We Arrived! (September 27, 2011)

Hi All, 

We have arrived in Zambia - after 2 1/2 days of travel - with very little sleep.  Our apartment has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining, living, kitchen and laundry room.  It also has little creatures that like to crawl on the floor.

Our first day here we managed to blow the electricity and it took 1 1/2 days to get fixed.  A little hard on the things in the frig.  Prospects for the internet in the near future are quite uncertain.  Apparently some have been waiting 3 months.  Telephone Service even seems worse.  The mission home has been waiting that long.  (Operates on cell phones only).

It seems that we have been asked to be S & I (Seminary and Institute) coordinators and are to cover the country and perhaps Malawi (they are still deciding) holding monthly in service meetings, training of teachers, getting stats for the Area Presidency, and checking to see if anyone needs help, teacher training, getting to know all of the S & I students, holding some activities with them and for them, etc. 

We did meet with the Stonehockers (they met us at the airport and we had breakfast together and Glenda took lots of pics of the tired shields.  It was great to visit though.  

We did get to two branches on Sunday - one was very active, the other has had it's problems and was very small.  We have been two LDS style chapels we did not know existed so that was good - driving to them on our own would have been a challenge.  Burton is doing great at driving on the left side of the road.  They had an election the 20th - the results came out on the 22nd and everyone went crazy, took the day off work and partied and drove around honking horns, etc.  It ended without bloodshed which all the members were extremely grateful for.  Hopefully that is a good thing for them!

We are at the Hotel ready to go to the Airport in the morning.  What a Great Week we have had.  We had CES training (or S&I) on Monday, Tuesday and 1/2 of Wednesday.  Then Wednesday afternoon we had security training.  They do want us to be aware, careful, and safe.  They really did a great job.  Thursday and then Friday we were in Salt Lake at the Joseph Smith Building, then at the Church Office Building for PEF (Perpetual Education Fund) training.  Wow! is all I can say.  What an inspired program.  President Hinckley announced the program 10 years ago and all we can say is that we know it is an inspired program, and the good it is doing is fantastic.  Approx. 50,000 people have now been able to upgrade their education and the payback rate is about 93%.  That's quite a record.

The CES training was also Very Well Done.  We were taught by the best and we hope to not disappoint anyone and to be able to study and work to become worthy of their trust.  We have our work cut out for us but since we have done more training in more areas than we thought, we aren't sure what our job descriptions will be when we get there.  They seem to be changing or maybe it is just evolving.  Time will tell.

Tomorrow we fly to Chicago, then to London - arriving there at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.  We don't leave there until 7 p.m. and fly for about 10 hours to Johannesburg, then after another layover - on to Lusaka, Zambia, then arriving the afternoon of September 21.  We think we'll be a bit tired of travel for a while.

We visited Nate and Julie for the last 4 nights - very busy time for them - Soccer every night and Saturday.
We had our own obsession going on - the weighing of the bags time again.  We had to eliminate quite a few things - mostly books from our bags to make room for other things that we'd bought or been given.  We hope we are learning for coming home, but aren't dwelling there.  We were glad to be there and rest a bit before the long haul.  Ellis and Glenda hope to visit us at the airport in Johannesburg.  That should be fun.

The MTC has grown into an amazing place.  There were 2800 missionaries there with our group.  There were 78 senior missionaries went in with us.  Some as young as 50, 2 of which were going on missions while their youngest children were in the field and hoped to be arriving home about the same time.  That was cool.  Dan and Debbie Heninger were in there with us.  It was good to visit with them - we even got to go to the movie 17 Miracles.  We planned to buy it and take it but forgot.  We broke into districts and the Heningers were in our district so we visited more.  They're going to be Great Missionaries in Romania.  The next week there were 80 seniors coming in and the next week they didn't know what they were going to do with 120 senior missionaries.  They are responding to the call of last October.  More and more seem to be either new at early 50s or older and on their 3, 4 or 5th mission.  It does seem to get in the blood.  The young ones will make the best missionaries (they have experience but also energy).  We know though, that we will be fine and will find the energy to complete the assignments given us.  We know the Lord wants these people helped and taught so that they can take on their own leadership roles and help the church to be self sufficient.  We will try to help in anyway that we can.  It is His Work and He is in charge.

We are trying to attach our MTC picture and I've deleted this once already trying to remember where it is.  I'm going to try again.  If I lose it again, I might end for the night and try again in the morning.  We're going to sign out now and will post again after we have arrived and have the Internet.

Love to all of you, you are the greatest people we know.
Elder and Sister Shields

The Time has Come!  Monday September 19th (tomorrow) is take off!  We have completed our training this week in CES, S & I, Perpetual Education Fund, and Security.  We have started taking our Malaria pills (yesterday) and don't think we've forgotten anything else.  What an amazing week it has been.  We were trying to learn so much we thought we needed to drill holes in our heads to let some out so there was room for more.  The Perpetual Education Fund is such a prophetic program.  When President Hinckley announced it, there is no doubt it came straight from heaven.  With some earthly things to work out over the 10 years since it's inception, it is now running as the inspired program it was meant to be.  Wow!  This program has had us in tears Many times in the 2 days we took the training at the Church Office Buildings in Salt Lake.

We thought we'd be like all missionaries and post our MTC picture.  We stayed at Nate and Julie's on Thurs. and Fri. nights.  They were pretty involved with Soccer - actually Sat. too.  We did up our wash, visited with the kids when they were around and tried to reorganize our bags for weight again.  We did end up leaving some things in a sports bag at the Hedmans.  Added weight from the MTC and shopping and had to delete a few things.  For those thinking about going - they do have the basic books on a pin drive so don't haul that weight like we did.

We love you all and hope you are keeping well.

Elder and Sister Shields

Wow!  We have arrived and completed MTC 101 here in Provo this week.  Tomorrow we start MTC 201 which should all be about CES, Perpetual Education, S and I, etc. 

We have had a very intense, uplifting, testimony building week here in the MTC.  We have been taught, done teaching, practiced with pretend investigators, and even some real ones.  We were not told ahead of time who had who or what the scenario was - it was a Great Experience.  We loved it.  We wish you could all be here and feel of the spirit of the MTC.  There were 78 seniors and 28 hundred young Elders and Sisters in the group.  They are expecting way more in October.  As we indicated earlier in our email, the Senior Missionaries are answering the call Pres. Monson put out in October general conference.  We need you!    There were at least 5 or 6 in our group that are in their early to mid 50s.  Have the kind of work that they can take the time and then go back to work.  It is awesome.  We are anxious to be part of the work and looking forward to leaving next Monday a.m. (the 19th).  Life has been tough - they ran out of rooms and at least 10 couples HAD to go to the Marriott to stay - in very nice suites, we were one of them.  We did however, want to experience the MTC first hand but maybe another time. 

We feel our time here is being very well spent - they are very organized and efficient.  There are about 2800 missionaries here and about 2800 volunteers make this happen.  Amazing.

Today is August 31 - tomorrow we leave home and stay at a hotel near the airport so we can be there by 4:30 a.m.  What a nice time of day to start on a Great Adventure -  September 2 at 6:30 we leave for Salt Lake City via Seattle and into the mission home on Monday September 5, 2011.
 
We appreciate all the  family that came to hear us speak last Sunday and for lunch and a visit. It was great to see most everyone there - missing Julie and family and Janice.  Our packing today was the weighing and reweighing, packing and repacking.  We think we have things balanced out and are semi under control.  It seems when you are getting ready to do the Lord's work that Satan really puts on the pressure and that has been the case this last while.  We do wish we could control that but know that blessings will come if we go and do that which we are supposed to do.  So... kids,  be your best and the blessings will flow we promise. 

We will miss everyone, friends and family, and appreciate your help in our being ready to go.  Thanks and we love you lots.  We have signed up for Vonage and hope that works over there - not sure.  It may take some time to get the internet and phone up and running.

We heard from President Padovich via email on Sunday and he answered some questions we had.  Yay!
We are really good at asking questions - sometimes even more than once.  Our memories aren't what they used to be.  Maybe they'll improve for 2 years.

We're pretty excited overall about the "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go Dear Lord" aspect of this call.  This continent is one that had not even entered our minds.  The Lord works in mysterious ways - we want to be on his team. 

It's already August 24th and we have been sidetracked for a few weeks for a Great Missionary Experience.  We have been able to have Li Jing (our new Chinese friend) in our home with the Mandarin Missionaries.  She was baptized on Saturday August 20,  by her husband (Fred Sun).  We were blessed to be able to get to know them and are grateful for them in our lives.  Li Jing left this a.m. for Shanghai then Suzhou where she will continue to teach Mandarin to high school students until the new year.  She hopes to come over to stay at that time.  We will miss her but hope to hear from her often.

We are now refocusing, have sold the cars back to the dealership, about finished the major shopping,  emptied the cupboards, taken the boxes downstairs, etc.  After we speak on Sunday, we will be able to finish the house off and be ready??? to go.  We are staying at the airport Sept. 1 as we leave early on Sept. 2, 2011.  Then off to Seattle, Salt Lake, stay 2 weeks, then to Chicago, London (9+ hrs), then to Johannesburg, and up to Lusaka, Zambia - our new home for the next 23 months.  Whew.  We should arrive very refreshed, right?  More Later.

Time is flying!  We are very busy getting ready to go, helping others, and teaching a beautiful young spirit, Li Jing, from China.  She has committed to baptism on August 21, 2011.  She returns to Souzhou, China on August 24th.  She teaches Mandarin in a high school there.  She is so bubbly, kind, honest, and open to the gospel teachings and principles, it is our privilege to have gotten to know her.  We took time this weekend to go to Waterton to Church - we love to do that at least once a year so this was the weekend.  It was Great!  President Rosenval is a fantastic Sunday school teacher.  Hopefully we can improve and be better teachers ourselves as time progresses.  Hopefully, we can remember how to post this.