Transfers are coming up

Love you more than… Otoño nobles (fall clouds)! We can kind of tell that its getting fall because of the clouds are getting more frequent covering the sun and it’s in the 80s now! The mission feels like a pause from the real world, including the weather; no seasons means time doesn’t pass ;)

Me,  Elder Whitworth (our zone leader) and Elder Coombs

Answering questions etc.: transfers are the fourth of November and every six weeks. (Kinda unfortunate cause there’ll be transfers a week before Christmas and we aren’t very excited for that) Training meant I would be in an area for two transfers, but from here on out, every six weeks the butterflies come. Elder coombs and I do have like 6 days now of set time to work with Yeffri and also another investigator named Andi/Andri.  Yeffri is our biggest hope and he felt like he got an answer to his prayers, that these things are true!!! He said he was praying and he felt the chills, the Holy Ghost, and asked to feel it two more times if it was true, and he did. I don’t think miracles always come when we ask for signs, but it was a miracle that he prayed and I knew he would feel it is true. We are so happy, but were in a tough spot because we are supposed to get families to partake of the gospel together. Yeffri’s parents like us, but they don’t really have the interest he does. The mission doesn’t like only helping one or two people in a family, but we might not have a choice, so that’s our goal. We have been teaching Andri for a while now but it’s been interesting. We asked him to pray about Joseph Smith being a prophet when we taught him about prophets, but he said "No i don’t need to pray about it, because I know he’s a prophet because you just taught me". He said he wants to get baptized but he also feels nervous he will make mistakes after baptism. We are working with him. We also found a great family with two inactive parents, that has a lot of potential. 

Dominicans don’t celebrate Halloween or la noche de las brujas but they know what "Aloiin" is from movies haha. Our next holiday is Christmas and many lights are already up. 

Dajabon just is one branch, although it used to be two and was really close to being a ward. Its sad that this 35 year old branch progressed so far, but then kinda fell, we’ve met like three ex-branch presidents who are now inactive and lots of inactive members. Us four missionaries and our strong, but small branch of about 40 gather in the chapel every Sunday. Elder Coombs and I also do a small sacrament meeting for Hermano/Granpa Blanco at his house. We love to go and talk about life and the gospel and just sit in the rocking chairs outside pondering life and enjoying the heat. 

Our area of Dajabon A is made up of the main city of Dajabon (Most of it) and the the surrounding neighborhoods and then a little further out is the neighborhoods of La Fe and La Speranza and then Carbonera is like 20 minutes away by gua gua. 

I’m super jealous of your fall weather and hot chocolate. We don’t get hot chocolate a lot, even though Dominicans have it with bread for breakfast. We do get hot food always though, which makes us double sweaty, haha. 

Hermana Jennings, my mission mom and oldest Hermana in my 1st zone

Last weeks email about intercambios by the way was in no way complaining. It is just stressful and uncomfortable being in charge of areas by yourself for a day with your boss (zone leader) following you around watching your every move. Its good, but just uncomfortable, for lack of a better way to describe it. I did the math and a missionaries month is like 3.5 years of human life. I feel like a baby, still but I now am like 16 years old haha. 

Transfers just got changed to telephone notification, so probably on Tuesday we’ll get a call in the morning and find out what will happen and who is staying or going. If I go, I will miss this area. My hometown with the heat, our messy but big nice house and our neighbor who I call “one eyed Willy”, who is an older man who we pass by everyday but he says nothing to us, he just stares at us with his one eye. A true pirate of the Caribbean haha :)

Habichuelas con Leche with Batata on my spoon

Wow another good long week. This week in a wrap... Bought a muffin/cupcake and made frosting  to celebrate Elder Coombs one year mark in the mission. Elder Rojas and Elder Verde also made brownies. In Carbonera we decided that we are going to go back over the first three lessons with the menos activos because we have found that not a lot of the inactive and less activos know or remember the plan of salvation and the Gospel of Christ. Our tia tati this week went all out and made us ensalada rusa which is like American potato salad!!!!!! Also she made us huge bowls of a Dominican original of Habichuelas Con Dule. Normally it’s only eaten Easter week, but she wanted us to try it, so we got huge bowls for my fist time trying it. It’s different, but I love it. Yeffri is getting answers like I said, which is probably the week highlight. Carboneras menos activos stepped it up and about half of them came to church! So amazing! Elder coombs and I couldn’t stop smiling. The menos activos, Welfrido and our new convert Frammi both got the priesthood and were ordained to the office as priests. Doubling our priest numbers. Our Golden investigator named Alecs (who kinda fell away because was so busy with college) had time to share with us again and seems interested again! He asked about repentance and we are excited to restart teaching him. We have two members who offered to help us in La Fe area because we don’t know very many people there and it’ll help a lot. There was a big rainstorm yesterday and Elder Coombs and I were actually a little cold ha ha - go fall weather!  Today was our last zone activity and meeting with zone leader and my hero Elder Whitworth which was sad but good. He is planning on playing soccer at BYU so try and find him.

"Happy mission birthday" to Elder Coombs who hit his mission 1 year  mark

Wow big letter and not very much time left. Quiero dasafiar Joshua con tarea. Joshua yo se qe esquela y la vida es dificil pero hay ayuda para nosotros. Nuestro padre quiere muchismo para ayudarnos. Su desafio es empieza a orar sobre su bendicion patriarchial. Este es un bendicion para mi es que yo use para fijar mi metas de la mision. Reciba este bendicion para usted mismo.

Spiritual ponders I'm gonna focus a lot on scripture mastery and since this year is old testament  Moses 1:39. If you want to know what’s on Gods mind, read Moses chapter 1 verse 39 “for behold this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the plan of the immortality and eternal life of man, hey!” (Bro Will scripture mastery song) We are Gods work and His glory, how great it is to have that knowledge. I know He is there working with his son to help us, we just need to let them help us. 

With love E. Sheffie 

(E Sheffie #2 with reference to cousin nate)

--

Elder Andrew W. Sheffield

Like always, it turned out great

Arrived Oct 21, 2015

Love you more than…

Your dream-style sunrise!  Sunrise over palm trees with a nice ocean breeze and birds singing! I was on intercambios (exchanges) again this week but this time in Monte Cristi, which is right next to the ocean. I woke up and right in front of me, outside the window was a red beautiful sunrise and everything else that makes it perfect! Almost as cool as my new waffle maker.

 

Inside the Marcado, which had closed and then re-opened.
Technically I've been to Haiti, since the store crosses both borders

Outside the Mercado

Answering questions. So Elder Verde came into our study area one day a few weeks back and told us he didn’t want to talk to us and didn’t want us talking to him to finish out the transfer nice and peaceful. It was a big surprise that came out of nowhere. In mission language he is my uncle/step-brother and when you all live in the same house its kinda hard to have something like that. However, out of the blue, we are all like brothers again and everything is good.

 

Our cooking lessons from a couple of weeks back

Week in review: Our planned service project and lunch with a menos activo fell through last Thursday, so that was hard. There are never people home or out and about in the mornings, so from 10-2 we always are looking for things to do and people to teach. SO it started out hard, but we were spoiled by a Mangu dinner with salami and juice from a lady who started investigating the church three years ago! Her daughter passed away and when some elders came to her house, three years ago, and explained how families can be reunited forever, she totally knew it was true. The problem is her husbands birth certificate and papers are all messed up, so they can’t be legally be married and so they can’t get baptized, but one day it’ll all work out. The bad luck continued when my life-line (fan for my desk) fell and the blade broke. They are replacable, but we couldn’t find the right one so I was/am dying of heat. Also when I heard of intercambios again, I was kinda nervous/not in a great mood. I love the other missionaries and especially zone leader Elder Whitworth, but with intercambios you leave everything you know for a day and just go off and try to talk to new people. Like always, it really turned out really great. Spanish is still hard, but I can see how far I’ve come. Also we made an avocado milkshake, which are actually really good haha. Intercambios ended with us four elders working in the bakery part of a grocery store, and making bread which was fun. The workers were tigres/ragamuffins, like dad says, and I learned all the street talk. ¿Que lo que mani? Kinda like whats up dog, except the actual translation is “that what peanut” haha. Getting people to actually come to church is still a process, and even with members it’s hard to get people to be on time. But it is a good goal to work for. "Mormon standard time" here is half an hour late but then a flood of people come in. In Carbonera we are working with small steps in getting the menos activos to come to the small service at granpa/hermano Blanco’s house, since his health doesn’t let him to get to church. We found a menos activo with fourteen non-member kids, and we are really hoping to get somewhere with them. We had a district meeting the other day and ate at the classic pico pollo. Its kind of a conspiracy since they are all run by Asians who speak Chinese and live here. I realized that we eat more chinese food, fried chicken and chofan, than we eat mexican food like tacos, burritos and tortillas, which I never expected before getting here. The Rama (branch) has made a big push in getting more members to work with the missionaries, so we are getting more lessons and more references from members which we barely had any before now. We made cookies from a muffin mix for a menos activo lady who watches a lot of American movies like “Fast and Furious” and “Star Wars” which was super hard to avoid. We are working now in another part of our area called La Fe which is hard. We don’t really have anybody right now but were working on it. There is an all-star family there, the cement to the Rama, who is going to go with us and hopefully help a lot. We had a really interesting lesson/got a stern talking to, by one of our actually good friends who believes that in heaven there isnt/wasnt gender. It is really interesting to hear different opinions. And realize how much I love and believe there is a  purpose in who I am and where I’m going. This week has kind of been a restart in how we are working, so numbers are kinda small. But there should be good progess. Transfers are coming up and I’m getting nervous. They say its like starting all over, leaving again on a mission. The odds are my step dad/second companion will be a Latino, who will be hard on me to get me to be better. Its called “greenie breaking” and I’m nervous, but I’ll probably stay here as well, which is kind of a comfort.

 

My companion eating our "cooking lesson" meal from a couple of weeks back

This weeks ponderism and spiritual message is the favored classic: 1 Nefi 3. “I will go and do. The Lord giveth no commandment save he shall prepare a way.” The Lord is actively working for us. Elder Coombs has been singing a lot of Christmas songs lately, and the only Halloween song we can think of, and people have started putting up Christmas lights, so snow has kind of been on my mind. In the snowy blizzard of life the Lord has commanded us to do things, but they seem hard since we can’t see through the icy wind. However the Lord has shoveled away the snow drifts and made a path for us. Though it is sometimes hard to see, there is always a way. We will still be cold and tired at times, but there is a way. Once we obey and make it through the white out, waiting for us is the loving warmth of a Father’s arms, and a big mug of chocolate caliente. I know it is true and I want you to come to know it as well, so go and do and follow the commandmewnts. 

Hope this helps any who reads this.

Something you guys can do for me is send a few copies of the picture of Frammi and Marias baptism so I can give them the pictures. Any advice and recipes and pictures and movie quotes and jokes and stuff is acceptable whenever as well :)

With love

Elder Andrew W. Sheffield

Serve with your whole heart

Arrived Oct 14,  2015

Love you more than… Singing the classic 90´s kid´s t.v. show theme songs with Dominicans! Dominicans love their t.v. and so passing by a menos activo the other day, we spent like 15 minutes singing the Dragon Tales song, Arthur, Pokemon, etc. It was so fun!

This week in summary: 

Our area in Dajabon isn´t really progressing, only a few investigators and menos activo families, so we´ll still just spend two days a week there and focus more on the northern part of our area that we haven´t really worked a lot it. So many places to go and not enough time or lessons, haha. We gave a drawing kit and sang happy birthday for the birthday party of our most promising investigator. 15 year old Yeffri, who is like a giant teddy bear. He came with us to church on Sunday for the first time and had a seizure so it was full of excitement. We love sharing with a Dominican version of the “Anderson family” who love telling jokes and laughing with us two gringos. We have really good full days and then we have harder ones with a few lessons. Our house-mate and only Latino Elder Verde is now talking to us and so the district contention is over. We got fed like four times so we felt really spoiled this past week. We got a few elderly lady members to introduce us to menos activos, which was kinda fun. I´ve decided to cook/eat Dominican this apoyo (support money) period so for the next 15 days, I´ll be trying out the different forms of making rice that I´ve learned.

I briefly got to read over the family´s and Emily´s email and sounds like it´s been a nice full week. Seems like last week was a month ago for me. Josh sorry about your leg, but hey you´ve got a cool story! Samuel I´m jealous of the BYU hat, Jacob you sound like a little Dominican with your chicken the next step is turning them into chicken nuggets! Emily I´m super jealous of your sea kayaking class and hearing about Halloween, Star wars and Recess brings back great memories:) Mom and Dad enjoy yourselves in California and relax, you guys out-do yourselves. Give the Anderson’s my love and the next time you see the Sheffields/Grandma and Grandpa give them double hugs because I forgot to tell you that when you going down to visit for priesthood session.

I´ve decided my spiritual thoughts will follow the ponderism challenge from General Conference. I chose D&C 4:2 the classic “oh ye, that embark, serve with your whole heart and mind that ye may stand blameless before God. This really got to me and reminded me of a talk a read the other week. Really, there is nothing we have to offer to God that he doesn´t already have, except for just a few things. We have gotten everything from Him and yet the only things we have to give back are our desires and thoughts, our whole heart and mind. To really have to have faith and be disciples of Christ, we must give up our worldly thoughts and desires. This doesn´t mean not to have any, just to place them second or third or fourth. God´s work and plan for us should come before our own wants and ideas. He knows where we need to go so we need to let him show us by having a broken heart and contrite spirit. 

"ME THIRD" -Sheffield family slogan/crest/theme

First god, second others, me third 

With all my heart (the second part of it ;) ) 

Elder Sheffield 

PS. I keep trying to send pictures but this computer is lousy so hopefully a lot next week

--

Elder Andrew W. Sheffield

How blessed to be led

Arrived Oct 7, 2015

Love you more than…

Elder Sheffield´s attempt at making the Sheffield traditional General Conference soup. Though, Campbell’s lasagna soup is good and all, in my attempts at a substitution. It was still good to try and meet tradition and have soup with bread/breadsticks on conference weekend.

Gringo's watching conference

Wow! was this week amazing! We got to see all the conference sessions live and in English, which was great. Us three gringos sat in a room rapidly scribbling notes and slowly but steadily losing our Spanish haha. But I really love how simply spiritually it was. How blessed we are to be led by God through leaders. They seem to have seen and know it all. I went to the infamous bi-national Mercado (market) again this week and got three new ties. I felt like dad bargaining down prices just to save a few pennies. I got three ties for the equivalent of $1.50. I also found a waffle iron/maker that I´m really tempted to buy. What do you think, is it a good idea? I could probably bear taking it with me for the rest of the mission! What a temptation. 

We have had some amazing lesson with a few investigators, especially with the family of Jeffri. They said that God sent us to them and they agreed to a baptismal date. I´m a little nervous because I want so bad for them to know this is true for themselves and continue onto baptism and beyond. We were pleasantly surprised by almost all the menos activos we know in Carbonera who came to Sunday General Conference! “Yay go cow filled Carbonera!!” We had a crazy rainstorm the other day and we were running through the flooded streets enjoying being cold. We had another service project to grind corn and then were stuffed to the rafters with spaghetti and bread for lunch afterwards. 

Wow the family sounds great (and reckless). It sounds like you guys are learning to drive like Dominicans! It’s nice to hear about how you guys are doing, and how you guys are going to start ponderizing. I loved the messages about mothers and families from conference. Elder Holland was describing perfectly you mom. I´m proud to be the son of a spiritual giantess, who has never once given up on me no matter how stubborn I´ve been. Also I have the best family in the world and I´m excited to see how you guys have grown- not only physically but spiritually. Keep ponderizing and building our celestial home one prayer, one scripture, one kind act of service at a time. That´s kind of my spiritual thought, how every small act builds into something bigger. Families are forever, and the way to have a place in heaven is every day building our house through spiritual things. We use prayers and service instead of cement and wood. I know you guys are going to be happier as you do these things.

I forgot to tell you to give my love to the family last email so give them double this time and for anyone who is preparing/leaving on a mission tell them to find a talk called the 4th missionary. This is one of the greatest inspirations for missionaries there is. 

Con amor Elder Sheffield -- Elder Andrew W. Sheffield