From last week . . .

Well I´m glad to here that Kayla´s wedding plans are falling into place and that everything seems to be working out! I´m also glad to here that the house is going to be so much nicer when I get back. So what´s the deal then?... are you moving or not? Or do you still just not know?

Well, about the packages... #2 arrived but I haven´t seen the one with the camera... I´m getting kind of worried! Are you sure you got the address right? You put plaza de astreo 3, BJ4 right? haha jk I got the camera and I´m loving it! I should get the other one in a day or two! I wish I would have gotten it early today because I don´t have access to any money at all! We were planning on getting mission money this morning but it didn´t come so I can´t even use that money to go shopping and then pay it back with my personal card. So we set this day aside to go Christmas shopping but... well that only works when you have money. :´(

As for the baptisms... Yes they are doing well and K, in my opinion, just needs a couple more good friends in the church and she will do great! She´s just a little shy! A, on the other hand, is not shy. She fits in so well! She loves the church and is willing to follow the commandments! And I don´t know what we (the missionaries here) will be doing for Christmas. But that´s why we´ve got 25 days to figure it out!

THANKSGIVING!!! That was a good dinner! It was a young couple that has been married for 5 years and this was the first time they cooked the dinner by themselves. All the other years it was their parents and they just sat back and enjoyed it. This year they were scrambling to figure things out on MarthaStewart.com! haha But it turned out quite delectible!!! We played some American football that morning and I think I may have released a little bit of extra frustration. :/ It was still fun though. Just a little dangerous with the wet artificial turf and metal fences surrounding it. Nobody got hurt though! It was a good day! Well, that night Bryan... the American that we ate with took us home... We got out of the car and realized that we didn´t have my stuff. We called the other missionaries and they called him and he was back at our house in 3 minutes! He pulled up and said, Don´t you love cell phones?!?

They really work miracles sometimes.

I will start doing that gratitude thing every day!

I have asked our family to do what President Eyring spoke of a little while back; each day, no matter how tired you are, before you go to sleep, write something the Lord has done for you during the day. We are doing this every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and then we will discuss it on Christmas Eve. It is really hard sometimes, but I understand it gets easier. If you can, I' love for you to join us in this endeavor.

That sounds like a great lesson that Bishop gave! I wish that kind of thing worked for investigators, but they don´t really know the problems that they faced in the Book of Mormon. It would be good for a ward lesson here though! We do have to teach every now and then so I´ll keep that in mind.

Today's combined Priesthood and RS lesson was good. Bishop asked us to list all "our" problems - not with specifics, but what our ward is facing. Then he asked us to move to "The World," naming the things that are drastically worse than ours or that we don't really face. When the chalkboard was pretty full, he asked us to name all the problems that were in the Book of Mormon that aren't already on the chalkboard. . . There really weren't any that we could come up with. Umm . . . there really aren't any. Then he asked us where we could turn to find peace and aswers. He finished by asking us to find book of Mormon references that teach us how to deal with the challenges we face. I really thought he did a great job and gave us all pause to think - with a belief that we could improve in turning to the Book of Mormon for answers, as well as the desire to do so.

I´m glad to hear that I now have 2 Ukrainian cousins!!! And I´m glad that transfers are coming up! And I´M GLAD TO HAVE AN AWESOME CAMERA!!! :D When I showed it to Hermana Mellor, who is a camera person, She said that that is the one she wants to get! I think I made a wise choice!!! Thank You So Much For Sending it for me!

Love Always,
Elder Heywood

Transfer :)

Well, I guess you are not going to get pictures of the baptism... I tried but the computer just keeps freezing up. We had a really good baptism last saturday and the mom was able to come! I ended up baptising her... or trying... three times! :P

I am so frustrated with this computer right now! So you are not going to get a very long letter. Sorry! We also had dinner at their house yesterday... I love spicy food! I miss it! Well, as far as transfers go... I´m getting out of here and spending the next while with Elder Bytheway ... NO RELATION TO JOHN!!! hint hint* That will be down in Tenerife! My area is Los Cristianos. I have the address...at home. I don´t know what fruit to like... I will maybe have some new favorites in a cuple days! :) We have most of the normal stuff here and then a couple more tropical fruits. I will tell you more of that next week! I Can´t type more than 15 words a mintue right now! GRRRRRR

I was told though to tell you that I need my student ID from MVT so that I can get in places cheaper here. So next letter you send to me try and throw that in... if you can find it! I am loving my camera! Thank you so much!!

