I've Never Seen so Much Road Kill in My Life!

Michigan fact:

There is road kill.

Lots of road kill.

Everywhere.

Gross. 

Well, this was another exciting miracle filled week. 

We found a new investigator at the door!
We taught the Restoration.

The Spirit was there.

We're going back to teach her on Tuesday.

AND she's getting baptized on January 4!

AND she is friends with a member of the church and has obviously talked to her friend about the church.

Sweet! 

Our investigator Joseph is getting baptized!
December 28.

We had a super Spirit filled lesson with a member there.

Last week Joseph wouldn't commit to a date and said he would this week.

At first we still had a rough time getting him to commit, but then the Spirit took over.

We taught the Plan of Salvation with the pamphlet.

Joseph is so grateful for Jesus Christ and the Atonement, which he didn't know much about.

At the end of the lesson we invited Joseph to pray.

We told him to ask if what we taught is true and then said that we would be quiet after the prayer until he talked.

We told him to pay attention to how he felt.

We all kneeled down and waited.

We waited for a good 2-3 minutes in silence, on our knees, bowing our heads.

I don't know what took so long for Joseph to start, but that's ok.

The Spirit came in and hit me like a wall.

The room was so filled with the Spirit.

It was incredible!

Joseph prayed.

He said the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard.

When he finished, we waited a little bit.

Joseph said, with the biggest smile, "I'm so happy right now."

The member that came with us bore a powerful testimony to Joseph that Joseph was feeling the Spirit.

We told Joseph that he can have that feeling with him all the time, and the first step is to be baptized.

We said, "We want to set a date with you for baptism."

He replied, "What day."

:D 

You know, everyone measures a missionary's success on how many baptisms he/she got.

I don't care about that number.

I don't care at all.

If I never see anyone baptized, that's ok.

Certainly, I want people to get baptized, because that's the first step to returning home and I want people to make that step.
Unfortunately, some people get baptized and aren't converted.

I want converts.

I will have at least 3.

One of those being myself. 

I love this gospel with all my heart.

I know that it is true.

I know it.

God lives.

Jesus Christ lives.

They are two separate beings and Joseph Smith saw them.

God and Jesus Christ spoke to Joseph Smith and through Joseph Smith, the Priesthood (http://mormon.org/faq/purpose-of-priesthood) was restored and God's church is on the earth. 

I love you all.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Heywood 

Study time! 

Alma 1:25

 "25 Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were ^asteadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with ^bpatience the persecution which was heaped upon them." 

We need to stand firm in our faith. DO NOT BE MOVED! 

Here's a great talk about that and some other scriptures you can cross reference this with.

Stand Strong in Holy Places by Robert D. Hales

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/05/stand-strong-in-holy-places 

Romans 1:16

"16 For I am not ^aashamed of the ^bgospel of Christ: for it is the ^cpower of God unto ^dsalvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

http://www.lds.org/manual/new-testament-student-study-guide/the-epistle-of-paul-the-apostle-to-the-romans/romans-1-i-am-not-ashamed-of-the-gospel-of-christ?lang=eng&query=romans+1%3a16 

Mosiah 5:15

" 15 Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in ^agood works, that Christ, the ^bLord God Omnipotent, may ^cseal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who ^dcreated all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen." 

AND I also liked Alma 3:19

"19 Now I would that ye should see that they brought upon themselves the ^acurse; and even so doth every man that is cursed bring upon himself his own condemnation."

Remember, God NEVER distances Himself from us.

We distance ourselves from Him. 

Next week:

Alma 4:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/4

Alma 5:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/5

Alma 6:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/6

Miracles Happen Once in a While

Michigan fact:

The weather is always changing.

Let me be more specific.
The weather is changing like every 5 minutes.

No joke.

It's hot and then it rains and the rain either cools everything off or heats things up (which is the more likely option).

Or it's raining and gloomy and 40 degrees, but then it changes to 90.

Or it's bright and sunny and then THUNDER AND LIGHTING AND WINDS OF FURY!

I guess it makes life interesting. 

There's never a dull moment in Michigan. 

Boy have we seen lots of miracles this week! 

-We went contacting and had an awesome lesson with a Caldean.

He's from Iraq and can't read English.

He doesn't want a Book of Mormon and he made the excuse, "oh, well you don't have one of those in my language."

"Actually, we do!"

His face was funny 'cause he lost that fight.

I love people’s faces when they try to make excuses and we resolve them.

They always look like "Shoot. I can't escape."

It's awesome.

We have an Arabic Book of Mormon sitting on our table just waiting to be taken to this man. :)
We're excited!

-We have found out concerns of our less-actives.

AND we've learned that none of them  know anything!
Well, they know a little bit, but they don't know what an apostasy is and all kinds of other basic gospel things. CRAZY!
We're breaking ground with some of these less-actives that missionaries have met with for years and seen little progress with.

