First Week out in the Field - Celaya

Well Mom, it has been a heck of a week.  We woke up at 4:30 am and headed to the mission home.  Mom, it was really a beautiful experience.  4 or 5 hours later we arrived in Queretaro.  It really is a beautiful city.  President Williamson was there to greet us once we got off the bus.  He hugged me and told me that he was looking forward to meeting me.  It really seems dumb, but it calmed my nerves haha.  We then went into the bus station and the AP's greeted us.  They are super cool.  I like them a lot.  We then went to the vans that would take us to the mission home where we met Hermana Williamson.  She is awesome.  We headed up to the mission home neighborhood.  Mom, it is so pretty.  We went into the home and ate lunch and mingled and had interviews with President. Wow, Spanish is messing with my head. When it was my turn for the interview we began with a prayer.  President Williamson said the prayer and in it he said things about love for my investigators and standing in water of baptism with them.  He also asked that the spirit would calm me and clear my mind and continue to feel it as he had already felt it from me.  We then began talking about me.  Mom, this was a really beautiful moment for me.  He is such a humble man.  I don't know how to say it, but he told me if you need me I'll be there while looking me right in the eyes.  Mom, it helped me so much.  Once I left his office I was beaming.  

The house and the city is beautiful.   After our interviews we then went to the offices and I rode in front of the car with President.  He talked to me like I was his friend and it comforted me even more.  He is the perfect President for me, the Lord knows all things.   Then I found out I was going to Celaya and that Elder Rowley would be my companion.  I took about a 1 hour bus ride to Celaya where Elder Rowley greeted me.   He has been out about 14 months.  We then took a taxi to our house (Scary! Driving here is insane.)  Then Elder Rowley and I went to familia Gurreros house and they fed us.  I love them.  They are an awesome family and they love us.  Then we met and taught our investigators.  It was another beautiful moment.  I was actually able to communicate and understand them.  Well, understand them. I'ts harder to formulate sentences but I have been getting better.  We then went home and went to bed. 

Elder Rowley is the perfect companion for me, Mom, the Lord knows all things.  This week has been the best week of my life.  It has also been really sad.  I have had heart breaking moments.  It has also been the most scary (buses here are freaky). 

 I'm going give you a general overview of the week.  We eat comida with a familia every day at 2:30 because lunch or dinner doesn't really exist here.  The food is sooooooo good, you eat everything with tortillas though haha.  Drunk people talk to us all the time, it's freaky. haha  Elder Rowley does most of the talking because he is actually fluent in Spanish. haha  But I have gotten so much better as the week goes by.  He has taught me how humility and obedience really help a lot.  

The weekend was the heartbreaking part.  We think Satan got to our investigators.  They are a 19 year old couple and live with the familia Garcia who are awesome and take care of us too.  They were going to get married and baptized in two weeks.  For some reason she wanted to return with her mom.  She knew that being here with her Uncle's family and getting baptized was the right choice. They know that the church is true but she got scared.  Elder Rowley and I bore really powerful testimony to her and told her lots of things.  I reminded her that she had told me that this was the right choice because she was scared before.  I was helping her and she told me she knew baptism was the right choice.  I reminded her about that, but nonetheless after the familia Garcia and us bore strong testimony she still wanted to leave.  Elder Rowley and I took it hard.   We were really close with them and really loved them.  We were pretty depressed Sunday but Elder Rowley picked us up and we moved on.  Now we are working hard once more.  

We are here today, p-day, and we played hoops.  It was fun.  After we played hoops we talked to the familia Garcia.  I played a game with their daughters.  We played a game where you have to write things that start with a certain letter in different categories.  It is super fun, it helps me practice Spanish.  Talking to kids is the best practice because they are the hardest to understand. haha  I love them.  I love everyone here, mom. 

I have to go.  Love you, Mom.  You're the best.

I am late getting this post done.  This is from our email chat on Monday.  It was so exciting to hear about his first week out in the field.  I am amazed each week by his growth and the way he changes.  We laughed about the Spanish "getting to his head."  I cleaned this up a bit.  It is obvious he struggles to think of the right words in English sometimes.  We look forward to hearing from him tomorrow.  We are grateful for all of you and your love and support of Hayden.  Please email him if you would like.  His email address is in the header of the blog.  Also feel free to leave a comment, he reads the blog.  Hugs to you!