Life is good. I went on vacation this week. Aka: a split with my best friend. Seriously I may finally be starting to see why people love splits so much. Missionary work was a dream. Just talking to people, learning and watching people grow. Oh it was just dandy. I learned SO much from Sister Funk and even got to sit on the thrown of an African queen. Boo yah. So what if it looked like something people milk cows on? I felt queenly. Hehe PS: I got to reunite with Sister Parker for like 10 minutes and meet her new missionary too! Oh man. Good stuff.
I. Love. The. Primary. Program. Hehe there is always that one scream singer kid or the he's-breathing-my-air kid or the too shy to talk kid or whatever the case may be. I love it. I am amazed at how much truth is in those songs though. Maybe it is just my missionary brain but the whole time I am just thinking... "Wow. They are talking about the plan of salvation or a prophet on the earth or something, nobody knows this stuff! And a bunch of little five year olds know it? Crazy." I love this gospel. We taught young women's yesterday. Can I just say how much I love young women's? Gah. It was so great. And those girls? So strong. I just want to know what's in their water or something that makes them so strong. I was so impressed. One of my goals from my mission has been to work closely with the youth specifically the young women because I feel like it would be so hard to be in high school here and yet they don't even need me. If anything they are strengthening me! Man. I'm so lucky.
Okay now this part I have just been dying to tell ya'll about. On Saturday Anthony Fiedler was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What a special special day it was! Oh man. After teaching him a couple times we decided the elders would work better with him but we still stayed friends and saw him multiple times a week. But our real connection is with Sister Fiedler, his mom. Oh boy oh boy. It gets me so happy just thinking about it. So I have told you a little bit about her already but just for a real quick background story: she was baptized in Brazil when she was little, but soon after stopped going to church because she didn't have one nearby and basically forgot everything.... But when she moved here she wanted to start coming to church again and we have been meeting with her weekly to remind her of all the things she believed earlier. It has been such a treat. Really. She gets so happy when she remembers something as simple as the way we pray or the plan of salvation or something. I could write a whole letter simply on teaching her, but we will save that for a later date. BUT I can't even tell you how excited she was about Anthony making the decision to get baptized and has been planning and organizing the whole thing for weeks. Sister and I often would joke that it seems like it was her baptism instead of Anthony's, but I really think it is just because she was just SO excited.
She asked us to sing this specific song, which basically turned into me and Sister Litster becoming composers for a week to try to make the words baptismal appropriate haha (don't worry all my girls camp cheer making days came in handy for something) but when we sang it I looked right at her and she just burst into tears. She told me later how much that song meant to her and her family and how it set the entire tone for the baptism. During the actual baptism Anthony just came up out of the water with the biggest smile and a nice air fist pump with the look of "I did it." As Sister Fiedler stood there front and center with tears in her eyes. Knowing how much this meant to her family. It was almost as if she was making that same covenant with him. She bore her testimony after and you could just feel the joy coming out of her. Oh man I wish ya'll could have been here to witness it. None of her other kids are members (yet hehe) but they all came to see this important step in Anthony's life and felt the spirit so strong. One of the brothers said, "I just have this feeling that I need to get in there too. What do I need to do?" We had taught them all earlier this week and we are hooking him up with missionaries in his area! And then the daughter and her husband already know members from work and they are from TEXAS. Seriously what is with all these connections to Texas? Hehe I love it. And came to church yesterday! Oh man. This family is going to be eternal in no time. It just makes me so so so so so so happy. There is no way this isn't true. People can feel that! Sister Fiedler just kept saying thank you thank you thank you over and over again and gave us about 10 billion hugs but really and truly it wasn't us at all. At all. I don't think we did a single thing.
Really. Anything I do I just can feel Heavenly Father showering down 75747465748373 more things. Try to teach the young women. They end up teaching us. Try to develop a relationship with the primary kids. They bring you candy and pictures. Try to teach people about the gospel. Have more joy than you could have ever imagined. I feel like I don't even do anything! They just all help and strengthen me and I just have to step back in awe at how amazing Heavenly Father's plan is.
Golly I'm the luckiest human being.
Xoxoxo
s. heywood
Future eternal family. Eep. So much joy.
Sister Funk. My hero. And pretty Germany.
Young Women's. I love them.
Just a little rearranging.... Don't mind us.
Sneak peek at our Christmas card. Who knew that candy cane antlers were such a good conversation starter?
