...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