Galesburg 4.27.15

Dear friends and family,

So I've been out for like 23 weeks now I think. Feels like 103.
Whoever said that mission go by fast was blasphemous. But it's going
pretty okay.
I don't know how, but I have failed to mention that we have a
baptism coming up on the 9th! Her name is Ramona Mack.
I can't ever really understand her when she gets going. She is so
excited to be baptized. She lives in a nursing home and somehow
randomly got the number of the church and called it. Sister Glass
picked it up and Ramona told her she wanted to come to church. She
thought it was just another church, but she said she really likes how
she feels when she comes. She is great!
I had a terrible dream the other night. So back home my stereo is to
the left of my bed. I was like half asleep and I heard some Eminem
playing and I wanted to turn it up. So I rolled over to turn it up on
my stereo, but I ended up punching the wall, and when I opened my eyes
instead of seeing my stereo all I saw was a grey wall of broken
dreams... I really miss good music.
Yesterday after church the bishop asked us to go see a member in the
hospital. We took her the sacrament and gave her a blessing. I sealed
the anointing and was voice. It was a really awesome experience. It
seems like everyone I talk to has a mission story of them going to the
hospital and giving someone a blessing, so now I have one of those I
guess.
We did more service at the Long's this week. We asked if it would be
okay if we shared a message next time we come and it seems to be okay.
So we will hopefully be able to teach them. They are the greatest
people. They are stocked full of Mountain Dew and root beer all the
time and we have free reign over the fridge. John told us that unless
our arms and legs are broken we can drink all we want. So I'm
definitely taking advantage of that!
Jo Godsil the recent convert that my comp baptized last transfer has
given us like 4 referrals. She is pretty much teaching the gospel to
everyone in her house. She has like 5 people, various relatives and
friends, living with her. She has brought several of them to church
the last couple weeks. She says she has a list of 25 people she wants
us to teach! She is a jackpot of people to teach. We meet with her
like twice a week for the new member lessons and she always gives us
drinks before and after the lessons. She is the greatest! We are
going to help her remodel her kitchen sometime this week.

That's all for now I guess. Love you all! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!(;

Elder Garrett F. Scherer
Galesburg, Illinois

1319 Butterfield Road Suite 522
Downers Grove, IL 60515

Galesburg 4.20.15

Dear Family and Friends,

Tuesday night we had one of the new member lessons with Jo Godsil. We taught her about some of the commandments. It was such a powerful lesson. The spirit was there so strong. She is such a great lady. She has suffered through a lot of things throughout her life, but she is just so grateful for the gospel in her life. The Holy Ghost was with me so strong during this lesson and I felt like I knew exactly what to say. I say this not to boast of myself (Alma 26:12), but I am so grateful for the opportunity I have as a missionary to represent the Lord and be an instrument in his hands. 

After the lesson she asked if we could give her a blessing. Elder Riggins did the anointing and I sealed it and gave her a blessing. Satan bruised my heel (Genesis 3:15). We went back out to the car to get the oil, and when we were coming back I shut my foot in the door. It was really hard to not freak out and not swear. It was awesome to be a part of that night and witness what God can do with "raw materials" as the prophet Joseph once analogized to Brigham Young.

So for some reason I have decided that if I ever have a girl I am going to name her Annie. So every time she is mad or upset I can play Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson to her. Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?

So we were out around our apartment knocking on some doors, and this one house we knocked, a big  guy answered and we told him we were talking about the Book of Mormon. He just looked at it and said, "I want one". I was a little taken aback because everyone tells us to buzz off. So we gave him one, and then he said, "Saturday morning, 8:30" Jim Murray was that guy's name. So I guess we have an appointment on Saturday!

It has been a good week. Thanks for all the prayers and love. Love you all!

I was asked to speak yesterday on the importance of the scriptures. Here is a basic outline of what I talked about. This is a lot better than my 2 1/2 minute farewell talk (;

The Importance of Scriptures

1. What are scriptures?

The standard works of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are the Bible- Old Testament, New Testament; Book of Mormon; Doctrine and Covenants; Pearl of Great Price

These are the canonized scriptures that we use and teach from.

The scriptures teach us doctrine, which are the essential truths that God wants us to know. Through different stories in the bible and Book of Mormon the prophets teach us these doctrines.

Scriptures are sacred writings of prophets, apostles, and other inspired people. God reveals his words and instructions through these prophets, seers, and revelators. These inspired people record their revelations from God.

Alma 13:20 "... Behold, the scriptures are before you; if ye will wrest them it shall be to your own destruction."

