Friday, December 30, 2011
Dad will you tell everyone who helped contribute to this thank you very much from me and Barrio Paleca or The Paleca Ward. We were able to buy toys for the nursery as well as purchase some gifts for children who would have gotten little to nothing for Christmas. This brought tears to some of the parents’ eyes, it was a really touching moment. We have so much in the United States and it always feels so great to give. The money bought nursery toys and a small gift for 35 kids. Think of how many happy kids that is with a modest amount of! Thank you so much everyone for your donation, it really has meant a lot to me. The ward will be writing a big thank you card as well as some of the little kids!
Love,
Elder Herman
Monday, December 12, 2011
This week was a good week. We got a lot accomplished and had a baptism and confirmation. this little girl, Diana, was so cute, she is ten years old and during the baptismal interview she was asked about smoking and drinking and she didn’t know what they were, ha i wish we all didn’t know what it was but it was a good experience. i love my new companion, we speak a lot of English and its working for me because he is correcting me on every little mistake that i make with my Spanish.
Monday, December 5, 2011
this week was a good week for me! I have a new companion now, we had Emergency transfers because some other misisonaries were doing some bad things. some were getting into fights, an elder from here left the day of his birthday to be with his family and then came back the next day and people being places where they shouldnt be and getting robbed, this has been a crazy day. president called our house last night at like 11:30 to tell my comp that he was being transferred to help other missionaries out so i now have a gringo companion. he is from California and he is sweet, i dont have pictures yet bc i just met him today but i will next week. he is really cool and he has been here a while so ill learn a lot from him.
just a ps dad i saw on the side of a car it said ..rico suave...i thought of you and laughed out loud. i miss those good memories that we have together and cant wait to make more of them after my misson.
not really much happened this week but we have a baptism planned with a little 11 year old girl and a couple more planned in the future.
for questions yes i got the package and all of it was intact. i love the package. I couldnt have asked for more and i gave the president the gift today and ill know what he says about it later this month. i have already eaten a lot of the fruit snacks and will miss them when they are gone. thank you for the contact solution, its nice not having to wear my glasses all the time! I will start looking for a nativity set but im not sure where ill find one, people here dont really decorate for Christmas here and if they do its the dinky stuff from walmart, the plastic ones but ill keep my eyes open.
I havent dont anything with the home teaching yet because we havent had time and now we had changes and things have been crazy. my ear is better, the dr said it was really red and there is secreation in it but she gave me drops to make the pain go away and now i have other drops to clean it so im doing better, i go back to her office this saturday to see if its all better. God is really testing me physically here in my mission, these problems i cant even help but im staying stong so no need to worry about me.
not much else happened this week but ill add some pictures, i hope everyone has a good week and be safe. i love you all so much!
with love,
Elder Herman
just a ps dad i saw on the side of a car it said ..rico suave...i thought of you and laughed out loud. i miss those good memories that we have together and cant wait to make more of them after my misson.
not really much happened this week but we have a baptism planned with a little 11 year old girl and a couple more planned in the future.
for questions yes i got the package and all of it was intact. i love the package. I couldnt have asked for more and i gave the president the gift today and ill know what he says about it later this month. i have already eaten a lot of the fruit snacks and will miss them when they are gone. thank you for the contact solution, its nice not having to wear my glasses all the time! I will start looking for a nativity set but im not sure where ill find one, people here dont really decorate for Christmas here and if they do its the dinky stuff from walmart, the plastic ones but ill keep my eyes open.
I havent dont anything with the home teaching yet because we havent had time and now we had changes and things have been crazy. my ear is better, the dr said it was really red and there is secreation in it but she gave me drops to make the pain go away and now i have other drops to clean it so im doing better, i go back to her office this saturday to see if its all better. God is really testing me physically here in my mission, these problems i cant even help but im staying stong so no need to worry about me.
not much else happened this week but ill add some pictures, i hope everyone has a good week and be safe. i love you all so much!
with love,
Elder Herman
Monday, November 28, 2011
Hey there all! this was a good week for me! we had a baptism and it was a special one for me. we had been working with this man, José for a while and trying to get him to stop smoking and he was having a lot of problems with it. but after he signed his contract we made he didnt have one problem with it. it was really cool bc his son got to perform the baptism before he leaves on his misison. God does things for a purpose and i can for sure see a purpose in his baptism being right now.
thats good you had a good Thanksgiving. mine was ok i guess, we had a burrito haha this man lived in the US for 20 years so he knows how to cook some good food. we are going to baptize him in a couple of weeks and he is the closest person here to me, we speak a lot of english together maybe thats why ha but he also makes me the best pancakes and omlets and cooks like an american. man i miss our food but its ok, im adjusted to my rice, eggs, chicken and beans. maybe ill be like tace when i get home and only eat rice..well ill want beans also. the beans here are to die for, they are so much better than what we have in the United States. what did you guys buy on black Friday?
im glad to hear about the people the Hiram Sisters are teaching. all the person needs to have is a a thirst to learn. there is a scripture in alma 32 i think, im not sure but it says just give way for a little portion of his word in your hear and let it sprout like a seed. if its a good plant keep it and if its a bad plant cast it out. so, teaching about Jesus Christ is good so he will keep it! maybe if they arent baptized when i get home ill talk to them a little bit.
a cool thing is this last sunday i was in coorelation meeting with our bishop and he asked what more he could do for the ward, and i brought up home teaching. he then went on to say that they didnt really have a home teaching program here so do you know whose going to organize one? yep me, im going to do it with him this week i believe. i knew there was a reason you wanted me to wake up early and go to those 7 or 8 oclock leadership meetings with you on sunday dad, so i would be ready for stuff like this! im excited for this opportunity to help out our ward. Getting to see how a ward council operates while preparing for my mission was really helpful!
thats about it for me this week. i dont have my camera with me right now so ill send pictures next week! i cant wait to open the package when i get home. have a safe, fun week.
Love,
Elder Herman
thats good you had a good Thanksgiving. mine was ok i guess, we had a burrito haha this man lived in the US for 20 years so he knows how to cook some good food. we are going to baptize him in a couple of weeks and he is the closest person here to me, we speak a lot of english together maybe thats why ha but he also makes me the best pancakes and omlets and cooks like an american. man i miss our food but its ok, im adjusted to my rice, eggs, chicken and beans. maybe ill be like tace when i get home and only eat rice..well ill want beans also. the beans here are to die for, they are so much better than what we have in the United States. what did you guys buy on black Friday?
im glad to hear about the people the Hiram Sisters are teaching. all the person needs to have is a a thirst to learn. there is a scripture in alma 32 i think, im not sure but it says just give way for a little portion of his word in your hear and let it sprout like a seed. if its a good plant keep it and if its a bad plant cast it out. so, teaching about Jesus Christ is good so he will keep it! maybe if they arent baptized when i get home ill talk to them a little bit.
a cool thing is this last sunday i was in coorelation meeting with our bishop and he asked what more he could do for the ward, and i brought up home teaching. he then went on to say that they didnt really have a home teaching program here so do you know whose going to organize one? yep me, im going to do it with him this week i believe. i knew there was a reason you wanted me to wake up early and go to those 7 or 8 oclock leadership meetings with you on sunday dad, so i would be ready for stuff like this! im excited for this opportunity to help out our ward. Getting to see how a ward council operates while preparing for my mission was really helpful!
thats about it for me this week. i dont have my camera with me right now so ill send pictures next week! i cant wait to open the package when i get home. have a safe, fun week.
Love,
Elder Herman
Monday, November 21, 2011
this last week wasnt too eventful! we have a baptisimal date for this weekend and he has a huge problem with smoking so i made him sign a contract and itll be sweet if he keeps with it. ill try to attach a picture of it. its amazing how attached to people we get here. its like we’re really a part of their lives, i am helping them recieve the restored gospel of jesus christ and helping them come unto repentenance, endure to the end and much more. im not sure what else i can say more about that!
today for p-day we went to a stake center and balled, it was awesome i tore it up! we played inside and it was a ncie court. i thought i was getting really bad at basketball but i was making it rain from beyond the three point arch, kinda like MJ!
You’re lucky you get to spend the holidays with family! we have changes every six weeks and its already been six weeks since our last change but i found out ill be in this area another change so that will be 18 weeks in the same area! also, that means ill prolly have christmas dinner and thanksgiving dinner because im close with a lot of the members, the people here usually love the tall, white boys.
sadly, that’s about it for me this week, ill make this next week a better one for a better email! i hope everyone is doing well, i love you all have a safe and fun week.
love always,
Elder Herman
one of the pictures is with one of my really good friends from the MTC, he is a baller also
the other is the contract that he had to sign!
today for p-day we went to a stake center and balled, it was awesome i tore it up! we played inside and it was a ncie court. i thought i was getting really bad at basketball but i was making it rain from beyond the three point arch, kinda like MJ!
You’re lucky you get to spend the holidays with family! we have changes every six weeks and its already been six weeks since our last change but i found out ill be in this area another change so that will be 18 weeks in the same area! also, that means ill prolly have christmas dinner and thanksgiving dinner because im close with a lot of the members, the people here usually love the tall, white boys.
sadly, that’s about it for me this week, ill make this next week a better one for a better email! i hope everyone is doing well, i love you all have a safe and fun week.
love always,
Elder Herman
one of the pictures is with one of my really good friends from the MTC, he is a baller also
the other is the contract that he had to sign!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Hey there all! how are you doing? This was a good week for me!
Well ill first start off by saying that we got to go the temple today and boy i sure know that place is heaven on earth. I really felt like i was in heaven and im looking forwad to going back in 6 months. We had a baptism this last week and that was good, we had been working with him for 2 months and he finally accepted and took action. We completed a family, will be completing another family this week and the following as well. I love this because this is really hard to do here, and im sure anywhere. There are a lot of misisonaries that have been out 19 months and haven’t completed one family. I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to help one complete family come unto the Lord and hope that I will have more. the lord is really blessing me and i can feel his hand in everything that i do.
Dad, I’m glad you’re having fun doing leaves, ha, ha. i enjoyed them..well i enjoyed sitting on the mower and listening to music. i wish i could do that right now but people here dont have much grass and when they do they cut it worst than the amish, they use machetes. you would think they would be more technologically advanced but they arent in some ways. haha thats funny to me..the amish who dont use power are ahead of some of the people here. I sure do love these people and i never thought i would but i sure do.
its not a man satchell, its a nice bag! if you were here in this heat walking as much as i do you would understand we would do anything not to get sweaty and have a lot of back sweat from a backpack.
Thank you for passing the letters on, its way cheaper for me to send them like that. tell syd to write me, i havent gotten anything from her since the last time i wrote her.
it sounds like you’re going to be having a nice thanksgiving. ill be here in the heat working and who knows if ill even have a good dinner, i might be having a pb&j. ive been eating those for two meals a day, we dont have a cocinera anymore. i didnt like the same food everyday and my comp and i were sick from her food.
i think thats about it for me but i have a lot of pics that can tell what else i did this week. have a good week, be safe all. i love and miss you. :)
Love,
Elder Herman
1. my comp and i with our mission president and his wife in front of the temple
2. a wedding here, this is usually how they do them here
3. the cake for the wedding, people usually dont even have this
4. Painting our back wall, this took hours
5. all the bags from the trash
6. our zone
7. our baptism of oscar!
8. one side of the wall that we painted
9. the other wall
10. the other wall
11. at the temple, holieness to the lord, the house of the lord
Well ill first start off by saying that we got to go the temple today and boy i sure know that place is heaven on earth. I really felt like i was in heaven and im looking forwad to going back in 6 months. We had a baptism this last week and that was good, we had been working with him for 2 months and he finally accepted and took action. We completed a family, will be completing another family this week and the following as well. I love this because this is really hard to do here, and im sure anywhere. There are a lot of misisonaries that have been out 19 months and haven’t completed one family. I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to help one complete family come unto the Lord and hope that I will have more. the lord is really blessing me and i can feel his hand in everything that i do.
Dad, I’m glad you’re having fun doing leaves, ha, ha. i enjoyed them..well i enjoyed sitting on the mower and listening to music. i wish i could do that right now but people here dont have much grass and when they do they cut it worst than the amish, they use machetes. you would think they would be more technologically advanced but they arent in some ways. haha thats funny to me..the amish who dont use power are ahead of some of the people here. I sure do love these people and i never thought i would but i sure do.
its not a man satchell, its a nice bag! if you were here in this heat walking as much as i do you would understand we would do anything not to get sweaty and have a lot of back sweat from a backpack.
Thank you for passing the letters on, its way cheaper for me to send them like that. tell syd to write me, i havent gotten anything from her since the last time i wrote her.
it sounds like you’re going to be having a nice thanksgiving. ill be here in the heat working and who knows if ill even have a good dinner, i might be having a pb&j. ive been eating those for two meals a day, we dont have a cocinera anymore. i didnt like the same food everyday and my comp and i were sick from her food.
i think thats about it for me but i have a lot of pics that can tell what else i did this week. have a good week, be safe all. i love and miss you. :)
Love,
Elder Herman
1. my comp and i with our mission president and his wife in front of the temple
2. a wedding here, this is usually how they do them here
3. the cake for the wedding, people usually dont even have this
4. Painting our back wall, this took hours
5. all the bags from the trash
6. our zone
7. our baptism of oscar!
8. one side of the wall that we painted
9. the other wall
10. the other wall
11. at the temple, holieness to the lord, the house of the lord
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Well I’m not sure where to start with this email! it sounds like a lot has been going on in Ohio!
I’m doing great this fine week, my stomach is amazing, better than ever. actually it’s so good I’m adjusted to the food here and American food kills me! I had pizza hut the other day and i had a real sour stomach. haha ya gross but I don’t wanna see what happens when I come home! that won’t be a good thing.
We had a baptism this last week. it was another great one, i did it too! If you look in the picture that im sending you’ll see how innocent this man is. he is almost as innocent as a new born baby, he is such an amazingly loving person! we should be having more baptisms this month, hopefully a lot!
They don’t celebrate Halloween here, it’s funny bc Walmart is an American store and they have Halloween things in there and I don’t know why bc they don’t celebrate it here. I thought that was kind of funny and makes no sense at all.
another sad thing is that i had to buy locks the other day for my luggage. we do intercambios which is when i go to another area or my comp does and another missionary comes here. it turns out when I got back some of my things were gone so I had to go buy locks to lock up my valuables. it’s sad this happens when were all missionaries too and all on the same team..at least i thought!
You’re lucky you get a weather change, ours went from hot to hotter with no rain. i could go for some cold and snow right now! oh as for jims letter, I send it in the same envelope as moms letter. could you check the address on that before you send it, I didn’t really understand the address.
Wow I miss seafood so much! We’re not allowed to have fish here so i could go for the all you can eat shrimp. i remember one time we went there and the lady said she had never had to bring out so much shrimp as she did for us, i say we go again as a family sometime and pound it like no other! I miss silly family times like those!
I can’t think of anything else that happened this week so ill attach some pictures! I love you all, i miss you all, thank you for the prayers and support. have a safe, fun week.
The photos are:
Picture 1- My comp and I and Jose, he is going on his mission to Guate
Picture 2- Baptism of Alfredo, I could go for some chicken alfredo right now!
Picture 3- A really good family here!
love always,
Elder Cole J. Herman
I’m doing great this fine week, my stomach is amazing, better than ever. actually it’s so good I’m adjusted to the food here and American food kills me! I had pizza hut the other day and i had a real sour stomach. haha ya gross but I don’t wanna see what happens when I come home! that won’t be a good thing.
We had a baptism this last week. it was another great one, i did it too! If you look in the picture that im sending you’ll see how innocent this man is. he is almost as innocent as a new born baby, he is such an amazingly loving person! we should be having more baptisms this month, hopefully a lot!
They don’t celebrate Halloween here, it’s funny bc Walmart is an American store and they have Halloween things in there and I don’t know why bc they don’t celebrate it here. I thought that was kind of funny and makes no sense at all.
another sad thing is that i had to buy locks the other day for my luggage. we do intercambios which is when i go to another area or my comp does and another missionary comes here. it turns out when I got back some of my things were gone so I had to go buy locks to lock up my valuables. it’s sad this happens when were all missionaries too and all on the same team..at least i thought!
You’re lucky you get a weather change, ours went from hot to hotter with no rain. i could go for some cold and snow right now! oh as for jims letter, I send it in the same envelope as moms letter. could you check the address on that before you send it, I didn’t really understand the address.
Wow I miss seafood so much! We’re not allowed to have fish here so i could go for the all you can eat shrimp. i remember one time we went there and the lady said she had never had to bring out so much shrimp as she did for us, i say we go again as a family sometime and pound it like no other! I miss silly family times like those!
I can’t think of anything else that happened this week so ill attach some pictures! I love you all, i miss you all, thank you for the prayers and support. have a safe, fun week.
The photos are:
Picture 1- My comp and I and Jose, he is going on his mission to Guate
Picture 2- Baptism of Alfredo, I could go for some chicken alfredo right now!
Picture 3- A really good family here!
love always,
Elder Cole J. Herman
Monday, October 24, 2011
What’s happenin this week? Things are a lot better for me and it’s actually a funny story!
The rain finally stopped last week after 7 days straight. I’m not sure if i told you this last week but a guy in our area, Paleca, died because a tree fell on him. I’m not sure how he couldn’t move fast enough or what the situation was but it’s sad. there were a lot of flooded houses, landslides and we weren’t allowed to leave the house for two days because it was dangerous.
As for our missionary work. Its going really well. We have one person with a baptismal date for this coming weekend and then we have 10 possibles for this next month. we are working hard and doing everything that we can to actually get them to baptism. I’m really realizing what bishops and stake presidents have to deal with there in the US and what they have to deal with here. Things are way different. How often have you had to deal with someone who has killed someone? That’s like almost everyone here. we have an investigator that wants to be baptized but has killed someone and its causing a big problem but were trying to work through it.
For my stomach. this is the funny thing. so I talked with president the other day and he gave me a suggestion of medicine that costs $2! I went to the store and bought 3, 2 liter bottles of coca cola. I had to drink one a day, well one for breakfast with no food for three days. I did that, had to pee a lot, and it wiped me clean. I feel amazing right now, like I could conquer the world! I wish they would have told me this earlier. this medicine only works with people who don’t drink it a lot and aren’t immune to the nasty stuff that’s in it. it really does burn when you drink it, or chug it trying not to taste it. Well even with the bad taste I drank it and am better now. Our prayers were answered.
It sounds like you guys are having fun in Ohio! how cold is it? it’s not that hot here but it is pretty warm. this is windy month then next month is a little windy with more heat and then the next month is just heat, good ole blazin heat! I’m not too excited for that but ill deal with that when I get there.
my comp only speaks Spanish! this is tough but it makes me patient and really think about what I want to say before I say it. so when I get home I’ll only have things to say that are worth saying ;) No but this is good for me, I feel like I’m learning faster by only speaking Spanish. it’s a great thing for me.
it’s crazy I have been on my mission for about 4 months now and only have 20 left. time is flying by and I am realizing that now. it seems like just yesterday I was being dropped off in the MTC! I’m trying to find out where I’m at right now. it’s crazy to me that i am actually living in another county right now! these past two months alone here in El Salvador have gone by fast. It also feels like yesterday that I got here. does it seem like it’s going by fast for you guys at home?
well that’s pretty much it for this week! I love you all and miss you lots. thank you for your support, prayers and love! Be safe and know that Jesucristo te ama! :)
Love,
Elder Cole Jensen Herman
Photos:
1. Elder Herman and his new companion
2. Elder Herman drinking his “medicine” (I wonder about the placebo effect…)
3. Elder Herman looking chill & suave (his words)
4. With the sister Missionaries..one is from guate the other is from utah..the one from guate is legit..
The rain finally stopped last week after 7 days straight. I’m not sure if i told you this last week but a guy in our area, Paleca, died because a tree fell on him. I’m not sure how he couldn’t move fast enough or what the situation was but it’s sad. there were a lot of flooded houses, landslides and we weren’t allowed to leave the house for two days because it was dangerous.
As for our missionary work. Its going really well. We have one person with a baptismal date for this coming weekend and then we have 10 possibles for this next month. we are working hard and doing everything that we can to actually get them to baptism. I’m really realizing what bishops and stake presidents have to deal with there in the US and what they have to deal with here. Things are way different. How often have you had to deal with someone who has killed someone? That’s like almost everyone here. we have an investigator that wants to be baptized but has killed someone and its causing a big problem but were trying to work through it.
For my stomach. this is the funny thing. so I talked with president the other day and he gave me a suggestion of medicine that costs $2! I went to the store and bought 3, 2 liter bottles of coca cola. I had to drink one a day, well one for breakfast with no food for three days. I did that, had to pee a lot, and it wiped me clean. I feel amazing right now, like I could conquer the world! I wish they would have told me this earlier. this medicine only works with people who don’t drink it a lot and aren’t immune to the nasty stuff that’s in it. it really does burn when you drink it, or chug it trying not to taste it. Well even with the bad taste I drank it and am better now. Our prayers were answered.
It sounds like you guys are having fun in Ohio! how cold is it? it’s not that hot here but it is pretty warm. this is windy month then next month is a little windy with more heat and then the next month is just heat, good ole blazin heat! I’m not too excited for that but ill deal with that when I get there.
my comp only speaks Spanish! this is tough but it makes me patient and really think about what I want to say before I say it. so when I get home I’ll only have things to say that are worth saying ;) No but this is good for me, I feel like I’m learning faster by only speaking Spanish. it’s a great thing for me.
it’s crazy I have been on my mission for about 4 months now and only have 20 left. time is flying by and I am realizing that now. it seems like just yesterday I was being dropped off in the MTC! I’m trying to find out where I’m at right now. it’s crazy to me that i am actually living in another county right now! these past two months alone here in El Salvador have gone by fast. It also feels like yesterday that I got here. does it seem like it’s going by fast for you guys at home?
well that’s pretty much it for this week! I love you all and miss you lots. thank you for your support, prayers and love! Be safe and know that Jesucristo te ama! :)
Love,
Elder Cole Jensen Herman
Photos:
1. Elder Herman and his new companion
2. Elder Herman drinking his “medicine” (I wonder about the placebo effect…)
3. Elder Herman looking chill & suave (his words)
4. With the sister Missionaries..one is from guate the other is from utah..the one from guate is legit..
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Hello to all! How are you all doing? I have had a very rough but good week! First off I want to say go Horns and hahahaha BYU, I always knew that Texas was way better and always will be, once a Horn always a Horn! I'm sorry to hear about Sister Burnett, but they fact that we have the plan of salvation in our lives is amazing. I love teaching about that in lessons because we always have the spirit with us when we teach that. It’s amazing to know that n we can be with family forever, we have all the tools and knowledge that we need to for this and if anyone doesn’t know about this or would like to hear from the missionaries talk to bishop Joseph N. Herman of the Hiram ward or go to www.mormon.org :) wow I am such a missionary. I’m in an area in San Salvador in Soyapongo and my area is called Paleca. There are quite a few other missionaries here! The boundaries for my mission are huge! Some of my friends are 4 hours away.
