The District

Hello! Hello!

 

How is everyone? 

I'm doing great!

I love it here in Farmington. 

This week we got 3 new investigators!

One was a member referral, one was a former and the other we found knocking.

We feel really good about all of them.

Thank you to the Lord for guiding us to them! 

I just got back from a district activity.

My arms are super sore from playing volley ball, but it's all good.

We still had fun. 

Let me tell you who is in my district. 

Sister Aughenbaugh: She's from Hawaii.

Sister Monefukai: I don't think I spelled her name right.

Sister Hartley: Canadian.

Elder Hart: His brother served in the San Fernando mission!

Elder Smith: Plays the piano.

Elder Dymov: He's from Russia.

Elder Spencer: He's afraid of bugs.

Elder Cormier: His name doesn't sound like it's spelled. 

That's it! They're awesome! 

Our ward here is great!
We've gotten 7 referrals, six of which were from members!

AND they all have friends that they want to invite to have dinner with us.

We just have to help the members actually invite the people.

How cool is that?! 

Let's see, what else exciting happened this week? 

-We had three bees in our apartment. How they got there, we don't know.

Sister Taylor killed one with a snow shovel. 

-I spilled ketchup and nacho cheese on my skirt at zone meeting.

Cute, I know. 

-We accidentally got on the freeway to Lansing.

Don't worry, we got off at the 1st exit. 

I think some other things have happened, but I can't really remember.

I should probably write everything down so I can remember to tell you all. 

I'm so sorry I didn't give a scripture reading assignment!

I TOTALLY FORGOT.

Oh well, I'll give one this week :) 

Here's my favorite scripture for ya! 

2 Nephi 26:24 

 24 He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he ^bloveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw ^call men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. 

He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of [Sister Heywood]; for he ^bloveth [Sister Heywood], even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw [Sister Heywood] unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. 

He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of [your name]; for he ^bloveth [your name], even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw [your name] unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. 

Cool huh? 

I love that. 

Now, I want to extend an invitation to all of you. 

Give The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a chance.

Meet with the missionaries.

I promise you that you will find even more joy and happiness than you have ever felt or than you can ever feel without this gospel. 

http://mormon.org/missionaries <--- Go to that website and request a visit from the missionaries. They will be kind. They will be fun.

They will not take away from anything you believe.

They will only add to the truths you already know and hold dear to your heart. 

Will you do this please?

And shoot me an e-mail if you do. 

For those of you who are already members,

I invite you to invite.

Have someone over for dinner.

Do it.

It's easy.

I promise.

Practice inviting someone if it really terrifies you. 

I know this church is true with all my heart.

It is the one and only true church on the earth.

How do I know this?

I have read the Book of Mormon.

I have prayed about the Book of Mormon and God told me it is true.
I have felt it in my heart.

I'm 19 years old.

I could be at school, living life, hanging out with friends, working, playing, having a good time.

What am I doing?

I'm serving the Lord 24 hours.

I'm not getting paid for it.

Why am I doing this?

Because I know this is true.

I know this is the only way to eternal life (to live with God and be like God).

I want to bring all of my brothers and sister home with me. 

I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Heywood

 

PS

Read up on the Plan of Salvation: 

http://mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation

http://www.lds.org/manual/the-plan-of-salvation?lang=eng&query= 

http://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/what-do-i-study-and-teach/lesson-2-the-plan-of-salvation?lang=eng 

Reading assignment: 

Mosiah 1: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/1

Mosiah 2: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/2

Farmington North

Well, I just finished my first week in Farmington North. I love it here! 

Our ward is great. It's super tiny, but it's great!

One of the Elders in the ward said it's just bigger than branch size.

It's weird to be in a small ward like this because Ann Arbor was HUGE!

But I love the ward and can't wait to get to know them better.

My new companion is awesome!

I love her! She is so great!

She's from Utah.

She's 22.

She's awesome!
I love her!

She's so sweet and spiritual.

And did I mention I love her!

We get along so great. 

This week has been awesome.

We're lost all of the time.

We make a lot of wrong turns, but we laugh it all off and it's great.

We always want to give out our number, but we don't know it.

We have to ask the Elders a lot of questions.

We even had to ask the Elders to bring us some toilet paper to church because we ran out Saturday night. Awkward.

That's ok. Their nice.

That's something else that's different.

In my last area, Sister Sherrow and I were the only missionaries in the ward, so it's weird to have two sets, but I love it! 

I also love this library I'm at. It's really close and it's fancy.

The computer even has a nifty little timer! 

This week we had a lot of miracles. The spirit led us a lot. Let me tell you what happened. 

-Wednesday:

We went to see a less-active family. It started pouring harder than cats and dogs.

The rain just came out of nowhere like it usually does here in Michigan.

(They say if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. It's so true.)

It was dark, so we couldn't see the house.

We ended up running around for a while trying to find the house we were looking for.

We got to the door looking like drowned rats.

The family let us in.

They were super nice! They gave us towels to dry off and herbal tea to warm us up.

We found out why they don't come to church.

I love that family so much. I want them to come back to church and back to the fold of God. 

