Jenessa - Week 25 - SPIRITUALLY FED!!!

Hello Everybody! :-) Here comes a Novel....Enjoy!!  :-)

So this week was crazy, but it was good. We had a couple service
opportunities, had to do some sifting (dropping) of some of our
investigators, zone conference and then General Conference that made
the week go by rather quickly and it felt like it just flew by without
us. I am definitely more determined to be more obedient and urgent and
go out and this area will be brought to the Gospel with loving
boldness.....I've got General Conference Spirit fueling my fire! I
love it!! :-) I am so grateful for the prophets, apostles and other
general authorities who spoke who gave me such hope and courage, and
answered many questions for me. I truly desire to give my will over to
the Lord, to give him my whole self. I dont want any of me to stay
with me, because that piece that I keep will never grow. I need to
give him ALL of me, so that he can help me reach the potential that I
can not and will never fully see!! I am so grateful that He can see
beyond who I am now, and can see me for who I am to become, to help me
reach my fullest potential.

Sister Siegle gave us some great advice this past week as we were
together having dinner before we went on our trade off with that
wonderful companionship. She told us the 4 C's of something her father
used to tell her. The 4 C's that you should NOT do.....You should
not.....Criticize, Compare, Compete, or Complain. What wonderful
advice. I love it! As we strive to follow those three things, life is
so much better. I realized that as i was thinking about those 4 C's,
nearly every single one of the conference talks backed one of them up
wether it was Elder Uchtdorf talking about Gratitude, Elder Holland
(calling for repentance) talking about standing up for your faith. It
was very interesting. I was also amazed at how often I felt like they
were speaking directly to me, I dont think I have ever had so much
personal revelation and a great joy and desire for more light, truth,
and righteousness to be in my life!

I could go on and on about conference. I was overcome nearly the
entire time with the Spirit. I loved it all so much and from some
personal revelation know exactly what it is I need to be focusing on
right now and that is Love and Obedience. I need to be focusing on
being more Charitable towards those around me and more exactly
obedient. I think I have been really good at some strict obedience,
but that only brings blessings. The Lord wants to provide me with
miracles, I just know he does, but that would require EXACT obedience.
That is something that i want to work towards. I know that I am not
perfect and I never will be in this life, but I can be a perfect
repenter and repentance is change, so as I am repenting (changing) day
by day as I am more obedient to all the will of the Lord, the Lord
will bless me and this wonderful area that i am working in. I just
know it, because i KNOW that God fulfills all of his promises! ALL OF
THEM! :-)

This week we were able to offer some service to our Ward Mission
Leader, Brother Ortega. He was really appreciative of us helping him
with his yard. We actually were going to go help an investigator paint
her home, but she was too tired....so we taught the first lesson and
then went over to the Ortega's to change and found him working on the
yard and offered our services! :-) He was so happy! We were able to
finish quickly so that He could be ready for when the Elders came over
with their investigator for dinner and a lesson! It was a wonderful
day! :-) That particular investigator we taught that day was Samantha.
She has had a few strokes and is a little slow in the learning
process, but she is reading from the Book of Mormon and she feel good
when she reads, so we will just take it a little slower with her to
make sure she understands all the concepts, we love her so much and we
know that this will bring her so much peace and joy that she is
desperately in need of at this time! :-)

We were able to do some more service, helping a less active member,
paint her house she is about to move into. It was a great time to talk
with her about the Gospel and befriend her. She is a great person and
a convert to the church of only a few years. Her husband has been a
member since he was 15, but he too is inactive. We are very sad that
they are moving just outside our ward boundaries, but we are hoping
that they will start coming back to church soon! I think He might work
on Sundays though, so that makes things difficult, but we are working
on it with them, one step at a time.

We were able to meet with Alice again. She is kind of stubborn and
even when she felt the spirit strongly, she would push it off and when
we asked her to pray about the Book of Mormon, she just stared at me
for a minute and said "in time." We know that she knows that it is
true and we know that she knows the all that it would mean if it is,
that means she would have to change some things and I think that she
is scared of it. She loves God and she loves the Spirit she feels when
we come over and after every powerful lesson we have with her, she
diverts the subject off of herself and says, "you need to take this to
them upstairs." We are also teaching her neighbors upstairs and she
says they need God more than she does, but I think she is just scared
that what we are sharing is actually true. We hope that she will come
around soon, cause she is reading the Book of Mormon. She was unable
to make it to conference this weekend, which we were sad about, but we
will hopefully be watching some of it with her soon!

We are teaching Tiffany still and she is a bit of a rollercoaster. She
is getting out fo the situation permenanetly with her boyfriend. She
is going to be moving in with her friend or her sister, we believe.
She is going to be working on quiting smoking and all after she moves,
which will be soon. She knows it is true. Now we just have to help her
to take the steps concerning the word of wisdom to help her get
baptized.

We met this lady named Jessica and it was definitely a miracle. She
was not supposed to be outside when we were in this apartment complex
looking for a less active lady. Her cat had started fussing though, so
she had just brought her outside when we came walking down the stairs.
She recognized it as a sign from God that our encounter wasn't just an
accident. She accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us back. We were
supposed to go back last night, but something came up and she had to
cancel, but we have rescheduled. She still wants us over. :-) She is
elect. We could instantly feel the Spirit as we talked to her and some
of her spiritual experiences and dreams are absolutely incredible!! I
just was blown away, she has been so prepared to hear this word. I am
so grateful that we could be in the right place, at the right time as
we followed our inspired plans and were watching for every unplanned
opportunity to share the gospel! :-)

We had the wonderful opportunity to take a brand new sister, Sister
Jensen, out on her first night here. She flew in around 2pm and we
picked her up from them mission home at 6pm and went to work!! It was
a wonderful experience, full of the Spirit. We were able to do some
tracting and came across this man named Tom. He was very inspired by
what we had to share and even shared how he came to know Jesus Christ
through a horrific accident while he was working on the railroad that
took his leg and almost his life! We testified boldly and powerfully,
and the Spirit was there, but ultimately his agency kept him from
becoming a Gator. As we walked away, I love what Sister Jensen had to
say, "I loved him immediately. I didn't think that was possible, but
the instant he opened the door I just loved him." We continued talking
about how heart breaking it was that he did not accept our invitation
to read from the book of mormon or learn more, even though the Spirit
was felt....because that love was so instant. We had only known him
for all of 30 seconds and that love for him just poured over all of
our hearts. We all knew that our Heavenly Father had a great love for
Tom and that we had shared what he desired us to share. It was an
amazing experience. We were also able to take Sister Jensen to a
lesson with Alice, where she taught Lesson 2 with us masterfully. She
is an incredible missionary, filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and
ready to be here  and do HIS work! It was such a privilege to spend
the evening doing the Lords work with her!


Zone Meeting was amazing. I love this new focus on the Book of Mormon!
We have been challenged by our mission president to read through the
Book of Mormon in 90 days. That would be reading about 6-7 pages a
day. It is very exciting! Everything revolves around the Book of
Mormon, and I love it!! Everyone at the meeting was very engaged and
seemed really excited about this new focus, I certainly am!!! I gave a
training on studying and applying the Book of Mormon in our lives and
then helping our investigators (and members) do the same!! I love the
Book of Mormon!!  On top of sharing what was shared at MLC (regarding
the BOM) Elder Cordon gave a powerful training on Accountability. I
think that is something that is so important and it is an eternal
principle. As we understand the concept of being accountable, our work
and effectiveness will increase as we have a desire to do a the Lord
would have us do, knowing that we are going to have to account to him
for all of our actions. The accounting we do here on earth is just a
preparation for us and our accounting we will do in the next life. I
want to be able to stand before my savior and give an accounting that
is worthy of His Disciple!! :-)

