Levi's last 6 weeks!

so yea, I said new companion. but elder Hendry isn't the one being tranfered. im getting transferred. for 6 weeks! yea pretty dang crazy. I did not expect that to happen at all. I was actually thinking it would be cool to go be in one more area for 6 weeks but I didn't expect it to be in this ward. so the new ward im gonna be in is in rocklin. its called granite bay 2nd ward and its the ward that the mission president lives in. so maybe i'll be having dinner with the mission president and his family haha. that would be cool. but im still a zone leader. its just really hard to deal with leaving the people here in auburn after I was here for a while and worked hard for them and their salvation. its like a super bitter sweet situation. im having a really hard time with auburn especially because I didn't have any baptisms here and I didn't really see any body progress really far so im having a hard time thinking if I did what the lord wanted me to do here. I remember my mission president telling me in an interview right after I got into this area "elder heward, I really need you to dig your heels in here". that hit me like a ton of bricks. this zone has been struggling with success and helping people get baptized and it still is and I just felt like that if I dug my heels in the ground like president Weston said then the baptisms would increase and the success would go up and everyones faith would increase. thinking about it now though, the lords success is different than what my idea of success would be. maybe I wasn't supposed to help any body get baptized here but just to prepare them for the next missionaries. whatever it was I really hope to have the spirit confirm to me that what I did here was acceptable to he lord. we'll see. I been learning patience so I will just keep waiting patiently. theres a difference between waiting and waiting patiently. weird huh? kinda hit me this morning. well it doesn't matter when the lord will bless you but that you stay faithful so he can bless you when he sees fit to do so. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Amber's Closing Quote

I would like to thank EVERYBODY who has been a part of these last amazing 18 months of my life. You have been such great examples and teachers to me and have always made me feel loved. I will never forget the lasting friendships I have made. One of the many things I have learned is that we cannot find any greater happiness then by SHARING the gospel and LIVING the gospel. Just like Alma, "I do not glory of myself....this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance, and this is my joy." (Alma 29:9) I have the greatest blessing of seeing one of my recent converts receive her endowments and then 2 weeks after I get home, I will see her be sealed to her husband. There is no greater joy then this. Do all you can to keep sharing the joy of this gospel with EVERYONE around you! -Sister Amber Heward

yea this past week was really awesome. we set a baptismal date with one of our investigators for june 1st. if she keeps all her commitments and reads and prays then she will for sure be ready to be baptized by june 1st. it was so cool though because we weren't planning on having a lesson with her or even setting a date but it happened. it was such a testimony builder to me that this is the lords work and when he wants his work to progress then it will progress regardless of what other people choose to do. in doctrine and covenants, in chapter 3 it says that it is not the work of god that is frustrated but the work of men. it truly is. we are the ones to choose not do be obedient to the rules or to spread the gospel but the work of god will move on. anyways, I was able to go to the chiropractor this morning to get fixed and all that good stuff. don't worry, nothing is wrong. I just felt completely out of place and we have a chiropractor in our ward so I thought what the heck. so anyways, everything is going awesome. so we have this place in our area called the greens and it is completely full of Mexicans. there used to be a Spanish branch here but it got dissolved into the ward and now there is just Spanish classes. we had dinner with a Mexican lady last week and it was so awesome because it was like I was a Spanish missionary for a little while except I didn't know Spanish at all. well I love you all. thank you for all you do and I hope you all have an awesome week! Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Sister Heward's Coming Home!

