Week 49 - Training All Over Again

Hey Mom!!!

Well this week was fantastic! We had more zone conferences. We love these times when we get to meet with all the missionaries!

Elder Wimmer, Heimuli and Clark

I got to see Elder Freeman. In fact Elder Freeman and I got to go on splits together on campus :) 

Elder Heimuli, back with his trainer Elder Freeman again.

Great to be on splits with Freeman. Love this guy!

On campus at Indiana University

Interesting characters

Needless to say we had fun and worked hard! I think having a campus in your zone is pretty awesome and not your average zone. It's funny, I'm not used to talking to people my age as a missionary so I was pretty clueless about what was happening. I learned a lot being out there with my "dad"...I felt like I was in training all over again haha! 

Funny miracle though. So we finished talking to a lady and I decided to get all of her info on my phone. After we finished talking to her we went to a bus stop to talk to some more people. I put my phone on the bench for Freeman to copy down the info. He slid the phone back over to me, but I, being dumb, forgot to pick it up. 

About 30 minutes later, after walking all around and talking to a lot more people, I realized I didn't have my phone! Oh no. We called it and ran back to everywhere we could think of trying to find it. I said a little prayer but we decided to just keep working and we would take time to try and find it later. 

While Freeman was talking to another lady, his phone rang and it showed that the call was coming from my phone! He immediately stopped and yelled that my phone was found. I ran over, grabbed his phone, and asked who it was on the other end? The voice said, "You owe me fifty bucks!" 

Haha, it was my companion Elder Clark. When I left the phone at the bus stop one of the guys I had been talking to picked it up. He ran into Clark and Holle (Freeman's comp) and said, "Your friend dropped this, here ya go!"

What a miracle! Then I bought Clark a $50 lunch because he had found my phone haha!!! 

As for your lesson it's interesting because we just finished zone conference and the training I gave was on the importance of church attendance. But for the missionaries it was more geared towards ways to help get investigators to church.

At zone conference

Here is a great scripture you could use, D&C 59:9-10.

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;"

Also look in Preach My Gospel, Lesson 4, Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. It helps explain why it's important for us to go to church. 

Oh and speaking of going to church, we went to a ward called Plainfield and I saw a sister who was one of my teachers at Legacy Prep!!!!!

It really is a small world

She remembers Hevynn and Harry, haha what a small world! I'm meeting all kinds of familiar faces here in Indiana! 

Gotta go mom but will you please tell Aunty Mari thank you for the thoughtful letters and for the graduation invitation! I hope Leah had a great graduation! Tell Dallin congrats from me as well. I am lucky to have such amazing cousins! I look up to them more than they will probably ever know. 

Love you mom! Give my love to the family! Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Week 48 - I Just Made It Worse

Hi Mom!

I hope both sets of Grandparents are doing better and I will keep them in my prayers.  

Well, this week was fantastic. We had zone conferences in Fishers and in South Bend. 

Wimmer was full on snoring while we were driving to zone conferences. We thought it was hilarious so we took a pic. It doesn't take much to entertain missionaries!

Zone conference is just a meeting with the zones in a particular stake. We had some awesome training, and Elder Wimmer and I did one on church attendance. Funny story, we thought it would be interesting to use a football reference in our training. At one point, I actually say hike and one of the missionaries in the crowd throw the football to me and I catch it. Well it seems that I haven't played football in a while because the ball was thrown perfectly at me, and I just dropped it....I got so much crap for that after the training haha! But it was still a great training despite that. 

Aside from that we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Elkhart. 

Me in Elkhart with a statue of Poseidon

I went with a Brazilian guy named Elder Gonzaga, it was great. We have some phenomenal people in leadership there! 

Elder Gonzaga is the man

At one point during tracting, we got bashed by a guy pretty good. Unfortunately, I decided to pull out scriptures to prove him wrong (he was still wrong) but I just made it worse. Elder Gonzaga just bore his testimony to the man, the guy was still adamant about helping us "find the truth" but he realized that Elder Gonzaga wasn't going to be swayed or bashed with. So he just told us to leave and we did. It's humbling to know that I have a lot that I need to work on still. I admired that about Gonzaga on our exchange and I've been working to increase my testimony as well. A simple testimony can change a lot.

