Solid Investigators

Hi family!

Thank you for all of your emails this week! I loved them all. I so
wish I could print them out from time to time so that I can read them
later. dang it.

This week we had a little bit more success which was great. We also
had intercambios (ummm I cant think of what they call them in
enlgish... exhcanges or slipts maybe??) So I went with one of the
sister training leaders to her area for 24 hours. It was really great.
Although all of the lessons that day failed us I learned a lot about
how to teach from her and it also made me grateful that Hermana Munden
and I are companions. 

 Ok, I feel like I could write pages and pages and pages about Maribel,
Fatima and Luna! Ahh, they are just so wonderful. I look forward to
our lessons with them all day long. When we taught them the PLan of
Salvation Maribel just kept saying "me encanta me encanta" She told us
that she had believed in this plan and knew that what other churches
preach about just didnt seem like a just and loving Heavenly Father
would plan for His children. So when we explained the plan she
completely understood and believed it. It was actually funny because
before we even started teaching them the lesson we were just chatting
and some how got on the topic of trials in life and she said, before
we said anything, that she always wants to shake people who complain
about how life is too hard and that there is no way there is a God
because of all the the trails we go through and tell them "How else do
you expect to learn and grow? How else can you strengthen your
relationship with God? You signed up for this before you came here,
you knew what you were going to be asked to do..." Haha, i cant tell
you how many times this happens throughout our lessons where she just
takes the words and the teachings right out of our mouth.

We gave Fatima a baptismal date to pray about... SEPT 14TH!!!!. We are
meeting with them tonight to ask how her prayers went. This particular
lesson Maribel was called into work at the last minute so we only
taught Fatima which ended up working out perfectly because we were
able to give her a date and since the whole law of chastity thing with
Maribel is preventing her from getting baptized anytime soon (I have
been told it usually takes 6months to 1 plus year to be able to get
married here:( :( :( ) it worked out perfectly.

We are also teaching a darling 14yr old girl named Belen. She is a
friend of a member and ahs been coming to mutual for a few weeks so we
taught her the restoration last night and it went well. She is super
shy and quiet so our goal this week is to ebcome friend with her so
she feels comfortable with us to open up. But, she did tell us that
her mom doesnt want her to get baptized but that she really really
wants to learn more and get baptized soon so we are hoping something
will work out. Our plan is to hopefully start teachign her parents
too.

Daniel and Oscar are still the same. They havent been progressing this
last week which has really bummed us out but in our weekly planning
this week we made goals to try and help them overcome their doubts.

We also met with this lady named Paula this week. She came to English
class and after we got her info and the other day had a lesson sincero
with her and at the end she said ok so how can I get baptized? haha!
She works every single sunday though all day long (Like EVERY OTHER
PERSON HERE!) so we will hopefully find a way to get her to church
this upcomign sunday and then obviously teach her the importance of
keeping teh sabbath day holy and church attendance.

Sorry, I feel like this is a boring email! But, ok since everyone is
keeps asking me to tell them all about Spain I will... altough I am
pretty sure I have told you everything already but practically every
email this week told me this!

So, Pavones, which is just a metro stop but that is how areas here are
categorized, is extremely getto. When I went on intercambios and went
to toledo last week and st uff I realized how getto Pavones really is.
The streets are just lined with tall piso building, there is trash on
the ground everywhere and whatnot. There are not pebble streets and
fun colored buildings like up north adn down south, but the people
are SO nice! It is because it is mostly latins that live here. When we
were in toledo I think I saw 2 latins all day, but here our whole ward
is practically from South America and everyone that we meet is from
somewhere else. Which means they are a lot more friendly and warm. I
love the Spanish people so so so much, but they definitely tend to be
a little bit more cold. Oh of the things I love here is that there are
parks EVERYWHERE! they are super small but seriously one street will
be lined with 5 or 6 parks and they are alswasy full of kids. ALso, at
teh parks at the benches where the parents sit they have little
peddles and arm swing thingys so that they parents can peddle and get
a little arm work out whiel their kids play. The parents arent
breaking out in a huge sweat or anything, just something small to keep
them moving. I love it! This is no where in the us! At least ìve never
seen it. Ok, I cant really think of more things about spain that I
can tell you that I havent already. I hope this helps!

Ok that is all!

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and your support! I know
that missioanry work is the best work we can and should be doing! I
know that this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the
only true church on the earth and that through Joseph Smith, Christ
restored the churcha again to the earth and I am so so thankful for
this knowledge. I know that Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God! and I
know that families are eternal and I am SO thankful for this
knowledge.

love, Hermana Heims

We watched the Thomas S Monson Movie, On the Lord`s Errand, with Oscar
this week and I love what President Monson says at the end... " The
sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon
it, and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone´s prayer
or someone´s need. And I always want the Lord to know that it He needs
an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him"

Ahh, love it.

I know that that is what it means to be a member of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to be a witness of Jesus Christ at
all times and in all things and in all places and to help everyone
out, to be the Lord´s hands.

Pictures!

Hola!

Well, I just typed out a whole entire email and right as I was typing
my name it got deleted. I am dead serious. I am so sad! UGH! It wasnt
that great of an email thank goodness but still! I barely ahve any
time this week too so tyoing it all over again is not an option.

So a really small recap, This week was super humbling. The majority of
our lessons cancelled on us. An when I say majority I really mean
it;). It was such a bummer because last week we were so excited for
this week because we finally had some solid investigators and tons of
otehr appointments lined up. Our golden family even cancelled on us
twice. It has been a rough week work wise. And it doesnt help that
absolutely zero people are in the streets to contact because it is so
hot here. But I know that having hard days and weeks makes the good
ones that much more great! I also am gaining a very strong testimony
of the importance of planting seeds.

Ok real fast jsut so in the next weeks emails you will understand,
Maribel, the mom of the golden family, didnt come to church on sunday
but ehr daughter Fatima did (Luna, the other daughter is out of town
at an aunts house) and we found out from Fatima that Maribel is not
married ot Luna´s dad but that they are living together,. Which
obviously comlicates things a lot. And the picture of that guy on the
wall was her first husband who passed away. We are hoping to start
teaching Luna´s dad but we will see how that goes.

Ok, I am so bummed my email got erased but I wanna chat with you since
it is later in the day adn you are all actuially awake.

Thank you for you love, support, emails, and prayers!

I love Spain! I love being a missionary. I am grateful for humbling
experiences to learn and grow from. And most especially, I love my
Savior Jesus Christ and I am so thankful for His atonement. I have no
words to express my gratitude for this perfect plan from a loving and
perfect Heavenly Father.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, Hermana Heims

2 months!

Hola!

Today I have been out for exactly 2 months. It seems crazy. In this
mission they are big on cumplimeses (the month mark of how long you
have been out.) ANd hma Munden and I ahve the same day so we woke up
today to cinnamon toast and cards from the other hermanas in our piso
and calls all day from other missionaries. It has been fun.

Oh this week was full of miracles. I love love love being a missionary
and being able to bring hope and love to people who are so ready. Last
week Hma Munden and I prayed and fasted that we would find a family to
start teaching. We had a zonee training the week before and our
President told us his vision of seeing a family kneeling around the
alter in white. It was a really powerful zone conference and gave us
extra faith and motivation to find a family. Well, on Wednesday we had
an appt with this lady named Maribel and her daughter Fatima. It was a
reference from elders in another area. And let me just tell you...
this night was the very best moment on my mission so far. Holy cow I
am so excited all over again emailing it to you. So, we knocked on
this door and three little girls answered and let us in and
immediately we felt teh spirit SO strong in that house. I immediately
turned to Munden and said "I see them in white!" We did teh whole two
kiss thing to all the 3 kids and then walked down the hallway and
seriosuly the spirit was so strong I cant even explain it. We met the
mom in the family room and literally right as we sat down she started
asking us about Jospeh Smith and telling us she wanted to know
everything. This family is a golden family... the ones you hear about
all of the time that are jsut so perfect. Seriously. We kept thinking,
wait is this a joke, is she a member and just kidding us. We were
talking to her about Heavenly Father and our relationship with Him and
how it is so special and sacred to us and she was bearing the exact
same testimony back to us. She said she has been praying to find the
truth for months now and right when she saw us she knew we were
messengers from God and that we represent Jesus Christ. I´m not
kidding, she said that exact thing haha! I looked like a total fool
the whole time because I literally could not stop smiling. My cheeks
hurt once we left. She just kept saying the most perfect stuff and how
she is catholic but only by tradition and how she wants more that just
a church to go to every week, she wants her religion to be a
lifestyle, and tons more stuff that was exactly what we teach every
day as missionaries. It was wonderful. Then we brought out the Book of
Mormon and literally you would ahve thought she had died and gone to
heaven. She didnt ever look at the cover when we handed it to her, she
just hugged it and said she kenw it was the word of God. I am telling
you... she is godlen. We read teh last two paragraphs from the intro
with her and she loved everyminute of it. Her daughter Fatima was more
quite the whoel time and the little girls were running aroung playing
but I am so in love with this family. And although we are not quite
sure where the dad is, we think he might have passed away because
there is a picture of this man on the wall, we feel so blessed to have
found this family. We know that our prayers and our fast were
answered. So Maribel works every single night thurs-sun so we can only
meet with then every mon tues and wed (which means we are meeting with
them for the second time tonight and we are SO excited) but they came
to church yesterday and loved every minute of it. Maribel was
participating in all of the lessons and everything. I definitely see
them in white in just a few weeks!

