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

15 July 2013

Hello again dear family! I feel like I just barely wrote so I am wracking my brain for something to write. This week we had three investigators in sacrament meeting which is a lot more than we normally have. One of them was this crazy guy that goes by the name Chepito. We found him this week and he barely let us talk at all. He was preaching to us for twenty minutes before Hermana Mendoza interrupted and told him to humble himself and listen to us for a minute. ha! I did not want to return to this house but he told us he wanted to visit the church so we passed by for him Sunday morning. We had other people with us too so I sat with them and left Hermana Mendoza to sit with Chepito. Pobresita! When we got to the church he knelt down in the pew and started praying outloud with a lot of Alleluias! (I don´t know how to spell it). hahaha! And during the meeting he was arguing with Hermana Medoza about the sacrament and baptism. Then when she had to give a talk, he slept. In the end of the meeting they were confirming the daughter of the bishop and he just stood up and walked out in the middle of it. I imagine that he just couldn't handle feeling the spirit. but wow......hahahahah! What an experience! Almost everyone goes to church here. There are about a billion different chuches in my area. So we encounter quite a few super super devoted people here like Chepito but never have be brought one to church before.

So finally I have a bruise that can compare to all the bruises that Wendi had on her mission. Unfortunately I cannot send a picture of this one because it is on my rump but it is a good one! The stairs in our house are super crazy and dangerous. We sleep upstairs so the other morning I was carrying the fan and the cd player down the stairs, so I was going down the stairs without a free hand to support myself. It resulted in a grand KABAM!! Ouch!! Needless to say, I learned my lesson and will never do that again. ha!

Well hope all is well. How cool that your fast in Eagar brought the rain!! Faith and sacrifice brings blessings! Love you all.

 

Hermana Heap

This was the result of our quarentine in the house for Hermana Mendoza`s strepp. Needless to say we went a little crazy!

 

Bruise-causing stairs! yikes!

 

10 July 2013

Surprise! I am writing on a Wednesday, not Monday because we spent all day Monday in San Salvador at doctors appointments. Poor Hermana Mendoza has strepp throat. She had been battling an aweful fever for days before we finally got to go see Hermana Bryce. We got her some antibiotics but had to stay in the house all day yesterday because she was still super contagious. Luckily I am still fine and healthy but we are sure sick of being in the house. We didn´t get to buy food on Monday either so there wasn´t much in the house to eat. I caved in and ordered Pizza Hut. The first truly American pizza that I have eaten in five months!! And it was wonderful!

Sunday night we were in the house. Hermana Mendoza had a fever so she was laying down upstairs. I was in the bathroom doing my business when all of the sudden everything started to shake. I thought that it was just some running by the house or something but it started to grow stronger and stronger. I realized that it was an earthquake at that point and quickly pulled up my pants while Hermana Mendoza ran down that stair as fast as posible. We ran for cover, under the door ways in the house. Honestly I can´t remember exactly what to do in an earthquake but my companion said the doorways so that is what we did. Ha! It stopped really quickly because it was only a little tremor. Wow! I have now experienced an earthquake for the first time ever! And of all the places to be during an earthquake, I had to be in the bathroom doing my business....ha!! I told Hermana Mendoza that that is probably where I will be when Christ comes again too. hahaha!

We have now officially met President and Sister Hintze. We had a conference last week to meet them. We quickly ran into problems when we started to go over the rules of the mission. President Cordon and President Glacier (of the other mission in El Salvador) are very different hence the culture of the two missions are very different as well. People started asking questions and bickering over different rules. Poor President Hintze. I could just see the burden grow on his shoulders. I can only imagine being in his shoes...how aweful! But with time all will be well. The good news is that I can now sleep in to 6:30am, I have a little more time to write each week, I am allowed to drink coca cola (doesn´t really affect me much), and pday lasts until 6pm instead of 5pm. Today the Hintzes came to Sononate to do interviews with all of the missionaries here so I got to spend some one on one time with them this morning. They are both super super nice! It is kind of a relief to be able to talk to someone who speaks English and understands my culture better. President told me that I need to prepare myself to train because a lot of sisters are coming to the mission in the next few months. I thought that he was just telling all sisters in general this but when I asked Hermana Mendoza she said that he only told her to help prepare me to train. yikes Yikes YIKES!! This transfer, due to the changes in the mission, is going to last 10 weeks or until the beginning of August. I have heard that I will probably be sent to San Salvador to help mix up the mission. We´ll see what happens. But I am going to need all the help that I can get.

The fourth of July, sadly but truly, does not exist down here. The day came and went. Luckily we had zone meetings that day so I could be with a few people who were celebrating the day as well. I sang the national anthem, Elder Knight wore his American Flag tie and that was about the whole of the celebration. ha! What a different world.

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

Food Poisoning #2

I have officially experienced food poisoning number two. Luckily I let myself go home before throwing up in a lesson. We still had appointments to do so we had to do divisions. This is Hermana Martinez. She got to hang out with the sickie. She slept while I laid there in misery running to the bathroom every few minutes. Que FEO! But luckily it passed and I survived. The mission nurse, Hermana Bryce, prescribed me coca cola to drink to kill whatever was in my stomach. It is a mission rule not to drink coca cola so I got to break the rules. ha!

The best part about this experience was that the zone leaders came to give me a blessing. I only asked for a blessing of health but Elder Burrahm gave me one of health and comfort. In the blessing he told me that the Lord is pleased with my efforts and work. This is something that I have been beating myself up over for weeks now, constantly feeling like I am not doing well enough. What a tender mercy!

This week we had our last meetings and interviews with President Cordon this week and now we officially have a new President...President Hintze. We get to go meet him tomorrow so next week I will have more to say about that. But I am officially part of the El Salvador San Salvador Oeste Belize mission. How cool! This is my new address:

Dirección para envío de correspondencia:

- Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste/Belize
  Apartado Postal #81 Correos Multiplaza
  San Salvador, El Salvador

 I am super happy for the two neices that are en camino! Congrats! I hope every one enjoys the Fourth of July! Love you all!

Hermana Heap