Monday, July 14, 2014

Biking, Spiders and Piano

This has been one of the longest weeks of my mission life and also one of the most productive!

Monday night we had a lesson with our new investigator Joe. He wanted us to teach him out on the porch instead of inside his house so sat outside with Sister Ruth and Joe and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. We were so blessed to teach him the lesson and not get one single bug bite and we didn't even have spray on! It was a miracle for sure! 


Tuesday we left early in the morning to drive up to Wilmington for Zone Conference. We had a great meeting, in which I played the piano for the opening and closing songs. After the meeting President asked to talk to Sister Behrmann and I. He informed us that we would be staying together for another transfer (which means we'll be together and in Shallotte at least until the middle of September) and that he wants us to be the Sister Trainer Leaders for the Southern half of the Wilmington Zone. As a Sister Leader we will be in charge of scheduling and conducting exchanges with two other sets of Sister Missionaries. We will also have a monthly meeting to go to in Raleigh (3 hours away from here). And we will teach once or twice a month in meetings. 


After the meeting we went on exchanges! I stayed in Wilmington with Sister Ashworth. We had a LOT of adventures. We taught a new investigator who just got out of jail the week before. We went to a less active's home they haven't been able to see for a month. In 90+ degree weather and 1,000% humidity we went biking for a couple of hours. The road we needed to go down didn't have sidewalks all the way... so we did some off roading in the grass and sand and rocks. When we made it to the house we had our appointment at and we were both just dripping sweat! On the way back we made it like, 1/4 of the way home and the tire on the bike I was riding... which was Sister Avondet's bike... popped! The front tire was completely flat! I felt so bad and offered to pay to fix it, but she won't let me. Did I mention that Sister Avondet is around 5 feet tall and her bike is little? It was fun to ride next to a really busy street! And to top it all off, I got a REALLY good sunburn on the back of my neck. Being a missionary is the BEST!


Thursday we did service at the thrift store and then went to teach Brother Evans. Unfortunately our member who was going to come with us got sick so we just sat outside for a little bit with him. That night we had a lesson with Joe and taught him about the Restoration. It was really good and hopefully he will be able to make it to church next week! 


Friday we had a meeting with Bishop Fish because our ward mission leader, Brother Cheney, is out of town. It was so great! Bishop Fish is so dedicated and so on FIRE! It's so fun working with him. 


Saturday morning we got to the church at about 8:00 to fill up the font for a baptism the South Port Elders were having in our building at 10:30. We got there and found about 5 dead spiders in the font and one live one. After taking care of all those little friends. We turned on the water. After about 30 minutes we came back and it was about 1/2 full. And right on the top was a HUGE spider just swimming around. We used a really long pole and a cup to get the spider out and finally got the font filled and it was even warm! 


After the font was filled the Elders asked me if I could play the piano because they didn't have anyone to play. They told me the songs so I practiced and felt like I was ready to play. The first song went well! There was a special musical number right before the actual baptism and so Sister Behrmann and I decided to skip out on that so we could check for more spiders. After we checked the font and found no more friends we were relieved! Until Brother Leggett came and told me that they needed me to play for the special musical number! I sat down at the piano and opened up the song the children were singing and found that I have NEVER played that song before and there were 3 flats! YIKES!!!! Somehow (blessings) I stumbled my way through it all. 


I think that covers all the stressful moments from the baptism. 

Sunday morning we show up to church and Bishop comes walking up and says, "Shurtz! It was meant to be that I found out yesterday that you play the piano. Brother Cook Jr. is sick and Judy is out of town. You're up!" So I got to play last minute for Sacrament meeting! 


I would like to take a second to thank Sister Bowen and Jill for being such wonderful piano teachers and helping me to be able to play hymns and sight read so well! Love you and I'm so sorry for all the grief I gave you when I didn't practice!


I love y'all and I love this gospel. I love our Savior and I know that He loves us. 
 
Sister Shurtz

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