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.

Green Light on Facebook! (Elder Travis Herdt)

Well to start off our recent convert Jen is just awesome!!! We brought another recent convert(like 4 years ago) to a lesson with us and Jen ended up teaching and really helping the other recent convert. She just got called to be the ward Librarian and is loving it. So I'm finally feeling like we're making a presence on the NIU campus. We're starting to get noticed by a lot more people and more and more people are starting to talk to us.  Its really hard because we cant stop students. We finally got our first lesson though on campus, she requested us from Mormon.org and wanted a Book of Mormon and to know more about us. We thought it was golden until she told us why she want to read. hahaha she said she is an atheist and wanted to read the bible and the book of Mormon and so on and so forth to make sure she knows why she is an atheist. It was very weird but we taught her about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she really liked it. After the lesson she gave us some referrals of friend who would be interested and we really hope this maybe our way into the campus. Or, maybe something else will help.... because as of October 26, Dekalb is now a Facebook proselyting area!!! but more on that later!;)

        Well we had a pretty cool experience with an old PNI (potential new investigator) we hadn't seen here in months. We walked up and started talking to her and she wanted us to come by the next day and have dinner! We were surprised and Elder Black didn't like it because it sounded to good to be true! We went by the next day and had an awesome lesson, we were invited back and we saw here the fallowing week and taught the plan of salvation.  It went really good because she is a nurse and she has experienced a lot of death and she knew that there was life after death but didn't know where we went or what happens. We plan on seeing her this week and can't wait to teach her again! So our teaching pool got a little low and we had to tract, I don't mind it, but it normally isn't the best way to find people now  days. But we happened to get some success. We found this man, he told us to come back in a week. It was so easy we almost wrote it off as not legit but we went back anyways. We got there a little late and he was already reading the bible when we got there. We got scared because we thought he just wanted to bash. He ended up being really nice and loved the lesson. He understood everything and said that he wanted to read the book of Mormon to make sure this was all legit because he was a recent convert of the Catholics and he just doesn't want to hop around church to church and what not. He gave us a return appointment and now were going to see him in a week or two, so I hope he reads and prays to know.

        So this last week was a Crazy one we had Clayton Christensen the one who wrote the book the power of the everyday missionary! He was just a superstar of a teacher!  It really helped us out as missionaries and as wards in the greater Chicago land area! Then on Monday we had a Zone activity at the Black Hawk statue in Oregon. It was awesome! we played capture the flag, went on a hike and had a testimony meeting and I met this old barbershop guy and he sang for us hahaha:) On Wednesday we got to do some service at Feed'em Soup. Just the coolest soup kitchen ever, so you should look it up to know why it's so cool! But, Friday was the really cool day.  We got invited to an emergency leadership meeting. Only  us, zone leaders, assistants and the sister training leaders were there. We were very privileged! The meeting was on missionaries getting Facebook in the Chicago West mission. So as of Friday Elder Black and I have been approved to use facebook! some cool things I learned from that meeting was that only 30 missions can have facebook and we were the 9th to get it phased in! The reason why was the bretheren said we were among the top ten most obedient missions out of the 450 missions. So moral of the story is you get blessed for being obedient!

       Well on the lines of obedience I want to share with you some things Ive been learning in my personal studies. So the last week I read all of Helaman and some of 3 Nephi and I notice how much it talked about repentance and how God wants to give us so many blessings when we repent and when we don't God warns us of trails to come. I notice that God sometimes lets bad things happen, for us to remember him and to repent and change and grow closer to him. I have really noticed that in my life that as I repent God truly blesses me. I also know that as you do in your life he will bless you. I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and atoning for my sins that I can repent of them and be blessed and return to my father in heaven.

 God wants to bless us, so what are you willing to do to get those blessings?

-Elder Herdt

Let Us All Press On!

Well hola my readers,
       I have had a wonderfully hard week but It was great! Elder Black is a great missionary and I'm learning lots from him! He is one smart cookie! He has helped me a lot with my studies and we have been having wonderful companionship study. Something that I have been studying lately is God's, standard of righteousness. I learned a lot from it and I just want to know what your thoughts are on it? Shoot me and email with your thoughts:)
      Work In Dekalb is going great, we're kinda on the front of building back up our teaching pool and we were kinda forced into tracking, but we have seen some great things from it; including some new investigators. I have a couple of tracting stories!:P 

       First, we were walking along the street and this crazy old guy pulled up and looked at us all bug-eyed and said "What are you selling".....(before we could answer) he said, "your selling something...... I know your sell something..... you just look like it..." then drove away. Weird huh? Next I finally tracked in to a JW He was a nice guy who knew a lot of scriptures but knew very little about them. He was funny and did a reverse door approach on us but it was just even more funny because Elder Black is a boss about the Bible and knew just the right thing to say. He had us held up at his door for a while and because we are on the Lord's errand we just bore our testimonies and asked if he wanted a card "he didn't even want that" and we left. It was hard to leave because we could have taught him so much, but for him all the bible is, is a fighting ground...... NEXT STORY!....While tracking by NIU we ran into a girl from Taiwan, who was very interested in us and we just got her a Chinese book of Mormon and she's loving it! Speaking of NIU were doing a lot of work on Campus and finding out what we can and cannot do. What we found out was that we can do about anything as long as were representing The LDS SA. My Goal while at Dekalb is to really make NIU a investigator Gold mine.       

          We Have one Person on date for October right now. We lost contact with a few of our investigators and we're sad but trying to find them. The person getting baptized is as solid as solid gets. She has been truly converted to the gospel and funny thing is, it really has been from her own. All we really did was line her up in the right direction. She's wonderful and is always texting us saying that she knows how the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church today and she can't wait to be baptized. She is just amazing and I can't wait so see her enter the waters of baptism.
        Another crazy thing happened this week. A less active member got dropped in on by some of his friends who were traveling the country and both of them are investigators to the church and near members. One is 3 days away from his baptism and relapsed and drank some beer with his father and that's why we help, and his other friend's dad just got baptized.  Dropped drinking and smoking got married and was baptized in 3 weeks and is now about to go through the temple. It was amazing to see these wanderers and how much they were a blessing to this less active. They all went to church together and the one who was almost baptized bore his testimony. It was soo good, I even took notes. He talked about worship and how we worship what ever we hold the highest and if that isn't God we need to rethink our lives.
        I know we all have our our battles, our own trials, and things he have but with Hope, which is the anchor to the soul - Ether 12:4, we can stay fast in this constant whirl wind of life. So let us all press on step by step and become better people. Working at one weakness at a time until we reach the light of the perfect day.

The Old "Herdt" Suit of Armor

Well This has been a Crazy week so Elder Engler went zone leader on me and went to Joliet. 

His Replacement Is..... Wait for It...... Elder Black from Mesa Arizona! He is an amazing missionary, He has been a zone leader twice and has been sent to Dekalb on the special assignment to help progress the work here in Dekalb. I'm really happy because I have been itching to do work on Campus. I had a really cool experience on campus this week we got a call from the stake president to go to the campus and be in a Religious Q and A on campus and be the LDS representatives on the religious board. It was going great and right as I was about to bear testimony about the book of Mormon, A fire alarm went off!! oh my goodness I was so mad at the devil, I knew he was behind it. Afterwards though, we continued and it was a really amazing experience and I felt like it was a small but BIG step toward getting in the campus.

         2013- 2015                                               1979 - 1981  

     Elder Travis Herdt                           Elder Matthew Herdt 

 I would also like to mention my great appreciation to My father for sending His mission suit to me. The Old Herdt Suit of Armor "commissioned 1979-81"  and now to 2013-15. (He wore his 2 suits his whole mission and they look brand new! The pin stripe, big lapels and bell bottoms may help to be a good contacting strategy! haha)  I plan on making good use of it and will love to see how many more lives this suit will be able to bless, not many suits get a second chance at missionary work. I loved my First mission General conference. Its like any missionary will tell you; it is the best conference they ever watched. I love my mission so much because it is setting a frame work for the rest of my life. I love the things that I have been taught, learning spiritual self Independence, no one is forcing me to be spiritually independent, I'm just learning from the spirit and as Matthew 11:28-30 says it's either the Lords way or the highway and the Lords way is the easy way. Lately I have really been trying to consecrate my mind to have a laser like focus on the Glory of God and I have found some cool quotes I want to share with you. They have really helped me and I really have enjoyed them, because it's easy to control our actions but it's harder to control our thoughts, and only when we learn how to fully control our thoughts can we learn how to be exalted.

"Prayer is the laboratory where we can facilitate and learn how to be masters of our own minds"- Presidant Fenn   

"The mind is the agent of the almighty, clothed in the mortal tabernacle. If we can learn to control our mind, we can control our families, our lives & the kingdom of God"-Orson Pratt

"How can a person possibly become what he is NOT THINKING? Nor is any thought when persistently entertained to small to have its effects..."-Spencer W. Kimball

I know its so.... so... so... very difficult to control our minds but just imagine what we can do when we learn how? I've struggled with it my whole life and I finally learned, I can control my mind. Its weird before I felt like I didn't even know I could do that! hahaha. I love my mission so much, It has taught me more than I can even write.

When we can master both our mind and bodies we will soon find our selves close to the Glory of God.

-Elder Herdt

PS: After that dog bite I think it may be affecting me a little.

I LOVE GOD:)

  So Elder Engler Is Gone tomorrow:\ I'm really going to miss him, but he'll be one of my best friends for a long time:) HE'S GOING ZONE LEADER ON ME! He is off to Joliet and I'm staying here. My new companion is Elder Black From Arizona! I Don't know much about him, but in his mission he has been a Zone leader twice, so I'm super excited and I know there is going to be a lot of work to be done in Dekalb!

        We have has a few miracles In Dekalb one being a man named M****, who the sister missionaries in Dekalb contacted. The next day he went to Beans and Bibles and He bore his testimony there and went to Church the next day. He has been reading the Book of Mormon; Which Is awesome, has a testimony of it and Everything. He's committed to Baptism and told us he is sick of not being able to pay his tithing at his old Church and wants to start pay Tithing here. He also wants to be a part of our ward choir and wants to sing a solo some day in sacrament meeting! He is awesome, right now he has job problems that he is trying to work on so he can come to church on Sunday and just trying to find a better job so he can pay his bills and go to Church. We promised him that as he strives to seek God's kingdom the lord will bless him with a job. Just as 3 Nephi 13:31-34 promises.
       Our next miracle is J*** who we received as a referral. In the text, it told us that he will be moving to Dekalb, He is faithfully reading the book of Mormon and is ready to be Baptized. My jaw dropped open and I couldn't believe that the Lord was blessing us with this investigator. Here is where the real Miracle takes place. We called the sister who gave us the referral to ask the history on him. They told us that He Had never been taught by missionaries, had got a Book of Mormon from some LDS friends who where helping him out with his divorce and he contacted the missionaries asking what he had to do now.  They told him that he needed to be baptized he accepted and then he moved to Dekalb. We called him later to talk to him and he told us the night before he fell asleep reading the Book of Mormon and that we want to come to church every Sunday and if in the winters he could get a ride because all he has is a moped. Mind you he is making all of these commitments on his own, most of which he has not even been told to do. He gave us referrals for his family to get missionaries to them and he is defending the church from his Friends who know nothing about us. My goodness if that isn't the Lord and his companion the Holy Ghost doing missionary work I don't know what is. He is amazing and even though I haven't even meet him yet I love him already!

        We have been doing alot of work with the members getting in their homes and sharing quick messages with them about the up coming conference and missionary work. We really have seen an improvement in the ward almost a lifting up and it has been making me a really good bond with us.

        -keep the faith, and hold fast to the anchor of the gospel because it not till after the trial of our faith that the blessings come.
-Elder Herdt

My recovering Dog bites!

Ride the Wave!

 First off, new mission rule, all letters and packages must be sent to the mission office :/ but I really want to be obediant to if you could help me with getting that word out that would be great! 
So Riding the waves of the mission Field is hard work but it can make you Strong because you must keep you rudder steady or keep your mast in the wind. Never let go otherwise you might find your self heading in a wrong direction or if worst comes to worst capsizing.D&C 123:16-17 16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves. 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.  I love everything about my mission and the success in my part of the lords vineyard. we had a very hard week, but Elder Engler and I hard holding Fast and keeping the Boat of missionary work strait on coarse. A scripture that really help Elder Engler and I was 2 Nephi 2:1-2 . It Just taught a little more about our trials and what they mean from God. This weekend Elder Engler and I had a miracle do to the help of the Sycamore sisters. When they were at the library a man came up to them asking if they were nuns because of the tag on there shirt. They told them no but told him about the restored gospel and invited him to a missionary chill cook off, that DeKalb and sycamore was putting on and he dropped his plans that night and came out to the cook off. He came to the cook off and at the end of the cook off we had a book of Mormon presentation it was awesome! at the end of the presentation we had testimonies and this instigator M**** bore his testimony and we hadn't even taught him yet!!! He is super solid and we already know he is going to be baptized! We taught him a Day later and he told us he was looking for a Church that was a family because he had lost all of his. Well we told him he found it and the lesson just went awesome after that, I just love the guy, he is so prepared! He mad this week all worth It!I really do hope when I get home I am fat because of my mission, but not like fat physically like other missionaries but fat as what is described in 2 Nephi 9:51----  51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot  satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.or Proverbs 28:25---- 25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat. I love everything I've have been learning, Just Feasting upon the Words of Christ! Because now I have the hunger like Enos did, I will never fall back from the gospel because I know of the substance the gospel brings!Keep the faith and carry on!-Elder Herdt

"THE CYCLIST"

          The Work is progressing in DeKalb, IT'S HARD THOUGH! Some times I Feel like i'm riding a bike in the top gear, up hill, with head winds. Today I want to share with you my analogy of the Cyclist.

 Albert Einstein touched on it a little with his quote, "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." But, what are the acts of force that might be working against us? When we do the right things, working toward the right direction we may feel like we are we are riding up hill in the wind. Up hill is the right things and the wind is like all of the trials and challenges the Devil puts us through. When we are riding towards our goal, it is going to seem tough because we will always see other cyclists riding the other direction. They are riding fast, with no effort and look like they are having a lot of fun but those Cyclists have forgotten they are going the wrong direction and the direction they are heading is a fast route to no where. But, there are ways for us to make our hard ride easy. Like giving up the things that makes us less aerodynamic, or our favorite little sins because those are what give the devil hand holds to push us back. We can also use the things we have like switching gears or using the scriptures we have the word of God better from past and modern Prophets. We can also travel in Pelotons, riding with others that are heading the same direction as us. Like friends Family and the people at the head of the peloton is Jesus Christ and Prophet and Apostles, they take the full force of what Satin has to Throw at us so that we can ride easier in life. We must Keep riding and Keep pumping to Keep balance and to Keep riding toward the goal of returning to our Father. "SALVATION WAS NEVER EASY" you must work hard and if your not, find out what your doing wrong because you might not be riding the right way. We are ether going one way or another and if we feel like we are static, tough news, you are ether going up hill or down hill. moving closer to Christ or riding farther and farther away.

I KNOW my savior and the things he has done for me, I KNOW that the Prophet Joseph didn't have an easy life because what he did brought the opportunity to for billions to come unto Christ. I KNOW the Book of Mormon to be the word of God because it has changed me and made me a better man and I know President Monson is the Prophet for today's bike ride and will help guide and protect us from the winds of the Devil.

Keep the Faith and Press Forward to the coming of Christ.

-Elder Herdt