My 20th Birthday

Arrived 13Feb17

I made me a birthday brownie cake

Love the family more than ice-cream cake! So birthdays in the mission are pretty much like every other day, and when you are in a new area and its Sunday, it doesn’t change. I made brownies to celebrate Sunday night but when we had to go to the mission home today to see the mission doctor for my companion, they had a surprise. While I was playing some songs in the children’s hymn book, including the “You've had a birthday” song,  they came up behind me and surprised with a BON ice-cream cake! I can’t remember the last time I tried ice-cream cake.

 

Cake with Elder Millward, our assistant and my best friend

      So Monday we found out there were transfers. So Monday and Tuesday we mixed preaching in with saying goodbye and packing. As always on Sunday we had taken pictures just in case I was going to be transferred. Tuesday we went to a district meeting in Bonao. One of my favorite missionaries played on the guitar and sang “God be with you till we meet again” in English, Spanish and Samoan since he is Samoan. We all bore our testimonies and took pictures. That night I was up late as I finished packing.

Our Bonao district 

     Wednesday, I woke up early and we headed off to Santiago. There we all gathered at a bus station and talked and group by group were sent off. I already knew my companion from meetings, but we got together as companions on the bus/van we rented.

     My new companion is a funny little, a little wide as well, Guatemalan who finishes this transfer. We are going to work well and hard. I’m excited! In mission lingo he is "dying" and I’m "killing".

     It is weird to be here where the weather is hotter and the people a little different. Every pueblo has its own little identity. Here I will be serving in a decent sized ward instead of a branch.

    Another surprise came when we got together for our coordination meeting Thursday and when somebody I knew before the mission came walking in. Turns out, Sister Gabbie Lynch from the Old Post Ward (in my home neighborhood) is also serving here!! It’s weird to see somebody I knew from before the mission. She kept calling me by my first name haha, she only has a few months in the mission.

     Things are good here. I don’t really know very many people yet, but the ward is really great and there are a few investigators who want to be baptized. The house here is officially the nicest in the mission that isn’t the mission home, the senior couples or the office elders. For the first time in 19 months I have a microwave!! We also have hot water, a tostada maker and my waffle maker. It’s a third story apartment that is super secure. I also have my own bathroom and closet.

     Our mission is starting to see the changes with our new goals and schedule. The day feels longer and I really feel the focus not on the lessons but on the people and on committing them to change (repent). It’s a little weird to study as a companionship and to plan for the day, and our poor area book! But things are good. I’m even better at writing in my journal.

This week we are going to have a zones conference.

 

The "cake eating crew" (my companion is second from the left , the assistants and the mail elder)

In the district meeting we talked about loving people as Christ loves. D y C 50:24 and 1 John (Juan) 2:8-11. When we love we are light. Amar es alumbrar. It really made me think about day-to-day life. I can love everyone as my brothers and sisters, as God's creations for the little things. Sometimes it is discouraging when people don’t fulfill commitments or baptism or whatever but every small act to love and help repent means something. Every improvement no matter how small is a step towards the light. I want to have that light and be able to love as Christ loves. 

Con luz y amor,

Elder A. Sheffield

District meeting

Brownie

Cake with Millward, our assistant and my best friend

The cake crew (my companion, assistants, the mail elder)