10/24/16 - Raleigh, North Carolina

Dear friends and family,  why hello there! :) This week was a miraculous one! Last Monday for preparation day I sat down and just played the piano all the day long. It was so refreshing to be able to play it! We went to dinner that night at a member's home and she fed us pupusas!! The table was literally covered with them and I ate soo many! It was amazing. That night in our planning session, we had a neat experience! We were seeking the will of the Lord as manifested to us through the Holy Ghost. As we prayerfully determined who we were going to visit the following day, a name came to mind. To both of our minds that is. We turned to each other and at the same time said the name of a woman we had stopped teaching 3 months ago. The next day we knocked on this woman's door. She answered. After letting us know that her family was reading 3 pages of the Book of Mormon together every night, she begged us to come back. She apologized for all she had done previously to ignore us, but pleaded with us to return and help her family. We set a return appointment and she was thrilled. We returned for that appointment to find all of her children sitting patiently on the couch with a Book of Mormon in each of their laps! We had a strong lesson and now have a baptismal date with the family! My testimony has grown of the importance of using the Spirit in planning! It is essential! Elder Summers and I have really been striving to be bold as we teach. We invite people to baptism on the doorstep! We have seen that it greatly helps us recognize who is ready to receive this message. As a result of this lovingly-bold, baptism-focused teaching pattern, we have also had a few investigators drop us this week. They frankly told us that they are never going to get baptized and that it is best for us not to come back if that is our goal. I agree with them! It is such a great feeling to know that our expectations are set and known. :) Wednesday, we had our district meeting and I instructed on teaching the Plan of Salvation in 20 minutes. We had some fun role plays and I finished the meeting by quoting President Uchtdorf's recent conference address on losing sight of the marvelous things of the gospel. We went out on exchanges with our ward mission leader that night and tracted some doors with him! We found a new investigator! It was powerful to be able to have a member's testimony right there on the door. Thursday, we did some service for an investigator. We helped her move some things in and out of her storage shed and she was very grateful. She broke down afterwards and told us that it is so hard having to live out of a storage unit. We discussed the lasting nature of the gospel and the comfort to know that our testimonies and knowledge of the Savior will carry with us throughout our lives. We were able to comfort her and it was great to watch her hope in Christ build. Afterwards, we taught one of our less actives who is very heavily involved in the gang world. This time his friend was there! We taught them both about the hope of God and watched a Mormon message entitled "The Hope of God's Light." As we closed our message with our testimonies, the two of them looked at each other and said "You know what, we got some friends that need to hear this message. Come back tomorrow." So we did! The whole gang (literally) was there! They loved the message! And on the way out a girl by the name of Stormy said right as the door was closing "goodbye cuties!" We stopped, looked at each other, and ran. We taught our new investigator, Willy, from last week and this time were able to teach his whole family! All of the kids want to get baptized and were asking the mom if they could. We hope to see them again tonight! Since we started our bike week last Wednesday, it has gotten really cold! I have definitely put good use to that beanie Josie made me! We went to the Panaderia one day for our language study, and we bought the best bread ever. With each bite, I could feel my Spanish improving. We have really been trying to use more of our members as of late, and we were able to go on quite a few exchanges this past week! I love getting the chance to show the members how we teach! I just hope and pray it helps them have more confidence in us as representatives of the Lord so that they will entrust us with teaching their friends! I have loved this week as I have looked for the many blessings the Lord has given us. If you look for the negative in life, you will find it. But if you look for the good, you will find it too! And that good is what makes us happy. :) We had stake conference yesterday and were actually able to have quite a few investigators there! We ended our week again by teaching Jesus and Bryan. We taught them the Restoration and it went very well. Jesus was going on about how important scripture reading is! And at the end, he volunteered to pray!! I couldn't believe it! He used to refuse to do it, and now he is volunteering! Amazing. We hope and pray daily they will be able to walk into the waters of baptism in a few short weeks. I know this is the Lord's work and that He directs our paths as we listen for and seek Him. I know He will direct yours too! He loves you!!!

Expecting an invitation to join a gang,
Elder Shearer