First "Hola" from Florida!

Hello people of the world who love me enough to read this,
I am finally in Florida. It was an interesting journey. Let's delve right in.

On Tuesday morning, (Oct 18) I woke up at 2 am and went to the travel office with all my possessions. We got on a bus and left (without 3 of the Elders) at 3:30. We drove to the airport and checked in. I called Mom and Dad and Thomas at 5 in the morning just for kicks and giggles.
Then we boarded the plane and flew to Dallas. I sat next to my companion who was pretty much asleep the whole time and across from a family who were obviously members of the Church. I think I might have slept a little.

In Dallas, we hurried over to get our boarding passes and then they announced a delay for maintenance, so we got some food at McDonalds. Eventually we made it onto the plane (only about 40 minute delay). We sat in the back of the plane and I was in a row that was entirely missionaries. There were nine of us travelling together (the 3 missing Elders made it to the airport just in time) so I didn't really have a chance to talk to anyone. Most of us slept on
that flight too, but I'm pretty sure that's not possible for me. I tried to read scriptures instead of watching NBC comedies without sound.

As soon as we got off the plane, I could tell it was humid. President and Sister Anderson, and the APs were there waiting for us and taking pictures. They were super nice to use the whole day. No one lost any luggage and we made it safely to the Mission home, but it was raining a bit so our suitcases were a bit wet. We had a moment to freshen up before dinner (which was "supper"-delicious if you catch my drift) and got to know our mission president. We were introduced to "Harvesting the Field" which is how we contact people. When we knock on doors, we introduce ourselves as "representatives of Jesus Christ and we have come to leave the Savior's peace and blessing on your home. May we come in and leave that blessing?" It took me off-guard at first, but it is actually really awesome. I'll explain why in a minute.

That first night, we learned all about car and bike safety, our credit cards, and insurance. Then we did a Book of Mormon "activity" where we wrote our testimonies in a book and then were dropped off on a street. They said we couldn't get back into the car until we had given them away. The first house we went to, we gave away the book and got a return appointment. I thought it was a set-up, but it was real! This girl really wanted to know about our church. It was crazy. The second house didn't answer, but the third house was this nice, shirtless old man who has a lot of family members who are Mormon but is catholic. He already had a Book of Mormon but I gave him mine anyway because it had my testimony in it. He didn't really want to hear why our church was different, but he was nice and tried to give us hugs before we left. Fun.

The next morning, we had transfer meeting. I found out I was going to be companions with Sister Hawkes in Boynton Beach South. This is her 5th transfer and her first time being the senior companion/training. She is really nice and knows the ward really well. She is from Idaho and was born the same month as me! They just split this area into Boynton Beach South and Boynton Beach Central so now there are four sisters here. There are actually 8 missionaries in the Boynton Beach Ward! Crazy. Since it is an English ward, I am considered to be serving in an English area. One set of Elders is speaking Creole, but the rest are English as well. Strange, right? It is for the best, I'm sure.

The area we serve in is about an hour north of the mission home. We live in Boynton Beach but we serve in Delray Beach. We are the southern- most area in the Northernmost zone in the mission. The other district up here has a Spanish branch where my MTC companion is serving. Anyway, our area is heavily populated with African Americans and Haitians. There are lots of people we meet that we cannot understand, but we have been able to see a few Spanish families and leave blessings with them. Or rather, by companion leaves the blessing. (She was called Spanish-speaking as well).

When we got here on Wednesday, we went to the store and then we met Hna. Rincon. She is a less-active sister that has been meeting with the Sister missionaries for a while. She actually speaks great English, but we can practice our Spanish with her as well. That night we went to our first real appointment. The stake was having a missionary night so a bishopric member and his wife and a member of the stake presidency came with us. We went to visit Laverne and Anthony. They have been investigators since February and have a baptismal date set for November. They still have to get married and work through a few other things, but they are really nice. They have about 12 grandkids that are in and out. I'm pretty sure 4 live there (under 7 years old), and are quite the handful, but they love to read the Book of Mormon and can't wait until they are old enough to get baptized.

Thursday was Weekly planning and it took pretty much all day because we were separating the areas.

We met with a lady that the other sisters had blessed last week. Her name is Loma and she is taking care of her Mother with Alzheimer's. She also got really close to having a stroke and was in the hospital for 5 days. So by the time we came back to see her, she was full of faith and the love of God. She also was confused about what church was right. Perfect! That's why we're here! We taught her the restoration lesson and I invited her to be baptized! She said yes! But she really wanted to pray about it and she didn't know what here schedule was like so she didn't commit to a date, but we could see the change that came over her as we shared the Book of Mormon with her and committed her to read and pray about it. I have no doubt that she will do a lot of reading and praying. We don't get to see her until Thursday, unfortunately, but we are definitely going to commit her to a date.

The Mission has a goal to get 100 baptisms in October. When I first heard that I thought they were crazy, but after being here a few days, It is totally possible. People are just so ready to hear the gospel! We just have to find them! (And find them during the day because it is just a little sketchy to go out after dark. Don't worry mom, I'm perfectly safe.)

At one point, we weren't entirely sure which direction to go, but we saw a woman walking down the street. We jogged over to her and introduced ourselves as representatives of Christ and she welcomed us to follow her home. Her name is "Sista C." We actually ended up at her Grand-niece's home and were able to leave them with a blessing and set up a return appointment for the next day. When we went to visit her on Sunday, she was ready and waiting for us. As we got to know Ardena (the niece), we found out that she has met with missionaries before, about 14 or so years ago. She still had the Book of Mormon in her home and had been to church a few times before she moved and lost contact with the Elders. She has a lot of faith, but has been struggling to follow Christ and really understand her purpose in life. She was very eager to learn more of our message and committed to be baptized on Nov. 20. Her children and boyfriend were there as well and, while not as eager, they also said they would consider baptism. They want to come closer to Christ as a family.

It was so awesome!

It is very interesting to see the differences in our MTC experiences. Their new programs are coming together, for the best, but just not all at the same time. We're pretty much together, but most of the things we are learning in our extra hour of study each day is stuff we learned at the MTC. But I could always learn and practice more. (By the way, did I tell you about that? For the first 12 weeks in the field, we now have 2 hours of companionship study everyday so that by the end, we will be ready to train other new missionaries if we need to. Pretty cool stuff.)

Oh, and just in case y'all were wondering, I am totally perfecting my southern-black-lady talk. All the people we meet are so wonderful and hilarious because they have that unique way of speaking. So, even if I don't get to perfect my Spanish, I'll still sound different when I come home!

I really do like Florida, so far. It is more humid than Salt Lake but it really hasn't been too bad. The weather is actually great. Yay for fall in Florida!

I love you all! And I'd love to hear from you!

Hermana Sheffield