Hello -
You will not believe it, but I guess it was the last open seat on the plane with all the other missionaries heading to Jacksonville, but I rode FIRST CLASS! What missionary gets to ride first class??? Seriously. It was incredible. I never want to fly coach again. HAHA! I sat next to a man from Highland, UT and we talked all about his sons serving mission and how his one son had to come home from his mission because of a brain tumor. Luckily it was malignant, so chemo was not necessary, but his son lost his motor skills when they removed the tumor and so he is currently learning how to hold a glass of water. He is 21 and having to learn all those things over again. He still has full function of the rest of his brain though. He didn't lose any memories and his personality is the same, which they consider a huge blessing. He is expected to get back to "normal" within the next 2 years. It was an incredible story. I felt so blessed to be sitting next to him and have him share these things with me. I was humbled by the fact that my situation could have been a lot worse! I came home for back issues that were quite quickly fixed and I get the opportunity to finish my mission and serve again as a full time missionary.
My connecting flight put me back in coach, but still priority seating, which was sweet. I was blessed to sit next to this man named Scott who lives in Jacksonville and we talked all about Christ and religion and how he hopes that his girls could grow up to be like me. He has two girls that are 6 and 8. He is so worried about all the filth out there in the world and wants them to have a strong relationship with their Savior. We were able to discuss the Bible and a bit about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Book of Mormon to give him, but I did give him a mormon.org card that I had purchased a few days ago, just for this occasion. We talked nearly the whole 45 minute flight. It was wonderful. :-)
Being back out here in the mission field as a full time missionary is incredible!! BEST DECISION EVER! If anyone is contemplating going on a mission or going back tell them its a MUST!!
The Florida Jacksonville Mission has changed sooooo much since I was out here nearly a year ago. Its amazing! Our new mission President and his wife are incredible. President Craig is such a people person and find so much joy and excitement in the work.
The first night here was so great. There were 33.....yes that's right THIRTY THREE new missionaries coming in this last transfer and guess whats even better, only about 10 of them were Elders! The explosion of sisters in this mission is unreal. We went from 16 when I was out here November 2012 to over 110!! We are expecting to reach about 120 something sisters by the beginning of next year! Isn't that crazy amazing!! :-) That, with a few more Elders coming into the mission, will put us at a total of over 250 missionaries, last year our total was 160ish.
President Craig is definitely putting me to work. I have been called to white wash an area called Normandy with Sister Orton, who has been out for 7.5 months. Its been a whirlwind of a week figuring out our apartment and figuring out the area with the sisters and elders that are already here. Oh thats right, we already have 2 sets of missionaries in this ward, now we have 3. Isn't that crazy. EVERY ward here in the FJM has at least 2 sets of missionaries, a set of Sisters and a set of Elders!! We have 3, a set of Elders and 2 sets of Sisters. Well....technically we have 4 if you count the floating Spanish Missionaries that cover the 3 wards that are in our building. :-) Our district has 8 sets of missionaries, that is unreal. We maybe had 4 or 5 when I was here. Sisters almost feel like they are outnumbering the Elders, almost. Its so great!
We had some really fun experiences this week as we have been knocking on doors getting to know the people in the area. This one BIG black man names Roy opened his door and he was on his cell phone. We totally thought he was going to turn us away instantly because he was on the phone. But once we told him that we were here with a message about Jesus Christ. He told the person on the phone, "Hey, Imma gonna have to call you back. Me got to speak with these people about my Jesus Christ!" We ended up having a wonderful conversation with him. Ultimately he turned us down, but we were able to share the whole first lesson with him and suprisingly, even as he turned us down saying that he was "old school and the Bible was good enough for him," he still took the Book of Mormon that we gave him. We are planting seeds wherever we go! :-) Who knows if one day he will pick up that Book of Mormon and read. :-)
We are slowly moving away from tracting and we work A LOT with members and reactivation. We are told that we will be getting Ipads around the end of the year or sometime in January! We are excited for that. We are moving forward with the work, with an emphasis on Member Missionary Work and INVITING. You NEVER know who will accept your invitation to learn about the Gospel. We are encouraging all members, when we have lessons with them, to set a goal (that we follow up with) of how many people they are going to INVITE, whether it is to church, to a church function, to meet with the missionaries, etc..., it doesn't matter. They just have to invite. We are emphasizing the fact that you don't have to be friends with them, if you know them, invite them!!! We as missionaries dont necessarily become friends before we invite people to baptism, to read the book of mormon, to come to church, to pray, etc. We start up a conversation and once they are comfortable we INVITE! That is what the brethren is asking us all to do as members. We have been baptized and have covenanted with our Heavenly Father that we will be missionaries! Are you being a missionary?? Are you inviting people?
Remember that as you are inviting people and setting these goals for yourself, which I recommend to ALL!! Old and young!! Remember that you are not setting a goal for how many people you can get to come to something, you are setting a goal for how many people you are going to INVITE! Only 20% of people will say YES to us missionaries. So if you ask 10 people, 2 of them are bound to come. We as a companionship have actually just set a goal to find 100 people per week that will say NO to us!! Because we know that within that 100, we will find about 20! That is an exciting prospect. We just have learned to talk with EVERYONE and invite them to something or to do something very quickly! Its so exciting!
There is a book that I feel should be in EVERY MEMBERS HOME....its called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton M. Christensen. He has some amazing insights on how we can be missionaries everyday! How we can not be so intimidated by missionary work and find it fun and engaging. I promise you that you will find more joy than you have ever felt in your life as you follow the things that he has outlined in this book. Its a short read, only 150 pages, but the BEST 150 pages that you could read this year!!! I'm sure of it! It WILL change your life, if you let it! Member missionary work is so incredibly important! We, as missionaries, cant do anything unless we find someone to teach and that responsibility to FIND is not ours, although we do it a lot, it is NOT ours! It is every members responsibility to go out and find the "lost sheep" and lead them back into the fold!
I love this work and I know that this Gospel is true! I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity to be serving as a full time missionary of the Lord! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that through it we can know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he restored the Lords kingdom once again on the earth, and that kingdom can be found among the saints in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! There isn't a greater calling that you can have or "give yourself" then to be a missionary, ALWAYS! I know that our Savior lives and He loves us so very much! I am so grateful for the the infinite power of His LOVING Atonement. I know that it is through faith, mighty miracles can be brought to pass! I know that we are living in the last days and that we must fight Satan with all our might, for we know the outcome of the war, we just have to decide which side we will be on. I know that there is so much joy that can be found in this world, even among the pain. We must have faith, continually look to God, and count our blessings. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and He loves you too! I know that as we follow Him we will be blessed, he will "open up the windows of heaven and pour out [blessing] that there will not be room enough to receive them." I know all these things to be true and i will testify to these things all my days, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!
Have a Wonderful Day!
Love
Sister Heckel
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