19 Months...and "That's a Lot!"

Hey family,

The times continues to fly. I must be having fun. This was a great week. We did a lot of interchanges to help out some other companionships and it ended up going pretty well. Its fun because I can get to know a lot of Elders and on interchanges you always give it 110%. We found some awesome people and received some really awesome blessings. Life is good.

Before I forget, I got a bunch of letters in the zone leader council meeting from people in the ward, from Todd and Ashley, our family pic....(even though I wasnt included in it this year) and others from the Sandstroms, the Cliffords, the Allens, Uncle Ted´s family and a lot of others that I cant remember right now. Tell them all I love them. It´s great to know I have the family and friends support. Remember in my package how you sent me a bunch of thank you notes. I was planning on using them until I got here to Queretaro. The closest mailbox is in the Centro which is like 20 minutes away. I´ll just thank everyone personally when I get home.

Alright big news. So in the zone leader meeting Elder Christensen Elder Memmott and some other sweet leaders went. That means that they are going up as zone leaders soon. That means that I have a 2/5 shot of being with Elder Christensen or Elder Memmott next change. That would be sweet. I feel like it is down to Elder Memmott and Elder Palomec, but I dont know yet. We will see how things go in a few weeks. I still got to wait a month before I know for sure.

We have a lot of people progressing right now and we should be baptizing every week for the next month. I thouhgt I would help Elder McElvain go out strong. It is always fun being able to be in the font every week.

I dont really have a whole lot to say so I think I´ll send pictures. I´m reading Jesus the Christ again. I love that book. I read it at this time last year with Elder Torralba, but I think I am getting even more out of it this week!

Well I love you all!

Wish a very happy birthday to the twins. There are already 4! Thats unreal. Tell Brooklyn that I´ll be back for her birthday! Thats crazy too. I havent had the chance to ask President about the safeness of coming down here, but let me know what your plans are.

Things to send..... One or two long sleeve church shirts. I have size 17-17 1/2 size neck and 34/35 sleeve. Over 19 months I have ripped or damaged 3 and I´m only down to 1. I tried to sow them together, but I guess I wasnt paying much attention when you taught me that one time. I´ll survive, but it would be nice to have some more. Those Hershey Chocolate mix things to make hot chocolate. Those were delicious. Top Ramen. Random candies. The purple skittles. oh and I would like the crepe recipe again. I lost it since the last time you sent it. I´m going to make em one of these days. And other surprises that you got for me..... Love you all!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...suffering afflictions with patience ALSO leads to success

Hey family,

Well it was a great week. We are seeing huge strides of improvement in the zone and especially in my district. We are looking to be able to have some good weeks coming up. Usually if we put more baptismal dates and take more people to church good things happen.

I think my letter might be a lil quick this week and I apologize. We have to run. We are going to go grab something quick to eat hang up our clothes that are washing right now and then going to a district meeting which is on the other side of the city of Queretaro. THEN we are going to take a 3 hour bus ride to go sleep at the offices because tomorrow we have a zone leader meeting. Elder Christensen got invited. That means he is going up this next change so I am way excited for that.

ANYWAYS, I´ll get to the important things. This week I did interchanges with the senior companions of the 2 other companionships in my district. (As zone leader ´´menor´´ I have a district and a zone, its cool though) So Wednesday I went with Elder Perez. He had 2 people to baptize on Saturday so I did the interviews and it was fun to be able to teach him some stuff and learn from him as well. He´s a good Elder from Guadalajara. The people in his area are really rude though and when we tried to give out passalong cards they would look at them and throw them on the ground or not accept them. It was lame. It motivated us more though and we contacted like a million people that day. It was a fun day.

Friday I went with Elder Nuñez. He is from Baja California. He has 6 weeks less time than I do in the mission and it was a fun day. His area is HUGE though. To get to one of his appointments we took a 45 minute bus ride and we were like 10 minutes away from Guanajuato (its another state and not in our mission) His ward is one of the richest wards in the mission. It was fun to eat lunch in a mansion. I felt like I was in the estate groves ward for a little bit. I actually ate lunch a couple blocks away from Elder Lyons house. He is a general authority, of the 70 and lives in that ward. The whole day was hard to find investigators and contact and it was frustrating, but it all was worth it. It was hard mostly because of the crazy wind, hail and rainstorm that randomly showed up after a hot morning. We sprinted from appointment to appointment. That night we had a family night with an ex-bishop who just arrived to their ward. He invited a few families. It turned out to be an awesome lesson. We taught the restoration and put baptismal dates with all of them. The spirit was really strong. It was a family of 4 and then another lady and her daughter. Putting 6 baptismal dates in one appointment is not to bad. They all accepted. The hermano that is a member gave a strong testimony and congratulated them on their decision to be baptized. He told them ´´if you get baptized and keep strong in the faith, you will change your lives´´ I think having a lesson with member is always more powerful.

Alright, I´ll get to Sunday real quick. We were way excited to have a ton of people, but almost all of them fell. The people that we really wanted to go to church didnt go. They got sick or left out of town or other lame excuses. We felt so bad and frustrated. After a long week of hard work, it´s hard not to see the fruits. However, one investigator that we didnt think would go, went. His name is Luis. His wife is a member and has been for 10 years. He has listened to the missionaries many many times and has lost count of how many companionships have taught him. He goes out of town a lot and so the missionaries give up on him. He has never had the desire or felt the need to be baptized, but we thought we´d give it a shot. We have been teaching him lately. Usually not more than 1 or 2 times a week at the most. He hasn´t gone to church because he has been gone, but he went yesterday. He and his wife have the cutest little girl named Andrea (she´s 4) and since the first time we visited his house I could see that they could become a wonderful eternal family.

At church we made an appointment for that night (last night) We went over there with the idea to put a baptismal date with him and teach him about the family proclamation para el mundo. While reading the family proclamation I could see his whole countenance change. At the end he was tearing up a little bit and we explained how ´´There are more posibilites to receive happiness in the family when you base it on the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ´´ (I dont know how it goes in english, but thats my translation) We explained that to have an eternal family we have to be married and sealed in the temple. If we do that and follow the commandments we will live in the presence of God with our families forever. We taught that to achieve that, it is important to take the first steps of the gospel.... have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repent and Baptism for the remision of sins. My companion invited him to get baptized this 30th of January and he responded with tears in his eyes ´´por supuesto que si´´ In english that means ´´of course I will´´ My smile grew from ear to ear and his wife started crying a little bit. He is going to be an awesome member of the church. The problem in the last few years has been his work, but now he has more flexibility. He has been prepared and it´s his time. God has that time for everyone. I love it.

So.... after suffering many afflictions and frustrations and learning how to have even more patience in my mission.....We got to see some fruits. I think baptizing Luis is going to be better than baptizing 10 other people because they have the goal to go the temple and have an eternal family

I am grateful for my eternal family. I love you all so much!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...Obedience+Faith+Works=Miracles

Hey Heap Fam,

This week was on my top 5 best weeks of my mission for sure. It was just one of those weeks when we felt so guided by the Spirit it wasn´t even funny. We prayed last Monday so that we could find a family that was going to get baptized this month. We ended up finding more than just 1 family. So it starts off last week in our zone meeting. We talked about how vacations are over and how its time to get back to work and the importance of living worthily and having faith to have God do the rest. It went really well. Elder Hunter and Elder Ashcraft from my generation are 2 of the district leaders so thats pretty fun. My companion and I committed everyone to be obedient and ask God with faith to put a family in there path to get baptized this last week.

AFter the meeting we went to a family night while some other Elders went to eat in the mall next to our church. While they were there they contacted this lady and her son and they wanted to listen to the missionaries. They live in our area and we went the next morning to see if they were really interested. We got to her house a little late because we spent the morning cleaning up after the Elders that left bright and early (the district of Elder Hunter stayed the night at our house because they live far away and there wasnt any transportation for them after the meeting) Anyways, we got there and at about the same time she walked up to us. She had a huge smile and told us that she didnt think that we would end up finding her house. We had an amazing lesson and she said she wants to be a part of the church. Her husband died a few years back and she wanted answers. We explained a little of the plan of salvation and made an appointment to come back when her son would be there. They are both awesome. Her son is going through a divorce and he has 2 daughters. He´s awesome. Their names are Irma and Eric. They went to church and should get baptized at the end of the month.

We were so pumped walking out of the appointment, but we still felt like there was another family waiting for us. We found some more people on Tuesday, but none that were really interested. Wednesday we spent the day contacting everything that moves, knocking doors, visiting old investigators and searching for ´´the family´´. We had success and taught a ton of lessons, but we were still frustrated at the end of the day because we couldn´t find that family they we knew God would help us find. We did everything to be worthy of having the Spirit. Every morning jumping up at 6:30, studying, not spending time with members or in the food appointments, praying million times a day etc, etc. Every morning we would get on our knees and pray that we could find this family that Heavenly Father needed us to find.

Thursday, we started off the morning knocking doors. We have decided that we just are going to walk in the streets contacting people and we only knock the doors that are open. We didnt want to waste even 1 minute knocking doors if the people aren´t even home. So we got to a point where we were done with our appointments and so we just stopped on the street corner. We didnt have back up plans or anything. My comp asked ´´So now what should we do?´´ I didnt really know, but with lots of faith and a big smile I told him that we were going to go find the family before lunch. We only had like 45 minutes before the food appointment.... So we turned down a street and started walking. Like 2 minutes later we both saw a lady hanging up clothes and my comp looked at me and told me that that was her. We went and contacted her and she said that her house was a mess and she didnt want to let us in. We talked for a little bit longer and persuaded her to let us in to offer a prayer for her home and her famliy. We went in and sat down while she called down her daughter in law and her 2 other daughters and we sat at the table, prayed and started teaching. It was a good lesson and they understood perfectly. We taught the Restoration and invited them to church. We explained how much it can bless a family that might be struggling to have unity and love and peace in their home. We taught them how to pray and the mom (Nelva) said the closing prayer. In the closing prayer she started´´Padre Celestial..... and broke down crying... after gaining composure she thanked our Heavenly Father for sending 2 young men to her home to teach the gospel. She said ´´thank you Heavenly Father because I have been praying for guidance day and night so that I can know how to have more happiness in my life´´ she said ´´Now father, I know that you love us and know us and have a true path here on earth to guide me and my family´´ She struggled through the whole prayer and it was really hard not to fight back the tears. We shook their hands and put another appointment for the next day. I have never felt like I did at that moment walking away from that house. I felt like God knew exactly where I was and what I was doing and that that is where He wanted me to be. It is an incredible feeling knowing that you can and are an instrument in the Lords hands. I felt like Lehi when he tried the fruit of the tree of life and wanted his family and all of the children of men to try it. I just felt like getting on my knees on the dirt road and thanking my Heavenly Father for blessing us to find ´´the family´´. God answers prayers. Like it says in Ether ´´God can´t do any miracles among the children of men until after they show their faith´´ They went to church and we presented them with some other families at the church building. They are way excited. My ward has a bunch of young men and young women which will help us out with this family (the family Castillo Gonzalez). It´s probably the biggest ward I have been in in my whole mission. It was great to see them in church. I love being a missionary.

So yea, it was a great week. We continued finding more people after, but if they don´t go to church it is hard to continue with them. If they dont go to church, they can´t progress. This week we had 11 lessons with members present and 18 other lessons. Thats a lot of teaching in 5 days. That is apart from teaching in the door and contacting in the street. I feel good about the work that my comp and I put in this week. Elder McElvain is awesome. He is a spiritual giant. This is his last change so we are going to give it all we got this change. I´m excited.

This next week we are going to do interchanges just about everyday. We got to help out the other districts and other missionaries. Now that I know how to get around my area and all that we will be able to do that more. This last week our zone did better in every aspect then the week before so we are just looking for progress week by week. Queretaro isn´t known for baptizing a whole lot, but we have great members and a great stake President so we will see what happens.

Oh.... and its freezing. Really really really cold. Especially in the morning. The members say that usually its not this cold, but I´ve been using sweaters and my jacket every day. I also bought some sweats with the rest of the money that you sent me. It came in handy even though I didnt need to buy shoes. Thanks!

AND, I´m so pumped that the Ravens beat the Patriots....that just made my day. I thought they were going to play the Chargers in the next round, but I guess it will be good to beat the Colts and get them out of the way. I´ll pray for Todd´s health!

And to answer your question about dangerousness here in Mexico. Yeeeea, it´s a little dangerous in the state of Mexico. Like in my last two areas, I´m sure if you came down we´d be fine. I know lots of missionaries have their parents come down, but it´s your call. I havent asked President, but I´m sure it´s cool. Out here in Queretaro it is a lot more safe. We even hitch-hiked this week and the guy that took us was way nice. The people are a little bit more wealthy here in Queretaro so I think that makes a small difference.

I´ll leave it up to you guys though. What ever you think is best. I´m down for whatever.

Well I´m going to try to send pics really quick so I´m going to end the email. Just know that I´m healthy and happy and loving every minute.

Con amor,
Elder Greg R. Heap

...Prospero Ano

Yo what up fan,

I´m goin to have a few minutes to write so I´ll give you the Dl on whats goin on..... I just got to my new area. It´s called El Sol (a.k.a. the sun) That doesnt even make sense though cause when i got here it was cloudy and kinda cold. (Actually its name is after a mall that is in my area) My new companion is Elder McElvain. He is tight. He only has one more change before he goes home, but he is a really hardworker and has been a zone leader since I´ve gotten here to the mish. It will be a fun change. He´s a big dude. A little bit shorter than me, but he was a wrestler. He was excited to see that I brought him weights all the way from Ecatepec. We have some goals to get this area and zone back in gear. It´s been struggling lately, but we will change that. This zone when I got here to the mission was the place where they sent all the ´´struggling missionaries´´ that didnt want to work. It´s very clean and the people are not financially challenged here. It should be a new fun experience. We will see what happens.

To rap up my last few changes..... I loved it. Ecatepec was one of my favorite areas. We are going to visit some people from there when you guys come. Today, an hermano Gabriel gave me a ride from Ecatepec all the way here. Normally it would be like a 4 hour bus ride, but we made it in a little under 2. Hermano Gabriel is a stud. He had a cd of Red Hot Chili Peppers playin and I felt like I was on my way to California with all my bags packed. I tried to put in the ´´Called to Serve´´ cd, but he said that that is no good for road trips. He´s funny.

I left my last zone in good hands and with a lot of baptisms and confirmations for this upcoming week. I feel good about what I got to accomplish my first few changes as a zone leader.

Well I think i got to get goin. Tell Todd good luck against the Patriots. That should be a good game!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....Quick Note

hey fam....

I just thought i`d write real quick. I`m gettin changed. I might not have time tomorrow to write you. Everything is great. I got to baptize Brenda yesterday and confirm her today. Life is good. I`m goin to Queretaro!!!! I`m pumped. There are 2 stakes in my new zone and it covers the whole state. I`m so excited.
I`ll try to write tomorrow!

Love you !

Elder G Heap