Mom,

I am doing well this week!  We had a few days out of the area but it´s been good!  I got to meet some people from Algeciras that I met 8 months ago.  We also had a zone meeting and interviews with the President.

As far as investigators... We did have three in church this week.  The mom and daughter that came last week came this week with the boyfriend of the the daughter.  They have more potencial than we thaught at first!... and they came again!!!  That was a huge surprise for us!  And it kind of threw for a spin when I got up to give a talk in Sacrament meeting.  I had planned to tell the parents that they need to take control with their kids in Sacrament meeting!  Last week was the loudest and most ridiculous week of church ever in my  life, and every time I thought about what to talk about it was that.  Only because I´ve lost investigators because of that and I don´t want it to happen again!  Well, we weren´t expecting the investigators this week and they showed up... that told me that I had to change the talk at least a little bit.  Then as the choir sang the prelude hymn people actually stopped to listen.  That was strange.  Then they stayed absolutely silent after it was over.  I started to feel bad about the talk I had prepared and started to worry about the talk I was going to give.  WHAT DO I DOOOOO???  I gave a sketchy, scrambled talk.  I don´t understand, because it was almost 100% Silent!  THE ENTIRE HOUR!!!  WOW!!!

The other family of investigators didn´t come this week because the husband is a trucker and was home this weekend!  But they are still great!  We were able to visit them once this last week and we hope that the daughter will become really good friends with B and go to the Gala Dance this weekend!  That would be optimal!!!

You say the Bible is important!... I was debating today whether to give my Bible to that new convert that is doing great!  You see, her family is all JW.  And she has a JW Bible... We want her to have the LDS version which came out last year in spanish!  I guess I´ll keep mine and buy her a cheep new one! haha  You never know why you write some things huh?

We are doing well and I am trying my best to finish well!  I had Sister Rodriguez count for me yesterday how many more times I´ll be able to go to their house to eat! (10-12) haha

I´m doing better and better and we´re gonna fight to the end!

Love you Mom!... and anybody else that might be reading this!!!

Elder Heywood

ps. A girl in the ward is wanting to know the name of one of the hermanas that was suposedly here one year ago when I visited.  If you could look up the picture(s) of Zone conference in San fernando when I was comps with Elder Jensen.  It would have been about November of 2009!  Send me the group pictures please!!!

Well, no spouse...yet!!! haha  Thank you for working school out for me.  I did have a thought this week about whether my major is bio-medical or bio-mechanical... Elder Bytheway´s brother (in-law?) is in the same thing.  If you were to talk to Bytheway´s mom you could find out which one!

 

Thank you for that email, Dad.  I will make that list and start working on it.  I have had a better week thanks to a comment made by one of the sisters in my district.  We were talking about success in hte mission and making a list of how to recognize tat we are successful she said, "We know we are successful missionaries when it hurts as we can´t fullfil our purpose."  That struck me because that´s where it all started going down hill and I allowed myself to get depressed and lost the desire to work.  I found where the problem started and I am taking care of it.

 

Dad, I love you and thank you for your support!

 

This week I´ve still had a tough time crawling out of bed onto the cold floor, but I´ve been a lot more happy about working!  We also have helped a recent convert come back to church on sundays.  She got baptised right before Christmas and then had a ton of things come up during the holidays and stopped coming and reading the Book of Mormon.  We had a lesson with her and in everything it came out that this is the step that members take right before inactivation.  She realized that and started coming to church and reading again!  The second week that she came... yesterday... she brought 2 families with her!  One of them, the daughter might actually have interest!!!  The other family is from Ecuador!!!  They are just simply amazing!!!  And just before church started I was talking to one of the ward missionaries and told her that we just need new investigators!  That the work is hard without!  After church (with 4 investigators.. 3 of them new) I was talking to her again and she said something to the effect of "And you say you need new investigators!" haha  We do receive blessings!  And they are a great one!

 

Apart from that, I haven´t had much go on this week!  Just a great big surprise at the end of the week! 

 

I love you Mom!

 

Thanks for your prayers!!!  I can feel my testimony come back!  It got hidden for a little bit!  I know what I´m here for!

 

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

Best Birthday Ever!

So, yes I am going to Chiclana de la Frontera!  And yes that is Elder Fetzer´s first area!  However, there is one piece of information that you have not connected yet... That is the ward that the Rodriguez family live in!!!   It was more than a year ago that Juan Rodriguez and his family moved from Aljarafe to Chiclana and he told me to tell President to let me finish my mission in Chiclana!  I did tell Pres. Mellor because I knew he would be long gone and would have nothing to do with transfers then!  I said nothing of this to Pres. Clegg!  Well, we got the call on the way to district meeting this friday telling me I´m headed to Chiclana!  I told other missionaries that I either wanted to finish the mission in Sevilla or Chiclana!  I´m going to Chiclana!!!

