Ether 15:31

October 29, 2012

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Greetings, family and friends, from the wonderful land of . . .

 

MIAMI

 

Yes, that's right, folks. I'm still here. Except this time it's different. Let me explain.

 

I have been serving in the Miami Zone for about 6 months. I was serving in YSA which actually covered about 12 other proselyting areas in two zones (pretty ridiculous actually). I was the oldest person in the zone (in terms of time served in the zone and by actual age, but I'm pretty much always the oldest age-wise). So when we got transfer news that I was being transferred, it was kind of a big deal that I was no longer going to be there.

 

So Wednesday morning comes, we say goodbye to Sister Hancock who is now safely at home and not a missionary, and were getting ready to load up all my stuff to go to transfer meeting when we get a phone call from the Assistants. They told us that I didn't need to bring my stuff because I was moving across the hall! I got transferred to Killian West! So I dragged my stuff to the other bedroom and we drove up to the meeting to get Sister Chavous' new companion. We decided not to tell Sister Syme on the way up, so she got a big surprise when they announced that I would be joining her! She just finished her training and I feel like I was a little part of it since we all lived together!

 

Killian West is a bilingual area and we serve in the ward with the Zone Leaders. They just got a new bishop and don't have a ward mission leader or Elders Quorum president yet. Good times.

 

Needless to say, it has been very interesting to still be living at 7440 SW 107th Ave #8104 and not be going to YSA. It was harder than I thought it would be to leave. I didn't realize how much I care about all of them, especially my recent converts there!  At least I still get to see them! (which is awesome, but also hard because I'm trying to focus on families now, but whatever).

 

Speaking of recent converts, Alvaro finally got confirmed!!!!! Hooray!!!!!

 

And Frank. I'm not really sure if I mentioned him before, but he came to institute and church last week and we taught him a couple of times. On Tuesday, he came to the activity and I told him I was getting transferred. He was (surprisingly) sad. (Frank is like a 25 year old football player-looking dude. So the fact that he would show any sort of emotion is pretty strange.)  Anyway, since I stayed I got to go to his BAPTISM yesterday! It wa so amazing! I guess he just found the way to fill the emptiness in his life through the YSA people! It was incredible!  He was glad to see both Sister Syme and I there (she was the one who found him!) and he came to church (for maybe the 4th time in his entire life) in a suit and tie! He said a few word before his actual baptism and explained how the members of the church he had met renewed his faith in people in general because they were genuinely nice. He also said that the spirit sometimes speaks to him through movies. When the sisters invited him to be baptized, he remembered the scene from The Last Crusade when Indiana Jones takes a leap of faith to find the bridge that is camouflaged. So he decided to take a leap of faith, too. He is definitely one of the elect! I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to teach him!

 

Here's a little bit about Sister Syme: She is from Sacramento, CA and has been on her mission since July 18th. She just turned 22 (on the 17th of October) and she is a bomb missionary. She is a born leader and has a burning fiery passion for finding and baptizing the elect of God's Children. She has two older siblings. Her brother went on a mission and is now married and she is super happy to be here and work really hard.

 

We had some other pretty great things happen this week, but I can't really remember them right now because Coldplay is playing in the room next to us and that is all I can think about at the moment. I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing. . .

 

So, if there is anything else in particular you want to know, send me an email. or better yet, send me a letter and I will be glad to write you about some awesome experiences.

 

Or, you could go have some awesome experiences doing the work of God and tell me about it! That would be cool, too.

 

I love you all and wish you all could be here, too!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

October in Florida has Come Again

October 23, 2012

Yes that's right, Family and Friends, I have been in Florida for an entire year! I welcome this time of year again, because it isn't so ridiculously hot anymore. At least, not everyday!

And, just so you all know,

I am getting TRANSFERRED!!

Yup, I'm finally leaving Miami after being here since May. I have to say good bye to Snapper Creek YSA which brought some good times, and some really difficult times, but overall made me a better person. I hope.

I have gained a new appreciation for the 3 Nephites this week. The were promised to never feel pain except for the sorrow that comes from wickedness. I'm here to tell you that the wickedness of others is pretty painful.

The thing that made our week most stressful was our recent converts. Both of them said they did not want to come back to church anymore! It was so sad! We had a fast for Alvaro (who still hasn't received the Holy Ghost) and he changed his mind and decided to come, but then he slept in and no one could wake him up for church! Then Jaclyn called and told us there was too much "sin" in the church and she couldn't stay. She is convinced that God told her to leave and that the leaders are teaching false doctrine! I was so crushed when I heard this it literally made me sick. I guess she doesn't have a solid understanding of the Restoration. She believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, but she also thinks she is. She is at least still willing to meet with us because she says we have pure hearts, but will not come back to church. This is why it is not recommended that recent converts move into homes run by other churches. Or maybe it's just Jaclyn. Either way, I'll let you know when I find all the pieces of my shattered heart.

Ok. That was a little dramatic, but can you think of something sadder than someone leaving the church like this? It is not something I want anyone else to ever feel.

One of the more up-parts of this week was when I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time. I finished it in a little less than 3 months and really enjoyed going through this time looking for the blessings of the atonement. I found so many of the blessings I already have in my life that come from the Atonement, as well as many more that I can have as I live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My testimony of the atonment as certainly grown, not only by reading about it, but also by living it - using it in my own life.  How many blesisngs can you find?

We did, however, get some sweet new investigators this week. Frank was found by the other sisters. He showed up at institute and we met with him the next day, taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He came to church on Sunday and we met with him again yesterday to teach the Plan of Salvation. He is so awesome and has a sincere desire to find the truth and fill the emptiness that has come into his life because of the negative experiences he has had with his ex-girlfriend and his parents' recent divorce. He is getting baptized and doesn't even know it yet!  (plus, he is 25 and of football-player build, so he is very welcomed into the branch!)

On Saturday night, we knew we were behind in blessings and wanted to go harvesting. As we were choosing a place to go, we both felt like we needed to go visit a referral we received from other missionaries. Following this prompting, we drove out to see "Jones." As we walked up to his house, he walked out. We introduced ourselves and had a good chat in his driveway. We talked with him and shared a scripture that really touched him. He accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon and to come to church! We set up a ride for him and the next day, he showed up! He has been through a lot in his life, including a recent death of his brother (during a home-invasion. Yes, Mike Jones is a complete gangster, with friends on the most wanted list!), and is really looking for peace. I am so glad we followed the spirit and that he was able to come to church! So sad that I don't get to teach him anymore!

Well, I don't know where I'm going to go, but I'll let you know. Next week. When I've already been there for almost a week. Fun times.

Love you all! Keep Spreading the Word! And PLEASE live your testimony to the fullest. People are watching your example!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

Feb-tober

Hello my beautiful family! And all you other people not sitting on a cushion.

Being a missionary is great. Have you tried it?

I have five minutes, so this enjoy this quoted material from my week:

This week was pretty incredible. We got more "blessings" than we have ever gotten here in Snapper Creek! We were led to some great areas that were filled with people ready to hear the Gospel! After our Zone training this week when we learned how to ask for referrals while harvesting, we went out and applied what we learned. We got 6 referrals this week! Almost everyone that we blessed, we asked who else they knew that needed a blessing. We were able to contact several of them. One man was not receptive from our normal approach, but as we explained that his neighbors had told us to come to him, he was much more open and allowed us to pray with him! Another woman was referred to us by her nephew and even though he told us to go visit her, she still recognized us as being sent by God! As we were leaving the area, we were a little late for an appointment. We handed a card to someone as we were walking and then were crossing the parking lot when a man called out to us. He had been sitting on the side and saw us giving out a card and wanted a book, also. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and a card, briefly explained what it was and asked if we could come back and bless him. He accepted and pointed out where he lived. I am so grateful he called out to us! [Note: This is almost an entire area of black people. We met people who didn't believe in God, people who were doing hair weaves, a nice femmy man who sang for us his favorite Gospel song ("Who you are") (Who had MC Hammer hair), a kid about to roll his weed, and a family who seriously needs therapy. Good times.]

We also had an incredible experience with a member blessing this week. Our Branch President asked us to go visit a semi-less active sister in our ward. We set up a time with her and tried to figure out something to share with her without really knowing what she needed. I had just read Elder Holland's talk from the CES broadcast and decided to share a little thought about creating Zion where you are instead of fleeing to it. When we got to her house we got to know her and found out some of the difficult past she's had. We shared our thought and she didn't seem overly excited about it. We also explained harvesting, shared some experiences, and blessed her and her home with the things she needed. We got a referral from her and left. The next day, she texted us and said, "I just want you sisters to know how much better I have felt since yesterday! My heart definitely doesn't hurt as much. Also, within an hour of parting, I received an answer to my question. I'm really glad you came and I'm really glad you read part of that talk to me. It helped me realize that Miami isn't necessarily the cause of my problem . . . I need to keep my feet planted instead of being so flighty. Maybe not the exact purpose of the talk, but that's the message I got. I'm really grateful you came!" It was so wonderful that she was seeing blessings in her life and that we were able to be instruments in God's hands to help her!

We met a really cool guy last week and stopped by his house this week to see if he was really interested. He let us in and we talked with his mom and him for a while. He expressed his feelings about God and life and was practically teaching the first half of the Plan of salvation and bearing his testimony of the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity without using any of the lingo. He said he really enjoyed reading about ancient religions and we were so excited to share with him The Book of Mormon and explain that it came from the Ancient inhabitants of the Americas! He was really interested and promised to read it!

One of our investigators that was preparing for Baptism expressed to us this week that he didn't think he should be reading in the Book of Mormon because the Bible says to not add anything to the Words of God. We had a good lesson where we were able to testify of the book and committed him to read it and find out for himself. When we called later in the week to follow up, he said "I think it's true, but I have a question about baptism. When can I do that?" We were so excited and set him with a date right there on the phone! The Book of Mormon is amazing!

So that was the majority of our week. We also had some fun times going to PEPBOYS, had a lesson where we spent most of the time talking about how Japan is trying to 'protect itself' by getting more weapons to attack other countries (namely China), had an interesting scolding from our ward mission leader for having baptisms in 10 days, and had one lonely, sad member-present lesson. Also, Alvaro slept in and didn't make it to church until third hour, so he didn't get confirmed. :( Yes, he slept in even though we have 1 o'clock church!)

There are many more stories from this week that I would love to share with you all. Send me your address attached to a letter and I will share them with you! You will not regret it, I promise!

Have a wonderful fall week!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

Sister Chavous: "What Can I Say? I'm a Miami Miracle Maker!"

[NOTE:This entry should be read by saying "Yeah" for every exclamation point (!).]

Dear Family and Friends!

What a glorious time it is to be a member of the True Church of God!

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THE BEST!!! (that's right, say "yeahyeahyeah" just like Sister Chavous would)

Hopefully you all saw it and were able to enjoy and apply the inspired messages, too. Because there were SO many great things said that we can all benefit from!  Plus, there is nothing like watching the first Session on Saturday morning right after your investigator passes his baptismal interview and sitting next to you is your recent convert who is eagerly taking notes to find out GIRLS CAN GO ON MISSIONS AT AGE 19!!!  So awesome.

Jaclyn is doing great! She may be trying to prophesy for people every once in a while, but she is very involved in the world and excited to get married in the San Diego Temple one day!

Speaking of California, one of the members of the Branch here (who got baptized 15 months ago) got his mission call to California Los Angeles! Way to go, Alex!

And yes, we had ANOTHER BAPTISM this week! It was incredible!

Alvaro Mendoza came to church last week. We taught him for the first time on Monday (the elders taught him twice before) and taught him the Restoration and The Word of Wisdom (the only thing he didn't have a problem with was coffee!) and he accepted the challenge. We saw him everyday and taught him all the other lessons by Friday. It wasn't until Friday that we found out he would need to have a second interview, but we called President and he said he could come Saturday Morning. Although the Branch wasn't really accepting of him getting baptized so quickly, President Anderson said he was ready to go. So with a lot of stress and working with the other sisters, we got the baptismal program all set (jointly because 2 others got baptized at the same time!). After Conference on Sunday Morning, Alvaro was baptized! Afterwards, we asked him how he felt and he said, "Real good man, I feel like a burden's been lifted, you know?" So, although he had no idea this was a Mormon Church when he wondered into it last week, he found exactly what he was looking for and so much more. Like the path to Eternal Salvation. The Atonement is real and works. You just have to know how (and have the authority) to use it!

Here's the harvesting experience I shared with President this week:

     "This week our zone was working on all getting 20 blessings. We have never gotten over 16 but we were determined. On Wednesday, we started the day off with 0. We had some lessons scheduled for that day and knew we had to harvest a lot, but we found ourselves at 5 o'clock and still no blessings. With a lesson that could easily run long at 6, we were determined to find people to bless. We stopped by a less-active with no answer and decide to knock the doors of his neighbor. The first door we knocked on was Rosy. She let us in and brought her friend Steve out and they both knelt down with us as we blessed them. Afterwards, Rosy readily accepted baptism and even a date for the 21st! And Steve said he'd already been baptized, but still wants to see us again! It was so great! We found 3 other people in that apartment complex to bless before we had to leave!

     Then after the lesson, which did run long, we had about 1 hour to harvest before we needed to drive home. We had no idea where to go, so we pulled into a parking lot and prayed. Still not knowing the area or where to go, we started driving. We turned down a street that looked pretty dark, but there was an apartment complex at the end! We both knew we could find success there. We prayed again and got to work. We blessed a man and his two children and their next door neighbor who is YSA and was very interested in the blessings we could promise her. Just as we were setting up a return appointment with her, a girl on the stairs behind us called to us and asked if we were praying with people. When we said yes she asked if we could come pray with her. We finished getting the info we needed and we directly to her. She told us some of the very difficult things she is going through and we blessed her and her cousin. They were both very appreciative and said they were looking for a church that would not be so judgmental. We gave her a chapel card with our phone number and a mormon.org card since one of them went to school out of town.  After being able to have a little lesson with them, we left and realized we needed to get home. Knowing we only needed one more blessing, my companion wasn't about to give up. As we were walking back towards the car, we saw a woman pull up into the parking lot. As she got out of her car, my companion walked right up to her and introduced herself. I was so impressed with her boldness and so was the woman. We were able to bless her and reach our goal! I know Heavenly Father blessed us for our perseverance. He truly answers prayers!

On Friday, we walked around a lot (in the hot 90 degree weather) and found a ysa in a parking lot. We stopped him and prayed with him and then found out he was baptized! He has clearly lost his way and doesn't really know the truth he once had, but it was such a miracle to randomly find him in a parking lot. He might not be ready now to come back to the fold, but at least we were there to remind him. Missionaries = guided by God.

    After Conference on Saturday, we tried to find people to bless, but we had little success. We only found 1 person willing to talk to us. But, he turned out to be a YSA that accepted a baptismal date for the 21st and agreed to come to conference! (He didn't, but that's okay)

     Then on Sunday night, we needed 8 blessings again to reach our zone goal. As soon as conference ended we went out to harvest. We found an apartment complex we'd never been to and were able to bless the first door we knocked on. As we came out, it was pouring rain! We didn't have our umbrellas, so we stopped under a porch to decide what to do. We knew we couldn't give up, so we prayed that God would help us have the strength and patience to continue on despite the rain and kept going. We were able to bless 2 people even though we were wet and then the rain stopped and we were able to keep going and find many people who were in need of a blessing! Harvesting is full of miracles!"

I am super excited to go back and read the conference addresses over and over. I feel like I can never get enough of the things God wants us to know right now. And although I don't feel like I am capable of all that I have to do, I know that God loves us, is ever-mindful of us, and will help us accomplish all that we need to do. And we can be happy while we do it!

I love you all!  Have a wonderful and epic week serving others!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

I Love October!!!!

Hello everyone!

In case you didn't notice, I love October!!!!
Thank you for all the Birthday wishes!  [It is Anna's birthday today!]

This week was fantastic and amazing. God truly does love each and everyone of us. And this week He showed his love to Snapper Creek YSA.

We had a BAPTISM!!!! Jaclyn Lane was baptized yesterday!!! She is SO amazing and is now a member of the Church with all the blessings associated with that! She also has some great ebonics going on. She is
fittin' to bake us some sweet potato pie.

Here is my update to President Anderson, because once again, I don't have time to write a whole new letter.

This week was fantastic! We had some incredible blessings in our area!

First of All: Jaclyn. The Elders in Homestead gave us her information last Sunday after she came to church for the second time. We called her and set up an appointment for the next day. We drove down to meet
her and were able to learn all about her and teach her the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. She basically already believed in taking care of our bodies and had a testimony of the Law of Chastity before we even mentioned it! She had also set herself a date to quit smoking when she accepted the baptismal invitation, just to give herself a fresh start! She is incredible! She is very in tune with the Spirit and was able to quit smoking, learn all about the church, and even become friends with several members before her baptism yesterday. It was such a beautiful program! She was SO HAPPY! It surprised Sister Chavous to see how stressful baptisms are, but we are both very grateful for this blessing falling into our area!

Church yesterday was a miracle by itself. We had 5 investigators at church! That is more than I have ever had here in YSA! All 3 of our progressing investigators came, as well as two new investigators; Alvero wandered into the church a few days ago and met the Elders, and Ana was a member’s friend. They both really enjoyed church and the baptism!  Ana, Shan, and Jaclyn all stayed for the potluck dinner and Fireside, as well! And Christian and Alvero both want to be baptized next week!

Staying to make sure our investigators were taken care of took a long time, and we still needed 4 blessings to get to 15, but we knew that God would help us find people even though the circumstances weren’t ideal. After the fireside, we were able to bless 4 people in 45 minutes! We even found 2 apartments of YSAs!  We kept going and were able to find woman very much in need of a blessing and checked on a potential investigator before going home.

Part of what made this week so great was the Specialized Training we had. I felt very honored to be able to go and am so grateful for all we learned there about accountability, the missionary pride cycle, and Showing charity and optimism. Also, the Relief Society Broadcast was amazing! All the talks (or the three we heard before getting home on time!) were about the Atonement, which is always something everyone needs to learn more about. They were so powerful and we even used thoughts from them in our next lesson! I am so glad we got to go and I am so excited for General Conference!

This week we were able to use the Book of Mormon to teach Shan about Christ. He has very little Christian background and kind of wanted to read the Bible first, but as we taught of Christ using the Book of Mormon, he recognized that he can learn of Christ through this great book. He has such a thirst for knowledge! I am excited for the challenge of answering his questions! We taught him for almost 3 hours on Saturday and he didn't even want us to go because he still had more questions.


I love you all!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

Jaclyn's baptism

Me and my birthday presents from home, including the new skirt.  Yay for new clothes!