It's Monday! A New Letter, April 26th, From Hayden!!!
A lot has happened this week, but first off, thanks for the packages. I think I got them all but I never got those garments you were going to send, so I hope you haven't sent them yet. Also, could you move some money into my new account? a couple hundred will be more than enough, and I just want to make sure you paid my tithing that I left.

I guess I should have known that I would get sick this week after what I said in my last email. It's a nasty cold that just doesn't want to go away. I'm on some medicine for it which is why I need some more money in my account.

Other than that though, we got a new district on Wed. and they're all really awesome. We searched their vents for good stuff left by the previous elders, and we actually found some nice items. Edler Taylor took a hacky-sack we found there but it was really low on bead things inside it. So Elder Taylor filled up his pocket with rice at dinner and laid it out to dry in our room. Then he cut open the hacky-sack, filled it with the rice, and sewed it back up. Now we have an awesome toy to play with. Also, Tyler Haws from the BYU basketball team came into the MTC last wed. and he has the same gym time as I do. He refuses to play basketball though so I played four-square with him (actually I never got to play with him, but I was in line with him.)

Elder Taylor, Hermana Winn, Hermana Byam, and myself are going to be singing "Nearer My God to Thee" in sacrament this week. I carry a mean bass line. I started reading in Jesus the Christ this week and it is just an incredible book. It really isn't that hard to understand, I don't know why I couldn't read it a couple years ago. Maybe it is because I tried to read it on my bed where I would just fall asleep. We made some sweet planner covers this week, I'll take some pictures of it and send them home. One of our teachers couldn't come to class for a few days so Hermano Scoville taught us those days. He's like the head of the teachers for our zone and he is one of the best beat-boxers I've ever heard. Sadly, his last day was Friday so since it was his last day, he did his super secret thing that he has only shown to a few other districts. I was getting so excited and then he started to talk in this robot voice. At first, I wasn't believing what I was hearing, I thought my ears had suddenly gone fuzzy. It was the best computer voice I had ever heard in real life. It absolutely blew me away and then he would start beat-boxing out of it. Unbelievable.

I'm still waiting for that sports update from Kaleb. I hear the Jazz are rocking it but I need more. Tell him to just write a dear elder to me. Those are free I believe and then I get a letter too. The dear elders are honestly the best things in the world and I think they get to me faster than normal mail. Have you heard from nick about his address? You may want to try texting him from my phone or contacting him on facebook. I have him as a friend on my profile. Thanks for the great blue ties. My favorite is fax's. I should still have plenty of room in my suitcases but I will be sending some stuff home to you that I found out I don't need. The spanish is coming along nicely. We had our first english fast this week. It was really hard but we got through it and I actually learned a lot from it.

We have an elder in our new district from St. George who went to the same high school as Sydney and he says he knows her. What are the odds really? His name is Elder Anderson, you may want to ask her if she knows him. I know it's a really common last name but I'll be sending home some more pictures here soon. It's just crazy how people are connected with each other in here.

How is Reese doing? Is she still out of control? What happens if she rebreaks her leg? You should send me some pictures of her. Tell Kyle I'm way excited to still be here when he could be receiving his call. Tell him to write me as soon as he knows so I won't be waiting too anxiously. Could you also find out what time and day Brady comes in so I can be looking for him? We'll be the oldest district by then so I could possibly be his escort.

Well I'm almost out of time. I'll try to find the time to actually write a letter this week but you never know what your schedule will be like.

Love, Elder Newey

April 19th letter from Hayden

Sorry to hear about Reese. Who hit her and why was she in the road? I think I got all of the packages but I haven't received the package with cologne or retainer cleaners in it yet. I did get the drivers license package and all is good concerning that.

I actually wrote you a huge letter and a letter to Kyle as well on Tuesday. I went to mail it Wed. and I was looking at the envelopes and something just wasn't right about them. I couldn't figure out what it was until I had dropped them into the mail thing. I had forgotten stamps...So I had to wait two more days to get them back so I could mail them properly so you should get the letter soon.

Spanish is coming along. This week we learned Preterite, Imperfect, Subjective, Progressive, Future, perfect, and Command forms of verbs. This material isn't usually covered for like four years if you were taking Spanish in school and we learned all of this in one week. They had to close down the gym to get the bleacher seats repaired, so now we have to have gym outside and there is no more basketball. They also don't allow football which is quite sad. However, I learned how to play four square which is way intense if you're good at it. Our whole district teams up on everyone else with secret combinations and we are just amazing.

