"That the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord"

Hola!!

Finally made it to Minnesota! The first week of missionary work is crazy, and I still don't know what's going on most of the time, but that's ok. My district kind of abandoned me at the MTC for a little while there, and waking up at two in the morning to catch a flight is something I would not ever recommend. But we made it!!

The biggest surprise this week was as we were driving to our area, my trainer told me the Bishop asked if I would speak on Sunday. And it seemed like something I couldn't really say no to, so I gave my first sacrament meeting talk in Spanish yesterday. It went surprisingly well, there were a few words I stumbled over and probably said completely wrong, but a lot of members told me I did a good job and they understood what I was talking about, so that's all that really matters I guess. The members are all so amazing. The ward is small, but they are really powerful and there is so much love I have already felt. And all the people we teach are so amazing and even when they don't want to talk to us they're still really polite about it. And even though many of them don't have much, they are full of so much love and so much joy in the Savior. 

 The Spanish is hard, and sometimes we'll be in a discussion and I'll be understanding what's going on and be contributing a little bit, but then there will also be some lessons I have absolutely no idea what's happening and my companion will look at me to say something, and I must look like a deer in the headlights because she knows I don't know what's happening and keeps teaching. But there's a little bit of improvement each day. So that's good. But my trainer is great. Hermana Hughes, and she's infinitely patient with me trying to figure everything out, and hopefully by the time 18 months rolls round I'll have a little bit of a better idea of what's going on. 

I hope everyone watched women's conference. I loved Sister Linda K. Burton's talk a lot, talking about how we can look at the word "certain women" to be a word of power. I know I sometimes feel like women don't really get a role in the Bible, but when you look at certain as a word meaning, positive, definite, confident, assured, firm, women who are certain in their testimonies of Christ, it's an entirely different meaning that I absolutely love. We should all strive to be certain disciples of Christ. 

A scripture I found I really like this week is in Doctrine and Covenants 124:23, talking about how the temple is a place of rest for the weary traveler, where we may fight health and safety. And we talk a lot about how temples are places where we draw closer to God, and receive power and knowledge, and receive answers and blessings and feel the spirit, but it really is a place of healing as well. Where we can bring together families and where we can go to rest ourselves from the burdens of the world and find comfort in the word of the Lord, "yea, the very word which healeth the wounded soul" I also finished the Book of Mormon this week from my attempt to read it in the MTC, so it ended up being really close. I would again invite everyone to read it through again with a certain question or a certain topic in mind. The best thing I've realized is that as we do that, no matter what topic we pick, it always brings us back to Christ, because that's where we can always find answers. 

The work is hard, and sometimes it's easy to get discouraged when no one wants to talk to you that day, but there is so much joy in dedicating everything we do to inviting and helping others unto Christ. 

Love you all!

Les quiero mucho!!

Herman Meredith

D&C 123:24 "And it shall be a house for boarding, a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein; therefore let it be a good house, worthy of all acceptation, that the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord; and the cornerstone I have appointed for Zion"