Dear Family,

Don´t worry I can get some sweet ties for him! Is it fine if I only send like two home and then bring the others? (Apparently, ties come in pretty sweet designs and cost very little. There were a couple requests here at home.)

EFY turned out great!!! We had the nephew of the branch president (whose parents are members but not him) go to EFY and he showed up at church yesterday and got up to bare his testimony... He said the while he was there he knew that he needed to get baptised!!! He´s going to wait for his dad to start coming to church again so that he can baptise him! I hope his dad comes back quickly! We can´t wait for too long on this one!

We haven´t seen Norma all week long because she got a job and hasn´t been able to meet with us! :( We are not giving up on her though!!!

Elder Pratt is doing great and yes the humidity has leveled out a bit! We´ve spent all week in the hospital visiting a lady but I dón´t see her going anywhere...soon. She is a phycologist and so the lessons are more of phylosophy classes than religioun. oh well!

I don´t have a ton of time today but thanks for the support you give me! I hope everything goes well there! And I can´t wait to see my two "sobrinos" in 8 1/2 months!!! Love you all!

Elder Heywood

Happy Pioneer Day!

Dear Family,

Yes we did make another trip down to Malaga! :P But it was once again worth the trip! There is a cool story that goes along with the busses though! Normally we buy our tickets with a machine but this time it wasn´t working. So we went to the window and bought them the old fashioned way... You know, where you actually have to talk to someone! ;) The lady there sold us the tickets in a wierd way though, but everything was fine... or so we thought! She gave us tickets to Granada and then to Jaen. My tickets came out all right. But Elder Pratt´s were all messed up. We got on the bus to Granada and got there fine! Those tickets were correct. But then we tried to get on the bus to Jaen... they stopped us because Elder Pratt´s ticket was for the 5:00 bus and not the 8:00 bus. the Lady had given us two separate tickets and now we were in between a wall and a hard spot! They aren´t allowed to let you on is you don´t have the correct ticket... well, I tried to explain that the lady messed up and that we had nothing to do with it. I asked if we needed to go change it but he just told us to wait a little bit. He came back and decided that since there were so few people on that bus that he would let us on and just not tell anyone! He was way kind to do that for us because I´ve seen, quite a few times, when they go and get security and make them go buy another ticket! On the bus I took a pass-along card, wrote a little thank you note, and invited him to call for a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. I may never know in this life where that goes but I felt good about it!

The ties were an idea the ZL´s came up with. A lot of times companionships will get matching ties to wear to zone conference or to interviews and they decided to take it up one notch! so we went to a gift shop where they sell fake stuff... and a ton of sweet ties and baught us some matching ties! They sell all their ties for 4€ and I´ve now bought about 6 ties there! They are pretty decent ties and they look nice as well so, why not?

Last monday we taught for the first time who might be our next baptism. She stopped us the previous friday and asked if we were JW´s. We kindly respinded that we are from a different religion and started explaining a bit. She is a Catholic and is living with a JW at the moment. She goes to their meetings occasionally because she enjoys their meetings. We invted her to our church but she said she wants us to come by and talk with her at her house first... we were totally fine with that. When we got there on Monday there was need for us to even know what we were doing. She led the lesson almost and everything went perfectly. We left her with the Book of Mormon and set citas for every monday, wednesday, and friday and the commitment to come to church this next week. (She already had family birthday plans for yesterday). We have another lesson with her in 45 minutes and plan to set a fecha with her today. She truly is golden!

We spent this morning in hospitals... we were not the patients!!! ;) There were a few people that wanted us to visit so we had a member take us around to the different hospitals to visit them. We got a couple potentially great investigators from it. It took forever to find people but we finally found them all! The youth are at EFY this week! We have two strong members, two inactive members, and two non-members attending! I hope they all enjoy it and come to learn that... there really are other youth in the church. Here in Jaen they are kind of sparse! haha EFY here is a church-sponsored, week-long youth camp. They will enjoy it I´m sure!

Apart from that the week has been normal! haha It was a great week! We are working hard and sweating tons! It´s way hot out here but I still think it´s hotter in Mesa! :P It is a tiny bit more humid here though!

Well, I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Austin Heywood

New missionaries arrive!

