Travis - Easter Week!!!!

Hello Everyone!

So this has been a fantastic week. We had a lot of stuff for this
Easter time that has made it all the more fun. So we had a rough night
where me and elder Sanborn didn't sleep, so the next morning we where
debating whether to rest in a little or just push on through our day.
Oh boy was I glad we chose to push on! So that day we where visiting
several less actives, when we felt impressed to stop by one we had
tried a dozen times before. To our surprise when we stopped by the
front door was open and they where all sprawled out relaxing. This
family the Penmans we where able to share a message with about Easter
and also figured out hat the family has been struggling a little. But
they do still love the gospel and are willing to have us over. Then
right after that lesson we got a call from the sisters that they
wanted us to meet up with them, these sisters from a neighboring zone
handed off anotherYoung single adult who WANTS to learn the gospel.
She is super nice and very smart to, she seems to have done her
homework and is convinced of the gospel. Now it's our turn to help her
convert to the gospel. It's such a blessing to be a part of these
peoples learning and growing experiences. And Easter Sunday was just
great!! We had several families come with non member friends and even
a few part member families come. We are closely following up with them
and can't wait to see what comes of it. The Sunday service though is a
bit chaotic, we cover two wards in two separate buildings that meet at
the. Same time. We made a mad dash to the YSA ward sacrament and then
a 20 minute drive to the 4th ward for the Sunday school class and
priesthood. Then we rushed back in the same area for a lesson with a
less active. Then back for dinner, en we got a call from a member who
requested 20 book of Mormons. Curiously as we ran them to her we asked
what they where for. She said before she was a member she was part of
a non-denominational church which met with other young adults from
different churches who studied different religions for a month. And
this week they where studying the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. In which they would read half the Book of Mormon!!!! So we are
going to join several lessons to answer and even teach them about
Mormons. I about cried with joy! It's been so cool to see the
blessings coming. The lord knows when we are trying our hardest that
he can trust us, then he blesses us.
  I'm also writing this quick because we are going fishing right now
on a private pond for pday. It's just catch and release for most the
fish but still way fun! My companion loves the outdoors and he is
winning me over to it. But we are enjoying the area here, transfers is
next week, so we will see where everyone goes. Plus I have to set up
iPads once more. I want you to all know how much I love you guys! You
all have had an impact in my life and his Easter time has helped me to
reflect on the blessings I have received and continue to get. I wish I
had more time to write, but there is a lot to get done and elder
Forson just broke his pole..........love you all and see ya next week.

Elder Heckel

Travis - A Week of Compassion

This has been a really happy week!! We have had such a great blessing
of cone citing as missionaries more with those we serve. We spent a
lot of time studying from the Book of Mormon about Jesus Christ and
his atonement. And most of I recognized how he interacted with people.
It's one of the greatest things as a missionary to develop a love for
head people. I came out on a mission thinking nothing could really
tear me down. But the longer I've been out the more I realized that it
isn't depression or desire that causes us to get down on ourselves,
but when those strangers you meet, those you see who you know are
struggling refuses the gospel. We had a lot of rejection this week by
good people, I know in several that we planted seed upon there hearts
and prepared them for where ever they may meet missionaries again. But
the lord did bless us, because we got a "hand off referral" from the
ninth ward here. A young man who found the gospel himself and holds a
great desire to learn it. He is working his hardest to come close to
it even though his family dislikes it. (Did I mention he's from
India?!) he knows it's true and we are excited to help him come closer
and develop that full testimony of Jesus Christ.
       Another crazy thing this week was we helped the third ward move
a non member they where referred to. So.......this place was to
overwhelming for even pictures.(mom and or anyone with a weak stomach
may want to skip this paragraph).....okay so this place was filled to
the brim with junk! Like a small path for walking and mountains of
garbage as high as my shoulders. It was a man and his "roommate" who's
an older lady. They both where military/ law enforcement. It made no
sense how their place got this way, but as we where cleaning it out it
got worse. We stared finding mouse poop and dead bugs everywhere. I
then lifted an old box full of cloths. When I lifted it ripped open
and spilled down into the floor and literally HUNDREDS of roaches
covered the clothing storming out every which way.
😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱And we eventually found that most the stuff was
like that. The lady there kept making fun of us for being 'scared of
the spiders and roaches. Earlier when we started I had said a prayer
for protection and no sooner did we figure that we where Protected
than when I leaned over a table to pull the back end  away from the
wall and onto its side, right then my companion yelled and I let go
and it fell back into place. He (with gloves) grabbed it and pulled it
back slowly to reveal that my hand was centimeters from two fat black
widows and there nest of eggs 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱. It was disgusting! We
did the best we could and eventually just left. Later we found out if
it's that bad we shouldn't stay, and the meet got mad because we found
out the referral came from the county and that no one from their ward
showed up to help. It was an intense moment. But I felt a lot of
sympathy for those people. I believe those kinda people are the poor
and needy the lord talks to, the ones who need the gospel the most.
Sometimes missionaries refuse to talk to people because hey judge them
not to be ready or that they deserve, but the lord didn't say that
because this is EVERYONES Time  to prepare to go back, no one here is
perfect and ready to go now, but needs their opportunity to hear the
gospel. We haven't heard back what happen to the two we moved but
hopefully they felt the spirit.

