Jenessa - Week 45- MIRACLES EVERYWHERE!!!

Hey Ya'll :-)

 I am just so excited to tell you about our wonderful week!! We saw so
many miracles, God hand is in this 100%. First off, Sister Boucher is
incredible and during our weekly planning session this past week she
recommended that we have mighty prayers every night, as we close our
planning session, for all those people that we saw during that day and
all the people we were going to be seeing the next day. We have been
doing this every night and it has brought about so many MIRACLES!  I
am determined that this will be something I will be doing for the rest
of my mission, even though some nights we are exhausted, that mighty
prayer is amazing. It keeps us focused for the night and even into the
morning. I am find that I go to sleep still thinking and pondering
about the people we spoke with that day and the people we are going to
speak with the next day, it has me contemplating on our goals as I
fall asleep and even has me thinking about them as I wake up and head
out to exercise. Its been incredible. I love what your letter said,
"What you focus on is what you get." I whole heartedly believe that
and I have seen that in action this week. We have even set a goal to
focus our conversations on missionary work or the gospel......that is
a BIG topic.....there is so much to talk about, we never run out of
things to say! As we have focused our thoughts, conversation, and
prayers on our goals and missionary work The Lord has placed person
after person into our path to teach!!!  I don't even think I can even
truly express how the feeling of missionary work has changed for me. I
have served now for 16 months and I dont think I have ever felt this
way so consistently. I have more energy, I have more patience, I am
more able to follow the promptings of the spirit, our lessons are
incredible and I feel so much love in my heart that it could almost
burst!!! I know that my Savior is near and I am so grateful for that.
:-) What you focus on is truly what you get and it is amazing!!!

Sister Boucher and I have just been so happy and love this work so
much, even when we have been out in the hot sun on our bikes. There is
nothing like  riding a bike, in 100 degree weather, 80% humidity (at
least), in a skirt, with a BIG SMILE on your face...... and then
watching as people driving by slow down and stare ;-) its the
greatest! I love being a missionary!

We had trade off's this week with our Sister Training Leaders, Sister
Kastellar and Sister Earl....I LOVE THEM!!! It was so great! :-) It
was kind of weird, but also kind of nice not actually being the sister
training leader.  I had the privilege of being with Sister Earl, she
is incredible and it was exactly what I needed and when I needed it.
It was great to take some time and really verbalize and solidify my
goals for the rest of my mission. It was wonderful we were able to go
to dinner with a member and while we were there we were able to share
a bit of the gospel with our waitress, this girl name Deysi (said
Daisy). It was wonderful to see the member Sister Mortorff just reach
out and start talking about the gospel so naturally to our waitress.
That is one of my goals for my life, is to make the gospel a natural
part of my everyday conversation with people. It was so wonderful to
see that and it made it so natural for us to get her information to
now, hopefully have the opportunity to teach her. She was so cute and
thought we were really nice. We have been able to contact her via
facebook and will start teaching her soon. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! :-)

We have been working hard to get all of our Key indicators up to the
standards of excellence (for our mission is 5 member presents, 5 new
gators, 2 at church, adn 10 other lessons per week) and let me tell
you, with The Lord help we are doing just that. We taught 5 member
presents, had 6 new investigators, 9 other lessons, and 1 (date) at
church. Isn't that amazing! That has been my goal for the whole
transfer was to get our numbers up to the Standard of excellence
because I know that as we focus on those goals, that we will have
progressing investigators working towards baptism...and indeed we are!
We are excited to up that number of people at church next week. We are
confident that we will have more then 2 there! We are so excited! With
this focus on our minds and the fast that we participated in yesterday
for our goal of 70 baptisms in the mission for September to get us to
1000 within the mission, we know that miracles are going to continue
to occur all over the mission as we allow The Lords hand to come in
and do HIS work. I truly believe that we just need to "get out of the
way" so to speak, to allow The Lord to work through us. I have come to
realize that much of my success or failure on my mission thus far has
come from either letting go and letting God take care of things, or
standing in the way and trying to take care of things myself. The
least productive times on my mission have been when I have decided
that I knew what i was doing, when I put my thoughts "above" His
thoughts, and my ways above His ways OR when i just get to focused on
myself and my problems and less focused on what I have been called to
do. The Lord truly does bless us as we lose ourself in His work! :-) I
know this!  Sister Boucher and I are losing ourselves in this work
here in Waycross and we know that for this upcoming month we will be
having 3 baptisms to reach our goal of 70 baptisms as a mission! :-) I
know this and I know it because God confirmed to both of us that is
what he would have us do and we are going to go out there and work
hard, and allow The Lord to MAKE IT HAPPEN through us!! :-)