Elders Talbot, Stowell, Pratt, and Masterson finally arrive in Fuengirola after visa waiting, distant travels, and an inadvertent layover in Malaga.

Dear Family,

I am well aware that I did not remember to write in the address. He wasn´t sure at the moment so I was going to get back to it and then didn´t... And now there´s not going to be time to do so. I am already back in Jaén! HOME SWEET HOME!!! The misionaries got here a little sooner than expected. So we caught a bus to Jaén on thursday and arrived after a looooonnnnnngggggg bus ride that stopped in every single little town along the way. I now know not to catch the 3:00 bus from Malaga to Jaen! Elder PRATT is from American Fork, Utah, is 19, will be a great missionary and understands quite a bit for coming straight from the Provo MTC. Where in the world did you get the idea of this other Elder? I hate to tell you that if he is a real person coming to this mission... he´s still not here! Sorry!

We just made up a missionary and lots of things about him, "guessing" that was Austin's new companion. haha

Elders Heywood, Langston, Bullen, and Wiehe are at the mission home for a training meeting and to find out who their new companions will be.

We didn´t find out who our companions were going to be until wednesday night when we were all in the mission home together. That´s a new interesting routine that the mission is doing. It was fun! It was just a long walk back to the different stations and to get home because his suit cases are dying! that was fun!!! :P I´m glad I got the luggage I got... but I will need new wheels on the largest one when I get home because I just packed everything into it for the Algeciras adventure and it weighed a little bit... 66 lbs. :S They´ll last for the rest of the mission but I´ll be replacing them when I get home.

I never did get down to Gibraltar because I was going to do that today... well, that isn´t really possible anymore... Maybe I´ll get sent there after Jaen. You never know! But I also wouldn´t mind going to one of the new areas of the mission!

Anyway, Santy and President Castro are the ones that ended up going to the investigators´ houses. They actually only made it to A´s house because they were busy on wedensday and couldn´t make it to A and P´s house. A came to church this week!!! :) Now she only has to come the next two weeks in a row to get cookies! They did well it seemed like! They were looking forward to their visit this week too!

Elder Pratt´s mom´s email address is... should I give it to you this time? ;) ... He is doing great! He will probably progress faster than I did at the begining just because he is willing to talk a lot more than I was! He does great and it´s now that I really realize that I have relaxed on a few tiny things! He follows the rules and I´m going to do my best not to corrupt him! We´re getting along great! I am happy to be training and glad that we do well together.

We were told in the training meeting that we should be discontent... not the worldly search for "more" but a divine discontent. Always striving to be better... missionaries, people, companions, speakers of spanish, etc. There are many skills that we should acquire and we are supposed to be "divinely discontent!"

Even though the missionaries can't get in the pool, they want their picture taken next to it. This is at a New Missionary training meeting, with the 7 missionaries that have come to the mission in the past 2 weeks and the 4 trainers coming to pick up their greenies. The 5 others? Pres and Sis Clegg, and perhaps the office elders or APs??

No, Elders, don't do it!! Whew. . . they landed on the deck, not in the pool!

I think the funnest thing this week was getting together with a lot of the missionaries that were in the mission home and just enjoying time with them. The worst part was the two busses that were indirect (stop everywhere) and then lugging the broken bags around! The best part was the lesson we had with A! She is doing great! I hope her mom gets a little more accepting of the church!

I think that the biggest problem between me and Elder Pratt is that he LOVES cheese! Which really isn´t a huge problem! :) Well, This week has been great and I look forward to a great time with him here!

How did the move go? It sounds like everything went well!

The move hasn't gone, and I think he's just fishing. . .

Jacob, You are just amazing at making Kayla smile! :D Keep that up and keep working on the recuperation so we can play a little basketball when I get home!!! I look forward to it. Happy Birthday!!!

Grammy, I am way happy that you have taught me the ways of pie making! I find it quite useful here in the misison! You have been a great example of prioritizing! You always were busy doing things and cooking or cleaning up after us ;) but you still took the time to create good memories with the kids! Thank You!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Jay, I have always looked up to you! You love learning and then sharing that knowledge in a way that makes people want to follow you! You´re a great leader! Keep it up man! Happy Birthday!!!

