Anna's Arizona Adventures: 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