Miracle Week

Buenos Dias Familia!

Wow, I dont even know where to start with this email. Before I tell you all about my week I need to first tell you how much Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us and He knows what we need in order to progress. As hard as it is to believe in the moment, I know that our trials are to help us grow and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. And, if we endure patiently, Heavenly Father blesses us more than we could even imagine. But, we must remember that enduring patiently does not mean sitting around waiting for miracles to come.

Heavenly Father has blessed Hermana King and I so much this week I can´t even begin to describe all of the miracles we saw this week and the love we felt from Him and how much my testimony grew. Work wise, the last 4 weeks have been some of the hardest of my mission. We had found such great people with such great potential but lesson after lesson kept failing us and we were just trying our hardest to figure out why. We obviously understood that having lots of lessons fail is just part of the work, but the last 4 weeks was above and far beyond the normal. We were starting to become worried that us being sent here to open up this area in the island for Hermanas was some mixup or something. It was a rough 4 weeks. But then this week came. Monday started off getting super awesome, full on, pedicures form our recent convert Lady, emailing, and then having a full afternoon of lessons. And then lessons continued throughout the whole entire week until the last second of last night when we had to be in piso. Number wise this was one of the best weeks I have ever had in my mission. And the best part is that it isnt even about the numbers. We were able to find and teach such incredible people this week and have such great success. Some people that we had found weeks ago all of the sudden started answering their phones and being available to meet with us, others who had failed us several times we found in the street and were able to have great lessons with them, and when a lesson failed us, we were always able to find someone else to teach. Heavenly Father blessed us more than I can even describe to you. He blessed us and  He blessed all of the people around us. And the best part of this week was that it ended with María and José Luis getting baptized on Saturday and recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Again, this email doesnt do this week justice but when Hermana King and I felt like we truly couldnt go any further Heavenly Father stepped in and our faith was strengthened so much. After every single lesson we had we said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for allowing us to help these wonderful people come unto Christ. I know that our faith is tried to the very last possible second, but if we endure patiently and continue working diligently miracles come.

Attached is a foto of us with María and José Luis. I cannot tell you how much I love them. Along with the many many miracles that we saw this week, one of the biggest was the miracle we witnessed with the baptism of María and José Luis. The were just as golden as golden gets and so prepared to be baptized but Satan is just some times so dang annoying that on wednesday the baptism was canceled. From our perspective we were still full of faith that they were going to get baptized (just not this week, maybe the following week) because from experience we know how satan works especially the week right before baptism. But to them this seemed the end of a lot of things including their baptism. But, after praying and crying with them a lot on wednesday and thursday we decided to call the bishop over to give each of them a priesthood blessing. Wow. Words are not even sufficient to describe the spìrit we felt as the bishop counseled them and gave them each a blessing. Those 30 minutes were some of the most powerfully spiritual minutes of my life as I saw the spirit work through them and help them have a mighty change of heart. Hermana King and I knew a lot (probably too much) of what was going on in their personal life but the bishop at this point knew very little yet each blessing was so specific and personal and the spirit touched their hearts and a mighty change was made. As the bishop ended he looked at each of them and said we still have a baptismal service tomorrow at 12pm and I would love to see you there in white. He left, we stayed and without even thinking for a second they both said they wanted to get baptized. We still had a few lessons to teach them so we stayed and taught them a little bit and then returned that night to finish teaching them the rest. Family, the baptism was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The smile of peace and hope on each of their face´s as they came up out of the water truly just said it all. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. I know that the power of the atonement to help one forgive and forget is real. I know that the power of baptism is real and we truly do receive a remission of our sins as we come up out of the water and we truly do start a new life. I know that the power of priesthood blessings is real. I am so very grateful that Hevenly Father allowed me to be part of this mighty change that María and José Luis made this weekend. Their testimony to end the service was one of the most powerful things I have every heard as well. There were tons and tons of ward members that were there and everyone was talking about their testimony´s on sunday. The spirit touched every heart in that room in a very powerful way.

Man, missionary life is truly the best life! I thank my Heavenly Father every single day for giving me this opportunity.

I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week! It looks like you all had an awesome week last week. That makes me so so happy!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Heims

Conference Weekend

Conference was just so stinkin good wasnt it?! Wow. I seriously just sat there through all of the sesiones on cloud nine and really wondering how anyone could sit through those sessiones and not just know 100 percent how this gospel is not 100 percent true. A scripture that we have been using a lot lately which was mentioned in conference a few times was the scripture that talks about how you will know them by their fruit and how you can know if something is right by its fruit. If you just look at the fruit of this gospel you cant help but know without a doubt that this Christ´s church on the earth today. I really could go on and on about conference. Sunday Morning session was the best thing I have ever sat through. But one thing that I will mention real fast is... Preach My Gospel. jaja. I invite you all to start studying this book. ANd like we were taught, I will follow up with my invitation. This book is so so good and really teaches us how to teach the gospel to others. It also teaches us the basics of the gospel, which even though me might know, it is vital that we continue to study those basics as well to fortelecer nuestro testimonio. Ok but for real I could go on and on about conference but what I really want is to hear what you all thought about it! What talks really stuck out to you? What did you learn? What are some goals that you set to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ?

