Christmas Eve!

This is Sherry's commercial for Mini Cooper she made with the BYU film, advertising, and music departments.  It is a Mario Brothers theme and she is a modernized "real life" Princess Peach. I think she looks great on film, I'm a little biased though =)

Michael's letter this week!  We get to talk to him tomorrow!!!

Dear Dad,

That's awesome that the new Hobbit movie came out!  Just the first part was
released for now?  Or both parts are out now?  I sure do miss snow for my
Christmas.  I'm never ever ever ever going to pass Christmas in the heat
ever again after the mission.  I only want freezing cold Christmases from
here on :P.

I do miss the good old Christmas movies.  Santa Claus is Coming to Town,
Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and all the rest of the
classics.  A bummer that they aren't playing like they used to.

Until tomorrow Dad!
Love, Elder Henry

Dear Mom,

Hahaha, I like Spencer's style! (he asked his date to Yule Ball last night with a dozen coral pink roses).

What a bummer that a bunch of people ended up not showing up to the Baby Shower :(.  That's always the hard part of trying to put together a party.

Anyways our week was full of, "Come back after the holidays!" which made it pretty difficult to find new investigators.  We had 3 graduations of high schools in our chapel this week which was pretty awesome, we picked up a bunch of addresses and found some people with really good potential.  Best of all, it gave one of our investigators, the opportunity to get to know the chapel.  Everyone was super impressed with the building, and she felt really comfortable inside the church.  Also turns out she's longtime friends with the Bishop.  So pretty much after she came to the graduation its a done deal.  She went to church yesterday and I'm pretty sure she loved it.  We are going to go there tonight and talk with her a little bit.

On Saturday we had a ward party which was pretty fun.  J went to the activity and really enjoyed herself, but had to leave early.  Best part was Sunday though, because I was feeling pretty unsuccessful this week, and then I went to church expecting nobody to be there and was surprised to see V, R with his parents, and J at church.  Our gospel principles class was packed with people and we ended up finding a couple potential investigators at church.  I'm pretty excited to follow-up on these relatives of members.  

Here in Brasil everyone celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve.  Its really strange, but tonight is Christmas.  We are going to spend Christmas Eve with a couple of families of members.  I'm pretty excited, and we should have a ton of churrasco to eat.

Anyways I love you a ton, sorry I didn't write all that much, but I'll talk more tomorrow.  That is if you can understand me through my accent ;)

Love,

Elder Henry

Staying in Gravatai, believe it or not!

Mom's note--I am so grateful that he is staying in Gravatai, because I know we'll be able to coordinate talking with him on Christmas!  We can't wait!

I'm not sure what this gathering was for, but I see many of the people Elder Henry has taught in the group!

Dear Mom,

Transfer News!  Actually there really isn't any news, I'll be staying here for another transfer with Elder De Pina.  7 and a half months in Gravataí, oh yeah!

I chuckled at Mitch's comment.  I'm definitely a northwesterner :P.  I'm afraid I'll just have to stick to Oregon/Washington for the rest of my life.  I'm starting to get accustomed to the weather, but it also has cooled down a little, or rather its not nearly as humid as it was a couple weeks ago.

That sounds like a great opportunity to visit with Brother Swanson.  I would love to work in an Economics consulting firm especially in a field such as wetland mitigation.  One thing is for sure, you have to have connections to get the job you want.

When do I ever talk very much about my Companions?  Elder De Pina is 26 years old, and worked for a local television station as an anchor.  He has 12 siblings.  Half of his family lives in the United States, and the other half in Cape Verde, but he's never gone state-side.  He's a hard worker.

From What I know P-day next week will be the same as always.  So far as the packages go, they haven't arrived, and probably will arrive 6-8 weeks after you sent them, or at least that's what the office staff told me about how long they take to get here.  Who knows, tomorrow with transfers they could arrive at the office and then send them with the new missionaries to our apartment.

We went caroling yesterday with a couple ward members, something that Brasilians aren't really used to.  Their reaction was really funny, I told them, "Ok this is how it works.  We knock on the door and then when they open we start to sing, questions?"

"So we knock on the door, enter and then start to sing to them?"

"No, we knock and then sing to them outside on the street."

"Sing to them on the street?  Wah?"

"Yes, we sing to them on the street."

Definitely a different experience for them, but it ended up really well.  We sang for a couple of our recent converts, L, and R as well as one of our investigators, V.  It certainly was a surprise for the people we sang to and they sure loved it!  Everyone was talking about how next year they will have to continue to do this except bigger and better.  I'm pretty sure we'll go caroling at least 2 more times, next Sunday and Monday right before Christmas.  

I would love to send you pictures, bought a new card reader, but this computer is reading the folders as executive files.  Next week I'll use a different LAN House to see if its the computers here or something is wrong on my card.

I was pretty disappointed yesterday because hardly none of our investigators showed up to church.  We'll have to work double time to help out our investigators progress towards baptism.  Sandra was married and baptized this weekend.  I baptized her, and the marriage turned out beautiful.  I was left a little bit unsatisfied because the marriage started at 8:30 and they didn't cut the cake until 9:30 by which time we had already left to get home in time for our schedule.  I love wedding cakes :(

Pretty much our week in a blurb.  I love you all tons.  Thanks for always writing.

Love,
Elder Henry


Dear Dad,
That's really cool that Spencer's seminary class did a Christmas Program.
 I don't think we ever had anything from Seminary outside of the hours of
seminary.  I'm glad Spencer is enjoying seminary there.  I'm glad to hear
that Tori has already forgotten about me...
 I'm super happy to hear all about the progress Tori is making in her life.
 Lots of hard work is paying off for her, who knows maybe we'll have TWO
Broadway stars from our family ;).  Its interesting that you mention how it
will be nice for Spence and I to spend time together again, but now that he
doesn't play video games anymore, what will we do together?!  That was like
the number one thing we did together :P.  If Spencer ends up taller than
me, it will be a life long lesson in humility that I'll just have to take.
 I hope you guys have a great Christmas Break!

Love,
Elder Henry

Tori singing Pie Jesu

It is hard to believe this is the girl who never ever gave a talk in Primary because she was too scared to be in front of people. She is a champ!

