Last night our District Leader called to announce the changes we would see in this next transfer. He started with Hermana Ho, who´s ending her mission and going home to Hawaii, then announced the new trainer Hermana Monjaras would have, then he told Hermana Rivera she´d be leaving for another area, and then.... and then he said I´d be staying in my area and that I would be training a newbie in the mission. I´m going to find out who and meet her tomorrow in the offices. Let´s just say I have been doing a LOT of praying. The Lord´s going to be helping me a lot with this. > > Last PDay we (Hna Ho, Hna Monjaras, Hna Rivera, and I) went in to the city and spent the day in the Duarte, which is like a big, cheap, shopping center. I found a few things and we had a good time. > > I think the best gift I got this week for Christmas was being able to see Mayky and Maicol get baptized and confirmed on Saturday and Sunday. It was an awesome service. I sang ¨Love One Another,¨ as it´s one of Maykys favorite hymns. Mayky was so overjoyed through the entire service, she couldn´t stop the tears from coming. She´s going to be such a strong instrument in the hands of the Lord. She´s already done her Family History and asked us if she can bring her friends to church. Go Mayky! > > Christmas Eve we had an activity with half the mission. It was amazing. We learned and laughed a lot. Aaand I got to sing a solo (Noche de Luz aka Silent Night)! That was nervewracking. But fun in an adrenaline rush way as well. That night we went to a member´s house for Noche Buena, which is an awesome feast. We had some super good food and enjoyed our time over there. > > Christmas was amazing. I got to talk with the family and that made me happy! We also had a Zone Meeting where we had a gift exchange and ate a bunch of sweets. A member brought us food for our Christmas feast, so we ate pretty well. > > It´s interesting how true confidence and humility exist together and are not contradictory. We can have confidence and still be humble. What matters is where our confidence lies. Humility exists when our confidence rests on the Lord. It is when we begin to rely solely on ourselves that arrogance occurs. God is so willing to help us. We just have to ask Him. As we rely more on Him and learn to trust Him, our confidence will increase because we know He will make up the rest as we put forth our best effort. > > I love you all tons, > Hermana Shaw On Tuesday we hosted a wedding for Chloe and Abel. It included the ceremony, a dance, and even a buffet of Raisin Bran. Hermana Ho is leaving for Hawaii and I love her with my whole heart. She will be greatly missed. Luckily she´s a student at Provo, so I´m sure we´ll meet again.
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So tomorrow something very special is going to happen and I'm so incredibly excited. Chloe's getting married! That honestly boggles my mind. Shout out to you, Chlo, and to your future husband (ahh that's so weird to type), Abel Birk! Ah. Whoah. By the way I took a cute photo with a sign congratulating you guys but uh the computer here won't let me upload it. You can imagine it in your minds... I'll send the sign in the mail or something.
Anyyyyway. Maykey did not get baptized this past week BUT it's just because she wants to get baptized with her son as well! Soo this week we are planning their baptismal service and we are way pumped. She is a spiritual giant and has expressed to us her desire to share this gospel with all of her friends. She wants to see them all in the life to come so she's going to start inviting them to church! She has an awesome love for this gospel. I love her. This week we went to the temple with Familia Cubilite. They brought their son and we had a great lesson on the temple grounds. We have put so many baptismal dates with them, that this time we asked them to choose a date as their homework this week. Apolinar is so beyond ready and willing, just something is holding Ana back and we are not sure quite what. She hasn't attended church the past 7 times, while he's always continued to go alone. He expressed to us in church that he is going to move forward, even if she does not. He is honestly so full of wisdom and understanding and his testimony is extremely firm. He makes me feel like I am in the presence of a general authority. This week we had a meeting at the offices for all the Hermanas. We talked about being healthy and all that good stuff. It was fun to see friends and be with people. Christmas is coming up which is awesome. It makes me think more and more about how much I love Jesus Christ and how grateful I am for Him and all that He did for us. I testify that our Savior really was born, and it's because of Him that we celebrate this Christmas day. Just one more week of this transfer and I'll finish my training. Uh... I'm not freaking out at all. Promise. My goal right now is to trust more God's abilities than my own. It is through Him that we can do all things. I love you all, Merry Christmas, Hermana Shaw This week was full of extremely powerful spiritual experiences and a very hysterical one as well.
We are visiting Mikey more and more because guess what.... She´s getting baptized on Saturday!!! We had the opportunity to go to the temple with her and have a lesson on the temple grounds. She is so excited to enter and already has her family history done to do baptisms for them. Her son, Michael, who´s 10 years old, looked at me and asked when he could go in. Her and her two sons are the loves of my life. I´m pretty sure Mikey has a depth of spiritually and understanding that surprasses many other people. When she found out she could do work for her ancestors, she said we answered the final question she´s always had and that now she doesn´t believe this church is true, but rather she knows. She is my inspiration. We also got the opportunity to visit the temple on Friday as a mission which was amazing. We got to listen to talks from President Flake, the president of the temple, and our mission president, President Corbitt. They were amazing and the session was amazing as well. Yesterday we had Stake Conference which was absolutely amazing. President Corbitt, President Flake, their wives, and the Stake President spoke. It was a powerful meeting and Mikey was really moved by the talks about temples and family history work, despite a little interruption in the meeting... While one of the Authorities was speaking, a man began to yell, ¨Shut this man up, no more!¨He was clearly not okay. The Authority paused his talk, and 12 men stood up at the same time to take the man away, who began to yell some other crazy things like how he was going to crucify us all. The 12 men calmly carried him out and all was well. The authority calmly continued his talk and we finished the powerful Stake Conference. One of the times we were visiting Mikey this week, we heard some very loud booms outside, followed by people screaming and running down the street. Immediately Hermana Rivera went into a panic and as I held her to comfort her, Mikey peeked outside to see what was going on. Hermana Rivera kept saying, ¨They´re shooting, they´re opening fire..¨ and I just rubbed her back and did my best to calm her down. When Mikey returned, she entered with a laugh and said, ¨¨Hermanas, it´s just fireworks. They´re celebrating the opening of the new supermarket across the street.¨ It was hilarious. Mikey´s kids couldn´t stop laughing at us. I love you all. Don´t forget to give a little more, to laugh a little more, love a little more, serve a little more. Little by little we can become closer to the person we want to be. Love, Hermana Shaw This week, my ponderize scripture is Mosiah 4:9... Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created allthings, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. Sometimes there are things we don´t understand, but we can understand and know that God knows. This is an essential part of our faith. We never will understand every inch of the gospel or life or the church in this life. However, we can trust that God knows. As we accept understanding as a process, we actually learn more. This week was a good week. We had a super powerful lesson with Mikey about The Plan of Salvation. She has expressed to us so often how this gospel has answered so many questions she´s always had. She was deeply impacted and moved when we shared with her that she could live with her family for eternity. After hearing that, she expressed her sincere desire to do whatever possible to be able to live with her family for eternity. Her testimony is so strong. It strengthens mine and brings the Spirit so strong Our Thanksgiving feast two weeks ago... it was intercambios so the person next to me is Hermana Fuentes, one of our Hermana Leaders. Hermana Rivera and I at a Zone Activity (the one with her tongue out) Then another photo of intercambios with the awesome Hermana ortiz, Pancake, and Taylor. I love you all!
Hermana Shaw I apologize ahead of time for this email but we really have no time. Today was crazy. And sorry I couldn´t respond to anyone´s individual emails. No time. But I love you all.
This week we had Mission Tour and it was awesome. Every missionary had to prepare a talk and four random people got chosen to talk in front of everyone... in Spanish. And I got chosen! It was a bit scary but it was an awesome experience. My topic was how perfect love casts out all fear. Definitely prayed for some more love to cast out all the fear I had to speak ;) President Corbitt told me that President Cornish (the leader of the church in the Carribean) was really impressed with my Spanish. I also directed the music for the meeting which was cool. After Mission Tour, my companion and I got to study with President Corbitt which was an amazing opportunity. He really is an incredible man. I have noticed that it´s true, perfect love really does cast out all fear. I believe this is so because fear only exists when we are thinking of ourselves (what´s going to happen to me, will I be embarrassed, etc). Yet, love only exists when we are thinking of others. And so, as we direct our thoughts to others, fear becomes impossible. We come to think only of others, and our fear leaves. If we fill ourselves with love, there will be no room for fear. Because we are already full. I love you all, Hermana Shaw |
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Letters: Sophia Shaw Santo Domingo East MIssion SDQ 4102, 2250 NW 114th Ave. Miami, FL 33172-3652 Packages: Sophia Shaw AP-000914 8540 NW 66th St. Miami, FL 33195 - 2698 lds.org mormon.org Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East MissionArchives
February 2017
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