Brady, GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG... that translates to... You are a cute little munchkin and if you want there are about 4 people here in jaen that want me to arrange a marriage for you and their little daughters! haha I won´t sign anything!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Well, it´s about time to go shopping and cooking! Good ole lonesome jaen p-days!!! :D

Have a great week!

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood

ps. remember that when you actually move I just want a letter with pictures from the new house!!! ;)

Yep, proof that he was just fishing.

Great Week!

Hello dear Family!

This week will be a great one!!! We are preparing for a baptism that will take place on the 5th of June! Happy Late Birthday Dad! I___ has decided that this is the church he will join. It has been a long study/search/prayer! He is very inteligent in respect to the gospel and will be a great member!

Plexiglass could be an issue of swimmers or just the same issue as our roof... regulations! There are too many sometimes but just like the commandments, they help protect us. As far as remodeling here, I finished this morning with my tetious darning of socks! It´s been a long work in progress but now I´ve got a full week and a halfs worth of socks again. :D We also have a good weeks worth of... you guessed it, Chicken Soup for the Soul!!! hahah It´s good stuff! We are going to do some lentils sometime this week! We got a great recipe from one of the member´s sisters. We baught all the stuff today and will do it soon. We won´t have to buy any food for a while now!!!

Thanks for your take on my question. I will have to send mine next week; however, I think it will base around the same experience. I will also spend the week and fast sunday thinking about the school issue! Thanks for your confidence that I will make wise decisions! That means a lot to me and to anybody really!



So if Aunt LeNell is down there and hears about her husband through his parents... is there a problem that I should be praying for them for? You left that very unclear and now it´s going to bug me for the rest of the week... please answer that for me!



It´s not quite as hot here as it is there yet but we are sure getting warm! :P However, I have not yet used the AC but once this summer! I do have some requests, if you haven´t sent the package yet.

1. I want some zebra refills and a new pen itself.
2. ... well I don´t need new socks and as I am finished with the darning... I don´t need the seweing machine anymore! haha ;D
3. I want you to put a few things on the usb drive...
the Clyde Bawden CD´s... they aren´t on the iPod
some of the 1856 music
Appropiate Chorale music or Encore music!
the song "I can go the distance" the original from Hecules.
Pictures of the house and family! :D
Any Music/Thing that you want!
4. A new foot! it´s still in a bit of pain
5. another bottle of Spice for life!

Success story about that one. Last night we were getting a ride home from a young married couple and the wife was having issues with the throat. After a while I told her that I had something that might help. I gave it to her, told her how to use it and that I wanted it back after she was done with it. haha She thanked me this morning because it was already working! :D

Well, I love you all and I´m off for the week!

Elder Heywood

Quinto Pino

We have about 6 primary kids in our branch. Thanks for all the ideas. I will get them to our primary leader. The only one that I con´t see working is the flag etiquette one. The Spaniards don´t have much of a love/respect for the flag like us Americans. It was really weird in the CCM when my teacher told us to buy a Spanish flag and have each one of our companions sign it. We were all appalled that someone would even think of such a thing. But that´s just how it is here. The flag doen´t have real meaning to them like it does for us.

My foot is still in a little bit of pain but it´s getting better. after a long day of walking it hurts and I can´t wait to get back to the piso and take the pressure off. In all, though, it´s fine and I´m getting by alright! I was lucky that I didn´t have the temptation to play soccer on saturday. We normally play every saturday but this week we went to visit some members out in the ""(middle of nowhere). It took an hour and 45 minutes to get out there...in car. If we took the bus it would have taken about 4 hours. Their home teacher was going out there and heard us say that we were going out there so he offered to take us. Their house is sweet! It´s an 200 year old... and a little restored... house about 3 miles away from anybody. it´s clear up in the hills of Jaén. You can look it up. Cabra de Santo Cristo, Jaen is the name of the nearest town to their house. I´ll also send a picture of the rolling hills out there. It was amazing. Oh yeah, the house reminded me of exactly what a farm house in the mountains should be. It was amazing!

*never mind I won´t send a picture this week. I forgot the connection cord for my camera.*

My interview with president went well. It was probably the best one I´ve had so far. When I asked him, "What is the one thing that you as a mission president want us as missionaries to learn?" He responded, "I want to help you reach your devine potential." He also said, "I want to teach you to be able to access the light on your own. I don´t want to be the light, because I can´t be with you all the time." He expounded a little bit more but that´s what I remembered and was able to write down afterwards.

