Letter 7 - I'm Jr Companion

[For the past 21 months, I've had the privilege of writing two missionaries in the Indiana Indianapolis Mission -- Elder Heimuli and Elder Quick. If you've followed this blog, you know that they were best friends in high school, and are finally companions for Elder Heimuli's final transfer! So for the next 7 weeks, I will post both letters.]

Hi mom :)

It feels great to be in the field again!!! Things have been so good, mom, it's just amazing. 

So there was a get together for the Murray side? Are they still there? If so, give them all my love please. They probably don't remember me :)

Yeah on Wednesday I realized it was Hema's bday and I wanted to send him a happy bday wish. It was the only time during the week that I wish I was still in the office. But I'm not on the computers anymore so I couldn't send him one. I hope it was a good one! Sounds like Norms pulled off a great party. Hema deserves it. He is a great father and brother. But I will always be the best-looking Heimuli, so hope he knows that ;)

Well here is the rundown for the week. Coming towards the end, I'm starting to realize how important this time is. :)

Mon- We finished any last transfer things we needed to do at the office. It was weird knowing that this was the last one I'd ever plan, or really ever have, since it's my last transfer as well. Then we went to pick up all of the new missionaries from the airport. Oh and I do have the pic of the guy from Weber State's friend that Helam asked about. But I don't have my camera with me so I'll have to shoot it to Helam another time. These new missionaries who came out are good! Again, they just keep getting better and better. After that I went home and packed all of my stuff and then went to bed.

Tue- TRANSFERS. I was so happy to finish all of the transfer stuff because I know I'll never have to do it again haha! And that's where i got my companion....ELDER QUICK!!!!!!!! haha, I have been having a blast!! At transfers we said bye to another of the best missionaries I've ever known, Elder Pau'u. He's so awesome and I am looking forward to chilling with him after the mission. After transfers we drove down to Columbus. We were so excited we didn't even unpack. We decided to unpack later and just hit the ground running. We visited my recent convert, Michelle, then visited Todd and Loretta. After that we had dinner with the Allen family and discussed what we could do to help the ward since Brother Allen is the Young Men's President. He gave us names of a couple of people to visit and we are trying to contact them all. After that, we tracted for a bit then went home and started to unpack, haha. We still haven't completely unpacked. We have been go, go, go, since we hit Cbus.

Wed- We woke up and unpacked a bit more. We decided that we would not stay in the apartment AT ALL from 10 am till 9pm. So when it hit 10 o'clock, we hit the streets. We went out and tracted and found a little bit of success. We decided to hit potentials too and reconnect with people I used to teach here. We got back in contact with Tessa and she will be moving soon, but we are still going to try to assist her until she leaves. After that we tracted again for a long time until dinner, which by the way, mom, members are really good at feeding missionaries here! We have a dinner appointment every night, so I've been trying not to gain weight. But we have nothing but bad food in our apartment. And, because Quick and I decided we would only shop on Mondays, and because we are always out, we have just been snacking on that unhealthy food :( haha. We bought some healthy foods today so we are good now. After dinner we visited Kim and worked with people around that area. After that we came home and I just knocked out. It's nice feeling this really good kind of tired again :)

Thur- District Meeting! Elder Quick and Elder Taka are the District Leaders here in Cbus (I'm Jr Companion). They had a combined meeting. It was really good and it was just spiritually-packed, mom. They got me and the others so fired up, that after the meeting what did we do? We went out and tracted!! 

Quick & Heimuli in back

We decided to blitz Elder Taka's area for a bit then blitz ours. We also decided to Bike. While we were biking a huge storm rolled in and started to just downpour on us! It was crazy!! Then Elder Taka tried to take a turn on the slippery road and crashed haha! I was ahead of them then suddenly I just heard Elder Quick bust up laughing. I looked back and saw this huge 340 lbs Taka sprawled out on the ground! After laughing so hard, we then tracted and blitzed. We found some success but not a ton. After that we had dinner with another member then visited one of the people I used to teach. This was a miracle. So the first time I taught this family, they just disappeared and we couldn't find them. It was like they moved and they didn't tell us. Ballif and I stopped by multiple times but no luck. So we had to drop them. Then on Thursday the spirit prompted us to go and just knock on that same particular door. We did...and they opened up. They didn't have much time right then, but they said we could come back the next day and talk. We set up the appointment and headed back to our apartment. 

