How are we doing this fine morning? I hope that you are all finding this email with happy hearts. I know that it may seem a little weird, but I just love life right now and pray that you do as well. Life is great. I hear that my siblings are doing just great. Both Rhet and Maci are doing super in school. Keep up the good work. And Ty, you rascal, I swear if I come home and you are taller than I am... we are going to have some problems. You three must keep mom and dad in check. You know how they get when their two oldest sons are away from the house... PARTY!! Just try not to let them have too much fun while we are away! Haha. I had a bitter sweet week, to say the least.
Elder Rigby and I had a couple last splits that we squeezed in on Tuesday and Wednesday. We went with some great Elders who are doing an amazing job. We were able to do studies and work for most of the day with the trainer and trainee. I learn so much from these Elders as I work along side of them. I worked with an Elder named Elder.... He reminded me a lot of myself when I first got into the mission. Awkward. I could tell that he was trying to use all of what he had learned of Malagasy. I could tell that he wasn't the most comfortable around people. I took a little comfort in the fact that it wasnt just me that was like that. I also thought it was a great opportunity for me to help him. I was able to chat and help him open up to me and open up to the people that we were contacting on the street. I was able to see my own progression as I did much of the talking. I found it enjoyable. Now, this does not mean that I am on the level of my father... hahah. It just means that if we have faith, the Lord will make weak things become strong. During that day we had a man try to give us money for the work that we were doing. It was definitely a first for me. He wanted to give us 3000 AR which is about a buck. He was offended when I turned down his offer. But, I found a small teaching moment out of the situation. Thank goodness the Holy Ghost fills our mouth when we dont know what to say.
Thursday was the day that I picked up my new companion, Elder Covey. Elder Rigby and I were able to pick him and his stuff up and bring him back to the office for debriefing. What we were actually able to do was just try and catch him up to speed on all that is happening in the mission right now. He is such a great guy. He picked it all up so quick. So a little about Elder Covey. He is from Draper, Utah. He is the oldest of 5 children and loves sports. He plans on going to BYU to try and walk on to the soccer team. He finishes his mission the upcoming June. He loves long walks on the beach and fistful of flowers. Haha. Ok, maybe not that part. But he and I get along great. We were able to meet with President Foote on Friday and get to know eachother and talk about our schedule for the next couple months. Saturday we hit the ground running.
We got to the office pretty early to get some stats in and then headed out to Covey's last area where he had a baptism. We were able to watch Covey's trainee baptize a new convert into the church. During the baptism we were called and asked to pick up a 70 who was visiting here and take him to his hotel. So we left the baptism early and got Elder Jaque Van Reenen to his hotel. He invited us in to share a cold glass of orange juice with him. It was such a pleasure to chat with a member of the 70 and rub shoulders with him. We picked him and another man by the name of Ferrier. He is the District President in Reunion, he only speaks French. According to Pres. Foote, he is learning English. LEARNING.
We picked the two of the up from the hotel and took them to pray. I was able to translate for Elder Van Reenen while Covey used all the French he knew to help Ferrier. It was a way cool experience. I was also reminded of just how hard it is to translate from Malagasy to English. Kill me. I am just going to skip right to Monday afternoon. We saw Elder RIgby and two others off to America. But not without some excitement at the airport.
We showed up a couple hours early. Thankfully. We got everyone checked in and all paid. President and Sister Foote were actually flying with them to South Africa because they are currently at the Mission Presidents Seminar. So, they were all pretty checked, baggage wise, and after all the hassle of getting it paid, we were able to get them through to the big line of checking passports and all that good stuff. Everyone gets through except for one Elder Lehr. They say that his visa is expired. I thought "well perfect, send him out of the country then!" Y aa, they didnt go for that. Luckily, we had a member of the church who used to work in the office show up and help with the situation. He was making calls frantically trying to get the new copy of his passport. Right now, we are about 45 minutes till plane leaves. People are boarding now. Frede, the office guy, tells Covey and I to go to the nearest cyber and print out the visa cause they scanned it to my email. So Covey and I hop in this huge van that we brought, left the airport and found the closest cyber. I printed the paper out as fast as we could, hoped in the car, sped back to the airport and got Lehr the paper. Under 30 minuted to take off. I am on the phone with President. He tells me they are trying to shut the doors, but he tells me that he is stalling them. Go President. All we can do is watch now. Lehr is talking to this poice man, then back to another. 20 minutes. Finally he goes through one set of doors. He has one more set, the one that President is stalling at. We wait five minutes before we get a call from President. We have the package, he tells me. Man it was like the most intense thing. Be early!
I love this mission. I have come to realize that this will be my last comp in my last area. Under 3 months to go. I feel so blessed to be here. Thank you so much for your love and support. I love being a missionary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
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| Here is a nice sunset over a small lake thing |
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| And a nice Cali shirt. REPRESENT!! |
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| A man carrying lots of water carriers on his bike |
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