A Letter from Uncle Elder!

I´m glad to hear that she is turning 18 and not 19! I realy wasn´t looking forward to redoing the letter! "sending something" means a small little box with probably just token gifts and then letters! It´s not going to be a sword for everybody! Don´t come off your rocker grandma! ;) I have P-Days and if I plan it I can get things done in no time! It´ll be fine!

That was an awesome quote! I like it! I would have you know that I wrote that one down! (Morgan used this for a girl's camp handout.)

“We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, others are bright, some have odd names, but they have all learned to live in the same box.”

About the pictures that richard sent me... Yeah, babies are gross when they are born! He looks good in the cleaned up pictures though! :)

Alright, best thing... New family investigators!!! We had stopped by their piso a few times and they never answered the door. We decided to stop one more time and, we hadn´t discussed this but, we were going to drop the reference if they didn´t answer this time. We knocked like three or four times and were about to leave when they opened the door! The lesson turned out like the perfect missionary dream though...even with a loud distracting boy... and we got the dad to pray at the end of it!! We are going back there tonight and teaching them again! It was AWESOME!!! Most Spiritual... I can´t pick out anything extremely spiritual right now... :( I am doing better than a couple weeks ago though!

I´m glad to hear about PAT´S too! I´ve been expecting that they would just not be here when I get back! Just maybe in another location! That will be great for them! I´m going to try and send a letter and pictures to them when I get the chance.

I love you
Elder Uncle Heywood

Use the Parachute!!!

It sure is easy to pick up a language when you are forced to speek it! I hope things go well with the adoption! Random fact about Russia... it´s close to Ukraine so it reminded me of it! For Russian missionaries, they have to take a visa trip every 3 months and every visa trip costs as much as an entire south american mission! it´s insane! That´s what I was told by one of the russian elders in the CCM. They go there often for their trips!

We might get rain today too! It was way cloudy outside! Thanks for the Apron and the Koolaid and everything! And thanks for the support! I love you Mom!

Oh yeah... Talk... I didn´t give it because my comp was talking to someone and they didn´t remember which one of us it was and so they just said that they assigned the first talk but couldn´t remember who it was... I only caught "forgot to assign talk." I was listening for elder heywood or something like that! so I´ll give it in august probably since there will be nobody else to give talks... which kinda defeats the purpose of a talk on missionary work huh? Whatever!

I decided this week while i was on splits one day that I want to combine the characteristics of two missionaries I know! One was kinda trunky the whole mission and then is finishing strong this transfer and the other has been working way hard the whole mission and has kinda hit a wall! I want to figure out a way to work hard the entire mission and then still finish strong!

My spanish is getting quite a bit better and I am learning to understand the people a little more. It all is from just talking to people and making contacts in the street! That way they have no idea before hand that you don´t speak much spanish and then you have control over the conversation... It´s easier to understand people when they are talking about something you are familiar with! It´s just way hard to talk to the missionaries in spanish because when you are with others that have the same native language as you the conversation just naturally goes back to that language!

The other thing about contacts in the street is it gives you something to do! During the summer here it gets way dead because everybody leaves for vacation and it´s way hot and nobody keeps or even makes appointments. Long story short... It´s easy to get depressed! So you just go make contacts! we have a zone goal that started at the end of last week that will last until the end of this transfer that every missionary is going to make 10 contacts in the street every day! Since I have been doing that I´ve been a lot more happy!

The first day that we were doing this I made up a quote!!! :) That was exciting cuz that never happens to me! We were walking and I was just excited about talking to people. Because of something I said my companion said not to set your hopes so high or jump so high that you have a hard crash landing! Without thinking I said, "I Jump high enough to use the parachute!" OH YEAH!!!!! How do you like them apples???

Anyway... That was a fun day! We only had one cita but it was way fun contacting people! It´s so much easier too when you have a number. No missions aren´t about numbers but if you don´t have numbers you aren´t getting aything done! So you try to get numbers but focus on each individual as you go!

Well that´s what I got this week! Thanks for the letter! I love you!

Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood

It's Bloomin' Hot!

I didn´t know I had interviews this last weekend so I got the packages then! Thanks for reminding me that I´m a greeny! :P Thanks for the packages though! most of the candy is already gone! My comp looked through the recipes and really questioned the chicken cheese enchiladas with sour cream! haha why would I ever need that? The trick will be finding the better than sour cream! haha or we´ll do with normal sourcream.

Anyway... a couple things I want you to look up...
stretches to help my groin issue
your chicken noodle soup recipe
ask richard if there is a fútbol team in the canarias... which is his favorite?
I don´t know if you´ve already seen these but the new smart car that looks a lot like the bmw z4. It´s a little sportsy car! We saw one and both approved of it! I just thought it would be cool to look up! And we want to know the price compared to the others and the mileage and speed! :)

I think this must be the car he is talking about. . . anyone know anything?

Well it doesn´t surprise me that Bro. Bingham is the new bishopric member!

We got someone to come back to church this week with us! We went over on saturday and helped her move apartments and painted a couple of rooms so that she didn´t have to do it on sunday and then we all took the bus together! That was nice! And they didn´t really make me give my talk in church either! My Comp was talking to the lady that came with us and I can´t understand enough to understand what they really said! I thought they said... well, I forgot to assign the first talk. and that they would call me up later but what they really said was... I assigned the first talk but I can´t remember who it was. They said that not wanting to force me to get up and they couldn´t remember if it was me or Elder Going they had assigned. So I had a talk to give but I will probably have to give it on this coming Sunday!

