1.25.16

This has been a super great week. Elder Hadlock and I make a great
team. We found 7 new investigators this week! We put 4 people on date
for March 5! They are a family of 5 or 6 and there's a few other
people that live there, but the other ones were in and out of the
lesson.

We had potential to have 11 people come to church this week and not a
single one came! The struggle is so real. We are going to get someone
there this week!!

We've been working really hard and we've seen a lot of miracles this
week. This is going to be a great transfer.

I really can't think of much else to write about. I saw this meme and
I thought it was funny. This is exactly how most of my areas have
been. Corn fields for days.

Elder Scherer

1.18.16 - Sickness and cold

Well it's time for transfers again. I am staying in good ol St.
Charles, but I'm getting a new companion, Elder Hadlock. I've never
met him before so it will be interesting to see how he is.

I've been sick since Thursday. I've been taking all kinds of different
stuff to try to get it out of me. DayQuil, NyQuil, Zicam, Emergen-C,
Airborne, and that's just the stuff I remember! I also tried a netty
pot. Basically what you do is tilt your head to the side and pour warm
salt water into one of your nostrils and let it flow up and around
and out the other one. It pushes all the snot out! It's pretty neat.
Another missionary told me about it. Sometimes it goes down into your
mouth and you gag, so you try not to do that. Haha

Well we handed Wilfrido off to the Spanish missionaries this week. We
had a couple lessons where both sets of missionaries were there. He's
still on date for February 13, but he is still struggling to come to
church.

We didn't see Oscar Rodriguez or Chakita at church either so that was
a bummer ): seems like all of our investigators have been dropping
like flies this week. I don't know where that expression came from,
I've never actually seen a fly drop... But anyways it seems we're
almost back to square one as far as investigators go. But we've seen a
lot of great success with the less active members in this area. We
have a lot of great member support in this area.

There's a member here who owns a restaurant and there's a dessert
called the kitchen sink. It was super good!
Tender mercy of the week: brother Harman, who does cross fit and we
talk about it a lot, gave me his protein!!! He's only used it twice
and he just gave it to me! (: (:
Oh and we also got hit this week while we were stopped at a light. It
happened around 3 and it took up almost the whole rest of the day
dealing with it. But everything is fine (: I kinda shocked that it
actually happened. I had to turn to elder Jepsen and ask if we really
had just gotten hit. It was really funny.
The warmest point of yesterday was 0* so yay for Illinois winters.
Wind chill of -18*

Love to all

Elder Scherer




 

St. Charles - 1.11.16

Good day everyone.

Well this was a roller coaster week. We had some major miracles and some major let downs. It was 2* last night, and again this morning. #gallofbitterness

Well for really great and sad news I heard "In My Place" by Coldplay sometime this last week. It was great, but made me want to listen to more.

So we put a guy on date for baptism this week! A guy named Wilfrido is on date for February 13th! That was probably one of the best lessons I've ever been in since I've been on my mission. It was super cool. The spirit was super strong and he really wanted to read the Book of Mormon and come to church and everything, he was solid!

Well Satan reared his ugly head on Wilfrido.. He committed to come to church and we had a ride set up for him and everything. We left ward council early so we could meet brother Jeppesen there and introduce them. Well brother Jeppesen showed up like 12 minutes late and that allowed The Evil One to step in. Once Bro. Jeppesen got there we called Wilfrido and told him to come down. Wilfrido said that his girlfriend just broke up with him and he didn't want to come anymore. 

OH WELL! I'm really looking forward to this week and what it will bring. This week was really trying in the terms of patience, with myself and others. It's all part of the process of becoming a little better. "Try a little harder to be a little better" President Hinckley.

Love you all!

Elder Scherer

 The Mayne's have a half court in their house!!!!

That was SUPER fun! (:

We had FHE with the Smith's and they acted out the story of Abinidai.

2.0.1.6 in St. Charles

Well Happy New Year everybody! I hope no one broke any commandments
or covenants on that eve. I had a good ole Martinelli's by myself. We
had to be in by 4 pm so we wouldn't get killed by drunk drivers (as if
we had a car). lol Being on foot here in the frigid winter is great.
People are pretty nice here compared to where I was last winter, we
had a couple people let us in for hot chocolate and to warm up, even
tho they didn't want to hear about the gospel.

So this week was really good! We taught 5 lessons!!! That is the most
I have ever taught in a single week on my mission. The work is
hastening here in good ole Illinois. Maybe the curse Brigham Young
left on the state when they were driven out is being loosened! There
was one day, I think it was Tuesday, were we taught two lessons even
before lunch time! It was super sweet, even though both of those guys
dropped us when we came back. But oh well, gotta respect the agency of
others!

We were finally able to get in contact with Tammy, one of the
investigators the sisters who were here before us taught. That was one
interesting experience. I was on a companion exchange with Elder
Wilson, our district leader, when we met her. She is probably like
55-60 years old. She was flirting with us a little bit. She called us
cute probably 8 times... She tried to invite us in a couple times, but
we couldn't because she was the only one home. She felt bad that we
were out in the cold so she made us hot chocolate while we shoveled
her walkway and porch for her. She opened her garage and told us to
come inside while we drank the hot chocolate, but we didn't feel
comfortable with that so we just stood on the driveway and drank it.
Then her husband pulled up and was like "Hey it's the mormon boys!"
They loved the sisters, they had them over like 4 or 5 times for
dinner and stuff. The sisters only taught them once so I don't know
why they kept going over there. So we went inside now that the husband
was home and he made us steak tacos, which were really good. We talked
to them and taught them about the atonement from the Book of Mormon.
They go to a mega church here with 7000 members and they didn't want
to come to our church. We are going to try one more time, but they
don't seem very interested at this point, but it was an experience!!
It doesn't actually sound that good now that I write it down, but it
was just super weird.

A less active family had us over for dinner because we asked if we
could have a lesson with them. THEY FED US POPEYE'S CHICKEN. It was a
heavenly meal. There's nothing I love more than Fettuccine Alfredo,
fried chicken (especially Popeye's), and brownies (which by the way
another family fed us brownies with double fudge brownie ice cream so
this week was wonderful in the regards to food). BUT anyways we taught
the Hedberg's and they want to get to the temple. We told them to
start with the fundamentals of reading and praying and coming to
church (CPR - church, pray, read). They committed to doing those
things, but then they didn't show up to church.. ):

We had two investigators committed to coming to church this week and
neither showed... I haven't had an investigator come to church since
September!! What is the deal! haha BUT we did see three less-active
members that we've been working with come to church so that was
awesome!

We taught the high priests group lesson yesterday in church so that
was neat. We taught them how to use Preach My Gospel in their home
teaching. The ward struggles with home teaching here so the High
Priest Group Leader asked if we could do that. It went pretty well. If
you don't have a copy of Preach My Gospel or don't use it then you
should listen to or read Elder Ballard's talk about follow up from I
think 2014. He invites all members to use Preach My Gospel. There's a
great quote from President Lee on page 13 about home teaching and
missionary work. I'm not gonna tell you what it is so you'll have to
get a copy and look it up! haha

Well I hope that everyone had a great holiday season! I know I did.
It's 2016, my dark year has come to a close. I come home this year.
What a weird thought. But I still got plenty of time, so no one get
too trunky on me!

Elder Scherer




Well I made this using a quadratic graph. I taped it onto my desk so I
see it all the time. I think it's neat. Love ya!

Christmas Week in St. Charles

Merry Christmas!

I hope we all can take the time to reflect on the Savior and his birth. I know I have felt the true spirit of Christmas this season as we have talked to countless people about the Savior and his Atonement. 

Alma 7:10-14

This week has proved to be a little better than the last. We are getting more acquainted with the ward. The wards are always so strong and the members are awesome up here in the north part of the mission, but the work is generally a little slower because people are more affluent. Elder Jepsen and I have been impressed upon by the Holy Ghost to seek after the Lost Sheep, namely the less active and inactive members of the church. We taught a host of them this previous week and have seen some success in that effort.

The temperature has begun to drop. The lowest I saw this week was 12*. I had to actually put on my gloves and button my jacket... Elder Jepsen is just shivering his life away. I just love the cold, it separates the weak from the strong. I found a brand new, unopened can of Stephen's candy cane cocoa in the cupboard. No one can tell me God's not watching out for us.

I broke out the bike again. It's been about 10 months since I rode that baby. I've got a sore bottom and sore legs. Shimano needs to sign a deal with LA-Z-BOY and figure out how to make a comfortable seat.

I prayed in sacrament meeting. That was the first time ever. It was weird I felt like everyone was staring at me, but every time I peeked their eyes were closed. It was an odd feeling.

Alma 13:20

The scriptures are before you, if ye will wrest them it shall be to your own destruction.

Study the scriptures and look to Christ for they contain the words of eternal life.  I love Peter's question to the Savior in response to His question will ye also go away?, Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal life. If there's one thing I want everyone to know is that I have a deep love for the words of our God as given by his holy prophets.

Have a very merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Scherer

This is St. Charles. 




Pretty small house...

There was one of our cards taped up on the wall of some apartments so
that's neat.

St. Charles 12.14.2015

I got transferred to a new area, St. Charles. It's like the richest place in Illinois. It's been a challenge for sure because we white washed and neither of us have any idea whats going on. The sisters didn't leave any investigators really so we're starting from literally the rock bottom. The only place to go is up and I'm super excited for this next week. This ward is really great from what I've seen so far.

We share a ward with elder Pettey and Elder Golling. Elder Pettey was my zone leader for 3 transfers and elder golling was in our zone as well so I know both of them really well. I'm really excited to be sharing a ward with elder Pettey. He's awesome. But he dies at the end of this transfer ):

My companion is fresh out of training. He's got a great drive for missionary work and it's great. I like being around a missionary who is like that. I really miss elder Wells.

On Friday we went to the mission office (finally close enough to where I can do that!) because elder Jepsen had a bike shipped to him. We had to go to a storage shed and I got a blender and a new chair from there. Elder golling was looking through a box of winter stuff and in there he found a pair of gloves and a scarf that I left in naperville 3 last year! That was kinda funny.

Last night there was a Christmas devotional sing-a-long at the stake center. It was great. I wanted to share a great experience I had there. We were singing What Child Is This with the whole stake and it was just so powerful. I teared up a little bit because I've only felt the spirit that strong a few times. It was wonderful.

I like being back up north here in the mission, but I kinda forgot how anal missionaries are about the rules up in Naperville. They're all so close to president that they're all mega fake and brown nosers. They all just need to chill. Still be obedient because that's the first law of heaven, but they need to chill.

Elder Scherer

Me and Margaret last Monday before I left Morton.

Brother Monson's house. Sister Griffin wanted a
picture of us "working" so we took this one of us knocking on his
door.

And this is the lamp that I got!

Transfer to St Charles

I'm getting transferred to Saint Charles West!

This was a short week since we went to the temple last Tuesday. Pretty
much everything that happened was in the pictures.
I'm petty sad I am leaving Morton. It's the same feeling as when I
left Naperville. I am really going to miss all the members here. We
are just beginning to get a lot of traction here in Morton south.
We've got a growing teaching pool with a lot of solid people in it.
I'm sad I won't get to see them through. I will be praying hard for
the Grimm's, the Hawkins', Linda, Daniel, Michelle, and Ben. I
probably haven't told you a lot about them, but they are all the
people we have been working with.
This is the most difficult thing about a mission. I don't mind the
slammed doors 300 times a day, the people who try to tell me I'm
wrong, or even the protesters (which by the way I hope you all got
those links I sent!), but leaving an area where you've grown to love
the members and people is so hard. Feels like my heart is being ripped
again and again.

Love you all (: don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Elder Scherer

Brother nance let me do some pottery in his barn! I made a bowl and he
is going to fire it and send it to me! I haven't done this stuff since
high school (:
Here's me and the Nance's!  I promised I would come back and see them and they said they are going to come out to Utah so I can teach Cameron to snowboard! I'll get to show off
on Cheryl (my snowboard) for somebody (;

Jo drove up from Galesburg and took me and elder wells out for lunch
and gave me this monster!

We went into an apartment complex and we saw an apartment that already
had one of our cards on the door so we went back the next day and gave
them the DVD and gave them our phone number! Then the Nance's took my
iPad and took a selfie. I'm going to miss this family