Baptism and Reunions!

Family -

Kacie Raley (cosmo school friend) and Sara Hornberger (former companion) are two of my very best friends. I had the privilege of hanging out with both this week. I think Heavenly Father knew I needed a tender mercy or two! We have seen this area blow up... Robyn L (we've taught her for 6 months) came to church for the first time this week! It was a miracle. We pushed and pushed and I think it paid off ... we weren't able to be there but we heard it was a great sacrament meeting and she cried. Then I texted and asked if we could teach her Tuesday... she said, "yes... of course.... please... lovely.... yeah.... PLEASE" Hahaha she's funny... I hope this is finally it for her! I don't know if I've told you her story but I don't have time to explain it right now.... pray we can put her on date for baptism this week!

Rich's baptism was glorious. President Hansen decided to spend a whole evening teaching with us the night of rich's interview, so he came to all our appointments with Sister Hansen and watched us teach a fireside... it was nerve-racking but so cool. How many missionaries get to teach with their mission president? He likes me, I swear. Speaking of liking me.... our stake president? LOVES me. We've had 3 baptisms the past 3 months I've been here.. that's way more than the sisters before me and Sister H. Not like baptisms are everything... but President Hollingshead likes baptisms! And we put Shankika P (15) on date! So we now have 2 on date for Sept- hopefully we can get Robyn and the 2 other P girls. Things are going well. The stake pres is happy... haha. Rich's baptism was great though. He was very emotional and his son Josh (6) said the closing prayer and said over and over again, "thank you my dad got baptized.. thanks for dad being baptized... we are so happy my dad got baptized.... this is a beautiful day for my dad to be baptized..." it was SO cute, I waas trying not to die laughing hahah - but overall it was awesome. Plus Sister H (not a Sister anymore) got to come back. Weird... but awesome. And she drove us to our temple day today so that was fun too. So glad she got to come back for it.

After the baptism- our stake pres took us to lunch at Pei Wei... and guess who works there? Kacie Jean Raley! I couldn't stop hugging her and got really emotional hahah - I LOVE Kacie more than life! She's living in Bountiful now. I asked our zl's for permission to go on splits with her - yippie!

All for now- good week of miracles!

Heidi

Zone hike - my idea

(Please excuse the t-shirt, she's trying to dress like the natives, haha)

Four generations of sisters - my trainer, me, my trainee, and my trainee's trainee!

This is why Americans are obese and have diabetes - fried Twinkies at mission farewell open houses!

Rich's baptism!

Wedding Receptions and Miracles

This week we went to 2 wedding receptions.... I LOVE weddings.  And Sister Bill was a wedding planner before her mission so she quite enjoyed it too. We also have seen many many miracles this week. We found 3 new investigators and 4 new less-actives to teach! We have been so busy and this area is just exploding. It's still kind of a struggle with my comp... but what else is new? I know I'm going to have lots of patience after this and I will never be late to anything ever again (she has absolutely no sense of time, I swear). You know what? It's a miracle I've made it this far in my mission... it really is. Sister Hyden went home and I got permission to go to lunch with her last week. She thanked me for being a wonderful trainer and wanted to let me know I did a good job and I shouldn't feel like a failure because she's going home... normally I would have - but Sister H's a trainer now... so I did one thing right! That's good.

The Spanish sisters in our zone have really been struggling to find people to teach... as their STL, I felt somewhat responsible to help them. I contacted all of our bishops, WML's and ex secretaries and made up a list of potentials for them. It took forever but it paid off - they found 2 new investigators this week!  Those are their first investigators in 6 months. This is a tough area!

For the first time in my mission, this week I really felt like a good missionary. I just felt satisfied... like, okay- I'm exhausted, I've done all I can today. We worked straight from 10-9 pm. We did as much as we could in our area, we helped our sisters in the zone... we taught, we correlated, we talked to everyone... It just felt really good. Our stake president keeps telling people we are the best missionaries they've ever had in this stake. I hope he really means it when he talks about the 2 of us and by that he doesn't just mean Sister Bill... because he never said that when I was with Sister H here... oh well. It's just a good feeling. I love being a missionary and working hard,. but don't get me wrong- I still am miserable and wonder how I can make it through the next 6 months at the same time. It's a constant bittersweet. It will be a miracle if I make it home alive and with out diabetes from all the comfort food and sweets we get fed. Oh well, all in a day's work.

Rich is getting baptized Saturday. Sister H's coming up for it. I worry that he's not ready or worthy... he went camping with Lorie this past weekend.... but me and Sister Bill have really been praying and trying to decide if he's ready and we both feel like he is. We've done our part- now it's up to his agency. So the baptism will go on!

