ELDER GREG HEAP

...100% obedience mixed with Hard and Intelligent Work, and following the Spirit, is the key to Success.

2010-04-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hey fam....

Back at the offices. Time is flying. Each week goes by faster than the last.

This week I was with Elder Meraz. He is a stud. He is 26 years old from Torreon, Mexico. He is already a licensed international lawyer, but decided to serve a mission and is really here for the right reasons. He actually was supposed to start the mission the same time i did, but he got sick in the CCM and had to wait over a year. He is one of my favorite comps that I´ve had, even though I was only with him a week. He says that I should do law school so we can be associates in Salt Lake. haha He speaks pretty good english. My first night with him he came in while I was unpacking and gave me a new tie and a soccer jersey. He said that he always likes to welcome his new comps. with somethin to show his appreciation for them. President is plannin on moving him up as a zone leader this next change. He deserves it. He has baptized every week this change and his district is leading the mission right now. Before the week started, President just told me to go teach him how to take control of a zone and have success as a leader. He´s a great teacher and is always excited to help people learn of the gospel. I learned a lot myself. It was a great week.

A lot of things happened this week also. Elder Meraz is in the area of Ciudad Labor which is right next door to Valle de Tules. We started working and to my surprise he took me to the street of Maria and Jose Antonio (my converts from over a year ago) We stopped by real quick to say hi and to see how they´ve been doin. They were way excited to see me and Hermana Maria started screamin when she saw me at her door. She screamed to her husband ´´it´s Heap, it´s Heap!´´ They havent been going to church the last couple months because they have been visiting Jose Antonio´s dad on the weekends. He has been sick. We invited them to go to church in the Ciudad Labor ward (with the new division of the 2 wards, they now are supposed to go to that ward anyways) She brought her daughter, Brenda, who isn´t a member so Elder Meraz is going to start teaching her. Elder Meraz told me that he´ll call me if she decides to get baptized so I can go and baptize her. That would be way sweet. It´s in my plans to go visit them when you guys come down to pick me up.

This week we worked extremely hard. 100% obedience mixed with Hard and Intelligent Work, and following the Spirit, is the key to success. I think I was able to help in a few little things.

My next assignment, I will be in Cuautitlan. I´m going to be with Elder Carrillo and his comp Elder Leon. It should be fun. President also has plans to move him up as a zone leader this next change. It is almost the same assignment as last week. I will be with him just one week.

Tomorrow we have a future leaders training meeting. Over 50 Elderes are comin here to the offices tomorrow. It will be a good meeting. We are basically just goin to divide up into 4 groups and do pracitces and teach all the future leaders. We are also going to focus on OBEDIENCE. Right now, the mission has takin a little dip down in its´ obedience level so President Nancollas has a presentation on that to help us all see the importance of being 100%.

Yesterday I hit the 22 month mark. That is pretty crazy. Elder Molino freaks me out every Sunday when he calls me to say how many weeks we have left before going home. It freaks me out thinking that the weeks I have left fit on the fingers of my hands. I remember when Elder Romney had the time that I had and the weeks just flew by. Now he almost has a month being home.

Today has been fun so far. We had our meeting with President Nancollas. It is sweet that he has such confidence in us to make pretty big decisions. We pretty much just council about missionaries and look for solutions to help the mission improve as a whole. It´s a lot of responsibility. We plan for future transfers and the division of the mission. We make phone calls and email the stake presidents. We take numbers from the zone leaders. We put together Excel spreadsheets with the averages and numbers of the mission. We look at tendencies and correlations and then make plans and pray about what we need to do to get answers to fix the problems.

I´ve been learning a lot.

Well I´m glad everything is good at home. Prom looked fun Bead. Send pictures Car Car. Brooklyn looks like an amazing (and very cute) coach-pitch player. That sounds like a sweet opportunity for Brad Gulbrandsen. Tell him I love him. Elder Christensen is coming to the offices tonight and we are going to plan this itinerary thing so that you dont worry mom. I´ll send it to you tonight, or next week. In the meanwhile, I´m going to get my camera downstairs to send ya´ll some pics.

Well fam, I love you all. Keep the faith and trust in the Lord.

I love the Savior. I get to know Him more and more each day. I know He lives. I know He paid for our sins. I know that if we will follow Him, we will be happy. I know that this is His church and that He guides and directs it through modern prophets. I know that He knows and loves us and that if we become as He is, we will be together forever in eternal happiness.

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...Rested and Ready for a new week!

2010-04-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

Today has been a good day. I´m here in the offices again. We are going to go to Wendy´s in a little bit in the van. It is fun to be able to drive again. I figure if I can drive in Mexico, I can drive anywhere. The video games when I was little may have paid off. Tell Preston to keep up the good work. I just got back from playing soccer with Elder Christensen the other assistants, the secretaries and some of the zone of Tepalcapa. It was way fun to get out and run around for a little bit. I´m going to make this email quick, but if I have time tonight I´ll write another quick note. We are going to go to a couple zone meetings tonight to make sure the zone leaders are doing their job.

So I ended the 2 weeks with Elder Perez with a bang. We brought 7 people to church for the first time and we found 3 people that had listened to the missionaries before, but for some reason or another they didnt get baptized so we put the baptismal date for this next Sunday so I guess we did pretty well in our 2 weeks together. When I got there there weren´t very many investigators and now Elder Perez and his new comp are going to have a lot more people in teaching. The Lord helped us out a ton. We were able to find some people that are ready and prepared and that makes everything so much easier. I think Elder Perez is excited and his district is more excited. They should have a lot of success this next change.

This morning we had a meeting with President Nancollas. It is way sweet to be able to help President Nancollas for the upcoming months. There are a lot of changes and a LOT of missionaries going home in the next few months. (including me) On top of that, the mission is getting split up and instead of have the average of 180 missionaries. We will be down to about 130 starting July. That means that we need to make a lot of leaders for both missions. We have to train a secretary and another assistant for the new mission and we have to make sure the mission is still baptizing week after week. It´s a lot to think about, but President Nancollas is the man for the job. It was also way cool just talkin to him for about an hour after the meeting about life and family and the gospel. He is a good example for me and I look up to him a lot. So we are going to have a ton of meetings in the next few months so that we can get all the future leaders prepared. Apart from that Elder Molyneaux and I are going to keep going with the new leaders to make them as prepared as possible.

For my new assignment I will be going to the zone of Tepalcapa. That´s where Elder Christensen is the zone leader and it will be nice because it is the zone closest to the offices. The Elder that I´m going to train is named Elder Meraz. I don´t know very much about him, but I do know that he has 27 years. He doesn´t have that time in the mission, but he seems pretty mature and is a hard worker. President has him planned to go up as a zone leader this next change so I think I´m just going to give him a preview of what to do, how to do it and how to help others have success as well. From what I hear, he´s a way cool Elder. We will see how it goes. I´m excited.

Other exciting things.....

This morning I got to take a nap. That was awesome.

I did interchanges with Elder Farmer from my generation because he is in Elder Perez district. In one day we put 9 baptismal dates and they all accepted AND went to church. He is tearin it up.

I´ve been telling everyone in Elder Perez ward that I only have 4 months in the mission and they all say ´´Wow, how did you learn spanish so fast?´´ That is way better than hearing ´´¿Oh, so you are almost going to go home? What are you going to do when you get home? (A lot of times when a missionary is going to end there missions the members use the term....´´Ya mero te vas a morir´´ Basically saying oh you´re about to die) So I think it is better if they think I only have 4 months.

Well I can´t think of anything else to say.
Thanks for the pictures. Everyone looks great! Bead....You probably should stop working out, your goin to rip your shirts

I love you all!
The Church is true!
Live the gospel and you will be happy!
Follow the prophet!
Love the Savior!
Keep the faith!
Have a great week!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....the work is true!

2010-04-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hey family, Elder Anaya, Elder Molino, Elder Allen, and ME!

I feel exhausted. I dont think I have ever put so much energy into one week of work like this last week. I have been working in Nicolas Romero. It is the bottom corner of the mission and it is in the same zone as Valle de Tules. Its crazy to think I was there more than a year a go with Elder Torralba. It is cool to see how much improvement and experience I´ve gained since being there. I have been working there with Elder Perez who hasn´t been a district leader before. He feels a lot of pressure and I think I´ve been able to help him with the adjustment. We have been workin like locos. Its been pretty fun though contacting everyone.

In our area we did ok. We found some people to get baptized at the end of this month, but there is still a lot of work to do. I think I am going to stay with him one more week to make sure he has the hang of everything. Then I will be off to Tepalcapa (a zone that I´ve never been in) with Elder Meraz. He is really a great Elder. He has like 27 years old and works really well. I´ll probably just be with him for a week and then I´m not really sure. Tomorrow we have the zone leader council and we are going to plan it in a little bit with President Nancollas. It should be fun. Then tomorrow after the council we will have another meeting with President to let him know how its going and what are the plans for the next few weeks.

Another cool experience this week was on Thursday. The training meeting with all the American greenies was awesome. It was really hard though talking about missionary things in english. The whole time Elder Molino and I were struggling for words. We did a lot of practices and they motivated It was a great meeting. President Nancollas is the man. He is doing so many changes in the mission and with all the changes it is necessary. He has a lot of confidence in Elder Molino Elder Anaya Elder Allen and I. He said that he hasn´t known 4 missionaries that he had more confidence in than us 4. It made me feel great and it made me feel like the Lord is happy too. The whole mission has changed a ton in the last 3 weeks and everyone is so pumped. A lot has to do with all the missionaries that are going home with me. Most of us are leaders and we all motivate each other to have great zones and districts. It´s going well.....

I also felt one of the greatest things that I have felt my whole mission this week. I dont remember which day it was, but he called me to say that Javier, Laura, Abraham, Xochitl and Tomas were going to get baptized on Saturday. I got to talk to all of them and they were so excited. Elder Memmott said it was a great experience and that it was amazing on Sunday. He said that in the priesthood class, Javier shared his conversion experience. Memmott explained the story to me and it went more or less like this.....that he went to pray and was praying all day to receive an answer if the church was true because he was confused. He came back from work meditating and praying and when he got home and opened the door he saw Elder Memmott and I sitting on the couch teaching his wife and his son. He said that he felt his heart get warm and was filled with joy and he knew in that instant that the church was true and that he needed to get baptized. On Sunday I got to talk to all of them again after church and they said that they wish I wouldve been there. We are totally going to visit them when you come down. ¿va? I´m really happy just thinkin about it. Acutally, in a year, Elder Memmott and I want to come back together to go to their temple sealing. That would be sooooo tight.

I cant really think of what else to write. My mind is just wasted. I cant stop thinkin about the next step, the next plan, the next change I need to make. I love it though. I feel like I´m progressing a ton. I love you fam. You are the best support I have. It will be great seein eachother soon and to be together in the kingdom of God. The work is true. Heavenly Father loves us and wants our happiness. As we are obedient to His commandments and in helping others reach eternal glory we receive this happiness.

I love you all!

.......one of the craziest weeks of my mission!

2010-04-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hey family....

Probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission. As of right this moment I haven´t slept since Friday night because of all the craziness, but after I finish this email I´m going to bed until tomorrow....
Well Elder Memmott and I finished out strong. We had the baptism of Fabian. He is great. He is already attending institute and has already gone 2 to single adult activities. He is way sweet. He is already in Alma in the Book of Mormon and I´m pretty sure that he loves reading it. His baptismal service was yesterday after the afternoon session (I got to see all the sessions) The room where the baptism was held was overflowing and Fabian had a lot of support. It was great and he is going to be way strong.

It was great also to see Javier and Martha, Paty, Luis, Josefina, Karina, Javier, Laura and Tomas and a few other new investigators at conference. Especially since right after the baptism I got my bags together and took off for the offices of the mission.

I guess I´ll rewind a lit bit in the week. Elder Memmott and I had a rough week being ´Holy Week´ down here. We worked way hard, but there were a lot of people on vacation and we didnt see too many fruits, but it felt good to have a strong week. We did a few interchanges and were figuring out solutions to all the problems in the zone and it was very gratifying to see some of the problems get fixed immediately in this last week.

Another cool thing that happened was that of Javier and Laura´s family. Even though they still haven´t gotten baptized, we have recieved some huge news from Xochitl. They would have gotten baptized on Sunday, but Xochitl and Abraham left on Friday. Before leaving though Xochitl called us over and told us that she had some big news for us. She said that she has decided to get baptized with her family and that she will get baptized this month. We were some pumped after working many weeks with them. I was filled so much with happiness even though it´s possible that I might not be there for their baptism. They are going to be great converts. The rest of the fam enjoyed conference and were tellin us how great it would have been to get baptized on conference Sunday. I´m going to try to pull some strings to go to the baptism, but the only thing that is holding me back a little bit is that Queretaro is way far.

Sooooo....... I had been thinking since my interviews that I would go back to Atotonilco to finish my mission there in that zone. It was the first time in my mission that I was way off. I got a phone call from President Nancollas on Thursday. He told me how many challenges there are in the mission, how many leaders are going home in the next few months and the need the mission has to get future leaders prepared. He then told me that we were going to have some major changes in the mission because of the division of the mission in July. So, for my last few changes I´m going to be what President Nancollas calls ´´his personal traveling assistant´´ I didnt really know what that meant on Thursday, but I got a little taste of what that means today. Elder Molyneaux (Molino) and I were both call to that assignment and basically we are just going to be taking 1-2 weeks with a lot of the future leaders to help prepare them to be better district leaders and zone leaders. I wont have an area or a zone. That part is kind of lame, but I´m excited for the opportunity.

As part of my new assignment I had to come last night to the offices because at 2:30 a.m. we had to go take the missionaries that were going home to the airport. Among them was Elder Romney and Elder Arnett. That was pretty cool to go drop them off in the airport. I took some pics. What was not cool was the fact that my bus from Queretaro to the offices took 5 hours because of traffic and a wicked detour. I finally got to the offices by myself after searching for a taxi with all my bags at 11:00 at night. Anyways back to the other fun activities without sleep..... At 4:30 a.m. we went to the Mexican MTC to pick up the new Mexican Elders (and 1 sister misionera) Then after attempting to sleep for an hour without success, the greenies got in the vans with their luggage and we took them to President and Sister Nancollas´ house for there training meeting and so President could assign them to their new trainers. It took forever. We gave them examples of how to put baptismal dates and invite people to church and other funny situations (like if your trainer has a cell phone when he shouldn´t, etc.)

So I am super stoked for the next few weeks. A few of the Elders that I might train will be Elder Golledge (who is training and is a district leader now) Elder Carrillo (also a district leader) and Elder Perez from Guadalajara who was in my district in Queretaro for a change. There are a lot of others too, but those are a few that you probably know. It is going to be fun. Today after the training meeting for the newbies. Elder Allen, Elder Anaya (the office assistants) Elder Molino and I had a meeting with President giving advice and counseling together to figure out what would be the best options to do in the next few weeks. We are probably going to go with Zone Leaders as well so we have a lot of work to do.

Right now I am in the offices.... Im not sure if Im going to go directly with some missionaries tomorrow or wait for the American missionaries to get here to do the training meeting for them. It will be an adventure every day and I´ll probably end up working in every zone of the mission. It will be great! I´m afraid that I´ll blink and my mission will be over. Im just going to fight and give it all to the end.

I loved conference. Priesthood session was AMAZING. Elder Eyrings´ talk was awesome. President Monson couldnt have been more direct and I loved it. That is pretty much how we have to be with the people so that they really understand and change their lives. The Prophets and Apostles are such great examples. I also thought it was way cool about the Forrest family in Elder Andersens´ talk. I enjoyed Elder Uchtdorfs´ talk about love. Elder Rasbund (sp) talk on callin missionaries was way awesome too and I know that God has called me through one of His servant´s so that I can be here where HE wants me to be.

The work is true. God lives and directs it through a living prophet and servants who guide us. Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of the world. Love you! Have a great week!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

.....Tarde......pero seguro, (Late but sure)

2010-03-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hey fam,

Sorry for not writin earlier.... We hiked a mountain today and we ended up gettin back late. I got burnt, but its not my fault. When we left in the morning it was really cloudy and when we got to the top all the clouds went away. It was a fun trip. It was a good hike and we even had to scale some cliffs. I`ll send the pictures a.s.a.p. We went with the same family that took us last week to the tour of the centro. They are awesome. It`s the family Zarate. When we visit Queretaro (when you come down) we will have to go out to eat with them or somethin. They take good care of me.

First off, !!!ITS A GIRL!!!! I`m so pumped for Kurt and Carli. That will be so much fun for them. Just pray that she ends up being like the Carli now and not the Carli as a little girl...for future references, check family home videos from when Carli was 6 to age.....18...ish... : ) Just Kiddin Carli, you know I love ya!

So it was a pretty good week. REALLY busy as always, but fun. A lot of things went on this week so instead of writing in my journal (since I`ve been a slacker lately) we made a list of all the funny/important/spiritual things that happened.

First, for my birthday (even though I didnt get your package at the interviews with Pres. Nancollas) I bought myself a pretty sweet Mexico jumpsuit. It is the jumpsuit that the players of the Mexico soccer team will wear in the world cup. That was a gift that I bought myself with the money that I had been savin up.
Leaving the mall there were some t.v`s on and I glanced up to see NFL network. It just so happened to be the Ravens playing the Chargers when Todd made the winning touchdown. I was tempted to watch, but luckily it was already the last 4 minutes of the game and Elder Memmott and I got to watch it a little. That was pretty sweet. I figured it was my birthday so I didnt feel to horrible afterwards watchin t.v.

We had a pretty crazy experience on Thursday night. We went to San Juan (which is 2 hours away) to do baptismal interviews. We had the interviews at 8:30, but the bus driver was retarded and we ended up getting there at like 9:00. The interview went extremely long because the lady talked a lot and then decided that she didnt want to get baptized and then she did and then she didnt and we talked about it for almost an hour. It was probably the longest baptismal interview EVER. Anyways, we got out of there at 10 and tried to find a taxi as fast as possible to get to the bus station to go back to the city. You could imagine 2 white kids walking in the middle of the street at 10-10:30 at night yelling and laughing about random stuff to try to take away our bad moods of maybe not being able to make it on time to the bus station. After walking for about 15 minutes we find a taxi and he took us to the bus station to find out that there were no more busses to go to Queretaro.
On top of that all the taxi drivers wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount of money to get to the house of the other Elderes. We got pretty frustrated and instead of giving in to the lame taxi drivers we started walkin. We were kind of in a funny mood and we just planned on walking an hour to the Elders house at like 11 at night. Leaving the bus station we whistled down another taxi that was just pullin in and told him the price that we wanted. He accepted and finally at about 12 at night we show up to their house. They had 2 little mattresses and one extra blanket for each of us. We had to sleep in our missionary clothes and it was not a fun night. Especially since the next morning at `6:30 we left to go back to our area. What a night.... It`ll be a good memory and I was glad that Elder Memmott and I were together to make it fun instead of being frustrated the whole night. We made the best of the situation.

Also.... I made crepes. Elder Memmott is a witness that I made them really good even though it was hard doin it on a normal pan. It was sweet though. I havent had crepes in almost 2 years.

Update on Javier and Laura`s family.....
Wednesday Laura`s grandma died so she went to the state of Mexico for the funeral. She said that everything was good to come back before Sunday, but then she let us know on Friday that her uncle died 2 days later. Sooooo.... the whole family left to Mexico. It was frustrating, but there wasn´t much we could do. We have been praying everyday and this week we fasted for them. I hope everything works out so they come back this next week, but they arent sure. I really hope so though, because it is pretty sure that I might have changes next week. (this transfer has FLOWN by) I only have 2 left....weird. Anyways thats that about their family. We saw a little progress with Xachitl before they left, but she still hasn`t accepted to get baptized.

President in my interview told me that it is possible that I might go back to Atotonilco. It`s a zone that is doing just alright right now, but it would be cool to end where I started. I would actually end exactly where I started. My first 2 areas were Apaxco and Atotonilco. Right now, the zone leaders in that zone have BOTH of those areas so that will be cool to go back and see my converts there and be able to go back and have more success then the first time (now that I have a little bit more experience) I would go with Elder Foster. (that would be 3 gringos in a row) He is a stud though. He works hard and is known to baptize so that`s good.

Anyways, this should be a good week next week. We have a lot of things to do. We should have at least 3 baptisms. The baptisms of Fabian, Juana and Joselin and I really hope that Javiers` family gets baptized before I leave so that Elder Memmott and I can come back in a year to see them get sealed in the temple. Keep praying for them please! I am also really excited for general conference. Maybe next general conference I`ll get to go. That would be sweet. It`s not the same listening in spanish then feeling their testimonies in English.

Well im going to send some pictures and run to the house.
Thanks for the love and the letters!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...21 yeeeeeears....and that's a lot!

2010-03-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hey family,

First off thanks a lot for the birthday shouts. I have the best family. Im sure this week will be a good one. Tomorrow we are going to take a tour in the centro of Queretaro and it should be a fun pre-birthday trip. We asked President to switch our preperacion day so we are going to take it tomorrow. We are just takin a quick few minutes out of our time today to write you all so you dont freak out.

This week went pretty well. As a zone we are improving a lot and should have somewhere around 20 people that are going to get confirmed members of the church this next week. In a zone of 22 Elders and 2 Sisters thats not too bad. As for Elder Memmott and I in our area we had 8 people in church. I´m pretty sure they will all get baptized in the next 2 weeks. They are pretty good investigators. We will see how it goes.

We continue with Javier and Laura and their family. I especially ask for a lot of prayers from all of you on their behalf. Javier Laura Tomas and Abraham all want to get baptized but they want to do it as a family so we are still working with Xochitl so that they do it. Pray for them lots! Javier (the dad) says that he has received an answer and that he KNOWS the church is true. Xochitl the only one that is kinda doubtin it. I love this family and I really want them to be able to get baptized together. They are really close and there is nothing better in life to come together even more as a family than living the principles of the gospel.

A couple of experiences from the week:

Monday night after arriving in the offices of the mission I got a pretty bad fever. I dont think it was anything I ate, but I was burnin up pretty bad. Elder Memmott offered to give me a blessing and he and Elder Koons gave me one. I was able to get to bed pretty easy and right before doing so I was sweating like crazy. I think the blessing helped me out a lot. In the morning it was a different story. I woke up at like 5:20 in the morning and my stomach and my head were hurting pretty bad. I was on the toilet with what a lot of Mexican Elders call ´´the doble dragon´´ (i wont get into details) Anyways, I was suffering in the bathroom when I got a little light headed. (thanks mom) I ended up spending the next 2 hours on the tile with the shivvers and a headache. I called to a couple of Elders and they ran and got Elder Memmott. They got me a glass of water and threw 3 big blankets over me. I took some advil and a few hours later I was ok. It was just not a fun morning. That day (Tuesday) was Elder Memmotts (and Todds´) birthday. While Elder Memmott was sitting with me on the tile I sat up a little bit and wished him a happy birthday. I felt bad that he had to wake up even earlier than normal on his birthday to help me out. It´s nice to have Elder Memmott as a comp.
I was nervous tho because in the future leader training meeting I had to give a presentation and I was praying that I would be able to give it like I had prepared. It all went smooth and some Elders went to the tienda to get me some Gatorade and stuff (gotta get those electrolytes going). All in all I was good to go by Wednesday so dont worry mom. Heavenly Father protects us missionaries.

In the week we were able to have somewhat of success. We actually got to do a lot of work in our own area and we planted lots of seeds. It was fun to contact and knock doors (really for the first time) with Elder Memmott. It´s been so long since we have had a few solid days together to work in our area. It went really well.

Another cool experience happened yesteray. One of our district leaders had put a goal to baptize a couple this next week and when he reported he was pretty bummed out saying that they werent going to get baptized. He felt bad because his district wasn´´t going to complete with their goal because of him and he said that they could get baptized, but not confirmed because they are going to leave this next weekend. It is always frustrating when goals fall through. Anyways, I talked to him about having faith and doing everything possible so that Heavenly Father would help him to complete with his goals. I told him that if he really deep down had faith, he would go tell the couple that there isnt anything in the world that would be more important for them to do this next weekend than to get baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He told me that they had an appointment with the couple later on (being last night) so he told me that he would call me afterwards to let me know how it went.
He called me last night at like 9 o´clock so pumped up and said that the couple realized that there isn´t anything more important and that they were going to put there other things that they had to do on hold to get baptized and confirmed. He was so excited and said ´´When I was testifying to them of the importance of not waiting to repent and to follow Christ, I felt the Spirit testify to them that it was true, and they just knew it.´´
It was way awesome to see his testimony grow and I know that he has more confidence to be more direct with the people and not be shy when it comes to inviting the people to come unto Christ.

I know this is the work of God. I know the church is true. God lives and loves us. I know that his plan for us is a plan of happiness and I know that it is the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ that brings that happiness. I know that as we show our faith in Him, our problems receive solutions. I know that all the sickness, pain, embarrasment, or any bad feeling that we have had or will ever have can be healed by trusting in the Lord. I know that His church, the church of Christ has been restored again to the earth by the prophet Joseph Smith and that he was called and chosen of God. He received revelation and guidance from above and shined light on the path that we must take to receive eternal joy. I know that the book that he translated a little less than 200 years ago is true. The Book of Mormon contains the gospel in its fullness. As we read it we gain spiritual armor to fight against the sins and temptaions. I have found many answers to prayers from reading the Book of Mormon.
I know that there is a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. He is Heavenly Fathers chosen servant today to lead and guide us towards the glory of God. I know that by following his counsel we can unite as families and love life. I know that trials are for our own benefit and that there are many reasons for them. The mission has givin me a completely different outlook in relation to trials. Many times we need to learn patience. Many times we need to come closer to the Savior. Many times we have them because Heavenly Father knows that we can handle knew challenges and wants us to grow and progress. Life sometimes is hard, but as we hold strong to the rod, continue in prayer and fasting and have faith in Jesus Christ, we wont ever stumble or fall. Live the gospel, enjoy the blessings and be happy.

I love my Father in Heaven, I love the Savior, I love the Prophet, I love President Nancollas (and his wife) I love my comp and I love ALL OF YOU! Have a great week!

p.s. thanks for the crepes recipe. Im definately going to use it!
I pray for each and every one of you!
Good luck on Wednesday Carli!
Dont get too huge Bead
Tell my nieces and nephews that i love them

.....21 yeeeeeeeears.....and thats a lot!

2010-03-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

..QereTaro Con Elder Memmott

2010-03-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hey fam,

Well I`m writing a little bit early cause we gotta go to the state of Mexico in a little while. Tomorrow we have a leadership training meeting. Me and 2 other Elders are going to talk about inviting investigators to make commitments. It should be pretty cool. I`ll get to see pretty much all my buddies so that will be fun.

This week went alright. Elder Memmott got really sick. (By the way his birthday is March 16th, like Todd`s) He had a stomach infection. I personally think that an animal crawled in his stomach and turned everything that he had in their into water. As Memmotts mom would say ``He had the Rocky Mtn Squirts`` He`s better now, but this last week was pretty rough with the whole missionary work stuff. Elder Memmott was in the bathroom the most part of the week and I got some good reading in. I took good care of him though. We are going to go crazy working this upcoming week to make up for the time we missed this last week.

We have also been visiting my recient converts lately and they are all doing great. Yesterday in church ALL my converts were their.

Here`s a little update on how they are doing......

