when we obey with exactness, we will see miracles.

We didnt have transfers! But we kind of already knew that. Hermana Munoz and I were so excited to finally be able to work in our area for most of the week and it turned out that the power went out 4 times, each time starting at 6:30 pm. Most of our important appointments are at night and when there isnt power, we immediately have to go home. which is a bummer so we had to cancel a lot of appointments. Maybe we didnt get everything we wanted done. but we didnt miss out on having miracles this week. 

Derian had a set baptismal date for last Friday. We had his interview Wednesday with our District Leader, but something held him up. It just happened that the Zone Leaders passed by the church and they were able to give Derian his interview. During his baptismal interview, he felt like he needed to wait to be baptized and when he came out of his interview he was a different person. The other ZL took him and did another interview and when he came out Derian was a completely different person. We gave him space for a couple days so he could think about his decision to be baptized. Ever since the first time i met Derian, I honestly felt like we were pushing way too hard and the only reason he did things was because we wanted him to. This past Sunday, he ended up going to church on his own and his attitiude completely changed. I know it wasnt just a coincidence that the ZLs were passing by the church and our DL was held up, but that Heavenly Father wanted Derian to talk with Elders Larson and Montenegro. 

While Hna Munoz was sick, I got to look through our entire area book. I was looking at the old investigators from past missionaries that they had dropped. I came across one man named Homer. He was taught everything already and kept saying how awesome he was and that he already had his baptismal interview, but didnt end up getting baptized. It didnt really explain why or anything so we put his name on a list to contact. It turns out Homer lives 2 houses down from us and passed his house probably 4 times, but he was never home. One day this past week, all of our appointments fell through so we felt like it would be a good idea to pass by Homers house one more time. We said a prayer asking to find someone prepared to hear the gospel on the way to his house. We called out in front of his house and he immediately ran out and greeted us. It turns out he grew up with the Bishop and used to be really active in the church, but there was a misunderstanding with a member. He told us about the experience when he received his answer that the Church was true. What a tender mercy to have found him! We now have been visiting him regularly and its been a major blessing. 

I have a talk in Sacrament meeting Sunday and it was on Elder Zivics talk "Lets not take the wrong way" One part I really like is when he says,"It would be wonderful to have a desire deep in our hearts to keep the commandments without anyone constantly reminding us and to have a firm conviction that if we follow the right path, we will have the blessings promised in the scriptures."

This reminded me of a scripture in D&C 58: 26-29

 26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

 27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

 28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

 29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

This made me think of my attitude towards why i do the things i do. Am I obeying mission rules and commandments to the minimum? Or am I giving my whole heart, mind, strength and own free will. When we obey, we will see blessings, when we obey with exactness, we will see miracles. God has everything in the world except one thing...our will. Ive learned that life is easier when we give up our will to do the will of Heavenly Father. I am learning to put my complete trust in Him and when I do, everything seems to work out ok.

I love you all! And hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Zone Miramar

Hermana Hernandez, De Leon, Sherman and Munoz (We live next door and serve in the same ward)

It was hard having Hermana De Leon transfered, shes another one of my soul sisters

Ride back from our transfer meeting, it was a wild ride

MANGO!

Roatan!

This week was probably the craziest of my mission, but it was sooooo good!

Hermana Munoz is all better now which is a major blessing.

ROATAN!!!

We traveled to the beautiful island of Roatan this week to do exchanges with Hermanas Harrison, Morales, Baltazar, and Vasquez. We took a yacht ! This yacht was a little bit bigger than the one we took in Mexico haha. The ride from La Ceiba to Roatan is 2 hours long and it was a bumpy ride. There was a guy running around with plastic bags and napkins. Everyone was throwing up everywhere and it just reminded me of the movie the Goonies when the fat boy was telling his story about when he threw up in the movie theater then everyone started throwing up. Before you get on the boat they give you "motion sickness pills", but pretty sure theyre just sleeping pills, so I just slept the whole time haha. I met a guy with the most beautiful dreads ive ever seen. I asked him how he does them, he told me he just started twisting his hair when he was 4 years old. Almost everyone speaks English, but its funny cause they speak English with a British accent and Spanish grammar. Its all kind of mixed but i could understand for the most part. 

I cant even begin to tell you guys how beautiful it is there! Its an island with a lot of tourism cause its so beautiful. I went on exchanges with Hermana Harrison from Utah and it was a blast. Their area is all along the beach line! Such a temptation, but i didnt do anything to regret. We had a couple really good lessons and they have awesome investigators who have to travel over an hour on foot to get to the church! 

We were planning on doing exchanges with the other set of sisters the next day, but we got a phone call from the APs at 10:30pm saying we had to be in a meeting in La Ceiba the next morning at 9am... and prepare a 20minute presentation for all of the new missionaries and their trainers. Our trip was a little short, but amazing. We took off the next morning at 6am and headed back to La Ceiba where we had our meeting. 

The next day we headed out to OLANCHITO. Its a little far out but I got to do exchanges with Hermanas Ramirez and Zamora in a trio! It was such a blast! Hermana Ramirez is one of my soul sisters on my mission. She came to Honduras with me at the same time and when I was the only North American, she was the only other person who could speak English so i was attached to her hip. They are an awesome companionship and I was blessed to be able to go out with them. They work so hard and are a great example to all the other missionaries in our mission. Hermana Zamora is a convert after 3 years and is the only active member in her family. Her Mom didnt want her to serve a mission and hasnt been writing her. The sisters here are so strong and such great examples to me. 

We finally got back to our area Saturday afternoon and taught the cutest couple. We taught the Plan of Salvation and about temples. They arent married yet, but we taught that they could be married for eternity and showed them a picture of a temple, Eliana immediately said," I want that!" Oh man I love this gospel! I get to have my testimony strengthened by the faithful people here in Honduras. I know with all my heart now that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church with the whole truth. Other churches are good and have parts of the truth, but this church is the only one that has the plenitude of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have learned so much about myself during my time and what I need to do to keep my spiritual and physical tanks full. Im grateful for the order we have during the mission. Ive realized i can do so much more and have a greater capacity when theres order and when we have planned ahead.

Mosiah 4:27

27And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order ; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Roatan

 

Everyone is poor but they have their cable dishes

A man with beautiful dreads

Hermana Harrison!

A couple of sheep entered our stake center

Cant believe I completed a year last week!

Ohhhhh Hello!

 

What a week. Saturday the 21st, my companion wasn't feeling well. We went to church Sunday and after that, she went down hill. She had a fever of 103.1. She had a pretty rough week and we finally went to the hospital Friday and turns out she has dengue. Dengue is a virus you get from mosquitos and its not very pretty. I felt bad cause we did a lot of traveling in the beginning of the week and went to a multi zone conference in La Paz with Elder Ochoa! When we first got there the air conditioning wasnt working, which was kind of a distraction, it was nice and toasty. Then im sure with a lot of silent prayers from the missionaries, it started working. He taught us about Faith in a simple but powerful way. We hear and teach a lot about faith during our missions, but I still learned so many new things. He defined Faith as an action or power. When we have faith we are acting and continually nourishing it. After the multi zone conference we had another meeting with Elder Ochoa and the leaders of the mission and got to hear his advice on furthering missionary work here in Honduras. The rest of the week we took it easy so Hermana Munoz could rest.

 

Saturday, we went to a stake activity with the youth and had a Mini MTC. We went out and contacted with them for a little bit. The youth here are amazing. They are already experienced cause they love going out with the missionaries so much. It was kind of funny cause the first man we contacted he straight up shut us down and one of the girls said," Thats it, im not going on a mission." She was joking, but the next house we contacted we met a young family and they let us in. They have a newborn baby so we taught the plan of salvation with about 8 Hermanitas and filled the house. It was a special experience.

 

Cant believe I completed a year last week! Every day keeps getting faster and faster! Now i just want it to slow down. I am so grateful for being here in Honduras, being able to serve others, and learn so much from them. I know that the góspel of Jesús Christ brings hope and happiness and peace into lives.

 

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Sister conference

President & Sister Klein (Lani's mission president)

Exchanges with Hermana Alfaro in Independencia

The bus ride back to La Ceiba

 

Miracles

Ohhhh my goodness oh my goodness this week was absolutely AMAZING!!! I dont even know where to start!

Monday night we were up until 1am finishing a poster for our presentation to the Hermanas in the mission at our conference.  We made 2 cute little cartoon sister missionaries.

Tuesday we got up at 3 30 am again to catch a bus to La Paz but then realized there wasnt a bus to la paz until 6am. I think it was for a reason cause as we were waiting, i realized we forgot the USB with our power point on it. The bus was 30 minutes late and we arrived at the conference 30 minutes late. Luckily they put our presentation last so we would have a couple minutes to set up. The conference was with half of the sisters in the mission. There are 3 companionship's of Sister Training Leaders and we all prepared presentations. We talked on Modesty while the other two talked about the importance of exercising and healthy food. All in all it turned out good and we ate an amazing chicken salad. We traveled back to La Ceiba and had time to teach one lesson which we finally got to teach Julisa about the Book of Mormon and her brother was there and super interested! 

Wednesday we got up early again and this time had time before the second conference here in La Ceiba. The conference went awesome. The sisters have such strong spirits about them. Hermana Klein put the conferences together and has such a love for the sister missionaries.

After the conference we started exchanges with Independencia! I worked with Hna Alfaro. She is awesome! We arrived to Honduras at the same time. She is so easy to work with and is a great missionary and is so strong.

Now for the best part. Let me tell you about our investigator named Derian. Derian is a 17 year old muchacho. He has attended church more than 12 times and attends seminary at 5am everyday. His challenge has been accepting a baptism date. We have been working so hard with him ever since ive gotten here and hes been a little stubborn. Saturday we had a lesson with him and the other sisters De Leon and Hernandez in the room of the baptismal font in the church. 1st we couldnt open the outside gate to enter the parking lot. Then after 10 minutes we finally entered. Then we couldnt open the door to the church, after 15 minutes we got in. We planned on watching a short film with him but there wasnt power. The power turned on and then the movie didnt work and I randomly had a short film about the 10 virgins so we watched that. Finally the lesson began and we started bearing our testimonies. I dont think ive felt the spirit so strongly before in my entire mission. We asked Derian how he felt and he said nothing. We told him we knew he felt the spirit cause we all felt it. He then started to open up and describe his feelings. We then challenged him to baptism and he still wasnt sure so we all got down on our knees and he prayed to know if he should be baptized. We all waited and he said a silent prayer to himself as we were all praying for him to receive an answer. He finally opened his eyes and bent over saying, "My body is really hot". We then gave him a scripture and explained the burning in the bosom. He finally received his answer and could not deny it. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers the prayers to all of His children! I will never forget that tender mercy and miracle. 

We are now in La Paz and going to spend the night for another conference tomorrow morning. I cant even express how much i love being a missionary and being  witness to miracles everyday. I love you guys!!

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Honduras is absolutely gorgeous

Hello!

We got to travel a ton this past week! Tuesday we woke up at 3:30am to catch a bus down to La Paz where we had a leader counsel meeting with all the (ZL's) Zone Leaders, (AP's) Assistant to the President, and President Klein. I must have been really out of it cause I didnt even realize my shirt was inside out. We got back to Ceiba at 6pm and immediately went out to work. Right as we were about to enter an investigators house, the power went out so we had to immediately return home.

Wednesday, we did exchanges with El Iman and I worked with Hna Calpa in her area. Their area is right on the beach side! We visited a new investigator of theirs and she said she had prayed to know what church to join and right after she prayed, the Sisters showed up at her door. 

Thursday, we woke up at 4:30am to travel 4 hours to Trujillo. I worked with Hna Trujillo (Yes, her last name is the same as her area!) Her companion has been sick with Dengue the past 2 weeks and they havent been able to work hardly at all. I went out with Hna Trujillo as Hna Munoz stayed with Hna Vergara at the house. I fell in love with Trujillo! It is another cute city right on the beach! It has stone pavements and we taught a lesson right on the beach! We were able to find and teach 5 new investigators who were really receptive and it was a blast!

Friday, we woke up at 4:30am again and headed back to our area. I was pretty out of it was once again, I realized my shirt was inside out for the second time this past week. 

In my last area in Porvenir, there is the Juarez Family. We had some sort of idea that i would be sent here in Ceiba next, so Hermana Juarez gave me a couple references of her family who are inactive in the church. We finally found where they lived and visited the 17 year old niece. She was baptized when she was 10 and became inactive at 13. She bore her testimony to us about the church and how she knows its true. She only lives with her 19 year old brother and was just shy to show up to church by herself. She promised to go to church next week and it turns out she lives 5 houses down from us. Miracle.

I love my calling! Honduras is absolutely gorgeous and im falling more in love every day. We are planning a conference between all the Sister missionaries this week. We are going to have two different conferences so that all the sisters can attend and we get to speak at both of them. Im really excited and all the the sister missionaries here are great and I learn from them and look up to them so much!

Love,

Hermana Sherman

Above is with my friend Christopher Columbus

We taught a lesson right outside that house!

Outside the beach house

Trujillo

Hermana Trujillo

Las Colinas con Hna De Leon

 

mondongo 2

This week we went on exchanges and I worked with Hermana De Leon. She is from Guatemala and we are the same person. It was a blast! Their area is on top of a mountain, but absolutely gorgeous! The view was amazing and you could see the beach which is about 5 minutes away. Hermana De Leon said they just need to find new investigators so we did a lot of contacting. We found two families! One family of 8 and were really receptive! Hermana De Leon is an awesome missionary and I felt like I was learning more from her than she was from me! Im so excited for all the exchanges this transfer! 

We went over to eat at a members house who lives right on the beach and has the biggest mango tree ever! We ate lunch with 4 other missionaries and it was sopa de mondongo.... The cow intestine soup again. This time i couldnt get half of it down and had to switch bowls with Hermana Calpa who I was sitting next to me. She saved my life and finished it for me. Im praying that was the last time i have to eat cow intestines for the rest of my life. I tried being positive about it, but obviously need to work on that. 

We found two old men who speak English, they are hilarious. As we were teaching one of them whose name is Ulum, a teenager passed by and was staring at us. He passed by again and asked if we were Elders and teach about Joseph Smith. His name is Danny and he is a 14 year old who attended church in another ward for 2 years, but never got baptized because he moved here. It was a miracle we found him!

 We have a lot of investigators that are progressing and are awesome! Im learning so much and am grateful for being able to work in this area with such strong members. In my other areas it was so hard getting one investigator to accompany us with just one lesson per day and here we sometimes have 3 members in the same lesson. It makes the world of a difference to have supportive members in the ward. I also noticed here in honduras the youth go out with the missionaries a ton. I never even thought about leaving with the missionaries when I was a youth, but it is a great way to prepare for a mission.

Im starting to wish time would slow down now cause every week goes by so fast and its such a blur! I love being a missionary and love seeing the change the gospel can bring in the lives of Heavenly Fathers children. I love you all and pray for you!

Love,

Hermana Sherman

View from our apartment window

Eating mangos with the sisters in El Iman

Doing an exercise video bright and early

Visit with Hermana Morlasco. She is blind and takes care of her 4 year old grandson all by herself

Preparing for my last English class in Porvenir

Family of Eblin Lobo in Porvenir, they gave me a farewell party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last picture with Zona Pineda!!

Hermana Rosa Rodriguez whom I love dearly

I'm so happy and will be eternally grateful for my mission.

What a week! I have so many stories to tell you guys, but am going to save them for when I get home haha. Im starting to meet all of our investigators and all of the members in this ward and they are so awesome! Wow this ward is so strong and makes missionary work so much easier with the help of the ward members. We have an awesome ward missionary leader who works so hard with us. 

We were visiting a family who are members and met an uncle there. He had been inactive for 20 years. We pretty much forced him to listen to us, but we felt prompted that we needed to teach him. As we began to get to know him, 3 little kids started running around screaming and playing and the family was all over the place too. We barely could hear each other. We asked him why he left the church and as soon as he paused to answer, the power went out. He told us he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it once, but didnt receive an answer so left the church. We told him the importance of praying every time after he read to know if it was true.  We promised him an answer if he read and prayed with faith and a true intent. We finished the lesson in the dark, pretty much yelling so he could hear us. He started to open up to us and committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I know the Lord had put him in our path and that the Lord is aware of him.

Theres a sister that was serving in another zone as I was and she was telling me that they were teaching a man who doesnt have any legs and that he wouldnt accept a baptimal commitment because he was scared to be baptized. She said that they had family home evening with President Klein and he asked him if he recently got baptized, confusing him with our old investigator Cristobal. President Klein told him that there was another investigator like him without any legs who was just recently baptized. This  gave him confidence and he recently accepted to be baptized with a specific date! Cristobal was an example to someone who he doesnt even know! 

Weve seen a lot of miracles this week. I now know how protected missionaries are and how crucial it is to follow the Holy Ghost. I am grateful for this time to learn how to recognize the promptings of the spirit and how to always act right away. 

We were able to do a lot of contacting last week and have a lot of service opportunities. This week we start exchanges. We get to travel all over the mission and learn from other sister missionaries. Im so excited!  Here we go!  I LOVE THIS WORK! Im so happy and will be eternally grateful for my mission. Everything has become so black and white now and hope I never go back to the grey area. I know with my whole heart that what Im teaching is true, it wouldnt be worth eating cow intestines if it wasnt.

Love,

Hermana Sherman