Fri- We biked ALL day haha! It was awesome. We contacted formers, potentials, less actives, and part members. It was A LOT of biking. But we went everywhere and visited as many people as we could. And here was the other big miracle. We got to a point that night where we had time to visit only one more investigator, but we had two people we needed to visit. After pondering on it, we decided to visit the family we visited the other day. It was about 5 miles away from where we were and was even farther away from our apartment. But we biked and biked and biked. When we got there, no one was home. We were low key mad because had we biked all that distance!!! We said a prayer in our hearts and knocked a couple more times. After 5 min we were about to leave when the family pulled up and walked towards us. They had all gone out for a second and came back. So we barely caught them. We were invited in. We shared the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. They had heard it before. And hearing it again brought just a wonderful spirit into the room. We put them on baptismal date for April 29th! So please, pray for them that they make their date. After that lesson we rode all the way back home and just knocked out! Elder Quick only made it halfway onto his bed, haha! 

Sat- In the morning, we had breakfast with Bro Guenther from the 1st Ward. He's the one who loves dad and gave me his old football pad. He was happy to see me and I was glad to see him, too. Breakfast was too good. I had 8 pancakes and a bunch of bacon (Not Good). Conference was awesome! Elder Brough's talk was really good. He talked about an experience where he wanted to take his dog with him to the mission that his parents were called to preside over. His dad told him to ask God about whether or not he should bring it. Now the talk was based on having people who love you help you develop. But I took something else from his talk. After praying, Elder Brough got his answer which was NOT TO BE A BURDEN. He realized he needed to follow God's will, the will that we find through prayer and in the scriptures, which was to go with his parents and not to be a burden. 

It made me wonder how I can follow God's will more closely. His talk about having people around you who love you and help you develop. But his talk also reminded me of all the great ward leaders and family members who have influenced me and taught me by word and by example. I am truly blessed and thankful for everyone back at home. Following conference, we had lunch with the bishop. Then we attended the other sessions and had dinner with a member. It was a great great day, in which I was physically and spiritually fed! We also got a little tracting in, so that was good, too :)

Sun- We decided to watch a conference session with Kim and Steve :) It was great. President Monson's talk about the Book of Mormon and growing our personal testimony was powerful. If we want to keep and grow our testimonies we need to CONSTANTLY be in the scriptures and in prayer. We have to. Even though his talk was brief, it was powerful. Many of the talks were fantastic that day. I wish I could write what I learned from all of them in this email. After that we had a ward pitch in. Our investigators were supposed to come but they couldn't make it :( However, we had lunch for about 30 min then went out and visited some less actives and did some tracting before the next session started. After conference we went to dinner with a member and then we went back out and tracted for a bit more. Whenever we don't have appointments or aren't stopping by part members' homes, or less actives, we are constantly finding. So it's been a great week for me. 

Being with Elder Quick is just awesome. He is a diligent missionary...a lot more so than me. He is very knowledgeable about the scriptures and is very concerned with being in tune with the Spirit. He doesn't care what anyone thinks about him because he knows that he is accountable to the Lord. That's just a little bit about what I admire about him. We are working our tails off and we are going to baptize this transfer. So if you'll just keep praying for us, mom, we will put in the work for it. 

Thank you, mom, for everything! Give my love to the fam!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

***

Hi Mama,

Week one. So the very first day we get in, we just decide to spend a little bit of time organizing then we just decided to hit the streets, and get out and visit some old potential investigators of Elder Heimuli's. We found a few of them, but mostly just trying to get in contact with them, set stuff up.

Brittany and Billy, they are a family that Elder Heimuli worked with quite some time ago, and they ended up disappearing.. like in the middle of the night, they just dipped out and moved. No idea where they went. But he had an impression to go stop by their old address. So we went after saying a prayer that they would be in the same apartment. We knocked and they answered! She told us that she asked the other day why the "guys" hadn't been by in some time. Then her son looked at the Book of Mormon in my hand and asked me what it was. I told him it was scripture. He disappeared after that..then he ran and found the Book of Mormon. Brittany was like, How did you find that? I didn't even know where I had left that. We set a return appointment...fast forward a couple of days, we were on bikes riding around. We had the choice between riding about 4 miles to Brittany and Billy's, or to another potential who was only like 1 mile away...we had to choose. We chose to ride to Brittany's. The whole time we were riding the wind was so strong against us, and even more so the closer we got. I thought for sure they were going to be there. We knocked on the door. Nothing. We knocked 3 times, and I was like wow...we chose the wrong one. Then all of the sudden Billy walked around the corner and was like, Hey, I just pulled up. What a tender mercy we had. We went in and had a great discussion with him about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted a baptismal date of April 29th!

