The beautiful Campamento Bonao

Arrived 17 Oct 2016

Love the family more than a working washing machine. I think its one of the most precious things in our houses and in this new house in Bonao, it hasn’t been working. But due to past experience I knew how to fix it! I love clean clothes! In our washers we fill up the tank with a hose and then turn a dial which gets a wheel at the bottom to spin all the clothes. When you want to dry it all you throw it in this cylindrical tube part that spins super fast and the water gets flung out through holes.

Campamento Bonao

Well so much has happened this week.

We found an amazing couple who have a young child last Monday night! We have been fasting super hard and praying even more to find someone ready for baptism. We wont get anybody this month but this family reads and understands, which is more than 75% of what other people do. His nickname is Heily haha but he has a lot of questions and tonight we will finish up the restoration and put some commitments!

Tuesday I met my zone in a zone meeting. Like always there is somebody that is from Utah and we know people in common. The zone seems really great, I have somebody from my group there. We  set some goals to use the Book of Mormon every lesson, two new baptismal dates every week and ask references from everyone!

Later I went up into the higher parts of the country called Constanza…

On Oct 17, 2016, at 5:09 PM, A Sheffield  wrote:

>> 

>> Hey dad Im writing, if you have time we could talk a little

> On Oct 17, 2016, at 5:14 PM, M SHEFFIELD < wrote:

> 

> We will leave Santo Domingo about 07:00 tomorrow morning.

> I think I will just have to wave in Bonao.

> I am trying to do this on my cell phone.

> I was in Bonao about 7 years ago to take supplies to the beautiful youth camp there.

On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 4:16 PM, M SHEFFIELD wrote:

Your president might stop by our training at the Capulla on I. Blvd so I can meet him.

A SHEFFIELD WROTE: Dad, President Castillo told me he was going to do all he could to stop by and see you in Santiago while you were there! I’m super excited. You went to the campamento?  wow every Sunday we go up there and have a small sacrament service. We are trying to get a branch up there. 

 Continued letter – call it number two for the week,

In Constanza they grow tons of fruits and vegetables. They are famous for strawberries. I love spending a day up there. It reminded me of a little ski town in Utah but without any snow. It’s supposed to get cold up there the next few months and I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.

We have been doing a lot of contacting since we have been starting from the ground floor

 

Constanza

We had a crazy exchanges with some missionaries in Fantino near Bonao. I was to give an interview for the baptismal candidate but he is a teenager so there were some complications and We had a crazy ordeal getting the thumbs up from president. Wow I get so stressed, I feel like I have twenty two little siblings that I am supposed to take care of.

For church I gave a talk about our need for Christ the plan of salvation, a little bit of everything but focused on our need for Christ. I was happy when the piano didn’t work for the most of sacrament so I only had to play the closing hymn. I am playing hymns I have never played before with out any practice. I think my days of never practicing and then showing up at the Galbraiths house and sight reading all that I was supposed to practice is paying off haha… well maybe not.

We went up to the camp (Campamento Bonao) that is in the mountains of Bonao for a small sacrament service. It is a little like Aspen Grove with a senior couple missionary couple living there as the directors. Our goal is to start a branch up there someday.

I have really been learning a lot more about our need for Christ lately. I don’t think it really hit me until now. The purpose of everything, the restoration the plan of salvation isn’t just that we need a church or to know where we came from but to fulfill our needs. Alone we cannot be saved or progress, alone this life is a loosing battle. In my talk I talked about how it is like swimming towards an island but without the possibility of arriving for lack of strength, and no matter how scared we are of drowning we eventually will sink below the surface. But somebody’s pierced hands reach to grab us. Christ gives us strength and more chances than we deserve for our actions. We can make it to the island which is our fathers presence through Christ’s power of making us pure through his ordinances in his church. We need him and that is why.

Con pilas de amor 

Elder A Sheffield