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