AHHHHH!!!! 
My head is swimming! There is so much to think about to thank for and to be excited about! First of all thank you for the packages!!! I got my package of CDs from the VC just barely. So I didn't get them earlier because we are no longer in the VC this transfer. Sister Javed and I are full Feild this transfer, so we never go to the VC. But on friday (my b-day) We went to the VC for a prep mtg. It was awesome! We learned alot and so many gave me cards and notes and they all sang to me. It was too much actually. I hate having all the attention on me!
You also saw that Rachel Tyler took me and my comp out to Garcia's for lunch. That was so fun and she spoiled me! :) I also got cards from the three wards in my first area where all the people I love from the wards signed it. That was so nice of Rachel to head that up. She is so thoughtful! A great friend. 
Also I AM SO SPOILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for ALL the wonderful things that you gave me. Oh my I am overwhelmed. You did you too much! I feel so loved and spoiled!! Thank you! We LOVE the CDs it was so fun to get them! It's fun to have some new music! We really like them and Sister Javed also loves the Praise the Man song too now. She plays it over and over! :) Thank you thank you! 
I am so excited for your baptism that you had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!! :) you are the best! Congrats on setting a date for Tyler! :)
I loved getting some pics of James and Janae's wedding! SO fun!
Aw those beautfiul baby girls! I love it!!!!!!
Sorry this is so short. I don't have much time today. We have lots of lessons planned. Again... whoops. We can't stop though- ha the work must move forward. Sister Javed and I got a phone call from the Assistants to the President telling us what a great job we are doing with our numbers that we send in. He said that we are setting a great example for our zone and for the mission. I guess we are doing alright :) that made us happy and want to work harder. 
We have three baptisms this weekend. 
Debra Petteruti, Drew Howard, and Debbie Dominguez!
I LOVE These people with all my heart!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Thank you for your love and support and surprizes and thank you for being so awesome!
Isn't the Lord blessing us so mightily? I can't even believe it!
Also, my dear companion just got the most exciting news ever.. HER DAD GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for her. She has been crying and fasting and praying for this for so long. He is the last one in her family to make this wonderful committment! You know, all her family has gotten baptized while on her mission except her younger sister who got baptized the same time as her! What wonderful blessings! Now they can be sealed two months after sister Javed gets home in the Hong Kong Temple!!!!!!!!!!! :) 
What a wonderful thing the gospel is.
I feel so selfish for not writing more and saying thank you more for all that I have and have been given! 
Thank you and I love you!
~ Sister Chelle Shurtz

hello all you people that I love!
Things are going so well here! And holy pajamas! It sounds like things are Going Fantastic there too!!!! 
YOU HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!! WOW!!!! I am so so so so so excited for you! What a wonderful thing it is to see my own parents moving Gods work along in my home ward back home! You are so wonderful and incredible!Well july here is just as awesome and we totally got utah beat on the warm weather! SO HOT! like 110 at least most of the time! It's hard going around in the apartments where a lot of our investigators live because there are two big pools in the apt grounds and people are always swimming in them! haha. well I am grateful to give up water for a year and half. It's a worthy sacrifice for this INCREDIBLE WORK! I love it WAY more than i love anything else, so it doesn't matter! 
On the 4th we actually were able to get some lessons in. We had a really good lesson with a PMF and they invited us to do a few fireworks with them after. We agreed, because we knew it would be good to bond with the family a bit, but we didn't stay long. Only like 10 min because we would've felt guilty spending too much time doing worldly things instead of teaching. The dinner appt we had, was a BBQ and they had all their family there! It was fun, but sister Javed didn't like it because she thought it was too crowded haha. She would not enjoy our family get togethers then! When we got home later that night, the Richardson family that we are living with, was doing fireworks so we did a few sparklers with them! That was fun- i love sparklers!
Well there are going to be so many miracle baptisms this month! You just get ready! I can't wait!- Literally i can't sit around and wait, i have to shift into high gear! If i am going to expect miracles- I need to do my part!
James and Janae I am just dying that I missed your endowment in the temple and that i'll miss your marriage. You are making the most important decision of your lives! I LOVE YOU!
Gotta go!
I love the pics you sent! Keep smiling! 
~Sister Shurtz

June 25, 2012

Heya!

 

Monday was not our p-day and so it was supposed to be on tues but then we had a five hour temple trip on tues which was supposed to be our p-day so we had to do half our p-day monday and half our p-day tues! Then on Wed and thursday I went on exchanges to scottsdale with Sisters Jensen and Taylor, and on Friday and Sat I went on exchanges with Sister Kranendonk!! and Anderson. Then on Sunday I was in church all day and then straight to the VC. So yeah.. no time to do missionary work in my area :( Sister Javed just went and hung out at the VC and went to other sisters areas with them while I was on exchanges.

So the Temple trip was way awesome! President and Sister Ellsworth decided that they wanted to do two temple sessions in a row back to back with all the missionaries in the Mesa mission! It was so neat! I have never done that before! We had to be at the temple at 6:30 am so we had to get up at 5 am that morning.. iyiyiyi! haha. It was hard to stay awake.. I won't lie. But It was still a really amazing experience. I am glad I was able to do it! Things that I hadn't noticed while going through the first session jumped out at me during the second session! I love the temple! So peaceful and wonderful and miraculous!

The exchange in Scottsdale was fun. The people there are so incredible rich! I can't believe it! Some live in normal houses but others live in masions! We had a really neat lesson with a guy named Gerry. He is from New York so he had a funny New York accent. it was really hard for the sisters to even teach Gerry because he would just talk over them when they tried to talk. Haha. he wasn't trying to be mean, he just liked to tell really long storiesOh man, neat guy though. If he would let the sisters talk he would be ready to be baptized really soon!

With Sister Kranendonk and Anderson we stayed in a members guest house. Holy Samoly! The guest house is bigger than our actual house! They live in a HUGE house! I thought it was a lodge to a hotel or something. They have 5 garages, wow. It was just crazy. Anyway they live in Clyde Bawdens guest house. Do you know who he is? That awesome piano player? He's awesome! Anyway. I still don't know my area at all, and I don't know the people in it very well at all. I feel like we don't have time to meet members because we are always in lessons! It's good, but hard. I know we need to work with members more.

THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!!!

June 19, 2012

Well Sorry for not writing Yesterday. Our P-day is tuesday this week!
This week has been crazy. We have so many people that we are teaching that I can't keep em all straight.  We are teaching a lot of part member families. In fact MOST of our investigators are PMFs here. There is an aptment complex in one of my wards (the 30th ward) that is called Reflection Apts. That place is a gold mine! We are finding new investigators from those apartments weekly! I think it's because that's the only place that we can catch people outside! Ha nobody is outside in the summer time- it's too hot!! 
Well we had a really awesome lesson with a japanese guy named Wayne this week. He is so intelligent and I love teaching him because he really pays attention and really wants to change and know the scriptures. We set a baptismal date for July 7th with him, he is going to pray about it, but we are hoping it will happen! He does need to get married, but we have been working with him on that and he told us this week that he is getting married on the 25th of this month! What a miracle! Now we just have to get him to stop smoking. He wants to, it's just a matter of nourishing that desire with faith unto action! Lets see... I had some really neat miracles at the Visitors Center. We have a neat Art Exhibit up called "Witnesses For Christ" They are paintings done by Liz Lemon Swindle of the life of Christ. They are absolutely incredible! I love the emotion that she puts into her paintings! They are so expressive! This exhibit will be up from June to September. Anyway, there was an indian mom and dad that came in and asked me, "is this the Visitor Center?" I said "yes! have you been here before?" They told me they hadn't and so I asked them if they wanted a tour. They said yes. So I took them through the exhibit, and it was so amazing. We spent over an hour going through all the paintings. I taught the whole restoration and parts of the plan of salvation and other principles of the gospel all with the paintings of the savior. They soaked it all in! During all this, the Lady (Irwinita) asked me how she could get her son to go on a mission and be a missionary like me. The question caught me off guard since none of them are members of our church and they said that this is the first time they had really ever looked into our church. But I told her that her son would need to meet with missionaries, be willing to live and keep all the commitments that the missionaries give him and then get baptized and then in a year he could put in his papers to serve a mission. She was so excited. She said. This is what my son needs! I want him to do this. She then told me that she wanted to schedule a tour for me to do with her and her husband, and son and daughter. It was amazing. They are such a neat couple. I know that they will be baptized soon. They have such real intent and are already such good people. I am excited to do the tour for their family. It will be tonight. Another experience I had at the Visitors Center was when I was starting a movie for an elderly couple. The grandma suddenly asked me, how can I get my 21 year old grandson to go to church? I started laughing and said that's a great question that I think alot of people would like the answer to. But then I started talking to her about him. I told her that I could give him a call and invite him to go and learn more. He isn't a member of our church but he is a really good kid. He said that he is saving himself for his wife, and he doesn't drink or smoke or anything. He said that he doesn't know if he believes in God though. He has never been taught to believe, he said that to him believing in God is kinda like believing in Santa Clause. Aw that really broke my heart. Wow I mean can you imagine- not having this knowledge of our Heavenly Father? Oh man. I am still teaching Brennin over the phone, I hope that he will take my challenge to pray and ask God if he is there. 
 I also helped a young 20 year old girlt that came into the VC to take the decision to be baptized. She has been meeting with the missionaries, since november but when I started talking to her about some of the basic aspects of the Plan of Salvation she had no idea what I was talking about!! ha... sometimes I wonder about those elders... what have they been teaching her all this time? Haha not my place to judge, anyway, she was ready for baptism she just didn't know it! She called the elders that next day and told them she was ready! yaya! 
Well there are so many other miracles! I just don't have time to write them all! The Lord is blessing me so much! 

`Love Chella Shurtza
MWAH