How is everyone doing?? Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season!! Does everyone have a Christmas tree to set up?? We where given a small 8 inch tree for our Christmas ;) haha I hope you all are enjoying it!! Especially the snow! We do not have any snow here, we get a lot of rain and the coldest it gets is like 55 degrees(not even) haha so, I guess explaining my area a little better would be exciting. So their are no mountains in sight, it's so flat it's crazy! And most the area is made up of either orchards or rice fields. Luckily right before I got here we got a car since everyone lives so far apart. It's so amazing walking through trees of grape fruit, oranges and every other kinda fruit you can think of. I have done plenty of service helping to pick or set up for winter! Also their are TONS of walnut trees, everyone has them so everyone gives them away for Christmas. Anyways it's a lot like Heber and Midway! Everyone here is Mormon almost and it's two very small towns, Gridley and Biggs. I love the feeling, although everyone is related to one another somehow....everyone knows each other as cousins or something it's crazy! It makes it hard to remember names because so many people have the same last names. But I'm figuring it out!
There are 12 companionship In this zone, and it's split in half because another larger city is about 30 minutes North-east! We are the middle main part of the city. I love the area and the missionaries we serve with, not quite as cool of a zone as my last one but we get along good. We are currently in a house with another companionship! The Spanish missionaries are super tight and I've grown close with them over this short period of time. We are in a super nice development with awesome neighbors! We have a large kitchen and our bedroom is the living room....don't know why my companion wants that, but we have a plain room, a study room, a storage room and the room for Spanish missionaries! I have been cleaning the house though since I got here....My companion is not the cleanest one by any means. But I'm working through it all. It's super aw some and we are so blessed.MMe and my companion are getting along and getting work done.But this still throws me off on the naming of some of these streets....don't they realize numbering them makes it so much easier!! Haha but the area is cool all really nice and really no hobos!! We also have a train that runs right next to our house so I have a pretty accurate alarm clock for me hahahahah.
Oh mini funny story, so my mattress has a dent in the middle of it where I curl up in(no choice). Rough housing around lead to my companion being body slammed onto my bed braking the box springs. So I gotta get a new mattress and boards......gosh dang it haha they chose my bed for it! But messing around always leads to something braking right?? Anyways it's really fun at our place and lucky for us we are on a hill. So this week a massive storm hit us flooding most of the streets. So we have been sand bagging places and hanging out inside as this storm is going fast. Surprisingly we haven't had to bad of winds but we do have non stop rain that's clogging everywhere!! It's crazy!!
We had a zone conference where we talked a lot about goals and shooting for a higher standard. We talked a lot about what goals we wanted for December and January. We ended with the idea of 4 baptisms and had a really long motivational talk about that goal. As of today we have 6 people ready for baptism in the next two weeks. We had no one on date to start of with but now we are overflowing with the blessings of the lord. I am so thankful for this opportunity! We are so close for two of our investigators to take that first step into ever lasting peace. We are trying so humbly to teach and help each of them at their own pace yet I wish I could just baptize them now!! Haha but it's the lord time not mine. It's crazy also how many missionaries I only got to know for a short time and are leaving. These people had such a major impact on my life and will forever be thankful! I love you all and I am so thankful for the letters and support you all give me. I am blessed beyond belief and hope you all can feel the light of Christ in your life.
Love elder Heckel
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