Sister Shurts: That moment your investigator beats you to the punch line and asks to get baptized…

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was a roller coaster ride. We met with Familie Ciu Ciu a couple times this week and during one of our lessons with them we felt impressed to talk about covenants instead of what we had planned. We started talking about the importance of families and how through promises or covenants with God we can be sealed together as a family forever. We were leading the conversation to the point where we were going to ask them if they would prepare to be baptized and then Schwester Ciu Ciu interrupted us and said, (translating for her husband) “So my husband wants to get baptized but he wants to know what he still needs to do to prepare himself” … And sister Davis and I are just sitting there like… uhhh haha ok! I just felt so happy, as I looked at the family- each little brunette and their bright brown eyes looking up at us- I felt such an overwhelming love for each of them. Little Adrian (8) was sitting right next to me and I had my arm around him and was showing him the pictures in the book of mormon. Loridanna (11) was asking questions about the Holy Ghost, little Larissa (6) was playing with my scarf, and Vanessa (3) was snoring on the couch behind me. Our ward doesn’t have any primary kids… so it has been over 5 months since I have been able to be around little people. And if anyone knows me even a little bit- they know just how much I love being around my siblings- and it was just so special for me to be able to sit and teach them the most important thing that they can learn in this life. What they need to do to be a family forever. We set the date for April 18^th- we are hoping that their other daughter, Fernanda (9) will be able to make it to Germany before then. She is in Romania right now with her Grandmother. But I have a lot of faith that God will cause miracles to happen to help this family enter into his fold.

On top of that miracle Sister Davis and I started teaching ANOTHER FAMILY!!! This is Familie Hellhammer- a mother with three young kids. She is so amazing and just wants to feel like she belongs somewhere. We sat down and taught her about the restoration… but then all of a sudden in the middle of the lesson I got the feeling to talk about baptism- which wasn’t in our plan at all… I still don’t really know how that happened, but before I knew it I had asked her if she would be baptized and she said that she can defiantly see herself doing that. She is just so hungry for knowledge about God and Jesus and her purpose here on the Earth. It taught me a lot about how precious what we know truly is; and that we should never take it for granted.

This week was full of canceled appointments and missed buses! Oh my word! Thursday was the worst! Haha We missed so many trains and busses and ended up going the complete wrong direction and talked to creepy people and then missed another train, which left us waiting in the cold for an hour which made us get home soo late we had to call the mission president… haha but- it also involved me teaching sister davis how to waltz at a bus stop! (I knew all those years of dance would be helpful for something!)

I was talking to a young man in our ward. His name in Lucas and he was baptized just over a year ago. He always comes up to me and says, “Sister Shurts! Sister Shurts! I have an important question!!” So naturally I sat down next to him, and this time he asked me- why I came on a mission… wow—haha what a question. I told him that I had always wanted to serve a mission- but I only realized why once I got out here. Because of the Joy. I told him at home I was a happy person, I was social and loved to be around people and smiled and laughed. But I also said, that I have never been as happy as I have been out here. It is a different kind of joy; an overflowing sensation that comes when your happiness stems from your love for other people. It is deeper and more real. That’s why Lucas- because I can see the joy I have for this Gospel reflecting in the eyes of those I teach.

I love you all

Liebe Grüße

Sister Shurts

From the scribbled notes of a sister missionary