Longest. Week. Ever

Well... this week was really long. Last Monday we had a REALLY great Noche de hogar with la familia Ibañez. They are literally my family here. Their son Lisandro is like the little 17 year old brother I never wanted. But I love him still. And they have a daughter named Juli who is 6 and she is to die for. They havent been going to church for a few months and they just say its because they are so lazy. They just dont feel like going. And Im here like... uh well thats too dang bad!.. So we talk about Time. We decided the Endure to the End message is a message that has just been used too much with them so we talked about Time. LIke our Time on Earth. We used the talk that was in the Liahona about the Four minutes or something like that. And we talked about how little of a moment this life is. and depending on what happens here, is what happens after. And there is A LOT after. It was really good. We were able to talk about how important it is to go to the temple and how important a mission has been to the both of us. We were both given the opportunity to share our testimonies about our missions and that was just a mess. Yeah. bawled. But all in all it went really well. So on Sunday Bishop announced at church that saturday is a service project and its big and we all have to be at the church at 7 in the morning. Bring your machetes and all that jazz. So we looked at eachother and we are like, SCORE. So Saturday rolls around... very... slowly... We wake up at 5 30 so we could get up and get to the church on time and NO ONE IS THERE. but.... VICTOR!! Our convert! He is so sweet. we got there and waited, and waited, and waited until 8 30. And no one showed up. We called the Bishop and he told us to go over to his house. Went over there, no one was there either. So we all went and hung out with Bishops family and we played Signs. So fun. Then its like 10 and the members start showing up... Awesome. And we cleaned out this soccer field in front of Bishops house. I used a machete for like 3 seconds and then the elders took it out of my hands. Whatever. I showed them up in that 3 seconds for sure. Machete skills. That night we went to another baptism with Karen! She is really excited and went to church on Sunday! So we are all getting really excited for her baptism. She is the best. Sunday we went to visit the family Molinas. Hermana Molinas hasnt been to church since I have been here. But she is one of the strongest people I know. She has all of these trials in her life and such a great testimony. But instead of clinging to the church during these hard times, shes falling away. Its so sad to see. We sat and talked to her and she just told us she feels so empty. She feels nothing. The greatness and spiritual feelings she used to feel arent there anymore. And its like no one cares. She hasnt had anyone visit her, or message her or anything these months and shes hurt. She said that we are the only ones who visit her and that isnt the way it should be. I just sat there and looked at her and told her she was right. I didnt have anything else to say. And its just so true. Pte Hinckley said that there is no point of missionary work if we cant hold on to those fruits. It just helped me gain so much of a testimony of home teaching and visiting teaching. These are our brothers and sisters here who struggle like we do. They need our help. I have the biggest goal to be such a good visiting teacher. Goal for life.. Holler. Well That has been our week and we are soooo tired.. I love you all and I will talk to you next week! Love Hermana Healey

"How About Someone Who Is About to Die?"

Right? My companion cracks me up… Explanation later... What a week!! And what a day! We went out on adventures this morning so we just barely got to the cyber. I don’t have a lot of time but Pte Franco said we can finish up our time tomorrow, so all you listeners at home, just wait, all you missionaries... well... doesn’t really matter because you still gotta wait! Last Tuesday we saw Karen!!! Finally! We had been looking for her for a while and we were getting really nervous. But turns out that she went off to the house of her grandpa for the weekend for her birthday! But we were able to teach her, AND talk to her mom about baptism!!! We wanted to let them know that we mean business, so we brought the form that the mom has to sign and she was super excited to do it!!!! That’s right. She will definitely get baptized on the 20th or the 27th, she hasn’t really decided. Also, custom here is to say hello its two kisses on the cheek. Girls. boys, grandparents, children. Everyone. Obvio as missionaries we just shake hands with the males. AND for the longest time I was so good at shoving my hand in their face and saying "Sorry we just shake hands!!" Until today. I was trapped and I think the kid was deaf and he said hello the friendly way that they do and by the time it was over I didn’t even know what happened. That’s right. Kissed on cheek. I basically screamed. Awkward. Wednesday we went to see our sweet Victor and in El Camino we run into a few members, I don’t know if I have ever said anything about them before but they are recent converts, she is 19, her husband is in his 60's, two kids. Yeah. It’s the truth. It’s actual. But now they live in our area!!! In a MANSION. Really the house is sooo old and out in the middle of nowhere. But they are super duper nice and welcomed us in and gave us a tour of their new place. And in their room there is a piano from 1915!!! It was so broken and had cobwebs and everything but still so beautiful. They had their clothes all over it and I asked them if I could fold their clothes just so they didn’t cover up the beauty. People these days, marrying their grandpas friends and covering beautiful pianos…I’m not judging I’m really not, it’s just rather interesting. But they have a really great testimony of the church already! And invited us over to have asado…that’s like BBQ, I think. Thursday!! We were just walking around and we wanted to talk to this girl outside who was washing her clothes... we talked to another woman outside washing her clothes too this day… I think it was like a trend or something.. And we started teaching her, her name is Raquel. We start with a prayer, right after the prayer the lady who was on the other side of the fence leaned over and said "When you’re done over there will you bring the word of God over here?" With pleasure. It was so cool! So we taught Raquel... not really interested and then went over and met Lidia (little old grandma) Juan her son and his wife Benita. So great! They say Amen after everything we say and love us so much. It was super cool I thought that we found them through Raquel. Friday we went and taught Rodrigo’s grandparents. They are just the sweetest old people ever. Francisco (grandpa) has read the Book of Mormon, goes to church, has the strongest testimony I have heard on my mission-seriously-but they are not baptized. Francisco and Edmunda are not married. They have waited for so long for Edmunda to get citizenship here or something and she just hasn’t been able to get it. They want to get married so that they can be baptized so bad and it kills me that this is the thing holding them back. They, when I got here, were living in a shack held up by sticks and tarps. And now, after 15 years of waiting, finally got permission to make their house. They are now in a cute house that Rodrigo’s dad is making for them with four walls, a door, a window, and a roof. They are so happy. We keep talking Francisco to paint his house a nice pink but he says it won’t go with his skin tone…Please. Saturday!!! We went to see a baptism from the elders area!! And Karen came with us!! She is so excited for her own that she wanted to see how one is. So we were able to go and she was just so excited. There was a poor little girl who didn’t want to get into the water, and everyone was really nervous. ALL THE ELDERS WERE TRYING TO HELP. Finally Karen looked at us and said "We should say a prayer"... Uh... yeah... I was... just... thinking that...as... well. NOT. Karen rocks! So we all closed our eyes and said a prayer and when we opened our eyes the little girl was in the water!! Still scared but she did it! We left and Karen was STOKED! Prayer is SOOOO powerful. And I was just super happy that Karen was able to see that today. Also we saw a less active and this was our conversation. Me: Hermana, do you have a friend who lives around here that we can share this message with? Camilla: No. H Atkinson: someone who just moved in?? Camila: No Me: a Neighbor?? Camila: no. H Atkinson: How about someone who is about to die? .... bahahahhahahaha we all just started laughing. Still a good question but wrong time. haha Sunday.. I bore my testimony because I’m pretty sure it was my last fast and testimony meeting.. I think they do fast and testimony the week after conference. We do it the week before right..? I don’t really know. I didn’t want to take the chance so I planned on doing it anyways. But the meeting was so spiritual and powerful. One of the most powerful testimony meetings I have been too. Almost everyone was in tears and we all felt the spirit really strong. Karen came with us!!! And Raquel came to church too! When I got up from the piano and headed over to the pulpit I heard Lulu scream, I look over and she was pointing at me, so I pointed back. Oh yeah! Shout out to the Lulu. That’s about it. My week was really laid back. We are doing everything we can to get Karen ready for her baptism. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. She really is the sweetest girl here and we can’t wait for her special day!! We went to this arcade/theater thing and the theater was closed!!! I put my face up to the gate and begged to enter. So close. Also super sad note for the ride. I had a flash drive that I put all my videos and all my photos on from basically all my mission, and well yeah, it’s not anywhere. So I’m super bummed. Luckily I have some pictures still from other camera cards. But yeah, I’m still praying I find it. Weeks are flying and it will definitely not be easy to leave this place. I’m super happy here and I love being a missionary. Really is something that I don’t want to give up. I’m giving my all and hoping it’s enough! Thank you all for your love and prayers. Love Hermana Healey

"¿Porque las caras largas?"‏

Yeah that is what the shrunken head in Spanish says on the night bus for "Hey guys, why the long faces?" I saw that part the other day and died laughing; then had to get up the courage to ask them to turn it off, even though I love that movie so much. I’m still here in Formosa!!! It’s super great that I’m going to "die" here. I love it so much. It’s cool because Hermana Allred was "born" here and now I’m "dying" here. Like "mother" like "daughter". They transferred Hermana Lopez into the city city. Resistencia. It’s sad but really good because she is out where there are a lot more doctors and more city then campo. She was really sad to leave but I know she will be great where she is. My new companion is HERMANA ATKINSON!!!! She is from Lehi Utah and is a boss! She is so great and we are having so much fun already! So on Wednesday we had to go and drop off Hermana Lopez, Hermana Bonilla and Hermana Lloyd off at the terminal and wait for our companions who were coming 5 hours later all together. SO! Hermana Howard, Hermana Pipe and I strolled around downtown and well actually we did errands for the elders because they all wanted food, But it felt super weird because I just felt like I was walking around with friends at home. It felt so normal but weird all at the same time. We had tons of fun. I was taking her around and showing her all of the area and meeting everyone and we only found Ale. So we sat down and talked about the Book of Mormon again. He kept getting distracted, like always but then we asked him what means "otro testamento de jesucristo" and he was like, well it means that it’s a book filled with testimonies of Christ. MIND BLOWN. It was the cutest answer ever but really! That is what it is! What does the book of Mormon do? It testifies of Christ. It is filled with prophets testifying of Christ. I love that he said that. We went and Hermana Melton (Pipes companion) just said “the gospel makes us more pretty” just so you all know, I’m dying in the cyber right now... anyways... Saw Raquel and Carolina! And they didn’t have power because they couldn’t pay the bill in time, and we taught them, outside in the dark. But it was so awesome because it was the first time we actually have taught Carolina and everything that we said made sense to her. She just looked at us like "where have you been all my life" and we looked at her like, "COME TO CHURCH" But she had so many questions about baptism so we explained to her why babies don’t need baptism. She loved it. She loves that we actually believe that babies are pure and perfect. Because duh. They are. But it was really spiritual, even though I was using the flashlight on our cell phone to read from the scriptures. Then on SUNDAY there was a fetching STORM! All of our investigators fell through. We got to the church soaking wet because it was a huge storm. NO ONE WOULD LEAVE THEIR HOUSE. Literally there was like 60 people at church. And Victor was one of them! He is doing so good and he loves church so much. He participates and everything! I love him. Well I’m super super happy to be here with Hermana Atkinson! We are so happy to be able to work and find new people!! I’m super happy! Everything is good! Hope you all have a great week! Love Hermana Healey

"What Should I Name This Email?"

Is what I asked Hermana Howard…Her reply? "Hermana Howard" hahahaha Love her. What the longest week ever?! Here is what went down… Tuesday we got a call and Hermana Lopez needed to go to Corrientes to do more work for her tramites. ALL DAY IN A BUS=sucks. Really it was about 4 hours there and 4 hours back. Thursday was the birthday of Hermana Lopez!!! It took a lot of work to do surprises for her without her knowing but it all worked! We woke her up this morning singing to her and we had a card made from all of the missionaries in the zone. Then we decorated the apartment and Hermana Pipe and Hermana Lloyd made her a cake because our oven is broken and she would have smelled it of course if we made it at home. They are angels. We were able to see a lot of people today! She got hugged by Ale and she freaked out. haha It was really funny to see her first illegal hug. haha Well this week we have been looking for a lot of new investigators... because we have none basically. We have been visiting this girl named Karen for a few weeks but she hasn’t come to church. She does every other commitment but that so we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to keep visiting her. SOO…we did a "You either come with us or we gotta start seeing other people type talk" Like a Define the Relationship type of deal. ha And we talked to her mom! So we were really nervous but it turned out really good! And she went with us to church on Sunday and now we are teaching the mom!!! It was our first full week of working again so the littlest things are really exciting. ALSO! We went to see Hermana Raquel today, and her cousin Carolina lives with her right now with her boyfriend (great). Everyone lives at that house, but Carolina is really... sassy. I am all for sassy, but don’t be sassy to me. But she ALWAYS is. One time with Hermana Bedoya she confronted us because she doesn’t like us because we get paid for what we do... News to me! I’M POOR! So we explained to her it was something that we choose to do, we choose to serve God. That shut her up real quick. And then she never really said much to us since... UNTIL THIS WEEK. We were sharing a scripture with Raquel and Carolina came in. She asked us to forgive her for how she has been to us and she wants to go to church! She says that she LOVES that our church focuses on the family so much that we dedicate a NIGHT at least one night of the week for the family. SO TRUE! We are going to start with the lesson one tomorrow night and we are THRILLED! We had a really good week and it has been so good to work again! I love it. Tomorrow we find out if there are changes. I’m praying to stay. But we will see. I will go where He wants me to go. Have a wonderful week! I love you all. Love Hermana Healey P.s. Made my "trunky agenda" or my last planner, It’s good. I’ll send pictures soon. ha It’s a big deal okay.

HOUSEKEEPING!! rooooooarrrr!! I'll come back Later!

