Quick Pic

[Note from Mom: I was surprised to get this today. Wonder if I'm really going to have to get used to these short 40-word emails? Guess it's better than a 0-word email!]

Elder Wimmer, Elder Mortensen (he's home now) and Elder Clark. Wimmer is from Sweden, Mortensen is from Spanish Fork and Clark is from Colorado.  I had some time so I thought I'd send you a quick pic :) Love you mom!

Left to Right (I think):  Elder Wimmer, Elder Mortensen, Elder Heimuli & Elder Clark

Week 44 - Whenever I Have Available Time

[Note from Mom: I received this very short one-liner from Elder Heimuli while I was attending a stake missionary fireside tonight. I had replied to his Saturday email, asking for his new address and teasing him about being taken out of the field and put into the office. I asked him if he was in trouble or something, haha. Guess I'll have to get used to these short emails from now on.]

Haha, close. I'm AP now, so I will be emailing you whenever I have available time.  But count on Saturdays from now on.  Love you!  Just send the packages to the 777 Sunblest one :)

Elder Heimuli, Elder Mortenson, Elder Wimmer and Elder Clark with President Cleveland

Saturday? Quadpanionship

Hey mom!!!

So I will be emailing you on Saturdays from now on haha. Because I'm an office missionary now (yay :/ I think) but the office staff and everyone here are great! It was funny because President called me on Thursday during lunch and told me I was to leave immediately and go to Fishers Indiana... so that was a quick transfer in Niles Michigan! So now I'm here and now I am SUPER busy lol. I will just apologize in advance right now if I have shorter than usual letters mom. However funny thing is I am now in a Quadpanionship.... haha, only for this week because next week one goes home and then I'll just be in a trio. Which is probably best because funny things happen when you have 4 missionaries together!!

Quadpanionship: Heimuli, Mortenson, Wimmer & Clark

Thank you for sending the videos and photos of Hendrix and Kiegan! I am loving them haha. I constantly watch them now! They are just the cutest babies I've ever not seen haha. As for this week we were able to have one of our investigators get his baptismal interview done and he will be getting baptized tomorrow :) yayyyyyyy!!!!! 

Also I received some letters from Uncle Hema and his family. It made me super happy to hear from them. Tell them thanks for taking the time to write to me. The kids are all studs from what I hear! Congratulations also to Leah, she will kill it over at BYU Hawaii!! 

How are things going at home? How's work? How's the family? How your calling going?

Sorry for the short letter mom. I will make sure to send pictures and a longer letter this week! I promise!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Week 43 - Before You Hated Their Guts

Hello :)

Elder McCloud is good!! In fact things here are great!!!!

What a clown

Things at home seem like they are doing a lot better! I hope Helam didn’t get injured at this year’s game haha! He probably didn’t because he was probably beating everyone else down. I hope Aunty Lani is doing well. I got to hear from her :) she is strong, stronger than me. And why would you say your challenge is to follow the promptings of the spirit?

This week was great! We went on exchanges with Plymouth and did service with them this week. I got to go with an Elder Morgan who actually came out with me on the same day.

With Elder Morgan

Doing service I got to be with Elder (Jared) Clark who played DE for Woods Cross. Heyyy, no one’s perfect :) It’s funny what good friends you become when you’re on a mission, when before you hated their guts because they went to a rival school.

With Elder Clark from Woods Cross High School

So him, Quick and I love to reminisce haha!!! However the service was great. We cut wood for a Brother Richarts who coached for BYU in 1980. He knows Vai and said to say hi from him. What a small world.

Then this weekend we had the opportunity to go to stake conference. Elder Randall K. Bennett and Elder Michael V. Beheshti spoke at the conference. It was amazing. During Saturday stake conference Elder Bennett loved having the audience involved. So there were only three 5-minute talks (awesome!) and the rest of the time he turned to the audience.

