Hello from Fukuoka!

The Assistants to the President 

Well I have a little bit of news for everyone, I transferred up to Fukuoka this week! Transfers still aren't for about a week or so but I was emergency transferred up here to get trained on my new position in the mission. I have been called to work in the Mission Home as an Assistant to the President. It sounds really fancy but really it just means I develop trainings for the mission and go around giving advice, looking for ways the mission can improve, and serving others. I was pretty nervous when the call was extended to me because I felt like there was much stepping up to be done on my part, however just like before I know the Lord is always mindful of us and always willing to help us and qualify us wherever we have been called to labor. 

View from new apartment!

Our mission home is located directly beneath the Fukuoka Temple. So not only do I get to see the temple daily now, I pretty much get to live and work right beneath it! Along with being so close to the temple as an a Assistant you get to work very closely with President and sister Egan which is probably what I am most excited about. They are the two hardest working missionaries in the mission. The experience and knowledge they have are just unparalleled. I feel like every time I sit down with them there is something new I learn. So needless to say I'm excited to work with them. Right now my current companion is Elder Strickland, who will be moving from the Junior AP (Assistant to the President) to the Senior AP as I finish my training. The current Senior AP and the one training me right now is none other than my beloved old companion Elder Colton! I was so excited when I found out I would get to work with him closely and be his companion as well for a couple more weeks until he transfers out somewhere in the mission field.

Also, some of you may be wondering why I am emailing on Saturday instead of Monday and that is because all the elders that work in Honbu (the mission home) have  P-day on Saturday instead of Monday. So you can expect emails from me on this day in the future. Today for our P-Day we don't have much planned other than a couple lessons and a couple errands we need to run. We just recently started the whole transfer process in which we as Assistants and President Egan sit down and discuss the mission and all the missionaries. We then counsel and pray about which missionaries to move where and for who to do what. We have been doing it for the past couple of days now and it has been such an interesting and strengthening spiritual experience. Deciding transfers not only effects the missionaries but it affects the people in that area they have been called to serve. So in other words, it's kind of a big deal. However, as AP's we do not make any of the final decisions, we just counsel and pray with President Egan and he is the one who makes the decisions. Today we will be using a majority of our time to finish up the transfer process for this next transfer. 

I was a little sad to leave Okinawa since I had been there so long but I am beyond excited for this new call to work in Fukuoka. All the lessons I learn here I know will help prepare me for so many things that lay ahead. Being called here was such a humbling experience and I know I will have to rely on my Heavenly Father more than every before as I seek to serve others and do His will. One scripture I really liked and kept sticking out to me this past week is found in 2 Timothy 1:7, it reads, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Even though I feel a little inadequate for the calling I have before me, I know Heavenly Father will help me become so much of a better missionary and person than I could ever become without Him. For His love and mercy I am so grateful. 

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week! 

Elder Sherrill 

Okinawa Missionary Zone P-Day

The Office Elders in the Honbu (Mission Home)

Zone Leader Tradition Picture

The Prince of Peace

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Sunday! 

Yesterday for Easter we were able to go to a dinner with an American family on the Air Force Base. When they invited us over they encouraged us to bring any of our Japanese investigators even though they couldn't speak any Japanese (just to help them have an Easter experience). It went really well! We invited our investigator Yuudai and a recent convert who is also 19 came along too and they both really liked it. It was a little fun because for sharing the message we had to hop in and out of Japanese for the investigator but then also for the family. Sister Jensen (the mother of the family) bore her testimony on Jesus Christ being the light of the world and how he helps us when we are in dark places and while we translated it, it seemed to have really resonated with Yuudai. He also invited his girlfriend who just moved to Fukuoka to visit with the missionaries too! He isn't even a member yet and is already doing missionary work haha. 

This past week has involved lots of training. Lots of training received from mission leaders and I also had the opportunity to give some of it as well. On Friday we had our Zone Conference so we received training from the Mission President and his wife as well as from the AP's. The training Elder Barker and I gave went fairly well (or so we think, you might have to ask someone who watched it). We discussed how we could determine Investigators needs and help best overcome them. We had a demonstration we did which involved tying our Mission President up so we all thought that was pretty fun. The next day on Saturday we have interviews with our Mission President and I was able to train for that as well and I focused my training on the Book of Mormon. I shared some personal experiences I have had with the Book of a Mormon and how my thoughts were concerning it as an investigator and now as a missionary. I'm really thankful I had the blessing to be introduced to this gospel right before a mission because I feel like it helps me as I try and teach/relate to investigators. I know it is true. It is the foundation of my testimony that Jesus Christ lives and loves us.

With it being the Easter Season and all, I wanted to share a video that the church has recently released. It is titled the Prince of Peace (one of the various titles Jesus Christ holds). In the video it talks about how in this life we can receive peace from the Savior Jesus Christ. Throughout my mission and even before hand I have always drawn from the peace that Jesus Christ so freely offers. I'm still very young and haven't experienced very much in life yet but I do know that we all struggle and we all have difficulties. Jesus Christ is there to help you, He wants to. To end off I'd like to share one of my favorite scriptures found in John, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I love the Easter season! I hope you all had a great time with family and enjoy this upcoming week! 

Easter Video - https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_SU_9-4-2017_dMIS_fMORG_xLIDyL1-A_

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

Conference Weekend

This past week for all of us missionaries and members in Japan we had the opportunity to watch the church's General Conference. For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a bi-annual conference in which all members of the church (and non members) are invited to watch and listen to the leaders of the church. It is presided over by the Prophet, President Monson. As well as having the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with a host of other church leaders. As you can  imagine it is an amazing opportunity to watch this conference and hear from the mouth of Prophets and Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

There were a couple talks I really enjoyed and I'll add them to the bottom so you guys can give them a look if you'd like! This week other than having conference there wasn't a whole lot that happened out of the ordinary. Elder Barker and I had to plan for an upcoming training we have this week and then we also went out to have missionary exchanges in an area a little south of us. We went there and my companion for the day was Elder Stucki, since he is injured we had to stay at the church all day, but fortunately they had set up some lessons for us to teach! It went really well too because a couple of the people we taught became new investigators, then there was this one guy who went off on how the whole world is brainwashed including us and him so that was a pretty funny lesson haha. 

Our main investigator right now, Yuudai is doing pretty good. We met with him just last night, gave him a church tour and focused especially on the baptismal font and he chapel. He really liked it, and actually this next week he is coming to a meal for Easter Sunday with an American family so that will be way cool. His English isn't to bad and he is excited to practice with more Americans. 

But anyways, we are about to go to a castle down in Naha today so I don't have much time. One thing I would like to share though before I end this is just how grateful I am for modern day Prophets and Apostles. We are so blessed to be able to hear from them so often. They are so guided with the counsel they give us. I know as we prayerfully consider the things they tell us we can become more and more like our perfect example, Jesus Christ. I know He lives and He loves us all. 

Have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

PS, here are a couple of the talks I enjoyed! Please give me a read! 

Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/perfect-love-casteth-out-fear?lang=eng

Walk With Me - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/walk-with-me?lang=eng

The Greatest Among You - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/the-greatest-among-you?lang=eng

The Beautiful Island of Okinawa

The weather has started to "warm up"! Kind of hard to say that since it never really got cold here haha. However the weather is absolutely beautiful here! Sometimes when we are out proselyting and knocking on doors it almost feels like I'm on vacation with the great weather, ocean breeze, and the view of palm trees/sea in the distance. I truly am blessed to have this opportunity to serve here in Okinawa. 

This past week was yet another amazing one! Our zone has started to turn around and see a lot more success which is awesome. My companion elder Woodhouse and I are have started to really work together well which I'm grateful for, it's always nice to have a companion that works hard and you get along with. 

Over the course of this last week we found a couple new people that seem pretty prepared to hear the message of the gospel which is really exciting. One of our strongest investigators though just moved up to Tokyo for college (he was 19) which was a real bummer. However we met up with his friend who is also 19, became good friends with him too and are now teaching him! He doesn't leave until next year but has a really busy schedule so hopefully we can work some things out. 

