Dear Family,
I send you half a thanks for my half of the package and Elder Hafen send the other half. I loved it all! And surprisingly enough there are still some halved pecans left. (some... not 1/2 ;). You did indeed come up with some great ideas. Thank you.
To answer some questions, no you have not sent any updated house photos. How was the weekend this time trying to sell it? I try to remember to pray for you for that. So you can´t upload the pictures from the camera card? Do you want me to send my broken one home. I guess that is one thing it would be good for! haha
I also am wondering what to do about my iPod... The batteries ran out the other day like normal and then I charged it. However, when I tryed to play music again it was completely empty. Supposedly we´ve gone back in time and it´s June 7, 2000. grrrrrrrr. So I have nothing more than a couple cd´s. :´( I could either send it home to you or give it to the office elders and have them put music on it. The only problem with that is it is all formatted horribly. :P I don´t know what to do... or I could do both. idk
I also have been thinking about buying a european suit to bring home... when they are on liquidation... but I think I just changed my mind the other day. I finally found a spanish Astana biking jersey and "bib"(the shorts made in a different way). They cost 113€ together. I´m going to ask President this wednesday at zone conference if the bike shops ever do "rebajas"(massive sales...liquidation). If they do I am going to buy it this july-ish. I changed my mind because I don´t plan on ruining my suits that I´ve got. They are holding up really well compared to what people make them out to. Then again I did buy the higher quality missionary suits.
I´m going to send this and then keep writing in the hopes that you respond to this.
Elder Heywood
So about the area and my Companion. Elder Hafen and I are getting along well. We had a discussion as we were walking yesterday and it really made us decide to do everything we can to make this both of our best one or two transfers in the mission. He is staying tighter to the mission rules than ever before and I am as well except sometimes in the morning I don´t have quite as much time as I´d like to study. (I know it´s hard to believe that I want to study...More. Go ahead and sit back down. Don´t call president and ask what the secret is). jaja
So far in the mission Elder ___ was my best and favorite companion but I can see competition here. With time I think we will be able to do great. Elder Hafen is great at working with the members and I am just trying to keep up with him. I have a lot to learn from him. He´s great! The change in the presidency has changed a lot in our branch. I can see a lot of things happening here in the near future.
Yesterday we were at a member´s house and they said that two of their friends are coming over. One of them is blind and maybe has interest in the gosple. That generally is a problem as far as giving them a book of mormon, but it just so happens that one of our recent converts is also blind. The branch ordered her a triple in Braile and the mission ordered a Book of Mormon in Braile. Well, she doesn´t need both so we still have the Book of Mormon in our piso. We weren´t able to meet this girl yesterday but in due time I believe we´ll have a taker for the extra Book of Mormon. :)
I love you all Happy belated birthday to Kayla!!!
Elder Heywood
ps. Thanks for the invitation to her birthday dinner. I wish I could have made it! ;)
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Clean Piso!
Elder Hafen is from Winnemucca, Nevada. He´s a character of his own. He knows the scriptures really well and uses them boldly. He likes to exercise and that wil be good for my blanket of insulation around my gut. ;) His mom lives in Cedar City, UT... fyi the parents are divorced. Her email is ... We have a perfectly clean piso now, so instead of just being the best and most American piso in the misison, it is also the cleanest and probably the most organized. It makes it so nice to have two people that like to clean.
On wednesday we got back on the bus and went to english class. Four new people came!!! That made a total of... 5! haha On the way back to the piso I got a nice little present from a confused child of God. I´m guessing by the angle and speed that the orange hit my face that they were in the 4th or 5th story of the building next to us. The orange hit my face, knocked off my glasses and the hit Hafen in the side. It left Him a nice red mark! I don´t know if I got a red mark but I sure felt it. I luckily only had to bend the nose bridge back and clean the lenses off. I worked hard to control my temper. I´m sure it was a lot easier not having them in front of me so I wouldn´t look like an idiot screaming at the air. (I didn´t do anything) Just picked up my glasses and kept walking.
On Friday we take a handicap man out for a stroll and game in the park. the weather was great and we got back to their house, shared the message and left. We stepped out the building door and it started drizzling. We decided to continue to our next cita that we go to every week... farther away from home. We got there and we were soaked!!! Of course she didn´t bother to tell us that she was going to the temple!
We did have better times of the week though. We met with a 21 year old guy from the ward that doesn´t go much... almost never. We had a really good lesson and we are going to try to get him on the mission!!! He has hopes of going on the mission, but first he has to start coming back to church to regain his testimony.
