Another day in 日本!

Yuichi's Baptism

Yuichi's baptismal program

Jason's comfy futon

A tissue box with Jason's name on it

Sushi last pday

All the missionaries in Jason's branch

One month down since I have been in Japan! Wow, I never thought it would have gone that fast! It kind of scares me for how fast the rest of my mission will go by because people say it just goes faster and faster the longer you are out. This week was amazing and we had a baptism! One of our investigators Yuichi was set to be baptized this
coming Saturday but we felt he was ready last week so we called him and he was more than happy to move his date up! He met the missionaries for the first time about 2 years ago. Since then he has been meeting with them off and on but coming to church every Sunday. About a week or two before I came to Saijo he came up to my trainer
and his old companion and asked "where is my spirit? I want to feel it". So they began to meet with him a couple times a week and as they extended commitments they saw a huge change in him and even just being here for the latter end of it I have seen him change so much. It is truly beautiful to see the change the Gospel brings to people's
life's. After he was baptized and getting changed into his normal clothes he was talking with my trainer, Elder Harrell (he baptized him) and my trainer asked him how he felt. Yuichi said to him, "I feel light, there has been a lot of mistakes I have made in my life and I just feel light, like they have been lifted off of me". Seriously so amazing!

It made me think of how I felt after my baptism and I remember I felt the same way. That next day on Sunday when he was confirmed I was thinking a little more about it I remember how right after I got baptized people would sometimes say to me, "you are so lucky to have just gotten baptized, you are so clean!" Right as that thought come to me I thought of the sacrament. Each week every member of the church whether they were baptized the day previous or 30 years ago has the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and when they do so they renew
those same covenants that are made at baptism. They have the same opportunity to feel cleansed again through the sacrament. So as I took the sacrament I realized the experience I have when doing so can be the same as when I was baptized. It is so important to really focus on the sacrament. It is such a huge blessing in my life to be able to have that each week to covenant with God that I will follow his son Jesus Christ and always remember him.

Moving onto the rest of this week it was pretty normal except we received training from the AP's and it was amazing! During the training they were focusing on Christ like attributes among a couple other things and something one of the AP's said really stuck out to me. It was, "we can work on ourselves by focusing on others".
Throughout the training he said many people focus on just themselves and how they can develop this attribute more or that attribute more. But he said as we instead turn outwards and focus on other people, on their needs, on what we can do to help them we will be working on ourselves without even knowing it! I really loved that and it is something I am going to try and do more of.

At training we also had the opportunity to have interviews with President Egan and during the interview I learned so much. We talked about consecrating ourselves as missionaries and devoting all of our time and strength while we are serving to him. He shared two great scriptures in the New Testament I would like to share with you all. The first was Matthew 10:39, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." The second is similar and it is found in Luke 9:24, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. After we read these together he looked at me and asked me what I thought they meant. I couldn't help but begin to cry as I said to him that we must not "save our lives" by being selfish because we will have lived a life only for ourselves and not serving our fellow brothers and sisters. But those that "lose their life" for Him. Those that devote their lives to serving Jesus Christ will be saved, they will give service to all those around them. They will pattern their lives after the savior and they will have lived a life worth living.

I love this Gospel so much and I love the people here in Japan. I am learning so much and I know all that I am going through and experiencing is to help mold me into the person God wants me to be. I hope everyone has an awesome and safe week! I miss you all!

Love, Sherrill 長老

Hey everyone!

So I know I just had my pday a couple days ago but they are getting us
back on the schedule of having them every Monday that's why we are
having it. So from now on I will have them every Monday with the
exception of a few weeks here and there but I will let you all know
about that if it comes up. I don't have much to write about so it will
be kind of short but I do have a funny story!

So for New Year's Day after we had our p-day (it ends at 6pm) then we
went out to dendo some more! Which I'm sorry if I haven't explained
dendo yet, it means missionary work so pretty much like knocking on
doors or talking to people on the street about the gospel. During our
P-day the senior missionaries in our area invited us over for lunch
and we hung out there and ate food for 3 and a half hours. I had a lot
of good food that I liked such as okonomiyaki and gyoza. But then I
had this stuff called mochi which is like pounded white rice and it
tasted pretty nasty haha thankfully they said I didn't need to finish
it. So yeah we did that on New Year's Day and then during dendo we
knocked on this one mans home who was having a huge party and him and
his wife came out. We started to talk to them and in the middle of our
conversation she looks at me and says "otokomae!". So I look at my
trainer all confused as she keeps saying it and he starts to laugh and
says it means "handsome man". (Fyi these people are about in their
60's). After I kind of laugh she goes inside and grabs like half the
party and brings them to the front door! So about 15 or so people come
out, a bunch of kids, teenagers, and other people and just look at me
and are like "oooh umai!" Or other Japanese words that I don't know,
later my trainer told me it was like words of agreement. After that
awkward little experience we kept talking to him and he invites us in
but we could tell they had been drinking and we didn't think it was
the best idea so we decline. Then I said that I can only speak a
little Japanese so it wouldn't be that fun anyways and he accidentally
heard "I can only drink a little sake" so that was pretty funny. We
left and he said to come visit him anytime so we are going to see him
later this week or next week.

Later that night we met another nice lady that gave us candy and the
following day we talked to a man who had met with missionaries 30
years ago! He enjoyed talking to us but said he wasn't interested in
our message. Right as we were about to leave he ran in and gave us
some candy too! We were excited until we realized he gave us coffee
jello haha. So needless to say we didn't eat that but we still
appreciated the gesture. On Saturdays we do an Eikaiwa class and it's
so much fun! I can't remember if I have talked about it or not but it
is one of my favorites things we do. It is just an English class we
teach for free here and the people always love it. We play games and
are able to get to know people in the area a lot better.

So that is about it for these past couple days! One thing me and my
companion have been focusing on is being bold with our commitments and
when we talk to people. I have seen already the impact it has had on
the people we talk to when we boldly testify to them. I believe they
truly do recognize us as disciples of Christ. I can't wait for my
Japanese to improve so I can become a better teacher and be able to
relate to people here better. But until then I have been focusing on
having a love for them and looking for ways to serve them and show
them my love even if it is as simple as smiling at them on the street.
I love being on a mission and I can't wait to see all the miracles I
know are waiting for me in Saijo! I love you all!

Love, Elder Sherrill

Over 1,000 views!!

Elder Sherrill's blog went over 1,000 views this week!  Thank you to all who show interest and support him in his missionary efforts in Japan.

Happy New Years!!

At Shabu Shabu with District 

Opening gift from Secret Santa

A bird pooped on him! :-)

Sweet ride... with HUGE basket!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a fun time celebrating New Years. This second week has been a lot of fun and I have a lot to talk about again haha. First thing first I forgot to tell everyone about something I got to do last week; I got to go to a Buddhist funeral which was really interesting. They have a lot of little ritual things they do throughout it and it was kind of interesting to see how different it was than normal funerals I am used to in America. So I had Christmas with my District! It was a lot of fun! After emailing we all went to the store and did secret Santa for each other. I got these sweet pink night shades that you will see a picture of in my email after this. Then after we exchanged gifts Egan Kaicho gave us permission as a mission to watch a Disney movie if we wanted to so we all watched Frozen! All the other missionaries thought it was weird because they were not used to seeing movies but I have only been out for like a couple months so I didn't think it was all that weird. That following Monday I had a really good experience and a really kind of "crappy" one too. As we were dendo-ing we walked by this tree and I felt something fall on my shoulder and I figured it was like an acorn or something and as I looked up I saw a bird fly away and then I looked at my shoulder and saw a nice little pile of bird poop on my shoulder.. Yeah, so that was kind of funny haha I had my companion take a picture so you guys will be able to see that as well. But, after I got cleaned up we went and knocked on some doors in the local neighborhood and didn't have much success till our very last house. We met this lady who was so nice and so open to hearing our message. We shared a Book of Mormon with her and she had told us she would read and call us if she would like to know more. Right before we left she told us to wait and ran inside of her house and grabbed us some chocolates and hand warmers! She was so nice and it made my day because before that we were just getting kekko'd which just means like "no thanks" at all the doors. Later that day we had dinner over at the missionary couples home and they had lots of Japanese food for us. They are both Nihonjin and so awesome! While I was there I tried nato, the famous Japanese food. It was probably one of the worst things I have ever eaten. It is like these weird fermented beans. Then after that I tried some other stuff, I think it was like fried tofu and this one gelatin like meal. I didn't like those either haha. But they did have curry and sushi so I just ate those and both of those are way good. That next day we went out to an Indian Curry place as a district and it was so good! I am really liking most of the food here in Japan. Especially the candy! The candy here is way good. On Christmas we went to Shabu Shabu which is a place where they put hot water in front of you and a bunch of different uncooked meats and you cook the meat yourself then eat it over rice with soy sauce. It was probably my favorite meal I have had so far. So more on this week we were able to go visit less actives on Wednesday with a member in the branch and it was a great experience! We got to know him a lot better (his name is Kanchika) as well as some people that are struggling in the branch that hopefully we can begin to help. Afterwards he bought us McDonald's too and surprisingly it was better than the McDonald's in America! But still not that great haha. To finish up I want to talk a little bit about the area here and members. This area of Saijo is known for seeing a lot of miracles and I know I am going to see some while I serve here. Just 2 and half years ago this area had 2 members and no missionaries here. Then they brought in a couple missionaries and built it from a group to just becoming a branch! They have had 26 recent converts that have been baptized in the last 2 years and just this last Sunday at church we had just over 40 people there! We have been promised by a General Authority that Saijo will become a ward someday and to do that we need at least 80 members. I really hope before I leave my mission Saijo can become a ward, there are so many prepare people that live here. We are teaching two people right now mainly and the first one is Yuichi and he is set to be baptized on January 16th! He is an older man in his 50's and is a lot of fun. I love meeting with him and teaching him even though I can barely understand his Japanese haha. Our next main investigator is a man from Iran who teaches English here and he has been visiting with the missionaries for a while and is so ready to be baptized! He comes to church every Sunday and is practically a member already. He wasn't able to be baptized yet for some confidential reasons but I believe he will be baptized within the next month or two. We teach him in English which is a nice break from being confused all the time, which is a plus haha. So that is about all for this week! I miss everyone but am very excited to be serving in this area! I know I will see miracles while I am serving here and I am so grateful I have been entrusted to be a missionary in Saijo. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve and I know I am becoming more Christlike each day as I give my all to the people here in Japan. Till next week! Love, Elder Sherrill

