Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

Hello!  Christmas was super awesome!! Lots of fun to talk to the family! Love all of them!!  We had a pretty good week. Found a few new people to teach. One was Lukas. He is a referral from a member in the ward who is going to BYU right now. We taught him this morning actually for the first time. He has been to church twice already but we never got a chance to teach him until now. He was really prepared and loved the Plan of Salvation lesson. He accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of January!  Maria was someone we found tracting and she is super awesome! She doesn't know much about God but she has a desire to learn so that she can teach her kids as they grow up.  Not much progress with anyone else :(  We are having an all day Pday today for New Years Eve and we will be playing games and doing a devotional together as a zone. It should be fun love you all!!  Elder Shields

We loved our Christmas call with Elder Shields!  Just so fun hear him talk about his mission and his testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We loved catching up and just being linked together in various ways as a family if only for one hour.   We couldn't love, or miss him more!!! Hi, this is Sister Geyer and I am in the Fallbrook 2nd Ward.  We have a tradition in our family where we invite the missionaries and friends  and family for breakfast to celebrate the new year coming.  This year we were lucky to have this great group.  I wanted to share with their families. Good Morning Sandi, We loved your 12 days games & gifts.  I'll attach a pic of us with the Elders.  Best wishes for a Happy New Year.  Blessings, Tanya and Jason Missionary Christmas! Gotta love it!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!  Don't have much to say this week other than we had a mission wide talent show and devotional! I played a piano solo and accompanied an Elder singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It was awesome. We also had interviews this week.  Love you all, talk to you tomorrow! Talent Show Kiss the Rain, Yiruma Interviews

This week was super awesome!!  Highlight was a play the stake put on called Savior of the World. They have been practicing for this for a super long time so we were excited for it. And it was awesome!! We were able to bring some of the people we were teaching to it as well so that hopefully made a great impact on them and allowed them to feel the Spirit.  We had an awesome lesson with Jim and Sandy and we committed them to live the Word of Wisdom. They said it is going to be really hard for them but they are willing to do it! We will have to work with them a lot but I believe they can do it.   Not much else to say love you all!!   Elder Shields 14 Days of Christmas! Vista Fam Us and the Van Aaries (senior couple) at Savior of the World

Hey Family what is uppp?  This week was super awesome!!  It rained a ton which was super not normal for southern Califormia, but it was a nice change of pace. The day it rained the most I was on exchanges with Elder Reyes, one of the Spanish missionaries in the zone, we worked in his area. We had an awesome exchange, we found someone new for them to teach and we put one of the people they are teaching on date for baptism on Dec 29. Another cool miracle, Elder Reyes didn't have a jacket, and we were tracking in the rain and it was freezing! Someone we knocked into gave Elder Reyes a jacket to keep! The Lord really does provide.  Jacob went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead this week!! We unfortunately didn't get to go because we had appointments then. But we will hopefully be going with him soon. We were also going to start teaching his mom this week but his grandpa had a heart attack so please keep them in your prayers!!  Scott Lord unfortunately drop...

HEY everyone!!  Highlight of the week for sure was Jacob Garcia's baptism! It was such an awesome experience for everyone. The youth in the ward really seemed to welcome him in to the ward! Afterwards we asked Jacob how he felt and he just said he felt love, he couldn't really even put everything on his mind into words.  We also got invited to young mens to do a little Q and A for the kids that will soon be going on missions. Jacob was there and he had a ton of good questions for us. We also got to talk to the other kids about mission life, give them some advice, and bear our testimony on the importance of missionary work. It was really awesome.  Scott came to church for the first time and he really seemed to like it. Tanya and Jason also came to church!   Love you all so much!!   Elder Shields  Jacob's Baptism Young Men's Fallbrook District

Hey Grandpa Happy Birthday!!!  I am so grateful for you and I love you so much! I have always appreciated the support from you in sports and other hobbies, I don't think I could remember any sporting event or choir performance that you didn't go to. Thank you for being such a huge fan!  Your example in the Gospel has also been inspiring to me. It has helped me become who I am and get me where I am. I am sad not to be at your birthday party, but I know that I am where I need to be. I want to bear my testimony to you first on the importance of family.  This family has meant the world to me and there many (but especially Grandpa Shields) who has set an amazing example for me to follow.  I also have come to know of the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it has been restored to the earth today through a Prophet and I know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and the word of God. But, most importantly, I know that Jesus is my Sav...

Happy Thanksgiving!  This week was awesome!! we had Thanksgiving which was obviously a highlight! We only had 5 dinners which was a bummer, just kidding it was awesome!! And all but 1 had non members there that we were able to teach a little. None lived in our area but maybe someone else will be able to benefit from our messages!!  Jacob is doing awesome and is still looking like he will be able to be baptized on Dec 1. He is doing well at reading the Book of Mormon and praying, and he always loves coming to church! The only thing that might hold him back is his mom, we are trying to get her permission to baptize him, we have a meeting with her tonight so be praying for that!!  Jason and Tanya came to church this week! They have spent a lot of time tending to Jasons mother who is in the hospital so we haven't had like any time to meet with them unfortunately. Sandy and Jim are still looking well, they just need to get married and then they can get baptized.  ...

Hey Family!  Another awesome week!!  We got a super solid referral from one of the youth in our ward! We started teaching him on Wednesday and he is already on date for Dec 1. He is awesome!! And he was soo prepared to hear the Gospel. His name is Jacob.  This was the first week doing District councils in Vista. And we have to go to all the councils every week. Going to three a week is kind of a lot haha. I do enjoy getting to know all the missionaries in the zone though.  We had interviews this week also. For interviews President Thomas had us pick our favorite conference talk and share why we like it with him. I chose the talk One in Christ by Elder Soares. I over the analogy he used about the two rivers coming together to become the Amazon and as we as members become united we too can become strong though Jesus Christ.  Love you all so much!   Elder Shields

Hey Everybody!!   Another awesome week in Fallbrook!   This week we had zone conference which was a ton of fun. The main focus of it was on saving lambs and feeding sheep from the story of the lost sheep and also from Jesus' exchange with Peter where Jesus told Peter if he loved Him, he was to feed His lambs and His sheep. We trained a lot on being bold and some other teaching skills, because if we are to feed His sheep we need to teach effectively and boldly.   We had a good lesson with Tanya and Jason this week. Jason has been a little standoffish with us as far as doing lessons because of some previous doubts he has had about the church. he loves having us over but has been sketchy about lessons. But after our lesson this week (which was basically just helping him overcome concerns about the Book of Mormon) he shared with us that his heart has been softened a little bit and he is willing to more seriously investigate the church and look for the tru...

Hey guys what's up!   This week was another good one! We got to go to the temple again this week! I love being able to spend time in the house of the Lord. I also saw one of the members from Oceanside while there so that was a ton of fun!!   Not much to report as far as people we are teaching. Most of them flaked out on us this week. We had an activity on Halloween night because we couldn't be out proselyting. Me and Elder Norman got to plan it.  We had a fire pit and roasted marshmallows and had a little devotional thing. It was way fun!   We did do quite a bit of service this week for people. There is a family in a neighboring ward that had a family get evicted from their house. We have been helping them move a lot of stuff from their old house to their new one. The family is all non members and they expressed to us that us being there had strengthened their faith in Christ. And they told us that when they were done getting their housing s...

Hey everyone!!   This week was super pretty cool. First week in the Fallbrook 5th ward. I love it here. The members here are awesome! Super helpful and really missionary minded.   My companion like I said last week is Elder Norman. He is from Sugar City Idaho and he LOVES Idaho and is very proud of the fact that he is from there haha. He is a big baseball fan and he likes boating and dirt bikes and cliff jumping, and just everything outdoors. So me and him have gotten along super well. He has been out for just one transfer longer than I have.   The area is doing pretty well. We have a few people we are teaching. Sandy and Jim, and Jason and Tanya are two couples that we are teaching. Tanya and Sandy are sisters. Tanya originally found the church when she broke her leg, she needed help and her daughter who is a member got the bishop over to here to help and she has been love with the church ever since. Jason is not a big fan of the church and t...

Hey Everyone!   Got some transfer doctrine this week! I will be being transferred to the Fallbrook 5th Ward! My new companion is named Elder Norman, I don't know much about him, but I have heard good things about him from other missionaries. Me and Elder Norman will be the zone leaders over the Vista zone!   Elder DeMilles new companion is going to be Elder Phillips. Weird to know that one of my last companions will be taking my spot haha.   Evalina is doing super well and she looks like she will make her baptismal date for November 3rd! I am unsure yet if I will be able to return to Escondido to see her baptism. Unfortunately we haven't had much progress with anyone else we are teaching.   We went to Mormon Battalion this week as tradition for the finishing of a missionaries training. It is always such a faith promoting experience and uplifting experience to visit there. If any of you are visiting San Diego any time I strongly rec...

What is up everyone??   First off I want to congratulate Sarah and Tim for their big day this week!! Welcome to the family Tim!   This week was super awesome! We got to go to the temple with Laura and Yusuf to do baptisms for the dead! We all had a really amazing experience there. Laura just couldn't stop talking about how amazing the temple was. How clean and white and pure it felt. Yusuf also recieved his endowment this week. And them they moved to Cedar City, haha. So if you guys go down that way. Look them up and say hi for me!   Evalina Hernandez (the part member family we started teaching last week) is now on date to be baptized on November 3rd! Evelyn (her mom) also got up this Sunday for fast and testimony meeting and thanked me and Elder DeMille personally for our persistence (we have tried to meet with them for a while), and not giving up on them. She also bore her testimony on baptism and shared how happy she is for Evalina to be baptized. ...

Hi everyone how are you!?   This week was pretty awesome! Obviously conference was amazing I loved all of it. One of my favorite talks had to be Elder Rasband. Some if the insights he shared about having people on the other side of the veil with us were awesome!!   We haven't been able to makr contact with Eric unfortunately.   We did start teaching a part member family tho. The Hernandez family. The daughter (Evalina is who we are teaching). She is 10 and is very likely to get baptized! We don't have a date yet but hopefully that will come soon.   We went bowling for pday today, which was a blast. I did awful but I really didn't care haha.  Love you all so much!   Elder Shields  General Conference Breakfast Bowling with the Bear Valley District

Hi everyone!!  THANKS FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!!  Awesome week out here in Escondido yet again! Just so you know it was not me who got stitched it was Elder DeMille. We were doing service for a less active member of our ward breaking down pallets, and Elder DeMille was pulling a nail out of the board with a crowbar. The crowbar slipped off the nail and hit him right in the chin! So we took a trip to the doctor to get him stitched up.   President interviews were this week! Had a fun time there. They were on my birthday so President and Sister Thomas sang for me after I was out of the interview! It was so funny   None of the people we were teaching were progressing so we just kinda stopped teaching all of them and decided to start fresh! It is a bummer but none of the people we were working with were willing to make commitments. We found a new person (on my birthday) named Erick. He is in High School right now and just loved the Restoration and th...

This week was pretty awesome!   The highlight was definitely the zone conference we had this week. We had a visiting authority here, Elder Bangerter. The instruction we recieved was focused on a few different things, how our desires effect our choices and actions and therefore our exaltation, our ability to access God's power (and that everyone has that ability), and developing faith. I will share a quote he shared that particularly influenced me, "Our (all missionaries) setting apart entitles us to know that God, by His Spirit goes up the pathway and through the door and into the hearts and minds of the people we meet before we ever step foot on their property." This strengthened my faith that God is preparing people, He has His hand in the work, I have seen it in action.   Elder Bangerter also had a few people selected that he could speak with one on one after zone conference. I was one who had the privilege of doing this. He asked me a few questions about the ...