Believe in your Dreams!

February 21, 2012

First things first: Transfer news.

Sister Sobkowicz: Stays

Sister Sheffield: Transfers.

At least, that's what we thought until 15 minutes later when the zone leaders called back and said, "sorry, I just listened to the message again and Sister Sheffield is actually STAYING!"

So after some very sad, traumatic moments, I am actually staying here in West Palm North with Sister Sobkowicz! YAY!!!

This week has been very full. I have so much to tell you all and not only because it is an extra day longer.

Here's a recap of the week:

Tuesday, Valentine's Day: Out of the apartment for 12 hours, made crapes for the Elders for District Training, got really hot because it was 82 degrees, and had a ton of lessons. We had a great lesson with Natalia and her 13 yr old Daughter Nasley and set them both with baptismal dates for the 26th! Got a call from a Less Active that wanted us to come see his friend. We met Laura and blessed her, had a lesson, and set both her and her friend Mariano with baptismal dates for the 26th as well! Then we went harvesting and met several great people, took a newly returned missionary out teaching with us. Then when we got home, there was a letter from Jaron waiting for me. Thanks Jaron!

Wednesday: We taught 6 lessons and set another date: Paulo, Jareley's boyfriend. She's a less active, too, but she is an awesome 17 yr old. And now her boyfriend is getting baptized! Yay! (He's the only one that still has his date! See Sunday). We had a great lesson with Cesar and Dora and Cesar. They are an amazing family that will be getting baptized in the near future. Plus we had a recently reactivated member come with us, Arnold. That was.. . interesting.

Thursday: Weekly Planning Picnic. Picked up a recent convert (Riccy Martinez -17) and she came with us all evening. She was super awesome helping us with a "special" investigator - Joel - and our eternal investigator, Juan Amador. Who would have thought She could help a YSA and a 50 yr old man?! Then another great lesson with Laura and Mariano!

Friday: MISSION CONFERENCE!!! with Elder Gavarret of the 70! IT was so wonderful. We learned so much about having faith in our message and praying for miracles. There is too much to even summarize properly. We also drove to the very north of our area and met this amazing English family that asked us if they could be baptized!

Saturday: Good news and bad. Had some excellent lessons (including Natalia and Nasley again and Dora and Cesar again and our awesome family Fredy and Berta). Bad news, no new dates.

Sunday: Cesar and Cesar came to Church! Blanca came! and Juan came! But Joel came for 2 minutes and got offended because they didn't let him in, and Fredy and Bertha Dropped us. I cried. Then We had the sweetest house blessing ever! Jorge was crying when we said the prayer and he kept telling us how he could tell we were sent by God! A real pick-me-up that I don't have time to describe right now. And a failed Charla Folgonera.

Monday: Super long day, out for 12 hours again. Super awesome lesson with Jorge by the water at sunset. Dealt with some family drama with Mayra. and Had an awesome Noche de Hogar with Cesar and Dora - who want to do church as a family!

Okay, really out of time now.

I love you all!


- Sister Sheffield

Single Latin Men and harvesting

Monday, February 27, 2012

Dearest Family and/or Friends,

Oh the things that happen to missionaries! Seriously, though. We do so many things everyday that I can't remember all of the awesome little details that really make a difference at the moment, but also so many things that I wouldn't think would ever happen to us. I'll explain.

People have very different reactions when they see us. This week, we've had people that know exactly who we are say hi to us or slam the door in our face or run away. We also have people that have no idea who we are that say hi to us or slam the door in our face or run away. We had people cry before we say a prayer with them, after we say a prayer with them, or simply give us blank stares the entire time. We had several people this week ask us for our number (Sister Sobkowicz actually got asked out to dinner by a random guy we blessed!) or, as is very very far too common with single Latin men, say generally inappropriate things or listen to us for the wrong reasons.

Not to say that ALL single-latin-men are inappropriate, just most of them. :)

Actually, we are teaching some great SLM that are sincerely interested in coming closer to Christ. Top on my list of cool people right now is Cesar. He wrote a letter to President Monson this week explaining why he wants to get baptized (turns out his parole is for not paying a driving related incident). It was so sweet! And then to hear his testimony of the Book of Mormon last night in our lesson was amazing! He just wants to be baptized and can't, and his parents can and won't. It is more than a little frustrating. Especially since we know that his dad is still meeting with the Testigos.

Next on my list of awesome, not creepy SLM is Diego: Here's what I told President:

"We have some great investigators we are currently working with and they have really been making progress. But just when they are ready to commit to baptism and set a date, Satan comes in and distracts them, especially from coming to church. We did have some success this week in getting people to church. On Friday we were following up on a referral from the English Elders and were knocking on a door of a Spanish lady when her neighbor came outside. We said hello and he recognized us as missionaries. He explained that he had met with the Sisters before but they had stopped coming and he had lost his Book of Mormon. We gave him a new one, marked a scripture for him, and set up an appointment to teach him the next day. We were able to leave a blessing with him, teach him about baptism, commit him (with the help of a calendar and a lot of reassurance) to a date - March 11! We helped him understand the importance of coming to church and he committed to come. He even got there before us and stayed for all 3 hours. He said he really enjoyed it and I am excited to continue teaching him. We feel so blessed to be able to help him find the church again and take further steps to preparing for baptism!

What I didn't mention was that in the middle of our lesson (which we had in a courtyard while sitting on a bench made of a 2x4 in the wind) a drunk SLM came over and interrupted our lesson by telling us how happy he was to see us (we've never seen him before) and that we were doing great things. We tried our best to avoid him giving us a hug or touching our hair by giving him a pass-along, but he was too drunk to really comprehend anything. Luckily we got him to keep on walking so we could finish our lesson.

Other creepy SLM include: Jonathan and his friend (both 18 yr olds) who wanted to give us their numbers and said "you're beautiful" as we were walking away, Eddie who is more lame than creepy since he still hasn't come to church since his baptism, and Pedro when he is drunk (saddest day ever: when you find your recent converts drunk and you have to take away their keys) :(

Harvesting was quite the experience this week.

Other than the usual unreceptive people, we also met an awesome girl who let us leave a prayer with her and then gave us ice cream! We met a mom and her son who were very interested in coming to church (but didn't), at least he walked us back to our car because it was dark! We met a woman who is going through drug rehab and wouldn't let us in at first but then cried when we blessed her and her family who are going through really hard times with the father (that 10-yr-old boy was very well versed in his bible!).

Best of all was harvesting on Sunday, but first, Saturday:

We had a zone fast that we started on Friday (after eating at Sweet Tomatoes with a member -what are the odds?) and were going to end on Saturday with Rosa. But she wasn't there when we got there. Hungry and not knowing what to do, we talked to her neighbors who seemed to be having a party. They had just come back from blessing their baby and were cooking up a storm. Unbidden, they fed us a huge plate of rice and beans, 3 kinds of grilled meet and Mexican tortillas! It was miracle food sent by God! We were so grateful!

The next day, Sunday, we came back to bless them and they were too busy for us - as usual. So we knocked on the doors down the street. The first one was this tall old man (like 75 or 80) who responded to our introduction as Representatives of Christ with "that's interesting, did you know that's not his real name?" He then proceeded to explain how "Jesus" means son of Zeus and how there was more than one Jesus. One was a 12th level avatar and the other was a 9th level avatar. He also mentioned something about scriptures written on Holographic tablets 200 billion years ago, and us poor humans only living in 3 dimensions when there are really 15.

Then the next house was a Guy who told us straight up that he was cooking drugs. We gave him a good talking to.

Then we met a woman who said she was Gay and vegan and that it would not be okay if "missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ prayed with me."

Fun times.

Also, it got up to 92 degrees this week according to our car. Then when it was 72, I was cold. I'm becoming accustomed to Florida!!

Now I have to go. Everyone should read Elder Christofferson's talk on Repentance from the last conference before next week. There will be a quiz.

Have a wonderful week! I Love this work! You should, too!

Love, Hermana Anna Sheffield

"Heavenly Father is Awesome" -Sis. Sobkowicz

Monday, February 13, 2012

Dearest Everyone,

My how time flies. I really don't understand how it is Monday again. Also, It is halfway through February. That can't be possible.

Worst of all, next week is transfers. Which not only means Preparation day will be on Tuesday, but also that there is a possibility that I will be left here in West Palm without the wonderful and most amazing Sister Sobkowicz. I don't think I could survive without her. So, here's to hoping that we both stay here!

Crazy things happen when you are a missionary. A couple weeks ago, we had a zone fast for baptisms. That day we called an old investigator, Eddie, to invite him to church because we knew he had been taught all the lessons. He actually did come and then went to a Noche de Hogar where Hno. Robles asked him "if you know the Book of Mormon is true, what should you do?" and he said, "Get baptized". So this week, we had a lesson with him on Wednesday and invited him to be baptized on Sunday. He said he would do in on Saturday! SO we did! It was amazing! He has been kind of sketchy lately and didn't come to a group lesson on Thursday, but on Friday, we were walking down the street and he was on his bike, so we stopped him, found out when he would be home, and got the district leader to meet us there to interview him. He was totally ready! But he didn't want us to tell his family, so the next day when we stopped by to check on him, his sister was there. We had a quick lesson on D&C 64: 33-34 and said nothing of baptism. Kind of Strange. But by 6:45, Eddie was at the church! Thanks to the Leadership training, there were actually people there to see him get baptized, too! So amazing. Especially when you note that he has been taught for almost a year and had at least 3 other baptismal dates. Sis. Sobkowicz is still in shock!

Unfortunately, he didn't come to church to get confirmed. No one could find him. I still don't know where he is.

We had three new investigators at church yesterday! Yay! Even if two of them where single Latino Men. I'm pretty sure most of the people we teach are single Latino men. Not a very good combo for sister missionaries.

We played the Sign game at a member's house of Thursday with several recent converts, members, and an investigator. So funny. Especially, since there was an age range of about 30 years.

It rained a lot this week. Total down pour. And yesterday during our 2 hour zone harvest, it was 50 degrees. I realize that such a temperature would be nice for you, but here it is freezing! Plus, we were in skirts and it was windy. Also not a good combo.

I had lots of other cool stuff to tell you all, but I don't have time.

SO most importantly: Jesus Christ is our Savior and we need the atonement to be able to get through this life and live with God again. Everyone needs to understand this and apply it in their life. If you already have, find someone that hasn't or doesn't know and tell them. It will make you happy, I promise.

Hermana Anna Sheffield

Feb-tober

Hello Everyone!

Happy February. I literally cannot believe it is February. Time goes so fast! Just like the MTC, days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. We do so much everyday it is insane (I made cupcakes darling!) and yet time is FLYING by.

This week we almost had a baptism. Asael (14) and Chaim (16) had their interviews on Thursday, but Chaim doesn't think he needs baptism and Asael keeps listening to him and thinks he doesn't know enough to be baptized, despite passing the interview. So, Sunday morning came and they didn't even come to church. Sad day.

We did finally see Joel. We met him about 3 and a half weeks ago and have been missing and rescheduling appointments since then. But he accepted a baptismal date, so it was worth the wait!

Last Tuesday was District training. We only had 16 miles left for the month so we drove as far as we could (8 miles) and parked the car. We brought our bikes, but we ended up on the same street as the church, so we just walked the last 1/2 a mile to the church. Yay for limited miles! We got back to our apartment afterwards with the odometer reading 999.9 miles for the month! (1000 is our limit).

Also great about District training, President Anderson was there! Unexpectedly! It is always nice to have him there to contribute to the things we are discussing. He taught us how to "Set the Table" for our lessons and blessings. He also explained how we need to handle one of our investigators that is on parole. Very convenient that he was there.

Also, he gave us permission to switch drivers! Yup, that's right, I'm now driving a 2011 Gray Toyota Corolla. And don't worry, I've already gotten us a little lost twice. But it always works out. I am so grateful that I can read a map!

Yesterday, knowing we needed 5 more blessings to meet reach the standard of excellence, we set out to get all 5. Our appointments all canceled so we had about an hour and a half. We found an apartment complex and knocked every door. The very first door was that of Ebony. We kind of scared her because she was about to leave (she thought I was a ghost!), but she said she had just moved in and hadn't been able to go to church today so we could come in and pray for her. We left the blessing and she really liked it and said she would love missionaries to come back. Then we knocked several more doors (very few were home and those who were home were watching the Superbowl, I had no idea it was time for that again.) before we found Sabrina and her two kids. After we left the blessing with her, we invited her to be baptized and she said, "yes." No excuses or concerns. We extended the date of the 19th and she said, "Yes, I would like to try to prepare for that day." We assured her that missionaries would be there to help her be ready. It was truly amazing! I don't think I've ever seen anyone accept a baptismal date so easily!

Although everyone we met last night spoke English (or Creole), I am very glad that we were led to that spot to meet those women that the Elders would not have been able to go inside to bless.

Also, we met this guy who came straight out of the 90s. He came to the door in short white denim shorts and an overly large Patriots jersey, thick glasses and a backwards baseball cap. He opened the door and was flabbergasted. We introduced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and he said "You have got to be kidding me! You have got to be kidding me! I love the Lord and all that, but I my patriots are playing right now! Their my team! You've got to be kidding me." It was so funny. When he shut the door we could hear him say it again to his friend before we burst out laughing! I love harvesting!

We also had an interesting experience this week with a member, Everardo. He signed up to feed us this week, and decided to take us out to eat. We ate at Los Catrachos, a Hondurian restaurant. It was pretty good! It reminded me a lot of the Papousaria in Logan. Actually, I had baleada and then a papausa. Both Delicious. But random.

Just so you all know, I miss the Temple. You all should go. Go. Often. Enjoy it.

We have been focusing on the Atonement as a district this week. Studying Christ and all that he has done for us has really allowed me to understand more of his incredible love for us individually. Mosiah 3:17 says it great: Christ is everything. I encourage you all to learn more about Him and then share it with someone else. Everyone needs to come a little closer to Christ.

Christ Loves you. Heavenly Father loves you. I love you. I love this work.

Hermana Anna Sheffield