Monday, December 30, 2013
Merry Merry Christmas from Madrid
This has been the best Christmas ever! I love you all so much! This last week was so so so so so good and it is paining me to not be able to write all about it this week becuase I dont have time but here is a little about the baptism of DANNY Y OLGA!
Fam, Saturday was one of the best days of my mission! Danny and Olga were baptized and everything went perfectly! I cannot describe in words the happiness we felt that day! Ah, it was so perfect. They were just both so ready and so filled with excitement to be baptized! I have not seen that kind of happiness in Danny ever! It made my heart happy.
Then Sunday they received the Holy Ghost and it was so perfect. They are both so happy! Then monday we had a lesson with Danny and after our lesson he asked where we were headed to and we said another lesson and he siad, awesome, can I come now with you, since Im a member now?! haha and he siad it with a huge smile like he was just so excited to be a member! I can not explain the happiness in my heart when he asked us this! So he came with us. Our lesson ended up failing us which was pretty darn sad but it was still so neat to see his enthusiasm to share his testimony and help us! Then today we got a text saying feliz navidad and that he is available to come to a lesson with us tonight if we want! So so so so awesome!
ok real fast another thing.... this is part of my email to my president today....
"Merry Christmas President Jackson!
Thank you for the devotional last night! It was wonderful! That was so great to have the Bishop and Sister Whitchurch there! They are amazing. I worked close with both of them when I was in their ward and they are just the best.
We had Danny and Olga´s baptism on Saturday and it was one of the best days of my mission so far. There is nothing like seeing your investigators in white. I can only imagine what it will be like to see them in white in the temple one day. Danny is already helping us in lessons and has such a desire to do what is right.
Hermana Scheu and I received one of the best Christmas presents last night. On Friday we had a lesson with one of our investigators named Javier. His desire to follow Christ and do what Heavenly Father wants him to do is one of the most purest I have ever seen. He just wants so badly to do what is right but he is so confused on what is right. He feels like all churches are good and so he just doesnt know which one is the right one. So the lesson on Friday was SO good and we resolved so many of his doubts and the best is that he finally prayed to end the lesson. But, then that night we received a text that said, "no voy a seguir con ustedes, lo siento. gracias por todo." We were absolutely devastated and had no clue what happened and what to say back. We prayed and felt like we should let him sleep on it and we would call him in the morning. Well, long story short it that we called and he said he would be willing to meet with us one more time to explain what happened. We met him yesterday morning in Mcdonalds with a member and he told us that is pained him to send us that text but he is just so confused right now and just is overwhelmed and didnt know what to do. We testified a ton, read several scriptures and told him to pray that night to know if he should continue meeting with us. Well, we recieved a message from him last night when we got home from the devotional and he said "quiero seguir escuchandolas"! Hna Scheu and I literally jumped up and down with excitement! It was such a great Christmas present!"
Ahhh we said that that text was just a happy as anything else we got for Christmas! WE love Javier and are so excited that he is willing to keep meeting with us!
Ok I love you fam! I love you SOOO much! Thank you for everything! It was SO GREAT skyping with you! It was so wonderful to see your faces and hear your voices!
Les quiero muchisimo!
Con amor,
Hermana Heims
Miracle week!
Hola familia!
what a day! We spent the whole morning trying to get Hna Scheu´s package that her mom sent her for Christmas that was stuck in customs. Fam.... Hna Jackson told us... when you send a package DO NOT write everything that you send and the price. write "mission supplies" "20 bucks". y ya esta, nothing else. jaja. Poor Hna Scheu had to pay 80bucks to get her package this morning.
Well, this week was a super good week. I could literally go on and on about all the miracles we saw and how many times the Lord put us in the right spot at the right time to be able to help someone or share the gospel with someone. But, I will just write a few...
Intercambio day should just be called miracle day. Seriously every intercambios we do we just see miracle after miralce. Hna Scheu is the Hna Trainer still so every week I still do intercambios while she is doing them. This last week I was with Hna Frost. She is actually in our ward too and just came down this transfer from the North. She is wonderful. She was in my area so it is always just a tad more stressful when I stay in our area and an Hermana comes to me. I obviously know my area super well and everything but it is jsut a little more stressful because most often than not they are sad to have to leave their area and investigators for the day so I try and make our day super fun and eventful. But this day with Hermana Frost was rough. We had a few lessons fail us, it was raining, freezing cold, and I could not for the life of me find someone to stop by and have a lesson with. I was calling every investigator, less active, recent convert I could think of and no one was answering. So, our option was to go out in the freezing cold and contact for the rest of the night until we had to meet our companions to switch back. We were both kind of bummed but I kept remembering what President Jackson had recently told us "people only fail you for 2 reasons, either you are disobedient or you are needed somewhere else". I was thinking, well we arent disobedient so we must be needed somewhere else. We said a pray to be guided to where we were needed and we hit the streets. And man. The first hour we had 0 luck. Literally no one was stopping, no one would even make eye contact with us, it was rough and we were both kinda annoyed. Hna Frost knew that her companion and Hna Scheu had super awesome lessons planned for the night so she was extra bummed. jaja. but then we knocked on a members door just to quickly go inside where it was warm for a second and use the bathroom. When we got there there gave us hot chocolate and we decided to just share a quick mormon message with them and then head out. Well, turns out that the younger brother had a friend over who watched the video with us adn after we were all discussing it and he said he wants to meet with us and everything. We got his number and headed out. We were so thankful that Heavenly Father had guided us to exactly where we needed to be. We also ended up having another lesson with one of our investigators that has been having a hard time progressing and the lesson went so so well and we committed him to be baptized once he knows that this church is true and he finally committed to come to church (which he did yesterday and liked it alot!).
Then, yesterday the same thing happened, we had a few lessons fails us but then we ended up being in the right place at the right time to teach someone else (this lady´s name.... Dorka. yes you read that right! haha. we had to keep hard from laughing!) Ahh, I jsut love this work and I am so so so thankful for the Holy Ghost! I feel truly blessed.
Well, Danny and Olga ahve their interviews this week and then they are getting baptized Saturday. Them and us could not be more excited. Danny bought a suit this weekend for it! haha. ahhh.... fam, I so wish you could be in one of our lessons with Danny. I SO wish you could meet him. His testimony of this gospel is simple but so pure.
