Monday, October 29, 2012

I am Blessed with THE BEST Family and Friends in this World!!

I seriously have the best family and friends ever. I could totally see how pdays could be super distracting for some missionaries with getting emails and everything from friends and family, but I get on here and read my emails from friends and family and just get pumped and more motivated to go be a dang awesome missionary! hahaha. Seriously. I love you all so much and look up to all of your examples and am so thankful for the emails I get from you and the support and love and everything! 

My family is bomb. Theyre so cool. I have an awesome family. haha. Wow. I love you all and miss you all! Youre such awesome examples to me in everything you do and everything everybody is doing especially now in this time! Its amazing. Youre all awesome. Iiiiii love my family. I miss you all. And especially my nieces and nephews too. Tell them all I say hi and i love them and miss them. And teach them to say unkie! haha.

Im also sooo blessed to have so many friends out on missions right now as well. Living their lives the right way, and in this time dedicating THEIR time to the Lord and helping others and learning so much too. Because IIIII am having an awesome bomb amazing time on my mission, and I know how my friends are, I know THEY are having an awesome time as well and learning and mejorandose? I cant remember the best way to say that in english anymore haha. Improving? progressing? Bettering themselves? haha something like that. anyway. theyre improving in life and learning so much too. Its going to be awesome when we all get back together after the mission. Ahhhh itll be so awesome. But yeah. So shout out to macgyver, lythgoe, stoker, max lax ash, harrison, brady, joey... the whole bunch. AND now Morgan and Mary and apparently all of you girls now going on missions! hahaha. Youre all awesome. Do work out there! 

OKAY. Now that I got that out of my system. Here's what my week was like really quick. Another not superdy duperdy exciting week. BUT! Here we go.

Monday: ...Nothing super exciting I can think of. haha.

Tuesday: Was a really awesome day of work! Basically we found 8 new people to teach that day. 8 nuevos! thats alot p.s. haha. So yeah. That was cool. We were happy about that.

Wednesday: In the morning we did a service project again a la casa del Presidente Carcamo! I took pictures this time! I will send them. We did ALOT of work that day. And I woke up thursday REALLY sore hahaha. We worked a ton with cement again, and shoveling a ton of rocks and dirt and what not. It was fun! Still learning alot about construction haha. Its tough work. And they really dont have good resources here, so the methods that they do somethings are just AMAZING. Im like "Wow. I never would have though of that. We just have a big giant machine that does that for us in the US. Or a tool that does that." hahah. Its pretty amazing what they do out here. They live roughhh lives :/ YOURE ALL BLESSED! Be grateful. haha. Im learning alot out here ;)

Thursday: Cant think of anything grand that happened... 

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on friday... Sidenote. It smells terribly of fish and fish food right now in this computer place and i might go throw up. This is disgusting.

FRIDAY: So this story is more kind of for me for when i go back and read these after the mission haha. So it might not make complete sense or be that great sorry. So thursday morning we had a surprise visit from our zone leaders at our house during our study hours. They basically just came to do some verification stuff and see how were all doing and working with some goals we set as a zone. But so when they left they were telling us how our zone needs to use the members better and work better with the members. So they left us with a goal of 8 lessons with members between thursday and sunday. Which is SO HARD for us. like the last three weeks weve had at most 5 lessons with members during the week. We have very few members here in Longavì, and very few willing or ready to work with us... haha But so I just thought, okay if its coming from the zone leaders, its possible, lets do it. Its dang hard, but lets do it. So anyway. My experience from friday is that in the morning i had kind of planned out how we could reach this goal by the end of the week. which included visiting a member that day to check up on some things with her, and then having her introduce us to her neighbor whose son we had talked to the other day. So we went to visit her, and it just so happened that the member (Yissela) was over in the yard of the lady we wanted her to introduce us to, working on something. So I thought perfect! this will work. We can have a lesson with her and start reaching our goal! So long story short, it turned out there was no attempt to meet with these people and teach them like we planned, so we ended up leaving without entering anyones house or giving any lesson or anything... So we left. and i was in silence... just thinking in my head, "well how are we ever gonna reach this goal if we dont even try..." and basically the fact that we didnt try anything to meet with this lady was stuck in my head. And finally the thought came in my head "if i dont say anything and we dont try to actually reach this goal, its going to be my fault we failed the zone leaders". At this point we were on the other side of longaví to meet someone (who ended up not being home) and elder sutterfield said "lets start contacting these houses". And i said "lets go back to yissela and go meet with that lady. We need lessons with members. We didnt do anything to try and meet with her" and he explained to me how he had tried something of trying to enter the house with them and how now it would be awkward to leave then go back... but I just looked at him and said "that was kind of weak. lets go back. we need lessons with members." so he thought for a second... and said "okay. yeah lets go back." so we went allll the way back. and now the neighbor was in the yard of yissela working on her project, so i thought wow even more perfect! So we approached them and said hey our appointment fell with those people, is yissela here?" so yissela came and i asked if we could share something with her, she said yes. Then i asked "do they want to join us?" and she said "uhh... you can share with me but not them... they do NOT like the missionaries and dont want anything to do with them." so i thought "shoot. dang it. now this will be hard to get them in cuz they dont like us..." and my faith got a little weaker... but so yissela went inside and i approached them anways to ask if they wanted to join us. So i asked hesitantly "hey were going to share a little message just really quick with yissela... do you want to join us?" ..... and the lady said "uh... yeah! yeah no problem! Ill come!" hahaha. So I turned to elder sutterfield with my "well im shocked that was so easy" face. and we went in and taught her and got our lesson with member there! hahaha. but anyway my point of that story is that i am so grateful the lord blessed us in that moment for our faith. He softened the heart of that lady so that she would accept to listen to us and so we could accomplish our goals. And even though we only ended up with 6 lessons with members and didnt make the 8... the point is, in 3 days we had more lessons with members than we had had in the past 3 or 4 weeks! So it just showed us we know we can work with the members and we can work harder. We just gotta do it. haha. and thats my story.

