Last Week in America!!

This week was really interesting with Christmas and not being able to Proselyte regularly.  It seemed like a not very productive week, but as we looked at it as a whole I see that we actually got a lot done! We taught this one Family who the mom has decided I'm her favorite (which stinks since I'm leaving this week) but they're a very ready family who's been really accepting of the gospel and told that God sent us to help her and her family. I really hope she gets baptized but her and her cousin are on leave for a couple more days, and they said their schedule will be crazy after that.  That's the only thing I see getting in the way of them getting baptized.

We also got another girl on date this week for the 18th of January (to get baptized) She actually seems interested and it's awesome for my companions, kinda sad I'm leaving here just when everything starts to come together and people start accepting us, but I know that God has a purpose for me in Brazil. I'm grateful that I got my visa now when I haven't lost too much of the language. There's actually a Sister missionary here that's been waiting for 9 months!

That's all I got for this week! I love it here in Washington, but I'm super Siked to go to a whole different country.  It'll be an adventure for sure!

Amo Voces!!

Elder Sharp

Letter to Mom: 

Ya it was nice to here from you too! And it's ok that you can't make it to Charlotte, NC...  I think I might've ran if I saw y'all ;)  That's awesome about feeling like home with Dad (I told him I found a plaque that said "Home is wherever I'm with you" and gave it to Don for Christmas) - I'll definitely look for that in my wife for sure. Your question about Why you are going through this and asking for understanding makes me think of a scripture **Mosiah 23:21-- when I read it I see that these people were really righteous and God was like, "Hmm -- that's good... now let's see how you follow me with trials." I know that Heavenly father will never give you more than you can handle, and it's a comfort for me to know that - especially since I'm leaving the only country I've known.  Haha... It tells me that I can do this!

Love you,

Elder Sharp

** 21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

Christmas in Washington

The family Elder Sharp had Christmas with this year sent me a bunch of pictures of their day (she sent me 94... had to choose from those!).  They gave the missionaries stockings and their "big" gift were Nerf Guns...  They looked like they had a great time.  I sure loved looking at all the pictures!!

 

 

Christmas Day!

Our Christmas is complete! Loved Skyping with Elder Don Sharp Jr.!! He looks great and sounds happy! For those who haven't heard, he has received his Visa to Brazil and leaves January 1st!! He is super excited!! If you want to mail him one last thing before postage is a lot more, here is his address... just be sure it is there by the 31st.

Elder Don Sharp
Washington Tacoma Mission
4007 Bridgeport Way West, Ste D
University Place, WA 98466

Letter to Family 12-18-2013

Dear Family,
This week has been one crazy one!  We met a lot of crazy people and have been blessed not to run into any bashers.  On Saturday we met 2 drunk people and one saw that we were missionaries.  She wrapped her arm around my neck and was like "I'm 64 and can't walk!" (in a drunk voice).  it was kinda cool she knew we'd help her, but man beer smells BAD!!  I don't understand why you'd drink it!!  I had to scrub my jacket that night to get the smell from her jacket having it on her.  the other guy was too drunk to see anything and couldn't even figure out where he was.  Really funny to watch.  So moral of the story - DON'T DRINK!

Anyway, this week was very good.  BUT, I'm getting transferred ... Man I'm gonna miss Manette!  Things are just starting to pick up, but God saw I'm needed in Lacey, so I'll go.  ha ha.  I'm packing too!  I've realized something  - again!  I HATE PACKING!!  I hope me and my wife never move!  I'll stop complaining, sorry!

Anyway, this week we had exchanges since my companion is DL (district leader).  We were out proselyting and decided to go to the Sound.  I passed by a guy we had knocked into a while ago who wasn't really interested, but then he said, as we passed him, "Hey!  I'm interested in your church!"  I was like, "Oh! Uh, ok..." (I've never heard that before.  I didn't know how to respond!)  Then I said, "Oh well, when do  you want to learn?"  He was like, "Anytime is fine."  So I was like, "Okay.  Well what if I get your number and I can call you and set something up with you for tomorrow?"  He said, "Ok." and we went on our way because the guy I was with wanted to take pictures and I was gonna set up some appointments from there, but no one answered.  We tried some potentials who seemed interested when we knocked on their door earlier.  No one answered, so we were in the area where Michael was (The guy I was talking about earlier). We decided to see if he was home yet and teach a lesson real quick.  We went down to his house (crazy I remembered it!) and we taught the first lesson (Restoration).  He already had a lot of the same beliefs as the church, and he immediately accepted that the Book of Mormon was the word of God!  We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray AND that when he receives that answer, will he be baptized?  He said "Yes!"  It's the first time I actually was there for the challenge to be baptized.  It was so powerful!

Then that night me and Elder Lowe were teaching this couple who aren't married [yet ;)]  and they totally accepted the Plan of Salvation.  Elder Lowe looked at me and kind of signaled to extend the challenge, and I did!  It was so crazy!  I was like "Ahhhh!" (Opera angels).  Anyway, I asked them if they would get on that path towards eternal life and be baptized and they said, "YES!!!"  Then I got transferred!!  Ha Ha!  Heavenly Father is a funny guy.  Anyway, I c an say I left here with a bang and I'm at peace here.  I going to give Elder Lowe a tie.  He was a good trainer [most of the time ;)]

Well, that is all I really have to say.
Amo Vocês !
Elder Sharp

Psalms 18:1-3

Christmas!!

I cant believe it's Christmas already!!  This week has been great in my new area.  I got to meet a lot of people. We have a 9-year-old girl we get to baptize on the third of January, and we got to teach 9 new people!  My Companions said that that's a lot of new investigators in 3 days! The ward here is really nice.  They actually feed us dinner and there's a waiting list to feed us!! I'm definitely going to get fat here if I don't work out! I also taught this family about the restoration, and my companions had me do it all by myself! It wasn't the best lesson, but it was definitely better than any I've done! That's about all I got for this week! My new companions are great they're complete dorks, but they know when it's time for fun and time to be serious, and I love it.

Oh - Visa update... my mission president assured me that my visa will come next year! hahaha gotta love that guy

Love Ya'll!!

Elder Sharp

And now for the surprise.....

Transfer Week!

Well it looks like I'll be in the WATAC (Washington Tacoma Mission) for Christmas I haven't heard anything about my Visa. So I'm not exactly sure what's going on... you know the usual ;P

Any way this week has been bitter sweet mostly sweet for sure though. I guess I'l start with the sad. I'm being transferred from Manette to Lacey 2nd with the ZLs (Zone leaders) (no not cause I'm being a bad missionary) and it wouldn't be so sad if it wasn't we're just now starting to see the fruits of our labor which leads into the sweet part. As of right now we have 4 on date for the 29th of Dec and I was the one that extended that challenge for 3 of them! It was super awesome! To just see the gospel in their lives and and how when the accepted the challenge to be baptized, how you could see Heavenly Father telling them "Great choice!" Then our Brazilian Investigator she said she'd be baptized, but she has to get an answer first, but I know that God will give that answer cause she really wants to know. She's probably the one I'll miss the most. It was great to learn more about Brazil and how the people are down there! We also got a lot of new investigators this week too and they all seem actually interested! That's ok though Elder Lowe(my companion) can handle it and obviously I'm needed else where. Cant wait to see what I'll be doing and learning down there!!

Thats all I can think of in the line of how the work is going here. I'm doing great here and it's actually warmed up to 35 degrees sometimes even 40! Which is really nice! I am constantly reminded that its Summer in Brazil now that's always fun to think about haha. Seriously though I love it here and enjoying every minute of the Washington whether!

Sorry for the short letter haha Thats all that really happened that I feel lik sharing for now haha:P

Amo Voces!!

Elder Sharp

 Elder Lowe and I with Anete (lady from Brazil) 

My Zone at the Christmas Party

Elder Legolas

 Elder Holmes and I (another visa waiter)

Our living room

Week....I have no clue now

Ya I'm not even keeping track anymore its going too fast! This week wasn't to exciting. We got to help with this Nativity thing at the Bremerton Stake Center where we got to basically walk around and answer people's questions as they walked around and looked at all these nativities and pictures of Christ. At the end of our shift we helped out a group from the senior home and I push around this lady in a wheel chair and she would just stare at the same nativities for 10 min and it was kinda awkward at first but then I got to actually look at the details of the nativity scenes and stuff and it was nice to be able to kinda chill and listen to the Christmas music playing in the background it was really nice haha.

This week was also one that taught me about patience in your obedience. so the beginning of the week no body was letting us in during our 5-7's (we knock doors from 5-7 every day here) and we saw a thermometer that said 17 degrees! and we didn't really wanna do it anymore (the 5-7's. but we knew that we had to or there was no way we were gonna get any more investigators. Anyway Friday night we were doing our knocking thing and someone let us in! they didn't want to learn anything really but they were firm believers in southern hospitality. I was so happy to feel that again and she just adored us for our work and made us hot chocolate and her son actually had questions for us about plural marriage (like always) and he loved the church's emphasis on emergency preparedness. We are actually coming back on Thursday to help them move in the rest of their stuff! So we'll see how that goes! and then we got to finally see one of our Golden family Just super busy and got to get a return appointment! then on Saturday we taught our 4 most promising investigators with members present(very important) and they all went really well! On Sunday, our Portuguese investigator (ya we found one!!) got to come to church and we gave her a church tour AND taught the first lesson in Portuguese/English and she seemed to agree with all of it and seems to be VERY promising!

That's about all that went down this week haha. I wont find out about where I'll be for Christmas till Saturday. I'm really torn though not sure if I'd rather stay here or go to Brasil for it haha a really Weird felling! I'll let you know next week I guess!

Amo Voces!

Elder Sharp

 Nativity made out of newspaper

Washington Week 3 - and Pictures!

Hey everyone! Hope all is well.   This Thanksgiving week was pretty good :) I got to eat with a Family known as the Walhquist's, and Sis Walhquist is a sweet old Filipino who is the Relief Society President.  She cooks really good food! After that we got to listen to her sons play the piano; one is six the other is 18, and they are really good!! It makes me wish I could play haha! 

I checked my Visa status, and I think it says it's in -- sooo I may not be in America for Christmas!! Which is super exciting cause then I won't be cold anymore and get going on my Portuguese! 

Everything here is great though.  We got someone named Micheal on date, and he's really cool - about my age AND he's a wrestler, too!  What're the odds, huh? It's really cool to see how the Lord works in people's lives. He was unlikely to accept, and we met him one night passing him on the street, and he agreed to have us over!  Now he's accepted baptism!

My companion and I are teaching/learning from a lady from Natal, Brazil, and she speaks more Portuguese than English, but she's patient with us and corrects us on our Portuguese all the time. It's really good though because she's teaching us how Brazilians are and how to be polite with them, which is perfect for us for when we get down there! She's got a Portuguese Book of Mormon and English one too.  She is gonna use it for better English skills, and she's really interested in the church, so it's all working out right now!

This week we also did exchanges, and I got to go with Elder Muir and he taught me a lot about following the letter of the law and spirit of the law, and how you gotta find the balance.  I can definitely feel the love from him as he leads us (he's ZL).  I also learned something while with him (not exactly from him).  I learned that I hate bashing and anti and have decided that I will not participate in it! I know that no good can come from it, because the basher is madder at the church and my testimony is attacked by the basher and Satan. I also learned the best antidote for it is to read the scriptures A LOT, and then pray and Heavenly Father reassures you and gives you another witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel. 

I know without a shadow of a doubt that this Restored church is true, and I know that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet of God, and that he did translate the Book of Mormon by the power of God and did seal his testimony with his Blood ( D&C 135).  I love this gospel and want everyone to know about it! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen 

Amo Voces!

Elder Sharp

Thanksgiving Day - Elder Lowe and I doing service

" Results from my bike accident"

 Elder Muir - Zone leader