Happy Fall Ya'll

The cold has finally hit North Carolina. It has been bright and sunny, but bitterly cold and with a wind that really gets to you when you're in a skirt.

On Tuesday Sister Richardson and I drove to Raleigh for a meeting or two before we met our new companions. Sister Richardson is in a town very similar to Pittsboro, but will be speaking Spanish. My new companion is Sister Hunt. She is from Twin Falls, Idaho, has long, brown, curly hair, is super cute, and I LOVE HER! She and I are similar in a lot of ways.

Wednesday we had district meeting and tried to meet with Christina but with no luck. We went to mutual that night, an appropriate "dark time activity", and helped the Young Women to make a "Thankful Tree." We all wrote different things we are thankful for on leaves that we cut out of different colors of paper and stuck them on the paper tree already on the wall. It was fun and a good chance to get to know the youth a little better. I would like to start helping them find ways they can share the gospel with their friends.

Thursday we met with Michelle and taught her about baptism. She has decided to think about it and we will follow up with her tomorrow at our next lesson. She also came to church this Sunday and participated in class as well as offered to say the closing prayer. She is so sweet and Sister Hunt and I both love her a lot!

On Friday we went to have lunch at a member's home and to go visit a few members who live out by her in Moncure. It was another great experience to get to know the members and also to hopefully build some trust. After that we stopped by Brother Pants' home... remember him? The man who called and asked me on a date after I met him at the gas station? Yes, he lives in my area now and we stopped by to see him. The address he gave us apparently was his niece's home and so we were able to go inside and teach the Restoration in about 5 minutes. It was by total chance that he was there, seeing as he doesn't live there, and they aren't very interested, but thanked us for our time and we left them with some resources to contact us if they are interested in the future. As we left I asked "Brother Pants" if he remembered me and he said, "Yes Ma'am I do!" It is amazing how the timing of the Lord works. We were not planned to be anywhere near Moncure that day, but the Lord guided us to be able to meet with these members, who are usually very busy, and also to find "Brother Pants" just before he was going to leave his niece's home.

After our visits in Moncure we came back up to Pittsboro and ended up doing some tracting. Sister Hunt is amazing! She has no fear and is very comfortable with talking to people. We had many really good contacts with people that day and planted some seeds. One woman who was outside blowing her leaves off her driveway was very kind and talked with us for about 10 minutes. It is amazing how the Lord really does guide us to find people who need a little encouragement or who are looking for the unique message we have.

Saturday was the day that Brother Robinson, in Fuquay, got baptized! Little happy note :)

Yesterday we took some cookies and some invitations to the Branch's Christmas Open House to people and had a lot of really good visits. Activities are such an amazing way to invite people to the church and get them to meet people.

Today Sister Hunt and I are going on an adventure to Walmart, a 20 minute drive up the road. I'm sure there will be pictures next week... we like taking pictures. haha

Love you all so much! Have an amazing Thanksgiving! I will be well taken care of by the Branch. We are going to the Parrish's home for lunch/dinner and they are going to be making me some sweet potatoes. :) This is one happy missionary. Brother Parrish is actually from Quincy and his brother lives in Wenatchee. He also was really good friends with the Jardines and would go over to their home frequently... which is the house right next to ours... It's a small world in the church!

I am so grateful for each of you and feel so blessed to be in this amazing family!
All my love,

Sister Shurtz

Fifth Transfer with my Sixth Companion

Transfers are tomorrow and I am going to be staying in Pittsboro and training a new sister. That's right, this is companion number 6. Can you believe I've been out for 6 months? Crazy that time really does fly by.

This week has been great. On Wednesday we had a meeting with Elder Baxter of the Seventy. He and his wife are amazing and they really helped us to find ways to be better. He is very bold! haha Both of them have amazing conversion stories of when they were younger and their mothers let the missionaries into their home because they felt sorry for them and how cold it was or how wet they were from the rain. He said to never stay inside because the weather is a little bad, always go out and work and do your best!

After the meeting ended we were able to stop by a few people's houses and have great lessons with them! One of those was Christina and her daughter. We were able to talk about the importance of coming to church and that did the trick! They came to church this week and they loved it!

After church we went to see a woman we have been trying to meet with for the last 6 weeks. Her name is Janice and she has been having some health problems lately. We went to visit her and we were able to have a great conversation and lesson about why we are here and how the Atonement of Christ is always there to help us through the hard times. Christ chose to go through everything He did for us. He did not have to come here and suffer in order to know what we would need to make it through our trials. He CHOSE to come and to suffer so He would know the pains and the sicknesses and everything that we go though.

Something that I think I have failed to mention is that there are Spanish Speaking Elders here in Pittsboro with us. They are super great to work with! Elder Gonzalez and Elder Lowham. One day, we happened to match each other perfectly... so we took a picture :)

 

Sorry this one is a little short, but know that I am doing well and I am loving it here in Pittsboro. I am sad to be losing Sister Richardson because she has taught me so much and is such a great missionary! I love her so much! But she is going to be heading South and training a new Spanish Speaking sister. She is SO EXCITED! haha

Hope you have a great week! Love y'all!!
Sister Shurtz

Becoming as a Little Child

This is the last week of the transfer already! Transfers are on the 19th. Sister Richardson and I still are not sure what is happening, but we suspect that we are going to be split up as the mission is welcoming three Spanish speaking sisters, a new call for the Raleigh Mission for sisters to speak Spanish, and Sister Richardson was told a few months ago to start learning Spanish. We should be getting a call in the next few days to find out exactly what is happening.

This week I found out that Brother Robinson (from Fuquay) is going to get baptized on the 23rd of this month! I am so excited for him and his family!

This week I have learned a lot! As Sisters we are not allowed to be out after dark unless we have an appointment set up. In this area it has been hard to have an appointment. It gets dark around 5:30! Because of that we have a lot more study time and time to make phone calls and things after dinner. I have really dived into "Jesus the Christ" as well as continuing reading the Old Testament and I am loving reading and learning more about Christ and about the different groups of people who were on the Earth during those periods of time. I feel like I am finally starting to understand exactly what the Tribes of Israel are and their importance. I love having time to study, but it is hard because you feel like you can't be as productive during that time.

We stopped by Christina's to see if we could catch her at home and we did! We were able to have a really good lesson with her and hopefully we will be able to set up an appointment with her soon. I love her and her family so much!

We met with Michelle and Irene again this week and at the end of the lesson we were told that Irene has another church she wants to start going to more regularly so she doesn't need any more "bible studies." Everything ended on a good not though and there are no hard feelings whatsoever. We stopped by a few days later just for a few minutes to check on her and see how she was doing.

I really love being in North Carolina during this time of the year because of all the trees changing colors! They are beautiful and everywhere! Also, it is about 50-60 degrees every day, so it makes it a little more tolerable to be in a skirt every day.

Sunday was the Primary Program and it was so fun to see all the children of the branch get up and share their testimonies about how they know they are a child of God. It definitely made me miss all the nieces and nephews back home! It is amazing how simple and powerful a child's testimony can be. I aspire to be more like them! To be able to trust and have such amazing faith. And just like it says in the Book of Mormon:

"And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, ad be baptized in my name, and become as a little child or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God." (3 Nephi 11:37-38)

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19)

Becoming as a little child is something I'm going to be working on this week.
I hope y'all have a great week! I love you so much!

Love,
Sister Shurtz

Fall in NC!



I love the Autumn Leaves!

This week did not go as planned. haha

 

Last Monday Sister Richardson and I ended up spending all day in Siler City (About 20 minutes from here, but still in our area) because the Elder's tire popped on them, so we got to help them out a bit. That night we helped a recent convert unpack some boxes that have been sitting in her house for a while and it worked out perfectly because the next day we went to see a less-active family who is moving soon and needed boxes. The Lord always provides a way! haha

 

Later on Tuesday we had another lesson with Michelle and Irene. It was such a good lesson / Bible Study! We talked about the Plan of Salvation and they both seemed to accept it really well! Michelle also came to church this week and she loved it!

 

Sadly Christina canceled on us twice this week so we didn't get to see her. It is so hard when people have things come up and they are busy all the time! And it is also hard to see people who have come so close to the spirit and see how HARD Satan works on them. Satan is REAL! He is out there to get us all to turn away from our Savior and it is so easy to let him sneak into our lives! I think that is one of the main reasons I love the scriptures so much is because it gives me that help and focus for each day.

Halloween was a day of planning, and then we had dinner at a member's home. Right before we got there the power went off in the house. This is the second time that has happened to me on my mission. Luckily she was done with the food by the time the power turned off and we just opened all the blinds and it was fine.

On Friday the Lassiters canceled on us because they were out of town. Again, it is so hard to see people who have a great lesson with us and then they suddenly get very busy and Satan works so hard on them! Hopefully we will meet with them this next week as well.

I really love all the people here in North Carolina! It is so different from home and I just really love it! Have a great week! And thank you so much for all your emails and helping me to feel the spirit more today. You are all amazing examples to me! I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Shurtz

Me with a mural on the side of a building

A Pretty Church in Town :)

Yay, Fall leaves!

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