Letter 4 - Stop Wasting Time

Hi Mom!

Well, Sunday sounded SUPER busy for ya. But congrats again to Harry for his ordination and for making it another year ;) And oh geez I swear you can't catch a break. Thank you for providing for me as well though, I know it's not easy with everything going on but I appreciate everything you and dad have done for me out here and at home :) I love you two a lot. 

Sister Breck wanted to mail Elder Heimuli off to Ireland but he wouldn't fit in the box

So this week was a little slower, and we have kind of lost contact with a lot of investigators :( so it's a bit of a struggle but we are still pushing. Here are some highlights of the week!

We had a couple of lessons with LJ this week. The first one we taught about the Book of Mormon and how it applied to our lives. We challenged him to read it and later that night he had already finished the first chapter! Amazing! But after the lesson we discussed his baptismal date and he decided to wait a week so most of his family can attend. I totally understand. His new date is May 6th. We had another lesson with him about the Plan of Salvation. His mom was also there. She is an awesome lady. During the lesson I could tell she felt the spirit. By the end when we started talking about prayer, she said something that most of are thinking but usually not honest or brave enough to say. She shared with us that she hasn't prayed in a long time because she feels like she doesn't want to pray to God only when something wrong happens. I admired her honesty. She doesn't want to be selfish and just pray when she wants something. But I recalled the Bible Dictionary definition of Prayer. It talks about how prayer is a way to secure blessings from God, who is willing to give blessing freely, but only on the condition that we ASK for them. When we choose to pray, and ask in faith, we show our reliance on God. So it's actually not being selfish to ask for help. I know that if we can bridge our DESIRE to pray, it will develop into FAITH. And I think she seemed to understand because she committed to pray. LJ understood the lesson, too, and he seemed interested in the kingdoms and the afterlife. It's really an amazing message that honestly testifies of how much our Father in Heaven loves us. How much He wants us to return to Him, that He sent Jesus Christ to become a pillar in the plan and in the gospel.

Heimuli & Quick

We also had a lot of service opportunities this week! 

One of the best ones was going to Grandma Banks' farm and cutting down A LOT of trees. Grandma is an amazing woman who when we were cutting down trees she was out picking up wood and twigs all by herself. If we ran over to help she would tell us to "Stop wasting time, and cut down more trees!" haha! But it was fun. We also helped a young man with his Eagle Project. I remember what a relief it was to get mine done, so we were happy to help him with his. I told you the week before we moved sheds? This time we helped move some canoe racks over. They were heavy, but we have an Elder Taka and an Elder Quick so it's no problem for us :) haha. Then the kid's family took us out to a place called Taku. It's similar to Benihana so we got to enjoy some dude throwing knives and food up in the air everywhere. 

At the Eagle Project moving canoe racks

When Sunday rolled around, Elder Quick had to give a talk and I had to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum. Quick spoke on prayer, and he hit it out of the park! I always learn a lot from him. No, he didn't really say anything new or unique. But it's like when you really pay attention, you notice that what general authorities say in general conference isn't new either. It's the essentials every time but it also resonates differently every time. There are times where we really listen to one message and ignore the others, then in a later conference we listen to the other messages and ignore the one we focused on before. The point is, just because someone says something that's already been said a thousand times, the spirit will always help us understand the message differently according to our needs. Quick's message wasn't new, but everyone could feel his own personal witness of prayer, and how it helped him in his own life. After that amazing talk I gave the lesson in priesthood. It went well. We all discussed the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone of our religion. 

So those are some highlights from this week. This week we have zone conference, interviews, and some projects coming up so the next letter might not be as long ;) haha.

Elder Heimuli's parents got this letter in the mail today!

