Valentine's Day - A Snow "Storm"

As a speaker in Sacrament Meeting said yesterday, "To those of you from North Carolina, I'm glad to see you survived the 'storm.' And to those of you from the North or the West where it snows a lot, I hope you enjoyed your 'normal winter day'. We got about 5 or 6 inches of snow this week! North Carolina and snow don't mix very well...

Monday we had a good relaxing Preparation Day and then we had Family Home Evening with the Burgon family. They have a little boy named John Bradley who is about 3 years old and adorable!
 

Tuesday it was really cold because it was the day before the "snow storm" hit. We taught a few lessons and did lots of planning for some upcoming lessons with Sarah and Josh. Sister Hunt and I talked about Josh a lot and we have both prayed and strongly felt like he really needs to keep coming to the Pittsboro branch and not be sent to the Chapel Hill Elders. So for now we are going to keep teaching him until the Spirit tells us otherwise. That night we visited with Sister Butler and helped her to find ways to remember to read her scriptures every day. I love her so much!

 

Wednesday we went to District Meeting up in Chapel Hill (a 40 minute drive each way) and on our way back it started to snow. We had an inch in the church parking lot when we got there. So we had a snow ball fight with Elder Sosa and Elder Park. Poor Elder Sosa was so cold because he is from Honduras and not used to playing in snow, especially without gloves or other warm clothing. Elder Park is from Salt Lake though, so we all had a lot of fun. Because of the snow however, we stayed in our apartment for the rest of the day. We got a voice mail from President Bernhisel that told us to stay inside for the rest of the day and tomorrow to see how is was and use our best judgement. He then quoted Jacob 6:5, "O be wise; what can I say more?"

 

Thursday it snowed a little more in the morning and overall we got about 5 or 6 inches total. Which means that absolutely EVERYTHING was closed. Walmart, restaurants, grocery stores, everything! The schools were closed the rest of the week and today, a holiday they would usually have off, is spent in school as a make up day. North Carolina doesn't handle snow well. haha So that day we went to the Moon's to borrow some snow shovels so we could do some service and we ended up helping them make cookies and helping them shovel the rest of their driveway. When we got home from their house we found the flowers that Dad and Renae had sent me for Valentine's Day. Thank you!!! They are beautiful!
 

Friday walked around a lot in the morning and did some tracting and found an assisted living home to go do some service at. We are really excited to be able to do that sometime soon. That afternoon we went to visit with Dawn and we took her some of the flowers that Dad and Renae sent me and we took them to her to brighten up her day. She loved them! After visiting with her we rushed back to the Moon's again because they had signed up to feed us dinner. They had also invited Sarah, but Sarah spent most of her week with her daughter who was in the hospital with a blood clot in her lung. So it was just us and the Moons again and we had a great time as always.
 

Saturday was a little hectic as some of our plans fell through and we tried to find a member to come with us to help Josh move a little bit of his stuff and to teach him about the Restoration. We were able to find a member, Sister Smith, and she came with us and spent a few hours helping load and unload things and then teach Josh about the Restoration. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible every day since we gave him one and he wants to get baptized! We don't have a date set yet, but he has the desire and he is excited for it. After our lesson with Josh we went and shoveled Dawn's walk way for her and then stopped by to visit Janice for a few minutes. It was a busy and productive day.

 

Sunday Josh wasn't able to come to church because he had a really bad headache and didn't feel like he could drive. Sarah and Janice were both able to make it to church and we had amazing speakers in Sacrament Meeting and a great lesson on service in Sunday School and a lesson on families in Relief Society. We also had a member bring a friend to church and she wants to come back next week too. It was an amazing day at church! After church we were able to have Josh over to the Moon's. (Yes we spent a lot of time with them this week!) Josh came over and we had a lesson about Joseph Smith and watched the Restoration video. It was so nice outside that we decided to go out for a little while after the lesson and it turned into a snowball fight with the little snow that remained from Wednesday. After Josh's lesson we ran over to Sarah's and went over the baptismal interview questions with her and set up her interview for this Wednesday afternoon. She is so ready and so excited!
 

This week we are going on exchanges again and we are looking forward to another really busy weekend with lots of church activities and a baptism for two girls in the ward. This gospel is true and it brings so many blessings!!!

"When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
 

Count your blessings;

Name them one by one.

Count your blessings;

See what God hath done.

Count your blessings;

Name them one by one.

Count your many blessings;

See what God hath done"

 

Love,
Sister Shurtz