He Hit the One Year Mark!

Happy to have Mail!

Im on the road again.... June 17, 2013

Hey peeps! So i have SOOOOOO much to say today! So many stories and miracles and everything and ahhh!!!!

But. Im getting transferred. So I have no time... haha.

And the final answer is... Im staying in the Misiòn Chile Concepciòn!

Haha. I almost went to Rancagua. But not quite :P

so anyways we got the fonecall this morning and Im off to the southhhh of the mission. Im now going to some sector in a city called Chiguayante! haha. I dont know the name of the sector Ill be in, but somewhere around there. Also... Other big news...

Im a district leader!!! Wooo! haha. Im going to chiguayante to be district leader! So that will be an interesting thing... haha. We`ll see how that goes. But im way excited for the opportunity do serve as a district leader and cant wait to help out other missionaries and their investigators and everything. Its gonna be way fun. Am i a little nervous? yes. Because i just dont know what to expect. But it will be awesome. I know it. haha.

But so im on the road again, and thats why this email will be short because I have to get packed and say bye to everyone... haha. The worst part of leaving. Packing and saying goodbyes. BUT! Here`s the big updates from the week.

We had a wedding AND two baptisms this week! Yayyyyy. THAT is a miracles story if ive ever had one... It was amazing that everything got pulled together and they got married. Wow. It was crazy. Long story short, they ended up getting married on tuesday/wednesday (Its a two day process to get married here?... I dont know if thats normal) and then we got everything arranged and set up for their baptism on sunday. I was SOO happy and grateful I was able to be around for the marriage and baptism of them. AND I was a testigo (witness) in the wedding! hahahaha. Like a legal witness. So my signature is on their wedding papers and everything! :) haha. 

And I dont remember if I had mentioned our plans of having their son Mauricio baptize them?... But, thats another SUPER crazy long story... But he ended up NOT baptizing them, and Elder Adamson and I baptized instead. haha. 

BUT! Thats the super super quick update for the week. So We had a FANTASTIC week with a wedding and two baptisms. I shall give details another day. But it all turned out great and the ward is SUPER excited to have a new family of 5 joining! Theyre such a good family. And their whole story is just a MIRACLE. I leave my testimony with you all that miracles DO happen, and that God is a God of miracles. And I have seen it and know it without a doubt ha. 

But anyway. Thats all Ive got time for today. Ill let you know how everything goes next week. I love you and miss you all! 

I hope all the father`s had a great fathers day! I am ESPECIALLY grateful for my own Dad, who is one of the greatest examples for me in my life. Im so blessed and lucky to have a Dad like mine. My dad is the best! And he`s better than the rest! Thanks for everything dad. Hope you had an awesome Dad`s Day! :D

Love you and miss you all! Have a great week! 

-Elder Heyman

This past week was just a roller coaster ride... June 10, 2013

Hola y bienvenidos a la carta semanal de Elder Heyman

Heyyyy guys. So here I am. And its freezing cold. And im having trouble typing because my hands are so cold hahaha. I wish I could wear my gloves and type at the same time. Oh well.

This past week was CRAZYYYY. Just so full of crazy things and events and stuff. So ill just go straight in to sharingsome stories from the week. 

So the first story is an interesting service opportunity that I had this past week. Its kind of sketchy sounding, so I hope you dont judge me for it. ha.

So on Friday night Elder Adamson and I were walking to some appointment or somewhere.... I honestly dont even remember where. But as we were walking we passed by the "urgent care" here in Lautaro. As we were coming up to the corner of the street, I could see two younger looking girls on the corner hugging and swaying around and such and I just thought "Oh, two teenage girls just messig around being weird..." So, trying to avoid any comments from two teenage Chilean girls, I just put my head down and we started to walk by them... and as we walked by, one yelled at us "Oiga! Oye!" (Which just means like Hey you!) Normally we just turn and wave just to be nice and continue onn our way, but for some reason i just stopped when she called us. I responded "¿Si?" and the woman said "Can you help me?" and i asked "uhhh with what?". and the woman responded again "With my daughter". So i was being cautious this whole time speaking. But when she said that in my head I just thought "Oh great some Mom that wants 2 gringos to talk to her daughter or something... Lets just go." But the words that left my mouth were "uh okay... what do you need?" 

