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

Naperville 3.16.15

The  Lord hath been merciful unto the children of men this week. That child of the man Greg is me. The Lord hath seen fit in his infinite mercy to allow my eyes to lay hold upon an Audi R8 and a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG this week. Holy moses. I didn't get a picture of the SLS, but I got one of the R8 so hopefully you will find as much joy in looking at it as I did. Obviously the picture doesn't do it justice just as hearing someone else's testimony isn't as sweet to you as growing your own would be, but it's still pretty great.

I can sense that you have all been missing some awesomeness in your lives and you may be questioning, "Wherefore have I lost this source of wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures?" Well I will tell you where, you haven't been seeing my uplifting posts on Facebook. We, as of right now, are receiving additional training on how to better use Facebook, so for now we aren't using it until we have had this new training.

Yesterday was quite possibly the worst day of my life. I sprouted a cold when I was on exchanges with elder Hermansen on Saturday. I'll give you more details about that fun exchange later. So I had this cold, and I have been gulping down Day n Nyquil like Scott Mescudi. (5 points to whoever understands that) My companion is also sick. We went out before church to try and find a former investigator. I just had this super weird vibe the whole time, I don't know if it was the DayQuil or what, but when we got to the complex that this person lived, that address didn't actually exist. We went to the closest address to it and it was locked. The property manager saw us and we sat down and had a nice talking to about how we weren't allowed to solicite on her property. We tried to explain that we aren't selling anything. I don't really remember biking back to our apartment. I was super out of it and my mind was somewhere else. I know I stopped and talked to some people that were out walking so hopefully I said something that was righteous. lol After church I had a nice case of diarrhea so that added to the awesome day I was already having. So I really loved yesterday.

I ate some Vietnamese food and some Indian food this week! Coconut curry is pretty dang delicious. Vietnamese soup is kind of like liquid magma in your throat. By far the spiciest thing I have ever put in my mouth. I also had a black bean burger yesterday. Super nasty BTW. I wasn't there for the decision making, I was in Joliet. I guess the Miller's called and asked Elder McCloskey what kind of burgers we wanted between hamburgers, black bean burgers, and salmon burgers. And wouldn't you know it he chose the one that is obviously the most unappetizing. They also asked what cheese we wanted on it between cheddar, mozzarella, and horseradish cheese. Yep he chose the horseradish cheese. So yeah.

We were finally able to meet with a lady named Cassie this last week. We have been trying to meet with her since November... She is a part member family. Her husband, Chaz, is a member. He has super bad health, but they come to sacrament almost every week and they came to gospel essentials so that was awesome. Super cool lesson. But they are going to be out of town til the 24th so we can't teach her again until then.

Okay so about this exchange with Elder Hermansen, I went down to Joliet, East Side Joliet which is even worse than regular Joliet. So strike one there. We saw a family on the street playing so we talked to them and taught them a quick first lesson. Then we taught one of their recent converts. We went tracting after that, but here's where it gets good. We crossed the river! You probably have no idea what that means, but "on the other side of the river" is where east side Joliet gets even more ghetto.So strike 2 there. So we're driving around and whatever and we start going up to "the hill" which is the most notorious and roughest place in all of Joliet. Strike 3. The only place where I have felt unsafe on my mission has been up on "the hill". There were police lights and cameras hanging on every single light post. Flashing red and blue lights hanging on all the light posts. It was also 8:30 at night and it was dark. It was awesome! No real story there, just that it was straight hood.

Well have a good week :)

Elder G. Franklin Scherer

ICWM

Naperville, Illinois 60515 (630)

Naperville 3.9.15

Dear friends and family,

get on my level of spirituality everyone haha. im so high up on the spirit
right now ladies and gentlemen. last night i was able to attend a
fireside given by our mission president, President Fenn, at the Joliet
stake center. it was entitled the miracle of the restoration. i was
expecting it to be a huge event since it was a multi-stake thing. here
were four zones of missionaries who were inviting people for the past
month. we have been announcing it in sacrament meeting for the last
month or so. there wasn't a big turnout, only about 80 people, half of
them missionaries. but that doesn't matter because it was such a good
experience. President Fenn talked about pretty much the whole first
lesson that you would teach an investigator, but with a lot more depth.
he talked a lot about the book of mormon and about the prophet joseph
smith. our president puts so much emphasis on these because without
them we are just like any other christian faith. he explained, quite
extensively, how we are not just another christian faith. we are
Christ's church on the earth. the only true church. it was such a
testimony builder for me. at one point during the end he was talking
about standing as a witness of Christ and of the restoration of the
gospel. he asked all the full time missionaries to stand up. and we
all did. that was probably my favorite part. i felt the spirit so
strong telling me that i really am a disciple of Jesus Christ out here
on my mission.

good news!! i taught two lessons this week!! one i taught on
exchanges with elder bailey, we taught someone over Skype which was
awesome because it is cool to see how this modern day technology is
progressing the work of salvation along. we had two investigators come
to church yesterday!!! it was so cool. we are meeting with one of them
tomorrow night. so things have been going well this past week.


love you all, hope you have a good week!

