...Couple of Comments on the Photos you sent me....

Just a couple comments on the photos you sent me......

Bead, I like your new clothes.....the hat looks like it will fit me great

Drew and Talli are really dang cute.... I miss them, give them big hugs for me

Johnny thanks for taking my place in the picture where Brads sittin on your lap....somebody had to do it

Those pajamas look comfortable.... I hope you got me some of those for when I get home, if not.... you know what to do

The song that you sang at Christmas looks familiar, isnt that the same one we have sung for the last like 7 years? haha I bet it sounded great.

Thats all folks!

Love ya!
Elder G Heap

...Counting my blessings after the Christmas Phone call

Hey family,

First off, it was great talkin to you all. I have the best family. I felt really blessed hanging up the phone Christmas night. I had to do one of those inventory prayers with Heavenly Father and I think I had a list of 99 things to be greatful for and just a few things to ask for help. I love prayer.

Well, we talked a lot about my week on the phone, but a few more things happened. On Sunday, Brenda had her interview for her baptism. She will get baptized on the 2nd of January (startin off the year well). I hope Marsela also gets baptized that day, but we still have to get her married. It was frustrating that she didnt get baptized this week, but her husband never got home from work. Pray for them. On Sunday we also had another lesson with Rene, He is the boyfriend of a member and we put his baptismal date for the 9th of January. I hope they get married. They will be a cute eternal couple. A few members in my ward called me yesterday tellin me that Todd caught 2 touchdowns. I dont know who spilled the beans, but now a lot of people in the ward know that. I`ve been able to keep that on the DL most of the mish, but it was great to hear that he had 2 touchdowns. Keep tearin it up Todd!

I`m glad you had a good Mexican Christmas meal at grandma and grandpa`s house. All the people here ask what we do in my house for Christmas and when I tell them that every year we have a Mexican food feast they don`t believe me.

Oh another cool thing happened yesterday too. I got a phone call from Elder Boyle. (He went to Mtn View) He is in Valle de Tules, one of my old areas. He calls me and was like ``hey someone wants to talk to you`` It was Guillermina and Gustavo. They just wanted to wish me a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and wanted to let me know that they are still goin to church every week and have received a lot of blessings. It was great to talk to them. It`s been almost a year since we met. I`m glad they`re still strong. In Mexico sometimes its hard to have a lot of converts stay active. I`ve been really blessed.

Thats crazy about the Gulbrandsens´. I hope they come here that would be sick. We will have to go say hi real quick before I leave to wish them luck. I would imagine that its`pretty hard to be a mission president, but Pres. Gulbrandsen fits the mold. Thats awesome. They will do great!

Thats crazy that all my friends are home. They are probably jealous that I still have 6 months. Its crazy how things change like that.... Before the mission I thought ``Aw man, all my friends are going to have 6 months at home before I get there`` Now I`ve gotten to the point where I`m just trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Time flies....

This morning we climbed the mountain in my area. Just me and my comp. It was awesome. We woke up at 5 a.m. to get on top when the sun comes out. It was gorgeous. We kinda got lost on the way up and had to make up our route, but we got there just in time. I`ll send pictures asap, but right now I dont have much time!

Sorry this is a smaller email, but I gotta go to my meeting. I love you all! Have a great new years and drink some Martinelli`s in my honor!

LOVE YOU

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...Highlight of the week going to the TEMPLE...Feliz Navidad!

Hey family,

I love this time of year. Sometimes its stressfull completing with goals and trying to find people that want to follow Christ, but during this time of the year nothing really phases me. I think I share that same feeling of love for Christmas as you do mom. Here in Mexico it`s pretty different, but singing the hymns and having my paper Christmas tree up helps me feel out home.

Life is good. Bringing people to come unto Christ is a little bit harder this time of year because a lot of people here leave out of town or spend their time getting drunk.....at least they invite us to join.....giving.....the Christmas spirit... haha

I see you got my pics. On Saturday we were looking on the internet to see how to go to the DF. While my comp was looking for dirrections, I sent the pics. Hope you liked em. Anyways, this morning (with permission from Pres.) we went to the DF to go get a birthcertificate for a lady that we are going to marry and baptize this next week. It was an interesting trip. We went by my last area in Xalostoc and we ended up going right by the famous Basilica which is where millions of people come from all over Mexico to see ``the virgen of Guadalupe`` It`s just a little apostasy from the Mexicans. IT was cool though to see the huge cathedrals and stuff. We will have to go check it out when you come get me. (Is that the plan.... let me know?)
So yea we`re back in 1 piece coming back from the big city. Now im back in San Cristobal. Its been a long day.

The week went well. Miracles happened.... like usual. We found Brenda. She is a 19 year old girl. Her grandpa is a member and she has gone to church quite a bit. The missionaries have never taught her before though. We taught her all the lessons and we are going to baptize her this week. PRobably Saturday. She is super pumped. We are also going to baptize Marsela. We just have to marry her and then everything will be set for her to get baptized. I`m excited.

We also have been doing ``family nights`` with a lot of the member families and asking them to invite their friends and neighbors to listen to our Christmas message. They have gone really well. I discovered that my comp. can also sing farely well so we have been singing at all of those. I always feel the spirit so strong singing Christmas hymns.

Oh, before I forget! I got your other package. I love the candy and treats. I´m trying to pace myself so I dont eat it all in a week or 2. I`ve been giving my comp a taste of REAL candy that doesnt have chile all over it. A lot of the stuff you can find down here, but its more expensive. THanks mom! Oh and thanks to the young men and young women of the ward. I didnt get a picture of them in my package, but send me one, one of these days. I also got a letter this week from Kylie Foster. If she is there in the ward on Sunday tell her thanks for me. I`ll probably try to send her a letter, but I`m really bad at writing letters (as you already know). I`ll try to be better at that.

By far the highlight of the week was going to the temple on Wednesday. It was sooooo awesome. I sat with Elder Romney and Elder Christensen in the temple so it was cool. Two of my best buds here in the mish. I loved the session. I got a ton out of it and I definately received answers to my prayers. After eating in the temple cafeteria we had a little Christmas devocional. It went well. I didnt sing this year. We didnt really have time to practice, but those who did did a great job. A few played the piano and Elder Jorden from our zone played the violin. You would have loved it mother. President Nancollas taught us a lot. He talked a lil more about the 4th missionary and taught us one of his ``secrets`` to success. He said that anytime we have a trial or big decision to make in our lives the best way to handle it is go to the temple fasting and praying for answers. It was a little bit more detailed and probably better explained by President Nancollas, but I got a lot out of it.

Another story. Sunday I get a call and it says its from Pres. Nancollas and I answer and it was Taylor (his son.... we`re tight now ever since he came with us on divisions) He called and was like. ``Hey Heap, your brother caught a touchdown 3 minutes into the game``. I was in the church and I was really pumped. Then he calls me a little bit later and says that Todd caught another touchdown. The second time I thought he was lying so he had Sister Nancollas read what was on his computer screen so Sister Nancollas says ``J. Flacco throws a 14 yard touchdown to T. Heap`` It was really funny. I love that family.

One more crazy story. Today I got an email from KEith Gerald Obregon. My trainer. He said that he`s in Utah and wishes me a happy birthday. Then he said that he was in the Draper temple helping with baptisms for the dead and he ran into TJ Heap. He asked him if TJ knows a Greg Heap. Small world. I guess that means that my brotha Obregon is keepin up on his English skills. Thats crazy tho huh.

Thanks for the pictures....everyone looks great! Grandpa and Grandma Heap still look like a couple teenagers runnin around. Oh and I got the video of Preston and Kyle last week. That was SO funny. I cant believe they talk so well. When I left they were just saying little things. Now they talk really really well. Times` flying. I cant believe it.

This is going to be a great week. Christmas. 2 baptisms. Talk to the family. Training meeting for all the leaders in the mission. etc. etc. etc.

IMPORTANTE: the number that im going to have is a cell phone number.... let me know if that will be a problem..... i dont think so because last year you called me when i had a cell phone. The number is..... 1-044-55-35-62-81-11 I dont know what time will be good for me yet. This whole week we are going to be running around. Ill call you from a pay phone first if you want, to let you know that all is good to call. Let me know when it is the best time for you and let me know the time difference and all that. You can write me back and ill just check the internet in the week to see what you say. If the cell phone is a bad idea let me know and you can call me downstairs with the hermanos where i live. I dont have that number with me, but ill call ya..... aaaaiight?

Thats it! Have a great week! I love you all!
Meeeeerrry Christmas
Feliz Navidad

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....Becoming the "4th" Missionary

Hey family,

Life is good. Each week passes faster then the last. Time flies when you are having fun and enjoying the blessings of the Lord.

The work is going well here. We are just trying to lift the zone as much as we can. I think it is always a little bit more difficult in December with the ``day of the virgen`` the fiestas, people going out of town, etc. It`s rough, but for me it has been great. I have focused a lot more time no my personal and companionship studies and I have seen some more tender mercies in my life because of it.

Well last Monday we went to the offices and that is always fun being with the other zone leaders. Elder Romney and I were talking and we were tryin to figure out how we could be comps next change. It`s actually a possibility. I think I`ll either go with him or go to Queretaro. It`s the only part of the mission that I havent been in so either way it would be sweet. We will see what happens next change though. For now we are just trying to focus in on a lot of the investigators that we have and find more to baptize in January. The work of the Lord is the best. Christmas spirit hasn`t quite hit me so I tried playing the Josh Groban christmas cd. It was working a little bit until I got to the song about ``Ave Maria`` haha. That is a huge Catholic song down here and my companion was kinda freakin out. It was pretty funny though. I guess last year I didnt really pay attention to the words or the song. Funny stuff haha.

Anyways Monday night was fun. We all went for tacos and alambre. It was delicious. The first time in a while that I have eaten in an actual restaurant.

The consejo was awesome on Tuesday. They talked to us about our purpose and becoming the ``4th`` missionary. I guess you probably wouldnt understand those concepts unless I explained them in detail, but the 4th missionary part changed my life. It talked about the 4 kinds of missionaries. How the first 2 are dissobedient and the 3rd one is obedient and does all the work how he or she should. The 4th missionary however consecrates himself to the Lord. He does the will of the Lord at all times and doesn`t think about what he wants. He really serves with all his heart might mind and spirit. When the 3rd missionary (although he is obedient) only serves with his might and spirit. The biggest differences though are in the consequences. If you are the 3rd missionary, you go home and end up being pretty much the same having gained little or no knowledge. The 4th missionary goes home having changed his life forever, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, having gained and learned many of the mysteries of God. It was a talk of like 24 pages and I`ve been thinking a lot about that lately.

Oh another highlight of the consejo was the push up contest. A couple of us missionaries had a push-up contest as part of the meeting. Then when we had finished President Nancollas did the push-ups. He easily beat all of us. He did 105 good push ups. I did like 78. He owned us. It was crazy. Much respect for President Nancollas. He is definately a competitive guy.

Oh another crazy story that just happened this morning. I dont know if you remember mom, sending me the pancake mix from Lehi Roller Mills or something like that. I was looking for the dirreccions and I saw on the back a little thing that was like ``thank you for buying the product, it was made with the best ingredients, etc, etc. Then at the bottom it was signed by R. Sherman Robinson. I was like, hmmmm that name sounds familiar. I couldnt quite put my finger on it from where i heard that name. Anyways then I remembered that in my branch Presidency in the MTC one of them was Brother Robinson. I called Elder Christensen and I asked what Brother Robinsons name was and he couldnt remember. Then I called Elder Memmott and he was like ``yea his name was Sherman Robinson. It was so crazy. So the owner of the pancake mix and the Lehi Roller Mills company was my branch president counselor in the MTC. He is an awesome guy and I remembered a lot of spiritual experiences that we had with him. Elder MEmmott and I got to spend a lot of time with him being zone leaders in the MTC. Small world. I thought it was kinda cool.

Alright back to the week. One of the days this week I went on interchanges with Elder Acevedo. He is also from Coatla. Anyways for lunch we ate with a family that I knew from a couple weeks back. I did their baptismal interviews and they are an awesome family. They are already way strong in the gospel. I love seeing lives change. They were way happy to see me which made me feel pretty good. Elder Acevedo also mentioned that his whole family is going to move to Utah when he gets home and he is a way cool kid. We will probably hang out in Utah next year.

Other highlights....

We found a new investigator that is pretty sweet. His name is Moises. He lived in the U.S. for a little bit so he thinks he knows English. He probably knows english as much as mom knows spanish. He is a stud though. He went to church by himself and enjoyed it a lot.

We also had another girl named Brenda go to church. She has gone a lot, but has never talked to the missinaries so that was a blessing. We are going to teach her this week and baptize here comin up.

This week we taught gospel principles class at church. We taught about the restoration. It was fun being able to expound upon it more than just teaching it in a 15, 20 minute lesson.

Another highlight that is going to happen this upcoming Wednesday. We are going to the temple! I`m so excited. It has been a year since I have gone to the temple. Well done a session at least. It is going to be so awesome. Half of the mission is going Tuesday and the other half with my zone included is going on Wednesday. I`m glad that on my half Elder Romney, Elder Memmott, Elder Christensen, Elder Allen and a lot of other buddies will be going in with me. I`ll be thinking about all of you I promise!

Well thats it. Im going to go make myself some breakfast. We were thinking about doing those pancakes earlier, but we decided we are giong to make omelets. I havent had an omelet in like 2 years. I`m excited.

To answer some of your questions. Elder Christen is just moving zones. I think he is going to Atotonilco. He is getting changed in the middle of the transfer because a lot of Elders are going home 3 weeks early to be home for Christmas.

Thanks for your love and support. I love you all. God lives and loves us. Jesus is the Savior of the world. The church is true. The priesthood is real. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. Families can be together forever.

Love you!
Con amor,
Elder G Heap

...Christmas Spirit as a Mexican

Heeeeeey fam....

Life is great. I love being a missionary. The blessings keep rolling in from everywhere. This work is true and it`s a blessing to be a part of it.

This week was interesting. Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday Elder Garcia and I worked extremely hard. I mean really really really hard. Knocking doors asking references, climbing hills talking to EVERYONE and teaching the gospel. At the end of those days we looked at each other and realized that it was already Friday. The week was almost over. It is crazy to see how fast time flies when you are 100% dedicated to the work of the Lord. Elder Garcia is helping me a ton. He is so focused on ending his mission well and having his zone be the most successful. It is fun. Before being his comp I had heard that he had been slacking now that he doesnt have much time left, but when he got here with me he was ready to work. It`s fun. I love it.

I have developed a lot as a missionary in a year and a half and it is fun to be able to use all the talents, tools and experience the Lord has blessed me with.

I think I like doing the whole ``highlights of the week`` thing because I get the most important things in the email....

First things first, Mom, I got 3 packages last week. It was AWESOME. 2 Christmas ones and 1 normal one. Thank you so much. The socks you sent have saved me because I have holes in all my other ones. The ties are pretty tight as well. I loved the pictures and the letters and just about everything. I think I`ll put up my Christmas paper tree one of these days. I send my appreciation and love to everyone. I got all of Grandma and Grandpa Heaps`letters too. Tell them thanks. I know they have been tryin to get them to me. Also the testimonies of all of you have strengthened me a ton lately. Grandpa and Grandma Riggs. Everyone. It would take me a while to name everyone who wrote me and I am so happy that I have such a strong family living the gospel.

Another highlight, Thursday night. We went to do baptismal interviews for Elder Christensen. I got to interview Arturo (the father of the family) and my comp interviewed his son. I already knew Arturo from doing divisions a couple week back and I was really happy that he got baptized. IT was a very spiritual interview. I asked him about his conversion experience and his story is awesome. His wife is amazed that he has changed so fast in so little time. He has shown his faith and has had a sincere repentance over the past few weeks. He has stopped drinking and his wife now loves him more than ever. We hope that she also enters in the baptismal waters here shortly. There was a moment when I think it clicked in Arturo and in me just how simple is the gospel. We show our faith by keeping the commandments and repent and get better daily showing a real repentance. Doing that changes lives. Doing that blesses families. Doing that brings happiness. Talking to Arturo was a real blessing. Him and I both received a powerful testimony of the gospel and the Holy Ghost was very strong. It was hard not to break down crying. Moments like those are the moments that help when trying times come and when we have trials. I`m so thankful to be able to experience them on a weekly and almost daily basis.

Saturday we were a little frustrated because despite our huge efforts in the week we still didnt have many new investigators or many people that accepted to go to church. (It`s always harder in December with people going out of town and visiting family.....not to mention the parties that they throw in the centro) We went to a couple appointments on the other side of our area and they werent there. We decided to finish knocking to the end of the street. After a few rejections and after talking to a few Jehovah`s Witness, we were pretty dissappointed. We decided to finish the street and on the second to last house we found a family of 8. All we had to say is that we are missionaries and they let us in. They were all on the couches and they brought us out to chairs so that they could all sit around us and listen. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was really strong. It`s another family Lopez (If you remember Pablo and Olga from my last area). We had a few of them go to church, but for one reason or another not all of them could go. It will be fun teaching a big family like that and we just hope that they progress. We will see what happens.

Today was fun. We played some bball in Elder Christensens area. It`s fun playing street ball with Mexicans. Especially little ones from Oaxaca. Elder Golledge and his comp Elder Beazer came. Two of the sons of the stake president came and Elder Summers and Elder Loeza came and Elder Fillerup and Elder Palomec came. We had a lil 4 on 4 tourney.

Well I hate to cut it short on ya`ll, but I gotta jet. I got to go shower and go to a meeting then head over to the offices. Tomorrow we have our zone meeting council. Those are always the best. I`m pumped. Not to mention I get to chill with a bunch of my buddies tonight. Elder Romney, Elder Arnett, Elder Francis, Elder Drake, etc. Oh and the new zone leader is Elder Koons and I love Elder Koons so that will be fun too.

This next week we have a goal as a zone to have 9 baptisms and 12 confirmations. If we reach our goal (which we should) we will be leading the mission. Pray for Ecatepec. Pray for the missionaries. Pray for missionary experiences and pray for the work of the Lord.

I love you all. Live the gospel and be happy.

Con amor,
Elder Heap

...Daily Spiritual experiences

Hey fam,

Well I`m goin to be breve. I dont have much time to write with the transfers and a bunch of things goin on.
Elder Francis is off and Elder Garcia is here. He is from Coatla Morelos, Mexico. He is way chill and I am excited. He only has 3 months left in the mission, but he is excited to get things done. This is the FIRST time in my whole mission that I have stayed in my area to see my companion get changed and me stay. Crazy huh? I still keep 2 streaks going though.....1. I have had Mexican/American/MExican/American comps through out my whole mission and 2. I have never been in an area more than 3 months. We will see if those streaks continue in 6 weeks. Oh and Elder Christiansen will still be here with me for 3 more weeks and then he`s leaving in the middle of the change. It should be a fun change though with lots of activities and Christmas and all that. Maybe I`ll relearn how to speak spanish before I talk to you all on the phone haha.

Well this was a pretty crazy week. Usually the last week of the month is always the craziest because it`s when we have to help out a bunch of missionaries complete with their goals.
We hardly had time to work in out own area, but it was worth it to help out the other Elders.

The mission is always filled DAILY with spiritual experiences. A lot of cool things happened which brings me to Elder Heaps`highlights of the week.....

The first thing is something that actually happened last week. We got a less active family of like 14 to go to church. The family Cornejo, They haven`t gone because they work to help with the finantial problem they are having. We promised them last week that if they made the effort to go to church that Heavenly Father would provide them with the things that they stand in need of. They went to church and then we visited them this last Tuesday. When we got there they all greeted us with smiles because they had already seen a lot of blessings. The grandma found 400 pesos (like 30 bucks) in her dresser which paid for their food for the week. The light came on (They didnt have light in their house for like a week and a half) and they had a family member that was sick get healthy. The grandma and one of the other hermanas were crying as they were tellin us all the blessings that they had received. When we make sacrifices and do Gods`will He always does his part. When we are obedient, Heavenly Father is obligated to bless us. I love the gospel.

I also had a neat experience with a lady named Gaby in a baptismal interview. She wanted to get baptized, but she was nervous that her husband would get mad. She is an investigator from Elder Ashcraft and I went to her house afterwards to talk to the husband. We talked about the importance of baptism and I think the husband really felt the spirit. I felt the sensation to invite him to get baptized as well so I did the invitation. He said that he would get baptized as well. In a couple weeks he will get baptized and I hope that they will be a great eternal family.

Saturday night Elder Francis got really sick. (actually we both were, but him more) My stomach just hurt, but I was able to fall asleep. I think it was from the chicken that an hermana gave us to eat that day. I think it was a little undercooked, but we ate it.
Francis was up all night i think. He was throwin up and his throat was hurtin him a bunch to the point that he was having trouble breathing. Francis woke me up at like 3 a.m. and asked me for a blessing. I got up and gave him a blessing and I made him some Gatorade from those little packets that you sent me. I just assumed that after throwin up for a while he probably didnt have much energy. He was able to fall asleep until the next morning so I think it helped a lot.

On Sunday Elder Francis stayed in bed with the hermano that we live with and I went with a joven. I had to go to do interviews in 2 different other churches and I took the sacrament in another ward. It was a crazy day. I went with Elder Fillerup to work also and we just let Elder Francis sleep. CRAZY day.

Well thats it. I gotta run! I love you all! Happy late Thanksgiving!
Que tengan buena semana!

Con amor,
Elder G Heap

...car wash references

So this week was one of my favorite weeks of the mission so far.

Tuesday was a normal work day. We found a lot of new investigators and went to visit the people that got confirmed on Sunday.

Wednesday was way sweet. We did interchanges. Elder Christiansen came over to my area with me and Elder Francis went with Elder Christiansens comp Elder Hernandez. It was pretty tight. It was fun to work with Elder Christiansen and the best part was that our lessons were really spiritual. We taught lesson 3 a bunch of times to a lot of people with talks about the gospel faith repentance baptism receiving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Coming out of the first lesson we had a long talk walking to the other side of the area. We were talking about the gospel and how easy it is. Our Heavenly Father gives us 5 steps and says. ``Hey, do this and you will be happy`` It`s pretty basic. We were walking on this dirt road through this little canyon with little cement shacks all over the place and we were like. ```Who would have thought in the MTC that we would be walking where we are walking 17 months later`` It was tight.

Thursday night we got a call that President Nancollas` son Taylor was going to come with us from Friday morning to Tuesday. (He`s with us right now) He is way tight. He has lived in South America almost all his life so he knows spanish and everything. He has made it a fun weekend. He`s really funny and has his mission call to go to Russia Dec 30. We have been havin a good time.

Friday was the day of interviews. We were running around the whole zone doing baptismal interviews and we had another great week as a zone completing with our goals and even gettin some more people baptized than planned. OH, and I hit my head on this thing. I had a huge gash on my head and I had blood all over my face, but I am ok now. I called Sister Nancollas and I went and got it checked out. I chose not to get stitches. I dont trust the mexican doctors. It`s not really a big cut though. All is well. I`ll tell you about that at Christmas if you want. You can`t even see it cause it`s under my hair.

Saturday we had a zone activity. The visitors center people came to a church and gave an exhibit. It was our job to get as many investigators in the church as possible. The problem was that there is a church that is right on the border of our mission and their arent that many people our houses by it cause it is right by an off ramp of the freeway. We came up with another idea to have a free car wash instead of the normal idea of knocking doors. We thought that it work that well because the church isn`t positioned in the best spot, but it ended up being a huge success. We had Elders on the freeway yelling at cars to stop for free car wash. Elders contacting in the street. The rest of us washed cars. We ended up washing like 70 cars in the span of only a couple hours. We washed combi`s, police cars, motorcycles, bikes, and even a couple huge semi trucks. Washing my truck in high school definately paid off. It was so much fun. When they were waiting for their cars to get washed they would go inside and check out the visitors center exhibit. We got a ton of references. The field is white all ready to harvest. It was a really fun day. The visitors center people were pumped because we had over 150 people go through the exhibit. A great morning. All afternoon we visited Amalia and Carlos to make sure they were going to go to church for the confirmation and we visited almost ALL of our investigators.

Today we played basketball as a zone and it was tight. I rolled my ankle at the end and when it happened I was really nervous that it would be more serious, but I knew what to do when it happened and I`m walking around like normal. I said a little prayer and I think Heavenly Father heard it. He needs me to run around and help Him bring his kids back to His presence. My ankle is already up to like 90 percent. It happened this morning so I am fine now. Oh and we played how the winner stays on the court and my team didn`t lose so I was so tired. It was me and Elder Weston from Utah and 2 mexicans. Great fun.

Well I gotta go real quick. If I have time I`ll write a little more later cause Francis still needs to write his fam.

Con amor,
Elder Heap

....Ima be a "TIO" ......again (Tio = Uncle)

From your emails it sounds like it was a great week for all the Heap clan. First impressions from your emails.....I`m SO pumped for Todd and Ashley. You have no idea. I`ll get to know Drew (even though he will almost be 2 years old) and the new sobrino on the way. Thats tight. Brad won his game by HOW MUCH? Were you playin the playoffs or were you playin an 8th grade girls team Bead. You are goin to have to modify your highlight film to send me to it. I definately want to see the play where you truck the kid and rumble 35 yards. Love it. Oh and that was a really ``CUTE`` picture of you Bead in the newspaper. The camera guy should know that your helmet is supposed to go on your head and that your pads should go under your shirt, but its cool. You`re a stud. haha

It was great week for me as well. Miracles in the work of the Lord. We did some interchanges and we got to do a lot of teachin this week. Not only to investigators, but helping other missionaries as well. We completed our goal as a zone even getting better than our goal in baptisms. It was great.
Im just going to skip the days of the week because enough happened yesterday to make up for the whole week. Yesterday it was Elder Francis`birthday so we had to make it a good day. So we were planning on baptizing Abraham (28) and Marisol (25) (They are brother and sister) before the services and then confirm them, but Satan just got in the way a bunch. I guess the story goes back to Friday night when Abraham told us that they told him that he had to work on Sunday. We talked him into calling his work so that he can get the day off and go and get baptized. He did and it turned out fine. So everything was set. They were excited and we were going to wake up early to go fill up the font and everything would have been great. We woke up at like 4 in the morning and did a morning walk to the church to find that there were no lights in the building. I had the lighter to turn on the boiler so we used that as the light. So we turned it on and went back to the house. We took a lil ``cat nap`` (haha) and then got dressed and went to the baptism. We get to the church at like 7:45 (the baptism was going to start at 8) and the water was only up to like half a step. We were so confused and then realized that the pump to get the water up out of the ground probably didn`t work because the electicity was out. We were so determined to figure it out and luckily (like normal Mexican style) Abraham, Marisol and their fam showed up late. I said a lil prayer and we tried to turn on the breakers and fix the problem, but Satan worked pretty hard to not let us succeed. Then I got an idea. I called Elder Christiansen and told him to fill up his font at his church (his church is like 20 minutes away) He told me that it was already half full because they had baptized the day before. He did us a huge favor and went to the church to fill it up. He had to fight off his ward who was having a breakfast before church in the baptismal font room. I love Elder Christiansen. He`s my hero.
Meanwhile, Abraham and Marisol and fam. got to our church. We jumped in a bus and went to Coacalco where elder Christiansens`church is. We got there had a quick baptismal service because we had to get back by 10 a.m. for the confirmations. It was CRAZY. Satan tried hard, but I`ve realized in my 20 years of life that if we are determined to do the things of the Lord and keep the commandments we will always succeed over the adversary. Thats what happened. It was a great birthday present for Elder Francis. We got back right at 10 and they got confirmed and we could relax a little bit the rest of the day.

We ate a ton because all of the members invited us over for Francis`s birthday... One hermana even said that she wanted us to give her a blessing (just so that we would come over and she could give us cake) It was really funny. We were like, so do you want your blessing hermana. She was like ``oh, no, it was just an excuse to get you over here``

Other highlights of the week include:

Finding a slingshot in our house and using it to fight off dogs and hit birds

Using an hermanas grill to cook carne asada and I made spaghetti with chipotle hot sauce. Soooo good

Playing basketball this morning with Elder Christiansen his comp Elder Hernandez, Elder Palomec and Elder Fillerup from Cali. It was way tight. There was a rim that was bent down a lil bit and I dunked it.

I bought a new tie last monday that is way sweet.

We are going to Chili`s today for Elder Francis birthday and also because it was Elder Golledges`birthday too. We are goin to go a bunch of missionaries.

Well thats pretty much it
Have a Grrrrreat week

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap
(

Week in a flast

Hola familia,

This week went by way quickly and I think each week it goes by faster and faster. I love the work of the Lord. The church is true. Theres no doubt about it. Miracles happen. Lives are changed. Blessings are received and eternal families are made by living the gospel. There is no other work more important.

We had a great zone meeting last Monday. Everyone got way pumped up and were excited to work. HOWEVER, just about everything that you could imagine went wrong as far as acheving the zone goals for the week. We reached our goals, but the zone didn`t do so hot. This next week we have a bunch of baptisms and confirmations so we are happy. Just pray that everything goes well for Ecatepec this week.

I have been dying every morning from the coldness. I put on my beanie and a sweater and sweat pants to study. I never imagined Mexico to be so cold. It`s basically just in the morning and late at night. I dont remember last year being so cold, but it`s all good. Usually during the day it heats up.

Talking to Elder Francis yesterday it was crazy to think that half of the change is already gone. That means in 3 weeks I`ll have a new comp. As a zone leader it`s pretty easy to see who`s going to be your next comp. My next comp could be either Elder Garcia or Elder McNinch. Elder McNinch was also trained by Elder Obregon like 4 months before I got on the mish so that would be cool. As a zone leader it`s kinda hard to have a bad comp so thats nice.

Next week we could possibly have 4 baptisms, but 1 for sure. Her name is Marisol. She is way tight. Her mom and sister-in-law are members and we might baptize her brother also this week. She`s like 25. This week she made us green enchiladas and they were sooooo good. I love seeing the peoples`lives change. Marisol went to jail, did drugs, had a terrible teenage life with lots of problems. Now, she just loves church and learning about the gospel. She loved Stake Conference this last week and said she learned a lot. (I also loved it)

Well I gotta get going cause we are having a zone activity. We are going bowling and ice skating and putt putt golfing. It`s going to be tight.

Thanks for your love and support. The church is true. Have a great week everyone!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Reportin from Ecatepunk

The weeks keep flyin by. We had an awesome week. Elder Francis is teachin me a bunch and our zone is doin well.

Weekly recap....
Tuesday we had the zone leader council with President Nancollas and it went really well. I got to teach the zone leaders ``how to be more organized to have success`` I dont remember when I got more organized with my life, but it seems to help. The meeting took up almost the whole day, but I got a lot out of it. President Nancollas is the man.
Wednesday we had a bunch of appointments all day. We have 26 people that we are teaching. We had about half of them go to church so that was nice. Sorry if I dont talk about each one of them personally, but there are just a lot. The people that are going to get baptized or that have already been baptized are..... Marisol (she was in jail for a while for ``attempting to steal a car`` when her mom got baptized....she is way tight....she might get baptized next week) Juan Carlos (He also has family members that are members and he really wants to get baptized. He used to not be able to go to church, but now he can yeeeah) Perla (She was someone that Elder Francis and Elder Arnett contacted in the street... She might get baptized on Sunday as well) Amalia and fam. (We baptized Amalia on Sunday we are now teaching a lot of her family members...7 to be exact...) Olga and kids (She is a reference from a member that is way interested, she went to the first time on Sunday with her daughter her son and her son-in-law) Juana and kids (She has gone the last two weeks and will probably get baptized the 15th of November... They are finantially struggling, but love the gospel) etc. etc.
Those are basically the people in our basket of investigators. It`s a big basket. I love teaching the gospel. I love testifying things that I know to be true. I love being able to feel the spirit on a daily basis and help others to feel it too.
Thursday was kinda the same, a lot of appointments, but we also went to do interviews for an Elder in my zone. It was a family of 4. A mom and her 3 kids. In the interview she was expressing her doubts and how she isn`t sure if she wants to get baptized. She said that she knows that it is true, but that she wants to wait to learn more. It was a really spiritual 45 minute interview. I shared a lot of scriptures with her and told her the importance of having faith in the Lord. We left the interview way edified and her and her 3 kids got baptized on Saturday. It was a highlight of the week for me.
Friday started off well. We found some new investigators and went to eat. Then, out of nowhere, a rainstorm hit. IT was so intense. The streets turned into rivers and the umbrella that a member let us borrow broke. I even heard that in the D.F. 9 people died. Pretty scary. We took some pics (that hopefully ill send today) that are pretty funny. We couldnt really get anywhere because the streets on both sides trapped us in. We got soaked. Francis (after about 30 mins) told me that we were close to an hermanas house. We went over there and they gave us clothes to put on (we had to squeeze into the clothes)and she dried our clothes with an iron. She made us a lemon herbal tea and gave us cereal with hot milk. She was so nice.
Saturday we went to the baptism of that lady that i interviewed in the morning and then had to make sure all of our investigators were goin to go to church. We also had to go visit Elder Christiansen to do an interview. Life is a lot busier as a zone leader. Its crazy.
We didnt have much of a Halloween. We just had a really awesome member family invite us over for dinner. She asked if I wanted CREPES. It has been over 16 months that i have eaten crepes. They werent quite as good as yours mom, but they were worth it.
Sunday we had 12 people go to church. It was awesome. We also had the baptism of Amalia that was really spiritual. I love Sundays. They are stressful, but also really spiritual. AND its always better when we baptize.

That was my week. I was informed about the Ravens/Broncos game last night and I was way pumped to hear about the big win. Thats tight. Tell Bead to keep workin and he`ll see the blessings. Don`t you fret Bead. Send me pics of the transformers and all my nieces and nephews halloween pics. haha That is way sweet. I´m glad you had fun with the Francis`s. My comp told me about the sweet fishing trip we`re goin to do. You are all just party animals.
Well Im really happy always. I hope you all are as well. Life is great. For me in the mission, I have had lots of trials and tests of Faith, but all that is so much easier to get through with an eternal perspective and good gospel principles.
Thanks for all your love and support. I pray for all of you daily.
Have a great week!

