Happy Easter!

Dying Easter Eggs

They got creative... The prophet and apostles! 

Happy Easter everyone! 

This week was full of some great experiences
but I mainly want to focus my email on our main investigator Kodama,
he is doing great! We taught him a couple times this week, and right
now we are teaching him the commandments. He is really engaged in the
lessons and continues to read from the Book of Mormon in between
visits. He came to church for the first time yesterday too! Elder
Colton and I went and picked him up and rode with him to church. He
had a really good time and at the end of church he asked when we could
meet again instead of us asking first! We agreed on a time this week,
so far he is still on track to be baptized April 16th! I am so excited
for him, next week I will try and get a picture with him.

This week we ran into a guy from Vietnam who is way nice and invited
us out to lunch with him. He wasn't really interested in our message
but liked to hear our purpose as missionaries and talk about what we
do. He is currently starting his own business and trying to make that
successful so he can build schools in Vietnam so underprivileged kids
can receive a better education. He leaves back to the United States
this week though so unfortunately we can't meet again.  Yesterday we
set up for the Easter party we are having tonight and I have lots of
fun videos and pictures to send of that.

I don't have a whole lot of time today because we are going to have a
zone activity in Miyajima today! But I just wanted to end with a
couple things. I love this gospel so much! It truly is a blessing to
be here in Japan and get to work with the amazing members here. There
aren't to many but they all try so hard and continue to fulfill their
duties as much as they can. We get the privilege to meet and talk with
so many people each day and I love the opportunity I get to bear
testimony to others that Christ indeed lives. He truly is the son of
God and always wants to help us no matter what problems we are facing.
I love you all and hope everyone has a great Easter! Remember that HE
LIVES!

Love, Elder Sherrill

Hello from 日本🇯🇵

Hello everyone! This week went by really fast! It was my first full
week with my new companion and we are doing great together. It is
pretty fun to be in lessons and dendo with someone just a little older
than me. My Japanese has definitely been improving a lot and I'm
excited to see where it is at at the end of the transfer.

So onto this week we had a couple lessons with our main progressing
investigator Kodama and they went awesome! Our second lesson we had
with him the couple missionary in our area invited him over for lunch
and offered to joint for the lesson after we ate. It was really
helpful because they are near his age and could relate to him a lot
better than two young punk kids from America haha. His baptismal date
is still set for April 16th and my companion and I are positive he
will be prepared by then. During the lesson we asked him some
questions and he said he has faith and Christ and really wants to be
baptized! I'm excited to keep teaching him and see how much he
progresses before the 16th.

A couple of our other investigators have kind of fallen through this
past week or two. We have been trying to contact then and meet with
them but it has been kind of not to solid so we are hoping things
begin to improve with them soon. Other than that though we teach a lot
of lessons to less actives and recent converts in the branch. This
week a really fun lesson we taught was to the Takemoto family. She
lives with her daughter and son and is a really nice lady with a lot
of faith. This past Saturday we found out it was her daughters
birthday so we decided to throw her a little party along with a short
message afterwards. Her daughter Rina likes pudding so we bought some
chocolate pudding for her and wrapped that up as well as a Book of
Mormon Stories book that would help her understand as she read the
scriptures. Then we also invited the Minamimoto couple to come along.
Sister Minamimoto made her this huge homemade pudding as well as got
her a book called "The New Testament Stories" so it would help her as
she read the bible. We went over and had a little party and she loved
her gifts, especially all the pudding haha. Her family has been
struggling a little recently so we have been visiting her a couple
times a week and I think it has really been helping.

To end I'd like to talk a little bit about our dendo tactics we have
been doing recently. Recently we have been trying to switch up how we
approach people to improve how well our contact goes with them. Lately
we have been trying to become their friend first and talk with them
about English and then go into talking about the gospel and it has
really worked. People have been a lot more open to talk with us and
willing to hear our message. I know there are so many prepared people
here and each day when I go home at the end of the night I think of
the people we talked to and know that we were supposed to come in
contact with them. I am loving all the experiences I am having in
Japan and am really excited for all the new ones that await me! Next
week we will be doing a zone activity in Miyajima so I might be on
later than usual to email. I love you all and hope everyone has a good
week!

Love, シェリル長老

3 months in 日本!

New companion, Elder Colton

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Hey Everyone!

So this week was a lot of fun! I got my new companion Elder Colton and
he is a stud! He is 21 and from Atlanta, Georgia. He went to West
Point Military Academy for 2 years. He is a way cool guy and pretty
similar to me. I'm pretty excited for this transfer because I am going
to learn a lot, especially in Japanese because he is only 3 months
ahead of me! Speaking of which, he makes me do half the phone calls
now which my first 2 transfers I never touched the phone so it has
been a cool experience to see how much I can say on the phone. My
first phone call actually went really good! I'm surprised with how
much my Japanese has improved, but I'm still no where close to where I
want to be.

As far as this week goes it was pretty normal other than transfers.
With me being area senpei it is a lot harder than I thought. Since my
companion doesn't know any members I have to do most of the talking at
church and in our meetings. Also when we plan each night since my
companion doesn't know the area I have to choose the area every time
and even though my area is pretty big I feel like I have dendoed
almost all of it haha. But it is a lot of fun and I really do feel
help from Heavenly Father when I am not sure what to do or say.

Sorry this weeks email is pretty short but we don't have much time.
I'm going to show Elder Colton around Saijo and all the sweet places
to go to eat. I can't believe it is already halfway through March! My
time has been flying by and it is a little scary.  I love you all and
hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Sherrill

Transfer Week!

Sandwich burgers!

nutella!

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Genbaku Dome

Coscto pizza!

Costco!

Hello everyone! So I finished my training and our transfer calls came!
I will be staying in Saijo! I'm so excited to stay here, my new
companion is elder Colton and is coming from Yamaguchi. This next
transfer he will be transfer 5 and I will be transfer 3, we are both
pretty young so it will be a pretty interesting transfer haha. He
seems like a pretty solid missionary though so I think it will all be
okay. This email won't be too long because we have lots of preparation
to do for transfers.

So onto this week! Last pday we went to Genbaku dome in Hikari and it
was so much fun! Then afterwards we went to Costco and spent some time
in there. I have lots of pics to send from this week so be looking out
for those. This week we began teaching someone new named Kodama. The
sisters in our district found him and taught him a couple times then
referred him to us. We have taught him 3 times this week and our
lesson we had with him yesterday we set a baptismal date with him on April 16th
! He is an older man who is so prepared! He loves reading
from the Book of Mormon and loves meeting with us and talking about
our message.

This week one of the sisters investigators got baptized! Her name is
Yiwen and she is from China. She is so awesome, after her baptism on
Saturday I was able to confirm her on Sunday. It was a great
experience and I was happy I was able to do that for her. Just
yesterday we had lunch with Nomura. She is so awesome! She figured one
of us would be transferring so she took us out to lunch and bombed our
bike baskets with tons of snacks and candy. I'm so excited I will get
to stay here in Saijo and keep working with the wonderful members
here. I know I am supposed to be here and I know the Lord will help me
as I strive to do all that I can. I love you all and thank you all for
your wonderful examples and support.

Love Elder Sherrill