Hebrews 10:39

This is my last email home from my mission. I can't believe it. I don't even really know what to say! This past week was awesome! We had MLC on Monday and Tuesday, lots of lessons and planning for Zone Training Meeting. We were really really busy. And then General Conference was so awesome! The past few weeks have been so crazy. And these next two days will be even crazier. Here's what's happening. Today is Preparation day, tomorrow we have lessons set up and I have to pack and send stuff home, Wednesday same deal, then Thursday I get on the transfer loop that morning and we go to Tulsa. Then I'll spend the night in the mission home Thursday night with all the other missionaries going home this transfer, then we fly out Friday morning!

Serving a mission has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. To be honest I don't really know anything but missionary work now. I don't remember what life is like not on a mission. And I'm a little worried about coming home and adjusting to everything. But it will be okay. I have served the very best I could. I have not drawn back. And I have loved every single minute of it. Even the frustrating moments. I love the Gospel, I love Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart that he is our Savior. And I love all of you! I'll see you all in a few days! :)

Love,

Elder Sherwood

9/29/14

Good Morning! This week was great! SUPER BUSY! It was awesome. It was actually hard to find time to fit all of our teaching appointments in to the time we had. It was so much fun. And Its still going. We aren't slowing down at all. This week will be even crazier. We have MLC in Tulsa today and tomorrow, we have Zone Training Meeting that we have to plan for on Friday, we have a ton of teaching appointments scheduled for this week, It's going to be really hard to get everything done. But that’s a good problem to have. It's also a great way to end a mission. We picked up two new investigators this week. XXXX and XXXX. XXXX is awesome, she is the niece of a lady in the ward here. We taught her one lesson and set a baptismal date with her! Right now it's set for October 8th. XXXX is the wife of a guy who has been less active for a while. She's from China and on Saturday she made us some authentic Chinese cuisine. It was so good. 

We are still working with XXXX. She is still a non-smoker which is awesome. XXXX has a baptismal date set for October 18th, and XXXX and XXXX came to church this past Sunday and are still working on getting married. Lots of super awesome things are happening around here. I will miss this so much.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've had to be a missionary. I love the gospel. I love the Savior. I know that nothing brings more happiness than living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love all of you! :)

Love,

Elder Sherwood 

Moses 7:13

9/22/14

Good Morning! 

This was a great week! We had a lot of good things happen and we were super busy. This past Saturday was the open house for the new Bella Vista chapel. It was so sweet. We were pretty much at the open house all day. There was a lot of people to talk to there and most of them lived right there by the building. I'm really excited to see what comes from that event. Hopefully lots of people interested in learning more. We went on exchanges with the Assistants on Friday which is always a good time. That’s a hard day to plan because we are split all day so we have to plan two days in one. Which is difficult but it’s really good. A lot of work gets done. This next week will be pretty crazy, we have three exchanges, one with the Grove elders, the Spanish elders on thursday and Bentonville 2nd on Friday which I'm really excited for. That’s my old area! I was there almost a year and a half ago! So that will be really cool. We helped a couple people quit smoking this week. Last night we did the stop smoking workshop with XXX and it was awesome. I love being super bold with people during that lesson. It's so much fun. Today is day one for her, it's a week long program. So we are keeping in close contact with her to help her. Please keep her in your prayers. 

Time is running out (on my mission) and I don't have a whole lot to say. I feel like things are moving at the speed of light and slow motion all at the same time. I have so many thoughts in my head and no words to express them. I'm just going hard for the last stretch. Leaving it all in the pool, so to speak. There is no greater work in the world. Jesus Christ is real. God is real. They have influence in our lives.I believe with all my heart that the scriptures are inspired words from God. I love being a missionary and I love all of you! :)

Love,
Elder Sherwood
 

Elder Sherwood says, "This may seem unique. It really isn't though!"