We got our hair cut today, Elder Taylor and I, and it looks like they didn't even do anything to it. The shortest they can go on the top is a 6 which is still pretty long. Luckily it's all free

Did the Jazz get home court for the playoffs? how are they doing? A new teacher is being trained in our district and he is a huge Jazz fan but he refuses to give me updates so I've been dying.

Elder Taylor and I started playing wall ball with those smiley face balls you sent and it gets so intense. I think I sweat more during that than I did during basketball.

Oh I just remembered that we're getting a new district on Wednesday. 12 new people but 4 of them leave in 3 weeks for the MTC in the Dominican Republic where they will be serving. It will be good to not be the new guys anymore.

I forgot to ask you in my last email for Nick's address so I can write him some letters. He wasn't at the farewll so I don't have it.

I mentioned in my letter that you haven't received yet that one of our teachers, Hermana Penaflor, is being transferred to a different district so we'll be getting a new teacher from Mexico. Everyone is pretty sad but honestly, I'm not too upset. I didn't learn very much Spanish from her anyway. She was a great teacher but I will be happy for a change.

The days are starting to run together. The days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days is a very true statement. It's weird I'll have been here for 3 weeks on Wed.

We had a devotional on Sunday where Elder Alan, the managing director of missionary work spoke to us. He told us a story about how some missionaries had for some reason decided to make a home-made bomb and then set it off in the street. Idiots. The chief of police lived a few houses down the street and so he sent some officers to go check it out. And when the police looked in the missionaries' rooms, they found a map with pins in it--where all of their investigator were and stuff. Obviously, to them, it looked like plans to blow up more houses because they also found more of these bombs in their rooms. I thought it was a pretty funny story because they Elders were so stupid. Don't worry though, I know better than to do something that could get me into prison.

It would be great if you could send me a couple more ties too. Especially a new blue one. Sunday is blue tie day and I'm getting tired of the one I have. Good news though, I haven't been sick yet (knock on wood) even though everyone in my district has been. I'm just a tank I guess.

We came up with a new game to learn Spanish. We quiz someone else with the vocab and if they get it wrong, you get a free shot at them with one of the dry erase markers. They can't move and several times, we just have to take it in the face like men. It's a lot of fun but I think the best part of it is just throwing the marking at someone who can't move.

We had another TRC on Thursday. This time, instead of getting a ridiculously hard investigator, we got a really really easy one. She committed to do everything we asked which was kind of more annoying than the other guy. Maybe we'll just get a normal guy this Thursday.

Well my time is almost up and I have to go to dinner. I love all of you, keep sending letters. Letters are better than emails because I can't always get on to check my emails.

New Letter & Photos

Here is Hayden's latest letter (photos follow at the end)

I think I'll get to call you still on Mother's day. No one has talked about it yet so when i find out, i'll let you know. This week seemed like our first real week in the MTC because the first week, everything is hectic and you don't get a lot of work done. But now we're in a permanent schedule and we get the same teachers everyday.

Elder Taylor and I went to our first TRC (Training Resource Center) where you go and teach the first lesson to someone who is a convert to the church so they are playing as the investigator. First, we had to get to know them in spanish, and one of the guys we had to talk to was crazy. The other people we talked to in spanish slowed way down for us so we could understand them but the last guy was speaking as fast as he could and we could barely understand what he was saying. Then we were assigned someone to teach the first lesson to in english and it was just our luck that we got the hard one again. We tried to teach him but it seemed that everything we said was bouncing off his head and he kept trying to get us off track by throwing these insane questions at us. We actually did really well until we got to the restoration of the gospel. Let's just say that he handed it to us quite easily. I think he was enjoying himself as he watched us look for scriptures to back up what we were saying. Then we tried to get him to commit to read just one chapter of the Book of Mormon and he never gave us a straight answer. We were both really frustrated when we finally left. Then we talked to all of the other companionships and heard about how easy their investigator was and how they had committed them to read the enitre Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church that sunday. I was so mad, I didn't talk for the rest of the night. However, I humbled a bit over the weekedn and realized that we really got the best experience because it was what we will really be facing in the field. He taught us to be more prepared and to teach by the spirit rather than by our words. Before we had talked to him, we both thought we understood spanish so well and that we were the best freaking missionaries ever. How wrong we were. Next thursday we're going to try to get him again so we can kind of redeem ourselves.