Ok....enough about us....let me tell you about the amazing miracles
and people that we have had the privilege of teaching this week!! We
have been teaching this one couple Geanie and Elliot that the others
Sister found. After our first visit with them, I wasn't quite sure
about their true desire to continue forward and to do what is
required, but after this last visit it was incredible. We were able to
bring two members with us, the RS Pres and then Sister Taylor (who has
just barely been reactivated after 7 years or more), we were able to
teach them and have a very powerful lesson reading the Book of Mormon.
We read 3 Nephi 11 (one of my favorites) and once we got into the
versus about the mode and manner of baptism, we stopped and has a very
powerful discussion about baptism. We feel like Geanie and Elliot
truly have a desire to know the truth and want to come closer to the
Savior, they still need some better understanding, but they accepted a
baptismal date and want to move forward. They have some
hesitations/reservations about coming to church, which we didn't
really take the time like we should have to work through or talk
about, but that is what we will be  discussing next lesson. We are so
excited. Geanie is incredible. She has really turned her life around.
She is a recovering addict and you should just see the glow in her
eyes as she talks about the Savior and bears her testimony of how she
knows that there is no way she could be where she is without Him and
she never wants to do anything without him again!! She has so much
faith, it is phenomenal!

We had a Sister Cornett come out with us one evening and she was so
perfect for the lady we were able to speak with that night. We
actually had ALL 3 of our appointments cancel, but that is ok, because
that was not where we needed to be. We needed to be on Alisa's door
step that night, especially with Sister Cornett! It could not have
been more perfect. Alisa is an lady that we knocked into a few weeks
ago. When we initially contacted her she was really really sick,
because of a cyst that had been removed from under her arm had gotten
infected. We tried to return back about a week later and once again
she was still sick, well this week when all of our lessons were
falling through we decided that we needed to go try her (she was one
of our back ups). We went there and she opened right up, especially to
Sister Cornett. It was wondrous! She felt of our love and concern and
she wanted to learn more. She said that she had been just recently
thinking about how she needed to get back into church and she felt
like coming to ours would be a good thing. She was unable to come with
us on Sunday, because of a late night she had and she wanted a dress.
Sister Cornett is so great and offered to take her to Goodwill and
help her find a dress so she can come. She wants to come next week and
we look forward to her coming. :-) Sister Cornetts testimony and just
her being there made all the difference with our lesson with Alisa. I
KNOW that it is because we had a member at that lesson that Alisa was
so open with us, because she was able to talk to someone that
understood her and was able to really empathize with her, making that
connection that she really needed! I love MEMBER WORK!! It is so
powerful!

We met this amazing 16 year old girl named Meagan this week. We were
on bikes and trying to contact a less active. It was sooo hot outside
and just in the 20 minutes we were talking to her I got a sunburn LOL
:-) Anyways....she is amazing. We started talking to her and
immediately turned to the Book of Mormon we share Helaman 5:12 and
afterwards she said "Now I would like to buy that book." We told her
that it was free and she was happy to have it. You should have seen
how tenderly she took it and placed it into her car right next to her
bible. It was amazing. We were able to share the restoration lesson
with her and connect with her via facebook. She is super busy going to
high school, doing part time college and working part time at a store
called Piggley Wiggleys just down the street from where we live. We
are so excited to see her at church here in the next week or so. :-)
It was amazing. It just seemed like all week long everything that we
had planned wasn't really working out, but the plans that we really
needed to be doing and where we needed to be was PERFECT!!

We had another THREE miracles happen just yesterday. First, we had set
up for Alisa to come to church on Sunday and had a member all lined up
to bring her, since her truck had just recently got a flat tire, but
on Sunday morning we called and she could not make it. We decided we
should call our other investigator Francis (who we had set a baptismal
date with) and see if she was going to be able to make it to church
and would like a ride....guess what?? She DID!!! Mind you, she had a
stroke just a year ago and so some mornings are really rough for her
to get up and get going AND we found out on Friday that she had been
robbed and could not pay her water bill. We had promised her that if
she would come to church that she would be blessed to figure out what
to do about the water bill, well when we called her sunday morning she
must have remembered that or was having a good morning because she
said yes and 30 minutes later her ride was able to pick her up. She
LOVED church and guess what?? We think she figured out how to pay her
water bill! :-)


MIRACLE #2: We had received 3 different media referrals to our phone a
few days ago and were finally in the area to go and contact them. We
went to this lady named Deborah's home and we told her that we had
received a notification that she had wanted some more information on
our church. She said No she had not requested anything, but that we
could come in and talk. We were both blown away, because she answered
the door with a look on her face like she didn't really appreciate
that we were there, but she let us in. We went in and sat down and
began talking and she told us that she knew many people who were
members of our church and that they were all really good people. As
she started naming them it was clear that she thought highly of each
of these people and their families. Her husband, Jim, joined us as we
were talking and we were able to bring the spirit so strongly into the
room as we opened with a prayer and began the lesson. It was
incredible that even though there were parts that this couple didn't
necessarily agree with, there was never a spirit of contention in the
room, the spirit of The Lord and a feeling of love and understanding
always was there. Through some discussion we were able to share the
full Restoration lesson. It was very powerful and they both said they
would read and pray. We are not quite sure, but for the first time ALL
week, we felt like we shouldn't invite them to baptism just then. It
was weird for both of us because we have made it a goal to invite
EVERYONE to baptism on the first lesson....and we have been
successful, but God knows best so we followed his instructions and
both of us walked out of there feeling like that families life was
about to change forever!! They even wanted us to come back, so we will
be seeing them next sunday and brining back one of those wonderful
members that she talked about! That is two new investigators right
there who sincerely just want to know the truth! :-) We are so
excited!

and finally for the THIRD MIRACLE of yesterday.....we had a lesson
that evening with Francis. We were able to take a cute older sister
with us that had actually taken Francis home from church. While we
were there to teach the Plan of Salvation the door bell rang. This
lady walked in and she looked really familiar....well come to find out
it was Joyce, this lady we had met a week ago on the street and had
taught her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was so
good to see her and she was able to join us for the Plan of Salvation
lesson. It was perfect! We were able to teach both of them and commit
both of them to come to church. At the end of our lesson Joyce said "I
am so glad that i caught ya'll here. I have been thinking about you."
She was really excited to bring her 16 year old daughter to church and
to come to know if this is where she wants/needs to be. It was
amazing! Miracles everywhere. We will be going to help her move into
her new place this weekend! WE LOVE BEING MISSIONARIES!! :-)

God just places people in your path that you are meant to touch. It is
incredible! I love being a missionary, can you tell how much I love
being a missionary!! I just love it! ;-) I know that God lives and He
loves us so much, even when we are struggling as I have throughout my
mission. I know that He continues to teach and guide and bless us as
we are ready for that guidance and direction. I am grateful for
learning to love and to serve. I am grateful for learning how powerful
it can be when your heart and mind are open to the endless
possibilities that are around us as we put our trust and faith in God.
I am grateful for learning to not be quick to judge, to be full of
charity and love towards all those around me....goodness it has made
me happier person. Life is so much better if you just love and serve
versus if you are selfish and critical!!

I know that my redeemer lives. I know that he loves me! I know that I
am where i am supposed to be. That has been confirmed over and over
again. I know that God is aware of all that we are going through and
is there to help us every single step of the way. I know that the Book
of Mormon is the word of God, just as surely as i know that the Bible
is the word of God. Because of this knowledge, I know that Joseph
Smith was the prophet of this dispensation. We live in the "fullness
of times" as it talks about in the Bible. I know that we do. We can
see the signs all around us, we just need to open our eyes to see it.
I am so grateful for the knowledge and understanding that the gospel
brings into my life, to bring peace to my heart in  a troubled world!
I know that we have a prophet and apostles that lead and guide
Christ's church today in righteousness. I have really come to know the
importance of daily scripture study and prayer. Those little dailly
things that we do to continue to strengthen our faith and keep us on
the right path. Faith has a short shelf life, we must keep it alive by
doing! I have yet to know a greater joy then I have felt when I have
served others.....service changes lives, from the person being served
to the person serving, and even the person (that you dont see
sometimes) who is watching. I know that people watch us....we are a
peculiar people. i know that service softens hearts. I know that as we
reach out and touch others as the Savior would do, we will help break
down those walls that will help others to see that the fullness of the
gospel has been restored! Life is so good. God is so good! I know that
he loves us and He definitely answers prayers! I know these things and
I share them in the name of JEsus Christ, Amen!

Have a wonderful week!

Love you
Sister Heckel