I don´t know what else to write. It is really slow and boring walking up and down streets after all of our citas have fallen through. And it´s bloomin´hot too! :P YUCK!!!

ldfññakskdfñkfdskfdjlfdñllkfdsaañdskffdfsldkj

Yup that´s about how I feel right now!

Hope you are all doing well!

Elder Heywood

Missionary work is amazing!!!

I didn´t have my address for you last week, but here it is.

Plaza de Astreo, 3 - BJ 4
41927 Mairena del Aljarafe
Sevilla
Spain

Yes letters would be nice more than just once a transfer! I pretty much wrote my best and most spiritual experience to my president so I am just going to copy that to you!

President Mellor,

This week has gone by a lot faster! Now I´m in the groove of the schedule and walking all day and things are picking up quite a bit! I´m learning to understand spanish quite a bit more now! I found out first hand this week what missionary work is all about! And I´m actually not talking about the baptism. There is a lady in our ward that has been inactive and Elder Going found a scripture that would help her so we had planned to go visit here a couple days later and then the day before we planned to visit her she found us in the streets and we went to talk to her. well, Elder Going did most of the talking... Or I guess the spirit did. Anyway, long story short, She found us, She stopped us, she read what he had asked her to read, She was very receptive to the spirit (we all were... it was very powerful), and she made the decision to come back to church. There were things said that were definitely guided by the spirit and I´m sure the Holy ghost was telling her a lot more things. It´s simply amazing what an open heart, willing mind, and being sensitive to the spirit can do in creating a change in heart in a person... or persons... and creating a love that missionaries need to have for the people!

Having to walk so far to our main proselyting area has turned out better than I thought. It creates a time that our companionship can strengthen. I can only say good stuff!


There it is!

As far as Charmaine´s experience! I had a similar experience!

***Here I am going to insert what I told him about Charmaine so it makes sense to you, the reader. ***

We had a powerfully strong testimony meeting today. One testimony that stands out to me was testifying of the Holy Ghost. Charmaine said she has spent 6 months planning her class reunion up in Washington State. The time finally came and she was excited to go. She arrived and spent some time with the friend she was going to stay with. After driving around the school and the neighborhood, they went home to rest before dinner.

As she was lying in the quiet, she got a foreboding feeling. She brushed it off, thinking it was just nervousness about seeing everyone. But the foreboding feeling persisted. She finally said a little prayer and asked, "Is this the Holy Ghost?" With a confirmation that indeed it was, she talked to her husband. Her 4 day trip was reduced to 7 hours. She is home. She is safe. And she has no idea in the whole world why she couldn't stay.

I think the thing that strikes me the most poignantly is that she asked if it was the Holy Ghost she was feeling. What a profound thing!!! So many times we just question it, but we don't ask. Let's make a habit of asking!

I asked for an answer to something just before going to bed and then I ended up having a dream about it that would answer a definite one way, but I wasn´t sure that it was the the right answer so this morning I asked if that dream was the answer to my question... except my answer was the opposite. Mine was not the Holy Ghost answering my question. And I believe your telling me this experience is a confirmation of my answer! Thanks!

There are 2 missionaries per ward! I must have been pushing the shift button because here the " is on the 2. ¿Comprende? sorry! I am getting better at understanding people! Thanks for the Prayers! They really are answered! When we were over at the Rodríguez´s house for dinner on sunday I understood most of what was being said! just about a 180º turn from last week! She says I am difficult when it comes to milk... but easy to feed me other than that! haha We actually cooked for them last week! I´ve decided that the ovens here stink!!!! They don´t cook hardly anything!

Before I forget... I need a picture of the family! Marilou wants to see a picture of my family and I can't really stall that one for too long! :S She did get baptised and the service went well! before the baptism she was really nervous but now she is really happy about her decision.

And while you´re at it I wouldn´t mind a few pictures... just normal size (Some of the family, friends, whatever you feel like sending me... that would be awesome!) and I can get a picture holder here! I don´t want it to be too expensive!

So Dad might be getting released or become the first counselor huh? Well I hope it goes well for everybody! (The first counselor is moving in a couple weeks.)

We played soccer today and I realized how much I learned in the CCM. I tore it up! I had one really sweet goal that... I was off to the right side... After stealling it... and I took a shot and it went in just barely, and probably nicking the top right corner! It was the best shot I´ve ever made... and yes it was a little lucky! BUT AWESOME!!!

So another story! Background... I have had a tendancy to to see the time on my watch an hour later than it really is. SO... We were really tired the other day and we actually stayed in the piso a little long after mediodía. oops! We are supposed to leave the piso at 5:30 and we got walking and we got into San Juan... Our main proselyting area and it was about 6:10. I decided to play a joke on my comp... who was completely out of it and I said, "Oh! It´s only 10 after 5!" I´m afraid that if I didn´t start laughing when I did that I would have had a punch coming my way! :/ haha That one was great!!! I think it´s about the funniest/meanest joke I´ve ever made! We learn to find our nap time here as precious as the Spaniards!

Hey can some one post my address on the azfriends blog? Thanks that would be nice cuz I would like a letter or two from friends and I think that´s about the only way to get any. Thanks! I´ll be here for probably 4 transfers... or in realistic terms... 6 months! Almost till Christmas! You can do the math! It´s a long time! 24 weeks from the 24th of june! Transfers are on wednesdays!

Oh yeah you asked about our teaching pool! Well, it´s small and hard to catch any of them home! but there are a few that apparently are really good! I just haven´t been able to meet some of them!

Well, Make use of my sword! I love you ALL!!! Thanks for writing! I got to go now!

Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood