GREETINGS FROM THE ISLAND OF COZUMEL

Life is good here in Cozumel! Everything's pretty chill here. Its kind of like Tizimin (a small city) and Cancun mixed because of the touristy stuff. I got to see the beach and come in on a ferry, but we live probably an hour away walking distance. My plan is to find a new house close to the beach so we can run on it every morning. That would be sweet! My new comp Elder Ramirez was on an island called Isla Mujeresand that's what he did while there. I'm finding out that the special change wasn't just for one reason. President changed three of us and every single one of us and our companions needed it for their own special reason. Its kind of crazy to see how perfect God works to help us all learn from each other and have a special opportunities to serve. My reason has to do with strengthening the ward here so that the Seventy, Elder de Hoyo's prophecy can come true; meaning growing to three wards here instead of two in the next 5 months. It's going to be hard, but of course with faith and works everything is possible. So here we go!

Court Wedding

All of my mission I have been trying to get people married so that they could get baptized and it finally happened! Ha I wasn't here to help very much but Tenayri and Bryan (a young 19 year old couple with a baby) got married on Thursday! AND the wife, Tenayri, got baptized the same day! How cool is that?! I got to teach Tenayri her last lessons and she's way motivated to make it to the temple with her little family. In the process we met Bryan's inactive mom and she's now excited to get back to church too! This place is awesome. We have another baptism lined up for two weeks from now and there's a surprise which I'm keeping a secret until next week.

Baptism for Tenayri!

Have a good week everyone! Read your scriptures!

Love,

       Elder Shurtliff

DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Hola! This week was SWEET! Its kind of weird though because our numbers of lessons were so great, but I feel really accomplished because of all of the miracles we are seeing. Each day at church now the members are amazed to see how many people are in our Gospel Principles class. We had to switch rooms! Tons of less actives are coming back AND STAYING which is the best part.

Hopefully the last ingrown toenail of my mission.

Anyways, so ya Rocio´s baptism was AWESOME. The same day of her baptismal interview a less active member scared us half to death because she said that she saw Rocio smoking in the park a couple days before. I was like, "There;s no way!" So we explained to the zone leaders what we heard and told them to make sure that she is 100 percent ready to make that sacred covenant with God. During the interview I was so worried, but she came out clean! Hip hip hooray! We got to the church early to fill the baptismal font and we found Rocio there with the Relief Society making tamales for after the baptism haha. We crammed as many members as we could into the little room and had a real spiritual service. I got to share my testimony, the messages were perfect, and the young women sang a special number for her. Then afterwards she shared her own testimony and you could see and feel how much at peace she was. She keeps on saying that it doesn't even feel like she walks because it's like she's floating across the floor haha. The funny thing is that we just found another investigator just as prepared as Rocio to receive the Gospel who was there at the baptism for his first time at church. Next one up! Ha I love doing the Lord's work.

Rocio's baptism.

So the biggest news of the day is...President called us this morning and told me to pack my bags because I'm going to Cozumel! Its a small island close to Cancun which is awesome but I really didn't want to leave Maya. I guess the Lord still has a lot planned for me before I go. Let's see what my new companion, the spirit, and I can do!

SUPER SHOUT OUT to my mom! She was smart and sent me a package with a missionary that was heading to Cancun! AND it had my birthday package with it from Sister Sarah Henretty! Thank you so much everyone for all the awesome cards and treats. I loved it!

Have a good week fellow workers in Zion! I love you all!

Love,

       Elder Shurtliff

Surprise package from Sarah and mom!

HOLA AMIGOS

Homemade birthday card and Avenger headphones

Feliz cumpleanos para mi!!!

I'm so stoked to be here in Cancun because things are getting hard and awesome. That means all the hard work is worth the thousand blessings. Rocio was able to quit smoking after her blessing last week and now she's good to go for this Wednesday. Woot! When I asked her who she wanted to baptize her she literally couldn't decide so she did what President Kirkham's wife told her to do. Flip a coin. And not just any coin. A U.S. quarter haha. Elder Oliver won which is awesome because he deserves it. 

Here's part of my letter that I sent to President about our experience this week. I have no time to translate. Good luck!

Al final de la semana dificil entramos la capilla el Domingo y esperamos dar la bienvenida al barrio. Casi nadie llagaba hasta cinco antes de a las ocho. Poco a poco mas y mas investigadores y miembros menos activos llegaron bien contentos. Fue la perfecta semana tener a usted alla Presidente por se animaron mucho por representar a Cristo y invitar a sus conocidos a la iglesia para que nuestro pequeno barrio crezca. Cuando vino la segunda hora para la clase de principios del evangelio nos dimos cuenta que eramos demasiados cabernos en la chicita salon. Entonces nos fuimos a una salon mas grande y estaba llena. Sentimos el Espiritu muy fuerte al aprender del Dia de Reposo. Todos compartieron experiencias y participaron incluyendo los menos activos. Fue uno de los Domingos mas memorables de todoa mi mision.

Long story short- Elder Oliver and I are working hard and finding tons of new people to teach.

SHOUT OUTS! One of my best friends year anniversary in the mission is today. FELIZ ANO ELDER GILMORE! Also, Sister Henretty's birthday is tomorrow! FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!!! Muchas Gracias for all of the birthday wishes again! I love you all!

Have a good week everyone! Omni 1:26

Love,
Elder Shurtliff

FELIZ 7/7!!!!

July 7th is an especially lucky day because everyone is really nice to me on this day for some reason. Ha MUCHAS GRACIAS everyone for all your birthday wishes! Today I'm officially a man!

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July! There were no fireworks here, but I heard that in the Hotel Zone they put on a show. I told Elder Oliver that it's too bad we can't go, but we can come back next year to see it. Then I remembered it would be kindof against the point traveling to Mexico to celebrate the 4th of July HA. Oh well, Elder Oliver and I celebrated with a full American style breakfast and a red white and blue cupcake. Too bad it was a French flag haha. Then we got money to eat lunch wherever we wanted so we ate at our local burger place and had a huge BBQ burger with bacon and pineapple. AMERRRICA!

 So the whole ward was getting super excited for Rocio's baptism planned for Wednesday, but it turns out that she still needs some time to quit smoking. So we are hoping and praying that next week that she will be ready! It broke my heart to tell her that she had to wait another week to be baptized, but we explained how important it is to be clean and pure to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. The couple I talked about last week are Cesar and Kathy and they are super Bible smart. They believe in the Apostasy so much that they don't like having one religion. We have only seen them twice, but they were excited to read the Book of Mormon. Here's hoping! Oh and to clarify, Maya isn't a city, it's the ward that we are in here in Cancun. We had a challenging week with lots of people committing to help us and then canceling, but this week will be better I know it. Elder Oliver and I are trying to get to know each other better and sometimes we just might express our own opinion a little too strong, but we always work it out in the end.

I love and miss you all! READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! I loved this when I read it today. 2 Nephi 26:23-33

Love,

       Elder Shurtliff

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS AMERICA!!!

Mexico lost the World Cup and so its literally the end of the world ha.

 

This week was awesome! Our investigators with dates are progressing and its way exciting to see the members getting involved themselves without us telling them. 

 

My mom said that I forgot to tell what happened with Rocio. Its a miracle! A few weeks ago (a few days before should have had to go home) she found a job thanks to her friend, and a room to rent even though she literally didn't have anything. She asked if they could wait for the down payment and the were totally ok with it. How great is God?! Rocio loves to read and now she's already in Alma while she reads the church history book, Our Heritage. Shes AMAZING. She pretty much teaches herself ha. She has now stopped smoking for good and I'm so excited for her baptism.

This week we were walking by our house and we see a lady pushing her little broken down bug while her husband steers down the street. I run up to help her without thinking and start pushing with her. Then a member from another ward stops and helps us. We had to charge the battery but we didn't have the cables. I was like "wait here! There's a member who lives on this street" So me and my comp go running and get the cables. But then after charging it three times the car doesn't start. So we start pushing his car all the way to his house! While I was pushing I was talking to the husband half out of breathe about the Book of Mormon and he was super interested. So we get his address and go back after a few days and him and his wife accepted to read the Book of Mormon! Pretty sweet huh?!

MOTHER OF ALL SHOUT OUTS! FELIZ CUMPLANOS TO THE USA!!! I read 1 Nephi 13 today and the Americas are literally the promised lands! AND FELIZ CUMPLEANOS to the best Sister Missionary in the land! Souer SARAHenretty!!! 

I love you all and hope you eat enough hotdogs and cheeseburgers with bacon for me!!

Love,

       Elder Shurtliff

Last week we went to go help a family paint, but i guess you have to take off the old paint first. So we did it with style!