[Note from Mom: It's Week 90. There are only 10 more weekly letters until Elder Heimuli comes home!]
Hey Mom :)
Yup it's crazy how fast time is surely ticking away. I also got dad's email. I thought I replied to it but it must not have sent. But I'll also keep a look out for the package. Thanks, mom!!!!!!!!!!
So on Sunday Cicilia was out of town :( BUT Michael came to church! He is a guy we taught a while back and we made contact with him. When he came to church he LOVED it. He thought it was the best thing ever. He really liked learning that we have prophets still today, guiding us. Thank you for your prayers :) I was happy to hear about more missionaries coming from our ward. Tell Nathan Rupp congrats from me (if he remembers me haha). Japan is cool! And, hopefully, Luis Goodrich will be called to the greatest mission on earth ;) lol. Here is kind of what happened this week.
Bro. Donaldson is from the Church Missionary Department and served as the mission president in the District videos (ask the siblings about those videos).
Let's just say we were really nervous for our exchange! Elder Quick and his companion went with Bro. Donaldson's companion, and we four went to go teach. We had already set up 3 appointments for the night and we thought we were completely ready for him....we weren't, haha! But before I get to that, let me just say that he was soooooooo funny. I thought I was going to die of laughter. Yet, when it came to the spiritual side of the work, he was right on top of it all. We had a lesson with an investigator named Camden and we thought we already knew what we needed to teach him. During the lesson though, Bro Donaldson stopped us and started teaching out of the Book of Mormon. He used 1 Nephi Chapter 1 to explain how we can receive revelation if we study the Book of Mormon. It was amazing and it just clicked with Camden!!!!! Following that lesson, sadly, all of our other appointments fell through.... So then I was suuuuuuuper nervous. But Bro Donaldson just said, "Good! Now I can teach you how to teach!" Haha, he taught us how to teach the Restoration in a whole new way. It was an amazing learning experience. Afterwards we dropped him and his comp off at their hotel then headed back to our place.
Tue- We had a meeting with President Carlson and Bro Donaldson. We talked about how as a mission we can be more effective. We talked about social media and using it to spread the message of the gospel and Bro Donaldson said something interesting. He said that missionary work seems to be more like a spectator sport for members. They are in the stands, cheering missionaries on and helping them, but not out on the field finding or talking to people about the gospel.
I never thought about it like that. It made me think about when I go home and to school. Am I going to be a passive member or am I going to be actively engaged in missionary work? There were a lot of other things we touched on in the meeting, but we also were prepping for a special MLC in which we would demonstrate and share these new techniques and new ideas on how to do missionary work better. They turned to us and said, "Elders, here is the assignment we have for you. We need you to have miracles by doing these things, and we promise you that you will see miracles if you go out and do these things." I clung to that promise and said that we would.
So now the pressure was on! We immediately started it. That night we had dinner with a YSA member and taught her about using facebook and social media to reach out to people. It was a cool experience because she felt like she was doing the missionary work instead of us, which is how it should be. Everyone is a missionary. Everyone can share the gospel. We aren't the only ones on the field in the game. After that we headed home and prepped for the next day to see miracles :)
Wed- Miracle Day! We decided to try out the new way of teaching, and we got 7 potentials and 2 new investigators! It was awesome. We used the pamphlets a lot to teach and people seemed genuinely interested! I can't list every single miracle that happened but it was a lot. There was this one girl. We were about to pass her on the way to the campus center when Gillman turned around and just starting talking to her. After teaching her she told us that we must have been sent to her because she was feeling really down and was wondering if God could help her...and he sent us :) After PCing we went to the church and started doing facebook proselyting with some RCs. They were soooo excited once we showed them what to do. They wanted to just share the message with everyone. That to me was a miracle and a tender mercy from God. It just showed me how the gospel had changed their lives so much that it made them want to share it with others. They are on fire! :) Following that, we had another lesson with Camden. Again we taught him with the pamphlet. The concerns he had earlier just seemed to melt away. I testify that we saw miracles happen when it came to teaching! It was soooo cool. After all that, we went back to our house and got everything in order for MLC the next day.
Thur- MLC was awesome. We received so much training and insight from Bro Donaldson. Most of it we had already heard when we were being trained by Donaldson on Monday night. However, I learned another important lesson about revelation. We all know what the Godhead is, right? Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Our goal is to make connection with the Godhead or otherwise known as REVELATION. But how do we do it? 1) Prayer. Who do we pray to? It's not DEAR GOD. It's DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER. The divine identity of God is as our Father in Heaven. When we are seeking revelation we must do so in His name. Granted, we can still make some connection praying to God, but to make a connection with the divine Godhead, we should use His divine name. 2) The Book of Mormon and scriptures. Of whom do they testify? Jesus Christ. Old Testament. New Testament. The Book of Mormon, of which Joseph Smith said we will be closest to God if we abide by its precepts. The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. The gospel is centered on Christ. The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Divinity of Christ. Which makes it pretty important, right? 3) That sacred ordinance which reminds us that we are always to remember Him, that we may have His spirit to be with us. The ordinance which PROMISES the spirit can be with us if we remember Christ and the covenants we made at baptism. It is the Sacrament, so in other words, attending CHURCH. Pray, Read, Church. It's Prayer (Heavenly Father), reading the Book of Mormon and scriptures (Christ), Partake of the sacrament at church (Holy Ghost). As we do these 3 simple steps, we connect with the Godhead and receive DIVINE revelation. It really made me think how important these 3 simple steps are, and why they are so important.
Fri- Because of Spring Break campus was dead, so we went with Elder Breck and moved apartments all day. :)
Sat- We did service from 8 am to 8 pm haha! I'm so tired right now, but it was fun and great!!!
It's funny though. I've been eating pretty bad these last few days so I decided to sprint everywhere while we did service :)
Have to get a workout in whenever I can haha!!!!
Michael said he wanted to bring his uncle to church. We are excited for that tomorrow. However, campus is on Spring Break right now so we are just working with the people we have. Hopefully, we help them all to progress towards baptism :) Love you mom. Give my love to everyone.
Ofa Lahi Atu,
Elder Heimuli
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