Valle - The Mission: The Hardest Thing I Have Ever Loved To Do

Dear Family and pues EVERYONE!

  

I shall miss our pet dog that is always in church with us! 

     I have been sitting here thinking about what exactly one is suppose to write when they are about to end one of the greatest experiences they have had in their life. Honestly I don't even know where to start.  This has been the greatest 18 months of my life even though everyone says that; its absolutely 100% TRUE! I remember when I had first gotten into the field in the mission and how I had no idea what was going on... I didn't speak Spanish and I really didn't understand the gospel like I should have. But now I can look back and see how much I have changed. Of course I didn't change because I knew how to change I changed because I learned how to love the chilangos of mexico and most of all to love the Savior and his gospel. 

 Last week we had interviews with Presidente Nuamann and we were talking and it hit me just how much I had really changed. I have learned that the work of the Lord is the most important thing someone can do in their life. I have learned the importance of always sharing with EVERYONE because well everyone needs the blessings of the gospel in their lives. I have learned that we must always trust in the Lord and in his promises. I think I have learned that the most from the people here in Mexico. Sometimes it would just break my heart when we would go eat with the members that had nothing and see that the only food they had in their refrigerator was what they were going to feed us. And we would try to eat a little bit but then they would get mad at us and tell us the Lord blesses them when they feed the missionaries... I mean these people really truly trust in the Lord because they know its the only way to be happy and have blessings. I have learned that everyone is important, yes even the drunk on the side of the road that asks you to marry them every time you walk past. I don't know if you remember the drunk we were teaching in Izcalli whose name is Alejandro... well he got baptized a month ago and its because we realized that everyone is important and that everyone needs the chance to hear the gospel. I have learned that every bad day can be turned around by laughing about it. Honestly I am so grateful so many crazy things happened to me because it taught me to get over the unexpected and enjoy it. I have learned that we should repent EVERYDAY! God loves us and for that we have to chance to repent in every moment of our lives. I have learned that keep the Sabbath day holy really changes lives and that taking the sacrament is a way to have a spiritual reload every week. Honestly I could keep going on and on and on about everything I have learned I think I will share my experiences my whole life because I am grateful for the opportunities I have had. 

I know that God loves every single one of us. He wants us to be happy and he has a plan that is PERFECT. I know that its never too late to change and that we are never alone. Thank you Mom and Dad for always supporting me and to all mis hermanos for being an example to me honestly having 5 siblings is the best because you can ALWAYS learn from them. 

This week we are going to have lots of work and we are looking forward to conference... women's conference was super good and I am excited to hear the other messages. This week we should be having at least 2 baptisms and we are going to the temple on Friday so it will be a GREAT WEEK!! I don't feel like I am finishing the mish pero bueno hay que hacerlo! 

Cute Annie and Jake.. Annie has been helping us teach her abuelito ... he should be getting baptized this Sunday! 

 Yo sé que Dios vive y que él nos ama... a cada uno de nosotros. Sé que Jesucristo es el hijo de Dios, que el es nuestro Salvador y Redentor y como dice en Isaías 53:5 "...y por sus heridas fuimos nosotros sanados." Yo sé que el Vive y gracias a él yo puedo tener gozo en mi vida. Se que las familias pueden ser eternas y que eso es un gran parte del plan de salvación. Sé que los tiempos de Dios son perfectos y que yo necesitaba estar a aquí en este momento en mi vida. Sé que Dios trabaja por medio de sus profetas y que José Smith fue llamado de Dios para restaurar la Iglesia de Cristo nuevamente aquí en la tierra. Sé que el profeta Tomas S Monson es escogido de Dios para guiar nos en este tiempo. Amo a Dios con todo mi corazón y siempre voy a recordar mis 18 meses aquí en la Cuidad de México y también pues el Estado de México. Nunca voy a olvidar las personas aquí y pues si eso es mi testimonio.

Las Quiero mucho y pues nos vemos pronto!!! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermanita Heywood

 

is sunday! 

Valle - Via Mexico

Divisiones

FELIZ (LATE) DÍA DE INDEPENDENCIA! 

Hola familia, amigos y pues todos! 

Como están! La verdad este semana has sido LOCO, pero bueno!

   First we had divisones two times and it was tiring but really good to help the hermanas with their probs and get to know some other hermanas! We did divisiones with the Hermanas from Olivos (Hna´s Chitiva from Columbia and Espinal also from Morelos Mexico) and they are great. Hermana Espinal is new and super cute she talks a mile a minute but I really liked her... she will be a fabulous missionary. We also did divisiones with Izcalli (Hna´s Bracamonte from Cali and Bustamonte from Peru) and they are good too. Hna Bracamonte was helping me get more excited about returning to BYUI.

These dresses on our members are on point!

   We also had noche méxicana... it was truly a fiesta en the stake! They had dances from each state of Mexico and food that was soooo goood!!!!! tamales, pozole, elotes, tostadas de tinga ahhhh so good ahhh so good... haha but honestly we ate sooo much last week. The big thing to eat is pozole and I am pretty sure everyone in the whole world gave us pozole when we went to their houses its soo good but man we were bursting! jaja We had 11 investigadors in the stake activity #winning but only 4 came to church #losing jaja  It was fun and it was so hard not to dance. Also one of the elders brought a sombrero and everyone was wearing it... yes i did too I thought I was done with lice but we found one in my hair last week jajaj hopefully nobody gets lice! oops 

  We also had a big milagro this week pofin Silvia and Armando could get all their papers so that he can get divorcd and they can get married yayyyy!!! Also presidente came to our ward for a little bit on Sunday and Hna Naumann came to do visits with us it was sooo coool.... man that women is a POWER HOUSE! I love her so much and I am happy we could have some citas with her before I leave!

Hna Segura is teaching me the art of jello,

 get ready for when I am home I shall blow your minds jaja jk! 

Also today we went to el centro and we found some of our elder Buddy's there so we took a pic with them in the post office and we stopped by Bella's Arte's and some other stuff around there and we found a super cool museum for FREEEE that had a bunch of Mexican clothes from a long time ago ... we couldn't take pics but I took a folleto so I can put it in my journal with all the cool clothes!  Life is sooo goood!!! I love you all so much!

con mucho amor,

Hermanita Heywood

Here are a load of pics from the Bella Arte and the Post Office:

Back to a couple of photos from the Independence Day Party:

Valle - AHHHHHHH

Templo

Hey there fam... sorry I have not very much time to write... we went to the temple today and its forever aways from our area... so we had like zero time to do stuff but life is good. We start divisions tonight and have to go pick up the hermanas from the metro... yeah we can officially start divisones because the bug situation is under control in our house. This week has been sooooo GREAT! We have a ton of work and me and hna segura work really well together. Honestly I LOVE being comps with hna segura she is the best and we will have to come visit here when we come back to Mexico, she lives like 2 hours from the south of the city!!

WE had an interesting experience this week... so a member gave us a reference of her friend whose little kid was having problems. She said that her son could see things like spirits and things like that... at first I thought... hmmmm maybe he just wants attention from his mom and that is why he is saying he sees spirits so we went to go with the member and her husband to dedicate the house and meet the son, Christian.  He is so cute and honestly I do think he sees things but when ever we talked to him we could feel the spirit like super super strong and he told us he had a dream and Christ told him he needed to help his dad believe in god... is dad is atheist... and I don't know it was such a spiritual but weird experience... We are going to teach them this week and talk about the plan of salvation but idk it was cool and we will see what Christian has to say about all of it and if he can help his family be part of the true church. Christian is 10. 

Here are a few pics from when Sister Oscarson came.

 

Cute little Alex and his bro Julian menos activos. We built blocks as we waited for the food!! 

Leadership Meeting

Group of hermanas who met with Sister Oscarson

Should have stuck with piano lessons!

 I honestly don't feel like I am coming home but that's okay... I don't think I will ever be ready but it will be good to keep on going with the other steps of life. We saw our whole mission today in the temple... because now that we can go to the temple everyone went this week and last week. It was fun to see some of my old comps and hna Gantz like the first time in forever ... love that woman. We also saw hna Woodard as we left and we said our good byes and so I might have gotten a little teary eyed! Her comp is new in the mish and from Peoria AZ!  Life is good and I will try to find some fun things for the boys here because we are kinda far from all the cool markets to get things but I shall try!!! I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!!!!

hermanita heywood

Look What We Finally Got!!

Valle - VIVA

Hey there fam bam how is life? 

      Well this mish is just great as always this week was full of lots of fun little surprises... things are totally better... there are like 0 lice in my head.,.. and they have now fumigated the house twice and we got new mattresses. Although one night we had thrown away the mattresses and they wouldn't bring us the new ones till the house was cleared so we slept on the tiled floor it was such a fun adventure! 

   The week was full of lots of miracles! Would you like to hear some... okay first lets talk about Angelica! We knocked on her door Sunday looking for a old lady... well the old lady didn't live there but Angelica does and she said she had listened to the missionaries before. So we put a cita and when we went she was so happy to see us and her husband was there and guess what he is a member who is less active and wants to go back to church. We invited Angelica to be baptized and before we even finished saying bautismo she was saying si si si si hermanas cuando! Talk about finding the chosen!! They are not married but want to be married so we are gonna get a wedding done and help this cute lady get dunked. She is prego and has a cute little boy that is 5 and I don't know his name... haha there is this strange fad here in Mexico... all the people are naming their children Hebrew names so yeah hahah. 

    Other milagro Rocío.. she is a reference that nobody ever looked for in Valle and we decided to go look for her and she has gone to church a ton and really wants to learn and was so excited to have us in her house! She was like "Wow hermanas Dios está aquí con nosotros yo puedo sentirlo".... we need to teach her that that is the holy ghost but at least she can feel a difference!!! 

We also had consejo de lideres this week... sorry idk what that is in English but it was really good! Presidente Naumannn always teaches us so much!!! He was teaching us a lot about revelation and he said, "I never ever want to hear you ask a class or a room of people you are teaching who wants to pray..... the person that needs to pray isn't going to raise their hand... you have to confide in the Revelation and ask the person that God wants... #plache but so true! But as always I learned a lot from pres and all the other leaders in the mish and its always animating to go to that meeting. 

All of our other investigators are doing just great we shall be baptizing a couple blessed souls the end of this month and Oct my last Sunday here so yeah lots of work to do!! 

 Oh also last night I cut my hair because I was tired of it being so ugly and I don't want to go to a salon because of my head situation so I decided to cut it... it was only like two inches so it doesn't look much different but I might need a hair cut when I get home so they can make it look pretty! 

Armando the fumigador

Life is great here in Mexico!!! Love you all lots

Valle - "Come What May and Love It"

Dear Family!

   I honestly don't even know where to begin this letter because so many things have occured this week... I think I will start with the good! 

   So its was amazing we had so much work this week and I just love working with Hna Segura... we get along so well... honestly she is me in Latina form and just love her. We were able to find a lot of miracles this week. We were working a lot in Valle and we found a cute little 9 year old boy there who wants to get baptized... his family are members ... actually his mom died a year ago so he and his sister live with his grandma but his name is Eduardo and we all call him Lalo... and he is preparing for his baptism the 23 of Sept and already bought his white shirt and pants for his baptism.  He is so excited! 

   We also started teaching a reporter named Carlos. He is golden and is preparing for the 25th for his baptism. He really loves the Mormon religion but has a lot of questions because well as a reporter he kind knows all the good things and the bad things... but he his following the spirit and he will get his answer through the spirit and not through the internet and he totally understands that and is awesome. 

Also cool experience we were knocking on some door in Valle looking for old investigators or less actives and we knocked on a door and the person we were looking for didn't live there but... the lady that answered the door loves the church and they just moved and haven't been able to find the missionaries or the church and then we knocked on her door... #milagros

Also our meeting with Hna Oscarson..... AMAZING! She was there and Hno Brough from YM and Elder Pino who is a 70 and then of course Pres Naumann and Sis Naumann who we all love and praise and it was awesome. It was them and 12 of us in the mission... 6 hnas from the field and 6 from the CV. And Hna Oscarson came with questions and we just sat in a circle and talked for like 2 and a half hours with all these amazing leaders in the church. Honestly amazing. Hna Oscarson was telling us how crazy it is to be on the missionary council its like 8 people and 3 of them are elders Oaks, Bednar and Anderson and then some of the 70´s and her.... she says is one of the most intimidating things because they never go on until she has given her opinion on everything. Did you know she was 25 when her husband was called to be a mission president. She had 4 children and had more there in the mission field!  Honestly I just love her she is such a down to earth person and I am grateful for the amazing experiences I have had here in my mission in Mexico with some great leaders of the church. 

Okay now for the not so great news.... I HAVE LICE! yay yup I have lice hahah don't worry, hna Segura knows how to handle it because its a common thing here in Mexico and our land lady was helping us and she was like "Hna, the fastest way to get rid of lice is put raid in your hair"

Me and Niyeli or as I call her.... #MVP

... so yeah they put raid in my hair several times and its killed a lot of lice. I only had like 10 but hna Saylor called us and she had 60-.... so yeah everything is great. Oh also we have been invaded by some kind of bug that is in the mattress and walls and what not so we have to get fumigated and wash everything in our house and we got special permission to come and write .... they said we can't leave our house until its all under control or else we can contaminate others... I honestly feel like a leper.  We can't sleep on our mattresses and they are not going to bring us new ones till the house is cleared so they told us to sleep in a chair or on the floor but we cant use blankets or else the bugs will bit us more.. hahaha so great right. I was thinking the other day; so many things have happened to me in the mish.  Good thing I have been through almost all of it... lol the Lord obviously has a sense of humor and wanted me to learn even more! hahahahaha so yeah thats how things are going!!!!

I love you all so much and I hope you all have a good week... Jared good luck with Brooke and her fam!!! Chris good luck with your foot and happy birthday!!! 

love Hermanita Heywood 

I need to get pics of Hna Oscarson from Hna Neumann; so will send them next week. 

Valle - Finally Got A Latina!

Dear Family how is life? 

Yo y  Hna Segura

  Okay first of all we had cambios and I finally got a latina comp! So happy, her name is Hna Segura she is from Morelos, Mexico and is super awesome! She has been in the Cv till now and was one of the sister training leaders there but now she is here with me and so happy to be in the field! She is 23 and has already got her degree in teaching and was teaching before the mish ... in elementary school! I am excited, we are gonna have a lot of success and have lots of fun and my accent will finally get better!!! 

 So I am still in Valle and very happy to still be here because its a great place with A TON OF WORK! So we spent more time here in Valle this week and let me tell you it kinda breaks my heart. We went and visited this older women who is less active and she just cried to have someone from the church in her house. It's because there really hasn't been missionary's there for like a year and once the missionaries left; the ward kinda ignored the other part or the poor part of the ward and these poor people stopped coming because nobody cared about them. We have met so many people that just need a visit or two and they will come back to the ward. A lot of people were mad about the ward ignoring their side and they started going to a different church building in a different stake and its just sad sad sad. BUT its okay because now we are working hard there getting to know everyone and trying to help them come back. 

There is an awesome family there who are both ex missionaries and they have two little kids and they have less than a year living there and they said it was so sad when they saw what was going on in the ward and they have been doing visits trying to help the ward.   They are awesome and they gave us A TON OF REFERENCES! They just love the missionary work and its awesome that they can help us and we can activate the ward together. 

Also I feel like we are now teaching every part member family in the ward.. haha okay not all of them but we are teaching a ton of men who are not members but their kids and wives are and three of the husbands/fathers came to church on Sunday! YAY of course one of them was being dumb and was whining that he wouldn't have time to eat breakfast so we went and made crepas for them and then they drove with us to church. Also we had a ward activity on Saturday and it was great. It was a talent show and so me and hna Saylor sang an arrangement of like 4 hymns about missionary work using cups like in pitch perfect and everyone thought it was cool. There was some cool talents from the ward and the cutest girl from Valle (that lives in the poor part) did a dance solo it was like jazz funk and it was so good and she is so cute and I was so happy to see her dance!!! 

Oh also we haven't had a baptism this month so we decided to show our faith and announce that we are having one next Sunday because we believe we will find someone in a week and do everything we can to find them!!! So yeah I´ll keep ya updated on that!  Life is just great and I know this cycle is going to be a cycle of MILAGROS! 

Oh also you wanna hear something cool, Bonnie Oscarson is in Mexico and she is having this like council thing by the temple with 12 people and presidente invited me and hna segura to come and be a part of the council... there will be four other hermanas there too... so that is SUPER SUPER COOL! 

I just gotta say I am so blessed to be able to be serving here in Mexico! I love this place and these people so much and thinking about leaving them makes me emotional so I don't haha and I am just so so blessed to be here in the service of the Lord. I have learned so much and I am excited to see what this cycle holds in store!!!!  Beto and Gabi are super close to baptism and marriage and Paola and Maurico are getting there too!!!! I am so excited and I love these people so so so so so mucho.. but i also love you all too!  Have a good week fam bam! #duces 

hna heywood

Ward activity with Juan Carlos and his fam

Zone Conference

Valle - La semana mas PADRÍSIMO de todos

Hello familia how is everything!  lLife here is just so great and I am soooo happy!!!!

  Today was sooo soo cool! We went and hiked the hill with the cross with presidente and his familia and the ZL and the other hnas from Izcalli! It was super cool and fun to get to know them better. Hna nuamann is so funny and she was helping me understand what I should do with my future life haha! She made a face book for the mish and its called mexico city east 2016-2019 or something like that but they are gonna put pics on that!!

 We also had zone conference this week and it was soooo good! honestly Pres is a man with lots of knowlege and we learned about hope, faith and charity and it was all mind blowing. WE also have a new senior couple from Argentina that has been living in Sydney Australia for like their whole life and they are super  cool.

 And valle.....VALLE! I LOVE VALLE!! its the poor part of our ward and there are so many people there ready for the gospel!!  I feel like its when Alma goes with the zoramites and then the poor people are like well we can't pray and stuff and then he teaches them how and then  they get converted!  We found a cool family that listened like a year ago and want to be in the church and there is just so many people there waiting for the gospel and I feel honored to be able to open it! It is really cool and we are going to see lots of miracles there. Also things are going good in las americas, we found more new people this week and they are all really cool. WE went to the CV this week with Lilia and she is getting closer and closer to baptism she just isnt sure yet but she will be!!! Also it was really cool to have some less actives that came to church that we have been working with. WE lcried when we saw Paola come to church ... her husband isn't a member and she wants her 9 year old son to get baptized but he cant come for one more week becuase he has soccer on Sundays but thier season ends soon and we are working on her son and husband. Mauricio her husband is making us shirts for our zone because he is a graphic designer and man we just love that family. WE did a FHE with them last week and watched meet the mormons and they all loved it!!! }

But there is so many good things going on here.... cambios are next week so we will see what happens. I am pretty sure I will finish the mish here and I am so excited to work more with Valle this week! But all is welll... love you all lots besos y abrazos

hna heywood

C.V.

Subiendo el Cerro con Presidente y su Familia.

Valle - I GOT BIT BY A FERRET

¡Hola familia como están... espero que estén bien y que han disfrutado sus vacaciones en estés meses! 

Divisions with hna Bustamonte y Bracamonte

Noche de hogar with familia Lopez and Lilia  

Our mall adventure today!

   Well this week was CRAZY! There was so much going on. First off we did divisions twice this week which was fun but really a little tiring. Also we had interviews and that was kinda crazy. So you know how presidente told me I could stay till Nov 1st well so I asked him about it just to double confirm and then he was like, "Ahhh Hermana I need to tell you something. I have been counseling with the Lord a lot and now I have decided that I am not going to allow the missioneros here to go home early or extend.  I feel like it's what the Lord wants for this mission and I am really sorry because I told you it was okay. .... yeah I cried kinda a lot ... it just wasn't expected. I am sure it wasn't easy for him to tell me... I mean who wants to tell a 20 year old girl she can't extend her mission. It was tender but I am all good know and I am grateful for the revelation that Presidente receives for our mission and we had a good talk about it and I am good!! I honestly love Presidente and it was so strange to have interviews in English! 

  Also this week we had a meeting in Aragon (by the temple) so we had to stay the night there and haha hna Saylor poor thing broke her toe in the bath room stall because we stayed in the CV dorms and her toe was pretty black and purple so she got a blessing there and Presidente was very confused about how she broke it haha but we are doing good and she can walk on it and its looking better! ITS BECAUSE SHE GOT A BLESSING!  I keep on telling her that and she just rolls her eyes at me for being #1 fan of priesthood blessings. 

