1     What has been your biggest challenge this week?

So biggest challenge this week! I think it was getting used to the trio with Sister Torralba and Sister Matheson. It was hard at first because one of us would feel like the third wheel. But after a big companion inventory it’s all good. I am learning so much from them. They are amazing girls!! :))

My trio: Me, Sister Matheson and Sister Torralba

Trio of Croc flats. A must with all the rain here.

2     What has been your biggest concern? 

My biggest concern is just having trust in Heavenly Father. It seems to be the theme these last couple months and I guess I haven’t figured it out yet. My testimony has grown so much though. I know he is my Father and I am his daughter and he has a plan for me and his plan is better than my plan. It’s helped me so much even though I just want to master trust already.

Thank you so much dad for the snippet from Elder Hales book! It’s funny because that's what I was studying today during my personal study. I was in Alma 32 and I was reading about patience and faith. It was an answer to my prayers. I have thinking a lot about different things and praying for an answer to a specific question and that helped me realize that I just need to once again trust in Heavenly Father and have patience and faith and it will all work out. :) So thank you for that inspired email Dad!

3     What has been your biggest success? 

 Our biggest success this week is......JULIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! Probably the biggest miracle on my mission!! Last Sunday we fasted that Julia’s chemo would be pushed back and that she could get baptized. We fasted and prayed sooo hard! Last Monday when we went to go see her, she was supposed to have started her chemo that day but she said that when they went in apparently the doctors forgot to do the paper work for her chemo. They said it was really weird, because the doctors never forget to fill out the paperwork. After they got everything figured out they said she wouldn't have to start chemo until the following Monday. Which means she could come to church on Sunday and she could be baptized!!!!!!!!!! So right after the appointment with her, we called the Mission President and asked him if she could get baptized on Sunday (we usually baptize on Saturdays) and confirmed right after, and he said yes!!!! We were so happy!! I have never been so happy in my entire life as when our prayers were answered and Julia was baptized! The baptism was beautiful! It was such a spiritual experience we all cried as we watched her be baptized! I have never felt so much love for someone as I do for her. I know that in the premortal life, I promised her I would find her and baptize her. After her baptism and confirmation, she got up and bore her testimony and it was so powerful! It was like she has been a member for forever!

Such a miracle because that morning was crazy! Since it was daylight savings we woke up an hour later at 7:45 and had to be at the church at 8:20 and we live 20 min away from the church. Apparently our phones are so old we have to set daylight savings manually and we didn't know that. But Heavenly Father answers prayers and everything went so smoothly!!

Julia's baptism with her son Jesus

4     Who has been your favorite person this week?  Why?

My favorite person this week is Julia. She has taught me so much on how to have faith. She is so strong. If she’s scared about her cancer she doesn't even show it. She is so spiritual and such an inspiration for me!! She said that she doesn't need to fear because she has her Father in Heaven and her best friend the Holy Ghost with her. And it’s true! There is no room for fear when we have Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost with us! :)

5   What has been your most significant tender mercy?

My tender mercy this week is Julia not having to go through chemo and her being able to not have any pain on Sunday so she could enjoy her baptism.  She said she felt so much peace while she was getting the Holy Ghost. She said she could feel it as she received it!

6     What are you looking forward to this week?

This week I am looking forward to teaching this amazing family of four. They are super elect! We are taking them to the temple on Tuesday! Super excited! They couldn't come to church yesterday but they are coming for sure next week!!  So many miracles! Its miracle march!!

Ward activity, great food!

7      Do you have a goal set for this coming week?

My goals for this week is to just have faith just stop worrying and take leaps into the darkness. Be bold and enjoy my mission! I find myself being a worry bug and it’s my goal to do as President Uchtdorf says "STOP IT!"

Mmmmm, frozen custard!

 8      Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

A scripture that has helped me this week is Alma 32:26. Sometimes we don't need to know everything, we just need to believe. :)

Thanks so much for all your love and support family!!! I miss you all so much!! I hope you have an amazing week!!

Hermana Briaunna

Hey dad!! Guess who I got to see this week? We were on our way to church when the elders called and said someone was waiting for me a church. I was like what?!?! We got there and your former  missionary companion, Ian Bow, introduced himself and we took pics. It was such a great surprise!! :) He is so cool! He wants to take us out to eat but our president said no. He said it would be too distracting.

My dad's companion from his mission, Ian Bow, came to visit me!

1     What has been your biggest challenge this week?

So biggest challenge this week, hmmmm. This week was full of miracles, but it was probably getting the members to be excited and pumped to help us. Latin wards are a crazy bunch. For example on this past Sunday, we had an investigator at church and one member started just talking about garments. Yup, I had to cover our investigators ears. Ha-ha

Sunset in Florida!

2     What has been your biggest concern? 

My biggest concern this week was getting our new investigator baptized. I will tell you about the miracle in a sec, but our new investigator is named Julia and she has cancer and is starting chemo this week. She really wants to get baptized on the 14th but doesn't know if she will be physically able to. We have been praying and fasting like crazy that either she won’t need chemo or she will be physically able to get baptized.

3     What has been your biggest success? 

Our biggest success this week…… Well, where do I start?  The biggest miracle happened this week right after zone conference. We were all committed to baptize in the month of Miracle March. So after ZT, we were pumped and ready to go find people to baptize. We decided that we would go and knock in the neighborhood of one of our less actives but when we got to what we thought was her neighborhood, turns out it wasn't. So we decided to pray if this is where we needed to be or if we needed to go to the right neighborhood. After we prayed, we felt that we needed to go to the actual neighborhood of our less active. So we went and started knocking doors. We weren't having lots of success, but then we had a feeling that we needed to knock this one house. We knocked and this older lady in her 60’s named Julia opened the door. All we said was "hi, we are representatives of Jesus Christ." After that she said "come in, come in" So we went in and her son was sitting on the couch with no shirt on and tattoo on his chest. He is 100% Cuban yeah(he is a huge guy). We pray with them, and after the prayer, her son said "I am a member of your church." We were like "really?!" Yup, he is a member, just less active. Because his brother is a pastor at another church and told him to start coming to his church and not ours. His name is Jesus. We asked him “what is God telling you?” He said that he knew that God wanted him to go to our church. Then he shared his testimony which was amazing!!! He said I have been trying to get my mom to go to church and have her believe in God for years! We asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said yes. She said she could feel the spirit super strong and she knew that she needed to be a member of our church. So the next day we went back and taught her the restoration and it was so powerful! Afterwards, we asked her if she would pray and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and she did. After the prayer, she said "I know he is a prophet of God" The next day we took her and her son Jesus to the temple!! Temple was beautiful and so amazing. She and Jesus loved it! We taught her the plan of salvation on the temple grounds because she had a daughter that passed away. So spiritual. She is reading the Book of Mormon an hour a day and loves it. She doesn't have any word of wisdom issues. On Sunday she and Jesus came to church and Jesus brought a ton of his friends who now want to be taught and learn more. Seriously, best Sunday ever. My jaw dropped when all his friends came in. Jesus is such an amazing missionary! He is so amazing. Such a great miracle!! Julia is the best and we love her so much! So elect!

Our investigator's Julia and her son Jesus at the Fort Lauderdale Temple.

4     Who has been your favorite person this week?  Why?

My favorite person this week is Rachel Bartholomew. This week I got a letter unexpectedly with no name, only an address. I opened it up and it was from Rachel! I was so surprised and happy. At the very end of the letter she said "When you are feeling down, just remember that that-one-girl-who-you-used-to-babysit-believes in you." So cute! Something I needed to hear! Such a blessing! Made my whole week!! :)

5   What has been your most significant tender mercy?

My tender mercy this week would have to be Jesus bringing all his friends to church. Seriously, such a tender mercy. Best thing ever. Because we have the hardest time getting investigators at sacrament. 

6     What are you looking forward to this week?

I am looking forward to be able to keep teaching Julia!! Just finding more elect people to teach!!

7      Do you have a goal set for this coming week?

This week my goal is to be the best me! This past week while at zone conference in Fort Myers, we learned a lot about how to be our best selves. To work hard and get lost in the work and have fun. Love what we are doing! :) So that's what I am going to be working on :)

Just a little rain...

8      Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

The scripture that has helped me the most is Alma 17:11 It is about putting your trust in the Lord and how we will receive blessings if we do so :) So good!

Trio Power!

Some other exciting news is I am in a trio!! On Saturday we got a call. One of the missionaries is going home so one of the sisters that we live with got transferred up there to replace that missionary and the other sister is now with me and Sister Torralba for the next 3 weeks of the transfer. We are working in both areas! It’s going to be lots of fun! we all get along. The only thing is the other sister is an English missionary so we will gain a testimony of the gift of tongues this week, ha-ha.  But it has been lots of fun so far!! :)))

  Such an amazing week! Thanks so much for everything you all do!! I love you all so much and miss you!! I hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Heacock