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