31 December 2013

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. I really enjoyed seeing and talking to the ones that were home. And to those of you who weren't home, I missed you a lot and was thinking of you!

My Christmas was very full of eating. Almost every house that we went to, we ate something. And that lasted from the 24th to the 27th. Sometimes it was a full on plate of rice and beans, but other times it was just cake and soda. Our fridge was full of about three big cakes, cupcakes, and 5 individual slices of cake. I am caked out! But the people were very nice and generous. I always thought that Christmas time would be a great time to share the gospel as a missionary but now I know a little better. Maybe the beginning of December was a good time but once Christmas actually arrived I am pretty sure that 80% of Belize passed the holiday drunk. Okay, that might be an exaggeration but it sure seemed like everyone and their dog was drunk. So we ended up spending most of our time with members and did very little tracting in the streets. Also a big part of Christmas here are the "palomitas" or fire crackers. Everyone from 4 years old to 60 years old was setting off fire crackers in the street all day and all night for about four days straight. Everyone stays up until midnight Christmas Eve so that they can welcome in Christmas day. When the clock strikes 12 they set off a ton of fire crackers. I was peacefully sleeping and instead of hearing Santa's sleigh, I was jerked awake from the loud BOOM of fire crackers. I was slightly annoyed and went back to sleep. ha! But that was about my Christmas. It was a little more exciting than last year's Christmas in the MTC. :)

Well I hope you all have a great new year! I can't believe it is already 2014. But 2014 is going to be great! Love you all!

Sista Heap

23 December 2013

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!!! I am not really sure what to write because I will be talking with you in a few days. If I write too much I will not have anything to say on Skype. haha. Maybe I will just explain the pictures that I am sending. Last night we were visiting Gina and her family and we started talking about "plats" or corn rows in hair. The next thing I know, me and my companion are leaving the house with our hair platted. I didn't think it would work on white girl hair but it did. ha! The one who did our hair is in the picture. She is Gina's sister Naomi.

 

I hit my one year mark this week. And I didn't really do anything to celebrate it. The week was crazy and I was so tired that I lived through the day. My companion put up a paper sign for me. And so I just had to take a picture of it.

Oh and good news, I have a cold and have lost my voice. I am having flashbacks of last year's Christmas and having bronchitis and being without a voice for 8 days. Christmases on the mission just seem to take my voice away. ha! I hope that it comes back before Wednesday or else you are all going to have to lip read very well. hahaha!

Well I love you all and wish you a very happy Christmas!

Sista Heap

This is our Orange Walk district after doing our act in the Christmas talent show!

These are all the sisters in the Corozal Zone.

 

18 December 2013

Happy ONE YEAR to me! Well, tomorrow it will be one year. Crazy!! It has been a very full and interesting year. It has passed so quickly but slowly. I don't think that I have every sweated so much in one year than I have in this one. ha! There have been a lot of great things, interesting things, funny things, sad things, frustrating things, and spiritual things. The Lord is definitely knocking down walls, pulling up flooring, and moving stuff around to make me what He wants me to be. That's okay though because He knows my true potential way better than I do.

Yesterday was the mission's Christmas party in Belize. We went to Belize City, ate a big meal, had a spiritual thought, enjoyed a talent show, played games, and got all of our Christmas packages. It was quite fun. And we got to wear jeans for all of it. That was quite weird! But the good thing is that my one pair of jeans that I have with me still fit :) I thought that the talent show was going to be really short and boring, maybe filled with several people singing songs but it was actually great. It is amazing how talented and creative the missionaries are here. There were a lot of mission jokes. My district threw together an act in the last two days. After the changes last week we realized that every one of us is gringo or white.So we rewrote the words to "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" to be "Orange Walk is having a white Christmas" and all the words are about our adventures here in Orange Walk. It is pretty darn funny if I do say so myself. And....shocker.....I sang a solo! Me and Elder Hales took turns singing solos. I have decided that on my mission would be a great place to get over my fear of singing solos in public. I have been given a lot of practice lately. ha! Maybe someday you all will get a chance to see a video that we took. ha!

We have found a few positive people lately. We got this family to go to church that has eight kids. We just have to get the husband to stop drinking and get these people married and baptized and they would make a great addition to the Orange Walk branch. We are crossing our fingers and praying hard that it all happens.

Well I can't think of much more to say. I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Travel safely! And I can't wait to talk to you next week!

Sista Heap

11 December 2013

So once again I am writing on a Wednesday because this week was transfers and I spent all day yesterday in Belize City dropping off Hermana Rodriguez and picking up my new companion......Sister Pocock! She is from Ohio, just came straight from El Salvador, and has 8 months in the mission. This will be my first opportunity to have a companion that was originally from the El Salvador San Salvador mission before a new mission was created. It should be interesting. The poor thing did not want to come to Belize at all and to top it off, her camera with all of her memory cards were stolen on the plane yesterday. Needless to say, it has been a rough first day for her here. I am hoping that it gets better. In this transfer, we were made into a new zone. Before we were in the Belize Zone that had Belize City, Corozal, and Orange Walk. Now we are in the new Corozal Zone. We still have to travel in a bus each week for a little over an hour but now it is north and not south. We are a pretty small zone of 12 missionaries, six elders and six sisters. But it is cool to see the progress of Belize. There is so much potential here!

Well I know that this email is extremely short. Sorry about that but I honestly can't think of much to say. I was up late last night searching for my companion's camera so the only thing in my mind is how much I want to sleep right now. :) Oh, we have been told that we can call home on the 24th or the 25th. I was thinking that the 25th would be better. I think I am going to be able to do skype but that means that Mom and Dad need to get a skpe account. :) Well I love you all and hope you don't die from the cold weather!

Hermana Heap

4 December 2013

This week has actually been kind of crazy. The investigator that I mentioned last week, Gina, well her dad died last Tuesday. Yikes! So we spent a lot of time with the family, making sandwiches, and going to the funeral. But luckily she still decided to get baptized last Saturday. But the morning of the baptism we called them found out that she had had a fever all night long and was feeling really sick. She and her mother felt it best that we didn't get baptized in cold water that day. They had also not been able to find the beautiful white dress that Gina wanted to get baptized in. So here I was thinking that we would have to postpone the baptism and that everything had fallen through. But we prayed for a miracle, called the elders to give her a blessing, sent the other two sisters to search for a dress and we went to talk to her about it. Right after the blessing, the sisters showed up with the perfect dress. Those two things changed the mind of Gina and she decided to get baptized. And it was a wonderful baptism! We truly witnessed many miracles this week. Satan tried hard to keep her from getting baptized but it didn't work. I know that the Lord helped us so much!

