Hola! Happy New Year!

Well so far 2013 has been a great year. We had 14 lessons this week along with one Baptism and Confirmation. It was so sweet. On Saturday, XXXXX was baptized! I was so happy to see him enter the waters of baptism and to make such a sacred covenant with his Heavenly Father, who I know is so pleased with him. XXXXX doesn't realize how much he has blessed my life. It has built my faith so much seeing him go through this process. And the hope I have for every generation that comes after XXXXX is immense. I pray that his influence will bless the life of his posterity in generations to come, as I know it has already blessed mine.

On Wednesday we had exchanges again. This time I was here in XXXXX with Elder XXXXX. My first time being in my area without Elder XXXXX (my companion). When you are in your area on an exchange you have to lead everything because the other missionary you are with doesn't know your investigators or the plans you've made. So every exchange I've been on up until now, I was just following the other missionary's lead. But this time I had to call all the shots and lead everything. It was awesome! On top of all that, I had to drive a car for the first time in 3 month. No bueno. But it was all good. We taught 6 lessons that day, 5 while going door to door and 1 lesson with XXXXX. It was a great day.

Needless to say I was in shock when I got the call from the mission office saying that she had just spoken with my dad! and that my aunt and uncle where in XXXXX! Telling me I should go visit them! And my aunt's dad had just had a heart attack! It was so cool seeing Uncle XXXXX and Aunt XXXXX! and XXXXX! We went over there and visited with them for a while. It was sooooooo awesome to see them. So nice to see some family!  Aunt XXXXX's family is so awesome. They told us to come by and visit them whenever, so we will definitely be doing that.

Being a missionary continues to be choice, choice above all other jobs. I love it.

(This is an e-mail we received from Elder Sherwood’s uncle…

One thing I forgot to mention.  Donald was greeted by XXXXX's two dogs, a
black lab named Libby and a great Dane named Maggie.  They are very friendly and wanted to make sure Donald felt welcome.  The down side was that both dogs had had a run in with a skunk a couple nights before and were not smelling their best.  Rest assured Donald is getting a full sense of what
life is like in a rural town.)