Alma 17:2 " ... they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God"

The holy scriptures are here to help us, guide us, and direct us. They can give us guidance, but only if we use them. 

-can't help us by sitting on a shelf.

--no osmosis learning from scriptures.

2. The Scriptures can help us find answers to questions.

-Elder Bednar has said that when he gets a new Book of Mormon he writes a question in the front then reads it through and looks for the answer to that question.

There are about 16 times in the New Testament when The Savior asks his disciples if they had not searched the scriptures when they had questions about things that had already been answered by what was written in the scriptures.

Joseph Smith solved his great question about what he should by reading in the scriptures.

3. The Book of Mormon

The most important book of scripture we have in this church is the Book of Mormon.

In introduction it says that it contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel.

The Book of Mormon also explains the plan of salvation, which is something unique to this church.

Most importantly, The Book of Mormon, along with all the other Standard Works of the Church, testify and teach of Jesus Christ.

233 of 239 chapters talk about Christ

Over 100 different names/titles

The Book of Mormon is the convincing evidence of the restoration. It is the tool that God has given us to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet.

Moroni's challenge (Moro 10:3-5)

-If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph is prophet.

-If Joseph is prophet, then priesthood restored. 

-If priesthood restored, then true church led by a prophet today.

-If prophet, then modern guidance from the lord.

Modern guidance is the most important scripture we have, uncanonized.

4. God has always revealed his truth through prophets.

1 Nephi 10:17-18 Nephi after hearing of his father's dream.

"... I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men.

For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; ..."

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Moroni 8:18 says:

"For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity."

If God is unchangeable and the same yesterday, today and forever, then he would continue to reveal his "secrets" (Amos 3:7) to his chosen prophets.

Joseph Smith said:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded upon direct revelation, as the true Church of God has ever been, according to the Scriptures..."

Elder Garrett F. Scherer

Illinois Chicago West Mission

Galesburg, Illinois 61401 (309)

Galesburg 4.13.15

Not a lot happened this week. We did some service Friday for an older
couple that lives next to some members. They are redoing their entire
house. They have had missionaries coming to help them for like a year.
It's cool to do service.

I bought a super sick Lakers sweatshirt and a dope Bulls shirt for,
both for like $16! Gotta love sales. I saw a super sick Scion FRS just
a little bit ago. So we were walking into Aldi, a grocery store, there
was an old guy that was walking out and said we looked like big shots
all dressed up. He told us that when he was a boy whenever they saw
people dressed up they would call them bigshots. We told him we were
missionaries. After we told him we were LDS he was just like "Oh
you're not big shots, you're Mormons!" and walked away. That was super
funny.

On Wednesday there was a super big lightning storm at like 3 am.
I swear it was like right over top of us. I couldn't sleep. I honestly
felt my bed shake a couple times from the thunder! Then on Saturday we
got a text from president Fenn about a tornado warning. It was super
windy all day. We never saw any tornadoes :( but we did hear from
the zone leaders that there were 2 or 3 throughout the mission.

Love you all!

Elder Garrett F. Scherer
Illinois Chicago West Mission
Galesburg, Illinois 61401 (309)
1319 Butterfield Rd. Suite 522 Downers Grove, IL 60515

Galesburg 4.7.15

Dear everyone,
So I am now in Galesburg, Illinois. They call it dirty Burg. I'm not
quite sure what that means, could be inappropriate, but that's what
they call it. My new companion is pretty cool, his name is Elder Riggins. 
We have 3 people on date to be baptized, one on the 25th, and two on
the 2nd. I am really praying that they will work out. There are some
pretty cool members here. One of the recent converts that my comp
baptized last transfer gave us an Easter basket yesterday. It had a
ton of candy and like over $50 of gift cards. Galesburg is super small
town, but it is still pretty nice. There is a ward here, but it is
super small.

We had a mission conference yesterday so that is why I didn't get to
email. So I am very sorry all of you had to suffer by not hearing from
me. So I haven't really done a lot the last four days with it being
conference and the mission conference and now p day. I haven't shaved
 because I keep forgetting. Not gonna lie it looks pretty
good. If anyone gets mad at me for not shaving I am just going to
tell them that Jesus had a beard, and that the first 7 prophets of
this dispensation had them too. I don't foresee that going over very
well, but I think it's a valid argument. Just kidding.
We went to the mall today and I went into a sports store. First time
in however long I have been out to actually go shopping. I honestly
started getting anxiety. It was like all Nike and Jordan stuff. I
almost bought a pair of Kobe shoes, a couple pairs of Jordan shorts,
and some other stuff. I did walk out with a Kevin Durant shirt and an
Adidas one that says Chicago Basketball, kinda like my Lakers one. I
really had to control myself because I love to buy stuff. But I had to
tell myself that I didn't need a 27th pair of shoes.
Not really a lot has happened this last week because of the move and
all the meetings. I have finished the Pearl of Great Price and the
Book of Mormon twice, I am halfway through the New Testament. I love
the scriptures! I am short on time to write today because of all the
stuff we have going on today. I am well and trying to have a good
time. Love you all!

Elder Garrett F. Scherer
Illinois Chicago West Mission
Galesburg, Illinois 61401 (309)

Transferred to Galesburg

Dear Friends and Family,

So we got some bad news on Saturday. They are closing our area and transferring both of us out. I guess there's like 20 something missionaries going home and only maybe a dozen coming in. There are six areas throughout our mission that are closing down because we aren't going to have enough missionaries to fill the spots. So pretty much all the ward with double sets of missionaries and going down to one.

I'm pretty bummed I have to leave. I know it seemed like I hated it here, but the last couple weeks have actually been pretty good. We finally were getting some traction. We got two referrals and two new investigators and we were finally starting to meet with less active members that we were not able to before. I was finally starting to be able to teach people and now they are taking me out. I was pretty bummed when we got the call..

Yesterday was an emotional day. I had to say good bye to all the members in the ward. I really have grown to love these people, and this ward feels like home now. I knew everyone and a lot about them. It is going to be very hard leaving. The transfer meeting is tomorrow. But something kinda cool, Elder McCloskey is going down to Bloomington with Elder Aagard, my last companion. I am going down to Galesburg, Which is actually the area that McCloskey just came from. My new comp is going to be Elder Riggins. I've met him before and he is pretty cool. 

But on the bright side, I did see a Dodge Viper this week. That was neat. It was red. Well a couple funny things, we were out knocking doors and we had a nice hot streak of doors. Not people that wanted to hear from us, but a couple funny situations. one guy answered without a shirt on. I thought he was wearing a sweater, but he was just super hairy. The very next door we actually got invited in by a guy holding a beer. We went inside and there were two more guys with beers watching March Madness. There was a nice bottle of Jack Daniels on the coffee table too so I knew these guys were down to party.  So we start talking to them about God and they said they didn't want to talk to us about that they just wanted us to watch basketball with them. But we can't watch tv so we just said see ya later and left.

I heard an awesome talk this week. it was called "Break up with the world" by Hank Smith. It was really good, and if you can find it I would suggest listening to it. I had to spend another day inside because my comp got sick, again. This making it the 4th time that we have had to stay in because of illness. But while he was sleeping for hours I started to read the Pearl of Great Price because I never really knew what it was about. I read all the introduction stuff. It was all revelation and stuff given to Joseph Smith and it really strengthened my testimony of the Prophet Joseph and seeing all the work he did. It really is true that he did more for the salvation of man kind, except Jesus himself. I came across a few cool scriptures to go along with that as well. Moses 1:41 and 2 Nephi 3:9 both prophesy that a great prophet will be raised up in the last days. That was super cool.

It is starting to warm up here in Illinois, finally. Something super funny that people do here is they rollerblade. Like grown up people they roller blade around when it's nice weather just for fun. I just think it's hilarious because no one in Utah does that, but it's like a regular thing that people do here.

Today has been an odd P-day. We did our regular studies and then we went and helped Brother Victor move some old tables and chairs and things up into his garage. Then he wanted us to move like 100 boxes of food storage. All the boxes were like 34 pounds. So I'm a little sore, but not bad cause Hulk never gets sore.(; By the way, Mark Victor grew up in Twin Falls and he said that Grandpa Scherer was his bishop! He said he knew Frank and Carol, or at least his parents did. We also had dinner with Steve Horne, He said he was friends with my uncle Theron in high school! Lots of connections when you're Mormon! Brother Brady Anderson took us out to lunch today to a place called Sharko's. It is a BBQ place and super good. 

I found out that I will be sharing a ward with Elder Heiner down in Peoria Stake where I'll be serving, so I'm super stoked about that! Funny thing, when I was in the MTC, Elder Frehner and I did a Skype lesson with the Stake president's wife. So hopefully I will get to meet her in person now. I doubt she will remember me.

Then there's a picture with me and the Collins family. Yeah
Anne-Marie's is cute, but I stay focused as a missionary. Hah then
there's my comp and I with Richard and Cadge Cotton. Some really
awesome less active members we have been working with. 

Well love you all. Stay cool, like me.

Elder G. Franklin Scherer