04/11/16 - Siler City, North Carolina

Alright alright alright, listen up y'all. I have some crazy encounters to share this week. First! Last Monday my district went and had a Frisbee Golf tournament in Apex at an 18 hole course. It was a blast. Elder Niko and I tied for first! We also gave an instruction at Zone Training on Wednesday. Our instruction was titled, "Creating Conversion on the Door". We talked about the importance of Teaching the Restoration, Testifying that we know, and Inviting people to act. It was a powerful instruction and I'm so grateful for the Holy Ghost!! Later that night, we went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders and we found a new investigator! She was sitting outside of her house on her porch and was very friendly. We started talking to her and quickly realized that she was going through a pretty rough time in her life. We reminded her that Jesus Christ is always there for her and shared a few scriptures to help her out and she started crying! We asked what was up and she didn't know exactly but just knew that God sent us to help her out. It was an awesome contact and we are hoping to teach her again soon. She even texted us later and thanked us again for helping her. So cool! Elder Niko and I made a great accomplishment this week. We updated all of our area book!! Every bit of it. It took a while, but we are on track to keeping it perfect. We got a media referral this week from a man that had requested a free bible online and when we gave it to him, we began to talk about the Book of Mormon, naturally! Welp, it turns out that he has read most of it and "doesn't like it". WHAT?? Who doesn't like the Book of Mormon?! Oh well, I guess I'm just glad that he is still getting some bit of truth from the bible. I started my garden this week! I have a cucumber plant that is looking just exquisite. We got a call last night ago from a member whose wife is passing away. He asked if we could give her a blessing and we were over there in five minutes. I guess they just found a tumor in her lungs and she doesn't have much longer. We were able to exercise our Priesthood and calm some troubled hearts. I don't know for sure what is going to happen, but I just had an overwhelming feeling as I was there that God knows us! And He loves us. Wow, it was incredible. Okay, this is where the email gets crazy. Thursday. Elder Niko and I had a meeting in Raleigh and so did the Sisters in our ward. To save miles, we carpooled there and back. Everything was completely normal the whole day until 7 o clock decided to come around and change our lives. We were taking the Sisters home and just as we were about to turn into their apartment complex, a man standing in the middle of the road with a bicycle, stopped us. He was just standing there staring at his bike as if something were broken. He motioned for us to get out of the car and help him so Elder Niko jumped out. He went over to him and asked him what was the matter. The man began to cuss at his bike and told Elder Niko that it was broken and it wasn't even his bike. He then pulled out a big bottle of Bud Light from his backpack and started drinking it. However, he was already beyond drunk at this point. As soon as he pulled it out, Elder Niko headed back towards the car and was just about to get in when the man yells "What? Are you scared of a little drink or something?" Well. Elder Niko isn't afraid of anything. So. He instantly turned around and told him that! The man bolted to Elder Niko, got all up in his face and started screaming. That's when I decided to get out. I began to walk over to them when he started screaming at me and told me not to move! Well obviously I wasn't about to let anything happen to my companion, so I kept walking and asked the man what the problem was. He got right up in my face probably about an inch away and just unleashed at me. He was dropping F-bombs every other word! He told me that I looked like the guy that killed Kennedy, Superman, and the men in black. He then turned around and started urinating right there in the middle of the road! With the Sisters in the back seat. It was terrible. And then halfway in the middle of it, he turned back around and started yelling at us again. Thankfully after a few minutes, he got the sense to zip his pants back up. He began to cry and told us that his mom just died 35 days ago and that he was going to kill everyone in town. He lifted up his heavy, metal, chain, bike lock and kept screaming that he was going to kill us! He actually raised his beer bottle at us and almost started swinging! Elder Niko's hand shot out to stop him and I stepped forward to grab it too! He was very distressed and could not stop swearing at us. We tried teaching him the Plan of Salvation, but it didn't seem to go too well haha.. He just freaked out even worse and went on about how he knows Jesus. Well, we were eventually able to calm him down, get back in the car, and leave. The Sisters hadn't called the police yet, so I decided to. I told them all that went down and they said they'd handle it. Well, this man is actually one of the Sisters' investigators and their neighbor as well. He in fact knows the exact house in which they live. So because we couldn't take them home, we went to a gas station and started contacting some people! We actually found some really good potentials! But anyways, back to the story. After about an hour or so, we drive back to their apartments and couldn't find him but found his smashed bottle on the side of the road. We called our Mission President and he said to call the police back and follow up with what went down. So we did and they said that they couldn't find him! They wanted us to go to the detention center and file out witness reports immediately so they could figure out the situation. We were already back to Siler City by this point which is about a 30 minute drive from Pittsboro which is where it all went down. Oh yeah, and it was 10:30, our bedtime. But we turned around, went to the detention center and filled out the reports. He met with the Magistrate and were interviewed individually by her. Because the Sisters weren't threatened directly, they couldn't file a claim against him. But Elder Niko and I could. So we did and it turns out that now we have to go to court on April 20th to testify against this man.. Very crazy.. So as far as that night went, we didn't get out until midnight. The sisters went to stay with some members because their house is no longer safe and we drove home another 30 minutes home. And guess what happened once we got home?? We realized we had lost our house key! So we ended up driving another hour back down to Apex to stay with the Elders there. We didn't get to sleep until 2. But the next day we found our keys at our Zone Leaders apartment in Cary. Elder Niko and I then decided to go and get some sushi because of how traumatically scarred we were.. Yes. One of the craziest weeks ever.. I guess that the police arrested the man with a $10,000 bail. And guess what?? Some one paid it. So he's on the streets once again. Well, I hope that none of you have situations like that in your upcoming week! I love you all. Stay safe!!

Going to court,
Elder Shearer