02/29/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

Why hello everyone!! So real fast because I don't have much time! I don't think I ever told anyone, but I play the piano each and every week for District Meetings! And sometimes for church! It's a blast. Elder Foote and I have had a long but very short week again. We tracted like crazy, obviously. One day actually, we tracted for 7 hours straight! It was crazy!! It is the end of the month and we have been running short on miles, so yesterday Elder Foote and I decided to walk to church! We went all the way there and all they way back. It was soooo far. (About 4 miles haha) But while we were walking this man on a horse came up to us and started chatting with us. He was from Mexico and he had long hair that was flowing in the wind. SO groovy. Anyways, he told us that we should buy some horses or something because it would be much faster than walking. It was a memory that I will never forget. I'm learning Spanish faster now by keeping a little book that I write words in I don't know to study! Our Branch Mission Leader just got changed to be the new Stake Patriarch so now we don't have a misson leader! Aah! He will be very good for that though. We had a Spanish family home evening yesterday and it was marvelous. I just love the Hispanic people so very much!! Crazy story! Last Wednesday we had a gnarly storm over here in North Carolina! There were three different Tornadoes all within 15 miles of us with 60 MPH winds and everything! We could see all the clouds going in different directions too, it was trippy! We got a text from our Zone leaders to get to the church for the rest of the day for safety so we just studied some Spanish and enjoyed the breeze for a while. But hey, I'm still here! :) Welp, it's been a good week. I hope y'all are doing well! I love you each. Happy Leap Year!!

On the market for a reasonably priced horse,
Elder Shearer

02/22/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

What a week, what a week... Well, I'm gonna just jump right into it! Last Tuesday we met a man that claims he has superpowers and in the night he travels around the world as a spirit and saves people's lives. Apparently they see his name in golden letters on the ground and send him a bunch of fan mail too! He informed us that when he gets angry, he has the ability to see fire in his eyes and burn people straight to the underworld. He told me that I look like a movie star and that he used to be a millionaire in New York, but he died for an hour and in that hour somebody stole his identity and all of his money. And I guess he saw it happen in a dream like a month before he died! He told us that because he saw the faces of the people in him dream, it was really easy to find them and kill them. He also told us that he has been baptized by fire and had a paper with his name written on it explode into millions of pieces into the book of life. Yeah, a very interesting guy! Oh, he's from Panama by the way! So anyways, I went to a Panaderia this week which is basically a little Hispanic bread store and it was awesome!! Simply delicious. We lost more of our investigators this past week and it is so hard to see people drop us. The effect it's been having on me is just the worst! And I am more tired than I have ever been in my life! We are still tracting all the hours of every day. We had inspections last Friday and the Senior couple told us that we have one of the cleanest apartments in the mission! Whoo! We worked hard to get that place clean, let me tell ya! So the whole stereotype of dogs attacking you on your mission is so true! It seems like everywhere we go there is some dog we have to watch out for. We've started to keep a bag of dog treats in the car, and it's a good thing too! It's saved our lives more than just a few times. We went on exchanges last week and I was with my Godson again, Elder Christensen! He's a great missionary. Wow! I am starving. I have never hungered for something more in my entire life than I am right now for God's elect. All I can ever think about is finding finding finding!! I know that they're out there, but we just can't seem to find them. I think this just might be a trial of my faith.. But I will push on and continue fighting for the truth! God will ALWAYS help us accomplish what He calls us to do. I love you all and pray for you continually! Have a blessed week!!

Trying to make his Momma proud by keeping his apartment clean,
Elder Shearer

02/16/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

Welp, the libraries were all closed yesterday either due to the holiday or the fact that there was a ton of ice everywhere!! But alas I am here to today. It was a good week! Contrary to last week, this one actually went by pretty quickly! Last Monday we went down to the Brooks Brothers outlet in our area and I bought two ties, it was amazing! I also was skinnying some more ties and I found out that one of my ties has six golden bars!! I'm not sure if anyone knows of the "bar system" of ties, but older ties used to have a certain number of bars on them depending on how rare they are. Six is the highest number!!! Anyways, we had Zone Training last week and we talked a lot about how to become better teachers. It was very motivating! We also had interviews with President James and it went just beautifully. He and his wife are amazing people. I am truly blessed to be able to have them!! So Elder Foote and I this past month have been tracting up the wazoo!! We have been working so hard to find investigators and last Wednesday night, we thought we finally had a miracle happen. Elder Foote and I were in the church parking lot trying to find some places on my GPS and a random car pulled up next to us! It was a younger gentleman that got out of the car and asked us if he could talk to someone about the church. We told him that of course he could talk to someone!! We took him inside, showed him around, and began to explain some different things about our church. He seemed really interested!! But as we began to talk more, he told us that he had a "very important favor" for us to help him with. He asked us if we had any money to help him get gas to get home (even though he lived around the block from the church) and it was the worst! Elder Foote gave him a few dollars and we told him that this church offers much more than money can offer (okay we didn't really say that last part, but we should have!) and he left with a big smirk on his face telling us that he would be at church on Sunday. We got back to the apartment that night and I fell on the floor. I just wanted to cry it was so depressing! We had been working so hard and thought we had finally found someone to teach. Oh well, the Lord is looking out for us and sometimes we just need to get cut down in order to grow! We tracted into someone this week that actually said through the door "No one is home!"..... Seriously?... So we went back to the same people that let us in a few weeks ago and gave us the pears, and they let us in again! They fed us some salmon patties and some amazing biscuits! We just sat there for a minute eating while the older lady sat at the table next to us with her face in her hands. We started to talk to her, but she looked up at us with a scowl and said "Don't look at me!" Well, despite our efforts to tell her how great she looked, she got up and went into the other room. We began to talk to the daughter about the message we share a little more and from the other room the lady shouted "Go find someone else to bother!" So I shared a quick testimony and, we left. But on a good note, we visited one of our investigators and she has been reading in the Book of Mormon! Woohoo!! And possibly the best story from last week is that we tracted into a family!! They are very jivin and were really excited about the message we shared with them!! They accepted everything very well and I definitely felt the Spirit teaching that lesson! Oh yeah, we talked to the cashier at Walgreens a few weeks ago and she friended me on Facebook! So hopefully we get the chance to teach her and her husband sometime! So yeah! A very long but also a very short week. Oh, and Happy Belated Valentine's Day everyone!! I love you all!!

Trying to console the insecurities of older ladies,
Elder Shearer

02/08/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

Alright. So this week was probably one of the longest weeks of the mission so far, yet I don't have very many things to share! We have a new investigator by the name of Will Smith! Haha so that's really good. Elder Foote got bitten by a dog and we had to make sure that it didn't have Rabies! It didn't, don't worry. One morning this week we went running and it was 27 degrees!! Whooo! We accidentally drove out of the mission this week on our way to Magnolia (a town very far from us)! We were driving and didn't recognize where we were and then we realized we were in Warsaw which is not only out of our area, but out of our mission! But alas, we are still here and have not been chastised! Yet. We are doing SOOO MUCH tracting lately. We are losing pretty much every investigator from our teaching pool and are having to start from scratch! We are having a hard time finding appointments to go to with members, but are doing our best keeping positive! We just pray that we will be able to find some people to teach! I miss teaching!! Yesterday in Sacrament meeting, we received a text from our only investigator with a baptismal date by the name of Colton and he said that "He wasn't interested in the Book of Mormon." and he doesn't want us to stop by again. Heart. Broken. But I do have a happy story to share! We were driving home from a less active and got the feeling to turn off onto some random road. We pulled over, parked the car, walked up to the first house on the street. Before we even got to the door a man opened it up and told us to come in! We didn't even tell him who we were! We initially assumed that they were wanting to bible bash or something, but we sat down and they just stared at us waiting for us to teach them!! It was so odd! We taught the Restoration and I definitely felt the Spirit there. They asked if we wanted sandwiches, water, so many things! They actually even gave us some homemade canned peaches on our way out! It was such an amazing experience and I hope we get to continue teaching them. Well, I believe that is all for this week. Lots and lots of hard work! I know we will start to see the fruits of our labors! Love y'all.

Teaching Will Smith the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Elder Shearer

02/01/16 - Clinton, North Carolina

Buckle up everyone! So. Elder Rogers left me last week and I have been in charge of the area ever since. Elder Rogers taught me so many great things and I am grateful for him! The take over has been going well. At first it was pretty stressful to be honest having to plan all day every day all by myself, but I have been able to fill up everyday so far! I know the Lord qualifies us to do what He requires of us. Elder Foote is amazing!! From the get-go he has spoken nothing but Spanish to me, and I love it! All we do is speak Spanish 24/7. It is really helping me progress! And his accent is incredible. He told me that mine is really good as well! We actually got a compliment from some Hispanic people that if we were in the other room, they wouldn't be able to tell if we were American of Hispanic! Elder Foote has been making me run in the mornings because this is his last transfer and he wants to be in shape when he gets home. It has been hard! I do not like running! But it's good for me. I must say that I have definitely been humbled this week with everything going on and changing. I have learned to really rely on the Lord possible more than ever. And He is always there. Always. I ate fried frog legs this week! They were delicious!! We also had baliadas (I think that's how you spell it...) and they were incredible. Such great food out here. Last night we had the opportunity to give a blessing in Spanish and what a great experience that was. Very powerful Spirit there. So right before Elder Rogers left we pretty much cleaned out our teaching pool because nobody was progressing.. So we don't have hardly anyone to teach now! But we are spending a lot of time tracting and working with members to find more of God's elect! Elder Foote is great. He is an incredible example to me and I know I'm going to learn many things from him. It was a great week. I hope all of y'all are doing superb and know that I pray for each of you daily! Love love love.

Eating more things than you could wave a stick at,
Elder Shearer