Week 6

So it is officially the end of my first transfer! It went by so quickly, and things are really changing around here. My companion is being transfered to the Dry Creek ward, which is in our zone so she is not going very far. She is taking Sister Kents place and Sister Kent is going North to Yuba. I am getting a new companion, Sister Silva. I guess it is a sign that my mission president trusts me because she doesn't have a license which means that I AM DRIVING!! It hardly ever happens that they let someone who has only been in the field for one transfer drive, so it is quite the compliment that I don't have to back up the car any more:) We are all pretty sad that our zone is being split up but the missionaries coming are really great too, so I sure that I will love them just as much. So last Monday our zone had fun getting together at the stake center. We ate food and played games and just relaxed, it was really pretty nice. Tie trading is a big thing around here and the sisters even get involved. Elder Jordan gave me my first tie and it is actually a really nice tie! I might even send it home so Dude can take it with him on his mission. This past week was crazy! I experienced my first exchange and served with Sister Kent for a day. SHE IS AMAZING!!! She is from Malad, Idaho and we have pretty much become best friends. We had a blast on our exchange, we did some service wednesday morning and worked all the rest of the day. I know the lord was blessing me becuase Sister Lytle is amazing, but she has had a really rough mission and it has been a serious emotional drain serving with her. Sister Kent filled me in on a little of what has happened with Sister Lytle and it helped me to understand why she is the way she is. Anyway, so the days have really run together this week and I forgot my planner again. Our new investigator, Tammy, expressed her desire to quit smoking so that she can be baptized on the 19th. We were supposed to start today but of course Satan is working extra hard on her and we are starting tomorrow instead. Tammy came to church for the first time yesterday and we are hoping that she had a wonderful experience. She was a little overwhelmed so we didn't really get a chance to gage what she was feeling. Our Bishop has asked us to speak on Sunday and poor Sister Silva is going to have to speak now. Bishop specifically gave me the subject of speaking on the importance of testimonies. There is a girl in the library that is freaking out because she didn't know she needed to reserve a computer. Anyway, our investigator Andrey was supposed to come to church with us yesterday but that didn't work out so well either. First he was going to be late, and then he called and said he was going to be later and then he called and said he wasn't going to make it. It was interesting how it all worked out in the first place becuase as I told you later week he started reading the BOM from the back starting with the index. We had to re comit him to read from the beginning. We had set up an appointment to see him on Saturday but he called and said he had read some of the book and wanted to come to church. Satan is a really bad guy, I can now see that we are going to have to work pretty hard to get our investigators to church and to keep their comitments. We were given a specific assignment to ask the Bishop for 10 names from the ward of people that we could go visit. We have a lot of work to do because we now have like 20 families to go visit and then we have the 15 families that the ward is working with and then we have all of our investigators and all the people that we are trying to get in to teach. The days never seem to have enough time to get everything done that we want.

So the notebook that Ren and his family gave me before I left has already come in handy but I realized once I got here that I was in need of a whole different notebook for what we call signing journals. The missionaries trade these journals and take up PAGES of them to put in pictures and things from the transfers that they have spent together. I got a seperate journal for that and I only have had three people sign in it but these elders took up 7 pages. The notebook the Hansen's gave me is PERFECT for the missionaries that refuse to sign journals and for the ward members and the senior couples that are serving in the mission. THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR THE JOURNAL!!! We love the senior couples here. They are so sweet and nice and they love seeing us so that makes it nice too:)

Deric, DUDE YOU ARE GRADUATING TODAY!!! I have been thinking about you all day. I am pretty bummed that I am missing such a great day in your life, but I know that you all will survive somehow without me there. Dad told me about the prank you guys came up with...that was pretty sweet!! Do you have a job yet? You are lucky and already have a car to drive so you better get to working so that you can pay for school! Nice work on the scholarship by the way!! You are going to have such a great time at school, I am really excited for you! Don't forget to call Mom often, she already can't talk to me so I am pretty sure that she was die slowly if you didn't call her all the time. I have been slaking major in the letter department due to extremely busy days and not enough time at night. I am repenting and will try my hardest to get out some letters soon!

