"Don't go to sleep until you have changed a life." 6-16-14

Remember that big missionary conference I told you about last week? 
Well one of the things Elder Clark told us was don't go to bed until 
you've changed a life. So every night this week at the end of the day 
I took off my name tag, looked at it for a second and then tried to 
think of a life I had changed that day. 
 
Wednesday morning sister Evans, a sweet old lady that I have come to 
love passed away. This women was in her 80's and an absolute crack up! 
Every time we would go visit her in the care facility she would be 
shooting smart remarks to the nurses and sneaking all kinds of goodies 
that she wasn't supposed to have. She even got us to bring her a soda 
one time! Tuesday night we went to see her in the ICU after getting a 
text from her daughter, Sister Tadle, that she wasn't doing very well. 
We just held her hand for a bit and talked with Sister Tadle and her 
husband Ken. I love these people so much. They are my Sarasota family! 
Sister Evans was pretty out of it and we couldn't understand most of 
what she was saying, but she did keep telling all four of us how much 
she loved us. She would point and say, "missionaries! I love them." 
That night as I was looking at my name tag those words came to mind. I 
could feel Sister Evan's love for us and  I knew a life had been 
changed... My own. As corny as that sounds it's true! I changed that 
day. Throughout the week at the end of each day I had a similar 
experience. Each day I saw moments where Heavenly Father had worked 
through me to touch someone else, but truly each day it was me who was 
being changed. 

Have I mentioned that I love being a missionary? This week was pretty 
hard for various reasons, but even after a week of stress and 
frustration I can still look back and see miracles happening in my 
life and the lives of people all around me! It's the coolest! Oh! And 
because I love my Dad here is a wicked awesome video that you all 
should watch! (No worries, it's only 2 minutes long... I think you can 
spare the time ;P ) 
 
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-fath
er?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng&cid=HPTU061014222 
 
Yesterday at church I was listening to the talks about fathers and one 
lady was listing the things she had learned from her father. As she 
started listing things I thought, "what has my dad taught me?" 
Immediately another question came to mind, "which one?" I realized how 
closely I associated my own dad and my Father in Heaven. I took out my 
journal and started listing things I had learned from both of them. 
Everything I could think of I had learned, one way or another, from 
both of them. Both have taught me that I am important, supported, and 
loved, and how to be strong, confident, and hardworking. I am so 
grateful for my Dad here, because without him I wouldn't fully 
understand my relationship with my Heavenly Father. That is the 
greatest gift you could have ever given me. Happy Father's Day Daddy! 
 
Oh and Dad, you will be proud to know we got a flat tire and I knew 
EXACTLY what to do! ....call a man! Haha We happened to just be 
leaving a members house when we noticed it so we went back and they 
helped us out! In my defense I totally could have figured it out if I 
had to.  Currently our car has a wimpy donut tire. We call it its gimp 
wheel! 
 
 
Love you all have an awesome week! 
 
-Sista U> 

         They got stuck in the rain and decided to make the best 

         of it with this sweet family.

I live on the sun... 6-10-14

Things I learned this week

-Florida is clearly located closer to the sun than any other place on earth. The car says it's 98, but it feels 10X hotter than any summer day in Vegas! I have come to love sweat... Jokes, I can't even complain. Kelsey and Dylan totally have me beat.

-My mission president loves me and my family! 

-and sometimes when I answer the phone I am too loud and too happy! (Ya! Someone actually
said that to me!) this is how it went down...

I called, he answered:

"Hello?" All confused sounding
Me- "Hi brother Shepherd! How are you doing today!" -sounding super happy about life
Him "Woah woah woah.... You don't have to talk so loud or happy!"

Clearly, not everyone shares my enthusiasm for phone conversations...
I have also been told that when I knock on doors and people ask who it
is my voice goes up like ten octaves when I respond, "it's the
missionaries!" I keep trying to explain it's my excited voice! I just
want people to be excited that we are at their door! How the heck are
they going to be excited if we aren't!?

Definitely the highlight of this week was getting to see my sweet dad.
It's kind of crazy how that ended up happening.  I actually didn't
even ask to see him! I just mentioned in my weekly email to my mission
president that Dad was here visiting Jason. Maybe a minute after I
sent the email we got a text from president asking me to call him. He
basically told me that he felt like it was a good idea for me to meet
up with Daddy. Cool right? This pretty much never happens to
missionaries and yet this is the second time for me. I promised
president no more surprise visits for the next 7 months though
sooo.... Can we manage that? No more trips to Florida! I loved sharing
with Dad, Jase, and Issac the same things I have the opportunity to
teach the people here. :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Another really cool part about my week was a meeting we had yesterday.
About half the mission met in Sarasota and Elder Clark (from the
quorum of the 70) came and talked with us. It was really cool because
I got to see sister Calder and sister Ormsby! Apparently at the end of
every email sister Ormsby (my MTC comp) sends to president she says,
"p.s. I still love sister Upshaw and wouldn't mind being put back with
her." I'm totally starting that ASAP! She has been in the same area
for 10 months! She is due for a transfer. ;P Anyway... The training
was really amazing too and I learned so many things that have forever
changed my view of missionary work.

During lunch I had the opportunity to sit next to Elder Clark and he asked if we had any questions for him. I asked him what is the most important thing he has learned since he was called as a general authority. He thought for a second and then looked me strait in the eyes and said, "Sister Upshaw, I have learned that this is His work. Not ours." It is so true! I have never understood just how aware God is of each of us. He has a plan for us and that never changes. We may deviate from the path a bit, but he is always preparing a way for us to return. 

I love you all so much! I hope you have a fabulous week! Oh hey.... ya'll should write me... *cough cough* My mail box is developing cob webs... ;P 

Love always,

Sister Chelsea Upshaw! 

Chelsea had a very rare opportunity to teach her dad a missionary discussion while he was visiting her older brother, Jason, in Florida.

She is excited that they get to wear sandals (I had to mail her sandals to her as soon as she found out)

I hear that these are sand cranes

They were waiting out a storm with one of the families in her area

Hurricane season officially began! 6-2-14

This week has been rather quiet. I can't even think of an exciting 
story to share! Gosh, how lame am I? I'm sure something will come to 
me... Hmmm nope. The train has left the station! Oh wait! It pulled 
back in! Okay so this week was pretty quiet, but for some reason 
people seemed to have misplaced their filters! You know, that thing 
that keeps you from saying socially unacceptable thoughts out loud? Or 
as Dad would say their brain was leaking! Haha situation number one... 
 
A lady answers the door and as we are talking we hear a mans voice, 
she then yells back and says, Don't come out unless you're naked! This 
lady is someone we are teaching so we told her we would call her later 
and WE FLED LIKE JOSEPH OF EGYPT FROM POTIPHERS WIFE! Haha 
 
The next day we are at a members home having dinner and the man we 
were teaching was confused about reincarnation and resurrection. He 
thought we believed in reincarnation and to him that made a lot of 
sense. His wife tried to explain and the conversation went something 
like this... 
Wife: "Imagine I am bad" 
Him: "you are bad, very bad" 
Her: "okay? So I'm bad and your good. Are you going to let me come 
into YOUR body?" 
Him: Edited comment 
 
Now imagine how much funnier that convo is when you see their 10 year 
old son slap his forehead and start rocking back and forth plugging 
his ears. The poor kid was traumatized! Also the husband is polish and 
the wife is Philapino. English is their common language and neither of 
them know it very well... Haha ahhhh I hope everyone locates the 
filters on their mouths very soon. I walked out of both those houses 
more red then Shaylynn after a day at the beach! (The girl is so 
transparent, she could get sunburnt from a toaster oven!) 
 
Well Anywhoo... Church yesterday was fabulous! This ward always has 
AWESOME fast & testimony meetings! (On the first Sunday of every month 
the first hour of church is set aside for members to bare their 
testimonies. If you don't use it, ya loose it!) 
 
one of the guys that got up to share his testimony, talked a bit about 
his conversion. He said that the other day someone had asked him when 
he KNEW the Book of Mormon was true. He thought about it a bit and 
then said, "well it wasn't 20 years before I was baptized when the 
first copy was given to me by two sister missionaries." "It wasn't 
five years later when someone I worked with told me, 'you know, you 
really should read it'" he went on to talk about different experiences 
he had pushing him in the direction of the church (remember this man 
is from Florida...the church isn't very big out here, yet he had SO 
many interactions with it!) he finally said, "it wasn't until 19 years 
later when I picked it up off my shelf and read it. Then I knew for 
myself." I teared up at his experience. 20 years that man carried 
around a Book of Mormon that two missionaries placed in his hand. 
Those sisters have no idea what their 20 minute conversation did for 
this man's life! It's so cool! The thing that hit home was when 
brother Conway talked about how he had to act to know. A testimony of 
the gospel doesn't just come from wishing for it. I have always felt 
like everyone around me seemed to KNOW the gospel was true, while I 
merely hoped it was. It wasn't until I finally picked up the 
scriptures regularly and really prayed and allowed the atonement to 
have a place in my life that I gained a testimony. The thing is, it is 
so stink'n simple! Either it's true or it's not, but we will never 
know if we don't make an effort. 
 
Well that's all for this week! I love you guys so much! I hope you 
know how much I think about you all. I'm gonna steal a page from 
Dylan's book and say... We aren't there yet, but we are closer than we 
were yesterday. :) 
 
-love Chelsea 
(Sister Upshaw)