The ratio that the missionaries gave you is very resonable and we received a promise about member missionary work. It was directed to our area but I´m sure it would make some kind of difference in any place in the world. We were told that if every member in spain gave out one pass-along card every year we would have 50 more baptisms every year. And if every member gave out one pass-along card every week we would grow by a stake in convert baptisms every year. That is quite a few baptisms! And in reality, giving out cards is easy. I remember the story of when Bishop LeBaron helped someone get their truck unstuck and then gave a card to them. The trick is to have the card in your possesion in the first place! Get some!!!

We had an FHE the other day with a member family and they shared a story about a little boy that got stuck under a garage door and died and then came back to life and shared his experience. It was given by Loyd Calenn and in spanish the title was Librar los Pajaritos. In english the best I can think the title might be is Free the Little Birds. It was an awesome story and relates to temple work. It´s worth looking for and sharing with the family.

The baptism did not go through but she is going to continue visiting with us. She brought her mom with her to church this week! That was huge! We visited he mom on saturday and met a whole new person. From the first time that we met with her till saturday she has turned around 180º!!! We actually enjoyed being in their house this time! hahaha So I think that we should be getting somewhere with the both of them soon.

Apart from that we are trying to get a hold of I... He has been working and hasn´t been able to meet with us. But on the bright side... S, the less active member, came again. And this time his little sister came as well. She is also a member but she expressed her desire to come back to church. She will be the only young woman in the branch. It´s a little hard but there are some good newly-weds that are more teenagers than anything so she will have some friends in church. :) Even better... Her and Elder Hafen were talking about something to do with her and her brothers and the youth... She wants to play frisbee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

I´m going to be sad when I leave this area and don´t have any more access to a good frisbee... unless you want to send me one!?! But you´d have to send it in a different package because it wouldn´t fit in the envlopes that you use. ***hint!!!!*** haha jk

Well, I can´t send you any more pictures this week but I hope you enjoyed the ones you got last week!

Love you all,
Elder Austin Keith Heywood

Talk to you Sunday!

Hey Family,

Ok first things first... I want people to write down comments, stories or questions that they have for next sunday. That way there´s no dead time as we are thinking of things to say. I also want Mom... or anyone for that matter... to send me a file of the story of the 3 rescuers at Sweet Water. I love that story and want it in print. It can either be sent with my card or by email and I can print it off.

This week was really good. We ended up moving our baptism back one week so it will happen on the 15th instead of on the 8th but she´s still set to get baptised. I know that´s sounds like weird information to follow the opening comment. The real good news is that we got a less active member to come to church. I think I may have mentioned him already. He is 21 and hasn´t come to churhc in about 4 or 5 years. But he has changed a lot in the last three weeks. A lot of it is Elder Hafen´s ability to follow the spirit. This last week he has prayed to know wether the church is really true and received that answer. He tried taking off part of his tatoo... I guess we might call that "Home-attempted Self Surgery." But his desires have completely changed. He was happy to be in the church yesterday. He didn´t get up and bear his testimony but that will come. I told President Mellor, "I can see him with a chapa(name tag) on his white shirt soon." He would make a great missionary. At the end of the lesson we all started to fast together for him. It was amazing!

Today we´ve been cooking... and cooking... .... ... and cooking.... ... you get the point. We cooked up some chicken noodle soup but I had so many vegetables and the chicken was big enough that we now have two 9" x 5" pots sitting in our fridge full of chicken noodle soup!!! :D on top of that we cooked a pound of black eyed peas and have yet to figure out what to do with that yet. And we made some Mrs. Fields cookies. Oatmeal Raisin!!! Nothing better!!! :D We only did a half batch of those! However only one sheet of them turned out decent. :( Better luck next time! I think my comp must have added to much of something wet and so I tried to compensate a little and they would have been fine if I kept better track of time! jaajaajjajaa. oh well! We have enough other food to last us the week!

