Milagro (Miracle - Week 8 in Mexico, 14 Overall)

     This week was good! Man, coolest thing happened Tuesday. So we were out working, ya know like missionaries do, and it started raining, then it started pouring. I was the only one with an umbrella and we had 2 other members with us. So we were waiting under some cover and I was like man what are we gonna do? And my comp said we were gonna wait it out. Man who knows how long this could go on, we could be here all night. So I decided to pray, cause my awesome teacher in the MTC, Hermano Kartchner, told us a story like this. So we all huddled up and I said a prayer that we could get home and get umbrellas for everyone in peace and that the rain could slow down. In the middle of my prayer it was like the rain hit a wall literally, craziest thing. Then as we were walking home it was just sprinkling! So cool! Then during the week we set a new baptismal date. Her name is Laura and she already had a baptismal date but she had a baby on that day.. so we had to wait haha.

                               

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      Well since I had this experience with the rain I’m gonna talk about the power of faith. “Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him” 1 Nephi 7:12 The Lord is able to do all things according to His will. He is all powerful if we have faith. Moroni 10:7 says “wherefore  I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.” Something that gets my attention with this is that it is the same today, tomorrow and forever. Think of all the stories in the Bible and The Book of Mormon. All the miracles the people had. Well I think they had a ton of faith and through that they had the power of God. If we can build our faith everyday we can see the power of God in our lives. The power of God is still the same as it was 20000 years ago. How cool is that? We just need to work on having more faith! Man, I know this is true with all my heart. I know God watches out for every one of us and wants us to succeed and grow. I am so grateful to be a missionary and I’m so grateful for everyone who supports me. Love you all and hope you have a good faithful week.  J

                Love, Elder Herman  

Stay Close to the Spirit (Week 7 in Mexico, 13 Overall)

Elder Herman reppin' the "O", and super short hair!

Hellooooo Family and Friendsss! This week was good! First off, I got asked if I was in the Army before my mission, cause ya know I’m huge. Then later I got told I look like John Cena! So ya, you could say I’m feeling pretty good! Also we had 2 investigators at church! Man I wasn’t expecting them. It was Jose Navarete and his daughter. We have been teaching them for 7 weeks now. Haha. Before they were scared to go to church cause they saw something about Mormons sacrificing old guys…Ya.. don’t know where they saw that, but man it was awesome to see them at church!

 Spiritual Thought Of The Week

                Ok so this week I’d like to talk about El Espiritu Santo, the Holy Ghost! I read a talk by Gary E. Stevenson from this conference called “How Does The Holy Ghost Help You?” I think this is a great question because, I don’t know about you guys, but in my life I take the Holy Ghost for granted sometimes. There are 3 things we know about the Holy Ghost: He is the 3^rd member of the God Head. He is a personage of Spirit. And he comes by the laying on of hands or confirmation. These are 3 great points that we all know. The first one is amazing. HE IS PART OF THE GOD HEAD! Do you know how cool that is! He is God's messenger that we always have with us through Baptism! The second one is He is a spirit. If He was not a spirit He could not dwell in us. He talks to us through our spirit. See 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, verse 11 says “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God, verse 12: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God.” WE HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF GOD!! Man this is such a great gift for us. When you actually think about the Holy Ghost it is mind blowing. And to think we can have it with us forever. For God so loved the world he gave his Holy Spirit to them to guide, comfort, and testify of the truth. Haha, little mix up of scripture right there, but man it’s true! We have a constant companion with us because God loves us and wants us to succeed. “Stay close to the Spirit and the Spirit will stay close to you:" Other scriptures from this talk that are cool are John 14:16 and John 15:26. Man how blessed are we! I’m so grateful to have the Holy Ghost in my life to guide me, comfort me, and testify to me that I have a loving Heavenly Father and He wants me to succeed. I hope we can all listen to the Holy Ghost more in our lives. I know we will all benefit from doing so.

 Love, Elder Herman

Zone Conference

    

Way Good (Week 6 in Mexico, 12 overall)

Elder Buhler & Elder Herman

      This week was way good! Man I’m so grateful to be a missionary! How cool is that, I’m a freaking missionary! The work just keeps getting better and better and I love it! We set 2 new baptismal dates! First one was with another American (missionary) cause we had exchanges with another area. Fun fact, both of us only have 6 weeks here! But we survived, which is crazy! Haha, I was thinking how crazy it is that 2 19 year olds could be in a different country speaking another language and survive with only 6 weeks in the country! But ya, we set a baptismal date with a young man named Cristian! He is the first person I have set a baptismal date with! He is super pumped and so am I! Then the next day we set another baptismal date with an older man named Jose! Lol. This one day we taught 3 people who are named Jose! I must be in Mexico! So ya this week was way good, I truly see the work going so much better and it’s a lot easier to have a good time when that is happening! Also our whole District/Zone went to a baptism this Saturday and it was so awesome! We sang “Families Can Be Together Forever” and it was so powerful we had a couple people crying!

Spiritual Thought

       Alrighty so during this week I read the talk that President Uchtdorf gave in this conference, “Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear.” Something us as missionaries try to do is help other people truly feel of God's love. So I loved this! Something I really like about this talk is it says “God is on our side. He loves us, and when we stumble, he wants us to rise up, try again, and become stronger.” We are going to have stumbles in this life but we need to rise up, try again, and most importantly, I think, is become stronger! There is always room for improvement! 

1 John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Do you have a perfect love for God? Because if you do you should not fear! He is all knowing and all powerful! Another scripture for ya’ll Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not nor be afraid of them: For the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee, HE WILL NOT FAIL THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE.” How comforting is this! Our God is with us and He will not fail us! Therefore we should have a perfect love in Him and it will cast out any fear or doubt we will ever have! Man I love that! And I know this is true. I have seen it in my life so many times. I know our Heavenly Father has created a perfect plan for us to grow stronger and stronger each day and I know He is always there for us to help us in our daily life, no matter what we have going on. He is a perfect father who will let us stumble but won’t let us fall too far, if we look to Him for help and have a perfect love in Him.

Love, Elder Herman

Baptism!

SO GOOD! (Week 5 in Mexico, Week 11 overall)

Elder Ibarra & Elder Herman

          This week was SO GOOD! The work is really going and I LOVE IT! So this week was kinda weird cause the last couple days we have had so many people saying hi to us first and starting conversations with us! We found an old investigator on the street and he welcomed us into his home very willingly and really listened to our message! Then later that same day I went and bought a drink in a small shop and the owner asked who we were and everything so we talked with him and set an appointment and it was so good! He is really interested. At first he just wanted to know what we were about but now he really wants to learn more! Then at conference some Elders showed up with someone and they said he is in our area and wants to learn more about our church! WOW! 3 people just came right into our path! I honestly  think the Lord has prepared all 3 of them and I am so excited to teach them more! This also confirmed to me that I am doing the Lord's work and when we are doing everything we can He will give us opportunities! The work is really starting to go and I’m so pumped!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week!

          Ok, so conference was this weekend and let me tell ya it is very powerful when you are on a mission. We got to listen to Apostles of God! How cool is that! Conference has never really meant much to me before, honestly, but man I regret not listening better! I was listening and writing down stuff and thinking, conference is such a great time for personal revelation! Everyone who listens could get something different out of every talk, depending on where they are at in their life, through the Holy Ghost. That is when we learn for ourselves, when we look for the Holy Ghost and think of the thoughts we have, not just exactly what the person talking says word for word. So I really hope that everyone listened to conference and had the opportunity to have personal revelation! And if you didn’t listen you can always rewatch it. J I am so extremely grateful to be serving the Lord right now! I know this church has been restored and we have real life prophets on the earth! I am so grateful for that!

Love Elder Herman  :)