This week has been full of good and bad moments. This last week or two, I have been struggling with that desire to serve. My lessons weren’t going great for me and I seemed to just not get anywhere with the language. There would be days where I would just sit in class just out of it. I wanted to be great but I didn’t have that flame inside of me to stand me up.

Root Beer...

As a last resort, I read my patriarchal blessing. I read the part about my mission and it said that I would be able to motivate myself and others to be out on the Lord’s errand. I then felt prompted to read Mosiah 28:3 which reads, “Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thought that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.” And then it clicked. This was my goal, to build such a desire as the Sons of Mosiah.

So last week I started to climb my out of my funk. I dug my fingertips into the mountain and started to climb. It was hard. The lessons were still not the best for me but I did the only thing I could do and that was to pray. I put everything I had into the Lord. I knew that through His strength was the only way I was going to climb over this mountain. I also listened to Jeffrey R Holland’s talk and Mormon Messages helped.

The Mongolian 5

But then it came to me. Last Sunday, during the prelude music, we sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. That is exactly what I needed. I never felt the spirit so strongly while singing that song. It built this desire in me that I could not cool down. I was able to have a stronger focus and better work ethic. It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord.

I finally reached the top of the mountain. I feel great, never better. I cannot say I have the same desire as the Sons of Mosiah, but I will arrive there. I give thanks to my Heavenly Father for believing in me. I could not have accomplished this without Him. Truly without Him I am nothing.

My Zone

The English as a Second Language courses have been going great. With all of the online assignments we turn in, the person in charge gives us feedback. On Saturday, I received great feedback from her. The assignment was to explain why it is important to learn vocabulary. I started off saying when I was a kid I loved playing with Legos and building these great structures. Everyone was snickering and wondering where I was going with this. I went on with my Lego analogy saying how I was going to compare a single vocab word with a single Lego piece. I went on saying that the more Lego pieces you have the more structures you can build and the more diverse you could be. It is the same with vocab words. The more you know, the more different sentences you can create etc. This is the feedback she gave to me after giving that analogy:

“I LOVE your Legos analogy. It is perfect for learning vocabulary, and you explained it in a wonderful way. Thank you. I’m going to use that from now on. I’d love it if you would help me remember to mention that to the group when you are here at the ELC.”

BOOM. Thank you Legos! It was pretty cheesy but it was awesome too. I was laughing pretty hard. I didn’t expect it to go that well. Honestly, I was just playing around.

We are going to the ELC on the campus of BYU Monday thru Thursday, so I will not have P-day on normal day. We are having a half P-day this Saturday and then a full one the following Saturday. We will be at BYU from 8-3 on those days and on Monday and Wednesday we get to have lunch at BYU. So hopefully Lauryn can hook me up with som grub. HAHA

I am really excited to get to Mongolia. It is hard seeing all the friends I meet leave before I do from the MTC. In the dorm room next to ours is President Benson’s nephew. He just left yesterday and he is an awesome guy. He told President Benson about how great we are so we got the hook up.

I am really excited to talk to you guys from the airport before we leave for Mongolia. I will be given a calling card. Just get everyone together, because it will be short.

Love and miss you,

Elder Heacock