Funny story...Elder Taka, Elder Heimuli and I were riding our bikes through the pouring rain. It pours like sheets of rain here so we were all soaking wet from head to toe, riding to get to the area we were going to track. We stopped some people on the road, offering them soggy pass-along cards...and we were on a busy street. Elder Heimuli was leading the pack, Elder Taka was in the middle and I was in the rear. Elder Taka is 6 foot 4 in and weighs 330 pounds. We rode through a puddle. Taka rode into a pot hole and it threw him sideways! Somehow he managed to like run with his right foot. I swerved into traffic to try to cut off the car in case he flew into the road, but then he bailed off onto the grass. I couldn't help it. I was dying laughing at this point. So was Elder Heimuli. Taka jumped right up, got back on the bike, had grass stains all up on his shirt, and ripped his pants open.

We did a lot of knocking on doors this week, doing our best to gain member trust and visiting people, asking for referrals and information on what has been going on and how we can help the ward. Met a couple of interesting people.. nothing like good ole x roads, but serving with your best friend you'll find success anywhere in the world!! Trust me there. We've seen so many miracles. We serve God every day. We are out the door early and we don't come home 'til late at night.

Found a family. We talked to the wife who told us her and her husband were open and we came back. So we came back and her husband was outside on the lawn and immediately was like NOT interested. So we talked to him for a second, telling him we were there to talk to him and his wife, that his wife invited us back to talk about the Gospel, but he just wasn't having it. That is okay though because time will soften his heart.

General Conference was such a blessing especially to hear the words of the Prophet of God. I loved his invitation he left with us to study the Book of Mormon every day. Not a few times a week or just once, but every single day! I also loved his talk in the Priesthood session where he talked about kindness and how Jesus Christ was the best example of kindness. During General Conference I focused on looking for "armor" and how to wear the Armor of God better, how to be more effective and how to strengthen our testimonies.

Have a good one, love,

Elder Quick!

Transferred Away

[Got this short, sweet note today.  Brought tears to my eyes.  Elder Heimuli is no longer in the office working as an Assistant.  He will miss the incredible people there with whom he worked so closely -- people like Elder Breck, Pres. & Sis. Carlson, Gillman & Shaw.  On Monday, Elder Heimuli welcomed his last group of new missionaries to the Indiana Indianapolis Mission!  On Tuesday, he transferred (for his final 7 weeks) to the very first area where he served as a greenie when he arrived in 2015.  He loves the humble people of Columbus.  He loves his companion.  Should be a great way to finish strong!] 

Brother and Sister Heimuli,

I recognize that Elder Heimuli is still in the Mission, but he is now transferred away from our area.  I want you to know that we are going to miss him immensely.  We have thoroughly enjoyed working with him, and I loved playing basketball with him as well.  He always has a smile and is prepared to brighten everyone’s day.  I’ve seen him take command when appropriate, and everyone listens to him.  Here are a few pictures we took before he was transferred.  I hope all is well with you,

Elder Breck

Secretary to the President
INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS MISSION

Elder Heimuli's last time greeting new missionaries at the airport

Heimuli, Gillman & Shaw cooking breakfast for the new missionaries

Last time in the office

Elders Shaw, Breck, Heimuli & Gillman got to play some basketball

 

Last supper...before transfers

 

Ready to be a regular missionary again.  Go get 'em Elder!

From Elder Quick

[Heard from our other Indiana missionary, Elder Brad Quick, and shared with him a text from April 2015 when he was still in high school!]

Hey Heimuli fam,

Wow that text... blast from the past!! 

What in the world?! hahaha I totally called it, didn't I! I am going to be honest, I have been praying very hard that we can be companions. 

I would like to first start my email by making that promise to you. I will do my very best to work him as hard as I physically can until it is time for him to get on that plane. It is the two best friends, going to Columbus! We will find them, we will find people to teach, and to baptize. If there is one thing that I know we can both do is work, work, work until the very last moment. 

You probably already know this, but Elder Heimuli served in a capacity and in a way that no other person could possibly have done out here. I know him, and I see how grueling it has been for him. Honestly, I see how tired he is. But I also know he has got more left in his tank, whether he thinks he does or not. I'll squeeze it all out of him, mama Heimuli, I promise you that. 

