HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I love
Halloween so much but unfortunately here in Portugal they do not celebrate it,
but we missionaries still celebrated! I was a chicken this and my comp was a
zebra. It’s so crazy to me that I’ve been here for 3 months! Slow down the time
please!!!
So this week was very
special because I got to see how the gospel can totally change someone’s life.
Vitor got baptized by the other elders this Saturday. Four weeks ago he did not believe in God, and
now he prays every day. He has had a very hard life and was in prison for 13
years and has all of these tattoos and now he is so happy. It was really a
blessing to see that transformation take place through the atonement of Jesus
Christ!
I received an
achievement award this week, the name of the award is “Captain Underpants.” I received
this award because I knocked on a door and a big fat guy answered it and he was
only wearing his underwear! It was WAY too small underwear for that big of a
man hahaha!
Something that people
here love talking to the missionaries about is politics....because everyone
here assumes every missionary is an American so they always come up to us and
try to talk about the US elections. Many times I say I’m from Canada! My dad
challenged me to try a door approach that worked great for him when he was on
his mission, which was to ask them if we could leave a blessing on their home--and
it worked! One family let us in and after we left a blessing we asked to share
a message and they said yes!! This doesn’t happen that often so I was really
excited! We were half way through the message when the investigator found out I
was American and went on a 45 min ramble about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton!
You might think, "Oh why didn’t you just cut him off?" seems simple
enough... but NO. When a Portuguese man
is trying to express a point he WILL finish, using lots of hand gestures and
yelling. Sadly we had another appointment
so we needed to leave with only half of the lesson being taught, but we will see
him again.
We had divisions with
the AP’s this week and it was so sick! I learned so much from them and how they
do things here!
We experienced a miracle
this Sunday, we walked in the chapel like usual and were shaking everyone’s
hands when I saw a guy I didn’t recognize.
I shook his hand and apparently he wasn’t a member. I asked to sit by
him in the meeting so I could get to know him. I asked him in Portuguese,
"Hey, so if you have any questions about the meeting ask me and I will try
to answer them." He looked at me and said, "No it’s fine, I’m here to
feel peace and calm." Let’s me just say, THIS DOESNT HAPPEN IN
PORTUGUAL!!! Not only that did Luis (his name) stay for all three hours but he wants
to come back next week! We are going to teach him this week. He said he came
because he heard something about the church from his friend and he felt the
spirit nudge him and say you need to go to church this Sunday! The Lord works
miracles!!!
Again this week we got
creative about spreading the gospel. Here you have to gain the trust of people
before they will listen to your message! So we are always looking for ways to
gain trust! This week we saw a guy by the name of David who is 20 years old and
loves basketball. He plays every day by himself and has never talked to the missionaries
before. If we went up and just said, “Hey we are missionaries and we have a
message about Jesus Christ, want to hear it?” He would defiantly say, “Get out
of here!” So what we did was call the other elders in the area and played a
game of pick up ball with him. No mentioning anything about the church. After
we balled out and joked around with him, his heart was softened and he was willing
to hear our message! We have some appointments with him! I gave him a Book of Mormon!
It’s all about being light on your feet and thinking of different ways of
spreading the gospel!
This week I learned a
lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ and what it means to us. I have seen
the atonement work here. I read a really
good talk by Elder Holland this week and he was saying to missionaries that there
is a reason why you wear that name tag and represent him. When you have faced a
challenge, had people spit on you, yell at you, make fun of you, AND when you
cry for people and feel pain it is all a part of what Jesus did on his earthly
ministry. It made me feel loved to know that Jesus knows how I’m feeling and
that I am doing it for him. Also, I want to have this same mindset for after my
mission. When Jesus was resurrected after enduring the worst pain ever, instead
of resting and relaxing he went right to work, teaching the people in the
spirit world. It just goes to show that you that we are never "done"
from sharing and teaching and growing in this gospel! I love the gospel so much
and can’t wait for the challenges I have this week that he can help me through.
Thank you for all of the support!
-Elder Herrmann
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