Elder G. Franklin Scherer
ICWM
Naperville, Illinois 60515 (630)

Naperville 3.2.15

The dress is black and blue and we're going to leave it at that.

Still not a lot of opportunities for teaching, but we have a few people that have potential so i am praying for them.   the members are starting to help us out a little bit and that has been a great blessing. especially now since the other elders that we were in a car share with totaled the car two weeks ago! i cant remember if i told you, but we used to drive like a 2010 Malibu, but then they took that one back and gave us a brand new 2015 ford fusion! it was awesome, while it lasted at least. anyways the other elders that we share with every other week were driving behind this lady and the light turned yellow and she stopped but they tried to go for it and plowed into the back of her going 55. so yeah totaled the car and sent the lady to the hospital. total retards! needless to say they got the Golden Helmet Award for the week.

for you that know me well enough you know that i don't get too adventurous with my eating. well i went back to Giordano's and ate calamari for the 3rd time. i can also eat salad without gagging now since everyone and their dog think that missionaries are rabbits and need a stupid salad every time you eat somewhere. i also discovered i like blueberries.

it was so warm Sunday, it got up to like 25*! too bad it was a day we were inside at church so we couldn't enjoy walking around in it. well without the car i have been walking every where. i pretty much know every street and backroad in Naperville now since i have to find out where to go to get places.

theres going to be a big mission conference tomorrow and one of the seventies is going to be there. its no one I've ever heard of before so i cant remember who it is, but I'm sure it will be good! well the brownies i put in the oven are done so I'm going to go eat them. have a good week!

Love,

Elder Scherer

ZERO - 0

0. it was 0 degrees yesterday. -20 with wind chill. its supposed to be
-50 today so I'm so excited for that. But since i am in the face of
adversity and I'm gonna push through it, i am hoping one day the lord
will tell me what he told Ether in Ether 12:37. in the ways of
scriptures, Mosiah 3:19, the psalm of Nephi in 2 Nephi 4:17-35, 2
Nephi 31:20, and D&C section 122 all make me feel like a lousy
when i feel like i wanna quit. and also the video "missionary work and
the atonement" from Jeffery R. Holland as well.

I realize i didn't finish a sentence from my last email. i was going to
share a secret, but i couldn't think of one so i just went on. hah well
since none of you answered my pop quiz, the answer was 1 Nephi 11:16
and the reply in verse 17 was "I know that he loveth his children;
nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

Well a couple of the Elders i came out with and i do a weekly email
where we report three awards: the space cadet award-someone who spaced
out, the ice cube award-someone who needs to chill out, and the GHA-
golden helmet award for the biggest retard of the week. anyways, i
witnessed something that qualifies for the GHA for the whole year.
this lady drove across two lanes of opposing traffic, over the curb
and over two feet of snow, through two pine trees, and onto a frozen
pond. theres ponds freakin every where here btw. people play hockey on
them and its pretty cool. back to the story, his lady's car was just
stuck in the middle of this frozen pond. total retard.

took some cool pics this week. one i found a street with Alyssa's name
on it. another is the biggest house in Naperville. me and my comp
posting up for a valentines mirror pic. and some district and zone
pics. Dont be alarmed at the bird that hermana lewis is holding.
thats the zone trophy. every week the zone leaders have a
challenge-the joliet jaguar, like who can invite the most people to
church, and whoever wins gets the bird for the week.

I'm gonna be staying in this area, but I'm getting a new companion.
I'm going to be co-senior companion.
i guess thats pretty cool.

I thought I had more funny things to share this week, but I guess not
so sorry about that!

Love,
Elder Scherer

A Witness to a Murder

Dearest friends and family,

I am forever changed after the unfortunate events I've witnessed this past week. An innocent life was taken right before my eyes. There was not a lot we could have done to prevent this tragedy. We were out tracting the neighborhoods as usual when on the way back we saw the poor soul running for his life across the way in front of us. But it was to no avail. He had no chance, he could not escape what was coming for him. I wish there was something I, or my companion, could have done to help. But it was out of our hands.

This poor soul, who we came to know as Peter after the incident, was taken from this life and to my hopes brought to a better place. His body was mangled and left in a terrible, awful sight. I wish I could un-see what I have, the images are burnt into my mind.

Peter was running across the street, when from the sky the villain came. As you might have guessed, yes it was a Golden Eagle who took the life of a youthful Jack Rabbit. The villain, who still at this time has remained nameless, swooped with a mighty swoop  and wrestled with Peter on the ground until his upper half was torn from the bottom half of his body. Up into a nearby tree the villain took the now-half body Peter the Rabbit and began devouring his flesh. 

A very gruesome experience that I hope none of you will ever have to witness. Included in a subsequent electronic mail are photographs of this experience.

Yeah I know what you're all thinking - besides how terrible of an experience I had to endure - does this guy have a creative writing degree? The answer to your question is no, but I totally graduated high school. With the help of Google, blessed be that website, and SparkNotes, and a lot of "sharing answers" with esteemed colleagues (kids I sat by).

In other news, we stopped by this less active a few times, like good missionaries do, and no one answered. We left a sticky note that had our number on it one time, then the next time we saw her neighbors and talked to them about her. They said they "weren't at liberty to give that information". Later that day we got a call from a private number that wanted to talk to someone in charge of the Naperville Missionaries. We gave her the zone leader's number. She never called them, but she called a lot of people and eventually got President Fenn's number. She was on the phone with his for 2 hours! 

So we got a call from President, scariest moment of my life because you never get a call from President unless you've transgressed and are being sent home. Elder Aagard made me answer it! I almost peed, but I  was a man and answered it. He wasn't mad, but he told us to never contact her again.

I learned a good lesson about terrorist jokes. We teach this recent convert that used to be in the army. Anyways, he was teaching us about how to make bombs  out of things you can buy at any grocery store, super cool by the way. He was saying that you could make a bomb out of anything. I made the joke of "Yeah people are even making airplanes into bombs now-a-days". He did not like that.. So just so you're all aware, it's still too early for 9-11 jokes.

They put a Pepsi machine in the club house where we go to do our online proselyting. I can now buy Mountain Dew whenever I want! Tender Mercy of the Lord!! My companion isn't too fond of me drinking it, but anyone who tries to tell me that it's against the word of wisdom is going to get a swift punch to the throat! Because it's totally not :)

I apologize for the length of this e-mail, but I wanted to try to combine my friends and family into one e-mail so I would have more time to play ball with the zone leaders. Totally gonna dunk on someone today ;) Well if you have made it this far into this lengthy e-mail I will reward you with a little secret about myself: I have never

Pop quiz of the week:

Give me the answer back to this question and the reference. The winner gets an e-mail from me next week!!!

Knowest thou the condescension of God?

       A last heads up, the next P-day I will have won't be until the 19th because of something with the transfers being pushed back. So if you don't hear from me next Monday, don't fret.

Love,

Elder Scherer

Naperville 2.2.2015

hello family,

this was a pretty good week. we met a couple families that might be willing to met with us. i really hope so. I'm getting really familiar with the scriptures and that is kinda cool. i finished reading the book of mormon this last week. i am starting to read the whole preach my gospel book. I'm kinda  getting bored with only being able to read church stuff tho.  that's mission life i guess.

i was on exchanges with the zone leader, elder osterhout, and we ran into some guy that was a methodist. he is a comic book writer and he wrote a comic book about like vatican spec ops. he gave us each a copy of it! since i cant read it i will probably just send it home at some point. you'll have to let me know how good it is. i wanna read it when i get home in 92 weeks.

i read a really good talk this last week. it is from this last conference. it is called "which way do you face?" it is really good. one of the members told me that ogden was talked about in the Chicago tribune. it was saying that ogden is the city that has the least difference between lowest income of a family and highest income in the U.S. so that is pretty cool. 

yesterday we were not allowed to go outside again because there was a blizzard. it snowed at least 2 feet yesterday. we spent a lot of the time out shoveling peoples cars who were stuck in the parking lot. it was ridiculous. it wasn't super cold, but it was just a lot of snow. even today we've been getting people unstuck.

also last night when i was on the phone with the district leader reporting our weeks numbers, elder Aagard shot me in the eye with a bottle cap. you know how you can twist up a bottle and shoot off the cap? yeah he did that and it hit me right in the eye. i had to exert all my energy to not cuss him out. especially because we were on the phone with the district leader, and also cause I'm a missionary i guess haha

love you all!!

Love,

Elder Scherer