We had another youth chat last night. The youth are so fun and I love being with them.

Thank you for your love and support!  Thanks for the letters. when does life get easier? Oh, that's right- never.... Lovely. Have a good week!

Heidi

Wedding reception #1

Breakfast with sisters in our zone

Fuzzy purple dice we won at wedding reception #2 (carnival themed - see below)

A baptism, old friends and tuna

Family & friends -

Well, this week we had a baptism.... and we went on lots of exchanges with sisters. The new girls we started teaching last week, the Pham's, accepted baptism! They are 15, 13 and 9. They are so cute and sweet... they had girls’ camp this week and the change in their attitude from last week to this week was crazy. Girls’ camp works miracles!

So remember Sister H? The first sister I trained? She has decided the mission isn't for her and she wants to go home... tomorrow is transfers and she will heading out for good. I asked permission to call and talk to her to try and talk her out of it but President said it wouldn't help... I called her and he was right- it didn't. She said the only way she would stay was if President made her companions with me again.... you know I really struggled with her. But I tried my best to love her and train her and help her see how missionary work was fun and tried to teach her to love herself. I felt like it didn't work, and after that I just ignored her most of the time so I wouldn't snap and say or do something mean.... But after talking with President and her- I realized I might have actually really helped her. That makes me feel better about life.... haha, because I was really feeling bad. It's really sad that she's made this decision, but we talked about it and she prayed about it and really feels like that's what would be best for her. It's hard for me to agree with her.... if it was up to me I’d say- yeah, it's hard for everyone... not every sister is lucky enough to have me as a companion (HAHA)- so what? Pick yourself up and power through it! It's just been kind of hard for me to accept that some missionaries can't power through it and maybe aren't supposed to.... it's just sad. The good news is- Sister H (Heidi's second trainee) is training a new sister next transfer! I get a granddaughter! (mission family generation talk is so obnoxious and I hate it.. sorry..)

I got to see Sister M a lot this week (friend from high school and cosmo school) - that was fun! She's changed a lot.... like really a lot. Example- she's decided she wants to go to college. Sister M wants to seek a higher education than a cosmetologist license? What's going on?! And here's the craziest part... she wants to go to BYU Provo. A Utah church-owned school? This is a sign of the second coming! By the way, those are her words, not mine. I'm not trying to be mean because I'm in the same situation, haha. She got permission to borrow a temple square van and come down to Anya's baptism after we had the lesson. I guess if the temple square sisters are invited they can come to baptisms of those they give tours to. So that was fun! I asked her what they eat on temple square to stay so skinny... she and her companion looked at each other and said "honestly, just tuna... that's the only thing we buy each week..." WHAT? Hahah, typical Sister M... Tuna? Oh dear.

Life is good- I've never been so busy my whole life. Not going to lie- I miss Sister H and H... it's nice having a companion who's your best friend. But I've realized a best friend companion isn't always best efficiency-wise... oh well! I'm glad we're so busy because if I had time to sit and think or breathe- I'd probably be really depressed. Isn't that weird? Mission life is weird.

K. R. (friend from cosmo school) is living with her aunt and uncle in Bountiful and goes on splits with the sisters there all the time... the zone leaders keep telling me about this cute blonde RM who knows me and I'm trying to let them give permission for her to contact me.. wouldn't that be fun? So maybe find her on fb and message her my address or something?

I absolutely love being an STL. It's so rewarding to help not only the people we are teaching, but the other sisters as well. It's wearing on my sleep and mental health.... but well worth it, I think! Today so many sisters asked me to cut their hair- I told them all to just meet at a stake center.. so we're going to be having a hair cutting party.

Rich is doing well; he's on date for August 23rd still. He's been going to the mid-singles ward in my old stake in Bountiful though.... he needs to stop - he needs to get baptized HERE for the sake of our numbers... the stake president has a goal of 11 baptisms in the stake this year. There's been 4 so far.... 2 of which are mine. We have 2 more on date- hopefully the 3 Pham girls.... me and Sister B have a goal of 7 baptisms this transfer. Is it possible? We'll see!

Have a good week, good luck at school everyone!

Love, Heidi

With Anya after her baptism

Success in Centerville, Utah mission probs and Brazilian lasagna

Well hello, family and friends, your favorite missionary here. I'm still cute and wonderful, don't you worry! Just kidding... sort of. All right, let me update you on the wonderful things happening in the Centerville South stake. Things seriously EXPLODED this week! That means we must be doing something right!

