Transfer 4, Week 6: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Everyone, 
     How are you all doing? I am doing great. I learned yesterday that after Wednesday this week, I will be the "oldest living" missionary still in the zone. Anyway, I'll come back to that later. 
     This week has been pretty good. We didn't have a whole lot happen, but what did was absolutely fantastic. So, this may be a little shorter than normal, but it will be great. 
     On Tuesday, after our lesson with John, we acquired a cd player from a member, so that John could listen to the Book of Mormon. It was great.
     Wednesday was the last district meeting of the transfer. It went really well, and we really enjoyed it. We had to quickly leave afterwards and head to our haircut appointment. It was great. After dinner that day Br. Phinney played me in Stratego instead of chess. For those of you that don't know, Stratego is like commanding an army. It was also my first time playing, so I lost pretty badly. 
     Thanksgiving was fantastic. We had dinner at the Heagy's and the Garners. We played some football, and had an all around good time. I love Thanksgiving. 
     Friday got interesting, Br. Contway called us around noon and asked for some help moving some stuff from his old house. We went, and moved his stuff and he gave both of us a 20 lb brick of Bronze. (Br. Contway makes bronze sculptures) It was a great gift. He said that Bronze is worth about $3 per pound, basically $60 each. Elder Lunt decided to sell his when we got the chance, But me, being me, decided to make a memento out of it. I've shined it up and engraved stuff into the 20 lb brick. All that I have left is polish the scratch marks out and color the words so they stand out. It looks really cool, and will be a great but heavy way to remember the area if I ever leave. 
     While working on it something crazy happened. Ever heard of Metal poisoning? Well I don't think I have that, so it's ok. Br. Contway didn't think anything would go wrong, so I just wore a face shield, But it seems that a dust mask would have been a good thing to have. I got a bunch of flying metal shavings up my nose, as a result, my nose has been on fire the last few days. Oh Well, Worth it.
     Sunday was good, and pretty normal. We had Church, gave 10 copies of the Book of Mormon to a youth leader to give away as Christmas presents, and tried to talk to some people. We finally got transfer news around 10:50pm.
     So, back to what I said earlier about transfers. Yep, you guessed it, I am staying in Fairfield until at least after the Holidays. After this next transfer, I will be only 6 weeks behind the longest time any missionary has spent in this area. (9 months) But anyway, I am now the missionary currently still in the zone that has been here for the longest amount of time. So, I am the "oldest Living" missionary. Haha! Oh well. I don't know if I'll ever leave. 
     Well, I think that just about wraps us up for the week. I forgot to say this three weeks ago, when the mission office emailed this to us. For the holidays, the mission office requests that ALL post (letters and packages) are sent straight to the apartments. It saves a lot of trouble around this time of year with so many packages coming in, so a reminder my address is:

309 1st Ave North Fairfield, Montana 59436

Just send everything straight here. Thanks, and I'll talk to you all later.

Happy Holidays,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

Elder Sherwood, Elder Lunt and Brother and Sister Contway.

District photo

Transfer 4, Week 5: Another General Authority

Hey Everyone,
       How is it going for all of you? Is it getting any colder down there. It certainly has here. We've seen our first sub zero temperatures. I guess that means winter is coming early. Brr. It was really bitter old. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive. Haha. Well, let's get rolling.
        This week has been full of us planning and preparing for yesterday. As you who have gotten my last email, we were helping to plan Jaden's Baptism for the 18th. I'll come back to that subject.
         I think I would have to say that this past Monday was the most wasted Preparation Day of my mission so far. We had a hard time getting things going, so we didn't get to having our preparation day fun until around 4 pm. Part of that included trying to locate the River's Edge sisters, because they left their phone at Sam's Club. We spent the greater part of the afternoon searching for them.
        Inspections were this week as well. We passed, of course. Nothing new there, but I guess it is always nice to have the Blossoms come over and talk to them.
        On Wednesday, we didn't have District Council because of zone conference the following day. But we did get to have 1 final lesson with Jerry before he leaves for the holidays. Then we were invited by Br. Phinney to help teach the Sunriver Youth Chess. That was a lot of fun. I love chess, and I even learned a lot about how to plan out a good game while I was there, so that was great. Afterwards we ran back up to Fairfield for Jaden's Baptismal interview and then spent the night at Two Rivers in preparation for the zone conference the next day.
      Thursday was pretty great. We got to go to Helena all day long. (9 am to 4 pm). For those of you who don't know. That's a 1.5 hour drive from Great Falls (2 hours from Fairfield), so we got back pretty late. We had the privilege of meeting with Elder Nielson of the Seventy. He was on a mission tour, so we got to hear from him. It was a great meeting, full of new experiences and amazing instruction given. There were also many tears shed because this was the last time many of the people in the zone would see their first zone leader. Elder Ritchie had left to Wyoming last transfer, and now Elder Wheeler was leaving the following day to go home. We will miss him. And I hope that all will be well for him. 
      Now back to Jaden. Jaden was Baptised and Confirmed yesterday. It was a really great service, and I am so happy to see this happen for him. It was great to be a part of this six year wait for him. I'm sure he also is very happy. 
We, Elder Lunt and I, also had the chance to give our first talks on the mission. They weren't hard. the topic was preparing for a mission since it was Sam Rammel's last week before he enter's the MTC. (We don't call them Farewells anymore.) I am so grateful that I have Elder Lunt with me, because I was reaffirmed today that I am not an orator.  But he is. So it helps that we are together, since he isn't really good with technology, and I am probably way too big of a techie. Naw, there is no such thing.
      This week has been rather busy and full, which is probably why it went by so quickly. It was awesome, and I can't wait till this next one. I hope all is well back home, keep it up and don't get discouraged. And I hope you all have a Great Thanksgiving.
Till Next Week,

