Knox South Apartment Videos

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

Hey yn's!

This week has been awesome! We had been struggling to hand out all of the Light the World cards we have! And my dear companion, Sister Griffin, came up with the most brilliant idea of how to do that.  We went and bought cookies, put them in a bag, and put our cards on them, and we went around to our entire apartment complex and handed them out to our neighbors.  We got some awesome reactions!  The best thing is the walls in our complex are really thin, and very easy to hear
through, so we heard a lot of cool things.  One of the many experiences we had was we gave this man a bag of cookies, and he told us it made his day, and then we went to knock on the door right next to him, but suddenly we heard him get on the phone, and say, "Hey!  I just wanted to call and tell you what just happened.... These two girls came to the door and gave me some cookies for Christmas..... Yeah, they were so sweet!.... They're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints....  I'm so used to seeing guys in white shirts and a tie. I didn't know they had girls out doing it...."  It was so awesome!  We made a few friends in the process and had a few people tell us we could come back and teach them!  I don't think I'd ever had so much success or made so many people happy in such a short amount of time!  It was incredible, and it made us both so happy!

On Thursday, the whole zone along with the Cookville zone got together and we had our Christmas zone conference/party.  Some wise words from President Griffin were said, and then we ate, played dodgeball, and then (drumroll please) we watched Star Wars!  First movie I've watched in a year!  It was awesome!

The best thing about my week was of course Christmas Day when I got to skype my family.  I cried, I really did.  But that's okay because I love them.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  May we always remember the importance of this holiday all throughout the year.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Merry Christmas to my dear friend, Mike!

All of us missionaries at church on Christmas Day.

Here's my family picture over Skype! I love these guys!

Mormons and Methodists

Hey guys!

This week has been crazy! And it seems like it was only yesterday that I emailed everyone. ;)

It started out with a really awesome lesson with Winnie and Nellie. They are both members, and we take them the sacrament every week because they are homebound, but it's usually the members we go with that talk to them while we're there, so we hadn't had much of an opportunity to get to know them, but we finally did and realized that they were never taught a lot of basic church doctrine, so we went back and taught them the Word of Wisdom and committed them to live it. It was really fun! They're so cute! And they want to work towards going to the temple.

Other than that, we just had a ton of weird hilarious experiences with some people at the Methodist food pantry that we volunteer at.  First of all, let it be known that this is my favorite place that I've ever volunteered at on my mission because everyone there just loves us, and we love all of them.... So, there's one guy there, Steve.  We've been bugging him lately about having us come over so he can make us his famous biscuits and gravy and so that we can teach him, and he finally came up to us and quickly and quietly told us that they were having a little get together at his house that night, and that we were invited.  He didn't want everyone to know, so we didn't get all the details, but Sister Griffiths swore she heard, "It's nothing big. Not like champagne or anything," but I heard, "It's nothing big, just a little champagne."  So we didn't quite know which it was, but all I knew is I wasn't getting biscuits and gravy. :( Also, it was probably gonna be a little weird, but that's okay, because it makes for great stories. Also, we're totally in the in crowd at the food panty..... So long story short, we got there, and Steve asked us if we wanted some champagne, but we were like, "I'll take a sprite." And we were a little scared to drink our sprites still, but they were fine, and people were very drunk, and it was quite the scene to see, but when the night was over, we were one step closer to teaching Steve!

But, it didn't stop there.  They invited us to church, and obviously we had to go to that, and it was cute.  I liked their service, but Steve wasn't even there.  Guys, Steve isn't even active in his own
church.  Should we pester him to go to his church, and then start coming to ours, or should we just jump straight to ours?  Only the future can tell.  But it's okay, because Tony, and Valerie, and Eric,
and Sarah were all there, and we like them, too.  It was such a cute little service.  They had all the kids get up and had a little lesson just for them about how nice it is to give presents to others on
Christmas, and then they had all the kids go around with fudge and cookies to give out to everyone there.  I loved it! It was so cute!  I love that people here in the south all have such a strong belief in
Christ already.  We're just coming in to give them the fullness of His gospel.  It really changes people, guys.  I love watching it change people.  It's truly incredible.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

We love Tennessee!

Erin Dr. :)

　

Number of close encounters with alcohol on my mission: 2

This Week Completes my Mission

Hey guys!

It seems like forever since I emailed anyone. Mostly because I didn't on Monday, so I kinda haven't.  Our p-day this week is today, Wednesday, because we had Elder Nielsen of the Seventy come to our mission. It was pretty awesome!

On Tuesday we had a half mission conference with him, which took most of the day, but it was really good. I especially liked what his wife had to say.  She talked a lot about relationships with others.  How we need to marry someone who's on the same level spiritually as us, and how we need to be with our companions.  It was really great.

We also had stake conference this week, and it was really good.  Elder Nielsen was there for that, too.  We went to the Saturday evening session with Emily up at the stake center, and it was so crazy!


I didn't even think about how I'd see everyone from Loudon, too!  It was so fun seeing everyone!  I was crying through like half of it, and then President Griffin got up and spoke, and while he was up there, he invited all of the missionaries to come up and stand in front of everyone.  That's where I lost it.  I looked out and saw everyone from Knoxville and Loudon.  Everyone from investigators to recent converts.  Members who have changed my life, members who I had future plans with.  I swear I knew half of the people there, and that moment completed my mission, and this mission has changed my life for the better forever.

Even with that incredible moment, it still wasn't everything that made this week so awesome.  This week we had a lesson with Emily, and guess what. :)  She said she wants to get baptized!! January 14th, everyone! That's the big day!  Emily is honestly one of the most incredible people I've met on my mission.  She's definitely a friend for the eternities.  I wouldn't trade any of my missionary experiences for anything.  Not a million billion dollars!  It's too good. And everyone should get an opportunity like this.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Stake conference seeing some of my Loudon crew, Caden and Sister Webber.

Partying it up with Emily!

Other moments of the week that I did 't have time to write about:

*Relief Society white elephant party

*A lot of sick time

*Dinner with Emily and the Harris'

*Getting our pictures taken by Brother Harris with the Elders

*Family Home Evening with the Dickamores, Prices, and Emily

*Elder Sims' birthday

*Raphujio, Grant, and Bro Kaiser are getting baptized in Loudon

Gatlinburg Fires

Hey ya'll!

This week has been a lot of fun, and from the looks of it, it's not going to slow down with that any time soon.

We started our week off at the Harris' for Family Home Evening.  It was a lot of fun.  A lot of members showed up, and we ate lots of food and talked a lot and felt the spirit, which are basically my three favorite things to do, so it was awesome!  We even got to show them how they can #lighttheworld  ;)

On Thursday we went with Sister Long over to the family history center.  She invited us, and we'd heard that was a way we could do some finding and other things, but neither of us had done it before,
so we didn't know what to expect, so we just kinda went with it, and it was pretty cool.  I mean, we didn't do any real finding while we were there like we were hoping, but we did find people who's
ordinances need to be done, which is basically the same thing!  The only problem with the guy I found is that like five different records say he's married to different people, and has different birth dates, so now I'm frustrated because this man might not even be who the records say he is, and he's got to be sealed to the right person and GAH!!!.... Family history probs....  But I'm determined to sort this out....  I might have to wait a little bit until after my mission to really look into it, but it's gonna happen.  And rumor has it, Emily might be coming with us this week to look at her family history!

Friday was a pretty fun day!  We had our ward Christmas party put on by the lovely Brother and Sister Harris.  It was really nice.  It was the start of things feeling like Christmas, which was just so good! It was just nice seeing everyone gather around to enjoy everyone's company.  And then some previously selected people came up and told stories about some of their favorite Christmas stories.  Brother Bundy's was pretty great.  He told a story about the time he made a perfect snowball that hit his wife dead center in her back.  She of course had her revenge.... Haha!

On Saturday we saw Emily.  She's so great! I feel like I don't talk about her enough in my emails, but we see her all the time, and she's really progressing!  Lessons with her are different from any other
investigator I've taught, but it's how she needs them.

The next day we went over to the church for a baptism of a little boy in our ward, and then to watch the Christmas devotional.  While we were watching, Emily texted us saying she wants to get baptized!  It was so crazy!  The only thing is she's scared of what her family will think, so nothing is set in stone, yet, but it just made our week! Then, all of the elders in our district showed up a little later, and we freaked out to them.  And we all sat around a little iPad and watched the Christmas devotional together.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect week. :)

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Elder Wimmer, Elder Dewsnup, Sister Griffiths and me, all partying with Santa at the Christmas party!

We showed up for district meeting, and the church was packed with people making hygiene kits for the people in the Gatlinburg fires. It's weird because this is the first place I've been to that's burned down. I didn't see the fires, but we've been getting the smoke. It's really sad about all of the people who lost their homes. Please pray for them.

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME EVERYONE!!!!! Oh.... And Happy Thanksgiving!....

Hey ya'll!

I hope yn's were able to have a happy Thanksgiving!  Mine was pretty good.  We went over to the Connaster's for some turkey.... And some sushi!  Konnichiwa ya'll!  However, it's surprisingly not the first Thanksgiving I've had sushi.  We also got to meet the new elder in our ward, Elder Dewsnup.  He's pretty legit. (Speaking of which, if it wasn't for him being transferred to our ward, it wouldn't even feel like a new transfer. #fastesttransferofmylife But anyway....) Later on I got to make a pumpkin pie that was straight from the pumpkin.  Like at the beginning of the day, that pie was a pumpkin.  It was awesome!

We've still been going around this week meeting with members to get them pumped up about missionary work.  It's been really fun to do that!  This week we got in to see Sister Nix, Marissa, and the Harrises.  They were all really awesome. There's something about being with people who believe the same thing as you do that just makes you really happy.  And really, it's fun just sitting down with people (who aren't intimidated by your name tag) to get to know them.

On Friday after district meeting, we went over to see Emily, and it was seriously the funnest time!  We got to help her put up her Christmas tree!  Ahhhh!! It's that time of year!!!  I love it!!!  And
I just love that we got to hang out with Emily for a little bit, too! It made it even better seeing her at church on Sunday watching her interact with the ward.  People know her name now, and they come up and talk with her and invite her to activities, and she's even starting to participate more in classes!  I feel so much love for that girl!  I can't wait until the day she get's baptized! (Because heaven knows she will!)

Things are going awesome out here in Tennessee.  The experiences are awesome.  The people are awesome.  The spirit is awesome.  I would never give up this mission for anything.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Sister Griffiths and me on Thanksgiving day!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Quotes of the week (from a book): Mary Antoinette joined the group ignorance.
Mary Antoinette: I don't even know what that word means! Lol!
Mary Antoinette was separated from her head.

Number of guns pulled on me on my mission: 2

That One Time Absolutely Nothing Changed at Transfers for Me

Hey friends!

This has been a pretty awesome week!  We've been getting out into new areas of our ward, and it's been doing wonders for the work!  We still are getting some of it figured out, but it's okay because we're getting there, and that's all that God asks of us.

We got to go out to our new investigators, Donna and Terry, this week. They're really awesome! I could talk to them for hours, but I shan't. I've got too much work to do!  But hey, it's okay.  I'm just happy they like us, and when we asked them to come to church, they said they would without any hesitation.  Unfortunately, they didn't this week, but I'd be surprised if they didn't come soon.

We had Zone Conference this week, and it was long! Five hours!  But honestly I didn't realize it was until I looked at the time afterwards.  Gotta love the spirit!  President gave an awesome training on repentance.  He said that everything we need to repent of will fall into one of six categories: disobedience, fears, unbridled passions, pride, bad attitude, and laziness. So, now we all have to
figure out what exactly we need to sacrifice in our life to come closer to Christ. I wrote down one thing for each category, and decided what to give up.  I'd challenge all of you to do that in your
life as well!  It'll definitely bring you closer to Christ!

***

Later that night, Sister Griffiths and I went around downtown Knoxville looking for a building.  It was late, so we couldn't see much, but from the distant streetlights we could see a tall black
metal fence around it, the kind a gargoyle would sit on top of.  We parked our car, unsure if we had the right address.  However, something inside of us kept pushing us forward as we exited our car.
Maybe the spirit, maybe stupidity.  We followed a cobblestone trail that was buried in the overgrown grass up the steps of the porch, as we heard the sharp creaking of the porch swing as it rocked back and forth in the breeze of that chill November night. There were lights shining from the windows. We could tell someone was in there. "Should we go inside?" Sister Griffiths asked as she tried to peek through the foggy windows. I grabbed hold of the doorknob and breathed out a quiet, "Yeah."  My heart raced as I slowly turned it. Eyes widening, "Oh hey, we're here!"  Good ol' institute building!  I hadn't been in one of those for over a year!  I just feel so at home when I see that carpet that's in every LDS building. We were trying to find a referral there, but he wasn't there that day, so we'll try again in a few weeks. But I must say, it is quite the party there.  The Coburns, a senior couple that I just love, were there, and we got some lasagna since we just happened to drop in at the perfect time.  Good times.

We also got to go out to see a member I mentioned a while back: Emma, who's deaf.  She's really sweet.  We just write notes to her, which makes things kinda interesting, but hey, you have the whole
conversation recorded. Haha!  She said something though that really hit me.  She started crying and said, "You know, people ask me if I could hear just one more thing, what I'd want it to be, and I really
just want to hear one more sermon about Christ.  I don't want to read it. I want to hear it."  It really got me, and you know, I can't blame her.  Just think about the difference hearing a conference talk makes compared to reading it.  Hearing all of their emotions and the passion they have for it.  It's incredible.  As ridiculous as it seems, after we left, I caught myself thinking, "Maybe we could do
this for her, or that or something." But I can't.  Obviously there's no way I can make her hear a sermon like she wants again. It just makes me grateful for the resurrection.  She will hear again some day. It'll be a while, but she will, and it's incredible because I can only imagine that the first words she'll hear again are those of her Savior.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

The last time I got to see Sister Parry out here in the TKM. She's headed home this week to do incredible things with the things she's learned out here on her mission. Good luck, Parry!

P.S. Transfers are this week, and Sister Griffiths and I are staying right where we are, because we're stubborn.