Here is What I Did Last Summer

In addition to teaching the gospel, missionaries love to give service!  My companion and I helped the Grahams build a deck and a shed this summer.  Here are some pictures of us at work!

 

Love Being a Missionary!

Another week come and gone and it is almost October! It really is crazy how time flies!

As you probably have all seen, we are using facebook every day. It is really a fun thing to do and a great way to reach our investigators and potentials and also our friends and family back home. I am so glad to be able to use this new tool in the Lord's work. And by the way, you are all more than welcome to comment on, like, and / or share any of my posts.

On Wednesday we did exchanges and I got to go back to Green Level for a day with Sister Brown! I got to see Karen too which was so nice!!! It was a little weird to be back in my old area with my old companion, but it was also a lot of fun to be with her and catch up on things going on. We stopped by a less-active family that we had stopped by before with no luck and a little rudeness. But this time the husband answered and let us in and we talked with the family for an hour! It was so fun to get to know them and hopefully Sister Brown will have more luck in the future with them.

Thursday we did some more service for the Grahams and they are very excited for General Conference this weekend. We are going to watch the Saturday Afternoon session with them and we are hoping it will be a great experience.

Dominique, the 20 year old we met last week, has been having a rough week this week. Despite all that was going on we still took her on a church tour and on Saturday she came to a baptism in the morning and the relief society broadcast that evening! She also came to church yesterday! We are going to try and teach her again this week and introduce the plan of salvation.

Friday we met a woman in the ward named Sister Fuller. Her mother was a temple worker for years at the Washington DC temple but she hasn't come to church lately. She has been having a rough year with having various close people die because of cancer. She is amazing! We were able to show up at her house during a time when she really needed it. She agreed to get a priesthood blessing because she has a strong testimony of the priesthood. It was a very sweet experience for everyone involved, including her non-member husband.

I am so very blessed to be a missionary! I love these people so much and I feel so blessed to have met them and to have this time devoted to helping them come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Have a great week and enjoy General Conference!
 

Love,
Sister Shurtz

Miracles Left and Right

So this week has been a week of learning and also of miracles!

First of all... yes the North Carolina Raleigh mission is now on facebook. So no I'm not breaking any rules! And yes I ended up making another account for my mission stuff so it wouldn't mess up my other page. As missionaries we will be posting scriptures and videos that we feel will help the investigators and members in our areas as well as the friends and family we have back home. We have to have our companion check EVERYTHING we post before we post it, even when we are chatting. We are only supposed to chat and talk to people when it is helping them come closer to Christ and help to answer their questions about the church. We can even have lessons on line now! It is an exciting thing and I can't wait to finish setting it all up so I can actually start using it!

We have 4 new investigators for this last week and both Sister Draper and I are super exciting to keep teaching them because we see their potential. One woman is 20 and has an adorable little 5 month old girl. We met her a week ago and we have talked with her every day on the phone! We have also taught her twice (both times covering the restoration) and she has committed to be baptized next month!

Saturday was Sister Draper's 21st Birthday! As limited as we are as missionaries we still managed to celebrate and we are going to keep celebrating today by getting pedicures. I love Sister Draper so much and I am so grateful to be with her here in Fuquay. She is teaching me so much and helping me be better every day. I just love her!!!

Yesterday alone we had many miracles.

One was a text we received telling us that Brother Robinson, who has been meeting with missionaries for years, has finally committed to his wife to be baptized by Thanksgiving!  Last we had talked with him he said by Christmas.... so this is a good thing!

We also have a less active, Brother Williams, who is finally going to work on getting to the temple! I love him so much and I am so happy that he is finally coming back to church and has that desire to go to the temple at the age of 72.

These are just a few of the amazing things that happened yesterday and I am very excited for this next week to see what other miracles are waiting to happen. This next week I will also be going on exchanges and I get to go back to Green Level with Sister Brown! It will be so weird to go back but really great too.

Being a missionary is the best! It is also really really hard, but it is completely worth all of the homesickness, stress, and trials you go through. To be able to see people coming closer to being with their families forever just puts the biggest smile on my face! Crazy that I have been out for 4 months... even though they have probably been the longest 4 months on my life.

 

Jesus Christ lives! He loves us! He helps us every day with those things we need most! Trust in Him!

Love,

Sister Shurtz

I Love You

A story I forgot to tell you about last week... I got my skirt caught in my bike. Yeah that's right, the thing I was scared would happen... happened. It was super embarrassing! Luckily we weren't on a busy road when it happened. Somehow it got stuck between the back tire and the brake. We honestly don't know how it happened and ended up putting a hole in my skirt in the process of trying to get it out. Yes I know... I have skills.

This week we were dropped by 3 of our investigators. On a good note we also were able to get in contact with about 3 less active members and now have a better idea of how to help them.

This week we also did some more service for Brother Graham. We helped build a deck (only about a foot off the ground) with power tools! Sister Draper and I both felt pretty accomplished afterwards. I will be sending pictures of that as soon as I can get them from Brother Graham. He also came to church again and loved it! I have hope that one day we can get Sister Graham to come too!

