West Palm Beach AWESOMENESS!

It has been a while since I used the word "awesomeness" but it definitely applies.

Hello everyone!

In case you haven't figured it out, I got transferred to West Palm Beach North! It is in the same zone I was in before, just 40 minutes or so north. But despite the closeness of the two areas, they couldn't be more different. I feel like I'm in a different country. Mostly because this area is

SPANISH!

Yes, that's right, I've had to put my meager MTC Spanish Skills to the ultimate test.

Actually, It hasn't been too bad. Not because I'm good at Spanish, but I would say I can understand between 60-75% of what is going on in any given situation. Although, I can't really be a good judge of how much I don't understand because I don't understand it.

My companion is Sister Sobkowicz (pronounced sub-co-witch). Despite the Polish name, she is from CANADA. And I do mean from Canada. This basically means we speak the same language, but she has a very Candian way of saying words like "bag" and "tag" and "tomorrow" and "sorry." Other than that, she is pretty much the best missionary ever! I don't know enough Spanish to really contribute to the lessons at all, and there are so many people being taught that I don't know yet, so I don't actually DO a lot here, but Sister Sobkowicz is so awesome that it doesn't matter. She's been in Spanish areas her entire mission (almost a year now) and she has been training the whole time (other than the first two transfers when she was being trained). This is the first time she hasn't had the extra hour of companionship study! Although, I kind of miss it. I could definitely use an extra hour of language study everyday! I keep joking with her that she is still training because I need so much help! She is so incredible and happy all the time it is impossible to be sad or discouraged. I was overwhelmed by the Spanish for about 2 hours when I first got here, and since then it hasn't been a problem. I say whatever I can (which is very little) and she makes up the difference. I couldn't have designed a better companion! Plus, she is kind of the unofficial "head-sister" in the mission. The assistants keep calling her about getting the zone pumped up for some new goals or asking her to prepare some things for the leadership training on Friday. (We're not really sure why she is going to this training, but I get to spend the day in Coral Springs with Sister Lake who just got here in December!)

It was SUPER hard to say good-bye to Delray and all the wonderful people I have met there, but Sister Hawkes is still there and she has Sister Despain to help her (Sister Despain was in Boynton for about 6 months, but left the area almost a year ago. Crazy).

We've had some awesome adventures since I got here last Wednesday. Por ejemplo, we met a member referral, Juan Carlos (which totally reminds me of when Bishop Miner told us he can go by J. Carlos when his office needs some diversity!), who is great and really interested in learning more about the church. But before we could start the lesson, his neighbor came out and asked him to move the puppies, so we went to help. We carried 8 little black puppies that were about two-weeks old across the street and into his backyard. It was very random, but they were really cute!

Then that night we went too far for the area we were going to harvest in, and we ended up on a street Sister Sobkowicz has never been on (she's been in this area since the beginning of September) and as soon as we got out of the car, there was a man about to walk up to his house. We stopped him and he recognized us as Mormon missionaries. He said he had seen some Elders in the park a few days ago and wanted to talk to them but didn't get a chance. He's been looking into a lot of different religions lately and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. We talked for almost a half an hour, got his number and gave it to the English missionaries. They called us yesterday to tell us that Bernard, the same man, has a baptismal date set for January 29th! We were so excited! I am so amazed at how the Spirit can direct us to different places without even knowing it!

On Saturday, we were driving past the house of a 14-year-old investigator that had missed our appointment on Friday. We were on our way somewhere else, but we saw him standing outside, so we pulled over to go talk to him. He was really excited to see us and after talking for just a few minutes, he told us he really wanted to be baptized. So we made sure there was nothing holding him back and said why not tomorrow? We taught the Word of Wisdom and Tithing and went over all of lesson 3 and the rest of lesson 4 that he needed to understand. Then we called up the District Leader, who gratefully had some time, and he came up and interviewed Brian. He was super ready! He invited all of his family to come and we set a time. He came to church on Sunday and then was baptized that evening. It was amazing! There were a lot of other youth there to support him as well. Heavenly Father blessed us so much to be able to help this young man to enter into the kingdom and the perfect moment. I know that Brian will be a great example to his family and friends. I am so happy for him!

I love being a missionary! Latin people are so nice, even when I have to bear my testimony the first day I'm here and have no idea what to say! They were all so friendly! I have so much more to learn, but I can't wait to learn it!

I love you all! Have a most wonderful week!

-Hermana Sheffield