Thanksgiving day started out like a normal day. Well not really because it started out with the funeral of Gina's dad. But I forgot it was even thanksgiving until about 11 am when someone reminded me. ha! We were invited to eat at a member's house that night. He feeds us once a week so it was just normal. We ate a very Belizean meal of beans, tortillas, chicken, and tomatoes. While we were finishing the meal another member called us (Lindsey: it was Elder Santoya) and invited us to eat thanksgiving over at his house in 20 minutes. Well we were already full but had to go eat again. Ugh. There was turkey, ham, gravy, rolls, stuffing, and upside  down pineapple cake. I couldn't really enjoy it because I was just so very full. But it was nice of them to think of us and to have something Thanksgivingy to eat. It was also cold too. A cold front came in this last week and we all had to bust out our sweaters. I only have one so I was cold. We asked a member what the temperature was and guess what it was.....74 degrees! Wow! I have definitely gotten used to the hot weather here is 74 degrees has me bundling up. haha! I am just glad that I will not be getting home during the winter. ha!

This Monday, for p-day, we got permission to go to Los Cerros. It is a Mayan ruin. But we got permission to go there on boat, because  it is on an island. It was WAY cool!! I loved the ocean and the boat ride much more than the ruin. 

Well I hope all is well on the home front. I love you all!

Sista Heap

26 November 2013

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy it! It feel a little weird down here that no one is thinking about gratitude right now. It is just ingrained into me that that is what November is for. :) This past Friday we had our Thanksgiving celebration as missionaries in Belize. We had a luncheon in the Radisson (sp?) Hotel in Belize City. We were supposed to be in a tent outside but it was raining so much that we ended up eating in the bar. haha! I was pretty excited for the food, thinking it was to be Thanksgiving. I was a little disappointed but ended up enjoying it anyway. We ate rice and beans, weird stuffing, really dry turkey, a delicious pineapple ham, potato salad, and cheese cake. I just kept looking for your rolls and the pickles, Mom. It really didn't compare. But it wasn't too bad. I really enjoyed the cheese cake. We played games afterwards that were pretty fun as well. Then we went back to Orange Walk. Luckily we didn't have to take the bus, we went with the senior couple in their car. But the combination of the horrible roads in Belize and the driving of Elder Galvez made me car sick so that was fun. haha. Everything is an adventure.

This Sunday was District Conference. We all got on a bus as a branch and rode down together. Our district includes Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, and San Pedro. There are 2000 members. And we have 24 missionaries working in the district. Wow! Can you imagine if there were 24 missionaries working in the Eagar Stake? Crazy!

The other sister missionaries that we live with had a wedding and baptism this last weekend. The couple got married on Sunday and baptized on Monday. (that happens a lot here because no one is already married before talking to the missionaries). We spent a lot of time decorating, cleaning the church, serving food, and whatever else they needed. I even got to play the piano for the wedding. Fun! But in the end, when they were baptized, it was so great! The spirit was strong and you could just see how much they wanted to change their lives. We were able to bring one of our investigators, Gina, to the baptism. Gina is supposed to get baptized this Saturday so it was good for her to see how it all goes. Pray that everything will go well so Gina will be able to get baptized this Saturday.

Well I hope all is well. Please travel safely for the holidays and enjoy all the food for me. Especially the pickles. There just aren't any pickles here :( Well I love you all! Have a great week full of gratitude!

 

Hermana Heap

 

My only picture of the Thanksgiving activity that somewhat turned out. My camera is having problems. But it is a picture of us missionaries in orange walk.

 

19 November 2013

Dear Family,
I want to share the exciting news that I finally found some good food here in Belize. We went to eat a place called Carls' Pizza. He is Italian and the pizza was SO good! The bad news is that we went to eat there on the last day it was open. What a bummer! We tried another pizza place but the crust was like all air, leaving us very hungry after eating a very expensive pizza.

We finally had a few sunny days this week. It helps so very much to dry out the mud because all the rain has made the roads incredibly muddy! The other night I tried to ride through the mud but got stuck so I had to stop and get off and walk. I looked behind me to see Sister Rodriguez completely stuck and falling, in slow motion, sideways into a huge muddy puddle. HAHAHAHA! After assuring myself that she wasn't hurt, I laughed so hard!! Luckily she had on her huge rain poncho and rain boots so only a bit of her skirt got muddy. Oh the things that happen on the mission.

On more of a spiritual note, I have been reading in 3 Nephi lately. I have a goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish before I turn one year old in the mission. My time is running out quickly so I am in crunch time. But I have really enjoyed reading about Christ coming to the Americas. Every time I read chapters 9 or 11 I just feel the spirit so strongly. I think that it is even better in Spanish. The spirit always confirms in my heart that the Book of Mormon is true! I love that book!

I got called to give a talk in church at 9:30 Saturday night. I honestly haven't had to speak much in church on my mission so I was grateful for the chance. That is a clear sign that some part of me has changed while on the mission. Before the mission I avoided speaking in church at all costs. Sometimes it is hard to see but I really am changing. I couldn't resist the opportunity so I spoke on gratitude. I love thanksgiving but no one here celebrates it so I decided to share a little bit of the spirit of the season. I shared lots of stories about bottom eyelids and being a picky eater. Now one of the branch members that feeds us each week calls me picky. But to prove him wrong, I ate the Conch soup that he gave us. Conch is a type of snail. That was definitely the toughest meat I have ever eaten. But in the end it wasn't too bad. haha.

Well that about sums up the week. I hope all is well. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap


This is my full cupboard. I just went shopping so it looks so full and yummy! :)

12 November 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD (yesterday)!!!!!! I hope it was a good one! I was telling the senior missionaries about your birthday. Elder Galvez assured me that you are still young and have many years ahead of you. (He is 70) haha!!

This has been a kind of tough week. My companion got a horrible head flu that just wiped her out. She couldn't hardly speak for days without coughing up a lung. On top of that it has rained cats and dogs this week. I know I say that every week but this week it was even more. I couldn't take Sister Rodriguez out it the rain but none of the members wanted to do divisions with me because of the rain. We were able to work a few days but my companion could not talk so I got to teach all of the lessons and make all of the decisions. I have felt pretty alone all week. It is not Sister R's fault either, it is just bad luck. Or maybe my Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to have more confidence in myself. I am back to the "Fake it til you make it" mentality. But thankfully my companion is back to normal, just in time to do divisions with the sister leaders this week. Once the divisions are over I am going to be so happy to just be able to work normally again!

But this week on Sunday it rained literally all day! I thought that no one was going to go to church but we still had 70. One of our investigators, Gina, who we have not been able to get to go to church, finally went, in the rain and all! That was a tender mercy. She is super positive and wants to be baptized. She is 18 years old and the only member of her family that is not a member. Everyone was baptized a long time ago but went inactive. We found her mom and brought her back to teach. Meanwhile we have been teaching Gina. I just love to bring people back to church and see the light that comes back into their lives! And this helps so much with the missionary work because they now have a renewed testimony of the gospel that they can share with others. The sister in Sensunapan that we brought back to church and baptized her husband, Ana Magana, emails me every week. She sent me pictures this week of the baptism of her neighbor that she invited to church. AWESOME!!! Things like that make it all worth it! I love this gospel and I know it is true. I want others to feel this love and have all the wonderful blessing that come from living the gospel. I want others to taste incredible flavor of the Book of Mormon and that I do. So for all of you who read my silly email each week: Don't waste of take for granted what you have in your hands. Use it. Experience it. Love it. and Share it!