But anyways thanks for everything mom! Love you all!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli

***

Wanna start off with the good news!! So Heimuli and I were with LJ talking about the Book of Mormon, it was a very powerful lesson we had with him. We read the first chapter and introduced what it entailed. At the end of the lesson, I wish you could hear LJ pray! His prayers are so sincere and so meaningful. You can feel the spirit flood into the room! We then left to go play basketball with him and others. We committed him to read the rest of the chapter, by the time we had gotten to the Church to meet back up with him he already had read the entire chapter and understood it and told us all about it. We came back the next day to talk a little about the plan of salvation, the spirit was so prevalent, you could feel it, it was like the air was thick -- that is the best way I can describe it. As we went through the lesson, Linda (Grandma) and Ana (Mom) were able to support big time, and able to be there for him if he needs anything. To be honest, it is such a blessing to be able to feel of all their love and camaraderie they have for each other. By the end of the lesson Ana really opened up about prayer and how it is hard. We were able to talk about prayer and how we pray, what we do and why we pray. LJ even bore his testimony and offered to pray at night with her. 

Speaking of prayer, I was asked to give a talk at church this Sunday, it was a great experience for me. They asked me to speak on James 1:5. We quote this and talk about this scripture all day long. So it's easy, right? Well not really. I thought about the different ways I could go and the things I could say about it. But it came to me one night as I was just laying in bed. I couldn't sleep, and I was just thinking and thinking about this scripture and so about 1 a.m. I got out of bed and sat with the door open and watched the thunderstorm and the sheets of rain coming down. I pondered the words of James and knew what I was supposed to talk on. Short summary is James 1:5, the order of prayer, basically how we pray. Why we pray. Pray vocally. Joseph Smith, the first time he prayed vocally a miracle happened. On that day he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. That experience changed the world! And with our experiences with prayer, we can change our world, which will change the world of others. Elder Bednar told us to Pray, Listen, and Pray again. The answer may come right then or in a little while, but after you get the answer, say another prayer to give thanks and ask what more you need to know about that answer. Elder Dolandson said "How much time does Heavenly Father spend listening to us? And how much time do we spend listening to Him?" I really appreciated giving that talk on Sunday. It really helped me a lot.

I had the chance to go see Pepi this week, she was in the hospital in Indy. We visited and talked with her about the different things she was going through and how much we loved her and cared for her. It was really neat to talk with her after being gone. We ended up giving her a blessing. She was pretty sick. I appreciated the time I was able to spend with her and just talk about how when we apply the Gospel it changes us. But we have to choose it. 

Have a great week everyone:)

Elder Quick

Tear Drops on the Parchment

[While it's impossible to not be extremely excited about Elder Heimuli's return home, it is also very tender and bittersweet to receive this little note along with Houston's final return itinerary yesterday. How grateful we are -- and will forever be -- for the incredible people with whom our son has had the privilege of crossing paths!]

From: Indiana Indianapolis Mission Referral Secretary
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 3:10 PM
To: Heimuli, Pania - Salt Lake City, UT
Subject: Elder Heimuli's Final Return Itinerary

Brother and Sister Heimuli,

Please see the attached Final Return Itinerary for Elder Heimuli.  Please excuse the tear drops on the parchment.  I am really going to miss Elder Heimuli.  Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Elder Breck

Secretary to the President

INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS MISSION

777 Sunblest Boulevard, Fishers, IN  46038-1167

Letter 5 - It Gets Better and Better Each Time

Hi Mom!

Well again, I won't give a play by play (because they take forever and lately I've had no time haha!) but I will give the highlights of the week!

My tokos

So we had dinner at Riley and Raegan's house. They were very grateful for the wedding gift you sent and they really appreciated it. I believe they are sending something back to you as a thank you. Anyways we had dinner with them and Raegan's nephew LJ is on date for April 28th and he is ready for baptism. We all had dinner together and we just talked about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it applied to our lives. No matter how many times I share that message it gets better and better each time. The part about the boy Joseph Smith resonated with LJ since he is 14 as well. The lesson was awesome. Afterwards we went to sports night and played bball with LJ and tons of other people. So that was awesome. 

