Kent--May 11, 2015

Dear family,

I am so glad that we were able to Skype yesterday. It was great. Thank you so much for being my family. You are the light of my life. This week, I have decided to take what I learned at zone conference and apply it to finding new investigators. One member in the ward has a non-member husband. He is what you would call a "dry Mormon." That means that he comes to church every Sunday, has been taught all the missionary lessons, has a calling in the church, but hesitates to be baptized. I have been pondering what I could do to help him become a new investigator, and desire to be baptized. His wife, I'm sure does the same thing. She is an example to me. She owns a gym and teaches fitness classes. In the waiting room, she puts church magazines, pamphlets, movies, and copies of the Book of Mormon for people to read. It struck me that I haven't been doing all I can to work with the members of this ward. That's something I need to work on. They are already doing so much. Can you think of what would happen if we guided their efforts? Another thing I will do is earnestly contact people on the street. When Elder Hamula of the Seventy came to our mission several months ago, he talked of the importance of consecration. He said that one of the ways to be truly consecrated is to give all you have and serve the Lord. That includes talking with EVERYONE you meet. He said that contacting is the price we pay for God to trust us with the type of people that are going to be baptized. That has stuck with me ever since. So I will rise to my call, buckle down, and talk to everyone in order for the Lord to trust me. 

I hope you all have a great week. I can't wait to get my ukulele. The first hymn I'll play is called, "Be Thou My Vision." It's a popular Christian hymn. It happens to be my new favorite. 

PS. That's so cool that Josh is going to Portland! That will be a fun mission for him.

I can't wait to hear from you. 

Love,

Elder Herbert

(Pictures of when Elder Herbert and his companion, Elder Walters, went to the temple to witness a family whom Elder Walter taught get sealed.)

Kent--May 4, 2015

Dear family,

We had a couple of great lessons with Brother "S". We taught the Plan of Salvation, and he started telling us about it. We didn't have to talk much! He had investigated the church for seven months in Auburn, WA, and he's been taught every lesson. He says the truth behind why he hasn't been baptized yet is because he's on parole until November. We may have to wait several months for him to get off parole until he's baptized. In our second lesson, we went to the church and had a lesson on the Book of Mormon. He told us the extent of his crimes, and why he went to prison. Over the past few years, he has done a complete 180. He was a bank robber. He says there were people in his life that were placed there by God to get him back on track. He is an incredible man, and an inspiration to me. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every night, and he comes to church every Sunday. He even gave up working on Sunday to keep it holy. This week, he brought one of his friend's fourteen year old sons to church. His name is "A". I hope that we'll be able to teach "A"'s family. 

This Sunday, we also had a lesson with a part-member family. We taught about the Restoration and invited the non-member girlfriend, "C", to be baptized. She said she would if she were to find out the church was true. One of the challenges would be to get her boyfriend active in the church again, and have them get married. Their four little kids were wonderful. They asked great questions. 

We get free groceries for volunteering at a food bank each week, and we often eat with members. We get all sorts of fruits and vegetables from the food bank.

Jessica, I have not yet been able to baptize anyone yet, but I hope to be able to soon. I'm glad you are going to Pharmacy Tech school! That sounds like a lot of work, but lots of fun too! I also can't wait to see your braces!

Aaron, I love you too. 

Sarah, I'm glad that you're playing basketball. I've gotten lots better at playing basketball on P-day. I hope you have fun at Lego League.

Ps. I will be Skyping at a member's house this upcoming Sunday at 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, so it will be 6 pm where you live. It will be a 30 minute Skyping session, and then we'll have dinner afterward. I can't wait to see you all! 

My companion, Elder Walters, broke his ukulele, so I was wondering, could you send my ukulele in a package to me, so we can play hymns on it? He has a hymnbook for ukulele.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Herbert 

Kent--April 27, 2015

Dear family,

I'm glad that things are going well for you. I'm having a great time in my new area. This zone conference is focusing on Sabbath Day observance and how we can help our investigators keep the Sabbath Day holy. Which is interesting because it was discussed in Sacrament meeting yesterday. Yesterday we had a miracle occur. A stranger showed up for sacrament meeting. We found out his name is "R S". He was investigating the church in another part of the mission and recently moved into our ward boundaries. He told us that he wants to get baptized! We set up an appointment with him for Wednesday evening.

I know that the Lord is hastening His work. He is providing a way for us to find people to teach. It was interesting to note how the Lord worked. This past week, we were trying day in and day out to find people. We went contacting for an hour each day, worked with members, and even knocked on a few doors. Nothing. In fact, all of our set appointments fell through. But we were blessed to see a miracle this Sunday. I'm so glad to be working in the Lord's Vineyard, bringing souls to Him. No other work could be more satisfying or joy-filled. If you participate in missionary and family history work, you will be blessed with a greater measure of the spirit, your testimony will increase, and you'll be protected against Satan's temptations. I'm so glad I have this opportunity to serve. I know without a doubt that it is the Lord's work.

I hope you have a great week. Let me know about Mikayla's new internship, and about Justin and Jule's baby! Good luck on your new job dad! I'm excited to see you on Mother's day.    

Ps. That's funny it's been raining over there because it's nice and sunny up here! It was a little cloudy yesterday and it sprinkled a bit, but it was nice the rest of the day.

Here's a selfie of me with a haircut I gave myself last week.

Love, Elder Herbert

Kent--April 20, 2015

So sad--he did not get his email from us.

I accidently sent it to his other email account! It's time to send a card. If anyone else wants to write to him, here is the mission address:

Washington Federal Way Mission Office
23175 224th Place SE
Maple Valley, Washington 98038
_________________________________________________________________________________

Dear family,

I'm so excited to start working in the Park Orchard Ward in Kent, WA. Kent is a pretty diverse place. There are lots of Arabic and Indian people here. Also lots of Asian, African, Filipino, and Polynesian. I love it so much. It's also a very nice area. Half of the ward is an urban area in downtown Kent, and the other half is nice suburban homes with lots of property. I hope all of you are having a great week. I'm sorry that I didn't get your e-mail this week. I'll have to see it next week. P-day is usually Monday except on Transfers. I memorized a passage of scripture. My goal is to memorize one scripture a week. This week I chose Mosiah 3:5-8. It took a while, but I got it. I love you and hope to hear from you soon.

 

Love,

Elder Herbert

Kent--April 14, 2015

Dear family,

I'm so grateful for the time I've had to serve in the Manorwood Ward. I'm now getting transferred to the Park Orchard Ward in Kent, WA. My new companion is Elder Walters. I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had in Manorwood. I have to tell you of one special experience I had here. We met the kindest man last week. His name is "A". He pulled up to us on the side of the road and asked us to look for his dog, which looked like Spiky from the Little Rascals. We went up and down hills on bike through the neighborhood until it got late. He had given us his number, so we gave him a call and told him we couldn't find her. He expressed so much gratitude to us. He said that his dog came back home eventually. He asked us to come over for lunch the next day. He said he was the son of a preacher from Laramie, WY and knew lots of LDS people. So we got his address and headed over to his house for lunch. We had a lively discussion about the restoration and his religious background. His belief in God is teetering, but he expressed gratitude for the moral guidance he received from a Christian background. Then on our way he gave us clif protein bars, gatorade, and each a $10 Walmart gift card. 

One thing I learned from this experience is that there is still so much good in the world, and every opportunity to find people to teach and serve others should be taken. I'm glad to be on the Lord's errand. 

I'm excited for the new experiences I'll have in Park Orchard Ward. I can't wait to tell you. 

Mom, I didn't get my package yet, but it'll most likely be there at transfers. I found a universal battery charger at Fred Meyer. Here are some pictures for you.

Thank you for everything. I can't wait to Skype you on Mother's Day!

Love,

Elder Herbert

Puyallup--April 6, 2015

Dearest family,

It's so good to hear from you. Thank you for sending a package mom. I'm sure I'll get it tomorrow at zone conference. I can try and look for the camera charger cord today when we go shopping. If I can't find one, I'll send you the information on the charger unit. Then you can see pictures of Puyallup, WA. And me of course!

Please pray for "J". He got caught with illegal marijuana possession and is in jail for a couple of days. He wasn't able to watch General Conference because of it. There are still some things that we need to teach him, but needless to say he won't be getting baptized anytime soon. Missionaries actually go to the Stake Center to watch Conference. Our mission president allowed us to watch in a member's home if we had an investigator with us, but we didn't have any investigators watch conference with us. 

There are a lot of competing priorities in this world. I have heard people here say they like watching TV evangelists because it's so much more convenient and that way they can wash their cars on Sunday without having to miss church!!! What??! Satan is really good at getting people distracted. I heard that from a couple we contacted yesterday. We asked them what they did to celebrate Easter and they said, "washed our cars." There's a lot of work to be done. 

Jessica, I'm glad you realize the importance of the Savior. I've been trying my hardest to teach our investigators the importance of the Savior. It's really cool to see how the restored gospel increases faith in Christ more than anything else. No matter if you're already Christian or not, the gospel does more to strengthen faith in Christ than anything else. I love you very much.

Aaron I love you too! I did enjoy conference. My favorite talk was Elder Oaks' talk on the parable of the sower. It reminded me of the importance to stay focused in Sacrament meeting. If we don't use that sacred time, we can't receive the promised blessings. What was your favorite talk?

Sarah, I'm excited to see you too! I miss your faces! I'm also really excited for Mother's Day. I love you so much.

I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Herbert

Puyallup---March 23, 2015

Dear family,

I am so happy to hear from you. It's good to hear words of encouragement and love from all of you. Mom, thanks for sending the picture of Grandma and Grandpa's wedding! I'm going to look for a camera chord that can fit so I can send you pictures as well. I found my wallet, after I got everything replaced... Oh well. I'm glad I found it! 

This week has been another miraculous week. It's becoming the norm. Elder Hamula of the Seventy taught us to exercise enough faith to expect miracles. I have seen it impact the way I think about the Lord's work, because it really is His alone. He could do it without us, but I'm grateful he lets us play a part. 

This week, while on exchanges, "J C" accepted a baptismal date!! We also found one new investigator named "M", and she said we could come back on April 6. We also found an incredible potential investigator named "S". We contacted her right outside on her doorstep and she was excited to have us come back. We invited her to church on Sunday and told us that her husband would also be interested in having discussions with us. They weren't able to attend this Sunday, but we stopped by yesterday evening and they let us in for a glass of water! They are hands down the nicest couple I've met on my mission. 

I was so excited when "J" accepted the invitation to be baptized. He's such a good kid. We're going to focus more on seeking to learn by faith and searching for truth on his own. In James 1:22-24 it states, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

I know that as we LIVE the gospel of Jesus Christ, by exercising faith unto repentance, everyday of our lives, we can know and understand the doctrine. What is one thing you can do to apply what you know? If you know that Jesus Christ lives today, what are you going to do because of it? 

I love you all very much and I look forward to talking with you on Mother's Day. 

Love,

Elder Herbert