For those of you that don't know, Sister Heward is flying in next week on the 14th! She reports on May 26th at 1 o clock So yes this week was pretty crazy...i'm sure this week will be crazier but oh well. So some pretty sweet stuff happened this week. First off, Wednesday was zone conference which is always awesome but even better was that night i got to go to the temple to see Jen get her endowments out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that???? It's seriously like a dream. I honestly couldnt stop smiling and at times when we would get up and change our clothes and stuff she would turn and look at me and smile. Then even better was walking into the celestial room and seeing Jen right there come up and give me a hug and she says, "thank you so much. thank you. thank you." of course we both had tears in our eyes. And i said to her, "no, thank you Jen. There couldn't have been any better way for me to end my mission then this. I was so blessed to be there. And to think a whole year ago she was baptized. Gosh where does the time go. Then get this. We rode to the temple with President and Sister Godwin (yeah they were invited also so we felt pretty lucky to ride with them) and by the time we got out of the temple it was 9:30 (curfew time) and then as we were driving away sister godwin says, " honey do you think there is a frozen yogurt place around or something we could go to?" hahahahah can you believe that? Me and sister ott looked at each other in the back seat not sure what to say cause of course we wanna go get some frozen yogurt with them PAST CURFEW!! hahah so President totally drove us to a frozen yogurt place and we just sat and ate it together. Then we got to their house at 10:30 then finally made it home by 11. insane huh? It actually was really cool to watch though. Because i can't even comprehend how exhausted they are (cause zone conference was all that week) but they still wanted to make time for frozen yogurt with us. They really taught me to enjoy EACH day and don't let each precious moment or memory go by without making it the greatest. Even when times are exhausting, we need to make the best of it =) They are so awesome!! okay for our awesome miracle this week. So our zone leaders are really into encouraging us to find "seekers" or those who want to listen and be baptized right away. So after we had gotten out of a lesson with a less active that didn't go well at all, i was so frustrated. and as we were driving away i said "man i am so SICK of teaching people who don't wanna listen. I feel like we are just forcing it down their throat. What do we do to find seekers!?" haha so we looked at each other and said "alright let's put this to the test." so we said a very sincere prayer asking heavenly father to guide us to people who will listen. we both felt like we needed to tract and picked a street together. We made goals with each other and Heavenly Father that we would talk to EVERYONE we saw. We got to the street and i realized there was a former investigator on the street. As we were getting out of the car we noticed a less active, heather, had just walked by with her friend. Well we ignored that and walked up to the house and no one answered....we were down on ourselves thinking that was why we were at that street and then we both realized that we were supposed to talk to HEATHER and her friend. We decided to hurry and drive to see if we could find them (kinda creepy stalkerish i know haha) well we didn't find them and i just parked on a random street. Man we felt so bad and prayed again to heavenly father to apologize for not talking to them and asked for one more time to guide us to them or wherever we needed to go. We both felt strongly to stay on the street and tract it. Well i was getting out of the car and look across the street and you wouldn't believe what i saw......Heather and her friend getting our of a car and going into her friends house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was completely blown away! I quickly told sister ott to look across the street and she looked and then stared at me in amazement. I started getting tears in my eyes because this was no coincidence and i knew without a doubt we were really supposed to talk to these girls and something awesome was about to happen. Well we walked up and knocked on the door and heather answered (this isn't her house so we acted surprised that she answered) and we were like "wow what are the odds seeing you here?" haha then her friend walked up and started talking to us and began telling us how she has been wanting to go to church with heather but hasn't been able to and also her sister amanda has been reading the bom and wants to be mormon!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah it was pretty incredible and we totally had just found 'seekers'. Miracles really do happen. Also later that day we tracted into a girl named Ligaya who said right after we introduced who we were "I think i just prayed you here." =) sweet huh. She had just bought a house in eastvale and was really looking for a church to go to with her kids and had just prayed a little bit ago and then we knocked. man i love when that happens. Well i love you all SOOO VERY MUCH!! This gospel is amazing and i love being a missionary! see you all soon! -sister amber ruth heward