Other than a few lessons we had a couple service activities which was way fun! For any of you that don't know, doing service is Japan is pretty hard to come by so we don't really get the chance very often. However, we got to help one member move into a new house, and help another member with some yard work out on their Ocean view property. So needless to say it was a really good time. Elder Barker and I had the task of cutting down a bunch of little trees by his house obstructing his view of the ocean. His chainsaw ended up breaking before we even used it so we had to use little hand saws the whole time but we had a fun time. 

Overall the week went really well, I am excited for Easter coming up and for the chance to watch General Conference next week! The mission is such a great time to learn and grow. We have a few trainings coming up which might be a little stressful but I'm excited for all the things I will learn! I hope everyone enjoyed Conference and had a great week! Love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

New Transfer, New Hope

As much fun as all my previous companions have been, I always love starting off a new transfer. Each transfer is a six week cycle and with it comes lots of new experiences and opportunities to better ourselves. This transfer there was lots of change to our zone and our apartment and for that I am excited! I love my new companion, Elder Woodhouse. He is one of the most humble and spiritually sensitive elders I have met. My new Zone Leader companion Elder Barker is a stud, he is a little older than me Mission wise so I'm excited to work with another experienced leader and learn lots from him as well.

As usual for us down here in Okinawa this first week we get to fly up to Fukuoka for our M.L.C. (Mission Leadership Council). I get really excited every transfer for the opportunity we have to learn from other mission leaders as well as our Mission President and his wife. This transfer I feel like there will be a large focus on proselyting  and different effective ways to do it, so Elder Barker and I have come up with lots of fun ideas for our Zone to make sure we are using our talents as we share the gospel. We are both really pumped for this transfer! 

Since we have to catch an early flight out of Naha up to Fukuoka I'm going to make this email rather short, but before I end I wanted to talk about a recent project I have started with the Book of Mormon. I have heard this idea from other missionaries, mission leaders, and even some church leaders but it wasn't until recently I decided to begin. Basically what it is, is you have a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon and you begin reading it with a Christ-like attribute in mind. I chose charity and what you do is read the Book of Mormon and underline/highlight anything you think has to do with charity. With the intention obviously to learn from the scriptures how to be more charitable. So far it has been so amazing to study the Book of Mormon like this. Not only are we reading it together as an apartment but I'm also reading it for a while in personal study and so lately I have been getting at least a solid hour of Book of Mormon study a day! The more I read it the more I just don't want to put it down. I know for a fact that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, I love reading it. 

That's about it for this week! My commitment for this week will be the same as President Monson's a few years back, "if you haven't read the Book of Mormon, read it". I love you guys! 

Love, 

Elder Sherrill 

Another 6 Weeks in Okinawa!

                            The non beach side of Okinawa

Mizukawa 長老 the birthday boy!

                  Elder Conders last eikaiwa!

Elder Sherrill and Nakama

We received our transfer calls and I am staying! I am so excited to stay here in Okinawa. There are lots of changes going on in the zone too so I'm excited for the whole change our zone will make. My new actual companion is Elder Woodhouse, I know nothing about him but he is a pretty young missionary so I'm excited to meet him and work with him. Since my Zone Leader companion will be going home, I am getting a new Zone Leader companion and that is Elder Barker!! None of you know who he is, but he is one of my good mission friends who actually served with me for a couple transfers up in Hiroshima! I'll be training him as a Zone Leader since it will be his first transfer as one, however I am expecting to learn a lot from him in return because he is a stud of a missionary! On top of being Zone Leader this next transfer I will also be the District Leader which will be pretty fun, so I'll keep you updated on how that goes haha.

This last week was pretty good and we had lots of stuff going on. I probably won't make this email too long though because we have a lot planned since it is Elder Conder' s last P-Day in the mission and he wants to go out with a really fun day. Today we have a game of golf and a really cool hike planned. But anyways, onto what actually happened this last week!