So Kristalyn said that Kashawagi says hi... which one? hahah But that reminds me... We are having an FHE with one of our members and our two kids to be baptised... and we are throwing a frisbee around!!!!!!!!!! :DDD So did all these people just say hi or did they send some life changing advice? ;) hahaha

I would have loved to be have been at the concerts of Kayla´s. Those sound so cool!!! Kayla I hope you are still doing this stuff when I get home!!! If you aren´t then I might have to write your teachers and tell them to make you reetake you classes next year!!! ;)


We have not been able to meet with this blind girl yet. I hope to be able to soon. We did have our Zone Conference on my "One Year Left" day and I did where my half tie with Elder Hafen. It was fun! That was the only place that we could even think about sporting them. I also got a little note from a returned Sister Jensen. No relation to my comp. She said that her and her family are moving to Mesa Phoenix area from Ohio soon. She was way cool.

Just a reminder... write things down for this sunday.

So if any of you readers have any specific questions for the missionary, send them to me and we'll be sure to ask him. Then if you're lucky we'll remember to get the answers to you :-/

I love you all!!!

Uncle Elder Austin Keith Heywood

Half Way Day

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! ;)

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,

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

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

Another Great Week!!!

Dear Family,

Man if that wasn´t a trunky letter opening! haha It´s ok though because tomorrow is our 11 month mark! :) It´s gone by sooooo fast!!!

Is this THAT trunky? I was merely being poetic in a writer's block moment. couldn't think of much to write to him this time:
Our weather is absolutely perfect!!! The orange blossoms are fragrantly wafting through the air, and seems to be spreading love with the aroma. This week it caught Tara. She will soon be marrying Zachary B from Gilbert. Ashley D, however, is escaping the throes of marriage for a time. She is heading to Australia soon. She speaks next week, and then is off. And Thomas O just returned form Australia.

As far as the 405 members... really that should be the duty of the members but that´s not going to happen any time soon here. We are supposed to have the names of 5 less actives but the branch hasn't called them to tell them we are coming by so we can´t even do that. We still pass by members here and there but usually it´s to no avail.

We did get two new investigators this week. Surprisingly they were both from member references. That can only mean one thing... they just might get baptised. No, they are both really good investigators and we already talked about baptism with one of them. That was in her first, and only lesson, so far. Soledad is the wife of an inactive member and they just moved back to Jaen about 4 months ago. They stopped us one day in the street and gave us their info. The other day they were the only ones that even stopped by the church for FHE. I hope they both get active and that Sole gets baptised.

We had a bon fire this week! Juan and Mariluz had a ton of yard trimmings that they needed to get rid of so we burnt it all. It was all wet so it took forever to get it started and once it got going it was hard to keep a flame but we got most of the stuff burnt. My clothes smelt good after that! :)

Speaking of burning stuff... :o haha My pants got burnt! No, it was not from being stupid with fire. In fact I wasn´t even wearing those pants at the time. M does our laundry sometimes, and it is really nice because she has a dryer, so our clothes come out soft and smelling good. But anyway, she didn´t realize that they were a treated material and put them where she puts all the other laundry as she´s waiting to fold it. That just happens to be on top of a running heater. :/ I now have the white marks of the heater burnt into my pant leg. haha Got any special home remedies for that one? :)

Other home remedies... Hydrogen Peroxide. You said that it will help with the whole white teeth thing. What exactly do I need to do? I´ve been meaning to ask about that one.

And other destroyed things... My shoes that we bought at Pomeroy´s are coming unstitched. Do they have any kind of warranty for somthing like that? It´s not even worn where the stitching is coming out. I think it might be because they really were to small for me. So if you are able to get new ones on warranty then get size13. If not then I´ll think about what to do. I need to buy new pday shoes today so... $$$ :P

I found out on Sunday that the wife of our Branch president is the cousin of David A!!! She was saying that he has some other "parents" up there in the USA! I can´t help but imagine that she was talking about Grammy and Papa! :) They would be great "parents." What is known about David? Where did/is he serving? They would like to know but they don´t have to much contact with his family. oh and what is Blanca´s last name?(not austin´s)

This last friday was Father´s day here in Spain so J and M took us out to a restraunt called El Gambero. Gamba in spanish is Shrimp. I ate some might large shrimp that night and it was really good. I also ate, for the first time, real crab meat. Man that stuff has so much more flavor than the immitation. It was kind of wierd eating the crab. They just give you the legs and you just suck out the meat. I don´t think I ever want to be in a fight with a crab. Those legs are hard! and sharp!!!

