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
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