Crazy miracle before I left Leeds. JAck is a less active member I love
with lal my heart. His step son is serving in Phoenix, and since then
he has been more open to us coming. He cooks us awesome meals every
Sunday and has a lesson. The past few weeks he has been keeping his
commitments to read from the Book of Mormon. We committed him to go
through a BoM and highlight meaningful verses to him and write his
testimony in it. He texted us Tuesday morning (my last day in Leeds)
and asked if he could take us to lunch before I left. At lunch, we
asked him what kind of person he wanted us to find to give his BoM
too. He said someone like him.
Sometimes last week I dreamt about a place in Leeds--it is going up a
mountain (they call it a mountain here) and very curvy. I dreamt we
biked up there and found someone. We had appointments for the rest of
the day, which thankfully God canceled for us so we could find someone
like Jack. I asked Sister Madsen if she wanted to go to the place I
dreamt of. It was a good bike up there, and I prayed telling God that
He would have to direct us pretty clearly since our time was short,
the area was big, and we didn't know where to go. As I was biking I
hear someone playing electric guitar. I stop and start talking to him,
he's smoking, has got tattoos, piercings--looks just like Jack before
he joined the church! it was beautiful. The spirit was strong as we
testified of the restoration and he told us he wanted to read the BoM.
I told him there was a bible study every Sunday after church at Jack's
house, and that Jack also wanted to quit smoking. His name was Curtis.
He was excited at the prospect of having someone to help him quit
smoking. I'm sure Jack won't mind that I invited him to his house, and
I'm sure Jack will also decide he wants to quit smoking. As we were
walking away from that, feeling fantastic, we saw a styrofoam cup on
the ground that said "JACK'S" (Southern fast-food restaurant). The
whole thing was a great miracle.
Pres. and Sister Hanks called Monday to tell me he was releasing me as
a sister training leader. The three of us had a great conversation in
talking about all the work we had done, the miracles we had seen, and
just thanked each other for all the service.
I was double transferred with a new missionary into Alabaster! Sister
Hall is awesome. Struggling with lots of health things, but I know we
are where God wants us to be, and already seeing awesome miracles.
I'll have to write later, the computer is going to kick me off.
Sister Hall is from Castedale, Utah. She's 19 and did rodeos,
swimming, and stuff. She has an incredible background. She was trained
for 6 weeks in Scottsboro by someone who lived in the same apartment
as I did when I was double transferred to train Sister Warren in
Madison. Poor thing only got to work for 3 weeks as she has been sick.
I was miserably sick for a few days starting Tuesday night, so we were
sick together. We were still able to work hard. She is SUPER excited
for this transfer, because in our first full day working together, she
said she taught more lessons than she had her whole mission. God is
blessing us. I'm so grateful I get to be here with her.
The ward is awesome. The ward mission leader is super cool and wants
to work closely with us, and everything is focused on how we as
members and missionaries can work as a greater team. I love it. There
are over 30 youth. HUGE! It's so fun, I'm so excited! We met some of
the part member families, and committed the not-yet-members to take
the discussions with us. We've also been doing lots of finding on our
own. After Wednesday when we went shopping together and I went hard
talking to everyone I could and inviting them to have us in their home
for a message, she said "Oh my gosh, I didn't even know contacting
could be like that! It's not even awkward!" We've had plenty of
awkward since then, haha, but we are going hard when we go, and
letting her recoop since she is still getting over the doctors don't
know what. We aren't to ride bicycles, so we have to walk, drive our
limited miles, and work with the members. It's going to be so great.
She is a champion and she makes me happy. As we were going to bed we
were talking about how she is already coming out of her shell. She
made a store contact all by herself while I was getting someone's
information. We were so proud of her! While we were talking about it,
she told me again how excited she was for this transfer and encouraged
me to give her feedback. "Sister Sheffer, seriously, if you tell me do
so something I will DO IT. I've only been out for 6 weeks and you have
no idea how much I have heard about you, you're a mission legend!"
Tears. It's humbling to see how God can use us as His instruments. I
don't know what she has heard, but President has taught us recently
that we make a much bigger impact than we think we do for either good
or for bad. I know each of y'all have made an unforgettable difference
in so many people's lives and you aren't even aware of it. I know that
we are not the source for people, but merely the resource to draw
people to the Savior. I love Him. I love how greatly we can rely on
Him through everything! He is working shoulder to shoulder with us and
the work is so rewarding. And so fun! I remember how scared I used to
be to be bold, to invite people to be baptized, to talk to people, and
I'm still scared sometimes, but God has taken away so much fear. I am
so thankful to be exactly where I am at.
We get to work closely with some other sisters, and it is awesome. I'm
so grateful for them. They go him at the end of this transfer and are
true champions for the Lord. They are so sweet and considerate and
kind as we try to find the balance in working and getting adequate
rest. This mission has the greatest people serving in it! I just love
this so much!
God blessed us to find 7 new investigators since Thursday including
three teenagers, three older black men that gather every afternoon to
talk about Jesus and are searching for more truth.--we had a GREAT
lesson with them. I was surprised at how sincere and receptive they
were.
God also blessed us to have an investigator at Sacrament meeting. We
walked in late as she takes care of her two grandbabies, and we went
to her house early yesterday morning to help her get everything ready,
and she followed us over.
continuing, sorry, today is crazy.
So, the investigator is following us to the church and had to stop and get gas. I would've been mildly concerned about losing trust walking into our first Sunday in the ward late, but we were walking in carrying diaper bags and stuff, and the ward is awesome. We were trying to entertain the little ones during Sacrament meeting as best we could without holding them, but it was a struggle. I was thankful for an answered prayer when the Relief Society President came and offered help so happily. The investigator's name is Byra. We helped her move on Saturday and are going to teach her tomorrow. She is super nice lady.
It's been kinda funny being sick with Sister Hall. I woke up Saturday feeling loads better than I had the three previous days, and I was oh so happy! My voice, however, was absolutely shot. I sounded awful! Sister Hall is still hesitant to teach, so it's me talking for the majority of it unless I explicitly say something like, "Sister Hall will share..." It's ironic that I feel great and sound like poop, while she looks like a model and feels like poop. My voice is a little better today, and I just have a lingering cough. She is doing a bit better, but still struggling with feeling queasy. We tried biking on Friday and she tossed her cookies half a mile into the ride. She is SUCH a champion! This is the very beginning of her mission and she really wants to just serve.
Okay, I'm going for real this time. The church is true. We've been focusing on the Book of Mormon as a mission, and are reading it together all the way through by December. It is so true! Can't wait to watch it change more people's lives!
Love y'all lots!
Sister Sheffer
P.S. Pray for Sister Hall that we can find out what is causing her health issues.
.
I have the utmost respect for this crazy kid. He was my first zone leader, and then served as my zone leader again when I was in Huntsville. He is stellar and has inspired me greatly as a missionary.
What Sister Hall and I look like tracting a trailer park in Alabaster. Alabama has so many trees, it's crazy.
I was able to extend the time for a few more minutes.
Pray for Sister Hall that we can find out what is causing her health issues.
I have the utmost respect for this crazy kid. He was my first zone leader, and then served as my zone leader again when I was in Huntsville. He is stellar and has inspired me greatly as a missionary.
Last PDay in Leeds. This kid's name is Brandon, he works at Walmart. I talked to him one day and told him he looks like the main character off of Hair. He updates us everytime we seem him about his pursuit of the girl of his dreams. He is working at Walmart to save up money to buy a car so he can take her out. He is seriously in love. It's just like a movie. He finally showed us a picture of her right before we took this. She is a gorgeous barbie doll, but look super nice. Hilarious kid.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
September 18th 2014
We have been seeing an abundance of miracles! This week was no exception.
We started the week off with an exchange with our Anniston sisters. Sister Wells is one--my former comp who goes home on Thursday. We ate barbecue to celebrate her mission before the exchange. I brought her comp to Leeds. I lived with her in Madison for a transfer after Christmas. She is an awesome missionary. It's neat that several months later, I can see a different spirit about her and see how she has grown and matured. She desperately wants for her family at home to embrace the gospel, and works diligently for other people. She's inspiring. We taught the Nicolas, and then had an AMAZING experience.
We had received a referral for a man named Clay from an investigator. Sister Madsen and I had tried previously and met a kid our age named Alan. We taught Alan who is unsure about his belief in God, and said we would come back Monday evening to meet Clay. When we asked about his relationship to Clay, he said that he grew up with Clay and Clay had always taken care of him. Given this, I was picturing a middle-aged man.
