November 23, 2015

How are all ya'll doing?

So something i forgot to mention last week was that Victor was given the priesthood! and this week it was great to see him passing the sacrament, it brought me happiness seeing that! and also he was excited this week to cause he bought his first tie and tonight we are going to teach him how to tie it! 

this last week i was a little under the weather trying to fight off this sick feeling that wanted to get me but i was like nope not gonna happen... well that went well till the northern winds hit a few days ago and today i woke up with a head cold. so besides a slight cough and that im doing great this last week went pretty well. on monday we visited Josue who's from el salvador and he enjoys when we come by and teach him. he says he likes how he has grown close to us and he even gave us little souvenirs from his country. at this moment hes on the boarder lines of deciding which direction he wants to take. we arent pushing him at this point we are be supportive of what he decides and being an example which he said he likes. After we visted him we also went to a new investigator Tino hes a cool guy open to all that we teach with alot of energy, he has some problems with his health so its hard to catch him at home sometimes. but he has that desire to learn more which is always amazing he really loved the Plan of Salvation which answered some important questions hes always had.

the days that continued where more strait forward, riding up and down streets going to meetings and visiting member's, and looking for less active members. All in a normal busy missionary day. 

This week we are excited not only cause its Thanks giving, which i hope every one is happy for, not black friday! But because one of our memebers daughter is getting baptized on the 25th. we went over to see if they needed any help with preparing for it and well some how our talk led to us getting fed shrimp he caught earlier that day haha. i dont know how to eat shrimp apparently cause the whole family was laughing at me. 

Well this week shall be fun and full of food :) and hopefully other excitement. i hope everyone is doing well and that you also have an amazing time with your familys  this week. my missionary friends to you i wish you good tiding and a meal appointment or two on Thanksgiving :)

1 Thessalonians 5:18 

Till next time, be safe!

~Elder Herrera

November 16, 2015

Good day to ya'll,

So I forgot my journal back in the apartment so this weeks email is going to be a little short since i cant remember everything  i did last week, Also that time is slowly moving after t o the point ive given up keeping track. 

So normally the town im in shuts down at 8pm and there is no soul is out side and if you have kids they are asleep already. So normally thats our dead hour, but since we fell back an hour once it goes dark people go by natural reaction and go inside thinking its late but its only six! so no our dead hour starts at 7pm! we make sure we set appointments before but most days we try to OYM till we give up. but recently we have found new investigators that we can visit at 7 or 8 in the evenings so that's a great news for us :D!

On friday we had Zone Conference and had to wake up early to be there on time. sleep why do you for sake me? Well the the topics of this conference was working with members and consecrating our selves to the lord. we had may great talks and had members bare there testimony on how they were converted. we also got introduced to the Christmas initiative which is really cool so ill update you more on that later on. but yeah for our lunch break we got fried chicken and other goodies. well idk what it was but from all that but ive been feeling sick ever since then. Ive been tired and sluggish since then so i feel it coming on but im fighting it off through will power cause i don't
 wanna be stuck at the apartment that would be boring! so Ill fight it off long enough! 

Oh this Saturday we also had our Thanks Giving dinner here in port lavaca,  Elder Barlow and I mad a salad for it. we had a great turn out of members and investigators show up. it was a great night full of food and unity in the branch! Deep fried turkey is the best!! i was full afterwards but the best part was the LEFT OVERS!

Well thats my update for the week, i hope everyones is doing great back home and ill talk to ya'll next week

sincerely, 

Elder Herrera

October 26, 2015

This last week was suppose to be transfer but no one here got moved so where all together for another 6 weeks! I really do enjoy this area and the work were doing. its been slow trying to get our goal going, which is making this branch a ward. The only thing we've been having problems with is getting the members motivated to help in the goal. but we've been working hard to get everyone active and working together what they don't know that our FHE we have on tuesdays are basically training them to do so lol. but we have made progress and with our baptism coming up everyone is getting excited, its been a full year since the last one in this building.

This last week it finally felt like fall, well the fall im use to anyways cloudy/rainy/and windy. it still warm down here but that didnt stop me from wearing a sweater! My companion noticed once it got cloudy i got all excited and no longer bummed and depressed from all the sun and heat. I miss washington weather haha. but sadly it only lasted a few days and today it returned to being sunny and warm... well no more sweaters for a while. This week week is gonna be kinda busy in the since were having district meeting tomorrow, and on Friday were going on a two hour trip back top sugar land to here from one of the member of the seventy Elder Corbridge! hes the one who gave the talk on the fourth missionary. everyone getting excited for that.

I hope everyone is doing well back home and they your enjoying the cold weather or as much as you can. well ill talk to y'all next week! be good read your scriptures and have some hot chocolate on me :)

sincerely,

Elder Herrera

Ps. I like any advise you can possibly give! so anything would be great :D thank you. 

October 19, 2015

so i have only picture for ya'll this week! hope you enjoy!

Our district at the temple!

Just chill'n

Front of the Huston temple

Trucker treat...Bike 'n treat?

October 14, 2015

How'dy Everyone! 

I really dont know where to start its almost the end of my second transfer and its gone by so fast. there are days i wish that time would slow down so that i could do more before it gets dark and we have to head back home,so darn you short days not enough times to do everything i want!

this last week was fairly simple we visted Victor twice and he still very eager to for his baptismal date! He invited a friend from Utah who said he would make the journey to be there on his day which made him even more happy! We were also able to talk to Javier and hes been ready from the the Book of Mormon which we left with him. He had a few question about it and once we explained he said everything he read mad sense, we extended a baptismal date but he said he wasn't ready but we invited him to have a church tour and hes was actually interested and so we have that set with him! Saturday an investigator named Josue invited us to to have Papusas with him in the morning and oh boy they were delicious! we talk about his past and found out why he been hesitant to go to church with us. but he says its nothing because of us but his personal stuff he needs to fix before he can. but hes a great guy and he really enjoys us missionaries.

Well yesterday on Tuesday we went to the temple and that was exciting! and also very spiritual! we drove up on Monday to stay the night since from our area it would have been a long drive for that, especially to get there on time early in the morning. But yeah the temple is a great place to receive answers to your questions! but the majority know this from personal experiences.

well i have to go cause we are heading off to the Country Fair!! YE HA.... haha but yeah that should be fun.

Love all ya'all,

Elder Herrera

Ps ill have photos next week!

October 5, 2015

So I wanna start off with thing with saying thank you to all of you back home for supporting me! It means a lot and gives me that extra push to move forward when the days seem long and endless. And also thank you for the bike i got it and i have been putting it to work! so let me get started with this weekly update! 

Monday- Well nothing really happened on monday we did our usual P-day routine and after sending emails we went out and did work till no one would listen to us anymore. Why is everyone in this small town scared of missionaries? 

Tuesday- Today Elder Barlow and I went to do family history during our did hour of the day. And this time i was gonna actually try doing it and looking for info on my family instead of putting it off. well i remembered why i put it off... I dont have anywhere to start from! all i was able to get was the birthday of my grandpa but that is all the info i had and nothing was coming up with it :( Nothing came out of my trying so i left irritated and more lost and confused. later that day i played a prank on one of the elders in our apartment, i hid his mattress in there closet before they showed up from there last appointment. well i had them, believing that i threw it away, well either im good at acting, or he has no humor but he believed me and got upset and told me to get it from out side... well it wasn't till he opened his closet that he realized where i had put it. yeah he wasnt happy... but it was funny :) .

Wednesday- We had to do exchanges and and i was put together with the elder i had just played a trick on last night! also we had to teach seminary this morning... Im happy i missed those years i dont think i would have been able to make it four years of that.  So i tip my imaginary cowboy hat to ya'll who survived it! but after that during my personal studies i did a silent prayer that i would some how find or get info during the week that would help me with family history.  uring our companion study we got a text from the Ap telling us to go on the computes and read up on some things they were  gonna talk about on Friday during Zone meeting. so we did, went to the library and did so, but after i was finished i had a feeling i should start looking through the internet for Mexico catholic church records. well i found a site that had info on birth and marriage..ect and with the date i had aquired the day before i was able to find my grandpas birth records and not only that it had my great grand parents names on it! i now had something to go off of! my prayer was answered :)

Thursday- weekly planning and oyming till week got back to the our apartment

Friday- We had Zone Meeting alot of good information was brought up which would help me later in my studies. we then concluded the meeting with playing scatter ball! it got really intense and im really sore from it... but worth it :D

Sat/Sun- Conference! I hope every one enjoyed and got something spiritual out of this weekends conference! I went into this conference with a few questions in mind not only to keep me focused but to also get revelation from the prophets and spirit. and by the end all my my questions were answered! and I had an even more desire to continue on with my mission and i was excited to see the three new apostles called. Elder Bednars was sad as he recalled the past apostles :(. after conference we went to talk top Victor and his wife and they had great news! Victor has chosen to be baptized on november 7!! we were so excited, he told us to be prepared for the world to exploded after. jokes aside this was the best news all week. He is ready not only we can tell but he has noticed it himself which makes it even better!

well that is what i have for you all this week and ill let you guys know what new next week on the Elder Herrera Show!

this is a picture of gas prices here in port lavaca that was during the week i check early today again and it is now $1.82 yup feel jealous!

Signing out ,

Elder Herrera

September 28, 2015

So i must be doing something good or something bad that time is flying and it seems like theres never enough time to do everything we need to do! well yeah so much more to talk about this week than last week.

Monday-played Risk(its kinda a bad habit...) did laundry and went to a knife shop! sadly i dont have spending money so i just window shopped, also i kind want boots soo im saving up for that. went grocery shopping found out that one of the elders spent all his money on fruit from his last area so he had no money left to pay for this week we all had to chip in and help him pay his share, his companion isnt really happy.

Tusday- We had district meeting and then after that we went as a district to get food since we live so far away from one another we like to catch up. when we got back Elder Barlow and i got ready to for our FHE that we were planning for our branch, we planned out the lesson and the activity and we also made brownies!! that night alot of familys showed to see what the elders had come up with and well lets just say it went off awesomely!! we taught them about listing to the spirit and our activity was a blind fold mine activity. everyone had such a blast!... no pun intended. were having another in two weeks

wensday- i cant remember it flew by quickly

thursday-got a free hair cut from some one we were teaching i look better now! with out my bushy hair.

Friday- did alot of OYming but after six the town dies and everyone isat the High School, foot ball is a big thing here! GO SANDCRABS. so we went to Sonic and we met a new person we are planing to teach she took a selfie with us!

Saturday- Prepared for sunday and went out to a small town where we were caught in a storm and it was awesome so many lightning strikes!

Sunday- SO today we got good news on victor he called his mom to get permission to get baptized.. and she said he could! because she actually received the missionary discussions some timke ago! so the next step is to ask him what day he wants to get baptized! so many amazing things happening in his life that i cant wait to see him doing well a few years after!