Just Keep Swimming

So, this week was hard. Sister Sherrow and I both got sick and had to stay home one day. We still can't find anyone new to teach. We had our fireside last night and I think like 7-10 people from our ward showed up and all without non-members. There were 2 investigators from other wards, so as you can imagine we were pretty upset. I haven't broken down yet out here, but last night I did. We have worked so hard. BUT I know the Lord is proud. I know that I am here for a reason. I know the Lord loves me. And although we aren't having the success we want we are still seeing miracles. Little ones, but a miracles a miracle, no matter how small.

I've learned that "it's better to look up." 

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/it-is-better-to-look-up?lang=eng

Or as Dori the fish says "just keep swimming." 

We finally helped our investigator Chris understand that he has to come to church and he came to church. He didn't really enjoy it and we're not sure we're going to continue teaching him. That may sound sad, but I feel relived. I feel we need to let him go. He just isn't prepared and ready at this time, but I know he will be in the future. 

Our other investigator Heidi finally opened up to us. We don't know how. We've been praying for it to happen and it just happened. We sat down and she just started talking. We didn't even have to ask questions! It was crazy! So,yeah. That happened. Now we know why she doesn't want to be baptized yet and how to help her progress to baptism. And not just baptism, but true conversion. 

I will not baptize someone just to baptize them. Sister Sherrow feels the same way. That's why we aren't pushing with Chris. We want converts, not baptism numbers.

So, for the reading. One thing really stuck out to me and I won't talk much about it. The great and abominable church. It's the church of the devil. It doesn't have a building or a congregation that meets every Sunday, but it is a faith. It's a faith built on temporal things and the desires of man, the natural man. Those who worship cars, money, clothes, etc. Let go of those things. Now, these things ARE important. Obviously we need money and clothes and cars help us get around. We need these things, so we don't need to give them up completely. What we need to avoid with these temporal items is letting our lives be consumed by them. Most all of you know that I LOVE music. I love love love it! BUT I don't let it consume my life. God, Jesus Christ, the gospel and my family are the center of my life. I allow music to be a part of my life. I thank God for music. I thank Him for my clothes and material possessions. Do not become consumed by the world. Be in the world, not of the world.

YOU WILL NOT FIND HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD.

Let me repeat that.

YOU WILL NOT FIND HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD.

Did you get that? 

Good.

This week’s reading is 1 Nephi 16-18.

I love you all.

Love,

Sister Heywood :)

Sore Butts and Bruises

Well, hello there! How's everyone doing?!

This week was good. Still hard, but still good. On Tuesday we biked for baptism. The whole mission did. 

We parked the car for the day and rode bikes. Sisters could walk or borrow bikes from ward members. Most of the sisters I've talked to tried to walk and said it wasn't successful for them...slackers. Sister Sherrow and I are hardcore, so we rode bikes. We borrowed them from our ward mission leader. It was fun and hot and our butts were so sore!!! I also got a nasty bruise on the back of my leg from falling off the bike. I didn't crash and burn I just kind of fell and jumped off. It happened a couple times. I'm a pro bike rider. No big deal.

On Wednesday we had District meeting and it was Sister Farnsworth's birthday. We all wore cute birthday hats. Even the elders.

 

We got to go to the temple on Thursday!!! I was so excited! I love the temple!!! I was so excited I almost started dancing, but I didn't because I'm a missionary and we were in the temple. :) I love the temple. I want to see all of you in the temple someday. Strive to enter into the temple. Do all that you can to go to the temple. You will be so happy if you live to enter the temple.

 

On Friday Sister Sherrow was sick so we stayed home. I watched the District twice, the Joseph Smith story, other long church history videos and updated the gps and phone...fun.

 

(Insert from her mother:  And took lots of silly pictures!  Emma is still the silly girl we all know and love even as a missionary!!!)

Saturday we went to the art fair, which is amazing and super famous! People from all over come to this event. It was pretty cool. We talked to a Catholic guy that was handing out rosaries. He asked why we're Mormon and not Catholic. Haha, and he asked us weird questions like about eternity and how it doesn't work or make sense. We just told him that we don't know everything and we can ask God after we die. He continued to say it didn't make sense and we told him that we don't really care about finding the answers to those kinds of questions because they aren't important in our eternal progression. Anyway, we exchanged cards and might talk to him again. He wants to convert us, we want to convert him. We won't convert, but he might. :)

The ward and bishop are really starting to trust us! It's exciting! Our fireside is this Sunday and everyone is super excited about it. I just hope that it's successful!

