Well! Ill just keep this quick and to the point... Because tomorrow we'll be skyping!!!
So basically we had a good and bad week! Good week because it was fun and had a good time during the week, bad because it ended up that Julian nor Anny and Enrique were baptized :/ Long story, but, Julian WILL be baptized this week! And Anny and Enrique are still so close to taking that final step... But we got the faith it will happen this week :) We're working hard for it!
The weather has been crazy, and raining alot and cold. But some days it has been completely sunny and hot without a cloud in the sky... Haha. Bipolar weather!
Uhhhhm it doesnt feel like christmas at all!!! haha. But im super excited to be skyping with the fam tomorrow!!! Woo hooooooo!!!!!!!! Its such a weird feeling. It doesnt feel real! haha
So here's how it will happen:
We have to borrow laptops of some of the members to occupy for tomorrow, then one hermano en la iglesia has an office that actually has good internet (haha) So he is going to pick us up from our house, take us to this office, and explain how things work, and then we can skype! So it sounds like 2 oclock my time would work best for you. So we'll try and get it as close to there as possible! But so obviously I would recommend having skype open and ready casi todo el dia and with the volumen up all the way so when I call it can be heard haha. Just to avoid any possible or potencial problems. But Iiiiiiiiim really excited. Idk. I dont have any certain requests for it.... I just kind of want to see everyone (obviously) and just talk and be happy and have a good time of it! haha. I get an hour of skyping. And Im really excited. Its going to be super weird. The thing im most nervous for is speaking spanish with mom and dad and chris. hahaha. THAT will be extremely weird. Dont judge my spanish. hahaha. Like literally thats what im most nervous for. But it will be fine :)
anddddddd last but not least... I got my package!!!!!!!!! Woooo hoooo!!!! A few days ago the Zone leaders in linares called to tell us they had mine and Elder Cowden's package at their house. So today for P-day we made a special trip out to linares to go get our packages from their houses hahahaha. And Jen I DIED laughing at the package. At first I was so confused why there were Virgin Mary stickers and crosses on the package. It took me a full 2 and a half minutes to figure it out. hahahaha. But worry not! The package came in perfect condition! I doubt it was even touched! Made it safe and sound. Looks like the pictures worked :P But thank you!!! We have a mini Christmas tree in our house and so we put all our stuff under it... Unfortunately and sadly Elder Klepinger and Elder Conti's packages (Elder Vargas left? Did I mention that? Im officially the missionary thats been around the longest in Longavì. Weird haha) anyway their packages didnt arrive on time :/ So after email elder cowden and I are gonna go buy some little stuffs so they can have tomorrow haha.
But Yeah! Mas que eso... Nada! I'm just really excited to talk with everyone tomorrow!! Its not even real to me. haha.
But... I will end this Christmas letter with my Christmas testimony! haha. Christmas is a very special time of the year. And especially passing my first Christmas as a missionary, I understand the importance of Christmas, and the importance of keeping and focusing our thoughts on Christ during this time! Christ, the Son of God, was born here on this earth to complete the will of the Father. He lived his life perfectly, and was and is the perfect example for us to follow. He always helped others, thought of others, and did whatever He could, always for others. But most of all, He gave the greatest Christmas gift of all! Through his ministry here on the earth, through his suffering, and through his sacrifice on the cross, He gave us our chance at salvation. So that the joy we feel here on the earth, can be made even greater, and we can continue to have it throughout eternity! That`s why we celebrate Christmas. That`s why its such a happy and great time of year! Because the spirit of CHRISTmas is all around! Bring that spirit of CHRISTmas with you at all times throughout the year, and you can always be that happy! I promise you. Always remember that!
anyway. I love you all and miss you very very much. I cant wait to Skype with the fam tomorrow! Its going to be awesome!!!! I love you all! Have a merry christmas, and a happy new year!
-Elder Heyman
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Dec.17, 2012 Hola Hola from Longavi!
Alooooooha family and friends!
So I dont really have any stories... so I´ll just do some updates!
We also got to watch all of the First Presidency´s Christmas Devocional! and actually we watched President Monson's talk 3 times haha. But it was always in spanish! BUT! I understood it pretty much all of it and so i really enjoyed it :) I still am missing lots of words from my vocabulary... So i can at least understand and catch everything people say to me, but now I just dont know words, so THATS when I dont understand things! haha So that was awesome and I enjoyed that too!
Well. Para que sepan. today was cambios again in the mission, and it looks like I will be here in Longavi for another 2 months minimum! :) hahaha. ALSO. THIS THURSDAY I WILL HAVE COMPLETED 6 MONTHS/ONE QUARTER OF MY MISSION. and THATS really weird. and makes me freak out. hahah. weirdddd. But that was just an fyi.
Soooo Let me think of things that happened this week.... Nothing too grand and exciting. I finally had a nearly normal week here in the mission! haha :)
So I dont really have any stories... so I´ll just do some updates!
