Pretty Dang Good (Week 4 in Mexico, Week 10 Overall)

Elder 'SupHerman' having some lunch with Superman at Comics.

                This week was pretty dang good. I’m adjusting to everything a lot better! A couple funny experiences this week, so we were looking to find a contacts house for a visit, and it’s impossible to find houses here cause the addresses are messed up. So I went to ask someone on the street if they knew this person. They said no and I was like, huh, well I can contact this person. So I say “Oh, well we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we have a card for you” or whatever, ya know, and then he’s like “Oh well I’m a Jehovah's Witness” Crap. I failed to realize he had the whole outfit and all. After this I realized my comp was trying to leave, but I was still talking, haha. So I was like dang it what do I do now. So I asked him to tell me more about his religion cause I don’t know much about it. So he tells me his stuff and shares some scriptures. I asked him some more questions and after, all I could think was, well I am so blessed to know the truth! Seeing other religions and their beliefs compared to ours helps me realize how true our church is! Another funny experience is that I may have invited someone to be baptized that is already a member. So in Sunday School there was this girl and we didn’t know who she was. She said she had been to church 1 other time so I assumed she wasn’t a member. The lesson went on and the spirit was so strong! And I read a talk earlier this week about being a challenging and testifying missionary. So I’m feeling the spirit and all, ya know. So I decided to be a challenging missionary and invite her to be baptized. Then my comp interrupted and I was like what the heck! Then later he told me that she said she had talked to missionaries before and may have already been baptized…Whoops! But I mean we still don’t know if she’s a member or not, so I still think it was a good idea to invite her to be baptized!

                Spanish has been pretty good this week but also pretty bad at times, haha. But I have gotten a couple compliments that I don’t have an accent so that’s good!  But also kinda bad cause if I sound like I know Spanish people are going to talk really fast and think I understand it all, uh oh.

                Spiritual thought of the week! So my awesome sister Chalise shared a talk with me last week that is awesome! It is called “Joy and Spiritual Survival” and it fit in perfectly for me this week! One big point that I loved about it is that when the focus of our lives is on Jesus Christ and his Gospel we can feel joy regardless of what is happening or not happening in our lives. I loved this scripture 2 Nephi 2: 25, Lehi says “Men are, that they might have joy.” First off coming from Lehi this is amazing. His two kids, Laman and Lemuel, and murmuring and just being a hassle, ya know, and he has all these hard things going on in his life but he says this. God created us to have joy! In Alma 13:22, the Lord declares glad tidings and great joy among men. Now this does not mean everything in life will go our way. That is not part of God's perfect plan for us. Doctrine and Covenants in section 121 verse 7 says “Peace be unto thy soul: for thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment. 8 And then if thou endure it well God shall exalt thee on high!” How great is this! Endure our small afflictions and be exalted by God for eternity! And also in these afflictions Alma 32:38 says that the Lord has provided for us not to hunger or thirst. He gives us strength and there is no manner of afflictions that cannot be swallowed up in the Joy of Christ! God has a plan for us. Yes, we need to have afflictions and struggles to learn, but why can’t we be happy while enduring these things? Yes it is hard, but when the focus of our lives is on Christ it is possible, I can testify to you all of that!

                Love Elder Herman

Lunch at Comics with the Hulk!

Star Wars!

And, of course, Ironman.

Time is Flying, Almost (Week 3 in Mexico, Week 9 Overall)

Elder Herman & Elder Marquez

          Well folks it almost feels like time is flying! This week nothing much happened. We had interchanges with our Zone Leaders for a day and it was great! I learned so much and I have applied a lot of it during this week. So this was perfect cause I wanted to talk to more people and have more success in our area and this Elder has 13 baptismal dates in his area so it was a great time to learn! He talked to so many people, I was so pumped. So during this week I have talked to so many more people and I love it! We only have 3 investigators right now but I am hoping we get a lot more this week. We had a baptismal date for a girl but her mom won’t let her cause her boyfriend is a member and she thinks that is the only reason why she wants to get baptized. So we have to wait on her. We have another baptismal date for this week but the girl is pregnant and could have the baby any day so we have to wait on that too. Darn! Then an interesting one is Jose. We have taught him 3 times and the difficulty with him is it is hard for him to change his beliefs and all. He says he doesn’t feel anything when he reads the Book of Mormon or prays. Well.. He hasn’t read in the Book of Mormon or prayed if our words are true or not. So that’s frustrating but this last time his daughters listened too and asked a ton of questions that we answered pretty well so I hope this continues!

               

          My Spanish is getting better everyday. Sometimes I still have no Idea what is happening but it’s all good! It’s the worst when someone is talking forever about something not Gospel related and I have no idea what is going on and it is so hard to pay attention! Haha it’s funny cause when we are in situations when the Spirit is there I can understand pretty much everything. It’s awesome!

               

          Spiritual Thought Of The Week

Well Brothers and Sisters. It’s true. When we have challenges and are suffering and turn to the Lord for help he will help us. First couple weeks in the mission are hard but every day is better than the last. I have grown so much in just 3 weeks here in Mexico. I have put all my faith in the Lord and he has helped me so much in return! In church yesterday we talked about prayer and as ya’ll may know I love prayer! Whenever life gets hard say a prayer. The feeling I get is so comforting and helps me with any problem I have! God knows everything, he is just waiting for us to go to him for help. I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and my opportunity to be a missionary and serve the Lord for 2 years! I only have 22 months left! I am so excited to learn more everyday and grow closer to my Savior through my trials that I have to come! I love you all! 

Zone Conference with President & Sister Urrea and missionaries.

McDonald's in Mexico!

                      Love, Elder Herman 

I'm Here So Imma Be Happy (Week 2 in Mexico, Week 8 Overall)

                Well since we have not had water a lot lately I decided I am going to be high maintenance and make myself happy. So since the water in the bucket for our showers is freezing I have been putting water in the microwave and boiling water so I can have warm showers haha. I am adjusting to this new change a lot better now! And I am starting to enjoy it more. I am trying to look at all the positives and count all my many blessings because I truly am so blessed! I am still struggling to understand what people are saying most of the time and I am sure that is not going to change anytime real soon, but ya never know! I am progressing though and that is what matters!

                We did some service as a district for this family and they wanted us to do some yard work pretty much. Let's say their yard was a mess haha, really long grass everywhere and garbage and ya stuff like that. Also there were some trees that they didn’t want so we cut them down..with machetesJ ya this was pretty dang fun just whacking at trees, but the blisters after were no Bueno. They were well worth it though because I got to practice my baseball swing a little and that is always a good time!

                Alrighty spiritual thought of the week! I just want to talk on how grateful I am to know of this Gospel. Last week was rough not gonna lie but I learned that when I am having those rough times I need to imagine that my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ is right next to me because He is! He knows how I am feeling all the time because He has felt my pains. This helped me a ton. It gave me hope and motivation that I can do this. I can do anything with the help of my Lord! I am also learning a lot of patience. We all have hard times in our life but we have to be patient and wait for the storm to pass. Alma 17:11 says "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.” We need to be patient in our long-sufferings because it takes time to make instruments. We must go through the work to be successful! No pain no gain.

                Love Elder Herman

Elder Herman and other missionaries serving by doing yard work.
As an added perk, swinging a machete is similar to swinging a baseball bat!

Elder Herman had this shirt made for his mom!  He knew she'd wear it and love it!!
Love my missionary!!

They say lose yourself in the work, well I'm lost! (First Week in Mexico, Week 7 Overall)

Elder Herman & Elder Ibarra

I made it to Mexico! The flight was terrible but I made it safely! When I got here my misión president and his wife picked me up. They speak a little English so it was a little difficult to communicate but it was still good! Then the drive to the misión home was crazy! Holy crap they drive crazy here! And the city is SO BIG! It took us like 3 hours to get to the misión home from the city and the whole time it was just never ending houses. So, first week was pretty tough but that's expected. I don’t know what's going on, everyone speaks so fast. My companion is Elder Ibarra he is a native and has been here for 18 months so he knows a lot and helps me a ton! He knows some English so he tells me what’s going on when I don’t understand anything (pretty much always).  Being in Mexico is a HUGE change from the United States. The first 3 days I had to shower out of a bucket cause we didn’t have water. Then when we have had water it’s freezing. We wash our clothes by hand but don’t worry we got a dryer thingy. J There are dogs everywhere, a ton of taco shops, it's really dirty and just a ton of people here! We walk soo much and there are so many crazy hills. The other day we saw some kids sliding down a hill with 2 liter Coke bottles, the hill was so steep lol. This is definitely a different experience for me. It's tough not being able to communicate very well with anyone. I already ate some cow tongue, it wasn’t terrible but the texture is no bueno. The food here is pretty dang good though! Also I am the first American to be in this area in 2 years! But the people are really nice and understand that I don’t speak well and don’t understand what they are saying so they just talk to my companion.

                I was reading February's Liahona and read “Working Out Weakness, Sketching Out Faith” and “Finding Peace in Imperfection”. They are so relatable to me and I’m sure others as well. Some scriptures in there were perfect for me right now. 2 Corinthians 12:10 “For when I am weak, then I am strong". We have to have challenges in this life to grow stronger and closer to our Savior. It is part of Heavenly Fathers perfect plan. We need to humble ourselves before God, He is our Father he wants us to succeed. But remember there is a difference between being humble and feeling of little worth or value. Then in Ether 12:27 “My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, for if they humble themselves before me and have faith I will make weak things become strong unto them”.  We have to have challenges in order to grow. I have been trying to focus on what I do now prepares me for my future, prepares me to become a better missionary, and a better man. Earlier in that verse it says “If men come unto me I will show them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble.” This life is a test. God knows what we can handle and what we can’t. We can do all things through Christ. He knows exactly what we are going through all the time because He suffered for us. If we want to become more Christlike we must suffer a little bit like He did for us. I love this Gospel and I can’t wait until I can speak better so I can bring more people unto this same happiness! I love you all. Thank you so much for your support!

                Love Elder Herman

P.S You can send me packages still and letters and fyi packages get here faster than letters I have no idea how

Send letters and packages to:

Elder Jake S. Herman

Apartado 98

Cuautitlan Izcalli, Mexico 54740

Mexico

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!