Three in a Row...

Elders Smyly, Clifford and Me

Elders Norris, Weiss, Smyly, Me and Brown

Hi Family,

A good story:
This last transfer was my hardest by far , but this last Saturday made up for it completely.  We were following up with a potential and it ended up falling through and not working out, so we were about to leave and I got the impression that we needed to stay and tract the opposite side of the street.  The first door we knock on we find a great young man whose girlfriend is taking the missionary lessons and he was interested himself and was wanting to get a hold of the Book of Mormon. We taught him a little bit and setup a return appointment.  The next door we knock on is a young women who has met with missionaries before, but is worried about church because she believed her last church to be true, but didn't feel that it was, and she didn't want to go through one of those experiences again.  We shared with her our testimonies and gave her a pamphlet of the testimony of Joseph Smith and told her to read it and we would check up with her again.  The next door we knock on is another young woman who was very energetic and taught her a short lesson and she accepted to go to church this coming Sunday.

After we walked away from all of that we were just blown away!  I have never had a more successful hour and a half in my mission up to this point.  It is amazing how the Lord works through ignorant young men such as us to proclaim His Gospel, and what's more amazing is the He makes it work.

love to all,
Jake

Pizza and a Phone Call...

One way to talk to your son.

Got a letter from Jake this week that didn't really say too much and thought he was feeling a little down, so we ordered up Dominos for him.  The delivery time was set for 9:30, and at 9:31 I received a phone call from the delivery guy saying that no one was home.  He agreed to wait for five minutes.  Five minutes later, still no Jake.  I kept him on the phone for a bit, hoping Jake would show up.  It worked!  Jake showed up and I asked the delivery guy to just verify it was Jake Shields.  He asked, "Are you Jake Shields?" Jake responded, "Yeah."  The delivery guy then handed Jake the phone and said, "Here, your Mom wants to talk to you!"

It was not a lie.  I did want to talk to him, but I never would have asked.  But hey, who am I to turn a tender mercy away?  Jake had just returned from a lesson that had just come up during the day.  He was upbeat and excited about the prospects of this new investigator.  It did my mother's heart good to hear his upbeat voice after a letter that indicated otherwise.  Bon Appetit Jake!

The Angry Face...

The Angry Face...when an investigator drops us =/

Me and Elder Norris making pizza at a
recent convert's home

Elders Norris, Shields, Searle, Smyly and Weiss

Hello Family,

My favorite Conference talk was President Uchtdorf's in the priesthood session; it just really spoke to me and brought me comfort.  I also really liked Elder Oaks talk about opposition of the spirit and flesh  because it is related to what I am studying.  We watched conference at the Stake Center.

It is going fine with just Elder Norris, he is much more of a free spirit than Elder Searle or I, but we get along just fine.

I had a cool experience this week.  I felt impressed that we need to focus on working down near the college and we did, and we have started finding much more success!  it was pretty cool :)  We found four new investigators this week!

We don't eat at members very often, probably twice a week.

I am loving the calendar, I still haven't looked ahead!

Have a great week, love ya,

Elder Shields