Hey dad!! Guess who I got to see this week? We were on our way to church when the elders called and said someone was waiting for me a church. I was like what?!?! We got there and your former  missionary companion, Ian Bow, introduced himself and we took pics. It was such a great surprise!! :) He is so cool! He wants to take us out to eat but our president said no. He said it would be too distracting.

My dad's companion from his mission, Ian Bow, came to visit me!

1     What has been your biggest challenge this week?

So biggest challenge this week, hmmmm. This week was full of miracles, but it was probably getting the members to be excited and pumped to help us. Latin wards are a crazy bunch. For example on this past Sunday, we had an investigator at church and one member started just talking about garments. Yup, I had to cover our investigators ears. Ha-ha

Sunset in Florida!

2     What has been your biggest concern? 

My biggest concern this week was getting our new investigator baptized. I will tell you about the miracle in a sec, but our new investigator is named Julia and she has cancer and is starting chemo this week. She really wants to get baptized on the 14th but doesn't know if she will be physically able to. We have been praying and fasting like crazy that either she won’t need chemo or she will be physically able to get baptized.

3     What has been your biggest success? 

Our biggest success this week…… Well, where do I start?  The biggest miracle happened this week right after zone conference. We were all committed to baptize in the month of Miracle March. So after ZT, we were pumped and ready to go find people to baptize. We decided that we would go and knock in the neighborhood of one of our less actives but when we got to what we thought was her neighborhood, turns out it wasn't. So we decided to pray if this is where we needed to be or if we needed to go to the right neighborhood. After we prayed, we felt that we needed to go to the actual neighborhood of our less active. So we went and started knocking doors. We weren't having lots of success, but then we had a feeling that we needed to knock this one house. We knocked and this older lady in her 60’s named Julia opened the door. All we said was "hi, we are representatives of Jesus Christ." After that she said "come in, come in" So we went in and her son was sitting on the couch with no shirt on and tattoo on his chest. He is 100% Cuban yeah(he is a huge guy). We pray with them, and after the prayer, her son said "I am a member of your church." We were like "really?!" Yup, he is a member, just less active. Because his brother is a pastor at another church and told him to start coming to his church and not ours. His name is Jesus. We asked him “what is God telling you?” He said that he knew that God wanted him to go to our church. Then he shared his testimony which was amazing!!! He said I have been trying to get my mom to go to church and have her believe in God for years! We asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said yes. She said she could feel the spirit super strong and she knew that she needed to be a member of our church. So the next day we went back and taught her the restoration and it was so powerful! Afterwards, we asked her if she would pray and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and she did. After the prayer, she said "I know he is a prophet of God" The next day we took her and her son Jesus to the temple!! Temple was beautiful and so amazing. She and Jesus loved it! We taught her the plan of salvation on the temple grounds because she had a daughter that passed away. So spiritual. She is reading the Book of Mormon an hour a day and loves it. She doesn't have any word of wisdom issues. On Sunday she and Jesus came to church and Jesus brought a ton of his friends who now want to be taught and learn more. Seriously, best Sunday ever. My jaw dropped when all his friends came in. Jesus is such an amazing missionary! He is so amazing. Such a great miracle!! Julia is the best and we love her so much! So elect!

Our investigator's Julia and her son Jesus at the Fort Lauderdale Temple.

4     Who has been your favorite person this week?  Why?

My favorite person this week is Rachel Bartholomew. This week I got a letter unexpectedly with no name, only an address. I opened it up and it was from Rachel! I was so surprised and happy. At the very end of the letter she said "When you are feeling down, just remember that that-one-girl-who-you-used-to-babysit-believes in you." So cute! Something I needed to hear! Such a blessing! Made my whole week!! :)

5   What has been your most significant tender mercy?

My tender mercy this week would have to be Jesus bringing all his friends to church. Seriously, such a tender mercy. Best thing ever. Because we have the hardest time getting investigators at sacrament. 

6     What are you looking forward to this week?

I am looking forward to be able to keep teaching Julia!! Just finding more elect people to teach!!

7      Do you have a goal set for this coming week?

This week my goal is to be the best me! This past week while at zone conference in Fort Myers, we learned a lot about how to be our best selves. To work hard and get lost in the work and have fun. Love what we are doing! :) So that's what I am going to be working on :)

Just a little rain...

8      Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

The scripture that has helped me the most is Alma 17:11 It is about putting your trust in the Lord and how we will receive blessings if we do so :) So good!

Trio Power!

Some other exciting news is I am in a trio!! On Saturday we got a call. One of the missionaries is going home so one of the sisters that we live with got transferred up there to replace that missionary and the other sister is now with me and Sister Torralba for the next 3 weeks of the transfer. We are working in both areas! It’s going to be lots of fun! we all get along. The only thing is the other sister is an English missionary so we will gain a testimony of the gift of tongues this week, ha-ha.  But it has been lots of fun so far!! :)))

  Such an amazing week! Thanks so much for everything you all do!! I love you all so much and miss you!! I hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Heacock