12/16/13
Dear Family,
First thing:
talking to you next week. We had a
general authority come to the mission this last week and he changed our family
time back to 45 minutes. It's really
sad. We will be going to a member's home
who have two Macs, so we'll be able to FaceTime! Just set one of the iPads up with FaceTime
linked and I'll call the iPad at around 11am. The family that's having us over is way
cool. They're called the Gants. They've got 5 kids ages 2-12, and the parents
met playing for the US national Volleyball team. Their names are Jessy and Amy Gant if you
want to look them up on Facebook or anything.
I'm glad that
Cat has made friends with the SAC ladies.
They always liked me, too. The EQ
President's wife's mom is the one who says hi to Cat. They're called the Bates; Sheena and Trent Bates. Elder Nolan and I helped them move in. I really like them. Sheena makes the most delicious food. It's incredible. Her mom came to visit for like a week or two,
so we got to make the connection that she worked at Oak Canyon. She's been a SAC lady since I was there.
The band had
our last Christmas performance yesterday.
It went really well. The band is
going to be changing a lot next transfer.
We're cutting it down to just the amount of missionaries who can fit in
the mission van. It'll be fun to have a
small group again. It's just been
getting bigger and bigger ever since I got here. Did you like the new version of Hallelujah better
or the old one?
I'm very
excited that Tom's received a mission call!
Tell him congratulations for me.
Could you send me his and Nate's mission emails so I can send them an
email? That's very sad about
Marissa. I hope they figure out the
problem and she can go back out soon.
It's always a sad thing when someone who really wants to be on a mission
can't be because of something outside of their control. If you see her, give her my best.
I loved the
pictures of Cadee this week. She is the
epitome of a spoiled youngest child, haha.
I love it. It'll be fun to talk
to you all next week. I won't be
emailing on Monday, but I'll probably have access to a computer on either
Monday or Tuesday that I can check my emails on. I just won't be able to respond.
I have a ton
of mission stories this week. I'll tell
about at least two of them, and then more if I still have time.
The first
story is about Margarita. Margarita is
the best. I love her so much. We met with her at the church with Sister
Rainsley on Saturday morning to teach her about Following the Prophet. (The other missionaries were there teaching
English class, lest you think we were alone in the building with two
women). The night before we were trying
to plan what video of the Prophet or one of the apostles we were going to watch
with her, but we couldn't seem to make up our minds on any one video. After brainstorming for a while on what
Margarita needed to hear from the Prophet, we finally just gave up and decided
to figure it out in the morning. In the
morning I made some of my amazing hot chocolate for English class and we headed
off for the church, still unsure exactly how our lesson with Margarita was
going to go. We taught her about the
importance of modern prophets and apostles and told some stories about how
following the prophet has blessed our families and then it came time to watch a
video so she could start to gain a testimony of the Prophet for herself. We just typed in Thomas S Monson on LDS.org
and started looking through his recent General Conference addresses. We felt good about one called "We never
walk alone" that I didn't remember from General Conference and we started
to play it. It was from the Women's
Conference, which is why neither of us had seen it. The spirit was so strong while we watched the
video. Sister Rainsley bore her
testimony on the Prophet and it was exactly what she needed. After the lesson with her we realized that
the reason we couldn't make up our minds on what video to watch with her was
because neither of us had ever seen the video that she needed to see. I'm grateful that the Spirit directed us to
the right one.
The second
story is also about Margarita. She comes
from a Greek Orthodox background, so the infant baptism situation has been a
bit tricky. She's accepted that it's not
something that we need to do, but the reason why hadn't really sunk into her
until church yesterday. In Gospel
Principles class we were talking about baptism a little bit and she raised her
hand and explained that she was from a Greek Orthodox background and that they
baptize babies, but she said that as she had been listening to what Elder
Mitchell had said about Faith and Repentance being required for baptism it
finally made sense why we don't. She
realized that babies are pure. They have
no need to repent and can't be held responsible for their sins because they are
completely innocent. She also realized
that "Christ was baptized when he was 30.
That was a really big example to us." Revelation through church attendance is a
real thing. It's so important for our
investigators to come to church so they can have revelatory experiences that
help them progress in the gospel.
Margarita's experience yesterday really strengthened my own testimony in
church attendance. Angela also came to
church yesterday, which was great. She
had a good experience as well. Angela is
someone who I doubted for a long time.
Me and Elder Baker started teaching her, but she didn't come to church
until me and Elder Gregson were companions, and then she didn't come again
until this transfer, and she's come twice in the last 3 weeks. She's finally realized that it's something
that she needs in her life. I'm really
glad I never gave up on her. Some people
just take longer than others.
I think Elder
Nolan gave an account of the Ward Christmas party thrown by the missionaries,
but he didn't give an account of the part when Elder David and I had to go home
to get the sound system. The closet that
all of the sound equipment is in at the church was locked and we couldn't find
the key to open it, so we decided to just go home and get the one in our
flat. We got to the front door and
realized that neither of us had keys!
It's like a 25 minute bus ride to the church from the flat, and we did
not want to go back. I realized that
Elder Nolan had left the window next to his study table unlocked, so I scaled
the building and got in through the window.
If you look on Google earth at the front of our building, the window I
got in through is not the one next to the stairs, not the one to the right, but
the next one. I felt like spider
man. It was crazy. Getting the window open was the sketchiest
part. I was only standing on like a 2
inch little window seal and I had to try and force this window up from the
outside. I think I had some guardian
angels pushing with me. After I got in,
I opened the middle window for Elder David to climb in (the one by the stairs
is permanently locked). We got the sound
system in a suitcase and lifted it back out through the window, hopped out and
closed the window from the outside. We
felt like total bosses. It was a bit
unnerving how easy it was though. Nobody
called the police on us, nobody even batted an eye. We could have been anybody. I guess if you ever want to rob someone's
home, just dress up as a missionary and
nobody questions what you're doing.
Well, I'm
pretty much out of time. I forgot to
answer your question last week about the ornaments you got. Yes, those are all fairly iconic London things. I think the one you didn't recognize is a
post box, but I wasn't really sure from your description. We've been enjoying the countdown you sent,
and also the candles. They make the flat
smell really nice. Every morning we
adjust the countdown and open a present from Elder David's family. They sent a 12-days of Christmas package for
us. They also had a Christmas tree
delivered to the flat via Tesco. It's a
pretty Christmassy place in the London North flat.
I hope you
have a wonderful week! I look forward to
seeing you all on Christmas. Send me an
email if you need to update me on anything before then. I'll send some pictures in a couple of
minutes.
Love you all!
Elder Hein
2. The
amazing Hot Chocolate for English Class.
I've been told that people would pay £5 for a cup of this delicious
stuff. Maybe I'll open a lemon bar and
Hot Chocolate Shoppe someday.
3. This
poster on the side of the bus stop is the closest thing I've seen to an
internet meme in 7 1/2 months. I thought
it was pretty great.
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