My new companion is Elder West.  I´ve heard lots of good things about him and I´m excited!  The only downer to all this... I think that I´m sent to the run down pisos to fix ´em up.  haha  It is a pretty bad piso but from what I hear, the missionary leaving there is a clean missionary!    I don´t have his mom´s email yet but I do have the address to the new piso. 

This week was an amazing week to end on!  We hit the mission goal of 20 lessons in the week! It´s probably the first time that Alcazar has hit it in a long time!  And to top off the record breaking numbers we had two baptisms!  They went really well!  The spirit was way strong as they came out of the water!  This was the first baptism I wasn´t really worried/stressed/nervous for.  I was way calm!  I loved it!  Afterwards, the Branch President told us to leave the water in the font with the hope and faith that the other two sisters would decide to get baptised next weekend!!!  That would just be AWESOME!!!

The Chicken noodle soup turned out a little more like the soup that you make!(thanks to the large pot that Ana lent to us)  It´s usually more like a stew for us!  They all... well almost all... loved it!  The gluten free noodles worked too! (That was for the mom).  The only ones that didn´t like it were those that don´t like vegetables!  We did have left overs and gave some to the Cleggs from Ciudad Real.  They had been traveling all week and hadn´t eaten much for the past two days and came straight to the baptism!  We sent them with some soup!  They were way grateful for that!

I had a great birthday!  I received the letter that you sent on friday and loved the many compliments that were sent my way!  Thank You!!!  We had a Christmas activity and Ana made me brownies!  I got a present from the missionaries/me... a new watch!!!  But it´s not a digital watch and not an analog watch.  It´s a binary watch with led lights!!!  It´s SOOOOO SWEET!!!!!!  Check out the picture!  Then of course I found out (the day before) that I´m going back to be with the Rod´s in Chiclana!  

It is a binary watch.

My sweet birthday watch!

I am happy to be here in the mission!  I am sad to not have a car anymore!  But I am happy to be going where I am going!  I hope the warmer weather heals me!  I´ve had a cold for the past two weeks now!  I have gone through about 3 rolls of toilet paper now and it seems like it will never stop!!!  Any suggestions in case I continue ill next week?

I´m glad to hear that Amber is doing fine!  So what are you supposed to do on ice?  turn into the slide (wheels in the dirrection you want to go?) and let off the gas and not push on the brake?  I think that´s what I remember but I´m not sure!  Luckily I´m not in too great a danger of that happening here!  Especially with the weather like it´s been this past week!  It´s strangely warm!

As far as those ideas for Christmas... and life... (inserted below from Meridian Magazine) I am going to keep those in mind and try to keep them in action!  I love you all and wish you all the best!

He Loves Us One at a Time

As I turned to Heavenly Father in prayer, I felt His counsel to me through His Son. I began to understand that Christ doesn’t atone for all of us at once, en masse. He atones for us one person at a time; He cleanses us one heart at a time, and He loves us one at a time as choice and unique individuals. 

What Part of “Always” Do I not Understand?

I choose Him every hour, consciously, deliberately.  I touch bases with Him and ask what He would have me do this hour. I “listen” to the answering thought or impression, trusting that if I ask of Him bread, He will not give me a stone or allow Satan to, either.  If I ask of Him the truth, He will not lie to me.

And in this act of doing exactly what the Sacrament prayer tells us to do—to always remember Him—I find the gift of guidance and wisdom so far beyond my own that I am constantly astounded at His generosity.

Con Amor,

Elder Heywood

Activity coming up

Our Christmas tree with my birthday gift. 

Well, this week we went to the family´s house in Tomelloso (the one that has 7 kids) and had the best lesson ever with them!  Two of the kids said they had prayed and want to be baptised!  They will be baptised on the 12th and we are hoping that the other two children will also pray and receive their answer!  That would be the answer to many prayers!  The lesson I´ve learned is that it requires everything that the missionaries have in order to see miracles.  We are going to see many great things here!

This Saturday we have a branch activity and I think it´s going to be a great thing for the investigators!  I will also be spending a bit of time on saturday cooking an extra big chicken noodle soup for the baptism.  They live a half hour away so they are staying after church and the whole family and some members and some investigators will probably be at president´s house and I told them I was cooking!   It might turn into a bigger thing than I thought!  what´s done is done!  To the kitchen!

