Serving with Honor

May 3, 2011 - Been REAL busy this week

2011-05-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

Its been a pretty good week. we had sharries baptism on saturday. it went really well. something funny that happened is after Elder Pickett baptized her she came out of the water and looked at him and said "what no kiss?" bishop harris and I started laughing our heads off. on sunday when we had her confirmation our Ward mission leader confirmed her afterwards i leaned over towards bishop who was in the circle behinde me "pucker up Elder Pickett." Bishop and I started to laugh a little bit. i really like bishop harris, he's the guy we work for on his cattle ranch alot. i know i promised billions of pictures of my companion and I branding but we got there about 6:30 in the morning and Bro Wright (Gil) said well elders we got about 80 babies to brand, castrate, and vacinate, and i think were going to rebrand, tag, and vacinate all the mama's. he then asked when do you boy's need to leave i told him that we have a baptism at 2 o'clock. he said well we better get started then so Gil and his son jake jumped on the japanese horses (4 wheelers) and went and pushed them all into the corral. then came the hard part seperating mama's from babies...... Gil handed a thick stick painted bright orange and said "didn't you grow up with cows?" i said my grandpa had some but ive never really "worked with them." he looked at me and with a smile said well you gotta put on your big boy pants sometimes. so we started seprating we pushed everything into a big pen and Gil said to push them to the gate while he had the hard job of letting mamas out and keeping babies in. but we got it done and then his son in-law backed up the trailor and we "gentlely" pursuaded them to get in. and then he pulled it around into the barn and he handed me a laso and asked do you know how to rope? i said nope he looked at me and laughed and said boy what are you good for? i grabbed the rope from him and said show me and ill teach myself. he said i have $20 in my pocket that says that my daughter jaenae can rope better than you. i looked and said so all i have to do is get the rope around there neck and pull them out right? he said yep thats it he said nothing about me actually roping them. so i ran in the trailor and just put it around there neck and pulled them out and then gil showed me how to throw them on the ground by myslef you take the slack of the rope thats around there neck and wrap it around there rear hooves and pull. then Elder Pickett got to hold them down while they got branded. it was alot of fun but we had no time to take pictures. after the calves were done we had to do the mama's so jake and I pushed them into a shoot and i had a tazer thing i got to shock them in the butt. and then this shoot would squeeze there head and sides so that they couldnt move. it was kinda cool. but missionary work is starting to pick up. alot of people are starting to invite there friends to meet with us. Elder Pickett and I submitted an article to the paper about us and they printed it. it was sweet ill have to find the article. i had a member send it to you mom. but i love you guys
-- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

April 26 - Counting my Blessings

2011-05-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

pretty good weeks this week, were still waiting on a letter from the first presidency that K-lou can be baptized should be here sometime this week. one investigator were teaching Alex has to get all of his community service in before he can be baptized to bishop harris's on Saturday and him and elder Pickett pitched off hay while bishop, mark (bishops brother) and I were separating cows that had had babies and ones that hadn't. not to terribly hard except for when a couple of them want to get out and Im standing in between them and freedom, bishop had given me this cattle broad that had a plastic flag on the end of it and told me if they get to close to snap it. hahahah i think it scared me more than it scared them, it made an awful cracking noise that made my ears ring for awhile. but it took us about two hours to separate all 900 of them. yesterday we were working for this less-active guy in Thatcher taking a bunch of metal to the scrap yard to get money for it. it was really fun, we got to knock a wall out of his "barn" to get this giant milk cooler out. but we had a chain hooked to the bottom of it on the legs and he was pulling in out with his tractor, i was behind it telling him which way to pull and it got hung up on a chain that was dangling from the ceiling. by the time i noticed and was about to turn and run away it snapped and smacked me across the face right under my eyes. IM OK!!!!!! but i have theses things that look like blood blisters under my eyes and across my nose and my face kinda still hurts. i don't know how it didn't kill me..... each link was about and inch long. but afterwards i was like
"holy crap...... that hurt..... am i bleeding? no...... is my face broke..... feels like it wants to be but i think im ok." so i went inside washed my face and the less-active guy asked what happened i said that chain on the ceiling snapped and smacked me across the face. on the ride home i was reflecting what happened and how the lord had protected me. im grateful that he is mindful of all us, expecially his missionaries. but i dont know if i said this in the last letter but i started reading the book of mormon in chronological order and i got through ether and read about if the people that posses this land dont serve heavenly father they will be swept off the face of it. this past week i got through the introduction and the book of Mormon institute manual that puts what Im reading in plane English, so i take a long time for me to get through some of the chapters because one chapter usually has 3-4 pages of other reading in the institute manual. put in the introduction of the book of Mormon the prophet Joseph Smith said theses words that i love it because it's so bold:
“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
but this week we have two branding jobs one friday and the other saturday. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures, thanks love you all

pictures1:burning hot lava in town

2:geyser in the middle of town

3: funny sign i took a picture with

- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

April 19, 2011 - Time to Brand

2011-05-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

today our district decided to go hiking, we went into "the niter ice cave." we started about 12 and finshed about 2. it was really cool, there was ice everywhere..... i felt like i was in a winter wonderland. we attempted to start a fire, but there wasnt enough dry wood in there to get one started. yesterday it snowed..... again..... one funny thing happed though while we were pitching out hay elder pickett fell off the trailer and slid down this hill side about 12ft. when he made it back up the hill, i laughed at him and called him slip n' slide the rest of the day. one of thoses calfs died earlier this week that we found last monday. we had to herd all theses cows to a different field and instead of using calm and sense and walk across a bridge they decided to go through a river. bishop had to rope a calf and pull it back over before it drowned and we had to take him back and put him the "hot box" to warm him back up. he should be ok. on sunday our mission president came to the soda springs stake conference and was one of the main speakers. him and his wife both gave really really good talks. afterwards we were invited to have lunch with the stake president, president olson, and sister olson. it was really nice to have some one on one time with president where i could ask him some questions and pick his brain. before that he had to interview two of our investigators, k-lou and alex, they both passed. alex will be getting baptised on the 23rd and k-lou has to wait for first presidency approval..... she's on parole and her husband is in jail and awaiting trial for drug trafficing. but he still wants to be baptized!!!!! president olson just wants to see atleast a month of going to church and taking the missionary lessons before he comes up and interviews him. so hopefully everything will work out. wednesday we taught the soda springs high school seminary classes from 9am-4pm for bishop hegeman. we taught d+c 113-119 and then asked the kids who they could invite to meet with the missionaries. tomorrow we have to follow-up on all thoses invites alot of them sounded really really promising. this morning elder pickett and I went to the "hooper springs" which in naturally carbonated water!!!! it tasted like crap but i did bring some drink mix and put in with it and had carbonated lemonade. it wasn't half bad. i actually enjoyed it. but everything is going good i really like it up here. we got to go branding this last week for this less-active guy in thatcher. he said right when we got there just cause your helping me out doesnt mean that im going to come back to church, we kinda just shrugged it off and went to work. his wife pulled us aside and thanked us for coming and he invited us over this week for dinner :) so we'll see how it goes. our high councilmen over missionary work wants us to come out and help brand all his cattle this friday..... all 400 of them......... ive come to the conlusion that we do alot of service up here cause everyone is a farmer. hahaha i love it though ill be sure to take pictures this timelove,
-- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

April 12 - Two More Half Dead

2011-04-14T13:09:00.001-07:00

yesterday while we were pitching hay to some cows Bishop Harris's dad, Mcgee, motioned for me to come to the front of the tractor. He pointed down to a calf that wasn't moving. i went over to the little guy and picked his head up. I yelled he's still alive but barely. He had me put him on the the trailer. Five minutes later same thing different calf, not as bad though, he was able to hold his head up. So we took them back to the barn and Bishop asked whats wrong with them. Mcgee said "scours" which i guess is th equivilant of diarrhea. so i got to say with bishop the rest of the day while pickett kept pitching hay with mcgee. i got to play nurse while bishop was trying to put an I.v in there jugular, i think they'll be ok now that why have fluids in them and a quart of milk replacement in them. after we finished with those two there was a mother that was getting ready to calf so we had to put her in the barn in one of the stalls. it took bishop, his brother mark, and I 15min to move her from the corral to the barn which is only 20ft away. she wasn't having it. after we got her in a stall we had to figure a way to get her head in the shoot. man was she mad she kept hitting the door to the stall and butting the side of it. Mark took a rope and put it around her neck and through it to me and i threaded it through the shoot and then all three of us pulled trying to get her head through. Mcgee came in and walked by the shoot and she ran at him and got her head stuck in the shoot. he made it look easy, or the cow just really hates him. after that mark went in to do the dirty work, unfortunately the calf's leg was turned the wrong way and wasn't going to come out. called the vet he came over and gave the mom a shot to relax her then they got this contraption called a "puller" and wrapped a chain around the calf's legs and started pulling him out. he ended up being still born. Mark said from all the stress the calf drowned in the birthing fluid. but we did find out that the vet was catholic so we have to figure out a way to get him back out there so we can talk to him. but i did start the book of Mormon over again. this time i decided that I'd read in chronological order so im in ether. in ether 2: 23 i really like what the lord said to the brother of jared: "And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?"the brother of jared was asking the lord what he should do and the lord pretty much said i gave you a brain you figure it out. i put beside that D+c 9:7-8: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must astudy it out in your bmind; then you must cask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your dbosom shall eburn within you; therefore, you shall ffeel that it is right." sometimes the lord makes us "study it out" and then ask him. when investigators say i haven't gotten my answer whats wrong, i read that scripture in doctrine and covenants. our baptism this week went flawless. Ashley had alot of people there for her. we had our first new member discussion with her sunday and asked her how the holy ghost has helped her since she received it. she said that it had kept her from saying or doing something she wasn't supposed to. she said like when she wants to yell at her brother she thinks about it and feels like she shouldn't. her brother and her best friend megan aren't members either she's supposed to be inviting them to her lesson next Sunday. thanks love you all-- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

April 5, 2011 - First Week in Soda Springs

2011-04-14T13:01:00.002-07:00

i love serving here in soda springs, ID. the first day i was here we went to visit a bishop outside of town. after driving on a dirt road for 20min we came to his house (ranch). it was really muddy that day and bishop Harris looked at me and said "elder don't come back unless you got boots and a work coat, your going to get sh*t all over your church clothes." that night i went to a local farming store and bought some boots and a car-hart coat. since then we've gotten to work on bishops ranch twice. i guess the missionaries work for him twice a week in the mornings. it was a lot of fun though. he had us throwing 1ton hay bales with a pitch fork to his 400 head of cattle. definitely not the easiest thing Ive done. its one bale for every 100. this week he's supposed to be bringing back 1600 more from malta, id. i love it out there. next month he's invite the whole zone out with the local football team to help him brand all the baby calves. yesterday morning we were helping find any calves that the mothers had hid in bushes and sage brush. we found one little guy half frozen to death in the pictures that's who im holding. his whole body was covered in snow and frost and couldn't even stand up so we had to carry him back. he was a heavy little guy. the other picture is from the top of bishop harris's ranch looking over our area. a frozen tundra right? its not to bad if you have a thick coat in. in the picture with the calf it was 18 degrees but with the wind chill bishop said it was hovering around the single digits. my cheeks were pretty cold. but i did get to go to all of saturday conference. we sat four rows from the front on the right hand side. it was the closest ive even been to Thomas S. Monson. i really enjoyed Elder Oaks talk on desire. ill link the video: http://lds.org/general-conference/watch/2011/04?lang=eng&vid=880291640001&cid=11 i really enjoyed what he said at the beginning of his talk. "he said desires dictate our priorities. priorities shape our choices and choices determine our actions." when he said that i thought what do i really desire, i said to myself serving the lord..... then the holy ghost whispered to me go deeper. and a scripture in alma 29: 1-8 popped into my mind: 1. O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the atrump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! 2. Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and acome unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. 3. But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me. 4. I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their adesire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their bwills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction. 5. Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is ablameless; but he that bknoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of cconscience. 6. Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to aperform the work to which I have been called? 7. Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth? 8. For behold, the Lord doth agrant unto ball nations, of their own nation and ctongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he dseeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.theses scriptures go really well with elder oaks talk. like my desires are good..... but i should desire to declare repentance to the ends of the earth. that translated and humbled me that i should be running from home to home declaring unto everyone of the restoration. thats something we should all be doing or at least having a missionary mindset all the time. but im doing good i really like my new companion Elder Pickett. we actually have a baptism today at 6:30pm ill be sure to take pictures for you guyslove, -- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

March 29, 2011 - Going to Soda Springs

2011-04-14T13:01:00.001-07:00

hey whatsup family and friends, so we had transfer calls this morning and my dreams and prayers came true im going to Soda Springs Idaho. I'll be serving with Elder Pickett up there with a car. my current companion just came from that area and i asked him what he did to earn member trust and to have work up there and he said that he would work alot with the farmers around there mmoving ad working there cattle all day twice a week. Elder Whitby said that id probably be branding, banding, and giving shots so im really excited cause ive really never done any of that. ill be sure to take alot of pictures. this week was really cool one of my zone leaders elder weiland is going home soon... like 3 days and his parents drove here and got here early so he asked president if he could go to dinner with them. so elder weiland and i got to go to dinner with them to Costa viida. they picked us up at our Passion Pit (house) and his mother hugged and kissed his boy for a good 5minutes.... apparently his mother missed him alot. :) sorry for the short letter this week though..... i have alot of laundrey and packing to do. love you all ill be sure to write a really long letter next week im sure ill have tons to tell you all -- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

March 22, 2011

2011-04-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

last Tuesday i tried running........ it went great not up to bar for playing any sports yet, probably wont be able to play sports till i get home :( ankles are bruised cause i havent ran in a long time but everything is starting to heal up. my companions back held up for about three days before he messed it up again we were playing a 3pt shooting game as a zone. so we went to the chiropractor on monday and got him all straightened out. on friday i was on exchanges with one of zoneleaders elder bevans to morgan, ut. morgan is the coolest little town ive been to. its this little tiny town surrounded by a farm community (reminded me alot of gordonsville!) they have theses two restaurants we always eat at stephs and debs. there sooooo good, diet goes out the window everytime we go to morgan. we'll probably have zone breakfast there when transfers happen on the 30th. im really hoping that ill be able to go to idaho this next transfer, were thinking that the assistants will take over our area because they need to be closer to the new mission office. so we'll see what the next couple of weeks will bring. hopefully ill be able to go and stay up there the rest of my mission :). not to much to report areas doing really good nothing to complain. were still looking for a place to live. our apartment flooded to many times so we opt'd to move out and live with our zoneleaders. but were hoping that the stakes we are serving in will be able to find us another place to live. yesterday i was on an excahnge with the other district leaders companion and i guess the day before they wee teaching this young lady and she asked them why and how do you kno there was an apostasy so elder conover and i studied that together for personal and companionship study and i flipped open my preach my gospel and turned to the restoration lesson to the great apostasy and found a scripture in amos that prophesied a great apostasy. in amos 8:11-12: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a afamine of bread, nor a bthirst for water, but of hearing the cwords of the Lord.... And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall arun to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."amos had prophesied a long time before christ had sat up and restored the church in Jerusalem. and if you look in chapter 40 of jesus the christ the catholic church sent out a decree to the world that the "known" world was in an apostasy..... meaning there was no priesthood on the earth.....did the catholic church just prove that they had no authority from god? read in the chapter notes in chapter 40 in jesus the christ number three and see what you think. by the way the mission address has changed so if you would like to send me any mail please read my signature at the bottom. love you -- Elder Tyler Herring4380 So. Orchard AveSouth Ogden, UT 84403

March 15, 2011

2011-04-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

not to much to report this week my companion elde whitby has been out w/ a back injury, so not to much missionary work. today were going to a chiropractor at 4 to get him fixed, he hasn't been able to walk at all or get out of bed. so ive had alot of time to study this week. ive been reading in mosiah this week and in chapter 4 or 5 it talked about a change of heart. i was wondering why the scriptures always talked about a change of heart so i pulled out my institute manual and turned in it where i was reading. it said in the scriptures that it refers to the heart a lot because its the center of everything. emotional, personality, and your spirit. so when it says a change of heart it means all of you changes.... everything especially your outlook on life. king benjimen goes on to say that his people didn't want to do anything evil anymore but wanted to do good continually. it was really cool when i read that and made that connection. but pray for elder whitby and his back and that he will be able to get better soon -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

March 8, 2011

2011-04-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

this week was pretty chill, my companion elder whitby has been having some back problems so we haven't been able to go out during the day to much this week but last night we did commit two people for baptism for the 26th. it was awsome the less active mother bore her testimony to her kids on faith and how the holy ghost has helped her through out her life. it was the bomb. so thats a total of six w/ a baptismal date. last night tho i was pretty mad at this fellowship.... we've been teaching this girl named paula who in her past over dosed on drugs and "cooked" her brain so she sorta aggrees to everything you say. but after paula had left and the lesson was over they were both like "paula said that she wants to be baptized this weekend, but we think she needs more time to learn at her own pace" elder bevans whipped out a scripture and it basically said if they have a desire to be baptized they can be baptized. lol straight out of joseph smiths mouth from the d&c. so we settled w/ we'll see how mext lesson will go, i hate stupid fellowships. but other than that things are going good. we had interviews this week and president said he mite send me to idaho!!! im so down w/ that never been up there before. im hoping for malad or soda springs. if i get sent up there next transfer ill be sure to take lots of pictures. this week ive been reading in alma 47 and the very last verse of that chapter. it says they were more hardened and wicked. when i read that i thought of some of the anti people that we run into day to day that were members of the church at one time but now have turned completely against that light and truth because they had gotten there testimony shakened. i really hope that some day they'll be able to come back into the fold of god and partake of all that he has. Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

March 1, 2011 - Surprise

2011-04-14T12:56:00.001-07:00

i have a surprise for you..... guess who shaved his head :P I'll attach a picture for ya to cry over. but this week has been really fun. elder whitby and I have a goal of twelve baptisms this month and this week we found enough investigators that are progressing that it looks like we are going to accomplish our goal. we went back to our apartment to grab some stuff and were pleasently surprised, our landlord laid down all new carpet and cleaned the majority of our apartment. he really wants us to move back in but it still smells kinda funny in there. we also went out and blitzed the sisters area in morgan, funny story. elder weiland and i were looking for this address and it was up this really steep snow covered dirt road, we got about half way up and we couldnt go any further (stupid front wheel drive malibu's) so i tried backing up and gunning it up the hill...... no go. so we decided to back down the hill slowly. i slid into a snow bank and my back wheels got stuck...... elder weiland had the bright idea of putting the car in reverse and turning the wheels to the left and gunning the engine to swing the front end around. the hard part is we were on the side of a cliff and elder weiland was on the side of the cliff.... i guess to stop me from falling off.... idk how he was going to stop 2k pounds tho. but we made it safe and sound. something spiritual i learned this week was the importance of prayer. elder whitby and i were going to go teach this 16yr old girl for the first time and when we got there i felt like we needed to prayer before we went into the lesson. she excepted a date to be baptized on march 19th. afterwards in a different lesson i thought about what were supposed to pray about.... and i found in what we left our investigator paula to read in alma 34:17-27. it says that we have to pray over all we have and when we cant pray we should have a prayer in our hearts. love ya -ty herring picture:from left to rightweiland, me, bevans, and whitby -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

February 15, 2011 - Staying in South Ogden

2011-04-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

so this morning we found out what was going on with transfers. Im going to be "white washing" the area that im currently in with elder witby. unfortunately elder smith got called else where to serve in layton. even though ive been in the area for a little over a week i still haven't met all of our investigators or met any of our ward mission leaders. elder witby and i have our hands full this week, it'll be a little easier because he's required to have a car for his back i think. so we do have the opportunity to make it to the gym every morning. pretty overwhelming task we have. after thinking about it for a little bit a scripture came to mind that sorta gave me encouragement. its in D&C 112:10: "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers." even though it seems like a really big task it's accomplish able. after talking to my zL he said "two men can do anything as long as one of them is god. be unified with your new companion and the lord and everything will work out" i get to meet elder Witby at the Ogden Tabernacle tomorrow at lunch time, so the majority of today is going to be sitting around letting the other two pack. but i did have a pretty nice birthday, even though they kinda suck on ur mission because you dont get to spend them with the ones you love. but we had breakfast over at the Shaws, played some games there and then everyone decided to go to the nickelcade to have some fun. one way super addicting game we played over at the Shaws was a dice game where if you roll double you get a pen and as fast as you can you start writing from one to one hundred meanwhile while your trying to do that others are passing and rolling the dice until someone gets doubles and then they steal the pen away from you and start writing down one to one hundred. its a ton of fun with a lot of people around a table. a bunch of way funny stuff happened this weekend though. first not so funny elder leon wasn't keeping up with elder smith and I and didnt make the light and almost got ran over by a dodge diesel truck. the other thing funny that happened is elder smith and I stayed up till one talking in the living room and when we started heading in the room to go to bed elder leon was making alot of crazy noises sorta like he was mumbling and I asked him if he was ok, and at the top of his lungs he yelled maaaeeehhhhh!!!!! it was pretty stinking funny and through the night he was sleep walking and "sleep eating" cause he doesnt know how he made it in the living room or where the pan of now empty brownies went sitting beside him. im gonna miss Elder Smith & Leon but im sure Elder Witby and I will have fun and work hard and be able to teach a lot of people. Actually this weekend we have two separate baptisms this weekend, ill send those pictures home next weekend -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

February 8, 2011 - Finally Back

2011-04-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

so yesterday i reported back to being a real missionary. im serving in south ogden with elder smith and elder leon. its been really fun being able to come back and start serving again. last night we had a lesson with one of our investigators lindsey it was really cool she asked us "what do we need to do to be baptized and what do we need to do after were baptized. elder smith read her a little section out of mosiah 18, it says: "And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are adesirous to come into the bfold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be lightYea, and are awilling to mourn with those that bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal lifeNow I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being abaptized in the bname of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a ccovenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts."that something that i like to call the baptismal promise. if you comfort people, be a witness of god, and help others out you will be able to have the spirit with you more and be able listen to his promptings. but later that a couple of the elders in the zone came by to see how i was doing and asked how my knee was. i explained them how the doctor did the surgery. they took a cheese grader looking thing and took part of my hamstring out and folded it and twisted and threaded from the bottom of my knee to almost the bottom of my hip and bolted it into place. its pretty sweet how they did it. but im loving being back hopefully i can stay here with elder smith till he leaves later in march. but while i was recovering in draper with my uncle in draper i did get the opportunity to go down to st. george. it was alot of fun and nice and warm to be down there and to see how beautiful it it down there. but next week i promise it will be more interesting since ill have a whole week to write about and not one of two days. oh yea today we did get to go to the nickel arcade as a zone and play some old skewl games like pac man and mario brothers. whats really nice is everything there is a nickel or two to play so for like a dollar you can have a ton of fun. -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

Recovery Pictures

2011-04-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

Elder Herring recovered at Uncle Lewis' house. He got to play with baby Carsyn while he was there.

December 21, 2010 - Update: Elder Tyler Herring

2011-04-14T12:45:00.002-07:00

so pretty eventful week. went back to the doctors for a post operitive appointment and we took my little cousin chase with us. while waiting for the doctor chase and i were cutting up, so i decided that i would play doctor with him. i said doctor chase my shoulder hurts can you fix it? he wheeled over the doctors chair and jumped on it and started to mess with my shoulder. he then decided to start punching it, i said doctor i dont think thats going to fix it he said yes your right please make another appt with my assistant on the way out!!!! :) that kid is so funny. so far im not using my crutches anymore, and yesterday graduated to riding a bike at the rehab place. so its going pretty good stopped taking my pain medication on the fourth day!!!!! but it was way cool how they did the surgery. they took this cheese grader thing and took part of my hamstring and folded and twisted it and then fed it through the bottom of my knee all the way up to below my hip. you can see what my knee was like before with the pictures that are attached. right now were just working on getting the swelling down and hopefully getting the bruising gone. -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

December 7, 2010 - Last couple days in the mish

2011-04-14T12:45:00.001-07:00

so basically everything is set for my surgery im just waiting to hear back from the hospital to see what time im coming in to have it. they will be reconstructing my ACL and removing some bone off of my knee. yesterday i went to doctor sorensens office and we went over whats going to happen and he gave me a bunch of papers to fill out and a kewl "high-tech" knee brace that im suppose to wear while im recovering and walking around. im projected to be back in the mission in six weeks, so that'll put me coming back in the middle of January. but this week our area is finally starting to pick up!!!! now that im leaving :( ohwell thats good for elder mccolm and johnson. were finally teaching on average four lessons a day. so thats about 28 lessons a week. the majority of those are non-members!!!! i really hope that ill be able to come back to this area after im done recovering. it would be sweet. swani someone that elder johnson and i started teaching finally said that nothing is going to stand in his way of being baptized. before he was worried about his family especially his parents. which is really good for him, he's really confident that his family will come around and become members as well. we also had a bomb lesson with chris, he has been taught for about six weeks and has really turned his life around, a complete 180. the lesson before this one we exteneded a baptizmal date and he was way against it. but we found alot of stories that relate to him like the sons of mosiah and alma the younger. now chris is starting to loosen up. im really sad to leave the area but im excited that now its starting to pick up and people are calling us with friends they want us to teach -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

November 30, 2010 - Thanksgiving Weekend was Sweet

2011-04-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

this week was thanksgiving. it was sweet we got taken care of so much. at 12 we went to Boondocks with some of our investigators (Dude and Niya) and went bowling and played lazer tag. afterwards we went to eat a late lunch over at the Houston home, a less active family that wanted to have us over to eat. after eating we played championship fuse ball. i got beat twice :( at three we had another dinner over at the young home. they made probably the best thanksgiving ive ever had.... sorry mom and grandma. except there pumpkin pie wasn't up to par. the youngs invited us to stay for the rest of the evening as we played games and helped them plan for there black Friday attack. it was a way sweet thanksgiving. since we were rushed at the houstons because we got there late and had to leave we promised we would make it up to them. on saturday we went and painted there whole basement :). it was alot of fun. elder mccolm knocked over a whole bucket of paint on the carpet :) hahaha fourtunatly we got it up. after we finished putting on two coats of paint sister houston asked if we could hook up her surround sound system for here big screen tv. it ended up being really really hard but between me and elder johnson we figured it out. one inappropriate but funny thing that happened yesterday (remember im a guy) is we went over to a relief society presidents house to talk to her and while we were leaving we decided to play with her bulldogs. one of them really liked elder mccolms leg :) ill just leave it at that... hahaha it was freaking hilairious it was chasing him around the yard. 1:the young family2: me getting owned at foze ball -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

November 22, 2010 - Broke Some Lights

2011-04-14T12:33:00.002-07:00

this was a really good week. Emily someone that has been taught by the missionaries for five years finally excpted a baptismal date for dec 9th, the day that i leave to have surgery so ill get to see her baptized. it was a pretty crazy lesson. we taught the plan of salvation and afterwards we explained the paradisaical glory of th earth. i thought great now were going to go off on a deep docterine tangent and shes going to start asking a ton of deep questions. but she didnt she said "oh my gosh it makes perfect sense!" then she said "ok ill do it" i was like do what? be baptized? she said yep ill do it. apparently i missed cause i said what? oh man thats sweet. after i collected myself i asked her if she would follow the example of jesus christ by being baptizd on dec 9th. coincidentally its on her birthday so shes excited that shes going to be "reborn" or baptized on her birthday. it finally snowd here..... its flipping cold now. but all is good here this week we helped all of our investigators put up there christamas stuff. icicle lights, trees, etc. it was alot of fun to see what different people do for christmas. one funny thing that happened our investigators mom said she didnt like the lights like that so we took them down but instead of going up the lader again i just yanked them off and broke a ton of them :(. she was pretty pissed but i apoligiezed. she said screw christmas then i went and bought her some really nice lights and made her happy. -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

November 16, 2010 - Not My Meniscus

2011-04-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

not to much to report this week. my acL is torn not my meniscus. so double the healing time. im still going to be in draper, UT to recover for six weeks. the goal is to be back in the mission by February. nothing really new has been going on in our area. two of our investigators lost there dates because there dad said that he'll never let them get baptized. we'll pick up one new investigator this week and Swani is getting baptized. so theres some positive notes. one funny thing happened tho. swani's wife was complaining to her grandma about us asking her to give up smoking. her grandmother (active member) flipped out at her and said "oh my hell, what is your problem" hahahaha swani was telling us the story, it was so funny. but today is a busy day were getting someone in a 4wD to take us up to the top of Farmington canyon up to the radio towers. love you all -- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

November 9, 2010

2010-11-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

pretty good week. found out that i have surgery on dec 9th should only be out for 2-3 weeks out. and i have an Mri tomorrow morning. hmmm lets see what happened this week ill start from last night and work my way back. last night we were teaching two new investigators Brennon and Emma, they committed to baptism for the Dec 4th, the only thing standing in there way is there less active father. after the lesson they asked if they could let in there two pit bulls. they did and they were both really nice one male red nose the other a female blue nose. everything was fine we were playing tug of war and they both SNAPPED!!!!!! both the dogs got into like a knock down drag out with each other it was like watching illegal dog fighting. it lasted for about 6 seconds till the mom and the daughter could pull them apart. i just jumped behind the couch and watched :). it was pretty intense. on Sunday elder Johnson and I decided that we would go to singles ward for fast Sunday. after sacrament meeting a young lady came up to us and asked us what she needed to do to be baptized....! i was dumb founded for a sec and then after i got myself together told her that there were lessons that we teach for baptism and that she needed to go to church for three weeks. were actually going to teach her at her boyfriends home and shes making us salmon and salad!!! im excited. we were also invited to a specialty training this week. there was about 20 other missionaries. they did about five trainings and then asked us if we thought that those trainings would be beneficial to the mission. i really liked all of them. one of them had to do with a scripture in 3nephi 5:13 they emphasized the I AM, I WILL and THEY MIGHT. very spiritual training from the assistant and president Olson. this weekend one of our investigators is getting baptized, Swani, hes so excited all he needs is to be interviewed and he's good to go.
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

Bad News - November 2, 2010

2010-11-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

so i have to have surgery on my knee. yesterday the mission doctor set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to see what was going on (second surgeon I've seen). they took an x Ray and found something i thought was really cool i have a benign tumor on my knee. the doctor told me that its probably not cancerous but that i should have an MRI just to be sure. he also said that judging by the pain that I'm having and the symptoms that theres a lateral tear on my meniscus. so the Church Board over Missionary work said that i have to have surgery. its still up in the air whether I'm going to be coming home to Virginia or if I'm going to stay with my uncle in Draper, UT. Doctor Sorensen said that after the surgery it would be a 2-3 week healing process. so its not like I'm going to be gone from my mission for very long only half a transfer. I'm not to happy but theres nothing i can really do about it. God and I had a little heart to heart last night though. For about 30min we just had a conversation on whats going to happen and why this is happening to me and stuff like that. The answer he gave me was a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 123. the last part of verse 7 and verses 8-9:
"....know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever."
so every things going to be ok not to worried about anything. just have to roll with the punches. but this week was a really good week, Elder Johnson and I finally were able to find and set up lessons with some of our sweet potentials. got a $180 speeding ticket :). last night we decided that we needed to have fun on our one of our last day together. I video taped him trying to jump on a childs bogo stick it was so funny. one other funny thing we did is chewed dry ice. not a huge chunk but a little piece just enough so it would make it where we would blow smoke, we did it with some of the youth it was so funny to watch them freak out, it was good and no one got hurt.
Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

October 26, 2010 - it's cold and snowing

2010-10-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

it was a really good week this week. we had two baptisms. both of them had been prieviously taught and interviewed by the other missionaries that were in this area. we kinda just showed up too the baptism. but they were both good. one of them was the sweetest 12yr old girl Kadence. there was a GIANT turn out of people there. the most of the primary and her family. the other kid that was baptized was Matt. it was rough baptism, alot of tows had to be stepped on. first we showed up late, then the person that was going to baptize and confirm matt wasn't worthy to confirm him because he didn't pay his tithing and didn't hold a current temple recommend. so he was able to baptize him but Prez Ellis the branch president did the confirmation. after all that was solved the baptism was great, a little stressful but great. To find in our area we have been running through the unbaptized list for the three stake that we cover. we've seen alot of success from that we've talked to and set-up three lessons with new investigators for this coming week. Elder Johnson and I are getting along really well, after we had a little heart to heart he understands where im coming from and why one of the most important skills a missionary can learn is to listen rather than talk. so its snowing here, not to excited about that. im not a big fan of the cold weather. when i woke up this morning it was hailing dime size hail and its been snowing off and on all day. going to go to D.I and buy a sweater to wear under my suit. the D.I is a god send to missionaries, i got a really nice gray suit that all it needed was the pockets sown back in for $10. i love it
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401
Photobucket:http://s760.photobucket.com/home/tyherring/index

October 19th - Fruit heights UT is sweet!

