Culture shock! Elder Henry is home!!!

Elder Henry has actually had a pretty good time adjusting back to normal life, but I was typing some of the funny things he said when we first got him back from Brasil. Oh and btw, the family from last week did get baptized, yay Facebook for keeping in touch with members from your mission.  Enjoy!

THERE HE IS!!!!!!!!

Ahhh!!!!!!!!!

The Mom hug!!!

Family hug!

Tori taking a photo with her "new" phone (aka Sherry's old phone)

I couldn't stop hugging him or smiling!

WHOA this phone is like a computer!!!

He looks great!

Good old American Root Beer.

Tori also inherited Sherry's guitar

Elder Henry and Sister Henry in the MTC!  I LOVE THIS PHOTO!!!!!

Seeing Sherry at the MTC

Reunited with Gran Gran

Sherry's good friend Andrew served in the mission next to Michaels so I made them wear their matching soccer jerseys for  a photo to send her!

Michael's initial reactions to the USA:

These cars are so big!

I love carpet!

The highway is so big!

Tina is so fat!

Is the cell phone 3g or 4g?

What can you all do on the cell phones?

Oh look its the carpet in our house (Tori showing him a photo of the cats)!!!

Every single house has 4 or 5 dogs and there are lots of street dogs they are nasty they bite they have Sarna a black skin disease you can get from them they are all deformed. Terrible smell.

The cats take care of themselves

Telling us about how the Brazilians thought mild mexican food was so spicy

BAH is an expression of surprise or excitement

Uhhu means yes or uh huh

MOM! I want to do all the laundry when I get home! I can't wait to use a dryer instead of hanging everything! And I want do all the dishes!!!

Where are the dirt roads?

Wait we have unlimited minutes?!!! In Brazil I had 100 minutes a month! The United States is great!

I'm cracking myself up with my own accent! English is weird!

SCREENS ON THE WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE AMERICA!!!!!

The first time he ate tacos, without hot sauce, he thought they were spicy.  hahaha!

Leaving his "son" with 4 pending baptisms, Elder Henry heads home.

Dear Dad,
     You hit the nail on the head.  I simply feel super surreal, I feel like a deer staring into the headlights waiting for the car to hit me lol.  At least -I- remembered Spencer's birthday.  Of course, a lot of good that does him, seeing as I'm still here in Brasil LOL.
     I'm pretty confident that my greenie will be able to make it here no problems.  Unfortunately for me, we have 4 more baptisms lined up for next week that the next missionary will be able to inherit. (Michael trained his current companion, so he is his "son" in mission tradition).
     I'm pretty excited about our mountain climb.  You know I've never hiked to the Y before?  I would love to go with you guys.
Love you Dad, until Thursday!
Love,
Elder Henry

Yeah, I'm pretty anxious to see you guys again.  Man it really doesn't feel like the end of the mission.  I feel like there's still another year or so left for me, now I understand why everyone says, the mission is so short.  When you are in the mission it feels like it will never end, but now that I'm here, it all seems surreal.

Also I'm planning on leaving most of my Shirts/Pants, my trench coat, a pair of shoes, and the camera here with some members and recent converts.  Paula, the bishop's wife has needing a camera for a long time, and with your permission I'd like to give it to her as a parting gift.  It probably isn't worth that much in the states, but a new camera here is out of reason for a Brasilian.  They are super expensive for what they make in a month. 

I have flip-flops and tennies, as well as tee-shirts.  Cargo shorts would be good, but I also have a pair of gym shorts (only problem is they are pretty raggy already).

I love you all, until Thursday!

Love,
Elder Henry

Spencer's birthday and Sister Sherry Henry's blog info

Sherry's mission blog is at:  http://SisterHenry.blogspot.com, her mailing addresses are available there.

Today is Spencer's 17th birthday!  He started his first job yesterday working at a furniture store.  He got a 4.0 GPA at Clark College this quarter! We are so proud of him!

 And Sherry was set apart as a missionary this morning!  Happy happy day! 

A few photos from Sherry's farewell

With Grandpa and Grandma Henry

 Last family most of the family photo

Spencer's birthday

Sister Sherry Henry - Missionary Photos by Heather Gibert Photography

Having your closest Aunt (who used to take care of her when she was a baby) take your mission photos is just so wonderful! If you'd like to book Heather for missionary or senior photos, leave a comment and I will get you her contact info.

 

 

 

Last baptism of his mission! And 4 Elders in the ward now!

Last baptism of the mission!  In beautiful Mathias Velho.

Dear Mom,

Of course I'll write next week. It will probably be super short. But for sure I'll send at least a "I'm alive!".

     Well we had yet another baptism this week, but beyond that we don't have any perspectives for this week in baptisms. We had a super productive week administratively as we received two new missionaries in Mathias Velho. I feel pretty good about that, as I took a ward that was baptising 3 per year, to a ward that needs to have 4 missionaries because of all the work here. Of course not everything is perfect, and our apartment is SUPER cramped (its basically a studio apartment, with one tiny little bedroom. The poor other pair of missionaries are sleeping on the floor because they don't have beds, and not even space to put two more beds). We hammered out a ward mission plan, and for the first time since I got here, the bishop actually seems excited to work. Yeah, I feel pretty satisfied with what I have done here in Mathias. Now I just have to find something productive to do this week as we have hardly any investigators >.>.

     Yup. I'm pretty excited to come home next week, but its super surreal. I feel like just like I felt like before the mission. "I'm actually going home? I'm actually going to live in a different country here in a week? What's it going to be like?" <- Pretty much the thoughts passing through my head. The new companionship here are Elder F. Oliveira and Elder Luz, both are from São Paulo. They are both 4 months into the mission, so we've got 3 greenies all in one house with me lol. Well I guess I'll attach a photo of the baptism before I go.

     Love you Mom!

Love,

Elder Henry

Looks like they were having a good time with some of the new converts and YSA's.