Hi!

This week was kind of frustrating. Isaac doesn't pick up his phone so we don't even know if we are going to teach him anymore or not. The La Costa Ward elders have a priest in their ward that knows him so they're going to try and set something up. Marc Daud is going to get invited to take the lessons next week. We are meeting with Maddie this Sunday as well. We thought we were going to be teaching a lot but it hasn't really happened yet. Hopefully we can start picking things up. Me and Elder Mangus are staying together for another transfer (big surprise.. I've only had 2 transfer companions), but i'm excited. We get along really well. 

Sorry this letter is so short. Nothing really happened this week. We've been biking like crazy so I'm pretty sore, but other than that noooot much.

That;s all I got 

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

We had a good week.  We picked up 2 new investigators. I think I told you about them last week. One is Isaac and the other is Maddie. Isaac is a 16-year-old football player who has a lot of faith in Christ and is open minded about our religion and if we can get a hold of him a little more often will progress pretty fast, I think. We are teaching him tonight at a park with one of the priests in our ward. Maddie is Abby Rowen's (a laurel in our ward) friend. We taught her the Restoration and she agreed to hear all of the discussions. She says she is only doing it for educational purposes at this time but is keeping an open mind about it. She is reading the Bible all the way through for the first time and is then going to read the Book of Mormon. So she may or may not have potential. You never know though. The Spirit is a powerful influence. We still have a couple potentials we want to follow up with, so we may be picking up a few more soon.

I got the box. The brownies were fine, probably because they're super manufactured. I let Elder Mangus eat some Oreos so then he took it upon himself to eat 7 of the 10 packs of Oreos this week. So those are gone. I think the candy's gone too. So the box lasted about 2 weeks. Pretty good right? Thanks for all the stuff I really appreciate it! I can't think of anything else right now 

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

September 12 letter

This week was pretty good, especially yesterday. We set a pretty solid appointment for next Sunday at a dinner appointment yesterday. A Family called the Rowen's daughter brought a friend and Elder Mangus invited her and she gave us like a pretty excited "Yeah I'd like that". It blew me away. She says she's Catholic and pretty strong in her faith so I guess we'll see how it goes. We're going to teach her and her mom in the Rowen's house next Sunday. We have an appointment with a 16-year-old who the YSA Elders are passing off to us. So we'll see how that goes as well. Hopefully we can see 2 or 3 baptisms next transfer! That would be cool.

This member gave me this pretty cool hat. That was a bonus.

 

I'm probably going to go through the Fort Collins temple when I get home. 

 

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

September 6, 2016

It's been a good week! We have a lot of potential investigators and referrals. Hopefully we will have a solid teaching pool by the end of this week. I am really enjoying this transfer. Elder Mangus is probably my favorite companion. Nothing really specifically cool happened this week. We got to go to this mansion place in the Olivenhein ward for P-day and play basketball/volleyball and eat pizza. That was cool.

Sorry this letter's so short I can't think of anything. My legs are dead.  We bike up hills like crazy and Elder Mangus is like super human fast. It's unnatural how fast he can go on his big mountain bike.

Well Happy Labor day! (whatever that means..)

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

 

August 29 letter

Hey it's going good! The ward's great, they feed us well and our ward mission leader is really involved. We've able to get a lot of work done already.Our apartment kind of sucks haha. It's really small and it gets really warm. Me and my companion are getting along really well though! We're having a lot of fun together so that's nice. His name is Elder Mangus and he's been out 6 weeks less than I have. It's pretty hard to believe I've been out a year already. I don't feel one of the old guys on the mission yet.

We've met some pretty cool people. This one guy's name is Robert. He's a really big 70 year old Scottish man with a pretty thick accent. He's cool because he literally doesn't care what anybody thinks of him. He's also a certified genius. He's in MENSA and is fluent in 11 different languages. He lives right next to our really nice ward librarian and they took us out to dinner. We ate at this really overpriced restaurant with them and he was yelling racist stuff, we talked about boiling babies and eating them in the Old Testament, all sorts of weird stuff. Probably one of the most interesting dinners I've gone to. Another interesting person is Jonesy Jones. She is a recent convert and is a complete hippy, but she's also a big computer nerd. She's obsessed with organic everything. All of her food has to be organic. She calls it God's food God's way. She has a huge garden in her backyard.  She's awesome though super nice. The missionaries who taught her though seemed to have done kind of a poor job because she doesn't really know much at all about the Gospel, or at least like the basic unique things about our church like the Priesthood and Sacrament. So we're going to start reteaching her. 

The ward's really cool. The Librarian brings a ton of baked goods and hands them out after church. Our bishop's really nice. I haven't met very many people yet, but that's ok. We get fed pretty much every day and people keep handing us money. So things are good! Hopefully we can start picking up some solid investigators. 

We had a zone conference with a member of the 70 on Friday. His name was Benjamin De Hoyos. He's a Mexican 70 who spoke a little English. Our mission president acted as his translator. It was a good conference but honestly it was hard to focus with the language barrier. 

That's all I got!

I'm going to send some pictures.  I'm forwarding a group photo of the all the kids I was in the MTC with that we took on Friday. Only 3 are missing from the group, and one of those 3 went home. 

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

August 22, 2016

Hola!

It's been kind of a rough week haha. So, to start things off, I forgot my proselyting bag, my bedding, and my alarm clock in Temecula. Well I actually didn't forget my pros bag but the missionary I was replacing was going up to Temecula. So my bag got put back into the car and taken up to Temecula. So it took me until like Thursday to get my pros bag and Friday to get my bedding. I slept in my companion's sleeping bag and used my hoody and a towel as a pillow. My companion's name is Elder Mangus. He's from Montana. He's kind of a red neck who's really good with computers. He's cool.  We get a long pretty well. Encinitas is really hilly. I've been sweating way more here than in Temecula. And because it's humid, I can't dry off. It's been getting better though. Cooling down a bit. We have 1 investigator, but she can't meet that often. We had a pretty good lesson on Wednesday on the Gospel. She's Catholic but is disappointed with her Church's community and really admires ours and has a few Mormon friends. So that's what made her open. I think she's hiding it from her kids and husband, though, so that's a little concerning. But we asked her straight up she wants to know if this is true and she said yes so we're hopeful. We meet her again hopefully on Wednesday. 

That;s all I can think of!

Love you!

Elder Sherwood

August 15, 2016

Hi

Staying for another transfer........

 

Just kidding I'm going to the beach!!!! I'm getting transferred to Encinitas 1st Ward in the Del Mar Zone. it's like a half really rich town, and half super ghetto town. I'm not sure what my area consists of. But I'm pretty sure my apartment's really nice! I took some pictures with some families and individuals in my ward yesterday. But we were in a hurry this morning and I forgot my camera so I'll send them next week. 

We have been finding like crazy for some reason right before I leave. Catherine Meeker (lady who was pretty much ready to be baptized but then dropped off the face of the earth) started talking to us again. We found a highschooler who said his family's been looking for a church yesterday, and we also have Aaron and Becky as well. As soon as I leave this ward's going to blow up haha.. I've been praying and I feel like God just w ants to make sure that I'm loving people and not basing my success off numbers. As well as patience. Oh well i'm ready to move on. I'm going to miss the elders in our district but it turns out there's some cool people going to Del Mar with me. So that'll be fun.

Anything else? I can't think of anything

I hit my year mark this month. That's a crazy thought. I still feel like I just came out. 

Love you!

Elder Sherwood