are going to be happening on a weekly basis. This first weeks event is called "Discover the Book"....You will take a picture of yourself holding up the Book of Mormon with just your eyes showing (I posted a picture with some examples). Then you will post the picture as your COVER PHOTO and write your testimony of how you discovered the
book.....then make sure you add the hashtag #discoverthebook and #calledtoshare. Do this starting on Tuesday (tomorrow).
This is going to be huge!!! We want everyone around the world in on this. If you know any "famous" mormons or just famous people that would be willing to do this simple thing....PLEASE get in contact with them and lets get them on board. This is going to be HUGE!! We have teamed up with 7 other missions so far that are doing online work....and so they are promoting it in other parts of the world....that is about 1500-2000 missionaries...but that is NOT ENOUGH!! You have to spread the word as well. I know that we can all make a huge difference and see so many miracles as we do this.
So......Here is what you are going to do!
1. Go become a part of the Group "Called to Share."
2. Become a part of the event "Discover the Book."
3. Starting Tomorrow post your picture as your cover photo and attach
your testimony....use hash tag #discoverthebook and #calledtoshare (on
your posts)
4. INVITE at least 20 people to join the Called to Share group and
Discover the Book event.....and message or talk to at least 3 people
personally to do this same thing!!
5. Pray (and if you feel the desire to, fast) for the gospel to reach
every human heart. That through our combined efforts we might reach
all those that are "hungering and thirsting after righteousness." That
our efforts online will be a success and bring even more souls unto
Christ! :-) All things are possible with God!
We are all children of God and as such we have been "commanded that [we] should....join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who [know] not God." (Alma 6:6)
5 Easy steps to be a missionary this week!! You in??!! You better be! :-) Message a missionary online who is a part of the group if you have any questions!!
Also....Dont forget to pray for our goal of bringing 1000 Souls unto Christ, through the waters of baptism here in the Florida Jacksonville Mission! :-) [We] can do all things through Christ which strengthened [us]." Philippians 4:13
Ok.....now onto what happened here in Florida :-)
Wow....what a week! Such a powerful and faith building week, full of miracles and lots of laughter!! :-) I LOVE IT!! :-)
Jessica and Jamie received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday!! What a glorious day. Jamie is such a sweetheart and like i have talked about before, gets emotional whenever the spirit is present. So....when she received the Holy Ghost she was crying and it was so tender! I love them so much and I am so excited for them to work towards the temple! Love them so much! :-)
We had some incredible miracles happen in our area this week. First of all....we had Zone Conference which was so inspiring!! We set some incredible goals and set up some amazing plans. We have a goal for 26 baptisms in our zone. We all are praying, searching, and working diligently to be able to have a 3 week miracle baptism in each of our
companionships! It is going to be spectacular! With this, each of our wards have been fasting one day out of this week. While they are fasting that day, the other wards have been praying for them and for our goal. We have included our goal of 26 baptisms and 1000 baptisms for the mission, in every single prayer and it has been so powerful! Our ward was set to fast on Sunday this week....and oh my goodness it was so powerful, you could just feel the prayers of all the other
missionaries in our zone...praying for miracles in our lives and in our zone! I have gained a huge testimony of the power of focused
prayers and fasting. It has been a marvelous week. I just cant even explain the power that we have felt and the excitement throughout our whole zone for our goal of 26 baptisms. It is going to happen!!! We do not doubt!! :-)
We had two trade off's this week. I was blessed to have the opportunity to go on a trade off with Sister Spendlove. She is such a powerful missionary. She loves this work and is learning so much from her companionship with Sister Lambson. She is doing really well. We had such a powerful trade off focused on FAITH! That faith talk that I gave to you....we read that together and we discussed the power in focusing our mind on our righteous desires and constantly working for it! :-) It was so powerful as we discussed and worked. We were able to have a very powerful lesson with a recent convert and we had a member there who was able to support our teaching her about the Book of Mormon. We were surprised that she misunderstood what the Book of Mormon really was. For some odd reason, she thought it was an
extension of the Bible. We were able to teach her about it and share the miracles that come into our lives as we read....and then set up another appointment to come back and read with her....she actually insisted on that. After she really understood what it was, she was even more excited to read it!! It was so great. When we were able to
return and read with her while I was on a trade off with Sister Chambers, its as if we couldn't get into the lesson and reading fast enough and get through it. She had so many questions and her excitement just kept escalating! She was so sad when we had to leave, she was like "it is just getting good." We are excited to see the power that is in the Book of Mormon begin to really transform her life, in a way that i am sure she is not even expecting!! :-) THERE IS POWER IN THE BOOK!!
