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

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

The First Bunch of Pictures, in backwards order

Place mat, apple and book from the Greenie Breakfast
The Lonely Green Pants book Sister Davis gave to me.

I ate 6 pancakes

The Davis family, plus some friends.
My racial dork dot
My first door, no one was home :(
My Desk
Peacock
Me , President, his wife, and my comp. Sister Lytle
Awful group pictures
The Sacramento airport
From the plane
The last day of class





apple pie that reminded me of grandpa
an illegal picture of the lunch room
The famous pointing picture
Us in our room
Me and Bryant Nelson

Roseville, CA!

Will you please edit my thumb out of this one




All of us
The Elders doing High School Musical
The Abby Lane Picture
C-A-L-I
Elder Stephens and his sister
Elder Horning (Jerry Seinfeld) Sister Rogers (Elaine)

Sister Rogers in the red was our coordinating sister, her comp is the one next to me, Sister Laws

Some of the Elders in my district with us. Elder Stephens loves Topatio Sauce P.S. By the way
Practicing for the Musical number


Elder Stephens stole my camera
MDT time in class

Doodles in my journal


cool snowy picture out my bedroom window
I made it on the special diet board! 5th box down
Sister Lyons Praying
Massage circle, well line I guess

I was writing letters



Um...lets go vertical rows top down. Elder Clifford, Elder Lloyd, Elder Horning, Elder Stawinski, Elder Stephens, Me, Sister Lyons, Brother Neary, Sister Robison, Sister Heron, Sister Menasco
Me and my comp
I am a Missionary!
Left to Right...Sister Robison, Me Sister Heron, Sister Lyons, Elder Horning, Elder Clifford

Sister Heron, Sister Lyons, Me, Sister Robison
Middle Elder has an awesome name...Pimesicle
Zone Leaders Elder Wright ( on the left ) and Elder Fawcett ( on the right)
Walking to the temple on Sunday





Sister Lyons making an airborne concoction

Smooshed egg
Sister Heron stole a boiled egg from the lunch room so she could eat it later and she forgot about it. Her scriptures smelled like eggs
My seat from Boise
The plane- 3 other missionaries in the seats in front of me
Me Wyatt and Wade
Me and Wyatt