At this point I realized it WAS a younger mom with her 15-16 yr old daughter. But so the mom said "I need help taking her to the urgent care down this road. Help me please." So I asked what was wrong with her daughter and she said she didnt know but that she was just sick, and then she said "Can you carry her to the urgent care for me?" So I said "yeah sure" thinking carry her there meant just like help her get over there. I then noticed that the daughter was SUPER pale, and was saying things like "I feel terrible. I cant breath... I dont see anything" and was just leaning on her mom and looked COMPLETELY out of it. She could barely even talk! So i noticed that and looked at Elder Adamson like "uh what do we do?" and then asked the mom, "uh okay how are we gonna get her over there?" and she responded "en brazo! No puede caminar" meaning "In your arms! She cant walk" So my immediate thought was "uhhhh.... what theee....." but then i was like yeah okay... lets help. So I looked at ElderAdamson to be like "Alright lets do this...." and noticed that he was even more confused and lost than I was and had no idea what to do and was just frozen standing there. So then I just thought "alright... I gotta do this." So I tossed my backpack to Elder Adamson, said "permiso!", switched places with the mom, and picked the girl up in my arms and carried her down the street a little ways to the door of the urgentcare. We then dropped her off at the doorway, and the girl leaned back on her mom and they walked into the care to go get help. We asked "is there anything else we can do for you??" But she said "No, thank you so much!" and just walked into the building...

And that was it. End of story. haha.

BUT. So why do I share this story? So obviously according to missionary rules... thats not okay. Too long of a handshake with girls is sketchy for missionaries! haha. nevertheless carrying a girl in your arms isnt okay. And so thats why I say "dont judge". Of course there might have been other ways to help without "breaking rules" or some better way to do it. Someone else might have been passing by in the moment that could have helped, but I dont remember. But the thing is, I served. 

As a missionary, I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I am doing the work the Lord himself would do if he were here on the earth. And what would Christ do? He would serve. Of course we have rules and commandments to help us and to guide us so we live our lives better. But, we don`t want to be like the pharisees. SO caught up in the words of the commandment that we miss the message the Lord is sending us. After they walked into the clinic, we just left. We didnt even get to share something about the gospel with them :( The girl looked TERRIBLY sick, so idk if shes okay or what happened to her haha. But, I hope that service we gave will one day help them accept the gospel in their lives! Maybe one day they`ll meet the missionaries and say "yeah i remember one of you Mormons helped my daughter and I one time when she was sick..." or something like that. haha idk. But anyway. Just remember, everyone, that the only thing God requires of us in this life, is that we keep His commandments. and one of those commandments that was given was, "What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." We are all disciples of Christ, and need to do the things that He would do, so that we can become more like Him!

Anywayyyy... that was a super long story/message. I hope you at least get something out of it. and dont think Im chueco. It was just a weird/interesting thing that happened this week that Ive reflected on and thought "was that the right thing to do or was I terribly disobedient?" haha. 

So. The other crazy events from this week. Other thing, We had a baptism!!!! Woo hoooo!!! Mauricio got baptized this week! yayyy. Were super happy. And it all turned out great. Hes an awesome kid and it was awesome to talk to him during the work and hear his testimony and see how the Holy Ghost really has worked in him during these past few weeks. And how him making this decision has blessed his life, AND the life of all his family! Its awesome to hear. Ill send pictures of the baptism so you can see! 

