Hey Family!!

First, here are the answers to your questions for this last week.

          1.     What has been your biggest challenge this week?
My biggest challenge this week, probably being patient. We have been struggling to find people this week and sometimes I just want results now! I can sometimes get a little anxious but I am working on that! All about trusting in the Lord which has been one of my themes this last couple months.

     2.  What has been your biggest concern?
My biggest concern this week was my companion, just trying to help her stay positive and upbeat. She has her moments and it scares me so just keeping her happy :)

     3.  What has been your biggest success?
My biggest success this week was reactivating a less active!! America came to church this week, second time in a row which makes her not a less active. We call her our Dominican grandma. She is amazing and I love her so much! Such an awesome experience.

America, our Grandma

    4.  Who has been your favorite person this week?  Why?
My favorite person this week, does God count? Really cliché but spent a  lot of time on my knees this week praying for guidance and comfort. What I realized is that this is the longest I have been away from home but the closest I have ever been to God.

One of my favorite pictures of Christ

    5.  What has been your most significant tender mercy?
Our most significant tender mercy this week was while we were knocking doors. We have a hard time getting members present at our lessons so we had been praying for a miracle that we would be able to get at least some member present in our lessons. As we were knocking, a Young Single Adult comes up to us and said, “You girls look like sister missionaries.” We were like yeah we are and she said “I thought so, I just came home from YSA.” We were like no way! We asked if she wanted to come knock with us and she said of course. While knocking we were able to teach a few lessons with her and found a less active we didn't know about. He is in YSA but he is so cool and when he said the closing prayer he said “thanks so much God for reminding me the church is always there for me.” It was such a great tender mercy from Heavenly Father.

    6.  What are you looking forward to this week?
One thing I am looking forward to this week is finding new people to teach. Our teaching pool is super low so I am so excited to go out and knock some doors and harvest!

    7.  Do you have a goal set for this coming week?  Tell me about it.
A goal I have this week is to be more patient with myself, with my companion and with the work.  Enjoy the little miracles that come our way. Do not take anything for granted.

    8.  Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?
The scripture that has had the biggest impact on me this week is Deuteronomy 31:6-8. After praying one night, the scripture came to my mind "Don't be afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with you.” The next day when I went to go look for that scripture I couldn't find it. I know it’s a scripture mastery but I just couldn't remember where it was! So as I was reading the bible I found this one I had marked a while ago and it was pretty much the same thing and better! It was just what I needed :)

So we had to drop Nuvea and Teo. They weren't progressing, couldn't meet with them and they didn't make time to come to church. Super sad but we know that God will provide us with another amazing family to work with!! We had to drop Claudia as well. She wouldn't make time to come to church and she just had a lot of problems happening where she didn't have time to meet with us. :( We know that we have planted seeds though and that we will continue to find! :)

First Sunday with new Elders'

We have had some changes to our mission. Who knew? Always changing things. We don't have to wear cardigans anymore!! Yay!!!! So happy! Such a blessing. We were all excited about that and guess what!? Sister Calvo is my STL now. Super happy and excited to serve around her again right before she goes home. She ends her mission in April. Super excited about that. Miss her lots.

Saying goodbye to our DL before he heads home.

And his companion

I had an awkward experience this week. We were in a grocery store getting  some food for America and we were having trouble finding some things so we ask this guy. He is tall, blond and kind of nerdy. Anyway, he helps us with what we were looking for and then turns to me in front of all the customers in the Hispanic isle and says "might I just say you have the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen!" I say “thank you that's very kind.” He says "and they just compliment your beautiful smile.” Customers are just like oh brother and my comp is cracking up. I say, turning red "thank you very much." He says "you have a beautiful day, beautiful." I say “thank you. You have a good day too.” We then walked off. Well, later on, we end up needing help again and guess what? He is right there and ready to help. After he helps us again, he says “you have a great day gorgeous.” I say, can I give you a card?” He says “yeah .” I said, “We are missionaries and here is a card that shows where our church is, you are more than welcome to come.” He says “okay, yeah sure.” He was  a little disappointed but oh well. We left and my comp said, “you should of asked him to be baptized. He was drooling so much over you he would of said yes. Most awkward thing ever!!!!!!!!!

​What happens when elders have your camera. hahah

Our teaching pool is super low so we are just planning on finding this week! I am excited for all the tracting we get to do!! It’s going to be super good!! Excited to see miracles!!  Thanks so much for all your prayers and support!! I miss you all soo much!! Thanks for all you do!! :) I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Hermana Heacock

Hey Family!!!

Let me tell you about how I found out about the Super Bowl. On Monday, Sister Torralba had a doctor’s appointment. She is in her appointment and I am just sitting outside waiting, just chilling. Then all of a sudden, the assistant to the doctor comes out and calls me by first name. So weird. She says the doctor wanted me to tell me something.  While she is saying this, I am thinking, oh know something is wrong. The doctor said the Seahawks lost! I was like what?!?!? I probably said it a little louder than I should. I asked by how much and he said by 3 points. I was so sad. Sister Torralba said that the doctor gave her play by play of the Super Bowl and she said my companion is from Seattle. So he had the assistant come out and tell me. I was sad but it’s okay they only lost because I wasn't home. Next year they will win!

Go Seahawks!

So transfer call update!...... I am staying!! Me and Sister Torralba are staying together another one! Yay! I am so excited itIs so nice not having to pack! It will be the first time since I was done being trained! So excited to continue to help our ward and the people here.

This week we saw so many miracles. We had an exchange with our STL. It was so much fun. We had a cool experience. We were praying for a place to knock and after the prayer all three of us had a different prompting to go to three separate places. Usually when that happens we pray again until we agree on one place, but we felt we needed to knock in all 3 places. So we did.  We taught some pretty powerful lessons and found a lady who had been taught by missionaries before and has gone to church and is still reading the Book of Mormon. Her name is Alejandra and we have been working with her this week. She has some questions because she used to be Catholic. She had questions concerning Mary. She is super awesome and we are excited to continue to teach her. She even lives with members.

We have also been working with Claudia this week as well! Her testimony is growing so much! She is so amazing. She hasn't come to church yet but she will. She has been reading and summarizes everything she has learned which is awesome. It is so amazing to see them change and grow and see the happiness they have has they read. She definitely has more light in her eyes.

Cool picture of Book of Mormon I took

As for Nuvea and Teo, we haven't been able to see them in a while which has been sad. We are going to see them tonight and see if they have been keeping commitments. If not we will probably drop them, which will be super sad! But we know we have planted seeds and we have done all we can do. Sometimes agency is hard. I wish we could just take it away sometimes but its all part of Gods plan for us.

Our relationship with our members has increased so much! We are finally starting to build trust and good relationships with them. We had a cool experience a couple days ago. We were praying about what member we need to go see and visit and we had a feeling we needed to go see a certain member. We went and it turn out this member has a less active son. Right before we went to see her, her and her son were talking about how he wanted to go back to church. When he saw us pull up he said, “mom did you really call the missionaries?”  She said, “No i didn't.” She was in tears because it was an answer to her prayers. We got to teach the son and he is super cool!! It was a great miracle.

Me and Sister Torralba have been fighting a head cold all week and Saturday night we didn't get any sleep. When the alarm went off, we decided to set it for a little later and try and get some sleep, but I couldn't sleep. So I woke her up and said, “Sister, I know if we get up now and do our studies that we will see miracles and that's just what happened. The next day on Sunday, a less active named America, that we have been working with finally came to church!! She hadn't been in over a year and she just showed up! As well as another less active! It was like having investigators at sacrament. It was such a miracle. It just shows that when you put your trust in god you will receive blessings. :)

  

This week as well I got a letter that was from a BYU devotional. I encourage you to look it up, it’s so good. It’s called Real Intent. I learned how important it is that we don't go through the motions. I was reading in Ether 1:34-39 about the brother of Jared, how he prayed to the Lord constantly. It is only six verses, but over these six verses it could have been years that he had been praying. It said that he cried unto the Lord. He prayed with real intent. He did it because he was driven by the love he had for God. Because he was so faithful, he was able to see the Lord. The same needs to be for us as well. We could do things because we love God not because we love man. Super good talk. Please read!  

My commitment to you all is when you say your personal prayers at night, to pray at least for 10 min and really council with the Lord. I know you will really feel the love that he has for you and you will receive so many blessings!!  Thanks so much for all that you do! I love you so much!!!! :) I hope you have a good week!!!

Hermana Heacock

Hey Family!!

              So this week has been a bit stressful. My companion has been struggling with depression and just got officially diagnosed this week. We are going to the doctors this week to get medicine because it’s been getting worse. It’s so hard to watch someone who you care so much about go through such a hard time and you can’t do anything about it :(( I have to always remind myself I am not a doctor and I can’t fix everything. This week though, I was reading in the Jeffrey R Holland book, To My Friends, you gave me dad and there is a talk in there about depression and mental illnesses. So I had her sit down with me against her will and I read it with her. We were both in tears after. It really helped. She is amazing and I love her so much. I just wish there was more I could do you know?

We are on bikes this week. Yup, still have like a week left of the month and we are on bikes, haha. But it’s been fun! We got to bike to Plantation which is a three hour bike ride (not round trip) to see our favorite Columbian family Nuvea and Teo! We were able to finally meet there 23 year old son Andres. Andres is deaf and can’t talk.  He communicates by sign language. But one thing we learned is that English sign language and Spanish sign language is different, so he too has been having to learn a new language. Weird right? I didn't know they were different but it makes sense. So it was fun trying to communicate with him with what little we knew. He understood us though and is super cool! He is super interested in the Book of Mormon and wants to read it. We had a great lesson with them about the restoration and they loved it and it just seemed to click for them. They know that this gospel can help them and bless their lives. They also loved the Book of Mormon and plan on reading it as a family. Good powerful fun lesson. They are so humble and kind.

Our favorite Colombian family. Andres, Nuvea and Teo

 This week we also got to meet with Claudia, our other investigator. We went to go see her and her sister-in-law was there. After we said the opening prayer, she told us that she was an inactive member of our church. It was super cool because she helped a lot in the lesson and testified and shared her testimony. We taught Claudia the importance of faith and how it all starts with a desire. If she wants miracles and blessings she needs to go to church, read the Book of Mormon, pray and ask if these things are true. I told her that if she does these things and doesn't receive blessings or an answer then this church isn't true but I know with all my heart that if you experiment upon our words then you will receive the things you desire. That really touched her heart and she said she is going to come to church and read. We were so excited and happy. She said she knows this is something she needs to do. So we are excited to help her progress and work towards baptism because she truly is amazing and needs the gospel in her life. It’s been defiantly a week of adventures but it’s been rewarding.

                This week I have been thinking about what I wanted to share with Danyon, Eben and Kerragyn and this is it. I have been reading in 1st Nephi about Lehi’s dream and I got to the verse where it talks about how the people that arrived at the tree of life and partook of the fruit and felt ashamed because of the people that were mocking them from the spacious building. After reading that scripture it made me think of the talk "Which Way Do We Face. I also have been reading in Matthew chapter 14. It talks about how King Herod didn't want to behead John the Baptist, but he did. So the question is why did these people feel ashamed for taking the fruit and why did King Herod do what he did? Because they started to fear man more than God. They forgot which way they faced. Peer pressure changes us and soon we find ourselves seeking the acceptance of those who mock us and who tempt us to commit sin. As missionaries, it happens to us as well and we forget that we don't serve our companions, our mission president, we serve God. We as missionaries are accountable to God. In Spanish, there is a saying "un poco no le hara dano" which means a little won’t hurt you. But if you put a comma after the no it becomes "un poco no, le hara dano" which means a little will hurt you. We need to have courage to overcome the fear of man because a little will hurt us if we start to justify and start to fear man. We will forget what way we face and soon be dragged down. Don’t ever lower the Lord’s standards to society’s standards. Remember whose disciples you are. There is a quote by C.S Lewis and it says “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” It will be hard to not give to turn the other way and face god but if you trust in him he will give you courage! :) 

I love you all so much and hope that you all have a great week!!  Thanks for all your prayers and help. 

Love,

Hermana Heacock