SPLITS

Arrived August 6, 2015

Love you more than…. Mystery mango drink (was a drink that a random investigator gave us on splits. It was so good, but I found out it's against the rules unless president approves it, but I'm alive so that’s good.)

This week was pretty much like the last 5 weeks except for splits, so I'll mainly focus on that.

So we woke up and started our normal daily stuff last Friday, except we couldn't focus because how excited we were to go on splits. When the time finally came we all loaded into some more ghetto vans and drove to a nearby church building. I was in the last van because I had to stay back and make sure everyone had a ride, AP duties kind of thing. When my van gets to the church it's deserted. We kind of panicked and tried to get in the church but it was locked. Finally some missionaries from the field came, and then some magically appeared inside the church and opened the doors. We met in  classroom and waited for backup since there were so many of us CCM missionaries. We ate some limoncillas, that some missionaries brought, they are like little eyeball fruits. Anyways we got assigned/picked by field missionaries and headed out. We rode the metro to our area. The real city is pretty humble. There’s trash, pollution, half clothed people the whole thing everywhere you look. We hopped in the bed of one of these small trucks, like taxis, and then rode to the missionaries’ home. From the home we went teaching. We taught this man Jacoba about how the Book of Mormon is the most correct book. I can understand about 60% of gospel talk and then like 30% of everyday Spanish. I felt the spirit really strong though when I focused. The whole lesson I was praying/focusing on trying to answer and meet the needs of Jacoba. The Holy Ghost helped me to convey the right things. Our next lesson was down some alleys and stairs to a house. If you want to know what the houses are like imagine the movies placed in Brazil, where cement square houses are stacked on top of each other and everyone is walking around or sitting on the porches. This lesson was in the house of a member. We shared a short message with the wife and son, who shared with us the mango drink. The cold drink was like heaven.

From there we walked around and contacted. We saw the lowliest of homes and then the mansions of the neighborhoods as well. It's sad to see most people in really humble conditions and then hidden in the hills were these gated houses that have Mercedes and lots of....JEEP GRAND CHEROKEES! The rich people love them! Even some Mustangs, Jeeps and Mercedes pretty cool stuff. 

We didn’t have a lot of success contacting and I realized how little Spanish I really knew, but it was great to see what the field is like. Me and Elder Wayman were with an elder from Utah the whole day. He was a pretty nice guy and he's been here for like 11 months so he helped a lot with the Spanish. Around 7:30 at night we met back at the church then drove home. A great, eye-opening day out in the field. 

Other things that happened this week are we almost watched the “Other Side of Heaven” in the CCM but instead we watched “Ephraim’s Rescue” which was still good. I got a haircut this week, pretty much a buzz cut. 

The Ipod wacked out and now it works but there is zero music on it. I kind of want to send it home in the mail, and then if you could send it back for Christmas or something, idk what do you think? 

Spiritual thought this week is centered around a song called Homeward bound. You'll have to watch the vocal point version of it for family night. It's been on my mind lately because it pretty much says “set me free to serve and I'll return to you somehow.” How fitting. I've left you, who I love, to serve. I love you so much, but Heavenly Father loves us more than we can even imagine and I must share that. That is my purpose here. I want to share the eternal love with all those I meet. Imagine the world if we just loved each other. Wow. Anyways this is my last email from the CCM. My next one will be on Tuesday afternoon in my mission.

"take luck"

With lot's of love, 

Elder Sheffield

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Elder Andrew W. Sheffield