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.

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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