We lost an investigator this week and almost lost another. Well...I shouldn't say lost, they just aren't progressing, but one doesn't want to meet for 3 weeks. We haven't even met with her yet since I've been here because we haven't been able to set up appointments with her, so we'll see what happens there.

We have a potential new investigator that we'll be meeting with on Wednesday and a referral that we have to find because we have the wrong apartment number.

So, the reading! Did you do it? 1 Nephi 8-12, it was super good! I love these chapters with the tree of life. I don't want to focus too much on the meaning of the tree of life since it is well explained in chapter 11, but I will say a couple things. 

The first thing I want to say I stole from my dad, but it's so good I have to share it with you! Lehi "beheld" the fruit of the tree and "partook" of the fruit of the tree. Sometimes we think that beholding is the same as partaking, but it's not. We have to be partakers of the fruit, or fully converted. It isn't enough to be beholders. To truly partake is to do all that God asks no matter how tedious or dumb it may seem. It's for our own good.

This leads to the next thing that struck me (really everything flows together that I will say today). In chapter 8 verse 37 it says "And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent". This is when Lehi is telling Laman and Lemuel that he wants them to be partakers. I imagined that part as God. Our Heavenly Father tells us "with all the feeling of a tender parent" to partake of the fruit. Like Lehi who wanted what was best for his sons, the Lord wants what’s best for us. He wants us to return to His arms and we CANNOT do that if we are only beholders. 

Now, God asks us to follow the commandments and we think "that's too hard". No it's not. God always provides a way. He provides a way for us to be partakers. Nephi knows it. He says so in chapter 9 verses 5-6. Let's look at the vision. There's the tree right? And there's the fog that makes it impossible to get to the tree right? The fog is opposition, and we know that there must be opposition in all things right? That's why it's hard to follow the commandments, but wait...didn't I just say that God always provides a way? Yes. In the vision of the tree of life it was the iron rod. Well, that's easy! Hold to the rod an you'll make it through the fog to the tree of life! It is always that easy! It doesn't seem like it, but it is, and there were people in the vision who wouldn't hold to rod because they thought they could make it through the fog on their own. That's so dumb! We cannot do anything without God. We will not make it to the tree of life without God's help. That great and spacious building looks real nice because people look like they don't have to worry about anything. It's easier to go to the building. What makes it so much easier? It definitely won't make you happier.

I want to testify to you that I have found true happiness. I have found it. I have found it by following Christ. I have found true happiness through dressing modestly, using clean language, not drinking coffee or alcohol. I have found true happiness in the Word of Wisdom (http://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng) and in obeying my parents and by being a good girl. True happiness is not found in temporal or material things. No car can bring you eternal happiness. No matter how cute those shoes are, they won't bring you eternal happiness. Happiness is found in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Just a few more things I want to say. Nephi has incredible faith. He wants to see all the things his father sees and he had enough faith to see them. That is so amazing.

In chapter 11 verse 17 Nephi says "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." We do not need to know everything about the world or the gospel to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. That Catholic guy we talked to didn't understand that.

If we know that God loves us and that the Book of Mormon is true then we know enough. Read this talk by Neil L. Anderson. It's awesome and gives me great comfort as a missionary.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/you-know-enough?lang=eng

God loves us. In chapter 11 everything good represents God's love. I never noticed that before and I thought it was so cool. 

I know God loves me. I know that I am a child of God. I know this church is true. I love being a missionary.

I love all of you.

This week we will read 1 Nephi 13-15 and 19 and 22. If you haven't been reading with me from the beginning it’s never too late to start. :) 

Again, I love you all!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Heywood

Pet Chickens and Miniature Swimming Pools

Hola Amigos!

Just practicing my Spanish. I'm a pro!

This week was a tough week, but it was so good! Nothing really great comes easy right? We just continue to laugh and make up songs about our day to keep our spirits up.

