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