Ty - AND HE'S OFF!

A large piece of my heart is on a plane on its way to Manila Philippines! He is going to be a great missionary and we are going to miss him so much, but we are so grateful for his willingness to serve the Lord and share his testimony of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the wonderful people of the Philippines! We couldn't be more proud! Go forth and serve Elder Heckel!! :-) 

Travis - Patience is a virtue!

Well I'm going to start off this week with updates. A lot has changed in the past few weeks. I know I have not written to many of you and I'm sorry I will do better in returning any emails sent to me(or letters). Anyhow I'm still booming and alive, transfers just occurred and The Elder Fa has been transferred up north, I have remained here in Loomis and have been called to train a new missionary. With this calling I have been released from district leader and now called as a tech missionary. So I have spent the first half of the week programming all the iPads for new missionaries with fellow tech missionaries (see picture below) and also receiving calls form many people fixing issues they face. And after completing I went and joined 21 veteran missionary's to receive the new missionaries(greenies as we call them). Oh what a crazy day that was, we where given minimal training on how to do it, met our new greenies. ---Mine is Elder Campbell btw(see picture below, he's from Meridian Idaho and he has quite the story. So he has epilepsy(seizures) and he went to the MTC in December, but on the day he was suppose to leave he had three seizures and they sent him home. They required that he be seizure free for 7 months before coming out again. So he waited and waited; until 7 months had last and is now out here! He's a very shy quirky guy who spent most if not all his life playing video games, he comes from a family who lived a sedimentary life style, and is kinda sheltered to a lot of the things of the world. But he has the drive and dream for missionary work and that's all I ask for. He does have a lot of work ahead of him in learning the skills needed to be able to be a good missionary but he will do it I know it.--- back to the letter, so after getting all our greenies the office elder took us late that night to our apartment where we got settled for the night. The next day was fun as we immediately went out doing service, then district meeting, then more service. After which we went and we taught two lessons to part meme be families. The excitement of that day was pretty good as we accomplished a lot within the short time we had to visit people. We spent a lot of the day also meeting members and introducing him to investigators so he can become familiar with them. The next few days where spent doing similar things except I took him tracting, we had an amazing discussion with many people, PLANTING SEEDS!! Haha finally I let him take the door and it happen to be a very angry bible bashing born again (he also claimed baptist??) he started ripping him a new one and I hopped in quick, oh how happy I would have been to showing the man how wrong he was in accusing us. But I remembered moms words...do you want to be right or at peace? Because you can't have both! So I calmly bore testimony and walked away with my companion. .....ha he was a little shaken up but we knocked a few more doors. Saturday was the one day that triggered a need for change. Missionaries in the past haven't done much work here and all the people we visited where eterna-gators (eternal investigator) so I talked with the ward mission leader and we are revamping our whole Ward plan and thinking outside the box, I'll update you more as things start to look up. But we did see two miracles that where're try awesome. One was during tracting we ran into a less active who let us in to get out of the heat for a moment, while we talked it turns out they haven't had contact with the church in a long time. They felt forgotten and abandoned. So we bore testimony and got a return appointment to go teach a lesson to them!! Super exciting. We also met a small family of four who just moved in, he's an engineer for the city of Roseville. Super outgoing guy and totally interested in hearing why the heck we are walking around in long sleeve shirts and dress slacks in the middle of the day. To quote him "either the message you have is totally insane and you guys are nuts or there is something important and it wouldn't hurt to hear". That is an answer to our prayers! Now why can't everyone be like that? This would be a whole lot easier. Also this time with the greenie has already opened my eyes to how scared and nervous I must have been coming out, fumbling with word and only commenting when absolutely necessary. I have a whole lot of sympathy for him and yes I am being very patient with him, I promised myself what ever companion I got I would do my best with no matter what. So I'm happy I have one with some greenie fire burning. The funny thing is to is sometimes the patience I have is more for him than me. I don't really feel rushed to get things done and sometimes the anxiety builds up for him to get the words out or to go somewhere. It is really a good way to help take a breath, wait a minute for him to do his thing and cheer him on. I'm following a lot of what Jenessa shared with me(my studies lately have been Christ like attributes), he's the greenie does feel he 'knows it all' and yes at first I tried to argue with him. But now I let hi do it to find out for himself. Ive let him learn through mess ups on his own and even for me it's painful not to stop him or try to take over. I look now at all a missionary is and I know I actually still have a long way to go and  it's only his 5th day in the field, he has time and so do I. I love you guys so much, I'm so thankful for all the support I have at home and out here in the mission field. Remember to live everyday like you won't get it back. It's a race and the clocks ticking, so work hard and enjoy your time. Also I believe I'm never eating ice cream again. Being gluten free no one can think of any other desserts. Desserts are turning me into a bowling ball !! Hahahaha love you all; have a fun summer it's almost over for the twerps! Ty's going soon too!!!! 

-Elder Heckel (the first son out) 

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

Travis - Happy Year Mark

A note for the times, 

      Hello everybody what a fabulous week this has been, so much has gone on this whole week it's been a blast! We have been out on our bikes most this week visiting people and members out on the edges of our area. The area for this Ward isn't more than a 20 minute bike ride form end to end...if there was no hills, but due to the hills it takes 3x as long to get to places and sometimes leaves us drenched in sweat, but it becomes the greatest blessings because people (mostly less actives and non members) see us and feel sorry and are willing to let us in form the heat. It gives us the greatest excuse to meet with them and learn about them. We have almost done a 180 in our teaching pool in pushing out old and bringing in the new. We are now teaching more less active and part member families. One family the McCalls super awesome, he wife is a in active member and the husbands a non member with the kids. So he was introduced to scouting in which he became a pack leader, and now he enjoys spending time coming and playing sports, hearing spiritual thoughts we share and just being around 'the great Mormon people' we haven't progressed to lesson but no doubt it will happen. We are also teaching another part member family, he survived a serious bike accident and she is a inactive member. They haven't really had any 'wanted' contact with the church until Elder Fa arrived, they opened their doors wife and after several weeks of us working hard they are finally willing to hear the lessons for themselves. What a miracle it is! Another one is a women who has been through quite a few hardships, her life would it an all time high and then plummet. She married a non Keene and stopped coming to church a few years ago and doesn't really accept any visits from members. Well we caught her one day working out with some of her horses she owns. And after a little bit of talking she invited us to sit down and she shared her life story. As she shared these intense experiences she bore strong testimony of the gospel. She shared her love and emotion to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, she reads the scriptures, prays always and keeps the laws of God. A full blooded Mormon still accept she feels throughout her life a real abandonment from the church in her greatest times of need and has no desire right now to go back to Church. But she feels of our spirit and is glad we came and is more than hey to listen to the lessons we have to share again. We are so excites for this progresos since we have not been able to contact her since I arrived 3 months ago......this truly has been an intense time I'm so grateful for the chance I have to spend her with elder Fa in teaching people and learning from him. This truly has been a humbling and fruitful experience so far, these are a few miracles we had this week.  

     Oh I almost forgot, my companion says thank you for sending him a package for reaching his one year! Hahahaha(see picture below) us thank you mother although I cannot it eat it it does stir wonderful memories of home. I'm happy for the gift though! I hope you all are having a great time, I love my chance I have to be here on a mission especially hitting my year mark I notice one thing first. I'm still out!!!! I've hit half way point and couldn't believe it, so I followed many traditions including reading all the old letters I received from home . It is amazing to read all the support I had received and I am so thankful for all the support I have received. I loved every letter I received and it causes my soul to swell with joy not only at how helpful you have all been. But how each of you have frown and changed. I'm truly blessed to have a family that's still close together that's still has a core belief and unity in the gospel. I'm glad I have a mixture of both brothers and sisters who kept me in line but also did crazy stuff with me. You know.........I came to realize two things. One thing is not everyone is going to like you, no matter what someone is just going to dislike you even if they 'should' like you. It's very hard for me to accept that and is a big struggle I had out here, but now realizing that I won't treat them any differently I will still give them the same love that the lord would give me or them. Second thing I realize is to cherish those who do love you who accept you for who you are and not what you have or do. It truly is a blessing especially in trying times like these to have the many angels, heroes, and warriors all around me (and at home) who are fighting the fierce battles of life and lean upon one another for support. Oh my sons remember remember that it is upon the rock of our redeemer who is Christ, the son of God that he must build your foundation. That when the devil shall send for his mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirl wind, yea when all his hail and mighty storms shall beat upon you. That they will have no power over you to drag you down into the gulf of misery and endless whoa, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. -Hellman 5:12 so true is this scripture and the next one I memorized. I'm sorry for being a slacker. I will send out individual letters in the coming week. I hope you all had a good time friends and family I bid thee adu. 

P.s. Bottom picture is the valley of loomis hahahaha

Elder Heckel

Ty -- Temple Day!

We had the wonderful opportunity of going through the Temple with Ty, making it 4 out of the 6 children! It was such a beautiful day at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple..... It was an incredible experience. We, and Ty, are getting so excited for him to serve as a Missionary in the Philippines in just over a month now!

Its sometimes hard to believe that our children are already at missionary age, and some have already returned from serving. Now we only have 2 more left to go. 

Travis - He's Been There Before (By Elder Whittle)

He's Been There Before by Elder Whittle

The alarm bell rings at 6:30, I stumble to my feet
I grab my companions bedding and pull off his sheets

A groan fills the room, is it already time to arise?
It seems like just a second ago, I was able to shut my eyes
The morning activities follow- study, prayer and such
When it's time to leave the apartment, you feel you haven't accomplished much

"We have a super day planned,"
My comp. says with a grin
I lowly utter a faithless breath,
"Yeah, if anyone lets us in."

With the word of God and my faithful Schwinn, we ride off in the street
prepared to Face another day of humidity and heat
It's 9:30 in the evening, the day is almost through
My companion and I are riding home not accomplishing what we thought to do

We ride up to the mailbox, hoping to receive a lot
Only to look inside and hear my echo reverberate "air Box"
We go up to our apartment, the day is now complete
The only thing to show for our work is a case of blistery feet

It's past 10:30 p.m. My companion is fast asleep,
Silence engulfs me all about and I begin to weep
In the midst of sadness, I kneel down to pray
I need to talk to Father, but I'm not sure what to say

"Oh, Father" I begin, "What happened to us today?
I thought we'd teach somebody, but everyone was away
My hands, my aching hands- worn, hurt and beat;
If our area was any smaller, we'd have knocked every street"

"Why on missions are the days so much alike?
The only difference about today was the flat tire on my bike
Will you send some cooler weather? The heat is killing me
I sweat so bad, it gets in my eyes, it's very hard to see"

"Why do I have to wear a helmet, isn't your protection enough?
People always laugh at me, and call me stupid stuff
Please send us investigators so I may give them what they lack
I want to give them Books of Mormon, the weight of them hurts my back"

"And what about my family: They don't have much to say
I'm sick of not hearing from home day after day after day
Oh Father, Why am I here am I just wasting time?
Sometimes I just want to go home, I'm sorry but that's on my mind"

"My companion, Heavenly Father, what are you giving me?"
The way he rides his bicycle, I don't think he can see
Now you have it, I can't go on, I don't know what to do
That, my Father in Heaven, is the prayer I have for you"

My prayer now finished, I stand up, then jump right into bed
I need my rest for tomorrow, we have another long day ahead
Sleep starts to overtake me, I seem to drift away
Then it seems a vision takes me to another time in another day

I'm standing alone on the hill. The view is very nice
A man walks to wards me and says, "My name is Jesus Christ"
Tears of joy well up inside, I fall down to His feet
"Arise," He states, "Follow me to the shade. You and I need to speak"

My attention's towards my Savior, total and complete
He says, "Your mission is similar of what happened to me
I understand how you feel, I know what you're going through
In fact, it would be fair to say I've felt the same as you"

"I even know how you felt when no one listened to you
At times I felt not quite sure what else I could do
I know you don't like to ride a bicycle, for you a car would be sweet
Just remember the donkey I rode wasn't equipped with 21 speeds"

"I understand you don't like sweating, in fact it's something you hate
I remember when I sweat blood from ev’ry pore, oh the agony was great!
I see you don't like your companion- you'd rather have someone else-
I once had a companion named Judas who sold my life for wealth"

"It's hard to wear a helmet and have people make fun of you
I remember when they put thorns on my head and called me King of the Jews
So you feel burdened down by the weight of your pack
I recall how heavy the cross was when they slammed it on my back"

"Your hands hurt from tracting and knocking on doors all day
I guess when they pounded nails into mine, I ached in a similar way
It's hard not to hear from home when your family's not there to see
I lost communication on the cross and cried, "Father, why hast Thou
forsaken me?"

"We have a lot in common, but there's a difference between us you see
I endured to the end and finished my mission, so follow and do like me"
He embraced me with His arms and His light filled me with His love
With tears in my eyes I watched as He went back to the Father above

I stood with awe and wonder when a beep rang in my head
I listened and heard the alarm, then realized I was in my bed
My companion let out a groan, "6:30 already, no way!"
I sat up and said, "Come on, I'll even carry your scriptures today!"

No matter what we go through,
When we feel we can't take more
Just stop and think about Jesus Christ,
He's been there before

I leave my testimony that God knows each and everyone of us. He knows where we are, where we have been and where we are going. We must have the faith to put our lives into his hands. I love you all and hope your having an awesome time.

Elder Heckel

Travis - Another week!!!

Hi! 

Well this feels odd writing at this time. But hey our preparation day has been switched from mo day to Wednesday this week because a member from the quorum of the seventh came and spoke at area during our normal preparation day time. It was Elder Larry S. Katcher, yes the same one that was in our Ward (midway 2nd) and stake as a high councilor for like 5 years. It was cool how he pointed that out to me, he loves midway and truly misses it, but now he will be off to Russia this year to serve as an area seventy. Anyway as during this time he was going to teach us about increasing our skills in teaching as missionaries. He had originally taught the other two areas the lesson. But he felt a different impression here, both he and his wife. Instead they stood up and he spoke about our purpose as missionaries, why we would even want to be out here and what's stopping us from becoming our best. He then asked for anyone to have the courage to stand up and boldly declare a struggle they may have to be obedient and ,Abe what they can do to be come better. Most the missionaries looked dumb founded at this wondering what missionary would want to get up and share how they are disobedient. After several minutes one girl finally stood up and spoke about how hard she of a time she had arising in the morning and how she could be better than that. And like a flame amongst fire works. Left and right people stood up talking about all different kinds of things, from talking about waking up all the way to wasting time and going to places they shouldn't. It was a mini and VERY spiritual moment for everyone to finally come forward with what's been stopping them. The majority to talked on similar subject, about being with a companion. I stood up and bore straight testimony to how hard it has been for me all my mission to learn to work with different and unique people and not just companions, but also Ward members and investigators. Our 3 zones that where gathered together had a common issue of not having faith in one another. Most have difficulties learning to get along with a companion, to solve issues and talk them out. Learning to work with different ideas and love them. Learning to look for the best in them and not doing your way or my way but or tear doing our way. In essence everyone really was touched to a realization that we can all improve, we all need the atonement in our lives even as missionaries we aren't exempt. The atonement to me represents change and love. Not only for god and Jesus Christ love in Doing this divine work. But carrying it out in a way that requires us to grow, stretch and become better people. To become essentially like Christ! To become the man or women God sees us becoming. For it is this time we prepare not neutral to pass a test here on earth but for how life will be with our Heavenly Father after.  Elder Katcher talked a little more on mindsets then we finished off with a testimony meeting that was killer. Overall a phenomenal day, also the work here is picking up Lara is returning with her son from vacation and we plan already to teach the first half of the lesson again but this time helping her to recognize why she needs it. Her spirit is truly open and ready for the gospel at this time. So exciting! We also have the little Japanese lady fusae returning, she is having so much fun learning of God and Jesus Christ. She exclaims almost every time how she had always heard people say he was effect but didn't really understand it until she saw the way he lived his life.  Well we also picked up another less active who has had quite the interesting background with the church, needless to say she has had her struggles and has been in and out of the church with her brother. And now me and elder Fa we feel can change her life for the better. She truly has ended to us with her concerns and her insecurities that lead to earlier problems. So we shared the story of alma the younger and the video "look not behind thee" we bore testimony to how we all experience a "wild point" in our lives. And yet we can learn like alma from these mistakes, fix them and forget it. She ended up crying before we where even half way done, she talked about how hard it is to give up grudges and to let go. But we promised her through the atonement of Christ she can over come it. But it requires learning how to enact that power and be worthy of it. So she promised to come to church again ;)  this is just a few of the highlights of the week. I hope you are all enjoying your summer, we have such a short amount of time here on the earth and with that we don't want to waste it being sad do we? I know tat the gospel is spreading across this earth as we speak. It is reaching to every corner of the earth. I'm glad to be here at this time, I still have a lot of time to go: "for I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep" 

Love you all!

Elder Heckel