well this last week the weather was about 90 and humid and really sunny. i was like biking all day and i got a little sun. i have a line from where my watch is haha. we were sweating all day. seriously. but it was such and amazing day. i was on exchanges with the zone leaders and we tore it up haha.  so about me and my comp. we are getting along so much better.  now we get along so much better and things are starting to pick up in the area and its so much more exciting now. it makes me want to work harder now. he still has a hard time paying attention but its all good. thats the next thing we're working on. well  please keep praying for me cuz i really need the prayers from you all. those are the only things keeping me going sometimes. thanks for the email and the update. i'll talk to you all next week.  Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

 okay i just wanna say it has been an awesome week! actually just this last weekend has been some of the greatest days on the mish i think. Its sisters activity & we did a service project this morning so were at the library now so all 3 of us can email at the same time so we can go get stuff then to the activity. Then exchanges....im heading to the oleander ward over in Fontana. should be good i hope.  Okay so as you know Elder Ballard was here to speak to the missionaries & man that meeting was INCREDIBLE!! I dont know how to say it in words but i have never felt the way i have felt ever before then what i felt in that meeting. The spirit was so strong & i learned so much. Excatly what i needed to hear. I just wish you all could have been there so i figure thats the best way to do it since i cant even tell you all about it in person. He is such a funny person too. Loves to crack jokes. Also he came out before he spoke & wanted to shake each missionaries hand!!! Cool huh! SOOOOO i asked him about Willie haha :) he asked him if he remembered an elder heward in the toronto mission & he goes who? and i said elder heward & he waits about a sec & says "Oh yeah i remember him".....haha yeah right. do you really? haha then he says "tell him hi for me". so tell kurt to tell willie hi for him when he's out working with him & that ELder Ballard is such a cool person! He seriously made me so happy to be on a mission! Its like one of those things where you're in a meeting but the spirit it talking to you & telling you things to your heart that hes not saying but you feel it. As he was talking i just kept feeling how much i love being a missionary & that i honestly dont ever want these days to end. haha yeah i know pretty dramatic but its really how i felt. I love serving a mission! Also we got to go to the later meeting that day for the recent converts & investigators & Devon & jen were there & also some other investigators & that meeting was awesome too. A little different focus of course but great.Also on Sunday i had a neat experience, first off Devon gave a talk :) so cool! i felt like a proud little mom hahahh he talked on priesthood in the home. He cried almost the whole time & it was just such a neat experience to watch him up there giving a talk about how much he appreciates the priesthood now cause he has been inactive for about 6 years and has missed out on so many blessings he could have done or received. and jen was sitting down next to me crying too. so sweet. Then the next speaker spoke on marriage & parenthood & the same thing happened again where the spirit spoke to me but the talk really didnt relate to me in my life now but i felt a very overwhelming feeling of how much i appreciate my mom being a stay at home mom & that is something i will never forget & hope i can do when i have kids. Also Jen had her baptismal interview :D :D SHE WAS SO CUTE!! before she went in she said to my district leader "now you're not gonna make me cry are you?" haha and laughed then after it was over she came out teary eyed & said "see! he did make me cry!" haha she has such an incredible testimony! oh things with pat and valerie are ok. Something is goin on with Pat & we're not really sure. We're kinda taking things slow & being cautious but we know the Lord will help us. Hes moving cause the Land lord kicked him off but he found a new place not too far from where he was. Ill keep you updated. so much for keeping this email short haha but i gotta go have a wonderful week & i am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for prompting me to serve. This is the best thing ever! I love you all more then anything & for ETERNITY! adios!

-Sister AMber Ruth Heward     

Levi

I have to kinda vent to the other elders a little bit because it’s like working with someone with pride so strong that they think they are never wrong. Ive never met anybody like this before. its kinda crazy how prideful he is. I’m trying to turn every opportunity into a teaching one and trying some other different methods with him and I called president for help and I’m just pushing through it. I’m learning a lot and I love the challenge. President eyring said something along the lines of "bring on the mountain. bring on the challenge" we all have challenges and the funny things is we don’t like them. but if we realize why we have challenges, which is to make us smarter and to strengthen our testimony, it makes them not even hard. it makes them a literal challenge and I get the competitive nature with it and just attack it, Ive been really mentally tired though from thinking about how to help him . It’s funny how Ive never thought about how to help someone be a missionary before and then all the sudden I have to think about it all day every day. Anyways, the work is going though. I keep working and studying and praying. I love the emails and especially the pictures mom. and dad whenever you get the free time (which is like never) another letter wouldn’t hurt one but :) I love unexpected hand written letters. thank you so much for all you do family.
Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Amber's Easter

Things with our trio are doing awesome! I can testify that if you honestly try to be loving and patient with people then heavenly father WILL help you love them! We had a neat experience on Tuesday. A lady in our ward teaches seminary & their lesson on Tuesday was on Jeremiah 16:16 missionary work......yeah as you know that scripture is close to my heart. Well she asked if we could come & talk to the class & share experiences with them. It was EARLY seminary! I told the class this was the FIRST time i had been to early seminary before & that it was kinda cool....okay actually its not & im glad i had seminary DURING school! They all started laughing. I told them my experience i had of what made me go on a mission & how much i LOVE the scripture Jeremiah 16:16. OF COURSE i was crying as i was talking to them. I just told them how important it is that we have missionaries out & that there are millions and millions of people searching & praying for guidance & Heavenly father is preparing them for us so WE NEED TO SERVE!! It was a cool experience & it reminded me of when mom used to teach :) So Pat is doing ok. He still his awesome self but hasn’t been feeling good these last weeks. he has a lot of problems with his body so he has been in & out of the hospital & in a lot of pain. :( poor guy. But spiritually he’s doing pretty well. He’s having a big stumbling block right now with the commandment of tithing. We're just being patient & helping him along but he needs to do his part & pray for help if he really wants to progress & be baptized then the Lord WILL help him. He had 2 neat experiences: He said one night he had asked Heavenly Father "so are these things really all true? Are they real? Is it right that I believe all this? He opened his scripture randomly to Alma 5:12!! Go read it!! :) Then he also asked "so why are Sister Heward & sister Peavler really here? (yeah these questions kinda seem funny and strange but they're normal investigator questions I think) well he opened his scriptures to Alma 11:31!! :) check this one out too! pretty cool. Well Easter day was really fun! We actually got invited to sing with the Young Womens in sacrament :D it was so nice & it made me miss young womens ALOT! It was a really pretty song. Then the AWESOME ward has such cool families that a couple of them invited us to their house to 'crash' their family parties & hang out with them. We had a lot of fun and we laughed so hard! They are one of the coolest families EVER! We also went & decorated Devon & Jens door cause they were getting home from the Philippines that night. We have missed them so stinking much bad though.. I’m grateful! Well happy late Easter to you all! I love you so much & am grateful for our brother Jesus Christ who did suffer in Gethsemane, was crucified, & DID rise on the 3rd day so we can all be resurrected also & be with each other FOREVER!! THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!
LOVE Sister Amber Ruth Heward

Amber's Easter

Things with our trio are doing awesome! I can testify that if you honestly try to be loving and patient with people then heavenly father WILL help you love them! We had a neat experience on Tuesday. A lady in our ward teaches seminary & their lesson on Tuesday was on Jeremiah 16:16 missionary work......yeah as you know that scripture is close to my heart. Well she asked if we could come & talk to the class & share experiences with them. It was EARLY seminary! I told the class this was the FIRST time i had been to early seminary before & that it was kinda cool....okay actually its not & im glad i had seminary DURING school! They all started laughing. I told them my experience i had of what made me go on a mission & how much i LOVE the scripture Jeremiah 16:16. OF COURSE i was crying as i was talking to them. I just told them how important it is that we have missionaries out & that there are millions and millions of people searching & praying for guidance & Heavenly father is preparing them for us so WE NEED TO SERVE!! It was a cool experience & it reminded me of when mom used to teach :) So Pat is doing ok. He still his awesome self but hasn’t been feeling good these last weeks. he has a lot of problems with his body so he has been in & out of the hospital & in a lot of pain. :( poor guy. But spiritually he’s doing pretty well. He’s having a big stumbling block right now with the commandment of tithing. We're just being patient & helping him along but he needs to do his part & pray for help if he really wants to progress & be baptized then the Lord WILL help him. He had 2 neat experiences: He said one night he had asked Heavenly Father "so are these things really all true? Are they real? Is it right that I believe all this? He opened his scripture randomly to Alma 5:12!! Go read it!! :) Then he also asked "so why are Sister Heward & sister Peavler really here? (yeah these questions kinda seem funny and strange but they're normal investigator questions I think) well he opened his scriptures to Alma 11:31!! :) check this one out too! pretty cool. Well Easter day was really fun! We actually got invited to sing with the Young Womens in sacrament :D it was so nice & it made me miss young womens ALOT! It was a really pretty song. Then the AWESOME ward has such cool families that a couple of them invited us to their house to 'crash' their family parties & hang out with them. We had a lot of fun and we laughed so hard! They are one of the coolest families EVER! We also went & decorated Devon & Jens door cause they were getting home from the Philippines that night. We have missed them so stinking much bad though.. I’m grateful! Well happy late Easter to you all! I love you so much & am grateful for our brother Jesus Christ who did suffer in Gethsemane, was crucified, & DID rise on the 3rd day so we can all be resurrected also & be with each other FOREVER!! THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!
LOVE Sister Amber Ruth Heward

Levi's a Trainer

last transfer my comp went down to roseville and my new comp is straight from the MTC haha. yea hes a new missionary so it means that I'm training. its so freakin hard. hes 22 so i don't know what the deal is with getting older missionaries but he thinks because hes older that he knows what missionary work is already and Ive been trying to convince him what it really is. honestly hes kinda annoying..and is random on conversation and he tells me what i need to do and i say okay I'll try harder and then i ask him to think about changing something and he gives me a reason why hes doing it and justifies it. it think its because he waited until he was 22 to go maybe.. well I'm gonna need your prayers more than ever now family because the only way this kid will learn is through the Holy Ghost. well that's the way any of us learn .

oh yeah, conference was so amazing !! and one thing i got out of it is the Holy Ghost told me that Jesus Christ is the Savior by giving me chills.

talk to you later.

love elder heward

Amber's no chicken!

now I'm in a new tri companionship......its getting better & better the longer we're together. To be honest we got put with the only girl we really didn't wanna be with. but you know what, This has really strengthened my testimony of not judging (& that was talked about ALOT at conference. The thing is this girl Sister Dodge doesn't have the best reputation here, not many sisters want to be her comp or like her cause they think she is a very negative person & talks alot & is kinda annoying, but yes some of those things are true :) BUT if you are patient & try to understand why they are that way you can get along with ANYONE! We learned that she has had a very hard life growing up & has depression :( well me & peavler will definitely change that! ha ha we are very happy people so she seems to be doing really well. I also learned that i need to not base my judgments on people from what other people say. That's so not fair to other people. Especially being new i didn't know many sisters so the only thing i knew about them came from what other people said. Well i have a completely different view on Sister Dodge now. I actually am OK being her companion & grateful that she is here cause i think its good for our area to have someone new & a new perspective. The Lord definitely knows what he's doing. shes been out 10 months & is from Washington.

Okay so Friday we did the funniest thing!!! We killed chickens!!! Like the whole shebang! Chopped the heads off, plucked them & cut them up into pieces of meat! haha It was so crazy! I attached some pictures. It was a good activity for Easter i think :) haha Also i have some freakin AWESOME NEWS!!!! Elder M. Russell Ballard is coming to my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet huh!!! We're so stinkin excited! He's coming April 21st & also an Elder Shane Bowen from the seventy will be here too. Yeah we're all pretty stoked & feel pretty lucky! :D



love sister amber ruth heward