So last week we only had 3 investigators but this week we have 9. A
lot of these we have only had one appointment with but have the second
scheduled for this week so I really look forward to this week being
able to teach so much. Haha one of them, John, is from Australia and
he is hilarious. He is 45 and I wish you could meet him because he is
one of a kind and I ahve no clue how to describe him but hopefully we
continue teaching him so taht over time you can figure out more about
him. We foudn him contacting in the park and he was a little drunk and
we thought at first that we were waisting out time and we almost left
but we stayed and kept talking to him and by the end we already had
changed so much. We was no longer making jokes about us and laughing
at what we were saying but instead he put down his beer and sincerely
told us he wants a better life for himself and that he is not sure if
what we are saying is true but he is willing to meet with us again and
learn more. We promised him that this message, that The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is restored back to the earth again
and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and throuhg Him we can receive
help and happiness is exactly what he needs and that by meeting with
us his life WILL change for the better. So we met with him last night
and we werent sure how it was going to go but it went great! He
apologized for the other night and how he acted in the beginning but
thanked us for meeting with him again. He was so sincere the whole
time and really wants to change his life around. He still lives with
his parents and he said if is dad knew he was meeting with us he would
be super mad but we have another appt with him on thursday which we
are really excited about. Daniel, is progressing really slowly. We
still have not been able to teach him the restoration because he keeps
going out of town or something happens at work to where he ahs to stay
late so he has to cancel our appt. But we brought him to a baptism on
Saturday and he loved it! He loved the talk on faith and kept going on
about it. And he said the actual baptism was super new fro him but
that it was beautiful. We are finally teaching him the restoration
tonight which we are super happy about. Oscar is still Oscar but
thankfully he is slowly warming up to me and we ahve had a few
conversations this last week. I have the hardest tme understnading him
because one he doesnt ahve his 4 top teeth and two he talks so
stinking fast so our conversation didnt last long but it was a start.
haha.

So the area 70 said that each companion needs to have their owm piso,
there are three companioships in our piso, so this last week hma
munden and I ahve been piso hunting. We ahve had no luck but we have a
cita with one on tuesday so hopefully this one works out. I would LOVE
to move out of our piso. I love all of the hermanas but man I cannot
stand drama so a piso to ourselves will be super nice.

I am sad to report that I rarely ever use the theta anymore. The
majority of the people in my ward and our investigators are latins and
my comp doesnt speak with the theta so randomly is comes our when I
say something but most of the time I dont speak with the theta. Oh and
another thing... it is the most frusting thing but at the same time it
makes me laugh... all day long when I contact people I say something
so so so simple like "de donde es usted" or "que tal su dia" or como
fue su dia, something super small and they look at me like I am
speaking chinese and ask what so I repeat it and they say they dont
understand and them Munden says the exact same thing and they say oh
oh oh muy bien etc. Haha. Makes me laugh but is annoying at the same
time!

Speaking of Latins... Peruvians are the nicest people on the planet.
EVERY SINLGE puruvian we talk to whether they are ward members,
investigators or random people on the street are always so so nice.
Maribel and Fatima are Peruvian as well and when we were telling the
other hermanas in our piso about them thye said, let me guess, they
are puruvians arent they?! I want to go to Peru one day!

Well, I cant think of anything else to say. I love being a missioanry.
I know with everything in me that this church is true and that baptism
with the correct authority is the gate to heaven. I know that Joseph
Smith is a prophet of God and each day I find myself being so much
more aware and grateful for his sacrifice and his worthiness and his
calling to restore the church back to the earth. I know that the
Atonement is real and I know that Christ is always near us, knows us
perfectly, and has a specific plan for each one of us whether we even
know/believe in him or not. And I am so greateful for this knowledge.

