Transfer 7, Week 4: The Ward Kicks In

Hey Everyone,
     How are we all doing? Is the warmer weather pleasant yet? I don't know about everyone else, but I am loving all the warmth that we are getting right now.
     This week has been much different from those of before. This has been mostly because the Whitehall Ward has really kept us on our toes. They have been on fire with getting us rides and assisting us in every aspect of the work that they can. It has been quite awesome. 
The Sheridan Ward is having a difficult time adjusting at the moment, making it hard to work out there, especially since they are the ward that we need rides more from. But we are getting by, the work just seems to be slower.
     Most of the week was spent getting to know the members. In a council meeting the week before, the members expressed that they weren't too excited to help the work because they don't know the misssionaries. Well, we started to work on fixing that. We spent a lot of time this week in member homes, reestablishing contact and trust in them, and hopefully we can see an uplift in progress soon. This also really helps with the stake goal of 20 lessons a week for the missionaries. Which we were able to accomplish this week. Yay! 
     As far as Kris goes, we are waiting on President to get back to us on any instructions that we need to move foreward. Hopefully that comes soon.
     We were also given a lot of good tips and tricks on what to do, from ward members that served missions. We are excited to try them out and see if they work for the area.  
     Sadly, this email will be short, but that is ok. The week has been pretty good, but it doesn't take a lot of explain what happened. I'm excited to see how this week's progress will continue into this next week. but until then, we will keep moving forward, and hope you all have a great one as well.

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures ...

Breaking out the lighter jackets

Some cool icicles

Transfer 7, Week 3: Exchanges and Other Fun Activities

Hey Everyonne,
      How are we all doing today? Are we all enjoying the warmer weather that we have been recieving. It has been pretty fantastic. I have loved the area, and the way things are going...
        So, first of all we had exchanges with the zone leaders this week. Elder Loomis and I stayed in Twin bridges and Elder Reese headed to Butte with Elder Slesk. After district council, Elder Loomis and found a couple new people, and we are excited for the new opportunities coming forth in the near future there. 
        We also had interviews with President Larsen on Thursday. They went really well. Instruction was recieved and plans made to improve the area, and ourselves.
        We are excited for Kris as well. He had his baptismal interview for his upcoming date conference weekend. We are excited for him. Only 1 month away.. 
       Other than that, there was only really the exciting change in attitude for missionary work. The Whitehall Ward is getting fired up and prepared for the work to move forward at an alarming rate. We are excited to see this happen and can't wait for more. 
        I guess that pretty much sums it all up for this week. There weren't too many highlights, but that is ok. We have been working hard to be good examples, and we are excited that it may start finally paying off. 
       Well, I hope that all is well, and that you are all enjoying the good times ahead. Spring is coming, so that is always a plus as well. Have a great week. We'll talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures...
😢😢😢 sorry, I didn't take any this week

Transfer 7, Week 2: The Lord Chastens His People to Try Their Faith

Hey Everyone,
          How are we all doing today? Is it spring anywhere else yet. The locals keep telling us that this isn't normal for Whitehall. I do sure hope we see some warmer weather soon. This week has been really abnormal in many ways. Not only did we gain a fair bit of snow, but other circumstances have been put into place. 
          The week started out pretty normally. We had a great time with the work, but we also saw a fair bit of challenges. For example, Tuesday morning was thrown off schedule because we had no running water to use until around 10 am. Our water lines had frozen, and so we adapted our schedule to accommodate and prayed that they would thaw out before too long. We had a great day on Tuesday. We were ahead of our daily lesson schedule, and we thought this week might be the week that we were going to be able to meet the stake goal of 20 lessons a week. We didn't learn till the folowing day, that such was not the case.
         So, Wednesday turned our whole week, and the rest of the transfer upside down. There is a little story behind that. We were heading back to Twin Bridges from Dillion and District Meeting. There was a crash on the road, a semi truck that had tipped over and cattle were going everywhere. We were told that there was no clue when traffic will begin to move again. We were advised to take another route. So that's what we did. 
          On the way, we were involved in a car accident of our own. I'm not going to give any details, because the Church has instructed me not to. But the important part of the story is that neither Elder Reese nor myself took even a little scratch from it. This really strengthened my testimony of the tender mercies of God, as Nephi described them in 1 Nephi 1:20. And I know the Lord watches over those who serve him. 
         So, with that happening, we no longer have a vehicle in the area. So the rest of the week has been spent working with members, doing service, lessons with Kris, and trying to figure out how we are going to run the area now. 
         Speaking of Kris, he is super excited about his baptismal date next month. And we have had a fun time learning about him and helping him prepare to meet with President Larsen next week. 
        Well, I think that just about wraps it all up for the week. I hope you all have had a fantastic week, and I'm sure if it's not warm yet, it will hopefully become do so soon.

