Family!! 

The cheesecakes look so good! I bet they were a hit! I have been missing dads cheesecakes a lot. Yesterday we were at a meal apt and they brought cheesecake from Walmart and it wasn’t the same ha-ha dads is just too hard to beat.

           So this week was amazing! Damien got baptized!! It was a bumpy ride to get there but he made it through. This past week when we went to go see him and help him prepare for his interview for baptism, we went over the interview questions and found out he hadn’t been keeping the law of Chasity. So we retaught it to him and we thought he had to be living the law of Chasity for a week so we had to change his baptismal date for the 13th. He was sad about that but said he was going to work really hard to make sure he could be baptized. That night we were telling our zone leaders about it and how his interview was going to have to wait, but they said that he didn’t have to be living it for a week that he just had to commit to never do it again and that he can still be baptized on the 6th. So we called him and told him and he said he still wanted to do the 13th. We were bummed but we felt that he still needed to have his baptismal interview the next day so we went ahead with the initial plan.

Damien before baptism

The next day the zone leaders came to interview him. It was a long interview, about an hour but when he came out we asked him, “so how did it go?” He said "well let’s just say on Saturday I will be under water." We were sooo happy. The elder who interviewed him, Elder Hymas said that it was a really powerful interview and that the spirit was really strong. He said they talked about how he was ready and how we aren’t going to be perfect or know everything before we get baptized and as we make that step, the blessings will follow. He then shared some scriptures with him and asked to pray to know if he should be baptized on the 6th or the 13^th. After the prayer he was in tears and said he knew he needed to be baptized on the 6^th. We were so excited and happy for him but the challenges didn't stop there. That was on Thursday. On Friday we went to go see him and get him pumped up for baptism and teach him about missionary work. He was so excited to get baptized. So Saturday was baptism day. It was a crazy day for us because we had lots of appointments and things like that. Finally we make it to the church at 7 to start filling the font and getting things ready because his baptism was at 8. At 7:30 we texted him and asked him if he was on his way and if he was excited and he texted us back and said "I don’t know. I am having second thoughts." We texted back and asked "What do you mean?!" and he said he felt rushed. After he said that we tried calling him but he wouldn’t answer. So with 20 min till his baptism and people arriving we rush over to his house and talk to him. He said he didn’t feel ready and so we asked him, "Do you know where those thoughts are coming from?" "They are from Satan" We told him that Satan didn’t want him to get baptized and he was going to try everything to stop him. We told him all of the blessings God has given him like getting Sundays off at work, finally, so he can be baptized and confirmed the next day. He then started to realize that he was ready and that this is something Heavenly Father wanted to do. So he grabbed his stuff and we escorted him to his baptism. 

            So we get to the church and he gets ready. He was still a little nervous and tense all through the talks and everything. But the best part was when he got into the water and was baptized. The smile on his face was priceless. It was worth more than anything in the world. He was smiling from ear to ear. The spirit was so strong. After his baptism, he changed and came back smiling and laughing just like at the temple. He was just so happy! After the welcome to the ward and all that, we went up to congratulate him and he was in tears. He said he made the first step and he was so happy and he said that he knew God was happy. It was amazing. His baptism was so powerful. 

            The next day was Sunday and he was confirmed. That was just as powerful if not more as the baptism. His blessing was beautiful and promised a temple marriage. He was in tears after. That whole Sunday he was just so happy and loved church. He is learning so much and so fast. We love him to death! He is amazing. The cool part is while we were teaching him, he was telling his mom who is in Jamaica, what he has been learning. He told her about his baptism and she said that she wants to be baptized. So we are getting missionaries in Jamaica to get in contact with her. He loves sharing the gospel with his family and friends! He doesn’t have custody of his daughter yet but he will. He is super close :)

            Jamie and Tony is a different story. Last Sunday we went and saw them. We gave Jesse a priesthood blessing and it was great and powerful. Well the next day they all got super sick. They were sick up until Wednesday. On Thursday we finally got to see them for like 10 min. They have been trying to catch up with a bunch of stuff so they didn’t have a whole lot of time but it was good and we invited them to the baptism and said they would go and that they were set for church. Well they couldn’t make it to the baptism which was a bummer and on Sunday when we went to go round them up for church, they didn’t answer at all. We tried calling and texting them, to no avail. After church we went over to see them to ask them what happened. When we pulled up they were just getting in the car to go somewhere and when they saw us they didn’t look to happy and they were really standoffish and weird. They just said for us to come and see them this Wednesday. We will see how that goes. We were really sad because they are amazing but we think they have just forgotten why they started investigating the church. We have been praying for them super hard because we don’t want to have to drop them. We will see how it goes on Wednesday! 

             This week we went to go see sister Boga our less active and she gave us a big pep talk. One thing she said was be the kind of tree that has strong roots. She was talking about how important it is to have those strong roots. We need to be strong in the gospel and in our testimonies because that’s the first thing Satan attacks is the roots. She said we don’t pull weeds because we are afraid of the weeds effecting the top of the plant, we pull the weeds to protect the roots. We need to have those strong roots so when the devil sends forth his mighty winds we will be able to with stand it. 

She also told us before we started visiting her that she was thinking about taking her name out of the church. She had been thinking about it a lot but since we started visiting her, she says she doesn’t think about it anymore. She says she thinks a lot about going back to church she said that she never lets anyone really into her house. But she always lets us in because we bring the spirit in her home and she says that we have made such a huge difference in her life. It was amazing! She is the best! :) 

Sister King and I were like Sister's!

            Okay, MRI results. The doctor told me I for sure don’t have what dad has, but that my SI joints aren’t healthy. There has been changes to them because my SI joints are degrading and that’s where my pain in coming from. She also thinks that it might have something to do with muscular stuff so yup! There isn’t much they can do. So everything is at a standstill until I go home. Just something I am going to have to deal with.

Gonna miss Sister King!

            Oh, and transfers! So I am staying and Sister King is transferring :( But I am excited to see who my new comp will be!! It will be an exciting week!! :) 

            I love you all lots!! Have a good week!

Hey Family!!

It was super sad to hear about Elder L. Tom Perry’s passing. But I am so thankful for his example and his powerful testimony! It is such a blessing to know that Heavenly Father’s plan is so perfect! That we can continue to have apostles on the earth. The next one called will be an amazing man of God. I think it will be Elder Nash ;)

This week was such an incredible miracle week!! God is sooo good! So this week we took Damien on a temple tour! It was amazing. One of our members dropped everything last minute to take us and Damien just loved it. I wish you could of seen his face, he was just glowing and so happy! He kept saying "Why don't other churches have this?" He couldn't believe that why wouldn't every church want to be a part of something so amazing. He said he felt such peace and love from his Father in Heaven. He kept taking pictures and saying he was going to put them on Facebook to show all his friends what they are missing. He said he is also trying to get his mom in Jamaica the lessons from the missionaries there. He said that he really wants to get married in the temple and sealed to his daughter. He says that this is his goal. It was such a spiritual experience for him and us. It just makes me so happy to see him change and just grow and see how happy this gospel makes him. He is all set for his baptism this Saturday!! He came to church yesterday and said he couldn't find anyone to cover so he just called in sick so he could come haha He loved it once again. He is just soaking everything up. I feel like he teaches us more then we teach him. He is getting super close to getting custody of his daughter and he knows that even if she can’t be there he still needs to get baptized to set that example for her and he knows he will be blessed by having that faith. :) Damian is the best. Love that kid so much!

Ducks chased us for miles!

Jamie and Tony. Oh my heck are amazing!!! We went and started teaching them on Tuesday. Turns out they have daughter who is 13 her name is Jesse and she is so cute! We taught them the Restoration and they loved it. They had a lot of good questions and they said that it all makes sense. They told us more about their church they went to and man there church was terrible! We were able to reassure them that this was god’s church and that in His church they can feel the peace and love that He has for them. We each gave them their own Books of Mormon and assigned them a chapter to read. The next day we took them on a chapel tour and they loved it!! The member who came with us, Sister Porter, was so perfect for them! They loved the church especially the chapel. They said they could feel that they were in the true church and Jamie said that it was amazing how God answers prayers because she had been praying for the true church. Then three days later we knocked on their door. Such a miracle!! Then we taught them about the Plan of Salvation and the temple and they loved it! They said that they had also believed in the spirit world and had questions about this plan because it talked about it in the Bible but no other church could explain or had the answers they needed. Jamie said we were the first ones to answer that question. They really want to be sealed in the temple as a family and go to the Celestial Kingdom. They are already thinking of names they can take to the temple to do baptisms! It was really cute. After we left, Jesse their daughter said "I want to be just like them!" They weren't able to come to church however because Jesse has some health issues and had to be rushed to the hospital that night. We were able to go over that evening and see them! We shared an uplifting scripture and taught them the Word of Wisdom. Jamie has a coffee issue but is willing to give it up right away! She is so awesome. She and Tony are willing to change everything to make sure they are doing what’s right and so they can be baptized! Later the elders came and gave Jesse a priesthood blessing. They loved it and Jamie and Tony said they could feel the spirit so strong. After the elders left, Tony said, “I want the priesthood really bad. He said his goal is to receive the priesthood so he can bless his family. Amazing!!

It was so cute. Jamie was saying how she doesn't want us to leave! She said that she wants to keep us forever. So we are praying we don't get transferred! She said she keeps forgetting that she has to share us with others. She said that her, Tony and Jesse were going to take a road trip to come see me after the mission. They are wonderful! They are set for baptism on the 20th!! They are so excited.

My MRI went good. I was really scared and anxious but Sister King was able to be in the room with me which helped and i got to listen to LDS hymns which helped a lot! I will get the results back today or tomorrow. My back is the same. It only gets really bad when I play sports on p-days which is lame. It is embarrassing to have to stop in the middle and sit out as well as play like I am super old:/ ugh but it’s okay :) At least I can sort of play. But that's what kills me. The next day I can’t move haha .

The Brown's took my picture at a dinner appointment to send to you!

My talk went really well! I just wrote down some bullet points and just talked for 15 minutes. It went good. I shared the story of Punchinello and the part I love the most is when Eli says to Punchinello "You are special because I made you and I don't make mistakes." "What they think doesn't matter. All that matters is what I think. And I think you are pretty special." Heavenly Father isn't going to love us until we are perfect, he loves with our imperfections. He knows what we can become and our potential. As we put our faith and trust in him and focus on what God thinks and not what man thinks we will become our real selves, our best selves. :)

I love you all soo much!! Thanks for all your love and support!! Miss ya’ll tons!!!

Family!!!!

I love the pictures of fifth grade camp!! So much fun! Eben is such a boss. I am so proud of him and how he ended his track season!! I am excited to see his XC season! He is going to do so amazing in high school!! He will rock it for sure! Danyon and Daniel look so cute! hahah Such studs! That’s so good that they had fun as counselors at camp! Kerrgayn and Kylie looked like they had lots of fun! Super cute! Lauryn sent me pics of Kerragyn shooting her bow!! That’s my girl!! Super awesome hahah. When I get home the heart will be so shot out, there won’t be any left for me! I am so jealous! I want to shoot soooo bad! Dad you will have to get a hold of that hunting guide and set something up for when i get back! I am itching to hunt!

So this week was super amazing and filled with miracles! First off, Damian is super boss! I love that kid! Last week he wasn’t able to go to church because his boss wouldn’t let him get it off and he told us all day that he felt so bad because he knew he needed to be at church. So he was determined to get work off this week. So we prayed super hard for his boss’s heart to be softened. Damian said he asked and persuaded to let his boss have it off so he could come to church.  So we went and saw him Saturday night and he said by 9 he should know if he got it off. Well, the text didn’t come and didn’t come. We still kept our faith high and prayed and when we woke up on Sunday morning we got a text from Damien saying that he got work off!! Me and Sister King leaped out of our beds and shouted for joy! We were soo happy! Prior to that on Thursday, we took Damien on a chapel tour to get him familiar with the church and Brother Riggin was there and he loved it! The minute he walked in he was so amazed. We took him around the church and showed him everything and told him what we do and what happens in the classes and he just loved it. When we got to the chapel we asked him how he felt and he said that if he was already a member he would be going around street to street telling people to come to this church because our church feels different than other churches and we have things other churches don’t. He said that he wants everyone to be a member of this church! He just bore his testimony on how he knows this church was true. He also said there is just blessings in every hallway. He kept saying, I have to get work off, I have to get work off. When we were done we asked him how his Book of Mormon reading was going and he said that it was going great and he is reading every day. I said if you have any questions just let us know and right then he pulled out his BOM and held it up and said you never question this book, ever. You never question the teachings in this book because its true and he said I may not understand everything I read but I will never question it because I know it’s true. I was like wow. Me and Sister King were smiling so big. He just has a strong testimony of the gospel. He loved church a lot! He says that at work he is hoping he gets this promotion so he can get every Sunday off! He is set for baptism on the 6th and is super excited! Another miracle that happened was he really wants his daughter to be there for his baptism but he has been having a hard time getting custody of her. We have been praying that he can and he told us that he just got a call from his baby mamma and she said that she is living on the streets and can’t take care of the baby and she wants him to take her! So hopefully he will have custody of her soon and she can be there for the baptism. Tonight we are taking him on a temple tour and are super excited!! He is amazing. 

This week we also found Jamie and Tony. They are a couple in their 40’s. We knocked on their door and asked if we could share a prayer with them. They thought it was a little strange but they said yes. They loved the prayer so much. They had a real big countenance change. We invited them to be baptized and they said that they had already been baptized in there church. So we testified of how this baptism was different and done with the proper authority. Tony was a little iffy but all of a sudden Jamie opens up and says you know what? It’s  really a miracle you came here because at first I liked our church but now there has been something happening in the church that is making me question it and don’t agree with the teachings. She said she prayed about what church she should go to or what one was right and then we showed up. She said she was so confused and wanted to go to the right church. Right then the spirit prompted me to talk about Joseph Smith. I opened my mouth to speak and all of a sudden words just started coming out. You know it’s your voice and your lips are moving but words are just coming out, like the spirit is doing the talking. That’s how it felt. Everything came out so smoothly and powerful and I know it wasn’t me. It was so powerful.  After I shared the First Vision, Jamie said we are going to your church, yup that’s it we are going to your church. And then Sister King shared a wonderful scripture and she said she wanted us to come over and teach her and her husband. so we are going to see them tomorrow. It was a super cool experience and such a blessing!! 

This week I am giving a talk in sacrament about the importance of knowing you are a child of God. We will see how that goes. It’s an interesting topic but I am excited! It will be fun! Oh my doctor’s appt is on the 29th, that’s my MRI. That should be fun...... I will tell you how that goes when I get results back. I am mailing you my blood work results too as well today. 

I almost forgot. We had a zone conference this week and it was in Hialeah!!! I was sooo happy because ever since I left that area I was praying to go back. It was so amazing to see my old area and be in the chapel and see some of the members!! They were so cute. They were all crying and saying how happy they were to see me. I loved it! So amazing. The conference was all on hurricane training and helping us prepare for one. They said they haven’t had one in 10 years and most likely there might be one this summer so we will see. Hopefully not, buuutttt it would be fun ;) 

This week I was reading in a conference Ensign from 2012 and I was reading a talk about Elder Ballard. He started his talk off by talking about bees. So in an average beehive there is 20,000-60,000 bees and in order for bees to make a pound of honey they must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short life span of 2 weeks to 4 months, a single bee’s contribution of honey to its hive is one-twelfth of one teaspoon. Though it might seem insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one twelfth of a teaspoon is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees becomes lighter because the bees faithfully do their part. The beehive has always been an important symbol of the church. It’s found everywhere. All this symbolism attest to the one fact. Great things come about and burdens are lightened through the efforts of many anxiously engaged in a good cause. (D and C 58:27) Imagine what LDS people could accomplish in the world if it functioned like a beehive? :) Remember no act of service, no matter how small, goes un-recognized. Each little one-twelfth makes a huge difference. :) 

   

Thanks so much for all your love and support!! I miss you all tons!!! Thanks for all you do!!! I hope you have a good week!!!!!!! Best family ever!!! :)))

Sister Heacock