Dear Family,
This week was great, as was the last one. I will try and do some catch up as I didnt write last week... Sorry father.
Last week we were doing splits in Antsirabe. I was able to work with many elders in the zone. The work of the Lord is really progressing in the area of Antsirabe as I was introduced to many people who are ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was so cool to be apart of a lesson or six where the investigator asks about the lesson or scripture that we share and then they apply what they have just learned to their lives. One cool/sad story that happened while I was on splits.
I was working with Elder Koplin (The zone leader who is in Pres. Hathaway's stake) in his area of Ambohimena. We had tracted most of the day and had got into a couple houses, but nothing that looked too promising. It was getting late, like eight o'clock, but he said that he had someone in mind that we could visit. We walked down the smallest alley way that was full of mud and small children. The small path led to wooden stairs that were not suitable for a couple of american twenty year olds. Elder Koplin "odio-ed" and a woman came to the door. Elder Koplin asked if her husband was home. He was and we walked in. I didnt know who these people were, but I soon came to know of their story.
This family (Mother and Father with 4 children) had been taught a couple months back and had received a baptismal date. They were very excited. For some reason, the stars did not align and the missionaries were forced to move the baptism back, and then again, and then for a third time. These people had gotten discouraged. They had stopped coming to church and the husband had vanished. He claimed that he had been gone to Toliara working... he claimed that he had gotten home that day and he also claimed to be leaving again the next day to go back. Elder Koplin was shocked. He didnt know the family that well since he was relatively new to the area. The one thing that he did know was that this family needed the restored gospel in their lives. He pleaded and read scriptures and begged this family to re consider. He asked them questions that made them think about the feelings they felt when they were coming to church and when they were reading the Book of Mormon. He promised them blessings and comfort if they would just come back. The only thing that he didnt do was get down on his hands and knees... so I did it. I was feeling the anguish that Elder Koplin had. So, I invited the family to get down on their knees and I asked the mother to offer a blessing to know if what they had already learned was true. It was a beautiful prayer. But it didnt help. We continued to preach and did our very best to create an environment where the spirit could testify. Before the lesson ended, the father said, "ok, we still want this. We want to learn, but when my work is done, that is when we can do this." Elder Koplin and I lifted our heads up. Then he started to count his with his fingers. "In June I will be done".
A couple of things that I learned that night. The missionaries really do want the best for people. They want to help. They want to give. They want to bring people to Christ. I also learned that people have their own agency. Elder Koplin did everything in his will power to help these people, but he respected their wishes and with a smile said that we would be waiting for them at church. I desire to be more like Elder Koplin. He has such a large heart. I know that the gospel that we spread is true. It makes me so happy.
In other news... not much happened. We had a world wide missionary broadcast. Way awesome. We brought the zone leaders from reunion over to watch it with us so we have had them with us this week. We had some good splits here in Tana and we are still going. President Foote's daughter also had her first child. Yayy!
Thank you for all that you do. I love you with all my heart. I love being a missionary!
All My Love
Elder Herrin
Monday, February 1, 2016
New Year (last weeks letter)
Dear Family,
What a week it has been here on my side of the world. Last week I was emailing from the Indian Ocean and tonight I am writing from the office. Both great places, but one just had a really good view. We really enjoyed that trip and getting to visit with the missionaries and members. But we had to get back at it in Tana this week. Big things are happinen'!
We got back to the office to find a number of patients that were being treated by our mission nurse. We brought one back from Tamatave with us just to be treated. We went straight to her house to get the sicklies some soup. Because I happened to be there, we were able to partake of the great tasting chicken soup. The next day was a big day. We had a new missionary coming in! Just one.
We got to the airport that day. We got caught in some really bad traffic and showed up about 10 minutes after the plane landed. That wasnt too bad because he still had to go through customs and what not before we were able to get our hands on him. We saw him standing tall in the customs like, about six and a half feet of white body tall. Straight from Idaho! He got through and we saw him looking for his luggage. And then he looked some more. And just a little bit more. By this time, I sent my comp in to go and help him. Yes, the airports security let us in to go help him. Turns out, that his luggage did not come. SHOCKER! ohh Air Madagascar. Elder Thompson is gonna be a great Elder. He was so happy to be here and he just could not comprehend all that went on in this insane country as we drove him to the office. It was a special circumstance this day too, because... President Foote was not there. He was on another island saying goodbye to one of the senior couples and welcoming their replacements. Soo, Elder Covey and I played the role of President and Sister Foote. I think we did a superb job. We got to the office and got a really cool picture to send to his parents telling them that their son made it safe and sound (and without his bags) to Madagsikara.
I had a couple of days this week to sit and contemplate about the rest of my mission. What I want to do, accomplish, see... things like that. I realized that because I am in the calling that I am serving in, I dont get to see and feel the Holy Ghost as much as I used to. I also noticed that there were some things that I was doing that were "poking" at the whisperings of the Spirit. The only reason that I noticed these things was because I was reading a talk (you can call it that). It was given by a mission president in Florida some time ago and its called "Project Purification". My companion had it sent to him and I happened to stumble upon it this week. I loved what it had to say. As I put myself in the story and tried to apply what the President taught, I noticed that there was great room for improvement. I took the advice and teachings and have already started to notice the change in myself. Small things like slang and sarcastic comments can really drive the spirit away. I will attach the talk if you would like to read it. I suggest trying it, it would be worth your while.
The next couple of days were spent being tried and tested. I was at the airport everyday either taking or picking someone up for transfers. Every time we tried to get Elder Thompson's baggage. We got one piece without any trouble. The next times that we went, we were there for a long time waiting for someone who wasnt even coming. They wouldnt let us take the bag until a man checked to make sure that we didnt have a gun in the bag. There is only ONE man that can do that they said. And he was busy... so we used up all the patience that we had in that one day. Hahaha. It is something that I will look back and laugh at. I just feel bad for Elder Thompson cause he is still missing an entire suit case. Trooper he is.
Church was great today. I have been translating for Jules every week. He is the recent convert that is deaf. I am slowly but surely getting better at sign language. The talks today were on obedience and how important it is to be exactly obedient. Jules liked to tell me how true the teachings were that he was seeing so I only had to translate half of the talk cause he talked the other half.
Life is great. I could not be any happier. Things are going well. I am happy, healthy, and feel like nothing could be better than this... well it cant. Thank you so much for all the prayers and love that were sent my way. They are felt. Have a great week. I love being a missionary!
All my love,
Elder Herrin
What a week it has been here on my side of the world. Last week I was emailing from the Indian Ocean and tonight I am writing from the office. Both great places, but one just had a really good view. We really enjoyed that trip and getting to visit with the missionaries and members. But we had to get back at it in Tana this week. Big things are happinen'!
We got back to the office to find a number of patients that were being treated by our mission nurse. We brought one back from Tamatave with us just to be treated. We went straight to her house to get the sicklies some soup. Because I happened to be there, we were able to partake of the great tasting chicken soup. The next day was a big day. We had a new missionary coming in! Just one.
We got to the airport that day. We got caught in some really bad traffic and showed up about 10 minutes after the plane landed. That wasnt too bad because he still had to go through customs and what not before we were able to get our hands on him. We saw him standing tall in the customs like, about six and a half feet of white body tall. Straight from Idaho! He got through and we saw him looking for his luggage. And then he looked some more. And just a little bit more. By this time, I sent my comp in to go and help him. Yes, the airports security let us in to go help him. Turns out, that his luggage did not come. SHOCKER! ohh Air Madagascar. Elder Thompson is gonna be a great Elder. He was so happy to be here and he just could not comprehend all that went on in this insane country as we drove him to the office. It was a special circumstance this day too, because... President Foote was not there. He was on another island saying goodbye to one of the senior couples and welcoming their replacements. Soo, Elder Covey and I played the role of President and Sister Foote. I think we did a superb job. We got to the office and got a really cool picture to send to his parents telling them that their son made it safe and sound (and without his bags) to Madagsikara.
