All the Fun

Hey ya'll!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!  It was fun!  One birthday present I got was I got to go to a new part of Tennessee/Virginia.  I went to Bristol for the first time, but it was just to exchange with
the Abingdon sisters, Sister Crawford and my old companion ,Sister Johnson.  I brought Sister Crawford back with me, and we had a pretty awesome time.  We did some service over at an assisted living place called Preston's Place, and we got to do manicures for the ladies there! It was all sorts of fun!

On Wednesday President Griffin came up to Kingsport to do some departing interviews, so we were there for a couple of hours while Sister Gill talked with him.  I got to hang out in the gym with a
couple of Elders while she was in there.  Number of times Sister Shelton has been completely alone with Elders on her mission: 2.

On Saturday we went up to an area of ours that's pretty far away, so we usually don't go there; Nickelsville.  They were having Nickelsville Days, so we set up a booth, and had people come to us
instead of the other way around for once.  It was nice.  Half way through the Elders in our ward came up to help.  They brought up balloon animals and we all became pros at making strange things out of
balloons so we could lure children to us and talk to their parents about the gospel.  It was a success.

I hope you all had a great week! Remember to keep Jesus in your life!

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

That one time I killed Sister Gill. #onemoreweek

New Southern Food of the week: Banana and mayonnaise sandwich  

He's so cute! I think I'll name him Supper

Hey there er'body!

This week has been a very productive one. We taught a lot, found a lot, and learned a lot.  Basically the perfect week.

It started off with our weekly service at the food bank.  We go with the amazing Tedrick's whom we love oh so much.  We just parked up as much food as we could into a small box in as short a time as possible. If there's anything I've learned on my mission, it's how to be a Tetris pro.  And yes, I am a pro.

So one Tuesday, we went to try to find a dry Mormon who we're trying to dunk, but she wasn't home, so we knocked a couple of doors around her.  We ended up running into her neighbor, Anne, who, without even asking who we were, let us right in.  She apparently already knew who we were because she has family who are members.  We gave her a Restoration pamphlet, and she said we could come back the next day, so we did!  She is our newest investigator now, and it's the most exciting thing for me to get a new person to teach!  She's so friendly, and I just love her!

The next day we had zone conference.  It was so good.  It really made me re-evaluate how I'm doing things.  I'm happy to say that ever since that zone conference, I've exercised every morning! (Except for Sunday.) I'm still looking over the notes I took during it, and I've looked over them almost every day since then.  It's really good.  It was also so fun to see who's all here in the Kingsport Zone and get to know them. It's always fun and very different being new to an area.

After zone conference and having lunch with all the sisters in the zone, we drove up to Virginia to see Maria, a less active member.  It was so fun to see her because I'd heard so much about her and finally got to meet her! As we were planning what to talk to her about, neither of us could really think of anything, but we both felt like we'd be okay, so we went over with no plan, but we ended up teaching her about family history, which is something neither of us would have thought of doing.  It's just so amazing how much we can be led by the spirit.  If there's anything I've learned in my short time in Rotherwood, it's that I'm not ever the one in charge. I just have to be willing to follow the spirit.  I swear, probably every other day I'll have an experience up here where I know I was just being an instrument in the Lord's hand, and he was the real musician.

Which brings us to Danielle and Shane.  We were knocking a few doors around a potential investigator we were unable to find, and we had gone down a few sets of townhouses, and there was one building left, but we figured we could do that one at a later date, so we started walking back to the car, and then I turned to Sister Gill, and I said, "I feel like we should just do that one row of town houses really quick." So we turned around and saw a girl walking from one door to the other. We asked if we could show her a video, and she said, "Sure, let me just give this food to my husband." She walked into the other house, and I'll be honest, for a moment I completely thought that she was just not gonna come back out, but she did!  And once they're done moving from the one townhouse to the other, we're gonna go see them!  I'm so excited!

I'm so happy that God directs us where we need to be, as long as we listen.  It's so good to know that as long as I follow Him, I'll be where I need to be.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Last week's P Day adventures going up to Bays Mountain for my second time with the Rogersville Sisters.

Planking over a bridge. My Ab's are still sore from that....

Bunnies at the Hensley's!

And the ducklings!

Quotes of the week:

Sister Hensley: These are pillow bunnies.

Me: What does that mean?

Sister Hensley: Well, they're better that way.... They are just as soft, but they don't pee on you!

Me: Edward's Angel's!

New southern food of the week:

Bunny.

Cats, Flowers, and Baked Goods

Helloooo everybody!

This week once again was full of finding. But it was still really good. No luck with the typical tracting, but we've been getting creative with how we do things here.  In my short time being in
Rotherwood, I've realized that's the way to go.  Some neighbors that we gave flowers to the other day have been really nice to us since then and have started talking to us!  At the very least, now they know that sometimes Mormons just give out flowers, and that gives us brownie points. Speaking of brownies, well.... More like cookies.... We gave some of those out to a few neighbors, too, which I think also gave us brownie points.  Maybe we'll get so many brownie points that they'll add up to be enough so that we can make brownies... And give them out to one of our neighbors at their baptism!  Hehehe! Our plan is working!...

We did some service this week, too! We went with the Tedrick's over to the food bank and packaged up some food.  It was a lot of fun. I really like the Tedrick's.  The night before we had dinner with them and nerded out about random gospel things!  Add that to my list of hobbies. ;) There's also a really cool book series that I have to look up when I get home. It's called "Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites." Ya'll should look it up, too. I've only heard good things.

On Friday after district meeting, we went out with Sister Mills who is a missionary along with her husband in our ward.  We went to this really random area that I hadn't been to yet. It's called Fall Branch. Our area is really weirdly shaped so the Elders' area actually cuts our area in half, and we      don't usually get to go down to this other half.  We went to see a few less active members down there.  I really hope we get to go back soon!

I hope you guys all have another awesome week!  Remember to do random acts of service, because it really does brighten people's day, and they'll be able to feel more Christ-like love in their lives.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

 

This kitty loves me so much! It doesn't look like it in this picture, but I promise you she does....

This cat also loved me! Or... He liked being in a place that he didn't get mauled by little children... Yeah, he totally put himself there all on his own. I was pretty cool with it. #catparrot #missionarypirate



The Perks of Service and Following the Spirit

Hey everyone!

So, this week was pretty good.  It was full of finding.  A lot of it. But before we did finding, we had a couple of lessons.

We met with Ben and Cera who is a part member family.  We were mostly just trying to get to know them, but we really are trying to get them back into reading scriptures as a family.

We also saw Nancy. We went to her house a week ago to meet her son, Ryan, who from what we've heard, sounds like he has a lot of potential.  She's really sweet, and really enjoys us coming over.
We'll keep going over until we find Ryan.

During our finding, we were really wanting to go exactly where God wanted us to be.  We really didn't have any idea of where to go, so we got in the car, and we said a prayer.  Then, I picked up my GPS, and I accidentally touched the screen, and it put some random destination in. I looked at Sister Gill and asked, "Should we go?" So we did, and It. Was. Awesome.  We drove over there, and the area looked a little sketchy, but then we saw a house that looked safe to go to, so we knocked on the door.  A sweet girl somewhere in her teens answered the door, and she let us show her a little video about Christ.  Then, her mom pulled up, and she was also very friendly. She knew a few members that were in the Kingsport Ward and said they were nice people, but she was going to stick with her religion, but then she asked us if we wanted some peonies, and she cut some off for us and gave us an extra one just to give away to someone else.  It was so sweet!  Then, before we left we asked if we could give them a restoration pamphlet, and they accepted it.  The daughter instantly started flipping through it like crazy!  It was so awesome!  I don't know if I'll see the fruits of that, but I know something good will come of it.

After that we went over to try to see a less active member, but she wasn't there.  Luckily her sweet aunt who is a member and lives right next to her was home, and she talked to us for a little bit, and she really cheered us up, and was able to tell us more about her niece. We gave her one of the flowers before we left, and then we went home to drop off the other flowers before our dinner appointment.  We saw two ladies outside, and so we decided that instead of taking them inside, we'd give them to them.  Then, one of the ladies asked if we knew anyone who could do some babysitting, so now we're hoping to help her find someone.

The next day we made some cookies and gave them to a lady who we helped move in earlier that week, and the lady who asked if we knew anyone who could babysit for her because she seemed a little stressed, and we just wanted to help a little bit.  We don't know if anything we did will cause them to join the church, but it was still the best part of my week.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

That one time we all matched.



The Rotherwood apartment

My first week in Rotherwood

Hey everyone!

So this week has been crazy, but good.  In case you didn't read in last week's email, this week was transfers.  It was so hard leaving Grove Park, but so good coming to Rotherwood.  It's crazy leaving an area.  I feel like it wasn't until the very end of being with all of these people that I've been with for months that I truly knew how some of them felt about me, and when I realized some people saw me as their best friend and others their daughter, it broke my heart leaving them, but I know good things are going to happen here in Rotherwood.  I know it!

As soon as I heard the transfer call Monday morning, I knew this was exactly where I need to be. Rotherwood is mostly in Kingsport. It's half in Tennessee, half in Virginia.  It's also right next to my first area, Rogersville, which is half the reason I died when I found out I was coming here. Also, Sister Gill.  Can we talk about her for a second?  She's the best.  She's exactly who I need in my life right now.  It seriously couldn't be more perfect.

Before I left I said goodbye to everyone in Grove Park, which was the worst.  It was pretty heart breaking, but at least we're able to finish off the day good.  We celebrated Elder Stringham's 21st
birthday.  When we said goodbye to the Maret's, Sister Maret gave us some money for pizza, and a cake she made for Stringham's birthday.  We ran over to the store to get some ginger beer and then met them at the church to party.  It was so fun!  I'ma miss those guys.  The next day was transfers, and it was terrible leaving Sister Murri because she's bae.  But it was necessary because now everything is good here with Sister Gill.  Oh, secret's out.  I get to kill Gill. This is her last transfer, and it's gonna be a bomb diggity one at that if not for her sake, for mine.  We both need it.  Can't just let this mission run away from us.

We went over to see our investigators, Todd and Kim, a few times.  One of the lessons we had with them, we asked if Todd wanted to be baptized, and he said he did!  We don't have a date set yet, because we didn't plan to ask him so we didn't pick out a date, but it'll happen here soon.

We also went over to see this awesome lady named Maxie this week.  Oh, my goodness, I adore her!  She's so spunky and adventurous, even though she's getting a little old.  Those are the best kinds of old ladies. Kinda like Sister T in Grove Park, but not.... They're very different people, but still both older, and they won't let that slow them down.

That's pretty much been my week.  It's been awesome. It's just good to remember that change is more often than not a good thing, and we shouldn't be scared off it because it'll help us learn and grow in a way that we can't any other way.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Quotes of the week:

Me: I thought President was going to send me out to the boonies this transfer.
Sister Young: This is the boonies!
Me: Compared to the rest of the mission?
Sister Young: Oh... Yeah.....

 Yeah. This just happened. 

 Oh... Haha!... The time we went to go say bye to the Hutchen's and suddenly Ashley was dying my hair strawberry blonde.... Hehe!....

It's usually only this red in the sun.

 Sister Roger's cute kitties!

Celebrating Stringham's birthday!

At Maxie's house waiting for dinner!

 Melanie, an awesome girl in Rotherwood, makes these candles.  They're pretty fun!

Me and Sister Gill.

My new district.  Back into a relief society...

For my family. Because I know you'll appreciate a snow ball bush.