I would rather have an axe to my head....

Hey Everyone!

I hope your Christmas was so merry and wonderful! Christmas is a wonderful season and what better than to remember it as a missionary. I have felt the love of my Savior more than ever on a mission and I can't tell you the love I feel for him and his sacrifice for us. I am so glad that I really get to share that with others because of the blessing of what the Savior has done for my life.

I have still been struggling with an on going migrane and so they are running some tests sooo... Sister M is out working hard in our area with Sister Garcia. I have had some wonderful promises in my blessing and Heavenly Father sure knows what he is doing. Sorry this email is short but my head doesn't like reading/writing. Know that the work is wonderful and that I love my mission more now than ever, despite any and all challenges. Miracles are happening left and right and so I am being completely submissive and watching it all unravel. 

I love you all and hope you have a Happy New Year!!

Love Sister Sheltz

Bad Week with a Migraine! Pray for me!!!

This week hasn't been a good  for Chels. She has been racked with a nasty migraine headache and nothing seems to be helping!!! She hasn't responded to medications they have given her, so some added faith and prayers on her behalf would be greatly appreciated!!

Yay! Staying in Lancaster!!!

Birthday Package from Alisa!!

Aileena's baptismal day!!

The Elders saw we had no decorations for our tree, so they decorated it for us! Best ZL's ever!!

Exchanges with Sister Biornstad! Love Her

Hello everyone, Hello!!

I can't believe yet another transfer has gone by. It is going so fast!! It is so crazy I swear it was just week one of transfer 3. Anyway, things are really great and I am staying here in Lancaster. Sister M and I were so relieved to stay here because we have had a really great time. The Elders tried to trick us and tell me that I was getting Sister Mackley up here and Sister M was going back to Mission Hills...I could have killed them. A. because I have already had Mack Attack and we all love change, and B if anyone was leaving we thought it would be me. Anyway, It was crazy and they really had us going. For the most part our district is staying the same which is great news, but we lost a few that we love. We really do love our Elders and they always help us to remember to have a good time while we work hard also.

1) This week we had exchanges and I got to go with Sister Biornstad. It was really great! She is in her last transfer and is just so tired. It was good to see how another SIster teaches even though she is in Spanish and could not think of a lot of words. It was so funny. Good times though! We laughed a lot and I really admire her. She also has been sick a lot on her mission and it made me feel better that someone else who wants to work really hard sometimes can't, because all of my companions have immune systems of gold, and sometimes I just don't get that! Sister M came back from exchanges a whole energized person and has shown me a GREAT example of how to work hard and how to be an awesome missionary. We set some new goals and she showed me a talk she got from the Sisters in Mission Hills and it really gave me a whole new attitude on my mission. I was a good missionary and I was working hard but I can't say I was putting EVERYTHING on the line. I don't think my heart was fully invested. I was more 95% in it rather than 100%. She gave me a talk about being a consecrated missionary, here are some quotes:

"A consecrated missionary is willing to lay everything on the altar of sacrifice and to hold nothing back... They put on the table of sacrifice every once of their energy, every hour of day..for a consecrated missionary there is nothing more to give at the end of the day... When consecrated missionaries are exhausted and nothing is left, they rely upon their faith, and the reserve tanks of energy somehow carry them through the day...

You young missionaries came out here to change the world, to change lives, but there is a cost. It costs everything you have on the altar of sacrifice--your fears, your pride, your laziness, your disobedience, your weaknesses; we cannot hold anything back...

Whatever the weakness may be that holds us back from becoming a consecrated missionary, the Lord has promised that if we have faith in him, and humble ourselves before him, that he will make weak things become strong unto us...I do not believe there is one missionary whose weaknesses are greater than the potential strengths within him. Why? --because each of us is a son and daughter of God, with His divine nature and divine potential woven into the very fabric of our souls.... May we not be content with being a good, even a great missionary, when we have the capacity to be great missionaries."

Man! It was just killer!!! I just loved it so much and I can't tell you the improvements we have seen as we have really dedicated and become more consecrated missionaries.

2) This week we have taught back up to our norm of 16 lessons, we went from 2 investigators to over 12, we are finding like crazy!! We set 2 baptismal dates with Shalaun and a new girl Kayla, we had 3 investigators at church, and have a lot of potentials. It is just so amazing to watch things really move forward. We are being blessed and helped in our work as we really sacrifice and work harder.

3) Aileena got baptized this week!! IT was seriously the craziest baptism ever. I seriously thought I was going to die. First of all they were just weird about everything for some reason. We don't know to be honest if the Mom is all the way there. They were supposed to come to the baptism at 11:45 and it started at one. They asked me to do Aileena's hair. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited. They got there at 12:57.........ya. Then the baptism was just scattered. She also asked me to sing which was a disaster because of my poor accompniast. Then, Elder Anthony waited in the water for literally 5 min for her to walk out. I didn't know if she was going to do it! The whole baptism was just awkward. The next day when she was supposed to be confirmed and her little brother was getting blessed...well, she didn't show up until AFTER the sacrament and AFTER they had called her name 10 times. Sister M and I were sweating bullets. Then she brought the baby in a hoodie and it was just CRAZY....I dread sundays on a mission. We had a family there, Shalaun, Jered (new investigator), and then a family that only spoke spanish walked off the street. It was so hard to remember my Spanish.......all I could think of ASL. Anyway, no rest on the Sabbath...BUT GREAT! The ordinances happened and that is the only thing that matters.

