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

Levi

we had a misssion conference and Elder L. Tom Perry came and he talked and i was praying so hard for my comp to hear somthing that will spark him and when we got back he was all excited to go out and to do this and that and i was like holy cow, He does answer prayers haha. it was so crazy. the only thing that changed him was the spirit. its awesome. so this last week was pretty nice. we did work and we had a nice time at church and im starting to get warmed up to how some of the people are in the ward and just working with their sarcasm its funny that we think other people have a problem when most of the time we can just change how we act and it make it fine. us humans are so dumb sometimes.
i am so glad i decided to go on a mission . ive met so many cool people. my comp game me a fijian suva tenga. its spelt differently but thats how it sounds. and its just like a skirt thing that says "fiji islands" on it and it has a british flag on it. its awesome. my testimony is growing each and every day soooo much.
you'll learn something at church and say wow thats cool. and then like a couple weeks later it'll happen again. well that happens every single day. more than once and more than twice and more than like 6 times honestly. ask adam about it. ask kurt about it. ask dad about it. go ahead ask him right now. ask him really quick and then finish the letter.......i can wait haha......welll i love being on a mission
the greatest work ever at the greatest time of my life in the greatest time of the world. thats what elder Perry said haha. love you alltil next week.
love Elder Levi Bowen Heward

Amber

so with the baptisms, jen is getting baptized april 28th! it is kinda far but she picked it all on her own & said she just felt that was the day it needed to be. This
week has been so exciting & happy with her! She just glows & loves talking about her baptism. They are planning it all already & telling HIS family but not HERS yet cause they're not mormon. His family is SOO excited but her family is from the phillipines & they are heading there for 2 weeks on the 23rd of this month. We are REALLY REALLY sad they're leaving us for 2 weeks. WE pretty much see them every other day cause they call us alot to go out to lunch or to just come over & have a little lesson. This week we went & had lunch with them at a real indian food restaurant. Like food from India. It was so good. & then after we went to their house & watched President Monsons biography "On the Lord's Errand" it was way good! Also with Pat & Valerie....Valerie wants to get baptized SOOOO bad but of course she will need her mom's permission cause shes only 11 & that might be hard since it took her mom a YEAR before letting her go back to church. Its a long stupid story but just a couple sundays ago she was able to go! so awesome & shes loving it! & with Pat, he knows its all true but he is really afraid of making a committment & he knows its a completely 360 turn on his life! He was seriously one of those people that was sooo bad! like the worst you can imagine. Part of a big biker gang & part of the secret people in the military haha anyway he is an incredible man so dont get scared or anything. i promise we're being safe. We feel the spirit so strongly when we're with him. Yesterday was actually kinda cool cause in sunday school (he's coming to sunday school now! :D ) we talked about prayer & the teacher said something about how sometimes prayers take a long time to be answered & pat raised his hand & said "well i have to say that also prayers sometimes take 5 minutes to be answered cause when i prayed for guidance on how to repent & be completely clean so i dont end up going to 'hell' i walked out the door to take the trash out & there was sister heward & sister peavler talking to my neighbor!" then the rest is history :) pretty cool huh. he will be baptized but no date yet. Actually just last night we were at his place & we asked him why he hasnt set a date yet & what reasons are holding him back. (We are so chill with him) he just said hes really trying to cut ALL ties with his past life with all the bad things. He doesnt want any connection with it. It think thats pretty cool. anyway i better go & write some other people i love you all & know i am doing the work of the Lord for His TRUE church! have a wonderful week!
Love Sister Amber Ruth Heward

Levi's Week

this last week was a pretty rough week. i still have my same comp and president has been telling me to hang in there and all and i was praying really hard to have something to help me with this trial that im going through and when we went to church the enitre sacrament meeting was on patience haha. i thought alright, if thats what you want me to do, i'll do it. i took that as my answer so now im doing pretty dang good. its funny, sometimes when were going through trials we think "man im not happy right now. im sad" just because were going through a trial but we are happy. we just have to realize that its all part of HIs plan for us to go through this and realize that we have so much to be happy for and it makes those "bad days" not so bad haha. anyways, im learning alot being with elder rakuita. i love the kid quite a bit. i never knew i would care for him so much bit hes really cool. anyways, i hope your all doing fine and everthing is great
Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward


Levi with his family pillow

Amber's awesome week

Hello Hello!
Another week and things are awesome!! Okay so yesterday was probably the best day yet on the mission!!! first off YES, valerie got to go to church!! Pat actually asked us if we would go shopping with them on saturday to help her pick out church clothes cause he knows theyre supposed to be modest & stuff & he just didn't know exactly what to get. We had a BLAST with them! Pat is just so funny! He kept talking about getting baptized on march 17th & how thats sister peavlers bday but how he didnt wanna do for her bday but we tell him over & over that it wouldnt be FOR her bday but he already knows its true & it would just be an awesome added thing. He kinda reminds me of dad how he wants to kind of be a mystery and not tell us he wants to be baptized but that hes thinking about it & makes up an excuse (peavlers bday) for why he wouldnt but then i wouldnt be surprised if he just sprang it on us one day. haha guess we'll see. So also some other great news!! Jen is getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So heres what happened: Sunday at church was a WONDERFUL day for her. She bore her testimony in gospel principles & told how she came to gain her own testimony & i could tell she was so ready but of course we have to be patient & wait till they feel ready. Well later that day Devon called us & said, "hey whats your plans for today cause i was wanting to talk to you about something?" i said we didnt have any appts so we could go over to his house after dinner. So of course me & sister peavler get really nervous & start wondering what it could be. we start brainstorming & the idea of jen telling us that she wanted to get baptized seemed like a dream but we were like that would be awesome if thats what they want to talk about!!! haha well we got to their house & a little into the conversation devon says, " so how does April 28th sound?" me & sister peavler just sat their shocked for a couple seconds and asked, "BAPTISM?" they both smiled & said YEP! sister peavler jumped up & hugged jen & i just sat their shocked & tears started coming in my eyes. I could not believe what was happening! It honestly felt like dream & i was waiting for them to be like JUST KIDDING! haha but it was all real! The rest of the night we just hung out with them & talked about everything they had coming now! All the wonderful blessings Heavenly Father has been waiting to give them! :) We are just so open & close with them that we started talking about everything we have been through these past months & how we just thought Devon was LAZY when we first met him! he just laughed & was like yeah i was. & jen started telling me how she couldnt believed i asked her to be baptized a few lessons into teaching her & i told her thats what they teach missionaries to do but that i was so scared to do it. :) Its just so incredible to see someone beginning to end & the whole progression they went through. I honestly didnt think it was possible in this area when i first got here but NEVER underestimate the Lord! They told us they want to be sealed in the SLC temple & as we were talking about it, it hit me that the year mark will be so close to when i go home (may 21st)!!!!!! & they were like well we could probably wait for you to get home & then we would have a whole reunion with everyone at the sealing!! cause sister peavler only lives a couple hours from there too! :D so AWESOME how the Lord works isnt it! anyway thats the highlight of this week! Transfers are the end of March & of course we're hoping to stay together AGAIN but the odds really arent good haha so if someone leaves she'll have to travel back for the baptism. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!
Love, Sister Amber Ruth Heward

Amber

Me & sister peavler are staying together this next transfer!!! Words can't explain how happy we are! The thing is that the odds werent on our side at all! They almost ALWAYS separate the trainer & greeny after the 12 week training is over & also peavler told me that this is the longest she has been with a companion so the Lord really answered our prayers of staying together & some of our less actives & investigators prayed for us too :) they didn't want us to leave yet. So yay another transfer together!! :) We literally started screaming & jumping up & down when we found out we were both staying!!!!!!

okay so missionary work haha we had a cool time tracting one day: we were driving & all of a sudden i just yell "we should tract that street!" & i was like WHOA where did that come from haha so peavler goes okay & turns around. So we went & parked our car & as soon as we got there this lady was getting in her car about to leave & when we went up to her she just starts crying & telling us how she is going through some hard times & would love to talk with us so we told her we would come back when she got home. We also met the coolest people EVER! We met a couple families saying they were actually in the process of looking for a religion! SWEET HUH! The spirit really prompted me to tract that street! Also on sunday there was a missionary farewell.....me & peavler almost started crying when we realized it was a farewell cause it brought back all these memories & throughout sacrament i would get teary eyed remembering my day & my talk. it was cool. Also i invited Jen (devons wife) to be baptized but she said no cause she really wants to be solid in the gospel & know FOR SURE that this is true & i think thats a great answer cause she is doing the things necessary to have that strong testimony. She said she is praying about Joseph Smith & also is reading the BoM on her own. I'm so proud of her.& now she is going to relief society with us!! :) Also Pat came again & he has this way of slipping out of sacrament right when the closing prayer is done SOO in sacrament as soon as the prayer was done me & peavler jump out of chairs & jet to the back to catch him & people were like where are you running off too? haha & we ran down the hall to catch him & he hid behind a corner & scared us! haha anyway that was really funny! I really hope he gets baptized this transfer! Well i better go write some people back but have a fabulous week! I'm grateful to be here serving the Lord & im so grateful to have the best family ever that supports & prays for me! BYE!!

-Sister Amber Ruth Heward