Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

Hey everyone!  Don't have much to share to be honest but it was another awesome week!  Laura is doing well! She passed her interview and is excited and ready to be baptized on September 8th!  We had some success finding new people this week! We found 3 new people. Ryan, Angel, and John. They are all awesome and I will keep you updated on their progress.  Had an exchange with Elder Lebrón one of the zone leaders. And it was a ton of fun. Got a lot of good tips and learned a ton. Also we had interviews this week! Not much to share there except President asked us to share our testimony of Joseph Smith with him. That was awesome! He says he really has seen me come a long way in the year I've been out. It has been a wild one!  Love you all so much!  Elder Shields Interviews Exchanges

Hey everyone!!  This week was a little tougher than the last few. We had two of the best people we were teaching drop us on the same day! Ya that stung a bit. Laura is still on pace to get baptized though! Her baptismal interview is tonight.  I got to speak in church this week which was really fun! The topic I got to speak on was marriage and family which I thought was super ironic because I have neither of those right now h aha I don't know if they were trying to make me trunky or something but I just did my best, and it went really well! The sister who spoke after me stood up and said that she thought I would make a great husband one day haha, I laughed at that. Only other thing to report is that we had zone conference this week, it was all focused on Joseph Smith and gaining a testimony of him as a prophet of God. It was so amazing! My testimony of Joseph Smith has grown so much on my mission, he really is a prophet of God! And the church he restored really is God's k...

To the Shields Family, First off, I will have to apologize for my lack of letter writing.  I believe this will be my first since I left home.  I won't promise one every week from now on because writing letters isn't my fave, but under special request from Momma I am writing this.  So without further ado, I present, "What Elder Shields has learned in his first year as a missionary!" Probably the first thing I have learned is how much you can get done in a day!  I didn't realize all the wasted time I had back home with TV and games.  When we plan effectively and work hard I am amazed just how much we can accomplish!  I have also gained a testimony of getting up early.  Just getting up and starting off the day with some nice exercise and still having all day to look forward to is so invigorating. Second, is the importance of daily prayer and scripture study.  Having those things in my life more to give me the spiritual boost I need has been lif...

Hello everyone, it has officially been one year since I left on my mission! I have learned so much and have loved every day of it! I have seen miracles and have watched peoples lives change!  As is tradition, I burned a shirt to symbolize one year in the mission, so that was fun. Laura has accepted a baptismal date for September 8th, we are very excited for her, it has been so fun to work with her and see her grow.  We also found a new person to teach through a service ad that was put on Facebook by the Sister missionaries in the neighboring ward (Bear Valley). His name is Armando. He loves the gospel already and is looking like he will progress well!  We went ice skating for Pday and it was sick!   Love you all, Elder Shields  Burning of the Shirt One Year Mark! Ice Skating - Pday Me and Elder De Mille I

Hey everyone! First week with the new companion. His name is Elder Carl De Mille. He is from Leeds Utah, which is just north of St George. He is really big into dub step music and even made his own music before he came out. He also played a lot of video games before, he said his favorite were Fallout and Mass Effect. He worked for a year before coming out so he is the same age as me. He is super willing to work and seems like he will be an awesome companion and missionary! A member also made us a green breakfast for him on his first mornimg in the mission. That was tons of fun! We had a super solid person to teach passed off to us by the YSA Elders. Her name is Laura. She is dating a member of our ward named Yusuf. She is YSA age but since she will be marrying Yusuf they decided it would be best if we finish her teaching. We had two lessons with her this week and both of them were super awesome! She is golden. The Yabuts also got baptized this week! Went back and got to help out ...