This past week we had our Christmas half-mission Conference! It was a good spiritually uplifting experience and alot of fun too actually! haha. Each year theyve put together an end of year/christmas video for the whole mission with pictures and different things that we got to watch that was alot of fun haha. We talked about the christmas spirit and how we can help others here focus on the real christmas spirit and the birth and life of Christ. It was awesome! I really liked it.
We also got to watch all of the First Presidency´s Christmas Devocional! and actually we watched President Monson's talk 3 times haha. But it was always in spanish! BUT! I understood it pretty much all of it and so i really enjoyed it :) I still am missing lots of words from my vocabulary... So i can at least understand and catch everything people say to me, but now I just dont know words, so THATS when I dont understand things! haha So that was awesome and I enjoyed that too!
We have one for sure baptism this week, but we have the hope and faith for 3 this week ;) haha this little kid Julian will be getting baptized this week! Hes 10 and always comes to church with this one family and loves the church and knows and understands everything, but his family arent members so hes never been baptized! (Enter missionaries to fix that problem) So Julian is getting baptized this week! Hes the one that was running with my bike in that picture I sent last week! Alsooooo..... we´re still working with Anny and Enrique... And were running into complications! haaaa.... but were working hard and were gonna find a solution to help them reach their baptism! We talked to them... and basically they want to get baptized, but do not want to be seperated at all (goooood thing) but dont feel ready to be married already... they want to wait longer before getting married (Badddddd thing) so were working hard with them this week to get them married. Because if we keep pushing things back.... and back and back and back... its never going to happen and were going to lose them :( So were praying and working hard for them!!! I want them to get married and baptized so baddddd. Theyre so awesomeeee. And their little kid Damián is HILARIOUS too. Every time we show up to their house he comes running to the gate yelling "Hola mis amigos!" hahaha. And he only refers to us as his amigos. "Amigo mira! Mira mira mira! Mira amigo!" (google translate it) Its suuuuuper cute. and hes suuuuuper funny! I want them to get married and baptized so badddd!!! Their lives will be so much betterrrrr!!! Ah. Were working on it... haha.
Boris WAS going to get the priesthood this past sunday..... but something came up that his girlfriend who lives in Chillan was sick and nobody was there to take her to the hospital so he couldnt come and etc..... so NEXT week he´ll get the priesthood. Shoot. haha. That made me a little upset. But I cant wait for him to do that too! It will be an awesome feeling and hes super excited to receive the priesthood!
I finally had Music Class again this week! anddddd..... No one came. ha. Soooo Im going to find something to do to get people to come. Because that made me upset too. But! Long story short iiiii was able to learn alot about the hymns and all that stuff! haha. The back of the hymnbook is interesting. You should all look into that sometime. You´ll learn alot. hahaha.
ALSOOOOO. I found out my Christmas day communication rules. So I have an hour to skype! Woo hoo! but I have to get it finished by 5 my time... because we´ll still be going to work at night! haha :) so We were thinking that it would be best to skype around 2 or 3 our time here. and I think were 3 hours ahead?... BUT! Im super excited to do that!! I think its going to be SOOOO weird speaking spanish between me, dad, mom, and chris! ahhhh hahaha. WEIRD. We are a spanish speaking/portuguese speaking/south american family! Weird. But awesome. haha.
My soccer skills are increasing exponentially here haha. I played alot of soccer today. haha. I love it! its alot of fun.
anddd the last thing is a received an "assignment" this week! haha. I will now be teaching the sunday school classes to the jovenes on sunday in church! :) hahaha. Since my calling is a missionary, I cant have another calling... so i recieved the assignment to be the sunday school teacher :) hahaha Im really excited to do that! it will be fun :) I start next week!
Welllllll mas que eso.... I cant think of anything! Im loving my time here. Its so much fun. And I get another 7 weeks here in Longavi :) Im excited! Elder Cowden and I are going to have ALOT of success! We already know it and are really excited!!! :D haha.
Well, Ill just finish with sharing that I know that This is the only true church here on the earth today! The more people I meet, the more scriptures I read, the more I pray, the more I do the lords work, my testimony just continues to grow and grow and strengthen and strengthen. Theres NOTHING wrong with this church! It is the perfect Church of Jesus Christ (of latter-day saints. haha) and especially in this Christmas season I am super thankful for Christ and our Heavenly Father and alllll that they did, do, and will do for us. Christ came to the earth and died for us so we can become like him and live in happiness forever! IIIIIm so happy to be doing what Im doing. Its fun. haha. I love it! I hope youre all doing well and have an aweeeeesome christmas and month of December! I love you all and miss you all! Que este bien! Merry Christmas!
-Elder Heyman
December 10, 2012 Yes, I am having alot of fun on my mission.
Well IIIIII had another interesting/weird week...
Finally on Saturday, I woke up feeling still even better, but still sick. The other Elders in the house had a mini cambio with the District Leader and his companion, so they were coming to the house in the morning to switch back, so I finally asked the DL "Hey when you guys get here, can you give me a blessing?" so he obviously accepted, and during the blessing mentioned something about "when you go to the doctors...." and then when he was done he said "okay so are you guys gonna finally go to the doctor now??" and we said "yeahhhh. We'll goooo..." so fiiiinally after lunch we passed by La Urgencia... and this is what happened:
So every Tuesday we have District Class in Linares. And so this past Tuesday during District Class I was FINALLY able to OFFICIALLY pass off those scriptures that I've kept telling you about! I WAS SO HAPPY. and I felt so accomplished. And I feel bad for my district leader. hahaha. Because he just has to sit there and listen to me recite them all for him to make sure I've got them and then pass them off... So he got to sit there for about 40 minutes and listen to me recite scriptures to him in spanish hahaha. BUT! I did it! officially. And I am soooo happy. Also (sidenote) my district leader finishes his mission this week and is going home :( Weird. I really like him alot he is super cool. Were alllll going to miss him. Heeee was an awesome example! I learned alot from him! haha.
Anyway. Tuesday I also started to get a little sick... my throat was sore, but not that bad. But I didnt do anything, thought I would get over it. But by Thursday... I woke up, and I felt like DEATH. I felt TERRIBLE. I had the worst headache, and my nose was completely stuffed, and my throat killed, and my chest hurt, and even weirder, my skin was suuuuper sensitive and all my bones just like ached! It was weird! but I felt terrible. And so super long story short but it was so bad that we ended up not going out to work in the afternoon because I didnt get much better :/ I ended up changing out of my clothes back into pajamas and resting the whole day... but I didnt get a blessing or pass by the doctor that day...
But so finally on Friday I woke up and felt alot better... But still pretty sick. But so we went to work anyways haha and just thought I was getting better so didnt do anything about it. The day turned out fine and....
Finally on Saturday, I woke up feeling still even better, but still sick. The other Elders in the house had a mini cambio with the District Leader and his companion, so they were coming to the house in the morning to switch back, so I finally asked the DL "Hey when you guys get here, can you give me a blessing?" so he obviously accepted, and during the blessing mentioned something about "when you go to the doctors...." and then when he was done he said "okay so are you guys gonna finally go to the doctor now??" and we said "yeahhhh. We'll goooo..." so fiiiinally after lunch we passed by La Urgencia... and this is what happened:
I walked in, and checked in. Beforehand, Elder Cowden had mentioned to me how his elbow still hurts really bad from his accident last week, to the point he cant use it/move it much, and wondered if he should get it check out, so I told him yes, so HE checked in to get it looked at as well. So we both entered into the doctor rooms at the same time, and the doctor asked me what was wrong. I told him I was sick with a cold or something, he asked me if he could inject me, i said yeah sure, I got another shot in the butt (took it like a champ this time. I swear its their solution to everything...) and then gave me a prescription to make me better. Seriously took like all of 4 minutes. But elder cowden was the problem...
They wanted to give him a shot in the butt too (because his elbow hurt? I SWEAR its the answer to everything... haha) but he was super stubborn and was doing everything to get around it and was like yelling in the room and everything haha. But he finally gave in and got HIS first Chilean injection. And then they said they wanted him to get an x-ray on his arm just in case to check it out, but needed to know if we had insurance... So then we spent FOREVER calling allll around the mission and the office figuring out what we should do if they wanted to get him an x-ray (and yes, president humphrey now officially knows about Elder Cowden´s accident. He didnt get around that one hahaha) So finally we had permission to yes, get an x-ray... but the x-ray was in the hospital in Linares. So then we had to go to Linares. BUT, they gave us a free ride in the back of an ambulance hahaha.
My first ambulance ride in my life!!!
So then it was just Elder Cowden and I chillin in the back of an ambulance by ourselves, basically completely healthy, (which was really funny and fun. We took advantage of that time. I have good pictures of it) and went out to linares, spent FOREVER in Linares getting an xray, only to then have to go straight back to Longaví to tell them that there was nothing wrong with his elbow, just pain, to which they replied "oh okay. Youre good then! Have a good day!" And they gave him no medicine or anything. Just a shot in the butt. He was SO mad hahaha. and it was jst really funny. Because technically we went to the doctor for ME, but spent the WHOLE day running around making phone calls getting an x ray and allll this stuff for Elder Cowden, and I was done and good in like 4 minutes. hahaha. Idk. Maybe you had to be there. But hey I got good pictures from it haha. So we ended up leaving to work a lottttt later that day than we had planned too haha...