I love you all so much and hope all is well in the real world!

Hermana Heap

5 November 2013

Dear Family,

Well, I honestly feel like I just wrote yesterday and that there really isn't much to say. We have worked like normal this week. We are really struggling right now to find new people to teach, especially families and priesthood. We want to help Orange Walk to grow so we need more priesthood. It is a real challenge though because even so many of the men who are members still have a challenge with drinking alcohol. Alcohol is honestly EVERYWHERE here. You see kids in the street drinking. Weed is smoked on the school play grounds. It is just sad. The men have more of a problem with. It is one of the biggest things holding back the church from growing here. It is crazy for me to think that before my mission I had never seen a drunk person.....now I have seen WAY too many. I thought that El Salvador was bad but Belize is just sad! But we are going to keep fighting against it!

 So teaching the songs in primary is going okay. We have started to sing some fun songs to get the wiggles out. But I think I am getting too old to sing Do As I'm Doing jumping up and down. It just about kills me every time. ha! We have now started working on Christmas songs. It just all feels so wrong to be because everything is still green, hot, and humid. How can it be getting close to Christmas? I love how green it is here but I miss the seasons. We are supposedly getting to the end of the rainy season and it is supposedly cooling off. Everything just feels hot and humid always.

 

This was one of the roads in my area this week. Each day that is rained it just got worse and worse! And we have to use this street every day!

Well sorry that this email is so short and lame. Hopefully something exciting happens this next week. I love hearing from all of you. I hope your week goes well. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap

 

30 October 2013

Well dear family, I wish that I could send you some of this rain because we are DROWNING! It has rained everyday this passed week. And when I say rained, I mean poured! It has made the work pretty challenging because no one wants to walk to church in the rain or even let anyone inside there house when there is rain. Many of the streets in my area are dirt or filled with pot holes. This mean a TON OF MUD!! I should have taken a picture so that you could picture it better but I forgot. Luckily we have bikes and the bikes have finders to help us stay out of the mud a little bit. But riding in the mud takes every muscle in my body and every ounce of energy that I have. Needless to say, I have been pretty tired and muddy this week.

President and Sister Hintze came to Orange Walk this week to do a branch activity and they brought my birthday package!!!! It was a wonderful late birthday. Thank you to the Eagar folk for sending it. Mom and Dad, the vacuum packed brownies made it intact and delicious! I was pretty impressed and delighted to taste a little something from home. I have been enjoying all the candy that Cort and Sammy picked out for me and the delicious home made jerky from Holly and her family. Thanks so much! I also loved the letters. There is just nothing like getting a package and letters from home. haha. and speaking of birthdays....HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE SMITH! I know it already passed but I hope it was a great one!

The transfers were this week and I for once did not have any changes in area or companion. I was quite happy because I love Orange Walk! Yesterday I was studying the plan of salvation to teach it to one of our investigators. I felt the spirit so strongly as I studied about our purpose here on the earth and about the atonement. I know that God has make such a wonderful plan for us. I know that Jesus Christ is the essential part of this plan. Without him, everything would be hopeless and impossible. Each and everyone of us needs our Savior so much. I just wish that I could help these people understand that better. There is so much more to this life than our job, school, the next movie coming out, our next vacation, and what we are going to eat for dinner. But these are the good things that fill out minds to the point that we don't have room for the better and best things in life, like picking up the Book of Mormon to read for a few minutes, taking the time to kneel down and say a truly heart-filled prayer, or setting a simple goal to say something nice to someone today. They are small things but they are the important things that are going to impact our happiness here and for the eternity. I love this gospel! I know with all my heart that it is true!

I love you all and hope all is well. Have a great week!

Hermana Heap

22 October 2013

Happy Birthday Claire! I am not sure if she will read this but I hope she has a great day!

Manuel is the one with white hair.

Another week has flown by. This one was a good week. We were able to work with very few interruptions. I love weeks like that. We had our first Orange Walk 3 baptism on Saturday. A little old man named Manuel Aguierre was baptized. That was super exciting. He was one of those people who was just prepared to make changes in his life. He had been drinking coffee and when we taught him the word of wisdom he accepted it instantly. We asked if he would stop drinking coffee and he said sure and that is would be easy. From that day, he hasn't had any more coffee. Super Prepared! What a blessing!!

On Wednesday we were working with the relief society president, visiting some people. We started teaching this man that we had contacted the week before named William Floors. We didn't get very far into the lesson when I started to have to really strain to understand what William was saying. I would understand about 3 words in 10. I didn't know if it was just a super hard accent to understand or if he was speaking in Creol. I looked at my companion, hoping to find help, but she was even more lost than I was. There was a point in the lesson that I told the relief society president that I didn't understand. She translated a little bit for us into spanish. That was honestly one of the longest, most uncomfortable lessons that I have ever been in! Afterwards the sister with us told us that he had been speaking in almost pure Creol. Con razon no entendi casi nada! Thank goodness we had someone that could understand. I don't know what we would have done if she hadn't had have been there.

Yesterday I was waiting for my companion to finish getting ready and was thinking about what I wanted to eat for lunch. As I tried to think of something that sounded good I realized that I haven't eaten anything here in Belize that I really want to eat another time. I just don't enjoy the food here. For the first time in my mission I had the desire to cook. I went to the store and bought all the stuff for hamburger pie. It is something simple but I can't really remember all of the food that I love from home. And I don't have any recipes. But I just miss really and healthy food!

 In September when we got to Orange Walk the attendance was at about 70 each week. The Elder that got here about a month before us said that it had recently been at about 50. This week the Orange Walk attendance was 107 people!! It has almost doubled in the last three months!!! How very exciting! It is so exciting to see the less actives that we visit come back to church on their own. I honestly think that that is one of the thing that I have loved most in my mission, working with the "lost sheep". We as members really have so much power to help these people feel God's love.

 I love you all!! I hope all is well!

 Hermana Heap

Oh and I forgot to mention, my new address for LETTER ONLY is: PO Box 1123 Belize City, Belize. I have heard that the customs here are crazy expensive so it is still recommende​d to send the packages to El Salvador

 

15 October 2013

Dear Family,


My beloved bike!

