I'm glad you had a great time for your Anniversary thing. Sounds way fun.
We had 2 baptisms: the Pelor family but just the parents were baptized. I already love the people here, I learn so much from them its truly amazing what I'm learning here on the mission. Yes its hard, yes it's tiring, yes it's dreadful sometimes but you have no idea how great the feeling is when you baptize someone and know you helped them change their life for the better. It's amazing to see the glow they have after they're baptized. Brother Pelor had a stroke in July his whole left side doesn't work. He is only 37 he has 5 kids when he had the stroke he said he prayed so that he can be closer to the Lord and help with his life and his family wouldn't be disappointed in him. Then a member gave him a blessing and before the blessing he was just on his bed for 2 weeks then he got the blessing and in 3 days he could start getting around his house. He has improved ever since and then the missionaries started teaching him and he knew this was the true church and how grateful he was and how its changed his family and himself and he was grateful for his stroke. He was grateful the Lord gave him a trial to bring him way low so he could realize whats important to him in life He is a great guy. I don't understand much and by the way no Tagalog just straight Illongo. I learn a lot from these people and how i can better myself.
Transfer day is this Friday but yeah i will let you know. Got to go i don't have much time. We had zone meeting and zone activity and we went to Resort Mambukal; look it up it was truly amazing. My companion has an infection but yeah he is better kind of. I wish I can write more but my time is up. Love you all tell everyone hello and love them too and grateful for everyone in my life. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have the people in my life that I did, thank you.
love Elder Heywood
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Finally....we have been waiting about 24 hours for this note...
hey there! sorry yeah i still didn't get the letter from the week before but I got this weeks. I couldn't email yesterday because my companion had to go to the hospital so this will be very short. We had 1 baptism and we have 2 this week. If you can put money in the account and give me everyones bball jersey size and what number they want that would be great. I probably wont be able to get them to you during Christmas but some time. That goes for Aaron Katie and Parker they are part of the family too!
Elder Heywood,
Elder Heywood,
Monday, October 11, 2010
Heart broken: Not sure why he didn't get our email; it looks like it sent just fine...yikes...his was so sweet and he has nothing from us? Like I said heart breaking!
I don't know if you didn't get my email last week but I sent one and I didn't get an email from you but this will be short.
We have 4 baptisms this Saturday and i just want to say thank you for being awesome parents and sorry for all the hardships i have put you through and i hope i can be the son you want me to be. Elder Hollands talk really got to me and i just felt that i had to apologize. I'm grateful for all the life lesson you have taught me and how to live a great life so far from your examples and i love you guys and our family. I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks dad and mom for raisin me and putting up with me and teaching me and teaching by example. Thank you Katie for your example and i know when you do have kids you will be a great mom. Parker for being the best example to me and just being the best big brother ever. Luke your awesome your a great example to me and i still cant believe you got the flip before me but i knew you would. Keep on staying strong. Dana, keep smiling you have a great smile and i hope you keep on dancing cause i know you can be great. Chris keep on doing amazing at everything you do but remember to be humble and there is always room for improvement. Aaron thanks for being the best brother in law you're great for Katie, I'm glad you are part of the family. I miss all of you a lot and wish i could be with you right now and just have a Sunday dinner with you all but i know why I'm out here and all of you have showed me how great life can be. I want to show everyone else what life can be through families and this gospel. Of course, Baja thanks for sleeping with me and cuddling with me in my harry potter closet haha.
love you all send me a an email you dang heywoods
love elder the 2nd
We have 4 baptisms this Saturday and i just want to say thank you for being awesome parents and sorry for all the hardships i have put you through and i hope i can be the son you want me to be. Elder Hollands talk really got to me and i just felt that i had to apologize. I'm grateful for all the life lesson you have taught me and how to live a great life so far from your examples and i love you guys and our family. I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks dad and mom for raisin me and putting up with me and teaching me and teaching by example. Thank you Katie for your example and i know when you do have kids you will be a great mom. Parker for being the best example to me and just being the best big brother ever. Luke your awesome your a great example to me and i still cant believe you got the flip before me but i knew you would. Keep on staying strong. Dana, keep smiling you have a great smile and i hope you keep on dancing cause i know you can be great. Chris keep on doing amazing at everything you do but remember to be humble and there is always room for improvement. Aaron thanks for being the best brother in law you're great for Katie, I'm glad you are part of the family. I miss all of you a lot and wish i could be with you right now and just have a Sunday dinner with you all but i know why I'm out here and all of you have showed me how great life can be. I want to show everyone else what life can be through families and this gospel. Of course, Baja thanks for sleeping with me and cuddling with me in my harry potter closet haha.
love you all send me a an email you dang heywoods
love elder the 2nd
Elder Hollands Talk at General Conference October 2010
President Monson, the entire worldwide membership of this church joins in that great anthem with this wonderful choir, and we say, “We thank thee, O God, for a prophet.” Thank you for your life, for your example, and for that welcoming message to another general conference of the Church. We love you, we admire you, and we sustain you. Indeed, in this afternoon’s session we will have a more formal opportunity to raise our hands in a sustaining vote, not only for President Monson but also for all the other general officers of the Church as well. Because my name will be included on that list, may I be so bold as to speak for all in thanking you in advance for those uplifted hands. Not one of us could serve without your prayers and without your support. Your loyalty and your love mean more to us than we can ever possibly say.
In that spirit my message today is to say that we sustain you, that we return to you those same heartfelt prayers and that same expression of love. We all know there are special keys, covenants, and responsibilities given to the presiding officers of the Church, but we also know that the Church draws incomparable strength, a truly unique vitality, from the faith and devotion of every member of this Church, whoever you may be. In whatever country you live, however young or inadequate you feel, or however aged or limited you see yourself as being, I testify you are individually loved of God, you are central to the meaning of His work, and you are cherished and prayed for by the presiding officers of His Church. The personal value, the sacred splendor of every one of you, is the very reason there is a plan for salvation and exaltation. Contrary to the parlance of the day, this is about you. No, don’t turn and look at your neighbor. I am talking to you!
I have struggled to find an adequate way to tell you how loved of God you are and how grateful we on this stand are for you. I am trying to be voice for the very angels of heaven in thanking you for every good thing you have ever done, for every kind word you have ever said, for every sacrifice you have ever made in extending to someone—to anyone—the beauty and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for Young Women leaders who go to girls camp and, without shampoo, showers, or mascara, turn smoky, campfire testimony meetings into some of the most riveting spiritual experiences those girls—or those leaders—will experience in their lifetime. I am grateful for all the women of the Church who in my life have been as strong as Mount Sinai and as compassionate as the Mount of Beatitudes. We smile sometimes about our sisters’ stories—you know, green Jell-O, quilts, and funeral potatoes. But my family has been the grateful recipient of each of those items at one time or another—and in one case, the quilt and the funeral potatoes on the same day. It was just a small quilt—tiny, really—to make my deceased baby brother’s journey back to his heavenly home as warm and comfortable as our Relief Society sisters wanted him to be. The food provided for our family after the service, voluntarily given without a single word from us, was gratefully received. Smile, if you will, about our traditions, but somehow the too-often unheralded women in this church are always there when hands hang down and knees are feeble.1 They seem to grasp instinctively the divinity in Christ’s declaration: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these . . . , ye have done it unto me.”2
And no less the brethren of the priesthood. I think, for example, of the leaders of our young men who, depending on the climate and continent, either take bone-rattling 50-mile (80 km) hikes or dig—and actually try to sleep in—ice caves for what have to be the longest nights of human experience. I am grateful for memories of my own high priests group, which a few years ago took turns for weeks sleeping on a small recliner in the bedroom of a dying quorum member so that his aged and equally fragile wife could get some sleep through those final weeks of her sweetheart’s life. I am grateful for the Church’s army of teachers, officers, advisers, and clerks, to say nothing of people who are forever setting up tables and taking down chairs. I am grateful for ordained patriarchs, musicians, family historians, and osteoporotic couples who trundle off to the temple at 5:00 in the morning with little suitcases now almost bigger than they are. I am grateful for selfless parents who—perhaps for a lifetime—care for a challenged child, sometimes with more than one challenge and sometimes with more than one child. I am grateful for children who close ranks later in life to give back to ill or aging parents.
And to the near-perfect elderly sister who almost apologetically whispered recently, “I have never been a leader of anything in the Church. I guess I’ve only been a helper,” I say, “Dear sister, God bless you and all the ‘helpers’ in the kingdom.” Some of us who are leaders hope someday to have the standing before God that you have already attained.