The transfers are on the 16th of December!... Next week!  I will be letting you know about when to call by next monday... hopefully!  The number won´t be available until the week of Christmas!  Let me know when the family can be gathered together so that I can talk with you all!  I don´t know if I´ll be transfered or not anymore!  Pres. Clegg pulled me aside after a meeting and asked me what I thought about transfers.  I gave him an indifferent answer.  I also have no clue what´s going on because there are so many Elders that are supposed to be coming in that don´t have their visas yet.  So that could really throw the mission for a spin.  So it´s all up in the air.

Thank you for putting E on the prayer roll!  She has improved a TON since two weeks ago!!!  We are doing what we can to distract her from her depression and focussing on the happy things in life!  The most interesting thing that she did was thank us for not getting mad when she called us and we ran over there last week!  She just needs more people that can help her smile!

I´m glad to hear that Jared is doing well with his health!  I hope he continues to improve!  And how are he and Jill doing?  Any other updates from friends?  I can´t remember if I told you or not but Elder Hafen is getting married!  Do you know anything about Kam?

Well, I love you all and wish you the best during the holiday season!  

Elder Austin Heywood

It was legit

Mom,

Yes, I did make all of those transactions!  Even the stinkin´ $300 transaction! That´s the fun part about having a car!  sometimes I have to take money out of my personal account and get it reimbursed later!  That was a €220 rear tire replacement!  I gave my reimbursements to the finance officer in the mission, Elder Bullen, the other day at zone conference... €424!!!  It´s crazy how much we have to travel up here!  So the question, will I get that €220 back? YES!  And if I don´t I´ll be hunting someone down!  hahah  I have been thinking about that €220 and thought that I might just take that out of my account and use that and only that to do my gift shopping/ shipping/ Christmas/ anything else that I do that is not covered by the mission.  That way I don´t spend anything more than that.  Of cource that might include a biking jersey!   I found a way cool one... and I´ll keep it to one!!!

So this last weeks craziness...Well, let´s start off with Monday.  I was feeling better again!  I DIDN´T have any health issues.  Until I ate our Chicken noodle soup.  It was only a week old and refrigerated and I have never had problems with it even after two weeks once.  Well something went wrong this time.  I felt like garbage all day long.  I went to bed still feeling horrible and woke up at 5:50 in the morning.  I´m glad the bathroom was close!  I´m also glad that I threw it up this time rather than suffering for a week!  Monday we also got our tires replaced and almost had to change all our travel plans because the tires might not have gotten done on time.  But they did!  It´s a good thing too because we all of a sudden needed a ton of luggage space on this trip.  We had the two Elders in Ciudad Real go home this week.  The one had a stress fracture in his foot and the other had back problems.  So they really needed the van!!!  Then we went down to malaga and I had to drive a normal missionary car and realized how spoiled I am with the van!  I don´t like the tiny little cars they give the missionaries.  But I survived and by the end of the trip I got accustomed to it.  Then I returned and stopped in Jaen on the way.  Elder Fetzer went back to his first area on train.  We both had to pick up our residency cards.  I got to the office in Jaen the next morning and they told me I needed to have another paper that I truly did NOT need to have!  They just like causing problems there!  It happened to be a receipt from paying the fee.  Now, remember that €424 that I gave to Elder Bullen?  That has to be turned in with receipts!  It had that receipt in it!  It was a blessing that I had turned it in because otherwise it would be in my piso and nobody would have access to it.  That means another trip!  So, I called him up and had him email a scan of it!  That´s when you got the letter on thursday!  they accepted it and now I´m legal!  

Then we made our way up to Ciudad real to wait for my companion!  I stayed with the couple missionaries, the Cleggs, and went with Elder Clegg to the train station at 5:40 to pick up Elder Fetzer!  as we pulled up we got THE CALL!  Elder Fetzer telling us that he slept through the station!  He came to his senses as the train was rolling away!    Now here´s the catch... this was an Ave!(the fast train)  The next stop was in Zaragoza (look it up on the map).  And there was no return train that day!  He had to take another Ave to madrid and then another one back to Ciudad real!  Now this is normally about an €80 mistake.  The train company was way nice to him! They walked him around the station and kept him close so as to not give him free vacation to Barcelona and Madrid but they didn´t charge him a penny more than he originally paid to get to Ciudad Real!!!  Another big blessing from the Lord!  So, instead of arriving at 5:40 he arrived in Ciudad Real at 11:11pm.  Then we had to drive an hour and ten minutes to get home!

