4-15-13

Dear Family,

Just an fyi, this is going to be a tad short... Today for a big zone activity we are going to one of the members house in the stake and are going to have a big BBQ and play sand volleyball and basketball and just have a good time. I was asked to be in charge of the meat and to figure out with our district and one other to buy, prepare and cook the meat. So it has been a very busy week with all that to do on top of our missionary work and things! We all decided that we would put up 5 dollars a person and so we came out with 60 dollars to feed 30 people! With that I was able to go and find a bunch of sales and deals and was able to buy a huge tube of ground beef that I pattied 54 burgers bought 45 brats and 40 hot dogs and another bbq sauce and seasoning that this is going to be a great activity! We were really excited to be able to find all the deals and for me and Elder Peralta to enjoy shopping together! I just love bbqing too as most of you all know. We will be doing that at about 2 o'clock today! So we need to go and get it all figured out.

This week has been such a busy one with finding new investigators and  prepare for interviews this week with President Meredith! This is our like every three month interviews with him and so we had to get the plans all made in the zone to figure out which church was best for everyone and to figure out which day was best and all that. I love interviews with president so much! He has so much love for us as missionaries that we just love to enjoy that one on one time with him! I am excited because of all the craziness that has been going on with me and with my companions that this is going to be really good to be able to talk to him and to express my feelings and all that. We will also be talking about my release date and when we feel would be best for everyone and for me especially. I will let you all know when we have decided next week, if we have decided for sure on when it will happen.

We were so blessed this week to be able to find two new investigators!!! One of them is the wife of one of our less active members and so it is going to be like killing to birds with one stone since it will be really good for him to listen to all the lessons again and to try to remember how he felt so many years ago when he was a kid and had a testimony. She has been kinda in and out of the spiritual thoughts and messages that we have shared with him over the past few months and she finally sat down with us for the first time this week and said that she would let us teach her. She isn't super interested in the gospel as of now, but she has an interest in just kinda the things we teach people. hahaha She is going to get a kick out of it when she finds out that what we teach people is the gospel!!!!=D man I love missionary work! haha

The other person is a younger couple that just moved into the ward about a month ago. He is a member and she is too basically. The situation is very very complicated, and also is kinda private and so I am not allowed to share much, only that we have set a date with her for the 17th or something in September. I have a feeling that I will not be serving in Brentwood at that time haha and honestly Elder Peralta wont be probably either. But we are thankful for her testimony and for her willingness to listen to us. We are going to be trying to get the date moved up so that we can start working with them to get to the temple! They are such a fun couple! He drives a huge truck and they actually just got back from a big hunting and fishing trip that they went on together! Haha they had pictures of them both just like covered in mud from head to foot but having smiles from ear to ear! haha I hope my future wife will get down in the dirt with me and a gun and be able to smile through the whole thing! It looked like it was a blast! haha

Well that was kinda our week in a nutshell. Elder Peralta is an amazing missionary and I am so blessed to have him as my companion! He has such a humble spirit about him and he just loves everyone he meets and they love him back! I am so blessed to have him as my comp for the next few weeks. Hopefully we will be able to stay together for at least one more, but I have already been out here for 5 transfers and so we will see. Haha Elder Makaya emailed me and told me that if I stay one more that I will tie him for his record of 9 months in one area! We shall see. Usually I have a feeling around this time if I will be staying or not, but this time around I am not sure at all. haha We will just have to see about this one. Thanks everybody for their emails and for their letters! I have been so blessed the past two or so months to be getting letters in the mail box! Sorry that I have only been able to write back to a few of you.... It has been really busy. We finally got to move apartments this week too! Our new one is sooooooooooo nice and soooooooooooooooooooo clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it. I have a picture of me laying on the floor just enjoying the fact that I am not afraid that I am going to grow a third foot if I walk barefoot. haha long story! Love you all. I know that this church is the true church of Christ! I love the fact that I get to preach it every day and that I get the opportunity to help people in their lives and to help them to feel the spirit more and more each day! I am so lucky to be able to wake up and to put my name tag on each morning and know that I truly am a representative of Jesus Christ! That means more to me then anything else! I love you all and I love my mission! It has been a struggle at times, but it truly has been the best little over a year FOR my life! I can't imagine who I would be if I hadn't chosen to go on a mission! I Know it, I live it, and i do LOVE it!!!! Thank you all so much and I will write again next week!

 

Love,
Elder Shelley