Week 27 Back In Santa Rita

Its been a good week! The work has been a little slow here, but its been productive! Lots of pictures to send, so I might have to send 2 emails..  :D

1.  What instructions did the doctor give you last Monday of what you can and can't do?
¨No fuerza..¨ I cant really use much of my strength wich kinda stinks, but its ok. I´m starting to get a little belly from not being able to use my stomach muscles :´(
But I feel really really good now, I can start getting back to physical activity in 2 weeks - like running and push ups and stuff like that. But I dont think I´ll be doing any running, I´m too lazy for that right now! But in like 6 months I´ll be back to normal normal, like I could lift weights and stuff.

 

2.  Will you have anymore check ups?
Nope! I´ll be in my area for a while!

 

3.  When can you get back to normal activity?  Is there a long time period that you can't do heavy lifting or things like that?  Is it the average 6 weeks?
Yeah, like I´ll be back to normal stuff in like 2 weeks because I had the surgery like 3 weeks ago.. But like working out hard lifting weights and working on cars will be in about 6 months, but I still wont do any of that because I´m in Paraguay and that stuff´s at home!

 

4.  Does it feel like you are able to pick up where you left off?
Kind of.. The work has been slow this week, but the work we´ve been able to do was productive.

 

5.  How long will it take you to regain your momentum?
Like walking? I´m back to normal with that.. My muscles in my stomach are still healing and everything, but theyre getting stronger.

 

6.  This has to do with the Holiday's.  I'm going to be trying to put your packages in the mail by Nov. 1st.

Is there any special things you would like or need besides dum dum suckers and deoderant?  I will try to be creative but you know that is not my strong suit!  I can probably get an incidental package like toothpaste, deoderant, floss picks etc sent this week if you would like me to.  Then I can send your Christmas packages by Nov. 1st.  I think it will take about a month to get them to the mission home.  They might be there  sooner. I want to make sure they get to you before Christmas.
-- I love candy! They dont have good candy here, it all tastes like cardboard.. So like skittles, sweedish fish, sour patch kids, dum dums, and stuff like that would be awesome! Same with the deodorant and toothpaste. If this is for my Christmas package, if I may request.. A leatherbound Jesus the Christ and a split-set of microprint scriptures, not the quad.. and I like the black leather :) and of course letters from my family! That would be awesome!

Ok! We had an awesome weekend! We (Elder Guevara and I) had 2 baptisms and the other 2 elders in our district had 3! We had it in a river and it was really cool.. I´ll never forget this weekend. I baptized Manuel Ferreita Gonzalez, he´s 17.. Last night we taught another one of our investigators with him and Jorge. Manuel told me that his girlfriend is giving him problems so he broke up with her.. He wanted to marry her but he said, ¨I think its a sign from God.. I feel like I need to go on a mission!¨ How awesome is that!! So I told him how great the mission has been for me and everything. So he´s really excited and he´s seriously thinking about going on a mission! I told him that the missionaries will help him get there. He´s awesome! So is Jorge! He said all he wants to do is be the Lord´s servant, he changed a lot in the past couple months! They´re both incredible and they´re excited to be members and to help us. I don´t know much about the others that got baptized because they live in the other elders´ area, but they seem really awesome.

Sorry this letter is really short this week! Thats about all thats happened! When I was in Asunción I read Preach My Gospel in 3 days and got almost half-way through the Book of Mormon, so that was really good!

By the way, I got the picture of Dad riding Blacky! That is such an awesome picture! It was soo good to see those mountains in the background! I´ve missed those! I hope all the pictures go through.. theres a lot from this week! You cant touch the shower heads here.. You´ll get shocked! I´m sending a couple pictures of our apartment, a pic of one of my gauz pads, pics from the baptism and stuff like that! We have another baptism planned for this saturday so we´ll be working hard getting her prepared! Elder Guevara is trying to convince me that he´s leaving to open a new area, but I told him I already know he´s joking becuase I got the call from our district leader! We´re all staying here for anther change! He wanted me to ask if they make microprint scriptures in Spanish.. They don´t have them in the Latin countries, only the normal sized ones. He wanted me to ask if there was a way he could get a set if there are microprint scriptures in Spanish.. He said he could send money if there are.. Anyways! I gotta go! I´m out of time :(

I hope you all have a great week! I love you!!
Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Week 26 This Change Is Over

Holy cow this change flew by! I cant believe I`ve been in the office for almost 2 weeks recovering.. Its been good though!