Here's what he did after each person spoke. He'd say "Ok, you know what you’re doing wrong. Now, how are you going to change?" I thought about that the whole time. How am I going to change? We all recognize our faults and recognize what we do wrong, but what are we doing to fix those issues? We get into a habit of thinking that since we recognize what we are doing wrong we can just wait for someone or something else to change us. No. We have to do it! In the Gospel of Jesus Christ true repentance is when, after recognize what we’re doing wrong, we IMMEDIATELY stop it! Then we do all we can to make up for it. So if we are not doing something right, STOP IT and move on. 

Needless to say I was inspired and I thought, "Yeah, I need to go tracting for 4 hrs now!!!! LETS GO!!!" Wouldn’t you know it, tracting that day did not go that well. In fact we pretty much got shut down at every door and I thought, "Well.....crap..." haha!!

However we saw a pretty cool miracle. We knocked on a door and a guy came out and said, "Oh you guys again. My mom’s a Mormon and she thinks she should send missionaries here to convert me. I’m not going to be converted, forget about it."

We paused and looked at him and said, "We just want to share a Christ-centered message with you if that’s ok." He looked at us and told us to go out the side door.

We talked for a bit and of course he was not interested, but then his sister-in-law came outside and said, "Oh thank goodness!!! I’ve been praying for you guys for weeks!!!"

Turns out this lady moved from Florida just a couple months ago and was homesick. She was converted there and knew that the missionaries could help her feel better and find the nearest church. So this week we will be visiting her and taking her to church. It’s just funny how miracles turn out, and it’s often not always the way you think. 

Anyways other than that this week has just been another great week of missionary work :) I love it out here!! I’m so blessed and so thankful for this gospel! I pray everything goes well at home and I love you all!!!

Proud uncle showing off his beautiful planner cover

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli

P.S.  Thank you for the packages :) I bought milk and we downed the cereal! haha Thank you!

Week 42 - Are We Slacking

Hello again!!!

Poor babies :( and Harry too, can't forget that kid haha! It's even worse because you're out of town haha, but it's okay because Dad's there. And the babies are looking so cute!! They are growing fast too! How's everyone doing at home? As for what's happening out here it's going well. This week it snowed a lot so tracting was interesting.

However things are going well. The man we have on date is doing well, in fact he said he wanted his father in law to baptize him on Sunday so now the new date is April 24th! That's the Sunday before transfers so it'll be a nice way to finish out if McCloud gets transferred. Oh yeah and since the MTC has now extended the missionary stay an extra week, all of our dates coming home and this transfer were extended by another week. This Sunday was fantastic because 3 of our investigators including one who dropped us came to church! We got to teach them and they came during fast and testimony meeting which is the best time to have people come to church!

Well for this week we have been studying a lot out of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 11 is one that I've focused on because i have been working on increasing my faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that we cannot please God without faith. So think about our church duties and responsibilities. We do it out of duty, which is okay, but are we also exercising faith while doing it? During tracting I tend to get in a habit of thinking, "Well, it's time for 3 hrs of people shutting me out, calling me names, and bashing with me."

I'm too slow to remember that I should be more faithful, that I need to believe and trust that God is in charge of His work and that these minor things won't even matter once we find The One. I'm sure THAT is what pleases God more, not just doing things because we have to. We do it because we believe in Him, because we love Him and want to do His will. I know it sounds generic and I suck at explaining things but I hope you can get the gist of it all, haha!!

As for priesthood responsibilities, the word that comes to mind is worthiness. You know keeping covenants, going to the temple, magnifying their callings and stuff like that. I can't tell you just how sad it is to see priesthood holders who don't live up to their potential, don't take their family to church, don't lead their family in prayer. They settle for less, they don't progress so they keep their family from being blessed not just now but for eternity. Priesthood holders who understand God's plan and really do love their family would step up and take their place. It's a pattern I see a lot so if I had any insight or advice for your talk to the priesthood leadership Mom, it's just to stay worthy. It's a choice, if we are willing to do the little things and stay worthy everything else falls into place. It just does, it's miraculous!!

