The Beach, Hurricane Arthur and 4th of July

Before y'all start worrying about how I'm doing because of the Hurricane that happened this last week, I thought I would share a picture with y'all that shows the extent of the damage we had here in Shallotte, NC.

That's right. We had a lot of rain and enough wind to knock over a chair or two. We were advised by President Bernhisel to stay inside and not go out because some areas would get harder, so we did our weekly planning, took a nap, made some phone calls, made a scripture case for Sister Behrmann, cleaned, organized, wrote in journals, put people in the GPS, and made area lists for where all of our members live. It was a good and productive day, while still relaxing.

We watched some "mormon messages" (http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages) while we ate dinner. During that time we missed a text message from our District Leader asking if we were alright because some other missionaries in the Zone had lost service to their phones. We texted them back as soon as we saw the message, but it was too late. The Zone Leaders called us to ask if we were alright! They said that President Bernhisel was sending out an email to all the parents to let them know that we were safe.... so they needed to know that we were still safe! As soon as we got off the phone we imagined the email saying, "All of our missionaries are safe, except for the two sisters serving in Shallotte. They are MIA." 

As for the rest of the week nothing super big happened, mostly just small tender mercies. :)

Monday night we had dinner with the Cheneys. Brother Cheney left the next morning to go to Utah for another month to help his daughters with some stuff. It's not as fun to be here without Brother Cheney!!! 

Tuesday we had lunch with Hazel after we vacuumed her floors. And that night we had a lesson with Brother Nemerov after having dinner with Sister Capitano. I love all the people here! It is crazy for me to think sometimes that I wouldn't know all these people if I hadn't come on a mission. The Lord really does know what is best for us and He will put us where we need to be.

Wednesday we were going to go on exchanges after a Zone Meeting, but because of the hurricane that was coming the next day we decided to cancel it and change it to be next week. 

It seems like no matter what we planned this week and who we were going to try to see that nothing quite worked out except for our lesson with Brother Evans. We had a REALLY good lesson with him on Friday and he is slowly progressing. 

Saturday we visited with a couple of less active families and had dinner with the Apple family. They are a LOT of fun! They have 4 daughters, ages 10-18. They have really strong accents and they have a lot of animals. They have ducks, chickens, pigs, turtles, a cat and a dog. 

Sunday we tried a LOT of houses... and talked to no one. But we had dinner with the Sanchez family and it was SO GOOD! After dinner we held their adorable puppies.......

......and then went to see Brother Neverov again. It was a GOOD lesson. You can see the wheels turning in his head and he gets it! But he keeps saying, "I'm never coming back to church." Never say never my friend! :)

I don't remember if I've told you this or not, but Brother Williams (the 72 year old less active from Fuquay) received the Melchizedek Priesthood a couple of months ago and is working on going to the temple soon. Never give up on ANYONE!!!! 

Love y'all! Have a good and safe week!

Sister Shurtz