What did I do in between all that time that he was detoured?  I stayed with the Cleggs! (the couple missionaries)  They are awesome!!!  She was also sick and staying inside all day but she made me a little dinner and went to bed.  I stayed up for a little while reading Pres. Monson´s biography.  I ended up catching a little shut eye so I could make the drive home that night.  We´re all safe and sound and recovered from the lack of sleep now!  But our whole district is just always getting sick!  I don´t understand it!  We are all getting sick more often than we ever have in our mission if not in our lives! 

Well, that´s the craziness!  Now the good!  Ana and Jorge are just awesome!  I know I´ve said it plenty but they just keep doing more and more for us all the time!  If there were just two families like them in every ward in spain we would be sooooo much better off!  They LOVE missionary work!!!  They are willing to do anything they can to help us in the work.  It´s awesome!!!

I´m glad you got to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony!  That would be way cool!!!  That man that made all the shovels and the stand... he sounds about like some people I know... tell the story, forget that he told it, restart, get half way through, forget and start again! 

So, Thanksgiving (and your anniversary) No, we don´t really have anything set up!  They won´t let us change our p-day this year so we´re getting together the following monday (next monday) to have the turkey bowl!  I don´t know that we will have any kind of dinner or anything but whatever!  No americans to visit up here!   I do want the pumkin nut roll recipe for Christmas though!!!  That will be a great hit I´m sure!!!

I´m glad to hear that Tara is doing well!  Or at least feeling victorious!  I heard while I was in Jaen the other day that Elder Hafen is getting married in December to his girlfriend.  And Elder Bytheway is getting married to an Hermana that went home with his group, Hermana Nicoll!  There are tons of people getting married!  It´s crazy!!!  

Well, this week was decent... LONG... but decent!  We had something happen last night that has never happened to me in the mission!  We were knocking doors and we knocked the whole building and the last door we came to... (TRUE STORY BY THE WAY!!!)  They invited us in!  Not only to come back another day but to come in right at that moment!!!  That was a first for me and Elder Fetzer!  They are Romanian and don´t understand too much spanish but we´ll get there!  That was a nice lift to a long two days of almost nothing!

So, that has been my last two weeks!  Crazy, fun, and exhausting!  I hope you have a great week!  I love you all!

Con Amor,

Elder Heywood

ps.  I am just about out of the green face wash.  if you could send about half of a small bottle of it that would be fantastic.  That should get me through the end of the mission!

here´s one for Kristalyn... I was talking to our member that was baptized by Scott Hinton.  She said she asked him if he knew me and he replied, "conozco a su hermana. Ella es muy guapa!"

My tie is back!

Don´t worry, Mom, all missions split up travel funds and living funds!  I don´t have to go without anything in order to have a car!... except the bus and train!  It was an expensive trip down to Fuengirola!  And it was a long one too!!!  I was sick the entire time and didn´t really get much out of the meetings.  I didn´t even go to a few of the meetings.  I stayed in bed all day thursday and took nothing in except 2 glasses of water at the very end of the day!  I think that in the whole week I ate about the same amount of food as I would in one normal day! I tried weighing myself at the end of sunday but it wouldn´t let me.  I´m not sure if it didn´t register that someone was on it or that it was just out of batteries. haha

I´m eating a little bit now and I´m getting a bit better. 

Elder Fetzer is still having stomach pains here and there. But we´re able to work now!

Elder S and the reunion... He was an Elder that was in my room in the MTC... for a week!  He went home for a while.  This is his first transfer back in the mission!!!  When he left the MTC (a year and a half ago) we traded ties and I told him, "I want this tie back."  He was told that he could probably go back to the same mission and he´s now here!    That´s what that happy face was about!  I´m going to get my tie back! (but that means a whole lot more than the tie itself!)  The Cleggs are cousins and yes, she was in the general primary presidency!  They are way awesome!!!

Meet the Cleggs              

                                       and the Cleggs!

I did hear something good from our branch president yesterday!  He takes the family that we're teaching to and from church every week and has a chance to talk to the parents more than we do on weeks like this!  He told us last night that we will probably have 4 baptisms in December!  That would be the four kids... we´re going to get the whole family!  That means a marriage!!! :)  We´re going to do it!!!

26 hungry missionaries can down a lot of food!

s

Lots to learn at our specialized training.

You say that Sean H is home... There seems to be a lot of people having to go home to recover from their missions!  It´s a sad thing!  I hope he gets better!!!  We´ve also had almost our entire district sick lately. five of the six of us have been ill.  I´m pretty sure that the adversary is working pretty hard on us in a physical way... maybe because he´s been defeated spiritually!!!  Upward and Onward!!!

Have a great week and enjoy the groundbreaking of the temple!!!

Elder Austin Heywood

ps. I do want more burts bees in the next package!