First Week in the Field

Hola Familia!

 

REILLY!!! HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY! I MISS YOU!

 

(first of all... mom, why cant I email grandmama and taunti tiff and everyone still? Was there an announcement that I dont know about?)

 

Well, I have been out in the field since tuesday! There is so much to tell but the good news is that I now have a little bit more time so hopefully I´ll be able to tell you lots but I also want to write a few individual emails so we´ll see how much i´ll have time to write.

 

So my area... Pavones, Barrio 6. haha this area is the exact area of the CCM, meaning I live RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the ccm, 90 percent of th teachers at the ccm are in this ward, and I see President Sitterud and all of the new missionaries in the ccm practically everyday since we are always on the temple grounds either teaching someone or walking across to get to the bus. Its pretty funny because this was the one ward I was hoping to not get sent to! But only for selfish reasons, I wanted to come back to this ward once I actually know spanish so I can talk to the teachers and President Sitterud in spanish. So it was pretty funny that this is my first area. My view from my bedroom is a straight shot of the temple! BEAUTIFUL! A little more about this area... So, It is just one ward, but  it is a huge ward. There are 6 of us missionaries serving in this one ward. About 250 members show up each week.

Alright my companion! Hermana Munden! she is 22, from kansas city, and has been out for about 11 months. Although she obviously in not from here, she speaks SO well. everyone always tells her she sounds native. She definitely has already mastered the language. She lived in Ecuador for 3 months before her mission and is minoring in spanish so she was put in the native class at the ccm and was only there fror 3 weeks. Which is super great for me because hopefully this language will start coming for me. Although it is slightly hard because she inst a fan of speaking the language except to natives. But I am convinced that this week I am going to convince her to only speak spanish with me so I can learn. But, she is wonderful! We don't have a picture together but I´ll email you one next week. Her ability to share the gospel with everyone is so awesome! I really admire her. She says we are perfect because I will go up to anyone and everyone and contact them and say hi and ask a few simple questions and then she takes over. She has never liked contacting and so has never really done it before but that is practically all I know how to do so we contact a lot and she says she loves it now. But, we are hoping that soon the members will start helping us so we will not have to contact as much and we will be able to have more lessons and teach more people. I dont mind contacting (knocking doors and talking to people at markets, in the street, metro etc), I actually love it because it allows me to meet so many different people with different stories which I love, but it is just not nearly as effective as we would like. I have now, just in this last week, grown such a strong testimony of the importance of member missionaries and how vital it is that members are just as involved in missionary work as we are. There are so many people that are so ready to hear the gospel so we need all fo the help we can get in finding those people. Plus, it makes it so the new members already have a friend in the ward once they are baptized.

 

Ok so here is a little bit about our investigators....

Right now we are only teaching two people. Like i said, apparently this area is really slow right now and they are struggling big time. But, I will tell you about the 2 people we are teaching.

 

 

Oscar! Oh he is wonderful. He is in his 50s and Hermana Munden has been teaching his for several months now. He had a bapstimal date last month and he is so eager and ready to get baptized but he is in a family situation with his wife so he cannot right now. We are praying that he will figure out a solution to this super complicated problem so that he can soon be baptized. Until then we are still meeting with him and teaching him the stuff over adn going more in detail. He comes to everything, church, FHE, english class, everything. And he knows 100 percent that this is the true church. Oh, but he is not a fan of me! haha. He just laughs at me every time I try and speak spanish. After my first lesson with him I was really discouraged but hopefully my spanish starts improving so I can actually help to teach him. Mostly I just sit there and smile and bear a 2 sentence testimony at the end. Its rough.

 

Daniel! Daniel was actually a reference from the CCM (one of the missionaries found him at the park! which makes me so happy!) We started teaching him on wednesday. We just had lesson 0 with him which is where we just got to know him and found out what he is looking for and what not. He is 28, from portugaul, speaks portguise (I cannot for the life of my figure out how to spell that word haha!), spanish and english. He wants to better his english tho so we teach him in english and have one of the members from the ward who speaks portugiese too come and in parts where he doesnt quite understand the member will translate for us. ANyways, daniel s wonderful as well. He is really interested in religion and is seeking for the truth. On wednesday he committed to come to church yesterday and so we were waiting and waiting and called and called and no answer. I was totally sad adn seriously felt like crying for him becuase he was so excited about church adn was looking forward to coming. But then, about 10 minutes after church started he called us and said sorry he was late but that he was right outside! Holy cow my comp and I about flew out of RS (they have sacrament mtg last) and ran outside to greet him! I was so happy! He loved church but is super busy with work everyday so we can only meet with him about 2 times a week so we are meeting with him tomorrow. I will keep you all updated. Hopefully by next week we will have lots of progress with him.