Please tell Justin that his letter will be one of the first and that I am SOOO excited for him!! He is really amazing and I know that the people in Chile are waiting for him to bless their lives. Mom I got your letter and was devestated to hear about the Ramsey's. I am so glad that Manda was willing to help with letting Erica borrow her dress. There is a girl in our ward that went to high school with Erica and she and I had a fun conversation about home. Her Mom came up to me at church yesterday and asked if I had heard the news. It is a really small world around here. Kirk is another one on the very top of my list to write but I don't have his address so I think I am going to have to send it to the house. I have been praying my guts out for them and know that they will get through this in a safe and timely manner. If you see them anytime soon tell them I said Hello and that I am praying for them.

I feel bad because this letter is pretty darn lame. There is soooo much we have to do today. Sister Lytle has been clothes hoarding for the past six months and she is going to need a lot of help packing. This week has been extremely stressful and I am so glad that transfers will be overwith tomorrow. I can't even begin to tell you of the experiances that I have been having that have solidified my decision to come on a mission. I love it here, it is not home, but I love it here. I can't even begin to tell you how much our Heavenly Father truely does love us. As he does all of his children. It is SOO important to remember to be an example of Christ every second. People do see and watch what we do. I love the gospel and know that Jesus Christ restored his church to the earth through Joseph Smith. Never lose your testimonies and remember to share them often. People need to hear them, especially those who are not members of the church! I miss you all with all my heart and love you ten times more!! I am sorry that this letter is lame I promise to do better next week!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Heidi

Week 5

HELLO FAMILY!!

WHAT A GREAT WEEK!!! I have so much to tell you all! Last P-Day our Zone was going to have a BBQ but it got canceled due to a lot of really great rain. So Sister Lytle and I ended up going to the sister's house and we played "Mormon Triva" with the other sisters. It was fun but I really stink at that game! We had a SUPER fantastic time at dinner. The Golthorpes took us to In & Out and it was just as good as I remembered it. We went and had hot chocolate after that, which is a weird thing to think of having when it is 70 degrees outside even with the rain. We ended up staying there for the rest of the night, which is how we produced the video that Sister Goldthorpe sent to you. She told me yesterday that you e-mailed her back and she found that to be very cute. Thanks for doing that:) We technically lost the NNC bet. We originally won by 2, but we extended the bet and due to a Dr.'s visit in Roseville for Sister Lylte and two major miagranes for me we lost by like 40. I had to make 4 dozen cookies for Elder Heath and Miller and they didn't even get to eat any becuase the other Elders in the apartment ate them all! They called me and asked for more because they said that they were really good and felt jipped. Too bad I won't give them any until they wash our car!! Wednesday we went and visited the less active couple that we committed to come to church with us on Sunday. We had a lesson all planned for them and were a little nervous about how it was going to go seeing as it was about forgivness. However, to our surprise Sister Thomas took it extremely well and she even told us that she would teach us how to crochet (I am prety sure that is spelled wrong) this really cute blanket:) We are super excited for that! Thursday was weekly planning day and boy do I hate weekly planning!! It takes FOREVER, but in the end it is totally worth it because it cuts down on nightly planning and it lines the week out and shows the Lord that we are willing to do the work. We went and had dinner with the Murry and Burry family that night. The Burry's are the parents of Sister Murry. Brother Burry is not a member and until about 6 years ago was very anti. He is a mason and let Sister Burry get baptised 6 years ago, and she is probably in her late 70's now. Sister Murry is one of the few siblings that are still active in the church. She only has a few of her children that are even members as well. Sister Lytle and I shared a message about families and it was so wonderful. Both of them had tears in their eyes and testified that they knew that in the end all would be well. What amazing women they are and they have set a most wonderful example of having faith. Friday was zone conference, and boy was that an experiance. First of all we have to stress out about having the car super clean. We have to check everything possible and buckle all the seat belts too! Elder Birch (the senior couple Elder over all the cars) is SUPER picky about how things are to be done and look. Of course they have awards for the cleanest cars and there is one elder who always wins. Anyway, I got to meet all the sisters who are in the southern part of the mission and they are all huggers! I don't know that I am really all that comfortable with how much hugging there is here! Anyway, the conference was amazing and it was all about recieving personal revelation, and showing investigators how they can recieve it as well. Which is weird because Dad wrote all about that in his letter to me too! At luch time they hand out awards for the cleanest car and apartments and Sister and I got first for our zone:) I will send Mom the certificate to prove it to you! Saturday was a very long day. We have started to teach this German man who speaks like 8 languages! This was our second lesson and we were prepared to be there for a while. We brought a returned missionary who speaks Russian with us. She really didn't end up helping us all that much:( We had the lesson at the ward building, which by the way is HUGE!!! It has the capacity to have 2 wards going at the same time on Sundays. It kind of looks like a pinkish colored stucko temple. Anyway, as we were teaching Andrey we realized that we have two problems. One being that he started to read the BOM from the back, starting with the index. We had a lot of explaining to do about the 3 Nephites!! He thought that we think that they are Saints like they have in the Orthodox churches. Boy was that a mountain to climb with him. The second problem we had was that he thinks that the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood are one in the same. He also thinks that the apostasy hasn't occured yet, which causes HUGE problems with trying to help him realize that the gospel has been restored. Pretty much no need for the BOM if there was never an apostasy! Sister Lytle and I have stepped into a major one, but we are determined to try and teach him!! We were teaching him for two hours again and by the time we were done we were so tired!! We had dinner that night with a less active family who we have fallen in love with. I am trying really hard to get their name on the list of 15 that the ward is going to help with trying to reactivate. Oh I almost forgot to tell you something really funny. So we are trying to get in to teach the Napli family, and Sister and I went over the other day to see if they were home. Well Rabi, the Dad who we were looking for, was not but the grandma, Bina, was. She talked to us about how there was no need for her to get baptised because she was too old. However, she REALLY wants Rabi and his family to be baptised. Well talked to her about this for awhile and promised her that we would do all we could to teach her family, but we had to go. She then started telling Sister how frail and sickly looking she looks. She was telling her all this stuff about how she needed to eat more. Then she gave me the once over and smiled and said "You, you are healthy! Look at your face, it is glowing healthy!" I laughed and said thank you, and we started towrds the car. She continued to tell me how healthy I was as we were driving away. After I rolled up the window I couldn't help but to burst out in laughter...I have NEVER been complimented for being fat and it made me laugh REALLY hard. It was great. Okay so Sunday we went to church and waited anxiously for the Thomas's to arrive. Soon enough they did and they had brought thier son with them. She gave us a hug and told us that her son didn't believe that they were actually going to church so he came to make sure it happened. The sweetest part was when Brother and Sister Thomas went to go find a seat, their son hung back a little and put his hand on my shoulder and said "Thank you, whatever you two are doing thank you, thank you." I am pretty sure that tears would have ran down my face had I not been in public. We had started a fast with Brother and Sister Thomas the night before and though she has serious type two diabetes she was willing to try. The lord gave us a miracle because Sister Thomas made it all the way to dinner time without needing anything to eat. She told us that this was the first time in 10 years that she has gone more than just a few hours without needing some sugar. How grateful Sister and I were to have had such an experiance to have the Lord confirm to Sister Thomas that she really needed to be back at church. Welp that was the week, we crammed a lot more than what I can tell you about in the week, so today is something to be grateful for to be able to relax a little. So as for the experiance well...I did forget to mention that we did commit a lady named Tammy to baptism on the first lesson but I think that the Thomas's story would be much more meaningful to share. It shows how much our Heavenly Father loves us and especially works to find his lost sheep. But advise would have to be a few things. One do all you can to be obedient even before you leave, it will help with following the rules while you are out. Two READ AND STUDY PREACH MY GOSPEL!!! Make it a huge priority in your life. Think about your testimony, especially about the BOM. And Three: One of the biggest things that I have learned on my mission so far is that of all the things that you could do in your life serving a mission is one thing that you SHOULDN'T live without experiancing. You learn how to truely love, even when people are saying the most horrible things to your face. You learn to work hard, which in this world you need to know how to do. And you have the amazing opportunity to feel the spirit with you stronger than you will ever feel at any other time. There are more prayers being said for missionaries than anyone else and you can tell. It will solidify your testimony. There is so much more I could say but I have 30 seconds so I will just say that it is just 2 years just man up and do it!!! I love you!!

GHeidi

Week 4

YAY for being a missionary! What a wonderful yet very long week. I hardly know where to begin and I forgot to bring my planner so I could remember the days. I know I am a bad person for not having my planner on me. Anyway, last week was a lot of tracting to find someone to teach. The investigators that we want to teach are flaking out on us and we can't seem to track them down. We have tried multiple times to have a lesson with them and every time we are five minutes away and they call and cancel. We even had a member that was going to come to the lessons. BHAA frustrating! I think I was able to tell you about the William's family last time? Maybe? Anyway they are a family that we REALLY want to start teaching. We stopped by this last week to visit and gave them a picture of the first vision with a testimony from a family we have in the ward on the back. It was pretty neat. They are still deciding what they want to do, so we will still keep trying. There are a TON of less active families in the ward that we are working hard to reactivate. Lots of families with a couple kids that are members and then the last couple kids who aren't. Weird and both frustrating. We have some really great ward missionaries in the ward that are really starting to get some motivation to share the gospel. Sister Molina had a really awesome experiance that she was so tickled to tell me and Sister Lytle about. She had gone to a orthodontist appointment and gave the assistant a pass along card. It was the first one she had ever given out and she was so excited about it! We are so blessed to have a really great ward that sees the need for sharing the gospel.

We have been doing quite a bit of tracting lately and have had little sucess. A lot of people see our tags and think that we are JW's. Then there are the people that see our tags and immediately say that they are not religous and shut the door. We went tracting the other day in this really trashy neighborhood that gave me the willies but the street was almost done and we just wanted to finish it. A lot of the homes here have gates that you have to go through to even get to the front door and then the screen doors here are the worst ever!! They are completely metal and they have little tiny holes that make it so you can't see in but the people inside can see out. They are awful! And none of the doors have molding around them. They are super uninviting. Seriously if someone caught on to decor molding down here Woodgrain would really start making millions! So anyway, we had a really cool experiance the other day and it totally is worth all the slammed doors. So we were tracting on this long street that we had finished the one side of the week before and went to go finish it and we were walking along and nothing was happening. No one is ever home and everyone who is doesn't want to talk becuase they aren't church goers or they are busy. So we have like seven houses to go and we walk around the corner and the third house in we are walking to the doorway and this little boy opens the door before we even get all the way to the door. He was super cute and told his mom that someone was at the door and then ran away. So before I go on I should probably tell you that I have only knocked on one door and have been the one to start the conversation. I will tell you about that story next. So the Mom comes to the door and we tell her that her little boy is super cute and then words start spewing out of my mouth. I tell her that we are Missionaries from the church and that we have a message about how families can be together forever and all this other stuff and I ended with would you be interested in learning more? And the heavens opened and she said "Yeah sure." I was a little unprepared for that but it was awesome! We ended up giving her a BOM and a lesson 2 booklet. And then we scheduled an appointment to come back this saturday to start teaching her. Sister Lytle and I were so excited. We have been praying for what seems like forever for us to find someone to teach. We are so excited and are crossing our fingers that she doesn't cancel on us.

