Hola Mi Familia!

I am feeling a lot better!! But my companion got sick this past week so guess what I did on my birthday!? I was inside all day while she slept. ha-ha. Crazy but it was good. I was able to get lots done and now she is feeling better too :) And next time I will go to the doctors. My birthday was good! Since transfers was so close they just hold all the mail till then. I didn’t get my birthday and Christmas packages but I will tomorrow!! :) Thank you!! The sisters who live with us were awesome and decorated the house for my birthday. The elders came and ding dong ditched the house and left me cards so it was good :)) It still feels weird to say that I am 20. I still feel like a little girl ha-ha.

Keeping sick companion company on my birthday

​Last night of being 19 had a slumber party in the living room!

My Birthday!

Twins

So before I get into anything else, we got our transfer calls last night and drumroll please................I am TRANSFERRING!! And this time it’s for sure. I am excited to go to a new area and have new experiences! I will miss Sister Smith so much. This past week has been a lot better. We have been open and have worked things out and now we are both happy :) I have learned a lot from her this transfer on how to be bold and she has helped me with my Spanish as well. It’s been a blessing even if it was difficult. It was inspired and I am grateful but I am excite from something new. :) This time I packed in record time!! I am already done! I am getting really good! 

       

This past week we had our mission Christmas party and it was so much fun! All the dying missionaries (going home) gave there testimonies, we had a spiritual thought, then we ate food. Amazing Christmas food. Then we did our skits and got to see Santa. It was so much fun. It was so good to see the whole mission and be together. Super powerful. It was such a nice break. We did get some packages which was fun! I got one from the Robinson for Christmas which was a nice surprise :) 

Mission Christmas Party with Santa

  

            Frank is doing amazing and I am sad to leave him but he is so strong in his testimony. He is preparing now to get the priesthood which he is so excited about!! Now we are trying to focus on his son Louis. He is just so shy and afraid of us because we are girls but we don’t give up! The other day we brought him a pizza and marched right into his room. He hid under his blankets and wouldn’t come out so we sat there at taught him while he was under his blankets and talked about how the gospel of Jesus Christ is like a pizza. Then set him with a date for baptism. We didn’t see his face but he would nod and stuff. It was a powerful lesson none the less and we hope he felt the spirit. Just last night we had a FHE with them at a members home and Louis came and at first he was shy but at the end he started warming up. He wants to get baptized and go to church. He is just so shy and scared of people. But the Young Men have helped a lot with that. So excited for him to progress and keep learning and strengthening his testimony 

    

            Barbie is amazing and just eats up everything we teach her. We teach her with her member friend and it’s such a blessing. Members are so powerful, love them! She will be getting baptized this Sunday! She just has such strong desires and wants to go to the temple with her kids. It’s awesome to see how much the gospel really changes people. It just strengthens my testimony that this is the true church. 

    

Our ward also had a Christmas primary activity and it was amazing! The most legit Christmas primary activity ever! We went because Sister Smith was singing in it as an angel. She was dressed up as an angel and I was dressed up like the people of Christ’s time. It was lots of fun and we had some less actives and their families come so that was super cool. Again another blessing. Lots of milagros (miracles).  

Primary Christmas Program

Ward Primary Christmas Activity

This week I was asked the question, “what’s written on your heart?” As I sat in personal study and pondered that question, I decided that after this transfer the atonement has been and is written on my heart. In Alma 7:10-13 it talks about the birth of Jesus Christ and what he has suffered for. One thing I love about these scriptures is that he just didn't suffer for our sins, he suffered for our sicknesses, sorrows and pains. He suffered for all these things. I was taught this transfer that I can use the atonement when I feel sad, inadequate, when I have burdens. I can use it for these things and that has been such a great comfort and strength to me. The atonement is our physician. Heavenly Father is not a silent observer. He knows us perfectly and though He may give us trials and challenges, those trials and challenges are never wasted. It goes to our education. Going through these things brings us humility.

This transfer I have been reading a lot about Jacob and learned that Jacob suffered because of the rudeness of his brethren. But even though it was difficult, he was humble and understood that there must be opposition in all things. Because there is opposition in all things we need the atonement. There is a story about a women who was stuck in a very deep pit, and every time she tried to climb out on her own she would always slip and fall back into the pit. She realized that she couldn't do it on her own, so she called for help and soon someone with a ladder came and she was able to climb out. This can be likened to Heavenly Father sending His son Jesus Christ to bring us a ladder to help us out of our pit of sin. The ladder is the atonement.

Another story that I like is about an older women who said “I am like an old $20 bill, I have been worn, wrinkled, ripped and scarred but I am still a $20 bill. Despite all the wear and tear, I still hold the value of a $20 bill.” Jesus Christ saw and knew of our great worth. Even with all our sins, pain, and scars he still knew of our full value. He thought that you and I were worth it to suffer and die for. When we have the atonement written on our hearts we will become what he wants us to become. The atonement is the greatest evidence of God’s love for us. So now I will ask you the same question, “what is written on your heart?” 

   

Thanks so much for the scripture Dad and all the support and prayers. It has really helped me this last couple months. I have learned so much and i just love being here. Heavenly Father is so good and I love the spirit and power that is here. Such an amazing experience that I am grateful for!! 

I miss you all so much!!! Thanks so for all the gifts as well!!   Hope you all have a good week!! See you guys in 2 weeks!! :)

Love,

Hermana Briaunna

Our small Zone

Twins.

Family Pic! Sister Calvo, Burdett and Me

Sister Walker

 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