Transfer Prep!

So I lied, I said in my last weeks email that this week would be an
even better email but it's not panning out to be that way haha. This
week was pretty much an extension of all that we were doing this last
week. In order to prepare for transfers we spent lots of time building
and making all the travel plans. Then after finishing that there was
lots of other documents we had to prepare to make sure everything runs
smoothly. Elder Sorensen is learning really fast and I'm way impressed
with how fast he is picking it all up! He is already a great companion
and we are going to work really well together.

The rest of the week when we weren't doing travel plans and other prep
work we moved another apartment! I don't have any pictures of it but
the elders in chikushino, an area next to Fukuoka moved to a new
apartment next to their old one. So we loaded up the van and went to
help them out. It was a good time and we got it all done relatively
fast so we could get back to work in hopes that we had some time to
dendo after finishing all our office work.

Needless to say it was a very busy week but I am having a great time!
I love all the people I get to work with and this next week with all
the new missionaries coming in and old ones returning home will be a
lot of fun for sure. I'm excited for the next transfer to get under
way so we can get back out and find some more people ready to hear the
gospel in Fukuoka. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Sherrill

Another Week in the Best Two Years!

Another week has come and gone! It's crazy how quickly I am back to
writing emails each week. I feel like I'm writing one every other day.
With that being said I'm sorry if I repeat stuff or start to get kind
of boring haha. This past week was amazing and we have officially
welcomed a new member into the honbu crew! Transfers are in about 2
weeks but in order to train the new mission assistant my new companion
Elder Sorensen will be receiving training up until Elder Strickland
goes back out into the mission field this next transfer. I am way
pumped to work with Elder Sorensen, he is coming from being the
Yamaguchi Zone Leader and has tons of faith and dendo fire! He has an
upbeat personality and I can already tell me and him will get along
really well.

So far this past week has been mainly preparing for transfers which
means we got to participate in the transfer process one more time. It
is easily one of my favorite responsibilities we get here in the
mission home. Each time we sit in President Egan's office and discuss
and pray over the names the spirit is always there and deepens my
testimony of who really guides this work. With that being said, after
about 3 solid days of going at it we have completed all the transfers
for this upcoming transfer and this next week we will be building all
the travel plans for everyone going to their new areas. We have 10 new
missionaries coming in and about 18 of them leaving. So in about 2
weeks we will get to welcome in the new ones and say goodbye to the
returning ones. It is always such a fun and interesting experience.

Since I wrote a longer email the past week and due to me running out
of time this will be about it for today. I'm sorry it's so short! Next
week will be a lot better.. probably haha. Today we don't have to much
planned for P-Day, lots of errands to run but we will still make it
fun somehow! I'm grateful for all the support each of you give me. We
are continuing to see miracles here every single day in Fukuoka and I
feel so blessed to be here. I love this mission! I hope you all have a
great week!

Love,

Elder Sherrill

Crazy weather and even crazier miracles in Fukuoka!

Hello everyone! This past week some of you may have heard about the

weather going on in the Fukuoka area and to be honest it really hasn't

been all that bad. There were some areas that experienced some

flooding but as far as the city of Fukuoka itself, there was just tons

of rain and lots of thunder and lightning! Earlier in the week I woke

up in the middle of the night to lots of lighting and thunder around

us, there was seriously lighting coming down about once every few

seconds! Since I really enjoy listening to thunder and seeing the

lightning I got up and watched it for a few minutes before falling

back asleep. The next couple days it pretty much rained all day long

which made for some great dendo!

We had two companionship exchanges his past week, one of Tuesday and

the other on Thursday. The first one was with Elder Norman, one of the

Fukuoka Zone Leaders and the other was with Elder Bates, one of the

Hiroshima Zone Leaders. They are both actually my doki (which means we

were in the MTC together and came to Japan at the same time). So going

on exchanges with them was a blast! Elder Norman gave a really good

training this past week on our desire to baptize and I have never left

a meeting so pumped to go out and work hard! So huge props to him for

getting everyone fired up.

My comp exchange with Elder Bates was really good and we saw tons of

miracles. We had about 8 hours to dendo so we hit the streets of

Fukuoka and got to it! In our planning we prayed specifically to find

a young high school kid who we could have a lesson on the spot with

and guess who find not even 15 minutes into our dendo?? You betcha,

our young high school kid! We were on our bikes crossing the middle of

a road on the cross walk and as we were coming up on this kid who was

in the middle of the cross walk I felt prompted to stop him. I had

never before stopped someone in the middle of the crosswalk who is

going the opposite direction of me for a variety of reasons but since

I felt the need to we did and I'm so thankful we did! We walked with

him for a few minutes then stopped off under an awning and had a 20

minute lesson on prayer and set up an appointment for this next week.