Lets see... the other thing is Sunday we had a cool experience with the Branch! Since its offically now the month of Christmas, the branch presidents wants all the hymns and everything in church as christmas hymns, and wants to make sacrament meetings a little more special... starting with a musical number by the missionaries!! And it turned out REALLY well! It was super simple but everybody loved it. We sang the 1st two verses of silent night to them, accapella, in english! haha. And then like they always do in the states, we asked them ALL to join us in singing the last verse (in spanish obviously) and it turned out realllllyyyyy well! And everybody loved it and we could feel the spirit really strong and everything. It was awesome when we were done to see people smiling and cheerful, some people were holding themselves back from clapping, some people did do little cheers because they liked it so much, and even a few people had tears! haha. And its just funny and was such an awesome experience because this is just a little tiny branch here in the middle of Chile. And its veryyyyy rare they get to experience stuff like that. Almost none of them have ever heard of MoTab before, who knows when the last time they had somebody play piano to accompany them, and like I mentioned before, they dont know the hymns at all! But just that little musical number we did and had them all join in and really feel the spirit, and just to do something like that was so awesome. I dont know if any of this is making sense right now sorry haha. I feel like its not, but it was just such a cool experience and I was so happy for the people. That they could experience feeling the spirit and the happiness through the hymns! Because we all know I love music and all that stuff, so it makes me sad these people dont really get to experience even just the hymns to their full potential. Because its really easy for me to feel the spirit through music. So yeah. Thats another reason im really wanting to do this music class. So that can continue to happen! Idk it was just a cool experience. Take advantage of how strong the church is in the US! Its a huge blessing in disguise. Even just the hymns. Even when you have to sing all 7 verses in the Pleasant 1st Ward :) hahahaha. At least we know theres 7 verses to the songs! :P (Is that sister still the chorister? I cant remember their names now! :/ )
Well anyway, I just ran out of typing energy. I dont feel like typing alot more haha. So ill just let you know that Anny and Enrique are progressing REALLY well... and next week I imagine I will be reporting that they are officially going to get married! Were really excited and are super happy for them!!! We have our christmas conference this week in the mission, so I imagine Ill learn about skyping rules for Christmas there... as of now I still dont know anything haha. But yeah besides that, Idk!!! Im just loving loving loving it here in Longavi. We have a short cambio this week because otherwise cambios would fall on the day OF christmas, so this cambio is 5 weeks and the cambio after is 7 weeks! and then the cambio after that with all the age changes is 3 weeks. haha idk its weird stuff. ANyway. Thats all though. I love you all and am still working hard and loving doing it! Im having alot of fun. I hope all is well ith you! And hope you have an awesome month of december! Remember Christ during this month! The savior died for us, yet he lives! and We will receive the same great blessing. Im so thankful for the savior and for his great work he did here on the earth. I love the gospel and iiii love this church! and I love you all! I miss you! Be good!
-Elder Heyman
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
December 3, 2012
Welllllll IIIIIIII had a ridiculously crazy week this week. Everybody saddle up and get comfy because I have alot of stories and this will probably be a longer letter.... Here we go!
Well... Remember how I said my new comp Elder Cowden wasnt too great at riding a bike?... I was serious. This week he got NAILED by a car... haha.
Sooooo.... In our sector where we work, the road we travel on is just this longggg highway, with turn offs every once in a while onto dirt roads to what are called "poblaciones" or in english, it basically neighborhoods... haha. So anyway. We were riding back to Longaví from "La Tercera" and we were on the side of the highway. One side of the highway had a sidewalk and extra room for bikers, and the other just BARELY had any shoulder to ride on, with a canal on the other side. So it was super sketch whenever a car would drive by. It would be super close and we´d have the canal on the other side we were like almost falling in haha. So, we were on the small side of the road, so I looked back really quick, saw that I was good, and crossed both lanes (2 way freeway) to the other safe side. Since Elder Cowden isnt super fantastic on a bike, he usually just follows what I do with a little bit of hesitation (as in theres a few seconds between before he goes too). So I crossed, and then when I was good, looked back over to see what Elder Cowden was doing/going to do to make sure he was okay...
Well I didnt SEE anything, but I heard a car coming... And I saw that Elder Cowden kind of just went for it and didnt look behind him too much first... So I could hear that the car was close, and coming fast, so I started yelling at him "¡¡¡Cuidado cuidado cuidado!!! THATS when he finally looked back, and saw the car coming, so he tried as fast as he could to swerve back to the side of the road towards the canal... but didnt quite make it all the way. So the car hit the brakes but still just nailed him. Elder Cowden was SUPER blessed, because he DID get out of the way enough the the car didnt hit HIM, only the back of the bike. But still, the car wrecked the back tire and the bike just flew out from Elder Cowden and he hit the ground hard...
So I dropped my bike asap and just ran across the road to go grab him wondering what damage was done... so i picked him up off the ground and was like "are you okay?!" and he said "yeah yeah im fine!" So we checked him, and his right side was pretty scratched up from the fall and hitting the ground so hard (he DID have a helmet!) he cut his hand bad and had blood, his shoulder was scratched up and his knee was scratched up and bloody too... haha. But then the stupid car that hit him kind of started to drive off, and had like 20 seconds of confusion driving forward, then backwards trying to decide whether to run or check on us... So they finally DID come back to check on him, but we just said "yeah yeah hes fine! Dont worry, just go. Well be okay." and they were making us mad because they had these teenage girls in the back that were just saying "sorry! sorry!" in TERRIBLE english the whole time, and then when they left they were like "bye bye! bye bye!" with smiles on their faces the whole time. I was like "you just hit my companion with your car this isnt funny!" except in my head.... ha. but so we just told them to get away from us haha. (ps they were all on their way to church... hm.)
