Hello everyone!
This week has been so good! I've been settling more into missionary
life. It's definitely an adjustment, but it's a good one. :)
So, General Conference! How fun is that! More exciting than Christmas?
Hm.... I'd say it's up there. Okay, favorite talk?.... I don't even
know.... They were all so good! I want to go back and watch it all
again. I wrote out a list of about 8 questions, and I haven't had time
to go over that list yet, but I'm fairly certain every question was
answered.
You know what's better than General Conference? Days when someone is
baptized in between two sessions! Yeah, that's right! Sister W* and I did a
musical number. We did "Baptism," which is my personal favorite baptism
song. I sang and she played. It was a bit hard to sing with all the emotions
going on at the time, but it happened. Then we had a wonderful lunch
and went back to conference. It was so good!
So on Tuesday we went over to see Sister T*. She's awesome and
assertive the way only an old lady can get away with. She decided to
come with us to see a few investigators, but none of them were home,
so she took us over to a house that she's fixing up and trying to
sell. It is an awesome house, by the way. She's doing good on it.
I'd buy it if I had money and I wasn't on a mission. So while we were
there, there was another man from the ward named Brother G*, who was
helping out, and he was with a construction guy, and they were just
discussing things on the house.
After Sister T* gave us a tour of the house, we got in the car and
were about to leave. Then Sister T* yelled out of the car window to
Brother G*, "Teach him the gospel!" Then Brother G* motioned for
us to come back, so we did. Brother G* convinced the guy working on
the house to come and talk with us. We got in the house and then
Sister T* turned to the guy (whose name was J*) and told him,
"Sister Shelton here has only been out for a week, so can she practice
on you? So it was all on me. My companions promised they'd never throw
me out to fend for myself, but Sister T* didn't.
I first got to know him a little, and turns out he does know a bit
about the church because he had a few friends who went on missions,
but he's actually Catholic. (It's strange. You'd think being in the
south you'd get more Protestants, but I've had more encounters with
Catholics) After finding out a bit about him, I explained a little bit
about the Book of Mormon. Then Sister T* burst in telling me to
read my favorite scripture from it. It caught me off guard, so I
didn't actually give him my favorite, but I gave him a good one still.
Moroni 10:4-5. Very generic missionary scripture, but I'm glad I chose
it. I explained to him that God doesn't want him to just take our word
for it. He really does need to read it on his own and pray to know if
it's true. That's something I love about our church. Then I bore my
testimony of how much I love the Book of Mormon and how I know that
it's true. The spirit was so strong. I don't feel like I have ever
bore a stronger testimony of The Book of Mormon in my life. I could
tell he felt the spirit and that he understood how much I loved it,
and it was just so good! Then I asked if he'd like a copy, and he did!
It was my first time handing out a Book of Mormon!
J* is such a nice man. I only saw him for 20 minutes, and I probably
won't ever see him again because he doesn't live in my area, but I
felt such love for him. That wonderful charity. He is a son of God,
and that is wonderful. I don't know if he went home and read The Book
of Mormon. I honestly doubt he did, but maybe one day he'll look over
and see it laying under some papers, and pick it up, and his life will
be changed forever, and that is good enough for me.
I hope all is well at home! It's great out here. If anyone wants to
write me you can send it to the mission office written below. I'd love
to hear from all of you!
Sincerely,
Sister Shelton
Tennessee Knoxville Mission
11320 Station West Dr. Ste 101
Farragut, Tennessee 37934
