Week 84 - Are You Crazy?!

Hi mom!!! 

Haha yeah I heard that the weather in Utah is pretty bad. Last week we had like 60 degree weather and it's finally snowing here. I expected it to be a lot colder here, but apparently it's a warm winter right now. But thank you again mom for sending the pics of all the family in New Zealand :) I'm excited for the Heimuli reunion in June!!! Wait, is it in early June? Cuz I've gotta be in school on the 23rd. Dallin's (Elder Pili's) story was amazing!!!! It's good to hear from him especially seeing the growth he's developed!!! Man it's amazing the miracles and the things you experience on a mission. Dallin is killing it! 

So when Coach Taylor was here we talked about football and the possibilities of red shirting which I'm really fine with. But I didn't really ask him for specifics :/ my bad....I'll email him and get some more details!

Well here is the low down of the week!!!

Mon- Office, Meeting, FHE (No investigators could come :(.... So pretty boring haha!

Tue- So on Tuesday it was the only time of this week we had to actually proselyte because we had Specialized training and the Mission Temple day this week. So we went on exchanges in Indy North with Elder Quick and Elder Walton :) Me and Quick stayed in Crossroads while Redmond and Walton went to campus. It was great! Being with Quick was almost like we never left Bountiful, except we were grinding hard and teaching the gospel. We didn't really stop at all for the exchange! We were non stop go go go, and I'll be honest, Quick was wearing me out haha! He is such a hard worker, and he taught me something during our exchange: If the spirit prompts you, DO IT!!! I already knew this, but Quick took it to a whole different extreme haha. We were driving down this one road, when Quick saw another road we were just about to pass on our right. Suddenly, he just stomped on the brake!!! I looked at him like, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" He told me he felt we needed to see Keith (one of his investigators) and he literally backed up (in the middle of traffic) and turned down that road. Keith wasn't even home. But then we both felt we needed to knock some doors across the street. So we did and we met a really cool guy named Carl who was interested in the message we shared. So now Quick is going to see him again later this week. It was pretty cool because he followed a prompting to see Keith, which got us to go down that road. But that prompting led to another prompting which led to Carl. So you never know where the prompting goes, you just have to have faith and continue forward. We PC'd a campus near by and eventually finished the exchange with dinner. 

After the exchange I reflected on the changes Quick has made and you know he was awesome before. Now, he is a different person, yet the same loyal friend. It reminds me of the Mormon Message by Elder D Todd Christofferson where he talked about the Gardener and the Bush. The gardener came upon a tall bush which seemed proud of the might and stature it had attained. The gardener cut it down till it had no leaves and was just a tiny stump. The Bush cried and complained saying, "Why have you done this to me? I was making such progress. I was the best I could be! But now everyone will laugh at me." The gardener replied, "I don't need you to be a tall bush. I don't need you to be a tree. I need you to be a bush." Later as the gardener kept working with the bush and trimming it, it eventually began to bear fruit and became the most beautiful plant in all the garden. We are in the hands of the Gardener and Creator. He knows exactly what we need and we can have faith that wherever He trims we will be better and stronger than before. I may or may not have butchered that story but that's what I got from it. And I can't help but think of Quick.

Wed- So we had to go down to Columbus and pick up Elder Taka and take him to a doctor's appointment. But while we were down there we decided to watch the Missionary Broadcast that was being shown all across the world for all the missionaries. It was amazing to hear from Elder Oaks, Bednar, Nelson, and many other general authorities. They talked a lot about Baptizing converts and teaching repentance. But one quote by Elder Oaks really hit me. "As part of teaching we should never cease to be concerned for them." Wow, never cease to be concerned. Sounds a lot like we need to be constantly on the lookout for the well being of not only converts but those around us. This is where Home and Visiting Teaching take such a pivotal role. Being concerned for our brothers and sisters, being willing to stop worrying about ourselves and help others, LOVING one another. It's all part of the gospel. We are part of the gospel and we should be willing to become living examples of it. Anyways I just found that quote really neat. After the broadcast we ran Taka to the hospital, which we found out they had to reschedule it to Monday :/ so now we have to go back haha! But hey it happens. Following that we had a lesson with Grace and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She was very intrigued, especially about the fact that we came from heaven, from one big family. Then we had to run to Fishers then back to Columbus because we had to switch some cars for Elder Summers. 

We returned to the office later that evening because we had specialized training the next day, so of course we had to get our trainings and everything situated. 

Thur- Specialized training. This was the 9th specialized training I've had to organize and set up. It hit me how long I've been here because now almost all the Trainers at this training were people I picked up from the airport when they were a part of the previous specialized trainings I've done before... Weird. But the specialized training went off without a hitch. After that meeting Elie came to the chapel for a lesson!! We talked a lot about the gospel, but especially what it means to have the spirit after baptism. Because before baptism everyone can experience the Power of the Holy Ghost, and Elie expressed to us that he loves meeting with us because he feels good and that when he goes home he feels different. We told him that it's because he's experiencing the feeling of the Holy Ghost but because he's not baptized and confirmed, that feeling can't be with him always. You must be baptized by water and the spirit if you are to enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5) because the water cleans us, and the spirit will sanctify us and help keep us clean. Through these steps and eventually taking upon yourself sacred covenants made in the temple, you'll make it back. After explaining all that we put Elie on baptismal date for Feb.  25th, so we are praying he finds a new job so he can come to church on Sundays! Either that, or a different shift that doesn't conflict with church. So if you could pray for Elie that would be great! We were running late so we bolted to downtown Indianapolis and had a lesson with Cici who is very interested in our church. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation too, and she had tons of questions but we were able to resolve all of them. She is very sincere in gaining an understanding but the question is if she's going to act on the knowledge and feelings she receives. We talked to her about it and she expressed that she wants be be a 100% sure before being baptized. We listened and explained that there will always be questions and nothing is a 100% sure thing, otherwise, faith would not be required. And without faith, we will not progress in the gospel. She understood that and she was willing to keep praying and trying to understand for herself. After the lesson Elder Redmond and I were EXHAUSTED!! Haha we never had so many intense spiritual lessons after a conference! Conferences drain us too, so we came right home and just crashed!!

Fri- Office day, we spent the day running errands and cars around for the office. Then we had to get all the stuff ready for the Mission Recent Convert Temple Day!!!! It happens every other month and really takes time and effort to organize. It took us the rest of the day but we got it all done. So nothing really exciting or crazy but we were busy!!! Most exciting thing was I got Hevynn and Bo's package and in it there was a NZ All Blacks tie. I immediately took my tie off and put this one on. It's very cool! Everyone was asking if I had just changed ties. What? No :)

Sat- Mission Temple Day!! We had about 60 people show up to the temple day but it went smoothly:) However that took about all day, then following that we had to go to the stake conference here. those were almost back to back so I didn't have time to email. I got on long enough to shoot Helam a quick happy bday email haha! 

But there was a recent convert who told us that when he went to the temple, he felt so good and that he knows this is the true church, because he can't deny the feelings he has. It was cool to hear that, it kind of reminds me of all the people I've taught and not one of them have ever said they were baptized because it sounded true. It's the feelings they get from learning, the Holy Ghost literally testifying to them it's true. That's where a lasting conversion comes in, because no matter how scientific or how we think about the gospel, when push comes to shove, we always choose our heart over our mind. Or maybe I'm the only one who does that (then that explains a lot haha) but it makes sense to me. Anyways I could just feel the spirit in the temple that day and I always feel happy when I feel the spirit:)

Anyways so that's about it. Next week we have about 3 zone conferences and then 3 the week after :) so it's about to get even crazier!!!! Haha love you mom! Ofa Lahi Atu!!!

Week 83 - We Talked About Football & What We Do As Missionaries

Hi Mom!

I just got hevynns video:) Tell her thank you, i sent one to her in return lol. Sounds like Bo is just trucking!!!!!!! That's so awesome, hope he does well and doesn't get run over by all the homework he is doing. I'm sure that using their time to serve grandpa and grams is time well spent. But anyways everyone seems just as busy as usual :) Hope you and dad (and the sick babies) get that gunk out of your systems!!!! Congrats to Harry on his winning science project :) That's so cool. Man I wish I was as smart as him. Looks like you finally have someone who is smart in the family haha, instead of just good looking ;) jk jk 

Oh yeah I got the NZ package!!! Thank you so much :) It was the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!! It was good to have those peanut slabs again haha! And thank dad for my all-blacks gear.

