Thanksgoing

Hello Everybody! (Hello Dr. Nick!)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are now all filled with turkey and gratitude. This week was a little crazy, but when is missionary work not? It was strange to be here for a second Thanksgiving. This one was actually very similar to last year. Let me elaborate.

To start off the Holiday, we went harvesting!! So, we hardly ever go knock on doors at noon or in neighborhoods with large houses because they aren't usually very fruitful. However, it being a holiday, we decided to try. And although we didn't get any new investigators from it, we blessed 4 people! it was cool. We were all nervous beforehand. So funny.

We were invited to eat Thanksgiving Lunch with a member of the Blue Lagoon ward. After some drama of whether we had permission to go there or not, we drove up there and had a great time. There were about 25 people there in the Relief Society room (the same room we have district training in) and there was a ton of food and nice table cloths and center pieces and fine china plasticware. It was great. We ate until we could eat no more, and then had dessert. We all expressed gratitude and enjoyed each others' company, as per usual.

Then we checked on some folks and left some notes and went to Thanksgiving Dinner at the Snyders. They have a lot of family that is less active and they are all super nice, but not interested. That was a fun meal because She is Cuban and he is very American and likes to cook, so we ended up with a lot of different food. I wasn't even very hungry, but I found some things that weren't at the first dinner to enjoy. Then Sister Snyder brought us out some soup and this guy wanted us to try his rye bread so we were entirely stuffed. They asked us to teach the little kids something about thanksgiving, but it took forever for them to all get there. We ended up being there for hours (long enough that they were able to watch all of 'Brave' while we were there. Don't worry, I stayed in the other room.). Plus, although it was nice enough to eat outside, when it got dark, it actually got kind of cold. Don't laugh at me for being cold when it is 65 degrees outside. Anyway, we had the little kids write what they are thankful for on feathers that we taped to a turkey and read a scripture and explained how all our blessings come from God. It was sweet. It made me feel like an elementary school teacher. yay!

Also, we had a pretty sweet experience harvesting this week: On Wednesday night, we went harvesting in a neighborhood of homes we haven't been to for a long time. We drove past a street that we felt really good about, so we circled back around and decided to knock there. The first door we knocked on was a Jehovah's Witness that was actually very nice even though he wouldn't let us pray with him. The next house was a mom named Rachel who opened the door and readily let us pray for her, she let us come inside even though she was getting ready for Thanksgiving and let us turn off the music to have a spiritual experience. When we invited her to be baptized after the blessing, she told us she had been baptized in 2010 in the MetroLife Church. We testified that this was an opportunity for her to recommit to following Jesus Christ. She responded "I can get baptized again? Ok. Let me talk to my husband!" We set her with a date for Dec. 9th and got a return appointment to talk with the whole family! We ended up not getting any other return appointments on that street, but I now we were sent there just for her! We were so filled with the Spirit after meeting her that would couldn't stop smiling all night!

Then on Friday we came back for our return appointment. We showed up right on time and she answered the door and said her husband wasn't home and that she really wanted it to be a family thing. She gave us her number and then said she'd call us when he got home in the next hour. 40 minutes later she called and said we could come over. When we first started talking to them, Rachel brought up the baptism on Dec. 9th! We explained our purpose and talked about the atonement and the Book of Mormon. And even though they had never heard of the Book of Mormon before, the 10 year old Alex actually said "I love this book!" before we left! Nick, the Dad said they would come to church and we left feeling better then we have in a long time!

After their lesson, we went back to a guy we blessed earlier in the week. His name is Ray (Santos Ramos) and he is entirely a shark (from West Side Story)! He grew up in Spanish Harlem and is Puerto Rican. He has a 4 year old daughter and wants to be a good example to her. We ended up setting him with a date for the 2nd! He told us that the day before we came to bless him he went to this Tarot card reader and she said that two girls were going to come into his life to help him! And boom, there we were. So cool. He was totally down with coming to church and the Book of Mormon and everything. It was a very miraculous day!

Unfortunately, neither of these families came to church. However, a random former investigator showed up with her daughters! It was very unexpected, but I am grateful at least one person was able to make it! We had a good meeting. I know I learned a lot from Sacrament meeting about being grateful for the blessings, even amidst the trials we face. Timely advice.

Well, That just about sums up my week. Ish. Ok, not really, but time is pressing and I can't say anymore. But I truly hope you are all grateful for the blessings you have in your lives. Especially, be grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ because everything pretty much comes through him. You can't get anywhere without him!

Love you all, have an enjoyable end of Thanksgiving!

Love, Hermana Sheffield
P.S. go check out www.mormon.org/christmas and invite your friends!