Well, tonight we have our Programma de Navidad! We are excited! We are praying that all of our investigators, recent converts, ward members, and anyone come! Although oh man so we had our practice last week and Hna Scheu and I about died laughing the whole time.... ok so we both cant sing but we have to memorize these songs in spanish so we have been singing them a ton and there are all songs that we know in English like Hark the Herald Angels sing, Joy to the World, Silent night and a few others. But we ar eboth so tone deaf that the tunes that we memorized were so off. jajajaj. the words were right but the tunes were not even close! hah. And ok, I have gotten so many emails the last few weeks about how you guys want to hear more about funny, random, day to day things that happen instead of only about my investigators. I will try adn add more random things in but the truth is is tha tmy investigators are the most important things to me and my lessons with them and all about them is what I am constantly thinking about and what brings me the most joy so that is wha tI want to share with you all. I know you dont knwo them at all but I hope you feel a special love for them. I have such a deep love for each one of them. Seriously, it is the craziest thing how it happens but no matter what, even just all of the random people I talk to on the street that dont give me their number, I LOVE so much. And it is not just cheesy or lame, it is a serious, deep love for them. It is one of the most greatest things I have ever been able to experience. Anyways, a few random things that I can remember from the week...
jajaja so in Sol (the tent of Carlos, Duglas, Reineir, Olga, etc) it is always just an adventure when we are there. Cubans have the worst accent to try and understand. Literally, I did intercambios a few weeks ago with a girl from teh states but her parents are from south America so she grew up speaking spanish in her house but def speaks english better than spanish but even she siad there are plenty of times where she cannot understand CArlos and REinier and Duglas. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE these people but they talk like they have a golf ball in their both. It is casi impossible to understand them. Anyways, so Hna Scheu and I just have fun when we are there and try to understand the best we can. and they understnad that we dont understand everything adn they are super patient so it is all good. But the other night when we were just about to start our lesson some random cubans that live here in madrid stopped by to meet them and say hi (this happens on a daily basis I feel) and they all got talking and talking and it was in cuban spanish and super fast so Hna Scheu and I just tuned out about 2 seconds into the convo and were like shoot, haha so what do we do now?! They had just fed us sandwiches (that someone had given them the night before and they had two extras so they saved them for hna Scheu and I... soooo nice! They literally are always thinking of us and do things like that all of the time) so we had tin foil from the sandwhiches so we rolled them up into balls and gave each other tin foil back massages. jaja may sound lame but seriously our backs were killing us that day and tin foil balls make the best back massage things. haha. But dont worry, we did our work too and ended up sharing our message with this cuban couple as well adn got their contact info to teach them another time!
Another random thing,,, actually this is just too nice and cute to not share... so the other day during our lunch we headed up to the airport to try and get Hna Scheu´s package from custums. We got off the metro adn had no clue hwere to go so we asked a random older guy for directions. He gave us the dirrections and off we went. We had been walking for a good five minutes when we hear a guy running behind us. We turn around to find this old guy (mid seventies we would guess) running after us to tell us that he told us the wrong bus number to get on. He was so out of breath he could barely talk. Seriously, do you get any nicer than that?! He had originally told us bus 214 but remembered after that it was bus 205 so he ran after us to tell us the right bus number. Made our day. So so nice.
Ummm... I cant really think of anything else to share that just happens throuhgout our day.... ohh... haha so yesterday I forgot my scarf after medio dia and by about 8pm it was so so so cold I was dying. Hermana Scheu had a really long, super ward scarf so we wrapped it around her neck and then around mine neck. Literally, every single person we were passing was staring and laughing. We had no clue it would attract so much attention. But it was worth it because it is so cold here especially in the streets at night.
Ok gotta go! I love you all! I hope you ahve a great week!
Oh and para que sepan.... no it does not feel like Christmas here. There are a few lights aournd but definitely not the Christmas feel like in the States.
Love, Hermana Heims
Getting ready to sing for Christmas
hello fam!
This week was great! We just got back from a 3 hour music practice with all of the misisonaries here in Madrid. Next Monday night we are putting on a program with singing and videos and what not. We are inviting EVERYONE. Members, investigators, all the people we talk to on the street everyday, literally everyone. We are hoping to pack the chapel full of people. We are super excited. Itwas a long practice though. So, I dont have much time to email today and I wont have much time next week to email bc it is the program and we´ve gotta be there at 5pm. BUT, the following week we get to SKYPE! wahoo!
Anyways, this week was good, long, hard, fast, and funny. But nothing too crazy happened.
Poor Danny, he is just struggling so bad this last week. He smoked a few times, has gotten tons and tons of crap from his family and friends about choosing to be baptized and a lot of other stuff that has left him with tons of doubts and worries. We have been telling him that it is all from Satan and that Satan is working so hard on him right now because obviously Satan does not want him to get baptized. Its been a crazy week with him but we obviously have all of the faith in the world in him so I know he will be able to get through this. But, because a a few things, we all felt that his date needed to be moved back a week. So he will now be getting baptized the 21st of december, the same day as Olga. The good news is that we had an incredible lesson with him last night and he told us it was just what he needed and that it helped a lot. So, no baptism this coming Saturday, but that is ok. We are so excited for the 21st!
Vale, gotta go! I hope you have a great week! Sounds like everyone (except Winter in az) is enjoying the snow! I love you all so much!
Oh and real fast about the skype... I am not sure about the time but I know it will be super early for you guys... around 7-8AM. Since our pday moved to Christmas day we have pday but then our pday ends at 6:30 so we need to be done skyping by then and we have to make sure that if any technical problems happen, we have time to fix them and still get the whole hour to skype and be ready to get to work by 6:30 so we will have to skype earlier in the day so super early for you guys. I will be skying in an internet place hear so I should decent but not super great connection.
Les quiero mucho!
Hermana Heims
Monday, December 2, 2013
Miracle After Miracle
FAM!!!! What a week! Miracle after miralce. I cant say it enough.... I love being a missionary! I love Spain! I love my companion! I love my investigators! I love my Savior, Jesus Christ!
Ok, a quick run down...
