11 March 2013

Another week has passed. Thankfully it has passed a lot faster than the last one. :) On Wednesday we had a multi zone conference and changes in companions. My companion is still Hermana Gonzalez but Hermana Cordova has officially gone home so we are no longer a trio. I was pretty nervous and worried about her leaving but it has been a lot better than I thought it would be. The conference was great. It inspired me to not give up and let myself be conquered. With enough faith in the Lord, I can do this and I will do this! Because of this attitude, my week has been a lot better. My spanish is still aweful but I am slowly understanding more of what is being said and talking a little bit more. I had the opportunity to speak in church yesterday. Considering my spanish is pathetic and I had next to no time to prepare it, it went very well. Surprisingly I was not even very nervous. MIRACLE! I also played the piano for sacrament meeting. It felt great to feel like I was contributing to the ward. Thanks Mom and Dad for the piano lessons, for giving me the ability to serve others, no matter the language barrior.

It is a small world, even in Sonsonate, El Salvador. The other day I met two missionaries from the stake here that served with Race Davis. I had a blast talking with them. Also, one of the elders in my zone knows Randal Rabon from St Johns. Randal is his brother in law! He also knows Don Williams, which is a shock. Small things like this totally make my day!

The other day we went to visit an inactive family. The parents were not there but the 21 yr old son and 16 yr old daughter were there. Because they were not expecting our visit the daughter was only in a towel. It did not seem to bother her so we taught an hour long lesson to her while she only was wearing a towel! HA! Because it is so hot here, people have a different idea of what is modest, even the members. It is interesting but I love them anyway. I can see that it is a great sacrifice to to wear garments here.

This week we were teaching the Enriquez family and the wife asked us what happened to Joseph Smith after the first vision. This is a very rare question so my companions were not prepared to answer. I was overflowing with things that I wanted to say but could not say any of it in spanish. We ultimately ended up watching the Joseph Smith movie. This experience was a tender mercy for me though because it reminded me of my burning testimony of this gospel and of Joseph Smith. I have a passion for the church and church history that I just want to share with everyone! I am so grateful for a reminder of my testimony. Without my testimony of this gospel, I am nothing here. It is this passion that keeps me going every day!

I hope all is well at home. I love you all and miss you all!

4 March 2013

Another week is gone. Luckily this one went a little faster than the last one. My progress is slow here but my companions assure me that I am progressing. I dont talk very much because I dont know what is going on so I feel like my speaking skills are decreasing. I finally broke down in tears with my companions this week. It was comforting to see my trainer cry as well. She only started her mission in November so we are both feeling pretty lost. It was a good bonding moment to acknowledge that we are both struggling.

We went to San Salvador twice this week for immigration paperwork for me and Hna Gonzalez. This gave me the opportunity to ride the crazy buses here. Luckily there were not chickens like in Romancing and the Stone. But there was crazy music, tons of people, venders selling everything, and women with baskets on their heads (this is very common here). The travels were long and frustrating because it took away from my study time but they were definitely interesting experience.

The last two days have been windy here. This is almost comforting because it reminds me of home. And it wasnt hot!!! What a blessing! ha! It is hilarious though because the people here think that it is freezing when there is wind. It was a warm wind and the temperature was probably 75 degrees with a nice breeze and everyone, including my companions, broke out their sweaters. HA!

A lady fixes us lunch everyday. She and here soon to be husband are my favorite people here to far. They are so incredibly nice to me even though I can hardly communicate with them. They are also so generous. The people here are very poor but give so freely. This week she gave me a dress, just because she had it on hand and felt like giving it to me. I wore it yesterday to church and she was so pleased. :) I will try to send a picture. She isnt a member but has a testimony of Joseph Smith and everything. Rafael is a member and a very strong one at that. We are hoping after their marriage today the door will be open to get Mama Enma baptized. I am excited!

One of our investigators, Karina, lived in the USA for a little while so she knows english. She asked me to offer the opening prayer to our lesson in English this week. I was excited at first but as I started praying, I could hardly hold back the spanish words. I havent prayed out loud in English for a long time so it was almost hard. Whoa! Maybe there is hope for me yet.

This week I studied the story of Alma and Amulek when they were cast into prison. I took your advice and applied it to myself. They suffered SO much, no food, no water, no clothes for days and having to watch their investigators burn! I am suffering very little in comparison. But in the end, with faith and strength from the Lord and on the timetable of the Lord, they were delivered. This helped remind me that I need to continue in faith and the Lord with "deliver" me as well from this language barrior. I love the scriptures and treasure the time I have to study them!

Well I have to go. I love you all.

25 February 2013

Hello everyone! I have officially started my mission here in El Salvador. I hope Mom shared with everyone the picture with my mission president and his wife. After arriving in Santa Ana I was in limbo and or orientation stuff for about a whole day. I met my companions: Hermana Gonzalez (my trainer) and Hermana Cordova, on Wednesday and also arrived in my area: Sonsonate. It has been quite a long week and very interesting. I have been blown away by the living conditions and the things that are just accepted here as normal that you never seen in the States. I have met many great people though. The members are very very nice and willing to help the missionaries a lot. All day long the members and investigators give us food and drink. Most of the time it is just drinks. They drink a ton of fresco here which is kind of like juice but different at the same time. Most of the food and drink so far has been good but there have also been times where I just have to gulp it down and not think about it. I have realized that I really have no control over my weight here because I cannot refuse anything. So forgive me if I become a gordita.

My companions are nice and hard working, for which I am glad. Hermana Cordova knows english pretty well while Hermana Gonzalez knows very little. That being said, we hardly ever speak English unless I really need to understand something and I cant get it in Spanish. That means that I talk very little while they chat to each other all the time. I have been very very very humbled and have realized that I really dont know any spanish. It only makes it worse that the people here drop their ses. So it doesnt sound like como esta but rather como eta. And everyone talks quietly and fast. With all of these things combined with my lack of vocabulary, I understand very little. This is HARD! I want to help. I want to understand but I just cant. At the moment I feel quite worthless but I hear that that is pretty normal for North Americans at this point. Please pray for me.

The other day, when we can home for lunch, the tears finally came out. Luckily I was alone. I just sat down and wrote all my thoughts out because I have no one to express them too. I just felt so down and alone. Later that day we visited a less active member to was struggling because she was feeling alone in her life even though she was doing everything that she was supposed to. As I thought about what I would say to her if I was given the chance, Ether 12:6 came to my mind. A witness only comes after the trial of our faith. Feeling alone can be a trial of our faith but all we can do is continue to do what we are supposed to with faith. Then the witness of Gods love and presense will come. I realized that this was Heavenly Father giving me advice to my problems through the problems of this dear sister.

We had a big mission meeting on Saturday because our mission is changing. As I am sure you have heard, the church just created 58 new missions world wide. One of which is in El Salvador. I mission is changing boundarys. At this point I dont know if I will remain in the Santa Ana mission or be in the San Salvador Oeste mission. The changes take affect in July so where ever I am at that point will determine which mission I am in. Sonsonate is in the Oeste mission and because of my timing here, I think there is a 80 percent chance that I will be in the Oeste mission. Who knows.

I experienced my first baptism this past Saturday. His name was Elmer. I arrived after he was taught so I dont really know him. It was a stressful day and it seemed like everything that could go wrong with the baptism, did go wrong. Finally three hours after we arrived at the chapel, Elmer was baptized. It was amazing that even though the room was full of cigarette smoke and noisy children I could still feel the Spirit.

Well my time is gone. I love you all!

Hermana Heap

 

PS If you are curious, look up the humidity and temperature of Sonsocate. :) And after you do, look out the window at the snow and count your many blessings.

El Salvador

 

Hermana Heap made it safely to El Salvado this week!

