Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas was yesterday for me and it was amazing! However, since it is Christmas I got to skype my family! We also have lots of fun stuff planned to do so this email is going to be rather short (sorry I always say that haha). 

I love this Christmas season! It is seriously the best time of the year. I'll explain some things we got to do this week. We got to go volunteer at a home for disabled people and do service there and it was a huge humbling experience. They don't have much of anything and don't see visitors very often, even from family, and they were all so excited to see us be there. I have a couple pictures so I'll be sure to send those. I talked with this really cute old lady who wanted a beanie and a scarf for Christmas. She hadn't seen any of her family in over 30 years, it was really sad. But even with that she was the happiest little old lady I had ever met! 

This past week fly by just like every other. Except it was filled with lots more meal appointments and parties. The members in the American and Japanese wards have been super generous to us this Christmas and have given us enough food to probably last a couple months. Between the four of us we have like 9 jars of peanut butter. On Christmas morning I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a root beer, it was the best thing ever. 

Since I don't have time I will finish it up with our investigator Yaka. We finished teaching him all the lessons and he is doing way good! He has his baptismal interview and passed it with no problems, he is really looking forward to being baptized! His date was for the 31st but since it is the New Years lots of people will be out of town and not be able to come to it. So we pushed it back to the 7th so more people could come :) he was okay with pushing it back and now we are just setting up the details for his baptism! We are way pumped for him! 

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas! Christmas is such a great time to remember the birth of our Savior and how real our Father in Heavens love is for all of us. I love you all! Have a great New Years, see ya then! 

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

Stop Slouching

Hello Friends and Family!

I am alive and well! I survived last week, thankfully I got over my
sickness and was able to up to trainers training to get my new
missionary. His name is Elder Lyutsov and he is awesome! He is from
Bulgaria and is probably the most interesting person I have ever met.
His English is completely fluent and his Japanese is already better
than mine! One of his hobbies is to study languages and so far he
knows about 8! Also he is a recent convert as well. He was baptized
last year in April! So we have that in common which is kind of cool.
He is a very blunt person and so the very first time I met him the
first thing he said to me was "you're slouching, pick your head up". I
was like, "what"? Haha. Apparently Bulgarian people are very blunt and
speak their mind and from being with him for a couple days now I can
definitely say that is true haha, however! These past few days I have
had the best posture I have ever had so thanks to him I might come
back from my mission with good posture and better manners haha. But I
honestly love him and I'm so excited to be training him. He has
already taught me a lot these first couple days and I'm excited to
learn more from him!

So onto this week. I ran out of time so I don't have any time to
report on what's going on, sorry! Our investigator yaka is going to be
baptized on December 31st! We taught him all the commandments and he
has no problems so now we are just finishing up the lessons and
preparing for his baptism! I'm so stoked!

I can't believe it will be Christmas next week either! We have tons of
meals set up with members and lots of parties planned so this next
week should be a blast. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for you
all, sorry this is so short again! Maybe I'll get better at sending
good emails someday ;) but until then, I love you all! Thank you for
all your prayers and support! I am so grateful for them, I hope
everyone has a wonderful Christmas with their families. Remember the
reason for the season and keep the focus on Jesus Christ and helping
others! :)

Love,

Elder Sherrill

I'm Training!

Hello all!

So I've got some exciting news, this week was of course transfer week
and I'm staying as expected but, I'm going to be training! I'll be
getting a new missionary fresh from the MTC and I couldn't be more
stoked! Obviously I am a little nervous but I really am excited to get
the opportunity to train. Along with training this next transfer I
will still be a Zone Leader so that just means my life just got a
little busier! I didn't think that was possible haha, but regardless I
am way excited!

This past week was really fun and we had lots of things we did but I
unfortunately got pretty sick this morning so I'm going to go back to
the apartment and rest, therefore this email will be really short.
Since it is so short I will just share one scripture I really liked as
I was reading the New Testament this week. It is Mark 11:24 and it
goes, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." I really
do believe that Heavenly Father works a lot through our own righteous
desires. If we desire something, pray for that help, and trust that He
will give it to us according to our faith in Him than really anything
is possible.

This next transfer I'm going to have a blast as I go out with my new
missionary. New missionaries are always known for having super strong
faith so I know we will see some miracles this next transfer. I love
you all, I'm sorry this email is so short. Take care!

Love,

Elder Sherrill

Soccer, Junkai's, and Miracles!

What a week! Before I begin I just have to say something. I played soccer this past week. On a full sized field. With real goals. With actually good soccer players. And it was for an hour straight! It was so natsukashi I almost cried. I loved every minute of it!! It has been a really long time since I've played soccer like that and it just revitalized my love for the game. So how it works is every Saturday morning some people meet together and play soccer on the Kadena Air Force base. They are all Americans and in the military and about 20 of the guys are non members! We met a few cool guys and we're going to go next week to see if we can't build some friendships and invite them to some of our future activities. 