Sister Chambers and I had so much fun on our trade off and learned a lot. I feel so bad for her with all the pain that she is in, this pain just started a couple weeks ago and they aren't really able to explain it. But, she is not one to let anything stop her, but hopefully she can get some answers soon. I love her so much and want her to be able to keep going and not have this just crush her. I have definitely noticed a difference in her, from our last trade off where she was go go go go go and so powerful every minute of every day, to a little bit more tired and not as go go.....she still is good and loves to share
the gospel and is very obedient, but I think the pain is just taking its toll. I wish I could do more for her. She is in my prayers. We had a wonderful trade off though. We were able to teach that recent convert and found some potentials during our golden hour! I love Sister Chambers and have always gained so much strength from her and her testimony. She loves this work and it was so hard to sit there and watch her cry and just feel her pain, since i have been there. I hope
and pray that everything will work itself out for her to continue forward in this great work! :-)
We had such an amazing week this week. On Thursday we had 4 lessons that were scheduled and every single one of them kept their appointment and 3 of them we had a member with us. It was so amazing! They were all so powerful! :-) We love the work of The Lord and are so happy to see more and more members becoming excited about missionary
work. Friday was a dud day, it felt like everyone was dropping us and no one wanted to talk to us!! But that’s ok, because right around the corner was Saturday and it was just full of miracles.
We started off the day going to this one potential that Sister Blotter admits that she was lacking faith that we should go, because they had not let us in the past 3 times we had knocked on the door, but that was what we had planned and we stuck to it. Right before we went in, we have started this habit of including in our prayers the phrase "Heavenly Father, we are so excited to see the miracles that thou has in store for us today" (or something like this), basically telling The Lord that we are expecting miracles, not asking for them. I was kind of intimidated by this at first, but now I love it. It has changed our work! We have almost doubled our lessons and our productivity this week!! And it is all because we EXPECT and pray for Miracles every single day!! Anyways.....before we went in, we said this praying using this phrase and I was saying the prayer and said at the end of that "starting now." I was initially apprehensive about saying that....but
what happened next was a direct answer to our prayers and the miracles started happening just as we prayed they would...NOW! WHOA!! So..... When we knocked this really nice woman answered the door and we asked if we could pray with her and her family. She said yes, and let us in....WOW!! We went in and sat down and found out that she is 31 and
has 6 kids....all under the age of 14.....her youngest are twins and they are 3....she is a young mom! We immediately got into a discussion about going to church and how she never felt comfortable with all her kids, like everyone was staring at her when her kids were making noise and weren't helpful. She was also upset too, when she paid tithes faithfully to her church for years and then when she was going through bankruptcy because her husband lost her job, the church didn't help out at all....she just watched the preacher drive around in a Benz and all this stuff. So she has been searching for a welcoming, loving, and helpful church....and guess what?? She has found it!! She was so excited as we shared the Book of Mormon, she loved the fact that she could find answers for herself. She hates that she has asked so many "higher up" people in churches she has gone to question and they don't seem to be able to answer. She also wants specific answers and they always want to give her a general answer or tell her she doesn't need to know that. She is so excited to start out on this journey to understand and know all these things for herself!! We are so excited to be teaching her. Then, the funnest part about the whole lesson was at the end.....oh....and during the whole lesson her 2 year old twins were running back and forth and back and forth, but she was the most calm mom, just glancing at them every now and then, but being
completely riveted on us. That was so cool....ok to the end of the lesson.....We asked if we could pray with her and she accepted....and then I had the thought to have her family join. She was able to gather all her little ones, her husband, and then her mother in law was there....and we had this massive prayer circle with this family of NINE!!! It was so powerful! The spirit was definitely present. She is so excited to bring her family to church and to learn more. We cant wait! Miracles are happening everywhere!! :-)
And the miracles didn't stop there. Later that evening we had our "Golden Hour" where we set aside a solid hour just for finding and we had picked a street out the night before that we wanted to go tract. We then prayed and felt to set a goal of handing out two book of mormons, having 2 other lessons, and consequently having 2 new investigators!! And guess what??? We did it!! It was so inspired. While we were tracting we found this lady who was rushing by us and seemed like she would just pass us by and not even talk to us, but guess what....a simple "i like your pink shoes" had her turning round
and spilling her heart out. We were able to invite her to read the Book of Mormon and come to church, unfortunately her health wouldn't allow her to come this week, but she is planning on coming to bible study. She is such a sweet heart and asks us to "not give up on her" because she really wants to come, she just has some health things she is working through and on some disability! The power of complimenting!! Wow!
Then right after her, there was a couple standing outside and we told them we were praying with people and they said they would be interested another time, we kind of thought they were brushing us off. But then Sister Blotter said "well ok, if you ever want to join us for church, here is our card." The woman standing there was like, "You know what, I am so glad you came out here. I have been looking to take my children to church." That started us into a conversation and we
pulled it around to the Book of mormon. She took it and said she was excited to read it that night with her daughter. We had this wonderful conversation and she took our number and asked us if she could come to church, before we could fully invite her. It was amazing!! It would be her and her two children. We are so excited! :-) Miracle!! We ended up with 2 new gators, handed out 2 book of Mormons
The last experience I want to share is the experience we had with this man named Robert. We caught him just about he was about to leave in his truck, with his dog. He asked us a bit about ourselves and we talked to him about the Book of Mormon. He asked us what "the appeal" was to our church, because he had heard some very bad things about Joseph Smith and other things about the church that put a bad taste in his mouth for Latter Day Saints. We were able to clear a few misconceptions up and then we explained a few things about the Book of Mormon, but he said he "didn't see the appeal for him." We thought we had lost him, as he was saying his goodbyes to us. But then he said something that sparked a question. We asked him, "Do you believe that you are a son of God." That made him stop and think. After a moment he said, "I would like to think I was." And that opened up a whole new conversation about Gods love and the spirit just filled us to overflowing and by the end of the conversation Robert turned to my companion and basically asked if he could have the book that she had in her hands, which of course was the Book of Mormon. We can't wait to follow up with him and find out how he has felt God's love as he reads. :-) The power of a SIMPLE QUESTION!! WOW!! I love the Spirit!! :-)
One final thing before I wrap this up.....funny story..... on saturday morning we went out to our car to get the new box of Book of Mormon's that were out in the trunk of our car so that we could write our testimonies and some of our info on the inside. :-) Well.....in the process of grabbing them and a few other things we left in the car, Sister Blotter set down the keys in this little crevas inside the trunk....and then shut it. She turned to me and asked me if I had the keys and when i said no she was like NOOOOOOO.....and then I realized that the keys were in the trunk!! HAHA!! We both couldn't stop laughing for like 20 minutes. Thank goodness that AP's were kind enough to drive our spare key from the mission office to us and open the car or else we would have been walking or getting rides from members all day. HAHA! It was pretty funny! :-) Lucky for us, we had left our apartment unlocked when we had run down to the car, so we were able to go back to our apartment and be a little productive while we waited for the keys. It was a great day full of miracles....and it all started by locking the keys in the car! :-) LOVE IT!!
The power of prayer is so incredible. I am coming to a better understanding of this more and more everyday. As we have prayed about inspiration for our sisters, for our area, and for our companionship....we have gained so many answers and blessings. We MUST be specific in our prayers though. General prayers make for general blessing, but specific prayers make for specific blessings. The Lord wants to bless you, just ask him and then go out and do and he will make it happen in your life!! I have seen it time and time again. My companion is helping me gain such a strong testimony of this and the
power of positive thinking and EXPECTING miracles! Its phenomenal and I wish to continue this throughout my whole life! :-)
God is so good! So many good things are happening in our area. We just have to continue to be diligent to bring in the harvest. The wonderful harvesting of souls!! :-) It brings so much join into my life. I NEVER WANT TO STOP....and I wont!! I will be a missionary for the rest of my life wherever i go and would hope that ya'll would "catch the wave" as Elder Nelson spoke of. Go out and make things happen. There are people everywhere, that are searching and yearning for the truths that we have and the joy, peace, and understanding that the Gospel brings into our lives! We must be diligently seeking opportunities to share the Gospel! :-)
Love ya'll Gotta go out and see more Miracles!! :-)
Sister Heckel :-)
P.S LOOK HOW HOT IT IS!! Check out the pictures!
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