Reflecting on the mission so far and update

Hey Dad,
I never thought when I left home that one of the things I miss most is
laying down and enjoying a good book.  You'll have to make up a list of
good books I've missed out on for me for when I get home :P.  There have been
a couple times that this situation of a CD being cheaper than the MP3's.
 I'm not quite sure how it all works, but I'm certainly happy for when I
get the Physical CD instead of just MP3's.
     Are you guys looking at snow yet?  I'm not sure quite how cold its getting
there in Washington, I'm sure that Utah is starting the snowy season.  It's
super hot here.  Actually this week was completely miserable, I've never
experienced such heat in my life.  It was over 100 degrees, and super
humid.  I was sweating at 8 o'clock in the morning when I started studies
and during the night it stayed in the high 90's.  With 3 fans blowing in
our small apartment I still could not sleep because of the heat.
 Absolutely miserable, actually yesterday it was about 92-93 degrees
without humidity and I was thinking how nice and cool it was.  I've never
thought of 90 degree weather as comfortable in my lifetime!  I sincerely
wouldn't be surprised if this summer kills me.  I picked up Athlete's foot
last week because of the heat and humidity which is a super bummer because
I've got a bunch of red dots on my feet that itch like crazy.  Fortunately
I had bought and brought anti-fungal creme from the states so I could treat
it, and I was thinking remember when I bought all those drugs to bring with
me on the mission and we thought, am I -really- going to need all of this?
 Well the Anti-Fungal creme was the last of the drugs I brought with me
that I hadn't used and I'm still only half-way through the mission!  At
least its nothing serious, but it is a bummer to get sick and have to
continue to work.
     You know Dad, I have a lot of up days and down days on the mission, but the
longer and longer I'm here the more I appreciate everyday I have here.
 Certainly there are a lot of things I can improve as a missionary, but in
all I'm very happy with how my mission is panning out, I'll probably never
be an Assistant to the President, maybe never a Zone Leader, but I'm very
happy with my personal progress and the miracles I get to see on the
mission.  Just wish they'd happen more often and quicker ;).
Love,
Elder Henry

Hey Mom!

Mother's Day we ended up calling at about 6 or 7 o'clock my time, and I really have no idea what will happen this Christmas because we have transfers next week, so I don't really know where and when I'll be able to use a computer.  You guys are going to see Les Miserables on Christmas?  How awesome is that!

Honestly it simply doesn't feel like Christmas here.  Nobody is singing Christmas carols, no one talks about how their excited for Christmas.  The advertisements of grocery stores say "Boas Festas" which means Good Partying!  Even in Sacrament meeting this week we sang only one Christmas hymn.  I'm very disappointed with Christmas in Brasil.  Christmas in the states always seemed so magical to me, and here it just feels like another month.

     Its interesting you mention not having an activities committee isn't working out very well in the ward, but really here in Brasil we always have awesome activities with less than half the members St. Johns has.  What happens is the bishop says, alright the Young Men/Women are going to put on a dance party for the ward on this day, then they go and get everything ready and its turns out awesome.  Then the next month its the Family History Committee turn to put on a dance, the next is Relief Society, the next Ward Mission makes the activity, and everyone loves the activities.  It may be a difference of culture as well, because schools and the community here don't have extra-curricular activities, so the members more or less live in the church.

     I've been trying to send you pictures but every week I'm having the same problems.  It looks like my SD to USB adapter broke, so I'll be looking for a new one today.  I did enjoy seeing Mitch and Audrey in the E-mail.  It's fun to see pictures of people from home.

     We had a really productive week last week.  We are finally finding people who are worth our time and really have a desire to move their lives.  Some weeks you just find people who are nice and let you in once and really don't have any interest, but this week we found a lot of families that went to a ward activity we had two weeks ago.  Unfortunately hardly none of our investigators went to church this week which is a bummer, but we will redouble our efforts to help people get there next week.
     Our investigators that we are focusing on right now are J, S, R, and P.  J I believe I talked a little bit about her last week, but just a re-cap we found her knocking doors and she went to the Stake Conference two weeks ago.  Unfortunately she was ill yesterday and didn't make it to church.  She also loves the Bible and really hasn't been reading more in the Book of Mormon.  We taught her the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity this week and she doesn't really have any problems with the commandments.  It appears that her biggest problem is she doesn't really see the difference between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and every other church on the planet.  We'll review this week with her the importance of the Restoration of the Church with her, and make sure she understands the importance of baptism by authority from God.

     R is a cousin and P is a nephew of our Bishop.  We began teaching them this week and really want to be baptised.  R bore a strong testimony to me about how he began reading the Book of Mormon and going to church and now he isn't fighting with people, that really that desire has began to leave him.  P isn't quite on the same level as R yet but he's reading the Book of Mormon and likes church a lot.  The only problem is their Dad wants to wait a little more time before they get baptised, but we will see if we can't bring him into the church as well :).

     S is really excited for her Baptism and Wedding this coming weekend :).  I'm pretty satisfied with how everything turned out there.  Really there isn't much more for us to do but to stop in and see how things are going.  

     Hopefully we'll see some progress from our new investigators this week, and I'll have more to report next week.

I love you Mom, thanks for writing.

Love,

Elder Henry

December 3, loving the people of Gravatai

Dear Mom,

From what I know we will be able to use skype again.  It really is a lot cheaper than a phone call and a lot better for us ;).  New Mission President of course will have different rules, but I'm pretty sure we'll be able to use skype for Christmas. 

I'm very excited to hear the news about Cody!  Already headed off to Grad school, and to think he started at Clark one year after me, and now I'm one year behind!  Oh well, the mission is 1,000,000 times more worthwhile than college.

If the Ducks lose another Bowl game this year, I'm going to have to hide my Duck pride.  Seriously, I can't even remember the last Bowl game that we WON. (he apparently forgot about the Rose Bowl last year--probably because he could not watch it haha)

So Summer is just about in full swing here.  Imagine that right now is the start of June, and that's pretty much our weather.  We had a day of rain last week, but during the weeks the temperature is in the low-mid 90's.  Too hot for me.  I've been asking people how hot it gets here in the summer, and the tell me that it gets up to 40-42 degrees Celsius which is about 104-107 degrees Fahrenheit.

We had Stake Conference this week with another 70, Elder Ulisses Soares from Recife.  I've now almost met all of the Brasilian General Authorities, I just need to meet Elder Cláudio R.M. Costa, and Elder Godoy.  Its interesting, but I feel like here in Brasil the 70's visit the stakes a lot more than in the States, maybe its just because I'm a missionary and I'm privileged to meet with the General authorities more often, or maybe there's just less members so they have more time to travel and visit the stakes here.