Too often I have failed to express gratitude for the faith and goodness of such people in my life. President James E. Faust stood at this pulpit 13 years ago and said, “As a small boy . . . , I remember my grandmother . . . cooking our delicious meals on a hot woodstove. When the wood box next to the stove became empty, Grandmother would silently . . . go out to refill it from the pile of cedar wood outside, and bring the heavily laden box back into the house. I was so insensitive . . . [that] I sat there and let my beloved grandmother refill [that] box.” Then, his voice choking with emotion, he said, “I feel ashamed of myself and have regretted my omission for all of my life. I hope someday to ask for her forgiveness.”3
If a man as perfect as I felt President Faust was can acknowledge his youthful oversight, I can do no less than make a similar admission and pay a long-overdue tribute of my own today.
When I was called to serve a mission back before the dawn of time, there was no equalization of missionary costs. Each had to bear the full expense of the mission to which he or she was sent. Some missions were very expensive, and as it turned out, mine was one of those.
As we encourage missionaries to do, I had saved money and sold personal belongings to pay my own way as best I could. I thought I had enough money, but I wasn’t sure how it would be in the final months of my mission. With that question on my mind, I nevertheless blissfully left my family for the greatest experience anyone could hope to have. I loved my mission as I am sure no young man has ever loved one before or since.
Then I returned home just as my parents were called to serve a mission of their own. What would I do now? How in the world could I pay for a college education? How could I possibly pay for board and room? And how could I realize the great dream of my heart, to marry the breathtakingly perfect Patricia Terry? I don’t mind admitting that I was discouraged and frightened. Hesitantly I went to the local bank and asked the manager, a family friend, how much was in my account. He looked surprised and said, “Why, Jeff, it’s all in your account. Didn’t they tell you? Your parents wanted to do what little they could to help you get started when you got home. They didn’t withdraw a cent during your mission. I supposed that you knew.”
Well, I didn’t know. What I do know is that my dad, a self-educated accountant, a “bookkeeper” as they were called in our little town, with very few clients, probably never wore a new suit or a new shirt or a new pair of shoes for two years so his son could have all of those for his mission. Furthermore, what I did not know but then came to know was that my mother, who had never worked out of the home in her married life, took a job at a local department store so that my mission expenses could be met. And not one word of that was ever conveyed to me on my mission. Not a single word was said regarding any of it. How many fathers in this Church have done exactly what my father did? And how many mothers, in these difficult economic times, are still doing what my mother did?
My father has been gone for 34 years, so like President Faust, I will have to wait to fully thank him on the other side. But my sweet mother, who turns 95 next week, is happily watching this broadcast today at her home in St. George, so it’s not too late to thank her. To you, Mom and Dad, and to all the moms and dads and families and faithful people everywhere, I thank you for sacrificing for your children (and for other people’s children!), for wanting so much to give them advantages you never had, for wanting so much to give them the happiest life you could provide.
My thanks to all you wonderful members of the Church—and legions of good people not of our faith—for proving every day of your life that the pure love of Christ “never faileth.”4 No one of you is insignificant, in part because you make the gospel of Jesus Christ what it is—a living reminder of His grace and mercy, a private but powerful manifestation in small villages and large cities of the good He did and the life He gave bringing peace and salvation to other people. We are honored beyond expression to be counted one with you in such a sacred cause.
As Jesus said to the Nephites, so say I today:
“Because of your faith . . . , my joy is full.
“And when he had said these words, he wept.”5
Brothers and sisters, seeing your example, I pledge anew my determination to be better, to be more faithful—more kind and devoted, more charitable and true as our Father in Heaven is and as so many of you already are. This I pray in the name of our Great Exemplar in all things—even the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—amen.
In that spirit my message today is to say that we sustain you, that we return to you those same heartfelt prayers and that same expression of love. We all know there are special keys, covenants, and responsibilities given to the presiding officers of the Church, but we also know that the Church draws incomparable strength, a truly unique vitality, from the faith and devotion of every member of this Church, whoever you may be. In whatever country you live, however young or inadequate you feel, or however aged or limited you see yourself as being, I testify you are individually loved of God, you are central to the meaning of His work, and you are cherished and prayed for by the presiding officers of His Church. The personal value, the sacred splendor of every one of you, is the very reason there is a plan for salvation and exaltation. Contrary to the parlance of the day, this is about you. No, don’t turn and look at your neighbor. I am talking to you!