wow. sounds like everyone is just having an awesome life. I wish I was part of it. just messing. . its gonna be weird coming home to that stuff. anyways, yea so real quick. this past week was good. we got a new phone its a touch screen one and its so weird because Im used to the older ones and now theyre getting all hi tech with us. anyways, we have a pickup as well. I don't know if I told you that already. so we talked to everyone this past week. really. everyone we saw walking on the side of the road we talked to. it was hilarious. we would fake like we were tying out shoe so we would meet up with the person to be able to talk to them. its so great though when you get excited about the gospel and just want to tell every single person about it. anyways, we had a few really good lessons this week. my comp is a stud. we get along so well. we are both super obedient and we want to teach the gospel in the best way possible. we just recently had a really good dinner thought and the spirit was there so strong. it was because we fixed a teeny tiny thing that really wasn't that big of a deal but because we put effort in fixing it, the lord blessed up with an abundance of the spirit. so yea that is kinda whats going on right now in my life as a missionary. we are working hard. we are always tired. its kinda funny how tired but happy I am. well thank you family and mom for all you do and for the update on everyones life. tell kurt and zenna happy birthday for me. I forget until the day after. anyways, I will talk to you all next week. hope you have an amazing family night and an awesome week! Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

so as you know (from texting aunt gail) haha we went to the temple today and it was wonderful!! Also on saturday i got to see kellie (peavler) johnson!! Words can't explain how excited we both were. it was one of those things where we didn't know what to say but just screamed alot and hugged each other for a long time but then the ward started coming and we barely had any time to talk to eachother. haha towards the end we were saying to eachother how sad we didn't really get to hang out and visit but it was still fun to see so many people. And she also said that her and cameron are planning on coming to my farewell AND also devon and jen =) haha they actually asked me if they could all stay at my house.......uhhh i told them yes but of course i'll need to talk to the head of the house. haha They said they would be willing to sleep wherever of course. Devon just kept saying how he just loved being at the farm and being with my family and jen loves you mom. They absolutely LOVE you guys. haha. Anyway it'll be a full house im sure. I can sleep on the tramp if i have to......hahahahah and kyle you can sleep with me ;) Also before i forget, dad i have some questions for you from Frank, my recent convert. He was asking about cows and he was wondering if there was a certain number of calves a cow can have or does it just depend on the cow and you try to have them have as many calves as possible? also what do you do with the cow when they can't have calves anymore? Do you just butcher it? Also here's some big news.....we set a baptism date with Edna!!!!!!!!!!!! halleluja!! She is so incredible and she keeps saying how she has changed so much and can't believe she likes the mormon church so much. About a month ago she would never be saying the things she's saying now. She actually told us the other day though that she is still really scared to leave the catholic behind but knows so deeply by the way she feels that she's supposed to be mormon. It's hard to hear that but we told her that not all good decisions are meant to be easy but they are scary sometimes but we need to make her understand that we are only adding happiness and blessings to what she already believes and loves. She'll come around. But we set a date for april 27th but i think it'll be moved back cause i don't think we'll have enough time to teach her all the lessons. We have to teach them ALL again cause we she was being taught them before she was WAY closed off and didn't care to learn at all (very prideful) so we taught her the restoration yesterday and it went awesome! Her 2 daughters also sat in and their son-in-law and one daughter was asking question after question. i love her! and she kept saying "so i just think it would be good to learn about mormons but i don't think i'll ever change" and then edna goes "that's exactly what i said and look where i am now!" haha and also we were talking to the son-in-law and he was saying how his grandma had died and that's when he stopped believing in religion so i bared my testimony on how our church is centered on families and that we believe families are meant to last FOREVER and we are blessed to have a knowledge of what happens after this life and that WE WILL see our loved ones again. And then the daughter began telling us how that is the only thing she has really questioned in her life, "if there really is life after death" We told her we can teach her how we KNOW that there is and it's because we have prophets who give us modern revelation and also the AMAZING BOM that gives us more knowledge on doctrine. it was such an incredible lesson. I'm so excited for the whole family! Well i have to hurry and go email some more people but i'll be emailing you soon again on monday! I love you all have a great week! love sister amber ruth heward pics: of the temple, a sunburn i got....on my neck, and also my funny 17th month mark pic...

FAmily! . So Wow! it sounds like an awesome week! I was a little bummed about state when i heard cause i had full confidence they could do it but it's fine kyle. You still have 2 more years. Just think how much better you all will be by then. And i'll get to be there!!!!!!!!! :) That's so fun you all got to be together with the twins and shay and kira and everyone!! ok so kyle i just have to say "dude YOU DA MAN" for fasting for your friend! Fasting is incredibly powerful. So i was pretty impressed when i heard that. Way to go man. I know for a fact that the Lord is aware of that and things will happen the way they are supposed to. You can have confidence in that....even if it doesn't go the way people would like. There is more strength in the spirit to trust the Lord when you fast. ps I really really do LOVE my comp!!! For real she is so awesome!! I feel like i can be my complete self with her and that's what i love most about getting companions! Cause then i teach investigators and people very calmly and it flows easier. Sister miles was kinda like an old soul in a young body. haha She is awesome dont get me wrong but im more of a go with the flow and enjoy the ride kinda person. That's how sister ott is. We had the funniest thing happen a few days ago. We went to try and visit this man but he wasn't home so we decided to tract a street that was right by the street and when we drove up we noticed some j-dubs (jehovah witnesses) were about to tract that street so we went to the next one over. We hurried and started tracting knowing they would be over to this street sooner or later. Well we were knocking and NOBODY was answering so we decided to turn around and do the houses on the other side but THEN we noticed the j-dubs coming around the corner and there up ahead of us was a man walking to his truck and we were like "we totally HAVE to talk to him" so we sped up our pace and noticed the j-dubs had the same thought. So i just kept focused walking to this man 'NO BACKING DOWN!' haha and then sister ott decided to smile and wave at them haahahah so the lead j-dub man waved back and we all kept walking towards this man. This poor man looked terrified like this war between j-dubs and mormons. Well guess who won............of course we did :D we got to the man and started talking to him but sadly he didn't speak english. hahah it was a bummer but we felt accomplished we had beat the j-dubs. Thats prolly not the best attitude but it gave us a good laugh. So we have this lady Rita Dean that we are teaching and we actually set a baptism date with her on technically the FIRST lesson. The first time we met was just a get to know you and brief introduction, but It was insane. I couldn't believe she actually said yes. I just hope she is serious about all of it and there isn't any other motives. We'll see how things go. She even came to church before we even taught her the first lesson. But anyway she is hilarious and so funny. She is this southern black baptist lady. She cracks us up. Have a wonderful week! I love you all! This church is soooooooo true!! Love sister amber ruth heward the one with the food is today we mad german pancakes and cookies :)_

Dear readers, This letter is addressed to Kyle because it starts off with a basketball analogy to Kyle. I left it in because it's really good. Kai, that is mentioned is a senior on Kyle's basketball team that is a fantastic player. KYle's team just played in State and that is what is mentioned here... dear kyle, so first off, i want to say congrats on getting in the playoffs. second, thank you for teaching me a life lesson. i know your probably confused but let me explain. so when you said what you said to Kai along the lines of wanting to win for HIM,it made me think about missionary work and life in general. so sometimes missionaries lose the reason of why they are out here. or they never knew why and just came. well let me say, the principle in what you said to Kai is exactly the reason for going on a mission. when you were playing and hustling and working so hard and practicing and just laying your life on the line, you werent doing it for yourself. you were doing it for Kai. see, thats the problem that alot of us have when doing just about anything. if we are doing certain things, such as baskeball, for ourselves, we always lose. yea sure, we might have 81 points or we might have 5 blocks but the team loses. maybe we even win the game but the team didnt win, the player did. does that make senset? so as we look at that and think about missionary work, when we are out here for us and wanting to have the praise of others for what we do, we will get our reward. meaning, we will have the praise of men but...not the praise of Heavenly Father. i am out here for Heavenly Father. not for anyone else. not for any one person or for any one thing other than to glorify God. thats the difference. you were playing so hard so kai could feel like he was a good basketball player and that he did something with his senior year. not for yourself. if you were doing it for yourself you wouldnt have even made it to the playoffs. thats why your so good at basketball kyle. because you just want to win. you dont care if you get 100 points or 0. you dont care if one of your teammates looks cool, you just want to win. it goes to show where your heart is and where your intentions are. so now my question is this, what have you done for somone else today? mom dont answer that because it would take hours to go through. but dad and kyle, bearers of the priesthood, how have you excercised your priesthood today? you dont have to give a blessing to exercise your priesthood, just serve. sorry if i came off too bold but i just know, personally, how much better i feel when i serve others and not myself. well thats my spiell. so this past week had been really good. so we set a date with someone in our singles ward. so when i started my mission in roseville (i might have told you this already) my tariner and i were tracting and ran into a 26 year old guy. we set a return appointment but after the 2nd lesson handed him off to the