First week with Hna Scheu and I just love her. She is so wonderful! There is only one problem... we laugh way too much! I am serious. Her and I are like Hna Mather and I were (and dad and Winter!) where when we start laughing we cannot stop. There have been quite a few times now where I ahve had to lean forward and say a silent pray to help me stop laughing! And we both cannot sing to save our life so singing to start our studies every morning is more like just 5 straight minutes of laughing and then go straight to praying. We don´t sing in our lessons anymore because, well, through experience we have found out that no matter how serious we try to be, we cannot not laugh so no more singing even though our investigators ask for it. And, well we are both just kinda blonde so various moments throughout the day we just die laughing about somehting that we saw, something that one of us did, or something that happened the day before that we still think is hilarious! For example, last night when we were leaving one of our investigators house, (most of the pisos here are super small so aveces we literally have to sqeeze in and out of the doors) and I couldnt figure out how to open the door so I was trying and trying and finally got it and then I tripped on the way out and fell and my backpack got stuck on the door knob and the door slammed backwards and hit my companion and then I got up quickly and went to turn on the outside hall light thing but ended up ringing their door bell. hahahahah. I cant explain it well enough to give this story justice but let me tell you, it was pretty embarrasing but hilarious at the same time. All 4 of us were dying laughing. And Hna Scheu and I have already laughed again about it several times today. haha. But, on a more serious note, she really is absolutely wonderful and I feel so blessed to be her companion! We are both in love with each others families and cannot wait to meet each others families one day.
vale, mis investigadores....
Danny... still wonderful. I cannot get over how much I am so blessed to be able to teach him and know him and help him prepare for his baptism. I cannot wait for the 14th! He still hasnt smoked and continues to keep progressing. Our lessons with him are always so great.
Olga... she has been having some serious health issues this past week so we havent been able to meet with her as much as we had planned so she still doesnt have a date but we are meeting with her tmrw and if all goes as planned we are hoping that she has a date by the end of our lesson. She and her husband came to church yesterday even though she wasnt feeling well because she knew church is importnat and that she needed to come. She is wonderful.
Ineibis... my oh my. I wish I had time and what not to tell you all about the Cubans and what is going on with them but it will alljust have to wait till after my mission. But, it sounds like sometime during this week she will no longer be in the legal care of that one lady and that Reinier will have legal custudy of her so that means that within the next few weeks if things go as planned she will be baptized.
OUR FAMILY::::: ENRIQUE Y ADRIANA! Oh madre mia what a miralce! Hna and I were contacting last tuesday night. It was absolutely freezing cold and super late, we were just about to head to the metro to get home and all of the sudden I was just talking to this family. Literally I dont remember thinking in my head, oh Im going to go contact this family or anything. All of the sudden I was just bearing my testimony about how much I love my family and how I cant imagine my life without them and how I know that families can live together forever. We ended up talking to them on the street for about 15 minutes, got their number, called them the next day, met with them on friday (the husband was running late from work so we had to just teach Adriana because they were our last lesson and we had to be able to finish in time to be able to get home in time) but we taught the first part of the plan of Salvation and Adriana opened up big time to us and told us how she is searching and searching for peace and help in her life and how she felt so good when we were there. They have two DARLING kids... Santiago is 6 and Victoria is 4. We left so so so happy and so in love with this family. Right as we were getting in bed that night we got a text from Adriana inviting us over for lunch the next day (saturday). The text was the cutest thing ever and made us so happy. So we worked with our schedule a little bit and mdae time to go eat with them and it was AMAZING! THe food was amazing, they are amazing, the spirit was so strong when we were sharing our little thought with them, that had super awesome questions, and we set up another appt to go teach them tonight! We are so so excited. I have said this before, but nothing compares to teaching an entire family! I cannot wait to keep you guys updated on them.
Thanksgiving.... FAMILY! I had an entire super yummy American Thanksgiving dinner! But the whole day was so good so Ill start from the beginning... we woke up and just had really good studies that morning (i mean we always have good studies but this day was jsut extra good) then we had weekly planning which was so good since Hna Scheu is new we were able to really go through each of our investigators and prayfully plan for what we will teach them this coming week, so we were in our piso till 2pm then we went over to the other Hermana´s piso to have a thanksgiving feast! We are all so poor and we had no time to cook much but we made mashed potatoes, bought pumkin soup, made a yummy salad, bought turkey to cook, veggies, and cake for dessert! It was so much fun! totally simple and what not but so fun! I love Hermana Crandall and Frost so much! We all have way too much fun together. Then right at the end of our feast we get a call from one of the American families in our ward inviting us over for thanksgiving dinner! We were already full but there was no way we could pass it up so we all headed over and fam, let me tell you! Kristen Hintze knows how to cook! Ahhhh, it was so so yummy! She made everything, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, yams, pie, salad... and it was all so good! And it was just a tender mercy. They were so wonderful, treated us like family, and made us feel right like we were in the states with our own families. But, the most amazing part of this whole day were our lessons after! Ha Sheu and I were talking about this that night as were were going to bed. We absolutely LOVE the other hermanas and loved our lunch with them, this American family is absolutely darling and we walked into their house and felt like we were back in utah right with our families, the food was amazing, and what not, but none of that excitment and fun compares to having great lessons with our investigators. We had a lesson with Danny that evening and then a few others and I would have thought that all of the Thanksgiving festivities would have been the highlights but seriously jsut nothing compares to teaching others about this gospel. It is just absolutely amazing.
I told the Hintize family over and over again thank you so much and how they were an answer to my families prayers!
Thank you so much for your prayers! You ahve no idea how much I feel them I need them, and how grateful I am for them. It sounds like you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I love you all so much!
MOM AND WINTER! I got your packages this week! THANKYOU SO SO MUCH! Seriously I really really mean it. You ahve no idea. I card would have been plenty. Thank you! I actually havent opened any of them yet (I know you are all scocked and probably dont believe me!) but we are waiting till Christmas!
Speaking of Christmas... fam.... WE SKYPE IN JUST OVER 3 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LES QUIERO MUCHO!
Hermana Heims
New Companion
hey fam!
Transfers were today and that is why I am emailing so late. I am staying in my area but Hermana Caballero left to Leganes this morning. It was so sad saying bye. She was wonderful and I learned more than I could have ever imagined from her. So, my adress is the same.... Calle Bravo Murillo 69, 3 IZQ 28003 Spain Mardid
My new comp......
