Life is wonderful! I love being a missionary! Just had to get that
out there right at the beginning.....cause it is sooo true! I have
never been so exhausted and never been so happy in my entire life! I
fall into bed every night absolutely exhausted, but know that I have
done everything within my power to fulfill my purpose and serve The
Lord that day! I love it!
This week was way crazy, but so great. I can't believe how much we fit
into this week! We had 3 trade off's, Zone meeting, the sisters
meeting, not to mention all that went on in our area!! HAHA!
Lets start with the area. We are still teaching Alice and Victoria
Penrod, mother and daughter. They are progressing along great. Alice
is having a hard time leaving her Catholic ways, but she is still open
to reading the Book of Mormon and finding out for herself. We had a
very powerful first lesson and the spirit was there. We committed
Alice to baptism for March 30th, kind of a soft date, cause she is
very much catholic and already told us that Lent is super important to
her and she might not be able to make it to church till after the 6
weeks of lent. So we shall see. She is coming to our relief society
activity and is excited to watch the Joseph Smith Movie with us this
week. We will be sharing that as well as the Plan of Salvation with
her. Her daughter clings to everything that we have to say, and
definitely liked Young Womens when they came to church last week. We
had a member with us at their last lesson, which is why I believe the
Spirit was so strong. We are hoping to fellowship them with this
particular family in the ward with teenage children, we will see how
that goes this week. We (well...Sister McCleary and the sister who was
on the trade off with her) taught Jonathan Walton this week and
committed him to baptism on April 20th. He is super laid back, but
incredibly elect. He is progressing along very well. He has been
consistently reading from the Book of Mormon. Nearly all of his
lessons have had a member at them, we are working on getting some male
fellowship for him right now and getting him to church. I am sure
Sister McCleary will talk more about him, I just wasn't there....but
we are excited for him. We are working hard and getting to know the
area really quickly. We found 3 new gators this week.
We are working with some amazing members as well. We have so much
member involvement in this ward. I have died and gone to Heaven!! I
love it! It could still be better, but its so great! :-) Oh....so many
stories to tell and not enough time!!!
Rod, who we found last night during the last 15 minutes of the night
is ELECT. He is so excited to have us come back. He is searching for
truth and knows he hasn't found it yet. We are excited to give him
that truth! :-) He was so excited to talk to us about what he found in
the book of Hebrews, which he has been studying! He read and talked
with us about Melchzedec. He is fasinated with him and wonders why
nobody talks about him....well guess what....WE DO!! HAHA! Its so
amazing! It was one of the most incredible experiences i have had on
my mission! He brought the Spirit, just by talking! We are so excited
to be going back to teach him on Tuesday! I am so glad that we stayed
out till the very end of the night, even when we could have gone to an
area closer to our apartment, and on our plans, Sister McCleary felt
like we needed to go and try Rod....at the other end of our area....it
was so inspired!!! I am definitely gaining a testimony of the
blessings that come from being diligent and going all the way to the
end of the night!
Went on THREE exchanges this week. Two of them I was the one that went
to the other sisters area, I felt like I haven't been in my area for a
long time because of that...LOL :-) They were amazing I love these
sisters so much! It is fantastic getting to know them and share this
amazing time with them. I thought I got called to be a Sister Training
Leader to help these wonderful sisters....NOPE...I thought wrong.
These beautiful sisters are teaching me so much! They help me more
then they will ever know! I am so grateful for this calling, as
exhausting as it is, because it has allowed me to really feel of Gods
love for his children as I get a small glimpse of how our Heavenly
Father feels for each one of these sisters and the magnificent
potential they all have as Daughters of Divinity!!
Zone Meeting went great. I trained on "Asking Inspired Questions." It
was very powerful, cause we had a lot of participation!! I love it
when others get into the lesson and discuss, versus me teaching. It
really allows the spirit to do the teaching!! It was so great! I love
our Zone. We set some very specific goals, after Elder Cordon talked
about setting goals. It was probably the best "goal setting"
experience with a group of missionaries on my mission! I know..sounds
kind of funny, but it really was awesome!!
We had a Sisters Modesty Meetings this week, that Sister McCleary and
I had to put together after talking to Pres and Sister Craig at our
Mission Leadership Training. At MLC President and Sister Craig asked
us to share with the Sisters throughout the mission, the missionary
standards for dress and grooming. Apparently we have been having some
issues with that, so much so that their have been Elders that have
come up to Sister Craig telling her how uncomfortable they feel around
certain sisters because of how they dress, whether its too low, too
high, or too tight, its just TOO much for the Elders who are trying to
keep their minds clean and pure! Poor Elders!
So...funny thing....Sister McCleary has this issue with things being
on the counter. Even like stuff that you use everday...like the
toaster and blender and stuff. HAHA! She cleared it off last p-day as
we were deep cleaning our apartment, then this week I would be using
things and then leave stuff out on the counter...in the corner or
somewhere and then come back and it would be gone and put away. Some
things I would have still been using too....or I use EVERYDAY....haha!
I didn't really think much of it till later on in the week after I had
to pull my oatmeal out of the cupboard for the fifth time...lol :-) I
finally asked her if she had an issue with things sitting out on the
counter and she was like "Oh, ya...thats just what we do at home." I
have never laughed so hard in my life! She doesn't really have an
"issue" with it, its just what they do at home. K...this story doesn't
sound very funny, cause my story telling skills definitely need some
help, but it was HILARIOUS!! We've been laughing about it for days,
because I finally figured out why I was always having to pull things
out or why when I would leave something on the counter and go into the
other room and then come back that it would be put away, if sister
McCleary had gone by. She is so great and we laugh about it all the
time. Keeping the counters clear just for her!! LOVE HER!!
We also had a huge laugh one day when we were driving and I was
thirsty. The only water available in the car was a half empty
waterbottle rolling around on the floor by Sister McCleary's feet. I
asked if I could have it, I was pretty sure that it was her old water
bottle, but I was really thirsty. She gave it to me and i began to
drink. :-) After a minute i was like "This water tastes minty."
Well....come to find out it was Sister McCleary's old water bottle and
she had stuck her chewed up gum in the top of the lid.....no wonder
the water was minty. :-) It was so funny!!
I love my mission! I love the people. I am so grateful that I decided
to serve! BEST DECISION EVER! I can't believe I have less than 8
months left!! So crazy! Time goes by way too fast! We must live in the
moment!! :-)
Oh....Today....we went to this museum called the MOSH....it was sooooo
cool! I will send a few pictures! We went with a huge group of 25
Sisters!! It was amazing!! SOOO MUCH FUN!!! :-)
Well...I've gotta head out to go preach the Gospel!!!
Love you
Sister Heckel
P.S. Its my birthday next week. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME SUGARY TREATS. I
wont eat them. Unless you would like to send them specifically for my
companion, then I guess that would be ok. I am just not eating sugar
right now :-) I would love to get some letters/cards and anything else
fun you decide to send though :-) Love you all! Have a fantastic
week!!
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