Thank you family for your prayers and for your support. I love you all so much!

love, hermana heims

August is a Ghost Town in Madrid

Hi Family! I am dying to chat with whoever is online right now so I am going to keep this super short this week adn hopefully some of you will be online to chat with.

 

A little about my schedule... Wake up at 7:30 and go to sleep at 11:30. I am so not a fan of this becasue this means I dont fall asleep till well after midnight every night and I am so beyond tired it is not even funny. We have this schedule because it is the most effective because you will not see anyone out on the streets till well after noon everyday because they stay up till the wee hours of the morning. We have to be in our piso at 10 every night unkless we are teaching then we are in at 10:30. Also, we have ¨medio dia¨ everyday from 2-4 where we are back in our piso studying or doing other stuff because EVERYONE is inside. Every single store practically is closed down from 2-5. Oh and another reason why this area is so slow right now is because EVERYONE is out of town. It is just the culture here to leave town in august for the ENTIRE month. I dont know how people can do this with work and everything but seriously everyone we call is out of town. When Elder Ward was first in the accident I was at the doctors with my companion (she was sick) and President Jackson called this doctor because at this point they were for sure that he would need surgrey so pres jackson was calling to see if this doctor knew of any surgeons who would be in town in august and I heard him say he couldnt think of a single one and that most likely Elder Ward would need to go home for the surgrey since everyone would be out of town. Thankfully he didnt need surgery (although we got a text yesterday saying he went home to recover, it made me really sad but I know HF has a plan for him). Anyways, that was all just to prove that EVERYONE, even doctors go out of town in august. It baffles me that they can just leave for an entire month.

 

Linds, that flower shirt is new! I go it hear at one of the shops and yes totoally thought of you when I bought it. Will you please show grandmama that picture becuase I bought that shirt with the bday money she sent me!

 

I finally ate something I didnt like... FLAN. Horrible. Of my gosh eggs and caramel and whatever else they use to make that should never be put together. The texture was the worst part. Actually, the smell afterwards was pretty terrible. They feed us so much (yes, we finally had 1 comida with a ward member) and by dessert time I was already so full that trying to eat the flan made me almost start gagging. And then while we are chatting afterwards you jsut spell eggs and that is not a smell you wanna smell when you are so full you could pop and the thought of food make you want to die. And I have heard they have it often here for dessert.

 

Ok, so Daniel, our investigator just keeps getting more awesome! We actually have not every started any real lessons with him. We were planning on teaaching him the restoration on thursday but he got out of work 30 minutes late and so we only had 15 minutes and we didnt want to teach it to him that quickly because since  a lot of it is in english we have to go really slow. Anyways we had already given him a bofm so we talked about that and committed him to read it and pray to know for himself that it is true. He told us that he doesnt just want to know that it is a true book, he wants this book to change who he is, to make him a better person each day and to make him happier. Haha clearly we didnt do too great of a job explaining how the book of mormon helps us, but can you just see how great he is?! Well he went out of town on friday and is coming back tonight, thankfully he isnt leaving the whole month. So we are finally going to teach him the restoration tomorrow. I am way excited.

 

Oscar is seriously so awesome and although he still laughs at me when I speak spanish and will rarely ever talk to me because he doesnt want to have to talk slow and whatnot he really is an incredible man. Everything he says is so perfect. The other night at FHE there was this lady (remind me to talk about he next email... it will take me too long today to talk about her) who is super inactive and is really struggling with depression right now so out of desperation called us the other night and asked if there was anything we could do to help her. We brought her to the Noche de Hogar (FHE) and at the end she totally broke down and told her whole story to everyone there, she just tried committing suicide and tons of other stuff, and Oscar stood up and bore is testimony about this church and about the Holy Ghost and how she is never alone and how she couldnt have called anyone better to help her out and all of this stuff. And then one of the hermanas recent converts stood up and exllained how he was lost before he found the church and how much peace and happiness this gospel brings into his life. It was just so so neat to hear Oscar stand up and bare his testimony to this women. I CANNOT wait for him to figure out his problems at home so he can be baptized! There is nothing like hearing an investigator bear their testimony, the spirit is jsut so strong. I love how this gospel is for every single person.

 

Ok, I wanna caht with you so I´m ending this email! I love you! I SO appreciate your prayers and felt them this week. Thank you! And for some reason every email I read this week made me LOVE each of you more than I every thought I could. And seeing all of the pictures made me so happy.

 

I love you!

 

Love, Hermana Heims