Sweet Dreams

Brooklyn has a great sense of humor and often sent us pictures and videos that cracked us up. 

We know missions can be exhausting, especially with the schedules they keep. I don't blame them one bit for catching a quick nap now and then! 

Sister Woo

Sister Ching

Sister Woo

Sister Ching

Sister Ching

Sister Ching

Sister Fine

I'm not sure....Sister Fine or Hicks?

Don't worry, Sister Ching captured Brooklyn too!

Last Email Home

Brooklyn wrote one last email before she came home, answering some questions Brian asked her. I feel like it's a perfect way to end her missionary blog. 

The baptism went super well! It was such a good day! Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take pictures on our iPads. But our ward mission leader has some. Hopefully we can get those soon.

Those are some big questions! I’m just going to send you what I’ve written in my departure letter so far.

I don’t even know where to begin. The last 18 months of my mission have taught me so much. I have learned and progressed in ways that I never thought I could. I have seen the Lord’s hand in my life. I have felt His love for me. I have seen God touch the hearts of the people I have worked with. I know that God has a plan for each person, and I’m so grateful that coming to Minnesota was part of His plan for me. 

Over the course of my mission, I have felt God’s love for me in so many different ways. Before I was a missionary, I knew God loved me, but I couldn’t recognize the feeling of His love as well as I can now. I thought when I came on a mission, I would see and be a part of huge miracles. I have seen a couple of those, but most importantly, I’ve been able to change the way I see things and recognize the small miracles God performs every single day. I’m sure I still don’t see everything, but I see His hand in my life way more than I ever thought I could. I want to share a few small experiences I have had that have left a big impact on me. 

The first one was at the very beginning of my mission. I had only been out a couple of weeks and one night I got super homesick. I just missed my family so much. I prayed for help before I went to bed, but when I woke up I still felt really homesick. Before starting personal studies, I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was going to pick up my scriptures and open to a random spot and read until I felt like I had received an answer. I opened to section 99 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is revelation for John Murdock about his mission. It talks about God giving him power and the work he’s going to do. It helped me realize how important this calling I have to be a missionary is. I wasn’t fully satisfied with that answer though, so I continued reading onto Section 100. Something that I like to do is put my name into the scriptures, I want to show you how I read it. 

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friend, (Sister Hermansen) your family is well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power.

When I read this I felt God’s love pouring out for me and I was so comforted. He answered my prayer right away, and to this day, that day was the only day of my mission that I’ve been homesick. I have seen the blessings in that verse become true with my family. God has blessed them so much while I’ve been on my mission. 

The second experience I want to share was just during this last winter. I was a little bit sick and had a cough, but it would get so much worse at nighttime. One night it was especially bad. Thankfully Sister Hicks is a pretty heavy sleeper, so she slept right through it, but I was up coughing for hours past our bedtime. My throat was in so much pain and I was so exhausted. I don’t know why it took me hours to think of this, but I had a thought to pray. I said a simple prayer pleading with God to relieve my throat and help me get some rest. Almost immediately after I finished my prayer, my throat felt soothed. The next thing I remember is waking up with an overwhelming sense of God’s love and awareness for me. I learned that God really does care about us in every aspect of our lives. Anything that is important to us, is important to Him. 

One of the biggest lessons I have learned is how important the gospel is in my life. Before my mission I viewed the gospel kind of like an accessory for my life. I knew it was good and it added to my life, but I have learned that it is not just an accessory. The gospel is my life. The gospel really applies to every single part of our lives. My mission and the experiences I have had have helped me see how I can keep the gospel in the center of my life. 