Also on friday, I GOT MY PACKAGE FROM MOM AND DAD!!!! woo hoooo! We had a surprise visit from President and Sister Humphrey who hand delivered the package! wooooo hoooo im so pumped! Except its killing me i cant open those christmas presents until christmas.... haha. But i shall wait. THANK YOU SO MUCH! But so it was awesome and fun to see President and his wife, and good to talk to them. President gave me a big hug from you dad! thank you!!! haha. 
Also on friday, we had an activity in the rama. But it wasnt very great because not a ton of people showed up until way late. And all the electricty in Longaví was out for some reason for a few hours or something haha. 

Saturday: Sat was fun. We played a bunch of futbol. We played it in the morning at the church to try and fellowship with some less actives and nonmembers haha. But then in the afternoon we had made a deal with a bunch of 10 yr olds we would play with them in this backyard so then their mom would let us in her house to teach her hahaha. Long story. But pictures to follow. 

Sunday: I gave my talk! It went well I think. People understood me. I was kind of nervous about it though, not because of the language, but because I was kind of bold with it. Theres been a streak of missionaries here in Longaví somewhat recently that have been somewhat disobedient and a little too friendly with the people... So the image of missionaries was kind of skewed and people had the wrong idea, plus since its a little branch, so many people are new converts and just dont know about the missionaries. So i got up and explained some rules that we have as missionaries and why we have them. And people ALWAYS tell us stories about how "Elders so-and-so, when they were here ALWAYS did this!"... so in my talk i said "it doesnt matter what the missionaries that were here before us did. These are the rules and have been the rules. The missionaries here want to be obedient." and then went on to bear testimony about how i know it will bring us success and change in the area, and shared a scripture about obedience and the blessings of it as well.... haha. I hope it was received well. I think it was. We've already seen changes in the 2 or 3 houses we visited last night haha...

And yeah! that was my week! haha. The elections here are FINALLY over. Mario Briones won. It was funny cuz they voted yesterday, and at like 7 at night people were celebrating going crazy that theyre candidate won, and i said to elder sutt, "they already know who won???" And he said "well yeah... they only have to count like 400 votes. Theres like no one in longavi" hahaha. Kind of funny. Now i hope the town will calm down a little bit and more people will attend church since theyre not doing campaign stuff haha. But idk. Idk what else haha. im loving it here! the work is fun and elder sutt and i are doing well! we're improving alot and were excited for it. Libeny and Michael (her son) are getting baptized this week! woo hoooo! idk if ill do it. maybe. If i did that would be cool though haha. But so yeah. Ill let you know next week! but yeah! i think thats all! Im running out of time and still have to write others haha. So im gonna do that! love you and miss you all! Chauuu!

- Elder Heyman

Thursday, October 25, 2012












Nothing Super Grand Oct. 22, 2012

Hola a todos! So this week was pretty uneventful haha... Not alot happened haha. Just a week of working hard! Like really its not even worth doing my day to day thing i usually do haha. So ill just write some points and some things I feel like saying this week!

