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