All of the fun things happening...

Dear Haymond Family,

     This transfer has been really crazy and I am going to have to write a super long letter to explain everything that I want to but today is not that day! It is super crazy as well that it has almost been 3 months! I cannot believe how fast time flies! 

     Okay so the picture with the bird was funny cause we were stopping by our ward mission leaders house (yes it was pretty late...) and they had their German shepherd out and they had their parrot out! We didn't even notice until they said something! So we had to get a pic with it :) I am in the Queen Creek east stake (sorry I didn't clarify that sooner!) and I cover three wards but the ward where the Burila’s friend is, they probably have Sister Dexter and Hutchinson who live with us! If you got their name I could ask them! 

And I can’t believe that school starts in 3 weeks! The kids here are already starting to go back to school! How weird...  

     My week over all was okay. Not one of the best weeks. Although yesterday was pretty awesome cause we met a lot of people and got to teach a lot of them. This week we got 3 new investigators! THREE! It was right after we had started to fast and pray for more too! Talk about a miracle! 

     I also received a priesthood blessing on Friday from one of my ZL's Elder Brewer. I will tell you later why I got one, but I know that my Heavenly Father lives and that he loves me. I know that he can speak to me through his servants. I know that the Power of the Priesthood is real. Miracles still do happen today and as long as we are striving to live worthily and striving to look for those miracles, they are all around us. So next week, in the email, I want to hear a miracle from each of you that happened this week. It doesn't have to be huge! A miracle is just something that you can see that come from God! :) Always be looking for those.  

     Today we went to top golf again as a zone and had even more fun! Someone bought us little snacks and it is just so fun to be able to relax and have fun once a week. It is hard though because we can’t listen to the music of the world, and so when a song comes on that I used to like, I either a.) Try to tune it out or b.) Hum it to myself and do a little foot tap to the beat. But then there are those songs that come on where it makes everyone uncomfortable and you can tell the change in the spirit. For example,, some of us sisters went in to Forever 21 and I wasn't finding anything I liked and neither was Sister Prince, another sister in my zone and so we went out because they were playing inappropriate music and we just had a bad feeling. So we went over to Claire’s and that wasn't much better. So we sat on a bench outside... anyways... it is just important that you listen to good, wholesome, uplifting music because it totally has an effect on your mood and attitude. I know it does on me! 

     Another thing that happened this week was Jennifer and Clint’s baptism! Holy cow! It was absolutely amazing! Jennifer gave me a little gift and it was from Deseret book and I forgot what it says but it’s about missionary work and a promise from elder Holland. I put it in my study area because I love it so much! She told me that she was so grateful for me leaving my family so that theirs could be together forever :) I cried. haha! But really the family is so important and I cannot even express to you all how much I love you. Ellie, Tyler, Kate, mom and dad... You are all wonderful human beings who have shaped me into who I am today. Thank you for all of your love and support! I don't know what I would do without you!

     Okay so here is the You Know You're a Sister Missionary When.... you hate shopping because nothing is ever modest enough. :) 

     Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 26:33

     A cool quote for you: "Humility, faith and the influence of the Holy Ghost will always be elements of every quest for truth." -unknown

     I love each of you so much and hope you are all happy healthy and safe.

 

-Love, Sister Anna Haymond

Anna didn't send home any pictures this week but we did get some pictures during the week from some of the ward members.  Here they are...

Faith in our Savior (from 7/20/15)

​Hola Familia! Como Estas? 

I have been practicing my Spanish with the Morales family ;) 

How is everyone?? I loved all of the pictures and the cute sign you made! It sounds like you all have a fun week! My week was pretty good too! We met with a lot of people and talked a lot about faith (Hence the subject of this email). 

Faith is the first principle of the Gospel for a reason. Faith is an action word and it moves us to repentance. Looking back at my life, I realize that I had faith without even really realizing it! And then there are those people we talk to who have no faith and say they have faith... it’s kind of weird that way. But faith is definitely something that I have been working on and I’ve been trying so hard to trust in the Lord and to believe on the things he would have me do and to trust in his plan. It’s hard! But as soon as you do it, like it says in Alma 32, that faith will begin to grow and swell. I may not be more than a seedling, but I have the potential to become a big beautiful sequoia. :) 

Yesterday at church we talked about eternal marriage and the family and about the priesthood. I am so grateful that Families can be sealed for time and all eternity through the power of the priesthood. Without the power of God here on earth, we wouldn't be an eternal family as of 16 years ago! :) I am so grateful to know that no matter what happens, we are an eternal family, and we will be with each other in the next life. People are so afraid of what happens after this life and they think death is the end! But with our knowledge of the plan of salvation, we get a special peace and comfort that comes into our lives.

