Family!!

Physical Therapy has been going good. Its helping. My last one is on the 23rd. It has been helping with the inflammation and pain.

​Elders tagging our car with a "I love One Direction" balloon. Silly elders haha

So this week we dropped Lisa and Angel the Jamaican family. They are great but just not quite ready yet. They just got really contentious and when we would teach them the spirit wasn't there. So we had to drop them. :( But I know that soon they will be ready to continue moving forward. They just need time.

1 Year Mark

We haven't been able to see Rachel, but tomorrow we will. She was dog sitting last week but we called her every day and she is reading a chapter a day in the Book of Mormon and loves it! She is amazing. We love her to death! We will continue to teach her this week :) Super excited!!

Went to the Temple with Rachel!!

This week we had interviews with mission president. I love interviews with him. So amazing. This one was super spiritual. We always have to go in with a question to ask him and my question this time was "How did you learn to trust God and what were some of the experiences you had that helped strengthen that trust?" He told me an amazing story. When president was young, his mom passed away when he was 7. A year later his dad re married and president and his step mom did not get along. So every summer he went to Canada to be with his step moms mom and dad. He loved them so much and they loved them. He spent a lot of time with his grandma and he would brush her hair for a quarter an hour and they would just talk as he brushed her hair. Well later on her spine started literally crumbling. When he was on his mission she wrote to him and said I can’t wait till you get back because I want you to give me a priesthood blessing because I know you can heal me. So after his mission he went to go see her in the hospital and he gave her that blessing. When the doctors took an x ray a couple days after he gave the blessing, there was bone where there wasn't before. Her spine had rebuilt itself. He said that his grandmother had faith. Lots of it. He said that's the key to trusting in Heavenly Father is faith. It was super good. I love learning from him! :)

Closest to sand we can go!

This week we have been working a lot with less actives and one of those families is the Whites. They are Vietnamese. Brother White, who is the member, is adopted and grew up here in the states. He is amazing and his adoption story is amazing. Anyways, he has a little girl who is 4 and we love her and his wife is awesome as well but catholic. They have us over every week and feed us amazing food! This week it was that soup I sent a pic of (Pho). He took us out to eat at a Chinese place and it was like really authentic Chinese food! I had whole baby squid, chicken feet, and surprise soup! haha Half the stuff I ate I didn't even know what going in my mouth. We also had shrimp in this rice thing and for desert, which was the best, was this white bun thing. It was like a roll that had a crème in the middle. It was a crazy experience but so much fun! And yesterday he came to church with his daughter for the first time in a long time and loved it! He really wants to go to the temple and get sealed as a family! We love them.

First time eating Pho at the White's home.

The other family is the Espinosa family who we love we are going to see them tonight so cool!! They are the best!

  

This week we found and are teaching Mike and Emma. They are from Trinidad. They have had contact with the church before. They love to can so they have been to the cannery. We taught them the restoration and it went really well! Mike was super interested and loved it and Emma was really quiet. She didn't say much but it seemed like she liked it. We gave them a Book of Mormon and they are going to church next week. They also have a daughter Abby who is 13. We haven't met her yet though. We are seeing them tonight and super excited about it!! We don't have a lot of people to teach so we are happy.

Yesterday we were visiting with a member and his son and his son isn't a member but he is practically a dry Mormon. He asked us a question. He asked "When Jesus comes and calls us, will you be able to recognize his voice?" That made me think? Will I be able to recognize His voice? It made me think of Mary when she was at the tomb and she was crying and Jesus called her and she knew it was the voice of her Savior. So I decided to get to know my Savior better. I made it a point to read the New Testament every day and study more about the atonement. It’s something really cool to think about.

​Got locked out of our house, so we ate Wendy's and chilled in the mothers lounge at church building for our dinner hour....

I was reading in Mormon 8:25 and it was talking about all the things the prophets went through for the church and it made me think of the previous dispensations. The prophets of old were able to go through failure, torture, and torment because they knew they were laying the ground work for us. They would be a part of the success we would have in this dispensation. That’s probably what gave them hope and helped them endure knowing that they needed to do this for us because they knew we would have success but we needed the foundation they set. It’s crazy all the sacrifices people have made leading up to this point for the church. Because of their faith and trust, they knew this church was true and they would do anything to make sure it was spread through all four corners of the earth. I love this gospel sooo much!! It has changed my life so much. It is true!! I have never hungered so much to read the scriptures. :) I am so grateful for all the prophets who gave their lives so we can have the Book of Mormon :)

 

Planning and studying in our princess room

Thanks so much for all the scriptures dad!!! I love them, thanks for all that you do!! I love you all so much! Hope you all have a great week!! :) Miss you!

Briaunna

Hey Family!!!

It was a pain to get my meds but I finally got them! The pain from the AS was pretty bad. Ha-ha note to self, never ever taking Ultram again! I will have to tell you that story in a second. Physical Therapy was good. It kind of helped but it’s different because it’s not like I have a sports injury that I know will get fixed or heal. We will see. I will have another appointment on the 16th and then maybe one right after that and that's it.

Eating Papusas!

 This week was crazy amazing! Last Monday we were knocking doors and we found Rachel!! She is the most amazing 64 year old ever! She let us pray with her and was crying after the prayer. She said that she had just put on her bucket list that she wanted to find a good church and then we knocked on her door! Super amazing! She said that she wants to join our church! She says that she has seen our church lots of times and always wanted to go in but never knew if she could. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! The next day we went and taught her about the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she loved it and said it makes sense and has to be true. We gave her Moroni chapter 10 to read. The next day we brought a member with us and taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She and the member love each other and the member was a huge help!! She had so many good questions and loved it! We asked her if she read Moroni and she said yes. She loved it so much she read it twice. Me and Sister King were freaking out because she is like the golden gator!! After we taught the Plan of Salvation we taught her about temples. She said she wanted to go there so we scheduled a temple tour for Friday! We just love Rachel so much and she calls us her two angels. She is like our Cuban grandmother. I know for sure we were best friends in the pre-existence.

​we find the the most random things while knocking....

This is what a typical house in Florida looks like. We call it the mint gum house.

On Thursday my back had been hurting. Friday morning we went running, so I thought I would take the Ultram (pain killer) so I can concentrate on Rachel and the temple and not have to worry about my back at all. So I took it with food and at the end of comp study my legs started feeling really weird and I started feeling really sick to my stomach like almost sea sick. I wanted to puke! So I looked at the side effects for Ultram and what do ya know I had them! I was frustrated this would right before we had to go to the temple with Rachel. It was amazing! Her member friend was there and Rachel said it was like heaven. She wanted to stay all day! It was a great spiritual experience. The whole time though I was trying not to puke on the temple grounds! But as we were leaving, Rachel said she was taking us out to lunch. I looked at Sister King with big eyes. There was no way in heck I could eat anything! But we couldn't say no so we went to Ruby Tuesday’s. I sat down for 10 min when I pushed Sister King out of the way and ran to the bathroom (pretty good pic in your mind right?) Anyways, I get to the bathroom and throw up. Yay!! I feel okay so I go and sit back down and eat a salad. Thought I was good right? Well the car ride to Rachel’s house to get our car was the longest ride of my life. I got sooo car sick but we finally make it back to the car say goodbye to Rachel. As we were driving to go knock doors I told Sister King to pull over at the church. We park in the church parking lot and I puke again in the bushes. It was funny cause I am sitting there hurling and a Latin worker comes out and says in his Mexican accent looking so confused, "Sister are you okay?" and Sister King laughs and says yeah she fine. So Sister King takes me home and I sleep for an hour. Finally around 7 it was out of my system and I was fine. Yay!! The other med the Mobic is good. I wish it was a little stronger but it is good :) So that was a fun day!

​This is me when I was puking. (Me in the bushes) Felt so much better

This week we also visited a really awesome part member family the Espinosa family. The mom is a member but her son and husband aren't. They are super cool and we hit it off the moment we met them! They have a 16 year old son who loves doing magic tricks so he did some for us and it blew us away!!! He even has his own business. I told him about Eben and how Eben would love him. He said that Eben sounded cool and that he can email him if he want any advice or help! He said he would love to talk to him! His email is magicdan1131@gmail.com. Such a cool family. They fed us and we shared a great message with them! It was great. We are going to baptize her son and husband just wait!

We love Sunday!

We also met this less active on Sunday who brought his two daughters Olive and Julia who are 14 and 12. They are super awesome. We invited them to an FHE at a member’s house and it went so good! The members are the Riggens, the ones from Seattle. I love them to death. They were super awesome and gave a great lesson about the restoration! After Brother Riggen had us do a musical number and we sang A Child’s Prayer. After they said it sounded so beautiful. We said that was for sure the Spirit because we don't sing hahah. It was fun and the girls are excited to learn more and want to be baptized. It was a great fun crazy week!! So excited for Rachel and all that is to come!! :)) Heavenly Father is blessing us like crazy!! Patience is real and everything has its time and season!!

 Thanks so much for the new shoes!! It’s like running on a cloud!! :)

 Love you all have a great week!!!

Hermana Heacock

Family!

Thanks so much first off for all the help and support from you guys!! Especially with all my back pain and my diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis. Same condition as Dad. I am now on meds and Physical Therapy, so it should improve.

General Conference was amazing!! Seriously!! Being on a mission during conference is like Christmas!! My spirit has never hungered so much to be spiritually fed until on my mission!! Loved every second of it and can’t wait till the October session! :)

Sister King's mom made us matching skirts for Easter!

So this week, the biggest challenge was getting our investigators that we are teaching to progress. We have been finding amazing people but then they just drop off the face of the earth. Our plans are just to keep being bold and helping them feel the love Heavenly Father has for them. These are just speed bumps in the road. It all can’t be easy. Heavenly Father has really blessed us though and we have seen so many miracles! Just even within the last couple of days! :)

Opening my Easter Package from family!

To start off this week, the elders in the Spanish ward were having a baptism. So we went to support them. At the same time they were having the ward Easter egg hunt. While we were waiting for the baptism to start, we were talking with some of the members and we met Lisa. Lisa is from Jamaica and while driving home from work saw the Easter egg hunt and decided to bring her kids to it. She has a son who is 4 and a daughter who is 14. They are super cool!! They loved the atmosphere of the church and the people. They said they felt right at home and wanted to learn more about our religion. They said they could feel the Spirit even during the Easter egg hunt. Super amazing miracle because we have been praying to find families! We are currently teaching her and her daughter. She couldn't come to conference but is excited for this coming Sunday! :)

​It was a really hard day of knocking.........

Later this week we were knocking in a trailer park, we had been knocking for hours and it was almost time to go home. We thought we would pray for a miracle. Sister King and I both felt prompted to knock on this one house. It looked promising so we went and knocked the on the door. Marilyn opened the door and invited us right in. She is a mother of a little girl who is four and accepted a prayer right away. During the prayer there was so much noise but after we asked her how she felt and she said she felt the Spirit so strongly and knew it was from Heavenly Father and that it wasn't a coincidence that we knocked on her door when she needed us. She is amazing and has such a humble spirit ready to learn about the gospel. God is so good! She and her daughter came to the Easter egg hunt on Saturday and loved it!  She couldn't stay for General Conference but super excited to come this Sunday.

......that ended great!

The next miracle happened on Saturday after conference and its super funny. So we went out to knock doors and we felt like we needed to knock in this apartment complex. So we park and I offered a prayer before we started knocking. I had gotten half way through the prayer when we heard a "BANG BANG BANG" on our car. We opened our eyes and there are these two little girls around 3 years old just banging on the hood of our car. Me and Sister King were laughing so hard because it was so random! We got out of the car and the little girls started running away and we thought hmmm, lets follow them. We followed them to their family. We introduce ourselves and they knew who we were right away because some members from the Spanish ward lived next door.  They accepted a prayer and afterwards were in tears. They loved it and said they felt the Spirit so strong. They accepted baptism but expressed the concern that Oswald, the dad, works on Sundays. We promised him that if he prayed and asked Heavenly Father that he will be able to get Sundays off so he can go to church with his family. He believed what we said and they are planning to come to church this Sunday! This family is super amazing and humble. They want to get baptized and go to the temple so bad! Excited to teach them!

The last miracle of the week and probably the biggest happened on Sunday. After conference, we went and knocked doors in this apartment complex next to our house and that’s were we found Angela! Angela is from Ecuador and is staying with a friend. She doesn’t have anything except a suitcase and her daughter who is in her 20s. When we knocked on Angela’s door, she let us in to the house right away. Her friend wasn’t there so it was just her. She said she was so grateful we came and said it was like having two angles in her home. She said that she was supposed to go to a party with her friend but felt like she needed to stay home and now she knows why. She said she needed us. We said a really powerful prayer with her and she was so happy and the Spirit was so strong. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes right way. She said that all she wants to do is serve people and feel peace and comfort. She said she knew she could find it in our church! She is amazing!! We showed her the Because He Lives video and she loved it. She says she believes in miracles and knows that she is a daughter of God! Afterwards, we shouted for joy. She is the golden gator we have been praying for!!

This week I studied a lot about Christ’s life leading up to his sacrifice and the resurrection. Thanks to Dad for sending me those stories! It was so interesting to get more into detail about what happened leading up to his death. I felt as I learned more about his life I got closer to him and my love and testimony grew so much for his sacrifice and atonement. He truly came to earth to pay a debt he did not owe because we owned a debt we could not pay. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he truly is our Savior. I have never felt closer to him this week. I know he is my brother and I am forever grateful for the sacrifice he made and all he went through for me because he thought I was worth it. He thought we were all worth it. He loves us so much! I know that each of our names were engraved upon his palms as they put those nails into his hands. He died for us so he could, as Jeffery R Holland said, like lightning in a summer storm reach out grasp us and pull us up. He will never let us go. That talk was one of my favorites! I am so grateful and humbled to represent such a perfect and loving Savior. 

Want to give a shout out to my comp. She is the best and I love her soo much!! It’s so funny. Everyone thinks we are twins. We get asked that like 10 times a day aha love her to death!! 

Love Sister King!

Anyways love you all sooo much!!! Hope you have a great week!!! Hugs and kisses!!

Hermana Heacock