 

Jaime... So Jaime isnt quite an actual investigator yet but we are praying so hard for him because he would be such a perfect memeber and he practically believes everything we do. He is 23, actively practicing catholisms and he comes to english class each week. The hermanas have been trying to teach him for weeks now but he just isnt interested at all. But he had an interview today with this big engineering company and part of teh interview was testing his english so he asked if he would meet with him last night so he would practice english with him. We figured this would be perfect so we planned to meet with him and to have him read the plan of salvation folleto in english (We gave it so him on saturday in english class because his grandma  is about to die so he has been at the hospital all week adn has been really sad). But, after about 5 minutes of jsut casual talk the restauracion came up and we ended up teaching him the first lesson and gave him a book of mormon and committed him to pray to see if the book of mormon is true. AH it was so so so awesome! Hermana Munden and I just looked at each other after he left and asked what just happened! But, he told us that is parents were already against him even practicing english with us because they knew we would try and teach him. But, he said he will come watch the Jose Smith restauracion video with us on wednesday so we are praying really hard for him. We are hoping to teach his whole family.

 

Yeah, I guess it is pretty normal here to live with your family till you are married. No one that I have met lives by themselves, even if they are in the late 20s.

 

So, we teach english class every wednesday evening and saturday. Some members come but most of the people are nonmembers which is really neat.

 

Sister Mather and I are in the same zone! and we have a zone meeting this wednesday so I am super excited to see her again!

 

Its funny, every single thing about this mission is putting me so far out of my comfort zone and this week has been pretty rough but I know it will get better. And I know the most important thing I can do is forget myself and go to work. And I know that with patience, hard work, LOTS of prayers, and in the Lord´s timing I will be able to  become the missionary that the Lord and Spain need me to be. Its funny because when I left the CCM I was teaching full lessons in spanish and understanding my teachers and everything but I guess I didnt realize how slow my teachers were speaking to me because I feel like everyone around me is speaking a completely different language than what I learned there. They speak so fast!

 

It has been so so neat to to a missionary and recognize the Lord´s hand in every little detail of everyone´s life. I ahve always known this but I am so much more aware of it now and it is absolutely amazing! I love this gospel so much and I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! I know with them, no one will ever fail! With them and because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be happy no matter what. With them, we never have to feel lost, scared, confused or anything. Because of the atonement we can feel peace and comfort always. Through reading the scriptures all truth can be found! And there is nothing like having an investigator follow through on the commitments we make with them! I didn´t know I could feel so much happiness!!

 

So, the Elder, Elder Ward, who was in that train accident is such a neat guy! He was my zone leader in the CCM and I know him really well. We were sick for 2 days straight when we heard what happened. But, becuase of prayer and through a miracle he is alive and still here in Spain! I saw him last night, he came back to the CCM to recover and so I have actually seen him quite a bit. He is one incredible example to us all.

 

Oh, one last thing. So you know how the missionaries sing outside every sunday night?! Well, since I am serving here I get to bring my investigators to it! When we would sing I would look out and see missionaries teaching and I couldnt wait till I got to do that! I love serving here and I love love love that the temple is part of my area. We teach all of our lessons on the temple grounds and there really is no better place to teach!

 

I love you family! I love you so much! Thank you for you prayers, support, and for your emails each week! I LOVE YOU!

 

Love, Hermana Heims

 

PS My address is...

c/ Valdebernardo 10, 3C

28030 Mardid Spain

 

you can send letters here but send packages to the mission home!

 

Also, Mom! I GOT YOUR BDAY PACKAGE! Thank you! I got it when I met at the mission home to find out my area. Thank you! I love you so much! Also, please please please tell Debbie wanless THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Oh she will never know how much each letter she has sent me means to me. Also, please tell Karen Clark thank you thank you for the bday letter and hair bands! Gosh, I never knew how great it was to receive a simple letter while on a mission! Jenni Amundsen and Sis Dahl have also sent emails with updates on their family! I love them all! Please tell them thank you!

 

Headed out Tomorrow!

Hello family! I am have ten minutes to email you and tell you that I am headed out into the field tomorrow!!! AHH! I meet at the stake center at 8am, eat bfast, head to the mission home and get instruction, lunch and get our assignmnets. Then at 4 I come back here to the temple and meet my comp and head out! I cannot belive it. Our district leader gave each of us a blessing yesterday and in it i was blessed with excitment to head out! I have been so nervous the past few days to head out but since that blessing I am so excited and feel confident that if I trust in the Lord everything will be okay and I will evenutally learn the language and I will be able to teach the people of spain! I cannot wait!

