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

I LOVE my companion!

Me and Sister H

I LOVE my companion right now. And not just because she's from AZ too. We have so much fun together it's unreal! She really makes missionary work fun. And I'm not training her- she's training me! We might have too much fun together.... yesterday the stake presidency had us stand at the doors of stake conference and hand out programs.. and there were some really boring times when no one was coming in, so of course we had to do something to entertain ourselves! We were cracking jokes and singing really annoyingly and being obnoxious.  The stake president comes over and goes- "Do I need to split you 2 up?!" I think he was joking but it was funny. Oops. We just have fun! She reminds me of Lauren...  And thank goodness I love her because the area is struggling right now. We will have 2 baptisms (Holly and Delaney) and 2 reactivations (Brody and Tara)  in May- but after that we will have absolutely no one to teach. NO ONE. Like we teach 2 or 3 lessons a week. That is pathetic. In Layton we'd do 20 or so.... here it's a harder area but even with H we'd teach at least 7 or so. I don't know what's going on because we are being so obedient and working harder than I've ever worked! Seriously we work HARD. We knock doors as a last resort because that is just not effective. We're still doing our monthly youth fireside- had one last night, and the turn out was not so good... lots of youth there preparing for missions (which is great) but no less actives or non members- which is why we set it up in the first place! We fasted yesterday that we would find new people to teach so PLEASE keep us in your prayers! Specific people we are working on right now- Kerr family,  Sababcheck family (spelled that way wrong), Bentley family, Brooks and Carly. I know we're going to find someone this week- I can feel it!

Holly's getting baptized on Saturday (if all goes according to plan) and Delaney next Saturday (again... if all goes according to plan). Brody and Tara are doing great. We've been trying to get them to say personal prayers- especially Tara. she just doesn't feel the need- ya know? Well, we randomly got a text from her this week saying Paislee (one year old daughter) has been waking up in the middle of the night crying from nightmares. Tara and Brody said a little prayer together before bed for her and Paislee slept through the night. This might not seem like a big deal to you- but it was life changing for me! I was freaking out and happy all day long, hahah - yayyy someone's actually listening to us! They have made SO much progress- it would blow you away!

Want to hear a missionary's nightmare story? seriously- get ready for this one. We were teaching an investigator named Sana. She lives with her mother in law who's an active member. Sana’s a partyer, she likes drinking and partying and having fun, whatever. She has kids. We bring a nice mom from down the street to her lessons and she brings her 2 little kids.  There's the background story. So we're teaching a lesson... the spirit’s really strong, she starts crying.... it's awesome. Then her mother in law goes, "can I say something?" "Uhh, sure" (expecting something spiritual). "I can't do this anymore," and she goes OFF about how Sana's irresponsible and she needs a job and she needs to grow up and take care of her kids and get her life together, blah blah blah.... Like, what?  Thank you... Sana starts crying- now out of fear and embarrassment... and runs out of the lesson. She BOOKED IT. So picture this- we're stuck in the living room with the sweet mom down the street, her confused little kids, and this mother in law who is STILL venting up a storm. She goes on for 10 minutes or so and then goes, "what do I do, Sister Shields?!" Heck if I know; you could start by calming yourself down, bro..... JK, I didn't say that. I had no idea what to say and H was in shock, I'm pretty sure. So I said something dumb like, "just pray!" HAHA. And the little kids were like, "Where's Sana’s mommy? Why was she crying?" It was so sad! Anyways, it was a nightmare. Then the mother in law asked if we wanted to stay for lunch. Uhh............. how about not? It was terrible! So there goes one investigator. And our homeless ones are still MIA. And Chad in the hospital who we were teaching- has like West Nile or something. LOVELY. But life's good- I got to do some hair today and we had a party in the basement. And the AP's love me and are making me an STL next transfer (girl zone leader) - woooo hoooo! Have a great week, don't cut up any of my clothes this week (CLAIRE).

Heidi

Doing hair in our basement on P-Day - me with my first companions

Some cool mission stories for Dad

Daddy -
I thought I would write you some cool mission stories just for fun!  I might have told you some of these already ... But oh well.

In Layton ... we were out contacting people in the basketball court one day and ran into a guy named Marauis.  He agreed to take the lessons and gave us his address.  A couple days later we decided to stop by and ask him when we could come back and teach him.  So a black guy opens the door ... I, being stupid, just started talking, going on and on and on ... "can we come back tomorrow and teach you?"  He looked all confused but accepted.  I asked how to spell his name and he goes, "C-H-R-I-S."  What?!  This was definitely NOT the same guy we'd had that really good conversation with a couple days earlier!  I didn't know how to be like, "so, uhh .... where's Marauis?"

We were totally NOT expecting him to show up at that appointment.  We were having a really bad day and decided to go get ice cream.  We were running late to the appointment already and didn't think it was even worth showing up for.  My comp goes, "wait - what if he's ready?!  What if it IS his time?"  So we went over.  He did remember about the appointment.  We taught him the first lesson and he accepted baptism right then and there!  CRAZY!  He's  now engaged and preparing to go through the temple (in 4 months). Yay!

We were trying to teach a girl named Amanda the importance of the Word of Wisdom.  She was also struggling with making a big decision in her life.  We told her one of the best places to receive answers is during sacrament meeting while they're blessing the sacrament.  She was SO excited to try it out!  She come into 9:00 church that Sunday and she looked terrible.  She sat next to me and told me she'd been partying the night before and was super hung over.  The talks in church that day were so perfect for her - like PERFECT.  Someone told their conversion story and how they were baptized ... like, it was just good.  She turned to me at the end of the meeting and says, "that was really good.  I didn't feel anything though.  I guess that's why there's the Word of Wisdom; it blocks the spirit."  Ding ding!!  She stopped drinking after that, yay!

