Food=3 Elders=1

Arrived Mar 9, 2016
Love the fam more than….Peanut Butter and pancakes! It was a great day today breaking our fast, funny story, with a pancake and peanut butter lunch. I introduced it to Elder Bouwhuis and he loves it to. We always buy peanut butter at our grocery store even though its 200 or like 5 bucks -so expensive. I’m almost out of my creamy but I still have a jar of my favorite chunky.

So with fasting this week it was crazy. We began fasting like normal on Saturday after lunch but Satan was working overtime. Saturday a member forced us to eat yucca and eggs, half way through, it hit her that it was fast Sunday and she told us that we could just begin again on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon we started again but De Nuevo, another member, forced us to drink some juice she made! Monday we started again when member number one, the super star of the branch, invited us to a family night and so we invited a investigator family, again we got forced to eat the food which was cake and soda this time. Attempt four was Tuesday and we made it to 7:00 fine and then a new investigator and his inactive wife tried to give us juice. This time I saw it coming so we were out the door and on the front porch as soon as we finished the prayer. They yelled for us to get back in and drink some juice but we weren’t gonna lose four times in a row. I think we kind of offended the family. The people are super nice and I get nervous to turn them down, but it was for a good cause.

We finally made it a full 24 hours. Food=3  Elders=1

This week followed the pattern of being a challenge but it changed and finished off great! We had been contacting a lot during the afternoon since people are usually working, especially males and we can’t share without a male in the vicinity. Our contacts were all right, but still nothing promising except for a few, and again mostly women. I always joke with Elder Bouwhuis that we need to either be sister missionaries during the afternoon or just have like a tag team and get some sisters here. One contact was named Licey and she was super friendly and pretty interested, she tried to pay us for the pamphlet of the restoration haha but instead we set an appointment for Tuesday. Sunday it was pouring rain and I got to use my new, used and bought from a sketchy store, rain jacket. We were walking by Licey´s house when she yelled at us to come inside. In the garage/front porch area we shared half of the first lesson with Licey, her husband Danny, and sister Mariela. They were asking tons of questions, like if we paid church leaders, believed in resurrection and about the church, they said they would visit the church (right behind their house) before we even shared the lesson! The lesson went great and on Tuesday we went back and finished the lesson with our ward mission leader there. Their parents were also there and all committed to begin reading the Book of Mormon and for more lessons. It felt like all the long afternoons had finally paid off. 

The other day we went to the new missionary´s 5-week meeting but we showed up late, not exactly our fault. One of the assistants was a little frustrated with me and told us we were going to do a practice of the first lesson in just ten minutes. Of course I got picked. I was super determined to show that I wasn’t just a young missionary and trainer who was lost. We taught a pretty great lesson, even though it was just a practice, you could feel the spirit. My favorite thing is just pausing after relating the first vision and how the Holy Ghost fills the room. I was proud of how me and the Elder did. Afterward, I did apologize to the assistants even though it was humbling and hard. 

We are doing well here. The weather this week was good, cloudy and rainy so it felt perfect for us, and cold for all the Dominicans. Elder Bouwhuis is always hot and hungry, it makes me laugh how at 7 every night he is sweating and starving while everyone else is freezing and we don’t eat dinner till we get home around 9. 

One of our investigators said the Jazz are playing well right now, and I realized its march madness too. How did BYU basketball go? 

With Heydi and Cristian and Isabel and Junior we are working hard. Heydi really wants to get baptized and always comes to church with her grandpa who is a strong active member. Isabel the mom has been coming lately and is close to reactivation because Heydi can’t get baptized without the parent support since she is so young. Cristian the dad really loves the lessons, but loves Sunday baseball games to much, he plays on a fast pitch, but underhand throwing team, called Los Primos which apparently are doing pretty well in the community. I love them so much and we are great friends. They know the gospel is right but don’t have a great effort put into coming to church. They came to the family night and as we sang “Families can be Together Forever” I was super happy. We have been stressing eternal families and I shared the Sheffield legacy of hard work. Even when dad was in medical school and we didn’t have much we had our eternal family and a goal for something more, through hard work and the gospel. Really felt the spirit as we talked. I’ve decided we are gonna be super bold with them and help them realize that they can do this! Heydi has a picture of the Salt Lake temple hanging up in the house. 

We have spent a lot of time this week on our knees in prayer. I love and testify that even if we just have a desire for something or knowledge that the church is true we can achieve that by asking. If we want to find a better job we should pray. If we want to have the strength to improve we should pray. If we want a testimony we should pray. For the truth to be known it has to be spoken and for help to be had it must be asked for. He wants what we want, so help everyone out and ask. 

I did my best to make a Captain Moroni pancake a few times, not very good looking but tastes good

Love Elder Sheffield