The weather has been even worse this week haha. its been more cold than warm. And its been raining quite a bit the past couple days! booo. I hate rain haha. Oh well ive got good protection! But everyone keeps saying well be heading into the summer heat faster than I think... well see how it is and how it compares to the AZ heat! ;) 

Our branch president here is building a little vacation house on the outskirts of Longaví. He lives in Linares and so has to drive to Longaví all the time for church duties. So they wanted to build a house out in the campo. So weve been doing some service lately helping build that! Im learning alot about construction, actually haha. Alot of random skills and ways to do things, how to make cement, weve worked a ton with cement haha. They dont have big trcks to just pour cement where you want... we make it all and take it wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow and pour it where we need haha. Its helped expand my spanish vocab :P Now i know Martillo y pala y palo y tabla y what "el diablo" is (NOT the devil. A crowbar! haha) but all sorts of stuff! and were shoveling dirt and rocks everywhere, I learned this weird technique of how to find water underground haha. but it works! anyway. Its a good workout too and ive been learning alot! Its fun and something different to do! so its enjoyable. I think Ive failed to take pictures.... sorry :/ But we'll be out there working more so ill take some next time! haha. But So yeah that something weve been doing haha.

We had a good week of work this week! we found some new people to teach and have been teaching some good progressing people. First of all Libeny Ive told you about is AWESOME. She still isnt 100% sure? secure? segura haha about baptism. But its funny cuz she just accepts everything we teach and starts living it right away. The moment we told her she needed to stop drinking tea and cafe, she stopped that night haha. Shes really so awesome and intelligent. And now her son is way involved to and wants to learn more and really wants to be baptized haha. Hes already pretty sure about it. So were excited for them! theyve been to church the past two weeks so thats good too. Theyre awesome. Weve been trying to teach Ramiro and his family too... They keep slowly improving but are really frustrating as well. Were not sure what more we can do :/ ugh. Its really frustrating.


I had an interview with my mission president this week! he came for a short conference just to interview everyone. and so he just talked to me all about mom and dad basically haha. It was good to see him and talk to him. Hes off to a mission president seminar and will be meeting dad this week! So im really excited about that! Especially because hell be bringing back a package from mom and dad for me! woo hoooooo!!!! hahaha. Im excited for that. But so yeah my mission president is super cool and super funny para que sepan. President Humphrey. He has funny little quirks, and my favorite is that at the end of prayers or testimonies or whatever he always like YELLS amen hahaha. its so funny. But no i love him and hes awesome and really is called of God!!

I continue to improve in spanish each week! Elder Klepinger told me the other day that in the 3 weeks hes been here hes really seen alot of improvement in my spanish. Which was good cuz i felt like i was at a standstill kind of! or even worsened... haha. I keep stumbling on words and blah blah blah. But i DO know im improving and stuff. But sometimes i just get frustrated still :P But i can definitely communicate (understand AND speak) ALOT better haha. Its a good feeling! 

Okay two more things I want to share! So first thing is yesterday at church we didnt have anyone there to take care of the primary... So I did it! hahaha. It was fun and went fine! I even happened to have cookies in my backpack to handout haha. I just taught about who our heavenly father is and what were doing here on earth. It was fun! haha. Also, yesterday I was assigned my first talk in church.... haha. Next week im speaking about la obra misional por 10 minutos! haha. It will be interesting. ALSO ysterday elder sutterfield and I taught the Young Men/Aaronic Priesthood. Everyone is new (plus theres only 3 of them) so we were basically teaching them about what the priesthood even is and what their duties are. We then tried to introduce Mutual to them.... and long story short, the people here live really sad, boring lives :( We asked them what they like to do with their friends so we could come up with mutual activites.... and all they came up with was futbol, and that they like to "hang out" but then they get bored and they all just go on facebook.... haha. So then we gave them a talk about how great church is and all the resources they hvae and they should do something FUN. haha. But basically my point is just that were all REALLY blessed. Becase seriously the lifestyle here is REALLY sad. Its really poor and all the teenage kids are just... really just a joke. At such a young age they just get into the worst stuff like drugs and alcohol and everything, and when theyre like 16/17 so many of them get pregnant and then the boys just take off and leave buried in their drugs and alcohol so they work terrible jobs, and the girls are left alone to try and raise a kid on their own and on and on.... its just terrible. And is wayyyy too common. Its sad. Were all really blessed. But thats all I want to say about that. haha.

okay and LAST thing is a quick little thought about how its funny to me that I learn the most about everything when were IN lessons. Like I recieve personal revelation the most during our lessons. it seems like it always happens while im just sitting there listening to what Elder Sutterfield is saying, and then Ill hear something and BAM my mind explodes and all of a sudden something clicks and i understand something about the gospel ALOT better. Its a win/lose situation because Im learning a ton, but were speaking in spanish and I get sidetracked and when I get back to paying attention i have no idea whats going on and have trouble figuring out where were at hahaha. But its just awesome and its interesting to see that God works in mysterious ways! Im always always always learning something new. And I love it. I always have to write whatever thought comes to mind down during the lesson so later I can remember it and go look at it better haha. 

