HOLA MI FAMILIA!
This week we had a mission conference and Elder Hamula came from the Setenta. It was an amazing experience! It was a, “The church is true and good” experience. It was a moment when my perception changed. Those are always fun. But more on that later.
He talked a lot about how to change your heart. Which I want to do. For the better and to be more loving of course. He gave me steps to follow which was good.
1) Accept that you have agency in all things
2) Act outwardly the way you want to be
inwardly
3) Accept the grace of God.
It was amazing to afterwards study grace and
agency, and try to control myself after (we made a big batch of chocolate chip
cookies this week to give to people and they are just sitting frozen in the
fridge and it has been KILLING ME.... But I HAVE AGENCY and I AM CHOOSING NOT
TOOOOO) haha.
Our joined Mission
At a Leadership Council we were talking about
it and I shared something that I learned in my History of Creativity Class at
BYU. We learned that the moments in the history of the world where creativity
and innovation increased happened when two cultures or groups of people
merged. The different cultures and ideas were catalysts for that
creativity. We learned how the people were brought together either by war
and invasion, or by building roads. So basically creativity and
progression will happen in the long run of this mission, but we have the choice
whether we are going to build roads, or to go in by war. I love that
class so much. Anyways I have a feeling after this Conference things will get
better.... if not they are disobeying an Spostles voice haha.
Something interesting is that Elder Hamula
chose to interview 6 missionaries from the whole mission, and I was one of
them. I got to have an interview with an Apostle! I thought he was
going to read my soul, but I was still excited as well. It was really
good what he had to tell me, and we talked about the mission a lot. I
want to be a servant of the Lord for the rest of my life!
My perception changed on the Second Coming.
I had always pictured this horrible ordeal to purge the world of iniquity and
then Jesus Christ coming, and all will recognize him as the Saviour. But
I realized that it is going to be just like it is now. Christ will be
here right now, and Christ will be at a pulpit and we will be watching him on a
broadcast in all the church buildings. The missionaries instead of
spreading the word that we have prophet here on the earth they will be
spreading about Jesus. I think this because look at his birth and
death. The only people that really recognized it were those who knew, and
had faith, and were watching the signs. Just some thoughts, I could be
wrong.
AANNNYYWAAYYSS. I thought that was
interesting.
This week Exxxxo gave me a band shirt from his
good ole band days!!! I was so excited!! It has little angels with their
behinds all over it though, so I don't think I will ever be able to actually
wear it haha. But that is exciting! I am working on buying a tape to cd
converter so he can actually have his band days on CD to give to his family....
and me :)
We performed for Sacrament this past Domingo
(special reason stated below) and even though he got his kidney stones
surgically removed, he still came and belted out in the choir. Hermana
Gomez, the choir director, was so perfect because he told her he might not be
able to sing because he had surgery, and she is like NO we need your
voice! So he was really excited to like feel super needed.
Something interesting is that we have
contacted randomly 4 people in Eliseo's family.
It usually goes something like this...
US: "de
donde es usted?" (Where are you from?)
THEM: "soy
de michoacan mexico " (
I am from Michoacan , Mexico
US: "Oh wow, conocemos alguien de Los Nogales
Michoacan!" (Oh wow! We know someone from Los Nogales, MIchoacan!”
THEM: "EN SERIO?! SOY DE LOSNOGALES
THEM: "EN SERIO?! SOY DE LOS
US: "Exxxxo Mxxxma" "
THEM: WOW, El es mi PRIMO! El es miembro de
nuestra iglesia" (Wow! That is my cousin. He is a member of a new church)
and so
on.
Seriously the Lord is leading us to his whole
family. So we decided to have him write down his whole family and then
pray to know who to try to visit. He was really excited because he wants
his family to know about the gospel too, but they are closed off a bit.
But his whole family still respects him a lot. So that will be fun.
So to the ambulance story :) This week we were
up in French Camp for an appointment, and it just felt like a very off
day. So we decided to leave our plans, and we prayed to know where to
go.
Hna Carpenter thought of a referral on the
other side of French Camp, so we went to go and try and contact it. He
wasn’t there, and so we decided to try a couple doors. While we were out
walking on the street a woman runs out of her house hysterically screaming and
crying, and it freaked me out.
We ran over to go see what was
happening. She was holding her baby in her arms and trying to call
911. We talked to the paramedics for her. The baby looked a little
lethargic but fine, so I wasn’t sure what to do. But we translated for
her and I guess the baby had been having a seizure and she didn’t know what to
do.
A firetruck and ambulance came. The bottom
line is that the baby was fine and we were able to translate for her. We told
her we were going to check up on her the next day. We came back the next
day and had a lesson and she wants to come to church. She said she ran
out of the house and couldn’t see anyone, and then all of a sudden we were
there. She thinks we are angels haha. But it was a cool experience
to actually be were the spirit had told us to go, and I want to be like that
for the rest of my life.
For example, AFTER this happened to just
illustrate this is a learning process, it was 8:45 pm and we were gassing up our car before
heading in for the day. I had a feeling that I should get out of the car
and go talk to people, but then I was like, “No I will clean out the back seat
of the car because there are 1,000 water bottles back there that I need to
crush”. So I was back there crushing water bottles and Hermana Carpenter
was like, “You should go talk to that man!”. So I got a card and went and
talked to him. Turns out he was investigating the church about a year ago
at a time when we had a low of missionaries and they had to combine the Spanish
area of Manteca
I am not worried about it, its only a matter
of time and now we know about him again and will be able to stop by
occasionally. Good thing Hna carpenter said that haha. So ya, I
will never let an opportunity like that be lost over some water bottles.
Another exciting thing is that this week our Bishopric
was released and a new one called. We have a new bishop. Obispo
Levy has been bishop for six and a half years, and he was the first bishop
since this ward moved up from a branch. It was quite a spiritual
sacrament meeting. The new bishop is Hno Gonzalez, who I don’t know if I
have mentioned before, but he is the Principios del Evangelio teacher and he is
fierce but funny. So I think it will be good.
So.....hmmmmm..... that is what flies from the
top of my head, but the work is going great here in Manteca Modesto
I am still reading in the New Testament and I
finished Mark today. I am still in Third Nefi in my Libro de Mormon.
I love study times.
So I was thinking and I think it would just be
better if I flew into the Airport in Salt
Lake City
I am glad to hear that Lizzy and her roommate
are going good :) I am pretty sure God always gives you someone those
first few months haha. Hna Carpenter and I are both jealous because we
love school season so much. California
Well I end this long email with
LOVE.
Hermana Sheffer
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