05/02/16 - Siler City, North Carolina

Hola amigos!! Quick update on Adventure Landing, I slayed it. It was actually really fun as a zone! Around 30 missionaries in the dark with guns, what more could you ask for? Transfers were last Tuesday! Elder Niko had a meeting early in the morning due to his being called as a trainer, so I went with him and assembled the new missionaries bikes! What a task.. It was super cool as a matter of fact, I got to see a ton of missionary friends! Crazy how fast time flies. But now, the moment you've all been waiting for, my new companion... is.... Elder Allred! He is from Thatcher Arizona and just got done being trained. So I will be follow-up training him! Excited stuff! I am finally the senior companion! Mwahahaha! This week I learned something that changed my life. We were out with a member and he took us to McDonald's. As we approached the window, he yells out "How 'bout a preacher's discount?" And it worked! They took ten percent off of the meal. Yep, true story. I guess we get preacher discounts at fast food places! Ha! Cool story time. We visited one of our investigators by the name of Maribel this week and she told us that she had had a dream wherein she was in a building full of people laughing and screaming! She said it was very dark and dismal. She felt miserable and wanted to get out of there. We were able to teach her about Lehi's dream and tell her that she needs to read the Book of Mormon to hold fast onto the iron rod and get to the tree of life! It was super neat! The assistants called us this week and schedulde an exchange with us for May 12th! I'll be with Elder Chandler in Siler City!! Elder Allred and I have been on our bikes the majority of this past week due to the fact that it was the end of the month and we were out of miles. So we have been biking almost 15 miles every day, which for me is a ton. Well anyways, one day we were trying to find a less active and without my GPS, we were riding pretty blind. We relied mostly on the Spirit to help us know where to turn. Well, we didn't end up anywhere near the less active. BUT! We ended up finding ourselves at a members home. Right as we got there (they're Hispanic by the way), one of their English speaking neighbors pulls up in a car and demands to speak to Trinidad (a recent convert of about 68 years of age)! Turns out he actually needed some service done on his roof and we were there just in time to help him so he didn't have to do it alone. The family was immensely grateful for our help and couldn't stop talking about what a miracle it was that we showed up! I love being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Nothing in the world brings me more satisfaction than that!!! Also, because my family was in Disneyland this past week, I decided to get in on the Disney action and do a little chimney sweeping. ;) We had another Hispanic family home evening on Friday at our church and it was amazing! A member shared a lesson about the importance of setting goals. It really inspired me to improve. I got new shirts this week! It's getting really hot here in the Carolina of North and my loving family sent me some short sleeve shirts! Freedom!! Last Saturday we had the groundbreaking ceremony for our new church building. Our ward is massive and right now is in a little office space. We can't wait for the new chapel to be built! It was a great ceremony! The town officials were there and felt the Spirit! One of them even asked if they could come to church!! We found a woman this week by the name of Dina. She wasn't very open to our message at all, but asked us if we would pray for her right there and then that she could be healed from her sickness. It hit me that as representatives of Jesus Christ, we are not only here to teach. We are here to minister. Whether that is through teaching or through some other way such as healing, that is our call! This week has been a record one for Siler City. Elder Allred and I have found 7 new investigators! We have had many appointments fall through, but have been diligent in tracting to stay effective. And man has it paid off. We found one investigator in particular that has a real intent to learn the truth! When we shared the first vision with him, he was so mesmerized. He even exclaimed "Wow!" halfway through it! We introduced him to the Book of Mormon and he asked us how much he needed to pay to get one. He very firmly stated that he was going to read it and proceeded to ask us when we were going to come by again to tell him more about it! He asked US for a return appointment! That never happens! I have been so excited watching the work of the Lord come to pass on this mission. This week I have learned many things, but the theme that seems to stand out to me the most is that this is the work of the Lord, not the work of Elder Shearer. It is much greater than me. I am here simply to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. And boy do I want that! I have been hungering and thirsting after it and I feel that this week I have been crazy in tune with the Spirit. I have found myself being more real on the door step, changing my approach each and every time based on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I have had a fervor and a courage that I have never before felt. It is truly great to be on the Lord's errand! I hope each of you are doing well and are staying strong in the faith! Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there!! There are many of you that have impacted my life. I am beyond excited to get to Skype mine in less than a week!! I love you all. Jesus loves you!!

Anxious to see his beautiful mother's face,
Elder Shearer