Elder Chase Herrmann: 12/19/16

Well it’s been another beautiful week here in Tavira! With only a new branch president and no other priesthood holders there is lots to do. It’s a very good learning experience but so stressful. We meet with all of the members and they tell us their problems and we try to help them. I’m getting a little taste of what it’s like to be a bishop and man it’s hard work. Because we need to focus so much of our time on the members and the running of the branch so we don’t have a lot of time to find new people. Like I said we are learning a lot! For example, this Sunday we gave talks in sacrament meeting, taught the 2nd hour Sunday School and also the 3rd hour....

We are working with a recent convert who wants to serve a mission but is having a hard time quitting smoking. We have met with him and have set up a plan so he can quit. We have a lesson with him every day and call him every 3 hours to follow up with him. And at the end of the day we call him to do a prayer together! It’s helped a lot! He quit smoking for 4 days until he relapsed 2 days ago but we will not give up on him! He wants to quit smoking and serve a mission and change people’s lives! This transfer I have seen the atonement change people, it truly is a beautiful thing!

We had divisions this week with the district leaders and man, I love our district leader! His name is Elder Jose da Silva and man is he crazy! He’s Brazilian and has no fear! He has a lot of fun when he works and we worked really hard! He has a cool story too as he’s a recent convert of only 3 years and is the only member in his family! I love talking about life and the gospel with him. We also played a little bit of football.

Friday we had to change comps again. We had to go pick up our comps in his area which is Beja, 5 hours away. So I went on a bus ride for 5 hours to get him and then came back to Tavira for 5 more hours. We had zone meeting this week and it was amazing! I learned so much and there is something different about this zone. Being in Algarve where it is sunny, we feel so full of life and it’s sick!

The work this week was going pretty slow so we decided to sacrifice our dinners to focus more on finding people and the Lord has blessed us for this. We have this investigator named Ryan who is 14 years old but looks like he’s 18. He’s super chill, ripped, and just kind of like the perfect kid! He doesn’t have a cell phone so it’s hard to contact him so we just decided to pass by his house which is a risk because if he isn’t home it is far away and a big waste of time. He was in the house and we talked to him and gave him the 1st lesson. We all felt the Holy Ghost during the lesson!!!! It was so powerful!!! He committed him to baptism on the 31 of December!! One part I loved was after the lesson I said, “How do you feel right now Ryan?” He said, "Happiness!" THAT IS WHAT THIS GOSPEL BRINGS--HAPPINESS!!!

Also my investigator in Miratejo, Luis, is getting baptized this week! I will not be able to be there but I am so happy for his decision to change his life and take one step closer to God.

One thing that was hard this week was the release of the new Star Wars movie...it was hard seeing posters of it. Something I love here in Algarve is that there are orange trees everywhere. They are public and you can just reach up and pick some fruit and eat it--they taste so good.

This Christmas season and all the time I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. I really feel that Christ and what he did for us is the best present ever. My mom would always have us think about what gift we wanted to give to Christ and work on during the upcoming year. We would write it down and wrap it up and put it under the tree. This year I am thinking of all the things I can give him.

I love you all so much and hope you guys have the best Christmas ever!! FELIZ NATAL!!!

-Elder Herrmann

Mission Address and Email Address:

Elder Chase Herrmann

Portugal Lisbon Mission

Rua Jorge Barradas 14C

1500-370 Lisboa, Portugal

chase.herrmann@myldsmail.net