It's awesome!
I love the Spirit.

This success is all because of that guy. 

-We met the coolest African American couple at the Post Office!
Kay, this is a cool story!
We had to pick up a package for Sister Taylor there.

The mail guy didn't leave it at home because the office was closed when he got there.

Sister Taylor wasn't too happy about that, but it became a blessing in disguise.
We went to the Post Office and I was stressing out in line thinking "how can I start a conversation with one of these people and share the gospel with them?"
As I was freaking out and my brain was running a million miles per hour, a couple behind us asks if we're sisters.

"No we aren't biologically, but we are for a church."

Turns out they are elders at their church and they are SUPER nice.

They're so cool.

We talked the whole time in line about God.

We asked if they'd heard of the Book of Mormon.

They had, but we didn't really talk much about it.

Shoot. Opportunity gone.

Then we had to go.

I said "Sister Taylor, let's write our testimonies in this Book of Mormon and wait for them to come out, so we can give it to them."
So, we sat in our car like creepers and watched the Post Office doors.

When they came out we jumped out of the car and yelled their names.

We talked to them some more.

They happily accepted the Book of Mormon and we prayed with them.

Wish you could have heard them pray!
Man it was cool.

They were shoutin' and praisin'!

It didn't matter who was walking by or if you're in front of the Post Office.

So, I recommend you find some people of their faith and stand right in front of the entrance and pray.

I promise it's fun. :) 

-We got to teach an investigator that we kind of sort of picked up and kind of sort of dropped.

She loved the message.

She prayed after we taught her the Restoration and she believes it's true.

It was a short powerful lesson with the pamphlet and it was awesome.

She's 13, so she needs to talk to her mom about continuing the lessons.

Pray that her mom's heart is softened so that we can teach them both! 

-We also got to teach a person who was an investigator, but not really and that was really powerful too!
We hope to teach her whole family soon as well and she is super excited for the next lesson.

We've come over and seen her family a lot.
We have grown to love the family dearly and they love us too.

As we were walking away, one of the little girls shouted "BYE!!! I LOVE YOU!!!"

My heart melted!

-Also, President Gerber came over and plunged our toilet for us.

That was a miracle too. 

You know, we always talk about miracles like they are HUGE things.

Like they have to be a big deal.

They don't.

My favorite miracles are always the little ones, like these: 

1. I almost slipped on ice, but didn't.

2. I was able to clean the bathroom without barfing.

3. I don't have to buy milk this week.

4. The toilet stopped working only for an hour yesterday instead of all day.

5. My umbrella didn't break last night in the heavy winds.

6. Sister Taylor is tall enough to reach the glasses on the top shelf for me.

7. I don't have to back Sister Taylor out of the parking lot today when we leave the library.

I could write more, but we'd be here for hours. 

I love the little miracles. 

We have a quote in our apartment from Albert Einstein. I don't know it exactly, so I may be butchering it, but here it is: 

You can live your life as if nothing is a miracle or as if everything is a miracle. 

Please choose the second option.

Life is so much better if you do!

I promise! 

The church is true.

Did you know that?
If you didn't, study, pray and ask in faith.

I know you'll receive an answer and that answer will be YES! 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,

Sister Heywood 

What stuck out to me in studies? 

Mosiah 27:28-29 

 28 Nevertheless, after ^awading through much ^btribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an ^ceverlasting burning, and I am born of God.

 29 My soul hath been ^aredeemed from the gall of bitterness and ^bbonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was ^cracked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is ^dpained no more.

If God would save the vilest of sinners, He will save you too. 

Alma 1:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/1

Alma 2:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/2

Alma 3:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/3

Choose to be Happy!

Yah, so yesterday was a holiday and the libraries were all closed.

Bummer.

That's ok. 

Guess what happened last night!
It snowed.

Guess what I did this morning?

Scraped ice and snow off of my car.

That was the first time for me and definitely not the last.

My hands are still cold.

Boy do I have so much to tell you! 

The last couple of weeks, I have to be honest, were tough.

I was grumpy and mad. I don't know why.

I'm a happy person!

My being grumpy made Sister Taylor grumpy,

Which made me more grumpy,

Which made her more grumpy.

It was just a domino effect.

So annoying.

Oh well, we got over it. :)

I'm over the grumpies now :)

Sister Taylor got to go to a leadership training and I didn't.

BUT I got to go on exchanges with Sister Bailey, one of my MTC companions.

I love that girl.

I have to tell you though, I was so ticked when Sister Taylor got home.

She came home all excited about missionary work and oh my gosh we're going to get so many baptisms and find the elect.

This was my face --->

I wasn't too happy.

Sassy Emma came out.

Not good.

I missed out on all this cool stuff!

I'M DOOMED!!!!
I can't be a better missionary if I missed out on this awesome training!

Then Sister Taylor told me what they learned.

It's all stuff I've wanted to do, but I've been too afraid to try it.

