Do you have any idea who you robbed???

Dear Mom;

As for the iPod... keep it for the conference talks... and if you can, do each talk individually instead of the whole session together. Anything else that you can think of just let me know. I do want morgan to go talk to schreiber about my cd´s from Chorale 2008 and 2007 if there are any left, and Encore 2008. She might have to bring in a few blank cd´s to get them... idk just go ask about them first. And then if you could I wouldn´t mind if you copied them and sent a copy of each and I´ll decide what I can listen to of them... or just put them on the iPod and I´ll figure out a way to filter any if they shouldn´t be listened to. As far as other media going on the iPod... some pictures are fine... mission pictures especially and maybe some others that you find appropriate for a missionary... but as for church movies, I think probably not. The iPod never leaves the piso anyway. if we want to show a video to investigators it´ll be planned and there will be ways to do it. Thanks though. Also when you send my iPod, could you send me my flame socks? I want to sport those things... and they´re more comfortable than the socks I have. :) Thanks!!!

Mom, I never thought that the family would go to float the river for your birthday unless it was a prank of some sort. It´s never too late to change I guess! :)

Juan´s family is doing well. Elizabeth is so ready to go! Juan had some questiond last time we went over there but he was fairly accepting of the answers we gave him. He´ll be ready for the 3rd of October. Their grandmother is still the same. We also have another investigator that is progressing quite well. We can only teach her on Saturdays because she works in the city and stays at that person´s house. But she really felt the spirit strongly during the first lesson. Well, at least that´s what I interpreted the tears as! :)

So, the Lord definitely looks out for his servants. On the train ride back from the zone conference we were all sitting in the same car and some of the bags were at the end of the car on some bag racks. We stopped at a station along the way and some man was on the phone as he said, "una mochila roja fue robada." (Someone´s red backpack just got stolen.) He was on the phone with the police to get them to stop a man who walked up to the rack looked around and decided to take Elder Klingler´s. It´s a miracle that the guy even realized that the bag wasn´t that man´s and then that he was able to act so quickly and get security to stop the thief. Elder Klingler talked to the security over the phone and the security officer said that he was going through the bag and pulled out the Book of Mormon... He told the thief, "You robbed a man of God, This will go against you in the final judgement." We all thought that was pretty funny that he said that to him. So Elder Klingler got everything back that night and everything was fine.

Elder Paya basically told us that we are in fact here for one reason and one reason only... not to make friends and baptize people, but to baptise converts. He said it is what we are here to do but not the measure of our success as a missionary. Your success is measured by your commitment to find and bring people to baptism. It´s how hard you work and how obedient you are that is your measure of success.

I learned again that you shouldn´t just go play a sport all day long if you haven´t done so in a while. The day after Zone Conference we had a combined p-day and I went and played soccer. We played for four hours! :P Too much! I could hardly climb stairs forthe following two days. My muscles were so tight! Still didn´t have any issues since I´ve continued my stretching but it was painful climbing stairs. I´ve got a question concerning that a little bit. What would be the bestthing to do for a make shift heat pack? My shoulder muscles are killing me and giving me head aches and I need... well a spa would be nice but... What´s the best thing to do? (btw, we don´t have an oven, if that matters). Also, What sould I do about my shoulder bag? It REEKS! I washed it three times last week... twice in a row and the smell just comes back. I need to de-odorize it. got any home remedies?

So do you have any idea when Amy sent her letter or where she sent it to? I still haven´t gotten it and I was really looking forward to it on wednesday at zone conference. :( I guess I´ll just be patient! It´ll be tough but I´ll survive.

Well, best thing that happened this week? my companion was able to fall asleep before 2:00 in the morning. He fell asleep before I was even ready for bed. It was amazing! Since High School he has had trouble falling asleep... and then there´s me who got up to stretch this morning and fell asleep on the tile floor for an hour and a half. haha I´ve also dosed off standing up in the bus before! Thanks Dad for raising me in the truck! :) If you can fall asleep sitting in the spade you can fall asleep anywhere! haha

I love you all!

