Travis - Well! Well!

Well this week for us has been a challenge. During the first of the week my companion suffered from heat exhaustion, he had a few days recovery. But it was sad and kinda scary, a member noticed before me that something was wrong and he was super dehydrated. The hike like I said we came back early but the rest of the group went on. The group that continued, when they got back, all where dehydrated and had issues for the week.(only me and one other kid had been smart in staying cool by dipping cloths in streams and staying in shade, and bring water...we never actually drank most of, and not pushing hard) then we had one full day of proselyting in which most people where not home, so we had a few times where we knocked less active doors or random doors. And we got really lucky in meeting a daughter and her husband of a member in our Ward. She was super nice and had us in, we talked for a while and she asked that before we go we share a simple message for her two kids. We shared the shiny bicycle video with them and talked about the importance of listening to council. One little kid told us how much he loved Jesus Christ and showed us a picture he had a long time ago. I gave him a pass along card that he snatched so fast like I just gave him a million dollars. It was the most adorable thing ever, and made the day all worth it. We had plenty of times bearing testimony at doors and planting seeds all throughout the day. And the next day after I spent the entire day in MLC meeting(missionary leaders and the mission presidency meet) we had special invites sent out for all district leaders. Well most the meeting consisted of talking about obedience and how critical it is at a time like this. Especially with the passing of the Same gender marriage, most people have a magnifying glass on us, we must stand forth as a light for he world at this time. Our mission especially is facing some minor persecution, but enough that the mission president addressed it. I myself have had many people ask us our stance and the majority said how amazed and proud they where that we stood up for what traditions this world needs. Anyhow a lot of it was training for leadership, and to my shock I guess some missionaries complained about having leadership and he said if they (missionaries) really felt like they couldn't do it that they can ask and he will replace them. And right after a missionary stood up and bore testimony strongly to what kind of leadership is needed here and that God doesn't make mistakes when he has us called to a calling or office and we should never deny what God has for us to do, for if we do we are telling God he doesn't know us, he doesn't know what's best. This really hit me in the heart. God has many plans for us in our lives. Many times callings in church, changes in work or even disruptions in life happen to each of us. We feel inadequate or inefficient in what has been played before us and the natural man would have us shrink back and choose the easy route. But a true son of God will see this as a challenge, an exciting obstacle that can be overcome to make them better, to be stronger! It helps to humble us to turn to God for the strength we need to overcome what life throws at us and when we do we will reach heights beyond what we can imagine. Well I'm getting carried off, we had a awesome Fourth of July in which we spent time with less active families and a few investigators and we mingled with their family and speaking with many of their relatives. We didn't get to much lessons in but met a lot of new people, and we sadly couldn't enjoyed the fireworks because its banned in this part of California. So sad another crazy law ruins the fun for many. But I'm now in recovery mode from the Fourth of July and a long Sunday spent sharing messages with members and helping out the sisters in our area(forgot to mention one sister was really sick so we have been tending to them every once in a while. Sorry to rush the rest of it, I want to get letters off individually to each of you, I'm trying to prepare a few letters for you all before anything else changes. I'll get them out as soon as their finished.  I love you all, enjoy your summer and at this time next year we will be back!! 

Elder Heckel