Last Sunday in Pembroke...

Hello Sister Shields.  This is a picture I took with Elder Shields the Sunday before he was transferred from Pembroke.  Sure hated to see him leave.  But I know they are to go and share the gospel with others that are seeking a change in their lives.  Your son is a wonderful young man.  I truly miss him. He told me that a good friend of his served here also, Kenyon James, and they were on the wrestling team together.  It was awesome to know that Heavenly Father sent me two amazing young men.  By the way my name is Angila, also known as Mama Ang.  Elder Shields asked me to send this picture to you.  Have an amazing Easter Sunday and weekend.  The Atonement is so amazing, we get to live with our Heavenly Father once again.
-Mama Ang

Elder Jake and Mama Ang

You know how moms are...

That's weird to think Spencer and Amy, you will have to send me his email so I can give him a hard time about it.  And the date got moved back to the 29th, it will still be happening but his mother thought the 8th was too soon, you know how moms are.  It was funny because the conversation we had with our investigator was as follows.  He was nervous about baptism because he didn't fully understand why baptism was necessary and what it meant.  We explained it.  I asked if that all made sense and if he had any questions, and he said, "Yea, when can I get baptized?"  I said, "That is an excellent question, when do you want to get baptized?"  He said, "Hmmm, like two or three weeks."  I said, "We can make that happen."  But then mom.  That's fine, all is well in zion, but I'm excited to hear where Matt gets called.  I will get the outline sent!

Love y'all!

Elder Shields

Elder Shields and Elder Qiao

Sanford and Qiao

Hey Mom,

So Sanford is a wonderful area, haha, nobody else thinks so, but after Pembroke, everywhere is great!  Pembroke is probably the most depressing place I've ever been and I learned to find joy there and appreciate the good things, but there's a lot more good in Sanford.  Elder Qiao is awesome, he is a great missionary, and his English is pretty good.  He has no trouble teaching and getting his point across, the only thing he really struggles with is a limited vocabulary.

That's great to hear that UNC is in the finals, I hope they can pull it off.

There is actually a deaf family that we are teaching, so let Sam hear that, it definitely makes me wish I had stuck with ASL more than I did but we had some good interpreters.  They will get baptized eventually, they just want to know more.  There are a lot of good people we are teaching now, I'm still trying to get to know them better, but the previous Elders did a great work, I'm glad I don't have to clean up another area.

Also, something cool with General Conference; I have to give instruction for a zone meeting, and the subject I was wanting to address people on is receiving power through the grace of Christ, and through living our covenants and especially living the law of consecration, there were so many powerful talks about that subject, receiving power and giving our all.  Overcoming the world.  I will have to send my outline home, it was pretty amazing to see how many things that were included in my outline that were addressed in conference.  Anyways, I love y'all!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hard Work and Perseverance...

Hey Momma,

So exciting news, hard work and perseverance had payed off.  We have a baptism coming up on the 8th of April.  There was a part member family I have been trying to get up with since I first got here and right before I leave the stars aligned and now their son is getting baptized and the mom will follow shortly, hopefully.  We also have some other really great people who we have been working with, Joe, we found him while he was out checking the mail.  His wife was a Mormon before she passed away.  While they were together he was meeting with missionaries and working towards baptism, but he moved and didn't have contact with the missionaries for 8 years until we found him.  It seems that the Lord expects me to give my all to the last second, trial after trial, right until I go and then I see the miracles; although, I'm sure that's how it works with a lot of people.  It is the pattern set in the scriptures.

I heard UNC won!  I was so excited after serving in Chapel Hill I converted to being a UNC fan.  I love the cream cheese and chive crackers in the box, the snack food was heaven sent. haha not surprised to hear Sarah got another sunburn, Matt and Lauren are the tanners and me and her are the white ones, it's just how it goes.  Glad to hear everyone is doing well.

My new companion is Elder Qiao, he is from main land China and has been out for about 4 months so I will be helping him learn English, I will be staying in the zone; the new area I'm going to is Sanford!  Another small town similar to Pembroke, but a lot less violent.

Love ya!

Found a new investigator...

Hey Momma!

So things went alright this week, we had an actual good conversation with a JW, that never happens!  Learned a lot about their faith and it is the closest thing to being a Mormon without being a Mormon that I've seen in all the religions out here.  We found a great new investigator, james oxen dine, he had really good question and who qualifies a s a king and ruler as mentioned in D&C 1:23.  But, the biggest struggle we face here is getting the second appointment to not fall through.

I will be mailing my back pack back and also the Christmas hearts will be inside it (the tree was killed in action).  Hope all goes well, and as far as the package, hmmmmm, surprise me, it's always better that way!

Roaches...

Tell me about your week:
It was good we were able to get out and do some good work, and find a lot of people, it is hard finding people who are willing to keep commitments, that's one of the problems with this area; people aren't willing to keep commitments, that tends to go in hand with the poverty around us.

Did the bug bomb work?
Yes, but we still have traps up and everything, they're not totally gone but the vast majority are.

How about some roach stories:
Roaches, hundreds of them.  Took forever to finally get them taken care of.  They were a wonderful present Elder Tyler and I received from the previous missionaries.  You know, we torched some of them with hair spray and a lighter.

Did you get your shoulder bag?
The bag is great!  Thanks

Do you have everything you need?
Yep

How often are the member feeding you?
Once every other week or so.  It's been brought up to the ward multiple times.

How are your stress levels?
Fine

Bug Bombs...

Hey our week was pretty good, we bug bombed our apartment with foggers to get rid of all the roaches, we were able to find some good people this week as well.  The biggest problem we are facing is that God doesn't really trust the ward right now.  This area has had lots of baptisms in the past but all of them are less active now because nobody does their home teaching.  It's her to find people when the ward won't do their part with retention and home teaching.  The biggest thing we have been working on is building the ward.  We lost our ward mission leader a little bit ago so we had to get the Bishop on board to get a new one; we finally got one.  we are plugging along here.  Here are some pictures, I'm trying to repent of the not sending pictures thing!

Love Y'all

Elder Bush and Elder Shields

Bug Bombs!!!