Still In Provo

Hola!

Guess what?! As I am sure you already know, I am still freezing here in Provo. Monday morning Hermana Miller and I got almost all the way packed only to find out that afternoon that our flight to Guatemala had been delayed until the 23rd. This was a hard pill to swallow! We were so pumped to go, but oh well. Such is the life as a missionary. I got to call home for five minutes to tell Mom and Dad about the change but that was just hard. I now know why we are not allowed to call home very much- it increases homesickness! Even though this was a great let down, the Lord made up for it on Tuesday. We have devotionals every Tuesday night so we were sitting in our seats as normal, when all of the sudden everyone started standing up. Since I am quite short compared to all of the Elders, I couldn't see a thing. Luckily some of the elders in my zone took pity on me and told me that it was Elder Holland who had just walked in. Elder Holland is AWESOME! And his talk was just incredible! I took pages and pages of notes that I wish I could share with you but I will just pick a few points to tell. He said that he has this theory that the only way that the prophets in all the other dispensations were able to keep going even though they knew that their dispensations would ultimately fail, was because they could see ahead to our dispensation. And they knew that we would succeed. They rejoiced because of us. Wow, I thought that was pretty powerful. I have thought about Nephi and how he must have felt to know that his seed would ultimately be destroyed. No matter how hard he worked, they would not succeed in the end. But, according to Elder Holland, he was able to keep going because he had seen our time.

He also told us about the creation of Preach My Gospel. President Hinckley sat everyone down one day and said that there was something definitely wrong with the missionary program because so many return missionaries were becoming inactive in the church. Hence Preach My Gospel was born seven years later. I had always thought that PMG was created to benefit the investigators but Elder Holland said that it was created for the missionaries instead. Because we no longer teach recited lessons but rather have to teach lessons from our hearts and souls, we have to become more converted. He said, "I command you to come home with at least one convert and IT HAD BETTER BE YOU!" Wow! That totally changes my outlook on PMG.

At the end of his talk he said the dedicatory prayer for three newly remodeled buildings on the MTC campus. One is a classroom building and two were residence halls. I don't think that I have ever heard a more powerful prayer in my entire life! Even my branch president said that he has heard many temple dedicatory prayers but none of them were as powerful as this prayer for residence halls! After hearing this prayer, I am convinced that there is no safer place to be in the world than where I am right now. It was blessed to be protected from any and all violence, guns, explosives, natural disasters, and it was even blessed to have angels constantly guarding the doors of these buildings. Wow! It was just and incredible talk and prayer! Afterwards Hermana Miller and looked at each other and thanked Heavenly Father that our flights had been postponed!

We have been asked to prepare five minute talks on a certain subject each week in spanish. Then after the sacrament is over two people are picked to give their talk each week. This is definitely nerve-wracking but because we have been so new, no one in my district had been called yet. It was supposed to be my last Sunday here but there was a big district leaving as well so we all figured that it would be them who would get chosen to speak. I also was playing the piano for sacrament meeting so I definitely was thinking that I would be off the hook. But alas, it was not the case. I got to be the first one up there to give my talk on repentance and forgiveness. All of the other weeks I had taken the time to write out word for word what I would say in my talk but this week I didn't feel like taking the time to do so. I had thought about what I wanted to say and had written our bullet points in English. Therefore, I got the opportunity to learn and grow through standing up that and forming everything that I wanted to say on the fly. It was pretty terrifying! Luckily it didn't go too badly and I even got some compliments from the older district. It definitely could have gone worse.

After the big district left this Monday, our whole zone has only had two districts in it- 15 people. That is tiny! Our zone hadn't gotten a new district since we got here a month ago. Hermana Miller and I were the only girls. But yesterday we got a new district with 6 Elders and 6 Hermanas- this doubled the size of our zone! I still haven't seen them much yet. Two of the girls are our new roommates though. They both barely turned 19 so they are youngens! But they seem pretty nice. One of the best parts of the mission so far is meeting wonderful people. I have really come to like my district and the district ahead of me. My teachers are wonderful too. I hope the I only continue to meet and associate with wonderful people!

I love you all. Thanks for the letters and the prayers. I am definitely getting divine help. I love you all so much! Have a good week :)

-Hermana Heap-