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!