8 April 2014

Dear Family,

How has your week been? Mine has been very HOT! and HUMID! oh what fun! We had a correlation meeting one day this week and we were late leaving our area to go. The chapel is not in our area so it is a bit of a bike ride to get there. We were trying to get there as fast as possible so we were flying down the road with all the pot holes and speed bumps. There was this annoying motorcycle that just followed us for about a minute and would not pass. We needed to turn so we slowed down to wait for the dumb motorcycle to get out of the way. Finally he started to pull up along side us. Of course it was a man that we know. His name is Wayne. He is from the states but lives in Belize during the cold season. He literally talks and looks like Steve Urkle (sp?). He is not a member but comes to church often because he likes one of the members. Such a strange man. So he pulled up along side us and in his Steve Urkle accent says, "Man, I booked you gals and you were going over 20 mph down that road. You all must be in shape!" haha! We quickly/awkwardly thanked him and explained that we were late and had to go. We then laughed the rest of the way to the church! But its kinda cool to know how fast we were going. haha!

This week we had two food adventures. They always come from the same member family too. ha! Saturday for lunch they fed us a Garifuna delicacy called Hudut. It is whole cooked fish served with a yellow cilantro-y soup with balls made of ripe and unripe plantains. Interesting but not bad.

Hudut

 Sunday for lunch they fed us cow-foot soup. It consisted of vegetables, slimy okra, cow feet, and cow intestinal lining. That one was a lot harder to get down than the Hudut. The feet are just like eating pure jello-y fat. Yuck! The intestinal lining was only a little bit better. The okra wasn't my favorite but after eating the nasty meat, it seemed quite normal. The broth and other vegetables were great though. I feel like I can now eat anything that is put before me. Mom, you should be very proud. :)

Cow Foot Soup

I was so excited for conference this week. It was like the only thing that kept me going the whole week. Saturday morning finally came and somehow we were once again leaving the house late to get to the church. We started flying down the streets again and my chain fell off. Normally I can easily put it back on but this time there was a strangely long screw in the way and so I had to walk to rest of the way to the church. We were literally running the whole way so that we could get there on time. We walked in during the song after the opening prayer to find that we already had four of our investigators there waiting for us. Ahhhh! What a blessing! One of them, Silvia, went to all 4 of the sessions. Now THAT is faith! Most members won't even do that. She is preparing to be baptized this week and we are working hard to get the rest of her family ready for baptism as well. I loved conference though. I really enjoyed the Saturday morning session. I liked Sister Reeves talk about pornography and proactively protecting your family. She said that it doesn't matter if the house is a wreck, the dishes are unwashed, the laundry undone, etc., just as long as we have family prayer and scripture study daily and family home evening weekly. Henry B. Eyring also talked about how we should have Christ as the leader of our home. If we do, we are promised that "all things will work out". I love that! It was said so many times that all we need to do is pray, study scriptures, and go to church and we will all be okay. It all really is so very very simple but we always make it so complicated. If we just do these three things, everything will all work out. I know it to be true because I have seen it in my life and in the life of so many others! I love you all and hope that you all strive to do at least these three things daily and weekly. Take care and have a great week!

Sister Heap

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Melanie and Bonnie!

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

25 March 2014

Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!! I hope it is a great one!

As for me, everything here is going fine. I hope you all enjoyed my stories about food lately. The picture last week was fun but pretty gross so I thought I should send a good one this week. This is a picture of the typical plate here in Belize: Rice and Beans. There is a TON of rice and beans, a little bit of stew chicken and a little bit of potato salad. If you are lucky, they will give you a fried plantain but that is rare. They always serve up a HUGE plate because it is a sin to eat only a little bit of rice and bean. haha. At first I didn't really like it because the rice and beans are really dry and the chicken is always scary. But I have grown to enjoy it and every once in awhile I actually crave it. :)

We had a really good lesson this week with our investigator, Silvia Bacab. She is a super nice 35 year old woman who loves to read and has been reading the Book of Mormon. We went out on a limb this week and really tried to bring a member with us that would be a good friend for Silvia. This member is nice but has never worked with missionaries in the whole 6 months that I have been here. We tried and it worked! They became quick friends and the member invited Silvia to the Relief Society birthday party that night. Silvia went and loved it. And we also got Silvia to go to church on Sunday for the first time. She was taking notes through all the lessons and when we stopped by afterwards she told us she loved it. The talks in sacrament meeting had been on fasting and tithing. She asked us about tithing and if she could pay it even when she doesn't have a steady job. She wants to pay it because she says her family needs those blessings! Holy Cow! She also asked about when and how we fast and committed to fast with us this coming Sunday. Then she told us that she needs to go every week to church because she needs to get prepared for her baptism. What?! She invited herself to baptism before we could even bring it up. She accepted to prepare to be baptized on the 12th of April. Now we just have to work with her husband and two sons so that the whole family can be baptized together. She is so awesome! The Lord really is preparing the hearts of people to accept the gospel.