And I would also like you to share this with the family... I love everyone!!!!!!! If I could do something over at home I would spend more time with the family. We are always caught up in work, school, sports, friends but we seem to put our family on the back burner. We expect our family relationships to always be solid when the time comes and we need them the most. Unfortunately, it won't. If we fail to fortify our families, if we fail to support one another, if we fail to love one another and spend that time nurturing our relationships it is destined to fall apart. In Alma 55 the Nephites are trying to figure out how to get their brethren out of the Lamanite fortress. The Nephites decide to give the Lamanites wine to make them drunk. Slowly but surely they did it. When the drunk Lamanites fell asleep the Nephites threw weapons over to the prisoners and armed them. Then when the guards woke up they found a whole bunch of Nephites armed and ready inside their fortress and it was too late to stop them.

Are we slacking in our family relationships? If we are then we are like the guards who fell asleep. I’m not trying to say that the Nephites are bad at all but Satan will throw everything he can into our home to wreck it from the inside when we aren’t paying attention. He will use stuff as simple as fighting, jealousy, laziness, to things more serious like church inactivity, internet, pornography, you name it. By the time we realize it our home has been taken over and we can do nothing about it. So please do all you can to keep the family and the home a strong and fortified place where the spirit can be. Pray daily, read daily, take time out of our busy schedules to make family a priority. If we do, we are promised a family foundation that can't be moved! I know you're thinking how weird. Houston is single and he's preaching about family, it's funny how much I think about my family and my future family even way out here on the mission. I'm sure Hema and Helam and Hevynn all thought the same thing knowing they would have their own families some day. Anyways I love you all and I pray for you guys all the time!!!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli

Week 41 - Fix It

Hello Mom :)

This conference weekend was the best! We just went to our chapel here in Niles to watch it. But man what an uplifting experience, I felt even more motivated to go out and work even harder. One of my favorites was also Elder Renlund’s talk, it was very inspiring and enlightening to me. So earlier this week we had MLC which is the conference for all the leadership in the mission. We focused a lot on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in doing this I really started to understand the transition between Faith and Repentance. 

Mission Leadership Council

Elder Heimuli's first MLC

Elder Renlund mentioned that the farther away the recipient is from the giver, the more entitled the recipient feels. It’s true. When we distance ourselves from God we begin to feel entitled, to blame someone else for every bad thing that happens to us, and to give ourselves credit for every good thing that happens. Weird right? I never thought about it that way. But it started to finally make sense, people who have faith, and continue to build their faith, will draw closer to Christ. As we draw closer to His love and light, we are compelled to change, thus we become more humble and repentant. Just like a candle, as we draw closer to the light it illuminates our imperfections and wrongs that we have been hiding in the dark and that's a good thing. Then because we have been humbled, we choose to change, which is where sincere repentance comes in. I learned that Repentance is not about fixing all our sins. It’s much more than that. Repentance is the opportunity to improve our lives and inevitably enter the gates of baptism and receive all of the other saving ordinances. If we just have faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ will fall into place for us. We will live with our God again.

Good to hear Helam is doing well in spring ball. I think they need to throw to him too but they’ll realize it soon enough. He has a lot of stuff on his plate, like Kiegan, school, football, even more family. However he's got a fantastic wife, Alyssa is awesome! I think Harrison is a lot more selfless than I was at home. I would of just peaced out and played all day haha!! It’s good to hear that he spent a small window of his spring break to spend time with each member of his family. I’m learning from him it seems like. Congrats to Hema! :) First grad in our family!! First of a lot of things in our family! On top of that he's raising his own family, doing work and school, and has a wonderful wife as well to help him. Norma is awesome! How do such ugly guys get such awesome girls? I should also ask Bo that same question. I just hope that blinding spell still works when it’s time for me to find my eternal companion :) Priesthood session talked a lot about our roles as priesthood holders and (for me) eventually as fathers. We must do all we can to make sure we are worthy of the priesthood so that our families may be guided and blessed! President Nelson said we have the priesthood authority as bearers of this covenant, but do we have priesthood POWER? Are we living our lives to be worthy to have that power? If we aren’t, FIX IT. The faster the better! I’m so grateful for the priesthood and for a father and brothers who hold and exercise that authority, but I am many times even more grateful for the women in my life. So Mom, Hevynn, Norma, Alyssa, thank you! Y’all are the best! 

