30 October 2013

Well dear family, I wish that I could send you some of this rain because we are DROWNING! It has rained everyday this passed week. And when I say rained, I mean poured! It has made the work pretty challenging because no one wants to walk to church in the rain or even let anyone inside there house when there is rain. Many of the streets in my area are dirt or filled with pot holes. This mean a TON OF MUD!! I should have taken a picture so that you could picture it better but I forgot. Luckily we have bikes and the bikes have finders to help us stay out of the mud a little bit. But riding in the mud takes every muscle in my body and every ounce of energy that I have. Needless to say, I have been pretty tired and muddy this week.

President and Sister Hintze came to Orange Walk this week to do a branch activity and they brought my birthday package!!!! It was a wonderful late birthday. Thank you to the Eagar folk for sending it. Mom and Dad, the vacuum packed brownies made it intact and delicious! I was pretty impressed and delighted to taste a little something from home. I have been enjoying all the candy that Cort and Sammy picked out for me and the delicious home made jerky from Holly and her family. Thanks so much! I also loved the letters. There is just nothing like getting a package and letters from home. haha. and speaking of birthdays....HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE SMITH! I know it already passed but I hope it was a great one!

The transfers were this week and I for once did not have any changes in area or companion. I was quite happy because I love Orange Walk! Yesterday I was studying the plan of salvation to teach it to one of our investigators. I felt the spirit so strongly as I studied about our purpose here on the earth and about the atonement. I know that God has make such a wonderful plan for us. I know that Jesus Christ is the essential part of this plan. Without him, everything would be hopeless and impossible. Each and everyone of us needs our Savior so much. I just wish that I could help these people understand that better. There is so much more to this life than our job, school, the next movie coming out, our next vacation, and what we are going to eat for dinner. But these are the good things that fill out minds to the point that we don't have room for the better and best things in life, like picking up the Book of Mormon to read for a few minutes, taking the time to kneel down and say a truly heart-filled prayer, or setting a simple goal to say something nice to someone today. They are small things but they are the important things that are going to impact our happiness here and for the eternity. I love this gospel! I know with all my heart that it is true!

I love you all and hope all is well. Have a great week!

Hermana Heap

22 October 2013

Happy Birthday Claire! I am not sure if she will read this but I hope she has a great day!

Manuel is the one with white hair.

Another week has flown by. This one was a good week. We were able to work with very few interruptions. I love weeks like that. We had our first Orange Walk 3 baptism on Saturday. A little old man named Manuel Aguierre was baptized. That was super exciting. He was one of those people who was just prepared to make changes in his life. He had been drinking coffee and when we taught him the word of wisdom he accepted it instantly. We asked if he would stop drinking coffee and he said sure and that is would be easy. From that day, he hasn't had any more coffee. Super Prepared! What a blessing!!

On Wednesday we were working with the relief society president, visiting some people. We started teaching this man that we had contacted the week before named William Floors. We didn't get very far into the lesson when I started to have to really strain to understand what William was saying. I would understand about 3 words in 10. I didn't know if it was just a super hard accent to understand or if he was speaking in Creol. I looked at my companion, hoping to find help, but she was even more lost than I was. There was a point in the lesson that I told the relief society president that I didn't understand. She translated a little bit for us into spanish. That was honestly one of the longest, most uncomfortable lessons that I have ever been in! Afterwards the sister with us told us that he had been speaking in almost pure Creol. Con razon no entendi casi nada! Thank goodness we had someone that could understand. I don't know what we would have done if she hadn't had have been there.

Yesterday I was waiting for my companion to finish getting ready and was thinking about what I wanted to eat for lunch. As I tried to think of something that sounded good I realized that I haven't eaten anything here in Belize that I really want to eat another time. I just don't enjoy the food here. For the first time in my mission I had the desire to cook. I went to the store and bought all the stuff for hamburger pie. It is something simple but I can't really remember all of the food that I love from home. And I don't have any recipes. But I just miss really and healthy food!

 In September when we got to Orange Walk the attendance was at about 70 each week. The Elder that got here about a month before us said that it had recently been at about 50. This week the Orange Walk attendance was 107 people!! It has almost doubled in the last three months!!! How very exciting! It is so exciting to see the less actives that we visit come back to church on their own. I honestly think that that is one of the thing that I have loved most in my mission, working with the "lost sheep". We as members really have so much power to help these people feel God's love.

 I love you all!! I hope all is well!

 Hermana Heap

Oh and I forgot to mention, my new address for LETTER ONLY is: PO Box 1123 Belize City, Belize. I have heard that the customs here are crazy expensive so it is still recommende​d to send the packages to El Salvador

 

15 October 2013

Dear Family,


My beloved bike!

Once again, thank you for the birthday love. Now I am twenty three and feel old. haha. My companion is 21 and one of the other sisters that we live with is 19. Yikes! Thankfully the other sister with us is 24 so I am not quite the oldest. haha. Well It was all going to work out perfectly because President and Sister Hintze came to Belize this week for a multizone conference and they always bring the mail with them. I was just sure that I was going to get your package Mom. Even when I greeting Sister Hintze she whispered in my ear that I had mail. I was pumped. I sat through the whole conference wondering what was in the package with a big smile on my face. Then I received my mail: one letter and one dearelder. I love mail but I had gotten my hopes up. It turns out that El Salvador's post office has been on strike for the last two weeks. I am sure that my package has arrived and is just waiting for my in a post office in El Salvador collecting dust. what a bummer! Oh well. The Hintzes will be coming back in two weeks so maybe I will end up celebrating on Jake Smith's birthday this year. haha. My birthday was quite a normal day. My companion made me a card and gave me some awesome earrings. (How does she know me so well already?!) and Sister Condie and Sister Price made me a pancake and egg breakfast. Elder and Sister Galvez (the senior couple here in Orange Walk) made me a birthday dinner of pork chops, mexican rice, beans, tortillas, and a strawberry cake. It was great! I still missed Mom's food and the brownies that I was craving but I got the next best thing. :) I hope the sister missionaries enjoyed my birthday dinner. :D

Ruins at Corozal

 

Yesterday we went to Corozal, a town nearly on the Mexican border, to see this random ruin Mayan temple in the middle of the the town. It was small but cool. We also got to see the Ocean.

