Elder Houston Heimuli: Week 89 - Avoid the Guys in White Shirts & Black Name Tags

Hey Mom!

Haha yeah losing my card wasn't exactly the best thing that happened to me this week....But anyways so yeah this week has been great! Last week Cici came to church and she liked it, but none of the others came. However this week is looking up, and we are hoping to have 3 at church tomorrow :)

Hey do you have a video of Harry's orchestra concert? I'd like to see it! Having all the kids over for dinner on Sunday must've been nice. It's fun having a full house. I miss those Sunday get togethers! haha But it's all great out here!

Yeah I'm also gonna miss having Helam and Alyssa so close (mainly because I won't see Kiegan) but it's good to hear that everyone's doing good. Here is just a little bit of what happened this week:

Mon- We had an early morning meeting with President because we had a lot of appointments lined up that day. Well after the meeting we went to the office to finish any paperwork that was needed there then we headed out to campus. On the way to campus we got a text from 2 of our appointments and they canceled on us :(

So we decided to swing our way back around to the chapel and spend some time with the missionaries in the nearest zone.

We did meet a girl named Alex who is awesome!!! We taught her the Book of Mormon and put her on a baptismal date for April 11th. She said she would come to church this Sunday so we are praying and waiting on her tomorrow. We were all so pumped and now we just gotta work on the other investigators. After her lesson we PC'd a bit longer then headed back to our chapel for FHE. We were so pooped, so after FHE we went straight home and I went straight to bed.

Tue- We had a really cool miracle. Just like Monday, our appointments all fell through. We PC'd and we all found some good potentials and even ran into one of our investigators Alex (this one's a guy) and talked to him for a second. We weren't finding too much success and we were pretty discouraged too because a lot of people were shut down. It's finals for the next 2 weeks so no one wants to talk to us. Finally we got up and just walked all over campus, exploring for a bit. As we were walking down a hall we spotted a Recent Convert going down the stairs and we decided to try to catch up with him and meet him. At that moment a guy came up, kind of just looked at our tags and asked, "Can I help you guys?" I was puzzled that he'd ask us that because he didn't look like he worked there, and normally people avoid the guys in white shirts and black name tags.

I replied with, "No, but can I help you?" Well, long story short we told him we are missionaries and he said he was very intrigued with prophets. I thought while talking to him, "I really need to catch up with that RC. I'll just quickly schedule a return appointment with him."

But that's not what the spirit was telling me. The spirit told me to sit down and talk with him NOW. So we did and he answered all of our questions perfectly. He was amazing. And when we finished discussing the restoration and explaining baptism he said he was already baptized. But when we told him it would be a baptism with priesthood authority he changed his answer. He then said, "Well when you put it that way, then I would like to be baptized."

Straight miracle! I feel like God just blesses us with miracles when we are in need of them the most. It's exactly like Alma 26:27 where Ammon talks about how "when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren...and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

God promises that if we can persevere, He will give us success. In the recent missionary worldwide training broadcast Elder Bednar said that success is given by God. If we are obedient and pursue with faith, success will be given. Anyways we are meeting with him on Monday. And the night pretty much ended there!

Wed- We started off the day in the office and just did work until around noontime. We have been having the worst of luck with people dropping us because again the appointments fell through. So we grinded and grinded. Nothing. Feeling disappointed we went to dinner with Bro Toney at his place.

Well, we were there a bit early and we decided to just walk into Dicks Sporting Goods. We felt we should go in and just walk around until dinner. As we were walking around a girl there kept looking at us. A little weirded out we walked around a bit more until she stopped us and asked, "Are you those people that go door to door?"

Our reply, "Yes, but we are not Jehovah's Witnesses if that's what you're thinking." We told her we were Mormons and she said in a loud voice, "Oh! MORMONS! I know you guys! My sister is one of y'all." haha Well again we told her what we do and she told us she wanted to meet to discuss a little more about our beliefs. She even goes to IUPUI!!! We are meeting with her Monday as well. Again God just keeps showing His hand in everything. After dinner we went home and got ready for Thursday.

Thur- I learned a very valuable lesson that day. And it wasn't just how to fold a fitted sheet haha :)

We had an appointment set up with a girl from another church. We could tell she just wanted to prove us wrong. Being fired up, I just studied scriptures to bash her. I know, not very Christlike. Well we met up with her and all I felt was contention. The spirit is not there when you are contentious. Needless to say I didn't talk very much. I was wondering how come I was feeling restrained? Why couldn't I just go ahead and tell off this girl for trying to disprove our church? I personally believe it's because my heart was not in the right place. I'm not here to tear down people's faith. I'm here to invite others to come unto Christ. My studies shouldn't have been to disprove why her church was wrong. My studies should have been focused around proving why our church has the fulness of the gospel. It never needs to be contentious to defend our beliefs. We just have to make sure we are speaking and studying for the right reason. It really opened my eyes and I realized I need to focus more on the Book of Mormon than i ever have before. After that we PC'd for a long time then went home.

Fri- So we picked up Elder Tanner and I decided to take him around the areas he served and have him say some goodbyes while the other 2 APs stayed and got some work in the office done. We went to Greenwood and Columbus. It was a blast. Elder Tanner is awesome. He's one of those friends I would've never met unless I was out here on a mission! He is humble and funny, and is willing to serve those around him. He has been a great example to me. Oh and he's athletic. He's going to play football for BYU! I told him my dad could whip him into shape if he needs it ;) haha so tell dad to get his training regiments ready! Haha well after visiting everyone we headed back to Fishers. He slept at our place because we were going to take him to the airport Saturday morning.