Dear Family,
Wow... it seems like it has been a long long time. Well, it has been. I apologize if it has taken me too long to write. I know that there are no excuses, but I have just been traveling and found that there is a lot to do. With that being said, I know that my family comes first... so starting now until I mess up again, I will keep it that way. I miss you all so much. With the holiday season coming up, I think of you often. I dont feel like its Christmas time, not even a little bit, but I know that this time of year brings great joy to us all. I hope that you find someone to spread this joy with during the season.
So its been a couple weeks and boy have I had some crazy adventures. We have been to Toliara, another beach province on the South East corner of Madagsikara, and we have also been to Tamatave. I want to share a couple of amazing experiences with you from those two week long trips.
Our first trip was originally planned for Fianarantsoa. We went and visited the missionaries down there so that President could do his interviews. We got down there and President looked to us and said, "We are already half way to Toliara, do you wanna continue on down the road and do interviews down there while we are at it?" Of course, Elder Covey and I agreed and we took off. We got in the car the next day and were on the road. Fun times when you get to talk to your mission President and his wife and learn from their experiences. We got to the beachy sands of Toliara and started interviews. That evening, President treated the 4 missionaries and us to dinner on the beach... Just amazing views. The food was good too. Then came the excitement.
The next day we got back on the road to head back to Tana. It was going to be a two day trip as its a cross country drive. We had planned to go all the way back to Fianarantsoa on one day and then make the rest of the drive the next day. The total km's for the first day was 511. We made it almost 300 when we stopped for lunch in this nice little town. We took off for the second half of the drive. When we got to km 500 we saw that cars had started to slow down to a complete stop. We werent sure what was the matter. So my companion and I started to ask around. We found out that there was a bridge that had given way... No one was going through the night. People had started to "set up camp" in their cars, on the road, wherever they could. We figured that it would not be a good idea to be there because we were white and we had things that were of value in the car. So we turned around headed back down the other way not knowing what to do. We pulled over to pray. We prayed that we would be able to find gas (something that we were running low on) and we prayed for protection and the reassurance that we would be ok for the night. We stopped to talk to a road police guy for a little bit after we had finished praying. He told us that he wasnt sure when the bridge would be fixed. We asked about gas. He happily responded that 10 minutes down the road was a gas station that was open 24/7. That in and of itself is a miracle because many gas stations are not 24/7 so to find one in the middle of no where was amazing. We got gas and decided that it would be best to meet up with one of the senior couple who was leaving Toliara the same day. We drove about 200km back towards toliara to the place that we had lunch. We had the couple get us a room and it all worked out. I know it may not seem like a whole lot, but to be in a situation like that where you are driving at 11 oclock at night praying that things will work and then to have them work out is just amazing to me.
This last week Elder Covey and I spent working in Tamatave. We took two other elders with us to go and do splits up there to boost the areas and the work. Two of us went with one companionship (4 total elders). One set of elders taught the program that they had scheduled, the other set tracted all day long to look for new investigators to teach. It is still amazing to me just how receptive people are here to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would tract and most times the very first door would let us in to share our message. One cool thing that I got to be apart of was the District Meeting. The district leader had asked me to give the lesson. I had thought that I had a lesson ready and then at the last minuted changed the lesson. I talked about exact obedience. I felt that some of the elders really needed it. We read from the white handbook and then from King Benjamins address in Mosiah. We talked about that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I have a strong testimony of that. I know that obedience is the first law of heaven. I think that its just great that we have been given so much help from our heavenly father to help us here on earth. I had a couple of elders ask me after the meeting how they can start being exactly obedient. I thought it was really cool that they wanted to apply something that I taught. Made me feel like I was making a difference. I hope that I gave good advice and that I am a good example for them.
I have sent a couple of pictures home. I hope that you got them. I played with the lemurs a little, that was fun. I love you all so much. Thank you for all your prayers and help. I love being a missionary.
All My Love
Elder Herrin
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Pictures from Lemur Park
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| This is me feeding a lemur... on my shoulder. |
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| Then me trying my best to feed a small lemur while not making out with him... |
Pictures from Toliara Trip
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| Picture of Sis. Foote driving and Pres. in the passenger seat. Long drives... means change of drivers often. |
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| A beautiful picture of a sunset. |
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| Some people that sold us some great fruit along the way. They were happy to see that we spoke their language |
Monday, November 30, 2015
This week's pics
This is a kid that we stopped to help. His bike was broken so we helped him. As you can tell... I kept good watch over them just in case a big bear was about to attack.
Love ya
Ohh Happy Days
Dear Family,
I first want to apologize for not emailing last week. Let me tell you how crazy its been the last two weeks and we are still going. Seeing pictures of Rhet, Maci and Ty was great. You all look grown up and not like you did when I left. Maybe it will be the same for me when I get home. Hope that you had a great Thanksgiving with the Lawlors, what good people they are. I mean, to have the Herrins over for dinner is not easy, so they are very kind hearted. haha.
I would love to catch you all up on everything in one email. Soo... i will do it another time. I am travelling right now. We stopped for a small P-day in Fianarantsoa and are heading towards a place called Toliara tomorrow. We will be driving all day with President. It is the last place in the mission that I have not seen. Once I have been there, I will have seen every area that a missionary can work here in the Madagascar island. Pretty cool. When we get back, next weekish, I will write a big email tallking about all the happenings in detail. I can send some pictures your way now, but not many.
Thanks for loving me. Thanks for always having a letter for me, I need to do better at having one for you. You are the best family that I have. Hahah. I will email you soon ish. Love you so much
All my Love
Elder Herrin
I first want to apologize for not emailing last week. Let me tell you how crazy its been the last two weeks and we are still going. Seeing pictures of Rhet, Maci and Ty was great. You all look grown up and not like you did when I left. Maybe it will be the same for me when I get home. Hope that you had a great Thanksgiving with the Lawlors, what good people they are. I mean, to have the Herrins over for dinner is not easy, so they are very kind hearted. haha.
I would love to catch you all up on everything in one email. Soo... i will do it another time. I am travelling right now. We stopped for a small P-day in Fianarantsoa and are heading towards a place called Toliara tomorrow. We will be driving all day with President. It is the last place in the mission that I have not seen. Once I have been there, I will have seen every area that a missionary can work here in the Madagascar island. Pretty cool. When we get back, next weekish, I will write a big email tallking about all the happenings in detail. I can send some pictures your way now, but not many.
Thanks for loving me. Thanks for always having a letter for me, I need to do better at having one for you. You are the best family that I have. Hahah. I will email you soon ish. Love you so much
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Beginning of the End
Dear Family,
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
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 |
Monday, November 9, 2015
I love being a missionary!
Dear Family,
We have come to the end of yet another week. And it sounds like the Herrins are still doing well. I loved seeing the couple pictures of Ty on his birthday. #ladykiller And I also loved seeing little Rhet out on the night with a cute girl on his hip. #ballislife Isnt that right Rhet? Hahah. I hope that I can still make you guys laugh like I used to. I miss my siblings a lot. The Thanksgiving and Christmas season are coming and I am sure that you are all starting to feel of the great love that comes during this time of year. Mom says that you are planning on just another Herrin Thanksgiving at the house. What a traditional Herrin way. My week was much like previous hectic weeks. Zavaiko:
We had a wonderful zone conference up in Tamatave at the beginning of the week. President Foote talked a lot about finding the elect and helping our investigators progress. He used the same examples that he used in our previous zone conferences, but it always comes out different in each conference because the elders have different needs. He talked about Peter and how it was no coincidence that he was in the boat with Jesus when he gave his sermon. It was just a really cool zone conference. I learned something new every time. We drove back and had a couple of days to meet with President and discuss the transfer and what needed to be done before my companion left.
My companion, Elder Rigby, leaves this upcoming Monday so we are going to have to make some early transfers in order to fix the three elders that will be headed home to make it in time for Thanksgiving. I dont know if I have ever shared with you the wonderful man that my mission president is, but if I havent, I am going to take a second to share with you.
President Foote is one of those guys that you look at and just say, "He has life figured out!" I dont know how or why I got so lucky as to work along side of him, but I feel like I am learning so much from the wisdom that he has gained over his 50 some odd years of life. I have seen the blessings through his life that comes from living the gospel. I love listening to stories from President and Sister Foote as they share stories from their lives and about their children. I know that I want the gospel in my life just through seeing it used right in the lives of others.
We spent the rest of the week preparing for my companion to leave and for my new companion to come in. We went shopping with Sis. Foote and had a really fun preparation day with President and Sister Foote. I love life. It is just a roller coaster right now, and I would not have it any other way right now. I love being a missionary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
We have come to the end of yet another week. And it sounds like the Herrins are still doing well. I loved seeing the couple pictures of Ty on his birthday. #ladykiller And I also loved seeing little Rhet out on the night with a cute girl on his hip. #ballislife Isnt that right Rhet? Hahah. I hope that I can still make you guys laugh like I used to. I miss my siblings a lot. The Thanksgiving and Christmas season are coming and I am sure that you are all starting to feel of the great love that comes during this time of year. Mom says that you are planning on just another Herrin Thanksgiving at the house. What a traditional Herrin way. My week was much like previous hectic weeks. Zavaiko:
We had a wonderful zone conference up in Tamatave at the beginning of the week. President Foote talked a lot about finding the elect and helping our investigators progress. He used the same examples that he used in our previous zone conferences, but it always comes out different in each conference because the elders have different needs. He talked about Peter and how it was no coincidence that he was in the boat with Jesus when he gave his sermon. It was just a really cool zone conference. I learned something new every time. We drove back and had a couple of days to meet with President and discuss the transfer and what needed to be done before my companion left.
My companion, Elder Rigby, leaves this upcoming Monday so we are going to have to make some early transfers in order to fix the three elders that will be headed home to make it in time for Thanksgiving. I dont know if I have ever shared with you the wonderful man that my mission president is, but if I havent, I am going to take a second to share with you.
President Foote is one of those guys that you look at and just say, "He has life figured out!" I dont know how or why I got so lucky as to work along side of him, but I feel like I am learning so much from the wisdom that he has gained over his 50 some odd years of life. I have seen the blessings through his life that comes from living the gospel. I love listening to stories from President and Sister Foote as they share stories from their lives and about their children. I know that I want the gospel in my life just through seeing it used right in the lives of others.
We spent the rest of the week preparing for my companion to leave and for my new companion to come in. We went shopping with Sis. Foote and had a really fun preparation day with President and Sister Foote. I love life. It is just a roller coaster right now, and I would not have it any other way right now. I love being a missionary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
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