now. I feel like I go to bed Monday night, and when I wake up, it`s
Monday morning again. Crazy!
Sorry I can`t email anyone back unless its family! But I wanna thank
John and Linda and Greg and Jolene for the emails from last week..
They helped a lot! So, thank you, thank you!
QUESITONS:
1. How is the interviewing of your Branch priesthood going with the
Branch President?
President is always there to do the interviews.. The hard part is
getting people to come to them! There`s a Temple trip on December 8th
and President wants to get all the youth there.. And all the other
members, but they need to go to their interviews!
2. Are you feeling like things are getting better within the Branch
the last couple of weeks?
It`s getting a little better, I think the members are feeling the
Spirit in church so they`ve been coming earlier and earlier each week.
Even though they still show up late, its still progress! We`re just
going to retain the members that come and help their family members
that are fallen away. I`ve seen that the people where the whole family
is inactive, it`s because they don`t understand the doctrine or their
covenants. We can invite them all we want and promise blessings,
but they still have their agency.
3. Do you have any new investigators?
Not really.. We have really good investigators right now that have
accepted baptism, but they haven`t gone to church. So we`re gonna go
to their houses Sunday morning and walk to church with them. That`s
always fun!
4. Have you moved yet? Why can't I remember the answer to that
question without going back through letters?
Yeah! We moved out of that little place! We`ve been in the new place
for almost a month! Its soo nice! But I haven`t had air conditioning
for 5 months.. I`m still waiting on the mission office to send us an
A/C unit.
5. Okay....Big Question.......What about the Trunky papers you
mentioned last week? Do you know the date that you are coming home
yet? If not, when will you know?
Yeah, I think I`ll be getting home the 19th of April, a Friday. I`m
not sure though. I think we leave Paraguay on Thursday the 18th. It
makes me think of a song I heard once by Phil Collins.. It`s from
Brother Bear..
6. Did you have any funny experiences this week that you could share with us?
Nothing funny really happened, but I had fun on divisions with Elder
Izurieta! He`s my new district leader. He came over to my area to see
what the work is like here. I really like him because he`s down to
earth. So many of the leaders here are super robots and all they care
about is numbers. It was refreshing to have that! It was the same from
2 weeks ago when we did divisions with the zone leaders, Elder Wilson
is a stud. But I feel like a lot of the leaders let it get to their
head and think they have power over everyone else. I think Elder
Bednar said it right when he came to visit us.. "How do you know your
mission president didn`t call you to be a zone leader so he could keep
an eye on you?" They always have training meetings and stuff.. So I
hate that when they think they`re better than everyone and all they care
about is having good numbers. Like people with baptismal date vs. people
who went to church.. On theirnumbers they have 14 people with date, and
4 people in church.. That just means they went out and put baptismal date with
10 more peopleafter church so their numbers look good when they call them in that
night. Blah blah blah.
7. What was you most memorable experience this past week?
I liked church yesterday. I love the Sacrament and the scriptures..
And feeling the Spirit. Yesterday, 2 of the youth gave talks! It was
my first Sunday here without giving a talk! Woohoo! It was nice to
just sit back and listen.
Well, I guess Thanksgiving is coming up huh.. I don`t know when it is.
They don`t have that here, obviously. There weren`t any pioneers! But
after living in a different country on the other side of the world,
I`ve really come to appreciate where I`m from. I love the United
States! We are SO blessed to live there. I`m really proud to be an
American, because I`m free and I live in a great place. There`s order
in our country, its a nice place to live, it`s clean, there`s real
roads, they enforce the law.. People are courtious and polite and
educated. I come from a great family with great parents who love me
and have taken care of me my whole life. I`ve never EVER been beaten
or yelled at by my parents. Thats the norm here. It`s normal to see
little kids carrying a 40 oz bottle of beer to take to their dad. Or
be walking down the street and hear a slap, then baby cries, then a
yelling mother. There`s nasty dogs (and cows and horses and pigs..)
that just roam the streets here with no owners. I took my life for
granted before I came here. I just expected everything I had, but
after being here, it made me grateful to have a house to live in,
clothes to wear and food to eat. Not to mention the luxuries.. Air
conditioning, hot OR cold water, a car, a garage, house and street
numbers, nice roofing, CARPET, walking around barefoot in the house..
Nice smelling fabric softner. I will NEVER complain about doing dishes
again.. In the States all you have to do is rinse them off, and put
them in the dishwasher.
I could go on and on.. I love my family and my country. I have the
best parents in the world. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints and all my brothers and sisters there. I`m thankful
for the morals and standards I have and for the Gospel in my life. I`m
thankful for a living prophet of God in the earth today and his 12
apostles. I`m grateful for my church leaders and teachers and their
efforts. I`m thankful for the Atonement and for the hope and joy it
brings me. I love the ordinances.. I think I spelled that right.. If
not, ordenanzas! I know I`m going to live with my family forever, yes,
even after death. I`m thankful for Temples!
Life`s good, I`m happy. Thanks for everything you do.
Thanks Mom and Dad, Derrek, Drake, Dan, Haley, and Shaunie! I love you
guys so much!
I love my friends too, and everyone else. I hope you all have a great week!
Love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner
**I am guessing that this is Elder Heiner's new District Leader Elder Izurieta
The other pictures are what his apt. was before they moved and after they moved.
A little difference!
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