I had a couple of days this week to sit and contemplate about the rest of my mission. What I want to do, accomplish, see... things like that. I realized that because I am in the calling that I am serving in, I dont get to see and feel the Holy Ghost as much as I used to. I also noticed that there were some things that I was doing that were "poking" at the whisperings of the Spirit. The only reason that I noticed these things was because I was reading a talk (you can call it that). It was given by a mission president in Florida some time ago and its called "Project Purification". My companion had it sent to him and I happened to stumble upon it this week. I loved what it had to say. As I put myself in the story and tried to apply what the President taught, I noticed that there was great room for improvement. I took the advice and teachings and have already started to notice the change in myself. Small things like slang and sarcastic comments can really drive the spirit away. I will attach the talk if you would like to read it. I suggest trying it, it would be worth your while.
The next couple of days were spent being tried and tested. I was at the airport everyday either taking or picking someone up for transfers. Every time we tried to get Elder Thompson's baggage. We got one piece without any trouble. The next times that we went, we were there for a long time waiting for someone who wasnt even coming. They wouldnt let us take the bag until a man checked to make sure that we didnt have a gun in the bag. There is only ONE man that can do that they said. And he was busy... so we used up all the patience that we had in that one day. Hahaha. It is something that I will look back and laugh at. I just feel bad for Elder Thompson cause he is still missing an entire suit case. Trooper he is.
Church was great today. I have been translating for Jules every week. He is the recent convert that is deaf. I am slowly but surely getting better at sign language. The talks today were on obedience and how important it is to be exactly obedient. Jules liked to tell me how true the teachings were that he was seeing so I only had to translate half of the talk cause he talked the other half.
Life is great. I could not be any happier. Things are going well. I am happy, healthy, and feel like nothing could be better than this... well it cant. Thank you so much for all the prayers and love that were sent my way. They are felt. Have a great week. I love being a missionary!
All my love,
Elder Herrin
 |
| Elder Thompson and the crew |
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Transfer Week
Dear family,
Today is a great day. I hope that you have all had the opportunity to take a minute just to think about how great our lives really are. I sit here tonight on the beach. Literally, I am in Tamatave with my mission president sitting on the Indian Ocean talking about how great it is to have the gospel in our lives. I am so grateful for you and your love for me.
That Being said, this week was WAY hectic.
President was gone most of the week visiting missionaries in fort dauphin. We did a couple of things to pass the time... Hahaha. We went on a split with the zone leaders, elder Yeagley and elder Coleman! Two wonderful missionaries. I went out with elder yeagley and reminisced on old fort dauphin times. We taught some great lessons and I found out that the woman that I taught and baptized in his area is doing great and has a calling now. Nothing better for a missionary to hear than that. That was a great day. After that started the crazy hectickness.
On Wednesday we went to help move houses for a couple of the elders. They were moving from one house to the other which meant that three houses were involved because the one that they were moving out of, someone else moved into. So we started taking things down, and moving things from one house to the other. Almost an hour into it, the landlord of the new house called and told us that we could not move in... She wanted to the money in her hands before we moved in. We payed it through the bank. Of course. Soo we moved the elders to.... our house. This took us allll day long. Literally we finished up at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. By that time we had got stuck in traffic and had a little incident. Just a really long day for Elder Herrin and Elder Covey. It seemed like the night was never going to end. We ended up taking the six elders that were living with us to pick up food because they didnt have any (of course) and then back to our house. All while trying to keep things up in the office.