Con amor,
Elder Heap



We baptized a lady named Amalia on Sunday. She gave her testimony afterwards and it was really sweet

....Lightening Storms and Lost Sheep

Heeeeeeey family....

Sorry for not writing yesterday, there is an excellent reason why i did not. I think im going to go backwards in my week to get the explaining done and then go on with the rest of the week.

Yesterday was one of the most perfect days to do our lil zone activity of climbing to the tallest mountain in our mission. We prayed way hard for good weather and we got it. Lately it has been cold and rainy and lightning storms, but I´ll talk about that later. Yesterday was not one of those days. Yesterday there was perfect blue skies with lots of clouds. We started off on our trail at about 6 a.m. It was a fun hike and although it was long, everyone made it. (even the hermanas) We took a TON of pics which ill have to send some day. They are awesome pics. We had a devotional/testimony meeting on top of the clouds when we got to the top with a lot of the Elders talking about the symbolism between hiking the mountain and the mission. (Example: It´s not the mountain before us that stops us from getting to the top, but the pebble in the shoe) That might sound better in spanish, but I personally liked that one.
So everything was great. We thought it went perfectly until it took a terrible twist. Elder Francis and I were the last ones to go back down after saying some prayers on top of the mountain. A fourth of the way down we hear ´´help, Elderes, we´re lost´´ SOMEHOW, some of the Elders and one of the Hermanas got WAY off the camino on the way down. We went to a high rock and they were in a valley and were yelling to us that they cant get out and they can´t turn around to the way that they went down cause it was too high to get back up. (among the group was Elder Golledge so I felt a personaly responsability to go get em out. We had to have a rescue team of Elder Ficachi, Elder Palomec and I. We went down to where they were and had to drag them up from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain again. The hermana broke her shoes so we had to help her a ton and she used some Elders shoes.
Yea..... Its a long story. To make a long story short, we all got out safe. (but 5 hours later than planned) That didnt give us much time to do anything else. Especially because we had to come to the offices last night to sleep here. It was fun last night because there are a lot of tight zone leaders. A lot of really good friends. Elder Arnett, Elder Romney, Elder Slade, Elder Francis, Elder Allen, etc. We played games all night and didnt get much sleep. Fun stuff. Its been a while since ive stayed up late. Today (in like 10 minutes) is the zone leader council meeting with President Nancollas. Im doing a presentacion on ORGANIZATION and gaining confidence of the investigators. Im super pumped. Usually missionaries (except the assistants) dont really give presentations so I am really excited about it.

So i dont have much time so ill just give a recap of the week.
One of the days walking through the graveyard on the way to church there was a thunderbolt storm all around us. We literally saw lightning hit close 4 times.

This week the hermana Perla and the hermana Amalia are getting baptized. They are way excited to follow Jesus.

My new wards (especially Bishops) are AWESOME. They gave me the ´´welcome to the ward´´ and I gave my testimony in sacrament meeting. It went well. Im way happy to be in this area. My last wards Bishop was a power hungry freak that didnt help us. (I forgive him though)

We set a record in the mission as a zone for finding new investigators in a week. With 12 companionships we had over 200. Theres a lot of people to teach. I love it.

I cant really think of what else. Ill just answer a couple questions. Im not getting gram and gramps emails..... Im excited to see Halloween pics.... This year Elder Francis and I have some ideas to dress up. We´ll see what happens.

Sorry i gotta cut it short. Next week we arent going to have a zone activity. I promise to write more. I love the work. Wouldnt trade this for anything. Its the work of the Lord. The church is true. Have a great week.

Con amor,
Elder Heap

..i love the mish like a fat kid loves cake

Im going to make this a quick one cause I have like 10 minutes to write.
Changes came.... I got a really sweet noticia. I got changed AGAIN. Things are crazy and I already have 8 areas in my 16 short months. That means that out of the 14 months that i have in Mexico, i have been in a LOT of places. I can get around the mish pretty easy now cause I`ve been in almost every place except Queretaro.

AND I was really happy to see where I got called to. It`s a zone that i have wanted to be in my whole mission because it is famous for baptizing a lot. Its Ecatepec. AND I got bumped up as a zone leader so it is going to be the best opportunity ever. I have 22 Elders and 2 Hermanas in my zone and it should be a blast. My comp is Elder Francis from Oregon. He`s tight and probably hung out with him before the mish. He was in Helaman halls at BYU when i was and he knows Sarah Hall and Kelcie Beck. He`s a stud and goes home in February. Im stoked.

Not only that but the District leaders in my zone are Elder Christiansen and Elder Farmer (they were in my district in the MTC) AND Elder Graham and Elder Ashcraft are also in my zone (they were also in my district in the MTC) It is crazy and way fun to be together. It will be fun also cause Farmer Christiansen and I are like tight buds in the mish. Next week we are going to climb a huge mountain together. Its going to be a fun change. Oh and Elder Golledge is in my zone too. Its the sweetest zone ever.

My new area has 2 wards. San Cristobal, and Izcalli. We are probably going to baptize like 10 people this next month ``and thats A LOT`` because Elder Francis has a ton of people in teaching. So I was so excited about that.

Also, President called me yesterday and thanked me for what i did with my last district so that gave me a little boost to keep working as hard as possible. In my last district, 2 of the Elders went up as District Leaders and Elder Carrillo and another Elder in my District went up as señor companions. We pretty much all got awesome changes. I was so excited.

We had a lot of people in church as well and had a baptism. Her name is Bertha. I haven`t really mentioned her in my last letters because we never really thought she would progress, but she asked us last week if she could get baptized and asked us what she had to do. We taught her what she needed to know and she had already been to church a bunch so we baptized her yesterday before i left. It was great and next week Elder Carrillo is going to have 5 more baptisms. Im sad i wont be there to see them get baptized (Olga and her 2 kids) (another lady named Rebecca and her son Juan Antonio) Its all good though. I was ready for a change.

Since i have started my mission i have had 2 streaks. 1. I have never been in an area more than 2 changes. and 2. I have gone Mexican, American, Mexican, American with my comps since Elder Memmott in the MTC. I keep the streaks alive.

I was so pumped to hear about Brad too. He is tearin it up. Todd`s team has had some heartbreakers, but I have faith that they will go to the Superbowl (my faith depends on the faith i have in Todd and the Ravens and of the dream of Elder Milham last change)

I loved the pictures that you sent me. I have such a cute fam. I love you all. Tell Brad Copple that the purple California surfer dude shirt is sick. (or you can tell him that it would look better on Talli) haha

Oh and I bought a few new ties with the money that you sent me to buy new shoes. I promise to use the money to buy new shoes, but im going to wait a lil so i can wear my shoes out more. They`re way comfy now that they are all worn in.

Thats all the news for today. Its a lot and i love it. The mission is the best. The church is true. God lives and loves us. Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Redeemer of the world. Families can be together forever. I love my family! Have a great week!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....Rollercoaster week

This was one of the craziest weeks of my mission. Lots of ups and lots of downs. I guess thats how it usually goes, but the highs were really high and the lows were really low. Everything turned out perfect though and I think all of your prayers are helping me out a bunch.

(oh just a side note: i didnt write about conference talks last week because someone stole my lil black notebook that i have all of my notes in..... I hope that someone finds it and gets it to me, but im in MExico....the chances of that is pretty slim.... The SUnday afternoon session i got to watch in English so I got to see Elder Holland bear his testimony about the Book of Mormon..... I think that was my favorite one that i remember There were also a bunch of awesome ones on Saturday.... I even put stars next to the talks that i was going to write home about, but now i dont have my notebook)

So anyways, we had a really good first few days last week. Tuesday and Wednesday we found 11 new investigators to teach and usually we find that in 3 or 4 days. They are pretty sweet. We are contacting EVERYONE in the street and on buses and EVERYWHERE. This week we contacted more than 200 people just in the streets and counting big families as 1 person. CRAZY.... I know that the hard work pays off and God blesses us according to our efforts.

Then Thursday we went to visit the zone leaders area to help them out in the Tianguis. (I dont know how to explain what that is, but its like an outdoor market that they sell EVERYTHING there and it feels up a whole avenue) It was fun. We set up a table and handed out pamphlets and pictures of JEsus and we got a ton of appointments for our Zone Leaders out of it. It went really well. At first it didnt really go very well, but then we started yelling to get people to come talk to us. (The people that sell fruits always yell at the people to sell them there stuff and yell out the deals of the day) We were yelling ``Bring Jesus to your home for free`` ``Have a happier home and family`` etc. etc. That worked a lil better. We brought it up another level though when we started singing hymns while all the people were passing by. That had the most success and the zone leaders now have appointments with a bunch of families. We are going to try it in my area if we have time this week.