SO the biggest adventure of this week was on Saturday and I don’t know if you watch the weather but it was supposed to rain for most of the weekend. In the afternoon, a Haboob finally blew in and we took shelter in our church building (we were there making copies anyways) and it was fun to sit and watch it blow by. Even though it wasn’t a super awesome one, it was still fun to take pictures with it haha! That is a comp. goal of ours is to take a picture with every Haboob we endure together! So here it is... Please enjoy my sarcastic frightened face :) 

So you can see it in the background there all the tan dirt and dust blowing up slowly rolling towards us... we aren't allowed to be in them because 1) it’s just not fun and 2) you could catch valley fever and it’s not fun either :( so we were inside that there church building and I am just grateful that I don’t have to endure hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis or anything crazy like that! 

We also had Zone conference this week! (Its where a bunch of missionaries in certain zones in the mission get together and we get some training from President Nattress and from the AP's and also just to brush up on things like modesty and lock your heart...) It was so cool! There were a lot of good things about it and I took so many notes! I just love our president and his wife. Without them, nothing would be happening in the field! I love being in a mission that is so tight knit and so close together so you can draw on the strength from the missionaries and especially since we get to hear from our president so much :) Arizona Gilbert Mission is really the greatest mission in the world! 

JENNIFER AND CLINT ARE GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!! :D :D :D

I am also singing at their baptism... I am singing I love to see the temple, while my comp plays the Ukulele! 

Well... That is pretty much it... I only have a couple good pictures this week, hopefully you will like them! 

I will just leave you with my testimony that I know this church is true! I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that if we have faith in him and trust in him, we can’t go wrong! I know that Joseph smith was a prophet called of God and that he did restore Christ’s church in these last days. I am grateful for the healing power of the atonement and to know that our family is eternal. I love you guys so much and say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Welp, Talk to ya later! 

Adios Amigos and Amigas!

With Love, Sister Haymond:)​

A Sacrifice and Covenant

Hey there!

How is everyone doing?? I am doing good! This week has been a little harder than other weeks but a lot of funny things happened!!! It’s really cool to sit in with a family and just be with them and share an uplifting message with them. This week was really family themed and I seriously just love you guys so much! The package was like a little bit of Christmas! ;) I can’t wait to bake cookies today and I love all the new clothes! Here’s a picture of me with the package! 

So, let me tell you of my adventures this week...

On Thursday, we were tracting and met this sweet old man named Roy. Roy was sitting on his porch when we came by and we just started talking to him and gave him a Book of Mormon. Then, a few day later, we had a feeling to go to the street he was on and we did and he was outside and so we stopped by again to see how he was doing and he was so funny! He was just a sweet and funny old man! Then on Friday, we stopped by Rodgers. Now Rodger is a 93 year old man who lives by himself. He is a Baptist and he is such a flirt! He flirts with Sister Seyboldt every time we go over to share a message and visit with him! He says things like, "If I were a month older, I’d ask ya to be my wife!" or "Children are of the devil! They’re just little devils and they only care about themselves!" Oh my goodness he cracks me up! You know how old people are. They just talk and talk and talk... well that’s Rodger for ya! We go over to share a quick scripture and like an hour and a half later we are talking about Coronado in San Diego! He is so sweet though:)
Also, we picked up a new investigator!!!! We met Louise on the street and she seemed interested and said we could stop by her house and so we did and she said she has been reading in the Book of Mormon a little bit and that we could come back and answer her questions and it makes me so happy to see that people read it and that they have that desire to learn more. It’s so cool to see how they progress and learn. I love it! 

We also have this RC (Recent Convert) named Torrence. The only way I can describe Torrence is a 50 year old teenager... He just makes me laugh all the time. We meet with him a lot because he struggles with the Word of Wisdom and daily scripture study so we go and read scriptures with him. He also does this thing where he will turn into the hulk when he’s mad so I am not looking forward to that! Hahaha!

And another old person we met with this week was Ava and her sister and her friend. They are all at least 85 and have Alzheimer's... But it was so fun to sit and talk with them about their lives and just see how funny old people are! I seriously love them so much! They are the sweetest!

