Plywood and Spiders

Hello family and friends, May 26, 2014

I am alive. Barely. JK - I have moved to my new area in the Centerville South Stake with Sister H. We have been reunited and it's quite fun. Our beds are SO hard- we literally wake up every morning in pain. I feel like I did a crazy hard workout the day before but then I remember that's definitely not the case and I am still chunky... Sister H. has sleeping problems as it is, so this really sucks. Plus we are EXHAUSTED. I've never been so tired in my life. We wake up more tired than when we went to sleep- I swear. We called Sister Hansen to tell her all of the complications that come from these terrible beds.... she told us to try putting a piece of plywood under the bed. I'm not kidding- that's what she said. Like, are you kidding me?  Thank you, Sister Hansen- we will definitely try that.......

We live with the sweetest old lady. She reminds me of Grandma McConkie! She's so sweet... last night we got talking with her and I was asking all these questions about WW2 and how she met her husband and how she was married in the 50's and stuff.... because anyone who knows me knows I love WW2 romances. Sister H. fell asleep in the chair next to me while she was telling us but I loved it, hahah. We live in her basement full of spiders. Awesome.

This area is about 200% different from my Bountiful stake- even though it's literally less than a mile away.... hahah. The leadership here is so gung-ho about missionary work- it's awesome! We're teaching quite a few people- all of which have been found and set up by the stake. The people here are way more humble and receptive.. Plus we have a lot of town homes and apartments in the stake- I cannot even tell you how happy I was to hear that! We have one girl on date named Bree- she's 10 and her mom is less active. We got them to come to all 3 hours of church yesterday and that was awesome. She's sort of autistic, I guess, but honestly it just comes off as blunt and bratty- it's funny, hahah. In lessons she'll go, "I'm bored." Oh.... okay, hahahah my bad- guess we'll have to cut our 7 minute lesson down to 30 seconds for you! (Which we do). Church yesterday:

Sister H: (to Bree) "do you like to draw?"
Bree: (bratty voice) "we don't have an app for that."

HAHA

Me and Sister H have so much fun together! It's seriously a miracle they put us together but I'm definitely ok with that. I do miss (the most recent) Sister H though... she was so fun! I miss Bountiful.... but then again... there's so much more to do here. So I don't really miss it, hahah. The stress levels are so low here! Except the lack of sleep from the terrible mattresses.

Life is good. We are going on a hike today because that's what we like to do on P-days. Everyone else is paying $10 bucks to go bowling. We were talking the other day ... we get asked the same questions over and over and over again- like, am I real person with real interests other than missionary work? I can't even remember! What music and TV did we like before the mission? I don't even know... The other day in our leadership meeting president mentioned something about including personal experience stories in your lessons sometimes.... I don't remember my life before the mission so I can't do that, hahaha. Me and Sister H joke all the time about the "mission veil" because that's seriously what it feels like.

That's all for now folks- have a wonderful week!

xoxoxo
Heidi

Indian Food, Hot Dogs and Hot Rods

Family and friends,

Well, this will have to be short so I'll do bullet points:

-Getting transferred tomorrow, 2 stakes North of where I am.  Going to be with Sister H, my trainer.  I was SHOCKED they are doing that ... weirdest, most unexpected transfer ever!  Really sad to leave H in the middle of her training, but I will still see her a lot.

-Got a calling yesterday from President Hansen to be an STL (Sister Training Leader - Sister Zone Leader).  Get to go to lots of meetings and do lots of exchanges now - wooo!  Drama control is always fun too.  Excited to work with Sister H though.  She goes home next transfer.

-Went to the SLC temple with Holly this week to do baptism for the dead.  She's so cute ... I was telling her how cool it is to look at her family name cards and see that these people were born in this place, in this year, etc. ... she found one from the early 1800's and said, "Wow, that's a long time to be in the waiting room in heaven!  Well, today is Margo's lucky day, folks - she gets promotion!"  She's just cute.  I will miss her!

-Went to the dentist (thanks Uncle Dave!)

-Did a ton of yard work.

-A missionary in zone meeting this week used the phrase, "just love the hell out of these people, literally."  HAHA

-Sister H is so dang funny ... we had a big stake activity called Hot Dogs and Hot Rods - a BBQ with a car show, basically.  Have I told you about the Robert's house?  They have a bunch (literally, 7) of hot YSA recent convert males living with them.  It's a tender mercy, let me tell you.  Well, H always jokes that this one - Sam - is in love with her.  She's super sarcastic.  Anyways, she comes up to me at this activity and goes, "it's over with me and Sam.  I just saw him holding hands with another woman, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!"  I look over at him ... he's holding a 4-year-old girl's hand, hahahahah I almost died!

-Brody and Tara (reactivated) are wonderful and progressing so well.  We helped Tara do yard word on Saturday (we mostly agreed for the tan we would get while doing so) and H busted their sprinkler line with a shovel while being a spaz ... uh yeah, at least it wasn't me.  But Tara is so cute an she's inviting me to her baby shower in a couple weeks - I will def be on "exchanges to help strengthen the sisters" that day.

-Met some Indians (dots not feathers - Kayla, remember when Sister Erekson would always say that?  HAHAHAH) and they taught us how to cook legit Indian food, which I'm not a huge fan of ... the spices smell like BO to me ... but it was fun!

-The B's are traumatized I am leaving -what can I say?  But I will be around!

Have a wonderful week!

Heidi

Transfer board

My zone!

I planned a wedding ... I mean, a baptism

Delaney's baptism!

