Week 14 - His

Heyllo :)

Haha it's your favorite Missionary... EVER ;)

Good to hear about Hevynn's shower and upcoming wedding! I'm missing those fools haha! But I'm not surprised all those people came, everyone loves Hevynn and Bo. Btw how are the Bolens doing? It must have been a fun weekend. Are they excited to get rid of their least favorite son?

Oh yeah I heard Stanford won and BYU lost. Let's just say I felt very peaceful during the Sabbath Day. Haha and I'm SO happy Weber State is on a roll now! They just need to keep it going!

Tell Alyssa to stop trying to be in shape when she's carrying a baby, haha, she's making me look bad!! We try to run every morning and we only go about a mile before I'm winded haha!! She's pregnant and she runs more than we do!!

So yup I have a new companion. His name is Elder Briggs and he's from Las Vegas! Apparently the second companion is the hardest to adjust to. Which the first day it was, but only because I was just thinking that he wasn't Freeman and that we wouldn't get along. But I was wrong. We are getting along well and I'm enjoying it now. It's funny too because he has a dislocated knee and torn ligaments so I thought it was also going to be difficult to do missionary work. But we went up to the AP's (Elder Gubler and Elder Hackney) and we told them we needed our own car because of Brigg's knee. They changed the cars around right there and now we have our own full time car! The others were pretty butthurt that they had to all share cars except us lol!! So we were able to do a lot this week. We'd work from 10 am to 9 pm and come back home ready to pass out!

But this week M and her family who are on baptismal date are in trouble. They ran into a lot of personal and financial issues and it's difficult for them to stay focused and do the things God wants them to do. We left a lesson with them frustrated because we could see the influence of Satan. He is definitely trying his hardest on this family. So please pray for her and her family. She needs it.

On another note the whole zone here was pretty much switched around. We lost 6 missionaries. However we got two poly's down here, Elder Pau'u and Elder Hansen! So let's just say there have been a lot of jam sessions going on after we come back from working :) It's so fun but we all have the same motto down here. "Work hard, Play Hard!" We do our best and work our hardest. But when we come back and the day is done, we can enjoy the rest of the night.

The scripture I want to share is Alma 7: 11-13:

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God sufferereth all things according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins
of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

The key word in this scripture is His. Christ made this sacrifice so that those who choose to follow Christ can be cleansed. You have to CHOOSE to follow Him. When we make that choice we become His people. We become part of His fold. And, if we choose not to follow Him, then we cannot fully access the atonement. We have to strive to obey all of Christ's commandments and follow His example. Once we do that, then is the full atonement opened up to us.

So those pictures of the kids' letter aren't popping up :(  I think you'll need to resend them because I want to read them!!! That or these library computers are garbage, haha!!

Oh and I can't believe I forgot to tell you this! We had the awesome opportunity to work at the Special Olympics :)  It was awesome! I had so much fun and it was inspiring to see everyone giving their all in every event. It took the whole day but it was well worth the work.

Love you and tell the family I love them. 

Ofa Lahi Atu,

Elder Heimuli

Week 13 - About Being Baptized

Hey Mom:)

Well the news you have all been waiting for. The baptism went GREAT!!!! But before I talk about that let me talk to you about another miracle. I talked about the family we found where we tracted into them and they were in our former’s book? Well we went over there to teach a lesson and out of nowhere the 21 year old daughter said, "You know what, I have a question for you two!" She said it in a really stern way. So me and Freeman were both ready for some kinda anti mormon question but she said "Why aren’t y’all telling me about being baptized? When can I do it? How is it done?" Me and Freeman almost laughed because that was what we were going to teach them about!! So we taught her and her family and we set them on a baptismal date for Oct. 31^st :)

Wait, there’s more. The night before the baptism we had dinner with our ward mission leader and C. She was still struggling a bit with prayer because of all the difficult situations in her life. Me and Freeman found a scripture which is Alma 5:45-46 -

“And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.”

We felt this was the scripture. After dinner we had a spiritual thought but before we could share our scripture our Ward mission leader bore his testimony of prayer. I can’t even describe in an email the power we felt. But it was awesome. The crazy thing was his testimony was exactly like the scripture we had prepared! When we read the scripture me, freeman, the ward mission  leader, and Catlin were all surprised, haha! We all had to tell her this was totally not planned, but it was all according to the spirit! So yet another blessing and miracle.

Fast Forward to the baptism. We invited P (the 21 year old who’s on date for Oct 31st) to the baptism. She loved it and said she is really looking forward to her own baptism. P has been coming to church ALOT and goes to all the activities and brings her little 2 year old son too! She is so awesome and did I mention she played rugby? 