So I have a question about the hydrogen peroxide that you buy there. What is it´s percentage. The stuff that I can find is only 3% and it seems to me to be a little weaker than normal. Is it?
I totally forgot to thank you for the package last week! I made the pecans last a little bit this time. haha I absolutely love those! THANKS!!! As far as the questions about clothing from last week... I am fine for now on garments and socks. I found a piso find rain coat... one of those same ones that pomeroy´s sells. And it the perfect size. along with the pants that I found as well. :) I just have to clean them all before I use them. Thank you for the music! I´m going to try and get her address and send it to her still because she would still want it and she is still in contact with the missionaries down there. Thanks a ton for that! Now I am just waiting anxiously for the next package!!! :)
Well, I hope you all have a great week and can get that house sold!
Love you all,
On wednesday we got back on the bus and went to english class. Four new people came!!! That made a total of... 5! haha On the way back to the piso I got a nice little present from a confused child of God. I´m guessing by the angle and speed that the orange hit my face that they were in the 4th or 5th story of the building next to us. The orange hit my face, knocked off my glasses and the hit Hafen in the side. It left Him a nice red mark! I don´t know if I got a red mark but I sure felt it. I luckily only had to bend the nose bridge back and clean the lenses off. I worked hard to control my temper. I´m sure it was a lot easier not having them in front of me so I wouldn´t look like an idiot screaming at the air. (I didn´t do anything) Just picked up my glasses and kept walking.
On Friday we take a handicap man out for a stroll and game in the park. the weather was great and we got back to their house, shared the message and left. We stepped out the building door and it started drizzling. We decided to continue to our next cita that we go to every week... farther away from home. We got there and we were soaked!!! Of course she didn´t bother to tell us that she was going to the temple!
We did have better times of the week though. We met with a 21 year old guy from the ward that doesn´t go much... almost never. We had a really good lesson and we are going to try to get him on the mission!!! He has hopes of going on the mission, but first he has to start coming back to church to regain his testimony.
So I have a question about the hydrogen peroxide that you buy there. What is it´s percentage. The stuff that I can find is only 3% and it seems to me to be a little weaker than normal. Is it?
I totally forgot to thank you for the package last week! I made the pecans last a little bit this time. haha I absolutely love those! THANKS!!! As far as the questions about clothing from last week... I am fine for now on garments and socks. I found a piso find rain coat... one of those same ones that pomeroy´s sells. And it the perfect size. along with the pants that I found as well. :) I just have to clean them all before I use them. Thank you for the music! I´m going to try and get her address and send it to her still because she would still want it and she is still in contact with the missionaries down there. Thanks a ton for that! Now I am just waiting anxiously for the next package!!! :)
Well, I hope you all have a great week and can get that house sold!
Love you all,
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
New Companion
Semana Santa is over an the work is in fact picking up. We set a fecha yesterday!!! We also had, for the first time since I´ve been here, an investigator in church. I__ is one of the three references that we received during the Hora de oro a couple weeks back and he is "de oro"!!! I think he could be baptised within a few more weeks! He is so prepared and everything is going great... with the two discussions we´ve had with him. I was hoping to set a fecha with him after church on sunday but he had to leave quickly. He´s going to have a fecha the next time that we see him!!! His parents in Bolivia are members. When we met him he was with his girlfriend that wouldn´t hardly even talk to us because she was evagelical and didn´t want to argue. I think she mistook us for JW´s. haha But when we met with him he had broken up iwth her because they didn´t agree with many things concerning religion. But I think that he is in agreeance with what we´ve had to say so far!!!
As far as I could tell we have a strong posibility of having 5 or six baptisms in the time that I am here!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know that that was more than one or three exclamation marks!) ;) S is the one with the fecha right now. We set it yesterday and I am not sure if she will get baptised on that date or not but you never know. She set it for the saturday in 4 weeks. the 8th of may. We´ll see how everything goes with that.
Other than that we have s´s "member" friend, V, who was supposedly baptised in Columbia but nobody can find his record. We also have that M that I think I have mentioned before. Then we have an excommunicated member that is working towards rebaptism and should be free to go in june. And his wife will get baptised with him!!!
This area is exploding!!! And on top of all that, the branch presidency just got changed yesterday... and I think that will be good for the branch!
