Flight plans have arrived!!!

Mom,

I do know Elder Christensen!  Are we going to be coming on the same plane?  That´ll be tight!!!  He´s from Snowflake!  So if I get home at 5:10 that´ll leave plenty of time for a good game of frisbee that night right?  jk  I´d rather be at home with my family eating some homemade pizza with squash and thick crust!  That was the first thing that popped into my mind when you asked for requests, so I went with it!  You know me!  If I have options I´m going to take forever deciding!  But if I end up wanting something else I´ll let you know!!!

I did do Eng 101 at MVT.  I´ll trust you on the Major.  And if I get too deep into the one before we realize that it´s the wrong one then I´ll just spend the rest of my life doing something completely different!  No pasa nada!  haha

I don´t want to spend that much on housing.  That´s too much!  I told Kristalyn to talk to Brittany about what Branden's plans are.  He´ll be up there too.  That just another option.  I will keep it a little lower.  It´s not worth it.

I hope Bryan does well in volleyball tryouts!  But why at 5 in the morning?  That´s insane!!!  Whatever!  Good Luck!!!  Sounds like things are going great with everybody there at home!!!  I wish you all the best week ever!  And I won´t be laying down on the playing field with the white flag up!  I am way excited to be here and Elder Adams is awesome!  We are going to tear up Chiclana!!!  

I´m just glad/hoping that the weather warms up at least a little bit in Idaho before I get up there!!!  I am not looking forward to that kind of weather!  

We had a tough time with investigators this week because we had two day transfers... Elder Adams didn´t know he was leaving until Elder Beck showed up on tuesday morning!  By then it was too late to get here!  And then we had a baptismal interview to do down in Algeciras.  That took the afternoon but it was way good!  While we were there I went to M´s house with Elder Masterson to try setting a fecha!  We stuck to the NIKE motto!  Just Do It!!!  And that´s what we did!  She is totally ready and willing and the conversation lead up perfectly to the scripture that I planned on using, D & C 39:7-8,10.  We both testified and set the fecha!  It was incredible!  I´m glad I am not District leader and was able to be there to help her set the fecha!

We are doing great and the ward is stil excited about things!  M and E weren´t able to come to the capilla yesterday and everybody was asking where they were!  They just had to work because they own a flower shop and today is Valentines day!  We had stopped by this week though and they seem to be doing great!  

About the Rod´s... the father does speak english... and will be in Utah for conference.

Well I love you all and Wish you a fantastic week!

Elder Heywood

Chiclana!

Alright, first thiings first!!!  I will be spending Christmas at home away from home!!! Yup, with the Rodriguez family!!!!!!!!!!  That will be our pday so you won´t get an email from me the following monday... or the one following new years day.  New years day will also be a pday so you can´t wait till sunday to write!  So, I will be in the Rod´s house and they will have their son calling home as well.  They are going to find out what time they will be calling around 7 tonight so I will somehow get you an email during the week saying what time to call!  It will be easier for you to call me because I´ve never bought a calling card here and neither has my companion so I don´t know where to get one!  

So Kike(Elder Rodriguez) will be calling around 12:00 noon here. That means that you can call me at 10:00am your time! (that´s 6:00pm my time)  Then we will have one hour to talk so have some questions!  This will be the last time you get to call me on the mission!!! 

The other day a member took us home and said that Maricarmen came up to her and started going off about how she knows me and how good of a missionary I am and how excited she is to have  me here!  But... now they all have huge expectations from me!!!   I´ll be finishing well, I guess! haha

We have a great ward!!!  There´re between 80 and 120 people that attend regularly... depending on the time of year!  We have regular meetings and great leadership!  I´m way stoked to be here!  And my health is getting better!  The only thing I will be missing is the fun part of Christmas!  The package from richard did arrive on tuesday and I picked it up.  However, your package arrived on thursday... in Alcazar.  I will get it on the 8th of January... just in time for el día de los reyes magos!  So I will be a little spaniard and celebrate 3 kings day instead of Christmas this year!

That was a way cool story!  I love when lessons turn into a powerful testimony meeting!  That´s the kind of thing that really keeps/brings people in the church!  N will never forget the spirit and love that she felt there!  Personal invitations are key in creating relationships!  That´s why we make invitations to give to people whenever we have a baptism!

