The Gospel Just Makes Sense

Elder Shirley with Elder Gunnell (a senior missionary from his first area of Jicin)

Elder Shirley's companion (Elder Hudson) while they were doing a service project this week

The soccer field where Elder Shirley and his companion play almost every morning

August 22, 2016

Hi!

We ended up dropping that lady that we tracted into last week. She didn't really want to progress unfortunately. District Leader responsibilities are pretty easy. I just get to go on a lot of exchanges and train at district meeting every week. This week will be our last district meeting in this transfer. Next week we have zone training in Bratislava, which is in Slovakia, so I get to go there again. And the week after that will be a new transfer.

The new mission president is great. Not much has changed in the mission yet, but I assume that those changes will start happening soon now that he has been here a little bit and is used to the missionaries. My companion is great; we've been together for 16 weeks already so we know each other pretty well! We work hard and we get along. We both like sports too. I actually think tonight we are going to go shoot a basketball around.

This week was another pretty normal week. We actually had a musical number in church yesterday! The 4 of us missionaries here sang. We sang the Army of Helaman song. It ended up being alright. I have found out since being on my mission that whenever I have to do anything musical in front of people, I get super nervous. My legs literally just start shaking. So during the song, I had to keep moving around so nobody would see haha. I'm not meant to perform in front of people :) 

I had an exchange this last week with Elder Andersen in my district. He is super knowledgeable about the gospel. Since being around him this transfer, I have really felt like my understanding of the gospel has grown. On our exchange, we had a street contact with a really cool mom. We talked to her for about an hour about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. From that conversation and from Elder Andersen, I have really how important the doctrine of the nature of God is. That he is our Father and that he has a body. Literally everything stems off of that knowledge. It is awesome to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who gives us scriptures, prophets, his Son Jesus Christ, and allows us to communicate with him through prayer. The gospel just makes sense! 

That's super cool that Abrea started in the girls soccer game! How many girls are on the team? I can't believe she is playing varsity high school sports. That is pretty crazy!

Dan is still playing defense huh? Who else is on the team? Dan is an upperclassman now; that’s exciting! How did he get involved in doing orientation? I'm glad you guys have found a new normal with me being gone. And I'm sure Dan and Abrea are a lot closer now! And they'll be in high school together this year. Wow, it seems like there are still tons of people getting mission calls! It's weird to already be out so long and to hear about some friends getting their calls now. I'm glad I went out early! I've become quite the chef while I’ve been out here;) I don't know if that (baked goods from his mom) would make it here and still be good haha. Thanks for the offer though! :)

Love you all!

-Elder Shirley