 

We did meet with one of our investigators this week and he kinda set a baptismal date! Brother Robinson has been coming to church (with his wife and children who are members) and reading the book of mormon  for a really long time now and he said that he will be baptized before Christmas! So it's a ways away... but at least he is committing to something! It is so exciting to think that he has almost gotten to the point where he can say he's finally ready to start his journey to coming closer to the Savior and work towards having an eternal family.

The Wrights has us over for dinner this week and they invited a couple of non member friends who are somewhat interested in learning more. They are super sweet people and have 4 little boys. Hopefully we will be setting up a time on a future preparation day to spend some time with them at their barn. Unfortunately we can't ride the horses... but we can still spend some time getting to know them and helping do some service for them and the horses.

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that He is watching out for us. He is waiting to bless us and all we need to do is follow his commandments and be the best we can be.

Have a great week family! I love you so much and thank you all for the letters this week and the pictures.

Love,
Sister Shurtz

Wickens, Pie, Bikes and the Priesthood

This week has been very interesting.

Friday we spent all day walking around a neighborhood nearby... that's right we did some tracting! The first house we knocked on had a bright red door that I thought looked kinda cute! When the man opened the door and we told him who we were he just laughed. We asked what he was laughing  at and he pointed on his storm door and said, "well I thought you would have recognized that!" It was a bright red star on the glass... the same color as the door... how were we supposed to see that?!?! Anyways we asked what it meant and he responded, "we're Wicken!" We said, okay well you have a nice day. Suddenly the cute blood-red door just looked creepy.

We did meet a great woman that day though who wants us to come back to visit her next week at the same time. She has some great questions and she loved the part of the Book of Mormon we shared with her (1 Nephi 8:36-38) because it is exactly how she feels about her 4 sons.

That night we had an appointment which we had a member come with us to... only she either wasn't home or didn't answer her door. So instead the member took us to get milkshakes and dropped us off at the church building where we helped to set up for a ward activity. The ward did an indexing challenge and the loosing auxiliary, which ended up being the youth, got pied in the face with whipped cream and then we went inside and ate real pies that people brought. It was a great activity!

 

Saturday we took out our bikes and had a fun adventure! We spent all day outside and knocking on doors and no one really wanted to listen to us... but it's ok because we still planted a lot of seeds and contacted some potentials from the area book. I was very saddle sore that day though, that's for sure. But we haven't been sore since, which is a great blessing because we both thought we were going to be in a lot of pain the next day.

Sunday was a day that I will always remember. Sister Draper (who a absolutely LOVE by the way!!!) and I had a dinner appointment at a member's home, the McKeons. Sister McKeon's brother is also in the ward and he was there as well because his wife is out of town. Basically this is one of the most fun and most spiritual families I have ever known! I love them so much! While we are talking Brother Crenshaw (the brother) looks at Sister Draper and I and asks if we want or need a blessing. We said yes that would be great! Brother Crenshaw and Brother McKeon then gave us some of the most powerful and specific blessings we have ever received. I was told that I am needed in Fuquay because of connections between people here and "my kindred dead". I basically feel like I'm going to be staying in Fuquay for a while because I know there is some important work here for me to do.

The gospel is true. The Priesthood is SO real. Our Heavenly Father knows us and exactly what we need. Remember to pray! He wants to hear from us and help us! I love you all so much.

 

Love,
Sister Shurtz

Third Transfer Already?

Hello dear family!

 

It is crazy to think that the summer is over and everyone is heading back to school. It is so weird that I'm not starting school today in Provo along with my friends. Would you call me crazy if I said I miss school? haha

 

This week has been great! It seems like it has been super long for some reason though. It feels like Sister Draper has been my companion forever. I love her so much! We get along great! She is fun and loving and a powerful teacher.

We have another set of sisters in the district now so we're not the only ones at district meetings. We went out to lunch together too after district meeting and it is so fun to have some girl time. And I had the BEST milkshake I have ever had. It was from Cookout. SO GOOD!!!! It was peanut butter fudge, Reece, and snickers. yeah... SO GOOD! haha

 

This week we didn't have anyone come to church, but we hope that will change next week. We just changed times (yes they change in September here) so we meet at 9 now.

This week we referred Daniel to the elders because we feel like it would be better for him to be taught by boys. We still keep in touch and see how he's doing, but we aren't actively teaching him.

 

Today we went over to the Grahams and helped with some leveling because he's going to be building a deck to go with the shed we have been helping him build. We were out there in the mud because it stormed this morning and then the sun came back out and it was nice and HOT while we were working. They are planning on coming to church and today we talked about the Book of Mormon with them and about how it relates to the Native Americans. He really liked that because he is really into history. Hopefully we sparked his interest enough to get him to read a little bit of it.

This next week we will be on bikes... YAY!!! Sister Draper and I are both looking forward to it a little bit though because it will help us to get more in shape that we feel like we are currently. Luckily our area isn't too large and we have some amazing ward members who are always willing to help us out any time they can. I truly love Fuquay!!!

I hope y'all have a great week! Do something to share the gospel this week! Go out with the missionaries! Post something on facebook or your blog that ties into the gospel! Invite a friend to an activity! (yes this goes for the little ones too) Just do something to plant that seed in people's hearts that will one day help them to want to learn more. A little thing truly goes a long way!

 

Love,
Sister Shurtz