Surprise Text

Once in a while, I get a boost just when I need it.  Earlier today, Elder Heimuli wrote that he and his companions were headed to an appointment.  I just got a text message and these pics, "Fun with your son!  We loved having your sons in our home."

And I love the wonderful people of Indiana who take such good care of the Lord's missionaries.

Week 88 - A Little Lazy Faith

Hi mom!

Things have been very busy. And we have been grinding!!! We are so tired everyday haha, and it's a good thing:) 

Yeah, I know Elder Peterson! He is a great missionary! He is currently serving in Clearcreek in Bloomington. I will have to say what's up from Elsie Anderson for him (Brent and Elsie are awesome)! Man I wish i could have some lupulu... and otai.... And man, you and dad are just busy busy busy!!! 

I am really loving my companions. They are hard workers, very happy and we all get along great. Here is the scoop of the week!

Mon- We PC'd campus for a long time! A really cool miracle happened. So we were teaching a new investigator we found the other week named Conner. As we were teaching him two random guys came out of nowhere and asked if they could join in our conversation! It was amazing. I think young people are just naturally curious to know what we teach. One of them wasn't very receptive but the other one named Aaron was. He was willing to learn more so we are going to meet with him next week! 

Following that we PC'd until we had FHE because President was way up in South Bend so we didn't have meetings with him that day. FHE was great! 

Tue- We went with Elder Breck to move houses from Columbus and Crossroads. Those two areas are about 2 hours apart. Needless to say, that took ALL DAY. We were so worn out by the end of the way. Elder Breck is the mission secretary and housing coordinator. He and his wife are sooooooooooooo awesome. I love them A LOT so it didn't even matter that we were tired. It was just great to spend the day with them.

Wed- We went to the office and finished up a lot of paperwork. Haha it's crazy that even though we have cut down a lot on our paperwork duties there is still so much to do!!!! But it all went well, then Gillman, Shaw and I went straight to campus to PC :) It was awesome! 

So we were grinding for a solid couple of hours before we took a break. We sat down for a second when all the sudden some people came up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. After the picture we sat there and we thought, "Hey, let's pray to have someone come here to talk to us...because we are dead tired." 

Do you believe prayers are answered? Cuz that's honestly what happened. We prayed and had faith. Two minutes later a member walked by and said hi as she was going to her next class with a friend. Well, needless to say, we called her right over, and her friend was interested!!! She's Japanese and is from Nagoya I believe. Isn't that where Kastle and Evan went? And she took a BOM and wants to meet with us this Friday :)

Faith worked. Maybe a little lazy faith...but it worked!!!! We were pumped again to work! After PCing for a bit more we went to a lesson with Grace. The lesson went well but she is struggling, and actually texted us the other day and dropped us :( but we will keep trying. After that we went to dinner at the chapel with a member from the YSA ward. We also started a meal calendar because Redmond and Wimmer really worked on getting rid of a lot of administrative stuff so we can be more involved in the ward. They are awesome. We were supposed to have a lesson with a potential but they bailed on us :( I guess that's just how it goes!!! So we went back home and got ready for the next day.

Thur- We had some office work to do then we headed to campus. After grinding for awhile we found some success in potentials. There was a guy that came up to me and said, "Remember me?" I didn't exactly but he did look familiar so I asked him, "Uh yes, but remind me of your name again?" He was a guy that Redmond and I gave a card to a while back. He asked me if I was Samoan... Haha, I laughed and told them Tongans are better, then he told me how he loved rugby! And that's how he knows Polys. He is from the Congo so I didn't think he knew anything about Polys. Anyways we talked and he said he would be willing to come to church on Sunday, so I just need to get in contact with him. After that I looked at the time. We had a lesson with a girl who didn't leave us with a number or anything, but she said she would meet us at the campus center at 2pm. Honestly when someone says something like that they usually don't show up. So typically we would briefly check to see but they're usually not there. However, for some reason this time we felt like we needed to run. So we sprinted! We were coming up the escalators when pop!!!! There she was going down the escalators. She told us she thought we weren't coming so she was leaving. We had barely caught her in time! Yet another miracle that happened. We taught her the restoration and she wants to meet with us Monday. After that we had a lesson with C who is Ricky's girlfriend. She is so solid when it comes to learning and wanting to know for herself. She is still waiting for the feeling of overwhelming confirmation that it's true before she is baptized. We talked to her a little about that but she is continuing to pray and seek understanding. After that lesson we had dinner with a member in Fishers and we had to dart back up during rush hour to make it. We met up with the member and as soon as we started to walk in a guy yelled out, "Are you Mormons?" We turned around and thought "Wow, people really like to talk to us lately," haha! He told us how much he respects us and is willing to check out one of our services! So we are just seeing if he wants to come tomorrow! After dinner we went back home and finished some more office work.

