...Lovin it, Pray for Elder Francis!

Hola Familia,                                      Me & Elder Memmott

Everything is going well.  I`m just hear in the computer cafe with Elder Memmott.  He got here last night and we have already had some great adventures.  Before I get into that though, I`ll talk about this last week.  My last week with Elder McElvain.

Another great week.  We had some miracles happen as usual and Elder McElvain was able to end his mission baptizing so that was great.  In the week it was hard to work a lot because we were in other areas and stuff.  We are teaching some cool people, but we didnt have very many new investigators in church though.  We are teaching a guy named Chaquer Dajlala.  His ancestors are from Arabia, but he is born and raised in Chihuahua.  He is really funny and has a mini restaurant.  He always makes me green chili burros of machaca.   It`s delicious.  Anyways, he has had some struggles in his life and is seperated for the moment from his wife.  He wants more than anything to have his family together, but he needs to repent for some things in his past.  He takes notes when we teach him and told us this week.  ``When I convert myself, I´m going to be Bishop``  I think he beats out Krazy Karl easily on the crazy scale.  His common language is swearing after every word, but he is getting better.  He has a son that lives in Salt Lake and is goin to visit him in Agosto.  We will see how he progresses. 

We are also teaching a guy named Jose Miguel.  He is great.  Really humble and willing to follow the Lord.  He shows up to church by himself and is doing great.  We still have to teach him some commandments, but if everything goes well and he doesnt have problems than he will get baptized on Sunday.  

We had some miracles pass in the lives of Josefina and Karina.  All week they were not sure about getting baptized.  We have taught them about everything, but they felt like their family would get mad if they changed religions.  We were trying to help them see the importance of being baptized and they understood and wanted to be baptized, but something was holdin them back.  We had them get interviewed even though they werent really sure.  In the interview of Josefina she said that she didnt want to, but her daughter Karina accepted it.  She is only 15 though so she needed her mom to sign for consent.  They told us that they werent going to do it because their family members would kill them if she did.  That happened on Friday.  We prayed that night for guidance to know how we could help Josefina and Karina and had an appointment for Saturday morning.  When we got their in the morning they were sweeping and mopping their house.  Elder McElvain grabbed the mop and I grabbed the broom.  We started doing it for them (They have a pretty big house)  We swept the porch and the house and we were singing to the music that they had playing and it was really funny.  After cleaning for a while their family members got their and saw us cleaning the house.  They started laughing because we were singing the Mexican songs that all the drunks listen to.  They started talking to us and were more receptive.  At the end of it we sat down and Josefina said that they were going to get baptized.  They got baptized that night at 7 and we spent the day telling the members about the baptism.  It was awesome and everything turned out perfect.  They got confirmed members of the church yesterday and I got to confirm them, because Elder McElvain left yesterday at 5 in the morning to go to the state of Mexico. 

I spent all Sunday with a joven named Sarul Zarate.  He is a stud.  He helped me out a bunch and is the same age as Bead.  Then Sarul`s dad took us to go get Elder Memmott at the bus station in the centro.

Thats a new story.  Elder Memmott got here at like 9:30 last night and at 11 the Hermano Zarate had to pick up his daughter from some restaurant where she works.  So for an hour and a half last night we were walking around the centro of Queretaro checking out all the huge Catholic church`s and big fountains and the big Arches.  (I`ll send you pictures of some if it that me and Elder McElvain checked out last Monday)  It was fun.  The city looks amazing at night.  When you come we will spend a whole day here in Queretaro.  It was a fun night though.  Two white kids and a joven with suits in the centro.  It was really fun.  The good thing about Queretaro is that it is extremely safe.  (i dont want to jinx myself)  but it`s a fact.  There are a lot of policemen and everything is really clean and lit up.

Oh and my email did change it`s   gregheap@new.myldsmail.net  but if you send it to my old address it will automatically get to my new one so dont worry about it.  I got your emails and the email from Kurt as well.  The church mail converted to a ``gmail`` based program and it`s way better.  So thats that announcement.

Also I have some really sad/bad news.  Elder Francis had a boiler blow up on him on Saturday.  He had some 3rd degree burns and is in the hospital.  I dont know a lot of the details, but I just ask all of you to pray for him.  He should have been getting home to see his family today, but instead is in the hospital...stuck in Mexico.  I`m going to try to visit him next Monday if I get permission.  We`ll see what happens.  Keep him in your prayers.

For right now I gotta go.  I`ll send pictures in a little bit.  We are going to go eat with an Hermana.
Thanks for your love and support.  I`ll talk to ya`ll later!

Cuidense

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...My New Companion will be Elder Memmott! (My MTC companion)

Im just going to apologize.... I dont have time to write today.  It was a great week and I`ll try to write tonight if i get the chance after the district meeting.  Irma, Luis, Javier and Martha all got baptized and confirmed.  It was amaaaaazing!  I love being a missionary!  I also took a bunch of pictures this week!  I`ll try to send them a.s.a.p.

I forgot to tell you about the mission division last week.  I was plannin on it but i forgot.  Queretaro (where i am now) will be part of the North mission, but Ecatepece, Coacalco and Xalostoc (all part of my last 2 areas) will be in the new Northwest mission.  Crazy!  Life is good!

OH!  More big news..... Elder Memmott is comin out to Queretaro!!!!! We are going to be companions.  President Nancollas told me in my interview and then confirmed it with Elder Memmott in his.  I`m so pumped.  It will bring back MTC memories I`m sure.  Im way pumped.

Well, I love you all!  If I get a chance I`ll write a lil later!


Con amor,
Elder G. Heap

...Rain, Sickness, Blessings

Family,

Things are good in the work of the Lord. The work is moving along quite nicely and as a zone we have stepped it up in a lot of aspects. The next month we are going to be studying as a mission chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel which is about Recognizing the Spirit so it should be a good month.

The last week was full of ups and downs. There are always more ups than downs the so its all good.

The downs:
In Queretaro it rained 4 straight days this week without stopping. It was much needed here, but it did a lot of dammage. Our street was full of water so we would start the day of sludging through the gross rain water every morning trying to jump the puddles (ponds) and try to stay dry. The members were awesome though after recognizing that we would go out in the same wet jackets every morning they lent us sweatshirts and flannel shirts and one day this week I even wore a Jean Jacket.

My comp. was sick for like 3 days. We had to go get him some antibiotoics in the farmacias and he`s still takin them. He got a temperature really bad one of the nights and I got to give him a blessing. He`s doing a lot better, but he`s upset because after the temperature he got 3 huge cold sores on his lips. He is hoping that they go away before he goes home in 2 weeks. His girlfriend is waitin for him so he is prayin really hard haha.

I got sick a little bit, but not nearly as bad as my comp. I just had a stuffed up nose and I`d wake up in the middle of the night a lot because of it.

I got stuck a little bit in mud one day and my shoes got owned.

There was no one in the streets so we couldnt contact anyone. A lot of people didnt open up when we knocked their doors, but luckily some of them just let us in because they felt bad for us.

Ups:

All of our investigators are progressing really well. We didnt find very many new investigators this week, but when we got to church on Sunday Javier, Martha, Irma, Luis, Josefina, Karina, and Alberto were there. They beat us to church. The first 4 on that list are all going to be way awesome converts. Josefina and Karina have gone 2 weeks straight to church, but they are resisting a little bit their baptisms. Alberto is the boyfriend of a member and I think he is way interested. We will see what happens with him.

We got to teach a lot this week about the Plan of Salvation. We usually dont teach it quite as often as we did this last week. I think we taught it like 8 times. I love teaching it especially when they really grasp it. It changes peoples lives when they really understand. Understanding the Plan of Happiness has blessed my life and I`m so grateful to know where I came from, why im here and where im going.

So I dont have that many more updates, but everything is good. I have been praying for Kurt and for Brad Copple and for all of you.

Congrats Car Car on the big news! I`ll be prayin for you so that everything goes well.

I gotta run! I`m gettin my haircut and then we are going to do a deep clean of our house. Even some yard work. haha

Con amor,
Elder G Heap

Hey family....what time is?

Dear Family:

Another great week. Seeing miracles and blessings daily and I`m lovin it. Its raining today. That was way random. It hasnt rained for a few weeks. It was fun though. We got to play soccer in the rain. 6 or 7 months ago Pres. Nancollas banned soccer because we had an american Elders vs. Mexican Elders game and there was a fight (i was not involved) Its kinda a good way to get frustrations out...(if there are frustrations) I just take it as a tranquilo way to get to know the other Elders in the zone. There were no fights today. A few weeks ago in our zone leader council he decided that we can have ipods (with just church music) and that we can now play soccer (but only one time as a zone in a change) I thought about asking you to send me an ipod, but i decided that that is pretty risky. How about you just get me a sweet one and save it for when i get home. deal? I guess its not to far away. I still use my speakers and cd player morning and night and YES, i would like you to send me the childrens mexican cd thing that you made. Only if its a cd though. I figure if its when you were little then they only had tapes back then. I dont want that. Thanks mom...love you.

I`m glad you got my letter. I might try to write and send another one tomorrow. I`ll try to get better. My comp. Elder McElvain is pretty good about writing his fam and novia so I thought i might do that. `

I`ve gotten really bad about writing in my journal so try to save the emails that im sending you. that would be great.

Alright..... the good stuff....
So this week was very productive. We got a lot of work done. We only had one interchange so it was good to get our area straightened out. We are looking good to have a lot of people get baptized this month.

We are teaching a family that is pretty sweet. Josefina, justino, and their daugther karina who is 15. They went to church and enjoyed it. They showed up by themselves. The dad justino said that he worked in Flagstaff, AZ for a little while and thought it was cool that Im from AZ. He says that they treated him well there until he got sent back to his country. I hope they progress. They are a great family.

Another way awesome story. So a few weeks back me and Elder Rodriguez found a guy and his wife. Their names are Javier and Martha. It was a cool story how we found them because I was teaching Elder Rodriguez a technique that I sometimes use that I just contact the open doors. I felt like I heard a scream in a house so I knocked it. They opened the door and they were just watchin t.v. Martha said that she was about to leave, but Javier let us in. (He was completely drunk) He had a bottle of straight up alcohol in his pants and when he expressed his desire to change and give up the alcohol I asked him for it. He took another swig and gave it to me. I put it in my backpack and dumped it out later. Anyways, we went back the next day and this time he had 2 bottles of alcohol. I kinda got mad at him and told him that he cant drink and that he needs to follow Jesus. He started crying and said that he wants to stop. His wife just sat there embarrassed. It was a stressful situation. We gave them like 40 pesos each so that they could go to the hospital to get the alcohol out of his system with a suero....I think that might be translated as I.V. Quien sabe. So yea, they went to church last week even though Javier was shaking the whole time. They liked it a ton! They said they learned a lot and are going to keep going. So then we visited him this last Tuesday and he said that he hadnt taken a drink of alcohol since last Friday. He doesnt have work right now so he asked us for more stuff to give him to read so that when he has ganas to drink (what is ganas in English?) he can just read. We thought it was a perfect time to teach him about the Book of Mormon. We taught him and he sat there fascinated and asked how much it cost. We told him that the price was to read it.... all of it. He took that really seriously. Since Tuesday he has read 3 Ne 11, 2 NE 31, 2 Ne 9, and then he has started from the beginning and is a little past 1 Ne 20. He is reading and applying it and told us on Friday that ``for a long time I have lived my life like Laman y Lemuel`` He also told us that he has had some pressure from his family and they were making fun of him because he went to the Mormon church. He told us ``I felt bad because my family made fun of me, but I guess Nephi`s brothers laughed at him when he was building the boat and all he was doing was being obedient`` Javier is the man. The Book of Mormon changes lives and Javier loves the Book of Mormon. He says that it is 10 times better than the Bible because he understands it haha. So Martha was a little unsure of the situation and just went to church last week to support Javier. She loves the gospel now too. This next Tuesday she is going to the activity to help some of the hermanas make tamales. They are so happy now. They showed up to church yesterday by themselves and are preparing to get baptized. Since that second day that we took away his two bottles of alcohol he hasnt had one drink. Today he went with an hermano to the stake center because there is like a job center thing (i dont know how to say it correctly in english) centro de recursos?, centro de empleo? So they are doing awesome. Saturday morning they said that they wanted 2 things from us. 1. They asked us if we can keep visiting them to learn more and feel good and 2. They asked us to keep our eyes open for some jobs because we are always walking the streets.
We told him of course that that is our purpose to help people especially helping them come unto Christ.

So yea, Javier and Martha are awesome. We are planning their baptisms for the 13 of February.

Irma is getting baptized at 7:00 this Saturday. I think i have already commented about her a few weeks ago. She is still doing great and reading the book of mormon. All the members have been assuming that she was already a member because she always comes with her bible her book of mormon and with a dress or at least skirt or something nice. She is pumped about it. We are still workin with her son Eric, but he has been workin a ton lately.

Luis didnt get baptized this past week which was frustrating. He left Wednesday to Toluca and said he would get back on Friday....well, he didnt. Kind of frustrating. We gotta talk to him to see whats up. He`s a good guy though and unless something ridiculous happened he still wants to get baptized. Pray for him.

I think it would be awesome if you come down to get me. Elder Christensen and i have been brainstorming cool things to do. Everyone says its dangerous, but I think mexicans are just paranoid. In 2 years in dangerous places I`ve been fine. When you guys come we wont go to those places.

To explain my little subject thing I put ``what time is`` My comp and I have figured out that translating spanish exactly in to english makes everything really funny. I always ask my comp what time is because in spanish its ``que hora es`` It makes for funny conversations.

Anyways changes are in 3 weeks. Elder McElvain just realized that he will be in his house 3 weeks from now and is freakin out. The miossion just sent him his flight plans. That means that Elder Francis is going home too. Time is flyyyyying.
I`m excited though. Being a zone leader has been fun and I love it here in Queretaro. It is a lot nicer and a lot cleaner. Today Elder McElvain and i went to the mall and i thought I was in America. It was a nice mall and had Liverpool and Italian suit stores, lots of cool things. I forgot what its like to walk around in a mall like that.

Well thats it for today! i love you all and have a great week!

Oh before i forget, should i be preparing things like classes and stuff or re register to go back to BYU. I have no idea. So can you look into that for me? Ill email you again with my i.d. user thing and my password to get into my website on the byu page thing. Thanks mom, much love.

Have a great week! I love you all and pray for you daily!

con amor,
Elder Greg Heap