4.11.16

Well another week down I guess. Seemed to go a little quicker than most because it was a day short since our preparation day was moved to Tuesday last week. Everything went well this week as far as numbers go, but I definitely hit a valley mentally. I had a few of the Aggie fight songs or whatever in my head. Getting too excited I guess.

[Show me the Scotsman who doesn't love the thistle.

Show me an Englishman who doesn't love the rose.

Show me a true blooded Aggie from Utah, who doesn't love the spot where the sagebrush grows!]

I've never gotten so many referrals in my whole mission as I did this week. We got a total of 9 and we have contacted 4 of them and we're working on the rest.

Last night was tough, we had to drop one of investigators, Carolyne. She said she just wanted to stay baptist. I think there was some external pressure from family not to join.. She accepted a baptismal date without hesitation a few weeks ago, but has now decided to not continue to learn. We also talked to a guy named William last night. It's the second time we met him and he is the most genuine man I've ever met. He was touched when we offered to help him clean his house or take out his trash. He said he hasn't heard someone make an offer like that to him in a long time.

We had a mission wide fast yesterday. Starting Saturday night at 9:30 the whole mission was to pray all at once and ask Heavenly Father to open the hearts of the people of Illinois. The whole mission is struggling to find new investigators. We fasted yesterday and we also had stake conference for the Peoria stake. That's my third time having stake conference in Peoria. I got to see Jo and a lot of the members from Morton and Galesburg. I didn't get to see Margaret there, though, so I was pretty bummed about that. There was an elder from the second quorum of the seventy, Allen F. Packer. If I understood correctly he is president Packer's son, but I heard a few different things so I'm not sure. President and Sister Griffin also spoke. Sister Griffin invited the whole stake to join with us as we concluded our fast and pray at 9:30 again and plead for the doors to be opened. Something is going to happen if we have 180 missionaries plus a stake of Zion praying all at once!

I preached a sermon about obedience and honesty to myself last night. As a district leader you have to collect all the key indicator numbers from the members in the district every Sunday night and then report them to the zone leaders who then report to the assistants who report to president all the numbers. There's a few Missionaries counting numbers wrong this whole transfer. I don't want to judge them, but it seems like they're stretching the truth a little bit in order to count more numbers. We're trying to help them because they're struggling a lot, but we're struggling to help them. Anyways I got so fed up after weeks of this so I gave the phone to elder Williford and I went into the other room, grabbed my scriptures, and preached to the wall about obedience and honesty. I used for a text Articles of Faith 1:3, 13 among other scriptures. It was a fantastic sermon! I wish I had more of an audience.

Remember

"Sin is the result of deep and unmet needs." President Kimball

Elder Scherer

Weekly 6.27.16

It's crazy that is preparation day, again. Seems like every other day is preparation day now. I only have 20 Sunday's left...

Well this was a good week. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Golling. That was a blast. Right at the very tail end, before we were about to exchange back, we knocked on a door and guess who was inside! Sharon Arnold! The exact lady who ran into us a few weeks ago in the Taco Bell drive thru! What are the odds? Her husband actually let us in and as we turned the corner I saw her, didn't recognize her at the beginning, but she noticed me and said, "are you from canton?" It was pretty cool. We found out she is interested in family history and she knew that the Mormons were big into family history. We told her that we would come back in a few days and teach her why we are interested in family history.

We've still been teaching Robert Baler and Verna. Haven't really broken any ground. Sounds like it backslid a little bit on the last meeting, I wasn't there because I was in Pekin for the day. We've been taking a member with us that has a similar background, but he honestly isn't helping much. He doesn't believe that preach my gospel works. He calls it the "Utah Conversion tool". He says the brethren don't know what it's like out here and we have to do it differently. HAHAHA! I'm gonna tell him to listen to elder Rasband's talk, Standing with the leaders of the church from this last conference. It's been real frustrating. He also told us he went to a grove in Nauvoo to pray for how to teach this guy. He came up with a "short discussion", as he called it. Anyways it's been really dumb, but that's about the maximum member missionary work I've seen in this branch so I guess I aught to be happy that he is trying to help. (:

It's still hot. 

Jacob 1:19

3 Nephi 5:13

Romans 1:16

Elder Scherer

Corn blown over by wind storm

Elder Golling

Home burnt down. Wife didn't make it

Bass Pro Shop

First Exchange - 3.28.16

I conducted my first companion exchange this week with Elder Western of the Pekin West area. He is being trained right now so it was fun to be around a younger missionary. He has a lot of enthusiasm and wants to talk to everyone and share the gospel. I was thinking back to how and what I was when I began my mission. It's amazing what the Lord can do with raw materials, he can shape them any ways he wants/needs to. It's great to look back and see the gradual change from the first to the second, the second to the third, and the continuation of becoming and striving to be the fourth missionary.

I've learned a lot this week. The biggest is to not put off counsel you receive from leaders. A few things have come together where I have realized (Do you not realize I have had diarrhea since Easters?* There's a little Easter joke for ya) the importance of heading counsel given by those who you are under stewardship. I was talking to President Griffin in an interview about 5 or 6 months and I was telling him about some struggles I had and about things that were going on in our area. He suggested I read the talk that I have attached to this email, The Fourth Missionary. I said okay, he sent it to me for me to read, and then I brushed it off or forgot. Well he sent it out to the whole mission just a little bit ago and I reminded me that I never read it. But then again I forgot. Only just the last couple weeks have I read and studied it and it has made a huge difference. I wish I would have read it before when he counseled me to. I can imagine the vast difference it would have made. But nevertheless I am where I am today and I can't change the past. Through the grace of Christ I can and will change. (You should all read "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox)

We had an awesome lesson with Rita and Crystal. We taught them the plan of salvation based on a few questions that they had. They are now on date for April 30! Everyone pray that they will keep that date and that Crystal's boyfriend Joey will want to be baptized as well. He is always there for the lessons, but doesn't want to even read or anything, but I think he's softening a little bit.

The branch life still is weird. There aren't a whole lot of members to call upon when we need someone to come to a lesson with us. I'm beginning to feel a little better about being here after
reading/singing hymn 270 everyday.

I gave sister Lynch a blessing yesterday. She is confined to an old folks home. It was the most powerful blessing I've ever given. It was awesome (:

Hope ya had a great Easter Sunday and have a good week.

Ps we are going to the Nauvoo temple next Tuesday so our preparation day will be moved. So no one get scared when they don't hear from me (;

Pps Remember to laugh and I'll try real hard to get a funny story this week.

*Elder Williford had never seen Nacho Libre. I have basically quoted him the entire movie and he thinks it's hilarious. He said that's the first thing he's going to watch when he goes home. I have succeeded.
Elder Scherer
:Long Live the 3 er's:

 Golf ball size hail from the tornado

Warnings from the tornado

Canton: Week 2 3.14.16

I made it another week here in little canton. This was better than last. I'm starting to get a better understanding of the area and the members. I've offended a few of the members this week. I've discovered that many don't even read the Book of Mormon. I've been challenging them to read it and telling them how important it is. I've been trying to be more bold; I really don't feel like I've been overbearing. If they're offended, then they need to repent according to president Brigham Young.

We found 3 new investigators: Robert, John, and Carolyne. Robert was a former investigator that we stopped by and he let us in. He has a lot of struggles and didn't fail to let us know ALL of his sins. Haha John Moore was a media referral from a long time ago that showed up again in our areabook as uncontacted. We went there and I remembered I actually contacted this same guy almost a year ago when I was serving in Galesburg and went on an exchange with a district leader to canton. Carolyne we met when we were going to an appointment with a less active family. That appointment fell through and right across the street there was a family outside playing bean bag toss. We talked to a guy named Jeff. He said to come back on Tuesday so we did and he was asleep, but his mom, Carolyne, answered and said we could talk to her. We taught her again on Saturday and she is on date for baptism for April 23!!!

She came in on Saturday to teach Carolyne and she said as we were walking in, "I was baptized in the baptist church and I'm gonna stay." Without thinking I just walked right in her house past her and said, "that's okay Carolyne, we'll just read the pamphlet we gave you last time" and sat on her couch. Well we didn't so much as crack open the pamphlet! Haha we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and put her on date. She said she knew Joseph smith was a prophet and knew it was
true. We just fractured her testimony of her other church so she tried to justify it back to herself by saying she was baptist.

We had a pretty intense lesson with brother Goldsmith, who is preparing to go to the temple. He doesn't believe in a lot of the doctrines of the church including the fall of man, or Adam and Eve in
general he doesn't believe. I am in no position to make the judgement, but he is totally not ready for the temple. His home teacher went with us and was even saying a lot of false doctrine about Adam and Eve. It was just a bad scenario. They both get the Golden Helmet Award.

I gave a talk on Sunday. It went pretty well I think. I was supposed to talk about missionary work, which I did, but I used the latter portion of it to talk specifically about the Book of Mormon and the doctrinal restoration. I ended with, "Joseph and Hyrum Smith did not give their lives so we could tell the other Christians that we're just like them."

Elder Scherer
:Long Live the 3 er's:

Canton, IL 3.7.16

Well I'll start with the good news, Jo got endowed on Saturday!! That was an amazing experience. I'm so glad I was able to be a part of that. She was just beaming and was just so happy. It was great to see someone so happy. She is awesome.

We rode to the Nauvoo temple with the the Anthon's, a senior couple serving in Havana. We had to wake up at 4 and be at their house at 5, which was 32:18 minutes away according to the GPS. That was a struggle! But we made sure to visit the gas station the night before
and grab a few Mountain Dew's for the road. We left the Anthon's at 5 and got to Nauvoo about 7.

Jo's session didn't start until 1 pm so we got to hang out in the temple all day!!! We were able to participate in several different ordinances throughout the day while we were waiting for Jo's session. We were just doing whatever the temple workers needed us to do. We were really busy! All the temple workers were telling us what a blessing we were to them that day in helping them get so much done. I didn't feel like I was doing much, but I was doing what I could.

At one point we got to go down to the baptistery and I was able to perform about 60 baptisms for the dead for a couple of young women that came in. That was the weirdest thing ever! I haven't touched a girl for 16 months and now I had to hold her wrist and touch her back! That was just unnerving almost. Such a strange feeling.... But it was still an awesome experience. I have never performed a baptism before then, whether for the dead or living so that was neat.

Then Jo's session came and that was just super awesome. I can't even tell you how much joy I felt seeing her there and feeling the sweet spirit that is there.

Well besides the temple this was a pretty uneventful week. So elder Williford and I are whitewashing this area. I hate whitewashing. This is the third time I've done it. If you don't know what that is, it's when two new missionaries go into an area that they have never been in before. Usually there is one that stays so he can show the new guy what's going on. So whitewashing, plus being a district leader, have been the experience this week.

There's not much to being a district leader other than we just call all the companionships and ask how they're doing and ask what we can do to help. That part is fun, giving some advice to other missionaries. I also liked teaching district meeting. I love to discourse and unfold the scriptures so it was fun for me to get up and instruct. I'm trying to tread lightly on this because of what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 121:39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will  immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

Well as for the new area, I am not a fan. As terrible as that is to say. I've never served in a branch before. Yesterday at church there was only like 25 people, max. The members here are all super nice, but man it's weird. There's two families that feed us every week. Everyone is super poor here, too, which is completely different from my last area. I probably won't see another Mercedes Benz, let alone another Lamborghini, for quite some time :'(


I felt sick this whole week. Not flu sick or cold sick. It was like sea sick. I feel as if I'm on an island. There's this one little city of 14,000 and then just miles and miles of fields. Plus this transfer is 7 weeks long instead of 6 because of the change in the MTC schedule. That throws off all my plans for the week I get back home and going to the temple on my birthday.

Well on a more positive note we taught Rita and Crystal Filker (mother and daughter) this week. That was a great lesson. It was mostly just getting to know them and what the previous missionaries taught them. They are preparing for baptism. We discussed a date of April 16 and
they were a little unsure about it at first, but after we talked more we were able to discover some of their concerns. Crystal's boyfriend was there, too. I asked him if he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he was Pentecostal. I was like is that what I asked bro? Haha



We had a lesson with a returning member yesterday, the Goldsmith's. They are trying to get to the temple. I have no authority to make this call, but he is far from the temple. His understanding is all mixed up. We shared with him Alma 12:24 and we're talking about how this life is the time to prepare to meet God. Well he stepped on both of my pet-peeves; he interrupted me and he would not shut up while I was trying to teach. At one point he said that the Holy Ghost was a creator. By this point I was livid after my pet-peeves having been violated, I was about to light him up with the scriptures, but I was striving for humility so I simply said, "Brother Goldsmith, that is not true doctrine and the church does not teach that." Then I excused myself and my companion. He also doesn't believe in Adam and Eve. Yeah, the temple's not gonna be a great experience for him. Haha

Anyways, sorry for this long email. I have nothing else to do here. We are all so far apart from each other in this zone that we can't get together on preparation day. So no ball, or anything really. There's nothing in canton.

I'll send some pictures of the temple. Oh and I got some Nauvoo fudge, that was good. Still not as good as Mother Ressa's tho.

Elder Scherer
:Long Live the 3 er's:

.:Tranfers:. 2.29.16

I'm getting transferred to Canton, IL. Third time going down to the
Peoria stake of Zion. I'm really sad to be leaving St. Charles because
the ward here is really great. But good news! Since I'll be in the
Peoria stake again I will get to go to Jo's endowment at the Nauvoo
temple! She was baptized February 28 last year in Galesburg. I'm super
pumped for that!

Well we just started finding people to teach this last week and now
I'm getting transferred, what a bummer! It seems like that happens to
me a lot. Haha we started teaching 3 part-member families and a few
other people.

We had a miracle on Saturday night. It was 8:45, so we were just
getting into the car to drive home for the night. We were pulling out
of the parking lot and there was a guy walking out of the grocery
store. I was in the process of opening my mouth yo tell elder Hadlock
to roll down the window and give the guy a card when he said, "stop
lemme give this man a card." So I stopped so he could give it to him
and he said do you want to know how your family can be together
forever? The guy said, with an interested tone, "I've got 15 minutes."
So I pulled into the next open parking spot and we ran back to where
we left him. His name was Ethan and he said he was thinking about
religion and faith just earlier that day. I felt prompted to ask him
if his religious life is satisfying to him to which he replied, "no".
He was really interested it seemed and he was even saying that it was
no coincidence that we met him that night. We said he would come to
church the next day, but we didn't see him. I'm still pretty hopeful
for him.

Speaking of church we had two investigators there this week, Natalie
and Matthew. It was amazing to have both of them there. We talked to
Natalie for a little bit before sacrament started and then left her in
the hands of sister Monson and sister Hobbs. They took care of her. We
had to focus on Matthew the whole time because he was in and out
making phone calls to his girlfriend, he was really stressed. He just
found out she was pregnant so he was freaking out. After sacrament
meeting ended she, Kanisha, came in for gospel principles. She didn't
want to come, but we convinced her!

WARNING: The next paragraph may seem racist! (But it's not) we'll play
the Tosh.0 game, "Is it racist?"

So Matthew is a mixed child. But Kanisha is full black. Not that that
matters in the slightest degree, but he was freaking out because there
are only like 2 black families in the ward, and while we were walking
out to get her from the car he was like, "wait before we get her I
need to tell you something. She's black as night." I knew he was
genuinely concerned with this so I kept a straight face and said that
that was completely fine. Later I had to excuse myself to the restroom
for a good laugh.

That was pretty much my week.

Ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT JODI!!! (:

Pps Mom, you're gonna be mad, but I just realized there was a Coke
bottling company here in St. Charles and I could have gone and got you
some stuff... Oops (: love ya anyways.

Elder Scherer













Playing dodgeball with the stake president last week.



 Went to a car museum. That Mach 1 tho...



















 1906 Cadillac













The Smith family

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