Well another week has come and gone. We started off the week going to the Azores Islands. We arrived there and had lunch with President and Sister Tavares and then we did splits for the remainder of that day with the zone leaders. It is always so special to return to an area that I served in for a zone conference. My love for these islands is so great. I visited some members there to see how they were doing and also my recent convert. I showed the zone leaders where my old investigators lived. Those people were super happy to see me. Now the missionaries are teaching three of my former investigators again!! The next day we had zone conference and it went well, then we headed to the airport. Knowing the weather of the islands, our plane got delayed for a long time so it was great to just talk to President and Sister Tavares. It was amazing because instead of the "president side" of them, we got to know them as just regular people. I love them so much and will forever be grateful for what they are doing here and what they have done for me.
The plane finally arrived late and we got home around 11 pm. We about died because the next morning bright and early we had our last zone conference in Lisbon. It went well and I am so happy that all the conferences are over! The president’s message at the end was so good. He said "pick a time in Christ’s ministry where you could be at his side"... of course I choose when Christ drove the money changers out of the temple. I’m always drawn to the bold Christ. He then said, "okay now imagine that you were with Christ for the three years of his ministry.... would you be converted?? Of course, I thought "yes" but then we looked up a scripture in Luke 22:32 where Christ told Peter, his right-hand man, his best friend and the one closest to him that he wasn’t converted! President then said if Peter wasn’t converted then are we? Wow, that question killed me! Then we talked about what is conversion. Conversion is not a testimony; testimony is a component of conversion. Conversion is a lot deeper than just a testimony. He showed a lot of scriptures of what conversion means and the steps of conversion in Helaman 15:7-8. “7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them— 8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.”
So the steps are:
1. Believe in the scriptures
2. Faith in Christ unto repentance
3. Repentance
4. Spirit changes our our hearts
Another indicator is in Mosiah 5:2: “2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”
Basically we won't have desire to sin. He then showed us that true conversion is when we have the desire to share the gospel and strengthen our brothers and sisters. He then showed us where Peter finally was converted and what did he do? He baptized 8000 people in 2 days!!! Holy cow man! I want that! I love so much learning about the gospel and improving.
This week a funny thing was when I did my dad’s old door approach trick with a really tall elder that was with me on splits. I had him lean against the door with his hand above the door frame holding a Book of Mormon, but the person opening the door couldn't see it. I knocked on the door and this lady opened it and I said, "We are here to talk about a book that comes from heaven” ... then I held out my hands and whack!...the book fell and landed in my hands. Then both of us looked around like "WHAT?". Haha! From the lady's point of view it really looked like it just dropped from heaven. The lady thought it was super funny and let us in! Little did we know that she was already a baptized member and was inactive, but was ready to come back to church! The Lord works in mysterious ways!
In our own area we didn't see a lot of success because we didn't have a lot of time to work there, but it's going well. This week we have the whole week to work in our area. We will be teaching Maria and hopefully she will overcome her problems and be baptised this week. Lets see what happens!
Man the mission is a blast, the gospel is good, and a disciple’s life is sweet! Love you all!
-Elder Herrmann
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