4) We taught a girl named Kayla this week who is a family in the ward's future Sister in Law. We taught her the first lesson and she was GOLDEN. She kept saying things like, "I know God has a plan for me," and "I think Joseph Smith really speaks to me and his story because I have a lot of questions," I mean really....then she prayed at the end and asked if it was true and couldn't even finish her prayer because she was so emotional. She said she knew it was true and so we invited her to be baptized! She was awesome, the spirit was so strong, and it was great. She totally accepted and we were just on cloud nine. Well, bummer deal she called us and said she was really overwhelmed and said that she was moving too fast. It's fine, we are going to ust teach her again and help her to understand that this is not about us and we will love her no matter what. We teach her on friday so just keep her in your prayers that she can know how much we love her.

5) I have too many stories to say, but right now we are teaching: Arcenio, Elise, Leona, Shaluan, Kayla, Hugo, Rick and Sharon, Jered, Aileena, annnnd, I can't remember all of them! But we are doing so great.

6) Funny contacting story: We were knocking doors (actually my favorite thing to do now) and we ran into this lady. We start talking and she goes, "Oh hun, I am a Jehovah's witness so you don't want to talk to me" and starts to slam the door. Sister M goes, "Ok, well! Merry Christmas! WAIT! OOps! I mean, they don't celebrate that!!" Me...DYING laughing.

Also funny story:

Me: "I am just livid about their choices! I hate people's agency it makes me so mad!"

Sister M: "Ok, You and Satan! You are right up there!"

Hahaha

Anyway, good times. I love this time of year even though it doesn't really feel like Christmas. It was FREEZING and now all of the sudden it is warm so it is crazy. Sister M and I are going to do some really fun stuff though to make it more about the season. I just love this gospel so much and I am really enjoying my mission more than ever now. I just love all of you so much and pray for you always. During this time of year always remember the Savior. I have learned to love the Savior more than ever and this week I read in the New Testament and in Jesus the Christ about the crucifixion and the Garden of Gethsemane. It killls me of what the Savior did and I just love him and our Heavenly Father SO much and I appreciate him more than ever this year. Keep reading and praying! This gospel is true and that is the BEST NEWS EVER!!

Love Sister Sheltz!

Transfer? Or no transfer? That is the question?? We find out Friday!

Hey everyone!

This week has been AMAZING!! I seriously can't believe the miracles we
have seen this week!! We literally have like doubled our investigator
pool and we are doing really great, especially considering I was told
that I could not leave my bed for a few days and so we didn't work til
Wednesday and we still had a ton of lessons.

1) We got a member referral this week of a couple named Sharon and
Rick Rios. It was really cool because it said on our text to go talk
about families are forever ASAP. We figured it was pretty important so
we got over there. When we got there it was awesome because his
daughter from SLC was there and is a member and we got to watch
Together Forever with them. Sharon is on Hospice and just from working
in that field a lot she doesn't have very long...she is choking on
everything and her lungs sound terrible. Rick is awesome and is from
Mexico and was really attentive. He said he felt a lot of peace and
had had a blessing many years ago when he was sick and was healed from
the blessing and so he asked if Sharon could have one. We came back
the next day with Elders Emery and Anthony and they gave both of them
good blessings. Rick said he would call us if he needed anything but
that he wanted us to teach the Plan of Salvation...that's awesome!

2) Shalaun is doing really great, came to church, the Relief Society
activity, AND the ward party. She couldn't come to church yesterday
because she wa sick but she loves the church. I think we are going to
challenge her next week. She is SO funny and has the THICKEST southern
accent, is really loud, and is very opinionated. She is making friends
just fine in the ward and is one of those investigators we don't have
to worry about taking around and introducing at all...she just talks
to anyone and everyone and is acclamating just fine.


3) We have a baptism this week of a 9 year old named Aileena. She is
such a special little girl and knows so much about the gospel. She has
wanted to be baptized for a while but her mom has been really funny
about all of it. She is really intelligent and was going to Relief
Society every week because primary to her was too easy and she was
answering questions even in Relief Society. We eventually had to tell
her that she needs to be in primary and so she has been going and
enjoying it. Her kitty died this week and she was beyond distraught
and said she wasn't happy enough to be baptized this week....oh dear.
So we got her a blessing and hopefully all things will go
smoothly....saturday at 1 is the baptism so hopefully we can keep it!

4) We have found so many people lately and contacting has gone really,
really well. I am pretty surprised at this area that people for the
most part are super nice. We have only had one guy who was really
angry. We found a girl named Sabrina who talked to us for a while and
also a few more. Good times!

5) Yesterday we went to dinner at a member's house who just got
engaged and ate with her and her finance. She has been inviting her
soon to be sister in law to a lot of activities and she showed up
right as we were going to share our message with the family. We asked
her what she thought and she just started crying and saying that she
really wanted to get back into church because she misses her church in
Virginia. It was so awesome, we got to talk about the Boook of Mormon
and she said she wanted to take the lessons! Her name is Kayla and we
are so excited to meet with her.

6) I read a TON this week and could give a million insights, but I
will tell you my favorite. I read about the Garden of Gethsemane in
Jesus the Christ and it was amazing. Also I read the parable of the
talents in Matt 25 and I loved applying it to the mission actually. It
was really powerful.

Talmage says these things:

"In that of entrusted talents, the servants receive different amounts,
'every man according to his serveral ability' and equal in diligence
though shown in one instance by great gain and in another by small but
proportionate increase is equally rewarded. Unfaithfulness and
negligence are condemned and punished in both..."

"The men were servants, literally bondsman; they as well as those
possessions held by them in trust were his. Those servants had no
actual ownership, nor title of permanent proprietorship in the
treasure committed to their care; all they had, the time and
opportunity to use their talents and they themselves belonged to the
Lord..."

"....they were conscious as they were of having at least given it
their best...the honest, diligent, faithful servants saw and
reveranced their Lord the perfection of the good qualities which they
possessed in measured degree; the lazy unprofitable serf, afflicted by
distorted vision, professed to see in the master his own base
defects...relating to human acts and tendancies, is physioloically
true; in a peculiar sense men are prone to conceive of the attributes
of God as comprizing in augmented degree the dominant traits of their
own nature. Both the servant who had been entrusted wuth 5 talents and
he who had received but 2 were equally commended, and as far as we are
told, were equally recompensed. The talents bestowed upon each were
the gift of his Lod, who knew well whether that servant was capable of
using better advantage one, two, or five. Let no one conclude that
good work of a relatively smller scope is less necessary or acceptable
than like service in a wider range."

I just thought it was so good in relating to missionary work.
Sometimes we don't see outward results, but all we have we owe to the
Lord. He has entrusted us with the people in this area, and as long as
we are working hard we are good servants.


Well, everyone I just love all of you and hope everyone is doing
great! I will find out on friday for sure or not if I am getting
transferred. I doubt it, but we will see.

I love the gospel so much and I am loving my mission more everyday.
Don't get me wrong, it is not easy, and there are many discouraging
and trying days...but I have grown so much! I can't believe the growth
that occurs so quickly in such a short time on a mission.

This gospel is true and I love it so much! It is the BEST news EVER!

Love Sister Sheltz

THANKSGIVING WEEK!!!

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe this transfer has gone by so fast. Next week is
transfers and it will be interesting to see what happens! It is alwaysfun to see what happens at transfer time.

Well, I wish I had more to say this week but I came down with the
dreaded gombu and have been sick again. Such a pain in the bum to be
sick on the mission. I had a sinus infection that kind of spread down
to my lungs and stuff and so I am hoping to get back in the swing of
things. Poor Sister M is stuck with me too and that is the other hard
thing about being sick on a mission...it makes your companion stay in
too! I feel horrible and wish more than anything to just get out there
and work. I can't wait for the resurrection!!


1) We finally got to see Elise this week and she is doing so good! She
had a really cool experience where she prayed and she felt comfort and
peace. We watched the Testaments with her and her baby was going all
crazy. He finally layed down and I started to kind of rock his feet
and i could see him getting sleepy. Sister M and I prayed so hard taht
he would go down for a nap and he did! It wasn't his usual time to
sleep either but she was able to watch the movie and she felt the
spirit so strong. She is going to come to church next week but was in
Cancun this week. It was really great to have such a good lesson with
her.

2) Thanksgiving was really great and Sister Rees' house was full of
family. I sure missed my family but it was so nice of her to open her
home to us. I just wished I had felt better on that day because I felt
out of it a little.

3) Aileena is a 9 year old who is darling and wants to get baptized so
bad. Her mom has been kind of funny about but and keeps trying to make
up excuses. We tried to get to the bottom of it but she really had no
explanation. We prayed about a baptismal date and we felt really good
about Dec 11 and actually felt really strongly. We tried to explain to
her mom that Aileena knows more than most of our investigators when
they get baptized, she has a testimony, and desires to get baptized.
We had her and her mom pray about the date and they both felt really
good about it! ANYWAY, we are really excited about it.

4) Sister M was able to find a few girls from the single's ward, one
to stay with me and one to be her companion so she could go to church
because Shalaun was there! Yay! And she loved it! Leona wanted to come
but she was sick and they even called US to know when church was...we
didn't even have to call them. So good. I think they will be baptized
next transfer if things keep going the way they are. They are so
amazing! We hope Cheryl will be the same.

Anyway, that is about it! Sorry I don't have more for everyone this
week. It has just been kind of slow because of my health and because
of the holidays. I love you all so much and care for you each deeply.
Know you are always in my prayers and I am thinking of you always!!!

The gospel is true! Christ Lives! This is HIS church restored. That is
THE BEST NEWS EVER!!!

Loves and Merry Christmas!

Love SIster Sheltz