So anyway. The car drove off and a bunch of people came outside their houses to see what happened and one lady knew the missionaries and let us in to wash off Cowden a little bit. But so after that I carried Cowden´s bike for forever down the freeway (cuz he just got hit by a car haha wasnt letting him do that) and we were trying to call someone with a truck or find a way back to Longaví. But Cowden the whole time was just telling me "we have to go visit Oscar and graciela! Im fine lets go!" and I laughed and said "Elder Cowden stop. Youre just running on adrenaline right now. We´ll at least past by their house to make you happy but were getting back to longaví asap" hahaha. So we past by our cita but they werent home, and LONG story short somebody we knew saw us and had a son with a car so we packed the bikes in the car and he drove us home. hahaha.
So we got back to longaví, got ourselves tranquilo and check Elder Cowden out and then had decide what to do/who to call. And Elder Cowden refused to call Pres Humphrey so i said "Okay fine were calling the branch president then." so we called him because we didnt know what to do haha. And he had the first counselor in the branch presidency come over and escorted us to the doctors office to get Elder Cowden checked out, and then to the police station just in case there were any legal things we had to deal with (there were none... haha) Once we finally got back to the house Elder cowden reported "yeah you were definitely right. I was running on pure adrenaline. I hurt really really bad now." hahaha. BUT. So were counting our blessings and are extremely happy hes doing alright, the bike is fixed, and hes in functioning mode. We just had a good scare and now hes much more careful on the bike :) It was quite the day haha... I will send pictures.
Okay second story. This is a funny one. So on Sunday we had District Conference in Linares!! So we had to travel to Linares by bus Sunday morning... So Elder Cowden and I got on the bus, and Sunday locomoción is reallyyyy slow. Theres barely any buses that pass by and nobody even really travels. So its only us two on the bus, waiting for it to leave...... when we had a friend join us. Named Roberto. Who was EXTREEEEEEEMELY drunk and wasted and smelt SO bad and it was just pathetic but VERY funny... but so he decided to start up a conversation with us. And refused to talk in spanish. He only would talk in his 10 words of english he knew, and kept getting mad cuz he wanted us to talk in english to him too... and he kept talking about "old music" that was on his phone that he had... and would start EVERY sentence with "I am..." no matter what he wanted to say. For example, he told us probably about 12 times "I am... like da old music." or "i am... you son de the states?" he would also mix spanish and english alot too. And he also introduced himself and shook our hands and told us he was "roberto, robert in english" about 15 times too. So anyway he sat next to us the whole time on the bus and it was just funny but annoying and yeah idk haha. BUT. Were missionaries. Soooo this is what happened. I said something to him (we talked to him in spanish the whole time) about how we were missionaries and he could really use some help. He then asked if we had "one of those books" for him to read. We didnt, but i gave him a pass along card and said "hey but were actually going to linares right now to go to church! You should come it would really help you!" and I was just being a missionary, and didnt think he would accept... but he accepted. And we just laughed cuz we didnt think he was serious. BUT... the time for us to get off came and Elder Cowden said " alright were going to church now! you can come if you want!" And he said "yeah yeah! im coming!" anddddd so he got off the bus with us... and came to the church with us... haha....
and you have to remember this whole time he was just telling us about his old music, and how he wanted to believe in something, that he was robert, and he really wanted to and needed to recharge his cellphone. hahaha
Soooo... we escorted Roberto to church... and he came into church with us... but we showed up early so we had to set up the extra chairs in the back... and we set up a special chair for Roberto in the veeeeery back right next to the door.... Because we didnt know if he was actually going to stay... or what to do haha... But, so since it was district conference, President Humphrey was going to be there! So right when we got a sight of Pres Humphrey, we ran up to him and said "president humphrey we accidently brought this extremely drunk guy to church with us and we dont know what to do with him." hahahaha. So President Humphrey met him, had a quick talk with him, asked him if he could behave himself, and roberto responded with "yes!" so president said "alright... well he can stay I guess." hahaha. So he was like our little pet because we couldnt leave him alone anywhere... hahah so we took him everywhere with us and the members were giving us really weird sketchy looks like "who is this guy???" hahaha.... butttt long story short too, right before church started, he really wanted to charge his cellphone, and couldnt comprehend/remember we told him that we didnt have a computer for him to do that... So we decided we couldnt let him stay. He was too big of a hassle and he wouldnt have remembered the meeting anyways and it was just too risky... so we escorted him out and wrote down his number then told him to go find somewhere where he could charge his cellphone hahaha. I will also send pictures of him haha. It was quite the event as well. hahaha. Just doing our job! Inviting everyone unto Christ!! :) Some are just more prepared for our message than others... hahaha.
Okay also this week we FINALLY got rid of the pulgas/fleas!!! At last! I was DYING. but one of the members came to our house on wednesday and sprayed our house with this liquid stuff... and we werent aloud to enter the house at all during the day because the stuff was super toxic and we had to let the house vent out hahah. So we had temporary headquarters in the church building during the day for our studies haha. BUT the stuff worked! Its been like 4 or 5 days now since ive had any more pulgas... so i am EXTREMELY happy and relieved. and can sleep alot better :)
ALSO awesome news! I finally finished my scripture memorizing thing! "Los Estandardes de Conocimiento!" I memorized them all! So I am SUPER excited and happy because that was a huge feat for me. Im just waiting until tomorrow when I can OFFICIALLY pass it off with my district or zone leader and OFFICIALLY be a "misionero de oro!" ;) hahaha. Its seriously been a huge blessing though. Ive learned so much from it and its reaaaaally helped my teaching improve ALOT. So i am extremely happy! We´ll have to see what challenge comes next! haha
andddd last two things! So thing number one! WEeeeeee had a baptism this week!!! Boris finally got baptized!!!! and it was awesome! The baptism turned out really really well and boris was extremely happy and his family was happy too and everything! Were really excited to start working with him and help him be ready to receive the priesthood now too! Hes an awesome guy. And I was able to baptize him! I dont remember if I had mentioned that before haha. So it was aweseom! :)
Anddddd last thing is an Anny and Enrique update. This is why this email subject was "round 2?" Becauseeee were working really hard with anny and enrique. they want to be baptized really bad... but the marriage thing is the only thing in the way. And so were working really hard with them... and its definitely not even close to official yet... but Elder Cowden and I really think they will end up getting married... we think they will! Thats why its round 2 :) But, if not, we set a goal with them for baptism on the 22 of december, and also set a goal that by the 21 of december, they will either be married OR living seperately so that they can be baptized. We explained to them how that is THEIR decision, but that more than anything right now it is extremely important they get baptized, or they wont be able to enter into the kingdom of god (3 Nefi 27:19! One of those scriptures i memorized :) ) So we told them that they have 3 options, baptism together and married, baptism seperated and living in different locations, or staying in there current situation living together but seperated, and without baptism (lameeee). So we told them that its THEIR decision how they want to go about it, but that were there to help, and that we strongly strongly strongly encourage the marriage route, and that were going to continue teaching them and helping them realize WHY they should get married and the blessings that will come from that! But that one way or another they do need to be baptized because thats the commandment haha. And they wont receive eternal life without it! Being a missionary is so cool :) I would never do this if I werent a missionary hahaha.
But so thats my update this week!!! Pretty crazy huh? I loooooooove being a missionary. I am extremely excited to be working with anny and enrique right now, because I knowwww theyre going to see the blessings of this gospel in their lives, and theyre going to be ready by the 21st to be married so that they can enter into the waters of baptism on the 22nd! Together! IIIII have the faith. I know its going to happen. Were going to work hard so it DOES happen! haha. I love being a missionary!!!
But anyway. I love you all alot. I miss you all alot. Iiiiim working hard to make you all proud! I looooove being a missionary! its been such a blessing in my life and I hope its been blessing your lives as well! I imagine it has been... but I cant speak for you all haha. This church is 1000% true and I love it with all my heart. The blessings that come from living the gospel of Jesus Christ are amazing and make it impossible to deny that God is our Heavenly Father and Jesus is the Christ!!! I know the church is true!!! I love you all and miss you. CTR. Be good. Have an awesome december!! Love you!
-Elder Heyman
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Well... Remember how I said my new comp Elder Cowden wasnt too great at riding a bike?... I was serious. This week he got NAILED by a car... haha.
Sooooo.... In our sector where we work, the road we travel on is just this longggg highway, with turn offs every once in a while onto dirt roads to what are called "poblaciones" or in english, it basically neighborhoods... haha. So anyway. We were riding back to Longaví from "La Tercera" and we were on the side of the highway. One side of the highway had a sidewalk and extra room for bikers, and the other just BARELY had any shoulder to ride on, with a canal on the other side. So it was super sketch whenever a car would drive by. It would be super close and we´d have the canal on the other side we were like almost falling in haha. So, we were on the small side of the road, so I looked back really quick, saw that I was good, and crossed both lanes (2 way freeway) to the other safe side. Since Elder Cowden isnt super fantastic on a bike, he usually just follows what I do with a little bit of hesitation (as in theres a few seconds between before he goes too). So I crossed, and then when I was good, looked back over to see what Elder Cowden was doing/going to do to make sure he was okay...
