05/23/16 - Siler City, North Carolina

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I have officially been out for 8 month today! Time is truly flying. A roller coaster week for sure! It seems that we had many amazing days and many not so amazing ones. Haha but either way, I still loved them all! Last Monday we had a zone activity here in Apex and we played kickball. Slayed it. The following day (Tuesday) was more of a dismal day. It was raining all day, we were on bikes, all of our appointments fell through, I got mud all over my clothes, and we had somebody driving by yell the F-word at us! But we stayed positive. Wednesday was a great day. Elder Allred and I instructed in District Meeting on S.T.I.C.ing to Preach my Gospel. Study Take away Involve the Lord Choose to change. It was very powerful. We are striving to use Preach my Gospel more effectively and use the Lord's help to do so. Thursday went a little south again as we found out that one of our investigators that we thought was preparing for baptism, is very unsure! But Friday was a highlight. We had a combined zone conference with all of the northern zones in the mission and Elder Zwick from the quorum of the seventy came! He and his wife literally changed my life. I learned too many things to be able to list them all, but I'll share a few key points. The first of which is that I am not on my mission. I am on the Lord's mission! And so I need to make a conscious effort to "perfectly use His time". The other goal I have really set for myself is that I want to "receive the fullness of the mantle of my ministry". I can do that by strengthening and declaring my witness of Jesus Christ, recognizing my authority and staying worthy to receive His power, and developing my spiritual gifts. I'm so excited and pumped to become even more in tune with the Spirit in the work of the Lord! Saturday was another great day even though we drove an hour to an appointment that fell through! We came back to find that all of our appointments that night fell through: classic. So we went tracting! And it decided to rain! Harder than I have ever experienced the pounding of rain in my life. My shoes were soaked completely through in all of about 10 seconds. We even ended up tasting our hair gel (not recommended by the by). But we stuck to it and the Lord blessed us. We felt the prompting to go back to one of our fallen appointments with our investigator Belzain and we were greeted with a warm welcome! We had a great lesson talking a lot about baptism. He asked many amazing questions such as "How can I get baptized?", "How can I gain a testimony for myself that the Book of Mormon is true?" and many more. And to top off the week, yesterday was just marvelous! We had stake conference again with Elder Zwick! There was not any Spanish translation set up, so I ended up doing it! Elder Zwick did something that touched me very deeply. On the fly he asked all of the parents of missionaries serving to please stand. He then asked all of the missionaries to stand. He told us that he wanted each of us to imagine that we were receiving a hug from our distant loved ones. The Spirit really hit me and I felt my mother hugging me. It brought me to tears.. After the meeting, Elder Allred and I had interviews with President and Sister James. They went marvelously. At the close of mine with President, he asked me if I would offer the closing prayer. I asked him if there was anything I could include for him and he asked me to pray for the struggling missionaries. I proceeded to do so and let me just tell you, that was one of the most powerful prayers I have experienced. The Spirit overcame me as I broke down and prayed for my fellow Elders and Sisters. At the close of the prayer, President James just sat there on his knees for a minute with his eyes fixed on the floor. He looked up to me and with tears in his eyes he said, "Elder Shearer, you are a blessing to me. You are a blessing to this mission. And you are a blessing to your Father in Heaven. I love you." And with that, he wrapped his arms around me and thanked me for my hard work. It hit me how strongly he loves his missionaries. How deeply he cares for each one of us and especially for those that are wanting. I am forever grateful for his good example of the Savior's love. After our interviews, we went out and worked in our portion of the Lord's vineyard! We went tracting and found another new investigator! He told us that he has much respect for us and for what we do. He thanked us for living like Christ. We now have 28 investigators in our teaching pool. That is sooo many! Elder Allred and I broke the Siler City record and had 17 lessons this past week. It was a very productive week! As well something that was just a little tender mercy for me, I had like 5 people compliment my Spanish this week! One of our investigators legitimately thought I was a Hispanic and had a hard time believing otherwise, one of our members over dinner told me that she loves my Spanish because she knows that I understand what people are saying to me, and the others were just random people we had tracted into that told me I had a great knowledge of the language. Huh! Hey, today is Elder Ammon Joseph Flint's birthday!!! My best friend serving in the Canadiaida mission! The ole chap is turning 19 years old! Welp, a seemingly quick, yet packed week! I hope that all is well at home and everyone is staying happy! I testify that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves! He is the Prince of Peace and He offers truth. No matter where you are in your pathway to conversion, I invite you to take a step further and become a deeper, truer disciple of Jesus Christ. I love you all! Don't you ever forget that.

In the process of inventing a chocolate flavored hair gel,
Elder Shearer