Mother,

 

Elder Sparks is a really good missionary. We get along really well. We tend to probably joke around too much. We have some nerf guns in our flat and sometimes those can cause epic battles when we are in the flat.

 

We actually got fed really well for Thanksgiving. Sister **** fed us. She is from Utah, so it was a proper American meal. Elder Sparks and I were very happy. For Pday today we are going to Orpington where there are some couple missionaries that are from America and they are making another meal. We are kind of spoiled. This ward is really good. We don't get too many member referrals, but it is something that President Millar is putting a large emphasis on. It is something that I need to improve on also. We get fed a lot here. I think we were fed 5 times last week, so that is really nice.

 

We have a really large conference this week. Elder Kearon of the 70 is coming. I think that they are going to be changing a lot of things. President Millar sent us an email telling us that we are going to be getting a bunch of new missionaries soon and we all need to be ready to train. It is going to be fun.

 

Elder Sparks and I were forced to do a lot of finding this week. It went well.  We have some calls to make now and see if we can start seeing these people. We have a 13 year old girl named **** right now that is preparing to be baptised. She went to mutual on Thursday, which is really good. She should be getting baptised on the 15 of December.

 

I will keep Jenny in my prayers. How bad is what she has? I don't really get it. I love you mom. You are the best! Have a good week.

 

Elder Hegerhorst

Mother,

 

The ***** are in Utah? Weird I didn't think that they went there for a like another month at least. I guess they decided to go early. They are great. Things are great here. Although it is quite different from Red hill. Red hill was just like a peaceful little town, but Maidstone is like a proper city and our area is huge. There are lots of places in the area that we can not even make it to because buses just don't go there. Elder Sparks is my new companion and he is a goof. He is from Lindon, he knows some of the same people I do. He went to PG high. So he is a lame viking.

 

There is not too much going on here if you know what I mean. We have one lady getting baptised this saturday, but she is really our only investigator. Actually that is not true, we met a cool guy named **** last week and we saw him yesterday, he is really cool. So now we have him as an investigator. The area has a ton of potential though. It has been so much fun contacting people on the street. There is a really big high street here, which means there is a really busy town centre. It is fun. Elder Sparks and I meet all kinds of people and we really have fun with it. It is really fun serving with someone from Utah because we have so many things in common.

 

We are going to a place called Leeds castle today which should be really fun. I have always wanted to go to a castle. A really cool youth from the ward is taking us. The ward here is awesome. They have a great fire for missionary work. I have been blessed to have really good wards on my mission. We ate at the ***** last night.

 

We had to go in early on Halloween, because apparently Halloween is a day for punk kids here. That is no fun. Anyway, I am good. the work is good. Things are getting cold here haha.The gospel is so amazing. Hope all is well for you.

 

Love you to death mom. Thanks for all that you do for me. you are the best

 

Elder Hegerhorst

Mother!

Yes ***** was baptised!! I will send you a picture if I get time. I have been getting your pictures by the way and Kate and Grace's stuff, I thought that I responded to Grace. I will try to respond to Kate if I get time. You should just let her get an email address, she is a teenager.  BUT HERE IS THE BIG NEWS. I am getting moved. My new area will be in Maidstone with Elder Sparks. He a missionary from Utah and he is in the same MTC group as Elder Fingerle. I am sad to leave Elder Fingerle, he is such a good guy. I am going to miss him a lot. We have become good friends.

So I am not sure how much time I have because we are with the zone leaders right now and we have to go to the temple to meet up with Elder Sparks and switch companions kind of thing. It is so weird to be leaving Red Hill.  I have been there for my whole mission, which is one fourth of the way done! These kind of things get me really stressed haha. It is just so weird. Do you get stressed a lot? I think that I do. Ha.

Man, Tanner is such a good guy! I think he surprised me on a number of occasion. The time when I had my collar bone broken and he came over and talked with me meant a lot. I remember seeing how much he really cared. He is going to be an amazing missionary. I am glad to hear that he saw me as an example. I always think it is weird when people say I was a good example. It is something that I want to improve because you are right, we never know when someone is watching.

Your pictures are so funny! I just showed Elder Fingerle and he thinks that you guys are so cool. I told him that dad loves to get dressed up and that Halloween is way bigger in the states. I was trying to explain to him yesterday about how people will go all out to decorate their homes. He wants to come visit after his mission and I want to go visit him, so I am going to need to come up with some major cash.  Laura is a punk. Tell her good luck with all of that if I do not get the chance to. I can't believe all these people are coming on missions. Have you seen the statistics of how many people have been putting in their paper recently? It is crazy.

We had a good last week in Red Hill.  We were blessed to meet some really cool people. Hopefully Elder Fingerle will be able to work with them. It was really hard to say good bye to the ward. I have really come to love those people, they are so strong in the gospel. The Epsom ward is awesome. I love them. I hope it will go as well in my other area.

Well I should go. Sorry this isn't my biggest letter. remember "faithless is he that turns back when the road darkens" JRR Tolkien. A great quote. It is one that has helped me. When times get hard we need to press on. Ether 12:6. I love you very much. Have a great week.

Elder Hegerhorst

Mom,

 

Wow, you are right, conference is like a whole new world when you are on a mission. It reminded me of why I am out here. Some times I tend to get bogged down in the stress of it all. Am I working hard enough? why aren't these people progressing? we need to find new people, am I being a good companion? do I have the spirit enough? these things all get me stressed, but conference kind of just brought it all down to the basics. I do this because I love the Lord and because of all the things He has done for me. I love conference, each talk kind of falls under two categories for me. 1. the ones that chasten me and want me to become a better person and missionary. 2. the ones that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and get me to say "wow, the church is so true". I don't think I comprehended the meaning of the phrase the church is true until I got out here and saw all of the different denominations. Just in our area someone told me that there are 77 different organized churches! That is crazy.

 

Cami is going to go on a mission! Man, how great is this. Our whole family is going to be on a mission. ha. Oh that brings so much joy to my heart. What did you think of the announcment. I expected the boys one, but not the sisters. How wierd to think that there are going to be girls in the mission younger than me. Weird.  Tell Cami to write me please, that punk never does.

 

We had a pretty fun day yesterday. We all went to Crawley, which is the stake center and watched conference with like ten missionaries. It was really cool. Afterward the members of our district came and spent the night in our flat because they were going to get home at like 10:30 if they took the train and that is quite late for us missionaries. It was fun, we made a huge dinner with all of the random things that we had left over in our flat. (it was not the best meal)

 

We had a really cool experience this week. We were walking on the road and met this guy named ****, and we gave him a Book of Mormon and were able to talk to him about it. Then we said a prayer right there in the street and we are seeing him tomorrow.  Those are the moments we live for as missionaries.

 

I love you so much mom. Have a great week and enjoy being with the family.

 

Love Elder Hegerhorst

Letter Sent September 30th

Mother,

 

Our week was great. It was a really busy one as always. We had a total of 25 teaches which is the best I have had my entire mission. Our investigators are all really cool but a lot of them are not really progressing which is a little frustrating at times. We have a really hard time getting them to church  because they ask "where is your church?" then we have to say Epsom which is a thirty minute drive and there is no way to get there by public transport. So that is not the most fun because coming to church is such a key part in coming closer to Christ.

 

Man, It sounds like you were in paradise last week. I am extremly jealous. did you look at the weather here in England and think to yourself " wow, we have it good" haha kidding, but the weather has been pretty bad this week. I have bought a suit and a good jacket so no worries. I stay nice and warm. That is a crazy story with those weird break off people.

 

We had a really cool experience with **** this week. we have been trying to give him a date to be baptised on for a while, but haven't been able to because he thinks that baptism can kind of be put off. We were able to talk to him about how important it is to come into the church as fast as possible and not to procrastinate baptism. In the end he finally received a date and all went well. He is scheduled to be baptised on the 27.  I love teaching people from all over the world. This week we taught people from Pakistan, Romania, Hungary, Brazil,  and England.  That is all I can think of right now, but it really has opened my mind up to things.

 

It's good to hear that Alex is doing well. Yes, I go to the public library to email so that is nice, but we only get an hour which is why I have to be hurried at times.  Well I love you guys. I am sending Kate something for her birthday but it is going to be late so tell her that it is coming. love you mom.

 

elder hegerhorst