Fri- So Saturday we have some things planned in the morning so we decided to take the time on Friday (since campus is dead) to clean our apartment. After organizing everything and finishing some office work we headed to campus and tried to PC. No one was there, It's hard to PC when no one is there. We decided to go visit Grandma Banks and check up on her. She is still doing good and she is awesome. We are going to be doing some service for her next Saturday. We did have a lesson with a potential i found after Grandma's, and it went well. He is a fitness major and he was atheist but now has been looking for a religion. He has met with other religious missionaries but he likes what we share. So we taught him the restoration. After the lesson we set up another time and we headed home. 

Sat- Today there was a baptism for someone Gillman and Shaw taught. We also went with a member and got some stuff at a store and then we had to give a training to some youth on teaching the restoration!  So we are emaling right now but we have dinner in 20 minutes with a member it's kinda busy today. 

That's it for the week mom:) we are headed out but just wanted to shoot you the email and say i love you!!!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Week 87 - Goodbyes & Hellos

Hey Mom:)

It's been a week full of goodbyes and hellos to a lot of very special people.

But first off CONGRATS to Ben and Ofa!!!! That's spectacular!! I can tell from your email that it was a very special occasion. Something I know you won't soon forget and they won't forget either. I'm so happy for them and so grateful for their decision to be sealed as a forever family, strengthening our eternal family at the same time. How awesome is the temple.

Yeah with Elder Redmond leaving, two new APs coming in to be trained, a big group of missionaries going home and another big group coming in, I have been pretty tired this week, but not as tired as you all back home. I have it easy compared to you all.  Again things are going well out here, just keep grinding and movin :)

Here is the Low Down of the Week :)

Mon- Thanks for the wonderful Valentines day package mom:) 

Valentine's Day delivery from home

Me and the rest of the whole office enjoyed the chocolate berries, haha! Tell Katie and Ryan thank you for the wonderful package as well :) I appreciate them always thinking of me. I'll be sure to send them a letter later this week as well when things calm down! 

Elder Redmond wanted to do something extra special for his last Monday as a missionary so we went to campus and handed out 40 BOMs. It was amazing. 

Headed to campus for Redmond's last day

We talked and testified about how no other book will bring them closer to God and Christ. Elder Quick and Elder Walton helped us out as well and we got a good amount of people who were very interested. I felt the spirit so strong during that time and i think I'm going to start handing out 40 BOMs more often ;) But again it was a great way to end Elder Redmond's last day as a missionary.

Departing missionaries add a heart to the "With Full Purpose of Heart" Mission Quilt. Redmond's in front. Heimuli's at far right cuz he's not going anywhere yet.

After that we picked up the new greenies!!!!! There were about 15 of them and we needed them here! I got to meet Sister Alapa, she is awesome and is going to be a great missionary. 

Elder Heimuli (in blue) greeting new missionaries at the airport

Sister Carlson (at left) and Elder Heimuli (right)

Welcoming the new sister missionaries

After picking up the new arrivals we went back to the mission home and had a little meeting with them. 

Following the meeting we went back to White River so that Elder Redmond could go to his last FHE with the branch. They love him, and it was good for him say his goodbyes to all of them (because he has A LOT of people he will need to say bye to in the coming week). 

Redmond & Heimuli at one of their last meetings together

We finished the night there then headed back to our apartment to get any of Redmond's last minute things packed. 

Tue- Transfers. I got my two new companions, Elder Gillman from Heber City UT, and Elder Shaw from Mesa AZ.

L to R: Elder Jesse Gillman (from Heber City, UT) and Elder Michael Shaw (from Mesa, AZ) are training to be the new Assistants to President Carlson!

These two missionaries are great and they will be outstanding in leading the mission I have no doubt. They are both Spanish missionaries as well. So during the transfers I just showed them the ropes and got them all situated with what they were going to have to start doing as APs when I leave. 

During transfers I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet Elder Redmond's parents. They came all the way from Ireland! They are such wonderful people and I'm sorry I wasn't able to snag a pic with them but I did get to talk to them and be with them for a bit and feel of their love. Sister Redmond also gave me a really cool Irish tie that I will definitely sport as much as I can :) After the meeting we went back to the mission home and had the departure meeting for all those people going home. 

We said goodbye to about 15 really good missionaries. About half of them were in our MLC so we had to call a lot of new leadership. 