Elder Austin Keith Heywood

That´s one thing I think I shared with Morgan today... Something I loved about being in the choir for stake conference was being there boths sessions but also being right there near the speakers and presiding priesthood. Well I don´t know any of the new presidency but I´m sure they are great people! The only relation I know is Anna Toone. And she´s awesome so I bet her dad is too! :)

My talk went well! I wasn´t very nervous because I thought that I would be giving that same talk like three times before, so I have read over it a million times and I know a little bit more spanish! :) I got a few compliments on my spanish the other day when we were on splits and had to talk to people on the phone and in the streets. They all said that my spanish is getting better and on the phone they didn´t even know it wa me because I answered all their questions perfestly and I can´t normally do that! I think it is a lot easier to speak spanish when I´m with someone who isn´t way better than me at spanish and I know all the people better than they do! :) I should start doing that! It is just way hard to speak the entire time in spanish when it´s harder and both of us have the same natural language. I´ll try harder though!!!
I like the advice that Elder LeSueur gave. (work 10 times harder at catching your children - or companion - doing something good than doing something bad or wrong.) I will also work harder at that! There is only one thing that kind of bugs me and I probably dwell on it a little more than I should. It´s nothing big but I need to start blocking those thaughts with good, uplifting thoughts. He does have a lot of knowledge of the scriptures and history of things relating to it. It kind of makes me wish that I had read more often before the mission. unfortunately it probably won´t change a ton after the mission. It will change a little though!

Did Kristalyn never share that website with you? I told her to like the first or second week I was here! Get on her about that one! jk

http://www.spainmalagamissionaries.com/recentpictures

Yeah that picture was at the Plaza de España. Apparently that plaza was in one of the star wars movies. Yeah the zone conference with Elder Paya will be next transfer. We have zone conference this wednesday and pday on thursday and stake conference on saturday and sunday. So we didn´t find out that pday was on thursday until after last pday so we decided to write today so that you wouldn´t worry. We´re just taking time out of medio-día. No Worries!!! Yeah 118º here! :P that´s in sevilla though. It´s not quite as hot in the pueblo I´m in and not as hot as mesa! BUT we are outside during the hot part of the day and we don´t have AC. We only have a couple floor fans. People give us water if that´s what you mean. I don´t think I will ever again in my life have another missionary come to my door without offering them water. Water never tasted so good! haha


Ummmmmm... you said, "So I took a picture of someone cool holding your amazing sword." I AGREE!!! I am excited to hear from her! If it was sent in the last month and maybe a little... I won´t get it till wednesday! That´s just because we only get mail from the office at interviews and zone conference and I haven´t had either in about 3 and a half weeks. I´m excited to be getting mail from friends though!!!!! :D So she thought the sword was pretty sweet? I´m glad she came over to say hi! And that you gave her some regaliz! And that she got to see Brady! I´m glad to hear about the marriages... if you can figure out a way I kind of want announcements! :)

I like enya
Chopin yes
Michele baer yes
You raise me up by josh groban
EFY cd´s that we have
My eclipse cd and the christmas one.

I´ll have a few others next week that I want too. I forgot my agenda today so I don´t have my list. Thank you so much!!!!

noddles and soup would be good and yes boullion is available!

Best thing that happened this week... I´ll start from the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C. When you teach you begin with 1º-2º-baptism!!! Elder Going and Elder Hurley found some people before I came that wanted to listen but with the three other families living in their apartment it was tough. They also didn´t have work and life was down in the dumps. The wife finally got work and they moved to their own apartment. They are a spanish couple with two little boys. We taught the first and second lesson and they couldn´t find their BoM this whole time so we gave them the restoration pamphlet and the plan of salvation pamphlet to read and asked them to pray about Joseph Smith and about the gospel. During the second lesson we taught about how Christ was baptised while he was here on earth and they said that they had both been baptised. We left that lesson thinking that it was going to be tough to work our way around through priesthood athority and back to baptism. We went the third time planning to teach the third lesson but we ended up going back over the first a little bit and asked if they had prayed. They had. How did you feel? Good! That was the spirit. Did you ask about the BoM? Oh I know that´s true! :D :D :D Did you pray about baptism?(cuz we asked them to pray about that as an important step into the true church if it is here on earth.) Yes! Can we set a Baptismal Date as a goal? Yes! How´s the 19th? (gives us three weeks to gett them to church three times and the week to stop smoking) Sounds good? Awesome!!! We left there being called angels by the wife and the husband saying it was divine intervention, us being placed in their path.

Well that was tuesday and saturday rolled around... the husband´s grandma got sick and was in the hospital and probably won´t live long so they didn´t want to b far away... therefore they didn´t go to church on sunday,but they have a strong testimony and that´s the first commitment they haven´t kept (with good reason) so we moved their date for two weeks later and we´re going at it! Their Awesome! Juan and Elizabeth and their kids, Angel and Christian.

