Bonjour à tous! So we're at the start of another transfer! Sister Monson and I are still staying here in Annemasse together again! Our 3rd transfer here together! We're super excited, because the longer you stay in a ville and with a companion, the more the work takes off. You both really know the people, and how the other works. And I didn't want to leave my family here. I love our amis, our members, and all of our sweet soeurs we take care of! Definitely wasn't ready for any goodbyes. We had a really miracle-filled week. I just want to fill you in on our amis, because they really are some of the coolest evidences of God's hand being so involved in this work. It's incredible to watch the spirit at work in the heart's of these people. I'm telling ya, we're really only here as a mouthpiece to teach and invite. This is in no way "my mission." I am purely just an instrument in the Lord's hands. I honestly feel like I've just now started to figure out how to be an effective teacher and servant of the Lord, and how to really fulfill my purpose. I guess that's why people say your last few months are your best! You get to put everything you've learned to use. First I want to talk to you about Saipo. She's our Cambodian amie that we found street contacting. This week we had some really special moments. We've invited her to be baptized several times in the past 2 months, but she keeps saying it's too complicated with her family being against it. So we've been teaching the lessons still, but holding off on the baptismal invite for the past few weeks. Well, we were in our lesson with her. Something I've been working on a lot this past transfer is asking more inspired questions in lessons. If we're doing all the talking, how are we ever going to know our ami's needs if they don't get a chance to open up? So, we got to the point where we should have started the lesson we planned. But I just didn't feel like it was right to go into that quite yet. I kept thinking to myself, "how can we leave this lesson with actual change and progress having been made?" So, I decided to just ask her some simple questions, like "have you noticed a difference in your life since before you met us and now?" Well, I'm very grateful the spirit directed that question, because that got her opening up more than I've ever seen. She opened up about how she has always been basically a doormat to her sisters, and ever since she's been learning with us, she feels like she has the courage to voice what she wants. But she said when she does bring up baptism to them, they shoot it down and say they'll basically disown her, and she doesn't want that. Right away my missionary purpose that we recite every morning came into my head. "My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, through faith, repentance, baptism..." I don't know if I've ever had a prompting so strong in a lesson as the one I did following that remark. My whole heart was burning and I thought if this next phrase didn't get out of me I'd just burst. Haha. It came out something like this, "Saipo, as representatives of Jesus Christ, we can promise you that if you want to get baptized, God will give you the courage to do so, and will provide a way for this to happen, and everything will be ok." She looked at us and said "Ok. I'll do it. What do I tell them?" So we did a little role play. Me and Sister Monson pretended to be her sisters and she practiced telling them that she wants to be baptized. We left that lesson with real progression being made, thanks to the spirit. Sometimes it's easy to think as a missionary about what everyone else is doing that you can't. But this day it really hit me that there are things I can do as a missionary that those who aren't missionaries can't. One of those very sacred and special things is that I can invite people to be baptized. We came back a few days later, and guess who unexpectedly showed up at her house at the exact same time as us? Her sister, and her sister's husband. That was no coincidence. It was our first time meeting them, and we really got to show them who we really are, and dispel their fears. Saipo had indeed told them about baptism, and they shot it down. But then God intervened and had us all show up, unplanned, at her house at the same moment. Because they got to see that we're only there because we love her sister and want to help improve her life, their hearts were softened a lot. She even invited us to lunch today. It went great. She told us that she sees we are good people who are making her sister happy. Pretty cool, huh? I'll give you a brief overview of our other amis. David and Silvia still come to church weekly, and yesterday they told me, "we had our first FHE together last night! And we did the Christlike attribute test in PMG that you gave us!" They are so sick. Everything is still on track for his baptism and their wedding in November. Nadia is literally an angel. She is making serious plans to try to move to SLC because she wants to be surrounded by the Mormon culture. I'm so grateful we opened our mouths to her at that bus stop a few months ago. She is more diligent in her gospel study, keeping commandments, church attendance, etc. than most members I know. She is Muslim, so baptism will be complicated, but I know God can and will provide a way for any willing heart to come unto Him. Lastly, Gwen. About a month ago, we gave him his challenge to finish the BOM in 30 days. (He was half-way through) He will finish it this week. He teaches us lessons out of PMG and his lesson this last week was incredible. He understands it all so well. We even had him put on our plaque and called him Elder Biangi. He taught it better than I could have. We've been fasting and praying so hard this past month that once he finishes reading this week that he'll receive and recognize his answer that he should be baptized, and that he'll then act on it! If you could all join in our prayers this week for these of my friends, I would really appreciate it. Prayers work! God listens. He responds in His time and in His way, but He does respond! I love this work. I love finding my friends. I love helping them change. I love watching God love His children. I love seeing the value that each of them have. I love my Savior. And I just love being a missionary! :) Love always, Soeur Shields
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November 2015
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