Hello family and friends! Well
I am here in Faro and I love it! My week has been crazy! Basically I have been
running from one side of Portugal to the other. I left Ponta Delgada Tuesday morning
and the airplane ride was smooth and good. Once I arrived in Lisbon I immediately
left for Faro by car with the Tavira Elders. We drove for about 3 hours and
finally got there late that night. My comp is really great! His name is Elder Harker and he is a really
hard worker. The next morning we had district meeting which went well.
After that we left for Lisbon AGAIN to be part of the missionary council. It was a 3 hour train ride and we slept in the
office in Lisbon that night.
The next morning we had the
missionary council and it went really well! We talked about how we can always have
and keep an attitude to baptize. We also
focused on how to do good follow-ups. After the meeting we were ready to go and
finally work in our area, when President pulled me aside and told me that I
needed to get my European driver’s license for the future in my mission. SO
because of that we stayed all day Thursday and Friday morning getting
my driver’s license. It was super fun but required a lot of work and documents
and dealing with angry Portuguese people in the process. (So I have my European
license for anyone who wants to go to Europe after my mission and needs a
driver!)
Friday before we
left we ate lunch with President and Sister Tavares in this Brazilian place
that was really good. We finally got back to Faro but it was late and we needed
to go to bed. I was a little frustrated
not to be able to get to work. We did
another meeting on Saturday morning with the leaders of the Algarve
zone to try to decide on what we can do as leaders to build a stake here! It
went really well and we all have the same vision to reach our goals. I am way excited!
From my little experience
working here in Faro I’ve learned that this city is HUGE and that the people
are really closed off and don’t want to meet with us. We have made about 150
contacts in 2 days with only 4 people who gave us information....you
gotta love it! It’s like a challenge everyday just to have the people hear
us! We have a great branch with some Brazilians!!
I love Brazilians!!! I am excited to get to work in this area--there is a bunch
of potential! This week we have a
bunch of meetings and divisions/splits with other areas so we won’t have a lot
of time to work in our area again! It’ll be hard but worth it when we see the
progress in our zone!
Today was a really
cool pday. We went to SAGRAS... it’s the farthest point west and south you can
go in Europe! There were a bunch of cliffs and amazing scenery. We went with the AP’s and then after went
golfing with them! It’s always the best pdays here in the Algarve!!
The temporal thing I
learned this week is that Portuguese people are crazy drivers and I am a little
bit scared to drive on the roads!!
The spiritual thing I
learned was that we need to be doing what Jesus wants us to do. It’s easy to get lost in the work and forget
"why" we are doing it. We need to remember that we are bringing souls
unto Christ and the importance of the work.
It is not just like working for a company or a paycheck. This is such a great work and a happy work! I
don’t want the mission to end!!
-Elder Herrmann
