I love you more than...

the smell of a new Disneyland hoodie!

(Being cold/wet/tired so you buy a fuzzy/warm/new mickey hoodie and then eat a big ol' ice cream cone from the parlour on main street)

Waiting out the rain (sometimes you just gotta wait)

So! Here's for my week.

Tuesday it rained and then rained and then rained and then after that rained some more. We were riding to an appointment and got to this part of the road where it had flooded over our bike pedals and we were laughing SO HARD! There were almost no people on the road because they were all on the sides taking shelter under the buildings-- I'm sure they all were watching us in awe as we just took off in this monsoon, laughing our heads off and wearing these flimsy lil’ ponchos. 

 

A few if the zone members at ZTM

Wednesday- We went to Jogja for ZTM (zone training meeting) and I got to see Elder Murphy from my MTC group for the first time since we got here! Brings back such memories. We talked about the difference between Abinadi and Ammon as missionaries. Would anyone say that Abinadi wasn't succesfull? Heck no! And we shouldn't be so quick to measure our success by the number of lessons/baptisms either. I also sang “O Divine Redeemer” with some help from Elder Kusumarmanto and I think the spirit was really strong. Lately president has been stressing sacrifice so much. And what are we willing to do gain our hopes/goals. I love how the excitement just pours from all the meetings we have, especially when they share about what President's vision for the mission is. The mission is changing so much all the time and I just pray that I can help it keep growing. 

Thursday- I found out the biggest news... I LEAVE FOR JAKARTA TOMORROW! Yeah they failed to tell me that little detail. And I still, as of 3:30 pm, do not have my airplane ticket for tomorrow. Pokonya, saya agak berstress. Plus I am the worst at packing in the world. But we had a kinda frustring week with Mbah. He is just so dramatic and we haven't quite figured him out yet. We are starting to focus on his granddaughter so hopefully she will drive him to get baptized. But we ended the night with some Roti Bakar (glorified toast) ENAK! :) that fixes everything!

Friday- We taught a potential investigator with the Elders and he refused to go inside the church to be taught so we pulled chairs out to the parking lot. It was funny and a little awkward. PS there is a member in Solo who started a shake stand called “Wisco” and we are obsessed. We go there just about everyday... if it ever comes to Utah I think I would die!

Family Home Evening with the newest members of the Solo 2nd Ward

Saturday- We had a Malam Keluarga (family home evening) with some new members of Solo 2nd ward and it was SOOO sweet. The priesthood holders with the not-yet-baptized-father of the family blessed their home and the mom, Sis Magdelena, was in tears. She has SUCH a great desire to make her home a place to feel the spirit as a family and learn about the gospel together. I can't wait to do that with my future family :)

I am so excited to see what these two do in their life in the church

Sunday- Kartika and Reza got BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! I was in tears as FOUR people were baptized in the Jebres ward. It was already an emotional day to have to say so many good byes but to end it on a baptism was the greatest miracle of all. I love the people in Solo. I hope and pray they will stay strong forever and never lose sight of the importance of the gospel. I hope they get their temple soon! 

Our dearest K. and R.
with my companions Sis. Manurung and Sis. Fisher

You should hear Indonesians sing hymns. They just sing their guts out and it fills the room with power and the Spirit. I'm so worried to go to Jakarta! Big, busy, expensive, hot, crowded city. But you can never deny that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each of us to learn what we are supposed to learn in this life. 

 

Jebres Ward had 4 baptisms in one day
AHHHH Hurrah for Israel!

We were given the talk "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" by Tad R. Callister at our zone conf last week. It is amazing. I have this eternal-internal struggle about being satisfied with myself and my effort and my work but I LOVE this quote from the talk. "I do not think the Lord expects immediate perfection of us, but I do believe He expects immediate progress, and with that progress comes consecration." (I also LOVE that talk because he says that they used to wrestle as part of FHE each week... haha good we're not the only ones!)

I hope that you have a safe and fantastic week! Next time I email you I will be in Jakarta! Are you freaking out? Because I am! I love you lots and I pray for you always. Give my hugs/sloppy-jaloppy-kisses/love-pats/dog-piles and love to everyone for me! Be safe in Mexico Dadio! 

I feel like I didn't really respond to last week's email so I'm gonna do that now too!

Dad- I love your ideas for the trail of faith! I think that is such a cool way to get them prepared! Are you in mexico right now? (Selamat menikmati Meksiko! Hati-hati ya?) Oh and I had to tell you...Dear Dad, I'm turning into a cereal girl!

Andrew- It's called triage... every question on the act is only worth 1 pt so go through and answer the easiest ones first. If it takes you more than 30 sec, pick C and move on and then go back to all the C answers if you have time. Seriously saved me when I tried that! But I think the Jr Prom theme is legit! How was that movie anyways? Ugh I'm turning into such a fuddy duddy... PS Take luck! I heard this week is Tiger Esteem :) don't stress! Just enjoy it and take a million pictures! 

Joshua- I seriously am LOVING your bahasa! It was perfect too! Saya merindukan anda juga dan memang saya takut anda sudah lebih tinggi dari pada saya... Are you playing singles or doubles? 

Samuel- Tell Lucy I'm sorry for eating dog ya? How is she doing? Give her some love for me! Your science experiment sounds so stinkin cool! I want to see how it turns out ok? 

Jbug- when did you get so funny? Oh yeah... since you were born! You are such a hoot. But you are going to be an even better missionary than me someday :) 

Mom- don't scare me like that! I saw the word tumor and about died! Sad to say I’m glad it’s just a migraine. Sheesh... you-knowa-what-imeana? :) Hearing from you lifted my spirits! I am such an ordinary missionary but you make me sound like Sister Superwoman herself. You know what? I have been struggling so much this week with exactly that question you asked me! "How do you not get really GRUMPY when people don’t choose the right? And how do you tell people they need to do better?" But your solution is so much better than mine. Just be the example of how to be better and they can use their agency to follow! I have heard so much about the movie "Frozen" in the last week alone. Sis Fisher said that sometimes we are a little blindly optimistic as missionaries with our investigators like the snowman who says "Summer! I want to have summer! mmm popsicles!" haha I probably slaughtered that quote though. I have no clue!

Kasihmu selalu!

<3 Sis Sheff

I love you more than....

Trees! And waterfalls! And mountains! 

 

WAHHHH! I LOVE IT HERE!

I'm going to answer questions first today :)

This week was so fast! I think that's because we had such a fun week! We were laughing every second. Sister Fisher is such a delight and I've loved having her here! This new district is so much fun :) today we went to a waterfall and an old Hindu temple for P-day... it was the best! 

The "Sisters"
We are in a threesome until I become a trainer - and we love it

Sister Fisher is so similar to me and we are having to hardest time sleeping because we just want to talk all night long. She loves Indonesia and is sooooooooooo willing and brave to try anything and do anything. 

With some of the beloved members of the Banjarsari Ward

The other day Sis Manurung and I were riding bikes behind her and started to laugh because here is Sis. Fish. who has no clue where she is going but went right to the front and just started riding like she has been here for months. But we keep forgetting to tell her when to turn and that has made for some funny stories. She is from Pleasant Grove and has been a member her whole life but in the last few years really made the decision to be a way strong member and go on a mission. She brings such good ideas and is helping us get out of our teaching rut. Her language is good! She still has a hard time understanding people but she is already getting better.

Sis. Fisher brought this shirt... she was destined to be in our companionship!

Having 1 new and 1 kinda newer missionary is SUCH a blessing for the work! We contact like crazy! We comitted 2 more people to be baptized this week! Kartika and Reza are SO ready to be baptized this week and we are seeing Mbah improve sooooooo much. I am not ready to go but I will start being sister trainer on the 24th of March. 

Mbah's newest grandson (the girl we committed to baptism this week)

I'm sorry this email was so lame! but here is one last funny story before I go...