13 February 2013

This week was great! I have now been in MTC mode for over 8 weeks and
am finally in my last week. From what I have heard, I will be leaving
to El Salvador on a bus on either next Monday or Wednesday. Crazy! At
times I feel ready but most of the time I dont. Oh well. I will just
put my trust in the Lord. Because it is our last week, my district is
trying to speak as much spanish as possible. On Monday we had a
complete english fast. It was hard, especially to plan lessons but it
actually went better that I thought it would. I guess there is hope
for me yet. :)
It has been
an interesting time to be in the MTC and CCM because I have gotten to
witness the changes that are coming from the age change. This new
group of latinos are the first here to only have two weeks in the CCM
instead of three. I was one of the very last missionaries to get to
experience both MTCs. Now all north americans come here straight from
home. The capacity of the CCM is 88 and we now have over 150 people
here right now. 51 of them are sisters which is more than ever before.
All of the north american sisters actually got moved out of the CCM
this week. There just werent enough beds so now we live in this really
big nice house that is across from the temple. It normally houses
temple patrons who come from far away so it is equipped with tons of
beds and bathrooms. It is very nice but a bit of a walk from the CCM.

I have been trying to
recognize the spirit more this week. It is interesting because I
almost never feel the specific feeling that I connect with the spirit
here. I know that I am doing my best and being blessed though so the
spirit has to be with me. The trick is just being able to identify it.
I am recognized a few new ways or feelings of the spririt this week
and it has been really cool. On Tuesday we watched a film of a
devotional given by Elder Scott. The last ten minutes of the talk
really struck home to me but what was most interesting was during this
talk, two really specific experiences came to my mind that we kind of
related to what was being talked about. I didnt think too much about
it but later decided to write down some of my thoughts. By the time I
was done writing about the experiences and thoughts that came to my
mind, I knew without a doubt that these specific two experiences had
come to my mind because of the spirit. The Lord was trying to teach me
something about these experiences. It was way cool!

Some of you probably remember my experience
in the Spanish branch where I experienced the interpretation of
tongues. It was a really isolated event where I was trying so hard to
understand the talks that day but knew so little spanish that I
couldnt catch many words. But as I tried, I heard a few familiar
words, and thought to myself, oh they are probably talking about this.
I did this with every talk and after sacrament I asked Dad what had
been said. I had been dead on with what the people we talking about.
That was one day,one very isolated experience. I honestly feel like I
have this gift of the spirit every day. Sacrament meeting here is
exactly the same way: I can catch more words but I still cant catch
them all but with every talk I understand their message and feel the
spirit of what they are saying. Even in my normal conversations with
some of the latino sisters, they talk so fast and use vocab that I
dont know but most of the time I can get the jist of what is being
said. This just makes me realize how much my Savior is helping me!

Elder James B Martino from
the 2nd quorum of the seventy who is over the central america area,
spoke to us last night. It was so good! He talked about so many good
things and it was especially good because I am so close to actually
going to the field. He said the hardest thing that he had to teach
while being a mission president was not the language, it was how to
work hard. He said that we need to learn how to work hard even when we
are tired. He also said that if we are going to hot places we should
be grateful. The hotter it is, the more that the people are outside
their houses, and the easier it is to find people to teach. We cant
change the weather so we should just be grateful for it. I loved this
because it reminded me of Polyanna and always finding good in every
thing, never complaining. This is the kind of missionary I want to be!

I really enjoy sports
time here. I have even started playing basketball and surprisingly I
have a blast every time. It helps that the elders that play with us
sisters dont take it too seriously. I am really going to miss being
able to play like this in the field.

Well it is once again time to go. I love you all. Happy
Birthday Adam, and Brandon. and happy anniversary Holly and Allen!

5 February 2013

Hola!
 Another week has flown by. Thank you for the dearelders. I got
some this week and they were great!
Today we got to go on a city tour field trip. COOL! I am glad that
I have this little opportunity to experience Guatemala. We first
 went to a relief map of Guatemala and talked about where events
 in the BOM could have taken place. Then we went to a market that
 was full to the brim with things to buy. And the trip was topped off
with Wendys for lunch. It was a lot of fun to get out and enjoy some
 down time. A few of you have asked about the food here. It is really
 good most of the time. Most of it is similar to mexican but not very
 spicey. I love the carne asada. We have these delicious white rolls
 with almost every meal I feel like. Breakfast always consists of eggs
 in one form or another. This is a challenge for me. The frustrating
thing is that it is considered rude here if you dont finish your food.
I have started giving away extra food to any elder who will take it.
But if I leave here 20 pounds heavier you will know why :)
 The latino missionaries here are awesome. All of them left yesterday
 for the field. Even though I have only been here fortwo weeks, it was
 still very hard to say goodbye. Hermanas Vazques and
Barrios were probably my favorite. They didnt know a lick of english
and our spanish is rough but somehow we were still able to connect so
well. I find it incredible to hear their stories. Some many of them
come from rough circumstances with finiances, unsupportive families,
or health problems. One of the elders had a permanently cricked neck.
It looked so uncomfortable that my heart went out to him. But it didnt
even matter to him. He is like the happiest, smiliest person I have
ever met! Maybe if I live around wonderful people like this it will
rub off on me. :) One of our "investigators" Noé likes to aske hard
questions. It is hard but I think it is great practice for the field.
He asked us one that was especially hard the other day. I have never
even tried to explain it in english let along spanish. But I just
openned my mouth and started to try, not even knowing what I would
say. All of the sudden a thought popped into my head of how to explain
it to him using an analogy that he would appreciate. In the moment it
didnt feel really significant but when looking back I can realize that
the Lord was there, keeping his promise to fill my mouth in the very
moment that I needed it! This was eye opening to me. It also made me
think about a talk that we have watched here several times of Elder
Bednar talking to the missionaries. Many missionaries are always
asking how to know if something is coming from the spirit or just
themselves. Elder Bednar says "Stop worrying about it! Just be a good
girl and a good boy and the spirit will be with you guiding you." he
later says that we members are under the impression that everytime the
spirit is guiding you, you will know and be aware before hand. This is
not so. Many many times you will do normal things that you think
nothing about but only after the fact or maybe even never will you
realize that that was the spirit. What an awesome talk! Well my time
is once again gone. I love you all and hope all is well.

30 January 2013

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Well the week has flown by and I hardly
know what to write. Sorry if I repeat any of my last email...I cant
remember. The weather here is great! nice and warm! But at times it
gets quite hot when we are exercising outside at 3 pm. But I will not
complain because it is so much nicer that Provo. The people here are
wonderful! They are so incredibly nice and patient is helping us learn
spanish. Speaking with the natives here is the only thing that has
gotten me through the week.
 There are many changes here from Provo
that are hard to swallow but the best change is that we get so much
experience listening and speaking with natives. I am just blown away
by the incredible latino sisters here. Most of the ones that I have
talked with do not come from full member families and some have
families that are not at all happy that they are serving a mission.
Sometimes I forget how very fortunate I am! But through it all they
are still here and smiling. It is a constant battle to understand
because they talk fast and quietly. I feel like the words that I say
most every day are mas despacio. ha! On our third day here we got to
go to the temple grounds to contact. It was nerve racking to walk up
to strangers and share a spiritual thought with them and then ask for
contacts. But it went better than I expected. One of my teachers in
provo told us that a mission is all about getting comfortable with the
uncomfortable. That is SO true! Hopefully it gets easier. Today we got
to do a session in the temple here. It is TINY! The session room was
about as big as my bedroom at home with three pews and an alter in it.
Luckily there were enough of us Nortes there that the session was in
english. Only two people could be going through the veil at the same
time because they didnt have any more workers. Hence it took us almost
40 minutes to get through the veil. My poor companion needed to go to
the bathroom the whole time! On p days vendors come here to sell
stuff. It would be easy to spend all my money but I am trying to
exercise some restrant :) Luckily I found out that when I go to my
mission home I will be taking a bus not a plane so I wont have to
battle the weight of my luggage any more. Santa Ana is only about 4
hours from here. That is crazy to think about! The food here is pretty
good. Mel, you wont like anything though. I look at every meal and
find a least something that you wouldnt handle well :) Most of the
time I feel well but the other day I ran into my first set of
digestive problems....not fun! Hopefully it wont happen often. Well I
better go. Sorry that my punctuation and paragraphs are next to
nonexistent. The keyboard here is really weird and I figure out how to
do an apostrophy and there is no enter button. Weird! I hope all is
well with you all. oh and I hope you got my last email. did you put
it on the blog? my email is weird here too and lost some of my
contacts so sorry if you dont receive this email directly from me.
hasta luego!