As far as baptisms go... They did not end up baptising the two sisters... yet!!!  They´ll come around soon!!!  And we might have a baptism soon with the roommate of a recent convert!!!  She is a single mom of a 5 year-old and has tonnns of potential!  We´re just waiting for after Christmas when she can come to our church.  She is kind of committed to go to the evangelist church because her daughter is part of their Christmas program.  She will come soon!!!

Well I gotta go!  I just want questions from you all on Christmas!!!  And I want Richard to guess who this is!... 

hint: lanzy

Con Amor,

Elder Heywood

Elder Fetzer

Well, Elder B is being transfered!!! We did get along a lot better the last little bit but I think it was just because I knew I only had him a couple more days!!! My new companion is Elder Fetzer from Salt Lake City... That´s Utah right? jaja My only companion so far that didn´t come from or go back to Utah is Elder B. Elder Fetzer is a way cool kid and we get along really well! He´s way chill and he likes a clean piso!!! :D He doesn´t cook much but that´s alright because I love to cook! This is his fourth transfer in the mission and he came from a companionship that was about the same as what I just went through! So we´ve both been humbled a bit and are working great together!

He was just in Chiclana in Cadiz... I don´t know if you remember the Rodriguez family. That´s where they live! He was also there close to Elder Going! So we have a lot of connections and it´s great! Elder Going, my father (trainer), died (went home) on tuesday! He went home and I didn´t even get to say goodbye! :´( He was still my favorite companion but I´ve had some great ones since then. And this one is going to be great as well!!!

We are in the process of turning this place around! It might end up going a lot faster than we predicted! The biggest thing that will help is that we can visit the older single women without anybody... because there never is anybody. In Madrid they couldn´t even meet with them alone in the chapel!!! We have two great members that live here in town that haven´t had the missionaries in their houses in years because the Mission President in Madrid was way strict on that. when we told them that we can visit them they both got way happy because they need the missionaries in their homes! That is one thing that will help a lot with the excitement here!

Another thing that we´re wanting to do is put together an activity but we´re not sure what we can do with so few members. We need some ideas. one thing that I thought of was those games that you do with groups and the only way to do them is work together. Like the ones we did at Joseph´s Eagle Project. What´s that activity called and what are some of those games?

By the way, I am still in ALCAZAR... it´s not aclaraz. ;) And the Liahona that we were in is the september liahona.... but remeber that it was in the local news section and won´t show up in the liahona there in the USA.

Hey when you send the package can you send a picture of the US. Capital building? I drew a flag and now I need something to put behind it but I don´t have any other good ideas. If you can think of something else that would be good for behind the flag I´m open to them.

We have a few new investigators but I it´s way hard to get ahold of a lot of them. we are trying to do everything we can but it´s dificult. My mindset has changed though and I know that I am doing my part so nothing else matters!!!

For once in my mission I have been able to focus on the mission and like being here! It´s wierd and I am loving it! I hope it doesn´t take Kyle and Ryan and Devin and Jared that long to enjoy it. My biggest problem was that I came on the mission mainly for two reasons! 1) to move out of the house. 2) to please family and friends. I had that mindset and it was hard to change it, but I have finally been able to!

We are looking forward to this conference and working towards some baptisms! (cross the fingers). Alcazar is improving little by little! :D

I love you all and hope you all have a great... 3 days till I write again! This time I will be writing on Monday!!! ;)

Con Amor,
Elder 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.

New President, Companion and area (temporarily)

I am glad to hear that Elder Swenson is doing well.

I did get the package and I am enjoying it a lot! I haven´t opened the peanut butter yet because I... well you´ll understand later in the letter. Sometimes I think you might be a litte too protective of my trunkiness... No pictures of the sailboat or my room! haha The altoids were definitely a huge bonus! And I love the ocean spray!!! Thanks for the books of music! I think I might just start using those for a while to play in sacrament meeting! An oven 5 feet wide?!?!?!?!?!? That´s AMAAZING!!! Can I have one? ;) you know what? I just want the plans to their house and I´ll build one of my own!!! hahaha

So how is Tara Schlappi doing? That was a hard letter to read, but it was so amazing at the same time! She has a strong testimony! I want to hear any important updates! ok?

Santy and Igor did end up at the temple! They had an amazing time there! Santy was able to be baptised for his grandpa and great-grandpa! It was great for them to be there! They also shared great testimonies yesterday in church! We now have one less less-active member!!! We are so excited for them both!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We met the new president, President Clegg and his wife! They are way awesome! This is going to be a great 9 months with them! He greated Elder Hafen and there were a couple comments made to inform Pres. Clegg that he´s going home in less than a week... Pres. Clegg said, "Then I don´t know what you´re doing in a week!" Then he turned to me and said, "But I do know what you are doing in a week." We had the little meeting with everybody and then he told me and Elder Solari he needed to talk to us. He talked to Solari to tell him who his new companion is. Then he called me in...

He said that he thinks I need to train, but... My new companion (whoever it will be) is waiting for his visa. I will be waiting for him in Algeciras with Elder Bullen, who is in the same boat. He´s killing off his companion right nw and waiting for a new kid. Elder Bullen is one transfer older than me. And you can find out what he look likes by looking at my aljarafe pictures! He was born in the same district as me. I am looking forward to this soooooo much!!!

It´s going to be wierd leaving an area for two weeks and then returning! We have our branch missionaries committed to pass by and visit our investigators and read from the Book of Mormon with them. Those missionaries are Santy and Igor! :D

We have what seems like a whole evangelical congregation trying to beat us down and claim that everything we preach is a lie! We´ve now talked to 5 people in 2 days. :P They make me so mad!... speaking of love! haha I just hate when they tell me I´m wrong and won´t alow me to defend myself. whatever! Just one more trial I guess!

Well, I kinda would like a picture of that memorial for Robert. I was probably one of the few people that knew his name back in the day. The guys at the shop knew him from way back and called him by his real name! I don´t think I was still there when he made it public that he wanted to be Robert again. Robert "Dizzy" Disbrow has been a Mesa icon for many years. You can read just a little about him here He also has nearly 5000 facebook friends ~ Diz-Z is his name there.

Anyway, I look forward to these two weeks and the fresh bottle of Peanut Butter... AND PECANS when I get back to Jaén!!!

Thank you so much for everything!!! I just remembered hte one thing I can´t forget... the FRISBEE!!! AND THE MUSIC!!! I will enjoy that stuff very much!!!

There is a mission blog that Hermana Clegg has up. Check it out!

Love you all!
Elder Austin Heywood

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

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

Mairena del Aljarafe

Hi Mom,

The internet hasn´t been allowing us to sign into myldsmail.net so I´m gonna do this and hope it works for you! And because of that I will only be getting your email this week since i don´t know everybodies passwords. (he went into my email and wrote to me. I am so thankful he thought of that!!! Glad he knows my password - don't any of you be figuring it out, I plan to NOT change it until he gets home for sure.)

The area... I´m in Mairena del Aljarafe. It´s just south-west of Sevilla! Which by the way is the hottest spot in the mission. There are a lot of south americans here. about 80% And they are really hard to understand! We walk to our main proselyting area every day which is about 20 - 25 minutes away... depending on how tired we are that day. jaja My companion is Elder Going. He´s been out 9 months now and is from Logan Utah. He´s 20 and plays the piano really well and sings. After hanging out with the rest of the zone today... He´s a good companion. I didn´t really doubt that before but I´m glad I started out with him. There are some interesting people in my zone. There are 12 missionaries for the sevilla area. " missionaries per ward... and that´s for all of spain. (anyone know how many " is???)

We have a family that we rent from that takes us to church every week and feeds us after church. They have three children...19,17,15 and the oldest just turned in his papers yesterday. We have a baptism this saturday with a lady named Marilou. She grew up catholic, married a baptist minister and naturally went to that church until he died a couple years ago... now she´s getting baptised after 45 years of investigation. she´s from the phillipenes (sp?) I think all my english spelling is already going down the hole. And I used to be pretty good.

Anyway... and we should hopefully be committing another to baptism tonight for the end of july!!! I have a good area to work in but it´s really hard to understand anybody except for my companion... and they don´t speak spaniard spanish, which is what ii was wanting to learn... they speak andaluce (andaluth) which means they don´t pronounce hardly anything so for someone trying to learn spanish in general, it´s really hard... but once I get to understanding these people I´ll be able to understand anybody. Fun stuff.

Bryan you gotta stop running into the walls. At least it wasn´t your head this time! haha

Anyway, You like the sword huh? I told you you would like it! well I gotta try writing an email to president so... I love you all! Sorry I can´t write as much or to other people as often!

Enjoy!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood