Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Hey familia!

We taught shawna, we taught Chuck Thompson, had lunch with Kathy Norris and
found out she has never read the Book of Mormon, all of those were wonderful
lessons and very spirit lead! We mowed a lawn for the first time for Diana (7th
day Adventist) talked to her about the book of Mormon and cleared up some things
about it not being our bible, which was really interesting that she thought that
and I know a lot of other people do too! Hmm gotta fix that, assisted Elliot in
giving Olivia a small surprise birthday party, Seth hoyer and Jo hovey (young
men in the branch) there friend Devon came to church and told them he wanted the
second missionary lesson. He is the one that we taught like 4 weeks ago and
seemed interested. Ate dinner in sweet home with David Griffith and his sweet
wife Shirley(catholic), ate dinner at kirks ferry with Gina and Kathy and waited
1hr and 30mim for our food it's okay cause they are both less active so we are
working with them, cleaned out a garage and squished like 10 black widows. On
May 1st is national day of prayer and the town of Brownsville is getting
together at at 6pm to 615 pm and praying. Put on by the Assembly of God church
pastor and we have been invited which is a huge step for this town! Had dinner
with the Glenn family tonight and taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ with
stepping stones...we love this family so much along with everyone else. We have
done a lot of service for people not of our faith and have been able to serve at
the schools which we have gotten special permission for because we have been
working with some potential investigators of the church! Church was
wonderful..learned so much! It is my testimony that I know that personal study
and prayer are essential to life and that they make life and trials that come
our way so much easier make sure we are doing the basics!!!

Love sister heywood!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Hey family, 
 
>  It's been a wonderful week! I didn't leave myself enough time to 
> email cause I thought a nap sounded like a better idea. Since I'm the 
> queen of naps I figured I should get one for the maybe 3rd time on my 
> mission. 
>  We were able to teach chuck again and got through half of the plan 
> of salvation and we started off with singing "I lived in heaven" the 
> primary song! The idea came when I got a package from my grandma Julie 
> and uncle Timmy the day of and there was the sheet music of that song 
> inside! The sprit was strong and there were tears from the members. 
> It's really cool to teach chuck and help him understand what Christ 
> did for him, that he is important and loved!! We have been focusing on 
> his faith in Christ and his atonement. It was cool cause we drew out a 
> little map of the plan for him and he couldn't see it so he got up and 
> sat closer and stayed there and made eye contact with us as we bore 
> testimony. I told him he would see his wife again and I started to cry 
> and it was something I haven't felt in awhile like I couldn't help but 
> cry and the members also and then as I looked at chuck he had tears in 
> his eyes. 
> We did a lot of fun service for the community this week like helping 
> the schools plant flowers and pour bark dust. It's fun to be on your 
> hands and knees in the rain. I felt one with the earth haha. We also 
> helped his organization called American legion who is in charge of the 
> huge Easter egg hunt in the park and we helped hide all of those! 
> Church was amazing we sang with some of the young women "come unto 
> Christ" and the talks by bro and sis Meyr and there son Oliver who is 
> like 6'7'' did an amazing job! It was like sitting in conference. Then 
> dinner at the Ashcrafts and they got us a Easter basket full of 
> yummies. I'm so over candy. That will probably change soon. I loved 
> this Easter season and I pray that we will continue to remember our 
> savior! I'm sure you have all seen the Easter video "because of him" 
> if not go look it up, it's really amazing and I love love the music in 
> it. I get the chills every time and trust me we have used it a lot. I 
> love the gospel and know it's true. "We are not perfect the people 
> around us are not perfect" -uchtdorf 

Monday, April 14, 2014


 
Heyy sup peeps!
>
> This is an update from Wednesday! We were able to teach chuck at the
> Evans home and it went really well! We are meeting again this week and
> he came to church..I know that he will be baptized he is very humble
> and kinda timid. You can tell he was nervous he came an hr. early and
> he seemed anxious. He is so sweet and Merlin Evans is such a great
> friend to him! We were asked to give talks for Sunday on the atonement
> and it went really well I was the last speaker and had maybe 5 min
> (kinda like my farewell talk) except I completely changed what I was
> going to share I prepared a lot and didn't get to share it and it's ok
> because I was doing what Heavenly Father told me to do even though it
> wasn't easy! I'm thankful for my mission and how it has helped me to
> understand what our savior did for each and everyone a little bit
> more. We had a lot of LA coming back to church..which is very
> exciting. Lots of service this week and we are doing a lot of finding
> and inviting! I know that there are people here in Brownsville being
> prepared by Heavenly Father. Today while we were getting our oil
> changed in Lebanon we gave the two guys waiting on us a Book of Mormon
> and Mormon.org card! They were super nice and used to the missionaries
> coming through. He saw me reading an email and asked what it was and I
> told him about my beautiful sister and her role in the Easter pageant
> and her testimony of the savior and how her emotions come out as she
> dances for Him! I love the gospel and for this Easter season to
> reflect even more on our brother Jesus Christ and his atoning
> sacrifice and resurrection. This is the good news! Share your love for
> the Savior with others. Happy happy Easter week! Love you all!



Thursday, April 10, 2014

Heyy!
>
>    Alright we are on our way to the temple and sis Farnsworth and I are
> very excited!!! The Portland temple is beautiful!!! There will be
> pictures down at the bottom. We have three ladies from the branch that
> are coming with us sis Forrest (driving), sis ayotte, sis short. There
> some of the best. Our whole zone will be there.
>    This week has been amazing. The very first night sis Farnsworth and I
> were together we were able to teach a lesson to our brand new
> investigator Pierce(17)! I emailed about Taylor(20) a couple weeks ago
> and Pierce is his roommate. We were able to teach him about the plan
> that Heavenly Father has for him along with Olivia and Elliot who are
> just awesome fellowship for these two boys. We also gave them a church
> tour and they are going to come practice singing "come unto Christ"
> with us and the youth for when we preform soon. They also watched all
> of Sundays general conference at Olivia's! They are troopers...haven't
> even been to church yet! Haha
>   I have talked about the Compton family before the dad Gary is our
> landlord and he has asked is that every time a new sister gets
> transferred in that we call him so he can show the newby around and go
> through the list. It was the perfect opportunity to see him again and
> see if that seed was continuing to grow. We asked sis Glenn to be
> there so we had another woman in the room and the Glenn's are great
> friends with the Compton family. He showed us through the Masonic
> lodge which is always cool and then at the end I planned to *follow
> up* with him about the church tour and sis Glenn "OYM'd" and invited
> them to Easter Sunday! He said he had not forgotten about the tour and
> that they have been busy (which is normal, but a huge barrier with
> anyone) but said that they would come but would like the church tour
> first. OYM = open your mouth D&C 33:8-10 cool huh?
>  Oh by the way I LOVE Sis Farnsworth she is the sweetest thing! She is
> so kind and I have learned a lot from her already she is such a great
> example. There are so many things I am grateful for, that I have
> learned on my mission so far and a big one is the things I learn from
> my companions. Sis Farnsworth and I have laughed a lot! Something
> funny that happened the other day was when she kept driving past the
> places we need to be totally confident in where she was going and me
> telling her that we passed "it" and then laughing hysterically because
> Heavenly Father knew I needed a good laugh. I love this sister and her
> desire to do the work and constant smile that's helps me keep mine!
>   One night we had like 15-20 min before we had to be in and we didn't
> know what to do so we prayed and then drove. We ended up passing Seth
> Hoyer(15) a member and two of his friends walking down the street! I
> rolled down my window and yelled his name out real quick saying hi! We
> kept driving and they ran up to the car to see who we were. Asked them
> what they were up to and they said nothing and we asked them "what
> should do with our time left? "Seth said "go visit my family and read
> the scriptures" and I said "its too late for that!"..... then all the
> sudden we were teaching Devin and chandler the 1st lesson, as it was
> raining outside of Randy's cafe at there tables at 845 at night in
> downtown Brownsville! The spirit was really strong and I had an
> immediate love for these boys esp. Seth cause he's in the branch and I
> know that this lesson helped him also! Hopefully they remember what
> they felt.
>    We have done lots of service this week which is different for sis
> Farnsworth cause in her other areas people don't accept your "is there
> anything we can do for you?" So much. No really we mean it! Haha. Here
> some of her first week experiences!
>  "Brownsville has been yet another new experience. So far I have fed
> cows, been licked by a baby llama, helped fix a muddy gate, helped
> clean out a horse tack room, started making a quilt, almost got turned
> into hamburger by an angry bull, helped someone move, seen many
> Mennonite people, and got yelled at by an angry Jewish man! We have
> been asked to do a lot of service! It is fun. We have also been able
> to meet some amazing people and teach lessons to a new investigator.
> There have been a lot of miracles here recently." -sis Farnsworh

>  Conference was amazing and I loved every bit we were able to watch
> and all the people that had a desire to watch it and have us over! It
> definitely is a Super Bowl for missionaries! We missed some cause we
> did some service for Stephanie Kramer a member who is like an amazing
> piano player move out of her home..bro Griffith was there and brought
> his huge covered trailer to help! He is awesome! So then Sunday night
> we went over for dinner at the Griffiths to watch some more and his
> wife Shirley who is not a member watched it with us! :)
>   Tonight we are teaching Chuck Thompson for the first time at the Evans
> home and we are soooo excited! I know The Lord is preparing people
> here in Brownsville!
>  I love you all and hope you have a happy week!
> Love sister heywood!



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Hey friends! 
 
 We had transfers today and guess what happened!? The Lord put two 
 Mesa, AZ gals together to continue to hasten the work here in b-ville! 
 Her name is Sis Farnsworh and she is sooo sweet! Yes....no need to 
 ask! We have already made some connections of people we both know, 
 such as a Sis Margaritis and Sis Allen! Some of my very best friends 
 on missions! Sis Farnsworth is feeling 22 and has been out for 11 
 months, she has 6 brothers and 1 sister, she also follows in line as 
 second oldest! She has a brother on a mission in Chile! She also 
 trained my MTC companion sis Paskett! We are so excited to keep 
 working here! :) 
  Yesterday was the end of the 40 day fast and we have seen so many 
 miracles and tender mercies from the fasting of the members here! It 
 has been really cool to see and also that it continues on! So many got 
 up and bore testimony including sis Chappell and I of the amazing 
 things we have seen and the missionary work that has gone on. The 
 coolest thing to see is the excitement from the members and our branch 
 mission leader Bro Isaksen! We had three people yesterday agree to the 
 lessons :) all through the members! One of them is chuck Thompson who 
 has been coming to church for a long time and bro Merlin Evans the old 
 branch president is really good friends asked him and offered to have 
 them in his house! It's just so cool to see the fruits of our labor as 
 missionaries and members of the church! Oh also last Sunday we stopped 
 by mary and Adam ragel some la couple and we talked to her for like 15 
 min about why their not coming to church and where the Brownsville 
 branch is...and early this Sunday morning as i was getting ready for 
 church the Spirit told me to text and remind Mary when church 
 started...so I did! They texted back and said see you there! So 
 cool...then we get there and Adam starts to tell us..."it's so weird 
 it's like you knew we were talking about you and that we needed to 
 know the time of when church started so we can come!" And then they 
 said they were going to make it a weekly thing.."this whole coming to 
 church thing" ;) 
  Well I gotta go try and find the phone cause sis Chappell and I lost 
 it this morning and I still can't find it....it's a problem! Bah! 
 
 Love sister heywood!! Xoxo 
 "Jesus is not waiting for us to be perfect, perfect people don't need 
 a savior, he came to save us in our imperfection, he is The Lord of 
 the living and the living make mistakes he is not embarrassed by us 
 angry at us or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness in our 
 unhappiness in our guilt in our grief."