So Elder McCloud is great, we are helping one investigator progress to baptism on April 23rd so please keep him in your prayers! We have about 18 missionaries in our zone so it’s loads of fun working with all of them. So speaking of fun, we had MLC (which I mentioned earlier) and it was great! I got to see great missionaries who I look up to, like Freeman (my dad) and Hansen (who is going to Weber), so I was thrilled. 

So happy to see Elder Clark, Weitzel, Freeman and Mortensen at MLC

But we had a great meeting in which we opened up with the parable of the Sower. Crazy how when we just had a Mission Leadership Conference on that topic, it popped up again in General Conference haha! Inspiration. We also discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and focusing on how we can apply this to the missionaries, not just the investigators. So this conference just added onto the lessons I learned at MLC. Then the best thing happened....we played kickball. Haha yup President Cleveland told us to bring clothes for kickball as well! It was a blast. I felt bad for McCloud. For starters we were on opposite teams (so obviously my team was going to win because yours truly was on it). Haha Then it was the last inning and the score was actually tied. Ok so maybe it’s not that big of an advantage to have me on the team. We needed just one person to make it home to win. We had two outs. One of my team members went up to kick and popped it up. It was floating in the air and heading straight for McCloud. With his arms outstretched he was ready to embrace the ball, only to feel it slither out of his hands and bounce off the ground. The MLC just died right there, and President made him do pushups in front of everyone. Glad it wasn’t me haha.

After kickball, we headed back home with Elders Thayne and McCloud

Well anyways just wanted to say I love you mom!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!!

I got a Tongan name tag because I thought I had lost mine. When I ordered the replacement tag they asked, "What language?" so I just said Tongan. haha! Then suddenly my other 2 name tags showed up. Weird.

Elder Heimuli

Week 40 - Happiness is the Reward

Dear Mom,

Haha thank you for sending me that Easter egg hunt invite! Good times. I wish I was there to get that egg cuz you know I would have. 

Heimuli Family Easter Egg Hunt invitation

But since Bo and Harry got it I hope they enjoy it. I'll get it back when I come home but that's not for awhile so they are off the hook till then :) Like you I'm glad no one got hurt haha. Harry's protective gear made me laugh! 

Ready to hunt (aka battle) for the golden egg...just missing Elder Heimuli!

And thank you for the Easter package!!! I loved it and so did our zone haha! 

Elder Heimuli & McCloud made Easter goody bags for all the missionaries in their zone

My favorite part though was being able to read all of those funny and loving letters. And Harry's awesome drawings :) And seeing the pics of those aloha outfits on the babies, they are so cute!! haha Keep sending me more pics and vids!

How lucky are Hendrix and Kiegan that their grandparents go shopping for them in Hawaii?! I bet it was fun. Bummer you only got to stay for like a day. Hope Lani feels better and I hope Dallin recovers as well. Tell them both I love them! And congrats to Lana! She will be a great mom!!

I hope Grandpa continues to go to the temple. Glad he has some clothes that fit now. I know it must be very hard when even Grandpa has a hard time, But I also know he will always pull through! Heavenly Father has a special place in his heart for Grandpa. He is my example of temple attendance and a righteous patriarch. I hope I can be just like him. In fact every day it seems I have a chance to think about how grateful I am for the many examples I have had in my life. Hema, Helam, Hevynn, Bo, Alyssa, Norma, Harry too, my grandparents and so many people have influenced me to be better. I hope and pray that I am able to live up to their examples and expectations, and that I can be to someone else, what all of them have been to me :)

Serving here in Niles is a lot of hard work and I love it. It's also a lot of responsibility and I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Some days are better than others but everyday there are people in our zone who need our help. So I try my best, I try to stay positive and I hope that it is enough. 

Elder Heimuli's parents received President Cleveland's letter last week

Fortunately, McCloud is awesome. He works hard and he's great. Our ward had a pinewood derby so we decided to make our own cars so we could join them haha!! Unfortunately we lost but it was still fun.