So, one day we woke up and there was a giant puddle in the middle of the kitchen floor. Literally just in the middle of the floor. We were so confused! How the heck did it get there? We cleaned it up and went on with our day. It happened the next two days too! It rained a lot this week so we thought that maybe the ceiling was leaking. Nope. The ceiling wasn't wet or damaged. Ok...so the walls? Maybe a pipe is broken? Nope. That's not it. The fridge? No. How the heck would the water end up on the other side of the kitchen? We came to the conclusion that one of was sleep walking and dumping water on the floor in the middle of the night. It wasn't me. It wasn't Sister Sherrow either. How do we know that? Well, when we came home from lunch, there was water on the floor again...ok...so someone is hiding in our attic and dumping water on the floor. No lie, we really considered that an option.

We went to the office for our complex and talked to them about it. They sent some people in. It was the fridge. Our floor must not be level, so the water was collecting in one spot and the trails would dry that came from the fridge. We got a new fridge this morning. It's only a year old, so it's super nice. Our other one was like a million years old.

We have pet chickens now. We made them, correction, I made them out of towels and their names are Fraiser and Tabitha. They scare Sister Sherrow when we come home. She wants me to take them down. Why won't I? Because they scare her! That's awesome! Why would I take them down? Anyway, I sent my parents a picture. They'll have to put it up for you to see. *hint hint* Mom and dad, you have another job to do :) LOVE YOU! :)

Now let me tell you about my p-day last week. Boy was that an interesting day! We lost our phone and were late to Sister Sherrow's doctors appointment because Michigan traffic decided it wanted to be like California traffic and it was raining super hard. We missed our dinner appointment, but didn't get to call them until 5:30 (when we were going to eat) because we couldn't get to a phone until then. Some lady in a parking lot gave us boxes and bags of new baby boys clothes and baby toys that are still sitting in our apartment because no one wants to take them from us. It was a long and stressful day, so I won't continue and bring you down. We listened to the talk "Come What May and Love It" by Joseph B. Wirthlin about a million times. Here's the link for it so you can watch and listen to it:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/come-what-may-and-love-it?lang=eng.

It is an awesome talk. Sister Sherrow and I have really taken it to heart. We laugh about everything that goes wrong. It makes life really wonderful!
I went on exchanges last Friday with Sister Mecham. She is so awesome. We did a lot of tracting! We met Kevin who was awesome! He was so amazed to hear that Christ came to the Americas and that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. He is interested and we hope to teach him! He asked "Why are Mormons the only ones who read the Book of Mormon?" Well...maybe because when you read the Book of Mormon and find out that it's true you become a Mormon haha :) He was so cool!

Another lady named Jody (I think) was so funny. We said "Hello, we're missionaries!" and she goes "MISSIONARIES!!!!!!!!!!!" She was so excited to see us, so naturally we were confused. I asked if she was a member and she said no, but she wanted to make a donation, which we couldn't take, which she thought was weird. Anyway, she was leaving for a car show with her family which was also very nice and very excited to see us, so we will go back there too. :)

It was a really great day!

Ok, so did anyone do the reading I assigned? No? Slackers. Just kidding. That's cool I guess. I decided to break up 1 Nephi into little sections instead of doing the whole book, so this week is chapters 1-7.

I have read these chapters about 50 times this week. Nephi always talks about the land of promise. For him that was America. For us that can be eternal life and salvation. In 1 Nephi 2:20-24 God tells Nephi the blessings for being faithful and the consequences for not being faithful. If we are faithful we will obtain the land of promise and have power over our brethren. If we are not faithful, we will be cut off from the presence of God and our brethren will have power over us.

I thought a lot about what it means to have power over our brethren. When we are faithful and obedient, we are blessed. We know what will get us to the Celestial kingdom and into the presence of God. We will be better off than those who are not faithful.

This leads me to the next thing I wanted to talk about in these chapters. When we choose the Lord, He chooses us. Sister Mecham said this when we studied 1 Nephi 1:20. Funny thing about that verse is that my dad talked about it in the letter that he sent me :)

1 Nephi 1:20 talks about the tender mercies of the Lord. Elder Bednar gives a great talk about this verse. That can be viewed here:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2005/04/the-tender-mercies-of-the-lord?lang=eng

We can receive the tender mercies of the Lord only if we are faithful.

Nephi was incredibly faithful. I am so amazed by his faith. I am trying to be like Nephi. Nephi knew that the Lord does not command us to do anything without providing a way for us to be successful in keeping that commandment (1 Nephi 3:7, 15-16 & 1 Nephi 4:10-18).

Nephi's brothers, Laman and Lemuel, on the other hand, were not faithful. They complained. They never trust in God. They believe in God and His power only when they see a miracle, but they don't have real faith. If they had real faith they would only need one miracle, and really shouldn't need any.

In the story of getting the brass plates (chapters 3-5) there are 3 different people. There is Nephi who is always faithful no matter what. There is Laman and Lemuel who see miracles, but fall into the pride cycle over and over. Everyone knows those people, but the third in this story is someone that I don't think people ever notice, Sariah. Sariah is faithful until something goes wrong. Instead of turning to the Lord in times of trial, she blames God in times of trial.

Who am I most like? I've thought a lot about that this week. Am I faithful at all times, in all things and in all places? Or do I fall into the pride cycle when things go great or after I've seen a miracle? Or do I turn away from the Lord when things go wrong?

Who are you most like? Think about it.

How can we be like Nephi? I have an answer for that. Just be like Nephi! Read these chapters over and over. Study them. Channel your inner Nephi!

One more thing I want to point out are the words firm, steadfast, and immovable. Have you ever noticed that we never see one of those three words alone in the scriptures? There’s always at least two of those in the same place together.  I looked up these words in the dictionary and thesaurus.

-Relatively solid, compact or unyielding to pressure or touch; strong and sure; steadfast and constant
-Not capable of moving or being moved
-Not changing or moving; firm in purpose; true; loyal

Synonyms

-solid, rigid, inflexable, stiff, unchanging, constant

Antonyms

-unstable, insecure, weak, limp, soft.

When I see God I don't want Him to tell me that I was unstable, insecure, weak, limp or soft. Imagine God telling you "You were too limp. You weren't firm enough." Not that He would say that, but still. I don't want to be any of those words. I want to be solid, constant, firm, steadfast and immovable.

Now why don't you see firm, steadfast or immovable alone? To emphasize how important is to be those things.

Be faithful. Be obedient. Be EXACTLY obedient. Follow every little rule.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Heywood

PS next week will be 1 Nephi 8-12

 

PPS HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY COUSIN DWIGHT!!!

Moth In My Shoe!!!

Well! I have been a missionary now for one month and 3 days! CRAZY! I can hardly believe it. It feels like I've been here for forever, but it also feels like I just got here at the same time. Weird, I know.

So this week has been really tough, but it's been good! I love being a missionary. 

I keep having moments where it hits me that I'm a missionary and I freak out and think WHAT AM I DOING?! but the moment passes and I'm fine again :)

On the 3rd we did a lot of tracting. Most people weren't home and if they were they did not want to talk to us. BUT that night we went to visit a previous investigator at an apartment complex. She wasn't home but her sisters and her niece were home. Her niece followed us around as we knocked on doors. She was so cute! Haha, actually she knocked on most of the doors for us. We got three potential investigators! It was awesome! We were so stoked. 

4th of July was the hardest day. Again, most people weren't home and if they were, they didn't want to talk to us. Most of the people were rude too, which is weird since normally people here are really nice. Let me just tell you my day in bullet points. Here it goes:

-Sister Sherrow didn't feel good that morning. She slept and I studied by myself.

-We decided to go finding even though Sister Sherrow didn't feel well.

-I put on my shoe and felt something inside, so I took my shoe off thinking it was a hair or something. Nope. MOTH!!!! Yup. I freaked out and got different shoes.

-We went out to lunch.

-Went finding and found no one.

-Had a traditional, American, 4th of July dinner...cereal and toast at home. 

-Went to the appointments that we set up with 2 of our potentials. They weren't home.

-Decided to tract at the apartment complex.

-The first door we knock on is a rude lady, we call her rude lady, who says "We don't accept solicitors of any kind here. Thank you." *SLAM* (That's the door by the way.) Ok...Have a nice day.

-Next door. *knock knock*

-Rude lady opens her door again. "Actually the complex doesn't accept solicitors of any kind here."

-Sister Sherrow: "We aren't solic..."

-Rude lady: "You're soliciting your ideas. In order to do that here you have to sign in at the front desk which is closed, so you need to leave the premises now or I'll call the cops."

-We walk away while rude lady watches us.

-I want to punch rude lady, but decide not to because I'm a missionary.

-I remember about my ministerial certificate, but it's too late to show rude lady.

-Worst part is...we have a member with us.

