First email via iPad!

 My favorite barn in DeKalb

My district, all sisters again!

Thank you mom for all the questions, It makes writing home a lot easier! I bet you realized if you want to know something you have to ask questions. something I have really learned on my mission.

          Bloomingdale is just blooming in work.  The ward here is a big one a little smaller than San Miguel, I cover a Few towns and only one ward. The work is amazing and is very missionary orientated. yeah I have already been fed more by the members here than all my time in Dekalb. So just to Clear things up, I eat EVERYTHING members give me. I just chose not to have guacamole at this restaurant. I have choked down my fair share of bad foods and even some of my companions foods. I had one Companion who HATED tomatoes, and a member feed us a tomatoes style soup, not like a tomato soup you have with your grilled cheese, Like WHOLE tomato's! and I barred it and when the member wasn't looking swapped my companion's and finished all of his too. So yeah:)  

         Time is FLYING......I'm not a fan of it. tomorrow is my 5 month mark. I'm almost a quarter in. That's scary. Whats really scary is that my comp has 3 months left! I might send him home. 

         So we had some iPad Training, only once so far. But we are very locked down on them, Which is a True Blessing. The church was not messing around with this one. We have access to all Church web sites except Mormon Channel. We Have Access to Facebook, Skype, Facetime, Emails and Texting. We have the Gospel Library which is a HUGE help. I get to use videos in lessons, show pictures. and so much more. Its so great. 

        So I bought some Ear warmers and Some pants that were a little thicker for winter and a scarf and things. I Got another Bag. the one I had was a little big and my iPad was too vulnerable in it to break. But got a really nice bag for super cheap at TJ max and it was a type of bag that shouldn't even been sold there, that's the quality of the bag. But don't worry too much about sending anything. I'll get winter stuff from other missionaries and on an as needed basis.  I bought some Thermal G's..... They're amazing and what truly makes it.

Well I'm on another round of the Book of Mormon, planning on finishing it by new years. I'm in 1 Nephi 15 so ill bet I'll catch up with you pretty quick. I'm going through and highlighting any time someone prays or when were told to pray and what to pray for, any time prayers are answered, anytime it mentions the God Head and also marking when they speak, anything to do with the Heart and when they mention the word remember or any word like it and also marking what they want us to remember. 

         Well I Love you lots mom. I sorry for how much I truly took you and Dad for granted. Your an amazing mother and I feel like a stripling warrior because of the things I have been taught by you.

         Your spiritual ninja, And son

   -Elder Herdt.

Tornados? I'm not in Kansas:/

(A text picture from some members who took Elder Herdt and his companion out for dinner tonight.  They said he was the first 18 yr old missionary they have had serving.)

The tornados were close, lots of hail, rain and lightning, thunder, winds, but most of the Tornado's were south but still in the mission. (The only thing the mission home reported as damaged or missing was a windshield shattered and a name tag lost!  The Lord is watching over his missionaries)

My New area Is Great! the ward is so missionary orientated and we have more work than we can handle, We're in an area that is half rich half poor very close to the city and we got a little bit of west Chicago. I have a great companion! his name is Elder Ailshie, he's from Cali but his family lives in Las Vegas right now. He is a great guy. He has a couple of months left and he is on the cusp of becoming trunky. 

      I love our family, mom. I hope you know you got the love and bond of our family right. I cant tell you how many broken homes/ families I run into on my mission, Its quite sad, people who haven't talked to their family in years. It really makes me realize how good we got it as a family. So thank you. 

And thank you for the pomegranates!!

 you+sending pomegranates=Saint.

This week i have to cut is short because im at a library doing emails and they only give us an hour. but next week i hope i can do it on my Ipad so ill have more time and will write this weeks and next weeks general. well love you and good speed!

Love your son, Elder Herdt

Good Bye DeKalb! Bloomingdale here I come!

