So, this has been a good week for me. Crazy busy, but good. I'll just start of with some answers to your letter and stuff then I'll tell you about my week...
Oh man, 35. What a hashy number hahaha i'm kidding dad...it's...strong looking:) I'm glad Houston is doing so well, he's making me proud and super jealous that I'm not there to watch and cheer him on :(
But holy cow! 227 pounds? we weigh the exact same hahahahaha! Fatboy:) It's a joke, I know it's probably all muscle, unlike me ha. Tell him to keep it up!
I am doing fantastic! I'm a little sick at the moment but nothing I can't handle:) I am in the heart of Atlanta (right next to the airport). Can you say trunky? Hahahaha it's ok, though, cuz we are moving in a couple days. You could just send the package to the mission home cuz I don't know our new address.
"White-washing" is just when a whole new set of Elders moves in to an area. There isn't one who has been in the area and is familiar to it. BUT, what they didn't tell me was that it was more than a white-wash. The area we are currently in is being closed down and we are opening a new area. We just had to wait a week cuz we didn't have the lease to the new house. It has the temple in it, so now you should have a good idea where it's at...I hope.
Oh, I almost forgot! So my new comp is Elder Shumway from AZ. He has about 8 months left in his mission and just spent 7 months in a mostly english speaking area. So we are excited to do some spanish work but we work a lot with english at the same time too...I feel so weird teaching in english...
(According to this photo, Elder H also LOOKS so weird teaching in english! Here he is with his new companion Elder Shumway)
The last week we spent it just visiting some members and less actives here in this area cuz our new area is on the complete opposite side of Atlanta, 40 minutes north. We also took a couple trips up to our new area and knocked around a bit and tried to contact a few formers. It's pretty hard to start from scratch but it's good! We met some interesting english people including an agnostic, a couple muslims, a heathen (who was super cool) and a Bangladeshi all on one street!
Just really random but I wanted to write it before I forgot, tell Dad I love him! Tell all the kids to tell him personally as well. He works really really hard for us, and now I actually know what work is, I can appreciate it more!
The meeting with Elder Ballard was amazing! There were a lot of people because not only the missionaries were invited but all the stake presidents, bishops, branch presidents, ward/branch mission leaders and others like that were invited as well. So first Elder Gay (the area seventy) came back and talked to us again. He was amazing again as well! Elder Gay spoke on how a mission can't reach it's full potential without the help from the members. Then he also spoke of how we need to work in faith, looking forward to success. That's something I definately need to work on. Having the faith to say, "yeah they're totally gonna be baptized," while you're talking about every investigator you meet is chanllenging. You don't wanna get your hopes up, but you don't want to be super negative all the time is a hard balance to find haha. Elder Ballard then spoke on teaching effectively. By that, he meant teaching with power. "Conversion always starts with a feeling," is what he said. The feeling that the gospel is true, that it truly can bless your life, are some of the things we need to convey through our teaching. It was a really good meeting and I took away lots of things that I want to incorperate into my teaching.
Church was good too! It was weird walking in there and basically knowing no one. I'm used to just that one branch I was in haha but that's mission life! The branch is really good and steadily improving from what the other missionaries are saying. It's another full spanish branch just like Cunningham was. The first counselor is actually a guy from Bountiful! He went in '93 so he's not that young ha! Brother Madsen is his name and he served a mission in Spain and he just married a Mexicana! Of course, me and him got along great!
Well that's it, family. Hope everything goes well this week for ya'll and I'll pray for you guys!
Love you all, Elder Heimuli
PICS - Saying Goodbye to Marietta
(Spanish Atlanta Zone)
(Neighbor Eddie who kept an eye on packages left at the elders' door -- he called Elder Heimuli "Big H")
Every missionary has his special families in an area...
(Familia Garcia)
(Familia Perez)
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