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

Clearing some snow and some cool icicles.

Cool icicles

Elder Reese trying a "Gutbuster"

Elder Reese's hair after walking outside for 10 minutes.

Selfie in the truck.

A car buried in a snow drift.

Transfer 7, Week 1: The Grass Ain't Green, But My Companion Sure Is!

Hey Everyone,
      How are we doing on this wonderful winter morning? Is it as cold where you live as it is in Sheridan Montana? It has been in the negatives again, and we are experiencing a pretty good storm right now. I'm so glad I have the weather protection for it out here. 
      So, this week has been quite different than normal. I'll explain, but I'm sure the subject of this email is pretty self explanatory. 
      To start, this past week was Transfers. Elder Barlow got shipped off to Thompson Falls, and I am staying in Sheridan and Whitehall. And by the subject, you can probably tell that I am training again. Yeah! I'm so excited. Because such, we spent a large chunk of time cleaning up the apartments, in preparation for the upcoming exchange of Companions.
      So, Thursday was the Big Day. Transfers. I said Goodbye to Elder Barlow as the zone leaders took him to Helena, and I waited with Elder Williams for them to return. We had some fun getting important things done, like a car wash ( the one in Whitehall is closed for the season, so this chance was a nice opportunity), and we also did some street contacting and store contacting. Around 2 PM, we finally got the great moment. My new Companion, fresh from the MTC got out of the zone leader's Truck. We took his stuff back to Whitehall, and let him get settled in before coming back to Butte for our meeting later that night. 
        So, we had the Transfer Meeting Thursday night. It was a great meeting where the zone leaders and President Steinfedlt speaking on working together and being one in purpose with Members. It was an awesome meeting. 
       The rest of the week always seemed to be packed even with the little planning we did, which was kind of cool. We did a fair bit of service, had a couple great lessons, and had a fun time letting Elder Reese get to know the leadership just a little bit. It has been pretty packed hard core. Which is awesome. It never has been this booked since I came here, so I definitely enjoyed that blessing from the Lord. 
      So a little about Elder Reese, and why he is so special. (Because I'm sure you are wanting to know more about this)
Elder Reese is 18 years old. He graduated from High School just before putting in his papers to go on a mission, so he is fresh from High School. He is from Tacoma, Washington. He has 1 brother, but no sisters. And this is his first time away from home. So it's a super exciting time in his life. He is a great missionary that wants to learn a lot, and I'm super excited to work with him over these next 6 weeks. 
      Quick story, in this area, we have for a vehicle a 2016 Nissan Frontier. It is a mini pick up truck that has 4 wheel drive, but almost no power in it at all. Anyway, we are heading along this dirt road to a members house right? As we are starting to go around the corner of the long, and I mean really long, driveway, I quickly stop to put the truck into 4 wheel drive, because there are 2-3 inch drifts on the road and the truck tends to have trouble getting over them. Well, as I'm going through this driveway in 4 wheel drive, the truck still starts to slide on me. I'm doing all I can to counteract the sliding, but I inevitably drift and come to a stop gently on the side of the road. With the high winds blowing as hard as they were, we were quickly buried in about 1.5 to 2 foot bank of snow on my side, and a 6-8 inch drift on the passenger side, and it was quickly rising. Even with all our efforts to safely exit our trap, we were stuck. A 4 wheel drive truck stuck from 2-3 inch drifts in the road. We phoned for help and waited for about 1 hour for help as we constantly were trying to dig our tires out. It was an experience I'll never forget. I guess I can say now that I've experienced a Montana winter. 
       So, I just remembered that we saw a great little miracle this week. Even though the week was kind of crazy. Everything has kind of fallen into place over the last few days. For example, us being so busy. Or another cool miracle was that as we were going throughout the week. We were given a huge handful of referrals in the Sheridan area, and the Whitehall ward has a few in the making as well. So I'm super excited to see how we can build off of the improving conditions of the area. 
        Another cool miracle we saw was in Kris. We are still working towards a interview date with President Larsen for Kris. He has been a hard one for us to catch at a good time. But we'll keep trying. Anyway, Kris is continuing to grow and prepare. He settled a lot of our fears regarding the commandments, and how much he still needs to be taught before the interview, so that was a great mini blessing that we enjoyed.
        So overall, this week has been pretty crazy, but also exciting. There have been a bunch of mini miracles, and that just goes to show how much God cares about what we are doing and that we can understand our progress as time goes on. These next 5 weeks are going to be very exciting, and I can hardly wait to get started. 
         I hope all is well wherever you are. I am doing well, but I'd also love to know how you are doing. But anyway, I'll talk to you all next week. 

