Hello Everyone!
Hope you are all healthy and
warm, despite the low temperatures and nasty inversion in Utah. I won't
go too much into detail about the sunny 70 and 80 degree weather we
have here. Wish you all could be here (doing missionary work), too!
Hope you also had a wonderful New Year! It's 2013! Can you believe it?
We
brought in the New year by being obedient and going to sleep at 10:30
and waking up at 6:20. Then we went to District Training! It was
actually a great meeting and very motivational. We took some district
pictures to celebrate New Year's and then went out to Lunch. We support
the poor people at Sonny's BBQ that had to work on New Year's Day. I'm
not sure they were really happy about that, but we tried.
As usually, this week was filled with the Ups and
Downs of Missionary work. I won't go into detail about too many of the
downs, because everything will be made right through the Atonement of
Christ, but I will share a few up moments we had:
On Wednesday we had a lesson with the guy named
Josue. We just stood on his porch (in the hot sunshine) and talked. The
lesson wasn't super inspiring or anything, but we decided that he looks
like a young Moses from The Prince of Egypt. After realizing it, I just
kept picturing him getting his hair eaten by a camel and kept quoting
"My father. Jethro. High priest of Midian" in my head.
That night, Stacey had us over for dinner! Yay for getting fed by
investigators! We also got to read the Title Page of the Book of Mormon
with her and point out that it was written specifically for her to learn
of Christ (she is a Jew after all!).
Thursday, The Malcarnes had a "recent convert potluck"
at their home. We got a ride down there and were able to see Brandon,
who got a haircut and was much happier and acting like a different
person! The missionaries were in charge of the lesson and we sang "I
Stand all amazed" and then had a lesson on The Atonement. We had people
identify the blessings they'd received from the Atonement, Such as
strength, comfort, happiness, relief from guilt, guidance, etc. And
explained why we need the atonement. We explained what the Atonement is
and how we can only access it through the ordinances (baptism,
sacrament, etc.) It was a really great lesson and helped me to remember
the importance of the what we do as missionaries. We used that same
lesson idea for several of our investigators as well.
Friday was a Dog Day. (Hope you are all singing
Florence and the Machine in your head now.) Everyone we went to visit
had a dog. And most of the dogs had issues (brain cancer, going back to
owner, lung problems, etc). We definitely smelled like Dog the whole
day. But, I got to hold a lizard! Yup I held a wild lizard. It was
great.
Saturday, We went to a Bridal Shower. And we got to
see a Recent Convert from July that I hadn't met yet. They are still
solid in their testimony, just busy serving at a Soup kitchen!
Sunday was a roller coaster all by itself: We found out a
recent convert couple wants their names removed from the records of the
church, Stacey brought her mom to church, Roger and Brandon got
confirmed!, we were in primary and got to sing Faith opera-style, we had
a lesson with and 88 year old woman who said she'd think about getting
baptized on Jan 20th, we got stood up by an solid investigator, and we
had a sweet experience harvesting. This is what I told President:
"All week we harvested mightily. We had an intense
desire to find the elect because we haven't had much success lately. AND
we had a very motivating District Training. So all week we worked hard,
harvesting more than an hour a day in hot sun and rain. But alas, we
continued all week and still found no one who said Yes to baptism. We
left many blessings, but no one was ready for the Gospel. By the time
Sunday came and we still had no blessings, we were doing our very best
to not get discouraged. We prayed once again to know where to go. We
picked a street and drove to it. As we drove down the street, we felt
uninspired by it and decided to turn the corner to the next street. We
felt a little better about that one. We parked and realized how dark it
had gotten. We try not to harvest at night in this particular area
because there are no street lights, but we decided to go for it anyway.
We knocked the whole street. Only 2 people let us pray for them. Neither
wanted to be baptized. It was really dark so we decided to knock the
doors on the other side of the street on our way back to the car. The
first door we knocked on that side was Michelle. She was a little abrupt
with us and not super interested in a prayer, but when we asked if
there was anyone she would like us to include in the prayer, she
mentioned her Grandfather. After the prayer, she was a bit shocked and
tearing up. She said she felt so grateful that we had prayed for her
Grandfather. We told her she was feeling the spirit and invited her to
be baptized. She said "I've never been baptized! Maybe you were sent to
help me!" We testified that we were and set her for baptism on the 20th!
It was a great moment for us because we realized God still loved us!
(not that we really thought otherwise, but it was nice to have that
reminder!)
I think I've been too much worried about the "doing"
part of missionary work that I've neglected the "being" part. I have
been very concerned about the numbers and things not working out how
everyone tells me they should be. So it makes me feel like I'm doing
something wrong. But It really comes down to who I am instead. I have
decided to up my studies to focus on the doctrine I felt like I knew
backwards and forwards, and to strive to be more Christlike in my
personal conduct. As I become a better missionary and instrument in
God's hands, I know the desired growth in our area will increase. And
even if it takes a while to do so, I will have the patience and humility
to wait for God's timing."
Missionary work never goes as expected, but it is
always good and will always bring happiness, peace, and comfort. There
is no way to get these feelings from the world, they only come from God
when we obey his commandments. Sharing your testimony with others will
bring you these feelings and inspire you to always have them with you. I
love the fact that I get to share my testimony everyday. I hope you all
take those opportunities that arise to share yours, as well.
Have a wonderful week!
Love, Hermana Sheffield
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