Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

So gonna be honest, this week was pretty rough. We weren't able to get in contact with Bridget again, the guy Richard we talked to last week hasn't responded to anything either. And tho we had a really solid lesson with Shaelee and her fam, she ended up not coming to church, again. It is really hard when I know that what we have to share will make these people happier, but they just won't listen or act on what we say when we ask them to do something! ugh oh well.  There was some fun things that happened tho. I went on exchanges with Elder Draper, who is my District leader and that was a lot of fun! He serves in a biking area so I got to take my bike over there and use it for the first time on my mission! It was so freaking tiring! I was like dead by the end of the day, but it was really nice just to have a change of pace, and I got to see just how easy we have it over in French Valley with a car haha.  We also had the Harvest Festival (fancy way to say Halloween party) ...

First off, my P day next week will be on Tuesday because we are going to do an all day P day on Halloween, which I'm stoked for it's gonna be so fun!  Pretty solid week, we were finally able to start teaching Shaelee, and her family is super chill even tho they are really less active they are super open to everything. Hope that this will lead us to be able to rekindle what got them baptized in the first place.  Sister Bradshaw got in contact with Bridget and she will be coming to the Harvest Festival on Tuesday which will be an awesome way to get her better fellowshipped into the ward!! that being said, the Harvest Festival is on Tuesday and we normally teach her on Tuesday, so we most likely won't do a lesson with her this week, and she is out of town next week! so that will make it like a full month that we haven't taught her! UGHUGH. oh well, hopefully the Harvest Festival will be a good experience for her.  Had a cool experience! Me and Elder Mann were just ou...

Hello Everyone!  Transfers were this last week and I'm chillin' another 6 weeks with Elder Mann in French Valley! Our zone leader Elder Eddins just got made an AP so that was pretty cool! Our district is staying the same other than that. Our zone got huge tho, we got some visa waiters and the Spanish branch has two sets of missionaries now. I'll send a pic of the new zone.  Bummer this week Bridget cancelled on us and didn't show up to church :( We are worried about her. But we won't lose hope! She is ready for the gospel and we aren't going to give up on her! One of the sisters in the ward (Sister Bradshaw) offered to go over and see how she was doing today and just make sure everything was okay with her. Hoping she gets in contact with her.  Good news with Shaelee tho!! The Bishop got in contact with her mom and she is okay with us coming over and teaching her! We are trying to find a time to go over and meet the fam and start teaching.  Me and Elder M...

Hey, Hey Hey, I forgot to tell you guys about general conference last weekend!! It was honestly such a spiritual experience for me! I got so much more out of it than I usually do because this time I was actively listening and taking notes for every session and it was so worth it! We watched most of the sessions and the stake center, but we did watch the priesthood session at a members house, the Stefls are their names. And it was cool because they just had their youngest son leave on a mission so this would have been the first time the dad had watched general conference without his son in a while so it was cool that we were able to be there with him.  We were able to meet with Bridget again finally and we had a really good lesson, we talked with her about faith and talked about Alma 32 with her then she asked for some scriptures we could share with her on resisting temptations she has and we shared Moses 1:13 with her, and it helped her a lot!  We haven't been able to g...

Hi Sandi! We had your awesome son over for dinner tonight.  He loved the carnitas and guacamole.  We're thankful he's in our ward and he's doing an amazing job! Whitney and Ben Garcia Elder Mann and Elder Shields

We got introduced to a guy named George Mijares this week. He was born a member of the church but he hasn't gone in a long time. He's had a really rough life, like two jail sentences, he's been shot several times, been homeless for a while, he has a pretty crazy life story. But he has recently been making strides to try and come back to church. We have been able to go over and visit him a few times, he lives out of Motel 6 just a bit outside our area. And I got the opportunity of giving him a blessing! It was a pretty touching experience, I was so glad that I was able to use the priesthood that I have to bless someone else's life.  So Elder Mann got sick on Tuesday so that was literally the worst thing ever!!! He was in bed all day just sleeping, so I just got to chill in the apartment all day! I read a ton of scriptures and watched like an hour and a half of the District (which is so boring), and luckily I had my rubix cubes so I did that to pass the time a little b...