Hello family and friends,

Oh, what a fun week! To start - I planned and carried out the most extravagant baptism you've ever seen. Delaney's baptism seriously was the most stressful thing of my life..... professionally printed programs on fancy photo paper, catered lunch, centerpieces, decorations..... the whole deal. The program had extra talks and musical numbers (including me telling their family's "journey to baptism" and Emmy singing and playing a song she wrote on guitar). Kim recorded the whole thing so she can have it all forever. I know what we’ve done for their family has really really had an impact on Emmy. Yesterday we were trying to get them out the door for church and were running late... Emmy goes, "it was SO MUCH easier going to church by myself!" Hahah. Bishop asked Delaney and Jason to share their testimonies after she was confirmed in sacrament meeting. Delaney said "I wanted to be baptized when I was 8 but something always got in the way. When the missionaries started teaching my family, everyone thought all that would come of it was a baptism, but there was so much more. My friends at school ask me why I want to be baptized and I decided that Jesus has done so much for me, this is the least I can do for him. Amen." That was it but EVERYONE was in tears. It was awesome. Then I dragged the family to the bishop's office afterwards so they can all get temple recommends for baptisms for the dead. We should be going this week with them!

I also got a surprise text from an elder who took over teaching Sio in Salt Lake... I haven't heard an update from him in over a month after the drama with his girlfriend... they said his baptism was going to be that night at 6 and he really wanted me there... thanks for the heads up, elders. So I got last minute permission to go. Sio was seriously so happy to see me.... it made me feel good. Hahah, the baptism was not planned well at all and the programs were upside down... quite different from the B's extravaganza. But it happened and it was awesome!

More fun things that happened this week..... someone we've been working with (I won't use names) texted us late one night and asked if we could come over. We dropped everything and headed over. She told us she thinks we needed to go over the next morning and "check on her." She gave us keys to the house and said if she wasn't ok, this is the medication she was taking and where she kept it. Basically.... she was telling us she was going to overdose. I was scared out of my mind! So I grabbed the bag of pills and hid them from her, then made her promise she wouldn't do anything stupid! It was so stressful..... who knew missionaries were marriage counselors, shrinks, drama control and babysitters? You'd be surprised, folks. Earlier that day we found out a recent convert of 5 years in our area didn't know what baptisms for the dead were and that they happened in the temple.... like- she was just clueless, it’s sad. I looked up her records and plan to hunt those elders down! And also that day- I told you guys this while skyping yesterday- we found out a family we are trying to teach... like our most potential family- the wife's a porn star. Who knew that happened in Bountiful? And they have "shows" in the backyard along with huge parties. So..... guess we'll have to find a new prospect, hahah.

Transfers are a week from tomorrow and I reallyyyy hope I don't leave H... I love her... but if I do leave- it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because absolutely nothing's happening here right now. We did find 2 new investigators last week but haven't been able to get ahold of them since. Lovely.

Fun to hear from everyone on skype yesterday- so glad Kylie was there! Glad to hear everything's going well. I'm almost at my halfway point- woooo! Have a good week,

Heidi

Me, Sister H, Delaney and Sister H

Delaney's Family

Sio and me at his baptism

My zone

Cinco de Mayo

Family - Awesome job for meeting with the missionaries! Now go above and beyond, like Kevin Eubank (he's famous here; he's a weather man) and instead of giving them blind referrals to visit- invite someone to hear the lessons! We challenged the Eubank family to invite their neighbor to hear the lessons and he accepted! We taught him last night and it was awesome..

Also this week..... Holly got baptized! Yippee! Her husband Justin is not active and not interested in being active.... he doesn't like the church at all and was upset she wanted to be baptized. But she did it anyways! And he came to support her. Holly is my role model- I love her. She's so cute... plus I feel like she's "mine" because I found her- I've taught her since the beginning (5 months); I helped her through her prescription drug detox.... that was MY baptism. And the Lord's... and her's.... but mostly mine, haha.  When she walked into that baptismal font- she started bawling.... it was awesome, hahah and then when she got confirmed in sacrament meeting Sunday- she started crying again.. I just love her. It was an awesome weekend. Plus this next Saturday is Delaney's baptism! Kim said she's either going to get it catered or take everyone to Chuck-a-Rama... HAHA. Like this is a baptism- not a wedding? But she went through and took a bunch of pictures, bought everyone new outfits, is getting it catered, wants matching tablecloths and centerpieces ... and she asked me to speak at it and talk about the "transformation” of their family... so we'll see how that goes!

We fasted last week and this week that we would find new people to teach.... guess what! 3 new investigators this week! I don't know how it happened, don't ask me.... 1 was from Bro Eubank- he just called and said he had someone to teach, so that was awesome. At the beginning of the lesson I asked the investigator why he believed in Christ. He said he had no reason not to. At the end of the lesson.... I was trying to decide what to say to him or ask him to get him thinking and involved... then I remembered daddy's email a couple weeks ago about Moroni's promise at the end of the Book of Mormon- “ask if these things are NOT true.”  So I brought up what he said when I asked him about Christ, tied it in with Moroni's promise..... BAM. Perfect. Thanks, Daddy!

Tell Didn thanks so much for the letters!

Funny story of how much I love Sister H.... a couple days ago I watched her chug a half gallon of orange juice.... I gave her this stupid look and she goes- "this expired a couple days ago- I may or may not be trying to get food poisoning so we don't have to work....." I gave her another dumb look and she goes, "OH CRAP- this isn't expired- it expires tomorrow!" HAHAH it was SO FUNNY. We have so much fun... she reminds me of Lauren and I loveee ittt ... I have a feeling they will transfer me because we have too much fun together... but we also work really really hard! We get some serious work done!

I love my mission. I love teaching and helping people - it's awesome!

PS if anyone is coming up to visit- let me know and I can ask for permission for someone to come to a lesson with us! Probably not sisters... but maybe? Def cousins or neighbors or something, so that'd be fun.

Have a great week! now I'm going shopping.

Holly's baptism - Yay!!

Holly & her family on her baptism day