I'm in Japan!

Christmas party at the Saijo Branch

Elder Sherrill, President Egan and Sister Egan

Hiroshima Zone

Elder Sherrill and his trainer Elder Harrell 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I have made it to Japan! It is so amazing here! So first off the mission president changed my p-day to today (Friday, Christmas) so that is why it has been so long since I have been able to email haha sorry about that. My next P-day will be Friday too because that is New Years here and it is a pretty big holiday for Japan. But then after that it will go back to being Monday so thats just a little heads up.

Anyways! I am in Japan! I can hardly believe it! There has been so much that has happened since my last P-day. I don't have much time to email but I will try and fit it all in and talk about as much of it as I can. So, our last few days in the MTC were crazy busy. We were all saying bye to our teachers which was actually a lot harder than I thought it would have been. We all grew so class as a District together and it was definitely hard to leave all of them. We took some fun pictures together though and those will follow shortly haha. Our last night in the MTC we said goodbye to everyone and then woke up really early to get on buses to go up to SLC to catch our flight. As we go up to SLC it starts to snow! It was snowing pretty good and when we got to the airport all the elders had to unload the bags and we were in the middle of a snowstorm so after we finished (it took about 30 minutes) all of our heads were white because the snow stuck to it and we were all drenched from either the snow or sweat, one of the two haha.

After all that we head to LA on our flight and it still didn't seem real being away from the MTC. But, it got real pretty fast after we arrived in LA and got on our plane to Tokyo. We get on the plane and people start speaking Japanese to us and there were tons of Japanese people and I was surprised to see a bunch of Nihonjin then I kind of think to myself no duh there are lots of them on the plane, I am going to Japan afterall haha. So that is when it felt pretty real for me. After we get to Tokyo it was just crazy because all these new missionaries are in one of the biggest airports in the world and we can't even read to figure out where to go. Luckily, there is some lady who can kind of speak english and she helped us to where we should go. We then get on our flight to Fukuoka and finally get to see our mission president! We were all excited to see them. After we meet them at the airport we head back to the mission home and kind of meet all the staff and get to know each other. Then we all go to bed because the very next day we were told we were going to get to do some missionary work!

That next day we take pictures in front of the Temple and then we go out around the streets of Fukuoka and have to opportunity to dendo for the first time! It was pretty terrifying but also way awesome! We talked to quite a few people and even handed out a Book of Mormon! After that we go back to the mission home and have interviews and it was so nice to be able to get to know my mission president a little better. His name is President Egan and he is amazing, he is a very determined and motivated mission president. I know our mission will be very successful as he helps us. His wife Sister Egan is so nice and just made us all feel loved the second we got off the plane. I am really excited to be serving with them for the next two years. 

