Semana 28 - I Hope They Call Me On a Mission...when I have killed a pig or two

(L to R: Elder Liuwanga, Heimuli, Morris, Pasiaka & Donnelly with Babe in front)

Hi peoples of Utah,

Of course, I'm doing good! It is a little bit super hot over here, but this week has actually been tolerable. I think it rained almost every day, but the air still feels heavy and hot. Meh, probably the closest I'll get to serving in South America. In a year and a half or so I can look back and laugh at this, but for now I'm just crying.

Good news! I cut my own hair again and this time I didn't totally fail! I have the blessing of learning many things out here: how to cut hair, speak spanish, roast a pig...you know, missionary things! I'll explain the pig in a bit...

Soccer was never my sport back at home, but the longer I stay here amongst the hispanics, the more it grows on me. It's like a algae. Anyways, the finals for the "Copa de Oro" which is a tournament held in America that includes teams from North and South America, was this past Saturday. Me and Morris have been cheering America on as they moved up the ranks, making to the finals, while Mexico (Juan's favorite team) made it there as well. My hopes were crushed Sunday morning when Juan walked into church with a big smile on his face, shaking my hand and saying, "4-2." His grin told me Mexico pulled it out. The night before I was about to bet him my whole next month's allotment...good thing we're not allowed to gamble hahaha. We're still waiting to hear about their situation, but we were told that we shold recieve word this week!

Anyways, on Saturday Morris and I went to Newnan (which is 1 hr 15min away from our house) to help set up and help with a big stake barbecue. All the Tongan Elders were invited to help mainly with the cooking. We left our house at 7 am and stayed out there all day. We set up, cooked a huge pig and a little pig, some chicken, and helped out with it all during the "Island Roast." Elder Teulilo even did a fire dance. It was a lot of work but it was really fun. There were quite a few people the went and they all enjoyed the food. I manned the grills, cooking chicken and pig that didn't quite get cooked all the way. None of us (polys) got to really eat during the party cuz we were working the whole time, but we made sure to grab some food to take home.


(Pasiaka & Heimuli...and a much browner Babe)

The funniest part was when we went home (or attempted to haha). We drove out from our house to College Park (which is 30 min from Marietta) to meet up with Elder Liuwanga and Elder Perkins to catch a ride with them to Newnan (which is 45 minutes from there). Well, when we went were heading home, we arrived at College Park (45 min drive) and Morris realized he left the keys in Newnan. So, we had to drive back (45 minutes). Once we finally got the keys we went back to College Park (45 minutes) and headed home to Marietta (30 more minutes). We got home SO late, like 11:45 haha...I was super tired Sunday.


(Heimuli, Raul & Morris looking chipper after Saturday's luau)

Transfers are in 2 days and I'm excited to see what happens. We all did district predictions and unanimously everyone guessed I was leaving haha. We'll see when we get calls tonight!


(Elder Morris & Heimuli trying to predict who's getting transferred)

Well, as for the BoM, not gonna lie, I fell behind a bit. I guess it's just you and Jessye that are the true saints hahaha! When Alma and Amulek go out to teach among the people, it's a great example of the agency of people. Alma and Amulek had many people come unto baptism and repentance in one land, while in the other, Ammoniah (I think) nothing happened at all. This didn't happen becuase Alma and Amulek were more faithful in one place than the other, but just that the people had the agency to accept their message or harden their hearts and reject them. I heard a saying that goes, "you can't say the wrong things to the right people, and you can't say the right things to the wrong people." Yeah. The people that will be willing to accept the holy spirit will do it, while the others just won't. It's simple hahaha.

Well, i'm glad you guys are doing good! I'll send pictures in a couple minutes!

Love you all and pray for ya'll!

--Love, Elder Heimuli

(Random note from Mom: Before/if Helam gets transferred this week, here's a pic of a Utah get-together with Elder Morris' family, Elder Benedict's family, and the Heimulis. What a privilege for us to meet the incredible families of Helam's comp and housemate...if Elder Henderson's family had been in town, we would have had them over, too!)

Back row L to R: Rachel Morris, Bergen Benedict, Mackenzie Benedict, Riley Benedict, Hema Heimuli (eww!), Norma Heimuli
Middle row L to R: Hevynn Heimuli, Dickson Benedct, Houston Heimuli
Front row: His Majesty Harrison Heimuli

Semana 27 - Cornrows, Krupping, Mosiah

Querido mi familia amada,

I am sending a ton of pictures your way, so I hope you like them! It's so great to hear how everyone is doing and to see the pictures of the two boys!


Houston & Harrison Corn-rowed (Courtesy: Pua)

They look so sick with cornrows! I made up my mind that I'm gonna grow my hair out when I get home haha! Speaking of which, my hair is getting pretty long now but I don't have time to cut it...plus I don't wanna total fail at cutting my own hair again ha.

This week has been pretty good! Yes Juan and Emily's legal stuff was all paid for and in the process of working, so now we are just waiting. I am hoping to hear word back this week so we can finalize everything, but I guess we'll just see how it goes. We're getting nervous cuz the transfer ends in a week and a half! Oh no! The time is just flying by here!

Thank you guys so much for the "Krup Day" package, I decided to re-name it that because "Bump Day" doesn't make sense (unless you can explain it to me) and we were Krupping the night I got the package! It was a good time!


Krupping with Elder Morris (guess there's only one chair in the house?)


Krazy krupping with "Beni & Hendy"

We have been finding a few people to teach and it's exciting! Sometimes it gets kind of depressing when it doesn't seem like you're making an impact, but you really don't know the effect of your work 'til it's all over. I hope to look back and see my efforts made a big difference.

Stake conference was really good! Stake President Parker spoke and he did such a good job. He used to be a baptist preacher (and you can really tell when he speaks to you. Kinda intimidating). When he found out that the LDS church was the true church, he said he was so angry! One because the missionaries had proved him wrong, and two because he hadn't been following the church of Christ his whole life. He's a really cool guy. Then we had a new member of the Seventy speak who happened to be a member of the stake. They all spoke on how important the doorway of love is. Love of God, your family, your spouse, your neighbor, and yourself. Going to the temple 2 times a month will strengthen your family relationships immensly as well as your relationship with God. Most importantly, how doing the small things ALWAYS is better than the big things SOMETIMES. Small things like scripture reading, praying daily, going to church every week, holding family home evening (morning).

I have finally given up reading in Spanish and have just read it all in English. I realized that I won't fall behind as easily haha. Recently I have found quite a few scriptures regarding missionary work. My favorite scripture this week is in Mosiah 23:10-11 which reads,

"no obstante, despue's de mucha tribulacio'n, el senor oyo' mi clamor y contesto' mis oraciones, y me ha hecho instrumento en sus manos para traer a tantos de vosotros al conocimiento de su verdad. Sin embargo, en esto no me glori'o, porque soy indigno de gloriarme."

(Note from Mom: For those who don't have Hema nearby to translate, or are too lazy to look it up - Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth. Nevertheless, in this I do not glory, for I am unworthy to glory of myself.)

I only have my Spanish scriptures with me, but it basically says that despite all the trials I have called out to the lord and he answered my prayers. He has made me an instrument in his hands to bring all his children to the gospel. It's not my glory, but his. I have experienced this many times already: feeling inadequate and like nothing is happening despite my efforts, but as I call on the Lord HE will make me into the missionary that I want to be. It's through his permission that I can do this great work. I love that.

I love you all so much and pray for you guys every night before I go to bed...and that the cockroaches won't crawl on my face while i'm sleeping:)


This should keep the really large cockroaches off his face! All other cockroaches are welcome...

Love, Elder Heimuli


If you ever wondered why we need CNN when we have Fox News...here's why -- a great place to stop for lunch!


Elder H designed his own Krup Day (or Bump Day) tie to celebrate 6 months in the mission...which tie is then ceremoniously torched in an intense Krup Day fire!


Uhhhmm, guys? Where's the huge fire? Anyone got a light?


Oh well, back to a fierce game of Krup-football...Heimuli at center, Hendy at Q, Beni on D, and Morris...Morris?

Semana 26 - P-Day, Early Father's Day, Krup Day?

(Note from Mom: The Heimuli Family has their holidays all mixed up. We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, June 12, 2011...oh well. On Wednesday, June 15, Elder Heimuli will celebrate 6 months in the mission, a.k.a. "Bump Day" -- at least, that's what we thought it was called.)

Dear Family,

Sorry I'm writing so late, but I'm finally here! Everyone here is doing good, like always! Can't complain about anything, especially cuz it's P-day! Ummm...Oh, Norma has sent me a couple e-mails talking about their trip and it all sounds great! I'm sure their sad that they have to go backk to work but that's life haha. IIt was cool about Hema and Tyler teaching together, I'm sure it went a lot smoother than when they were comps cuz Hema can actually speak Spanish now.

I think it wouldn't be a bad idea for Houston to go to the camps this year. When he goes he should go play the positions that he wants to go out for, learn as much as he can, and play HARD! Especially at his age now, the camps will give him a small idea of how high school ball will be. It puts on display great athletes and the not so great at the same time so he can get a feel for who he should be competing (and winning) against. It's not comletely necessary in order for him to try out for BHS. If anything, at the Poly Camp, the BHS coaches will be watching out for him and how he does. It's a good oporitunity that way.

I know what you mean about Father's Day. I didn't even know it was next Sunday until after church hahaha. It was funny cuz we even had this thing where we ate food in the gym after the block to celebrate it. I was like, "Well, the Father's Day card will be a few days late, hope dad doesn't mind." Then the whole deal happens and Ybarra tells me that it's NEXT sunday but we had that thing because we have stake conference next week. So hey, I actually got a card out to someone not a couple days late, Good for me!! (The Lord provides!)

I love Houston's thing from the scriptures cuz it's kinda what I got out of it. Everyone's gonna burn--except if they use the atonement. We had a speaker come talk to us this past Tuesday at Zone Conference. He talked about how we need to put off the natural man (who is against God) in order to progress in this life. The natural man likes to be lazy, eat crappy food, party it up, get 19 on the ACT, etc...but doing everything the natural man will just get us a one way ticket to Hell. The Atonement is here for us to save us from that impending doom. Like it says in Mosiah 3:19, "...putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the Atonement of Christ..." I'm grateful for the mission because it gives us rules that pushes us towards that sainthood by doing things that the natural man would fight against. Wear boring clothes, go to bed at 10:30, wake up at 6:30, work all day, exercise, CONSTANTLY think of others, etc. It's very hard to do at first becuase all the rules seem lame, but it's all just how we overcome the natural man to obtain a higher plane of thinking in order to preach the gospel.

Like I said, we had Zone Conference this past Tuesday which was really great. We watched the talk that Elder Holland gave when I was in the MTC about missionary work. It was such a powerful talk--I loved it when he gave it in the MTC and I loved watching it again. The rest of the week has been pretty so-so. We're going to the court tomorrow to pay the money and get Juan and Emily's thing all figured out so that was great! (And now me and Morris are broke hahaha, but it's to save a soul!) We also met little boy whose Mom is an inactive member and his step dad isn't, but he wants to be baptized. We set a date for the 22nd of this month. Yay! Church we didn't have any investigators come, but we got Father's Day food...I'd probably have liked the investigators more haha.

As for the best thing, I'd say getting my tooth fixed haha! Sorry that happened, but the filling came out. Hope it wasn't a big hassle. I don't know which one Bree was but I'll tell her hi! As for the thing I need, this is random, but if could send me one of those 3D movie glasses if you just happen to have one of them lying around that'd be great!

Love all of you! Oh, and I don't understand why it's called "Bump Day" so i'm changing the name to "Krup Day."

Love, Elder Heimuli

Semana 25 - Car Fast Day (nothing like Fast Car Day)...Eastside Trailer Park...Collection for Juan...Uncle Sifa with hair?

Buenos dias!

Holy cow! Everyone looks so much older!!!! Harrison is looking more and more like me everyday...a super stud muffin! hahaha! First off, I will be sending pictures to your gmail account mom, so yeah.

From the sound of things you guys have been BUSY! It's a good thing everyone is out of school now! So is Hevynn done with high school now or what? Tell her to write me and tell me what's up! Houston better be getting ready to dominate in summer conditioning. I wish I was there to see it but hey, I'll be back soon enough yeah?

I'm not really sure what was the BEST thing that happened this week, so I'll just share some highlights and you guys can decide! The first part of my week was spent in Atlanta on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was up there just doing work with Elder Carpenter.

It can really make the missionaries' day to run into the perfect investigator who listens without interrupting...


Every day this past week it has been 98 degrees and hotter outside, and with humidity that's a huge punch in the face. The best part was that Wednesday was a car fast day (we have one every month designated by the Pres where we can't use the car all day) so we walked in the heat!

Carpenter and Heimuli on Car Fast Day


I felt like a missionary in South America...weird. While we were walking along the side of the road we hear this voice yelling from behind us, "You boys are far from home!" We were thinking, "Oh great, someone else that hates Mormons." When this car passes us, there is a guys hanging out of the passenger window with a Utah license plate in his hands. What the? Anyways, they pull over and we walk over and talk to them. They were both middle aged guys and both converts from Utah. They are working in Atlanta for an alarm system company. So they give us some cold bottled water (the lord provides!) and invite us to breakfast the following day. Pretty cool stuff. Most of our appointments fell through during the transfer, but hey, I'm used to it hahaha! I got back into Marietta on Thursday, but not before Carps and I walked from the MARTA station past the temple to the Liahona in the heat again!

