Yep, we have bedbugs in our apartment. The Hermanas before us had problems with them and Hermana Rials has found quite a few bites. Elder Bee (Senior missionary) has a bedbug killer, it heats the apartment up to 150 degrees (that's the only things that kills them) but he didn't want to do that yet. He told us to vaccuum our entire apartment and the mattresses too and put all our clothes and bedding in the dryer on the highest heat. We spent the whole day doing that...I'm not so sure if it worked. We have a theory that the whole apartment complex has them and that's why we con't seem to get rid of them because Elder Bee has heated up the apartment before and it obvisously didn't work.
We've also been pretty sick so this week has been kinda slow with us being inside a lot and all. It kinda makes me really awnrey, onrey, awnery... I don't know how to spell it. Anyways, when we're indoors a lot I start getting kinda stressed and discouraged thinking about how much easier it would be to quit...but that doesn't ever last very long because we go out and start talking to people and that makes me really REALLY happy and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I LOVE IT!
We've been teaching this couple, Ana and Aldo, since November and they're awesome but they have to wait until summer to get married in Mexico. It's sad because we love them so much and know all of the blessings that they can receive. They have a daughter that's old enough to get baptized so we're going to work on that :)
Esmerelda brought a lady to church last week named Jovita, and we've started teacher her. She's in her 40's and she's learned before back in Mexico when she was 20. I LOVE IT! when we get member referrals!!!!! Marcella just turned 8 so she got baptized the Saturday, the Spirit was really strong there, we invited our investigators to come but nobody showed up :( She sang "Baptism" afterwards and the Spirit was just really strong.
Well not much to say except...no WAIT, I just thought of something! I finished the Book of Mormon this week. Yea!!!!! And then I got to ask if it was true again and guess what? It still is!!!! So now I'm starting over again, who wants to race me?
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Monday, January 31, 2011
January 24, 2011 Hace Frio?
First of all let me just say Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Because there have been so many ups and downs this week. We've had to drop some people and that's always hard. Especially when you know that you've had lessons where they've felt the spirit but they just don't want to change.
I'm really excited about this family we've been teaching for a while. They were progressing really slowly until a couple of weeks ago when they came to church. They've started reading in the Book of Mormon, Ana even reads it with her children sometimes (we read the story from the Conference talk by Sister Wixom about the family. We had their children repeat a verse. She really liked it and so she's been doing that) they haven't been to church since then but they've had some pretty good excuses. They're not married...yet. But they want to be so we're going to plan a wedding! :) Ana loves that she can have an eternal family. A couple of weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Soraida. We set up an appointment and in the middle of the lesson we found out she was a member. She hasn't been to church in a really long time and her husband isn't a member...yet. So basically it was a miracle that we found her, really though, the hand of the Lord is everywhere.
We've started teaching something called the promise pattern. We share 1 John 2:5 and talk about how we're messengers from the Lord and when they make a promise with us (to read the Book of Mormon or what ever committment we've left like coming to church, baptism) they're making it with the Lord. Our part of the promise is to come back and teach them more If they haven't kept the committment we can't teach them more because they're not ready. So we teach more about making a promise and how when they keep their promises with God they are able to have the love of God. (Like it says in 1 John 2:5) It's really cool! We were having trouble with it at first because we wanted to ask the question, It is better to make a promise and not keep it or to not make promises? I think we've got it all ironed out now.
Hermana Rials is doing great, I like training. It's just a lot of stress and pressure. But my Zone Leader Elder Poulsen said "There's not comfort in the growth zone and there's no growth in the comfort zone."
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Because there have been so many ups and downs this week. We've had to drop some people and that's always hard. Especially when you know that you've had lessons where they've felt the spirit but they just don't want to change.
I'm really excited about this family we've been teaching for a while. They were progressing really slowly until a couple of weeks ago when they came to church. They've started reading in the Book of Mormon, Ana even reads it with her children sometimes (we read the story from the Conference talk by Sister Wixom about the family. We had their children repeat a verse. She really liked it and so she's been doing that) they haven't been to church since then but they've had some pretty good excuses. They're not married...yet. But they want to be so we're going to plan a wedding! :) Ana loves that she can have an eternal family. A couple of weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Soraida. We set up an appointment and in the middle of the lesson we found out she was a member. She hasn't been to church in a really long time and her husband isn't a member...yet. So basically it was a miracle that we found her, really though, the hand of the Lord is everywhere.
We've started teaching something called the promise pattern. We share 1 John 2:5 and talk about how we're messengers from the Lord and when they make a promise with us (to read the Book of Mormon or what ever committment we've left like coming to church, baptism) they're making it with the Lord. Our part of the promise is to come back and teach them more If they haven't kept the committment we can't teach them more because they're not ready. So we teach more about making a promise and how when they keep their promises with God they are able to have the love of God. (Like it says in 1 John 2:5) It's really cool! We were having trouble with it at first because we wanted to ask the question, It is better to make a promise and not keep it or to not make promises? I think we've got it all ironed out now.
Hermana Rials is doing great, I like training. It's just a lot of stress and pressure. But my Zone Leader Elder Poulsen said "There's not comfort in the growth zone and there's no growth in the comfort zone."
Love
Hermana Hepworth
January 18,2011 I had a baby...........
Well in the mission at least, her name is Hermana Heather Rials and she's from Idaho. I was pretty nervous to be the one in charge and not have anybody to lean on when I don't understand the Spanish. But something miraculous happened....all of the sudden I can understand everybody's Spanish. It's a miracle! Her Spanish is about as good as mine was when I got out here, meaning she's got a ways to go. I like seeing the comparison and how far I've come. She'll learn though, especially in Des Moines where all we do is Spanish.
Not much to report.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Not much to report.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Where do I begin.....
It's been really busy, but alway fun.
Transferes are this week. I am staying in Des Moines and training. I'm a little scared. I feel like I just left the MTC. But I know that President Jergensen receives inspiration from the Lord so I know that is what the Lord wants me to do. Last week at church we had 0 people come to church and we were really sad because there were some that we really thought would come. This last Sunday we made pancakes at Ana and Aldo's and afterwards they followed us up to church. We had a train of cars follow us, it was awesome!!!!! So Ana and Aldo, their two kids.
Aldo's brother Ricado, and Ana's uncle Guzlavo all came to church. There was still a lot of other people that we really really wanted to come to church and didn't but still we were so excited. It turns out they already have people they know from a long time ago in our branch.
I'm amazed all of the time of the Lord's hand in this work. Like...one time we were in our car trying to decide what to do so we prayed and when we opened our eyes we saw Rosio drive up in her car. So we got out and taught her. The Hispanic people are so amazing! They will let you into their home right when they meet you. We were walking around outside and started talking to this man, Nicolas. We asked him if he'd want to learn and he told us we could teach him right then. So we followed him to his house and started teaching him and his wife. They have such an adorable famile. I LOVE it when the parents have the kids sit down to listen with us. I definately think it's something that I should do more, inviting everyone to listen. We started teaching Diavid and Jessica and she called her 3 kids to come sit down and listen and we taught them all about faith. We read in Alma 32 abnout the seed and had the kids pretend like they were growing a plant with their arm because they were "feeding" it by praying and reading the scriptures. Something else we've been doing that I think is really cool is a lot of times the parents are afraid to pray but somehow it doesn't seem as scary if they're helping their child pray.. so they've done that a couple of times. It's really cute!
Well, I love you all!!!
Hermana Hepworth
Transferes are this week. I am staying in Des Moines and training. I'm a little scared. I feel like I just left the MTC. But I know that President Jergensen receives inspiration from the Lord so I know that is what the Lord wants me to do. Last week at church we had 0 people come to church and we were really sad because there were some that we really thought would come. This last Sunday we made pancakes at Ana and Aldo's and afterwards they followed us up to church. We had a train of cars follow us, it was awesome!!!!! So Ana and Aldo, their two kids.
Aldo's brother Ricado, and Ana's uncle Guzlavo all came to church. There was still a lot of other people that we really really wanted to come to church and didn't but still we were so excited. It turns out they already have people they know from a long time ago in our branch.
I'm amazed all of the time of the Lord's hand in this work. Like...one time we were in our car trying to decide what to do so we prayed and when we opened our eyes we saw Rosio drive up in her car. So we got out and taught her. The Hispanic people are so amazing! They will let you into their home right when they meet you. We were walking around outside and started talking to this man, Nicolas. We asked him if he'd want to learn and he told us we could teach him right then. So we followed him to his house and started teaching him and his wife. They have such an adorable famile. I LOVE it when the parents have the kids sit down to listen with us. I definately think it's something that I should do more, inviting everyone to listen. We started teaching Diavid and Jessica and she called her 3 kids to come sit down and listen and we taught them all about faith. We read in Alma 32 abnout the seed and had the kids pretend like they were growing a plant with their arm because they were "feeding" it by praying and reading the scriptures. Something else we've been doing that I think is really cool is a lot of times the parents are afraid to pray but somehow it doesn't seem as scary if they're helping their child pray.. so they've done that a couple of times. It's really cute!
Well, I love you all!!!
Hermana Hepworth
Feliz Ano Nuevo sent Jan. 3, 2011
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year! We sure did. The Des Moines Zone went to the Jergensens (Mission President) to play games and it was really fun. We were allowed to stay up til 12 but we still has to wake up at 6:30, so we decided to not do that. I've got the rest of my life to stay up til midnight, for crying out loud I need my sleep!
Our weather has been really crazy here too but it's been a great blessing. On Thursday we only could use 8 miles on the car so we had to walk and use bikes to whole day...but oh it was such a beautiful day at 53 degrees. Since all the snow had melted, it was super muddy so by the end of the day, WE were really muddy. We were so glad we had our boots! We reached the New Year and have lots of miles now and the weather is TERRIBLE. Lots of wind and it makes it a million times worse, but it's okay because we're safe in the warmth of our car.
We've been teaching the COOLEST people!!! I think I told the story about how we were singing Christmas Eve and somebody came out to listen...well that somebody was Raul and he's soaking up everything we're teaching him. His dad passed away 6 months ago and he's still really sad about it. We taught him the Plan of Salvationa and the Spirit was definately strong there. We gave him an assignment and when we came back the next day he had read Alma 40 and up to Nephi 7. We're also teaching Maria and I think I've talked about here too. We found her in a random way but I know it wasn't by accident. We watched the Restoration movie with her and when we testified afterwards the Spirit was so strong again. It's so awesome, it makes me so happy just thinking about it. We are still teaching Gladis and Eder, and Eder started reading in the Book of Mormon and even bought highlighters so that he could mark the stuff that he likes. He also told us they would come to church...but we were sadly disappointed. We thought they would because church changed to 1 so they would be off work. I really felt like crying and Magdalena, a less active who said she would start coming back in the New Year...didn't come either. So many disappointments but I've learned that if there were no bad, there could be no good and we wouldn't realize how great things are if we didn't ever feel bad. So we're just gonna keep working hard to find the people who are looking for the truth.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
Our weather has been really crazy here too but it's been a great blessing. On Thursday we only could use 8 miles on the car so we had to walk and use bikes to whole day...but oh it was such a beautiful day at 53 degrees. Since all the snow had melted, it was super muddy so by the end of the day, WE were really muddy. We were so glad we had our boots! We reached the New Year and have lots of miles now and the weather is TERRIBLE. Lots of wind and it makes it a million times worse, but it's okay because we're safe in the warmth of our car.
We've been teaching the COOLEST people!!! I think I told the story about how we were singing Christmas Eve and somebody came out to listen...well that somebody was Raul and he's soaking up everything we're teaching him. His dad passed away 6 months ago and he's still really sad about it. We taught him the Plan of Salvationa and the Spirit was definately strong there. We gave him an assignment and when we came back the next day he had read Alma 40 and up to Nephi 7. We're also teaching Maria and I think I've talked about here too. We found her in a random way but I know it wasn't by accident. We watched the Restoration movie with her and when we testified afterwards the Spirit was so strong again. It's so awesome, it makes me so happy just thinking about it. We are still teaching Gladis and Eder, and Eder started reading in the Book of Mormon and even bought highlighters so that he could mark the stuff that he likes. He also told us they would come to church...but we were sadly disappointed. We thought they would because church changed to 1 so they would be off work. I really felt like crying and Magdalena, a less active who said she would start coming back in the New Year...didn't come either. So many disappointments but I've learned that if there were no bad, there could be no good and we wouldn't realize how great things are if we didn't ever feel bad. So we're just gonna keep working hard to find the people who are looking for the truth.
Love
Hermana Hepworth
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