So the Hispanic family we are teaching, the Morale's, are progressing bit by bit but I don’t think they will be able to be baptized this month because Martha still can’t get Sundays off of work:( Rafael is struggling with knowing for himself and gaining a testimony for himself... We had dinner with them on Friday and when we got there they hadn’t even started cooking yet so we knew we would be there a while... Then they pulled out this mystery meat in a bag and we thought it was the cow intestines and stomach they had talked about the last time we visited... Turns out it was just shoulder and it was like a steak but much thinner and really really yummy. So we were only at their house for like 2 and a half hours (WAY longer than we were supposed to be there) but we also taught a lesson so... it was awesome. I love that family:) 

Bobby is doing good and he is progressing a ton! We are actually teaching him tonight too! They are so sweet, him and his wife, because when we were teaching them last, they heard that I had a stuffy nose and they asked if I was sick or had allergies and they offered to get me some medicine and they were just so sweet they take care of us :) 

So ya by the way I had to take a sick day cause I had a cold and I think I got it through email from mom ;) haha but we still taught like 4 lessons that day so it was okay. I am still pretty stuffed up but it doesn’t keep me from working! Thank goodness! 

Okay so cool story, If you google the name Naomi Oaks she is a primary age girl in one of our ward with Leukemia. She was just recently diagnosed and just recently started to go through treatments. Well, she had tickets to the T Swift concert later this year and was really bummed out she couldn’t go. Word got around on twitter or something or other and T Swift heard about little Naomi and donated $50,000 to her page! Naomi’s reaction is all over the internet and news stations throughout the state! She is so sweet though and so I just thought that was really cute! 

Umm so the last thing I wanted to tell you about was making a sacrifice and covenant. This is something a lot, if not all, of missionaries do. We sacrifice something (e.g. sugars, pride, time, sleep, etc.) for a transfer, and they do that so they can either receive a miracle baptism or just to become a better missionary and so forth. And I finally figured out what to do for mine! So for the last 3 and a half weeks of this transfer I am going to be going through a lot of big changes and hopefully seeing miracles and growth in my area! 

I want to bear my testimony to all of you that this church is true. The scriptures are for our day. I have total faith and trust in the Lord. I know that he has a plan for us. I know that through him we can be cleansed from sin and healed. We are able to do so much in his strength. This morning I was studying 2 Nephi 4 and it talks all about putting your trust in him and it’s my favorite! I love the Lord! I know he died for each of us and that he loves each of you!  If you put your trust in him, you will be blessed! He is the one who strengthens us and gives us everything we have! Thank him for all of your many blessings daily! As you do this, as you have that attitude of gratitude, your outlook on life will change and you will be so happy and feel so blessed! I know I do! You guys are awesome and I love each of you so much! Keep Choosing the Right! Trust in the Lord and you’ll never go astray! Love you love you love you!!!!! 

Have a wonderful week and be safe!!!!!!!! 

Love,

Sister Anna Haymond

Sister Haymond fell off her bike one night and ended up with this beauty!

Matching her companion (not on purpose!)

Matching another sister (again, not on purpose!)

This cute picture was sent to us Sunday night by the family they had dinner with! I love getting  pictures texted to me!

He is Risen

Hola mi Familia!

How was the cabin?? It looked like lots of fun! My week was awesome! We saw some miracles and had a lot of good laughs! We also had to be in by 7:30 on the 4th because of all the drunks and they want us to be safe, but a part member family, (the wife is a member and we are teaching her nonmember husband) got us all sparklers! They were so sweet! We had a lot of fun with them:) Here is a picture of me and my comeniero!

​We were kind of matchy matchy in our fourth outfits haha! It was a lot of fun! (There are more pictures but I have to send them separately! :( )

 

So...We had a pretty fun week filled with fun activities! On Wednesday, we got to go to the temple and do a session with our whole mission. We were all broken up in different sections but it was so awesome to be with all the missionaries and just be filled with so much joy! I think they might have put pictures of us on the blog so good luck finding me! We also got to hear from an area 70's who was a mission president in Canada and knew Sister Olsen who was in the MTC with me! His name is Elder Tillman and something that I love that he said was: "Obedience is the saviors love language."  And "How close are you to the savior?" Just some food for thought...

We also started to teach Bobbie that night and Bobbie is the husband in that part member family. He practically came to us and begged to be baptized and he loves the church and knows that he is getting baptized to receive the Holy Ghost and that's what he wants and an eternal marriage and it so cool :) He is awesome!!!

Fridays are always rough cause we have weekly planning and that’s where we plan for the entire week... it takes hours... but in the end it is always worth it because the lord wants us to be prepared and wants us to be ready. So that’s awesome.

