Where to Begin?

Wow, what a week! I seriously don't even know where to begin. Well, to
start I'll just begin with today. Today we had Zone Training Meeting
or as most missionaries go by, ZTM. Since me and my companion are the
zone leaders we were responsible to direct and train our zone today
for about 3 hours. I was way nervous since I'm still a young
missionary (I am!) and we have many people who have been out longer
than me in the zone. It went really well though!! I definitely felt
the help of the spirit direct us on how to teach and now that I've
done it once I'm a lot less nervous for the next time. We talked about
a lot of things but some of the main points were revelation and
focusing on the temple with investigators. I love my zone though! It
is filled with some old missionaries, some new, but everyone is so
awesome and way willing to work hard so that is really good.


Being a Zone Leader is exactly how everyone explains it in the
mission, BUSY! This past week has easily been the busiest week of my
mission. Every spare second of time I had we were planning for
upcoming meetings, trainings, or calling people in the zone and
mission home to try and coordinate things. This last week as soon as I
got to Okinawa my companion and I started to prepare for MLC, it
stands for Mission Leadership Conference. Once a transfer at the
beginning all the zone leaders and sister training leaders go to
Fukuoka and meet with President and sister Egan as well as the
Assistants. We get training from them and also present some of the
needs and plans we have to overcome those needs in our individual
zone. It was so awesome!! One of the best conferences I have had on my
mission. I learned so much and best part, we got to have Egan Shimai's
cooking! She cooked for us all and yeah, let's just say I love
Japanese food but wow American food hits the spot! Along with that I
got to see two of my previous companions there!!! I got to see my
trainer Elder Harrell and my second companion Elder Colton! It was so
cool to see both of them.

Now to life in Okinawa, Americans, Americans, Americans! They are
everywhere! We have Kadena Air Force base right by us and there are
tons of church members that live there. So we have 2 wards (groups of
members) that are American and one Japanese ward. So on Sunday that
means we get 6 hours of church.. the first 3 hours is all in English
and then we got to 3 hours of Japanese church. You think it's hard to
stay awake in 3 hours? Try 6 straight hours.. haha, it was a little
difficult but I managed to stay attentive. The members here are way
fun and way supportive. I can already tell I'm going to love this area
and working here. My companion and I have been so busy planning and
catching planes and cars here and there that we haven't had much time
to dendo but we did find a new person, came back and taught them a
couple days later and got a new investigator! The Lord really is
blessing us as we are striving to follow the spirit and fulfill our
callings.

Being a Zone Leader I definitely get a different view of the mission
but I also had noticed how much the success of the mission still
depends just on our personal commitment to help others come unto
Christ. I'm sorry I'm running out of time because we have a huge
thanksgiving party planned today but my pday will be again in like 3
days or so, so yeah, you'll hear from me then ;) I love you all so
much! I'll try to get more pictures and share more stories. Take care
and eat lots of turkey, happy thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Sherrill