4/7/14 Ether 12:6

 Ether 12:6
And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that ^afaith is things which are ^bhoped for and ^cnot seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no ^dwitness until after the ^etrial of your faith.

Good Morning! This week was awesome and terrible all at the same time. Monday and Tuesday we had MLC in Tulsa. Wednesday and Thursday we were planning for Zone Training Meeting and doing weekly planning and our Stake Coordination meeting with the Stake Presidency and all the Ward Mission leaders in the stake. Friday we had Zone Training meeting in the morning and District Leader Training Meeting in the afternoon. Saturday we had both sessions of General Conference, and the Priesthood session, then Sunday we had both sessions of general conference. It was a crazy busy week where we had a lot of meetings and a lot of planning and sadly not enough proselyting :( But it was a fun week! 

General Conference was awesome! I loved the talks that were given. My favorite was Elder Holland’s in the Saturday morning session. I also like Elder Uchtdorf's where he talked about having gratitude in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. We should be grateful for everything, even our trials. And not just after our trials are over. We should be grateful for our trials while they are happening! It takes some serious faith to do that. But I believe that if we can do that, the healing process will begin much faster and we will be made much stronger. 

Here is an awesome experience that just happened to us last night. We were at this apartment complex contacting a potential investigator that we met last week. They weren't available (it was pretty late last night, like 8:45). So we began walking back to our car. Walking through the parking lot, we passed a car with a lady sitting in the drivers seat, I smiled and waved but didn't think much about it until a few steps later when I felt a prompting to go back and talk to her. I justified not going back with reasons like it's late, it's dark, she might be freaked out if two strangers walk up to her car in a dark parking lot. So we got in our car and started to drive away when I told Elder Wadsworth I had seen her. He said we should go back and talk to her, half kidding. After thinking for a moment and after feeling the intense impression to go back and talk to her, we parked the car and walked back to hers. "Coincidentally" (although I believe there were no coincidences in the story) when we got back to her car she was getting out. We said hello and introduced ourselves. I simply told her that we were missionaries and that we felt like we needed to come back and talk to her. She looked at us and said "It's funny that you mention that...". She then went on to explain how she's going through some real challenges in her life right now, and she has seen signs of God appearing everywhere in her life recently. One thing that she said to us really struck me. Through eyes that were welling up with tears, she said "God doesn't want us to feel uncomfortable in our own skin right?" I was able to testify to her that no matter what she's done, or where she has been, Jesus Christ loves her. Heavenly Father loves her. And the message that we have can help heal her and help her to find the peace she needs. It was an awesome experience. 

I'm So grateful for the Gospel. I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost, who prompts us and shows "unto us all things whatesoever [we] should do". I love being a missionary so much. And I love all of you.

Love,
Elder Sherwood
 

 

We enjoyed a nice plate of scones Sunday morning before general conference :) I'm glad I've been able to keep that tradition up on my mission :) I think my companions have enjoyed it too :)