3-25-13

Dear Family,

Well, I have now been in Brentwood for almost 6 months and got word last night that me and Elder Oba will be staying together for 6 more weeks! We are super excited that nothing changed for us! The big news in the District, is that they are transferring both of the Elders In the 3rd ward and bringing in two new sisters! One of them is going to be training which means each Brentwood ward is going to have a missionary who has been out less then 4 months! I am so excited to see what kind of changes this is going to bring and to see the type of spirit that is going to be brought from having these young fresh out of the MTC missionaries with us. That also means that me and Elder Oba are going to be the only Elders in the District! That is going to be so different because I will no longer have to go on exchanges. I am going to have a lot more free and open time now to focus on our area and to help these sisters make sure that they have a great mission experience. The zone leaders were laughing and saying that District meetings are going to be like teaching Relief Society! hahaha good times good times. We are trying to talk the mission into giving us a car since we can't ride in a sisters car and so we would be left on bike for Pdays and things. Plus I am going to have to keep traveling to all of my doctors appointments out in Hayward for the tests that they have called in for me to try! So we will see how all that goes.

 
President wants us to keep working with the Doctors to make sure that they have tried EVERYTHING before we except that they think its irritable bowels. I have been taking a pill that is supposed to help the cramps and all that and it hasn't done anything so I am going to be doing a few more tests to make sure that nothing has been missed or that they don't think it could be something worse. President has been so amazing with it all and have been so supportive that I couldn't ask for any better! He wants to make sure that I am not just healthy for the rest of my mission, he wants to make sure that I am healthy for the rest of my life! That is what I want too. I have been sick and have been in pain for over a year now, and I have to find something that makes it so that I can be 100% again. If nothing else, I have learned that eating healthy and being healthy and in shape is so important! I can't eat like I used to and I need to keep exercising! I have rededicated myself to a life of health and serving the Lord!

Well Jon is still struggling.. He keeps coming to church and keeps coming to activities but will just not accept the Book or Mormon or Joseph Smith. We have taught him all the lessons in preach my gospel and he accepts everything but the Book of Mormon being the word of God. He struggles with modern day prophets also. He told us the other day though, that he is going to start putting together his "Mormon Testimony" for us and see where he stands with others beliefs and see if this is really something that he thinks he could grasp or accept. So Saturday he is going to have his testimony thought up after prayer and scripture study so we are praying that he comes to realize that he really does believe in the Book or Mormon and the Prophets. We gave him a few conference talks to watch and read to help him along the way. We are hoping that he will come back with a testimony of the Gospel and of everything else.

We have been working so hard to stay focused on the work and to really help this area take off even though I have been so sick. We have been challenged and challenged every day with new obstacles and new challenges that are put in our paths. I have come very close to my Patriarchal blessing the past two weeks though through it all. It has helped me to see that unfortunately my mission is going to be everything but easy! I am going to be challenged and heart broken and at breaking point a lot of the time. But the big thing is, that the Lord is never going to let me fail! He is going to get me through it all so that I can learn the things that I am supposed to to become the person and father that I am supposed to become! I wish that I could be done with some of these trials, but if it is going to help me in the long run, then I guess that I am going to bear through it and just wait for the point where he pulls me back up, because he always does! I have never been left alone on my mission! I have felt alone a few times, but just like the foot prints in the sand story, those were the times where he was carrying me! I love the Lord so much. I would not be the man that I am today if I hadn't been put through all these trials and challenges. I can't say that I am happy for the trials or for the pain, but I can say that I am thankful for the person that I have become because of the things that I learned while being in them! The Book or Mormon truly is the word of God and our Savior Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church! Just like the conference talk from last conference ''I am Mormon, I know it, I live it, and I love it!" My prayer is that everyone in reading distance of this letter will come closer to the Savior this very special week of the Easter Season! Remember what the Savior did for you personally. He saw each and everyone of our faces as he began the Atonement. Don't let that perfect gift go to waste! Take advantage of it! I have needed it in my life, and I am sure that each one of you have too. It is a blessing to be able to repent and start fresh. I love being a missionary! I love being able to put my name tag on every day and know that only myself can hold me back from the potential that I have. I am so thankful for a loving family and friend base that keeps me moving forward and doesn't let the me get down during the hard times. Your letters and Emails are what keep me going! I know that I am terrible at writing back, but I want you all to know that every letter sent my way is loved an cherished for days and days! No letter is missed or forgotten. I'm sorry that I don't write back more often or put as much time as I'd like to, but I do really enjoy them and hope that they keep coming! Thank you for the prayers and for the thoughts in my behalf. I do feel each and every one of those! You all mean the world to me and I am so lucky to have you all in my life. Please stay close to the church and to the family. That is the one thing that we have in life and will always be there. Don't do what I did in my younger years and take advantage of that family life. Do the things that they do, and enjoy every second of it! Conference is coming up, so be thinking about the things that you would like answered or the things that you are struggling with. I promise that they all will be answered during one of the sessions! I love you all so much!

 

Love

Elder Shelley

3-18-13

Dear Family,

    Well this may not be a very long email because I just got a call from the mission nurse and she was able to get me in with an LDS Gastro and they want me to come in today at three. I guess that the mission nurse, doctor, President Meredith and Sister Meredith all sat down together and talked through what I have been going through. They decided that they all want me to go one more time to a Gastro to see if there is anything that they can do for me. President said that he doesn't want me to allow them to tell me that everything is fine this time either. He said that there is no way that everything is fine and that only eating right is going to fix it. I have been on a ridiculously bland diet and have not been eating basically anything and I have still been in a lot of pain. The mission doctor is going to meet me at the appointment so that he can help me through all of this. They don't want us to accept that there is nothing wrong with me. There has to be something wrong and there has to be something that they can do to help me through all this! I will keep everyone posted as best I can! I learned from the Philippines that the last thing I want to do is keep everyone in the dark. You will know things as soon as I can let you know and in what ever way president feels is best. I have an interview with him on Wednesday to talk this through and try to make some decisions on what is going to happen. I am just going to keep praying for the best and praying that sooner or later I can find some relief from the pain that I am in!

    Jon came to church again this week and enjoyed church. He met more people and honestly after these 5 weeks seems like he fits right in and is part of the ward already! I am just trying to figure out through the spirit why the kid won't except a baptismal date. He has been doing so much better, he just really struggles with the Book or Mormon and Joseph Smith. We have done everything that we can to help him gain that testimony, but he just keeps saying that he has to read more and analyze more before he can come to know if it is true. We have even challenged him to ask the very specific question of if its all true there in the lessons while we are there, but he never does. I know for a fact that he is scared of coming to know that it is all true! He just needs to take that leap of faith and understand that faith is just as important as proof or what the words actually say, maybe more!

    Jordan and Lexi are our other two investigators at this point! We have only been able to get in with them once in the past week or two. They have been going through a lot of hard times, and don't seem to think that the gospel could be the thing that brings them all together. The plan of salvation is going to be the lesson that helps them to come closer as a family and we really want to share it with them, they have just stayed up stairs though and their mom doesn't want to push them into anything that they are not willing and ready to do. I can accept that and understand, but they need a little bit of a push just to sit down. Then they can make their own choice of course! We shall see.

    Elder Oba is a stud! He has been so amazing these past two weeks with my sickness taking a bit of a toll on me and on our work. He has been so loving and helpful it is crazy! I have been struggling to be able to wake up at 630 in the mornings, because that is usually the time when I hurt the most. Well for the past week he has woken up and looked at my diet on the wall, and fixed me what ever was on the list for that day! He has been such a great help to me and I couldn't ask for a better or more loving and humble companion! He has even taken the lead in most of our lessons since it has been kinda hard for me to focus and to think and be guided by the spirit. He has grown leaps and bounds in the past few weeks in his desire to serve and his understanding of the Gospel! He keeps telling me that the things he has been doing has been no big deal, but it has made the world of a difference to me! I love my companion so much!

     I love you all so much also. I am so thankful for your prayers and your thoughts. I haven't been doing very well, but I have felt every single one of your prayers for me! I couldn't do this without you that is for sure. I want you to know that I have a very strong testimony of this gospel!  Please don't worry about me! I am in good hands just like I always have been. I am so thankful for the priesthood and the blessings that I have received from my fellow missionaries in this zone. Me and the zone leaders have a very strong relationship and love for each other and they have helped me through it all also. Please please please don't worry or freak out over it. It's just one more bump in the road that is called life. We all have them! I just seem to have a lot of them! haha I love you all so much and continue to pray for you and for your safety and testimony! Love you so much!

 

Love,

Elder Shelley!

3-11-13

Dear Family,

First off so I don't forget, President Meredith has given us as missionaries permission to email friends now also. So there are no restrictions on emails anymore. Please let everyone know that I can email them if they email me so that is really really cool. I may not always have time, but I will do my best to really keep in contact with everyone now who emails me. (Please remember that letters can come any time during the week and so handwritten letters are always cool if you have time!)

Yes mom we got the grapefruit and thank you so much! They loved them as did I! Haha Mine are already gone! I ate 2 a day so they went pretty fast. haha

Well lets just get started with this week. I know that everyone is wondering about Lindsey's baptism, so I will start with that! I can't say that it went as planned, but it did end as planned. Lindsey was really struggling with anxiety before and we were wondering if she was even going to show up to the baptism.. No one could get a hold of her until she showed up to church. She said that she would be there and that her entire non member friends and family would be there also. She was not doing very well though. She text us about an hour before it was supposed to start and asked me if I would give her a blessing before to help her to calm down a bit. She came a bit early and I gave her the blessing. It was a short blessing but was very powerful! She took a few deep breaths and left the room and she was fine! Since she had attended both our ward and the other Brentwood ward in the past, she had member support show up from both wards! We had so many people there, that we were not able to fit every one in the relief society room and had to move into the chapel. We counted at one point 104 people sitting there and we know that there were people in the hall ways and other rooms. It was absolutely amazing. We did sing warriors of light, and it turned out very very well. We had a few mistakes with harmonies because the sister that played piano dropped the music and had to fake it for a bit till someone could come up and put it back on the piano but other then that it went very well. We had a lot of compliments about it and so that was cool. I sang the solo part since I was the only who had heard the song before and I kinda surprised myself. I got some really really cool compliments from people that we didn't even know. One of the men in the ward that I really really look up to came up to me and pulled me aside. He told me that as we were singing, he leaned over to his 12 year old daughter and told her that she needs to take a very long hard look at the four of us standing up there singing. He told her to look at the way we present and carry ourselves and the confidence and spirit that was coming from us. He told her that that is the kind of man that she needs to look for in a husband. He told me that he was so thankful that I was able to be the type of man that his young girls could look up to! That meant the world to me! I have had a kinda hard week, but have been doing better. That compliment was something that I didn't know that I needed but the Lord knew that I needed! It made my day and I shared it with the other elders too. They were very appreciative and thankful for the comment also. It was a basic baptism other then that though. We worked it all out so that it was easy on the family and that they had a great time. We are so blessed to be able to share what we know to be true with others. We may be singing warriors of light in two of the wards now since both bishops were there and came and asked me if I would put it together again for their wards. If we can get investigators to go to those wards for that Sunday we are going to do it.

Speaking of investigators, Jon has come to church 4 weeks in a row and also came to the baptism last night. He has been making some really big steps and we are super proud of him. He still will not except a date, but he says that he is praying about it and has not kicked it out of his mind. He has changed so much in the past month or so and it has been really fun to watch. I want him to feel the spirit so bad and just can't figure out why he is pushing it away so much. I know that it scares him but he tells us that he knows that it's a good feeling and so I am just confused at why it was that big of a deal for him.

Everything else is really going well. Me and Elder Oba have been working really hard. He is a great missionary and honestly is training me! He has such a spirit about him and if he can just get the doctrine under his belt he is really going to kill it out here in the field. I have nothing but high hopes for him and I know that he is going to be an outstanding leader here in a few transfers or so. He is struggling with home sickness and missing his girlfriendthough. That is the hardest part for him. He just sits there and reads her letters every night and thinks about her. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with thinking about her, but we are just trying to get him to not dwell on it so much. He has been doing a two year daily count down and if he keeps doing that the two years is going to drag on so bad! I hope that it all works out and that he can pull through. I know he can! It just takes time! I love this work so much and know that he will come to love it too. 

Thank you all so much for your love and for your support. I enjoy Mondays because I get to read all of your emails and strive to put myself back there with you for at least a few minutes. I enjoy hearing about your trips and I hope that you are enjoying Disneyland! I think we should go to Wyoming to the Cheyan rodeo days when I get home! haha or just have a big bbq and throw horse shoes or do something! I feel like the mission is pulling my red neck side out a little bit and I am going to need to get that back asap! hahaha It has been a good change in my life though to see that I don't have to change who I am I just need to change some of the things I do. I am so happy with who I have become and I hope that you can feel at least a little bit of that change as you read my emails! I can't wait to be able to share my experiences with you all and to once again grow together as a family and friends. I have a powerful testimony of my savior Jesus Christ! I love him so much and am so thankful for all that he does for me on a daily basis. I have the outlook lately that if I wake up the same person that I was when I went to bed, I haven't reached my potential. We should go to bed every night and wake up a better person then the day before. I have been trying this for the past few weeks and it has been so awesome! I love it and Love this Gospel. I owe it my life just like I do so many of you who have been there for me through it all! Thank you all so much. Please share the Gospel with those around you. It will change their lives forever and you will regret it if you let the opportunity slip through your fingers! I love you all so much and pray for you on a daily basis! Please remember who we are. We are all children of our heavenly father who loves us and who wants nothing but the best for us. Please remember that he is always there for you and that he will guide you and direct you through even the toughest times of your lives! I have gone through more in the past year of my life then I had in 20! I thought that I would never return to the field at one point, but here I am. I have been able to be apart of this work here in California and it has been a blessing to me! I love you all so much and please write to me and email me! I love opening the mail box to see letters in there. =D The Gospel is so true and I bear testimony of it!

 

Love,

Elder Shelley

Pictures: 1. Mackay, Elder Makaya, and Travis Cook

               2. Brother Sudweeks and Lindsey

               3. Elder Oba, Lindsey, and Mackay

               4. Lindsey's baptism

               5. Lindsey with her family

               6. License plate Kadon made for Mackay for Christmas

               7. Mackay and Elder Albretson (a Utah cousins friend)

       

         

        

3-4-13

Dear Family,

Well this week was absolutely crazy! I was out of the area for a day with the zone leaders and then me and Elder Oba had to go out of the area for a new missionary training on another! The first day with the zone leaders, was a special thing that me and a few other of the district leaders got invited to. We went to zone leaders council in Oakland and that was awesome! There were two brothers there from the missionary department to speak and train the zone leaders on how to strengthen the mission and the missionaries in a whole. I was so blessed to be able to be there with them for that training. We felt the spirit there so strongly and really got a lot of really good in sites. President told us about the 50 some new missions that are opening up. I thought that that was super cool! I had heard that a few opened up but not that many! This is a very special time to be a missionary! 

The new missionary training went great too! Elder Oba is really doing well and I feel like he is sticking out a little bit above the rest in confidence and attitude. He struggles a little bit with the desire to serve a mission at times, but he is here and he is working so hard and so that is all that we can ask of him! President asked him to bare his testimony on missionary work and on the fact that he has been working in a bike area. haha He wasn't too fired up about the bike part, but he did really get excited as he talked about the work that has been happening and the miracles that we have been seeing! I am so thankful for him and his diligence. It is so nice to work with someone who trusts me like he does. He doesn't always understand why I ask him to do certain things, but he always does them with such an open  mind and heart. He has been a very big blessing to this area. The members feel his spirit so strong and they can feel the unity in our companionship and have really stepped up to the plate for us in lots of ways.

Lindsey is going to be getting baptized this Sunday! We are so excited for her and have seen soooo many changes in her that it absolutely blows my mind! I am so happy to know that she has found the truth and that she is happy about the changes that she has made. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be a young lady in high school and to be making changes this big and doing the things that she is doing. Brother Sudweeks is going to be performing the baptism and that is so special for him. I feel like he has become kind of a second father figure for her and so it is special to see them share in this experience together. We as a group of missionaries are going to be singing Warriors of Light at the baptism and so that should be pretty cool. We may record a practice of it and so I will see if I can email the video or something to you. It has started to sound pretty cool! Elder Seigel has a great voice and can really do well up in the high register! We shall see how it turns out. It's not going to sound anything like what it does when Tim sings the solo!

Jon has continued to progress. He has come to church like three or four times in a row now and seems to be enjoying it. He still just fights that spirit so much! We have him praying about a baptismal date and so we will see how that all goes. I don't think I have ever prayed so much for an investigator as I have him! I want to see this man get baptized so much! We have seen HUGE changes in him and he would be a great member! He just needs to accept the spirit and listen to the promptings that are coming his way! It will all work out if that is what the Lord wants for him.

I have really been having a good week! We taught 20 lessons again this week even with being on bike and leaving the area twice! It has just been a testimony to me that the work that happens here in the mission field is the Lords work. This is a revelatory work and as long as we stay worthy and diligent the Lord is going to make happen what he needs to make happen! I love this work so much. It has been really hard today to read a few things, but I have been so blessed on my mission so far that I know that all is going to work out and that what ever the Lord has in store for me is exactly what is going to happen! I am so thankful for all the people in my life who have been there for me. Its not been an easy mission for me. I have been through some things that I wish I never had to experience. Some of those things may stay with me for the rest of my life.. But I do understand that the Lord loves and protects his missionaries! I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father who has watched out for me this last year. I have felt his arms around me in more ways then one. I have come to learn how the spirit works with me and how I work with it, that in itself has been worth the entire mission. I have even been being blessed for after the mission already. Dad has been working so hard to really set up a good job and schooling that I can't even express the gratitude I feel to you pop! I also don't understand sometimes why things happen but I have such a love for this work and for this Gospel that I am going to just put my trust in the Lord and remember that he is in charge! Everything else will work out! I have a testimony of this work! It is the Lords work and is the work that I have been called to do. I am honored to be a missionary at this monumental time! I love you all and am so proud to call you my friends and family!

 

With love

Elder Shelley