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.