Hey Family!! :))

It was so good to see you all of you guys on Christmas!! It was the best Christmas present ever to see all of your beautiful faces!! You all have grown up so much!! I can’t believe it! Not the little kids I left in April! Amazing how time flies.

Our little Christmas tree

So since I am in a Latin area, my Christmas was different. In the Latin culture they celebrate "Christmas" on Christmas Eve. So Christmas Eve we had two food appointments. They were on different ends of the spectrum. The first was a really humble Christmas dinner. It was tamales and they were super good! It was a nice little family dinner with the elders. But since there wasn't a male in the house, the elders had to sit outside and eat. The family didn't have air conditioning, nothing but a small kitchen, living room and Christmas tree. It was still really fun. We laughed and sang Christmas songs in Spanish.

Home of our 1st dinner appt

Me and Sister Torralba at 1st appt

Elder's eating on porch since there were no males in the home

The next one was with a more wealthier family, with more traditional food. It was really fun and by the end we were stuffed!! So much food. But such a strong spirit as we got to get to know the members better. Loved it.

2nd dinner appt

Christmas day we got up early and opened presents, and then went to Ihop for breakfast. Afterwards, we came home and did our normal studies and then went out to work. We thought that during our knocking doors that we would have a lot of success since its Christmas and people are more "loving and centered around Christ". Well it was the exact opposite. People were angry with us and said "why are you just doing this on Christmas" and all this crazy nonsense. We basically spent an hour telling people our purpose and that we are on an 18 month mission and that we do this all day every day for that period of time. It was hard but as we struggled we remembered that it wasn't easy for the Savior so why should it be easy for us? It really helped us humble ourselves. And during that time we heard three gun shots. Yay for Christmas in the ghetto. Then we visited some members and then went to Skype you all!

Opening Gifts, cinnamon rolls!

Our necklace of Ft Lauderdale Temple

         

Our stockings matched!

I loved all the presents you sent! They were all just what I needed!! And yes I got the book and I love it so much!! Jeffery R Holland is the best! I have learned so much from his talks already! Thanks for all the hand sanitizer! I love them! Thanks for the cinnamon rolls! They were so good! That night we made them! So yummy

book by Jeffrey R Holland, my favorite!!

 Sister Torrabla likes running. She just started running on her mission so we go out and run every day. So happy! She is my first companion that likes to run! We run about 2 miles a day and then do abs. I have been trying super hard to stay in shape just in case I decide to run for Everett again or some other school.

  

  After Skyping I for sure thought that I would cry or be sad but actually, after I said goodbye, I felt so much peace. After Skyping, it reminded me of how happy I am being with my family  and how I want other families to feel as happy as I do. It was a motivator and a reminder of why I am here and what my purpose is. I want the people here to receive the blessings and happiness that comes from an eternal family. 

This week we got to teach Jenny and Juan Carlos, and their son Harold. This is a family the sisters before us had been teaching. They are a Cuban family and are atheist but have that desire and really want to believe in God. After meeting with them for the first time we just got to know them and just see what questions they had and if they remembered what they had been taught before. From the time we first entered and when we left they had a countenance change for sure. They were smiling and laughing and we know they felt the spirit but we tried to help them recognize it. They just kept denying it but we know they felt it. They did have a lot of questions about the plan of salvation so we left them with a reading assignment and had them pray. Then we left telling them when we came back the next day we would answer some of their questions. When we came back the next day, they were excited to see us. We knew that this lesson was going to be powerful! As we taught about the plan of salvation the spirit was so strong as we testified of families and of the temple and the happiness that they can feel. We could see in their eyes that wanted the same thing. They loved the lesson and felt the spirit. They were still a little iffy but they are starting to have more of a belief in God and we are going to try and take them to the temple. We love them so much and are so excited to continue teaching them! We also used the plan of salvation kit that dad sent me and it helped so much. So good! Visuals are the best so thank you!!

Sunday we had a miracle! It was one of those Sundays where no investigators showed up to church and we were sad but kept our hopes up. Just as Gospel Principles started, in walks Margarita from Peru. She is this little old lady who just moved here and is living with a member in our ward. She has been to church once a long time ago but has always been interested in our church and wanting to learn more. She loved sacrament meeting and the other classes a lot. She agrees with a lot of things we believe. We scheduled to go and see her Tuesday so we are excited about that because we have been struggling on finding people. So this was a big blessing!

We ran out of miles so we are on bikes for a couple days which is so much fun L ha-ha. Our area is huge so we have been biking about 30 miles or more a day. It’s fun though and is helping us get to know our area better and become better navigator’s haha.

Only in the hood would cars look like this

A funny thing happened the other night. We had an hour left before we needed to be home so we decide to knock some doors. We locked our bikes up on a stop sign and went and knocked doors. After we were done, we started walking back and saw a bunch of people around our bikes. We were like oh great! So we rush over there and ask the people what’s going on. They asked if those were our bikes and we said yes and they were like okay good! We asked what the problem was. They said a couple days ago, a lot of the neighborhood got robbed and the robber had parked his car right where we parked our bikes so they thought we were robbers. So they called the cops. Yup.  Shortly after our arrival, cops came and we had to show that, yes they were our bikes and then the cop said "people, robbers don't use bike locks" duh. It was a funny experience and the police left and the people said sorry and we returned home. Ghetto areas right

  

Like my ghetto rolling pin?

Making cinnamon rolls!!

   So excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this week! It is going to be great!! I love you all so much!!! Thanks for all your love and support. I miss you all like crazy!!! Thanks for all you do!! I hope your week is good!! :))

  

Hermana Heacock