We found quite a few new people this week, but the best was J.  We found her on Friday and invited her to be baptised on the 16th of December and she accepted.  On Saturday we confirmed that she would be going to the Stake conference on Sunday, and then she went to church on Sunday!   On Sunday she also took us to visit a friend of hers who also wants to be baptised on the 16th.  Its an incredible miracle that we found her just knocking on doors.

All of my recent converts are also firm in the church.  L is active in the choir and goes to church every week.  Actually her daughter will be giving me a free cleaning this Wednesday because she's a dentist.  R went to church this week alone because his aunt was with her mom in the hospital all weekend long.  L was at the conference as well, and wants to go out with us on exchanges more often, and last but not least, I and his family are doing great in the church.  I'm really quite happy with the work I've been able to do here.  Of course the real test will come once I leave, and who actually will make it to the temple in a year, but I'm certain that everyone will be able to make it there.

L went out with us yesterday and was talking all about going on a mission here in a year.  I'm so excited to hear him talk about his desires to serve the Lord.  Also he bore powerful testimony in the two lessons we brought him to.  I'm really quite proud of him, he worked hard to be able to be baptised, and wants to continue firm until the end.

S and N are also doing really well.  We are working to try and teach S's son G, but he's been giving us a cold shoulder.  We'll see if we can't soften his heart and help him accept the gospel.

That's pretty much our week in a glimpse.  I tried to attach photos but this computer isn't accepting my USB drive also.  I hope it wasn't damaged sitting in my back-pack.  Fortunately I know the data wasn't damaged because the SD card is working fine, but I may have to buy a new SD-USB adapter.

I love you Mom, thanks for writing me every week :).

Love,
Elder Henry 

Dear Dad,

You are absolutely correct, Missionary work is work, I was happy to hear
that you were reminded of this by your missionaries.  It doesn't even
appear like Christmas is here yet.  There isn't really anything to remind
you of Christmas time.  Nobody uses Christmas lights, trees, music...
nothing.  Travel is something much less common here in Brasil, because no
one has a car or money.  So you have to travel by Bus which is expensive
and takes forever.  Also families live pretty close together so when they
have a family get-together everyone is already super close.  So I don't
think there will be too many problems for Christmas time Proselyting.

I do miss basketball a lot down here.  There is simply know way to get
around to playing.  Also Brasilians make me look like a Michael Jordan on
the court.  Its hard to find a Brasilian that even knows how to dribble a
ball.  I'll have to make up for all the missed Basketball time after
the mission ;).

I'm really happy to hear you are helping out the missionaries there.  We
really depend a lot on the members, and not just for rides and food, but
for Baptisms.

I love you Dad,

Love,
Elder Henry

Continued growth in Gravatai

Dear Dad,

I'm really excied to hear that Trevor Sjogren is headed out on a mission. I do
remember him a lot from the times that Brother and Sister Bankhead brought
him to church. My time is already out, but I want to thank you for the
updates from home. I love you Dad!

Dear Mom,

What teams are still undefeated in the nation? If we ended up beating Stanford in the Bowl Championship (I don't remember well, but I'm pretty sure they are in the PAC-12 South division?) could we still make it to the National title? Anyways they just have to stay awesome for next year ;).

My Thanksgiving came and passed before I even knew it. I was planning at 9:30 at night last Thursday and noticed, hey I'm pretty sure today is Thanksgiving. That was pretty much my thanksgiving... Oh well last one I'll miss out on right? That is if the world is still around next year... :O!

Man Sherry's life is like a Brasilian Novella! It's all filled with romance and life-changing decisions and all sorts of crazy stuff. Kinda lame that the commercial ended up being just a student commercial, but hey it looked like a lot of fun, and the BYU film department is one of the best there is, and every opportunity she takes will bring her one more opportunity in the future :).

So far as photos, I don't really have any in particular that I would like, its just that everyone wants to see my parents and I don't have a picture of the kids with Parents. Just of the kids and singles of each kid. Wallet size would be preferable so I can carry them with me everyday in my wallet.

We are headed off to the Temple today which is pretty exciting. In other news I and his family was baptised this Sunday. I'm so relieved to finally have it happen. We've been waiting so long and its just been trial after trial after trial, but FINALLY everyone was baptised on Sunday.

Our next goal is to split the ward. We just need to baptize two more adult men into the ward and we'll divide the ward. We are going to be working overtime now to find, teach and baptize these last two people in order to split the ward. Unfortunately we really don't have anyone that's progressing. We have a couple people with potential, but we are really doing a lot of finding right now. Fortunately we received a bunch of referrals from our ward members this Sunday so we will be contacting these people and helping them go to church.

I feel like the more and more I'm on my mission the shorter and shorter my letters home become, because we just do the same thing over and over, just the faces move. I'm going to attach some pictures and then send this E-mail.

Thank you for caring for Kelsey while I'm gone, and taking care of me as well :). I love you so much Mom,

Love,

Elder Henry

Sorry can't send the pictures because the stupid computer isn't recognizing the device. I am taking pictures though!

New companion from Africa!

Elder Henry with Elder Glessing, from here in Southwest Washington

Dear Mom,

Life is GREAT!  I'll answer your questions and then get moving on to the week.

I absolutely love my new companion.  I'm very grateful for the move in companion to motivate me to get back to working hard.  Elder Roman's farewell party was good, he wasn't very sad to go though, because he had already said goodbye 3 times, this time was pretty certain it was going to happen.

That's WAY awesome that Sherry is going to be in a commercial!!!   I totally want to watch TV just to see the commercial with Sherry in it!  Send me the video when its all finished up.

Wow Spencer scored pretty high on the ACT for a first time.  Just remember 36 gets you a free ride at BYU Spence!

Of course I'm interested at working for BYU housing when I come back.  I also have my eyes on a job at the MTC, but those are pretty hard to come-by.  The nice thing about the MTC is you make 13$ per hour.

I was looking at the photo of our Family in 2004 and really our family looks like many families that I've seen on the mission.  It's really surreal to see my family so... Young?

So my new companion is Elder De Pina from Cabo Verde.   I'm really excited to have an African companion.  His Portuguese of course is a little strange but he's a super hard worker.  He's also 26 and joined the church when he was 17.  He and a few siblings are the only members of the church in his immediate family, but he has uncles and other relatives that are members.  Also he works -hard-.  It reminds me of me times with Elder E. Black, oh how I am grateful for those times to return.

We finally marked N and S's marriage in the office and they'll be married on Dec. 15th.  Also I and his family are all ready for marriage and baptism this Saturday, so I'm quite excited for this week.  We had a busy week last week with Transfers, P-day getting moved, and also a conference with Elder Aidukaitis.  So our work week got cut a little short, but the little time we had we worked hard finding new investigators and helping them receive the gospel.

