Members Play An Important Role in Missionary Work

Elder Shirley with Elder Cardon, who is from Duvall, WA and from the same ward as Elder Shirley's uncle and aunt Bostron

Elder Shirley and Elder Carlson

One of the town squares of Brno

A cool statue in the Brno town square

Elder Shirley's companion Elder Hymas

Elder Shirley says this was a "pretty good dish" that he ate this week.  He didn't elaborate on what is in it.

An iconic picture of Brno

October 31, 2016

Hi!

My testimony of member work has grown this week. We had testimony meeting yesterday and I love hearing about how the members support us as missionaries. I know that we are supported and I also know that the work will be hastened as members work to bring their friends to the gospel. 

Our ward mission leader has got to be one of the best out there. He is a returned missionary and a really cool guy. After our correlation meeting with him this last week, he actually contacted on the street a little bit with us. That was a cool experience for us to know that he is behind us and willing to work with us. Members help the work so much!

We have 2 new investigators this week! We met with both of them this last Friday. They both say that they are "atheists", but they are willing to at least talk about God. I think that the problem here is finding people that are willing to sit down with us and meet the first time. The public’s perception of people that believe in God here isn't very good. But if people just give us a chance to explain a little, I think that they realize how faith and how the idea of God isn't too weird, but is actually beneficial for them individually. Our new investigators are both YSA (young single adult) college student-aged guys and are really cool. I'm excited to see them progress and at least think about and try believing.

One day this week we did a chalk display in the middle of the city. We drew the plan of salvation on the ground and had contacted people about it. I met a really cool guy from Brazil that might have interest in the future. We had a nice drawing on the ground and everything was going well, and then some little kids ran up, grabbed some chalk, and started scribbling all over our picture. Then they started drawing on the buildings. We couldn't do a whole lot to stop them because they wouldn't listen, so we just had to run and grab some water and erase everything.

We had a great training day and correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. We also had another big service day on Saturday. We dug a big hole in this one guy's garden and also ripped another tree out of the ground. That seems to be the favorite activity for the missionaries to do. 

Church was great yesterday. Bishop invited us over to have dinner with his family after church. That was really fun. A meal from the members is always a great opportunity for us to get to know them and have a good meal. 

Zone conference was awesome! The focus was on baptism. Our last training was about the importance of God and about how people can't progress in the gospel without a good foundation. This training was about baptism to let us know that we still need to talk about baptism with people early and often. Baptism is our purpose! Three things that someone needs to have in order to be baptized: 1) desire; 2) trust in the missionaries/members; 3) a personal testimony. 

Here are some responses/reactions to questions that we asked Elder Shirley and information we told him in our emails this week.

Good to hear that Sugar is still winning! (We told him about Sugar’s state championships in both volleyball and boys’ cross-country this week). I hope basketball tryouts go well for Abrea! Sitting the bench would be hard but getting cut would be harder, I think. Sitting the bench would at least push her to be better! 

Abrea is already going to be taking Drivers Ed? When can she have her license? Before I get back? 

Tell Joe (Andreason) hi for me as well! It’s crazy to think that all of them are home already. A few missionaries here did a similar fireside about their missions as well. Those seem to be good experiences! 

Transfers are next week! It is so up in the air as to what is happening. So I can't even expect to stay. We'll see! This week should be a little crazy and I'm sure it will fly by. Hope you have a great week as well!

Love you lots!

-Elder Shirley