Or I tried it, but no one understood what I was doing or didn't want to do it.

So yes, I was more ticked.

My face started to look like this --->

Then, I found out that we would all be trained later on all the same things.

WHAT?!!!
They had this special meeting with just some people when everyone was going to hear it anyway.

My face turned to this --->

Yup that was it. I was mad.

Super mad.

So, then I had a choice.

I could continue to be mad and bitter.

(I wanted to so bad. I wanted to be angry and kick and scream and punch holes in the walls. That's what I wanted to do.)

OR I could choose to be happy.

Choose to be excited and let Sister Taylor teach me.

I didn't want to choose that, but I tried really hard to.

I prayed that I could feel better about it.

I prayed to be happy.

If I'm not happy, the Spirit can't be with me and then I really can't be an effective missionary! 

Well, it worked!
I'm happy!

AND we have had so many blessings from this training.

We've learned a new way to teach.

IT'S AWESOME!!!!

We teach with the pamphlets now.

It's simple.

Lessons are 8-10 minutes and the Spirit is stronger than it's ever been.

PLUS the Spirit comes in quicker.

This has changed EVERYTHING!!!

Now this is my face.  --->

Boy oh boy is it wonderful!
I'm in love with this method.

And, Sister Taylor and I have added our own twist to it.

Music.

We have a couple songs that we do with harmonies and the ukulele.

We start with the song and BAM! the Spirit is there.

It's amazing.

Then we start teaching and BAM! the Spirit is stronger.

Then when we end, there is no way to get rid of the Spirit!
It's awesome!

The best time this has happened is with a less active couple.

The Hunts.

We haven't really known what to do with them.

We've seen the wife twice and know why she doesn't come to church.

She told us why she doesn't, but really, the root of it is that she doesn't have a testimony.

We met the husband for the first time this week.

He's so sweet.

We start off by asking what is on the cover of the pamphlet.

 It's Christ holding the lamb right?
How is He looking at that lamb?

With love right?

Yah.

Do you think that's how He looks at you?

He does.

I know He does.

He loves you so much.

And that's how we start.

Did you feel the Spirit?

I did just typing that.

For those of you that don't know what the Spirit feels like, it's a good feeling.

That is the Holy Spirit telling you that what I just said is true. 

We continue to use the pictures as we teach and it's awesome! 

Brother Hunt kept looking at that picture so longingly.

My heart melted!

He knows it's true!
He sure does! 

What else has happened this week?
Let me tell ya'! 

We got a new investigator.

She's a referral from a member.

We had an awesome first lesson (using the pamphlet of course).

She has a baptismal date.

And she moved.

She's not ours anymore, but she wants to keep learning and going to church.

We're all on the same team though, so it doesn't matter if we teach her or not. :) 

What else....

We had an awesome lesson with a member family.

We taught the Restoration and it was super powerful.

We then told them that we were going to pray together and ask who they should share the gospel with, and when we're done praying, we'll wait until they come up with a name.

We did that.

The wife came up with a name and wasn't very comfortable doing something big.

She was scared to share the gospel.

We almost said, "well, that's ok," BUT we didn't.

We followed the Spirit and pushed and were bold.

We set a game plan with her.

We wrote it down and left her with a copy and took a copy for us.

We'll keep checking up on her and see how it goes.

What she is doing is super simple.

All she is going to do is invite her friend over for lunch so that her friend can feel the Spirit in her home.
It's simple.

It's not big.

It's something this member is comfortable with and she's going to do it and receive countless blessings for doing so. :) 

This church is true. I know it! 

I love you all SO much! 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Heywood 

PS What did I learn in the reading?

Chapter 23

 

 21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to ^achasten his people; yea, he trieth their ^bpatience and their faith.
22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his ^atrust in him the same shall be ^blifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.
 23 For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into ^abondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob.
 24 And it came to pass that he did deliver them, and he did show forth his mighty power unto them, and great were their rejoicings.

27 But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. 

Chapter 24

 13 And it ^acame to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

 14 And I will also ease the ^aburdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as ^bwitnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their ^cafflictions.
 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did ^astrengthen them that they could bear up their ^bburdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with ^cpatience to all the will of the Lord.
 16 And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage.
 17 And he said unto Alma: Thou shalt go before this people, and I will go ^awith thee and deliver this people out of ^bbondage.

21 Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their ^athanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their ^bburdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God.

The Lord will deliver us from "bondage" when we obey Him.

People always think that rules take away their freedom, but it's just the opposite. When have rules and follow those rules, we actually have more freedom.

Trust me, I've put this to the test.

Follow the commandments and you will be blessed beyond belief!

Let's finish Mosiah!

Mosiah 26:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/26?lang=eng

Mosiah 27:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/27?lang=eng

Mosiah 28:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/28?lang=eng

Mosiah 29:http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/29?lang=eng