Elder Henry Week 3 in Huntington Beach (he isn't starving!)

Dear Mom,
I did get lots from everyone thank you all for your help.  I promise I won't starve ^^;.  I'm really glad to have been able to go to college before my mission and understand how to cook for myself.  Otherwise I don't know how I would survive
This morning at 4:30am we got up to go to the 6:00am session at the temple.  The Newport Beach California Temple is absolutely gorgeous.  Although it is super tiny.  The Temple usually isn't open on Monday's and so we usually have P-day's on Tuesday for when we go to the Temple, buuuut our stake had a special day at the temple.
I've never heard of this before but our Temple President lives in our stake, and apparently for a couple of years, once a year our stake will go on a monday and Staff the entire temple.  Our stake provides all the workers, and the attendees, and it was absolutely packed there.  There wasn't a seat open in the 6:00am session and when we left there was no room in the parking lot.  It was really neat to go and see all familiar faces in the temple.  There is nothing like going to the temple with a bunch of friends, when you recognize the temple workers, realize the stake president is sitting right next to you, and all the rows are taken up by friends, there is a feeling of love and commradery in the temple that I have never before felt.  I highly recommend to go to the Temple with friends.
This past week has been really busy for missionary work.  We taught 30 lessons this last week which is a record for my area, and we picked up a couple new investigators.
The first big news is our Investigator Mckenzie, who dropped us 2 weeks ago text us yesterday and asked if we could meet.  She's been coming to church still and wants to resume taking the lessons.  We haven't committed her to baptism yet, because we don't want to overstress her again, but that is definitely her goal.
Second big news is our other investigator, Bobby, who also dropped us said we can come by and still do service for him.  It's not a baptism, or even teaching the lessons, but as we learn from Ammon in the Book of Mormon, we just need to serve.  When we serve we show our love for people, and their hearts will be turned eventually.  Missionary work here certainly isn't a meet someone, and they are baptised two weeks later.  All 5 of our recent converts took about a year to 18 months to finally commit.  The important part is that we each take the effort to help people along at whatever pace they need, just like heavenly father allows each of us to turn to him on our own time.
Third we picked up a new investigator family.  They were a referral from one of our ward members and they set up a dinner appointment.  They were really friendly and we taught them the First lesson.  Lydia and Vas are the parents names and you couldn't have two friendlier neighbors.  Vas is from Romania, and Lydia is from Canada (Toronto for you Canadians reading this e-mail).  Hopefully they will continue to investigate, but they have awesome fellowship regardless.  There is nothing better to hear from a member, than to show up at their house and have them drag you to their neighbors and say, "Hey what are you doing monday night.  You need to listen to these guys and we'll make dinner out of it."
The best way for missionaries to work is to have the members invite their friends to activities, or to invite friends to meet with the missionaries.  Also, DO NOT WORRY about missionaries offending your friends by being overbearing.  We are very aware that sometimes people have friends who are just coming over for dinner.  Just let us know ahead of time what you expect, (i.e. just a spiritual thought, or teach them the 1st lesson, or they just have a couple questions) and we will tailor the lesson to that individual.
I'm happy to hear that the new job is working out for you, especially financially.  That's so cute that Tori is so excited for Halloween.  I certainly miss Tori's enthusiasm for such events.  It's so much fun to go into the houses of members and meet their kids and their families.  It always makes me think of when we were little kids and how excited Tori would get for Christmas, Birthdays, and all other manner of Hollidays.
Catalina Island is in our mission, but it is a closed area right now.  Its much more of a tourist trap than it is a residential area.  There is a small branch that meets there but president doesn't have missionaries there right now.  Also update on the picture front.  I am allowed to upload pictures onto the computer and e-mail them to you, but we just came from the Temple and I didn't bring my camera with me.  So for sure you will have pictures next week of our adventures.  Although to be honest I only have like 3 pictures in Huntington Beach right now, so I'll make sure to take some this P-day so I have pictures to send home.
If you just put money into my account that works for me, I just don't know how much is in there and if you want me accessing it.  I have survived on less at college, it just isn't very fun ;).  Also I'm finally stockpiling a little food here and there so I at least have something to eat.  Also I never saw Bobby's son. My comment about needing food was to a certain Kelsey Mills who has been promising me a care package for 3 weeks now and I still haven't received one :P.
Anyways I need to E-mail President Bubert.  I love you all, thank you all for your letters and support.  I love to hear from everyone, it's so much fun to get a letter from someone back home.  I try my hardest to reply to everyone who sends me mail, but sometimes P-day gets too busy.
Thank you,
Elder Henry


Dear Dad,

Yesterday was the Primary Program in our family ward here as well.  It was super awesome because one of the members brought a friend he's been working to teach with and the kids did an excellent job of teaching the Gospel.  It was a perfect sunday for a non-member to be there.
That's exciting news about the 100 visa's being aproved for Brazil.  Hopefully I will be able to leave for Brazil soon, but I'm enjoying my time in Huntington Beach as is.  The work here is doing great, and you can't beat the weather down here ;).
Mitch sent me a copy of his travel adventures in the mail, so don't worry too much about losing your copy to forward.
You know I can understand a little bit more how Mom and Sherry work being on a mission.  I know that they love each other and that Mom wants the best for Sherry, and Sherry wants to be a good daughter but there is still friction.  I'm having a bit of the same experience with one of my companions right now, where I realized I really love him and I have to focus on that rather than things that bother me. 
I hope that makes sense.  I know that my companion, as trying as he can be on my paitience, was put with me for a reason and that I know one day I'll meet back up with him and it will be like we are long lost brothers, but relationships are not easy, especially with random people.  I'm just lucky to be born in a day where the standards for missionaries have been raised and I have really hard working companions.

Anyways I better e-mail mom, I love you Dad,
Elder Henry