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

Jaden's Baptism

I forgot to send this last week. Elder Wheeler burned some outdated pass along cards.

I think the house is getting frostbite.

Cool snow drifts blowing on the road.

A great meme I was sent.

Transfer 4, Week 4

Hey Everyone,
        How are you all this week? Was the week fun? Are you all excited for Thanksgiving? I know I am.This week has been really cold, but also pretty exciting. 
         So, to start it all off, on Monday we had interviews with President Larsen. They went well, although I have a really strong notion that I am leaving after this transfer :(. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, interviews ended up taking literally all day long, so while we were waiting, we played card games and watched "Coco". It was pretty good. 
         Then we had the transfer dinner that night. This was fun! President Larsen joined us for the the evening, and it turned out to be a pretty cool night. After a night of spiritual highness and instruction President Swensen wanted to show President Larsen something cool, so naturally every missionary followed. We went out to a shed, and President Swensen showed us a cannon he was making. So cool. Then we all, President Larsen included, coerced him into firing it off. It was a Blast! Literally! I'll try to send the video. 
         We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week, from Monday to Wednesday. Elder Wheeler came to Fairfield with me, and Elder Lunt traveled to Great Falls. It was a awesome. Elder Wheeler forgot his tiwi card, so we not to drive around as much as possible. We stayed in town on Tuesday and worked while Elder Wheeler did a little reminising to me. 
        District Council went well again. I did my first vehicle inspection, we are supposed to do them at each district council. OOPS. It was good. I'm still learning. Afterwards, we had a pretty good lesson with Jerry, and then I beat Br. Phinney for the second time in a row at chess, while we discussed the ward. This time playing Lord of the Rings Chess. I won't let him tear this streak down.
        Jerry is still a nice strong new member. He is progressing, and is happy that he is now a member. We've been starting the review process, and hopefully we can get another review lesson in there before he leaves for 2 weeks to North Dakota for Thanksgiving. 
        It's been snowing constantly since Wednesday. We got a bit of snow after we shot off the cannon, which turned into a temporary good laugh about it being ash, but it was too white for that. The snow has been on and off, But I would guess that we have at least a couple inches right now. It has been cold, but it's supposed to get warmer this week, but I don't think the snow will leave before we are given more. 
         John, our other investigator we have had for a while took a very big step this week. One of the bills in Montana was I-185, which would raise the cost of Tabacco by $3, making a pack of cigarettes $10. It would also raise taxes in other areas to compensate etc... Anyway, John had made a goal to stop smoking completely by Nov 6th, Election day in case the Bill passes. It didn't. But John still kept to his goal anyway. He is smoke free once again. Hopefully this time for good. I have faith that he will keep up the good work. He is also reading on his own. We had a lesson with him on Saturday in which we reviewed a few principles, and he asked several great questions, resulting in John being on Date to be baptized on December 15th. What a great birthday present that will be, since my birthday is the 14th. I am super excited for him, and I know that he can do it.
          Sunday seemed to last forever, yet go by very quickly at the same time. We were planning on spending church in Sunriver, but the church building had their sewage line freeze, and the sepitc tanks won't be able to reset till Tuesday. So as to avoid any issues with the bathrooms not working, church down there was canceled. We went to Fairfield ward conference instead. We totally forgot this was ward conference weekend. Elder Lunt and I walked into the building, heading for ward council, when the whole ward leadership was in the chapel, so we sat down for the early meeting, and got to have an extra hour of church. We did some service setting up for the thanksgiving festival on Tuesday, and then headed to Sunriver for Lunch at the Rushton's place. We Read the Book of Mormon with Jerry, and learned several good teaching demonstrations/ideas from the Croxfords. It was super busy.
          The other good news is that the youth investigator, Jaden, I'm pretty sure I mentioned him last week, has gotten permission from his dad to be baptized. So we will be having another Baptism on the 18th of November (this coming Sunday). I'm so excited for that one. 
           Well, I think that just about wraps up my week. I hope yours was good as well. I am super excited for zone conference this week in Helena. I hope to hear from you. 

All My Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

Cool ice pattern on the car.

The zone with President Larson with the cannon.

The cannon

Firing the cannon.

Transfer 4, Week 3: When You're Down, The Only Way To Go Is Up

Hey Everyone,
        This week was in no way like last week. Not much happened there, but this week, we seemed to be going everywhere all at once. Was your week like this as well?
         Well, let me jump into the meat of it all today. So, our original plan for preparation day was to stay in Fairfield to save on miles, but that was interrupted  by an appointment to get the brakes checked on our car. So we had to go down to Great Falls, to see if the car needs new roaders, since our front ones were very groved. But it ended up being a dud, as we were told by the mechanics that the grooves we had were reqular from driving on dirt roads so much, and that if we replaced the roaders, the grooves would be back in a month, so there were no worries. 
        Tuesday seemed to go on for a very long time. I don't think I will ever say that tracting doesn't work, but it can be painfully less effective. We didn't have anything scheduled, so we tried to go visit a few people, but got shut down pretty quickly. All of a sudden, we have no plans, and several hours to use. So, yep you guessed it, we tracted for many of them before emailing a few missionaries from this ward for referrals.
        Wednesday ended up being fun, but I am sad I have to miss two Halloweens. For those of you who don't know, Halloween is easily my favorite holiday. I love dressing up and having fun with decorating, scary pranks, movies, etc. I love Halloween, and am always excited for it to come around. But, as a missionary, we can't do all of that. For example, we are not allowed to dress up (go figure), we don't really have any decorations, we didn't have any candy to hand out, we don't have any Halloween music, and to top it all off, we aren't allowed to proselyte past 6 pm, because they don't want people to confuse us with the Trick or Treaters. AUUGH!! It really makes Halloween not as much fun, But it's ok, Only 1 left. There was nice bit of excitement when we got an email from the assistants, telling us that we are approved to watch the Disney movie "Coco" for a week. Yeah, I had never seen it before, and I have to say that it was pretty good. 
         Thursday was very instructive. I learned a lot about how to properly fill out a baptismal form, since we had to help the zone leaders fix a couple errors in Jerry's. It was pretty good, and I learned a lot. We also got invited to Dinner in Great Falls at the Mackenzie River Pizza Co. It was really good.
       Saturday was one service project after another. We helped Br. Contway buck some hay, and move it into his storage areas. They were a lot heavier than the last time we helped. It was pretty great. Afterwards, we went and helped Br. Schenk with the Christensen's yard. I drove the riding lawn mower, and ate up many patches of leaves, moving them away from the house. It was a lot of fun. 
        To end the week, Sunday was pretty exciting. Church this week was a regional broadcast for the North America Central Area, It covers a fair bit of Canada, and most of the Northern states, from Wisconsin to the Idaho Pan handle. Anyway this conference was talking a lot about the area's plan for 2019, which includes putting an emphasis on the Sabbath, Ministering, Temple work, and Missionary work. The General Authority over the proceedings was Elder Holland. Yes!! I know we're not neccessarily supposed to pick favorites, I guess I need to repent in this aspect, because Elder Holland is my number 1 apostle. Anyway, He talked about the gathering of Israel, and the importance of missionary work. I'm excited to see if it brightens the fire in the members here. After the meeting, we got a pleasant surprise from Sister Krogue. So quick back story: There is a teenage boy who isn't a member who lives with his Mom and stepfather. He wants to join the church, but his dad has said no for a long time. Well, Sister Krogue came up to us and told us that she is planning on asking for permission from her ex husband again for their son to be baptised, and hopefully the answer will be a yes. I am so excited for him, so Yeah!!!! After Dinner, Bishop gave us a bunch of referals, so hopefully we will start to get somewhere.
        Over all this week has been pretty good. I have learned a lot, and Elder Holland always brightens my life. My spiritual thought kind of goes off of what Elder Holland said. He talked about the importance of the gathering of Israel, and with that, according to President Swensen, the stake president here. These 4 topics that I mentioned earlier are of the most importance to the general authorities right now. With Missionary work always on the mind of our church leaders, shouldn't it also always be on our minds as well? We should all be out there constantly looking to assist in bringing someone closer to Christ, whether that is a friend, neighbor, or whoever. This work is important, and we need to stay focused on the task at hand, and not be distracted with the things of this world.
         Well, I love you guys, and I hope your Halloween was pretty great. Mine was alright. I hope to hear from you soon. Keep the fire alive.

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

Yay! I have 1 picture!

You can't really see it, but I am standing on the back of Br. Contway's trailer as he is driving around.