Once again, thank you for the birthday love. Now I am twenty three and feel old. haha. My companion is 21 and one of the other sisters that we live with is 19. Yikes! Thankfully the other sister with us is 24 so I am not quite the oldest. haha. Well It was all going to work out perfectly because President and Sister Hintze came to Belize this week for a multizone conference and they always bring the mail with them. I was just sure that I was going to get your package Mom. Even when I greeting Sister Hintze she whispered in my ear that I had mail. I was pumped. I sat through the whole conference wondering what was in the package with a big smile on my face. Then I received my mail: one letter and one dearelder. I love mail but I had gotten my hopes up. It turns out that El Salvador's post office has been on strike for the last two weeks. I am sure that my package has arrived and is just waiting for my in a post office in El Salvador collecting dust. what a bummer! Oh well. The Hintzes will be coming back in two weeks so maybe I will end up celebrating on Jake Smith's birthday this year. haha. My birthday was quite a normal day. My companion made me a card and gave me some awesome earrings. (How does she know me so well already?!) and Sister Condie and Sister Price made me a pancake and egg breakfast. Elder and Sister Galvez (the senior couple here in Orange Walk) made me a birthday dinner of pork chops, mexican rice, beans, tortillas, and a strawberry cake. It was great! I still missed Mom's food and the brownies that I was craving but I got the next best thing. :) I hope the sister missionaries enjoyed my birthday dinner. :D

Ruins at Corozal

 

Yesterday we went to Corozal, a town nearly on the Mexican border, to see this random ruin Mayan temple in the middle of the the town. It was small but cool. We also got to see the Ocean.

 

 I would say the beach but there is no sand here, just pavement and then water. I feel like I have been all over Belize this week. We went to Belmopan and Cayo for the conferences and I stayed the night and worked a little bit in a villiage on the Guatemala border called Succotz. Southern Belize has a lot more trees and hills. It is definitely pretty but I was very happy to get back to good old Orange Walk. I love my area. Sometimes I wish that I could stay there until I end my mission. haha. We will see.

Well I will try to send a few photos. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap

8 October 2013

Wasn't General Conference just wonderful?! I loved it so much! And it was great to get to hear it in English. haha. This weekend was crazy because we were trying like crazy to bring people to the different sessions of conference. I felt like I rode my bike to Pinetop again. :) My legs were wet noodles at the end of the day. haha. But the conference was great. I think my favorite talk was by the Sister from the young woman's presidency about true conversion. It is always a question that I am asking myself. Am I truly converted? Will something come along in life to knock me off the path? I sure hope not but it is hard to be sure. But she taught a lot of great stuff about how to become converted and what are the signs of conversion. They also talked a lot about missionary work and the members....hint hint. haha. It was not a very subtle message at all. We all have to step up to the plate. We brought investigators to the Sunday morning session. We walked in a little late just in time to hear the firm rebuke of Elder Oaks about the law of chastity.....our investigator is a mother with three teenagers that is not married. gulp. I just prayed that the spirit was there confirming the importance of the doctrine. Later that day we visited this sister and her three sons and the thirteen year old asked us right out if what his parents are doing is a sin......umm Yesssss! haha Oh the fun situations that a missionary finds herself in! Oh, many people have asked so I should probably clarify. My p day is still on Monday but we write home on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have to be together with our zone to write so each week when we travel to Belize City for zone meetings we write home right afterward. We as missionaries are a lot more spread out here in Belize than we were in El Salvador. It makes for a lot more time and money spent on buses. Tomorrow we have zone conferences in San Ignacio. We have to catch a bus at 4am in order to get there in time. yikes! I will probably be studying the back of my eyelids during zone conference. ha! Well I better go. I love you all. Thank you for all the birthday cheer that I have already received. Take care! Hermana Heap

 

 

2 October 2013

Wow where did September go?! It feels like it just started last week but when I think about it.....a lot has happen in September. haha! Time is crazy. Well this week we got our bikes and I have decided that all of my skirts are not the right kind of skirts to ride bikes in. Or maybe no kind of skirt is good to ride bikes in. haha! I do my best to keep myself covered but it is honestly a lost cause sometimes. It has been a little drier this week. We only got one day of rain but just that brought out even more mosquitos than there already are. YIKES! I honestly am just waiting for the day that I get dengue because I feel like it is just inevitable. But for now I am healthy, no worries.

I am slowly but surely getting to know Orange Walk and the members better. It is starting to feel more like home. I am starting to understand the english better too. Even though they "speak english" it is super hard to understand because of their accent and bad grammer. haha. Sister Price and I taught the primary I Feel My Savior's Love on Sunday. That was interesting. Some kids pay attention, others are just too young, and others just refuse. Oh the joys of the primary. The really liked head shoulders knees and toes though. :) We were able to bring six investigators to church this week. That is a record for me! Four of them are youth that are siblings but one of them invited his friend to go with him. These kids are pretty cool and really liked to church. We are hoping to help them accept a baptismal date and to get the permission of their dad. Their family is weird....the oldest child is 19 and the dad's girlfriend is 21 and they already have two kids together. Yuck! Sister Rodriguez and I were left a little dumb founded when we found out. ha! Oh the crazy things that you see in the mission.

Well, Mel asked for a few details. The food here consists of a lot of rice and beans and beans and rice. Those two things are actually different. They eat a lot of stewed chicken, fried chicken, shredded chicken, and more chicken. They eat tacos for breakfast. And fruits and vegetables are SUPER expensive so almost no one eats them. There are a ton of authentic chinese food around because there are a lot of Chinese people here. They own almost all the little stores and every corner and almost all the restuarants in town. My favorite part about the food here is the tortillas. They have real and delicious flour tortillas. I never have to eat super heavy and thick corn tortillas....HURRAY!!!! haha. But I am dying from the lack of fruits and veggies. If any one is feeling charitable, I would love any type of dried or preserved fruit or vegetable that I could get. :)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! to Bonnie and Clif. Thank you for all the pictures and telling me all about it. I have been thinking about Madison all week, wondering which day she was born. I am so happy to hear that everything went well and to see my new niece.

Well I have to go. Thank you for all the emails. I love hearing from you guys. And General Conference is this weekend!!!! I am SO excited!!! I hope you will all watch it because it is SO important. I know that Thomas S Monson is a true prophet and we are so very blessed to have a prophet to lead and guide us today!

I love you all!

Sista Heap

Cleaning the church with Hermana Rodriguiz

24 September 2013

Oh dear family,

There is not nearly enough time to write about all that I have experienced this week. CRAZY!! I truly feel like I am in a new world here in Belize. The culture is so different. People speak english, spanish, and creol and it is a battle to figure out which one to speak. I think almost everyone would prefer creol but that is the one that we just can't do. I have had one too many opportunities to teach in english this week. Hna Rodriguez speaks and understands a lot of english but neither of us have ever taught the gospel or street contacted in english. The words just don't come out very smoothly. But church was in english and we had to give a short talk/ testimony. How weird to do it in english. I sat right next to the guy translating it in spanish and I thought of you dad. I helped him find the scriptures when the other missionaries didn't say the references. haha. I also have to tell you dad that all of your money and hard work has payed off. After church one of the sisters came up to me and told me that I was an answer to her prayer because she had been praying for someone to come to the branch who could play the piano. What you weren't able to do in your mission I am now able to do because you have helped me to learn how to play that piano. Thank you Dad!!

