What's Going On

Have you been wondering what on earth Sister Hayes is up to?
I know you are all dying to know, so here is the latest!!

Sister Hayes has now been serving for almost exactly  11 months! Here one year mark is coming up so fast which is crazy to think about! This is also her last full week serving with her current companion, Sister Hamano! 

Here are some exerts for this weeks email:

"Wasn't conference great? We were able to to go to the stake center and watch all four sessions of conference. We watched three of the sessions in American Sign Language so that Sister Hamano could get some practice in. It was pretty cool I picked up a lot of new signs." 

"A mission has helped me to realize that Satan really does have an attack on marriages and families in these latter days. I have seen so many families torn apart by Satan grasp on the world today, that's why I love teaching families that against all the horrible things that may go on, they can be a family forever." 

Sister Hayes's favorite talks from conference were:
*Elder Scott: "what a love and respect he had for his wife....I hope you took good notes on what he said."
*Elder Holland: "He is my favorite! I loved the part where he said 'This isn't a fast food joint, you cant have it your way.' He speaks so powerfully...he has the spirit and charity when he speaks."
*Elder Bednar: "[He] has such a wonderful of presenting his talks. I was so grateful when he told everyone that they were normal if they didn't receive amazing revelations all the time. I also loved the way that he related it to the light bulb or the sun slowly coming up in the morning."

Want to know more about LDS General Conference? Go HERE to find out more and to listen to Sister Hayes's favorite talks!!

Sister Hayes and her companion are currently working with a wonderful woman named Aileen. She was able to watch some of conference this weekend. Aileen has some things she is working on but she is hoping to be baptized on April 16th!! This will be such a wonderful blessing for all three of them!!
Another piece of exciting news that Sister Hayes shared is that a family that was recently baptized is working on going through the temple! The woman's husband is currently deployed and the woman and her children are living on a military base. The woman was so excited to show Sister Hayes the dresses her little girls will wear when they go through the temple to be sealed together! Sister Hayes wrote:
"I AM SO EXCITED! They are truly on the right path doing all they can to make it to the temple. Even though her husband is deployed it is not stopping them from preparing."

Speaking of investigators, please remember Sister Hayes when you are praying! Please pray for them to find those that are ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and that the hearts and minds of those in here area will be open!!

Transfers!!!

So a lot has happen to Sister Hayes since my last post. Sorry it has been so long since I updated all of you. First off Christine has been transferred back to the east side of Tucson. She is white washing the Palo Verde Ward (that means both of the missionaries that were there before are going to new areas so we are starting out fresh and have to rely upon the members and the area book) If that ward sound familiar to you it should it was one of her first wards that she served in with her first companion Sister Jarrett. The ward was very excited to get her back and Christine is looking forward to checking up on her old investigators and converts.

Sister Hayes’ new companion is Sister Hamano. She served in the Nauvoo Visitor Center Mission as an ASL missionary. She will be serving in Arizona for about 3 months and will then return to Nauvoo. Maybe Christine will learn some sign language along with the bit of Spanish she has learned. “It's nice to be back where I know people but it's still hard making changes. I miss Sister Bodily's bubbly personality, when I was around her I could be as dumb and goofy as I wanted. Sister Hamano is very sweet, she is from Hawaii and she is naturally soft spoken. One time she apologized for saying something too loud but really it wasn't loud at all. Maybe I can get her to come out of her shell a little bit more.”

Right now they are living with a member named Sister Solomon. “She was telling us that when she was preparing the room that the missionaries would stay in, (cleaning it top to bottom) that she felt as if it were a sacred place. She works in the temple and she compared it to preparing a room for a temple service. She told us that she knew this is where we would study and pray to our Heavenly Father and that this room would always be a special place. I just thought that was so cool.”

At the first of this month Sister Hayes passed her half way mark of 9 months. “I really am loving the work here and so thankful that I have the opportunity to serve but the longer I'm out the more I realize how MUCH I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! It will be a sad day to leave the mission but it will be such a happy day to be with my family again.”

Well there is still a lot more to update you on but I will just save it for another post or this one would be really long. Hopefully that will be up in a couple days. If you get sometime send Christine a little note she would love it!!

Pictures to sum up the last two months on the Mission.

Sister Hayes' area included where the recent Safeway shooting was. We are so thankful that she is safe. Here are a couple pictures of all the flowers at the site.

"On Thursday, we went and did some service at Sister Velluti's house. She is a widow and she has a walker to help her get around. We went over and racked her leaves and picked lemons off of her lemon tree. Well you know me, since I know how to make yummy Chick-fil-a Lemonade I went home and made some. Delicious!" Isn't it crazy that it is lemon season in the middle of January!!

Sister Hayes cutting a Recent Convert Tammy's hair. This was her first time cutting someone's hair, but Tammy didn't know that. Crazy Christine!!!

Snow in Arizona!

I just wanted to share with you all a little bit of Sister Hayes' last email.