Well, if this transfer isnt testing our patience I dont know what will! Ja! We are doing great and the work is going but wowzee. Who knew so many people could fail you in one week. President Uchtdorfs talk on being grateful IN trials was directly for me. I am so thankful that we have sweet Maria and Jose Luis to teach right now! And we have heard through the grapevine that their boys (age 23 and 29), or at least one of them wants to start listening. We have a lesson with them tonight and we are praying that their boys will be there and will want to listen.

I hope you all have a great week and pray every day for opportunities to share the gospel and then just as importantly follow up on those invitations!

Les quiero MUCHO! 

Filled with Gratitude

Hello fam!

Wow, my heart is seriously just so full of gratitud right now I think it might explode. This week has been just like any other week but as I was saying my prayers last night my heart just overflowed with gratitud for this oportunity to be a missionary right now. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father trusts us jovenes to go out to forgein countries and preach His gospel. I make so many mistakes as a missionary but Heavenly Father is just so merciful and loving and continues to bless me dia tras dia. I love being a missioanry so much, I truly couldnt imagine doing anything else right now. I feel so blessed to be a missionary.

Our wonderful family Jose and Maria are still just rockstars. Saturday we had our ward talent show (you all saw the video on fb right? oh man that elder in the middle, Elder Wilson was hilarious was he not?!) and they came and just fit in so well and made so many friends. And then after church on Sunday jsut kept thanking us for being their angels who brought them the truth that they have been searching for for so many years. They are going out of town this weekend to Madrid and we literally devasted that they werent going to be able to watch conference in the chapel with the ward but then we found out taht they are transmitting it live here so we are watching it at 5pm-7pm and 9pm-11om both saturday and sunday so they will be able to come to the Sunday sessions and they were SO excited when they found this out. They are jsut so wonderful!

Also, guess who is now is my district?! Hermana Mather!!! We had transfers today and hermana king and I stayed put which we were happy about!

I dont know if I have every really mentioned Mari and Paco in my emails but they are recent converts of about 11 months now. Paco is our ward mission leader and Family, I cannot tell you how wonderful they are. Part of why I feel so much gratitud in my heart recently is becasue of them. Mari (She is the mom of Arelys, the lady you are friends with on facebook) is like our mother/grandmother here on the island. She just takes us in and makes sure that we are always taken care of and feel loved. Here is just one example of how wonderful she is: The other night it was freezing cold and raining so hard and our lessons had failed us for the night so we were out knocking doors and contacting. We ran into her on her street as she was taking out her trash. It was about 8pm at night and she invited us in to come up and eat a sandwich. We said no becuase it was during proselyting hours and we needed to work. She lives about 7 minutes from our piso and she knew that we would walk down her street to get home at about 9:20 ish so at 9:20 as we were walking home we see her standing outside in the freezing cold holding a bag of food for us. She had made us a whole meal that we were to take home and eat the next day bc she also knew that we were not eating with any members that following day and she had to work so she couldnt have us over. Incredible right? Wow. And this is just one of the many many things that this lady has done for us. I just love her so much. Yesterday we said bye to Elder Wilson and she just bawled and bawled. She just loves the missionaries so much. And then there is Paco who is equally as incredible. We truly couldnt ask for a better ward mission leader. I think he is the most humble man I have ever met. I write all of this bc I am so bad at keeping a journal and I want to remember how truly wonderful Mari and Paco are. Their example has changed my life. I hope to be more like both of them one day.

And to end, wanna hear some super exciting news?!?! Ineibis, the girl who couldnt get baptized a while back bc her legal guardians wouldnt let her got baptized yesterday!!!!! Hermana Scheu called me friday night and told me that she was getting baptized. I literally jumped up and down and screamed! I was so excited! Hna Scheu emailed me a picture of  her baptism, I will forward it to you!

Family, thank you so much for your love and support! I am so thankful for each one of you! I love this work so so much! Everyday my testimony is strengthen more and more of how true this gospel is and how perfect Heavenly Father´s plan is for each and every one of us!

Les quiero mucho! Que tengan una buena semana!

Hermana Heims

ps DyC88:22.

 "22 For he who is not able to abide the ^alaw of a celestial kingdom cannot ^babide a ^ccelestial glory."

I love this verse. We must be willing to live a celestial law here if we want to be fit for a celestial eternal life. I dont know if you all thought this but the Womens conference last night was all about covenants. I jsut finished rereading all of last general conferences talks and the womens conference back in octuber was all about covenants as well. very interesting. We have made sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father upon being baptized and then more in the temple. Are we doing everything we possibly can to keep these sacred convents and renew them every week as we partake of the sacrament? I know this week I definitely want to study more about covenants and improve on being more exactly obedient in keeping them.