D & C 138:56

9/15 

Good Morning! This week was great! Thanks for the pumpkin chocolate chip bread! Such a sweet taste of home. And Thanks for the ties. I've gotten a lot of compliments on them so good work :) haha. This week was pretty busy. We went to the Bentonville District Training Meeting on Wednesday and we had exchanges with the Elders in Pea Ridge on Friday. I had Elder Slack here in Bella Vista. It was a good day. It's always fun to work with another missionary for a day. You get to learn new things and it's an awesome opportunity to teach and help other missionaries. Also, Bella Vista is preparing for an Open House of the new chapel they built in Bella Vista recently. We've only been in the building for like 4 weeks. It's so awesome. The evening after the open house, there is a community concert and Elder McReynolds and I are singing in the Choir for that concert! It's awesome. I'll try to record the songs we sing with my camera or something so you can see it someday. 

The work in Bella Vista is still going well. I think I have told you about XXXX. She is an investigator that we started teaching a couple weeks ago. She has a baptismal date for October 4th! She is awesome. Her neighbors, the Daltons, are members of the church here and they invited her over for dinner one night with us. And we've been teaching her ever since. She is so awesome, she wants to share what she's learning with everyone! She's gave us a referral for her daughter who is in prison in Springfield! And she wants us to meet her mother in law and some other family members! It's been so cool to teach her about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. And to see it work in her life. She is changing for the better! 

The next few weeks are going to be crazy! In a couple weeks we have MLC in Tulsa and another Zone Training meeting then it will be general conference! Which I'm really excited for. I'm just going to open my heart and mind and let the revelation flow in! I love being a missionary. I love serving the Lord and the people here in the NWA. I love and miss all of you! :)

Love,
Elder Sherwood
 

We can't tell you how much we appreciate the families in Elder Sherwood's mission!  They take such good care of him!

1 Timothy 1:19

9/8/14

Good Morning! This was a good week. On Monday last week we had MLC. And on Wednesday we had what was possibly my last Zone Training Meeting. It was an awesome meeting. But It made me really sad. I'm experiencing so many different emotions right now. The work here in Bella Vista is going crazy! It's so awesome to be a part of it. On Friday we got to do something pretty cool. The first Friday of every month here in Bentonville they have an event on the town square called First Friday. It’s an event where a lot of different businesses, artists, artisans, crafty people, farmers market people, food truck people come and set up a booth. They have live music and lots of fun things to do. So we were able to get a spot at First Friday and it was awesome. Our theme was Strengthening Families. We talked with people about their families and how important family is and how the gospel can strengthen their families. We also had a sweet activity for people. I drew a house and put it on a board and we had people write down their answer to the question "Why do you love your family?". We had them write it on little circular post it notes. Then we drew a string from the post it to the house. It looked like a bunch of little balloons lifting up the house. It was pretty sweet. We were using the "Up" theme to demonstrate that all of the answers to that question are things that will "lift" your family up. Or strengthen your family and bring you closer together. It was an awesome day, we got to talk to a TON of people. I always love doing that. 

Surprisingly  I don't have a whole ton of stuff to talk about this week. I'll just talk about what I've learned more about recently. I've been learning a lot about repentance. The Greek word for repentance is Metanoeo. Which literally translated means: Change your mind, knowledge, spirit, breath or air. Repentance is not a scary or difficult process. It's a process of change. Of improving. Of becoming better. It's changing your mind, and your spirit. It's realizing that you need to change and then making the necessary changes! I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary so much. And I love all of you! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood

9/2/14

Good Morning! This week was a great week! It was super busy. We had transfers last Thursday which is always exciting. I don't know if I've explained how transfers work. There are 6 "stops" or transfer points around the mission and there is two transfer vans and a few cars that drive from stop to stop in a big loop around the mission. One loop leaves from Tulsa and goes north and the other goes south. And they cross each other's paths in Bentonville. So it's a pretty crazy transfer point. Zone Leaders are in charge of making sure everything is organized and people get where they need to go. So it's pretty hectic but it's really fun to see a lot of missionaries from around the zone.

We had another baptism this week. XXXXX was baptized last Tuesday. It was so awesome. She's been waiting years for that day. It was so cool. Baptism is a miracle to me. Seeing someone make that choice to be so committed to a Christlike life. It's a miracle every time that happens. And I'm so grateful I get to see people make that commitment!

