The Lord's Work (Week 27)

Elder Herman, Daniela, and Elder Ortiz
at Daniela's baptism

       Welp what a week! We had the opportunity to have the baptism of Daniela Sosa Flores! Truly was amazing! Our district sang “Families Can Be Together Forever”. I thought it would be good cause about a month ago we baptized her daughter and they were both there so it was really awesome! Then later when Daniela gave a little testimony she said she is excited to bring her husband into the church as well! The only problem is he is in the military so he is never home with them. But it has been so amazing helping this family become members of the church! Seeing the difference in both of them is so awesome! I love being a missionary! J Also our President said we can go to the temple with the Branch tomorrow if we have 4 investigators, wahoo! I am so excited! And we have 4 investigators committed, so please pray that they don’t bail! Also gave a talk yesterday and I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to talk about. I prepared a little but then right before I changed it all up, haha. I was kinda all over the place, but a couple people told me it was just what they needed to hear! So that’s good!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      This week I read a pretty cool talk by Elder L. Whitney Clayton called “Choose To Believe”. He talks about a little 7 year old girl who was in a plane crash and her mom and dad died. She was lost in the wilderness by herself. She saw a light in the distance and fought her way to it. She could have done a lot of other things in this situation or could have done nothing. Think about it she is 7 years old. But she saw the light and had hope that she would be rescued by that light. She knew it, and then she went to it. And ended up finding someone that rescued her. To be able to recognize the Saviors spiritual light we have to be willing to believe! Belief and faith require our personal CHOICE and ACTION. We seek before we find and we knock before it is opened unto us. We will not accidentally come to believe in the Savior and His gospel, we have to seek to find and knock for it to be opened unto us. We must put our beliefs to action. Our actions are evidences of our beliefs. If we look for the light of the Savior in our lives and believe that we can and then put our beliefs to action we can be rescued too! When we do this we are promised the merciful love of God, the healing light of the Savior and great joys! Doctrine and Covenants 59:23 “But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” Thank you all for the support! I love you and want the best for you! Have a fantastic week!

Con Amor, Elder Herman  

Elder Herman, Dany, Daniela, Elder Ortiz.

Having fun and celebrating Daniela's baptism.

Life's Good (Week 26)

Life is good for Elder Herman!

        Another great week of the misión! This week I have felt really close to the Lord and in tune with the Spirit and it has been awesome! I have been so happy. J We were teaching a lesson to Daniela, she is so ready for baptism. It is so cool to see people prepare for this covenant! We were asking her the baptismal questions and she said she hasn’t had one problem to quit drinking coffee, and before she drank a ton! But when we said she couldn’t drink anymore she had just barely ran out of it at her house, and hasn’t bought anymore, and it has been great! Then we were talking about temples and I was getting the chills I LOVE THE TEMPLE! And she seems way interested in it too! And the branch is going to the temple on the 25^th, so hopefully we can go with some investigators! I hope you all take advantage of having temples so close to you! It is such a great blessing to go to the temple. Also our dog that follows us everywhere is attracting every dog in all of Mexico and then they fight over her, so its been a little distracting at the house, and a little tough to sleep, haha, but all is well! 

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      Faith, I love faith! Faith is SO important! Faith motivates everything we do. Everyday we do things with faith that something good will come of our efforts. We work during the days with faith that we will be able to support our families and so on. I like the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 18 verse 19 “And if you have not FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY, you can do nothing.” I’m pretty sure we all want to do something in life therefore we must have faith, hope and charity in all things. Faith is the start of everything. I like to think about jumping off a cliff into water or something. You have to have faith to jump and once you jump you’re home free! Just a couple seconds of faith and you will be free. Whenever I think of hard things I need to do I just think “just start and it will all work out” Like contacting someone on the street. The first part is the worst you don’t know how you are going to start the conversation and you’re worried about how it will go. But if you just jump into it having faith that all will work out the Lord will give you strength! Have faith that when you go about doing good the Lord will bless and strengthen you! I love being a missionary so much! I am so happy because I have the gospel! I love you all so much, thank you for everything!

Con Amor, Elder Herman 

Cambios - Transfers (Week 25)

Saying Goodbye to Elder Wegner.
Elder Wegner, Daniela, Dany, Anna, Elder Herman,
and a cute little girl (I don't know her name).

