Sacrament: Attended 2.22.16

Well you read it. We had an investigator come to church! First one in
five months! (:

I was reading this morning in Alma 8. Alma was teaching in melek and
there were people literally coming to him to get baptized (like all my
friends in South America who have had as many baptisms as lessons I've
taught lol). Then Alma goes to Amonihah and is rejected and thrown out
and spit upon (not too different from here). So what I pulled from
this was it doesn't necessarily matter where you serve, but how you
serve. Different areas have different levels of success. The same guy,
Alma, served with the exact same level of diligence in different
places, but had different amounts of success.

We met an investigator named Matthew this week. He is crazy! He has
two degrees, one in English and another in science. He started talking
to us about some deep stuff. It was crazy. He came to church and had
to leave about halfway through gospel principles. We walked him out
and he asked us what the 7 deadly sins are. He just asks random
questions all the time to test us to see if we know what we're talking
about. He texted us this morning and was all po'd about some stuff he
found on the Internet..

I went on exchanges with elder golling. He's from Ukraine. I love this
elder. We've been in the same zone for his whole mission. He's never
had a preparation day without me for the past 7 1/2 months. We were
going to stop by a less active member, the pye's, and we heard someone
yell for us to come over. It was bro. Versace, a guy who got baptized
a month ago. He lives across the street from the Pye's. He needed help
with his parrot because it was bleeding and he needed someone to help
him fast. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! So I
got to perform surgery on a parrot (:

So we've only been getting fed like once a week, if that, and bishop
got up on Sunday and said people need to feed the missionaries. Well
we've got a full calendar this week (:

Love you All!!

Elder Scherer

Biking in the snow.

I made some mini scriptures

Performed a little surgery on Bro. Versace's parrot. His dog bit it
and we had to hold it down while he cut its feathers off and put some
powder stuff to stop the bleeding

Shut the front door 2.15.16

Last night we had one of the best lessons I've ever had. It was with
sister Merced. We've been working with her a lot. She is on her way
back to activity and preparing to go to the temple this year. We went
over to her house last night to teach her about the law of tithing; we
took James Minerly, a recent convert. Well just as with the most of
the best lessons I've had, we didn't even say one thing about tithing.
The spirit had something else in mind, but the Lord saw our
preparation in making a lesson plan so he helped us. She didn't come
to church yesterday because she was sick. We came in and she said,
"Before yous guys starts, I wanna tell you what I was reading before
you came in." She was reading chapter 3 of Howard W. Hunter, which was
what the relief society and priesthood lessons were on in church. She
said she just opened the gospel library app and that is what came up.
We said, "hey that's what the lessons were on today" and in the most
serious face I've ever seen she said, "Shut the front door." I almost
laughed, it was hilarious! Then she started bawling because she wasn't
able to come to church, but then she read the lesson. It was an
awesome, and her son was there!!! 

 (About halfway through the lesson she was saying how sometimes things
get you mad and she was like, "I can 0 to 100, real quick." I almost
buttered laughing, again!)

 I love when lessons completely go off of what we were going to talk
about and we follow the Holy Ghost in what to say. It helps me feel
like we're really connecting with them because it's what they need to
hear.*

It was really cold this week. But that turned out great because two
people let us in because it was cold! That never happens. We ended up
teaching this guy named Ron about the atonement. He has struggled in
the past with addiction and things and he thinks God helped him
through it, but he doesn't know how or who God is. It was a great
experience to help someone understand these things that we know about
how the atonement carries us.
A few minutes later, we met a lady who let us come in for some hot
chocolate. Bless that woman.

 *It's like lacrosse: if someone needs help shooting, but you were
going to coach on how to ground ball, it's better to help them with
what they need. (I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this because
this is a dumb analogy) 

 Elder Scherer


Fox River Bridge











Elders on Ducatis

It snowed this morning 2.8.16

Tired is what I was this week. I fell asleep after the closing prayer
of nightly planning.

