Simply ask God

Arrived Dec 12 2016

Love the family more than my Christmas package...I think. I haven’t actually opened it yet so we will see haha, just kidding. I made my companion check the list of what was in the box to see if I needed to put any food in the fridge so he knows what I got but im waiting until Christmas!

 

Me studying

We have continued teaching our investigator Hipolito this week. he was the one man we saw out on his porch with his friends who were out drinking but turned out to be a great guy who accepted the baptismal date and read. Well he dizque (supposedly) works all the time so we haven’t been able to teach to many times, but he reads and understands well. He is still excited for his baptism which should have been this Saturday but he hasn’t come to church. The Sabbath day is our next lesson.

We had a zone meeting where we also planned our Christmas skit for the mission party at the end of the month and celebrated the birthday of one of the senior couples.

Birthday party for one of the senior couples - Elder Decker

We have been working better with members recently but our investigators have been a roller coaster. Sometimes you have amazing lessons but then you can’t meet again for another week. This week was that missing week.

We find many amazing people nowadays. This week we made a contact in the morning and the young man was really interested and said he would call us, just in case we got his address....

Our intercambios or exchanges have been interesting this week. We did two and those were our two best days haha. Normally all the lessons fall through those days. In one of the intercambios we had fifteen minutes left in the day and I told Elder Nickel from Samoa that we were going to teach the first lesson in that time. We did well and the man understood well. I was really excited until we spent another fifteen minutes comparing the roots of the Haitian and Samoan peoples. His name is Jaime and he seems interested but one of those people looking for faults in the message that aren’t there.

 

The Zone

Friday was a hard day. I had received a call from president rescheduling our zones interviews with him. I had understood Saturday, but it turns out they were meant to be Friday. I got a call from him Friday morning asked where our zone was. After a really rough hour on the phone calling the zone leaders and assistants and president we figured it will have to be rescheduled again. It was really humbling having accept responsibility for the miscommunication and explain why we weren’t going to have interviews to the rest of the missionaries. We were all looking forward to it. Oh well, my self-confidence has since returned back to normal and things are great. But I really dislike cell phones now.

I have been frantically planning with just about every member I know who lives in the two branches here in Bonao this week. I have permission to go to Santiago to participate in Coronel De Luna’s baptism but I have to get a member for both my companion and me respectively, so the area keeps proselyting, but I can visit Bonao. As of now my companion has a companion but I don’t, and I am a little stressed. I will let you know how things go.

 

Call it Mission Control (for Bonao zone)

My companion and I were talking this week about how we really feel like missionaries these days. When you share the whole restoration and challenge people to baptism right off the bat, you feel like you are doing your part and you are actually less scared. It amazes me how truly awesome this message is yet simple. We challenge everyone to simply ask God if these things are true, and then follow the respective answer. I know and testify everyday that God loves his children and wants each one of them to follow his camino (path), by beginning with baptism. The fruits are slow to show but it feels great none the less.

I have been really focused on the great apostasy this week. I never understood the depth of it until now. Our religious ancestors went through so much and in the end only a weak resemblance of the simple truths remained but it was necessary. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4) How great is it to know with a surety that Christ lives and this is his gospel. Everyone can know if the read the Book of Mormon and ask for confirmation.

Elder Sheffield

GREAT NEWS: a baptismal date for Coronel

Arrived Dec 5 2016

Love the family more than golden arches! We went to our mission center of Santiago this week for exchanges with the assistants, both super good amigos of mine, and to finish up the day we briefly drove by the arches haha my first time in almost 10 months I think

 

The great view of the "golden arches"

This week I have a tender mercy for you mom.

It started out as a difficulty when a new convert and recently moved-in-sister from Nicaragua, invited us to a family night and we spent 40 minutes wandering around looking for it. We had a fun time and then went to a part of our area nearby, not realizing we were avoiding some problems. There was a juealga (strike) that started Monday and went into Tuesday that we managed to completely avoid. I only briefly saw my first burning tire.

 

Horrible picture, but great Family Home Evening with yogurt for a treat

Tuesday, us and the assistants spent the day in Santiago. It was a little frustrating to have all our good lessons set for that day and then have to cancel all of them, but I really enjoyed the day. I got to be assistant for the day with Elder Eddy from my group as we drove around on errands, talked about several things and then proselyted a bit. We also had a good study time on “Unity and the United Force of the Gospel, making us One with Christ.” With Jose our best investigator, we shared the plan of salvation and Him and I ended up crying a lot. It was very spiritual and he understood it all. He had previously underlined 1 Corinthians 15:40 in his bible, but had forgotten about it. I loved how the lesson went. We taught different than normal, following the spirit and it really helped him. He was super excited to go to church.

This week was more letting go the old and lookin for the new. Like the wheat and the tares. We had a good exchange with cotui again. They have a baptism planned every week this month which has made us really pressed with traveling time and money and all that stuff. We are keeping track of how much money and time we spend on traveling. I really admire the new missionaries. Elder Harrop from Layton (Northridge High School) is a super good guy and great missionary. I wish I could have been like our new missionaries when I had started haha.

We have an old investigator who is a little strange and has a lot of problems with addictions. We have started to teach him again and did a fast with him. Sunday he stood up and gave his testimony and said he is getting baptized Saturday. Well we didn’t know he was getting baptized that day haha we are gonna review with him some things and try and do his baptism in a few weeks.

We had a good lesson with a family Sunday night with our branch president. It’s always interesting trying to bring members since we can’t ride their motorcycles and streets and houses don’t always have organized directions. We finished the restoration and challenged them to be baptized in January. They accepted well and said they would go to church if Alen (the dad) is feeling well. He is kind of similar to John Tanner. Pretty successful consulate who speaks Cantonese, but after a shower out on the back porch his diabetes and a infected cut on his foot got him hard. He has a few amputated toes and his foot and ankle are in a battle against the infection. We are gonna watch the John Tanner movie with them this week and see how things go.

I was a little let down this week when Jose once again got robbed away from going to church. Many things are working against him with work and his wife’s health. We are going to have to postpone his baptism. Our other investigators are having difficulties as well. Those going to church have problems with addictions or need to be married and those not going to church are ready except for work or school. I was discouraged but Thursday night I got a call from Elder Lebron my old companion in my old area... CORONEL DE LUNA HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE FOR THE 17th!!!! The good old Oldroyd and Sheffield contact who had problems with his girlfriend finally got a way out of the relationship and legal problems and is going to be baptized in a few weeks. I consider him my greatest convert even though he hadn’t been baptized and we didn’t think he could for at least a year. I’m so happy.

 

Celebrating the first day of December with leftover turkey and egg nog

My spiritual message stems from our family night the other week and the church initiative Ilumina el mundo (light the world). We were talking about how we can truly appreciate the Christmas season and how we can follow the 25 days and give service. I encourage all to look it up on the church website. But I really liked when we talked about what we can give to Christ, I also bore my testimony on it. We were given the Son of God and in this season we remember that, focusing on his birth. What could we give back for what we have been given? What is it we have to give? What do we give to the one who has everything, what do we give to Jesus? 

We give ourselves.

He doesn’t want so much of our money or possessions, He wants us, you and I. He wants our heart, might, mind and strength. He wants it all, the good and bad, which He can make perfect. Isn’t that the greatest thing ever. How blessed we are to be able to do that. IT isn’t enough to just give our imperfect selves but continually try to be better and give that better self, everyday. He was born and brought to pass, brings to pass, his mission for us to give ourselves. (Romans 8:17) I wish I could explain it better and share it with the whole world. May we all give ourselves, not just of ourselves and of our time of service, this Christmas season. 

Love,

Elder Sheffield

(Andres Guillermo Cocinero Campos)

Gringo day of Gratitude

Arrived 28 nov 2016

Love the family more than Thanksgiving Turkey (Pavo) Legs (Piernas)  So it fell to the “Sheff in the Field” to cook turkey for us this year. We got a few districts together in different parts of the zone because everyone is spread out and then feasted. We got a sweat deal on turkey legs at a La Sirena grocery store so I ended up making 8 pounds of turkey leg. It all turned out great except for my gravy didn’t work out.

 

Our first real week of the new transfer started out with high hopes. Jose our best new investigator read a little from the Book of Mormon and every time we teach the spirit is there and he really understands the message. He said “I’m coming to church” this week so we were really excited. Sunday morning he got robbed away by a friend with a work project since things are going hard for Jose but we still think he is in it to win it.

We had a super good district meeting this week. Part of what we talked about comes from the greatest missionary talk (or one of them) there is, it’s called the fourth missionary. That and my personal and district goal to work on the chapter six of preach my gospel self examine made it a good day. (You guys should look that up in preach my gospel to)

We have a new investigator who is Haitian, which my companion really likes. I think he would’ve loved to serve in Haiti and has even learned Creol, the Haitian language, pretty well. With our new goals of finding tons of new people and sharing the first lesson more fully and putting out more baptismal dates, we are realing burning through those that are ready for the gospel and those who aren’t for now. One family made a new experience for me when they sent us a text saying they aren’t interested in our message, most people just try and put the next lesson as far away into the next week as possible haha. The mission is up and down with excitement for new people and also sadness for those you have come to love that aren’t progressing.

One of a great new investigators named Hipolito is doing well, but his new job has him working a lot, and especially Sundays, which is sad. 

Gustavo y Juana were set on coming to church and bringing their kid and his family (who have a date for the 24th of December) but couldn’t make it. We called them and everything was set Sunday morning but who knows what happened. 

Sunday was our district conference, which is like a stake conference. I finally got to show the branch I can actually play piano decently - well when I have practiced the songs haha. The choir and I presented Joseph Smith’s Prayer (sorry I forgot the name in English), the Battle Hymn of the Republic and I know that my Redeemer Lives. There was a lot of pressure since President Castillo was there to. It was fun to hear one of the Distict Councilors quote straight out of the restoration pamphlet that we recognized immediately. We almost quoted it with him, word for word. I loved hearing president talk. It just seems like he knows what he is doing and is so firm and like a super hero. He is a super good speaker. 

 

Getting the supplies to make a yummyThanksgiving dinner, missionary style

Saturday we had a baptismal interview in an area called Cotui. We were late since we had been without water for a several days when as we were walking out the door ,water came on. We spent an hour cleaning up a sink full of dishes, doing quick laundry so there were clean clothes and filling up our big tank of water so we had some if the water turned off. In the end the baptismal candidate didn’t feel ready yet, but he really wants to be baptized so it will just be postponed. 

This week I was thinking a lot about consecration and submissiveness. In a talk several years ago Elder Holland shared a scripture in 3 Nefi 11. He shared just two versus, the first two things of what Christ said. What he said was I am Jesus Christ and I have submitted myself to the father. Elder Holland then goes on to talk about maybe that will be the first thing he said or rather asks us when we see him again. Did we submit our wills, actions, heart, might, mind and strength to that of our Fathers? I think that is really what makes true people great people. Doing what is best. Taking one for the team. Or as Grandpa Sheffield always says “Me third” and “Obedience with understanding”. That is why mission work in some ways is so great. It is two years of surrender, consecration rather than sacrifice. It’s giving up ourselves for Him. It is something I have said before and something that continuously comes back to me. We have only completed our missions when we have come to be one with Him as He and the Father are one. It is one in heart, in purpose in holiness. The greatest part is that it is reachable. It is reachable through him, His atonement and His gospel in His church.

Elder A Sheffield

Thanksgiving desert of apple pie topping on top of cake and frosting (Missionary apple pie)

Food and Thanksgiving (which is the gringo day of dia de accion de gracias which is noramlly not celebrated here)

God shall reveal his secrets

Arrived 21 Nov 2016 
Love the family more than winter! Last year I was in the hottest part of the country so being here in Bonao I actually feel like its winter, and my first one in two years haha. The cool breeze and even the smoggy air sometimes makes me trunky but I am loving the weather!

This week was a little bit of a roller coaster. 

Last week we cleaned up an Elders house, that had a special transfer, preparing everything for the new missionaries. We taught a few lessons and then we were going to have a member lesson but we showed up late and he had gone. Not having spare minutes is a general thing, so he had just left and when we called him we sort of received a boche, not good for our struggles with more member lessons. 

 

Old Bonao district with Sister Decker

Tuesday we had a district meeting in Senior couple Decker’s house. He is from the states and she is from Honduras and they are really kind. We had a small testimony meeting and announced transfers. Two brand new sisters came in and then a companionship of elders into the house we had cleaned. In the afternoon we taught a baseball player named Carlos Pena. For some reason he really liked us even though we turned down the offer to go to the movies with him and we never had time to go to the baseball field with him. He understood the message pretty well and said he would read the Book of Mormon on the plane ride to Toronto where he will hopefully sign with the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. 

Wednesday we had transfers and a district leader named Elder Melling spent the morning proselyting with us. It definitely looks like we are the CIA of the FBI when three gringo missionaries are walking around in the street. Also, its funny rotating between the three to teach. Our lesson and baptismal date with the man that we thought may or may not have had been drinking alcohol turns out to be really good! In our second lesson he remembered his baptismal date and kept bringing it up! He had read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon and understood it and has a good friend who is a member and lives nearby! He is excited to be baptized. Our other really promising new investigator Jose had lots of things going on so our second lesson kept being put back. We had a little bit of a contentious lesson when the friend of an investigator asked some questions, without real intent, and our ward mission leader bless his heart has to prove his point. Things worked out but one always gets nervous.

Thursday was anther rough day. My companion re-contacted a pastor we had met and it was a rollercoaster. Then later an old investigator who occasionally goes to church gave my companion a boche on charity and things. Then one of my favorite investigators, Pedro a.k.a Haley, told us he can’t change religions because of his wife and family problems. 

Friday we had an interesting weekly planning and companionship inventory. I really respect my companion and things are getting better. That day for the crazy rain the country has been having we were all told to be home at 7:30 instead of 9. Our area recently has had less rain than usual, but the rest of the country is being hammered by rains and floods.

 

A little look at the rain

Saturday we had a decent day and an amazing couple of lessons. At first we were a little discouraged that we had invited all of our investigators to a baptismal program in the other branch here but that fell through and we had to tell everyone it wasn’t going to happen but in the night Jose and then Hipolito made my week! We taught Jose when we contacted him smoking. When we had told him about prophets he asked us tons of questions about what his name was where he lives etc. In this lesson we finished the restoration. At one point we asked what it meant or would mean to him that there are prophets on earth in our days. Half crying he said ¨It means a lot. It means a lot.¨ It was an amazing lesson but we had run out of copies of the Book of Mormon! With our new goal of teaching the restoration entirely in the first visit we have been putting a lot of dates and running out of even the four copies of the Book of Mormon we carry around. We didn’t have one to give him or a talk from President Monson and I felt terrible. I offered him my personal Spanish scriptures and my favorite Holland talk I had about two rock climbing brothers. He turned down my scriptures and said next time but he took the talk. Today we will get him a copy and a conference Liahona. I have never seen someone understand more and feel the significance of a prophet than this man. His baptismal date for right now is Christmas Eve. Hipolito like I said is super excited for his baptism on the 17 and we have to tell him to stop talking about it in lessons. It was a good night.

Sunday at 12 preparing our numbers, my companion on the phone

Sunday Juana Gustavo, a daughter in law and a granddaughter came to church! Four people! I almost didn’t see them walk in because I was playing the piano, but they loved it and I think they are back in the game. Our less active is indeed coming back. After one lesson reactivated! good stuff.

Today we cleaned the house, played soccer, learned net ball from Sister Kennerley from New Zealand, who is brand new, and bought things for thanksgiving. I think some Americans would even be jealous of what we have planned.

Other highlight included our recent juices of beets, carrot juice with milk and oatmeal, everyone trying to talk to us about President Trump, and Sister Nicelers friends. Sister Niceler just came into the mission this transfer, but turns out she is from Ethan Christensen’s ward in Saint Luis and she knows him! Also she met Sister Lawrence from Ogden High in the MTC and Sister Lynch also from Ogden High in the MTC and she met my trainer as he was going home in the MTC. Turns out she knew who I was before she got here!

I have been thinking a lot about how we as members of the church take for granted what it means to be guided by Gods prophet and have latter day revelation. It is latter day hope and guidance. Surely the Lord God will do nothing save he shall reveal his secrets unto his servants the prophets, yet how often does it strike us that we are part of the church that have received some of these secrets. Like Jose it should mean so much we cannot contain it. I am very grateful for a living prophet, for a living savior, a loving family, a divine calling of two years and for a hope in a better world. 

Con pila de gratitud

Elder Sheffield

Sunday at 12 reporting numbers

Old Bonao district plus Sister Decker

<andrew.sheffield@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Quick! what spices do you use for turkeys?

sheffield.emily  wrote:

Mom uses lots of salt and sometime season salt! Lots of people like rosemary or sage too

Or garlic and basil. Honestly just salt would be delicious too!

<andrew.sheffield@myldsmail.net> wrote:

 Haha Im just gonna put a little bit of everything we have and lots of salt