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

A huge icicle Elder Williams and I found.

The icicle

Popping Elder Barlow's old basketball.

Companion selfies

Companion selfies

Last photo with Elder Barlow

Me and Elder Reese

Transfer 6, Week 6: A Week To Remember

Hey Everyone,
      How are we all this fine lovely Monday morning? I hope all is well. This week has been full and very busy, so let's not waste any time reading this email. 
      First of all, even with the change in how missionaries can now communicate with home, (you can refer to lds.org to read about this change if you haven't yet), I will still be doing my best to get a weekly email in every week. This will be for all those that I can't call or text each Monday. You all are very dear to my heart, and deserve to hear from me almost as much as my parents do, so I will be making this effort every week.
      This week has been pretty crazy for us. Between all the normal activities, of missionary work, and transfers, and our investigator, it has been quite the handful to sort out. 
      To start off, Tuesday we had the opportunity to volunteer at the Sheridan Public Library. It turned out to be a great experience. We got to know the librarian pretty well, and helped prolong the lifespan of the books. We also found a less active that we had been asked to try to locate while we were at the library. 
     It being the last District Council of the Transfer, we had our Meeting and Lunch here in Sheridan, then went to an amazing local restaurant called the Wagon Wheel for lunch. It was really good. They sell these burgers called "Gutbusters", a 1lb burger with double the toppings and fries for about $13. The burger is about 8.5 inches tall. It was really good. 
     So, Elder Barlow really likes knives, and we are allowed to have pocket knives, and there is a gift ship right by the Wagon Wheel called the "Red Shed" that Elder Barlow has never been in because it has really weird hours. But for some reason, they were open this week. So we went and took a look. They have a whole lot of knives. I mean there were more knives than anything else. So we both bought 2. I wasn't planning on it, at first, but Elder Barlow has taught me a lot about knives over the last week, there were 2 that just caught my eye, and so I bought them. They look really sweet.
      Thursday was Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day, by the way. It was a pretty normal day. We had our lesson with Kris around 7:30 PM because of certain circumstances, and for a Valentine's gift, we were given a 2lb block of cheese. Yay!
       Speaking of Kris, we set him on Date for the 6th of April. We are so happy for him and this decision he has made. Because of his situation, we have been working a lot this weekend on figuring out all of the loopholes that we would need to go through. It has been a pretty wild goose chase, one that keeps getting more complicated as time goes on. We'll figure it all out. I know we can when we rely on God. (Kris may be a member already, but his records may have been removed, not sure yet, though.)
       These last few days, have been a little struggle as I have had a really bad cough, but I'm doing well. We are pushing through and will hopefully be in tiptop shape.
       And Last but not least, we have not received any transfer news as of yet, so I have no idea if or where I will be transfered. We are hoping to hear news soon. 
        Well, I think that about wraps it all up. I hope all is well, and that all the upcoming adventures faire you all well. 

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

A picture of a beautiful painting we were shown.

Working at the library

An amazing view of the mountains

Selfie

My newly acquired knives

My gnome (thanks Andrew) and my plushy (thanks Lahra and Sawyer)

Another selfie

A cool snow drift

Transfer 6, Week 5: We Almost Froze

Hey Everyone,
     This week has been bitter and very cold. It has been really crazy. I don't know if anywhere else got hit pretty bad, but I'll just say that is cold. It has been in the negatives longer than above zero. Brr. But it isn't supposed to let up for at least another week, so we're not letting it stop us either. 
     Something that has been pretty impressive are the snow drifts. I think I mentioned last week how there were 6-8 ft snow drifts in the middle of the road. Those are impressive, but it makes sense because the plows just push all the snow into the middle of the road. You need to understand that we only have about 4-6 inches in areas that didn't drift. What is most impressive are the drifts are not man made (plowed). This one member's house that we went to has 3-4 foot drifts littering his driveway. Making it an impassible barrier. 
     This week we had exchanges with the Dillion Elders. It was really fun. On the way to meet them, we were behind a semi truck the whole way, because he was kicking up so much that we couldn't even think to pass him. Even though it was clear outside, we felt like we were in the middle of a blizzard. We couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us. But anyway, I went to Dillion and Elder Eveleth came to Sheridan. It was pretty good. Elder Herring and I spent the day trying to contact a bunch of people, and we got ice cream. It was quite the fun day. 
     So, Missionaries, at least Elders, have dumb ways to track how long they've been out. One tradition is to burn stuff. For example, burning a tie, shirt, or old pair of slacks at their 6, 12,18 month marks. Well, as all of you probably know. I am well beyond my 6 month mark, but I haven't burned my tie yet. Well, we did so this week with Elder Eveleth who passed his 6 month mark about 2 weeks ago. I had bought a 25 cent tie at a good will a few months back, and now it's no more. It was quite impressive.
     On Friday, we started the day with a breakfast at a member's house, then we did some service for them and helped out around the farm. It was a lot of fun. Soon afterwards, we rushed home to change our clothes and go to Kris's house for our lesson. It was a great lesson where we talked about the Book of Jacob and Kris brought up choosing a date to be baptized. So he is now on date. 
     The rest of the week kind of slumped. We made plans to try many many people. But most of the plans ended up falling through, so that was a little frustrating. 
     For Everyone's information, My email will be changing tomorrow to Jacob.Sherwood@missionary.org. I don't know why. All mail sent to my current one wll be forewarded to me. 
     Overall, Life is freezing Cold, but great out here in Whitehall and Sheridan Montana. There are a lot of exciting times ahead, and I can't wait to see how the next week will treat us. I hope everyone is staying warm, and safe. 

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

An awesome picture I found

Going through the fields

The field

Elder Barlow and I on a snow drift.

Exchanges with Elder Herring

The temperature

Transfer 6, Week 4: There Is Always Another Event

Hey everyone,
     How are things going? Did anything fun happen this week? Well, this week has been pretty pack full of stuff to do, so let me explain the highlights...
    So, we saw a lot of wildlife this week. It was great. Deer, elk, cows, bison, wild turkey. There was a ton. 
    So zone conference was this week, up in Helena. It was pretty good, but to prepare for it,  we were trying to save on miles, and it all worked out. 
      Zone conference was fantastic. We had a great time driving up with the Dillion Elders, and we learned so much about being consecrated to the Lord and receiving personal revelation. 
         After Zone Conference, we started exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Slesk and back to Whitehall with me, while Elder Barlow headed to Butte. While here, we found a new person, by the  name of Faith. It was really good for an exchange. We also got some new return appointments scheduled for others. 
      Other than that, it was a pretty good week. We have seen many ups and downs, but I love seeing how the wards are turning more missionary minded. It is fantastic. I can't wait to move forward from where we currently are. 
     I can't believe how things are going. Life has been fantastic. We're finally getting the winter weather that we have needed, and what everyone expected. Last night, it showed about 4 inches. (After the snowplows came through, banks were almost 6 feet.) It was also -20' outside. Brrr. 
      This week was fantastic. I hope yours was as well. 

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

A sweet castle fence

A mountain path we took to a member's house

Elder Slesk in Whitehall

Wild turkeys

The bison

The tiwi got cold and turned white.

Selfie with the tiwi

Replugging in the tiwi

The weather forecast