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