Well the big news is I am getting transferred again!.. President called me the other day and asked to speak with me privately! He scared the living crud out of me though, cause the last time he called me and told me that-Grandpa had passed! We were at the same house teaching the same people when he sent the text too. I text him back and asked if everything was ok, and he never responded. When I called him back I asked if everything was ok and he just said yea why? haha he then thought for a minute and was like OH MY GOSH ELDER SHELLEY I AM SOOOOO SORRY I DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW I HANDLED THAT ONE!!! Honestly I was thinking the worst, cause for some reason Grandmas weekly letter didn't come this week and it was the first time in 2 years that I haven't gotten a letter. Ha so he asked me if I thought that Elder Perez and Elder Santiago could handle the area without me if he needed me to leave and take on a new responsibility. I told him that I had full trust in them and that if they needed to they could. He said that he hadn't prayed about it yet, but was just trying to think of some ideas and my name came to mind for one of them. He then told me in interviews that he has already gotten an answer and he knows where I am going and what I will be doing. That is all he said, so I don't have anymore details until next week. All I know is that I am leaving the Tagalog program and going back to English to do something. He asked me not to tell my comps till he calls me to do whatever it is. So I guess we will see what is going to happen. I kinda hope that I get to train again. I have come to love training and it is just so fun to work with new missionaries and to be the one that sets them up for success- hopefully! It's been a great opportunity to train three missionaries these past two transfers. They have been great, and even though one decided to go home, I know that he still had a good month of experiences. So more news to come next week.
Not a ton to write about this week. We had to be in O
akland this week for two different trainings and had interviews on Saturday with District meeting on the other day, so we weren't in the area a single full day this week. Pretty crazy! We were able to find one more investigator, which has been really good, because it just means that our teaching pool keeps going higher and higher. We
haven't seen S
am this week unfortunately though. He is so busy with work that he wasn't able to make it back to D
aly City. We could have gone out to down town, but there is no where for us to park and the Bart wasn't running that day. I think that Satan just didn't want us to meet with him!
Sister Amporias seems to be backing slowly away from us. She is kinda multi faced it seems now a days. She tells everyone at church how much she loves the church and the gospel and that she knows it's true, but once she gets home and we are there or she is talking to her daughter she wants nothing to do with it. We even bring the members that she told at church that she loves it to the lessons and she still won't be receptive. I think we may have to end up dropping her again so that we have more time to find and to teach people who are prepared to receive it.
June is an interesting man.. I hope that one of these days I will be able to start to understand people. We have a really bad feeling that he is only doing this for the support that he knows he can get from the church and the members. He decided that he didn't want to have to pay his rent anymore, so he asked if he could move in with the member that has been helping us teach him. He told him that he couldn't afford to pay his bills which turned out to not be true so our member gave him a 1000 dollar gift and told him to not worry about it that that is what lds people do. When we taught the word of wisdom he told us that he hasn't smoked in 15 years, but then at the end of the lesson Elder Santiago saw a pack of cigs in his vest pocket on a chair. When we asked him about them he said that they were a friends and that he was just holding them for him. Honestly it was like a high schoolers excuse to his parents!... He still has his date of August 13th, but we will have to take some time to do a little more digging to see if he is still actually smoking or not. We are hoping that he is being honest with all this stuff. We will see. It's kinda weird to know that I am being transferred this early because it's sad to think that I won't even be around for the baptism if it goes through. The elders will keep me posted on it though so I will know how he is doin! Its been a crazy ride though to go into a language program to train missionaries that barely speak your language, and then to get pulled out when your job is done haha.
Real quick miracle that I saw this week, and then it's time to sign off. We were at Wendys the other day and there was a group of men a few tables over that were
talking about Jesus and about the day that they "found'' him! They were talking about all the blessings that they had received since they accepted him as their savior and how they didn't ever want to go back to not worshiping him. I felt very impressed to go and speak to them and give them my card with my number on it. I had no idea what I was going to say cause I didn't want to come across as weird having been listening to their conversation. I was super scared and just sat there for like 10 more minutes. I was about to just get up and leave, when I remembered all of the times when I had been prompted and didn't listen. That never feels good so I just walked over and opened my mouth hoping that it would be filled. I said that I was sorry for
interrupting, but that I had felt impressed to come over and give them one of our pass along cards. Three of the four guys were really cool about it and thanked me and asked what church and where it was. The 4th guy was super rude to me though, and told me that they had not been talking about religion, that they had been talking about Christianity! He told me that being a christian was a full time thing and that it wasn't a religion. I was shocked at how rude he was to me but just kept saying what came to mind. I told him that he was exactly correct and that that was exactly what we do as missionaries! 24/7 with no time sheet to clock in and out of! I reminded him though that while the savior was on the earth that he had established a church and that after he had been killed that he established that church peter the "Rock." He said a few things that were super mean, and a scripture came to my mind to share.
haha I was really worried about quoting it, cause I thought that he may have gotten up and punched me! I felt so inspired to share it though that I did. I told him "sir with all due respect all I was doing was following a prompting to share a card with fellow followers of Christ.. don't be like the scripture that says, they come close to me with their lips and with their words, but their hearts are far from me. Sir you talk the talk about loving the savior and following him, but when it comes down to being an example of him you have been a little rude.." Honestly I have no idea how I had the courage to say that!!... His friend stood up and shook my hand and told me that he loved the picture on the card and that he would put it up on his mirror. We left at that point and got in the car. Elder Santiago just looked at me and said wow that was bold! I hope you were following the spirit cause I don't think I could have done that! haha I was worried that I had o
ffended them, but had this really good feeling in my heart that I had followed the spirit and so it would all be ok. That next morning about ten minutes before personal study, I got a phone call from a number that wasn't in the contacts. I answered and the man on the other end asked if I was the guy who had talked to him at W
endys the night before. I recognized the voice as the one who thanked me when I left. He said that he felt like he needed to call and apologize for his friend and the way that he had treated me. He told me that he felt something in his heart as I stood up for myself and for the church. He told me that he wasn't interested in learning more, but that he was very impressed with the way that I had handled myself. He said that he had never met a M
ormonmissionary that stood his ground like that! Haha I just laughed and said that it must come with the last name! I said we S
helley's tend to be a little bold some times! I
apologized for what I said to his friend, but he told me that he agreed with me and that he needed to hear it. Ten minutes later the man who was rude called me too! He told me how sorry he was and that he was going to change his life and the way he treated people because of what I had told him. It was so cool! He told me that the spirit had been hitting him all night and that he couldn't sleep because he kept hearing that scripture over and over in his head!! He said that he had been repenting all morning and that he had to call and ask me to forgive him to be able to feel better. Of course I told him that there were no hard feelings and that I was just following what the spirit told me to say. He said how thankful he was and hung up the phone! Haha all three of us just sat there with our mouths open amazed at what had just happened! We said a very thankful prayer at that point and promised that we would do everything we could to follow the promptings of the holy ghost whenever they came!
I love this work! It's these miracles that we get to see every single day! They are not all as huge as that one, but miracles happen all the time! I have just been so blessed. President told me in my interview that he had never seen me so happy or so full of light since I have been here this past year! He told me that this is my time to shine and that he has been so proud of my work! He told me that he doesn't even look at the fact that I haven't had a baptism in a while, because I have been doing other jobs for the Lord in getting other missionaries ready to have success and getting areas back up to speed. Just a compliment and I was so happy to hear that! I had been a little down on myself for the numbers, but he helped me to realized the things that have been happening in my mission! I love this work so much and am so honored to be able to be out here in this part of the vineyard to serve the lord at this time of the work! I loved my experience in the Philippines, and not a day goes by that I don't think back to something that I learned or an experience that I had, but this mission has totally changed my life and I look at the world in a completely different way because of it! I love the Lord and I am so blessed to know that he knows me!
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