31 December 2013

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. I really enjoyed seeing and talking to the ones that were home. And to those of you who weren't home, I missed you a lot and was thinking of you!

My Christmas was very full of eating. Almost every house that we went to, we ate something. And that lasted from the 24th to the 27th. Sometimes it was a full on plate of rice and beans, but other times it was just cake and soda. Our fridge was full of about three big cakes, cupcakes, and 5 individual slices of cake. I am caked out! But the people were very nice and generous. I always thought that Christmas time would be a great time to share the gospel as a missionary but now I know a little better. Maybe the beginning of December was a good time but once Christmas actually arrived I am pretty sure that 80% of Belize passed the holiday drunk. Okay, that might be an exaggeration but it sure seemed like everyone and their dog was drunk. So we ended up spending most of our time with members and did very little tracting in the streets. Also a big part of Christmas here are the "palomitas" or fire crackers. Everyone from 4 years old to 60 years old was setting off fire crackers in the street all day and all night for about four days straight. Everyone stays up until midnight Christmas Eve so that they can welcome in Christmas day. When the clock strikes 12 they set off a ton of fire crackers. I was peacefully sleeping and instead of hearing Santa's sleigh, I was jerked awake from the loud BOOM of fire crackers. I was slightly annoyed and went back to sleep. ha! But that was about my Christmas. It was a little more exciting than last year's Christmas in the MTC. :)

Well I hope you all have a great new year! I can't believe it is already 2014. But 2014 is going to be great! Love you all!

Sista Heap

23 December 2013

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!!! I am not really sure what to write because I will be talking with you in a few days. If I write too much I will not have anything to say on Skype. haha. Maybe I will just explain the pictures that I am sending. Last night we were visiting Gina and her family and we started talking about "plats" or corn rows in hair. The next thing I know, me and my companion are leaving the house with our hair platted. I didn't think it would work on white girl hair but it did. ha! The one who did our hair is in the picture. She is Gina's sister Naomi.

 

I hit my one year mark this week. And I didn't really do anything to celebrate it. The week was crazy and I was so tired that I lived through the day. My companion put up a paper sign for me. And so I just had to take a picture of it.

Oh and good news, I have a cold and have lost my voice. I am having flashbacks of last year's Christmas and having bronchitis and being without a voice for 8 days. Christmases on the mission just seem to take my voice away. ha! I hope that it comes back before Wednesday or else you are all going to have to lip read very well. hahaha!

Well I love you all and wish you a very happy Christmas!

Sista Heap

This is our Orange Walk district after doing our act in the Christmas talent show!

These are all the sisters in the Corozal Zone.

 

18 December 2013

Happy ONE YEAR to me! Well, tomorrow it will be one year. Crazy!! It has been a very full and interesting year. It has passed so quickly but slowly. I don't think that I have every sweated so much in one year than I have in this one. ha! There have been a lot of great things, interesting things, funny things, sad things, frustrating things, and spiritual things. The Lord is definitely knocking down walls, pulling up flooring, and moving stuff around to make me what He wants me to be. That's okay though because He knows my true potential way better than I do.

Yesterday was the mission's Christmas party in Belize. We went to Belize City, ate a big meal, had a spiritual thought, enjoyed a talent show, played games, and got all of our Christmas packages. It was quite fun. And we got to wear jeans for all of it. That was quite weird! But the good thing is that my one pair of jeans that I have with me still fit :) I thought that the talent show was going to be really short and boring, maybe filled with several people singing songs but it was actually great. It is amazing how talented and creative the missionaries are here. There were a lot of mission jokes. My district threw together an act in the last two days. After the changes last week we realized that every one of us is gringo or white.So we rewrote the words to "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" to be "Orange Walk is having a white Christmas" and all the words are about our adventures here in Orange Walk. It is pretty darn funny if I do say so myself. And....shocker.....I sang a solo! Me and Elder Hales took turns singing solos. I have decided that on my mission would be a great place to get over my fear of singing solos in public. I have been given a lot of practice lately. ha! Maybe someday you all will get a chance to see a video that we took. ha!

