Week 30!

Hello Friends and Family!

This week has been pretty good. We were able to get in touch with some investigators that had almost dropped off of the face of the earth. We were able to teach them about temples and family history and it blew their minds. They said that it answered so many questions they had. It is so fun explaining doctrines that no one has heard of right out of their Bible! Temples and Family History is my favorite lesson to teach because of how obvious it is, how many questions it answers and watching peoples reaction to hearing it.

 

What I learned:

• I had the incredible opportunity to go home teaching with our stake president. That was an incredible experience. After we shared the lesson he sat us down and asked us how well we discerned the situation. I thought I had done a pretty good job, and then President started telling us what he noticed. I felt like I was listening to Sherlock Holmes. As he explained what he saw it became apparent to me that he was seeing far below the surface layer of people. I learned what it meant to teach to people's needs and concerns. Those who hold keys and exercise them in righteousness are definitely inspired men. 
• We also had the opportunity to give another blessing to a member at the Hospital. What really touched me about this blessing was the comment made by the wife of this unconscious man. She said, "Don't worry honey, the Elders of Israel are here." I frequently forget who I am. I am an Elder of Israel. I am one who represents the Lord Jesus Christ. The authority of my calling is greater than I realize. But she realized it. And I am so thankful that she helped me remember. 

-Elder Shill

June 5, 2016 A Visit from Brother Warren

This last week we received a message from Brother Warren who lives in Greenville, North Carolina where Elder Shill is currently serving.  He was in town for a wedding and wanted to come and meet us.  It was a wonderful surprise!  We set up a time for him to come and visit before church.  It was so wonderful to hear all about Braden and how happy he is.  We were touched that he would make such efforts to come and visit with us.  After visiting for about 40 minutes, we all went to church together.  It happened to be fast and testimony meeting and Brother Warren boldly went up and bore a sweet and powerful testimony.    Thank you Brother Warren for sharing your love of the gospel and of the missionary program with us.  It made my heart rejoice! 

Week 29

Hello Friends and Family!

This week has been an amazing week. While we didn't teach as many lessons, we found some amazing new people to teach; golden contacts if you will. I know that this church is true because I see every single person who experiments upon the word achieve the same results. Whenever somebody sincerely prays to know if the Book of Mormon is true they get an answer. Whenever people sincerely starts consistently reading the Book of Mormon their life improves. Whenever people regularly come to church they receive an extra boost of spiritual upliftment that helps them continue throughout the week. Whenever somebody approaches general conference with a question, they get an answer. 

We recently ran into an Atheist. We talked to him and invited him to read the Book of Mormon, but he declined claiming that it was a waist of time because God did not exist. Walking back to our car, Elder Tebbs and I just marveled about how someone could not believe in God. We started to realize how much God had been in our lives and how we knew he existed even though we had not seen him. It is so apparent to us that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He sent His son Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of the world so we can live with God again. I am grateful for this knowledge that I have and I am more grateful for the opportunity I have to share it with others. 

Lessons I learned this week:

- The Lord really wants His children to know what church to join. If we pray and ask in complete sincerity we will get an answer. We had three people pray this week, and they received their answer. 

 

- The Holy Ghost helps us learn how we can improve our selves. I re-listened to a talk about "What Lack I Yet". I decided to pray and ask God how I can improve and the message was pretty clear that I need to be more humble and more loving. I had never thought about doing comp inventory with the Lord, but it works incredibly well. I now have a new opportunity to watch the Lord change a weakness into a strength. 

I love y'all,

-Elder Shill

 

 

Week 28

Hello Friends and Family,

This week has been great week. We were able to teach tons of lessons this week! Hour by hour, I feel like nothing productive is happening and then at the end of the day I am shocked by what we accomplished. At the end of the week, I'm just really confused on how we got so much done. I love being able to report my day in my nightly prayers. I'm just blown away by how quickly time is flying. I feel like I just got out of the MTC.

So we received transfer calls on Saturday. Elder Tebbs and I will be staying in Greenville, which means I will be killing Elder Tebbs (I will be his last companion)! I really enjoy killing companions. I get to watch them ride the emotional roller coaster between wanting to stay and wanting to get home. I can tell this is going to be a fun transfer.

Things I learned this week: 

- I love presenting... We were invited into a home so we could share our message. All of the couches were full so Elder Berry (we were on exchanges) and I stood in the middle of the room and did a pretty good job taking control of the stage. It was really fun telling the story of Joseph Smith and how he saw and talked with God, our Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ. As LeGrand Richards says, "If you learn to tell our story right, there is no room for argument." 

- The hardest part about missionary work is scheduling appointments: Not only do we have to schedule appointments with our investigators, who frequently flake, but we also have to schedule members to come out with us. 

I love y'all,

-Elder Shill