Week #45 Letter

Herro!

This was a pretty good week. We had exchanges, Zone Training Meeting,
the 4th of July last Monday, etc. We had a pretty full week so here is
how it went:

7-4-16
"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join
others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest
aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should
have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our
petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests.
Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once
again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or
persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to
live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no
longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world
declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We
will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going
to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!" Sorry for the
long quote but you have to quote the entire thing if you are going to
quote part of it. Happy 4th of July everyone! Today did not go
according to plan. We planned to do studies, then go to the church to
meet with the Spanish elders and then went to Costco only to find out
that it was closed. So we ate lunch at Taco Bell and went home to
email. After preparation day, we went knocking by Wavecrest and didn't
talk to too many people but saw a lot of fire works and as I am
writing this journal right now, there is a lot of fireworks
continually going off. But hey, I'm used to missing out on things by
now. After knocking, we contacted by the church till the end of the
night and took Elders Messenger and Roland home and then wen those to
find the other Spanish elders at our place still doing laundry.
Apparently they didn't get there until really late so they were
contacting by our home and changing their loads all night. Feel bad
for them as they didn't get to do a whole lot of missionary work and
the bus schedule changed their day dramatically. So we took them home
and then came back.
7-5-16
"Happy birthday dear mom!" So it was a little different today. We had
an hour of personal study and then went to service for the morning. We
went to a new location located close to our home and it was in the
beginning phase still so we did demolition. Took out a lot of boards
that rotted away and tried to save some of them by taking the nails
out and chucking the nails. Afterwards, we went to subway for lunch
and then went home, cleaned up and did 12 week for a bit. Then went to
Richmond Hill for exchanges with the zone leaders. I'm with elder
Selfaison. We went finding for the night. Ate dinner at Burger King
though:) and went to their apartment and called it a night.
7-6-16
"When this baby hits 88 miles an hour..." It was a fun day. We had the
exchanges with the zone leaders and we had studies and then wen to eat
lunch at the church. We got some Chinese food and our service
cancelled because it was so hot so Elder Selfaison and I made cards
all afternoon. When exchanges were over, we had a review and then we
were off. We went and picked up elder Messenger and Roland to go to
the church and do the quarterly report. We got pizza while there for
dinner. Afterwards, we went contacting around the neighborhoods and
talked to a lot of people and taught a lesson too:) Finally taught a
lesson. Then went home. Our apartment was 84 when we walked in. So hot
still. Almost an hour later after turning on the ac and it is 82 so
far.
7-7-16
"You must be swift as a coursing river... And mysterious as the dark
side of the moon." Not a very productive day but that happens. We had
our studies this morning and had district meeting afterwards. That was
fun and then we had Halal for the first time with Elder Johnson and he
loved it:) Thought he would. Then tried to do our weekly planning for
a bit but after an hour, got distracted by the other elders. Then we
weren't hungry so we just stayed at the church during that time and
talked with the other elders then went knocking. Weren't able to teach
any lessons but got some seeds planted. Then visited some members but
not home so we went to visit the Forbes and we ended up teaching Cruz.
Good lesson.
7-8-16
"I'm a sailor, I like to sail! Look at me, I'm a sailor!" Boring day
today. We had studies and then lunch. Did our weekly planning and then
left for Zone Training Meeting. ZTM was at 2 pm... That took up all of
our day and we got back to our area by 6 and then went knocking. We
talked to a few people but talked to this sort of basher guy for 45
min. He was going off about how we are doing the dirty work for the
church to get money and how he feels bad for us so he always talks to
missionaries and tells them what a dangerous place they are in and
should go somewhere else. That was the basics of how that conversation
went and at the end, he asked to take a selfie with us. So we did and
here it is:



Interesting guy but the most part of it is that he respects us for what we do but feels bad we are doing the dirty work for the church. Then we went to see Sister Siddoway but as we knocked on her door, we said hello to her next door neighbor and started talking. He was waiting for a jump from his friend so we said we could jump his car so we proceeded to jump his car for the next half hour and talked with him for a few minutes about the church. He was very interested and said we could come by anytime and he wanted to come to church Sunday. That took up all our time we had so we said we will go by tomorrow to see sister Siddoway and headed home. 
7-9-16
"Gus, don't be a gooy, chocolate chip cookie." We actually did missionary work today! Sort of. We had the studies and lunch, normal morning and then went to go to some lessons but none of them happened and we went to the church to make some calls and finish the quarterly report and found the computer locked. So I had to call a member to come and type in the password and then change the settings so we can use it and had to call him again to come back and type in his password to change the password. That was a mess, but I got the computer to work and finished the quarterly report. Went and visited some potentials and referrals but no one was home. Had dinner and went knocking for a bit but no one was answering so we decided to contact by the church for a while. Then went to see sister Siddoway and had a lesson with her. She said her entire family is coming to church tomorrow! 
7-10-16
"Hello from the other side! We must have knocked a thousand times to tell you about our beliefs." This was a good day. Worked hard and saw the blessings. We had church early and the computer was messed up this past week as they were being upgraded to Windows 10 and we lost the files on the computer so I had to make a modified program really quick for sacrament today. Then had sacrament meeting and helped teach a Sunday school lesson to the youth and then taught the young men during 3rd hour on the spot. Did tithing and then went home and ate lunch. Took the sacrament to Sister Harvey and went home and did studies. Had dinner and went knocking. We had a goal of teaching 2 other lessons and planting 33 seeds. We taught 2 lessons and planted 40 seeds:) We just walked around Inwood and knocked and talked with anyone we saw and was able to do that:) Super fun and time flew by so fast. We went to the church to plant some seeds and ended up meeting this pastor and the Spanish elders show up and take over and ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon. That was cool to see him be willing to listen and super nice and genuine about it. Then headed home after that:) Great day. 

So we still don't have a teaching pool. Our investigators are out of town or we haven't been able to contact them. Very frustrating but that is probably what the summer is like usually for missionary work. So we were doing a lot of finding and teaching doorstep lessons. But it was a good week with Elder Johnson. He is a great elder and has come a long ways already. 

Love you all and miss you. I will see you in the next email, bu-Bye! 

-Elder Heaton