Next we went and watched Evan's baseball games. Evan is Kim's nephew and he is a stud. In fact I love his whole family, they are all soooooo awesome. Quick and I could tell it meant a lot to their family to have our support there. Not like they were lacking on people coming to the games but the more the merrier. But I have learned that missionary work, TRUE missionary work, just means you care. We didn't spout a lesson or invite him to baptism, but we just showed up and cared about his passion. We spent time with that family then went back to proselyting that night. It was fun and a great experience. And it's really been a busy, busy week for me and Quick.

Gave some service, moved a shed and got a workout at the same time

Easter Sunday was fantastic, too. So again those 3 families who are on date couldn't make it again :( We were disappointed.... but guess who did come? LJ, and Evan's family! We sat with all of them and then enjoyed the rest of the meetings with them. It was our Easter grace for the day. I know that church is a place where they can feel the spirit. It truly touches people, but even more so on Easter Sunday where we get to remember the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf. Soooo grateful for His sacrifice, and grateful for the pattern He outlined for us, so that we can return to our Father in Heaven and realize the blessings that come from obedience to His commandments. Christ was baptized, He obeyed the commandments of His Father, He submitted Himself to His father's will, and was raised from the dead, breaking the bands of death. And along that pattern, He is a pillar to which we can look when we are in pain, when we are struggling with trials, and when we think we can't move forward. Because Jesus Christ has felt it all. He is our Savior and our Gracious Redeemer. He has provided for us the way back to our Father in Heaven. 

This week was a pretty good one. And we are looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I'm a little disappointed I couldn't make to this year's family Easter egg hunt ;) haha but I'll make the next one. Love you mom and give the family my love!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

***

Mama Heimuli,

Some of the highlights for this week is we had a lesson with LJ, at Riley's and Raegan's home. They invited LJ over for dinner, and we all had dinner and shared the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He basically taught us the lesson. We got to the point where we asked him what this specific picture meant. He told us "That is Jesus Christ giving Peter the authority." LJ understands everything really well. During the lesson I could feel the spirit just flooding the room. Riley and Raegan bore testimony and it was very powerful. We had LJ read the First Vision and you could just see in his eyes that the message touched him. It was neat. Afterwards we went and hooped up and were all able to create some bonding time playing basketball. Linda is his Grandma, and she told us something very neat - that she was appreciative of us, that the first time we were there was a day full of "firsts," that it was LJ's first prayer out loud. And when we asked him why he wanted to be baptized he said, "Because of my mom." She truly set the example by being baptized. We had a chance to spend time with the Huckabee family and go to baseball games. It was fun to watch Evan play ball. Missionary work is done in different ways all over. It was neat to see the passion of the boys playing baseball. It reminded me of my old days playing football and how much we loved it.

Easter weekend was great. We got to spend it at the Shoaf's home. They have a farm, so we got to spend time on their farm relaxing, eating tons of food, games and hanging with the family. It was very great.

Friday is the day we recognize as the day Christ was crucified. On that day I woke up and was just sitting there when the spirit hit me. I read all the accounts of when Jesus was crucified. How grateful I am for how much He loves me, to go through all the pain and sorrow He endured for all of us. I hope you all had a great Easter week. Love you :)

Elder Quick

Letter 6 - A Charitable Heart

[Note from Mom: I've been bugging Elder Heimuli for a picture of him and Elder Quick for a couple of weeks so I could post it.  Nothing.  So I decided to post a couple of high school pics, since they've known each other forever and are, finally, companions for Houston's last transfer in the mission.]

Hey mom!

Yup, Columbus is great and it's good to be back! Especially as JC to Elder Quick :) it's even better. 