To begin the week off we went out to a really far area to do LARC Adventures again. However this time we just biked out there because Elder Foust (Senior missionary) wasn't in town. The day went really well, we were able to meet a couple less actives and members that don't get visited very often. The ride back home had a little unexpected turn though.. about 2 minutes into our solid 45 minute ride I hear a loud pop and my bike makes some bad noises. I look down at my rear bike tire and my derailer (the thing that shifts the gears) had hit the spokes on my rim somehow, and with the speed of my spokes hitting it, ripped my whole derailer off of my bike. So yeah, not very good haha. I got a good picture right afterwards that shows just how long it took to get home (2 hour walk with some strategic coasting down hills). 

Later on in the week we had lots of other things pop up but I don't have to much time left. This week was really good though and I am really excited for this next transfer. I think all the changes will be really good for everyone and for our investigators. I'll be sure to report more about it next week. :)  I love you guys! Sorry it is so short, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Sherrill

                     The missionary hobbits

Loving Life in Beautiful Okinawa

This past week FLEW by! It seemed like one of the fastest weeks of my mission. It was filled with so many experiences I'm not sure how I managed to pack it into just one week. Since we just recently became a three man companionship it was a little interesting as the week began but we sure had a lot of fun! I love the other two elders I am with and since I already know them it wasn't to awkward joining their companionship. Plus, joining with another companionship makes both of your teaching pools become one so you teach a lot more which is always a bonus! Teaching lessons is what being a missionary is all about, I wish I could just teach lessons back to back all day, every day. But until then, we still have good ol' proselyting which is always a great time because of all the wonderful and interesting people you meet.

To begin the week we had splits with some other missionaries in a neighboring area and I had the chance to go with two great elders, Elder Roncal and Elder Mizukawa. During our split we taught 2 lessons to a couple of new investigators and it was just so cool to teach together and feel the spirit testify as we taught simple truths of the gospel. One of the new investigators we passed over to the sisters but the other two we kept so I'll keep you all updated on them! Their names are Sachiko and Takuya, they are a mom and a son and way prepared.

The next day I went to a lesson with the other elders investigator and we did half lesson and half pottery! Their investigator is a way experienced pottery maker and is letting us make cups/plates and letting us paint them! They won't be finished until next week but I'll be sure to show you how they turn out. 

The next big thing we did was LARC Adventures! To begin I'll explain what "LARC" is, it is an acronym for "Less Active, Recent Converts". So in other words, members that don't come to church and members that just joined the church. In our Okinawa ward we have a huge list of Less actives we are trying to contact and lots of them live far away. So what we do is something called LARC adventures, where we have Elder Foust (senior missionary with a car) drive us out to a far area early in the morning. We spend the whole day contacting all the LARC's in the area and dendo with what remaining time we have left. Then he picks us up late at night to return home. This time we had about 17 LARC's split between 2 companionships and there was an island we had to take a ferry to because a couple members lived there so I have some way cool pictures from that! Also, while we were on this small island we went to the only restaurant they had there and asked the lady if we could sign the wall and she said yes! So now our names will always be there haha. The name of the island is Tsuken island, I'll send you an aerial photo to help you see just how small and remote it is. 

Later in the week we had some more time to dendo (proselyte) which was really good. On Saturday we played soccer with some of the Japanese youth and one of our investigators who is 19 and I almost broke my ankle so that was kind of scary; I couldn't walk on it for the rest of the day but thankfully it has healed some and the swelling has been going down so I think I will be okay. The next day on Sunday the weather was absolutely perfect and our ward mission leader invited us over for dinner and it was the coolest thing! He lives right by the beach so he took us there really quick before going to his home and it was just gorgeous. I have some pictures so you guys can see too!

While we were at his home we decided to share the new First Vision video the church came out with. I'm not sure if any of you have seen it or not but it is incredible. It simply, yet powerfully portrays Joseph Smith's experience he had in the sacred grove as he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Seeing the video was just another testimony to me that his experience and vision was real. I know Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw and because of that we have this wonderful restored gospel to enjoy and work in until the time our Savior comes to us again in full glory and power. I would like to invite you guys to watch the video if you haven't seen it before, I'll add the link below. Other than that, that was about it for this week. Obviously there were tons of other things that happened but that's all I have time to share. I love you all, have a great week! 

Love, Elder Sherrill 

New First Vision Video (Ask of God) -https://history.lds.org/story/first-vision?lang=eng