After interviews we all finally got to figure out where we are going!!!! I was almost more nervous for this part than when I opened my mission call haha. We all gathered in his office and he went one by one and told us the area where we would serve and who our trainer would be. When it finally came around to me I got called to serve in Saijo! I had never heard of it before but I was just so ready to go and to see everything it had to offer. It is up near Hiroshima and just about a 40 minute bus ride from it. After that I got to see who my trainer would be and his name is Elder Harrell! I was so excited to just get to my area and see my trainer and get to know my area. We all headed to bed because the next day some of us where getting on flights and I was getting on a bus for 4 hours to go up to Hiroshima to meet my trainer.

After I meet my trainer we get to know each other and he is a way cool guy. He is really focused and I can tell one of the hardest workers in the mission. President Egan told me he is one of the hardest working missionaries he has so I knew I would get a great trainer. So we get on a train to Saijo and arrive at our apartment. Before I unpack or anything we go straight into planning and then go out that night to dendo! That first day was pretty rough, it finally kind of hit me that I am going to be in Japan for the next two years and I don't know Japanese and it is pretty cold up here (in Saijo) and there are going to be a lot of people that won't accept our message. Finally, after I settled in for a second though I really got excited to go out and dendo and now I really love it! Especially at night because that is when people are actually home. There are a lot of people that don't want anything to do with our message but we have found about 4 people this week and made return appointments with them! It is always so exciting finding someone who is interested and we get a chance to talk to them a little bit.

In the MTC I thought my Japanese wasn't to bad but boy did the Lord humble me when I got to Japan. I feel like I barely even know this language! I have learned a lot this first week but I still feel like I know nothing. During our dendo I usually just introduce us and our message and then my companion takes it from there and sometimes I will pitch in. That is kind of the same for lessons. I just bare my testimony at parts and explain some real simple doctrine but thats about the extent of what I can do right now haha. So fastforward to first day in church I had to introduce my self and bear my testimony and it was pretty scary but I think it didn't go to bad. I seriously love this branch and all the members. I can barely talk with them but I can just feel their love and their sincerity and I am really looking forward to working with them for the next little bit of time we have together. 

There was lot that happened this week but I don't really have anytime to explain much of it. I will try to explain more in next weeks email but I love Japan! It is so awesome here and the people are great. I am excited to be here for the next two years and I am really excited for my Japanese to improve haha. I love this work that I am doing and I am so happy I can serve in this area of the Lord's vineyard. I love you all and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Sherrill

Four more days till 日本!

Konnichiwa minasan! So first off, we all got our flight plans last week! Here is what my schedule looks like for Monday morning.

SLC > LAX 8:35 am - 9:36 am.  Delta Airlines Flight #1414
1 hour layover in LAX
LAX > Tokyo 10:50 am (Dec 14th) - 3:45 pm (Dec 15th) Delta Airlines Flight #283
2 hour layover in Tokyo
Tokyo > Fukuoka 5:55 pm - 8:10 pm.  All Nippon Flight #2145

I am so excited to finally go to Japan! I am also terribly nervous though. I feel like I am going to step off the plane and not understand a single word anyone is saying. Even though that will most likely happen I heard the learning curve you have when you first get to the field is crazy. Everyone says you learn so much the first couple transfers so I am excited to see how fast I improve. Also I can't wait to meet my mission president and his wife! In every mission there is a mission home where the mission president and his wife live at. It is usually where a couple office workers are too and is kind of like the "headquarters" for the mission for lack of a better term. Anyways most mission homes are just a building inside the mission boundaries but the Fukuoka mission home is actually beneath the Fukuoka Temple! How cool is that?! I am excited we get to stay there for a couple days when we first get to Japan. That is also when I will find out who my trainer will be and what area I will be serving in!

This week there wasn't to much that happened outside the ordinary. We are finishing up teaching all of our "investigators" and Nozomi San is actually set to get baptized today! It has been a way cool experience
to get to teach our teachers everyday to prepare for when we do it for real in Japan. We had our very last Skype TRC last night and it went amazing! We really connected with the volunteer and talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ. As I was studying for our lesson I was searching for some scriptures that talked about the atonement and I found a couple I really liked and I want to share them with you guys. The first is Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". Then the next is, 
1 Corinthians 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive". I love both of these! The atonement of Jesus Christ is so beautiful and it truly shows how much love our Savior has
for each one of us.

I'm sorry my email isn't very long but is is my last P-day here in the MTC so I have to start packing as much I can to prepare for Monday. I love this opportunity I get to serve the wonderful people of Japan. Thank you again for all the love and support! The next email you all get from me will be from Japan! 愛してます!

Love, Sherrill 長老

So close to Japan!

Black and White picture of the Provo Temple

New name tag!

The whole zone after a walk to the temple

Provo Temple

Laundry with the zone on P-Day

Christmas Lights at the MTC

Hey everyone! My time here at the MTC is almost over! We get our flight plans tomorrow and our whole district is so excited. We have about 10 days left! So moving on to this week.. Not going to lie, this past week has been pretty rough. There was a lot of ups and downs.

To start off positive though, last week for Thanksgiving we got to hear from an Apostle! Dallin H Oaks came and talked to us. He gave us a little mini history lesson on thanksgiving but the main part I really liked about his visit was his family that did a few special musical numbers for us and they were all so amazing. His daughter, Jenny Oaks Baker performed for us and so did a few of his grandchildren. Later that day we got to participate in the service project I mentioned in last weeks email and it was so much fun! After we had all finished, we had made a total of over 357,000 meals!

On Sunday I was assigned to teach a lesson for our district, the topic was The Book of Mormon. I was a little hesitant on giving the lesson because I'm always so nervous before teaching a lesson especially to a big group. However, right after the lesson starts I end up loving it and always run out of time and wish I had more time to teach haha. I was able to share some personal experiences with the Book of Mormon and I think the lesson went really well. I also shared a short video of Elder Hollands talk titled, "Joseph and Hyrum's testimony of the Book of Mormon". It is such a powerful video that testifies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I would like to invite all of you to see it!

On Monday we taught Akiho San as usual and the lesson went fantastic! It was only our second lesson with her but as we were trying to commit her to read the Book of Mormon she talked about how she didn't understand the importance of it. I relayed my experience about feeling the same way as a convert when I first heard about the Book of Mormon. I then told her that as I began to read with faith I felt peace and guidance enter my life. I bore testimony to her that the Book of Mormon could help her and shared the scripture Ether 12:6 that she will "receive no witness until after the trial of her faith". I believe my teachings really struck home with her because after I had
finished talking she had agreed to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and pray to know whether or not what she was reading was true! I love to teach and see our investigators progress. It was probably the best lesson I have taught so far in the MTC!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful and much didn't change from our regular schedule of studying. Although on Wednesday night we did have Skype TRC again and this was probably the worst lesson we have
taught so far in the MTC, which was definitely an abrupt switch from Monday. It was pretty rough and definitely didn't go as well as previous TRC lessons. Which was really surprising because we usually always have a positive experience when we teach TRC. We taught our lesson to an older lady who is currently living in Tokyo. Her name was Kyoko San and throughout the lesson I think the reason why we struggled so much was because we didn't build a strong relationship with her in the beginning. That made it hard to let the spirit help and guide us throughout the course of the lesson. Also she spoke really fast and a lot in "old" Japanese so there were quite a few words we didn't quite understand or were slightly changed so that didn't help either haha. Overall though I did feel like I learned a lot from the lesson. In order to properly teach someone you must first build a solid relationship with them and then the spirit can guide you as you teach them.

Last thing I will end with is the importance of relying on Heavenly Father. Throughout this week I have been having a hard time with putting the language together in the correct grammatical format so that it makes sense. Right now I am speaking like caveman Japanese my teachers like to call it because I know all the vocabulary but I just jumble it up in the sentence and use the wrong particles so sometimes it won't make to much sense. Yesterday, Babcock Shimai was coaching me and told me I think about it to hard and wouldn't let the Nihongo just flow through me like I should be doing. She picked up my Japanese Book of Mormon set it on my desk in front of me and told me to testify to her without thinking so much and focusing on the language. Trying as hard as I could I didn't stress about the language and just tried saying all I could say. To my surprise I started using a grammar structure I had never even used before and the Nihongo flowed smoothly as I testified of the Book of Mormon to her for a few minutes.
Afterwards she looked at me with a smirk and said she knew I could do it. Then she told me that I need to have that same confidence and implement that kind of power in my lessons and not worry so much about the language, which is definitely something I need to work on.

Sorry the email came so much later than usual today! I had a pretty busy day but it was amazing. I was able to go to the temple and do an endowment session for a family name for the first time! It was a great experience. I am learning so much here in the MTC and it truly is great to feel the spirit constantly. I love this church and am so
grateful for the many blessings that Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I love you all and hope everyone has a good week!

Sherrill 長老