During the baptism I swear Catlin was gonna jump outta her seat because she was so happy!! I’ve never seen someone so excited for their baptism. When Freeman baptized her and brought her up out of the water, she did like a fist pump and everyone laughed. We had great talks and a great musical number by the "Columbus Missionary Choir" -- so it was just us pretty much, haha! 

Sunday the confirmation went great too. Afterward, P told us how this is the only church she's seen that cares for its new members, that are involved and so welcoming. And you know what? It’s true! We told her that every LDS church and congregation she attends will be like this. Our church is a church of order and of love. So no matter where you go, if it be from Utah to Indiana or from Ukraine to India, members will always welcome you. We are the same everywhere and I feel like that’s one of the greatest things about being a member of this church.

This is Freemans last few days with me :(  I am pretty bummed because we've gotten so close with the people here and with each other. He's a great guy, an even greater missionary, and I’m gonna miss him. But it’s missionary work and there’s lots of it. So I’m going to have to hold the fort down here in Columbus! 

Congrats to Leah! Thats awesome!! Tell her I’m voting for Redlands University cuz it’s in Cali right? She should go there so I can keep an eye on her. I’ll make sure to scare all the guys away haha!! YAY!! So happy to see the pics of baby Hendrix and everyone at his baby blessing, it made me miss you all :) Glad Dallan was there too. Oh and I still get updates from Brother Farmer about all the games! We can’t text or call past 1030 so I asked if he would just text me the updates even though I can’t respond. So he did and I freaked out when I read it haha! Not only was I so happy to hear BYU lost, lol, but the best news was hearing Weber State WON and Stanford beat USC :) How’d Helam do? How’s Alyssa feeling? How are the marriage preparations coming along? How are Dad and Harry? How are you feeling?

I pray for you guys all the time and I especially am thankful for all of your prayers for me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Give all the family my love!!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli

P.S. My friend who is on a mission in Uncle Vai's area finally met him, haha! He told me Uncle was the coolest guy there and always treated the missionaries to pizza and tons of food. Haha it’s good to hear from my friends when they run into family :)

Week 12 - A Way Out

Hi Mom :)

Yup your favorite missionary is doing great! Haha, sounds like you had a VERY random dinner last night but dad doesn’t like tacos so I totally understand. Wow, 11 wards in the stake soon?! We are creating a new stake with 5 wards in it. I’m def not in Utah anymore. Oh yeah people love to update me on BYU game stuff even though I really don’t care about it. But they also like to update me on Stanford because that’s one of 2 teams that I actually care about. It’s a bummer for my other team (WSU) though. What was the final score?

Dang I didn’t know it was Bo’s Bday, tell him “happy late birthday old man” from me lol. Wow it’s going to be your 60th wedding anniversary, huh?;) haha jk I know you two aren’t quite THAT old. But I really wish I could be there, Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom :) 30 years in a world where people think that divorce is okay, 30 years raising a family where love and peace are found at home, that’s another thing I’ve come to really appreciate out here. I’ve seen too many families where the kids don’t have much of a chance because they just don’t have the solid family I’ve had growing up. I attribute that to my strong and valiant parents who built a family founded upon the Gospel. I am so thankful for you and dad and I hope you guys have a great anniversary:)

Things in Columbus are going great! Caitlin is still on track and we are holding her baptism this Saturday. She’s excited and already has everyone who she wants to speak at her baptism ready, she’s gung ho about it all! Elder Freeman will be baptizing her and I will confirm her on Sunday! She’s the best and no matter what we ask her to do, she has the faith that God will bless her for being obedient.

This past Sunday was crazy though. There was a stake priesthood meeting in Greenwood (about an hour away) so church started at 11 instead of 10. It’s funny because I’m more used to the 11am time so it seemed normal to me. Plus the Columbus 1st and Columbus 2nd wards combined so sacrament was crazy. To add to that, Freeman and I had 4 investigators at church, so it was like a circus act trying to sit by them and talk to all of them, haha. But sacrament was really cool because the talks centered on God’s love and temples, and those were two questions our investigators had! It was yet another little miracle God provided, and I knew He was watching out for these investigators. After sacrament, Sunday School was cancelled (yup, just cancelled) so we all went to priesthood, relief society, etc. The sister missionaries had an investigator who was male, so we kind of traded off, taking him to priesthood while our other investigators went with them to relief society. So again we were juggling people back and forth, but I think of it as much more of a blessing than a hassle because this just means the work is progressing and it is picking up. 

A scripture that popped into my head a lot was Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 

Glad you and Dad had the talk with Harrison. There's so much that kids his age will have to deal with, it's just crazy and terrible. Temptation is real and it’s hard. Even as a missionary we are still tempted. As imperfect people we will always be tempted, but God will not let us be tempted unless He provides a way out. And that way out? It’s called prayer. When we get on our knees and plead, just as Enos did in the Book of Mormon, we will receive the strength we need to resist temptation and find our way out. And when we find our way out, we realize we are a little bit stronger than before. God is always watching out for us, if we just take the time to pray, and have the faith to understand that we can overcome anything.

I know I didn’t ask this but it just popped into my mind. Is Hema still working in Atlanta? How’s Norma? I bet you’re all excited for Hendrix’s blessing coming up. Thanks for the picture. Can't believe how big he's getting :) How are Hevynn and Bo? How’s Harry liking school and swimming? How’s Dad holding up? How are Helam and Alyssa doing with their baby on the way and is Helam still contagious, haha. Love you mom!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Sincerely,

Elder Heimuli

PICS!

Totally agree with this church welcome sign "You may be the only bible some will ever read." I also recommend reading the Book of Mormon!

We did a service project and ran into some alpacas.

Elder Freeman had a staring contest with one of them.

Just us being us!

On our way to a service project

We taught 9 lessons in a day and we were pooped. After we did our Planning and got everything ready for the next day, we had a little movie night!

A sister missionary gave me her uke! Yes I sleep with it.

Week 11 - A Pretty Miracle-Filled Week

Before transfers changes everything, here's a pic of all the elders in our apartment:  L to R - Rasmussen, Freeman, Naire

Hey sorry it's taken so long to email you back :/ It's Labor Day so we couldn't write until I got to a member's house. I hope Helam recovers and Alyssa and the baby are OK. I'm praying for him. That's good to hear that Uncle Tini and Aunt Lori are healthy and doing well. I know many prayers were said for them. I'm sure you and Hevynn were happy to be in their ward because you both love helping out. So a few weeks ago at the temple I ran into a Hawaiian-samoan lady who knew Uncle Tini! She said she'd email him a picture of us, but I don't remember her name so I'm sorry haha!

So...football. It's funny. I thought I'd avoid football here in basketball country but I guess I can't. Since Dad played for BYU people in our ward think it's their responsibility to update me on BYU games...ok...haha. Brother Farmer, a member in our ward, played with Dad and Uncle Hema. He was a freshman when Dad was a senior. He kindly updates me on both BYU and Stanford. I told him now I just need him to update me on Weber State games and we are good to go!

Hema and Norma are such awesome parents, and Helam and Alyssa are going to be great parents too. Oh can you shoot me their photos so I can see how ugl.... I mean how beautiful they all look? ;)

This week has been pretty good. We've just been working hard doing as much as we can because Freeman leaves in a week and a half. He's such a great trainer so it's going to be weird not being his companion. Yeah I don't think anyone else can match him right now, he's awesome. 

Elder Heimuli's going to miss Elder Freeman. What a great trainer!

But we've had almost no luck tracting this week. I remember one day we went out for about 5 min and it started to pour on us.

Coming back in from the pouring rain

So we were stranded at a gas station and the other elders couldn't come pick us up for a bit. Then outta nowhere Steve and Kim saw us and we got a ride from them haha. I thought mom must still be praying for angels to watch over me because that's what Steve and Kim are. Miracles everyday. 
In fact last week we were knocking doors for hours and no one was answering. Literally no one, so we were pretty frustrated. We were complaining and we just thought, "All we need is one door to answer, one door." So the last door we decided to knock on opened!! They opened and it was a family who had missionaries over before. She said that she loved the missionaries because they were so kind. We talked to them for like an hour and now they want to know more. Later that night we were wondering when they met with the other missionaries and BAM! The first page we turned to in our book was a teaching record of that family. We got to know what they were taught and what they needed to know. Little miracles in everything everyday. 

C this past Sunday invited us over to dinner. She lives with her sister C and her family, and the crazy thing is Freeman used to teach them. They just got too busy so Freeman never got the chance to teach them again. We saw them a couple of weeks ago at the temple open house but we still could never find a good time to see them because they were so busy. But now we were having dinner with them and we got to spend time with their family! Another miracle. Their family has been through a lot and they were kinda mad at God, but C told us that they've been trying to get right with God and that's why she wanted us to teach her. So Freeman and I talked with them and we told them to watch the Mormon Message "Mountains to Climb." C just loved it and is now even more eager than ever to be baptized. Also her sister wants to see us again and she wants to know more. Looking back I can see that this has been a pretty miracle-filled week, and I am so grateful for the blessings God gives us. Thank you for the prayers, I know they help alot because I've seen the power that prayers bring into lives and the blessings God gives us if we will simply get on our knees and pray.

Sorry if this letter seems so short and jumbled. We only have a little bit of time to email! 

Love you guys!

Ofa Lahi Atu,

Elder Heimuli

PS. I got the cutest letter from my cousin Hannah!

PPS. I'm addicted to cotton candy grapes. You gotta try these!