Welcome to Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina!

Querido Familia,

Como le va?  How's it going?!  I am officially in ARGENTINA!!  (...comodoro rivadavia to be exact...)  I'll be honest, the getting here was long and extremely tiring, but it was worth it!!  So, as you know, we flew from SLC to Dallas to Buenos Aires (24 hours of travel) then we got on a bus and drove to the area office in Buenos Aires for a quick information devotional...mostly visa stuff.  Then we ate some lunch, went back to the airport and waited for our flight to comodoro which left at 6:55PM.  About 2.5 hours later we landed in comodoro and then took a shuttle to one of the senior couples home (the Carters) and had some Argentine sandwiches.  Yum.  Then, because not all the Hermanas could fit in their home for the next two days, Hermana Kuhn and I went with President and Sister Rogers back to the mission home.  The Rogers were on our flight to comodoro.  They were coming back from a mission presidents seminar.  They are wonderful!  It was so fun talking to them last night.  Unfortunately, by the time we left the Carter's home it was after 11:00PM and when we got to the mission home it was nearly 11:20PM.  Only one shower in the home meant we didn't get to bed until 1:00AM.  I'll be honest, 6:30AM came really early!

Anyway, today (Friday) we are doing some training with all the new missionaries, and then I think tomorrow we'll meet our companions and head to our areas.

So, first impressions of Argentina?  18 months is going to go WAY too fast.  It reminds me a lot of Costa Rica.  Driving is a little bit nuts...stop signs are more of a suggestion, and lanes are pretty much nonexistent.  SO MANY DOGS!  Also a few cats. The dogs are so cute :)   The people are really friendly.  All the Hermanas give kisses on the cheek.  Everyone is polite and the kids are so cute.  We drove past the Buenos Aires Temple yesterday.  BEAUTIFUL.  I wish we could go!!!  Soccer is everywhere!  It's gonna be so cool to be down here during the World Cup!  Everything I see reminds me I'm in South America.  (...well except for Walmart & McDonalds...)  The mission home is pretty close to the coast, so we got to see the ocean.  It's not humid down where we are...and oh man are we down.  On our flight from Dallas to Buenos Aires we each had TV's in front of our chair and I watched the flight path as we slowly flew over Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, LIMA (I thought about Corbin:)), Chile, and then finally Argentina.  Basically we flew straight down for 10ish hours.  Then we flew another two and I couldn't help but think that I had been lied to my whole life...I was sure we were going to fly right off the end of the earth.  When I finally accepted that we wouldn't, the next thought to come into my mind as I was stepping off the plane was that I am UPSIDE-DOWN.  Weird.  I am at the bottom of the earth...and did I mention UPSIDE DOWN?!  Woah.  As we were flying from Buenos Aires (a big city) all signs of civilization slowly started to disappear...that's when I realized how far down we were going.  The sunset was beautiful from the plane though.  There was a deep dark red line across the horizon, and then it slowly got lighter higher up.  AHH!  I'm so excited to be here!  Like I said, 18 months is going to go by way too fast...I can just tell.  The castellano is different to listen to...but not as bad as I thought.  It's the "vos" form that's throwing me off.  When Hermano Rios told us that the "tu" form doesn't exist in Argentina, it was like that time in Algebra 2 where I learned about the unit circle exactly ten minutes before the test.  Good times.  I'll get it though!

Welp, I hope you're all doing well!  I was sad when the phone battery died yesterday, but it was so good talking to you!  I love you sooo much.  Thank you for your support and prayers.

I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND ALWAYS!!

Hermana Heath

Hermana Heath with President and Sister Rogers

 

New Comodoro Rivadavia missionaries

Week 5 - MTC - VIVA ARGENTINA!!

Querida Familia,

I can't believe that I've only got 6 days left in the MTC! ...just in case you missed that...6 DAYS!! Where have the last 5 weeks gone? I haven't got a clue. I was laying...(lying? haha...who knows) in bed last night trying to figure out how I've been here for 5 full weeks and I just couldn't figure it out. It's crazy how quickly time flies. I'm so excited and grateful to be heading directly to Argentina, but I'm sad to leave the MTC. I have loved every second of my time here and I will miss the friends and teachers that I've come to love. I won't ever have an MTC experience like this one again, but I can't WAIT to go to Argentina!

Soooo....originally my entire district (with the exception of Hermana Kuhn and me) were going to leave on the 21st really early, but they changed all Argentina missionaries to the 23rd so we'll all leave the same day. My flight leaves Salt Lake at 12:30PM and we land in Dallas at 4:30. We have a three hour layover and then we connect to BUENOS AIRES!!! Our flight leaves at 7:30PM and we arrive in Argentina at 7:55AM. Now, originally I thought a twelve hour flight, right? Wrong. We land at 7:55AM Argentina time..so it's more like a 15 hour flight I believe. Remember how I hate flying? Ya...I'm gonna die. That's sooo long. But, if it gets me to Argentina, I won't complain toooo much:) Anyway, we're starting to pack up some things today...CRAZY!

So, last Thursday we went to the temple which was incredible as always. I'm gonna miss going to the temple each week for sure. We had dinner and then personal gym time. It's funny because we can't listen to music really here at the MTC, so the gyms have TV's and they play Mormon messages, conference talks, and sometimes church movies. Anyway, I got to listen to Elder Holland's talk, "None Were With Him." Great talk. Then we had language study time. My companions and I decided we wanted to listen to the Priesthood Session of Conference, so we got onto LDS.org and listened to a few of the talks in Spanish. I was very pleasantly surprised when I understood what was going on. I really liked Elder L. Tom Perry's talk about the Articles of Faith. I thought it was really powerful, plus it brought back so many memories of memorizing the Articles of Faith as a family all those years ago:) That night we had to clean our classroom, and Elder Jo (bless his heart), who is an only child and has never used a vacuum in his life (literally), was on vacuum duty. I'll say, it was absolutely hilarious. It took him a solid five minutes to get it plugged in...no joke. (we all stood by and watching innocently while trying to suppress our laughter) Then, when he finally got the vacuum turned on and going, he broke it. Those of us watching (so all nine of us) couldn't hold the laughter in anymore. It was absolutely hilarious. Once we fixed the problem, he continued to vacuum and eventually finished the job. Good times.

Friday was one of my favorite days at the MTC, why? Because our travel plans came. We all waited anxiously that morning throughout breakfast, personal study, TALL, gym, and lunch. When we finally checked the mail together as a district, we all squealed (the Elders included) when we saw the big stack of papers that could only be travel plans. We all quickly scanned through and were jumping for joy when we all got travel visa's to Argentina. So exciting. All the missionaries around us were looking at us like we were crazy, but they had no idea what was going on. We were too excited to care. Then we had language study which I have to admit was not the most effective study time we've had as a district. Our minds were in Argentina and with the people there that we've been preparing ourselves for.

Saturday was a long day. We had class with Hermano Waddoups in the morning which is always hard, but Hermano Waddoups is amazing. He is always so fun and energetic and we laugh so much when he's in class with us, but he also knows how to bring the Spirit so powerfully when he bears testimony. I love it. I'm gonna miss my teachers here at the MTC. Hermano Martinez and Hermano Waddoups will always have a very special place in my heart. I can't even begin to describe how incredibly grateful I am to have had the opportunity to learn from them and spend three hours of class time with each of them every single day. They're the best. I hope that one day I will be able to teach with the same humility, love, and power that they do.

On Sunday we had church at 7:15AM. I got called on by President Ditmar to give a three minute talk about the Atonement. Each Sunday, we have two missionary talks and then one member of the branch presidency speaks along with their wife. We never know who's gonna speak so we all have to be prepared. Well, I had a scripture and a quote from Preach My Gospel, but that was it. It was the Atonement though which is always really easy to talk about and bear testimony about. It went really well and I was actually really grateful for the opportunity. Everyone told me I did really well and that "it's amazing how well you can speak Spanish after only 5 weeks in the MTC!" That was Sister Gurney, our second counselor's wife. She's so sweet, but I think she forgot that we all had Spanish before coming to the MTC:) We had several meetings throughout the day and we had our temple walk which is always one of the highlights of the week. For devotional on Sunday night the speaker focused on recognizing the Spirit and the importance of the Holy Ghost in conversion. It was really good. For movie night we watched a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC several years ago called, "Missions are Forever." SO GOOD. He focused on immersing ourselves completely in the work and not wasting a single minute of the time we've been given so that we can come home with no regrets. I don't know how to do that quite yet, but I'm working on it. I think there's a quote by President Hinckley that says something to the effect of "Kneel and pray to God like everything depends on Him, and then get up and work like everything depends on you." That's what I'm working on right now, and I hope that I will be a more successful missionary as I do that.

On Monday we had service again...whoppeee.. We taught Angel that afternoon and we were focusing on the Atonement. He kept saying, "That's really cool. If it were true that would be neat." Finally I got tired of him saying that, so I asked him how HE could know. He said when he died he would know. I wasn't letting him off the hook so easy so I made my question more specific. He thought about it for a second and then said by praying and reading the Book of Mormon. BINGO. So, we testified one more time and then invited him to pray with us right then. He said no at first, but we weren't taking no for an answer. Hermana Ward told him he needed to demonstrate his faith and ask God. Hermana Kuhn said something similar and asked him again. He declined for a second time and said, "maybe on another day." I gently said, "Angel, God wants to hear you today." He gave me the 'how do you know' look, but finally agreed. I asked if we could kneel, and he nodded but not before trying to get out of it one more time. We all knelt together as he prayed, and it was the COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER. The Spirit was so strong as he asked God if He was there and as he asked God to answer his prayers. I love Angel. It's amazing to see someone exercise their faith and to help someone grow closer to Christ. I can't even imagine what that will be like with "real" people in Argentina. Ah. I'm so excited!!

Tuesday was an awesome day. We had skype that morning again for TRC. We talked with the same sister, Aye. She got all of our emails so we can keep in touch. She's so sweet and I feel like we're really good friends since I've only talked with her for about an hour in total. Weird how that works. We went to choir practice that night. For devotional we sang "Praise to the Man." I love that song. One thing that I've noticed here at the MTC is that I've never not had the Spirit witness to me that what I am saying is true when I testify of Joseph Smith, and singing is no different. What an incredible man! The choir director, who is amazing and always tells us about the song and shares a very powerful spiritual thought, told us a lot about the life of Joseph Smith and who he was as a person. I love the Prophet Joseph!! For devotional tonight we had....drum roll please....ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS. We knew it was going to be one of the Twelve beforehand, but we didn't know which one. He and his wife spoke. It was so good. A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and essentially taught us the plan of salvation. I guess that's important right? It was so good. He talked about our pre-earth life and our potential in the next life. It was a really powerful talk. That night we had Brother Evans from the branch presidency in our devotional review meeting. At the end he talked to us about Argentina and gave us some advice which mostly centered around love. He said, "Just love them. Embrace their culture and their traditions. Love the people, because they will love you." It was obvious as he talked that those people he served in Argentina so many years ago are still very dear to him. It was really neat to hear him talk about them.

Wednesday was a long day. I had a doctors appointment in the morning because I've had a fever and sore throat since Monday. Fun stuff. The doctor told me to go home and try to sleep it off a little bit. I nodded and then left with my companions to go host the new missionaries and then have class with Hermano Martinez. There was no way I was sleeping through class. I can count the classes I have left with my teachers on one hand and you better believe I'll be there for all of them. Plus, I wasn't feeling that bad and the doctor said it was just a cold probably from the stress and demands from the schedule. We all had individual interviews with Hermano Martinez. I forget...have I mentioned how incredible he is? Ah. I love him so much. Last night we had class with Hermano Waddoups which was as always amazing. I can't get over how amazing my teachers are. They're so close to the Spirit, so full of love and humility, and they're just...well...Christ-like. That's the only way to describe them.

Sooo...that was my week. It was amazing. Just like every other week here at the MTC. Oh, and on my way down to email guess who I ran into? Sra. Petrie!! I was so excited!! We got to talk for a minute which was nice. I love love love her! So sweet. Thanks for all the dear elders. They make my day. Especially cause they give them to us during meal times. It's so perfectly Hogwarts-esque. I'm still waiting for my Nimbus 2000. I'll let you know when it arrives. Craig, congrats on your win against...wutang? I was especially excited to hear about that game. It sounded fun! I'm always cheering for you!! Unfortunately parents, my window was NOT wide open at either of those times on Monday night. I stood in the stairwell window on the south side for about ten minutes from 10:15-10:25PM but I knew you would still be at Craig's game. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well! Hope school is going well for everyone and the office for you dad. Mom, I'm sure you're still keeping busy:) I guess the next time I talk to you will be at the airport!! Please please PLEASE send me that phone!! I got your package today with everything in it! Thanks! But I want to be able to talk to you for as loooong as possible. I should have about 3 hours in Dallas and who knows how many from Salt Lake. I guess we'll find out. Oh...and someone wanna fill me in on the government shut down? We don't hear ANYTHING here...but apparently it's kind of a big deal.  If that's the case, I, for one, am grateful to be fleeing the country in exactly 6 days. Peace out USA.

I miss you all everyday and you're in my prayers!! Love you forever and always!!

Hermana Heath

Elder Jo and the broken vacuum.
Once again...it was hilarious.

Is Amy Joining the Penguins?

Hola Familia!

How's it goin'?  Today (Friday, October 11) has been a fantastic day.  Why, you ask?  No big deal or anything, but our TRAVEL PLANS CAME TODAY!  So, at lunch when we checked the mail together (fingers crossed because we thought those plans were arriving today) there they were.  A stack of 10 small packets that determined our fate.  The lucky ones from my district going straight to Argentina are Elder Scruggs, Elder Merenluoto, Elder Woodall, Elder Butts, Elder Goodwin, Hermana Ward and Hermana Kuhn.  Elder Jo is going to San Fernando California, and so that's cool :)  Elder Rallison doesn't know about his travel plans yet but he's going to Colombia anyway.  As for me?  KENTUCKY!!  Who called it?  I did!!  I guess we just didn't get my visa stuff in early enough.  But anyway, I'm really excited!  I leave on October 23rd...two days after everyone else in my district.

Okay, so confession.  My visa DID come through and I am going to Argentina with all the missionaries in my district!  (Elder Jo actually got called to Cali)  However, Hermana Kuhn and I fly together and we do leave the day after... actually two days after the rest of our district.  We have to be at the travel office at 7:30AM on the 23rd (is that a wednesday?) but our flight doesn't leave until 12:30PM.  We connect in Dallas to Buenos Aires.  12 and a half hour flight.  That's just to Buenos Aires.  That's where the list of flights ends.  Unfortunately, comodoro is 1,093ish miles from Buenos Aires.  21 hour bus ride anyone?  I sincerely hope they fly us, but as of right now we're going by bus.  I might die.  The good news is that I have at least a couple hours at the Salt Lake Airport & a four hour layover in Dallas when we can talk.  I hope I can take a disposable cell!!  I've got loads to tell you.

Anyway, there are 8 comodoro missionaries in my group, and another group of 8 going to comodoro too.  I think we're all on the same flight just different "groups."  Probably easier to keep track of the missionaries for the travel leader.  Who knows.

Anyway, just thought I'd share the exciting news! :)  Gotta go!

I love you all!

Love forever and always

Hermana Heath

Week 4 - MTC - No pressure or anything...

Hola Familia!!

Como le va?! Espero que todos esten bien!! How are you?! I hope you're all doing well! This has been a great week at the MTC....and an EXTREMELY fast one. I can't believe we're down to a week and a half left in the MTC. Yikes!!

Anyway, I think I'll just tell you about my week day by day....So, last Thursday my companions and I did initiatories at the temple, but I think we're doing a session today. I'm super excited. I always love going to the temple! When we got back from the temple we had 2 1/2 hours until dinner...with nothing to do...we napped! Yayyy! It felt so good. I only actually slept for about an hour because I spent some time writing letters, but it felt so good to catch up on a bit of sleep. It seems like there's never enough time for sleep here at the MTC.  That night Hermano Frey taught us about the Atonement and the significance of Lehi's dream and a few things about the temple. He studies the scriptures in so much depth...I learned soo much. It was the coolest thing ever. Mostly I learned that my purpose is not just to invite people to come unto Christ, but invite them to become like Christ.

Friday was a really great day. We got to teach an investigator named Olga because Melvin was "out of town." Haha..we missed Hermano Waddoups in class that day, but it was fun to teach a new investigator. This last week we focused on the subjunctive for language study as a class. I'm not gonna lie, I hate the subjunctive. It's a mood of speaking that we don't use in English, so it's hard to recognize when we're supposed to use it. I'm getting better at it but I think I won't fully understand it until I get to Argentina. Oh, and on Friday I got a package from Jenni Boyle. Wanna know what it was? Cinnabons. Booyah. In addition...six dear elders. It was the best!

On Saturday we watched general conference which was the coolest thing ever!! The whole MTC watched it together and it was cool to get a missionary's perspective on general conference. There was so much said that applied directly to us!! I especially loved Elder Bednar's talk on tithing! It was weird because I was definitely not in my usual general conference attire (which means pajamas), but it was neat and the weekend flew by. We finally got to watch the Relief Society broadcast while the Elders watched Priesthood. I loved it! President Monson's talk was amazing! Thanks for the coffee cake!! It was soooo yummy!! On Sunday we watched conference again. Awesome. When they announced that one of the hymns would be "Called to Serve" everyone in the MTC just laughed. I think we've only sung that one like...maybe 50 times? Hahaa...it was really cool though. It's always a neat experience to sing that song with a bunch of missionaries. In Spanish though it talks about the "celestial cause" that we're working for..which I've always thought is really cool:) After conference we walked around the temple which is always so great. For devotional Vocal Point came which was really cool!! They sang a bunch of hymns and church songs that they arranged. I loved it. That night we watched the President Monson documentary. What an incredible man! We are so blessed to have him leading and guiding us today. I have no doubt that he is called of God.

On Monday for service we stocked the bathrooms again. No more dropping keys in the toilet so that was improvement...hahaa. I didn't feel super well on Monday, but it ended up being a great day anyway. We taught Angel again and he's progressing slowly but surely. He still doesn't want to pray so we're going to try to focus on that tomorrow and pray with him...again. Hermano Castro, who served in Buenos Aires, came in to class and told us about Argentina for the last fifteen minutes to prepare us for Tuesday....you'll never guess. On Monday Brother Christensen who helps run the MTC came and told us that on Tuesday the Immigration Representative for ALL OF ARGENTINA was coming to the MTC and she was going to visit our class. So...fast forward to Tuesday. We all got to the classroom and hung an Argentine flag. Then we cleaned our room completely and organized all of our books. Brother Christensen told us that we were representing 80,000 missionaries to this lady. All the Elders had to get haircuts and shine their shoes. Basically, Brother Christensen told us that if we impress this lady, she has the power to make one phone call to the President of Argentina and get every missionary their permanent visa in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if we didn't impress her, missionaries could have an even harder time getting their visas and maybe even stop getting them all together. No pressure, right? Basically, the missionary work in Argentina is resting upon one 20 minute visit with a very important and powerful ambassador from Argentina.