Butch was like 80 years old and had been going to church for 5 years straight but refused to get baptized because of his smoking problem.  He'd had multiple sets of missionaries who'd tried everything to help him quit.  One day in a lesson we shared Alma 7:11 with him.  A couple days later, he told us he'd quit smoking.  When we asked him how, she said he memorized that scripture and recited it in his head every time he was tempted to smoke!

Delaney is 14 and knew nothing about the church.  Nothing. We went to temple square with her around Christmas time and we were looking up at the Christus.  She turned to me and said, "if we get perfect bodies when we're resurrected, why did Christ still have scars?"  I can't remember what I said, but she added, "I guess that just goes to show that he literally gave up everything for us."

I already told you the story of Brody and Tara and the Book of Mormon.  And multiple times we've gone to visit someone and they've driven up like right as we drive up - when we've been there like 50 times and no one has ever answered the door.  Weird cool stuff like that happens all the time!  Well, that's all I can think of for now.  Happy Birthday!

Love, Heidi

Hazardous fumes ...

Kim cleaning the black mold out of our bathroom with us!

Well to start...... This morning we were awakened by Kim barging into our apartment with all of Home Depot. We went to work on our bathroom. I don't know if I can describe to you how funny it was to see her take a crow bar to our baseboards in that tiny bathroom. And she was like, high off of bleach fumes hahaha. CLASSIC. This week we also put 2 investigators on date! Delaney (finally) has a set date and time. It's OFFICAL, GUYS. Saturday May 10th at 2:00 pm. We booked the church so no one can change their minds. Kim's trying to find her a baptism dress..... Delaney's like 6 foot (literally) okay? Kim's looking at 8 year old poofy baptism dresses... for a 6 foot 14 year old girl.... anyways hopefully we'll find a good alternative. Also- we put Holly on date! Can't remember if I've talked about her before (this isn't the Holly we live with). Holly is 23, her husband is an inactive member and they live with his active parents. I have been teaching her ever since I got in the area, when her mother in law called us up and said her daughter wanted to take the lessons. She's so solid and always has been- the only hold up was a little prescription drug issue. She did the 12 step program and is now good to go! She was scared to talk to her husband and tell him she wanted to be baptized- she thought he would be mad because he doesn't have good feelings towards the church. So I've been trying to get her to tell him for literally 3 months. She finally did and he said she could do whatever she wants. The only tricky thing.... if she was to move out of her in-law's- what's the chance she'd stay active? I don't know. She's adorable though and I could not be happier for her. She's being baptized on the 4th- that's TWO baptisms TWO weekends in a row! Yay! 

Brody and Tara came to church this week. They are the less active couple who I've been teaching forever who didn't start progressing until we read the Book of Mormon with them. The ward mission leader hooked them up with church clothes (perks of living in a rich stake) and they commited to come to the first hour.... ended up staying 2 hours- yay! Guess what the lessons were on? The Book of Mormon. How perfect is that? I was worried they wouldn't feel welcome... picture this: a ward full of picture-perfect Molly Mormon newlywed couples, 60+ year old couples, or 90 year old widows. That's the ward for ya. And Tara is tall and pretty with long hair and has some tattoos.  Then Brody is short, stocky, has red hair that he wears in a pony tail, a red beard, tattoos everywhere and gages. Surprisingly, Brody was talking to everyone! He made a bunch of new friends and was having the time of his life looking through all the cool stuff on the LDS tools app. I was shocked but like... okay, I'll take it! And they read their reading assignment this week! How weird is that? It's really cool to see people who obviously have never cared about church and know almost nothing accept the gospel and actually make an effort. I can't tell you how cool it is.

I LOVE my companion- we have so much fun together! Everyday's a party. Sister H (last comp) writes Holly (one we live with) and Kim, and has said her new comp isn't very nice to her and isn't very obedient... I think she really misses me- not to toot my own horn or anything. It's really kind of sad- I feel bad for her!

The hospital is on flu lock down so we haven't been teaching anyone there for a while.

A few days ago I ran into Charlotte Haws’ mom Rachael. They literally live 5 houses down from the Binghams (where I live) and I NEVER knew!

Easter was SO fun! Kim reserved us for Easter weeks ago so we spent the whole evening there. Jason made us a huge wonderful dinner of steak and vegetables and yummy things.... then Kim probably spent $50 on each of our Easter baskets. She's so funny.... Her 2 oldest girls who live in Salt Lake came down too and we got to hang out with them. They are both inactive and do not have good feelings towards the church so I tried my best to sneak spiritual stuff into the conversations. They are so fun though- I love them. With their 4 girls- it feels just like being home! Plus they are super into artsy stuff so we molded a bunch of cute stuff out of clay and drew pictures and painted and such... so fun. 

Being on a mission is so fun. Sometimes. Sometimes it sucks. Most of the time it sucks. But sometimes it's really awesome. Especially when people actually keep their appointments and open their doors for you and decide they want to come to church and decide to get baptized and tell you that you changed their lives and such... that's pretty cool. One thing the mission has taiught me- homes without the gospel CAN be happy.... but if a home has the gospel, it's guaranteed to be happy. Not perfect- but happy. And more peaceful than it normally would be. 

Note for all of the not-Mormon people who receive this email:
 if you want missionaries to NOT bug you do the following:

-have sprinklers in your yard on ALL DAY LONG
-get 5 ugly stinky dogs

if you want a sign that says "missionaries actually have some potential here" do the following:

-smoke weed with the windows open
-put a cross on your door
-mow your lawn on a Sunday

just random tips and tricks hahahhaha HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK. Someone go to the gym for me!

Heidi