Hermana Scheu!
She was the other hermana leader when my first transfer in Barrio 5 with Hna Caba and so when her and Hna Caba did intercamios I was with Hna Scheus comp, Hna Snelson. So all 4 of us became super great friends and we would always hang out pn pdays so when we got the call that she was coming to barrio 5 we did not believe it at all! I am super excited and we are both ready to work really hard and see tons of miracles this transfer!
Ok.... our week....
Ineibis... well, long long Looooooong story short, she ended up not getting the permission from her legal guardian to get baptized so she wasnt baptized yesterday. We were all devastated but know that everything will work out in the end. We are going to obviously continue teaching her and everything and pray for a miracle soon.
Olga and her husband came to church again yesterday and we are hoping to set a baptismal date either this next lesson or at least some time this week.
Ok, sorry this is so short. I hope you all have a super great week! Oh and no, they dont celebrate Thanksgiving here. QUE TRISTE NO?! Eat lots and lost of turkey, mashed potatoes, Jello (mom you better make that fruit jello and eats lots of it for me!) and pumkin pie! I love you all a ton.
Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Hna Heims
PS... Have fun black friday shopping!!!!!
Transfer Time
Hola fam!
Ok I have so much to telly ou all but I have a gazillion and one emaisl to respond to so this is going to be short. Sorry!
First off.... DANI Y INEIBIS!
Ready to hear some super awesome miracles?!
Vale, Ineibis first. We took her to the temple on Saturday and did a tour with ehr and it was so so great! Then after she asked if we could teach ehr more so we stayed longer and had another lesson with him. Then she told us..... SHE GOT PERMISSION fro her legal guardians to be baptized! Yes you read that right! Holy cow we were so excited! So... we are having a baptism this sunday! We have to see her every day this week in order to be able to teach her everything in time (which potentially could be a probelm bc we have only been able to see her once a week since we started teaching her) but if all goes as planned she will be prepared to be baptized this sunday! Talk about miracle! She is so darling! And just loves this gospel so much!
Second... Dani has a date! wahoo! This last week our lessons with him have been incedibley powerful and we have seen significant changes in his testimony the last week so last night we had a testimony lesson with him where we all shared our testimonies, read scriptures about testimonies and it was so powerful! And at the end he said he wants to be baptized the 14th of december! Ah. Miralces! This work is just so amazing! There is nothing like it.He hasnt smoked in just over 3 weeks but says that the temptation is there and just as strong and we know that the next few weeks are going to be even harder for him but he is strong and most importantly, he is understanding the power fo the Book Of Mormon and the power fo Prayer to help him.
Third... well, there are tons of small miracles that I witness everyday... Yessika is wonderful and loves learning and we ahd a great lesson with her last night! Olga and her husband came to church yesterday.. it was a total surprise to see them in the door way when we walked up yesterday! Reinier is preparing to go the temple to do baptisms next week. I was able to do intercambios con Hna Blodgett last week while Hna Caba was doing intercambios with her comp and let me tell you I just love her! You guys obviously dont now her but she is wonderful and I learned SO much from her. Seriously, intercambios have been such a blessing. I have been able to learn so much frmo so many different hermanas. Hna Blodget is going home in a week so today we are hagning out!
Some other things... IT IS SO COLD HERE! I literally almost cry every morning I get out of bed. We just have a little space heater thing so our room stays fairly warm at night but the rest of the piso is ice cold. Its rough! Haha and I wear at least two pair of socks under my tights every day! And my feet are still frozen. So mom, can you send me some super warm tights please?!
Maily... oh that sweet girl! I just love her so much! But she is having such a hard time figuring out what she wants. SHe has no LDS friends and we ahve brought all of the yw with us to lessons to help her meet friends and we´ve have activities and everything to help her but she is just having such a hard time taknig the step in teh dark. Her friends that she ahs now do not do good things at all so she knows she will have to distance ehr self a ton from them in order to be strong in the gospel and what not. But, she is still as adorable as ever and we are faithful that soon she will be ready.
Ok I gotta go report my numbers and write the pres before my time is up.
I love you fam! Thank you for your emails every week! I hope you all have a great week!
Love, Hermana Heims
ps... I knwo you all want pics but my cam is horrible and all my pics are blurry so I dont ahve any to email you. We have zone conference on thurs so my comp and I are going to borrow the sim card to one of our friends who has a ton of pics of all of us so hopefully within the next few weeks I will ahve pics to send home.
pps... we had to call President last night to report somthing about on of our investigators and he told Hna Caba to not worry about it because transfers are in a week adn she is leavnign anyways. So we already guessed this since she has been in this area for 6 months but it was confirmed lasat night that she is for sure leaving. I possibly could too becuase with President you never know.. he always is doing crazy things. But Im pretty sure I am staying in my area and will be getting a new comp next monday.
Her 15 year old Investigator
Helloo fam! I have zero time to write tonday, we are already late but I just wanted to let you know that I love you! We went to segovia today and saw castles and what not and the bus on the way back was full so we were stuck there for a while and couldnt get back in time to write, thankfully we got back in time to end pday on time. I printed all of your emails so I have not read them yet but I hope everyone had a great week! I did look at all of the photos though and MADRE MIA my nieces and nephews are so stinking cute! Thank you Linds and Winter for always sending me pics! Seriously, I really really appreciate it and love it!
A quuuuuick run down of the week...Solid Investigators
Gosh, fam, I cannot tell you how much I loved chatting with you all last week! Seriously, I was on cloud nine all day from it! Les quiero muchisimo! But, that means that this email is going to be really long becuase I am going to write a few things from last week too since I didnt get a chance to send a big email. Because lets me honest, Hernama Caballero and I have been so blessed in the work the last two weeks that I cannot leave anthing out.