Hermana Paty is sharing the gospel with her family members (even though they dont live here in Queretaro). On Sunday she bought a triple (Book of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price) a hymn book, and the Liahona for a year (its like the Ensign in Spanish) We taught her about family history work and she got way into it. She has an appointment with the sister in our ward in charge of that this week so she can start working on her genealogy work. She is planning on going to the temple the 27th of March with the stake to see the visitors center and do baptisms for the dead. She says that she has never been so happy in her life and she is really doing great. She is reading in 2 Nephi, but she gets frustrated when she looks at the references at the bottom of the page and she sees D&C because she didnt have one. Now she does so she is excited to keep reading.

Josefina and Karina went yesterday and gave us a reference. They continue going every week even though they only stay for the first hour. They said that their whole family misses us and asks for us (even though they arent members) We didnt visit them all week and they are still reading the Book of Mormon.

Javier (who a month and a half ago was a drunk without a job and a broken up family) found work. He started off working as a welder, but the boss loved him so much that after 3 days of working he made him the boss of the floor team. He is making more money than he ever has in his life and is paying off his debts. Not only that, but Sunday in church he asked me how to fill out the tithing slip. I got to help him fill it out. He payed his tithing for the first time. He wore a white shirt to church for the first time and his wife Martha wore a skirt for the first time. His son also is working with him and he cut his hair. (that in itself was a miracle). They are doing great. Javier is finishing up Alma. He says that he doesnt understand a lot of what he reads, but he feels good reading the book of mormon and that it takes away his stress. I also got to ordain him to a Priest on Sunday. He`s a stud. They are going great.

Luis was ordained last Sunday to be a Priest. One Sunday of the month he cant go because of his work, but they have the goal to get married in the temple within a year. We gave them a picture of the Mexico City Temple and they have it hung up in their house already.

The people that we are teaching are progressing and we hope to have the baptism of Javier and Laura and their family on Saturday. Pray for them! We taught them this week of the Plan of Salvation. They understood it really well. We talked about having an eternal family and they joked about it saying that they cant even stand each other in this life, why would they want to live together eternally. They are awesome. haha. Javier and Laura (the parents) said that they would like to get baptized, but that they want to do it as a family. I think Xotchitl will be the only one that is going to resist a little, but if she says her prayers and reads the book of mormon, I have no doubt that she will get her answer from God.

The zone is doing a lot better. After having 2 pretty bad weeks we are going to have 2 really good weeks to end the month and Elder Allen (the assistant) said that if we can pull off the goals that we have for this month that we will save the mission as far as this month is concerned. We have a lot of work to do. Elder Memmott and I are pretty ready for the challenge.

Im glad you enjoyed your trip to Maui. I just barely got your email. It sounds like it was a great weekend for everyone. I have the best family and I love you all so much. I want some updates on my nieces and nephews. How are they all doin? Have they said any funny things lately?

The work is going great. I love the work of the Lord. I love the mission. I feel like I have learned so much and my testimony has been strengthened a ton. God lives and loves us. He wants us to be happy and the only way we can reach true happiness is by living the gospel. My leaders used to tell me that going on a mission would change my life and I think thats not entirely true. It`s not necessarily ``going on a mission`` More than anything it is ``living the gospel`` all day everyday. Only like that we recieve real happiness. I love the gospel. I love the Savior. I know that He lives. I know that His teachings change people. I know He loves us and wants us to be happy. I know that only through Him we can reach the throne of our Eternal Father in Heaven and enjoy living as a family together forever.

Happy Birthday Todd and Johnny.....You guys are OLD. Thanks for being such great examples to me. I love you guys!

I love you all!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....QuerEtaro con MemmotT

2010-03-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

...Perdoname, (I think it means sorry, his email was so late)

2010-03-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

Hey family,

Well a lot has been going on lately. Elder Memmott and I are still loving life even though we feel like we spend 80% of our time together on buses. Last week we had a good zone leader conference. It is crazy looking around and seeing that there are only a few zone leaders that have more time than me in the mission. (Elder Romney, Elder Arnett from Mesa, etc.) It`s a weird feeling. President Nancollas is the man. I look up to him a lot. Him and his wife love us as their kids. They showed us pictures of Elder Francis of how he is doing a little bit better. They say that he is out of the burn center already. That`s tight. I pray for him everyday. We all got pretty teary eyed seeing his pictures and listening to President Nancollas and Sister Nancollas express their love for him and for each one of us. I feel really blessed to be here in the Mexico North Mission. President sends me Taylor`s (his son`s) letters every week. He leaves the MTC in a week and a half.
We talked about the importance of studying the scriptures in the meeting. I can say that I love studying the scriptures. Before the mission I didnt really understand them or take seriously the importance of studying, but after 20 1/2 months of studying every day I kinda got the hang of it. I think studying the scriptures daily is so important to fight off the temptations. It gives us a lot of spiritual strength and helps us not have desires to do stupid things.

In the week we didnt have very many days to work in our area. On Tuesday we spent all day in the state of MExico and on Friday we had to go do baptismal interviews like 4-5 hours round trip. We have a lot of people that we are teaching too so that made it difficult to have time to find new investigators. We spent most of our time with people that we are already teaching.

The best family that we are teaching is a family of 5. I think I mentioned them last week. They are progressing really well. Javier and Laura (the parents) have loved going to church and we are planning the baptism for the 20th of March. Their kids Tomas and Xochitl (so-chill) and Abraham also have enjoyed it a lot. We are planning some family nights with them so that they get to know some of the members.

The members are seeing lots of investigators in church and that gets them excited to give us references. The best way to gain confidence of the members is to show them that you are working extremely hard and you`re not their to mess around.
Because of that we have received a few more references to check for this week. It`s WAY better to work with references.

On Monday we woke up and cleaned the house and then went to wash clothes but the hermanas` washer was broken. We tried to help her fix it, but we didnt know what we were doing. She said that she was going to wash our clothes by hand, but that would`ve been just ridiculous. She is so awesome. Her name is Carmelita. She takes care of us when we need help.

Yesterday we had our multizone meeting. I got to see Elder Golledge and Elder Farmer and Elder Ryan and some other Elders that I hadn`t seen for a while so that was cool. It went well. PResident shared some personal stories of the importance to be prepared to use the priesthood at all times. To always have consecrated oil on hand. That too is way important. It was nice because I didnt have to present anything. I just chilled in the front row and got to enjoy it. I took lots of notes. Sister Nancollas gave a good talk on overcoming trials. It was a great talk and it was based on a book by Elder Scott. Translating to english its` called Finding Peace Joy and Happiness. It sounds like a great book.

Weeeeelllll, After this change I will be in my last area in my last 3 months of my mission. It`s crazy. Time is flying by way too quick. I dont like thinkin about it. Every once in a while I turn to Elder Memmott and tell him that it feels like just a few weeks ago that we showed up there at the MTC.

Well I just wanted to write quick so you dont worry, but I will write next week. Love you all! The gospel is true!

Oh a kid in my ward wants you to send a few boxes of Hot Tamales because I shared with him a few weeks ago. He loved èm. They dont have those here.
To answer some of your questions........

About the housing situation, it doesnt really matter to me. It would be nice to be close to campus, but make sure they are niceish apartments. I guess any apartment would be better than the ones I`ve been in for the past 2 years, but you be the judge. It would be nice to have washer and dryer too. I`ll let you and Elder Christensens`mom figure that out. Belmont isnt too far from campus is it?

Oh, when you come down I still wont be released as a missionary. I dont think I`m released until I get home with the Stake President. That Sunday I`ll have my last interview with President and eat at his house with the other Elders that are leaving. I`ll probably be able to see you that night though. If you come Monday morning I can pick you up at the airport, but I`ll let you figure out all those details!

Thats all! I love you!

Con amor,
Elder Heap

...Time is Flying by

2010-03-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

Hey family,

Well a lot has been going on lately. Elder Memmott and I are still loving life even though we feel like we spend 80% of our time together on buses. Last week we had a good zone leader conference. It is crazy looking around and seeing that there are only a few zone leaders that have more time than me in the mission. (Elder Romney, Elder Arnett from Mesa, etc.) It`s a weird feeling. President Nancollas is the man. I look up to him a lot. Him and his wife love us as their kids. They showed us pictures of Elder Francis of how he is doing a little bit better. They say that he is out of the burn center already. That`s tight. I pray for him everyday. We all got pretty teary eyed seeing his pictures and listening to President Nancollas and Sister Nancollas express their love for him and for each one of us. I feel really blessed to be here in the Mexico North Mission. President sends me Taylor`s (his son`s) letters every week. He leaves the MTC in a week and a half.
We talked about the importance of studying the scriptures in the meeting. I can say that I love studying the scriptures. Before the mission I didnt really understand them or take seriously the importance of studying, but after 20 1/2 months of studying every day I kinda got the hang of it. I think studying the scriptures daily is so important to fight off the temptations. It gives us a lot of spiritual strength and helps us not have desires to do stupid things.

In the week we didnt have very many days to work in our area. On Tuesday we spent all day in the state of MExico and on Friday we had to go do baptismal interviews like 4-5 hours round trip. We have a lot of people that we are teaching too so that made it difficult to have time to find new investigators. We spent most of our time with people that we are already teaching.

The best family that we are teaching is a family of 5. I think I mentioned them last week. They are progressing really well. Javier and Laura (the parents) have loved going to church and we are planning the baptism for the 20th of March. Their kids Tomas and Xochitl (so-chill) and Abraham also have enjoyed it a lot. We are planning some family nights with them so that they get to know some of the members.

The members are seeing lots of investigators in church and that gets them excited to give us references. The best way to gain confidence of the members is to show them that you are working extremely hard and you`re not their to mess around.
Because of that we have received a few more references to check for this week. It`s WAY better to work with references.

On Monday we woke up and cleaned the house and then went to wash clothes but the hermanas` washer was broken. We tried to help her fix it, but we didnt know what we were doing. She said that she was going to wash our clothes by hand, but that would`ve been just ridiculous. She is so awesome. Her name is Carmelita. She takes care of us when we need help.

Yesterday we had our multizone meeting. I got to see Elder Golledge and Elder Farmer and Elder Ryan and some other Elders that I hadn`t seen for a while so that was cool. It went well. PResident shared some personal stories of the importance to be prepared to use the priesthood at all times. To always have consecrated oil on hand. That too is way important. It was nice because I didnt have to present anything. I just chilled in the front row and got to enjoy it. I took lots of notes. Sister Nancollas gave a good talk on overcoming trials. It was a great talk and it was based on a book by Elder Scott. Translating to english its` called Finding Peace Joy and Happiness. It sounds like a great book.

Weeeeelllll, After this change I will be in my last area in my last 3 months of my mission. It`s crazy. Time is flying by way too quick. I dont like thinkin about it. Every once in a while I turn to Elder Memmott and tell him that it feels like just a few weeks ago that we showed up there at the MTC.

Well I just wanted to write quick so you dont worry, but I will write next week. Love you all! The gospel is true!

Oh a kid in my ward wants you to send a few boxes of Hot Tamales because I shared with him a few weeks ago. He loved èm. They dont have those here.
To answer some of your questions........

Elder Gelegonya is hilarious. He is in my zone and he can sure bright up your day in a second. He is really special if you know what I mean, but he tries hard and surprisingly talks spanish pretty well. I dont know if you remember Spencer that was in our stake. I forgot his last name, but he was good buddies with Micah Yetter and Grant Scurr. Elder Gelegonya reminds me a lot of him. How he got here to Mexico is a mystery, but I love the kid.

About the housing situation, it doesnt really matter to me. It would be nice to be close to campus, but make sure they are niceish apartments. I guess any apartment would be better than the ones I`ve been in for the past 2 years, but you be the judge. It would be nice to have washer and dryer too. I`ll let you and Elder Christensens`mom figure that out. Belmont isnt too far from campus is it?

Oh, when you come down I still wont be released as a missionary. I dont think I`m released until I get home with the Stake President. That Sunday I`ll have my last interview with President and eat at his house with the other Elders that are leaving. I`ll probably be able to see you that night though. If you come Monday morning I can pick you up at the airport, but I`ll let you figure out all those details!

Thats all! I love you!

Con amor,
Elder Heap

..Shoot for the Stars

2010-03-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

It was probably one of the FASTEST and most fun weeks I have had in the mission in a long time. Elder Memmott and I are having a blast. We decided that we have to baptize some eternal families together so that in a year we can come back and be able to watch them get sealed in the temple. We already have some prospects.

So lets get things started.....
So Elder Memmott and I have been knocking every door and talking to everything that moves about the gospel. It has been fun and we have seen lots of blessings. I think we both recognize that this is the Lords work and I`m pretty sure the Lord is just pumped to see two little white kids running around the streets of Mexico crying repentance. (We literally yell it in the streets sometimes just to be nerds) We found some gnarly peeps this week. A lot of potential. We had 9 people go to church. 7 of them Elder Memmott and I found this week.

I dont remember which day is which cause it went by so fast, but I`ll just give you some highlights. Order doesnt really matter.

We found a sweeeeet family. We were knocking doors and I guy opens the door (his name is Javier...a different Javier) He opens up and we talk about the family and the importance of having a family that lives the teachings of Christ. The guy says ``I already know you and I have one of your books`` We showed him the Book of Mormon and asked if that was it. He said ``No, its about Jesus`` and he enters in his house and brings back JESUS THE CHRIST by James E. Talmage. Both of our jaws dropped to the cement. He told us that his brother and his mom are members. His brother lives in Canada and his mom in San Cristobal Ecatepec (That was my last area) It was crazy. So we taught a little bit and set a return appointment. The next day we taught about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We taught Javier, his wife Laura and his son TomAs who is 17. Tomas was especially interested about learning of the Book of Mormon. He was like `` I Neeeever knew that Jesus came to the Americas, that is awesome`` I was way focused and clinged on every word we said. Javier, the dad, is playin it like he is just goin to investigate the church, but deep down we know he feels somethin. They also have another daughter Xochitl who is 19 and we never taught her in the week, but went to church on Sunday with the whole fam. They also have another nephew living there who is 20 named Abraham. They all went to church and I`m pretty sure they loved it. It was an extra special sacrament meeting because it was ward conference and the Stake President (who is a stud) and his counselor (who is also a stud) gave amazing talks. There was a choir (which doesnt exacly bring the spirit, but is was ok) They loved their classes and when we said goodbye to them they all had really big smiles on their faces. We pray for them in every prayer. They would be the coolest eternal family!

We also had Chaquer and Jose Miguel go to church. They are progressing, but a little slower than we would like.

We also had Maria Concepcion go to church. She is Martha`s sister. You remember Martha right? Ma Concepcion is way tight. She already said. ``Im going to change religions`` She liked church. We are teaching another sister of Martha and her family too. They are awesome too, but they didnt go to church. We have a ton of families in teaching.

We are also teaching a couple named Alfredo and Purificacion. Their daughter is a member in a different ward and she gave us the reference. They also didnt go to church, but have shown a lot of interest. We are going to follow up with them a little more to see if they progress.

We are determined to find more eternal families so whenever we get tired and one of us says ``lets go to lunch a little bit early`` or ``im tired`` or `` lets go to the house to go to the bathroom`` or `` lets go visit a member family`` we quickly reply to each other................ NO SEAS NIÑA..... In english that means ``Dont be a girl`` It motivates us to work really hard and we dont waste any time. Sometimes if we have a long walk to get to an appointment we race to the corner or to another part a long the way.

Other highlights. Elder Memmott and I are turning 21. That means (like you said mom) we are legal ``whatever that means`` It doesnt mean anything in Mexico really because I have seen 6 year olds go to the tiendas to by 2 huge bottles of alcohol. I guess the legal age in Mexico is 6. But hey, thats why we gotta keep preachin.....

Elder Memmott and I also have a gang. Its a group of 4 little kids on our street from ages 6 to 10...and us. We have been playing soccer with them for a few minutes and one night this week we had a little magic show. It was tight. I`ll send a picture. They call me ``Heap`` and Elder Memmott ``Memo`` They are funny. If their parents see them playin with us then they let them stay out longer to play so they LOVE us. I gave them all a quarter in American money. The Sol gang begins.....

Other comments.....

Elder Memmott broke the toilet seat with his bony buttocks. We also broke the bathroom door and now it doesnt close completely. It`s just cause we played soccer in the house. After it happened I thought ``My mom always told me not to play football or basketball (in this case soccer) in the house``

A large amount of members have gotten upset with us during the lunch appointments because we speak spanglish and they dont understand us.

Elder Memmott taught me how to talk like a hick. We discovered that a speaking spanish with a hick voice is a funny combination.

We have 2 zone themes for the month of March...... First Faith is to achieve what the Lord wants us to achieve. Second, I`d rather shoot for the stars and miss than shoot for a cowpie and nail it! I think those phrases will motivate the zone to give it all they got.

In the month of February we reached our goals of baptisms and confirmations. I was so pumped about it cause a week ago it didnt look like we were going to reach it. Our zone had 30 confirmations. In our area we had 6. It was a pretty alright month for Queretaro compared to past months anyway!

Well I love you all. I dont know about the housing situation, but I want to room with Elder Christensen. Thats the plan so far anyways. Talk to his mom and figure out something. Let me know how it goes. That would be tight with Grant Scurr too. Let me know. Maybe we can all be roomies.

Thats awesome about the Basketball finals... Is Mesa High still in it? So I can make fun of Romney? He called me in the week tellin me that Mtn View was ·ranked numba 2 behind Mesa High. Lame....I told him i would pùnch him in the face with the 3 state rings that Mtn View won in a row while I was there. My pride still gets to me a little haha.

I was also pumped to hear about Dallin H. Oaks and the new Stake President! LEt me know who is going to release me when you know. Also....do you know where the Gulbrandsens are goin to be Mission President yet?

Thats all! I thought I already thanked you for the Valentine package, but if I didnt than THAAAANK YOU!!! It was great and I still have some stuff to share with Elder Memmott.

I love you all! I miss you. Elder Memmott just informed me that we have 115 more days. Weird. I dont want to think about it. The mission is the best. Tomorrow we have zone leader conference that should be great!

Have a great week! Keep strong in the faith and trust in the Lord!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...Lovin it, Pray for Elder Francis!

2010-02-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-02-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-01-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-12-28T05:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T05:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-30T04:35:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-11-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

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

Time is Flying by

2009-02-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

To the Fam:

This week was pretty sweet. Not because we had a whole lot of success (in my eyes) but I have been able to enjoy just doing the day to day activities. Sometimes It feels a little monotonous (sp) being in the same area for quite some time (even though its been less than 2 months). Everything is going great though. We found a couple sweet families this week and now its just a matter of seeing if they progress.
I have been studying a lot lately about the life and mission of Our Savior Jesus Christ and I think that has really helped. I almost finished with JESUS THE CHRIST, I read every morning and night and the short 800 page book needs to be longer. I am thinking im going to read it in Spanish after I read it in English. Get a little Spanish practice (as if I don’t get enough constantly). Haha

Hey Dad, I decided that you and Todd need to learn Spanish so that all of us guys in our family can talk behind the backs of all the girls in the fam. And I figure that Brad still has the opportunity to go Spanish speaking so he can wait it out. Use that program that I had on my lap top and talk to your Mexican workers a lot. That would be sweet.
Well, im pretty sure we have Zone Conference this next week. There are going to tell us in our District meeting tonight, that we have every Monday. Im excited for that, Pres Nancollas always gives us an extra boost to make sure we are working as hard as possible and being obedient.

The time is flying by and I complete 8 months this week. I feel like since ive gotten here to Mexico, the time has just flown. The MTC was a never-ending 2 months, but the last 6 months have gone by way to fast.

We should have a baptism this week. His name is Ismael and he is a boyfriend of a miembro. He has gone to church almost every week since Ive gotten here, but still doesn’t have the desire or feel the need to get baptized. We are going to focus on him this week. We also are working with Hmna Maria and her husband Jose Anonio. They are awesome and are already planning there wedding so they can get baptized. The other day Antonio was saying to us that everything in the Catholic church is about money. He was asking us if we make them pay to get baptized. We were like ¨NO WAY¨ Then he went on to say that, the true church shouldn’t make you pay anything. Then he said, ¨Well you should have to pay your 10 % because that’s a commandment, you gotta pay your tithing¨ We have yet to teach them about Tithing so that was pretty sweet to have accepted to pay his tithing before we had even say anything. We explained Tithing and how everything you pay is for edifying the church and strengthening it. He was like, ¨YEA, that’s what the true church of Christ would do¨ then he turned to his wife and said, ¨so when are we going to get baptized Maria?¨ We were pumped and expect pictures of Jose Antonio and Maria in all white in a couple weeks. We are going to work with their kids as well (they are grown up with young kids) We haven’t talked to them yet, but Maria wants us to talk to them. It would be sweet to baptize their whole family. That’s the goal, to bring familias unto Christ so they can live forever together in the presence of Our Father in Heaven.

Well, this week I learned how to weld. Its pretty sweet. An Hermano in our barrio was teaching us last Friday and then we went over to his house today in the morning to help him finish. I didn’t really understand what he was building when he was explaining it to us, but it looks cool. Ill send pictures! The Hermano is tight. (ill send pics)
Random comment: How are the Suns doing? (please tell me they are doing better than the Lakers)

Oh and I think I forgot in my letter last week to wish Ashley Happy Birthday! From your pictures that I got she looks like she is still 21, so I don’t know why she is still having birthdays, but I hope you had a good one Ashley! Happy Birthday from Mexico!

Oh speaking of picking oranges and juicing them…..(in your email) Every morning we pass by this juice stand where they sell the best orange juice. They juice the oranges right in front of you and poor it into the glass. Its delicious and it reminds me of picking oranges and juicing them with Carli and Bead. (Even though Carli would sometimes get mad at me for being in the Kitchen) haha just kiddin Carli LOVE YOU! : )

Oh and this last weekend it rained pretty hard and then it cleared up yesterday. The climate down here is a lil crazy. I took some sweet pictures off my balcony when all the sky had cleared up.

Well that’s about it for this week. I am healthy and happy in the service of My God and I love being a missionary. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that I have this opportunity to serve him and the people here in Valle De Tules.

Thanks for all your love and support! Les Quiero Mucho!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Love being a Missionary!

2009-02-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

It was a relatively good week. We knocked a lot of doors, we taught a lot of people, and I felt the Spirit a lot. What more could I ask for. Im just loving being a missionary and I cant think of a more fun thing I could be doing in my life (even though dinner with Preston Kyle and Brooklyn looked pretty dang fun) Hermana Guillermina and Gustavo have been going to church every week. Hmna Guilla keeps asking me for books cause she wants to learn more and more. (even though she doesn’t know how to write, she can read though) I gave her my Principles of the Gospel book and I think she will use it more than I would. We should have at least 1 baptism this week, possibly 2. Ill inform you more on them later. We have a lot of people to baptize, but I usually don’t like to baptize the people unless I know they have a testimony. If we baptize the people and then they go inactive, we are just condemning them. So I would rather save souls then condemn them. The work is going great though. E. Torralba has had a change of heart and we listen to church music every morning and night (the cds I brought are coming in handy)

What else is new. Oh, I started Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage. I started it on Thursday night and im already on page 145. I figured that if Im going to be representing Christ, I want to learn all I can about Him. Its an awesome book and I highly encourage reading it.

Oh mom, you are going to be very proud of this next comment. I guess for the mission I have had a change of heart about writing in my journal and Ive been doing it consecutively since I left home. I am actually like 20 pages from finishing and I was wondering if you could send me another journal. You know one of the navy blue ones that says Journal on it and then the first page is like a family tree. Well yea, one of those. I want to have like 3 for my mission so I need to start writing more. I am coming up on my 1/3 mark and I want to finish my Journal by then so if you could send me one that would be great! Thanks!

Well this week there was a lot of ups and downs. Mostly ups though so im pretty happy. We found a way awesome couple that went to church this week. She was asking about being baptized and was concerned that she isn’t baptized in any church. We taught her the first few lessons and she was so excited that she made her husband go to his work late and go to church. We have to get them married, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I have a little bit of experience in that area. There names are Maria and Jose Antonio. She came to church last week as well. She just showed up alone and wanted to learn. She is what you call (golden) even though she isn’t going to be able to go to church this upcoming week. Im thinking an early March baptisms. This next lesson we are going to mix in Temple Marriage and hopefully they can get married in the temple in 1 year. (ill still be in the mish so ill get to go to the temple ceremony, that would be sweet)

Don’t worry mom, we stayed clear of the dangerous part of our area this week and I didn’t see one drunk all week. (pretty rare actually)
Oh funny story. So we were walking down the street the other day and a cow goes running by. Then follows 3 mexicans chasing it. The cow was huge. We decided that we were going to help them out. Apparently after talking to the guys there was another 1 lost as well. Well we ended up backing the cow into a corner and one of the Mexicans lassoed (sp) it. It was pretty tight and they were pretty thankful for our help. It was so random though. A cow running through the middle of the city……Then later on that day we were walking by and found another cow, also huge, just chilling in a little empty lot, eatin grass. We thought we would take some pictures with it before we went for the owners. So ill send some pictures. (Kurt, im on the look out for a huge Toro like the one in your picture you sent me) But for now, this will have to do.

Well that’s about it for this week. I want you to know that I have a testimony of this church. I know that we have the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that He lives. I know that God lives and loves me and listens and answers to my prayers. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that He talks to God face to face. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know that if we follow the council in it, we will be able to obtain our eternal Glory. I know that My Heavenly knows me personally and leads and guides me each day.

I´m so thankful for my family and friends. Each one of you has been such a strength for me in my life and I will be eternally grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me as He has.

