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