Hema and Norma wrote to me! It's always good to hear from them. I will try to reply but if I'm not able to, please tell them it's only because I'm pretty limited on email time now, haha! But I still love them :) 

Good for Helam and Alyssa and their business. Yes, I saw those gorgeous photos that Helam took of Hema's family! Haha, Hendrix looked so happy ;) 

Tell Aunty Tina I said hi and tell Hev and Bo the same! Those firesides were awesome, and I still listen to the Testimony song that they all sang at my farewell and at the Ogden Temple devotional :)

Congrats to Harry :) If I forget, Happy Bday, bud. I'm happy and so proud of his advancement and willingness to become a holder of the very authority Christ and Prophets hold. This authority is given for service, and for our own growth. I'm excited for him and can't wait to see him when I get back! I also hope that he is helping dad. It's funny how much people always bring up dad still. It happened like 5 times this week! 

I know you want pics, mom. Here are a few I finally downloaded off my camera of me at transfers with some of my favorite Tongan missionaries. Sorry, these are a couple weeks old but I know you'll love them anyways!

With Elder Fonohoma (from Utah)

Elder Pau'u headed back home (to California)

Elder Quick (who thinks he's Tongan)

So I decided this time I won't have a play by play of the week. I decided to share what miracles I have seen and the lessons I have learned this far! Why? Because I left my planner at home. Haha. And so many things have happened this week that I really can't remember anything that has happened day to day. But here is what did happen. 

At church with Elder Taka

Elder Quick went on exchanges with Elder Taka and they went tracting for 12 hrs!!!!!!!!!!! I decided to go with Elder Woolsey and we stopped by all of our investigators, and theirs, and tracted. While we were working, no one was answering their phones or their doors, so I was getting pretty fed up with it. Then I got a call from the Zone Leaders. They told me that they were teaching a family that they planned on passing off to us (because they are Spanish) but then the family moved to Georgia. This all happened about a year ago, I'm just giving a little background into what happened. Fast forward to now, the ZLs called and told me that the family had returned and that they wanted the missionaries over again! So we picked up 2 new investigators because we were out being diligent. Following that we went and picked up Taka and Quick and ended the exchanges. 

So this family is awesome. After the lesson we put them on date for April 29th, but we found that there is a language barrier. The husband is Hispanic and we had another lesson with them, which went pretty bad because I've never dealt with a family in which language is a huge concern. So please pray for them to make that date and for us that we can be guided to know what will better help them progress -- because we need that guidance, haha! Anyways, they weren't able to come to church Sunday because they woke up late and it's a good distance from where they live. They said they were coming this week, so we are hoping for that as well. 

Another miracle was the other day Elder Quick and I decided to go and drop by Billy and Brittany's because they haven't been answering their phones and they have been sick. We talked to Brittany for a bit and we had some time before our next appointment so we went and visited another potential. While we were waiting at the door a woman walked by. Elder Quick just did a 180 and started talking to her. I think she was weirded out at first, but then she allowed us to come back and visit her. We came back and had a spiritual lesson with her. We taught her about the Restoration and she agreed to be baptized as well!!!! April 29th! She didn't come to church this week but we are still working with her. Her son said something cool. After the lesson, he looked at his mom and asked if he could come to church, too! Apparently, she didn't listen to him this week ;) but maybe she will be receptive this upcoming week. So please pray she makes that date and that we can be able to help her and her 3 kids progress in this gospel. It was a cool miracle though. 

But another one happened this Sunday! So first off, Elder Quick and I have been playing basketball with a kid named LJ. He is Kim's nephew, and he is an awesome kid. We have been spending time with him and he really just wants to be better at sports, or whatever. Well, he has also been attending church with his grandma, who is Kim's sister. He came this Sunday and we sat with him. After sacrament, out of nowhere, he and his grandma come up to us and ask if there is any way we can baptize him!! So right then and there we set a date for April 29th. So there are 6 people who could be baptized on April 29th! 

We will be working as hard as we can to help them progress, so I pray that Heavenly Father grants us wisdom and knowledge. Even if it is for just this small moment, I really just want to help these people, Mom. I really want to just be my best at this point. I hope I can get it all done, not for my own agenda or anything like that. Not because I want to be remembered, and not because I just want to go out with a bang....