A few things, my pday is changing to monday now so I will be emailing next monday, not this thursday.

My mission president came here yesterday and gave us a devotional! Oh he is so wonderful. I interviewed with him and his wife. She said you can follow here on instagram if you want. She sometimes posts pics of us. But not really a big deal if you dont wanna follow her. But if you want, her name is Ruth Anne Jackson.

That blog that is sullivansinspain.blogspot.com (or something like that.) should ahve a ton of new pics we were told.

Please make sure all stuff from now on is not sent here but is sent to the mission home. This is the address that I originally left with you guys!

Linds, did sending my pics last time on the word document worok_ I will send more today... of us singing outside! We dio it every sunday and everytime there are loads of investigators out there and last wek there was a guy walking by that stopped and listened and that same night started taking the missionary discussions witht he missionaries here! AMAZING!

Here are also pics of 2 of my 3 teachers. OH I LOVE THESE TEACHERS SO MUCH! And some of my distrcit! And then there is a pic of the new teacher that apparently looks just like me! haha.

I love you fmaily! Thank you for all of your love and support. I know I could not do this without your prayers. I hope you know you are in every prayer of mine!

love, hermana heims

PS I think you should do the family scripture prayer skype thing every sunday night. Linds you know what I am tlaking about

Macy and her companion Sister Mather is the first one on the left. 

Last week in the MTC

Hola familia!

 

I have so much I want to write this week. I leave the CCM this tuesday... I cannot believe it. The last few weeks time has flown by. It is crazy. First off... My bday here was so fantastic! I woke up to  my door heart attacked and a candy present thingy by the door from all of the hermanas here (pics explain it better). Then at bfast everyone sung to me, my whole classroom was covered with sticky notes from my district and every time during the day I left the room I would come back to more sticky noteson my desk from the elders in my district! Hermana Mather bought me a fan (everyone uses one here! I have been wanting one for weeks now!) so that was a fun suprise, and then one of my teachers gave me this pink pearl necklace. I love it! Anyways, I couldnt have asked for a better birthday and a better place to turn 21!

 

There are 3 things that I cannot ever say enough! I know I say these in pretty much everyone of my emails.

1. This church is so true! I know it with my whoel heart! And I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ salvation is possible for everyone.

2. Being a missionary is the best thing ever! There is no greater, more important work than bringing people unto Christ and allowing them the opportunity to be healed in this life, to recieve comfort, and ultimately receive salvation.

3. My CCM teachers are the greatest people on earth. All of the teachers here are so so so amazing! And I am pretty sure that my 3 teachers are practically perfect. Their example to me, love for me, love for the Savior, and love for missionary work is so inspiring. They are so patient and full of love and wisdom. I feel incredible blessed to have Hermana Martinez, Hermana Gutierrez and Hermano Pickup has my teachers.

 

I have never had so much fun, so much growth, and so much struggles in 6 weeks than I have the last 6 weeks! I love the CCM and leaving onn tuesday is so so bittersweet. And the Spain CCM in particular is the greatest place. I feel just as close with my teachers as I do the missionaries. And we eat every meal with the president and his wife and all of the tecahers so I have gotten to know President Sitterud and his wife so well. They are so wonderful.

 

 A few things I have learned

1. I laugh way too much in awkward situations! Haha. Although, I already knew this, i am strongly reminded of it each day. haha. 

2.The power of companionships is so so wonderful.

3. this gospel is perfect. There is nothing about this gospel that isnt full of love and hope and mercy and justice. The more I learn about this gospel the more I see just how perfect it is and how much I NEED it in my life.

4. Personal study time of the scriptures is so sacred.

5. If the Lord asks me to do something, or gives me a trial to pass through He will always provide a way for me to accoplish it. I know I knew this before but my understanding of it has deepened so much.

6. I also already knew this but my understanding is so much more meaningly and deep now... mercy is conditional upon our repentance.

7. The most important thing I can do for my investigators is to allow them to feel the spirit. The spirit is the key. I dont know spainsh, they dont understand what I am trying to say, but if they FEEL and that is when conversion takes place. I can go on and on and on about this principle and how real it is but I dont have time. But what I know for sure is that if I have the spirit with me, my lack of spanish speaking abilities does not matter.

 

One of the italian teachers here shared a scripture with me yesterday at dinner that was so perfect for me to hear yesterday and was an aswer to my prayers. It is Ether 12; 23-28. She told me to insert my name and my weakness with this language into the scriptures and as I went to my room last night and did that I have never has such a love for the sciptures and such a strong knowledge that they are the word of God and can help each one of us with every single problem we are facing. All questions to everything can be found in the Book of Mormon. I know this. As I was reading this scriptures I cross refeernced to grace in bible dictionary. It says "The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ... It is likewise through the grace fo the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, recieve strength and asistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power.... However, grace cannot siffive without total effort on the part of the recipient¨". I loved this so much. I know that Christ´s grace is real. I know that my weak things can be made strong through the mercy of Christ. I also know that HEavenly Father´s timing is perfect and He requires my TOTAL EFFORT before he helps strengthen me.

 

Last saturday I was able to be compaions with Hermana Mather for the park (just for the park we get a different companion each week it has been so fun to learn from and teach with others but Sis Mather and I already know how to teach with each other and it was so awesome). WE missed our metro stop to walk to the park. We saw everyone gettting off but we were in the middle of teaching someone so we stayed on and just figured we would get off at the next stop and flip around.Well the lady we were teachign got off and we starting teaching someone else so missed the stop again. The first time I was okay with it because the lady we were talking to was interested But this second lasy was quite the opposite and wouldnt let us talk and kept trying to just rebute what we were saying. I was kind of annoyed that we missed the stop again for this lady who was anything but nice. So eventually we got off, got on again, and missed our stop a thrist time! haha. We were tlaking to this older gentleman and this time we legitimately missed our stop. The opther two times we knew it was our stop but we were teaching. So we got off, go back on again and sat by this lady. By this time about 45 minutes has passed and we said no matter what we are gettign off at our stop this time. We sat down next to this lasy and tlaked with ehr for quit awhile... we were so far away fro our stop we had a while on the metro. She was showing us pics of ehr grandkids and what not. After awhile of tlaking we brought up our message and she was so so receptive! (WE missed out stop again! haha) We found out that her husband had jsut passed away and we were able to share our testimonys and knowledge of eternal families! Ahh. It was SO wonderful! We got her contact info and hope that other missionaries are able to teach her more. By the time we finally got to the park we only had a half hour there (we usually have 2 hrs) But it was so neat to see the Lord´s hand in our day. Looking back, we needed to miss all of those stops to meet this lady and share our tesimonies with her. It was such aneat experience. I quickly felt bad for being so annoyed in the beginning that we missed our stop the first few times because I realized it was part of His plan!

 

 

Alright I gotta go! I love you family! I feel your prayers and I know I couldnt be doin this without your love and support! I pray for each one of you every night!

 

I love you all so much! Next email will be from out in the field!!!!! AHHH!

 

Love, Hermana Heims

 

ps.

So there is this one new teacher here and apparently we look identical. Everyone says that they have never seen two people look more alike who arent related that us. haha random but it is just so funny becuase everyone mixes us up!

 

Already a Missionary for a Month!

Hola Familia!

 

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I cannot believe I am going to be 21 in just a few days! I feel SO old here! Haha there are 20 plus girls and all of them are 19 except me, one girl who just turned 20 and one other girl who is 24. And then the majority of the guys are 18 with a few 19. haha. Also BAILEE GIRL! HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL! I love you so much!

 

Well, this week was really good. Every sunday we have a devotional where either someone comes and talks to us or we listen to a devo from provo. this week we watched one from Provo from Elder Bednar... Reilly I bet you know it. I so wish it was available for everyone to see but it is only at the MTCs. Anyways, He talked about feeling the spirit and deciphering between your own thoughts and the spirit. It.was.amazing! Seriously. He said Ïf you are being a good girl (boy), honoring your covenants, keeping the commandments THEN QUIT WORRYING ABOUT IT!¨ I know I have heard this so often the last few years but it was a nice and needed reminder. Heavenly Father is in all of the details of our life. And holy cow do I know this to be so so true! I feel like my day is just made uup of tender mercy after tender mercy here and I am so sure it was when I was home too I just didnt realize it. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for the comfort that it brings me.

 

Hahahahahah so funny story.... The word for congested here is ¨"constupado" and we were in a lesson with our investigator and he left the room for what seemed like a long time and then came back. When he came back he said, sorry, I woke up super "constupado" today. And at that time we didnt know that it meant congested, we just thought since it sounds exactly like constipated that it meant that. So we laughed but held it together pretty well. Then after our whole district was laughing about it and our teacher, the investigator, comes in and we asked him why the heck he told us he was constipated. haha he quickly explained that it in fact does not mean constipated. Hahah. Im sure this just sounds gross and not funny but if you know my teacher then it was pretty darn funny. We laugh daily about it.

 

And speaking of my district... LOVE THEM! Everyone is so right, you get so close to your district. We will definitely all be friends after the mission. They are so great.

 

The park this week was so amazing! Goodness, being a missionary is just the greatest thing. I cannot wait to get out in the field and teach people every day! Speaking of that, I leave the MTC in 1.5 weeks. so crazy. Anyways, I was companions at the park with a sister who is very very shy and has some anxiety issues she is working with right now so talking with people in spanish is not her thing right now so it totally forced me to speak spanish to everyone and do the majority of the speaking. I was so nervous but it went so well. We found this man named Miguel who was raised Catholic but doesn't really believe it. We ended up talking to him for about 30 ish minuted about the gospel and He kept saying we are so happy and he wants that in his life. So my famous phrase at the park is "well, can we get your contact info because there are other missionaries that speak spanish way better and can teach your more" and he agreed and is so happy to hear from the missionaries out in the field. Once again, I was a witness that the spirit speaks all languages and does the teaching. It is just so incredible to be a part of so many miracles every day as a missionary.

 

I finally have memorized DyC 4! I love that section! I also have finally memorized moroni 10 as well. Oh and the other day in our lesson about the restoration I was able to say the first vision from memory and holy cow. What a neat experience. Being able to say the first vision sowly, with feeling, and then let the spirit testify is one of the best things there ever was! There is a quote outside of our door that is a picture of the sacred grove and says "what happened here changed the world, Let it change your life". I know that Joseph Smith restored this true gospel to the earth again and how grateful I am!

 

The Jacksons, my madrid mission presidents were here the other day so I was able to meet them! Oh thye might be the nicest people I have every met. When I was interviewed by the MTC president when I first got here he told me that the Jacksons were born to be mission presidents. After meeting I totally believe it! They are wonderful! I cannot wait to get to know them better.

 

Ok, sorry, this email isnt that fun. This week has been so wonderful! I love you all so much! And I pray for you everyday!

 

Also, Reilly, I am so sorry fro getting mad at you for never answering our questions! HAHA it is SO hard! This little room is a mad house and it is so hard to remmeber the questions after I read all of my emails and then right back. So fam, I am sorry I dont answer your questions. Keep them coming though, I promise I will try and answer them next week!

 

I LOVE YOU!

 

Love, Hma Heims

 

ps. They either pronounce my name hhhhhhhaims (Over emphasizing the H) but most people say aims. Since the H is silent here. Someone called me Heims the other day and I almost didnt answer since I am so used to aims. Ha. Oh and one more thing about pronunciation.... The "theta" here which is the lisp is the best thing ever! One of the teachers here is from chile so doesnt speak with the theta and we all agree that is sound terrible! haha I love the lisp. Every z and every c followed by an e or an i makes the "th" sounds. So paciencia sounds like paTHienTHia! And gozo sounds like goTHo

 

pps Please tell Cara Meidell that I love her and SO appreciate her emails! She is so wonderful! Also, will someone please tell Sherrie Olsen that I love her and that I have a pic of aj with me and that I love her little boys so much!

 

This week Has Been Her Favorite So Far

Hola familia!

 

What a week! This has been my favorite week so far and that is saying something because I loved the first 2 weeks so much! I have no time at all this weeek beccause we are having 4th of july festivities.... KFC! haha. sad that the usa is known for KFC and that is how we are celebrating here.

 

Anyways... a little bit about why this week has been so great and what I have learned...

 

So, learning spanish has been kicking my butt. It has been really really hard for me. And it has been so hard to watch everyone in my district be able to speak and understand far better than I can when we all started on the same level. And I know i know it is horrible to compare myself to others. Anyways, this week some one whoe gave us a devotional said that we need to first be grateful for what Heavenly Father has already blessed me with and then wait patiently for more insight, knowledge, help, etc. This really spoke to me. So, that night I poured my heart out in gratitude to Heavenly Father for blessing me with all that He has. I mean compared to what I knew the first week, I know a ton more now. And immeditately I felt at peace and know that I will learn spanish in Heavenly FAther´s timing. Ever since then I have had way more confidence to just open my mouth and speak even if I don´t exactly know how to say everything, and miraculously, words have been coming easier and I have been able to understand more. I know I need to trust completely in Heavenly Father and His timing and He will help me. I obviously have a long long ways to go butI know Heavenly Father called me to Spain to speak spanish for a reason and that He will not let me fail. It is so hard because I want to badly to express my tesimony and feelings and knowledge of teh gospel to my investigators but I know that really it is teh spirit that does the teaching anyways so I just need to be patient and alwasy be grateful for what Heavenly Father has blessed me with instead of wishing I could get more.