Other than that, it's been kind of uneventful. Last night, we sang "God be with you till we meet again" in spanish because one of the districts in our zone is leaving tomorrow. That's the loudest i've ever sang a song in my life. There were only about twenty of us and we were so loud, it was just incredible. But yeah we sang the first three verses as loud as possible and then on the fourth verse, we sing reverently and quietly, and the spirit was so strong that almost all of us were crying. I can't wait until we're singing it for my district.

So yeah that's about it. Not a very exciting week, just learning spanish and such. Keep sending letters, it's the best part of the day besides gym time.

Oh and I desperately need a sports update from Kaleb. I've heard the Jazz have dropped to sixth and so I need some comfirmation on that.

I forgot to tell you about our progressing investigator. We each get to have one while we're here at the MTC. It's someone who you teach as if they were an actual investigator all the way up until baptism. We have our first lesson tomorrow at noon so that should be a lot of fun. Wish me luck.

I love you all. Kaleb, and Kessa, keep developing those testimonies, they're the most powerful tool you have to bring people unto Christ. If you haven't prayed about the Book of Mormon yet, make that your highest priority. It's one of the first commitments we try to get investigators to do so it is really important. Stay strong in the church, this truly is a marvelous work and a wonder. Letters are great. I love the packages. We never even eat the candy in them, but it's like christmas just to open them here. I'm almost out of time I have to go now.

Hayden and his companion, Elder Taylor

Back Row (L to R):
Elders Thorstenson, Thoelke, Adams, Brown, Newey, Taylor
Front Row (L to R):
Hermanas Elsey, Byam, Wynn, Stratton

Hayden's MTC Dorm Room

We finally got an email from Hayden! Here it is:

So It turns out I didn't get to email you until pday which is today. I only have a limited time so i'll try to fit everything in.

My companion is elder taylor as you know and he was living in spring, texas before he got here but he grew up mostly in Louisiana. He is my height and weight, but he was a wrestler so he is a little bigger than I am. He is awesome, we have a lot of fun.

There are four other companionships in my district: Elder Adams and elder thoelke (pronounced like tolkien without the 'n'), elder brown and elder thorstenson, hermana wynn and hermana stratton, and hermana byam and hermana elsey. However, Hermanas elsey and stratton are being moved up to an intermediate spanish district so we are losing them which is actually pretty sad. The first day we got here, everyone we saw told us how lucky we were to have sisters in our district. I'm going to be sending pictures home here soon so you can see what everyone looks like.

We got to have General Conference this last weekend which was just incredible. There was over 1000 misssionaries in there taking notes and listening to the speakers. After the last session, we had a fireside where we sang a bunch of hymns and on some, the singing was so loud it hurt my ears and I couldn't hear myself sing. The spirit was incredibly strong.

Spanish is coming along great, but if I hadn't taken two years before this, I would be entirely lost. The first day, they just force you into it, they don't go over any basics whatsoever, no alphabet, no grammar, just learning words so we know how to pray. Praying is hard but Elder Taylor and I almost have it down to where we don't need notes. We are now trying to learn our testimonies in spanish which I'll try to share at the end of this letter.

Today we went to the temple with the entire zone. The Provo temple is beautiful and it was a great experience to be surrounded by other Elders of God serving in the temple.

I just realized I never explained why I couldn't email Wed. We were supposed to when our teacher had us take the gym orientation quiz on the computers but apparently he forgot and we didn't know that was when it was planned to happen so we couldn't remind him. That night, our zone leaders told us we should have done it with the gym orientation and then said, "oh well I guess we can do it tomorrow." That's a phrase used quite commonly in here because our days are so strictly planned that we rarely have time to do things we don't plan for which means we are always putting things off until the next day--needless to say, these things never get done.

So quickly let me try to share my testimony is spanish (Dad don't critique the grammar too much)

Yo quiro compartir mi testimonio con ustedes.

Yo se que nosotros salvador, Jesucristo, vivas, y el libro de Mormon es las palabras de Dios y (it was restored) atraves Jose Smith.

Yo se que Jose Smith estavo una profeta de Dios.

That's about all I can remember without notes but it's a pretty good amount anyway.

I love you all, I hope you felt the spirit in conference as much as I did. The talk about honoring mothers was especially good

Love, Elder Newey

Hayden's Going Away Video

In honor of Hayden's willingness to give two years of his life to serve the Lord, Holli created this little retrospective on her brother's life.