Yesterday we had MLC or Mission Leadership Council. It was a great meeting. President Shumway instructed on the Doctrine of Christ. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. It's amazing how often we live these principles. Every day we go through this process. Or we should be going through this process. If we're not they we've got a problem. But every day we should be exercising faith in the Savior and repenting or changing. We should be enduring to every end. To the end of every day, wherever we are we should be living the Gospel. Things are going great in Bella Vista. I'm so happy with where I am and with the things that are happening. I love my companion, I love this area, I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love all of you! 

Love, 
Elder Sherwood

This is me with President and Sister Shumway. I love them.

Alma 40:11-12

Alma 40:11-12

11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

 12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

This week was very eventful. A weeks of spiritual highs a lows. We had Zone Conference this week. My last zone conference of my mission. That was sad. I gave my departing testimony. I wrote a poem for it, which I will most likely use in my homecoming talk so you will all hear it then. It was an amazing conference. President Shumway is an amazing leader. I'm so grateful to have him as my mission president. I wish I could relate everything that we learned! I also had an amazing exchange with a new missionary in the Little Flock area. His name is Elder Ewart and he is a champion. I love him, he's so awesome. We had such an awesome day. He is so sincere and real. And he loves EVERYONE. I wish I could be more like him! He is and will be an awesome missionary and he will change A LOT of lives. 

We also had a baptism on Saturday! Judy and George XXXXX got baptized! It was so awesome. I will attach a picture. It was a great baptism. I gave a talk on Baptism and they also asked me to confirm them! For those reading this who don't know what that means, Confirmation is an ordinance where several priesthood holders lay their hands on the head of the person being confirmed and give them a blessing wherein they receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I was the one who said the words during the blessings. It was so awesome. They are an older couple and it has been so awesome so see them accept the gospel and start to live it more fully in their lives! I'm super excited for them. 

We also had a tragic accident in the mission this week. As most of you probably know, Sister Nancy Vea was killed in a car accident on Friday. As you can imagine that came as a shock to the whole mission. This is why I chose Alma 40:11-12 for the scripture in the subject line this week. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have of the afterlife. Death is not the end of life. We can mourn but not for Sister Vea. We can feel sorrow for her family and for ourselves but she is absolutely in a more joyful place, resting from all care and sorrow. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is so much power in living the principles that He teaches. I love all of you! 

Love

Elder Sherwood

Ether 12:27

August 18, 2014

Good Morning! This week was awesome! We had Zone Training meeting. It was an awesome meeting. We gave the zone a lot of good things to work on. Sorry I forgot to email you the flow chart again, I will send you a copy soon though! 

Cool things that happened: We have been encouraged by President Shumway to spend a lot of time of family history recently so we can help people learn about their family history. A few days ago I traced our line all the way back to Adam and Eve! That was sweet. I'm sure it's not super reliable but that’s okay. It was still pretty awesome. I found a line of Kings of Troy too. Also, I've been trying to fill some holes in our tree. I've been able to find some people that didn't have parents attached to them. So I've been working on merging records and finding parents for people. It’s been so awesome! I can't find anybody to do temple work for though! You guys are too good at family history it looks like haha. 

On Saturday I spent the day in Oklahoma City at the temple with XXXXX. The kid that Elder Koetting and I baptized last year in Bentonville. THAT was awesome. He has come SOOO far this past year. It’s been awesome to see how the gospel has changed his life. He still has a lot to work on just like the rest of us but he is doing so well. That’s why I like the scripture that I put in the subject line so much. We all have weaknesses. But for good reason! The Lord gives us weakness so that we are humble. So that we ask Him for help. So he can make us stronger! If we had no weaknesses, no trials, it would be too easy to feel like we don't need the Lord. And we wouldn't rely on Him. We would do everything on our own. But that’s not the way it works. We have to rely on Him. We have to go to him, humbly and ask for strength. And when we do that, we are letting Him in to our life, willingly. So that He can build us up in to something so much stronger and better than what we were before. I love the gospel plan that He has given us and that his Son taught us. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to teach people about it. I love you all so much! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood

August 12, 2014

"This is a picture of Elder Van Woerkom, Blake Pesigan, and me. Blake is the kid Elder Koetting and I baptized last year in Bentonville. And that is a mission call in Blake's hand. Such a cool experience."

 

"This picture is a product of slow shutter speed and glow sticks."  OTM - Oklahoma Tulsa Mission

"This is a picture of me at MLC with all the elders I came out with who are Zone Leaders now."

Good Morning! This week was awesome! We had so much going on. We had exchanges with the Assistants which went great and we also did a ton of planning for Zone Training Meeting which happened yesterday! That was an awesome meeting! We made some really cool things for our zone to use. One thing we made for them was something we call the Work Smart Flow Chart. I'll try to send you a copy so you can see what we did. We felt really strongly like we needed to talk with our Zone about working more effectively. So we did a lot of thinking and praying about how we could help the zone do that. We came up with all the most effective ways to work/find people to teach as a missionary. And we developed a flow chart that helps missionaries decide what to do when they are stuck. And we made it so it starts with the most effective things first. It's really hard to explain. I'll just send you a copy so you can see it. The zone is doing really well. I love being around all these missionaries. They are a great example to me and they make me want to be the best missionary that I can be. 

Today XXXXX, one of our investigators is getting her baptismal interview!  We are really excited about that. So is she! This baptism has been a long time coming for her. Like 10 years long time coming. She will be baptized on the 26th of August. Also, the XXXXX are doing really well! They will have their baptismal interview coming up next week. They are really excited about it too! They are so awesome. I love the passion that XXXX has for the gospel. She inspires me to be better!  I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to serve here in this part of the country. There are so many people that have such a strong faith in Christ. And it is an amazing example to me. I love it. I have developed such a strong Faith in the Savior because of their example. People here are just happy. And it's because no matter what happens to them, they know that God lives, that Jesus Christ lives and loves them. And that through Him they can overcome any trial. I know that’s true. I've seen it so many times. I love being a missionary. I love serving the Lord. And I love all of you! :)

Love,

Elder Sherwood

2 Peter 1:10

Good Afternoon everyone! The past couple weeks have been crazy. This week is a crazy week especially. Monday we had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) in Rogers Arkansas, which was awesome. As always. Then yesterday we were on exchange with the missionaries serving in Grove, Oklahoma. I had Elder Hammit here in Bella Vista. He is awesome. I served with him last summer here in Bentonville while I was training Elder Koetting. So that was awesome to be back with him for a day. We had an awesome day! We taught the XXXX again.  They are that couple that is super stoked for baptism. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. Ya know, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. It was a great lesson. Every time we teach them they get more and more excited about their baptism. And so do we! It's so exciting. There are a lot of really good things happening in our area. We had a great talk with Brother Murray last night, he is our Ward Mission Leader. He was telling us about how important it is to ask EVERYONE for referrals. The days of tracting (knocking doors) are coming to an end. We need to be smarter about the way we spread the gospel. 

This is the schedule for the next couple weeks, tomorrow we have exchanges with the Assistants. We have zone training meeting on Monday, which we have to plan for. Which takes soooo much planning. but it's awesome, I love it. Then we have a zone conference in two weeks. Then we have two baptisms coming up in a couple weeks. The (couple we are teaching) and XXXX. Then the transfer will be over! I can't believe how fast time is moving. I don't want to waste a single second. I love doing this work. I don't ever want to stop! I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it will bring anyone that reads it, with a sincere heart, close to Jesus Christ. I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood 

A Few Pictures

"Me."

"This is a little drawing I've been working on recently."

"Our zone after zone training meeting on Friday."

"Elder Van Woerkom, (new member at her baptism), President Stout (mission presidency) and me."

1 Corinthians 15:10

7/28/14

Good Morning! 

I chose that scripture for my subject because it's a good scripture. I just like it. I feel like everything I have learned and grown in on my mission is because of the grace of God. I haven't done anything on my own. He has sculpted and molded me by His grace. And by his grace have I been made stronger. That’s what grace is about. Classic OTM experience happened to me literally five minutes ago here in the library. This guy standing next to me at the counter leans over and whispers to me, "it's a free gift, it cannot be earned, you do it because you love him not because you are earning anything." I turned to him, smiled, and with a calm dignity said to him, "That's true". Do I believe we have to earn our salvation. No. Do I believe that we even have the ability to earn our salvation. Absolutely not. But I do believe God is making us in to something much bigger than we understand. And that process begins here in this life with the decisions we make and what we become. His grace is a free gift, the most wonderful gift ever given. And what a terrible thing it is to waste. 

This week was a fantastic week! I have been so excited to tell you about this family that we found. We received a media referral a couple weeks ago for a lady. We tried contacting her several times by stopping by her house.  But no answer. The phone number we had also didn’t work. We went back on Tuesday with low expectations (probably not a lot of faith either :/ shame on me) to try to contact her one last time. So we knock on the door and this lady answers, super excited to see us. She quickly invites us in but we tell her we can't because there was no other male in the home. So we talk with her for a while on her doorstep. It turns out that she had contact with the church 20 years ago in California. She said that she would read the Book of Mormon every night. She loved it! She said it changed her life, brought her so much peace and happiness. She talked about feeling the Spirit when she read it. Then she moved to Arkansas. And lost all contact with The Church. Lost her Book of Mormon. Then recently our church started building a new chapel right up the street from her house! She felt the Spirit prompting her back to the church for a long time. Until she finally requested a visit from us on mormon.org. We talked with her on the doorstep for 30 minutes. Set up a return appointment for that same evening. Came back, taught her and her husband, and set a baptismal date with them both for the 23rd of August. Its amazing to see the passion that she has for this message. She LOVES it! She believes that the Book of Mormon is true. I believe with all my heart that it is true. I believe that because of the amazing things that it causes. It changes people from bad to good. It makes true disciples of Jesus Christ. I don't know how it couldn't be true! 

Anyways, The work here in Bella Vista is going so good. Miracles happen all the time. To all of us! If we will just open our eyes we can see them everywhere. I love this work! I love all of you! :)

Love,

Elder Sherwood

Moroni 10:32

7/21/14

Good Morning! How are you all today?  I'm so glad y’all got to meet Elder Van Woerkom I gave him a hug for you so I'm glad he passed it on :) He was a great missionary. And he is missed greatly by many. 

This week was great though! Elder McReynolds got here on Tuesday and we got to work right away. Really good things are happening in this area. We have XXXXX who is progressing really well. He and his fiancee just need to get married before he is baptized. So they are looking at sometime in September for their marriage. It would be nice if it was closer but that’s okay. These things are important to people haha. 

XXXXX is another one of our investigators who is progressing really well. She’s so awesome. In Sunday school class she was making comments about things that I don't even know much about. She has read the all three Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon Stories picture books and she is working on reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon as well. She’s the one who grew up  Buddhist but is now discovering Christianity and she is loving it. Its awesome to see someone learning how to grasp the Atonement of Christ. 

Something I have been thinking about lately is how tricky Satan is. He knows our weaknesses and he exploits them so much! That is something I've seen a lot of on my mission. Satan using the small things to distract people from the important things. One beer here, one cigarette there, what harm could it do? I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. This life just isn't about how close we can get to the edge. It's about putting off the natural man. Sacrificing every thing that separates us from God. That’s what I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It gives us power to improve ourselves and to resist temptation. Strength to over come the natural man. I love this gospel. I love having the opportunity to do my best to help people understand what Jesus Christ can do for them. And I love all of you!

Love,

Elder Sherwood

1 Timothy 1:19

7/14/14

This week was a crazy week! Awesome week! Just super busy. We had MLC on Tuesday. Which was awesome. President had a list of 15 "housekeeping" items to talk with us about. "Housekeeping" items are just things that need adjusting in the mission, they're usually just little things that the mission as a whole needs to work on getting better at. So that was a little discouraging, but much needed. It's always good to get some new things to work on. That’s’ what makes you better! 

So we got transfer calls Saturday night! Elder Van Woerkom is going home obviously. And I'm staying here in Bella Vista and i'm getting Elder McReynolds! He's awesome. I was his zone leader when I was in Springdale and he was in Huntsville. He's a great missionary and I'm excited to work with him. 

Sacrament meeting on Sunday was awesome. It was a little different than most sacrament meetings in the church. Instead of having a few people give talks, the bishop opened the pulpit to anyone, kind of like a testimony meeting, to come up and share an experience they've had in their life with a particular hymn in the hymnbook. After they shared that experience and their testimony the whole congregation sang the first verse of that hymn together. It was awesome! I would recommend that to any ward. There was a special Spirit in the room. I loved it. 

Yesterday was the baptism of XXXXX! It was so awesome. I'll attach a picture. It was a great service. Long time coming for XXXXX. She's been investigating the church for over 3 years. So it was awesome getting to be a part of her baptism. There was a great spirit there. I love baptisms. Those are really special experiences. Witnessing someone make that commitment. Jesus Christ gave us the perfect example of how a life should be lived. I love baptism because of what it symbolizes. It is an outward manifestation on someone’s inner commitment to live like the Savior. To be like him at all times and in all places. That’s a special thing! 

Anyways that was our week!

Love you all! 

Elder Sherwood

Ephesians 1:7

July 9, 2014

This week was a great week. 4th of July is a big deal down here in Northwest Arkansas. On the third we saw a fireworks show with some members at a lake in Bella Vista called Loc Lomend. And then we spent the 4th kind of just like any other day out here. Visiting people. We had a lot of appointments with members. Too much food haha. Holidays out here really just mean so much food. Any excuse to eat a lot of food, they take it. 

One of our investigators, XXXXX, is getting baptized this weekend! It will be awesome. She's been investigating the church for almost 3 years. Another investigator XXXXX wants to be baptized as well. He is really excited about everything he's learned. He says that his whole life he knew that there was more than just the bible. It doesn't make sense to him that God could be contained in one volume of scripture. Which we happen to agree with. So we will be setting a baptismal date with him on Tuesday night. I'll let you know how it goes! :) Good things are happening here in Bella Vista Arkansas. 

So the stake presidency issued a challenge to all the leadership in the Rogers Arkansas Stake this past week. The challenge is for every Auxiliary Presidency member (president, 1st and 2nd counselors, secretary etc.) to have a referral for the missionaries by September 1st. That comes out to over 700 referrals for the 34 missionaries in the stake right now. It’s epic. Now of course that is a lofty goal. But that's okay. The members here will rise to the occasion. This challenge will really help the members here come out of their shells and open their mouths. They will be exercising a lot of faith in sharing their testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. After all that is our greatest responsibility. To share the gospel. The good news ya know! People won't be offended when you invite them to learn about the very thing that has brought you the most happiness in life. Sharing the gospel isn't about converting people, it's about offering them something that has brought you peace and joy. 

I love being a missionary. I love serving the Lord. And I love all of you! :) 

Love,

Elder Sherwood

John 14:27

Us in the car is just us cruis'n in our Grand Caravan. Coolest mission car ever.

                Just a typical scene on a Sunday night for zone leaders.   We were just collecting indicators (numbers) from the district leaders.

June 30, 2014

Good Morning! How are y’all doing?! 

This week was a good week. Nothing to crazy or exciting happened. I was on exchange in the Little Flock area in Rogers. It was a long rainy day of walking. That area doesn't have a car so we were on foot most of the day. I loved it though. This week was just a week of normal missionary work. It's crazy what normal is to me now. Normal for me is teaching people out here in Northwest Arkansas about Jesus Christ. Normal for me is always doing something, never stopping. Normal for me is always thinking about other people and how to help them develop a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ and with the Holy Ghost. It's not normal for all of that stuff to be normal. And I love it! 

Elder Van Woerkom and I have been thinking and discussing a lot lately about the principle of getting along with other people. Something I've noticed on my mission is how much people like to talk about themselves. It's kind of a sad reality, but it's true! People love to talk about themselves! The best way to get along with other people, to make real friends is to be genuinely interested in others. If we would all just forget ourselves and start being interested in other people the world would be much happier. It's really a Christlike attribute if you think about it. How would Jesus Christ carry on a conversation with you. I can't picture him talking your ear off, spilling all of His problems on to you. I think he would be genuinely interested in YOU. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the best way to live your life. There is literally no other way to find the greatest happiness in this life. I love the gospel because it's principles are true principles that can be applied to every day life. We exercise faith in every thing we do, every step we take is an act of faith. Repentance, changing, becoming better, improving day by day, forgiving, being forgiven. These aren't just ideas that only work in a spiritual realm. These are real, matter of fact, fundamental principles of a happy life. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to learn about it and to teach it to others. I love Jesus Christ. And I love all of you! :) 

Hope you liked my sermon haha. 

Love,

Elder Sherwood