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

Transfer 6, Week 3: Only in Montana

Hey everyone,
     How are we all doing this week? It has been a pretty crazy week for me, but who wants to hold off for long, let's jump right in...
     So, because interviews were on Monday last week, this week was a day shorter. For preparation day, we took a tour of the area. We first went down to Virginia City. A small Gold Mining western town that is now a tourist trap. Except, everything is closed down for the winter.😢. Sad day. Afterwards we went up to Ruby dam, and had a fun, cold time throwing rocks, and walking on the frozen lake. 
     Our proselitying efforts were really hurting this week. We didn't really see anything come from all that we did, which is a little upsetting, but sometimes that's all we can do. 
     Kris is still doing pretty good. We were only able to have 1 lesson this week, because he wasn't feeling well. That lesson was a dinner lesson, which was pretty sweet. 
     We found a lost tablet this week, and also found it's owner. Elder Evelety left his nice blue tablet behind on the day of interviews. So, we're going to return it to him today. 
     On Saturday, I ended up putting myself through a lot of pain. Elder Barlow wanted to go bike riding, so we spent a little time making sure they are in tip top shape, then went out. We didn't really have a well planned route, so it felt like we were riding around for no reason other than exercise. I am still sore from it. I haven't done that since that one bike ride with Elder Ritchie. 
     Afterwards, Elder Barlow wanted to go look at knives right after we got gas for the truck. I said ok, and ended up coming out of the store with a small souvenir. Only in Montana would you find a machine gun keychain. Haha. I guess now I can make a joke to other missionaries about carrying a gun on the mission.
     On Sunday, we had to give talks in Church again. I was so scared. But luckily Elder Barlow took a lot of time, so I was just the time filler. Haha. 
     Overall, this week had many ups and downs. It was good, but I really hope that next week is better. 
     I love you all, and hope that all goes well next week for you all too.

Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

My new angel statue

My new gun key chain

Ruby Lake

Ruby Lake Dam

Ruby Lake Dam

Fun on the frozen lake

More fun on the frozen lake.

Sunset

Elder Barlow selfie

Rubix cubes are so much fun to play with after 9 pm.

The lost tablet

Transfer 6, Week 2: Who Needs TIWI?

Hey everyone,
     How are we all today. I know it's kind if weird for emails not to come on Monday, but that's what happened this week. I'll explain later. Anyway, this week was pretty exciting and full...
     To answer any questions about Elder Barlow and the area. We cover two wards. But they are so geographically bigger, that we need two apartments. Elder Barlow is from Riverton Utah. He has been out for about 4 months, and is a super great missionary. We have found that we have a lot on common. Also to answer the question of where we are. No we are not in Sheridan Wyoming. Sheridan Montana is a small small town south of Butte and Whitehall. 
     So, for the majority of this week, we spent our time trying to accomplish the stake goal of 20 lessons a week. That or contacting referrals received from members. It ended up being a very quick week. 
     After going through all of our plans on Tuesday, we headed to "The Wagon Wheel" a restaurant in Twin Bridges. There we had dinner with a less active member. Elder Barlow and I both got 1 lb burgers. They were really good, but that was probably way too much food for me. While we were there, he asked us a couple questions regarding temple sealings, so we got to do some extra research for him.
     We also got to help a very less active with her struggles. She texted us a while ago, and asked to meet with us. Elder Barlow and I both thought she was a nonmember. But when we started talking, we learned otherwise. That was a very special experience.
     On Wednesday night, the zone leaders called, and asked us to set up a goal for baptisms this transfer. So we immediately set to work and met with our bishops on Thursday and got those goals set. We don't have anyone close right now, so our goal is pretty low. But we are planning on planting the seeds necessary to have a baptism in the future.
     Kris is doing pretty well. We had two lessons with him. He has a lot of questions, and wants to go at his own pace. We feel like we took a step forward then a step sideways with him. We'll have to keep working, but I think we have a pretty good idea where to go.
     So, one of a missionaries biggest pains is what is called tiwi. It's a little box on the windshield that has the voice of a girl, and nags you when you are driving poorly. Well, ours kept falling off the windshield, so we unplugged it till we could get a good way to hold her on. (With approval of course) It was awesome. 
     On Saturday, we did our best to do a task that bishop gave us to do. He wants to get us a new apartment. It is a lot smaller, and would cost a lot less. The only problem is that it would fit in our current bedroom. It is absolutely tiny. 
     Sunday was pretty good as always. Nothing super exciting happened there. We tried our best to finish off our lesson count for the week. But we were not able to. Oh well. 
     Lastly, we has interviews on Monday, so preparation day was moved to Today this week. They were great. But we ended up spending the whole day basically in Butte. 
     I think that's all I had on my list to talk about today. I love you guys and I hope to hear from you all again soon. Have a great week.


Love,
Elder Sherwood

Pictures:

A selfie with the Gold Plates. We found them!

The Whitehall painted wall.

A frozen river.

Transfer 6, Week 1: Welcome to Whitehall

Hey Everyone,
     This week has been quite fast paced. It really seems to be in kind of a blurry, so I'll just jump right in. 
     With Transfers this week, and the need to pack, we said goodbye to a lot of people in the Fairfield area. In between everything, we got to see John again. He is pretty good. Happy to see us again, and I hope all is well there. 
     Transfers got delayed a day. (Executive decision by President Larsen), so we didn't head out until Thursday. One cool thing that happened was that the Fairfield building switched up their keys, so I was allowed to keep our old key to the building as a souvenir. It was pretty sweet. 
     Thursday morning, we packed everything up and headed out toward Great Falls to start the journey. We got lost along the way, and took quite the detour in Helena. But we got there ok. We met up with Elder Barlow, and the Butte Zone leaders. After heading back towards Butte, we stayed in town for the transfer Dinner and our truck to be done at the repair shop. It was a pretty good day. 
     WhiteHall is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We cover about 2-3 times the land, and about 2/3 the people compared to Fairfield. I guess I need to spend time in small towns. 
We spent a lot of time getting to know the area of Whitehall on Friday and Saturday before packing up and heading to our other apartment in Twin Bridges. 
     Sunday we spent the day in Sheridan and went to a ward FHE night. It has been a blurr of a week. I feel like I am brand new to everything again, because I don't know what there is to do yet out here. 
     We are currently working with 1 person. His name is Kris. It has been fun getting to know him and his background. And I think we have another new investigator lesson on Tuesday. Way fun.
     To answer any questions you may have about the 2 addresses. Yes, we have 2 apartments. I've never lived either over a cafe, or in a pink house before. So we have 2 addresses. We spend Monday-Wednesday at Twin Bridges and Thursday-Saturday in Whitehall. Sunday's flip back and forth. As far as any mail goes, send everything to the Whitehall address, and we'll pick it up from there. 
     Well, I think that just about wraps things up for the week. I love it out here, and I hope things continue to move smoothly along.

Love,
Elder Sherwood 

Picture:

Leaving Fairfield