-Thursday:

We planned a lot of tracting. Actually we do a lot of tracting every day because we only have 1 person to teach.

Anyway so we went tracting. Of course, it decided to rain.

We got out of the car and Sister Taylor's umbrella got turned inside out because of the rain, so she got drenched.

We knocked a couple houses.

Not interested.

Sister Taylor was super cold and wet and wanted to get in the car and warm up and find a less-active near by.

We felt really good about knocking the street we were on the night before and I still felt really good about it. The spirit told me to keep knocking.

I asked Sister Taylor if she still felt good about the street and let her know that I did.

She said yes, so we kept knocking.

We found a new investigator (we're going back to teach him and his family tonight)

and a promising potential family.

We were so happy that we kept knocking.

And to make it even better, there was a beautiful rainbow when the rain died down.

A tender mercy from the Lord. 

-Friday:

Friday was rough, but good.

People didn't want to listen to us and weren't nice or weren't even home.

One lady talked to us and was super nice. She talked about how we are all working together because we believe in Christ to bring people to Christ.

She talked about the pride cycle and why people turn away from Christ.

She understood we are sent from God and we help bring people out of the pride cycle (I don't know why she didn't want to hear our message).

Then her friend showed up. The friend wasn't so nice.

Let me tell you what happened.

We'll call the lady we were talking to Martha and the friend Geberta (I don't know their names). 

Martha: Hey Geberta! We're just talking about how we're helping to bring people to Christ.

Geberta: What church are you guys from?

Us: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Geberta: Oh, well I just don't agree with most of the things you believe.

*I don't remember what else she said, but she basically told us she hates our church*

Martha looked at her like, why would you say that? Martha even defended us. It was pretty cool. Then we left Martha with a card while Geberta looked at us like we had leprosy or something.

The rest of the day didn't go so well until about 6 pm.

We had a dinner appointment at 6:30 and got there at 6.

We checked up on a less-active the next street over.

Busy.

So what are we going to do now?

Well, we looked at the GPS and saw a park.

Ok, let's contact at the park.  

The park was vacant.

It was very obviously vacant.

So, what do we do?

We go to the park anyway.

As we're walking a lady starts walking behind us.

I feel like I should talk to her.

I think, no. I'll just ignore her.

Then I think, well Sister Heywood, that's rude.

So I talk to her.

(Sister Taylor had the same thoughts to herself too! Haha)

Turns out, this lady is going through a really rough time.

She feels like a lot of things are pointing her to God right now.

She said we were sent to her from God.

You bet we were!

Oh my heck!

We were so excited.

We are going back to teach her on Wednesday. I'm stoked! 

You know, I didn't feel any strong promptings to go the park.

Sister Taylor said she didn't either.

I just saw the park on the GPS and thought, what the heck. Let's just go.

But, looking back I realize that the Spirit was guiding us all along, and when we got to the park and no one was there, we thought, what the heck. Let's go. Maybe someone will show up.

Someone did.

God is amazing.

I always look back on my life and can see how God was playing a role even though I had no huge revelatory moments happened, He was always guiding me. How cool?

When have you been guided by the Lord without even realizing it? 

Ok, one more experience this week.

I have been really sick these last few days.

Like really sick.

Feverish and achy and gross.

I got a blessing from the Elders and it was beautiful.

I love the priesthood! 

God didn't just give me a blessing of healing, but He told me lots of other things that I needed to hear. It was perfect!

I am so grateful that I have a father who is a worthy priesthood holder. 

Alright. 

Jacob 6 and 7. 

Awesome chapters right? 

Jacob 6 is the perfect chapter for calling people to repentance! 

"7 For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good ^aword of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be ^bhewn down and cast into the fire?

8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the ^aprophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and ^bdeny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the ^cgift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a ^dmock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?"

If you were really a follower of Christ would you bring forth evil fruit?

NO!

Jacob is so cool! 

"And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to ^arecover his people"

"And while his ^barm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts."

"and he stretches forth his ^bhands unto them all the day long"

God's hands are always extended towards us. He just wants us to repent and come unto Him and take hold of His hand.

He loves us so much and wants us to live with Him forever! 

Chapter 7 is cool too.

 "9 And I said unto him: Deniest thou the Christ who shall come? And he said: If there should be a Christ, I would not deny him; but I know that there is no Christ, neither has been, nor ever will be.

10 And I said unto him: Believest thou the scriptures? And he said, Yea.

11 And I said unto him: Then ye do not understand them; for they truly testify of Christ. Behold, I say unto you that none of the ^aprophets have written, nor ^bprophesied, save they have spoken concerning this Christ."

Smack down! 100 pints for Jacob! Jacob wins!

Jacob is so cool!

Something I think that is interesting about Sherem is that he speaks with flattery and that's what appeals to the people.

That's like Satan. Satan appeals to people with flattery. He's a very tricky man.

Jacob speaks with simplicity. Jacob speaks by the spirit and with the power of God. 

Sister Taylor told me something really cool.