I think that will cover for all of the topics you want to hear about. And I´m getting quite long too!

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Heywood

ps. I´ve been stretching the past 2 weeks and then on saturday we played some soccer... Didn´t have a problem. It´s nice being able to play sports and still be able to walk afterwards! :) I´ll continue stretching every morning and try to stretch every night as well! It helps so much! And I´m getting more flexible! :D That´s always exciting!

Picture Time

The view from Austin's bedroom window at the CCM for 6 weeks!


Super Austin!!!


Almuneda Cathedral in Sol


CCM Companion, Elder Southwick



CCM District

Pictures coming soon . . .

I´m glad to hear that I could help out so much with Bryan´s talk! But I must tell you the truth... neither the picture nor the fans were my idea! I got the piture idea from Elder Southwick and the fan/letter idea from Elder Going! I just thought they were awesome ideas too so I used them! As far as any other advice though... I didn´t have to use others´ ideas for that.

Thanks so much for the letters and pictures you sent to the birthday people. Clever - compliments on the fan! Way cool! Bryan spoke in church today. He was asked to speak on anything in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet. He chose to speak instead on missionary work, and ended by saying that everything in the FSoY helps prepare you for a mission. He described the picture of your nametag in the ground in front of the temple, and read what you wrote on it. "The two things you strive for as a young man in the church: 1) serve a mission 2) go to the temple." For his talk, he would mention memorizing scripture masteries, then he read what you had to say about it. Then he'd mention the other things you wrote about, and shared what you had to say. He did a good job. Thanks for your help with his talk! You were amazing! And he was profoundly touched! I think that was my best thing this week.

That´s a pretty awesome story about the bike thief! That would be kind of fun! :) Don´t worry I don´t have a bike to have stolen and fight over! ;) I´ll try to do my best on all of those small annoying rules! Really I like to try to keep all the rules as much as I can! I even got up every day and actually worked out/stretched. That´s probably the most broken rule in every mission. I just don´t want to come home heavy! :P

Bingham's sister and brother-in-law (the Bennetts) spoke today. He told about his very favorite mission comp. He was a Brazilian, and was 25 years old, a fairly recent convert who didn't speak English very well. He told some of the crazy things this elder would do, like throw his brand new suit coat into the washer and dryer and literally chase down a bike thief, and roll down the hill tussling with him - he did get his bike back. And a few other crazy things. Derrick said that in spite of all the crazy things he did, he came to love this companion more than any other. The thing that struck him the very most, and made the biggest difference in the balance of his mission went like this: the comp said, "You are strong, you are fast, and you are a good missionary. But why aren't you obedient to the little things President asks of us?" He said he was obedient, just not to the little things that really didn't matter - the annoying rules. The Brazilian told him that if he would be obedient to every rule, he would have a much greater mission. That changed his heart. And he said - through tears - that he will never ever forget that missionary, because of the lesson he taught him about obedience. (Not a "lecture", but a timely truth we heard spoken at church today.)

Sister Lindley is awesome! I´ll miss having her around! she is blunt but funny and has a good sense of humor! She´s a funny girl.

Pictures... go ahead and delete any of the temple pictures. Leave the others and I´ll go through them... And delete the one´s from before my mission. You did find the videos on there right? Thanks for taking care of my iPod!!!!!!! Requests... all of 1856. all of MoTab that we have. My music theory song "I Don´t Know". more classical stuff. There are a few that Elder Going says I should get, but you would have to buy all of them, so don´t worry about it too much if you don´t want to. Moonlight Sonata. Dimitri Shostakovich´s "Piano Concerto #2" and "Symphony #5". Stavinsky´s (I think) Firebird. Pretty much the rules are anything that invites the spirit. Make a list of songs if you´re not sure and I´ll just respond yes or no to all of them. Recent talks would be nice! And actually yes put some in spanish! I just hope the translators are easy to understand. I think that´ll do! Thanks!!!!!! :) I'm open to recommendations from any of you!

Kike only speaks spanish and he has to learn french in the MTC but he will be learning in an english class! maybe I mixed stuff up last time. He won´t have an idea in he world what´s going on!

We haven´t been able to get with our peruvian friend again yet. It´s so hard with people´s schedules around here.

The language seems to have been stagnant lately. Not many lessons in spanish and so not much chance to use it! But I´m understanding a lot! Things will start picking up soon I think! I give the talk this sunday!