We as the 4 sisters are opening two areas so we have spent a lot of time this week working with the senior missionaries, the Galvezes, to buy everything for our apartment and get everything set up. We have also been on foot this week because our bikes still haven't gotten here. It is super frustrating because everything is so far apart. We waste a lot of time walking. But hopefully today we will get the bikes.

We also have gotten a ton of rain lately so there is mud EVERYWHERE!! And it isn't normal mud, it is a white and concrete-ish mud. All my shoes that used to be black are now all white.One of the member families in our area lives in the area that used to be the riverside. Now their house is literally in the river. The river is flooding because of all the rain. Their house is on stilts but even then, the water is almost inside. They have only a super iffy homemade bridge to get to their house. Hna R and I looked at the bridge and started to walk away but then Brother Miller came out and invited us in to meet his wife. We couldn't say no so we had to walk on board planks that were sinking into the lake to get inside. As we were visiting I could feel the house swaying back and forth in the water. Sister Miller started to tell us about all the turtles and crocodiles that live in their "back yard" and how the other day one of their daughters almost got bitten by a crocodile. OKAY....we are not in kansas anymore Todo!!!! What a very different world. But I shared a scripture with Sister Miller about having patience in our trials. By the end she was almost in tears and told me that that was exactly what she needed to hear and that she knew that it was God talking to her through me. What a cool experience!

The branch here has about 500 members and only about 70 that are active. YIKES! The church is super young here in Belize so we have to work a lot with the members so that they can grow too. A new primary president was called this week and she doesn't know any of the primary songs. Because of my apparent "talent" in music she has asked if I can help teach the primary songs each week. It is going to be tough to take care of my investigators and teach the songs but I just couldn't say no. Who would have known that part of my missionary duties would be to be the primary chorister?! I honestly don't have a clue how to do it when almost no one reads but I am just going to dive in and do my best.

There is so much more that I want to write but my time is gone. The work is just so different here but I am getting used to it and loving it. I hope all is well with you all. Thank you Bonnie and Karen for the pregnancy pics! I now will wait for the pics of Madison this week Bon. :D I love you all so much!!

Hermana Heap

Belize!

Dear Family,

Sorry that I did not write on Monday like I normally do but as I am sure that you probably all know, it is because .........I AM NOW IN BELIZE!!!!!! CRAZY!!!!! President and Sister Hintze told me about it last Friday so the last few days in Sensunapan were super rough. I couldn't stop thinking about how it would be and all the what ifs. But it was tough to say goodbye to all the people that I have truly grown to love. After seven months in one area there are a lot of people like that. It was probably the hardest to say goodbye to the Magana Family. Tears were shed and emails were shared. Thankfully we will have a way to communicate after the mission because of facebook. But this change has come at almost my half way mark....which is tomorrow by the way :) Because of this and the fact that it isn't just a normal transfer but I am leaving El Salvador and probably won't go back until the end of my mission, I feel like I am ending one mission and starting another. And after being here for a day I really feel that way! The culture here is SO different. There are Jamaican, Latin, Caucasin, and a German people that are like the Amish. Depending on where you are, they speak english, spanish, or creol, or a great mixture of them all. I am in a town called Orange Walk that is pretty northern and close to Mexico. I honestly haven't gotten to work yet here so there is much that I don't know but you can just feel the "chill" atmosphere in the air. I live in a house that has two companionships of sisters. My companion is Sister Rodriguiez.....how weird to say sister!! She is super short and is from Guatemala and has been here in Belize for about five months. Before this week, there were only one group of elders in all of Orange Walk but we are splitting the town into three areas. We only have a branch here in Orange Walk but there are about 500 inactives.....YIKES !! We have a lot of reactivation work to do. But I am excited and a little nervous. I honestly don't know when to speak what language. I went through customs yesterday when we got here and I automatically started answering in spanish and the officer told me somewhat forcefully to speak in english because I was now in Belize. Oops. But that was in Belize City....they are on the coast and don't speak much spanish there, only english and creol. It rained almost the whole day and night when I got here yesterday. fun fun. There is mud everywhere and when I see the elders they are just covered in it. It is a whitish color. ha! And for the first two days I will be walking but after that we will have bought our bikes, yes, I said bikes. How very very different! The money is different and the food is different, everything feels different. But we hardly spoke any english in the house last night. There are three gringas and my companion but we spoke Spanish. Oh, random story, yesterday in the airport in El Salvador, we were going through all the check points and at one there was a problem and the man asked me in broked english if I could speak spanish.....I can't tell you how wonderful it was to say, yes, I speak spanish !! haha! Due to my pleading, the group of 11 of us who were leaving El Salvador were able to go to the temple yesterday morning before our flight. What a wonderful blessing!! I thought a lot about you Mom and Dad. I got to do inititory and a session. I LOVE THE TEMPLE !!

Well I will write more next week about how everything goes. That is super cool the Rachel Poche is coming to my mission!!! Out of all the missions in the world it is way cool that someone from Eagar is coming here at the same time as me. There is another elder from the stake in El Salvador who left a little before me but I cant remember his name. Will you guys send me his name? I am pretty sure that he ended up in the other El Salvador San Salvador East mission though. Well I hope all is well on the home front . I am waiting on pins and needles to receive a picture of my new niece (Bonnie !) haha. I am praying for ya! Oh and due to the fact that I am now very far from where they print the dearelders, please dear family, email me! Oh while I was waiting in the office for ever on Monday, I received my first birhtday package from Smelly. Perfect timing! Those snacks sum up all the food I own right now. ha! But I really appreciate it Mel. Thanks!!

I love you all!!


Hermana Heap

9 September 2013

Dear Family,

Thank you for the emails and keeping me updated on the goings on in Eagar. I hope all is well with you all.

I am a little bit at a loss of what to say. It has been a HARD week. The Lord is sending me trials and more trials right now that have really taken away my desire to work. So it has been a rough week but I hope that all will get better from here. I am doing my best to humble myself and learn what the Lord wants me to learn. I had been wanting to talk to President and Sister Hintze for weeks now when suddenly they came to Sonsonate for interviews. I really really like them and can feel their love for me. President Hintze reminds me so much of you, Dad. Because of this, I couldn´t hold back my thoughts. I spilled out all of my thoughts, doubts, and tears in my interview. The poor man. But he told me everything that I am sure that you would have told me, Dad, reassuring me of my worth and the love that Heavenly Father has for me. The only thing that lacked was the hugs that you always give me Dad. No one can take your place for those. I will just have to wait 9 more months to have them. I am so very grateful to be in this new mission with the Hintzes. The Lord knew that I need parental figures here in El Salvador. Unfortunately President Hintze could not fix all of my problems and make the mission easy but his words really did help me to have strength to keep going. He also gave me some good news. Transfers come the 18th of September and from the mouth of President, he said that I will be changing areas. After seven months and half of my mission here in Sensunapan I finally will have the opportunity to get to know somewhere else. The problem is that I now have way too much time to think about where I could go and all of the options. 29 new missionaries are coming this time and 23 are North American. 8 are sisters and all of the them are North American. Only one sister that is already here is ending her mission right now so they have to open new areas to fit all of the new sisters. Sister Hintze told me that 3 of the new areas are in Belize and only one is here in El Salvador. I won`t lie, I am dreaming of going to Belize. Ha! Just because I want to so much, I will probably stay here in El Salvador. But there is a super high chance that I will be training because there just aren´t many sisters in the mission and so many are already training. It would be interesting to train a gringa. Who knows what will happen but it is really making it challenging to work. Ooops. That is probably why normally they dont tell us the transfers until the day before. But I am determined to have a good last week here in Sensunapan. Oh, random thought, but I finally figured out what Sensunapan means....it is an word from the natives here that means large river. We have the Sensunapan River in our area. It all makes sense now. haha.

Well I hope all is well with all of you. Please keep writing. :) I love you all!!

Hermana Heap

2 September 2013

Okay okay, a few of you have been asking for an explanation for the video that Holly posted on her wall. Barrio Sensunapan is my ward and we have been trying to do little activities each Sunday to help people have a better experience at church each week. This week was testimony meeting so we decided to go with the theme of "Yo elevo mi voz" (I raise my voice) to help animate and remind people to share their testimonies. This video was put on the facebook page of the ward and also when the people came to church they got to fill out a little paper that said "I know that..." This helped people remember and be more willing to share their testimonies in testimony meeting. I turned out well. This is the third week that we have done an activity like this and we are starting to see the results. Yesterday an inactive sister came to church for the first time in years because she has seen the efforts of the ward on facebook to be more positive and bonding. She no longer lives in our ward but came and asked for a book of mormon to start reading again and asked that we send the missionaries to her house. Wow!

This week the community of Sensunapan turned 38 years old so their have been parties all week long in our area. Tons of people, music, fried food, and beer. This made it difficult to meet with people because everyone was in the streets or not in the mood to listed to missionaries. Oh what fun. I am pretty happy that the party is over now. Unfortunately soon the independence day festivities will begin. ugh.

This week has been a little tough because we have had next to no money. Thank goodness the new month has arrived. ha! We were only able to buy a little bit at the grocery store last week. I was left with 3 dollars for the week. And then the zone leaders called us to inform us that we had to go to San Salvador Tuesday morning bright and early. Oh no! We had to scrap together every last penny to pay for the bus rides. I used every last penny that I had. haha! We still had some random food in the fridge that we were eating all week. But then Saturday came and we were about to start our fast. I was already dying of hunger and could not handle the thought of having to start my fast with an empty stomach. So I caved into my carnal nature and used my own debit card to order Pizza Hut. It wasnt the cheapest food but it is the only thing that we could have sent to the house and that would accept my card. But it was a good thing that we ordered the pizza because we ended up not being able to eat lunch on Sunday where we had planned so the pizza was the only food that we had to break our fast. haha! Needless to say we are super happy that it is now September!

We have been having a few problems in the ward lately which made yesterday a pretty hard day. So today we decided to do something different and we went and played soccer this morning. It felt SO good to exercise. Honestly we hardly ever exercise in the morning because there just isnt much time and my companions hate exercising. It felt so good to play and run out all of my frustrations. We also are not very good so there was a lot of laughing going on too. It is very different to play soccer here because they play with a weird plastic ball and they play on the basket ball court or on cement. haha very different! But it was great! I am going to do all that I can to convince my dear companions to play more often with me.

I hope all is well. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap
 

26 August 2013

Dear Family,

Mom said that Eagar is getting a ton of rain. I am pleased to hear that you are all experiencing the same weather patterns as I am. We are getting a lot of rain as of late. One day this week we were working in the lomas or in a part were there are a lot of hills when it started to pour and pour and pour. I dont know what it is about this area but it attracts the lightning. I have never experienced so much lightning and thunder that was so close to me in all my life. We had umbrellas but still got soaked from the waist down. Everything is cement here as well so the water could not soak in but rather rushed off and down the hills. We had to cross several mini rivers in the streets. Finally we took cover in this man´s garage because the lightning was just so close. We waited and waited while it poured and poured. Finally it calmed down and we could try to work again. I have to agree with you Mom, it is just hard to get any work done with the rain.

This week we had a meeting with the first counselor in the stake presidency, President Sanchez, who is in our ward. We were about to start when he looked at me and started speaking to me in english saying, "I know your family Sister Heap." What? How? "I just feel whisperings that I know them." He had mentioned to me the other day that he had been chatting with Wendi on Facebook. I thought that Wendi had been searching for my ward on facebook and had found President Sanchez. But in this conversation I asked President if he had been the one to look for my family. He said that yes he was the one searching for them and that now he is friends with Wendi and Holly. Whoa. I have a ton of respect for this man, he is one of the greatest leaders that I have ever met. I don´t know why but he feels a connection with our family. How interesting. So please dont freak out if he adds you on facebook. :) ha! Needless to say, this conversation really affected me and left me thinking a lot about you guys this week.

This week Elder Kevin R Duncan from the area presidency came to Sonsonate for a multizone conference. It was a great conference and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He taught all morning and then we took a break for lunch. My dearest companions had to go to the bathroom and when we came back, there were no open seats. So the elders got some chairs for us and put them right in front of President and Sister Hintze and Elder Duncan...gulp. So I sat down and tried to eat and listen to them talk to my companions. Then Elder Duncan asked us to share why we had decided to serve a mission. oh dear. This is not a story that I like to share because I have to admit that I am not like everyone else. I did not want to serve a mission and I never received an answer to serve either. I tried to hide behind my roll to avoid having to share but pretty soon, it came to me. In my aweful spanish I explained my experience and waited for the responce of Elder Duncan. When I ended he thanked us for sharing and stood up and left. Okay.......I was left very unsure of what to think. When the conference started again, a question came up about following the spirit and receiving personal revelation. And Elder Duncan asked me to share my experience with all the the zones that were there. GULP! Elder Duncan still left me a little unsure of what he thought about my experience but there must be something that can be learned from my experience. Oh dear. What an experience. But other than that somewhat embarassing experience, the conference was great and very inspiring.

Well once again the time is gone. I hope all is well. I love you all. Oh, and I have figured out that I can take pictures of emails and read them later at home on my own time. That way you guys can just email me instead of dearelder me because it takes a long time to get the dearelders.