Departing missionary dinner

Following dinner we went to the temple and again Mom I am so grateful to have this wonderful opportunity to be able to go to the temple and receive those ordinances for the dead. Also to receive such comfort and peace like never before. I love it! After the temple we spent the night with the missionaries. Elder Redmond left with this parents to get released and then go visit families around indiana. I was a little sad for me but really happy for him. What a great man and missionary. I have learned so much from him.

Wed- We woke up at 2:30am (yes you read that right) and took the missionaries to the airport. I told my new comps that they would get used to this schedule because it happens a lot. After dropping the departing missionaries all off at the airport we went back to our apartments and got situated by cleaning, unpacking, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning.... (did I mention cleaning?) Following that we went to campus and started proselyting. Having 3 people in a companionship is hard but I've done it before and it is also always fun and interesting. We found a couple of people who were kind of interested but nothing super solid. After campus we went to institute and my new comps were able to meet part of the branch that was there. That was pretty much the whole day.

Thur- We had a lesson with Grace in the morning. We taught her about the true church, God's one and only church, as mentioned in Ephesians 4:5 "One faith, one Lord and one baptism." Elder Gillman asked her a really good question during the lesson about the feeling the spirit. He wondered if she had ever felt it before. She said no. Which shocked me because i thought she had felt it the whole time, but Elder Gillman's question provided a great opportunity. When we explained it to her, she recognized it and said that did feel what we were explaining to her, but she just didn't register it in her head. We invited her for baptism, and she was a little bit iffy again but we are still working with her. She told us that her missionary friend from the other church wanted to come this Sunday and see what this church was all about. So this will be interesting! We are excited! After that we just PC'd until we had a meeting with President. With President, we discussed a lot about the needs of the mission but especially what our roles were as APs. We talked about all the conferences coming up and then we left to go back to campus to PC some more. We have 3 solid people we are working with so we have been trying hard to increase our teaching pool. 

Fri- We were in the office almost ALL DAY!!!! Haha it was really boring, but it had to be done. I had forgotten how much there was to learn as a new AP. My learning time as a new AP seems so long ago. When we finished up in the office, it was late and campus was almost closed. We decided that we would go anyways and find someone. And we did! I met a guy names C.S. who was from Germany. He told us he was a Protestant but didn't really attend a church around here. However he wasn't really too keen on our religion either. Then i asked him a question about what happens after this life? He said he didn't know and I gave him a bold claim and a promise. I told him that we have the fullness of the gospel and the answer. I told him we could answer your questions because honestly if the BOM is true then that means the fullness of the gospel was restored. And if that's true then that means we have the answers about everything pertaining to His gospel. He suddenly seemed interested and said he'd come to church next week :) So please pray for him, and all of our investigators? :) Prayers help out a lot and they are our connection with the Father in Heaven. So pray often.

Sat- Mission temple day!

There were about 20 RC's there so it was really good. Elder Gillman and Elder Shaw are doing such a great job that I could leave now and they wouldn't even miss a beat. After that we went and cooked food for the cultural celebration YSA activity. I made spam musubi, haha many people don't like spam, I don't understand it lol! The activity was great too. Lots of good food haha! I'm going to come home 10 lbs heavier because of that.

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli

Week 86 - Redmond and Breck

Hi mom :)

So things sound like they are going to be switched up before I get back haha! It's gonna be sad not having Helam and Alyssa too close anymore but hey Pocatello is not too far :) Hema is working on an app? Haha he always was the smart one. Honestly, Hema just always wants to learn as much as he can about everything, which is going to get him far in the future. I'll explain what I learned about that in a bit :)

So I'm not going to do a day-by-day email because I actually need to run right now, and all we had every day this week were zone conferences and transfer planning (Redmond and I still have to finish transfers today.) But I do want to recap with 2 huge things I learned from people this week.

1) Elder Redmond. Being his companion has been one of the greatest experiences of my entire mission. He and Elder Wimmer both helped me grow and have become 2 examples of how an assistant should be and how a missionary should be. Redmond taught me a lot about Faith. Oh my goodness, mom! When you get to meet him you'll know exactly what I mean. He is so committed to this gospel, and when you say someone has faith to move mountains, you're talking about my comp -- he does. I have been working on that a lot these past couple of transfers. Miracles come when faith is applied. Faith can close the gap much quicker than just knowledge alone. However, with true faith comes true obedience and true diligence. What do I mean by true? Well, there are purposes behind the rules and things we do as missionaries. If you can see that and be obedient to the principle and not just the rule, you will see more blessings. It's weird to explain but it makes sense to me. As a result I've seen so many miracles and I am looking forward to seeing more. I'm thankful for Elder Redmond and his example to me. He is full of faith, full of fun, he is a great friend, and an even greater missionary! He is definitely going to be missed.

