Last Week at the Provo MTC (Week 6)

Elder Herman & Elder Gill escape to Sonic!

This week we got our flight plans! I was a little scared at first because everyone got theirs in the mail but me! But don’t worry I got them and hopefully I don’t mess anything up this time so I can actually make it to Mexico! But I am flying by myself! So I am a little scared to get to Mexico and be by myself for a little in the Mexican airport. Pero esta bien! A day before we got our plans Elder Gill and I got to go to the real world! We went to the Mexican Consulate (in Salt Lake City) to finalize my visa. Hopefully take 2 is a success! And while we were out we convinced our driver to take us to Sonic wahoo! Then Thursday was Hermana Skidmore's birthday so that was a little mix up, it was way fun! Before she came in for the morning we were teaching an investigator (our teacher) Leopoldo! It was only like a 15 minute lesson and our first lesson but we set a baptismal date to work for! And the day before we got our other teacher investigator to commit to baptism as well! I know they are just teachers here but it is so special when we get a baptismal date! I can’t wait to actually get real baptisms and see the happiness it brings to people! Then we had our last lesson with Marco! He was our “TRC” investigator, so just a person that gets paid to be our investigator so it has a real feel to it, and I have loved teaching him so much! He is such an awesome person! All that happened Friday. Then Saturday nothing too special happened except we had a sauna thing for the district above us leaving! Those are always fun!

Elder Herman & Elder Gill having a friendly
 Zone Leader fight in the hall between studying.

Also I recently bought a squirt bottle so I can squirt my companion when he falls asleep because yes, it has become a problem. But ya know I didn’t just squirt him when he was falling asleep, so then he wanted revenge so he got a squirt bottle and now we just have some crazy Zone Leader fights in the hallway during our breaks. You could say we are the coolest Zone Leaders ever. :) And don’t worry we still get work done! I am translating the Book of Mormon from Spanish into English and it has helped me so much with all the conjugations and just all of Spanish!

  We had a really good devotional last night. It was Elder Schwitzer of the 70! He covered a lot of very awesome things but the one that stood out to me the most was him talking about prayer. He said a lot of good things about how we should pray. Before we start our prayers we should take a little time and ponder about what the Lord wants us to ask him and what he wants us to pray about and to be very specific about everything. DON’T JUST GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS! Then we need to make sure that we are in line with what we think he wants. Make sure that we pray in ways that we will become better and help serve others. Then ask what he wants us to ask and be specific again for what you are grateful for. Then close in the name of Jesus Christ. Then after we pray we need to go about our days searching for questions we have for our Heavenly Father and look for ways that he has answered our previous prayers. We have to have faith that the Lord is listening to our prayers. He already knows all our thoughts and everything we just need to ask him in the correct ways! Then we must act on our faith and truly try to be better and try to change according to our prayers! Prayer is so important to me and can and should be for everyone! I have a strong testimony that God listens to our prayers and answers them in the ways that will most benefit us. I know that he wants the best for us but we need to first ask and show faith that he will help us. I can promise to anyone that when you pray with real intent and truly are looking for a change or an answer or anything the Lord will help you through everything! Our loving Heavenly Father wants to hear from us every day and once you make that a priority and gain a testimony of prayer you will be blessed and your life will be so much happier! I know that I have been so blessed by the power of prayer and I just want everyone to have the same blessings as me because it makes such a huge impact!

The MTC is so freaking fun! For people preparing for missions and people who are thinking about going on a mission I definitely recommend it! It is a very hard decision to make but it is so worth it! Once you get here it is all about your attitude! I can promise that anyone who goes on a mission and has a good attitude you will love it! Losing myself in the work is so amazing I love it so much. The work really is hard but
when you know your purpose it is so much better! Also I am so grateful for my District and how they have helped me keep my personality and to have fun! This work is so hard but I am so grateful for many amazing people around me! We get lost in the work but we also have fun doing it and that is so important!

Having some fun in the MTC.

Another Temple Picture of Elder Herman.
Last temple time before flying to Mexico City!

Valentine's Day at the MTC 2017 (Week 5)

What's up fam! This week was a little harder than last week but still good! We are learning more conjugations in Spanish and they kinda suck! So that's been hard but I mean it's work right? I just keep thinking everything worthwhile takes work! I'm learning a ton but this week was definitely humbling! Which is good for me every once in while. Also we taught our first Skype lesson and we taught a girl from Argentina and wow. It was so hard to understand her and she was speaking so fast plus we had terrible internet connection so it would cut out sometimes. So that was crazy and made me think I know zero Spanish but it's alright! More motivation to study hard so I can speak to the people of Mexico better! Yesterday was good cause VALENTINES DAY so we handed out Valentines to our whole zone. That was fun and then my awesome mom sent me some sweet Valentines stuff so you know we had a good time! Not much new happened this week but Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke to us last night so that was awesome! One thing that he said that stood out to me was we know what is right and what is wrong. We don't need anyone to tell us what is right or wrong because those who have been baptized have the gift of the Holy Ghost with us! The power of the Holy Ghost is so awesome and we should not take it for granted! It's something that I know I myself overlook a lot because I was only 8 when I got baptized, but as I have been learning how to teach people, we talk about the blessings of being baptized and how awesome the Holy Ghost is and I have learned the importance of it as well! I love studying the Gospel everyday and magnifying all the amazing things we have in this gospel! I love being here so much, the work is hard but so worth it! Sorry I don't have much to say this week but next P day is my last P day in America! I love you all ! Thank you so much for all your support!  You are all awesome!

Week 3 at the Provo MTC (Week4)

Well this week was really good once again! Learning and teaching is so great! So here are some highlights of this last week! So first off we got Marco to commit to baptism on our second lesson! He is such a good guy and he teaches us more than we teach him I think! But it's way fun just talking to him! Then Natalie Smart (Sister Smart) came to the MTC last week and the day after she got here I hadn't seen her yet so at breakfast I was saying my prayer before I ate and everything and I prayed that I'd see her and right when I was done with my prayer BAM she was there! Haha crazy huh! So God definitely listens to all of our prayers even if we are just asking for something simple like that! Then on Saturday our district only spoke Spanish super fun and crazy how we could do that! There might have been some spanglish but still! Crazy how much we know! And then there's this sweet tradition that whenever a district leaves we do a sauna thing in the showers! We block all the vents and the entrance with bed sheets and tape and then turn the showers on as hot as they can go and it gets so hot it's so fun! But it was sad because that district left:( it had our old Zone Leaders in it and everyone in that district were such good examples! Other than that nothing really special happened! 

Elder Hinton & Elder Herman.
Elder Hinton was our old ZL and he is such a stud! 

Yo quiero compartir mi testimonio en algun espanol es no perfecto ahora pero yo se la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdad yo se Dios ama nosotros mucho! Estoy muy agradecido por la oportunidad a servir un mision! Es muy diverdido y feliz! Yo se nuestros Padre Celestial tiene un plan por todos las personas y El es siempre esta con nosotros! Yo se Dios respuesta nos oraciones! El poder do oracion es incredible y tengo muchas gracias por este en my vida! Vida aqui es deficil a tiempos pero con Padre Celstial todo es posible! Y mediante Jesu Cristos expiacion podemos regresar a vivir con El siempre en la vida eterna con nuestros familias! Estoy muy agradecido por ustedes apoyo! Y tengo muchas gracias por bueno ejemplos en mi vida! Me encanta estar aqui en el CCM y haciendo el trabajo de Dios! Estoy muy animado a                                                                                    ensenar las personas de Mexico y hablar con ellos de la                                                                                      felizidad este evangelio brinda! 

I still have a lot to work on but I really love talking in Spanish! ​​

Les quiero!

 

Week 2 at the Provo MTC (Week 3)

Elder Gill & Elder Herman

​​Crazy how fast the time has gone by but at the same time it feels like I have been here for so long! Everyone says the days are like weeks but the weeks are like days and that is so true! But don't worry I still love it here so much! The spirit is soooo strong and testifies of the truthfulness of this gospel everyday! Our district has a little saying "Todo dia cada dia" - all day everyday! The spirit is definitely with us todo dia cada dia! The Spanish is coming along great I can understand so much now it's crazy! And our first investigator "Salvador" is one of our other teachers now and he's awesome! His name's Hermano Katchner. Our district is still awesome, I love them so much! And me and my companion are going to be the new ZONE LEADERS next week! Woohoo! I can't wait to help out our whole zone more! I'm really excited for the opportunity to become closer to everyone and try to serve everyone as much as I possibly can! I've grown so close to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ it's crazy! My testimony is forever growing! God shows of his love so much everyday I can't even comprehend it! I just feel so blessed to be where I am, doing what I'm doing, and to be with so many amazing people that strengthen me and help me daily! We taught our first TRC yesterday, it's kind of like our first lesson with an investigator kinda. They say the investigators could be members or not so it's kinda scary! But it was soooo good! I loved every second of it! The investigators name is Marko and he's so awesome I already love him! But I felt the spirit so strongly during the lesson! I don't know if I have ever felt the spirit so strongly in my entire life! We were talking about Joseph Smith's first vision and it was incredible! I could pretty much say everything I wanted to which is crazy! I've been here for two weeks and I can already teach a full lesson all in Spanish! The gift of tongues is unreal and again I'm reminded of how awesome this gospel is todo día cada día! I've been hanging out with the other districts a lot more lately too and they are so fun! Oh ya I almost forgot the best part! Hahaha I cut Elder Clarke's hair yesterday! It was a fun experience haha. It actually looks pretty dang good except I accidentally messed up a little so there's a little hole in his hair but está bien! It is really crazy how much I have learned in just two weeks! I am truly looking forward to two years of this!​​

Elder Herman & Elder Gill

Elder Jake Herman & Sister Jace Raymond

Elder Jake Herman & Sister Jace Raymond

Elder Herman's brother and sister-in-law, Bryce & Mary, had a baby boy today!  He weighs 7 pounds 9 ounces and is 19 inches long.  It was fun that he was born on Jake's P Day so we could let him know right away.  We are waiting to hear what his name will be.