Elder Rulon Udall: Grandpa Sherwood!

I knew the veil was no match for grandpa Sherwood. He could only be held here for so long before he busted his way through to his eternal companion. The world lost one of its last great cowboys today. I am going to miss him so much. He left a lot of good friends, branded calves, and sore elbows down here but I can only imagine how happy he is right now. I am going to miss him telling me and Chantz that we aren't worth our breakfast the morning after football games. I am going to miss him waiting until calves were barely even calves anymore to let us brand them. I am REALLY going to miss the legendary advice he gave me all the time, "That little round orange ball is supposed to go in the hoop" "Save money and buy whiskey" "Do it Damn it". What I am really going to miss the most though is the testimony he had and the example he set. I know that he knew what he knew. I was so thankful that he went to my setting apart. I am grateful for Sherwoods everywhere! I love them both in Arkansas and Arizona. I know this is so hard for Chantz because he loved his Grandpa and was around him all the time. But I know without a doubt that Chantz is "earning it" right now as a missionary. I don't think you could ever find a better friend than a Sherwood!

Well this week was another one of those crazy ones full of surprises and miracles. We went on exchanges with Benton this week and it went really well. Elder Smith and I stayed in Benton and we had some good experiences and some great lessons. Definitely the real highlight of this week was that John was baptized!! It was sweet. This man was one of the elect. Elder Davis and I found him 3 weeks ago and he was working construction at a house. This guy is awesome. He calls us randomly and tells us chapters he read in the Book of Mormon and what he like about them. He bore his testimony at his baptism and said how he knew he wasn't going to be perfect but that he was going to take that sacrament every week until he got it right. He is doing so good and will get the Aaronic Priesthood pretty soon.

So last Saturday night Elder Davis and I had a lesson with a guy named Aarmad. He is sweet! He is going to college and is really smart. We taught him the restoration and he loved it! He was blown away by the apostasy and all of that because the evidence is pretty thick around the south. He goes to a big Church of God in Christ church and after the lesson he was like"man I need y'all to tell my pastor about this." ha ha we agreed. So we may be having a lesson with a pastor this next week. The restoration is so much fun to teach. PMG says we should refer quickly to the restoration and I find that to ring true especially here in the belt! I love teaching and testifying of that message.

Last Saturday before the baptism Elder D and I taught like 15 guys on a basketball court, I bet you know where this is going. We walked up and started talking to them and they weren't really paying us any attention so I threw out a little proposition for them. I said for them to pick 2 of their best players and we will play 2 on 2 and if we win we get to teach them a 5 minute message about Jesus. We were in our proselyting clothes so we didn't really look like much competition and I am sure my red headedness didn't add to our intimidation factor. So we played to 15 and although they were beating us at first we ended up winning at the end. It was sweet! All their friends were making so much fun of them for losing to "Jesus people." So after that we taught them the restoration and we have an appointment with them next Saturday

Elder Davis is getting transferred this week which I am pretty sad about. He is a good missionary and we saw some miracles together! I will find out who I am getting on Tuesday!!