We went on a trade off this week with Sister Johnson and Sister
Siegle. I was with Sister Johnson. She is a very good missionary and
loves this work. I actually felt like the trade off was more of a
learning experience for me then it was for her....but who knows :-)
HAHA! We picked up 3 new investigators for them during the 24 hour
trade off. It was one of the most powerful trade off's I have ever
been on, in terms of having the Spirit really guide us and direct us
in the work. I want that EVERYDAY. I realize now that it all has to do
with my attitude and outlook. I have always been a little resistant to
tracting and because of that, I feel, I have missed many opportunities
to share the gospel and be an instrument in the Lords hand. My
attitude is different now. I LOVE TRACTING! No matter what...I will
always LOVE tracting!....because it is what the Lord would have us do
to find some of the precious souls he has prepared. I received an even
powerful witness this weekend of the importance of TALKING WITH
EVERYONE! It is key. You cannot let anyone pass you by, even if they
say no or dont want to have anything to do with you. I dont want to
get to the other side and have a spiritual friend of mine come up to
me and say "WHY?....why didn't you stop that day and tell me about the
gospel??"..."Why did I have to wonder in darkness for so long because
you were afraid to come share this thing that brought you so much
joy?" Tears just fill my eyes every time I think about all those that
I have missed. I know that the Lord will provide a way and I know I
can be forgiven, but now is the time of my repentance and the time for
me to change. To turn to God with full purpose of heart, holding
nothing back. In the strength of the Lord I CAN DO ALL THINGS!!

This week we are working on FINDING! We have set some goals to work on
having a more meaningful companion study, really planning out the
lessons we will teach and focusing more on our investigators. We have
also planned on working on our member presents, because they have been
lacking the past 2 weeks. We have tried and many of our lessons have
fallen through, but we have relied on those lessons to be the lessons
for the week an I dont feel like we have put forth our full effort to
get our members more involved in the past week or two, as we did a few
weeks ago. We are also focusing on Inspired Golden Hour, which is a
goal that we made as a Zone. :-) Making sure we pray and take the time
to know where we need to be during that hour of concentrated finding
time! And finally, we are striving to be more urgent in all that we
do, being completely ready when we sit down to study so that we can
put on our shoes and walk out the door after we pray at 10AM. We are
want to be master finders and continually focusing on helping those we
come into contact with progress towards baptism and confirmation. :-)
We know that the Lord has prepared many people, "the field is white
all ready to harvest."....the Lord did not say the field is white all
ready to PLANT SEEDs.....he said it is READY TO HARVEST....so we
should be open and ready to harvest! If we have this focus we will
certainly harvest! I gained this testimony during our trade off. My
focus shifted and the result were incredible....3 new investigators in
a very short period of time, and we were definitely lead to them! The
Lord is just waiting for us to open our hearts to Him and do what he
would have us do and He will pour out blessing that we will not have
room enough to receive them!!


The letter President Craig wrote to us today fit perfectly in with my
studies and pondering this week on a talk called THE FOURTH
MISSIONARY. I believe EVERY missionary should read this. I am actually
going to scan it in and send it to you family, but the name of it is
THE FOURTH MISSIONARY by Lawrence E. Corbridge (June 22, 2002) if you
want to look it up. It is incredible. President Craig shared with us
his "ah ha" moment or insights that he gained from reading the Book of
Mormon this week and so much more.....actually let me just copy and
paste his letter before I continue because it was just so good.....
This is what he shared......

"Dear Elders and Sisters
What an remarkable general conference weekend this has been. The
spirit was so strong as our many leaders taught with power and
authority of their offices. I hope that each of you received answers
to your questions. If you did, will it prompt any changes? Will you be
an even more powerful missionary? I know that inspiration can
frequently prompt us to change.
I have thought much this week of the conversion power of the Book of
Mormon that we heard about at the beginning of the conference. I was
very impressed with the many aha moments that were shared in your
letters and on the conference calls this week. There is a very sweet
spirit that is growing in the mission as so many of you are being
strengthened in your studies and in the testimonies that are being
received by your investigators.
I want to share just a couple of examples with you;
" Our investigator who has been pretty consistent experienced quite
the miracle the other day. When we went by his house, we sat down and
asked if he remembered what we asked him to do the last time we met.
We told him everything we told him and asked him what happened. He
said "well I read and then I prayed if it was true and i fell asleep.
I was sleeping and had a dream. I woke up and went to check my phone.
There was a text from my friend that told me to call my dad. My dad is
dead, but I called him anyway. He answered the phone and I said hello.
My dad said, 'It is. It is true.' It scared me so bad that I woke,
this time for real. I hadn't heard my dad in forever and that dream
felt so real. I know the Book of Mormon is true now."
Isn't it wonderful to know how engaged the loved ones of our
investigators are in this work. Here is one more.
"Our investigator is going to be gone for a month. It's good, it will
help her to prepare for baptism. She called us on Wednesday and asked
us to come over ASAP. It sounded like she had some really bad news and
we were worried. We went over and met with her and she told us where
she needed to go and when. Then she gave us her Book of Mormon and
asked us to mark scriptures that will help her. So we read the Book of
Mormon with her and showed her how to "liken" it to herself.
This wonderful sister has never been able to grasp the concept of
Christ until we read the Book of Mormon with her. We started reading
in Alma 36 and we saw a light click on and she started crying. She
said "Oh my gosh, these people knew about Christ before he even came!
They lived across the globe and they knew him! It was amazing. then
she said, " I always knew he was in the Bible but that was the only
source. This proves that He really does exist!" Then she pauses, looks
at the Book of Mormon and goes, " Oh my gosh!!! It's JESUS!" The
Spirit was so strong. This last Sunday in sacrament meeting she bore
her testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how it
gives her answers."
As each of you has your own aha moments and is able to like the
scripture to yourself, you will be able to use this most powerful tool
to bring true conversion to your investigators.
I have been reading my 6 pages everyday like I hope each of you is and
I was pondering about Lehi and Nephi's dream of the tree of life. How
many of our investigators or even us may be traveling through the
mists of darkness that dims our view of the tree of life or the pure
love of God and the path that we must travel to get there. There are 4
groups of people that are talked about in 1st Nephi 8 but it is the
2nd and 3rd group that really interest me most.
Notice in 1st Nephi 8:24 that this group caught hold of the end of the
rod... and they did press forward.. "clinging" to the rod of iron even
until they could come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree."
This is like an act of desperation, trying to cling to the rod as a
last ditch effort to attempt to make it to the tree of life. This
suggests that at times we can find ourselves barely hanging on, trying
to endure not being able be fully understanding and accepting of the
gospel.Then notice that this group actually made it to the tree of
life but because they weren't well grounded in the gospel and didn't
have that spiritual foundation to stay away from the mists of
darkness, they quickly fell away and were lost onto forbidden paths
because they were ashamed of what others might think. It is when true
personal conversion takes place that our grasp on the iron rod begins
to look a little different. It becomes firmer, we aren't fearful of
falling back into old ways. This is just like the grasp of our two
examples above is now looking different and becoming stronger.
The 3rd group though is a little different. vs.30." He saw other
multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end
of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually
holding FAST to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down
and partook of the fruit of the tree." These are they who are the
steadfast and immovable, those holding to the rod even through the
mists of darkness, never doubting that if they hold FAST to the rod
that they will make it to the tree and receive of the pure love of
God. These are those that will "stand with confidence in the presence
of God"
When we learn to liken the scriptures to ourselves, we vicariously
live through the experiences of great prophets like Nephi. His
experiences with the tree of life and building the ship bring purpose
to our quest to be able to return to the presence of our Heavenly
Father and to find our own promised lands.
We learn from the wonderful sermon of King Benjamin's general
conference address that he so masterfully delivered. We liken our own
missionary experiences through the inspiring missionary accounts of
Alma and the sons of Mosiah. There are dozens of other likening
experiences. Our foundation in the gospel is strengthened every time
we are able to liken these scriptures to ourselves.
How grateful we can be for this wonderful book, this second testament
of Christ, this tool of conversion that can bring peace to our souls
and understanding to our hearts.
May each of stand as witness of the truthfulness of this Book each
day. I add my testimony of it's truthfulness to that of Elder Holland
who tells of his grandfather who said, " No wicked man could write
such a book and no good man would write it unless it were true and he
were commanded of God to do so."
Please keep sharing your aha moments and experiences with Sister Craig and I.
We love you and pray mightily for you always
President Craig"

Isn't that all so incredible??!! The Book of Mormon is so true.
So....back to the 4th Missionary......in my mind it falls right in
line with what he was talking about with those that hold fast to the
rod of iron versus those who cling to it. Both of them make it to the
tree of life, but both of them don't have the same result when they
get there. The one that "clings" to the rod, is not changed. His heart
is not really turned toward God and he falls away. Those who hold
fast, get there and partake of the fruit and are changed by the
Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This can be related to our
missionary efforts. The "Third Missionary" as is talked about in the
talk I read....he (or she...but I'll stick with he for these purposes)
does what he is suppose to and is obedient, and does great things, but
he withholds his heart. He is just "clinging" on, doing what needs to
be done, he may even have the Spirit with him which helps him to have
such amazing results, but because at times he is only clinging to the
rod and not holding fast.....he is not being changed. His heart is not
in it. He is not giving his will over to God. He is still resisting,
although by outward appearances it doesn't look like it. It is this
type of missionary that gets to the end of "the rod" or his mission
and goes home and falls away or is just the same person that he was
when he came out here and turns back to the world. The fourth
missionary is a part of the people who hold fast to the rod....he too
is obedient  and does all that is required of him, and he has some
amazing results, but the difference is HE GIVES of HIMSELF! He lets go
of his desires and makes them the desires of the Lord. He lets go
completely of the world, not being pulled in that direction in the
slightest, because he is firmly grasping the iron rod and looking to
God. He gets to the end and he is changed, he is made NEW. He truly is
a disciple of Jesus Christ for ALWAYS! He goes home being able to stay
strong and look to God even more steadfastly. He finds great joy and
satisfaction in the work that he did and is not easily swayed by the
world that will bombard him when he gets home, it has no affect on
him....because he has built a sure foundation, by letting his will
become the Lords and the the Lord has taken and transformed Him into
something he never even could have dreamed he would have become!! :-)

Being the "Fourth Missionary" is just the intelligent thing to do!!

Finally......and i promise this is all for today. Two "Ah ha" moment
with the Book of Mormon this week. I was reading in the the 2nd
chapter of Nephi verse 16....He is talking about how he had a desire
to know of the things that his father had seen and the Lord did visit
him and did "soften his heart." I didn't understand why the Lord had
to come and soften his heart, when he was seeking after righteousness
already. I attributed having your heart softened, when you have a hard
heart and aren't open to hearing the words of the Lord. Then I checked
out the cross reference Alma 5:7 and realized what the Lord had done
to Nephi. He had a desire and his desire aligned with the will of God
and his heart was changed. That verse says: " Behold, he changed their
hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto
God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their
souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word." I
realized that he was awakened to the light. That is what the Lord
would do with all of us. We may have righteous desires and feel that
our hearts are open and out of darkness, but the Lord has even more of
a "softening" to do. He wants to take our hearts and change them and
AWAKEN THEM....don't you just love that??! And as our hearts are truly
awakened our souls will be illuminated by the light of the everlasting
Gospel!

"Ah ha" number two and this one is fun! I may have already shared this
with you, but I can't remember, so I wanted to share it again.
First....an investigator shared with us a quote...."A smart person
learns from his own mistakes, a genius learns from the mistakes of
others." Then i was reading in 1 Nephi 19 and came across verse
23.....he did "liken all the scriptures unto us, that it might be for
our profit and learning." After I read that i realized that the
scriptures are for our profit and learning and that quote came into my
mind. The Lord wants us to be genius's. He doesn't just want us to be
smart....because being smart is not enough. He wants us to be like him
and he truly is a genius. As we learn from the mistakes of others
(from the scriptures) we can more readily learn things of a greater
nature! We can progress at a much faster pace and the Lord will be
more open to revealing those "treasures, even hidden treasures" that
he is just dying to share with us! :-) We truly will draw nearer to
God and will have an abundance of knowledge beyond anything that you
could even comprehend learning here on earth. The scriptures ARE for
our PROFIT AND LEARNING!! :-)


I know that this gospel is true! With all of my heart and soul. I want
to be the fourth missionary and those people that are continually
holding fast to the iron rod and pressing forward to feast upon the
fruit or the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ....for it truly is
the most precious above all things! I know that as we read from the
Book of Mormon and other words of the Prophets we will gain greater
knowledge of who we are and our purpose here on earth. We will have a
greater sense of calm as we wade through the storms of life. We will
find greater happiness and joy within our souls and within our homes.
We will find answers to those questions that we are in great need of
at this time. There has never been such a great need for us to be
closer to the Lord. There is a war waging all around us, a war that we
cannot see, but we are certainly a part of! The firey darts of the
adversary are very real and are being hurled at us from every
direction, we must put on the full armor of God each day so that we
will be protected and we can wage war again Satan and help those who
are weak or who have been wounded. If you have a chink in your armor,
FIX IT. If you are missing pieces, go FIND THEM. If you are wounded,
turn to the Lord and let Him heal you! The Lord needs his strongest
warriors to go out and fight! We are not to sit passively by and think
that it will all work out. We need to wake up every day and from the
instant we get out of bed we start fighting ON OUR KNEES!! The power
of prayer is so real! The Lord hears and answers, but we must be
listening!! If you dont listen, you wont hear! His voice is powerful,
but it is still and small compared the blaring noise of the world! You
have to take the time to LISTEN!! You CAN do all that the Lord has
sent you here to accomplish! You were CHOSEN to be here in this these
Latter Days! Through the strength of the Lord we can do all things!!
Jesus Christ is at the head of our army. He is leading the charge. He
knows what lies ahead and he will give us the strength that we need to
overcome any obstacles that may stand in our way! He is the way, the
truth and the light. We will draw nearer to our Lord and Savior and
our ever watchful and loving Heavenly Father as we read from the
Scriptures, NO...as we FEAST upon the scriptures, the word of the
Lord! I know that this Gospel is true. We all need to gain a testimony
for ourselves and then go out and share it. So many people are left
lost and wandering, because they "know not where to find" the joy and
happiness and peace that we have. Take courage, as you do the simple
things each day you will be filled with the Spirit of the Lord. I know
that we have a living Prophet here on the earth today and I am
incredibly grateful for that! I know that i can be together FOREVER
with my wonderful family. I know that i have made sacred covenants in
the house of the Lord. I have such a strong testimony of the power
that resides in the Temple. Go to the temple! Do your family history
work! That IS MISSIONARY WORK!  This is as I read recently "One of the
surest ways to combat Satan." Do the work for your kindred dead. There
are so many on the other side pleading with us to do their work! We
without our dead are nothing. I just love this Gospel. I love
everything about it. I know that it is ALL true and you know how i
know?? Because i have come to know for myself that the Book of Mormon
is true! It is absolutely without a doubt true! I have come to know
for myself, I have taken the time to read, ponder, pray and then
LISTEN and the Lord has answered! I am so grateful for this knowledge!
And finally....I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES! I know that He died for
ME! I know that He died for you! I know that knows exactly what we are
all individually going through! It is incredible to know this and FEEL
of His love and his presence with me always as i strive to be closes
to Him! I know that all these things are true and that we will one day
stand before our Resurrected Lord, and he will wrap His arms around us
in the warmest embrace imaginable and i want to have lived my life so
that he can say "We did it. Well done!" :-) I say all these things in
the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN!

Have a wonderful week!


Love
Sister Heckel

"The Gospel is not weight, its wings! It carries us!" -Sister Jean A. Stevens