I would agree that the leak never happened for a reason, but the "Granola Bar incident" did. By small and simple things are great things braught to pass! This may have been a little bigger than what we might think is small but in reality it was a small test of listening to the Spirit so that greater things in the Lord can be brought to pass later on. I really enjoyed that experience... well, the learning that come from the experience.
I want you to send me the mission address for Kyle´s mission. Also you should read the newsletter that we got this week from the mission. if you don´t remember how to get on ... new.myldsmail.net and use my LDS account login information.
Don´t worry, I´ll be careful burning the shirt. I´ll be sure to throw a bit of extra gas on it just for you! ;) jk I´ll be smart! But don´t think I´ll make it boring. jajaj We are going to have a big barbecue at J and M´s house today to say goodbye to Elder Pitts. Oh yeah, I´m getting a new companion! Elder Pitts is going to Puerto de la Cruz, tenerife. So he gets to change missions. He´s excited about it. I think it´s prety cool! My new companion is Elder Hafen! He was also Elder Bytheway´s companion. You should have a few pictures of him on the card I just sent home. And the video of me laying down with birds on top of me you can hear his voice. He´s cool! I am way excited to start working with him!!! He knows the scriptures really well and teaches really well. We are going to have fun too!
I have been debating whether I should buy some flat concrete play "sala" soccer shoes or some running shoes to replace the ones I´ve got. Now that I know he´s my companion I am going to buy the running shoes. He loves to work out and run so I will be using the running shoes for running a lot more than I would right now. The shoes that I´m going to buy are 50€. Elder Pitts is also leaving behind a pair of sala shoes. He wore out the left toe from dragging it as he kicks so I will find some way to patch it and see how they work out. Speaking of reapairing shoes... I got my black shoes repaired and it was only 1.50 euros. Baratísimo!!! And as far as I can tell they are going to work out quite fine.
I don´t have much more to say about what´s going on here. I´m doing well and can´t complain about anything. Just kind of waiting for the next few days to get over so we can start working again rather than the focus being on saying goodbye to everybody! Well I hope you all have a great week.
Con Mucho Cariño
Elder Austin Heywood
As far as I could tell we have a strong posibility of having 5 or six baptisms in the time that I am here!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know that that was more than one or three exclamation marks!) ;) S is the one with the fecha right now. We set it yesterday and I am not sure if she will get baptised on that date or not but you never know. She set it for the saturday in 4 weeks. the 8th of may. We´ll see how everything goes with that.
Other than that we have s´s "member" friend, V, who was supposedly baptised in Columbia but nobody can find his record. We also have that M that I think I have mentioned before. Then we have an excommunicated member that is working towards rebaptism and should be free to go in june. And his wife will get baptised with him!!!
This area is exploding!!! And on top of all that, the branch presidency just got changed yesterday... and I think that will be good for the branch!
I would agree that the leak never happened for a reason, but the "Granola Bar incident" did. By small and simple things are great things braught to pass! This may have been a little bigger than what we might think is small but in reality it was a small test of listening to the Spirit so that greater things in the Lord can be brought to pass later on. I really enjoyed that experience... well, the learning that come from the experience.
I want you to send me the mission address for Kyle´s mission. Also you should read the newsletter that we got this week from the mission. if you don´t remember how to get on ... new.myldsmail.net and use my LDS account login information.
Don´t worry, I´ll be careful burning the shirt. I´ll be sure to throw a bit of extra gas on it just for you! ;) jk I´ll be smart! But don´t think I´ll make it boring. jajaj We are going to have a big barbecue at J and M´s house today to say goodbye to Elder Pitts. Oh yeah, I´m getting a new companion! Elder Pitts is going to Puerto de la Cruz, tenerife. So he gets to change missions. He´s excited about it. I think it´s prety cool! My new companion is Elder Hafen! He was also Elder Bytheway´s companion. You should have a few pictures of him on the card I just sent home. And the video of me laying down with birds on top of me you can hear his voice. He´s cool! I am way excited to start working with him!!! He knows the scriptures really well and teaches really well. We are going to have fun too!
I have been debating whether I should buy some flat concrete play "sala" soccer shoes or some running shoes to replace the ones I´ve got. Now that I know he´s my companion I am going to buy the running shoes. He loves to work out and run so I will be using the running shoes for running a lot more than I would right now. The shoes that I´m going to buy are 50€. Elder Pitts is also leaving behind a pair of sala shoes. He wore out the left toe from dragging it as he kicks so I will find some way to patch it and see how they work out. Speaking of reapairing shoes... I got my black shoes repaired and it was only 1.50 euros. Baratísimo!!! And as far as I can tell they are going to work out quite fine.
