Week 72: This week was just FUN!!

October 27, 2014

Geliefde Familie: 

Dinner at the de Bruijns. I love this family. We were fishing for our dessert.

Big news: I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED! Sint-Niklaas, België! I'm opening it up for sisters with a GREENIE! WHAT?! I'm stoked. It's gonna be hard I'm sure, but wooooo. I'm really sad to be leaving the people here. This branch is fantastic, and I've made some amazing friends here. This week was so fun with all of them. But I'm ready for this challenge and it's going to be fun. Zr Adams is staying and she's getting Zr Robbins, who has been here for 6 weeks.

AH, what amazing week to have ended on. We had our mini missionary Zr Stein, and that was so fun. She's just such a cutie. Actually, it was probably really good prep for training just because of how much of a routine you get into with people that have been on a mission. We forgot that not everyone knows when daily planning is and how it goes haha.

So I came across a cool scripture this week in 1 Tim 4:

14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

 15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

 16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

Basically, we all have gifts. We should be working to develop them so that we can not only save ourselves, but also those that we serve. I thought it was so perfect for a missionary. I could literally be anywhere in the world right now, but I'm here....and getting transferred to Belgium. But anyway, I'm where I am for a reason and I know that if I do the will of God, I'll be able to help a lot of people. I hope I can at least. And that goes for you all too. I encourage you all to pray about what you can do in the next week to use your gifts to serve someone.

We had a perfect lesson this week. With M. She was given to us by other missionaries and she is SO COOL. She LOVES it. She reads the BoM every day and watches conference and all that glorious jazz. She is having problems coming to church because she watches over her mom and doesn't want to leave her alone, but we are seeing her again tonight and we will try to overcome some of those barriers. I'm sad to be leaving her.

C wrote a letter to God at the request of Zr. Stein. It was awesome to read what she wants to say to Him. She loves writing, so it was perfect.

We did a lot of decorating this week for a Halloween dance on Friday...weird that I won't be here for any of this stuff!

I love you so much! Keep up the good work. I will see you in like 6.5 weeks?!?!?! AH. Zr Aston's HC is in two weeks, so Spence, you should go. I'll get details next week from her.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Katherine Heilner

then we had to bob for fish haha

it turned into a contest...guess who won. that's right. me. 2.03 seconds. so fun.

Week 71: Temple Conference!!

October 18, 2014

Geliefde Familie:   Temple Conference, she gave her dying testimony.

This week was great--we got to go to the TEMPLE! I loved it. We watched one of the new videos and it was SO educational. The emotion was over-the-top, but it helped me understand so much more. Zr AA had already seen it, so she was laughing at how all of our faces lit up when a different video turned on. But it was just such a contrast to the other video. I loved it. I feel like I really learned a lot. I'm SO happy that I'll never have to go 6 months without going to the temple ever again, but at the same point, I really, really prepared myself for the temple these past few times. And then once there, I took a lot of time to focus on why I was there and what I was trying to know. And I really do think I received answers to some questions I've been having--especially about what Heavenly Father wants me to focus on for my last transfer and a week. (Yikes)

Lelystad is really on fire. We've worked our butts off and it's been hard, but we are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors. I'm so happy about it. We set another baptismal date this week. With V. We had the Elders at a lesson with us because we couldn't find a joint teach, and we were talking to him about the covenant of baptism. Mostly about how the Holy Ghost will help him. His life is crazy--he tells us that every time we meet. He doesn't feel peace, and he's looking for it. Well, that's what the gospel does! So finally he was like, "Okay, okay. Let's choose a date, and then I will take a week and not meet with you and I will just read in the Book of Mormon and pray and then I will tell you if God gave me an answer next week." So....I really hope he gets an answer in this week! He's going to be serious about it, so Heavenly Father will be serious back.

So we get our mini-missionary on Monday. We're pretty excited about it. Her papers are in Salt Lake, so within the next 6 weeks she'll know where she's going on her mission!

We visited an inactive member from Austria this week and as we were about to share the thought, I was like, "Wait, do you have a German Book of Mormon?" so I got to read in German! Ether 12:4. I sounded like a Dutch-speaker. This'll be rough. But anyway, it was so fun and I could totally understand it! I'm probably going to make you guys only speak to me in German and then I'll only respond in Dutch and then we'll all become tri-lingual. Well, dad, quadri-lingual.

You guys, I know the gospel is true. And I'm really grateful for that. I'm grateful for covenants we can make that keep us on the Path to eternal life. I know that making and keeping covenants are the way that we show our gratitude to Christ for his Atonement.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Liefs,

Zr Katherine Heilner

Week 70: Exhaustion

October 13, 2014

Geliefde Familie: Exhaustion

So yes, first order of business: Ilyza was baptized, the girl we accidentally re-found in Den Haag! We were sooooo happy to hear that. She started coming to activities while we were still there and so we were so happy to hear that she was finally baptized. She's so cool. It's good to know that Heavenly Father is so aware of us. This week was crazy, but so good. Also weird. I shall explain.

Monday: P-day. Normal. Watched Gen Conference! So great. Then we were invited to the singles FHE. It was so fun. They're basically all about 50-80, so it was just so funny. Elder DW, the greenie, accidentally said that he needed to pee instead of saying he wanted to share a little spiritual message. Hehe.

Tuesday: busy. Had a GREAT lesson with U, the investigator that was basically a golden egg dropped at our feet. She really wants a temple marriage. She just accepts everything we say and is always smiling. I love it.

Wednesday: Exchange. I was here in Lelystad with Zr Hoff--she is so funny. We just laughed and did yard work and had fun. And had some AMAZING contacts in the evening. I really felt the Spirit while we stopped some people--we even got a new investigator out of one of them--he gave us the address of his ex-wife, and we had a little lesson with her and she invited us back, so we will do that tomorrow! Also, while we were doing yard work, we got a call from the APs. Elder Alston was being really friendly on the phone, and I was wondering why--my first thought was that I would be getting emergency transferred -- and then he told me we're getting a mini-missionary. I was skeptical at first, just cause I know how hard tripanionships are, but then I thought, "Heavenly Father answers prayers in mysterious ways" and I realized that this is an answer to prayers. So I've been saying a lot of gratitude prayers. SO this means I won't have P-day next Monday. It's on Saturday though. This coming Saturday.

Thursday: Interviews. I just love talking to Zr Robinson. She Always says what I need to hear. My interview with her was really short though. Then I talked to president for like 20 minutes. Just about what I'm learning and stuff. He's so aware of us.

Friday: Made a coffin out of cardboard boxes for the Halloween Party at the end of the month, had an EXCELLENT lesson with C about Fasting and tithing. She also got a blessing from the Elders, and once they left, she started freaking out about how amazing it was that she had a message from Heavenly Father. One of my favorite things on my mission is to see people realize how much their Father in Heaven loves them. I think just knowing that there is an all-powerful being that LOVES us and is aware of us gives us so much peace. Then, the sisters from Turnhout slept over. I got to talk to Zr A the whole night. It was amazing. I love her.

Saturday: SISTERS CONFERENCE! It was...weird. It was in the mission home and I've never seen so many females in the mission home. It was loud and crazy. Ethlyn was there!!! She sat right in front of me and Zr Aston. We talked about working in councils, which is something everybody needs to hear. We are ALWAYS in councils. There needs to be a Mutual agreement that it doesn't matter if our own ideas are chosen, as long as it's what Heavenly Father wants. Then we talked about the House of Israel and how once we're baptized, we are adopted into it. It helped me remember that I love missionary work. We bring so much hope to people. Then we talked about how soo many of us are leaving soon and how the other sisters are going to keep the culture of the mission the way it is--hard-working, professional, and loving.

Sunday: Church was good. We are working with this lady M, who actually doesn't live in our area, but she comes to Lelystad for church. I Always translate for her. She loved Church. She's from New Zealand. Then we had a GREAT lesson with Allister. His questions are fantastic. He is searching and he wants to know. He will, as long as he keeps praying

As I was cleaning this morning, I was thinking about how some things on a mission are just hard. They just ARE. Then I was thinking about how some of the situations we're in....I never want to find myself in them again. I was sort of panicked thinking that I would have to do all of these same hard things all over again, and then a really peaceful thought came to me that said that if I learn whatever I need to here, maybe I won't have to have this same thing again. Maybe I'll just be able to help somebody else later in life that's facing similar challenges. One of the things that was said at sisters conference that I really liked was this: Satan's plan was presented because he was scared. He feared that he wouldn't make it back to Heavenly Father if left to his own devices. Heavenly Father and Christ trust us. They do enough to let us come here and have hard times and they know that we CAN still make it back.

We got this. It’s tiring and hard and frustrating sometimes, but then when I'm in lessons with people like C or U or A, everything is put into perspective. These people are learning about something that will change their eternity. This message I bring is amazing, and I love being a part of it.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!!

Have a great week.

Liefs,

Zr Katherine Heilner

Week 69: YOU MAY NOT LEAVE THE CHURCH

October 6, 2014

Geliefde Familie:

Well, I love General Conference. I was listening for things about revelation and unity. Mostly to help my relationships with others and any future mission companionships, but then it just started to get really clear that I better find someone to marry who WILL NOT leave the Church ever and who will keep me from letting any of my doubts keep ME from progressing.

As an aside, it's interesting to think about where I will be next conference!

So updates on the onderzoekers.

Ch: Making great progress. She is just so willing to learn. I love it. I want to be as open as C is. She's going to England for 14 days, so we are making her a care package which is actually just a bunch of scriptures she will have to read. We are sneaky.

U: She is golden and just fell into our laps. She has basically been taught everything before and she is just waiting for some logistical things to happen so that she can get baptized. Her son, Tim, is 7 and so cute and he also loves church. YES.

B: the lesson went really well, actually. We taught the third lesson and just really focused on Christ. We talked about why we need to make covenants with our Heavenly Father to receive more power. I loved the lesson.

We helped some members Saturday afternoon do some gardening and pick some apples.  The Elders helped too. The family had a trampoline that we used to help us pick the apples.  The trampoline time was simply lovely!  Make sure Annie knows I'm still flexible!

I'm learning how important love is. It truly is the very essence of the gospel. We need to do things out of love or else it means nothing. Why are we on missions? Why do we have families? The successes of others do not mean that we aren't good enough. I love that about the gospel--er is ruimte genoeg voor iedereen in het celestiale koninkrijk. There’s room for everyone in the celestial kingdom. (...on the nice list...shout out to Mark)

ALSO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEANNA!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU. Thanks for being the big sister I never had. I hope you had an amazing day. You are wonderful.

And Noah, but he doesn't read this.

The Church is so true. I love you all. I just want to be an eternal family so bad. But, I and my personal institute teacher (Elder Warner) were talking about what that actually means. We are all family with each other, so our family is literally never ending. I had never thought about it so plainly like that.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Heilner

Week 68: Trials of Faith

September 29, 2014

We were in Schiphol and took a picture by the "I Amsterdam" dingus

Geliefde Familie:

This week was tough, I'm not gonna lie. We saw a lot of miracles in the beginning of the week, but it just was rough. I got flipping sick again! I hate food poisoning! But, it was really cool because we've been learning about how we need to have improved studies and make really tailored lesson plans and once studies started, I was feeling fine. Then we had the lesson that we had planned for. It was so good! It didn't go exactly as planned because we planned on sharing a video that we couldn't get to work on her TV, but we talked about eternal families and being sealed. We asked if she believed she could be sealed to her family forever and she said, "I don't know, but I want that." So that was cool. The Spirit was strong. Then we started biking away and I got feeling so sick. Zr AA was raving the whole bike ride about how cool the lesson was and I was just praying that I wouldn't throw up. Then we got to our next lesson, and miraculously, she couldn't meet. WHAT?! It was okay though because we are getting another appt with her. It was positive. Then we went home and I was siiiiick, but I started feeling better so we could go to our next appt (this was a really busy day). So, basically, the rest of the day was kinda rough, but it worked out because I think we REALLY needed to be at that lesson with M. She's from Ghana and she told me that my Ghanian name would be Katherine Mame Adjoa Heilner. Do you think we can change that on my birth certificate?

My companion sang me Phantom of the Opera this week. All I Ask of You. I loved it. It made me miss Alyssa--she LOVES Phantom.

Zone training was great! I got to see the WML from Den Haag. He bore his testimony there. He's the most Christ like man I've ever met. He is the epitome of "turning outward."

My watch also broke this week. Ugh.

So we had a lesson with some really cool investigators on Friday night.  Anyway, we were teaching the plan of salvation and we were able to answer all of their questions. Long story short, the lesson was intense, but I liked it. It was challenging, but we had a comeback to every one of their issues. I thought we taught with clarity.  But I don’t think we are going to be able to continue to teach them.

After this very rough week, I started reading my patriarchal blessing and praying and then I was reading a talk from Pres Eyring called Trials of Faith. It's a devotional that he gave at Ricks College, and I can't find it right now, but it basically says that we need to be humble. It also says you'll understand that some of those days when you thought things were going badly were a great blessing. You might not have sought them, but if you react to such days by recognizing your dependence on God, you could actually be in a better situation that if things had gone extremely well. I really needed to hear that.

I miss you guys a lot. This is never easy, but it's okay because I didn't sign up for easy. And neither did any of you when you chose to come to earth. I love you all and I am thankful for the love and support.

Spence, CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUUUUU!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Liefs,

Zr Katherine Heilner

We were challenged to do a bunch of weird things together, one of them was take an upside-down picture

Week 67: Crazy Week!

September 22, 2014

Geliefde Familie:

First, Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you, and there's a letter in the mail for you.

So this week at church, I translated all three hours. My tongue is actually sore from rubbing against my retainer so much...pathetic? Yes. I never realized how much people talk. Usually I get an hour break in between sacrament and RS for Sunday School (which is usually taught in English) but I had to translate all three hours. Why, you ask?

BECAUSE WE FINALLY HAD INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! HALLELUJAH. F and his mom, C. They are two of three members of the B family that we teach. They also invited one of their friends to take the lessons with them. It's amazing. F especially is so ready to learn. C has a lot of interesting views about spirituality, but I think she liked church. She said it was kind of distracting how loud the children were...shoot, welcome to Mormonism. We have another appt with them on Friday, woo!

C was sick this week, but we still met with her once. She is doing well. We love it. She's so humble and willing to learn.

A, the African I told you about last week is SO COOL! I love teaching him. He has the BEST questions and is SUCH an honest seeker of truth. He wants to know.

V is ALSO an honest seeker. He's a little bit...well, he's going to be difficult to get to church, but it'll be okay. We can do it. He has a crazy story, involving people having a weed plantation (I don't think that's the proper term, but it's okay), but basically he needs the gospel and he knows it and he loves reading the BoM.

We made Surinam’s food this week. Roti, one of my favorite things I've had op zending. I'll need to learn how to make it without the packets you can buy at the grocery store so that I can make it for you guys.

Well, I love you guys. I love learning about the Pre-existence. You know, we chose each other because we knew we'd be what we needed to get through this life. And to learn from each other. We all developed very very different gifts before we came here, and so now we're better equipped to help each other. I love you and I'm so grateful for your examples. Post a Mormon message on Facebook this week.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Katherine Heilner

Some pictures of Den Haag--Familie Scherf. On Zr GW's last day.

Week 66: The seeds have been planted.

September 15, 2014

Geliefde Familie:  

MTC district!

We didn't get transferred.

Oh so Mom, James' area in Hamburg is right next to where your's was. And he loves it. He's like, "I bet I'll meet people that your parents know!" So that's pretty cool!

I had a pretty interesting talk with Zr Robinson after Mission Conference. She told me that there's a reason that I'm here in Lelystad. She also told me that the more leadership positions she's held, the more her circle of influence increases, but the lonelier she feels. Sure, she's got President, but who's to say that his day was any easier? It was really interesting. She said at the end, "You're a good missionary, Zr Heilner. And you're a good woman." It was good to know that she really believes that I'm here for a reason.

So want to hear something cool that Elder Ballard shared with the Stake and Ward leaders of the Europe area? He told them to speak their mission language for 20 minutes a day because you never know when you'll get called to use it again. COOL. I hope I use Dutch again.

C: she's doing great. We had a bit of a scare when she told us her parents don't know we meet, but then she told us that she did get permission, so phew. It's going well. We introduced her to more ward members and she loves them. 

We found a ton of new investigators. A couple of weeks ago, before we were told not to go door-to-door, we found a really cool African, and we'd been trying to follow up for weeks and we taught him last night finally. He gets it. We were talking about why he can't just keep going to his church and reading the BoM. Why he needs the Priesthood. 

One of the members who was on a mini mission two years ago took us to look up a family that he had taught. They set up an appointment, and we met with them this week. The mom has some really interesting ideas about Spirituality and reincarnation, but the son is REALLY open and cool. He wants to know everything about all the churches, but he committed to reading in the Book of Mormon and praying about it, so I know that in time, he'll come to know that it's true.

Mission conference was awesome. I got to sit by Ethlyn and Zr A. I miss her so much. I realized the importance of surrounding myself with people of like mind and testimony. Zr A leaned over and said to me, "Is this what the Celestial Kingdom will feel like" haha...she has six weeks. 

I learned a ton and got to sit by them at mission conference <3

Well, sorry this is kinda lame, but I love you guys and I know that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. We have a lot of new investigators and we're going to be working really hard to get them to progress. Seeds of faith have been planted and I hope they grow into huge trees. 

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Zr Katherine Heilner

I don't think we've ever taken a normal picture but he's (Elder Muse) dying in two days 

She’s got four weeks! This is such a Heliner-Hudson moment! (I don't even remember who caught it.)