Back in the City!!

Dear fam bam,

Wow. Inwood. What can I say? I LOVE the city! There are SO many people
everywhere and they're all Hispanic! This area is Washington Heights
but everyone calls it "Dominican Heights" because literally everyone
is from he Dominican Republic. They're like the straight-up gangstas
of the Hispanic world. Plus they have cocohelado everywhere and elote
and all of my favorite Hispanic things. I feel like I'm coming home to
a beautiful land of brown people, trains, stairs, trash, and urine.
Mmm. Only problem is that I forgot how darn expensive it is here ($6
for a box of cereal!). So I'll just live off of wheat berries and
pasta. #allaboutthatcollegelife

We (Sister Megan Brower from Riverton, UT and I) are whitewashing the
area, which means that we are opening a new area and are the first
sisters to work here. Which means we are doing a lot of finding
(Heavenly Father knows that I'm the most awkward street-contacter ever
and needs me to tune up my skills so that I can die in Harlem with
Sister Card) and trying to work with the ward members so that we can
is by far the most exhausted I've ever been on my mission, but I love
it!

Stupid Shelby moment of the week: we got permission to go to Stamford,
CT for the baptism of one of Sister Brower's old investigators. Cross
Connecticut off United States Bingo! We got there safely and taught a
bomb lesson on the train to a lady who is the boricua version of Queen
Latifah. The baptism was awesome and then we started heading back...
For those of you who are familiar with my level of spatial/directional
intelligence, this story won't be very surprising for you. We got to
the train station and only had to take one little bus home. But Sister
Hall got us on the wrong bus and we ended up on the East side of the
Bronx. So we walked around for an hour through my old area (luckily I
had a little bit of knowledge leftover) and found the bus I was
familiar with. We got off to connect to another bus, and when we
finally found the next stop, the bus had stopped running for the
night. Then we found the other one and got on the RIGHT bus and got
us back to Manhattan. Then we walked and walked and walked and walked
and walked with the pioneer children until we FINALLY got home at 1 am.
#whoops #mybad

Now for spiritual time: This week during district meeting we talked
about the doctrine of Jesus Christ (our monthly focus). The doctrine
of Christ is comprised of five things: faith, repentance, baptism and
covenants, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We do these things
because it is the only way that we can access the Atonement of Jesus
Christ and be cleansed of our sins. Now, that all seemed very simple
to me before, but we read a passage from Preach My Gospel that really
opened my eyes. It says "Those who do not endure in faithfulness to
the end will be 'cast into the fire . . . because of the justice of
the Father.' The purpose of the gospel is to cleanse people of their
sins so they can receive the Savior’s mercy at the day of judgment.
Therefore, the focus of... the work you do each day is to invite
others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel
through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism,
receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."

So that's the whole point! Of everything! Of everything we all do!
Missionaries and non-missionaries alike! As members of the church, our
whole purpose is to live the doctrine of Christ by exercising faith,
repenting daily, renewing our baptismal covenants by taking the
sacrament every week, and having the Holy Ghost with us and following
His guidance. It's the only way that we can live together with
Heavenly Father and our families forever, and we want our friends and
everyone around us to be there with us. So we have to share the
gospel! If not, no one will know about the awesome plan that God has
for us.

So this week you should all study the doctrine of Jesus Christ. I
promise that if you do you'll feel a greater love for Heavenly Father
and have a greater desire to share the gospel :)

I love you all! Keep up the good work!

Choose Celestial

Hermana Hall and Hermana Brower