Hey for all those that haven't had the opportunity. Go check out the
video followhim.mormon.org it's amazing video and a way to start of
the Easter celebration right. This is the message that has helped us
get in a few homes lately. It's the request thing to, because I know
our savior loves us, his sacrifice. Most people look at this as a
favorable gift given to us, but this was an investment the lord gave
us, or to put it into better perspective. Put into perspective his
great work, he did it all because of you!! Imagine someone you care
about laying down their life for you. You and no say to stop it, but
you would be grateful for it. Jesus Christ didn't just did for you, to
put it bluntly he died because of you. It's because the lord saw that
we where coming here and on our own we weren't coming back. He saw all
our sins and suffered for it and died to overcome it.  I love you all
and have to go, have a fantastic day and your all amazing! Hope to
hear from you.



Elder Heckel

Travis - God is good

So this week has been a pretty rainy week! So I think God has a great
sense of humor and more so a tender mercy, we decided to go selective
tracting and it happened to start raining....hard. And it went on all
week, so we just kept going from place to place. Oh boy it's quite
funny to see the reactions some people have for us. The few doors that
answered always felt so bad and invited us in for a moment. We would
sit and talk with them and all of them said they where not interested.
But they sparked a great amount of respect for us coming and we know
that a seed has been planted for others to come harvest later. We did
however have a pretty funny guy, an atheist we ran into that talked
with us for a moment. He use to be a member but he said his eyes had
been opened, confused I asked how? And he replied for us to look
around at the pants and animals, Look at how they fade to dust. That
is what is going to happen to us too! And there is no way we can know
what's in the next phase of existence! :O that is exactly the same
thing as those in he Book of Mormon said. It's amazing to see how much
hectors repeats itself for those who never studied it! We tried to
help him see, but he hardened his heart and we ended up leaving a card
if he ever wanted to learn more again.
    Another funny lesson was with a part member family the Ludingtons.
This couple is fantastic and has a rather crazy story, so they both
had previous marriages that ended and they and just gone on their own
raising there two kids each. Well, it turns out one of there kids had
met and where getting married. at a  party before the marriage, they
the single parents ran into one another and it was love at first
sight. So shortly after they got married too! Which makes their son
and daughter who are married brother and sister in law right? Hahaha
it's crazy but back to what we are sharing with them. We are helping
him come back and helping he learn the gospel. She accepts it all
pretty much except she believes in reincarnation. That we come back
alive as a different person again  so we can experience the different
parts of life and try everything? We bore great testimony of the
truthfulness of the gospel and plan of salvation. (Logically it works)
but we invited her to come out of her comfort space and truly search
for that truth. She is so close to being ready, but her time isn't
quite there.

These few miracles made our week great. Sometimes the work gets quite
difficult and with how the work has changed we are shifting how we
approach people and share the gospel. It truly falls upon those
(especially the younger ones) in finding and inviting those to share
the gospel. We started a recent challenge in the mission here that we
are reading the Book of Mormon in Sixty days. And holy cow it's been
amazing, seriously this is the way people come to know the truth, it
isn't by a church program or a logical discussion. But by reading and
praying we can come to know in an undeniable way that it's Gods word.
That all we share is true and many times here on my mission whether
they are young or old if they put forth an effort to read and ask they
will know for a surety. And this is what creates that conversion equal
to the lamanites who alma taught , it says " they where converted and
never did fall away." I would challenge each of you to read it and
honestly ask God. For he will either reveal it is real or it's not,
but when you do with real intent I PROMISE you can find that he does
care.

Last but not least I love you all, I'm having fun here working and
last we had zone conference which is always a leisure to see all these
missionaries. At the end of the meeting those who will be departing in
the next month give their final testimonies. In this one particular
missionary shared a very touching one in which he broke testimony of
the Atonement. And towards the end in his own words he shared " the
atonement heals us of all things, mistakes, sins, pains....including
yesterday when my 'lady friend' had her birthday and wrote me starting
off dear John....but that's irrelevant to a missionary life" Then he
gave the saddest face, which the whole crowd broke out laughing. He
almost made it the full two years! Hahaha anyhow it's touching to hear
their testimonies. These are some of the last missionaries I really
knew well going home D:

Hope you all have a wonderful day

Elder Heckel

Here's a cool place we went shopping.

Travis - short

So this week was exciting!


  We had a word week this week. So the work has changed a lot here, we
are searching for new people to teach. But in our searches we came
across a lot of sick people. And one of them gave me the most pesky
cough ever! I'm finally over it now, but everyone avoided me like I
had Ebola so it made it really hard to approach people. But we had a
fun time searching for YSA. These students going to College have such
weird priorities. We meet girl who decided that she was going to have
20 animals instead of roommates? Haha but it seems a lot of people are
to shy for there own good. It's hard yes to speak with random people,
but you don't have to be afraid of those who speak with you. Ya, so we
did have a lot of meetings to with president because our zone is being
flipped around. And missionary leadership meeting went down without a
hitch for the first time. It seems the mission is hitting a peak for
great missionaries who are learning to work together well and have fun
also. Ya, now we have spent most the day spending time with some
missionaries and shopping, our number of cars has cut down so we have
to work with other missionaries to get them what they need.

Elder Heckel

Travis - A lot of moving

Hello

Everyone

It's

Another

Monday!!

Haha, this feels so quick for Monday to be present. This last week was
full of a lot of laboring in the work.  We where able to teach James
who really appreciates our messages we bring, he has always been
afraid of going into something fully without a sure knowledge. And we
discussed a lot about faith and how God does not creat a church with
all the knowledge of him ever, but only the things that pertain to our
salvation. We also say again that the lord truly had prepared people,
a girl named Cailey. She has been through the refiners fire and has
been searching many churches. When she came to ours something said
this was right and she keeps asking what she has to do to join. She
reads and loves the scriptures and has actually been dating a in
active return missionary who is coming back now!! It's a mega bonus,
but we just learned minutes ago she is moving out of our mission :(.
But we are excited that she found this and are working to make sure
she meets the missionaries down there.
   Also Most of what we did this week was service, I felt like a
moving company. We helped several non members who needed up moving
into the sisters ward out here. It's exciting as each of them face a
different circumstances, but we helped them move all there oversized
furniture to tiny houses or apartments. It's really cool all the
things people have Collected over the years but I always thought they
had to much stuff....until we had to move our apartment this week. Oh
boy what an exciting time traveling back and forth until our housing
coordinator brought a trailer over. It was exciting to get out of our
old area and into a new one. And it's such a blessing because the
part,net chosen is where several of our investigators moved too! So we
have to only walk, I will say now how thankful I am for cars and
bikes! All you people out walking about, must walk like 20 miles a
day! We are just finishing unpacking all our stuff. A new place makes
all the difference for yourself.(I'm sorry for those in foreign
countries, trust me I'm appreciating what I have) I hope you all are
having an awesome time and we will see you all later.


Elder Heckel

Travis - A week to remember

Oh what a good week!
 We have spent a lot of This week doing service. We are reaching out
to different groups in the community and working at different donation
places and at food banks. It's such a blast being a missionary. In a
million years I would never have guess that I would enjoy spending
time talking to complete strangers. We met with our melt prominent
investigator right now which is James! James is an older retired man
and his girlfriend who just can't help but bust out jokes left and
right. He always loves bringing smiles to people's faces but when the
gospel comes along he seems to be uplifted by the spirit in which his
most common phrase is 'I don't know why more people don't Lenten to
you guys!' Although he has a lot on his plate being retired he does
have a desire to be baptized and we are working word to help him get
to the church...on time :). But another miracle we had is we are doing
a lot of finding and changing in our teaching. Working with a few
wards is quite difficult (I can't imagine the Utah missionaries) but
we are really working with members in the YSA to meet people, we have
done a lot of work of going out on splits visiting less actives. These
people are so AWESOME too because they all grew up together majorly or
they know them from somewhere. So when we teach they get pretty blunt
and really know how to fellowship and answer concerns. Best of all
though is that because we got out working with them, they in turn each
have given us REFERRALS! Getting referrals and good ones are few and
far between, but it makes our day to know that someone trusts us to
teach there friend.
 But you know exciting things keep going on too, I've become more
involved in helping missionaries with there iPads since the majority
of tech people just went home :,(. It's giving me new insight into how
missionaries each work as I view there set up for teaching and who
they are teaching. But it also made me realize and focus on teaching
missionaries that they are the tools to teach in the hands of the
spirit NOT the iPad. Sometimes it seems missionaries and members rely
to much on a good movie or touching story to make them feel the Spirit
and do all the teaching, when in reality the best way to ignite the
spirit is to connect and share your own testimony. So I always
challenge missionaries to go without iPads and see what happens. The
spirit can work greatly simply through us, for it is where truth comes
from. Although scripture and teachers help, the best way to help
someone learn is straight from God.

I'm doing great, and I hope all of you are having a fantastic time!!

Love y'all

Elder Heckel

Travis - Mormon Valentines :-)

Dear family,

This week was fabulous. I know I say that a lot, but everyday as a
missionary is truly a blessing. Sometimes it does feel like you don't
accomplish much, but this week we had the opportunity of meeting some
YSA potentials! These people were super NCOs but you come to find out
about all the new religions people have. Like one lady we met believes
when you go out and pray in the forest you connect with God through
nature. Others believe that when you rock out hardcore. It's sad that
they try to force A spiritual feelings. But she was receptive and
hopefully she will want to feel that new spirit as she puts it.  And
this week we also met with another part member couple. He is quite
cool, he loves the gospel and knows a ton about it but doesn't go
because of his wife's wishes. We are helping her to recognize the Holy
Ghost when it speaks to her, she shared with us some amazing
experiences and miracles hat she perceived to be God talking to her.
But she has a kind heart and says she wants to try everything we have
to refer before giving up trying.
  I want you guys to know how great the scriptures are, I've started
new studies in the Book of Mormon really analyzing it. I get made fun
of being so analytical and scientific thinking but there is so many
treasures to be gained from this book. Its the only book next to the
bible to really teach you, not only gods word but his will. I found so
many answers from the Book of Mormon, every time something relates or
straight out tells me things I know I should be doing, things need to
know. No other book truly can change every time you read it like this.
One of the coolest things I noticed in the Book of Mormon is about
Lehi! Reading through you could guess that Lehi was a convert! He
starts of praying to God and truly wanting to know him.  That is also
why Laman and Lemuel murmured so much because they had not had the
opportunity to learn and be converted. We learn nephi's prayer and
conversion also Sams and Sarah's conversion. They all took the
challenge to find the truth. But we learn that Laman and Lemuel do not
have the desire to ask the lord. Multiple times it states how they
rely on there wisdom instead of seeking the lord. It makes it quite
exciting to visualize being there and in there position. I would
challenge anyone to not read the scriptures with real intent and not
feeling the spirit. I love you guys all a ton, sorry for he crappy
emails haha. I'm trying enjoy every second of being a missionary this
pday. We are currently eating in and out and might I say this has to
be the best lettuce burger ever!

Have a happy Valentine's Day.

Love elder Heckel!

Here are some Mormon valentines!!