      This week was good. A Little tough with cambios (transfers) but for the better. My new comp is Elder Ortiz from Colombia he doesn’t speak English so my Spanish is getting real good. J We don’t talk much 'cause we don’t have much in common. Every Latino loves anime and that’s about it so it’s kinda hard to start conversations. But he does like to cook so that is good! We set a baptismal date for a new family we found and they are excited to be baptized and be members of the church! Also, Daniela is really preparing for her baptism which is awesome! She has a lot of support! (Daniela is the mom of the girl Elder Herman baptized a few weeks ago, Dany.) 

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      Ok so with cambios and everything it has been kinda hard. I kept thinking to myself, “Why am I not happy? My life is the gospel and that is happiness right?” But then I realized, just 'cause I’m a missionary doesn’t mean I am immune to hard times! I’m still human, I am still on this earth to learn and grow. If we didn’t have challenges here how could we become the people the Lord needs us to be! I thought “The Lord needs me to be better.” There has to be tests so I can progress! This week I understood the great Plan of Salvation that God has for us! We know it’s not going to be easy. We want to return to live with our Heavenly Father we need to prepare ourselves! My mindset and understanding of life has changed this last week. I am so grateful for opportunities like these! Also something I found that I love is in Hebrews 12:1 it says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. Jesus endured the cross by focusing on the joy to come! This made me go to my Patriarchal Blessing and look for the things that it promises me. I looked for my joy to come in this world and in the next world. Now I can do as Jesus did. I can endure this life by focusing on the joy to come! I want to invite all of you to do the same! Study your Patriarchal Blessing and find all the joy that the Lord has promised to you if you are obedient! I am so grateful to be a missionary and to learn and grow as God wants me to! I love you all thanks for the support!

Con Amor Elder Herman

Elder Ortiz and Elder Herman

Showing off the mountains from home on his planner, along with his name tag.

The Good Life (Week 24)

Happy 4th of July from Elder Herman & Wegner
from Mexico City!

      Well this was a good week! We found a family that contacted some other Elders cause they want their daughters to learn about us Mormons. We taught them and I’m pretty sure they are going to be really good! They came to church yesterday so that’s awesome! Also we were talking to Dany's mom about the Plan of Salvation and then went on to talk about baptism and she committed to a date! If she gets baptized it will be super good for Dany to have her mom a member too! This week I feel like me and Elder Wegner really improved our teaching and because of that the Holy Ghost taught the lessons! It was amazing! Also tomorrow are tranfsers and Elder Wenger is leaving to another area and will be District Leader! I am staying her and will have a new comp!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      This week I have been studying a talk called “War Goes On” by Larry R. Lawrence. It talks about the war in the premortal life. We know that God's plan won! 2/3 of the people in heaven chose to follow our Father and the other 1/3 chose to follow Satan. And the important thing to know is that the 1/3 of Satan's followers are here on the earth with us. They came to the earth to provide opposition for us. But they will not be able to have the eternal life that we will have. Satan's army is trying to capture as many souls as he can before they are done. Satan wants to make men miserable. He targets all men but especially those who have the most potential for eternal happiness. Brigham Young said “As the church grows so does the power of Satan” Welp the church is growing and so is Satan! SO we need to be prepared to defend ourselves against his powers! The talk says Satan's first strategy is temptation. Satan whispers unclean and unkind thoughts to us. How can we resist these temptations? Well an example I like that Heber J Grant said is “Mr Devil, shut up.” We can memorize scriptures to recite to get him out of our heads. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Other strategies Satan uses are lies and deceptions. Satan is the father of lies. He says things like “You never do anything right” “You’re too sinful to be forgiven” “You will never change” “No one cares about you” “you have no talents” We all know that none of these are true and we need to resist them! Others are “One time won’t hurt” “everyone else is doing it, its ok” Well no its not ok! Sin is addictive and we need to tell Satan that you don’t want to go to the Telestial Kingdom even if everyone else is going there! Satan lies, that is why we have to be close to the Holy Ghost so we can hear the truth! Third strategy is contention. Where there is contention the Spirit leaves. Remember his timing is predictable. Watch out for it before church, before family home evening, and before going to the temple. When there is contention make peace. The last is discouragement. Realize who is attacking you and don’t let Satan win! You know his strategies point them out and fight back! Serve others, listen to good music, and my favorite count your blessings! Remember that there are limits to the powers of the Devil. Satan doesn’t know your thoughts or intentions unless you tell him. Don’t murmur! Careful what you say, Satan is always listening and takes careful notes when we murmur, complain, and criticize. He will expose your weaknesses if you tell him them! I hope you can all recognize that Satan is attacking you and defend yourself with the power of the Lord. If we always have our Lord in our minds Satan won’t have power to overcome us! I love you all so much and hope you are all fighting on the Lords side! Thanks for all the support!

Con mucho amor, Elder Herman