Some good things to read and study... PMG pg.195 - Extend Commitments (Just what´s one the bottom of that page. D&C 20:37... your commitment to the Lord is to continue studying the scriptures and striving to follow the commandments. Other things to study in PMG are Chapters 3,4,5,6. Just read a section and look up the scriptures that go with it. This is just to gain knowledge of the scriptures and the Gospel. It wasn´t till I just relaxed and allowed myself to be forgiven that i became truly happy! That exceeding joy that is descirbed in the scriptures for the repentant is unmistakeable... at least it was for me! I was overwhelmed with joy! I was told about a thing called obsessive thouhts. This isn´t getting a song stuck in your head. This is when you have gone and confessed a sin and you go through the repentance process and get things cleaned up, and then you have the thought... well, I didn´t exactly explain what happened perfectly to bishop or to the Lord in prayer, I need to go back and repent again/fully. These are thoughts from Satan and we just need to ignore these thoughts. Don´t try to replace or correct these thoughts. Just continue what you were doing and forget about it. That thought is like a bully. The more you give it attention the more power you give it in controlling you. If you have repented, you have repented!

Thank you Mom for the pictures and everything you are still doing for me half way around the world! :)

Con Amor,
Elder Austin Heywood

Regaliz

I had a thought this week... With all the out of town work that dad is doing, is there ever a chance he gets to go to the temple. I hope he is still going when he is able. I got your letter this morning before I left the piso! Thanks for the updates!

I had a dream last night that Kayla got married randomly to a person that I don´t know. I have had a lot of random dreams! They´re interesting sometimes... Like when I´m at home for a vacation from the mission but I still have to follow mission rules such as no hugging or staying with my companion. crazy stuff! The "most of the rules"... ummmmm well... no, he´s probably one of the most obedient missionaries out here. I´m blessed and don´t worry about it.

What kind of arts classes are they cutting? Umm, yeah, handing out the schedules the first day of school... I can just imagine mass chaos! that´s going to be insane!!! You know the kids always forget how excited they were for school to start when they start to get homework! I remember how that feeling is, not being able to forgive yourself... I´ll try and think of things that helped me or could help him.

I hope you like Regaliz cuz it´s coming home this week! :) Thanks for the pictures of Brady!

Our peruvian... We haven´t seen her this week. we actually only saw one of those four investigators this week and didn´t have to much of an actual lesson with him. she´s doing fine though! She´s recovering and spirits are up! We were on splits and my comp for the day tried to contact one of the investigators. The one that said she already is knowing that some things are true. That was funny!

Kike (pronounced like in spanish... key-kay) is a boy in our ward waiting for his call... it came on friday and he is going to the west indies. he´s in northern south america and some islands in the carribean. speaking french! and he has to learn that in an english class at the mtc! :S Crazy stuff!

Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Elder Heywood

Made it to church this week!

I spent some money on different things... I got a camera case and some indoor type soccer shoes... that doesn´t exactly go under mission fund stuff so I bought it myself and then I think there was a burger king thing on there too... that was just some make up for some weird things that happened with money when I bought my camera case. Don´t worry. I decided after the first month that I would budget each individual week and it definitely helps. It gets tight at the end of the month but it always works out.

I´m glad to hear good news of the family. And that you made it to the temple. You´re doing great! You´ve raised good kids (that´s not a brag but, it is) I´ve got a great mother. Advice for Bryan... Definitely learn the scripture masteries. Some teachers aren´t as strict on that and they help a lot out here! Don´t ever ditch and don´t talk bad about your teacher. I don´t know why I feel like i need to say that but yeah. Good luck to the youngins with school. We did make it to church... half way through sacrament meeting (the last meeting) because the bus system is just messed up. There is a little construction so they went around our neighborhood and moved the stop around the corner from where we were and we had no idea cuz there is nothing indicating it. But yes we made it... Barely!

The family we´re teaching... Awesome Stuff! Yesterday it was just her but we struggled to get her to pray but she did and in her prayer she said something to the effect of, "thanks that i´ve already realized some of these things are true!" And then we got asked on a date by another lady on our way out of there. She asked if we wanted to go to a bar and get a drink and get something to eat. THAT WAS WEIRD!

and another prayer... The African that invited himself to church... we met with him just before Sivelis (the other lady) and he said the closing prayer and said "thanks for answering my prayer today." I wasn´t sure what that meant.

