The White Duck Taco Shop

Hey ya'll!

This week was a blast!  Full of meeting new people, and learning new things.

We had zone conference this week, and it was so fun to meet everyone in my new zone.  There were a few familiar faces, but mostly new, since about two thirds of the mission has been out for 6 months or less.  It was kind of interesting basically seeing zone conference for a second time, since I saw most of it earlier at MLC.  It all felt a little like a review to me because of that, but it was really
incredible because even when you think you've heard it all before, you haven't.  President gave his training at the end of zone conference like he always does, and then he said, "I'm going to say the closing prayer."  You always know that when President does something like that, it's the spirit telling him he needs to.  By the end of the prayer, the whole zone was in tears.

After some conference, we went out for lunch as a zone, which was so much fun, and then we had exchanges!  This week we exchanged with the Murphy sisters, Sister Roberts and McInnis.  Sister McInnis came with me for the day back to Weaverville, and we had a blast.  This was Sister McInnis' first exchange,  so I tried to make it a good one. Unfortunately, the curse of exchanges happened, and everything fell through, but that didn't stop us from making the best of our time together!  We did some really good finding.  We really worked the area we were in and found a few people who seemed like they had a lot of potential!  Then we came home and partied it up by eating lifesaver
mints in the dark in the bathroom, because they spark in the dark!

Then Sunday came around, and I was so excited to go to church to meet more of the ward! They are incredible people.  We had Ward Conference, so we had a ton of people from the stake.  It practically doubled the size of our ward. We were greeting everyone as they came inside, when suddenly a lady walked in and gave Sister Reddish a hug, and I instantly knew who she was. I looked at her and said, "You're Michael Ann, aren't you?"  And yes, it was!  We looked at each other, and we were both like, "I know you already."  Guys, I've been dying to meet Michael Ann.  I've heard all about her for the past three months from my past companion, Sister Griffiths, who served here, and even more from everyone else here.  She's incredible.  We sat next to each other all of church, and we just loved each other.  I can't wait to finally be able to go to her house and meet her son, Tyler, and really get to know them for myself.

I'm loving it out here in Weaverville.  I'll be honest, I'm kind of impatient to get to every nook and cranny of this area and to see and meet everyone, but I know it will come in time.  This area has a lot
of potential, and by the small things we're doing everyday, it's going to blossom, just like each and every one of us!  Have a good one ya'll!

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Eating at The White Duck Taco Shop.  #sohipster #keepashevilleweird #pleaseacceptafreecopyasourgift #thebookofmormon

 

Taking pictures right outside of The White Duck Taco Shop. #goodvibes #lambgyrotacoismyfav

That one time me and Sister McInnis realized how cute we were with our matching watches. #onourwaytowhiteducktacoshop #amithatwhiteorisitjustmyfilter

Me and Sister McInnis waiting outside for our tacos when this cute cat joined us on a cloudy afternoon.  It was the most friendly cat ever. It may look evil, but that's just its disguise.  It didn't want to leave anyone out, so it sat on both of our laps at the same time and purred. #alsoatthewhiteducktacoshop

 

Quote of the week:

 

Sister Reddish: How should I pose?

Me: Just look confused!

Sister Reddish: What?

Me: Perfect!

The Greenest of all STL's

Hey everyone!

The adventures just continued this week, as I did a lot of STL type things and went on many strange adventures with Sister Reddish.  It was a pretty bomb week.

It started off waking up on Tuesday morning at 5:50 to get over to Farragut for MLC.  We got over to the Asheville mansion where we met up with the Zone Leaders and hitched a ride with them.  It was pretty weird driving with them.  It's been about a year since the rule changed that we couldn't drive with elders, but just this one time do STL's and ZL's get to drive together because that is hecka miles.  So, we partied it up by falling asleep in the back seat...  Once we got there, we got a sneak preview to our upcoming zone conferences, and I'm so excited for them!  It's definitely gonna be a good one.

The next day was just a billion meetings, but it was all good!  We started out with district meeting, which was soon followed by some much needed interviews with President, and then we had like an hour to find people, and then we had Stake Correlation.

Stake Correlation  consisted of us, the Zone Leaders, President Griffin, the Stake President, and some other guy, who seemed pretty cool, but I wasn't sure of his purpose in being there... But that's okay!  I felt like the noobest of noobs because at this point I've been a part of the zone for a week, and the Stake President turns to me and says, "Sisters! What have ya got?"  "Well...  There's a guy named Kevin in the Marion Ward who just got baptized, and he's doing good."  "Oh yeah! Kevin!  He's the one with really nice teeth, right?" "I'm not sure. I haven't met the guy...."  So yeah...  That's my life as an STL, but as out of place as I felt, it was kind of mind blowing, too!  I don't think President expected too much from me this time, but I feel so ready for the next time we have stake correlation.

Well, Friday came around, and it was basically the first day of being in Weaverville that I felt like a normal missionary.  Neither of us were sick, we weren't stuck in snow, and we had no meetings, so we were finally good to go out and teach people, and find more people! It was so exciting!  We had a lesson with our awesome investigator, Fernando.  He's so incredible.  He's only been in America a few months, and yet he knows English so well.  We laugh and joke around with him and have spiritual moments with him, and with the help of google translate, no language will get in the way of us teaching him! It's really awesome!  He says he knows he needs to get baptized; it's just a matter of getting him ready for it now. So, no date set yet, but it's gonna happen.  :)

Speaking of baptism,  my dear friend, Emily, got baptized!  I missed her baptism by a week and a half, and I prayed for her the whole time up to her baptism.  I got permission to Skype her after her baptism, and it just felt so good.  I don't feel like I've gone through as much with an investigator as I did for her.  I studied for her like I've never studied for anyone else.  I hurt when she hurt, and I laughed with her through the good times, and now Emily is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  That right there, friends, is an accomplishment, and I'm so proud of her. :)

I went to bed after her baptism and woke up to a much needed Sunday. We didn't get church last week because church was canceled in most places across the mission. I feel like I've been here in Weaverville for so long, and I just barely got to meet the members!  They're so great, too! The whole Relief Society swarmed around me like I was a new toy, and I haven't felt so needed in a long time.

After church we had dinner with Rich and Virginia.  It's been taking forever to meet everyone here, and it's terrible because I've been hearing about everyone for the past three months since Sister Griffiths served here a while back.

I definitely am loving it here.  There's a lot to be learned in each phase of life and each phase of missionary work.  As green as I feel at times as a new STL, or just as a missionary in general even though I've been out a while, I know this is where I'm supposed to be.  I don't know why, yet, but I'll learn that soon.  Trust God.  Trust your priesthood leaders.  Trust yourself.  Because God's got a plan for you, and as long as we go into that plan ready and willing to learn, we will get everything out of it that we need to.


Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

 All of the STL's in the TKM at MLC!

Us knocking doors.

Quote of the week:

Me: Do you ever feel super green while knocking doors even though you've 

been on a mission for quite a while?
Reddish: Yeah.
Me: Let's do this.

SNOW DAY!!!

Hi!

Well, it's my first week here in Weaverville with Reddish, and so far, it. Is. Awesome.  I seriously love her.  I can tell this was all inspired by God.  I don't know how yet, but it is!

My first day I got to meet some of the ward members at Young Women's, and  I got to meet our awesome investigator, Fernando.  He's so great! Straight from Brazil, and he's already speaking English like a pro in just a few months.  He really loves our visits, and I think there's a lot of potential with him.

I also got to meet our Ward mission leader and his wife, the Evans. They are so sweet, and their dog, Darby, loves us.  While we were on our way over to them.... It. Started. Snowing!!!!  We were both freaking out! We both felt like we hadn't seen snow in like two years.  And I wasn't expecting to see it again until next winter which would have made me so sad!  But we saw it! It's there!  It's actually pretty deep, too!  We even had a snowball fight and everything!  I LOVE SNOW!!!!.... And then we got snowed in the next morning..... Cause that's just the south for ya.  But we were able to go by foot by the end of the day.

The next day, church was canceled.  It was the first time in my life that church had ever been canceled.  I didn't like it.  It didn't even feel like the Sabbath.  We tried to make it a little better by
watching a little video about the Sabbath, but nope... It didn't feel like the Sabbath.  But it was nice watching the devotional by Elder Nelson for young adults.  He's pretty hilarious.  And so is his wife!
If you didn't get the chance to see it, I'd definitely recommend it. It's at lds.org, and he talks all about getting to know the Savior and being the rising generation, which keeps becoming more and more of
a reality every single day.

I hope ya'll have a blessed time in the snow!  If you're in Tennessee getting my email, stay inside. If you're out west, do whatever you want.  But in all things, remember Christ.

Sincerely,
Sister Shelton

Welcome to the Ashville Zone.

This is how much we love snow!

But for reals though, this is Sister Reddish. I love her!

An ode to Sister Reddish:

Just when I thought I was tall, she was taller.

Just when I thought I was dead, she was deader.

Just when I thought I was awkward, she was more awkward.　

Yes folks, we are the tallest, deadest, most awkward STL's the TKM has ever seen.　

(But I have bigger hands and feet than her, so at least I've got something.)

One of the Twelve Most Powerful Sisters

Cue the dramatic music!

There are six zones in the TKM.  Approximately 200 missionaries. Somewhere around 75 which are sisters.  And I, I am one of the twelve most powerful sisters on the mission.  Because I am a Sister Training Leader!  Training missionaries all over North Carolina.  Molding their minds to fit my ways.  But never fear. My ways are Jesus' ways.

*cough cough*

Well that's one way to look at it, but mostly I'm just a normal missionary still.  We just had transfer calls this morning, and I'm going to Weaverville, North Carolina, to be an STL with Sister Reddish.
It's gonna be pretty awesome. Basically, I just help out President Griffin with the sisters in the Ashville Zone by going on exchanges with them, and giving trainings in some conferences.  Also, I get to go to MLC.  I know there are secrets they keep there.  Everyone says I'm crazy when I say that, but mostly that's the only reason I want to be an STL.  Haha! Nah.... Not really.... In all honesty, I'm just excited to help out the sisters in the Ashville zone.  I had a couple of STL's that helped me out a lot, and I got really close to them, and I just want to do that for them.

But besides transfers, and being an STL, this week was awesome.  We did a ton of finding, and got a new investigator named Kevin.  I won't have the chance to teach him before I go, but he seems really promising.

I also gave a talk at church for my goodbye to the Ward.  I talked about member missionary work.    It was pretty good.  I've definitely seen good things happen simply because a member in the Ward reached out to someone.  The Simes talked, too, because it was their last day in the mission field.  They are some of my favorite of the senior couples in the mission.  They gave beautiful talks.  And I'm gonna miss them a lot.

This area has been a good one.  I definitely learned a lot, and I have friends that could have only been made here.  I'm gonna miss the people I taught and the members in this ward. I know I had to be here, but it's my time to move on now, to the last area of my mission.

Sincerely,

Sister Shelton

We had a ward FHE going ice skating. It was a lot of fun! I'm gonna miss these

guys.   :)

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