Speaking of preparedness... us as sisters in our home, (Sisters Seyboldt, Hutchinson, and Dexter) have been talking about the 2nd coming lately. How when we think He is coming, how we are going to prepare ourselves and our families... how it’s not something to be feared but something to look forward too, the signs.... and even though the world will be in total chaos, everything will be okay in the end. As long as we are righteous and love the lord, we will be okay. There are already so many signs that have come to pass and its crazy... even the court ruling on same sex marriage... I am glad you guys went over the family: a proclamation to the world. It’s crazy how much the world changes. But god is the same yesterday today and forever... Love it

I already told you a little about what happened on the fourth but it was super fun! We had a good BBQ and had lots of yummy treats! Also the sparklers haha :) it seems like you guys had a pretty busy weekend! I hope everything worked out and that you were able to have fun.

Sunday was an awesome fast Sunday and we had a really spiritual dinner message:) I love Sundays. A quote that I loved from one of my wards was a bishop and he said, "We distance ourselves from Him, he doesn't distance Himself from us." It’s so true though! If we are ever feeling far away from our savior, we need to check and see if everything in our life is in order and if we are doing all that we can to have Him with us. Also, "He loves us all equally because He loves us all infinitely."

Today we went to a place called Top Golf and we were there as a zone playing what seemed like bowling but golfing. The balls are rigged and they hit targets its super cool. Look it up. Then we went to Deseret book because why not..? And I got a cute spiral journal. Random question, how much money is on my chase card? I need to start keeping track of that..... haha!

Well! Love you all and I will send pictures right now! There’s a lot!!! I love you all so much and I love the work here. The church is true. I love the gospel. It has blessed our lives so much. We are so blessed. I love the Lord! Be safe my wonderful family! Be happy!

MUCH LOVE AND HUGS AND KISSES!

-Sister Anna Haymond

Mission President, his wife, MTC companion and Sister Haymond

Sister Lightheart, Sister Bryant, and Sister Haymond

Sisters in the Rain

Friday Planning

A really big bug

P-day at Top Golf

All the Sisters in the Zone at Top Golf

 

The family they ate dinner with on Wednesday night sent me this picture in a text.  It made my day, I need to be better at taking pictures of Missionaries when we have them over to send to their families!

 

The Sisters of Zion

Hello! 

First off- I don't know my new address :C Sad I know... I will figure it out soon enough... and thank you for being so awesome and good about packages... I love it and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside! 

Second- look for pictures on the mission blog of our mission anniversary that happened today!!! 

Third- MY NEW COMPANION! Drum roll please!!! SISTER SEYBOLDT! (Like the sea and a bolt) We are in the Ironhood zone (technically Ironwood). We cover Pecan Creek 1st and 2nd ward and Creek side ward. It’s pretty awesome cause we just bike all the day long. We also put an ENTIRE FAMILY ON DATE TO BE BAPTIZED! They had been working with them for a long time and we finally got them on date for the 25th of July! How awesome! They are so cool, I just love them. They feed us yummy treats like plantains and mangoes.  

So Sister Seyboldt is from Sandy Utah and is a cute little blond girl that is the definition of chill. She is still obedient, but we are super chill and she is just so real with everyone. She loves the people and she works hard. The other night we had a heart to heart and just had a really good chat about life in the mission and there may have been some tears of joy shed. Anyways, moral of the story, I love her and we have seen miracle after miracle in this new area! It’s amazing how different companionship work together so good in specific areas and it’s amazing to see what the Lord has in store for us and why we were meant to be in that area. MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!

Okay, so I love those words to that song! its amazing and so beautiful and I think we sung it in the MTC :) So cool!

               [Side note: I sent Anna the words to the “new” As Sister’s in Zion song. It’s called The Sisters of Zion and it’s all about Sister Missionaries!  It’s awesome! Here is a link to the new lyrics if you'd like to see them.]

So yes my Cyst is doing fine. They said it was fine and that I can just wrap it at night (they gave me a wrap) and that that should help but there is nothing really they can do with it. It will be okay and it really doesn't hurt often :)

I love you guys so much and just want to apologize for todays email because there will be no awesome pictures... I forgot the cord to plug in my camera at our house so... look forward to that next week! I AM SORRY!!

Well I am running out of time. I will tell you all about my first Huboob (Dust storm) next week when I can actually send you the pictures of it:) its super sweet! 

The church is true and missionary work without the members would be impossible! So reach out to your nonmember friends and invite them to something!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU WITH MY WHOLE HEART AND SOUL!!!

You know you are a missionary when... you forget your name tag to email your family and you feel naked without it... DX  

Have a fabulous day my familia!!!

-- 

-Sister Anna Haymond:)

Anna didn't send pictures this week but I did find these on the Gilbert AZ mission blog!

Getting picked up from the airport

All the new missionaries

Sister Haymond with the Mission President & his Wife

So excited about her new bike!

Gilbert AZ Missionaries! (she's in there, look hard!)