Transferred to Schaumburg

Here is a picture on my district in Morton.

I will be in the Schaumburg east zone, I will be serving in the
Schaumburg 2rd Ward, which happens to be the only English Ward, no
such thing as a 1st Ward there. It's the area right on top of
Bloomingdale.  I could walk 2 blocks south from my new apartment and be
in my old area. So It will be cool so see new faces and old faces, see
some of the recent converts I taught up there and hopefully I'll be able
to see one go to the temple. It might be a car-share area. But we'll
find out.

My new companion is elder Harvey, I will be follow up training him

because he just got trained. I will be a district leader still. I feel that I have
made a positive influence on missionaries in my time as a missionary. I
think I have finally felt comfortable enough to say I feel like an
experienced missionary. I feel that I have gained a sufficient enough experience

 to handle most situations that missionaries experience. 

This last area has been extremely humbling to me, it
has got me on the path I need to go.

Elder Herdt

Last Week in Morton

Had a pretty good week with some amazing things sprinkled in between.

Friday I went on exchanges with the missionaries in Pekin. We had some
great success! We were able to find and teach a lot of interested people and for what I heard their area was an area that people were
Hard hearted! But we even got a referral from someone while tracting.

It made me feel really good working hard and seeing success

This last Saturday we were visiting a less active who has been
battling recently with anti-mormon material and said he won't come
back to church till he gets answers. Something cool happened while
were we teaching him. We shared moroni 7:12-17 and taught about
comparing the Holy Ghost and Satan. Right after we were comparing his
feelings with anti-mormon material he stopped us and said," ok it just
all clicked, these guys are trying to confuse me and the church isn't.
Okay elders who is going to pick me up for church". later at dinner we
Got somoone to agree to pick him up and he showed up for church the
next day. He had not been to church since last year and he had a great
experience. It seemed like he never missed one Sunday.

The last miracle happened Sunday. It was a lot harder to get than the
last one. We got a text during church from a non-member of a part
member family asking us if we could help Him move that day and that he
had no body helping him and really need the help. So I ask Elder Hahn
if we should and he said "no..... We're not doing that elder" he was
very fixed that he would not break the sabbath. I didn't see a problem
with it and thought in the long run it would be better, plus by
coincidence our appointment for that hour canceled, and opened up an
opportunity to go help. He was still stern with me saying we
would not feel comfortable serving on Sunday. So we called our zone
leader to ask what they would do. They told us to go. Elder Hahn still
didn't want to go. So after a few minutes of silence I looked over at
him and ask. Will you at least pray with me to find out what to do.
After our prayer we both had a strong feeling to call our elders
quorum leader, Don Mehr. We called and asked him and he told us the
same thing. I told Elder Hahn, and also that our zone leaders told us.
That it would be more important to serve this part member family then
to not do it because of the sabbath. So after we were done talking
with him, Elder Hahn started doing the math and told me that we would
not have any time to help because of our next appointment and the time
it took to travel and change. So I didn't argue and just sat there
thinking. Then it came to me, I ask elder Hahn, why would God tell us
to call pres. Mehr for him to tell us to go and then us not go because
of time. I told elder Hahn that we need to go and we wouldn't need to
change clothes to serve giving us enough time to help. He finally
agreed and we left. The service went great and we were able to help
him out and their family. They welcomed us back to there home and with
hopes now we will teach him and help there family out spiritually.

Elder Herdt

Two, Two, Two Weeks in One!

This Week!

So we found this ladies wallet at Walmart so we have to go return it,
not going to be emailing much today!
Our district Got hit hard this last week, 0 new investigators and 2
ward canceled do to weather effecting 4 companionships. I hope we all
can get out of this funk soon.
On the bright side, were breaking through with this part member
family, we just had a bishopric member and his wife come out with us
to help them with family history which went awesome. We found out some
of their struggles and reasons why the non-member hasn't joined the
church, which is the Book of Mormon. Hope he can help him.
Also we have a less active who is so close to returning to activity, I
give it a few more week. We got him to come to church for the first
time in 20 years for a ward dinner and play. So I am supper happy to
see that! He says he wants to feel the spirit like he did when he
first joined the church, to kick start him back in going! we'll see
what we can do

Last Week!    

This week was pretty sad, our most promising investigator dropped us because she was antied, It was pretty heart breaking. Missionary Work is so much better when your teaching interested people. We have had some great success with less actives/ part members. This week we had a dinner/play/fundraiser at the church, and we got one 1 part-member family to come where they committed to come to church the next day and they came! We also had a less-active come who had not been in a church building in 20 years! It was really cool, we had a moment that really stuck him and me. To explain I need to go to earlier that day. We had a lesson with him earlier that day where after that lesson he gave us an assignment to " go do good in the world today". Later at the dinner we came in a few minutes late because we found a part-member family and they liked to talk. We sat down I leaned over and said softly "sorry we were late, we were doing do in the world", he then old me it didn't have to say why we were late. I then told him "all I wanted to do was 'return and report'". "He then said we are not a space ranger you don't need to 'return and report' "and then he recognized what he just said and thought for a second, then looked over at me, smiling and said "I haven't heard that wonderful phrase in a long time". It was wonderful to hear that it touch my heart as much as I think it did his.

The other miracle happen just after we got done talking with bishop about all the less actives we had been seeing, he told us that the alot of those less actives havent been contacted in a long time and he was really proud of all the work we were doing. After we were finnished talking with him we went to a town on the far end of out area where we haddent been for the most part of the transfer to meet members, less actives and formers that we didnt know of.  we were looking at our area book and noticed that there was a "Active member" he had never met. We desided to go find him and see who he was and get ahold of him.  We found his trailer home and tried to give him a call to see if he was home. He answered the Phone and we asked how it was going and he replied back, "Oh not so good Elders, I need to talk to you about something".  we replied and said well good thing were right out side your house, we then notice him him walking up the street and said good well the go in. We followed him into his trailor and sat us down and told us about how he was seaching on the internet for general confernce and a hope up came up for a website called ex-mormoms united, and there was oh wooha that he was telling us alot of it was freemanson junk. I felt bad for the member because mentially he was a little slow so he didnt know if he was just being fooled all along and or if he should believe it. We just expressed our love for him and told him about the spiritual pornography called anti mormon mitirial. The cool thing was he told us that he was praying the night before about all this stuff and ask God to send him someone. I dont think it was coincidence that was happened to come over that day. It such a blessing to feel that your are really an instrument in Gods hands, an answer to others prayers. We reported it to the High priest the next say and they should soon have someone over there to help him out.

Elder Herdt