My family!! 

Thanks so much for the birthday song!! Loved it!! I forgot that my birthday was coming up until just recently. I miss and love you guys!! So glad things are going good with moving. Sorry we have so much stuff. Grandma emailed me and said that I will love the house. I am excited to see it when we Skype! Which is up in the air because transfers are next week, so next week I won’t email until Tuesday. Since transfers are before Christmas, I don’t know when and where I will be Skyping. But I will let you know after transfers.

This past week was hard but every companionship has its ups and downs. It doesn’t even feel like winter here because it’s so warm. Since it’s so warm here people can spend hours putting up there Christmas light so they go crazy!! Christmas lights here are pretty awesome!!

So this week was a bit hard because I got super sick. I was out for 3 days. All I did was sleep cause I couldn’t move and our nurse wouldn’t let me go to the doctor because I didn’t have a high enough fever. I wanted to go so bad. I had a really bad sore throat, it was really red and swollen and it put pressure on my ear so it made me feel like I had an ear ache. I would have killed for an ear candle! It was annoying but it’s okay. I am better now and the members helped me so much. I had 4 different kinds of chicken noodle soup. so that was fun. Caught up on all my sleep ha-ha.

Other than that bump in the road we saw and had so many miracles this week! We got to take our recent convert to the temple! And the best part was that his 15 year old son came too! His son has always been afraid of us and wouldn’t ever come and join us for lessons so this was a shock! But we were so glad we got to meet him! He is a stud. He is super quiet and shy and won’t talk but still a cool kid. He and Frank loved the temple so much. We gave them a tour and then after went inside to the waiting room and sat there for a bit. Frank said he loved it and wished he could sleep there. His son loved it as well and said that he would think about baptism! Which is a big step!! It was beautiful and made me so happy! I can’t wait for Frank to be able to go and do baptisms! 

At the Fort Lauderdale Temple with Frank and his son

We also found a lot of great new investigators. One is named Barbie. She is a friend of a member in the ward who has been reading the Book of Mormon and had some questions and was very interested in the church. We went and taught her. She loved it and came to church on Sunday and felt the spirit so strong. Amongst our interesting testimony meeting the spirit still spoke to her and testified to her the truth of the gospel! We set a date for her for next week so we are super excited and are praying that she gets baptized. We love her so much. 

We also have been showing He Is the Gift, an awesome Christmas video from the church and it has helped us find lots of great people and has gotten the members excited to share this video with their friends. I love He is the Gift video. Every time I watch it, it makes me cry because it really puts into perspective the true and real meaning of Christmas and how He truly is the gift. I encourage you to use it. To show friends on the bus or where ever!!  I love my savior so much and don’t know what i would have done if our brother had not volunteered to come down and sacrifice his life for us.  He truly is the best gift ever. In the new Ensign magazine, I encourage you to read the story Fill the World with Christ’s Love. It is such a good story and so cute and really reminds you that it’s okay to have little for Christmas and the spirit of service.

Temple is so beautiful

 Inez is doing well. Her husband just found out that he has cancer so she has been dealing with that, but Heavenly Father will help her. Manny was going to come to church but he got really sick too. So many sickies ha-ha but that’s okay. Our faith is high and we will not let Satan win. We got this!

I love you all so much!! Sorry this is so short but since I was sick not much happened this week :( But that’s okay. This week will be a week of miracles!! :) I hope you all have a good week. Thanks for the birthday wishes!!  Happy birthday to you mom!!!! Love you. Can’t wait to see your faces!!! :) Pray for you always. Branden said that his dad has a truck and his dad would love to help with the move :) 

    Love,

 Your soon to be 20 year old daughter,
 Briaunna

My Dear Wonderful Family!!!

Thanksgiving was good here! We had two thanksgiving dinners. The first one was really good. The family who made it tried to make it as homey and traditional as possible. We had the turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and stuffing and green beans and pumpkin pie. It was really good! We are on bikes too which we thought would be a good idea, but it was the worst ever. By the time we got done with the first one we had 24 min to bike from one corner of our area to the next so we biked as fast as we could. When we got to our 2nd appt we were so sick. 

Thanksgiving Dinner #1

Thanksgiving Dinner #2

The second one was good. It was a mix of Cuban and traditional. So we had rice and beans and all that fun stuff but it was super nice. We ate so much food!! It was crazy but we loved it. The members are so nice here.

Today we went to the zoo again! It was lots of fun! Even a second time! The members are so nice to us and let us use there seasonal pass. 

Zoo Round 2

            Thanks for sharing that story about your companion Dad. I really liked it. Me and my comp are doing better. Not perfect but she is teaching me how to be humble and patient. All things I need to learn so I am grateful ha-ha. I love her though.  

What you think we do on thanksgiving......

...What we actually do on Thanksgiving

This week we were on bikes but we saw lots of miracles and found lots of cool people. We also had lots of adventures. Biking in Miami is crazy and even crazier at night. From getting chased by dogs to almost getting hit by cars, you know the usual ha-ha.  We found this really cute 70 year old woman from Honduras her name is Inez. We found her knocking doors. It was a really rainy day and we were on bikes and we hadn’t had much luck but we felt that we needed to try one more house. We knocked on her door and she opened it and invited us right in. We shared a prayer with her and she said she wanted us to come back so she could learn more about our church. We did and we taught her the restoration. After the lesson she said can I please have a Book of Mormon and so we gave her a BOM and she was so happy. She came to church on Sunday and loved it! We set her with a date for 2 weeks from now. She is so humble and has an amazing testimony and loves reading the Book of Mormon. She is excited to learn more about the gospel. Such a miracle!!

We also found this awesome family of four. After having to drop our family of 7 we were kind of sad but Heavenly Father blessed us. We were knocking doors and we saw this puppy and it came running up to us and was so cute.  Then the mom comes up calling his name and she said, “ sorry he usually doesn’t run away.” We said “well that must be a sign that God wanted us to share a special prayer with you.” So she invited us in and had her two sons join in the prayer. They are both in high school. She was really impressed and asked us questions about our mission and what is the difference between Catholics and Mormons. It was a good conversation and she said that she would come to church! We are excited to see her this week on Sunday.

Frank, who got baptized last week, got confirmed. It was such a powerful experience. He loved it. He was so excited to get the Holy Ghost. We are going to take him on a temple tour this week and help him prepare for the priesthood. He found out this week that he is getting kicked out of his house and he has no money so he might be homeless which is sad but he said that he is happy and has seen so many miracles after his baptism. He said he loves HIS church and knows that everything will be okay. Just an amazing positive man. Love him.

Franks Baptism!

 This week we got to see Manny finally!!! He says he wants to get baptized but hasn't gotten that answer yet. He says that he has been praying to see if he should join this church and just hasn't gotten an answer so we invited him to fast next week when he comes to church and we will fast with him. He liked that idea and is excited to test the power of the fast! We are excited for him. It has been a long process but God has his own timing and plan for his children. We know that he will receive an answer and he will get baptized. Every time we see him we just picture him and his family going to the temple and getting sealed together for eternity! I am excited for what Heavenly Father has in store for him. The gospel will really bless his life!!! We had lots of miracles this week with finding elect people and working together. Companion unity is a beautiful thing.

How we feel about riding bikes in the rain!

This week I have been thinking a lot about the sacrament and what it means and how I can make it a more spiritual experience. What I learned and realized was that the sacrament is the only ordinance that we take for ourselves more than one time. WE are only baptized for ourselves one time, we go to the temple for ourselves one time but the sacrament we take it every week for ourselves. As I was pondering on why we take the sacrament, I came to the conclusion that we take it so we can reconcile with God but most importantly so we can reconcile with each other. Our fellow men. In D and C 64:7-11 it talks about how God forgives who he wants to forgive but we must forgive everyone. The lord wants us to, in the words of the movie Frozen, to let it go. Whatever hate or anger or jealousy we have we need to let it go because we can’t take the sacrament with those bad feelings. We need to let those things go in order to have the most spiritual experience we can while taking the sacrament and so we can be focused on the Savior. Satan replaces righteousness with blame. It’s so easy to play the blame game but is it really worth it? Is it really worth is to blame people for things that don’t matter? We shouldn’t focus on who’s right and who’s wrong but on what’s right and what’s wrong. We must not let offenses justify our behavior. We must forgive. The sacrament is so powerful because I never really realized that it’s a chance to a new start to let things go with our fellow men. I hope that makes sense. It makes more sense in my head but this week as you take the sacrament remember to also take the time to forgive and to spiritually prepare in every way possible so that you can focus on the Savior and get the most out of the sacrament. 

 

My brother in the mission.

 In my personal study, I read Enduring Well, by Elder J Christopeher Lansing. I will attach the talk. It’s super good! It is about how we can endure trials in our lives. My favorite part out of the whole things was when the author quoted Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming" that’s it. it’s that simple, just keep swimming!! Something that is hard to do at times but if we just keeping swimming we will be blessed for enduring our trials well. A scripture that I found this week that I liked and gave me strength is in Alma 26:27. I found it after I read Enduring Well. Super good. Love it!! I learned a lot this week.

   They said that we should be getting mini iPad’s in February. So hopefully soon!! I love you all so much!! Thanks for everything! I can’t believe its December!!! Crazy how time flies!!! I hope you have a good week!!!

Hermana Heacock

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