06/13/16 - Raleigh, North Carolina

Woohoo!! Raleigh! A fantastic week. Last Monday for my last District Activity in Apex, we went frolfing again! Except this time I got my first birdie! And then my second! It was a good game. We also had many of our discs go into the river hazards! We made many human ladders to get into the rivers and rescue them. And then the worst part of the day was when I accidentally threw my disc straight into an Elder's face! It cut the bridge of his nose and it was bleeding everywhere! I felt just terrible.. But don't worry, I've repented long and hard! Later that night we went and visited the last of the Siler City gang. We first stopped by the Perez family and Hermana Perez told me that she had dreamed that I was leaving before I told her I was! She told me she was crying and sobbing in her dream and it made me so sad. I love that family! We then visited the famous Genie Cross and that was the worst of them all. It was so hard saying goodbye! Genie has changed my life with her cooking, kind heart, and friendship. Tuesday I came here to Raleigh for transfers and so it began! So here in Raleigh we share a car (one week car, next week bike). The members here are amazing! We have had a dinner almost every single night. With Hispanic food! Such a blessed area. I am also living in the legendary 4 man! Yep, that's right! We live in the same apartment as the Zone Leaders. And one of them is my uncle (mission-wise of course), Elder Quarcoo! We have fun. Thursday we went out to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings with the Assistants and it was delicious! Definitely recommended if you've never tried it. My new companion is Elder Rolph and he is awesome. We get along just great! Haha it's kind of funny actually, he told me that his goal of this transfer is to become a mini-me. He loves to follow every little thing I do! He even told me that he is going to disown his trainer and start calling me his Father. Not sure how I feel about this awkward wedge I'm putting in their relationship.. ;) We have been tracting tracting tracting. But we found 8 new investigators this week! I had a leadership training meeting on Friday and I learned all about the ways of the District Leader. I'm really excited for this opportunity to serve! Oh, guess what I found out? I have the only Spanish District in the entire mission!! That means our District Meetings are held in Spanish! I'm so excited. Saturday we had a lesson with an investigator by the name of Miguel. It wasn't long before it tuned into a bash from their end.. He was bringing up how the Book of Mormon says that Christ will be born in Jerusalem when he was "obviously born in Bethlehem". We did not bask back, but simply bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book. I let him know we were not there to prove the Book of Mormon right or wrong. We were there to invite him to come unto Christ by helping him receive His restored gospel. He kept saying that he just couldn't overlook the whole Jerusalem thing and I told him I could. Because I have prayed about it. I reminded him that where Jesus was born is not as important as what Jesus did. He told us he is satisfied with where he is at with his knowledge and that he doesn't care to learn more. I told him that was too bad and again bore fervent testimony to him. I let him know that we need to be spending time with those that are willing and ready to learn more about Christ, but I offered to pray in behalf of him and his family. Later that night, we found some new investigators that had been investigating the church about 6 months ago and for whatever reason, the Elders stopped coming by. They told us they were coming to church every Sunday and that they really loved our church. Excited to teach them! Guess what else happened on Saturday?? I FOUND CHOKI'S!!! We were doing a language study in a Hispanic tienda and they were there! I almost died. We helped someone move in for about 3 hours earlier that afternoon and it was HOT! And humid. Sunday we went to another 3 hour service, church! It was so blissful having church in Spanish. All of the members are so loving and kind! I even had one lady from Spain tell me that my accent appears very much from Spain. Again! Not really sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing haha.. Last night we went tracting all night and we had a really neat experience. We had just gotten finished praying for inspiration when I felt like we needed to talk to someone outside. Elder Rolph told me he felt that we needed to visit someone in the building in front of us. Unsure what to do, we began to walk. Well sure enough a woman came outside to her car and I felt prompted to talk to her. I asked her if she knew where any Hispanics lived and she gave us a door number inside the building Elder Rolph had mentioned! We went up to it and found Magin. He looked absolutely stunned as we taught him the Restoration and just seemed mesmerized. The Spirit was very powerful as we invited him to pray to God to ask if we were true messengers. He agreed and we set a return appointment. Then out of nowhere, President texted me asking what my thoughts were of starting a Hispanic branch in Siler City. I was so excited!! And last night I accounted for my first time as a District Leader! It was with the Hermanas and it was awesome! I loved getting to hear about all of their investigators, their different goals for the area, so many good things. I can't believe I've already been here for a week! How time flies.. Hey! My new address is 5001 Bedell Street Apt. 203 Raleigh, NC 27609 if anyone would like it. Well, I love you all and I know the Lord is mindful of you! Keep on your knees!!

Accidentally injuring servants of the Lord,
Elder Shearer