This week I was studying up on eternal families because I was thinking about a family we are working with. They have so many problems in their house hold and it just makes my heart hurt. As I was studying, I came across a line in Preach My Gospel that I just love! "Heaven is the continuation of the ideal home." I have to thank Heavenly Father and Mom and Dad for making our home a heaven on earth. I see so many broken and disastrous homes here and I just want them to have the gospel so badly. And so many of the members here don't fully apply the gospel in their lives and homes so they don't enjoy all the blessings that the gospel has to offer. I just want to shake them and yell, "Its not THAT hard!" Simple things like family prayer, family scripture study, and family home evening make all the difference. Please, to whoever is this, if you aren't now, please start trying to do these simple things in your home. If you do, the spirit will be there and you will make your home into the little piece of heaven that your children so desperately need and deserve.

Well, once again, the time is gone. I love you all!

Sister Heap

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CLIF at the end of the week!

18 March 2014

Dear Family,

Did you enjoy the entry last week about me eating the royal rat? Because this week I have one to top that! This week I had the privilege of eating Pig's Foot. I had to take pictures to give you a better idea of what it looked like and to prove to you that I did eat it. I dove right in and ate the majority or my piece. I am pretty sure that it was about 98% fat. It had the texture of a cellulitish-jello. It was not very enjoyable but not terrible so I kept eating. It was only when I saw the hair that, yes, was STILL on the meat, that I put the foot down and did not eat any more. Ha! I hope you all enjoy the picture!

The Pig's Foot that I ate this week. Yes, that is hair that you can see. I had to have evidence that I really ate it!

This week has been a hard week because in one night, 4 people committed suicide by hanging themselves. Three men from Orange Walk and one 13 year old girl from Corozal. One man was an inactive member, the girl was a member, and another one of the men was married to an inactive member of the church. Sad day. We spent a lot of time with the member families, supporting them, helping them, and comforting them. It is part of our covenant at baptism to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. So that's what we did. It was so sad to see the loved ones who did not have or trust in the plan of salvation. There was a lot of screaming, wailing, and crying until fainting. We truly are so very very blessed to have the gospel in our lives to comfort us in times like these. It was very interesting to see the difference in culture as well. At the "wake" or viewing there was a ton of people who came to just drink away the night. The screaming was something I had never seen before. They never bury people underground. They just make a cement box around the coffin. Interesting. It was a sad week though. 

Dad, you should be happy. I got several comments this week about the piano. I showed up to one of the funerals and the 1st counselor in the branch presidency hurried up to me to tell me that they were in desperate need of a piano player. Later that day, one of the slightly in active members of the branch told me that she hopes that they never transfer me from Orange Walk. When I asked why, she said she just loves the piano being played at church and will miss it when I leave. So, Dad, all of your determination and money for piano lessons really have fulfilled their purposes. Thank you so much for giving me that gift to share with others. 

Well I hope Ashlyn had a great birthday last week and the Wendi has a great one this week. I love you all! Have a great week!

Sista Heap

 After being in Belize for over 6 months, I finally got my English name tag!!! How cool to get to have the both, one in English and one in Spanish.

11 March 2014

Dear Family,

Well I would like to start out my email this week with the announcement that I have now officially eaten the "Royal Rat" of Belize. You should all Google "gibnut" and read about it. (I think that is how you spell it.) It is a ratish like animal that the Belizeans fed the Queen the last time that she came here. Therefore it is now known as the Royal Rat. haha! I am pretty sure that she didn't like it much. It wasn't too bad though. Luckily the people feeding us knew how to cook it well. That was just a little adventure that I had this week.

This Sunday Nester, Shania, and Matthew Vanegas all got baptized. Their mom is an inactive member that we have been working with. It has been quite the adventure to teach these crazy kids admist the crazy things that have been going on in their family lately. (Their oldest brother ((I knew him)) went missing for two weeks and was found dead and almost completely devoured by the vultures, another one of their sisters has been cutting herself and running away to get attention and there are always a billion crazy people at their house smoking weed.) It was a miracle that everything went well and they were able to get baptized. The older kids in the family are crazy but we are hoping that the gospel can really help these kids to live a better life. That is the best part about the gospel! It truly improves lives. Everything went well with the baptisms except that they didn't want to get out of the water. After the third baptism, Nester stayed to swim and Shania was trying to jump back in. Oh dear. Crazy kids. They finally listened to us and got out of the water to change their clothes. It was a good day.

This Monday was a holiday here is Belize so everyone was out of school and work. To celebrate, the branch had a big picnic. It was great and a lot of people came and enjoyed themselves. People were playing volley ball, baseball, and football (soccer). Others were flying kites, chatting, or playing Monopoly. And of course the food was some good ole rice and beans with home made ice cream. It was pretty darn fun. I came home very sunburned, like always, and grateful that it was pday so I could take a nap.

Well congratulations to The Smith Family!! I can't wait to see my new niece...number 3! haha. Oh, Dad, you asked for a more specific date. The flight has not been scheduled yet but I am pretty sure I will be flying home on the 29th of May. Well I hope all is well. I love you all!

Sista Heap

We all bought matching skirts and decided to wear them all on the same day...FUN!

. This is the Vanegas family that we have been working with to reactivate them.

