Tuesday, August 31, 2010

the day finally came.

well.. tonight i will get set apart as a missionary.
the day is finally here!

i'm so excited!

i have definitely felt the peace of the spirit as i have been preparing and have had some awesome friends and family who have helped keep me strong.

i have also realized that satan is very anti-missionary work. he really has made things difficult for me at times--mostly with me questioning my ability to be a good missionary. however, through lots of prayer and studying and great conversations i have been able to overcome satan's final push to keep me home. God will ALWAYS prevail. (If any of you need a lift, look up Elder Holland's talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence"... it is beyond amazing).

i have made mistakes along the way, but i have overcome them and am better prepared now than i have ever been to serve a mission.

i'm more thankful than ever for Christ's atonement so we can all be freed from our sins, weaknesses, hurts, and trials. if we lean on Him, we will never fail. He will always be waiting for us to let Him ease our burdens.

i love this gospel. i love my Heavenly Father and Savior. i love my family and i love my friends.

Joseph Smith restored the gospel in the latter days. The Book of Mormon is true and will bring those who read it in faith closer to Christ than any other book. We have a modern day prophet--Thomas S. Monson and if we listen to his counsel and obey the commandments, we will find true peace and happiness in our lives. It's not easy, but it's worth it. The atonement is for EVERYONE and all can repent and come unto Christ.

Well, you should write me! Yes, you! Do it! I'd love it :)

MTC address.. i'll be there until november 2ndish:

Sister Abbie Gail Heywood
MTC Mailbox #107
WA-SEA 1102
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84604-1793

my mom SHOULD be keeping this updated for me, so if she isn't then tell her to work on it lol.

Well, God be with you all til we meet again.

Adios y vayan con Dios.
Te amo!

(soon to be) Hermana Abbie Gail Heywood

Saturday, August 7, 2010

the farewell!

YES i am calling it a farewell, i'm a rebel like that ;) haha! Really though, when there are two siblings speaking at the same time right before they both leave on missions in a sacrament meeting, it's kind of difficult to call it anything but a farewell! (sorry that sentence was too long)

It was held July 25, 2010 at 12:45 pm our ward building in North Ogden. It was the best day of my life.

I am a nursery leader in my ward, so I went to perform my duties there for the first hour of church (our sacrament meeting is last). Thankfully, my "bonus mom" (Mindy) took over for me the second hour so I could go home and change (I didn't want to wear my nicer clothes to nursery.. there is a lot of slobber and spilled chocolate milk!). Plus, I wanted to get all my last minute thoughts together before sacrament meeting.

That hour went by fast. Normally, I'm not one to get nervous about speaking in front of people. But this was different. I knew there would be tons of people I care about there and I wanted them to know how I felt about faith in Christ and repentance (my assigned topics). So I prayed A LOT to have the spirit direct me and let those people there feel it somehow so they could learn what they needed to. Still, my hands were shaking a half hour before the meeting even started!

As Shawn and I walked into our chapel, I was overwhelmed. It was probably about a half hour before the meeting started and one whole section was already full. So many of our friends from West Valley were there. It was amazing. Those people have been such a crucial part of my life and I am so happy to have lived there and learned from them.

Shawn and I sat up on the stand behind the pulpit and as so many people kept walking in who we loved SO much, we couldn't help but smile. Our great friends, the Kinikinis, gave us beautiful leis made of REAL flowers to wear as we spoke. Shawn said that was when it was REAL... growing up in West Valley, the missionaries would often have leis at their farewell meetings so we became accustomed to it. It was awesome to believe that we were the ones going on missions now. It was interesting too, because Shawn and I both commented that after those leis were placed around our necks, it was like a calming sensation (which was much needed at that point!). Loved it!

The whole chapel was full of our friends and family before our ward even began entering. I remembered with about ten minutes before the meeting started that I wanted to wear the pearls my Grandma gave me at Christmas to wear for special occasions, so my mom hurried home and got them for me before the meeting started. As I looked out into the audience filled with so many people I love so much, I thought about the times in my life when I thought that nobody cared about me or what I did with my life. I teared up a little bit as I realized how wrong I was and how thankful I am that I have these people to support me!

It was so cool to have Shawn sitting there next to me. I love that I get to go on a mission at the same time he is out. It was a good help to know we weren't doing things on our own.

Finally the meeting started. We sang "I Believe in Christ" as the opening hymn. It was gorgeous. The sacrament took a little bit longer than usual, but they did a good job getting to everyone. I was the first to talk. I will never forget the amazing sight of looking out from the pulpit into those 340ish people who were there as I spoke. I said what I wanted to say and I followed the spirit. I think I got the message I wanted to across, with the spirit's help of course.

Next, Linda and Keisini Kinikini sang a beautiful song "Oh That I Were an Angel" accompanied by my brother Jake. SOOOO beautiful.

Shawn ended the meeting with an awesome talk about the importance of baptism and the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It was awesome.. Direct quote "The Spirit is the bomb!" haha sooo shawn like :)

We sang "Called to Serve" as the closing hymn and it was really really powerful. It will be awesome to sing it with all the missionaries in the MTC!!

Afterward, we mingled in the back of the pavilion with friends and family. It was so great to see and talk to everyone! The only thing I wish I could have changed is that we weren't able to spend a ton of time with everyone. I hope they know how much it meant to me for everyone to be there to support us!

A beautiful day all-in-all and one I will always cherish! A lot of people told me that was the scariest part of their mission, which I'm excited about. It was one more step closer to Seattle. Can't wait :)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Here is the video of me opening my mission call! (May 12, 2010)
video

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Call!

I’ve realized when I don’t have wireless internet at home I don’t use the internet as much… which is why it’s taken me so long to update.

But, to get to the point, I received my mission call on May 12th. I got home from work and waited for friends and family to arrive for the “Opening Ceremonies”. I opened my call around 6:00. I was soooo anxious to open it. I definitely thought I would cry when I read it, but I was too excited to think about crying! I will be serving in the Washington Seattle Mission—Spanish Speaking!! I’m SO excited! It worked out well for everyone because my mom wanted me to stay in the States and I wanted to speak Spanish… how perfect! :) I definitely know that my call was inspired. When I read “Seattle” it just seemed to fit, like I should have known that’s where I was going all along haha.

After I opened my call we all had a chocolate party (I started eating chocolate again after not eating it for over two years). We had a fondue fountain and all sorts of fun and delicious food with some of my favorite people ever. Thanks again to all of you who were there! Your support means more than I could ever explain. :)

I report to the MTC on September 1st (longer than I wanted to wait, but it’s okay—I’ll have time to get all ready!). There is still a lot of preparing to go—temporally, spiritually, and Spanish-speakingly (haha) but I’m working on it little by little. Well, a lot more has happened between then and now, but I don’t want to have a super huge post, so I’ll post this for now. And soon I’ll post more info and the “Opening Ceremonies” video.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Quick update

Well here's the latest news:

My brother got his call to the Uruguay Montevideo Mission!!!!! :) We are sooo excited for him. He leaves August 4th for the Argentina MTC. He can barely contain his enthusiasm and tries to say everything in Spanish lol. I love you Shawn!!

Also, today I had my Stake President interview and it went extremely well. I should be getting my call in the next few weeks! Stay tuned. It's going to be a long few weeks I believe... But I'm glad it is out of my hands and that everything is going smoothly so far. I can't wait to be serving soon!

Here is the video of Shawn opening his mission call!
video

Love you all! Keep smiling and keep the faith.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Thoughts on Easter Sunday

Well it's been a month since I posted anything so I figure it's time again haha.

First of all, HAPPY EASTER!! I hope you all had a spectacular Sunday. I have been at Shawn's (my younger brother) watching conference and just hanging out. As it is Easter, I try to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves us more than we can comprehend. He loves us enough to atone for all our sins and die for us. One of my favorite talks about Christ was by Elder Holland in General Conference 2009. Here is a link to a clip from that:

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&channelId=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=04f3a899d5e92210VgnVCM100000176f620a____


So I've realized lately that there are two things that I get extremely excited about: mission calls and weddings... Let's just say I've been extremely excited a lot lately! :)

I have had a bunch of friends get their mission calls or turn in their mission papers or who are getting close to turning in their papers lately and it is AWESOME, I'm so glad I have friends who are good examples to me.. even if they are younger than me. haha. Shawn turned in his mission papers last Sunday and we are expecting him to get his call in a couple of weeks. I am soooo excited for him and I know he will be an awesome missionary wherever the Lord has him go. I'll let everyone know where he is going as soon as I can. It's going to be fun to have both of us serving the Lord at the same time!

As far as marriages go, my best friend Mandy is getting married in the Draper temple at the end of May and I'm ecstatic about that!! I love her fiance and they are super adorable together. Plus, I get to be a bridesmaid for the first time ever and I'm excited for that too!

As far as my mission goes, I'm getting really antsy to just get going and time is going by ridiculously slow. I have a feeling that time is just going to continue to go slowly until I go to the MTC haha. Hopefully I'll be turning in my papers around the 29th of April. I'll be moving home for the summer soon after that (SO EXCITED!!!!) and then hopefully I'll know where I'm going and when by mid-May.

So lately I've been struggling to be sure that I am really ready to go through the temple and go somewhere in the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I definitely think that one of my biggest temptations between now and when i leave for the mission is going to be feeling inadequate or completely unprepared. One of my biggest struggles in life has always been self-doubt--Satan knows how to get to me. Fortunately, though, I have turned to the Lord in scripture study (including Preach My Gospel), prayer, and teachings of modern-day prophets and I know that I will be able to serve well and, though I don't know if it's possible to be COMPLETELY prepared, prepared enough to teach the gospel by the Holy Ghost if it's Heavenly Father's will. I know that I definitely have the DESIRE to serve, therefore I'm "called to the work". (See Doctrine & Covenants 4-awesome section)

In other missionary news, I got my physical and dental paperwork all done a couple weeks ago during spring break. It was relatively painless, so I'm glad about that!

Conference was amazing the last couple of days! I loved President Monson's talk this morning and Elder Holland's talk yesterday afternoon. Also, Elder Rasband gave an awesome talk during Priesthood session about missionary work that Shawn told me about and I watched it online and I loved that one too! I'm so thankful that we have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ restored on the Earth today and modern day Prophets and apostles who teach us what we need to know. It seemed that there was a lot of emphasis on parenting, which made me realize yet again how blessed I am to have parents who have taught me the gospel by precept and example and who love me unconditionally. I know that God knew what He was doing when He sent me to them! I'm also incredibly thankful for the knowledge that I have that families can be together forever.

Well that was longer than expected... haha sorry! I'll post again soon. :)

PS: I put a playlist at the bottom of the page.. there are some sweet songs. I don't always listen to the churchish type of music, but lately I have been quite a bit haha. Much Love!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

How It All Began!

Well, here's my first official blog post! I have always kind of wanted to start a blog, but didn't really have anything exciting to write about. Now that I am preparing to serve an LDS mission, however, I'm hoping my life will be a bit more interesting to some of you. If it's boring, you don't have to read my ramblings, I promise I'm not going to be offended!

So I guess I just wanted to start by letting you all know why I want to serve a mission. I've had quite a few people ask me and I think it's a valid question, so I'll answer it!

If you would have told me up until a little over a year ago that I'd be serving a mission I would probably have laughed...hard. I never had the desire to go at all growing up or even my first few semesters of college. But then I had some hard (but amazing) experiences change my mind.

Around Autumn time in 2008, I hit a low in my life because of poor choices I made and bad habits I needed to break. I never did anything that would be considered damning or completely horrible, but I was just torn up because I knew some of the things I was doing weren't healthy. I may have had happiness or pleasure for a moment, but I wasn't a truly happy person because I knew I wasn't living up to my full potential. Finally, at my low of lows, I decided it was time to change, and (because I have been SO blessed to be raised with a knowledge of the true gospel taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), I knew the only way to really change would be to turn to my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus Christ's atonement, amazing examples, friends, family, and leaders, I did begin to change my life. I stopped making those bad choices, got rid of bad habits, and tried to stay away from situations and people who would bring me down. But it was more than that. I replaced the bad things with good things! I developed good habits, and tried to be with friends and in situations that would make me want to be a better person. I filled my life with uplifting, encouraging, and virtuous things (See Article of Faith #13). Through all of this, I realized that I had, as Alma called it in the Book of Mormon, a "mighty change of heart". Christ became the center of my life and I found true happiness in the gospel. Now don't get me wrong, I am still FAR from perfect. I make mistakes every day, but I'm also trying to better myself a little more every day.

Preach My Gospel, the AMAZING missionary handbook says, "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase." By Spring 2009, I had definitely come to a greater understanding of the Savior's Atonement and become a happier and better person because of it. The atonement truly did make me want to share the gospel with everyone! So, I began considering going on a mission. I really don't think my parents took me seriously at first, but eventually they realized I wasn't kidding. Thankfully, they have supported me one hundred percent.

I'm truly glad that I went through the things that I did. Although I did make some poor choices, I am now stronger because of them. I would never encourage anyone to make bad decisions in order to be stronger, but I know that I am the woman I am today because of these experiences I've had with the atonement. I know that no one is ever too far gone, the atonement is for everyone! We all make mistakes, but we can all be made clean again. Each of us can have eternal happiness if we come unto Christ. As a missionary I hope and pray that I will soon be able to bring that happiness found through the true gospel to people somewhere in the world. :)