Happy Birthday Elder Henry

Dear Mom,
No I haven't heard a thing (about my visa/travel plans)...  Which makes me very very sad :(.  It's on the way but taking its time about doing so.  For my birthday I bought Root Beer and Ice Cream, and we will be celebrating as a whole zone.  I can't believe I'm 21 already!  How crazy.     I'll do my best to hop on down to a CVS Pharmacy to get a backup CD and send it home.  P-days are crazy, but it would be nice for both of us, plus I still need to send the extra pair of shoes home.  As soon as I know the day I'm leaving I'll get in contact with the bank.
     I'm super excited to go to Brasil, that visa can't come fast enough!  Let me tell you :P.  Hopefully it will come sooner rather than later.

Not a whole lot happened last week.  Of the 4 new investigator families we only met with 2 of them.
     We saw Jon yesterday and he LOVES to talk.  The problem is its super interesting to me to, because he'll get going on WWII and then I get distracted...  Have to keep the lessons focused.  I've been saying goodbye to everyone in the area for about a week now.  The ward is so ready for me to leave, that I got my haircut on Saturday and people came up to me on Sunday and they thought I was their new elder!
     We had the departing missionary fireside yesterday and President Bubert asked Elder Whetstone and Myself to speak since we will be departing soon.  I also had the opportunity to invite all those I had worked with in my previous areas to come as well.  Unfortunately all of my recent converts were busy (seeing as it was Easter Sunday).  Fortunately some people were able to make it, I was very excited to see the Brother Maiava, the Sangala's, and Eli and Isa there ^^.  Tonight I'll be eating dinner with President Bubert and his Wife, and tomorrow we are going to the temple with President.  I'm really excited!  All that's left is a visa :P.
     We met with Ralph during the week last week and talked about the Book of Mormon.  We had an appointment with him again on Saturday and he wasn't home :/.  What made things worse we had brought a member with us, and they would have gotten along PERFECTLY!  Oh well, sometimes things fall through, its just a shame when it does.
      Steve H. said last week that he's really close to committing to baptism!  I'm really excited to hear that, especially when he hasn't been able to meet with us for the past two weeks.  Spring Break is this week for here, and so meeting with people will be a little bit trickier than normal.
     Steve R. and his family all were at Church yesterday :D!  Tax season is almost over as well, so he should be able to meet with us again soon.
     Nicole came to church yesterday and is also on the progressing train.  I just don't understand what it's going to take to strengthen her faith that she can overcome challenges and temptations in her path.  She's done it before, she can do it again!
     We had a bunch of non-members come to easter services yesterday!  We may even be able to start teaching one of them, a young man that came to church with one of the young women.  He seemed pretty shell-shocked when I came up and started talking with him.  I don't think he had any idea what was going on :P.  We are going to follow-up with the young woman who brought him this week.  Hopefully good things will ensue!
     Thanks for the Easter/Birthday Cards!  I opened them on Saturday instead of today on accident because Kelsey had sent an Easter package and so I thought the other 2 cards that came would be Easter cards (completely spacing my own birthday).  Thank you for signing the birthday card and always remembering me.  Also thank you Grandpa and Grandma Nichols and Granny for the Cards and Presents :).  Of course an extra thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Henry who are providing funds to help support me on my mission, and Kelsey and her parents Bruce and Randy.  I'm very grateful to have a whole family behind me supporting me while I'm on this endeavor.
I love you all so very much!
Love,
Elder Henry

Dear Michael,
     Hopefully you can make a cake--or buy one!  I was sad last night that I was going to not see you for your birthday, but then I remembered you'll be home in only 15 1/2 months or so and it made me happy.  Its just so weird having you and Sherry grown up and gone (although Dad would remind me we have our "perfect family" now--two kids is definitely a lot easier than four haha).
     I haven't heard anything.  Have you heard anything?  Itenerary? Etc etc?  You and/or Dad need to get ahold of the bank and let them know you are finally going to be traveling/living down there.  If you leave a "paper trail" by making small (food haha) purchases in each airport on your way, that will help the bank not freak out and put a hold on your account.  But we need to let them know again too.  I finally had an anxiety attack on Wed after the dots finally all were filled in and the visa was ready for collection.  Woke up in the 2am hour somewhere and could not get back to sleep!  I am really looking forward to talking with you on the phone and hearing your voice, so hopefully someone will let us know when you're leaving!!!
     I love you and have a wonderful birthday!  You're the best son I could wish for--despite all of dad's and my "Guinea pig" mistakes.  Thank you bud!
Love, Mom
PS  I shared your update to the YSA's with my missionary mom lists, because it was so eloquent.  It touched many hearts!  Here is one particularly special response I wanted to share with you.

Lisa,
Thanks so much for sharing your son's letter.  To me it was a  tender-mercy,
but not likely in the way you'd expect. 
     First a little  background - My son returned home from his mission in Alaska in
March.  He immediately went on facebook and had several friend requests
waiting from those in areas where he'd served.  One in particular was a
young woman who attended in one of the Singles Wards where he had served.
Things progressed VERY quickly, and before I knew it, (like the following
weekend) they'd  arranged for her to fly down so they could see one another
in person... I  think he's smitten!  She is a lovely girl in every way.
Which immediately got me wondering about her family, specifically her
parents.  Her mother is a member but her father is not.  I prayed that her
mother would be a valian  example in the gospel - but really never dreamed
that it could be confirmed until we'd met in person.
     Yet it was confirmed, in your son's letter.  He  wrote of "Sister Doing", and
the powerful testimony she bore when teaching  with your son and his
companion.  It's the very Sister Doing whose heart I'd prayed to know! The
tender way in which he described her allowed the spirit to bear witness that
she is, indeed, a valiant woman.
     The "what are  the chances..." are just too numerous to describe.  I can
testify that our Heavenly Father truly works in mysterious ways!  When we
only see one solution, he sees countless answers and will direct them for
our good! Thank  you for sharing your son's letter. It was truly an answer to
my  prayers.
D.A.W.

Dear Dad,
I haven't been able to find an international calling card that works for Brasil yet.  Hopefully I'll be able to find one today when I go to the pharmacy (they usually carry lots of that kind of stuff).
That's way cool that you were able to go do sealings last Thursday with mom.  I can't wait to go to the temple tomorrow with my mission president.  I imagine that will be quite the treat.
Its funny to imagine what kind of weather you must be getting this time of the year.  It's been pretty warm down here recently, in the high 80's low 90's all weekend.  Blue skies everyday, hardly ever a cloud in sight.  We have good enough weather that we can go out and jog for 20 minutes every morning at 6:30am.  It's pretty boring to be quite honest with you, I'd much rather have rainstorms all day every day.
Thank you for the Birthday wishes.  This is like my last milestone so far as age goes.  I still can't believe that I'm 21 today.
Love,
Elder Henry

"Remember, the Lord doesn't always give us what we expected, but He will give us what we hope for."

I have the best son in the world!  =)   Here is his report to the YSA of the Vancouver Washington West Stake.
--Lisa

My Mission wasn't what I expected, but it is exactly what I hoped for. When I received a mission call last March I had the whole family gathered around to find out where I would serve the Lord. To my surprise and excitement I was called to the Brasil Porto Alegre North mission speaking Portuguese. I felt the Holy Spirit at that time confirming that I had people in Brasil I needed to meet, and who needed to meet me.

To my shock though I did not receive a visa to go to Brasil. The months passed, I entered the MTC and spent 9 weeks diligently learning a foreign language. Those weeks were over and I faced a reassignment to Long Beach California. Through prayer I was able to 'come to terms' with this 'temporary' reassignment. As I labored I was determined to find the reason I was being delayed from Brasil.

In my first area I met people who were less-active that I helped come back into the gospel. One young man named Paul had a rough time being open with people and communicating with others. While I was there I saw him receive the Melchezidek priesthood, bear his testimony in sacrament, and share the gospel with one of his friends. I met and made eternal friendships with the people in Huntington Beach. Next I moved to Long Beach in the Samoan wards.

What a Blessing! Before my mission I was able to help a recent convert Samoan family into the ward as the Ward Mission Leader. I fell in love with the Brown family and even wanted to serve in Samoa. The Lord provided me with the ability to serve among the Samoan people through this reassignment, an opportunity I would never have had in Brasil. Furthermore I was able to help 3 people come into the gospel as well as try to help others come back. I made friends with people I would have never have met otherwise.

I was then transferred to Whittier and have had much success and learned much from the people I've met here. I've learned the importance of bringing members to lessons, talking with everyone, and how to find investigators. During my two months here I've seen 2 less actives come back to church on a regular basis.

The moral of my story is, God has always placed you in a position where you can do the most good. He has orchestrated MTC entry dates, visa problems, career choices, job opportunities, and many more factors so we can do the most good for the people around us. If we follow the promptings of the spirit and the counsel of our priesthood leaders, we will always be able to Find, Teach and Baptize. Doesn't matter if you are in Washington, California, Brasil, New Zealand, or any other place on this earth, be where the Lord needs you and never complain. In this lies success and happiness not just for the mission but your whole lives. Remember the Lord doesn't always give us what we expected, but He will give us what we hope for.

Elder Michael Jordan Henry

Elder Henry taught in Portuguese this week!

Dear Mom,

Its true General Conference got me re-fired to go out and teach the gospel! I absolutely loved it, even the parts about raising children. There are always principles of the Gospel that you can pull out of any of the talks. I think my favorite talks right now are Elder Oaks on Sacrifice, Elder Anderson on What does Christ think of you, and President Monson's talk on Duty. Hopefully my investigators/less actives got just as much out of it as I did. My companion and I as well as the two missionaries I live with all have been talking non-stop about conference :P.

Are you kidding me, Spencer HAS to go to Brasil. Its destined to be, and then we can speak Portuguese all the time to one another. Besides where else in the world would you rather be? :P.

What Mormon's -aren't- fox news junkies? Its a fact of life, especially down here in Southern California.

This past week was pretty short (seeing as we had Conference, and the last time I wrote you was tuesday). We have a lot of exciting things happening in our area though.

Last week we started teaching 4 different families, probably the best week of finding I've ever had on my mission. They all have potential, not golden investigators, but lots of potential. The investigators we have we really didn't get to work with last week. That meant we did LOTS of finding. We tracted 3 full days last week of walking from door to door and trying to find people to teach. It all paid off though on Sunday when we finally saw some of the fruits of our labors :).

The first person we found is named Jo. He's Ana P's Dad (one of the recent converts in the ward), and he's a Brazilian. For the first time on my mission I was able to teach in Portuguese, and it was AWESOME! I can't wait to go to Brasil and teach like that all the time. We had dinner with Jo and his Daughter and gave him one of the copies of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese that Kelsey gave me before my mission. Ana and I also wrote our testimonies in the front in Portuguese and he agreed to read it and share it with his wife. We have a return appointment tomorrow, but we will have to turn him over to the Sisters because he lives out of our area.

We also met a guy named Kevin this week. We were in the alleyway trying to find Chris and Frank, but they weren't home and were walking back to our car and asked him if we could give him a pass-along card. We then talked about the restoration and agreed to meet with us on Sunday. When we came back on Sunday we were able to sit down with him and share a lesson about the restoration, and he agreed to read and pray, but was about 50% on coming to church and didn't want to set a date for baptism yet. Still he says he's been studying religions to try and find the truth.

Next up is Jon. Jon is a high school teacher who loves WWII history. I may have mentioned him before because we first talked with him in January and finally got to teach him yesterday. We had a great lesson with him and he was asking lots of good questions. Today he's arranged for us to meet one of the surviving members of the Band of Brothers, so I'm looking forward to meeting Ed Pickering today. He was one of the medics that Parachuted into Normandie, France not long before D-day.

We also received a media referral last week for a family. The Mom and Dad's names are Pati and Alex. We met with them for the first time yesterday and brought one of the members, Sis. Doing, with us. The lesson went luke-warm and we probably wouldn't have gotten a return visit if it weren't for Sis. Doing there. She's a convert of a little over 20 years now and she bore powerful testimony of the good the church has done for her family. She also organized a play date for her grandson and the oldest boy. I'm so glad that she came with us because she is going to be a much more powerful tool than we can be as missionaries. Something I realized in that lesson is that members have been missionaries for many years and have much more experience than we do with introducing people to the gospel. The best thing I can hope for as a missionary is that a member has the courage to come with us to a lesson and help us to teach. They provide instant fellowship, and powerful witness of how the church has helped them with years of experience I don't have.

Nicole was too busy to meet with us, as well as Steve and Steve, but they are progressing slowly but surely. We need to try something new to help each of them overcome their bumps.

I'm glad you had a very happy birthday Mom :)!

I love you all very much, thank you for writing to me faithfully.

Love,

Elder Henry

Anxious for visa 3/27/12

Hey Mom,
Hope I didn't scare you by not writing yesterday. We switched our
P-day to Tuesday so we could go to the temple this morning. It was of
course, fantastic! I absolutely love the temple, even if we had to
sacrifice a couple hours of sleep to do it.
     N ended up postponing her baptism until May 19th. I haven't
given up on her, but she needs some more work on her testimony. I
feel about ready to throw in the towel, but she must still need
something I will say to her, else I would be in Brasil.
     I'll make sure to keep a little cash on me for Brasil, and I'll pick up
a calling card today at the store. We only have 30 minutes to E-mail
today as well so this E-mail will be short. Hopefully though we will

be able to chat for a while when I'm hopping from airport to airport.
     We really haven't had a whole lot of new things going on this week,
but we have set up a lot of appointments for this weekend with
families. 3 new potential investigator families have appointments
with us this Saturday/Sunday, and we also found another potential
investigator that has been to church before and had lots of LDS
friends through the years yesterday. Lots of finding happening right
now, which makes me feel good about leaving the area, the next Elders
will find it ripe and excited to work so it won't die after I go.
     I'm REALLY excited to finally go to Brasil. Although I hope it comes
this week and I leave next week. If I have to stay 2 more weeks I'm
going to die of anxiety :P. Also tell everyone to hold off on
Birthday Packages until after I get to Brasil. I'm not going to have
any room in my suitcase to pack away anything I get here in the
states.
I'm down to 8 minutes and need to E-mail my Mission President. I love you so
much, tell Dad I'm sorry I didn't get to respond this week, but that
I'm really excited to hear about Spencer working so hard as a
missionary back home.
Love,
Elder Henry

Brazil before his birthday likely!

Dear Mom,
      Elder Bowles is a pretty quiet guy but really funny as well.  He's from Orem, UT but was born out here in Orange, CA.  We are also in a car now ^^.  The best part is we have another Mazda 3!  Definitely the best car in the mission.
     My area is still fantastic.  I'll talk a little more about the success we are seeing in the area after I finish answering questions.
     Also my mission president just called and told me that I'll be leaving for Brasil on the first week of April, which is what I expected.  It could happen any time between 10 days from now and 40 days from now, but most likely the first week of April. 
     I share your hatred of daylight savings time.  But is worth it for us missionaries, now our evenings will be longer and we will be able to get into more houses.  Sounds like everything went well with the Boy coming home which is good.  Sherry can thank me for paving the way on that road :P.
     This week was really exciting!  N had her baptism interview on Saturday and passed!  She finally quit smoking!!!!  WOOOHOOOO.  She's also been coming to church and things are going SUPER AWESOME FOR HER!  She'll be baptized on March 24th.
     SR. came to church this week after missing last week.  I was very relieved to see him there :), but even more exciting than that his wife decided to attend this week out of the blue.  Apparently this Friday she came up to her husband and told her, this week we are going to church together as a family, and they stayed for all three hours :).  She's always been nice to us, but distant and not really interested for herself but supportive of her husband.  I think the change happened because we dropped by on Thursday and though her husband wasn't home and she was having a hard time helping her son with his math homework.  Fortunately I have been blessed with an aptitude for math, so I offered to help.  30 Minutes later we conquered that homework and we had to go.  I think just that small act of service really helped her out and inspired her to come to church :).
     S H. is at the same place as ever.  Snail-pace progress and we just have to help him resolve his concerns.
     We also found two new investigators named Nancy and Chris.  Nancy is going to be transferred over to the singles ward, but Chris is a man we met in the alleyway behind his house.  He recently lost a friend in a car wreck and has been asking Why.  We taught him lesson about the restoration and why it helps us understand these things.  Hopefully we'll be able to teach him, his wife and 5 kids :).  We have an appointment with him this Tuesday.
     That's pretty much my first week with Elder Bowles.  I hope we will continue to find lots of success in this area :)
     Thank you all for your E-mails and letters, I love you and pray for you as well.
Love,
Elder Henry

"I'm going to die in Brasil--it will be AWESOME!!!" Letter Home 3/5/2012

Dear Mom,
Elder Whetstone says that after the last dot gets filled in it usually takes 2 weeks for you to leave.  Its crazy to think I will be leaving in about 4 weeks though.  I had a run in with a Brazilian this week and I can't understand Portuguese at all >.>.  I'm going to die in Brasil with the Heat and the language and the sickness.  It's going to be awesome!
     We will see if I have room in my bag/weight available.  I might just have to do without Peanut butter, but I don't know if I could survive without PB and J!  Ana Pinheiro made me Rice and Beans Brazilian style and I can't wait to be eating that every day.  It's really yummy ^^
     Hey I'm not going to complain if Spencer wants to study economics.  Maybe we can start up our own Financial Firm or something like that.  I think it would be a lot of fun to work with Spencer on research projects and the like.  We'll see if he really likes it or not, although if you love history and math then it usually works out pretty well.  I'll make sure to keep Sherry in my prayers this week for her auditions.  I'm sure everything will be ok this weekend with Preston and Sherry.  I'm still chuckling inside that Sherry is bringing a boy home though :P, and ANOTHER pre-mi at that.  ;)
     I have been following instructions and taking pictures!  I just can't send them home on these computers yet.
     It was really hot yesterday, speaking of the weather.  It was in the high 80's low 90's.  I can't imagine spending Summer here, Winter is hot enough for me :P.
     We got transfer facts last Saturday and Elder Dixon is leaving.  I'm getting a new companion named Elder Bowles and finishing my service in the Long Beach California Mission in the Granada ward.  I'm pretty excited to be here for another transfer, although there is a lot of work ahead of me.  I know who my new companion is because he was in my zone in December, but I don't know much more than he's a decent basketball player. 
     We didn't have a whole lot of progress with our investigators this week.  Lyn was confirmed yesterday at church so that was a great experience.  After the blessing she started crying and then her fellowship Sis Braxton got up and bore her testimony of what an awesome experience it was to help Lyn into the church.
     Steve, Steve, and Nicole are our only other investigators.  Everyone else we dropped, so we are back at square one right now.
     We were able to do a service project last week with some less actives named the Savalas.  We built a little garden in their backyard and that was a lot of fun!  They didn't come to church like we had hoped though :/, we'll keep working hard to help them, but one day they have to do it themselves.
     We did a lot of finding this week and did find three pretty solid investigators, but they are Singles aged so we have to pass them on to the Sister Missionaries in the Singles Ward.  That's kind of hard, but sometimes you benefit from others giving you solid investigators, and sometimes you give them away.  It doesn't really matter who teaches them so long as they find truth and really peace and happiness in their lives. 
     This week we had a run in with quite a few hooligans.  In fact Saturday night we were biking home from an appointment and sitting at a stop light waiting for the light to change.  All of the sudden a black Toyota Tacoma drives by and flicks what looks like a cigarette at us, and it hits my shoe.  At first I was like great, and then what I thought was a cigarette explodes.  It didn't hurt us or anything, turns out it was a firecracker.  Man did that make Elder Dixon and Myself just fume with anger.  Who are they to throw fireworks at two people just trying to do good in the world.  We aren't trying to upset anyone, hurt anyone, or do anything negative to the community.  
     Then as I was biking I reflected on the Savior.  He was absolutely perfect, uplifted, encouraged, healed, and did all manner of good.  Yet he was persecuted profoundly, spit upon, whipped, and ultimately crucified for what he was trying to do for the children of men. I then reflected upon how the savior handled his persecution.  He was not angry with his aggressors, but instead turned and forgave them.
     I now understand just a fraction better what the Savior must have gone through when he performed the Atonement for each of us.  Such anger rose up in me from something as small as a firecracker, and how hard it was for me to forgive someone who would do that to me.  Yet that is what Christ did, and he invites us to follow his example.  Facing persecution is never fun, its hard and hurtful.  I'm glad I have the scriptures and the example of Christ to look towards when I am in these situations.
     I hope I haven't scared you, I'm not in any physical danger, and Whittier is a nice place to live.  Also I'll be in a car next transfer so I should be safer from Saturday night drunks pulling those kinds of things on us.  I only shared that because it drew me closer to the savior, and I'm glad I could experience just a small part of what Christ did in order to draw closer to him.
     Thank you for keeping me so well updated on the home front.  I hope all goes well this week!
I love you always and forever.
Love,
Elder Henry

Elder Henry 2/27/2012

Sorry people, I cut out all the family stuff--if you want to know about Spencer's play, Tori's school troubles, or Sherry's love life you'll have to ask them ;o)


Hey Mom!
     I haven't got the new shoes yet. They may be waiting for me in the
Mission Office but because we are about 20-30 minutes away, we don't
get mail from there very often. About once every other week. What
are the non-cheapo insoles? Last time I got the Dr Scholl's back
support insoles for like 12-14$ and they help... kinda. Its way
better than not having them. How many dots have to turn red before I
get a visa? Keep me updated!! (Not that I'm excited or anything)
     The work keeps trucking along here. Not a whole lot of new
investigators at the moment, but the ones we do have are making huge
spiritual progress which is AWESOME! Elder Dixon will probably be
here as long as I am, from what President Bubert told us two weeks
ago. Transfers are next week though so I'm not sure if we will get to
stay companions or not. I really hope so ;).
     The weather down here is about summer. People keep telling me its
winter time, but when its consistently sunny and in the 80's, and
there are no clouds in the sky... I call that summer. Even the
tomatoes don't know what season it is! People's tomatoes are bearing
fruit right now, and its the middle of February for goodness sake.
I'm am very bored by the weather down here, it just stays the same day
in and day out.
     Anyways, I'm sure you are excited to hear about my week.
Last week was a pretty tough week as a missionary. We faced a lot of
rejection and ended up dropping a few investigators. We also ran in
to a few very rude people that just doesn't make you feel very good.
It can be very discouraging, but we press on and great things happen.

     L was baptized yesterday, and that has been the highlight of the
week. L has made a huge change in her life since she has accepted
the gospel. She has diabetes, arthritis in her knees, and genetic
obesity. As such she has a lot of aches and pains, and used to
complain to us for hours about how terrible it was to be her, and how
hard she had it. The last 3 or 4 times we have gone to see her, after
she accepted the baptismal invitation and really had a spiritual
witness that this is the truth, she hasn't once complained of any
aches or pains. She has been happy, found answers to questions she's
had her entire life. In two days she read through the whole gospel
principles manual and now she has a quad, so she is going to re-read
everything with the Doctine &Covenants scripture references.

L is a completely different person now, someone who is truly happy,
because she has felt the power of the holy spirit. L as well as
myself have found this through reading the Book of Mormon. Anyone who
wants to feel the power of God, rather than just talk about Him,
should read this book.

     N is also making huge progress. She told us that she feels that
the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. The next time we came
over, she had given up coffee, and is very close to quitting smoking.
She has a baptismal date for March 6th. We are doing it on a Tuesday
instead of the weekend so that her husband can be there :). N
has been through a lot in her life, and I'm glad that the gospel of
Jesus Christ can take away the pains she's seen and experienced. She
also came to church yesterday! :D
St H. also had a huge spiritual breakthrough. He's been coming to
church for 16 years now, and finally said he knows that the church is
true. He's scared of committing to baptism though, but told us he
would pray to find out if he needed to be baptized. He and his family
weren't at church yesterday, but hopefully the Spirit of the Lord will
work on him. He's come a long ways though :).
St R. is still working like a dog. He works from 9am-10 or 11pm.
Its the crazy season for tax accountants. He comes to church every
week though, and he took the day off yesterday to spend time with his
family. He is choosing the right things. I'm very grateful to see
him really step up to the role of being a Father. He may not be
baptized while I'm am here as a missionary, just because we can't meet
with him, probably until April 16th, but I know that he will join the
church one day :) He's an awesome guy.
     That's pretty much been our week. We are also teaching a couple BIOLA students, which is certainly interesting, we are hoping they will
begin to progress, or we will have to drop them soon. It certainly
has increased my knowledge of the scriptures though, having tough
questions dropped on my feet about all sorts of crazy things. Stuff
like scriptural evidence of an Apostasy, the trinity, and Salvation by
works or by grace. It has strengthened my testimony of both the
truthfulness of the gospel, and the role of the Holy Ghost in
conversion. This isn't about who has the best knowledge of the
scriptures, this is about receiving revelation from God that he has in
fact called a Prophet, like Moses, in our days. That the same Church,
not a sect or division, that Christ set up is now restored on the
Earth. You can't convince somebody that is truth, you have to feel it
for yourself. A great lesson to learn about missionary work.
     I have so many other great experiences to talk about and no time to do
so. So you will just have to wait 17 more months till I come home
with my Journal to hear them all ;).
Love,
Elder Henry

Visa progress....finally.

Dear Mom,

     I actually just got a phone call from the Mission Office!  My Online Portion of my visa is waiting down at the Mission Office and I have to just go down an fill it out!!!  It should be about 6 weeks and then my Visa should be here.  Talk about exciting right?

     I've been super bad about taking Pictures in this area, plus the computers here are too slow to upload photos so the ones I have taken I haven't said.   These computers are so slow I can't even type correctly.  I promise as soon as I get a good computer I will send lots of pictures.

     I'll look for some postcards today.  You are right as always I just need to make some time to write/send thank you's.  What do you mean by inserts?  Do you mean insoles for the shoes?  Do they not have very much cushion in them?  I'm good so far as other stuff.  Staying pretty warm and lots of food for my belly.

     My computer is freaking out so this will be a very short E-mail, I apologize.  This last week Lyn committed to baptism, came to church and is set to be baptized on Sunday!  Her son, who joined a few months ago, is going to baptize her :).  I'm super excited for her, and especially for her son, what a blessing to be able to bring your mom the gospel.

     We've had a lot of progress on our other investigators, especially Nicole.  She's almost stopped smoking, so close.  I'm really getting along with Elder Dixon, I love him so much.  It's a lot of fun to spend time with him.

I can't believe my electronic visa finally came!!!

Love,

Elder Henry

Letters home (and Dad's letter) 2/13/12

I had to leave Damon's letter attached, it was just so full of wisdom to his missionary son =)

Dear Mom,

I actually packed long underwear with me. I knew that it would come in handy, so I should be good to go :). The travel department has been very quiet, so no news yet. No electronic or otherwise.

My shoes are holding up for the meantime, but are already starting to show wear and tear. Some of the leather on the back has been peeling off, but the soles are still intact. The place I'm living in now is a gated community so it should be safe to mail to my apartment, although its best to send it to the mission office, because its a lot of fun to have mail come from the mission office ^^. I'm doing really good right now, have an overload of sweets of which I have to blame you and Kelsey :P. So I share with my district. Lots of food in the cupboards and the like.

Do you remember how many times I went to see Episode 1 in theaters? About a brazilian (I think he meant "gazillion" funny typo) times, Tori is right I -am- jealous. Sounds like a fun FHE. While you are going to the movies tonight though, I'll be having FHE with Steve R. and his family, so I'll be having fun frosting sugar cookies with them :).

I got your DJ's Birthday package. Thank you for all the goodies. I especially liked the gummy worms. I can't remember the last time I had a bag of sour gummy worms ^^.

Sounds like Spencer is living it up at Prairie. I can only imagine how much fun he's having playing all the different characters.

You are so funny Mom. The first thing you notice after the new bishopric gets called, is that Brother Tong isn't wearing a suit coat :P. Only my Mom would notice such a thing. You are awesome, and always bring a smile to my face.

This week was pretty much AWESOME!

We had a lot of progress with our investigators this week, and should be getting geared up for baptismal services soon ^^. Of course we are also finding new investigators at the same time which makes me even more excited :).

First I'll start off with the bad and the ugly. Haig will be out of town for the next 2-3 weeks, so we may not see him again if he's not back by the end of the transfer :(. He's doing good, but progressing slowly. We had our ward mission leader, Brother Sharp attend the lesson with us and it made a HUGE difference. Haig found Bro. Sharp inspirational, and hopefully will feel more welcome at church because of it :).

We have a couple new, and rather fun, investigators. First up is Paul. Paul is an middle aged man, who flies everywhere in the world. He calls himself Fed-ex for Boeing. He delivers plane parts for Boeing to places all around the world. This coming week he's flying to Kazakhstan for a delivery, and then he flies home and works on the preparing for the next delivery. He doesn't attend church and grew up Catholic but is much more Evangelical in his beliefs system now. We had a good first lesson with him, but didn't dive too much into the gospel. I was on exchanges later that week for our return appointment, but apparently he showed up with two pages of notes on Salvation, and went on and on about how performing good works is not part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and all we have to do is confess with our lips and hearts that Jesus is the Christ... Its been really good for my learning of the Gospel, because of his objection I have been able to really dive into the scriptures and understand a lot more of why things are the way they are. I'm impressed by the amount of knowledge I am gaining every day in the scriptures, and have actually come to love the way they are written. I enjoy the poetry and old language that they use. I didn't think I'd ever get to that point in my life, but here I am.

Next up is Chris. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but in my area there is a huge university named BIOLA (Bible Institute of Los Angeles), and he's a student there. For the most part BIOLA is pretty anti-Mormon, but we received a referral from the Sisters at Temple Square that Chris wanted the missionaries to come over. So we called him up and set up an appointment. He wasn't at all hostile, but was a little more interested in just learning rather than accepting, but he is in-between churches right now and so I'm hoping that with some good fellowship he'll be able to attend church and enjoy the spirit there. We haven't met with him again since last week, but hopefully will this week.

We also tried to meet with Gaston this week, but his wife answered the door and said that,"He's not interested but just doesn't know how to tell you". We are pretty sure that he -is- interested, but the wife isn't. A hard situation to deal with, but before we stop we want to be able to talk with him. Hopefully I'll have better news about him next week.

Steve H. is doing great! He came to church and stayed for Sunday School! I think this is the first time in 4 years he's ever come to the second hour. He's also reading the Book of Mormon, things just haven't clicked for him yet. There is a lot of pressure from his family, and I think he's rebelling against that pressure so far as baptism is concerned. We are trying our hardest to just stay supportive of him, and helping him on his conversion.

We met with Nicole this week twice. She's a lot more on the basics than we originally thought. She said she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet, but hasn't received a confirmation of the Book of Mormon yet. She's read through 1 and 2 Nephi, and is in Jacob right now. She also needs to quit smoking, although we found out she's quit much harder things than smoking before so I have full faith that she will be able to overcome tobacco as well. She didn't come to church which is partly because her husband, who is a member, can't come to church because he works Sundays -.-'. A very frustrating situation, so we are working to get her some really close friends in the ward to come with us so she wants to come to church.

Lynn had a major breakthrough this week! She pretty much has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but struggles to get to church because, A) she has a lot of aches and pains and B) she didn't have any friends at church. So this week we asked the Relief Society who would get along great with Lynn, and boy did they give us a golden fellow-shipper. Her name is Sis. Braxston, and her and Lynn just got on like two peas in a pod! At the end of the lesson Lynn said that she could come to church now because she has a friend. I think she'll be baptized pretty soon :). She didn't attend church this week because she went out of town for family, but she'll be there next Sunday.

Steve R. also had a huge breakthrough yesterday :). He had a really hard week last week, and we couldn't meet with him at all, which made me SUPER nervous. When he walked into church I was so relieved that he came, but he looked really down trodden. I knew that the week hadn't gone well for him, and that he had probably smoked all week long. We sat with him at church, and after Sacrament he pulled me aside and said, can I talk with you two before I have to leave to go to work? Of course I told him yes, he is our number one priority. He went on to talk about how he had a huge debate as to whether or not he should come to church that morning. He really didn't want to, he had lots of work to get done, and didn't want to get in trouble from us, but he made the decision to come anyways.

He then went on to tell us that the service had really touched his heart. He realized how wrong he was living his life, and that he needs to change. He felt godly sorrow for his sins and really wants to make the change in his life. I feel like he finally made it to the point where he realizes that this isn't something that he can do by himself and that he can only overcome his addiction if he relies on his faith. Last night we called him up and he said that he had brought the Book of Mormon to work with him, and that every time he had a spare moment he was reading. I know that he's going to be ready for baptism soon, I'm really excited to see the changes he's made in his life, even if he can't see it himself.

That's my week in a nutshell. We should have another great week this week as well! OH! I almost forgot, we officially reactivated someone yesterday. Her name is Sister Smith, and she started coming to church last week, and came again this week, just because we dropped by and showed her we still care :).

Keep up all the hard work on the homefront. Thank you for financially supporting me on this awesome spiritual endeavour. I'm loving every moment of it, and growing each and everyday.

Thank you again for the package :).

Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Dad,

That's awesome that you got to spend the weekend with your Dad. I love just sitting and chatting with you, so I can imagine what a treat it was to spend Sunday just enjoying each others company. That's probably one of the best things about being a missionary is just sitting down and talking with people.
That's the lesson I really had to learn with my last companion. You are right, Heavenly Father does not want to command us in all things. Thank you for sharing that with me, it helps me to realize the kind of person I need to be as a missionary, and hopefully I can just learn the easy way from your experiences rather than learning things the hard way.
You are right, things are hard as a missionary, and you do get the highlights of the week. For instance I'm just about DIEING as a missionary with all the huge hills in my area on bike. My legs are soooo tired all the time, plus we run a little over 2 miles every morning (good old mission rules >.>). Not to mention we have difficulties with some members and other little things. Regardless I love every day as a missionary.
Its so funny to hear you refer to yourself as Elder Henry, because that's me!
I hope you aren't too bored without 4 kids at home. Did you figure out what you are going to do about Elmo? Are you still driving it around?
Have fun tonight at the movies, you'll have to let me know how the new version turned out.
Love,

Elder Henry

Hi Mike,

How are you? We got an unexpected treat this weekend. Grandpa Henry came up and stayed with us. He was coming up on Saturday to see Spencer's performance and his work schedule got switched around so that he had to escort a load out of Portland early Monday morning so he decided to just stay over. It was great to have so much time with him. He and I spent several hours after church just sitting together talking. It's great to have a father son relationship like that, and it makes me happy that you and I will get to continue the tradition :)

I thought of some things that I wanted to share with you while I was walking home from church today. They are some of the lessons I learned early on in my mission and some of them may be applicable to you around this time.

I came out of the MTC fired up and really wanting to be a great missionary, and the one resounding lesson that stuck with me was the importance of being obedient. I was determined to follow the mission rules because I was sure that was the path to success. I was lacking in some of my understanding and ability though regarding the rules.

For instance, I knew that romantic female relationships were off limits on a mission. However, I found myself serving in an area that had many Mormon Nannies. They were my age, and very similar to me, having been thrust into an unfamiliar situation far from home, so naturally they desired to interact with me socially. I was a piece of home to them. In fact, one of the nannies I met on my mission had been in the same ward as me growing up and I knew her and her family. I didn't know how to handle the situation because at that point in my life most of my relationships with girls my age were in dating situations. So early on in my mission I was simply rude to girls who approached me because I could not think of any other thing to do. That is clearly not the right way to act, but there is not a mission rule that explicitly states don't be rude to girls. There are mission rules that deal with not forming relationships with girls. As I matured as a missionary I learned how to have appropriate relationships with girls my own age and stay true to the mission rules.

Another lesson that I learned early on in my mission was that the relationship you have with your companion is more important than just about any rule in your mission rule book. I was trained by a missionary who was a pretty good guy, but not an extremely hard worker, or especially strict on mission rules. He wasn't bad, we did follow the mission schedule pretty well, but we spent a bit too much time just hanging out with other missionaries in our district or in members houses. I remember spending several Sundays at members houses watching football. It was awkward for me, I did not want to be there doing that, but did not know what else to do or how to handle the situation. All in all though, he was a good companion and we did a fair amount of work and followed the rules pretty well, and there wasn't really any contention. I had one more pretty good companion in that area, but then I got transferred to Queens and my next two companions were both pieces of work. My third companion was just plain lazy and disinterested in doing real missionary work. I really struggled with him just to get him out of bed in the mornings, and I mean by 10am. When he was up, I could not convince him to go out and do hardly any proselyting with me. I was very frustrated. I could not leave my companion and do missionary work by myself, that was against the rules, and I could not follow the missionary schedule and do real missionary work. I was often upset and angry with him. What I found was that my hard feelings for him were more of a detriment to our work as missionaries than any indiscretion in following the mission schedule. I had to learn to not judge him or resent him for holding me back from being the missionary that I wanted to be. I learned that working together with him in any positive manner was better for me as a missionary than holding fast to any of the rules that we were not following. Your relationship with your companion is the number one factor that will determine your success as a missionary (what does that teach you about marriage?) Sometimes you get companions that you just click with, and sometimes you get companions that you struggle with. It's up to you to find a way to get along with and appreciate your companion. In this case, I found something that worked that was a little outside the normal missionary work. We lived in a very old house (over 200 years old) in a room we rented from an elderly inactive member Edith and her adult son Donald (a retired policeman). They expressed interest in remolding the room they were renting to us. They provided all the materials and direction on what they wanted done and my companion and I spent a full week together ripping out all the old and putting in the new. We did not do any missionary work that week. It was the first time that him and I actually worked hard together on something and it allowed me to appreciate him in a new light plus we finally accomplished something positive. We now had a nice place to live and all the missionaries that came after us did as well. After that he still was not especially interested in doing the missionary work we had to do, but our relationship was better and I had more influence over him now. He especially did not like tracting which was really about all we had to do in that area. We did have one subway station at the very end of the line in our area though so we set out together to make up some street boarding materials. Again, this was work that he was quite interested in and we worked well together on it. We gathered all the materiels we needed, easels, tables, and the like, and we made up some nice displays. Once the street boarding materials were all put together it was again a bit of a struggle to get him to go out with me and use them, but our relationship was stronger, and I had even more influence on him, plus we had these great displays that he was proud of that needed to be put to use. I don't recall us ever working really hard together on real missionary work, but we did learn to enjoy each other and to work together with some real harmony which was a very important lesson for me to learn. Also, it would be interesting to hear it from his perspective. Perhaps his story would read, I have this new companion who is impossible to work with. All he ever does is nag and belittle me, he makes me not even want to be a missionary... who knows, it's hard to always see things from someone else's perspective. Perhaps my zeal for the mission rules was making the situation worse, not better.

Just remember this about the mission rules. First and foremost you should always follow them, but realize that Heavenly Father likes to give us less rules not more. He is interested in raising children who can show judgement and discretion. Never allow the rules to become a hinderance to your work. When you follow them properly they will mold you into being the best missionary you can be. When I reflect back on those early months of my mission I remember a sense of trying to force myself into being something that I wasn't. As I matured as a missionary I figured out how to follow the rules properly and it led me to being the best Elder Henry that I could be. The rules helped me to develop my own talents and personality to a point where I was the only Elder Henry in the mission and Heavenly Father could then lead me to the people who needed an Elder Henry, not a robo-missionary :)

Just to round out my story my fourth companion was almost impossible to live with. He had a huge ego. He could not get along with anyone, and by that time in my mission my Mission President new me well enough to trust my easy going personality would allow me to deal with him as well as any missionary he had. We did get along fairly well, and had some success working together, but he had real problems living with anyone. I was able to look past his faults and still enjoy him as a companion. After having those two companions back to back, my Mission President made me a Zone Leader and kept me there for the next year and a half, so I'm pretty sure that I learned the the correct lessons from those early companionships, and I found the rest of my mission much easier and was a better missionary from the experiences.

I hope you are enjoying your mission. Your letters are always so positive and fun to read, but I know that your weeks are also filled with tedious tasks, real disappointments, and extremely hard work and you only share with us the highlights. Even with these type of challenges, the only time that I recall really being unhappy on my mission were times when I did not give my fullest effort, even if it meant spending a week remolding a room because that was the best way I could spend my time that week. That made me much happier than brooding over my worthless companion. Do your best and rely on Heavenly Father to provide solutions to your problems and you will be a great missionary and feel good about yourself. You won't be perfect, but you can be pretty darn good!

I love you and pray for you always.

Dad

First baptism and First Presidency decisions

Hi Mom!
I actually knew they lost my visa paperwork a couple weeks ago, and I don't know if they told you this but the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles actually reviewed my mission call, and it was kind of up in the air as to where I was going.  They weren't sure that I should continue on to Brazil or not, so that was a little scary for me, I didn't know where I was going for a couple weeks, but everything is worked out now.  My guess is I'll be here till about April or so.  Hopefully my Portuguese won't get too rusty.  I'm just glad that Brazil is still on the table ^^.
Also I had the educational history saved on my Computer's Hard Drive, I don't know if you've already re-typed one up or not but its there if you need it (mom note: this was the document that Damon miraculously got Michael's dead computer working to find!).  Brazillian Visas go through cycles of a couple months of fast, a couple months of slow.  From what I hear the Consulate pretty much shuts down from Christmas until post-Lent so I probably won't be seeing a visa anytime soon.  Maybe they'll expidite my visa because they lost my paperwork but I pretty much doubt it.
What time on Christmas do you want me to call?  I know its a bit early to start asking but I'm in church from 7am-1pm most sundays (I don't know if we will just be having a sacrament meeting on Christmas or if they will keep the full 3 hour block) and they prefer us to be done with phone calls by 5pm.  There are still a lot of details to be worked out on our end as well, because we'll have to cram in studies and when my companion wants to call his family but we better get planning sooner than later.
Also if you are still putting together a christmas package for me, I thought of just a couple more things that I could use.  A set of colored pencils (24 count), a set of the Missionary Reference Library (to cut down on shipping expenses you can call up the mission office and order it through them I believe since books are heavy), and I definitely need some of Mom's toffee ^^.
It's been pretty chilly down here recently, in the mornings it gets as low as 40 degrees, with highs in the 60-70's.  One thing that has really surprised me though about living down here is the sun is I still wake up to the sun every morning even though its the dead of winter.  I remember some days in middle school in Vancouver where it would get to be 8:30 or 9:00 before the sun would come up.  Every morning in So-cal is another sunny day, with the sun shining through the windows at 6:30.  Never fails.  (Rough life eh? :P)
Did you all get an oppertunity to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional last night?  It was absolutely beautiful, I loved every minute of it.  Before our stake showed it, a stake choir got up and sang a bunch of Christmas Carols.  Our Ward Mission Leader was the organizer of the choir so he invited us to come up and sing with the choir.  It was the first time its really felt like Christmas :).  I really am going to miss spending this Christmas with the family though.  I'm really glad that I'll have the oppertunity to talk with you on the phone, and I can see why they allow missionaries to do so.  Otherwise we would be home sick all day long :P.
I'm sure you are all dying to hear about my first baptism yesterday, and I'm dying to tell you all about it so here it goes.  Last week we taught Ma'epu twice, but we were on exchanges one of those times, so I only had the oppertunity to teach him once.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity (10 year old edition), and the 10 commandments.  We also watched a video of the Prophet to help him to see who he is, and reviewed the Baptismal Interview Questions with him to make sure he was ready to go.  On Friday my old companion Elder Stringham (did I ever mention he's my Zone Leader now?) interviewed him for baptism.  Afterwards he told us that he was super ready to be baptised, and I was sooooo excited for the whole weekend.
Sunday finally rolled around, and 4:00pm couldn't have come slower I tell you!  We showed up at the baptism and Brother Va'ili, the Ward Mission Leader, had put together a beautiful service for Ma'epu.  There was a ward missionary choir, and a Primary Choir there to support Ma'epu.  After some songs and a speech (in the samoan wards they aren't talks, they are speeches) we went to the Baptismal Font.  Ma'epu was really excited to be baptised the whole time.  He could barely sit still in the Chapel.  Elder Galke walked into the font and baptised Ma'epu.  It was one of the happiest moments of my life.  I knew that all the sacrifices, all the hard work, all the suffering and trials I had endured up to this point in preparing and serving a mission, all of that was not in vain, because little Ma'epu was baptized.  Many missionaries have come home without ever seeing one of the people they work with baptized.  I am fortunate to have witnessed that in the first 2 months as serving as a missionary.
After Ma'epu was changed out of his wet clothes, I was anxious to see how he felt.  I will never forget his answer to my question, "How do you feel?".
He replied, "That was so much fun!  Elder Galke said I can do it again in 2 more years!  I want to do it again!"  *facepalm*  I forgot that he's 10 years old.  Regardless I feel like Ma'epu will one day also serve a mission and that he will marry in the temple, partly because I served a mission in Long Beach California.
We weren't able to meet with M last week, and she didn't come to church yesterday because her kid was sick.  Hopefully she is still reading the Book of Mormon, and will be ready to be baptized in a couple weeks.  We have to help her overcome a smoking addiction as well, so keep her in your prayers.
The family that we had Thanksgiving dinner with, the P family, we were able to meet with them last week again.  They believe that the church they are going to is not the true church, but also that no church is true.  Only the bible is the true church, so hopefully we will be able to help them feel the spirit that the Book of Mormon will bring into their lives.  We have an awesome member family that is working with them as well, and they came to our last lesson with them.  We have another appointment with them tonight so hopefully all will go well.
Finally R is doing well.  His Dad is not a member and we had a breakthrough with him last time we were over there.  He said he would like to learn more about this Joseph Smith fellow, and we were very excited to jump all over that :P.  R is scheduled to be baptized next Sunday, and hopefully all will work out with that.  He is a much slower learner than Ma'epu, but to be honest all a 9 year old needs to know is that Jesus is our Savior, and God is our Father, and to follow the commandments.  He paid his tithing yesterday for the first time so he's definitely making progress :).  Have I ever mentioned I love teaching children the Gospel?  Its so much fun because all you have to do is teach true doctrine, and they will excersize their faith on that doctrine.
One last piece of good news!  I've been keeping track, and I haven't gained a single pound in one month of serving in the Samoan wards!  Hooray XD
Thank you all for everything you do.  I'm so happy to recieve letters from home and friends about how their lives are doing.
Love, Elder Henry

"My shoes area already dying" (glad he is working hard!)

Ma'epu, Elder Galke and Myself ready for his Baptism!

Ma'epu, his Grandparents, Elder Galke and Myself

Elder Henry is in Huntington Beach CA!

    We heard from Michael from the airport this morning!  He sounds awesome and very well prepared to serve the Lord in Long Beach--except he is having a hard time remembering his English grammar (he couldn't remember how to say "me too" when talking with another missionary in English).  Apparently his Visa was sent by the Missionary Visa office through Los Angeles.  Normally they are sent through San Francisco with Northwest missionaries, and explains why its taking so long.  He could be in Long Beach up to around 4 months but he does expect to eventually get to Brazil. 
     His mission area sounds like it will be really nice, of course he can't enjoy the beach but he might be able to walk along the paths near it and enjoy the views.  The area of the mission includes Catalina Island, wouldn't it be neat if he was able to tract out there on that beautiful island?  
     He's looking forward to getting to work and utilizing his missionary skills he developed as Ward Mission Leader as well as in the MTC.  His younger siblings enjoyed visiting with him (once they woke up a bit) and hearing his voice.  Spencer sounds almost exactly like him now!
    (At 5pm) I just heard from his Mission President's wife.  He will be serving with a pair of Elders who are already in Huntington Beach, they are giving him an hour of language study each day so he can keep up his Portuguese, he will be in a car and well fed every night by the Church members there.  They've had many Brazil visa waiters in the mission, and the longest so far has been 7 weeks.  Lets hope he doesn't set a new record ;o)  but he will have a wonderful first part of his mission in Huntington Beach!
   His Preparation Day is Monday.  The new address to send letters is:
Elder Michael Jordan Henry
c/o 6500 Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
You can also use DearElder.com, and have it sent to the Long Beach CA mission.  I'm not sure how you pay for letters through them I assume they either set you up an account or charge you the postage each time.
Thanks for all your prayers!
Lisa and Damon