 

Well again here is the lowdown of this week. 

Mon- So we went to the office that morning and regulated indicators.On Mondays we try to hit campus a bit but the campus was closed for the holiday so we couldn't. After that we left to go to a member's house and she gave us haircuts :) YAY!!! My hair was getting way too long so it was good to finally have it cut. 

Following that we had our meeting with president (good timing on the haircut!) and we talked alot about the upcoming weeks. Because of interviews we didn't have a lot of meetings or conferences we had to go to so we had the week to hit the proselyting as hard as we could. In fact that night at FHE we invited E to come. He did!!! It was so good to have E come to an activity. He loved it. He even told us that night that he is trying really hard to get a job so he can come to church on Sundays!!! After that we went home and just prepped for the next day. 

Tue- We had a lot of time to proselyte. We had a lesson with M who is a Nigerian who is Muslim. She likes the message we teach and is genuinely interested, however she is not able to fully commit because of her background of being Muslim. But she said something interesting. We starting talking about fasting (for some reason) and she talked about Ramadan where Muslims fast for a month. They don't eat from sunrise till sunset. For a FULL MONTH!!!! Haha I would;ve passed out ;) We asked her why she did it. You know what? She said she didn't know. It made me think of tradition vs religion. There is a difference. Religion is one's devotion towards deity and willing to perform acts in its name. For us, we do things under Christ's name, in turn leading us to God. That's the purpose behind what we do. But tradition is doing something because that's what we are used to. There is no purpose. Now if there is no purpose behind what we do, it loses power and meaning. So for example, when I know what the purpose of sacrament is, then it means so much more to me when i take it on Sundays. But when I don't understand the purpose it's just a snack to me. Anyways we then correlated this to learning about her purpose and what her role is in life. So she listened and we will be meeting with her next week as well. That day we just spent PCing and talking to people . We ended the day by going back to the office and doing some office work. 

Wed- So there was a Less Active in Bloomington whom Elder Redmond and Elder Pauu helped to reactivate and receive her endowments. She wanted to take us out to lunch but she was in Bloomington so we decided to go down to Btown and spend time with her. She took us out to a pizza place called Mama Bear's which was super good :) That took a huge chunk of the day. So we traveled back to Indy and had a lesson with G :) We again talked about purpose and talked about getting on the right track. She understood that she needed to work on getting back into the groove of meeting with us and progressing in the gospel. It was great!!!! After the lesson we attended institute at the Indy YSA building and then we went home, 

Thur- Weekly Planning :) That took awhile. Weekly Planning is where we plan for all the lessons and activities we will be doing for the next week, After 3 hrs of planning we went straight to campus and had a lesson with C. C was the investigator who came to church last Sunday! We talked about the restoration. C has a catholic background so of course we were expecting a lot of questions. But she actually agreed with most of what we were saying, in fact one of the best things was when she asked if infants needed to be baptized. Because she was baptized as an infant, and was wondering if they weren't baptized what happens to those children? This is why the gospel is so beautiful. How lucky we are to have this gospel with so many answers!!!!! When we explained Moroni 8, and told her that children were already saved by the grace of heaven and that baptism is unnecessary until 8 yrs old, she loved it!!! We introduced to her the Book of Mormon and we are looking froward to working with her for the next couple of weeks. After the lesson we pc'd for 4 hrs. Unfortunately we didn't have any success PCing but hey not every day is filled with popping success. Otherwise it wouldn't be a mission. 

Fri- We had 3 lessons set up for Friday. First was our lesson with G. We taught her the gospel of 

Jesus Christ and stressed the importance of going to church. After the lesson we invited her to church and she told us that she attended another church BUT she just won't go to that one, to attend ours haha!! It was a great lesson, but following that we had another lesson with M another investigator we met awhile back. We talked about the Book of Mormon, we left him a copy the time before and this time we just read the Book of Mormon. We showed him how the Book of Mormon can be applied to our lives and it can truly help us find the strength to get through the day. Now after that lesson we were supposed to have a lesson with another guy named M but he texted us and said he had to run but wanted to meet next week. So we had some time to kill before we needed to go to meet up with Coach Taylor. We found 2 potential investigators and we are hoping to get some lessons set up with them. So after PCing for an hour we bolted right to the PFChangs in downtown Indy and met with Coach Taylor. 