I have struggled to find an adequate way to tell you how loved of God you are and how grateful we on this stand are for you. I am trying to be voice for the very angels of heaven in thanking you for every good thing you have ever done, for every kind word you have ever said, for every sacrifice you have ever made in extending to someone—to anyone—the beauty and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for Young Women leaders who go to girls camp and, without shampoo, showers, or mascara, turn smoky, campfire testimony meetings into some of the most riveting spiritual experiences those girls—or those leaders—will experience in their lifetime. I am grateful for all the women of the Church who in my life have been as strong as Mount Sinai and as compassionate as the Mount of Beatitudes. We smile sometimes about our sisters’ stories—you know, green Jell-O, quilts, and funeral potatoes. But my family has been the grateful recipient of each of those items at one time or another—and in one case, the quilt and the funeral potatoes on the same day. It was just a small quilt—tiny, really—to make my deceased baby brother’s journey back to his heavenly home as warm and comfortable as our Relief Society sisters wanted him to be. The food provided for our family after the service, voluntarily given without a single word from us, was gratefully received. Smile, if you will, about our traditions, but somehow the too-often unheralded women in this church are always there when hands hang down and knees are feeble.1 They seem to grasp instinctively the divinity in Christ’s declaration: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these . . . , ye have done it unto me.”2
And no less the brethren of the priesthood. I think, for example, of the leaders of our young men who, depending on the climate and continent, either take bone-rattling 50-mile (80 km) hikes or dig—and actually try to sleep in—ice caves for what have to be the longest nights of human experience. I am grateful for memories of my own high priests group, which a few years ago took turns for weeks sleeping on a small recliner in the bedroom of a dying quorum member so that his aged and equally fragile wife could get some sleep through those final weeks of her sweetheart’s life. I am grateful for the Church’s army of teachers, officers, advisers, and clerks, to say nothing of people who are forever setting up tables and taking down chairs. I am grateful for ordained patriarchs, musicians, family historians, and osteoporotic couples who trundle off to the temple at 5:00 in the morning with little suitcases now almost bigger than they are. I am grateful for selfless parents who—perhaps for a lifetime—care for a challenged child, sometimes with more than one challenge and sometimes with more than one child. I am grateful for children who close ranks later in life to give back to ill or aging parents.
And to the near-perfect elderly sister who almost apologetically whispered recently, “I have never been a leader of anything in the Church. I guess I’ve only been a helper,” I say, “Dear sister, God bless you and all the ‘helpers’ in the kingdom.” Some of us who are leaders hope someday to have the standing before God that you have already attained.
Too often I have failed to express gratitude for the faith and goodness of such people in my life. President James E. Faust stood at this pulpit 13 years ago and said, “As a small boy . . . , I remember my grandmother . . . cooking our delicious meals on a hot woodstove. When the wood box next to the stove became empty, Grandmother would silently . . . go out to refill it from the pile of cedar wood outside, and bring the heavily laden box back into the house. I was so insensitive . . . [that] I sat there and let my beloved grandmother refill [that] box.” Then, his voice choking with emotion, he said, “I feel ashamed of myself and have regretted my omission for all of my life. I hope someday to ask for her forgiveness.”3
If a man as perfect as I felt President Faust was can acknowledge his youthful oversight, I can do no less than make a similar admission and pay a long-overdue tribute of my own today.
When I was called to serve a mission back before the dawn of time, there was no equalization of missionary costs. Each had to bear the full expense of the mission to which he or she was sent. Some missions were very expensive, and as it turned out, mine was one of those.
As we encourage missionaries to do, I had saved money and sold personal belongings to pay my own way as best I could. I thought I had enough money, but I wasn’t sure how it would be in the final months of my mission. With that question on my mind, I nevertheless blissfully left my family for the greatest experience anyone could hope to have. I loved my mission as I am sure no young man has ever loved one before or since.
Then I returned home just as my parents were called to serve a mission of their own. What would I do now? How in the world could I pay for a college education? How could I possibly pay for board and room? And how could I realize the great dream of my heart, to marry the breathtakingly perfect Patricia Terry? I don’t mind admitting that I was discouraged and frightened. Hesitantly I went to the local bank and asked the manager, a family friend, how much was in my account. He looked surprised and said, “Why, Jeff, it’s all in your account. Didn’t they tell you? Your parents wanted to do what little they could to help you get started when you got home. They didn’t withdraw a cent during your mission. I supposed that you knew.”
Well, I didn’t know. What I do know is that my dad, a self-educated accountant, a “bookkeeper” as they were called in our little town, with very few clients, probably never wore a new suit or a new shirt or a new pair of shoes for two years so his son could have all of those for his mission. Furthermore, what I did not know but then came to know was that my mother, who had never worked out of the home in her married life, took a job at a local department store so that my mission expenses could be met. And not one word of that was ever conveyed to me on my mission. Not a single word was said regarding any of it. How many fathers in this Church have done exactly what my father did? And how many mothers, in these difficult economic times, are still doing what my mother did?
My father has been gone for 34 years, so like President Faust, I will have to wait to fully thank him on the other side. But my sweet mother, who turns 95 next week, is happily watching this broadcast today at her home in St. George, so it’s not too late to thank her. To you, Mom and Dad, and to all the moms and dads and families and faithful people everywhere, I thank you for sacrificing for your children (and for other people’s children!), for wanting so much to give them advantages you never had, for wanting so much to give them the happiest life you could provide.
My thanks to all you wonderful members of the Church—and legions of good people not of our faith—for proving every day of your life that the pure love of Christ “never faileth.”4 No one of you is insignificant, in part because you make the gospel of Jesus Christ what it is—a living reminder of His grace and mercy, a private but powerful manifestation in small villages and large cities of the good He did and the life He gave bringing peace and salvation to other people. We are honored beyond expression to be counted one with you in such a sacred cause.
As Jesus said to the Nephites, so say I today:
“Because of your faith . . . , my joy is full.
“And when he had said these words, he wept.”5
Brothers and sisters, seeing your example, I pledge anew my determination to be better, to be more faithful—more kind and devoted, more charitable and true as our Father in Heaven is and as so many of you already are. This I pray in the name of our Great Exemplar in all things—even the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—amen.
Monday, October 4, 2010
2 notes...
Hello family,
Tell Luke to check his mail. Sorry if my emails are short. I still only have 30 minutes and I try to reply to everyone. I will reply to everyone but it might not be right away. (Sorry to blog readers but Luke will not let me share his email)
Everyone lives in bamboo huts with a tin roof or a cement house with a tin roof. I haven't had conference yet, we have it this weekend. I'm starting to get used to my area and starting to get used to the women that breast feed during lessons and church. Other then that, everything is great. It's been raining quite a bit and everything is good. Our investigator Jonalyn Reyes had her baby and we are going to put her wedding together then she will be baptized. We also have 2 baptisms coming up on the 16 of Oct.
I miss you guys and love you and give the ward and family my love.
elder h
Hey Dad this will be short ..but thanks for teaching me how to work if Ididn't know how to work I would be dying, but thank you for showing me patience too. Give the ward my love and Bishop my love. Tell Uncle Larry thanks for the advice. Before I left he said somethings to me that stuck with me and just tell him thanks.
Love you pops oh and tell Ike I said hi and there is an Elder Stradling from St Johns that knows him.
love Jared
Tell Luke to check his mail. Sorry if my emails are short. I still only have 30 minutes and I try to reply to everyone. I will reply to everyone but it might not be right away. (Sorry to blog readers but Luke will not let me share his email)
Everyone lives in bamboo huts with a tin roof or a cement house with a tin roof. I haven't had conference yet, we have it this weekend. I'm starting to get used to my area and starting to get used to the women that breast feed during lessons and church. Other then that, everything is great. It's been raining quite a bit and everything is good. Our investigator Jonalyn Reyes had her baby and we are going to put her wedding together then she will be baptized. We also have 2 baptisms coming up on the 16 of Oct.
I miss you guys and love you and give the ward and family my love.
elder h
Hey Dad this will be short ..but thanks for teaching me how to work if Ididn't know how to work I would be dying, but thank you for showing me patience too. Give the ward my love and Bishop my love. Tell Uncle Larry thanks for the advice. Before I left he said somethings to me that stuck with me and just tell him thanks.
Love you pops oh and tell Ike I said hi and there is an Elder Stradling from St Johns that knows him.
love Jared
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