Loudon apartment tour - June 27, 2016

On a Scale of Zero to One, How Happy are You?

Hi guys!

So, I have loved this week! On Monday we went over to see our investigators, Beth and Belle, who I love so much!  We got to help them out a lot and teach them about how when we rely on God, He'll make our weaknesses strong.  It was really fun, and then we got to help Belle get ready for girls' camp!  It was so fun that she went! She's seriously the cutest and sweetest girl ever!

Tuesday started out quite unexpected. I burned my hand on the stove, so we rushed over to the Mission Office in Farragut to see the mission\doctor, Elder Christiansen.  He wrapped it up for me, and we went to do the rest of our day.  We had a team-up set up for the day with Essence, which was perfect because we ended up having to go on splits. I had to stay inside because, in case you didn't know, it's hot, and that ain't okay with my freshly burned hand because it was irritating it, and my ice packs were melting like... like ice! So they dropped me off at our recent convert, Carolyn's house, and I napped and taught her a lesson on my own, while Sister Shuler was out with Essence. No worries, ya'll, my hand is fine now. :D

The next day, we went on my second splits of my whole mission. I went with Sister Cooper while Sister Shuler went with Sister Cruews.    #thosetimesmembersgooutwithyou

On Thursday we went on a team-up with my new bff, Abby.  She's the cutest girl ever.  We took her around to a few investigators, and then we took her to see my other bff, Caden, and Sister Shuler (my bff) and I attempted to hook them up. #thatwasawkward    #weareministersnotmatchmakers  #allmybffsareinloudon   But we love both of them still, anyway!

Church on Sunday was awesome, too!  We had four investigators at church!  Caden, Grant, Belle, and Beth. And all of them stayed all three hours!  And I spoke in sacrament about obedience, which has become my new favorite subject.  Everyone go look up Matthew 26:36-45. I never would have related it to obedience when I first read it, but as I was preparing my talk, I just randomly got the thought to go there and liken it while relating it to obedience. But as Shuler would say, "God doesn't do random. ;)."  Look for the two groups of people who show their obedience/lack of obedience. It's pretty awesome.

So, Caden just makes me so happy, so I have to write a whole paragraph dedicated to him.  Before I got here, Caden decided he wanted to get baptized on July 10th, and in my short time being here in Loudon, he's just progressed so fast!  He started praying in the name of Jesus Christ. He stopped drinking coffee.  He realized that being a member of our church is going to be hard work, and is willing to do it. He's become more social, and he loves it. He came to all three hours of church for the first time.  His countenance has completely changed. I could go on.... But it's so crazy, because at one point they almost dropped him!  And I love this thing that he asked us.  He said, "On a scale of zero to one how happy are you?" Or in other words, without any gray area, are you happy?  He said he wasn't sure where he'd put himself because like any normal person he has his ups and downs. But then he said something that really caught my attention. He said that when he first heard this question, he thought of Sister Shuler and me, and then he asked where we'd both put ourselves, and we both said "one" without any hesitation.  He said he knew we both would be able to say 'one.'  And then being the missionaries that we are, and knowing the answer already, we asked him, "Why did you know we'd both say one?"  He responded with, "Well, you're always helping other people and you're living the gospel."  EXACTLY!  That is the perfect answer, Caden!

Guys, the gospel is where we get true happiness.  It tears me apart sometimes when I think about how so many people don't know that.  If you haven't been stressed out at some point in you life about how people need the gospel, you probably don't understand the gospel like you should. I mean, I probably don't even understand it like I should, but I just want everyone to know what I know and feel the things I feel because it is the best!  If you haven't felt what I just described, go and immerse yourself in the scriptures and in prayer and in church!  If you have felt what I'm describing and you're not feeling it now, go do the things you were doing when you felt it, and lastly, if you're feeling all of these things now, keep it up, but keep pushing yourself because there is ALWAYS room for improvement. The ONLY way to lasting happiness is through the gospel, so go do those things that the Lord has commanded, because he will provide a way.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

That one time we captured a moment of us praying over our spaghetti tacos. #icarly

Me and my sad hand.  Good times ya'll!

Caden made the Salt Lake Temple on Minecraft, and I approve. :)

Quotes of the week:

Me: I like you a loooot!

Sister Shuler: I like you a loooot!

Shuler: Jeez! You just blow dry your hair and you're instantly a model!

Me: Shuler, we're both models.

Me: I wish I could wink like you, Shuler.

Milk and Honey Ya'll.

Hey ya'll!

This week has been so crazy! I love it!  So, last week there was a little uncertainty as to what was happening to me this transfer.  So, I'm here in Loudon, Tennessee.  It's the promised land.  It's just a cute little branch, and my companion is Hermana Shuler.  Yes! A Spanish sister! (Oh, and I'm killing her off, too, so stay tuned for a pic of how it's gonna be done.) And I already love her, and I already love Loudon.  I know this is where God needs me, but I don't know why yet. It just feels good to know this is where I'm supposed to be.

So Tuesday was Sister Gill's last day in Rotherwood along with mine, but she got transferred a lot further away than I did, because now she's home.  She's such a trooper!  I cried more than she did!  It was pretty funny.  I'll definitely miss Rotherwood, but now' my time for Loudon.

On Wednesday I said goodbye to three of my companions who are now home, and I came over to Loudon to party it up.  The very first thing I did when I got here was go over to mutual.  We played water balloon volleyball with the youth, and get this, we had five investigators there!  *jaw drops*  Yeah, I know. Crazy, right?  But it was so fun and a great way to instantly meet people.

On Thursday we went on a big old team up with Sister Cooper and her cute daughter, Katie.  We went to Greenback to try and find some less active members. And guess what. We found one!  Brother Douglas. He was really nice and let us right in.  At the end of our lesson we said a prayer, but not just any old prayer, Brother Douglas wanted to say a kneeling prayer.  Who ever suggests that?  Oh yeah, a man with lots of potential - that's who.  So we'll keep working with him.

Later on that day, I had my very first Spanish lesson. It was really fun!  We went to see Yamel.  She does speak some English, and I also speak some Spanish, and my dear companion speaks both, so I thought it was pretty good. I actually was able to understand almost all of our Spanglish  conversation.  There's some extra points for us for that one!

On Friday I got to meet everyone in our district at district meeting. It was pretty good.  We talked all about the Kingdoms of Glory.  And we all nerded out about that. Nbd, just being a missionary.  After
that we all went over to this place called Star Shangri-la which is a therapeutic horse place for kids with special needs. We got to buck hay!  It was pretty fun!

On Friday we went over to see Holly and Caden, some of our investigators!  We actually saw them a couple other days, but now I'll tell you about them...  Pretty much they're the coolest.  Caden was
one of the investigators we had who came to play water balloon volleyball.  We met up with him, and he helped us walk a different investigator's dogs, and pretty much went on a team-up with us, when we saw Carolyn, our recent convert, and we talked with a guy who really wasn't interested in what we had to say. #teamupwithaninvestigator  He is set up to get baptized in July, so we'll be working with him a lot.

On Sunday we went to see Carolyn who I mentioned earlier.  She just had a surgery so we've been checking up on her a lot to help her out. We got to wash her dog, which was a first for me. And then drum roll, please.... I GOT TO CALL HARLEY!!!  I have been trying to call him for weeks now, but at first he wasn't answering, and then I lost his number, but then I was just looking through my iPad, and there it was! There was his number! So I called him!  And my life was made!  This was the first time I got to talk to him as a member of the church! He's doing so good! He was baptized last week and confirmed this Sunday!  MY LIFE OUT HERE IS SO GOOD!

Just remember to do the good things in life.  The things that get you closer to God.  There is literally NOTHING that will make ANYONE happier than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I challenge ya'll to give up something for God this week.  It'll be the best thing for you. Live up to your potential!

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Me, Gill, and my Grandma Mills. I love her to death!

Transfers with Rosy, Smith and Gill!

And now I have a new companion, Sister Shuler!

Fort Loudoun with the Coopers!

Nine months ya'll!

My new best friend Robyn. We have all the connections!

My other new best friend Caden!



Literally the Craziest Email You'll Get from Me on My Mission

This week though....

It was Sister Gill's very last week as a missionary, and my very last week in Rotherwood. Yup, I'm getting the six week shaft.  They're closing the sisters area in Rotherwood temporarily, and I'm headed over to the Louden Branch which is over in the Knoxville Zone.  I honestly don't have any idea who my companion is because I was so shocked to hear I was leaving.  The only reason I even know where I'm going is because Sister Gill caught it for me.  I have such mixed feelings about this.  That's not even the big news though....

A few weeks ago at zone conference, President announced something pretty big.  He announced that in efforts to receive more member referrals, we're no longer allowed to have any meals with members unless there is a recent convert, less active member or non-member there. (They can, however, drop food off for us or have us pick it up. Very impersonal, but it is what it is.) I'm pretty much good with it. I know we'll all get less meals with it, but we'll have more time to find and then baptize!  There were a lot of upset members with the announcement, though, but it just means they'll have to boost their efforts in helping us.  And it definitely has done that.  Yesterday when Bishop Pickup was announcing this to everyone he realized that he was signed up for dinner that night.  Now you see, we, the missionaries, knew this announcement was coming, we just didn't know when. And when President first announced it, he said that anyone who had already signed up could still have us over that one time. Then, a few days later, he sent out an email clarifying a few things with the new rule in play, and telling us we also now have a required minimum of two hours of finding each day, and that it was effective IMMEDIATELY.  (Yup. It was as intimidating as you read it.)  But we were a little confused if he still meant that we could still see those last few people who signed up.


So back to Bishop Pickup.  See, he's all for supporting President in this rule, so he called and texted about twenty different non-members trying to find someone to come to the meal.  All of his effort got us really excited, so we went around trying to find people to bring, too, and ended up getting an appointment (which we can't go to now that the area is closing) and finding a girl to take on team-ups, so it was really action packed and fun and productive. Moral of the story for you guys, help the missionaries! It gets things done. So, we went over to his house just to pick up the dinner, and we stopped to chat for a little and tell him everything that happened, and he said he got a lot of rain checks, so that'll be good for later down the road, and then we realized we'd chatted already for a while which means all there was to do was eat, we'd either do that there or at our house, and we both did really good work, and President did say that if they signed up before, we could eat with them. So we did.  It was a good time.  And they have the greatest tradition ever! Sunday Sundaes!  Bringing that one home with me.

We also found a lot of really cool people! We were up in Virginia just looking around for some less active members, and then we started knocking doors.  We tried one door and nobody answered, and then this lady answered who was covered from head to toe in tattoos and piercings, and she asked, "Who are you looking for?" Awkwardly I said, " Oh you know.... Just the lady who lives here..." "Oh, well she died two years ago." Ah snap! That's not the only time that's happened on my mission guys!.... "Okay.... Well we're just missionaries for our church.... Can we talk to you about Jesus?"  "Oh, well, I'm Wicken." Holy crap, guys, I freaked out! I've never met a Wicken before! And then she found out we were Mormon, and she freaked out because she'd never met Mormons before. So, it was awesome.

If you thought any of that was the big news, you'd be very wrong. On Friday night we got a text from the mission saying there was going to be a conference call announcing "the big thing." So we started
freaking out trying to guess what it'd be.  When he announced it, my heart started racing.  He said that as of June 13th, the Knoxville Tennessee Mission is getting the Cookville Zone, which means we now have 6 zones, and is getting us one step closer to having a temple in Knoxville!  My emotions were all over the place!  And this wasn't even them saying we were getting a temple, just one step closer! I had honestly never felt so many emotions to the extent that I did!  I bawled for a good half hour!  I don't know who I've really helped out here, yet, but I know for sure that one reason I was sent out here was to gain an appreciation for temples.  You don't know what you've got until it's gone. So never take them for granted.  Go whenever you can because, take it from someone who doesn't even have the option to go, they are the most holy places on earth.  So, go this week.  If you don't have time, make time. It's worth it.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

My whole district last P Day!

This picture is dedicated to Sister Gill.

Sister Gill and I eating at the original Pals. One of my new favorite places and you can only get it in the Tri-Cities.

Quotes of the week:  

Sister Ince: Can I be like Ursula?  Like...  Incula? 

Elder Edwards: What is your power? Diabetes?

P.S.  Harley got baptized yesterday. :)