Moroni 10:20

May 19, 2014

Moroni 10:20

Good Morning Everyone!

How are you all doing?! This week was good! We had MLC on Tuesday which was awesome as always. We got to hear from President and Sister Shumway. It's also good to be around other leaders in the mission and learn from what they are doing. Its kind of a strange experience. Almost a little bit like a YSA activity or something haha. But it's awesome. Really uplifting. 

XXXXX one of our investigators, attended a baptismal service with us Saturday night. It was awesome. We try to have everyone who is thinking about being baptized come to see a baptism first so they know what to expect and so they can feel the Spirit of that ordinance. It was an awesome service. XXXXX is really excited for her baptism this Friday. And so are we! It has been awesome to see someone who was just prepared from the very beginning! It has been a blessing to me to teach her about the restoration of the Gospel. 

We had dinner this week with John Tvedtness. I hope that name means something to someone reading this. He is one of the worlds most foremost LDS Scholars. He is a biblical scholar and an expert on ancient texts. He has worked with other notable scholars like Hugh Nibley. Anyways, he is awesome. Whenever we visit him we come with questions to ask him. He told us an interesting fact. He has never found a doctrine or principle taught by Joseph Smith that cannot be confirmed in ancient texts. These ancient texts are from scholars like Origen or Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine. So that was pretty cool to learn. The church is true. That’s all I have to say about that. 

I love being a missionary. I love serving the people here. It's hard, but it's awesome. I love all of you!

Love,

Elder Sherwood 

This is Elder Sherwood with his President Shumway & Sister Shumway.  He says they are both amazing!

May 12, 2014

Good Morning! :) This week was a good week! It was an unconventional week for sure. It seemed like we had a lot of busy work going on. But it's ok. This week will be awesome. We have MLC tomorrow and then we will be preparing for our Zone Training meeting next week. I just talked with y’all yesterday on skype so there's not a whole lot more I have to write in this email haha. 

XXXXX is doing good. Still super excited and getting prepared for her baptism on the 23rd. We have 10 people that could potentially be really close to baptism in this area. They are all part member families and really solid potential investigators. So the work in this area is about to explode. It's awesome. 

We had Zone Conference earlier this week, and President Shumway talked about a lot of stuff haha. One thing I really like that he talked about was from Elder Bednar.

He said that while we are out on our missions we are wierd! We think things are funny that really aren't funny! That was one example he gave. But its totally true. We are super wierd! But it's awesome. We are removed from the world. With little to no influence from the media and politics that bombard our society. I've spent so much time developing myself. I've had time to thinking, ponder and pray. Sure I miss the world and all its fun distractions sometimes, but I wouldn't trade these two years for anything. I love the gospel and I love Jesus Christ and I love this life that we've been blessed with. It's hard sometimes, but that’s why we have Jesus Christ. I believe in Him and the power he has to give us strength beyond our own. 

We are just working hard and doing our best to invite other to come unto Christ.

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood 

Alma 26:22

May 6, 2014

Alma 26:22

Hey!

Sorry I wasn't able to email yesterday! We had to do a couple things in Tulsa. We had to take a missionary from Springdale and bring him back to Tulsa and pick up a missionary from Tulsa and bring him back to Springdale and we also had to take a missionary in our zone to a doctors appointment in Tulsa. Fun fun. It's okay, we got free Jamba Juice along the way. This past week was a pretty good week. Nothing super notable happened this week. We did a lot of good work. This area is really nice. There is a really good teaching pool. That just means that there is a lot of people that are really interested in learning about the Gospel. There is a lot of people that are making good progress too! 

One of our new investigators, XXXXX is doing really good. Brother XXXX from our ward referred his daughters boyfriend to us (XXXX), We went to the XXXX's house Monday night and Tuesday night and taught the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. He is really open and really wants to study, ponder and pray. He is really sincere. I love people that are sincere. They are the ones who will receive real answers from God. I've learned one very important principle on my mission; If there is a God, then you can pray to Him. And if you can pray to Him, He will answer you.

Tomorrow we have two Zone Conferences. One from 9 - 4 which is a zone conference with President Shumway and all the missionaries from part of the Fort Smith Zone, the Springdale Zone, The Rogers Zone and the Joplin Zone. Then our Stake has a combined Stake/Zone Conference from 7-9. We have a lot going on tomorrow. Lots of conference. I can't wait! Anyways, things are going great! I love the work here in this area. I love being a missionary! I can't say it enough. 

love,

Elder Sherwood

1 Nephi 11:17

April 28, 2014

1 Nepi 11:17

Good Morning Family! 

This week was a crazy week with transfers. I'm excited to be in Belle Vista, back in my old Zone! It's awesome being here. I'm emailing from the Bentonville Library again today. We are going on exchange with the Bentonville 2nd Elders in a couple weeks so I'm am really excited to be back working in my old area. 

