06/06/16 - Siler City, North Carolina

Exciting transfer news!!! But first, the week. Tuesday was deep clean and we got the apartment looking so fly! We rearranged the desks and put up Christmas lights! So fun. Later that night, we had one of our investigators drop us though! He said that he just can't read the Book of Mormon. He gets a guilty feeling every time he picks it up. He doesn't want to abandon his Bible. We tried explaining to him that it would only enhance his love for Christ and for the Bible and that we were not asking him to put it away, but to no avail! One personal study this week I had charity come up again three different times! And then the topic of District Meeting was... any guesses? Charity! Haha I feel like I have been learning about this for the past two months.. I guess the Lord has been preparing me for something! I went on exchanges with Elder Mortimer and we had a blast. We were covering two areas: Beaver Creek and Apex! It was craziness. A few of the Elders went home so their companions have been sharing areas. We went out with a returned missionary by the name of Aaron Sessions and he is awesome. After we exchanged back on Thursday, we came back to Siler and right as we were puling into the house, we saw one of our handicapped neighbors across the street sitting on a bench. Upon seeing us he jumped off of the bench in a mad effort to catch us and in doing so, he fell to the ground. He tried to get up and kept tripping over himself. I parked the car and faster than I ever have in my life I sprinted over to him to help him up! He told us he had accidentally locked himself out of his house so we called his mom to let him in with her spare. We ran up to get him a glass of water and had a good little conversation with him. But it broke my heart! Later that night we had a lesson with Net, an investigator that is getting baptized this Saturday! We watched Mormon Messages and the Spirit was so strong! She started crying and told us she knows this is true. A member by the name of Genie, made us a bag of cookies and we broke them up and put them in milk! Real cookie crisp!! I also made fried rice this week and that was tasty! It has been very very extremely humid over here in the Carolina of North. Ooh, neat experience! Elder Allred and I had tried a few investigators with no luck and were standing at an intersection wondering what we needed to do. I was gently reminded by the Holy Ghost to ask Heavenly Father! I offered a prayer on that street corner with Elder Allred and after we finished, we were lead to a new investigator just around the corner! The first door we knocked on! I testify that prayer changes things. We can truly change the night to day as we call down the powers of Heaven through prayer. On a slightly less glorious note, a dog peed in our car on Saturday. Elder Allred jumped out of the car at a member's home right as their dog jumped in. He quickly pulled it out but in the two seconds it was in the car, it peed. All over his seat. Tragedy tragedy.. Genie made us the best meal that night! She made us a blue cheese wedge salad and spaghetti and meatballs, both straight off of my Dad's gourmet blog! They were PERFECT!! I literally almost died eating that blue cheese. I eventually ran out of lettuce, but that didn't stop me! I ended up eating it straight from the bowl and I aint even ashamed! We took a Hispanic member out with us that we recently reactivated on an exchange later that night, but our investigators were not home. So the member invited us to his family's fiesta and it was chevere! He told us that when we came to his door the first time we met him and invited him to church, he came because of the smile on my face! He said he could feel the love that emanated from it even though I didn't know him. Very neat tender mercy. Alright, the time you've all been waiting for. Transfer news. It all began with a single text from President James saying "Elder Shearer, please call me as soon as you can." Very anxious, I called him and he laid it out for me. He said he was calling me to be District Leader. In Raleigh. The only Spanish ward in the whole mission! He also said that this would be a great blessing to all the missionaries in my district and thanked me for my dedication to the Lord. He informed me he needed me to start the Hispanic work on fire there and I told him I would try my best. He also told me that this would enable him to later put greater levels of trust in me. It was a very special phone call and I am grateful for this opportunity to serve! It was a little hard to say goodbye though I must admit. Yesterday at church I bore my testimony of the love of God and had the Hispanic members tell me that they were going to call President James and beg him to let me stay for a little longer. I have really come to love the people here! Another member kindly let me know that I should be very proud of the work I did here in this ward. We went all around yesterday to take pictures with different members and upon saying goodbye to those little Hispanic girls I sent pictures home of a few weeks ago, they quietly told me that they would miss me. It was so sad! Bishop Jones gave me a big hug and told me I am a great man. We ended the night by visiting the Oakley family, the family of our ward mission leader, and took pictures with them after testifying of the reality of the Atonement! A great week. Very excited to see what the Lord has waiting for me in Raleigh. Well, thanks for reading! I love you as always and hope you are happy people!

Grateful for his time in Siler City but looking forward with faith,
Elder Shearer