I have thought a lot about it, and I earnestly desire just a charitable heart to finish this work that God has given me to do. I pray for that ability, even if it's for this limited time that I have left. 

Anyhow, Mom, I pray God keeps blessing those I love at home as well. Love you and hope all is well

Ofa Lahi Atu,

Elder Heimuli

***

Elder Taka and I made a goal that we wanted to go knock doors all day long. We started knocking doors at 10 am and ended an 9 pm. This day we saw so many miracles, I can't even begin to describe. We started in the morning in my area and found a lot of success of Cleveland Street, in honor of our former Mission President, Steve Cleveland. We found an individual named Kay, who was very prepared. She was confused about why her pastor would steal money to pay for a drug addiction he had, and knew that if he was a servant of God he wouldn't do that. We set a return appointment with follow up and answer her questions. The next door we went to we talked to Sheila who was just sitting in her truck. Turns out her niece is a Mormon who lived out in Utah, and Sheila is an apostolic Pentacostal. We also found a crazy guy on that street. Taka flashed a fire fighter badge, the guy thought we were police officers and let us...and then he asked who we were about 15 minutes into the conversation! He looked pretty relieved that we weren't the police! 

Next, I looked at the GPS, picked a place and drove there...drove through the entire parking lot of this apartment complex and then parked on the opposite side of it. Truly we were being led by the spirit. The first lady we talked to was named Melody. She had so many questions about religion. She told us she was looking for a church that she could raise her family in. Melody also told us something very profound. She said, "It took me 7 months to open up to my therapist and it took me 5 minutes to open up to you two." We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that she could ask any question she wanted, write it in the front, and then by reading it she would find her answer. We met with her later, read it with her and had a very powerful lesson. She's thinking of a baptismal date. 

We moved to Elder Taka's area started knocking and found a few people and then an individual tried to bash us. I don't really like people who just want to bash us so I invited us to leave and he wouldn't let us. As he asked us questions, we were not confounded we could answer everything he asked us. I bore my testimony and Elder Taka started to bear his testimony and the man said, "No, I don't want to hear it. I've already heard it."

I wished him to have the spirit with him as he gave a sermon the following Sunday. We were about to leave his street, but instead we decided to go knock every door. I decided I'm going to baptize his neighbor so he can live next to a Mormon haha. We continued knocking the last 3 houses when we found Catherine who is facing several struggles right now, and is looking for a church, and loved the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she was going to invite all of her friends over so they could hear this message. She loves sports. We host a weekly sports night and she is going to come. The last house we knocked, we talked to a woman named Grace, who was looking for a church to show her son the correct path. She accepted a baptismal date of April 29th and is very excited about working towards it, learning more about the message we bring. 

The last miracle we saw was the last person we talked to. There was a lady who was outside having a smoke break. So we made small talk with her while we knocked the apt doors around hers. Eventually I walked over, still making small talk, and then she just opened up and talked about her life, and the deaths she recently had. We talked about it, she told me she believed she would see them again and hold them again. What a great attitude to have! She taught me a great lesson to always stay positive even when faced with crazy trials.

We were trying to contact some potential investigators when I saw this lady and I just went to talk to her. It was kinda random and I think I spooked her because I had to walk through this little tunnel and pop out right before her. She talked to us about what she thought about church and how she was allowed to pick whatever church she wanted when she was a little kid. We set up a return appointment, went back two days later, she accepted a baptismal date of the 29th and her son James saved us! He was like, "Mom, let's go to church. I want to go." So shout out to James for saving us on that one.

Mary Jane and Jose were referrals from the Spanish elders, so their home it is pretty crazy to be in (they have kids running everywhere), so one of us will distract the kids while the other one teaches. Jose doesn't even speak English so we brought a Spanish member in our ward to teach with us. A very neat thing:  she was taught a year ago if i remember correct. She already is starting to quit smoking. Very prepared investigator, we kinda get really stressed out going over there because of all the craziness in the home but I know that it isn't about us. It is about Mary and Jose, and we will work with what we have been given.

