Wake Me Up When September Ends

Hello Everyone!

This week was exciting and different. As in, things actually happened! Ha!

This week we had some interesting/unexpected blessings. The first was Christian. He had been taught by the Elders in Killian before he moved down to Coral Reef and they found out he is actually 29, i.e. YSA. We got to drive down and see him on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  He is incredible! He has such high desires to be baptized. Since he already came to church in the Killian Ward once, we thought he could get baptized this Sunday. However, after talking with our Branch Mission Leader, we decided he should wait until next week to show some commitment before he makes the covenant of Baptism. Which turned out to be a good idea, since he didn't even make it to church this week. We had an awesome lesson on Saturday going over the Restoration using Jenga. He liked it so much we played it again afterwards! Unfortunately, he has some schizophrenia so he doesn't always answer the phone . . .

Also unexpected, we received a text from a former branch-member saying there was a YSA girl attending the Homestead ward who said she was getting baptized next weekend. It wasn't until after church that the Elders down there called us and said that she had come to church twice already and has a baptismal date for this Saturday. I'm not sure why they waited this long to tell us, but at least she got to go to a YSA activity yesterday to meet some of the members of the Branch. It is really frustrating to have to explain why she shouldn't be getting baptized down in Homestead when she's already attended there twice. It is so much easier and better for the investigators if the missionaries pass them as soon as they find them so they can have the fellowship and support they need.

I've also found out that my idea of what it takes an investigator to be ready for baptism is a lot different then what the Elders think it is. We are planning to teach Christian and Jaclyn everything over again, because they don't have a good grasp on any of the lessons. At least their desires are high! Now we just have to work on them being able to witness their commitment.

We had some great experiences harvesting this week. We actually had trouble again finding people to bless during our scheduled harvesting time, but one day we  had 10 minutes before correlation and we found 2 people to bless! Then we were waiting for an investigator to get home and we drove to a nearby street. Sister Chavous saw some guys and jumped out of the car. Before I had even taken my seatbelt off she was contacting him and we were able to bless him and a friend, with a member present! It was an awesome experience as they asked us to pray for things that really mattered to them and we were able to invite them to be baptized. They we eager for us to return! I love finding YSA!

We had the opportunity to be present as one of our recent converts (Anabell)received her patriarchal blessing. It was a very sweet and spiritual experience! Before the blessing the Patriarch mentioned that President Monson had asked us to read 3 Nephi before conference. I don't know when he said that, but we started today. It is incredible to see the way the people see the signs of the Christ coming and still harden their hearts because of Satan's hold on them. I love the comforting and timely words of the Savior to Nephi before He comes into the world. I am so grateful for the love Christ has for us, that he would voluntarily come to Earth to suffer and die for us."

We also had one of my favorite experiences. As church was about to start, we were feeling a little depressed because no one was coming to church. As we sat on the stand (so Sister Chavous could finally give her talk!) we looked up to see the other Sisters walk in with Shan Liu. They met him the day before and invited him to our ward. He had called them and they went out to help him find the church, so they sat with him during Sacrament. We met  him after the meeting and Bingyu (a member) came up and was freaking out because there was someone else who speaks Chinese. She took him to class, which he enjoyed, and then a member who just got called to serve in Taiwan took him to Priesthood. Afterwards (actually, after we went to Anabell's patriarchal Blessing), we talked with Shan. He told us his whole life story of living all over the world, being partially paralized, and coming to realize his life was empty, despite all he had been through physically and intellectually. He talked with someone at work who told him that if he was living in Utah, he would be married with 4 kids by now (since he is 29). He decided to look up the Church, and ordered a Book of Mormon and Bible on Mormon.org, which is why the Sisters went to visit him in the first place. So basically, he is super ready for the truth and we can't wait to tell him about it!

I hope all of you are doing well! Get ready for this awesome thing we call "General Conference" by reading, praying, and inviting your friends over!

Love,
 Hermana Sheffield!

Cambios!

Transfers! Sort of. More last week than this week, but oh well.

Buenos Familia y amigos!
Como estan?

It certainly has been a interesting and different week. Like never before. For Starters, Sister Chavous is not sitting next to me. She is in Hollywood (Florida) and has been since Friday Morning.

Let me back up. Thursday morning, sister Lira got a phone call from the Assistants telling her she was going with Sister Escobores in less than 24 hours (because Sister Lavoie went home 5 days early because of her visa). She cried. We all cried.
Thursday evening, the Assistants call us and tell us Sister Chavous is going with Sister Escobores for a 4-day exchange. Then Sister Lira calls me and says we are going to be companions during that time!

So in all the confusion and tears and frustrations, Sister Chavous got picked up by the Assistants Friday morning and I haven't seen her since. I have to take Sister  Lira to transfers and pick up Sister Chavous there because we are still companions for the next 5 weeks!
(yes this transfer is only 5 because . . . I don't know). Sister Hancock and Sister Syme are still in our apartment (Sister Hancock is "dying" this transfer!)

So yeah, Sister Lira got to experience the joys of driving a ton and teaching very little, as well as hearing and watching all of the drama in the YSA ward. And there is a lot lately.

But since I have 2 minutes left, here is what I wrote to President:

We had an incredible experience on Sunday. After having to give a talk unexpectedly in Sacrament Meeting, my sore throat was getting worse, and both of us were pretty sad after no one came to church. Again. Our possible appointments had fallen through, so we spent the evening harvesting. We found an apartment complex and got to work. We weren’t really excited about harvesting, but were doing it to be obedient. The first door we knocked on was Alanna. She wasn’t too excited to see us, but as we introduced ourselves, she gratefully accepted a prayer. After the blessing, we invited her to be baptized and she said, “I’ve been thinking about baptism a lot” and noted several times that we were sent from God. She also said she wanted her daughter to be baptized now that she is older and can learn and make the decision for herself. She asked if we could teach her, too! She told us her schedule and is very open and willing for us to come back! She is getting baptized on Sept. 30th!

I was super surprised because I haven’t had a lot of success harvesting on Sunday, but the very next door was a YSA! His name is Jose and he immediately invited us in, but since he was alone, we couldn’t go in. He had us talk to him through the open window while he
finished his cooking. We blessed him and tried to help him recognize the Spirit. He asked a lot of questions about how we could say “I know” when we’ve never seen God, and we were able to teach and testify of the Spirit and of the Church. We had a great discussion with him and he invited us to join in a “Dinner of Religions” he wants to have to show Tolerance and Friendship. He is really cool and we’re excited to teach him the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration!

We harvested in the complex until 8:45 and still needed two more blessings to reach our goal. Not knowing where to go or what to do, we looked around and saw a window with a light on and a family visible inside. We knew immediately that we needed to go there. We knocked on the door and the father let us in. He was ready for a lesson! We blessed the parents and invited them to be baptized. Although they didn’t accept, they did ask about the Book of Mormon and we were able to again teach and testify. They invited us to return and explain more about the Book as soon as possible!

As we were driving back to our apartment, I remembered the scripture I wrote on our white board last week: Alma 26:27. It seemed to be speaking exactly of our evening since we were feeling depressed and wanted to go home, but went forth and the Lord blessed us with
success!

I’m not sure why our area is not doing as well as it has done in the past, but we will continue improving our diligence, faith, and obedience and expect the miracles to happen eventually.

I love you all and hope you all can find a way to be more faithful and diligent also!

Love, Hermana Sheffield 

September shouldn't still be summer!

... But it is still VERY hot.

Hello friends and family!

Hope you are all doing swimmingly well.

This week went by pretty fast. Although, we did a TON of driving. We had a training meeting on Wednesday and I had to drive up to Plantation. It was nice to see the other trainers for a minute and learn what I'm supposed to be doing. It's nice to know, now that  I've been training for a month now.

We also had to drive down to Homestead on Saturday for our lesson with Wilox and then again on Sunday for Stake Conference! (the Homestead chapel is exactly 15 miles away from our apartment. I've never lived that far away from the stake center!) Not to mention all of the driving to Riverside and Blue Lagoon that we do so often. So yeah, I'm tired of driving. Too bad my companion doesn't have a TIWI card yet!

Stake Conference was pretty great. It was in English and Spanish and a member of the Orlando Temple Presidency Spoke, as well as  President and Sister Anderson! It was cool. President had all of us missionaries (about 30 of us in the stake) stand and recite our purpose. It was pretty cool.

(We also found out that my most recent convert is dating a girl in the ward! YSA win!)

On Friday we had a lesson with Ary. It was our first actual lesson with her and we found out she used to live across the street from an LDS church back in Honduras. She has only been in the United States for 5 months but she is going to Miami-Dade College and already understands a lot of English. Which was helpful in our lesson but not for me. We brought two girls from the branch that have native Spanish-Speaking parents. It turns out, they haven't been speaking it so much lately and couldn't remember words! They had to ask me! It was so funny and really ironic that the only white girl in the room had to tell them the Spanish for words like "trial" and "meeting".  Ary even chastised them for not knowing their native language!  Yay for the gift of tongues!

On Saturday we saw Wilox and had an interesting lesson with him. He is very religious and we taught him the Restoration. However, as we were telling him about Joseph Smith, he was looking through his bible to find something. It was so strange and he just ended up confused. I wanted to pull out my teacher skills to get his attention, and tell him, "if you had listened, you would understand." But I didn't. We'll just have to go over it again later.

We also went to visit a nice older Haitian woman on Saturday night. Why, you ask? Let me tell you: Last week, Sister Chavous received a letter in the mail from one Elder Hennore. He is currently serving in Pocatello, Idaho, but is from Miami. He looked up the missionaries serving in his home stake and saw a picture of Sister Chavous. He was very excited to see that it wasn't another white girl, so he wrote her a letter. In the letter he asked her to call his mom and to talk to his brother, who is 18 and less active. Member referral from across the country! We called her up and she is super sweet. We saw her and she told us all about Jeff (her missionary) and mentioned Nehemiah (her less active son). She is not a member, but was excited to show us the Creole Book of Mormon her son sent her. It was such a random experience but it was so sweet to see how much she loved her son, even though she doesn't understand why he's a missionary or why he thinks the LDS church is true. Don't worry, we'll soften her heart and get her other son active in YSA! It is going to be epic (if we can ever meet him!)  Someday we'll actually meet this Elder Hennore, too!

Well, time is up! I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Tell me all about it!

 Love, Hermana Sheffield

Alma 10:6

Hello all you people who are back at school, or work. And everyone else!

This week has been interesting. Very Roller-Coaster-y. Some days are great, some days are terrible, some days are both. It is very exciting.
You should try it.

Last Friday, the sisters in the mission went on exchanges. I went up to Miami Lakes North with Sister Hymas and Sister Sobkowicz came down to be with Sister Chavous. It was kind of nice to go out of the area and be in a family ward again. It was even nice to be in a Spanish area. Sister Hymas is really good at Spanish, but still struggles to understand and know what to say. It was interesting how, even though I struggle in Spanish also, God helped me to understand what was going on in the lessons so that at least one of us knew what was going on! Sister Hymas is hilarious and dramatic without showing it. Strange, but so true. I can't really describe her, but I hope that one day we get to work together again.

While we were harvesting up there, I felt prompted to give a Book of Mormon to a woman right after we blessed her, which is not something I have done in a really long time. This was right after we knocked on the door of a Jehovah's Witness who prayed for us instead of letting us pray for him. He let us come inside and gave us water (which we really needed) and then proceeded to tell us how the Bible says women can't pray. He talked a lot about random things in the Bible, but we got to agree with him that baptism should be done by immersion and we got to testify of there being a living prophet. He was like, "who is Thomas S. Monson? I've never heard of him!" and we said, "Por eso, Dios nos envio aqui!" [That's why God has sent us here!]  He wasn't too interested in listening, but really wanted to give us a book called "Que dice realmente la bibila?" [What does the Bible really say?] or something to that effect. I said I would take it in exchange for him taking and reading the Book of Mormon. He said he would and we went on our way with a possible return appointment for the Sisters. It was kind of fun.

And, as it turns out, The Book of Mormon is even awesome-er than you thought it was! On Sunday we had a lesson with a very slowly progressing investigator (Emmanuel) and we had to explain more about the Book of Mormon and tell him of the mountain of promised blessings you get from reading it. Hopefully, as he reads, he will progress more quickly, as well as gaining a testimony of the divinity of the Book.

But my own testimony of the BOM is growing, too. The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. It helps me so much everyday. The other day I was reading in Alma 26 (Ammon's homecoming talk) and verse 27 seemed to be about me: "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst they brethren, the YSA in Miami, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." Sometimes the bearing afflictions with patience is the hardest part, but it is the way to bring forth the blessings from the Lord.

One of the downer parts of this week was when we saw two less-active recent converts that both said they didn't feel comfortable at church because they speak more Spanish than English and no one expects anything of them. It was really sad, and reminded me of President Hinckley's charge to get everyone an assignment at church. So, my challenge to all of you is to go out and find someone who should be at church and love them and remember that God loves them and that you will both be blessed by going to church. You can do it. I believe in you.

I love you all! And I love doing crazy missionary things like telling complete strangers to get baptized. It's pretty great.

And in case you are trying to think of things to do for missionaries, I would love some cookies!

Love, Hermana Sheffield