalobos (far left), transferred to a different area on Monday.  Hayley is now companions with Hermana McCrite (far right, next to Hayley):