Friday and Saturday we visited a lot of the investigators that we have and just about everyone told us that they didnt want to listen to us. It was just a complete rejection. We went to like 7 houses in a row and all of the families either hid from us, werent there for the appointments, or just flat out told us that they werent interested in listening to us any more. Some of them said that they would show up by themselves to church...(a.k.a. IM NOT GOING) Even Pablo said that he feels good that we go visit him and that we are friends and everything, but that he is to busy to go to church and we dont think he will progress.

So we had previously decided to fast and pray from Saturday after the food appointment until Sunday so we did. Right after starting the fast a lot of the previous paragraph stuff happened. We were bummed. I got home Saturday night and we planned. My zone leader Elder Allen called me and asked how many people we were going to take to church and I didnt really know what to tell him. I told him that if everything goes perfect that we would have 3 or 4 in church. I finished talking to him and then my comp and I both went to our beds and prayed. I dont know how long i prayed for, but I know that I woke up like an hour and a half later on the ground and I had fallen asleep.

Sunday morning we went to pass for Bertha and Emilio. They are pretty cool. They were hardcore catholics, but they went to the general confernce and enjoyed it. They came with us to church. We got to sacrament meeting and like we thought NO OTHER INVESTIGATORS) I sat there listening to the talks and praying trying to figure out what we are doing wrong and how we could do better. A few minutes later shows up Alberto, Dora Luz, and Carlos. One of the families that we didnt believe when they said ``we will see ya there`` We were so pumped. I looked at my comp who was sitting by Emilio and Bertha and we just smiled. Like 5 minutes later Olga (Pablos wife) walks in with her sister Carolina and her 3 kids. Brayan Daniela and Julisa. My smile went from ear to ear i was so happy. Saturday they basically said that they couldnt go and they showed up. Afterwards talking to Olga she said that she was laying in bed last night at about 10:30 and felt the need that they should go. (That was the exact time that i was on my knees praying) On top of all that another guy named Ricardo showed up to church and said that he wants to get baptized. He said that he doesnt have much money, but that he wants to be a part of the church and learn about Jesus. I told him that money isn`t a requirement to join the church and we had a quick lesson with him. Sooooo..... lots of blessings. We ended up have 6 people in church for the first time and 10 investigators in total. It was definately a huge blessing. Oh, AND we found out that there was a lady and her son that was going to the other ward that lives in our ward and they arent members and they want us to go teach them. They also want to get baptized. Basically we have about 8 baptisms lined up for the next 2 weeks and everything got turned around so quick. We went from having nothing and almost no more investigators to feeling the song of redeeming love and having a lot of people interested in learning more and coming unto Christ.

I know without a doubt that my Father in Heaven answers my prayers and wants me to be happy. The mission is a funny experience because in one moment you are crying on your knees pleading for help with a blanket over your head feeling like you cant do anything and the next moment you feel like everything clicks you just want to keep giving your comp high fives until our hands hurt because of so much happiness. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ``an instrument in the Lords hands`` It reminds me of the scripture in Alma 26. Ammon is full of joy and happiness, but at the same time realizes his own weaknesses. I dont remember how it goes exactly in english, but in spanish i have it memorized so just read in Alma 26: 11 and 12. Ammon says how as to his own wisdom and own efforts he is nothing and he rejoices in his God. He knows that he is nothing, but with God he can to all thins and can do many miracles in the earth adn that he will praise his name forever. Something like that.

This weekend i have also gained a great testimony of the power of fasting. I have always fasted and had a testimony of it, but i have never received a testimony as i did Sunday. Sunday after our meeting with the ward leaders Elder Carrillo and I went to the back room and got on our knees to thank Our Heavenly Father for the many blessings that we received.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the work of the Lord that we will be victorious against the work of the devil. I know that Jesus is the Christ. He paid for my sins and loves each and every one of us. I know that because of His sacrifice I will be able to be exalted and live with my family forever according to my obedience to the principles and ordinances of His gospel. The work is true. I know it. There are no doubts.

Well thats it for this week. I tried to write a little bit more for you all. I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Have a great week!

Con amor,
Elder Heap

..intense ride to leadership meeting!

hola familia,

This was a week with lots of ups and downs. On Tuesday we had a crazy day.
5 Elders in our zone (not including the zls) we had a sleep over last monday night to go together to a leadership training meeting. everything in the world went wrong tuesday morning. We almost crashed like 4 times in the bus on the way to the metro. The metro was PACKED. we could hardly breathe. We got to the suburbano (which is a new metro that takes us from the DF to the other side of the mish) we got tickets to go and some how my comp elder Carrillo got stuck behind a bunch of people. I saw him so i went and grabbed him and pulled him through the huge crowd. We missed the first go around of the suburbano which made us even more late. then when we finally got on and to our stop. i quickly hopped off with elder anaya and the door shut behind me, leaving the other 3 elders on the metro going to the next stop 15 minutes away. Luckily me and another elder on the metro had cell phones so we could communicate and find each other. if not if would have been a show. we finally got to the meeting and we sprinted from the bus stop to the church by the mission offices. it was a pretty intense morning. The meeting went well and they had me give an example of how to put a baptismal date for an investigator in front of all the leaders of the mission and PResident nancollas. It went well.

As for my area. The work is pretty rough. We are praying and doing all we can to bring people to Christ, but the work is hard in this part of the vineyard. Pray for Elder Carrillo and I so that we can find more people that arent lazy and want to go to church and get baptized. Pablo finally gets back from his work trip so we are hoping they will get baptized soon. Pray for Pablo and his family.

Today we had a fun activity as well. We got the whole zone together to make carne asada and play pool. it was tight. ill send pics next week. Oh and i didnt lose in pool the whole day. i still got it.

Well family thats about it. i have so much happiness hearing about the success that all of you are having in your lifes. i love you all! keep praying for the missionaries and the people here in San Andres, Xalostoc.

Con amor,
Elder Heap

...Bearing my testimony in Spanish is more comfortable

Que dice familia,

Estoy muy feliz saber que todos esten muy bien. Estoy trabajando como loco aqui in Mexico y sigo recibiendo las bendiciones del Señor. Yo se que esta es Su obra ye Su gloria que ayudemos a nuestros hermanos llegar a vivir en la presencia de Dios junto con sus familias. Yo se que Dios vive y estoy animado por esta fin de semana para escuchar lo que Dios quiere que escuchemos en la conferencia general. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y el Redentor del mundo. El nos ama y quiere que le sigamos para que podamos recibir todos las bendiciones del evangelio. Yo tambien se que Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios, que el vio El Padre y El Hijo. Que el restauro La Iglesia de Jesucristo nuevamente aqui en la tierra. El libro de Mormon que el tradujo es la palabra de Dios y es otro testamento de que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador. El Libro de Mormon me ha ayudado tanto en mi mision y es el clave de nuestra religion. Tambien se que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta de Dios. Que bajo la dirreccion de Jesucristo El dirige esta Iglesia. SE TODAS estas cosas por mis propìas experiences y revelacion que yo he recibido de mi Padre Celestial. Es mi deseo que todos mis hermanos (carnales y espirituales) lo puedan saber tambien porque gracias a estas cosas he podido lograr una felicidad mas alla que podria imaginar. Cada dia es una bendicion y me puedo levantar cada dia con una sonrisa y con alegria por esto. Se estas cosas y se los comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo... Amen

Sorry if you dont understand all of that. I just felt like bearing you my testimony in spanish because its more comfortable for me. All of those things are true and for that reason Im here. Ive decided that Im just going to stay here as a missionary until im 25 and then maybe ill come home to get married real quick. There are many trials out here and many down times, but every time that happens we just work a little bit more and push through and the Lord blesses us more than we could have asked. Last week was rough. Mostly because I didnt go to church and we didnt have any investigators go. This week was a lot better. We found 21 new investigators to teach and we taught 38 lessons. Whether or not the people accept to go to church and get baptized I feel like Im doing what the Lord called me to do which is ``Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in the Lord JesusChrist and his atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end``

My favorite family that we are teaching is the family Lopez Ocampo. They are awesome. Its the parents Pablo and Olga, and their kids Byan (hes a stud) Daniela and Julyssa. They are so tight. This week Pablo left because he drives a trailer so before he left he invited us over for dinner and they made us the most delicious enchiladas. Only Bryan went to church. He went in white shirt and tie and everything and now he wants to get baptized and be a missionary (he`s 16 years old) The teacher in his class invited him to get baptized so when we went to take him home he was asking when and how he could get baptized. Its tight. Hes super smart and his highschool is right by the temple. When we taught them the Book of Mormon this week he was pumped because he loves to read. Im pretty sure he is already in 2nd Nephi. I think we are going to take them to the visitors Center one of these days. We want to baptize his whole family together. We are hoping that Pablo gets back from his work before next weekend so he can go to church and get baptized on the 11th of October. Pray for Pablo a lot so he can get back and go to general conference with Elder Carrillo and I. Oh and they also have a toco stand. The tacos are delicious and they usually invite us everynight to sit in their stand with them and teach and eat tacos. I usually tell them that im watching my weight so I dont have to eat so many, but it doesnt work with Hermana Olga.