When Christ was chosen to save the world, He didn't give some lofty speech about how he should be the one to save us all. Satan did that. Christ said, "send me." That's all.

"Send me." 

I love this gospel. I know it's true. I know God and Jesus Christ live and that they are two separate beings.

I love you all.

Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Heywood

New Area!!!

Well! I'm in my new area, Farmington North, with my new companion Sister Taylor (Who I knew on Facebook before I got out here).  

Elders replaced me in Ann Arbor :(  

So, my old area got white washed. 

Oh and guess what? Sister Taylor and I are white washing this area.  

So what does that mean? It means that neither Sister Taylor or I have been in this area before. Yup. We get lost a lot and we don't actually know our area boundaries, but it's cool! We're figuring everything out together and having some good laughs over our mistakes. 

Our new apartment is marvelous. I love it!

I love Sister Taylor! She is so awesome!

I love the area already! I feel really good here. I love our investigators too! We only have 2, but they're great! 

This will be good. I was having a hard time knowing that God trusts me. Well, he definitely threw me a surprise buy using me to white wash. I think He thinks that maybe He just might trust me, haha. 

Well, love you all! 

Love,

Sister Heywood

PS

New address:

27505 Cordoba Dr. Apt. 3213

Farmington Hill, MI 48334

Transfer Time!

Want to know something?

People refer to Ann Arbor as A2

I was always like 
"A squared? What the heck does that mean?"
Ann Arbor. Two A's. 
Haha, yup. I'm smart.

And there's an ice skating rink called the Ice Cube.

 

The sign says A2 Ice3. I just figured out what that meant yesterday.
I've been here for 3 months.

Oh yah! 

I've been out for 3 months?

WHAT?!

Crazy. 

Crazy, crazy, crazy!
So crazy.

Well, what the heck happened this week?

Let me tell ya!

-Exchanges!

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Tuitelle in Walled Lake. 
It was awesome! 

-We got a new chair!

It's big and it was on the side of the road across from our apartment. 
I made Sister Sherrow cross the street and go get it haha.
It was super funny and I got lots of pictures.

 

 

 

We almost got a second chair that same day, but it had a spider on it so we decided just to leave it on the side of the road.

 

 

 

 

 

-I'm getting transferred! 

And get this. 
SO IS SISTER SHERROW! 

I think they're white washing with Elders.

Why? I don't know. The Lord does and that's ok!

We were running around saying bye yesterday.

Some tears were shed. 
Lots of pictures were taken and the same thing will be happening today.

 

 

 

          Quinn
          Family 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Sister Soderborg
                  &

       Emmy the Dog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Mitchell
                Family 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Priddis
                Family 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Nielson
          Family
(minus Bro. Neilson)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Bennett
                 Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     de Schweinitz
          Family
 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

        Bishop Jibson &

               Family

(Note the adorable 16 year old boy.  One of many, I'm sure, that Emma will be picking out to be Abby's future husband)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfer meeting is tomorrow. 

That's when I'll find out where I'm going and who my new companion is.

So yah, don't send me mail if you're planning on it. Wait 'till I get my new address, or send it to the mission home address. :)

Sadly, things were just starting to pick up here in Ann Arbor. 

People haven't really been home.
We will spend 2-3 hours, maybe more, knocking on doors.
Members, less-actives, non-members and NO ANSWERS.

I guess that's what happens in a college town during the summer.

All these young families want to go on vacation.

So I'm kind of sad, but super excited!

New place, new families, new adventures.

I love being a missionary! 

Study time!

So this week was Jacob 5 right? Sweet! 

I love this chapter! 
The allegory of the olive tree.
Honestly I don't really understand this chapter.
It always confuses me, BUT let me tell you what I love about it!

It says that the Lord grieveth to lose any of His trees. 

Heavenly Father doesn't want to lose any of us. He wants all of us home.

When the trees are bad the Lord asks "what more could I have done?" 

Heavenly Father loves us so much. He is literally our father.

When we don't do what we are supposed to I imagine He weeps and wonders what more He could have done for us, because again, He wants all of us home. 

It's like our own parents here on earth. If your child goes astray or does something wrong or doesn't live up to their full potential don't you wonder what you could have done more to steer your child in the right direction? It may not even be that you didn't teach them the right things. They just made a bad choice because they have their agency.  

This is how Heavenly Father feels. 

Another thing that sticks out to me in this is that we are NEVER alone. 

Does the Lord of the vineyard ever tell his servants to go do this or go do that, and then just sit there and wait for them to return and report?

NO.

He works with his servants.

Heavenly Father is constantly working by our side.

I'm a missionary (I know you forgot) and I am not alone in the work.

We're all missionaries (I know you forgot that too) and we are not alone in the work.

Yes, I have a companion, but more important is the companionship of God and the Holy Ghost.

I cannot do this without God.

You cannot do this without God.
We cannot do anything without God.
WE ARE NEVER ALONE!

Well, I love you all so much!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Heywood

PS

Read this talk: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/broken-things-to-mend?lang=eng

Chapters for scripture study:

Jacob 6:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/6?lang=eng

Jacob 7:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/7?lang=eng