Ether 12:27 (classic)

Well another fantastic week here in NWA has come and gone. Bentonville is doing great and we were untouched by any foul weather that may have happened last night. The work continues to go well. I can't believe a whole transfer has come and gone! We got transfer calls on Saturday night and we are both staying here in Bentonville.

We are having some really cool experiences with one of our investigators, XXXXX. She is this older lady, around 60, who is so sincere in here search. When we teach here she has such great questions and you can really tell she is an honest truth seeker. One of my favorite parts about our message and our purpose is that we never force our beliefs on anyone (at least I never do). We teach, testify, and invite. XXXXX is a prime example of this. It's so amazing teaching her because she truly wants to know! She loves the plan of salvation so much. I do to. I love that God has a plan for us. God, the Supreme Being, has a plan for you and me, as insignificant as we are. We are everything to him. Moses 1:39, His purpose is to bring us joy and eternal life. I love it.

So Wednesday was fun. After district meeting we returned home to find that we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. We called our landlord and to our dismay, he was out of town and wouldn't be back until "sometime this evening.”  Not a very comforting resolution to our request. So we started walking, and it started raining, then it rained harder, and we continued walking. All day long. Bikes locked in our apartment, along with our raincoats. Luckily we had three appointments set up that day. But as should be expected on a day like this, they all fell through. But we kept walking, and knocking, and talking, and most importantly laughing. White shirts soaked to our skin. Feet sore and pruney. It was a fantastic day. I love serving the Lord. :)

"Forget yourself and go to work"

Judges 13 - 15

We read the story of Samson this morning in companion study. You gotta shake things up sometimes haha.

It was so awesome to talk to you all yesterday! It is so crazy actually seeing you and talking to you guys. I hate it because afterwards I'm always like, oh I should have told them this! Or asked this! But it's ok. That’s why we have email haha.

When we talk I hope you guys can see how much I've changed. I know my personality hasn't changed much and I don't have the "accent,” but I've have changed and grown so much! And I hope you can see that. It was so good talking to you all, it looks like you are all happy and doing well :)

The work here in Bentonville is finally picking up. We are getting appointments and new investigators and making some real progress. I'm glad you got to meet Elder KXXXXX. He is such a funny guy. SO enthusiastic and hard working. It's been really awesome for me to feed off of his energy. And because I'm training him, I'm getting a good refresher course on all the basics, which is really helpful. We really feel good about everything. We are only getting started. We are ready to work harder and harder.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've been blessed with to be a missionary. I can't believe the change it has brought in my perspective. Now I really understand the importance of the gospel. I really don't understand how anyone can go through this life without it. It adds so much happiness and peace to my life. I know that the gospel brings happiness. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. And it can help us through this life. I love you guys so much!

Elder Sherwood also shared this part of an e-mail he received from his Mission President…

"Elder Sherwood...you are a steely eyed monster missionary! WAY TO GO."

 -President SXXXXX

Elder Sherwood, Mother's Day call :)

We talked/Skyped with Elder Sherwood on Mother’s Day.  It was so good to see his face and talk to him!  He looks and sounds amazing.  He is really loving his mission.  He loves to work hard and if you can believe it one of his favorite things is knocking on stranger's doors and talking to them!  If you know Elder Sherwood well then you are just as surprised to hear that as we were!

We are so grateful for this opportunity in his life.  Yes, we miss him but wouldn’t want him to be anywhere else.

Elder Sherwood and his companion with a young man
that was baptized

Apartment in Arkansas... on a bike now

More of his apartment

Elder Sherwood's home in Missouri

Outside his home

Looks like he found a turtle??

Add caption

Elder Sherwood didn't say but I think this is the family that
lived next door to him.  They are amazing!!

Our family Conference Sunday tradition...scones.  He asked
for the recipe!

People he met in Missouri

1 John 1:7

Hey!

So on Mothers day I think we will be skyping. It's not official yet because we haven't found anyone’s computer to skype with yet. So if we can't skype then I will just call. Lets just say like

At the beginning of this week the work was slow. We got a list of part member families in our ward, and we have been working on visiting all of them. It's good, effective work because we get to meet members, sometimes less active members, and their spouses. We have a couple appointments in the works with a few families as well. Which is all good. But we weren't teaching a lot of lessons. On Thursday we had visited so many people and only taught 2 lessons. So Friday, Saturday and Sunday was go time. We ended the week with 12 lessons. Pretty sweet huh. It's so awesome having a companion who wants to work hard all the time.

Last Monday, I'm not sure if I told you, we went to the Zoo in Gentry, AR. It was so sweet. It's more of like a safari type thing. You drive through this huge farm they have and you drive by like Bison, emu's, jaguars, tigers, and lions. Then they have a petting zoo with pigs (kinda lame) and monkey's and stuff. It was so sweet. I'll send some pictures in a second.

Earlier in the week it snowed. Can you believe that? Snow in May. I detest Arkansas weather. But it's really nice now. It was pretty warm yesterday and hopefully it stays that way.

This was pretty funny. Last night we were tracting and we taught like 4 lessons. Then we decided to ride down to the square in town, and on our way we rode past this runner who started yelling some interesting stuff. I won't go in to detail about his comments, just know they weren't very friendly :) haha. So we stopped to talk! He ran past us and I asked him a question, I can't remember what I said, but he motioned to us and said, "come on, let's go.” We followed this guy for I kid you not 30 minutes. Miles around town. It was mutual don't worry. We weren't chasing this guy down for half an hour, he was fully engaged in a full on gospel conversation mid-run. I admit there was some mild scripture bashing going on at some points on both of our sides, but at the end of the day its about testimony. I shared with him my testimony and left it at that. It was so awesome. Wierd stuff happens to me and Elder KXXXX haha.

So good to email you all! Have a good week! I love you and miss you all! See you in a week! haha ;)