Travis - Biggest Chip Ever!

Hey all you people!!!

Isn't this a great time to live in the world. This week has been very very exciting! A lot of excitement seems to be filling this world; this week we had the Pope come to America, an apostle passed away(sad), the red moon, so much more. It was very good and actually a lot of people liked speaking with us about all that's going on. We did a couple mini tracting sessions in which we where able to find 3 new potential families. One is a sheriff and his wife and two little kids. This man has the deepest voice I have ever heard(like Morgan freeman deep) he's kinda skeptical because he has checked tons of churches out but is willing to hear our message out. He was the only person I've met to invite us into the house right away. We are excited to go back and speak with him. 

 Another miracle this week was we had the chance of doing some service in unloading tons of homemade bark(chopped the tree up right there) and during it we heard this mans sad story like job.(a lot of people see the o be having bad luck) either way we talked about family's and how much he misses his because of a divorce. We shared the be chase of him video to and he started crying and asking us how we can believe in a God that would allow for children to suffer.   We talked with him about agency and the mercy that Christ brings by his atonement. The man didn't believe us right away, he asked for time to read and pray and asked us to come back in a couple weeks. Very special and different spirit came from him at this time, like a man tired of running and wanting rest. Sorry folks for having to cut a bit short, I want to reply to all you who wrote me. 

  A lot of this week we have tried to contact many different people. It's kinda sad how many feel comfortable going to a church of rock or who don't even care for religion. They do not see the purpose and it always seems to take a life crisis to humble them. But thanks be to God for caring and loving us enough that he would help open our eyes. The love of Christ is so real, his forgiveness so beautiful and powerful! Remember him and always be humble that you may conquer your greatest Everest or cross your largest oceans. Please if you can watch the video "lift" from Mormon messages. This holds some of the greatest advice for helping us in learning to grow. 

I love you all, I'll pray every day for you!!

P.s. BIGGEST CHIP EVER!! 

Travis - Miracles

Dear everyone here!
This week has been another fun week, more and more things are
constantly growing and changing in the work. And a very great miracle
happened over this last week. As a mission we held a special fast last
week for finding new people and this week we find out that we have
more than doubled our number of people found this week. even in our
area we once again found another small family who had never heard or
seen missionaries or the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
So they gladly accepted us and our message asking for us to come back.
And it's always by small and simple means that great things come to
pass. Our Heavenly Father truly blessed us as with the beginning of
this week was spent doing some service for non-members. In it we put
in a pool-liner, never did it before but we winged it. It was exciting
and very very heavy. I may need to start working out more! ;) anyhow
its been a blast doing it and we got to also help an older lady to
clear out a ton of weeds and dead grass. Once it was all loaded on the
truck we had to back into the lady's drive way to turn around, and a
random hobo came up and started to get angry at us thinking we where
dumping the weeds on her drive way. He got very hyped up about it and
it took us forever to calm him down.
  Another miracle we have had was that we met a lady who was a less
active member, or so we though! We found out she has been going to
another ward because she didn't feel really loved in ours, she
attended twice and no one even noticed! So we bore testimony to her
and invited her to church, she cried after our message and shared how
,ugh she wanted to share the gospel with her family more, so she
invited us back to teach her grandkids!!
  A final miracle is that we got a less active kid to finally meet a
man who was in the military as a recon sniper. He talked to him about
the requirements of joining and what's life like. He pretty much to
sum it up said he needed to clean up his life! The kid now sober told
us his dream on the way taking him home. He wants to change and be a
better person. He really want to forget the past but it seems to
always catch up to him. It was a very touching moment and he humbly
accepted the invitation to listen to the lessons and re learn what he
must do.
   There are so many different things I cannot describe happening this
time. The spirit is so strong here and so glorious! The love and care
the missionaries receive from members is phenomenal. Their is truly
blessings pouring out now and soon to come. I love the missionary work
done here and do not want to ever leave. People here are amazing, they
have tender hearts and all that is wrong is they are lost! And now
more than ever the savior is there for us, he will reach out and help
us, he will pull us out of the darkest pits and bless us with the
greatest blessings imaginable! This time of life I could do forever. I
have to go now as we are going to a lesson once again.

-Elder Heckel

P.s. We get to finally meet the Vanliew boys, they  are like my second
family. I'm so thankful for them and their service in South America.

I CALL THIS MY "FOOD STORAGE" :-)

Travis - Training!

Oh hey everyone!

This week was a radical week. It was full of a lot of important
training. Not just for the new missionaries, but for us! Several
meetings were held this week including Zone conference in which the
mission president and the stake waders talked more about the change
that comes in the work. Now more than ever is the time the members
must work together with missionaries for the work to progress. We meet
really find new ways to show our care for the community and different
views to our religion. It was very fun as we not only listened to
talks but had a bunch of times to practice teach either for examples
or simply to learn. I can't believe I would ever say that but yes it
is a blast! This week also filled with tons of service, we cleaned out
a garage, helped a family move, did landscaping, cleaning a school,
preparing and passing food to elderly. Gosh it is such a blast and
provided us so many opportunities to meet new people. Including a
miracle in which we met a lady named Rebekah and her son Patrick, she
is a very educated women who retired early to spend time with her son
who is a GENIUS high functioning autistic boy. He's 16 and already
knows a few languages of coding! We had a splendid time talking with
them about the love and support communities provide and also of our
lord, she isn't a big believer but is curious as to what makes
missionaries come out and serve. :)
   Another miracle this week was we went to go teach a less active
women the lessons, normally she wouldn't let us in till her husband
was gone. But today the husband answered, so we started talking and
found he was an atheist after serving in Vietnam. We got into a big
talk about history and all the changes that came and we showed him a
video of family history. This lead him to ask questions of why we
would care for dead people? We told him a brief summary as we wanted
to go teach his wife. So right then and there he told us we would come
back and tell him more!! His wife, who noticed he had answered was
worried but was now in shock! We love the miracles we see everyday in
our lives. And the work is still progressing, everyone is enjoying the
time they have here and really is coming together I think now more
than ever as a family. I'm so thankful to be here in California, I've
met many wonderful people already and hope to meet more. Well we are
off to go play some basketball, hope all is well for y'all

elder Heckel

Travis - BBQ Time!

How are doing? Wow, where has the time gone? The quote "days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days" is totally true!  I cannot believe all that has been going on. The work is shooting forward in different ways than I ever expected. A lot of the work that has been done this week are with all new people. The reason being because so many people are taking their last family trip we took this opportunity to go out and see other people. We spent tons of time inviting many many people out to the ward Barbecue. It's tons of amazing contacting in which we have had a lot of new people to meet and socialize with. We have realized that since this area has been tracted over a million times that now the people need to show that we have genuine love and care for them before we can try teaching them, More than what we normally do as to the fact that most first contacts we don't even try to teach. It's a whole new test of patience for us as we are use to trying to teach those we meet right off the bat. But it really is paying off as people understand that we aren't so different or bad, but we are good people. We in fact have had two major referrals of 2 young families. Both families are loving and very nice, one is a family of 3 which is fully ready to learn from us what the gospel cans provide as they simply don't have a fully idea of who Christ is. The other is a family of 4 they are very optimistic about learning but has a lot of questions, and in being so young and searching for the truth now it leaves me feeling so happy! The work here seems to be a lot of rescue work as most the work here deals with less actives- but it's such a blessing to get people reading th Book of Mormon and coming back church!

  Another side note training is a party! It really is a different experience because of all the lingo and stuff you learn I sometimes make the mistake of expecting my greenie to understand or know. So I hope he is patient with me, I can for sure see satans power. He is trying his hardest to stop the work here with works and his whispers. He tries his hardest to bring a driving force of aggression and conflict which is so easily accepted by us as imperfect humans. It becomes a part of mastery of patience. "patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can--working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"- Dieter F. Uchtdorf. All I pray for is that I do what the lord wishes me to do at this point. I want to do my very best, I mean what else can I do out here? Hahaha I'm loving it and I am doing great, I feel like I can walk for miles now. 

  And it's awesome here that even though there is a drought here their is Still tons of green trees, I don't know how I'm gunna handle going home here there is no trees hahaha(in comparison). but hey the laws here are crazy. We walked into a members work building and in big red letters it says that in this building are chemicals that are known to the state of California to cause cancer. And the building is a big office for lawyers. :)

I love you all and hope you enjoy your Monday's.....wow I forget Monday's aren't free days for everyone else.

Elder Heckel

Travis - I LOVE TAMALES!

So this week has been a phenomenal week. This is our first official full week with the new missionary and it's been one of the most exciting times ever. We have biked 10x the amount I ever did before and at the end of this week we had 4x the amount of lessons taught then any other week. Truly miracles have happened as we have worked and prayed hard. We have also taken the time to knock on members doors and teach them and in return we have 3 different members who either have given us a referral or are having us back to teach a new family they know. I've never felt so happy in my life right now. So to start of we had a miracle with Viki a new investigator we found; she is so happy to talk with us about religion and learn what the Mormons believe. She grew up baptist and attended quite often. But as the years rolled by she noticed a lot of issues and problem with the church and she didn't feel like they where a family that cared for one another. So she left and just prayed and studied on her own. Then she told us quote " I wish their was a church where the people just served one another out of the kindness of their hearts, that they were friends outside of going to church" unquote. This really was the kicker that got my heart pumping, so we 'calmly' told her a little about our church and volunteered to do service for her with some members and she agreed and would like to discuss more about our church! XD 

 Anyhow we have had the miracle also of meeting several less active families who were not to excited for us to be there and I doubt we wouldn't have stayed long if we didn't explain that this was a new missionary that needed practice teaching. So several of them not only agreed to let us try teaching them now but to also come back and teach them again. These younger families just need a little rekindling of the fire they have burning in them. One of them was a man named John who was very reluctant to have us in (the son let us in without letting the dad know) but John is a return missionary who is doing very well off, and based on clues around the house I'm pretty sure he is a computer programmer and rumor has it he was on the team that created google maps. Anyhow he sat and asked the basic questions to us of where we are from? how long have you been out?, how big is our families?. Do by the end we didn't get much of a lesson in and right before he got ready to escort us to the door we asked if we could say a prayer, and my companion turned to me and says 'rock, paper, scissors, winner gets to say it'. A little shocked I went along with it!......and I lost hahaha! My companion then gave a really good prayer of love and thankfulness. After which the guy was big eye smiling complementing us on what we had just done, then he actually followed us out talking more about his mission and the experience he had, he followed us clear out of his long drive way to the dirt road in his bare feet talking and told us to give him a call if we needed to come back and do the practice lessons. This last part touched me as I took this to be a good sign, something their in what did touched him and I hope can help him to come back to church again. Anyhow we visited many of our less actives and investigators sharing our testimonies and teaching all along the way. With so much going on their was a few nights after planning I just laid in bed in my proselyting cloths and slept. I am working hard hoping to leave an imprint of a good missionary on this new one, i truly am grateful for the awesome circumstances that have gone on in this mission. The lord truly does test and bless us. I have been given so much more than I ever felt I deserved but I do appreciate it and will not waste anything given. I love my savior Jesus Christ and in what can seem like a dark and chaotic world he is showing me the good that's here all the time. So many people worry about how evil the world is getting, how bad and horrible it is...like we should really be scared......like the cups half empty. Yes the world isn't the same as before but i believe there is more good going on than ever before in sharing the gospel, in serving, In loving, in learning. I believe the cups half full, don't let satan ever try to tear you down in this world he has many ways and tools to do so. But the lord has also placed many tools and support to lift you up and to overcome what satan may throw. I love you all again and hope you all have a fantastic week! 

P.s. My greenie didn't listen to me when I said don't ride in the weeds on the side of the road. And BOOM! Not one but two flat tires from goat heads( VERY sharp thistles that look like a goats skull) 

Elder Heckel