. Nester (13), Shania (10), and Matthew(8) were all baptized this Sunday

5 March 2014

Dear Family,

If I were to title my emails, this one would be: CLARA DURAN. She is a 22 year old that we have been teaching for about a month now. She is the girl friend to a return missionary in the branch (Lindsey, she is dating Elder Santoya!!). He had already been sharing the gospel with her before we started. She always reads books backwards so she was already in Helaman when we met her. We have hardly had to teach her....she teaches us. We would leave the pamphlets with her, she would read/study them, and she would teach the lesson to us when we got there. GOLDEN!!! She went to church every week and recognizes the spirit there. She actually puts the Lord first in her life, which is something that I have never really seen before in investigators. She truly is amazing. Last Wednesday we were teaching her again and trying to help her realized that she is ready for baptism. We have taught her everything but she kept saying that she just wasn't ready yet. Finally we helped her realize that she was ready and asked her to pick a date to be baptized. She looked at the calendar and chose the 3rd of March, in five days. She passed her interview with flying colors and was all ready to take the big step. As always, opposition arouse the last 24 hours before her baptism but she wouldn't let it sway her decision to be baptized. So the baptism was to be Monday night at 7pm. That day had been crazy because of different things and because we had been waiting to find out transfers. But we started working like normal. We were in a lesson that was in a super far corner of our area when Sister Pocock remembered that no one had filled the baptismal font. It was 6:15pm. We abruptly ended the lesson and flew to the church as fast as we could. We turned on the font but it is a 2.5 hour process to fill. Sister Pocock and I started filling up buckets from every spout in the church and dumping the buckets in the font. We called the other sister missionaries to rush to our aid. Sister Patterson was even filling up drinking cups two at a time and dumping them in. ha! Finally, after about 20 minutes we realized that there was no way that we were going to be able to fill it up in time. We all got together and brainstormed. Sister Patterson came up with the brilliant idea to call the fire department. They are actually teaching one of the fire fighters right now so they called him up, he was miraculously working at the time, and he said they would come over. We waited for about 15 minutes but the fire truck finally came and they filled the font with the fire hose. It was awesome!! Clara herself held the hose to fill it up.

We were all worried that she would be upset with us but it all turned out fine. The baptism only started 30 minutes late, which is actually very normal here in Belize.

Clara, her boyfriend Moses, and her baby Edliani

 The service started and the Spirit was just so strong. I don't know if I have ever met someone who was so very ready to be baptized. The Spirit was so strong that she and some of the other people there were actually trembling. The service was short and sweet and then we ate some delicious dip and chips and home made chocolate ice cream. It was an amazing baptism of an awesome person, with a story that I will never forget!

On an interesting note, I have not been transferred. I was sure that either me or Sister Pocock would be changed but we were surprised to find out that none of the four sisters here in Orange Walk had changes. Crazy! Who knows, maybe I will end my mission here. haha! We were sad to find out that our district leader, Elder Olson, was transferred all the way back to El Salvador. Crazy! We sure will miss him. But that is just how that mission is, I guess.

I love you all. Thanks for always emailing me. Have a great week!

Sista Heap

25 February 2014

Dear Family,

Well this week was one of those weeks that just passed by without feeling like something significant happened. There were some fun things though that I will try to share. So Friday morning we got to put on Helping Hands vests and help the church donate 150 chairs to the government school in my area.....COOL!! The church also donated 250 other chairs to other schools nearby. I wasn't able to take pictures but I will do my best to get copies of them and send them to you all. It was cool to participate in just another one of the awesome things that the church does!

Helping Hands :)

I don't know what it is but revelation always seems to come to me in the shower. Sunday morning I was showering to get ready for church and the thought popped into my mind that maybe I should prepare a talk for church. I know a lot of missionaries that just write out several talks and always keep them with them so that they are always prepared. I am not one of those missionaries. The thought came and...I just brushed it away, assuring myself that that would not be necessary.  Two hours later, as I was walking into the church building, the branch president pulled me aside and asked me to give a 10 minute talk in church. Yikes! Why did I ignore the prompting earlier that morning?! Because of that, I had to try to rush and prepare a talk while playing the prelude and hymns for church. Needless to say, I did not pay very much attention to the beginning of church. I was a little nervous but it all turned out okay. I talked about Alma 32 and nourishing our "seeds" or testimonies. It wasn't anything amazing but I actually got a lot of compliments on it afterwards. It always makes you feel good when what you say is able to touch someone else. Lesson learned: never ignore the shower revelation!

So these last two weeks the three other sisters that I live with have all been sick. I have been lucky enough to avoid all of that until Sunday. After eating a huge lunch my stomach started hurting me. I figured it was because of all the food that I had in my stomach. But it didn't go away and shortly thereafter the lovely diarrhea and throwing up came. I was able to make it home in time though so I didn't have to have any embarrassing moments. But it was still no fun. I stayed slept for a very long time and did not leave the house on p-day. I am now feeling better though so no worries. Just another fun mission experience. 

Well the time is gone and I have to go. I hope all is well on the home front. Lisa, I need to see a prego pic before you have this baby. Allisen, Happy Birthday. Everyone: I love you so much!

Sista Heap