Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

Hey guys another week down in Temecula!  So first off we had another lesson with Bridget! Went super well and she is definitely starting to see tender mercies in her life since she has started to meet with us! She shared a cool experience with us about how lots of her resentment she has had for a lot of people has just gone away, we were able tell her that that is the spirit and it can bring comfort and guide her in her life. She is not ready for baptism because of a few family matters that need to be resolved beforehand, but we are trying to get her on date so she has something to work for.  We weren't able to teach Shaelee this week because her parents didn't let her, didn't seem like a good sign, but then she and her mom came to church on Sunday! That is the first time anyone in her fam has been to church in like a year, pretty awesome!  Been doing a lot of service out here. So far I've helped two people move, helped a lady paint her house, helped the Bradshaw...

So grateful to the Bradshaw's for sending this email: To Elder Shields' family, We are so grateful to have Elder Shields in our ward! He is such a great man and missionary. We have loved getting to know him! Yesterday, he and his companion, along with two other Elders in the zone, came over to our house to provide us service. The amount of work needed was more than we could do and we were so appreciative of Elder Shields and the other Elders coming over to help us. We started by enjoying some breakfast burritos together and then got right down to work. Elder Shields was just amazing and it was so great to talk and work along side him. We are just so impressed with him. After a couple hours of work, we finished by taking the Elders to an all-you-can-eat pizza place nearby for lunch. There we ate, talked, laughed, got to know Elder Shields better, and talked about many things of the gospel. Our 3rd son is about to leave on his mission this week and we had such a great time t...

Hey Fam!! This week I realized just how important the ward is in missionary work! and how fun it is to meet interesting people in the ward and out on the streets. So we were at dinner at a members house on Friday. Their name is the Jamchis. They are a super cool family from Iran and have been converts of about two years. While we were there their neighbors, the Emmichs (a less active family), came over to say hi. We all talked for a bit and as they left the youngest daughter, named Shealee, who is 9, stayed behind because she wanted to hear our message that we were going to leave with the family after dinner. It came out that she hadn't been baptized because her family went less active as she turned 8, but she wants to be a part of the ward and she wants to be baptized! So we are going to meet with her again this week and do a lesson and hopefully get her baptized! The only concern is the parents, but Brother Jamchi told me not to worry and he would act as the middle man for a...

This week wasn't too crazy. Me and Elder Mann have spent most of our time contacting potential investigators and street contacting. We have run into a few people who definitely seemed interested but so far we don't have any new investigators. We taught Bridget on Tuesday, and it was awesome! She is definitely progressing so much and learning a lot about the gospel. We were able to address all of her concerns and she seems to take everything new that we bring up really well! Sadly she didn't come to church because of a family emergency. But we will be teaching her again tomorrow night and we are hoping to commit her to baptism!! I am pretty nervous for it but I know that she is ready to at least make the commitment. I'll let you know how it goes. We also taught Carol again, but we really aren't making any progress with her, but we'll continue to try. We also did splits with the zone leaders this week. I went and worked with Elder Eddins for the day in ...

My first week out in the mission field! Sorry about the delay tho, we ended up having our P-day on a Tuesday because Labor Day was yesterday. But this week has been pretty crazy!! Right after I got off the plane I met the APs and the President and his wife, and President Thomas and his wife are so awesome!! They are like the nicest people ever and they are super spiritual and super helpful with everything. We drove to the mission office where we had some interviews and some training. Then I got to meet my comp, his name is Elder Mann, and he is a pretty cool guy! There were some families who had me take pics with him and send them to you so I hope mom already got those and sent them out. He is really different from me, but we have definitely grown so much closer over this past week. After I met him we found out we would be white washing an area in Temecula. The French Valley Ward to be exact. A little stressful to find out I was white washing, especially since I'm a brand...