 

 I would say the beach but there is no sand here, just pavement and then water. I feel like I have been all over Belize this week. We went to Belmopan and Cayo for the conferences and I stayed the night and worked a little bit in a villiage on the Guatemala border called Succotz. Southern Belize has a lot more trees and hills. It is definitely pretty but I was very happy to get back to good old Orange Walk. I love my area. Sometimes I wish that I could stay there until I end my mission. haha. We will see.

Well I will try to send a few photos. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap

8 October 2013

Wasn't General Conference just wonderful?! I loved it so much! And it was great to get to hear it in English. haha. This weekend was crazy because we were trying like crazy to bring people to the different sessions of conference. I felt like I rode my bike to Pinetop again. :) My legs were wet noodles at the end of the day. haha. But the conference was great. I think my favorite talk was by the Sister from the young woman's presidency about true conversion. It is always a question that I am asking myself. Am I truly converted? Will something come along in life to knock me off the path? I sure hope not but it is hard to be sure. But she taught a lot of great stuff about how to become converted and what are the signs of conversion. They also talked a lot about missionary work and the members....hint hint. haha. It was not a very subtle message at all. We all have to step up to the plate. We brought investigators to the Sunday morning session. We walked in a little late just in time to hear the firm rebuke of Elder Oaks about the law of chastity.....our investigator is a mother with three teenagers that is not married. gulp. I just prayed that the spirit was there confirming the importance of the doctrine. Later that day we visited this sister and her three sons and the thirteen year old asked us right out if what his parents are doing is a sin......umm Yesssss! haha Oh the fun situations that a missionary finds herself in! Oh, many people have asked so I should probably clarify. My p day is still on Monday but we write home on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have to be together with our zone to write so each week when we travel to Belize City for zone meetings we write home right afterward. We as missionaries are a lot more spread out here in Belize than we were in El Salvador. It makes for a lot more time and money spent on buses. Tomorrow we have zone conferences in San Ignacio. We have to catch a bus at 4am in order to get there in time. yikes! I will probably be studying the back of my eyelids during zone conference. ha! Well I better go. I love you all. Thank you for all the birthday cheer that I have already received. Take care! Hermana Heap

 

 

2 October 2013

Wow where did September go?! It feels like it just started last week but when I think about it.....a lot has happen in September. haha! Time is crazy. Well this week we got our bikes and I have decided that all of my skirts are not the right kind of skirts to ride bikes in. Or maybe no kind of skirt is good to ride bikes in. haha! I do my best to keep myself covered but it is honestly a lost cause sometimes. It has been a little drier this week. We only got one day of rain but just that brought out even more mosquitos than there already are. YIKES! I honestly am just waiting for the day that I get dengue because I feel like it is just inevitable. But for now I am healthy, no worries.

I am slowly but surely getting to know Orange Walk and the members better. It is starting to feel more like home. I am starting to understand the english better too. Even though they "speak english" it is super hard to understand because of their accent and bad grammer. haha. Sister Price and I taught the primary I Feel My Savior's Love on Sunday. That was interesting. Some kids pay attention, others are just too young, and others just refuse. Oh the joys of the primary. The really liked head shoulders knees and toes though. :) We were able to bring six investigators to church this week. That is a record for me! Four of them are youth that are siblings but one of them invited his friend to go with him. These kids are pretty cool and really liked to church. We are hoping to help them accept a baptismal date and to get the permission of their dad. Their family is weird....the oldest child is 19 and the dad's girlfriend is 21 and they already have two kids together. Yuck! Sister Rodriguez and I were left a little dumb founded when we found out. ha! Oh the crazy things that you see in the mission.

Well, Mel asked for a few details. The food here consists of a lot of rice and beans and beans and rice. Those two things are actually different. They eat a lot of stewed chicken, fried chicken, shredded chicken, and more chicken. They eat tacos for breakfast. And fruits and vegetables are SUPER expensive so almost no one eats them. There are a ton of authentic chinese food around because there are a lot of Chinese people here. They own almost all the little stores and every corner and almost all the restuarants in town. My favorite part about the food here is the tortillas. They have real and delicious flour tortillas. I never have to eat super heavy and thick corn tortillas....HURRAY!!!! haha. But I am dying from the lack of fruits and veggies. If any one is feeling charitable, I would love any type of dried or preserved fruit or vegetable that I could get. :)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! to Bonnie and Clif. Thank you for all the pictures and telling me all about it. I have been thinking about Madison all week, wondering which day she was born. I am so happy to hear that everything went well and to see my new niece.

Well I have to go. Thank you for all the emails. I love hearing from you guys. And General Conference is this weekend!!!! I am SO excited!!! I hope you will all watch it because it is SO important. I know that Thomas S Monson is a true prophet and we are so very blessed to have a prophet to lead and guide us today!

I love you all!

Sista Heap

Cleaning the church with Hermana Rodriguiz

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