12/14/15 - Clinton, North Carolina

Holy frijoles! So many things to say every week!! Last Monday we had the FHE at the members home again and Elder Rogers and I decided to do a presentation including us teaching the first lessons and ending with a baptismal invitation all in 3 minutes!! We did it in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. We taught the members the importance of the Book of Mormon and how each lesson is essential for the investigator. To finish off the night, we did a coke and mentos presentation using the mento to represent the Book of Mormon, the cap of the soda bottle to represent the investigator, and the soda to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught them that with only the gospel of Jesus Christ, the investigator can't get anywhere. No matter how much we try to shake up the bottle and get all the fizz out of the gospel, we cannot truly progress without a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And simply by adding that testimony, the investigator (the cap) skyrockets in the progression of their conversion process (quite literally)! It was a great night and we think we really got the members excited for missionary work! Last Tuesday was deep cleaning day and we SCOURED our apartment. It feels amazing to be in a clean place. :) We also had Zone Training this week and our Christmas Zone Conference as well! Both went very well and our district sang "O come, O come, Emmanuel" in the Zone Conference! Elder Rogers also played in a trombone trio with President James! Hahaha it was amazing. Our branch Christmas party was last Saturday and holy cow!! The branch went all out and decorated like crazy! Santa Claus even came in at the end and it was definitely a night to remember. Last night we had a Christmas Cookies and Cantata event with two stakes and it was incredible! Haha the amount of people that were there with two stakes was about the same size of my home ward! It was actually really neat to see that many people in a chapel again. I felt right at home! So our golden investigator, CJ, is progressing marvelously! He already knows all about the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity and Tithing and we haven't taught him any of them yet! He said he hasn't had coffee in a month because he knows he's not supposed to! And yesterday he payed his tithing without us even talking to him about it! He is amazing. His baptism is January 9th and he is already planning out details for it! He also is already making plans to go to the temple in January for baptisms! Oh yeah! He somehow heard about my album, has been listening to it nonstop, and asked me to give a special musical number at his baptism! So that's kind of scary. But mostly exciting! :) We tracted into a couple of black ministers this week and they very willingly accepted us into their home. Once inside, we started sharing our message of the Restoration and how important the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. They just sat there and let us give most of the lesson until they felt ready to start unleashing at us and once they did, it was the worst. I don't know if I have ever felt so threatened in my life! We literally just had to stand there while they yelled in our faces about how we don't know anything and how we can't convince them and that we are just young boys and no matter how much we say we can't do anything, etc. We politely waited for them to finish, and I told them we know we are called of God and that we know our message is true. We asked if there was anything we could do to serve them and then politely left. It was a crazy experience! But through all of the crazy things of this past week, I really have learned the joy of this work. As I have lost myself in the work, I have felt so much more love for those I teach, and have gained such a greater testimony of the power of this gospel. I know this church is true with all of my heart! I love you all and I hope you have a delightfully magnificent week!!

Standing firm in the faith,
Elder Shearer