6 Months!!!

I hit my six month mark on thursday! That´s so weird that I´ve been out for 1/4 of my mission already!!! when they say time flies in the mission... IT FLIES!!! It actually seems like it´s been longer than the two years since I´ve seen Gary though. Crazy stuff! Does that mean i´m the oldest missionary... only missionary... in our ward now, or is there still somebody else out with me?

I think I´m staying for this next transfer. But we´ll see on saturday... Transfer calls are fun to get, even if you don´t leave.

So I pretty much had the saddest moment on Saturday. We were at a benefit concert thing put on by the youth of the church... Cuz we had investigators coming... and I had my camera in my pocket. I was sitting on the chair and it decided to go kerplop! GRRRRRRRRR It now looks like a windshield of a car behind a truck hauling gravel. :´( I can take pictures but now it´s litterally a "point and shoot" camera. I can´t see any of the picture. Want to buy me a Christmas present... with my money!?! It would be cheaper to buy it in the states and then ship it here! But it has to be a camera that takes an xD memory card and AA-Bateries. (preferably) Which means that it pretty much has to be an Olympus but there are a couple others now that take xD.

I don´t know why it had to break this time. It fell flat on the it´s back and shattered. I´ve dropped it before but it always hit a corner and was fine. Not any more! :((((((

Yes a Guard Duck!!! But it was behind the fence so it couldn´t chase us luckily! A junk yard used birds as their security? That´s pretty funny!

Now the best thing that happened to me...We got our phone back!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!! Finally! I also found out that half of the songs for the primary program that I thought were in normal hymn book are actually from the primary book! That made this sooooooooo much easier!!!

There´s not much to report on this week. It was kind of a lame week. But yes that was president and my companion at church. And yes we call them exchanges... well, we translate it to intercambios! ;)

Pres. Mellor, Elder Heywood, Elder Jensen

WASHED THE HOUSE??? Sounds... Interesting!!! I washed... the dishes this week! And my hands... a couple times anyway! haha I´m afraid I didn´t do any netti though. I hope everything goes well for you with staying away from the swine flu! It´s kind of hard to do that with what we do... talking to all the people in the street every day. But we try!

Well, I´m looking forward to the package coming next week!!! :) And to thursday this week! SIX MONTHS!!!

Con Amor

Elder Heywood

Residency Trip

The best part of the Residency trip to the mission home seems to be the food! I'm sure they appreciate Sister Mellor!!!


Austin is beaming - he gets to eat without having to first cook it!!! :) (4th one back on the right side)


Now that lunch is over, let's do some serious talking. . . (standing on our far right - wearing green tie)

Goody Goody Gum Drops!

Mom,

Well the bag worked out pretty well. It doesn´t stink...YET! So Brady is official now? haha Why did they do it on that week? Speaking of primary programs, I have to... GET TO... play for our ward´s primary program... oh and not to mention every other sacrament meeting and any other time they need a pianist!!! :P :P :P We have "my family" here that has the only piano player in the ward in their family. They´re moving in 3 weeks! :´( I played in priesthood two weeks ago and so they knew that I know how to play. Unfortunately I´m still at the measly 3 songs...good songs...but 3! During church yesterday they must have announced that they are moving, because immediately after sacrament meeting I had 4 people come up to me asking if I knew how to play the piano. Guess what I do during medio día now!?! :P Goody Goody Gum-Drops!!!!!!!!!!

Learning the Language... Talking with people helps more than anything. I knew a while ago that when Elder Going left I would improve a lot! He taught me a lot of grammer and good things about spanish but I wouldn´t have to concentrate as hard to understand people because he would always take over and answer questions and I would get off with the newbie excuse. But now I´m the one that knows the members and the investigators and I do know a bit more so... practice is what does it for me. I had about a 20 minute conversation with the mom of "my family"... Kike´s mom. They are an awesome family! No I don´t do flashcards. I used to use that little black notebook as a record of words and use it as flashcards but I don´t use that anymore. We try to talk spanish in the streets. When I don´t know a word I write it down in my agenda and look it up at the end of the day... if I remember. I really do need to do more on vocabulary though. ps. It´s not quite 45 minutes and we try to make contacts on the way to our area. It´s more like 20 minutes... unless we´re in a hurry! Then it is about 12-15.