Love you all!!

Hermana Heap

19 August 2013

Wow! Thanks Wendi for the photos of the rain. That is SO awesome!! I am glad to hear that you guys are experiencing a little bit of the same weather as me. We have been in some special type of storm this week down here that has  caused it to be cloudy and rain a lot more than usual. Due to this, I have had to battle a little bit of the flu, fevers and all. But the work must go on whether I feel good or not. Luckily, after only a couple of miserable days it went away and I feel back to normal again.

Due to the fact that we are training Hermana Morales we spend all morning in the house studying. We used to be able to work until 9 or 9:30pm but they changed the rule for us sisters this week. Now we have to enter at 8 or 8:30. Now we have very little time to accomplish our weekly and daily goals. But because we are a trio, it is super easy to do divisions. Normally Hermanas Morales and Mendoza go together and I get to work with the member that is helping us. At times it is fun but both Hermana Mendoza and I miss working together teaching the lessons. We have enough time together now that we have figured out how to teach together and where the lesson is going. That is the wonderful blessing of having a companion for more than one transfer.

We as a ward are trying to improve the Sunday experience for the members and the investigators that come. Yesterday we did an activity that everyone had to write what they were grateful for on a post it when they entered the church. Then with all of the post its we  made a big heart on the bulletin board for everyone to see. The activity was very successful because it helped people leave behind their negative feelings and be in a good mood for the meetings. People were also more friendly with each other for the whole three meetings. It was something small but really did have an impact on the ward. A young sister, Stefany, and I got to figure out how to put it up on the bulletin board. It was an adventure but turned out well. We are hoping to do something simple like this each week to help the members bring the spirit and leave the distractions at the door. This will help them have a better experience in the church and have more desire to come back. Little by little we are increasing our ward attendance. We have a ton of inactives on our ward so we are focusing a lot in rescuing the lost sheep. There is so much work to be done that is makes me want to be a normal member of the ward with a normal calling so that I can help them in the cause. We as missionaries are helping, but we cant be the permanent help that they need. Oh there is so much to do!

I hope that you all are doing well. Keep me informed of the goings on back in Arizona and Utah. I love you all so much!!

Random event: We were contacting in the street the other day and I wanted to stop and contact this man who was selling earrings. So I casually started asking him about his earrings and in the end I ended up buying the loudest earrings that I have ever bought in my life....all for the opportunity to talk to this man. Ha!

12 August 2013

Well I was so excited to tell you guys last week about Fernando that I forgot to mention that I knew that was going to train. ha! The day has officially come when I have to train. But the Lord softened the blow a little bit by assigning both Hermana Mendoza and I to train in a trio. I have to admit that I was pretty done bummed to learn that I did not get to change areas but there is nothing I can do to change that so I am just going to enjoy it. I find that just walking down the street takes a lot longer that it used to because I know so many people and I have to stop and talk to them. Ha! I think it bugs my companions a little bit that I happen to know A LOT of people. I remember when Dad was the Stake President and where ever we went, we had to stop so that he could talk to EVERYONE and their dog! ha!

 Okay, back on subject, our new companion, or "daughter" is Hermana Morales from San Miguel El Salvador. She is waiting for her visa to go through for her mission in Argentina so will be serving here with us until that happens. She is 22, giggles a lot, is confident, and wants to work. Honestly sometimes I forget that she is new because she handles everything so well. Training makes me think a lot about my training, something that I have tried to forget. But I can see how frustrating I must have been in the beginning, without the spanish and the confidence to know what to say. Wow, maybe I really am progressing more that I can see. The other day it hit me, all I do all day, every day, is teach. I am teaching an english class twice a week as well. teach, teach, teach. Before my mission I almost never taught. I am definitely getting a lot of practice teaching. My confidence is growing too. Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be a teacher for a living. If I did that, I would love to teach American History! Ha! random thoughts. But teaching requires a lot of patience, especially with one of my english students. Hermana Blanco is 60 and wants to learn so badly but just cant get it. She thinks that she knows a lot more that she really does and when I teach the most simple of simple things....it just doesnt click in her mind. ha! I have explained and explained until I and holding back screams. hahahaha! What learning experience. I have been living in a spanish world long enough that it is starting to feel weird to speak in english. One of our investigators speaks english and the other day she was asking me about Joseph Smith in english. I WAS SO HARD TO TEACH IN ENGLISH! I have learned how to teach the gospel in spanish so now it is just weird to teach it in english. ha! This last week was a little hard in the transfers meeting because Hermana Bryce was ending her mission. Also two of the best zone leaders in the world ended their missions and are now home. It was tough to say goodbye and keep going without them. Hermana Bryce will always have a super special place in my heart. It is hard to let go of her. But the mission is one change after another after another. I am forced to get used to it.

Well sorry that this letter is pure randomness. I hope that it makes sense. Thanks to all of you who sent me pictures. I love them! The wanted pictures turned out awesome! ha! Dad mentioned something about there being three pregnant women in the reunion. Who isnt telling me something?! I only know about Karen and Bonnie. Fess up! ha! I am super happy to hear that Eagar is getting rain. Someone should send me pictures of the greennesss. Well take care everyone. I love you all!!

5 August 2013

Dear Family,

It sounds like the reunion was a bunch of fun. I hope that you all remembered me :) You are all in big trouble! But Wendi is the only one that is off the hook because she sent me a few photos. I expect to receive more pictures from the reunion from all of you!