We have clean windows in our house. Well, at least we used to. Then in rained on Saturday. But I was just waiting for a bird to try and fly though the windows. You couldn´t tell that they were even there. We also have a clean sink in the bathroom! I love to have things clean! It´s so much nicer!

Well, I have gone for a couple weeks now getting up and reading from the Ensign from last May and I am enjoying my studies a lot. It´s been better than it has been in my entire life... in any subject. I read an article (not in the ensign) by Alvin R. Dyer titled, "The Challenging and Testifying Missionary" and it was a really motivating article for both my companion and it´s awesome!!! You should look it up and read it... maybe with the family. Apply it to member missionary work! You´ll love it.

So, Life is going well. I´m extremely proud of Bryan once again. to answer one of his questions I just remembered... no we don´t get the new era. But I will try to find one. I love you all! Have a great week!

Con Mucho Amor!!!

Elder Austin Keith Heywood

ps. When is Mothers day for the US? I want to know when I get to call you!!! :)

Town of the Lizards

I completely forgot that it was Pi-Day yesterday. I miss those days! It was so fun making pies all day long and giving them away! I remember giving one to Aubrey Noble one year... who is now getting married!!! Craziness!!! I thought it would be another couple years. I can´t believe it! However, it is awesome! Congratulate her for me when you see her!

So this is the town of the lizards?

I looked up Jaén and learned this tidbit: The legend of the Jaen Lizard.

Many legends exist in Jaen but one of the most famous tells of the Malena Lizard, known throughout Spain as the Jaen Lizard, and also the reason why people from the province are called “Lizards”. This animal was said to have terrorised shepherds at the end of the 15th century and eaten their sheep. They didn’t know what to do until one day, a man on a horse, who was said to have been a prisoner condemned to death, arrived on horseback. He called for the lizard to come out and threw a lamb at it in which he had placed a lighted branch. The lizard gulped the lamb down one mouthful and seconds later exploded and died. This led to a Spanish saying which goes; “You will explode like the lizard of Jaen”.

There used to be 4 missionaries here but they merged it a few transfers ago. So yes, we are the only ones in this city. I did know that it was a big olive producer and the biggest in spain but not the world! It´s not surprising! If you get up on a hill and look out all you can see is miles and miles of olive trees! It´s crazy! I also knew that they kind of hoard some of that olive oil to put in the food! They use soooooooo much olive oil here! It´s actually part of the food pyramid here. It goes on the bottom with the wheat. I think they are "supposed to have" a cup or two! :P It is more than I think I had ever had in my whole life before the mission.

The work didn´t change much this week! A couple referrals, pass by and they don´t want anything. However, the church meetings were a lot calmer. It was sooooo much better this week! I think I almost felt the spirit there this time. Elder Pitts and I helped pass the sacrament this week and if we didn´t I think we would have drank un-blessed water. It was us two and three old, old, old men that were almost completely clueless about what was going on. Oh well! We survived and partook of a legitimate sacrament! There are about 45 constantly attending... out of about 450! A measly 10%. It is a Branch but could be two wards if they tried at all.

As far as the carry on bag goes... that was kind of a last minute decision because if I didn´t do that I would have been wearing everything. It was more or less a mutual decision between the four of us. And I almost got stopped when I was boarding because a lady, for some reason, asked to pick up my bag. She then said to her co-worker, "I don´t know who checked that bag." But she just said thank you and let me continue!

The piso is looking a lot nicer! There is no more mold in the cabinet with the plates and stuff... or on the plates and pans themselves. I had a nice long morning of bleaching, vinegar-ing and washing lots of things! The kitchen is CLEAN!!! Now we´ve got a couple other rooms to go. We rewarded ourselves with some Pizza Turco! I don´t know exactly how to explain it but... Filiberto´s size burritos, Delicious rotisserie style beef and chicken made into a giant mouth-watering wrap! Basically one of the best foods I´ve had here on the mission. And for sure it was the best fast food I´ve eaten.

I do remember Tanya. The change in J and M is amazing. It was only one year ago that he was dealing drugs and stuff and now he is getting almost completely out of debt and planning on moving to a better place where 1) he´s not known as the mafia and 2) where the church is stronger. They are awesome!