While we were in Niles, Michigan visiting for zone conference, we had dinner with one of my favorites, the Petras Family. I was so happy to see them and my former companion Elder McCloud

Oh, and today we went to play basketball with Hipa and his crew that he brought for selling. And it's just funny being poly what a small world it is, because one of the guys was Val's brother! He was even wearing one of Sifa's shirts!!! Haha I was happy to see him and I got to talk to all of those guys.It was so fun. Except that I suck at basketball, so naturally we lost but it was still fun:)

[Note from Mom: Got this pic in a text from Lakei's niece, Nei. Nei's oldest brother, Maveu, is married to the beautiful Val Siilata. Val's brother posted this pic. So cool that he and Houston met.]

Elder Clark will be leaving June 8th, and his homecoming will be that Sunday in Colorado. The Clevelands leave about 3 weeks after that. I will miss them a lot :( 

President and Sister Cleveland are so patient and loving. They truly care about all the missionaries out here. And I think that's one of the things that I've learned from being around the Clevelands. CHARITY, the godliest trait any of us can possess. I pray that I can love people, not because I have to, but because I choose to. I could preach about love and charity, or I can let you figure out what charity is to you :) So I invite everyone to study about, and pray for, charity. It changes people's lives, and it can change our own. 

Anyways, tell Harry I wish him luck in running for student council, and give everyone my love!!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Sincerely, Elder Heimuli

Here are some more pics:

Someone's missing a cute little puppy

Why does everyone climb on me?

Week 47 - Just Listen

Hey mom :)

Sorry, it's been a hectic week but finally I can write haha! But it gets hectic tomorrow again because of zone conferences now. However I'm sorry to say, I have no photos BUT i did get the package today so thank you mom :)

Well it's good to hear that Harry is loving camping, and dad too haha. Golden Moore is the BOMB! I wished I would've gone on more campouts. Hopefully Harry realizes how lucky he is to have such great leaders in the ward, and that he should go to all the activities.

Kiegan looks like she is having a blast in Disneyland, look how beautiful she is :) Is everything going well with everyone else?

Well this week was very busy, we went on exchanges with a lot of different zones. We went to Terre Haute and I got to go on exchanges with an Elder Johnson and an Elder Kretcshmer. It was weird tracting in a trio, however it was fun! But during this experience we had a little teaching by the spirit moment. So their service project dropped us so we decided to look around for another service project. As we walked around we decided to tract around for a service opportunity. As we knocked on a door a lady came out, apparently bothered by the fact that we knocked. Before she could shut us down I told her that all we were there for was to serve her. She paused, looked at us and decided to come out and talk to us. Now as missionaries we inherently want to just boldly spit out a lesson and invite people to be baptized. But we all had the feeling to JUST LISTEN. As we listened, she was able to express that she was confused about why there are so many churches. So then we taught her according to what she needed.

As we listen and teach according to the needs of the other person we gain insight and revelation from the spirit. Of course we have to be worthy of the spirit and willing to do everything we can to keep the spirit with us. So in a nutshell, studying, praying, and going to church increase our knowledge and worthiness to be guided by the spirit. Then when we listen and teach according to the other person's needs, we are able to teach with power and with the spirit. Anyways that's my little insight :)

I'll try to write you more tomorrow. Gotta go!!! Love you mom! Ofa Lahi Atu!!

Hi mom I'm back!! Thanks for the cute pics of Hendrix, that's awesome how he twists his tongue and wrinkles his nose.

Just a little cool thing we found out this past Sunday. So yeah I met Hipa and it was crazy that he was friends with Tolu! We then just sat together through sacrament and listened to the talks. We asked him if he knew about jamesthemormon and he didn't just know about him, he actually knows him! He even texted him during church. It was soooooo cool, so me and my companions freaked out because they like jamesthemormon too. Anyways just my fun little schpeel :) Haha well here are two pics I wanted to send to you finally!

