Photo from a half mission conference Long Beach Mission, Michael is in the second row, fourth from the right.
Dear Mom,
Sunday's are by far the best day of the week. Since we cover two wards we get to go to 2 sacrament meetings, and 5 hours total of church. It's so awesome going to church as a Missionary, because it is your responsibility and calling to go and meet all the people you don't know in the ward. We had an awesome sacrament meeting yesterday in the Pierside Singles Ward, where the bishop got up and asked people to come up and share with us their favorite hymn, and a quick testimony about that hymn. Then the congregation would sing the first verse of the hymn. It was amazing! The spirit was so strong in that meeting, Hymns are just an amazing way to feel closer to our Savior and Heavenly Father.
We had an interesting thing happen to us yesterday at church though. There was a non-member who was there and loved all three meetings at church. We were thinking AWESOME!!! Golden investigator. The catch is he's Muslim and from Egypt, and right now we can't teach people from Egypt, because their lives might be in danger if their family heard that they were thinking of switching religions. Hopefully things will get worked out, because he really loves church.
I really have no idea what's going on in politics at the moment. It's crazy to think I'm in the middle of California and yet I have no idea what's going on in the world!
So MK our favorite investigator went through another rough time last week. She got fired from her job, and so she moved back to San Jose, California. We are forwarding her onto the missionaries up there and hopefully she will be baptized up there, but she's out of our hands now. Its sad to see our best investigator go through so much opposition trying to get to baptism.
We do have one investigator who is progressing though :). V had another lesson this past week and is reading the Book of Mormon. We should be having another lesson this week with him. Hopefully his wife will come around as well, she's going to be the real struggle, because she's happy where she is at. Hopefully the Lord will work some magic with her.
We also have a lot of people with a lot of potential to start teaching so hopefully some more people will be coming our way. I'll tell you what though, when I get to Brasil, I'm really going to appreciate how many people I'll be able to teach ^^;.
I had a really cool experience this past week. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and they are in the Spanish area. Well my trainer decided to send me to their area because, "it would be good for your Portuguese". Man was I terrified! But I got to the area and a prayed that I would be able to understand and participate in the work there, I didn't want to just sit there and be useless for 24 hours. During all the lessons we had with the Spanish speakers I was able to understand everything they said. Portuguese is pretty similar to Spanish, but I don't really speak all that much Portuguese, but the Lord took what little I did know and magnified it so that I was able to understand Spanish. I'm really thankful for the gifts of the spirit, and I know that without Heavenly Father's help I wouldn't have been able to understand very much at all.
Well I'm happy everything is going well on the home front. Good luck with the Job, I'm really grateful for the sacrifice you are making so that I can be out here. I love you all so much, thanks to everyone who has sent me letters. I will try and write back as soon as possible, but P-days are SUPER busy, so please understand if you don't get one back quickly.
Love,
Elder Henry
Also this week is transfers, so send all your letters to the mission office instead of my apartment this week. I'll send you my new address if I get transferred. The Mission office address is:
Elder Michael J. Henry
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
Hey Dad,
This week was a little bit rough, but it ended on a good note which always kind of wipes away any bad feelings. We spent a lot of time last week trying to find new people, and we are getting a lot of people who could have potential. Hopefully we will find some new people to teach soon.
We get to go to the Ward Trunk-or-Treat this weekend and I'm SUPER stoked! I really love to two wards I'm in and I'm hoping I don't get transfered this week because I finally am getting to know the members and making relationships with them. I feel like we are on the verge of a huge surge of investigators, and hopefully baptisms. It's super exciting to be here right now.
I really like the Road to Damascus talk. Paul is my hero when it comes to being an awesome missionary. He's such an amazing example of how important it is to talk to everyone and always be moving to find new people to teach and baptize.
I actually haven't played basketball since I left the MTC. P-days are really busy for us because we have to drive other missionaries around so they can buy groceries and the like. Although today we have a sporting activity so maybe we will play some Basketball.
I don't know if you remember how much it means to have members feed you, but I think it is always one of my top 3 things I look forward to in my day. I love being able to meet with the members and eat food :D.
I'm really excited to go to Brasil, and I actually met someone this past week who served a mission in Porto Alegre back in 1978-1980. It was a ton of fun talking to him about how he had to wait in the MTC for his visa, but how awesome it was down there. The most important part though is not to waste a single day of my mission, regardless of where I am. I never want to look back on my mission and think I didn't give it my all.
I'm glad things are going well, I better e-mail mom before I run out of time. I love you dad, thanks for all your support,
Love,
Elder Henry
Sunday's are by far the best day of the week. Since we cover two wards we get to go to 2 sacrament meetings, and 5 hours total of church. It's so awesome going to church as a Missionary, because it is your responsibility and calling to go and meet all the people you don't know in the ward. We had an awesome sacrament meeting yesterday in the Pierside Singles Ward, where the bishop got up and asked people to come up and share with us their favorite hymn, and a quick testimony about that hymn. Then the congregation would sing the first verse of the hymn. It was amazing! The spirit was so strong in that meeting, Hymns are just an amazing way to feel closer to our Savior and Heavenly Father.
