01/11/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

Oh my goodness gracious!!! This week was hands down the best week of my mission so far! But before I get into it, apparently we had snow last Sunday! What?!? A member told us that it had "snowed". I'm not too convinced... But alas, snow in North Carolina! Last Monday we were visiting a less active family and at the end of the lesson she asked us if we wanted a ham! A huge, frozen, expensive ham! We said "Hmm... OF COURSE WE DO!!!" We aren't really sure how to cook it though.. Oh well, we'll figure it out! Okay, which story do I start with?? I got a CD this week full of Native American tribal music and Gregorian Chants! It's splendid. Very peaceful, very funny, very spiritual. We were in a Spanish lesson this week and the people we were teaching told me they couldn't believe my Spanish for only having been out 4 months! They said they're convinced I'm going to learn 4 more languages before I go home. Haha, no thank you... ;) Okay, I'll start with the crazy story and then move into the spiritual story. We got broken into this week!!! It was the middle of the night and I heard a loud banging so I jolted awake. I sat up and started listening to try and figure out what exactly was happening. I heard Elder Rogers' keys moving around on his desk in the other room as well as some drawers being opened and closed. I couldn't figure out why Elder Rogers was up and about in the middle of the night.. I then heard our door slam shut and our blinds swinging back and forth! I looked over and realized that Elder Rogers was still in his bed!! I woke him up, we got some flashlights, and we went into the other room but didn't find anyone.. We couldn't find anything missing either! He didn't believe me that someone had really broken in, but I was wide awake listening to it happen! I'm convinced that they broke in, saw our millions of pictures of Jesus all over our walls and left. Moral of the story, the best defense for burglary is Jesus! Which reminds me! In Sacrament meeting yesterday, a member gave a talk and he was pretty nervous. He was mumbling the whole time so I couldn't understand most of what he said, but I did manage to get out one very profound sentence. He said, "It's not karma, it's Jesus." Hahaha good times. Alright, spiritual time! Well, to be more specific, this week was the best week of my mission because in it I had the best day of my mission. January 7, 2016. I'll never forget it. We have been hearing a lot about covenanting with the Lord lately and I have been wanting to do it. So. On Thursday Morning, I covenanted with the Lord to live by Alma 37:33-37 and I have seen miracles ladies and gentleman. Since that morning, I have redefined the word; Happiness. I have found a sense of love and a sense of the Spirit that I have never had before! I want to testify that when we give our will to the Lord and strive to set ALL the affection of our hearts upon Him, we will find true Joy. He can make a masterpiece out of us, we can make only a smudge. And my last story, which might be the best of them all, happened Thursday night. Elder Rogers and I Thursday morning had felt that our work was not done with CJ. For anyone that hasn't been following, CJ was my first baptismal invitation and my first baptismal date. He was as solid as solid could be. He was paying tithing before we even taught him about tithing! Anyways, he was dating a member and when they broke up, he kind of disappeared. For weeks we were not able to get in contact with him. But like I said, Thursday morning we got a feeling that we had more to do. So we sent him one more text and pleaded with him to give it one more chance. He surprisingly replied and told us that he was grateful for all we did to help him get closer to God, but he had found his calling at another church. He did however agree to meet with us. We felt a lot of pressure that we needed to give him the perfect lesson, but felt very strongly that we needed to cover the Restoration again. We watched the full movie with him (Joseph Smith: the Prophet of the Restoration) and afterwards invited him to go into the chapel alone and pray about what God wanted him to do. We emphasized the importance of listening to the Holy Ghost and of trusting in the answers we receive. Each of us actually went into separate rooms and prayed. The second my knees hit the floor, I was sobbing. Brothers and Sisters, I know this church is true! I testify as a representative of Jesus Christ, that HE LIVES! I received a very strong prompting that I needed to "testify and he would be saved." Upon returning to the room in which we were having the lesson, we asked CJ how he felt. With tears in his eyes, he looked at me and said, "I'll be here on Sunday." I shared my testimony with him of the Divinity of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He broke down again and I very quickly followed. We asked him how he felt about Baptism and he replied that he would like to be baptized on the 16th. That's this Saturday!! I am so very excited for him and have never experienced in my life greater joy than that of the love of God for His children. That was the best day of my mission.

Crying tears of joy more and more each day,
Elder Shearer