9/25/17 - Studying > Reading

Another week come and gone. I received the transfer call and I’ll be staying here in Faro for another 6 weeks with Elder Harker. We are excited and hope we will do a lot of good these next 6 weeks! I am also really happy because I love the Algarve and doing divisions in the other areas! 

SO funny story...I was doing a division in Lagos (the coolest city ever) and we passed by one of their investigators whose name is Samuel.  He is from Africa and is one of the craziest guys I’ve met. We couldn’t teach him one thing without him interrupting us. He left in the middle of the lesson and came back with a karaoke machine and started free rapping about Jesus Christ.  Then he left again and brought out a samurai sword?!?!  It was a weird lesson but in the end he felt the spirit and that’s what matters! 

This week was a lot of looking for new people to teach.  Unfortunately Marya and Rafael are not interested but maybe one day they will come back, we planted the seed and another missionary will come and harvest! We have been talking to just about everyone we see and most of the time with no luck but, hey, we will find someone!! 

We have an investigator named Cesar and his 10 year old son, Tiago.  They have been investigating the church for about 8 weeks now. They are so ready to be baptized, it’s just that he works every day in Lisbon then comes down to Faro on Sunday so we literally have no time to teach him. But we had a lesson with him during church...he always is at church so we just grabbed him during the second hour and started teaching him. He told us that he wants to get baptized and will choose a date by the end of this week. I hope we will be able to baptize him in October! 

We also taught this guy that lived in a house with 13 cats! It was so crazy! At the end of our lesson he was screaming, "NO, NO, NO, Churches are all created by man and run by man, Catholics have the pope, the Mormons have the guy in America, and the Latter-Day-Saints have the guy in Brazil!" The look on his face when we told him the "Mormon church and the Latter-Day-Saints are the same church was priceless!

Something really funny that happens a lot is that I’m stopped on the street by people who ask me if I am Brazilian.  When I tell them I’m from America they all say, “Huh?” I guess I just don’t have an American face :( 

My spiritual experience this week is nothing new. It is a simple truth we’ve heard a million times but I just want to testify that it is essential that we read our scriptures and pray every day. I see over and over again that what I read in the scriptures and learn in the beginning of my day helps me with the problems I face. It’s so simple... we have all that we need in 600 pages! I KNOW without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ and that through the Book of Mormon we can know what our purpose is in life. Being a missionary has opened my eyes to a whole new world. Before my mission I "read" the scriptures, now I "study". The difference between reading and studying is our desire or intention to get something out of it. If we just read it, it is so much harder to apply the stuff we learn. But when we STUDY the Book of Mormon and apply what we learn it ultimately will change our lives. MAN, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!  

Well, the mission is sweet, life is good, and the gospel is true!

-Elder Herrmann

9/18/17 - The Holy Ghost Wins

This week was great! First off I’ll share a funny story…so it was 9:20 at night and we decided to knock on this door of one of the contacts we made earlier... we rang the doorbell in front of the building and the button got stuck and rang for like 10 seconds. We were expecting someone to scream on the intercom telling us to go to you know where...but all we heard was this weird moan like "ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", and then it cut off.  My comp and I looked at each other and then we heard the intercom again and this creepy voice say, "Ughhhhhhh LUCIFER!" My comp and I had no idea what was going on when the voice started yelling "ughhhhh LUCIFER, LUCIFER, LUCIFER!" They were obviously having a good time at our expense and we started laughing. Super strange--never a dull moment on the mission!

I would just like to give a shout out to my wardie, Mallory Madsen, who gave her farewell on Sunday and is entering the MTC next week! In 6 weeks she’ll be here in PORTUGAL serving! I am super excited for her and know she’ll be such a great missionary! 

This week there was a lot of craziness!  We had two divisions/splits with the two areas that have cars. Since I have my European driver’s license I drove those two days!  Now I am left wondering, “HOW AM I NOT DEAD?!”  The drivers here are crazy, literally, they have no fear or caution. Also, the Portuguese created the weirdest road system with many one way streets that are super narrow. One place I went was Albuferia which is one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever seen! It was like a mixture of Laguna Beach which I have seen and Greece which I imagine from pictures.  We taught an investigator who sells tourist items so he’s always on the street and doesn’t have a lot of time to meet with us. So we went to where he was on the street to teach him--in the middle of everyone.  It was weird but a good experience. It’s great how he could feel the Spirit even with so much commotion! 

We looked for new people to teach all week with no luck until Saturday night. We were passing by some people, when I had a strange feeling we should go knock on this building really far away behind the trees.  I thought, “No, that’s completely in the opposite direction of our plans.”  So I kept walking when I felt the feeling again. I thought, “Ok, you win Holy Ghost, I’ll go!” So we went there and started knocking on some doors and had no luck.... but on the last door we knocked there was a little 4 year old boy who answered and started speaking English and then switched to Portuguese. His mom then came to the door and we talked to her and told her our purpose and she let us in. The family is from Brazil but lived in the UK for a long time so they speak perfect English.  We taught her about the restoration and eternal families...she loved it and told us we needed to come back! Her name is Mayra and her son’s name is Rafael.  Her husband is coming back from a business trip so we will teach him as well. It’s just so amazing to me, no matter how many times it happens, that the Spirit really knows where to go and we just need to follow him!!!

I have now been here in Portugal for a full year!  I LOVE THE MISSION, IT TRUELY BRINGS HAPPINESS!! 

-Elder Herrmann

9/11/17 - Diogo's Baptism!

What a week! Diogo was baptized a member of the church on September 9th! The whole story really is such a miracle.  Two weeks ago we found him and now he is a strong member with a strong testimony! It just goes to show that the Lord really does prepare his children! Before the baptism we were filling the baptismal font and I was reading the scriptures and just felt the love of God so strong in that moment, we are doing the most important work on this earth. Our calling is so sacred and so special.  I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary! Diogo got there early and was super excited.  The baptism went really smooth and he was so happy!

This week we also had our zone conference, every zone conference just gets better and better. President Tavares said was that our life is like an arrow and our mission is the bow...the bow will be stretched back if we really do everything we can to be the best missionary we can be.  If we just pass time here or don’t do things with real purpose we are barely pulling back the bow and thus the arrow won’t go far.  I need to do everything in my power to apply the things I am learning here...so I can change eternally!!

Also Sister Tavares talked about how we are the shepherds of the sheep but we are also still sheep ourselves. We need to do our part as sheep and follow our shepherds (Christ and the prophet and our leaders) AND we need to lead our sheep (investigators, members, friends, and family) to Christ, the shepherd of us all! Sister and President Tavares are the best!  I love them so much, they are like my second parents and I feel like I can talk to them about anything!!

We are working in our zone to have 13 baptisms in the month of September as part of our goal to get a stake here.  There is a lot of opposition and as of now we have 2 baptisms out of 13.  If things work out as we hope we will have 6 more this next week and then only need 5 more for the last two weeks! Pray for us!! We can do it and build a stake here!! 

Today for Pday 12 missionaries went on a hike to these sweet waterfalls.  My comp and I hiked to the top, about 15 or 20 feet above this big pool of water. Everyone was taking pics of us up at the top when my comp slipped and fell down the water fall into the lake.  He was fine and I’ve never laughed so hard.  It was really funny especially when we called Pres Tavares and explained what happened.  He just laughed and was happy he didn’t get hurt. We all gave my comp so much crap for "swimming".  He was super embarrassed--it was a great p day!

I love this work and this time I have to be a missionary and spread the truth!

-Elder Herrmann

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9/4/17 - Algarve team is ready & loaded

I don’t have a lot of time to write but basically everything is going great here in Faro! This week was super super hot!  We are working so hard to find people but no luck! We didn’t even find one new person this week. I think our faith is being tested because we really put every part of us into this week of work! 

On the bright side our Brazilian friend, Diogo, who came to church last week, met with us every day this week.  We were able to teach him so much and this Saturday he will get baptized! He really is super special. He is already living all of the commandments and is just doing great!

This week we had a funny incident that just proves how golden he is! We were waiting for him in the church and this really drunk less active member came into the church. We tried getting him to leave before Diogo came. But it failed and Diogo came in and being the friendly Brazilian he is, he invited the drunk guy to our lesson. We thought, oh no...this will be a disaster, and it was…BUT Diogo loved the message still and loves meeting with us every night! 

Today for pday we went PAINTBALLING with some of the missionaries in our zone. It was way fun and man, we will take ANYONE on in paintballing…the Algarve team is ready and loaded!! 

--Elder Herrmann

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