Small Talk

So that Austin's letters make more sense, I am posting my silly first one to him.

Hola,me Niño!

En un mas dia, Morgan vamanos por la Trek. No. Esta das dia, por usted!

How would I do in Spain???

Morgan: she's loco!!! Don't pay attention to her wanna be spanish!

Ah! We can be loco together!! : )

All I know is that Morgan is going to be one of the cutest, hardest working pioneer girls ever!!!

I look up the pictures you send so I can name them on your blog - but I don't know where you were in the picture with the elders.

I saw Cory today - he said to tell you hello. He was telling me that when he had been in Germany for 2 weeks, he was talking to a lady. He shared quite a bit with her. When he finished, the lady looked at his companion and asked, "What language is he speaking?"

Austin, I am so tired I cannot even think straight right now. I need to go to bed, and when I get up to get Morgan off for the trek I will be able to write more to you. I hope that happens before you get to the computer! I love you!!! Much more than this message proves! Here's to a bit of rest, and a clearer mind in a few hours.

Love,
Mom

Never let an opportunity pass to say a kind and encouraging thing to or about someone.

¡Hola Madre! Buenos Días.

Yo diría que Señor Manzana no sabe como hablar el español. jaja Ambos de uds. son loco. Pero se amo ustedes. <3

You´ll have to let me know how the trek went! Where are they going this year? I want a good travelog of it from morgan when she gets home!

So, school´s done and gone for the summer huh? Crazy stuff!

I´ll name the Elders in the picture from left to right.

Awerkamp, Johnson, Driggs, Southwick, Ames, Brian, Heywood, Jacinto, Jackson.

Elder Jackson is from Gilbert! He lives about half a mile from where the temple will be built!

I´ll write later tonight too, so don´t worry! you haven´t missed me yet! It´s lunch time right now and we´re about to go out to the city! Not quite sure where we´re going yet but I´ll let you know... hopefully! I should be getting on at about 8 your time... 5 mine so if you want to write anymore today then get it done before then!

I feel the same way that Cory did! well... I´m the one turning to my companion and asking what language they´re speaking! jaja Well, have fun getting morgan off to the trek!

Buen Día
Se Amo,
Elder Austin Heywood

And letter #2:
Hey fam!

Guess What I found this week?... A bag full of Pecans! I forgot that I had them, but I found them this week and now they are gone! :( I wish I had a full suitcase of Pecans! They are the best nut ever! So how´s your new car holding up? So now we´ve got a red, silver, black, green, and yellow... and sometimes another silver car in our drive-way? And to top it all off... a Blue door!!! ;)

In that picture we were at the main entrance of Parque de Madrid! I can do that! I don´t have any cool pictures to send you this week!

Thanks for getting David´s info for me! Elder Pastillo leaves on Monday. And yes it is "legal" to write other missionaries. as far as emailing to other missions... that´s up to the mission pres i think. I also found out that it´s legal for elders to stay in an $800,000.00 house on their mission. haha Elder Southwick´s friend is in... eastern U.S. anyway... and there is a member in their ward that is trying to sell it but can´t so he´s letter the Elders stay there! This place has an elevator and a pond inside and it´s all for two 20 year old boys! It´s insane!!!

I like the quote you added onto the end of that email. It´s so true! No-one would cross it if they couldn´t deal with a storm.

No one ever would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in a storm.

So what are some of the rewards you have for them? A thought came to me about that! When we teach people we are supposed to extend commitments and promise blessings for follwing the commitments. However, the Lord often will bless us with more than what we are promised if we have a willing heart in our actions. And if we don´t promise them blessings they are less likely to follow through with what we commit them to. This is much the same in that you are promising them rewards, even though you aren´t specifying what they are they know they are there! then when they follow through and complete the goal they are sometimes rewarded with more than they expect.

Kristalyn sent me her email just in time! I got yours, printed it off and logged out to read it, and logged back in to write back to you and saw that she sent me one too!

Well, Gotta go!

Love you all!
Elder Austin Heywood

Who's Loco??

