1/5/15 - I feel like Ammon!

Not much has happened in the past few days but I feel like the Lord is really testing my faith as well as my companion’s right now! We have so many great investigators and Satan is working really hard to distract them and pull them away from the truth! But we know God’s power is stronger so we just have to trust the Lord.

This past week I have really felt Christ's mercy and love. As we were teaching our investigators this weekend I could feel it. I could feel him telling me how much he loved these people! I could feel the scripture in Alma, "A Shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you!" I think this is the reason missionary work is the hardest and the most rewarding thing I will ever do. Feeling the love God has for his children is the best. Seeing people reject that offered love of the Savior is literally like a stab to the heart and you just want to weep for them! But when people accept it, there is not a better feeling! I feel so strongly that the Savior is waiting for us with his arms extended! He is ready for us to grab on and partake of His grace, mercy and atonement!

As a missionary I feel like Ammon when he is talking in Alma 26:35-37 " ...yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name... for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo... Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." God loves and knows everyone of us personally and through his mercy we can all be saved! There is no greater joy than that!

Well, I am off for another big week! Today for p-day we are going to the crocodile farm which will be fun! Thanks so much for all the love and support you have sent my way!!! Have a great week!!

- Sister Herrmann

The 3-headed elephant & beach for P-Day with Brother Wisan and his daughters on New Years Day!

The awkward moment when you sit down to take a picture with your companion and 30 people run up to us to get pictures with us!! We told them "if you go to church you can take a picture with us!"

Sister News and I trying to be like hipsters! 

A guy bought us free drinks when we were contact on Sunday but we had to throw them in the trash because they were green tea!

12/31/14 - Happy New Year!

สวัสดีค่ะ I hope everyone is enjoying their New Year’s Eve! New Year’s and New Year’s Eve is HUGE in Thailand so most of the internet places were closed and it took us forever to find one!!! This has been one crazy week! A lot of miracles happened! The rest of last week I was still getting over sickness so it was a little rough.

On Sunday we went with Tongchay (the guy that in met on the street who is the brother of the patriarch) to go see his brother for the first time in 20 years! It was an amazing reunion! I am so glad I had the opportunity to witness that! And what’s even better is that we are now teaching Tongchay and his wife the gospel!! Tongchay is the funniest guy in the whole world; he just cracks jokes left and right!

On Friday night Sister Choo, our investigator, was going to interview for baptism on Sunday! We thought she was for sure 100% ready! Our district leader walked out of the interview and told us she wasn’t and we were devastated! We thought to ourselves, "How could this be? We worked so hard with her and we felt like she really understood and wanted to change!" We decided to teach her the next day and try to have her interview again! The lesson that we had with her the next day was amazing and so spiritual! We all had tears in our eyes! She interviewed again and the district leader said she was a completely different person. It is amazing what repentance can do! Her baptism that Sunday was so special and you can tell she is a changed person! That night we had a really fun birthday party for another one of our investigators, Yok!

Later that week we had a couple really good lessons with Tomsan. He was the guy who we found from the area book. He was taught by Sister Slaw about 3 months ago. He was really addicted to smoking and drinking. We helped him see that he can have a better and happier life with the gospel. Together we made a plan for him to stop drinking and smoking. Whenever he got the desire to do those things he would pray with all his might and look at a picture of Christ. Over the past week he has completely stopped drinking and smoking. I always tell him water tastes so much better anyways!! His countenance is 100% changed! He is so much happier and smiles and you can just see the light of Christ shine through him! He got baptized on New Year’s Eve! It was such a special night!

Having these experiences has really taught me that the Lord has a plan for everything; we just have to trust Him and his timing! If Choo passed her interview the first time she wouldn't have had the opportunity to have that spiritual lesson and truly repent. And I bet Sister Slaw was super sad when Tomsan ran away from his baptism 3 months ago but God knew that he wasn't truly ready to change until now! These experiences are such a testimony to me that God's will is better than ours!

This week we had a lot of lessons! We have a lot of investigators who we are really excited for and are ready to help them come unto Christ! Heavenly Father really helped us out this week. Even though I was sick and missed 2 days we got 47 numbers, and reached all of our goals!!

I am so grateful to be a missionary and serve the Lord! I have to admit that being a missionary is not easy but it is definitely worth it!! It is a little stressful to have all these investigators lives in our hands. They have so many issues but I know that God has a specific plan for each one of them! Keep Aom, Bow, Tongchay, Ong, Nok, Kwan, Yok, Pankcake, Bay(and his family), Ice, Amanda, Noy, Nooy, Pian, KT, Art, Onat, Tung, and June in your prayers! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Thanks for all the support and love! Have a good week!

-Sister Herrmann

PS I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW, Tad Robert Peterson! He is the cutest thing ever and I can't wait to see him in 11 months! Also, I want to thank the Tates and Gales and Judds and Williams for the nice Christmas packages! They really made me so happy and I felt so loved. It really felt like Christmas :)

Christmas day! Movie day and packages!

New and I being ugly :)

Sister Choo got baptized!

Tongchay

12/25/14 - Christmas Email & Video

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! It is Christmas day and I just finished talking with my family! They are so amazing! I am so lucky to have them!! I love them all so much!!

Well, I have already been on the computer today for a quite some time so I am not going to write that much because I will be back on Monday in a few days. This week many miracles have happened but I am going to just write about one of my favorites!

On Saturday we were inviting this guy to hear our message and come to Church. He was pretty against coming to church but finally said he would give it a try. Guess what, he actually showed up on Sunday! We started talking and came to find out that his brother is the Patriarch in Bangkok and they haven't talked in 20 years!! (In Thailand families often lose track of each other. Also, the Patriarch is blind which has isolated him.) This next Sunday they are going to get together for the first time in so long! I am so excited for them!

This past week I was pretty sick for a couple days so today I am planning on taking a nice Christmas NAP along with some good movies--17 Miracles and the Joseph Smith movie!

I hope you all have an AMAZING Christmas season! Remember the true meaning of Christmas and the reason we celebrate! I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ!
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1460-he-is-the-gift?lang=eng

Love,
Sister Herrmann

Christmas at Central World

This RC family is so so poor so I decided to go to the store and buy the kids some presents! They were so happy :) Giving really is so much better than getting :)

With a "white Family" at the Christmas party!

Dressed up for the church Christmas party

Our investigator, Choo!

LINK: http://youtu.be/CoVc_PcAsiI

12/15/14 - Bangnaa - new area & companion

This has been an INSANE week!!! I found out I was being transferred and had to pack everything up in like 30 minutes because we were leaving that night to Bangkok for Mission Leadership Conference. It was one of the hardest nights of my mission. We had an FHE/ goodbye party. Everyone whom I loved was there! (Funny side note... usually when missionaries transfer the members give them stuff but instead they gave me Kentucky Friend Chicken KFC.) They know me too well. At the end they asked me to bare my testimony which turned into a big crying fest. I couldn't hold myself together which you know I hate. I just love them all so much and am forever grateful for their love! I am going to miss them so much! They all took me to the bus station…lots of hugs and tears and I was off! It was probably one of the hardest goodbyes. While at the MLC we helped Sister Brown and Sister Lam in their area! The members in her area are super cute and loving too :) I went on a switch off (exchange) with Sister Brown which was really fun and brought back many good memories!

On Thursday we had TRANSFERS!! I was really scared but it ended up being AWESOME!! I am with Sister Morgan! She is so so cute and really fun! She is going on her second transfer and already is SO GOOD at Thai!! I love her a lot. We are going to have a fun time and baptize everyone! Our district is WAY cool too! And the sisters in our zone are all from my MTC group…Sister Mamea and Sister Brown! We are the oldest sisters in the Zone! I am serving in Bangnaa. And the weirdest thing about it all is that sister Croft, my trainer, was Sister Morgan’s trainer too! I am super excited!

We had so many good miracles this week! On our first day of contacting together as a new companionship we said a prayer that we would find people. And the first guy we invited was super willing to learn. He went to church on Sunday and has a cute family of 4! I am exited to teach him!! One of the girls who has been coming to English class showed up to church for the first time. After Church we taught her and she seemed to understand everything so well! She was amazed at how the plan of salvation all worked. On Sunday night I felt like we needed to go through the area book. There was one guy who had been meeting with the missionaries but then stopped about 6 months ago. I decided to call him. He told me that he needs help and he knows the gospel would help him. He was basically asking to be baptized so we are going to work with him this next week! There have been so many little miracles like that, I feel so blessed!!

On Saturday we had a stake Christmas party that was absolutely amazing! They totally decked out the church to do this walk through “nativity, plan of salvation” activity. I was in shock at the planning and effort they put in. I can't even describe how cool it was! It was fun to see all the missionaries from our zone! Thailand goes all out for Christmas! You wouldn't guess that because they are a Buddhist country but the Mormons in Thailand go crazy!! This Sunday after church we spent the whole day setting up for our personal ward Christmas party next week. I love it!!

This week I have been singing a lot of Christmas songs and there is just something about Christmas songs and celebrating the birth of my Savior that I love!

I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky.
And stay by my cradle ‘til morning is nigh.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Savior
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth

I am so grateful that Christ is MY Savior! I owe everything to him! Sometimes there are so many things that keep us from making room for Christ--pride, fear, family, friends, worldly things, etc. These days everyone is so busy. We make time for unimportant stuff but make no time or room for Christ. I hope that we can all make some time for Christ this Christmas season and forever on. It may mean giving up a bad habit or changing something about ourselves but essentially it will make both Him and us happier. Please make time for the One who has made infinite time for you! I love being a missionary and am excited for this next transfer full of adventures and miracles :) Have a good week everyone! LOVE YOU ALL!

PS I AM THE HAPPIEST HUMAN!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the packages so much. I got the ones from you and what Rachel’s friend, Kelsey, brought on her trip here from Caitlin and Rachel. I cried for joy, really I can't express how happy they made me. Thank you so much! I loved the picture frames and the soap and the PASTA RONI and the skittles and just everything! Don’t worry; I haven’t opened anything that was wrapped and am saving them for Christmas. Jessica and her family sent me a package and it was so cute! I felt so loved! I won't be on next Monday since p-day is on Thursday. Look forward to skyping on Christmas Eve!! Have a Merry Christmas!

First half of the pictures are saying goodbyes to my Sisaket family and at the train station. The second half are in my new area (Bangnaa) in Bangkok. 

My new companion (right) with our Mom (Sister Croft- middle). she trained both of us and now she is home! 

Christmas party with some of the MTC clan!

Singing at the party! 

At the Christmas party