So first is Ineibis. She is the girlfriend of Reinier (my recent convert). She is 15 years old. (yeah, a little young but thats ok) and her and Reinier have a 6 month old together. SHe was living in the street with the whole group but once she became preggo she moved in with a family friend of her parents (her parents still live in Cuba) and this family now has legal rights over her. Anyways, we ahve met her a few times awhile back when she was visiting Reinier and what not but thats about it. But 2 weeks ago REinier asked us for a Book of Mormon to give to Ineibis (pronounced ee-nay-bis) and the following week (last sunday) she and Reiniel showed up to church together! So awesome. After relief society, on our way upstairs to sunday school she said, "hermanas, I want you to start teaching me. I love this church already!" Woah! Then as we were talking more she said she is already in 2Nefi and LOOOOVES the Book of Mormon and cannot stop reading and Reinier had told her to read Enos and she absolutely loved this chapter about prayer. She said she hates reading but that the Book of Mormon is different. Ahh, when she was telling us this I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Seriously! So after church we gave her a restoration pamphlet to read and study before we would meet with her on thursday. When we met with her on thursday she had not only read the whole pamphlet but there are questions and additional scriptures to read at the end and she ahd answered all of the questions read all of the additional scriptures and was so ready for us to teach her. The lesson went super great. She kept telling us that when she was at church she felt peace like she had never felt before and that she is jsut so excied to keep learning. And at the end she said "ok so when I get baptized Reinier can baptize me right?" Haha she is so wonderful. Buuuuut, here is the really really unfortunate part..... obbvously she is so ready to keep learning and wants to get baptized as quick as she possiby can but the family that she is living with who has legal rights over her are super against it and since she is minor she has to get a parent signiture. We ahvent talked to her much about this and we havent thought through options because we have only taught her one lesson but we know this is going to be a problem. So we will see.
A few random things that have happened with the cubans this week that have made me happy and that I want to remember... first off, the other day when we were leaving we asked them if there is anything they need that we can help them out with and Carlos said, we live in the streets, we have absolutely nothing, but we dont lack a sinlge thing anymore because we have the gospel in our lives now! It was super humbling. I started crying and realized just how incredibly great these cubans are and how incredibley true that statement is. The gospel gives us everything we need in this life. Love, peace, comfort, security, hope, purpose, everything. Also, the cubans know how to cook! Seriously! They feed us 2-3 times a week (yes, another very humbling thing. This group who lives on the streets and has no money sacrifices and feed us always. When we go in the early mornings for a lesson they give us bfast, even when we insist that we have already eaten and arent hungry, when we are there for a late lesson around dinner time they always insist that we stay for dinner. Seriously we try so hard to not eat their food because obviously they dont have a lot but they say we arent allowed to teach them anymore if we dont eat with them. So humlbing.)Anyways, cuban food is so so good! And lastly about the cubans, is that when we have a late lesson with them (which is most days) right before we head home for the night they make sure that we send them a message when we get home to let them know we made it home safely. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH!
Ok on to Karen! Hna Caba and I contacted her in the street hace 3 semanas and when she contacted her she was waiting for her bus to head home from work. As we sat down on the bench that she was sitting on and were talking to her for a few minutes her bus came but she said she wanted to listen more and feels good around us so she would wait for the next bus. We ended up teaching her a lesson and set up another appt with her. The whole 20 minutes we were talking she was smoking and it was windy so the smoke kept blowing right back in my face which was so unfortunate but the lesson was so powerful. We met with her again last week and she was so stinkin excited to see us. She said she just feels good when she is around us and is going through a really hard time in her life right now and just needs to find peace and help. We taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and left Alma 32 for her to read. When we met with her the next time she just kept going on and on about how much she loved that chapter and how much she wants and is ready to change her life. We invited her to be baptized once she feels and knows that this is true and she eagerly said yes. Then when we were done and leaving her a reading assignment she pratically thre the Book of Mormon at us with excited for us to mark the chapter for her to read! It made us happy! We have a lesson wither her tomorrow and are really excited about it. She had to wokr yesterday so she couldnt come to church but this coming sunday she is planning on coming!
We had a ward activity on Friday night and it was a HUGE success! Seriously so many people came we were so surprised! It was an activity of the nations so each person brought food from their country to share and then lots of people performed traditional dances from their countries! it was a huge success and all of the food was AMAZING! Peruvian food...l still one of my faves. Oh and then philipino food was so delicious! Us missionaries brought.... Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwhiches! Haha they were a huge hit and gone super quickly. There are about 4 American Families in our ward so they brought other food as well. Oh and we made choc chip cookies and brownies. It is so funny but everyone here always goes crazy over those two! They love them.
Last pday we went to a burrito place to eat... It was just like Costa Vida! I am dead serious! All of us americans literally about died we were all so happy! And the whole atmosphere was American! It was so great!
Ok real fast about Dani... He went to a YSA activity on friday with some guys from the ward and he had a ton of fun! He always comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon and prays daily, and our lessons are always super great with him. We are still trying o figure out what else he needs. But we both feel strongly that we need to invite him to be baptized again adn pray about a date. We have this lesson with him tonight and are super excited!
Ok there is more but I am out of time. I am going to leave you with a few quotes that I have found this week that I really like...
In regards to missionary work "OBEDIENCE is the price. FAITH is the power. LOVE in the motive. the SPIRIT is the key. CHRIST is the reason"
"The reason why Christ suffered was to get to know us better. Perhaps the reason why we must suffer pain and heartache is to get to know Him better"
"Whenevery you say something about another, ask youself, "Is it kind?" "Is it true?" "Is is necessary?"
I love you family! Truly, I didnt know I could love you guys more than I did before my mission but I do! Thank you for everything! I hope you all ahve a great week!
LES QUIERO!
Love, Hermana Heims
ps.... Mom, in the next package, can you send me toothpaste! I dont know if I have mentioned it before but the spanish breath is KILLER. Seriously. My first comp and a few others warned me of this when I first got into the field and I just laughed. But wow. It is so true. I dont know if it is the brand of toothpaste here that just doesnt do the job or if it is something else but I am afraid to try it. And they have crest and colgate but it literally costs a fortune. So, if you could send me a tube or two in the next package that would be greatly appreciated!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The Lord has Perfect Timing
Hola Familia!
What a week. This week was a testimony that you have to know the bitter to be able to experience and appreciate the sweet. This week was rough!
But, it ended SO good because Reinier was baptized yesterday! AHH! It was such a good day! The Spirit was so strong throughout his whole baptism and my goodness you should have seen his face when he came up out of the water! And even better was his testimony after. He bore a super super powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon and how it contains all of the answers that we need in this life and how we can find soluciones to every problem that we face in this life. He said over and over that he knows that Christ is our Savior and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. It was incredibly powerful. He was so happy and so was I!
Other good things about this week is that sweet, darling Mailyn is finally progressing! Im serious, I could go on and on about how darling Mailyn it! I am not sure if I have ever talked about her but she is 16 years old and lives here with her aunt who is in our ward. Hna Caballero and her old companion started teaching her over the summer and Maily had a baptism date and everything but then right before kinda got scared and then went on vacation for 2 months at the end of summer so they lost contact with her. When she returned and school started we started visiting her but she wasnt really progressing. Well, last week we started seeing SIGNIFICANT changes in her and we couldnt be happier! We brought a recent convert who is 18 to our lesson the other day and we read Alma 36 with her and talked about repentance and the lesson went SO well! Recent converts are so so SO amazing and help us out a ton! Then on saturday there was a young womens activity that we had invited her to but she said she had plans with her friends so she wasnt going to come but she showed up on Saturday and had such a fun time! She met tons of new friends and totally fit in with everyone. And the best part was that she totally participated in everything spiritual as well. She bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon and was answering the questions just as much as all of the other girls! We are super excited to teach her this week. But, we are taking things very slow with her.
Yaremy is still great and has a date for the 16th of November! Wait, Ive told you all about Yaremy right?! Well, if I havent tell me and next week Ill write about her because she is definitely one of my miracles!
Ok now briefly on to the rough parts of the week. But only briefly bc even though this week was definitely not one of my favorites, there was tons of miracles and tons of good things that did happen (like Reinier and Mailyn)!
Our investigator Dani was supposed to get baptized a few weeks ago but felt like he wasnt ready and as Hna Caba and I gave him the interview the day before the Elder was supposed to, we all three (him, hna caba y yo) felt like he wasnt ready. It was sad but we were hopeful that with just a little bit more time he would be ready. Well, then he smoked again and a few other things that have really set him far behind and now he doesnt want a date right now and we are trying to figure out what he needs. He is such a great guy and has a desire to learn but struggles with putting in practice what he learns. But, we are trusting that the Lord has a perfect timing for everything. Then we found out some news about Carlos and his group (Im not going to write it becuase lets be honest, its too exhausting and Im so not in the mood to cry right now but maybe one day Ill tell you about it but probably not bc I am hoping to learn all that I can from it and then never remember it again haha!)
Hna Caballero and I are workign really hard this week to find new investigators because three of ours are now baptized (!!!!!!!!!!!) and we now only have a few. So, we have been contacting a lot the past few days and our plan is to do a lot more in the next few days.
Oh, on a side note.... Fam! Go to all of the baptisms that you can!!! That is one thing that we have such a hard time with here in Mardid. We tell our investigators over and over and over that this church is a family and the ward is there to help you and support you and we obviously emphasize a ton the importance of this step in their life and how this is one of the most important decisions they will ever make in their life and everything and then only like 4 people from the ward come to show their support. So, fam, do all that you can to go to the baptisms even if you dont know the person!!
Thank you for your emails this week! They were just what I needed! I love you all! Thank you for your support and prayers! I hope you all have a great week!
Love, Hermana Heims
More Baptizing in Madrid
We got the call on Saturday and I am staying here in Barrio 5 with Hna Caballero.
This week was long! It is always long the week of transfers because we are always so eager to find out what is going to happen.
Ok one funny story and the OUR BAPTISM!
So on Tuesday when Hna Caba was doing intercabios and I was with Hna Snelson in my area we were teaching Reinier and in our lesson was Reinier, Duglas, Carlos and sitting behind us but listening in was Fernando (the guy that we half dropped/he half dropped us a few weeks ago because he would pray and didnt want to pray etc etc). We teach them in the street remember, because they all live in the street, but they have chairs and we have this little alley thing that we take the chairs to and teach them there. So mid lesson I feel something wet drop on my head. It had rained the day before so for a very split second I thought, eww, huh, must be water. Then literally half a seoncd later I see something tiny and white fall on Duglas´s hand and it immediately clicked in my head that it in fact was NOT water but BIRD POOP! I screamed "AHHH en mi pelo, madre mia voy a morir!" everyone started busting up laughing but thankfully Carlos had a hankercheif in his pocket so took it out and cleaned my hair for me. It was the size of a nickle. Literally. Oh madre mia. Haha mid lesson a bird poops on my head! so gross.
Now on to the baptism!!!! So, Duglas was baptized yesterday!!!! It was a total team effort by us and the 3 hermanas in Gaudalehara. So, Duglas is from Cuba and is part of the group of Carlos. But, his wife just ahd a baby 1 month ago and also has another boy who is 12 so the wife, Duglas Jr, and the new baby live in Gaudalehara in a piso with a friend but there is no room for Duglas so he lives in the tent with Carlos and the others. So we taught Duglas here in our area and the hermanas in Gaudelahara taught Debora and Duglas jr and all 3 were baptized yesterday in Gaudelahara!!!! It was so wnonderful! As amazing as every baptism is, baptizing a family is INCREDIBLE!!!!! Carlos was able to baptize Duglas which although started out a little rough (Carlos is super weak and so it took him 5 times to be able to get him fully under) ended up being super awesome. It was a great day!!! The three bore their testimonies after and let me tell you, each one was so powerful! Ah, it was just amazing.
I love you all!
Love, Hermana Heims
Still Teaching the Cuban Group
Today all of the hermanas are going to the mission home to spend our day! We are all super excited. But, that means I only have a few minutes to quickly write.... sorry! And it is suuuper early there so one one is going to be awake to chat but I hoe you all have a great week! First off!!! MOM! I got your package!!! THANK YOU! Holy cow you have no idea how excited I was! It was such a perfect package! I loved the shirts, the talks, and flower thingys, and THANK YOU for all of the pictures! Holy cow you would have thought I had died and gone to heaven when I was looking at all of those pictures! This week has been great. We have continued to teach the Cuban group but this week has been a really tough week for them. One of the guys in the group up and left without telling anyone and moved to the States and took some of their money. It has really really affected the whole group and their spirits have been way down this week. It has been so nice being able to be there for them though! I have once again seen the power of the scriptures and how the Book of Mormon is for our day and will help us in any and every situation we are in. Dani! Ahh he hasnt smoked in a week! OH YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM FOR HIM! I am so proud of him and I am so excited for his baptism on the 12th. We still are praying so hard for him because he says that the temptation is still there and still super strong. But he is gaining a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon through this which has been so neat to see. Family... conference! Ah so amazing right? We dont get to watch Sunday afternoon session because it wasnt availablle till like 11 at night last night or something like that but Saturday evening we watched the RS broadcast and Saturday morning session and then yesterday we watched Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning! Did you guys hear Elder Ballard?! He talked about us! Haha it was only like a sentence but we were all pretty excited. Saturday evening we had CArlos, Reinier, Duglas (part of the cuban group and has a date for the 13th!), and Dani with us! And then Sunday CArlos, REinier and DAni came! Ah it was so wonderful. You should have seen the excitement on their faces when they heard the rofet speak! It made my heart happy. Covenants was a huge theme for this conference and I just loved it! Also, the importance of working together as missionaries and ward members to bring salvation to every soul. It was a wonderful conference. It was broadcasted at the chapel and there was one room for all the missionaries to watch it in english so I watched all in english but the Saturday afternoon session I watched in Spanish. I cannot wait for the ensign to come out so I can study each talk again! Well, we get transfer calls on saturday so next monday when I email I might be in a different area! I am going to be so sad if I get transfered out of Barrio 5! I love it here and I love being here with Hna Caballero. But, I know the Lord has a secific plan for each one of us. Oh.... gues who I saw at conference?!?! FATIMA y BELEN! Oh my gosh you have no idea how excited I was to not only see them but to see them at conference! Fatima had a rough time with the elders in the beginning so she didnt get baptized last week like Hna Munden and I had planned but she has a date for the 26th of October! And Sweet Belen is still progressing! She emails me each week and oh my, it just makes me so happy. Seeing both of them made my whole weekend! Ok thats all the time I have. Thank you family for everything! I love you so much! Love, Hermana Heims
Monday, September 30, 2013
More Baptismal Dates
What a week.
I am going to keep this short (haha I feel like I always say that but then I end up writing a novel!) this week because we only have half the time to email today because we have a few lessons this afternoon during pday. And holy cow we are excited for these lessons. Ok, so I have no clue what I have written home about Carlos and his group of friends that all live together on the street but man oh man this group is amazing! There is just so much potential and we are so full of faitht that VERY soono many will be baptized. This week we started teaching Saray (I love this name. it is pronounces Sa-righ) who is 20 and obviously from Cuba as well. She is so wonderful. The past few weeks she has really started being so friendly towards us and every time we could go and teach CArlos or Reinier she would come running out of the tent and give us a kiss and a hug and we would chat for a few minutes. We have been praying to be able to start teaching her and Tuesday morning our prayers were answered and we could not be more excited. And there are a ton of super cute JAS girls in our ward that we are going to start bring to our lessons so that she can have friends in the ward (we are actually having a lessonw ith her in an hour at a girls house and then hanging our after and we are going to dye her hair, cute it, and straighten it, she is pretty excited!) Anddddddd........ Reinier has a FECHA! October 19th! Ahhh, see, I´m telling you, this group is amazing and I feel so incredibley humbled and blessed to be here in Barrio 5 working with them.
Danny is so great but still is ahving a heck of a time giving up smoking. It is so devastating when he tells us he smoked. But, we know that the power of the atonement is real and we are planning on working super diligently with him this week to help him dejar de fumar completely and prepare for his baptism on the 12th.
AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?! I SLEPT 6 OUT OF THE 7 DAYS THIS WEEK!!!!!!" AHHHHH! It has been so wonderful . MIralces are so real! :)
Ok here is another miracle this week. (And sorry, this is kinda more personl but I am SO terrible at writing in my journal, I know Linds, I hear your voice all the time telling me I am going to regret it and what not and I so know I am but at teh end of the day I am SO exhauted and so much has happened during the day that journal writing usually takes the back seat so my weekly emails home are usually full of details that you guys probably dont care too much about or more personal stories but I write them so that I can read them later) I So when Hna Caballero was on intercabios Friday I was with Hna Snelson again and man, it is always an adventure with us since we are both still training and dont speak the language but we were in her area this time and so we were teaching this man named David and he is Jewish and has made some sigificant progress in a short time and he had a date but then decided he didnt want that date and that he didnt know if he should be baptized. Well, we were teaching him Lesson 3 which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we got to baptism he just started laughing and was like no, you already know Im not ready etc etc. Well, I wasnt going to just let it be since we didnt know why he decided to not be baptized so I kept askign him different questions. And he finally told me the reason (which ended up being super small... he is worried that since he was already baptized that it would be a really really big sin to be baptized again) and holy cow the Spirit just took over and and I started talking spanish and I dont even quite remember all that I said but I promised him that if he prayed specifically to know if he would be committing a sin by being baptized again and to get an answer from Dios to see if he should be baptized that he would recieve an answer and then I told him that I knew with all of my heart that this gospel is true and that baptism (with the proper authority which is only contained in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the gate to be able to live with Heavenly Father and Christ again and after he just sat there and was like wow, I have never had someone talk to me with such asurety and such power. We just sat in silence for a while and just let the Holy Ghost testify to all 3 of us the truthfulness of what was being taught. He promised me that he would pray. Right before I was going to bed that night we got a call from him telling us that he prayed, recieved and answer and is going to get baptized on the 12th of October!!!!!
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It was a good week!
I love you all so much. and I am so grateful for your emails each week and for your prayers. Haha and if you guys are ever bored feel free to write me a letter and send it to me;) ;)
Family, I want you all to know that I know, without a single doubt that this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints is Christ´s church and it the only true church on the earth. I know that it has the power of God to perform saving ordinances like baptism. I know that we can repent and that Christ is so so merciful and is at the door knocking, waiting for us to let Him in. I know that feelings of peace and comfort follow sincere repentance and I am so so greatly that I have this knowledge of this gospel in my life. I feel truly humbled to have been born in this gospel and to have been raised in a family that is strong in the gospel and that Christ is the center of our home. I know that we are sealed together for eternity and I am so grateful for this knowledge and I am so grateful I have this opportunity to share this knowledge with this people here in Spain.
Con mucho amor, Hernama Heims
BAPTISM
Holy cow what a weekend! I literally feeel like my heart is going to explode with happiness and love for this gospel and this work! Carlos was baptized on Saturday and it went SO perfectly (except for one thing which I will wirte about in a second jaja). he was so so so excited and ready and the turn out was incredible. He invited several friends and his brother that lives 30 minutes north of here and they all came and none of them are members and they all loved it and ahh it was jsut so amazing. Actually, his brother is being taught by the hermanas up north, we are teaching one of his friends (more on him later bc he is amazing too! ) and another of his friend is being taught up norht as well and we just found out yesterday that they set a baptismal for the 12th. They are all from Cuba and living on the streets here in mardid. There is a youtube video that explains their whole story, it is really really neat and if I have time at the end of the email Ill tell you the name so you can watch it although only Wade and Reilly will be able to understand. Anyways, ok so we went by to talk with him saturday morning and he was just on cloud nine it was so wonderful to see. And then he arrived at the chapel at 4;30, the baptism wasnt until 6 but he was too excited to wait any longer! So we met him there and took tons of pics and ah man I cant even describe to you the spirit that was there. Just absolutely amazing. The talks were great, the baptism went perfectly, there were yummy refreshments and everyone stayed and chatted after with him and he was just in heaven, and so were we. Then he was confirmed yesterday adn recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost to complete the baptism. Wonderful.
Ok, and one thing about Carlos, he reminds me EXACTLY of dad! Seriously! I have been thinking and thinking and thinking that there was something about him and was just so familiar and then the other day it hit me like a ton of bricks when he was helping us in our lesson with REinier that he is exactly dad. His personality, super strong testimony, and just his whole demeanor! When I realized this it made me incredible happy!
HAHAH ok you are not even going to believe this.... so the only part of the baptism that didnt go so well was the "special musical number"...... can you guess who sung????????? Mom, I can never ever laugh at you for singing at Lindsay¨s baptism ever again. So Hna Caballero has a really good vioce and likes to sing at the beginning of some of our lessons (sounds teribley strange but it invites the Spirit SO perfectly and actually our investigators love it and make us do it if we forget) So Hna Caballero has this song that her mom sung at her baptism and it is super pretty and she planned on singing it on Saturday. But last week she told me that I am going to sing it with her and obviously I said heck no but she insisted and then Carlos insisted as well. So, yes, Hna Caballero and I sung a duet at the baptism. JAJAJ. Seriously. oh my. terrible. Because here is the thing, Hna Caba has a super great voice but it is not super loud and strong which meant that you could totally hear mine. And the tune was some random one that her mom made up so it wasnt one that I was familiar with. Anyways, Im pretty my face was as red as you can get and what not while we were singing. Ah, so stinking embarrassing.
Ok so on to Reinier and the miracles that happened this week with him. So he is 23 and lives with CArlos on the street (I want to take a picture of thier tent set up thing adn send it to you bc it is actually pretty legit. Anyways, he met with the missionaries in Malaga hace 2 anos or something like that but nothing came of it. Then he started seeing the changes in CArlos and asked if we would teach him! So we taught him the restauracion and he loved it and wanted to learn more. Well, Hna Caba had to do intercambios (still cant remember what they call them in englsih, quizas exchanges or splits or something) so I was left with our area and our investigators for a day. My comp was Hna Snelson who just came into the field this transfer. We were both kinda nervous about how the day wold go but it went so well. Seriously the whoel day was miracle after miralce. WE taught Reinier the PLan of Salvacion and he said he loved it and knew it was true. When we asked him what his purpose was in this life he said to follow Jesus Christ by keeping the commandments and being baptized. HA! Perfect! Carlos was in the lesson with us and was bearing his testimony the whole time (Ive said this before but really, there is nothing in this world like hearing your investigator bear their testimony! I was almost in tears several of times!) and helping us out when we were struggling with the langauge. And Calros kept referringt o "our church" when he talked, as if he was already baptized and what not. It made my heart happy! Anyways, Reinier came to the baptism and loved it! And this last week every time we went and taught Carlos REinier would make sure he was there to listen in and then we would come back later in the day and teach Reinier. Anyways, we plan on giving him a baptismal date tomorrow when we meet with him and we are way excited!
And lastly Dani!!!!!! DANI HAS A FECHA!!!!!!! Oct 12 he is going to be baptized! AH, once again, by heart is just too happy to even begin to describe the last few lessons we have had with him! We fasted with him to help him stop smoking completely (he used to smoke at least a pack a day and now he has been doing so good but every few days he caves in a smokes 1 or 2). And last night we taught him once again the importance of baptism and we went throught the baptismal interview questions with him and decided on a date that we know he can be ready by! We are so excited! We know that through our faith in this fast and through his continued efforts and most importantly help from Christ he will be able to quit smoking. It is the only thing that is preventing him from being baptized.
Ha ok so one more miracle. So when I was with hna snelson we has 10 minutes before we ahsd to go catch the metro to head to a lesson with Carlos so we decided that we would contact until then. We contacted this lady who said she wouldnt give us her number but that we could go to the bench across the street and share with her there. We were completely taken back because that just doesnt happen here and the fact that by this time we only had like 6 minutes before the metro would come that hna snelson and I kinda panicked and taught the msot CHAOTIC lesson ever. We both felt inspired to teach a 5 minute lesson about the restauracion so we did and let me tell you... chaos. We were literally all over the place. But at the end the lady, Isabel said, you know I feel complete peace and tranquilidad when I am with you. We about died. And she gave us her number. Just one more testimony that really the most important thing is the Spirit.
There is actaully so much ore that i want to tell you about but this email is already super long and I am sure you dont want more rambling. Plus I am just about out of time.
Oh but I cant forget this... so I got my hair cut last monday, Yeah, definitely not the best decision I have ever made. I dont know what I was thinking going to get my hair cut when my comp only speaks spanish, the people there only speak spanish, I dont speak spanish, and to top it off it was at a hair school. Haha yeah seriously what was I thinking?? Thankfully hair grows back. haha. I am laughing now about it but last Monday I definitely wasnt laughing. hah. The guy literally took probably 60 percent of my hair, pulled it to the top off my head and just started chopping. When he started doing this I literally thought I was going to die. oh my.
Ok thats it. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you! Thank you for your prayers, I feel them and I need them!
Love, Hermana Heims
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