Week 41 Santa Rita

This week flew by!! It was a good week, it definitely had its ups and downs; more downs than ups I think, but overall a great week! I can´t believe how fast the time is flying.. I sware it just goes by faster and faster. I´ve almost been gone for 10 months!

Questions!

1. How are your investigators? How is Bernardo? What about Jorge. I haven't heard you talk of him much lately.
Bernardo is awesome! He´s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to see if he needs to join our "ministry" as he says.. Jorge is a STUD! He´s still preparing to get the Melchizedek Priesthood, he´s kind of nervous, but he´s working towards it. He had 2 of his friends come over to listen to us, and they said they want to get baptized the 18th of February! It´s the week after changes, so I don´t know if I´ll be here... I´ve been in Santa Rita for 6 months!

2. How many of your 6 investigators were able to come to church? Do you feel that any of them will be baptized?
None of them came to church yesterday :( It´s ok though, they´ll be there next week! I feel like Bernardo will get baptized with his family..

3. How is Elder Nielson's spanish coming along? You mentioned that your Spanish is fluent...What do you attribute that to?
He speaks really well! He feels like he doesn´t though. He was fluent in Portuguese before the mission and he said Spanish just messed it up. He understands everything people say in Portoguese and he´ll translate it for me in English, then I say what we need in Spanish.. It´s pretty cool! So yeah, his Spanish is really good. My Spanish is fluent... This means I can read, write, and say whatever I want. I´m to the point where I just study the dictionary in my language study every day, just to learn more words.

It was good to read about how everyone is doing! It sounds like Dan and Haley are doing great with the boys! That makes me happy :D Last week Drake said something about I might see him settled down by the time I get back..?! I don´t believe it.. I had a dream last night that Derrek came down here to visit me! We went to Bernardo´s house and Derrek started teaching him about the Book of Mormon! It was a sweet dream. It was like he was my companion, and instead of walking, we had bullet bikes. I WISH! Andamos por linea once todos los días... I remember last week when you said that Sy wrote you, I´ve been thinking about him quite a bit lately too. What´s his house number? I could write him a letter.. He was always one of my best friends, ever since kindergarten! I remember I met him in Mrs. Wilkin´s class- we went to show her that I could write the number 5 and the number 8, then I went back to the play area and met Sy. We were best buds ever since.

Mabel went back to Argentina on Monday :( It´s ok though, I´ll see her again someday! I think Jorge is kinda sad that she´s gone.. She said we need to go to Jorge´s house every day now and make him lunch because she won´t be there. Then she said to make sure that Jorge doesn´t marry a bruja, or else she won´t come back! Bruja means Witch.. Like with the broom and black cats and all that jazz.

So yeah, it was kind of a slow week, we´ve been weeding out the people who aren´t so serious from the people who are.. We went tracting in the rich part of Santa Rita.. The mansion area! These are where the rich Brazilians live with their super nice cars and big gates and security guards. We didn´t get in a single one of those houses :P But we found a guy that lives close to that part of town, his name is Neomar. He´s a way cool guy! He´s always laughing and saying "siempre!" or "always!" Even to something like, "Hey how are you?" And he says, "Si, siempre!! Ahaha!" But he came to church and he loved it! We taught baptism in the class and he told my companion it made him feel really good and he was like, "When are you guys gonna come by my house again? Can you come back and visit me and teach me more? Can I invite my friends??" So I think he might be one of the escogidos de Dios. I think he´ll be a great member! He used to work in a churrascurria and he´s got 2 freezers full of meat for making steaks. He said we could come over any time and make a steak!

