Hello Arizona ...

So happy to hear Daddy finished radiation. Those pictures cracked me up, I just showed my companion and she laughed too. Oh funny story.. we were visiting an inactive sister whose last name was Glover. I accidently called her Erin one day (daddy had a client named Erin Glover) and she was like, ummm my name's not Erin... hahah whoops! I don't need a raincoat or boots anymore, we got a car so I should be fine. Thanks though. Oh, next package you send, can you include all the missionary resource books and my mini hymn book? Gracias.

Hmm this week...... Well since yesterday was the 5th Sunday and they do those combined lessons for the 3rd hour, we had 3 of our 6 wards ask to have us speak at the same time. So we had to split up and somehow I got stuck going to one ward alone and my other 2 comps went to one together... anyways I thought I just had to share like a quick 3 minute insight on how we need help from the members to set up teaching appointments but turns out they expected me to give a full on talk in front of the Relief Society, High Priests or whatever, and all the youth... basically like Sacrament Meeting. Thank goodness I give fantastic talks because I got up there and winged it for 15 minutes and I think it was pretty dang good. In the meantime, Sister P and H taught Relief Society in another ward. I was feeling pretty good about my lesson but then I heard about theirs... apparently they focused a lot on not judging and stuff... This was one of the family wards (a lot like our's) and there's been a lot of problems with gossip and ladies being like, "my kids can't play with your kids because your husband's a convert and doesn't come to church all the time," or "I don't want my kids over there because you do yard work in a tank top," or just stupid stuff like that. So these ladies get really offended and go inactive. So my companions basically went into Relief Society and said (in a nice way I hope), "Cut it out, you're making our job as missionaries nearly impossible, you're being ridiculous and it needs to stop." Apparently everyone in there was crying by the end and afterwards all the sisters went up and were giving them huge hugs and what not. Afterwards my companions told me it was a good thing I wasn't there because I would have made the roof fall in. They like to joke around and call me the "spiritual power house"... I guess in lessons with people I get really intense? I dunno, haha but I guess that's a good thing? I don't know. We still only have one person on date for baptism but I think we're making some progress. We get to go to General Conference if we find an investigator to bring so we're trying really hard to bring one of the black guys we've been teaching. He's young, tall, dark and handsome so I mean, that's a plus. He really likes going to church but it's super hard to get him to focus in lessons and progress towards baptism in any way.

Oh, here's some funny stories...  in district meeting this past week we were doing a role play in front of everyone and my companion was one of the elders (weird I know), and he's like weird and kinda awk. Well the sister we were role playing with was saying how kids are so fun and the elder who was my companion turned to me and said, "yeah we can't wait," and it got super quiet and weird and his face turned SO RED it was ridiculous!! Hahahah like, "WE can't wait"?!?! WHAT? Then afterwards everyone was like, dang, Sister Shields you gave him the biggest shut down look I've ever seen in my life! It was funny, you had to be there. Also, one of the Relief Society presidents gave us a list of inactive sisters to visit so we spent a whole day visiting them. We got to one and it was my turn to talk so I gave a message, whatever. And I was treating her like she was inactive but there was a picture of her temple wedding in Rexburg from last year and like her scriptures on the table and an Ensign and stuff.... so I was kind of confused but she was on the inactive list, so whatever, right? I said something like, so will we see you at church Sunday? we missed you last week. And she said, "um, yeah... I go every week... and I met you on Sunday..... and you stopped by yesterday for cookies." It was so awkward. Like SO BAD, hahahah!  I meet so many people and hear so many names, I can't keep any of them straight, it's terrible.

Hmm, I'm trying to think what else happened this week... Oh - cool story! We're teaching a couple where the husband's excommunicated and the wife's been inactive since she was like 15. This week they told us the reason they decided to come back to church, take the discussions and get him rebaptized. They are respiratory therapists at the LDS hospital and worked with Thomas S. Monson's wife right before she died... Alex (the inactive sister) said President Monson refused to leave the side of his wife's bed. He would just sit there and hold her hand while she slept like all day long. And one time Alex had to go take her blood or something, I dunno, and President Monson wouldn't move over so she had to drag his chair back so she could get through. And President Monson is a big guy, I guess! She said she's never seen anyone love their wife so much and the spirit they had together was so strong; she knew right there that he was a true prophet of God.  Cool, right?

Hope all is well, talk to you next week!
Sister Shields

We finally got a CAR!!

Layton!

Tell Dad and sisters sorry I can't reply to their emails today... NO TIME. I liked Centerville so much better than Layton but it's still really nice here. The members don't feed us as much here (thank goodness) and this past week we had 2 dinners back out on us so we just ate cereal at our house. There's a group of sisters in our zone with a car so they take us to the store but we have to go when they want, leave when they want etc.... so it's kind of annoying but okay. Tell Dad congrats on almost being done with radiation! Okay, here's the weekly update...

So our mission president picked 2 companionships per zone (so 4 people out of 20) to take on this challenge of getting at least one baptism and one person reactivated a week. He contacted us the other day and said our trio was chosen... no pressure, right? He promised that if we made an effort though, there would be miracles. This was going to be hard for us because we're the first sisters to be in this area... so we had to start from ground zero. We're doing really well though; the past week we taught 31 lessons, have 11 new investigators and have 1 person on date. Technically 2, but they're brothers and one of the boys is 8 so he doesn't count as a convert baptism... pretty much we're on a roll. There's one apartment complx in our area that has a big basketball court in the middle.... EVERY SINGLE PERSON we've met and talked to there has agreed to take the lessons. Without fail. Which is surprising because it's kind of a sketchy apartment complex, hahah. So me and my companions joke that we need to just build a baptismal font in the middle of the court and push people in. Like literally, it's insane. We've only been turned down by probably 3 people in general so far.... it's awesome. We're teaching a lot of excommunicated RM's who want to come back and that's really cool.... it's also hard because they already know more about the gospel than we do most of the time... we're just supposed to try to help them feel the spirit again. It's really interesting; during lessons they answer all the questions right and have all these good comments about church history and what not but then when they ask if they will say the closing prayer they almost always say no... like they're not ready for that yet or something. We also have been working with a lot of inactive sisters who have been offended and left the church... that's fun.... haha. The members are really nice here and always giving us rides places and inviting us over to do random things at their house... this one sister has us over like no joke, every other day. Then we figured out she only invited us over when her inactive teenage son was home.... and she dropped the hint that she wants us to work on him... there's a lot of people who want us to work on situations like that for them, it's kinda awkward... oh the funniest thing happened at church this week. Because there's 3 of us, we can have lessons with single guys and guys in the ward can drive us places without having their wives or whatever... it's really convenient!  So in Relief Society this week they were passing around a sign up for our meals and they said, "we all need to take advantage of having sisters to feed now so we can have early dinners without having our husbands home from work," and Sister P (one of my companions who can squat 550 pounds, btw. She's a BEAST) said, "also, because there's 3 of us, your husbands can just be the ones feeding us too!....or your sons....." and the whole Relief Society got really quiet and it was awkward.. and then the president said, "but let's try to avoid that and make sure there's a Sister present." AHHAHA Sister P was so embarrassed; it was hilarious. Thank you all for your prayers and emails, I would love letters sent to my apartment as well! Being able to serve a mission has been such a blessing in my life, missionary work is the best way to be happy. Love you all, xoxoxo

I'm in Layton, Utah! Yayy!

My first night out in the field I was in Centerville and I loved the area so much .... it was all cute little Mormon families, and I was with a fantastic companion; I was really sad to leave. My very first night we had ... get this: 2 dinner appointments and a dessert appointment. And people are correct when they say you can't turn that down. So we taught a lesson to an investigator, they offered us huge sugar cookies. Went to our dinner appointment, went to a YW activity where they fed us dinner and dessert, then went to a dessert appointment with an investigator. That's a total of 2 full dinners and 3 desserts in one night. And it is impossible to turn people down! Especially investigators... Then they moved me up to a trio of sisters in Layton and this is where I will be for the next 6 weeks for sure, probably 12+ weeks realistically though. This whole mission is a fully referral mission, no proselyting is allowed. so it's almost all reactivation, working with part member families, excommunicated families etc. I really like it so far! The YW here have like 5 active girls and 20 inactive; it's crazy.

We are living with a lady who works in California and is only home a couple days a month. She lives in a really nice town home so we are lucky we have it to ourselves most of the time! The first day we were cleaning the bathrooms because they were disgusting... I literally just dumped every cleaner I could find in the toilet and then realized I had mixed bleach with this cleanser that said all over the bottle, "DON'T MIX WITH BLEACH- TOXIC FUMES" and I started freaking out and the house reeked like a meth house or something... Seriously I've never prayed so hard in my life. But we lived, so it's okay!

We don't have a car in Layton like we did in Centerville... so we're walking. Oh mom, can you money from my savings into checking? I might need to buy a bike... ugh. Hopefully we should get a car next week. Oh, there's this apartment complex in our area that's full of all these troubled inactive teenagers with drug addict parents. So we spend a lot of time trying to talk to people there. The other day we were talking to this black kid and he's like, "I'll tell you what.... I'll let you teach me all your lessons and I'll go back to church if I can have your number," so my companion's like, okay, here's our number. And he's like, "no, I want HER number," and we just like looked at each other and it was awkward and then we just laughed and he was like, "don't you guys get taught 'flirt to convert?' I'm down for that!" It was funny... hahah! But we're actually making good progress with him; he said a really good prayer in the middle of the basketball courts saying he was grateful for his Nikes and Kanye West! We get a lot of rides from nice members so I barely do any walking. Also we got caught in the rain the other day... my shoes were soaking wet all day, I'm so scared my feet will mold like missionaries in the Phillippines. or I'll get athletes foot. That was 2 days ago and my shoes are still damp.... what do I do? It's sicking me out.

Sorry I couldn't reply to everyone; hope you're all doing well! Yay Daddy for almost being done with radiation, good job getting a date Kla, and for the nutcracker thing... thanks Rob for the card, and tell Claire and Anna I said good job in life!

If you want to send me stuff, it would probably be best just to send it straight to the town house I'm in... I'll let you know when I get transferred but it won't be for a long time. like probably December. I have a ton of ideas of stuff Dad could get me for Christmas, I'll let you know.

Here's my address (google map it, it's a cute house)

1054 W. 975 N
Layton, UT 84041

My first area!

Family -

Just got to the mission.  I had to take public transportation and it was decently traumatizing but somehow I made it out alive.  Hope you're all doing well, love you all!

Here's the trio I'm assigned to, Sister Hornberger Sister Pilling.

From President Stephen W. Hansen, Mission President:

Dear Family of Sister Shields,

It was a pleasure for Sister Hansen and me to welcome your daughter, Sister Heidi Shields, to the Utah Salt Lake City Mission.  Her first day with us included an oreintation at the Whittier Ward building, lunch, an interview with me, administrative paperwork, and a tour of Temple Square. The next day she participated in new missionary training and was assigned her new companion.  She and her new companion then went to their assigned area, beginning an evening of dinner and appointments.  Each new missionary committed to invite someone to be baptized by the end of their day.

After prayerful consideration Sister Sara Hornberger was assigned as her trainer and missionary companion.

I am impressed by your daughter's desire to serve.  She is in high spirits as she anticipated the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.  Please be assured that Sister Hansen and I will be watching over her while she is here.

Thank you for raising such an outstanding daughter, worthy and willing to serve the Lord full time in our mission.  I know you will be blessed for the sacrifices which make her service possible.  May the Lord's choicest blessings be with you.

With love,

Stephen W. Hansen
President, Utah Salt Lake City Mission

Me with Jordan Murray (from BYUI) and my MTC comp and his comp.

Update from the MTC

Sorry I don't have any time to email... I sent dad and Claire more about my companion though, so they'll have to share with you. My whole district is going to SLC so that will be cool because we're really close. I got your package, thank you! Tell Grandma I said thanks too ... she's sent me something every single day so far! Yesterday she sent a huge box of 3 dozen homemade cookies .... like awesome; obviously I'm going to eat every single one in one sitting. I wanted to send her a thank you letter but I don't have her address so just tell her I said thanks so much!

Me and my companion, Sister Phillips, and some of the elders in my district:

The MTC!

The MTC is pretty good so far! My P-day is Saturday while here but I have no idea when it will be when I get out in the field. I'm here til the 11th, FYI. I sent you guys a letter yesterday but you're definitely going to get this before you get the letter so just disregard that I guess. The only thing I don't really like about being here is it's super intense... like my district is so serious all the time, and having church classes all day long is super overwhelming for me... I try to lighten the mood a little bit so I don't die of intense overload but people here don't think anything I say is funny, they just think I'm being disrespectful or something so I need to tone that down a little bit. My companion is really cool, we get along well. She's really nice and so far we haven't had any issues together. She jokes around with me sometimes so that's good. Our first day we had this assignment in class where we were given a reference, like the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel or something, and we had to try to sell it to the rest of our district... me and my companion were given the missionary day planner or whatever. I said something like, "Hey at least we didn't get the chastity pamphlet ... " no one thought it was funny, they all just glared at me and thought I was a punk. Hahah! So it's kind of hard to remind myself to watch what I'm saying. The food's good, I'm always starving but I like it. They pretty much have everything so I've been able to chose the healthy stuff. They have tons of fruit and oatmeal (thank goodness) so that's good. We're so busy there's no time to exercise. Yesterday we had gym time in our schedule but it was right in the middle of the day so we couldn't really do anything to get too sweaty... me and my companion just jogged around the inside track for a little. Love you guys, tell everyone I said hello!