Dear Family,

New Car? Cool! So they say this one is more "Your style?" Is that because you are getting a new grandson this summer? And it´s silver? That´s a new one for us! We seem to like the green and red ones lately! (he totally misunderstood - even though a bonneville sounds like it would look like a "grandma" car, he was told the car is perhaps a little too sporty looking for his parents - that it looks more like one of the boys should be driving it.)

Hey before I forget I need to get David´s contact info for someone that is here right now! We ocaisionally have missionaries going to Italy here and there is one right now that is from Otavalo, Ecuador!!! He said he knows David... I can´t remember his last name right now! ... The one that is amazing on the piano! But this Elder´s name is Elder P_______! He wants to get in contact with david... Get grammy!!! He wrote down his name in my agenda book... "P______ N_____" It´s funny though, he speeks no english, tons of spanish and is learning Italian! He is so excited to serve a mission... but was SOOOOO sad when he needed to get his hair cut off! It was so long! (Otovalans wear their hair in a long, very long braid down their backs. That had to be hard to cut!!! Austin's Grandparents served a mission in Otavalo - wonderful people!!!)

Anyway, get that for me and you will make one excited missionary!... Get email, address, phone #, anything so that he can get in contact during or after the mission! Thanks! And thanks for taking care of the face stuff with Myrna! I hope what you sent will last until her stuff arrives! I can make it work!

So, I got called loco today! jaja I was on the metro and tried to talk to someone but I kinda stumbled over the words and she just turned away and mumbled to the boy next to her that I was loco! jeje It´s all good though! My companion sure made fun of me though!

Did you talk to a bunch of people about the gosple and get "The Spanish Finger"? haha richard will know what I´m talking about for sure! It´s notheing rude like in America when you get The Finger! it´s just their rejection! Except I was paired up with another Elder that knew less spanish than I did! :P that made for an interesting time! we didn´t get any really good contacts. Oh well! They don´t come all at once huh!?! But it was a good experience for me! I need to really learn how to speak Spanish fast! and the old people are so hard to understand! They mumble a lot more than the youngins... which we just talked to out on the temple grounds. there were four boys headed from school and walked across the temple grounds while we were out there. We greeted them and they tried to talk english to us... they are about as good in english as we are in spanish! it was fun though! I like talking to the young kids around here! They are a lot easier to make contact with! Let´s see their names were anthony, mario,... ok I can´t remember the other two names. Once we found out they spoke english... a little... we asked how old they are and then there was a pause and "Good!" haha then I asked in spanish and they answered in english "fifty" haha makes me have hope for my spanish.

No Aunt LeNell has not gotten me that priesthood line of Authority yet! Still want it! i love hearing stories about Joseph Smith! He truly was a great man! I got the First vision memorized in spanish, finally! Fun stuff! Spanish is coming along and I´m learning how to teach better too! Well, picture time.

¡Le Amo todo mí familia!
Elder Austin Heywood


Apple, anyone?!?! Yum Yum!!


Madrid Temple


At the at the main entrance of Parque de Madrid, we see the handsome Elders (let to right) Awerkamp, Johnson, Driggs, Southwick, Ames, Brian, Heywood, Jacinto, Jackson. Elder Southwick is Austin's comp.


Check out these Brain Trees

Picture Time

Austin at the Provo Temple



The Zone (Austin is the second one standing-tall blond-remember BCK??)



In front of Royal Palace


Almudena Cathedral


I love this picture!!!

1st Preparation Day in Spain

Well today was a Holiday in Spain so they moved Preparation day to friday instead of thursday. So from now on we will have P day on thursday. I love how relaxed it is here! It actually feels like we´re on the mission. We are just one big zone and all have the same P day. So we took the metro to the King´s Palace and walked around in Sól all morning.

I only have one thing to correct you on for the address...

CCM
Calle del Templo 2, 4ª Planta
28030 Madrid
SPAIN

It would probably still get here but that will just make it easier for the people sorting mail. It´s just saying that it needs to go to the 4th floor.

We go to the park tomorrow so I´ll let you all know how that goes next week! But since we did go to the city all morning... on the Metro ride over to the city all four of us new missionaries got on at the same part of the train and everybody that knows how to speak spanish were in other spots. there a a few girls that got on at the next stop and they just stood there laughing at us the whole time. I wish I was more confident in my spanish cuz it would have been so easy to talk to them. And then on the way back my companion stopped and talked to somebody with some other elders so I lost my companion. :S But everybody arrived back t o the CCM safe and sound... and almost on time! But it was lunch so it´s all good.

