Knocked it out of the park

Arrived April 13 2016

We had a branch activity this week! The highlights were sweaty basketball in my shirt and tie, potato chips and the Joseph Smith Prophet of the restoration video! Gotta love the goose bumps when he stands up in the jail and silences the guards.

The parrot is trying to steal my name bag!

Today we went to a mall named Bravo and explored a bit before going to the Wendy’s there. There was a cool pet store. There was a parrot that tried to either take my nametag, see if I was ticklish or make of with me pen. We also saw a snake eating a mouse, pug puppies, a pile of sleeping turtles and five foot twos Elder Green playing in the kiddy playground.

Our p-day at the mall

I think I am bad luck in the area, because when I´m here we have good contacting days but when we have exchanges, there are good lesson days. Either I need the practice to improve my contacting or I am so humbly amazing at it, that it has become my duty in the work. 

SO our church activity was after a good long contacting day...and nobody showed up when it started. We sat around, I practiced the piano since we don’t play a lot,  and waited. After a while of waiting with the movie set up, we decided to just make it another time. I played basketball for a few minutes with some of the seminary students who had finished class when Johan and his family walked into the church grounds! They showed up an hour late and asked what had happened haha! We continued to move on with the activity which went well! In the end a few member families showed up, and two couples of less actives and their girlfriends. We had lays potato chips and soda to make the John Tanner movie a real hit. We decided the day (and wait) were worth it.

We made a new contact the other day at a house and a light skinned lady with blue eyes came out the door. I think we were both shocked to see another white person that we were a little quiet as Elder Bouwhuis and I explained who we were. Christiana and her family are from Madrid, but are living here. I tried not to get my hopes up that they were Americans. The 18 year old son Cristofer is really excited, but the mom and him don’t have matching schedules really. He said that his mom is interested too but she is pretty involved with her church. Our first real lesson with him, all the cousins were home too and Elder Bouwhuis and I knocked it out of the park, spiritual lesson and new funny American friends.

It has been an interesting week trying to find the houses of the couples that came to the activity. If I was crazy rich I would pay the DR to generalize street sign and house numbers. Oh well the walking keeps us from getting rice pot-bellies. The weather is now 30 degrees Celsius or into the 90s, I forgot how the country really is. My collar tan line on my neck continues to get worse, Elder Bouwhuis makes fun of me since he doesn’t have one, lucky “Dominicans”. 

Helping with a service project

Our district has been focusing more on working with members and less actives lately which I enjoy a lot but it requires patience. The members could use some mission work and the less actives are reference jack-pots, they just need to come back a little. Some of my favorite less-actives are Delma, who calls us her sons and the funny family Rivas. Both know the right things, but lack the desire. It is the same with Cristian and Isabel. Isabel has to divorce her old husband before her and Cristian can get married then baptized. It’s a big process and she just doesn’t really have the desire to start it. Its sad that life is ok for her and she doesn’t really have interest in putting the effort into something better. 

It has been a interesting time preparing for Cristofer’s baptism this week. The baptismal papers are fun, I have been getting gray hair figuring out things for his interview, interview questions and working with members, but I think it will turn out great though. I’m a worrier and I even get worried that I worry to much haha. My last companion Elder Jeppesen is trying to come to the baptism and we have invited everyone. Lets cross our fingers.

There were intercambios again this week, making it almost an intercambio every week this transfer. Elder Bouwhuis and Elder Green are best buddies, and Elder Hola and I are pretty good friends. Elder Hola was trying to get things set for him and I to play tennis today, but it didn’t work out. We ended up going to Wendy’s and exploring different malls. The pet store was in one and at Wendy’s I got a huge frosty with a cheesy bacon baked potato! 

Sorry you lost the bet Emily (about when we would watch conference), we saw conference in actual time. I thought of our family singing secret prayer in conference, I had never heard it in English so Elder Hola and I sang in Spanish. I never took ceramics but congrats to Josh and freaking congrats on being SBO Pres! That makes three of us five, lets go Wheffields! I didn’t know there was a new Saturdays Warrior and I didn’t know it could get cheesier. 

What the beginning of a lesson would look like

With transfers next week, and a really high possibility I have been thinking about what I was able to do here. I wish more could’ve been done and everything, I have worked hard and want to keep it up to the last minute. I take comfort in our duty to take whatever we receive in life and try to make more with it. I have grown here, half my mission here, and the branch has continued onward. Elder Bouwhuis is a great missionary and feels really prepared. One of my goals is that every area I go to, I put my heart into and when I leave that it breaks a little. We should never be content with where we are. If we don’t put our heart into things what is the point? I am tired of not being better. I will feel a little guilty and still disappointed if I leave and it doesn’t hurt to leave the people here. If Christ gave it all for us, we should be able to give a little bit of our time, of our heart and of our soul for the benefit of others. Our lives are not our own, and are only valuable when shared.

Elder Sheffield

P.s. camara chord isnt working again, pictures another maybe

Super excited for conference

Arrived April 6, 2016

 

Love the fam more than hammocking! We got permission to sleep over at our district leaders house so we could get to watch all the conference sessions in English! There were only two beds in the house, so I made a hammock out of my bed sheets. I should have triple layered my sheets because after 15 minutes it ripped and I fell through haha.

Responding to last weeks family email. Skiing and hiking red rock canyons sounded way cool and those Easter socks are cool too! Josh how are things going with SBO elections? You better not be putting things off like you did last year haha, you and Emily gotta teach me how to go rock climbing and we can go hammocking with real hammocks! Jacob sorry but I couldn’t stop laughing about how the dog threw up on you, there have been a few times on the mission I am glad I don’t have a bad gag reflex, good luck little buddy!

Starting this week we were super excited for conference and it kept us excited! We made a house contact the other day and the man named Elias was actually really nice and interested! I was shocked as he made arrangements for us to have a lesson when we passed by and he was still in his motorcycle repair shack. 

We had a really interesting lesson with a man named Antonio, that we had contacted a week or two ago. The second time we passed by, the sister was there and she was super kind and told us for a really long time how the world and youth and family need people like us. She is part of a religion that I have never heard of that really focuses a lot on families so it was amazing to have a complete stranger talk to us about that. Normally people think we are pretty great for preaching la palabra de Dios (the word of God) but aren’t super dedicated. So the third time we passed by Antonio was watching a cartoon program about different bible stories, which made a good transition into our lesson on prophets and apostles. We get to the first vision and he tells us he has a Book of Mormon. Some missionaries from 2000 had taught him and they did well. He told us he recognizes that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is scriptures. The interesting part is that he is Catholic like everyone else here in the good ol DR, but he told us he thinks one day Catholics will recognize and accept the Book of Mormon as part of the Bible. We are working on helping him understand what is the significance of the Book of Mormon and that it is true.

For Saturday general conference, we teamed up with our district leader in Villa Olga, teaching and inviting people to general conference. We made and ate cheesecake, and it was an all around good time. It was strange to get back to our area Sunday night after being gone, it felt like we hadn’t been there forever and we had lost some ground with the work. “I just cleaned up this mess, cant you keep it clean for just three minutes” (Mr Icnredible) kind of feeling. Cristofer still is progressing towards his date for the 15th. Not many of the investigators could make it to conference, Cristofer, yes though. He is basically a member already since his dad and step mom always drive him to church because they all live in the same neighborhood.

Johan is doing well, his wife (the less active) is amazing though! We shared Alma 5 about if we can picture ourselves in heaven in the last days. We asked what they were willing to do to have an eternal family. He gave a typical broad answer but Elizabeth said that they need to get married, keep coming to church and everything, ella sabe (she knows)! 

I am continued to be convinced that nobody below the age of 20 is super open to the gospel! If you can find a non-tigre teenager, they will almost always be alright talking to missionaries. The problem is parents, hooligan parents don’t have interest in gospel things sometimes ahhh! Elder Bouwhuis makes fun of me for avoiding groups of kids walking home from school, teenage girls and walking behind people looking like we are stalking them like the FBI. The kids are mischief, girls are constantly hissing (cat calls) and I dislike looking like we are stalking people, so I make us walk the long way sometimes. Elder Bouwhuis laughs and makes fun, but I just say it’s a prompting ;)

Last night the power was out so we planned by candle light

Conference was so amazing! I laughed at the talk about how its good life isn’t fair because that’s how Christ helps us, don’t worry dad, I still like your spiritual thought last week (all that is unfair .. can be made right) 

Some of my favorite parts of conference were:

You can have what you want or you can have it better. 

We mistakenly think if we forgive, then justice will not be made. 

Nefi (Nephi) recognized life would be most unfair to Jesus Christ. If life were fair there would be no way for us to stand before God. Through Him we can receive more than we ever deserved. 

I loved how Elder Holland encouraged us to not forget what we learned in conference. In the scriptures people go bad because they slowly forget, that cannot happen to us! Never forget and never fall! Like Holland also said, don’t get discouraged for not immediately living up to what we heard, we CAN improve and we get credit for trying even when we don’t have success. The slowest growing things in life are often the longest lasting. We were meant to last forever and we have a choice to work hard now, laying the foundation for how we will last forever. Fear not, only believe. Want to improve and He will unfairly allow you to become more than you deserve.

Love Elder Sheffield

Easter Eggs

Arrived 30 Mar, 2016

Love the fam more than… Painting Easter eggs! Elder Bouwhuis and I are keeping up with tradition so we made the best permanent marker and highlighter colored Easter eggs ever. With attempt 1, Elder Bouwhuis cracked the egg and it spilled out onto the table because he didn’t hard boil it or anything haha. 

This week started out as one of the greatest weeks.

With Cristian we asked him what he felt about baptism and he kinda gave us a guilty sheepish grin and kinda avoided the question. Isabel his wife accused him for knowing its true and that it isn’t his catholic mother holding him back but his fear of falling back after getting baptized. We asked him if he felt ready if he would be baptized and he said yes. Anyway we have already taught the family just about everything so we had to teach either law of chastity, tithing or word of wisdom. Half an hour before our lesson on the law of chastity we talked with Hermano Infante, their dad and he broke the news to us that the aren’t married! Well flip elder! This is a common thing, but feeling like impossible to fix, if they are living together they are breaking the law of chastity and can’t get baptized, but getting married is expensive. Anyways after that ruining the day, we still taught the family the law of chastity and it wasn’t that great. It was a little tense and upsetting, how there is this big obstacle. They also didn’t come to church.

One of my favorite pictures, Elder Bouwhis with Cristian and his sports bag,
and Isabel and their little boy walking to the river near their house

Heydi still wants to be baptized though and Isabel actually keeps coming when she can. We did have an amazing lesson on the word of wisdom the other day though. I was surprised how well it went honestly, I felt like we were in the Preach my Gospel videos or something. I have been getting Elder Bouwhuis to take the lead in all the lessons and planning and stuff, but when we started this lesson I forgot we hadn’t practiced it so he didn’t know, but it went well. We shared the lesson and they were involved and into it. Cristian said ¨Chefld I have a problem with coffee, I drink it about three times a day¨ We talked about how it was an addiction and set goals to overcome it. We wrote down steps to every week decrease one meal with coffee so in three weeks he would be done. He was super excited and joked how that morning cup of coffee will be the tough one. When we went to write down alternatives to drinking coffee he said “no! when I set my mind to something - I do it¨ Even if he can’t get baptized right now he is my greatest convert and one of my best friends. 

So on the other side of town, Johan and Elizabeth also aren’t married! Just our luck to now have three part member families that would be ready for baptism, but aren’t married. We found this news out also from other branch members and are still on to teach the gospel with Johan, so we haven’t talked about it yet. But he isn’t as firm in the gospel yet so with him I’m nervous. He agreed to be baptized but still has trouble understanding why he will have to be baptized the right way because when he was a baby it wasn’t.

Crazy experience! We are waiting outside of the chapel to welcome people to church as usual, when suddenly I look up from a handshake to see middle-aged white people and red headed kids walking in the gates of the church boundaries. The Risenmay family came to visit Tamboril from Salt Lake City, Utah. They said hola to Elder Bouwhuis (they thought he was Dominican) but to me they talked in English haha. People never visit the country side little cities here, because there aren’t white sand beaches, so it was strange that they weren’t in the wards in Puerto Plata which always have a few Americans. The dad had served in Tamboril 20 years ago and brought his family to visit. It was great to hear his very gringo sounding Spanish testimony about how even though at first he felt he had failed in Tamboril, because of zero baptisms in 6 months but how the people had taught him so much. He shared stories about the three members here who have been members since forever. It was strange talking in English to somebody besides Dominicans, who had lived in new york, 20 year olds or 60 year old couple missionaries.

The Risenmay family from Utah

Easter here is really just a party or a long procession like a parade overnight, walking miles with candles, depending on how strong of a catholic you are, so it didn’t really feel like the Easters back home (besides our Easter eggs and mashed potatoes dinner). With locos out in the streets, we had an earlier curfew, which we spent journal writing and cake baking.

My 3 eggs I decorated

Elder Bouwhis' first attempt at drawing on the egg, but it cracked and then fell to the table.
We didn't hard boil them, haha

This week I finally got over my cold, which was draining all of my animo y energia (mood and energy). It was terrible to try and be upbeat with a dripping nose and headache. Thank goodness that is over.

Danny and Licey, the people with crazy potential, never have time/allow for time for us to share with them, which has been sad. They are amazingly smart and would be super if they actually went to church or listened. Danny gets talking during the lessons, which is good, but he takes a long time. I still laugh every time that he argues with Licey how certain things about our church are true. Last time he lectured her on how church leaders shouldn’t just preach for hours, but how others should give their testimonies and talks. He would be a good missionary haha.

We have a new family of a member his wife and three kids. The thing is I think it is outside of our area but inside our branch boundaries. I think we will try to get permission to teach them because we are near to them and other missionaries’ aren’t, even though they might not be in our area. P-day was spent cleaning the house and resting, I haven’t had a good nights rest in while sadly.

This week we sang “Quedate comigo Senor”, abide with me tis eventide, which got me thinking. I love the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and I taped a picture of in on my planner. I love the song and story so much. I was thinking about how sometimes we don’t recognize that Christ is not only next to us but talking with us. How sad it is that we often don’t recognize that burning in our chests telling us that He is there. Christ was resurrected to walk along side us through thick and thin. I think something we can always improve on is how we pay attention to the promptings we get. We always ask for answers but we also need to look for them. With conference coming up, seek for the ability to find council not just hear what is said. 

Elder “Chefld”

Arrived Mar 23 2016

Love the fam more than…. Mission family reunions!

We had a big zones conference with area president Elder Cornish and we got to see my trainer ELder Coombs (dad), Elder Jeppesen (stepson) and Jeppesens trainer/Coombs current companion Elder Tippits. It is a complicated family, but a great reunion.

This week seemed like several weeks in one, packed full.

Elder Cornish of the 70 came and we had an amazing zone conference. We were taught how to be more effectively, not just work hard, but work wisely. I loved how he emphasized how we are responsible for our work and our stewardship. We may not get to control what we receive but we can control how we receive it. We all stood up at one point and sang the primary song “I will go I will do” in Spanish which is super good!

We are making good progress with my favorite family- finally. They just moved to another part of our area but we found it and the dad named Cristian was surprised.

Determined missionaries can usually find just about anybody, the gift of tracking down/search and rescue. We had an amazing lesson on the scriptures and we committed the family to come to church. They gave us a mediocre yes, and a firm ¨God willing¨ we told them we were going to remind them the next morning so they would wake up in time for church. We secretly went to their house Sunday morning and surprised them with company as we walked to church. They moved right next to a stream shaded by a huge tree. I love the picture of Elder Bouwhuis walking with Cristian in his baseball uniform with Isabel and junior leading the way. Cristian could only come to sacrament meeting because of a baseball game his team had so we are working on the Sabbath day with him.

Monday we did amazing with our goal of contacting. We normally push for ten new contacts every day but as things fell through it turned into hours and 15 contacts. We had a crazy lesson with some tigres (delinquents) later. They called over their friend because of ¨all your sins¨ and to here ¨the blond American with pretty blue eyes¨ Elder Bouwhuis and I didn’t know what to do so we just laughed as they invited us to go clubbin, go get some wine, talked about pretty women and one asked if Emily could come visit/get married haha. It was fun but consistency with our investigators is frustrating sometimes. 

Yesterday we had exchanges again!! I don’t know why or which of the zone leaders and district leader wants to have me do so many. We have had two these first two weeks of the transfer, and it kind of throws of the pattern of study. Also normally every lesson falls through when there are exchanges, its like the plague. It actually turned out well, I got la gripe but we had a decent amount of lessons and we made some good progress with some investigators. Cristofer finally feels ready for baptism, Licey and Danny our super potential investigators set a lesson with us and we set a baptismal date with the husband of an inactive.

Johan and ELizabeth, and their daughter Wesley, have been having lessons with us for a few weeks now. Johan is a really cool guy who loves talking about movies with us. Lately in the lessons he has been teary eyed as we teach. Elder Hola and I showed the finding Faith in Christ video and talked about how Christ is the path to life eternal. He was teary eyed as we set a date for the 16th of April. He hasn’t come to church yet but he has been reading lately and the wife told us/voluntarily said ¨we need to/we are going to church this week¨

Elder Hola apparently also had a gamecube at home so we talked about mariocart double dash, harry potter, star fox and monkey ball. We also talked about musicals and his girl troubles haha, mission life is interesting. It has shocked me how similar everybody from Utah is with the same slang, favorite church music, memories etc. 

Today we had a real p day with basketball and volleyball. I was a little rusty but once we got going we did well. We surprised the tigres playing on the other half of the court. We made banana pancakes with Elder Hola and Green for lunch.

It has been strange to think this is Easter this week due to the difference in culture. Being a largely catholic country the DR celebrates La Semana Santa with three special occasions and also the bean hot chocolate called habichuelas con dulce. Elder Bouwhuis is scared to try it for fear of being stuck in the bathroom for a long time. We keep working hard even when people are await for the holiday and having parties.

I am really proud of the hope we have and express as we celebrate this sacred holiday. Yes Christ did pass away, suffering all manner of afflictions, but that is not the end of it. He was resurrected. He lives. He is the savior and redeemer of our souls because of the greatest victory of all time. I think we could all do well to often go to Gethsemane with Christ to feel of his love, yet always remember of that morning he rose. I hope we don’t seek the living savior among the dead. I know he is beside us lifting our burdens because of the atonement. 

Elder Sheffield

dominican sunday breakfast of hot chocolate and bread

basketball

Los tigres de tamboril

Cristian Isabel and junior at church