zone leaders because they covered the singles ward. so a year goes by and i come back to be a zone leader in roseville and i ask if they know joe alonzo (thats his name). they say yea he had a date and he got interviewed and all that good stuff and then he just dissapeared. i was ticked. haha i was like we're going over there the first chance we get and we are setting up a return appointment. i dont care if he wants to take the lessons, just for old times sake. so we go over and in fact, set up a return lesson appointment and nnooowwwwwww.........hes getting baptized on the 22nd. pretty awesome huh? i say thats my one from tracting for my mission haha. hes so solid. he bore his testimony yesterday and he said he was grateful for me for tracting into him and then coming back after all this time. it was so awesome. we have a lot of blessings coming our way and it just makes me grateful to be a missionary and to be a part of those blessings. that was cool to hear about elder eyring talking to sister taylor. thats who set apart our mission president as well. family, i just want to let you know how much i love you all. so many good things have been happening lately and i just cant believe some of them. on both ends. mine and yours. i can just notice all the blessings that are flowing into our lives and its just so wonderful to see and to know that it is because of obedience. i hope you all are having as much fun as i am out here! i hope you all have a wonderful week. oh yea also, do you know where our last name originates from? people keep asking. anyways, im gonna go play some ball. i hope you all have a great monday. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

ok so here's all the info on the mission split. So the san bernardino mission name wont exist anymore and it is being split into the rancho cucamonga mission and the redlands mission. The rancho cucamonga mission will have Rancho, Upland, Ontario, Hesparia, Victorville, Apple Valley, and then added Chino Stake (which actually makes sense now because we have the city chino in my ward so every time i travel to visit people in chino i go into the riverside mission) then the redlands mission will have San B, Fontana, Rialto, Euciapa, Yucca valley, and redlands. And yes it does start into effect July 1st so there will actually be new mission presidents for BOTH missions cuase the godwins are done in july :) so i have mixed feelings about it all. I am happy i wont be here for all the change and i will be considered some of the last missionaries in the san b mission but i am sad they aren't keeping the san b name anymore and i feel like im old already thinking about telling people where i served my mission after i get home and saying "ya that mission doesn't exist anymore" haha but its cool that obviously the work is doing so well that they need to split it!! Its all good news and the Lord keeps hastening his work!! That's so stinkin cool about derlin taylor and kent searle becoming mission presidents!! That's exciting! They will both be great! Kent searle was a good bishop and of course brother taylor is THE MAN and nancy will be so awesome with all the missionaries. She will be a great mission mom. I love her. And mom that sounds like such an awesome and fun lesson you had in seminary! You are so great at that and teaching the kids so they are entertained but learning too. The interactive lessons are really the only ones that kids remember. Me and my comp were actually talking the other day about how both our moms are substitutes for seminary and she said that one of her teachers once did this awesome thing about teaching about the atonement. He picked one kid who is like the kid that is all cocky and a jock or whatever and asked if he could do some push ups for class that day. Well at the beginning of the class he pulled out some donuts and said he brought donuts for everyone BUT the only way they can get one is if this kid did 20 pushups for EACH student. Well for the first few kids he did great and then you could tell he started getting tired and some kids started saying "oh i don't need a donut, i'll be fine" but the teacher said ok well he still has to do 20 pushups for you even if you dont want the donut. And the poor kid just kept going through doing 20 pushups for everyone and he was like shaking and stuff. And my comp said it was so impacting and everybody was like crying and stuff. But its amazing to see how the Lord paid the price and suffered for EACH of us individually whether we choose to except the blessings of the atonement or not. pretty cool i thought. Ok so about my new comp now!!! :D :D :D Her name is sister Ott from St george. i really really like her ( i'm not just saying that but im being honest) haha but here's the BEST part!!!!!!!!!!! She is the FIRST 19 year old sister in our mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D haha i was so happy when i found out i got the 19 year sister. Cause we had heard about her back in like December or something and knew she was coming so i kept joking that i would be the one to train her well i actually did. I feel so incredibly lucky and so blessed. She is so sweet and such a happy fun person. We get along really really well! Im happy to be training cause it keeps me on my toes and staying exactly obedient. ALright well this week was kinda crazy with all the new missionaries and stuff. They're having to rearange how they do everything because they're getting more then usual so this week was really slow with appts and all but this next week will be great and i'll put this newbie to work!!! :) i love you all so much hope you have a great week! love sister amber ruth heward So with the pics. The one with me and all the sisters is a pic of all the trainers. You notice that sister winert is training her second time :) we were so excited to train together again! Then also the one of me and her with her "green"y gifts ist he first night together and i got her little greeny gifts to open. then the others is of a "greeny" dinner/party that i asked a member in the family to throw on saturday. It was so much fun.