C&H wiped out after a long day in the heat & humidity


Pretty big news here. You can look up the story on line, but in the Eastside Trailer Park (across the street from our house where we work everyday) there was a 16 year old kid who shot and killed his younger brother. We taught his mom a few times and we're actually good friends with his younger sister. It happened Wednesday night/Thursday morning and the kid ran away after. We were in the park all day Thursday talking to families and finding out what happened.

We're still working on the divorce situation with Juan. All the missionaries in the zone are giving some money and Morris and I will finish up the rest.

Elder Morris & Heimuli's collection for Juan


We're hoping to get everything wrapped up and Juan baptized this transfer. I've been working with this since I got here. A little frustrating sometimes haha.

As I've been reading the Isaiah chapters in the BoM, I realize that no matter how many times I read them, I'm still just as confused as the last time hahahahaha! Nephi relates the Isaiah chapters in the BoM again because they are so important for us in this day. Remember that when God repeats himself, we'd better be listening. Nephi constantly pushes us to keep to the word of God cuz that's the one thing that will guide us in a world of changing values. Amen:)

Well that's it for now. I love all you guys and pray for you always! Thanks for everything that you do for me, I know it's a lot!

--Love, Elder Heimuli

ps. I was looking through a book of church art and I came across a photo entitled 'Paying Tithing' or something like that taken in 1996. The thing that took me by surprise was that one of the men looked like Uncle Sifa...but with hair! haha I must be crazy:)

(Note from Mom: Elder H sent these pics just for fun!)

Elder Morris & Heimuli having dinner with a family (ahhh, Tampico!)


Elder Henderson & Heimuli (food critics) at the Varsity: "very expensive, not very good!"


Elder Benedict & Elder Heimuli starting a "friendly" game of indoor basketball (then WHY the helmets?!)


Well, no wonder! The ball is huge...deadly...dangerous...puh-leeze!

Surprise! Let's Play "Where's Heimuli?"

Dear Mother...again...

Do you guys want to play a fun game called "Where's Heimuli?" Here's how you play:

-go to ctrlds.org
-find the files about the Atlanta Temple Open House/Rededication
-open them and look through the pics
-see if you can find me!

I know for sure there is one picture there of me and Elder Morris. This random asian dude with a camera came up to us and was like, "stand over here," and he took our picture then said, "this will be on a website," and he told us the name. I totally forgot about it until now. I don't know if there are more but if there are see if you can find them!

Alright, love you again!

--Elder Heimuli

(Note from Mother: I give up!)

(New Note: Jessye found it! At http://www.ctrlds.org/album53/ade?full=1 but I have no idea who the guy is in the middle...the name tag says "Usher" but it certainly doesn't look like him)


(That's more like it!)

Semana 24 - "If all else fails, do what Nephi did"

Dear Mother :)

What is the BEST thing that happened to me this week? Well, I'd have to say the baptism on Saturday. Now, before you get too excited, it was in our branch. They were investigators of the Smyrna elders. The dad was an inactive member who was baptized in Mexico, so his wife and 10 year old son was baptized saturday. Really cool to see. Of course it was completely disorganized and there was no one from the branch presidency there until the last 5 minutes but it happened.

Everyone is doing fine. The finding is...going :) We are finally moving forward with some marriages, but there are still a few problems here and there. Haha it just sometimes seems like we are more worried about it than the couples are. Crazyness!

Sorry this is late, every library is closed on Memorial Day! I did get the poly food and thanks so much for it! I like eating food that doesn't make me sick for days afterwards for a change hahaha! Good ol' rice and corned beef. And yes, of course I shared everything with the other elders.

Ha the Tallahassee Mission is actually mostly Alabama with the little panhandle of Florida...pretty interesting. If you met the people down here in the South, it wouldn't be a mystery why the boundaries are so crazy!

The temperature here is starting to climb like crazy! It's been in the middle/high 90s the last couple of days and the humidity isn't helping. I'd LOVE for a little rain right now. There was a huge storm that passed through Thursday where it just rained sheets of water and had tons of lightning, but since then it's been hot. Our Sunday we just decided to teach like crazy. We busted out 8 lessons in about 3 or 4 hours. It's pretty sad how many people don't want the gospel as part of there lives hahaha. We had no investigators come to church (well, besides Juan but he's solid) so that was lame.

The BoM is so great! I'm glad you are all doing the challenge and I'm sure you're all learning a lot as a result. I know I am...well, as much as I can squeeze out from Spanish haha. I've been lagging a few pages cuz I'm so busy, but I'm trying my best to stay on top of it! Spanish is a beast! Probably one thing that stuck out to me was Laman and Lemuel and how they always needed a stern reminder. Especially for me, and teaching so many different types of people, I have seen the ones who have needed that stern reminder. The way you go about doing that is the way Nephi does. He does it out of love and wants them to change to improve themselves. I have experiences where I've called someone out just because I was frustrated or I wanted to make them look stupid--and that's not the way. Showing them boldly and directly but lovingly at the same time will get through to them much more effectively. When I do that, the outcome is much better. Nephi is such a great example in everything--if all else fails, do what Nephi did.

Love you all and I hope this week is full of blessings!

--Elder Heimuli

Semana 23 - Let the Reading (of the Book of Mormon in 2 Transfers) Begin!

Que onda?

Alright, so transfers has passed and only Elder Haight was moved out.


(Elder Haight & Elder Heimuli were comps in the MTC, then they both landed in the same house when they arrived in the mission field. After 22 weeks, Elder Haight has left Helam behind...)

Elder Benedict moved in and is comps with Elder Henderson. We're all pretty excited about the situation now!

I'm glad that you guys have taken up the reading assignment along with me:)


(Elder Heimuli wearing what he calls his "Houston Mask" -- Houston is Elder H's 14-year old brother; Mom does NOT think that's very funny!)

You have all learned so much from only the first few chapters! I am reading the Libro de Mormon (totally in Spanish), so its a little hard for me to understand everything super precisely and it takes a lot more time to read, but I still learn lots from it!

I love what everyone said, and it's all so true! Nice work Mom, Harrison, Houston, Jessye, Sifa (Dad? Hema/Norma? haha jk). I especially like Hevynn's one-liner (I'm not sure if that was cuz she was inspired or just didn't read;)) but the sole purpose of the Book of Mormon IS to help us remember Christ. The title says "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" and that's exactly what it is. We're told that we need to have faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement in order to progress towards eternal life. Faith is believing in something that is not seen. The BoM is a record of the people in the Americas who believed in Jesus and his atonement and yet they didn't see him (until way later of course). The people in the Bible lived with him, saw the miracles he did and they still crucified him, believing that he was NOT the son of God. Our redeemer. The promise that we are given in the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction (which we use to teach investigators to obtain a knowledge of it's truthfulness) can apply to us as well. Search (read), ponder and pray and you will obtain a testimony that this Book is true--therefore what it teaches is true: that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Cool, yeah?:)

Our week was pretty alright, we did find some people to teach. The funny thing is that they've all been like 15 year old girls, that's kind of the trend we're finding out here these last few weeks but hey, they listen! Nothing too solid yet. The ward is all doin good and stuff and yeah crazy Hermano Brown taught again. The funny thing was that last week on Tuesday, Elder Ybarra went back and talked to his investigators and they were like, "Yeah, we liked it. It all made sense!" Hahaha so now we're trying to figure out if Hermano Brown is crazy, or inspired...both maybe? This sunday though we were laughing cuz he couldn't say this one word in Spanish then he just turns to me (probably cuz I was closest to him) and says, "yo hablo mejor que tu," and then just keeps on trucking with the lesson. I laughed so hard but I was kinda bugged cuz he called me out, but whatever:) I'll get better at Spanish!

The Hispanic food is starting to take it's toll on me, I don't know how much longer I can eat oily beef and corn tortillas...please send me some corned beef or something! Wahoo? Just anything poly! I made Spam, eggs and rice the other night and it was SOOOO good! Oh, and maybe dad could tell me how to make 'otai? We've been with the Atlanta english zone a couple times the past couple weeks and I'm learning more and more tongan haha. Crazy Tongans.


(Elder Heimuli doing a service project at the beautiful Atlanta Temple with another Tongan missionary -- Elder Liuanga from Nuku'alofa, Tonga)

Oh, and we also caught some fish and brought 'em home, cleaned 'em, and cooked 'em up! Not gonna lie, I can bake a mean fish! It's kinda creepy when you got em sitting in your kitchen sink and they're just floppin around, starring at you with their soul-less eyes...but you get over it when you eat them a couple hours later:)


(Elder H -- 19 years old and still plays with his food)

Well, that's it for now! Thanks for everything that you guys do! I love you all and pray for you all!

--Elder Heimuli