God uses broken things

Love the family more than brownies! Now I realize I always end up saying things about food but it is what it is. I made some brownies the other night and they were perfect. Being dense and chocolaty, I was looking forward to it all day and it was a good night. Turns out making brownie waffles is harder than it sounds though.

Walking to church with Santiago

I would say this was a interesting/crazy week but that’s how every week has felt for the past month. On Thursday I went on intercambios to a part of our zone called La Union. I feel strange to be with people that have about the same time as me and Im a leader. I went with Elder Luna who is from Mexico. It was a good time and they work hard out there. The lower side of the whole time was when we made a good contact and began to teach, but at the end of the lesson the thirty year old man´s dad walked up the street. He definitely had the spirit of contention, and the saddest part was that he lacked the proper education for what he was saying. In the end he claimed that I was a bad prideful American who had come to this humble and faithful country to bug the people. He then said elder Luna and Mexico were more righteous than I am and the States because Mexico is close to Jerusalem, or at least closer. I had a good time on the exchanges and I have really come to love Mexican Latino culture, they are the best.

Elder Oldroyd and I are going through a weird phase where we have lessons in the afternoon but lacking at night, usually it is the opposite. We want to work harder with the members and less actives since neither of us know them very well even though they are the key. You contact to get investigators, you work with members to baptize converts. It is like quantity versus quality. 

Saturday Wadri got baptized. He is a great guy and really funny and we just love him. It was hard to get people there since it was in the morning but it went great. 

Sunday was Stake Conference so we saw a lot of missionaries from our zones and also some of the members from my old ward of Buenos Aires! They are just the best and even though I was only there for two and a half weeks we were growing pretty close, I took a picture with my favorite member family.

 

Buenos Aires coro (Dominican slang for gang)

The ward mission leader really misses me which makes me feel a little good, is that bad? That Sunday we got a big rainstorm for a few hours. We get forced to stay in houses because Dominicans treat rain like the plague; to get wet is to risk your life, dizque. We were with a less active and his family, they are Haitian and has a cute little brother. I really want to learn Creole, aka Haitian, which is a very basic language but i don’t think it would be worth it. One part of our area is on the other side of a stream/river and if the little wood bridges get flushed away we have to walk to pavement route which adds an extra 30 minutes. With our trusty 24 year old member Santiago who loves to leave with us we forged through rain an mud. At one of the river crossings the bridge got washed away but a drunk man offered to carry us across on his back, this is at 8:00 in the dark. We were going to make Santiago do it first because we were sure than man would fall in the river, but we were merciful and so we just walked to another point and up a mountain of mud.

 

Cute Haitian kid

The rain has continued to come down and the other day badly flooded the river but, tender mercy, we were on the good side of the area the whole day. We are going to help a new investigator rebuild his cement patio which the rain partially destroyed tomorrow. He filmed us offering to help because he used to think we were spies and now he has proof we serve people, I hope we get famous so we can teach more people. 

A few interesting people we are teaching are Ignacio, Espedito and Robert/Yanela. Ignacio is sincere and enjoys the lessons and will read often which is normally the first big obstacle, getting people to read what we leave with them. He is a good guy and I think will get there with time. Espedito is an old man with a nice mustache. He is progressing in steps, step one retain that we will be passing by in the next few days, step two remember what we said in the lesson five minutes ago, step three what did we say a few days ago about what a prophet is etc. It really helps me focus on keeping things simple and using examples to help. I really like him and I think he likes me to. We joke around with him and lately he has been asking when we will be returning. Robert is a security guy at a club and an interesting guy. His way of talking and acting is just funny and he likes to joke. I think he thinks we don’t speak Spanish and also that we are Jehovah’s Witnesses but we are getting there.

I had my first zone meeting the other day and it went well. It has helped me realize more of what the mission and missionaries are like. I just want everyone to work hard and be good.

 

Mailman/zone leader duties

In the zone meeting I liked what we talked about. I used a quote from Patricia Holland about how God uses broken things, and Elder Oldroyd talked about not being content with things the way they are. I Love the metaphor how it takes broken soil to raise a crop, how it took broken Peter to lead the church of Christ and how it takes broken missionaries to help broken people. I really believe that is true about all things. It is when we are broken that we realize what is important and how to improve. It is something natural, celestial that from small things, broken things come the grandest things. Remember Christ was broken for us. I love the song Rock of Ages or Roca de Eternidad which I kind of rediscovered in the mission. I like to sing/hum it. In English I love the part that says that “he was cleft for me”, and in spanish the part that says “por mis culpas y maldad que no podria yo pagar.....solo en ti he de confiar.” The reason we need Christ and why he is our Christ is because he was broken for us and rose to become so much more. 

Con amor,

Elder Andres Guillermo Cocinero-Campos

Amazing days and met some amazing people

Arrived May 18 2016

Love the family more than Mavis (or Mabis nobody is really sure). This is my way of eating healthy, a serving of fruit for just 10 pesos. So imagine a glass bottle that is reused for juice. You walk into the Colmado, choose a flavor, drain (drink) the drink there and leave the bottle for them to clean and reuse. I love the Chinola or passion fruit ones but I feel weird when it is in what once held corona light haha.

 

My favorite juice, Chinola (passion fruit)

So fun stuff that happened this week: I cut my own hair this morning and only made one and a half mistakes (I’m still handsome like grandpa Sheffield don’t worry), we barbeque grilled chicken at our zone activity today, we make tons of waffles and my ring neck tan line has gotten worse. They call white people “rubios” a lot because the sunburns makes us rubio or red.

Along the lines of that there were some crazy things that happened this week as well. Elder Oldroyd was gifted a scary candy that looked like something that belongs in the toilet, so he decided to play a prank on the kids that always run around in the streets. In front of a group of six year olds he pretended to pry the stuff off his shoe, then looked at it and asked the kids what it was. They responded and after thinking for a bit, took a big bite! The kids went nuts and it took us a while to explain the prank, after that they all took a bite and laughed. Two days in a row this week we were visiting people when they offered us "juice" We accepted. The first time Elder Oldroyd took a sip and then with narrowed eyes asked what it was. They gave us iced tea!! They know we don’t drink it but they claimed it was another type, an ok type. We were upset and it was an uncomfortable moment. Day two I was on intercambios or exchanges when the same thing happened except I was the one that realized. The elder I was with had a water bottle so I sneakily drained my glass into that. Two days in a row! I think I will carry around a plastic bag for food and drinks like that.

Some tender mercies for mom. At a lesson with a less active, the teenager half jokingly prayed that we could find a place that sells ice cream that we were looking for, well we found a place and it is super cheap too! Also I found a penny on the street yesterday haha, sorry for the jokes.

On a more serious side we were contacting for a long time the other day and we kept getting excuses for why people couldn’t listen to us. Finally we ran into an old lady and her neighbor. It was amazing how after all our walking around that we found Carmen and Miguel. She was so sweet and funny, using the young Dominican slang to fit in with us. She said we were “vacano” or cool and then said after we went home, we need to marry (and I quote word for word) "cool" girlfriends. We were nervous Miguel was just there because he got stuck in the moment but he offered for us to pass by again and gave us his phone number, willingly. A nice tender mercy for some hot and sweaty missionaries.

The Dominican presidential elections were this week and so things were crazy. On Sunday we were told to be in our houses three hours early to avoid the potential problems in the streets. One lady who may or may not have been sober the other day forcefully gave us hugs as we were passing by, she had a big heart I guess. On the lines of elections, a man told me that the bible says that if so-en-so person wins the US elections the world is going to end, it must be an Isaiah prophecy ;)

My new part in the work has us delivering/receiving mail, receiving/reporting numbers and visiting other missionaries to see how they are working. The other day I gave my first baptismal interview! Normally it happens as a district leader but not this time. In the mission a senor companion is like an elders quorum president, district leader a bishop, zone leader a stake president, and an assistant as a general authority. We went back to my old district and joined them in their district meeting the other day.

We have had some amazing days and met some amazing people. One man named Erison has had a rough life with immoral things but really wants to change. We explained to us that our message could help him and that if he acts upon it not just listening like most people might than he could change. It shocks me sometimes how everyone has inside them some goodness, the light of Christ that naturally gives them the desire to do good. One more sad situation, is of Robin. He is super amazing and told us he accepted us coming even when his girlfriend and amigos made fun of him. He is twenty years old and perfectly read to receive the message of Christ. In our lesson though he said he thinks that god means for everyone to have different beliefs and ideas of how life/religion should be. He used the example of the tower of babel and said that God wants us all to search for whatever manner to follow him. It was sad for me to see this because our Heavenly Father has just one way for us and he wants us to find it, in fact he sends people to reveal it. Robin has a lot of potential.

This we have been teaching a lot about why we need Christ. I just love focusing on the atonement and helping people realize why we have a Christ. It is good and necessary to have faith and amar tu projimo and visitar los enfermos but that isn’t it. We are in debt and we cannot pay it. Only Christ can pay our debt and he willing has/will pay it, pay the price of sin. Doctrine and Covenants section 19 vs. 15-.19 and 45: 3-5 explain it perfectly (so that is your homework) He suffered so we can live. I know he is there asking us to do our part so his part can apply. The best part is that he is always willing and so we just need to be always accepting. 

Love Elder Sheffield

Being D.L. was short lived

Arrived May 11, 2016

Love the family more than our investigator Roberto wants an American girlfriend. We have tried teaching him and his friend who work at a Colmado. They got distracted once and asked how they could get to know Americans. I tried not to crush his hopes so I told him that the ladies love men that dance. He seemed really happy and when we left he asked us to bring him back two girls for him and one for his friend. I'm not sure how well they will progress.

On Thursday all the district leaders in the misión had a reunión for how to work better with members and our districts. It was fun to see my old district leader and some of the people from my group. I got super excited to get working, a lot of new ideas for getting references. It was kinda short lived as I was called a few hours later to be companions with my zone leader. So last week our Polynesian zone leader, tore his MCL in his knee so, had to go home. My companion got moved up to district leader and got a mini missionary, which is just a member who lives as a missionary for the transfer. I’m companions with Elder Oldroyd from West Jordan Utah. Elder Markham was super excited for it all, I spent the time in a cold sweat as I packed my stuff up.

Elder Oldroyd has been showing me the ropes for stuff and it has gone well. We get along really well. I kinda feel bad for the guy because he has had some medical stuff, lost his comp, stressing over the girlfriend, has me as a companion and has 3 months left.

It is really strange to be companions wit somebody and feel like I’m the weaker side of the team. I have been studying and going over how I teach because it is amazing to see how Elder Oldroyd works. I’m used to stressing over how to plan things and lead the lessons so it is a change to be here. Not going to lie, it is a Little like having a break to just follow somebody around for a few days, I can’t help out as much as I wish since I’m so new. We are nearly whitewashing since my companion has two and a half weeks here and I have a few days. We have fun and work hard. I have enjoyed this week a lot.

Saturday we were going to have a baptism at our ward, Tierra Alta. The building is a stake center (Dizque the first chapel in Santiago) with us two elders and two sisters.  The sisters had a woman and we had a teenager. In the end the woman got baptized and we will have the man in a few weeks. Our ward misión leader is the mini missionary that replaced me and he wanted to come see the baptism, so he came and brought me old comp. It was strange to get a picture with my two companions, oh how the turn tables.

It has been a lot of contacting o sea door to door contacting which I don’t mind to much, we make it enjoyable. There are a few families that have testimonies of the Book of Mormon but have some challenges that we are trying to figure out and then help them with. I think as a missionary you try so hard to get people to come to know the Book of Mormon is true and so it blows my mind a Little bit that they may to understand exactly what that means.

We have this one investigator who accepted a date the other day named Josue (Joshua). He is a barber and a super tig. (Tigre a.k.a looks like a guy you don’t want to meet at night or in an alley) I really love teaching him because he has a natural desire to want to change and feel clean and not remorseful. I Love that even with how his life is he wants to be better and have a good life. It is inspiring really, he also says he would like to come to church. He will need a lot of changes in his life but it could work out.

Today we spent some time at the misión home for medical reasons for my companion, went to la Calle Del Sol, Street of the sun, where all the souvenir things are sold and my comp had some watches fixed by a guy. Cheap knock off watches are starting to look tempting, but so do machetes, Dominican whips and fabric to get myself some custom made pants. We headed over to Price Smart or the Dominican Costco where we loaded up on pancake mix and syrup. We bought enough mix for about 600 pancakes, which should last us a few months. We saw a lot of missionaries and every time we did they asked if my companion and I were on exchanges and got really wide eyes when we told them we are companions. Everyone is freaking out, including me.

Mom a tender mercy for you since you love them. It was stressful to buy food one meal at a time in Buenos Aires but looking back it helped me not to spend all my money on groceries which I would have had to leave at that house. If I would have bought everything at once like I normally do I would by without dinero. Ahora tengo pilas de pancakes.

Spiritual thought comes from Doctrine and covenants section 9 and verse 11. It talks about how Oliver Cowdry and the timing of the Lord. Sometimes in life there are things that do not wait for us, especially the salvation of man. He is patient but his work will not be stopped and so we must always be prepared and equally willing. Dont miss out on your part in His plan because you weren’t ready or hesitated. He asks us to be ready and willing for Him to make us able to do that which He would have us do.

Love Elder Sheffield

I thought I had developed a lot of patience

Arrived May 4 2016

Love the fam more than the Dominican groups love their dominos. A group of about 8 male members, all middle age and older, get together every night to play dominos. They listen to Bachata music, half seriously yell at each other and make a ruckus slapping down their pieces. It is very funny to watch. I especially enjoy two of the oldest who practice their English. Somehow they know how to say "come here my love" "You like dance?" and "I want kiss you lips" It reminds me of where us Sheffield’s get our good looks, from Grandpa Sheffield.

 

P-dAY party and lunch with a family

This week we had a decent amount of rain here. One day we got trapped inside a clothing stall/store. People don’t let you leave out in the rain. It would be great for lessons if the rain didn’t make so much noise on the metal roofs. It’s always good weather though, the rain reminds me of living in Kansas and playing in the rain. 

We had our first district meeting, which was great. We have a pair of sister training leaders and then two other elders in the district. We get along great so far, and we have a good time. It is strange to be in charge of things, but at the same time it seems just like the usual. Tomorrow we have a big meeting for district leaders and president. Nobody has ever heard of a meeting like this so we are a little anxious. I’m excited to see my old district leader who is now assistant to the president. I respect all my leaders a lot more now. 

 

P-day party & lunch (my companion is in the middle)

It was an interesting week with investigators. It seemed like we had some pretty nice lessons but then many people weren’t able to continue for a few days. Momentum is important and it’s an uphill battle when you have to wait days in between lessons. One investigator Jonathan is very interested, he’s only has had the first lesson but after seeing general conference he is interested. His biggest obstacle is that his house adjoins a church that he attends, the members and pastor of the church don’t want him to investigate our church and he will certainly have to move if he even thinks about baptism. Dalenis and Dariluz are very good friends with our mission leader and his sister, yet they aren’t excited for church. They have lots of questions but are keeping them a secret. 

We have many members who want to help out, but right now we are in a finding kind of phase, since the investigators are having a hard time with lessons. The ex-Jehovah’s witness continues to show us to people as references. The interesting part is that they are all people that he preached to when he was a missionary for that church. A reference is a reference though, no complaints coming from Elder Sheffield! There is this one family of members where everyone but the grandfather is baptized. He just had surgery and can’t be out and about, so it made perfect timing for us to strike! :) I mean visit him. I think he pretends to not be interested but I feel like he secretly is. Watching the first vision movie got his full attention. Miguel is a little stubborn but I think we are making headway.

I thought I had developed a lot of patience these last ten months, however I have come to realize that patience means consistency and not just something you win all at once. It amazes me how quick the blessings come when we suck it up and just deal with things. We had one contact the other day that was amazing. I was stressed but when I forced myself to be positive the contact came naturally. The lady was staring at us and as we were looking for a member’s house I asked her for directions. As it turns out the member lived right next door and this lady was friends with a different member. She was really friendly and said we could pass by and she would also talk to her member friend about us. Blessed are those that are compelled to be humble, but even more blessed are those who are not compelled. Alma the younger knows his stuff. 

Shout-out to the models on the old 2013 Sunday School manual (I am one of them)

Spiritual thought comes from a few quotes: “To know even one life breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Mrs Easton would be proud) And 2 Thessalonians 3:13 “Be not weary in well doing”. I love to think about how every little action can compile until the world is changed. I don’t really think that we directly change the world because of the actions but we start to change. As we change, we then grow more capable and aware of the differences that we can make. We may only help others to breathe a little easier by our actions but we change and then we do better with the more pressing matters. I heard once that if Satan can just make us a little less good, a little less nicer etc. he will have accomplished his goal. Just as we do not fall with one stroke, we do not grow with just one good action. Do not be weary in well doing because every good action is measured and then returned back to us more fully. Its a slippery slop so slip the right direction. 

Love Elder Sheffield