1 April 2014

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the emails. I have thoroughly enjoyed them today. I am sorry if this email ends up short but I feel like not very much happened this week. I did have the chance to to exchanges and go work in Corozal for a day last week. That was fun. I have only ever gotten to leave my area twice in my whole mission for exchanges. I am always the one that gets stuck in my area while my companion leaves. It was nice to be able to just sit back and let my temporary companion, Sister Haynie, to take charge. All I had to do was follow. How nice. haha. It is always exciting too to be somewhere new because there are so many new houses and people to contact. HOPE. haha. I guess I have served kind of a strange mission because I only have two areas and I am nearly done. Who knows, maybe I will just stay in Orange Walk until I finish.

I was really excited for the women's conference all week. I just love conferences! We were super excited because we got one of our investigators to go. Her name is Angie, she is 53 and was raised Catholic. But she and her husband are surprisingly open to at least hearing us and giving it a shot to see if the gospel is true. This was her first time to go to a church function so I was pretty nervous. I sat next to her, stewing and stressing about what she was thinking, if she was understanding all the words and messages, if she was too hot or too cold, etc. Thus, I have to admit, I didn't get as much out of the conference as I had been hoping. That's okay though because Angie ended up enjoying the conference and even came to church the next day with her husband. It was all worth it. And General conference is this week so I still have the chance to get the spiritual re-boost that I want. 

There is a family in Orange Walk, the Ayuso Family, who have been members for 20 to 30 years. They were some of the first members here. They feed us lunch after church every Sunday. They are an awesome family but are struggling to stay active. Sister Ayuso had a stroke while giving a talk in church about 10 years ago. Because of this, she can't talk much and is unable to use the who right half of her body. But she had such a strong testimony that she insists that they always go to church. Her ride always leaves after sacrament meeting though and she is always fighting to stay for the three hours. Brother Ayuso, because of the stress of caregiving, has turned to drinking and is now addicted to alcohol. So sad! He is so great but isn't worthy to return to the temple of fully participate in the branch because of it. We have been working a lot with this family. During testimony meeting Brother Ayuso got up, right at the end, when it was already past time, and bore a testimony for his wife, who can't do it herself, and also his testimony. It was a simple and humble testimony but it left me sobbing. It was all I could do to hold myself together. I realized in that moment how much I truly love that man and his family. I looked around and realized that, to almost everyone else in the branch, it was just a normal testimony. It is amazing how the Lord enables me to love and give my heart to these people. If we as members would try a little harder to reach out and love the people who are struggling, we too would be able to feel the great love that our Heavenly Father has for each of us. It was one of the few moments in my mission that I could actually see a little bit of how I have changed. It was crazy. I want with all my heart for this man to come fully bad to the fold, to reach his potential. The Lord is amazing. This gospel is amazing!

Well I hope that everyone makes time to watch all of the sessions of conference this weekend. Often the ones on Saturday are the best sessions. :) I love you all!!

Happy Birthday Cort!

Sister Heap