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