The next day was great. We got up and ran a couple of errands. We picked up a backpack for an elder, bought a mirror for one that we may or may have knocked off, and then got back to the office for a district meeting. I am just going to say that district meetings are the best. Every time I get the chance to attend one it just lifts me. Elder Morse, one of the district leaders in the South Zone gave a great lesson about goal setting. He talked about what type of goals we should be making and how we need to be keeping track of them. As I kind of challenged you all last week to make some goals, this meeting just was a testament to me that I need to make some goals. We walked downstairs to the office only to find my favorite sister woolley with a black eye. Turns out, earlier that morning she had her phone stolen by some random guy. He reached into her pocket as she was walking to her field where she does exercises and thought he was just going to grab an elderly womans phone and leave. He thought wrong. As he reached in, so did sister woolley. She didnt let go of the phone. As he realized that he was going to get a little resistance, he got close to her and shoved her to the ground. As the two hit the concrete steps, sister woolley did the only thing any good fighter would do. She bit his ear. "I bit him good" she told us. Right at the top of the ear, just like our friend Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, Elder Woolley was a tad too late, but that didnt stop him from trying to get the kid. Elder Woolley chased him until he too fell. Both great efforts, but the phone is gone. Soo later that evening we picked up President... he asked us if we held the fort together...
We kind of spent New Years Eve with he and sister Foote. It was a nice evening of chatting and talking about how great the mission is. A day later we took off to Tamatave.
We drove up early Saturday morning and showed up at noon. President did interviews with the missionaries the rest of the day. He is long winded... hahahah. Church was great the next day. We were able to attend two branches and then have a great meeting with all the leaders after. We talked about the growth of Tamatave and how we want it to become a stake. We talked about numbers and ideas and member work. I translated for president, not the easiest thing to do. After the meeting we went to pres. Pauls for dinner. We got to ear rice and laoka with pres and sis foote. What a fun night. For some reason, it seems like the fun always turns to a crazy thing here in Mada. We got back to our beds that night and got a call from president foote telling us that one of the missionaries needed to go to the hospital. We threw our clothes back on and got marcellin (the driver) to pick us and the sickly up. Got him to the hospital at 11 oclock and they didnt know anything. They asked him some questions and suggested some medicines that we pick up...oh malagasys. I stayed with the sick missionary that night while my comp went to the missionary house. While on thier way home, they hit a posy posy driver with two people in the posy posy. The people went flying and the posy posy went to pieces... they spent another hour plus taking people to the hospital (that we just came from) dealing with the drunken police and trying to make a deal with the posy posy driver on how much money we owed him. What a night.
The next day we got up and waited for Marcellin to deal with the police before we went up to a place called foul point. A beatiful beach that has white sand. We had a zone activity planned. We played beach volleyball and beach soccer. Way fun day.
Tonight, I sat on the beach of the Indian Ocean and talked about what the future holds and how confident my mission president is in my companion and I. He knows that if we live the gospel, if we continue to make great choices that no matter what we choose to do with our life, we will be successful. Nice to know that someone has that much confidence in me. I love being here on the mission. It is the greatest blessing in my life. I love being a missionary!
All my love
Elder Herrin
Today is a great day. I hope that you have all had the opportunity to take a minute just to think about how great our lives really are. I sit here tonight on the beach. Literally, I am in Tamatave with my mission president sitting on the Indian Ocean talking about how great it is to have the gospel in our lives. I am so grateful for you and your love for me.
That Being said, this week was WAY hectic.
President was gone most of the week visiting missionaries in fort dauphin. We did a couple of things to pass the time... Hahaha. We went on a split with the zone leaders, elder Yeagley and elder Coleman! Two wonderful missionaries. I went out with elder yeagley and reminisced on old fort dauphin times. We taught some great lessons and I found out that the woman that I taught and baptized in his area is doing great and has a calling now. Nothing better for a missionary to hear than that. That was a great day. After that started the crazy hectickness.
On Wednesday we went to help move houses for a couple of the elders. They were moving from one house to the other which meant that three houses were involved because the one that they were moving out of, someone else moved into. So we started taking things down, and moving things from one house to the other. Almost an hour into it, the landlord of the new house called and told us that we could not move in... She wanted to the money in her hands before we moved in. We payed it through the bank. Of course. Soo we moved the elders to.... our house. This took us allll day long. Literally we finished up at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. By that time we had got stuck in traffic and had a little incident. Just a really long day for Elder Herrin and Elder Covey. It seemed like the night was never going to end. We ended up taking the six elders that were living with us to pick up food because they didnt have any (of course) and then back to our house. All while trying to keep things up in the office.
The next day was great. We got up and ran a couple of errands. We picked up a backpack for an elder, bought a mirror for one that we may or may have knocked off, and then got back to the office for a district meeting. I am just going to say that district meetings are the best. Every time I get the chance to attend one it just lifts me. Elder Morse, one of the district leaders in the South Zone gave a great lesson about goal setting. He talked about what type of goals we should be making and how we need to be keeping track of them. As I kind of challenged you all last week to make some goals, this meeting just was a testament to me that I need to make some goals. We walked downstairs to the office only to find my favorite sister woolley with a black eye. Turns out, earlier that morning she had her phone stolen by some random guy. He reached into her pocket as she was walking to her field where she does exercises and thought he was just going to grab an elderly womans phone and leave. He thought wrong. As he reached in, so did sister woolley. She didnt let go of the phone. As he realized that he was going to get a little resistance, he got close to her and shoved her to the ground. As the two hit the concrete steps, sister woolley did the only thing any good fighter would do. She bit his ear. "I bit him good" she told us. Right at the top of the ear, just like our friend Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, Elder Woolley was a tad too late, but that didnt stop him from trying to get the kid. Elder Woolley chased him until he too fell. Both great efforts, but the phone is gone. Soo later that evening we picked up President... he asked us if we held the fort together...
We kind of spent New Years Eve with he and sister Foote. It was a nice evening of chatting and talking about how great the mission is. A day later we took off to Tamatave.
We drove up early Saturday morning and showed up at noon. President did interviews with the missionaries the rest of the day. He is long winded... hahahah. Church was great the next day. We were able to attend two branches and then have a great meeting with all the leaders after. We talked about the growth of Tamatave and how we want it to become a stake. We talked about numbers and ideas and member work. I translated for president, not the easiest thing to do. After the meeting we went to pres. Pauls for dinner. We got to ear rice and laoka with pres and sis foote. What a fun night. For some reason, it seems like the fun always turns to a crazy thing here in Mada. We got back to our beds that night and got a call from president foote telling us that one of the missionaries needed to go to the hospital. We threw our clothes back on and got marcellin (the driver) to pick us and the sickly up. Got him to the hospital at 11 oclock and they didnt know anything. They asked him some questions and suggested some medicines that we pick up...oh malagasys. I stayed with the sick missionary that night while my comp went to the missionary house. While on thier way home, they hit a posy posy driver with two people in the posy posy. The people went flying and the posy posy went to pieces... they spent another hour plus taking people to the hospital (that we just came from) dealing with the drunken police and trying to make a deal with the posy posy driver on how much money we owed him. What a night.
The next day we got up and waited for Marcellin to deal with the police before we went up to a place called foul point. A beatiful beach that has white sand. We had a zone activity planned. We played beach volleyball and beach soccer. Way fun day.
Tonight, I sat on the beach of the Indian Ocean and talked about what the future holds and how confident my mission president is in my companion and I. He knows that if we live the gospel, if we continue to make great choices that no matter what we choose to do with our life, we will be successful. Nice to know that someone has that much confidence in me. I love being here on the mission. It is the greatest blessing in my life. I love being a missionary!
All my love
Elder Herrin
 |
| Elder covey and a cute kid |
 |
| The tamatave zone |
Friday, January 1, 2016
Tratra ny Krismasy!
Dear Family,
Merry Christmas, again. It was so good to be able to talk to you this week. My siblings are all getting to be so big... kinda weird. Its so funny to see them the way they are going about life now. Rhet is driving to and from practice, Maci is playing basketball and playing the piano and Ty is doing all his sports while finding a way to keep his little mouth moving. It amazes me. Mom and dad, well, I love you. What a wonderful hour and a half that I had to chat. Just knowing that the next time I talk to you will be in person... a little weird to be honest. What are we doing for the new year? Party at the Browns? That has seemed to be the usual!
My week was fantastic. As I told you when we talked, the office couples decided to get the workers here at the office a gift. They bought 19 ducks for each of them. Yes, 19 live ducks. Elder Covey and I got to help Sis. Woolley put a little tinsel around each of the necks to make them festive. Then the workers came one by one to pick up their gift. First come, first got the fattest.
As for the missionaries, we had a big party. Elder Covey and I were here at the office early making pancakes and eggs with President and Sister Foote. We fed the missionaries a mighty breakfast. After we had finished that, we had a really nice spiritual thought. We heard from Sis. Rossitter (our mission nurse) and from President and Sister Foote. Both talked briefly about the true meaning of Christmas. There was something that President Foote talked about that really hit me. He was talking about coming to know our Savior better, on a personal level. He said, "As missionaries, we wear him on our chest every day, but He wears us on his hands and feet." It was a really powerful statement that hit me. I have thus started to study more about the Savior. What a great man he is. We played a couple of games with both zones and finished the afternoon off by watching "A Christmas Story". WITH the approval of President Foote of course.
I spent a lot of time with the Footes as we work closely together. We got to hear about all of his Christmas traditions and what he did with his family. I pondered about the wonderful Herrin traditions that we have. I hope that you all were able to get into your new Christmas pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. I hope that you were able to all spend the night in the same room to awake to the wonderful feeling of Christmas day. I hope that dad read from Luke and that you all got to feel of the true meaning of that Christmas day.
I know that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. For you and me. I know that through Him, we can be saved and that we can all return to live with our Heavenly Father once again.
As we prepare for this new year of 2016, I DARE you to make some goals. Push yourself. I will do it as well. Thanks so much for being my support team back home. I could not do this without you. I love you so much. I love being a missionary, too!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Merry Christmas, again. It was so good to be able to talk to you this week. My siblings are all getting to be so big... kinda weird. Its so funny to see them the way they are going about life now. Rhet is driving to and from practice, Maci is playing basketball and playing the piano and Ty is doing all his sports while finding a way to keep his little mouth moving. It amazes me. Mom and dad, well, I love you. What a wonderful hour and a half that I had to chat. Just knowing that the next time I talk to you will be in person... a little weird to be honest. What are we doing for the new year? Party at the Browns? That has seemed to be the usual!
My week was fantastic. As I told you when we talked, the office couples decided to get the workers here at the office a gift. They bought 19 ducks for each of them. Yes, 19 live ducks. Elder Covey and I got to help Sis. Woolley put a little tinsel around each of the necks to make them festive. Then the workers came one by one to pick up their gift. First come, first got the fattest.
As for the missionaries, we had a big party. Elder Covey and I were here at the office early making pancakes and eggs with President and Sister Foote. We fed the missionaries a mighty breakfast. After we had finished that, we had a really nice spiritual thought. We heard from Sis. Rossitter (our mission nurse) and from President and Sister Foote. Both talked briefly about the true meaning of Christmas. There was something that President Foote talked about that really hit me. He was talking about coming to know our Savior better, on a personal level. He said, "As missionaries, we wear him on our chest every day, but He wears us on his hands and feet." It was a really powerful statement that hit me. I have thus started to study more about the Savior. What a great man he is. We played a couple of games with both zones and finished the afternoon off by watching "A Christmas Story". WITH the approval of President Foote of course.
I spent a lot of time with the Footes as we work closely together. We got to hear about all of his Christmas traditions and what he did with his family. I pondered about the wonderful Herrin traditions that we have. I hope that you all were able to get into your new Christmas pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. I hope that you were able to all spend the night in the same room to awake to the wonderful feeling of Christmas day. I hope that dad read from Luke and that you all got to feel of the true meaning of that Christmas day.
I know that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. For you and me. I know that through Him, we can be saved and that we can all return to live with our Heavenly Father once again.
As we prepare for this new year of 2016, I DARE you to make some goals. Push yourself. I will do it as well. Thanks so much for being my support team back home. I could not do this without you. I love you so much. I love being a missionary, too!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
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