Week 97

Hello Friends and Family

This has been a wonderful week. Here is how it went

Monday - Drive to NC

Tuesday - Kinston Zone Conference

Wednesday - Exchanges in NC

Thursday - Denbigh Zone Conference and Splits with the Elders Quorum President

Friday - Princess Anne Zone Conference

Saturday - General Conference

Sunday - General Conference 

Despite the limited amount of time we had to proselyte we were able to have a couple really good lessons. For the last session we watched conference with some members and their friends. That was probably the highlight of my week.

I think that my favorite talk was Elder Anderson's talk. It was neat to see him take notes and recount the promises that had been extended during the conference. I also really appreciated Elder Hail's couple of lines. I know what he said was true. Faith prepares us to meet God. Im grateful for the opportunity I have to regularly hear from Prophets and Apostles. I have come to understand how these ordinary men have such extraordinary callings. I know that they are inspired by God.

Love y'all,

-Elder Shill

Week 96

Hello Family,

I apologize again for the lack of time I have to email. This week was wonderful. Sis. C was Baptized and Confirmed!!! I have loved watching her countenance change as she has approached baptism. Our Non-Member Sunday was a huge success. There was about 16-20 non-members at church that day, which raised the ward attendance by ~10%. I can see several of them becoming new investigators.

 

Also, I will be praying about where I should go to college.

Love y'all,

-Elder Shill

Week 94 & 95

Hello Friends and Family,

This has been a beautiful week! So much has happened.

On Sunday we had a pleasant surprise when a lady and her daughter came to church. Earlier that week we had so many appointments scheduled that we had to go on splits to get to them all. I went with a recently returned missionary and later our recent convert. Elder Rogers went with another member of the ward. As we were trying to meet back up at the end of the night, we noticed a car had pulled off right next to the church with its hazards on. We decided to pull over and see if there is anything we could do to help. Long story short, a lady had run out of gas and needed help getting to a gas station. While we were helping her we told her that the church she stopped at was the church we belonged too. She quickly realized that there was no coincidence, but that God had brought her to us. We invited her to church and she came. Even better was the ward embraced her and she said she would come back next week with all 8 of her kids who still live at home.

Our investigator with a baptismal date is doing wonderful. She was able to meet with the bishop to get to know him a little bit and is going to go to Family Home Evening with some members. She is quite excited for her Baptism on the 23rd of September.

Planning transfers also went smoothly. The mission had sufficient trainers and the storms have rerouted enough to enable to missionaries to get to the mission. 

Our ward is also planning a non-members Sunday. Every person we seem to talk to brings up the event without our asking and talks about the people they want to invite. Having it just be announced, I am quite impressed with the amount of invitations that have been extended already. It is absolutely thrilling to see the members feel the joy of sharing the gospel. I'm grateful for our ward mission leader who has really taken this idea and is bringing into reality.

I am so grateful for the chance that I have to serve a mission. I am grateful for the testimony that I am developing. I know that this church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that there are living Prophets and Apostles.

Love y'all,

-Elder Shill

Week 93

Dear Friends and Family!

This has been such a busy week. We were able to go on 3 exchanges, which was a blast. During zone conferences we gave a training about maintaining a model area, which includes having a model apartment. It has been really fun then going on exchanges and seeing spotless apartments when we walk in. The first exchange was with the Newport News North Elders. I got to be with Elder Collier again, which was absolutely awesome. The second one was with Kilmarnock and the third one was with the Newport News South Zone Leaders. All of these missionaries were absolutely fantastic. I was so impressed by the level of their dedication to the work. 

This week was much better for proselyting in Portsmouth for us. We were able to meet with several of our investigators and we even set a baptismal date. Hopefully she is able to progress in the gospel to baptism. 

Sorry about the short email again. 

Love yall,

-Elder Shill

 

P.S. I should have a couple pictures on Google Drive soon. 

 

 

Week 92

Hello Friends and Family,

This week has been a blur. Walking into church on Sunday I felt like I had returned from a 1 month vacation. We had 3 zone conferences and two exchanges, all of which went extremely well. 

Zone Conferences were fantastic. The topics were PMG Chapters 8,9, and 10. In each conference we had two trainings. The first training was in a District Leader Training Meeting. This meeting is for all the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the region. Our training was about cleanliness and raising the culture of the mission. We committed the whole body of leadership to hold a model of cleanliness for the rest of the mission. It was neat to see how all of the missionaries quickly jumped on board and chose to raise the standards of the mission. Our second training was about becoming a successful missionary. I love how PMG defines a successful missionary. I know that a successful missionary is only a missionary who has become converted to Jesus Christ.

Our investigators are doing well. We haven't been able to meet with many of them because we have been out of town all week; However, the ward is doing a great job of fellow shipping our investigators while we have been gone. 

Love yall,

-Elder Shill

Week 91

Hello Friends and Family!

I am sorry this is going to be a short email. Today we have to drive to North Carolina to pick up some departing missionaries. Anyways, life is great. We finished a fantastic week of exchanges, MLC, and proselyting. We met a great new family that came to church this week. Its always special seeing people come back to church for the fist time in many years. It was especially neat to see several other investigators be at church. Yesterday we also had a dinner appointment with some members and their friend happened to stop by and we were able to teach her the restoration. 

I am so grateful to be apart of this church. This week I went through the whole Book or Mormon quickly highlighting the prophet's testimonies of the savior. It was like reading only the best parts of the book. I see more clearly how that book will bring someone closer to God  than any other book. I know that it is the word of God. 

This week is going to be busy. We have 3 exchanges and 3 zone conferences in different parts of our mission. We are going to be in our area on Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday. I am excited to go explore other parts of the mission. 

I know that this church is true. Jesus is the Christ. There is a living prophet on the earth today.

Love yall,

-Elder Shill

Week 89, 90

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGES! It was perfect and the pens were exactly what I wanted! I really appreciate it! Sorry I wasn't able to email last week. We were running around finishing all of the transfer logistics. Transfers are a miracle. All 30 new missionaries got to their areas safely and with all their belongings. I was absolutely astonished by how well everything went. Its neat to create a plan and then watch it unfold.

 

Everything is going really well. We haven't had a lot of time proselyte so we haven't been able to find any new investigators. We are getting back into finding mode though. We thought a couple investigators were going to be at church, but they weren't able to come. I am just grateful for how much the ward loves the missionaries. Yesterday one of the councilors in the Primary Presidency asked us to teach the 10 year olds because all of the adults were out of town. That was probably one of the funniest things I have ever done. Those kids were so smart and absolutely hilarious. 

Sorry I can send a longer email. I am trying to fill out college applications. 

Love you,

-Elder Shill