New Update

Dear Family,

Well this has been a roller coaster week to say the least. Many ups, and many downs. We had a lesson planned for Marvella on Monday, she called and had to change it to Tuesday night, then again to Wednesday night. Well Wednesday morning we got a call from her saying her husband heard anti-Mormon things from his friends, and would no longer allow her to be baptized, or to meet with us. This was really hard on us. Marvella said she still wanted to be baptized, and still believed. She had progressed so much from the first time we met with her. She had been praying, reading, and building her faith in Jesus Christ. Luckily the Lord blessed us with an amazing lesson that day with Tiffany, and meeting with some less actives. They really opened up to us, and told us why they hadn't come to church for so long. We were able to talk to them, and hopefully plant that seed and let them see how important church is. Karen our other investigator wasn't able to meet with us this week so we scheduled another appointed for tomorrow.

Well then Friday rolls around. We were out doing service and Elder Frost says "Elder Shurtz the phone is for you it is the assistants." I thought they would want to talk to me about how many lessons i had passed off, or how being trained for the first 6 weeks was going. Well instead they say "Elder Shurtz you have been considered as a potential trainer, and need to come to the trainer meeting tomorrow in Independence." Well this through me for a loop. I was out of it that whole day wondering why i was being called to possibly train. I was only half way through being trained and didn't feel i would be ready to train someone else. Well i went to the meeting on Saturday up in Independence which calmed a lot of my fears. The whole time the quote "the lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called" was running through my head. I am not qualified to train, i have only been out one transfer. I find out tomorrow for sure if i am training or not so we'll see what happens. I came to a conclusion while pondering this though. That i may not be the best teacher, or the best missionary out there, but there is one thing i know i can do... That is be obedient. Well anyways that is my up and down week. I have been safe and protected by the Lord once again this week. I have loved this first transfer as a missionary, to be serving the Lord. It is a very humbling thing to see people make changes in their lives for our savior. I am so grateful for this chance to be here, and know that this is where i am supposed to be.

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz

Pictures finally!!

Dear Family,

        This week has been really great! We have two new investigators. There names are Karen, and Tiffany. With have met with both of them once, and have a return appointment with them this week. I hope they keep their commitments. Karen has committed to pray this week, and Tiffany is going to pray about being baptised, and a baptismal date! Neither of them attended church this week though, so we will have to talk to them about that. Even though this has been the week without the car it has been a surprisingly short week. We kept ourselves busy, and were able to get member rides out of the compound (Montara). We were able to meet our new investigators because of this. We have had a week with lots of referrals. We usually struggle to get referrals,but this week we received 7 of them. The members out here are really great at helping out. Marvella continues to progress. We were able to bring her to the baptism of an 8 year old in the ward so she could see a baptism. This really helped her see how it's done, and we were able to answer the questions she had about it. Her baptism is set for this Saturday at 11. It has all moved so fast. I feel my teaching is really improving as I've gotten out here. I have been working on asking inspired questions which has greatly increased my effectiveness.

            One of the things the members love to do is bring us out to eat. Many of them love taking us to buffets. I have already been to buffets like 6 times, and out to eat many other. I think if i am going to gain weight in this area it is due to the buffets. Yay for food! I keep learning, and don't mind watching my companion to see how things are done. He has done a lot of teaching by example, but is great at asking me of i need extra help in something, or how i am feeling about a certain topic. We teach gospel principles class every Sunday which i love. It takes the principles of the gospel and expounds them in a way that it is simple, and easy to understand, but you get what you need to. It is amazing how every week i can tell how the Lord is blessing me out here. Lots of blessings that are so prevalent here. The Lord truly loves me, and wants to help me do my best for him. I love being here, and being his servant. I know this is where i need to be right now. I love you all. Bryan good luck up at school, Natalie good luck with... Life, and Lila, Kristy good luck with senior year, Tyler good luck with soccer and school. Mom and Dad i love you. You are the best parents i could ask for. Thank you for raising me in the gospel. This is truly the Lord's Church on the Earth today.

Love, Elder Shurtz

Mission

Dear Family,

This week has gone by really fast. It is kinda funny how much faster the weeks with the car go. It is a lot easier to do the things we need to when we have the car. We were able to go around our area and get in contact with many of the less actives in the area, we are writing down all we can learn about them. Whether they don't come because they work on Sunday, they don't believe anymore, or other things going on in their life. We will then give this information to the bishop which will help him in knowing how he can help them.
We are still trying to find new investigators but aren't having a lot of success. We are meeting with Marvella tomorrow. She attended church again this week and really seems to enjoy it. She stayed for all three hours again. We have set a baptismal date for the 22nd of this month which is the last Saturday of the transfer. This will be my companions last Saturday out in the field so i hope it doesn't fall through. Our area is kinda set up funny. We have are in the middle of it all, but it is like 7-10 miles north is a main population of our area, and 7-10 miles south is the rest of the small cities that we cover. So we saved up our miles this past week and were able to go down into the smaller cities such as Scranton, Carbondale, and Burlingame. It felt like i was going through Walsburg. Just lots of little humble houses, and fields that people could farm on. The best was that we passed the Scranton cemetery and there was a sign under it that said "no horses allowed." This made us laugh, and i thought "only in Kansas." One of the things i do really love out here is the sunrise and sunset. I have gotten so used to watching the sun peak over the mountains (which is amazing), but there is something cool about watching it drop on the flat land. The colors that come because of it i feel are more vibrant. I really enjoy while we are out just watching the sunset, and seeing all the purple, and pink that appear in the clouds, and then how the opposite side of the sky turns a dark blue, and purple.

The work is moving forward here, it may be slow, but it is moving. We work and pray for success. Something that i have come to find out here is that even if i go the whole day and no one wants to talk to me... it isn't a failure of a day. I have strengthend my testimony. I have deepened my conversion in trying to align my will with the Lord's. I am becoming who the Lord wants me to be. It is amazing how the time flies out here. Again the days feel like weeks, but the weeks like days. It scares me sometimes thinking I've already been out for a month. I have always thought "two years is a long time for me to do what the lord wants" but now I've learned "start now because it is going to be over before you know it, i have to work as hard as i can now!" I love you all! Good luck with work and school. Keep pressing forward!

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz 

The Lords Work

Dear Family,

Well this has been one amazing week. Sorry I'm writing today instead of Monday, due to the holiday on Monday the library was closed. This past week has been the week without a car. It has been rough sometimes because we're stuck out in Montara. Well anyways we had zone conference this week. We thought it was Friday, but it really was Thursday... We found out Thursday morning and had to book it over to the church and made it there thanks to a ride from a member. We made it there only about 5 minutes late. It was a pretty hectic morning but zone conference was amazing. We learned a lot about the "golden nuggets" we can find in Preach My Gospel. Many of the speakers emphasized being obedient even to the little things. This was a real reinforcement to following the rules. So we have been struggling trying to get investigators to come to church, and Jeanie is moving soon. So this week we have been praying to find new investigators, and to get them to come to church. That is even what i fasted for on Sunday. Well Sunday rolls around and no new investigators... we got to church everything was the same, no investigators. We sat down and sacrament started and about 5 minutes later a man from another ward that meets after us comes and calls us out to the foyer. We go out to the foyer and there is a woman there we have never met. She says "hi, my name is Marvella, and i want to join your church...!" i was shocked. I knew the Lord answers prayers, but this was huge. She had a relative marry a member of the Church 12 years ago, and met their family. They were so nice to her, and great people. She told herself if she ever joined a church it would be ours. Marvella then proceeded to come to sacrament meeting with us, came to our gospel principles class, and went to Relief Society. During our gospel principles class we talked about Faith in Jesus Christ. She loved it. We talked to her after all the meetings and set up to meet with her that Tuesday(yesterday). We even committed her to a baptismal date. I was the one who committed her, and was relieved when she accepted. My heart was racing after it happened. The Lord truly answered our prayers.

So yesterday (Tuesday) we had the real first lesson with her. She had taken home the gospel principles book, and the Book of Mormon from church on Sunday. We started talking to her about what she had read. She said she had read about 15 pages of the Book of Mormon. That was pretty good, but then she picked up the Gospel Principles Manual and said "i was able to read all of this..." The Gospel Principles manual basically covers everything we believe as a Church. She said it all made sense to her and she really liked it. The doctrine felt right. She is going to read more out of the Book of Mormon now and pray about it. We taught the first lesson, and i recited the first vision from memory, and started to get a little teary eyed. The spirit hit me so strong of the truthfulness of the First Vision. We wanted to talk to her a little about the Word of Wisdom to end with because investigators have to live it for 2 weeks before their baptism. We brought it up and she said "oh you don't need to worry about me, I don't do any of that nicotine, cigarettes, coffee, tea, i don't even drink caffeine." Once again i was amazed. She was so ready to receive the gospel, and the Lord had prepared her to. The spirit was leading the whole time. It has been a testimony builder that Heavenly Father prepares people to receive the gospel. He leads His work. This truly is his Church here on the earth today. I know that the words may be coming out of my mouth, but i am not the true teacher. That the spirit teaches what they need to know. There are ups and downs out here, but that is life. We push through and try to spend every day working harder, and being better through our Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all, and hope the best for you.

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz