Week 9

So we are officially more than halfway through the transfer and I really can't believe that it is going by so quickly. This last week was so long but so short at the same time. I was pretty frustrated at the fact that we have been working so hard but our numbers aren't really showing it. I will explain...

Monday we had a really lame activity. We went to the church and played volleyball. I think the best part was that Sister Silva went to go hit the ball and she decided to kick it for some odd reason and it totally came up and smacked Elder Hammer in the face. It made his eyes tear up and left a huge red welt on his face for like 2 days. Super funny, but we all felt bad for him. We had a really awkward dinner with a newly wed couple that night and we were in and out of the house in excatly one hour. It was weird.

Tuesday we had a zone meeting which usually wouldn't have happened because we were going to have zone conference on friday, but we were all told to bring our testimonies written down and then we had to put them in a BOM and go give them out within an hour. Tuesday was Elder Lincoln's birthday so I made him a cake the night before and we all sang to him and stuff it was pretty great becuase his smile was sooo big. We went to lunch and then we went to go visit some P.I.'s and to track down a referral that we got. Okay so here is some advise...please do not send referrals to the MTC without telling the potential investigator that you are going to send the missionaries to their home. It is super awkward when they don't know why we are there and why we know their names and they don't know who would have sent the missionaries. This is excatly what happened to us. The referral was for a younger boy and his Mom was all "Why don't you use your time more wisely and go preach to people who haven't been saved." It was irritating. Anyway so later that night we had a lesson with Tammy and we are starting to really see some progress with her. We taught her about prophets and she was really intrigued with the thought that there was a prophet today on the earth. She wasn't doing so well with the whole not smoking thing so we asked her for any cigarettes that she had and of course she said she didn't have any, and we knew she was lying but we left becuase we had a Relief Society activity to go to. Dad there is a Phillipino family in the ward and she makes Lumpia. Don't know if that is how you spell it but that stuff is SOOO good! Sister De Jesus made some for the activity and we are going over there tonight so I am crossing my fingers that she will make some more! YUM! We had exchanges on Wednesday so we went home so I could get my stuff together for that.

Wednesday was interesting. Sister Carlson and I made some really good plans the night before and we were out all day! We met up with a guy that was in the area book and we had a really good talk with him and invited him to take the lessons. He said YES!! Sister Carlson was stoked because we were in her area and they have been aching for someone to teach! After that we went tracting and visited some less actives. We had dinner with a member and that was REALLY awkward because sister Carlson is really shy and she didn't say a word the whole time we were there! I was having to make all of the conversation and this family is not even in my ward. Like she could have asked them questions about how their missionary experiances are coming along but no, not one word out of her mouth. That dinner was a new record for time because we were in and out in 45 min!! After dinner we went and did something else that I can't remember because yet again I am without my planner. We got back to my apartment at like 9 and when we walked in Sister Lytle was in her pajamas. Which is weird becuase we aren't supposed to change our clothes until after we have planned. So I started asking her what they did that day and turns out that they went to go visit Tammy and got sick from the insence that she had burning. So they came home at around 12 and Sister Silva was feeling better within an hour but I guess Sister Lytle was sleeping and such until like 7:30. I was kinda frustrated because Silva wanted to go out and work and Lytle pretty much was just using excuses to stay in. Numbers were really bad for us that day. Carlson and Lytles were really good though. Sister Silva did get Tammy's cigarettes from her though!! I was SO glad, even though she lied to us!

Thursday I was feeling badly because yet again I am a failure and didn't get something in the mail for Paul. But we had a busy and very hot day! We had a lot of people that we needed to visit and we tried really hard to get some tracting done but it was just so hot outside that it was really difficult. We ended up visiting with Sister Rivera and officially inviting her husband to take the lessons. He said no, and we asked him why. He said that he just didn't want to and that he really didn't want to come to church either. LAMENESS!!! We are going to keep trying with him. We had a lesson with Tammy and it went really well. She told us that it was the first day that she went all day without really thinking about the fact that she hadn't smoked all day. We were so glad that our prayers for her are getting answered and that she is doing really well! We had dinner with Mollie and her kids that night. I just love going over there. We had a good little lesson about faith and then we had to leave because we needed to get to another lesson....that fell through. We OYMed people in the parking lot and then went to visit a guy named Desmond that lived there who we had an appointment with but he didn't show up to. I guess I really scared him because he thought that we were the cops by the way that I had knocked on the door. OOPS:) It got him to open the door though and we set up another appointment for later tonight:)

Friday was zone conference and it was AMAZING! We hosted it and had to sing a musical number that was pretty bad. Elder Hammer can play the piano pretty well and made up a song for Isreal, Isreal God is Calling and when we were parcticing Elder Hessing was like ..."Sister Perren you need to sing the third verse as a solo!" I knocked that suggestion down pretty quickly but I couldn't get out of not singing somehow so it turned into a duet. So we were all singing and such and the Elders were singing the first verse and they all stopped singing at one point because they forgot the words even though they all had books in front of them. I couldn't help but giggle, but the rest went ok I guess. We had the opportunity to practice teach later after lunch with investigators and recent converts. It was a really cool experience. We had a lady named Gayle that wanted to be a Catholic, Mormon. Sister Silva and I taught a really good lesson about the BOM and got her to kneel and pray with us:) She even said the prayer! That was really neat. After conference we had a blessing scheduled for Tammy and that was pretty neat too. She was really impressed with what the Brothers said in the blessing. She said..."how did they know to say all that stuff?" It was a perfect opportunity to teach her about how much her Heavenly Father really loves her. We had dinner that night with sister French. It was after dinner that Sister Silva forced me to call the nurse. I really didn't want to but Silva was worried about me and I guess that really the only good thing coming out of this is that the nurse called president and she told him that I shouldn't be wearing nylons ever. So no more nylons for me:) I am supposed to call and make and appointment to go see the doctor later this week and hopefully we can get this fixed. I am really, really sorry about it all. I really wish this stuff didn't happen to me. But in a way it has been an answer to prayers becuase I have been praying that it will either go away or that I will figure out a way to take care of it.

I don't have a lot of time so I am skipping Saturday which is pretty boring anyway it was just weekly planning, and moving onto Sunday. FANTASTIC DAY!! We were kicked out of our meetings early so we had some time to go tracting before church and we were sucessful! All day sunday was great we got 3 numbers for us to come back and visit and then later we went to go tracting after dinner and we ran into the Williams family! We asked Lena to take the lessons and she said YES!!! Answer to prayers!!! We have been trying so long to get in to teach her and we are finally going to be able too!! So many good things happened this week but our numbers really stunk! It's okay though we will do better this week!

So I am going to try really hard to get a letter in the mail for you Mom. Things have just been crazy lately and I have had no time to write. Thanks for the letters, I freaked out a little about Dad, but I guess if he is feeling better I won't worry so much. Dad thanks for the letter and for telling me about Brett! I am so HAPPY!!! I am looking forward to this week and I am out of time so I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your love and prayers!! Thank you!! I just love you all a lot! Do something to share the gospel this week!

Love-

Heidi

Week 8

So I am thinking that the holiday messed up the mailing system a little bit because no letters last week, not that I am really expecting one, but I usually get one from Dad and nothing. So I am looking forward to this week in hopes for Dad's letter:) Mom thanks for the copy and paste job of Lareens e-mail. It totally worked, and I am super grateful!

So this past week....I am still so tired from the business of it. Sister Silva and I are working so hard and it is really starting to get really warm. Last week was in the 90's and the sun is intense! It really makes us tired from walking around in it all day. We get home and race to see who can get into be first! We have been having an absolute blast. The bishop has asked us to wait to visit all the less active members for awhile so he can go through the list first. Don't really understand why, but we are doing what he has asked which makes it a little harder to fill in time during the day with things to do.

