This week definitely had its
ups and downs... on the up side, we challenged 2 people for baptism this week!
On Monday we taught Ryan, a 14 year old Brazilian, who is really amazing. We had
met with him before but things fell through because he went to Porto for a week
and doesn’t have a phone. We finally found him at home and taught him, it was a
really good lesson. He said he wants to be baptized but is worried that he won’t
fulfill or follow through with commandments and church attendance. We worked
through his concerns but told him he really needed to go to church and even
told him we would pick him up on Sunday. This is a big problem in Tavira. For the
8 weeks I’ve been here, we have not yet had one person we invited come to church.
We decided to fast and pray for him, specifically that he would come with us to
church.
We also taught Katia 4 times this week. She is a mom from Brazil
and is amazing. She is really open and
has a desire to follow the Lord. She hasn’t had a religious background so
everything is really new to her. She
read something about “baptism by fire” and thought it was literal and freaked
out. She always has a bunch of questions and it’s really fun helping her
through this process. I love her desire to serve God. We often leave our investigators with a
request that they read a passage from the Book of Mormon to help them build
their testimony but hardly anyone really fulfills our invitations. But Katia is
different. We were talking with her and I
noticed her Book of Mormon was out on the table and she is already in 2nd Nephi!
She said she doesn’t understand a lot, but always feels good after reading it.
We were talking about the Book of Mormon one lesson and she said, "Yeah, it’s
cool an angel visited Joseph Smith in in his room." I was thinking to
myself, “Wait we didn’t teach her this,” and I asked her and she said, "Yeah,
I’ve looked up some more stuff about the book." Every time we go to her
house, we see her testimony grow and see the atonement work through her. She has a baptismal date set for the 18th
of February!
We could not believe we
had two people working toward baptism...committing is one thing but getting
someone to church is another. So we fasted and prayed, then on Sunday went to
her house and Ryan’s house as well. But they didn’t answer. It broke my heart, especially after all our
efforts. The Lord wants to teach us something, but I’m not sure what it is,
hoping to find out soon!
The major down/change
of the week... Elder Alves and I are working really hard and having fun, but on
Friday after weekly planning Elder Alves called President Tavares and told
him he needed to go home. He told him
that there is some business that he needed to take care of that he didn’t
before he left. He told me how he loved these 2 weeks with me but he kept
saying, “I need to go home." I asked him why but he never responded.
President told him to stay as well but he insisted on going home. We were in
our room that night and I was bearing my testimony of missionary work and how
it is changing my life and how happy I’ve been serving God. I pleaded with him
to stay but he said he was going home. This was really hard for me, I felt like
a failure as a trainer and really low for these last couple of days, especially
because I really like him and we were making so much progress.
That night I realized
how much my mission means to me, not only now but also for my future. I read a
talk by Elder Holland that my Dad sent this week and it talked about how your
mission effects your whole life. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be
here and know that it can change my life.
The last 3 days have been
difficult because Elder Alves knew he was going home so he was not motivated to
work much. I dropped him off at the bus
station today, and am waiting for my new companion, Elder Taggart. He is from Pleasant
Grove and I actually met him in my first zone conference. I remember thinking, “Wow, I want to serve
with this guy!"
I’ve been reading in
Mosiah where King Benjamin gave the BEST talk of all time. My scriptures look
like a coloring book because those few chapters have so many good things highlighted.
From a personal viewpoint, I am grateful for my mission so that I can learn and
grow and come back even more converted...that’s my goal. I love Portugal and am excited for this new
week…new companion, new experiences, new challenges, and new miracles!! BRING
IT ON!!!!
I love you all so
much! This is gospel is freaking true!!!!
-Elder Herrmann
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| Elder Alves and I |
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| With a guy that acts like a statue |
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| The farthest point of Portugal. The other side of the river is Spain. |
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