 

OK, and I am so sorry, after I sent the letter last week I realized I probably sounded like a crazy person! haha. There is this tiny room with some computers and a gazillion missionaries waiting for their turn so it is so hectic in here that I just type as fast as I can and try to tell as much as possible, but now thinking about it, it probably sounds like I´ve gone crazy. But just rest assured I am have not become too crazy. Although the lack of sleep I am getting here is really hard as well. I feel like it is impossible to turn off my brain at 10 thirty and try and fall asleep. Spanish memorizations, lessons, etc just go thorugh my head and it takes me for ever to fall asleep.

 

So, I have My Pourpse, the 1st vision, and the bapstimal prayer memorized in spanisyh and about half of d and c four. I am hoping to have all of d and c four by the end of the week. I love memorizing sciptures in spanish. Especially  the first vision. being able to recite that in a lesson from memory, with emotion is indescribable. ahha ahh... english spelling is so hard for me now!

 

So, I ate shark this week... so so good! and more calamari which is definietly one of my faves here.

 

We went to the Prado last week (Man, it is so so weird that that was a week ago. I am alwasy so confused because it feels like the days are weeks but the weeks feel like days!) . It was a very interesting experience to say the least. the prado is like teh second largest museum in europe and we were all so excited to go! some of the painting were absolutely gorgeous but most of them were just so so dark and dreary and gory. It made me so so so appresiative of the paitings of Christ, temples, and anythign church related in our church! When you walk into teh church bookstore and see greg olsen paintings they are so full of hope, love, passion, forgiveness! I love it. And I love that that is what our church is all about. But these pics of Christ were so dark and sad and hopeless it felt. It was an interesting experience. Anyways, Hermana Mather and I got a llittle bored so those pictures of us with teh mustaches were taken when we were done and waiting for everyone else to get through. Haha I love her. And the guy in the pic is one of the elders in my district. And that sunset... BEAUTIFUL!!! With the temple in the background as well! That is the view I see every night from the window in my hall. I am so blessed.

 

Jenny, I got your postcard! Thank you so much! It made me so happy! I hope you enjoyed Hawaii!

 

Lindsay you are going to kill me! I got your package yesterday and opened it! I kow I know. And I could  hear you in my head the whole time saying to wait but you have no idea how badly I wanted to open it. And it was SO perfect. That book that Brooklyn wrote to me totally made me and my companion cry! I read it and showed the pics to my whole district! Oh I love all of my nieces and nephews! And linds, THANK YOU so much for the package! I LOVE YOU! I know I should ahve waited till my bday but I just couldnt! I cannot belive I am going to be 21 in just a week and a half. So crazy.

 

Well, I just dont have words to express my gratitude for Jesus Christ and His atonement! There is nothing that makes me happier in this life than being able to teach people about Christ´s atonement. It is so filled with hope and love.

 

I know this is the true church restored through Joseph Smith in these latter days. I KNOW the Book of Mormon was written for our day and contains the fullness of the gospel.

 

Ahhh... I have no more time left. I gotta go sing the star spangled banner and eat KFC haha. ENJOY LAKE TAHOE TODAY!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Oh, and Chunnie boy... you look SO SO handsome with glasses!

 

Oh... we watched this devotional from Elder Nelson the other day... holy cow it was incr3eedble. It was all about how we ahve angels on the other side helping us in this work! And how we have a whole heavenly army helping to prepare those who we are about to go teach! He also talked about how in times of need I can ask fro specific angels to come be with me, specific attributes that I need help with and God will send angesl to me that have them and together we will succeed! It was sucha wonderful devotional. I have been asking for grandma great and grampa daddy lately! I know that they are here helping me!

 

Love, sister heims

Already Teaching the people in Madrid

Hola Familia!

 

Oh what a week! I just got back from the temple, it has been closed for the past two weeks so today was the first time we have been able to go and it was absolutely wonderful. There really are no words to describe the feeling of 40 plus missionaries doing a session together. And teh celestial room was teh most gorgeous place I have ever stepped foot in. I didn´t want to leave but at teh same time I have never had a stronger desire to go grab my name tag and put it back on! Being a missionary for the Lord is the best thing EVER!

 

Ok real fast, before I talk about my week.... thank you everyone for emailing me! I had 17 emails today haha and I didnt have time to read through all of them and write back but I got all of your pictures and LOOOOVED them so much. Oh they made me so happy to see!

