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 Aug

My plane leaves for Los Angeles at 8:20pm

I leave there for Miami FL at 10:40pm and arrive in Miami at 6:30am

Then 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 :) ha

It’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.

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!

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