Elder Henry 1/23/12

 

     It sounds like your talk went really well.  Sorry my E-mail didn't get to you on Monday.  I got your letter Friday Night, and so the next day I asked if it would be okay if one of my members texted you the information, and it sounds like you got everything.  I could have sworn I pressed the little "would you like to include Lisa Y Henry?" Button, but I guess not.  Oh well things are all worked out now.  By the way the guy who texted you is Ben Maluia, one of the Less active members we've been visiting.

     BIG NEWS!  I'm getting transferred tomorrow to Whittier.

For anyone with letters on the way to my current address, my companion will take them to the mission office and then they will get to me.  It will probably just take about a week or so to get to me.

     More BIG NEWS!  I've been called to be a District Leader in my new area!  I'm really excited to serve the missionaries around me, and help them out the best I can.

     EVEN MORE BIG NEWS!  My new companion is also a visa waiter... for New Zealand.  His name is Elder Dixon, and everyone is telling me that he's an amazing missionary.  He's a recent convert of a year and a half, and President Bubert sent me a letter telling me that the two of us are going to be like Alma and Amulek up there.  Although he did specifically prohibit me from any fiery death scenes :(.

     I think that's it for the big news items of this week.  I'm really excited for my new area, calling, and companion.  Still I've had to say good-bye to a lot of my friends here yesterday, and it never gets easier as a missionary to say good-bye.  When you leave to go to the field you say good-bye to your family, when you leave the MTC you say good-bye to professors and friends, when you leave an area you say good-bye to companions, recent converts, less actives, members, all people you come to love, and then one day you have to leave the mission and say good-bye to your calling as a full-time missionary.  I can't imagine any of it gets any easier.

     I lied I have one more BIG NEWS event.  I'm going to be on bike in my next area instead of in a car.  Except I don't have a bike.... and neither does my companion...  I talked to President Bubert about it and he said the Assistants will be lending us a couple bikes from the mission.  I'm really excited to be able to go out on bike everyday, it is going to be quite the adventure.

      It was a really slow week for us as missionaries this past week.  No one has made any progress at all, and we haven't found any new investigators.  Its been a paitience week for us, where the people know what they need to do, and they slowly are making the changes and slowly the blessings are starting to come through.  It's been a week of getting the ward on board with us and setting things up to have amazing experiences.  We've been working with the members figuring out who they will fellowship, when both parties are available, and what kind of an activity will the members have planned (ie Dinner, FHE, etc.).  Hopefully things will start to pan out for the rest of the week :).  I've learned a lot of how to work with members in this area and I'm really excited to take that knowledge to Whittier.

     Thank you for the support, prayers, packages, and letters :).  I love you all so much!  Thank you for helping me to be the young man I am today.

Love,

Elder Henry

(P.S. I got a haircut today, so you don't have to worry about it, I know it was super long)

PHOTOS

1. Final good-bye to Eli, Isa, Matt, Siniva, and Zion

2. Matt with his one year old son Zion

3. Final good-bye to Ma'epu

4. The Sagala family, the Elders Quorum president in the Compton 1st ward.  Amazing members!

5. My District from this transfer.  We had a senior proselyting couple named the Blickenstaffs.  They were amazing, I can't wait until you and Dad can be the couple that all the younger missionaries just love to talk with and be around :)