Thanksgiving Week!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I sure did.  It was a
little weird though.  It was pretty much the only day I've ever had on
my mission where I did absolutely nothing to build up the Kingdom of
God.  Well... I guess I did some personal studies in the morning, so
that was awesome.  I always love studying the scriptures.

After our studies Sister Johnson and I went over to watch the Turkey
Bowl.  All of the Elders in our stake were there playing.  I've never
cared to watch any sports before, but it was seriously so fun!  I
think I may be changing my thoughts on playing and watching sports.

Later on in the day we got to go over to have our Thanksgiving dinner
over at the Beal's house.  They're vegetarians.... Yeah....  You'd
think that sounds bad, but no! They actually made a turkey just for us
and Elder Hoyt and Elder Lunceford.  And even though they don't eat
turkey, they know how to cook one.  It was good!  It was a really
enjoyable night.  After that we went and had pie over at the Maret's.
It's always a party over there. They're a really fun family.

Something really awesome that's happening now that Thanksgiving is
done is Christmas!  And with Christmas we have a new amazing thing
that you all may know about already.  It's a new Christmas initiative
that the church put out.  It's called "A Savior is Born."  You should
all go to www.christmas.mormon.org. There are two great new videos out on
it and a ton of other great stuff. I'm really excited about it!  We
as missionaries are going around with "A Savior is Born" cards, and we're
passing them out to EVERYONE.  My personal favorite thing about the
videos and the cards is that they invite everyone to "discover why."
You can print out the cards on the website and give them out to
everyone.  Those cards are gold.  Please do it!  It's great.  It is
such a big thing that the church bought advertising on YouTube for
over 40 days.

Anyway, that was my week.  I hope y'all are doing great back home!
Remember to share the Christmas spirit.  It really is a magical time
of year and a time when so many hearts are softened.  I hope all of
you can have that as well!

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

November 23, 2015

Hi everyone!

So this week has been fun.  On Thursday we had exchanges, so I went
over to Pleasant Ridge with Sister Rowley for the day.  It's so fun
going out and seeing what other areas are doing, and learning things
that others are doing.  The fun thing I learned is just a fun way to
do companionship study.  Pull out something you want to study (i.e.
PMG, standard works) and just go to town reading and whenever you see
anything that stands out, just stop in the middle of whatever you're
reading and just talk about it.  I feel like that's honestly not that
creative, but it is so fun. It gets you so pumped, and you learn so
much.  Just try it.  It's a party.

The next day was zone conference.  I love zone conference so much.
It's hours upon hours of the spirit being dumped onto your soul!... I
hope that wasn't too dramatic.... Yeah, but anyway... The church is
releasing a short Christmas video on the 29th of November (maybe
sooner) and it is wonderful.  The church also bought some advertising
on YouTube to share that video for over a month.  Tithing money FTW!
Yeah, so we're now trying to find a lot of people through the Christmas
Season.  As the world stays busy and everyone wishes they could have
the Christmas spirit, us missionaries will be out and about sharing
that spirit that everyone wants this time of year, and we will show
them they want that all year round!

One other thing that happened at zone conference was President Griffin
gave us each a Book of Mormon and told us to read it and mark it up
and liken it to ourselves.  I almost didn't do it because I'm already
reading the Book of Mormon, but then I realized it was what I really
needed to do.  I'm in Helaman right now in my normal Book of Mormon
studying, and I'm in 1 Nephi with my likening studies.  So yeah, I'm
reading the Book of Mormon twice in a day. It sounds strange, but I
know it's what I need right now.  I challenge everyone reading this to
do the thing you know you need to do to help yourself the most even if
it seems strange.  Do it with real intent.  And can I suggest to you
all that the thing you need to do most very likely is something to do
with the spiritual side of life.  Like many people say when we ask if
they know of anyone who could use our message, "Everybody could use a
little more Jesus in their life."

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Second Week of my Second Transfer

Hey everyone!

So this week has been fun.  Now that it's our second week into the
transfer I'm starting to become familiar with the area, and we're
starting to get into the groove of everything.  We're just starting to
get into a lot of finding.  You've always got to be finding more
people to hear the word of God.

This week we got to go down to a training for all of the greenies.  I got
to see everyone that I was with in the MTC! It was a lot of fun.  It
was so fun to hear all of the success that everyone has already been
having.  My MTC companion, Sister Davis, has already had a baptism, too!
Gah! Bringing people to the church is seriously the best job ever.