We had an interesting thing happen to us yesterday at church though. There was a non-member who was there and loved all three meetings at church. We were thinking AWESOME!!! Golden investigator. The catch is he's Muslim and from Egypt, and right now we can't teach people from Egypt, because their lives might be in danger if their family heard that they were thinking of switching religions. Hopefully things will get worked out, because he really loves church.
I really have no idea what's going on in politics at the moment. It's crazy to think I'm in the middle of California and yet I have no idea what's going on in the world!
So MK our favorite investigator went through another rough time last week. She got fired from her job, and so she moved back to San Jose, California. We are forwarding her onto the missionaries up there and hopefully she will be baptized up there, but she's out of our hands now. Its sad to see our best investigator go through so much opposition trying to get to baptism.
We do have one investigator who is progressing though :). V had another lesson this past week and is reading the Book of Mormon. We should be having another lesson this week with him. Hopefully his wife will come around as well, she's going to be the real struggle, because she's happy where she is at. Hopefully the Lord will work some magic with her.
We also have a lot of people with a lot of potential to start teaching so hopefully some more people will be coming our way. I'll tell you what though, when I get to Brasil, I'm really going to appreciate how many people I'll be able to teach ^^;.
I had a really cool experience this past week. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and they are in the Spanish area. Well my trainer decided to send me to their area because, "it would be good for your Portuguese". Man was I terrified! But I got to the area and a prayed that I would be able to understand and participate in the work there, I didn't want to just sit there and be useless for 24 hours. During all the lessons we had with the Spanish speakers I was able to understand everything they said. Portuguese is pretty similar to Spanish, but I don't really speak all that much Portuguese, but the Lord took what little I did know and magnified it so that I was able to understand Spanish. I'm really thankful for the gifts of the spirit, and I know that without Heavenly Father's help I wouldn't have been able to understand very much at all.
Well I'm happy everything is going well on the home front. Good luck with the Job, I'm really grateful for the sacrifice you are making so that I can be out here. I love you all so much, thanks to everyone who has sent me letters. I will try and write back as soon as possible, but P-days are SUPER busy, so please understand if you don't get one back quickly.
Love,
Elder Henry
Also this week is transfers, so send all your letters to the mission office instead of my apartment this week. I'll send you my new address if I get transferred. The Mission office address is:
Elder Michael J. Henry
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
Hey Dad,
This week was a little bit rough, but it ended on a good note which always kind of wipes away any bad feelings. We spent a lot of time last week trying to find new people, and we are getting a lot of people who could have potential. Hopefully we will find some new people to teach soon.
We get to go to the Ward Trunk-or-Treat this weekend and I'm SUPER stoked! I really love to two wards I'm in and I'm hoping I don't get transfered this week because I finally am getting to know the members and making relationships with them. I feel like we are on the verge of a huge surge of investigators, and hopefully baptisms. It's super exciting to be here right now.
I really like the Road to Damascus talk. Paul is my hero when it comes to being an awesome missionary. He's such an amazing example of how important it is to talk to everyone and always be moving to find new people to teach and baptize.
I actually haven't played basketball since I left the MTC. P-days are really busy for us because we have to drive other missionaries around so they can buy groceries and the like. Although today we have a sporting activity so maybe we will play some Basketball.
I don't know if you remember how much it means to have members feed you, but I think it is always one of my top 3 things I look forward to in my day. I love being able to meet with the members and eat food :D.
I'm really excited to go to Brasil, and I actually met someone this past week who served a mission in Porto Alegre back in 1978-1980. It was a ton of fun talking to him about how he had to wait in the MTC for his visa, but how awesome it was down there. The most important part though is not to waste a single day of my mission, regardless of where I am. I never want to look back on my mission and think I didn't give it my all.
I'm glad things are going well, I better e-mail mom before I run out of time. I love you dad, thanks for all your support,
Love,
Elder Henry
Elder Henry (right) with his MTC District at the Provo Temple.
 |
| My District at the MTC, with my Professor Irmao Villanova |
 |
| MTC District with Professor Irma Gonzales |
 |
| My companions in our NOW clean (thanks to Elder Henry) apartment You would be so proud of me, I came into the apartment and I have been cleaning it bit by bit until its up to Mom(ish) standards. It was a pig-sty when I first came in. |
Momish standards... Hmmmm... Mitch ;-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the Chinese used to have a thing called Birds Nest Soup... It was made of the nests of birds that nest in rice fields... Is this related?
ReplyDeleteMitch :-)
I bet it is, Mitch! Either way it sounds perfectly NASTY. And lol on the "momish," Mike has never been my exaggerator. Glad he is a positive influence on his companions and looks for ways to serve them. =)
ReplyDelete