Ciudad Labor (Week 79)

New companion from Utah.

      Well my first week here in Ciudad Labor (Work City) and well I was in the Ward Chilpa right next to here for 6 months before Tultepec, and now I’m back. haha So that's fun because I’ll be able to see some converts and some great members from Chilpa! Its honestly kinda been really weird being back, but it's different cause now I have a new área and new people. This week we didn't have much success. We were looking for people for a long time but people weren't home or just didn't accept us. But I have gotten tanner cause here we are on a huge hill and the sun is really strong. But we are excited to be in the zone Tepalcapa. Haha. Everyone is talking about Prados, my last zone, cause we baptized a lot there, but we are going to do the same here now! It's going to be an adventure.

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      This week we had a leadership meeting and I liked it a lot. We talked a lot about specific prayers. I like this a lot! President was telling us how we need to be more specific and ask for specific things in our prayers so that God can help us more. He gave the example of when his wife asks for money she says “hey I need some money” so he gives her 10 pesos. Then she says well that's not enough. So then she asks for 500 pesos and he gives her 500 pesos. We get what we ask for, but we must be specific. I like the way Jesus teaches us in 3 Nephi 18: 19-20 “Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall, behold it shall be given unto you.” Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants us to ask him for specific things so that he can give us specific things. I have a strong testimony that these things are true. I have seen it so many times in my life. I love you all and I hope you can all be praying specifically!

Con Amor, Elder Herman  

Bautismos! (Week 78)

Manuel, Elder Hill, Alvino, Maria, Elder Herman, & Elder Call
Baptism for Alvino & Maria!

      Well this week was amazing! We had the opportunity to have 3 baptisms! They were all great! We had all 3 on Saturday and then had a bbq with the ward also, it was really fun. We got a lot of members together and we are working a lot on the unity in the ward. So Saturday was a great day. Alvino and Maria finally got baptized! Maria was really happy that I baptized her, she is so sweet. And Manuel, her son that got baptized 2 weeks ago, passed the sacrament for the first time! Then Ailyn got baptized, she's Yael's sister. It's really cool seeing families unite because of the gospel. Their family has changed a lot! The mom is active now and all the kids are excited about the church and want to keep progressing. I am really grateful to be able to be a part of this great work of the Lord! Also we have been in a trio this week because Elder Hill got hurt but now he's back and he's with us! So we’ve been living life up. The mission life is a good life!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      Well this week I have been really grateful for everything the Lord has given me in my life. Gratitude is something very important in my life. When I am grateful I am happy. It is one of the easiest ways to be happy! The Lord has given us so many things and when we realize all of the blessings we receive it is hard to be sad. I love the hymn “Count Your Many Blessings”. When we name them one by one we really can see what the Lord has done. I invite you all tonight to kneel in prayer and count your many blessings and name them one by one. Every little thing that God has given you. I promise that you will be happier and life will be easier! I love you all! Que tengan una buena semana!

Con Amor, Elder Herman

Ailyn got baptized!

Elder Hill, Elder Call, Elder Herman

Explosions in Tultepec (Week 77)

Smoke from the explosions from the fireworks factories.

       This week was a good week! Yesterday we had a cool activity that we planned with the ward! We had jeopardy, charades, and some other games to build more unity! Everything was connected to the gospel! A lot of members showed up so that was good! The bishop was really content with how well everything went! Also this week we found a new investigator named Reyna. She's awesome! She hurt her knee a while ago and hasn’t been able to walk well so she hasn’t worked which means she doesn’t have money. We went to read the Book of Mormon with her and asked if she needed anything and she told us that she hadn’t eaten anything all day. So thankfully there's a little store on every corner here in Mexico and we bought her food! It was really cool and then we read with her and she ended up going to church yesterday, wahoo!!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

       Last Monday we did a family night with Freddy and Rebeca and we talked about patriarchal blessings, man those things are cool! As I was thinking I thought that our patriarchal blessings could be blessings that God personally gave to every one of us before we were born. Thinking of it like that made it seem even more special. We come to this earth and forget everything, but God gives us a chance to have our personal blessings given to us again here so we remember them. Patriarchal blessings are a road map in our life and they also give us a lot of motivation to endure to the end and be obedient to achieve all of our blessings. It reminds me how much my Heavenly Father loves me and I love reading my blessing to be able to study my personal scriptures. I love you all and hope you all can study your blessings often! Have a great week!

Con Amor, Elder Herman

Celebrating the 4th of July in Mexico!

Elder Herman's former landlord came for a visit.

Party With the Pres (Week 76)

      Well another good week down here in Tultepec. Sorry that I didn’t write yesterday, we had our BBQ with president and didn’t get home in time! But man it was so fun! We ate sooo much meat and President's house is so nice, so it was something new, haha. And they decorated their house with Prados stuff for our zone, so that was sweet! But this week we had some cool experiences with finding new people. First off Yael's sister told us that she wants to be baptized now too! She's 9 and she's such a cutie! So we are excited for that and we are going to work for the 14^th of July! Also, Yael's mom has been progressing so much lately! She's super active and goes to everything! And the other day she presented us to one of her friends! You can really see a difference in her and can see how living the gospel really makes us happier!

Spiritual Thought Of The Week

      Well this week I have felt a lot the love of God. As I have learned to put all my trust in him I have been able to see more miracles and be a lot more optimistic. I have also seen that I am a lot more content with the things that happen cause I know that I just need to obey and everything will work out how it needs to. As we obey we can trust that God will bless us in the best ways. I like the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21 that’s says “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” When we obey we receive blessings. So when we obey we can trust in God that He will complete His part and bless us. We must trust God and His will. Sometimes we need to be patient to be able to see the blessings, but they always come! I know God loves every one of us and we are His children. He wants to bless us, we just have to obey! I hope we can all put all of our trust in God and see how much He really does love us! Que tengan una buena semana!

Con Amor, Elder Herman

Prados Zone celebrating at the Mission President's Home.

Elder Call & Elder Herman

Mission Secretaries, Elder Herman, and Elder Call
with the 8 baptisms they had in their zone last week.

Miracles in Prados (Week 75)

Elder Call, Manuel, Elder Herman

Ok craziest week of my whole misión. It all started on Tuesday night. We were talking with President and we told him we were going to baptize a lot this week and end with 13 baptisms in the zone for this month. He told us the standard is 14 and a zone has never completed the standard. So he told us to try getting one more baptism. Well lucky enough we had some investigators that were going to get baptized next week. We decided to see if they could get baptized this week. There names are Maria (mom) and Manuel (son). So we went to see them on Wednesday and they said it was perfect and that they will get baptized on Saturday, wow! Then Thursday we were going to do their interviews. So we went to pass by for them and the mom wasn’t there….She had left and we didn’t know when she was going to get back. So we went with Manuel to the church to do his interview. Everything went well but then we heard that Maria had been robbed and they stole her phone. She sent someone to tell Manuel to go home. So we went with Manuel to his house and then his mom got there. She was so sad and down because of what had happened. He tried comforting her and asked if we could do the interview but she refused. She said she felt really bad and her head hurt. So she kept saying another day but we couldn’t another day! I offered to give her a blessing of comfort and she accepted. After the blessing she changed completely! She said her head didn’t hurt anymore and she felt a lot better and started smiling more like she normally does! So cool! Then we asked again if we could do the interview and she said yes. She told our district leader that after today she didn’t want to be baptized. Whatever we were going to tell her she was going to say another day but never do it. But now she was 100/100 sure that God wanted her to get baptized. Then Saturday. So we were amazed because we had seen so many miracles happen this week so that we could complete the standard. In almost every area something happened that scared us but it always ended well. But then Saturday at 2 Manuel calls us and says they are out of town….and they aren’t going to be home until tomorrow so they wont be baptized today.. what? We couldn’t believe it. We refused to believe it. Then they didn’t answer again cause there phone died. Great, what do we do? Well lets fill up the baptismal font! At this time I had never felt so discouraged, sad, and just like God had humbled me to the ground. In the church we said so many prayers and started a fast. We went and saw Yael who got baptized last week and they live in front of Manuel and Maria. We ended with Yael and Manuel and Maria were in there house!! So we ran over and talked to them! Maria was acting kinda weird and ended up saying “later” about her baptism. Great. And Manuel, she said that he could decide and he said that he wanted to be baptized today! VAMONOS! So we went to the church told everyone about the baptism and it was like 7:40 at night so we called our President cause we were going to get home late and he said “who cares baptize him!” haha So we went and the baptism turned out great. It was a very spiritual experience and this whole week has made my testimony grow so much. We just need to trust in God and everything will work out! We are now the only zone in our mission that has completed the standard of excellence! I know that as we put our faith in God and act he blesses us and we can witness miracles. We saw it this week everyday. I love you all and hope we can always put our trust in God and see the amazing miracles that He works!

Con Amor, Elder Herman