 

Ok, the most important thing about this email... The Missionary Worldwide conference thing last sunday... AMAZING! Holy cow, it was like it was Christmas over here. I have never been so excited, humbled, and full of the spirit as I was listening to the prophet and apostles! So, familiy.... GO DO MISSIONARY WORK!! Mom, Marie, Linds... Jessica, Winter... Taunti Tiff, Dad, tyhat guy from your work... I dunno who exactly but I do know that there are several of people all around our family that have been prepared and are waiting for us to act. Pray and have the courage. This week I have been thinking a lot about otheres and how big of a responsibility we have to shrae this gospel with everyone. Their salvation is on the line as Elder Holland talks about in pmg. We cannot wait!

 

Ok this week....

 

Companion... haha I know I have already talked about here but I just feel so so blessed to have Hermana Mather as my companion. ANd it has only been two weeks but I already feel so weird when she is not right by me. I cannot imagine how I will feel in 18 months. Haha! We have a ton of fun together but work really hard as well.

 

Spiritual experience: So on pdays we go on excursions all around madrid. Last thrusrday we went to the center of madrid and saw the palace and a ton of other cool stuff. On teh way back when we were riding the metro this lady in front of us had an adorable little baby boy so we hma mather and I started talking to this lady asking how old the baby was etc. Our teacher was with us and saw she was reading a book so asked if she wanted the book of momron. This is when they both statred talking really fast and we got lost and had no clue what they were talking about but we kept listening as our teacher was showing her the book of mormon and what not. Then our teacher turned to the two of us and said, ok bare your testimony. We both bore our testimony of the book and iour relationship with Christ in our broken spanish and all of teh suddent the spirit flooded that bus! Seriously it was amaizing. The lady before was very distant, arms folded, and very closed off but the second we testified she became SO receptive. We finished bearing our testimonies and our teacher took over again and soon our stop came. We got off the bus and asked our teacher what happend and he said she LOVED every word we said, cannot wait to go to church on Sunday, and plans on starting the bofm as soon as she gets home! It was so so amazing! Ah, I have no clue what I said in my testimony, the spirit just took over, but it was what she needed to hear. I cannot express my gratitude enough for teh gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit speaks all languages. And I gained such a pwerful testimony about sharing our tesimonies. We can teach and show and explain all we want but I know that when we testify hearts are softened and people begine to be receptive. I just love that I get to be a missionary for the enxt 18 months and bring hope and love and happiness into the lives of the spanish people!

 

there were so many other incredible experiences this week but that one was my favorite. Oh, and we watched the Jospeh SMith movie the other night, I cannot tell you are incredible it was to watch that movie as a missionary. Life changing.

 

Man, it seems like all week things happent that I need to tell you and then I sit down and I cant remember any of them. haha.

 

I am pretty sure I am going to be a pro at futbol when I get home! We play it every day and it is so much fun! The elders and Hermana here are so so awesome. Oh, and we recieved new investigators last night (our teachers with different stories). although they are fake investigators we do not treat it like that and they especially dont treat it like that. If they dont feel the spirit or if we are not explaining something clearly they do not help us. It is such great practice and it has been my very most favorite thing to learn how to teach witht the Spirit. I love it.

I am going to try and upload a few pics. They take forever though so I am not sure it will work. But, if it does, the one picture with the two people holding the book of mormon is my most favorite picture ever! Do they not look so so happy?!?! My comp and I taught them at the park the other day. The lady grabbed the Book of Mormon and hugged it so tight and said she couldnt wait to start reading it!

 

Ahh... I cant think of what else to say but I know the second I get off the comp I will think of a ton dang it.

 

Haha ahhh the language. I remind myself daily that learning a language does not come over night and that I need to be patient with myself!

 

As far as bday stuff mom... PICTURES PLEASE! of all of the kids, you and dad, Christ, temple, Lake Tahoe... just tons of pictures! And I need a TON more of those sock things that you wear with flats. They are so hard to find here.

 

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I know that this gospel, Christ´s Gospel is the way to find hope and happiness in this life and salvation in the next life. I know more now than ever before that I am a daughter of God, and that the way back to Him is through baptism with teh correct authority. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and was called to restore the church in these latter days and that this church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same Church Christ taught his apostles. I know that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth and by reading it you can find an answer to any question in this life and that there is more hope and peace and happiness found in that Book and anything esle. I know that this is the true church and I know that with God´s help we can accomplish anything!

 

 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!

 

grandmere, I wera you ring and think of you often! Grandmama, I LOVE you so much and continue to pray for you each day! Taunti Tiff.. you ahve been on my mind constantly the last few days. I LOVE YOU and I hope your new job is still going great.