I like your funniest story! That´s a classic! I love it!

I want to tell you the funniest thing that gave me lots of laughs this week. Peaches were on sale at Food City and I wanted to bottle some, so I called to see what variety the peaches were. She said, "We don't have varieties. You have to go to Basha's for that." hahahaha As it turned out, they were a great canning variety, and I bought some.

My funniest thing... I can´t think of anything! But the coolest!!! I made my first goal in soccer by heading in an inbounds pass!!! That was sweet! I´ve tried it so many times and I finally got it!!! :D

You did tell me that Ryan and Linndsy are getting married! Did you get a wedding announcement? I want to see it! They´ll be a fun couple!

I remember that day when we went to find Bro. Hardison. I forgot that he was so dehydrated and out of it. That´s good to hear... things that I´ve done for other people. It keeps me going. Something else that keeps me going is that we had 5 new investigators this week. I don´t know where any of them will go, but there´s a girl in our wad that has been bringing her friend with her to church for a long time and we finally were able to teach her this last friday. We flew through two of the lessons and she is so knowledgeable about the things we are supposed to teach. We didn´t have to to set a date with her for baptism but we are teaching her this friday again and we´re going to baptise her before this transfer is over. I don´t know why she hasn´t gotten baptised before this.

We also met Elizabeth at the door yesterday... The Peruvian. She wants to come to church and we are going to work that out for sure! She´s gonna get baptised!!!... I hope... and pray!

For conference we go to the church building in sevilla and watch the broadcasts and do contacts between sessions. I´m still not quite sure exactly how everything goes down but I´ll let you know next week.

Thanks for the prayers! As far as the family that we used to have the fechas(dates) with, I think they are starting to avoid us. If the husband will allow it I still want to get the wife baptised soon. We´ll see how that goes.

I have something to ask... How much are eletric heat pads? I still haven´t made a sock pad thing but if that´s the route I really need to go I´ll do that. I wouldn´t mind a eletric one like what we´ve got though... I will check and see if they sell anything like that here this week. That one is just a dream I think. I don´t want to get too expensive. But another thing that I kind of want... Altoids! I leave them in my suit so that I only use them on sundays so they are still doing me service, but I am getting close to the end. :D I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3

Man you better hurry and get that package sent before I ask for too many things! haha But still keep it for the conference talks... oh yeah... the end of the spanish BoM would be nice too! I think I only have through 4 Nefi. Thanks for everything.

Most spiritual thing that happened this week... We weere doing door contacts and we were talking to this old lady about the family and the happiness that we can find through our families and how we can have more through the gospel in the family. She started out by telling us that she has all the happiness that she needs and that more isn´t possible. Then I started to talk about the plan of salvation and the life after this and she broke doiwn crying. She has a son that is into drugs and is in the hospital. We set up a cita with her for two days later and when we went to visit her she was in madrid... surprise trip to madrid visiting that son. I don´t know what all happened in that little time at the door but something miraculous happened.

We had an interesting week. Lost some investigators... some dropped and some moved but all gone. And then we picked up some new ones as well. Overall it was a fairly good week.

I Love you all,

Elder Heywood

Picture

Sevilla Stake Conference - Elder Heywood is wearing the red tie.

New Companion

Dear Mom,

Well, about Elder Jensen... He is probably the most strict to the rules missionary that there is in the mission...

My bag is soaking at the moment. I´m going to take it out when I get home today and take care of it. My back... I haven´t made a heat pack for that. I think that most of the tightness might be coming from sleeping. I can´t wake up without a really tight back/neck. I can´t wait till I have my own house and bed and can afford an air-bed. If you really want to show me in a sort of material way that you love me, then when I get home you´ll let me sleep on your air-bed!!! :) jeje And my belly? Did I mention anything about that? The only thing I can think is that I am still fat. :( I did a couple workouts this week along with my stretching. Other than that... idk. I am eating well/ healthily. (Haha. I asked him How's your bag? Your back? and then just because I needed a third one, I added Your belly?)

As far as that other Elder goes... He is a district leader and a trainer at the moment, didn´t get transfered, but will this next transfer because I think they are going to close the area. I should pray for him. Thanks. I only have prayed for knowledge on how to deal with it while I´m around him. We´ll see how it goes next time we´re around each other. I have told President Mellor, so he knows now. Last week I just left him un-named but this week I told him who it was. I don´t mind you asing your mm friends for advice. They´ve had kids go through the same things so they know better from experience than we do.

I´ll check this week on the price of boullion and decide. as far as the little vanilla things that Kayla got... I think that would be awesome! Not that I think you wouldn't do this but just to make sure... Wrap ´em up nicely so the iPod doesn´t die if they do. :) That would be bad.

Worst thing... I still haven´t gotten a letter from a really cool person that has held my awesome sword. Elder Going said that it wasn´t even in the office. I think she may have sent it to the MTC or the CCM. :( That was a bummer.

The Best things... I have gotten more flexible with my legs. I´m thinking it might be possible for me to do the splits by the time I get home. :) And if you saw me try to stretch before the mission that is a 10000% improvement!!! jaja Sorry nothing really extraordinary happened this week with missionary work. In fact we might be losing one of our baptismal dates. We called to set up a cita and he basically told us that he doesn´t want to be baptized. (the last lesson we taught was the word of wisdom) Fun stuff! The wife is still comming along a bit better though!

I´m happy for you that you are getting a good Christmas present from random people you´ve never met!!! jaja You and your mm´s! :P

I have a couple things to ask for... If you could find some spanish bible tabs for the different books that would be awesome. I think I could order them off the mission website but that would take a while and since you are already planning on sending me a package... Also I´m getting kind of low on my Burt´s Bees chapstick. If you could send me one of those with it too... Thanks!!!

So I was thinking this week... Now that you´ve gotten out on the water on the kayaks a couple of times, you oughta take the Sailboat out to the lake!!! :) Ok that is a bit of a joke but I do hope that it´s not just sitting tere for all two years. In fact I really wouldn´t mind if it got put under the back porch or something... out of the sun. :D

Well I hope everything is going well! I love you all! Have a wonderful day!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Heywood

Elder Going is Going

Dear Mom,

Well, Elder Going is geting transfered... He´s going to the office to be the financero, which is funny because we were talking about that maybe happening since we still haven´t gotten our travel money for this month... that means thathe will try to get tothe office but he doesn´t have money yet to go give others money. haha I have actually learned to love the people here with him but didn´t really think about that until I read your letter. It was also what I was looking forward to in getting out of the MTC. It was just hard to teach lessons and not people. Here in the field you get to know people and teach to their needs and work for them rather than for yourself (learning lessons). My new companion is Elder Jensen. I am not sure where he is from but he is only two transfers ahead of me. That will be fun. I actually hope his spanish isn´t a ton better than mine so that I can learn faster, rather than relying on my companion to take care of things. I´ll let you know a little more about him next week.

Thanks for the solutions to the bag and the back. I will see what I can do this week. I´m glad you had a blast on your birthday! Sounds like you had fun!... Even though it was water! :)

I would absolutely love it if Pres Turk came to be my President!!! That sure would make me feel loved! But, as for now, I have felt the Father´s love through... well right now I can only think of how my parents raised me. I´m just struggling a bit with anger towards a really crude missionary in my zone. I felt a couple times today like shutting him up myself since he wouldn´t allow a change in topic in any way, shape or form. I know Dad has remined me to hate the sin and not the person, but that´s all I know of him. I dread the possibility of someday being put with him because he would either change or get hurt. Sorry to say it but I don´t kow what to do. Should I play Pollyanna and say... I´m glad I only have to see him, at most, 2 times a week!... which is too much. Anyway, Thanks again for teaching well and raising me to pick good friends.

Can I ask you to do another thing for me and just tell me... what is the price on boullion (beef and chicken). I finally found where it is here but if it is a huge difference from here I may as well have you send some with the iPod... and Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. :) And I´m havinga tough time finding vanilla too. Could you just tell me the price of that and maybe I´ll ask for a small bottle of that too if i need to. Probably not on this one though.

Sorry this wasn´t a very fruitful or great email but I´m not in the best of moods right now. I hope you got your letter or will get it soon. And sorry for all the missed spaces. The space bar doesn´t want to work on this computer. Well, I love you Mom...and Dad when you read this. Help me out! Just pray!

<3 Always
Austin Heywood

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