Christmas Tree in the Mall

Izcalli ...

From Dana's Mom:  I woke this morning to this picture and message in my in box.

"I will explain everything later."

As you can imagine; I was waiting anxiously for my email today.  Here is the rest of the story...

Dear Family!

  This week was nothing special, Thanksgiving happened and we didn't really celebrate... there was no time and then well, Carlos is on crack, we found some new people to teach... one guy is like Nacho Libre he used to be a fighter and hmmm what else oh yeah I went to the hospital...

I am glad all of you had a good Thanksgiving and everything is good there in America. Here our thanksgiving was nothing to special, we had tacos and yeah the usual meal and then we bought a doughnut at night to celebrate with something special... we couldn't find any pies here! And Carlos did not get baptized... basically he is either on cocaine or has a demon inside of him... if you want to hear the whole story ask me at Christmas because right now I don't have time to explain what went down with that man!  

  And yeah the hospital thing... well I woke up Friday morning super dizzy with diarrhea (sorry don't know how to spell that) and I didn't feel good at all and I was like crap no... so I feel asleep at my desk during studies and then so I just went to try to sleep it off so we could work in the afternoon... I then woke up at like 12 called hna Anaya to ask her what I should do or take and then I slept some more and then we went to comida so hna woodford could eat... and I wasn't hungry at all and so we were there eating sushi with the member that owns it and the elders and I just felt like crap. I was fine I just needed to take more Ibuprofen and be ready to work in like an hour... well then all the sudden i really felt light headed like I was gonna pass out and than my face was super pale and everyone was like hna are you okay and then my body got really tense and I couldn't move it so everyone like attacked me to drink water... i drank A TON! Then i was freezing, I got a priesthood blessing... still couldn't really move my hands so they called pres he told everyone I needed to go to the hospital and they said I was dehydrated.. I have an infection in my stomach oh and I have parasites... YAY! but basically I was dehydrated because when I had to go to the bathroom a million times in the morning... I wasn't drinking enough water and yeah you know all that good stuff so they just put me on a IV and now I have lots of drugs to take...

   Luckily I didn't spend the night there, pres came and picked us up and we went to his house.  We helped them do their Christmas tree and they made me breakfast of some nice rice and applewater! I still am not that hungry but that is okay i am getting better and i am taking all my meds so don't worry mom I am fine and the ward members are really really helpful people.  They are bringing me things yesterday to church that I could eat! haha But don't worry I am in good hands and hna Woodford is a good nurse and makes me take my pills on time #bestdaughter haha but we were laughing with Presidente because I went to the hospital with hna rhoten and so we were both saying this was all just part of hna woodfords training! And as of know I think we will have one more transfer together for Christmas to baptize all our people but we will see what the lord wants! I hope so but yeah we will see! 

  WE were gonna go to the CV this last Saturday with Luz y Odalys y Vanessa and lots of people... but we had to cancel because we were at pres house! But everyone is doing really well... Isabel and Aug are getting closer and closer to marriage! And Luz Odalys and Vanessa are all doing really good. Their baptismal date was for the 6th of Dec but they couldn't get to church yesterday so now we have to push it back till the 19th because the 13th is the Tijuana temple dedication so there will not be any church services! But everything is good I am happy, and we are working hard. Next week, I will not write till Wednesday because we have transfers and all that jazz. Tomorrow we have to go to the US embassy so hna woodford can get her car title notarized so she can sell it! There is a lot to do here in Izcalli and I am loving everyday here! I liked all the pics you guys sent and I hope that you celebrate my b-day for me in AZ ... Don't worry about me I am happy, healthy and doing the lords work! But have a good week I love you all and I will talk to you next week!!! Here are some more pics of our adventure this week! 

Eating sushi last week with hna Adriana and the elders

We made Christmas chains with Odaylis and Vanessa and they are both super excited for their baptism! 

Izcalli - Hola

Hey there fam! 

This will not be long because Res told me my letters are novels so I will not make them novels for you all lol!

   

This week was good... we had divisons and worked a lot... had zone conference... freaking Carlos we cant find that man.... that is a whole other story with in itsself... pero bueno! 

   hmmm lets see what to tell what to tell about this week...

We had zone conference and it was really good. we were the only zone in the conference which was weird and we thought we were gonna get guilt tripped because we haven't been baptizing like we should in our zone... and anyways that didn't really happen. It  was good I learned a lot about to better myself as not only a missionary but also as a person! Then luckily after zone conference pres gave us a ride to our area so we didn't have to make the 30 min walk to the hill... we were #blessed haha i am hoping that we don't have cambios but I honestly think it is a big possibility because I think hna Woodford might train because well... a lot of the hnas in the mish right now are not happy... they are just making it by because yeah missionary work is hard... but luckily we have found a happy mix between hard work and being happy and pres knows that and we are praying he doesn't split us up to help the other hnas.... okay I know that sounds terrible but we just don't want cambios quite yet!

   Isabel and Aug are doing... still not married... he still wants more time... but ahhhhh they kill me... no not they, HE! She is ready and wants to be married so she can get baptized but that's okay we will see! WE have been using a lot of the married couples in the ward to help us out with citas to help them see that blessings come from obedience! 

Luz y Odalys y Vanessa are all good! Vanessa went to the capilla the first time this week and really liked it and we had a activity of the primary and it was really good. WE are planning the bap of Odalys and Vannessa for the 6th de DIC (mi cumpleaños) and Luz said she wants more time which is fine because she doesn't have any church attendance so she can't get baptized till she does!  They are doing good and progressing but man it is a process with them and yesterday we gave them the CTR rings Maddie sent me (that are HLJ en español) and they all LOVED THEM! Shout out to Maddie for sending me those and helping me make my investigators happy! Kill'n it in the missionary work Matwat and you aren't even in the field yet! 

 But Carlos yeah that dang man keeps on working and so yeah we are going to hunt him down this week and get him baptized! #goaloftheweek We are also just looking for ton of new people and we are gonna find more families and yes its gonna be great! 

For divisones I went to Olivos with hna chavez and it was fun that area is really getto and I want to serve there one day but for now I don't want to leave Izcalli till I baptize all my people! But it was fun for a day but I was missing my home and mi compa mi hija! But all is well here in Izcalli.  I love the missionary work. it really is the work of the lord and when you forget yourselves and lose yourself in the service of the lord you really do find yourself! 

   As for thanksgiving plans there is none.... but hey maybe we will celebrate somehow this week and it will be just gucci! 

 Also I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and I hope Grandma is getting better! Grandma,I will be praying for you and your health and I will look forward talking to you en español por la navidad! But I love you all so much be safe and enjoy the Macy's day parade!

con muchísimo amor...

hna Dana Heywood 

Izcalli - Agua de limon, aahh no!

Hnas Heywood and Woodford

All is well here in Mexico... dang Carlos didn't get baptized because he was working non-stop legit! He works 24 hrs and then no and 24 hrs and then no but... dang man, he kept on covering for other peoples shifts jaja and I don't know how he is alive. CARLOS haha he is something else but we just love him and ya this week he is gonna get baptized if its the last thing I do! 

15 familias is coming along we are still searching for more and more! This week it was just a lot of teaching, finding....having stake outs in front of Carlos's house because he wasn't answering his phone and we were worried he was gonna get home from work and then go to sleep and we wouldn't be able to find him jaja but all is well now we are going to see him tonight! 

Funny story of the week... so Isabel y Augustine; we love them so much and well we don't love their house. let me describe it to you.... they would be number 1 candidates for the tv show Hoarders (or how ever you spell it)! Their bedroom isn't awful... that is where we teach them... but the rest of the house... you look into the other rooms and there is just piles and piles of crap and garbage and on the roof trash bags full of who knows what man oh man we need to do a service project for them! But anyways we went and ate with them Tuesday because they signed up to feed us and so we ate sopes a nice traditional mexi food that is really good and harmless... well at least we thought so! The next day hna Woodford threw up 6 times and then once the day after it was terrible poor thing! We are pretty sure that the lemonade (agua de limon) they used the tap water and not filtered water and yeah... who knows but it was not too good! I mean my stomach felt a little bit weird but that is normal here but yeah it was bad so Wednesday we were not able to leave the house all day so we just studied, wrote our talks for Sunday because we both spoke yesterday and we watched the testaments and the josé smith movie and hna Woodford was mad because I only have that one is spánish haha! But it was just a grand time and luckily la familia Peña helped us out with meds and all that jazz! Oh how I love them. The nice thing was I was able to clean the house really well Wednesday... like hardcore deep clean so yay! But we were glad to get out of the house Wednesday morning and work! 

    This week hmm what else happened... really I feel like I just wrote like two days ago I cant believe it has already been a week! We are half way done with this cycle and I am afraid I am gonna leave in three weeks because hna Woodford might train... it would be so good for her and she is totally ready but we don't want to get switched!!! Today we discovered that we both LOVE sytycd and yes i was Hna how have we never known this before this is groundbreaking in our friendship haha we really don't want to get switched because then we can be together for Christmas and you guys can all meet her in skype!  We will see but if she trains I will be happy for her and I know she will keep on killing it here! Time is flying by because life in the mission is so much happier because you are worried about other people and not about yourself! but yes good thing I still have a year ish left! Also all this news about the church is crazy and I don't understand how people can be so stupid. The gospel really is SO SIMPLE! These people just need to take and study PMG ch 3 and then pray about it and yeah they will stop being dumb... but yes satanás he is a powerful one and sometimes he really knows how to confuse people! 

We took Odaylis a cake for her birthday last Monday.
This is in the tienda.

   Other things that happened this week hmmm... well not to much just  alot of finding new people and helping our investigators right now keep all their commitments and gain a testimony! Luz and Odayls are doing good yesterday we went in to their tienda a little bit after we had dropped Odayls off from church and we were talking about how we can get all of them to church and everything and we lent them the Testaments to watch in their tienda as a Sunday activity and then we were like okay we need to pray and we will see you guys Tuesday because we need to go to another cita and she was like no stay with us watch the movie you guys can eat what ever you want in the tienda and I was like no hna we have to help other people too jaja and then she was like okay well can we at least give you some peaches so we were like okay and then she was like oh and a drink.. and then when we had finished oh and eat this pizza and oh have another ... haha we were like LUZ we need to go, other peoples salvation is important too hahah she was like okay hnas its okay but they were trying so hard to make us stay and watch the movie with them.  haha we love them and I think they will be baptized on my birthday... best present ever!!!!!!!! 

One of the many paintings on our walk from home to the Stake Center.

 Sorry I don't have alot of fotos just ones we took on our walk home from the stake center today because we went and played soccer and basket ball with our district and some members in different wards and it was fun and nice to be outside running around... not like we don't do that everyday because we are always late to citas hahah but no it was fun! I am glad all is well at home and Katie's house is all nice and finished, and you guys are enjoying the high life flying to cali for 6 flags and cool things like that! Mom, I am glad you had fun with your gang up in Payson, that cabin sounds way too posh and I am glad you got to see Jackie!  Well I must go but I love you all and gracias for the fotos! 

Izcalli - Holla

Hey there fam! 

Sounds like you guys are all good and enjoying life and all that jazz! This week was crazy there was so mucho work to do and man I am tired but that's okay because we are working our hardest! We had alot of people to see and lots of contacting to do to find 15 famalies. So we took the map of our area and we divided it into 17 parts and assigned a number for every part or colonia as they call it here... anyways what we have been doing when we don't have scheduled teaching appts is we pray in the morning first personally and ASK with all our HEARTS!!!!! Where in the world heavenly father wants us to go and contact that day in order to find a family. And then we take all the number we felt impressed to write down we tell each other and then we do it again... and then we talk about our number pick like 3 or 5 that really stuck out to us and then we pray together as a companionship and we choose 1 or 2 numbers (areas) to contact in for like an 1 our 2 depending on how much free time we have. Anyways so this week we were able to do that twice because we had no appts scheduled and the 1st day we did it and was amazing like we found this guys named Miguel Angel and we were just talking to him outside of his house and then it rained like not even a second and he said AHHHH its raining you guys are gonna get sick if we were out here here come inside we can talk and you can meet my family........................................ we were both like YESSSS! so we went in taught a little bit of the restoration and taught him the importance of prayer and how we should pray and then he prayed and we set up a cita.... and yeah milagro! It was really cool and so yeah that happened this week which was good... and then we went to the CV with Isabel and Augustine and they want to get married!!!! Now we just need to help them find the money because they are really really poor and its 600 pesos (which is really cheap but still 600 pesos they don't have) But we are way excited for them. Isabel is doing so well and she got her answer and knows the church is true. She had a dream and in the dream there was a bunch of different churches and each time she would try to enter one it would not feel right and then she would go to a different one and then when she walked into the capilla she said she felt something like she has never felt before and she KNOWS the church is true and loves everything about it! Ah man we love her. At the CV the pics that I always forward to you mom, well the investigadores can get those printed out there in the CV for GRATIS (free) anyways so they got their pic and the next day we went over for our cita and there was our pic from the CV framed sitting on top of their TV .... my heart melted. Me and hna woodford were like #blessed jajaj we love Isabel and Augustine is doing better. At first he was always like NO hnas I cant go on Sunday ... more like I won't go almost. But he really loved the CV and felt the spirit and this Sunday he is commited and we have already worked everything out to were he can go just for the sacrament and then yeah. He better not bail on us... we wont let him. 

   hmmm what else happened this week.... CARLOS PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW! I think I have explained the first time we met Carlos we thought he was drunk... but he really wasn't he is just slow. Well we have taught him the restoration SO MANY TIMES! Because he doesn't remember and he learns like a child but we helped him with everything, he understands, he is reading everyday in the book of Mormon and now he is gonna get baptized this week and he is excited and we are excited for him. I don't think i have ever met someone that needs the holy ghost more in their life... I feel like once he receives it he is gonna progress alot! 

what we do when we get locked in the gated areas... 

wait and pray for someone to come 

Also this week Luz y Odylis.... hmm well we had just finished a really spiritual lesson like the spirit was so strong and we had shared how the gospel really does bless famailes and it was really powerful and Luz was like crying. But then after we prayed they were like hnas we have a question we heard that the bishop and elders  rape the children and that's why we won't  go we are afraid....... and we were like .................... ummmmmmm...................... WHAT WHO TOLD YOU THIS BLASPHEMY? So we explained everything and they were still a little unsure but we told them they just need to pray about everything and really ask God if this is what he wants for them. So we saw them last night and they were like hnas we know what we heard was not true this church wouldn't do that... so yay we were worried there. Now everything is good and today is Odylis birthday and we are taking her a cake and everything and gonna try to make her life a little more happy! There is a lot of work here and I can't believe this cycle is half way done, I think hna woodford might train and that I might have to leave Izcalli in 3 weeks... I don't want to. But I think pres would want her to train because she is one of the few hijas that is actually happy in the mish so yeah we will see. I hope I can stay till January but we will see. Oh also guess what I turn 20 in like 3 and a half weeks CRAZY! 

Also Mom to answer yours questions..(I asked her if she liked the country better then the city);  I like it a lot here.. the people here are just a little bit more happy and not as rushed! Also because there is pretty hills to look at when we are walking around and everything! And last p-day we had a zone activity, so we played soccer and volleyball and ate food and yeah nothing to crazy! Today we had to go find a notary because hna woodford needs to release the title of her car that is already sold.. haha but she has to have original documents of everything and the notery here in Mexico is 2000 pesos! #ripoff haha so now she needs to figure out what to do with her car. I am happy and I am blessed to be here in the mish! I hope you are all doing good and everything! I will talk to you guys next week! 

Izcalli - 7 Meses

Fam! 

We went and put this on the familia Peñas door ahah they loved it!

     Well familia, this week I hit the 7 month mark here in the mish... crazy right! This week was short since the last time I wrote you but hey its all good... we have had some challenges this week with some of our solid investigators. Isabel is still going strong, she is golden she just needs to get married and she will be perfect! Carlos is a little crazy he told us he didn't want to get baptized this last Sunday but he is just confused and we will help that man out to get his mind straight! haha but all is well. This last week we did have divisons AGAIn but it was with the hermanas in our zone and it was good... one of the new hermanas is having trouble in the mish and her comp is latina so we did speacial divisones so she could have an american to talk to and all that and I hope she will be getting better, poor thing is sad but honestly the best fixer for that is to WORK! Then your mind is not on the mission, it is on different things that don't matter! As for us, we are happy here in Izcalli and there is a lot to do but hey we are doing it with a smile that makes all the difference!

   This week we were told that the goal for this month is to find 15 families so that is what we are working on because if we find 15 at least 3 should get baptized in DEC! 

 It sounds like all is well at home and too bad Chris´s season ended but hey that is the best Gilbert has done in a while so yay! 

This week Odylis ... kuz´s daughter went to the capilla with us and we were so happy she is so golden and really loves the church and is reading in the book of Mormon and is only 10, she is like another Alisson, remember my old convert?  She is awesome because that girl goes to work with her mom every day to help her mom with the baby or even just run the store and she is only 10!!!! But we are super pumped for this month and we have a lot of good ideas and goals to get the work going even more and haha yes I got the email from grandma about mi hija yup she is famous and one of the elders was like hna this week, "I got an email for my family and I didn't know you were famous... haha we were laughing so hard! Today we had a zone activity and played... the usual soccer... I am terrible but hey I am getting better and hna woodford is helpful and we are gonna start practicing more in the morning! 

Sorry, there is not a whole lot to write... one of my old investigators from Moctezuma got baptized last week I was so happy... he was the sons of Jorge and Anna who were so close to getting baptized but their dang christian pastor prophet thing won them over.. and because they were not reading in the libro de mormon... but hey i am just happy some of the work we did with that family over there paid off!!!!  This Sunday was sad because only 3 of our investigators got to church and we were way sad but then after we realized maybe its because heavenly father has someone else that we need to find... like a family so everything is all good and we are excited to get to work this week!!!!!!!! 

I love you all so much have a good week and keep on being happy!!!

Selfie with Isabel y Augustine

Selfie again with Luz y Odelis

We were at the temple this past week.

Woodard and Glouser came to visit us