Questions and Answers!

1.  Are you going back in today to have more stitches removed?

Yeah, here its 8:20 am and I think I go in at like 10:30. I`m ready to get them out, they`re really itchy!

 

2.  How are you feeling?

I feel great! I don`t hardly have pain anymore and I can sit up normal, like when I get out of bed I don`t really have to use my arms..

 

3.  What plans do they have for you?

President Callan said we`ll see where I`m at when I get my other stitches out, so I still don`t know if I`ll be staying til the end of the change or going back to Santa Rita today.. I get to be with Elder Guevara for another change!

 

4.  What have you been doing this past week?  Do they have you out proselyting at all during the day or evening?  Or are you pretty much just taking easy healing?

All during the day I study and read and stuff.. The past few days I´ve been going out to help the Office Elders work in their areas and its been nice getting out! I read Preach My Gospel in 3 days, and I`m almost half-way through the Book of Mormon! Its been pretty sweet!

 

5.  Are you still on Pain medication or do you feel like you are strong enough to go without any now?

No, I only took pain medication for like the first 3 or 4 days, but I`ve only taken like 5 I think.. I haven`t really needed them which is good!

 

6.  Who has your companion been while at the mission office?

He went back to Santa Rita with a local missionary to work.. But something happened and the local missionary went back to his house, so Elder Guevara is with the other 2 elders in our district. I called him the other night and he said he`s ready to Do Work when I get back.. So am I!

 

**7.  Dad sent you a few pictures through e mail....were you able to download them?  Can we send you occasional pictures like that or do we need to send them through the mail?

I didn`t get them.. You could send them through snail mail and I´ll get them for sure. I Haley sent me 3 pictures of Damon and I cannot believe how big he`s getting! I almost don`t even recognize him! I can`t imagine what it will be like in another year and a half! He just looks so big and old for his age.. But he`s so stinkin cute! I need to get more pictures of him so I`m not in shock the next time I see him!

If you send a package... Candy is always good! The investigators love Dum Dums, Elder Nash gave me a bag before we left the MTC and all the people that I gave those suckers to fell in love with them! Skittles are always delicious. You`ll have to send me some of the emails from like Jeff and Jake and Dallin.. Has anyone else left on their missions? I heard something about Ty getting his call to Mexico, and Andy gave his farewell? What about Aaron? I wanna hear how all my friends are doing! Maybe you can send me some good deodorant.. The stuff here doesn`t last as long as it says..

Tell Sister Hoagland thanks for the package! I think Delores sent it.. But it was awesome! She sent a bag of jerky, a snickers, sweedish fish, and of course.. caramel! I shared with the Office Elders and they loved it too.

So yeah, not a lot has happened this week with me, I´ve just been staying close to the office. My investigator, Jorge, didn´t get baptized on Saturday because it rained.. So that means I get to be there when he does get baptized! We`re going to have the baptism in a river so that will be really cool! He`s getting baptized this Saturday with his cousin. We taught him the day before I came to Asunción and I guess Elder Guevara has been going over there with the other elders every day since. So it will be really good that they can have each other´s support in their baptismal day! The elders here had a baptism on Saturday, but the rest of us went out and worked.. It was President Callan´s revelation, and we saw miracles! I went out to work with Elder Curtis, the old secretary, and we were just talking to everyone we could.. Then we were walking down this street and we saw a girl finishing up jogging and ran into the house we were getting ready to go to because Elder Curtis left a Book of Mormon there a couple weeks before.. We were going to see if the guy had been reading it. We walked up and the door was still open, and the girl that was jogging came right back out and started talking to us.. Then she sat right down and we asked if the guy was there (The guy is her boss and she lives there with him and his wife..). She said no then asked why, kind of in an angry tone, so we thought she was going to be mean.. Elder Curtis explained that he`d left a blue book there and wanted to see if the guy had been reading it. She said, ¨No, I have the book.. I started reading it because I saw it sitting there and no one has touched it.. I take it everywhere with me and read it all the time, its really helped me.¨ Whoa! Then she told us she´s been having a really tough time lately, she doesn`t have any family and she`s getting ready to change jobs to leave Asunción. So we asked if we could come back and teach her and she said yes. We left and Elder Curtis said, ¨We should have invited her to church tomorrow!¨ So we called her and invited her, she said she would come- which hardly ever happens in situations like this- and we finished our night.. She was at church yesterday! There is a member family that lives like 2 blocks away from her and they went an picked her up. She actually came to church! Thats the Golden Investigator, if we would have gone to the baptism, we wouldn`t have found her. She´ll get baptized.. Then yesterday after church, we found a family that speaks English! Like, really well.. It was really cool! And they think its just as cool when a white person can speak Guaraní! They love it..

Well, thats about all I have for this week.. Sorry there aren`t any pictures still, my adaptor is still in Santa Rita so I´ll send them next week! I´m gonna sign off now..

I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Week 25 Despues de la Sirguria

Hey!

So I just got back to the office.. My weekend was incredible! President and Sister Callan took such good care of me, always making sure I was doing ok and taking my medicine and making sure I was comfortable. Not to mention all the good food Sister Callan made for me :) I dont hardly feel any pain.. Yeah, its a little sore, but I´m sure thats normal for after a surgery. Elder Guevara kept crackin jokes and just being himself, so of course I was laughing the whole time we were in the hospital. He´s back in Santa Rita with a local missionary, then I go back at the end of the change! I´m so excited. The doctor came in right before I was going to bed to see how I was doing after the surgery. We talked for like an hour! He´s a way awesome guy.. He showed me the pictures of my surgery and he said I was really funny. He told me that when I return to the United States, I need to develop my new language of Guaranínglish! There is a picture of me laying half-way off the operating table right after they gave me the epaderal... or however the heck you spell that! The shot in your spine that they give to pregnant women! It was fun.. So yes, I am doing great! I go in on Thursday to get a few of the stitches out and to get the drain out, so hopefully everything will keep going smoothly after that!

Conference was awesome! I dont think I´ve ever been able to watch an entire 5 sessions before! I always end up falling asleep or something! But I learned a ton, I got a ton of revelation of things I can do to better myself and bring myself closer to my Heavenly Father. President Uchtdorf´s talks were awesome, as usual.. I liked all the talks! There wasnt a talk I didnt like, or one that I didnt learn from. I have 15 pages of notes, and front-to-back, so 30 in total if you wanna get technical :) It was an awesome experience getting to watch all of the conference sessions with my mission president and his wife. After every session we would talk for a few minutes about what we liked and learned. Other than that, I´ve just been reading, studying, and learning like crazy! I´ve been able to put a lot of time into reading the Book of Mormon and learning from it. I love its second witness that it gives to the Bible, because a lot of times for me the Bible is hard to understand and the Book of Mormon helps make everything clear. I dont remember who said it yesterday, it was in the last session.. But he said, ¨If we all (all the churches) interpreted the Bible the same, all of us would be from the same church..¨ Its true! But we dont all interpret the Bible the same.. And only one church has a Prophet that is call of God. Not to mention the Book of Mormon sets one, single solid direction with the Bible that points down the right path.. The path that Christ taught. And so many people ask why religion is so important.. why does it matter if we go to church or live the commandments or anything like that. Why does any of that matter? We all need to realize the importance of this life.. There IS a purpose as to why we are here. So many people are taught, and believe that we were created at birth, and after death, its Heaven or Hell. We were created millions of years ago as Spirit Children of our Heavenly Father, and He gave us a plan to come to Earth for this experience to learn, progress, and gain physical bodies.. In this life we are tested a lot! Everything we go through, whether it be good or bad, is a test of our faith. We always need to keep in mind that God is always with us whether we believe it or not, or whether we can feel His spirit or not. When we fall, He´s right there to pick us up and dust us off, IF we let him. So let Him! Do all you can to grow closer to our Heavenly Father everyday, He will make our lives easier! And what we do in this life is our choice and will determine what happens to us after this life. We have the opportunity to live in the presence of God forever in a state of interminable happiness, if we want to (Mosiah 2:41). We just need to prove it in this life.

Welp, thats about all I´ve got for this week! Sorry its not much, there werent a lot of things that happened.. Just a couple big things! So ask lots of questions next week!

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! I´ll be thinking about you!

Elder Colby Dane Heiner

Oh yeah, I was going to send pictures, but I forgot my plug for my memory card in Santa Rita! So there will be lots next week!

Finished Surgery Photo Others a bit too graphic