What is that Sister Hayes is holding? No Way, It Can't Be!!!

SNOW in TUCSON, ARIZONA

"The weather has been pretty cold for Arizona. In some parts of Oro Valley and Marana they received snow but we didn't see anything falling. It was probably snowing when we were sleeping. But as you can see from the attached picture we found some snow to hold! That day I was wearing 2 coats, a scarf, gloves and we had hand warmers and toe warmers. It sounds kind of dramatic but once you get used to hot weather and then it drops below 32 degrees you get a little cold."

Sister Hayes and her companion also have been having a hard time finding investigators. Their district and zone leaders came down to help out. They "blitzed" some streets in their area and found some potential investigators. Hopefully their investigator drought will end soon. Please keep them in your prayers and also the people they are contacting.

Highlights from this weeks email

So first off we found out Sister Hayes was not transferred. So her address is still

Sister Christine Hayes
12396 N Camino Del Plata
Tucson, AZ 85755-2063

She will be continuing to serve with Sister Bodily. The only difference is that now they will only be over one ward, the Tortolita ward. Sister Hayes also shared sweet experience with us:

"I would like to tell you about a Recent Convert from my last area. So I didn't teach this Sister but Sister Jarrett did. Well, her name is Judith Boyd and she is such a sweetie. She is the lady that would usually feed us roast for dinner and one day we ended up washing her dog. Well, she has had cancer for a little while now and I guess things got really bad. Well on Saturday I found at that she passed away which was really hard to hear but I was also happy. I know that she was in a lot of pain in her last few months. Well here is the cool part. Exactly one week before she passed away she went to the temple and received her endowments. The amazing thing is that she hasn't been baptized for a year yet. She received special permission from the First Presidency to receive her endowments and then she passed away exactly one week later. Can you believe that? That is just a miracle. I am so grateful that I was able to get to know her. She was such a sweet Sister and I am glad that she no longer has to deal with the pain that she was going through."

Isn't that neat. We also learned that Christine is actually going to be able to talk to us on Skype on Christmas day. She is going to be calling around 7 pm (so if you call or stop by the house that is why were are not answering). It will be so fun to talk to her. I am sure she will be very surprised to see how much he little niece, Megan has grown up. Also her only sister Tiffany is excepting twins and they are planning on telling her what gender they are when she calls. I am sure she will be excited to know that she will have two more nieces when she gets home.

We also learned that Sister Hayes is having no luck finding her drivers license which she misplaced about a month ago. She loves to drive and I am sure she is dying to find it. It looks like we are just going to have to get her a new one.

Well that is about it for this week. It sounds like everything is going very well. She can't believe how fast the time has flown by. She will be at her half way mark in Feb. It is so wonderful to be able to see Sister Hayes really get lost in the work. She have truly forgotten about herself and is trying to use every moment she has to serve the Lord. Keep up the wonderful work sister. We can't wait to talk to her on Saturday.

We've fallen behind again!! I am sorry!

But new posts are coming soon!! Please keep checking back!!

And dont forget to send Sister Hayes a little note for Christmas!!

{See the post below for the mission home address!! That is probably the

best place to send something to her this time of year}!!

Where is Christine again??

Sister Hayes has been in the Oro Valley area for a little over 4 weeks. Have you been wondering where that even is. Well here is a little map to help you see where Sister Hayes is right now. I think I remember her saying that Oro Valley is about 40 minutes Northwest of Tucson. In one of her emails she told us what the area is like.

"Well I must say that being in the North West is very different then my last area. Everyone is rich and they are all "comfortable" with their own religion. It is so hard to find people here, they must be really good at hiding.
I really miss my last area because it felt more like home. Everything here is really spread out and you have to travel a ways to get into shopping areas. We have a Fry's Marketplace (smith's marketplace) close by...The only fast food that is close is Mc Donald's and Subway. The other places are about 15 minutes away and we don't want to waste our miles."

It sounds like they are having a pretty hard time finding investigators. The one investigator that they did have was actually baptised last week. She was golden.

"Gloria got baptized this past Saturday. When she had her interview with the District Leader he said that she was ready to be baptized a.s.a.p. Her husband even came to the baptism and came to some of sacrament. Maybe he will be next. She is so excited to go visiting teaching and she also wants to come out on exchanges with Sister Bodily and I... The ward has done a great job with welcoming her in. She even joined the Ward choir. Wahoo!! "

Please keep Sister Hayes and her companion in your prayers. They are hoping that they will find more people to teach soon.

Here is Sister Hayes' current address just in case you want to send her a little package or letter. It is always fun to get something in the mail. Transfers are coming though so if you aren't going to send something this week you might want to wait or send it to the mission home. Transfers will be on Nov. 9th.

Current Address

Sister Christine Hayes

12396 N Camino Del Plata

Tucson, AZ 85755-2063

Mission Home Address

1840 E River Rd, Ste. 102

Tucson, AZ 85718