Don't worry, I got permission from president. But unfortunately I didn't get president to meet coach, so we three (Coach Taylor, Elder Redmond and me) just met. We talked about football and what we do as missionaries. It's funny the opportunities we get to share a bit of the gospel. We talked about sports in general, how Stanford was doing and we also talked about the day I report to Stanford and what all is entailed in that. It was great to catch up. After that we went back to campus to try and contact a potential but he wasn't there so we pcd and then went to visit LA's and formers. 

Sat- We had service at the church in the morning:) just doing cleaning. Following the service we went to another service and was there almost ALL DAY!!!!! Haha that's why I didn't email you yesterday. It was a service at the park where we usually go to play sports and such. The weather was 65 degrees and sunny!!!!! So service went really well, but then we weren't able to email because as soon as service finished we had to head to Lafayette for a meeting.

Sun- 3 people came to church:) Michael, Benny Bo, and Grace!!! It was great! Coolest thing happened, Grace earlier that week had a question on sacrament and was wondering about its purpose and if she should even take it since she's not a member. We told her its an opportunity to always remember Christ and renew our promises we made at baptism. Well gues what all the talks were on today? Baptism!!!!!!!!! Haha so it was an awesome day. Grace loved church and Michael and Benny Bo had to leave early so they didn't get to stay the whole time. But they all seemed to enjoyu it:)

Well there's the rundown of this week:) Hope you have a great week mom!!! Love ya!!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli 

Week 82 - Score 1 Point for Elder Heimuli

Hey mom!

Oh my goodness, you all sound soooooo sick. I'm sorry :( that does not sound fun at all, especially for poor grandma. That is scary. It's weird to think what the future holds sometimes for those we love and have known for awhile. My deepest wish is that they are both there waiting for me when I come home but I also trust the Lord has it all figured out, and I am just a part of that plan :) I know all the grandchildren are praying and watching out for them. It was cool too to watch that video you sent me. You're right, grandpa just seemed so happy in the video, his eyes shining as he sang along. And I liked how Hema and Tai were right there as well, two of the oldest of all the grandchildren sitting right by grandpa. I dunno why, but it just was a cool thing to see :)

Jeez mom, it almost seems like you're teaching more than me ;) haha.... but really. And Harry is having his priesthood preview?! YAY!!!!!!!! Haha man he will be a deacon soon that's so awesome!!

Yup this is Elder Redmond's last transfer, so we will see what happens next. I'm pretty ready to go back into the field haha but I'll probably train a new AP and maybe then I'll be able to go back for my last transfer.  We don't know yet, we APs usually do transfers about 4 weeks into the transfer.

Well here is the low down of the week :)

Mon- So president is doing interviews for the next few weeks. We don't have to go with him but we set up all the times and where they are doing them. Because of interviews we don't have as many meetings, so Elder Redmond and I decided to go and get some time in at campus :) It was good. Unfortunately, we are trying to get back into the groove because a full month of not teaching period will rub off on ya! We talked to a lot of people and found some potentials but we will have to see where that takes us. After that a guy who took Elder Redmond on a mini mission wanted to take us out for dinner so we went to the Colts Bar and Grill and guess what? The championship football game was on...... I think I was the only one struggling to keep myself from watching the game the whole time. But I did, so score 1 point for Elder Heimuli :) After dinner we just drove over to visit some LA's and went home.

Tue- Office day. All the sudden our office just got swamped, and we got a bunch of random assignments. So we spent most the day in the office (bleh) and then we went to take our truck in to see what was going on with the door. For some reason it just wasn't closing right and we were afraid if we kept driving one of us would fall out when the door would swing open haha! But that took awhile so when we finally finished getting all those things together it was around 6, and about 5pm campus is dead. Not to mention we live about 30min away from our area so going there at this time was pointless. We decided to try and contact all of our formers and potentials instead and we had no luck :( well no luck on Tuesday... Buuuuuuuut........

Wed- Miracle day!!! We finished all of the paperwork we needed to do for the day and then we zoomed right over to campus. Redmond and I were pretty confident and excited that we would see miracles this day. Also, we were happy not to be stuck in the office all day!!!!

