There and Back Again

Dear everyone.

This is the last time I will write from Florida as a Full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It is bittersweet, as I would love to stay but am happy to return to the land of my fathers.

 

I'm not really sure how to express my feelings right now, but I tried to as I wrote to my Mission President one last time. So I hope you will permit me to share with you what I shared with him. If it doesn't all make sense, I'll explain later.

 

"Dear President Anderson,

I can't believe this is it. I really don't want to leave because being a part of this mission has been such a wonderful experience and I know that it will only go up from here. But, alas, I must go, because that is the way God wants it to be. 

 

I really have loved being here in Florida. Not only was the weather nice, but the people are amazing, and the spirit of this mission is incredible. I am so grateful that I got to serve in such an obedient mission that is worthy of bringing forth miracles. Even today, as we went out to eat with several members, we were blessed with a miracle. One of the waitresses came up to us and said, "With so many Mormons all in one place, there must be a church around here somewhere!" We laughed and she told us she had just moved here from New York. Luckily, I had a chapel card with me and the member immediately invited her to a new member dinner they are having on Thursday. It was awesome. Afterwards, the member noted the miracle saying, "If you weren't going home, we wouldn't have been here to meet that woman! God definitely has everything planned out, doesn't He!" I was grateful to be an instrument in God's plan once again.

 

At the end of District Training yesterday, our district leader had me share my testimony before I left. I was going to stand up and say the common "I know the church is true . . ." but I stopped and decided to share some of what I've learned on my mission. As I spoke I realized how important my mission has been and will be in my life. I can already see the changes that have come as I have gone through experiences and used the Atonement during my mission, and I know this is just a school of sorts for the rest of my life. As a member put it, a mission is for you to learn and become so that when you go home you can apply and use all the knowledge you have gained. But if you don't maintain or continue adding to what you've learned you may regress. 

 

I also came to understand a quote I found towards the beginning of my mission in "Jesus: The Perfect Leader" that says "Stretch your soul in fresh achievement . . . to bring about lasting change." When we accomplish a goal we've never before reached we set that as a new capstone. Never again should we go back to old comforts for we know and have seen ourselves at that higher level. If we consistently strive to reach a capstone or fresh goal, we will continually move higher until we no longer have any desire to reach anything less. I remember at the beginning of my mission when we were struggling to get 12 blessings in a week. Now we strive to get 12 by Wednesday without giving a moments hesitation. Also at the beginning of my mission, the mission had a goal to get 100 baptisms in a month. Now we achieve this regularly and strive for more. I have no doubt that this mission will set 150 or 200 baptisms as a norm in the near future. This is possible because we are only restricted by our own limited faith and can perform miracles for the Lord if we only choose to believe. Never again will we be content with 100 baptisms or 12 blessings in a week because our faith as grown to a perfect knowledge that we are capable of far more.

 

One more thing I learned this week is that when we truly have faith, and show it by our hard work and diligence, God may still not bless us when we think he should! His timing is perfect and He knows exactly when we need the blessings we have "earned."  I am comforted to know that God does not show his love in the way that mankind tries to measure it. It is not in the outward blessings others can see that you have, but in the peace and joy in your own soul.

 

I thank you for all you have done and will continue to do for this great mission. I feel truly blessed to have served here and will remember it everyday of my life.

 

Love, Sister Sheffield"

Name 100 things you've learned in the last 18 months

Dear Family and Friends,
This is a letter. It contains the thoughts I have as I reflect on the past week. It is not the last. But almost!

Alright, the fact that I am going home so soon has actually started to creep into my thoughts. Once in a while. But because of that, I'd rather GO and DO now and TELL you all about it later.
And while I love you all, I don't know what's going on in your world to make this relevant to you.

So here is a brief run down of the week:
Tuesday, biking. See below.
Wednesday, Weekly planning! and No correlation. But Sister Boylston came with us to see Stacey! We had a lesson outside because it was really nice weather. Yup I said it.
Thursday, Valentine's Day! We had a conference with Elder O.Vincent Haleck of the Seventy! It was awesome. Then I went on exchanges to Palm Beach Central! I didn't get to see any of my recent converts, but I did get to see Randolph Gaines, a man who I found and was then baptized in the English ward! (He had very little memory of me!)
Friday, woke up in Palm Beach! It was rainy. I got a really bad headache. Blah.
Saturday was cold. We found some cool people including Devarius, who accepted baptism!
Sunday was colder (the high was 58) and no one came to church. (Okay so there were lots of people at church, just none of our investigators)
Monday, District Training. It was great. then we had 3 dinner appointments (we only made it to two.) We found an awesome woman in an apartment that used to have a member family. See below.
Tuesday, back up to 75 degrees. I think we'll go play mini-golf.

. . . and some of what I wrote to President:

"It still surprises me that Satan can use so many different tactics to try to get a missionary down! I have been working/praying really hard to be sure that I don't get "trunky" or slack off, and Satan knows it. This week, he used emotions, weather, physical strength, companions, and investigators to try to get me down. While I wish I could say that I paid no heed to these things, they did manage to slow me down a few times. But, because of the wonderful gift of the Atonement, I was able to repent and get up and get going and doing again fairly soon! Now I just have to work on not letting those things affect me at all!

This week was interesting. It definitely didn't turn out how we had planned, or wanted it to go, but we were still able to see some amazing miracles. Tuesday night, we were riding our bikes. We had harvested until it was too dark to see because all of our lessons had fallen through and then went to see some old potential investigators. As we were biking, we stopped and contacted a man on the sidewalk. He was on the phone and didn't really speak English, but we gave him a Book of Mormon pass-along card anyway. We started going again and then heard someone calling out to us. I stopped and turned around to see the man walking back toward us. As we caught back up with him, he said "I Mormon!" In a broken mixture of English and French, we found out that his name was Joseph, that he had been baptized in Haiti and had moved here and couldn't find the church. We gave him the address of the church, our phone number and the number of a woman in the ward who speaks Creole. He was so happy! On Sunday, another family in the ward picked him and his daughter up. I was so excited to see them in the Chapel! I knew we had been inspired by the Spirit to go visit that potential (who wasn't even home) so that we could meet Joseph on the street. I am grateful that God could trust us to follow the Spirit so that Joseph could find the church!

On Sunday in ward council meeting, the Bishop wanted to go through the ward list to identify as many people as possible. He invited the missionaries and we were able to give information about individuals that we had met and that former missionaries had made notes about. I was grateful that we were allowed to be a part of that and feel more like we are part of the fiber of the ward. We were also able to get the names of some less actives that no one knew about and are excited to visit as many as possible to report back to the ward council next week. In fact, yesterday we stopped by a family that lives close to us. There was a note by their name that they were attending a Methodist church now, but we went by to see if we could member-bless them. Turns out, they don't live there anymore! But the woman who answered the door was very nice and let us in to leave a blessing in her home. She didn't speak much English either, but after the prayer she asked if we could come back again and pray for her family some more! We readily agreed! She definitely felt the spirit, even though she probably couldn't understand most of the words in the prayer. We are excited to go back and visit her with a member that can communicate better with her!"


Now, should you have any questions or requests for souvenirs, please send me a letter immediately. As in today or tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll see you soon.

Bye for now!
Love, Hermana Sheffield

Stay tuned next week as Sister Sheffield explains how her departing interview went and how amazing miracles happened!

When I share the Gospel, there's not a thing I would change

February 11, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Febtober. Febril. Febuly. What does it feel like to you?

This week was great! We accomplished things we've never done before! Our area got 37 harvest blessings this week! AND our zone got 317 blessings! New "Capstones" reached all the time here in the Stuart Capstone Zone.  Now it is on to New investigators!

There were several times this week that I wanted to throw the phone at the wall. The first time was when Pierre finally answered his phone and pretty much told us he was too busy for us and wasn't coming to church because it was really different from what he's used to and would take him a while to be okay with it. Boo.

Then we got a text message from Dallas. It said, "After much pondering and prayer I have come to the conclusion that the LDS church is not true." After resisting the urge to throw the phone and yell and scream and cry. I texted her back and said, "I know how much our Heavenly Father loves you and will reward your patience and diligence in seeking out the truth. I know the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church. . ."  I am still broken-hearted that she of all people could come to that conclusion, but I know that one day she WILL know the truth that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is truly the Lord's Church on the Earth today and that there is no other way to salvation and a fullness of joy. I continue to pray that Dallas and her family will remember the things they learned and lived so they too can have the joy that I have felt from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In that same vain, we had an interesting experience this week. We were harvesting early on in the week and we met a girl named Maria. She was getting her mail and was holding the pass along card we had put on her door. As we talked with her, she asked, "What's Mormon?" So we explained a little and she got her sister and we went inside her house so we could sit down and explain more.  We talked with them about the Atonement and introduced the Book of Mormon and then they started asking questions. Maria's main concern was about heaven and she was excited by the idea of the Spirit world. Both girls had a lot of questions and we answered several of them and then had to go. We came back a few days later with Sister Boylston. Unfortunately, Maria's older sister was there. She is VERY active in her non-denominational church, and very bold in telling us about her beliefs (which make no sense to me. I mean, how can three separate beings all be one? and how can we just believe in Christ and then be "saved"?). We barely got a word in at all. By the time we left, Sister Boylston said, "I feel like we've just taken a beating!" And we definitely were glad to be out of there.  Then a few days later, Maria texted us back and said she wanted us to come answer a few more questions that we didn't get to answer before. Thinking it would just be her, we went back over. Unfortunately, the sister was there again. Things went a little better this time and we actually got to teach about the plan of salvation. She of course had some way of disputing every single part of it with scriptures that she doesn't understand at all. 

SO from all of this, I learned that some people are too hard-hearted to accept or even listen to the Gospel. I also learned that Modern Revelation is SO NECESSARY to our understanding of the scriptures and God's plan for us. Meeting with Maria and her sister really helped me to strengthen my own testimony of the Restored Gospel, of the Book of Mormon, and of the Church.  Other experiences I had this week greatly strengthened by testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Now we just need to find some people to teach, so I can share all of this wonderful knowledge with them!

One really great moment with the phone this week was when the Sisters in the newly created Palm Beach Central area called. They told us we are going to have exchanges this week! And I get to go down to West Palm again!!!!  I was literally jumping up and down I was so excited!

That was pretty much it. Of course there were other things that happened, but the important thing is that we be obedient and keep working. So It's time to go and do.

I hope you all feel the warmth of the Spirit as you read or share the Book of Mormon this week. Especially those of you in the cold places of the world.  Don't fret. Don't doubt. Don't Fear. February will be over soon.

I Love you All!!!!

Love, Hermana Sheffield

"Love Her As I Loved Her!"

February 4, 2013

Dear Fambamly and Fry-ends,

Hello from the land of rainbows, butterflies, and Sunshine. Literally. We've had all three this week! Sorry if you haven't had such things.  I also got sunburned this week as we were out on bikes and talking with people for long periods of time in the sun.  But don't worry, January is over! And February has the redeeming quality of being only 28 days long! So the end is near! (Of winter, not of my mission because we're not going to talk about that)

This week I accomplished something I had never done here before. We left 15 blessings in one day! Saturday was filled with knocking on doors and not much else. But hey, check off that goal.

Much to our dismay, we were only able to see our awesome Haitian Friend Pierre once this week. He was really busy I guess. Actually, he went with his wife to a different church on Sunday so we didn't even see him then. But in our lesson on Friday, he said he wanted to put a picture of the Plan of Salvation on his wall because it showed the whole picture of Life. He really loved it. That's because it is TRUE, Pierre!

On Thursday we went to the Malcarne's again. Pretty good turn out, except for OUR recent converts. Good thing the Elders' converts are always there!

Looking back, my week doesn't seem too completely exciting. So here is some highlights I wrote to President! (shocking that I would resort to this, I know.)

"I love Fast Sunday! None of our investigators came to church, but a less active guy that moved here from Idaho showed up! During personal study, I sought out the answer to the question of what I could do better to help Sister Jackson and our companionship unity. I read the account of Samuel the Lamanite and noticed this time how he had preached for days with no success before he was finally cast out. Then he was directed to return and preach again among the same people. I realized that not everyday is an "Ammon converting King Lamoni" day or a Nephi and Lehi baptizing 8,000 type of week. Sometimes we have those days that barely get mentioned in the Book of Mormon, when the great prophets and missionaries were preaching tirelessly with no success. But the reason we can continue moving forward and continue to knock on the next door is because we have that hope and faith in Jesus Christ that all will be made right and that there are people in this area that are waiting for us at this time. As we continue to better ourselves and make sure that we are trustworthy instruments in the hands of the Lord, He is preparing people for us. There is occasionally some disappointing or discouraging moments we have to face, but I know they can help us grow. So here we are, growing the best we can, and pasting that smile on our face until it becomes real. 

I truly love this work. And even though it is WORK, I am so glad I am here doing it.

I feel successful as a missionary this week because of an experience we had on Wednesday. We were on bikes all day long, checking on people. We were trying so hard to get new investigators. We were returning to as many people as we could. We stopped by a guy that we had met several weeks ago, even though he hadn't said yes to baptism. We found him at home and very willing to talk to us. We got to do some how to begin teaching and learned more about him and got him as a new investigator.  Then we unsuccessfully visited others. Around 5:30, we knew we hadn't gotten any blessings yet and we only had an hour before Correlation meeting. So we got on our bikes to go to the street we had thought of, but before we even left the area we had been in, I saw the car of a potential investigator at her home. She hadn't been a very solid possibility because she was a little distracted when we blessed her. We hadn't even planned to go back and visit her. So when I stopped and decided to go visit her, my companion was hesitant, knowing that we needed to meet our goal for blessings still. But I felt it was important to see her and knew that somehow everything would work out.  We went up to her door and she readily welcomed us in. She said she was about to pray after getting home from a long hard day at work and knew that God had sent us again to visit her right at that moment. As we talked with her, she committed again to come to church and we found out that she used to have a Book of Mormon, but had left it behind. We gave her another copy and set up another time to see her. As we were walking back to our bikes, I realized how the Spirit had guided us that afternoon to be able to see her.  Plus, by the end of the week, we had more blessings than we have all transfer!  God definitely orchestrates this work!"

Well, I'm going back out into the sun now because I'm tired of this cave-like family history center. Have a wonderful week and find a way to bring sunshine to someone's soul by sharing your testimony!

Love, Hermana Sheffield