Heat and Humidity and Humility?

July 2, 2012

Hello Family and Friends!
I hope you are all staying cool and safe in the wild summer weather
that is all around the nation! (Yes, I may have seen a piece of a
newscast this morning!)

What a week. My first week in Miami with only one companion instead of two!

On Tuesday, we went to Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with a member
to say good bye to Sister Holladay. Then we had an awesome lesson with
Erique where Jacky (a recent convert) testified like crazy about not
drinking when others are drinking. It was great, I'm pretty sure
Erique cried.

Then on Wednesday we drove up to Plantation for Transfer Meeting.
Here's the News:
Sister Holladay is in Coral Springs.
Sister Hong (Angie's friend from Blackfoot) is training in West Palm Beach.
Sister Sobkowicz is White-wash/training in Miami Lakes.
Sister Keyworth is whitewashing an area in Hialeah (her dream come true!).
The sisters in Coral Reef North got replaced by some elders (that
Sister Buckley isn't too fond of).
We got a new Zone leader and a new District leader (I still haven't
met him in person!)
Sister Buckley is going to die here. I get to kill her and take all
her stuff. It should be pretty fun. She's going to BYU in the Fall, so
maybe you can meet her! She reminds me of Cheryl sometimes - awesome
and funny and likes to draw!

On Friday, we got to see Amy, who got baptized last week and teach her
for the first time. We had to explain what YSA was because the Elders
clearly dropped the ball on that one. But she came to the party at
Juan's house last Saturday and then came to all three hours of YSA
after going to all three hours of the family ward she got confirmed
in. crazy. But she is awesome and super cute.
We also saw the 26 year old in Homestead that the Elders baptized and
never told us about. She is super solid, even though she had problems
with almost all of the commandments before. She came to the YSA Ward
too! and brought her YSA brother!

We had a very interesting experience harvesting this week. We weren't
having much success (only blessing one person in each street that we
knocked is no fun) and it was hot. But on Saturday we really needed to
find people to reach our goal. So we prayed and looked at the map and
I selected an area. When we got there it was a little nicer than we
were expecting. As we drove down the street to check it out, I felt
impressed to knock the doors at one end. We parked at the other and
knocked on doors as we walked down the street. No one let us in. After
getting rejected so many times, we were losing some enthusiasm, but I
felt very prompted to continue until we got to the houses I had seen.
We knocked on a door and we could hear the vacuum on inside. We had to
knock a few times for her to hear it, but a woman named Mayda answered
the door. She didn't speak any English and she was only working there.
But she let us pray with her and she cried when we asked her how she
felt. She told us that her back had been hurting and now it felt
better! Then she told us that her cousins were members and she had
Mormon relatives in Utah and in Honduras! She said she'd read the Book
of Mormon a bit and she liked it, but that she is Catholic. She even
shared her testimony of receiving a blessing 27 years ago when she was
pregnant and in a lot of pain. She said she lived in Kendall and we
invited her to church. She even knew where it was because her cousin
had sent her the address! We invited her to be baptized and she said
she'd think about it, but gave us her address and phone number so we
(or the Elders) could stop by sometime! It was incredible! She may
have been the only person in that area that listened to us, but it was
definitely worth it! We were clearly sent there just for her!

On Saturday Night, Juan hosted a game night that turned into a
surprise birthday party for the Elders Quorom President - Tyler. We had
just eaten lunch with him (and his crazy friend who was visiting!) so
it was strange to be there again, but we came to support Amy and
Arturs (a Latvian non-member who is Diana's Ex-boyfriend. Don't worry,
we're going to teach him finally!). It was sort of strange being at a
YSA party. But it turned out really well. Everyone got there around 8
or 8:30 and we left at 8:45 to get home on time! That's how it should
be when you are a missionary!

Yesterday was pretty great. David and Amy received the Holy Ghost!
Yay! and almost all of the recent converts came to church! We were
very happy.

I am also very much enjoying reading in the Book of Mormon each day.
Some days it is all I do for personal study! We had an impromptu
lesson after church yesterday with Emanual and he asked us about
repentance (along with some other really great questions!). We both
thought of the story of Alma the younger as we talked with him and
were able to share that with him. I think it will really help him. It
is so "convenient" that the Book of Mormon answers so many of the
questions people have!  And by "convenient" I mean "evident that it
was written by men inspired by God." Go ahead, read it and find out
for yourself!

I love you all! Have a wonderful 4th of July! Celebrate the
Independence of your country by blowing up a small part of it!
(or don't because that's illegal)

Love, Hermana Sheffield