Merry Christmas everyone!!!

        I am too excited right now i dont know how to express it over email...haha maybe ill send a picture of my face so you will know the happiness i am trying to contain!!!
        Yesterday was super eventful and so much fun...we had to be in newberg by 10am to learn more about online proselyting, which we found out sunday night around 9pm and so change of plans! Then we ate lunch with the other elders and sisters therer and then we did a little but of goodwill shoppin and then i had to be back for the choir practice at 1:30 for the performance that night! Then our zone conference started at 3 and it was amazing! They always are! It was the best cause all of President and Sis Samuelians grandkids were there and they all are so stinkin cute!! Then we ate dinner together and it was super yummy..we sat by our zone leader, district leader and Me and sis Davis's old comps!! It was tooo much fun! We always sing a song to the cooks after:
        "We have been born as Nephi of old to goodly parents who love the Lord and on this day we thank you a BUNCH (jump) for fixing us this fantastic lunch! We are as the army of Helaman and when are missions are through will thank the Lord for all who have helped us especially people like you.. your Christlike love has shown through!"
        Then all the seperate zones had barely 10 min to put together a skit and i gotta say ours was the funniest and when elder ramsell, sis davis and i went up for our part we had the most laughs...it was all improve! Super funny! Cant stop laughing!! Anyways then Prez and Sis Samuelian got up and did the "twelve days of christmas" and tied it into the mission! Like "1 tiwi card esp for me!"  "2 elders tracting"  " 5 singing aps" (ap= assitant to president) it was pretty clever! Then they surprised us with santa..also known as Pres. Lewis one of the counselors! haha And then they gave us all shirts with our mission logos on them! So sweet! Then by that time it was 7, the program started and it was so so wonderful...we have some wicked talent inside this mission!!! No joke! A lot of people came..really great turn out! It was the missions 3rd one and im pretty sure it was the best! It was fun to be part of the choir..i think i owe that to my dad...of all those sunday mornings he "dragged" us to practice..or its just cause i like to sing! And i think its the best way to get to know people and other missionaries! :) So many wonderful people! It was such an eventful fun exhausting day! I want to do it all over again kinda...i haden't laughed in that long either esp during the skits...my cheeks hurt! haha
        The work is going great!!!....this is the best decision ive ever made and my favorite thing is being in the right place at the right time and not knowing it until something wonderful has happened! Even if its so small and you dont know what the outcome will be! Merry Christmas and hope you all are happy and have fun and remember what this time is truely about!

  Love sister heywood!

Hidey ho hidey he hodey da!

     Idk what that is...but i thought i would make it more interesting! hahah K so being a missionary is great so good thing we can all be one with or without the tag....right?! Good! Glad you all agree! This week was pretty darn cool! Ps. sorry i dont keep track of who i talk about cause im sure noone like to read all my ramblings of people you dont know..cause i know i didnt when i would read missionaries emails unless it was like way super awesome! Guilty! I just like to mention certain people when things are happening and or not tell you guys about it and just do work! :)
      We were able to meet with sue brewer and we have been meeting with her off and on the past 5 months (cause of health reasons) but we recently have been bringing members that she knows, like sis baldwin and sis thackeray...who are awesome and have both served missions..members at lessons is vital!!! And we have been addressing her concerns and we invited her to pray about a baptism date and i was the one who asked her and she said she would! Sue has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time now..and she has grandkids and a dauther-in-law in the ward (who is also one of our ward missionaries)! But for a long time no one was counting her as a investigator but when sis davis got here I decided that we would focus on her and she is really close the only thing is getting her to church! She used to come every sunday but because of her health it has been more difficult for her. I love her! She lives in the beautiful country part of forest Grove and has the perfect spot out in the woods its wonderful and i would love to live there! haha She always gives jelly and tuna that she cans! She is a very special lady!
      We also met with Rebecca this week and brought sis thackeray...you guessed it! We love her! We read the talk with her from conf. (Uchtdorf!)  "Come, join with us" and Rebecca loved it and it also got us on a good topic and she also recently found her P. Blessing and we asked her about the temple and if she has a desire to go...she said no and its only cause she cant see herself there! Her parents are converts and remembers being sealed to them! So we talked about the importnace of the temple and her blessing cause she was kinda just shrugging those things off that are important. It was great! You just had to be there! I love making children of God feel important like we should! It is really great that she has even come this far and that she has also gotten to know someone in the ward esp. sis thackeray cause she is so down to earth and they just clicked! And we have dinner with them tomorrow! :)
      We also met with the trapp family..have i told you about them? alright no? okay they have 8 kids and the oldest is 8 and ALL 10 of them showed up at church yesterday and it was awesome they were a little late so we werent prepared so we had to go get a whole other row of chairs and then after a little bit realized they need crayons and paper so we went and got some from the library and it kept them occupied ahwile longer! I enjoyed it though cause i miss sitting next to my big family during church and keeping us quiet! haha It was always interesting! They stayed for all of church and we are meeting them again this week for another lesson! We have been trying to schedule them for awhile but its difficult with everyone getting sick and there big busy family..Sis Vega is great and watched some of the little ones so we could focus more on savannah who is 8 and the parents! They are all really sweet!
      We also taught Y.W. laurels again yesterday and it was really good! Its fun to teach! Today for pday we got together with a recent convert Mckinsey, Joylana (who got her mission call this week) and the Spanish Sisters and took christmas pictures with santa hats and "ugly" christmas sweaters it was pretty cool so my family will be getting a fun Christmas card from the sisters over in forest grove! We also had dinner with the Stones 3 days in a row this week and it was awesome! He is a convert and they are amazing and fun! And i think we are having dinner over there agian tonight cause michelle signed up (also a rc) and they are having fhe over at the stones...it was going to be a lesson with the Hansens but they canceled :(  and so ya they love us and we love them! I love being a SISTER MISSIONARY! Its purty great! and we also are working with young single adults still and its tons of fun! Sis rice the lady we live with has been gone for over a week and will be gone for 2 more for 2 of her grandkids weddings in utah! So we have a whole house to ourselves..i miss her! She thinks we dont like to live with her but i tell her different all the time she deserves this time away though! She works so hard..and is the busiest 70+ old little lady i have ever seen! I love her.

 So anyways till next time i hope you all are enjoying your christmas parties and getting together with family and all the festivities! :) haha Love ya!

 Love Sista Heywood!       "When obedience ceases to be an irrant and becomes our quest, in that moment, God will endow us with power."

 

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

      Ahhh I love Christmas time and the spirit in the air and for everything that lies ahead of the hastening of the work here in Forest Grove! This week was a great one maybe not in numbers but in other ways that count in the process of moving the work forward! First of all i would like to mention that it SNOWED on friday! I was in the bathroom getting ready and Sis Davis runs down the hall and says "Sister Heywood Sister Heywood its snowing its snowing!" She was really excited to say the least and so was I! It was so Beautiful on the way to our Mission-wide Conference in Kiezer which is near Salem! Everytime i go outside im like..."ok! i am bundled up enough and i will be warm!" and as soon as i walk outside i am proven wrong and so i go put more on...so its just the fact of getting used to putting so many layers on! Its quite amusing and even the Oregonians here are not used to how cold its been! So really its not just because im from Arizona..ok?! hahaha

      So this week we were able to contact some refferals that we were trying so long to contact and no answer at the door and finally some doors opened, so we have set up some cool appts that we are really excited about! This weekend was Stake Conference and like i have mentioned before John and Nevada spoke at the saturday nightsession and it was so great to hear from them and hear there testimonies! It is so refreshing to hear a converts testimony and talk about the church because its not repetitive and they dont say a lot of the same "phrases" we say and it is so pure and happy! John went before Nevada and it is kinda a joke with them that john never leaves nevada anything to say and so that was what happened but they both did a beautiful job esp for it being there first time in church! You know they are amazing converts when they will go on faith instead of fear when given assignments like that! Then as a district of missionaries and some other sisters i invited that are going on missions or recently joined the church sang with us...The Efy Medley! :) It was super great and our zone leader Elder Lee put it together and plays the piano wonderfully! President Samuelian and his wonderful wife both spoke at the sat night and then again on sunday! I love to hear them speak and how intense he is!

