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