We have found a few positive people lately. We got this family to go to church that has eight kids. We just have to get the husband to stop drinking and get these people married and baptized and they would make a great addition to the Orange Walk branch. We are crossing our fingers and praying hard that it all happens.

Well I can't think of much more to say. I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Travel safely! And I can't wait to talk to you next week!

Sista Heap

11 December 2013

So once again I am writing on a Wednesday because this week was transfers and I spent all day yesterday in Belize City dropping off Hermana Rodriguez and picking up my new companion......Sister Pocock! She is from Ohio, just came straight from El Salvador, and has 8 months in the mission. This will be my first opportunity to have a companion that was originally from the El Salvador San Salvador mission before a new mission was created. It should be interesting. The poor thing did not want to come to Belize at all and to top it off, her camera with all of her memory cards were stolen on the plane yesterday. Needless to say, it has been a rough first day for her here. I am hoping that it gets better. In this transfer, we were made into a new zone. Before we were in the Belize Zone that had Belize City, Corozal, and Orange Walk. Now we are in the new Corozal Zone. We still have to travel in a bus each week for a little over an hour but now it is north and not south. We are a pretty small zone of 12 missionaries, six elders and six sisters. But it is cool to see the progress of Belize. There is so much potential here!

Well I know that this email is extremely short. Sorry about that but I honestly can't think of much to say. I was up late last night searching for my companion's camera so the only thing in my mind is how much I want to sleep right now. :) Oh, we have been told that we can call home on the 24th or the 25th. I was thinking that the 25th would be better. I think I am going to be able to do skype but that means that Mom and Dad need to get a skpe account. :) Well I love you all and hope you don't die from the cold weather!

Hermana Heap

4 December 2013

This week has actually been kind of crazy. The investigator that I mentioned last week, Gina, well her dad died last Tuesday. Yikes! So we spent a lot of time with the family, making sandwiches, and going to the funeral. But luckily she still decided to get baptized last Saturday. But the morning of the baptism we called them found out that she had had a fever all night long and was feeling really sick. She and her mother felt it best that we didn't get baptized in cold water that day. They had also not been able to find the beautiful white dress that Gina wanted to get baptized in. So here I was thinking that we would have to postpone the baptism and that everything had fallen through. But we prayed for a miracle, called the elders to give her a blessing, sent the other two sisters to search for a dress and we went to talk to her about it. Right after the blessing, the sisters showed up with the perfect dress. Those two things changed the mind of Gina and she decided to get baptized. And it was a wonderful baptism! We truly witnessed many miracles this week. Satan tried hard to keep her from getting baptized but it didn't work. I know that the Lord helped us so much!

Thanksgiving day started out like a normal day. Well not really because it started out with the funeral of Gina's dad. But I forgot it was even thanksgiving until about 11 am when someone reminded me. ha! We were invited to eat at a member's house that night. He feeds us once a week so it was just normal. We ate a very Belizean meal of beans, tortillas, chicken, and tomatoes. While we were finishing the meal another member called us (Lindsey: it was Elder Santoya) and invited us to eat thanksgiving over at his house in 20 minutes. Well we were already full but had to go eat again. Ugh. There was turkey, ham, gravy, rolls, stuffing, and upside  down pineapple cake. I couldn't really enjoy it because I was just so very full. But it was nice of them to think of us and to have something Thanksgivingy to eat. It was also cold too. A cold front came in this last week and we all had to bust out our sweaters. I only have one so I was cold. We asked a member what the temperature was and guess what it was.....74 degrees! Wow! I have definitely gotten used to the hot weather here is 74 degrees has me bundling up. haha! I am just glad that I will not be getting home during the winter. ha!

This Monday, for p-day, we got permission to go to Los Cerros. It is a Mayan ruin. But we got permission to go there on boat, because  it is on an island. It was WAY cool!! I loved the ocean and the boat ride much more than the ruin. 

Well I hope all is well on the home front. I love you all!

Sista Heap

26 November 2013

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy it! It feel a little weird down here that no one is thinking about gratitude right now. It is just ingrained into me that that is what November is for. :) This past Friday we had our Thanksgiving celebration as missionaries in Belize. We had a luncheon in the Radisson (sp?) Hotel in Belize City. We were supposed to be in a tent outside but it was raining so much that we ended up eating in the bar. haha! I was pretty excited for the food, thinking it was to be Thanksgiving. I was a little disappointed but ended up enjoying it anyway. We ate rice and beans, weird stuffing, really dry turkey, a delicious pineapple ham, potato salad, and cheese cake. I just kept looking for your rolls and the pickles, Mom. It really didn't compare. But it wasn't too bad. I really enjoyed the cheese cake. We played games afterwards that were pretty fun as well. Then we went back to Orange Walk. Luckily we didn't have to take the bus, we went with the senior couple in their car. But the combination of the horrible roads in Belize and the driving of Elder Galvez made me car sick so that was fun. haha. Everything is an adventure.

This Sunday was District Conference. We all got on a bus as a branch and rode down together. Our district includes Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, and San Pedro. There are 2000 members. And we have 24 missionaries working in the district. Wow! Can you imagine if there were 24 missionaries working in the Eagar Stake? Crazy!

The other sister missionaries that we live with had a wedding and baptism this last weekend. The couple got married on Sunday and baptized on Monday. (that happens a lot here because no one is already married before talking to the missionaries). We spent a lot of time decorating, cleaning the church, serving food, and whatever else they needed. I even got to play the piano for the wedding. Fun! But in the end, when they were baptized, it was so great! The spirit was strong and you could just see how much they wanted to change their lives. We were able to bring one of our investigators, Gina, to the baptism. Gina is supposed to get baptized this Saturday so it was good for her to see how it all goes. Pray that everything will go well so Gina will be able to get baptized this Saturday.

Well I hope all is well. Please travel safely for the holidays and enjoy all the food for me. Especially the pickles. There just aren't any pickles here :( Well I love you all! Have a great week full of gratitude!

 

Hermana Heap

 

My only picture of the Thanksgiving activity that somewhat turned out. My camera is having problems. But it is a picture of us missionaries in orange walk.

 

19 November 2013

Dear Family,
I want to share the exciting news that I finally found some good food here in Belize. We went to eat a place called Carls' Pizza. He is Italian and the pizza was SO good! The bad news is that we went to eat there on the last day it was open. What a bummer! We tried another pizza place but the crust was like all air, leaving us very hungry after eating a very expensive pizza.

We finally had a few sunny days this week. It helps so very much to dry out the mud because all the rain has made the roads incredibly muddy! The other night I tried to ride through the mud but got stuck so I had to stop and get off and walk. I looked behind me to see Sister Rodriguez completely stuck and falling, in slow motion, sideways into a huge muddy puddle. HAHAHAHA! After assuring myself that she wasn't hurt, I laughed so hard!! Luckily she had on her huge rain poncho and rain boots so only a bit of her skirt got muddy. Oh the things that happen on the mission.

On more of a spiritual note, I have been reading in 3 Nephi lately. I have a goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish before I turn one year old in the mission. My time is running out quickly so I am in crunch time. But I have really enjoyed reading about Christ coming to the Americas. Every time I read chapters 9 or 11 I just feel the spirit so strongly. I think that it is even better in Spanish. The spirit always confirms in my heart that the Book of Mormon is true! I love that book!

I got called to give a talk in church at 9:30 Saturday night. I honestly haven't had to speak much in church on my mission so I was grateful for the chance. That is a clear sign that some part of me has changed while on the mission. Before the mission I avoided speaking in church at all costs. Sometimes it is hard to see but I really am changing. I couldn't resist the opportunity so I spoke on gratitude. I love thanksgiving but no one here celebrates it so I decided to share a little bit of the spirit of the season. I shared lots of stories about bottom eyelids and being a picky eater. Now one of the branch members that feeds us each week calls me picky. But to prove him wrong, I ate the Conch soup that he gave us. Conch is a type of snail. That was definitely the toughest meat I have ever eaten. But in the end it wasn't too bad. haha.

Well that about sums up the week. I hope all is well. I love you all!!

Hermana Heap


This is my full cupboard. I just went shopping so it looks so full and yummy! :)