Week 18

Hello Friends and Family,

 

This week has been absolutely incredible! "For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;" The past couple of days, I started to learn how white and ready the field is. Because of a lack of people to teach, my companion and I turned on finding mode. Within 3 days we had picked up 7 new investigators freakishly easily. One of which missed our appointment because of an emergency at work, and then spent the next hour calling different lds churches trying to get a hold of us.

So our ward had a Chili Cook-off and we decided to enter it and use it as a missionary opportunity to get people to come. We called our entree Missionary Chili. It was actually the bishop's favorite Chili, but it didn't win any awards. I'm content with not winning, because we just bought canned Chili from Walmart.

As far as things I learned this week:

1. The field is completely white and ready to harvest. This week I am going to work my hardest to find as many people as I can. I feel like it should not be unreasonable to find 3-5 people a day in this area. 

2. Be enthusiastic about the gospel!!! Be out going and accepting of others. The biggest problem missionaries have is not having people extend a welcoming hand at church. Introduce your self to everybody you don't know and talk to everybody you do know.

3. Human ambition is a powerful thing. The moment you really set your mind to something, outcomes start to change. The moment ambitious people come together and focus on a goal, they become unstoppable. The moment a community becomes ambitious and combines their efforts to reach their goal, the world starts rapidly changing. As members we are united in Christ. Let our ambition to grow His church center in our lives. Let our love for His gospel drive us to change the culture of the world. We have the keys to happiness. We have the keys to thriving communities. Look at the examples from the Book of Mormon.

Have a beautiful week and share the Gospel!!!

-Elder Shill

To Me:

Hey Mom, I'm doing pretty well.  My comp is from Texas and he is an incredibly funny guy. I am having so much fun serving around him. There is a lot I am learning from him. The hardest thing I have had to do... Missionary work isn't physically draining (at least in this area), its mentally and emotionally draining. Investing your soul into helping someone come closer to Christ is exhausting especially when they do not follow through with their commitments. Watching people grow in knowledge but not testimony is the worst. The way I keep moving forward is feeding off of the energy the people who do keep commitments have. Seeing them progress gives me huge amounts of motivation. The people I teach are very warm and welcoming. People are just willing to talk about Christ and let us in. We can usually find someone who will talk to us within 5 knocks. That's one benefit of the South. We have plenty of dinner appointments. We usually eat with a member at least 3 times a week. This ward loves the missionaries. The meat down hear is OUT OF THIS WORLD. I had the best sandwich last night at a members house. It was like a french dip, Philli cheese-steak mix. Quite literally the best thing I had eaten. I would order that every day, all day long.

Love,

Elder Shill

To Tal:

Hey Dad, Here are the answers to your questions

 

1. In the ward I spend the most time with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Blocker. He is absolutely incredible and devotes so much effort to his calling.

2. This ward is doing pretty well. There are many families that hold this ward together. Its a whole lot stronger than the little branch I previously served in.

3. We don't do a lot of service. We are actually trying to do more. We have approached the city to look for some projects, as well as members, and no body has anything to be done. 

4. We do work with sister missionaries. There is a set assigned to our ward that we frequently see.

5. We haven't had any issues come up. We are trying to get the ward a bit more mission minded, but they are still doing great.

6. I'm still able to save a little bit of my monthly allowance.

7. We are only allowed to drive 1100 miles per month, which is not enough miles. We record our miles daily and then send in our reports at the end of the month.

8. Every month we go on a split called rescue visits with the young men. We try to visit all of the less active youth in one day. We have about 3 member present lessons a week though.

9. My bike is actually at the Spanish elders apartment because they needed to borrow it. Normally I keep it on a tarp in our apartment

10. I have not had to speak in sacrament meeting yet, but i do bear my testimony of fast Sundays. 

11. My companion is from Texas. He is going to go into the army for several years. He was going to play college football, but after serving around military he decided to join.