My first week at the Mexico Missionary Training Center (MTC)

Hola!! 

     I miss you guys so much!  The days go by slow but the weeks go by fast. I am learning so much! I just love my companion Sister Batemen. We get along so well and have become fast friends. I love my district, they are sooo awesome and my zone is pretty sweet!! We all just connect so well! The second day was all orientation, class and eating. It really is eat, class, eat, class and eat some more.  I've lost 10 pounds already because I am only limited to 3 meals a day no snacking or junk food:(

      The MTC is soo big. It's 91 acres so we get a lot of walking time. It's so beautiful here and the weather is amazing! We do have random storms that are crazy with lots of thunder and lighting but I love it because it reminds me of home. Yeah, we felt the earthquake. We got the after shock of it and it lasted for like 5 minutes but it wasn't that bad. We didn't know how big it was until a couple days ago. The world could be on fire and we wouldn't even know it ha-ha! 

     The Spanish is coming along great! It's hard but I can already pray in Spanish and bare my testimony and have a very small conversation. It's amazing how fast you learn the language! We have been teaching an investigator and at first it was really hard and my companion and I were flustered and quickly forgot everything we learned. As we went on it got better and I knew that what I was teaching was right. After that the lessons got soo much better. One lesson I forgot my notes and I started freaking out! So, I said a prayer and all of a sudden everything I had studied came to my remembrance. I was able to speak in broken Spanish ha-ha and understand him. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong!! Yesterday he committed to baptism and it was the most amazing thing ever! I love teaching. It is really hard and they talk fast but I can understand them for the most part. Sometimes its a game of charades ha-ha!
  

     The food here is very Mexican. Every Tuesday we get Costco pizza which is amazing and the other day we had hamburgers and I scarfed down two. I miss American food but Mexican is good. Okay, so the milk here is soooo good! It's kinda sweet and ice cold. I don't think I will be able to drink our milk again I have like 3 glasses every meal. And guess what they have Nutella!!!!! I have Nutella on toast everyday ha-ha! 

     Easter was good we had a lot of really good devotionals. I kept wondering what you guys were doing all day. I am so glad that I am serving, this is so amazing. A mission is the foundation for your life, it is really true. I love being a representative of Christ. Our life is a calling and our calling is to return to him :) 

     Oh, I almost forgot, I got a package this week from one of my friends Dillon Stratton! We only accept packages from  mydearmissionary.com. He sent me a dozen Krispy Kremes and it was amazing!!! Everyone was jealous, it made me happy. Yesterday I sprained my thumb pretty bad playing volleyball and it swelled up like a balloon it was fun, not! It's okay now though. Don't worry I am doing great and cannot wait to hear back from you next week!

Love you!! Hermana Heacock

Sister Dunn, I met her at the Phoenix Airport.  We are in the shuttle to the MTC.

 My MTC companion Hermana Bateman

A good friend sent me Krispy Kremes! Thanks Dillon!!

Our first email from Briaunna in the mission field!!

Hola Family,

Well I made it! YAY! My flight to Arizona went very smooth and wonderful! I tried to sleep but that didn't really happen. I sat next to these two nice ladies and we got into a conversation about church. That was really fun! It didn't go to far but I loved having the chance to share the gospel. One of the ladies I sat next to had been to Mexico City before so she was able to tell me how everything was going to go and where I needed to go. I cannot tell you how much peace that brought be because I was a little nervous. 

As I got to Arizona and found my gate, which seemed like a 5 mile walk, I found myself alone. I was kinda sad because I guess I expected to see more missionaries, but let me tell you its amazing how the Lord works. I had been sitting there for like 2 hours, (I landed in Arizona around 7:45) and it was 20 min till I was supposed to board my flight. I was discouraged that I would have to do it alone but as I was thinking about flying to Mexico by myself, I had a feeling like I needed to go walk around. So I started and just as I walked into the busy aisle way there walking towards me was another sister missionary who had just said good bye to her family and would be joining me on my flight. She was so relieved to see me. Her name is sister Dunn and we clicked right away. Its like we knew each other for forever. It was really cool! Soon after that, 2 elders joined us and so did 3 other sister missionaries. It was so awesome to see all there happy faces and feel there spirit. 

The flight to Mexico City was a bit scary. I was all the way in the back and the turbulence was bad. We had to drop a couple times which was scary but primary songs got me through. On this flight too I had a really nice lady who helped me fill out my forms because some where in Spanish. I was also able to share with her about what I was going to be doing. Its so awesome to already be having missionary experiences. I feel truly blessed. 

We landed in Mexico City good and got all our baggage and did all our customs. It was so different already. It was humid and I began to sweat the moment we went into the airport. After we got our bags we met the rest of the missionaries there. There was a lot of us! And there was one who was going to the same mission as me! We even got our calls on the same day! She will be accompanying me to Florida. After we boarded our bus it immediately started raining. It felt like home! Then it started hailing the size of golf balls! It was crazy. Mexico is just so different and poor it was sad seeing all the shacks on our way over. 

The MTC is beautiful and I love it and I love my companion Sister Bateman. My P-day will be next Thursday so I will send pictures then. Also you will be happy to hear that I can Skype on mothers day for 25 minutes!!!! I was so happy. I love and miss you all so much but I am so excited to serve the Lord! Oh and it's crazy they start speaking Spanish to you the minute you get off the plane so I should learn fast. Well I will talk to you soon.

 Love,

 Hermana Heacock :)

On April 13th (just a couple of days before she left) we had a really fun open house for Briaunna.

A lot of friends and family came to see Briaunna and sent her off with a hug and support

 

We got a great four generation picture!

Great Grandma Hale served a mission when she was Briaunna's age!

We had good Floribbean Cuisine (that's a real term)

Cuban beans and rice, Hearts of palm salad, chips and Aunt Janae's artichoke dip.

Mike made mini churro cheesecakes and Grandma made lime bite cookies.

We washed it all down with Aunt Janae's orange guava sherbert punch!

 

When we got home, the Young Women in our ward had heart-attacked Briaunna.

Wonderful words of love and support!

We went to Flower World in Maltby to take some missionary photos.  Flower World was really great about letting us wander around their beautiful nursery grounds and snap pics of Briaunna!