so this past week has been pretty darn crazy. it was transfer week so we had a ton of stuff to do. we have 4 new missionaries in our zone so we're pretty excited. my new comp is pretty dang awesome. hes 24 and hes been out 14 months and hes a convert of about 3 years. yea figure that out. you have to wait a year to go to the temple and go on a mission and hes been out 14 months. crazy. hes really smart. he knows a ton about the gospel. hes the missionary that when you ask other people about him they say that he knows a ton and you want him in a lesson with you. we get along so well though. i think hes probably one of my favorite comps so far. anyways, we're confounding false doctrine and bringing the spirit into others hearts. so about the kid with no house, so he has a few hangups and we think that he might have some wrong intentions about investigating the church and getting baptized. so we are having to push back his baptism date again and again but we wont give up on him. hes doin good though. but thats so cool about the new mission in vancouver and derlin taylor is gonna be the new mission president! who did he meet with to get the calling? dang it! that means that they wont be there when i get back. i'll have to go and visit him or something. anyways, yea we heard about the other 58 missions being opened up. thats crazy. it makes missionaries excited. so we're having an apostle come and speak to us for a special purpose on the 9th and 10th of march. this meeting will take the place of the regular meetings for sunday for the whole stake. its got people going crazy around here though. they think hes gonna make a new stake or something. whatever it is, its gonna be cool. well family thank you so much for all the support you give me and all the emails that you send me and let me know how everybody is doing. have an awesome week. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Hello Family!

So mom i got the package of the first aid kits and also the cookies....im either guessing that Levi needed you to send him something so you sent me something too or you just really felt that i needed some first aid kits :) haha either way it was nice. Funny story with that actually, i put the cookies in a bowl then dumped milk over them and ate it like cereal (like we normally do) and my comp, sister savage, was in shock. She was like "uh what are you doing?!" hahah it was hilarious! i said "its called cookie cereal :) just like when you dip cookies in milk but i just pour the milk over it" anyway it was pretty funny to see her reaction. So this last sunday me and sister miles sang in sacrament again and sister savage played the piano for us. We sang "in Quiet Grove" again. But poor sister savage had the air conditioning going on where the piano was so her piano music was flying everywhere while we were singing and poeple sitting up on the stand were trying to help her keep putting the sheets back on the piano but she did awesome and kept going and didn't mess up at all. The spirit was definitely still strong in the room even through it all though. haha this young woman came up to me later and was like "you guys did such an awesome job that i started crying and my mom started asking me why i was crying and i told her i dont know i just am" ahahah i was laughing so hard when she told me. I told her "thats the spirit my friend" This little young woman is now learning what the spirit is. The spirit testified to her that the words we were singing were true. Music a such a spiritually powerful tool. OH YEAH!! so get this, my new ward mission leaders name is brother Clark. NOw think of the singer's name Jesse CLARK Funk that we love so much..... so on saturday we were at his house and he asks us if we listen to EFY music and we all said yes then he asks "do you know Jesse Clark Funk?" and i was like "YES I LOVE HER SO MUCH!" then he says "THATS MY SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" can you believe that?!?!? i seriously freaked out so much! i kept asking him if he was joking and i started telling him how much i love her and her music! he was just laughing so hard at me cause i was freaking out so much then he said he was serious and showed us some pics from his wedding of his family and YEP there she was. I couldn't believe it! Maybe one day i can meet her....who knows!! :D :D but mom i did tell him that me and you emailed her one time asking her if she had piano music for her songs and if she would do a fireside for us a long time ago hahah he was like "oh yeah she does firesides, did she do it?" i told him no but wow i was so in shock! My ward mission leader is the brother of jesse clark funk! hahah SO this week was really good. We actually are trying to get more investigators cause we're low on those so that takes so much stinking time but the people we do have are good. rachel (the excommunicated one) is progressing SO MUCH! in our last lesson she told us that she has decided to read the whole bom from beginning and end because she wants to gain a testimony of the book on her own. SHe has been taught the lessons over and over and so thats what she wants to do now and have us meet each week with her to go over what shes read. Im so excited and happy for her. Its even harder for people like her to come back then it is for random investigators hearing the truth for the first time. She is so strong. She is really gaining a strong testimony of the atonement and how real it actually is. We also have a challenge on our hands...her name is Edna. SHe is the wife of Philip who is a member but has be less active for a long time. Philip wants to come back and is very passionate about it but edna is so stubborn and so prideful and she knows it too. She is "catholic" but doesn't practice. Lamest thing ever but almost every catholic is like that. She said she is only meeting with us and going to church with phil because she wants to do it for her husband. We told her she needs to find out for herself if this is what she wants to do, and talked about the importance of reading the bom to find out if our church is true. After a long talk she said she would do it but i know Satan is working intensly hard on her. Well i better go.... oh and here's a link to watch http://www.mormonchannel.org/. Watch the mormon message "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father" and also "We're still a family". THey are incredible! Love you all! HAve a great week! Love Sister Amber Ruth Heward enjoy the pics of me with the cows and also of my zone after we had a flour fight.

so this past week was awesome. it was fast sunday for our stake because we had stake conference. so we go to both wards right? so i bore my testimony in both wards. it was so cool. its kind of funny how we are nervous and scared to go up and bare our testimonies but once we get up there and just start talking, it kinda just rolls off our tongue and it sounds good. thats what i did in the YSA ward. we have an investigator that we set a date with for may. haha yea may. its quite a ways away but its all good. at least its a date. so this past week was a reall eventful and learning week. for whatever the reasons and circumstances, i learned alot this week. i dont even know how or why it just was a spirit filled week. my comp is doing a good job. hes not sick anymore and we are staying busy. just one thing kyle, as a missionary that is getting close to his going home day, you cant let anything get in the way. you might think things change or you dont have to follow rules any more but that is not the right way of thinking. if anything is gonna change its gonna be the zeal and work that you have and do. you should sprint towards the finish line. not just kinda walk and let the others racing push you there because how are you gonna feel when you look back and say "man, i got really lazy there at the last of the race" and thats all you can think about? just as in football or basketball, you dont stop until the whistle blows or the buzzer goes off. just keep going. dont let ANYTHING get in the way. anyways, thats something i learned this past week. well i love my mission. i hope you all know that. i absolutely love waking up at 6:30 and working until 10:30 and then waking up and doing it all over again. its the greatest time of my life and i never want it to end. sadly, it will but its all good because i'll know that i gave it my all and i will be confident when i reach judgement day and stand before god and he says "well done, my good and faithful servant". the gospel is true. it always will be and never wont be. never give up. DOn't quIT. take it all the way to the "ship". have an awesome family night and an awesome week. talk to ya next monday. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Ive been thinking about trials people have in their lives. this is what i came up with. , we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives to make times that may be hard easier. jack r. christensen talks about it and it totally makes sense the way he puts it. he says in the parable of the wise man and the foolish man that the rain falls on both of them. but its because of the rock, or Christ, that we are able to bear those hard rainstorms or in her case, hurricanes. i just wish some people would accept the gospel more. i wish the ones that know about it would stop being so rebellious and lazy and do their best. because then they complain that life is hard or something happens and they get angry about it or get depressed or something and im just like "does it really matter"? theres a scripture in Alma when Helaman is talking to captain Moroni and he is talking in an epistle and how he doest have any men from Zerahemla and he doesn't know why. he says that they might be going to Moroni or they might be wicked in Zerahemla so they're not getting them but then he says "it mattereth not". that nailed me so bad because sometimes we have a death in the family or sometimes we have someone who is not doing what they should be or you have other things that are just bothering you and then you take a step back and say "it mattereth not" and then everything that DOES matter becomes more apparent and then you focus more on that. just some revelation ive received in the past couple of days. dont worry, every little thing gonna be alright :) . well family thank you for all the wondeful support that you are giving me and thank you mom for updating me on the babies and everything else. i hope you all have a wonderful week. talk to you next monday Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Well hello everyone! Wow I can't believe you already heard where I was getting transferred. Haha yep I'm in Ontario and I LOVE it! First off its way warmer so it really feels like California and also it's kinda a farming community so it smells like cows every so often :) reminds me of home. It was really hard to leave but get this....are you ready....yes I am in a trio with sister miles still!!!! Can you believe that!? We were so shocked but way excited! That just doesn't happen very often. I was happy for miles too because she gets really bad anxiety when she has " change" and so she has said that this transfer wasn't as hard because she stayed with me. But I'm pretty sure that next transfer I will be training again cause I only will have2 transfers left cause president pretty much told me that at transfer meeting. Anyway all is good and get this the other sister with us is sister savage and she is from the salt lake temple square mission and originally from Sacramento! Cool huh!? She actually goes back to temple square in 3 weeks which is so dumb. I love her to death. We got along so fast and she is so easy to be comps with. She actually goes home in June, right after me, .. It's been a lot of fun bein in a trio. Oh yeah so get this, we actually set a date with an investigator they have here and the other sisters were telling us how they just can't get him to set a date for so long but he is so ready. Well we had our first lesson with him and we told each other that we will not leave his house without setting a date and planned this really great lesson. So.....the spirit was SOOOO strong and we talked and talked about setting a date and he was still struggling so we got down on our knees right then and he said a prayer about whether getting baptized on the 26th was right for him. Well we got done and asked him again if he would prepare himself to be baptized on the 26th and he said......yes :) can u believe that? Man the spirit was so intense. I love moments like this. So yes this Saturday we have a baptism with a man named frank verdure and man I love the guy even tho I just met him. We still had a few lessons to teach him though so we have spent a lot of time with him. We're so excited for Saturday. Well it sounds like it was a good week for you all and I better go. Oh yea the reason my email was so late today is because today the libraries were closed for Martin Luther king jr day so were emailing at a members home. But anyway I love u guys all so much and hope your week is great! Love sister amber Ruth Howard

Yay for Brooklyn and Caitlyn!!! :) just so you know. Loma texted me the day they were born and told me all the details and everything :). It was the best! She then showed me pics of them....man i was so happy to see them. The wonderful perks of having family in the ward. So im really happy the twins and tori are doing good. The twins have been in my prayers the day i heard they were born. Are they doing better now. Are they home? Send me more pics every time you get them :) I personally think they look like her family more. what do you think? they also look alike but they aren't identical right? Okay so Dave's baptism is this weekend...yippee!!! we're getting really excited and anxious for it. Also transfers are coming up so this is the best way to spend my last weekend here...yes im pretty sure im getting transferred. I have been here almost 9 months and i think it's time to go haha. Also here's some good news....CORY and his boys came to church yesterday!!! :D it was so neat to see them there and it was cool for the bishop and our ward mission leader, brother ratliff and others to meet him. Im just sad i might have to leave soon so i can't keep working with him but it's all good. ALso we weren't able to meet with Ruby and mosi (the mom and daughter) last week. So hopefully this week. i'll let you know. Also the temple on wednesday with all the sisters was incredible!! oh also on Thursday it was ZLC (zone leader conference) and the sister trainers get to go because sisters are "leaders" too haha he just started doing it since i started training and its been great because i feel like an actual leader now and also learn so much at the trainings. 0h and also the best part is spending the whole day with sister winert cause she is training too. haha ALright well im sorry this isn't very long this week but i dont have much time. I have to go cause im getting my hair cut soon....just a trim. So next week i'll let you know how things go with transfers :) I love you all! Have a great week!! Give Brooklyn and Caitlyn a big hug and kiss for me! Love sister amber ruth heward

wow that is so awesome. TWO new babies are already born and there is 2 more on the way right? thats so cool though. im excited to hear all about them in the coming months. so about my comp, hes going home in about a month and he is so ready to go home. he is in denial. honestly, its hard but ive been praying a ton to have charity and it is helping me grow alot. hes an awesome guy though. i love em. but something cool is that on February 19, we;re having 31 new missionaries coming into our mission. that is alot in case you didnt know. we have 8 coming in this next week and then that big influx of 31 the next transfer. its pretty dang intense. im really excited about it though. im excited to have the work move along like crazy. theres nothing more important than the work of the Lord. well family, i really dont have that much to say. im glad you all are doing awesome and im glad you're all holding to the rod and staying on the straight and narrow. we have a baptism this friday. pretty excited. well i hope you all have a great rest of the day or night or whenever you read this. and i hope ya'll have a good week. thank you for all the support you give me everyone. talk to ya next week. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward