(Note
from Sonja: the following lyrics are based LOOSELY on the Smash Mouth song “Rockstar”)
President Jardine once called me,
I was a little sad to leave Stockton
But I was feeling a little ready, with my
growing testimony,
I was going to make Manteca
[Chorus:]
WELL HEY NOW, IM A CITIZEN, CAN’T TAKE ME OUT,
NO WAAAYY.
HEY NOW, HERE FOREVER, TIL THE SUN SETS, ON MY
MISSION DAYS.
All that glitters is gospel,
Missionary work in Manteca
--(smashmantecamouth)
I am pleased to dedicate this song to my
lovely family and friends that I have made here in Manteca
It’s
true people.
Missionaries CAN stay in an area for an
unheard of amount of time. I have broken all the records, and I am
excited to spend my favorite time of year with my favorite people!
Best Christmas present ever right?
Who thought when I arrived a year ago, that I
would never leave?? )Good thing I behaved this whole time haha ;) )
I will
also be staying with my companion Hermana Spilsbury! I will be a Sister Training
Leader as well!
This last transfer there were 5 Sister Training
Leaders (2 companionships together, and then me solo). I passed the solo test I
think, and now all the Sister Training Leaders are solo! So that is an
interesting turn of events. This will mean we have more companionships to
serve, so hopefully time all works out!
We will be busy that is for sure!
I am excited because Sister Palmer invited all
the Sister Training Leaders to the mission home and we are going to make all
the cookies for the Christmas Eve mission devotional, and it is going to be so
classic.
I am so excited for Christmas, I love this
time of year!
Another crazy is that there is going to be a
new set of Sister missionaries in our Monte Vista ward, and they are going to
be training themselves! They did have the four of us all assigned to live
in our Manteca apartment, but we aren't going to fit, so the elders are going
to give them their apartment in Tracy, and move in with another set of
elders. So I will get to help these new sisters out as well!
It is going to be an amazing last transfer
because our District is awesome, there are a ton of missionaries, Sister Hogan
is still going to be close, and I am just really excited!!!
It was a good last transfer call, they called
us at 11:00 at
night, and I was already asleep, and then they got my heart rate going
and I couldn’t fall back asleep until 12:30! So that was surprising!
Well some amazing things happened this
week! Let me tell ya my will must have been pretty one with the Saviors
because I just wished something would happen and IT DID! So some fun
events this week.................
First off yesterday at church Rxxl and Lxxxxe
both came! They are the cutest couple ever! When Mxx is with both
his mom and his dad he is so much calmer! They are just a superhero
couple I tell you. She is always so happy, and Rxxl is really
intelligent. He was really Catholic, but in our first real lesson all
together this week he said that he recognized that the Catholic Church was
really good, and had good traditions, but that's what it is. Traditions,
that aren't exactly found in the scriptures. So that is some definite
progress! They are both praying together, and we are having a lesson with them tonight! They are so prepared, and
it is all thanks to members reaching out and sharing the gospel with the people
that surround them. It is a great lesson for me to learn. I hope to
always be able to bring people into the church.
Another miracle is Pxxxo Rodriguez. He
is the dad of Cxxxxs Hernandez, and Grandpa of Cxxxxs Jr and Axxxxn. I
had talked to him before with Hermana Cuesta I think, but we just barely started
teaching him. He loves the Plan of Salvation, but doesn’t believe in it because
he refuses to read the Book of Mormon, because it isn’t the Bible. Well
we brought out our big guns. We invited Exxxxo to his second lesson, and
we just sat back and watched a miracle happen. There was so much passion
going on. They were talking about everything and they found out they
agree on basically everything (because we use the Bible too haha) and all Pxxxo's
questions were answered, and they are friends haha. These two old men
love the truth. If Exxxxo can't make a best friend, he'll baptize one!
;) So that was amazing, and then miracle round two. Exxxxo stopped
by his house and invited him to church AND HE CAME! It was beautiful to
see him there, and then see CxxxxsHernandez walk in and be surprised to see his
dad sitting there. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! A miracle I have seen on my
mission is the faith of Cxxxxxs Hernandez and Axxxxxn, and their diligence,
slowly turn to his whole family!! I love this family a lot!
So church this week was quite the event.
I was so happy. It was sooo funny though because Pxxxo doesnt want to
read in the Book of Mormon, and in church someone was giving their talk, and
they said that they were reading in the Book of Mormon, and right then Mxx
yells, "OOOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOOO" right after he said it hahahahaha. He
was talking about his dinosaurs but it was the PERFECT timing haha. I had
to laugh.
Speaking of the familia Hernandez, we had
dinner with them. Usually Axxxxn will always volunteer to say the closing
prayer, and one of us will help him with what to say because he doesn’t know
spanish very well. So this time we were like Hno! You help out your
son! You got this! So he did and he was telling him what to say.
Hno Cxxxxs uses a lot more fancy spanish words than we do, and he said
"te pedimos que nos des fuerzas"
andAxxxxn
and
"te pedimos que podemos comer fresas".
I couldn't help it I had a laugh balloon in my chest that had to get out. I was glad when Cxxxxs Jr laughed with me so that I wasn't entirely alone in being rude on accident haha. It was adorable!
Speaking of eating, we were talking to this
random white guy on the street who was in a wheelchair because he was
skateboarding and got hit 2 times by a car (I can't help but laugh) only
because everything turned out ok, and he has a great desire to come to God
again, because he shouldn’t have survived and all that. God will humble
you if he has to ha. He told us he was prescribed pot and was taking
it..... um ya he was a little loopy I think. We invited him to church and
he asked if there was going to be food there, and we said no, but I added, But
you can feast on the word of God right?! He was like "Shuuuut your
religioooous mouth!, You got to take it slow with me" hahahaha. Now
every time I say anything Sister Spilsbury is like, “shut your religious mouth!”
ha.
Another cool thing is that all the Sisters I
served this past transfer have been biking companionships so I have ridden my
bike a lot lately. But anyways I was on an exchange in Modesto Modesto
Another day this week I wasn’t feeling like
the happiest person, and God was totally trying to make me laugh. We went
to this potential investigators house to try and meet them, and this guy
answers the door in nothing but a towel. He was embarrassed and hiding behind
the door and was like, “another time!!” and I was like woah, I have never had
anyone do that on the mission before. AWK.
THEN we decided next to go to Lxxxxe’s house
and we knock on the door and she answers it in a towel too hahaha. We had
planned to visit Pxxxl next but I was like nooo wayyy haha can't risk that one,
not keeping this trend up!!
So this week we had the choir concert for the Stake.
I don't remember if I told you, but there is an Indian couple in our apartment
complex that we talk to sometimes, and last week he just walks up to us on the
way to our car, and asks if our church has choirs. We were like oh do we! His wife is a
professional singer (however you spell Punjabi) and wanted to learn more about American
music. We were on our way to the Christmas Choir concert and we went and
knocked on their door to invite them but they weren’t there :( Later on our way
to the car we saw them coming home from shopping and invited them! They
said they would come and THEY DID! I was a little scared at first because
you know.... we aren't all professional singers, but there were some really
amazing awe-inspiring songs that made it all worth it. They loved it and
she was fascinated by the organ, so after I took them up on the stage and we
watched the lady play it with her hands and her feet. She was like WHAT?
All four are playing something different? She was impressed. She asked if
we ever drum and I said no :( but she promised she would show me some of the
songs she does because she is really professional at it I guess :) So anyway the choir performance was
awesome! I love being in the Spanish ward, and I love our church.
So for skyping this year I wanted to try
something different.
I would like to invite all of you who will be
there to search a scripture related to the ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST, and
THOUGHTS. Then maybe we can have a scripture sharing section from what we
have learned! Do it - it will be awesome! I am going to be doing it
too! I am really excited, and I just picked something I have been working
on and we can all learn together! DO IT!!
I am excited to talk to you all on Christmas!
-You are so busy, thanks for always writing me
the best emails.
-I want to see/hear about the ward party
-GRANDMA AND GRANDPA ARE LEAVING FOR
CHRISTMAS? Good thing I am not there, or I would give them a whooping.
Ashlee is bringing someone home too! Bad timing there.... or not I don't
know. Little bits at a time maybe ha!
-tell Elissa good luck on the Nutcracker!
--I don’t want anything for Christmas, because
I want to be able to start up again, and buy things I need for when I get
home.... I would just have to bring it back anyways, so I am good on Christmas!
-- tell Dad I am “hecka” good (that is a California
WELL I LOVE YOU A LOT!
UNTIL NEXT WEEK!
LOVE,
HERMANA SHEFFER
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