Mom,

I am emailing you last, and I am not sure what to say. I am loving my mission. You are right that I am growing a lot. All of my priorities have shifted. I have such a different perspective on things, it is really amazing. I love it. I am so grateful for the work you and Dad have put in to give me this experience. Hopefully I will be able to pay you back for it. The Gospel is the best thing in the world! Ha, there are some of the affects of my mission right there. 

 

This week was a good one. I am happy because the zone had one of the best weeks it has had the whole time I have been a zone leader. I love being a zone leader because I have the opportunity to forget about myself even more than as a normal missionary. I love it, it gives me the opportunity to serve a lot. We had Chris at church again this week, he is a great. I did an exchange with a missionary from Liverpool and another from Northern Ireland. Ha, the Brits are the best. I am not too sure what else to write. Sorry, my brain seems to be working slowly right now. 

 

Thank you for keeping me up to date on what is happening in the family. We have the best one in the whole world! Love you all so much. I think a recent convert might add you on Facebook, her family just got baptized. Awesome family! You should accept the friend request. 

 

I have to go but love you and have a good one. 

 

Elder Hegerhorst

Sent July 29, 2013

Mom,

I know you always want a really large letter for me I am just not sure what to write. This week we had zone conference down in Poole. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get down there, and the same to get back. It was really tiring in that sense, but it was a really good conference. We learned a lot about using members more in missionary work. It is something the church is putting a massive emphasis on right now. We all need to do more than we are right now. We had two investigators at church yesterday. One was a guy from Jamaica we met the night before. He is really cool. His mother is an investigator of ours and she had us over for a bbq. It was really good! They make some really nice chicken. whoo! Of course I am focusing on food. We also had a man named Chris at church. He is really cool. He was studying a lot with the JW's recently, but it didn't work out with him and now we are teaching him. He is really cool. He drove to church in Bath which is pretty far from where he is from... probably a 40 minute drive. Stuff like that really shows some dedication, so we are really happy to work with him.

We had a cool miracle yesterday. We had a goal for the day that we wanted to invite someone to be baptized and we did not have any appointment with investigators that we could invite, so we knew we would have to invite someone on the door step of the street. We decided to knock and we prayed mightily that there would be a person on that street we could invite. We got knocking and met some good people, but no one that was interested. Then we knocked on this door and a woman answered. We got talking to her and she opened up and told us that her brother has cancer and she is really struggling with it. It was really cool, because we were able to bear powerful testimony of the atonement. I really felt the spirit. Those are the best moments. She told us she would be baptized if she came to know it was true. We are seeing her this Saturday.

Well, I hope this is a long enough letter. I love you and thank you for all that you do!

Have a great week.

 

Elder Hegerhorst

Sent July 22, 2013

Dad,

Things are going well here. I really enjoy the weather, it is just really nice to have a change of pace and to feel the sun on my face. I think that we take that for granted in Utah. ha. The weather there is just so different. I think we came up with a good zone vision for the transfer. We had a meeting last Friday, where we got all the district leaders from our zone. It was good because we believe that if we can help our district leaders catch the vision we have for the zone then we will have a lot of success.

We had a kind of crazy week, but it was a lot of fun. We did two exchanges, one with the elders in Portishead and the other with the elders in Minehead. It is always fun to do an exchange, they really help you to work hard because you want to show them a good example (not that we should need that as an incentive). We saw a lot of good things happen. We taught 23 lessons in our area this week, which is pretty good. We are kind of in the building stages right now again, so it is fun. We met some really good people and had some spiritual experiences. I would like to say I am starting to understand missionary work, but I am sure I am not. ha.

I hope President Mitchell stays as well. I would really like to have him as my coming home stake president, but heyho. I love you dad. The church is true. I know that God answers prayers and He is aware of everyone of us. Have a great week.

Elder Hegerhorst

With Elder Christensen
Bath, City of the Living

Mom,

I love that billboard! It is really funny. I forgot we have such nice mountains in Utah as well! whoo! It is because we have such a great outdoors in Utah that we are so tempted to take such risks. Josh looks like Tyler. How weird. How old is Josh now? 10? I can't remember how old he is, lame. What is happening with Ali? Tell her that she is in trouble with me. Kate's team is good again? I feel lost as to which team she is on now, and if they are good or not. Good to see she is winning though, there is no better feeling. Tell them all I love them

I am not too sure what to say about this week. I feel like I just told it all to dad and now there is nothing for me to say. Okay, I will tell you a random story that was funny, but yet it was spiritual. So, we have a Jamaican investigator named Liz and we wanted to teach her with a Jamaican lady in the ward named Jean. We set it all up to happen this Friday. We got to the teach and Liz wasn't home, so we were scrambling trying to figure out what we could do now that we had Jean with us ( you have to make the most out of the time you get to work with a member). I remembered that we had another Jamaican potential investigator that we could stop by and Jean said she knew them ( there must be an under ground Jamaican community that we are unaware of). We drove over and knocked on the door, Icelyn (the potential) answered and we got into conversation. Eventually she invited us in. We sat down and started talking about religion, Jean started to tell her conversion story, and this weird thing started to happen, everytime Jean would say a positive thing they would chant "yes, yes,yes" or if it was negative "no, no,no".  This went on for quite a while and the whole time I was just smiling. They were talking about some funny doctrine and the whole time my companion and I did not say a thing. I felt like I did not understand what was happening. It was like a Jamaican language. It was so funny! At least I thought so. It was also cool because we now have a return appointment for this week with Jean again. I tthink we will just let Jean speak, because she really seems to know how to relate to them.

I got my licsence by the way, I don't know if I told you that. It happened about three weeks ago! the test here is like 100 times harder. The Lord definitely helped me pass. We should be getting a new car this week, which is pretty nice. I am happy! You stay happy mom. You are a wonderful mother. Talk to you next week! 

Elder Hegerhorst

Sent July 15, 2013

Mom,

Yes, it was a fantastic experience to see the Daniels get baptized. They are a wonderful family. We had a really cool experience yesterday. Elder Baxter of the seventy is the father of a woman in our ward and he is visiting her right now. He came to church yesterday and spoke for about fifteen minutes. It was really cool because he directed most of his talk to the Daniels. He is a funny man as well, he had the ward laughing on a couple of occasions. The spirit was so powerful as he spoke, he talked to us about receiving the priesthood and what a privilege it is. I liked it a lot.

My new companion is from Virginia. His name is Elder Christensen.  He has been on his mission one more transfer than I have.  This is his first time being a zone leader. He is a really hard worker. I have learned that already.  We have had a couple of opportunities to do service with him and he works hard to get the job done. It will be a good transfer.

Things are going pretty well. We are in the building process now that the week is over. It has been ridiculously hot here the last couple of days, I am dying. Glad to hear everyone is doing so well there. Sounds like you and Father had a good time on your anniversary. Congrats on 22 years of eternity! Love you two. Hope you have good week. talk to you later.

Elder Hegerhorst

Sent July 8, 2013

Mother & family,

I am sorry that I have so little time this week. I just drove Elder Evans to the office elders who will take him to the temple until he goes home on Wednesday. I am now with Elder White, who is a missionary in my zone whose companion also went home.  I won't get my official companion till Wednesday. The Daniels did get baptized! It was a very spiritual experience, I feel so blessed to have been a part of it. I baptized the son and Elder Evans baptized the parents. Yesterday I confirmed the parents and Elder Evans confirmed the son. It was Awesome! There is nothing more spiritual than that. It is has to be one of the best weekends of my mission. The weather has been nice so it makes everything more enjoyable.

Grace got baptized I am so proud of her. She is now in the fold of God. Glad to hear she got my post card. Love her. Good to hear you all had a wonderful 4th. The ward had a BBQ on the 5th so I felt like I kind of celebrated it as well. It was really cool. I should probably get going, but thank you for the emails. Sorry this is so short. I wish I had a bit more time, but I don't. I know the church is true, Grace definitely made the right choice.

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Hegerhorst

Sent July 1, 2013

Mom,

I don't know where the time has gone today. I seem to not have much time left. The picture of Grace is fantastic! She does look really old. The Daniels are getting baptized this Saturday, so Grace will be getting baptized on the same day. It will be a very special day for me.

We saw a lot of miracles this week. The major one was in the change of heart Paul Daniels had. He was unsure of baptism, but something just changed this week. It is such a blessing to be able to see that change take place in a persons life. It will be the first time I have seen a whole family come into the church. Big blessing! Elder Evans has his last week as a missionary this week,  so that is going to be fun as well.

 Well I need to go, a lot to get done today and my fingers are tired. I love you though mom. Thank you for all you do!

Elder Hegerhorst