God has a plan for me. When I was waiting for my mission call, I really didn’t want to go somewhere cold. I told everyone that I knew that God knew what I could handle, and that I couldn’t handle the cold. Boy, was I taught a lesson. I was so wrong. God knows me a lot better than I thought I knew myself. My mission has taught me to trust God in everything. His plan is always better for us than ours. I knew there was a reason that I needed to come to Minnesota. When I came here, I was searching for it. I felt like I was helping people and fulfilling my purpose, but I wanted to see why I needed to come here to this specific mission at this specific time. When I had been out about 6 months, I had just become content with my purpose here. I felt like I had gotten a hang of everything and really learned to enjoy it. Then one night I got a phone call. It was President Forbes. He was asking me how familiar I was with Karen work and told me, “Don’t get preoccupied with this because I’m talking to a lot of other people as well.” A week went by and I had convinced myself that I would be okay with either option. I made a list of pros and cons of becoming a Karen missionary, and staying in English work. Then I got the second call. One of the AP’s called me and told me that President Forbes had felt like I should become the new Karen Sister. I was ecstatic, and scared out of my mind. My first day in Karen work, Sister Fine took me to Pee Haw Paw, a cute little Karen Grandma, to get my Karen name. We walked into this humble home and sat on the floor with her. I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying, but I felt such a strong love for her and I felt a strong impression that this was the reason that I needed to come to Minnesota at this time. Since then I have met so many people that I feel like I have built strong relationships with and I have helped them strengthen their relationship with Christ. I don’t think God sent me here because he knew I would be able to pick up the language easily and speak well, because I still really struggle with it, but I know one of the reasons he sent me here is for the people I’ve been able to meet and the relationships I’ve built. Not only Karen people, but the missionaries I have been able to work with for such a long time as well. They have become some of my best friends. I’m so grateful for the friendships I have made with them. Especially my beloved companion Sister Hicks. She is the best friend I’ve ever had in my life and I’m convinced she’s the only person I could spend 24/7 with for 10 months. She has taught me so many valuable lessons. I know God put us together and I’m so glad! However, God also knew I needed to have other companions before I started in Karen work. Each of my companions taught me so much. Sister Ching was my companion right before I came to Karenland and she has become one of my best friends as well. We had all of the same weaknesses and struggles at the time and it was such a good learning experience for both us. We were able to help and support each other. 

My whole mission has been God teaching me to trust in Him. Between freezing cold temperatures, learning a crazy language, and many other small things, I’ve learned the importance of trusting God 100% even when we feel like we can’t do it, He will always strengthen us in the midst of our trials. I’m so excited to see what else God has in store for me in this life and the next! I know that if I will do my best to continue to trust in Him and His plan for me, I will be able to continue to grow and progress throughout my life.

Last day with President and Sister Barney

Sister Debbie Richardson took Brooklyn to the airport. Saying goodbye to some of her favorites!

Brooklyn, Mae Paw and Sister Hicks

Candice and Marci helped us get the house ready!

It was cold and windy, but Brian and I tied yellow ribbons on trees, fences and posts up and down our street.

Austin, Stacie and Steve Sheehy (Emilee couldn't make it to the airport)

The Randalls

The Nielsens

Dad, Mom and Eric (Jeff had to work)

Baby Noelle

Her MTC companion, Sis. Wilcox

Our whole gang at the airport on April 4, 2018.

Grandpa and Grandma Hermansen

We tried, but something was written wrong in Karen. Brooklyn got a kick out of it!

Valarie saying goodbye when Brooklyn left on her mission and Valarie welcoming Brooklyn home!

Brooklyn and Sister Hicks had a hard time after Brooklyn came home. They really missed each other!

Kira Joko and Jeff holding Sofia (Jeff had to work the day she came home)

Elder Evan's parents and brother Curtis came to Brooklyn's Homecoming from Eureka. 

Grandma Horscroft and Devina were able to make it from Arizona.

Wearing their matching Karen outfits. Candice will have to save it for one of Brooklyn's daughters one day!

Jordan River Temple Open House, shortly after Brooklyn got home. (One of Devina's friends and daughters came with us)

Sher Paw’s Baptism!

Sher Paw got baptized on Saturday! Oh my goodness it was so cool. I just want to give a recap of her story. Mae Paw, her older sister, got baptized a year and a half ago. When I got here a year ago, Sher Paw and two of their other sisters were coming to church each week as well. We would teach them once or twice a week, but they were always kind of crazy like regular 12 and 10 year olds. Also, their parents had already told them they were too young to be baptized so they didn’t think it was an option. Last fall, Sher Paw started showing a lot more interest and dedication to the gospel. Especially when she turned 12 years old and started going to young women’s. In January, the youth all went to the temple to do baptisms and we taught Sher Paw in the waiting room. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She showed a new level of interest and for the first time, told us that she wanted to be baptized. We promised her that if she would pray every single day and we would pray as well, that God would help her be able to get baptized. We asked her to choose a date to pray for and she chose March 24th. Since that day in the temple, we have been praying every single day for her. Over the course of that time she had asked her parents a couple of times if she could get baptized and every time they said no. We decided to lay off for a little bit until about a week and a half ago. We had the idea to message her dad on Facebook and ask him if she could get baptized. We didn’t know if it was the best idea to do it over Facebook rather than in person, but we prayed and felt good about it. So we did it. He literally replied with, “no” we were a little disappointed because we felt like that’s what we were supposed to do, but tried not to dwell on it. So that was two Fridays ago. Then last Monday, Mae Paw called us freaking out and told us that he said that Sher Paw could get baptized! Since we messaged him he had been thinking about it and decided that he could tell that we want the best for them and that this is something good. We went over that night and he said he didn’t want it to be the same weekend, but we had conflicts for the next couple of weekends so we were sad. Then on Tuesday, Mae Paw called us and told us that he changed his mind and said she could be baptized that Saturday! March 24th! The exact date that we’ve been praying for! God’s hand has been in this process the whole time! It’s been so amazing to see! She’s now the newest member of the North St Paul ward! God is real and He answers prayers! I’ve seen it, felt it, and know it. 

Besides that, this weekend has been full of people feeding us tons of food. Including cake three times, and durian fruit. It actually didn’t taste bad. I was shocked. 

Didn’t have time to get pictures with Sher Paw, but a guy in the ward got some so hopefully I’ll get those soon! 

Have a good week! Until next time! 

Sister Hermansen

 Sher Paw's Baptism 

Durian Fruit

A nice guy we teach at the Karen Organization of Minnesota wanted a picture with us. (They teach English there every Tuesday)

Brother Mason from New Brighton came and took us out to lunch!

They made another Facebook video singing "Teach Me to Walk in The Light" in Karen. It turned out so cute and was fun to watch and listen to their beautiful voices!

Decisions Determine Destiny!

Hello! This week has been pretty good! The highlight of the week was definitely stake conference this weekend. The theme was “decisions determine destiny.” But that was not only the theme of stake conference, it’s been the theme of the week. So many random things about decisions and choices have just been popping up out of nowhere. Heavenly Father has been making sure I’m getting his message haha. But seriously, this is such an important topic! Our decisions that we make while we’re here on earth, determine our eternity! One of my favorite quotes from stake conference went something like this, “We should live every day with an eternal perspective, instead of living eternity with an every day perspective.” In our world today, so many people “live for the moment” it’s an “eat, drink, and be merry” world we’re living in. But that is not how we can have the most joy! Another quote I really like was something like this, “happiness comes from worldly or physical/temporary things, but pure joy comes from within” it’s the choices that we make each and every day, that can give us lasting joy. There's a popular saying, “Live every day like it’s your last” I was thinking about this today and thinking about how the world might take this and use it as an excuse to do whatever they want, to party, be immoral, or whatever other crazy things people do, but I was thinking about how different it would be taken if we changed it just a little bit. What if we said, “Live every day like it’s your last day before you meet God” How differently would we live our lives? I imagine we would all be a lot better people. When I first heard about decisions determining our destiny, I immediately thought about the big choices we have to make, but a lot of the talks were about the little things. The daily choices that we make. It has made me think so much more about my future and how I want my life to be! They also talked a lot about service and how much serving others can impact our lives. I know that we have opportunities to serve someone every single day of our lives, we just have to look for them and listen to the spirit. It doesn’t have to be something big or time consuming. Smiling at someone, sending a nice text, calling a friend, it can be literally anything! This is something that I want to work on. I want to make an effort to do something nice for someone every single day. One of the speakers said, “Serving others doesn’t make our problems go away, but serving others gives us the strength we need to be able to endure our trials.” I know this is true! Sorry I have a lot of thoughts about these topics, but I don’t want to make this too long! Here’s links to some great talks on these topics! Please read them!

https://www.lds.org/new-era/1979/11/decisions-determine-destiny?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2017/11/saturday-morning-session/a-yearning-for-home?lang=eng

Now for an update on some investigators. 

Sher Paw: We asked her dad if she could be baptized, he simply said, “no.” Bummer. She is still doing great though. I know she will eventually be able to be baptized. It’s just a matter of getting past these cultural roadblocks. 

Eh Lin: We asked him if he had a chance to pray about baptism. He said he forgot. Then proceeded to tell us that he is concerned about getting baptized a second time because his old pastors told him if you get baptized more than once you’ll go to hell. He told us, “in the Bible they don’t get baptized more than once” so we read in the Bible where people get baptized a second time and helped him understand why it was necessary for them to get baptized a second time. He said a really cool prayer at the end of the lesson asking God to help him find the truth and understand these things. Just trying to work through another cultural roadblock. 

Magen: She’s still doing great. She has such a strong desire to follow Jesus Christ and do what’s right. She told us that her mom was raised in a different religion, but now her and her dad don’t really believe in anything so Magen has been trying to teach her 9 year old brother about Jesus. How sweet is that? I’ve got high hopes for her. She’ll do great things. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Sister Hermansen 

Cute companions. Sorry I slacked on pictures this week. 

UPDATE! GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. GOD IS REAL. We literally just got off of the phone with Mae Paw and she called us so happy saying that her dad just told her that Sher Paw can get baptized! I guess since we asked him he has been thinking and decided that he can tell that this is something good and he sees that we just want to help their family. Oh my goodness. We got to talk to Sher Paw as well and she is so happy! God is a God of miracles my friends. He always has been, and he always will be.

Don’t worry, we’re lice and bed bug free.

Update: The lice and bed bug situations are under control. We are back to our normal spot sleeping on our Thai mat on the bedroom floor. It feels good to be back, not as good as those mission home beds felt though. 

We went to the Lamb of God concert this week with Mae Paw and an investigator, Sue. It was sooo good. It is a concert all about the last week of Christ’s life here on earth. The music is so powerful. It really helped me to think about how lucky we are that Christ suffered and died for our sins so that we can receive the blessings of eternal life and happiness. It’s up to us to use His sacrifice to help us repent and become better. 

It’s been a pretty good week. Mae Paw’s dad still hasn’t come to church. :( We will keep praying though! We had a couple really cool lessons this week. One was with our investigator Eh Lin. The whole lesson just felt super good. The spirit was really strong. We invited him to be baptized and he responded pretty well. He said he wants to think and pray about it more, but he knows the things we have been teaching him are true. 

The other really cool lesson was with a girl name Magen. She is one of our member's friends. She’s 14 and super cute. She’s also white, so we had to teach in English and it was so weird hahaha It's weird how hard it has become to teach the gospel in English because we are so used to teaching in Karen now. Anyway, we taught her about the restoration of the gospel and she understood it so well. She just kept talking about how much sense it makes and how she feels really good about it. I was thinking about that, and about how the gospel really does just make so much sense. God chose prophets a long time ago in the Bible to teach us and help us learn what we need to do to get back to him, and God is unchanging. It only makes sense that he would choose more prophets to help lead us and guide us today. I’m so grateful that we have the knowledge of a living prophet who leads us and guides us in these days. I know that President Russell M Nelson is a true prophet, called by God. In a couple of weeks we are going to have the opportunity to hear him and the apostles speak to us and tell us the things God wants us to know. I’m so excited! 

I know this gospel is true and it has blessed me more than I can even explain. Before my mission I looked at the gospel as an accessory for my life. Something that added to my life. But as I’ve been on my mission, I’ve really been able to see that the gospel is my whole life. Everything I do has something to do with God’s plan for me. The gospel should be a part of every aspect of our lives, and when we make it that, God is going to bless us more than we can imagine or even see. He loves us so much and wants us to have joy in life. 

Have a gooood week! 

Lamb of God concert

Didn't take many pictures this week, but here's one of Sister Hicks and I before church!

Miracles? Lice? Bed bugs? All of the above?

Here is last week’s update, I started writing it and then we helped a senior couple who was leaving and I didn’t have time to finish!

Wow this week was a good one! To start things off, Elder Williams left and went down to Albert Lea with Elder Evans! Elder Evan's companion, Elder Larsen, is now here in St Paul! Annnnnnnd we got a new sister! Her name is Sister Hoskins! She’s super sweet and funny! She's already doing great, I’m super excited for her to learn Karen and experience this crazy adventure.

Last week I talked about all of the cool things going on with Mae Paw, and this week there’s even more! 1. Mae Paw’s dad fed us again! That’s two times in the past week and the only two times in my whole year of being here! 2. Mae Paw’s dad said that he wants to start coming to our church! There are a ton of Baptist churches here that most of the Karen people go to and lately a lot of them have been having a lot of problems. One congregation just got kicked out of their building, another one just split up, and they just have a lot of issues. He said that he’s sick of the problems and instability in their churches so he wants to start coming to ours! Super cool! However, it snowed a tooon on Saturday and they didn’t end up coming. It was sad.

We also had a pretty cool finding night on Saturday. We went on splits. I went with Mae Paw to one apartment complex and Sister Hoskins and Sister Hicks went to another apartment complex. We found 12 new investigators within 3 hours! It was pretty cool! We taught a nice Buddhist couple that wants to learn about Jesus Christ. God is definitely blessing us! We have been trying to be more exactly obedient and we are seeing the results! When we obey, we receive help and blessings.

Now for this week! Sister Hicks wrote about this week beautifully, so indulge yourself in our week, written by her. Things bolded and italicized will be my edits. 

Day one:

Had a good pday. Senior couple was leaving to go home and she loaded us up with 2 shopping carts full of food. One for the rotini pasta and one for everything else. We seriously have rotini pasta up to our ears. All our cupboards are topped with rotini. If you need pasta let me know. I'll include a picture of all the food we got. So. Much. Rotini. 

Day two: 

Taught some people as usual. Sister Hermansen leaned back in her chair in the car and I looked through her hair as a periodical thing to check for lice. Found some lice. Proceeded to check all our hair. We all had lice. Sister Hoskins has been here for a week. Went out and taught some people. Did an over night lice treatment. Most of the Karen people have lice, but we use preventative oils and stuff in our shampoo. We thought it was working. Until now. 

Day three:

Woke up and picked lice out of our hair for 3 hours. We were suppose to go on an exchange, but instead the sisters brought us Chic Fil A. Gave us this sweet note went to the laundry mat and washed everything we sleep with. All blankets and pillow cases and everything. Kept two blankets out. In plastic bags to sleep with that night. Taught some people. Came home and slept on the couch and hammock because we wanted to keep all our lice free, clean sheets, lice free. Slept with the two blankets we had kept out of the washing. Sister Hicks and Hoskins slept on the couch. I slept in my hammock. 

Day four:

Went to zone conference. It was so good. President gave an incredible training on forgiveness. Such a good training. He talked about how repentance and forgiveness are intertwined and you can’t do one without the other. You can't truly repent until you’ve forgiven yourself and others who have wronged you. When we don’t forgive people, it's basically denying the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He suffered so that all men can be forgiven by God. If we think someone doesn’t deserve to be forgiven, that’s denying the power of Christ’s sacrifice. Then some zone leaders gave a really great training on desire. What are the desires of our heart? Sometimes we have to pray for God to give us the desire to read our scriptures or go to church. Such a good spiritual refresher. Came home to drop off some stuff. Sister Hermansen found a bed bug chilling on my blanket I had used the night before. Right on the couch. Compared him to our bed bug card indicator. Texted our exterminator Bishop and this is the text we receive from him:

     "Full grown, looks like a female, recently fed. That is a bed bug" 

Went to our apt manager and showed him the bed bug. This is what he said:

     "That's a bed bug" 

It is confirmed. It is a bed bug. 

Got it figured out that the exterminator would come in a few days to check out the place. Told the mission president and he invited us to stay at the mission home. We did not pass up that offer. Went and taught Mae Paw and her family. Slept at the mission home. Most Karen people also have bed bugs. No preventative action has been taken. If you know of any, I would greatly appreciate your knowledge. 

Day five:

Woke up from the best sleep of my life. These mission home beds are better than any other bed I have ever slept on! Wow. 

Had a good day of teaching. Did another lice treatment. After the bedbugs I'm not feeling too bad about the lice. Literally the first time in my entire life I can remember waking up and thinking, “Wow I feel awake and ready for this day” I thought my mission would help me become a morning person. Update: it has not. 

Day six: 

Ate chicken feet soup. Found a new invistigator through a young woman.  We went on splits and I went tracking with Mae Paw! Taught a Buddhist about God and Jesus Christ. Slept at the mission home again. Still don’t like chicken feet. Sister Hoskins and I helped a member prepare her Sunday school lesson for the next day while Sister Hicks and Mae Paw taught the Buddhist guy I found with Mae Paw last week. 

Day seven:

Went to church. Really good testimony meeting. Mission president had us over for dinner. He grilled us some yummy stakes. Mmm. Yum. 

I hope your week was better than mine. ♥️ But in all seriousness, it hasn’t been that bad. It’s been a fun adventure and the mission home beds made the whole thing worth it. I have learned a lot from this whole experience, but the most important lesson I have learned is that when we have problems, the best way to take your mind off of them and feel joy through your tribulations, is to help other people. When we would be at home or driving in the car, I would constantly be thinking about the lice and bed bugs and mentally making myself itchy, but as soon as we would go into someone’s home to teach them, I would forget about it right away and even stop itching. Plus, when we help people, God blesses us, who doesn’t want blessings from God? If you have any problems in your life weighing you down, which everyone does, get outside of yourself and help someone. You will be better able to deal with your problems, and also receive blessings from God. Have a great week! Stay tuned for an update on the lice and bed bugs next Monday! 

They look like cute lunch ladies! haha

Chicken feet soup.....look closely for the feet!

This is baby Jesse. I love baby Jesse.

Big smile after sleeping on the comfy mission home beds!

Happy Sister missionaries together!