I am in my first area!

Love you more than....

Pollo Fritas!! Otherwise known as chicken strips and fried plantains. Its my first real meal out here in the field.

Holy cow I hardly know what to write about this week since I’m now in the field. I guess I’ll just start from the beginning. 

So for splits last week I was nervous again but I kind of realized I just had to suck it up. I was with an Elder Obrien from the field and then an Elder Hunt from the CCM. I am proud to say that while I am not fluent yet, nor will be for another 8 months, that I was pretty comfortable with how I did. We did all contacting pretty much. One of the houses we went to we kind of gave the first lesson to this Catholic lady. I started talking and then passed it off to the others and when I got it back, I shared the first vision. Holy cow! I was sweating so bad, I was doing pretty well and feeling the spirit, but then I had a Peter (lack of faith or beginning to fear) moment. I got a little worried, and then missed a few words and the spirit wasn’t as strong. I powered through it and it turned out to be a pretty good lesson and a great learning experience.

Hermana Keith and I showing off our Captain America shirts

I can't help it... I keep breaking the mission rules ;)

The next few days in the CCM we kind of wasted on writing goodbyes in journals and taking pictures. I for sure like all that stuff, but this isn’t my time. I’m going miss the CCM. I am so grateful to Hermana Romney, who put music back on my Ipod including Sons of Provo stuff, and I love Presidente. I will also miss the hamburger and brownie night as well as intense fuseball games, where I beat Elder Wayman and I will miss street soccer with the sprinklers spraying us.

 

"Hamburger night" at the CCM (MTC)

Oh by the way we heard Nick Jonas performing at the park last week. I guess he was having a concert in our park or the park of lights. We went outside for a little bit and heard all the screaming and him singing that one song "I want somebody to love me for who I am" Cool stuff. 

On a similar topic our district decided if I was a disney character, I would be Flynn Rider, the smolder and everything. The last day in the CCM was spent entirely on in-field orientation and was kind of long and boring. We said goodbye to the rest of the missionaries in the CCM and then packed our bags until late in the night. 

The Santiago Group

The next morning we woke up at 5:30am, put our stuff in a van and ate breakfast. I said my last goodbyes to Hermana Romney, Elder Ourth and Elder Wayman. The 8 of us elders and 4 Hermanas going to Santiago took a van to the bus station and then a bus for 3 hours to Santiago. At the bus station we were met by President and Hermana Castillo and the office missionaries. I really like Presidente since the first encounter where he laughed a lot and gave us these big bear hugs.

We then went to Presidente’s big house and had another orientation all day long. I had my interview with Presidente where I understood a lot actually. I got assigned to my companion and area. 

I’m serving right next to the Haitian border in a place called Dajabon which is supposed to be really hot and like a really rural area. My trainer is named Elder Coombs from Texas. My CCM roommate Elder Rojas will be in the same house with me and my companion with his companion Elder Verde. What are the odds that Elder Rojas/red would be serving with Elder Verde/green.

 

Home sweet home and Elder Coombs

Today/Wednesday/my new p-day started off with us gathering at a Caribe tours bus station. I went with one of the APs, Elder Dastrup, in one of the mission trucks and picked up some of the Hermanas. He was a cool guy but a crazier driver than most of the natives. All eight of us crammed into the five person truck and went back to the bus station. When we got there, I met my trainer Elder Coombs. I really like him so far. He’s a “ginger” from Texas and he’s been here for 8 months now. He is district leader and we are white washing the area and I’m his first son, or the first missionary he has ever trained, so we will be figuring all this out together. We got on the bus with Hermana Rire & her trainer and Elder Rojas & his trainer Elder Verde. We are up in the northwest part of the country where its pretty tranquil compared to Santiago and Santo Domingo. 

The shortest my hair has ever been

Elder Coombs has had some tigres (or rebels) as companions, so our goal is to be really obedient. I got a quick tour around the house, we walked to a resturant or a garage looking building had lunch and now we are here emailing. I’m really excited to serve and do what the president challeged us new missionaries to do -place the Book of Mormon.

Spiritual thought this week is that we should always be obedient. There may be no control over anything in your life except for how you act, so being obedient is the most important things we can do in life. Obedience is the first law of heaven and the first law of everything. Perfect obedience doesn’t bring perfect days or easy times, but it brings perfect knowledge and increased growth. I know that if we follow the words of the living prophet and the promptings of the holy ghost with perfectness,  we will have such a better life. I know that because our savior Jesus Christ was perfect in his obedience that we can live with our families with our Father in Heaven forever.

"Kia kahaw" (forever strong)   

--  

Elder Andrew W. Sheffield