I also would like to say thank you for raising us right! Houston has always been such a great example to me. Even when I was messing around in a very sketchy life, he was the only one who would ever call me and invite me to activities, or try to get me out of what I was doing. Thank you for being amazing parents.

Love you two very much :)
Elder Quick

Letter 8 - Which One Am I?

Hi Mom!

So Michael did come to church and he is currently on date for April 22nd!!!! He is coming this week too so that is very exciting!!!

I hope dad's better soon. That has to be rough. I know things will get better. He's such a tough guy, too, so no matter what happens he will pull through. Glad your boss let you take care of dad. I'm not sure if your boss will even care that I said this but tell him thank you from your son out on a mission. I will pray for dad (since that's pretty much all I can do at this point). 

Haha, I already bought the supplements, lol, but not to get bigger. In fact I've just been trimming down and running. I'm down about 5 pounds right now and still dropping some weight. Hev just sent me the workout regimen from dad so I'll be doing that in my next area :) I've been running about 2 miles every morning, and then some core and weights. Then at night I stretch and jump rope and I have a ladder.

As for the work, mom, it's been crazy busy this week. I won't go over the whole schedule because you might think it's boring haha. But it's been busy because zone conferences were Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then Temple Day was today and Transfer Call Day was today as well! 

So it's been a lot of things just kind of compiled into one busy office week. We planned, set up, trained and cleaned up like we always do. 

I'm usually taking the pics, but I got in this one, since it is the very last ZC I'll ever get to plan!

So worth it to support all the missionaries and be able to see them learn and grow.  

It's been great to serve behind the scenes

But these two AP's are awesome, and I honestly don't need to worry at all. They are wayyyyyy better than me haha! Speaking of transfers...guess what :) I'm going to Columbus again with Elder Quick!!!!!!! It's official. We are finally going to work together for my last transfer. I'm so excited :) I called him this morning to give him the transfer news and he thought I was lying. Haha! It took me a bit of time, but I finally convinced him :) Anyways, the next 7 weeks are going to be a blast and we are going to work our tails off. I'm gonna have to move to keep up with him :)

So instead of a weekly run down this week, I think I just want to tell you a couple of things I've learned from my privilege of working with two Mission Presidents. 1) THEY LOVE THE MISSIONARIES. Really, that's the biggest thing I've learned. I don't think anyone can really comprehend it. It's crazy how much work the mission president and his wife put in. So much love and prayers and soooooo much time. They sacrifice their own leisure time so the mission runs smoothly. They don't really have a P-Day and you know what? They're okay with that. They really and truly want to do that so that the missionaries are taken care of. Just like you and Dad, I see such a huge correlation in parents' love for their children and in our mission presidents and wives and their love for their missionaries. Yet folks still complain when no one ever realizes what's really going on behind the scenes. I've gained a whole new appreciation for their work and they've taught me a lot about judging people. I've learned that judging is hard NOT to do! We can all sit there and judge all we want. It's easy, too. But if we don't look past our judgments, we are going to miss the real needs of the person. Am I good at it yet? No, not at all. Do I need and want to work on it more especially after the mission? Yes I do. 

Next I've learned to skillfully avoid people's questions when it comes to transfers...how? I just pretend I never heard their question, and I just carry on with the conversation :) Haha. Ok, maybe I'm not skilled at it, but I've learned to do that!

Another thing I've learned from my year as an assistant is that having a big truck takes a lot of gas. So I'll probably never get one....we will see where life takes me on that one ;)

I also know that "position" doesn't really matter. But I've learned many things about being a leader that I would have never learned if I didn't serve in this capacity. First, I've learned that a good leader doesn't need to "Check Up" on people. I'm not there to just prod them along. I'm there to help with their workload, to constantly ask how I can ease their burdens, and help them help themselves when it comes time for heavy trials and tasks. I know I can't lift every bit of their burden, but I can help alleviate it. In football, which captain is better? The one who yells at the team, telling them to do better, then just carries on with his own work, OR the captain who cheers on his teammates, runs with those who are lagging behind, offers help with the important stuff outside of football to ease their burdens. Who is the leader? Which one am I?

I've learned also how much I hate meetings now ;) Haha, so that's what you do just about everyday at work and in the evenings and on weekends too, huh? It's worse than tracting all day!!! It really is!!!!!