I don´t have much more to say about what´s going on here. I´m doing well and can´t complain about anything. Just kind of waiting for the next few days to get over so we can start working again rather than the focus being on saying goodbye to everybody! Well I hope you all have a great week.
Con Mucho Cariño
Elder Austin Heywood
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Happy Easter - and Conference!
Happy Easter!!! It was a great easter!... Thanks to conference!
We went into the office of the church and watched the sessions on internet... in english!!! Except during the preisthood session the women watched the relief society conference so we had to watch half of priesthood in spanish. I am still having a dificult time understanding a lot of spanish which I don´t understand because I speak and read and write really well. I think a lot of it might be their grammar. It confuses me what they are trying to say and then there´s a big chain reaction and I get frustrated and then I really can´t understand! grrrrrrrrrrrrr
But conference was good! It was the best in my life for me. That letter I sent home about not knowing how to raise children... that´s mostly what I got out of conference. How to be a good father and husband. I loved it and I think I took more notes than ever before too. Some of the notes you might not ever find a reference to if you go back and compare them to conference. I learned a lot from the speakers but I also learned from the spirit speaking to me. I loved it! One of my favorite stories though, doesn´t even talk about being a parent of family or anything. It was the story of the girl that had to forgive the former nazi guard. That is a very powerful story! I also found that a lot of the things said were straight from the things I´ve been reading in the book of mormon. Recently we started, as a mission, reading the book of mormon in our own laguage and marking four things. references to Christ, his words, his atributes, and doctrine in the book of mormon. It is a great activity and I am loving the book of mormon right now. You should do it as a family. go to page 114 in the english pmg and under the 6º point you´ll find the activity. We just got the cheapest copies of the book of mormon and used those. It is wonderful and you really learn why they added to the title, "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."
I was going to send home some photos but it looks like the usb port isn´t going to work so... sorry!
As far as investigators go... We had one lesson with an investigator this week. It was Semana Santa and everybody and their dog is religious that week and you can´t so much as talk to them because they are "Catholic" :P Oh well.
I will be getting a new companion this next week...or so it seems by the hints we have received from president in letters, interviews and the fact that he has been here for 4 transfers. calls are on saturday! :S and I´m almost to the year mark! :/ I can´t wait to burn a shirt! It´s going to be great!!! :)
I love you all!
Elder Austin Keith Heywood
We went into the office of the church and watched the sessions on internet... in english!!! Except during the preisthood session the women watched the relief society conference so we had to watch half of priesthood in spanish. I am still having a dificult time understanding a lot of spanish which I don´t understand because I speak and read and write really well. I think a lot of it might be their grammar. It confuses me what they are trying to say and then there´s a big chain reaction and I get frustrated and then I really can´t understand! grrrrrrrrrrrrr
But conference was good! It was the best in my life for me. That letter I sent home about not knowing how to raise children... that´s mostly what I got out of conference. How to be a good father and husband. I loved it and I think I took more notes than ever before too. Some of the notes you might not ever find a reference to if you go back and compare them to conference. I learned a lot from the speakers but I also learned from the spirit speaking to me. I loved it! One of my favorite stories though, doesn´t even talk about being a parent of family or anything. It was the story of the girl that had to forgive the former nazi guard. That is a very powerful story! I also found that a lot of the things said were straight from the things I´ve been reading in the book of mormon. Recently we started, as a mission, reading the book of mormon in our own laguage and marking four things. references to Christ, his words, his atributes, and doctrine in the book of mormon. It is a great activity and I am loving the book of mormon right now. You should do it as a family. go to page 114 in the english pmg and under the 6º point you´ll find the activity. We just got the cheapest copies of the book of mormon and used those. It is wonderful and you really learn why they added to the title, "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."
I was going to send home some photos but it looks like the usb port isn´t going to work so... sorry!
As far as investigators go... We had one lesson with an investigator this week. It was Semana Santa and everybody and their dog is religious that week and you can´t so much as talk to them because they are "Catholic" :P Oh well.
I will be getting a new companion this next week...or so it seems by the hints we have received from president in letters, interviews and the fact that he has been here for 4 transfers. calls are on saturday! :S and I´m almost to the year mark! :/ I can´t wait to burn a shirt! It´s going to be great!!! :)
I love you all!
Elder Austin Keith Heywood
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