I think I told you what happened on Monday last week so I will start with Tuesday. We had a great lesson with Tammy and taught her about Baptism and set up lessons for the rest of the two weeks before her supposed baptism date. She was doing really well with the whole quit smoking thing but hasn't actually officially quit yet. We had an appointment with Jack later that evening and taught him the first three principles in the first dicussion. He still doesn't seem to really be connecting with what we are saying so we are trying to figure out excatly what he needs to hear. We are trying really hard to get him to come to church. He wants to walk for some odd reason, but never feels good enough to do so. Its been a trick but I know that if we follow the spirit that we will be guided for what we should do.

Wednesday I think we tracted until the sun went down...not really but we were in the sun for forever!!! I am really starting to get some serious tan lines. We had dinner at the Bishop's house and that was fantastic!! He is a little crazy at times but we love him. Sister Summers is amazing! We love her and now that she is out of school for the summer she is excited to come to lessons with us. We had a lesson with our oh so lovely Andre that night and we brought Bro. Goldthorpe with us. I think we were inspired because for the first time Andre listened. Bro Goldthorpe was able to understand what he was trying to say and was able to explain things in a way that he could really understand them. I was feeling a little like why couldn't he understand it when I was saying it, but I know that sometimes the spirit just works in ways that it needs to. Bro Goldthorpe was so great and we are now debating whether or not we need to drop Andre. We are going to go see him again and ask to see if he got an answer to his prayer and we will go from there.

We have been trying really hard to get in to teach Sister Ortega for WEEKS now. She is really depressed and will not even let us talk to her. She does this some times and we just have to keep trying. Sister Lopez is her visiting teacher and is so great. She stops by all the time and doesn't take no for an answer. I am so grateful for wonderful members of the ward that see the value in people. We did some service for a potential investigator later that day. Her name is Teresa and she has a son that is 35 and disabled. He got in a motocross accident almost 10 years ago and very slowly he is making progress. Her husband divorced her after her sons accident because he didn't want to have to deal with the new lifestyle that having a disabled child brings. The missionaries have been helping her for quite some time now and we are hoping that one day she will want to take the discussions. We love her and always enjoy going over there. We are going to go help her with her laundry probably next week.

Friday was the dreaded weekly planning!! We finished about an hour before we did last week so we are making progress!! YAY! We had a lesson with Tammy later that night and we brought Sister Summers with us. We taught about the plan of salvation and I can't tell you how well the lesson went. Sister Summers is like the PERFECT fellowshipper and when she feels inspired to say something she does and it just makes the lessons go really well. We didn't have a dinner that night so Sister Summers fed us again and we couldn't have been more grateful!

Saturday we did some more service for the Jeffer's family and Bro. Jeffers took lots of pictures. I look awful in them all but oh well. We finished painting their front living room in just a couple of hours. We went tracting in the hot sun after that and by the time dinner came around I felt like I had just sweat off buckets of water! Gross:( Anyway we went to the Tluczek's for dinner and we had a wonderful time there. Sister Tluczek is so good to me. She got me some fish oil to take for the sores I get on my arms. She is really good with stuff like that and is pretty sure that it will take care of it. I guess we will know in two weeks. She also has me eating lemons everyday and drinking even more water to see if that won't help with the water in my legs. She is so good to me and I love her for it!! Tammy called us that day and told us she didn't want to get baptized but still wanted to meet with us to have "Bible Study" I wasn't about to let that happen so with a little bit of patience and a long conversation on the phone we have just postponed the baptism and we are going to continue to teach her. We brought over a boat load of clothes for her so that she would feel more comfortable coming to church so we hope that she comes!!

Sunday we went to church and got out of there in enough time to go tracting before dinner. We had dinner with Sister Ewing and we had a wonderful time there!! She is going to help us with a less active in the ward and gave us some good advise for a girl that we are trying to teach. She is so wonderful. I really can not say enough about how wonderful the members are here!

So today we are going shopping. I need more white shirts and Sister Silva wants a new skirt. We have dinner tonight with the William's and it is going to be a great day!! I really can't believe how much I have learned in the past two months and I am so grateful for all the blessings I am seeing in the lives of those we are teaching. I love this work and I am having the time of my life!! There really is nothing that I would rather be doing than this. What a wonderful thing it is to be a missionary and to really have a chance to come closer to our Heavenly Father! I love this gospel and I know that it is true! READ THE BOM!! There are blessing that come when you read that book! I am really looking forward to pictures and such for the cabin outing and Grandpas head stone! Thank you for all of the letters and such. I am able to make it through the days with the support of you all and I am so blessed to have the greatest family in the whole world!! Especially two wonderful parents who I love and miss dearly! I miss you all with all my heart and I love you all ten times more!! Bear your testimony to someone this week...try it you will see that the Lord will put someone in your path if you are willing and follow the spirit!!

SLY!!

Heidi

Week 7

Okay so I know you all are probably at the cabin right now having a really great time so you probably won't get this until tuesday or whenever, but I just wanted to let you know that the library is closed today and that we won't be able to e-mail until tomorrow. Elder Bailey the AP was really kind and let me use his computer to e-mail you to tell you that so Mom wouldn't freak:) I love you Mom! Anyway, we have a lot of things to do today and I have scheduled time to e-mail you all tomorrow. I saw a fantastic e-mail from Jared and I am really excited to write him back, he is so super great! Manda tell him he is amazing for me will you? So I need to let Elder Bailey get back to work I miss you all and love you ten times more! I really hope that the cabin is coming along and I am was excited to get more pictures!! I love you all and will write a really long e-mail tomorrow!!!

Love,

Heidi

Hello Family!!!

So I have been waiting all day to write you all a fantastic e-mail! I brought my planner with me this time so I will be able to remember what happened during the week a little bit better:) First off driving the car is such a blessing! I love it, except for the getting lost part. I hope that you all had a fantastic time at the cabin! I am really excited to see the pictures and hear what all went on. Manda- Mom told me you got a new camera so I am expecting great things from you this summer! Anyway, Last monday we got transfer calls at about 9 AM. The other sisters in our zone came over to spend the night and we all waiting patiently for the call to come. Elder Brown told me at first that I was the one getting transfered and I was so confused. He told me he was just kidding and then said that Sister Lytle was being transfered to Dry Creek. So I have a wonderful new companion who is orginally from El Salvador. She speaks spanish which is going to be a big help. I can tell already that she is ment to meet people here and we are going to do great work together. Sister Silva has been out for 9 months and she is so sweet. I am not going to lie I thought that we weren't going to get along the first few days that we were together but we had a comp inventory and we are great friends now:) She makes me laugh all the time. There is another elder that got transfered into the zone and he is from Australlia, and let me tell you he is so funny! He tells Sister Silva and I jokes all the time like...I had a dream last night that I was a muffler...I woke up exhausted! We laugh and tell him that his jokes are lame and he finds more. His birthday is next week and he has aready requested cookies from me. I guess the other elders let the cat out of the bag and told him that I cook.

Tuesday was district meeting day and president interviews. Our zone got all mixed up and there are only like 5 of us that are the same from last transfer. Our zone is pretty small, 5 companionships, so we have district meetings as a zone. Our zone is hosting the next zone conference so we have to come up with a musical number and recent converts and investigators to come so that we can teach them at the conference. It will be pretty neat so I will tell you all about it not next week but the week after. I can't believe that it is already JUNE!

So Tammy our investigator that is supposed to be getting baptized on the 19th quit smoking and we are going to go see her tonight to teach her a lesson. We are thinking that we are going to have to push her baptism date back because she has been moving at a snails pace, but we will see tongiht when we go to teach her. Sister Silva and I have been doing a lot of tracting, which I LOVE, and going to meet the less actives in the ward. We are focusing on the ones that we both dont know. We are hoping that we can run into a family that our ward can put on the list of 15 that they are going to try to fellowship. There are 63 less active families in the ward that we can go visit. I counted them at lunch today. We feel like we have a lot of work to do but we are determined to see some progress in the ward. Our bishop gave us a very kind compliment the other day and told us that he is seeing the most progress in the ward in the past 3 months than he has the whole time he has been bishop. I was thrilled when he said that!

So we have and investigator named Jack that we just started to teach. We thought that it was safe for us to go and teach him without a member because he looks to be in his 70s but come to find out that he is only 59. I tell you smoking really makes people age very quickly! Jack is from Bethlahem and he says that he knows everything there is to know about Christ. We got him to pray about the BOM and that was a really neat experiance. We had to Brothers from the ward come over to his aparment to give him a blessing last week, and that was amazing as well. I am so grateful for the priesthood.

Friday we weekly planned and I hate weekly planning. It takes forever and I feel like it sucks up all of the day! We got through it though and we ended up getting a lot of other things accomplished that day. We ran into a guy that wanted us to come and teach him but we found out that he is in Elder Hammer and Hansen's zone so we had to give them the referral. I was really bummed because that guy was really looking for something in his life and it would have been amazing to teach him. I do have to admit that Elder Hansen did give us one of their referrals so It made it a little better.

We did some service for sister Jeffers on Saturday and that was both good and bad. We had a really fun time helping her, but then we found out that the paint she had picked up was the wrong color and now she is going to have to repaint her whole living room! She was really bummed, but we told her that we would come back this Saturday to help her.

Sister Silva and I had to speak on Sunday and she was really nervouse about it, and I was just freaking out. We were going to have investigators there and I wanted to make sure that whatever I said was going to be something that the Lord needed them to hear. It must have went over well becuase there were a lot of members that came up and talked to us and told us that we did a great job. I sure hope so!

Anyway, so our investigator Andrey. He has been a tough one. I don't know where to go with him anymore. We have plans to try and get a priesthood holder at our next meeting with him to see if there is something that they would be able to explain a little better than we could. We are at a standstill. I really wish that he would have started reading the BOM from the beginning and not the index! Oh well whatever needs to happen will.

Yesterday we had a really great P-Day. I was able to write a few letters and I am still working on more. Manda- thanks so much for giving Jared my e-mail address he send me a really fantastic letter and I LOVED IT!! Our zone went to the park and we played soccer with the singles ward. I was laying on the grass writing letters because I am a little behind and there were a few people that I don't think knew that I am a missionary becuase they were talking about the missionaries a lot. They were saying that they were really glad that there aren't very many sisters in the mission and were telling each other who all the cute elders were and all this stuff and I really wanted to say something but I didn't. It was really awkward and weird. We had a good time though. We had dinner with the Goldthorpes last night. I LOVE THE GOLDTHORPES!! They are a really fantastic family in the ward that is so willing to help us with whatever we need. They usually take us to In and Out but last night they wanted to try this new palce called Squeeze in. It wasn't open because of the holiday so we ended up going to Denny's. Boy did that bring back memories! We all had a really good time and then we had to rush to an appointment that ended up falling through. I sure dislike it when that happens!

Today was another great district meeting day. We talked about studying and how to improve our studies and how to help our investigators study. It was really, really good. We have plans to go tracting (YEAH) and then we are going to go teach Tammy and Jack later tonight.

I really can't believe how the time is really flying by. I love being on a mission. I am really amazing how much my testimony has grown in the past two months. I have come to more clearly understand the principles of the gospel and am so grateful for the blessings that is brings to our lives! I know that our family is so close because of the gospel and that I am truely grateful for! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate you all. Please take an evening and go to the temple. The blessings of the temple are some of the greatest that we can recieve and they are so important to us! The work that we do there changes eternity for people! Try and share the gopel with your friends it is the greatest gift that you could ever give to them!

Mom- I sent something to Trina. Did she tell you about it? What did she say? I am still not getting the relpies from Lareen! I want to read them so badly!! I hope that this e-mail finds every one of you safe. I am really looking forward to hearing about how the weekend at the cabin went and all of the funness there. Please send me a picture of Grandpa's headstone, I really am looking forward to seeing it. I am sure that it is just amazing, and excatly what he wanted. I feel him around me sometimes you know. I miss him and love him dearly! I miss you all so much and love you ten times more!!

Love-

Heidi