Hey My two companions from the MTC are getting here on wednesday. apparently they got their visas. I honestly thought it would be a lot longer than that.

Well when we get to the park tomorrow I hope I will be able to talk to a lot of people. Haha I am going to slaughter any spanish I know! :P No, we had "simulación" last night where we teach other elders or sisters in spanish and since we are new we had to go first... it went a lot better than i thought and it was really motivating! I was so ready to go talk to people... until we went to Sól today! :P haha that was bad! I felt like i didn´t know anything anymore! well I´m going to see if I can send a few pictures over the email so I´ll leave it at that for now!

Con Amor,
Elder Heywood

The Plane in Spain Lands Mainly in the Lane

Hey family,
Well I arrived in Spain safe and sound... and tired! :P I was fine until they gave us lunch which basically sat us down slowing the blood flow and food just makes me tired i think. haha Well, I sure have a long way to go before I can talk to people in the park... but not very long. We are going to the park in two days to talk to people that we don´t know in a language that I can hardly understand, let alone speak. It is going to be so much easier to learn spanish here though! Everybody talks in spanish AT LEAST 50% of the time.
I love it here! we can go do things on preparation day and we´re not stuck on the MTC grounds all day every day! When we first got here they gave us a little tour of this little place and then had us unpack and get cleaned up and said go take a walk around the block. There´s a store here and there... go ahead and walk around! Pretty sweet! We got to see real live people! :)
The "Real Spanish" sounds so cool! and it seems like it´s easier to learn than american spanish. There are a total of 28 Sisters/Elders in the CCM right now, including us 4 and the other person that arrived today, and the two russian missionaries and the siberian couple missionaries waiting for visas. Crazy stuff!
Hey I got my first olive oil cooked meal today! yummy! :) it actually was pretty good! I was glad to not have to worry about the rice and stuff being cooked with butter! I was clueless when I was in Provo!
My companion here is Elder Southwick from Kaysville! He´s one of the Elders that we travelled with! And he´s the most outgoing of the the group two! that´ll be good for me. So with the exception of the cumulative 2 hours of sleep on the plane I've pulled an overnighter! and since we´re staying awake for another two hours... :P I sure hope that this really helps in beating off the jet lag and that they´re not just lying to us! haha
so preparation day will be Friday for the next six weeks so you´ll get emails on friday morning before you wake up! These keyboards are so weird! I don´t think I´ll be able to type on the american keyboards when I get home! jk
Anyway, I´m here, I´m safe, and I am out of it! YUCK!!! Buenas Noches!

Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood

Letter from Provo MTC

The temple was nice today! I talked to dad today about getting my travel plans... I forgot you changed up the numbers and tried calling your old cell phone number. I couldn't reach you at home either... So you think i should sent the bag home? I have another one that I will use and you can just get store credit for the shoes later on, because I'm sure I'll be needing those. And I hope Dad told you that I need another set of the brown bamboo gold-toes from pomeroy's. but i think that's all I need... except for the addresses.
I'm the only one of five leaving on time for my mission. Both my roommates are my companions now. Elder ___ is taking care of some things and then hopefully coming back in about 6 months! When he gets out in the field, he is going to be amazing! But my companions are doing well. They're bummed that their visas didn't come though. Quite immaginable! So i'll be traveling I think with 3 others going to northern spain but i won't have a travelling companion. I can only be companions with people from my mission.
By the way, you'll be getting a few more emails from other people about the mini PMGs at your yahoo address. And the first one wasn't my teacher it was just a teacher that saw it and wanted one. Sorry about that!
Hey we had Elder Ballard come talk to us on tuesday and he talked a lot about desire. Other than that I can't remember who all has talked to us.
FYI I did send a thank you to Ellsworths and I wrote to some others but I need those addresses... If you get on here and send them before 6 my time I might be able to check it and get them sent... otherwise i have to figure something else out.

Write back please..........NOW!!!!!!! ;)