LJ at church came up to us with his Grandma Linda. She told us that LJ is looking to get baptized while we are still here! We have been stopping by playing basketball with him, kind of just chilling, making sure he's good and waiting for the opportunity to bring up baptism. And then HE brings up baptism to US! Please pray for him. We have to get permission from his parents to baptize him. Many prayers are needed.

Funny experience we were riding bikes, not even a half mile from our house, and Elder Heimuli rips his pants. It was pretty bad. So we had to ride home and get that taken care of. And then Elder Taka and I had to fix our door. It took us about 20 minutes. It was a pretty simple fix, just put a piece of trim back on. Anyways thanks for reading!

Have a great week

Much love

Elder Quick

Letter 7 - I'm Jr Companion

[For the past 21 months, I've had the privilege of writing two missionaries in the Indiana Indianapolis Mission -- Elder Heimuli and Elder Quick. If you've followed this blog, you know that they were best friends in high school, and are finally companions for Elder Heimuli's final transfer! So for the next 7 weeks, I will post both letters.]

Hi mom :)

It feels great to be in the field again!!! Things have been so good, mom, it's just amazing. 

So there was a get together for the Murray side? Are they still there? If so, give them all my love please. They probably don't remember me :)

Yeah on Wednesday I realized it was Hema's bday and I wanted to send him a happy bday wish. It was the only time during the week that I wish I was still in the office. But I'm not on the computers anymore so I couldn't send him one. I hope it was a good one! Sounds like Norms pulled off a great party. Hema deserves it. He is a great father and brother. But I will always be the best-looking Heimuli, so hope he knows that ;)

Well here is the rundown for the week. Coming towards the end, I'm starting to realize how important this time is. :)

Mon- We finished any last transfer things we needed to do at the office. It was weird knowing that this was the last one I'd ever plan, or really ever have, since it's my last transfer as well. Then we went to pick up all of the new missionaries from the airport. Oh and I do have the pic of the guy from Weber State's friend that Helam asked about. But I don't have my camera with me so I'll have to shoot it to Helam another time. These new missionaries who came out are good! Again, they just keep getting better and better. After that I went home and packed all of my stuff and then went to bed.

Tue- TRANSFERS. I was so happy to finish all of the transfer stuff because I know I'll never have to do it again haha! And that's where i got my companion....ELDER QUICK!!!!!!!! haha, I have been having a blast!! At transfers we said bye to another of the best missionaries I've ever known, Elder Pau'u. He's so awesome and I am looking forward to chilling with him after the mission. After transfers we drove down to Columbus. We were so excited we didn't even unpack. We decided to unpack later and just hit the ground running. We visited my recent convert, Michelle, then visited Todd and Loretta. After that we had dinner with the Allen family and discussed what we could do to help the ward since Brother Allen is the Young Men's President. He gave us names of a couple of people to visit and we are trying to contact them all. After that, we tracted for a bit then went home and started to unpack, haha. We still haven't completely unpacked. We have been go, go, go, since we hit Cbus.

Wed- We woke up and unpacked a bit more. We decided that we would not stay in the apartment AT ALL from 10 am till 9pm. So when it hit 10 o'clock, we hit the streets. We went out and tracted and found a little bit of success. We decided to hit potentials too and reconnect with people I used to teach here. We got back in contact with Tessa and she will be moving soon, but we are still going to try to assist her until she leaves. After that we tracted again for a long time until dinner, which by the way, mom, members are really good at feeding missionaries here! We have a dinner appointment every night, so I've been trying not to gain weight. But we have nothing but bad food in our apartment. And, because Quick and I decided we would only shop on Mondays, and because we are always out, we have just been snacking on that unhealthy food :( haha. We bought some healthy foods today so we are good now. After dinner we visited Kim and worked with people around that area. After that we came home and I just knocked out. It's nice feeling this really good kind of tired again :)

Thur- District Meeting! Elder Quick and Elder Taka are the District Leaders here in Cbus (I'm Jr Companion). They had a combined meeting. It was really good and it was just spiritually-packed, mom. They got me and the others so fired up, that after the meeting what did we do? We went out and tracted!! 