-We go home.

-We talk to a creepy guy, we call him creepy guy, and all he does is stare and tell me I'm pretty.

-Now I think I have a stalker. 

-I sing a song about our day and play the guitar we found in the attic.

-We go to bed and listen to the fireworks.

It was a rough day.

The next day was alright, but our other potential wasn't there for the appointment we set up. We were pretty bummed.

BUT life is still good! I'm learning and growing! I love it! We had interviews with our new president, President Gerber. I asked him what I should do if I can't come home after a hard day and still be happy. I can do that now, but I was worried that after so many hard days I wont' be able to stay positive. President Gerber told me something really cool. FUTURE MISSIONARIES, LISTEN TO THIS:

"You have a hundred successes every day."

We are missionaries to help coach people to eternal salvation. We can help people do that no matter how the encounter goes. We can help with a smile, a hello, a pass along card. For some people it's more dramatic; we teach them the lessons and they get baptized. We help everyone in different ways, but just by doing something, no matter how big or little, we are helping people progress toward eternal salvation. You have hundreds of successes each day. Count your successes. DO NOT look at your failures. You don't have any failures. 

I love President Gerber. He and his wife are awesome. We're going to visit them today :)

Some cool things:

-We taught a couple lessons with the zone leaders. They are super awesome. Elders are such good teachers. It was really cool to teach with them and see the difference between how sisters teach and elders teach. It was super cool!

-It rains all the time and it's warm and there is thunder and I love it!

-We are planning a fireside for non-members and investigators! I'm super stoked.

-Testimony meeting yesterday was awesome! Every testimony was short and sweet and PURE testimony. Have you ever had an hour of hearing pure testimony? It's pretty cool.

-We bore our testimonies which helped the members see who we are and a lot of them talked to us finally.

-The ward and bishop didn't seem very supportive, but yesterday that changed. I think they trust us now and I don't know what caused the sudden change, but it's cool! Plus now we're getting fed more! haha.

I've started reading the Book of Mormon again, but with a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon. I wanted to start fresh. No markings. No bent pages. I've never really read the Book of Mormon. I didn't really get into it or fully understand it until my second semester at BYU-I. It is so awesome! I just finished 1 Nephi 17. If you can, by next week read 1 Nephi 1-25. Read it. I’ll read up to there too and give my insights. Maybe some of you can give me your insights too! 

This challenge is for everyone! I don't care if you're a member or not or even if I know you or not. Read those chapters. They're easy and you have a whole week to do it. :) Maybe we can do this each week. I don't know. It might be fun. 

Quick tip:

Do NOT put top ramen and chicken in a crock pot. The chicken will taste good, but the ramen will be nasty mush.

I love and miss you all, but I know that I need to be here. I'm sealed to my family for eternity, so being out here for 18 months isn't that hard. :) I am so grateful for this gospel. I know that it is true. I know that I am where the Lord needs me. I know that families can be together forever. I love God! I love Jesus!

Love,

Sister Heywood

 

I Love Michigan!

Hey there everyone!  

I love Michigan! Did I say that before? Well, let me say it again. I LOVE MICHIGAN!!! 

Something I forgot to tell you last time was that I met Elder Bednar's son. No big deal. He just used to be in our ward and stuff and I shared a message with their family. It totally wasn't like intimidating and awesome. He's just an apostle's son. They are the cutest family! But sadly they moved to Utah.  

It is so humid here! Oh man! And rainy! The rain here is warm and bipolar. We were tracting in it and it was super nice, but whenever the rain stops it's more humid and more hot and I die! 

The squirrels here are super fat. Why? Because there is a club on campus dedicated to feeding the squirrels. There are also black squirrels here. Have you ever seen a black squirrel? I wanted to get a picture but they were to fast. 

I realize that sounds racist and I don't mean it to be. My apologies! 

I saw fireflies for the first time. My companion and I stood out in the warm rain and watched them for a while. It was so cool!!!! 

So, I've had a lot of cool, weird, scary and interesting experiences:

1. We went street contacting and went to talk to a lady sitting on a bench. "How are you?" we asked. Then she asked "do you want to smoke some pot?" We said "Uh, no thank you. Have a nice day!" and walked away. I've never walked so quickly. 

2. After meeting that lady we met Jason and had a really great talk with him. We taught him a lot, answered his questions, said a prayer with him and gave him a card.

