Time Flies!

So first of all I can't believe that Matt's 23rd birthday was yesterday... I still feel like we should both be little kids running together while you steal my toys and make me mad! Boy I'm sure glad we both grew out of that phase!!! Love you Matt and Happy Birthday! I couldn't wish for a better older brother!

 

The start of this week was cold, gloomy, rainy, and icy. We spent most of Preparation Day inside staying warm and dry while cleaning and doing laundry.
 

Tuesday we made Tamales with Sister Zrubek. She is so amazing! We love spending time with her. Unfortunately Sister Hunt and I forgot to take pictures! :( After that Josh called us and asked if we had anyone he could go serve! So we all went over to Sarah Hearn's and did some yard work. Raking leaves here is a year round chore with all these trees! Right after that we went to a lesson with a new investigator, also named Sarah! Sarah Johnson has been coming to church for the past month now with a friend and is already through Alma in the Book of Mormon. We had our first lesson on Tuesday about the Restoration and she committed to pray about being baptized. We met with her again on Saturday at the Branch President's home and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she wants to be baptized! Right now her date is for March 29th. She is absolutely amazing! She is from California and she's a lawyer at UNC Hospital.
 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting that was SO good! To be honest it is hard for me to do role plays most of the time. Role plays are when you pair up with another set of missionaries and one set of missionaries pretends to be someone they are teaching while the other set teaches them something about the church. So usually they are not my favorite, but all the role plays we did this week were a lot of fun! We practiced a lot about how to deal with distractions while we are teaching. My favorite role play was when there was a set of elders practicing teaching me and Sister Hunt was in charge of being the distractions. So first she was a television, and then a radio, and then some kids playing outside, and then the phone rang, and then she knocked on the door trying to sell some girl scout cookies, and then she was a dog. We all decided she was the most creative distraction ever! It was a lot of fun and a learning experience for all of us.

 

Thursday was our planning day. It was also the day the bugs started to appear! As we were sitting at the table in our apartment planning, suddenly Sister Hunt looks right above my head and just freezes! She finally says, "look behind you." But I knew that the wall was only a good 6 inches to a foot behind me, so I slowly stood up and walked away to turn around and see a lovely cock roach about 2 inches long, VERY close to where my head had been. After that we went a little crazy and started scrubbing and cleaning everything we could. But the bugs keep on trying to sneak up behind me! It has happened 4 times now in the last 5 days! And it always happens to me and Sister Hunt always sees them! Luckily though she warns me every time and then we take care of it.
 

Friday we visited with Sarah Hearn and the weather was absolutely crazy so all our other appointments canceled. Pittsboro was about 34 all day and rainy, but there was a line a few miles north of Pittsboro where the temperature was just below freezing, so all the rain would freeze and there were trees down everywhere and power outages for days! We are so lucky that we didn't get hit with the storm!

 

Saturday was a packed day of visits. We saw Sarah Johnson like I already told you. And then we went to visit Janice. We helped her put together some new little book shelves while we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and about Joseph Smith. She is so much more open to accepting the gospel now instead of just merely being curious about it. She still doesn't like to be pushed, so we take it slow, but she is amazing. That night we called Josh to find out that he has been telling everyone that the church has been restored! He has also been living the standards of the church even when put into situation where it would be really easy not to. He is so great and hopefully this week we will be able to figure out a baptismal date for him.
 

Yesterday it was SUNNY and about 65 outside! It was perfect! We had a lesson with Josh that went really well, and then he introduced us to a woman who is about 90 years old. Her name is Anjanette and she is a character! She wasn't very interested in learning more about our church but we left her with some pamphlets and she said she would read them and then probably give us a call. She is a lot of fun to talk to! After that we had dinner at the Spencer's home. Dinner is always SO good there and their family is so great!
 

Today should be just as beautiful and warm so we are hoping to go look in some of the little shops on main street. Hopefully Sarah Hearn will be coming with us because she wanted to go to a couple of them too. Tonight we will have dinner with her and Josh is coming as well. She says we are like daughters to her now and Sister Hunt and I feel the same way.

 

Everything is great here in Pittsboro... besides the bugs! Always remember to smile :)

 

Love,
Sister Shurtz