2) Elder Breck. One of the office couples, he is an AWESOME person. We had dinner with him and his wife the other night and we talked about what it means to be successful and what it means to be valuable. Elder Breck has been VERY successful in his line of work and Redmond and I asked him how he got that way? What kind of schooling did it take? He explained to us it was not schooling but effort. What made him different from other workers was that he didn't stop after he did his part or his job. He decided he would learn aspects of everyone's jobs, thus becoming multi faceted in his line of work. His goal was to finish his work as quickly and efficiently as he could so he could start doing other people's jobs and learn how to do them. As a result, companies noticed this and wanted to hire him. He had the opportunity to work for so many companies and the only degree he started out with was a bachelor's in accounting. It kind of reminded me of Hema who's like Dad, they possess this trait that they want to absorb knowledge all around them. I know that's why those 2 are such Handy Guys!!!!! They learn and keep progressing. I'm guilty of being one of those people who just do their job and think it's over and I don't really try to learn much more. After talking to Elder Breck it hit me that if I want to be successful in life and in my missionary work I need to apply that principle!!!

Anyways those were just 2 HUGE lessons I learned and reflected on this week :) I'm so grateful to be where I am right now with the people God has placed around me. They are helping me to be a better missionary and a better person just by their examples.


Sorry for the short letter mom, i promise next week's will be longer ;)

Oh and I am fine with all those dates! I am excited for it!

Love you all so much! Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Letter from Sister Carlson

[Note from Mom: Came home from the temple early this morning, straight to running a ton of errands to get ready for Sunday, and was looking forward to resting for a bit, thinking nothing could be better. I was wrong.]

Dear Brother and Sister Heimuli:

This is Vallorie Carlson, wife of President Carlson from the Indiana Indianapolis Mission.  Oh my goodness do we love Elder Heimuli!  He is such a fine leader.  It's amazing that Heavenly Father put so many talents into one young person. Elder Heimuli is a great teacher, a really good people organizer, has good manners, is an awesome dishwasher (he was taught well at home), is happy and congenial all the time, and is nice to all the missionaries.  Everyone loves him because he is nice to everyone.  He has a calm and pleasant demeanor.  

Elder Heimuli speaking to one of many zones in the Indiana Indianapolis Mission

I especially love how he reaches out to the new arrivals each transfer and engages them in a conversation.  We love his laugh and the way he holds his hands up in the air and yells (nicely) "Elders and Sisters" when he tries to get the big groups in place.  He is also a good photographer! But I think you already know all of this......

Elder Heimuli with President & Sister Carlson when they arrived in July 2016

​I know we have worn him out - he is a hard worker and has been put through a lot of hard things.  He has been a big help to us over the last 6 months.  I do not know what we would have done without him.  He's got a big job ahead of him to train two new APs.

Elder Heimuli with Renetta Larkin Carlson

I know he has told you about our connection - my daughter in law (Renetta Larkin Carlson) is the daughter of Lyle Larkin, who baptized Elder Heimuli's grandfather in Tonga many years ago.  It was truly amazing to me to hear that story.  I have loved that so much.  We have used that story in each of our zone conferences this last round to emphasize the importance of true converts and multi-generational families.  I am so proud of your family.  Elder Heimuli told us there are at least 56 descendants from his grandfather who are active in the church and 20 great grandchildren who have served missions.  So wonderful!

My daughter in law, Renetta, asked if I could give her your contact information.  Her parents, Lyle and Maryann Larkin often visit relatives in Utah and they would love to come and meet you someday when they are there.  I thought I would ask you first if I can give them your information.  We have it listed on the mission data base.  With your permission, I will forward it to her parents.

Thank you for raising such a nice son.  We are so grateful we are serving with him. He is a special one.

Love, Sister Carlson

PS – I also sent this as a message on Facebook so sorry if you get it twice.

Week 85 - Quality of Missionaries

Hi mom:)

Aww Kiegan is adorable, and Hendrix is definitely a boy ;) Haha those cute babies! That's cool you are feeding the missionaries today! Have fun with that, I hope they're doing some great work in the wards there! Our investigators are good, we have 4 we are working with. Because of conferences and transfers for the next few weeks we will be only able to meet with like 1 of them a day! Haha so we are trying our very best to fit everyone in. Also Elie is good, we didn't get to meet with him this week but we have been in contact. Thank you for your prayers. We will need it if we are going to help him reach his date. 

Elder Redmond is awesome, I love this guy. He is going home to Ireland in a couple weeks so it's gonna be sad to see him leave :( Yeah he is the 4th AP to leave me haha! It's weird seeing so many of my companions go home, especially since I spend time with all departing missionaries the night before they leave and drop them off at the airport the day of. It's going to be exciting training two new AP's. Right now it looks like I'll be getting released my last transfer (finally!) so I'm really excited for that as well.

Here is the low down for the week :) It's pretty boring because we literally were at Zone Conferences all week....

Mon- We had a meeting to discuss Zone conferences for Tue, Wed, Thur then we had MLC on Friday so we were VERY busy!!! 


After the meeting we went to FHE and Elie came again. We were talking about service for our little spiritual thought. Another missionary said something interesting about service, "Why does the celestial room feel so good after a session? I mean granted it's the celestial room, but it's because we just performed a service for someone on the other side."

I never thought of it that way before, but it really does help solidify the fact that happiness really only comes through service. After that we played human foosball and Elie loved it! We went home afterwards and just got everything ready for the zone conferences.

Tue- We had zone conference in Bloomington.


It went really well, the trainings were all fantastic and the spirit was definitely in the meeting. Elder Redmond and I trained on teaching the message of the restoration. The restoration is the unique message that we teach, and it's the answer to questions people never knew that they had. It's amazing seeing the missionaries practice teaching this lesson! It makes me think a lot about the days where it would take me forever just to grasp the concept of the restoration. I really wished I would've studied more when I was at home about the gospel because I look at these new missionaries coming out and I can just see the preparation they have made and they are amazing teachers. I can really say the quality of missionaries just gets better and better. After the zone conference we had a lesson with Grace. We had to drive an hour and a half just to get back. But we made it, and we met with Grace on campus. We discussed about the plan of salvation and the progress we can make in this life. After the lesson we asked her again about things she read and she said, "Yeah I was reading the scripture you gave me and it answered a question I didn't think I had." Redmond and I just looked at each other and smiled. It's precisely the purpose of the Book of Mormon, to answer questions plainly and clear up confusion, even questions and confusion we didn't even know we had. It was a little testament to me of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. 

Wed- Zone Conference in Indianapolis.


Again it was great and powerful. After that conference we drove back to campus for another lesson with Cicilia but she cancelled and wanted to meet the next day. So we just PC'd until we had to return back home. Pretty boring, but when zone conferences are going on, sometimes it's like this. 

Thur- Zone Conference in Lafayette.


The trainings went well and we got to hear some departing testimonies from missionaries leaving with Redmonds group. One was Elder Gonzaga, the elder I went on exchanges with in Elkhart but now he was the ZL of Purdue. He bore a very powerful testimony. Again, you can definitely sense the conviction of someone's testimony especially one that's full of experience. After the conference we again zipped back to IUPUI for a lesson with Cicilia. We taught her the plan of salvation and because she was so smart we taught her the whole thing. She is amazing because of her religious background. She knows a lot about God and also accepted a lot of what we taught. To her it made sense.  She believed a lot of this before but her Catholic ideals didn't exactly match up. So she accepts a lot of it, but she is hesitant about being baptized. We invited her to pray about it and continue to learn. So please continue to keep her and Grace in your prayers that they will receive a witness that it's true and that they will be willing to be baptized soon. After that we went home because we had to prepare for MLC.

Fri- MLC. All the Zone Leaders and STLs came from everywhere to hear instruction from President.


We trained on leadership skills and what it means to be a leader. But the main focus on helping the mission to teach repentance and baptize converts. We want to help raise the vision of the mission and baptize more, but here's what it comes down to: everyone's own faith and work ethic. Honestly as APs we don't influence the culture of the mission, the Zone Leaders do. We help instruct and facilitate change but in all honesty we don't do anything regarding the culture. So as I watch this MLC, especially after all the MLCs I've been through, I can see the change and the effort these new leaders are making. I hope and pray they continue to strive to work and help this mission. After the MLC we had to wait to clean up all the mess, then we went back to the church and finished all the paperwork we had for the week. We finally went home. Exhausted. Haha Zone Conferences and MLCs go from 9-5, and we also have to set up everything before that, and take down everything after that. So when we went home on Friday we hit the beds hard and had some well deserved rest. 

Sat- Well typically we like to go out and do something exciting for P-day but we just cleaned, studied, and we also got a good nap in so it's been sort of a relaxed today. But tomorrow is about to be crazy with all the appointments we have and we are trying to get 3 at church again! We will see:)

Well love you mom, I know it's short. And a warning it will probably be short next week too haha! But once zone conferences and transfers are over, things will be a little more exciting! Love you 

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli