Hey Friends and Family!
> 
>   Last Monday....I had no time to email because Sis. Alvey was saying goodbye
to the lovely people of Redmond that she was able to serve for 71/2 months! :(
It was sad and she is missed here...Its been a CRAZY busy week!!! On Tuesday
within 24 hrs I had 3 companions and it was so fun!!! I have never been so tired
in my whole life and its great. Ahh I cant wait to talk about some of the
miracles we experienced...I don't know if I will be able to adequately describe!
> 
>  I want you all to know how much I loved serving with Sis Alvey..it brings
tears to my eyes as I start to think about it. When our zone leaders told us the
news and then drove away I completely broke down in tears! I was being kind of
selfish cause I wanted her to stay...she should be the one that is crying she
was leaving people and a place she served for 71/2 months and I know what that
feels like (Bville) I didn't just want to serve 6 short weeks with her! But the
Lord has a reason and a plan for everything, even if we cant see it! I know
this. We were supposed to cross paths and we had so much fun together...I got to
know her so well in only six weeks, when it has taken much longer with other
companions. Not saying they were bad...everyone is different. Missions are
bittersweet. :)
> 
>  I LOVE my new companion! Her name is Sister Sullivan and she is from the
north east part of Iowa! She has been out a transfer less than me and she is an
AMAZING missionary...I love her! So grateful to be serving here in Redmond with
her. Her last area was in Lincoln City on the coast and she was there as long as
sis alvey was here in the centennial park ward. Sullivan told me she knew she
would serve with me someday! Another cool fact is that she trained Sis Alvey
last year! Sis Sullivan has 2sisters and 6brothers one of which is serving in
California, she is 21 and the oldest of all her siblings! She cheered and danced
like me and we both broke off an engagement haha ;) Its like we are supposed to
be on missions or something? Its like the church is true or something? ;)
> 
>   While I was waiting for Sis Sullivan to come to the "Celestial" part of the
mission (so they say) I was in a temporary companionship with Hermana Ahlstrom
she is a Spanish sister in bend and she was also getting a new companion. We
spent the day in Redmond! This day was directed by a Loving Heavenly Father. So
we drop off our loved and missed comps at the stake center which is like 2
seconds away from our apartment. Went back planned for the day and then started
to study with the time we had left...(my mind was going crazy) We had texted
Renee to have a lesson with her and she is always usually available in the
mornings, so she said sure! And this whole past transfer we had tried but never
had been able to get a member to come teach with us. She basically is friends
with everyone in the ward, so almost anyone could come if there schedule aloud.
Anyways so we texted Sis Riding (I love this woman) She rocks. And you will see
why soon! She said she was able to come. Awesome. So now what does Heavenly
Father need us to teach Renee?...hmm Started to study faith! Called the Spanish
elders to ask what the taught them as a family on Sunday (the Spanish help teach
them cause Hugo speaks Español) It was confirmed to me that we needed to talk
about...FAITH! Simple as that. Hermana Ahlstrom agreed and we correlated
together on how we would go about it. Side note: God was making this lesson with
Renee happen and the adversary was trying to not let it happen not that there
was anything horribly wrong but you could just tell.
>    We asked Renee what she has faith in...and then what she doesn't have faith
in...we read faith out of the bible dictionary, sis Ahlstrom shared a scrip she
studied that morning, Sis riding speaks her mind....:) And helped clear up a lot
of things Renee was bringing up, for example the mark of the beast...im so glad
that sis Riding was there haha She helped us keep it simple. We followed up
about her reading in the Book of Mormon and she told us that her and Hugo have
been slacking in there reading and that she has seen and felt a difference, that
when they were reading there was more peace and not so much contention and
things were working out more often. Sis Riding responds and says "So what your
saying is that the Book of Mormon is from God"... she couldn't deny it. So it
came to the end Hermana asked Renee if she would "pray to know if Joseph Smith
was a prophet of God tonight?"(not the first time either) Renee starts to
explain things and eventually she will give you a straight answer it just takes
her awhile to get there. Sis Riding totally cuts her off and says..."Renee don't
dodge the question! Did you hear the missionaries?? (as she points at us) Are
you going to pray about Joseph Smith tonight?!" ....there was a moment of
silence and Renee just starts to cry and she said I don't need to pray about
it...I know..I know that he was a Prophet of God."
> The spirit filled the room and we all started to cry...kind of like what I
feel like doing now. The spirit did all the talking as we sat there speechless.
Renee says "I guess I just need to pray and thank God for the answer I just
received." Without saying anything, we all got on our knees and Renee said the
prayer we were all in tears and sis Riding proceeds to tell Renee I could see
your family all in white at the temple.
>     I don't know what I did to deserve to be in the room that day...or to be
part of these peoples  lives but I am so grateful. I will never forget that day.
There are more miracles that Sis Sullivan and I have experienced this week but
that is all I have time for. I'm extremely grateful to have the experience of a
mission! And for all of you that love and support me! I know that as we put our
faith and trust in the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ that all things are
possible!
> 
> ps sorry for the horrible grammar.
> 
> Love Sister Heywood!
> 
> Part of our email from President Samuelian;
> 
> "Although many of you did not know this, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Richard
J. Maynes, And Bishop Gerald Causse conducted a priesthood leadership training
for all our Stake Presidencies, Bishops, Ward Mission Leaders and Elders Quorum
Presidents on Saturday. (Ask your Bishops and WML's what they learned from it.)
Then yesterday, Elder Oaks and our Area Seventy, Elder Richard Hansen held a
special stake conference in the McMinnville stake, while Elder Maynes and Bishop
Causse presided at a special stake conference in Monmouth.
>
> I am sorry that time did not permit these brethren to meet with all of you.  I
wanted dearly for each of you to meet them.  I did get to spend time with all
these men.  Elder Oaks asked me to send his love and best wishes to each of you. 
He asked detailed questions about you, we discussed openly our break from
technology, and the distraction caused from mis-use of the devices and Facebook. 
Elder Oaks opening remarks in the priesthood leadership session were about
building faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He exhorted us to help our members and
converts to have their testimonies based not upon the church, or missionaries,
but upon the Savior.  (Indeed we all must build upon the Rock.)"