Funny story. My first day here in Belle Vista was Thursday. Thursday night around 10:20 we get a phone call from President Shumway (that'll make your heart stop) and he says to us "hey elders I've got a project for you!". Then he tells us about how an elder who had been transferred that day from Bentonville to Mena Arkansas a good three hours away from here and the most southern point of our mission, had forgotten his insulin in the refrigerator in Bentonville. He informs us that if he doesn't get that insulin before 6 am that next morning, he'll be in trouble. Keep in mind this is 10:20 pm and it's lights out for us at 10:30 haha. So President Shumway gives us permission to do pretty much whatever it takes to get this missionary his insulin. So we call the Fort Smith zone leaders and decide to meet up about halfway in Fayetteville Arkansas after we pick up the insulin. By the time we arrive in Fayetteville its Midnight. We made the mistake of meeting up at the University of Arkansas. SO many students. It took us a while to find the other zone leaders. So I take a step back and have this thought, here I am, a missionary in the middle of Arkansas, walking around the U of A at midnight trying to give this insulin to these other missionaries. To a normal person It probably wouldn't have been that strange. But to us that was an adventure and a half! :)

In other news, we had some really good things happen here with the work in Belle Vista. I gave another talk on Sunday haha. They have all the new missionaries that come to the ward speak on the first Sunday they are in the area. It was pretty short notice but it was awesome! I love giving talks! On Saturday night we had a lesson with the XXXX A part member couple. The wife is not a member. She had approached missionaries and asked to be taught. On Saturday night we set a baptismal date with her for the 24th of May! It will be awesome! She's super prepared. 

Anyways, Good things are happening, my companion Elder Van Woerkem is awesome. I've known him for a really long time. He was in this zone with me a year ago and we were in Tulsa East together for a while, and he's been the zone leader here while I was in Springdale for 2 transfers. So it's good to be with someone that I know and that I'm already friends with. The work is going well and I'm really happy. I love this work so much! I love serving the Lord. I love teaching people about Jesus Christ! I know he lives and that he loves us. I love all of you too :)

Love,

Elder Sherwood

4/21/14 Alma 37:37

Alma 37:37  Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for ^bgood; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the ^cmorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Good Morning everyone! I hope you enjoy that picture I just sent haha :) There's a funny story there haha.  (picture below)

Oh hey! We got transfer calls this past Saturday! I found out that I will be leaving the Springdale Zone and I'm headed 20 minutes up the road to be a Zone Leader for the Rogers Arkansas Zone with Elder Van Woerkem! haha! I'm so excited! i'm going back to Rogers. That’s the zone that has Bentonville 2nd ward in it. The ward I served in last summer with Elder Koetting. I'm soooo excited. Belle Vista is the area I will be serving in. I know Elder Van Woerkem pretty well already. He's been in Rogers for a couple transfers, and I've served around him a lot on my mission. I'm really excited. Really sad to be leaving the Springdale Zone and the Har-Ber Ward but really excited to be going back to the Rogers Zone. 

Anyways this week was great! Yesterday was a good Easter Sunday. I got to speak in church yesterday. I spoke about Grace and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love speaking in church. I want to send it to you but I also kind of don't want to because I'm going to use a lot of the material I used in this talk for my homecoming talk. But I don't know. We'll see. 

Anyways, the XXXXs came to church yesterday. A family that wants to investigate the church but the dad is always out at the oil fields for like months at a time. So it's tough. But they are such an awesome family. They are so kind and the love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hopefully we will get to teach them someday soon. XXXXX wasn't able to make it to church yesterday, she was out of town. But we taught her on Wednesday this past week and she is still doing good! 

I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I've been thinking about it ALOT lately. I mean that’s all we teach people so I think about it a lot anyways, but especially with it being Easter. I love Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for His life and His example. This life is too hard to go through on our own. We all make mistakes that we cannot fix on our own. We might think that we can and we might try, but at the end of the day, we need the Grace that Jesus Christ has to offer us. And He is always there, always willing. We just have to have Faith in him. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and to serve the Lord. I love this work and I love all of you! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood 

Yes, this is Elder Sherwood with Jim Bob Duggar (19 Kids and Counting television show.)   The family lives in Elder Sherwood's area.  He and his companion received a media referral to visit the family.  It so happens that people send made up referrals for the Duggar family often.  Elder Sherwood said Mr. Duggar came out to talk to them and was very nice. 

4/17/14 Romans 5:14

Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s ^atransgression, who is the ^bfigure of him that was to come.

This week was SWEET! Our goal for our zone was for every area to hit the standard of excellence (20 Lessons, 60% member present lessons) this week. We got so close! Out of 13 areas 11 made the standard. And one of the areas that didn't make it taught like 36 lessons haha. They just needed a higher member present percentage. It was a great week. The best quality week this zone has had for a long time. I'm so proud of the missionaries here. They are doing really good work. One thing I have realized since I've become a Zone Leader is how much influence leaders can have on the people they lead. All we do for this zone is encourage them, and have faith in them. When we truly believe they can do something and then we tell them that we believe in them, miracles happen. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve these missionaries here in the Springdale Zone. They are so awesome and I love every single one. 

Remember XXXXX? That lady I told you about last week? The one we OTM'd last Sunday night. We taught her on Wednesday and she is awesome! She came to church yesterday! She said that it was a lot to take in! She hasn't been to church since she was 4. She has had some really tough things happen in her life, things that she's trying really, really hard to overcome. And we are doing our best to help her! I'm so grateful when I get to teach people about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. It's real! He really can heal us. And we are working so hard to help her realize that. PLEASE keep her in your prayers! And please pray that we will know how to help her along this path.

Anyways, last week was amazing. This week will be even better. I love being a missionary. I love serving the Lord and the people here in the OTM. I chose Romans 5:14 because Elder Wadsworth and I have been studying about grace a lot recently. I love this verse because it explains a really important principle. We are under grace. Jesus Christ's grace is sufficient for us to be saved. That is why sin should have no dominion over us. That is why we should do our best to be our best. When we are truly converted to Jesus Christ, when we really have faith in him, like Nephi, we will abhor sin. We will hate to sin! And we will want to have good, righteous works. That is real faith in the Savior. Using his atonement and grace to bless our lives right now. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love all of you! 

Love,

Elder Sherwood

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 :)