Elder Chase Herrmann: 10/10/16

This week was strange to say the least!! So first off, we were planning on Eder’s baptism for Sunday but being a lazy guy and very relaxed he cancelled at the last minute!! It broke my heart. We kind of saw it coming though, he really needs to develop a desire for himself not just his girlfriend, Ana. She is a returned missionary and so strong. He does much better when she is at our lessons and she missed the last few. After he bailed, we had a lesson right after church with both of them. It was really awesome and the Spirit was definitely there but Eder was being kind of a punk so Ana really questioned his sincerity. I felt like I was in couples counseling for a minute. We’ll see how things go and if he really gets baptized on Saturday! I learned the POWER OF WOMEN this week--they are awesome!

Other than that is was a really frustrating week! We had 0 lessons taught and 0 new investigators. This work is so hard when you have no lessons to teach and just do contacts for 9 hours a day with no one wanting to talk to you! But we make it fun and are trying our hardest to find the people that the Lord has prepared to hear our message! My spiritual radar must be off because I get this prompting to GO talk to someone, that he is ready for the gospel, and then when I go talk to him, I get shut down! But yeah, we are talking to everyone and anyone, trying to find someone to teach!!

I am slowly learning things about the people here through lots of observation. They always seem like they are arguing about something. If you didn’t speak Portuguese you would think everyone is yelling at each other but it isn’t true--that is just how they talk. Also, they love pointing and using their hands in exaggerated ways when they speak.

I am having lots of experiences with the Jehovah Witnesses. I’ve seen that they don’t go up to people, instead they set up a stand and have people come up to them. Later if someone doesn’t accept their teachings they put a big X on their door like a sign, "nope they won’t have salvation." When we see them we say, “Hello brothers or sisters,” but they don’t like it because they don’t think we are children of God. Our interactions make me want to UP my game as a missionary!

SO for some reason our ward is awful at singing! We sound like a bunch of moaning dogs, hahaha! I was getting ready to pass the sacrament during the sacrament hymn, and this old lady behind us did not know how to sing at all, she was so loud and bad that my comp and I got this weird look on our faces and looked up to the bishopric who just smiled and shrugged acknowledging how bad it was. It was my first Fast Sunday here and I was really nervous that no one would bear testimony and it would just be an hour of silence. But no, EVERYONE spoke and we went 15 minutes over and it was so powerful! I loved it and felt the Spirit so strong!

One great experience that happened was on Saturday night when I started my fast with a prayer. I just totally opened myself up to the Lord. It really felt like a conversation, and I could feel him listening to me. It sounds so simple but it was such an amazing experience. Talking with God, the power of prayer is so great…to bless others and our own life--that is so cool! The things I use to think were little like prayer and scripture study have come to mean so much to me on my mission!

I am really learning patience here, which everyone knows is definitely not one of my strengths--so this is a good mission for me. Something I do is at the end of every day is look back and identify 5 blessings or miracles so that I can see the hand of the Lord in my daily life. It helps me so much especially when it has been a really rough day. Try it, I promise it will works.

I hope you all have a great week!! I love you all!! Tem uma boa semana!! Um grande braço!

- Elder Herrmann