New address for Elder Heller

Kyle moved last week. He has a new companion and a new apartment. He is still serving in the same ward, so he will be working with the same people.

His mailing address stays the same. But....if you want to Google map him (like you know his dad and I did:)) here is his address:

1103 Walden Brook Dr.
Lithonia, GA 30338

His new companion is Elder Calcote from Utah. He said they are just two white boys in 'da hood. Hmmm.

Last week an elderly friend of ours passed away. She had often mentioned to me that her daughter lived in Fayetteville. Last Sunday we met the daughter and her husband. They kindly offered to carry on a package for Kyle when they go home. She will deliver it to him. I would just love to see his face! What nice people to think of others during their sad time.

Our Mother's Day phone call

Per tradition a missionary gets to call home on Mother's Day and Christmas. Guess what today is?!? Mother's Day. We got our phone call at about 1:00 this afternoon. Of course as soon as I heard 'hi mom' I began to cry. It was wonderful to hear Kyle's voice and for the chance to ask a question and have it answered right then and there! I just wanted to share some of the things we got to talk with Kyle about. Enjoy!

The area Kyle is serving in is southeast of Atlanta. Atlanta is one of the places people are sent after immigrating to the U.S. There are a lot of people where Kyle serves who are from the Congo, Tanzania, Ghana and a couple of other places I have never heard of and could not begin to spell. He said there are a lot of people from Africa in this area. They speak French and Swahili.

Kyle's companion is from Congo. He and his parents came to the U.S. and his parents now live in N. Carolina. His name is Elder Neckadenga.

Kyle and his companion drive a car and are allowed to drive 1460 miles per month. That kind of gives you an idea of how spread out the area he is assigned to is. He said they regularly run out of miles a day or two before the month ends. That means they hoof it (and stay pretty close to home).

His ward meets at 10:00. They have a HUGE amount of inactive members and the ward focus for this year is "Rescuing less actives" They have a whole program designed to fulfill this plan.

I also learned what BIBLE stands for. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Kyle sounded great. He is learning something new about the gospel and about people every day. He said he is very happy and is glad that he will stay in Decatur for another 7 weeks or so at least.

He said they are starting to feel the humidity, but it is not bothering him.

Health wise, nothing seems much different. He is trying to eat as best he can and seems to be a little more sensitive to how his body is feeling.

All in all it was a wonderful phone call. We talked to him and then Michael and Brigette came over with the sweeties so they all got to visit with Kyle as well. He finished up by talking to Kev, and then heard one last I love you from his mom.

It was great to hear from him and he said to say hi to everyone. He asked about everyone and what was new family-wise.

Pictures in the mail.

Snow had come upon us.

They canceled Church the next day. Even though the snow had melted.

I think this was our 3rd day in Decatur.

Elder Gnahiahi. He's Tongan but is from Texas. This was my last night in the MTC. I had just gone to bed when i thought i heard someone going through my stuff. when i finally decided to open my eyes all i saw was the flash on the camera.

HUH!?! (MTC)

My Desk ( in the mtc) was right across from my bed. I was the only one utilizing both so i pretty much had half of the dorm all to myself.

My BED

MTC Dorms

One of the many great tie exchanges of the MTC!

This is my bed. My pills are on the dresser. As a joke i refer to them as blessing and eat night i "count my blessings one by one."

1st. service project. The kid in the blue is really funny.

Me, Sister Putman, and Kwarteng. Little did we know that after partaking of the sacrament we'd be partaking of some AWESOME Mississippi mud pie!

A Cool Picture. I like the rain clouds .

My Living Room. I rearranged the furniture. We have more room. but this was after i did that.
The Kitchen. I'll take a picture of the standard missionary fridge next time.
The dining room. I eat at my desk which is to the right of the camera in the last photo. i'll get a photo next time.

Letter March 2.22.10

this week i was able to eat some goat tail. its jamaican but it didn't taste any different from american food which leads me to wonder if it was really "foreign" it tasted a lot like one of the sudanese meats that i had which turned out to be lamb. but im glad to hear all is going well with you. i don't have a whole heck of a lot of time. my week has been alright. i was on exchanges which was pretty much the highlight but they didn't last to long. transfers are on wednesday so i'm excited to hear whats happening. i'll find out today. today shouldn't be too exciting. everyone is out of miles. on some occasions we do check our mail multiple times so i'll try and talk my comp into coming back later.
. . . . .
So my comp decided to stay here at the library for another hour (of course without bothering to tell me)! So now i can update yall on the mish. On Tuesday we went out to lunch with sister lewis (i don't know if i've mentioned her before) but she is an old perverted lady. she has favorite missionaries in our district. she likes us all but she likes her "pets" more. luckily i'm not one of her pets so she didn't ask me to sit by her. I went on exchanges with our district so i was in a different area. My comp and i (while tracting) discussed various pop stars such as miley cyrus, demi lovato, selena gomez, ashley tisdale, and of course let's not forget...TAYLOR SWIFT! For each positive thing i had to say about these ladies he had something negative...except for Taylor. We discussed how much disney has changed as far as their strict enforcement of rules and what not. It was a good bonding experience. i freaked him out at night when i told him about paranormal activity. i guess he couldn't sleep! what a whimp! Saturday we did service all day for a non member sister from japan. it was a lot of fun. i was able to use a lot of the skill that i got from landscaping. she has a son though who is fun. he's always over reacting as most 10 years do. It rained yesterday. Church was really nice. i'm getting to know a lot of the members. I think i can say (without any pride of course) that i am a prime example that missionaries are the most popular people in the ward. one of the biggest challenges for me so far on my mission is tuning things out. when we go into walmart or some restaraunt and i hear the music or see the magazines or the advertisements for new releases. i am getting better though. i have the magazine thing pretty much beat. that was never really a problem for me anyway. the music though is going to be the biggest challenge. i bought a guitar a few weeks ago so maybe just maybe that will help. and if not...well at least i have a guitar to strum. im thinking of writing/composing some missionary songs if i get good enough. anyway that was my week in a nutshell. i'm most likely going to develop my pics today (i think i have like 10). i hope it doesn't cost too much. my goal is to spend as little as money as possible so maybe i'll send pics every 6 weeks. since yall are the master chefs do you know any simple yet awesome recipes that don't require an oven. i can use a stove but i have not been trained with an oven. i have been able to make french toast on a couple of occasions. we don't have any cinnamon or sugar so i substituted brown sugar. they turned out all right but i don't want to brag. our syrup is like 13 years old so i dont want to risk using it.

So close and yet so far.....

I imagine you are wondering what is this picture? Well...we got an e-mail from Kyle on Monday. More details to follow. I will just include the part of the letter that pertains to this picture:

'On Saturday I met (actually met) Martin Luther King III. We went to help out at a black history month program. I felt awkward because I was the only white guy there. The first set of pictures we took one of the security guards said, "Elder Heller, we are going to have the elders take a picture with him...so can you stand off to the side over here?" I thought it was funny.'

This picture was published on the church website on Wednesday. Notice the handsome missionaries in the picture. Notice the handsome missionary missing.
Kyle's mom thinks this is funny as well.

Letter

Letter from Elder Heller send out on Feb 8^th. Day before he leaves the MTC. Letter to E&A Heller

Hey y’all

How’s everything going`? Thank you so much for the letter! It’s a huge marcle booster! I hope y’all got my email or my travel info in case you didn’t I leave Tuesday (Feb. 9^th) at 8:30 from the Salt lake City Airport. Life here at the MTC is awesome. Time goes by really fast. I didn’t remember what I wrote in my last letter. My first day was very motivation and positive. I was anxious at first maybe even a little hesitant but once I started walking with my host I knew that I had made the right choice. I don’t really have any “weird” people in my district. There are 5 Elder and 4 Sisters and my teachers are great. I’m in a tripanionshio which didn’t go so well but I’ve learned to love them, mail seems to be slow here so I don’t know when you’re going to get this. I;ve grown a lot here but I can’t wait to get to Georgia. I have like 5 days and I’ve already packed. I;m looking forward to tomorrow. I get to do some service and make calls at the RC. Also theirs this cute cashier at the store so another Elder and I are going to talk to her and find out her relationship status and what not. I guess that’s one of the things about me that I may never grow out of. Well time for bed. Can’t wait to hear from y’all and hopefully see you!

-EH

1st Area

Kyle arrived in Atlanta, GA on 2/9/10. He spent the night at the mission home in Fayetteville, GA.
His first area is Decatur, GA. We got an e-mail from him and he said he is doing great. His companion is Elder Kwartdeng. He said the days are busy, and he is TIRED! It looks like all packages and letters will go to the mission home.:
Elder Kyle Heller
Georgia Atlanta Mission
112 Governors Square, Suite A
Fayetteville, GA 30215-4805

P.S. This is a picture I took of Kyle before he left home. What a ham!

P.S.S. This is Kyle's mom posting, not the usual talented Alyssa. (I hope she is proud of her technologically challenged mother-in-law. :)