1/29/18 - Heavenly Father's Team

Hey family and friends! This week was interesting to say the least...we had some problems with some elders...glad they’ll stay in the mission, lots of crazy stuff. Also being the last week of transfers there were a lot of meetings with the office missionaries and President and Sister Tavares.

As far as work is going we are seeing some progress. We are teaching a mother and her 20 year old daughter from Angola. They really want to be baptized but don’t have a break from work on Sundays.  We will talk to their bosses this week. Also Antonio is progressing but has some problems with the commandments that we are working on. Also, Paula and Nilton went to the government office to be married but still have more to do before they can. They have a great attitude about it! They are a great example of just putting faith in the Lord and knowing that he’ll bless us.

We had dinner with President and Sister Tavares with all the office missionaries on Sunday. They asked the missionaries who were leaving the office to tell their funny stories and experiences while on the mission. Man, I feel like the mission is just 2 years of awkward moments!

The spiritual thing I relearned this week is that we are on the team that will win in the end. There are angels on our side that are there to help! When we were teaching Antonio I thought of this analogy I always used as a kid... we can’t wear both teams’ jerseys in the game of life. We need to choose which side we are on. When we choose we have a better vision of where we need to go and what we need to do. Of course, in the game we will make mistakes and fall down but the thing that is important is the team we choose to be on, Heavenly Father’s team....the team that we know will win in the end.

Until next week, 

-Elder Herrmann

1/22/18 - The mission is the good life!

Hello family and friends! Another great week. We did a lot of traveling as we had 3 zone conferences. On Tuesday we had zone conference in Setubal (an hour from Lisbon) and on Wednesday we had another in Amadora. Both went well. That night after the conference we stopped off to visit with a young man named Antonio.  He moved into our Mem Martins area a little time ago, and was being taught in another city. We talked with him about Christ and his relationship with God. He is a really cool guy who has a lot of potential!

Something really funny--there is this guy we have been teaching. Every time the lesson was spiritual, we would invite him to be baptized.  And everytime, his dog would pass the worst gas! This dog did it 5 times! Talk about opposition!  :) Every time, all we could do was laugh!

Thursday we worked the whole day in the office on paperwork.  We went with the office secretaries to an all-you-can-eat sushi place and it was soooo good! It reminded me of the sushi crew back home. That night we went to the airport to fly out to the Azores Islands, to see how the work is progressing there in the middle of the atlantic ocean!   Our plane was delayed so we arrived on the island at 1:00 am--I was so dead in the morning, but we had our last zone conference there. The message of President Tavares was super good. He showed us many places in the scriptures where people feared God more than man, or put their faith in God to overcome man. It was really good! My favorite was in 3rd Nephi where it talks about how the Nephite leader got a horrific letter from the chief of the robbers saying that his men were going to destroy and murder them.  But he would not be intimidated since he had God on his side. Other examples were David and Goliath, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego-- man these guys were studs! I hope to be like them!

While we were in the Azores, we got a call from Nilton, who was super excited saying that he had received the documents from Angola to get married! Now we are working on the rest of the process to get them married and then baptized!  This is such great news!

The scripture that I’ve been pondering from my study of Christ is from Moses 7:53, “And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith—I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate, and climbeth up by me, shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy.” Take some time to ponder—so much meaning there! 

The mission is the good life!

--Elder Herrmann

1/15/18 - So many miracles & baptizing Beckam

This week all I can say is wow...so many miracles! Nelson’s whole family was baptized this week--all 6 of them! It was so amazing. I have never met a family like them. Even though we were teaching them, we would always leave the lesson feeling like we were the ones being taught. They are a super special family who really have been converted and have been touched by the Holy Spirit to know the gospel is true. I could leave my mission right now and feel happy because I was able to teach their family. They already know more about the church than most members! The baptism was super special, I got to baptize Beckam who is 14 years old. I told him that in a couple of years he'd be doing this as a missionary and he was super excited. Other good news we received was that Nilton and Paulas documents have been sent! So we will be getting them any day now! 

This week we started our zone conferences, which we focused on, “The Plan of Salvation”. We did one in Lisbon and one in the Algarve and they went smoothly.  This upcoming week we have 3 more to do. These last two weeks we have been in the car so much going from one area to another that I feel like I have completely become a Portuguese driver...no patience and crazy maneuvers.

The temporal thing I learned this week was how to make a real Brazilian BBQ. President Tavares’ son and Vitor showed me how, so get ready for when I get back!

The spiritual thing I’m working on this week would have to be the challenge that my Dad told me about and suggested I do.  He explained that last year President Nelson gave the young single adults a challenge to study the 2200 references in the standard works that talk about Christ. I have accepted and am studying 12 verses every day to stay on track to finish by the end of my mission. I feel like I have come to know my Savior personally and so much better through my mission and am excited to learn more because of this study. I love my Savior and his gospel!

Love you all!

-Elder Herrmann

1/8/18 - "Let's go get a hair cut"

This week was incredibly busy but super good. We did 10 workshops with every missionary in the mission (except the Acores). We started it off going to the Algarve late Monday night then we did two workshops on Tuesday and got home to Lisbon late at night. We then woke up and drove an hour to another zone and did two more workshops then went home slept, next day repeat and repeat. Workshops usually take 3 hours a session and we did 10 sessions by the end of the week, we just wanted to die. But hey, it's all part of the experience. 

As far as the work is going, we are seeing so much progress. NELSON ARRIVED FROM ANGOLA WITH HIS FAMILY! We met them and they all want to be baptized this Saturday! They are super golden! They loved church and are super ready. We are still waiting for the documents to arrive for Nilton and Paula but they are awesome! They invited us for lunch which was super generous of them considering their circumstances. Man, they are the best. 

We had a cool story this week. We had a little time to do some finding so we went to talk to a member and asked for references. He had already given all the names he could think of to the other missionaries, but after some thinking he said, "Wait, there is this guy that cuts my hair and we talked about my mission in Cape Verde, but he is always working." Then I said, “Well, would you look at my hair?  It is getting awfully long, let’s get it cut.” We went over there and I had him cut my hair. He is from Cape Verde and while he was cutting, I was teaching him the plan of salvation.  He was really prepared by the Lord. But when we invited him to go to church he said he works every Sunday. Feeling a little let down we were getting up to leave, when he came running up to us and asked, “Can you guys keep in contact with me? Maybe you can talk to my boss and we can figure something out on how I can come to church?” Wow, it was a cool experience! It is amazing that when we look to help someone’s life we will get opportunities. But yeah, just a cool experience.

This week we will be having the zone conference. So the temporal thing I’ve learned this week is that we always need to be thinking one step ahead. We were so focused on workshops last week that we didn’t even start to think about zone conferences.  So we will be doing some planning tonight for our trainings. 

The spiritual thing I learned this week was that we need to always have our focus on why we are here on the earth. I’m reading in 4th Nephi how quickly they fell away after CHRIST was there and ministered unto them. It just goes to show how the world has a strong grip on the children of men—us. And that the only way we can overcome this tight grip is through reading the scriptures, going to church, prayer and listening to our leaders. We always got to have our focus on eternal life. 

Today for p-day we went to a trampoline park. It was sweet, then we got some sushi! Definitely a good p-day hah!

Have a good week!

-Elder Herrmann

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