So the other story...we were tracting and up to this point sister Lytle had always been the one to start speaking at the door. I would give my two cents if the opportunity arose and if she left a gap for me to even say something. Sister Lytle's last companion HATED tracting so they never went and Sister Lytle would always do the talking. So she is just used to having to do all the work and sometimes it is frustrating becuase I have something to say but she won't stop talking so I can never say anything. Anyway, I told her that I would start the door and I am thinking that no one was going to be home, but this 19 year old girl opened the door, and it took my by surprise but I started talking and words started coming out of my mouth and I really didn't know what to say but whatever I did say must have been okay because after I said would you like to learn more she said yes. We found out that her name is Ariel and we gave her a BOM and asked her if we could stop by in a week or so to see if she had read anything and if she had questions. She told us that she was really busy so we couldn't make and appointment but she was happy to let us come over again to see her. The really unfortunate part is that if she is the only one interested in her family we would have to give her to the singles ward elders. Really stinky, but it was really neat that she was interested. We are planing on stopping by this week sometime to go see her. We also were able to share a Family Proclaimation with a guy that fixes pools. He was at his truck on the road and we were talking about the weather and he started telling us about his family. I asked if he had ever met missionaries before and if he knew what we believed about families. He was a really neat guy but he doesn't live in Antelope so we gave him our number if he had any questions and told him that we could get him in touch with the elders in his area. He reminded me a lot of Unlce Chris. Way cool guy!

Sister Lylte and I decided that we want to work on talking to more people, so we bet some elders in our zone that we could get more NNC's than they could. Really silly idea cuz these elders are on bikes and they talk to EVERYONE. Our normal weekly goal is 84 but they always get over 100 so we bet them we could get 130. They were all for it so we will see how this week goes. We are planning on tracting for 2 hours everyday.

I am starting to have slight physical signs of getting a lot of sun. The weather here is so nice. It is starting to get pretty toasty and I have learned that if nothing else skirts are a lot cooler than jeans so I am glad for that. I don't know if I told you that we have what is called suit jacket season here and it is during the winter which is when sisters have to wear long sleaves and nylons. I got here just in time for non suit jacket season so we only have to wear nylons to church, baptisms, interviews with the president, and zone conferences. So if anything I don't really need nylons but those little nylons socky things that you can't see when you are wearing shoes. I am sure Manda knows what I am talking about.

We went and played golf this morning which was pretty fun. There are two elders here that are totally hick and were playing in boots and cowboy hats. Don't worry I have pictures, it's pretty funny. I ended up not playing the last four holes becuase Sister Lytle has never golfed before and not that it is a bad thing but she was taking forever and there was like this old lady golf tournament going on so we had to pick up the pace. I ended up carying her clubs for her and taking pictures. It was really fun, but it reminded my why I love basketball! There is an Elder here that is super fantastic. Elder Owen is 6' 8'' and is going to play college basketball when he gets home...which is in like 3 weeks. He was playing in the church last Monday and he figured out that I was judging his shot. It is HORRIBLE! But somehow the ball makes it into the hoop, so I guess it doesn't really matter. We did get some funny pictures of him lifting up Elder Brown, who is pretty short, to fix the net. Quite a sight.

So I have about seven minutes left on this computer so I better start wrapping it up. I got six letters in the mail the other day and was SO VERY GRATEFUL! Thank you so much for them. I have had a chance to write back to almost all of them so be on the lookout for letters in the mail! Thank you, Thank you for sending them! I prayed a lot before my mission about helping me not to be homesick and my prayers have really been answered. I miss you all so much but I am so happy with the work here. I am really starting to see how quickly the next 17 months are going to fly by. I know that I have been prepared my whole life to do this and I am so glad that I made decisions in my life that allowed me to be able to be here. I have the most wonderful parents who taugh me, and a wonderful family who loves me and for that I am truely grateful. I know the gospel is true and that our Heavenly Father loves us. I will never forget what Grandpa said when he told us all to "Never loose your testimony, it is the only thing that is truely yours." I think about that often and am so grateful that I have a testimony that I am able to share everyday with everyone. I miss you all so much and I love you all ten times more! Please be safe in all you do!

SLY

Heidi