But so thats all from this week! like i said no major events so i just filled you in a little about life here haha. Iiiiiim loving it! Its so fun. as of yesterday ive officially been here 2 months!! sooooooo crazy... haha. I cant believe how fast time goes. This morning during P-day I just did a bunch of reading and went on a random cleaning spree (yes. that really happened) and  just cleaned everything alot and got super organized. It rocks haha. but now its just back to the house to relax a little until we go out to work later tonight! Im loving life here. i love and miss you all alotttt. Always are in my prayers. Im working hard to make you proud!! I love you all! Have a good week!!!

Con muuucho amor,
Elder Heyman

Monday, October 15, 2012

Oct. 15th-- I Need a New Subject Line because every Week is Just Crazy!

Hola holaaaa. ¿Como estamos? Todo esta bien aqui en Longaví! Incluyendo mi español! estoy tan animado. Yo tuve tanto progreso esta semana!!!

But so anyways. Hi everyone. Yes, once again another crazy week. I guess every week is just crazy during a mission. But I had an awesome week! So Im really happy about it and really excited! haha. Okayyyy here we go.

Monday and Tuesday: Didnt really have anything great to note haha. So here Ill just note that We now bike even farther from Longavi, past Los Cristales because weve worked in Los Cristales so much, and are now working in a place called La Tercera! We even found one pretty good investigator there! and a couple other potentials. Well see later this week! (Disculpe porque no se donde esta la apostrophe aqui en este teclado haha)

Wednesday: We didnt do much work... haha because we had my first mission conference! Except the way it works is theres 2 mission conferences. The "Inside" Conference (areas much closer to concepcion) and the "outside" conference. So im on the outside. It was really good and a lot of fun! I finally met up with Emily Elkins missionary, Elder Larkin during this conference!!! hahah. So that was fun to see someone I knew whos been in the mission for like a year! haha. But yeah the conference was awesome and we learned lots and everything. They talked about using maps of our sectors to be more successful and efficient, and talked about knowing the material/doctrine we teach! So part of that is that we memorize alot of different things from Preach my Gospel. Here in the mission We have this thing where basically, a missionary who completes all of it is a "gold missionary" and there is silver and bronze as well. Ill be bronze as of tomorrow haha. But first we memorize all the section headings of the all 4 lessons from PMG, and the compromisos (commitments). So ive done that. Then after ill memorize a bunch of scriptures that go with each one for silver, and then a gold missionary memorizes all of that, plus a bunch bunch more. Its hard to describe. But, it will be a challenge! But I expect to do it haha. So yeah. Anyway I also wanted to note that at the end of the conference they had all the new missionaries go up and bear their testimony to everyone. Basically a chance just for everyone to judge the newbies level of spanish hahaha. But so yeah mine went really well! I got compliments that my spanish was really good and people were even surprised! so that made me happy :) but yeah. That happened.

Thursday: I had a mini cambio all day!!! So I was actually working in Linares with a Chileno, Elder Navarrete! He talks so fast. hahaha. But Ive been improving and I understand basically everything! For the most part. The point is i could communicate with him fine. haha. So 3 things to note from that experience! First, I like the city alot more than the campo. haha. Idk why. I just do. So im a city boy (Dad. Probably just in the genes)(p.s. So yeah linares is more of a city while longavi and everything is super campo) Second, I had a ridiculously pink bike that I was using to travel everywhere. It was really funny. I failed to get a picture sorry :/ haha but so i got lots of smiles and laughs as I rode by. And how I said previously how the jovenes aqui are alot more disrespectful and yell things at us blah blah blah, i even had a group of kids that threw a few rocks at me..... and hit me. I was about to get real mad (obviously not do anything about it. just pout haha) but it was weird cuz right before I did get mad suddenly the idea/image popped into my head of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. And all the stuff HE had to go through and all the mocking and abuse and everything. And so I thought "okay. well nevermind. I have no room to get mad." and just wiped it out of my mind fast haha. But wrote it down later so I could remember to share it with you guys hahaha. But so yeah. Just a reminder to all that we have a savior and redeemer in this life. And his sacrifice for us is amazing and incomprehensible, but I really know that Jesus Christ died for us, and suffered EVERYTHING, just so that everybody on the earth (past, present, future) could have the chance to be eternally happy, and could become perfect like him and our Heavenly Father. It really happened. No doubt! So theres my spiritual thought with you guys :) haha
Okay and third to share was crazy! We went to this members house because the wife had asked for a blessing of health for her husband. And these people were ancient haha. But so her husband is bed-ridden. Like forever. I didnt really catch why or what exactly was wrong, but basically that he was really old and weak and sick... but so elder navarette was helping me remember how the anointing works in spanish... when he asked "have you given a blessing in spanish before?" and i told him no, just had done confirmations of the holy ghost! and so he said "okay well youre going to do the blessing!" so i got really nervous again haha. but i was right up for it! And it was an awesome experience. It was definitely really difficult, and i struggled through it, but i know it was guided by the Holy Ghost. The man just stayed laying down in his bed and we placed our hands on his head and did the blessing. It was really cool :) 

Friday: not much! I returned back to Longavi from Linares friday morning! and we just went to work haha.

Saturday: So this was a huge day. So first announcement.... Im probably going to go to the temple in Santiago in November!!! Supppper long story, but Saturday Elder Sutterfield and Elder Vargas (the two older companions in our house) went with some of the members of the Rama to the temple in Santiago! And so now we have a date set for a temple trip with the branch in November!! And I will most likely be able to go! but so yeah. Thats all ill say bout that cuz thats all I know haha. 
But so anyway... If you didnt catch on, with the two older companions in Longaví leaving, that leaves... One Elder with a month and a half, and one elder with a week and a half in the mission in Longaví to do the work... aka Elder Klepinger and I. So thats exactly what we did! hahaha. It was an adventure. But it was awesome, alot of fun, and we actually had some good success! We were praying reallll hard in the morning before we left so we would be able to understand and talk with the people haha. But it went really well! We even gave the whole first lesson to someone and invited them to baptism in the first lesson! (they said no... hahaha. But i still consider it a success) But honestly that whole day was a huge blessing. My spanish (understanding and ability to talk) were amazing. and I know it was onlyyyy because I had the help of the Lord. We were praying real hard for help because we knew we had an important work to do, but the two of us were nearly completely incapable (hahaha) and so we needed help BAD. and Elder Klepinger and I noticed huge changes with the language that day. It was a huge blessing. Miracles really do happen! haha. Oh and during our lunch with a member family, I was even having full conversation with them, and had them cracking up laughing!!! To be completely honest I dont know why they thought it was SO funny... But it felt so good to be able to do that! and in spanish! haha (and no they werent laughing AT me and my spanish ;) haha)

Sunday: So two things from Sunday haha. Long email today. So first thing is Elder Sutterfield is 2nd counselor in the branch presidency here, and elder vargas is secretary. So after church each sunday we have to hang around for a little longer so they can do tithing stuff and other things... So were sitting there and all of a sudden the Branch President comes up to me and says "Elder Heyman can you interview my son? I have to do this stuff. Can you give him an interview?" (His son is 4...) and so he likes to joke around a lot and so I said Yeah sure! and just laughed cuz i thought it was a joke. then all of a sudden he hands me his keys to his office and says "Here take this and take elder klepinger with you and interview him for something about the primary. thanks so much" so I got really confused and elder Sutt said "Jeremias feels left out so President wants you to interview him" so i was like oh... wow. im really doing this. hahaha. And they told me to make it as real as possible. so it was SOOOO funny. So elder klepinger and i went into the office with Jeremias and "interviewed" him. It was so funny. I asked him funny questions. Like if he obeys his parents, if he loves his siblings, which sibling was his favorite :P hahahaha. And other stuff about why he likes the church and if he wants to be a missionary blah blah blah. It was HILARIOUS. Hes the funniest kid. He was so shy about it. And right at the beginning he told me "ive never had an interview before... this is my first one ever." so then at the end we found some paper and I had him sign it and then I wrote "Jeremias´s first Interview" and I signed it too and told him he passed hahaha. I love kids. It was the best. Kids in spanish are even funnier. Second quick thing is that at night when we were riding around the city for some citas there was a FAT parade that came out of nowhere because the local government elections are this next week. like seroiusly it was HUGE. And it was funny. people here get way excited about the elections. That is all. 

Today!: So this morning we had an zone vs zone partido de futbol! it was alot of fun and we played for like an hour and a half. There are some amazing futbolistas here haha. Especially the brasileno in our mission. wow hes good. but hes a flopper haha. 

But that was my week! Super crazy! So much haha. But it was an awesome week. I am still absolutely loving it here. Its so much fun. My spanish is really picking up now! im getting excited. I learned alot during the mini cambio, and being the "older guy" on friday was a good opportunity for me to just get over my nerves and go talk to people and stuff. So the spanish really improved alot this week!
The weather is still bi polar. One day hot, one day cold, then raining, then still cold, then randomly hot... I cant figure it out haha. Oh well!
Ill have been in chile for two months this week! weirddd! it goes by so fasttt! wow. haha. But ive loved it all. 

I love you and miss you all! I pray for you and am trying hard to make you proud! This church is true and Im real blessed to have it in my life! I love you!

-Elder Heyman

Oct. 8th- Ahhhhh

What is going on in this worldddddddd!!! The past two weeks have been CRAZY full of announcements and events and stuff and ahhhh. Im losing my mindddd. 

haha. But yeah really life has been super crazy it sounds like all around the world. Butttttttt.... okay. Heres a super quick rundown of the week really quick.

Monday. We had Elder Chirinos' goodbye thing at the church and it was alot of fun/sad! haha

Tuesday: we had cambios (transfers) and we have a new missionary in the house! We got another gringo who JUST arrived! So im not the new guy anymore (not completely... haha. definitely still new). anyway his name is Elder Klepinger from MESA AZ hahaha. What a small world right? I asked him about family and he didnt seem to know anyone... but hes 19 and graduated in 2011 and went to Mountain View haha. What a small world. Hes cool and fits right in! its funny/fun to watch him do all the things I was doing just 6 weeks ago, but now from a different point of view and I kind of have an idea of whats going on now! haha. Its really funny but i like to help him out too! 

Wednesday: I cant remember anything noteworthy... haha

Thursday: Thursday was a jam packed day full of disappointment haha. We had planned the day to be FULL of stuff and we were going to have so much success and teach so many people and blah blah blah... Well we went through the day and 6 of our appointments fell and we didnt find anyone knew to teach.... So we were frustrated. But i still felt happy cuz we were using our time wisely/well the whole day... We have trouble with that here because Chilenos talk SOOOO much, and other stuff but im just not going to go into detail about it haha. So it was disappointing, but at the end of the day i was still happy with what we HAD accomplished haha. So I still felt good!

Friday: Friday was tough too because we had few lessons and dedicated alot of time to contacting/proselyting/finding new people to teach.... and didnt enter a single house. We found a few people that wer willing to meet another time... so we'll see how that goes! 

Saturday/Sunday: Saturday was General Conference!!! So I'll be completly honest... and Ive never really ever been super excited about general conference before... But this time I was supppper excited!!! hahaha. I just had a different attitude about it and a different outlook! and it made all the difference. General conference was AWESOME. But so we have to travel to Linares from Longaví (about 30 min busride) to go to the chapel there to watch! So Saturday morning we rode over there! and so they broadcast the session in spanish in the chapel.... but then upstairs in a room they have some desks and a TV where the American missionaries can watch it in english!!! hahahaha. So that was really nice. Theres 7 of us! And theyre fine if we have food while we watch and such so we did that too haha. I had chips and salsa from Lider (Chile's Walmart haha. Literally owned by Walmart) BUTTTT I MISSED THE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE AGE CHANGE FOR MISSIONARIES. I was SO mad. Because we showed up in Linares and could have walked to the chapel and made it in time, but other people were insisting we get food now while I was suggesting we went then so we could catch all of conference then just get food in between sessions.... (back to using time wisely thing...) ANYWAY... Long story short we missed it and I was really upset (and still kind of am) (if you couldnt tell) but i dont want to talk about it anymore! Moving on haha....

Yeah Im definitely really surprised about the announcement but think its so cool! And its funny cuz elder Sutt and I were talking about how he thought all his girl friends were going to leave on missions now and how I thought there was no way mine would go! buttttt apparently I was way wrong haha... so yeah. Were both in shock. Good luck with that mom and dad! it will be interesting to see how it affects your mish!!

So the only other thing about that is inbetween sessions we went to our branch presidents house and he fed us meals. And it was really delicious haha. Also I guess yeah I watched conference in english and i thought it was AWESOME! I learned a ton and really felt good about it. This church is definitely true and it rocks that we have a real living prophet on the earth just like in biblical times to speak to us and tell us what we need to hear from our Heavenly Father. I definitely know thats true. And it rocks. haha. and I know the apostles and other leaders really are called of god to help us as well! 

And that was the week! Ive been really bad about taking/sending photos the past weeks and I apologize :/ Ill send some today! 
The weather here is bipolar. Its scorching hot one day then freezing the next! We actually had alot of rain this week... but now its pretty hot outside... haha its always a guessing game of how many layers of clothes i should put on in the morning! 
My spanish is really really improving! Im gaining alot of confidence with speaking to people and losing some embarrassment/getting over it about when I mess up... haha and thats made a huge difference!
Time flies by faster than it ever has before. Its crazy.
I still love it here!!! Its so much fun. Being a missionary is awesome. So glad im here doing what i am!
But yeah this letter was kind of shorter and lame I apologize! But thats what I feel like writing haha. 

I hope everybody is okay and well wherever in the world you are! haha youre all in my prayers and I love the updates. Im staying focused here on the work and finding ways to improve in whatever it is most I need improvement in (i cant tell if that made sense haha) But anway, Im off to write some individual letters now! Ill send some pictures before I go as well. Probably a few since I missed the past 2 weeks haha. But alright! I love you and miss you all veryyyy much. I hope everything is good and im praying hard for you. Im doing my job here and hope to make you all proud! I want to be the best missionary ever and im finding lotsssss of different ways to improve myself so I can do that. I love you and miss you! Que esten bien y tengan exito con cualquier cosas que ustedes hagan! Les quiero mucho! Chau!!!!

-Elder Heyman

Monday, October 1, 2012

I Survived yet ANOTHER Crazy Week Oct. 1

Things just never seem to slow down do they?... haha

Well hola familia, amigos, y cualquier person que estan leyendo esta carta!! 

On that note, my spanish is definitely improving! haha. Basically im just getting more confident with using my spanish and such. I still continue to improve on understanding the people, and my confidence is improving, so Ive had some stressed relieved with the spanish barrier! I still have a lottttt to go though haha... But im loving the language. And its definitely been a blessing to have Elder Sutterfield as my companion so he can help me out. haha. 

Congrats to my Bro and sis in law Chris and Jenny tooooo!!!!!! Welcome to the fam Pierson!!! Tambien he looks sooooo cute and im sad i dont get to see him or meet him :( But congrats!!! Im so excited! We have so many new members of the family recently!!! haha. Im gonna have a lot of catching up to do when I get home. Teach him to say unkie!!!!!

Butttt basically I'll just go from Monday and move forward like usual!

Monday: We had a giant Noche de Hogar (Family home evening) as a Rama. Except not that giant. We had about... 10-12 people? Oh well the point is it was a ton of fun! haha we had some members, some investigators, and others there. We shared a spiritual message and after played some games and it turned out so fun one of the investigators asked if we could do it again next week! So we're having a Noche de hogar tonight for Elder Chirinos (Ill explain mas later)

Tuesday: Wasnt anything super special, but I DID have an awesome experience I wanted to share! Elder Sutterfield and I were biking to Los Cristales (which is pretty far) and that day it was SUPER hot haha. And i was just DYING for some water. So on the way there I was practicing in my head what i could say to the people we visit to ask for water, and I even thought "Maybe if i just ask for water before they offer anything, people wont get so offended!" haha because like i said. I swear its a crime to drink water here. People freak out. So anyway, we went to the house of that lady (Libeny) I told you about two weeks ago! She was the lady that it was a milagrito we visited her because she was renting out the trajes de huasos! So anyways we got in the house and before we started anything, and even before I could say anything, Elder Sutterfield asked "Sorry... but could we have a glass of water?... Just water! Its really hot outside and were dying after riding the bikes". Looks like Elder Sutt was thinking the same thing as me! haha. But so he asked before I could even say anything, but LIbeny gave us this weirddd death stare as she got up to go get us water... So i thought "Oh great it looks like shes super offended anyways... Oh well". So she got us our water and it was amazing (haha) but then we thought nothing else of it. Welllll the point of all that is that after about 10 minutes into the lesson, Libeny explained to us that after reading ALL the material we had left her (which is a miracle in itself ahhaha) she even PRAYED on her own about the material. Turns out she really like what we had to share and wanted to know if it was true or not. So she specifically asked in her prayer that she wanted a sign to know if we were really called and sent of God. So she said in her prayer that she was not going to offer us anything to drink, but that if we asked for a glass of water, she would know the truth!!! So cool!! And you have to remember how rare it is for ANYONE to drink water here. Even in 100 degrees they would only drink bebida or jugo hahah. But so Elder Sutt and I were in shock haha. We had no idea! But it was just so awesome to see how the Lord had prepped us to be an answer to Libenys prayer, and how we BOTH had the same thoughts to ask for water. Cuz we never ask for water either haha. Anyways. So that was awesome. And Libeny saw it as an answer to her prayer. We then taught a bomb lesson, gave her a book of mormon to read, and if she doesnt get baptized im going to be very upset because shes awesome and I know she already knows this church is true. hahaha. So yeah. Way cool. The church is true. 

Wednesday: In the morning we had a service project and basically fixed up this members room. Like Ive said before theyre pretty poor and have small houses, and theyre all really dirty too and not well taken care of... but so basically I took Construction 101 and learned how to build a bedroom. haha.IT was fun! 

Thursday: I got my first haircut in Chile! I was nervous because I wasnt sure how it would turn out since I was in Chile..... haha. But I just said "Same thing as my companion!" and it turned out fine! haha. Im content. Also other random awesome thing, we've been giving someone the lessons in English??? hahaha. Who would have guessed! We ran into a guy a few weeks ago on the street (Felipe) who knows english and wanted to participate in the English class with us so he could keep up his english and learn more! Turns out weve been giving him the lessons (in english... weird) and its really been AWESOME. haha. he has such good questions and really understands everything and has even told us he really feels something different and feels peace and happiness from our message! haha. So thats awesome too. The only problem is he actually lives in Chillan and has family in Longavì he was visitng... So we have to pass him along to the missionaries in Chillan :( haha. But he comes and visits every Sat. So well meet with him there!

Friday: Fridayyyy....... Was an interesting day. Shoot this is a long letter haha. So basically it was normal until at night. We had an activity Saturday night in the chapel so Friday night we were cleaning it. After cleaning we had another appointment to meet with a different guy (Carlos) who needed help with English. So he finally showed up and longggg story short we spent WAY too much time with him and got nothing done and we ended up at his house with his family and they have the dirtiest most unorganized house ive ever seen and his mom was telling us about the end of the world and how the USA is going to put microchips into people and theyll take over the world... it was weird. Anyway. The other funny thing was they gave us food and asked us to pray over it, so we did. Then after the prayer we asked how theyre accustomed to praying and all of a sudden they said "We'll show you!" and they all simultaneously busted into song and sang some weird prayer that sounded like a wiggles song hahah... it was really funny i was trying so hard not to laugh haha.

Saturday: Also interesting but awesome. Basically the 2 main things are at lunch time we were running late so we called the member who is serving us lunch and said "sorry were running late and have a lot to do today, is it possible the lunch could be ready when we get there so we have time?" So he said yes, we go over there, he is WAY mad at us and offended because he always has problems with North Americans during lunch appointments and were really rude and I dont even know what. It was kind of lame reasoning though.... haha. So basically he told us he's never inviting the missionaries over for lunch ever again. haha. But we called the branch president about it and said that this guy is just dramatic and its happened before, not to worry about it and just go back and ask for forgiveness hahaha. So we still definitely felt bad... but yeah. haha Also saturday we had a devocional con Elder Svec of the 70! So that was really awesome and I got to meet him and hear from him and it was really really good. It was awesome.

Sunday: We had Branch Conference and all the leaders were there including President Humphrey. And just so you know, I've definitely been putting my piano playing to use! For example, I played 5 songs in this meeting haha. Accompanied the primary, opening, sacrament, closing song, and accompanied the Young Single Adult "choir" (notice the quotes haha....) So yeah! I love playing the piano for them, Its awesome. I loveeee playing haha.

And lastly, we have cambios (transfers) tomorrow! Thats why were having a noche de hogar for Elder Chirinos. Hes leaving and going to the south tomorrow! Hes really funny and crazy so we'll miss having him in the house haha. But hes really excited. Hes been in longavì for 7 months!! But his companion is going to be training so im hoping the new guy will be someone I know from my zone in the MTC!! Thatd be awesome. Also, I wont be the youngest in the house haha. But so yeah. This letter is way too long. I apologize. But it was a crazy week. I love you and miss you all soooo much. I think about you lots! I hope all is well and you are all in my prayers always. I appreciate the love and support! Im loving here in Longavì! The church is true and I dont want to be doing anything else with my life right now because I know this is the right thing haha. I love it. Perooooo.... Eso es todo! Los extraño! Chau!

-Elder Heyman