8 April 2013

Dear Family,

Guess what!? I received two wonderful packages this week!! I would like to send a big thank you to the family in Utah. It made my day! And never you fear Mel, everything made it just fine with no damage done. My cook/friend/investigator, Enma, loves the wherthers. She said that you should send five more big bags. Ha! I get my mail right after zone meetings on wednesdays and I was so excited that I opened one of them right there one the spot. I chose to be generous and share my precious goods with some of the elders. They loved the granola bars. Ha! Who would have thought that plain jane granola bars from Macy´s could taste so good down here in El Salvador. :) Thanks again everyone!

Conference was wonderful! I hope that all of you took the chance to watch it. It was awesome so watch or read it online! I got to listen to it in English with the help of an ipad that belonged to one of the members. I sat in the chapel with every one else but listened to it in English. It was kind of challanging because the ipad was always a minute of two behind the broadcast. This lead to one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. In Elder Falabella´s talk he said something funny. Because of the delay, I burst out laughing 2 minutes after everyone else, in a silent chapel. I immediately realized my mistake but too late, everyone was looking at me and laughing, not having a clue why I just burst out laughing! Oh dear! I wanted to dig myself I hole. Luckily none of the members said anything to me about it afterwards. But the elders in my zone weren´t so nice. I fear that I will never live this one down. There isn´t anything that I can do about it so I am just going to laugh right along with them.

But on a spiritual note, conference was awesome!! I loved Elder Scott´s talk on having a Christ centered home. It made me reflect on my home and many of the homes that I have been in lately. I truely have been blessed to have the safe haven that he talked about! Thank you Mom and Dad for that wonderful blessing! I also really liked Elder Holland´s talk. He started out with one of my favorite miracles during Christ´s life. I thought of you too Lisa! "Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief". I can so relate to this topic so I loved the talk. I came away from this talk and many others feeling like the Lord is accepting my efforts, knows that I still have a ways to go, but wants me to have patience with myself. Yeah yeah I know, Mom is laughing right now. Patience has always been something that I struggled with and the mission is just another opportunity to increase my patience. I know that these men and women are called of God to have revelation for all of us! I am so grateful for a loving father in heaven who gives us guidance like this!

On Saturday I had a really cool experience. We were teaching Enma Jerez, the investigator that came to conference when you were there. She wants to know if this church is true but she is resigned to wait for a long time to receive her answer. A thought popped into my head, and I started to promise her that if she prayed with faith and an open heart, she could receive her answer today. This was a leap of faith for me and I was doubting myself but as I finished promising this, in the name of Christ, I felt the spirit so strong. These weren´t my words. These were the words of the spirit. I have never felt that before but it was awesome! I hope and pray to have more experiences like these.

I hope all is well and I love you all!

Hermana Heap

President and Sister Cordon surprised us by showing up to our stake center for the Saturday afternoon session

(Sorry this is sideways)

April Fools Day

Phew I am almost relieved that this week is over. It was Semana Santa or Holy Week down here to celebrate Easter. But they go all our here. All the schools and lots of the jobs have a week long break. There are all kinds of different processions or parades. Thousands of people walk in the parades and tons are dressed up as priests. There is a huge float with Christ carrying the cross on it. And the people literally decorate the roads. Some people paint pictures on the road while others form pictures out of colorful salt. I really enjoyed the pictures on the streets because they were really good. These people are talented. Some of the pictures were religious while others were of donald duck and other things. This is a catholic celebration but more than that it is a huge tradition here. It was kind of cool to experience but it made the work really hard. You dont know how many times I heard, 碞O THANK YOU, I AM CATHOLIC创 this week. Grr! Ha! I will try to send some pictures.

We didn磘 do anything really to celebrate Easter other than have a sacrament meeting about the atonement. But Hermana Gonzalez has this Christmas CD of David Archeleta and she loves it so we rocked out to Christmas music all week. It is a little weird to be listening to The First Noel in March but hey, we were remembering Christ, right!

I was reading the Book of Mormon and was in Helaman last Monday. Through my zone leaders, President Cordon asked me to finish by wednesday. Yikes! I have never read so fast but I did it! I must admit that I didnt get a lot out of it but I was obedient so it was worth it.

Miracle of all miracles, we had 7 investigators in church with us yesterday. It was kind of crazy to be there and help all of them but what a blessing. There was a family with the mom and three kids all older that 8 and Tatiana who is 13. These are our most positive investigators right now so we were pumped that they actually came. And from what I can tell, they liked the meetings! We are praying like crazy that they will continue to progress. It is crazy how different you view sacrament meeting when you are a missionary. One of the talks was simple and clear, explaining the atonement. The other was hard for me to understand and from what I could tell, was deep doctrine. As a member, I would have been just fine with that but as a missionary with 7 investigators in the meeting, it made me really nervous. Ha!

I got a letter from Sydney this week. Thanks Syd for remembering me! Sister Bosen is always sending me cards which is so sweet of her. Please thank her for me Mom. I hope all the birthdays in the family went well this week. I love you all!

 

This is an alfombra AKA a painting in the street for Holy Week



                                                This one is made out of salt..it was my favorite!

                                                             This is me infront of my house.

This is the pasaje or passage that I live in. This is what the neighbor hoods look like in my area.

25 March 2013

Greetings! I hope all is well on the home front. The work continues to progress here. This week has been a little discouraging because we have decided to drop two of our families that we were teaching. It is hard to drop people when you have grown to love them but we are only wasting our time when they continually wont keep their commitments. I have been trying to work on having more faith this week. It is easy to feel like there is no point to me being here but I am trying to have faith. Faith that there really are people here that are prepared to hear the gospel and that there is a reason why I am here in El Salvador. I realized this week that I am always praying for my investigators to have a little more faith, maybe I need a little more faith as well.

We have been studying the chapter in Preach My Gospel about working with the members. This also is a bit discouraging because our ward is not very much help right now. But once I again, I feel like the Lord is trying to teach me something. Before the mission, I was exactly like the members here or even worse. It is very different when you are on this side of the work. :) I am determined to learn from this frustration and be a better member missionary after the mission. So this is my plea to you: please participate in the missionary work in you ward. The missionaries can not do it alone! I am learning how important things like visiting teaching and home teaching are. They really are inspired of God. These are ways to fellowship each other and help each other grow a testimony. When this isnt done, people fall away and are lost. This is just ironic, because visiting teaching has always been something that I have struggled with. The Lord knows what he is doing. :)

Sorry this email is short. I love you all!

Hermana Heap

 This is the zone of Sonsonate! We are in the chapel of church building.

 

Pictures!

This was a day that I was just walking along, down the street, and a bird pooped on me! Luckily we were on our way home anyway,so I was able to change my shirt. Ha!

 

This was the result of my first time doing laundry in El Salvador. All the bleach in the water of my whites batch and 2 hours of scrubbing resulted in bloody garments. Boy do I miss washing machines!

 

This is called a pila. This is where I do my laundry, wash my dishes, wash my hands...ba​sically everything besides bathing. Thankfully we do have a shower.

 

This is Mama Enma who feeds us lunch every day. And this is one of the dresses that she gave me.

 

 

This was a night of celebratio​n for some good lessons and hard work. These frescos were delicious and we had a good enjoyable laugh together.



18 March 2013

I have survived another week of this heat. I hear that the last week in March in the worst so I have a lot to look forward to. Also the rains are supposed to start in April. I dont know what I want more, heat or rain. I guess we shall see.

Right now we are teaching several families which is rare from what I can tell. It is hard to address the needs of many people all at the same time but the blessings for families in the gospel is great so we are trying our best. It definitely keeps us busy. The discouraging thing is that we cant seem to get any of them to actually come to church. This is a huge stepping stone and will help their testimony so much but they wont come. Lately I have been understanding a little bit more of what is going on and what is being said. I am participating in the lessons more as well. What a blessing! This is enabling me to really get to know these people and really care about them. Because of this, my heart hurts when they wont do the things that they commit to do. I testimony will not come without prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and attending church. To me, these steps are seemingly simple so I have a hard time understanding why on earth these people wont do them! :) Yesterday Hna Gonzalez and I were pretty down because we couldnt get any of them to come to church but we ran into some of our other investigators in the street. The teenage daughter, Tatiana, told us that she has actually been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Instantly, my companion and I went from dejected to animated. How exciting that she is actually acting! This was just enough of a boost to keep going and raise our hopes. I know with all my heart that these things are true and the blessings of the gospel are great. I pray everyday that the Lord will help me share these feelings and blessings with these people in Sonsonate.

We eat lunch everyday at the house of Rafael and Enma. He is a member but she is not. But she is about as dry of a Mormon as you can be. The other day Rafael told me that he dreampt about you Dad. It wasnt anything great or weird, only that you were in his dream and he wanted so badly to talk to you. When he did, all he can remember was that you were such a great person. Rafael said that he thinks that you were in his dream because he had been praying for me, that I could learn Spanish, right before bed. This touched my heart! This man who I can hardly talk to, cares enough about me to pray specifically for me. This is what I love about the people here. There is another woman here, Marta, who sells bread. She is not a member or an investigator, only a friend. But every time we stop to talk to her, she gives us free bread. She is always trying to get us to go home earlier at night because after 9:30 it is more dangerous. She worries more now about us because I am here, and gringas attract every more attention and danger. It just boggles my mind, and humbles me that people can care about me without hardly knowing me.

I got three dearelders this week from the family. Thank you so much for always remembering me! The letters were a tender mercy for me because they carried some of the words that I really needed to hear. Thank you so much for being so great. I love you all!

 

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.