Quick & Heimuli in back

We decided to blitz Elder Taka's area for a bit then blitz ours. We also decided to Bike. While we were biking a huge storm rolled in and started to just downpour on us! It was crazy!! Then Elder Taka tried to take a turn on the slippery road and crashed haha! I was ahead of them then suddenly I just heard Elder Quick bust up laughing. I looked back and saw this huge 340 lbs Taka sprawled out on the ground! After laughing so hard, we then tracted and blitzed. We found some success but not a ton. After that we had dinner with another member then visited one of the people I used to teach. This was a miracle. So the first time I taught this family, they just disappeared and we couldn't find them. It was like they moved and they didn't tell us. Ballif and I stopped by multiple times but no luck. So we had to drop them. Then on Thursday the spirit prompted us to go and just knock on that same particular door. We did...and they opened up. They didn't have much time right then, but they said we could come back the next day and talk. We set up the appointment and headed back to our apartment. 

Fri- We biked ALL day haha! It was awesome. We contacted formers, potentials, less actives, and part members. It was A LOT of biking. But we went everywhere and visited as many people as we could. And here was the other big miracle. We got to a point that night where we had time to visit only one more investigator, but we had two people we needed to visit. After pondering on it, we decided to visit the family we visited the other day. It was about 5 miles away from where we were and was even farther away from our apartment. But we biked and biked and biked. When we got there, no one was home. We were low key mad because had we biked all that distance!!! We said a prayer in our hearts and knocked a couple more times. After 5 min we were about to leave when the family pulled up and walked towards us. They had all gone out for a second and came back. So we barely caught them. We were invited in. We shared the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. They had heard it before. And hearing it again brought just a wonderful spirit into the room. We put them on baptismal date for April 29th! So please, pray for them that they make their date. After that lesson we rode all the way back home and just knocked out! Elder Quick only made it halfway onto his bed, haha! 

Sat- In the morning, we had breakfast with Bro Guenther from the 1st Ward. He's the one who loves dad and gave me his old football pad. He was happy to see me and I was glad to see him, too. Breakfast was too good. I had 8 pancakes and a bunch of bacon (Not Good). Conference was awesome! Elder Brough's talk was really good. He talked about an experience where he wanted to take his dog with him to the mission that his parents were called to preside over. His dad told him to ask God about whether or not he should bring it. Now the talk was based on having people who love you help you develop. But I took something else from his talk. After praying, Elder Brough got his answer which was NOT TO BE A BURDEN. He realized he needed to follow God's will, the will that we find through prayer and in the scriptures, which was to go with his parents and not to be a burden. 

It made me wonder how I can follow God's will more closely. His talk about having people around you who love you and help you develop. But his talk also reminded me of all the great ward leaders and family members who have influenced me and taught me by word and by example. I am truly blessed and thankful for everyone back at home. Following conference, we had lunch with the bishop. Then we attended the other sessions and had dinner with a member. It was a great great day, in which I was physically and spiritually fed! We also got a little tracting in, so that was good, too :)

Sun- We decided to watch a conference session with Kim and Steve :) It was great. President Monson's talk about the Book of Mormon and growing our personal testimony was powerful. If we want to keep and grow our testimonies we need to CONSTANTLY be in the scriptures and in prayer. We have to. Even though his talk was brief, it was powerful. Many of the talks were fantastic that day. I wish I could write what I learned from all of them in this email. After that we had a ward pitch in. Our investigators were supposed to come but they couldn't make it :( However, we had lunch for about 30 min then went out and visited some less actives and did some tracting before the next session started. After conference we went to dinner with a member and then we went back out and tracted for a bit more. Whenever we don't have appointments or aren't stopping by part members' homes, or less actives, we are constantly finding. So it's been a great week for me. 

