Hello Everyone!!
I hope you have had a wonderful week. Mine has been ABSOLUTELY
INCREDIBLE :) it's been emotional, but wonderful! I was able to go to
the temple in ORLANDO....it was BEAUTIFUL! So incredible. I love the
temple with all of my heart and could live there every day. It just
feels like coming home! I felt so at peace and like I never wanted to
do another bad thing again. I felt like I wanted to be a more
dedicated, powerful, and holy disciple of Jesus Christ. It was a
wonderful experience, something my soul has missed since coming back
out. I had some very powerful personal revelation come as I was in the
temple, it was such a beautiful experience. I am so grateful for the
temple and knowing that we can be sealed together forever as families
and do the work for those who have passed on, so that all might have
the opportunity to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also love
knowing that our lord and Savior has walked those hallowed halls, I am
so grateful for the knowledge that he has suffered for me personally
that I may become clean and whole as I cling to those covenants that I
have made! My heart is overflowing with gratitude!!
I love this area and all the wonderful people here. I love the sisters
that I get to serve as well. I am so excited for this upcoming
transfer with all the new sisters in the area. There are quite a few
getting transferred in and out. Its going to be an adventure of a
transfer, with Sister McCleary and I staying together. Sooooo happy we
are still together. It's going to be great! This week flew by, but it
feels like last pday was forever ago haha! We had a wonderful FHE at
our investigators, Alice Penrods, home. She had a barbecue and invited
a few families over, who we are now teaching. She even invited her
neighbors, who are a bunch of single men who mostly speak Spanish and
the Spanish elders were able to teach a few and pick up a few
investigators and contacts as well. The whole night was incredibly
successful. Some of the children from the FHE even came with Alice to
church this Sunday and they are determined to get their parents to
come next week. We are excited! Love these families that we get to
work with. Alice, herself, is coming along a little slow, we think she
loves everything that is being shared, but may not be praying about
it, or at least praying with real intent. Once she receives that
witness, that is all she will need. She is so amazing and loves
helping us with our missionary efforts, but is hesitant when it comes
to herself embracing the gospel, because that would require a little
change, and she is comfortable right now. So we shall see.
We are continuing to teach Tiffany, who was also able to make it to
church and loved it. She just has some word of wisdom habits to kick
and needs a bit more understanding of the basics of the gospel and she
will be ready for baptism. She knows its true and already calls the
church "her church." We had a Book of Mormon miracle with Tiffany. We
had taught her on Thursday and committed her to read from the Book of
Mormon. She was not willing to come to church yet, because of
something to do with her anxiety medication. We weren't going to push
it, because she is under high amounts of stress at the moment, but we
promised her blessings when she came and then recommitted her to read
the Book of Mormon and pray. Well....the next evening we got a call
from her, telling us that she felt like she needed to come to church
and asked if we could help her get a ride. She continued to tell us
her experience of opening up and reading from the Book of Mormon the
night before and just feeling so incredibly happy, then the next
morning the feeling continued and she felt like she needed to go to
church, and guess what?! She did! :) And no major anxiety attack or
anything. She even knew someone there! She already has a friend. We
will be committing her to baptism this week and helping her with the
word of wisdom, which she already knows what she needs to do, she just
has to do it. :)
We had a very successful week. We were able to meet many less actives
and find a couple new investigators. We were out walking, trying to
save on miles on our car, and came across Nancy sitting out in the
cold connecting to someone's wifi. She is a hoot. She told us we
needed to experience life and travel and get married ONLY when you
know he loves you, and part of loving you is having a house and being
settled and ready for marriage...and he needs to show you he really
loves you, not just say he loves you. She went on and on about being
independent and dont get tied down too early. She is a riot. Very
straight forward and I love it! Haha! She has a friend that lives in
Utah, that has talked to her about our faith a bit before and she has
spoken briefly with some missionaries. We were able to talk about the
Book of Mormon and she said she would read. I Am excited to go back!
We then had a wonderful lesson with Kenneth and Monique, we have been
trying to see Monique for weeks and then Sister McCleary caught her
husband Kenneth at home last week and made an appointment and they
kept it and boy were they are so cute and GOLDEN. They were very open
to all that we had to share, agreeing that they must come to find out
for themselves and are determined to do so. Ken is so charismatic. He
is a former baseball player and Monique is a nurse currently. They
have two kids, sharell Dynae and Kenneth III or KJ. Their daughters
names come from two dWe are so excited for this family. Monique and
Kenneth were really excepting of the message that we had to share. We
committed them to read and a soft commitment to baptism.
I am excited for the new focus in the mission. We had MLC (Mission
Leadership Training) this week and President Craig has decided that
our focus for the upcoming months and even the year will be all about
the Book of Mormon. . I am obsessed with the scriptures and I am
grateful for the "excuse"....who really needs an excuse....lol....to
spend more time in the Book of Mormon. It brings such strength and
power into my life and I love it! I am excited to help others
strengthen their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and see lives
change because of it, not only investigators lives, but missionaries!
It's such a sweet wonderful thing to witness.
My dream woke me up the other morning. That sounds kinda funny, but
its true. Sister McCleary and I had both woken up at 5:15am the other
morning to use the restroom. She beat me there and I had to go soooo
bad. lol :-) I was pacing till she came back out.
Well...anyways....went back to sleep and had about 45 minutes more to
sleep....cause we wake up at about 6:00am to get in a little extra
exercise time. I was having this awesome dream and was sharing the
Introduction to the Book of Mormon to this girl inside Grandma Kohlers
house (but before it was renovated). Right in the middle of having
this wonderful missionary experience I hear this voice, clear as day,
say "You've been sleeping too long, WAKE UP." So i immediately woke up
and laid there for a second kind of unsure what just happened, and
then turned to grab the phone to check the time and it said 6:31am. I
couldn't believe it. HAHA! First of all, BOTH of our alarms didn't go
off and they were both set, I had checked them the night before.
Somehow they both just didn't even go off and so we slept in, but I
guess I now know that the spirit can work through my dreams to wake me
up. :-) Pretty interesting. I like it! :-) I'll still be setting my
alarm though! :-)
Love you
Sister Heckel
P.S The picture of all of us at the temple can go up on the blog, but
please if you post it on facebook, DO NOT tag me in it. We have been
asked to not do that. Others can post the picture, but I cannot be
tagged, neither can anyone else from the mission. Just fyi. Thank you!
I hope you have had a wonderful week. Mine has been ABSOLUTELY
INCREDIBLE :) it's been emotional, but wonderful! I was able to go to
the temple in ORLANDO....it was BEAUTIFUL! So incredible. I love the
temple with all of my heart and could live there every day. It just
feels like coming home! I felt so at peace and like I never wanted to
do another bad thing again. I felt like I wanted to be a more
dedicated, powerful, and holy disciple of Jesus Christ. It was a
wonderful experience, something my soul has missed since coming back
out. I had some very powerful personal revelation come as I was in the
temple, it was such a beautiful experience. I am so grateful for the
temple and knowing that we can be sealed together forever as families
and do the work for those who have passed on, so that all might have
the opportunity to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also love
knowing that our lord and Savior has walked those hallowed halls, I am
so grateful for the knowledge that he has suffered for me personally
that I may become clean and whole as I cling to those covenants that I
have made! My heart is overflowing with gratitude!!
I love this area and all the wonderful people here. I love the sisters
that I get to serve as well. I am so excited for this upcoming
transfer with all the new sisters in the area. There are quite a few
getting transferred in and out. Its going to be an adventure of a
transfer, with Sister McCleary and I staying together. Sooooo happy we
are still together. It's going to be great! This week flew by, but it
feels like last pday was forever ago haha! We had a wonderful FHE at
our investigators, Alice Penrods, home. She had a barbecue and invited
a few families over, who we are now teaching. She even invited her
neighbors, who are a bunch of single men who mostly speak Spanish and
the Spanish elders were able to teach a few and pick up a few
investigators and contacts as well. The whole night was incredibly
successful. Some of the children from the FHE even came with Alice to
church this Sunday and they are determined to get their parents to
come next week. We are excited! Love these families that we get to
work with. Alice, herself, is coming along a little slow, we think she
loves everything that is being shared, but may not be praying about
it, or at least praying with real intent. Once she receives that
witness, that is all she will need. She is so amazing and loves
helping us with our missionary efforts, but is hesitant when it comes
to herself embracing the gospel, because that would require a little
change, and she is comfortable right now. So we shall see.
We are continuing to teach Tiffany, who was also able to make it to
church and loved it. She just has some word of wisdom habits to kick
and needs a bit more understanding of the basics of the gospel and she
will be ready for baptism. She knows its true and already calls the
church "her church." We had a Book of Mormon miracle with Tiffany. We
had taught her on Thursday and committed her to read from the Book of
Mormon. She was not willing to come to church yet, because of
something to do with her anxiety medication. We weren't going to push
it, because she is under high amounts of stress at the moment, but we
promised her blessings when she came and then recommitted her to read
the Book of Mormon and pray. Well....the next evening we got a call
from her, telling us that she felt like she needed to come to church
and asked if we could help her get a ride. She continued to tell us
her experience of opening up and reading from the Book of Mormon the
night before and just feeling so incredibly happy, then the next
morning the feeling continued and she felt like she needed to go to
church, and guess what?! She did! :) And no major anxiety attack or
anything. She even knew someone there! She already has a friend. We
will be committing her to baptism this week and helping her with the
word of wisdom, which she already knows what she needs to do, she just
has to do it. :)
We had a very successful week. We were able to meet many less actives
and find a couple new investigators. We were out walking, trying to
save on miles on our car, and came across Nancy sitting out in the
cold connecting to someone's wifi. She is a hoot. She told us we
needed to experience life and travel and get married ONLY when you
know he loves you, and part of loving you is having a house and being
settled and ready for marriage...and he needs to show you he really
loves you, not just say he loves you. She went on and on about being
independent and dont get tied down too early. She is a riot. Very
straight forward and I love it! Haha! She has a friend that lives in
Utah, that has talked to her about our faith a bit before and she has
spoken briefly with some missionaries. We were able to talk about the
Book of Mormon and she said she would read. I Am excited to go back!
We then had a wonderful lesson with Kenneth and Monique, we have been
trying to see Monique for weeks and then Sister McCleary caught her
husband Kenneth at home last week and made an appointment and they
kept it and boy were they are so cute and GOLDEN. They were very open
to all that we had to share, agreeing that they must come to find out
for themselves and are determined to do so. Ken is so charismatic. He
is a former baseball player and Monique is a nurse currently. They
have two kids, sharell Dynae and Kenneth III or KJ. Their daughters
names come from two dWe are so excited for this family. Monique and
Kenneth were really excepting of the message that we had to share. We
committed them to read and a soft commitment to baptism.
I am excited for the new focus in the mission. We had MLC (Mission
Leadership Training) this week and President Craig has decided that
our focus for the upcoming months and even the year will be all about
the Book of Mormon. . I am obsessed with the scriptures and I am
grateful for the "excuse"....who really needs an excuse....lol....to
spend more time in the Book of Mormon. It brings such strength and
power into my life and I love it! I am excited to help others
strengthen their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and see lives
change because of it, not only investigators lives, but missionaries!
It's such a sweet wonderful thing to witness.
My dream woke me up the other morning. That sounds kinda funny, but
its true. Sister McCleary and I had both woken up at 5:15am the other
morning to use the restroom. She beat me there and I had to go soooo
bad. lol :-) I was pacing till she came back out.
Well...anyways....went back to sleep and had about 45 minutes more to
sleep....cause we wake up at about 6:00am to get in a little extra
exercise time. I was having this awesome dream and was sharing the
Introduction to the Book of Mormon to this girl inside Grandma Kohlers
house (but before it was renovated). Right in the middle of having
this wonderful missionary experience I hear this voice, clear as day,
say "You've been sleeping too long, WAKE UP." So i immediately woke up
and laid there for a second kind of unsure what just happened, and
then turned to grab the phone to check the time and it said 6:31am. I
couldn't believe it. HAHA! First of all, BOTH of our alarms didn't go
off and they were both set, I had checked them the night before.
Somehow they both just didn't even go off and so we slept in, but I
guess I now know that the spirit can work through my dreams to wake me
up. :-) Pretty interesting. I like it! :-) I'll still be setting my
alarm though! :-)
Love you
Sister Heckel
P.S The picture of all of us at the temple can go up on the blog, but
please if you post it on facebook, DO NOT tag me in it. We have been
asked to not do that. Others can post the picture, but I cannot be
tagged, neither can anyone else from the mission. Just fyi. Thank you!
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