I hope you all remember the important things in life.  It's not all
about what job you have, or what happened last on your favorite show.
It's best to focus on the eternal things.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

November 2, 2015

So, I live in a place called the Tajmahal.  I live in a really rich area, so a member bought this place for our mission.  Usually there are two companionships in it, but there's been a lot of confusion in this area with people being ET'd and people getting sick that it's a companionship of four people living here right now.  Confusing? Yes.  Yes it is.

November 9, 2015

Hey everyone!

So this week has been awesome! I got transferred to a new area. Now
I'm in Grove Park, Tennessee.  It's pretty great.  My new companion is
Sister Johnson, and let me tell you, it is quite the party over here.
I love her.

So I've only been in Grove Park for a few days, so I haven't really
had enough time to learn the area, but a few exciting things have
happened so far.

The first thing is we had a lesson with Dee, and as we were talking to
her, she said she'd picked out a day that she wanted to get baptized.
We didn't even ask her to get baptized. It was all her! So we asked
her what day it was, and she didn't want to tell us. All she would
tell us is that she wanted to get baptized then because it was the
same date that she got baptized into her current faith a few years
ago. After a little bit of fishing it out of her she finally told us
December 8th!  How exciting!?  But then she said she wasn't completely
sure about it because she said it seemed like it was too far away to
wait, so I guess the date isn't completely set, but it's happening!
Dee is getting baptized, and I'm so happy for her. She is the sweetest
thing ever.

The second thing is that Sunday was the primary program! Yes! Best day
of Sacrament ever!  So, there always seems to be one thing in the
Primary program that is just super awesome, and this kid takes the
cake. He got up and said his part with one of the ladies in the Primary
whispering in his ear, and once he got done with his part he turned to
her and said, "Wait.  One of the sister missionaries is dead." You
could hear everyone in the congregation snicker. We weren't quite sure
which one of us died.... After the meeting his mom came up to us and
said, "I'm sorry.  He's been obsessed with death lately."

Anyway,  so far I'm loving it here in Grove Park.  It looks like
there's a lot of potential here.  I hope everyone reading this has a
wonderful week, and remember to go use the atonement.  I can't get
enough of that stuff and neither can any of you.  Trust me.  Well...
Have a good week!

October 26, 2015 (Sent November 9, 2015, by mistake)

(Sorry, I thought I sent this a few weeks ago.)

Hi everyone!

Sorry I didn't get a letter out last week. I was too busy partying
over here.  We went to Bay's Mountain National Park with some members
last p-day and it took the whole day.  But I mean, it was fun. Way
fun. Hiking and picnicking and observing wildlife. Anyway.  Let's get
on with things....

So last week was a lot of fun.  Sheila got baptized! It was so great.
She was so ready, and is still doing great since then.  She seems to
really enjoy everything the gospel has to offer her, but we're still
meeting with her a lot to help her get fully settled into everything.
Besides, she's a party, so who wouldn't want to be around her?

We also got a new investigator. His name is Gus. He has met with the
missionaries before, but I think just with a mix up between transfers,
he got dropped somewhere along the line because he's super friendly
and very willing to meet with us again, but we haven't been able to
find a time to meet with him again yet. I'm very excited to see what
will happen with him.

So on to this week.  On Thursday we had exchanges, so I went over to
Johnson City for a day and hung out with Sister Lindford. Exchanges
are so fun. Everything about them is fun. It's like a fun sleepover,
but you learn a ton, and coming back from it is still really fun too.
I wish I could write everything that I learned while on it, but I was
honestly learning the entire time I was on it, so I'll just share one
thing.

So, I'm sure we've all heard how Mormons in general have this light
about them, and that's so cool, but while I was on exchanges, one of
the investigators we saw looked at me and Sister Lindford and said,
"You both have this light in your faces." That was the first time
someone said it specifically to me.  It just hit me this week how much
we really do have that spirit with us.  If you've been baptized and
you're living a worthy life, you'll have that spirit.  For those who
have been members their whole life, and even sometimes those who
haven't always been members, it's difficult to know sometimes when the
spirit is there. Yes, there are some obvious times of it being there,
but sometimes, you just don't know. But have you ever done something
that's just so dumb that you feel the spirit leave? That's got to be
the worst feeling ever.  In our baptismal covenant we're promised to
always have His spirit to be with us, and I can say now that that is
so true.  We become so comfortable with the feeling of the spirit that
we don't even know it's there.  My companion, Sister Beckstead, told me
this week, " You're more guided by the spirit than you know." That is
so true. "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say." He's said it.
He's bound. If you've been baptized and are living worthily, you've
got His spirit with you all the time.

Anyway, I really do love this gospel. It's the best thing in my life.
I hope all of you can feel that way, too. I hope you're all having a
great time, and all is going well. Have a good week, and don't forget
to write!

Happy Halloween!