Another lady that we talked to on Saturday... She´s from Peru and when she lived there she had FHE with a family every week and her boy would go to scouts with them... basically she´s just been really prepared. And from other life experiences she already has a way strong testimony of prayer. She told us that she´ll read a little more and then pray about the Book of Mormon/ Church/ Joseph Smith and if she gets the answer that it´s true then she´ll belong to the church!!!!!!!

And just before that there was a man from nicaragua that is strong evangelical... so it´s going to be hard to get him to church soon... but he´s got the right ideas and a strong testimony of prayer as well. I hope he prays about it too. He´s about to get baptised with an evangelical church and I hope we can just change the location of hte baptism! jaja

Ok so there are a couple random things I want to tell you... I´m told there is a mac program that if it is installed on the mac then you can run pc prgrams...photo shop :) Also there is a sister coming home to Mesa in a week and a half! Her name is Hermana Lindley. You don´t know her and I highly doubt that her mom is on MM´s. I want a chicken noodle soup recipe and stuffed bell peppers as well. My ipod is weird and has a quarter of the wheel that doesn´t work I am wondering if I could send it home with her and have someone take care of that sending it back to apple and getting a new one and sending it back to me. Should I send it? Find out about warranty info this week please? Thanks you for everything! Tell Kristalyn sorry i didn´t even have time to read her email! I feel really bad about that!

Love you all! Gotta go!
Elder Heywood

Busses, investigators, and basketball

Well that sure figures in about bishop! Can´t go anywhere without a camera in one hand. That´s awesome! They´re usually pretty good about tying up food! I guess they just wanted a good story! :) That one sounds like Bingham. haha So, from cold to hot! YUCK!!! Scotland and Samoa huh? That is Awesome! (Friend's missions)

Here's the "Bishop and Bingham" story he's referring to:

The priest super activity was at Big Lake this year. A forest ranger came and told them there had been bears in the area, to please make sure the food was taken care of, and definitely not in the tent. They didn't listen. Bishop heard someone in the morning, so he got up. Sure enough, in the morning, the bear was chowing down on twinkies, granola bars and other yummy things. He chased the bear off. A while later, the bear returned. . . they still hadn't cleaned up the food. A third time, the bear came back. This time he started circling Bingham's tent. Bingham was inside asleep. Bishop grabbed a gun in one hand, and a camera in the other. (go figure.) He got some great shots with the camera and had the gun cocked and ready to fire as soon as Mr. Bear moved away from the tent. The bear ran off quickly when a green forest ranger truck pulled up. Great pictures, great parallels. You'll get that take in the mail. In the mean time, be thinking about it on your own.

I´m doing pretty good! Thanks for asking! You´re not the only one that felt spiritually deprived this week!... Uh, yeah... We didn´t go to church this week! OOPS! ask Richard for that story.

Speaking of sundays... Did you ever not go to church on your mission? jaja Yeah well... I´ve already been called inactive by our ward mission leader. :S The only family that can take us to church was gone and it´s an hour and a half walk. We went to the bus stop and that would have gotten us there about a half hour late, but it didn´t come for two hours. By the time it came it wouldn´t have been worth it to get on the bus. So we didn´t go to church. :( I guess we´ll have to figure out something else for the next three weeks while they are on vacation! The busses here are so unreliable... or maybe that´s just because of the summer. Kinda lame!

I do not know George Lintala. Never heard of him. Sorry. Something I like about my companion... the fact that he likes our pancakes! :) jk um... He´s willing to work and tries to keep most of the rules! (most?!?!?)

Best thing that happened... a really strong member just got back from vacation and she wants to help us teach one of her friends who, if everything goes well(of course), she will probably be baptized! We also had an african that dropped himself last week invite himself to church and come this week!!!

Most painful thing... Trying to dunk and having wet shoes... I hit the ground hard!!! :( My ankle has been pretty sore today. It's feeling better now though!

Funniest thing... We got stuck out in some random pueblo on wednesday night after visiting Marilou (recent convert) and had to call the Rodríguez family to come pick us up! The busses once again failed us! grrrr!

Thanks for the pictures. Brady does have a chubby face... And Heywood style toes! (those long bony things... You know) Is he home yet? Is he going to be blessed this sunday? or was that yesterday?

Well I love you all! Happy August!!! Hope it´s not a scorcher for you! I think it will be for me! :(

Con Amor
Uncle Austin