A Slow Week that Ended with a Bang!

So this week was a little slow and we struggled with getting members with us to our lessons because none of our investigators would set a day and time to see them. Everyone has just been busy lately.

Needless to say I went into Sunday feeling like I hadn't done a lot this week (mostly because our numbers were low this week, no one we invited came to the branch Halloween party, and no one came to sacrament meeting). But as the day went on more miracles started happening!
 

The first was a member who has been having a hard time lately asked us to come over to her house and help her with some things and we got to teach her and her children a great lesson while we ate lunch and did some service.

After that we made some more visits and tried some referrals we had received... with no luck. Then we tried stopping by Christina (who has been sick) and ended up talking about teaching her daughter too, because she wants to be baptized! Then we talked to just Christina about commandments and the Word of Wisdom. This means making some changes but we set a plan and she is going to do great! She is going to aim for the 16th now and I know it's going to happen! I love her so much and I love seeing her have that desire to make changes. She has inspired me to make the small changes that we all need to make in our lives as we talk about praying and her attempts to just not be as angry as normal. I just sit there and think about all the little things I need to be working on!
 

After Christina's we went to a house to say happy birthday to a little girl in a family that we are teaching and the neighbor's little girl was there. She asked us the week before when we were there if we would come to her house. We stopped by but only the father was home but he said we could come back again later. After not really thinking much about it, the little girl asked us again if we would come to her house so we thought we would just stop by before it got dark and we had to go home anyways.
 

They let us in and we had one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever experienced! They are so devoted to the Lord and trying to do what He wants for them and they accepted everything we told them! They are just simply amazing people. They were talking about there being something in our eyes that was just pulling on them. As we explained our purpose and that we have been called by a prophet of God to share this message they both gasped and said, "that's what it is!" We are going to be meeting with them, the Lassiters, again on Friday.

I know there is a reason I am here on a mission and I know that the Lord places people who really have been prepared in the path of the missionaries.

I hope you all have a great week and a Happy Halloween!
 

Love,

Sister Shurtz

4 Languages, 3 Sisters, 2 Unexpected Pets, and 1 Week Together

Sister Frampton, Sister Richardson, and I


This week has been one of the funnest of my mission by far. Sister Frampton, Sister Richardson, and I all get along together very well... and we've been taking a lot of pictures of our adventures. I am sad to say that Sister Frampton is getting transferred tomorrow. There was a sister who went home and so President is splitting us up and sending our sweet Norwegian speaker to Wilmington. :(

 

This week has been full of miracles and great experiences.
 

Tuesday we went and taught Christina again and it was a very powerful lesson in which she said she definitely wants to be baptized and is shooting for November 9th. It is amazing to hear how she has been praying more and seeing the differences!

On Wednesday we were a little at loss for what to do because our appointments fell through. We ended up on a random street knocking some doors and we met some amazing people outside! Unfortunately they do not live in our area, but they are super prepared! It is always fun to find those people who already live the standards we do and see the importance of it!

 

Thursday we knocked some doors and had some interesting conversations but gave Sister Frampton some learning experiences for sure. that night we visited a recent convert and had a great lesson with her.


Friday was Zone conference which is when President told us that he was going to be splitting us up. We were so sad!

Saturday we knocked some more doors and tried some former investigators. We met an AMAZING woman named Brandy. She is one of those people who is ready to hear the message, as long as she doesn't reject the spirit she has already felt. We are still working with her a little bit but she told us she wasn't super interested after only 24 hours. We gave her a book of mormon and she is going to read a verse or two that we send her every day.

Yesterday was very adventurous. We happened upon a mental institution that is hidden back in the middle of the woods while looking for a potential investigator... it was a little creepy to say the least. We all had the creepy crawlies for a while after that one. On our way home we stopped to take some fun pictures at a cow farm while the sun was setting. I love these Sisters so much! We have a lot of fun speaking our different languages in the apartment. Sister Frampton practices her Norwegian while Sister Richardson practices her Spanish and I speak in English and attempt ASL.


We have fun friends in our apartment... our 2 unexpected pets. We have a mouse named Lucy and a GIANT cockroach named Rick. As far as we know they are both living behind our dishwasher... yeah it's pretty fun. Also in the morning when we go running we have to be careful not to spook any deer (because there are about 20 out each morning on the path we run on) so they don't charge us. We have fun in Pittsboro! haha

 

Love you all so much! I'm glad you all had fun on your trip! I'm looking forward to seeing pictures! :)
 

~Sister Shurtz

These are pictures from Fuquay. One is of me with a girl we were teaching off and on named Janell.

Sister Brown and I at transfer meeting because I'm not sure if I'll see her again before she leaves in two transfers.



A couple of fun pictures of Sister Frampton, Sister Richardson, and I

Leaving our apartment one day :)

Sister Frampton and I

 

Pittsboro with Sister Richardson

Hey Y'all! This week has been very interesting. Tuesday morning we set out a little late for transfer meeting, only to have our tire blow out on us as we were about 5 minutes away.... on the freeway. No injuries or anything, but we just were very late for our meeting and we are both training new missionaries having no training ourselves on how to do that. Luckily for me I have Sister Richardson, who is super great! She is from Idaho and loves rock climbing. We have a lot of fun together and we teach well together.

Something interesting about the Pittsboro Branch area is that it has a very large Hispanic population. Sister Richardson is working on learning Spanish because she might be training one of the first Spanish speaking sisters coming out next transfer. Today we are also picking up our new companion who is waiting for her visa to go to Norway. It is going to be a very interesting dynamic.

We are teaching an amazing woman, Kristina. She lost her husband a few months ago and has two children. She is working for a baptismal date next month. Her husband was a less active member and she has some in-laws who are active members who she has learned a lot from.

There are some other investigators here, but I haven't been able to meet with them yet. Hopefully we will be able to see them this week.

We have done a lot of work with less-active members this week. In one day we had lessons with 4! It was a great day! Interestingly we ended up teaching a less-active member and her boyfriend who is from Syria. He is not the most open minded person and feels like he knows a lot about Christianity, and he is always right because of where he is from. It will be interesting to see if we will continue meeting with him and see if he will eventually soften. He has agreed to read the Book of Mormon and hopefully that will help him to understand.

This morning I finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through! It is a great accomplishment because my first day in North Carolina I was given a new copy and told to read it and mark different things, such as references to Christ and his attributes and other things. I was already part way through when I got here, so I started on page 145 at the beginning of Mosiah. Today I finished all the way through to the beginning of Mosiah again. I love the Book of Mormon!!! I know it is true and it has helped me every day as I have been reading it. I also read Jacob 5 yesterday and I finally feel like I am understanding what it is talking about! I think I just needed to wait until I was personally a part of the Gathering of Israel as a full time missionary to understand. I just love the Book of Mormon to no end. Now I am going to start reading the Old Testament as well as the Book of Mormon. I just love learning! haha

 

 Hope all y'all have a great week in California together! Have fun and stay safe! I love you so much! :)

 

Love,
Sister Shurtz

Missionary Life

Here are some pictures of some of the things a missionary does!

Lovely Sister Draper and I

We took a creative break while tracting to take some pictures on the rail road tracks... :)

 

District Pictures!

Beautiful Fuquay Varina water tower. (By the way... Scotty McCreery is from the next town over and I think of his song "Water Tower Town" every time I see the water towers and I have found that the lyrics are SO true!!!)

Sister Draper and I biking for the week :P

Farewell Fuquay

That's right everyone, I'm getting transferred yet again. Yay for new companions every transfer! I am bummed because we are making so much progress here and I really love being with Sister Draper. But I know that Pittsboro needs me and so do my new companionS. That's right I get to be in a trio! I will be with Sister Richardson, who has been out for quite I while, for a week and then together we will be training a sister who is going to be in North Carolina while she is waiting for her visa to come. Pittsboro is a little place that is very country and has a small branch in it. President asked me if I knew any Spanish because it would really come in handy there he said. Should've paid more attention in Spanish in High School!

 

This week has been really REALLY good though! Tuesday morning we spent some time tracting around the apartments we live in. We found an older couple who were helping their daughter and grandson move in and we offered to help. At first they all said, "oh we're ok, thanks though!" We tried to convince them to let us help and finally Sister Draper says, "We've been praying to have opportunities for service!" At that the older mother said, "Well guys, you can't fight that! They've been praying to help people!" So we got to help and last night we took them some cookies. Only in the South and in Utah would it work to say, "We've been praying for this, let us help you!" haha
 

That night President called to inform us that we are getting split up. Sister Draper is staying in Fuquay and she will be training. I am going to Pittsboro. Needless to say we were both sad and very shocked. But we have come to accept it and know it is for a reason.

Wednesday we had Zone Meeting where I played the piano yet again. (Have I ever told you that I am asked to play at every district and zone meeting we have?) I am also playing at transfer meeting tomorrow... I'm basically at the point where I don't care if I mess up anymore as long as the people just keep singing and let me catch up! haha
 

That afternoon we had a lesson with Dominique that went well and she also came to watch conference yesterday and received a priesthood blessing. She is changing so much and I wish I could stay here to see her progress more.
 

Wednesday night we were able to teach the Young Women at mutual. We watched some great videos from the mormon channel and then we played "missionary question Jeopardy" where Sister Draper and I pretended to be the girl's non-member friends and we asked them different questions about the church. The point was to help the girls find easy and simple ways to answer questions and also to help them realize how much they really do know! Hopefully it helped and they will be more confident in sharing what they believe.
 

Thursday we taught Sharon again. Have I told you about Sharon? She is wonderful and we have been teaching her for about 3 weeks now. She was a referral from her friend who lives in another ward. This week we taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was so powerful! There were tears shed and the spirit was there in full force! I am so excited for Sharon every time she reads and learns more about the gospel!

Friday we went to the TEMPLE!!!! It was so amazing! It was great to see Sister Brown and Sister Beech again as well as spend time learning and just feeling at peace. The new video is amazing and definitely brought up some different perspectives that I had not thought of before.

We also had dinner with an amazing family that moved to the ward a few months ago. After dinner they took us to Sunny Skies Ice Cream which is a home made ice cream place that has at least 50 flavors. Everything you could possibly think of is there!!! I got banana pudding and it was SO good!!!
 

Saturday we watched the first session of conference at our Ward Mission Leader's home with his wife. It was nice to be in a place where we could all really focus and feel the spirit! The second session we watched at the church building with Brother Graham who seemed to like it and was very interested in watching the rest of the sessions! I am really going to miss the Grahams when I leave, but I know they are going to continue to learn and grow... even if it is a little slow. We then had dinner at the Crenshaws, some of my most favorite people in the world.
 

After dinner we went to visit Sister Fuller again to tell her that I was leaving. She was very sad to see me go but she understands how it works and we are going to keep in touch. I love her so much!!! She has such a strong testimony and I can't wait to see it blossom even more!
 

Sunday we watched the morning session at a member's home. From there we went to the Crenshaw's again and we got blessings from Brother McKeon and Crenshaw... again. Basically It takes a lot of extra help from the priesthood in order for me to be a missionary! I am so grateful for it though! Basically lets just say that my next area is going to be a place for me to learn a lot... prayers and encouragement would be appreciated! haha But I know it will all be worth it and I will love it!
 

Yesterday Brother Robinson also said he has been talking about a baptismal date for the 16th of November. I AM SO EXCITED FOR HIM!!! It has been coming for 7 years and I know his family is excited and happy for him to take this step as well. :)
 

Well... now that I've written a novel for y'all to read, have a great time in California this next week! I'm sad I'm not there with y'all, but at the same time, you know I'm not a huge fan of amusement parks. But you'll have to learn to watch your own children ;) please send me some pictures! I love you my dear family!
 

Love,
Sister Shurtz

 P.S. - pictures of Sister Draper and I will Sister Fuller and her husband and also of us at the temple :)