February 25, 2015

2/23/15 - Half off fries!

Well today I don't have much time because I am going to go to the water markets! I will share some of the highs and lows of the week starting with the lows since there was only one 1!

We had 4 investigators who were very solid and then on Tuesday they all started rejecting and then blocking our calls. It makes me sad because they are rejecting the Gospel, the thing that will make them the happiest! I just have to remember that the Lord has a plan for them, maybe they needed different experiences before getting baptized. I don't know but I know that God does. Because of those disappointments this week, I learned a very important lesson that has been a struggle for me my whole life. I learned how to not stress over things I can't control! As long as I am trying my hardest the Lord will make up the rest! There is no point in stressing over things you can’t control! Everyone has their agency and we can't take that away. I am glad I had this experience because I learned a lot and if I can remember it will help me forever!

This week Elder Bingham and Elder Lodwick and I decided that we wanted to get really healthy so we decided to go on a little diet and really do our morning workouts. It started great at the beginning of the week...at Seven Eleven they have the BEST apple slices and I basically lived on those. Between me and the elders, we bought out all the apples at every 7/11 close to us. And then to make matters worse McDonald’s came out with 50% off fries. By the end of the week I was done for! Half off fries gets me every time!

About a week ago we were contacting at the BTS and found this old grumpy man and invited him to meet with us and he said he would! Every time I called him he would laugh but on Sunday there he was sitting on the back row at church! We met with him a couple days later and he basically said he is SUPER Buddhist and will not change. He just blew off everything we had to say. The next Sunday came and he showed up at Church again! We were really confused. So we met with him another time to set up an appointment which takes about 10 minutes because he always says no but eventually says yes. This time he told us the reason he came back was because he felt at home when he was learning with us or at church! We have been meeting with him a lot recently and he is starting to change. I can see when I bare my testimony to him that he knows it is true! I can see it in his eyes! I am so excited to keep working with him!

One of our RC's came back from Nigeria recently, and we decided to go visit him at his house! To illustrate how nice Thai people are--we were on our way and got to the school and called him because we didn’t know exactly where his house was. He didn't answer. After about 5 minutes of calling the taxi driver got out and started asking people who were around the school. Finally after asking about 10 people, a lady comes and jumps in the car with us and directs us to his house! SO NICE!!! Once we were there he brought one of his friends to listen to us. She was AMAZING! I have this feeling she is going to get baptized, we just need to get her past the whole Buddhism thing. That is the hardest thing here in Thailand. Everyone was raised Buddhist and changing freaks them out and freaks out their families! She will see and feel the truth of our message, I know it!

So on Wednesday we were contacting and this girl said, "I am already a member but haven't been to church in a long time!" So we made an appointment right away. A few days later we went to her house and we taught her and her 2 children! It is such a miracle that we found her that day. She needed some serious help. She needed the church back in her life! All she needed was that little reminder that God loves her and wants her back. She came to church on Sunday and brought her 2 kids who want to get baptized soon. It made me think that there are so many LA's out there are just waiting for an invitation to come back to church! It made me really excited to get working on finding all of them!

I have been studying a lot in the scriptures...just like every missionary and something really stood out to me. "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on my name, and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you never have known. And if thou do this, I have prepared thee for a greater work. Thou shalt preach the fullness of my gospel, which I have sent forth in these last days." Once we are baptized we have a responsibility to preach the fullness of the Gospel! It doesn't say, "If you have a name tag and devote 100% of your time then you should preach the Gospel." NO. If we are a member of the Church we need to declare the fullness of the Gospel now! I promised myself that after my mission I am going to still be a missionary just without the name tag! This work "will be the thing of most worth unto you". I am so grateful that I get to do this work here in Thailand! Remember: "Behold, I come quickly. Even so. Amen."

Have a great week everyone! I love you all so much! Remember to choose the right!
- Sister Herrmann

PS My stupid moment of the week--I was making fudge for district dinner and I poured in a whole bunch of sugar which I later found out was actually salt instead. The members about died of laughter. #Iamanidiot #readthelabels

P-day
News braided my hair cool
I love running in the rain
At a funeral
Valentines Party

February 17, 2015

2/16/15 - I'll rest when I'm dead!

สวัสดีค่ะทุกคน!! Have I told you that I love being a missionary? Even though this week was kind of rough, there were still many great things! We are having a bit of a hard time finding new investigators and meeting the mission’s new standard of excellence! The upside is that we are getting to know the members better and being invited into their homes! I just have to remember that as long as we are giving 100% and helping people come unto Christ that is all that matters!

We have been working a lot with recent converts and trying to help them come back. Slowly but surely they are all starting to come back! This week we tried teaching a family history class and it was really cool! All these RCs have family in the spirit world just waiting for them to do their work! They are getting really excited about doing family history and helping their ancestors! I am way excited!

On Wednesday we did a service project! We were told that we’d be planting seeds but it turned out that we started a garden from scratch! It was so hard because the tools that she had were basically all broken and old. But it was a lot of fun improvising with what we had. The best part was seeing how happy she was. (Mom you would be so proud, I was actually getting in the dirt and working!) Later that night we had a BAPTISM!! Sister Sow and Brother Bow got baptized! I was so extremely happy for them! They are going to be amazing followers of Christ!

Friday the 13th was one of the weirdest days EVER! So first off our investigator showed up drunk...then our second investigator comes and he tried to kiss me!!! I just backed up and said, "No, you can't do that ...we will see you at church, we have to go!" He didn't come to church! It was SO WEIRD! Then that night the Pakistani family invited us over for dinner and they wanted to teach us some Pakistani dancing! So we did some Pakistani dancing then we had to show them some American dancing so we taught them the line dance for “Cotton Eye Joe”. It was the funniest thing ever! It was very humbling eating there. They have no money and they fed us SO much! We kept telling them we were full but they kept filling our plates! They are the sweetest family ever! AND they have a date for 2019!! Haha! I love them!

One thing I have really been focusing on this week is diligence! I love what it says in preach my gospel, "Diligence is steady, consistent, earnest, energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work...It is an expression of your love for the Lord and his work…Continue until you have done all you can even when you are tired." Being diligent is not just "go hard today and rest tomorrow." Diligence is being consistent! I like to relate it to enduring to the end! "And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this straight and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father, “Ye shall have eternal life." I try to drill this into my RC's brains because I have seen so many people who read a little here and there, or say a quick little prayer to get it over with, and maybe go to church once a month and over time they fall away! But the people who go to church every Sunday, earnestly pray and study the scriptures every day of their lives do not fall away, they grow with a strong foundation in Christ. "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." So for me personally to implement this as a missionary I have written myself a little note saying, "I'll rest when I'm dead!" And under it I wrote the scripture D&C 127:4 "And again, verily thus saith the Lord: Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts."

I am excited to start giving 200% to the Lord and REDOUBLING my efforts, to start building a stronger foundation in Christ! I love this gospel and everything about it! I am so grateful to be a servant of Christ! I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Herrmann
Family History- we are doing it! 
Sending off my babes to the Valentines dance! I feel like a proud mama!
It rained!
Daniel is the cutest!
TimTam Slam Party after the baptism
Dance party with my Pakastani Papa!
Me and News

February 11, 2015

2/9/15 - Halfway mark!

This week was good! I hit my halfway mark but it is weird because I feel like I just barely got here. Every single day some crazy cool miracle happens! I started a miracle journal which has helped me be much more aware of the blessing and miracles that happen daily! I thought I’d go through some of the cool things that happened this week!

On Monday our whole district decided to go to Ice World which was a lot of fun! It is a HUGE building filled with ice creations and ice slides and stuff like that. It was like I was back in Utah for a little bit. That night we had FHE and I discovered that playing games in Thai is so much fun than playing them in English. Thai people have the most contagious laugh! I LOVE IT :)

Brother Gitaa got BAPTIZED this Sunday! He has a real desire to follow Christ and choose the right! I am so happy for him, that he decided to make this covenant with God. We also have been teaching this family with a mom and dad and 3 kids. Whenever we teach them the mom is so open and just gets it! She told us that at first she did not want to go to church but after she did she felt that it was good, that everyone there was like one big family and it was something she needed in her life. The mom and dad have accepted everything about the Church! They really want to get baptized but they have a couple of things to do before that happens! I am so excited for their family and can just see the happiness that the gospel is bringing them!

The other night one of our RC's called us in the middle on the night about 3 AM and then continued to call every 5 minutes for the next 3 hours!! We came to find out that he is in Cambodia and his brother died in a car crash. He wanted the missionaries help! It was so sad but there was nothing we could do. That night there was a funeral at the Church for a member who died. A bunch of people came who were not members and to see their reaction to our beliefs and religion of how we can live together forever was way cool! AHHH I just love spreading this gospel and telling people that families can be forever and they can see their family members again even after death!

We have this new investigator and his name is Muhammad. He is from Egypt. We met with him and explained who God and Jesus Christ are and he immediately said, "This is something I really need in my life. I need to know there is a God. I need to know there is more to this life than working eating and sleeping." We were then able to testify to him the he has a Heavenly Father who loves him and knows him and that he has a Savior who died for him. It was such an amazing experience and he truly felt the Spirit and was excited to learn more!

We have been playing a lot of sports lately. Our district has been going in the morning and playing basketball and soccer and Frisbee for exercise! (Chase, I understand your competitiveness. Since my comp doesn’t like sports when we play soccer it is just the elders and I. It is difficult because I can't touch them but how do you play soccer without putting a shoulder into it? haha!) Also, we had sports night on Saturday night and I actually played but I am stupid and decided to play bare foot. I ended up with a sprained ankle and hurt toes. BUT it is OK because it was so much fun. I love this ward so much! I feel closer and closer to them every day. I am so grateful to serve here!

Well, I don't have much time but I want to mention one last thing…there has been a big shift in our mission to focus on the family. We are trying to switch a lot of our investigator pool from street contacts to part member families! We are now required to teach 2 part member family lessons a week! Since we had 2000 baptisms as a mission last year we now have 2000 part member families! I am super excited about this focus because I know God's plan is centered on the family.

I love you all!!! Have a good week!
- Sister Herrmann
Napoleon the dog tries to kill me everyday
The cute Pakistani family 
Sports night
They have Bocce ball is Thailand! All those years playing with my fan has paid off! 
My cute investigator family!
BFF at a funeral