Also guess what.... WE GOT PERMISSION TO OPEN UP THE DANGEROUS PART OF OUR WARD! I am so so so pumped... now we have more area... I don't know why before but presidente Anaya wouldn't let us work there but we were talking to Pres Naumann and he told us YESSSS! and we got the area book and we are really excited. Its like real Mexico there; it looks like Carrera a little bit and there are lots of people there ready to hear the gospel! 

Also got bit by a ferret which was great... uhh nasty creature! 

Oh funny moment of the week we asked with Silvia and Armando what we could do to help them before we left and she was like... hmmm Hermana Heywood could you please give me a foot massage real quick and I was like hmmm well I guess Jesus washed his disciples feet so I guess I can give a quick massage to our investigator... so I did it and felt very strange! haha and she told me I give really bad foot massages so there's that... sorry future husband! haha 

Also Beto shared his testimony this week in sacrament and it was AWESOME!  His wife cried and hna Saylor cried and I kinda used up all my tears for the week in interviews so I didn't cry but I felt like a proud mom even though he is 59 and I am 20. Its just so cool to see investigators share their testimonies!! But yeah life is so so good!! Oh also pres changed the rules so now we have our district meeting every Monday and the church we were meeting at was out of the mission so we can't have it there but he gave us permission to do it on a roof in one of the elders areas so that is what those pics are. Also the other pictures are us in public transportation going to everything this week yay! Love you all, have a great week!! I know this church is the true church of Christ!!

con amor,

hna Heywood

View from a combi:

Valle - Shout Out!

Dear fam! 

    Well first of all shout out to Juan Carlos... I shall tell you all the story... so yesterday when we got to church... the whole church was flooded... a pipe broke and there was at least, AT LEAST 3 inches of water! So yeah we walked in got the broom and mops and sqwige (idk how to spell that) and we went to work getting the water out of the church so we could have our services. Anyway so Juan Carlos saw us on the street the other day and was like, "hey hnas I want to go to church with you guys" (we have talked to him before his whole fam is members) so he came to church and got to work and helped A TON! So yeah we started sacrament like 45 mins late and we participated in the sacrament and then had one small talk and then we all went back to work getting the water out! But before Bishop ended the services he was like I would just like to thank Hno Juan Carlos for all your hard work and service to help us get the church dry and then every man in the whole ward went up to get to know him and yeah #MAJORFELLOWSHIPPING it was cool and Juan Carlos was like hnas i am bringing my family next week to church! So yeah more people to teach. 

  Honestly we are so busy... just running around this place helping all these people come unto Christ and you know all that good missionary stuff! 

I would like to tell you about a really cool part member family we have been teaching. Their names are Paola (miembro) and Mauricio. She has been a member almost her whole life and went in active when she was 18 because she wanted to live her life. Well then she had kids and was like oh wait I should probs go to church... so she goes every now and then but doesn't have a testimony. Well her husband is AWESOME... but said he will not be a member of this church until he knows its completely true. Well we went with a cool couple in our ward yesterday to be their fellowshipers or however that is in English and it was AWESOME!!! The spirit was really strong and they are willing to give the church a try. They also have a 9 year old little boy that is now baptized and then a 5 year old and a 1 year old little girl . Honestly they are a super cool family and would be awesome members. Mauricio is a graphic designer that specializes in t shirts so we got him to make us some shirts for our zone. We are super excited that we found them good friends in church and they want to go and see if this church is what their family needs. The only thing is their child plays soccer every Sunday at 9 and we have church at 8 but they only have 4 more games and then they promised they will be at church because they want to know! It was super cool and familia Lopez  are their new friends are sooo cool! They are both ex missionaries and they are #goals ... we love them and they have two super cute little kids. WE are doing a FHE with them tonight and one of our investigators Lilia so hopefully that goes well!! Life is super good and crazy... we did divsions with hna Woodard and her comp this week and it was fun to be with her and catch up and make are future plans together hopefully people are down for a Tijuana temple trip in Dec!  This week we will have a lot going on and we have divisions twice so ahhh but it will be good!!!!!  I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!!! love you all lots

hna heywood