"Tuesday we were teaching Fernando and Ana when the brother of Ana and his family came to visit. We started talking with them for awhile. Fernando got a phone call and afterwards he called Ana into the other room. This made me worry A LOT! But we kept teaching the other family. When Fernando and Ana came back she was in tears and his eyes were red. She said domething to Hna Mendoza and she too started crying. I didnt know what was going on or what to do so I finished up the lesson so we could leave. We left the house and I asked what had happened. The phone call was from Fernandos boss telling him that he had to ship out (he works on ships for 6 to 8 months at a time) the next day. He still has almost 2 months of vacation time but if he says no, he loses his job. He told them that he felt sick but the guys said he would call back and that Fernando should get ready to go the next day. His baptismal date was for this Sunday. Hermana Mendoza broke out into full on sobs in the street. Ana came out and invited us back into the house. We all cried together. We left to go to an appointment but said we would come back later. We went to Enmas house and said a heart broken prayer pleading for helpt to know what to do. We called the zone leaders to see if he could be baptized the next day before shipping out. After many calls, we got the clearance to go ahead and do it. We went back to the Magaña Familys house to see if Fernando even still wanted to be baptized. Miraculously he said that yes, he wanted to be baptized the next day. We stayed there for 2.5 more hours teaching him the rest of the lessons. I was super worried about the Word of Wisdom and tithing because these are touchy subjects with him. It actually miraculously went quite well. We left at 9:30 pm with him promising to be at the church at 6:30 am for his baptismal interview. We rushed home to make some phone calls for the bpatism. Bright and early the next day we were at the church and he actually came on his own accord. The baptism was at 7:30 am July 31, 2013. One of his daughters couldnt be there because she had to take a test in school. Because it was last minute, there werent many people there but all went well and the spirit was super strong. At the end of the baptism Fernando shared a small testimnoy, crying and all. He is a big rough and tough guy so this really touched me. To end, Elder Burrahm and I sang Did You THink To Pray. I looked up to see Fernando and Ana both in tears. I had to look away to avoid the tears as well. Ana told us afterwards that becore the phone call, Fernando was about to tell us that he didnt want to be baptized this Sunday. The phone call changed everything. Ironically, Fernando still hasnt had to leave yet. Ha! The Lord knew that Fernando needed a little more of a push and shove to actually be baptized. I truly have witnessed a miracle! Fernando told us that their marriange was in the worst state, on the brink of separating, when we knocked on their door. Almost immediately when Ana started going back to church things started to change. Before, he felt a bad spirit in the house but now he feels peave and love in the house. Now their relationshop is starting to flourish again. Wow! I really feel like an instrument in the hands of God. After his baptism Fernando felt like he was relieved of a great burden or weight that he was carrying. What a wonderful and special experience my Father in Heaven has given me! I would be content to end my mission right now! :) "

(I didnt feel like writing it again so I just copied my journal entry.)

Thank you all for your prayers. I love you!! Oh, ps, I cut my hair :D I just couldnt handle the heat anymore.

The man by me in the pic is the bishop. The others are Fernando, Ana, and Valeria

29 July 2013

Happy Birthday Allen!! Happy Birthday Riley!!

Well I hope that everyone enjoys the family reunion this week. Think about me when you all are playing games and eating wonderful food. ha! I am glad to hear that Eagar has been getting rain lately and is nice and green. It is always nice and green here :) We didn´t get rain almost all week here and let me tell you, it was a hot and miserable week! I had the opportunity to go on inter changes this week with the sister leaders. I went to another city, Santa Tecla for a day. I have only every worked in Sonsonate so it was SOSOSOSOSO refreshing to work in a place that is not roasting hot! ha! It was cool to see another city and experience another area. I have to admit that it made me want transfers pretty badly. But Heavenly Father has a sense of humor so I will probably end up staying in Sonsonate for another three months. :) Working with Hermana Mejia in Santa Tecla was really interesting because she is from the other mission. They had different rules and ways to teach so it was interesting to work together and learn.

Fernando is still progressing and preparing for his baptism. We passed by his house yesterday in the morning to see if he was awake and getting ready. Surprise Surprise, he was still asleep. He had stayed up until three in the morning. We were not about to let him get out of going to church so I grabbed one of the sea shells that they have in their house (he works in ships so he has visited a ton of different places in the world and has a lot of exotic stuff in his house). I took the shell and I blew into it, making it into a horn. It is a little to blow just right but when you do, it make a super loud horn sound. haha! After a few times loud honks, he started to get up and get ready for church. ha! I am still a little worried about whether he will be ready for his baptism this week because he has a ton of questions but we are going to fast and pray and do todo lo posible!

So the other day El Salvador was playing the US in soccer. We were knocking doors and found this guy who had his house plastered in decorations for one of the soccer teams. I was just trying to be friendly and talk about something that he was interested in so I asked him if the game was over yet and how it had gone. I honestly was expecting him to say that El Salvador had won. Well, he told me that the game had just ended and the US had won, by something like 5 to 1. Without thinking a loud Whoopee! came right out of my mouth! OOPS! haha. needless to say it was a little awkward and we left pretty quickly. ha! Tango que tener mas cuidado.

Well my time is gone.....I love you all! Travel safely!

Hermana Heap

22 July 2013

Happy 8th birthday Amie!!! Be sure to send me pictures of the baptism :) Wish I could be there!

Almost a month ago we were knocking dooring in the night time when we found this family. They had a ton of visitors in their house so we set up an appointment to come back a few days later. When we came back, only the wife (Ana) was there. We quickly found out that she was baptized when she was 9 years old but stopped going to church 2 years later. She is now 29 so she hadnt gone to church for almost 20 years. But she was super positive and started coming to church that week with her two daughters (they are the cutest little El Salvadorenian girls ever!). They all love the church. Ana is reading the Book of Mormon and is just soaking up the gospel. Her husband, Fernando, is not a member and almost always hides from us when we come to teach him. We have tried for weeks to get him to come to church and finally this week he told us that he would come. We arrived at their house early Sunday morning to bring them to church and Ana told us that he had left early in the morning to visit a friend who is sick. Our hearts plummeted. But we were waiting for a few minutes while Ana was getting the girls ready to go. We had someone else that we needed to pass by for so we were about to leave when Fernando came out and asked us where we were going. He was all ready to go to church and everything. It was all a joke. ha! I could not have been more happier than to see him ready to go to church with his family! I really really love this family! They went to church and I hardly could pay attention because I was praying so hard that he would like the church and feel the spirit. When we got to Relief Society Ana told he that he had been asked if they could leave early. I dont have a clue what the lesson was in the class because all I could do was think and pray that he would like the priesthood class. After church we didnt have time to talk to him so we passed by in the afternoon. He was sleeping so we visited with Ana and she said that he liked the church. We were determined to talk to him so we came back in the night time. He was in the street with his friends but invited us in the house so that we could talk. He ended up REALLY liking the church. He said that when he left the church he felt like a great burden had been lifted off of him. This family has visited a lot of churches but never had found one that they liked. But he liked the church even to the point of defending the church when talking to his super evangelica mom. ha! We still have a lot to teach him but we invited him to be baptized the 4th of August. We didnt know but that day happens to be his birthday and he agreed to prepare to be baptized this day! He said that he wants to keep learning and attending the church, wants to baptized and married in the temple. In that moment you could not have found two happier missionaries in the world! Satan still has a lot of time to get him to change his mind but we are praying with all our might that that wont happen. I honestly havent found a family that I love more than this one in El Salvador. Fernando likes to hunt and fish and tease so he reminds me a lot of Clif and Allen :) I hope to send a picture of them soon. Pray for them please!

We have had several crazy thunder storms. I just love it because I dont have to worry about fires so I can just sit back and enjoy it. The other night the power went out at about 9pm and didnt come back until 9am. Luckily we had a few flashlights so we didnt have to stumble around in the dark. We have a balcony and right before we went to bed we went out and just watched all the thunder storm and had moved to the coast. No one in the colonial or neighbor hood had power so it was super super cool to watch the storm. I will definitely miss all the lightning and thunder when I get back to Arizona. Luckily I have a lot more time to enjoy it :)

I hope all is well. Love you all!!

Hermana Heap