24 June 2013

Dear Family,

Did you all watch the conference yesterday?! I sure hope so because it was AWESOME! And we as missionaries need all the help that we can get from the members. We will never take the gospel to all the world if we as missionaries have to do it all. Times are changing and Heavenly Father is hastening the work....by engaging the help of everyone, not just more full time missionaries! What a cool time! We are kind of in a limbo right now because in a few days we will officially be a new mission with a new mission president. Tomorrow is our last multizone meeting with President Cordon. It will be interesting to see what changes come and how we will mix with the missionaries from the other mission. Today we went to Santa Ana for the last time and had lunch with President Cordon and his family. Kind of strange to think that I will never go to Santa Ana again. I honestly am not too attached to the Cordons because my area is so far away so I am not super sad about having someone new. Interesting, interesting.

Happy Birthday Affie! Six years old and wiser too! I turned six months old on the mission on the exact same day that she turned six years old. ha! I now only have a year left. Weird.

I am struggling to have much to say lately, sorry. But Holly asked me a few random questions so I will answer them for you. I sleep on a mattress on the floor. I eat a ton, I mean a TON, of beans! Mostly the people here eat red beans but they are good so it doesnt bug me much. Eggs, rice, and tortillas are very common as well. Every now and then we buy these tortas, or sandwiches from this inactive member on the street. They are super good and guess what, they too have bean on them. ha! I love the fried platanos the best with a little bit of cream. Also I eat a lot of soups, like vegatable soups. Sometimes they have meat in them but I dont really like eating meat down here. Soups is where they put things like chicken feet. I have luckily avoided that so far. But after watching how they sell meat down here, with flies all over it, and watching all the chickens in the street eating the garbage....needless to say, meat is not my favorite things down here. There are tons and tons of mangos and they eat them with chili and alguashte (the inner part of pumpkin seeds). It is interesting but I prefer the fruit alone.

I hope all is well. I hear that you are enjoying part of the heat that I get to bask in every day :) I keep praying for the rain to go to you guys but I dont think that it is working. ha! Love you all!

Hermana Heap

17 June 2013

Happy Fathers Day to all of you fathers!

This letter is going to be short because I honestly cant think of much to say. It has been raining more this week. On Friday we got caught in the rain with only one little umbrella for the both of us. We ended up soaked to the core and had to go home and change into something dry. I have never been more grateful for umbrellas and warm dry clothes in my life.

The missionary work has been a little depressing this last week but we are trying to keep smiling. Some weeks are just better than others. I received a mountain of dearelders this week. I hadnt gotten any for three weeks and then they all came at once. Thank you for all the letters! I am glad to hear that Cort is doing better. I hope all is well. I will pray to send some of this rain to you guys. Love you all!

Hermana Heap

10 June 2013

Family!

Feliz cumpleaños a Hermana Mendoza hoy! Ahora ella tiene 21 años. Time to celebrate. We a going to have a piñata and all tonight with Rafael and Enma. I wish I could think of other cool things to do but my mind is blank. What an aweful companion I am. The good news is that I have enough spanish now that I can almost always understand her. That helps SO much in a companionship!

The work is progressing down here. Like every week, we have experienced some good and bad things. One of our investigators, Alejandra, was going to get married and baptized this month. We worked a lot with her and her boyfriend all this week only for her to change her mind. She no longer wants to get married and is not doing her commitments. This was a hard blow to swallow because we really do love these people but when they are not progressing we have to drop them. I hope that they will someday come around and realize how important the gospel is.

We found a new investigator last Sunday named Alfonzo. He is 45 and single, with no children or wife. Do you realize how rare that is here?! But we started teaching him about the restoration and the book of mormon. We left him with a chapter to read. When we came back a few days later he had actually read the chapter and understood it!!! MIRACLE! He has lots of questions too, and really thinks about things. I dont think I have seen a person more prepared to hear the gospel than him. He said that he would come the stake conference that was yesterday. But we couldnt pass by for him because he was going to be at his moms house for the weekend. We had to trust him, but he had already done his other commitments so we were praying with all our hearts that he would. We waited and waited but the meetings started so we went in. We were pretty discouraged because all of the people who said that were going to come, didnt come. President Cordon and his wife were speaking in the conference as well so we went to one of the overflow rooms, not wanting to face them without investigators. After the meeting ended, we saw Alfonzo in the hall, leaving the sacrament meeting. We were so happy that we could have screamed but we controlled ourselves enough to ask him what he thought of the meeting. He said that he felt like he was with family, the talks were excellent, and that he felt peace. HURRAY! The only problem is that he is a super loyal guy and he was baptized in another church a few years ago but has stopped going. He is struggling to let go and wants to be sure about being baptized. He commited to read the Book of Mormon every day and pray about being baptized every day and to go to church with us this Sunday. I am way pumped because I know that he is going to find his answer and when he does, he is never going to leave the church or go inactive like so many people do!

So on a different note, the other morning I was making a limeade slushy in the blender to help me cool down from the heat. I turned on the blender to mix up the ingredients before putting the ice in and I saw something fall off the counter onto the floor. I looked down to find a tail of a gecho still writhing on the floor. We have gechos in the house all the time that climb all over the walls so I wasnt too shocked. But I couldnt find where the rest of the gecho was so I called to Hermana Mendoza to come over and look with me. She lifted up the blender only to find blood coming out the bottom of the motor. The gecho had crawled up into the motor right when I had turned it on to make my slush. And what does Hermana Mendoza do? She turns the blender on full blast to finish the job! ha! I couldnt bring myself to finish making my slushy but Hermana Mendoza was nice enough to finish for me. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And Hermana Mendoza accused me of sinning and killing. ha! Oh the random but crazy experiences.

Well my time is officially over. Hope you all are starting to enjoy the warm weather that I get to enjoy every day. :) Love you all!

Hermana Heap

3 June 2013

This week was tough, having to say goodbye to my best friend in the world and teach someone new about my area. But I have been blessed with an awesome companion....Hermana Mendoza from Honduras.

She entered the CCM the same day that I entered the mission field so we are have about the same time here in El Salvador....newbies we are. She is tiny...95 pounds! She appears to be shy but in the house she tells me all kinds of stories that make me laugh and laugh and laugh. I definitely and getting more practice with my Spanish now too, having to explain all the situations with all the people here. Oh what fun.

This week we found these people that were super nice. We taught them about the restoration and invited them to be baptized. They actually responded pretty positively. Okay okay so maybe the husband was covered in tatoos and told us he had just gotten out of jail like 2 years ago. But everyone can change right? Well we talked to their neighbors, who are members, and found out this guy is the boss of one of the big gangs here. OOPS! Needless to say, our zone leaders wont let us go back to teach them. HA! Like always, I am still just so naive. Dont worry, we were never alone with these people. ha what an experience. I am almost a little sad that we have to drop them because they were nice. :)

The change meeting this time was really intense because these changes determined which mission we are all going to be in. When we left to return to our Sonsonate, it was like leaving for another mission. Technically we are still the same mission for the month of the June but we will never see the other missionaries again. Crazy! I was bummed because some of my gringo buddies that were in my zone left to be in the other mission. Sad. Such is the life of a missionary I guess.

Well I better go. Love you all. And CONGTRATS to JAKE and KAREN! I am pumped!

Hermana Heap