Brother Christensen told us which questions she would most likely ask, what questions we should ask (absolutely no proselyting), and then that we had to be doing a grammar lesson about Jesus Christ when she came in...oh...and did I mention she would have an armed escort? Awesome. Hmm...it's safe to say that we were FREAKED out. Elder Scruggs and I were joking at lunch that in 20 years we'll be talking to our kids and saying either, "You know, when I was a missionary, visas to Argentina were really hard to get, but my district at the MTC helped to change that!" Or we would be saying, "You know how there are missionaries in every country in the world EXCEPT Argentina? Well that's a funny story. See, while I was in the MTC...." Hahaa...it was mostly a joke, but at the same time, we all knew how important the meeting would be. Well, she came, she was so incredibly friendly, we talked about tourist sites in Argentina, soccer, and we all introduced ourselves and told her where we would be serving. She told us some things about each of our areas, and then we went outside and took a picture with her and the Argentine flag. I'll try to send that to you next week. Anyway, Brother Christensen came back later once she had left and told us that the meeting was perfect and that it couldn't have gone any better! That was a relief. It's a good thing God has a plan for his work to move forward!!

On Tuesday morning in class we talked about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion..the Spirit was really strong. Coincidence? I don't think so. Also on Tuesday morning we did TRC via skype. The sister we talked to is living in Mexico and it was the coolest lesson I've been a part of. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and then we talked about the Holy Ghost and receiving answers. Then she told us that she's been considering a mission but hasn't felt like she had received an answer, but at the end of the lesson she told us that we were her answer and that she was going to start her mission papers that night! It was sooo cool to see how the Lord works through his children!! The Spirit was so strong!! On Tuesday night we had devotional which was amazing. This week in class and during study we focused on the Atonement, and that's what the Elder talked to us about. He said one thing that really stood out to me. He said, "Can you imagine the reunion in Heaven after Christ's death?" Woah. I have never really thought about that. The people on earth mourned Christ's death, but people in Heaven celebrated his homecoming. The great act of love and mercy that would save us all had finally been completed! I know we were there celebrating and rejoicing with everyone else. So cool to think about.

Yesterday we got to host the new missionaries! It was really a lot of fun! Maybe we'll do it again next week...the only weird part is you're not with your companion...so for a solid two and a half hours, I had no idea where they were. Weird. Haha...but it was really cool to see the excitement of the new missionaries and remember my first day here at the MTC. We taught our new investigators, Nick and Max (Elder Scruggs and Elder Merenluoto) and it went really well. We're getting so much better at teaching to the needs of the investigators.

I can't believe we've only got 12 days left with everyone in our district/zone. It goes by so fast!! I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that I have to leave this amazing place despite how excited I am for Argentina!! Mom, thanks for all the updates about visas. That gives me hope! We should find out either tomorrow or Monday what our travel plans are...crazy!! It seems like only a few days ago I was still getting lost on my way to the cafeteria. Good times.

Oh, the new district of missionaries. They're awesome, but there's this one Elder with flaming red hair who can be a bit...well immature at times...and he totally looks like buddy the elf. It's absolutely hilarious. Just the way he acts...it's kind of a zone joke. Sooo funny. I will take credit for coming up with that connection.

Mom, let me talk to my branch president and make sure that I can use a disposable cell phone before you send one to me. I'm sure that it's fine but I want to double check. I love the idea of not having to use a pay phone!! Also, the whole "profets" thing. I just noticed last night as I looked over some of my journal entries and planned what I was gonna write today that I've been misspelling a lot of English words lately... I'm gonna read my journal in 50 years and wonder why in the world I couldn't spell the word protection ("protecction") right. Hahaha...I guess the Spanish is kinda taking over. That's the first thing I've noticed is that spelling in English is much harder than it ever has been before. I love learning and speaking in Spanish. I'm excited to keep getting better. Hermana Ward's Spanish is good. She took classes at BYU. Hermana Kuhn is still working and has a harder time understanding, but she's come a long way. The Elders in my district are the same way. They've all improved so much, but it's still hard for them to understand Hermano Martinez at times since he tends to talk a lot faster than the other teachers since he's a native. For him, he's talking slow still:) Hahaha...but we're all moving along really well with the language. It's so cool to see!! I definitely have a lot more to learn, but it's coming!!

I miss you all and you're always in my thoughts and prayers!! I hope Craig's game went well last night. Wish I could have been there!! The church is true!! We are so blessed to have the gospel. I'm so excited to go share the simple, yet profound message of the gospel to the people in Argentina!! Yayyyy!!

Love you forever and always!!

Hermana Heath

 Jenni sent me cinnabons!!

  Temple walk - conference weekend

Vocal Point

Following is the letter and picture Amy forwarded to us from Brother Christensen of the MTC.  For a long time now, missionaries have had a difficult time obtaining visas to Argentina.  Many of them have been temporarily reassigned stateside until their visas come through, and some have even been permanently reassigned to other missions.  We were told that over 200 missionaries were sent to Argentina this week.  Especially exciting was the fact that many of these missionaries were "visa waiters" who had been waiting weeks or months for their visas.  We are grateful for Mrs. Guzman's visit to the MTC this week and pray that it marks the beginning of the hastening of the work in Argentina.

Dear Family and Friends:

On October 8, the MTC hosted Ximena Guzman, the National Director of Immigration for Argentina; she is shown in the attached photo in a red jacket.  The gentleman standing next to her on the front row is Lon Nally, MTC President.  The gentleman next to him is Victor Salas, a professor of law in Argentina.

As part of Mrs. Guzman visit, we took her to your missionary’s classroom to show her how missionaries are trained.  She was extremely impressed by the missionaries and commented on them several more times that afternoon.

Mrs. Guzman is responsible for authorizing visas into Argentina.  We pray this visit will help resolve the issues the Argentine government has with extending visas to missionaries in a timely fashion.  We hope you’ll join us in that prayer.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful missionary for this extraordinary Work.

Sincerely,

Spencer Christensen

MTC Operations

Week 3 - MTC - Half Wayyy!

Hola Familia!!

This week has been so so good! I LOVE being at the MTC. There's so much to learn and so many opportunities to grow! It's the best. I honestly have no clue what I've told you and what I haven't so I think this week I'll just go day by day starting from last P-day and tell you what's been happening here...

So, last Thursday we went through the 12:40 session at the Provo Temple, (Dad, we always go through the same session) but they showed the old film. I'm not sure why because there was no one who needed a translation, but it was still cool to see the old film again. It was also really neat being there all together as a zone for the last time before our Elders left. For gym time we went to the gym in 2M and used the ellypticals(?) hahaa...I have no idea how to spell that...but it was really nice to do something active. Hermana Kuhn and I memorized flash cards and got to know the three new elders for a little while which is always fun.

On Friday for gym time some of the campus workers asked if we could help them for 10 minutes moving mattresses out of the buildings that they're tearing down to make the campus bigger. We of course agreed, but "10 minutes" shortly turned into our entire gym time. It was fun to be able to serve people and help them get their job done faster. The unfortunate thing about gym time is that we've only ever had two zones - ours and Mark Kruger's. Well, since Mark's zone left and half of our zone was leaving, we got three HUGE zones that have gym time with us. Instead of having 30 people in the gym, we now have close to 60. Yikes. It's packed. We were spoiled for the first few weeks for sure:) We had class with Hermano Martinez and Hermano Waddoups...who are still as amazing as ever. I learn so much from them. I just found out that Hermano Martinez just got back from his mission 3 months ago...MIND. BLOWN. He knows sooo much. Also, do you wanna know where he served? Mexico City East Mission. Do you wanna know who else is in that mission? Elder Aaron Lainhart. And do you wanna know who picked Elder Lainhart up from the airport? You guessed it, HERMANO MARTINEZ!! Isn't that the coolest thing? I thought so.

Saturday. This morning Hermana Kuhn and I got to take a field trip! She had to get some medicine for her acid reflex because her parents hadn't sent it in time so we got to ride in a van to the pharmacy! We went to the Rite-Aid in Provo right next to Macey's. It was the weirdest thing ever being outside the MTC. Everyone was super friendly to the Sister Missionaries though:) It was a fun break from our schedule for sure!! After lunch on Saturday Hermana Kuhn and I taught our newest investigator Angel (Hermano Martinez). Angel is a really hard investigator to teach because he doesn't believe in God. He doesn't believe in Jesus Christ or that he came to the earth and he only lets us come over because he thinks we're nice people. He's not really interested in our message, he just tries to confuse us. For example, Angel couldn't understand how a God could have feelings like anger and jealousy (which are human traits). Hermana Kuhn and I were stumped. I had no idea how I would answer that in English, let alone Spanish, but I just kinda started talking and managed to say something about how God gave us the gift of agency and when we misuse that agency there are consequences. As we learn in the scriptures, because he is God, our Heavenly Father can't look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; therefore, he hates the action, but continues to love the person. Angel seemed to accept that answer, but we still haven't been able to help him understand that the Gospel can help him individually and that it can bring him peace and joy in this life and the life to come. We'll keep trying!! He has kept his commitments to read in the Book of Mormon which is good. He still won't pray, but we're getting there!!

Sunday. Fast Sunday. Remember how we eat dinner at 4:30 here? Well, they didn't feed us on Sunday until 6:30PM. If I've done my math correctly, that's a whole 26 hours. It was a reallyyyy long day, but it was my favorite day at the MTC so far. For Sacrament Meeting we had the opportunity to bear our testimonies which was amazing. The spirit was so strong as each missionary stood up and testified of the Book of Mormon and the Gospel and our Savior, Jesus Christ. The missionaries that left on Sunday night bore especially powerful testimonies as they were down to hours until they were going to be "real missionaries." It was the best meeting of my life, and then the departing district sang, "Placentero nos es trabajar" for the closing song. It's a hymn we don't have in English which in my humble opinion is a sin. The song is about missionary work and it's the BEST. You can listen to it on LDS.org if you want. It's hymn #88 in the himnos. The Elders did such a good job and a few of them started tearing up in the third verse. It says "Oh Hermanos Adios, pues Adios. El momento de ir vino ya. Si guardamos la fe en el gran Dios, nos veremos aun mas alla." The verse talks about leaving brothers to go and preach the gospel and says that if we keep our faith in our great God we'll see each other again. It's such a pretty song. I got to say the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting which was awesome too! We had a two hour mission conference given by the MTC presidency which was great and then we went on our temple walk. We went as a zone and then talked and hung out mostly with the departing missionaries. They were all so excited to leave. They're gonna be incredible missionaries. Hermana Kuhn and I taught our district meeting which was on Faith in Jesus Christ. Easy Peasy. It was a 45 minutes discussion and President Ditmar observes. We went to the devotional which was great and then we said goodbye to the Elders that left on Sunday night and Hermana Kuhn and I went to watch The Restoration movie. Makes me cry every time.

Monday we had our cleaning assignment. We stocked the bathrooms which is not the most exciting job in the world, but it's way better than cleaning the showers. Count your blessings, right? For gym we threw a frisbee outside at the field since we're not allowed to play ultimate. We went to class. Amazing. Went to dinner...they tried to feed me fish. Cereal it was that night. After study time we had TRC which I don't think I've told you about yet. We basically meet with members and share a short message with them and talk and get to know them. 20 minutes tops. The first man we talked to was from Chile. He was converted just a year ago and was sealed to his family last week! He was so sweet and has one of the strongest testimonies I've heard. He taught us way more than we taught him! The second lady we taught was also from Chile and she was really sweet. I'm happy to report that I understood about 85% of everything they said. Unfortunately, Chilean Spanish is not even close to Argentine Spanish. Hermano Castro, one of the ZRT's, served in Argentina and he gave us a sample of what they speak like. They mumble, everything's all shhhshy, and it's like they're singing their words so all the words flow together. Yikes. I'm not gonna understand a thing when I get down there. If I get down there. The last missionaries going to Argentina got reassigned. Haven't heard anything about Visas except that the President of Argentina isn't very...open...toward the LDS church which is rather unfortunate for missionaries. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Tuesday. It's already October? How did that happen?! Hermana Ward and Hermana Kuhn and I are officially a trio again. It's no fun at all teaching with three people, but what can you do? For everything else, being a trio is the very best!! We taught Melvin again and he's working towards baptism on Oct 21. Oh, and I was really excited to hear about Justin Keener's baptismal date! That's so cool!!!! Tuesday was just a hard day for me and I was having a harder time speaking, I didn't feel great, and I was a little homesick. When class was over Hermano Martinez stopped me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. He told me he noticed I seemed a little off and wanted to make sure I was doing alright. We talked for about 15 minutes and he shared lots of experiences from his mission with me. He then expressed his confidence in me and told me not to worry about anything and almost directly quoted a line from my patriarchal blessing. See what I mean when I say he's amazing? I felt so much better after talking to him. He always knows exactly what to say and he reminded me that Heavenly Father knows and focuses on my strengths, while Satan focuses on my weaknesses. It ended up being one of the best days here at the MTC so far. I love Hermano Martinez. He's amazing. That night during my personal devotional with Heavenly Father I read my patriarchal blessing again and prayed more sincerely than I have in my entire life and I just knew that everything would be alright:) God is good, people. He knows us perfectly and he knows exactly how to help us.

Wednesday. Yesterday was a super long day. We had the normal schedule, which is very demanding, and I was super tired, BUT! I finished the Book of Mormon again which is always a great feeling. I learned so much about the Savior's character as I read it this last time. Also...the first 4 chapters of Mosiah are AMAZING. Some of my favorites. Last night we welcomed the new district of 8 Elders and 2 Hermanas. They seem to be a good group and we're really excited to have them...especially the Sisters!! As much as we love our Elders, it's nice to have some Hermanas to talk to:) We now have 5 in our zone...and like 25 Elders. Hahaha:)

Well, that was my week! Sorry it's a little scattered. Like I said, it's been a great week!! I got tons of dear elders this week which always makes my day so much better! Letters from home are the best. Also, Dee wrote me again and Miriam continues to write me every week. Please thank them! I love hearing from them. It means so much that they take the time to write to me! Also, another connection that I discovered this week. Elder Tayvin Woodall in my district is from Cedar Hills, and he played club soccer with most of the boys soccer team at Timp. He knows Trent Blackman and Dominick. Weird. Hahaha...always fun connections though!! Mom, my orange blanket is my best friend at night. My companions like to turn the AC wayyy down so I'm almost always cold, but since I started using my blanket I'm nice and toasty every night:) I love being a missionary. Whenever I think about going to Argentina I just want to jump for joy. I'm so excited to go! Matthew, I hope school is going well and your internship too! What are you doing? Kimberly, thanks for the dear elder! It made my day and I shared some of what you wrote with my companions. They loved it. I hope you're still loving TDT and that Mr. Nagro isn't driving you completely nuts:) Em, thanks for all the dear elders and keeping me updated on you and Craig. I love getting them! Craig, good luck with hockey. I thought about you last night and was cheering you on silently in my head:) Mom, thanks for the dear elders and the packages. I love hearing about your days and how you're doing. I miss talking to you every night! Daddy, my neck misses you. I know of some people that get to go see a chiropractor before they leave...haha...maybe I'll try to swing that. Hahaa, but the rest of me misses you too! Thanks for keeping me updated. I always look forward to hearing from you! I miss you all and you're in my thoughts and prayers every single day! The church is true!!

I love you forever and always!!

Hermana Heath

"Service" ...also known as chores

Awkward missionaries

Temple walk!!

Sisters!! (Hermanas Heath, Kuhn, Ward, and Baker)

3rd cousins?! Me and Elder Morgan :)

My district (minus Elder Rallison who just joined
our district last week)

Week 2 - MTC

Querida Familia,

First of all, HAPPY FIVE MONTH ANNIVERSARY EMILY AND CRAIG!! And Craig, I'm excited to hear how your hockey team does! Go Fainting Goats! I'll be cheering for you from the MTC!!:):) And, Em, thanks for the BoM jokes! I had forgotten a couple of those...

I love hearing about what's going on at home!! Please continue to keep me updated on life! Miriam has sent me a couple Dear Elders and I also got a card from Dee. Please thank them for me, Mom. I don't have a ton of time, if any, during the week to respond. As my zone was leaving class last Saturday night we could hear the BYU game. I think that was the most homesick I've been so far because I know you were watching the game and I really wanted to be there! We heard the fight song from our apartment sometime around 10:00PM...it was cool!  P-day last week was really weird. The temple was amazing (as always), but other than that it was kinda boring if I'm honest. There's so much free time (which is still only like 4 hours total) that I didn't know what to do with myself. Elder Kruger was in the session with my zone at the temple which was cool. This week has been awesome though! The days feel like years, but the week literally flies by. It's a lil bit freaky. Our oldest district of Elders got their travel plans this week. They're all super excited, but we're a little bit sad. Because we only have three districts in our zone, we do so much together that missionaries normally do as districts so we're gonna miss them a lot. It's very possible that there will be tears...but happy tears:) We always eat all of our meals together as a zone. I totally understand why the church encourages us to eat meals as families. We also sing hymns together...in Spanish of course. It's the best. Mom, you asked how many from my district/zone are from Utah? All of our Elders are from Utah. Hermana Kuhn is from Idaho Falls, and Hermana Ward is from Ann Arbor Michigan. The other district has more missionaries that are from out of state.

Other questions you asked...Hermano Martinez is my primary teacher. He continues to be amazing. He is so incredibly humble and it's obvious how much he loves and cares about us. He truly wants us to succeed. He has so much confidence in our abilities, and he teaches with so much power. I wanna be just like him. We have a second teacher (who is also our investigator, Melvin) whose name is Hermano Waddoups (what-ups). Sweet last name, ya? He's just as great as Hermano Martinez. I got the best teachers in the MTC. No question. We also have what are called ZRT's (zone resource teachers). They are teachers whose districts have left the MTC and haven't gotten another one yet. Hermano Byrd and Hermana Avery are the ones that usually come to our class and help out. I don't know when all these teachers stopped being people and became celestial beings...but somewhere along the line it happened. They are all amazing. I learn so much everyday.

Last Saturday, Hermano Waddoups was in Idaho Falls for his brother's farewell, so we had a sub, Hermano Bruce. He served in Buenos Aires, but his first area was in Tierra del Fuego. He showed us pictures, and told us a little about that area. He said it never got above 60 degrees once while he was there. The winds got up to 70mph. When it rains, it floods. The sidewalks are three feet above the ground so that the whole town doesn't flood. In the winter, there is exactly four hours of sunlight, and in the summer you get four hours of darkness. Awesome. Also, he got a knife/gun pulled on him at least 10 times, but he said that was mostly in Buenos Aires, and he said if you just start preaching to them and pull out a Book of Mormon, they usually leave you alone because they don't like preachers. Also, he said he's never heard of that happening to sisters. He was bitten by dogs a few times, but nothing major.

Sundays are officially the best days of the week here at the MTC. We have Sacrament Meeting (in Spanish) at 7:30, although our branch president usually starts ten minutes early. Then we eat breakfast, then I have to go to a branch council meeting, but then we go to Music and the Spoken Word and then Relief Society with all the sisters in the MTC which is always awesome. Then we have some time before lunch and then after lunch we have leadership training meetings and then the best part of the day...our temple walk! I love walking around the temple. We hang out as a zone, take pictures, read scriptures, etc. This last Sunday we went to choir practice for Tuesday night devotional, and then we sat as a zone for devotional. After devotional, our zone stayed and watched "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar again. It's even better the second time. He teaches about how the Savior always turns out, when the natural man wants to turn in. Mom, the one we watch was definitely given at the MTC on Christmas morning. He says so at the beginning of his talk:) It's all about how we can become better missionaries by learning about the character of Christ. He probably gave a similar talk somewhere else but the one we watch was definitely given later than 2003. After devotional, we helped stack chairs and clean up the stage. It was actually kind of fun...especially cause we had a break from our usual schedule!

This week during gym time a group of us were playing volleyball and Elder Martinez (not to be confused with Hermano Martinez, my teacher) and I completely ran into each other. I have a nasty bruise on my knee...gotta love gym time. But really, gym time is the best. It always feels good to run around a bit.

This week my branch President, President Ditmar, discovered how much Spanish experience I've had and asked if I should be moved to the advanced class. I very kindly told him that I was just fine where I was. I definitely am not ready for the advanced class, but I can understand 99% of everything my teachers say. The speaking is coming along really well. There's definitely lots to learn, but I'm always so excited when I can say what I want to and know that my conjugations are correct. It's really hard to teach in Spanish, but I love it. Hermana Kuhn and I memorize missionary flash cards a lot during our language study and it's so helpful. I think we've done close to 70 and each card has three words on it. We've only been doing it since Monday so we've got a lot more to go, but it's coming along pretty quickly. Last night, Hermana Kuhn and I were talking to some beginner Spanish missionaries who leave on Monday for Mexico. I'm so glad I've taken so much Spanish. They're leaving knowing less than I did when I got here. Crazy. I can't even imagine how hard that would be!!

So, some funny stories for the week? As a zone, we had some free time and we were talking about funny things we said while teaching investigators:

Elder Bean was teaching the First Vision, and was trying to explain the part where an unseen force seizes Joseph while he's praying. We get in really big trouble if you say ghost, so he said the next best thing, "Y cuando el estaba orando, un aparecion ataco a Jose Smith." Basically, he said, "while Joseph Smith was praying, Joseph Smith was attacked." We learned that for our purposes, it's not really that important to teach that particular part of the First Vision because it REALLY confuses the investigator.

Elder Bean's companion, Elder Smith, was teaching the First Vision and while talking about Joseph Smith said, "Cuando Jose Smith era un novio..." He was trying to say when Joseph Smith was a young boy...instead he said "when Joseph Smith was a boyfriend..."

I'm running out of time so I can't share the rest, but I think these are my favorites.

Clumsy Hermana Heath moment of the week? I was getting up from studying in the hallway, and I bent down to pick up a few of my books, as I was standing back up, something happened and next thing I know I'm on the ground. I'm still not sure what happened, but I totally fell over. It was quite hilarious. Hermana Kuhn was dying laughing. Well, we both were:) Anyway...

On our way back from Devotional on Tuesday night, Hermana Kuhn and I were talking to some missionaries who were clearly learning English. Come to find out, they were from Hong Kong! I told them that my mom served there and they were really excited...then they asked me if I spoke Cantonese. I told them I could only count to ten and they laughed. Haha:)

Mom, you asked about TALL. It stands for teaching (something) language learning. It's cool, but sometimes tedious as some of the activities I have to do I mastered in like 3rd grade. But it's good for the more complicated stuff.

Kimberly, I read the scripture you shared in family night a couple weeks ago in 1 Nephi 13 and I smiled! Thanks again for sharing that scripture. It's becoming one of my favorites! Recently I've been focusing on the Savior in my studies. I've been reading in 3 Nephi about his visit to the Nephites. It's the best.

Well, I've gotta go, but I think about you all the time. Matthew, everyday when I'm walking around campus, I can't help but think of you. In a year you'll be here! You're gonna love it and I'm so excited to hear about your experiences. It's hard not being able to tell you everything I want to, and I do miss you all very much, but it's definitely worth it. I love it here! The Church is true. I love the gospel! I'm so excited to go to Argentina even though I'm gonna freeeeeeze!!

I love you forever and always!!

Hermana Heath

Dinner

Temple walk with zone

Week 1 - MTC - Bienvenidos!

Hola Familia!!

First off, shout out to Emily for winning monopoly! I hope you had a wonderful birthday! I was thinking about you all day on Sunday! Love you!

Has it been a week already? I'm not convinced...But I've been so excited to email you so I wasn't gonna argue when they herded us here this morning! Every night I wanna call and tell you about what I've been up to because there's so much!! There's no way I can tell you everything that I would like to, but I'll try my best to get the most important things in:) Let's start at the very beginning ...a very good place to start! NAME THAT MOVIE!:)

Anyhow, the basics. After you dropped me off my host, Sister Aniel, took me to get my name tag, books, and show me to my residence hall and classroom. She's going to be serving in Tahiti. I think she leaves next week. She was really nice and is actually on the same floor as me in my residence hall so I see her all the time. The new missionaries are labeled by an orange sticker on the corner of the name tag, so everyone all day kept saying, "Welcome to the MTC!" over and over again. Let's just say, I think they do that so the new missionaries feel loved and not so depressed about leaving their family. I have to say it worked! My companion Hermana Kuhn("Coon") is amazing. She is going to Comodoro Rivadavia as well and so we've had that connection since day one. I don't really know how to explain it, but we've become really close this week. She's from Idaho Falls and did a year of School at BYU-I before her mission. She's the best. We have so much fun together and we have the same goals when it comes to missionary work and language study so we help each other a lot.

As I mentioned in my letter, I was in a trio companionship, but yesterday we got a new district of missionaries with four elders and one sister. The new sister, Hermana Baker, is Hermana Ward's companion now. So they're both solo missionaries...we don't really know how it works yet though so I'll let you know when I figure it out:) My district has 9 missionaries (6 Elders and 3 Hermanas.) Elder Scruggs, Elder Merenluoto(it took me a solid five minutes of staring at his nametag to remember his name), Elder Goodwin, Elder Jo, Elder Woodall, Elder Butts, Hermana Ward, Hermana Kuhn, and myself. It feels like we've been together forever. We all get along really well. We're all going to different missions in Argentina except for Elder Jo. He's going to be serving in San Fernando California. He's practically a celebrity here because we don't have any stateside Spanish missionaries at the MTC anymore. They all go to Mexico. He's so funny though and we're glad he's in our district.