3. Before we met that lady we met a guy sitting outside of the store he owns and talked with him. We plan to go back and get to know him.

4. The trio of sisters on campus invited us to dinner with them. All 5 of us cute little missionaries went to 5 Guys. On the way back there was a drunk guy sitting by one of the buildings. He said some really nasty things about us. It was creepy. He didn't see our tags or anything, but knew who we were and what we do. You know the creepy chuckles from scary movies that people don't really have? Well he had one of those laughs. We could hear what he was saying for a really long time. We all just laughed and kept walking and talking about good things, but it was definitely creepy. It was like Satan was speaking to us through this man. Not that the man was Satan, but I think because he was drunk and had no control over himself that Satan was able to talk through him. Creepy! But the spirit stuck with us and told me just to keep walking.

5. That same night we met Andre. We had plans to visit a member and then go check up on a referral. Sister Sherrow had the prompting to go and see the referral first, so we did. She was busy and we didn't get to talk to her, so we were pretty bummed, but Andre was there. He was selling magazine subscriptions. We taught him the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He read some and went to church on Sunday! Unfortunately, he is from Memphis, Tennessee and his hotel that he's staying in is in Detroit, so we won't be able to teach him, but it's still super cool! Haha and he took a picture of us and put it on instagram. Look for #sisterheywood. You just might find a picture of me! :)

6. We have a new investigator named Nicole. I'm super excited about that!

7. Our investigator Heidi and her boyfriend Clarence (who is a member in our ward) got married! YAY!

8. I went on exchanges for the first time and it was awesome! I went with Sister Mickelson (who I was in the MTC with) and Sister Walker (this is her last transfer). 

I've been in Michigan for 2 weeks! Can you believe it? This Friday marks 1 month that I've been on the mission. It's going by really quickly! 

Shout out to Eric, Cindie and Summer! I love the post cards you sent me! They are hanging on my wall. :)

OH and hey Normons! I met a girl from Star Valley. She's here in Detroit waiting for her visa to go to Brazil. I forgot her name though. :( 

Joslyn! You're baby is so adorable! I am so happy for you! You are going to be a wonderful mother! 

Brother Elms at the institute taught us a lesson. He said don't be like the little mermaid. Ariel dreams of life outside of the sea (or C which = the covenant). In the original story she's in pain when she tries to walk and Ursula gets the prince and Ariel dies. Ariel doesn't get everything she wants. That's like us. If we disobey and try to find out what life is like and turn to worldly things we are doing what Satan wants. We give him our souls like Ariel gave hers. "We cannot serve God and Mammon." We all need to have courage. Have courage to stand up for what you believe in. Have courage to wear a one-piece bathing suit when everyone else is in a bakini. Have courage to stand, dress, act and speak like a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would. I think that Quintin L. Cook gave a talk about going to higher ground. I was listening to that talk this morning. If a tsunami is coming GET TO HIGHER GROUND. Or better yet, STAY ON HIGHER GROUND. Higher ground is temple. Live temple worthy even if you aren't endowed. Follow all of the commandments. Do not come down for just a little bit. If you do there could be a tsunami. Satan and his followers can get you. They may not and that's why we are tempted to come down. We think "oh I'll be safe". You might get lucky, but why take the risk? Do not be afraid to be Molly Mormon or Peter Priesthood. BE Molly Mormon. BE Peter Priesthood. When you are those people, you are being Christ like. Why are we so afraid to follow all the rules and be like Christ? Can we be too Christlike? Is it bad to be too Christlike? No. Do not look for land out of the sea. Look up the song "I Will". Listen to it and live it. I love the lyrics: 

I will stand

I will not fall

In a world that's weak

I will be strong

I'll be true

I will choose His way

I know what's right

And I will not change

In a world where so many will not.

I will. 

Be like Christ and don't be afraid.  

AND DO MISSIONARY WORK!!! Don't be afraid of that either. As members of the church we have a divine purpose and calling to share the gospel and to bring people into the covenant.  

"Courage does not erase our fear. Courage is when we face our fear." -Newsies 

I love and miss you all! Have a great week.  

Talk to you all on Monday!

Love,

Sister Heywood

PS. 

I always forget things!!!  

We met the new mission president who is awesome! I love the Gerbers so much!!!

And HAPPY EARLY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!