The rest of our day went well and we set another 4 appointments, so

needless to say it was a great day!

As Elder Strickland and I came back together for the end of the week

we continued to see some more miracles. Just last night as we were out

proselyting we prayed to find another young high school kid to have a

lesson with on the spot. We were in this park we always go to to find

people. Elder Strickland and I kind of split up (only about 10 feet

from each other) to talk to some people sitting on some benches. We

both met some cool kids who were about 20 years old and made an

appointment with both of them! After we finished that we came back

together and started walking around the park. With only about 45

minutes left to go we were hoping we would find our young higshcool

kid we had been praying to find. Sure enough in the next couple

minutes we stop a 17 year old kid, talk to him about prayer and

Heavenly Father and he was really interested! So we asked if we could

walk to the nearby park and teach him how to pray and he said yes! So

we did just that and about 20 minutes later we had another lesson on

the spot with the person we were hoping we could find.

Heavenly Father really does listen to our prayers and as we do all we

can to work hard he rewards us with our righteous desires. I'm so

thankful for all the wonderful experiences I am having serving here in

Fukuoka. It has been such a blast seeing how many people the Lord has

prepared us to meet and teach. I hope we can continue to have the

faith to find and to baptize because that's exactly what we are going

to do! Tonight we have another lesson with Kyousuke who is scheduled

for the end of this month to be baptized. Then tomorrow we have

Tashima our other investigator who is coming to church who we will be

resetting his date for the end of the month too. We hope that they can

both make it, but I'm sure whatever happens it will all be within the

Lord's timing.

Well I'm sorry this email got really long pretty fast haha, and this

is seriously only a fraction of what happened this week. There are

always to many cool experiences and miracles to fit in one small

email. But anyways, I'm loving serving here in Fukuoka and I can't

express my gratitude enough for my loving Heavenly Father that

continues to help strengthen me and mold me into the person He wants

me to become. I hope you all have a great week and enjoyed some

fireworks for this past 4th of July! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Sherrill

Fun on P-Day

July?!

View from outside the Apartment 

On their way to Okinawa

What another amazing week! It's getting warmer here in Japan and the
rainy season has definitely hit because all it does is rain here haha.
This past week was pretty busy but not as busy as the previous one. We
finished up the last two Zone conferences in Kumamoto and in Okinawa.
Needless to say they were a blast and meeting all the missionaries and
reuniting with some old mission friends was a great time. It's
incredible to me how for each of these training meetings we plan to
teach the same thing but every time there is always new things that we
say or that are talked about. Even though they are the same training,
they end up being very different depending on the needs and where the
spirit takes it during the meeting. I continue to be impressed by
President and Sister Egan's ability to teach and follow the spirit as
they train. It makes it pretty difficult when you have to train right
after them haha. Everything they say is exactly what I need to hear
all the time. There are many blessings from serving in the mission
home but I feel like my most cherished one is being so close with them
and learning from them daily. They give us so much advice and counsel
on how to be good leaders, future parents, show love to others, and
most importantly how to become true disciples of Jesus Christ. In all
that they do they exemplify the Christlike attributes and serve with
complete willingness to follow the will of Heavenly Father. It's such
a blessing we have to work with them.

Throughout this past week we spent most of our time traveling but on
Wednesday we got a full day of dendo and it was the best! We had
companion exchanges and I went with Elder Woolston who is a Zone
Leader down in Kagoshima and we saw tons of miracles. We had about 8
hours straight to proselyte so we hit the streets and went as hard as
we could. We ran into lots of cool people and ended up getting six
return appointments and talked to over 200 people! By the end of the
day we were pretty 疲れた but it was worth it. I'm grateful for the days
we have to go out and just work. Sometimes we get stuck in the office
and have to do different things to prepare for trainings or what have
you but when we do get the time to dendo you just appreciate it so
much more. We will see how the appointments play out next week though!

Today for P-Day we are planning on going to the Kyushu National Museum
in Dazaifu and visiting a shrine or two as we are there. I am pretty
excited to go do something fun because sometimes our pday are just
spent running errands and other little things. So it will be nice to
relax and have a good time with the other elders in the apartment.
With that being said we are planning on leaving pretty soon so my
email will get cut a little short. Also, I'm still working on taking
pictures.. this past week we didn't really take any. It's like I
forget everyday until I'm sitting here and then I realize I haven't
taken any. One day I'll get there haha. とにかく, thank you all for your
love and support! Also, how is it July already!? Time is ah flyin by!
Better make the most of it, hope you all have a great week :)

Love,

Elder Sherrill