Hey Fam and Friends!!!
>    
>      Well after getting emails and pics of my moms blue hair, dancing videos
from paige and shae, labor day videos from my dad, pics of my moms new car
(finally), a little sneak peak of the house that i don't think i was supposed to
see and Hiking Tumalo falls right outside of Bend today with a whole bunch of
Elders and Sisters....i would say I'm pretty pumped right now and exhausted!!!
>
>  So something that i love about my mission is that it has helped me to be in
the scriptures everyday and it has not always been that way before my mission
and even on the mission as much as i have wanted or should. It has been a
complete paradigm shift and i look forward to studying every morning and esp. in
the Book of Mormon! Its kinda like i get lost and just so into it that nothing
else around me matters and i love marking them up and its just me and my
scriptures and the spirit! Sis Alvey and i will get so much out of one chapter
and get so pumped about the truthfulness of the Gospel which in turn helps us
want to share it more! Preach my Gospel talks about just that. This has been
happening a lot :)
>
>  A little update on Xena! We have decided together that we are going to take a
little more time teaching her which is so good and needed esp because she just
started school. She is living with the Davis Family and learning a lot there
which she has really needed, they are so good for her! She really has not had
much stability in her life...like at all!! So she is learning so much and came
to church on Sunday and came to mission prep that we taught Sunday night!
>
>  Another thing i love about my mission is working with the youth and helping
them to see how fun being a missionary can be!! And that they are very capable!
Ah! I cant even explain it.
>
>  So i mentioned Damian in my last email (but called him damon) and talked
about how he has been coming to church and he came yesterday for a third time
and stayed for all three hours! We got to sit by him cause we were sitting in
the very back and he walked in late and so he sat by us. He tried going to
different churches and didn't feel comfortable and so apparently his aunt
suggested he come to the LDS church and so he did. We asked how he feel and what
he like about it...he said he liked it and he wouldn't come back if he wasn't
comfortable and we asked him why he thinks he is so comfortable and his response
was because we are like minded people. And is cool to not only hear that but to
see it. Bro. Schofield has really been fellow shipping him and...seriously he is
such an awesome member missionary...invited him over for dinner and sends him
Mormon messages and invites him to stay for more hours at church...participates
like heck in gospel principles class. So we are hoping to teach him this week
because we know he has questions!
>
> ps. in the gospel principles book in the chapt on the sacrament there is a pic
of a congregation, y'all should spot someone church famous and email me and let
me know if you found it! :)
>
>  Bro. King a less active member also showed up to church and we were seriously
so pumped about that..we visited him and he was only baptized about 5 years ago
and a missionary that taught him is now married and living in this ward, named
Bro Mercker which is also cool cause they will see each other around and will
tease him about getting to church! So he came and it was funny cause after each
hr he was about leave and we would say no chuck you gotta stay and basically
bribe him and say no no so and so is teaching you don't want to miss out! But i
know if were not in the right place at the right time he would have snuck out
haha but we still gave him is agency! Otherwise we would be going against
heavenly fathers plan ;) but i know he felt blessed for staying. It was also
interesting he said the first time he ever came to church it was a fast Sunday
and yesterday was fast Sunday! I know there is power and blessings that come
from fasting and that goes for all of Gods Commandments :)
>
> I love this Gospel and thank my Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity i
get to be out here and be a missionary and meet so many amazing people that i
learn and grow from! Theirs nothing like it.
>
> Love Sister Heywood!
> 

Family and Friends!
> 
>  Holy holy..I can not even tell you how amazing this week has been and the
miracles we have seen!
>
> Last pday we got to go longboarding at the Haydens and they have a down
syndrome daughter named Paige and so we hung out with her and took pictures,
played some bball and did some gymnastics in the grass and she is SOO CUTE! And
really talented at gymnastics! I will send of picture of her..i love her so
much!
>
> I was able to go on exchange with Sis Davis! She is my STL (sister training
leader) and we were companions in Forest Grove for six weeks during Christmas!
We were able to teach Xena for the first time..it was so cool. We had Kali and
Sarah Davis there to help us teach and we were inside the chapel and the spirit
was really strong she shared some personal experiences with us about prayer! We
taught her the Restoration and she really felt the spirit...I said the first
vision and I thought I totally messed it up even though I say it almost every
morning. But then sis davis told me that it flowed so well and that I didn't
mess it up and she was thinking "wow she does this really well" so that made me
feel better haha its not about  me anyways. She really felt the spirit and said
she would prepare to be baptized! We also taught Renee and it was really cool
because for some reason being on exchange with a different sister helped feel
immense love for her and really heavenly fathers love for her. We also were able
to go to the relief society picnic and I got so lost but we eventually found it!
Got to know some of the ladies in the ward better and let me tell you they are
hilarious and it was so funny. We also stopped by a potential that day and as
soon as we knocked on the door and she looked at us and said "come on in!" and
we said are you sure? and she's all "ya im just making dinner!" her name is
Mckayla and she is super chill! She likes to learn about a lot of different
religions and she was totally open to coming to church! Have not taught her yet
but I know its going to happen.
>
> We taught Renee. Sis Alvey and really prayed long and hard about a baptismal
date for her. Even though she had kinda set a date for Dec. 31st. We felt really
good about Sept. 10th so she is praying about it. All I gotta say is that it was
super intense and I know that she feels pressure. She even told us she works
better under pressure and that she is stubborn. But I know that it was from
heavenly Father. She came to a baptism on Friday night for the Spanish branch
(so did xena!) and it was soo good and she was also able to come to church and
her kids were not there..so she was able to focus really well. She also has been
talking to her neighbor Diana about the church and her and her family came on
Sunday it was super sweet! And also there is this guy that has been randomly
coming to church the past two weeks and his name is Damon.
>
> Also there are so many things that happen that I don't write about...good bad
and ugly but I seriously love my mission and wouldn't trade it for anything! im
in love with my mission life haha Today we got to hike smith rock and it was
super fun and I almost threw up but it was so worth it once we got to the
top..we went with the hermanas and our stls! it was so great. Wooo!
>
> Anyways that's all I have time for! I love you all and hope to hear from you
soon!
>
> Love Sister Heywood!

Hey hey Family and Friends!
>
> Hows it? This week has been a really good one!! Full of some pretty sweet
miracles!
>
>
> We basically got to Teach Renee almost everyday this week! She is doing really
well and we have really helped her undaerstand the imporatance of the book of
Mormon in her conversion! They were also asked to speak in the Spanish branch.
They are in our ward but help out with Spanish because Hugo, Bro Lopez is
Hispanic and is fluent in Spanish not so much Renee! They are such a cute
family. The topic she was given was family history and how it will help her get
to baptism! She set a baptism date for December 31st! Which is awesome...we want
to know if she is willing to act if she gets the answer sooner. She has been
meeting with the missionaries for a year or longer but she is now ready to act
and do what it takes to find the answer! We watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the
Restoration and the spirit was super strong that night. It really helped her to
see the details of everything and not only did he see God the Father and His Son
but that he lived and died for it all along with many others. And that the Book
of Mormon isn't just any other book. She did really good on her talk in the
Spanish branch..it was really cool to be in there..but when Hugo got up and it
was all Spanish I didn't get a thing besides something about Pres Hinckley and
Willford woodruff haha but he did great! Also I got sick yesterday and it hit me
like a ton of bricks and so I went home and slept. I am feeling a little better
today. But I was sneazing a 100 times a hr and had a really soar throat and achy
body. But im doing better!
>
> We also had the "Great Giveaway" on sat.! For all of you that don't know what
this is, I will tell you! Its all free and a ton is donated! And it goes to a
lot people in need! We invited a lot of people and also met a 15 yr old girl
that moved from colver and knew no one in Redmond was lookiin for a church to go
to and ended up at the Great Giveaway that she heard about on fb and so we
talked to her she ended up going to the stake youth activity that day and met
lots of great youth and came to church and LOVED it.. and wants to know more! We
are teaching her this week. And she is soo so sweet! And the ward has really
welcomed her in! It was and is super exciting!! Oh and her name is Xena! (Z-na)
We also got to help one of the La that we have been teaching to it and helped
her find and get stuff for her baby girl that she will have soon and she was
crying and so grateful because she had nothing ready for her and now she does! 
(it was so fun)
>
> That's all have time for! hope you have a wonderful week! I loved being here
with SIs Alvey and working together she is so fun!
>
> Love Sister Heywood! 

Family and Friends! 

 

I am over the mountain and in beautiful Redmond Oregon! I love it hear and my new companions name is Sis Alvey she is from Harrisville Utah and oh my heck we are the same person. Everything she does I'm like meee too and vice versa and she keeps saying "i feel like I'm companions with myself and wow i must have made my last companions life awesome" cause i am hilarious and she is having out of body experiences (cause of stuff i will do or say) Im all about having fun while doing the work! 

The people here are soooo nice! It is a whole different world on this side of OR its a little more deserty and the sun shines a lot more and it makes me really happy cause its a little like Az! Last night and today we have been having a monsoon season which has been awesome! I love the rain too! We may or may not have ran in it and got drenched. 

We are working with some pretty awesome people! Like Marty who was recently baptized like a month ago and Courtney who is the wife of a La member and she is so super sweet, we taught her the word of wisdom this week and she texted us after and told us she dumped out 3 beers and said it felt so good and she is so ready and wanting to be baptized. We are also teaching this couple named Jess and Laura who are so prepared, They are patients of (Doc) President Palmer! We are teaching them tonight. We have been talking to a lot of people on the street which has been super fun and always interesting…some potential people for sure! We also have been getting a lot of referrals from the Spanish Elders which is super awesome! One of them being this guy from Ghana named Charles and we finally were able to contact him and talked with him outside his home for an hour…he is sooo awesome!!! 

 

I will give more detail next time and I just want all of you to know how real this Gospel is and how much Heavenly Father Loves each and everyone of you! This morning sis Alvey and i both randomly studied Alma 24 in out personal studies and came together freaking out…1 that we both studied that…2 about how much we loved it and connected it to missionary work, the Gospel and Christ Atonement and how GOOD God is!!! WE received so much revelation for what we both need to do in this area and that we are both here for a reason! The Gospel changes lives!!!! And only if you let it!!! Peace out.

Love Sister Heywood! 

Dear family and friends!

This past couple weeks has been super awesome. I didn't send an email
last week cause we ran out of time because I did 3 sister missionaries
hair:) and the next day was Charles baptism and so we were making sure
he was ready and it was kinda stressful but so fun! If you could
imagine that!

Charles was baptized on Tuesday! It was a stressful day as he had to
be interviewed by the district leader again right before to make sure
he had really quit smoking. He was so excited. His sister who is not a
member came. She is a very nice person and said her husband's
brother's family are members. Charles also invited a friend and his
wife from Sweet Home. A lot of members came to support! The talks were
really good and Sister Farnsworth and I shared our testimonies while
he was changing. We sang I am a Child of God and the young women who
were there sang a descant with it that was so beautiful. The spirit
was really strong there. Charles seemed so different and happy the
next couple of days. His housekeeper got a job in Portland and is
leaving. It was really sad. We came by on Saturday and he seemed upset
and we read with him and had a lesson. He told us at the end that he
had smoked and drank coffee that day and he started crying. He said it
was because of all the stress with his housekeeper leaving him. He
said he prayed and told Heavenly Father sorry. He has gotten emotional
a lot lately. We feel so bad for him, but also feel we need to teach
him more about the atonement and repentance. Like Clayton E.
Christiansen said, " It is easier to keep the commandments 100% of the
time! than it is to keep them 98% of the time." We know Satan is
working really hard on him. We also know that the atonement of Christ
can heal us from whatever addictions or problems we have. It is only
through faith in Him that we can be completely healed. We have been in
contact with him daily! It was really special and he has grown so much
the spirit was super strong. we are still working with him so much to
be able to progress. He needs the gospel now more than ever, it's like
the only thing he is holdin on to. I love him so much definitely know
I was sent here for him.

A lot of our time has been really focused on Charles and so I feel
like we haven't really done much of anything else but we have.

We were able to have a really good lesson with Elliot. I have talked
about him before he has been investigating the church for over a year
now. Has some things to overcome and he also recently split up with
Olivia who is an excommunicated member that is trying to come back
also. But in general this has both been really good for them to split
and not live with each other. They both have been able to get really
good jobs and that was a huge blessing for them separately. So now
they can focus on themselves and progress in there lives.

A la that I super duper love is Brenda and she hasn't been to church
since I've been here! She is the one that we quilt with every Monday.
I LOVE her. She has been doing really good and has been learning a lot
about the atonement for herself lately. She is very knowledgable of
the church. But needs to apply it to her life! But we think she is
coming to church soon cause she just keeps saying.."You will just have
to trust me" and were like oookay Brenda. ;)

We went to the stake pioneer picnic and it was really fun! Charles
came and Brenda! There were so many investigators there from the
surrounding areas and it was so fun to meet most of them. People that
are so prepared. Specifically Mike...he is friends of the Meyr family
here in bville and he works close to bro huff Meyr with state patrol
stuff. Anyways I met him at dinner one night for-ev-er ago (like 3
transfers ago) and I might have talked about it before but he is the
one with tazing elk story. You could probably find it on YouTube. And
then the next night we were texting mike about some things he has been
struggling with about God and how he lets little children suffer,
cause he works a lot with that and I was like...yo Meyrs you should
ask mike if he would like to meet with the sweet home sistas. He has
decided to get baptized in October and also his girlfriend that moved
her last week from Texas and her daughter, she was telling us that she
has always had members of the church in her life and has read and has
taking it as an answer from god that it is where she is supposed to be
and that it's true. Esp because her and mike reconnected (they went to
high school with each other) and he has been investigating. I was mind
blown.

Oh and last night we were going to see a la Lori who came to church
yesterday! (yay) and next door are some la members that we have never
met and there was a guy about our age sitting on his car and I said hi
to him and asked if he lived there and he said no! And I told him why
and he said oh are you Mormon?? And said ya are you? And he said he
used to be and that he left the church! It was interesting because it
wasn't really a bash because he was really nice but sis Farnsworth
called it a respectful interchange of ideas haha He had all these
wonderfully sad rumors of Joseph smith and it was interesting one of
the first things he said was that he started to plant this seed of
doubt as he started to get ahold of anti material. It was interesting
but I bore    My testimony of Jesus Christ. And that seemed to do
something..If anything we said did anything. We hope. But I wasn't ok
with walking away until I did, as he told us that Mormons believe that
we have to earn our way to heaven and we don't need to Jesus Christ.
Oh no boy. Not ok. Most definitely not true. I am not perfect and
there is no way I will make it without my Savior Jesus Christ.
Love always and forever Sister Heywood! :)

Picture directory:
Charles Thompson after baptism:)
Killed 5 spiders filling up the Lebanon font
Ice cream from divine on a rainy day for lunch.
Stand by me day. It poured this day.
How much sister Farnsworth and I love Brownsville. Really. So much.

Dear family! 
 
It's been a great week! It's gone by so fast. Time is so weird out here. 
 
The coolest thing that happened this week was teaching Joni the 
restoration and committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and 
praying about it..she is so nice! Also a cosmetologist! It was so fun 
and she has a very strong relationship with God. 
 
Charles is doing so good! Still trying to quit smoking and drinking 
coffee! Keep him in your prayers. We had a really good lesson with 
about satan and how he works which is really interesting to know how 
he works and how evil and easily he try's to trick us. It was really 
important for Charles to know how real that is. Satan doesn't like 
that he is preparing to be baptized. And he doesn't like that we are 
helping him or anything else that we do. He's a meany head! 
 
We also went to the visitors center with charles in Lake Oswego with 
Merlin and Marie Evans, it was really fun! And so good for everyone. 
The Portland mission was getting there new mission president which is 
elder ballards son! So there were no sister missionaries in the 
visitors center and so sis Farnsworth and I got to be the ones to walk 
him through all the different displays. It was really cool!! 
 
My bday was fun starting out with walking in the morning with Marie 
and Debbie Evans and they got me a Oregon ducks shirt cause I always 
wear beavers clothes when we go walking which they don't like haha Had 
zone training meeting and sis Farnsworth and everyone made it a really 
good day...lots of yummy treats and food...oh man! 
 
Fun memory this week was being in by 9 on the 4th and doing our 
planning on our balcony/fire escape while we waited for the fireworks 
to go off! The trees were kinda in the way so we just tried to 
remember some girls camp song and sang them to Brownsville. It was 
funny. Well and before we went in we had dinner with Kathy and Gina 
two la woman in the branch and we had a campfire that we helped build. 
I was laughing a lot because Gina cracks me up! The fire kept blowing 
up cause she put rocks under the wood and we couldn't stop laughing so 
we had our own little firework show! 
 
There are some potential families we might teach this week and I'm 
really excited..so hopefully we can make it happen. It almost happened 
this week..but work schedules got in the way! 
 
Love sister heywood!