Us pretending to rap just in case jamesthemormon comes to Indy and needs some backup. He will probably pick the good looking one on the right, haha :)

The trio of me, Elder Clark and Elder Wimmer. Love these guys.

Love,

Elder Heimuli

Most Important Work

[Note from Mom: Saturday P-Day is throwing me off. I didn't even realize I'd missed it until about 11pm. And he didn't write to me either although I know he's busy working. I hurriedly zipped off an email to Elder Heimuli. Nothing. I was sad. But I'll try again next Saturday. On Sunday, I got a text from my little sister Lani, who got a text from her son, who got a text from his good friend, who is currently working in Indianapolis. Looks like this friend met Houston at church, made the connection about my nephew, and let JamesThe Mormon know that Indy missionaries love the "church song" -- Motivation.]

Click here for Motivation

Mama

[Note from Mom:  The only mission day better than Mother's Day is the day a missionary returns home with honor.  Since that day is still over a year away, here's a quick peek at yesterday.  It began with church, Harrison's t-shirt art, a text, and a FaceTime call!  Lakei cooked dinner for the kids and grandbabies.  Last, but not least, I got this hilarious video from my kids and THAT was a heartful.]

Elder Heimuli and Mom FaceTime-ing!

When we got home from church, Harrison came downstairs with this cute handmade t-shirt.

"Anonymous" text from "your favorite elder!" haha, got him!

  

Go ahead...click here!

Another Letter from President Cleveland

[Note from Mom: I should check the mail more often than once every couple weeks.  Today, Harrison brought in a PILE of mail (including a state tax refund!) which included a nice letter from President Cleveland.]

Week 46 - Where Can I Find the Manager?

Hey mom!!!

Yeah I did get my "healthy" package, thank you so much!!! I loved it and especially the letters in it from the YM and YW in the ward and from Harry. My goal is to actually write some letters back to everyone at home :) it's been like 10 months since I last did so I think it's about time haha!!

The best thing that happened this week was MLC. It's weird being on the other end of it. But it was cool because I learned so much from the Zone Leaders who I was supposed to be "teaching" haha! One thing I really got out of it was leadership and what it really is.

Yes, that is Elder Heimuli lifting up the other elder at MLC

Elder Clark (my comp) told a great story. So his friend owned a theater for musicals and what not. His friend one night saw that the floor was dirty and even though he was the boss he decided to get into his overalls and start mopping. As he mopped a teenager came in and  said, "Where can I find the manager? I want to apply here as a lighting specialist."

His friend replied, "Well, come mop with me and we can talk."

The kid looked puzzled, he again inferred that he was looking for the manager and wanted to know where he was. Again, Clark's friend said to come mop and they could talk. The kid became frustrated and walked up onto the stage where Clark's friend was mopping. He asked the kid again, "Can you help me mop?"

This time the kid looked at the ground, looked back up at the man, and said, "You don't understand. I'm a lighting specialist.....I don't do this."

Finally, Clark's friend turned to the kid and said, "I am the manager here, and I'm mopping this floor."

The kid was stunned. After an awkward pause of silence, he left and never got the job.

So as leaders are we above the rest?  Are we above the "common" things? No. As leaders, we need to be the examples!!! That means if someone's mopping the floors, we mop, too. Sure, responsibilities will change and situations will arise in which we can't do it, but we must be humble enough to do everything. Christ was not above anything. He washed the feet of the apostles. He spent his time with social outcasts. Are we any different as members or leaders?

I'm learning so much Mom. As my comp Elder Clark trained I just kind of sat back and wondered when I ever did what that lighting specialist wannabe did in my mission? Because I know I have, and I know I need to change.

So how does this apply to each of us? How can we change? How can we be humble and be the right kind of leaders? What an awesome training he gave!

Anyways I'm excited to talk to you tomorrow Mom!! I wish I could email you pics but my camera is dead and I don't have the charger!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I will find a way to send pictures next week:)

Love you mom!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli