"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) 

Poor decisions 5-26-14

HOLY COW! I almost died this week! Okay so here it goes... Thursday we
were on an exchange and I stayed in the area. I was stoked because it
meant we were going to get to bike! I love biking! Sister Skeem hates
it so we don't do it as often, but I forgive her because well she is
perfect in every other way... She just hates to bike. Anyway I was
stoked to bike with this other sister, sister Saxton. So we were
biking down this dirt road, not biking too fast, just telling stories
and talking all about my sweet niece Shell (sister Saxton was one of
the missionaries that taught Shell). When all of a sudden sister
Saxton yells, "PEDAL FASTER!" She took off and I followed close
behind, but I had no idea what she saw. Then I see this huge black
Rottweiler barreling toward us! The thing could have eaten either one
of us without any problem! It chased us about four houses down before
it went back to its yard. I couldn't help, but burst out in laughter
as the scene played through my head. Two missionaries frantically
biking to escape a dog... It was too perfect! If a mission was like
scouting, then that totally would have been another badge on my sash!
The poor decision there was that 3 hours later we were coming back and
I almost went back down the same stree! What if I ever used my brain?

The day before that I was trying to make a U-turn and I saw a break in the median so I went for it! Turns out it wasn't my turn lane… Awkward. My comp got a picture of it haha Guess some things never change? 

Another funny story, but a whole lot cooler of a story happened earlier in the week. We were heading out to our car when all of a sudden a car pulls up right behind our car, blocking us in. A lady jumps out of the front seat and runs strait for my companion! I was all kinds of nervous! She stops toe to toe with my comp and goes, "where is the church you go to!?" It was almost like she just wanted to spit it out before she could stop herself. Turns out she is a member of the church, but hasn't been in a long time. She said she lives in our complex and has seen us a few times, but was too nervous to ask us in the past. Then at that moment she just did it without thinking! I love it!

Okay, I am like all over the place right now and we just had a really awesome ward activity at the park and I am like super tired and only have 2 hours left of p-day. So I am sorry this email is so lame. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day! Stay safe! 

Oh and read 1kings 8:56! God has never not fulfilled a promise and he isn't going to start now! I love you all so much! 

-sista Upshaw 

                                                              Ward field day

She wanted to be like Dylan, so she got herself some kind of eye virus

 

Three legged race

Love bugs or spawn of Satan?

This weeks philosophical debate is brought to you by a science 
experiment gone oh so very wrong... Some brilliant students at FSU (I 
think) thought they could create a bug that would kill Mosquitos, in 
an attempt to control the mosquito population out here. However the 
bug they created does not kill Mosquitos at all. Instead they just 
reproduce faster than any other species known to man and get all over 
EVERYTHING! I have had like 10 fly strait into my eye! Also their 
stomach acid eats the paint of cars... This is what happens when 
people try to play God... Didn't we all learn that lesson from 
Frankenstein? Rant over... I just really dislike these things and one 
just attacked my face so that is what sparked this rant! 
 
Man, this week was kind of hard for me. A lot of people we are 
teaching are facing a lot of really hard things and they are turning 
to me and my companion for answers! We teach a really sweet Italian 
lady named Rita. She is searching for answers. I love teaching this 
woman, but this week we came over and she did not look like herself. 
She was down, but let us in anyways. After talking for a bit she told 
us her cousin committed suicide a couple days before. My heart sunk. 
Her Son committed suicide a few years ago and I knew this would take 
her back to that. I felt tears fill my eyes and I had no idea what to 
say to this sweet woman. She simply told us she didn't believe in 
anything anymore. She didn't believe that if there was a God that 
would have happened, and if there is a God and that's how he treats 
His children then she didn't want any part of it. I prayed so hard as 
I tried to think of something to say, but nothing was coming to me. 
She kept asking why this happened and everything I have a personal 
testimony of, she simply didn't want to hear. We sat silent for about 
15 minutes as she expressed how abandoned she felt. My comp and I just 
listened. Finally, I had the faint prompting to say a prayer with 
Rita. Without thinking I slipped out of my chair onto my knees and 
asked her if we could say a prayer. She didn't object, but she didn't 
really agree either. I started to pray, while still clinging to her 
hand, I cried through the whole prayer. I wanted so desperately for 
this sweet lady to know how much her father in heaven loves her and 
how real He truly is. She was wiping tears away herself by the end of 
the prayer. We have another lesson with her tomorrow! 
 
Once we got back to the car sister Skeem and I didn't speak at all. I 
was so lost in thinking about how hopeless Rita was feeling and how 
she was looking to us to give her that hope. On top of that someone we 
taught the night before has a son that is in a coma and has been for 
over a year. She was looking to us for advice on if she should have 
the feeding tube removed since his chances of waking up are so slim. I 
just felt overwhelmed. These people need answers that I simply just do 
not have. 
 
I said a prayer to myself and then something I studied that morning 
came to mind. I had been studying in Preach My Gospel under Christlike 
attributes and that morning I studied hope. "Hope is an abiding trust 
that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you." This line stuck out 
to me, especially the words, "abiding trust". Then a verse from that 
mornings studies popped in my head. Helamen 5:12, 
 
     "And now, my sons (and daughters) remember, remember that it is 
upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye 
must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his 
mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail 
and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over 
you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of 
the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a 
foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." 
 
Abiding trust means to have a lasting trust. That we don't give up 
hope that God will fulfill his promises. There are some pretty amazing 
promises found in the scriptures, specifically this scripture. If 
Christ is the center of life, then we can not fall. 
 
It is okay that I don't have the answers to some really hard questions 
because I do have the answer to some of the most important questions. 
I know who to look to for guidance and I know how we can be happy and 
successful in this life. I am continuing to understand just how much 
our father in heaven and our savior love us each week and how oh so 
aware they are of us. 
 
I love you all so much! I know Heavenly Father knows each of us 
personally and is so desperately trying to lead each and every one of 
us back to Him. I am more sure of that than I am that the sun will set 
tonight!  The miracles I have seen here couldn't happen if there 
wasn't a God looking after these people. :) 
 
-Much love, Sister Upshaw 
 
P.s. The reason there are like a million and ten pictures of me 
at/near the beach is because this is Florida and that is where all the 
people are Haha we go down there to talk to people like every day! 
Thus... We have lots of pictures by water. I had to clarify that for 
my Guatemalan BFF Jill. ;P 
 
P.s.s HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHELLE! And you too KENZ KENZ!

                  Mustache Slurpee from 7-11

Sharing a shirt

She was told these shoes were made in Guatemala, so  she had to get them in honor of Kelsey

Planting a garden

Happy Mother's Day!

> This week has been pretty swell! Somehow it seems all of our investigators
> had the plague this week though so we were struggling to fill our time.
> That's okay though, nothing a little chalk and a busy park can't fix. :)
> The pictures I sent will explain that... Haha being able to Skype the fam
> bam was great! I wish I could have seen everyone, but mom said everyone is
> doing great so I guess I can wait till Christmas/ till I get home to talk
> to y'all.
>
> Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's in my life! Mama Crouch, Toni, Sister
> Sly, and of course my own, absolutely amazing, Mama. I love each of you so
> much and I hope you had a great Mother's Day!
>
> SO this week I hit my 9 month mark! I have given up on this whole time
> thing... I don't even understand life and I can't explain it, but an hour
> can feel like an eternity yet a month seems like a second. It's so cliche
> to say that, but It is what it is ya know?
>
> I feel like I don't have anything to say because we talked last night...
> haha hmmmmmmm so I suppose I will tell you about a cool experience we had
> on Saturday. So as I said before, EVERYONE was sick or out of town this
> week, (including me and my comp) so Saturday came around and we literally
> had NO ONE to see. So we decided to spend the whole day street contacting
> and what not. Half way through the day we decided to go buy some chalk and
> do this....
>
>
 
>

> We wrote this out in a couple different places and then invited people to
> write/draw things that they had because of their moms. Then we left chalk
> there and came back to check it out at the end of the day. The website on
> there takes you to a really inspiring video about moms and our father in
> heaven.
>
> While we were doing this down by the boardwalk a man stopped and we started
> talking to him. He thought it was so cool. He wrote a few things down and
> then asked if he could take some pictures to post on his blog. He was out
> at the boardwalk that day just taking some pictures (he is a photographer)
> after talking to him a little bit he shared that his mom passed away when
> he was young. We had a really amazing conversation with him and were able
> to answer some questions he had about his mom and where she is.
>
> I loved it! I am so grateful that I have the faith, hope, and knowledge I
> do about God's plan for us. I love sharing it! It brings people so much
> peace!
>
> I know our father in heaven has a plan for each and everyone of us. He
> wants so badly for us to be happy and to be successful. I have no doubt
> that it is hard for him to watch us struggle, but he knows that he has to
> let us do it on our own. He knows it will make us stronger and better
> people, but he is still there to help bare those trials. I've seen it so
> many times out here and in my own life.
>
> I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!
>
> -love always, Sister Upshaw




Birthday lunch with ladies from the area

For those who new Chelsea as a child, they will understand her obsession for trees.  

When her dad would try to trim the tree in the back yard, she would climb up in it 

and yell for her daddy to quit hurting her tree.

Random pictures

Skyping with her on Mother's Day

Florida is trying to kill me! 5-5-14

The wildlife here in Florida is against us! So first and foremost I think 
Shaylynn's irrational fear of ducks may have some validity. We pulled up to 
a house and I opened the car door and a giant duck was staring me down. I 
got out of the car and it starts waddling toward me! I run to the front 
door and duck inside the screened in porch. This daemon duck then goes 
after my companion! She's screaming and the thing is chasing her around the 
yard when the people we were visiting came out and just laughed and 
laughed! Finally we all get inside and close to an hour later as we were 
getting ready to leave we see the duck PACING IN FRONT OF THE DOOR! It was 
waiting for us! We named it Patoloco! Apparently that means crazy duck in 
Spanish? Idk... Then on Friday it was pouring rain and I am now the driver 
(Whoo!) so I can barely see as I'm driving due to the waterfall pouring 
down on my windshield! Finally it gets so bad we decide to pull over. 
It lightened up after about 30 minutes so we went on our way. That night we 
looked at the phone and saw we had a message from the mission that said, 

"extreme tornado alert! Seek shelter now." Oops.... 
 
The next day we were sitting outside messaging some people on FB when a 
huge black snake came out of NOWHERE and slithered about 6 inches away from 
my foot!  Meanwhile the past week or so has been pretty warm so every 
insect imaginable has come out to play. I am pretty convinced 
bugs can sense fear too because they seem to leave everyone else alone, but 
me! Then the icing on the cake.... Mom, remember that one time when I was 
like 10 and we were doing yard work and I was convinced I had gotten a 
sunburn on my palms, but you didn't believe me? Then we found out I was 
allergic to weeds? Well good news! I am 
still very much allergic to weeds! Haha we were doing yard work for this 
lady and after about an hour I notice my arms are covered in hives! I tried 
to take a picture, but it didn't do it justice... It was great! 
 
Even though I'm pretty sure I almost died 100 times, this week was still 
amazing! One experience we had was with this amazing lady who hasn't been 
to church in a long time. When I first met her she was pretty depressed. 
She didn't feel like she had any purpose. We met with her  this week and 
she has been coming to church a lot more lately and everything about her 
has changed! Anyway we are about to say the prayer and she says, I have 
something to tell you.... She looks up at us and said that she had decided 
to pay tithing, but she wasn't sure how. She can't even afford the bills 
she has now. We started to testify that it will all work out, but she 
motioned for us to stop talking. I was kind of taken back by it, but 
listened. She said , I came home last night and divided up my check. 
Tithing first and then slowly I payed everything. When I got to the end I 
just started to cry." My heart sank at this point because I knew she 
didn't have enough money to pay all her bills. She then said through tears, 
"I had money left over! How is that even possible?" I am so grateful for 
that sweet lady! Of course I don't really know what her budget looks like, 
but she had amazing faith. 
 
I know that whenever things seem to not be working out, whether it is with 
school, work, family, or whatever, we just need to see if we are putting 
God first. if we do that then everything that needs to work out will. 
(Malachi 3:10) <-- that is a sweet promise! 
 
I love you all so much! Have a great week! 
 
Love, Sister Upshaw