Elder Heimuli and McCloud with their pinewood derby cars

So this week has been a struggling week for us. Not many people were kind to us but hey whatcha gonna do. We received a call Monday night from the guy who was on date for baptism. He said he didn't want to do it anymore and doesn't want to speak to us anymore either. We were pretty depressed. No, we were very depressed. It was sad. However we prayed hard and we knew we got our answer when we felt that we just needed to go out and work. Of course tracting sucks. I'll be honest, it does haha. Not many people actually want you there and we can tell. But we were obedient and we still did it. By Friday we were so tired of it. We were pretty close to just going back to the apartment, sitting down and just stopping. But then we realized we had a lesson with a part member family. We thought, "Well, we need to go." 

We taught the plan of salvation. And I was reminded again how much God loves His children, every single one. We actually didn't plan on inviting this guy to baptism this early because he used to be pretty hard core anti Mormon. But we did. And he accepted. It makes me emotional again just writing to you about it. I can't even tell you how grateful I was and how humbled I was at that moment. God rewards diligence and obedience. And He will always give us a reason to keep going. We finished out the week strong and even picked up a new investigator that we will be teaching this Friday so I'm excited :)

Besides finding and teaching people we also go on a lot of exchanges with other missionaries. Some areas or companionships just need a boost so we go to see how we can help. I actually really like these because I get to know the other missionaries better than just knowing their names.

On exchanges with an Elder Blakely...from Bountiful :)

Looking back at this week there's no doubt that God is involved in His work. And make no mistake it is HIS work. It's not mine or president's, it's His. And I'm happy to be part of it. Nine months have flown. I have learned alot in this time and I know I still have alot more to learn. During hard weeks like this one I rely alot on the things I've read or heard. This week I remembered a quote my trainer taught me. I loved it so much I wrote it down because it applies not only to missionary work but to each of us as we work on being disciples of Christ! 

Obedience is the price

Faith is the power

Love is the motive

Spirit is the key

Christ is the reason

Happiness is the reward :)

This quote is my favorite and tells me exactly how I can have happiness. It's similar to one of my favorite scriptures D&C 93:1

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;

I testify that if we come unto Christ with faith, being willing to obey all of God's commandments lovingly, and always reaching for the companionship of the Holy Spirit we WILL have happiness.

Anyways that's what stuck out to me the most this week. Love you and I pray for you all always.

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Week 39 - Keep Calm and Don't Worry

Hey Mom!!

Elder McCloud & Elder Heimuli in the truck

Wow babies galore haha!! Well that’s great it’s good to hear that I’ll have more little Heimulis to come see when I get back haha!!! How’s Faith? I hope that she is feeling better! I am still praying for her health and Lani's. How is Aunty Lani? 

The new Provo Temple is just stunning! I mean all temples are beautiful but this one is really cool haha! Harrison has been to alot of open houses!! Keep it up because any chance to go to the temple is great. Speaking of temples how’s everyone’s temple attendance? haha I know you said you just went on Saturday and I know I’m sounding nosey but from the people we work with and the families we've seen whose parents are members I realize how much stronger their relationship could be if they would only go to the temple. The temple helps maintain our families’ relationships. So I just invite everyone at home and whoever reads this to PLEASE go to the temple. I wish I would’ve gone more often before I came out here.

Still busy with all of your YW leadership stuff huh? It sounds like you are doing some great work mom, and I love hearing about that!! And you still find the time to write to me every single week and I am very grateful :) 

How was Uncle Ricky’s wedding? Too bad you had to leave early but how did Dad and Harry enjoy Hawaii? And yeah so the Moala’s father’s name is Pule Moala. However, his son Inoke knows Bruce! Haha so yeah I bet this is the same family that Maryann’s dad converted. It was fun to talk with Inoke about Bruce haha! I miss that guy. How are the Tukuafu's? How’s Norris? I miss that kid too. 

