Elder Joshua Sheffield

29 Oct 18 OPA BOA TARDE (Good Afternoon)   Me and Elder Ribiero This week Presidente decided that it would be 500 contacts for every companionship, so we did a lot of talking and a lot of contacting.  We had to be creative with some of our contacts and so we had a lot of attempts turned down and a lot of funny stories. This week was also the last week of the presidential election here in Brazil and so the streets have been full. There was a group of people on the street corner with political flags and posters handing out flyers and there was this guy on the corner who’d been handing out flyers all day. He handed me one, but I was ready and as he did. I said “thanks, lets trade” and I gave him a contact card. He looked shocked and definitely didn’t see that coming.  I shared a short message with him and he assured me he’d check out the church.   Our tried attempt at contacting a monkey We tried contacting a group of monkeys by putting p...

22oct 18 I've conquered the hill This week was zone conference and its like a spiritual power house. We are in the zone of Lafiete and have just about 20 missionaries. We had interviews with Presidente and we just talked a lot about how to be better. President talked a lot about not comparing ourselves with others and how comparison is such a strong tool for the adversary.  We are teaching a lot of menos ativos  Its awesome to see people that still have a strong testimony even after so many problems in their lives. We have transfers every 6 weeks and the next one is the 6th of November I have a feel I getting transferred but well see haha.  I’ve already been here in this city for 3 months which is crazy. I know the city like the back of my hand (almost). Pont Nova in English means "new bridge" and this is the big landmark of the city Dad you would be proud of me I’m the master money saver (at least for our house). I always...

Oct 15 2018 “Do-do do do do-do-do doooooo  God bless the rains down in Africa”  IT WAS SO HOT THIS WEEK! HOT AND HUMID The only escape from the heat is using the fan at home and when it rains. One of the other elders broke our fan this week and soooo... this week I was so glad that it rained and cooled us off a little bit I missed Utah a lot and I missed the cold hahaha I was actually jealous to see pictures where you are wearing jackets and coats I haven’t seen one of those in months! I totally forgot about Halloween!!!! That’s so exciting I expect pictures of all the decorations and costumes. We have been working with lots of recém conversos e membros menos activos (recent converts and less active members) lately and a family that hasn’t been to church in a while and a sister missionary that came home and struggling with here testemony e recem conversos (testimony and remember her conversion) that stopped coming to church. Testimony meeting was gr...

This week was so fast it flew by.  The district standing in the rain Me and my companion Elder Arruda were a little burnt out. We’ve taught a lot of lessons and invited and re-invited so many people to come to church.  None of the people we invited (and were sure were coming) came Saturday or Sunday but that’s all good because CONFRENCE WAS SOOOO GREAT We  broadcasted conference at the church and hung out there with recent converts and members. We baked a couple of cakes and ate and talked during the break  Of course, I was watching in Portuguese without subtitles or anything but I felt pretty good that i listened to all of conference in a language that I just started learning 3 months ago!   I missed watching conference with my family. The talk about not removing the Saviors name from His church was so dang good. Elder Riberios birthday is this week. This is a bucket of ice cream a member made for us, Yum yum yum... so good There were so m...

Its already October which is crazy!!!  I bet it’s starting to get cold back at home but here its just starting to get hot  We had some days at 35 degrees which is around 100 Fahrenheit and it's getting more raining too Spontaneous water fight This week we bought water balloons and invited some member to come hangout on p-day. It of course turned into a water fight with buckets and hoses by the end everyone was soaked and laughing  i reminded me of home and the spontaneous water fights hahah   Elder Anderson We also recieved a new  missionary in our area Elder Anderson from Eagle Mountain Ut (Logan Paul Anderson if you want to try to contact his family) Having him around has really helped the whole district he’s so enthusiastic and ready to learn  We’ve been studying together and its helps to have another missionary learning Portuguese we can help each other out He’s also a signed runner for weber state so i think we are...