Andddd the OTHER super CRAZYYYY thing from this week... is the update on the PARENTS of Mauricio... So during the past week we asked an inspired question to the parents of Mauricio (Heraldo and Maria) and we asked "Guys... If you were married right now instead of just living together, would you be getting baptized with Mauricio this Sunday?" And theyre response was amazing haha. They said yes, and went on to explain how that is the idea and how it should be done as a family and how wonderful it would be to be togetherin the church as a family and all the blessings and differences theyve seen just from MAURICIO taking this step in his life... it was awesome haha. So from there we asked "Well then tell us... make a list... What are allll the things that stop you from getting married?" and long story short it basically allll came down to the fact that Heraldo was married before and how he hadnt ever finished the divorce papers... and then he jokingly added but there was a chance that maybe his ex-wife had done all the divorce papers and he was actually already divorced, in which case, NOTHING was stopping them. haha. So when he told us THAT, we immediately said "well what do we do to find that out then?" So the next morning we went with Heraldo to the Registro Civil that is literally around the corner from their house, and printed out his Information from the government to find out if he was still technically married or if he was divorced. So while he was talking to the person to get the paper our hearts were POUNDING so nervous haha. So he printed the paper, walked over to us and said "Guess." We had no idea and so he read us the long explanation on the government paper which made no sense, so I asked "So... are you married?" and he said "Im divorced! And ive apparently been divorced since 2009." And Elder Adamson and I literally jumped and shouted for joy when he told us that. hahaha. Soooo.... Wedding bells anyone?? We are once again in the processing of getting a couple married! haha. Its mosttt likely that theyll be married not this week, but the NEXT week, and then baptized that following Sunday, but were pushing and searching hard for it to happen THIS week so theyre married this week and baptized this sunday. So we`ve been jumping from city to city from registro to registro to find an hour to do it. Why?... that leads me to my next point.

1. Because theyre sinning since theyre living together and not married. So they need to stop sinning. and be baptized

2. Because we have cambios next monday. And remember how I said Im rancagua but there could be a chance I end up in Concepcion instead? Well its looking more likely now that Ill be in concepcion. haha. Its most likely that Ill be transferred this next monday... So were especially trying to do it this week so I can be here for it as well, and if not, Elder Adamson. Cuz were sure that one of us is going haha. But even if it doesnt work this week sì o sì they`ll be married the next week. We just want to be there for it haha. 

But so thats the other thing. Cambios next week and theres a good chance ill go. But no se sabe. So next monday will be a big surpriseeeee.... duh duh duhhhh.... haha.

BUTTTT. Theres lots more that happened in my week. But im sick of typing. This is the longest letter ive sent in a long time. haha. I know this church is true and I love it. Im so blessed to have a knowledge of this gospel. Its the best thing ever! Its changed my life learning more and more about this gospel, and it will continue to do so. I love you and miss you all. Que esten bien!

-Elder Heyman

I got a short amount of time! I expect this to be pretty short. June 3, 2013

Hello hello! How is everyone? Well we got a surprise phone call today and I`ve got a mini cambio with one of the assistants today... So. I gotta get home pretty fast so we can clean the house a little. haha. BUT! Ive got some things to update you all on!

Stories:

The only stories this week come from Sunday. There is a recent convert family that we`re good friends with. They recently got sealed in the temple! So thats awesome. But it turns out this past Sunday, they presented their son and gave him a blessing in sacrament meeting. And they asked me to participate in the blessing! It was awesome! It was funny though because their son is like 6? I believe. haha So he just sat in a chair. But I felt so happy to be able to participate in that and that they had asked me to do that! So that was awesome and it made me super happy. And it surprised me cuz it was only the hermano, me, and another good family friend in the blessing. He hadnt asked anyone else! So i considered it a great honor :)

The other thing is that same family also invited us to pass by their house that night because it was the Hermana`s birthday that day. So we also felt honored to get invited to that, and so we passed by and gifted them one of those "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" cards in a little frame, with a note atras! haha. So that was awesome. Those are my stories. haha.

Investigator Updates:

Mauricio: We`re sì o sì going to have a baptism next week! Its a SUPER long story that ill have to share another day when I have more time. But Mauricio is going to get baptized next sunday! Woo hoo!! So we`re super excited about that! 

Rodrigo: We`re hoping and praying ALOT to have TWO baptisms this next week! We`re working with Rodrigo and he has a baptismal date for this next sunday, but he is less seguro. So we`re going to be working hard with him this week to grow his faith in God so that he gets an answer that the things were sharing really are true, so that he`ll also be baptized on sunday!! Keep him in your prayers!