           This Saturday morning we got to do some service in the freazing cold..we helped put lights on trees for this thing that they have called storybook lane! So almost like the ride in disneyland minus the boats and water! You just walk through it and it has this whole set up of the different disney movies and characters..  member let us know about it and so we came to help and it was fun met and talked to a lot of cool people and talked to some guys about faith and so hopefully the spirit got through to them by the things we said but they had some pretty interesting opinions..it was a good experience all in all! 

      A family that i had been thinking about for awhile and have been trying to wait for the perfect opportunity to speak to President Richardson about them cause he is there eye doc and i knew that it was going to be through him and his family that they would listen to what we believed cause they had questions....soo we are sittin there in sat. night stake conf and he gets up at the end and starts talking about a family that he has finally found the time to go visit and catch them at a good time and invite them over for dinner with his family and to answer questions the dad of this family has had! Sis davis and i look at each other and smile...we knew exactly who he was talking about and that my questions and prayers were answered. I know that this is the key to hastening of the work is to..LOVE AND INVITE! Pres Richardson reminds me of my grandpa keeling and his brothers and it makes me laugh..."This is how you do missionary work...how do you like your burgers? or the spanish version how do you like your tamales?" -Pres Richardson! He is having all of us missionaries over for breakfast next sat morning and we are all excited for that! haha He is a goof!

       There is also another family that we have been friends with for awhile the Hansens and the lessons stopped for some family reasons but now they are all back together. I asked the mom that, (i love) if she wanted to continue meeting with us and coming to church..i have promised her many times and promised her again that it would mend her family and the struggles that they go through, that we all go through! She is such a strong mom and woman and i told her that i loved her and that even if baptism is a awhile down the road for her kids esp. that it will bless them if we continued to meet with them and if they came to church! So we will see i really want this for them and of course for everyone, but i love this family.

     Also at our mission wide conference we learned that we are 1 of the 30 missions world wide that have been chosen to do online proselyting and so we all will be trained by the end of december as a mission to carry on this great work and i am so excited to use this tool in the hastening of the work!

      I know the church is true i know that Joseph smith is a prophet of God that he saw what he said he saw and i love everything about Christs Church! I know..not just believe! I know God still speaks to his children and that the blessings far outway the cost of anything pertaining to the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

 

Love Sista Heywood

 

Helloo people that read my emails!
 

   To start off this email i'm going to talk about whats happening right about NOW! So transfers are here and Sister Sigmon is leaving good old Forest Grove and right now my temp. companion is Sister Bent the one who sings the fun remake of the cup song! I posted her on my facebook. So i wont know till 3pm who my next victim is...i really will miss Sigmon we have had some great wonderful times together and she really showed me the way! Its all part of the mission experience and its pretty exciting/butterflies in my stomach feelings! 

  This week we tracked a lot and it was pretty successful found some Less active members we didn't know about....for ex. a guy named Rolls Halls who said he is a "jack mormon" cause he likes his white choco mocha but i said that doesnt mean you cant come to church! And he agreed and asked where and when we meet and said him and his wife have actually been wanting to go to a church so its cool that we ran into him! 

 We are starting to teach a family there last name is Trapp and they have 8 kids and the oldest is 8! So ya we love them, just lots of fun!

   The most exciting thing to me this week was that we taught gospel principles and it was on MISSONARY WORK and also taught the laurels in young women's and they both went really well and it was fun!! im such a dork. 

  John and Nevada are speaking in stake conference and John is getting the priesthood this week and it was so happy to sustain him for that! It was a good spirit! 

  This week we did something fun we went around randomly and asked people what they were thankful for and recorded them we got a lot of funny responses and i was fun to stop people and make them think about what they were thankful for! We are going to put them together in time! 

 Anyways i hope that yall have a good week and have a yummy fun thanksgiving! We have like 4 different options for thanksgiving so we are taken care of! 
   

Love Sista Heywood! xoxo

 

Bonjour! Family and Friends how are ya'll?

   

      As a zone we all went to the beach today....it was pretty miserable but fun! Ran up a mountain and about died and froze and got rained on! Sister Zubicki (from tuscon az) and I went on a little walk because we couldnt hang witht the elders and sisters who went all the way up the mtn to roll or snowboard down it...we did some tracting and ran into a really nice couple that took a picture for us and then asked where we were from and what we were doing "here" and so you know we told them we were missionaries and where we were from, they were from Idaho and so i said "oh so you probably have a lot of mormon friends" and they said Yes! and that they are awesome people and have tried converting them...and i said hey at least they tried! This couple are seventh day adventist...which we have worked with ahhh so similar but not! But they were such nice people and it was fun talking with them! After everyone finally came down the mtn we were all over the place trying to decide what to do! So finally we went to a church building in tillamook and ate our lunches! It was interesting.

   This week was slowww besides the fact that we had the "International night" that turned out amazing and had a lot of people there that weren't members! I did the Mexican skirt dance with the Vega family (mostly just to help guide their girls in their part) they put on the whole thing...they are rock stars! There were so many booths of different places from around the world! It was so fun! One of our potential investigators showed up and brought us the beanies she made for us and then told us to keep inviting her to those things cause she will come and eventually get her husband there (former member) she loves us! (not going to lie) She is like a little southern bell!

  We set up a lesson with a referral that we got from a our bishop about a month ago and she was out of town so we called her to check up on her Sunday night. She has had a lot of family tragedies and is lucky if she gets to see her husband every 3-4 months cause of his job! But after we were done talking i asked if she would have time before she goes out of town again to meet with us and talk more about the church...the answer was yes! Such a sweet lady so hopefully she will be receptive to what we have prepared for her. We are part of the ysa branch forming in december as i have mentioned before so we have been contacting those lists also and it is growing its fun to think that they are all pioneers in the start of this ysa group that will someday be a ward!

  John and Nevada are doing great they are such the sweetest people! I LOVE them to pieces! they are glowing with the gospel and still just soaking eveyrthing in! I wrote them a note on a card that was one of my gifts at my "going away mission shower" it is so cute i keep forgetting to give it to them! haha also we are trying to set up a time with some members to go to the temple with them and walk on the grounds and go into the atrium! On sunday nevada was running all around trying to catch Liam and thats my favorite to see...Liam walked passed us and he just stoppped and stared at us for the longest time..he thought we looked familiar and it was so cute!

  This past week was also zone conference and let me tell you i love them! Being on a mission is so fun...of course it has its ups and downs but what doesn't! Its so fun when all the missionaries get together! I love all the sisters i have met..let me tell you..life long friends! Up in here! anywayzz Zone Confernece in Newberg was bomb learned a lot Pres. Samuelian is so inspired and inspiring! He is totally my mission president and we are all so lucky to have him! (reminds me of my dad) on the way back the GPS took us up this mtn called Bald Peak and no joke we were above the thick fog and the sun was setting and we were in HEAVEN we pulled over on the side to take a picture with sisters Zubiki and Redd following behind us cause we were going to eat dinner together in forest grove at Pizza Schmizza! So yum! Oh also we had a new member lesson with Dustin idk if i talked about this last time but this was the night before zone conf. and we had it at a members home that he lives across the street from the Wrights! The mom served her mission in the Phillipnes and was not doing so good cause her trainer who is phillipino had not been found yet :( but at the international night she told us she was found! And i heard that all the missionaries have been found which is good but still so many were lost! Praying for the people there...good thing life doesn't end after death and we are only here for a short time! Its not as hard to cope with when you have that knowledge and hope! We had Redd and zubiki stay the night and it is loads of craziness when that happens! I cut Redds hair for the second time and we just had lots of joy!   

 So this week we will be tracting for 2 hrs every day! Cause we gotta find the people! Remeber that Joy is eternal and happiness is temporary! Mission life is great always tired happy and fat! Well i hope my email made sense to everyone...it makes sense to me! haha Love you all and hope you have a good week!

 

"Making friends with mission mortality means accepting slammed doors and canceled appointments, the blazing sun or freezing cold. You just SMILE and say "This is a mission." Your heart won't let you quit or even slow down." 

  

 

 Love Sista Heywood! 

This week
Heyylo!

My subject for this email is from an old mormon message that I love, it's called "God gave us talents" soo go watch it..you will laugh because of the cheesiness and smile because its true.

 

Last week was pretty awesome! Mostly because John and Nevada were baptized on Saturday!! Oh it was so delightful...i wouldnt mind filling up a font every saturday! That morning there was a clothes swap in the gym and so we were able to contact a lot of people there and were able to set up some appts. with a family that recently moved in and we have been trying to get ahold of..last name trapp! We Got lunch and then we were able to set up for the baptism! It was so FUN! I learned "brightly beams our fathers mercy" on the piano and practiced it! It started at 4 and they came we took pictures...they had forgotten towels so we helped nevada by handing her a whole bunch of paper towels it was pretty hilarious! Also we didnt have a chorister so it ended up being me haha but i just watched Sigmons hand as she showed me what to do! I dont know why it wasnt just her! haha Our mission president and wife ended up coming and after, the bishop welcomed them, he invited Pres up to speak!...I was sooo excited cause i knew it was going to be awesome! He looks everyone he talks to directly in the eyes so thats exactly what he did and my favorite part was "You thought you two came here for optometry school..hahaha...you did. But you also found the truth, congratulations!" It was pretty stellar!

We are doing service and working with this family that i really love. Their last name is hansen, the mom is so nice and loves us and will talk to us about everything so we are trying to bring the gospel to them and have them recognize the importance. We have had a couple lessons! 

 

Today we are having a new member lesson with this really tall guy name dustin who was recently baptized! So that should be exciting! He plays bball at the college! A miracle that we had last week was a lot of refferals so we have been contacting those! i love the Ward that we are in everyone is so kind and fun and awesome! We also have been getting into the homes of the youth and studying out of "Preach My Gospel" It has been a good experience working with them! 

 

We had dinner sunday night with the Madsen's and their little girl Lucy, she had to run to the bathroom six different times so bro Madsen had to keep getting up from the table and help her...she didnt make it a few times haha It was fun to see them in their element! We ate dinner with a lot of the younger "op" optometry students and its fun cause they are all just so fun and we relate to them..the ward is really diverse and that is what is so amazing about it cause the LAs we work with have no reason to feel out of place everyone is welcoming! The work continues! :)

 

I love the church and its hilarious to me how true it is esp. when you get those confirmations of the spirit or where it becomes so clear to you!  I love that i can receive my own personal revelation from my Heavenly Father and that we have a Prophet on the earth today that is able to guide and direct us! And the simple wonderful fact that God loves us so much that he continues to speak to us today!

Love Sista Heywood!

Hello Brothers and Sisters!

This week was good:)..dont have much time! Tuesday we got to judge the costumes
for the tri-ward youth halloween party and that was a lot of fun did a backflip
with my good friend Josh Moss and sis sigmon recorded it. Halloween was cool we
went to the ward trunk or treat and one of our potential investigators showed up
at the very end. We had to be in by 7..and sis rice had a lot of visitors so it
was sweet....the most exciting things this week that happened was that... John
and Nevada had there baptismal interviews on saturday and they "passed" and so
we will be in contact with them everyday this week. We had a lesson with them
halloween day and then i cut Nevadas bangs for her! Yesterday at church there
were 33 ysa and sis sigmon and i taught relief society again! We had a "break
the fast" and then watched the ces fireside! It was awesome! We also had
Michelle a recent convert of about 3 yrs bring her sister and husand to church
and so we sat by them and testimony meeting was amazing! Pretty sure we heard
him crying! There are some other great things i could say but my time is up..i
hope you all have a great week!
The work in Forest Grove is hastening! We love it here. I love my Savior and am
thankful that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to cut me down so that i can
learn and grow in this life time..We are so very blessed!

Love Sista Heywood!

P.s. my lovely companion is feeling much better! The doc appt helped a lot!
Might have to go in again if the cough doesnt go completly away
this week, so we have been just trying to get back into the swing of everything!

Letters & Packages:
Oregon Salem Mission Office
700 Deborah Rd Suite 260
Newberg,  Oregon 97132

London's blog & pictures:
Sisterlondonheywood.blogspot.com

Hey Ya'll!

 

This week was adventurous and interesting! Last monday i did some hair that was fun and turned out great! Including members and sis sigom:) I miss it, so I'm glad i can do it as a service! Also this week I found out more of my purpose in this area and ward...there is a reason each missionary is put in their areas and companions and even down to the time! (i knew my purpose but its even more clear to me) So excited about it!!! :)

We had our lesson with John and Nevada and they are just soo great, have i said that before, the lesson went really well and again they are so prepared. They want us to pick the time on Nov 9th but we are so excited!!!! Isnt it exciting?..i think i will cry. No, i know i will. Our mission president wants to be there also and i told them that and they're like "so there are going to be people there that we dont even know"..and i said "yep people who love and care about you and you dont even know it!" haha i feel like thats how most convert baptism are cause they are really so special! 

Made some contact with some less actives families which is really great...according to ward members cause they wont give the time of day to anyone else in the past..and it just so happens that the mothers of these families are cosmetologist..so needless to say we had a lot to talk about! It was awesome! :)

Friday Sis Sigmon started to get really sick and is still really sick and will be seeing a doctor today (outside of our mission) shhh! Dont tell! ;) Its the closest doc and its approved if its for those purposes! We had to cancel our dinner so i made some for us and we weren't able to go out..it was kinda weird cause we felt bad and wanted to do work but pretty sure people would not like us in their homes when Sis sigmon sounds like a dying whale! haha A couple times sigmon would get up and say ok lets go do this and i would have to be like "noo sis sigmon go lay down" (great practice for when I'm a mother) haha Saturday it hit her pretty bad and so we didnt do much except help the spanish sisters meet with some hispanic people that are in our area to help them get the spanish branch started which is very exciting! We were able to make it to church we sat in the back, far from everyone but then all the ysa started sitting by us. It was the primary program and was expectingly cute!! haha I helped Elder Lee our zone leader teach combined relief society and preisthood while sis sigmon was asked to play piano in the Forest Grove 2nd R.S. Poor girl..i feel so bad! We had a meeting for ysa after church which was awesome and our plans to find the less actives and spread the gospel and the activities coming up! Its great that I have 3 yrs of ysa experience..i kinda know how it works;)

Every friday we have our district meetings and our district leader picks people randomly to teach whether its companionships, split companionships or Sister and Elder! So guess who taught twice in a row.. elder sutton picked me to teach with him, it actually went really well! It was fun and funny our District is pretty close we have a lot of fun even with our senior couple Elder and Sister Scott, we love them!

Well I'm just trying to nurture sister sigmon back to health so we can get back to work! As the Christmas season approaches, as a mission, President Samuelian is having us read the four gospels and Jesus the Christ so we can come to know our Savior better, the one that we serve. I invite all of you to do the same! I'm excited for the chance to get to know my Savior better and become more like him so that i may be more successful in life and sharing the light!

Love Sista Heywood!

 

P.s. Sis sigmon got her driving privileges taken away for 90 days cause of "tiwi" shes had a few glitches and lets just say the mission office got to Sigmon before she could get to them so i have been driving which has been pretty cooool. We went and did some contacting out in the country which is beautiful/huge and we didn't know our area went out that far..so we went down and then back up this pretty steep hill it was really fun/scary and we were laughing so hard once we got up it cause we weren't sure if we would! dont worry we got this!

Brother Heywood,

I just wanted to tell you how sweet your daughter is. I wasn't expecting anything for my birthday and she made sure I had fun and knew people were thinking about me yesterday. She got up at 3 in the morning and heart attacked our room with happy birthday hearts. Then we get a know at the door at 10 and it is a family that we are really close to in the ward and she had been texting the mom for 3 days setting up a surprise birthday breakfast for me. She is awesome and such a great missionary, she doesn't think she knows her stuff but she really does. I hope you guys are proud of her. She has grown in just the 3 months that I have know her. Thank you for raising her righously so that she could serve a mission and touch the lives of those here in Oregon.

 Sister Sigmon

Hi Friends!

   This week has been a really great week...lots of happy things! Last munday after pday was over we had dinner with the madsens and we just really enjoy our time with them, they had invited over a friend to eat with us it was someone that bro. madsen goes to school with and they didnt tell us robert was coming but he was so nice and asked us a lot of questions and it was a really fun and funny! We shared a message and as we were walking out the door ..bro madsen goes "alright start praying for him to get baptized!" haha he was teasing him but it was quite funny. Sorry your missin out had to be there. We also checked out a bird book at the library for a recent convert armando cause we asked if we could do anything for him and so he said ive never been to the library here could you get a bird book for me haha so the next day we saw him riding down the sidewalk on his electric wheelchair and i busted out of the car and gave it to him..bet he didnt see that one coming! We love him sweetest old guy!

  We had our lesson with John and Nevada on wed and had the baldwins (that we love) there with us they both have been on missions! We talked about the plan of happiness and it went great...they literally are so prepared and i cant explain to you how happy it makes me to see them sitting together in church and how happy they look! They set there baptism date for NOVEMBER 9TH and they are preparing for that! They are just wonderful people..ya know?! After every lesson they basically say they have always thought of it like that and when we extend commitments they are so humble and willing! We know they will make a great addition to the church, so solid!

 Thurs we volunteered at a elementary school for there harvest festival it was really fun and we talked to a lot of people! Friday was a busy busy day! We had our district meeting and the vegas came in (who have also been on missions) to talk about the international night we are having in november and talked about the spanish branch being formed and Sis sigmon and i ended up teaching our DL elder Sutton never tells us whos going to teach and so that way we all prepare and good thing we did i had a funny feeling haha it went really good! After we ended up going on splits with the senior couple in our district, so we had sis scott with us and the people we visited and her being there was exactly what they needed esp Sue she is a wonderful lady who has been meetin with the missionaries for 5+ years and comes to church but is not baptized (we think its fear) but having sis Scott there with us was EXACTLY what sue needed to hear and the spirit was strong and she is one step closer to the descion of being baptized...she knows it true...She already asked her grandson to baptize her before he leaves in his mission. Right?! so awesome. She will be the breaking point of her son also being baptized and a friend of hers we are working with. We also had a lesson with Wiley, Beanies Friend on campus it was so awesome and she came to church sunday! We hope she continues to realize that the things we have been teaching her, are for her and not just for her world religions paper..dont worry ill tell her!

  I dont know if i mentioned in last weeks email but sis sigmon are part of history along with our zone leader! There is a Y.young S.single A.adult group starting here in the forest grove stake and we had 12 people there yesterday...which is a lot! But they are wanting 50 by January so they can start a branch but its cool cause we are able to go to there FHEs and Institute as long as we dont have a lesson cause those are first priority of course!! So they had Sacrament with the Forest Grove 2nd ward then have there seperate sunday school and relief society/preisthood and since it was the first sunday noone was really called to teach so sis sig and i had 10 min notice to teach the plan of salvation which went really well and it was good since wiley was there! I love being a missionary. We are getting a lot of refferals from the ward lately so things are going well and we had the ward chili cook of saturday night and had a lot of investigators there ohhh it was so fun! They had donut on a string and it reminded me of our Heywood Family nights during halloween! haha Speakin of i got the package from my Fav red Syd! I love you alll so much and LOVED everything i got in my package!!! So sweeet! I felt like i was part of a Heywood family night reading through all the letters and looking at the wonderful artistic drawings! and The sour patch kids that i wont have to spend all my money on!! ;) (that one is for shae and britt) so hopefully they read these! Sis Sigmon was pretty wierded out by how i was acting haha cause I felt like i was part of the "idiots" haha hadent felt that way in awhile! Your letters remind me of who i am just like attending those family nights always did..im eternally happy we have that tradition! 

  Sis sigmons bday was yesterday and she turned 20! Her Golden Bday! I like surprises so i heart attacked the room and her bathroom (yes we have our own bathrooms,were spoiled) in the middle of the night and planned a surprise breakfast for her with Sis Collins who we love dearly and they might be staying in the ward! We also had dinner with the sorensons and it was there son lukes bday also so they celebrated both It was a funn good sunday! Full of Treats and sugar and chocolate...so im kinda candied out and halloween isnt even here yet! haha Im going on a sugar boycott. Oh also i have a lot of clientle here haha (not really) but im doing like 4 peoples hairs today! I love the Happiness the Gospel brings me and others..you can literally see it! My cheeks hurt from smiling!

 Love Sista Heywood!

Hello hello!

This sister missionary will be staying another transfer in beautiful Forest
Grove, and is so very happy about it all! Along with my comp and trustie Sis
Sigmon! We totally called it.
This week was a very good one. not many lessons but productive days! Last pday
we took crazy pics around town and carved pumpkins with our lovely spanish
sisters. We love them.
We had interviews with President Samuelian and his wife on tues. They are so
great, i feel like im talking to my very good friends whenever we get the
chance. they are very popular around here. They are loved by many.

This week sis sig and i have been doing this thing that we call "invite to
invite" and so we go around to the members giving them invitations to the Ward
Chili Cook off that the primary made and invite them to invite someone to the
ward activity and if they dont already have someone in mind, we assign them to
less actives or investigators we are working with, that they know. we ask them to
prayerfully think of someone as a family! It is quite fun, the members love it!
Who doesn't want to go to a party where there is going to be chili and cornbread
and desserts!?
On Thurs. we also locked Sis rice out of her house on accident...haha we were
leaving and locked the door out of habit and she was in the garage getting
something out of her car and we say "byee Sis rice!". then later we get a call
during dinner from the murrays our next door neighbors and I'm like huh? they
never calll us but i had a feeling that it was important but didn't answer...so
we leave, listen to the voicemail and its sis rice saying "hello, you guys
locked me out of my house!" haha We raced back home and we felt so bad!! we all
were laughing!
We also had a lesson with John and Nevada this day and we recapped on the
restoration cause it had been a couple weeks and it was awesome! We invited them
to pray about a baptism date and they said they would and they were explaining
to us how they wanted to make sure that "when they get their answer that they
want to be baptized, that they are committed and so we can be awesome mormons"
hahah I loved that they said this with all my heart and then John said the
closing prayer and it was awesome, i love to hear people pray! So fast forward
to last night we get a text from them saying that "Wendesday works (for our
lesson) and would like to be baptized into the church and would like to discuss
scheduling that as well"
Needless to say our throats hurt from screaming...later we went to mission prep
to find the Vosses (they teach it) and show them the text, their faces were
priceless and then they read it to the class. We all couldnt stop smiling! haha

This week we are meeting with someone on pacific university who our friend
Beanie has been talking to and is doing a project on mormonism apparently...but
is wanting to learn more and meet with us, She is from Hawaii...totally excited
about this. hah!
A lot of great things happening! I love seeing people change and myself change
it is mind blowing how wonderful the opportunity we have to learn and grow on
this earth life! I love the Gospel and I love my Heavenly Father and brother
Jesus Christ! Without them I am nothing.

  -Love Always Sista Heywood! a.k.a.
Defender of Truth.

P.S. President Samuelian talked about having a "white christmas" for every area
in our mission and then it was committed to us at conference! I have a feeling
that John and Nevavda are not going to be the only ones.

Remember Elder Ballards commitment also; to be praying for missionary
opportunities and praying for the missionaries in your area by name and their
investigators by name! Ask the missionarys in your area who they are working
with. Be part of the Joy! :)

Letters & Packages:
Oregon Salem Mission Office
700 Deborah Rd Suite 260
Newberg,  Oregon 97132

Dear family and friends!

 

This week has been a good one! Last pday we helped the Collins move their home into some moving pods, started around 1:30. then a lot of ward families came around 5 and then we didnt stop till 8:30. It was very fun I learned a lot about packing. We miss the Collins family but still see jake at early morning seminary when we work-out at the stake center with the spanish sisters. its fun cause we get a game going of knockout before they all need to be in class.

That night we drove to newberg for exchanges. it was the 2nd one we have done but my first time being out of our little bubble of forest grove., so i was with sis Renslow who trained my comp, so in misson geneology she is considered my "grandma". it was fun to be in newberg and learn different things. we had a lot of fun had some good/funny experiences tracking. We met a guy named pete. he doesnt believe in going to church and has a lot of his own beliefs..."oh what do you believe in?" and pete says "I don't know" we love to get these responses! He was a really nice older guy but thinks church is "one big fashion show". he's one of those that likes to go on and on..you know one of those?! We also went to visit this lady who is getting baptized soon in their area and lets just say it took the sisters and some of her own good experiences to gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. When we stopped by she was actually having a book of mormon reading with her brother and his wife and so we joined them and it was super sweet to see cause she wants to be halfway through before her day and you can just see how happy she was and mentioned that she wants her kids to have this and they dont want it. Then her brother said "i know exactly how you feel"..meaning he had been waiting patiently for her to have this happiness of this knowledge and to find it for herself. It does take a lot of patience. It was a great exchange. I was glad to be back in forest grove!

Update on our people: Not meeting with the brothers anymore. they are not ready at this time to accept the book of mormon. great nice people and we still love them! they know our testimonies. 

 

Meeting with John and Nevada this week. they have been reading the book of mormon and watched conference with some members on sunday, Jack was ill (p.s. gave us tmi on his sickness) and so we are meeting with him this week and he did try and come to church but conference was happening..we didn't tell him cause he was sick but glad he tried to go to church. Our bad. 

Been meeting with a lot of less actives and loving it. We are getting more info on the college students which we are really excited about! We had members inviting the people we are working with over for conference. Love the ward here, feel like I've known them all my life.

Conference was simply amazing..we spent it at the Campbell's. they are in charge of the "singles" in our ward and they are so fun and funny! We also helped them paint some of there house earlier this week, it was tons of fun. We are trying to find the pure in heart that are wanting to take on the name of Christ more fully in their lives even if they dont know it! I am learning a lot out here! I love teaching. its one of my favorite parts. 

This weekend is transfers so we will see what happens, anything could happen....ahhhh :) 

"Talk to more people" and i will too! I hope ya'll have a great week!!!

Love always Sista Heywood!

Oregon Salem Mission Office

700 Deborah Rd Suite 260

Newberg, Oregon 97132 

 

Hey Sista Heywood here!

 

So my umbrella holding/opening skills are really sore...just saying this is NOT az..i repeat not! Its great but definitely something to get used to! This week was alright, "the bug" is going around and basically everyone we talk to is sick but it hasn't hit me yet, which I'm very thankful for! We had a few canceled appts and quite a bit less active lessons which i love, like the Beldens, but a lot set up for this week..so it was a little slow! But still affective. Im going to talk about things that make me laugh cause i like to laugh.

Well first our district was able to go to the temple and do a session which was super rad and was very much enjoyed! Sis Collins was able to drive us! Sis Sigmon's temple recommend actually didnt go through so we went a session later cause we missed ours but then ended up with the coast district which was fun to get to see them! Love the temple!

Last pday Sis sigmon got stung by a bee/wasp and it was pretty bad. she claimed that she is allergic but we put baking soda and water on it and she was fine! But it really hurt i could tell and she drove cause we were leaving the spanish sis. apt and i offered trying to be funny but she said no :( haha i didnt want her to faint or anything! ;) Then later in the week we were tracking in the beautiful rainy weather and she knocks on a door and i see a wasp thing on her head and i look at her really seriously and say "Dont Move!" and take the book of mormon and wack it on her head to hit it away and it didnt come off so she put her hand on it and it stung her...i cant help but laugh and im going to get it one of these days!

Then the other day i was getting out of the car and the phone had been on my lap and i forgot it was there and yes you guessed it, it fell out of my lap into the running water but i caught it soon enough that it didnt go down the sewer drain and fast enough that it is Aok now...! We bought rice just in case! haha

Yesterday in church during fast and testimony meeting there were amazing testimonies given, mostly by converts which was great to hear. i can listen to it all day and so it was already 5 after the hr and the family we usually sit by, their little girl Leah walks up very slowly to the pulpit cause she wanted to say her testimony so bad..she gets up there and its finally her turn and the bishopric waves her over telling her that its her turn. So she stands up there and immediately flings her hand in the air and says "i just cant do this" and runs all the way back and so i ask her "if i go up there with you will you do it?" and she said yes and so we do and right before the stairs she stops so i encourage her some more and then she says "ok but you have to go up with me" of course and then she changed her mind and goes back to her seat and so i get up there haha say what i had been planning to say all along (cause i do that) haha but its funny cause sis sigmon and i weren't planning on going up cause a lot of others were, but i still new i would get up there i just didnt know it was going to be that way! haha 

 

Sis Siggy and i taught gospel principles on sacrifice it was good, just a little rushed and i am really hard on myself but thats a whole other story! Early this week Bishop Dean had asked us if he could use us in his lesson in primary, this was my favorite part. He had us stand in front of all the kids and had them ask us any questions they wanted about our missions and then he had us talk about our decision to serve a mission and then he had them open to D&C 4 and he was about to read it and then looks at us and we were already walking back up cause we knew he was going to have us recite it! So we recited it to the primary and they were all "wow!" We say it every morning plus a few other things. i love it. 

One day Sis Sigmon and i were eating lunch and Sis Rice joined us which doesn't always happen..we got to talking and found out that her husbands brothers wife is sisters with Jeriann Keeling! She said "I knew some people from az i think they were from mesa?! I can't remember her name...she was really sweet and her husband is a jewler." .....Duh Jeriann and Ren!  hahah it was soo funny! I said "Sis Rice we're related!!!" hahah ;)

A little update on Jon...so he ended up moving back to Pennsylvania where he is from! So hopefully if he still desires he will find the missionaries there and continue to progress in life and the Gospel! Things got a little complicated but all is well!

So a couple things i forgot to talk about last week...we met this girl named Beanie she is 18 and going to Pacific University and lives on campus! She is in the ward and came to us with questions because she has been working with some of her roomates and someone who asked for a Book Of Mormon! Sidenote: we are not allowed to proselyte on campus! So basically she is our secret weapon cause we have to be invited into the campus! We were so excited about this! She is bomb and goes to mission prep even though she is not sure about going on a mission yet but knows that will help her, anyways which i think everyone should do. No Joke.

 

A couple sundays ago this girl named Jessica gave her farewell talk, she is serving in the Phx Az mission spanish speaking and she would come to lessons with us! She talked about how excited she was to serve in Arizona and it made me cry. I felt the spirit so strongly in missionary work. There was just something about me being called to serve in forest grove oregon and her being called to where i was from that was special! And that we crossed paths! Her brother is also going to cali in about a month ASL which i am so jealous of! 

We also did a lot of service this week on sat. in banks there was an Oregon Marathon and with our district we helped take everything down in the pouring rain! It was fun and we laughed a lot! I love serving and i may or may not have been really excited to get the free tshirts that we got! And then we attended the Relief Society Broadcast! Took dinner and dessert to a family we are teaching.

Anyways Life's good. The church is so true, its insane. Makes me so happy. I love being a missionary! Love always Sista heywood!  

 

Funny moment: We take our shoes off everytime before stepping onto sister rices carpet and so sunday i was super drained from church and started to take off my skirt and sis sigmon is all "what are you doing?!" and i was like "what?...umm i meant to take off my shoes..im really tired..."

Oregon Salem Mission Office

700 Deborah Rd Suite 260

Newberg, Oregon 97132 

Oregon Salem Mission Office

700 Deborah Rd Suite 260

Newberg, Oregon 97132

Aloha!!! Family and Friends!

  It was another great week in part of Gods garden of Forest Grove Oregon! Last monday we had a zone pday and played sports at the stake center it was fun i was sore and probably should start working out more it was super fun though im actually really good at indoor soccer haha not really but i did suprise myself a couple times with some skills that came out of nowhere! 

On tuesday we had sister conference in salem and had to be there by 10 and in the series of unfortunate events that our alarm did not go off we woke up at 7:45...and so we rushed and got ready and were meeting some sisters to carpool down there and the members that were driving them down from the coast had car troubles and sis sigmon gave them her home (colorado) address to get to sis rices home that we live in haha and needless to say we were out of it! And to add to the craziness Sis Rices daughter and son and daughter in law were staying there this past week to paint the hall bathroom and sis rices bathroom which looks awesome. They were so loud and funny it was very entertaining we also got some service hrs in by helping them. It was fun and always therapeutic for me to do some actual physically hard labor! Anyways back to sis Conference.. We heard from our Pres and his wife and from our sister training leaders and it was truly inspired from God. And i know that it was meant for a lot of sisters to hear... mostly on being obedient.. Yes sisters struggle too and a lot of sisters that i looked up to weren't doing their best and expressed to me that they were going to do better and that being even slightly disobedient is not worth it. We got to ride on a ferry on the way home. It was super rad. We almost didn't because my comp was scared to go with the mission car but that was where the gps was taking us haha #missonadventures. 

When we were going across i yelled and put my hands up like it was some kind of ride and if you have ever been on a ferry they go 2mph so i was being a dork. take it or leave it. Then we got to our dinner that night and explained about our alarm not going off and then all the sudden to our surprise the alarm goes off at 6pm sharp and so you can figure that one out it was pretty darn funny, luckily it was with one of our ward missionaries! (we love her and get awesome recipes from her) Wednesday we were pretty busy and had a lesson with Jon and our district leader and they will be teaching him until he gets baptized and we also ran into a recent convert while tracting and walked home with her from her bus stop. i haven't really told you all about Gricel and Sara. They were baptized like right before i got here so we work with them some and i love them! We had a lesson with sara about self worth and the atonement and watched the "reclaims" mormon message! It was good. Then we had a lesson with Jonas. he is a 10 yr old boy who is a member and his dad had member records removed but they let us come teach him and he understands that it is still important and it was cool we did a lesson on the Holy Ghost and made a maze in front of their house from stuff out of their garage including a huge handmade coke bottle haha and also while his dad was outside making a little play car to drive in, it was cool. Then we also had a lesson with Brian and jan they have lived in forest grove since the beginning of time and are less active but we are teaching them the lessons and they are really sweet and fun to talk to! Things are going great..We had our lesson last night with the brothers and we talked about faith and how to believe in the book of mormon or the bible. And also taught where we were before this or where we go after this life, a lot of it has to do with FAITH we were really honest with each other cause we are friends and thats what friends do but they are just not ready at this time so we explained that we would like to not meet with them as often cause they have Christ in their lives and there are people who do not and that our purpose is to find those people and help bring them closer. And they completely understood..so hopefully the spirit will work on them while we don't meet as often, i just really stinks cause we are all friends and really do love em! It was a really good conversation though and there was no contention just understanding and as we drove away we felt really good about everything that was said cause the spirit was still there as we were being honest with each other! One of them said something that was interesting though and that was that it made him so angry why we both believe in Christ and why satan puts a barrier up..and we didn't really know what to say to that but we agreed and it is just sweet cause they totally respect our belief and say that they believe that we believe in the book of mormon and the things that are taught. They just have some issues but still agree to try and make it to church next week! I love being a missionary and being a rescuer and cant wait to do it more and more, remember as missionaries and members we are in this together and i invite you all to live your lives as examples of Christ always so that people question what makes you so happy and what makes you keep going in this often sad but beautiful world, thats the best and easiest way of how to be a missionary. I love the Gospel..there is a quote i saw in an ensign i cant remember who said it but it was one of the apostles and it goes " It's not so much what we believe, but what we do because we believe that makes mormons interesting" there is so much more that happened this week that i wish i could talk about but all i can say is the Lords hand is in everything.

Love Always and Forever Sister Heywood!

Funny moment- Earlier this weeek its was raining..no like pouring and there was a guy outside mowing his lawn and had headset/headphones on and it was the funniest thing ive ever seen...well idk if i mentioned before ever but Oregon is known for its weirdness and let me tell you there are too many funny things we see. Oh also a guy who walks around in a Kilt and then the second time we saw him he had bagpipes...its fine.

Hey Friends and Family!

That i love so dearly! i feel like i say the same thing every week but its true i really do love anyone who's reading this cause it means you love me...right?!...hopefully;) This week has been a good one and again its going by too fast, it is beyond me! I got a haircut this week and got like 3 inches off i think it was needed it had been awhile! Okay and it just hit me that all my friends are having babies or had and its like a baby boom in Az..whats new? right! Oh i love it i cant wait to get home and see them but i can if that makes sense! I love it here and the people we are working with..with all my heart!
Okay so after much confusion Jon went back and forth with where he is wanting to live so he was going to passed to the elders sadly but now that is not the case he loves it here and forest grove so much he is trying his best to find a place here cause he loves the people he loves the ward and friends he has made! His baptism has been pushed back a week cause a lot is going on this saturday like ward day of service, child of record baptisms and the dance festival kick off! We went to the temple tuesday and it was so good to be there and Jon loved it the Sister missionaries in the visitors center are angels. The one that was with us has been out as long as me! The temple and V.C. bring me so much happiness and Jon didnt want to leave we were all just soaking it all in..you really do forget about all your cares and worries, so much peace on the temple grounds and we are so blessed we are able to use it for our friends!
We had our lesson with the Sweeney's they are the ones who have been coming to church a few times now and they are awesome they have a cute little boy and are friends with a lot of the members. We talked mostly about the book of mormon which was awesome cause they have already started reading it! We are excited to meet with them again this week and they are excited also! They LOVE how family oriented we are and how different people from the congregation get up to give talks or share testimonies! I struggled to know my purpose before meeting with them cause they have been so awesomely fellowshipped by the members of the ward for so long, but i learned it while sitting in there teaching and listening to them. i love learning especially when i need to learn and be humbled which Sister heywood needs most of the time. haha.
We had our lesson with the "brothers" thats what we call them cause they are! You will be glad to know that it went so much better than last week. The spirit was more present and we had another member come with us and i testify that members are so vital in the Lords work. I have learned that we the missionaries dont need to do it alone cause sometimes we feel we can but its not easy. The real teacher is the spirit and if that is not present then nothing is being taught. It is so important so i ask all who are reading this to join in on the Lords work and be part of the hastening of it cause your knowledge and testimony of the Gospel need to be heard! As members and missionaries we are in this together and "if ye are not one ye are not mine" found in D&C 38:27 I love you all and pray for you daily and hope that you all have a good week! I love the work.

 Love always and Forever Sister Heywood!

Hola! Family and Friends!

  Time out here is quite interesting and goes by really fast! Like it blows my mind. This week has not been the easiest..not going to lie, but I will be ok..I'm a Heywood and am blessed with so much and miracles still happen even if Sister Heywood is being a poopy head. The work goes on with or without me and I want to be a part of it..so I am with it!

We are still teaching our good friend Jon, great guy. He is just so receptive to the Gospel and a very humble guy, might be moving to Hillsboro soon and for the time being, the collins family has kindly taken him in till that happens and has been helping answer questions and help him search for a home and other great things. His date to be baptized is coming up so we have a lot to go over this next couple weeks which will be exciting! I love to teach, im not perfect at it but the Gospel is and i try my best.

So we have this couple i dont know if ive mentioned them before but their names are John and Nevada they have a little boy named Liam..and they are so cute! They have been coming to church the past 3 weeks and Nevada comes to the relief society activities and they went to the ward camp out, john plays bball at the stake center with the men and are about the same age as the most of the optometry students here and so they are friends with all of them and get invited to everything basically, like a barbeque they had in the park they invited us to and they were there! They have obviously been interested in the church and are pretty much members ;) haha well finally the members that we love that were going to ask them to take the lesson did and we are meeting with them this wednesday..so excited!!! I just love them and they dont even know it..kinda creepy huh? haha

This past week school started for forest grove high and so we went to support rachel the girl i talked about a few emails ago and she sang the national anthem at their back to school assembly! Their hs is like out of a movie and was huge, their gym was 2 story! We saw a lot of kids from the ward and saw this girl hayley who we had talked to in the goodwill store, like a few days before that, when we had been helping jon find clothes for church and she had been asking us questions about modesty and is a super sweet girl!

We had a district meeting friday morn and have a whole new district cause of transfers! They are all awesome missionaries! We have a senior couple who meets with us Elder and sister Scott and they have been out maybe like 3 weeks..we love them haha! She was an arts teacher or something so she was really theatrical and explaining to us the frustration she was having being a missionary sometimes..and we let them know they are not alone and it was just a sweet moment to let them know that every missionary feels this way and i could tell they really appreciated it! I wish you could just meet them! And its not that all missionaries have felt like they're wasting time or frustrated and cant find someone to talk to about the Gospel but that Christ has been there before and He knows exactly how we are feeling. He rejoices when we are happy and is sad when we feel sad. "He has been there before" just like the poem says that the harpers sent me!

So i know i have talked about the seventh day brothers...Daniel, Emmanuel and Louis oh my goodness do they know their bible they can run circles around us with scripture. We met with them last night, it had been a couple weeks and last time we went first reading out of the book of mormon 3 nephi 11 and they really loved it and so we told them they could go first reading out of the bible whatever they wanted to share with us and of course daniel picked daniel and so basically they took up most of the time but as they did it, we compared it to the book of mormon so we could help them see more truth.They have been reading the book of mormon and say they are searching for the truth soooooo im trying to be patient, its really hard but we love meeting with them, last night i was super angry....i know i know..i should have not been but it was mostly on what direction to go with them! So i just keep reminding myself about brigham young and how he took two years to read the book and convert to the church. But sis sigmon and i will come back to see them be baptized if it doesnt happen while we are here and slap them upside of the head with a book of mormon or bible we cant decide ;) We will continue to plan and teach with the spirit cause it is vital!

Well sorry this is shorter and i dont have very good punctuation but i think its more fun that way! haha I hope you all are doing good! and have a great week!

 Love always and forever Sister Heywood! {peace and blessings}

 p.s. i had one of those spiritual highs this week and the moment was so clear where i was just like...ugh the book of mormon is the word of God and because of this, Joseph Smith is true and Thomas Monson too! i cant explain it but ya know what i mean!

 p.s. we are having dinner tomorrow night with the madsens the dad (roman Madsen) is/was really good friends with Sheldon and i know his sister marissa anyway its just a really small world.

 p.s. we are going to the visitors center tomorrow with jon and a member who is driving us! So excited!

Family and friends! 

Im really excited right now to tell you I've made it through my first transfer! Yay! The time that Pres. Hinckley was considering going home and his dad wrote him and said "forget yourself and go to work". I think about him when times are challenging. Brings me comfort to keep pushing along knowing he went through similar things and i find it easier when I'm going through times of trial by serving others instead of saying "woe is me" serving others truly brings out the best in everyone cause you're not so focused on yourself. That's something I've seen of myself this week. 

Sis Sigmon and I are the only ones to stay the same in the Forest Grove district. all other companionships have changed, alot of the elders had extended six weeks which is pretty cool, Sis Reeder also got transferred which is sad cause i love her. Her comp sis blanchard who came out with me has a new comp sis Sorensen. she is a visa waiter for Argentina and has been out here for one transfer also, so they are basically training each other..It's  pretty awesome with all these 75,000 missionaries out, what they are doing with all of them. Being apart of it is the best feeling ever. I have the chance of training next transfer (six weeks) and thats a whole other challenge in and of itself but i will do my best haha. But I'm glad to be staying here because we are seeing so many miracles in this area Sis Sigmon and i get told quite a bit that we work well together, not to brag or anything..it wouldnt be possible without God on our side and us on His, i can tell you that much.

So do ya'll remember Jon? Last week we met with him on wednesday at the church pavilion which is this ramada area outside the stake center and we brought our friend jessica from the ward who is leaving on her mission to Phoenix Az spanish speaking in about a month, so we take her to lessons with us! (going on mini missions? do this more..i wish i did) We had an awesome lesson on the restoration and he was really receptive to everything. Then we were also able to give him a tour of the church, which was my first experience and it was so sweet. he had a "funny" feeling in the chapel and that funny feeling was the spirit cause i felt it and it was so peaceful esp. cause on Sundays it is a family ward so sundays are noisy and thats why i loved singles ward so much! It was awesome. i love teaching and try to be better at it each time. im not perfect though, wish i could be..oh well! So then we invited him to come to church the next sunday. before that happened, saturday we were able through the bishop to help him buy slacks, tie and a white button down shirt for church which was so much fun and then after we just sat outside and answered his questions he had about missions and how he was thinking about serving and we answered questions about gods plan for him and how he didnt know why he was here in fg, oregon, and i told him "i know why whether it was by us or some other missionaries he was supposed to find the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that everything happens for a reason" i testify of it! He is golden ya'll and at the end he said so my BIG question is "who do i talk to, to set up my baptism?" umm hellooo us!? haha it was fun we are good friends with him and took a picture cause we were happy about his decsion! The Lord works in mysterious ways, k?!..so he came sunday and we also had a lesson with him right before church started on Gods plan for him cause that was his big question and so we taught...you guessed it, the plan of happiness! He loved it and loved church, i felt really prompted to ask why he wanted to get baptized also cause i was curious of how he would respond and I'm telling you it was the most perfect answer, I was not expecting to hear it. He has an interesting life/situation he grew up in foster care and has been all over, he has three college degrees under the age of 20, graduated H.S. at 16, and is over qualified for a lot of jobs. right now he recently has been looking for a job and got one at Taco bell but needs more to get a roof over his head and has been working with whats hes got, i dont want to say too much but things are looking up for him and he is seriously one of the happiest kids you will ever meet esp. with his situation, i will have to tell you about it one day! I know that we have been instruments in the Lords hands, in us being led to jon and him to us, so that he may come closer to Christ and enjoy the blessings that the Gospel brings each of us. (We also taught primary that day)

We have a lot of miracles coming and families we are and will be working with which is so exciting! This past Friday we had our last district meeting and Sis Sigmon and I taught the lesson on "teaching simply and with the spirit" which was perfect cause we had been applying that to our own teaching a lot. And my father in me had to show a mormon message haha they are really good tools! I LOVE them...would watch them all day if i could but ya know kinda busy! It was the "I am a child of God " message and we explained how everyone that we are working with NEEDS to know this and we need to tell them cause it is so important and just like my testimony that i bore on sunday that none of this would be possible if Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ didn't love us...we wouldnt be here, we wouldn't have families or future ones, He wouldnt have sent his only begotten Son, He wouldnt have restored the fulness of His Gospel back to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith and a lot of other important things that pertain to our eternal happiness. He did this all because He loves YOU.

 -Sister Heywood!

p.s. along with everything I'm learning out here..I'm learning that visiting teaching and home teaching is so very important please do yours and stop with the exuses..it really is so sad. Realize that you might be their only friend and connection to the church and they need you! John 14:15 "if ye love me" Do you love Christ?

 

Last Pday- Watched "other side of heaven" with the spanish sisters at the stake center pushed the comfy couch and chairs into a room and the flat screen tv, popped popcorn! and acted like goofs together. Yesterdays pday we hung out with the collins family who we love and they take care of us and make delicious food! haha Sister Collins made us breakfast, came with us to do our grocery shopping and buy boots for winter and helped us find coupons for them, she fixed a skirt for me and so much more, We love their family! Home away from home a little bit! :) They have two awesome kids Jake(16) and Leah (6)

Hey Hey Hey!

 

   How’s it going family and friends?! Thank you to all the people who have emailed and wrote me, ya'll are my best friends now. If you wanna be my best friend list you know what you gotta do! ;) So another great week here in Forest Grove Oregon which p.s. is the northern most part of the mission idk if i ever mentioned that? Hey guess what I’m from Mesa, AZ and I’m freezing my buns off they think it’s hot here when its in the 90's..HA! I’m like its perfect!!! so basically I’m cold all the time unless we have been tracting and the suns out and there’s no breeze which is less likely..also everyone gets annoyed when it gets overcast or rainy here but i LOVE it! It brings me automatic happiness! Like my mood instantly changes and if I’m already doing good i get a little crazy cause i love rain maybe that’s why i was sent here to bring my sunshine and smile when everything is gloomy over here, that’s what i wrote in my acceptance letter to the Prophet "I’m bringing the sunshine to Oregon" I was also sent here for many reasons that are hard to explain every day and week something happens where it is reconfirmed to me whether it’s a conversation or a referral..which yes i agree with my good friend Elder Boren when he talk about referrals and that members are so part of the Lords work and mesa is a little different esp. being here and seeing the difference between what it’s like when the members are involved in missionary fun and when there not and so it truly has been a miracle before i got to this area they had started a forty day fast where each family member picks a day to fast for missionary work in there ward and let me tell you it’s working we have seen a lot of miracles come from it!

   About 3 weeks ago we were tracting and knocked on a door and Tammi answered and her family had just gotten home from vacation and there house was flooded..she said "I’m sorry i don’t mean to be rude but I’m about to cry my house is flooding" we offered to help but she said that she already called and help was on the way she was really nice!! We ended up going back to check on their family some days later and she updated us on everything and that they would be living in an apt. for 5-6 months and so we offered again to help pack up but again declined and said she was almost done again so nice! but doesn’t except help very well which we later learned as we were driving away from ward coordination this past Wednesday and got a text from our zone leaders saying they had a referral for us and that a member had given them the name tammi and that they are the "flooded house family" (side note- when I’m sitting in any type of meeting or in personal or comp study i will write down anyone that comes to mind and it happens a lot...this family kept coming to my mind and i would write down "flooded house family") They have last names haha we just didn’t have it yet! Anyway this member and her family are really good friends with them and Tammi told her that she felt like...."god sent us".....ummm ok we were screaming and freaking out..if you could imagine. haha anyway so we have been in contact with them she has been reading the Book of Mormon (best book ever) and has had a lot of member friends!

  Friday we went to lunch with the Spanish sisters..Sis Reeder and Sis Blanchard ughhh love them! i go up to order and the guy taking my order Jon says "oh hey I’ve seen guys with tags on like that!" ...oh really?! yaa were missionaries for our church and we teach people more about it if they have questions and stuff like that is this something you’d be interested in?! "well ya I’ve actually been looking for a church to go to and i live in forest grove and have already graduated from culinary school" (don’t ask me why he works at Mickey D's) He wants to open his own restaurant and he was awesome and i got his info and we are meeting with him this wed.! ...walked back to where my comp and everyone was sitting and was all hey ya'll we have a new friend (investigator) haha just like that! It was awesome and I’m pretty sure Heavenly Father knows me cause i was wanting something like that to happen and it did but didn’t see it coming brought much happiness to my soul! I can’t wait to bring happiness to his!

 With our ward mission leader Bro. Nelson he helps us set up appt. with members so we are able to have lessons and practice and last night we had the Schneider’s great family while we were teaching the restoration we got to part about the book of Mormon so towards the end and not knowing we asked the daughter who is 17 what the book of Mormon means to her and the room got kind of silent and her mom said you can be honest and she told us that she doesn’t believe in it or anything..soo basically the room was silent for a second and i bore my testimony which felt like a long time but i was trying to get through to her and i was straight up with her and so did Sis Sigmon after we were done..we walked outside and talked to her mom for a second as she was taking her son somewhere and she gave us a little more detail and said "idk what we’ve done wrong" and i told her it wasn’t her fault and so we decided to talk to rachel some more and knocked on the door again and sat down on her front porch and had a little heart to heart girlfriend to girlfriend...tried to have her open up a little more and she did but i got on her level and said guess what i freaking wouldn’t be out here if it wasn’t true I’m sorry but i wouldn’t and that goes for anyone reading this that is lacking a little faith cause im pretty sure that LIFE would be a lot harder without the Gospel of Jesus Christ and esp. fighting it when you know it’s true, it’s not something you can deny after you have felt and known that it is..at least i won’t. This girl says she has put the promise to the test that Moroni gives and she basically has given up after not getting an answer and i can’t tell you everything i told her because it’s just what i feel like saying in the moment but that she hasn’t given up and that this a decision she will need to make on her own not from the influence of her boyfriend or her family...but that it is her choice and God cares about her and He will answer her if she has the faith! We told her that we are here for her if she wants to talk and not just about the church..anything...hey cause you know what i need friends too!

  Oh i also wanted to tell you about last Mondays pday we made pillowcases #whatupachievmentdays and we were with the Niakoni sisters(coast sisters) ones from Hawaii Sister Purcell and Sister Redd! and Spanish sisters again we are so blessed to have sisters so close we then went to sonic ahh and then went bowling ohh my goodness so fun! we just laugh the whole time and oh we have to stay in proselyting clothes #whatupbowlinginprosclothes it was cute, kinda like the 50's p.s. we were the only ones in there! and then with all of us had a great missionary experience with the guy working there and he was telling us all how his little kids have been asking him questions church related and he didn’t know what direction to go so we gave him the elders info cause thats where he lived it honestly wasn’t overbearing even with six sisters standing in front of him talking about the church we all said a little bit! He was a sweet guy! I honestly feel like a super hero at times getting out of the car and walking places and eso. when we are going to help someone haha kinda nerdy! gotta go times up love yall

 Love Sister Heywood