So there was a lot that happened this week so I'm going to have to run through it all pretty quick. To begin the week, we went out to a return appointment with this phillipino lady and she became a new investigator! Right now she said she's looking for a church and searching for God because the church she was raised in doesn't feel right to her. We taught the restoration and she loved it, we have plans to go back this next week so I'll keep you all updated! 

That same day on the way home we didn't have time to have lunch so we decided to eat at McDonald's. While we were eating there I noticed an old man across the restaurant eating by himself. He looked really lonely and I felt a prompting I should go talk to him, so that's what I did haha. As I approached him and asked to sit by him he kind of lit up and offered me a chair beside him. I talked with him for a few minutes and noticed he had a few interesting things on the table with him. They look like some random carnival props. When I asked for his name he said, "magician". I thought maybe I heard it wrong so I asked him to write it down and sure enough he writes down the word "magician". Before I could connect the dots he points at his magician props beside him and says to me, "I'm a magician". So I of course asked if I could see some of his tricks haha. He was more than happy to show me a few of them. Afterwards I invited him to church on Christmas and told him to call us if he ever needed help with anything. It really helped me realize that as a missionary you can share the love of the gospel in other ways than just knocking on doors! 

So this past week we also made a new investigator. His name is Yaka. The sisters found him a couple weeks ago and apparently he took the lessons like 30 years ago and got close to baptism but had a problem with smoking. But! He actually quit smoking all by himself a few years back! So we jointed a lesson with the sisters and they passed us to him and we set a baptismal date for December 17th.He is way cool! We have to really push this next week to get him all set for baptism but we think he can make it. He came to church these past 2 weeks and really enjoyed it so things are going good with him! We've got a couple other people we are working with too so hopefully we can set a couple more baptismal dates here soon. 

I love being in Okinawa! Having tons of American members and Japanese members is the best! It honestly feels like I am back in America though. When we go on base there is a bunch of Americans, normal American grocery stores, restaraunt like chili's, Taco Bell, subway, etc. It feels really weird sometimes! We definitely get spoiled here. 

One of the benefits of being a Zone Leader is you get to talk with all the missionaries in your zone and you are a lot more up to date and know about all the miracles going on with other missionaries. I have seen so many miracles since I have been here in Okinawa and I know that the Lord has a hand in His own work. This Christmas season is such a special time of year and I'm so excited to be spending it with the wonderful saints in Japan! I also have a talk I'm giving on Christmas Day so I'm excited for that as well. Life is going good here and I couldn't ask for a better area, members, or companion. I hope everyone is as excited as I am for the upcoming Christmas! It will be awesome! I love you all and hope you have a great week! See ya! 

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

Run Oki

Hey everyone! I know I just emailed a couple days ago so I will make this a short one. Plus there were a couple individual emails I haven't responded to yet.. (sorry! I will today). These past few days have been way good and everything is continuing to move forward. I still can't believe November is almost over though, it feels like it just started a couple days. One thing that I've definitely noticed is the more busy you are the faster the time goes by. Which makes me a little scared because this next month looks like it is going to be really busy, so in other words it will probably be 2017 before I know it.

Today since it's my first real pday in Okinawa we have a couple plans to go buy some stuff from this store called "Run Oki". Pretty much every single missionary that serves on Okinawa goes and buys a Run Oki shirt.. so looks like I've got to join the crowd! Haha. If I end up buying one I'll send you all some pictures. Other than that we don't have many plans for today. I wanted to go to the beach but it's raining so that won't really work out. I'm going to try and go next week so I can get some pictures for you all! Okinawa is way beautiful but I haven't really had time to stop and take pictures so I'll repent and send some next week if I can. 

This past Saturday I got to participate in a really cool experience. After a person is taught all the lessons and getting prepared for baptism they have a baptism interview. I was able to conduct my first baptismal interview with this lady named Kochi who lives up in Nago (northern area of Okinawa Island). It was such a great spiritual experience and she was seriously one of the most prepared people I have ever met. I was a little nervous to do so because you pretty much ultimately decide if this person is ready to be baptized or not, and if they aren't it would be very difficult to not pass them. Thankfully she was super prepared and had a strong testimony so it was no problem and she passed with flying colors. 

Well, I've got to run again! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. I'll try to fill you all in on my area more next week. I love Okinawa though! It's been a blast and I'm really excited for this holiday season! We have tons of plans and parties coming up, it will be awesome. I love you guys! See ya next week! 

Love, Elder Sherrill