I brought the sister from Anniston to meet Clay Monday evening. I was surprised after knocking on the door when a 21-yr-old kid full of light answered and said, "Hi, I'm Clayton, I've been waiting for y'all all day!" We were a bit taken aback, but went inside. Kamesha, a 14 year old girl who gave us the referral was also there, and another kid I hadn't met was lying on the couch watching TV. Clay invited us to sit down around a table, was eager for us to share our message. I asked if Alan was there, and he went to the back of the house and retrieved him. I walked over to the couch and shook the hand of the guy watching TV and asked if he would like to cut the TV off and join us. He did accordingly. The feeling was amazing sitting around the table with a wonderful sister, and these four young people. They were fully engaged in the lesson and shared great insights as we taught the restoration. The spirit was so powerful. We knelt together and Kamesha offered a prayer. After she finished she said. "I haven't even read the Book of Mormon yet, and I already know it's true! This is true!" Clay just kept saying, "this is so neat....this is so cool."
A few days later, Clay committed to baptism for October 4th. He feels so good. God is so good for leading us to him.
Other highlights:
Sister Madsen and I had been painting up a storm in Cassie and Bill's new house, getting ready for them to move in. We were still in grungy clothes when she dropped us off at the church to meet the district leader who was bringing us a baptismal suit for Loretta. It started POURING rain, and Sister Madsen and I set off to walk home to change and do weekly planning. As we are literally soaked head to toe walking home, and honestly, thoroughly enjoying every second of it, a woman rolled down the window of her car and said "here!" as she threw us an umbrella, and then drove off. Sister Madsen and I just looked at each other--that was the sweetest thing! I seriously love the people of the South so much! I love them more and more every day. I love the South more and more every day as well. Everything. I LOVE biking (which we've done A LOT of recently) on the one lane roads surrounded by thousands and thousands of trees. I think the humidity is even growing on me. I love this so much. These people are the salt of the earth.
Sister Madsen and I MET THE SOUTHERN VERSIONS OF KATIE AND BROOKE!!! Their names are KRISTA and BROOKLYN!!!! Cute little blonde things. We taught their family, and Brooklyn wrote a question down on a piece of paper and handed it to us. It said, "can I help bless people?" We tried to answer her question, but she interrupted and said, "no, I mean on the streets." We realized she wanted to come door to door with us. We were all about that. She and Krista introduced us to all their neighbors, and we loved every second of it. We didn't meet anyone receptive, but it was absolutely precious to see these girls interact with each other as sisters (JUST like my sisters) and with their neighbors. How sweet they just want to bless people. Their parents are okay with us teaching the family, but aren't as enthused about it yet as Krista and Brooke are.
We were teaching a less-active 10-yr-old boy on his porch and he told us he has a testimony of prayer because God helps him win at volleyball, football, and video games. "Of course I'm going to win if I'm praying and they're not! LOGIC!!" He hasn't been to church for about two years, so we were surprised when he said, "I don't care what anyone says, the Book of Mormon is TRUE!" He told us of how he read from it, prayed, and felt happy. We asked if he had told his mom about it. He said no. We challenged him to tell his mom, and ask how she knows it's true. He accepted. Also referred us to his precious little friend (who he literally outweighs by 100 pounds) he plays football with.
Crazy times! We had 4 sisters stay the night with us at Sister Fowler's house. I was put in charge of getting a musical number together for our multi-zone conference with Elder Zwick. I asked one of the Gadsden sisters to sing--she has the voice of an angel. The Gadsden sister were supposed to pick up another set of sisters for the conference, so all 4 came and spent the night with us so we could practice the musical number, and only drive 20 minutes in the morning to the conference. So much fun! Sister Madsen and I meant to be in at 9 rather than 9:30 to be ready for the sisters to come, but I saw a camaro stopped at a gas station and HAD to talk to the owner. It's a theme for the mission. We learned he actually played football for BYU! Crazy, so then Sister Madsen and I ran a mile in our proselyting clothes just after 9 to get home at exactly the same time the sisters arrived. So much fun! I'm going to miss Sister Madsen, life is always a party with her.
Having the Zwicks was absolutely amazing! I learned so much! I got to play piano while they shook everyone's hand. The thought only briefly passed that I wouldn't get to shake their hand. I glanced back to see everyone had almost gotten through, so I chose a short song to finish things up. I was surprised right as I was finishing to feel Sister Zwick hugging me from behind. I stood and Elder Zwick was standing and smiling next to her. He shook my hand and thanked me for the beautiful music. This is just who the Zwicks are. With the notice of a day, they have packed up and left everything to fill long assignments in other countries, and they just exemplify love. When they tell us they love us, I really believe it.
It was an amazing experience to have a Missionary Leadership Council with the Zone Leaders and other Sister Training Leaders led by him. He offered to perform any of our sealings in a specific room in the Salt Lake Temple--the same room he was sealed in, and his favorite to perform sealing in. They said great things that inspired me to be a better missionary, but I'm more inspired by the people they are than what they said.
President and Sister Hanks-- visited our ward last week and were invited to lunch by MerryAnn. They accepted and had lunch with her, the Elders and some of her family she had invited. They shared that story when called upon to share a principle. They chose a principle of charity of love. Needless to say I may have cried a teensy bit. MerryAnn's testimony grows deeper and deeper and she never stops giving.
Loretta was baptized on Saturday!!!!!! God helped us remember the details, and everything went smoothly. We asked a convert of two years from the ward to perform the baptism--his first one! We asked another convert from January--I think I've written about the Hammonds--to perform the confirmation. It was wonderful to see them exercise their priesthood, and they enjoyed the opportunity. We were able to get lots of the ward involved in the talks, set-up, witnessing, praying, leading, and all that, and it warmed my heart to see how wonderful this ward is when they come together. Loretta is fitting in beautifully. Earlier this week we had several different members come to teach her, and when the RS President came to talk about callings and visiting teaching, Loretta expressed interest in serving in nursery! The Nicolas will be such a blessing to the ward!
We got transfer calls Saturday night. I thought I would get to stay here one more transfer, but I am leaving. I have had some of the greatest learning and growing experiences here and seen some of the greatest miracles. I'm eternally grateful for the relationships I've formed here, and how I've come to love the stress of the mission. I really do. I love the stress. I love the chastenings of the spirit constantly inviting me to step it up and be better.
There is still so much work to do in this area, and I always ask myself if I did enough. As I was reflecting on this on a bike ride to an appointment, I saw a couple loading things into their car, and jumped off to help. There was a group of little boys walking past, and one of them said, "Hey, I know them, those are the same two ladies who helped MY mom." I remembered about two months ago in that same exact spot helping a woman moving in. I think that was an answer to an unspoken prayer. When we are on the Lord's errand, we don't even realize the good we do or the impressions we leave.
I know that you are changing lives just by being who you are.
This gospel is so true, I love working shoulder to shoulder with the Savior. I am sad to leave this area, but no matter where we serve, we serve with the Lord.
Love y'all,
Sister Sheffer
NOTE: The following is an explanation (we requested) of a program that Lake and his companion came up with to involve members in missionary work and increase their pool of investigators. It sounds like it is working well.
Yes so its a three visit program.
Visit one:
-Explain that preach my gospel is for everyone and ask the members to pull out there own copy of preach my gospel. Ask the members what there idea of a missionary is, ask them who the missionaries are, and explain that as members we are all missionaries. State the missionary purpose.
Read one of the quotes of your choice found in the beginning preach my gospel about members working with the missionaries.
Read in chapter 13 of preach my gospel under "the ward mission plan" there is a qoute that says "it will be a great day when members are not only praying for all missionaries, but for the missionaries in there ward" (it says something to that affect) Then write down the names of the missionaries in the ward on a piece of paper and give it to the member inviting them to #1 pray for the missionaries in there ward by name.
-#2 Invite the members to pray for a missionary opportunity every day.
-#3 invite the members to read the section found in PMG chapter 9 "The importance of Members"
Then set up a date (usually in one week) To come by and follow up on the invitations. Also ask the members if there is anything you can do to help support them in there calling, the idea during the whole visit is that instead of being focused on what the members can do for the missionaries, the focus should be what can the missionaries do to make the members life/calling easier. If the member doesn't feel that you sincerely want to make there life easier it will be hard to have there trust. All invitations should be written down clearly.
Visit two:
Follow up on the three invitations and do role plays with the members, teaching them how to ask (for example) a co worker at work if they "would be willing to listen to a breif presentation about their faith." Practice with them and make it fun and short. Invite them to continue doing the first two invitations. Depending on their situations and the people they know, invite them to invite spicific people to hear the gospel from the missionaries. If they haven't read the section in preach my gospel, read it with them.
Visit three:
Try to set up a family home evening them them for this visit, and do what is called "The Magic Box"
The Magic box is a little dificult to explain, basically you bring a box and put it in the center of the room with the family telling them that the box is magic. Then you ask your companion to step into the box, when you steps in the box you give him compliments and tell him about his strong points, and then have him step out of the box. Explain that you want everyone in the room to have a turn in the magic box, and starting with one of the children, have then step in and give them compliments, then your companion will give them compliments, then it goes in a circle until every member of the family has told the person in the box what they like about him or her. Continue until every family member has gone. Someone always cries in this activity, usually multiple people do. Explain that as missionaries we want everyone in the world to feel the love that the family is feeling and ask for referrals. There are three rules to the magic box, one :no sarcastic comments, two, the person in the box cannot talk, and three, you must look the person in the eyes as you compliment them. When people step in and out of the Box I like to make funny noises for each step, it makes it more fun.
By the end of the three visits, the family has your trust, the family knows how to do missionary work and understands that it is there responsibility, and they feel that the Elders have brought love into there home. Like I said, we got 16 referrals from this in just a month, and we are continuing to get more.
I hope everything was clear, this program isn't anything official. My companion and I came up with this. We usually do the first visit at dinner appointments. Some things we adjust depending on the situations of the families.
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We started the week off with an exchange with our Anniston sisters. Sister Wells is one--my former comp who goes home on Thursday. We ate barbecue to celebrate her mission before the exchange. I brought her comp to Leeds. I lived with her in Madison for a transfer after Christmas. She is an awesome missionary. It's neat that several months later, I can see a different spirit about her and see how she has grown and matured. She desperately wants for her family at home to embrace the gospel, and works diligently for other people. She's inspiring. We taught the Nicolas, and then had an AMAZING experience.
We had received a referral for a man named Clay from an investigator. Sister Madsen and I had tried previously and met a kid our age named Alan. We taught Alan who is unsure about his belief in God, and said we would come back Monday evening to meet Clay. When we asked about his relationship to Clay, he said that he grew up with Clay and Clay had always taken care of him. Given this, I was picturing a middle-aged man.
I brought the sister from Anniston to meet Clay Monday evening. I was surprised after knocking on the door when a 21-yr-old kid full of light answered and said, "Hi, I'm Clayton, I've been waiting for y'all all day!" We were a bit taken aback, but went inside. Kamesha, a 14 year old girl who gave us the referral was also there, and another kid I hadn't met was lying on the couch watching TV. Clay invited us to sit down around a table, was eager for us to share our message. I asked if Alan was there, and he went to the back of the house and retrieved him. I walked over to the couch and shook the hand of the guy watching TV and asked if he would like to cut the TV off and join us. He did accordingly. The feeling was amazing sitting around the table with a wonderful sister, and these four young people. They were fully engaged in the lesson and shared great insights as we taught the restoration. The spirit was so powerful. We knelt together and Kamesha offered a prayer. After she finished she said. "I haven't even read the Book of Mormon yet, and I already know it's true! This is true!" Clay just kept saying, "this is so neat....this is so cool."
A few days later, Clay committed to baptism for October 4th. He feels so good. God is so good for leading us to him.
Other highlights:
Sister Madsen and I had been painting up a storm in Cassie and Bill's new house, getting ready for them to move in. We were still in grungy clothes when she dropped us off at the church to meet the district leader who was bringing us a baptismal suit for Loretta. It started POURING rain, and Sister Madsen and I set off to walk home to change and do weekly planning. As we are literally soaked head to toe walking home, and honestly, thoroughly enjoying every second of it, a woman rolled down the window of her car and said "here!" as she threw us an umbrella, and then drove off. Sister Madsen and I just looked at each other--that was the sweetest thing! I seriously love the people of the South so much! I love them more and more every day. I love the South more and more every day as well. Everything. I LOVE biking (which we've done A LOT of recently) on the one lane roads surrounded by thousands and thousands of trees. I think the humidity is even growing on me. I love this so much. These people are the salt of the earth.
Sister Madsen and I MET THE SOUTHERN VERSIONS OF KATIE AND BROOKE!!! Their names are KRISTA and BROOKLYN!!!! Cute little blonde things. We taught their family, and Brooklyn wrote a question down on a piece of paper and handed it to us. It said, "can I help bless people?" We tried to answer her question, but she interrupted and said, "no, I mean on the streets." We realized she wanted to come door to door with us. We were all about that. She and Krista introduced us to all their neighbors, and we loved every second of it. We didn't meet anyone receptive, but it was absolutely precious to see these girls interact with each other as sisters (JUST like my sisters) and with their neighbors. How sweet they just want to bless people. Their parents are okay with us teaching the family, but aren't as enthused about it yet as Krista and Brooke are.
We were teaching a less-active 10-yr-old boy on his porch and he told us he has a testimony of prayer because God helps him win at volleyball, football, and video games. "Of course I'm going to win if I'm praying and they're not! LOGIC!!" He hasn't been to church for about two years, so we were surprised when he said, "I don't care what anyone says, the Book of Mormon is TRUE!" He told us of how he read from it, prayed, and felt happy. We asked if he had told his mom about it. He said no. We challenged him to tell his mom, and ask how she knows it's true. He accepted. Also referred us to his precious little friend (who he literally outweighs by 100 pounds) he plays football with.
Crazy times! We had 4 sisters stay the night with us at Sister Fowler's house. I was put in charge of getting a musical number together for our multi-zone conference with Elder Zwick. I asked one of the Gadsden sisters to sing--she has the voice of an angel. The Gadsden sister were supposed to pick up another set of sisters for the conference, so all 4 came and spent the night with us so we could practice the musical number, and only drive 20 minutes in the morning to the conference. So much fun! Sister Madsen and I meant to be in at 9 rather than 9:30 to be ready for the sisters to come, but I saw a camaro stopped at a gas station and HAD to talk to the owner. It's a theme for the mission. We learned he actually played football for BYU! Crazy, so then Sister Madsen and I ran a mile in our proselyting clothes just after 9 to get home at exactly the same time the sisters arrived. So much fun! I'm going to miss Sister Madsen, life is always a party with her.
Having the Zwicks was absolutely amazing! I learned so much! I got to play piano while they shook everyone's hand. The thought only briefly passed that I wouldn't get to shake their hand. I glanced back to see everyone had almost gotten through, so I chose a short song to finish things up. I was surprised right as I was finishing to feel Sister Zwick hugging me from behind. I stood and Elder Zwick was standing and smiling next to her. He shook my hand and thanked me for the beautiful music. This is just who the Zwicks are. With the notice of a day, they have packed up and left everything to fill long assignments in other countries, and they just exemplify love. When they tell us they love us, I really believe it.
It was an amazing experience to have a Missionary Leadership Council with the Zone Leaders and other Sister Training Leaders led by him. He offered to perform any of our sealings in a specific room in the Salt Lake Temple--the same room he was sealed in, and his favorite to perform sealing in. They said great things that inspired me to be a better missionary, but I'm more inspired by the people they are than what they said.
President and Sister Hanks-- visited our ward last week and were invited to lunch by MerryAnn. They accepted and had lunch with her, the Elders and some of her family she had invited. They shared that story when called upon to share a principle. They chose a principle of charity of love. Needless to say I may have cried a teensy bit. MerryAnn's testimony grows deeper and deeper and she never stops giving.
Loretta was baptized on Saturday!!!!!! God helped us remember the details, and everything went smoothly. We asked a convert of two years from the ward to perform the baptism--his first one! We asked another convert from January--I think I've written about the Hammonds--to perform the confirmation. It was wonderful to see them exercise their priesthood, and they enjoyed the opportunity. We were able to get lots of the ward involved in the talks, set-up, witnessing, praying, leading, and all that, and it warmed my heart to see how wonderful this ward is when they come together. Loretta is fitting in beautifully. Earlier this week we had several different members come to teach her, and when the RS President came to talk about callings and visiting teaching, Loretta expressed interest in serving in nursery! The Nicolas will be such a blessing to the ward!
We got transfer calls Saturday night. I thought I would get to stay here one more transfer, but I am leaving. I have had some of the greatest learning and growing experiences here and seen some of the greatest miracles. I'm eternally grateful for the relationships I've formed here, and how I've come to love the stress of the mission. I really do. I love the stress. I love the chastenings of the spirit constantly inviting me to step it up and be better.
There is still so much work to do in this area, and I always ask myself if I did enough. As I was reflecting on this on a bike ride to an appointment, I saw a couple loading things into their car, and jumped off to help. There was a group of little boys walking past, and one of them said, "Hey, I know them, those are the same two ladies who helped MY mom." I remembered about two months ago in that same exact spot helping a woman moving in. I think that was an answer to an unspoken prayer. When we are on the Lord's errand, we don't even realize the good we do or the impressions we leave.
I know that you are changing lives just by being who you are.
This gospel is so true, I love working shoulder to shoulder with the Savior. I am sad to leave this area, but no matter where we serve, we serve with the Lord.
Love y'all,
Sister Sheffer
NOTE: The following is an explanation (we requested) of a program that Lake and his companion came up with to involve members in missionary work and increase their pool of investigators. It sounds like it is working well.
Yes so its a three visit program.
Visit one:
-Explain that preach my gospel is for everyone and ask the members to pull out there own copy of preach my gospel. Ask the members what there idea of a missionary is, ask them who the missionaries are, and explain that as members we are all missionaries. State the missionary purpose.
Read one of the quotes of your choice found in the beginning preach my gospel about members working with the missionaries.
Read in chapter 13 of preach my gospel under "the ward mission plan" there is a qoute that says "it will be a great day when members are not only praying for all missionaries, but for the missionaries in there ward" (it says something to that affect) Then write down the names of the missionaries in the ward on a piece of paper and give it to the member inviting them to #1 pray for the missionaries in there ward by name.
-#2 Invite the members to pray for a missionary opportunity every day.
-#3 invite the members to read the section found in PMG chapter 9 "The importance of Members"
Then set up a date (usually in one week) To come by and follow up on the invitations. Also ask the members if there is anything you can do to help support them in there calling, the idea during the whole visit is that instead of being focused on what the members can do for the missionaries, the focus should be what can the missionaries do to make the members life/calling easier. If the member doesn't feel that you sincerely want to make there life easier it will be hard to have there trust. All invitations should be written down clearly.
Visit two:
Follow up on the three invitations and do role plays with the members, teaching them how to ask (for example) a co worker at work if they "would be willing to listen to a breif presentation about their faith." Practice with them and make it fun and short. Invite them to continue doing the first two invitations. Depending on their situations and the people they know, invite them to invite spicific people to hear the gospel from the missionaries. If they haven't read the section in preach my gospel, read it with them.
Visit three:
Try to set up a family home evening them them for this visit, and do what is called "The Magic Box"
The Magic box is a little dificult to explain, basically you bring a box and put it in the center of the room with the family telling them that the box is magic. Then you ask your companion to step into the box, when you steps in the box you give him compliments and tell him about his strong points, and then have him step out of the box. Explain that you want everyone in the room to have a turn in the magic box, and starting with one of the children, have then step in and give them compliments, then your companion will give them compliments, then it goes in a circle until every member of the family has told the person in the box what they like about him or her. Continue until every family member has gone. Someone always cries in this activity, usually multiple people do. Explain that as missionaries we want everyone in the world to feel the love that the family is feeling and ask for referrals. There are three rules to the magic box, one :no sarcastic comments, two, the person in the box cannot talk, and three, you must look the person in the eyes as you compliment them. When people step in and out of the Box I like to make funny noises for each step, it makes it more fun.
By the end of the three visits, the family has your trust, the family knows how to do missionary work and understands that it is there responsibility, and they feel that the Elders have brought love into there home. Like I said, we got 16 referrals from this in just a month, and we are continuing to get more.
I hope everything was clear, this program isn't anything official. My companion and I came up with this. We usually do the first visit at dinner appointments. Some things we adjust depending on the situations of the families.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
September 8th 2014
Life as a missionary just gets better and better.
This week was fantastic. We started the week off doing exchanges with our Gadsden sisters. We did an fhe with one of our favorite families. The father is a recent convert, he joined the church shortly after his son left for his mission in Australia, and his daughter was just sealed in the temple on Saturday. More details about that later. :) Monday night we had an awesome fhe on temples since extended family came too and don't understand the temple or why they couldn't go inside for the marriage. It was a sweet experience.
Crazy, but as we were talking to people at church about the Nicolas, the grandmother of this same family. Said, "did you say Nicola?" She then explained that as a teenager, the missionaries had the youth proselyting and knocking doors. She happened to knock on the door of a Nicola family. They were Catholic and had 6 kids--all were baptized. We talked to Jim about this, and he said it must have been his family. He is one of 6 kids, and they were Catholic in the same town. Amazing! She knocked on their door YEARS ago, they were baptized, and the spirit led Sister Madsen and me to his door years later, and now Loretta is getting baptized. She is such a rockstar in her personal studies. She is progressing so fast. In one of our appointments with her this past week, I felt prompted to move her baptismal date UP. I asked her how she would feel about being baptized a week sooner. She said that sounded nice. She will be baptized this Saturday. These people are absolutely amazing. They fit right into the ward, and love the gospel.
In an appointment with a part member family--Cassie, a woman in her late 20s and her 8 year old daughter Angel were both baptized late last year, and the woman's father, Bill has been a great encourager, but didn't take the discussions himself. Bill and I have a good relationship, he teases me in a grandfatherly kind of way everytime we come over to read the Book of Mormon with Cassie and Angel. I almost always ask him, "so when are YOU going to come to church?" (He has said the whole time I have been in this area that he will, but always chickens out). Occasionally, I'll ask him, "so when are YOU going to be baptized?" He usually turns it into a joke, though from how he's sat in on some of the lessons and participated, I always figured he would be, but just wasn't ready. This last week, he finally admitted that he knows it's all true wants to be baptized!!! We'll start to teach him officially, and we are getting them moved into another house with his 92 year old father.
By request, I did an exchange with a sister I love dearly who received some hard news from home. She goes home in October, and really wants to give the work her all for her last leg. It hurts to see missionaries suffering. They have sacrificed so much to be out here on the Lord's errand, and when additional hard things happen, it breaks my heart. However, I know that the mission accelerates the healing process, and the greatest blessings we can bring to our families are from giving our all out here. That exchange strengthened both our testimonies.
One thing I have a testimony of:miracles happen when missionaries have to use the restroom. I've seen this so many times. The sister had to use the restroom, so we went into a gas station, as she was in use of the facilities, I talked with the cashier. After some conversation she told me about her sister who also works with her who is dealing with some of the same hardships as the sister I was on exchanges with. I got her information, and know that God will use this to answer two prayers. It will help both of them for my dear sister missionary to teach this woman suffering with some of the same issues.
While on that same exchange, we taught someone I met with another sister on a previous exchange several months ago. She is progressing very slowly, but to me, the changes she made were more apparent since I hadn't seen her since our initial contact. Her countenance and appearance is completely different! It built my testimony to see the fruit of a simple contact from months ago. The sisters have done a remarkable job. I stand in awe of these sister I get to work with. God never stops working. Alma 36:25
I made the decision that I am keeping my bike after the mission on our next exchange in Oxford. The sister I exchanged with made plans for us to bike 20 miles to another city to follow up with someone I had actually met a few weeks earlier with the other Oxford sister. About two weeks ago, while the other sister and I were biking, we ran into a man with one leg stranded on the side of the road with a broken-down truck. We biked back half a mile to buy him some water from a convenience store, and came back asking how we could help. He told us about his niece who lived a few miles away. He didn't have phone numbers for anyone nearby who could help him, so we followed his directions and biked to meet his niece and tell her of his predicament and see if she could pick him up. She was not at home when we got to her house. We weren't sure what to do, so I suggested talking to the neighbors to see if they knew when she would be home. This is how we met Katelyn. She is about my age, gorgeous, super sweet and has an 8 month old baby. We taught her and she happily agreed to have us come back and bring her a Book of Mormon. Saturday, I got to bring one for her with the other sister and teach her more. That was really neat. She was worth making the bike trip for. In fact, I loved every minute of that bike ride. On our way back, we stopped by a yard sale where the other sister met a less active member! She taught him while another man there started asking questions. He was from Mexico, so we split, and I taught him in Spanish. They were both awesome people and accpeted return appointments. God is so good. Since Oxford has a bike shop and Leeds doesn't, we got our bikes tuned up before we went back to our area. Scott (my bike) rides SO good now. It is so much easier to bike, and I just love biking! I'm definitely shipping that bike home. It's an awesome bike, and biking provides for great pondering. Especially here in AL where it's so green and gorgeous.
BIking feels great until....you stop. Then you realize that you're a sweaty, sticky, smelly mess. Sister Madsen and I drove back to our area SO happy to be back together since we did exchanges back to back and hadn't really seen each other for a few days. We were on our way to the ring ceremony for the first family I talked about, and tried as best we could to make ourselves look and smell decent enough. What a shindig! It was awesome to see such happy people, and meet so many of their friends. They played a video of the bride's brother who is serving his mission in Australia, so that was precious, and the whole thing was just wonderful. Beautiful, Great Gatsby-themed with great food and so many great people. Marriage is a beautiful thing. I caught the bouquet. Didn't fight for it, all I had to do was lift my hands. :)
Church was AMAZING!! I woke up yesterday morning thinking about a less active we met once at the beginning of this transfer. She hadn't been to church since April. I texted her something about how we were excited to see her at church and wanted to introduce her to Loretta. She didn't respond, but she showed up with her mom! She told me that we woke her up with the text, but she was glad for it. Another Less active recent convert we've been working with showed up with her kids for the first time in several months. We were so proud of her! Cassie and Angel also made it, which surprised us since they were so busy, and normally don't make it wiehn their schedules are busy. Loretta and Jim came and got to stay for the w hole block. The ward was reaching out to the investigators and the less actives and recent converts. MerryAnn is doing a fantastic job at that. It was beautiful!!! It makes me so happy!!! Sister Madsen and I are just ecstatic for our lives right now.
The gospel is so REAL. It REALly works. It really changes us, and makes us happier, and get to share happiness with others. The stories from the scriptures are real, I love reading them and then seeing the same thing happen here today.
I love y'all so much and aprpeciate the way you build God's kingdom in Arizona.
Steadfast,
Sister Liz Sheffer
This week was fantastic. We started the week off doing exchanges with our Gadsden sisters. We did an fhe with one of our favorite families. The father is a recent convert, he joined the church shortly after his son left for his mission in Australia, and his daughter was just sealed in the temple on Saturday. More details about that later. :) Monday night we had an awesome fhe on temples since extended family came too and don't understand the temple or why they couldn't go inside for the marriage. It was a sweet experience.
Crazy, but as we were talking to people at church about the Nicolas, the grandmother of this same family. Said, "did you say Nicola?" She then explained that as a teenager, the missionaries had the youth proselyting and knocking doors. She happened to knock on the door of a Nicola family. They were Catholic and had 6 kids--all were baptized. We talked to Jim about this, and he said it must have been his family. He is one of 6 kids, and they were Catholic in the same town. Amazing! She knocked on their door YEARS ago, they were baptized, and the spirit led Sister Madsen and me to his door years later, and now Loretta is getting baptized. She is such a rockstar in her personal studies. She is progressing so fast. In one of our appointments with her this past week, I felt prompted to move her baptismal date UP. I asked her how she would feel about being baptized a week sooner. She said that sounded nice. She will be baptized this Saturday. These people are absolutely amazing. They fit right into the ward, and love the gospel.
In an appointment with a part member family--Cassie, a woman in her late 20s and her 8 year old daughter Angel were both baptized late last year, and the woman's father, Bill has been a great encourager, but didn't take the discussions himself. Bill and I have a good relationship, he teases me in a grandfatherly kind of way everytime we come over to read the Book of Mormon with Cassie and Angel. I almost always ask him, "so when are YOU going to come to church?" (He has said the whole time I have been in this area that he will, but always chickens out). Occasionally, I'll ask him, "so when are YOU going to be baptized?" He usually turns it into a joke, though from how he's sat in on some of the lessons and participated, I always figured he would be, but just wasn't ready. This last week, he finally admitted that he knows it's all true wants to be baptized!!! We'll start to teach him officially, and we are getting them moved into another house with his 92 year old father.
By request, I did an exchange with a sister I love dearly who received some hard news from home. She goes home in October, and really wants to give the work her all for her last leg. It hurts to see missionaries suffering. They have sacrificed so much to be out here on the Lord's errand, and when additional hard things happen, it breaks my heart. However, I know that the mission accelerates the healing process, and the greatest blessings we can bring to our families are from giving our all out here. That exchange strengthened both our testimonies.
One thing I have a testimony of:miracles happen when missionaries have to use the restroom. I've seen this so many times. The sister had to use the restroom, so we went into a gas station, as she was in use of the facilities, I talked with the cashier. After some conversation she told me about her sister who also works with her who is dealing with some of the same hardships as the sister I was on exchanges with. I got her information, and know that God will use this to answer two prayers. It will help both of them for my dear sister missionary to teach this woman suffering with some of the same issues.
While on that same exchange, we taught someone I met with another sister on a previous exchange several months ago. She is progressing very slowly, but to me, the changes she made were more apparent since I hadn't seen her since our initial contact. Her countenance and appearance is completely different! It built my testimony to see the fruit of a simple contact from months ago. The sisters have done a remarkable job. I stand in awe of these sister I get to work with. God never stops working. Alma 36:25
I made the decision that I am keeping my bike after the mission on our next exchange in Oxford. The sister I exchanged with made plans for us to bike 20 miles to another city to follow up with someone I had actually met a few weeks earlier with the other Oxford sister. About two weeks ago, while the other sister and I were biking, we ran into a man with one leg stranded on the side of the road with a broken-down truck. We biked back half a mile to buy him some water from a convenience store, and came back asking how we could help. He told us about his niece who lived a few miles away. He didn't have phone numbers for anyone nearby who could help him, so we followed his directions and biked to meet his niece and tell her of his predicament and see if she could pick him up. She was not at home when we got to her house. We weren't sure what to do, so I suggested talking to the neighbors to see if they knew when she would be home. This is how we met Katelyn. She is about my age, gorgeous, super sweet and has an 8 month old baby. We taught her and she happily agreed to have us come back and bring her a Book of Mormon. Saturday, I got to bring one for her with the other sister and teach her more. That was really neat. She was worth making the bike trip for. In fact, I loved every minute of that bike ride. On our way back, we stopped by a yard sale where the other sister met a less active member! She taught him while another man there started asking questions. He was from Mexico, so we split, and I taught him in Spanish. They were both awesome people and accpeted return appointments. God is so good. Since Oxford has a bike shop and Leeds doesn't, we got our bikes tuned up before we went back to our area. Scott (my bike) rides SO good now. It is so much easier to bike, and I just love biking! I'm definitely shipping that bike home. It's an awesome bike, and biking provides for great pondering. Especially here in AL where it's so green and gorgeous.
BIking feels great until....you stop. Then you realize that you're a sweaty, sticky, smelly mess. Sister Madsen and I drove back to our area SO happy to be back together since we did exchanges back to back and hadn't really seen each other for a few days. We were on our way to the ring ceremony for the first family I talked about, and tried as best we could to make ourselves look and smell decent enough. What a shindig! It was awesome to see such happy people, and meet so many of their friends. They played a video of the bride's brother who is serving his mission in Australia, so that was precious, and the whole thing was just wonderful. Beautiful, Great Gatsby-themed with great food and so many great people. Marriage is a beautiful thing. I caught the bouquet. Didn't fight for it, all I had to do was lift my hands. :)
Church was AMAZING!! I woke up yesterday morning thinking about a less active we met once at the beginning of this transfer. She hadn't been to church since April. I texted her something about how we were excited to see her at church and wanted to introduce her to Loretta. She didn't respond, but she showed up with her mom! She told me that we woke her up with the text, but she was glad for it. Another Less active recent convert we've been working with showed up with her kids for the first time in several months. We were so proud of her! Cassie and Angel also made it, which surprised us since they were so busy, and normally don't make it wiehn their schedules are busy. Loretta and Jim came and got to stay for the w hole block. The ward was reaching out to the investigators and the less actives and recent converts. MerryAnn is doing a fantastic job at that. It was beautiful!!! It makes me so happy!!! Sister Madsen and I are just ecstatic for our lives right now.
The gospel is so REAL. It REALly works. It really changes us, and makes us happier, and get to share happiness with others. The stories from the scriptures are real, I love reading them and then seeing the same thing happen here today.
I love y'all so much and aprpeciate the way you build God's kingdom in Arizona.
Steadfast,
Sister Liz Sheffer
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
September 1st 2014
It's been an awesome week! I love the work.
The Nicolas are doing great. Loretta is still excited about her baptism and doing her additional study faithfully from the pamphlets. She is such a sweetheart. They went shopping and she got herself four church-appropriate outfits, and James bought two suits. They are so excited. They made it to church and got to hear Sister Madsen speak. President and Sister Hanks showed up to our ward which was a pleasant surprise. The Gospel principles teacher did NOT show up, so the Sunday School president asked all 5 of the missionaries to teach. (We have a trio of elders). It actually went really well. WE were surprisingly able to teach in great unity. Though Sister Hanks whispered to me (you two smoked the elders, you and Sister Madsen are such a strong team). There is no competition, but it made me laugh a little.
I conducted an exchange with a former, difficult companion. I'll admit to being a little nervous for it, but we actually had a lot of fun together. I am amazed at how humbly she acknowledged things she wanted to change. She taught with the spirit and contacted with love. IT was an awesome experience.
Jin made it to church with his dad for a little bit. We had a good talk with Dad, and he agreed to do the lessons with Jin twice a week! Yay!
WE had zone conference and that was awesome. Right after, I did an exchange with a sister getting ready to go home. I have heard great things about her my whole mission, but never had a chance to work with her. She is stellar. When she heard I speak some Spanish, she excitedly shifted plans to follow up with Spanish-speakers they met. We ended up running into a less active member from Honduras whose records weren't transferred in. God is so good.
God has definitely been guiding us in our finding. We have been able to find such neat, humble, prepared people. I love it. Some I have been teaching in Spanish. I wish I had time to study Spanish, but the words and phrases do come, and I have been able to understand well. I know it's because Sister Madsen prays for me while I teach. She is full of faith and makes good things happen.
WE have had many up-in-your-face anti people we have run into in the past week. It's amazing that while people are yelling to us that we are deceived and trying to brainwash people, going to hell....whatever else, that I can actually feel the spirit strengthening my testimony, and I just feel an increase of love for these people. God is amazing. When we are loyal to Christ, we start to feel as He feels. "Fear not, though the enemy deride. Courage, for the Lord is on our side." Music strengthens my testimony so much! I really want to be a part of good music for the rest of my life. It makes the truth real to me. I'm excited to have the opportunity to practice as Sister Hanks has asked me to provide the musical number for when Elder Zwick visits our mission for four days next week. I am SO excited for his coming. It is going to be a wonderful thing for our mission and the members here.
This work is real. The Book of Mormon is so true. People are of infinite worth.
Love,
Elizabeth
The Nicolas are doing great. Loretta is still excited about her baptism and doing her additional study faithfully from the pamphlets. She is such a sweetheart. They went shopping and she got herself four church-appropriate outfits, and James bought two suits. They are so excited. They made it to church and got to hear Sister Madsen speak. President and Sister Hanks showed up to our ward which was a pleasant surprise. The Gospel principles teacher did NOT show up, so the Sunday School president asked all 5 of the missionaries to teach. (We have a trio of elders). It actually went really well. WE were surprisingly able to teach in great unity. Though Sister Hanks whispered to me (you two smoked the elders, you and Sister Madsen are such a strong team). There is no competition, but it made me laugh a little.
I conducted an exchange with a former, difficult companion. I'll admit to being a little nervous for it, but we actually had a lot of fun together. I am amazed at how humbly she acknowledged things she wanted to change. She taught with the spirit and contacted with love. IT was an awesome experience.
Jin made it to church with his dad for a little bit. We had a good talk with Dad, and he agreed to do the lessons with Jin twice a week! Yay!
WE had zone conference and that was awesome. Right after, I did an exchange with a sister getting ready to go home. I have heard great things about her my whole mission, but never had a chance to work with her. She is stellar. When she heard I speak some Spanish, she excitedly shifted plans to follow up with Spanish-speakers they met. We ended up running into a less active member from Honduras whose records weren't transferred in. God is so good.
God has definitely been guiding us in our finding. We have been able to find such neat, humble, prepared people. I love it. Some I have been teaching in Spanish. I wish I had time to study Spanish, but the words and phrases do come, and I have been able to understand well. I know it's because Sister Madsen prays for me while I teach. She is full of faith and makes good things happen.
WE have had many up-in-your-face anti people we have run into in the past week. It's amazing that while people are yelling to us that we are deceived and trying to brainwash people, going to hell....whatever else, that I can actually feel the spirit strengthening my testimony, and I just feel an increase of love for these people. God is amazing. When we are loyal to Christ, we start to feel as He feels. "Fear not, though the enemy deride. Courage, for the Lord is on our side." Music strengthens my testimony so much! I really want to be a part of good music for the rest of my life. It makes the truth real to me. I'm excited to have the opportunity to practice as Sister Hanks has asked me to provide the musical number for when Elder Zwick visits our mission for four days next week. I am SO excited for his coming. It is going to be a wonderful thing for our mission and the members here.
This work is real. The Book of Mormon is so true. People are of infinite worth.
Love,
Elizabeth
August 25th 2014
Sister Madsen is a boss and made homemade hummus this week. Gluten
free and such. Too cool.
I LOVE missionaries! I'm developing more and more love for them. These
kids are awesome. I can't believe how much they all sacrifice. Getting
to know them all personally I am in awe. Some of them have no support
from home, and they just keep a great attitude and serve with all
their hearts anyway.
We had a zone activity today which is the reason there's no time to
write much. We played capture the flag with nylons filled with flour.
It was great fun. I took one to the face from my former district
leader and had some nice flour-filled eyes. At least you know they
weren't taking it easy on the sisters. Afterward we hiked down to
Noccalula falls. It was interesting. There was a pretty steep way down
some were advocating for, and a further, safer way. I'm normally
totally down for a good mountain climb-deal type thing, that would be
my kind of adventure, but now, as a missionary leader, the spirit
wouldn't even let me get close to the edge to scope it out. I'm not
messing with any of these missionaries' safety. We can go crazy when
we get home, but not now. It was interesting, I hadn't experienced
that kind of feeling before (kinda party-pooper, but for a good
cause).
I LOVE these sweet, Southern people. It's crazy. I can't write about
it too much, because it gets me all teary-eyed and that's
embarrassing.
The gospel is just so true, and I love my mission, my mission
president, my companion, my zone, my district, my sisters, my
investigators, the new ones we found to teach this week, I just love
where I am at, and what I'm doing.
Love y'all!
Elizabeth
free and such. Too cool.
I LOVE missionaries! I'm developing more and more love for them. These
kids are awesome. I can't believe how much they all sacrifice. Getting
to know them all personally I am in awe. Some of them have no support
from home, and they just keep a great attitude and serve with all
their hearts anyway.
We had a zone activity today which is the reason there's no time to
write much. We played capture the flag with nylons filled with flour.
It was great fun. I took one to the face from my former district
leader and had some nice flour-filled eyes. At least you know they
weren't taking it easy on the sisters. Afterward we hiked down to
Noccalula falls. It was interesting. There was a pretty steep way down
some were advocating for, and a further, safer way. I'm normally
totally down for a good mountain climb-deal type thing, that would be
my kind of adventure, but now, as a missionary leader, the spirit
wouldn't even let me get close to the edge to scope it out. I'm not
messing with any of these missionaries' safety. We can go crazy when
we get home, but not now. It was interesting, I hadn't experienced
that kind of feeling before (kinda party-pooper, but for a good
cause).
I LOVE these sweet, Southern people. It's crazy. I can't write about
it too much, because it gets me all teary-eyed and that's
embarrassing.
The gospel is just so true, and I love my mission, my mission
president, my companion, my zone, my district, my sisters, my
investigators, the new ones we found to teach this week, I just love
where I am at, and what I'm doing.
Love y'all!
Elizabeth
Monday, August 18, 2014
August 11th 2014
Hey y'all,
It was a long, awesome week.
My testimony was definitely strengthened in my last few days with Sister Dodini. We taught Tim, our recent convert, service from Lesson 5, and watched "On the Lord's Errand" with him. It hit me so hard the kind of person I want to be. I want to be the kind of person that if the Lord needs something done, He will know He can count on Liz Sheffer to do it. President Hanks told us in a council about how thankful he is for the missionaries he has who he can send anywhere in the mission with full faith they will be happy, make their companion happy, and they will do the work and baptize. It doesn't have to be inspired, or meant to be for us to volunteer our services and just do it for the Lord!
Sister Dodini and I shared the Plan of Salvation with the Lusane family on Tuesday. Ms. Lusane has lost two baby girls, one a still birth, and one died 3 months into her life. As we shared our beliefs about their purpose in coming to earth, and what happens after death, she immediately started crying and said, "That means so much to me that you tell me this, no one has ever told me this, but it's what I always felt about Quinlee and Storie." This family has such a special place in my heart. The kids were super excited to come to church, they said they had been looking for a church that focused on families. They didn't make it on Sunday, and haven't been responding to our contacting them recently, but we still feel good about them, and aren't going to give up yet.
Wednesday was transfers!!!
I am now serving with Sister Ella Rae Madsen. She's adorable! I LOVE this girl. She's from Santa Cruz, CA, and is a total beach girl. Even though she's really unassuming about it, she's hard core--surfer, skier, lifeguard, taught a bootcamp thing type deal for kids, and she's just a bucket of fun. I was excited when our pictures popped up together on the transfer slideshow. I didn't know her well before, but I remembered that at some of the misssion functions, she randomly would give me super sweet compliments. From several months ago: "oh my goodness, you are so pretty! Brown hair and blue eyes is my FAVORITE combination, it's what I'm hoping for in the resurrection!" From Wednesday morning before we knew we were going to be companions: *comes up and touches my hair, "Oh my goodness, this can NOT be natural! You are so well put-together!" She is the sweetest sister in the mission, I'm positive.
After the transfer meeting, we were loading her bike onto the car, and she asked if we bike a lot in our area, I told her yes, we only have enough miles to use the car when we're driving to other areas for exchanges. She said, "Oh my gosh, God is so good! I LOVE biking!" Most positive bucket of sunshine ever!
While being so cute, little, and adorable, she is BOLD in approaching people and inviting them to be taught. I love it. People fall in love with her instantly.
Thursday, we had three appointments in the evening that all fell through. We tracted a little, and decided to go contact someone a little bit away. As we started to head in another direction, a door caught my eye, and I asked if we could do one more. She happily agreed. We found at this home, a lady who had taken the discussions previously, and said she had just been thinking about it, and missing the gospel. She is active in another church, and said some thigns had happened recently that had been calling her to rethink things. She wasn't feeling very well. We testified boldly, that God had led us to her that night, and she was the reason the rest of our plans for the evening cancelled. By the end, she committed to reading the Book of Mormon and accepted a soft invitation to be baptized. It was powerful. Before we left, she said she felt so much better, that even the physical pain in her chest was gone, and she knew it was by God that we met. It was dark by the time we left, and the street was bare. Sister Madsen starts jumping and dancing, and said "I know I'm not Pentecostal, but sometimes I DO feel like just dancing and praising God for how good He is!" She then did three airborne heel clicks! This girl, I seriously LOVE her.
I'm happy anyway, but I can't help but be uber happy around Sister Madsen. She is the healthiest companion I have ever had, and being so hard core, is the most physically-challenging comp I've had. We've been motivating each other in our food/portion choices, and exercising. We have literally walked all day every day in the heat since Wednesday because her bike is out of commission at the moment. I have seriously already lost some weight being her comp. We run and do insanity in the morning. She's a champ. She got sore from insanity, and I got sore from running, and we're just happy.
We talk about the gospel all day while we're walking to and from appointments and finding opportunities. I'm amazed at how she gleans precious truths from everything and retains them. She will quote things I said a few days previous and then connect it to something else, so we are learning so much from each other already. I'm so excited for the influence she will have on the sisters in the zone. She is going to be so good for them! Our zone changed quite a bit from transfers, and we're super excited to start our exchanges and training this week.
None of our investigators came to church yesterday. We were expecting many people who committed to come who had recently found, and who we had been teaching previously. It was really disappointing to me, but I know we go through every struggle and disappointment shoulder to shoulder with the Savior. He suffered sacrifices and gave His all, even if people wouldn't accept the gospel and repent, so we do the same. The disappointments are only an opportunity to become better-acquainted with Him. I was thinking about all this during sacrmanet meeting, and starting to feel better after being a little down and just deeply disappointed about our top investigators falling off. I glanced up and saw our convert Tim sitting at the sacrament table. It was his first time blessing the sacrament. There is ALWAYS ALWAYS reason to rejoice. It made me happy.
Nicole texted us that she biked to Oneonta to see her boyfriend. That's a 7 hour bike ride. She is still up there as far as we know from her grandma, and we haven't been able to reach her.
At the end of the week, none of our investigators were progressing, but we saw multitudes of miracles. Random lady we met in the park yesterday said we carry a special spirit, and knew that God led us to meet, and she referred us to her son. I got to make some Spanish contacts, and we have several appointments this week from people we met, so we will see what comes of everything. Always an adventure!
Love y'all!
Sister Sheffer
It was a long, awesome week.
My testimony was definitely strengthened in my last few days with Sister Dodini. We taught Tim, our recent convert, service from Lesson 5, and watched "On the Lord's Errand" with him. It hit me so hard the kind of person I want to be. I want to be the kind of person that if the Lord needs something done, He will know He can count on Liz Sheffer to do it. President Hanks told us in a council about how thankful he is for the missionaries he has who he can send anywhere in the mission with full faith they will be happy, make their companion happy, and they will do the work and baptize. It doesn't have to be inspired, or meant to be for us to volunteer our services and just do it for the Lord!
Sister Dodini and I shared the Plan of Salvation with the Lusane family on Tuesday. Ms. Lusane has lost two baby girls, one a still birth, and one died 3 months into her life. As we shared our beliefs about their purpose in coming to earth, and what happens after death, she immediately started crying and said, "That means so much to me that you tell me this, no one has ever told me this, but it's what I always felt about Quinlee and Storie." This family has such a special place in my heart. The kids were super excited to come to church, they said they had been looking for a church that focused on families. They didn't make it on Sunday, and haven't been responding to our contacting them recently, but we still feel good about them, and aren't going to give up yet.
Wednesday was transfers!!!
I am now serving with Sister Ella Rae Madsen. She's adorable! I LOVE this girl. She's from Santa Cruz, CA, and is a total beach girl. Even though she's really unassuming about it, she's hard core--surfer, skier, lifeguard, taught a bootcamp thing type deal for kids, and she's just a bucket of fun. I was excited when our pictures popped up together on the transfer slideshow. I didn't know her well before, but I remembered that at some of the misssion functions, she randomly would give me super sweet compliments. From several months ago: "oh my goodness, you are so pretty! Brown hair and blue eyes is my FAVORITE combination, it's what I'm hoping for in the resurrection!" From Wednesday morning before we knew we were going to be companions: *comes up and touches my hair, "Oh my goodness, this can NOT be natural! You are so well put-together!" She is the sweetest sister in the mission, I'm positive.
After the transfer meeting, we were loading her bike onto the car, and she asked if we bike a lot in our area, I told her yes, we only have enough miles to use the car when we're driving to other areas for exchanges. She said, "Oh my gosh, God is so good! I LOVE biking!" Most positive bucket of sunshine ever!
While being so cute, little, and adorable, she is BOLD in approaching people and inviting them to be taught. I love it. People fall in love with her instantly.
Thursday, we had three appointments in the evening that all fell through. We tracted a little, and decided to go contact someone a little bit away. As we started to head in another direction, a door caught my eye, and I asked if we could do one more. She happily agreed. We found at this home, a lady who had taken the discussions previously, and said she had just been thinking about it, and missing the gospel. She is active in another church, and said some thigns had happened recently that had been calling her to rethink things. She wasn't feeling very well. We testified boldly, that God had led us to her that night, and she was the reason the rest of our plans for the evening cancelled. By the end, she committed to reading the Book of Mormon and accepted a soft invitation to be baptized. It was powerful. Before we left, she said she felt so much better, that even the physical pain in her chest was gone, and she knew it was by God that we met. It was dark by the time we left, and the street was bare. Sister Madsen starts jumping and dancing, and said "I know I'm not Pentecostal, but sometimes I DO feel like just dancing and praising God for how good He is!" She then did three airborne heel clicks! This girl, I seriously LOVE her.
I'm happy anyway, but I can't help but be uber happy around Sister Madsen. She is the healthiest companion I have ever had, and being so hard core, is the most physically-challenging comp I've had. We've been motivating each other in our food/portion choices, and exercising. We have literally walked all day every day in the heat since Wednesday because her bike is out of commission at the moment. I have seriously already lost some weight being her comp. We run and do insanity in the morning. She's a champ. She got sore from insanity, and I got sore from running, and we're just happy.
We talk about the gospel all day while we're walking to and from appointments and finding opportunities. I'm amazed at how she gleans precious truths from everything and retains them. She will quote things I said a few days previous and then connect it to something else, so we are learning so much from each other already. I'm so excited for the influence she will have on the sisters in the zone. She is going to be so good for them! Our zone changed quite a bit from transfers, and we're super excited to start our exchanges and training this week.
None of our investigators came to church yesterday. We were expecting many people who committed to come who had recently found, and who we had been teaching previously. It was really disappointing to me, but I know we go through every struggle and disappointment shoulder to shoulder with the Savior. He suffered sacrifices and gave His all, even if people wouldn't accept the gospel and repent, so we do the same. The disappointments are only an opportunity to become better-acquainted with Him. I was thinking about all this during sacrmanet meeting, and starting to feel better after being a little down and just deeply disappointed about our top investigators falling off. I glanced up and saw our convert Tim sitting at the sacrament table. It was his first time blessing the sacrament. There is ALWAYS ALWAYS reason to rejoice. It made me happy.
Nicole texted us that she biked to Oneonta to see her boyfriend. That's a 7 hour bike ride. She is still up there as far as we know from her grandma, and we haven't been able to reach her.
At the end of the week, none of our investigators were progressing, but we saw multitudes of miracles. Random lady we met in the park yesterday said we carry a special spirit, and knew that God led us to meet, and she referred us to her son. I got to make some Spanish contacts, and we have several appointments this week from people we met, so we will see what comes of everything. Always an adventure!
Love y'all!
Sister Sheffer
August 4th 2014
We're on our bikes and see this cute little black lady walking a
slowly in the opposite direction. We stop.
Sister Dodini: HIII! HOW ARE YOU??!! We're missionaries--
Lady interrupts without stopping her walk: Oho, I know who y'all are,
I ain't got time for dat, I'm finna go to da bafroom, that's why I'm
walkin FAST.
BAHAHAHAHA
Pretty awesome week. Went up to Gadsden for an exchange. While there,
the sister got a text from Anniston sisters in a neighboring area with
a church HQ referral. We went out to see them and it was AWESOME.
Emily, a 21 yr old, put in the request, we met her, and then another
21 yr old comes to the door, and introduces himself as her husband. He
said that as the head of the household and her husband, he feels
responsible for ensuring his wife's gospel education is accurate. They
have some other friends over, so we all sat down, prayed, and
discussed the gospel. The husband, Dalton had lots of questions. In
the beginning he asked if we were nervous, we responded that we
weren't, and he told us he was a baptist preacher, but just left his
church for some things that were going on. They were really nice
people. He did say he loved the JWs coming over, and would let them in
every time, but by the time he opened up his bible to them, and asked
questions about their doctrine, they couldn't do more than stammer. We
were able to answer all their questions and taught and testified about
the restoration and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong.
Sister Gimmeson and I could both feel of how open their hearts were.
By the end of it, Dalton said, "I do have to tell you that y'all are
the best evangelists that have ever come into my home. The modesty is
appreciated, the manners are appreciated, and I appreciate that you
don't push anything on us, but just invite with conviction because you
seem to really feel this is true, and trust that we can find out for
ourselves."
That's what missionary work should feel like. I'm way excited to see
what happens as the Gadsden sister work with them.
Wednesday we had in interesting experience. We were invited to a
non-denominational bible study. It was interesting, we invited two of
the guests there to come to church, and they came yesterday. :)
Thursday we taught our last bible study at the Leeds summer camp. If
you know the lesson on the atonement when the seminary teacher offered
a donut to each student, but one student had to do 5 or 10 pushups for
his classmate to have a donut--even when they didn't want one--anyway,
we did that with them and it was awesome. Our pictures leading the
bible study with them made the local newspaper with captions that
included our being missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints in there, so that's cool.
We are teaching the neatest girl that Sister Dodini found while I was
in Gadsden. Her name is Kayla, she's 17 and searching for direction.
She loves what we've taught her so far. So excited.
We had our last district meeting of the transfer. Sister Dodini and I
made some fun little awards for the missionaries in our district. It
was way fun. Awards included
Sassy Sister Award
Where is the Love?
Hold your breath
Nicest teeth
Should've been a stunt man
The voice,
I made one for Sister Dodini, it was the LOL award for the joyful
eruptions of laughter, the angelic singing, and perfect balance in all
things. She made the Insanity award for me for the upside down piano
playing, popping and dancing while we're tracting, the insane
workouts, the beastly biking and the best one liners.
Of course these are all loaded with inside jokes, we have fun in our
district, and we need to or we would all go insane.
Saturday we met and taught some new investigators, and finally taught
a man we've been trying to meet with for a long time. At one point he
said that he wished he were us and that we ma ynot even know what it's
like to NOT have the conviction that we do about the gospel. Before we
even challenged him to read the BOok of Mormon he said, "Well, I guess
what I have to do is get me a Book of Mormon...I can find it at the
library, right?" Gotcha covered. He left for out of town, so we won't
get to teach him in person until next week.
We had some powerful lessons with less active part member families,
and met with a lady we were referred to. She's 72 and has cancer. She
really wants to be a mormon. She said her mom was a 'full-fledged
mormon,' but she herself was never baptized but, oh she wants to be.
She begged us to teach her grandson because "he really needs to be a
mormon." We're excited to work with her.
One of my studies this week, I frustrated myself greatly trying to
find biblical evidence of some things we teach that we are challenged
on occassionally. In regards to dispensations and apostasies, there
were things with the timeline that still don't make much sense to me.
During my whole study I was frustrating, dispelling some fallacies I
had heard people and even missionaries explain that have no scriptural
evidence. I had a passing thought/question of how I can be set apart
as a minister when I know so little.. One of my favorite verses I
found was Alma 4:19. I love the power of 'pure testimony.' I thought,
"I can do that." I can bear pure testimony, because the one thing I
can always fall back on is the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
There is no way that I could ever deny that book is true, I know it's
true with a greater surety than I know anything. That knowledge means
all the other claims that go with it are true too. I don't have to
understand all of them perfectly. The atonement is real, and the true
and comple gospel helps me to have access to it, and helps me help
others find access to it, and that's all I need.
I so love this gospel.
Sister Dodini is getting transferred along with lots of the sisters in
our zone. I get to train a new Sister Training Leader, so I'm pretty
excited. I'll shoot y'all a brief email on Wednesday when I bring my
new comp back here.
I miss y'all SO much! Reading about everyone, I am amazed at how
involved you are in the work, and the goodness that y'all have. I
can't wait to see y'all in under 6 months now, but I am pretty hooked
on this work here for the time being. Thanks so much for writing me,
praying for me, and for everything y'all do at home.
Love y'all!
slowly in the opposite direction. We stop.
Sister Dodini: HIII! HOW ARE YOU??!! We're missionaries--
Lady interrupts without stopping her walk: Oho, I know who y'all are,
I ain't got time for dat, I'm finna go to da bafroom, that's why I'm
walkin FAST.
BAHAHAHAHA
Pretty awesome week. Went up to Gadsden for an exchange. While there,
the sister got a text from Anniston sisters in a neighboring area with
a church HQ referral. We went out to see them and it was AWESOME.
Emily, a 21 yr old, put in the request, we met her, and then another
21 yr old comes to the door, and introduces himself as her husband. He
said that as the head of the household and her husband, he feels
responsible for ensuring his wife's gospel education is accurate. They
have some other friends over, so we all sat down, prayed, and
discussed the gospel. The husband, Dalton had lots of questions. In
the beginning he asked if we were nervous, we responded that we
weren't, and he told us he was a baptist preacher, but just left his
church for some things that were going on. They were really nice
people. He did say he loved the JWs coming over, and would let them in
every time, but by the time he opened up his bible to them, and asked
questions about their doctrine, they couldn't do more than stammer. We
were able to answer all their questions and taught and testified about
the restoration and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong.
Sister Gimmeson and I could both feel of how open their hearts were.
By the end of it, Dalton said, "I do have to tell you that y'all are
the best evangelists that have ever come into my home. The modesty is
appreciated, the manners are appreciated, and I appreciate that you
don't push anything on us, but just invite with conviction because you
seem to really feel this is true, and trust that we can find out for
ourselves."
That's what missionary work should feel like. I'm way excited to see
what happens as the Gadsden sister work with them.
Wednesday we had in interesting experience. We were invited to a
non-denominational bible study. It was interesting, we invited two of
the guests there to come to church, and they came yesterday. :)
Thursday we taught our last bible study at the Leeds summer camp. If
you know the lesson on the atonement when the seminary teacher offered
a donut to each student, but one student had to do 5 or 10 pushups for
his classmate to have a donut--even when they didn't want one--anyway,
we did that with them and it was awesome. Our pictures leading the
bible study with them made the local newspaper with captions that
included our being missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints in there, so that's cool.
We are teaching the neatest girl that Sister Dodini found while I was
in Gadsden. Her name is Kayla, she's 17 and searching for direction.
She loves what we've taught her so far. So excited.
We had our last district meeting of the transfer. Sister Dodini and I
made some fun little awards for the missionaries in our district. It
was way fun. Awards included
Sassy Sister Award
Where is the Love?
Hold your breath
Nicest teeth
Should've been a stunt man
The voice,
I made one for Sister Dodini, it was the LOL award for the joyful
eruptions of laughter, the angelic singing, and perfect balance in all
things. She made the Insanity award for me for the upside down piano
playing, popping and dancing while we're tracting, the insane
workouts, the beastly biking and the best one liners.
Of course these are all loaded with inside jokes, we have fun in our
district, and we need to or we would all go insane.
Saturday we met and taught some new investigators, and finally taught
a man we've been trying to meet with for a long time. At one point he
said that he wished he were us and that we ma ynot even know what it's
like to NOT have the conviction that we do about the gospel. Before we
even challenged him to read the BOok of Mormon he said, "Well, I guess
what I have to do is get me a Book of Mormon...I can find it at the
library, right?" Gotcha covered. He left for out of town, so we won't
get to teach him in person until next week.
We had some powerful lessons with less active part member families,
and met with a lady we were referred to. She's 72 and has cancer. She
really wants to be a mormon. She said her mom was a 'full-fledged
mormon,' but she herself was never baptized but, oh she wants to be.
She begged us to teach her grandson because "he really needs to be a
mormon." We're excited to work with her.
One of my studies this week, I frustrated myself greatly trying to
find biblical evidence of some things we teach that we are challenged
on occassionally. In regards to dispensations and apostasies, there
were things with the timeline that still don't make much sense to me.
During my whole study I was frustrating, dispelling some fallacies I
had heard people and even missionaries explain that have no scriptural
evidence. I had a passing thought/question of how I can be set apart
as a minister when I know so little.. One of my favorite verses I
found was Alma 4:19. I love the power of 'pure testimony.' I thought,
"I can do that." I can bear pure testimony, because the one thing I
can always fall back on is the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
There is no way that I could ever deny that book is true, I know it's
true with a greater surety than I know anything. That knowledge means
all the other claims that go with it are true too. I don't have to
understand all of them perfectly. The atonement is real, and the true
and comple gospel helps me to have access to it, and helps me help
others find access to it, and that's all I need.
I so love this gospel.
Sister Dodini is getting transferred along with lots of the sisters in
our zone. I get to train a new Sister Training Leader, so I'm pretty
excited. I'll shoot y'all a brief email on Wednesday when I bring my
new comp back here.
I miss y'all SO much! Reading about everyone, I am amazed at how
involved you are in the work, and the goodness that y'all have. I
can't wait to see y'all in under 6 months now, but I am pretty hooked
on this work here for the time being. Thanks so much for writing me,
praying for me, and for everything y'all do at home.
Love y'all!
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