Being with Elder Quick is just awesome. He is a diligent missionary...a lot more so than me. He is very knowledgeable about the scriptures and is very concerned with being in tune with the Spirit. He doesn't care what anyone thinks about him because he knows that he is accountable to the Lord. That's just a little bit about what I admire about him. We are working our tails off and we are going to baptize this transfer. So if you'll just keep praying for us, mom, we will put in the work for it. 

Thank you, mom, for everything! Give my love to the fam!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

***

Hi Mama,

Week one. So the very first day we get in, we just decide to spend a little bit of time organizing then we just decided to hit the streets, and get out and visit some old potential investigators of Elder Heimuli's. We found a few of them, but mostly just trying to get in contact with them, set stuff up.

Brittany and Billy, they are a family that Elder Heimuli worked with quite some time ago, and they ended up disappearing.. like in the middle of the night, they just dipped out and moved. No idea where they went. But he had an impression to go stop by their old address. So we went after saying a prayer that they would be in the same apartment. We knocked and they answered! She told us that she asked the other day why the "guys" hadn't been by in some time. Then her son looked at the Book of Mormon in my hand and asked me what it was. I told him it was scripture. He disappeared after that..then he ran and found the Book of Mormon. Brittany was like, How did you find that? I didn't even know where I had left that. We set a return appointment...fast forward a couple of days, we were on bikes riding around. We had the choice between riding about 4 miles to Brittany and Billy's, or to another potential who was only like 1 mile away...we had to choose. We chose to ride to Brittany's. The whole time we were riding the wind was so strong against us, and even more so the closer we got. I thought for sure they were going to be there. We knocked on the door. Nothing. We knocked 3 times, and I was like wow...we chose the wrong one. Then all of the sudden Billy walked around the corner and was like, Hey, I just pulled up. What a tender mercy we had. We went in and had a great discussion with him about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted a baptismal date of April 29th!

Funny story...Elder Taka, Elder Heimuli and I were riding our bikes through the pouring rain. It pours like sheets of rain here so we were all soaking wet from head to toe, riding to get to the area we were going to track. We stopped some people on the road, offering them soggy pass-along cards...and we were on a busy street. Elder Heimuli was leading the pack, Elder Taka was in the middle and I was in the rear. Elder Taka is 6 foot 4 in and weighs 330 pounds. We rode through a puddle. Taka rode into a pot hole and it threw him sideways! Somehow he managed to like run with his right foot. I swerved into traffic to try to cut off the car in case he flew into the road, but then he bailed off onto the grass. I couldn't help it. I was dying laughing at this point. So was Elder Heimuli. Taka jumped right up, got back on the bike, had grass stains all up on his shirt, and ripped his pants open.

We did a lot of knocking on doors this week, doing our best to gain member trust and visiting people, asking for referrals and information on what has been going on and how we can help the ward. Met a couple of interesting people.. nothing like good ole x roads, but serving with your best friend you'll find success anywhere in the world!! Trust me there. We've seen so many miracles. We serve God every day. We are out the door early and we don't come home 'til late at night.

Found a family. We talked to the wife who told us her and her husband were open and we came back. So we came back and her husband was outside on the lawn and immediately was like NOT interested. So we talked to him for a second, telling him we were there to talk to him and his wife, that his wife invited us back to talk about the Gospel, but he just wasn't having it. That is okay though because time will soften his heart.

General Conference was such a blessing especially to hear the words of the Prophet of God. I loved his invitation he left with us to study the Book of Mormon every day. Not a few times a week or just once, but every single day! I also loved his talk in the Priesthood session where he talked about kindness and how Jesus Christ was the best example of kindness. During General Conference I focused on looking for "armor" and how to wear the Armor of God better, how to be more effective and how to strengthen our testimonies.

Have a good one, love,

Elder Quick!