Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

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 ...

Hey everyone!   This week was pretty sweet! We had a ton of service that we did. First was removing this huge stump from a lady in our wards lawn. It was so much fun tho. We did it with Elder Gibson (who is now and in San Pasqual ward) and his new comp elder snyder (my son). We also helped someone put in turf grass in their yard and helped someone else feed their roses in their rose garden. And they had over 200 roses. 🙃   We met with John and Steve this week. Steve's main concern right now is the priesthood. He is just having a hard time believing the fact that the priesthood was restored. But other than that he is doing well. John is doing well too. He had us over for dinner on Friday. He had a lot of his friends there and we were able to talk with a lot of them about the Gospel!   We started the recent convert lessons with Laura this week also. She and Yusuf are doing so awesome!   We also had a non member just walk into church yester...

Hello everybody!   This week was super awesome! Definitely the highlight was Laura's baptism. It was really such an amazing service. After the baptism itself Laura got up and bore her testimony about the church and it was so powerful! The Spirit was so present in that whole program.   It has been pretty crazy covering two areas. We have been super busy and we have spent more time in a car than we normally do. But we did get to do a combined district council because me and Elder Gibson are both district leaders so that was way fun!   We got our car towed this week which was super fun! Haha not really but it happens. We had switched cars because of being in both areas and we didn't realize that we had to have a certain sticker on the car to park in our apartment parking lot. And one day we went out to go somewhere and there was no car to be found. We got it back tho so don't worry.   There was also a man hunt going on in our area last night,...

Hi  So this week was pretty interesting. One of the Elders in the neighboring wards (San Pasqual) had to go home due to surgery and his companion needed a place to be for the last week and a half of the transfer, so me and Elder DeMille got another companion! His name is Elder Gibson. He is from Clarksville Tennessee and he has been out for about 22 months. He is awesome! It has been a ton of fun having him with us.  I also met Carrie Stringham (now Thompson) and her husband Andrew. We played basketball with him last Saturday and we saw both of them at church this week, because now we are covering both wards and had to go to both meetings.  I got to go to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this week. Once every quarter the district leaders go to MLC so that is why I was there. It was a ton of fun. Received a bunch of good counsel on how to be better leaders. We also got to do some activities to help us learn leadership that was way fun.  Laura is still doing we...

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...