Rich is still not smoking. He moved out of Lorie's this week and finished reading the Book of Mormon. Then he started from the beginning again! He is on date for baptism August 23rd! YAY! He's doing so well... He bore his testimony in Sunday School yesterday and said basically that he's made a lot of sacrifices for the gospel this week... but he's never been so happy or seen so many blessings in his life. He's so prepared and doing so well, it's wonderful. There's still some drama.... like, I don't know if Lorie knows she was dumped? Church was awk because I kind of had to pick sides.... ok, who do I sit with - our investigator progressing towards baptism with the adorable kids who love me? (PS they wore matching dress shirts and ties with their little future missionary tags to church... and had their own DI Book of Mormon's with their names on them - SO cute.) Or our recently reactivated member and her weird, socially awkward boys? (Those are their own mother's words- not mine). It's just hard! Usually we split for church so we can cover more wards... so I would split with Lorie, But now it's more complicated because they're separated. So I split with an awesome ward missionary who does hair and she's cute and fun. But it was still awk....

We put Ethan on date. He's 12- his mom is less active but he goes to church with his older brother. Anya gets baptized this Saturday. We found a family to teach! 3 new investigators! They're sisters- 16, 14 and 10. Their mom is not active and doesn't really like the church at all... but they have great home teachers who don't give up on them. The girls have come to church the past 3 weeks and love it. We taught them the first lesson yesterday.

Went to temple square this week because Sister Bill got permission to meet an old comp who's gone home and is here to visit... and basically I just split with Amanda May for an hour and gossiped and talked... probably not the best thing to do... but it was fun haha.

Sharee and Randi (Mom and sister of Bri, who was baptized a couple weeks ago- sister was on house arrest) are in JAIL. Lovely. Just lovely. Rich looked up their court records or something online and said they were arrested for probation violation... or parole violation.. one of the 2? Isn't that sad? Bri's living with her grandma.

We have done 2 24-hour exchanges with sisters in the zone the past 3 weeks. That is exhausting! Seriously.... way too much brain power goes into that. Plus we have to plan things in our area around it... but it's so fun. These sisters’ areas are not doing as well as ours... the Spanish sisters have literally no one to teach. They get maybe 1 lesson a week. I tried my best to help them but 1) I don't speak Spanish... so I was a tag-along... 2) I don't even know where to start! They cover the whole zone so their area's huge... but there's just not many Spanish speakers in Davis County. I love being able to do exchanges with them though and teach them things I've tried in my areas, teach them to LOVE THEMSELVES (I'm good at that now) and most important... just to have fun! The other day I was with a sister who went to BYUI with me and we had so so so much fun, haha. I love this calling! I think.... I might need to.... wait for it- I can't believe I'm saying this- get humbled? All the sisters love me and I think it's going to my head... But last transfer I really struggled with being new in this area and not knowing anyone and having to earn the trust of everyone... so maybe it's a nice change? Sister Bill is doing great too. She apologized the other day for coming in here and trying to change everything and making me feel like I was a terrible slacker.... I don't blame her though- that's what she's had to do her whole mission- fix things! I think I will be with her here until she goes home in November.

Let me tell you what's so hard about Utah missions.... members here refer to "the mission field," like this isn't included in it. They don't really consider us missionaries, almost.... they always say stuff like, "we used to live in the mission field and it was awesome," or "my son in the mission field in California," or "in the mission field..." just annoying. Plus, we are watched like hawks. There's no rule-breaking here because you'll get tattled on by someone - straight to the mission president. "The sisters were at the store on a TUESDAY, President Hansen!" Well, thank you very much - our P-day was moved to a Tuesday that week! Anyways, it's just hard... every mission has it's struggles, I guess. And the members here want to be missionaries so badly- it's almost dangerous.... a recent convert who's lived in one ward, then moved to another in the stake - both wards are now trying to fellowship her and bringing her cookies 3 times a week and inviting her to their ward's activities... so she's pulled between the 2. Like, only in Utah does that happen. We ate dinner with a guy last night who said he's been praying for missionary opportunities, and then a new family moved in across the street... he said he literally had to RUN over there to talk with them before the other neighbors did. Someone beat him there and found out they were already members and got their membership record numbers etc already. This guy was so bummed! Hahah, it was hilarious! People are CRAZY here! I guess it's a good crazy?

So, that's what's new. Good things are happening. And we got fed by a Brazilian family who made the best lasagna I've ever had... it was ham and cheese and alfredo sauce, kind of, instead of ground beef and red sauce. YUM.

Have a good week, pay your tithing and all that good stuff!

Heidi