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