Well I didnt SEE anything, but I heard a car coming... And I saw that Elder Cowden kind of just went for it and didnt look behind him too much first... So I could hear that the car was close, and coming fast, so I started yelling at him "¡¡¡Cuidado cuidado cuidado!!! THATS when he finally looked back, and saw the car coming, so he tried as fast as he could to swerve back to the side of the road towards the canal... but didnt quite make it all the way. So the car hit the brakes but still just nailed him. Elder Cowden was SUPER blessed, because he DID get out of the way enough the the car didnt hit HIM, only the back of the bike. But still, the car wrecked the back tire and the bike just flew out from Elder Cowden and he hit the ground hard...
So I dropped my bike asap and just ran across the road to go grab him wondering what damage was done... so i picked him up off the ground and was like "are you okay?!" and he said "yeah yeah im fine!" So we checked him, and his right side was pretty scratched up from the fall and hitting the ground so hard (he DID have a helmet!) he cut his hand bad and had blood, his shoulder was scratched up and his knee was scratched up and bloody too... haha. But then the stupid car that hit him kind of started to drive off, and had like 20 seconds of confusion driving forward, then backwards trying to decide whether to run or check on us... So they finally DID come back to check on him, but we just said "yeah yeah hes fine! Dont worry, just go. Well be okay." and they were making us mad because they had these teenage girls in the back that were just saying "sorry! sorry!" in TERRIBLE english the whole time, and then when they left they were like "bye bye! bye bye!" with smiles on their faces the whole time. I was like "you just hit my companion with your car this isnt funny!" except in my head.... ha. but so we just told them to get away from us haha. (ps they were all on their way to church... hm.)
So anyway. The car drove off and a bunch of people came outside their houses to see what happened and one lady knew the missionaries and let us in to wash off Cowden a little bit. But so after that I carried Cowden´s bike for forever down the freeway (cuz he just got hit by a car haha wasnt letting him do that) and we were trying to call someone with a truck or find a way back to Longaví. But Cowden the whole time was just telling me "we have to go visit Oscar and graciela! Im fine lets go!" and I laughed and said "Elder Cowden stop. Youre just running on adrenaline right now. We´ll at least past by their house to make you happy but were getting back to longaví asap" hahaha. So we past by our cita but they werent home, and LONG story short somebody we knew saw us and had a son with a car so we packed the bikes in the car and he drove us home. hahaha.
So we got back to longaví, got ourselves tranquilo and check Elder Cowden out and then had decide what to do/who to call. And Elder Cowden refused to call Pres Humphrey so i said "Okay fine were calling the branch president then." so we called him because we didnt know what to do haha. And he had the first counselor in the branch presidency come over and escorted us to the doctors office to get Elder Cowden checked out, and then to the police station just in case there were any legal things we had to deal with (there were none... haha) Once we finally got back to the house Elder cowden reported "yeah you were definitely right. I was running on pure adrenaline. I hurt really really bad now." hahaha. BUT. So were counting our blessings and are extremely happy hes doing alright, the bike is fixed, and hes in functioning mode. We just had a good scare and now hes much more careful on the bike :) It was quite the day haha... I will send pictures.
Okay second story. This is a funny one. So on Sunday we had District Conference in Linares!! So we had to travel to Linares by bus Sunday morning... So Elder Cowden and I got on the bus, and Sunday locomoción is reallyyyy slow. Theres barely any buses that pass by and nobody even really travels. So its only us two on the bus, waiting for it to leave...... when we had a friend join us. Named Roberto. Who was EXTREEEEEEEMELY drunk and wasted and smelt SO bad and it was just pathetic but VERY funny... but so he decided to start up a conversation with us. And refused to talk in spanish. He only would talk in his 10 words of english he knew, and kept getting mad cuz he wanted us to talk in english to him too... and he kept talking about "old music" that was on his phone that he had... and would start EVERY sentence with "I am..." no matter what he wanted to say. For example, he told us probably about 12 times "I am... like da old music." or "i am... you son de the states?" he would also mix spanish and english alot too. And he also introduced himself and shook our hands and told us he was "roberto, robert in english" about 15 times too. So anyway he sat next to us the whole time on the bus and it was just funny but annoying and yeah idk haha. BUT. Were missionaries. Soooo this is what happened. I said something to him (we talked to him in spanish the whole time) about how we were missionaries and he could really use some help. He then asked if we had "one of those books" for him to read. We didnt, but i gave him a pass along card and said "hey but were actually going to linares right now to go to church! You should come it would really help you!" and I was just being a missionary, and didnt think he would accept... but he accepted. And we just laughed cuz we didnt think he was serious. BUT... the time for us to get off came and Elder Cowden said " alright were going to church now! you can come if you want!" And he said "yeah yeah! im coming!" anddddd so he got off the bus with us... and came to the church with us... haha....