So ill start off with the good because it seems there is a lot of bad. So we have one baptism for this week and her name is Keiry Marthinez and her first name sounds like Katie...ha I thought that was interesting. But she wants me to do it! I am so excited for my first baptism but not for the fact that I have to memorize the prayer in Spanish and her name. Spanish people have a thing for long names so she has like 5 or 6 names that I’ll have to memorize. Another good thing is another Hermana we taught came to church on Sunday with her grandson and he loved it!
Well here’s the bad. I have had diarrhea for the past week and have been very sick! I have been having the worst stomach pains I have ever had, I thought it was food poisoning but it wasn’t it is way worse than that. I don’t have a worm but I have a parasite. So I am taking pills and have been very uncomfortable for the past week relying on those to help. The other bad thing is that I got bit pretty badly by a dog here. it didn’t do too much but were watching it because the dogs here are nasty and well think about a third world country with thousands of dogs running around that eat out of the sewers and no one takes care of them.
Some interesting things I have seen here...well there are a lot. Not many people have cars here so they take the bus. The people here try to pimp their buses out and they don’t do a very good job but they do have some subs in them and it’s really funny to be walking on the road and hear this huge bus bumpin! It’s really funny for me to hear that because I like subs also. Another is that the women here hawk some of the biggest loogies I have ever seen. We will be teaching a lesson and they will just spit it out on their floor. Oh how America is so different haha I also have see cockroaches the size my palm. There are a lot of churches here and we I saw a church called nuestra iglesia es verdadero which means our church is true.
I would agree with you and say we are spoiled with a cook and someone to do our laundry but the main reason we do that is for them. They make money off of it and they sure do need that here. A couple extra bucks a month goes a long ways here, things are really cheap here. So this is more for them than us.
I'm glad we got my shoes and socks at missionary mall. I feel I’ll wear through them pretty fast and need to get them replaced, good thing they have a two year warranty. The terrain here is pretty rough. The roads aren’t very good and if you’re not on a road you’re in rocks or poop from dogs!
Also will you tell people I can receive dear elders here so if they want to write me through there they can also! I haven’t gotten any letters from anyone yet but I’m hoping to get them tomorrow or Thursday.
I don’t feel that effective always here. This is my first area and imp not sure what to be doing but I know I could be working harder. My comp isn’t as great as I thought he would be. I'm having a tough time with this because I know I could be doing a lot more in a day but he isn’t as affective as he could be. I need to say something but don’t want to because I have to be with him for 10 more weeks but I’m on the Lord’s time not his or mine so I need to! Wish me luck. Not much else has gone on here, like I said it’s pretty slow here. Oh as of today I got my Visa and am no longer illegal..Yay for being legal ha Thanks for all of your support. I love and miss you all!!
Love,
Elder Herman
So ill start off with the good because it seems there is a lot of bad. So we have one baptism for this week and her name is Keiry Marthinez and her first name sounds like Katie...ha I thought that was interesting. But she wants me to do it! I am so excited for my first baptism but not for the fact that I have to memorize the prayer in Spanish and her name. Spanish people have a thing for long names so she has like 5 or 6 names that I’ll have to memorize. Another good thing is another Hermana we taught came to church on Sunday with her grandson and he loved it!
Well here’s the bad. I have had diarrhea for the past week and have been very sick! I have been having the worst stomach pains I have ever had, I thought it was food poisoning but it wasn’t it is way worse than that. I don’t have a worm but I have a parasite. So I am taking pills and have been very uncomfortable for the past week relying on those to help. The other bad thing is that I got bit pretty badly by a dog here. it didn’t do too much but were watching it because the dogs here are nasty and well think about a third world country with thousands of dogs running around that eat out of the sewers and no one takes care of them.
Some interesting things I have seen here...well there are a lot. Not many people have cars here so they take the bus. The people here try to pimp their buses out and they don’t do a very good job but they do have some subs in them and it’s really funny to be walking on the road and hear this huge bus bumpin! It’s really funny for me to hear that because I like subs also. Another is that the women here hawk some of the biggest loogies I have ever seen. We will be teaching a lesson and they will just spit it out on their floor. Oh how America is so different haha I also have see cockroaches the size my palm. There are a lot of churches here and we I saw a church called nuestra iglesia es verdadero which means our church is true.
I would agree with you and say we are spoiled with a cook and someone to do our laundry but the main reason we do that is for them. They make money off of it and they sure do need that here. A couple extra bucks a month goes a long ways here, things are really cheap here. So this is more for them than us.
I'm glad we got my shoes and socks at missionary mall. I feel I’ll wear through them pretty fast and need to get them replaced, good thing they have a two year warranty. The terrain here is pretty rough. The roads aren’t very good and if you’re not on a road you’re in rocks or poop from dogs!
Also will you tell people I can receive dear elders here so if they want to write me through there they can also! I haven’t gotten any letters from anyone yet but I’m hoping to get them tomorrow or Thursday.
I don’t feel that effective always here. This is my first area and imp not sure what to be doing but I know I could be working harder. My comp isn’t as great as I thought he would be. I'm having a tough time with this because I know I could be doing a lot more in a day but he isn’t as affective as he could be. I need to say something but don’t want to because I have to be with him for 10 more weeks but I’m on the Lord’s time not his or mine so I need to! Wish me luck. Not much else has gone on here, like I said it’s pretty slow here. Oh as of today I got my Visa and am no longer illegal..Yay for being legal ha Thanks for all of your support. I love and miss you all!!
Love,
Elder Herman
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Well hello to all!
Aww that baby is so cute (his niece), one of the cutest ive seen in forever! I cant wait to see her when she is two and a half, bummer, at least ill have another baby to see thats in the family. You’re lucky the weather is so nice there. rainy season only has a little bit of time left then its going to be hot hot hot. we are the hottest area in the soyapongo zone but in the orient its always in the hundreds, i dont want to go there! i already miss snow even though you dont have any yet, want to send some to me?
I’m sorry to hear about john but that means that God has something big for him waiting at home or someone that is prepairing for him. its crazy how god puts people in specific places at specific times for us to teach. ive had many experiences with that, i have already learned so many things on my mission and i only have 3 months! well a little over three months.
so for my stomach. i wasnt going to tell all the truth but just a little because i dont want you to worry but my stomach is really bad. it was better at the beginnning of the week, i felt the best i have felt here but now it hurts worse than it had and i have a fever now and im not sure how much ill be working the next couple of days, but dont worry about me. i have an amazing comp looking after me and especially i have God so no need to worry, prayers are always good as i know your doing so thank you!
we didnt have time to go to walmart so im not sure about the contact solution. when we go I’ll let you know but this walmart doesnt have a pharmacy, things are very different here. for instance you dont have to have a perscription from the dr, you just go in and say what you want, pay and walk out.
other than the stomach problems this week was a good week. We’ve been working really hard with less actives and we had 6 less actives come to church this week, thats a lot for here. we had a baptism this last week, should have one this week and possibly two more this month...if they decide its a good idea to come to church like they said they would. saying things is easy but putting them to action is hard for a lot of people, even me sometimes.
wow dad you are doing a lot, like i know you always do. are you ready to be released from being the bishop soon? ha just kidding i think you might be in there for a while yet. i am so greatful for your example for me throughout my life and and also very greatful for the example of my brothers in going on missions and staying strong in the church. many people here serve missions and forget about church when they get back, its really sad.
thats awesome about jimmy, im not sure ill have time to write an email so will you get his address for me so i can send him a letter? and I’ll send amber’s tomorrow, we didnt have time today. thank you so much for keeping up with that stuff for me.
nothing really great happened this week except something really funny. yesterday we saw a drunk guy walking, there are many many drunks here but he was walking and walked into a parked car and fell over in the middle of the road. yes people park in the middle of the road here. but he was laying there for about 20 minutes until three guy picked him up and moved him to a sidewalk. after about 10 minutes of laying on the sidewlk he got up and started dancing in the middle of the street for like 15 minutes and cars were dodging him. it was was like a movie because i had a full plate of food and my soda and was watching him it was halarious.
i still havent gotten a letter from mom but this wednesday is changes so they bring all the mail for us and hopefully i get them there. its sad to not have any letters from her but i know its not her fault! i love this country but boy i sure would change a lot of things about it.
thats pretty much it for me, I’ll attach some photos of our messy house, my stuff is kind of clean, not as clean as it usually is. its been a long day for me so I’ll send them! i hope all is well with everyone and thank you for the support, thoughts and prayers.
love always,
elder herman
well it turns out this place the usb reciever doesnt work so ill send some pictures next week, im sorry!!
Aww that baby is so cute (his niece), one of the cutest ive seen in forever! I cant wait to see her when she is two and a half, bummer, at least ill have another baby to see thats in the family. You’re lucky the weather is so nice there. rainy season only has a little bit of time left then its going to be hot hot hot. we are the hottest area in the soyapongo zone but in the orient its always in the hundreds, i dont want to go there! i already miss snow even though you dont have any yet, want to send some to me?
I’m sorry to hear about john but that means that God has something big for him waiting at home or someone that is prepairing for him. its crazy how god puts people in specific places at specific times for us to teach. ive had many experiences with that, i have already learned so many things on my mission and i only have 3 months! well a little over three months.
so for my stomach. i wasnt going to tell all the truth but just a little because i dont want you to worry but my stomach is really bad. it was better at the beginnning of the week, i felt the best i have felt here but now it hurts worse than it had and i have a fever now and im not sure how much ill be working the next couple of days, but dont worry about me. i have an amazing comp looking after me and especially i have God so no need to worry, prayers are always good as i know your doing so thank you!
we didnt have time to go to walmart so im not sure about the contact solution. when we go I’ll let you know but this walmart doesnt have a pharmacy, things are very different here. for instance you dont have to have a perscription from the dr, you just go in and say what you want, pay and walk out.
other than the stomach problems this week was a good week. We’ve been working really hard with less actives and we had 6 less actives come to church this week, thats a lot for here. we had a baptism this last week, should have one this week and possibly two more this month...if they decide its a good idea to come to church like they said they would. saying things is easy but putting them to action is hard for a lot of people, even me sometimes.
wow dad you are doing a lot, like i know you always do. are you ready to be released from being the bishop soon? ha just kidding i think you might be in there for a while yet. i am so greatful for your example for me throughout my life and and also very greatful for the example of my brothers in going on missions and staying strong in the church. many people here serve missions and forget about church when they get back, its really sad.
thats awesome about jimmy, im not sure ill have time to write an email so will you get his address for me so i can send him a letter? and I’ll send amber’s tomorrow, we didnt have time today. thank you so much for keeping up with that stuff for me.
nothing really great happened this week except something really funny. yesterday we saw a drunk guy walking, there are many many drunks here but he was walking and walked into a parked car and fell over in the middle of the road. yes people park in the middle of the road here. but he was laying there for about 20 minutes until three guy picked him up and moved him to a sidewalk. after about 10 minutes of laying on the sidewlk he got up and started dancing in the middle of the street for like 15 minutes and cars were dodging him. it was was like a movie because i had a full plate of food and my soda and was watching him it was halarious.
i still havent gotten a letter from mom but this wednesday is changes so they bring all the mail for us and hopefully i get them there. its sad to not have any letters from her but i know its not her fault! i love this country but boy i sure would change a lot of things about it.
thats pretty much it for me, I’ll attach some photos of our messy house, my stuff is kind of clean, not as clean as it usually is. its been a long day for me so I’ll send them! i hope all is well with everyone and thank you for the support, thoughts and prayers.
love always,
elder herman
well it turns out this place the usb reciever doesnt work so ill send some pictures next week, im sorry!!
Monday, October 3, 2011
as for my health, I’m not sure what to say about that. I have been taking the pills and I’m not sure if they have been helping or not. some days I feel great, like I was never sick. other days my stomach hurts really bad but I’m constipated. other days my stomach is killing me and I am constantly in the bathroom. I might be going back to the doctor this week so ill keep you updated more. I know I’m in your prayers but please pray for my health!
things here other than my health are good! we have a baptismal date for a man names Oscar this week, the 8th. I hope he keeps going the way he is going and we can actually get him baptized and confirmed. I hate seeing people that are progressing very rapidly then they just stop, it breaks my heart. I wish I could knock some sense into them and tell them what they are missing!
holy cow conference was amazing this time, as it is every time but man I really got a lot out of it. this was my first time actually paying 100% attention to it and taking notes and it was worth it. I got to watch it in English in the clerk’s office, with air condition. and believe me when I say I might have broken that ac bc I had it all the way up! haha it was really cold in there for the other Americans but it’s ok it was the chapel in my ward!! I loved elder Holland’s talk, that was another powerful one by him. he gets so worked up when he needs to be blunt about something and I love that about him. he always makes many great points.
the spirit is amazing in its promptings. we have made it more of a goal of ours to listen to the spirit more often bc we can learn a lot from it and also so can the people we are teaching.
nothing really big happened this week, which kind of stinks but were working hard! one cool thing was that the beecha, its girl in Spanish, that I baptized brought a friend to her baptism and that was her first time in the church and after she told us she wanted to be baptized...we were like ok we need to teach you first and she said ok with a smile on her face but we haven’t talked to her again bc she has been sick so I’m hoping soon we can.
a couple areas in our zone are being shut down because they are getting too dangerous. people keep getting mugged, sorry missionaries keep getting mugged among other things that I won’t mention. it’s sad how people are so desperate they will stick a guns to someone’s head for $5.
one thing that I know has already changed about me is my thirst to learn. I’ve never read so much in my life and enjoyed it. right now I’m reading the search for happiness, the book of Mormon and true to the faith. I’m almost done with all of them but true to the faith, that’s a very long book. I never thought I would say this but I really miss school and the learning aspect of it. I have a lot of learning to do in the gospel principles but I miss the other kind of learning. I love to read, those are 4 words that I never thought I would say haha
Spanish is coming along. people still tell me I’m doing really well but I don’t feel like it. I don’t think I’ll ever feel adequate enough with my Spanish but I can get my point across slowly now, which is how were supposed to teach it to people.
that’s about it for me this week. oh a funny thing...the people here that don’t know like any English know a couple words and say things like “ohh freak”. they love the word freak here for some reason, I know my mom would love to hear that all day!
I hope all is well with everyone and I can’t wait to hear how things are next week. ill attach some pictures too!
love,
Elder Herman
things here other than my health are good! we have a baptismal date for a man names Oscar this week, the 8th. I hope he keeps going the way he is going and we can actually get him baptized and confirmed. I hate seeing people that are progressing very rapidly then they just stop, it breaks my heart. I wish I could knock some sense into them and tell them what they are missing!
holy cow conference was amazing this time, as it is every time but man I really got a lot out of it. this was my first time actually paying 100% attention to it and taking notes and it was worth it. I got to watch it in English in the clerk’s office, with air condition. and believe me when I say I might have broken that ac bc I had it all the way up! haha it was really cold in there for the other Americans but it’s ok it was the chapel in my ward!! I loved elder Holland’s talk, that was another powerful one by him. he gets so worked up when he needs to be blunt about something and I love that about him. he always makes many great points.
the spirit is amazing in its promptings. we have made it more of a goal of ours to listen to the spirit more often bc we can learn a lot from it and also so can the people we are teaching.
nothing really big happened this week, which kind of stinks but were working hard! one cool thing was that the beecha, its girl in Spanish, that I baptized brought a friend to her baptism and that was her first time in the church and after she told us she wanted to be baptized...we were like ok we need to teach you first and she said ok with a smile on her face but we haven’t talked to her again bc she has been sick so I’m hoping soon we can.
a couple areas in our zone are being shut down because they are getting too dangerous. people keep getting mugged, sorry missionaries keep getting mugged among other things that I won’t mention. it’s sad how people are so desperate they will stick a guns to someone’s head for $5.
one thing that I know has already changed about me is my thirst to learn. I’ve never read so much in my life and enjoyed it. right now I’m reading the search for happiness, the book of Mormon and true to the faith. I’m almost done with all of them but true to the faith, that’s a very long book. I never thought I would say this but I really miss school and the learning aspect of it. I have a lot of learning to do in the gospel principles but I miss the other kind of learning. I love to read, those are 4 words that I never thought I would say haha
Spanish is coming along. people still tell me I’m doing really well but I don’t feel like it. I don’t think I’ll ever feel adequate enough with my Spanish but I can get my point across slowly now, which is how were supposed to teach it to people.
that’s about it for me this week. oh a funny thing...the people here that don’t know like any English know a couple words and say things like “ohh freak”. they love the word freak here for some reason, I know my mom would love to hear that all day!
I hope all is well with everyone and I can’t wait to hear how things are next week. ill attach some pictures too!
love,
Elder Herman
Monday, September 26, 2011
other than my pains in my stomacho this week, things have been good. we had a double baptism Saturday for two people. that was cool, I did one and my comp did the other and thankfully they came to church Sunday to be confirmed. a lot of times people done come the Sunday after so they don’t get confirmed.
two weeks ago was independence day here and that was cool. there was huge parade with bands and all that cool stuff. I have a video but can’t send it through this I don’t think.
we had a really cool experience the other day. we are in the most dangerous part of el Salvador so we have to be really careful where we go and when. we have one investigator who lives like 10 feet from the railroad tracks and were not supposed to go there at night if it’s not lighted. we were on his way to his house during a really bad storm for a lesson and I got a really bad feeling that we should go there so I told my comp and he said the same thing but he had the feeling he needed to use the bathroom. so we turned around and he said he didn’t need to go anymore so we decided to visit one of our other investigators and her grandson.. so we got to her house and she was balling because she is really sick and she had just found out that her nephew was just told that he was going to be killed by one of the mafia members. the mafia is huge here so if they say they will kill you, they will. we gave her a blessing and she did feel better after. its amazing the feelings or the promptings of the spirit that we get when we need to be somewhere else. it’s also amazing how real it is that her nephew will die. I can’t even comprehend that, that is one of those things you see in movies..not in real life.
things are so different here. the other day we walked by a place where a bunch of prostitutes were and they were in their houses looking out at people to see if they wanted to ¨join them¨ and I saw the look on one of the girls faces and it hasn’t left my mind. she looked so sad, like she felt like she was dirt. I really wish I could do something to help her but I’m not sure there is. I never really realized how bad this world is outside the US. things are 100 times worse here and its depressing.
I’m sorry to hear about brother Lewis. but it’s also nice to know that we have to opportunity to be with our family forever and ever. it sounds like the ward is doing well and I’m grateful for the callings that I had to prepare me for my work here. I learned a lot of leadership at home and it is helping me here. a lot of people you have to be really up front with and I’m sure doing that here.
it’s exciting to hear about moms job, I bet she loves it huh haha and are you enjoying work dad? we get a lot of rain here too, the storms are worse than thunderstorms in Texas, they are bad.
ok imp pretty much out of time so ill attach some pictures and write next week. I love you all and am thankful for your prayers and support.
love, elder herman
much love from a brother to another
I don’t have any good pics of my apt so I will next week.
two weeks ago was independence day here and that was cool. there was huge parade with bands and all that cool stuff. I have a video but can’t send it through this I don’t think.
we had a really cool experience the other day. we are in the most dangerous part of el Salvador so we have to be really careful where we go and when. we have one investigator who lives like 10 feet from the railroad tracks and were not supposed to go there at night if it’s not lighted. we were on his way to his house during a really bad storm for a lesson and I got a really bad feeling that we should go there so I told my comp and he said the same thing but he had the feeling he needed to use the bathroom. so we turned around and he said he didn’t need to go anymore so we decided to visit one of our other investigators and her grandson.. so we got to her house and she was balling because she is really sick and she had just found out that her nephew was just told that he was going to be killed by one of the mafia members. the mafia is huge here so if they say they will kill you, they will. we gave her a blessing and she did feel better after. its amazing the feelings or the promptings of the spirit that we get when we need to be somewhere else. it’s also amazing how real it is that her nephew will die. I can’t even comprehend that, that is one of those things you see in movies..not in real life.
things are so different here. the other day we walked by a place where a bunch of prostitutes were and they were in their houses looking out at people to see if they wanted to ¨join them¨ and I saw the look on one of the girls faces and it hasn’t left my mind. she looked so sad, like she felt like she was dirt. I really wish I could do something to help her but I’m not sure there is. I never really realized how bad this world is outside the US. things are 100 times worse here and its depressing.
I’m sorry to hear about brother Lewis. but it’s also nice to know that we have to opportunity to be with our family forever and ever. it sounds like the ward is doing well and I’m grateful for the callings that I had to prepare me for my work here. I learned a lot of leadership at home and it is helping me here. a lot of people you have to be really up front with and I’m sure doing that here.
it’s exciting to hear about moms job, I bet she loves it huh haha and are you enjoying work dad? we get a lot of rain here too, the storms are worse than thunderstorms in Texas, they are bad.
ok imp pretty much out of time so ill attach some pictures and write next week. I love you all and am thankful for your prayers and support.
love, elder herman
much love from a brother to another
I don’t have any good pics of my apt so I will next week.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Well hello to all! Boy this sure has been a crazy week for me. This is my first email from El Salvador and the keyboards are a little different so if you see something odd then we will blame it on that! So much has happened this last week I don’t even know where to start!
First I’ll start with the plane ride here! It was a long flight, we left Monday and got here Tuesday about mid day. On the flights I met Amarie Stoudamire and Justin Derulo, if you don’t know them, look them up they are very popular people ha also on the plane rides I took part in giving away two Books of Mormon and that was my first real missionary experience on my mission!
The first day here was just getting to know the area a little bit, knowing the rules, and meeting members. One cool thing we have is a cocinera which is someone who cooks for us! We eat there twice a day and the members feed us the third meal in that day. It’s awesome, I don’t have to cook haha. We also have someone that washes our laundry and irons for us. We have money in our monthly budget for them to do this so we pay them. My favorite foods are papoosas, rice and beans. People eat papoosas here like it’s their job. Our cocinera owns a papoosaria and makes them for breakfast for us every morning.
One really cool thing I am blessed with is knowing English. I learned that in companionship study (which is an hour) I teach my comp English and he teaches me Spanish. My comp is from Costa Rica and totally looks like he is American but I’ll get to that later. Well anyways, most people, if they are lucky will make $100 a week. That’s hard especially if you have a big family so not many people get by. The reason we teach them Spanish is so when they go home they can work at a call center and make a minimum of $700 a month which is a huge improvement. I feel so blessed with the education that I have. I really want to baptize on my mission, but another goal is to do a good job teaching my comps English. That in and of itself is worth two years for me.
There are so many things I am not allowed to eat! I can’t have water from the tap, at all! I can only have bottled or bagged water. I had never heard of bagged water until I got here, ya its odd. I can’t have any fish, anything from a pig (no bacon...it stinks...get ready dad for me to have a lot of bacon when I get home) I can’t have cabbage, Darn it, I love cabbage so much. I can’t have any vegetables unless they are cooked in bleach, same with fruits. I think there’s more but I can’t remember all of them. The chance is that I’ll get a worm, all Americans here do so ill be sick here in the future haha. All these food rules make Americans sound like wimps!
The other day I gave my first baptism invitation to a girl that is 14 and her family is already members. The cool thing is that she accepted! So we have a baptismal date for her is the 17 of this month. I’m not sure who she wants to do it but I hope it’s me! The people here are humble, very humble. They all pretty much have nothing. The houses are so small, old and gross. It really makes me so very thankful to my father in heaven and as well as my father on the earth that has worked so hard to provide for my family We have never had to do without things that we need and I thank God every day for what I have. There are so many people here it’s crazy! Mom you prolly wont like this but the drivers are crazy here. I almost get hit by busses everyday...:) The only place to walk is the side of the road, there is nowhere else to walk so cars are going 60 plus right by you and we just do our best to not get hit. While we’re paying attention to the cars going by, we were not paying attention to where we’re walking and about every step there is two piles of dog poop. There are so many stray dogs here it amazes me still. Some of them are so cute but I don’t dare touch them haha and some others would look like the dogs that, well I won’t mention his name, iI’l just say he was into dog fights and is in the NFL...The dogs look like they were in dog fights. If you can get past all the trash and gross things around here it really is a beautiful country. It’s so green here and I love it and the people already.
My bishop is a gangster. He is 27 and is amazing. He is such a great guy and he speaks clearly enough that I can understand every word he says. Some people that speak to me I can understand every word but the others I don’t understand a word because they speak sooooooooooooo fast and mumble, way worse than Brent did! But I am used to the Spanish now, now I’m just learning to understand it. I have to pick out key words and try to piece them together, it’s so hard. But I like to say un poco mas cada dia or I understand a little more every day, which is true. I know I have someone’s help with Spanish, there is no way I could do this by my myself!
I have had different foods every meal pretty much besides beans, papoosas and rice. It’s difficult for me to say what it was because to be honest half the time I have never seen it before. For instance the people here really like this drink that is made out of corn, it’s interesting. It’s a thick white drink and it’s decent and I’m used to it now but it was different at first. This might surprise my family a little bit, they all ´think´ that I’m a picky eater but I’m really not. Everything that has been put in front of me I've eaten and I’ve actually liked. I haven’t had one thing to eat that I haven’t liked.
My comp is amazing and I was really blessed with him. he is a good teacher, he knows some English which is helpful and he is very patient with me. Usually presidents of the mission put the best missionaries as zone leaders but not ours. he puts the best as trainers. right before I got here my comp was a ZL and president took him out of that to be a trainer, our president doesn’t mess around. My comp is amazing and couldn’t have asked for better.
It amazes me how Americanized El Salvador is. There are so many American stores here and restaurants. The food there is all imported so it’s safe to eat. Oh ya we’re not supposed to eat at restaurants other than American ones, or drink soda because they make it from the water here. We went to Walmart today and it made me feel like I was home and it made me miss it a little bit but I know I have work to do here.
There are a lot of drunks here and I mean a lot. Every time we see one they all look at me and say the same sentence...I don’t speak English...ya right. We’re not allowed to have our cameras with us because people get jumped all the time so I don’t want my camera stolen so I keep it in our apartment. that’s why the pictures aren’t that great, they are just around our complex. the other day one of the guys in our ward that speaks a little English asked me the difference between naked and nude..I get a lot of odd questions like that all the time haha
Oh, the people here don’t have the same standards as us. When a woman is breastfeeding, they don’t cover themselves at all. In church people will just take it out and start doing it and they will come and greet you while they are breastfeeding. This is when you really have to stare at their faces and not wander haha good times
I can’t think of anything else right now but this last week was a good one. I really like being here and can’t wait to have more baptismal dates. The work is good and almost everyone is willing to listen. I miss you all lots and am thankful for your support. I look forward to next Monday, my P-day so I can write again. I love you all! Elder Herman.
First I’ll start with the plane ride here! It was a long flight, we left Monday and got here Tuesday about mid day. On the flights I met Amarie Stoudamire and Justin Derulo, if you don’t know them, look them up they are very popular people ha also on the plane rides I took part in giving away two Books of Mormon and that was my first real missionary experience on my mission!
The first day here was just getting to know the area a little bit, knowing the rules, and meeting members. One cool thing we have is a cocinera which is someone who cooks for us! We eat there twice a day and the members feed us the third meal in that day. It’s awesome, I don’t have to cook haha. We also have someone that washes our laundry and irons for us. We have money in our monthly budget for them to do this so we pay them. My favorite foods are papoosas, rice and beans. People eat papoosas here like it’s their job. Our cocinera owns a papoosaria and makes them for breakfast for us every morning.
One really cool thing I am blessed with is knowing English. I learned that in companionship study (which is an hour) I teach my comp English and he teaches me Spanish. My comp is from Costa Rica and totally looks like he is American but I’ll get to that later. Well anyways, most people, if they are lucky will make $100 a week. That’s hard especially if you have a big family so not many people get by. The reason we teach them Spanish is so when they go home they can work at a call center and make a minimum of $700 a month which is a huge improvement. I feel so blessed with the education that I have. I really want to baptize on my mission, but another goal is to do a good job teaching my comps English. That in and of itself is worth two years for me.
There are so many things I am not allowed to eat! I can’t have water from the tap, at all! I can only have bottled or bagged water. I had never heard of bagged water until I got here, ya its odd. I can’t have any fish, anything from a pig (no bacon...it stinks...get ready dad for me to have a lot of bacon when I get home) I can’t have cabbage, Darn it, I love cabbage so much. I can’t have any vegetables unless they are cooked in bleach, same with fruits. I think there’s more but I can’t remember all of them. The chance is that I’ll get a worm, all Americans here do so ill be sick here in the future haha. All these food rules make Americans sound like wimps!
The other day I gave my first baptism invitation to a girl that is 14 and her family is already members. The cool thing is that she accepted! So we have a baptismal date for her is the 17 of this month. I’m not sure who she wants to do it but I hope it’s me! The people here are humble, very humble. They all pretty much have nothing. The houses are so small, old and gross. It really makes me so very thankful to my father in heaven and as well as my father on the earth that has worked so hard to provide for my family We have never had to do without things that we need and I thank God every day for what I have. There are so many people here it’s crazy! Mom you prolly wont like this but the drivers are crazy here. I almost get hit by busses everyday...:) The only place to walk is the side of the road, there is nowhere else to walk so cars are going 60 plus right by you and we just do our best to not get hit. While we’re paying attention to the cars going by, we were not paying attention to where we’re walking and about every step there is two piles of dog poop. There are so many stray dogs here it amazes me still. Some of them are so cute but I don’t dare touch them haha and some others would look like the dogs that, well I won’t mention his name, iI’l just say he was into dog fights and is in the NFL...The dogs look like they were in dog fights. If you can get past all the trash and gross things around here it really is a beautiful country. It’s so green here and I love it and the people already.
My bishop is a gangster. He is 27 and is amazing. He is such a great guy and he speaks clearly enough that I can understand every word he says. Some people that speak to me I can understand every word but the others I don’t understand a word because they speak sooooooooooooo fast and mumble, way worse than Brent did! But I am used to the Spanish now, now I’m just learning to understand it. I have to pick out key words and try to piece them together, it’s so hard. But I like to say un poco mas cada dia or I understand a little more every day, which is true. I know I have someone’s help with Spanish, there is no way I could do this by my myself!
I have had different foods every meal pretty much besides beans, papoosas and rice. It’s difficult for me to say what it was because to be honest half the time I have never seen it before. For instance the people here really like this drink that is made out of corn, it’s interesting. It’s a thick white drink and it’s decent and I’m used to it now but it was different at first. This might surprise my family a little bit, they all ´think´ that I’m a picky eater but I’m really not. Everything that has been put in front of me I've eaten and I’ve actually liked. I haven’t had one thing to eat that I haven’t liked.
My comp is amazing and I was really blessed with him. he is a good teacher, he knows some English which is helpful and he is very patient with me. Usually presidents of the mission put the best missionaries as zone leaders but not ours. he puts the best as trainers. right before I got here my comp was a ZL and president took him out of that to be a trainer, our president doesn’t mess around. My comp is amazing and couldn’t have asked for better.
It amazes me how Americanized El Salvador is. There are so many American stores here and restaurants. The food there is all imported so it’s safe to eat. Oh ya we’re not supposed to eat at restaurants other than American ones, or drink soda because they make it from the water here. We went to Walmart today and it made me feel like I was home and it made me miss it a little bit but I know I have work to do here.
There are a lot of drunks here and I mean a lot. Every time we see one they all look at me and say the same sentence...I don’t speak English...ya right. We’re not allowed to have our cameras with us because people get jumped all the time so I don’t want my camera stolen so I keep it in our apartment. that’s why the pictures aren’t that great, they are just around our complex. the other day one of the guys in our ward that speaks a little English asked me the difference between naked and nude..I get a lot of odd questions like that all the time haha
Oh, the people here don’t have the same standards as us. When a woman is breastfeeding, they don’t cover themselves at all. In church people will just take it out and start doing it and they will come and greet you while they are breastfeeding. This is when you really have to stare at their faces and not wander haha good times
I can’t think of anything else right now but this last week was a good one. I really like being here and can’t wait to have more baptismal dates. The work is good and almost everyone is willing to listen. I miss you all lots and am thankful for your support. I look forward to next Monday, my P-day so I can write again. I love you all! Elder Herman.
You can still write Elder Herman a letter on this website, or email him at cole.herman@myldsmail.com.
If you use the website(his mission is free of charge), be sure you select the Provo MTC until he's shipped out. It's a super convenient and easy way to write to him without having to lick the envelope or pay for a stamp!
If you use the website(his mission is free of charge), be sure you select the Provo MTC until he's shipped out. It's a super convenient and easy way to write to him without having to lick the envelope or pay for a stamp!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Hello to all! How are you all doing? I have had a very rough but good week! First off I want to say go Horns and hahahaha BYU, I always knew that Texas was way better and always will be, once a Horn always a Horn! I'm sorry to hear about Sister Burnett, but they fact that we have the plan of salvation in our lives is amazing. I love teaching about that in lessons because we always have the spirit with us when we teach that. It’s amazing to know that n we can be with family forever, we have all the tools and knowledge that we need to for this and if anyone doesn’t know about this or would like to hear from the missionaries talk to bishop Joseph N. Herman of the Hiram ward or go to www.mormon.org :) wow I am such a missionary. I’m in an area in San Salvador in Soyapongo and my area is called Paleca. There are quite a few other missionaries here! The boundaries for my mission are huge! Some of my friends are 4 hours away.
So ill start off with the good because it seems there is a lot of bad. So we have one baptism for this week and her name is Keiry Marthinez and her first name sounds like Katie...ha I thought that was interesting. But she wants me to do it! I am so excited for my first baptism but not for the fact that I have to memorize the prayer in Spanish and her name. Spanish people have a thing for long names so she has like 5 or 6 names that I’ll have to memorize. Another good thing is another Hermana we taught came to church on Sunday with her grandson and he loved it!
Well here’s the bad. I have had diarrhea for the past week and have been very sick! I have been having the worst stomach pains I have ever had, I thought it was food poisoning but it wasn’t it is way worse than that. I don’t have a worm but I have a parasite. So I am taking pills and have been very uncomfortable for the past week relying on those to help. The other bad thing is that I got bit pretty badly by a dog here. it didn’t do too much but were watching it because the dogs here are nasty and well think about a third world country with thousands of dogs running around that eat out of the sewers and no one takes care of them.
Some interesting things I have seen here...well there are a lot. Not many people have cars here so they take the bus. The people here try to pimp their buses out and they don’t do a very good job but they do have some subs in them and it’s really funny to be walking on the road and hear this huge bus bumpin! It’s really funny for me to hear that because I like subs also. Another is that the women here hawk some of the biggest loogies I have ever seen. We will be teaching a lesson and they will just spit it out on their floor. Oh how America is so different haha I also have see cockroaches the size my palm. There are a lot of churches here and we I saw a church called nuestra iglesia es verdadero which means our church is true.
I would agree with you and say we are spoiled with a cook and someone to do our laundry but the main reason we do that is for them. They make money off of it and they sure do need that here. A couple extra bucks a month goes a long ways here, things are really cheap here. So this is more for them than us.
I'm glad we got my shoes and socks at missionary mall. I feel I’ll wear through them pretty fast and need to get them replaced, good thing they have a two year warranty. The terrain here is pretty rough. The roads aren’t very good and if you’re not on a road you’re in rocks or poop from dogs!
Also will you tell people I can receive dear elders here so if they want to write me through there they can also! I haven’t gotten any letters from anyone yet but I’m hoping to get them tomorrow or Thursday.
I don’t feel that effective always here. This is my first area and imp not sure what to be doing but I know I could be working harder. My comp isn’t as great as I thought he would be. I'm having a tough time with this because I know I could be doing a lot more in a day but he isn’t as affective as he could be. I need to say something but don’t want to because I have to be with him for 10 more weeks but I’m on the Lord’s time not his or mine so I need to! Wish me luck. Not much else has gone on here, like I said it’s pretty slow here. Oh as of today I got my Visa and am no longer illegal..Yay for being legal ha Thanks for all of your support. I love and miss you all!!
Love,
Elder Herman
So ill start off with the good because it seems there is a lot of bad. So we have one baptism for this week and her name is Keiry Marthinez and her first name sounds like Katie...ha I thought that was interesting. But she wants me to do it! I am so excited for my first baptism but not for the fact that I have to memorize the prayer in Spanish and her name. Spanish people have a thing for long names so she has like 5 or 6 names that I’ll have to memorize. Another good thing is another Hermana we taught came to church on Sunday with her grandson and he loved it!
Well here’s the bad. I have had diarrhea for the past week and have been very sick! I have been having the worst stomach pains I have ever had, I thought it was food poisoning but it wasn’t it is way worse than that. I don’t have a worm but I have a parasite. So I am taking pills and have been very uncomfortable for the past week relying on those to help. The other bad thing is that I got bit pretty badly by a dog here. it didn’t do too much but were watching it because the dogs here are nasty and well think about a third world country with thousands of dogs running around that eat out of the sewers and no one takes care of them.
Some interesting things I have seen here...well there are a lot. Not many people have cars here so they take the bus. The people here try to pimp their buses out and they don’t do a very good job but they do have some subs in them and it’s really funny to be walking on the road and hear this huge bus bumpin! It’s really funny for me to hear that because I like subs also. Another is that the women here hawk some of the biggest loogies I have ever seen. We will be teaching a lesson and they will just spit it out on their floor. Oh how America is so different haha I also have see cockroaches the size my palm. There are a lot of churches here and we I saw a church called nuestra iglesia es verdadero which means our church is true.
I would agree with you and say we are spoiled with a cook and someone to do our laundry but the main reason we do that is for them. They make money off of it and they sure do need that here. A couple extra bucks a month goes a long ways here, things are really cheap here. So this is more for them than us.
I'm glad we got my shoes and socks at missionary mall. I feel I’ll wear through them pretty fast and need to get them replaced, good thing they have a two year warranty. The terrain here is pretty rough. The roads aren’t very good and if you’re not on a road you’re in rocks or poop from dogs!
Also will you tell people I can receive dear elders here so if they want to write me through there they can also! I haven’t gotten any letters from anyone yet but I’m hoping to get them tomorrow or Thursday.
I don’t feel that effective always here. This is my first area and imp not sure what to be doing but I know I could be working harder. My comp isn’t as great as I thought he would be. I'm having a tough time with this because I know I could be doing a lot more in a day but he isn’t as affective as he could be. I need to say something but don’t want to because I have to be with him for 10 more weeks but I’m on the Lord’s time not his or mine so I need to! Wish me luck. Not much else has gone on here, like I said it’s pretty slow here. Oh as of today I got my Visa and am no longer illegal..Yay for being legal ha Thanks for all of your support. I love and miss you all!!
Love,
Elder Herman
Monday, September 5, 2011
Well hello to all! Boy this sure has been a crazy week for me. This is my first email from El Salvador and the keyboards are a little different so if you see something odd then we will blame it on that! So much has happened this last week I don’t even know where to start!
First I’ll start with the plane ride here! It was a long flight, we left Monday and got here Tuesday about mid day. On the flights I met Amarie Stoudamire and Justin Derulo, if you don’t know them, look them up they are very popular people ha also on the plane rides I took part in giving away two Books of Mormon and that was my first real missionary experience on my mission!
The first day here was just getting to know the area a little bit, knowing the rules, and meeting members. One cool thing we have is a cocinera which is someone who cooks for us! We eat there twice a day and the members feed us the third meal in that day. It’s awesome, I don’t have to cook haha. We also have someone that washes our laundry and irons for us. We have money in our monthly budget for them to do this so we pay them. My favorite foods are papoosas, rice and beans. People eat papoosas here like it’s their job. Our cocinera owns a papoosaria and makes them for breakfast for us every morning.
One really cool thing I am blessed with is knowing English. I learned that in companionship study (which is an hour) I teach my comp English and he teaches me Spanish. My comp is from Costa Rica and totally looks like he is American but I’ll get to that later. Well anyways, most people, if they are lucky will make $100 a week. That’s hard especially if you have a big family so not many people get by. The reason we teach them Spanish is so when they go home they can work at a call center and make a minimum of $700 a month which is a huge improvement. I feel so blessed with the education that I have. I really want to baptize on my mission, but another goal is to do a good job teaching my comps English. That in and of itself is worth two years for me.
There are so many things I am not allowed to eat! I can’t have water from the tap, at all! I can only have bottled or bagged water. I had never heard of bagged water until I got here, ya its odd. I can’t have any fish, anything from a pig (no bacon...it stinks...get ready dad for me to have a lot of bacon when I get home) I can’t have cabbage, Darn it, I love cabbage so much. I can’t have any vegetables unless they are cooked in bleach, same with fruits. I think there’s more but I can’t remember all of them. The chance is that I’ll get a worm, all Americans here do so ill be sick here in the future haha. All these food rules make Americans sound like wimps!
The other day I gave my first baptism invitation to a girl that is 14 and her family is already members. The cool thing is that she accepted! So we have a baptismal date for her is the 17 of this month. I’m not sure who she wants to do it but I hope it’s me! The people here are humble, very humble. They all pretty much have nothing. The houses are so small, old and gross. It really makes me so very thankful to my father in heaven and as well as my father on the earth that has worked so hard to provide for my family We have never had to do without things that we need and I thank God every day for what I have. There are so many people here it’s crazy! Mom you prolly wont like this but the drivers are crazy here. I almost get hit by busses everyday...:) The only place to walk is the side of the road, there is nowhere else to walk so cars are going 60 plus right by you and we just do our best to not get hit. While we’re paying attention to the cars going by, we were not paying attention to where we’re walking and about every step there is two piles of dog poop. There are so many stray dogs here it amazes me still. Some of them are so cute but I don’t dare touch them haha and some others would look like the dogs that, well I won’t mention his name, iI’l just say he was into dog fights and is in the NFL...The dogs look like they were in dog fights. If you can get past all the trash and gross things around here it really is a beautiful country. It’s so green here and I love it and the people already.
My bishop is a gangster. He is 27 and is amazing. He is such a great guy and he speaks clearly enough that I can understand every word he says. Some people that speak to me I can understand every word but the others I don’t understand a word because they speak sooooooooooooo fast and mumble, way worse than Brent did! But I am used to the Spanish now, now I’m just learning to understand it. I have to pick out key words and try to piece them together, it’s so hard. But I like to say un poco mas cada dia or I understand a little more every day, which is true. I know I have someone’s help with Spanish, there is no way I could do this by my myself!
I have had different foods every meal pretty much besides beans, papoosas and rice. It’s difficult for me to say what it was because to be honest half the time I have never seen it before. For instance the people here really like this drink that is made out of corn, it’s interesting. It’s a thick white drink and it’s decent and I’m used to it now but it was different at first. This might surprise my family a little bit, they all ´think´ that I’m a picky eater but I’m really not. Everything that has been put in front of me I've eaten and I’ve actually liked. I haven’t had one thing to eat that I haven’t liked.
My comp is amazing and I was really blessed with him. he is a good teacher, he knows some English which is helpful and he is very patient with me. Usually presidents of the mission put the best missionaries as zone leaders but not ours. he puts the best as trainers. right before I got here my comp was a ZL and president took him out of that to be a trainer, our president doesn’t mess around. My comp is amazing and couldn’t have asked for better.
It amazes me how Americanized El Salvador is. There are so many American stores here and restaurants. The food there is all imported so it’s safe to eat. Oh ya we’re not supposed to eat at restaurants other than American ones, or drink soda because they make it from the water here. We went to Walmart today and it made me feel like I was home and it made me miss it a little bit but I know I have work to do here.
There are a lot of drunks here and I mean a lot. Every time we see one they all look at me and say the same sentence...I don’t speak English...ya right. We’re not allowed to have our cameras with us because people get jumped all the time so I don’t want my camera stolen so I keep it in our apartment. that’s why the pictures aren’t that great, they are just around our complex. the other day one of the guys in our ward that speaks a little English asked me the difference between naked and nude..I get a lot of odd questions like that all the time haha
Oh, the people here don’t have the same standards as us. When a woman is breastfeeding, they don’t cover themselves at all. In church people will just take it out and start doing it and they will come and greet you while they are breastfeeding. This is when you really have to stare at their faces and not wander haha good times
I can’t think of anything else right now but this last week was a good one. I really like being here and can’t wait to have more baptismal dates. The work is good and almost everyone is willing to listen. I miss you all lots and am thankful for your support. I look forward to next Monday, my P-day so I can write again. I love you all! Elder Herman.
El Salvadorian AC
Elder Herman and his companion
View from the apartment
Apartment sink before Elder Herman got to it
Apartment sink AFTER!
First I’ll start with the plane ride here! It was a long flight, we left Monday and got here Tuesday about mid day. On the flights I met Amarie Stoudamire and Justin Derulo, if you don’t know them, look them up they are very popular people ha also on the plane rides I took part in giving away two Books of Mormon and that was my first real missionary experience on my mission!
The first day here was just getting to know the area a little bit, knowing the rules, and meeting members. One cool thing we have is a cocinera which is someone who cooks for us! We eat there twice a day and the members feed us the third meal in that day. It’s awesome, I don’t have to cook haha. We also have someone that washes our laundry and irons for us. We have money in our monthly budget for them to do this so we pay them. My favorite foods are papoosas, rice and beans. People eat papoosas here like it’s their job. Our cocinera owns a papoosaria and makes them for breakfast for us every morning.
One really cool thing I am blessed with is knowing English. I learned that in companionship study (which is an hour) I teach my comp English and he teaches me Spanish. My comp is from Costa Rica and totally looks like he is American but I’ll get to that later. Well anyways, most people, if they are lucky will make $100 a week. That’s hard especially if you have a big family so not many people get by. The reason we teach them Spanish is so when they go home they can work at a call center and make a minimum of $700 a month which is a huge improvement. I feel so blessed with the education that I have. I really want to baptize on my mission, but another goal is to do a good job teaching my comps English. That in and of itself is worth two years for me.
There are so many things I am not allowed to eat! I can’t have water from the tap, at all! I can only have bottled or bagged water. I had never heard of bagged water until I got here, ya its odd. I can’t have any fish, anything from a pig (no bacon...it stinks...get ready dad for me to have a lot of bacon when I get home) I can’t have cabbage, Darn it, I love cabbage so much. I can’t have any vegetables unless they are cooked in bleach, same with fruits. I think there’s more but I can’t remember all of them. The chance is that I’ll get a worm, all Americans here do so ill be sick here in the future haha. All these food rules make Americans sound like wimps!
The other day I gave my first baptism invitation to a girl that is 14 and her family is already members. The cool thing is that she accepted! So we have a baptismal date for her is the 17 of this month. I’m not sure who she wants to do it but I hope it’s me! The people here are humble, very humble. They all pretty much have nothing. The houses are so small, old and gross. It really makes me so very thankful to my father in heaven and as well as my father on the earth that has worked so hard to provide for my family We have never had to do without things that we need and I thank God every day for what I have. There are so many people here it’s crazy! Mom you prolly wont like this but the drivers are crazy here. I almost get hit by busses everyday...:) The only place to walk is the side of the road, there is nowhere else to walk so cars are going 60 plus right by you and we just do our best to not get hit. While we’re paying attention to the cars going by, we were not paying attention to where we’re walking and about every step there is two piles of dog poop. There are so many stray dogs here it amazes me still. Some of them are so cute but I don’t dare touch them haha and some others would look like the dogs that, well I won’t mention his name, iI’l just say he was into dog fights and is in the NFL...The dogs look like they were in dog fights. If you can get past all the trash and gross things around here it really is a beautiful country. It’s so green here and I love it and the people already.
My bishop is a gangster. He is 27 and is amazing. He is such a great guy and he speaks clearly enough that I can understand every word he says. Some people that speak to me I can understand every word but the others I don’t understand a word because they speak sooooooooooooo fast and mumble, way worse than Brent did! But I am used to the Spanish now, now I’m just learning to understand it. I have to pick out key words and try to piece them together, it’s so hard. But I like to say un poco mas cada dia or I understand a little more every day, which is true. I know I have someone’s help with Spanish, there is no way I could do this by my myself!
I have had different foods every meal pretty much besides beans, papoosas and rice. It’s difficult for me to say what it was because to be honest half the time I have never seen it before. For instance the people here really like this drink that is made out of corn, it’s interesting. It’s a thick white drink and it’s decent and I’m used to it now but it was different at first. This might surprise my family a little bit, they all ´think´ that I’m a picky eater but I’m really not. Everything that has been put in front of me I've eaten and I’ve actually liked. I haven’t had one thing to eat that I haven’t liked.
My comp is amazing and I was really blessed with him. he is a good teacher, he knows some English which is helpful and he is very patient with me. Usually presidents of the mission put the best missionaries as zone leaders but not ours. he puts the best as trainers. right before I got here my comp was a ZL and president took him out of that to be a trainer, our president doesn’t mess around. My comp is amazing and couldn’t have asked for better.
It amazes me how Americanized El Salvador is. There are so many American stores here and restaurants. The food there is all imported so it’s safe to eat. Oh ya we’re not supposed to eat at restaurants other than American ones, or drink soda because they make it from the water here. We went to Walmart today and it made me feel like I was home and it made me miss it a little bit but I know I have work to do here.
There are a lot of drunks here and I mean a lot. Every time we see one they all look at me and say the same sentence...I don’t speak English...ya right. We’re not allowed to have our cameras with us because people get jumped all the time so I don’t want my camera stolen so I keep it in our apartment. that’s why the pictures aren’t that great, they are just around our complex. the other day one of the guys in our ward that speaks a little English asked me the difference between naked and nude..I get a lot of odd questions like that all the time haha
Oh, the people here don’t have the same standards as us. When a woman is breastfeeding, they don’t cover themselves at all. In church people will just take it out and start doing it and they will come and greet you while they are breastfeeding. This is when you really have to stare at their faces and not wander haha good times
I can’t think of anything else right now but this last week was a good one. I really like being here and can’t wait to have more baptismal dates. The work is good and almost everyone is willing to listen. I miss you all lots and am thankful for your support. I look forward to next Monday, my P-day so I can write again. I love you all! Elder Herman.
El Salvadorian AC
Elder Herman and his companion
View from the apartment
Apartment sink before Elder Herman got to it
Apartment sink AFTER!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
So I have amazing news! I got my travel plans today and here they are:I leave the MTC at 4:30 pm on 29 of AugMy plane leaves for Los Angeles at 8:20pmI leave there for Miami FL at 10:40pm and arrive in Miami at 6:30amThen I leave for El Salvador at 12:05 pm and arrive in El Salvador at 10:45 Aug 30!It will be a lot of flying but I’m super excited to go. I leave in 10 days from now, 8-29-2011!!That’s a lot of people that went to the bbq! I wish I could have played some corn hole, we would have killed it. I loved those father son projects like building the corn hole games, those are some of my favorite memories! I am grateful for the time we had together before my mission and college!You seem to be quite the missionary Dad, I’m excited to be in El Salvador and be one. I know I am one now but I don’t know I’m just excited to go ha-ha something sweet: I dunked in gym the other day over this kid. I’m getting pretty good at dunking so watch out little El Salvadorian people ha-ha just kidding.How is having Bobby back? Has anything changed about him? How is john’s foot? That’s awesome that the youth are going out to college, is there still a strong youth group there? What are Winston’s plans for college or what is he up to?That’s crazy you have been bishop for over 4 years, it doesn’t seem like you got called when I was 14 or 15. That would be crazy if you were still there when I got back.My ankle is good, it’s still a little fat but its aftermath. I went to the Dr. today for my warts and he said the 3 were gone and killed but he found two baby ones that he shot and should be gone by the time I leave for el Salvador. I asked him why this was happening and he said there is no way to prevent them and it’s hard to stop them. He said people just get really unlucky with them and there is no way to stop them except praying. He is LDS and I replied...I can pray no problem, let’s see how strong my faith is :) haIt’s crazy how fast time has gone by. I’ve been gone for two months. the MTC has been a little fun and it’s gone by fast so when I get to el Salvador and have lots of fun teaching I’m sure time will go by even faster!Nothing really exciting happened this week. we got to be the hosts for the new missionaries. when the new missionaries come on wed's missionaries show them around and direct traffic. I had to direct traffic and let’s just say safety patrol in elementary school really paid off ha-ha, but it was awesome welcoming all Gods servants here. their faces were priceless, they were all sad to leave family but excited about what’s ahead of them. it’s cool thinking that two months ago that was me. oh how things have changed.Spanish is coming along. I have improved so much from when I got here. I can talk pretty well in sentences. I’m working on remembering all the tenses, there are like 15 or so that we have to learn and a lot of them sound the same ha-ha, but I’m working hard. For people that want to write me they should write to my El Salvador address. Well these computers are short on modern technology and the question mark just went out so dad could you add question marks to things that are questions ha-ha? (added by Joe) Weird things happen all the time here.Ok that’s pretty much it, I love you all and miss you all. Stay classy Saint Diego.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Not much is going on here, just classes and learning more Spanish. I’m glad to say I’ve been here for 6 week and have a little fewer than 3 left. I’m so excited to serve the people of El Salvador! As for travel plans, I haven’t gotten those yet, we will get those like a week or two before, I think a week. We are supposed to leave the 28th but if my visa isn’t in by then I’ll have to stay here until it gets in. They don’t tell you if your visa is in until like a week before, a little frustrating but it’s ok. I did see elder Dahl a lot and we got pictures before he left on Monday, I believe it was. He is doing really well and is excited to go and to be in Hawaii. I’ll send pictures as soon as I can.That’s awesome about the pass along cards, I can’t wait until I get into the mission field and can have cool missionary experiences and bring people unto Christ, that’s what our purpose is. Dad you should start having the young men read PMG, we didn’t read much of it and I had no idea what was in it until I got here and it is an amazing source of missionary information and I have a strong testimony of how inspired it is. I wish I had read it more before I got here.How many new people have we gotten in our ward? I can’t wait to meet them in two years! that’s an amazing thing about our ward is they are always wanting to bring people in and make them feel welcome, not many wards are like that, most of the time they have their cliques. Those are awesome changes. Tell Brother Barnes congrats for me! That will be another powerful young means presidency, we have had the most amazing young means presidency in our ward and I also am grateful for that. The leaders really set the bar high and set an amazing example for the youth. Oh how is John’s foot, didn’t he hurt it?My Spanish is coming along, I admitted defeat yesterday to get help with one of the grammar principles, there are two past tenses and I had no idea what the difference was. For all the Spanish people it was between imperfect and perfect. But, after I asked and she helped me for 45 minutes I finally understand it. I know I can’t do this by myself but I’m having a hard time admitting it to teachers but I’m doing better, I have the desire to learn and that sure is a huge improvement from before my mission. Asking for help is helpful, haha who would have thought? :)I only have 2 weeks left! My feet are getting better and I thought I broke my ankle last Saturday but it’s all good. It was really fat and I could barely walk on it and the whole foot was purple. My branch president is a doctor and he told me that it would be ok and I am playing basketball again. He said it was just a bad sprain again. It actually looked really cool, it was purple and blue and black! It still has a little lump but it’s ok) my feet are getting beaten up here haha.Well that’s all I can think of for now! Oh just a random scripture I really like John 15:13! It’s a keeper. I hope all is well and I miss you all. Thank you so much for your support! I love you all!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Hola friends and family! How is everyone? Thank you all for the letters this week, I loved them! First off I wanted to start my letter out saying my companion is the District Leader and do you know what that makes me? Ya it makes me assistant to the district leader. People call me Dwight now because I keep saying things like that....like I’m the assistant to the regional manager. I don’t know if you got as much of a kick out of that as I did but I thought it was hilarious.
How was the lesson? Social media can be a bad thing if it’s not used right but it can be a huge tool in God's eyes if it used in the right way. there are so many ways that we can get his word out there and that is an awesome way to do that. How was youth conference? Is jimmy serious about the lessons and church?
The doctor said that two of the three warts on my feet are gone and the third one is almost gone, I have an appt on the 19th to see how the last one is doing, hopefully it’ll be gone by then. I don’t really have any stories this week but one cool thing that I realized is how much we really need to reply on the spirit when we teach. we gave a lesson the other day and I had no idea what I was saying but it came out and made sense. I was using words I have never used before or didn’t even know that I knew so I for sure said a prayer of thanks afterwards.
The blog is awesome, Thank you Katie for doing that! Maybe when I get to El Salvador I can start sending you better stuff and will have more than 30 min to write everyone back.
Another good thing here is that I’m starting to think in Spanish, I’m glad I’m finally to this point. This will help me speak Spanish more easily and it’ll be great in the long run. A good scripture that I really like is 1 Nefi 17:13. It talks about how God will prepare a way if we keep the commandments. That’s an awesome promise not only to us as missionaries but everyone! God wants what’s best for us and he will make sure we have a way if we are doing what we need to be doing.
yo se que Dios es nuestro amorose padre celestial y nosotros somos sus hijos. jesucristo es el hijo de dios. dios nos envió a la tierra para aprender y progresar. dios preparó un plan para ayudarnos a llegar a ser como él. podemos regresar a dios siendo obedientes. yo se que la expación de jesucristo es central en el plan de dios. a traves de la expación, podemos ser liberados del pecado. yo se que el libro de mormon es evidencia del amor de dios pro sus hijos. amo a jesucrist. digo estas cosas en el nombre de jesucristo, amén.
Well that pretty much all I have time for. I can’t wait to hear from you all again, I love you and miss you all! thank you for your prayers and support, they don’t go unnoticed!
Elder Herman
How was the lesson? Social media can be a bad thing if it’s not used right but it can be a huge tool in God's eyes if it used in the right way. there are so many ways that we can get his word out there and that is an awesome way to do that. How was youth conference? Is jimmy serious about the lessons and church?
The doctor said that two of the three warts on my feet are gone and the third one is almost gone, I have an appt on the 19th to see how the last one is doing, hopefully it’ll be gone by then. I don’t really have any stories this week but one cool thing that I realized is how much we really need to reply on the spirit when we teach. we gave a lesson the other day and I had no idea what I was saying but it came out and made sense. I was using words I have never used before or didn’t even know that I knew so I for sure said a prayer of thanks afterwards.
The blog is awesome, Thank you Katie for doing that! Maybe when I get to El Salvador I can start sending you better stuff and will have more than 30 min to write everyone back.
Another good thing here is that I’m starting to think in Spanish, I’m glad I’m finally to this point. This will help me speak Spanish more easily and it’ll be great in the long run. A good scripture that I really like is 1 Nefi 17:13. It talks about how God will prepare a way if we keep the commandments. That’s an awesome promise not only to us as missionaries but everyone! God wants what’s best for us and he will make sure we have a way if we are doing what we need to be doing.
yo se que Dios es nuestro amorose padre celestial y nosotros somos sus hijos. jesucristo es el hijo de dios. dios nos envió a la tierra para aprender y progresar. dios preparó un plan para ayudarnos a llegar a ser como él. podemos regresar a dios siendo obedientes. yo se que la expación de jesucristo es central en el plan de dios. a traves de la expación, podemos ser liberados del pecado. yo se que el libro de mormon es evidencia del amor de dios pro sus hijos. amo a jesucrist. digo estas cosas en el nombre de jesucristo, amén.
Well that pretty much all I have time for. I can’t wait to hear from you all again, I love you and miss you all! thank you for your prayers and support, they don’t go unnoticed!
Elder Herman
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Hello all! How are you?
Dad it was perfect timing for you to send that dear elder letter. I got it last night and had time to read and prepare what I wanted to say so I hope it’s a lot better this time. Things are looking up for me! The cool story of the week is: So I’ve been working really hard to memorize the first vision, in Spanish, and when we were teaching our teacher about the restoration of la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias we got to the part of how Joseph Smith knelt down in the grove and said the prayer to God. I said it fully in Spanish and she started to cry and after I asked why and she told me that when she was on her mission she did that to an investigator and then they knew right then the church was true and our teacher, Hermana Anthony, really felt the spirit. That made me feel really good because during lessons I don’t say too much because I don’t know as much as my companion does but when I do speak I do so to the best of my ability and I let the spirit teach. One thing I have really learned is I might know almost no Spanish but through the power of the spirit anything is possible and anyone can understand what you’re saying in any language. This for me was a huge boost! :-)
Katie made a blog for me? I have had a lot of people tell me they read it, thank her for doing that for me! Hopefully I can add some pictures to these emails sometime soon if I can figure out where we can do that, if we even can.
How is work? Are you traveling a lot more now than you were when I was home? That’s awesome about Jim taking the discussions, he is a good guy and I’m glad that I was able to in a roundabout way introduce him to the church (and Rebecca). I can’t even describe how the amazing this church is. It’s hard to believe how people don’t accept it. I know it’s amazing and boy it sure has blessed me and my family.
Today we got to go to the temple, finally. It has been closed since we’ve been here for cleaning and this was our first time in it and it was cool. I received answers to my prayers about specific things and can’t wait until we get to go back next week! Also I prayed in Spanish with my companion in there and that was really cool. Words that I didn’t think I knew I said so that was another testimony builder.
That's awesome that the Mafia to Mormon guy came to YC. How was he? One of my friends here, another elder that Liz Felix knows told me more about him and he has an amazing story. It’s awesome to see what people go through to support and testify about our church. I know right now I would put my life down for the Lord and His Church. Like Joseph Smith said...persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, calamity may defame but no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. What strong words those are. Its awesome knowing how important our church is and what it can do for us.
How is mom’s foot doing? Oh random but I found one elder that is going on his mission to Cleveland Ohio and he reports here within the next couple weeks. No sisters though, that I have seen or met.
My companion is still a goof ball but we're getting along well. I’m glad he is a hard worker and he likes being here. I keep having to remind myself to be patient so I hope one day I just become patient and don’t have to worry about kicking myself when I say usted listo or you ready...he is slow and I like being on time!
How’s mowing the grass? I miss all of you can’t wait to hear from you, especially you, dad.
And the last thing, I challenge you all to start reading the Book of Mormon again if you haven’t. I have a goal of reading it twice by the time I leave here...4.5 weeks. I want to do it once each in Spanish and English. Well that’s all I can think of for now. Thank you all for the prayers, letters and support.
I love you lots,
Elder Herman
Dad it was perfect timing for you to send that dear elder letter. I got it last night and had time to read and prepare what I wanted to say so I hope it’s a lot better this time. Things are looking up for me! The cool story of the week is: So I’ve been working really hard to memorize the first vision, in Spanish, and when we were teaching our teacher about the restoration of la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias we got to the part of how Joseph Smith knelt down in the grove and said the prayer to God. I said it fully in Spanish and she started to cry and after I asked why and she told me that when she was on her mission she did that to an investigator and then they knew right then the church was true and our teacher, Hermana Anthony, really felt the spirit. That made me feel really good because during lessons I don’t say too much because I don’t know as much as my companion does but when I do speak I do so to the best of my ability and I let the spirit teach. One thing I have really learned is I might know almost no Spanish but through the power of the spirit anything is possible and anyone can understand what you’re saying in any language. This for me was a huge boost! :-)
Katie made a blog for me? I have had a lot of people tell me they read it, thank her for doing that for me! Hopefully I can add some pictures to these emails sometime soon if I can figure out where we can do that, if we even can.
How is work? Are you traveling a lot more now than you were when I was home? That’s awesome about Jim taking the discussions, he is a good guy and I’m glad that I was able to in a roundabout way introduce him to the church (and Rebecca). I can’t even describe how the amazing this church is. It’s hard to believe how people don’t accept it. I know it’s amazing and boy it sure has blessed me and my family.
Today we got to go to the temple, finally. It has been closed since we’ve been here for cleaning and this was our first time in it and it was cool. I received answers to my prayers about specific things and can’t wait until we get to go back next week! Also I prayed in Spanish with my companion in there and that was really cool. Words that I didn’t think I knew I said so that was another testimony builder.
That's awesome that the Mafia to Mormon guy came to YC. How was he? One of my friends here, another elder that Liz Felix knows told me more about him and he has an amazing story. It’s awesome to see what people go through to support and testify about our church. I know right now I would put my life down for the Lord and His Church. Like Joseph Smith said...persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, calamity may defame but no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. What strong words those are. Its awesome knowing how important our church is and what it can do for us.
How is mom’s foot doing? Oh random but I found one elder that is going on his mission to Cleveland Ohio and he reports here within the next couple weeks. No sisters though, that I have seen or met.
My companion is still a goof ball but we're getting along well. I’m glad he is a hard worker and he likes being here. I keep having to remind myself to be patient so I hope one day I just become patient and don’t have to worry about kicking myself when I say usted listo or you ready...he is slow and I like being on time!
How’s mowing the grass? I miss all of you can’t wait to hear from you, especially you, dad.
And the last thing, I challenge you all to start reading the Book of Mormon again if you haven’t. I have a goal of reading it twice by the time I leave here...4.5 weeks. I want to do it once each in Spanish and English. Well that’s all I can think of for now. Thank you all for the prayers, letters and support.
I love you lots,
Elder Herman
Monday, July 25, 2011
Letters are like GOLD!
You can write Elder Herman a letter on this website, or email him at cole.herman@myldsmail.com.
If you use the website(his mission is free of charge), be sure you select the Provo MTC until he's shipped out. It's a super convenient and easy way to write to him without having to lick the envelope or pay for a stamp!
If you use the website(his mission is free of charge), be sure you select the Provo MTC until he's shipped out. It's a super convenient and easy way to write to him without having to lick the envelope or pay for a stamp!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Regarding my plantar warts. First I went to the Dr and they said they were really bad. They injected them with some medicine and I have to go back in a week or so to get them Injected again. He said these are really bad and I should have gotten them taken care of earlier. Sorry, but It hurt to walk and I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk every day on my mission if I didn’t get them taken care of. The one on my big toe is on the whole side, it’s massive.
It’s crazy how hot it is there, it’s been really warm here too but not that warm. It never rains here either which is no fun at all. How did the garage sale go? Mom will have fun in GA, I know she will, she sounded really excited when she wrote me In her letter.
That’s awesome about Vera! I’m glad she is staying strong and Is having a good time. I needed garments because I didn’t have enough when I got here and some were already ripping, sorry there’s nothing I can do about that.
From now on, while I’m In the MTC will you respond through Dear Elder (http://www.dearelder.com/ ) so that way I can plan out what I’m going to write and I can be more efficient? Will you tell Tace that too because then I will know what to say ahead of time. If you could write on Dear Elder by Wednesday that means I would get It Thursday and I would be able to plan out what to say and be more efficient.
This week has been a long week. Nothing really happened except 6-ish hours of class every day. My Spanish is coming along and I’m still learning stuff every day. I hope I get to a point where I know everything that is going on. That would be great to do that. Thanks so much for the package, I really needed that. I needed to have things from home because I’m getting homesick here. It’s hard to not think of home and family when we’re in a classroom all day.
The computers won’t allow us to upload any pictures here or get on the Internet. All we can do is get on the church website and email and won’t let us upload pictures. When I get to El Salvador I’ll be able to upload pictures.
I’m doing my best. Have a good week.
Love, Elder Herman
It’s crazy how hot it is there, it’s been really warm here too but not that warm. It never rains here either which is no fun at all. How did the garage sale go? Mom will have fun in GA, I know she will, she sounded really excited when she wrote me In her letter.
That’s awesome about Vera! I’m glad she is staying strong and Is having a good time. I needed garments because I didn’t have enough when I got here and some were already ripping, sorry there’s nothing I can do about that.
From now on, while I’m In the MTC will you respond through Dear Elder (http://www.dearelder.com/ ) so that way I can plan out what I’m going to write and I can be more efficient? Will you tell Tace that too because then I will know what to say ahead of time. If you could write on Dear Elder by Wednesday that means I would get It Thursday and I would be able to plan out what to say and be more efficient.
This week has been a long week. Nothing really happened except 6-ish hours of class every day. My Spanish is coming along and I’m still learning stuff every day. I hope I get to a point where I know everything that is going on. That would be great to do that. Thanks so much for the package, I really needed that. I needed to have things from home because I’m getting homesick here. It’s hard to not think of home and family when we’re in a classroom all day.
The computers won’t allow us to upload any pictures here or get on the Internet. All we can do is get on the church website and email and won’t let us upload pictures. When I get to El Salvador I’ll be able to upload pictures.
I’m doing my best. Have a good week.
Love, Elder Herman
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