This week, I studied a lot about the Restoration. I love that lesson!! Every time I teach it, it strengthens my testimony more and more that this is Christ´s church. I don´t have a single doubt about it. We talked to a Catholic guy and he tried to convert us. He told us we don´t even need to go back to the United States because the true church is right next to our house here! It was wierd.. I think 3 people told us this week that Jesus was Catholic.. I was scared we were going to get struck by lightning! No offense to anyone who is Catholic.. but Christ was NOT Catholic.. I´m not saying he was a "Mormon" either. He is CHRIST. He formed HIS Church. 1 Corinthians 12:28. How could it be His church if it doesn´t even have His name? 3 Nephi 27:3-8. For example, if a church was formed by a guy named John.. It´s John´s church! Christ formed the church I represent.. Not Joseph Smith. If that were the case, It would be called the Church of Joseph Smith of Latter-day Saints. But it´s not! It´s logical!! Not only that, but this is the only church that has the confidence to tell people to pray and find out for themselves if this is the true church or not. Everyone I´ve talked to says, "My pastor told me his church is the true church.." And they go to church every Sunday and sit and listen and don´t learn ANYTHING! So many people dont even know where Christ was born.. Or where the Bible was written.. Or what a Prophet is or an Apostle. Where is the original organization of the churh that Christ himself formed? Where is the living Prophet and the 12 Apostles.. Think about it.
I´m happy here :)

Hey can someone get me Stephanie Bateman´s address? She´s one of my best friends and I haven´t talked to her in 10 months.
Hey! I turn 20 soon.. What in the world.. Could I maybe get some legit shaving cream? I like the Edge gel stuff.. and maybe a jar of peanut butter. And Skittles! :D The candy here kinda sucks.. And the shaving cream. And people say they have peanut butter here, but I think they´re lying! I haven´t found any.

Alright, I think I´ve run out of things to say for now.. If I think of more, I´ll put it in my joural. "Dear Diary... Today I had a crazy drunk guy yell at me in Guaraní. He called me a dirty American.." Ha´e vaí kururucha.. ikininí chera´a..

AMO VOC ÊS!
Elder Heiner

In the pictures: My apartment (bottom left balcony) and the view from it.. Also some clouds n stuff!

 

 

Mba' eichapeeko

Whats up y碼ll! This week has had quite the turn around! :D
Firstly, thank you all for writing me!! It was great to hear how everyone is doing. Clayton better hang on to that del sol by the time I get back!!! We磍l do some serious work on our cars! I want to build mine up.. How many pounds of boost is it running? I don磘 know if anyone will know what that means, you might have to ask my buddy Zach to explain it. It磗 been a really long time since I磛e thought about cars.. Wow! Seriously though, the short messages were great.

So yeah, this week was pretty dang good. We had a good turn around.. We had 6 of our investigators come to church on Saturday! 4 of which we met Saturday afternoon :) Another is an investigator we磛e been working with for a few weeks... His name is Bernardo, he磗 56, has his family and work and everything. Awesome guy.. He is also the pastor of one of the Evangelist churches here in Santa Rita. He has had a doubt for the past 20 years or so.. He wants to know why in the Bible it never talks about Christ coming to the Americas and ministering here. Well! We磛e got this book.. Its blue and it was written about 2,000 years ago by prophets... Here in America.. Which has a large part that is a story when Christ came to the Americas and established his church here. I FINISHED this book yesterday for the first time in my life! I read it cover to cover and I KNOW it is true. The Book of Mormon is so important in our conversion. If we believe in Christ, we磍l believe in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 33:10). Without this book, we don磘 have the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So he has been reading this book and praying to know if he should join our 创ministry创 as he said.
On Thursday we had an activity in the church.. We watched the video of the Restoration and Bernardo came. He knows Joseph Smith was called as the Prophet to restore the Church that Jesus Christ Himself established in the times of old. He loved the movie! We told him we have another one about when Christ came to the Americas, so right now we磖e planning a HUGE activity the 4th of February to set up a projector in one of the plazas here and watch it on the big screen. Then we磖e gonna be taking names! Bernardo wants to help us a ton! So we磖e going to extend the baptismal invitation this week.. :)
It was a great week this week. I learned a lot! I was humbled and we worked out tails off. In just a few weeks, I will have 10 months in the mission. Can you believe how fast the time has gone?! I feel like it was last week where I was packing my bags getting everything ready to go! I turn 20 next month.. What the heck. I remember my 5th birthday! We ate waffles, I got a t-ball set and a toy truck (black Ford) with a trailer! The next thing I know, I磍l open my eyes and I磍l be 49 with one of my sons on his mission.. I磎 freakin out man!
I磎 trying to think of some other stuff I could tell you.. Well, I miss you! I pray for you lots and I know you磖e receiving the blessings! I磎 happy, less stressed, more motivated. I磎 fluent in Spanish :) I磎 learning a little bit more Portuguese! It磗 been sweet! I磎 half way through the Book of Mormon in Spanish, when I finish, I磍l read it in Portuguese :) esta bom.

Alright! Imma wrap this up and go buy some food!
I love you all and hope you have a great week this week! I know I will!

Elder Colby Dane Heiner

9 Months on the Mission!!!

I can´t believe it´s already week 2 of this new change! I loved seeing the pictures of my new little nephew!! He´s adorable. It almost doesn´t even seem real.. Haley wasn´t even pregnant when I left! Now it seems like out of nowhere I´ve got a new little nephew! I´m really excited for her and Dan.

Preguntas!

1. How big is your district and your Zone?
My district has 4 Elders in it- Elder Hugie and Elder Lorenzen, Elder Nielsen and I.. The zone only has 2 districts, but the other district has 8 or 10 Elders I think.

2. Are you adjusting to all of your responsibility?
I´m adjusting! It´s been really stressful because there´s a ton of stuff I have to worry about on top of being a normal missionary. I have to worry about all the members and their needs too. But I feel like I´ve been doing a good job.

3. What was your most favorite experience this week?
I think getting our whole apartment cleaned, we cleaned it a couple nights ago.. It was nice just to dig in and do it, we had a rough week and it was nice just to have a nice, clean apartment that smells good. I think that and finishing Ether! I just have Moroni left and I´m done with the Book of Mormon!! I´m going to finish it today :)

4. How is training Elder Nielson going?
It´s going really well.. I feel like there´s a lot of things he´s training me in. He´s a great guy. He´s not afraid to do anything, like talk to people or to tell them they need to repent. That´s something I need to be better at- helping people to come unto repentence.

5. Who are your most promising investigators?
We´ve got a couple younger guys that are studs! Felix and Wagner. Felix is 22 and he works in a metal shop and he knows how to read and pray. Which is good because we just started working with him. Then Wagner is 16, but he could easily pass for 20. He´s awesome, super mature and ready to accept the Gospel. So they´ll be coming to church next week!

So this week was a kick in the pants.. I don´t know, maybe it was like that to humble us. The last week we found like 20 new investigators and had tons of lessons. We just tanked it this week. We tried focusing on all the new investigators we found, but I guess they´re not ready yet. We´ve got a lot of work to do this week. We really need the help of our members. I can´t get mad at them because they have their lives and their families.. They can´t just drop everything to come help us teach. Maybe I just need to plan things better. I´m still trying to juggle everything, it´s been hard. It´s even harder if our numbers aren´t good enough, then I get the cain dropped on me. Its pretty much to the point where we invite our street contacts to get baptized, even though they know nothing about the Gospel and we haven´t taught them anything. Like I said, there´s just a lot of juggling to do. I can´t be everywhere at once.

The other Elders had a baptism this last week! They bapitzed the dad of the Brazilian family that got baptized with Jorge! They´re going to be a big help to the group here in Santa Rita- they´re really strong members. The service went really well, even though there were guys fishing that were being difficult, we got it done!

Sorry, I don´t really know what else to say! I finished 9 months in the mission this last week.. I don´t know! I´m doing well, I´m happy. I know I´ll be happier this week.. We´re going to find families and we´re going to help them so they can live together forever!

Happy Birthday to Drake on Wednesday! I hope it´s great!

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

 

 

Happy Birthday Tomorrow Dad

 

Look I´m actually writing a legit letter this week! It´s about dang time... I´ve been traveling allll over this stinkin country the last couple weeks. But it´s been really good! I´m happy to be back in Santa Rita with our investigators and members, now it´s time to get the work rollin again!

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited to see him! It sounds like everything went well with the delivery process and everything. I dig the name too! All week I was telling Elder Nielsen, "I'm going to get my email this week and it's gonna say that my sister had her baby.." And she did! I knew it! :) Hopefully little Damon doesn't get too jealous.. if so, you can just send him down here to me! ;) I'm glad everyone had a good Christmas, it was really good to talk to everyone. Mine was really good too, our Recent Convert family invited us over for lunch on Christmas and we had a big ol' steak! It was good, not as good as Uncle Mike's, but it was good.. It was the same for New Year's too. So my holidays were nice!

So yeah.. I'm district leader now! And here in Santa Rita that means I'm also the Branch President and councelors, Relief Society President, Young Men's and Women's President, etc.. And I'm training. Let's just say Elder Heiner has been a little stressed lately! I'm still trying to juggle everything, so if anyone has been in a similar situation, PLEASE give me advice! It's been a humbling experience..

Dad- Thanks for your letter from this week! It's going to help me a lot! I'm going to print it out. I really agree with what you said, there's no point in baptizing someone if they're not ready. You might as well do it right the first time! This is Eternal Salvation we're talking about here. At times it is hard because the leaders above me want numbers because that's how success is measured.. I think I just need to be better organized with everything, I don't know. I've never done this before!

We've been teaching some really great families lately.. I don't want their goal to just be baptism, I want to see them in the Temple! I want to see endowed members here in Santa Rita! I want to see the men here have the Priesthood, and everyone to have a Patriarchal Blessing! Jorge has been really excited to get the Melchizedek Priesthood! I need to call the Stake President to come out and interview him and give him this power! I think we'll make it work this coming Sunday.
We're still just finding people to teach.. Like solid people that want to do something with the faith they have. If everyone would just do their part and just ASK GOD, they would know! Its that easy. It blows my mind to talk to people and hear about their churches- even they don't believe in their churches- and they're just letting their pastors deceive them.. But it's been kind of hard getting back into the groove of things with all the meetings I've had and with the divisions with the zone leaders. We're trying to work more with the few members we have. We did a reference activity with Jorge and Mabel yesterday.. Mabel is back by the way!! Anyways, we had them write down a list of the names of their friends, then they prayed to see which friends are ready to hear the Gospel, then they put a star by the names of their friends that they felt were ready. So we got 4 people from that! Just make sure when the missionaries there ask for references, that they work for them! Instead of the old, "Do you know anyone we can visit?.." Make sure they share something spiritual or do an activity or something! They gotta earn it!

I still need to send the letter I wrote for Christmas.. Sorry I haven't sent it, I've been kinda busy! I think I'll be able to send it tomorrow morning! :) Finally.. By the way, I complete 9 months in the mission this week, no big deal! :D
Welp, I gotta go write President Callan now! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! I know I will! I'll be praying for you!!

Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Oh yeah, last week when I did divisions with Elder Richards (one of my zone leaders), we taught a famous soccer player. His name is Eder- he plays for Cerro. It was pretty cool! Enjoy the pictures!

Happy New Year 2012

 

I´m alive!! dont worry! I have to make this really short because there´s about 4 elders waiting to email their parents too.. I´ve been in Asuncion all day for training meetings for the leaders.... I got called to be the district leader last week! AHH! This is going to be interesting..

My Christmas was great! We had an hour of church also, then we ended up going to a member´s house for dinner and we had steak! An azado! It was delicious.. We ate with them again yesterday for the new year, we had an azado again. It sounds like everyone had a good Christmas at home too! That makes me really happy! My companion is doing great still, we get along really well. On Friday we did 300 pushups, it was pretty intense. We´ve been seeing some people coming out of our work in Santa Rita! So we´ll be having some baptisms here pretty soon! I´ll put tons of details in my next email, like I said, I have to keep this one short :(( I PROMISE I will send pictures next week! I didnt bring my computer stuff with me to Asuncion! I gotta go now!

I love you all SO much and I hope you have a great week! You´ll be in my prayers!

Elder Colby Dane Heiner