Letters to the family

Dear Dad,

Sure sounds like there is a lot going on back home. I can't believe you got rid of Casper.... I'm glad you got some pictures with him though. It was so great getting to talk to you on the phone. Before you know it Tyler is going to be out here, and you won't know where the time has gone. I honestly am loving it out here. The members are such amazing people, who all are willing to help with the missionary work. They love to feed us, but we have a harder time getting referrals out of them. We try our best to move the work along. The woman who you spoke to on the phone is kinda the mission mom for this area. She is so great to take us where we need, and to feed us if one of the meals falls through. She has helped me get into the hang of things if i ever need someone to talk to. The mission is an amazing thing. I can't believe it's already been a month. It is kind of scary to me. Thank you for all the love, and support you have always lent me. I love you all, and wish the best for you. I pray for you every day

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz

Dear Tyler,

What is wrong with Kristy!! ;) why doesn't she ever play with you? At least you have got Josh right? Maybe she'll figure out later on this year how great spending time with family is. You'll get into this teenager phase when you think that spending time with friends is more fun than with family, but you eventually realize how amazing spending time with family really is, and that you're going to be with them forever. That is kinda funny that Bentley will play some soccer with you. Do you ever get to play with Bryan when he gets home from work? I'm sure he is super tired and wants to take a nap after, but then he probably plays some sports with you! Good luck in school this year, with Josh in your class. I can't believe you are going to be a 6th grader. I remember when i was in 6th grade. That was my favorite year of elementary school. You felt so old compared to all the little kindergartners.  Just remember to live up being a kid, and run around all you can before you are to old to do those things. I love you Buddy.

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz

Dear Family,

        The mission has been amazing! I mean I've only been out for a couple of weeks but i really love it here. The members are such amazing people, and are all so nice to us. We get fed every night. This past week was my first actual full week out here in Kansas. I was expecting it to be a lot greener, but due to the lack of rain that has occurred all their crops have been dying. We see lots and lots of dead corn crops off to the side of the road in the big fields. We finally got a rain storm this past Friday which gave us about 3 in. of rain. It was a pretty good storm, and had some pretty sweet lightning. We have been trying to teach less active members out in the farther reaches of our area. We have to get a member to drive us out there because we are limited on our miles we can drive with the car. I guess this is good because it gives us a chance to get to know members better, and to gain their trust. 

         We have kinda been trying to work with less active members up in the Oakland area and seem to be getting through with some of them. We are teaching new member lessons to a girl named Brenna who is 10 and is so nice to us. We are just starting teaching a single mother of 3 children named Jeanie and have had a hard time getting a hold of her, and she hasn't been there when we have tried to go back for continuing lessons. We are hoping to meet with her this Wednesday afternoon. We have 3 other investigators who have stopped responding to texts, or calls which has been rough. It is one of those hard things we deal with because everyone has their agency, and gets to choose whether or not to accept Christ. As i have been out here i think about how i have been prepared and what things in my life have helped me get here. And i am so grateful for the love and support that all of you have given me. Every small act, every encouraging thing has helped me get here to serve the lord. This is the true Gospel. We must do all we can to endure faithfully to the end. As we do this i know we will be blessed, and we will be saved, and live as an eternal family. I love you all and pray for you daily, you are the most amazing family in the world. You all deserve gold stars!! Good luck with all that you're doing with school, and other events.

Love, Daniel Park Shurtz

First week out in the field

Dear Family,

          All is well here. I am doing great. The day we got here we were able to go to the liberty jail, and Indepence visitor centers. We also got to go see the new temple here. It is so beautiful. Then i got my first area. I am serving in Topeka Kansas. Even though it is the capital(at least i think so) there sure isn't much here. I am living with an 82 year old member out in a place called Montara which is some old town where military people stayed. He is so hilarious and will say whatever he feels like. We get lots of weird, and crazy comments out of him. Being here is pretty much like being out in the middle of no where... out in the middle of no where!! I miss the mountains back home because it is so flat out here. We get a car every other week, and then are on foot the other weeks. We track around Montara talking to less actives, and trying to find new investigators. My companion is Elder Frost from Mesa Az. He only has six weeks left so this is his last transfer. He is really great, and helping me learn a lot. Each day is a new adventure having lots of people tell us no they don't want to listen because they have their own religion, or what not. My first day we were out trying to visit less actives and one house the people peaked through the blinds, hurried and shut them and pretended they were not there. We got a pretty good laugh out of this one. But some less actives are so nice to us. Last night we went and visited one who gave us Cinnamon rolls, and had us sign the bottom of some table that they call the missionary table. The best part was that the dad has an Angel Moroni Tattoo on his arm! The ward i am in is really nice. It is the Lake Shawnee ward. They are so friendly and we have a dinner appointment every night.... I hope it doesn't make me too fat. I haven't had any BBQ out here yet which is kinda sad but i deal with it. I am planning on sending home some pictures next week if i can figure out how I'm going to. Thank you for all the letters that you guys sent to me. They were sure different... Dad, Kristy, and Tyler... My companion saw them and said "i already love your family, that is so awesome." They took me forever to read and i sounded like a weirdo reading it out loud. Thanks again for all the support you guys give me. I love you all back home, and it was so great to talk to you this past Wednesday. Being here for only a couple days has had it's hard times, but also the enjoyable times. I just have to remember during those hard times who i am really doing this for. I love you all.

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz

Week 2- MTC

Wow you guys actually got a dog? I thought it was all talk. I'm glad that you named him after me. Bentley Park Shurtz sounds pretty good. I hope he doesn't turn out to be a menace!! He can take my place for the next 2 years. Are tyler, and Kristy so happy to be able to play with him? The MTC is still going great! We do lots of teaching and many of them see to go great. In TRC me and Elder Thomas teach a man who came over from Kenya. He is kinda hard to teach because he is really quiet, and doesn't full answer questions. We get a lot of yes, um sure, and no's. It wasn't until our third lesson that we were finally able to figure out what was holding him back from really listening, and wanting to come unto Christ. He had questions about different things such as ''why did God take a rib from Adam to make eve? or Why can't women have the priesthood." we were able to start talking to him about how we don't have all the answers to life's questions. That there are still mysterys that God has yet to reaveal to us. This really helped him understand it along with reading to him a verse in Alma 32 about how having faith doesn't mean having a perfect knowledge of everything. It was a really good learning experience working with someone who doesn't want to listen, and learn. The food is pretty great, but i feel really unhealthy. I feel like i've gained 10 pounds already! I guess that could be my own fault but there is just a lot of processed foods. We had one of our teachers go on a trip and will be gone until we leave the MTC which was really sad because he really knew how to get things across and help us when we were feeling down about how our TRC lessons went. I've seen a lot of friends here like Alex my old roommate at school, Jeremy, Mark, Elvon, and I just barely ran into Jacob Gutke who just walked into the MTC. It is great to catch up with them in the short conversations we have due to the busy schedule they keep us on. The days here feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days. It is kind of a weird concept until you experience it. The days are so jammed that you feel like they'll never end, but by the end of the week you wonder where all the time went. Happy Birthday to my 17 year old sister, and 26 year old brother! you guys are so freakin old! What happened to all of us? I mean our parents are getting freakin old too ! I hope you all have an amazing week and i love you all! I got my flight itinerary and will be leaving next wednesday to Missouri so be expecting a phone call somewhere between 7 and 8 on wednesday morning! I love the experience i am having here, and love this gospel. I can't wait to go out and teach and bring people to Christ. Thank you so much for all the support you've given to me!! oh ps i got the package last wednesday after writing email's thanks so much for everything and i really love that quote in there too!!

Love Elder Shurtz

Week One-MTC

Dear Mom and Dad and Home,
                  I made it here. it has been a long journey but an 
amazing one. My companions name is Elder Thomas. He is from Layton Utah 
and really loves the work. My roommates are really fun and we joke 
around a lot at night. We have roommate prayer but whomever loses 
Rock-Paper-Scissors has to say it. It gets pretty intense and we all 
have a really enjoyable time. My schedule is a lot of class time. If 
i'm not in a lesson for 3 hours at a time then i'm either studying, 
eating, or getting my hour of excercise for the day. Tell Kristy she 
would love one thing about here the most. It is the fact you can drink 
all the juice you want. They have so many to choose from and you keep 
just keep going back for more. I get cranberry, and apple juice a lot. 
They also have orange juice, and the guava one we love. I get the 
cranberry one to help my digestive system due to all the processed 
foods we eat here. It is hard to get yourself to stop eating when all 
the food is just right there in front of you. My room is slowly cooling 
down but is still pretty warm. Good thing i slept in the trailer for 
lots of those nights to be prepared for the heat. I am really enjoying 
it here but there are some rough times. Yesterday me and my companion 
taught TRC to a progressing investigator. He never really talked to us, 
and only answered with one word answers. It was really tough walking 
out of that TRC and feeling like we kinda bombed it. We just had to 
remember that we are still learning how to teach, and that through the 
lord we will become better at it. We get to teach our teachers every 
other day, and that is going really well though. I am starting to learn 
how to love the people i teach, and start seeing them as Christ sees 
them. Just in this past week my testimony has grown so much i have a 
better understanding of Christ's Atonement and am so grateful for that 
in my life. This past week we have had two missionaries go home, one 
due to back problems, and the other just said he couldn't do it 
anymore. It has been kinda hard for us as a district, but we have 
talked about it and are all doing a lot better. It is hard at times 
paying attention when you sit down all day long, and every so often you 
begin to doze off. We take breaks every so often so that has really 
helped. I have loved to learn more about my purpose as a missionary to 
bring others to Christ. Many of my lesson's the first week have been on 
why we are here. We had a Devotional Last night by Elder Pinegar an 
emeritus General Authority who talked about the lord knows where he 
needs you, and that is why you've been called to where we have. Also to 
evaluate within ourselves the question "why am i here." It has been a 
really great experience being able to have the Holy Ghost with you all 
the time. I feel so good, and know what i am doing is right. I am so 
excited to Go out into the actual mission field and teach people the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. This Church is so amazing, and i know that it 
was restored. I love you all, and thank you for all your support. Just 
as Grandpa Wray said... Keep the Faith!
        Love, Elder Daniel Park Shurtz