 

Love, Hermana Heims

 

ps... spellin words correctly goes out teh window in these emails. sorry.

 

First week as a Missionary

Hola familia!

There is so much a wont to tell you, hopefully I have time to at least tell you half of it. Its been one week and seriously feels like I have been gone a month. It is so crazy how the days seem like weeks here! It is so good thought because I feel like I am able to accomplish so much in just one day. Proselyting on saturday was SO AWESMOE! Seriously I could not have had a better experience. I learned that there really is no real language barrier. The Holy Ghost spoke through my companion and I in our broken Spanish and we gave away a Libro de Mormon and got 2 contact infos to pass to the missionaries in the field. I pray for there two guys, Juan and Javier that they will accept the gospel. They seemed so interested and so willing to learn more!

Haha ok before I go on I have to tell you this terrible, hilarious story about my first lesson teaching an investigator. So on Friday we were assigned fake investigators to teach. We were given their whole background and we have to now come up with lessons to teach them etc, just as if we were to meet someone, get to know them and then teach them the first lesson or something else inspired by the holy ghost. Well, Hermana MAther and I were going to teach our investigator Sara about faith and a few other things, (I barely remember anything from this lesson because it went so horribly) so we get there (a classroom upstairs) and she invites us and we start teaching her and then she started talking and telling us that she is catholic and all of this stuff which we already knew. It was all fine until we realized that we could totally understand her, we knew exactly all of the questions she was asking and everything but we had NO clue how to respond in spanish so we sat there awkwardly and just started busting up laughing. IT WAS SO TERRIBLE! It turned into a full on laugh attack and we could not stop. Finally through our laughing we taught her about prayer and asked if she could pray. Something happened right before she was about to say the prayer that got us laughing hysterically again and our teacher (investigator) started busting up too. We all laughed for a few minutes and then were able to compose ourself for the prayer. But, then during the prayer Hermana Mather bursted out laughing. Yeah. Terrible right! And you know me, when I start laughing I cannot stop! Nor can Hermana Mather!  The whole time we just kept saying lo siento lo siento lo siento. our whole district laughs about it now but right after Hma Mather and I literally wanted to cry we were so embarrassed! I am probably telling this story so poorly but by now the whole MTC knows about it and always makes fun of! It was so bad. But, I learned a lot prayer always now that that will never happen again.

Food; SO GOOD! Fish at least once a day, chicken, fresh fruit, yummy veggies! I love the food here. I have tried squid (I didnt know that it was squid when I was eating it), clams, and tons of other fish and have yet to have a meal that I dont like!

Language; not much to say except learning a language it really hard for me.

Spiriutal experience for the week: During one of our Presidents devotionals, he called up an elder to recite the first vision by memory. At that very instance the spirit bore such a strong witness to me that it was ALL true! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and restored the gospel back tot eh earth. It was incredibly powerful! I can never deny this gospel and the truthfulness of Joseph Smith as the first prophet of these latter days.

My CCM (mtc) president, President Sitterud looks EXACTLY EXACTLY like President Monson. He talks, acts, and looks just like him. Hma Mather nad I asked him if he was related but he said no but he gets that wherever he goes! He is so tender and loving and funny and sincere over the pulpit, just like President Monson. I love it.

Well, I am happy to report that finally, our 3rd lesson with Sara went SO WELL! It is just so powerful to teach the gospel to people, to be able to bare testimony of what you know is true. Hma Mather and I left the lesson full of the spirit and both were on a spiritual high the rest of the day. And to think, this is what I get to do for the next 18 months! I can not think of a place I would rather be than here in Spain serving the Lord!

There are moths everywhere here! Every morning our room is just full of them. and they are big! But thankfully I have not had any other bug problems.

Oh and real fast.... my teachers, Hermano Pickup, Hermana Martinez, and Hermana Gutierrez and seriously 3 of my most favorite people on earth. I am so blessed to be here and have them as my teachers to learn from. Most of us here (I think there are 47 of us) are from the states... there from England and one from Ukraine. This elder, elder Boboshko, only speaks Russian, he is going to Ukraine to serve and leaves next week but he has touched my life and every single other persons life here. I will never forget Elder Boboshko. He walks around all day everyday with the biggest smile on his face and love and the spirit just radiates from him. He is surrounded by everyone who only know English but he doesn't let that get in the way. He loves the gospel and is not afraid to show that. He truly radiates Christ love for all of us.I hope one day I can be like Elder Boboshko.

Well my time is up, sorry for all of the typos, I am trying to type as fast as I can so that others can have their turn.

I love you all so much and prayer for each one of you every single day!

Love, Hermana Heims!