I introduced Elder Hadlock to Beef Shack this week. Best Italian beef
in Chicago! Their combo (Italian beef and Italian sausage on the same
sandwich) isn't as good as Buona's, but it's still pretty good. Beef
Shack's cheezy beef is top notch tho. I need to go to Buona this week
and get a red, baptized, combo. Let me explain: at Buona Beef you can
get it red, which is covered in marinara sauce. You can also get it
baptized, where they dunk the whole sandwich in the extra juice from
the beef.

On to more important things.
The food pantry we volunteer at gave us a whole bottle of Muscle Pharm
protein!! #Blessingsfromabove it's the same kind that Brother Harman
gave me a few weeks ago. we made a tower of all the protein we have.

Now on to the important things.
Chakita didn't show for sacrament meeting, again... We have to drop
her date of March 5. ): we went by her house after church to see what
the deal was. She said she won't be able to come to church til the
second week of March. She's still willing to meet with us, she just
can't come to church.
Natalie is still meeting with us, but on Tuesday when we meet next we
are just going to be flat with her and if she's not willing to
progress, then we'll have to let her go.

On a more positive note, we met a guy named Olijuwon last night. He is
a professional BMX racer! He was super sweet. He showed us some of his
videos on his phone. He's big into religion. His family met with
missionaries when he was 8. We're going to start teaching him this
week.
Not one minute after we got Olijuwon's info and walked away, we ran
into a former investigator that has been investigating on and off for
the last two years! Her two daughters have both been baptized, but she
hasn't yet. I've been trying to get in contact with her since I got in
this area, and we found her!
Right after we met her, we went and knocked on a flaky investigator's
house down the street and met her boyfriend and he wants to meet with
us!

I can't remember much else of what happened this week. The time is
going by fast and I can't remember what goes on anymore. It's all kind
of a blur really. It's all the same thing, every day, but it's
awesome.

Hopefully we will get SOMEONE to COME TO CHURCH this week!

Elder Scherer

St Charles 2.1.16

I've been pondering the meaning of 2 Nephi 28:30. 30 For behold, thus
saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon
line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and
blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto
my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I
will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from
them shall be taken away even that which they have.
I've put some thought into what is meant by the last portion. If we do
not use or apply or exercise the knowledge that has been given to us,
it will be taken away from us. When we learn a principle or a
doctrine, and don't apply it, we lose it. Just as with math I suppose;
when we learn a new mathematical principle and then take the test and
never use it again, we lose it. The Lord will bless us with knowledge
line upon line, precept upon precept. We have to lay down the
foundation and build upon that each time the Holy Ghost reveals
something new to us, or it will fade away. 

 We did some service for the food pantry in West Chicago again on
Saturday. I love helping the people that come there. Mosiah 2:17

We had great lessons with Chakita and Angel. Chakita didn't come to
church, again... No one did this week. Bummer! Haha
The spirit was very strong in both of these lessons. We had members
help us teach both of them and both the members afterward thanked us
for bringing them along. If you want to feel the spirit in your life,
go out with the missionaries! Or even better, do your own missionary
work and give the missionaries referrals (;

I've spend a considerable amount of time studying about the apostasy
and the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith this week. I
feel like the more you study the apostasy, the greater the light of
the restoration becomes. I spent a lot of time in 1 Nephi 13, 2 Nephi
3, and Jesus the Christ ch. 40-41.

One of the days this week I stepped in a puddle and it drenched my
entire foot. It was also 15 degrees outside. But we kept on tracting
for the next 3 hours(: gotta love it!

It rained last Monday and then froze by Tuesday morning. It was like
walking on an ice rink all day. We probably fell like 8 times each.

The gospel is true.

Elder Scherer

 Elder Hadlock and our awesome bean bag.

Flashback to the first day at the MTC with Elder Frehner. My suit is not that loose on me anymore... On a good day I can get the button closed.