So off we went, and here comes a cool miracle. Lately all of our formers have fallen off the face of the earth. We literally can't get in contact with ANY of them. We were walking down the street when Elder Redmond looks over and sees Grace just walking on the opposite side of the street. He whispers, "Hey, is that Grace?" I look over and it was, so naturally I just yell out her name so everyone is staring at me, and then we sprint over to catch up to her (very smooth and nonchalant, you know me). We walk her to class and she explains how things have been crazy and she hasn't been able to find time for anything anymore. We explained to her that we can't distance ourselves from God when things get tough. In fact it should be the other way around. Get closer to God when things are hard and He will give you strength. Lean on Him, rely on the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ and the atonement. Rely on the sprirt to guide you, rely rely rely.

After getting back in contact with her we were walking around in the campus center (because it's been freezing cold lately) and we ran into another former!!! Michael. He is a sweet guy. When we saw him he ran right up to us and said, "Hey, I changed my number, so if you tried to call me that's why I couldn't answer!" We were relieved to find out that was kind of the reason, then we set up an appointment to see him Thursday. Again we were really grateful that we were able to run into him and see so many of our formers. Then later that day we get a text from Elie, he said he's sorry and wants to meet up again. When that happened we texted another former and she wanted to meet up with us the next week too. We were just reeling from all of these formers coming back and willing to be taught. It was miracle after miracle. So we PC'd the whole day and found some new potentials. Hopefully some of them turn into progressing investigators but we will see.

Thur- We again finished all the office work and then headed over to have lunch with a LA in the YSA. It was good. She took us to Qdoba so that was double good haha! After lunch we were supposed to have a lesson with an investigator but she bailed on us so we just PC'd until we had our lesson with Michael. We taught him the restoration and it was good, again shaking off the dust from not teaching for awhile, but it went well. We set up another appointment for that Saturday. After his lesson we PC'd until we ran into a member from the YSA. Branden Christensen he is a really awesome member and we took him around with us to PC! Again no new new investigators but we have some potentials. After PCing on campus we went around trying to contact another former who dropped off the face of the earth. We literally scoured where they worked, lived, and liked to hangout etc. Sounds a little stalker-ish but, hey, we do whatever it takes!

Friday- We spent most of the day running errands and grabbing things for the office. But when we finally finished most of those errands we went to see a man named Trevor who Redmond and Wimmer used to teach. He's been investigating the church for 6 years and finally decided to get baptized. So we were just going over to give him moral support and answer any questions he might have. Following that lesson we ran more errands and eventually came home.

Sat- Exciting day! So at noon we had an appointment with Michael and brought one of the recent converts with us to help teach him. It went really well and he seemed to understand everything that was being taught. We covered the Book of Mormon and how it applies to us today :) The recent convert then bore a solid testimony which just filled the room with the spirit. We invited him to church but he said he couldn't come this weekend. However we are still working with him to get him to church. Right after the lesson we had to zip right over to the baptism of Trevor!

Elder Redmond is 2nd from left, President Carlson is 3rd, Elder Brad Quick is 4th, with Elder Heimuli in front.

After a long 6 years of investigating he finally was baptized. Again another great spiritual experience. Following the baptism we had dinner with Grandma Banks and returned home exhausted.... So that's why I didn't write ya yesterday haha!

Sun- So one of the potentials we talked to earlier this week came to church :) It was sooooooooo sick!!! Me and Redmond were not expecting anybody when all the sudden she showed up! Haha so now we are setting up a time to meet with her later this week. Also Elie texted and is going to come to FHE with us tomorrow night as well!!! 2 great miracles! Next week is looking pretty booked which is always exciting for a missionary :) Oh and also the RB coach from Stanford is coming by next Thursday or Friday so I'll send you some pictures then, too:)

Anyways there is the rundown of my week! Love you mom, please give grandpa and grandma my love and I am constantly praying for them. God bless you and the fam :)

Ofa Lahi Atu!!!!!!

Elder Heimuli

PS. This just in (Thursday, 1/18/2017) Sooooo sorry! Things have been pretty hectic :) haha but here are the pictures :) It's just of us going PCing and working haha. Also I got a cool dream catcher from a member last week.

Anyways we are here at the office late because some papers got mixed up for interviews, so we are fixing everything up so I thought I'd shoot you a quick email while I could. Love you mom! 

