Arizona Bedrock

                                                  The fence project

                                          Patriotism!

                                          Tyrone's Baptism Day

Well this was a pretty exciting week! The last full week in Maryvale and it has been a blast! We got quite a few people to begin teaching and a few of them are progressing really well. We did some good service for Humberto. We helped him build a fence around his front yard and that was a blast. Something about this time of year seems to make people want to get missionaries to help them dig through the Arizona bedrock. Last year it was a hole for a trampoline, this year it was about 10 post holes. Definitely reminded me of some good projects back home!

Then on Sunday we hurried and got everything squared away for him to come with us to the Mesa Temple! It was a blast. Even though he speaks Spanish and we watched the movie about Joseph Smith in Spanish, the spirit was still super strong. It has definitely been a great chance to struggle doing some of the work in Spanish the last little while. You definitely have to learn to rely on someone more than yourself. So all in all, a great experience serving in the Spanish ward here. I am definitely looking forward to a new area, new lessons learned, and lots of great new people!
Hope all is well back home! Love you all and God bless,
Elder Hiatt

Something as Simple as Passing on a Referral

 This week was pretty great as well. We were able to get everything ready for the boys to be baptized and that was super cool. Each of them wanted someone different to baptize them, so there were 8 of us wearing all white that morning. Then Saturday evening we were able to go to Tyrone and Salina's wedding, and that was pretty awesome too. Tyrone is planning on being baptized this week! So things keep on going pretty well. Then yesterday we got to go with the Garcia family to the Mesa Temple Visitor's center, and that was amazing. We walked around a little and took a ton of pictures and then we went to the visitor's center and talked with one of the missionaries there at the Christus statue which was pretty neat. Then we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and they loved it and felt the spirit super strong. Then we were able to get them in contact with the sister missionary that Alfredo had talked to when he first got to Arizona who sent the referral out to us and that was pretty neat, I think, for her to see what had come of just simply passing a referral on. Things are going really well for that family, even with other problems creeping up that seem like they're trying to push them back. The two older boys came out with us to make some visits yesterday after they got confirmed in church and that was pretty great. Things are going really well. Elder Penaia Teo is part of an emergency transfer happening today so we are going to lose our trio, but hopefully we will be able to keep things moving pretty strong.

I hope you are doin' good!  love you, take care.

Miracles Upon Miracles

Well this was a pretty exciting week! Being in a trio with a Spanish missionary, covering part of a Spanish ward and part of an English ward is pretty nuts. We definitely have lots to keep us busy though, so that is good. We had a couple pretty awesome miracles this week too. We were able to help a sister move into the ward on Friday, with her nonmember fiance with her, and they came to church on Sunday and met with Bishop. They are planning on getting married this Friday. Also, Tyrone is already reading the Book of Mormon and is in Mosiah. And he loved church. Also there was this family that we were teaching that the parents can't get baptized yet cause there is a divorce issue there but the kids Alfredo Jr., Damian, Florencio, and Isaiah really want to be baptized and so we talked about it and the kids are going to be baptized this Saturday. Alfredo Jr., the oldest brother, was a little more hesitant than the others, but we asked him to kneel down and pray this weekend and ask God what he needed to do, and Sunday he told us he had done that and wanted to be baptized now! Its gonna be pretty awesome. But probably the coolest thing that happened for me, was Saturday night we went to one of the Spanish investigators house, Damaris, and she asked for a blessing as she is trying to quit smoking. Then her member mom asked for a blessing and I was able to give her a blessing, but when I was starting it I couldn't think of how to say it in English. The only thing I could think of was en "el nombre de Jesucristo" and then I just kinda kept going. There were some things I knew I was saying wrong, but I just couldn't remember exactly how to say what I wanted, so I just did the best I could. Then I got to a point where I really just didn't know how to say what I wanted to say in Spanish, so I just said it in English, but as I was saying it I just knew that she understood it anyways. I felt something helping me to know that she really did understand it. She knew what I was meaning even though it wasn't in her language. That was definitely a miracle for me to be able to be a part of. So we have a lot of great things going on here in Maryvale! The Lord is definitely hastening His work, and we have an opportunity to be a part of it!

I hope everyone is doing well back home! Take care and God bless!

Love ya,

Elder Hiatt