and you have to remember this whole time he was just telling us about his old music, and how he wanted to believe in something, that he was robert, and he really wanted to and needed to recharge his cellphone. hahaha
Soooo... we escorted Roberto to church... and he came into church with us... but we showed up early so we had to set up the extra chairs in the back... and we set up a special chair for Roberto in the veeeeery back right next to the door.... Because we didnt know if he was actually going to stay... or what to do haha... But, so since it was district conference, President Humphrey was going to be there! So right when we got a sight of Pres Humphrey, we ran up to him and said "president humphrey we accidently brought this extremely drunk guy to church with us and we dont know what to do with him." hahahaha. So President Humphrey met him, had a quick talk with him, asked him if he could behave himself, and roberto responded with "yes!" so president said "alright... well he can stay I guess." hahaha. So he was like our little pet because we couldnt leave him alone anywhere... hahah so we took him everywhere with us and the members were giving us really weird sketchy looks like "who is this guy???" hahaha.... butttt long story short too, right before church started, he really wanted to charge his cellphone, and couldnt comprehend/remember we told him that we didnt have a computer for him to do that... So we decided we couldnt let him stay. He was too big of a hassle and he wouldnt have remembered the meeting anyways and it was just too risky... so we escorted him out and wrote down his number then told him to go find somewhere where he could charge his cellphone hahaha. I will also send pictures of him haha. It was quite the event as well. hahaha. Just doing our job! Inviting everyone unto Christ!! :) Some are just more prepared for our message than others... hahaha.
Okay also this week we FINALLY got rid of the pulgas/fleas!!! At last! I was DYING. but one of the members came to our house on wednesday and sprayed our house with this liquid stuff... and we werent aloud to enter the house at all during the day because the stuff was super toxic and we had to let the house vent out hahah. So we had temporary headquarters in the church building during the day for our studies haha. BUT the stuff worked! Its been like 4 or 5 days now since ive had any more pulgas... so i am EXTREMELY happy and relieved. and can sleep alot better :)
ALSO awesome news! I finally finished my scripture memorizing thing! "Los Estandardes de Conocimiento!" I memorized them all! So I am SUPER excited and happy because that was a huge feat for me. Im just waiting until tomorrow when I can OFFICIALLY pass it off with my district or zone leader and OFFICIALLY be a "misionero de oro!" ;) hahaha. Its seriously been a huge blessing though. Ive learned so much from it and its reaaaaally helped my teaching improve ALOT. So i am extremely happy! We´ll have to see what challenge comes next! haha
andddd last two things! So thing number one! WEeeeeee had a baptism this week!!! Boris finally got baptized!!!! and it was awesome! The baptism turned out really really well and boris was extremely happy and his family was happy too and everything! Were really excited to start working with him and help him be ready to receive the priesthood now too! Hes an awesome guy. And I was able to baptize him! I dont remember if I had mentioned that before haha. So it was aweseom! :)
Anddddd last thing is an Anny and Enrique update. This is why this email subject was "round 2?" Becauseeee were working really hard with anny and enrique. they want to be baptized really bad... but the marriage thing is the only thing in the way. And so were working really hard with them... and its definitely not even close to official yet... but Elder Cowden and I really think they will end up getting married... we think they will! Thats why its round 2 :) But, if not, we set a goal with them for baptism on the 22 of december, and also set a goal that by the 21 of december, they will either be married OR living seperately so that they can be baptized. We explained to them how that is THEIR decision, but that more than anything right now it is extremely important they get baptized, or they wont be able to enter into the kingdom of god (3 Nefi 27:19! One of those scriptures i memorized :) ) So we told them that they have 3 options, baptism together and married, baptism seperated and living in different locations, or staying in there current situation living together but seperated, and without baptism (lameeee). So we told them that its THEIR decision how they want to go about it, but that were there to help, and that we strongly strongly strongly encourage the marriage route, and that were going to continue teaching them and helping them realize WHY they should get married and the blessings that will come from that! But that one way or another they do need to be baptized because thats the commandment haha. And they wont receive eternal life without it! Being a missionary is so cool :) I would never do this if I werent a missionary hahaha.
But so thats my update this week!!! Pretty crazy huh? I loooooooove being a missionary. I am extremely excited to be working with anny and enrique right now, because I knowwww theyre going to see the blessings of this gospel in their lives, and theyre going to be ready by the 21st to be married so that they can enter into the waters of baptism on the 22nd! Together! IIIII have the faith. I know its going to happen. Were going to work hard so it DOES happen! haha. I love being a missionary!!!
But anyway. I love you all alot. I miss you all alot. Iiiiim working hard to make you all proud! I looooove being a missionary! its been such a blessing in my life and I hope its been blessing your lives as well! I imagine it has been... but I cant speak for you all haha. This church is 1000% true and I love it with all my heart. The blessings that come from living the gospel of Jesus Christ are amazing and make it impossible to deny that God is our Heavenly Father and Jesus is the Christ!!! I know the church is true!!! I love you all and miss you. CTR. Be good. Have an awesome december!! Love you!
-Elder Heyman
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Photos from Dec 3rd
1. He got hit by a car. It doesnt look to bad... But still. It was bad. Trust me. haha
2. Boris and his Fam!
3. Me and Boris!
4. Our friend Roberto...... hahahaha. Thats his cellphone that has his old music that he likes... hahahaha
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