Feeding the Homeless (Week 69)

It's been a wild past two weeks. Wow. We've had some interesting lessons to say the least haha, but it's been all good stuff.

This past Tuesday Elder Olsen and I got to go up to Birmingham to do some service. We went to this Sandwich/Salad store restaurant shop thing and got all of their leftover food at the the end of the day.

We put it in these big bags that we had brought with us and went out on the streets to give to homeless people. It was awesome!! I felt the spirit as we gave to those who had nothing. Service has been a part of how I can find joy. We came up to this one guy who had a dog. We offered him food and then I asked him if we could give his dog some food. He said yes and I gave this homeless dog a smoked salmon sandwich. It was just a great way to end the day. :)

This week we got to teach our friend Fred. He is great! We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of baptism. We read Mosiah 18 and talked about the Covenant promises that God makes with us at baptism. Fred found this very interesting. 

One of those promises is Eternal Life for the faithful. We told Fred that Eternal Life is to live forever with God and our Families and that we would be heirs of all that God has. We told him what we have recently heard from President Nelson, "Nothing could be worth more than all our Father has!" That's what it comes down to. Us being willing to make and keep Covenants with the Lord.

-Elder Shockley 

Reunion (Week 67)

 Well it was quite the week! Here's a couple of things that happened :)

Friday we had transfers. Elder Kintner and I drove down to Bristol to meet up with our new companions. While we were there waiting for our comps I saw some familiar faces. I was in the hall and headed out to the back of the Chapel when I came across a name tag that read ELDER WATERS. No way! Elder Waters was in my MTC district and we had both been temporarily reassigned in the states. It was so cool to see him in person. Then about 20 ish minutes later some missionaries got off of a bus. I saw another familiar face. It was thee Elder Stutz! My MTC companion! It was surreal to finally see him in person, and man what good Elders both of them are.

I am now with Elder Olsen! He is from a small town in Utah called Orem, haha. He is a bro and we get along very well! I am still in Kidderminster and am super excited about it!

On Sunday we were driving to someone's house to visit them. On the way Elder Olsen noticed this guy on the side of the road and said something about how he looked like he needed a friend. "Should we go back?" I asked. We went for it and figured out where to park. When we flipped the car around we saw that he was gone... As we kept driving we saw him again and looked for a place to park. We drove around 3 ish corners and lost him again but just hoped we could find him. We got out of our car just as we saw him turn the corner. No way! Haha that was super sweet. So we went and talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and all of that good stuff. His name is Joseph and we told him we liked his name. hah. It was all just super cool how it worked out. 

A lot of cool experiences. A lot of tough ones. But they're all for our good and our learning so that's neat.

Today I broke the key off in the lock.............. can't wait to see how that all plays out, haha.

I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Shockley