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
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