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

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

Creeping closer to a visa...

That's pretty exciting to hear my visa is finally coming through!  It won't be long now until I ship out to Brasil.  I don't know if I mentioned this in my last e-mail, but President Bubert called us last Monday and told is it would be 3 weeks, so now its 2 weeks.  Should be here for General Conference and then off to Brasil I go!
     Ok, I'll send the shoes home.  I got my friends phone number, I'll try to connect with him once I get down there.
That's super exciting to hear about Sherry getting a job with BYU housing.  I will be the first to tell you how hard it can be to find a job for Spring/Summer, but once you are in, you are in.  Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, although I heard from one of my RA's that they deducted the rent directly from your paycheck, that it was 7.25$ per hour minus your rent, but I may be remembering wrong.  Besides Spring/Summer rent is super cheap ;).
     I can't believe it snowed up north.  I was just happy that we FINALLY got our second day of rain for the year.  Can you believe that Jan-March, only 2 days of rain -.-".  I'll trade weather systems ANYDAY.  I get very bored with blue skies all the time.
     One of the funniest missionaries I have known on my mission has to be Elder Bowles.  I don't even understand what it is that makes you laugh every time you see him, but he's a comedian.
     We've had a really busy week, but not a whole lot of progress right now.  We have 7 different investigators/families that we are teaching but they are all a little stagnant.  Steve R. and Steve H. still come to church every week, but I don't feel like they are any closer to baptism than when I first came into the area.  We found a few investigators this past week, and we are working to get fellowship for them and get them to come to church, but with conference coming up things get pretty messed up schedule wise.  I hope our investigators will survive the 2 weeks of no normal church and that they will attend General Conference.
     Nicole called us up yesterday saying that she wanted to postpone her baptism, because she's having some doubts.  We have a lesson with her tomorrow and its going to be make or break.  I'm not sure if she will still be baptized this Saturday, but I'm hopeful :).  It's still pretty scary as a missionary to see something weigh so heavily on how well we teach on Tuesday.  Its almost like eternity itself weighs on the line... oh wait it does :P.  I keep thinking about how exciting it is rather than stressing out about it but its still kinda scary.
     We've started teaching this guy named Chris and his friend Frank.  He's read a little in the Book of Mormon but has a really hard time understanding what it says.  They grew up Catholic, but really didn't like that at all.  Frank has taken an institute class down at Cal State Long Beach and really enjoyed it.  Chris is married and has 5 kids, hopefully they will come to church this coming Sunday.  We have an appointment with him tonight which should be good.
     We also connected with Oscar again, and he read 6 or 7 chapters out of the Book of Mormon and came up with a lot of good questions.  We had an appointment with him last Saturday, but we weren't able to meet with him because the gate to his apartment was locked and we couldn't get in...  Hopefully we will be able to meet with him again soon.
     We contacted a guy outside his house last Friday as we were just walking around.  His name is Javier and we gave him a pass along card for a free Book of Mormon.  He was pretty interested in it when we starting talking, and I asked him,"What have you heard about the Book of Mormon?"
     To which he responded, "Not very good things.  Do you have a copy of this Book?"
We then gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he seemed genuinely interested in reading it.  We talked a little bit longer and he had done his research on Christianity.  We are meeting with him again on Friday, but we will have to pass him off to the Sisters because he's Young Single Adult age.
     Keep Nicole in your prayers this week.  I love you all, thank you for letting me know about the Maple Extract stuff.  I imagine I need that and corn syrup and sugar.  I wouldn't have even thought about not having maple syrup around :(.

Lots of 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

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 :)