12-9-2013

12-9-2013

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 15:44:02 +0800
Subject: Move call and the goodbye's
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Family and friends!

This week has been a good one full of people to meet, places to see and big changes. so lets just dive right in =)

First because this week was the last one before move call the English class that we teach had a party to celebrate the occasion and to allow a lot of the English student's as well as some ward members to just come and say goodbye.  So we went down to Douliu, had a good time, talked with a lot of people and kind of said some good byes because we didn't know who was going where.  After that I had the chance to go on transfers with the Zone Leaders here which was really awesome, its always good to be with new missionaries and see how they do the missionary work, how they teach and how I can improve the way I teach and find through them.  During the exchange I had the chance to meet with one of our coolest investigators named Sister Zhang.  I have mentioned her before but we came and tried to help her translate the name of some random agriculture machinery because her husband sells that kind of stuff.  It was kinda fun and we had a really good spiritual share right after that talking about scriptures and the importance of them.

Later that week I also had the chance to go on exchanges with the District leader here which is in Douliu, so I was with a Taiwanese person named Elder Yeh for a day and while we were talking he told me about his conversion story, which was really cool but after he told me about it I noticed something interesting while we were out proselyting, which is this, everybody, no matter who they are or where they come from has a part of the gospel that they really love, be it the plan of salvation, the missionaries, the Book of Mormon or anything else, they all have one, and while Elder Yeh was telling me about his conversion story he said that the first thing that the missionaries said to him was "Hey are you happy today?"  and that is what really struck home with him, so while we were out preaching the gospel that is how he would start every conversation or every contact.  and so I realized that the way people do missionary work is a real reflection on what they like about the gospel, what they think of it and what part they like about it. Kind of interesting

Well Finally the biggest piece of news this week is that after 3 move calls hanging out in Huwei the time has come that I get a new companion!..  His name is Elder Stratford, he comes from Salt Lake City, the only thing that I really knew about him before I met him was that he is able to read and write in Elvish (from Lord of the Rings) and after meeting him I have learned that he's a really chill guy.  So I'm really excited to start working with him and seeing how the work goes with a new companion!

Well thats about it for this week.  Hope that you all have a good one and are able to keep smiling and stay happy!!

Until next week

Elder Heaton

Still hanging in Huwei

何長老

12-2-2013

12-2-2013

Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2013 11:24:12 +0800
Subject: Young Men's and Mr. Soup
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Family and friends!

Things are going good here in the land of Huwei and as the temperature cools down we have been starting to wear jackets and buy warmer foods for snacks.  All in all everything is going good and we are enjoying our time here, meeting with some cool people and just having a good time.

So as far as food things go I think the thing that I want to mention is a little thing called buo ba (bwoah bah) which are little black balls, about the size of a marble, really soft and you add them to your drinks for something extra to suck up in or straw... or just because they taste good, either way.  they have a smaller version called zhen zhu which means pearl, but its usually about 5-10 NT which is about 1 quarter, to add to a drink and its really good.  Also another interesting thing that I want to note is just that here, when its cold out everything you drink is going to be warm... thats just the way it is, and so as you go visit people's houses they will give you warm/hot water and normally when you buy stuff from a tea stand people will ask if you want it warm. Kind of a different thing, but it makes sense when you think about it... so yeah I've been drinking a lot of warm things lately.

So beyond that as far as the work goes, we have noticed lately that our young men's and young women's program here in huwei... doesn't really exist, yesterday in sacrament we had a grand total of zero people in either class, it was a little interesting so see seeing as how my young men's class had like 20 people in it and there just always seemed to have people.  So this week, because we sometimes have some young investigators that we would want to go to that class, we have talked with the leaders here to see if there were any people we could work with and try to get them back to church.  So this week we will probably talk with some of them and see if we can get them up and running.

I think the final thing I want to talk about is that we had mission tour this week, and for it we had Elder Randy Funk come (He spoke in this last Conference) and we talked a lot about making sure people are converted and just making sure that we were teaching all the doctrine in a simple, direct way that the spirit could testify to.  It was good and I was able to see a lot of people from my MTC district there.

Well that was pretty much my week, things are going well and this week is move call and so next week I might be going somewhere else, or I might stay longer in Huwei, only time will tell, but I know that wherever I go it will be according to where the lord needs me and where I can be of the most service.  Know I'm doing well and that the people are treating me nice =)

Until Next week

Elder Heaton

何長老