June 26, 1997 - Thursday (Letter Home to family)

To: AhKuna Mattahing Herricks


On the back of the envelope - I'll have you know that there are three Klingon Warships off the bow of this Letter...So watch it bud. Remember all letters to be sent to Elder Walter D. (stands for darn cute) Herrick as before - namely the pouch - but now add South after Moscow - Thank you for your gratitude and charity. May the Lord Bless you, my little ones. South Mission Rules!!

Dear Family, We had a couple of contests this week in our district. The first one was about less-active work. You had to pick a family and see who could get the most hours with them and D's etc. We one [won] that one because we got members along with us on the Ds.

The other was SYLing. Speaking your language, meaning speaking in Russian the most over 5 days this last week. We also kicked but on that. We spoke about 58 hrs. those 5 days. The most we could have gotten was 80 hrs. We were just animals. It was really cool because it's the first time that I thought that I could speak well. And I've seen that it has helped me speak a lot better. So my comp. and I are thinking about SYLing more this week too. Your last letter dated June 8th was addressed to Gilbert so I'm wondering if he got mine. It was pretty funny to read.

As I was on the metro today I was reading in 3 Nephi and I found this scripture and I thought about it a lot. 3 Nephi 15:9 "Behold I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall life; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." All it says is to look to him, Christ. How could that be? Those are some of my questioning thoughts. Then I just pictured I was in the dark and I saw a light ahead. Of course I would head for the light. I would look and move toward it. In my opinion when we walk to the l[ight] it just means keeping the commandments and reading the scriptures and going to church. So when we do the basic, all of the three above, BOM, Church etc. we are constantly drawing nearer to Christ and we will be filled with his light when we endure to the end.

It’s amazing th[at] the only thing that separates problem less or inactive families from good strong active families is going to church and reading the BOM. If they don't do those things it's hard to work on the other less outward virtues, like charity etc. I'd also put tithing in there. I tell you now know [now] that there will never be a time in my life when I won't be going to church. I've really gained a testimony of that here in Russia.

That's sad about Sister Plunkett [she got sick with cancer, and died while I was on my mission, but my mom didn't tell me about her death until after I came home from my mission]. I hope the family pulls threw [thru] whatever will happen and stay close to the Lord.

Well I gotta go now. Please mail this letter to Vernae and pass on this other letter to Sis Plunkett as soon as possible

June 23, 1997 - Monday

Today is just beginning.  We are going to go shopping and etc. for we have no food with which to eat.  so...we already dropped off our clothes at the Ягадкин's [Yagadkin's].  Надия [Nadiya] is doing them - she's so cool.  She laughed at me though when I dropped off my shirt that had a hole in it.  Well we are off to buy some stuff.  bye

Okay, its after English.  It's getting pretty warm again.  Yep the naked chicks are coming out again.  Just kidding.  My freaking chest hurts a lot.  I could always crack it before, but a while ago it started hurting a little off to the left, right where a rib connects with my sternum.  English was really slow because no one was there.  These last couple of days we have talked in Russian for about 58 hrs.  That's pretty freaking amazing.  Well bye.

June 22, 1997 - Sunday

Today was so freaking busy.  It's really nice to have goals you can accomplish.  Like speaking your language.  This last 4 days we have spoken about 49 hrs of SYLing.  We had better win that award.  2 DPs had better be waiting for me.

[mid-journal chat - Remember from the MTC - SYLing is Speaking Your Language - ie. 1.  Speaking in Russian to everybody who can understand Russian - that means to each other most of all because we are almost always together.  2.  When you can't express yourself in Russian - you first ask in Russian if you can speak English, and then you can say it in English. 

Toward the end of my mission my last companion (Elder Andrew Wright) & I SYLed for about 2 months.  The only times we didn't SYL were when we were at English Class - and then we only spoke English to those in our classroom, and to the Senior Couple Missionaries that didn't understand Russian much at all.  It was actually pretty fun.  But sometimes a little boring.  At one point Elder Andy Wright and I were speaking in a mexican accent - in Russian.  We did others too - Irish, British etc.  They weren't very good, except for the Mexican - the Mexican accent was AWESOME - I mean it actually sounded hispanic.  Ahhh Andy - where are you?]

Well we had our [D with the] Залыгин's and the girls pretty much talked among themselves and we listened in.  It was pretty cool.  We also had a D with Николай и Татяна [Nickolai & Tatyana], but Володия [Volodiya] asked at the end if they had a date with babtism [there I go again mispelling things - baptism].  It was suppose to be last Saturday - yep Yesterday - well thanks for letting the investigators know about it.  Well Володия scheduled it for next Sunday.  We won't be able to accomplish everything this week, so I had to call them and tell them that we would have to do it через воскресение [next Sunday - literally through Sunday]. 

Other than that, nothing except Ст. Jurvelin wants to go on splits.  Well night.

November 11, 1996 - Monday

I've been pretty bad at SYLing the last couple of days.  The rules are very lax.  It's after 10:30pm and I'm still up.  But I'm loving it.  I'm sure that I will be a little nervous right before I leave but not right now.  I'm loving it.  I went around tonight and got a bunch of people on a tape recorder [which by the way - I have no idea if I've ever listened to it after my mission]. 

Well I gave a talk yesterday [last Sunday in the MTC ] - I had better record it in my journal.  I got up and did a little dance [in front of the podium].  It was my feet shuffle.  Then I related it to the Restoration.  The dance looks hard, but to me it is so simple.  Everything that J.S. revealed was simple...

1. God - all about him - not some big floating nebulous thing.
2. Jesus Christ - His role in the Plan our Father gave us.  Then my favorite
3. Prophets - The dance looks hard but it is easy.  Then I showed them step by step how to do the dance. 
4. Nobody was there to show the people how to dance.  Joseph [Smith] was called as a prophet.  That is one of the most important things that can be said of him.  One of the most important truths - that he revealed was that He Himself [God] led the Church - the true church.  There were now dance instructors back on the earth.  Then next came the most important tool.
5. The Book of Mormon.  It taught people how to dance more directly and easier than the Bible did. 
6. And Moroni's promise - first read, then ponder, then pray and by the power of the Holy Ghost - all things would be made known.

Did this sound familiar?  It was the first discussion.  That is what the restoration is all about.  What we go out to teach is the simple dance moves of the Gospel.  Then I just bore my testimony of what I had taught.  I don't know if they felt the Spirit - but I did.  I felt calm after I had got going and the thought of doing the dance as an example came to me as I sat on the stand.  The Holy Ghost gave me inspiration.  I love to talk - it just makes me feel loved when I get inspiration and I love to relate things to the Gospel.  love/night

October 30, 1996 - Wednesday

I love the Lord and I had a great experience teaching only in Russian.  I love God and I hope that I will be able to love everyone.  night.

September 14, 1996 - Saturday

Well today was kind of long.  We sat through all the classes.  I didn't have very bad gas, but I did a little in the evening.  My Phazyme is running out.  I have to write my parents and have them send me more.  I learned that you are not suppose to write home on any day but our P-Day.  Our teacher said we could write this Sunday so I am going to. 

Tomorrow we start SYLing [Speak Your Language].  We have to speak in our language all the time whatever we know.  Then we have to ask persmission to speak in English as a last resort. 

Tonight I am going to pray and ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith is a true prophet.  I have before, but not really spiritually.  I've always believed he was, but I need to know so that I can share that knowledge with other people.  I love him for the Book of Mormon and his words in the "Teachings of Jospeh Smith" are so powerful and inspiring.  So I need to have my testimony of Joseph Smith strengthened tonight.  I'll tell you how it went.  walt