I love you all and I´m sorry I did not write yesterday and I´m not able to write much today! Apparently the sevilla winter is too much for this computer! It is frozen solid!

I sent a package... there is a note inside explaining what goes to who! Mom is to open the box. I hope you all enjoy everything!

Well, I´m fed up with this computer so...

Have a wonderful week!
Elder Heywood

Ahh, Look at that sweet guy!

Dear Mom,

The work here is going great! We did get a call today from President... To congradulate us on our TWO BAPTISMAL DATES!!! :D We are going to baptise bothe Karina (yes it´s with a K... I got in trouble about that one) and Alessandra on the 21st of November! I´m getting my feet wet in my first area! I´ll be baptising Alessandra. And as far as Alessandra´s family goes... Her brother came to church yesterday and her mom will be able to start coming next week! They are all on their way to getting baptised... VERY SOON! We´re thinking that it´s possible to have them baptised on the Saturday before I leave! They are una familia de oro!!! Karina´s mom will be a little longer though. But she´ll come around some day!

We taught some bulgarians this last saturday... Boy was that a fun lesson! So the last time we were with them we found out that they speak russian. It just so happens that one of our recent converts speaks a fair amount of russian and understands spanish fairly well (She´s from Georgia... the coutry). Anyway, we decided that since The Restoration DVD plays in russian we would watch that... But they didn´t have a remote so it could only play in English. So we translated from english to spanish for Maía(the Georgian) and she translated from spanish to russian for the Bulgarians... that could understand russian... And then they translated to Bulgarian for their wives that could only understand bulgarian. haha FOUR LANGUAGES IN ONE LESSON!!! BOOM BABY!!!!!!!!!! Sounds hectic, and at times it was, but it turned out good and they are hopefully going to come to the baptism in two weeks!

We have not had our primary program yet. I am still dreading that one! :P That´s going to be a fun week!... sort of! But we did just have a family move into our ward and the husband plays the piano... the only thing is that he has a stake calling which takes him to other wards just about every other week! :( Oh well! At least when I leave they will only have to sing acapella every other week!!! haha

No Kayla did not tell me she´s getting married! Dec 19th! Are they doing announcements? If they are send me one! They are going to get married 364 days after I got my mission call!!! hehe Well, de todas modas... Felicidades!

Camera... Go Buy It!!! if there´s a store warranty that covers it for a few years... even dropping it... get that too... if it´s not too expensive. Once again, I trust your Judgement! Get it sent with this package if you can!... and I want the owners manual... Just tear out the pages that are in english and only send that.

Any specialties for Christmas for back home? I better get something sent soon! or at least put together soon.

That is a good letter that Aunt Monica sent! Unfortunately with some ...not the best... news. Well, I will pray for them that everything wil go well this weekend. And that they can bring Sasha home!

It is sweet to see the change in people as they grasp onto the truth! Alessandra is one that loves to learn! Our contact with her was practicing english with her and teaching her a little bit in english. then she just wanted to know everything about the gospel. She has the faith and just needs the beliefs to be formed. She´s like a bit of clay on a wheel. Soft, moldable and will be thrown in the kiln on the 21st and 22nd! The Lord is sitting on the stool and we are the hands of the Lord. She, and her family, will be stong members! They have been so prepared! Back to grasping the gospel... Her mom has already commented to her and us, in the short two weeks that we´ve taught her, that she has noticed a great change in her. And the members see her love for the gospel as well! She is Awesome!!!

Well, I think that´s about all I have to say for this week!

I love you all very much and pray for you continually!

Con Amor,

Uncle Elder Austin Heywood

ps. I did get my package! ;) haha That was a happy friday! I also got a letter from Amy! :D Thanks for the Pecans!!! I didn´t even scarf them... they took me 3 whole hours to finish! jk I think I´ve eaten about 7 of them. I´m doing good! And Elder Jensen liked the Reese´s! Thanks!!! And a special thanks for the Josh Groban´s You Raise Me Up!!! I absolutely Love that song!!! Smooth move on the "Religious Books" haha! I was curious about that when I saw it! Anyway, I love you all! Talk to you... well, on Christmas... but I´ll write you again at least once before then! hehe

Mucho Amor!!!

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.