On Friday I did interchanges with Elder Anaya. (his uncle is of the Seventy) apparently. Elder Anaya is from Guadalajara and he`s a stud. He`s humble and obedient and will be a sweet leader in the mission soon enough. We had a very successful day in his area. We invited 5 people to get baptized and they all accepted. We found 6 new investigators and taught a bunch of lessons. It was fun.

We also had a zone conference on Wednesday with ALL of the mission. Well there were 2 sessions so half and half, but in between we took a picture of the whole mission. It was tight. Elder Romney and Elder Arnett and Elder Slade and I all got together in the pictures (to represent Arizona) Oh speaking of Elder Arnett, he got a letter from Jamie Arnett and David Nielson (I know them both pretty well from school and they are getting married) Whhhhhhaaaattt? Thats crazy. Never saw that one coming. Its going to be really weird to get home and see SO many people married already. Even Amber Heap is married. Whats the world coming to? haha I love it though. Tell them all congrats for me. Oh but anyways, I got to see Elder Christiansen and Elder Farmer and Elder Golledge and Elder Memmott. Pretty much all my buddies from the mission. All my old comps except Elder Obregon (cause he`s been home for a while) It was fun and the conference went really well. I continue loving President and Hermana nancollas.

Another funny story.... We were walkin in the street and we turned and saw a car go down a flight of stairs and got stuck. We went back to help and we didnt know what to do. We found a stack bricks and we put them on all of the steps so that they wouldnt completely own their car. It worked pretty well so that the car could have a ramp and go down without to much damage. It was hilarious. I dont want to judge the teenagers her, but they arent the sharpest tools in the shed.

Thats it fam. Ive been rambling on long enough. Ill try to write down all of the funny/cool things that happen during the week so I dont just ramble like I am now.

Peace out.... Love the Lord.

Con amor,
Elder Heap

...one of my few sick days...I pulled a mom and passed out!

Hey familia

Well its been a long week to say the week. Not everything in the mission is happiness and love. Although thats what ive been goin for.
The good thing is that NOW im healthy and happy and ill give you the details of the story.

So this week we found some awesome people to teach. Unfortunately we still dont know if they went to church because we didnt even go. Ill let you know why in a few paragraphs....

So Tuesday I went on interchanges with E. Christiansen, he is from Towson Montana (i would like to know how close that is to where the Whitemans and Tanners go) (not too far north of there)He told me that i can go visit him after the mish whenever. He`s pretty cool kid. He has the same time in the mish as E. Ryan and E. Golledge. We found 4 people and put to baptismal dates for his investigators so it was a successful day. Sometimes the missionaries get scared to invite people to get baptized. When that happens, I go to their areas and I put the baptismal dates. Also to help them know how to do it for themselves.
The mission right now is going to lose a lot of awesome leaders in January and February so I just got to help all the greenies learn how to be good missionaries. Thats my task from Pres. Nancollas.

Wednesday was the Mexican Independence day and Thursday the day when EVERYONE is hammered drunk. So they were interesting days. We worked, but didnt have much success. I did interchanges on Wednesday with E. Allen, one of my zone leaders. He is cool. He`s the only zone leader from my generation (or in other words, we have the same time in the mish) i think a lot of us will move up soon when all but 5 zone leaders go home by February. We`ll see what happens.

Thursday there wasnt 1 person in the street. We just visited inactive people and they didnt even one to talk to us because they were with their families or gone.

Friday we had some major miracles. Thursday night we prayed that we would find some people that would get baptized in 3 weeks. We found some. We picked a few streets that night and knocked them in the morning. We found Reyna and her daughter. The dad of Reyna is the 2nd counselor of Elders Quorum and she is way interested in the church. The problem is that she ALWAYS works so the missionaries before didnt even know about her. Her dad has a lil over a yr as a member. She is never home, but we found her that day because her daughter was sick and didnt go to school so she didnt go to work and was there when we knocked her door. We are hoping that she went to church. (definately a blessing from the Lord)

We also got a sweet reference from our lunch appointment. Elder Carrillo (see picture)and I have started singing to the people at our lunch appointments and we have gotten some good references by doing that. Elder Carrillo has a pretty good voice. He was actually in a band and plays the guitar before the mish. He`s tight. Im going to visit him and E. Obregon after the mish. They live close to each other. They live in stakes that touch eachother.

Ok im goin to skip to Sunday. Keep in mind that now im fine and healthy and can leave the house and stuff.......
Sunday morning I woke up great showered got dressed and was ready to go get some investigators to bring to church. We went to get Lupita because she was going to get confirmed and we were in her doorway talking. I got really dizzy (pulled a mom) (i'm so sorry greg!) and asked if we could come in to sit down. So we sat at her table and i told my comp i didnt feel good and that i wanted a blessing and while i was asking i passed out..... yeeeeea.... They all freaked out and my comp said i was out for like 10 seconds before i woke up. My comp gave me a blessing and I layed down on there lil couch. (you can just imagine me in my suit with my feet hangin over their lil couch after having passed out) My comp got my cell phone and called the presidents wife to let her know. She told my comp that i needed to eat stuff and drink Gatorade or something and to go home and sleep. Lupitas dad (who loves me now) gave us a ride in his jeep to our house. I ate some bread and saltine cracker things and was out sleeping for like 3 hours. When i woke up i felt like it was a bad fever and so i called hermana nancollas again. She told me to call the doctor because she doenst know whats wrong with me. I felt comforted. haha I called the mish doctor (i was thinking that if uncle Ralph would have answered he probably would have told me to take something and to not be a girl and to go work) I felt lame, ive never had to call hermana nancollas and it was my plan to never have to call her. So the doctor said that its really probable that i have a virus thats going around. He said that if i feel twice as worse on Monday than its the virus.... (Monday is now, and i feel great) so im glad it wasnt the virus. I dont really know what happened, but Satan knew that we were going to have a lot of success and bring a lot of people to church so he had to stop us. So we didnt even know what to report about having people in church because we didnt even go. PRetty crazy.

The good things is that the Lord protects his servants and now i feel better. (I was debating whether or not to share that story with you mom because i didnt want you to freak out and call my mission president or something....so dont do that) im fine now.

Anyways that was my week. Pretty interesting one. The work is still going well. I love it. Being a missionary is awesome.

OH, i got Ambers wedding announcement. They are a cute couple and i am VERY happy for her. Tell her congrats and that i love her.

Also a shoutout to Grandma and Grandpa Riggs.... Feliz Cumpleaños!

Oh and to answer the question about the floods....No.... Supposedly it should be over with by now, but they started late this year and will probably take another month or so to stop.... That could be part of the reason why i got sick because that water is nasty.... who knows...

Anyways The church is true. This is the work of the Lord and i feel really blessed to be a part of it. I know God lives and wants our happiness. Jesus is the Christ. I started reading that again in spanish. The last time i tried it was pretty hard to understand, but now my vocab is a lot better. I love you all!

Con amor,
Elder Heap

Conference talks especificamente talking to me!

Hola Familia,

Well this was a great week. Not REALLY great like I wanted it to go, but we got a bunch accomplished. We found a couple sweet families even though it was really hard to bring them to the stake center for conference. Im sure we will have a ton in church next week.

So it has started to get way hot here. Im throwin down the sunscreen everyday (thanks for the precaucion mom) Especially since we have been tracting almost all day everyday. It is a little bit hard the work here because we don’t have very many members on our side of the ward boundaries (member how I told you there are 4 missionaries in my ward) Yea, well there are lots, just not active ones that can help us.
Im slowly getting to know more and more members and we have had a little bit more help. Our mission leader is awesome and he helped us bring investigators 45 minutes to the stake center.

Mi hijo is sweet. He gets frustrated a lot and I feel bad correcting him now, but he knows its for his own good. Im sending pictures today don’t worry mom.

It sounds like everything is going great at home! Everyone is doing good and its great to hear that others in my family love mexico too (with Todd and Ashley going, and Kurt and Carli planning to go) I think its crazy to hear about the twins talking and saying all those funny things. It sounds like they’ve grown up a ton. Also cool about Bead taking the ACTS and going to ASU. Tell the ASU coach that Brad is going to be the quarterback and im going to be his receiver…… have a little Heap to Heap action. He might like that idea.

Oh and I wanted to comment on how absolutely AWESOME conference was. There were so many talks especificamente talking to me. I don’t remember who said what because I don’t have my notes with me write now (I took bomb Spanish notes Mom….Be proud) But I really enjoyed the talks on Sunday about the temple and the importance of going often. I think everytime I have a big decision to make in my life, I am going to fast, pray and go to the temple. Almost all of the talks, said something about how hard times are right now, and its true. BUT, how lucky are we to have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I swear im turning into an old man though (at least in my thoughts). Sometimes I catch myself praying for so long. I remember like it was just yesterday that Bead and I would tell mom before she started the family prayers ¨¨don’t say a long one mom¨¨ I guess that’s a good thing though, in these hard times, its really important to spend a lot of time on our knees.

There were so many talks that I enjoyed. I felt bad that my comp wasn’t understanding very much. I read my notes to him in English haha.

Well, there isn’t that much to say today. The work is going strong and im lovin everyday of it. I think they should have kept the missions to 3 years like in the olden days. There is so much to do and so little time. Everything is too easy and too awesome in this life if we have a gospel perspective. It makes me sooooo happy! I hope that all of you enjoy each day knowing that we can be happy if we are just obedient. The church is true. There is no doubt about it. I am so thankful for my Savior that He died for me and payed the price that I could have this kind of happiness. There is no other place in the world that is better. I think im just too blessed to be stressed.

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

My new hijo!

Hola Familia,

This was probably one of the craziest/best weeks of the misión so far. My new companion (which I will be referring to as….mi hijo) is Elder Golledge from Temecula, California. He is a stud and we are going to have so much fun. I think I was laughing all week because I had completely forgotten how bad my Spanish was when I first got here. Luckily Elder Golledge is reminding me a lot how I used to be with Elder Obregon…..always so confused and not knowing what is going on. He´ll get the hang of it though. Its just funny when he does door contacts and stuff because he says lots of funny things that doesn’t make sense and then he just looks at me so that ill start talking. He is a surfer dude and played water polo and swam in highschool. I think we will get along great.

As for our new area, it is waaaay different then my previous areas. It is neither in the city nor a pueblo. Its kinda in between. But, there are a TON of people. Like I said in my last letter; there are 4 Elders in our ward. We brought 4 people to church which was pretty good for only having like a day and a half to work this week. Mi hijo didn’t get here until Wednesday in the afternoon and we spent all Wednesday night and Thursday moving into our new apartment. Our apartment, believe it or not, is the smallest one that I´ve been in so far. (I didn’t think that was possible) The good thing is though, that we are almost never in our house, just to sleep and study.

The members in our new ward are awesome and i´ve been able to get to know a lot of them in the last week. For example, yesterday at church a family asked if we could help them move some tables and couches and stuff at their house. So we went over there that night to help them and Elder Stirland and Elder Sanchez were already there. Then I was like waiting for them to tell me what to move and stuff and they brought out a huge cake with candles. They said that they wanted me to feel special here in my first week especially since it was my birthday on Tuesday. They felt bad that I was in a new area on my birthday. Ill send pictures next week, I forgot my camera.

My birthday went well though. We bought domino´s pizza and lit off fireworks. (My area Tultepec is the firework central of Mexico….. there are fireworks going off every single night) I was lighting fireworks off and I almost lit an abandoned house on fire on accident. That would have been a great birthday present, to get put in Mexican jail and have my Mission President bail me out. Haha

So yea, everything is going great. The work moves on! Im excited for my new area and my new companion and My Mission President wrote me a really nice email today thanking me for the work that I have shown thus far in my mission.

I know this church is true. I love the work. I love Mexicans. I love my family. I love everything.
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

..Neighbors in the Celestial Kingdom

Hey fam!
Pretty good week. We didn’t baptize Ismael which was a bummer, but I think we will baptize him soon! We are expecting 2 awesome baptisms this week with Jose Antonio and Maria. They are the best! We are going to marry them and take them to the visitors center on Saturday and then baptize them on Sunday. They are the best ever! Im excited cause they already want to go through the temple and stuff and in one year ill be able to go through with them. I decided that when we are in the Celestial Kingdom, they are going to be my neighbors. Last Friday, after our zone conference we called her and she was like….. Elder Heap, come over to my house, I made you enchiladas!!! So we our lunch appointment with another Hermana and cancelled it and we went to her house. We watched (The Testaments) and they were both crying at the end. Domingo was also a miracle because Jose Antonio told us that he has to work. We were praying really hard for a miracle and that he would be able to go. We called them Sunday morning and they were excited to tell us that he got the day off! We were pumped!
So the highlight of my week was definitely zone conference on Friday. President Nancollas is THE MAN! He talked to us about not losing the hunger for the work and to have the animo to work hard every day (sorry I don’t know what animo is in English) We also have a new zone leader, Elder Brown. He is tight and I think I haven’t seen him ever without a smile on his face. We are going to start studying chapter 4 this month (recognizing the Spirit) this month and really focusing on being guided by the Spirit! Im excited to study it. Pres Nancollas told us that the night before, Jeffrey R. Holland called him on the phone ( apparently they are long time friends) and was asking how things are going in the mission. Pres. Nancollas shared with him how we have been able to have better converts since he has gotten here. Apparently before Pres. Nancollas got here the mission was baptizing like crazy and very few of them are still active. Now we have seen a significant upgrade in the quality of the members that are being baptized. So maybe im not going to baptize my goal of 200 baptisms, but I want at least 100 converts! Pres. Nancollas congratulated us on that and now is asking us to have mas y mejores (MORE and better converts)
Im still struggling a lil with E. Torralba, we get a long great, but it is a struggle everyday to get him out of bed and get him out the door to work. I think he appreciates my efforts, but I haven’t seen the improvement that I want out of him. He is slowly improving, but I still have 3 more weeks with him to whip him into shape! Its crazy that there are cambios again in 3 short weeks!
Oh I almost forgot! I got your first package! It was awesome! Yes, I opened it early, but I figured if you are sending another one, ill have something to open for my birthday still haha. I loved the goodies and the ties and the letters and the pictures! I think im getting old though because I liked the letters and the pictures more than the candy and ties! Im becoming more like dad….weird! haha I also noticed the hint of all of the stamps….. Don’t worry mom ill start sending some hand written letters! Oh also another comment about the package….. Thanks for not learning how to count mom! You wrote in your letter that attached was 20 dollars, you know, 1 dollar for every year! I counted the money and came to find 3 five dollar bills and 1 twenty dollar bill. I still have 15 years to go to be 35 years old! But thanks! Ill be sure you to buy another tie or something cool! Love you mom! : )
Ill be sure to send the pictures that I promised from last week! Oh and to answer your questions mother, I think it was the 5 by 7 journal, but im not completely sure, I just know that its navy blue with gold (journal) on it. On the first page there is a geneology chart and I would love to have the same one! Thanks!
Oh another random thought. We had lunch in the house of Guillermina and Gustavo on Sunday. They are so humble and don’t have money to buy gas for their stove, but they put there names on the list to give food to the missionaries and we went! They are the best and even though they live in a cement box they are the richest people in the world (in Spirit). I am excited to see them when we all reach our Celestial Glory.
If you have noticed I have talked a little bit about seeing these people in heaven after this life and I think that is what drives me. I mean, you can be a missionary for 2 years, going through the daily motions, and never really be a missionary. The most important thing is to work hard for the people so that they also come unto Christ. Not only that, but do the ordenanzas necessary to be able to reach that goal.
Im so thankful to be a missionary. I love this work and it is the most gratifying work that you can possibly do. It is the work of God….. ´´To Bring to Pass the immortality and eternal life of man´´ I know this is His work and that I have been able to be an instrument in the His hands to bring this people unto Him. I know that He lives. He answers my prayers. He knows me personally. He puts me in positions where I can struggle, learn, and grow. He wants me to be successful. He loves each of you and each of His children and wants the best for every one of us. I have seen so many ´´lost´´ people here in Mexico and to see them recognize the love that God has for them is one of the greatest blessings that I have received. I know as we follow the commandments of God, He blesses us. I know the Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he restored the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and that he received the keys to return the Church of Christ back to the earth. I know we have a prophet today that talks to God. He with his apostles lead and guide this church. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and contains all that we need to be happy…..if we just follow the principles and words of the prophets. I know that families can be together forever. That is my goal for me and my family and as a missionary it has been my ´´fuel´´ to bring others families into the kingdom of God…..to be together with our eternal family as brothers and sisters and as children of God.
That’s it for this week! Everyone have a great week!
Oh and Bead, I want to thank you especially for you card that you sent me. It really strengthened me a lot. You are stud. That stinks about Bball! Now you can focus on school and get ready for your SENIOR YEAR! CRAZY!!!!
Thanks for all your love and support!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap