10/23/17 - Zone conference & investigators

This week was really good, we had zone conference which is always the best part of the transfer.  We learned a lot of things but the best part was when President Tavares spoke. He talked about what we need to do to become exalted, everyone was just in awe of the things he was teaching us. 

We have had some set backs....the family of Natalino has completely fallen off the grid and though we tried they wouldn’t set up a time to talk to us all week. Also, Cesar’s baptism fell through because of some family complications...we are just going with faith. But some good news is that we found some people to teach this week! We were knocking on doors and we found a guys named Nelson. Nelson is 26 years old and is actually American, born in the US and then when he was 10 years old he moved to Portugal because his parents are Portuguese. At first he let us in because he didn’t want to be rude but we could see that he didn’t have a lot of interest. After the first lesson you could see his countenance change. He told us, "when can you guys comeback?" We went back the next day and marked him for baptism…the progress towards baptism will probably go slow because he is living with his girlfriend but man, he could be a great leader in the church. While we are teaching him we see him gain more and more desire and interest! It’s so good to talk with him because he is a smart and self-reliant and could really help the church a lot in Portugal.  At the end of our last meeting when we said we needed to go, “He was like, "Wait, already?!" It just shows what the Spirit can do, it’s one of the most special things in the world to watch the Spirit change someone.

We are also teaching a women named Vitalina who we found street contacting. She is really friendly, about 60ish years old and interesting!  She owns a rehabilitation center in Faro and every time she see us she says, "Oh my little boys from God, come on in!" We are hopeful to see her progress! 

The highlight of the week was a meeting with the district presidency in Algarve.  They told us that we are so close to sending our papers into the headquarters of the church to become a stake! We need to do some specific things this week to be able to send in the papers.  We called all the missionaries in the zone who are super excited and ready to go and do!

In the Book of Mormon I am reading about the “Stripling Warriors”.  I love this story so much—their faith, their knowledge that God would deliver them, their absence of doubt!  And I love how God blessed them and preserved them—not one died! I am really working on increasing my faith everyday by doing the small and simple things with real intent! I believe and hope that God will bless our efforts with miracles!

The mission is just too good, I hope you guys have a great week!

-Elder Herrmann

10/16/17 - Knocking down the door

Another great week here in paradise! Even though we had a lot of mishaps and setbacks this last week, it won’t stop us!  I think Satan is working hard because we have experienced a lot of opposition being so close to forming the first stake here! I have been on the cell phone the whole week trying to solve problems.

Some cool news is that for the next two weeks Elder Harker and I have a car to do some divisions/splits in our zone!! Watch out Portugal, WE BE DRIVIN! This week I did two divisions, one with my old comp Elder Santiago in a sweet beach town called Quarteira that reminds me a lot of California. It was good to be back with him working. We taught 3 women from Cape Verde who were sooo cool (see pics)! We taught them about how they can receive answers! They will be baptized this weekend!! We talked to a lot of other people and had a good time.

So here’s the story about the worst day ever for Elder Herrmann.  The night I was working in Quarteira I ripped my pants really bad...so the next day Elder Santiago and I drove back to Faro to get some new pants.  The plan was for me to work with another elder because my comp and his comp went to Lisbon to get some paper work. We went out to the car to find that it was dead.  So we waited about an hour for someone to help us jump-start it.  We drove for 30 minutes to pick up another Elder and dropped off some others.  We finally got to our apartment door when he said, "Oh no, I locked the keys inside! “It was on the 7th floor and the only way to get in was through the front door.  And not only that, but the spare key was with Elder Harker in Lisbon!  I had a meeting later that day in another city and we couldn’t leave and work because of the huge rip in my pants so I got impatient and broke the door down.  I changed clothes and tried to lock the door before we left to no avail after trying for about 30 minutes!  I finally made it just in time for the end of the Branch and then the meeting with President Tavares.  Let’s just say it was a really stressful day…and of course I payed for the door :(   From this bad day, I learned two things...first, don’t rip your pants then get locked out... second, knocking down a door like a boss is fun, but it's not worth it. :)

We also have some discouraging news--Natalino and his family have been a little distant.  It’s hard to teach 5 kids at once while they are all screaming and yelling. We think their progress will be a little bit slower but I still have hope for them even though they didn’t make it to church this week. Also, we still haven’t heard from Lidia.  We talked to Cesar and he wants to be baptized this weekend but he’ll be traveling for work so maybe not.  Pray for him that he and his son can be baptized this weekend!

The best part about being a missionary is the influence of the Spirit! So many times we get impressions that we should knock the doors in a certain building or talk to a certain person and when we do, we see how we were guided to people looking for the truth or for something they didn’t even know.  It really is such a great faith builder and confirmation the Lord is guiding the work through us!

I love the mission so much! For pday we went to a beach in Albufeira during a big storm and it was so cool, the waves were hitting the rocks and beach like crazy!!

Much love!

--Elder Herrmann

10/9/17 - Doesn't get better than this!

What another great week here in the ALGARVE!! This week was so busy but so good! First off, we had the AP’s with us for 3 days while we traveled going to the 3 districts and doing "workshops". Workshops are small meetings with each district where the ZL´s and the AP´s counsel each pair of missionaries to see what they can do better or how they can find more success. It’s a great experience trying to help these missionaries, they help me a bunch with their answers! It was fun traveling to all the parts of Algarve this week with the AP’s…definitely want to come back here with my family!

Wednesday after one of the workshops I went on a division/split with the Elders of Lagos. We didn’t get to teach but we talked to a lot of people in the streets and did a lot of finding! Lagos is known for its beaches, actually last year one of the beaches got rated by Time Magazine as the best beach in the world. For morning exercises we ran to this famous beach and it was crazy beautiful--loved seeing the sunrise!

On our way back to Faro from Lagos the guy who collects money on the train told me he couldn’t accept my debit card. He told me that the train stops in this little town called "Tunes" for 10 minutes where I could go to the ATM and then make it back on the train before it left.  So we got off at Tunes and ran to the ATM when we heard the train leaving! The guy straight up lied to us! So we were stranded in the little town for 3 hours!! It was so annoying but we just had to laugh at it and decide to make the best of it.  We just called a lot of people to make appointments. 

This week we taught a lot of lessons with our investigators and also found more people to teach! We have been working a lot with Natalino’s family! We love Eder who is his 17-year-old son. He plays soccer on one of the development club pro teams! He’s way cool! Our biggest concern was trying to get all 5 of them to come to church at 9:30 in the morning.... this is a big challenge!! So we fasted and prayed a lot this weekend and to our surprise all five of them showed up!! We were so happy! They loved church so much and it was so good to see a family progress together! Natalino who is inactive said that he misses church and he wants to come back.... with his family!! It doesn’t get better than this!! 

Our investigator Lidia, who watched general conference, is doing well. We taught her and gave her a Book of Mormon. She accepted the challenge to be baptized but it super scared of water.  We tried to help her with her fears and then after that lesson we haven’t heard anything from her... she didn’t come to church either... pray for her!

Also, our long time investigator Cesar told us he wants to be baptized on the 21st of October with his son!! What is happening here in Faro!! I am so happy that the Lord has prepared these people and has allowed us to help them! 

This week was crazy good!! I feel like I am hitting my stride as a missionary—it’s just so good. I am learning so many things. I want to eliminate my bad characteristics and improve the good qualities.  I basically like who I am but want to be better. So many times I hear people say, “I want to be like him" or "If I was just like this person instead of myself."  I don’t think this is a good idea.  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ created us and gave us our personalities--so why would we want to be someone else! We all have qualities that can help other people we just need to be on the look out and prepare ourselves so when we are called to the work (or any type of service) we are ready to respond.

I know that my Savior lives and he loves me. He loves every one of us and is ready to pour out blessings upon us... it all depends on what we need to do to receive those blessing! 

FICAM BEM AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

-Elder Herrmann

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