Cute new Apt

Hola Familia!

What a week.

First off, I have to tell you about my comp because I am pretty sure
she is the most incredible missionary I have ever met and I feel
completely humbled and so grateful to be able to work with and learn
from her. I honestly hope and pray that I can become a missionary like
her. Her love for our investigators and for this work is pretty darn
incredible. Everything she does she does for them and for the Lord.
She is insanely funny, works super super hard, and pues, I dont know,
she is just great and I am feel so blessed to be her companion. Oh,
and she is super super patient which I appreciate a ton too! But,
wow-eee there has been a TON of silence this week and it is about
going to kill me. And I can tell it is about going to kill her too.

Our piso is tiny. And when I say tiny I mean itty bitty. Haha but
somehow we all make it work. The bathroom is so small you ahve to sit
sideways on the toilet to be able to fit. haha. But, it is so darling!
The walls are all yellow and white and there are super cute
decorations all around. I really like it! But, since there are 4 of us
living in it and the area authority wants only 2 per piso Hma Caba and
I are on teh hunt to find a new one.

I am still not sleeping at all and President and Hma Jackson are
worried about it so I got meds last week to help me sleep but they
didnt work. Its ok though, Heavenly Father is blessing me with just
enough energy to get through the day.

Pues, our investigators....

Hma Caballero had a few baptisms right before I came and then also had
one on Saturday so right now we only have 3 investigators. These three
investigtors are pretty rock solid though!

Carlos lives on the street and they found him through a reference from
his brother how is being taught up north. He is incredible. Seriously.
I cannot for the life of me understand him. Like at all. But I feel
the spirit so strong in our lessons with him which is so neat. On
Monday we decided to aks him to pray with us and pick a date to be
baptized and immidiately he said Septiembre 21!!!!! Woah. The Spirit
that we all felt when he said that date was amazing! I know that the
HOly Ghost testified to him and to us at that moment that he can and
will be prepared by this day. So, we are helping him prepare to be
baptized by the 21st. We meet with him everyday in a little alley
thing right off of the street that he has a little tent thing set up
on. He is 50ish and from Cuba. He came to church yesterday and told us
he felt uncomfortable in his clothes he was wearing so we asked the
elders and they said they have a huge bag full of white shirts and
pants from elders that have recently gone home so we are hoping we can
find some stuff to fit him and he can feel more comfortable at church
in nicer clothes.

Fernando. Oh what a guy. He is crazy. But great. The Hermanas found
him a few weeks ago but he hasnt been interested in listening but on
Monday when Hma Caballero and I were walking back from Carlos´s house
we saw him in his Pizzaria and stopped to talk to him and he totally
opened up to us and told us his whole life story and how has a strong
desire to learn more. We teach him every single day at his pizza shop
and he is great. He has had quite the rough life from being kidnapped
and almost beaten to death (He had to go to the states to get plastic
surgery on his face), to a rough family life, to no job, to now having
a job but still barely making is. We are obviously certain that this
gospel is exactly what he needs to help him overcome his past and live
a happy life. But oh man, he asks so many questions, which is great
and all, but his questions are about the smallest littlest tiniest
details that have no significance in the grand scheme of things and he
wont move on unless he understansds them all. Thankfully Hma Caba is
great at keeping control of the lesson and not getting too off topic
while still answering his questions, because in the end, we are
teaching people not lessons.

Dani. Dani is younger. Late 20s I believe. He knows the church is true
but is having a heck of a time quitting smoking. But we are hoping
this week we will see significant progress and give him a baptismal
date. He was doing so well for a whole week and then had a really
crappy day at work and almost got laid off and so at the end of the
day he resorted to smoking. We were devastated when he called us and
told us he had just smoked 3 cigarrettes. But, thankfully we have a
loving, long-suffering, merciful Heavenly Father who will continue to
forgive us and continue to help us if we use the Atonement of His Son.
Man, I just love this gospel. It is so perfect! It just makes sense!

Well, this week our focus is families. We fasted yeterday for help to
be guided to families who are ready to hear and accept and we set
goals to help us find them. We are really excited! We actually found a
family from the Dominican Republic (There are TONS of people from
there here and they are seriously the best people). Husband, wife, and
4 kids. All are baptismal age except the youngest who is 7. We met
with them yesterday and taught them the Restauracion but at the end
the dad said it wasnt their time and they weren´t interested in
hearing more. We were pretty darm bummed. But when we were leaving we
invited them to English class each week and they all said they really
wanna come and that they have been wanting to start learning english.
We also invited the 12 year old daughter to a baptism this coming
Saturday and she said yes and seemed super excited. Then, as we were
walking out of the door the dad apologized perfusely for not offering
us something to eat or drink (tender mercy since we were fasting) adn
said, I promise "next time" there will be fanta. So we left feeling
fairly hopeful that eventually there will be a next time.

We had zone conference this week and WOW! Seriously it was so amazing.
We were all sent a message the night before asking us to be thinking
of how we can have more baptisms and how we can become better
missionaries. The ZLs talk was super great! They gave us time as
companions to set goals and talk about the questions for a bit. Then
the Hermana Leaders (Hma Caballero is one of the Hermana Training
Leaders... told you she is wonderful!!) talked about the importance of
having the spirit with us when we teach. Seriously their talk was
incredible. Woah. They talked about trusting in Heavenly Father and
how when we aks for the spirit to be with us in a lesson or we ask for
the spirit to guide us, we need to TRUST that Heavenly FAther will
send the Holy Ghost to do just that. They also talked about how if we
dont have the spirit with us in our studies in the morning in
preparation for our lessons, then we are not going to have the spirit
with us in our lessons. Anyways, it was all simple doctrine and things
we are taught everyday as we read Predicad Mi Evangelio but the spirit
was so so strong in that meeting. It was awesome and just what I
needed actually.

Pues, I think that is all that I wanted to say. Sorry this email was
kind of a ramble one. ha.

Oh, real fast... good news!!!! I a sure you have heard it but Elder
Ward came BACK! Holy cow! We were all so excited when we were told
this at Zone conference! Miracles are so real!

I love you family! Thank you so much for your prayers... keep them coming! haha

I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Heims