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

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

2/2/15 - I have the BEST recent converts!

This week we had a lot of up's and downs! We scheduled a lot of first lessons and most of them canceled on us! But on the bright side I learned a lot more hymns on the piano! (Waiting for investigators = piano practice!) This past Monday we went to the Ancient City! Oh my goodness, it was so much fun! There were so many cool wats and buildings AND we got to go with some members which made it even more fun!

I decided it is so crazy how much you love the people you serve! This week Sister Bang (our cute 15 year old) was planning on getting baptized! She was so excited and she had permission from her mother! Then on Friday we got a call from her mom saying that she can't get baptized because she is Buddhist. It literally broke my heart because Bang has the strongest testimony and wants it so much! We taught Sister Soo a lot this week and she is doing so well! She spends a lot of time in a different part of Thailand and whenever she is there she still goes to church! She is planning on getting baptized this Sunday! We taught Gitaa who really wants to change his life and get baptized and be a part of this church BUT he is gay and is worried he won't be able to keep the commandments in the future! I am not sure how to exactly handle this situation but I know that God is in charge and has a plan for Brother Gitaa! We have this guy named Num who we are teaching and he is so good! His life is so hard because he works 22 hours a day, literally. But he comes to church every Sunday and is reading and praying! I am excited to teach him more!

We had the coolest miracle the other day! We were getting in a taxi to go contacting after many investigators canceled on us. Right when we got in the car the taxi driver turned to us and said, "Do you guys teach religion? Can I learn?" and then he met with us later that night and accepted a baptismal date! It was amazing!

On Sunday we had this Pakistani family show up to church! There were 7 of them! They have the saddest story ever!! They have such a strong faith in Christ and their family who are Muslim said they would kill them if they believed in Christ. So they are here in Thailand hiding from their family! They don't speak Thai and barley speak English! They have literally nothing! They are working really hard to learn Thai so they can get jobs and provide for their family! Their faith in Christ is amazing! They want to get baptized but they can't yet because of the visa issue! I am so glad we can help them grow closer to Christ!

This week I felt like a proud mother because of all my AMAZING RC'S! They literally are the best! Every single one of them is just getting stronger and stronger! I can see the change in them and their desire to become more like Christ! After Sister Aom got baptized we figured out that she would be spending a couple months in Singapore! I’m hoping I get the opportunity to tag team teach her with Elder Wadsworth (Jacob)! We might teach her over skype a couple times and she is going to go to church down there. It will be super cool to see how it all works out!

This past week we had a mini zone training. It was so awesome! The first thing that we talked about was how to be personally converted! If we are converted unto the Lord we will not fall away! (Alma 23:6) We talked about the way to become converted is through obedience! Then he went on and added in the word diligence as well. We need to be diligent in obedience. When we add that extra word it means we are not just obedient for a season or for some of the rules…we act in ALL DILIGENCE (D&C 107:99) By the end of my mission I want to be able to say, "I learned to be obedient with all diligence even when I didn't agree with the rule." I know if we are diligent in obedience we will become more converted and will never fall away! The second thing we talked about was testifying! Fun fact, Thailand is 96% Buddhist which means we have the opportunity to testify to 62 million people that they have a Heavenly Father and a Savior! I am immensely grateful for my calling as a missionary, to be able to represent my Savior and testily of him every day! "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3rd Nephi 5:13

Well, I am off to Ice Land (some interesting attraction here) and another crazy week! Every day is crazy here in Thailand! You see some weird stuff! I pray for you all every night! Be safe! I hope all of you have a great week! Thanks for the Love and support! I love you all!

- Sister Herrmann

We went one the ONE day that they had the water drained. :(