Hope ya´ll have a great week and I have you all in my prayers. Thanks for your love!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

The Lord continues to watch over His Servants

2009-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Well fam, Its oficial, 6 more weeks with E. Torralba here in Valle De Tules. The next change wont be until March 22nd. I am pretty excited though. Now that I have gotten E. T. to get rid of all of his stuff (cell phone, movies, etc.) we have been able to focus even more as a companionship on why we are really here. We didn’t quite have the success that we wanted this week, but we were able to find a couple really awesome nuevos. We have been walking a ton though lately, climbing up to the very tips of the mountains basically, just to find inactive members. (Oh and mom im wearing the insert things from Dr. Ray, not because I need them, but because the soles of my shoes broke, I haven’t felt that much of a difference, but at least you can feel at peace that im weaing them) Anyways, most of the families just say that its too big of a sacrifice to walk to the church every Sunday and its sad to see the familias miss out on blessings, but all we can do is invite. That’s about it on the mission stuff. I am sure you want to here some awesome stories tho right?!
First of all, Mom, don’t freak out, it wasn’t that big of a deal, and my area is really really really safe ok! : ) Having that in mind ill start my story. Ok so Tuesday we were searching for these inactive families on top of this mountain and we get to this house with some guy (really drunk) screaming at his wife/girlfriend) We were like uh, what do we do. She was all scared that he was going to hit here and stuff and she saw us and ran outside and started asking us for help. So the drunk (his name is Daniel) came outside and changed his attitude real fast, yelling, ¨Gringooo, wat ah u doin¨ He had a big smile on his face and came over to shake my hand. He was trying to talk in English, but it was pretty hard to understand, (it sounded like when mom tries to speak Spanish…..completely impossible to understand) He was really happy and was asking me why im here and I think he totally forgot that his wife was even there. Anyways we were telling him how he shouldn’t drink and how he needs to be a good husband and all that. It was a great conversation, let me tell ya. Anyways we started walking away and he yelled. ¨Gringoooo I need u money¨ He began to walk quickly behind us. We stopped and we told him that we didn’t have anything. I think I had like 50 pesos in my pocket which is like 5 bucks. He started to bear hug me and was checking my back pockets and my companion was freaking out. He was a bigger guy (for a Mexican) and I started to get a lil nervous as well. He started to get more and more mad with his arms still tight around my waist. I didn’t really know what to do. I started pushing him off a lil, but he wouldn’t let go of me so I didn’t really have many choices. I put my foot behind his leg and shoved him as hard as I could and he fell straight on his back. My comp was yelling (vamanos, vamanos….lets go) and so we took off down the mountain. Luckily the drunk guy could hardly get up and could barely walk straight so it was pretty easy to get away. But it was definitely 5 minutes of intense action for a missionary. Our mission Pres. Always tells us not to fight back if people try to rob us and stuff like that, but I didn’t have much of a choice. He wouldn’t let go of me. So yea, that was pretty sweet.
What else exciting happened this week. Oh Elder Allen and I (Elder Allen is in the next area closest to mine and his ward meets in the same church as we do) started English classes and we had a pretty good turn out. We have them every Friday at 6 and it’s the second week that we have had the class. We had like 20 people come this last week and 8 of them weren’t members of the church, pretty tight. We got 3 of them to come to church this last week as well so it’s a pretty good way to find people so far.
As for the birthday package, I don’t really need anything special, just like ties, like I had mentioned. All the members always ask if I will give them ties when I leave the area and I only have like 15 ties. I should have brought more. I need like 50 haha.
Oh another crazy thing happened yesterday at Church. One of the people that was supposed to give a talk didn’t show up. So when the Bishop was announcing the people to give the talks he finished with, ¨Y si Elder Heap nos puede ayudar con un discurso para terminar antes del Ultimo Himno ¨ a.k.a. He asked me to speak which I was not prepared to do. Keep in mind he asked me from the pulpit AFTER The Sacament. My companion just smiled and said Buena suerte (good luck) I was praying so hard that I would know what to say. I hate speaking in front of lots of people. So yea I prayed for the next 15 minutes and My Heavenly Father definitely answered my prayers! Luckily for me, the 2 other speakers went way over time and I didn’t have to speak! Yeeeeeah! I was very relieved. I think as a missionary I have learned about the power of prayer more than anything. Everything I ask my Heavenly Father for, happens. It is pretty awesome actually. I mean I had always said my prayers before the mission, but I had never really learned the importance or the powerfulness of praying. As a missionary, if you don’t have prayers, you don’t have anything! I am so thankful for my Father in Heaven and the opportunity I have to pray all day everyday and communicate with Him.
That’s it for this week, I love you all and I hope everyone has a great Valentines Day (can you believe, its already February…..LOCO) I love you all very much, thanks for the love and support!

Con amor,
Elder Heap

A Lesson in Running.....

2009-02-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia,

Alright, i really dont know where to start for this week. A million things happened, but ill start from the beginning.

First of all, last Monday night the assistants raided our house (I had told President that my companion has a cell phone and he send the assistants to come get it) They left our house with about 50 dvds that Elder Torralba had and TWO cell phones. I didn’t even know he had the movies or the other cell phone. So yea, it was crazy and the assistants were like yelling at Elder Torralba. Pretty intense. I think there were words that probably shouldn’t have been said on the part of E. Torralba and as a missionary. I was thankful that I didn’t totally understand all of the bad words being said. So that night E. Torralba was basically crying thinking that President is going to send him home. I was like ´´ELDER GET UP….. WE ARE GOING RUNNING´´ He was confused I think, but I wanted to run it off. I knew if we didn’t, neither of us would be able to sleep. We ran to the corner of our area and then walked back. We talked about a lot of things and why he is on the mission and had a good talk. Then when we got back we went on our roof looking over all of our city and just sat there. It was a craaaazy night! Elder Torralba was nervous because we had interviews with President on Thursday. He was thinking all week that he was going to get home. I told him when we were sitting on the roof that if you change your attitude and if you work hard with me until Thursday that I will support you and that I will try to talk President into keeping you here.

In the week we worked extremely hard. We walked so much and I just crashed on my bed every night. We ended the week with 18 nuevos (our goal was 15). E. Torralba has woken up with me every morning at 630 since last Monday and we can totally tell the differences in our lessons. We had some pretty awesome lessons this week where the Spirit was so strong! We had 8 people in church this week, 4 of which are new. It’s a family of 6 that surprisingly aren’t Catholic. Only the 4 kids went because the parents had another compromiso, but they all liked it a lot.

Ok so then on Thursday in the interviews, E. Torralba went in with President first and they took like 45 minutes (all of my interviews are usually like 3 minutes haha but I think that’s a good thing) Then it was my turn and E. Torralba had tears when he walked out of the interview. I was thinking for sure E. Torralba is going home. Then in my interview, President acted like everything is cool and after the usual 3 minutes, he said ´´well Elder, do you have any questions for me´´ like he says every time. I was like´´YES, whats going on with my companion´´ He told me that he really felt something special with E. Torralbas interview and that he is going to remain a missionary. I was so happy. Then President NAncollas told me that he had plans to move me up as district leader this next change (changes are on the 8th) but now he thinks he is going to keep me with E. Torralba one more change to help him out. I was cool with that. President told me the E Torralba asked if he could be my companion for another change so I expect to be here with Elder Torralba until March 22nd when the next changes are.
Ok so that’s that for the interview. It was a pretty stressful week not knowing whats going to happen with my companion.

Other great highlights of the week…… I had the opportunity to do 4 blessings this week. My testimony of the Priesthood has strengthened so incredibly much on my mission! I feel so blessed to have the priesthood in my life. Out of the millions of billions of people that have been on the earth, only a select few have the opportunity to bless the lives of people around them with the Priesthood.

Oh almost forgot one of the best parts of the week. Guillermina got baptized (Gustavos mom) She was so excited and Elder Torralba baptized her and I did the confirmation. It was the first time ive ever confirmed someone. Pretty neat! She loved it and I think she is going to be a great missionary too. She brought a friend to her baptism and she gave big hugs to the investigators that we brought. Haha she is tight! I just pray for her that she will find a job soon. She hasn’t had a job for a few weeks and they are living off the few savings that they have eating beans and tortillas and water all day every day.
Well, that’s about it for this crazy week. Next week are changes, fortunately I already kinda know that ill be here at least another 7 weeks with E. Torralba. Im glad though, ive seen a major difference in our work and I know we will have a lot of success.

Well, I don’t have much time to respond to your emails, but sounds like everyone is doing great! (oh and mom when you send me emails, I cant really see the border stuff and I usually just copy and paste all the emails into word so I can print the letters smaller so its cheaper haha. Sorry…. I was disappointed to hear that the Cardinals lost barely. The Hmno (where we go to wash clothes) told me this morning early and I was a bit sad.

Well, I love you all, sorry I didn’t get to respond to your questions (actually I haven’t read your emails yet) Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Working Hard for Baptisms! ha ha

2009-01-30T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, 1/26/09

First off, Happy Birthday to the twins! Tell Preston and Kyle that i love them and miss them. Hopefully they still remember me! (They turned 3!)This week was alright, some ups, some downs. Its actually normal every week to have ups and downs, but when we baptize (which we have been doing every weekend) it makes all the week worth it. Unfortunately we didnt have a baptism this week. We had a couple people that we couldve baptized, but we felt like they needed another week to prepare. So dont worry, baptism pics will be coming in a week. Lets see what else, we are baptizing the mom of Gustavo this next week. She is way pumped about it and from the first day we met her i never thought she would get baptized! The first day when she contacted us she said, here is my son he needs to find Jesus. Religion doesnt interst me. And now that she has seen the changes in her son she wants to follow his example (FYI, Gustavo passed the sacrament yesterday and came with a white shirt and felt bad that he didnt have a tie, so i sprinted up the mountain to our house to grab him a tie and he was way excited to pass the sacrament, future missionary for sure!) Lets see we have worked a lot with familys that are less active, trying to establish the church, and there are some great families in our ward that just have a lil problem here and there and for that havent gone to church. But 2 of those families came to chruch yesterday and they were excited to be back in the Truth. It is crazy how poor people here are. For example, there is a family that gives us food like 3 nights a week and this Sunday they didnt come to church so we were like, uh what happened? We went to their house and the mom Marisol was crying. They didn't go to church because her 2 littlest sons dont have shoes and she was embarrassed. She was crying because she felt like she let down the Lord cause they didn't go to church. We are going to figure out a way to help them out. Find shoes somewhere or visit members that might have extras. We are praying for them. I love Mexicans, they are so humble and yet they sacrifice everything for the church. How good did i have it growing up? Im pretty sure i'd get all upset sometimes if you didnt iron my shirt mom. (of course when i was like 7 or 8 haha) I have learned so many lessons out here and one of them is just that. The gospel and my family is the most important thing for me in this life. More important than cars, money, shoes, or any other material thing. I have gotten to know people that really give up everything to show up at church on Sunday. Walk miles, tape up their broken shoes, carry their 2 littlest kids, and they show up with a smile. I feel really extremely blessed and where much is given, much is required. That's why I work my butt off every week to find and bring more people unto Christ so that they too can be happy like I am.

In response to your question about the package, (el pato, peanut butter) Don't worry, there is a Walmart in my zone so

I can go there every Monday if I want to get that kind of stuff. You can find anything in Walmart. My area isn't rural at all

You probably were thinking that because we took pictures with those donkeys on the only dirt road in our area. haha We

are actually in a huuuge city with tons of cars ( i have had to dive out of the way of some trucks, they dont like white

people) Huge freeways and everything, pretty tight. I took a picture last night on a (puente-who knows what that word is

in english, look it up)( it must be a bridge) overlooking a huge freeway.

About the Dear Elders from the other Elders, i dont really have time to read them. Im sure it would be great to hear about

their missions, but i dont know if ill have time to read them.

Mother, as much as i love hearing about our inventory of food supply, maybe you can keep that to you and Dad. I mean

i know that food supply is important and all that ( The Prophet said it) but i dont necessarily need to know how many cans of

apples, beans (I laughed hard at that one) etc. that you need. haha sorry! Love you mom!

That's cool about the football banquet and the pics look great. Bead, you are a stud. Keep it up! (theres really not a

whole lot of advice i can give ya Bead, you are pretty much my example) Just that attitude is everything. sometimes in the

mish, i feel a little bit alone, i feel a lot of rejection, but if you have a good attitude about everything (school, playing time, moms

rules) everything turns out great! Oh and mom if you make a highlight film of Bead, please send it! I dont know if its against

the rules, but you have always taught me, family first! :) (Now Greg)

Dad, i miss ya man, how is life. I hope you get well quick. I was sad to hear that you've felt under the weather. Dont worry

ill be praying for ya a bunch and i know you will be healthy before i write next week. If mom tells you to go to the doctor, dont

be stubborn, just go! haha One thing about the mission that ive liked Dad is that there is a ton of time to just think. There are

lots of times when i think back to our long talks in high school til 3 in the morning and i dont know if i have ever been humble

enough to thank you. Thank you very much for your example Dad. I love you!

Well yall thats about it for this week. I pray for each and every on of you and i thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Have a great week!

Con amor,

Elder Greg Heap

Baptism of Gustavo..hand of the Lord in all things

2009-01-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia,
First to answer a couple questions. My exact location is the city of Tultitlan, by Cuatitlan Izcalli. I don’t have any idea if you will be able to find it on the map, but yea, that’s where im at. My stake is called Valle Dorado (that is also a city) and my ward is Valle de Tules. So yea, lets see…..
We had another baptism this week Gustavo, and when I got here to the internet café he was in here. I don’t remember if I told you his story or not, but we were walking around looking for this members house at like 9 oclock at night and we couldn’t find it, but then Gustavo and his mom passed us and yelled at us. His mom told us that he is a problem child and hangs out with the wrong kinds of kids so we told him that we would take him to mutual the next day. He knew a couple of the kids at mutual and we played soccer and basketball and I owned all the lil Mexican kids. Haha But Gustavo liked it and has gone to every mutual and every Sunday since then. Every move we make as missionaries (when we are doing what we are supposed to) is directed by the Lord. I know that Gustavo and his mother were put in our path that night. He got baptized on Saturday and got confirmed and received the priesthood yesterday. His mom went to church and now she wants to get baptized, we don’t know if we can baptize her this week, but we are going to see. We should have at least 1 more baptism this week. So things continue to go great in this area and we are the only companionship that has baptized in our district since December. Our zone leaders continue to be pretty happy with us.
In fact, tomorrow, all of the district leaders in the whole mission have a meeting with President Nancollas and I got a special invitation to go even though im not a district leader. That means ill probably be the only one there that doesn’t have the title of district leader. My zone leader called me last night and told me, I was pretty excited about it.
That’s all the big news from the mish for this week really, we are continuing to work hard and we had 7 investigadors in church which is more than the other 3 companionships in our district combined. I think this letter sounds a lil prideful, but when you work as hard as Elder Torralba and I, I think its allowed. Haha It looks like Humility is still on my list of attributes to acquire (sp) on the mish.
Oh, we had zone conference on Friday and it went pretty well. The same as always actually, but the good thing was that I received a ton of letters. (mostly Christmas cards from family and friends and familys from the ward. Here is a lil thank you shout out to all of them! Thank you to the following people and/or families! E. Bradley Mortensen, The Petersons, Sandstroms, Kitchens, Fieldings, Shermans, Forrests, Stan and Mary Ellen Porter, The Kerrs, Kate Kerr (she sent me a personalized hand written note haha), Uncle Matt and Aunt Dawna, The Allens, Uncle David and Aunt Donna, The Woods, Ted and Mona Larson (I was so tempted to eat all of the caramels myself, but I shared with a family that gives us food almost every night, they loved the caramels, they were exceptionally delicious THANK YOU) Todd and Ashley, and of course you mother! I really enjoyed the Christmas card that you sent out this year mom, good work!
Thank you everyone! I loved all of the pictures and notes! They are all hanging up in my little 3 by 5 foot room wall.
Lets see, I have mixed feelings about the Ravens loss, of course I would have hoped that they would go to the superbowl, but its cool ifyou wait to more years so I can go right Todd.
Oh mom, speaking of my blog, will you send me it. I think you sent it to me once, but I don’t remember it! Thanks!
Well life is great and im still loving the work of the Lord. I feel the blessings of your prayers each day and I know it is helping me out here in the field. The Hand of the Lord is in ALL things and I am firm believer that everything happens for a reason. The Plan of God, the Plan of Happiness never ceases to amaze me, it is perfect in every way. I know this church is true and I know that the power of faith and prayer is unbelievably real. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know that this church as well as this Mexico city north mission is directed by men called of God. I am so thankful to know that My Savior Jesus Christ not only payed for my sins, but for everytime when I feel sad or alone as well. He knows how we feel and he knows how to cure us if only we come unto Him.
I love you all! Have a Great week!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