Week 81 - Finally She Can...Go Inside

Hi Mom! Hope things are going well in NZ haha! Bet it's tons of fun! But anyways here is the low down of what happened this week :)

Mon- So we picked up the new missionaries :) It was funny though. We left to pick up the greenie when we got a call that the new missionaries weren't going to come until 11pm. At that time it was only 3pm so we were not excited to have to come back to the airport at 11!!!! Well we decided to head back to the office in Fishers and finish everything for transfers.  After about 3 hrs we get a call from Sister Carlson saying the missionaries actually called her and told her they are there!!! So then we had to dart over back to the airport and pick them up, but thank goodness we didn't have to go back at 11 :)

APs get to pick up every new missionary at the airport

APs also cook breakfast for every new arrival on their morning in the mission

So it was interesting. After spending time with them in the mission home we left and finished any last transfer preparations. 

Tue- Transfer Day!!!! Oh and great news, Elder Quick and Elder Clark are Zone Leaders now so we will be seeing them a lot :) In fact Elder Quick is the zone leader right by our house and Elder Clark is technically my zone leader too so it's pretty cool. But transfers went really smooth and it went well.

Wed- Well we dropped off the departing missionaries. After that we did transfer fires untill around 4 because then we had a meeting with President Carlson. We discussed our agenda for MLC which would take place Friday! so literally we had 1 day to prepare for MLC. After that Elder Redmond and I finished up the transfer fires and then headed home.

Thur- We had another meeting just to finalize the final bits and pieces for MLC and for the oncoming weeks. Following that we had short exchanges with IN because Elder Redmond taught a couple of people from that area and he wanted to help teach them. I went with Elder Quick to visit one of our investigators and Elder Redmond went with Elder Walton. None of the people answered so we were pretty frustrated haha! But it was good to be with Elder Quick as companions for a day. After that we decided to go to back to the mission office and gather supplies and finish our training for MLC.

Friday- MLC. It was great as usual, we had a lot of training on obedience and on the Restoration. Elder Redmond and I trained on the Restoration and did a Role Play in front of everyone. It was funny because we had Sister Carlson be our investigator, however she decided to pull out some unique questions... Let's just say a 10 min role play turned into a half hour role play haha! However it went well and people really were fired up after the role play.

MLC photos are usually taken outside but with snow covering the ground, it had to take place indoors. That's new ZL Elder Quick in the top row at far right!

Following MLC we went and visited members and LA's for the night. 

Saturday- Elder Redmond and Elder Quick both served in an area called Martinsville and they both taught one girl who finally was being baptized. We made a road trip down to Martinsville for her baptism.

This girl has such a strong testimony, she is 13 but as soon as she was baptized she told us that FINALLY she can go to the temple and go inside. She recounted a story of how she would go to the temple with the young women but because she wasn't a member she would just sit outside. She told us she could feel the spirit strongly even just by sitting outside. Now she could experience it full fold. It makes me happy to understand the strength and depth of testimonies like this young woman. I'm glad she had good examples in young women's. And it was a good reminder for me not to take the temple for granted. Anyways that day we just spent in Mville for the baptism and visited former investigators, Less Actives, and other people. 

That's about it for this week. Today we are going to a different ward to witness the confirmation of some investigators that Redmond taught. We are excited. Hope all is well! Give my love to all the family in New Zealand!

Ofa Lahi Atu!!

Elder Heimuli

Week 80 - Best Time of My Life

[Note from Mom: Been out of touch for a couple weeks while attending a family reunion in New Zealand. Just walked through the front door. Dropped my luggage and now trying to catch up on the letters received from Elder Heimuli since we've been without electronic devices.]

January 2, 2017
Hi Mom:)

Sounds like the trip to New Zealand is going great :) Haha did everyone make it there okay and safe? Not gonna lie I'm pretty jealous of the fact that you are all there! I remember being 8 and having the best time of my life there. Also, I'm sad to hear about Coach [LaVell Edwards]. He was a role model to me because of how much Dad revered him. Like you said he has touched many people that way and I hope that I can emulate something similar as a missionary.

Well here is the low down on what happened this week.

Mon- Meetings. Mondays are boring that way, haha! 

Tue- We went on an exchange with the Franklin Elders Tanner and Elder Coon.

Working out with Elder Tanner

Both are very good missionaries and very athletic. In fact Elder Tanner is going to play for BYU when he gets home. I told him he will be more than welcome to come train with me because I have the best coaches back at home :). It was fun though. We got to train in the morning then we just hit the grind all day. Not many appointments but there are a lot of days in missionary work where there's nothing else to do but tract :) So that's what we did! After that we went back to the mission home and we began our transfer planning. Transfer planning and preparation usually take up the whole week so you can imagine what the rest of this letter will look like lol. Also we planned for specialized training which would be held the next day. 

Wed- Specialized training! It went well. As usual, I look at these new missionaries and I think, "They are way better than me, and I've been out way longer!!!" It's apparent because of the spirit I feel in the room when they teach. We trained on finding and how to contact, and then we trained on extending heartfelt invitations. Elder Redmond observed a group of missionaries and brought up a really good point when it comes to teaching and understanding the message. He told the missionaries to make the lesson unique. What does that mean? Well the gospel is meant to edify and to uplift. However there is no edifying when the message is just being rehearsed. Just like when we read scriptures. When it doesn't mean anything to us, when we don't try to make it unique, we get nothing from it. So when we teach, we need to make it unique and relevant so that the one we are teaching actually receives the message and wants to act on it. For me personally I took it as 1) I need to make my studies relevant and 2) I need to make my message relevant and unique. Anyways specialized training ended late so we just finished some more transfers work then went home.

Thur- We ran errands all day :( We traveled from Lafayette to Bloomington...it sucked haha! I hate driving everywhere but it just needs to be done. We were running supplies, license plates, baggage, etc., to many missionaries. So nothing exciting that day.

Fri- So we actually had time to work our area a bit :) We had two lessons, 1 with an investigator in Crossroads and the other one was with a recent convert in White River. The lessons both went great. The investigator's name in Crossroads is named T. Now T had been investigating the church for a decade. In fact he is pretty much a member, but whenever his date approaches he always finds a reason or excuse not to get baptized. Elder Redmond taught him while he was a ZL there and finally Redmond just told him that he cannot procrastinate any longer and said something very profound. The spirit will always testify of what's true and it will always bring comfort, but it cannot be there at all times. Think about it this way, God wants us to make the right decisions but will not force us. So when it comes down to choices the holy ghost cannot tell us every little choice we should make because that would violate the very reason why God made this plan. Agency.  So when we make choices we have to make them on our own based on the knowledge we received from God and the Holy Ghost. But they cannot force us to make the right decision. And although it's hard to make the right choice sometimse, we know what we are supposed to do is right but that still doesn't make it any easier to do it. But God promises to deliver us from temptation. All it takes for us is to take a step in the right direction. If we can take that small step, God will carry us further. It was an amazing lesson, then we also talked about the parable of the ten virgins and that was great too. After that lesson we shot straight over to the White River chapel for our lesson with M who was baptized about 2-3 months ago. We were teaching about temples to try and get him to the temple. Anyways the lesson went well and he has committed to coming to the temple to do baptisms for the dead on Jan 28th. We are excited for that. 

Sat- We went to a baptism in our branch for someone the sisters taught. This guy is cool and has one of the strongest testimonies!

After the baptism we left to do our transfer calls. Transfer calls is when we call individual missionaries and tell them what's going with them for transfers, so that took up pretty much the rest of the day. So if you're wondering why I didn't write on Saturday, it's because of transfers. After doing those calls we worked on reorganizing zones and areas because of the boundary changes within the stake. It was a lot of work. Due to the changes, we are opening a new area in the mission called Noblesville. It's not easy to open a new area but we have some hard workers in our mission. Pretty exciting!

This is Elder Sedlacek. He's from Bountiful! And he is one of the missionaries in Noblesville.

After that we just worked on transfers and then called it good for the day.

Sun- We went to church which is always great and then we had final meetings for transfers and any last minute preparations.

Today- I texted you from Sister Carlson's phone, a picture of me with a lady named Renetta Larkin Carlson. I know the last name sounds familiar since it's my Mission President's daughter-in-law, but what about her maiden name? So her dad is Elder Larkin. The very elder who served in Tonga long ago and to after whom Dad was named. I met her as we walked into the mission home to bring in the new missionaries! It was such a tender mercy to meet her.

With Elder Larkin's daughter 

So that's where we are :) Love you mom! We are heading out to pick up the new missionaries so I'll write you a bit later :)

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli