Jenessa - Week 33- Bapitsms and Dolphins :-)

This week has been absolutely amazing! I love being a missionary. This
is the greatest work we can be doing and I am so grateful to be a part
of it.

It was a nice relaxing P-Day today. We went downtown to the friendship
fountain today (this is my second time, but the first time for my
companion) it was great! We had a wonderful time :-) I love spending
time with the Sisters! While we were there at the water way we saw a
dolphin! No joke! That was pretty cool! It was just swimming against
the current up the St. John's river. :-) If you look really close at
the picture of the water...you can see the fin! :-) We always have a
lot of fun when we are together! I love being a missionary! Absolutely
without a doubt, the BEST time of my life right now! If having a
family is more joyous then this, goodness i don't think I can contain
that much joy in my short little body!! HAHA! :-)

We had three trade offs this week and they were all wonderful in their
own way. Our first trade off was with Sister Jospeh and Kastellar. I
was with Sister Joseph and it was a good trade off. We were able to
set up a computer for a recent convert and get her started up on
familysearch.org. Once we got her all set up we only had time to get
one name put into familysearch.org....but we were able to put in her
deceased mother and you should have felt the spirit in the room. The
sister was so excited to take her moms name to the temple and I think
her mom was on the other side just as excited! We are having
experience after experience with family history that has been
incredible! :-) I love it! Sister Joseph goes home a transfer before
me and she is a great missionary. She is a very laid back sister. Its
very different from a lot of the other sisters i go on trade offs with
her are "go getters" and it is far different from who I am, but I like
it. We worked really well together for the day we were together. :-)
We didn't really have an opportunity to really teach a whole lot, but
it was still a wonderful trade off :-)

I went on a trade off with the lovely Sister Anderson this week too.
She got out here to Jacksonville only 2 weeks ago (this past
transfer).  She is going to be such an incredibly humble leader here
in the mission field and in the church. She is a phenomenal missionary
and i am so blessed that i had the opportunity to work with her so
soon in her mission. I can't wait to see the growth that will occur
within her life. She blows my mind. She understand things now as a
"greenie" missionary that i didn't understand until like a transfer
ago. Her mind set is that this isn't a sacrifice, this is her LIFE.
She decided to do this, this is just another step in her life and
isn't a sacrifice. How incredible is that?? I didn't feel like the
trade off was for her, it was for me. It was a great reminder of who I
want to become. She is such a humble follower of our Savior Jesus
Christ, and even though her testimony is still developing, it is so
powerful in its simplicity! We were able to teach a few lessons
together and she was a very powerful testifier and teacher. If she
wasn't still in training after this transfer I would say that she
DEFINITELY should be training or be a Sister Training Leader. :-)
Honestly, I have never seen so much potential in a single sister as I
have seen in Sister Anderson. I see potential in all the Sisters, but
you are going to see Sister Anderson do some incredible things out
here in the mission field. She is so prayerful in everything that she
does and it is so inspiring to me. She prayed her heart out for the
goal she should set for baptisms for her entire mission, when she
first got out here. She felt impressed to put the goal as 30. She was
very scared and tried to lower the number in her head, but every time
she prayed it would come back to 30!! She decided to set that as a
goal and once she wrote it down she said she could not stop crying
because that number scared her, but she knows that with The Lord he
can make all things possible. This same process happened just a week
later when President challenged everyone to come to Zone Conference
and write on the banner their goal for the year. She said that she was
impressed to put down 20 and tried to write a smaller number, but the
spirit wouldn't let her. She wrote it down and then cried about it,
because she knew that it was right, but was overwhelmed....especially
since she looked at other numbers and saw elders and sisters that had
been out far longer then she had and were writing much smaller
numbers. Her vision is so much larger then any missionary i have gone
on trade offs with. She allows The spirit to lead her and is going to
be such a blessing to the people out here in the Florida Jacksonville
Mission, she will stand as such a strength and a light to so many
missionaries....she already does with me! I have been forever changed
because of our one trade off!!  She has such great faith and is coming
so much closer to her Savior each and every single day! It so
wonderful! :-) I LOVE BEING A SISTER TRAINING LEADER!!

Our last trade off this week was with Sister Donohue and Sister
Graham. Sister Donohue came with me and it was such an incredible
trade off. Sister Donohue is doing much better than when I went on a
trade off with her 3 transfers ago. She has begun to really talk in
lessons. She is gaining more and more confidence in herself. It is
good to see the progress that has come over the past months. I am
praying that her confidence will continue to be strengthened through
The Lord! She is such a sweet sisters. I love her with all my heart
and she will forever hold a special place in heart. She has such a
sweet gentle spirit and she will touch so many peoples heart because
of the person that she is. She just needs to see herself as all of us
here in the mission, and more importantly, as The Lord see's
her!....She is a beautiful daughter of God! :-)

I have never felt the Spirit so strong on trade off's as i have this
past week. I truly am beginning to understand what it means to have
Christ like love....and the power of prayer. I took the opportunity at
the end of our "Goal setting Hour" with each of these sisters to say
the closing prayer and I would pray specifically for them and the
goals that they would be setting out to accomplish and you should have
been there to feel the spirit fill the room. Every single trade off we
have been on this week where we have knelt in prayer and I had the
opportunity to pray for them and let them hear me pray for
them.....ended with us both in tears!!  It was so special!

Jessica and Jamie got BAPTIZED on Sunday!! Woot woot! It was such a
wonderful day!! We had a lesson earlier this week with them on Temple
and Family History work. We found out that her mom has done a LOT of
their genealogy over the past years and now all she would need to do
was connect them into familysearch.org and do their work. It was a
very powerful lesson and the spirit was felt so strong that Jamie
started crying. Jessica has already had some very special experiences
with those from the other side influencing her in this life. They are
there and have helped her up to this point to come into the church
when she has, so that they might be able to get their work done
through her.  Towards the end of the Lesson Jessica remarked "Now I
know why you and the church have come into my life right now. I have a
LOT of work to do. My family needs me." I get chills just writing
about this experience right now. The veil was so thin. There had to
have been a multitude of spirit beings in that room with us just ready
and so excited for her to get started on their work. My heart wanted
to just jump out of my chest i could feel the excitement in the room
from those who we could not see. It was incredible!

We had MLC this week and WHOA was it POWERFUL! I was so inspired to do
ten times more online work now then I have ever done before. My vision
has been incredibly expanded. I want to completely rip my blinders
off....I want to see the huge world of possibilities. I know that with
the Lords help I will be able to do this. I am excited for the
emphasis on member work, because we have been talking about this here
in the Hendricks area. We NEED our members to be more involved, so we
are working on coordinating our efforts to make sure that ALL members
are seen and receive a lesson on power of everyday missionaries. We
want the whole ward to be on board with missionary's work, not just
20% of them being fully on and then the other 80% being either
partially or not on board at all. We are excited for what is about to
happen here in the ward with all of is missionaries on board to help
our members get excited about member missionary work. :)

Ok. Let's talk a bit about the area and my companion. Sister blotter
is incredible. She is doing such an amazing job as a sister training
leader and still being a missionary and working hard and learning our
area. She is always tired....haha. Welcome to the world of a mission
leader lol :) love it! We are seeing miracles here in the area. When I
was on my trade off with sister Anderson, we only had like 5 minutes
left of the night, but we had resolved we weren't going to go home,
but weren't quite sure what to do. We decided to have faith and knock
on ONE door that we felt inspired to, basically one of the next houses
we came to, so we turned off the main road and stopped. There was only
one house on this entire street that had their porch light on and we
both felt like we should go there. We knocked and found out that they
had talked with missionaries before, they offered us water and we were
able to share a quick message before their grandchildren pulled up. We
weren't able to get a return appointment because of the kids, but we
are going to go back because the spirit definitely lead us there!! It
was incredible. We had faced rejection during our entire golden hour,
but we were able to knock on this one (INSPIRED) door at the end of
the night and we think we just found a family. :) love The Lord and
the guidance of the spirit!!

We are teaching this guy named Lawson, he believes it is all true, but
he is having a struggle with getting work off. The spirit is always at
our lessons, its so great. He is so inquisitive and he loves the Book
of Mormon and how he feels like he is coming closer to the savior
through it! :) I love how powerful the Book of Mormon is. We had a
wonderful lesson with a part member family this week, the the Halls,
and they were so receptive! The entire family sat in on the lesson and
it was very spiritual. I talked about them a little ways back and we
were finally able to get back in touch with them. It was so great. We
didn't have a lot of time because we just stopped by, but it was very
good and we will be going back to teach the plan of salvation. Sooooo
excited! Its an entire FAMILY!.....I have been praying for a family to
teach that is prepared to hear the gospel and I am now teaching 3
different families.....how amazing is that?? :-) i love The Lord!! He
definitely answers prayers!! :-) Its just been a crazy crazy week ,but
it has been absolutely wonderful! I love this work and i love this
area. I love the members here that I get to work with, they are all so
incredible. I NEVER want to leave. I would be more than happy to spend
the rest of my mission here. It would be glorious.....but I know that
miracles will abound wherever we are called to, whether it is here in
the mission field or at home as a member missionary! I love this work!
:-)

I have had so many strengthening moments from the Book of Mormon this
week. I definitely don't have the time to share all of them. I am just
gaining a stronger and stronger testimony of the truthfulness and
shear power that is found in the Book of Mormon and in the Atonement
of my Savior, Jesus Christ. :-) It seems like every time I open my
scriptures this week The Lord talks to me about Faith and Humility.
That seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life lately. It has been
very eye opening. I have so much to learn and I am excited to learn
more every day. I have come to understand the importance of setting
goals and then covenanting with The Lord on a daily basis on my knees
to help make it happen, this is how we put our faith into action. We
have the faith that The Lord can perform miracles in our lives as we
make promises to do things, he promises to keep his end of the
"bargain" and give us what we have asked in righteousness. I have seen
it over and over again in my life this week as he has given me
strength and helped miracles come about as I have been true to what I
have said I would do (with the plans created to accomplish whatever
the goal is i have set out before me). I have also come to understand
this week, far more then I ever have before, that God wants his
children to be baptized more than I do, more than any of us do, so
then why wouldn't he put people in our path who are prepared?? He
wants to, we just have to be ready for them, we have to gain the Lords
trust and He will bring them to us. He wants this so much more than we
do, even though we want it a lot. :-) With that understanding, I go
forward knowing that I cannot fail as I do what has been asked of me!
:-)

Please pray for my investigators and for our mission that we can meet
our goal of 1000 Baptisms! Our mission president has asked that we ask
all our members, family, and friends (wherever they may be in the
world) to join with us in prayer that we can accomplish our goal this
year to bring 1000 souls into the waters of baptism and on the road to
the Celestial Kingdom to be with our Heavenly Father forever! I
personally have set a a goal of "10" Baptisms by the end of my mission
:-) I would ask that you pray for my goal as well. I know that all
things are possible! I know that there is power in prayer and that
with your prayers and our work out here, we will be successful! :-) I
just know it! :-)

I also know that there is power in Member Missionary work. If you
haven't taken Elder Ballards challenge seriously yet, now is the time
to start. Do you remember what it was? Here, let me remind you...."may
I suggest that we can all be more consistently involved in missionary
work by replacing our fear with real faith, INVITING someone at least
ONCE A QUARTER--or four times every year--to be taught by the
full-time missionaries. They are prepared to teach by the Spirit, with
sincere and heartfelt inspiration from the Lord. Together we can
follow up on our invitations, take others by the hand, lift them up,
and walk with them on their spiritual journey."

He continued by giving us counsel on how you CAN do this......"To help
you in this process, I invite all members, regardless of your current
calling or level of activity in the Church, to obtain a copy of Preach
My Gospel. It is available through our distribution centers and also
online. The online version can be read or downloaded at no cost. It is
a guidebook for missionary work--which means it is a guidebook for all
of us. Read it, study it, and then apply what you learn to help you
understand how to bring souls to Christ through invitation and
follow-up. As President Thomas S. Monson has said, “Now is the time
for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to
labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him."

Some things to consider.....Have you purchased your preach my gospel?
Are you studying from it? What are you doing to unite yourself with
the missionaries??

We can make such a difference as we unite ourselves as members and
missionaries. We can do so much good and bring so many souls unto
Christ. We can CHANGE lives as we just open our mouths and cast out
fear!! Let us unite, let us be faith FILLED and do this great work
that we have covenanted at Baptism that we would do!! We can change
the world.

I love this last little bit that I will share with you from that talk
this past conference as Elder Ballard shared: "Brothers and sisters,
can you imagine the impact if family and friends included things they
are learning from their personal study of Preach My Gospel in their
letters and emails to their full-time missionaries? Can you picture
the blessings that will come to families when they know and understand
better what their sons and daughters will be studying and teaching on
their missions? Can you even begin to fathom the extraordinary
outpouring of atoning grace that will be ours, individually and
collectively, according to the Savior’s promise to all who bear
testimony in the process of inviting souls to come unto Him--and then
following up on those invitations?"

How powerful is that?? So.....Who are you going to invite??? What are
you learning in your studies??? I am anxious to hear. :-)

WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!

I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!

Love ya Much!! :-)
A very happy...Sister Heckel

Dolphin :-)