Update on my compi... Well she was good! We went out on Tuesday! And then we got a call from Elder Fiabane that we had to take a trip on Wednesday to Resistencia to do some document stuff for Hermana Lopez, so we went and she got bit by a mosquito on the bus. It didn’t start bothering her until Thursday, then on Friday we went by and the doctor told her the same thing, bed rest until Tuesday and the pills that put her to sleep. President Franco wanted us to go for a second opinion and boy, the second doctor was INSANE. Long story short we just thought it was best to go with the first lady. But then on Sunday after church we get home, and Hermana Lopez stayed with a member. She slept the whole time but when she woke up she didn’t feel good, she was dizzy and her throat hurt and all this weird stuff. We went to the emergency room again! And she has STREP throat. Know it well I do. So now she is on antibiotics and yeah. She is still in bed. ha On Thursday was multizona!! I saw Hermana Lund! And Hermana Bedoya! They both are doing so good. It was so much fun to see them. We learned so much. President talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and the importance of working with the recent converts and less actives. We also talked about the importance of sharing the gospel. We watched one of the videos from LDS.org, it’s like "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" or something, but it was about the family who starts their day out together and then they share the gospel throughout their day! And then they ended their night with a prayer. Heavenly Father is our father, he wants to give us the things we want in this life. So if we ask for an opportunity to share the gospel, an opportunity is what he will give us. My beautiful family and friends! Pray for that. It will come, and you will be so blessed for it. On Saturday I did divisiones with Hermana Lloyd so I could go see a few people in the area for Sunday. We went and saw Victor, it was so sweet. He told us about an experience that he had, how he made a mistake and asked Joseph Smith for forgiveness. Ha We both changed our plans of teaching the Book of Mormon again and decided to talk about the Gospel of Christ and repentance. We talked with him about how we can only receive forgiveness from God because he is the only one we worship. It was great because he truly was looking for peace again. I was telling him about a pain that he had when he drank and it gave him a really bad headache how that will always be a remembrance that he shouldn’t do it again and he said "What hurt most was the pain I had in my heart for disobeying God" Well there you go! He is so amazing. He really has been converted. He knows how to repent.... well now, that he doesn’t pray to Joseph Smith again. ha Walking back to the pension Lloyd and I went through with all of the Harry Potter books.. Well up to the third one. But it was soooooo funny! Harry Potter really is the best. Well I am pushing through! We are finding ways to work! Transfers are not this week but next week. So we will see what is going on. But thank you for your love and your prayers, they have strengthened me so much this week! Have a great week! Love Hermana Healey

Shall I Falter or Shall I Finish??

Well I’m not gonna lie, this week was a tough one. But there is no doubt that I grew a lot this week and my testimony has soared. Because a lot of it happened with personal stuff with some missionaries I won’t go into detail, but how I felt is what I will share. Remember how I told you my poor companion is allergic to all things? Jk (not all things but pretty much any insect) well yeah, we went to the doctor, they gave her a shot, and then the shot reacted weird and it went red. Awesome! Another trip to the emergency room. So we went on Wednesday super early in the morning so that she could see a specialist and they basically told her they have no idea what happened but pop these pills that make you sleep until Monday and oh yeah, don’t leave your bed. Excuse me? It’s Wednesday. So we both kinda look at each other like... life sucks. But when I got home I got to work. I called Pipe and Lloyd and scheduled to work with them in divisiones every day for at least two hours, I didn’t want to have their area suffer, I called Bonilla and Howard and scheduled them in. And then called all of the members I could think of. Rocio and Guadalupe were so willing to work 3 days with me! I was so grateful. I refused to stay at home. Basically every day I had a new companion every 2 hours. It was really fun, and I loved it because I was able to leave and still try to save the area that is slowly being destroyed because we haven’t been able to work lately. But we were able to visit with Victor, Raquel, Belen and Ale, Rodrigo and Leonela most of the time. I figured if I could see them every day I would be set. Thursday night was the big blow up. Basically everything went wrong. But I hit a point where we had a problem, a problem that I couldn’t fix. So I didn’t know what to do, called my zone leaders, they didn’t know how to help me either, neither did the Hermanas, and then I just lost it. Now that I look back I think I really freaked out my district leader because he passed me on to one of the assistants. I broke down even more, ha ha! But then, I got a phone call from Presidente Franco. I was sitting downstairs in our front room, on the floor, Hermana Howard was there with her arm around me and I heard Presidente say "Hermana Healey, How are you?" More breakdown. I just let it out. Everything I had I just told him all that I was feeling. I don’t know how to explain the peace I felt though when I heard Presidente talking to me. It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father was aware of me in that moment. That I was faced with a situation I couldn’t fix on my own. And I know that in that phone call, Heavenly Father reached out to me through one of his humble servants. I know that our prayers are heard. I know that they are answered. I know that every trial and every test that we go through day to day is to help us grow, and help us be better. I know that that night I felt the love that my Savior has for me. And I knew everything would be okay. I’m super great now. Don’t be thinking I went all wacko depressed. Presidente and I talked and we found a solution that will help us all! He really is a man called of God for us and this mission. There is no doubt in my mind of how guided he is by the spirit. That really was my week. I worked a little, with the luck of my lovely Hermanas and the Hermanas in the ward. And I’m ready to have a good week this week! We went to the hospital this morning at like 7 and Hermana Lopez is good to go! She can work this week! We are hitting the pavement. Yesterday was my daddy’s birthday! I hope you had a really good day daddy and that you were spoiled rotten! I saw the Christmas Harley Davidson stuff you got so I’m sure you are ready for the holiday season just as much as I am! Also I reached 16 months in the mission yesterday! Guada and Rocio made a cake! It reminds me of Dr. Seuss. It was DELICIOUS. So, to answer the question. You better believe I will finish. Thank you for all of your love and support! Have a wonderful week! Love Hermana Healey