I have had a wonderful 4 and a half months here in Dekalb. I have made friends with people I hope to keep ties with for a while. I'm glad I could put my best efforts in this town and I hope I can double my efforts in Bloomingdale! Well I felt like I ended in the Area very well this week! We gave a blessing to a recent covert, it was just about as much of a miracle as a miracles can get. We also had our first lesson from a member referral in months. It was a great lesson! She was agreeing with everything and accepted to commit to baptism when she knows more about it and knows it's true. On Friday Elder Winegar came down and we were killing it in Dekalb, We taught a media referral and he committed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and ask God about it. We got to see a lot of less actives and we took a member on one visit and the less active/part member just loved the member, They had tons in common and the wife wanted to learn more. Now Saturday was truly the day of miracles! We were informed of a baptism of an investigator of the Sycamore sisters and they told us to invite anyone. So we were going threw our phone of people to invite, We were sending messages to everyone until we ran into the name "John"(not real name), John was an investigator who had recently dropped us for a ton of different reasons; mainly because he got a new girlfriend who was just bad news and second was he said "he never felt the spirit of the Lord at our church. So we were thinking of inviting him or not and we remembered that he was friends with the investigator that was getting baptized that day. So not ignoring the spirit we sent him and invite. He asked us right away what time. We told him and he said he'll be there. Well we get to the baptism and we find he was true to his word! He was there and siting right next to the investigator who was about to get baptized. The service went on without a hitch! It was amazing just perfect. After the baptism John got up and walked straight to us and said. "I don't know what I was feeling but It felt like I was being tugged to do something and he knew at that instant he need to be baptized" he then told us he wanted to start meeting with us again and want to progress toward baptism. We asked when and he told us anytime that worked for us so we said how about Sunday night? So we met him Sunday night and another miracle happened! He told us that he was out shopping with his Girlfriend and witnessed her steal over 60 bucks of medicine and told us he was torn and he then said that he was going to make a decision that night to ether keep the love of this girl of the love of the Savior. We haven't heard back from him yet. but we have been praying a hope he makes the right choice. And to top off that Day I got a call from Keith and he told me he just got the priesthood! It made me so happy to hear, He just about made my mission already.

For the most part blessings are given to us after the trial of our faith.

-Elder Herdt

Miracles!

          Well I felt truly blessed this week, the Lord is truly merciful and I see it everyday. This week was a slow one and not a lot of work was able to be done even though we were working our guts out! 

Well on a less productive side, On p-day I got to ride my first bike on my mission! I'm not going to lie but it was pretty great, I've missed biking and hopefully I'll ride a bike in an area some time. I rode this bike called a fat bike, the tires are about the size of a motorcycles and are under pressured to make it so you can ride in snow, gravel and anywhere with ease. It eats curbs for breakfast, without even blinking and you don't even have to stand up to do so. Well enough of that We had a Great Halloween, even though we weren't allowed to go out after 4pm. We got to go to our ward mission leaders house, where he invited people over and we got to make it a great contacting effort!

But Saturday was the True day of miracles! So if any of you remember Keith from the pig roast, the one we had to move to Chicago, well I just received word of his baptism! It was such a blessing for me to hear it. In part because I put in a lot of Faith and Hope when he left, but the sisters and Ward in the other mission were just what he needed, Hopefully one day I will get to see him in the waters again baptizing his daughters. He is an amazing man and I feel so blessed in helping him come closer to his savior. But that isn't the only baptism miracle we saw Saturday, Elder black got to see 2 of his old investigators in Rockford get baptized, he got to witness the baptism and even gave a surprise talk because someone couldn't make it. 

         Well on the topic of hope, I had a wonderful time studying it this week. Webster defines hope as a feeling that one's desires will happen. Preach my gospel defines it as an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill his promises to you. I felt like a good definition is Trusting in something which you have no control over. (Ether 12:4) describes hope with faith is an anchor to the souls of man. I really enjoyed that because I know when ever I see someone in tough time or even when I'm in tough time faith and hope can keep me firm. The Book of Mormon Teaches us of some things we should hope for. 1. is Deliverance in the savior (alma 58:10-11) 2. hope to receive you inheritance which is in heaven  (ether 1:32) 3. hope for the atonement & the resurrection of Jesus Christ (moroni 7:40) and also to have a hope for all things. I know that when we can receive miracles through our faith and hope. I know this because of the miracles I have already seen on my mission. I love the Lord and I know that he is truly merciful.

               -"faith and hope is and anchor to the souls of man"

                                              -Elder Travis Herdt.