2010-10-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

so first full week with my companion he's way sweet. we figured out why we got white washed into this area, the elders before us didn't do anything. the second day we were here we had a new investigator lesson with this Swani. hes way cool he's about 25 and were teaching him and his wife (less-active member). on the first lesson he commited to a baptismal date for the 13th of november. i love having things that strengthen my testimony in the holy ghost and his converting power. my companion and I elder johnson this week are trying to rebuild this area. the past week and the up coming weeks we will be visting auxilieries, stk prez's, and bishops. trying to find and get refferals for us. last night we taught a YSA family home evening. we taught about keeping the commandments and what blessings we will get it from it. we made a "bomb" to explain that we wont be able to recieve them. it was cool we made that bomb using toilet bowl cleaner and tin foil. it makes a chemical reaction in the water bottle and explodes. it was way sweet the singles ward loved it. the pictures i attached
1: the Olsons a family we were teaching in brigham2: the poors sweet family in brigham3: the curtis's funny picture4: the curtis's another sweet family in brigham
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

October 12

2010-10-25T20:29:00.002-07:00

last night elder blankenship got a call last night saying that he was getting transfered to be the AP's companion in the Jefferson 1st ward, the most ghetto part of ogden. so i figured that i wasn't going to be transfered but i was wrong. this morning i found out what was going on, im getting transfered to farmington with elder johnson. im upset that im getting transfered we have alot of investigators that ive gotten close to. this will be the third time that im "white washing" into another area, elder johnson and i are going into the area and we know nothing about. it's just frustrating. but besides the bad news today its been a really good week. Elder Blankenship and I had a really spiritual lesson with the Olson family. we taught them the Restoration using the "cup lesson" where we build up the church Jesus set up while he was here, knock it down with the apostasy, and rebuild it after we share the first vision. after the lesson one of the daughters who's a member asked her dad who's an excommunicated member if we could give here a blessing. after giving her a blessing the rest of the family who are non-members were crying and all wanted a blessing as well. everyone there was crying even elder Blankenship and I. that night we ended up giving six blessings. I'm really going to miss that family. On Sunday we had our every-other-week youth night over at the Jone's home. we taught a lesson on blocking Satan from our friends. it went really good i got to be Satan :). elder Blankenship was the narrator of the story and elder smith (Tremonton elders) was a guy preparing for a mission and started getting too serious with his girlfriend and made a mistake and Satan (me) blindsided him. we then asked how many people saw me coming, everyone raised there hand, then we asked how come no one stopped me? it was really spiritual the youth made the connection between that and looking out for our friends. we then re-role played it had some of the youth block me from Elder Smith. So the most of today is going to be us visiting all of our investigators and cool member families and getting pictures with them. wish me luck in my new area. apparently the house we live in a member gave to the church that we have full reign of. it has a Sauna, Steam bath, and a Jacuzzi that we have permission to use :) the picture i attached is a less-active family were teaching there daughter and the dad rebuilds old motorcycles, it was WAY SWEET!!!! there so loud definitely manly
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

October 5th

2010-10-25T20:29:00.001-07:00

so this was a really good week. so super funny story that happened to elder Blankenship and I. we were teaching this less active guy Brodie, and during teaching him we heard the weirdest loudest nastiest fart in the world about 10 seconds long. behind Brodie sat his little four year old girl had diarrhea..... thats not the funny part the funny part is he didn't move a muscle when it happened. Brodie acted like he didn't here it. after we were trying really hard not to laugh he turned around looked at her and ran upstairs and grabbed two towels and wrapped his daughter in them. he then turned to us and said "well boys i got some crap to clean up we'll have to postpone our lesson till next week." definitely a journal entry. this week we scored tickets to conference too. we were at the Saturday and Sunday morning, my favorite session was Sunday morning and afternoon session. especially the part on sleep overs..... should of been said 10 years ago. but my favorite talk of all.... actually Sunday morning was the best session hands down. my two favorite talks from Saturday morning, Elder Hollands talk about gratitude and thanks was awesome. a very humbling talk. Elder Costa wrecked house when he talked about prophets, favorite quote from his talk " the words of a living prophet are more important than a dead prophet" he just laid it down. i really loved Elder Arnold's talk about the cow and the fence. basically told us why we have rules there there to protect us. being in on time is there to protect us. but my favorite speaker was Elder Bednar's talk about the holy ghost. i love how bold the the apostles are.
other than conference we had a good week helping our investigators progress better towards there baptism dates. Im starting to love this area. were seeing a lot of success from the youth fireside activities ill be sure to get a lot of pictures from it. this one is going to be epic. probably the best one we've every done. take a look at my photobucket i uploaded a couple pictures of baptisms and funny things. love all of you guys!?!?!
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

September 28th

2010-10-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

really good week this week, except for the whole part about me being sick and not have my voice. on saturday we had a kersta's baptism. even though our high councilmen over missionary work was freaking out about not having someone to lead the music and a program it went very well. there was a ton of ward support. today our mission president gave the best letter to the mission ive ever read. i decided id include it in my letter this week:
AGENCY: We have control 100% of the time. We are responsible or our choices. In John 8:32, we read,“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We are free not because we can choose, butbecause we have chosen well (David Hart).” We lose our free agency when we choose wrong. You control thechoice, but not the consequences. “If we choose the wrong road, we also choose the wrong destination (DallinH. Oaks).” Article 2 of the Articles of Faith is about personal responsibility. There are only three groups thatare not responsible: children under 8, mental ill patients, and those who haven‟t heard the word.
RESPONSIBILITY: Why do people want choice; but often avoid responsibility? Because they don‟t want thenegative consequences. The following are some of the things people say or do to try and avoid responsibility:blame, excuse, justification, rationalization, flee, hide, lie, cover-up, ignore, procrastinate, avoid, self-pity,minimize, rebel, anger, murmur, ignore, indifferent, forget, and indecision. Excuses do not equal results and donot correct mistakes. (Example: Laman and Lemuel in 1 Nephi 3:13-15.) The above list is a form of self-deception or self-betrayal. It is living a lie. “The determined man finds a way, the other man finds an excuse(David B. Haight).” The difference between an excuse and a reason is explaining what happened while keepingresponsibility. (Moses 4:17-20; 5:10-11; Adam & Eve) In 1 Samuel 15:13-15, 20-21, 24, we see that Saulagainst the Amalekites tried to avoid responsibility from disobeying the commandment. It didn‟t work.Take responsibilities, no excuses. Defensive driving is an example of taking control and responsibility.Marriage is not a 50/50 proposition. It is a 100/100 proposition. Do you want to be right or to be married?
TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR LIVE: If it is to be, it is up to me. Responsibility is the courage to confrontpain, fear, shame, guilt. It is accepting yourself as the one in control of your life and destiny. Assumingresponsibility increases our options and control while blaming, excuses, self-justifying, and self-pity limit ourcontrol and freedom. If you are at fault and have to change before further progress is made, then others are incontrol of the outcome or desired results. Agency and responsibility are inseparably connected. You can‟tavoid one without also losing the other. Happiness and being in control of one‟s life are very closely connected.Are there things that we cannot control? Should these things affect our happiness? What should we do withthose things we do not control? Adapt.“One ship drives east and another drives westWith the selfsame winds that blow.„Tis the set of the sailsAnd not the galesWhich tells us the way to go.Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,As we voyage along through life:“Tis the set of a soulThat decides its goal,And not the calm or the strife.”Ella Wheeler Wilcox
RESPONSIBILITY AND FORGIVING: Forgiving involves responsibility for how one feels, acts, andresponds to offenses. Which words on the not-responsible list above are synonyms with not forgiving? Blame,anger. In what ways does blaming affect unity? What does saying “I‟m sorry” have to do with 100%responsibility? President Benson said, “Pride is enmity toward God and man.” He defined enmity as“opposition, hostility, or hatred.” Which of the three is blaming? All 3. Is blaming prideful then? In what waydoes not forgiving give the offender some control over your life? Why did the Savior say “to turn the othercheek?” Does this apply in all situations? What if the offender does not acknowledge the offense. Should youstill forgive? Yes. Why? How does the Savior feel about judging others? (See John 8:15-16) Luke 15:1-7,the parable of the lost sheep. We are all lost sheep, 100%. There are 100 lost sheep. His going after the onetells us that he loves all 100. Luke 15:11-32, The parable of the prodigal son. We are all lost. Luke 10:38-42.Can gossiping, judging, and not forgiving be considered synonyms? It takes two people to gossip, a mouth andan ear. What if the ear were eliminated? What would happen to gossip? It would be eliminated. Does thetruth justify gossip? No. Does the bishop talking about a member‟s misdeeds to the Elders Quorum presidentconstitute gossiping? Yes, unless it is to truly help. What about a parent talking about their child‟s misdeeds?RESPONSIBILITY AND REPENTANCE: Can the Lord look upon sin with any degree of allowance? No.(See Alma 45:16) What law of the gospel demands 100% responsibility for sin? Justice. (See Alma 42:25)What is the first step in the repentance process? Recognition. What does responsibility have to do with thisfirst step? “The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none (Thomas Carlyle).” What does confession haveto do with 100% responsibility? Which word on the non-responsible list above is synonymous with notconfessing? Hiding, shame, embarrassment, fear of man.
ACCOUNTABIOITY AND THE ATONEMENT: The Guide to the Scriptures, “Justification: See also atone,atonement, sanctification. To be pardoned from punishment for sin and declared guiltless. A person is justifiedby the Savior‟s grace through faith in him. This faith is shown by repentance and obedience to the laws andordinances of the gospel. Jesus Christ‟s atonement enables mankind to repent and be justified or pardoned frompunishment they otherwise would receive.” Read 2 Nephi 2:5-8. “The enemy of repentance is self-justification.” (Spencer W. Kimball) Examples of self-justification, the anti-Christ false hood: Alma 1:3-4Nehor, Alma 30:17 Korhior, Alma 18:5 Lamoni, 2 Nephi 28:8-9. Avoiding responsibility. What is theconsequence of self-justification and the not-responsible list? Alma 34:15-18. Mosiah 15:24, Alma 11:44,What does the word “restoration” mean? Alma 41, Alma clarifies the meaning of the word restoration for hisson Corianton. See also Alma 42:25, 30-31, When we give an excuse for our faults and sins, what are wedenying? Did Corianton‟s subsequent life illustrate an understanding of the words restoration andresponsibility? Yes. (See Alma 40:30) Alma taught his son doctrine and changed his life. Read PresidentBoyd K. Packer‟s quote on teaching doctrine on page 19 of PMG and then read Alma 31:5. What will teachingthe doctrines do to investigators when taught in power and authority by the Spirit? When we are notresponsible before God, into whose hands do we place control over our lives?
RESPONSIBILITY AND CHARITY: Am I my brother‟s keeper? Companions and spouses: Does 50% +50%= 100% responsibility? What does blaming a companion, local leaders and members, other missionaries or thearea do to the faith of a missionary? Why do the less-active go inactive? Who suffers? Agency/responsibilityand love. Unity: D&C 107:27, 30, “and every decision made...must be by the unanimous voice...eachmember in each quorum must be agreed.” Which word from D&C60:2 should be added to the not-responsiblelist that keeps missionaries and members from being responsible? What responsible word is the antidote? (SeeMoroni 8:16, Romans 1:16) Charity is a deep sense of responsibility for the temporal welfare and even morefor the spiritual welfare of another. The more we are like Christ the less likely we are to give up on someone.There will be a reluctance to blame. He is perfect, we are not. He was innocent, we are guilty. Yet out of love,He became responsible for us and never gives up on us. Compassion, we learn, is one of the opposites ofblaming, and responsibility for the spiritual welfare of others the most important definition of charity. (SeeMosiah 28:3) D&C 43:15, “ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach.” Effective teaching is the veryessence of leadership.” (President Gordon B. Hinckley)
ACCOUNTABILITY: “The principle of accountability is fundamental in God‟s eternal plan. We will all standbefore the Lord at the last judgment and give an accounting for what we have done with the opportunities Hehas given us (see Alma 5:15-19, D&C 137:9). There is much you can learn about accountability on yourmission that will benefit you throughout your life.” Numbers and accountability: Does the Lord number hissheep? Versus merely counting them (total). Why? (see 1 Nephi 22:25) What would be even better thannumbers? Names. “Where performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measuredand reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” (President Monson) D&C 4:2, Why do we serve him withall our “heart, might, mind and strength?” “That ye may....” Let your president expect great things from you.
elder blankenship and I decided that as a goal this transfer/month that we would have 15 people with baptism dates. right now we have 8 people scheduled to be baptized. this next week is what will decide if we reach that goal or not.
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

September 21st

2010-10-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

this week elder Blankenship were on fire. especially yesterday. after interviews with the mission president. we ran around in bear river city (on bikes) talking to potentials and auxileries. after eating dinner with one of the ward mission leaders we caught a ride back to Brigham, and went and set up lessons with a potential, Dezmond, and then went to a lesson with Robert and Timmy. Robert and Timmy are brothers. yesterday we taught them the first half of the plan of salvation. during the lesson we committed them both for baptism, they both kinda said that they don't know and was scared of commitment. after reading 2nephi 31:4-10 we asked why they think they need baptism and why heavenly father wants them baptized. Robert said so i can become a new person. Timmy said to be clean again. after they said that we recommitted them for baptism. Robert said "I'm down" Timmy said that he didn't know and that it was a big commitment. we then explained that when were running a race or doing something difficult is it easier to do it by ourselves or with a friend. they both answered with a friend. then the COOLEST thing happened Robert turned to his brother and bore his testimony to Timmy. he pretty much said that they've done everything they could do wrong in life what do we have to lose? think about the rut were in if we don't get out nothing will change, this could change our lives. a non-member only met with us twice said that. the spirit was so crazy strong. Robert committed to be baptized in the last week of October Timmy is still unsure. the lord will work on him and change his heart, he just has to ask. the first lesson with them after sharing the first vision we asked how they felt Robert explained how he found god in prison and that even though he tried to deny the first vision, he had that same feeling. he knew that what Joseph Smith saw was true. I LOVE LESSONS LIKE THIS!!!!! reaffirms my testimony every time.
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

September 14th

2010-10-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

really fun week this week. elder blankenship and I decided we wanted to see "the golden spike" some massive historic site in our area that everyone talks about. we were told it was 10min away but it ended up being about a hour. it was such a long drive out there. we took a crap load of pictures of the trip, and how boring the drive is. on our way out there we stopped at a place the builds rocket boosters for NASA. it was ok but it was a huge let down. later on that week brigham city had "peach days" pretty much an excuse to have a party. there was little craft stands and a fair. we spent two wholes days there contacting people and getting refferals. it was very successful. we some how weazeled our way on top of the fire trucks in the parade. six missionaries on top of a giant firetruck. afterwards we went to a sweet car show about 400-500 cars. then we contacted and shopped around. you'll have to look at all the pictures uploaded to photobucket. yesterday while tracting we found the sweetest family that we taught the restoration too. elder blankenship and I had been praying and working to pick up 8 more baptismal dates and the lord that day blessed us with three. what a huge spiritual experience, i dont even know how to explain it. best day of my life. we got to see the spirit work on three individuals in the space of two minutes. it was like a light clicked on in there head and everything made sense. love you all
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

September 7th

2010-10-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

so after training Elder Leon i was rewarded with a freaking bomb sauce companion. his name is elder Blankenship and he's from Arlington Texas. our motto is work hard play harder. this week our car broke down again.... so we've been riding bikes all this week so im pretty tierd. last night we went and partied with the Elders in tremonton, we decided we would have a glow stick fight where we just chuck the glow sticks as hard as you can. one of them busted and we decided just to bust them all and there apartment looked like a giant rav. the other picture is of a cat that lives around there apartment. if you look closley the cats front legs our half as long as as the front ones. pretty freaking funny. Elder Blankenship and I have been teaching a crap ton of people since he got here. this area is finally starting to explode. with my knee..... no sports for the rest of my mission. good news i get to stay bad news no sports.... :( this week our investigator Josh took us to his helicopter hanger it was really cool. him and I are the same age but he has his helicopter liecense and flies for the powerlines. what he does is he hovers a foot from the powerline and someone hangsover and grabs the powerline and moves it. its freaking crazy
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

August 31st

2010-10-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

this morning i figured out who my new companion is. His name is Elder Blankenship, he's from texas and is currently serving on usu campus. i think he's been out like 3-4 months. im excited for a new change..... training isn't a joke. i finally get a missionary that knows what he's doing and I shouldn't have to yell at him to get up on time and to do the stuff he's supposed to, atleast i hope so. So im staying in Brigham. Elder Leon and I started to get along now that he's getting transfered, funny thing is he's staying in the district. He's going to be serving with Elder Gunlock a really sweet elder. So ill be seeing him every wednesday for district meeting. i cant remember if we told you this last week but we had three baptisms. i really need to buy a card reader so that i can upload the pictures. we baptised Derick Lee and the two Skirlac girls Madison and Alison. All really good baptisms, I had the oppurtunity to baptize Alison. thoses two girls were deffently two of the hardest people to teach. they have the attention span of a gold fish. all of our lessons couldn't be any longer than 10 minutes. but we taught them everything. last sunday we got to speak in the Corrine 1st ward, a little tiny city west of brigham. that morning i woke up and completely forgot that we were speaking that morning so i had to fly by the seat of my pants. talked about the three things we need to do have a stronger testimony, prayer, going to church, and reading our scriptures. ended up being a good talk even though i was unprepared. afterwards we had alot of people walk up to us telling us about there nonmember friends and wanted to know what they could do to invite them. now all this week im going to be following up with thoses people. I went to the surgeon friday, got into an arguement because i reinjured it. he called the mission doctor and he's supposed to talk to president. so i have no idea whats going to happen
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

August 24th

2010-10-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

pretty good week this week. really busy but fun. we had three baptisms. Derick on Saturday and Madison and Alison on Sunday. both really good services. i had the opportunity to baptize Alison. today was especially busy. we went down to hooper to visit some of my converts and sweet members. really alot of fun got to see Angie's 2 month old baby. got to see the Neffs, Arrants, and Mitchills. unfourtunatly my knee isn't getting any better. i re-injured it yesterday. so i re-tore my meniscus. tonight I'm sitting down with the athletic trainer to talk about the options. he thinks that i could just go another year without sports and just live with it. the mission doctor Dr. Nellis says that we'll see what the orthopedic surgeon says. but its not looking good. the first time the doctor pulled 20cc's of blood of my knee. this time judging by the pain i think it will be a lot more. we'll see though bro burgraff is a way good athletic trainer, he isn't giving up. I'm psst'd that something like this holding me back so what ends up happening is I hit rehab really hard and re-injure it. the other day i biked 12.5 miles from 10-12 and felt fine while doing it but the next day it felt like someone was stabbing my knee. just another trail that im lucky enough to grow through. something the lord wants me to learn from it. we'll find out soon enough. pray for me
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

August 17th

2010-10-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

something that I've been trying to do this week is trying to be more loving to my companion. yesterday i finally saw success. Monday morning he refused to read the Book of Mormon for personal study (don't ask me why) so i said that we wont be starting companionship study until he has read five pages. he made a huge fuss and then started reading. after he finished we had about 10min to do companionship study, so i took three cups and three butter knifes and weaved the knives together so that it would support a triple combination. numbered the cups 1,2, and 3. i told him number one is church we do it once a week, number two is praying every day, and number three is reading at least three pages a day. then i asked him what would happen if i took one of the cups away. the scriptures or your testimony falls. i explained that if we aren't doing theses three things every day that our testimony will get week and we will fall. so we're starting to get along a little better, now that he knows why I'm so hard on him, it's cause i love him and want him to be a good missionary. so he knows why i get on his case for getting up at 7:30. yesterday we drove out to Corrinne, Utah. and we were driving through and saw some reindeer..... yea reindeer. they said there tamed so they but a halter on of them and brought it out and let us stand there and get a picture with it. i forgot my camera.... so ill upload the pictures next week. but i looked terrified the antlers are right up in my face and later we found out that he doesn't like men..... this Saturday we have one baptism and Monday we have two. this area is finally starting to produce some baptisms. my knee isn't getting any better this morning we went to the athletic trainer that's taking care of me and he went through some exercises. he had me bike and do some wall squats. he asked where it was hurting i told him in the same spots. he said my outlook on not having to have surgery isn't good. i meet with the orthopedic surgeon in four weeks to get the bad news. so we'll find out then. our mission doctor who is a quack said that he thinks that i should go home and get an MRI....... i argued with him that i could get an MRI on my mission instead of going home. we'll see president Olson makes the final call and were pretty tight
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

August 10th

2010-10-25T20:16:00.001-07:00

what a week this has been, so on friday we were playing a little basketball with our district and i went up for a lay-up and came down on it and tore my miniscus....... not to happy about that. went to an orthepedic surgeon he took 20cc's of blood off my knee. the deal is i have six weeks to heal or he's going to recommend surgery. thank goodness one of our ward mission leaders is an athletic trainer for the hight school, so he's got me in rehab. every other day he "stems" my knee.... its where they shock your knee and it tense's your muscles. other than that everything is alright, i had one of my buddies (gweedo) pass away. the mission president had my dad call and tell me what happened. today during the temple it hit me how fragile life is. it helped me refocus and know why im out here. one super cool thing we did last pday is i went to ifly (indoor skydiving). i payed for a video ill try to upload it photobucket. but theres a miny transfer coming up, i have no idea whats going to happen, i bet we'll stay together. because no one can put up with my companion without killing him but me..... :) he's a good kid but doesn't listen and wants to do things his own way..... cause he served a miny mission in washington state..... he's got an interview with president olson so we'll see what will happen-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

August 3rd

2010-10-25T19:49:00.001-07:00

WE PICKED UP THREE MORE BAPTISMAL DATES FOR AUGUST!!!!!! we've been getting a lot of crap from the stake president saying were not doing our job so he's not helping us with anything. so this will show him we really are working. :) but this week has been a really good week. besides picking up all those dates, my "son" and I have finally started to get along. A.K.A he's listening to me :) so now everything is starting to run smoothly i just wish i could get that one stake president to help us out. oh well. this coming up week should be very good. we have alot of new investigators that we're teaching that will be getting baptismal dates when we teach them. Elder Leon and I did get a couch yesterday that was deffently a plus now we have something to lounge on :) love,
p.si bought my bike and now its in the shop getting $60 worth of work...... :( the picture is of an old '33 with twin turbos on it...... its fast
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

July 27

2010-10-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,

so on Wednesday I went and picked up my "greenie" Elder Leon from the mission office. during the training meeting Elder Cowan (assistant) was looking at me and laughing and asked why and he said your greenie is the hardest trainee in the mission. President Olson pulled my aside and gave me a background on Elder Leon. He said he talks incessantly and doesn't know when to shut up. on top of that he has A.D.H.D which is driving all his "problems." the goal this transfer is to get elder leon to take his medication and learn to be obedient. he's the most disobdedient elder ive ever served with, i made him send home all the movies he brought. he's not as bad as he sounds good kid has a lot of potential just needs to learn to be quiet. our new area is good, just need to get everything organized. not a lot of work going on but i have faith that it will pick up. im doing good, its just hard training and whitewashing-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

Weekly Email July 20, 2010

2010-07-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

so i got a call last night from Elder Ramerez (assistant) and he said that I'm being transfered to Brigham city and that I'm training a new guy straight out of the MTC. he wouldn't tell me who he is or anything so ill find out tomorrow at 8am, when i pick him up. so I'm leaving hooper..... I'm really sad. All today I'll probably be packing and visiting people. but this week we went to the youth extravaganza, it was sweet there was over 3000 youth there. the program was on the restoration/ plan of salvation. it was the bulk of our week, so not a lot happened. next weeks email will be a lot longer with a new companion...... i cant wait to prank this new kid :) hopefully he wont cry to much. :P elder Attridge and i did find a miniature donkey its the saddest looking thing ever....ill attach pictures
love you guys,

--
Elder Tyler Herring

Weekly Email July 13, 2010

2010-07-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

this week was sweet, we finally had a youth activity with the missionaries that i had been planning forever. MUD DODGEBALL!!!!! it was way fun. afterwards we had a lesson on the restoration. im so glad that this happened half of the kids there were non-members, now they can see that missionaries aren't scary, that there just regular guys. so far after that two members are inviting thoses non-memebers to have the missionary disgustions in their homes. im way stoked. they have the rest of this week to invite them.

i had to give a talk on how this land is a chosen land and relate it to missionary work. it ended up being a really good talk. even though i wrote it 45min before.

-i prayer that the holy spirit will be here to testify of what im going to speak about today. what id like to speak on today is how the lord god has preserved this land. the book of mormon is overwhelming evidence of gods hand in the establishment of this nation and his dealings with mankind both during times of righteousness and wikedness. the lord has repeatedly said that if we keep the commandments that we will prosper. turn with me to 2nephi 1:9 here the lord has promised lehi what will happen if he keeps the commandments. we have two records -the jaradites and nephites- of two nations that were swept off the face of the land because of their wickedness. nephi a prophet in the book of mormon prophised the destruction of that eary american civiliztion and lateer the rediscovery of this land by an inspired explorer. turn with me to 1nephi 13:12 that scripture is talking about columbus and how he was led by the spirit too this promised land. for centuries the lord kept america hidden until the time was right to unviel her for her destiny in the last days "it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nation." "for behold many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance." in the lords due time his spirit "wrought upon" columbus. the pilgrams, puritans, and others to come to america. they testified of gods intervention in their behalf. the book of mormon records that they humbled themselves before the lord and the power of the lord was with them. only if we humble ourselves and keep the commandments will the lord fight our battles and protect us. think of zions camp. the lord promised that his presence would go with them and that all victory and glory would be brought to pass through their diligence and fathfullness and prayers of faith. in our heritage it gives an account of zions camp: : "difficulties of the camp began to take their toll on participants. the refining process revealed the grumblers, who did not have the spirit of obdience and often faulted joseph smith for his troubles. on 17 may the prophet exhorted thoses posssessed eith a rebelios spirit to humble themselves before the lord and become united, that they might not be scourged" we know that they eventually humbled themselves and moved on with the march towards clay county. "when zions camp reached eastern clay county missouri in late june 1834 a mob of over 300 missouians came out to meet them- intent on their destruction, under the direction of the prophet joseph smith the brethern set up camp and the junction of the little and big fishing rivers." this is where joseph smith said the infamous line "stand still and watch the salvation of god" continuing on pg 47 : " the mob began to attack with cannon fire, but the lord was fighting the battle of the saints. clouds quickly began to formm over head. the prophet described the circumstances "it began to rain and hail.... the storm was tremendous; wind and rain, hail and thunder met them in great wrath, and soon softened their direful courage and frustrated all their designs to kill joe smith and his army... after experiencing the pelting of the storm all night, "forlorn hope" took the back track fir independence to join the main body of the mob fully satisfied that when jehovah fights they would rather be absent" the lord fought there battles because they were doing what the were commanded. i think about the story of the stripling warriors. moroni rallied them together in his day to defend their wives, their children, and for the cause of liberty. why did this band of 2,000 young men defeat the lamenites and establish peace in the land? because of their faithfullness in keeping the commandments. turn with me to Alma56:47-48 their mothers had taught them to keep the commandments. because of the faithfulness the lord delievered them. we as members of the church have been commanded by the lord to do missionary work. ive noticed when reading the book of mormon that people in the land are prospering because of the righteosness..... do you think that the righteous were doing missionary work? when we cease in sharing the gospel we will not prosper. it is my prayer that the holy ghost has touched each and every one of you and has burned with in you. that it was fired you up to go out and do missionary work. in the name of jesus christ amen.

our area is starting to pick up aswell. we finally found 5 new investigators were teaching and so far two of them have baptismal dates. that makes a total of four people schedualed for baptism. and we haven't met with the other 3 but they will be commited for baptism on the first lesson.

--
Elder Tyler Herring

Weekly Letter July 6, 2010

2010-07-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

so this was a boring week, it was the fourth of July. everyone we in our teaching pool was out of town. and every house we knocked on no one was home except for a select few people in Roy that we talked too and set up a lesson. we did get to see the fireworks at a members home. we also shoveled crap for two hours, a horse stall that hadn't been cleaned out for about a year. it was great :P. they did feed us lunch afterwards, good old subaway. that night they text'd us asking if we could do the other two stalls..... I'm probably not going to return there phone call. we ate at the mitchills house again elder attridge wanted to bet there dog "Zeus" i told him that he doesn't like missionaries...... he didn't listen and got bit. (ill attach a picture) the mitchills called to apologize and to tell us that he's had all his rapese shots. i thought elder attridge was going to die. he says he punched zeus in the mouth, you be the judge and look at the picture. love you all thanks for all that you do and for taking the time to write
--
Elder Tyler Herring

June 30, 2010

2010-07-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

this week was hard but good. we had zone conference this week it was way good something we learned there was that there is no mistakes in gods eyes only learning experiences. a quote i read somewhere came to mine while we were there "take pride in how far you've came and have faith in how far you'll go." yesterday we had interviews with our mission president. in the interview i was complaining because of our area not producing numbers that i thought it should, and having a bad week. he calmly said "elder you think Jesus had a tough week when he was in the garden of Gethsemane or crucified?" that put everything in perspective for me. he explained the area is the way it is because theres something i should be learning. President Olson said we often grow most in difficult circumstances. keep working hard. today though elder attridge and i decided that we wanted to go hiking. the week before we went to waterfall canyon. this week was a place in Logan Canyon call Wind Rocks. its really cool there rocks at the top of the canyon that have been hallowed out by the wind. it was a really steep hike 900ft in 2miles. way worth it though, only bad thing is i HATE HEIGHTS and the trail runs along the edge of cliffs. i attached pictures that we took, one of them i got dirt on my face. one really sweet thing we saw this week was a 1936 Chevy truck it was a "rat rod" meaning not painted and not alot of money put into it, never seen one before and i really like it.

--
Elder Tyler Herring

June 22, 2010 - Elder Herring got a picture with an apostle :P

2010-06-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

this week has been really sweet alot of cool things happened. on Saturday we had Colin's baptism. and today we decided we wanted to hike waterfall canyon. it was way sweet. it's probably 2.5 miles but it's like straight up i attached a picture of a missionary in our district and I standing beside the waterfall. i was so tired and out of shape. we want to eventually be able to hike up Benlmond but I'm way to out of shape for that right now. the other picture i attached is a picture of my companion and I with Elder Robert D. Hales. we caught him coming out of the tabernacle after being the guest speaker at a stake conference. we went over and shook his hand (after getting past security) and asked if he had time for a picture because no one would ever believe us if we didn't get one, he kindly said "I always have time for the missionaries" first time I've ever got to see an apostle in real life, now i just have to get a picture with the prophet. Elder Attridge and I are getting along really well our motto "work hard play harder" so we always work hard and have fun together. this week we made up a game its sorta of weird but it's funny. the person in the front passenger seat pulls the bar up to adjust the seat and then the driver (me) slams on the brakes and flings them forward :) lol I'll have to get it on camera its pretty funny. but that's all that happened pretty much this week. but i love you all keep sending letters it's really nice to get letters during the week. love

--
Elder Tyler Herring

June 15, 2010

2010-06-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

so this week was way sweet i got a new companion, his name is Elder Attridge he's been out about six months. he got here on wednesday. all this week we've been looking for new investigators. going through the unbaptised list and the part member family list. another thing we've tried is "blitzing the ward" where we visit every house in the ward and see how there doing with the ward mission leader. its been very successful. this upcoming saturday is colins baptisim. after he gets baptised we wont have anyone else to teach. :( this week we should be picking up 4-5 baptism dates. but one funny thing that happened this week was i dared elder attridge to jump in a pen with a billy goat. it kept trying to ram him and he just grabed the horns and hanged on till he could get away. it lasted for about 5mins it was way funny. but all is good in hooper i hope ill stay here for a long time. only thing i dont like is we live next to a pig farm and it smells so we cant really open the windows cause of the smell so our apartment is always hot. but its ok its a tiny sacrifice

--
Elder Tyler Herring

June 8, 2010

2010-06-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

so transfers happened. im staying in hooper. my new companions name is Elder Atrig. todays really busy because Elder Ramsey has to pack still and wants to visit all of our converts and really sweet members in our area. but i pick up Elder Atrig tomorrow morning in the mission office. he seems like a pretty cool kid, we'll find out tomorrow. on sunday Leeanna was confirmed and got the holy ghost. been a really good week though. im going to miss elder ramsey. he as made a zone leader in syracuse. sorry the email is short but love you guys

--
Elder Tyler Herring

June 1, 2010

2010-06-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

this week was sweet we had leeanas baptisim and i got to go to one of my recent converts, wess, wedding. wess's wedding was sweet i was lucky enough to be a grooms man :) check out the flower. it was really cool to see wess marrry the woman of his dreams. he's only got a year until he's going to be getting married in the temple and ill still be one my mission when that happens, so ill get to go to that too. leeannas baptisms was yesterday on monday. it was a really good service her boyfriend baptised her. this week has been alot of fun. yesterday after he baptism i was going on exchanges with Elder Olson. we had way to much fun while driving i saw a sign that said fainting goats for sale, i slammed on the brakes and whipped into the drive way. we ran up and knocked on the door and asked if we could play with there goats. i got in the pen and hid from some of the baby ones and jumped out and scared them surprisingly one of them fainted it was so funny. ill attach a link of a youtube video of them. but transfers are coming up and i have no idea where im going i asked to stay but we'll see. love you guys

--
Elder Tyler Herring

May 25, 2010 - "Oh by the way...."

2010-05-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

so this week we were really lucky we were able to baptise five people. the garcia family and ashliey. the garcia family was one of the most spiritual baptisims of my mission. ashliey had alot of things she had to overcome. she didn't want to repent of her past homosexual relationship, smoking, and hard drugs. because of the spirit she was able to overcome all of thoses. last pday elder ramsey and i were in a car accident. we were riding with a member and we were turning left on a green light and we were hit in the rear. the guy who hit us was traveling 103 in a 45. he left a 75skid so the cops were guessing he was traveling about 103. but i deffently got a testimony of wearing a seatbelt hahahah i didn't have one on. i was laying down in the back when we were hit and i flipped over and was laying on the floor board. i was asleep so i didn't see anything coming i just woke up on the floor board and my knees hurt. but WE ARE OKAY!!!! MOM QUIT CRYING!!!!!! the lord always protects his servants. but i do count my blessings the cops said another six inches forward of where we got hit and my legs probally would of been snapped and both my companion and i would be in the hospital. but this next week looks promising. we have leeannas baptisim next monday!!!!!

--
Elder Tyler Herring

A Wonderful Mother's Day Gift

2010-05-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hello,

My name is Stacie Grieco and I live in Hooper, Utah. Your son is currently teaching my husband. I was raised in the church, my husband grew up Catholic and has been taking the missionaries on and off for ten years. Each missionary has brought his or her own unique personalities and teaching styles. Some we have clicked with a little better than others. Elder Herring is one of our favorites. As you can imagine we have met a lot of missionaries. Your son is an amazing missionary and brings with him such a calming feeling. He has such a strong testimony and speaks with such honesty. Elder Herring and Elder Ramsey have been teaching us for a couple of months now and our family has really grown to love them. After the first lesson my husband commented on how good these two missionaries were. He said they really have strong testimonies of the gospel. I want to thank you for raising such a wonderful young man and encouraging him to go on a mission. My husband is a very logical thinker and things need to be explained logically to him. He attends church every week with me and our two children. I know one day he will convert I just don’t know when that might be but I can say some missionaries leave more of a mark on him than others and Elder Herring has definitely left a lasting impression on him. I took these pictures of them last week; they came and helped us in our yard.

I hope you have a wonderful mother’s day..

Thanks
Stacie

Yay for my first successful video upload ever! :D

May 18, 2010

2010-05-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

so we had zone conference this week. take a guess who our special guest was? alex boye one of the only african amercan singers in the mormon tabernacle choir. he told us his whole life storey. alex told us about how when he was in boarding school kids we take his food all the time at lunch. till one day two of his cousins transfered to that school. he said they were huge!!! he likened to when angless are always with us, expecially as missionaries. he then asked how many people were in the room? Elder Cowan blurted out about 80. Alex Boye said 80 people that you can see, he went oon how angels are always beside us on our right and our left (D+C 84:88). angles have protected us our whole lives. they have prepared people for us. if we open a new area and we think its just us and our companion always remember we have angels beside us just like his cousins, people wouldn't take his food because of his cousins were huge. :) he then started talking about how he was homeless and eating out of trash cans. he quoted D+C 122 where it says that all hese things shall be for thy good.

what we understand as good and what the lord knows good is two different things. the lords good is found in 1nephi 19:9. "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they aspit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving bkindness and his clong-suffering towards the children of men." who are we to murmur if that what good is in gods eyes?

he then said alot of really profound quotes that i liked:
-without faith it is immpossible to please god
this next one he likened it to missionary wok
-satan knows how powerful you are and knows how mant people you can effect. so he's going to discoarage you and bring you down

this week though we have five baptizims. the garcia family is thursday at seven. and ashley vanzweedens is saturday at two as long as she doesn't smoke this week. shes overcome alot of obstacles. yesterday in president interviews Prez Olson said that this is the last transfer that elder ramsey and I will be together. next transfer i asked him if i could stay in hooper and he said that id be getting a missionary that struggling a little bit, so i get to learn love and charity and patience next transfer :)

--
Elder Tyler Herring

May 11, 2010

2010-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

so this week i got to talk to my parents!!!!! it was sweet they did this conference call thing where i could talk to a ton of people at one time. it was sweet i talked to my mom, dad, sisters, and my grandparents. monday morning we had the oppurtunity to do service at the Ogden Utah Temple. they had us pulling out tullips and all the other plants and had us plant all new ones. the whole temple every flower bed........ i never noticed how many flower beds there were until you have to digg out and plant new ones in each bed. i have come to appreciate people who can do landscaping every day, cause i cant. the only spiritual experience i can think of was today at the temple, i had left my temple recommend at home so i was sitting in the waiting room for my companion. i turned on the tv and was going through and watching all the movies the church puts out. an older lady came in and sat to the right of me and we started shooting the small talk. i found out that she was originaly from puerto rico but moved to pennsilvynia and is now on a service mission in Clinton, Utah. she was one of the nicest old ladies ive ever met aside from my grandparents. she gave me her phone number and said that if my companion and I ever needed anything to call her. when she was walking out she said something that stuck out to me, "Elder smile.... and always love the people" the week before i had studied all the christ-like attributes, i learned alot but sorta rushed through charity and love just to say that i was done so i could study something else. looking in retro spec i should of spent more time on charity in love. this week one of my goals is to learn to have more love for the people i labor with and my investigators..... oh and try not to be so competitive. :) idk if that second one is going to happen
love you all

--
Elder Tyler Herring

May 4, 2010

2010-05-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

so u got taught i really valueble experience on sunday. ill just share it.

i was writing it down as it happened. i was sitting in sacrement meeting today in the foxglen ward. we were sitting beside the maughn family, and i couldn't help but notice there little boy. i didn't know what was wrong with him, but he had a pipe running out of his neck and couldn't support himself. He also had something that went around his chest to help him sit up. about every five minutes they had to use a suction pump to get the saliva out of his mouth. I couldn't stop thinking why? why would god do this to him and his little family? I came to the conclusion that there son was one of the elect or more faithful souls in heaven. Heavenly father is putting this little boy through all of this because he knows he can take it. I kept seeing the love his family had for him. you could just see the dad had for him in his eyes. the way he would hold him and craddle him so carefully as he read him a book. He can't talk but he knows sign launguage. the thought came to mind was i faithful in heaven? the lord knew what I could go through. the scripture in D:C 121+122 came to mind. verse seven "my son peace be unto thy soul thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment." in section 122:8 "the son of man hath descended below them all." jesus knew exactly what that little boy went through I want to be someone the lord can rely on, as one of his faithful servants throughout my life. i learned that trials are for us to grow and learn. I went up and shared what i saw in the foxglen ward in a different sacrement meeting. i cried thhrough most of it. i kept thinking of my family back home and the love they have for me. when i sat back down one of our investigators Logan (9) asked why are you crying? whats wrong? I said "buddy sometimes the holy ghost makes you cry when your talking about something really special to you. what i got taught from all this was count your blessings, and next time your going through a trial remember the lord already went through that and knows how you feel. so quit complaining.

but this upcoming week logan (9) is getting baptized!!!!!! the week before we had a baptisim but i forgot to tell you about it :) her name was lily mitchill ill send a picture of them next week
--
Elder Tyler Herring
2133 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah 84401

April 27, 2010

2010-04-27T14:16:00.001-07:00

my brain is a little fried..... we stayed up till three last night because it was transfer calls, and played board games all night. so im pretty tierd. lets see this week what happened? well this morning we went over to one of our ward mission leaders houses that have a crap load of baby goats and chased and caught them. its was actually alot of fun watching people that have never been near a goat try and grab one. one really cool thing that happened is one of the people we were teaching leeanna, her mom came into town and she wanted to know what the mormons are. jokingly before the lesson i asked if she wanted to feel my horns. she had brought this packet to the lesson with her, at the top it said "mormonism vs christianity." after we explained the restoration to her using the "cup lesson" she understood where our church came from and why were the only one true church on the earth. she had to catch her flight home but said that she would contact the missionaries in colorado. leeanna wants her mom to be at her baptism so we really dont know when shes going to be baptised. she's doing good though. right now we still have seven with a baptisimal date, logan, leanna, and the garcia family. on sunday we finally got the garcia family to church. were meeting with them tonight at seven. were teaching another family, wess+debbi. Debbi is a preacher in ogden and likes to bash with us about our church but knows that joseph smith is a prophet........ so its a little wierd. wess doesn't really have any concerns, he just sorta goes with the flow. one of the biggest things thats standing in the way of Debbi getting baptised is that women cant get the priesthood. next lesson which is tomorrow at eight im going to explain to her about that. ive been thinking about it and i think im going to explain it how the priesthood makes men equal with women because women, god has trusted with the birthing of children. the priesthood helps the man becoming closer to the children because it help there kids over come spirtual death better. the other thing that happened this week is we taught this guy named Pat. Pat has been being taught by the missionaries for almost 15 years. he had a life changing expierence when his wifes four wheeler flipped and landed on top of her. the wifes dad gave her a blessing and then they went to the hospital. on the way there Pat's wife leaned over and told him that "he needed to get that" meaning the priesthood. now he's taking the lessons alot more sierously. we explained to him he can provide all he wants for his family but one thing he cant is a priesthood blessing because he cant. so he finally starting to progress. love you all

p.s

i didn't get transfered im staying in hooper another transfer
--
Elder Tyler Herring
2133 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah 84401

April 20, 2010

2010-04-20T17:17:00.001-07:00

so this week has been a finding week. since we baptised all thoses investigators our teaching pool has gone way down. so we've been hitting up this thing called the unbaptised list. a list of kids that we're blessed but haven't been baptised. yesterday i was on exchanges with Elder Kafoa (the other elder in the picture) and thats all we did all day. out of that list we picked up alot of potential investigators four to be exact. so most of this week will be following up with them and setting up new member disgustions. one really really cool thing that happened this week is that i had the oppurtunity to speak in te lakeview ward. i felt inspired to speak on recongnizing the love of god. it was based most around the talk Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave in conference, Love and Law. basically he said that you cant feel the love of god if you're not keeping the commandments. i used his talk as an outline and then added my own expierences and scriptures. on of the scriptures i used that has become my favorite is Helamen 12:3 "And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him" one storey that our high concilmen over missionary work really sums up this scripture well.

one day an old farmers horse ran away and the towns people said "i'm sorry thats bad luck that your horse ran away" and his response was "maybe" the next day his horse came back with 4 other horses and the towns people said "wow thats awesome congradulations" and his response was "maybe" the next day his son got on one of the new horses and got bucked off and broke his leg and the towns people said "wow thats sure a sad deal that your son broke his leg" and his response was "maybe" the next day the army came to his house to recruit his son to go to war but he couldn't because he had a broken leg and so the towns people said "wow that broken leg really worked out for your family huh" and you can only guess what the farmer said....... "maybe"

if we keep having that attitude and percievere through our trials we'll be blessed. in mosiah 24:14-15 it says "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." the lord sends afflictions to chasten us so that we'll remeber him. but he will always help us through our afflictions

quote of the week:

"what we really want in this life is for someone to belive the most in us and to get the best out of us" -Rod Belnap
--
Elder Tyler Herring
2133 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah 84401

April 13, 2010

2010-04-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

hey everyone,

so this week was a great week, had six baptisms between the ages of 9-14. it was crazy. they were all on saturday and all back to back from 1-6pm. they all went as planned. all very very good services. the next day sunday we had to confirm them all...... most of the wards meet at all the same time so we running all over hooper trying to get them all confirmed. now our teaching pool is really small..... we have a family of six the garcias, pat, judy, pete, and leanna left that were still teaching. next lesson the garcias will be getting a date when we teach the plan of salvation. the pictures are of all the people we baptised this week and then one of me and casey from back home. is grandparents lived in my area so we went to his farewell dinner. some funny stuff that happened this week.... nothing really funny happened. awhile ago elder Ramsey and I did a lip sink to taylors swifts song "last christmas" I was dressed up as a cave women. the family that taped it is going to put it on facebook so watch for it :) one of the boys dad that we baptised works at Hill Air Force Base and sometime soon he's going to give us a behinde the scenes tour of where he works. love you all

--
Elder Tyler Herring
2133 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah 84401

"Elder Beefcakes and the Beanpole"

2010-04-06T22:11:00.001-07:00

The much anticipated photo of the "brothers from another mother", just before Casey reported to the MTC. These two have been nigh unto inseparable for the last several years, and won't see each other for over two years. Ty got special permission to call Casey at Christmas to "pump him up" for the mission. Elder Herring is currently serving in Casey's grandparents' area, and so got to attend the family farewell the night before Casey reported. We love these boys and are so proud of them both! :)

April 6, 2010 - General Conference

2010-04-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

so this week was really cool, somehow elder ramsey and I scored two tickets to conference :) the sunday afternoon session. it was really good we were up in the balcony but a member behinde us had some binoculars so we could see the prophet in real life and not on the projector screen. there i saw a couple people from Weber and some girls that i went to EFY with. the saturday session we went and watched it with a really cool member family. and inbetween we went out and played basketball in the snow :). nothing to exciting has happened this week..... it snowed again. but most of this week has been planning and setting up the baptisims, getting clothes, programs, and everything like that. im doing good though had interviews with president yesterday we talked alot about how much ive grown and how much power my testimony has. he hinted to something about me training a new missionary in a couple transfers, as long as i keep my nose clean and stay out of trouble :P maybe when we get a "shipment" of a big group of elders from the MTC. we'll see i have alot of growing up to do. he said in his last presidents letter about how the most important calling in the whole mission is the trainer. a trainer sets the tone for the rest of that young missionaries mission. lol alot of responsibility hahaha. thanks so much for the EASTER PACKAGE im still chowing down on all the candy :). oh also in interviews president said that Elder Ramsey and I will probally be staying together another transfer.... im really excited we have alot of fun together. as far as the chicken thing goes..... the animals we hit just keep getting bigger and bigger went from a chicken to a cat to a dog...... hahahaha no we haven't hit a cat or a dog but we came dang close. i also attached a picture of the dead chicken that got beheaded when we hit it hahahaha in retrospec we should of went back cooked it and had friend chicken. im waiting on a picture the Beus took of us at there home when we were watching conference, it was alot of fun they made us burritos that tasted eactly like Cafe Rio there were so good. but hope everything is going good i love you all
-- Elder Tyler Herring

March 30, 2010 - Why did the chicken cross the road?

2010-04-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,it was a pretty good week. no baptisims but had alot of fun just messing round. so fist funny thing that happened was when elder ramsey hit a chicken that was crossing the road. he didn't even see it. decaptated it's head with our car. we thought it was really funny. so everytime something is on the side of the road i always ask " Elder Ramsey how come the chicken cross the road?" and he always says "so i could dominate it with the malibu." :) the next funny thing that happened is while we were at an ice cream place in our area we saw this lick and stick tatoos. hahaha they were 50 cents. so when we got home we put them all over our bodies i had one on my bicep, pec, and my belly.:) my bicep one was a guitar with wings, my pec was a chinese dragon looking thing, and the one on my belly was a hawian flower. it was really funny. ill send pictures next week. dont worry mom i washed them off. it was just one of thoses funny things missionaries do for fun. Elder ramsey and like to have alot of fun but we always make sure work comes first. one wierd thing that happened was alot of the farmers yesterday were burning there fields and it looked like Armagedan all across hooper. it was kinda scarey cause we thought our house had caught on fire. luckliy it didn't but the field 100 yds from our house was. YIKES!!!! on april 10th were supposed to have six baptisims so it'll be a really good saturday next week, love you all
-- Elder Tyler Herring2133 Washington Blvd.Ogden, Utah 84401

March 23, 2010

2010-04-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,so this week was kinda lame my companion and i have been sick for most of the week, i just had a stomach virus and my compainion is going to get a check up soon. only thing this week that was really cool that happened was were teaching this less-active family the coopers. there son carson is preparing to be baptized on the 10th of april. this is probally one of my favorite familys were teaching. one day we were teaching the 3-2-1 challenge that teaches about scriptures, praying, and going to church. when we got to prayer, carson wasn't really wrapping is head around it, so his dad explained it to him like this, you know when i pick you up from school and ask how your day was? thats what heavenly father wants, he wants to hear from you and know how your doing. During that his dad started to cry.... looked at his wife and said, can you belive what im saying? it was way spiritual because we didn't teach it his dad did and i really think that they'll start coming back to church and eventual get sealed in the temple. April fools day is coming up..... my all-time favorite holiday. my companion and i prank eachother alot with pouring cold water on eachother while the other is in the shower or rigging the sink sprayer where it'll spray someone when you turn the sink on. we have way to much fun together im excited we get to spend another transfer together. :) i love all of you!!!!!!-Elder Tyler Herring p.s mom mothers day is coming up...... i get to call home!!!!!

March 16, 2010

2010-03-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

hey everyone

well transfers happened and im staying in hooper, with elder ramsey. our mission presidents new thing is that transfers are going to be a "non event" thing. so there not going to be happening as much so ill probally stay in hooper for awhile. as far as updates go nothing to new is going on. only thing really cool that happened was one of my investigators (wess) from ogden somehow got ahold of my number and called me today. it was really sweet he came and drove us around the whole day. he's getting married in june or july and then a year later is getting sealed in the temple. ill still be on my mission for both of thoses things so ill be able to go. :) i had to give a talk last week in two wards, it was really good, this next sunday were speaking in three wards :). i did it on how members and missionaries need to speak the same language. i based it off a talk by Elder Erich W. Kopischke. its a really good talk probally one of my favorites ive read for awhile. we have alot of people schedualed for baptisim coming up, alot of them for the 10th of april about five people. all is good here though spring has finally started to come its not so crazy cold outside. elder ramsey and i are doing really good and having alot of fun. please send pictures of all of you guys so i can remeber all of you :)

love,

-Elder Tyler Herring

March 9, 2010

2010-03-18T18:01:00.001-07:00

ok so i promised a long letter this week so here it is. so the first picture is my pride and joy, my book of mormon cover. its captain moroni. the guy thats doing it for me is the bomb his name is rich. for my bible he hand drew the statue of jesus in the SLC visitors center and is HAND CARVING it into leather. both of them are done by hand. the second picture is of a kid name levi that we baptized + confirmed. he's the bomb way good kid.

so the majority of my letter is going to be what ive been studying..... prayer. i studied so that i can explain so a little child can understand, so the what, why, when, and how. most of what i got was from the new gospel principles book. first scripture 3nephi 18:15 "so we wont be tempted by the devil, and be led away captive" hahaha good enough reason for me. another reason why is the lord commanded us too moses 5:8. it will help us become closer to god. the next scripture D+C 10:5 probally one of my most favorite scriptures. so that we will come off conquerer!!!!! punch satan in the mouth. another thing prayer does for us is protect us. alma 34:17-27 verse 22 is the protection from our enemies. i was trying to find an example of someone in the scriptures that was delievered from there enemies by them praying. found mosiah 9:17-18 because of there prayers they were delivered from there enemies and slayed 3043 of them. i loved studing about prayer. i thought back to an experience i had in the temple. while on a mission ive been worring about how im going to support a family. so instead of debating inside of myself i took it to the lord. i said a prayer and asked him what i should do. after i finished an overwhelming feeling of peace came over me. and theses exact words ran through my head.... serve a mission with all that you have and ill take care of you afterwards. i have a huge testimony of prayer now from that experience. i know the lord answers prayer

March 2, 2010

2010-03-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

so no great inspiring email this week, ill try to have one next week. the picture thats attached is me holding a bearded dragon!!!! that thing is sweet. nothings really happened this week. ive been on exchanges mostly. oh oh i do have one crazy storey. elder santiago and i were on exchanges again except this time we were in his area. we went and ate dinner at this members home. we got there sat down for dinner then this younger women comes in and starts crying and says that she needs a blessing now.......!!!!!!! so we excused ourself from the table and we gave her a blessing. after the blessing she yelled that she didn't feel the spirit and asked if her dad could give her a blessing. her dad gave her a blessing and said that she still didn't feel anything. then she started crying again saying that she needed to talk to her bishop. couple minutes later the bishop knocks and comes in. it was nuts. later we found out that she was a crack addict and a binge drinker. lol deffently a journal entry. hmmm i cant think of anything else that was really funny. oh yea spiritual experience. was in the temple in the celestial room. i was worried what i was going to do for a career and how i was going to support my family. after saying a prayer in the celestial room, an overwhelming peaceful feeling came over me, it was pretty much the lord saying just serve with all your heart might mind and strength and ill take care of you. it was way sweet.

Love,
Elder Herring

p.s
saw casey today, he gave us a ride and went to the temple with us. later on today casey might be coming and playing lazer tag with all the missionaries in the area. ill get pictures of us and send them next week

February 23, 2010

2010-02-25T17:18:00.000-08:00

so I've been reading Jesus the Christ (this is my third time reading it) its the most insightful book ever. I'm towards the end where its talking about what happened after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. i was reading in Jesus the Christ where it talks about where john and the three nephite apostles pretty much asked Jesus if they could live till the second coming. and i thought well what are they doing? I've come to the conclusion that all four of them are in different parts of the world preparing other people to hear the gospel. so there in parts of the world like India and china. they can't be actively proselyting because the media would of picked up on it, because they'd be such bomb missionaries they'd be baptising a ton. so there just preparing people. another thing that i've been studing alot if the parable of the good samaritain. a talk that i read from an older ensign (attached to the email) discusses the deeper symbolism of the parable jesus was teaching. the good samaritan really teaces the plan of salvation really well. in luke 10:30 it starts out "a certain man went down from jerusalem to jericho" this certain man is adam he's representing all of us. went down this implies the he went down willingly knowing the riskes. so adam or us is going from the garden into the world. so we've all come from heaven knowing what were going to be tempted with. jerusalem is used because back then it was a holy city so it was representing heaven. jericho which is 825 feet below sea level because its the lowest city on earth. so recap we all came from heaven (jerusalem) to the earth (jericho) knowing the temptations (risks). "and fell among thieves" which is satan or temptations that were faced with. "which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead" when we passed through the veil we lost our immortal bodies (stripped him of his ramient). "and wounded him" is talking about the pains of life and sin. "leaving him half dead" thats talking about when we come down to earth we suffer our first death being seperated from heavenly father. then the scripture goes on and talks about the two people that passed by. a certain priest (the law of moses) which happened before jesus came into the earth and a levite which is talking about all the prophets that came before jesus and prepared the way. "and brought him to an inn, and took care of him" the inn is the church which symbolizes a safe haven away from the world. "and on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when i come again i will repay thee" the host or manager of the inn is the head of the church or the prophet. he leads and guides and " take(s) care of" us. and the last part when i come again. its jesus talking about the second coming when he comes again to reign of the earth. the article does the storey way more justice than i can, so print it out and read it.

but alot of things have happened since the last time i wrote. we had two baptisims trevan and levi. i forgot my camera so next week ill send them. but my companion and i our doing really well. i really love elder ramsey, he's been teaching me alot. we always have a ton of fun. thanks so much for all the birthday wishes. so funny story, i was on exchanges with elder santiago (two weeks out) and we stopped by a young womens presidents house. it just happened to be YW's night over there. it was wedding night. i asked if we could teach the young women how to invite their friends to meet with the missionaries. blame the missionaries, promise blessings, testify, and end with a will you question like "will you come to the church". and we did a really cool object lesson where an egg gets sucked into a gatorade bottle by fire. and afterwards we were leaving and the YW's prez asked us when we got home what were some of the qualities we were looking for in a young lady. it got really awkward because we had all theses young women staring at us waiting for us to answer. but it was really funny. good storey to go into the journal.

Love,
Elder Tyler Herring

link: The Good Samaritan: Forgotten Symbols, Liahona, February 2007

February 16, 2010

2010-02-16T13:43:00.001-08:00

doing good in hooper, but man is country out here. theres a ton of farms and it always smells like cows. my companion and i had a baptisim this week of a nine year old named trevan minnig. he's a way sweet and smart kid. we have another one schedualed for this saturday levi conley. my companion and i elder Ramsey are getting along way well and have a ton of fun together. :) nothing to new happened except for my birthday..... missy warwood (waite) brought me a cake but thats about it. went to the tabernacle today and picked up my packages from everyone for my birhtday, it way way sweet thanks so much.
love,
Elder Herring

p.s
ill write a nice long letter next week were pressed for time today

2/2/10

2010-02-02T21:31:00.001-08:00

so guess who's getting transfered? I'm going to hooper utah. since the assistants live with us i found out last night. apparently hooper is exactly like Gordonsville a little town surrounded by farmland. I'm excited. my new companion is elder ramsey, a strong saftey that played in college. me and elder Bevans stayed up last night to pack and do laundry, so we wouldn't have to do it on our p-day. but it sucks we finally started to get along the last week of the transfer and now were being split up. :( i think he's going to Hyrum Utah, the frozen tundra. lol its freaking cold up there. this week was CRAZZY!!!! we saved two marriages..... don't even ask and we stopped one of our recent converts from committing suicide. so yea it was a pretty cool week. oh yea im finally in A CAR!!!!!! im so excited hahahahahahahahaha. today for a tri-zone activity were going to Elite Gymnastics to play king of the hill. its where we take all the tumbling mats into the foam pit and some one stands on topp and you jump from about 12ft in the air to hit the mats or the person off. lol im way stoked for it. but better go got to finish packing and cleaning the apartment. love
Elder Tyler Herring

Weekly E-mail

2010-01-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

hey whats up everyone. sorry i haven't written in a while finally got settled down from transfers and in two weeks they'll happen again. everythings going good though cold but good. the pictures i sent one is of the estrada family that got baptised. the second is what missionaries do when we get bored. we play with fire!!!!! as far as funny goes we haven't had anything crazy funny happen. couple days ago we got a drunk guy yell at us that we were f***ing awsome, we asked if he'd want to learn more about his savior after that he just told us to screw off. i love my area though. theres two extremes here. either people love you or the really really really hate you alot. all the time we'll wave to people in there cars and they'll just flipp us off (its sweet) then just to spite them we run catch up with them knock on there window and asked if they'd like to take the lessons. but this week we dont have anyone schedualed for baptisim, but on the 30th we have six people. wess, he's from texas moved here on a whim. rose and robert, drug addicts who decided to change there lives. isabelle, she used to be a prostitute but she also decided to change her life. rodriguez, he's from the marshall islands he's sorta of a gang banger but he's trying to change. juan a guy we met at church welfare night and wanted to take the lessons. i love them all every single one of them has a really unique storey. but im doing good, just loving life and my mission.
love ya
Elder Herring

January 5, 2010

2010-01-17T16:14:00.001-08:00

hey how are you guys doing? things are starting to get better between me and my companion. lol he's just wierd and stuburn and likes to use the term "im senior companion and i make the decesions." that changed this week. i took the cell phone from him and our contacts book, because all we do is just walk around and really do nothing. so now that i have everything were starting to work with the members better and getting alot of referrals from them. i was talking to one of our zone leaders and he asked how me and elder bevans were doing. i said i really cant stand him, he's just wierd. elder cowan (zone leader) said one of the most profound things ive ever heard of. he said the only way your going to love your companion is "just fake it till you make it" so im trying that. we'll see how it will go. other than my companion im in a really cool district with alot of really fun people. today for fun were going go karting in layton at the boondocks. should be fun. we have alot of baptisims this week one family of 3 and two other people. one of my favorite investigators is wess. he has one of the best and sadest stories ive ever heard. he's from texas and divorced. he's the kicker. he wanted to move away from texas and prayed and asked the lord where he should go he spun the globe and landed on ogden utah. so he moved up here and is now taking the lessons. he's got the biggest texas "twang" ever. he excepted a bappy date and is getting baptised on the 16th. we have alot of other investigators 15 or so but they all live in the ghetto of ogden. all the crack heads, pot heads, alcholics, and heroine abusers. elder bevans has alot of faith in them that they'll quit, me not so much. the only reason they come to church is for the welfare program, but atleast there taking the lessons. love you guys
Elder Tyler Herring

We Updated! With Pictures!

2009-12-31T16:03:00.000-08:00

Please pardon the long time between posts. I think I've finally got it updated. We're going to try to be better about sharing the e-mails. We updated clear back into November, so, if you want to get caught up, be sure you go back at least until the November 19th posts - there are some pictures along the way!

Here's a few other pictures you may be interested in as well. Click to enlarge.

The mug shot to prove the boy rarely smiles.

And Ty's mission president his wife.

Where's Elder Herring? Can YOU find him?

12/29/09

2009-12-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

so got transfered to ogden utah. hahaha yea im in the ghetto to prove how ghetto it is. two nights ago there was a guy whos throat got slit about 6 blocks from where we live. it's wierd to see the other side of ogden. i never new ogden had so many problems like illegal drugs, prostitution, and gang related activity. but im doing good. my new companion Elder Beavens is from alberta, canada. we really dont get along, we argue alot about our baptisims and if there qualified and if they've been living there commandments. last night we got into an arguement about if one of our investigators William, is prepared to be baptised. i pointed out theat the prophet and the apostles have set guidelines for convert baptisms and that they need to go to church three consecutive times to be baptised. well william hadn't so i said were going to have to move his baptismal date back two weeks so he could get baptised. well he flipped out and was ranting about how i wasn't senior companion and that when i become senior companion i can make the rules about our investigators. to keep it short he saw it my way. unfortunatley most of the baptisims that have been done the people weren't prepared and hadn't gone to church. that changed when i told him i will not show up/perticpate in the baptisims if they haven't met all the qualifications. other than that incident our area is doing ok. could be better but we're going to have to build it up. thanks for everthing you sent me for christmas i loved it. hope all is well
Love,
Elder Herring

p.s
for my birthday i have a list of couple of approved cd's that id like. ill put that in the next email :)

Christmas Day

2009-12-31T15:53:00.000-08:00

Well, needless to say we did get his call schedule figured out. Elder Herring was able to call down to Grandma and Grandpa Dudley's midafternoon and talk to each of his uncles and a few select cousins. With special permission, he even got to call his "brother from another mother" Casey Waite who will be leaving to serve in Barcelona, Spain in March.

He is a very obedient missionary and stuck to his 45 minute time limit. Grandma Dorothy got to come down and we each got to talk with him for a few minutes. He's doing well in his new area. He got transferred to Ogden just before Christmas. He was welcomed to the area by the stake mission leader, Joe Arave, who grew up with our parents here in Charlottesville (what a small world the Church creates!), who gave him a pocket knife, and said "Welcome to the area, Elder".... UH... We all loved talk to him, and love him a LOT! :)

BEST. Christmas Present. EVER!!!

2009-12-31T15:50:00.002-08:00

Due to all of the snow in VA lately, only one of our doors, the back one, has easy access. But, we don't have a key for that door, so, we've been taking turns stumbling through the snow to the front door to let everyone else in the back.

On Christmas Eve, after our Herring family party, it was my turn. I stumbled through the snow and around the corner to see a package on the front porch (poor postman). I pick it up expecting it to be my Dad's Christmas present (which actually came 2 days AFTER Christmas), to see, "From: Elder Tyler LaMont Herring, To: The Family"

WAHOO!!!

Well, traditionally, we only open one present - pajamas - on Christmas Eve. I begged and we opened Ty's gift then too. In it was the most awesome Christmas present EVER:

So, if you know my brother, you know that he doesn't smile in a picture - ever! He's SMILING!!! We know he's in the right place now! I hope you can click on it and enjoy the full effect of this awesome gift that brought us to tears. :)

Oh Tyler!

2009-12-31T15:50:00.001-08:00

im on right now, we need to figure out my christmas call so your going to need to be on :P

-----Original Message-----
From: "Herring, Anthony J. *HS"
To: Tyler Herring
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:49:50 -0500
Subject: RE:

are you still on?
___________________________________________________________________
Tony Herring

Tyler's Letter 12/15/09

2009-12-31T15:49:00.001-08:00

hey wassup dad,
who's this new bishop? i dont reconize his name. mom said you sent my package yesterday thats sweet im excited. what do you think/want your next calling to be. right now i feel like im in the trenchs, so much flipping snow on the ground. but as far as phone call goes, im probally just call all the phones till someone picks up. :) hmm ill probally call 12 my time and 2 your time. if thats ok

Letter from Dad to Tyler 12/15/09

2009-12-31T15:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Tyler,
Look at the time. I am not on a mission, but I've been at work for over 2 hours already. These early mornings are a beast to do. Only one more before Christmas break though.

How are you doing? How is your companion? Your investigators? We pray for you and your investigators everyday. We know the Lord will bless you as you diligently serve Him.

We have a new Bishopric in the Ward. Bishop Aaron Hancock, Steve Morgan and Kenneth Crowther were sustained on Sunday. I do not have a calling yet, but I'm sure I'll get one soon. I'm sure that the new Bishopric will do great.

I have been thinking alot about the service we give to the Lord. He is so pleased when we diligently do the little things for others. It doesn't have to be huge, or out in the public eye. The best work is done in the trenches where you can help those that are struggling. The scriptures teach us that the right hand shouldn't know what the left hand is doing. I think that is especially true with service. If you are doing it for the recognition of others, your doing it for the wrong reasons. I am so glad that I had the chance to serve in the Bishopric when I did. Even though it was hard at times, I grew alot and I think I was able to help people that perhaps I wouldn't have known about.

I am so proud of you. You are blessing so many lives because of your service. Many people are looking at your example and want to follow in your footsteps.

About calling on Christmas day- what calling plan is your cell phone with? If it is verizon, then the best thing is to call Mom's cell phone. Mine is crappy. What time do you want to do it? Let's decide today.

I love you so much. Keep up the great work.

Love,
Dad

Tyler's Letter 12/09/09

2009-12-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

hmmm i know i get to call on christmas. we have our own phone so ill probally try your cell and if you dont answer ill just call grandmas house..... if i remember the number. i got a really nice christmas card from tod and kim dudley. as for the day of christmas..... it depends on who get's transfered. i might be getting transfered. but if i dont we'll go the althouses for christmas and spend it with them. sorry to be short we just have alot of things we have to do today. hmmm christmas. anything wool
love,
Elder Herring

Letter from Dad to Tyler 12/08/09

2009-12-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Dear Tyler,
It was great to get your pictures last week. They were awesome. It was great to be able to see what your companion looks like. It was awesome to see how happy you are.

We have been staying busy. I go to work at 3:00 am 2 days a week- so I stay tired- but what are you going to do. We put up Grandma's Christmas lights Friday night. Casey Waite helped me. He is getting stoked about his mission call. On Saturday, we got our first snow fall. We got about 5 inches of wet snow. Sandy and Flavio brought the boys over Saturday night and the boys went sledding on your tobaggan sled in the yard. They had a blast.

We have been reading some stories about missionary work around Christmas and feel so connected to you. When are you calling on Christmas day or should we call you? We need to get that worked out. What do you need for Christmas? Do you think your companion will get transferred? Do yo have plans for Christmas yet?

We love you so much. We are excited to get your emails each week. We share them with everyone. You have so many people that are living this mission with you through your letters and emails. Keep them coming. Stay strong and obedient so the Spirit will guide you. We love you?

Dad

Mission Pictures - 12/01/09

2009-12-31T15:39:00.001-08:00

so i just went and bought a cord from best buy for $20 so i can send you guys my pictures. the first one should be my first baptisim bryan, he was a trouble maker from vegas. took him about 3-4 weeks before he was ready to be baptised. had to get him married first to his wife, and to get him to stop smoking. the second picture was our surprise baptism, sorta made us mad. the ward had been preparing Cole a nine yearold for baptism and didnt know that the missionaries needed to be involved. we got involved the week before his baptism and taught him once, we taught him enough to pass the interview, the interview is supposed to be done by our district leader or zone leader but bishop asked if he could do it. thats not right because the bishop doesnt have the keys our the athority to missionary work. and he cant reccieve revelation for him because he's not a member. but the bishop went ahead and did it anyway. our misson president said that we just need to learn to pick our battles. the one thing that really made me mad is that the bishop said that the stake presidency was on board with him doing the interview, but we went and talked to the stake presidency and found out they weren't. hahaha whatever counts as a baptism for us :). but im doing well its starting to stay in the teens here during the day. and we didnt play in the USU stadium the guy called and said because of liability we couldnt so we just played at lundstrum park. it was supposed to be flag football but turned into tackle football. i didnt get hurt my companion is broken....... he messed up his wrist. its just sprained. but were both doing good. bought some ties today out of the back of some guys car today pretty sweet. as you see in my pictures i dont wear any of the ties i came out with. because my companion has opened my eyes to matching cuff links and hankies. THAT'S RIGHT IM ROCKING THE HANKEE'S.
Love,
Elder Tyler Herring

Thanksgiving Letter 11/24/09

2009-12-31T15:38:00.001-08:00

yes i bought my scriptures, no i haven't gotten a cord or the long garmnets yet. the scriptures really set me back. but as far as thanksgiving goes my companion and i did some sweet talking and were going to be playing flag football in the USU stadium (Romney Stadium) hahahaha thats right were playing at the Utah State Football Stadium. alot of our mission is going to be there. like 25-35 missionaries there. my weeks been pretty good cold, but good. next week ill probally get some warm garments and the camera cord that i need so i can send you guys some pictures. but as far as music goes i bought WOW Christian Music 2010 and a member made us a sweet cd. but i can have a cd player with a radio with it were just not aloud to turn on the radio. im excited to call home too, i cant wait but thats a long ways off. but i love you guys ill write a longer email next week our pday is short today because of thanksgiving we get another pday this week.
love,
Elder Tyler Herring

Weekly Letter

2009-11-17T20:03:00.001-08:00

Dear Fam, 17 November 2009

ok so the scriptures..... funny story, we were going to Varsity Villa where all of our investigators are. btw had my first baptism :) I’ll send pictures when I get a cord for my camera. But anyways left them at one of our investigators house and he called and told me, I told him to leave them outside his front door and we'll run by and get them, well I forgot about them and it snowed that night and buried them in the snow. The next morning the snow started melting and got them all wet. They’re still drying I’m about in Isaiah in the drying process. So I’ve been using a triple combination the past week and a half. lol sorry so I’m probably going to get some more today. (I’ll keep them as souvenir) then send them down to bountiful (member wraps them in a leather and engraves a picture on them for FREE) it’s pretty sweet. hahaha dad the weight you lost I’ve found...... :( most of the week last week I was sick with a stomach virus for Wednesday - Friday. It sucked and then my companion had it too. So we rotated puking in the bathroom. But we got better enough to go to the baptism. Oh I can’t remember if I told you all but me and my trainer stayed together for another transfer SWEET!!!! But I’ll send picture next time
love
Elder Tyler Herring

Elder Herring's weekly letter 11/10/09

2009-11-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

so guess what my scriptures got wet so today i gotta go get some new ones from the distribution center today :) lol there still drying out but i gotta get something. lol its been hard teaching with just a book of mormon. but yea i was talking to someone that engraves stuff on bibles and book of mormons so today im going to go see if he can engrave two pictures on it. the picture of moses with the ten commandments on the bible and captain moroni on the book of mormon. it'll be sweet. but nothing really happen this week. it was transfers today, nothing changed me and my companion are staying together. we got seven new investigators this week :)!!!!! but lol all of them have to get married :( so were going to have alot of marriages. but i love you guys, hopefully your at work and you can read this and let me know if its ok if i get some scriptures today.
love,
Elder Tyler Herring

Letter from Elder Herring 11/03/09

2009-11-03T16:23:00.001-08:00

hey everyone,
OH GOSH!!!! we got one of our investigators to come to church with his wife whos a member, they paid tithing and then went home after sacrement meeting. we were walking by there apartment and there were like four cop cars there...... he got a arrested for a public intocication when he was 18. we talked to the cops (there all rm's) and i was like look he's changed and he's currently taking the disgustions and has a baptisim date. needless to say he went to jail. he got out on monday because the ward mission leader Brother Boman payed his bail. it was way dope no one asked him to pay it but he drove to cedar city and paid it and drove Brian home. another thing that happened this week is we tracted into the ghetto of logan. knocked on this one door and this hispanic came to the door and was like "como" lol my companion and i explained that we were the missionaries and that we had a message about christ, i guess we offened him and he started rambling in spanish. then he turned around and ran back to his room. i saw a tatoo on his back when he was running, he was ms13. that crazy mexican gang from back home. so i looked at my companion and was like dude we need to get out of here, he's ms13. he asked what's ms13? i grabbed him by his arm and we ran upstairs to a members apartment and waited a little bit. the cool thing was is we were waiting for our investigators to come to church and i see theses three people walking up the sidewalk and it was him. him his wife and his deaf homie all came to church. he came up too me during sacrement and said they had to go cause his mother fell and she was in the hospital. hopefully we'll be able to teach him soon, his wife is way nice she always talks to us and wants us to come by and teach her husband. other than thoses its been good. i got to teach relief society kinda wierd but it was good. you heard it right I TAUGHT RELIEF SOCIETY!!!!!! so missionaries dont do crap for halloween, we borrowed monopoly from a members home and played for three hours and handed out pass along cards to trick or treaters, hahahaha they werent very happy
Love,
Elder Tyler Herring

Elder Herring's weekly letter

2009-10-21T10:17:00.001-07:00

hey everyone,
so you guys have been hounding me to know who my companion and I are teaching. so here goes.......one guy were teaching is brian, he was commited on the first lesson to be baptised on nov 14th. but first he has to get married to his girlfriend brianna who is currently pregnant, cause there living together. so that means we get to go to a wedding!!!! :) another family that were teaching right now is a part member family, the dads not a member and a truck driver so its really hard to catch him home, so we challenged him to listen to the book of mormon on cd in his tractor trailor while he's hauling. the other family were teaching is the Smiths, he is a return missionary who's inactive, they met in mainland china where he was teaching english. they got married and now live in logan, frank the husband was listening to conference and heard elder Hollands talk and decided that it was time that they should go back to church and that mae his wife should start taking the discussions. since shes from mainland china her english is pretty bad so we had to go get an rm that spoke manderan. were also teaching an indian couple that are living together, Dina and Louellen. we've only been able to teach Dina because Louellen works alot but were trying to work around his schedule so that he can start taking the discussions, he's way excited. there also going to have to married before they can get baptized..... so yes another wedding!!!! :P. the last person were teaching that not a member is frankee. her brother the fellowshiper is trying to get her to come to church, but she says its hard because she has a seven year old and a way out of control two year old, so its hit or miss with her she says she wants to come but has only been once. one less-active member were teaching is Jamie . She fell away from the church because of the way the member girls treated her. so she started to befriend local catholic girls, and because of that the member girls made fun of her. She's 27 and were teaching from the start with the restoration, she says she doesn't remember anything but.... the gospel teaching are like riding a bike you really never forget you just might be a little rusty. but im doing fine its all good here in logan, utah. one thing that i learned this week from one of the members we stopped by was, i asked what he did for a living because he lived in a very very modest home for a 24 yr old whose married with a baby on the way. he told me it was some executive postion for ICON, there a sport nutrition supplement place. i told him i hadn't really decided what i wanted to do as a career, and he said.... "Elder Herring dont worry about your furture, if you serve the lord with all your heart might mind and strength, and put all worldly things aside including a future career and where your going to go to school, and who your going to marry and devote all your time to the lord, he will bless you beyond comprehension." that really put things in perspective for me, and im going to try and live that, so i can be blessed down the road.
love,
Elder Tyler Herring

ps
mom or dad can you please forward this to everyone else in the family thanks, i forgot my address book today and couldn't send it to everyone. and yes i got my box thanks so much for everything

Letters to Elder Herring (week of Oct. 19)

2009-10-21T10:15:00.001-07:00

19 Oct 2009

Hi Ty,
How's our favorite missionary? We have been laughing about your bus story all week. I'm glad you're having a good time while working. That's important I think. Two different return missionaries said that it was important that you find something to laugh about everyday.
I can't believe you guys challenge investigators to baptism at the first discussion?! Wow that's pretty intense. Does it work out most of the time?
Chelsea took some pictures of Grandma and Granpa's new dog but I don't think she's uploaded them yet. I'll have her do it soon.
I think you put a little curse on us for the beach because it was way cold. And there was no beach to drive on because the water was up to the dunes. Anyway it was fun to get away for the weekend. Mom seemed so much more relaxed. The beach was crazy cold, and there wasn't any beach. The ocean was really, really close to the dunes. We took the jeep thinking we would drive on the beach but didn't. It was way too scary.
No word on Casey's mission call yet. My guess is that he'll get it Friday or Saturday. He got your address so he should be writting you soon.
Did you get your box? Is there anything you need? Are you warm enough? Would you wear a sweater vest, like Grandpa and Dad do under your suit? Let us know how we can help.
You are in our thoughts and prayers. We've almost finished reading the Book of Mormon. Our goal is to finish the first week of November and then start over again.
We love you son and are so proud of the man you are becoming.
Love tons
Mom and Dad

Hey Tyler!
I love you! Still got a good companion? How's Logan? This letter will probably be kinda brief cause I'm very very tired. Mom and Dad went to OBX like you know and they brought me this really really cute jacket. they had fun. And it wasn't that bad staying by myself, especially since Sandy and Flavio came and spent the nights with me. It was actually kinda fun eating all the junk food mommy bought me and just watched chick-flicks like the Proposal and stuff. But it did make me realize how quickly I'll be an adult and be in college and not living with mom and dad which was a little sad. Saturday Casey came and we went downtown cause I was bored stiff, it's really cool cause I haven't really talked to him since you left. It was nice to catch up and stuff, it's so wierd that in like a month or two you'll both be out on missions. So bizarro my brother's are growin up. So you know that Wild Wings place that you and Casey and Sam and Will always went to? Well me and my friends went there before the Western Game today. And they somehow convinced me to eat some of the really really hot wings (the hottest ones there) cause it didn't smell that hot. So I did and man I was crying like a baby it hurt so bad. My tummy is still like angry at me and on fire. I don't know how you could stand that. The waitor was really cool though he came by and handed me a glass of milk and was like this on me, I talked to my manager we have a no jerk clause so because they made you eat it you can have a free milk. We got pictures and videos of it. It was really good. And I'm really enjoying my senior year. Oh we also renamed Grandma's dog Chloe instead of Ice. She's one of the most adorable and obedient dogs. mom and daddy took pictures so when I find their camera I'll send you a picture of her. She's a yellow lab and is kinda short. She already knows to sit, stay, come, and fetch. She loves grandma and absolutely adores me and Casey. We somehow convinced Grandpa to let her come into the basement. She's kennel broken like Nikki and very obedient. We're building her a new big outside kennel and she's super spoiled. It's great! I'll send pictures soon!
Love you,
Chelsea

Letters to Elder Herring (week of Oct. 19)

2009-10-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

19 Oct 2009

Elder Herring's weekly letters 10/12/09

2009-10-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

To Everyone:

lol we’re a walking mission. but no i dont need my 72 hour kit i doubt ill get stranded in logan :P its utah. you guys are punks i cant believe you went to nags head. im not happy. your sitting down at the beach while im up here in the frozen tundra.one funny thing that happened this week is we were on the bus going to our other stake that we cover in logan and this really old guy asked all the students that were on the bus if they had gone on a date? i raised my hand and he looked at me puzzeled and said "your liar! and if you did im going to call the mission president" lol and my companion was like thats right then the old guy said "you can tell who the senior and junior companion is" then everyone was laughing i was crying cause i was laughing so hard. then the same old guy said that my compainion had won "the ugliest tie award" idk it was just super funny.

thats flippn sweet that casey put his mission papers in im stoked to find out where hes going. but yea were teaching seven people all of them have baptism dates (thats something we do in our mission we commit them to baptisim on the first lesson) but yea im loving it here its awsome. sorta feels like home cause of the members. like last week was kinda a rough week cause i was just getting adjusted to the mission field, but we were meeting bishops and we stopped by brother bars house and instead of a handshake he gave me a huge hug. idk it was pretty kewl.

love you,
tyler

To Chelsea:

thats sweet that grandma and grandpa got a dog. is it a puppy? you should send pictures over the email to me so i can see it. finally kc put his papers in i wonder where he;s going to go? utah ogden mission maybe? lol that'd be sweet but id doubt it. one funny thing that happened this week is we were on the bus going to our other stake that we cover in logan and this really old guy asked all the students that were on the bus if they had gone on a date? i raised my hand and he looked at me puzzeled and said "your liar! and if you did im going to call the mission president" lol and my companion was like thats right then the old guy said "you can tell who the senior and junior companion is" then everyone was laughing i was crying cause i was laughing so hard. then the same old guy said that my compainion had won "the ugliest tie award" idk it was just super funny.

Letters to Elder Herring (week of Oct. 12)

2009-10-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

10/12/09

Hi Tyler,
I'm not sure what Dad or Chelsea wrote to you so please forgive any news from home repeats!
Grandma and Grandpa got a dog! It a golden lab, she has papers. She seems to be really sweet and is trained pretty well. Her name is Ice; we may have to change that.
By the way Grandma said she didn't write you last week because she wasn't feeling well. She and Grandpa both have been fighting colds. She hopes to get a letter off to you this week. She doesn't like the idea of email so it will probably come snail mail.
Casey W. put in his papers last Tuesday so he should be hearing something in the next week or two. He asked Chelsea for your address as well. I'm sure he'll let you know when he gets it. I think he'll go Spanish speaking, out of the country.
As always it was so good to hear from you. It sounds like you're in a very busy mission. We got a letter from the mission home explaining how the mail works. They told us your companions name was Elder Weiland. Have you taught any one that looks promising? We have a new missionary in our ward. He's just been out about 4 days. He's greener than you
We hope to get a box off to you soon. It's really starting to get cold here so I know it must be cold out there. We love you and think of you often. You're a terrific missionary! Let us know if there's anything we can do to help you.
Love you tons,
Mom
PS. You don't have to write me separate if you don't have time. I know you're busy. It's just so good to hear from you and know that you're happy and working hard.

Dear Tyler,

It was great to hear from you last week. We are so glad you are doing well. It sounds like you ae in a great area. Tell us about your companion- his name, where he is from, etc. Also, tell us about your investigators- by name so we can pray for them as well. Are you guys on bikes or in a car? Do you have the opportunity to go to the Logan Temple? It is such a beautiful old Temple. How many wards are you responsible for?

I had the chance to tell some co-workers about your experiences as a missionary the other day. I was amazed at how strong the Spirit was as I talked to them. Everyone of them was touched by the Spirit. It was great. They were very impressed that a 19 year old would give up to years of his life to serve the Lord.

I had the chance to watch the Primary kids on Sunday as they prepared for their program. They are so cute. I am sorry that Mom and I are going to miss it. We are headed to Nags Head on Friday for a long weekend to celebrate our anniversary. We are staying right on the beach in a hotel.. Hopefully the weather cooperates with us.

Casey's papers are in. He should hear something in the next week or so. It is amazing that there are soon going to be six of you guys serving at the same time.

I am sending a package on Tuesday. It has a sweater, a fleece jacket, some gloves and a stocking hat as well as some goodies. Do you need anything else, more sweaters, a scarf? Do you want your 72 hr kit?

I want you to know how much I love you and how proud I am of you. I am proud to be your dad. Work hard and obey the rules and you will be blessed. Be happy-you are n the Lord’s army. He is your leader. Follow Him and He will bless you.

Love you!

Dad

Hi Elder Herring,
Are you still fat and happy in Logan? So we went to church today cause it's
Sunday. We had one of the best fast and testimony meetings ever. It's really
cool cause like Stephanie has decided to bear her testimony for the 24
months that Wil is out on his mission, and since I haven't missed a month
yet I decided I would too. It was really awesome. I had planned out exactly
what I was gonna say when I was sitting down, but when I got up there to
bear my testimony that all went away, and the Spirit took over it was so
awesome. I bet that will happen a lot on your mission! Speaking of
missions..... CASEY PUT HIS PAPERS IN!!!! So he should know where he's
headed in a week or two! They also figure it out that there will be the same
amount of time between you and Casey as there was between Sam and Will! I'm
really excited to have 2 missionary's to write on a weekly basis. The other
thing that might make you excited is grandma and grandpa got a dog. She's a
yellow lab and her name is Ice. She is really obedient. She plays fetch, she
sits on command, she's kennel trained so they can keep her in Max's old
cage, or in a kennel in the garage, and she already follows grandpa. Mary's
boyfriend Randy got her for grandma and grandpa and they are both so excited
to have a dog on the farm again. It's really exciting for me and Casey cause
like Max was you and Mallory's dog and you guys trained him, and now we have
a puppy to train. She's a really fast learner too, it's awesome!
Last night was homecoming. I wanted to tell you a bit about it! It was like
the best experience ever! So I got ready at Nick's house with Catie and his
mommy helped us cause Mom went to the Time Out for Women Deseret Book
festival in Richmond. Then we took lots of pictures.... I'll probably send
you a pic in my next hand written letter. But, I was like the single lady
and I was kinda pouting cause I was like no date way lame. But then I didn't
know it but Nicholas bought me a flower thing that goes on your wrist. It
was super cute. I had a great time at the dance, and I behaved! It was a
really good experience.
Can't wait to read your letter on Tuesday,
Hope it's full of details about your companion and what you've been up to,
Love you soooo much,
Chels

Ty,

Sounds like you're having an awesome time in Logan in spite of the cold. That's GREAT! You'll have to save one of those bottles and send it home if you can. That would be cool to have.

I finally made it back up to Draper this weekend. It was crazy! Todd, Damian, Eden, Eva, and Maryann were in town because it was Paige's baptism (which I missed because I was sick). It was also Eden's birthday, so I was there for the family dinner. I talked to Chase. He wrote you a letter that I promised I would send you, and said to tell you he misses you. He thinks you are the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Anyway, I hope your week went well.

Love you,

Mallory

Tyler's Letters: Week 3 (October 6, 2009)

2009-10-11T15:55:00.002-07:00

hey dad,
so im serving in logan utah. chipped my tooth on some hard candy so had it filled this morning. by the way, i wont be able to get dear elders up here so tell everyone just to email me and ill be able to reply to them on p-day (tuesdays). but so far its goin good, its already snowed here a little. so you guys can send out all my sweaters and stuff. but for the first week it's been pretty slow. the first full day i was here i got to confirm the gift of the holy ghost on a convert that had been baptized on saturday, that was pretty cool. but this first week ive pretty much just been meeting with bishops and auxilery leaders and working with them trying to get a couple of referrals. we really dont go tracting at all we work through the members mostly. but im loving it sorry the dentist called you real early :)
love you,
Tyler Herring

Tyler,
What is your actual address? Can't send the package without it. Also how is your money holding out?

Love you,
Dad

Dad-
all mail and packages have to go through the mission office. money is fine i still have 60 bucks and a 50 dollar subway card still. lol any other questions before i get off the cpu?

2133 washington blvd.
ogden, utah 84401

love
tyler

Tyler-
what is your companion's name, where is he from? We can't send you a goody package to your apartment? We have banana bread to send!

Love
dad

To Mallory:
mtc went well besides spraining my ankle. my first day i got here i got to confirm the gift of the holy ghost on a convert that was pretty chill. second day i got here i chipped my tooth on some hard candy so i had to get it filled this morning. by the way im serving in logan utah. it is freaking cold up here already. probally the coolest thing about the area is we get free milk, and it come all the way from morgan in old timey bottles. but love you
tyler herring

To Chelsea:
lol dont bark at me about getting personal letters punk, your letter is the same one mom and dad will get. im so busy i barley have time to come to the family history center and email everyone back. print this out its your "personal letter" oh and by the way im serving in logan so im going to tell all the members to watch out for you :P. thats cool you tried out for all the choir things. you'll make one of them. you can apply to weber its a really good school, i dont care where you apply as long as you go somewhere. i think you'd like weber. dont worry about me getting fed we get fed every night by the members and when we go out to eat for lunch 80% of the time someone offers to pay for us. love you tyler herring

Tyler's First Letter Home

2009-10-11T15:55:00.001-07:00

Hey Mom and Dad,
So the first week at the mtc.... hmmm let's see first two-three days were hard. I was homesick. I even talked to my mission president and zone leaders. But my mission pres told me some advice that I'll never forget. He said, what do you think everyone will think of you, matter of fact what are you going to do or how are you going to set an example to your kids to go on a mission. This is what is probably going to keep me going on my whole mission that piece of advice. But I'm doing okay beside the fact I either sprained or broke a little bone in my foot. Lol don't worry I went and got x-rays today and the doctor said he couldn't see anything but is going to have the radiologist look at it and to come in tomorrow. But yes it was from playing basketball. My companion is really chill he's a farm boy from a little town in Idaho. We've really learned to love each other and the gospel. Our goal the whole time is to be able to teach by the spirit not cram a lesson down their throats. We actually got to teach an old mission president (though we didn't know him and his wife were) he said he had never felt the spirit more than when we taught him the restoration. But he also gave us a really good piece of advice, "It doesn't matter where you go and teach and preach on your mission, your still saving souls." But, I'm doing fine, tell everyone I said hey. Maybe you should read the letter at church so everyone will know I'm doing alright.
Love,
Elder Tyler Herring
PS send more stamps :) maybe even a goody package

Tyler Reports to the MTC

2009-10-11T15:52:00.001-07:00

I was so glad I was in town and was able to get off from work so I could go with Lewis, Brenda, and Tyler to the MTC.

The night before he left was, obviously, an emotional one for me - we had a family devotional, and I couldn't hold the tears. I am SO proud of this kid. He is AWESOME! And his service will not only bless the lives of the people he meets on his mission, but also the lives of those of us at home - and I can't adequately explain how much we desperately need those blessings these days.

We were able to get Tyler a Utah license and have lunch before we dropped him off around 1 pm. The days of the families going in and watching the video thing, are over. And quite frankly, I think the new way is better. We didn't have a lot of time to take pictures (which if we had understood it a little better, we could have), but, we dropped him off and there was a line of over 100 missionaries assigned to greet the new missionaries and their families, and then escort the new missionaries to their rooms. These Elders were so enthusiastic and happy, and the drop-off itself was so fast, that you couldn't help but be happy for your missionary, and there wasn't time for tears... Until I was driving home by myself afterward.

Tyler leaves for Utah

2009-10-11T15:32:00.001-07:00

Tyler got his mission call!!

2009-10-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Tyler got his mission call June 6, 2009!

I am so excited for him! I'm sure this will be a wonderful experience for him!

He will be reporting to the MTC on September 9, 2009 to prepare to serve for two years in the Utah Ogden Mission.

Here is his mission website: http://www.mission.net/utah/ogden/