"...Was that ENGLISH?"

Monday: Obvio we had a pretty great P day. We ran all around town looking for a place that would use my companions credit card.. Yeah it doesn’t work here. So that was sad, but this week we have money! Yeah first of the month! Then we had a Noche de Hogar with the familia Molina. Hermana Molina is SO strong. She has a lot of trials in her life but she still strives to keep a Christlike home. The past 2 months she hasn’t been coming to church so we have been really worried about her. We went over to do a Noche de Hogar and the first thing she said to me was "Do you know how to give massages? All the North Americans know how to.." Uh…False.” But I gave it a try. We then talked with them about Enduring to the End. It was a perfect lesson perfectly led by the spirit. Hermana Molina said it was something that she really needed, her battery was dying and she needed a recharge. She came to church on Sunday! Tuesday and Wednesday... no idea... Thursday: What’s up! My companion has an allergy to EVERY BUG IN THE ENTIRE PLANET. And even though she put that in all caps in her mission papers, she got sent to the Mosquito capital of the world. She got bit by ONE mosquito right when she got here and her legs are just done for. She has marks all over her legs and they are swollen, I can’t even imagine what will happen in summer when I got bit 100 times on one leg. Serious problem. So Thursday we had her try and take some Benedryl.. That was a bad idea to take before weekly planning. There was a moment where I was talking about a recent convert and I asked her a question, looked up, her head was on the desk and she was OUT. So funny. I just woke her up and put her to bed. Hermana Howard’s companion also was sick so we were blessed and got to do DIVISIONES!!! Highlight of my week right there. It was so hot today!! We literally ran back and forth from her area to my area meeting new people and visiting our investigators. It felt like summer was back and we were not happy about it! We met a TON of new people in her area and then we went to my area to visit Victor! We taught with a lot of unity and it was really great to be teaching from her. She teaches so great and I learned a lot from her. She also helped SSOOO much in a Noche de Hogar we had with Rodrigo and his family. Rodrigo is the only member in his family and his parents are so loving and make us bread all the time. But his brother is another story. There was one moment where he wanted to fight with us about something stupid and HIS PARENTS stuck up for us! It was really great. We literally went up the stairs in our pension, walked into the room where our companions were and crashed on the floor for a good 10 minutes before we planned for the next day, and crawled into our beds. It was a good long day. Also some boys said "hey Mormons" in English. That was bomb. Friday: Victor had his interview for his baptism!!! He was so nervous. And got all dressed up to meet with the Elders! He is so great. They said he passed and that he was ready for the big day! He thanked us all for helping him change his life and feel more close to his Savior. The best part is that we have seen his change! We have seen him learn more and more and that really is what makes everything so worth it. Saturday: THE BIG DAY!!! He showed up early so that we could teach him one last time before he is a member of the church! We talked about baptism and what we promise to do and how it is something that we continue to do for the rest of our lives. And then it happened! The bishop baptized him and he came out of the water thanking everyone. It was so beautiful! Sunday: He payed tithing!!! And was confirmed! It was so great. Hermana Lopez was explaining about fast offerings and he said, "Yeah I just handed mine to the bishop!" WHAT?! GOLD. He really is one of those people who learns and changes. We are so excited for him to receive the priesthood. We will be talking about that a lot this week and he will receive it hopefully this Sunday! My week was good! We are hopefully going to find out something that is going to help my little compy. I hope she feels better soon. Please keep her in your prayers! Love Hermana Healey