Larissa - First Transfer Ever!!

Well folks I am leaving Lake Jackson, I got the call this morning and I am being transfered. So many emotions going through me right now I can even explain, serving here for the last six months has been incredible and I have grown to love the people here so much. Especially the Young women of this branch. They are absolutely incredible young women and I will miss them more then words can say. 

Sorry for not writing last week, we finally got to go to the temple:) Oh happy day! it was very much needed and so wonderful to finally after 5 months go to the house of the Lord and feel of his love and recieve revelation and help from on high. I love the temple and I am so blessed to have one I can go to in my mission. 

Well this last two weeks have been jam packed! seriously dont know where the times goes for all the things that we did and have to do. Well this last week one of our young women Cecilia Flores had her quienceniera! which is basically your becoming a women party and they go ALL OUT for those! She looks absolutely stunning and I was so happy we got to go and support her in that. We have been visiting alot of our recent converts this week making sure they are doing great and progressing. We have some amazing people in this branch, it is really incredible how much the Lord has blessed these people in there loves and also how they have blessed mine and my testimony. 

Oh funny story. So a women in our ward invited us to her daughters baby shower. They had a couple guessing games.... and me and hna. parra won ALL OF THEM!!! haha it was so funny! seriously we couldn't believe it cause I am horrible at those types of things. haha a lady at the table behind us shouted out once we won the last prize "its the Lord I'm telling you its the Lord!!" so funny, we were able to sing to her and pray for her and her baby! i was a very spiritual thing too so it was amazing. 

I know there are more stories that I forgot but I will try and remember and write them later:) I hope you all hada  wonderful Easter Sunday!

thanks for all the prayers, I feel the Love and strength from them everyday! 

Larissa - Pics April 2014, Lake Jackson

Jenessa - Week 27 - Because of HIM!!

Hello Everybody-

I have had a bit of a struggling week emotionally. I think I am just
seeing how quickly my mission is going to come to an end having hit my
1 year mark!! I am just overwhelmed with emotions as i look back at
where i have come from and where I still have yet to go! Its not all
bad, its just emotions! HAHA! I am so grateful for the atonement of my
Savior, Jesus Christ that helps me to be strong and continue forward,
even on days that I dont have the greatest desire to. I am grateful
for the atonement that gives me even more strength on those days that
I DO have a desire to go out and do this work! Its been amazing to
ponder on what is possible #becauseofhim as we have been posting those
things all week long on facebook. EVERYTHING is possible because of
our Savior and I know this! i know that it is only through Him that i
am back out here on my mission! I know that he LOVES me and He loves
you! Turn to Him for strength, guidance, reassurance, love, comfort,
and anything else you need....His arms are open and his hands are
outstretched to do all that is required to help you to become the
strong son or daughter of God that you are meant to become! Let Him
in, let him help you because it is ALL BECAUSE OF HIM that you are
even here! :-)

If you haven't watched the Because of Him video on mormon.org you
should check it out NOW..... easter.mormon.org. Then come back and
finish reading!........ GO NOW!!

This week has been a very meaningful week with our investigators here
in our area. Its been absolutely amazing! The spirit has born witness
to me again and again and again that this is the truth that we share.
Its been amazing!!

We had the opportunity of going to the mission home for an FHE with 4
of our investigators. It was a marvelous experience. One of our
investigators Jessica , is a very very special woman with an
incredible gift of the Spirit. She is so incredibly close to the Holy
Ghost, that its as if she already has the gift of the Holy Ghost to
always be with her. She also has dreams that seems to be connected
with her life somehow. Its incredible. She shared a very powerful
experience she had with the Book of Mormon and how she knew she needed
to come to FHE that night. She was with her friends when she received
a text from us about FHE and felt like she needed to go back to a
previous text (long story about how this text is important....will
have to share that another time)....but it was an important text that
linked us together and she   took the date from the text which was
March 12, 2014, which would be 03/212/14....she looked that up in the
scriptures...she flipped open and the first thing she opened to was
THIRD NEPHI chapter 1....then she went and read versus 12-14 and it
said:

12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that
day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at
hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow
come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all
that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy
prophets.

14 Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made
known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and
to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son--of the Father
because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the
time is at hand, and THIS NIGHT shall the SIGN be given."

(3 Nephi 1:12-14)

She felt like everything with us had a been a sign and she knew she
couldn't miss FHE, because the "sign" was going to be given for her,
as to what she should do. She shared that very powerful experience
with us and you could just feel the Holy Ghost just envelope us as she
shared it. The same happened when she shared that with President
Craig. She is so elect. She went out of town the rest of the week and
so we have the wonderful opportunity to teach her again on Tuesday.
She is excited to meet with us again, that she texted us!! :-)
Miracles are happening everywhere!!

Had 3 trade off's this week. I had the privilege of going with Sister
Graham in her area and then have Sister Chambers and Sister Murray
here in our area. It was a great week.

Sister Graham is so amazing. I love her so much. She is working hard,
despite her back causing her issues, I remember being there and
struggling. Its not fun at all. Although mine became incredibly
unbearable, hers is still just more of an annoyance. It makes me sad
that she does not get a good nights rest, and as a result is very
tired a lot of the time, but she perseveres and loves being a
missionary above all other things. It was so great to laugh and work
with her. :) we had the wonderful opportunity to teach so many people
while we were together. One lesson in particular was very
touching.....we had an appointment with this man named Ron, who has
his baptism coming up on April 27th. His wife has been a member most,
if not all, her life....but was not active after her and her ex
husband (who was also mormon at the time) were divorced. She (i cant
remember her name) within the past few years had knee surgery and
while she was in surgery, she had a stroke and now her mental and
physical capabilities are rather limited. Its very sad. So Ron is
taking care of her. His testimony is so sweet and pure. He talked
about how he has nobody but his wife. His mom is dead, his brother
disowned him after his mom died and he has no other living relatives.
His wife has two sons from her previous husband, but they never come
around and even her two sisters only come to see her occasionally and
the last time she saw her brother he pulled a gun on her. So they are
both basically alone in this world and he wants a family and a place
where he can come back to God. He is so very sweet and understands the
eternality of this baptism compared to his last and how the Gospel in
just a few short weeks has already, and will continue, to change his
life!! :-) He is grateful for the spiritual guidance and support. I
was so touched by him and his love for The Lord and for the Gospel!!
And for his wife!

Its funny how sometimes we have lessons, or at least I have noticed,
that some lessons we go into are exactly what I need to hear as well
as the investigator. That's exactly what happened with the next lesson
we went into with this less active. We talked about Charity and
allowing the love of Christ into our hearts. I have just been
struggling with having Charity towards myself, and then it also
effects my love for others. Its completely true when The Lord says,
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" that you have to love yourself to truly
love your neighbor. So as you come to know yourself as a true Son or
Daughter of our Heavenly Father and are confident with that identity
and purpose, then you can truly love others in this way. It might seem
like this simple commandment is meant for us to love all those around
us, but really it is a two part commandment; we must also love
ourselves! That i how our Savior truly loved all those around Him, he
KNEW who he was and what his purpose was. He KNEW that he was loved by
our Heavenly Father and that his relationship with our Father in
Heaven is really all that truly matters. He took that Love and then
shared it! We must beware of pride though, because it is an easy trap
to fall into to vainly love yourself, versus Loving who you are as a
son/daughter of God and being confident in our Heavenly Fathers
ability to strengthen and help you through life, versus your own
efforts. That has been a struggle for me this week, I haven't been the
kindest to myself, and have noticed i have lost a bit of the Spirit
and feel like I have hit a wall in my spiritual progression. I have
felt like something is missing and I am still searching for that
missing piece. I know that through prayer and scripture study The Lord
can help lead me to that missing piece in my heart. It will come! I am
sure of it! Patience is required.

Another incredible experience happened when we I was on a trade off
with Sister Chambers here in our area. Sister Chambers has a gift of
discernment and really knows how to get to the core issue people have,
it was amazing to work with her to help the investigators that we
taught discover their main questions that they had concerning God and
the gospel! I loved it! Taught me so much! We had 2 very powerful
lessons, but for the sake of time, I will just share the one. Our
investigator Rod was able to come to our Scripture Study Class this
past week that we just started up. We decided to start from the
beginning of the Book of Mormon and instantly it took us into some
very deep discussions, he is a very deep thinker. Its wonderful
though. After we had talked a bit about his questions concerning the
name of Christ.....which I have a question about and will address at
the end of this letter.....Sister Chambers had the impression that we
needed to get him into the chapel. We took him in their and the
instant the lights turned on.....it was like the Holy Ghost was just
waiting for us in there, it was so strong. Instantly he began to see
that we didn't have any crosses or pictures of Christ. He has always
been so concerned and even ridiculed by others for not "worshiping"
Christ as our God, when He knows there is a Heavenly Father. As he
noticed these things and as he paced at the front of the chapel, he
was overcome with emotion and began to cry. We asked him how he felt,
and he said "I don't know what this is, but i am feeling something."
We helped him to identify it as the Holy Ghost. We continued to teach
a little bit and then let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the work and
he continued to cry. It was the most powerful lesson I have EVER had!
You could almost feel the Holy Ghost standing right there in the midst
of us and who knows how many other angels helping and him along! He is
such a choice son of God who will be such a strong and faithful member
once he comes to know for certain that these things are true. We were
able to commit him to baptism and to pray for a date and then HE CAME
TO CHURCH!! Woot woot! It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong all
through church as it was centered on Christ with it being Easter
Sunday, it was perfect!

THEN.....last night we had dinner with him at the Cano's. It was very
powerful. Rod even commented that he felt so comfortable in their home
and felt something so calming there (which we know is the
Spirit...woohoo), that he almost fell asleep sitting on the couch
there while watching basketball after church. He says that he NEVER
gets comfortable somewhere, he's from New York and thats just not
something that happens to him easy. We had a wonderful dinner and a
very powerful lesson centered on the Book of Mormon and coming to know
for himself. Brother Cano bore his testimony and we shared ours and
the spirit was so sweet. :-) He is thirsting for this knowledge and
wants to know more. He is going to be such a powerful member! I see
him all in white and standing in the celestial room at the temple
already. I'm way beyond justing seeing him in white at his baptism!!
He is going to great things for The Lord here in the south and
wherever else his life may take him as a member of our Saviors
church!! :-) I KNOW that, if it wasn't for anyone else here in
Hendricks, Rod was why I was sent here. Our souls connected from our
very first meeting, that i cannot deny that we knew each other before
this life. Its such an incredible feeling knowing that we were
probably friends in the preexistence and probably talked all about the
fact that i would need to come find him! I am so grateful for him and
his honest heart. He has taught me so much about loving The Lord and
wanting to do His will! He wants to do what The Lord would have him
do. He wants to preach the gospel and bring in the lost sheep of the
Lords! I could just explode with the joy in my heart for this man and
the work that our Father in Heaven has in store for him! :-)

We had a trade off with Sister Murray and Sister Hale and I was able
to go with Sister Murray. She is such a sweet soul. I love her so
much. She struggles with her health and I am so proud of her for her
dedication to this work and her desire to be here and do this with all
her might. She is such a dedicated and powerful missionary, although
she doesn't see herself as such. She helped me out more then she will
ever know through her testimony and her desire to serve. Just the
power of her spirit and being around her is so incredible. I was
having a rough day when we were together and her loving spirit was
just what i needed. I was so grateful for her! :-) We were able to do
service for a single mom moving into our ward....we had NO IDEA what
we were getting ourselves into...haha! Neither did the elders and
other men who came to help her move into her apartment on the THIRD
FLOOR!! HAHA!! It was wonderful and we are excited to be working with
this wonderful sister  in our ward.

I absolutely love our focus on the Book of Mormon right now!! It has
been such a powerful experience in my own life AND I have seen how
powerful this has been within companionships, in individual areas, and
even just the feeling within the entire mission. Its incredible! I
love it and can't wait to see the many mighty miracles that continue
to happen here in the FJM! The Lord is truly hastening his work! I
have been asked to give a training in District Meeting tomorrow on The
Book of Mormon and how it answers questions of the soul. Indeed it
does! As i have been studying this, I came across a general conference
talk from October 1988 by President Ezra Taft Benson called "Flooding
the Earth with the Book of Mormon." It is an incredibly powerful
talk....EVERY member of the church should read it! The talk was given
nearly 26 years ago and a Prophet of God shared with us the importance
of helping this Book FLOOD the earth! President Benson boldly
proclaims, "Now, my good Saints, we have a great work to perform in a
very short time. We must flood the earth with the Book of Mormon--and
get out from under God's condemnation for having treated it lightly.
(See D&C 84:54-58.)"

This is still the same today, if anything it has become even more
important for us to help this Book to continue to flood the earth. I
love a quote in President Bensons talk by Bruce R. McConkie that
states "Few men on earth either in or out of the Church, have caught
the vision of what the Book of Mormon is all about. Few are they among
men who know the part it has played and will yet play in preparing the
way for the coming of Him of whom it is a new witness. ... The Book of
Mormon shall so affect men that the whole earth and all its peoples
will have been influenced and governed by it. ... There is no greater
issue ever to confront mankind in modern times than this: Is the Book
of Mormon the mind and will and voice of God to all men?" (Millennial
Messiah pp. 159, 170, 179.) We testify that it is." I testify that
this is true! I know that the Book of Mormon is the single most
important thing we could share with our fellow brothers and sisters.
It points the way to salvation, which can be found in our Savior. It
answers life's great questions. It helps us find direction and to feel
the love of The Lord. It helps us find peace in this life because it
helps us to see into the eternities, giving us that eternal
perspective and KNOWING we can be with our families FOREVER! I love it
with all my heart and cant imagine my life without it and as we study
it with the Bible, we will come closer to our Heavenly Father, Savior,
and the Holy Ghost then ever before. And that is exactly what we need
to be doing in this world where Satan is running rampant. We must put
on the armor of God and strengthen our Spirits to be on these front
lines, as The Lord has prepared us to be!  We can do this, but we can
NOT do this alone!! I know this to be true with all my heart and soul
and I wish I could declare it to the entire world!!


Well....We are off to a Zone p-day. :-)

Love
Sister Heckel

Travis Mission Picture 4.14.14

                                                              Travis Heckel 4.14.14

Jenessa - Week 26- MIRACLES and BUG BITES!!!

Hey Ya'll-

Had an absolutely wonderful week. :-) Working hard, finding some of
the most elect people I have ever met, and getting eaten alive by bugs
ALREADY!! Oh boy!! HAHA! Thats what i get for forgetting bug spray
though. HAHA! Anyways....We had to get our car fixed this week because
the A/C stopped working, and its getting warmer, so driving with no
A/C is no fun, but i am not complaining, i still have a car...and that
is a beautiful blessing as it is getting hotter. We are having so many
miracles. We have strived so hard this week to get some member present
lessons. The day we didn't have a car we had a member drive us around,
and everywhere we went....even our set appointments, NO ONE WAS HOME
ALL DAY! It was such a bummer, but then we rolled into the weekend and
one miracle after another just kept coming our way! It was beautiful!
The Lord is so good. He definitely likes to test us to see if we will
still keep being diligent when we aren't having the greatest success.
We strived to be and The Lord blessed us right at the "very end" of
the week. :-) It was so great! :-)


Our week started off sad, but that ok. We were dropped by one of my
favorite gators, Alice. She just informed us that she was happy where
she was at, she prayed about it and that although she loves us, she
isn't going to change right now. Elder Sutton has connected her with
his mom from back home, who used to be a Catholic like Alice, and so
hopefully being able to talk to someone who has been there will be
able to help her into the waters of Baptism, whether now or sometime
in the future. I certain that one day she will become a member. She
knows that it is true. We feel like she has had a witness, but we
think she is just too scared, for whatever reason. We will continue to
encourage from facebook and a stop by every now and then, but for now
we are just going to give her space and let her realize the Spirit she
is missing out on. She is such an amazing woman and i love her so
much, and I know that The Lord knows what will be best for her! :-)
That didn't get us too down though, because the week was full of
potential.

Went on 2 trade off's this week. Our first was with Sister's Hall and
Jeromchek. I went with the wonderful sister hall. She is a very
powerful missionary and she loves being here serving. She is working
on being more bold and following the Promptings of the spirit. It was
a very good trade off. We learned a lesson that I will never forget.
Sister Hall and I were seeing an investigator we thought was dropping
us, and this was the first time that his wife was there. Our purpose
for dropping by was to check and make sure that he truly was dropping
us, because he did it through text message and we wanted to resolve
concerns if we could. That is what we wanted to bring up but then she
was there and there one year old. Sister hall felt like she should ask
his wife Lauren a question, and then I felt the same prompting a
little while later....but we both dismissed it for whatever reason and
so we walked away from the lesson feeling that there was something
wrong. The lesson itself went really well though, we were able to help
Johnathan know that we are here for him, but that it is ultimately up
to him. He is amazing and just needs some fellowship, which is
something we are working on right now. Even with the lesson going
well, Sister Hall and I learned a really great lesson of following our
promptings...not in the way that we wanted to, because we felt like
something more could have come out of that lesson and we could have
had Lauren stay for the lesson, but I know that from that experience I
am going to be striving to follow EVERY prompting and not disregard it
for any reason....because God knows so much better!


We went on a trade off with sister kasteller and despain who are
phenomenal missionaries. Sister despain and I were together for the
day and she is such a powerful teacher and teaches in a way that I
have never experienced. She has a lot of different and simple ways of
explaining things. She also asks incredibly inspired questions. I was
privileged to teach two lessons with her. We were going to see a less
active and they weren't home, but then across the street there was
this black guy doing something with a washer and dryer outside we
almost got in the car thinking he was busy, but then I remember
thinking, "No, you promised The Lord that you would talk with everyone
and work on that this week, so get over there and talk to him." I am
so grateful for that. We were able to teach him and his
wife/girlfriend who came outside too. We shared the Book of Mormon and
they were very receptive. Unfortunately because of Easter and going
out of town we won't see them for about 2 weeks, but we have connected
with Brooke on Facebook and can talk with them through there before we
have our next lesson. The spirit was so strong. I am so grateful I
followed that prompting!  We also had an amazing teaching opportunity
that night as well with a 19 year old, Kiara (Kiki). We found out that
we are teaching her boyfriend Damon and she was interested in what we
were teaching. We were actually supposed to be meeting with Damon that
night and we were also supposed to have a different member with us,
but first the member that was to go with us (that went with us to the
last lesson we had with Damon) cancelled, like a half hour before the
lesson. We finally got a hold of another Sister who was able to go
with us. We got to the lesson and he wasn't there, we called and he
said he was going to be like 15 minutes, so we decided we would wait.
We went back to the car, not something we would normally do, but we
got in the car and just sat there. I felt super antsy.....like i
needed to get up and go talk to people....and these women even came
out of their home a little ways down and I wanted to get out and go
see them, but I felt impressed to just stay put....and with my new
resolve to follow all my promptings, we stayed. About 5 minutes later,
Kiki walked by. We were able to say Hi and told her we were waiting
for Damon, she informed us that he probably wouldn't make it as fast
as we thought and so we asked her if we could share with her what we
were going to teach him and she said YES!!! We had a very powerful
lesson on the Restoration, she had some amazing questions that we were
able to answer as we went through the lesson. She actually had some
very deep doctrinal questions, that we knew would be answered through
the Gospel, so we kept telling her......"You have to add and subtract
before you can do algebra right? Well...the questions you are asking
is algebra, let us share with you the adding and subtracting and then
we will get to the algebra." :-) Sister McCleary is brilliant, she
started using that with Damon the day before, so Sister Despain and I
were able to use it with her! I loved it! :-) Kiki is so amazing and
has been through so much for only being 19, but she knows that God is
there and that he loves her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she is
going to pray about it and she even committed to being baptized on
June 14 if she comes to know it is true!! How amazing!! The spirit was
definitely guiding that entire lesson, all while the bugs ATE US
ALIVE!!! HAHA!!

I have really been studying a lot this week about TRUST and FAITH! I
want to fully and completely trust The Lord and in turn i want him to
be able to fully trust me. I had kind of been studying this previous
to my experience with Sister Hall, but then my study became even more
important to me and my prayers became even more fervent to help me
with this. I was very frustrated by the end of the week with looking
at the things that i did or didn't do that would not be something that
would build my trust with The Lord or in The Lord, but I woke up this
morning with more hope in my hear than I have ever felt before. I
prayed so hard last night that The Lord would soften my heart and help
me to see things for what they really are, to help me see myself as
The Lord see's me and to see my relationship with Him more clearly.
Its interesting, with this study i started to think about my
relationship with the Godhead. I have never really thought too much
about the fact that they are 3 separate beings, so that means 3
separate relationships right??? What an interesting thought. As i have
been pondering that, I have felt that i have been combining my
relationships with them into one feeling, when really its not. As i
have pondered i have realized that i have a strong relationship with
my Savior, but my relationship with my Heavenly Father and with the
Holy Ghost is lacking and I could do better. Its a interesting shift
in my thought process. Its been incredibly eye opening though. Just
like I have a different relationship with my mom versus my dad or my
sister, why wouldn't it be the same with the Father, Son and the Holy
Ghost?? :-) Think about it. Isn't that amazing!!

When I was getting all frustrated and down on myself this week, The
Lord was amazing and shared just what I needed through the words of
Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art
thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation, in the sides of the north;

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall
consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the earth to
tremble, that did shake kingdoms?

(2 Nephi 24:12-16)

NOw....you may wonder, how did this help me...its talking about
Lucifer....why would that be helpful?? Well.... start with verse 12-15
telling us about Satan and His desire to go against the will of God
and put himself above our Heavenly Father, then we see what happens to
Him when he does not align his will with The Lord and lets His pride
get the best of him. He if "fallen from Heaven....cut down to the
ground." I was opened to the fact that i was letting my pride get the
best of me and putting my will above the Lords, by telling myself that
i wasn't doing the best that i could. Who am I to judge what The Lord
would deem acceptable? I do not have any right! I am so full of pride
when I am not kind to myself, and judge myself harsher than God does.
I must turn to Him and find out what His will is for me. I cannot
place myself above or below anybody based off of my abilities, because
I am different and I know that The Lord has sent me here to do a great
work, HIS WORK, and do it in the way that I am meant to do it....not
like every other person does it, because I am not them, I am me!! It
made me desire to align my will with God, so that i will not "fall"
like Lucifer did, and he was a much more glorious angel then I ever
was, but i know that i have a purpose, as we all do and I love that so
much! I also felt like my frustration came from my weaknesses and the
fact that i felt like i was giving into the enticings or whisperings
of Satan, versus the Lords. Not that i have been doing things wrong,
but i just felt like i wasn't doing as good as I could and getting
angry and impatient a little more quickly. When I read verse 16, i
came to realize, that when we geet to the other side we are going to
look at Satan and we are going to say "Is this the man that made the
earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?"....or other words....we
are going to see him for who he really is and see his "glory" compared
to our Heavenly Father and our Savior and we are going to have pitty
on him and wonder why we EVER listened to him! I found so much
strength in overcoming my defeating thoughts and just getting up and
going strong! I love The Lord and I am so grateful for the Book of
Mormon and the strength that we can find each day as we read....."20
Minutes a day, keeps Satan away!!" :-)

:-)

Thoughts were all over the place!

Hope you enjoy!

Love you
Sister Heckel