The Power of Faith

It is transfer week!  Little different though, P-day is still today,
and tomorrow is the day.  Elder Jensen is being transferred to
Liverpool, right above Syracuse, boarding the Sisters in Syracuse
East.  Then, Elder Potter and I are going to be staying here is Oneida
for another transfer.


We got a little snow of Friday.  A few flake here or there.  But I
hear tomorrow it is suppose to jump to the 70’s.


What a wonderful week! The Lord has truly been blessing us.  With the
stark difference of last week with only one lesson (an inactive
member), we have found 3 SOLID investigators (2 former investigators,
and one 17-year-old from tracting), and a GOLDEN family with 5
children we are going to be picking up in the next week or so.  As we
met with the mother, father, and 16 year-old daughter, they relayed to
us of the role of Religion in there life.  My companions and I just
sat there with our mouths wide open (figuratively).  They understand
about commitment to the Lord and how putting Him first in their life.
The wife expressed how she felt that we had a message for them that
they must learn.  The daughter says she prays 4 times a day and have
been praying that her family could find the right church and she
believes that we also have a message for them.  We are calling them
today to see when we could try and sit down with the whole family and
share with the wonderful message of the Restoration of the Gospel.


At the All-mission conference, Elder Grow from the Seventy talked
about planning with faith.  As we plan, we plan 4 weeks (or so) out in
advance for how many people the Lord wants to be baptized, and then
make plans accordingly.  Although we did not meet our weekly goal so
as to be able to meet our 4 week goal, we were still greatly blessed,
with the effort and faith we put into it.


Faith… What a wonderful thing.  “If God had commanded me to do all
things I could do them.  If he should command me that I should say
unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should
say it, it would be done.  And now, if the Lord has such great power,
and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it
that he cannot instruct me how to find those whom He has prepared to
receive the gospel?” (a slight misquote of 1 Nephi 17:50-51)


I have been reading about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi ‘s and how they were so
converted to the Lord, that they would not even raise their weapons to
defend their own lives because of the many murders and violence of
their wicked past.  Are we than converted to the Lord? Are we stung
with the bitterness of our past transgressions that we will do all
that we can be cleansed and our weapons made clean though the blood of
the Lamb?


Another cool scripture is Alma 26:21-22.


Have a great week everyone!  The Lord will bless us when we not only
do what he asks of us, but we do it all not only in repetition or
habit, but in FAITH!


Love,


Elder Shurtz

Let it Fall, Let it Fall, Let it Fall!

 I guess it has just been one of those weeks.  We 'hit pavement' it seems all week, with even our most reliable investigator falling though due to her daughter being sent to the hospital.  But despite last week, I am excited for this one!  We are out to find!  I love finding!  With our efforts last week, we found some sweet potentials and received 2 referrals that we are excited to follow-up on.

 

It has been cold out here!  (40-50's)  It rained for about 2 days (I think Thursday and Friday).  On the second day I was driving the car (shamoo) and got it stuck on the side of the road!  It was a soft patch of grass with a little slope from off the road, and the wheels started spinning!  What joy that was.  We tried to push it out (a whatever ton 12-passenger van) with little success, only digging it deeper into the ground.  We walked a little while till we got to a farmer's place, where the lady was quite nice and called her husband to get his explorer and a chain.  We hooked it up and it came out.  The damage to the grass was not bad, after fixing it up a bit, and the owner of the property (though not sure if it was technically part of their land) was fine with it.

 

Saturday we met a Farmer when out tracting.  We were surprised on how well he knew his own religion (Catholic) and how he tried to convince us to join.  Though some of is interpretations of the scriptures are off-base, he spent 20 minutes explaining to us how the water and bread 'really does' turn into the body and blood of Christ in Communion.  It was interesting to understand a little deeper the reasoning behind it.  He just wanted to argue the whole time so we left soon after.  Friendly guy though.

 

Yesterday we had Stake Conference in Utica, and President Bulloch spoke.  He talked about a study about other's perceptions of Mormons in America.  86% 'don't know beans' about Mormons.  He talked about fear, and how that is one factors that stop the spread of the gospel.  Also how fear is based off of not knowing.  How many fear us because they simply don't know anything about us but a name or a misconception.  So he has urged members to speak about the church to others, even if it is to simply tell them about our unique message: that God, just like times of past, has called and appointed a prophet to reveal His gospel and saving ordinances.  And we can know the truth of this as we read ponder and pray about the Book of Mormon.

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Shurtz

It's so pretty here!

I looked out the window and what did I see? Leaves are falling off the New York trees!

 It is so beautiful here!  The trees are changing colors and the weather is perfect/chilly.  I haven't been liking waking up when it is still dark outside, but at least I am excited to dig into the Scriptures and learn something new that morning.

We had an all-mission conference this last Friday!  It was so amazing.  We had Elder C. Scott Grow from the seventy come and speak to us.  

The main point we hit on was faith.  Faith is was brings power and everything is accomplished.  It is an amazing principle; so simplistic, yet so vast and deep.  I often thing about Alma, how he and the church had enough faith that an angel would come down to his son (Alma the younger) and convince in of the errors of his ways.  Do I have enough faith to find those that are prepared for the Lord?  Do I have the faith that is convaied to those we meet, and allow them to feel the spirit?  Faith is kendled by the sharing of testimony; so do I share my testimony with all those I meet?

It was an awsome experience, expecially to see all the missionaires from the past.

I have included some pictures from around here as well as pictures of Elder Potter and Elder Jensen.

I hope everything is going great.  Thank you for your letters and emails.

-Love,

Elder Shurtz

Elder Potter

Elder Jensen

Elder Rickords and I

Surprise!

My new view of the world

Dear Everyone,

 

Wasn't Conference amazing!  I loved what President Monson spoke about (both Priesthood and Saturday Morning) about choices (the three R's - Right, Responsibility, & Result) and gratitude which Elder Holland also spoke about.  I also loved it how President Monson called people to missionary services right at the beginning of conference.

 

This week has been packed full!  I can't believe what has all happened in the last week!  Monday night around 10:13, President Bulloch called, but we missed the phone call because we were helping Jeannette, our neighbor with her eye drops.  So we waited for morning to call.  Tuesday morning the President informed us of a missionary coming out late because of medical reasons, and he wanted Elder McCleve to train him.  We thought we were going to be in a threesome, but instead President asked me to be emergency transferred.  So Wednesday night the President dropped of the new missionary, and took me to my new area.  I am now working with two elders, Elder Potter and Jensen in the area/town of Onieda (about 45-60 minutes east of Syracuse).

 

Where to begin... the town is small, mostly farm land.  We have a branch with about 30 active members.  Elder Potter has been out for a little over a year and is a great example of sacrifice and diligence.  He has been memorizing a scripture a day and is now on his 300-something-another scripture.  He is a farm boy for Utah.  Elder Jensen is from a air force base in Japan.  He is a hard worker.  He has autism, and is quite a blessing to be able to come out.  He had to do a mini-mission for 3 months before he could come out for the full time.  He is a sweet guy, and is teaching me how to love and have patience.  I am also in the Rome/Utica zone, so Elder Call (my trainer) is my zone leader!  It is sweet!  I have not yet talked to him, but it will be fun to associate with him again.

 

We have a car!  or i should say a van!  We are allowed to use the mission 12 passenger van when it is not in use.  We call is Shamoo.  It is huge and bulky, but it works!

 

I love the view here!  It is magnificent!  This week the leaves will probably completely change, and we will have to take some sweet pictures.  Yesterday we were tracting in the middle of no-where and we rang the door bell, then knocked on the door when no one answered.  We were about to leave again, but I felt like we needed to ring the bell again.  In doing so a young single mom with three kids came to the door.  We shared with her our testimony how the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless her family as it has ours.  She was interested and we have an appointment with her Wednesday night.

 

We also had an investigator come to Sunday afternoon conference!  Her name is Hope, and she is a sweet lady.  She has a little bit of a learning disability, but is one of the sweetest ladies, and always brings a smile to everyone's face.

 

Well I hope everyone is doing great and enjoyed conference as much as I did!  Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Shurtz

5 Days!

Hello Everyone,

 

Fall is coming!  Conference is coming!  The Lord is coming!  What a wonderful time to live! 

 

This week has been a little slow.  Many of our appointments have been falling through.  But I get a little comfort to hear that it has been the same for everyone in our zone recently.  The weather has been nice.  It has been slowly warming up to Friday when it hit 90 (the day we spent most of our time knocking on doors and walking [even had a guy said he was calling the cops on us for waking him up at 1 in the afternoon]), to dropping back down in the 60's for the weekend.  Right now it is pouring rain.

 

My companion and I were riding down town on Tuesday when we stopped to talk to a group on the street.  One guy (latter find out his name is Sammy) in the party asked us if we where the Latter-day Saints.  He told us he remembered this Elder, but not the name.  After describing it, we realized he was talking about Elder Warr who just went home about 7 weeks ago.  He told us that Elder Warr never knew, but he saved his life.  Apparently we was about to commit suicide (had the noose tied and everything up in the attic), when Elder Warr knocked on his door.  He described Elder Warr as being an angel.  They never saw each other again, but what a difference that little encounter made!  You never know when you make a difference (for better or worst) in someones life.

 

Friday, Elder McCleve and I were washing shelves at a local library as our weekly scheduled service.  We took books off and wiped everything down, then put the books back.  One book caught my eye.  It was a little picture book and it was entitled Our Mom has Cancer .  I deiced to look at it.  It was about these two little sisters who find out their mother has breast cancer.  They talk about how sad it was with mom loosing hair, going through chemo and radiation, and being sick a lot.  But it also talked about how they spent more time with their mother, and grew closer to her.  I was curious how the book was going to end; was the mother going to survive, or was she going to die.  It turns out that she lived, and the little girl realized how hard at the time it was but that they where blessed.  They grew a deeper relationship with their mother.

I thought about how this applied to our lives.  I thought about the Savior and how through him we live and are all given the gift of being resurrected.  "The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame" (Alma 40:23) and "the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow (Alma 40:12).

 

I love reading the scriptures!  We do not get enough time to study!  I feel selfish for wanting to spend a whole day reading and studying.  But o'well!  I guess we will never fully satisfy our desires to do such.  General Conference is going to be amazing!  It will be weird having it start at noon instead of earlier and having priesthood end at 10!  I have just finished reading the last conference issue and been soaking it up!  My companion told me how when he was not old enough to take notes at conference his parents would have him draw in a notebook what the speakers were talking about.  I thought that was really cool, so we have been suggesting that to some families who have been wondering how to involve their children more at general conference.

 

Just think about it!  We get to listen to a prophet's voice!  It is like listening to Adam, or Noah, or Abraham, or Isaiah, or Moses, or Joseph Smith; BUT IT IS FOR OUR DAY!  IT IS FOR US.  DIRECT DIRECTION FROM THE LORD TO HIS PEOPLE AS A WHOLE! 

 

I hope everyone enjoys their week, and especially conference!

 

Love,

Elder Shurtz

Barbershops in Syracuse are to Dental Offices in Wenatchee

I LOVE the rain!

What an interesting week this has been!

Its been cold all week!  some mornings as low as 45 and highs of 60's.  sort of right in between of knowing if I should wear a sweater or not.

We found an electric razor with guards in our apartment about 6 weeks ago, and I cut my own hair for the second time last Tuesday night.  It is not that bad of a job if i do say so myself (3 on the sides and 5 on top).  It is interesting though not caring as much as I use to about what my hair looks like.

Wednesday, we were starting out our morning on our bikes when about 1.5 miles out Elder McCleve got a flat tire (2nd time, getting his first exactly 3 weeks earlier).  So our morning was shot walking back to the apartment to patch up the tire (it has made me grateful for the times dad had shown me how to do it).  But something cool happened that afternoon(sortof).  We had a dinner appointment at 5 with Brother and Sister Rounds and was dropped off at the church around 6:20 which gave us 40 minutes before our mission coordination meeting with the ward.  So instead of waisting time at the church we headed back down to a main street on our bikes to talk to people.  One person we talked to, named Robbie, ended of leaving her with a pass-along card (which we do with about every other person who does not have time to talk or seem to not be interested) with a offer for a free Book of Mormon.  She said that she would diffidently call in and get one (which I have heard a couple of dozen times before too, but they never did).  But, the next morning, we got her has a referral from Church Headquarters!  We are meeting with her tomorrow and are interested to see what happens.

Thursday morning, we where following up on someone we met on the streets a few days earlier who said we could come by.  As soon as we are about 4 miles away from the apartment, rain starts down pouring!  We got inside the building and found this potential investigator just leaving with her daughter.  So we set up an appointment for the next day and start going down the stairs of this apartment complex and somebody started talking to us from the top of the stairs.  It "just happens" to be Mayhon, somebody we lost contact with about 3 weeks earlier on the other side of town and have been praying to find.  I know that it was by the hand of the Lord we found him there.

Friday morning, Elder McCleve got another flat tire (we need to buy more patches now).  Luckily we were at the library where do service at and Brother Haase (great member who lend us him bikes to use) came over and fixed the tire for us.  That evening we visited a potential, Tatiana, and taught her and her friends (they are Juniors in High School).  They seem interested and we have a return appointment with them tomorrow. 

Saturday, was a beautiful day!  Chris ran away from the homeless shelter on Monday, and we had not seen him since till we saw him walking on the street.  We stopped (we had the car at the time) and started talking to him.  He got a part time job, and should be meeting with a GED program today, but things seems to be going down hill for him.  He did not show up to church on Sunday and we do not know where he is, so we are currently not teaching him. ;(  He has so much potential, if only he would commit himself.  A lot of it is based upon how he was raised, but we hope he comes back.

Saturday night we brought over our ward mission leader, Brother Bush, to meet with our neighbor Jeannette (80 year old lady missionaries have been helping for over a year now).  About 2 weeks ago she had eye surgery, and so we have been helping her every morning and night put in her eye drops (because she has Parkinson and has a hard time doing it herself).  She is a little fearful about trusting people but she seems to have this unlimited trust in us missionaries.  Through service, it has open her heart to listen to what we have to share; where otherwise she would not have listened.  She loves the Book of Mormon, and believes that Joseph Smith really did have the vision.  We need to help her over some fears, but we are excited to be teaching her "officially" now.

I have seemed to pick up a cold within the last 36 hours.  I have been coughing up a storm, sore throat, and aches and pains all over.  The last two night I did not sleep well, and even took a shower at 4 this morning to try and warm up.  But I seem to be doing better now, and hopefully when we head out tonight I will be feeling great (or at least good enough to ride the bike).

It is amazing what the gospel can do in a persons life.  I love reading from the scriptures and preach my gospel every morning.  The spirit teaches you something new everyday.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Shurtz

Transfer Week!

This week is Transfer Week!

 

Sorry I was not able to email last week.  With Labor day, we normally email the next day, but I went on exchange with Elder Villagomez (my district leader) in Cortland and did not have the opportunity to write.  So transfer calls came Saturday afternoon, and Elder McCleve and I are staying in Syracuse.  The Syracuse Sisters (Sister Livermore and Woodmansee) are also staying.  This is great because we are really starting to get going with the Ward Mission Council and getting more member involvement.

 

It is crazy to try and look back the last two weeks and try to summarize it.  We truly have been 'weeding the garden' and trying to focus on those who would be progressing.  Just last week we went from 17 people in our teaching pool, to 7.  We know that by not waisting time with those who are not willing to progress we will be blessed with more time to find those who are ready.  We just found a really cool feature about our side of Syracuse: we have about 9 zip-codes in our area, which will help us organize and find where the members and less-actives live, especially in the areas we are working to branch out towards.

 

Ryan is moving along.  He and his family went on vacation for 2 weeks, which seems to have really helped.  We are trying to help him and his wife attend church more frequently so he can prepare to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  Ruth... we have not been able to get in contact with her for the last month!  Her phone has disconnected and she is ether never home when we come by or she does not answer the door and does not call us back after leaving her a couple of notes.  We really do not know what is happening with her.  But we keep trying and praying.

 

We just started teaching someone named Yvonne who started investigating the Church in Porto Rico many years ago.  She seems awesome and are excited to see what happens as she reads, prays, and comes to church.  We are also teaching a young couple, Daniel and Natasha, who also seem excited to learn more and read.  We tried to get them and their kids to church on Sunday, but we have not yet figured out why they did not come.

 

Chris, we have not been able to teach in awhile because he moved into a homeless teen place and we need to get permission to visit him, but we are hopping we will be able to this week meet with him. 

 

All in all, I am excited to see what happens, especially with trying to branch out into different areas.

 

Last P-day, I made some Banana Bread (thanks to Melinda's recipe folder she gave me) and we also went outside and played some football with some of the kids around our apartment.  I included some pictures of my prized bread (it was so good) and the football team.

 

I am currently reading in Jacob right now, and tomorrow I will start with the tame and wild olive trees.  I am so excited.  But today in my reading I read the last verse in the first chapter (i think) which Jacob says if he does not declare repentance, the blood of the people would be upon his garments.  As members of this church (especially missionaries) we are that responsibility to declare this gospel to all those we meet.  I am thankful that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can be forgiven for my shortcoming and grow everyday, trying to be more like my Savior.

 

I encourage you to read Elder Bednar's conference talk on Prayer of Faith (I think that's the title) but it gives great advice on how to act upon our prayers and faith, especially in our personal missionary efforts.

 

Have a great week everyone!

 

Love,

Elder Shurtz

Banana bread batter - my first!

Finished product - Yummm!

Football players come in all sizes!