Sunday was especially cool because we had a Priest from the ward accompanying us to our lessons.  It reminded me of when I was a Priest and would go out with the missionaries every week :).  We met a few new families with potential and will spend the rest of the week preparing I and family and our new investigators to head off to church and set baptismal dates.

Anyways I better e-mail some other people before time runs out.  I love you, thanks for taking care of me so far away.  I hope my packages make it here before time runs out, but we will see.

Love,

Elder Henry

Sherry's commercial

Luigi, Peach, and Mario

Hair and makeup

After she got "thwomped"

Staying in Gravataí!

Dear Mom,

I'm not exactly even sure if its mosquitoes that are biting me or a different animal. I don't really think I need a mosquito net or I could buy one here. I'm keeping my eye out for Brazilian nativity sets don't you worry :P.

Everyone here was asking me about the Elections on election day it was absolutely ridiculous. Everyone stays up to date on American Politics here in Brasil except me. I thought it would take a little longer to have a winner but better sooner than later I suppose.

Great news about the Ducks! So we just have Stanford and OSU to play before the championship game? I don't remember if we beat Stanford already or not. Who's number one, Notre Dame?

I'm super excited for Sherry's mission papers to get started up. How exciting it is to have another missionary preparing to leave on a mission!

Thanks for helping me out with Christmas Presents. I'm sure everyone here will enjoy the new cards. Hopefully they'll get here in time. Packages and Letters get to me pretty slowly nowadays XD. The Address hasn't moved at all. It's still Caixa Postal 13008, Porto Alegre, RS - Brasil 91010-971.

Sorry I didn't write yesterday, the Zone Leaders called on Sunday Morning and told us our P-day was going to be moved to Tuesday and transfers on Wednesday. We also got the Transfer calls today and Elder Roman is leaving and I'll be here in Gravataí for another little while. 6 months in Gravataí, oh yeah baby. I actually don't feel like I've been here for that long, but by the time I leave I'll start to realise how little time I have left on the mission. Fortunately this next transfer should be really good as I and his family are all set for their baptism on Nov. 25th and their marriage on the 24th.

Another one of our investigators (a lady) is progressing really well. Also L was confirmed yesterday and went out and bought a suit so that he could go to church. I'm really happy to see him doing so well after such little time. The Bishop talked with him on Sunday and it sounds like he's looking into serving a mission in a year. I hope he goes to the United States and then I could see him in his mission there! How awesome would that be?

Also N went to Rio Grande once again to get the papers all ready for their marriage. Looks like they'll get married in December and S will be baptised soon after :).

So we have 6 people that are really quite close to baptism. Only problem is we cut all of our other investigators, so we will have to find a whole bunch of new people now ^^;.

Anyways I better wrap this up so I can write Dad and President Wright. I love you all, thanks for always writing.

Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Dad,

Sounds like this Christmas is going to be a good one. I'm still not convinced on these tablets, I like my computers just the way they are, with a keyboard and a mouse, but we'll see when I get back. Definitely won't be buying an I-pad that's for sure :P. I feel a little bit sorry for Sherry because I know how lame it is to only get stuff you need for a mission instead of all the cool new things that everyone else is getting :P. Oh well it'll pass and she -will- need stuff for the mission.

I feel really bad, because your E-mail to me was super interesting, and I already said all of my interesting stuff to Mom. Also my time is just about up for the week, but thanks for sending such a detailed account of what happened this week. I love you very much. Also I spent 30 dollars on a farewell party for Elder Roman and 25 dollars today on contact solution. Thanks for always keeping me well stocked with money to get by.

Lots of Love,

Elder Henry

Another wonderful baptism & admitted back into BYU!

From left: V (Neighbor of L who brought him to our english class), L,  Elder Roman, and Me at the baptism

Me, Bishop, L. Elder Roman, and R (who was baptized last week) at L.'s baptism.  L asked the Bishop to baptize him which was really neat.

Hey Mom,

Great news, I heard back from BYU already and I've been readmitted to the school :).  Looks like I'll be headed back Fall 2013 to my dreams!  I'm really quite relieved that I received a decision so quickly, I wasn't too worried I wouldn't get back in, but there was always a chance.  Now the future is as certain as it will ever be.  I also gave a look at MyMap to see how things turned out with my Associate's degree, and I'm only missing the religious requirements and another English class to finish up the GE's, so I'll be able to focus on my major when I get home.  I'm very excited to see everything work out so well :D.

Great news that the Ducks won against USC this weekend!  I'm still pretty much against the Ducks headed to the National Championship without me, but if they win I won't complain ;).

Its starting to get pretty hot.  It stays about 25-32 degrees Celsius but its very humid.  Yes the mosquitoes have returned and with a vengeance, fortunately I have OFF, but we'll see how long that holds them off.  I'm scratching pretty much every part of my body already and we aren't even in summer yet :P.  I'm sure I'll get accustomed to them soon enough.

This week didn't even feel like Halloween, I didn't even eat one piece of chocolate on Oct 31st :(.  Oh well, there's always next year...

So we had a pretty cool experience yesterday.  We didn't have anything planned for the afternoon, but L one of our Investigators was progressing super well.  We had already taught him everything and he had quit smoking and working towards a baptismal date of this coming Saturday.  As Elder Roman and I sat planning for our Sunday I told him, Elder, why don't we baptise L tomorrow?  We couldn't think of any reason to wait, so we called up our Zone Leaders and asked if they could give L an Interview after church.  After some deliberation they made room in their schedule for us and we marked for them to do the interview.

Sunday Morning we asked the Bishop, "I know we don't have anything planned for today, but could we have a baptism?"

The Bishop replied with a grin on his face, "Elders you only bring me good news!  Lets do it!".

The only person who we needed to confirm with was L, so after sacrament meeting we asked him, "L next Saturday will be a little bit tricky with your work schedule for the baptism."

He replied, "Yeah I know, what are we going to do?"

"Let's have your baptism today!"

"Today?"

"Yeah why not?"

"I don't know, one more week of preparation..."

"What's going to change from today until one week from now.  You are prepared for baptism already."

After a moments hesitation L replied, "Alright lets do it!"

So at 6 in the afternoon we had a baptismal service for L.  It was great, completely spontaneous and fun.  The bishop's daughters made a cake, and we had a great time.  Nothing has made me more happy than to see L baptised, because I brought a leader into the church yesterday.  Someone who will go off in a year and serve a mission.  Someone who will marry in the temple and be an Elder's Quorum President, Bishop, and who knows Stake President someday.  After the baptism, all the men from the ward surrounded him and made him feel at home.  What an awesome Sunday.  :)

The rest of the week was pretty hard, we didn't really find anyone new, and cut a lot of people we were visiting.  It's always hard to leave the people you've established a relationship, but sometimes these people just aren't ready for the gospel yet.  One day they will be and Missionaries will pass by and help them back.

Anyways I'm going to send this E-mail so I can reply to dad and e-mail our president.  I love you very much.

Love,

Elder Henry

Hey Dad,

Glad you guys had a fun Halloween :).  That's a bummer about Tori's tablet
dieing.  I'm still not convinced that a Tablet is for me though, I've seen
an I-pad or two here as well as a couple tablet/phones that have a few cool
tricks, but I'm still a big fan of the Tower/Monitor desktop computer ;).
You guys ended up buying a Chromebook?  I know a couple weeks back (maybe
months) you were talking about looking into one, but I didn't know you
bought one.  What's it like just having an internet browser?  Is it a lot
like having a tablet, or is it better or worse?  I suppose the cool part is
it still has a keyboard and mouse which I like a lot better than touch
screen technology, but still.... It's just an internet browser.

It's funny because homemade grape juice and eggs woulds seem like such a
treat in the US, but here its an everyday phenomenon.  For example
yesterday we had homemade Mango Juice, made from real mangoes, eggs are
commonly produced in the back yard (not everyone as them but quite a few,
and the ones you buy from the grocery stores are produced here in
Gravataí), and all our meals are cooked from scrap.  Nothing is pre-canned,
ready to cook, fast meals here.  You have to work to eat here, much
different from life in the US.  But real good grape juice is really good.
I'm excited because lots of our members have grape vines at their houses,
so here in a little bit we should be seeing home-grown grapes.

Got to go, but I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,
Elder Henry

Elder Henry~Gravatai 10/29/12

 

Elder Henry, Miguel R's Home Teacher, R. and Elder Roman at R's baptism =)

Finally I have a decent amount of time to write to you guys!  I'm really grateful for the help with those essay questions, I've forgotten a lot of the eloquence of English writing (not that I was ever all that good with English in the first place).  The questions looked a lot better after the revisions.  I just put all the questions in the boxes and submitted my application for BYU.  All that's left now is to wait until February/March and see what happens.

     I'm glad you are enjoying The District (a show on BYU-TV, Michael doesn't know this is the second season, not the ones he has seen).  It's actually pretty old, the missionaries had it for training purposes even before I left on the mission.  I think its about 2-3 years old, and I've watched it over and over and over, but it is pretty much what life was like in California.  Of course they weren't serving in Compton, its most similar to when I was in Whittier so far as demographics go.  Yes it does feel like a long time since I've been in Long Beach even though its only been about 6 months.  I'm 100% Brazilian nowadays. (Well as far as an American can be Brazilian)

     Politics are such a funny thing.  Here in Brasil all I ever here is how amazing the political system in America is, and how great it would be to be an American citizen.  Here in Brasil all the politicians do is rob rob rob rob rob.  For example, a city councilman in Vancouver receives something like $30,000 a year in compensation for his work.  Certainly a nice bonus, but nothing unreasonable as he will have to continue to work at his other job in order to continue to live.  Also Vancouver has 5 city councilors. Gravataí is a little bit bigger than Vancouver with about 250,000 people but its more or less comparable.  Here they have 25 city councilmen that gain R$10,000 per month, or $60,000 (american) a year.  Plus for every act they make they gain 30% of the expected cost of the bill.  So if they make a great big bill to build a hospital for 200,000,000 Reais, they'll gain 60,000,000.  Its absolutely absurd!  I've learned to appreciate our politicians much more, because for all their faults, at least they are working to gain an honest pay unlike the politicians here.

     I've never been robbed on the mission, but I always keep a little bit of money on me to give to thieves if I were robbed.  Fortunately I'm working in a very nice neighborhood, Gravataí really doesn't have nearly as much criminality as Porto Alegre.  Also I keep my money and my ID in different places, and Identity theft isn't a huge threat here (criminals are pretty stupid here), plus my Passport is locked away safe in the vaults of the Mission so I'll be able to return one day ;).

     I see Elder Glessing every now and then, but we are in different zones for the moment so I haven't seen him for about 4 months.

     Yup I can buy milk chocolate here, even Hershey's Chocolate.  I never thought I would see the day when I thanked Wal-Mart, but thanks to wal mart I have almost all the American products I'm used to.  The only things I don't have are Dr. Pepper and Root Beer :(.  Also walmart brand peanut butter isn't all that good, but its better than nothing.

As for my Christmas Wishlist:

Photos from everyone at home

And I have one really weird request, Could you send my decks of Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards down here?  I was talking with some people and they are really expensive here, so they make for a good presents, also helps them to learn English.

     So far as Weddings go, we marked the wedding for I and his family last week or two weeks ago.  Finally after a 5 month bureaucratic nightmare we marked the date for their wedding for November 24th, and the whole family will be baptized on November 25th.  I was so relieved to have that taken care of, now its just a wait for them as well as arrange everything for the wedding.

     S and N are on a bit of a hold, but they are only missing one paper and if everything goes right we should have the paper we need in hand here in 2 weeks, so they'll probably be married in December close to Christmas time.

     R was baptized which was very exciting on Sunday, and now we are going to work with his Grandma to help her into the church.  She was in sacrament meeting this Sunday and she really liked the church.  She also has a strong Christian background which means that the commandments won't be a problem for her at all.  I'd love to see the whole family in church together every week.

     Well that's pretty much my week.  Oh I almost forgot, this Saturday we had a huge ward party for the Youth to raise funds for EFY.  It was a blast and our investigators loved it!   I attached a couple photos of the activity.

Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Dad,

Man how I miss halloween, last year the missionaries got a TON of candy for Halloween, and this year nothing.  They don't even have Halloween here, how sad is that :(.  We had a pretty good week, and I'm excited to see our mission grow.  We really need more missionaries here to help the work.

     The LAN House is closing up, but thanks for keeping me up to date on the family.  I'm glad to hear Tori is working hard on her homework, and that the Ducks are creaming their opponents.

Love,

Elder Henry

Everyone gathering for the prayer at the ward party.

A picture of our ward activity, the place was packed with over 300 people who showed up.  More than double our weekly Sacrament attendance

Elder Henry Oct. 16th

Dad,

I'm cracking up over here about your un-manly oil change experience :P. It's pretty stupid that a job that takes us 15 minutes at home without all the fancy tools they have at the Oil change took 30 minutes there. One thing I'm learning a lot of here in Brasil is the People don't have money to go to a specialist to fix stuff, so they just fix things on their own. It really doesn't take a whole lot of knowledge to change a tire or oil, just a little bit of time. Everyone here is their own handyman ;).

The weather is just the opposite down here. We are enjoying a beautiful spring down here, its not to hot yet, but the rain stays away for most of the time. Although it is still pretty grey down here, about as grey as Washington. Its funny but Rio Grande do Sul is just about as close to the weather in Washington as any other place I've visited in my life. The only difference is it gets hotter here than Washington.

Meh can't say I'm surprised BYU lost to OSU. BYU is still back in the glory days of the 80's and never seem to change their strategies. At the least it sounds like it was a fun game.

So Sherry will wait until April before she leaves? Depending on where she goes we may still have a quick moment to see each other :). We all know how long visas can take to arrive!

I'm glad Spencer has learned from his older siblings mistakes. Nothing is more trouble than a girlfriend at 16. I only wish I had had the wisdom to listen to my parents when I was younger >.>. Oh well we live and learn. Way to go Spencer :).

So today we are heading down to the Temple, that's why I'm e-mailing on a Tuesday instead of a Monday. We are pretty excited but its always super hectic to get P-day done with and go to the temple in the same day o.o. Thanks for the E-mail.

I love you all tons :)

Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Mom,

Sorry about the switch of E-mail days. We are headed off to the Temple today, but since the Temple is closed on Monday we have to go on Tuesday. Anyways we are doing well and excited to be working.

We are working with a couple of families right now and are super excited. I and L went this weekend to pick up the last few papers for their marriage papers as well as S and N. Of course its taking longer than we had hoped, but sometimes our planning isn't the same as the Lords planning. I'm sure he's got things all taken care of upstairs.

We also started teaching a family of 7, M and her 6 kids. They unfortunately weren't able to make it to church this Sunday because of M's work schedule but she is really quite excited about the church and our visits and is reading the Book of Mormon. We had a Family night with her and 2 of her kids last night (the other 4 decided to stay home). It was a lot of fun, we played around a bunch and also taught them about the Plan of Salvation.

J went to church this Sunday and is really excited about her Baptismal date of the 26th of October. I'm hoping that the rest of her family will have the same desire to go to church and read the Book of Mormon as well. Its crazy just how powerful the Book of Mormon is. It really changes our lives, thoughts, and outlook on life. I only have to look at my life to see the change the Book of Mormon brings, but yet I have so many more witnesses here on the mission of people who have read the Book of Mormon and have changed their lives because of it.

Anyways that is pretty much what happened last week. Yesterday we have a big Churrasco at one of our member's house that was absolutely delicious. I'm pretty sure I gained a kilo or two.

I love you all and are always in my prayers and thoughts.

Love,

Elder Henry

Fam update

Sherry modeling for her friend Alyse Simpson--a few more at AlyseSimpson.blogspot.com but these are my favorites =)

Tori is working on the song Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd Webber for school.  Here she is practicing with her music teacher, Mrs. Hart
http://youtu.be/NfHG7TF0W_k

Last but not least, Spencer went on his first date.  His best friend Cody and he took Rachel and Brigitta to the BYU vs. U of Portland soccer game.

Such exciting missionary news!

Elder Henry with some of his wonderful investigators

 Dear Mom,
I pretty much had the exact same reaction (as the rest of the family) when I heard the announcement,  I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend wondering, "Does this mean Sherry will serve a mission?  I hope she goes, this seems like it was made just for her!".  I'm really glad to hear that she's going to serve a mission!!!!  I can't tell you how happy this makes me, of course we won't see each other for another period of time, but its soooo worth it.  BAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!  I'm soooo excited XD!

     Of course pretty much every one's world got turned upside down this weekend with the new announcement not to mention Spencer.  One less year to go until he hits the field as well.  How crazy, you and Dad could have at least one child on a mission for the next few years depending on the timing when Sherry heads off.  Seriously one of the most exciting announcements of my life :).

     I already called President Wright to receive permission to figure everything out at BYU so I can return studying there in 2013.  I'll be sure to keep you updated on the process :).  Looks super easy, all I need is an ecclesiastical endorsement and my transcript from Clark, I don't even have to do the essay questions over! =D

     So the last two weeks of stuff that happened.  Sorry once again that you all didn't get something to read last week, I'll try and compensate this week.

     Other than the news about missionaries, I really loved General Conference, of course it was nice not to have to walk for two days, but the spirit that accompanied the conference was excellent.  We had a very early morning Priesthood session because of the time difference we watched the re-broadcast at 6 in the morning on Sunday Morning.  It was pretty scary walking around the streets of Brasil before the sun came up.  Brasil really is a different place in the early morning hours about 5:00 all the drunks were out on the streets and it was the first time I actually felt scared here in Brasil.  Fortunately I won't have to do that again for a long time ^^".

     Sunday Evening we watched the last session of general conference in the comfort of one of our member's homes.  We brought N and S over and had a really good experience with them there together with a bunch of members.  S has really been progressing a ton and has been reading the Book of Mormon.  I'm really happy for the progress, and we went and marked their marriage at the registration office today so everything is set for S to be baptised on November 11th.  Other exciting news is I and his family are just about ready for their marriage as well.  I's papers came back, and we just have to get a paper from L M's hometown so they can go to the registration office to legalize their marriage.

     We've been finding a whole lot of new people to teach.  One was actually a pretty funny experience.  While we had an exchange a couple weeks back we knocked on a door and a young woman  J answered the door.  She was alone so we had to teach her on her front porch, but she accepted the Book of Mormon and marked to return.  After about a week of showing up late to appointments and her having already left and missing appointments we finally returned a second time to talk with her.  She mentions that she was talking to a friend on Facebook that had been gone for two years and didn't know where he had gone.  Turns out he's one of the recently returned missionaries from our ward, Andrio.  So we bring him to the third lesson and turns out they were best friends in high school and she's super curious about the church and reading the Book of Mormon.  It was fun to see just how small the world is in the church :).

     We also found a family of 6, and a couple other people that we only taught once but have a lot of potential.  I'm very excited to see what this month brings, especially after a long time of not having much success :)

Love,

Elder Henry

Artur opens up his birthday presents from the missionaries

A very rare sight here in Brasil, a game of American Football!