"Welcome to SB (South Bend)" sign

Me? I’m doing great thanks for asking :) This week was good. Unfortunately our investigator who was on date didn’t show up to one of the lessons so we have to push his baptism out until after conference weekend. :( However he still came to church and is progressing really well! Two more investigators came to church and it was awesome. I also had to give a talk last minute because a sister didn’t show up haha, but it went well. This week one of the miracles McCloud and I saw happened while we were driving to an appointment one day. We got a text from another investigator. He said he needed to talk to us ASAP... We were freaked out thinking, "Oh no. What happened?" Well we met him at a resturant and he bought us dinner. Then he said, "Well I just wanted to tell you that I’m getting married. And you two are invited..." haha!!! We were so relieved. He had a long complicated past. But now he is getting married to a member and he has started to express his interest in baptism. We are stoked!!!! 

Enjoying life in the Niles Michigan Zone

Elder McCloud is awesome. I enjoy being his companion and he knows alot. He has been a zone leader for almost 9 months now so he knows how to do things. We were in a Stake Mission Correlation Meeting and the President warned us that the council wasn’t very nice towards the missionaries. He told us to be prepared. Me, being a greenie ZL, I was totally freaked out and I was fumbling through all my papers and stuff. Then McCloud just looked at me and said, "Calm down and don’t worry. I’ll walk you through it." And he did. I think he did for me exactly what Christ does for each one of us. D&C 19:16 reminds us why:

16 For behold I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent.

Because He suffered for our sins, pains, sorrows, everything, He is in fact the only one who knows EXACTLY how to walk us through the trials and tribulations of our individual lives. So we should try and remember to "keep calm and don’t worry." He will walk us through it. All we have to do is repent. Anyway, the meeting went well and the stake presidency was satisfied. Grateful to be surrounded by such great missionaries!!

With Elder Taka

Anyways thanks for everything mom :) Love you!! 

Ofa Lahi Atu!!

Elder Heimuli

Week 38 - Flint McCloud

Hi Mom!!

I’m so happy to hear about the tender mercies God has shown towards our families. I’ve also realized that God is always blessing us. Are we just receptive enough to see them? Throughout this experience I can see how He has not only blessed Aunty with health but also many family relationships were strengthened. It’s a big reason why we’re here, to be taking care of one another, willingly sacrificing our own time to help others. But another blessing is that we also appreciate this fragile gift of life. It’s easy to lose and we are only here for but a small moment, that’s why I am so grateful for God’s tender mercies and the blessings of Family. I pray our family continues to stay close and rely on God and His power.

Wow, you are just always busy huh mom? But never too busy to go on a date with dad even if it’s to the grocery store haha. How was that movie? Was it good? I often wondered what it would feel like to be the one who had to carry out the order or even just be a part of the crucifixion of Christ. What would I be thinking? Would my beliefs be changed or would I have been so hard-hearted? I hope I would’ve been like the centurion who wept. I hope I would have changed if I was there. 

Yeah Mishawaka Ward is in our zone so if I am ever in that area I will say hi to that Tahitian family if I can :) There are actually a few Poly families up here in South Bend! The Vakalahi's and the Moala's. Guess what? We went to pick up the South Bend elders and the Moala's invited us over to grab some food. They made Lu, Taro and lots of good food. I was so happy!!!

So Uncle Ricky is getting married! Yay tell him congrats from me! I guess I need to study up on the Widow of Nain cuz I don’t remember her. Either way I know Hevynn will do great cuz she always does haha! Hema and Norma are going to Brian Reagan!? Dang I’m jealous! I love Brian Reagan haha. I hope they have fun. How’s Helam doing? How are all of the little families doing? I pray they all raise them like you and dad raised us :) rooted in the gospel, and super good looking (jk that’s just Harrison and Hevynn. Rest of us are out of luck.)

Well, Niles Michigan is interesting. It’s a small town. But because we have a full time truck we have to cover 4 or 5 other towns as well. So our area spans for like 80 mi. It’s a huge area!! But it’s awesome. 

Elder Flint McCloud is my companion. Cool name huh? He is from Kaysville and he has been out for about 18 months. He is great, I love the guy. He knows the area well and we work hard.

The past week we have been getting in each night and right after we are done planning we just pass out haha! But this week we put a man on date for March 26th!! We also have 2 other potentials for baptismal dates that we pray will be receptive and willing to take this step. Please continue to pray for those we are working with. I know you are all praying for us and I want you to know that I can personally feel the blessings coming from all my family’s prayers!

As for the "ward" it’s only 50 members..... the other 100 are all less active, so we have our work cut out for us, haha! But I know God will help us as he does for all of his servants.

Sorry this letter is short. We are super busy and seems we are always running to and from everywhere and everything haha! We have to head out and take some supplies to the elders!! Love you mom and tell the family hi from me!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Week 37 - Work Work Work

Dear Mom,

We had a combined District meeting and it was college-themed -- our last meeting as a district.

So reading about what’s been happening I’ve thought to myself, "Man, this would be detrimental IF we didn’t know about the Plan of Salvation."

I am so grateful for this plan and the way that God has paved for us so we can return to Him. Not only has God given us a way, but He has provided the answers to all our questions and concerns through this plan and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the beautiful assurance that we WILL be together forever if we choose to follow God’s commandments. In following God’s commandments we are also blessed, we are so blessed LITERALLY, and for the most part I think we understand that.

But then how are we going to get over the various physical trials of mortality? It won’t be easy, but since when was the crucifixion easy? Since when was the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane easy? Never was it easy for Christ. In Alma 7:11-13 it talks about the reason why Christ suffered so.

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

I know Christ will be there for us in the midst of our afflictions, for He has already suffered them. I pray we always remember and keep in mind the glorious Plan of Salvation and always remember that the center of it is Christ’s Atonement. I invite everyone to read this scripture. I know I’ve probably already shared it before but it’s such an awesome scripture that I have to share it again. Again I will be praying for Aunty Lani, Laukau, Faith, and the Tuipolotu family. I love them all and I know God does as well.

Yay you got to finally go back to WX 17th ward haha! Did you have to introduce yourself? How is everyone? Tell Harry congrats on getting his recommend!!! I bet the Provo temple is beautiful! 

So as for this transfer, we finished on a pretty good note. No, our investigator didn’t come to church but I know he will come next week. Elder Ellsworth will be staying in White River with an Elder G Wright. 

Leaving the big city of Indianapolis -- last stop Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts

I've been assigned to be a Zone Leader in Niles, Michigan, with an Elder McCloud. I was hoping President would let me be with Freeman haha, dang. Also I was kind of mad because I just paid a lot of money to fix my bike and now I won’t use it because I’ll have a full time car, ok so maybe I’m not that mad :/  But if President would’ve told me just a few days ago I wouldn’t have had to spend that money haha! 

A sister in our ward threw us a bonfire for our last night.

Our district is awesome and I’m really going to miss them a lot!! 

One of my favorite missionaries, Elder Huntington, from West Jordan! I love this guy. I'll miss him.

But it’s all part of being a missionary right? 

Last week we decided to tour Lucas Oil Stadium because we knew half the zone was leaving. It was such a blast!!!  I got to see my first NFL stadium ever!!! While we were there I was able to take some pretty cool pictures that I’ll send to you. 

Me in front of Frank Gore's locker!!!

I don't know why I started flexing again just because I stepped foot on a football field haha! Trying to pretend I'm still in shape (not).

Also this week Ellsworth and I were able to find a couple of new progressing investigators. I hope they keep progressing here in White River!!!

Thanks so much for sending all the pics of the family and especially the babies. I watched that video of Kiegan rolling haha! And Hendrix is just so happy and handsome. Speaking of babies, I finally made a planner cover of the babies, and everyone loves it. I love it most of all and they are growing so fast, holy crap! Time does fly fast, especially in football, too. I can’t believe it’s Helam’s senior year, last spring ball, he should tear it up this year, then go NFL! I know he can, just needs to work work work. He's no stranger to that. And what? Norms made pork hash! How did she know how to make that? See, if she never married Hema she would’ve never known what pork hash was, so now that she does, please tell her to send me some haha. I miss playing 5 Crowns with the family. Good job mom in winning, it’s all because I wasn’t there to beat everyone ;) haha. 

But to sum it all up I am so excited to see what Niles and my new zone holds. Hopefully God will guide me and help me grow into this new role. Love you guys soooo much and I will see y’all again!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli