Travis - Thank you!

Hello everyone,

This was a rather normal week for once....Not! Haha always something
exciting is going on. This last week was transfer/ thanksgiving week.
So lots of changes came into the zone, with all the new missionaries
it's been a lot of work not only helping them all get settled. But one
in particular we had to take time to teach him how to ride a bike, his
father was from Ghana and he was never taught too ride a bike so he
never learned either. I never realized how many things I took for
granted! I love thanksgiving especially because this is one of the few
times people seem to all be looking out for one another. We had not as
many invited as last thanksgiving. But we certainly had a few great
families feed us. One is the Souliers! He mother happens to be the
daughter of Lynn Clayton who passed away. We had many awesome
conversations about her and the blessings she brought to my life. I'm
sad I missed seeing her one last time before she passed away, but I
know she is in a better place. None the less they fed us like kings
haha, at this rate I never want to see another turkey again. This week
also was rather humbling because although many people answered a lot
told us they don't believe in organized religion. I guess a lot has
gone on in the world than I realized and people are giving up on it.
But a great miracle was one investigator we have been teaching
forever(10 years) finally read his scriptures!! He said he is curious
why the Book of Mormon is kinda like how our world is going today. And
on top of that he invited his girlfriend to come learn!! She pretty
much with her questions she shared told us all about the apostasy and
how the bible may not be 100 percent correct. I was jumping up and
down for joy. We committed her and two other people this week that if
they read and pray this next week to find out if it is true. They are
willing to be baptized!! Everyone says it's rare to get a baptism in
the south of our mission. Yet our zone is killing it!! Haha we are
trying to be obedient and work hard to find those who are ready to
hear the wonderful word of God. Sorry for the short letter we are
going laser tagging! So I'll be out for a bit, but I would love to
hear how your thanksgiving been going.


P.s. That tire wasn't me


-Elder Heckel

Travis - Change

This has been a very testing week. I absolutely loved it
though! Me and my companion started off the week with a couple hours
spent at the repair shop for our car..I guess the crash caused by the
missionary before me wasn't fully fixed. And right when we thought we
where leaving, I signed the papers and walk out to a different car,
same brand but different. It turns out they mistakes our car for
someone else's, so now we had to leave, come back again the next day
and wait a few hours for it to finish. Definitely a fun time, we tried
to talk to anyone waiting their and one man even entertained us for a
little and took a pass along card. Also during this week a few
missionaries stayed with us while they went to their departing temple
trip. These few I grew really close with and it made me sad that they
are going back into a different world! (I really should start to take
pictures) we had our fun bonding moments and then we went and attended
a Special Mission Leadership Council. There we met the new area
seventy, Elder James J. Hamula. He is an older man but stands very
tall with broad shoulders. The whole meeting he taught us a lot of
doctrine on who we are, and how to have greater purpose in our lives.
He showed a greater power found by incorporating being obedient and
faithful in our lives. He really raised the spirits of all the mission
leaders and left all of us not only wanting to be better but knowing
that we can be. I loved it! it's amazing how God answers our longest
and hardest prayers with simple answers through others. I hope all of
you know just how amazing you truly are, God created you, he knows
you, he knows how great you can be! He also knows how bad you can
become. Amazingly he realizing that and he still gave his son who
atoned for us! Because Jesus Christ knew you. He knew all the trials
you would face and how hard your life would get in this changing
world. But he saved you for this special occasion, he saw that you
would do great things. Don't ever doubt yourself and who you are! He
gave us the GUARANTEE that following him wouldn't be the most popular
thing but it would lead to the most happiness you can get.
   This week though we did face a lot of door slammers, I guess people
got offended because hey misunderstood the handbook change. It saddens
me people don't give a chance to even to know the truth. This whole
week we faced many rejections, a lot of people were not home, they
didn't want to know, and everything else in between. We had only two
lessons this whole week until Friday. Friday was truly our humbling
day!  Early that morning we realized somethings we had been missing
all week. We had been going forward with the same energy, same
prayers, and same work as the other weeks. We kind of topped off in
the work without progression really. And I truly believe the lord
wanted to inspire us to change and do better this week. So we really
got down on our knees and prayed to the lord with as much vigor as we
could. So we went out and the first thing off is Elder Faaola called
asking us to help turn in his bike 😢😢 so he asked us to take him to
the mission office. When we finished we got to do splits with them and
went to several different potential people. We worked super hard till
dinner then we met up and went our ways. Dinner canceled so we decided
to work through it until 7:00. Finally exhausted we met up with other
missionaries to talk. I added up all our lessons, and to our shock we
had 10 lessons! A amazing miracle for such a small and hard area, and
we have 3 more we met Friday  who want us to come back Sunday ! It's
an amazing blessing that truly left us overjoyed, along with another
miracle. We got a gift card to Safeway for dinner,  so we went to see
what you could buy. So grabbing random items we where checking out
when I noticed a teenager staring at us. He kept on staring so I
walked over and introduced myself, he said he was curious why we are
dressed the way we are. We explained who we where and he said he
couldn't talk much, but HE wanted to trade numbers and meet up with us
Sunday. It was so cool! He wanted to know more about God and what he
has for him!! I know that God has a work and purpose for everything we
do or wherever we go.
  I love the lord, he blesses us so much in our lives! He gave us
opportunities for happiness, to do good and to be blessed by others. I
have had the privilege to meet Great men and women of this generation.
Ones that I truly learned to love and know that they are meant to go
on and do great things in their life. Especially Elder Nelson and
Elder Faaola! They have done amazing things for me and I can never
repay them. And also elder Poulter, he's been such a great example and
teacher to me. Although he's been out shorter time, I feel so
inadequate with him. He teaches with a true spirit of love and he
looks to help all he sees. He does get cocky but never boastful! He
has faced a lot of trials and hardships that would tear people down,
but they only strive to lift him up! He got to video in for a funeral
and talk with his family and I love to see how close he has become
with his own family. Nothing will tear them apart, And none will do
that for mine. I love you guys so much and I hope to hear from you
guys soon. The holidays are coming up. Remember the importance of
these days and where they came from!! See you all at Christmas ;)

Elder Heckel

Travis- Our Neighbors Cat

ELDERS, SISTERS, BROTHERS, SISTERS? and everyone else 

Well well well, another week has flown by! We had an amazing week this week as we have gotten out more and more trying to meet new people(it seems a lot of less actives have moved) but we where able to find a lot of potential young people for the YSA. In fact most our lessons last week fell through so all he lessons we got where with new people! This week flew by pretty quick as we had awesome interviews with our mission president. A lot of the mission mentality seems to be changing for the better, it's real exciting to see all these 18 years olds come in(holy crap 18?!?!?) but it was fun to hear all the good news about the mission and to receive some much needed council on how we can best help him. I also went to my first meeting of zone leaders! We all got together and discussed secret stuff about the mission and what we can do to more motivate all missionaries. I love it and was able to meet many missionary friends I have made on the mission. I have been so blessed to cross paths with so many wonderful people and to witness many miracles with them. I can't believe time is flying and Christmas is coming soon! Hahaha in no time it will be here, but there are a few funny things that happened here over the past several weeks. One is we just got a new suit for my companion. He flexed his leg muscles a little to hard and ripped his pants(good food in California) and I died laughing. It seems I'm one of the few not to gain extreme amounts of weight. Hahahahahaha and also this week we came in late one night and the neighborhood cat was around our apartment. We for fun meowed at it and it came right over to us. Surprised I picked it up and we tried to feed it hotdogs that had rotted  XD but it wasn't willing to play the game so we let it go  and it just sat their at our door. So me thinking of what to do with this opportunity decided to test a myth I had heard. So I grabbed in a lint roller sheet and before it could do anything I slapped in onto the side of this cat. And at first it just stared at it, but when it got up and started walking it freaked out. It couldn't run straight and keep running side ways smashing into bushes, cars  and even poles. It was sprinting so fast we couldn't catch it at all. And heck I could catch it either because I was dying laughing as it screamed meowing. Finally it hit the door of its owner in which we ran inside. Poor cat, I scarred him for life! Hahahahahaha but I loved this week and I love my companion too, he's been the biggest blessing in helping me.....p.s. About 20 minutes ago I bought a whole bunch a groceries from a gluten free store! And guess what the lady who helped me had my buy Organic flour foods instead of gluten free....and they don't give refunds! So my companion got all my food this week hahaha. Well I got to go but I love you all and hope you have a fantastic time. 

Elder Heckel 

Travis- This is gonna be Fat.

Wow! This week blew by way to fast! It is such a blessing to be out here and serve and the time seems to go faster and faster. -the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days- is a true sign that I'm obviously enjoying this way to much. This week was challenging though, so last week I mentioned hat my companion was ill, well as he started to get better I got what ever he had and was knocked out. I was out for a few days just stuck in bed with a trash can, but during this time it gave us some much needed study to catch up and prepare for this week. So the First part of the week we had some funny things going on, every night before bed we always play one round of chess to get us to relax, I've become quite good learning from a former companion, so  sometimes I let my companion now win(don't let him know that). But during one night we had a scare for a second, a missionary sent out an email to all of us elders in the area showing his super bloody and bent up finger.  Immediately we called them up and asked what happened? Elder Swaner(Sr. Companion)  told us his companion and him where chopping wood with a splitter. He was controlling the axe, while his companion would throw the wood on. Then outta nowhere his companion started yelling and freaking out! So he quickly pulled the machine back to find that his finger got sucked inbetween the blade and the wood, when he tried to pull the wood apart with the splitters help!  (I would send a picture but people may not keep what's in their stomach) so he said they wrapped it up and took 1600 mg of Ib-profen  (bad idea #1 Don't  EVER TAKE THAT MUCH) and they have just laid for 4 hours at the apartment not quite knowing what they should do. (Bad idea #2) So we rushed over grabbed them and went straight to a member who was a doctor, the guy examined the finger, telling us it isn't as bad as it looks and proceeded to number the finger with 4 very long needles. Then after he couldn't feel it he used a sponge and grinded off all the dirt, dead skin, and blood. (The way he did it I bet would have killed someone if it wasn't numbed up) after it was finished he dipped in hydrogen peroxide. The doctor told us that he could either stitch it up or he could bandage it and take very very good care of it and probably have a blessing. He choose the latter in which we gave him the blessing and watched him wrap the finger up nice and good. After all is said and done, he is doing fantastic today. We where quite worried that it might have cut straight to the bone or completely broke his finger. But lucky he was blessed to not have that happen this happened all at 10 pm. Then the next day we are called to go make sure a sister is alright who we found was having to pass kidney stones!!  she kept it a secret from the missionaries in our zone but a member found out about it. We went over and offered a blessing and ended up instead going and grabbing some groceries for them. She was as white as a ghost, she told us we can't do anything until they pass by themselves......I never want to go through that EVER. So I'm going to try completely cutting out soda from my life haha. Oh and last but not least another companionship gave us a call or should I say companion who while biking didn't realize his other companion had a popped tire and stopped. So when he realized he was gone, he backtracked and he couldn't find him. So he called us asking what he should do, we told him to ride to the lesson he was going to and we will meet him their. Well right as we got their the missing companion walked up with his bike obviously not happy. We asked what had happened and he (angrily) told us that he was left by his companion so we he the fastest route on foot instead of the one they originally biked figuring he would just be at the lesson already. That's why he didn't find him at first, it was a funny false alarm but at the same time pretty good scare. So now my wacky stories are over I have a few miracles I want to share. 

 during the latter week we managed to catch some people home in the apartments once again, one guy even though we where his friend and told us to come right in! It was quite funny to see his surprise, but none the less I'm starting to do my cleaning plan like my two areas before, getting rid of old contacts and finding new people to teach, heck some of these people on record never had a return visit from almost 2 years ago? But we had success in getting to meet a friend of a member who's name is Ted. Ted is about the nicest guy I've ever met and his lessons are already going to be fantastic, Just in our casual conversation when we met him, he was asking us serious golden questions about the church and who we see Jesus Christ as( as if we are any different from the other Christian religion?) but as he asked these questions we felt the spirit so strongly guiding us and him, he doesn't quite recognize it yet, but he told us. "You guys their is something special....some feeling or aura you people carry around and I want to know how I can get that." I wanted to just blurt out everything about the church at that moment, but the spirit and common sense told me and my companion to wait(we are at the Halloween party BTW) 

  Also this week we met with Abbie and Autumn again (the 15 and 10 yr old) I learned a little more of their past as they have had a difficult life with their parents, who got divorced. But it was so cool as we had them teach us the plan of salvation (we shared last time) then we added on about the blessings of the celestial kingdom including being sealed forever. There was a long pause after that in which Abby started to cry, she shared with us how amazing that is and if it were true, how bad she wanted that in her life. Ever since her parents broke up she worried about marriage, worried about not marrying the right one and the pain and sorrow that might come upon her kids if a divorce happened. She didn't want them to ever feel abandoned like she did, and if they can all be sealed together forever, what greater thing can their be to gain? With the spirit so strong we challenged them to both read from the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if this all true and that baptism would be right. They gladly accepted, and even after we left she texted us and thanked us and said she wanted us to meet a few friends who she believed would want this message . This two miracles made up my whole week! I love this gospel so much, the hope and assurance it brings is one of a kind. I know people everywhere in the world can benefit from following this message. I know their s true power and strength behind it. I have felt it push and carry me on the days I didn't think I could make it. I love my savior Jesus Christ and know he is real! that he did die for me and for you.  I hope you all know that and if not seek it out, it will do more to make you stronger and happier then all the people, money or items in the world. Well I hope to hear from y'all some day.

-Elder Heckel

P.s. A picture of The sickest car ever(hellcat)!