Erin's Mission: See ya Later!

Hey ya'll!

This week has been absolutely wonderful, but has had a lot of moments that have made me want to cry, good tears and bad tear. #bittersweet

It started off going with Sister Tomberlin, an awesome member in our ward, taking us up to an area of the Ward we've never had the chance to get up to. Burnsville. It was so nice going out with her! She was so willing to do whatever we needed with no complaints what so ever. We ended up seeing a few really great people. One of which didn't know he was a member, but invited us back! We also got in to see a members ex father-in-law, who also said we could come back! There's people prepared all over the place!

On Wednesday I went on my final exchange. We went with the Marion Sisters. I was with Sister Boekweg, and oh my goodness, I love her! She's an hermana, which was so good because (there's honestly not much Spanish in our area but...) we just happened to knock on a ton of doors who spoke Spanish, so we got them a few new investigators that hopefully they can come back and see soon!

At the end of the night we came back in, and I swear I had the right key, but for some reason neither of us could get in.... It was weird.... But we didn't mind, because we have my favorite lake just down the street, Lake Louise, and Lake Louise has swings, so we just sat outside in the dark swinging for almost an hour while we waited for the other sisters to get home. It was nice just talking together, and guys, I swear she's the same person as me, and I love her! Well, we drove back down the street to our apartment, and they still weren't home, but that's okay, because we just talked for a while longer. They finally got there, and they felt so bad that they weren't there to let us in, but we didn't even care! It was a good ol' time!

The next day we went to see John and his wife Sabra for the first time after his baptism, and we had a grand ol' time, but then we had to leave for a Relief Society secret meeting... Well, it wasn't really secret, but it was just us and Sister Price and Michael Ann, and we had dinner and talked all about visiting teaching. It was delightful!

On Friday we went out and knocked doors in a really cute area of Weaverville. We had a lot of interesting responses. A lady straight up told us her church teaches ours is a cult. And she said that Josiah Smith found some plates in a tent, and that he's related to Jesus. When we walked away, Sister Webb said she wanted to say to the related to Jesus comment, "Yeah, aren't you?" But it was great because we got two new investigators from it, and a few potentials!

Saturday morning, we went over to the church, and hung around with a few members and youth doing family history, and cleaned the church. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the day, we came in for the Women's Conference, and we suddenly realize it wasn't going to play on our iPad's, so we freaked out and called Sister Price frantically to see if we could watch it with her and her husband. She let us over, and we enjoyed our time all together. And let me tell you, questions got answered. Write them down folks! They WILL be answered!

On Sunday, I got to give me farewell talk to the mission. It was really nice just to tell all of these people that I love how much I love them and will miss them, and how much the gospel means to me. However, before I gave my talk, they asked John, my recent convert, to stand up. Well, turns out he's getting the priesthood! I came up to him after sacrament meeting and I said, "Hey! You didn't tell me you were getting the priesthood!" "Well," he said, "It was last minute. I only found out last Sunday." "We saw you on Thursday..." "...Oh yeah...." So yeah, he's a guy. What can ya say? But it's still the perfect way to end my mission. John got the Aaronic priesthood! I'm so proud of him!

My final thought for this week, and for my mission come from D&C 130:2 which states, "And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." This is why I'm out here. I'm teaching people the gospel, not only to bless their lives, but so that I can be one of their best friends for all of eternity. Selfish? Yes. But wonderful? Absolutely. Eternity is about the relationships we have in life. So when I head back to Utah in a few days, all of my goodbyes will be see you laters. And to all of my loved ones back home, I'll see you later. ;)

Sincerely,

Sister Shelton