So when do semesters start at BYU and BYUi around April 2011? I´m going to find out, maybe, if the transfer dates are going to be changed with the mission changes and if they are and school starts in that little gap then I´ll choose the three weeks earlier. I hope you understood that!

Well, I don´t have much more to say other than have an amazing week! Go to the Temple and Keep reading the scriptures as a family!

I love you all!!!

Elder Austin Heywood





ps. I know you were planning on sending me a package... when should I expect that to come?

Arrived in Jaén

Dear Family,

It is a good time to be in this area. The weather is a little bit wet and pretty cold but I´m doing well. I ended up with a piso find of Elder B´s in Sevilla so I have a hoody now and I´m loving it. I guess I just have to be glad to not be in Madrid right now. However, I do wish I would have ended up there in the end. Oh well! I´ll survive! I know it´s a while away but I wonder where I´ll be during next winter.

As far as transfers go, everything went smoothly... after I finally got my carry-on bag down to weight. I didn´t think they would be weighing it but apparently they started weighing them lately. It had to be 9 Kilos! I think that´s about 20 pounds. Well I had 15 Kilos in there. :/ So I went back to where the other Elders were sitting and unloaded almost all my stuff, went and reweighed it and then loaded it back up. It wasn´t the absolutely most honest thing to do I´m sure but for missionaries in the islands that´s almost impossible.

My 4 hour lay-over in Madrid wasn´t bad. I wrote a letter and when I finished it I had to use the restroom, but I didn´t want to leave my stuff alone... Natuarlly. So I looked around and decided that the girl across the way who had just sat down looked pretty trustworthy so I l eft my stuff with her. When I returned... she wasn´t there, and neither was my stuff. Joke! She was there still doing something on her computer. I said thanks and asked where she was from. She´s from brazil. We continued to talk... in english once she found out that I´m from the US and we talked for about 2 hours. I had brought a Book of Mormon with me and wasn´t going to let it get to Jaen but it didn´t do me any good because she didn´t really speak spanish all that great. She´s a cool girl. She came and was touring Europe for a month. She was going to meet a friend here but the day before she came she got a call saying that her friend didn´t want to continue traveling. So she´s been here a month on her own with no itinerary whatsoever. So my 4 hour lay-over turned into a new friend from Brazil! :)

We got to my piso at 11:30 at night on Wednesday. :P We have a way nice but quite dirty piso. The nice is good, and the dirty will be taken care of. It´s just me and Elder Pitts that live there now. There used to be 4 missionaries there but they closed the area and now we are flying solo here in Jaen. It´s a Branch for all of Jaen. And our branch is newly wed (with 8 kids) or nearly dead. I think my purpose here is to learn how to make my study more spiritual.

We do have one good family in the ward. They have strong testimonies. The mom has been a member for a while but was inactive for a while. The husband just got baptised 8 months ago and they are planning on going to the temple soon. My last lesson with L... It went really well! I wanted to set a fecha with her... of course. When it come down to it ishe wanted to know more about Joseph Smith first. Since all our beliefs in the church, Book of Mormon and many other beliefs are based on testimonies of the first vision she wants to learn about him and his story and gain a testimony of him first. She´ll be baptised soon enough.

We had no idea when the webcam updated. So I´m sure we got a few weird looks but i don´t care because they were never going to see me again. It was right before we went to see L and FHE and right after that I took off to sleep in the Zone Leader´s piso up north. I had A crying again. She really did not want me to leave!

I´ve seen the same thing as Bro. Tebbs has. I can see a big diference in the times when I study the Book of Mormon and when I just kind of read something here or there just to kill study time. I will try to be more consistent on the studying.

As conference comes up I am going to reading a conference talk, from past editions, one every day. As far as spanish study I don´t Study all that much but I do write in my journal in spanish every day so I learn new things that way. That also means that for the last 16 months of my mission none of you will be able understand what happened except for Richard... that is until I translate it back to english.

Well, the area here is big and we have no investigators as of now. I have pleanty of practice with that type of work! :P So, I´ll try and work my way though it and find some good investigators. Onward and Forward.

Anyway, that´s about all I´ve got to share this week! I hope you all have a great week! I love you and hope to hear more good things next week!

Lots of Love
Elder Austin Keith Heywood