My Dear Family!!!

            I am so glad that you found a house!! I have spent a lot of long nights praying that everything would go smoothly and that you guys would be able to find a house so now I can be a little more at peace :) It’s really weird to think that I won’t be in the same home and that I will be in a different ward, but it’s exciting. We haven't moved since Eben was little!! It will be a good change.

So this week was very exciting and miracle week! I learned a lot about being selfless. Me and my comp are doing a lot better as I have tried to forget my pride. She really is amazing and i love her to death. Just have to always smile and stay upbeat!

This week we as a mission had a specialized training. It was super good about how we need to have love, unity, charity and obedience. It was really powerful and helped all of us refocus and remember why we are here and who we represent! But the best part was at the end when pres. said he had a surprise for us. And the surprise was........MEET THE MORMONS!! We got to watch it finally!! Oh my goodness it is amazing!! I was doing so well until the end when it talked about the missionary mom. Then me and my comp both lost it and started crying. We were like the only ones who cried. It just reminded me so much of you mom and made me miss home a bit.

 There was a quote I heard on Sunday and it said, “God couldn’t be everywhere so he gave us mothers.”  That is very true!! :) 

 Me and my comp worked really hard with Frank this week and he was baptized on Sunday!! Baptism week!!! It was such an amazing experience. He is so humble and amazing and i love him! It’s the most rewarding thing to see someone who has worked so hard and has had so many trials and burdens to come up out of the water smiling and a changed person. A clean person. :) He was beaming from ear to ear. Although it wasn't the smoothest ride getting everything ready. Before the elders in our district, who share the building with us, had a baptism too so we told them don't drain the font. What do they do? They drain the font because they are elders. So we had an hour till the baptism so we race into the gym where the font is and where elder’s quorum is being held and go into the font. It’s half full and we have to get the plug in so we go wading in the font in our dresses and try to put the plug in and it doesn’t work because its super ghetto. We try and swim around in the font for like 30 min trying to get this thing to plug. Finally our zone leaders come to the rescue and spend 15 min trying to figure it out until finally we plug it. It took 45 minutes to do all that plus we still had a billion of things. But a good baptism always has a little stress. In the end i wouldn’t have had it any other way and yeah we got to go swimming ;) Just kidding. Don’t worry about Frank’s son. His son is always in his room when he comes. He is shy and doesn’t have ADHD as bad as Isaac. 

We tried to set a date for baptism for Mathew on the 30th but its super hard because he doesn't have the support of his family. He knows and wants to be baptized. He just doesn’t want to come to church which is hard. So we might have to drop him. We are going to try and meet with his family and talk to them about church and baptism for Mathew. 

Michael did come to church again!! He is doing super well! We love him!! The family we have been teaching has been good. It has been slow because they are so busy and only really able to meet on the weekends. They are super awesome and elect.We just have to be able to teach them. Karl isn’t really progressing anymore which is sad :(( We are probably going to meet with him this week and have a drop talk. The word of wisdom is holding him back. It’s always hard to drop people but we planted seeds so hopefully in the future we can go again when he is more ready and teach him again.

We got a new investigator this week. Inez. She is this super cute old lady of about 60 and she came to church and stayed for gospel principles. She wants to know and learn more but she accepted a date for the 30th so we are so excited to teach and help her. She is so cute and so smart!! She caught onto everything really fast!! 

We are just focusing on finding and re filling our teaching pool :) This week was a growing week but I learned that my Heavenly Father is always there. This week I asked the bishop for a blessing because it was the closest thing I had to a fathers blessing and it gave me such comfort and peace to know that he doesn't give us anything we can’t handle.

I have reading a lot about Alma and Amulek this week in my scripture study and how amazing they are. They had to go through trials and tribulations and suffering before they were able to break free from the jail. It’s all about enduring to the end. Alma and Amulek were amazing missionaries. They are amazing examples of love, obedience, and charity. They are definitely my heroes. And they are also good examples of how well they worked together as a companionship. They taught powerfully together and always testified of each other. Super powerful!! Made me so happy and gave me strength :) 

Thanks so much for the quotes and for the story about Nephi's bow!! super powerful!!  Thanks for all you do!! I miss you all so much!! Not much longer till we get to Skype and I can see all your wonderful faces!!! Pray that I don't get fat on Thanksgiving!! I am so thankful for you all and this opportunity I have to serve the Lord! I am so thankful for all the blessings we have received as a family and I know more will come as well!!

   Hope you have a good week!!!! Always praying for you!!! :)))))) love you!!!! 

     Hermana Heacock

Dear Family!!!

            All I can say I am in complete shock and may or may not have shed a few tears. But like you said us Heacock’s always reach the end of the tunnel. I can’t believe that!! I am so sad you guys have to move and all that and I wish I was there! I am so sorry but don't worry I will pray for you I am so surprised!! But remember to smile and know that Heavenly Father loves you guys and has a plan. Maybe this move was meant to be.

So unlike you guys, I did not get transferred.....

So this is the story on transfer day. I packed all my stuff and said my goodbyes the day before and we left to transfer meeting. As they were calling out who was going where and with what companion, where they should have called my name, they called Sister Burdett’s name. Yeah. Apparently there was a mix up. Sister Burdett was supposed to be transferred and I was supposed to stay. So here we are with all of my stuff and she doesn't have any of hers and she is going to a new area with a new companion. She didn't get to say goodbye to anyone. Here I was staying and getting a new comp. So after transfer meeting we had to rush back to our house. She had to pack everything in an hour and leave. It was a crazy transfer day. But I am still here in Kendall.

I do have a new companion though. Her name is Sister Smith and she is from South Dakota. She has been out 6 months but is a bit older than me and likes me to know it. I love her to death but she is a bit more difficult. This will be a spiritual transfer for sure as I keep working on patience. I won’t say much because I don't want to be a downer but just pray for me too okay. I keep telling myself I can do hard things with a smile.

 A couple weeks ago I broke up with Branden. We are on a "break". We are still friends. I broke up with him because I realized that I needed to give everything to the Lord. It’s important that we give Him our whole hearts for the time that we serve and my goal is to find a family who needs the gospel. We would love to find a family, teach them, and baptize them so they can eventually go to the temple together.  I prayed, fasted and received a priesthood blessing asking for guidance because I was scared to tell Branden that I was going to break up with him. But I felt like it’s what I needed to do. I made a promise with Heavenly father that if I broke up with Branden and gave everything to him, that he would lead me to a family who was ready to be baptized and that wanted to go to the temple. I broke up with him 2 weeks ago and the most amazing thing happened this week! On Monday, I found that family. Me and my old comp on Monday were tracting and it was at night right before we had to go home, and we had 5 min left. So we thought we should head back to the car and go home. But we both felt impressed that we needed to knock one more door so we went to a house right in front of us that had its light on.  We knocked and the mom came out and we told her that we were missionaries sent by God to her house to share a prayer with her. She said that was beautiful. Then her husband comes out and when he finds out what church we belong too he got all excited because he loves Mitt Romney.  He started asking us questions about our mission and where we were from.  When we told him that we leave our families for 18 months to 2  years and serve the Lord, he thought that was just amazing and he said “I have a couple of sons I want you to meet and explain to them what you do”.  They invited us inside. Turns out they have 5 kids, so it’s a family of 7. He brings his sons over and we tell them what we do, what we believe and they just loved it!! They have 4 boys and a girl. The oldest is 23 and the youngest is 13 and is a baseball fanatic. We taught them 3 lessons that night and prayed with them. As I said the prayer for them it was the most powerful prayer I have ever experienced! I could feel the spirit working through me and telling me what to say. When I opened my eyes after I ended the prayer, the whole family was crying. They said I don't know how you did it but everything that you said about each of us and what you blessed each of us, with is exactly what we needed. It was amazing! We are teaching them and they hopefully will be getting baptized on the 30th. Such an a amazing experience!!

  

Mathew came to church on Sunday which was the best!! He really liked it. We were super happy now we just have to get his whole family to come!!

This guy named Frank that we have been teaching off and on finally showed a lot of interest this week and came to church on Sunday!! He is older and just came from Puerto Rico 3 months ago because he wife was murdered. He has a son who is ADHD and is crazy because he cannot afford medicine for him because he doesn't have ObamaCare. He had a stroke not too long ago so half of his body is impaired. He is renting form this guy and doesn't have much money at all. His son just got expelled from school and he lives off food stamps. But he is the most humble guy I have ever met. So sweet and amazing and loves his son and wants to give him a better life.  He came to church because he has been searching for peace and happiness. After sacrament meeting, we asked him how he liked it and if he found that peace and happiness he had been looking for. He said yes so we invited him to be baptized on the 30th and he said yes. We are so excited! We love him so much and cannot wait for him to receive the blessings of the restored gospel! He is truly amazing!!

Karl came to church too and is still progressing. We see him every Thursday. He is amazing just needs that testimony of the Book of Mormon.

That was my week. Just getting re settled and finding new people. We did find this new guy this week. Wayne. We found him riding bikes and decided to go and talk to him. He is super cool and really excited to learn more about our church. We went and taught him the restoration this week in Spanish. It was our first Spanish lesson in a long time since our area is pretty much all English so it was a little hard but he still felt the spirit and he is reading the Book of Mormon.

           

This morning I was reading in Alma 1 and I came across 24-25 and I really loved these verses because I have been kind of struggling this week with my new comp and these helped me so much! It showed me that even though I am going through hard things I still need to wax strong and keep the commandments and have faith and that I need to have patience. I encourage you guys to read it as a family! Its super good. Two short powerful verses.

    

I love you all so much!! I know we are going through hard times but the Lord will provide. He never leaves his children.  Remember to smile and count your blessings!! :) Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Heacock

Family!! Suprise!!

   

Thanks so much for the Halloween package. I cannot believe dad and Kerragyn put it together. I loved the mummy!! And the white chocolate M&Ms!! It is about time they had white chocolate!! Everyone here thinks I am weird because I am not a fan of chocolate M&M's. Whatever. Made me so happy!! :) 

 

Thought you had to wait one more day huh?!? Well your day can be less long now because I am here!! No need for an applause. Transfers is a day earlier just because President has a meeting with the Area Seventy when transfers would be so yay!! 

            Transfer calls were last night!! And guess what!?! I am getting transferred!! It was a big surprise because we thought for sure me and Sister Burdett would stay with each other one more but I guess the lord has other plans.  I am sad but excited for a new adventure!! I have to say I have gotten so good at packing! Last night after I found out, I started packing right away and I am half way done!

So this week was a week of patience. We taught Mathew and I am so glad for the lesson helps that dad sent! They were awesome! Mathew and his sister really liked them and learned a lot. We read the Book of Mormon with them and after reading, Mathew said he wanted the Holy Ghost. It was so cute. He has been praying every day and we have been keeping a prayer chart for him and his sister Amanda. He makes sure he has his parents remind him to pray every night. We are still trying to teach the whole family, but baby steps. Mathew was supposed to come to church this week but didn’t :(  It was sad. He wants to go so bad but his family says they will bring him but don’t. We are praying for them super hard. 

We dropped Christina this week. It was sad :( It’s always sad to drop an investigator but she isn't  progressing and doesn't want to come to church. So we need to move on :(( We love her but we need to use our time to find people who want to come to church and get baptized. 

            But we also found this week, this amazing and unusual guy named John Thomas Cobo. We found him harvesting and he is super awesome and spiritual. We spent 45 min talking to him. He gave us a bunch of life lessons. My mind was blown! His wife died in a car accident two years ago, and he talked about how we need to have faith and faith is like sitting in chair knowing to wont break! And he taught us how to be meek. We need to tame our wild stallions which are pride and ego. Once we tame these we will be meek. It was pretty intense stuff. At the end he gave us each $20 for lunch!

This week was a week of miracle money. We got $120 dollars from members and a random lady who gave us $40 at a restaurant because we were representatives of Jesus Christ. It was crazy.

We went and taught Karl too. It was a good lesson. He says he has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and loves it. He says he is progressing slowly but surely. He came to church which was super cool!

We didn’t find anyone new but that’s okay. We had an awesome comp study this week on patience.  I just wanted to share a few things I learned from it. Patience is to endure in things with righteousness. In Preach My Gospel, pg 120, Mosiah 28:1-19 and Alma 17:10-11 it talks about how we need to be patient and long suffering and good examples. Alma 26:27 talks about how as long as we are patient he will give us success. In order to be patient you need to have trials. Tribulations brings patience and patience brings faith and hope. If you don’t have patience during trials, Satan wins. Patience is doing and accepting the lords will.  How do we create success? We need to have a good attitude. A good attitude works with people not through people. Don’t focus on all your failures. Focus on all the good. Become the creator of circumstance not a creature of circumstance. We sow what we reap. It’s up to you whether things are positive of negative. Think baptism and you will baptize. We decide. Whatever your mind conceives, you will achieve

  Super good! Patience is totally key here. We were tested but we grew so much too. Excited for what’s to come this transfer!! :) I learned so much and I just love the people here and the culture. Every day I am so grateful I got sent here and not where I wanted to go.

    I love you all so much!! Thanks for everything!! I miss you guys soooo much!!! I hope you have a good week!! :))) keep smiling and having fun!!! :)))))

   Hermana Heacock  

The glorious Miami Zone, in all it's splendor. Plus two of our APs.

A self-constructed vehicle made for hunting deer in the Everglades. Cubans go hard when it comes to deer-hunting.I could use this next time I go hunting!