My zone is just as amazing as my district. We had two districts leave really early Monday morning, so now there's three districts (including the one that just arrived yesterday.) Hermana Kuhn, Hermana Ward, Hermana Baker, and I are the only sisters in the entire zone! The oldest district has 10 Elders and they are all so great. I wanna be just like them. It's funny, because whenever we see them (which is like...30 times a day) they all wave and say hi. Their teacher told us that they haven't had sisters since they've been in the MTC so they're just really excited they have some girls to talk to. Too funny.

My teacher, Hermano Martinez, is so great. I love him. We found out yesterday that we are the first district he has ever taught at the MTC which is insane because he teaches with so much power and love and he always invites the spirit. I love listening to him. He is originally from Mexico and served his mission there too. I could sit in his class all day. We are the only district that gets a native teacher which is fun too. I am definitely ahead of the game when it comes to understanding him when he speaks because I have lots of practice thanks to all my native teachers in school. The rest of my district has a harder time. My Spanish is coming along really well. I have only been here for one week but I can say for sure that the gift of tongues is real. When we do our part the Lord blesses us. I get to study hard every day and then pray for God to help me with Spanish and bless me with the gift of tongues and it makes all the difference in the world. We are asked to pray and sing in Spanish all the time which helps so much with the language. I love it. Spanish is the best.

Anyway, on Thursday we learned about the importance of listening to our investigators, and as we sat in a class of 30-ish missionaries I could definitely tell how important it is to listen to the needs of our investigators. I think sometimes we focus so much on bringing our investigators to the Sacred Grove or the Garden of Gethsemane, that we forget to go ourselves to where our investigator is. I have learned so much this week it's crazy. I love the spirit that is here at the MTC. Being with hundreds of missionaries that all have the same goal and purpose is amazing. You can feel the love of God so strongly every minute of every day if you are paying attention.

My companions and I have been teaching our first investigator Melvin every day since Friday, with the exception of Sunday. We got him to commit to be baptized!! Yayyyyy! It seriously is the best feeling in the world to invite someone to come to Christ and follow his example by being baptized and hearing them say yes! I can always feel how much God loves Melvin. I cannot wait to get another investigator!! Next week I think...

Everyday, except for Tuesday, Sunday, and P-Day, we have scheduled gym time. My zone usually goes to the same gym and we play four square and volleyball. It is so much fun and you better believe that all that YW volleyball prepared me for the 50 minutes of gym time each day. The smart Elders all want me on their team:)

I don't have nearly enough time to tell you everything that has been going on. But I really do love it here so much. Don't believe anyone who says that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. They're lying. The happiest place on earth is right here in Provo Utah at the Missionary Training Center.

On Sunday we got to go to church for the first time which was neat. Our branch presidency came to meet us last Thursday night I believe. They're all wonderful. After church the sisters get to watch Music and the Spoken word. It was fantastic. Sunday afternoon we had our temple walk. It felt so good to be outside. The thing about the MTC is that world war III could have started and we wouldn't know. Emily was totally right when she said that the MTC is like a super secret community. It totally is. Hahaha:) Sunday night devotional was great too. One of the directors of 17 Miracles came and spoke to us. It was so cool. They just released a new film Ephraim's rescue I think. We got to see some clips. It looked really good. Sunday night at the MTC is MOVIE NIGHT! We watched a devotional given on Christmas at the MTC a couple years ago by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ." Wow. I don't have words to explain. It was absolutely incredible. Hands down my favorite talk of all time. I highly suggest you watch it. We went back to our residences at 9:30PM and got ready for lights out at 10:30. Next thing I know it's Tuesday. I honestly have no recollection of Monday. I'm sure it was a great day though.

So, Tuesday we had a normal day which consists of waking up at 6:00AM (or earlier...we have to be to breakfast at 7:00 and once we leave our residences in the morning we don't go back until 9:30PM), eating, sitting, sitting, sitting, eating, sitting some more, sitting, eating one last time (dinner is at 4:30 here for my zone so it's safe to say that when 10:30 finally rolls around we're all a little hungry) and then sitting some more, sleeping, wake up, repeat. Awesome. The point is we sit a lot. Our devotional that night was at the Marriott Center and it was a member of the seventy who came to talk to us about how to become a missionary. It was a really great message.

On Sunday Hermana Ward, Hermana Kuhn and I became our zone Sister Training Leaders. Basically we are like the relief society presidency. We just help out the zone leaders and keep an eye on the sisters in our zone...which until Wednesday was just the three of us:) One of our responsibilities is to hold a welcome meeting with our zone leaders (Elder Bean and Elder Smith) for the new districts that come to our zone so last night we got to do that. It was so fun. The new district only has five missionaries, but one of the Elders never showed up, so currently there are 3 Elders and 1 Sister. Elder Frandsen is one of the new Elders and he was in my BYU ward last year! Crazy! I was so excited to see him! :) he's great. We gave the new missionaries a tour of the campus and then took them to their residences.

As a zone, we have a goal to only speak Spanish. It is sooo hard, but it's the best way to learn. I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface of everything I have to tell you but I think i'm out of time. Just a few more things...thanks for the Dear Elders! I love getting them during meals! It's so fun to hear about what is happening at home, so mom don't worry about writing too often. Letters are the best thing ever! Miriam sent me a Dear Elder this week and I was really excited to hear from her as well. Today my zone gets to go to the temple and I cannot wait. It's been the longest and shortest week of my life. The pictures aren't working really well so I can't upload any, but I'll try to send some next week for sure.

I love you all forever and always and I pray for you everyday! I had no idea exactly how MUCH missionaries pray. It's crazy, but it's the best. My relationship with God has skyrocketed. It's the most amazing feeling in the world. I love it. I hope you're doing well and I always want to hear from all of you. I'll try to answer questions but there's so much going on all the time! Anyway, I guess I'll talk to you again in a week!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Heath

Oh!! I forgot to tell you that Elder Kruger has gym the same time as my zone so we play together. It's so fun seeing a face from home. I see him everyday at least once.

Hermana Ward, Hermana Kuhn and Myself :)