Final District meeting of the transfer

Dear Dad,

The new rules for missionaries really changed the dynamics especially for Girls.  Its a lot easier now for girls to serve a mission before they get married.  Of course you are the third person I'm ranting to about this change, but its really quite huge.  I kind of wish they had waited until Sunday night to announce this change as I probably would have payed more attention to General Conference if they had :P.

     I looked up some stuff on BYU.edu to look and see what I need to do to re-register at BYU for Fall 2013 and it looks pretty simple.  I'm glad that I did it on a P-day though, because it sure brought back a ton of good memories from college.  I try not to think about it too much or I might just start to get trunky. :P

     I'm happy to hear our Ducks are still on the up, although it seems to me they haven't really played any of their hard games yet.  We still have Stanford and USC, and looks like OSU will be a real big challenge this year as well.  Also the ducks tend to have a much harder time away from home than at home.  We'll see if they can continue their good playing and make their way to a National Game against Alabama and BEAT the SEC!  Of course it will be a shame to miss such a great season but the sacrifices we make right?

     So did cousins get rid of the White Van and swap for the Nissan Altima or do they have 3 cars now?  My standard of cars had dropped a ton nowadays, even a Toyota Carolla or a Honda Fit looks like a cool car after being around all these little Euro-cars.  

     Thanks for all the encouragement Dad.

Love,

Elder Henry

Drenched by rain but feet are dry!

Transfers are next week, so I'll find out next Monday. Most likely I'll stay and get a new companion. About time Spencer got his Driver's license! Spencer really does look super young to be at Clark College. But I also looked pretty young when I was there and it didn't really bother me. In fact I still look young, everyone here things Elder Roman is a lot older than me, and they say that I look like I am 16-18, maybe 19. I suppose that's a good thing for when I get old...

The Ducks game sounds intense! 49-0 shutdown?! Of course it was Autzen stadium, but still I was pretty concerned with the Duck Defense after they lost the National Championship two years back. Hopefully this year will be much better ;). Who's Number One? Alabama? I know its probably some SEC Scumbag, but hey its good to know who the Ducks have to beat this year.

Its funny that you mentioned that Sherry said Missionaries that serve in foreign countries need an adjustment period, because I still feel like an American, like I've never even thought, "Oh after the mission I'll need a couple months to get used to America again". Its probably true though, after the mission I'll miss the food in Brasil a lot. Fortunately I'm compiling recipes one by one for when I get back. Let me tell you, there will always be Condensed Milk in my house after Brasil. They use it in EVERYTHING here, well at least all the sweet stuff.

Thank you for changing the names on the blog, I wouldn't ever want to betray the trust of my friends here in Brasil because of that.

The Nike Waterproof boots (link for those interested: http://www.footlocker.com/product/model:25338/sku:65031009/nike-acg-air-max-goadome-mens/black/black/&SID=7111&inceptor=1&cm_mmc=SEM-_-Engine-_-Google-_-Plusbox ) work like a charm. I wear them every single day, and my feet have never been more dry. Also my feet never get too hot in them, I really have no idea how they work so well, I'm just glad they do. Also when it rains here it POURS, its never just a dry mist. Last Monday and Tuesday it rained buckets all day and night. Some people's houses were flooded in a different part of Gravataí, because of the storm. Also we get a TON of thunderstorms here. It's soo cool, someone in our ward said that there were over 2000 lightning strikes in Rio Grande Do Sul last weekend, and I totally believe it. The only problem is the wind breaks umbrellas here Super easy, I've already broken 4 umbrellas and I refuse to buy more. Unfortunately that means I eat a lot of rain walking around the streets, and that in turn makes a person a little sick. But I'm still living which is good.

Fortunately its officially Spring time here, which marks the end of my year-long Winter. I'm finally getting to see some sort of hope of Spring/Summer once again :D.

Last week was pretty hard for us missionaries. We had 2 days of rain, (which is the worst when you have to work in the rain), and also 20th of September is the biggest holiday here in the south. Its the day that started the Farropilha revolution when Rio Grande do Sul tried to seperate from the rest of Brasil. Holidays are also really hard days for missionaries because everyone is Drunk and doesn't want to talk with you, or even worse the people are drunk AND want to talk with you, but at least it makes for some fun contacts :P.

I had two pretty cool experiences last week that I'd like to share with you. Last Monday we lost our cellphone in the rain, as well as all our contacts (which were on the cellphone), so its been pretty hard to coordinate with people and mark appointments and the like. Saturday morning I woke up and was getting ready for the day when I had the distinct impression, "I really should put the number of Sister and President Wright in my planner just in case something happens. It would really suck to be stuck somewhere without a phone and without their number in an emergency." Of course being me I then thought, well nothing ever happens to us, but just in case I'll write down the number of the other Elders and if anything happens I can call them and ask them for the number to President and Sister Wright, or whatever we need. So I wrote down their number and went on our day. After lunch Elder Roman comes up to me and says, "Elder I'm really not feeling good. I am in a lot of pain right here in my tooth." Fortunately I had wrote down the number to the other Elders and was able to talk with them and get Sister Wright's number in order to find out what we needed to do to help him out. After about 3 hours we found ourselves a dentist and he was able to clean out the tooth and fix the problem. I really didn't think much of the impression that morning, but it turned out to save Elder Roman a lot of pain and suffering because I listened to what the spirit had to say.

Sunday we had an amazing lesson with S. She went to church yesterday for the third time and really is liking it, but still has a lot of questions and doubts. We went there last night with the intention of marking the date of her baptism and brought a member, R, with us. We decided it would be best to teach about Apostasy and then share the scripture of Acts 19:1-6 that talks about how people were baptized once, but were rebaptized to receive the Holy Ghost, because she had been baptised once before in the Baptist Church and it was a really spiritual experience for her. We started to teach her and R talked all about Apostasy and the necessity of being baptised once again by authority and to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. After about 40 minutes in the lesson I reminded her of an experience she had had last Saturday. She had received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true, and I reminded her of just that. She told me that she could not deny what she had felt at that moment. I testified to here that really she had received an answer and the Spirit just enveloped the whole room. The power the filled the room is completely indescribable, as I bore testimony that the Book of Mormon really is true, and invited her to be baptised. She paused for a moment and then replied, Yes. We marked her Baptism for October 27th.

I love my life as a missionary, it really is hard, and there are days and weeks that just go absolutely wrong, but in the end the experiences we get to see, the changes and conversions that take place are worth every pain I have ever felt as a missionary.

All my Love,

Elder Henry

Fam update

Spencer got his Driver's License AND started college this week at age 16!  He's taking Political Science, College Algebra, and English.  Still has tennis at Prairie for another month or so too =)

Sherry is crazy busy with her BYU classes which she absolutely LOVES, they seem like a jumble of unrelated classes (Physics of Acoustics, German, Improv, yoga for actors, tap dance, New Testament, Psychology of Performance, private voice lessons) but they all compliment each other and intertwine incredibly well!
(photo: alysesimpson.blogspot.com)

Tori was assigned a beautiful duet by her new music teacher at school, and is having a marvelous school year so far!

Damon took me to a Duck game!

They beat Arizona 49-0, first shutout since 2003 and the defense was incredible.

Now they are the #2 team in the USA--we were fans when they were #102 too.  We love the Ducks!  And each other :-)
 

In all last week I got really really really wet, but it was REALLY worth it :)

Dear Mom

I'm glad to hear USC was beat up by Stanford. Now the Ducks just have to beat USC and Stanford and it will be smooth sailing to another National Title Game >:). Of course I never really like the Ducks having a high number in the Polls, because I always get super paranoid that the Ducks will fall because they get a little relaxed.

      That's super awesome what Elder Oaks told the people of Utah. I'm sitting here in my seat just cracking up :P. It really should be a general conference talk, or at least published in the Ensign. One thing I've noticed about the politics here in Brasil is that there really is no hatred from one party to the other. Like the two major Parties here in Gravataí are 13 - PT (Partido de Trabalhadors, or rather the workers party), and 15 - PDB (Partido Democratico de Brasil, Democrat Party of Brasil). Of course Politics is a little bit different here in Brasil, they have 50 or 60 different parties that join forces in each city in place of our 2 party system in America. But really the fans of PT don't go around bashing the fans of PDB, and vice versa. Of course there are a ton of adds, and a bunch of music, and people waving banners, handing out pamphlets, and all that jazz, but so much as members and investigators talking about, "All the people from PDB are from the Devil, and we should use all force necessary to take them out!" Or "PT is just a terrible party, why would you ever vote for them". I asked Elder Roman if he'd ever heard someone fight about politics and he looked at me strangely like I had asked a stupid question. "No one here fights over politics, is it normal in the US to fight about such a thing?" Of course there are fanatics in every party, and perhaps because I'm a missionary I don't hear as much of the garbage that goes on, but its pretty nice not to have to debate politics everyday.

I'll fill out the form and send it in priority. Hopefully it will get to me in time, but we will see.

      Speaking of Sherry, every time I show her Senior picture to the families I visit, they are absolutely stunned. They say things like, "She's your Sister?!", "Are you sure she's not a model?" and all sorts of other things like that.

      So our week, well last Tuesday we had a bit of a surprise Zone Conference with Elder Mazzagardi, from the Area Presidency of Brasil. He gave a really powerful talk on pretty much everything, but afterwards I felt rejuvenated to go out and work. I love Zone Conferences, they are some of the best meetings of the mission, especially with General Authorities.

      We then spent most of last week finding... in the rain. It was pretty miserable, but its always 10x worse during the trial than looking back at it. Fortunately at the end of every trial are blessings, and the blessing this week was 11 investigators at church :D. I and his family were at church, and are doing great. They really remind me of the Gonsalves and Brown families, because they are so prepared to receive the gospel :). They are just waiting on some paperwork to finalize the preparations for the Marriage, and then afterwards the baptism! Unfortunately these types of things take a LONG time in Brasil, so we will see how soon will be the Baptism. Its looking like October/November...

      P and Alessandra were both at church as well. One of the talks at church talked specifically about how P's son Alessandro inspired the person giving the talk. She talked about how Alessandro had told her in Primary that he is so grateful for the sacrifices that his mom makes so that their family can stay together and always have food on the table. I'm hoping that this experience will help P to receive the answer she needs to receive her conversion, and be baptised. Everything is ready, I just am waiting on the Lord to give her an answer and change her heart.

      It really is an interesting event that happens when someone receives a testimony. Of course many people receive their testimony (principally people who were born in the church) through time and nourishment in the gospel. But with my recent converts L and L, it really was complete change in an instant. After an instant in a lesson, the Holy Spirit entered and converted them. Its absolutely incredible to see the change in the person from a person to a disciple of Christ happen so quick. Really its the best show on Earth, I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to witness this happen so many times on my mission.

      We are also teaching a woman named S. I didn't even mention her last week I think because I was pretty pessimistic about the whole situation. The first and second time we visited S and N were pretty horrible Bible bashes. N is a less active returned missionary, he served a mission in São Paulo Sul in the 80's and after a separation from his wife and kids, fell away from the church. A member in our ward works at a Market close to N and when he bought Cevada (a coffee substitute that everyone in the church drinks here) she asked him where he lived and what ward he belongs to. After he explained his situation she took down his address and passed it off to us.

      S is VERY Pentecostal Baptist, but last night we had an amazing experience with her. We were explaining about the Book of Mormon and showed her a couple of passages in the Bible that predict the Book of Mormon. One of the Passages was Psalms 85:11 (Which by the way is my LEAST favorite book in all the scriptures, because it really doesn't teach all that much, and is the only book in the Bible that people read here) which talks about how the truth will come forth from the dust. She wanted to confirm that, yes this verse exists in both my bible and your bible, and so she went and grabbed her Bible. She opened up to that passage, and she had already marked the verse in a previous read through the Bible. She really had no idea why she had marked it, because without the context of the Book of Mormon it really is a small overlooked little verse. But the Lord had touched her 2 years ago when she read that verse, enough so to mark the verse. When she saw that mark in her Bible, she received her witness that really what we brought to her home is the Truth. I hope that I didn't butcher this story, because it really was a miracle, from a Bible Bash, to a spiritual experience, complete 180 in our lessons with her.

      The last 4 investigators we had a church were M (a 13 year old young woman, friend of many youth in our ward), G and A(... I don't like to think about that situation), and V (who is still waiting on Prophetic approval for his baptism).

      In all last week I got really really really wet, but it was REALLY worth it :).

All my Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Dad,

I'm actually pretty surprised that the RAM worked for your Mac as computers can get pretty picky about their RAM. Of course I'm not all that excited to come home and see another MacIntosh in our house, but luckily I'll be headed off to Utah soon enough :P.

I wish that I had used my time more wisely in my teenage years like Spencer. He really is such a great kid. I think its super funny that he and Coby are training to be American Ninja Warriors.

Anyways my time has already ran out, I love you lots,

Love,

Elder Henry