Varinia: Shes a really awesome investigator. Ive never had an investigator that feels the spirit so much! She feels the spirit really really strongly and is commited to baptism. She just has problems with time management so we gotta help her prioritize spiritual things and temporal things haha. If taht makes sense...

So were doing super good here in Lautaro! We`ve got some good people lined up and were super excited. Alma 26:27 has held to its promise, and after trudging through all the difficulties we`ve had recently, we`re starting to see the HUGE amount of blessings we`re receiving for our faith! We´re extremely happy and grateful for it. TRUST in the Lord! His word is true and faithful. I love how in Alma 42 it talks about how God would cease to be God if something he said didn´t come to pass. Because then he wouldnt be perfect. He would make a mistake. But its not like that! God IS God. He IS perfect. And his word is true and faithful. And he WILL bless us for our patience, faith, and faithfulness, because that`s what He has said! So he`ll keep to His word.

anyway. Thats all ive got time for. I love you and miss you all LOTS! Keep our investigators in your prayers! And me please :) haha. I love you and miss you all! Have an awesome week! Chau!

-Elder Heyman

Its raining... its pouring... May 27, 2013

HERES SO MUCH RAIN. And my umbrella is my new best friend haha.

 

It just started raining today and theres ALOT of it! But luckily Ive got a good umbrella to keep me dry! haha. So heres a little update from the week!

 

I dont realy have any good stories from the past week... Sorry :/ haha. But it was a good week! haha. Erica was confirmed this sunday! So her baptism was finally completed. Hurrayyyyy! And its awesome to see the change in her and the dedication she has to living this gospel. Im super excited for her. Now we just gotta work with her two kids so they get baptized as well! Theyre just so addicted to playing futbol.... that they never come to church. Gah. Working on it.

 

The other good thing is we have 2 other people who came to church and are progressing towards baptism! One is Mauricio. He`s 18 and has a weird situation. His family has shared with missinaries before. His parents didnt (and arent going to) get baptized because they`re not married. But the dad is married and has to go through the whole divorce process to be able to get baptized, which takes months... Mauricio is the oldest of 3. We`re working with him and he has a lot of interest in our message. His little sister is like 3 so obviusly cant be baptized... But his other younger brother, Carlos, is 12 and he was baptized 2 years ago.... He randomly got baptized with some cousin he has that also got baptized?... but never went to church again... ugh. ANYWAYS. but its awesome for us! Cuz its a good, awesome motivation for mauricio because his brother has already gone through this, and we`re all helping Mauricio get baptized and Carlos come back to church... So its just awesome haha. I feel like that wasnt a great explanation but oh well. Its just good all of it. Know that. haha.

 

They other person is a guy named Rodrigo who is really cool. He`s super smart, pretty nerdy, but really has alot of desire to grow his faith in God and realy learn for himself that God is someone real and really there. So it`ll be awesome to work with him.

 

I guess the only other thing i feel like sharing is that this past week I really grew an understanding and knowledge of the role of the Holy Ghost in our lives, and in our conversions. I could probably talk forever about it haha. But basicaly I just came to realize how important it is that we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost with us in our lives. He`s our friend, our companion, our comforter, teacher, and he who brings the peace and assurance that everything`s going to be okay that we need to be able to keep on moving forward. That`s why its so important that we keep the commandments. Because the only way we qualify ourselves for that companionship is through repenting and keeping the commandments. So repent! And keep the commandments! Pray, read the scriptures, go to church, serve! I could go on forever haha. But the Holy Ghost is SUPER important in our lives, and we need to be living worthy of his companionship always!

 

but so yeah im just super thankful that this week i was able to realize how great the importance is of all that. Something that I will have to apply en la vida ahora. haha.

 

Anyway. But so Ill send some pictures. I honestly dont have much else to say...  haha. I guess the only other thing is... less than a month and ive been gone a year! Weeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiirrrrrrddddd! Wow haha. We`ll talk about that later... haha.

 

But I love you and miss you all! I hope all is well. Keep me in your prayers! Youre in mine! I send my love haha. Chauito!

 

-Elder Heyman