God answers prayers....no joke

2009-01-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, January 5, 2009
This week was by far without a doubt the best week of my mission so far. My new companion Elder Torralba is tight he is from somewhere around the border so i told him id help him get across the border someday, but he is way tight. He had a lot of problems before and was very disobedient so he got put as menor (the opposite of senior comp) with me. He didnt have any baptisms in this area in December and only 3 in November so i told him that we were going to change all of that and baptize a bunch. I got pretty excited to work hard and we worked our hearts out. We found 21 new investigadores. It was so awesome! Then Saturday night i started my fast (which im going to start every week) and i fasted for Ashley and her family and also that we would have at least 10 invest. in church on Sunday. I knew that if i fasted and prayed for that, Heavenly Father would put in the rest and get the people to church.
So on Sunday we woke up early to go for our new people and only 3 of them were in their houses. Soooo frustrating. But i knew that God would bless us with the other 7 at church so we went with our 3 kind of sad cause we had worked so hard. Then after sacrament meeting we went to our principios del evangelio class (sorry, gospel principles) and another 8 of our investigadores showed up. So we had 11 at church. I really know that God answers our prayers and that if we fast and pray we can see miracles daily. 11 was the most in all of our zone and i was pretty pumped because it was my first week as senior comp. I feel really good about 9 of them and they all should get baptized. I am so excited about this cambio with Elder T. We do the funniest door contacts and we get in a TON of houses. We are pretty much dying laughing all day eveyrday! haha Hes a cool kid. All i have to do is keep him focused and not let him do anything stupid. (like leave the mission or go to the movie theatres or sleep over at memberrs houses,,,, all of which he has aleady done)
The good thing about him is that he is really funny and he doesnt know ANY english so my spanish is going to get even better, i have already noticed it getting way better. Im returning back to where i was with Elder Obregon where i would think in Spanish and dream in spanish and all that. With Elder STirland it was hard to do that. I guess all i have to do is find the good things in each companion and find ways to get them to wok hard.
Oh, we didnt really do anything for New Years we just ate at a members house and then went on top of our roof to watch lame fireworks. It was pretty cool tho. We live like half way up a mountain so we had a good view. Ill send pics that i took from on top of our apartment complex.
Im also sending pics of burning my tie on 6 months and some pics with my new comp.
Bead, im sorry that a one armed kid owned you in bball, that probably means that i can still dominate you. Todd won his game, thats tight! Go Ravens! Give him good luck for me and ill be praying for him as i do for all of you!
Love you all! Have the greatest week and enjoy every minute of what life has to offer.
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

..Ghetto on a Mountain

2009-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Well ive arrived in my new area with my new companion. Yes mayor means senior comp. I couldnt think of that word in English....Sorry! My new companion is Elder Torralba, he is as big as me, but im pretty sure i could still take him. He apparently is not very obedient. Apparently President is going to give me all companions like that to whip them into shape. haha But im excited! I will send pics of him and my area next week! I live in a jungle......of cement box houses! Its ridiculous! Im going to love it and ill probably get in really good shape cause we have 3 mountains in our area and my comp says we are always walking up or down a mountain so its good exercise. He has 15 months in the mission, but i think ill be able to get him to work hard! We will see! Im pretty much pumped tho! My district leader is a kid from my generation (meaning we entered the MTC the same day) So i will be reporting my numbers to him, thats pretty sweet! Life in the city is going to be way different! Its like the complete opposite from Atotonilco! REmember those pics of the mountains and greenery and amazing desert skies. WEll now i am in a beautiful ghetto on a mountain (Brad, explain to mom what is a ghetto) haha
WEll dont have much time! Love you all! Have a great new years!
Con amor
Elder Heap December 29, 2008

...Prayers of Thankfulness

2009-01-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, December 15, 2008
Well, a pretty normal week here in Atotonilco. A lot of walking, a lot of knocking doors and a lot of rejection. I think it’s the rejections that toughens up us missionaries. Fortunately for me, I get to taste a lot of success as well. I really feel like the harder we work the more we get blessed so I have personally taken the responsibility to kick my companion out of bed every morning so we can get out the doors on time. (It’s a trial for me, cause you all know how much I love sleeping in!) We have really seen the results though and I think my companion appreciates it. (hopefully)
Baptism updates: we had 3 baptisms planned for this upcoming week, but NONE of them went to church. It was frustrating, we even went to pick them up, but they must have been hiding or left early or something. Now we have to postpone them another week cause they have to go to church 3 times before they get baptized. Hopefully they can feel the importance of going to church every single week. We just gotta keep teaching with the Spirit and let Him do the rest. We will see how it turns out!
This is going to be a pretty short email I think because I cant think of anything else cool that happened this week. However, I did remember to bring my camera so I will be sending pictures today I promise.
That’s a bummer about Todds game, The ravens always find a way to lose it at the last second. Hopefully things are still looking good for the playoffs.
We put up our Christmas tree and put our presents under it. My companion told me to tell you thanks for his present and candy. I think all the candy will be gone before Christmas! OH mom, very important! Send more of that alfredo stuff. Its reeeeeally good and a great change-up from rice beans and tortillas! Thanks!
Ive decided that because it is impossible to eat healthy down here Im going to do 1000 push ups every week until I get home. Ive also been waking up every morning and doing jump ropes on top of our house every morning. So don’t worry Im trying to stay in shape. If you have any other suggestions, let me know!?
Im glad you are all getting in the Christmas Spirit! I have been trying to, but Christmas isn’t quite as big down here. I mean I am sure it would be bigger if the people had the money to decorate their houses and all that, but they don’t. Its going to be a really humble Christmas of giving this year, but im pretty excited about it. Also the chance to get to talk to all of you! Im thinking I will call around 5 your time, if that’s cool. Let me know next week! Ok? Oh I have also been giving out the little rings that you sent me mom, the kids LOVE them. This little girl in one of my wards asks me for another one everytime I see her. Good work mom!
Well, in this Christmas season I hope everyone gets a chance to kneel down and thank Our Heavenly Father for all of the many blessings that We have been blessed with. I have been saying my nightly prayers every night only giving thanks for the blessings that I have and the successes that we have each day and I have really felt a difference in my spiritual level. I know as we give thanks to Our Heavenly Father, we feel a greater appreciation for Him and our Savior.
I hope you all have a great week! Keep ballin Bead! I love you all!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...another week of miracles!

2009-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, December 8, 2009
I don’t have that much time to answer your emails so Ill just try to do it really quick. I wanna get to that amazing happenings of this week…It truly was a week of miracles!
First of all, I got all your packages! I think 2 or 3 from you mom, 1 from Grandma Heap, and 1 from Ali! I was so pumped! I opened some of the stuff and put up our ghetto paper Christmas tree, but don’t worry I left some presents for Christmas. I forgot to take a picture, but look forward to it next week!
A little bit frustrating to hear about Mountain View and Brophy, but I guess I couldn’t have expected anything less from good old Coach Joe. Send all the boys my love and tell them to shake it off. In a year or 2 they will all be out serving the Lord and it wont matter what happened with High School Football. I mean, in the moment, it feels like it was everything, but at the same time, there is a lot more to life and a lot more to happiness than winning a state football championship. Give Bead a good luck from me in Basketball! I know he will tear it up!
It was great to hear updates about the ward. Tell everyone to do that Christmas activity where they give Christmas to a Mexican family in Mesa that has nothing….WHY? Because Mexicans are the best! And, because its Christmas time and it’s a time for giving! (even though I have already received a lot! haha)
Also great to hear about Brooklyn Preston and Kyle! Send them my love!
So like I said, This week was amaaaaazing! It is amazing how many blessings come when you just work hard and try to be as obedient as possible. Well last Tuesday we started the week of pretty great with 2 baptisms. It was awesome. We baptized to kids. Roberto (13) and Franscisco (8). They are tight. Im sending pics don’t worry. We have been teaching them and their mom since I got here in Atotonilco and the 2 boys got baptized. It was awesome! The mom also wants to get baptized, but I don’t think we will be able to because she isn’t married and they are moving to Veracruz next week. Hopefully a couple of my buddies in Veracruz (from the MTC) can find her and baptize her there. She (their mom) is awesome as well.
The rest of the week we spent knocking doors and asking members for referencias which in this area, is TOUGH! Its ridiculous. Every door we knock says sorry we are catholics and we have already talked to your companions like 23 years ago. It’s a joke. It gets really frustrating and I have to pray a lot to not get too hyped up. And then, when people actually let us in to their house, they just go off on how amazing the Virgin Mary is and how great there Catholic priest is and blah blah blah. I use everything that I got to restrain me from yelling. ¡You have to trust in Jesus Christ, He is the one that is your Savior, He is the one that payed for your signs, stop praying to the virgin Mary! I usually have to calm down and remember who I am representing. So we spent Wed through almost all of Saturday only finding 4 new investigadors. (That is way low for these parts…. We average like 15)
So Saturday we woke up studied showered and all that and prayed before we left the house that we can find at least 5 people that want to hear us. We started out knocking doors and it wasn’t doing anything. Still no success, so we decided that we were going to knock doors in our other ward boundaries (Cerrito), ( I don’t know I told you that I have 2 wards, one is called Atotonilco and the other is Cerrito) So we were waiting for the taxi to go to Cerrito and as the taxi finally pulled up I got an overwhelming feeling to go knock in an area where we have already knocked in Atotonilco. My companion was like (alright man whatever you want) and so we ditched the taxi and started walking towards the streets that I had in mind. After the first street we found nothing…. After the second street we found nothing….. then halfway down the 3rd street a member drove past us, slammed on his breaks and said (Elderes Ven!) (Elders come here) I walked over to his truck and he was smiling real big. He asked us questions about the work and then he smiled real big. He said, Elderes mi hija quiere bautizarse. We were pumped, so we hopped in his truck and drove to his house. There awaited his daughter (shes like 30) Her name is Lilian. We started teaching her the restoration and all that and she just kept asking us how she can get baptized and how long is the preparation to get baptized. We said, (well, all you need is faith in Christ and the desire to change and repent, and you have to go to church at least 3 times, and we have to teach you all the lessons) She said, well can I get baptized tomorrow? We just looked at each other and my companion was smiling real big. We then took the next 3 hours teaching all of the lessons. She already knew what the Law of Chastity was, The word of Wisdom, and Tithing (she is way excited to pay her tithing actually) She took in all of our words and didn’t have problems with anything! It was awesome! She was so excited to get baptized. She said, yea Ive been to church the last 4 weeks, but I think everyone just assumed I was already a member, but I really want to get baptized. We told her to bring her sandals and extra clothes interior for her baptism tomorrow just in case we can get everything ready, but if not we will do it next week. After the lesson with Lilian her brother came to my companion and I and asked if we can give him a blessing. He has a health problem and sometimes all of the sudden he cant breath and his dad has to rub his chest and give him a shot so that he stops his seizures (sp). My companion accepted to do it and told him that I would be giving the blessing. I kinda started freaking out a lil bit inside cause I have never given a blessing in Spanish before. I was pretty nervous for a second until I put my hands on his head. Then I got the most calm feeling and I gave him the blessing. My companion was pretty impressed because I knew all of the words to do a blessing in Spanish. I was impressed myself a lil cause only one time in my short time here in mexico have I even heard a blessing in Spanish. I know that my Father in Heaven helped me out to know what to say and the words seemed to come so easily! It was awesome! What was even more amazing was that halfway through the blessing he started shaking again. I just put my hands on his head more firm and said (Te Bendecimos con salud)….. and then I paused (We bless you with health). He stopped shaking and I finished the blessing. It truly was a miracle. His dad told me after that usually when he starts shaking he has to have a shot or else he wont stop. I know that the power of the Priesthood is real and that Heavenly Father gave His authority and power to man to bless all of His children. We left there house feeling really overwhelmingly blessed to know having felt the Spirit so strong.
So, the next day (yesterday) we talked to our Bishop and he was surprised that she wasn’t a member, so he gave us the ok to have the baptism and fill up the font. We called our zone leaders to come and do the interview and everything went so smoothly. She passed the interview with flying colors and we baptized her! It was incredible! She was so happy! She asked me right beforehand if I could baptize her, which was an awesome honor (we thought she would ask her dad or one of her brothers, so we brought 2 medium overalls) Then when she asked if I could do it I accepted and forgot that we only had the 2 medium sized overalls haha. I squeezed into it and baptized her. (3 times cause her hair didn’t go all the way under water the first 2 times) It was amazing! The feeling of lifting her out of the water was so amazing even tho the water was freeeeezing! (we didn’t have time to fill it up with hot water) When she walked out of the font she just couldn’t stop saying thank you. She even tried to give me a hug, but I gave her the stiff handshake (cause we cant hug) and I explained to her that we cant give hugs as missionaries. Haha It was pretty funny!
So, I learned a few valuable lessons this week. Even tho we only found 5 nuevos this week, we found a baptism. This really is the work of the Lord. I know that the Spirit guided us to that street, not because there was someone living there ready to hear the gospel, but because the Lord knew that that Hermano was searching for us and He knew that He was going to be driving down that street that day! I am so thankful for the hand of the Lord in my life. It doesn’t matter how many down times we have, how many games we lose, how many investigators we don’t find, but it does matter to always be obedient so that we can have the Spirit with us to lead and guide us. This last week was definitely a trial with not finding very many people and not having a lot of success, but God does answer our prayers. Sometimes, He doesn’t answer our prayers in the way that we would like (ex: when we asked for 5 new investigadores) but He does answer them and knows whats best for us! And I know if we live worthily he will bless us beyond our expectations (ex: unexpected baptism)
I am so thankful for all of the blessings that my Heavenly Father has given me. The opportunity that I have to be out here serving these humble people is a chance of a lifetime and I know it isn’t coincidence that I was called to this part of the Lords vineyard. I know this is the True Church of Christ here on the earth today. We are so blessed to have the knowledge that we do. Our families can be together forever! How amazingly cool is that! All we have to do is cumplir with the things that the Lord asks of us and all that he has is ours. That is infinitely better than any Christmas gift or earthly gift that we can receive here in this life. I am so thankful for my Savior, that through his sacrifice we can obtain this eternal glory.
I love this gospel, I love the mission, I love my family, I love everything! I hope all of you have the most amazing week!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

...Finding Carlos

2009-01-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, December 2, 2009
Well, it sounds like you all had a great week with all the fam. Hopefully you didn’t miss me too much. Sounds like you had a sweet Thanksgiving fiesta at the house, Im jealous that I didn’t get to make it. Keep me updated when Tanner gets his call, hopefully he will get the opportunity to go the best mission in the world (Mexico City North). Im also jealous that I missed the zoo activity with my lil nieces and nephews! In case you were wondering, Dora the Explorer is a pretty big deal down here too! Haha Hopefully they all remember me, keep reminding them who their favorite uncle is alright? I haven’t looked at the pictures yet, but im excited to see the pictures that you sent from this last week. I have a couple pictures to send, but ill wait til next week when I can send some baptism pics along with it.
We had a pretty exciting week, I completed 5 months and my companion completed a year. Its crazy how fast time flies when you work hard and are having fun. We didn’t do too many cool things out of the ordinary to celebrate, but we had some fun. My companion burned a white shirt (apparently it’s a tradition) and we made a ton of pancakes Thanksgiving morning. Haha They were actually really good, my chef skills are definitely improving. Basically we just worked like normal and it payed off. We had 7 investigadores in Sacrament Meeting. Our zone leader (who was in our area last transfer) was flipping out cause the most they ever had was 2. It was kinda nice to prove to him that you can baptize and bring invest. To church here in Atotonilco. Tomorrow we are going to have 2 baptisms. Two kids 8 years old and 12 years old. We are working with their mom to get baptized too, but we still have to get her married or separated from her boyfriend. There names are Roberto and Fransisco. Ill send pictures of their baptism next week! So with those 2 baptisms we are starting off December pretty good. That’s already twice as many as the last companionship that was here did in 6 weeks. My Spanish is improving daily and the work gets more and more fun when I can communicate better.
Another cool story, we were on our way to comida with an hermana and we decided to knock one more street before we did. It was such a blessing, we found this guy named Carlos. He is like 65 years old, but apparently the missionaries taught him over 25 years ago. Apparently one day the missionaries just didn’t return (im assuming their were cambios). Carlos was really sad that they didn’t return because he wanted to get baptized like 25 years ago and the missionaries never came back. So we showed up to this guys house and he has already read the book of Mormon a couple times and he went to the open house of the temple by himself. He wanted to write his name down at the temple as a reference, but he cant read or write very well so he didn’t know how to do it. Anyways, he went to church last week and he is excited to get baptized this 14th of Diciembre. Hopefully everything works out for him, he is a stud!
It was good to hear about Todds induction to the Mesa Hall of Fame. That’s pretty sweet and it was even better to hear that the Ravens are 8-4 and Todd caught a TD. That’s tight! How are the Ravens doing in the standings…. Looking good for the playoffs?
Lets see, lIt was also good to hear that Brad got asked to Winter Formal. Ive been praying for Brad a lot so that SOMEONE would ask him. Haha jk Bead. That’s sweet how you answered brotha, very original. I would also like to tell you Bead that although you can dunk it (and I probably cant anymore) I can still own you in basketball. I hope you always remember that. Oh and im pretty dang sure I beat you in Horse like 5 times before I left! Oh and good luck in your semi game this week….. I still don’t know who you play cause no one has told me, but good luck!
Well that’s about it for this week. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on, but I am working hard and enjoying everything about Mexico. Im glad you all had a great week with the fam. I love you and miss you all! And although I didn’t have much of a Thanksgiving dinner, I definitely counted all of my blessings and gave thanks to my Heavenly Father for all of the many things that I have been blessed with through out my life. I love you all…. Have a great week!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Hea

.....Feeling the Gift of Tongues

2009-01-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia, 11/24/08
Well, Im probably going to try to make this letter short. But, ill try to get all the major happenings of the week.
First off, my new companion Elder Stirland is pretty cool. He is going to have 1 year this friday in the field so hes pretty excited for that. We will probably have a lil mexican fiesta or something. He will also be my companion for Feliz Navidad and so you might get to say hi to him haha. Ill send you a picture. Its not a very good one, but ill send more in the upcoming weeks, dont worry.
As for my new area, its gorgeous. I think its a lil bit more rural than Apaxco. I took a cool picture looking over my area (well like half of it) and its pretty sweet, hope you like it.
The members are pretty nice and willing to help. Not as cool as the members of the Apaxco rama, but im sure ill just have to get to know them more. Good thing is we get free laundry and free haircuts cause there are 2 members that hook us up.
Lets see, apparently this area is (too hard to baptize) which from the looks of it, its kinda true. However, we are going to work really hard getting referencias from the members and our goal for December is to have 7 baptisms. (Thats more baptisms then the zone leaders have had in this area in the 3 months since ive been here) But we are going to do it, no doubt. We just got to be obedient, pray really hard for guidance and follow the spirit. Its definately do-able.
So, life with 2 gringo americanos here in Mexico is way different then when i had Elder Obregon. We get a lot more cuss words on the street and its actually quite comical. Lets just say Ive learned a lot more mexican swear words this last week. haha.
Well, I think that gift of tongues promise is kicking in pretty good for me. I can teach all the lessons with examples, answering questions and all that good stuff pretty easily now. When members ask us how long we have had in the mission usually we ask how much they think we have. Its kinda funny, usually they think I have more time than my companion and that i have like a year and a half. Its awesome and it makes me feel good knowing my studying every morning has been paying off. (a lot of missionaries slack when it comes to studying spanish cause you can kinda learn everything in the street) I set a goal to study every morning a least a half hour and apparently its paying off. I cant wait for Christmas to talk to Kurt and Johnny and Brad Copple in Spanish (hopefully they will all be there) haha.

Also, shout outs of love to Suzanne and the Essleys! Tell them hi for me.
Oh, and mother, i live above a tienda that sells food and sells xbox games. Its kinda a hangout place where they let highschool kids play xbox. Dont worry i cant play! haha.
Im glad you got to talk a lil bit with Curtis! I gave him that note for ya, i had like 2 seconds to write it, but i thought he would be the fastest mail service! I wish i wouldve known i was going to see him or else i wouldve written you a longer one! Oh and my handwriting is a lot better than that i promise haha

Well, thats about it for this week.
Dont worry mother, im healthy and happy, and just maybe a lil bit sunburnt.
I know this is the work of the Lord. I know that he guides me and helps us as a companionship each day to find the people ready to listen to this great plan of happiness. I know that God lives and loves us and knows us personally. I know if we pray to him, he will answer us. I know that Christ is my Savior and through his atonement, we can return and live together in happiness as a family with God. I am so thankful for the knowledge I have of these truths. In one of your emails dad you mentioned that you hope my testimony grows to be undeniable. I can easily say with all my strength and power that this is the only true Church of Jesus Christ here on the earth. And i could never deny it. In fact, I get pretty fired up when people tell me otherwise. As missionaries we get hundreds of opportunities to talk to people about the truth of the restoration of the gospel, and each day my testimony strengthenes and I know that I am a representative of Jesus Christ.
Well fam, I hope everyone has a great week. Eat lots of turkey for me!
Feliz Dia de las Gracias!
I love you all! Say your prayers, read your scriptures, and be better today than you were the day before.

New area, Atotonilco, Mexico

2008-11-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia,
Well another great week. Lots of changes and lots of awesome experiences. I am now emailing you from Atotonilco, Mexico which is like 20 minutes from where I just was. I have a new companion Elder Stirland from Alpine, Utah. He is short and a red head, but he seems pretty cool. I dont really know Ive only been with him for like 2 hours. Im all settled in to my new apartment. Its way bigger, but not quite as cute. haha Its above a lil tienda and it has a great view of the huge catholic church out the window. So yea, ill let you know how i like Atotonilco next week when i know some of the members and all that good stuff.
So, we got to go to the estadio azteca to watch the cultural event for the rededication. It was pretty much sweet, we were way up close and it was amazing. Im glad you got to watch it! It was also cool to see Elder Curtis Porter and all my buddies from the MTC. Also, Elder Austin McNeil ( i dont know if you know him ) Lots of other people as well. Its always nice to see familiar faces down here in Mexico. We didnt get to see a lot of the dances because we had to wait below the stadium so we could go on the field and sing Called to Serve. I think that all the missionaries are going to get DVDs of the Cultural Event thing so you can watch it with me in 19 short months, ok?
Lets see, then SUnday morning we went to the rededication and it was amazing as well. It really reaffirmed my testimony that President Thomas S. Monson is a Profet of God and also strengthened my testimony of temples. They really are Casas del Senor.
We turned out only having one baptism to end our run in Apaxco with Elder Obregon. We had it last night at like 9. It was sweet. We baptized Ivon Resendiz Ramirez. She is the mother of that lil girl in the pictures last week. She is way tight. Elder Obregon and I sang Para Siempre Dios Este Con Voz. (God Be With you Til We Meet Again) IT was awesome with all of the branch there. A lot of people were crying because they knew that Elder Obregon and I were leaving. It was a really spiritual experience. Elder O and I also gave our testimonies and it was really really cool. The Spirit was really strong. Ill send pics.
Mother, I really appreciate hearing about the same funny Alyssa story 2 weeks in a row..... It wasnt quite as funny reading it the second time, but i still enjoyed it hahaha. (Alyssa, you can use that to put in moms book, i think mom might be getting up there in age) No se crea madre!

Ive seen a ridiculous improvement in my Spanish skills this last week. I dont know what happened really. Everything just started clicking and I gave a couple lessons all by myself (while Elder Obregon was playing with some kids) I think that this cambio it will improve a lot also because Elder Stirland is kinda quiet and Im more of the friendly get to know ya misionero. (I get it from you Mother) Oh im also excited cause my new zone leader is awesome. His name is Elder Bautista (Like Juan el Bautista/ John the Baptist.......kinda ironic) He is way cool and has over 200 baptisms in his mission so i plan on learning a lot from him. He is also in my district so ill see him a couple times a week.

Answers to your questions....
1. Yes, i have more pics, but not very many, i usually send the ones i like
2. I probably couldnt watch Brads games if you sent them to me cause that is against the rules.
3. I dont think they really celebrate Thanksgiving mom, its sorta an American Holiday, but usually members ask us what we like to eat and ill be sure to eat Turkey on Thanksgiving.
4. We had a bus with a bunch of other missionaries. We didnt get back til like 3 in the morning. Then we had to wake up at 7 to go to the Rededicacion. I was really tired.....

Well, thats about it. Thanks for all your love and support. The Church is true, there is absolutely no doubt about it. Im so thankful to know that familias can be together forever. I love you all!
Until next week......
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Last week in Apaxco

2008-11-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hola familia, November 10, 2008
Another great week here in Apaxco. We´re working hard and should see some baptisms this last week that we are here. Yep, This is going to be my last week in Apaxco! Loco! Also, my last week with my trainer Elder Obregon. I´m like 99% sure that im going to be going to Atotonilco which is like 10 minutes from where im at. It is supposed to be a really hard area and since I´ve been in the field, there have only been 3 baptisms there. Should be a challenge, but Im ready for it. I don’t know who is going to be my next companion, but I do know that my apartment is going to be like 4 times the size. I´ve already seen it because our zone leaders are living there now. I´m pretty excited for the change, but we will see how everything turns out!
We had zone conference last Thursday and it was awesome! I love zone conferences, Pres. Nancollas is awesome! We talked about a lot of topics in the conference, but my favorite part is when he showed clips of when Michael Phelps won the gold in 100 M Butterfly and the 400x100M relay. I was just thrilled to watch sports for once, the first time in almost 5 months! Haha President Nancollas did a really good job of relating it to missionary work though. He related Michael Phelps butterfly race to missionary work saying that we need to finish until the end and how we need to be working hard through out all of our mission and keep enduring to the end. He also talked about the trainer of Michael Phelps and in the clip it showed him cheering for Phelps. He compared himself to the coach, and he said that he is cheering us on as we baptize and are obedient. Finally, he talked about how before the 2x100 M race the Frenchies were talking smack and he related them to Satan. It was pretty funny, everyone was dying laughing. He said that Satan is always going to be there telling you that you can´t win, you can´t baptize, you can´t speak Spanish, you cant do it. BUT, with hard work and with the Spirit you can conquer any challenge that you have in the mission. I´ve been thinking about that a lot lately and it gives me so much strength to KNOW that we are in the truth and that I am a disciple of Christ. I know that there is nothing that I can´t do with the help of the Lord.
Lets see, this next week should be pretty sweet with the re-dedication of the Mexico City Temple. We don’t get to go to it on Sunday, but It will be broadcast in our stake center. What we do get to go to is an event Saturday in the Estadio Azteca. It should be really cool. Like a cultural dance and singing and speakers and all that good stuff, im excited. We are also going with all the missionaries in our mission so that should be cool to see some familiar faces.
This morning was fun, we played soccer with some Elders here in Apaxco. My team beat Elder Romney´s team so you can talk trash to his mom if you would like! Haha No se crea!
Oh, also I received letters from Ali and my buddy K.C. at the zone conference and a dearelder thing that you sent me of one of Elder Scurrs letters! In one of Ali´s letters she said that you started me a blog…..What?! I didn’t know you knew how to do that mother? I guess that’s cool!
Oh one more thing, Dad, my mission leader in the branch said that he´s coming up to work for you. He says he´s really good with his hands and he will do whatever you want. Hé also wants me to add that he feeds me really good (which is true!) and that if you want to come visit you always have a place to sleep here in Apaxco. He´s a stud, his name is Hno Ciro. He helps us pick up investigadores for church and he is hilarious. He´s kidding about going up to the states, not that he would be able to, legally, but he likes to joke about it.
Oh and i just read a lil bit of dads letter and he said todd cauge 2 TD´s.... awwww yea! Go Ravens! Tell Todd i´ve been praying for him a lot lately!
Well that’s it for today, I love you all so much and I thank you for your love and support. I know this church is true and that God lives and loves us and wants us to be happy. I know that we will receive so many amazing blessings as we are obedient to the commandments of God. I also know that we can receive revelation and answers to our prayers if we have the Spirit with us. Thanks again for everything!
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Yes....the gospel has all the answers

2008-11-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia,
November 3, 2008
I gotta make this email short this week because I have absolutely no time today. I gotta get a haircut and we have an appointment with an investigador soon. haha (yes we are working on Pday today) To answer your question about not working 2 hours because of the siesta hours.... No, we dont get that break. We work from 10 a.m. to about 9 p.m. just about everyday sometimes we get in a little late ´cause of appointments, but those are our working hours.

Ooooook, not a whole lot of exciting news as far as investigadores and baptisms this week, but we should have 1 or 2 next week.

Saturday morning that old man that i brought sacrament to a few weeks ago passed away, so yesterday we had his funeral service. It was pretty sad for the branch. The funeral services went really well yesterday. Elder Obregon and I sang his favorite hymn as a musical number Grande Eres Tu (How Great Thou Art) It was neat to be a part of the servicios. I dont think i´ve ever been to the part of a funeral when they put the casket in the ground and offer the blessing. It was sad cause a lot of people were crying, but it was a good missionary experience for us because a lot of people were asking us questions about what happens after this life. It is such a comforting feeling to know that we the Church of Jesus Christ has all the answers and it is perfect in everyway.

Lets see, on a much happier note, it sounds like everyone had a great Happy Halloween! Your pics were great! haha i have the cutest nieces and nephews! Here we had Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. The kids here (trick or treat) 2 days!! No fair haha! And they ask for money instead of candy! its ridiculous. Elder Obregon and I bought a bag of candy to give out while we were out and about walking the streets. All the kids would run up to me and say, (in spanish of course) Hey its a white person, lets go ask him for lots of money! haha they were dissappointed to only receive candy, but as missionaries we dont get payed very well ; ) haha
I received letters from Grandma and Grandpa Heap tell them thank you and that I´ll be praying for Uncle Verl and his family too! Also received a letter from Car! Tell her thanks and that i love her! Oh and I sent Todd and Ash an email last week, let me know if they received it.

Oh and Bradley you´re a stud, 9-0, Go Toros!

Love you all! Until next week
Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

Mexico City Temple Open House

2008-11-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

What up Fam...or (to whom it may concern)

This week was so busy and so awesome and amazing at the same time. Wednesday we went to the temple as a branch and it was awesome! The Mexico City Temple is sweet! You can always feel the Spirit so strong in the Temple, dedicated or not! I think there is a video on YouTube that an Elder told me about that is the same movie that everyone watches before they went in the temple. Kinda a prep for all the non members that dont know what the temple is. Check it out.... ask Johnny or Carli how to use YouTube aight mom! haha After the temple we had a bar b que with the branch across the street of the temple, it was delicious. I love our branch.

Then, on Thursday morning we had interviews with PRes. Nancollas and he said that Elder Obregon is goin to be leaving me this next cambio (Nov 16) and im goin to get another companion and be here in Apaxco still. Im pretty excited and sad at the same time. Sad cause Elder Obregon is awesome and i might get a lame comp, but excited cause im going to be able to grow so much in my teaching and speaking and everything so im pumped about that!
Saturday we went to the temple as a zone to help direct traffic and answer questions. There was seriously a million people there. When we went on Wed there wasnt that many people but Saturday was a ton! I mostly directed buses and answered questions at a booth thing, it was pretty tight! The Mexican people are awesome! I also got to see Elder Farmer one of my buds from the MTC there so that was cool. On the bus ride there and back I got to talking with Elder Romney about when we played bball together, specifically when I hit that buzzer beater to beat them my J.V. year.... good times good times.

Lets see, we got back late Saturday and we had a bunch of appointments so we were literally sprinting around town. Great fun!
Then the highlight of the week, as if there werent many, was on Sunday! We had 5 baptisms, a grandma (Rosa) and 4 of her grandkids, Moises, Noe, Mariella, and Ernesto. They are tight! Hermana Rosa had 18 kids (7 died before they were born) but 18!!!! Can you imagine, we did the math and she was pregnant for about 12 years of her life. She is so sweet and says (gracias a dios) (thanks to god) after about everything we say. We´re are teaching here other kids and grandkids, but we´re having a hard time getting them to church. There are like 25 people living in these 3 little houses all next to each other. Its sweet.
We were supposed to have 6 baptisms, but the other Hermana didn´t show up.... Anyways it was a great experience to have that many baptisms in 1 day. Im just loving the work and trying to do all that I can to improve my Spanish and TEaching and siempre working to have the Spirit with me.
Oh, something tragic happened yesterday in the afternoon, I accidentally deleted all my pics on my camera! Tragic i know, hopefully you´ve been saving my emails (what do you do with my emails by the way?) and saving my pics that i send! Elder Obregon is going to send me the pics from the baptism and some other pictures that he had on his camera that i wanted to send, so i can send them to you, but i have 0 pictures on my camera...... So dont worry mom, my memory card isnt quite full yet! haha

Thats about it from your favorite missionary! I love you all!
I know the church is true and It is the most important thing in the world to me. It brings me so much happiness and so much joy and it is so awesome to be able to focus on bringing others that happiness!
Well.... until next week!

Con Amor,
Elder Greg Hea

...seeing the fruits of our labors!

2008-10-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia,
Alright, i dont have much time today to write, but its ok this week was pretty normal. One exciting thing though is that my speaking and teaching skills are really improving. Ive been getting some good practice.
We´re teaching this old guy that is like 85, but looks like 180. He is really funny, but is pretty slow when it comes to understanding the lessons. We have to ask him like 12 times a lesson when his baptism is going to be before he gets it right. The good thing is that I teach all the lessons when we go to visit him. Its such good practice for me. I told Elder Obregon that i want to get better at teaching so he told me to study a different subject or lesson every morning and then i can teach it to Eutimio (the old guy) So, thats going great and its helping a lot. Hopefully Eutimio doesnt die before his baptism cause he seems way ridiculously old. Oh well, we´ll see what happens.
Another funny/gross thing that happened this week was that our drain broke AGAIN... but this time worse. It flooded our house with gross water. Im learning a lot on the mission, how to work, how to cook, and even how to be a plumber! (oh the life of a missionary haha)

Oh! and we got a referencia this last week and it was like way far away. Elder Obregon and I didnt have money to get there so we walked like an hour and a half through the desert. It was awesome haha. The lady is cool and she´s way interested so it was worth the walk. All the scenery and everything is amazing here. I pictured Mexico completely different! I mean we´re in the desert sorta, but there are really cool lush green farms and corn fields that we walk through like everyday. Its a cool experience being here besides the fact of the whole baptizing teaching and learning spanish thing. Everything is going great.

Alright, thats about it from this last week, but this week is going to be sweet. We are going to the temple open house with our branch and investigadors on WEd. and then going as a mision on saturday so im super pumped about that. I love the temple. Hopefully after it gets rededicated we can go through. Maybe as a Christmas present from PRes. Nancollas.... well see´.

Other highlights of this next week.... we should have 3 baptisms.... . and at least 3 or 4 the week after that! We are really starting to see the fruits of our labors and I hope that continues until I have to come home haha...
Thats about it.... I havent had time to read all your letters, but im planning on it! I did catch that the Ravens won and that Brad didnt play at all......Is coach Joseph on drugs? I guess the answer is pretty obvious, but i just thought i´d throw the question out there. Oh and im excited to read the letters from Brad and Alyssa, ill be sure to answer to all of those next week!
Oh! before i forget mother, i need american stamps!!!! Asap por favor! And Dad, dont worry your letters aren´t boring! Im glad everyone is doing great! I pray for all of you every night individually! I love you all so much and thank you so much for your love and support! Ill be sure to send pictures next week, i forgot my cord to hookup my camera to the comp. I have some cool pictures with me and a bunch of lil kids....BE EXCITED!

Con amor,
Elder Greg Heap

....a week full of miracles

2008-10-13T15:19:00.001-07:00

Hola Familia,
Wow what a week, probably my favorite week since Ive arrived. I feel like the Lord has blessed me so much in my experience so far. With a great companion and a great area and Im strengthening my testimony every single day.

Well, this week was full of miracles. We found 16 new investigators. 3 families and a couple. 9 of them went to church. We reached all of our goals and we are pretty pumped about the upcoming weeks. Hopefully it will result in a bunch of baptisms! We are trying to shoot for 1 baptism this next weekend. We got some persuading to do, her name is Josefina and I think she wants to get baptized, but her husband is lame. The good thing is that he is out of town working for the next month so we think shell get baptized while hes gone haha.
but we will see what happens.
David y Paula finally got confirmed yesterday after 3 long weeks! They couldnt go the week after there baptism and then it was conference so that was cool that they finally got confirmed. Everyone loves them haha.
Lets see what else.... oh yesterday we got to take sacrament to a man named Alfonso in our branch and hes 83 and cant come to church. It was amazing. First of all it was like 45 minutes away. Our car that we were riding in barely got there because we had to take a dirt rode threw a bunch of creeks and basically climbed a mountain in it. But it was so worth it when we got there. He was the sweetest old man and was so grateful that we made it. He cant move out of his bed and his wife cant move him cause shes tiny so its a pretty hard situation, but they are so humble and we sang them Grand eres tu, how great thou art, and they were both crying. Its experiences like those that make me so happy to be here on a mission. There is so much work to do and so much we can do to help, all we have to do is show up. Heavenly Father really knows his children and Im so thankful to be an instrument in his hands.
Oh also, we had another sweet experience I think it was Wednesday. We got a referencia like 3 weeks ago, but we havent had time to check it so WEd. we finally did. I told Elder Obregon that we should check all our referencias instead of knocking doors so we did. (Elder Obregon is up for doing anything besides knocking doors haha) I really think it was revelation or something that gave us the idea to check em because when we got to the first one, there was a girl that was really sick and sweating and the family was all sitting around. They are basically dirt poor so they couldnt really do much to help her, but we had the opportunity to give her a blessing. Elder Obregon gave the most perfect blessing and we sang a hymn and shared a message about How other people might not know what they are feeling but our Savior does. We went back Friday and the girl (Mereya) was already doing a lot better. Her and her mom went to church on Sunday and they really enjoyed it. I think we will be able to baptize them in a few weeks!

Well, I just read Brads article of the newspaper. 5 touchdowns? What?! Who are you Bead? Oh, thats right, my lil bro! haha thats so awesome man, you have no idea how proud of you I am. Im jumping around in this lil internet cafe, absolutely pumped! Keep it up brotha...
I know as you continue to improve and work hard, everyone is gonna want you. Always remember whats important and dont let your head get too big haha, but know that i love you and im so proud of you!

Well family I gotta be finishing this up.... its Elder Obregons birthday today so we are going to eat at Hna Reynas house right now. (Shes basically my mom from mexico) and reina, in english, means queen, so i just call her queen mama de mexico. She thinks its funny and she swears shes going to visit me in utah someday. Apparently she knows someone in utah and i told her that im probably going to go back to school up there. So she said shes goin to visit.

Oh we also had a zone conference this last Thurs. President Nancollas is a stud! Oh and when we were there we had to take pills to kill all the bacteria or worms or whatever we might have so dont worry im healthy. haha I guess we do that every 6 months and then right before we leave for home. Oh, I also got the dearelder about daniels call and I got one from Robert Sirrine and one from Ali! Tell them all thanks and tell Dan im proud of him, he will love it in Oaxca or however you spell it!
Anyways, everythings going great, i still havent gotten sick or anything and im working hard and having fun! I know this is the work of the Lord and i know that as im obedient, I will be blessed. The church is true. God lives, he loves us and knows us and wants to bless us. Jesus Christ is our Savior and through him we can be limpio and pure. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet and restored the Church of Jesus Christ. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know the scriptures are AWESOME! I know familias pueden ser eternas (can be forever) And other than that I dont know a whole lot! The Church is True!

Con Amor,
Elder Greg Heap