Among the Best Missionaries in the World 🌏

Hello friends and family!

This last week was incredible. So much happened and I learned so much
that I feel like throwing it into a small email won't do it any
justice, but I'm going to try. This past week was probably the busiest
week I have had in the mission home since I've gotten here. We had 3
trainings in 4 days as well as companion exchanges, organizing all of
next weeks travel for zone conferences, and the list just goes on and
on. On Monday night after sitting down with Kaicho and having our
weekly report with him, we went through some of the things we needed
to prepare and our list seemed almost endless, and to make it even
more difficult, we needed to finish it all within the next two days!
On top of having a training to prepare and going on exchanges so I
wouldn't be with Elder Strickland (my companion) for most of the time.
Needless to say after the meeting we both looked at each other and
laughed because we knew we had our work cut out for us. But, just like
it has in the past and just like it always will, "it will all work
out". That is one of our mission president's favorite quotes that sits
in his office by the late President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley.

After the week began we started off with our MLC, which is probably
the training I get the most nervous for. But it ended up going really
well and all the needs the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders
brought to the meeting were all going to be answered by the training
Kaicho and us had prepared! During the meeting as more and more
missionaries talked about some of the struggles they had in their
individual zones Kaicho kept turning to us and smiling because he knew
that what we had prepared was going to address all their needs. Which
was just another testimony that Heavenly Father does lead and guide
this work. Elder Strickland and I were actually planning on training
something completely different but couldn't get confirmation on
teaching it so we went back and back and eventually ended up changing
our training. I'm thankful Heavenly Father helped us realize what was
best for His missionaries to hear at this time.

After the MLC we had companion exchanges and I got to go out and dendo
with Elder Jensen! He is a Zone Leader from Naha, Okinawa and one of
the most humble and faithful missionaries I've ever met! Before we
went out to proselyte we looked at each other and said, "we are going
to see miracles today, let's figure out where the Lord needs us to
be". And then boom just like that, after a spiritual planning session
we go out and the third person we contact is an 18 year old kid who
loves religion and has been studying it in school. We talk with him
for about 15 minutes on the street and then show him the "because of
Him" video. Afterwards, we felt impressed to invite him to tour our
church since we were probably only a minutes walk away. He accepted so
we gave him a tour of the church, showed him the baptismal font, and
had a little lesson with him on the spot and set up an appointment for
this Sunday! Way cool miracle.

As I kind of explained in last weeks email, this past week and the
upcoming week are having Zone conference as a mission. So this week we
got to stay here in Fukuoka for the first one which was comprised of
Fukuoka and the Nagasaki Zones. Then the next day we went up to
Hiroshima for the next Zone Conference which was comprised of the
Hiroshima and Yamaguchi Zones. It was so nice to be back in Hiroshima
again! I missed it so much and as soon as we stepped off the train I
was pumped to be back. The trainings went really well and all the
people that prepared did a wonderful job. One of my favorite things
was just the opportunity to meet with all the different missionaries
we have. We have so many with different backgrounds, family
situations, and are from different countries, but we are all united by
our desire to serve and help the amazing people in Japan. Hearing of
their comments and testimonies really strengthened my own testimony of
being a missionary and the difference we can make. President Egan
isn't wrong when he says we really are among the best missionaries in
the world. This next week we get to meet with the other half of the
mission as we go to Kagoshima and Okinawa for the remainder of the
trainings and as you can imagine I am pretty excited for it.

Being a missionary is a huge blessing and probably one I won't fully
appreciate until I'm not one anymore. However, I've still got time and
there is lots of work to be done! So, I'm excited to go out and see
the success Heavenly Father wants to bless us with. To end I'd like to
just share a quick quote I heard this week that really stuck with me
about being diligent. I don't know who said it, or who it was quoted
from but it was amazing. It was, "Pray as if everything depends on the
Lord, then work as if everything depends on you." Heavenly Father
wants to bless us but most of the time it is predicated upon our own
willingness to go out and put the effort and faith in. I love you all,
thanks for always reading these emails and supporting me!

Love,

Elder Sherrill