All in all, I've learned alot. But I think the biggest thing I've learned is that God always qualifies those He calls. Elder Mortensen and Elder Clark were the AP's who trained me and Elder Wimmer and I remember they told me something that I still do today. They asked God, in prayer daily, for the talents and abilities to perform their tasks and duties. They prayed for talents!!!! It sounded weird to me at first but then when I started doing it I noticed the things that were hard and scary for me as an assistant weren't that bad anymore. God will give you the ability, you just have to show your availability to Him, and let Him work with you. 

I am very thankful for this chance I've had to serve in this capacity, but I am ready to head back into the field for my final transfer :)

I'm thankful for President and Sister Carlson and their patience with us ;) They have to deal with a lot! They are truly humble and dedicated disciples of Christ. I love them and am so thankful for them. President and Sister Cleveland as well were just tremendous examples to me, and they personally helped me out a lot. A lot of the early missionary lessons I learned were under them and they pretty much nurtured the early greenie Elder Heimuli. I am so thankful for their work and their dedication.

Anyhow, those are just a couple things I've learned and I am looking forward to learning other things this transfer :)

Love you mom. Tell everyone hi for me!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!!!!

Elder Heimuli

Love you mom!

Letter 9 - Merism

Hi mom :)

Thanks for sending the card and everything. No, I haven't heard from Gabe yet but I bet I will hear from him soon. And on the subject of school and football, Coach Shaw was just checking on what number I was going to wear since I couldn't have 35, so I'm going to be 34. So watch out for that one, hahahaha. 

Well last week we had Michael come to church and he LOVED it again!!!!! It was awesome. Our other investigators have all been on spring break so it's hard to get in contact with them. But we are still trying. Anyways so just a heads up, we had zone conferences all week and it's spring break so campus is dead, so there's nothing new to report but I will try to give you a good rundown.

Mon- We had our meeting with President and talked about all the Zone Conferences. Following that meeting we had FHE with the branch and guess who came? MICHAEL!!! He enjoyed it and even has some fantastic fellow-shipping going on right now. He seems to be progressing very well and is willing to keep meeting. 

Tue- We traveled down to Bloomington for what would probably be my last Zone Conference there. The focus of the conferences was to apply everything Bro Donaldson counselled us to do. We gave training on the use of the pamphlet in teaching the new way that Bro Donaldson showed us. It was cool though because I learned something new about prophets. If prophets were called to teach and baptize with the priesthood, proclaim the gospel, AND testify of the coming of Christ, then don't we need them now? Of course we do. Think about it. Christ said He would come again and it is recorded in the Bible, too. Surely most religions can't deny the Bible. Therefore, if Christ is coming again, then it is needful for a prophet to be called once again to testify of Christ's second coming and proclaim His gospel once again. It just makes sense :) So that was a cool revelatory experience for me. After zone conference we drove back and got ready for the next day's conference. 

Wed- We met in the Indy Stake and I got to be with my good friend Elder Pau'u for his last zone conference :( He is leaving the mission and going back to California! 

Zone conference went great. Again lots of revelation and cool things learned during the zone conference. I learned a great term called merism. What's a merism? Well it's pretty much when we sum up an event by using the lowest part of the range and the highest part of the range as a contrast. For example, "He searched high and low."

When we hear that phrase, we take it to mean that he looked everywhere, so this merism includes everything high, everything low, and EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. It's actually a literary device used in the Bible. For example, Paul talks about how by Faith we are Saved. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End unto Salvation. So, yes, it is true that Faith is the first step, and being Saved is the last step. But we must also do everything in between!!!! People get that confused all the time and don't think Repentance, Baptism and the rest are necessary. So when I started to read the New Testament more I realized it's packed with these. Like Alpha and Omega. Christ is the Alpha and Omega, which means He is also everything else in between. Look for that as you read the bible. You can understand why there are so many mix ups. But it just reaffirms my testimony of the Book of Mormon which helps clear up misunderstandings and questions.

Thur- We had what is probably my last zone conference in Lafayette. Same training. But again we can always learn something new. I learned how much more humble I need to be in order to continue to progress. It's not the situation that always halts our progression. In fact that's rarely the case. We have our own agency to choose to be happy or to be depressed. To listen to the Spirit, or to try to give it a go on our own. Following that conference we had dinner with some members and then headed back home to finally rest a bit. Because next Mon-Wed is the constant grind again haha!

Fri- We had nothing to do that day so we decided to help with the office and elder Breck. We also set up a couple lessons in which one was with Michael. After doing the office work we went and taught Michael the restoration. We did it the way Bro Donaldson told us to, and it worked again. Michael is now pursuing the date of April 22nd for his baptism. He is sincere and loves the church. Now we have to help him better understand scripture. Michael is from Nigeria so he isn't really fluent in English but he is learning. It was great! We also had dinner with a member that night and went home. 

So the week wasn't all that exciting but still good none the less. I'm pretty excited to go back out to the field, but I don't know where I'm going for sure yet till like next Thursday. 

Here is a little message you could share with the family!

Dear Heimuli Family! 

It's your favorite Elder Heimuli in the mission field! Things in Indiana are going great and time is ticking down to the last drop. I've studied a lot in the Book of Mormon, but from the very beginning. It's funny how it seems that whenever we decide to do one of those Book of Mormon challenges we'd cruise through 1st Nephi, skip the Isaiah chapters, and if you're me I'd skip everything till the war chapters in Alma! Am I right?

Last week I was really down on myself. I literally thought I was the worst missionary in the world. For some reason everything negative came flooding into my brain. I prayed to God to help me. I received a distinct impression to open up the Book of Mormon and read it from the beginning. I did. And honestly, what I felt was peace. I calmed down, and as I read I didn't just read to read. I slowed down and I applied everything I could to me. 

For example:

Verse 1- I was born of goodly parents, and they were born of goodly parents as well. Grandpa Peni raised the wonderful men and women we have today in our family. The gospel is applied to families, and when we apply it to families we can know of the great goodness and mysteries of God as said later in the verse. Now that's just one verse, however, I spent a good hour on 1st Nephi chapter 1 and 2. It's amazing what information the Book of Mormon has, and especially what feelings we have when we are willing to read and ponder and pray. Why? Again, the only way for us to connect with our Father in Heaven is through prayer. The Book of Mormon is a testament of Christ and contains the fullness of the Gospel. The very Gospel intended to give us peace, happiness, and joy. The same feeling I feel when I read this book. I hope you all do the same and take time out of your busy day to read it. Read it, pray about it, ponder it, internalize it. Make it a part of who you are and not just some words on pages of paper that we can read. Do it, and I promise the knowledge of heaven will unfold before, and the Spirit will aid you in your search. Love you all and may God bless you as you continue to come closer to Him :)

That's about it mom! I love you! Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli

Week 90 / Letter 10 - Spectator Sport for Members

[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. 

Mon- So this past Monday we got the opportunity to go on an exchange with Brother Lee Donaldson. 

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

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. 

Sat- Dropped Tanner off this morning. 

Sad to see him go but he is going to enjoy where he's going next! 


After that we did service at Grandma Banks farm for our P-Day today...all day haha! 


I am so pooped, and now I'm emailing you :) We are headed to dinner with a Hispanic family Elder Gillman and Shaw know. 

Well that's the rundown for the week :)

Love you mom, and give my love to the fam bam!

Ofa Lahi Atu!!!

Elder Heimuli

Surprise Text

Once in a while, I get a boost just when I need it.  Earlier today, Elder Heimuli wrote that he and his companions were headed to an appointment.  I just got a text message and these pics, "Fun with your son!  We loved having your sons in our home."

And I love the wonderful people of Indiana who take such good care of the Lord's missionaries.

Week 88 - A Little Lazy Faith

Hi mom!

Things have been very busy. And we have been grinding!!! We are so tired everyday haha, and it's a good thing:) 

Yeah, I know Elder Peterson! He is a great missionary! He is currently serving in Clearcreek in Bloomington. I will have to say what's up from Elsie Anderson for him (Brent and Elsie are awesome)! Man I wish i could have some lupulu... and otai.... And man, you and dad are just busy busy busy!!! 

I am really loving my companions. They are hard workers, very happy and we all get along great. Here is the scoop of the week!

Mon- We PC'd campus for a long time! A really cool miracle happened. So we were teaching a new investigator we found the other week named Conner. As we were teaching him two random guys came out of nowhere and asked if they could join in our conversation! It was amazing. I think young people are just naturally curious to know what we teach. One of them wasn't very receptive but the other one named Aaron was. He was willing to learn more so we are going to meet with him next week! 

Following that we PC'd until we had FHE because President was way up in South Bend so we didn't have meetings with him that day. FHE was great! 

Tue- We went with Elder Breck to move houses from Columbus and Crossroads. Those two areas are about 2 hours apart. Needless to say, that took ALL DAY. We were so worn out by the end of the way. Elder Breck is the mission secretary and housing coordinator. He and his wife are sooooooooooooo awesome. I love them A LOT so it didn't even matter that we were tired. It was just great to spend the day with them.

Wed- We went to the office and finished up a lot of paperwork. Haha it's crazy that even though we have cut down a lot on our paperwork duties there is still so much to do!!!! But it all went well, then Gillman, Shaw and I went straight to campus to PC :) It was awesome! 

So we were grinding for a solid couple of hours before we took a break. We sat down for a second when all the sudden some people came up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. After the picture we sat there and we thought, "Hey, let's pray to have someone come here to talk to us...because we are dead tired." 

Do you believe prayers are answered? Cuz that's honestly what happened. We prayed and had faith. Two minutes later a member walked by and said hi as she was going to her next class with a friend. Well, needless to say, we called her right over, and her friend was interested!!! She's Japanese and is from Nagoya I believe. Isn't that where Kastle and Evan went? And she took a BOM and wants to meet with us this Friday :)

Faith worked. Maybe a little lazy faith...but it worked!!!! We were pumped again to work! After PCing for a bit more we went to a lesson with Grace. The lesson went well but she is struggling, and actually texted us the other day and dropped us :( but we will keep trying. After that we went to dinner at the chapel with a member from the YSA ward. We also started a meal calendar because Redmond and Wimmer really worked on getting rid of a lot of administrative stuff so we can be more involved in the ward. They are awesome. We were supposed to have a lesson with a potential but they bailed on us :( I guess that's just how it goes!!! So we went back home and got ready for the next day.

Thur- We had some office work to do then we headed to campus. After grinding for awhile we found some success in potentials. There was a guy that came up to me and said, "Remember me?" I didn't exactly but he did look familiar so I asked him, "Uh yes, but remind me of your name again?" He was a guy that Redmond and I gave a card to a while back. He asked me if I was Samoan... Haha, I laughed and told them Tongans are better, then he told me how he loved rugby! And that's how he knows Polys. He is from the Congo so I didn't think he knew anything about Polys. Anyways we talked and he said he would be willing to come to church on Sunday, so I just need to get in contact with him. After that I looked at the time. We had a lesson with a girl who didn't leave us with a number or anything, but she said she would meet us at the campus center at 2pm. Honestly when someone says something like that they usually don't show up. So typically we would briefly check to see but they're usually not there. However, for some reason this time we felt like we needed to run. So we sprinted! We were coming up the escalators when pop!!!! There she was going down the escalators. She told us she thought we weren't coming so she was leaving. We had barely caught her in time! Yet another miracle that happened. We taught her the restoration and she wants to meet with us Monday. After that we had a lesson with C who is Ricky's girlfriend. She is so solid when it comes to learning and wanting to know for herself. She is still waiting for the feeling of overwhelming confirmation that it's true before she is baptized. We talked to her a little about that but she is continuing to pray and seek understanding. After that lesson we had dinner with a member in Fishers and we had to dart back up during rush hour to make it. We met up with the member and as soon as we started to walk in a guy yelled out, "Are you Mormons?" We turned around and thought "Wow, people really like to talk to us lately," haha! He told us how much he respects us and is willing to check out one of our services! So we are just seeing if he wants to come tomorrow! After dinner we went back home and finished some more office work.

Fri- So Saturday we have some things planned in the morning so we decided to take the time on Friday (since campus is dead) to clean our apartment. After organizing everything and finishing some office work we headed to campus and tried to PC. No one was there, It's hard to PC when no one is there. We decided to go visit Grandma Banks and check up on her. She is still doing good and she is awesome. We are going to be doing some service for her next Saturday. We did have a lesson with a potential i found after Grandma's, and it went well. He is a fitness major and he was atheist but now has been looking for a religion. He has met with other religious missionaries but he likes what we share. So we taught him the restoration. After the lesson we set up another time and we headed home. 

Sat- Today there was a baptism for someone Gillman and Shaw taught. We also went with a member and got some stuff at a store and then we had to give a training to some youth on teaching the restoration!  So we are emaling right now but we have dinner in 20 minutes with a member it's kinda busy today. 

That's it for the week mom:) we are headed out but just wanted to shoot you the email and say i love you!!!!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

Elder Heimuli