Did you know Jesus Christ was Javanese? I just found out. HAHHAA so we went to an inactive's house for our appointment but he didn't show up. We were talking to his dad instead and his dad informed us of that detail I must have forgotten to read about in the Bible hahahhaa. There is a city in central Java called Kudus (holy) so that is where Christ was born. OH! And Adam and Eve are Javanese too he explained, because the oldest city in the world is in Central Java. We (the elders too) were laughing SOOO hard and this guy just was such a crack up. We also have a Muslim stalker. And we found 3 potential investigators! I can't tell you all the stories and miracles and you know how much I like to talk. I wish I could explain EVERYTHING but I will someday. For now just now that...

THIS CHURCH ROCKS! I LOVE IT!

Out of the city and into the fields

I hope that you will get better Mom. I love you so much. You are my best friend. I got your letters this week and I loved them SO much! Remember to be patient with yourself and don't get sick ya? Cepat sembuh ya? Saudara-saudaraku... kalian hebat! Dan terlalu keren! Saya selalu senang dengar dari anda semua. It sounds like you are all busy, successful, and happy. I hope you are making every day better than the last. That is the true meaning of perfection.

Kasih ke bulan dan kembali!

<3 Sista Sheff

 

7:30 am and ready to main-main (Indonesian for play)

Candi Sukuh

3 generations
(mission family tree - I trained Sis. Manurung and she is training  Sis. Fisher)

P.S. So I got an email from a girl asking about the Indo-Jak mission. She got "called" there for her seminary missionary week and asked a little bit about it. I thought I would include what I responded just to give you an idea of my thoughts of the mission and a little bit of advice for: 

Hey! I know your missionary week is probably long gone but I thought I would respond all the same. I am LOVING my mission. I remember the first week in the field thinking "why did no one tell me that this was going to be hard? Like get me out of here kind of hard" and yet that feeling was just what I needed to learn how to tough it out while relying on the Lord. The first lesson I learned in the mission was about prayer and I seem to learn more about prayer every week. 

Indonesia is a very unique mission because it is one of the only majority muslim countries that the church has missionaries in. That also makes the work much slower than in other missions per-say  But you know what? IT IS THE GREATEST MISSION! I don't have baptisms every week and finding investigators is freaking hard and there are only a few members and even fewer missionaries but this mission is full of miracles. And love. Members know every member and missionary in the whole country. Transfers usually mean taking a plane ride somewhere exotic and you are luckily almost always with a native Indonesian mission companion.

I think to get ready, make sure you know the doctrine like the basics. Restoration, Plan of Salvation and 5 parts of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. But honestly you learn all that kind of information stuff on the mission. I say to get ready for your mission, fall in love with the church! Like head over heels! I don't know why, but before my mission I skipped the Saturday morning general conference sessions to go to a soccer game and I didn't really care about the latest mormon message and my scripture study was perfectly average. I had a really strong testimony even then, but on my mission I have learned that I love this church. There will be days when you are going to have to listen to someone tell you that your church is of the devil and they are going to try to bash you and make you get upset. But if you are in love with the church... nothing else matters! You know! You know the truth! So read the ensign every month. Study a question from the scriptures "just because". Watch the latest bible video. Fall in love with your church! You are SO blessed to have the ONLY true and living church with Christ's name and authority and answers to any question. 

I think you will be surprised with your mission. Nothing will prepare you for the emotional/spiritual strain. But it is the greatest time-out from the world. What a blessing to focus on your testimony and serving others for 18 months. It is the funniest, most adventurous, most inspiring, craziest, hardest and focused time of my life. 

Saya tahu ini benar. Saya semangat untuk anda melayani satu hari nanti! Sebenarnya, dunia ini lebih baik ketika ada lebih banyak sister misi ya? :) Maju terus!

Kasih selalu,

~Sister Sheffield

I hope that you guys (Andrew, Joshua, Samuel, Jacob and the future mission couple Mom and Dad) are learning how to prepare for your missions from my mission. It takes some getting used to and I hope you can all be better missionaries than I am! Hurrah for Israel! :)

~Sister Emily Adelaide Sheffield

I love you more than...Sate

COBRA BLOOD! Oh yeah! I went there! But more of that later...

BUT WARNING: For those of you who are prone to gag (Mom and Jacob)

LUNCH!

I don't know, we had a usual week! Maybe I'll go through highlights day-day...

Monday: Spent all morning trying to fix the bike for Sis Fisher to use. Then the district ate at this fancy steak place at the mall while watching a muslim fashion show (pretty good for contacting right?) 

Tuesday: spent all morning AGAIN trying to fix the bike but now it's better than mine! And it's got white wall tires... fancy shmancy! We taught Kartika and Reza and are just helping them get ready to be baptized on the 16th WAHOO! And we have started teaching their friend Ajeng, who is Catholic but has almost no knowledge of church. Then we had english class at the University and literally carried our bikes over these train tracks trying to take a shortcut (haha old Kansas City memories came flooding back to me as I thought "what would I do if the train came right now...") Then after english we went to Papa Ron's Pizza with the district.

We made District jerseys

Wednesday: Update on Ibu Bingar- she read the conference Liahona from cover to cover and loved it. BUT we can neverrrr get a real appointment with her. We eat at her stand just as an excuse to talk to her and try and share some scriptures with her. But she has opened up to us so much lately and I just can't stand to see her go nowhere with this gospel. But the Elders had a referal for us that day so we went together to teach her, and ended up teaching her sister about the Restoration. So from that appointment we now have maybe 2 potential investigators wahoo! 

Thursday: Service has gone downhill since the dust/ash from the volcano are still everywhere and there aren't any cleaning tools there anymore... so we just contact people at the park these days. But we met with a few non-active members later that day and also a referral from the elders. 

Friday: Farewells at DDM so I made a key lime meringue pie. But I'm not gonna lie I had such a hard time focusing that day-- I have been SOO temple sick this week! OH! Elder Putra got home from serving in the SLC mission and it's been fun talking to him (his Indonesian isn't very good anymore!) We taught an inactive who fed us and it is so sad to eat with them because they have no money but they are SOOO kind to the missionaries. Breaks your heart.

This key lime pie was bert than the last

Saturday: I got your valentine's package!!!! Unfortunately the glass of the picture was shattered so I had to throw away the candy just in case, but the picture and notes are the best. The necklace is perfect :) THANKS TIMES A MILLION! We had a lot of failed appointments and random appointments and ended on a great note with Reza. She hasn't had tea in a week!!!!

Sunday: MBAH CAME TO CHURCH! AND SO DID KARTIKA DAN REZA JUGA! AHHH! I started to pack up my stuff to make room for SIs Fisher... weird!

Don't worry this snake is not a cobra

Today: I HAD COBRA SATE! (out of time so this is gonna be rushed) So we go there with this member and he tells the lady we want 2 snakes. Then she takes them out of this dark cubbord in this burlap sack and chops off it's head 

Chopping off the Cobra's head:
She just steps on it's head, then CHOP!
But its still dangerous after it gets cut

and drains the blood and peels off the skin and cuts out the heart (puts the heart in the blood juice) 

Draining the cobra blood for me to drink

Peeling off the skin (the cobra is still moving even without it's head

and cuts some bone marrow (also for the blood juice) and they are still wriggling this whole time! Then while waiting for the snake to cook, I drank the blood. It is mixed with honey and a little grape juice and then the heart and bone marrow too! INDIANA JONES OR WHAT?!  

After downing 2 glasses of cobra blood .... ewww how weird is that?

But get this! Sis Manurung thought she filmed it but actually didn't soooooo I drank the second one too! And the heart was still pumping.... blech I'm still freaking out that it is inside of my stomach right now... It tasted kinda like cough syrup cause the honey she added... the meat was actually pretty good. But really chewy! 

Making the Sate

Finished product

Also I have a tiny cobra blood stain on my shirt that I hope never goes away ;) So anyway... we have to go get ready to pick up Sister Fisher at the airport!

I love you all! The Atonement is real. It is so real! Is it a part of you? Is repentace a part of your life? If not, try it. It works and it is amazing. 

LOVE YOU LOTS!

~Sis Sheff

Bear Testimony. Teach. Counsel. Bless. Inspire.

Sate Cobra (I win! I am even more than daring than Dad)

With the Solo 1st Ward mission leader and his gorgeous
(also returned missionary) wife and adorable daughter