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