May 18 - Another Missionary Milestone .... one that involves BEER

HOLA FAMILIA!

Here is the rundown

In Manteca Town

We like to serve our Lord,

spreading true gospel around

>shefskies22

I am trying to improve my improv rapping.  Under the tutelage and guidance of my companion, who I found out this week is actually a real rapper.  She can rap.  She can rap REALLY good.  People are awesome!

Something fun this week is we were able to do service at the Manteca Historical museum!  It is a run-downish place but it has LOTS of cool things.  We washed all the display windows and dusted.  We talked to all the really old people who volunteer there.  It was great!  They were actually having a City board meeting there so...... I MET THE MAYOR OF MANTECA!!!  hahahahaha my life. 

We also met with the man in charge of the cemetery that we go running at in the mornings and we are going to go do service there!

Ready for the coolest service project ever??  It was us, with the American Legion and the City Council and we went to the cemetery and rubbed clean all the bronze on the headstones for veterans.  Then we painted them again, and then sanded down the letters again so that they were bronze.  They looked NICE.  Then, we had a list of all the veterans registered in Manteca, and we walked the cemetery and checked all the  headstones to make sure they were on the list.  Turns out the list hadn't been updated since 1976 and so every veteran who had died after 76 we added to the list!  We added close to 50 people!!  It was so cool!  The cemetery has veterans from wars as far back as the CIVIL!  WHAT??  I was loving my life that day!

So Exxxxo is going through a hard time in his life...... HE HAS KIDNEY STONES.  I don't know if I had talked about that but he had gotten a blessing a few weeks ago and felt better, but then Saturday night he got admitted to the hospital because of his pain!!  He called us to tell us Sunday that he wouldn't be able to come to church, and he was going to drink lots of water!  So I thought that it would be good if we doorbell ditched his house on the way to church with a giant bottle of water that we had purchased when we were scared of getting cancer from drinking California water!  So he lives in a small cul-de-sac thing so we parked our car around the corner so he wouldn't see us.   We planned to doorbell ditch it, hide behind his fence until he got it, and then calmly walk back to our car.   Hermana V doorbellditched it because she was wearing her stretchy skirt and we went and hid behind his fence.  We heard the door open, and it never closed so we waited totally stuck behind his fence!  THEN who walks around the corner but HIS MOM, HIS BROTHER, HIS BROTHERS WIFE, AND THEIR DOG.  ......

............ .......... ........

Ya.

So this is really the story of how we met Exxxxo's family..... AWKWARD :( :( 

Haha oh there are the mormons doorbell ditching us then hiding behind our fence.... There goes first impressions!!  I was so embarrassed....  But they were pretty nice and said they were glad we weren't the drug cartel (because I guess one of Exxxxo's brothers was into that, and they doorbellditched delivered the drugs to his house hahaha) and that we could go see him if we wanted.  He looked BAD.  I hope he gets better soon!  I asked someone and they said that kidney stones are worse than giving birth so.... ya.  But he told us he was excited to show us his new scripture bag that he bought at the pulga, so he will be ok!

Another sad story is that we were near Exxxxo's house and was talking to one of his neighbors and she was white and was like, "We don't communicate very well" which is crazy because Exxxxo and his brother are always so nice to us!  She was like "One time I had this gopher problem and his brother gave me some gopher poison that I spread out over my whole lawn and it seemed to do the job!"  When she said that Hermana V and I just gasped and looked at each other, because Exxxxo believes his pet rabbit must have eaten some poison on accident and that was the cause of his death!!  Isn't that awful?  We like got the inside look on why his rabbit died!!  We are NEVER telling him of course, but it was definitely a weird coincidence.  Poor Exxxxo.

We were doing some family history with Exxxxo and he brought all his pictures from his past!  It was really cool because he was actually a drummer in a band!  They were so professional that they had a CD and portraits done!  He showed  us some of his pictures and he had the WORST mullet ever hahaha it was so long!  He had like bright blue suits and mullet and had his arms around beautiful women.  I was like WOW.  Exxxxo was a looker back in the day!  I told him he was a nino silvestre (literal translation of wild child, but doesn't really translate into spanish i dont think hahaha)  But he thought it was funny.  He is the humblest, sweetest man.  It was funny.  I am working on getting him to join the choir.  He sings really good.

Other crazy thing that happened this week is I reached another missionary milestone!  I got my first beer thrown on me!  It got all over my shoes!  It was a really drunk older lady.  She was swearing up a storm and telling us some things I won't repeat and then splashed the contents of her cup at us.... But all her other friends were like thats not coool!!  And we talked to lots of them and taught a lesson!  It was crazy!  Then when we were walked away she was like "have a nice day" hahaha.  

Spiritual experiences that I had this week was a lesson we had with a less active about the Book of Mormon, and her doubts.  It was a lot about not knowing everything.

  

In studies this morning Hermana V snapped the thing off her pen lid and then was like I AM TURNING INTO YOU!!! hahahahaha I thought dad would think that was funny :)

MOM HOW IS AVATAR GOING?????

Tell Lizzy to have so much fun on her trip!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for her! Who is she staying with in the rooms??  TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!!  KEEP A JOURNAL of at least what you did everyday so you keep it in order!  

YOU MADE TORTILLAS!  I will teach you the techniques when I get back.  Aren't they good?  They are like gushy a bit in the middle!  

Tell Skyler hi!!!!

Love you all!

Hermana Sheffer

A member making us Aloe. YUM

Pulling weeds at the Cemetery for service

One of our investigators has this really cool Catholic bible. Pretty cool pictures! I loved looking at it!

Exxxxo found his name in the BoM dictionary!

The card that started it all!!!

Exxxxo bought us Mexican candy! One was basically a beet but crystallized! And Tarts!

Our new district at the Food Bank!

WEIRD ORDER

NOTE FROM SONJA:

Emily's blog entries are all out of order for some reason. Sorry about that.... just pay attention to the title and you'll know what order they should be in.

Happy Mothers Day!

May 11 - Mothers Day

NOTE FROM SONJA:

We were so grateful to have the chance to speak with our beautiful girl on Mother's Day.

I am so humbled to be able to be a mom. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

During our visit, Hermana Sheffer shared that Exxxxo was baptized the day before. She said it was small quiet occasion that was beautiful and special.  She really identifies with Exxxxo and considers him a friend - especially as he is quiet and shy and she can relate to that.  She sent some pictures in her email the next day and those are below.

I don't think she will mind me sharing that at the end of the call, we asked her to either say a family prayer or call on someone to say it.  She said she would say it.  Friends, it was just like a peace of heaven to hear my sweet daughter thank the Lord for the chance to be a missionary and to call down the blessings of heaven on each of us.  She expressed what was in our hearts... our thanks for family and each other and most of all our Savior Jesus Christ.  It was the most tender experience.  I love being a missionary mom and the blessings it has given to our family.

May 25 - COOLEST SERVICE PROJECT EVER

This week was great!  We did many cool service projects and met lots of cool people to teach.  

Manteca goes all out for memorial day and there are A MILLION flags on all the streets.  They had the Vietnam War memorial and had giant flags hanging from cranes.  They also had fly-overs with the military planes, and the double bladed helicopters. ALL WEEKEND. It has been a fun week and I am glad I got to experience it here.  I am praying I get to stay here for the 4th of July because I would just LOVE IT.  The museum asked us to work at their service 4th of July event and help sell fireworks!!  

They love us at the museum! This week they asked us to help them sort all their newspapers by date because it was just a giant stack. I was blasting through the past - it was the best!  

They have the local newspapers from the terrorist attack, the impeachment, World War II and lots of other events.  I felt like I was on National Treasure! They asked us at the museum to be in their newspaper to all of Manteca :)  We are going to be famous!!

We got to work at the Vietnam memorial wall, and it was sad to see all the names of people who had died in the war.  58,300 names.  17 were from Manteca.  We got to help people stencil the names of family, and find the names on the wall.  I talked one of them about his military service and he answered a lot of questions I had about serving.  I felt it was an answer to a prayer meeting. 

I think I want to work communications in Spanish with the Coast Guard. They also have a cool flag.

Exxxxo still has kidney stones, and is going through a hard time in general.  He is amazing though because he still came to church, and brought his pain medication with him just in case something happened.  We are thinking his mom isn't doing too great either.  If you could remember him in prayers, that would be nice.  

It has been COOOOLLLLDDDD.  My companera needed to borrow my jacket as she was freezing!

I am excited for iPads tomorrow!  It is going to be interesting to see how different studying will be.  I am trying to organize how I am going to work study journals and studying the online scriptures or my own set....  I like to draw on them and everything so ya.  We will have to see!  I just want to read every book that has ever come out by the prophets.  I want to start my own library where only spiritually good books and creative greatness can reside.  Like the goodness of the whole earth library.  I will have it hardcover!  

Also we had a vegan day!  Lxxxxxi and Sxxxxa are both vegans in our ward, so we went out and ate Chipotle (thanks to Aunt Ashlee and her gift cards) and got the Tofu.  It was delicious and a good time together. 

I love being a missionary, and I am not very good at expressing it.  But I am grateful for every day that I have here.  I love my mission, and I love being a witness for the best thing that we can have!  

Thanks for providing for me to be here, and loving me always!

I know that this week is going to be a tough one, but I am thinking of you and praying for you!  Don't be sad because its over, smile because it happened!!! We believe in eternities :)

Love you all!  I

LOVE YOU

Hermana Sheffer

p.s

I would formally like to make a request.............I want to hear more about:

Lizzy and her adventures :)

Juliana

What does a selfie stick look like and how does it function with the buttons and all?

Skyler coming home.

Plans for summer. 

May 5 - BUCKET LIST CHECK-OFF

 Heeeeyyyyy eh he eh heh :)

Hey it is transfers this week!  Hermana V and I are staying together in Manteca and we are getting English sisters in Manteca!! We are not going to be alone!!!  I LOVE LIFE!!

SO I AM SUPER EXCITED TO SKYPE.

I have it arranged to Skype probably from the time of 2:00 -4:00 on Sunday, somewhere in that time range!  We are set for that!  (YOU HAVEN'T OPENED  YOUR PRESENT RIGHT????) 

This week we also are going to have the baptism of Exxxxo!!  It is really exciting, and I love the times that we have had with him.  He loves the earth too.  He taught us how to crack walnuts by having two in your hand at the same time and squeezing.  He is also reading everything the church has ever produced and loving it. 

Bxxxxo got a job so he has been missing a lot of church and I miss him!!

I had a fun week with service and lessons and ya.

Here are some pictures:

My LAST planner.

I will tell you why this is PERFECT!

First - it has the sun faded picture of Jesus that I wanted to use for my last planner ever.  

Second - it has the ocean.  

Third - it has palm trees.  

Fourth - the palms are what people would lay before Jesus when He entered cities and stuff.  

Fifth - they would also say Hosanna.  

Sixth - Hosanna means Save now.  

Seventh - That is the work we are doing as missionaries. 

PRETTY GOOD RIGHT???  It is a little random but oh well I think it was inspired!

Someone asked about a picture of our apartment I think. 

((I conveniently hid my desk hahaha))

 

My future house.  I love it.

 

These kittens were just born!! 

It was so small!!

I found the cutest kitten in the whole world!  It is grey and fluffy with bright blue eyes!!! I want it!!!

We were waiting for the elders to go to do our Man up Service Monday (the day before transfers we have an extra day of work before pday! It is tradition to do lots of service on that day!) Anyways while waiting I decided to climb a redwood tree!!!

Can check that one off the bucket list!!!

Here is my woodland creature hair after climbing the redwood tree. HA HA

For service we painted the white fence white.  

We went and bought pan bread for our Family History activity!!!! Sadly only ONE person came.  It was our investigator Exxxxo haha.  He liked it a lot though.  He likes everything we talk about though!

We had a Mothers Day party and they hired a singer that sang BOLERO style of music.  I LOVED IT.  I bought one of his CD's :)  I am going to listen to it AFTER my mission.  I told him that he needs to sign it so he went and found a sharpie and wrote me an awesome note inside my CD haha!!!

We had our last Sports Futbol morning together and Elder Yi made us all Yi smoothies, and we drew on the chalkboards.  

My companion drew everyone in the districts portraits!!!!!  It was hilarious. (I drew her portrait drawing the portrait haha)

I LOVE MY DISTRICT I AM SO SAAADDD

Hermana Vergaray experienced the Manteca Missionary tradition put on by Hermano Cortez!  He tells his conversion story in a dinner appointment, and he always ends with pineapple.  He saw this one time that he was in Hawaii.  He was there a lot because he was in the Navy when he was baptized!  One of his crewmates was a Mormon and was totally sharing the gospel with everyone.  Now he is a super active missionary himself, and I always love hearing his story.  Motivation to go super hard core missionary.  Goooood memories!!

 It makes me want to join the Navy too haha.

We got to go to the temple today!

I love going to the temple.  I woke up at 5 no problem I was so excited to go!  I love driving and road trips, and I love how the temple helps me a lot in my missionary work.  It is a good motivator! 

I love my eternal Father in Heaven!

I can't tell which picture is the best as they are small so ya here ya go.

Have a great week!
THANKS FOR THE COOKIES!

Here are the rest of the pictures my companera drew: