Choices determine destiny!

Family,
 Thanks for all of the updates on the baseball tournament. Mom i want to write to all of the cousins who are graduating ( Katie, Tyler and Jared) so could you get me their addresses please. I liked Darren's graduation pictures, except for the fact that i wasn't sure if the one picture was Usher or Justin Beiber, and i thought the other one may have been Calvin Klein or something, haha. Did Scott do those? Little Garrett is way cute, thanks for the pictures!! Its been a great week. We finished up our zone-conferences, we had 4 different ones, and this last one was definitely the best. That is a lot of work to put those things on and it sure takes more organization skills than i have. It was a great learning experience, and i learned a lot about who i am... because that is what Elder Fisher and I talked about. Its cool, when you really know who you are, outside influences don't affect you in any negative way. "If all the elements combine to hedge up thy way..." we know that we are a completely loved son of God. When we understand that the plan of salvation requires that we have trials, tests, failures and weaknesses we are built up by those tests, we overcome our weaknesses instead of them overcoming us and the tests causing us to fall. When we understand who we are, we will do the right things for the right reasons, because we love God. But how do we come to understand who we are? I probably don't understand how to answer this question completely, but I know that it does come as we experience the atonement, and as we live the Doctrine of Christ. When we truly feel the Love of God, we cant help but feel special, that we have a purpose on this earth.  Also we will never find out who we are until we lose ourselves in the service of God, when we serve our fellow men, "whosoever will save his life shall lose it, whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it".  I really know that that is true doctrine, i have seen it on my mission over and over. When we forget ourselves and give our heart to Gods work, his children, then we gain confidence in who we are and what we should be doing with our time here on earth.
 I had an interesting experience this week, where i learned a great lesson about choices. President Monson has said "choices determine destiny". I was on an exchange in Eastpoint (where i served last summer) in Atlanta, it is mostly ghetto's. We went to a less-actives sisters home, we talked with her for about 15 min outside her house. She has 4 little kids and lives with a pretty low-life husband who doesn't work, so she has to work. They live in a very bad neighborhood, and she knows all of these things are true. She recognizes that she is living in sin and isn't at all happy and knows it's not a good environment for her kids. The really sad part is that.she grew up in the suburbs of LA, in a good home. She was well educated, her father works for NASA and she has 3 siblings. She has been a member her whole life, born under the covenant and knows a lot about the gospel, she was active all her growing up years. But now she is in a very bad situation and completely unhappy, treated like she is an object instead of a daughter of God, and her children are growing up in that environment as well. I thought about how she has come to where she is, from where she has come. I bet you the difference can be found in as little as 5-10 choices she made as a young teanager, maybe less. Those seemingly small choices have now lead to a course of events that have not only put her and her family in satan's territory, but have caused her to forget who she is and who her children are. She can recognize that she is unhappy but she doesn't know how to get out of her situation. It has been one of the saddest experiences of my mission, and some of the saddest words i have ever heard come out of the mouth of a child of God. "I know where im going when i die... to spirit prison...God knows my heart and knows that i'm a good person, i know i won't make it to the celestial kingdom, but maybe i can get the second one". We definately bore our testimonies that she was most definately as capable of recieving joy in this life and eternal life in the celestial kingdom as any person on earth, and tried to re-asure her of the hope of Jesus Christ, because she was so wrong. But I felt so inadequate to help her and that was hard. The good thing is that she still understands the differnce between how the gospel makes her feel, she is begining to recognize the need for her God in life and I believe she will find it in due time. She really was a great girl. But truly decisions can have far reaching effects, and its so hard to see as a teenager. This experience has instilled within me a strong desire to reach out the best i possibly can to all young kids in hopes of saving at least one, because that will be so worth it. They are the most vulnerable and the most important. I thank those great leaders that i had, like Brad Whitehead, who loved me even though i wasn't very loveable, his friendship always had an impact on me, and others as well. It is a bad world out there and satan is so real, and he just wants u to be miserable. But on a happy not the Gospel of Jesus Christ can overcome all things!! It is true, this church is sharing its fullness with power. We have missionaries all over the world changing lives. I love you all, keep being so awesome!

Elder Hendrix

Challenge from the President

Dear Elders and Sisters,

The Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit, is the single most effective tool you have for doing missionary work.   Before being released, I was hoping for us to read the Book of Mormon one more time as a mission, but with all of the study assignments I have given you, I felt it may be too much.  However, in looking back at the mission, I realize that the most productive times we had, both personally and in helping others “Come To Christ,” were when we were reading the Book of Mormon together.  Therefore, with the 7 weeks that Sister Satterfield and I have left before we leave, we would like to invite every missionary to read in the Book of Mormon EACH and EVERY day.  You are probably already reading daily, but in an effort to unify us in the Lord’s work, will you please start today to read some select chapters (about 4 to 5 pages a day) and look for messages that will most help you serve as a missionary?  It was very difficult to choose which chapters to read for ALL are wonderful, but I have selected a few choice sections for us to read together before Sister Satterfield and I have to leave.   Nothing would please us more than to leave you more strengthened than you are even now.  Please let me know in your weekly letters some of the things you feel you are learning or “remembering” as you read the following chapters:

1 Nephi 1-20, 22

2 Nephi 1-4, 9-11, 27-33

Jacob 1-4, 6

Enos

Mosiah 1-6, 12-13, 15-18

Alma 4-8, 9-13, 24-26, 32-34, 36-42, 57

Helaman 5 and 12

3 Nephi 27

Ether 2-5, 12

Moroni 6-10

            I want you to know that Sister Satterfield and I have confidence in you.  You are all learning and growing and repenting and changing for the better.  Studying the Book of Mormon, after first praying and asking Heavenly Father to send the Holy Ghost to help you, is the single most valuable thing you can do now and the rest of your life to strengthen yourself.  As you read, look for and mark passages that will allow you to use the Book of Mormon in helping people find answers to their problems in that wonderful book.  The answers are all there—whether it is family problems, being mocked, the death of a loved one, financial problems, depression, whether or not to be obedient, who to turn to for help, etc.  Then get into the habit of taking them there, as you listen to their concerns.  Don’t be surprised if you use that very day, the things you studied earlier.  It’s REALLY true that when you do God’s work, you get His help.  HE is in charge of this work.

Go forward with FAITH! 

Sister Satterfield and I love you.

President Steven H. Satterfield

to Darren on the first day of District Playoffs

Mom,

  This message is for Darren. As I read about his baseball tournament I felt a deep desire for him to do well and I started thinking about what I could say to him today that might be able to help him through the tournament. I will be praying for him for sure. So pass him on this message, I have 5 things for him to do. Maybe you could write them up and give them to him before he heads over to Melalucca today.

  1. Find a quiet place where you can be alone to say a simple prayer giving thanks, and asking for Gods help in the next game, before each game.

  2. Read a little bit from the Book of Mormon each night for the rest of the season.

  3. "Look to the end of the game". What I mean by this is that winning the game is the real goal, and if you make a mistake it doesn’t matter anymore, or if you make a great play or get an RBI move on.  What matters is the score board ONLY at the END OF THE GAME. Satan uses the past to distract us, he doesn’t want you to play well.

  4. Have fun! I wish so bad I could go back and be in your shoes. This is the last real baseball you may ever play, make it a happy memory.

  5. Know where your real strength comes from....God. He loves you and cares even about baseball!

If you do these things I promise you will be blessed!

I love you man. Let me know how things go. Tell Coach Barr hello for me.

Not much Sleep this week

Family,                                                                                                           

    First of all next week I’ll probably call you around 5 or so your time. I’ll let you know the specifics in a few days. Um, I forgot to ask president about skyping and such. If we can, and i think we can I’ll probably do that. Can the whole family be in on that or just one other computer? Sounds like you are all having a wonderful life in the good ol' west.

  This week was crazy. I don’t think that I got more than about 5 hours of sleep any night this week. We are just crazy busy, running around to different meetings and preparing for meetings. But this week we had a couple exchanges, Both times I was able to go with some young missionaries and do some real missionary work. It was so much fun, honestly I had fun tracting and walking around in the hot humid weather. We did some awesome teaching. One of the guys we talked with, his name was Victor, he told us he wasn't interested but we kept talking to him. And we were just talking with him as any person would talk with someone, which is important as a missionary because it shows that we really care about people, and we cared about this young man. Anyway as we were talking he told us that he just had a new baby boy. So we started asking him questions about being a father and how God has given him this child. He understood that he had a responsibility to God for that child, but we felt impressed to ask him if he knew how he was supposed to do that. He said no, and we testified that we had all the answers that he would need. We set up a return appointment and I haven’t followed up on that yet, but it was just so fun to "invite others to come unto Christ".

    This Sunday Melanie bore her testimony. She mentioned that a big part of her conversion had to do with the way that she was treated by the members of our singles ward. She said that she had never seen people so kind and caring and loving in her whole life. She had been looking for a church that could help her become a "true follower of Jesus Christ" (Moroni 7:48), and it was through the example of our members that she was able to see, find and accept that. President Hinckley (I think it was him) was once asked why we don't display crosses in our church. His response was to the effect that the symbol of our Christianity is found in the lives of our members, and I thought of that as she bore her testimony on Sunday.  She is set to go into the army in October, she has already singed her contract and been sworn in, But last night she said that she wants to try and get out of her contract and go to BYU-I. Which we were excited about and had been secretly wishing for the last couple weeks, but I’m not sure how easily one can get out of one of those contracts, but I think the Lord will provide a way, I hope so. I love you all so much, the Gospel is the only true way, and it just makes you so dang happy!!

Elder Hendrix

True joy to my heart!

Family,                                                                                               

  Again another fantastic week. I feel like I say that every week but the weeks really are good, the work is good. It blows my mind how many things the Lord will teach you in just one week in his service. It’s probably funnier how slow I am to actually remember what he has been teaching me, or how slow I am to act on it.  Another crazy week, i feel like we are just tired constantly. We have a lot to do and my memory is so bad that I can't keep it all strait. Elder Fisher has it under control really i just feel bad for him because he has to put up with me and keep me on track. He is so great, I am learning so much from him. He really has a crazy-good ability to help people realize who they are. He is an example of someone who has the Gospel burning within them, even though he isn't perfect and a little "rough around the edges", he sure is trying his best so serve God. He's going to move to IF when he gets home and live like 5 min away from our house, he says he's going to come visit you mom.

  Well really the highlights of the week were Melanie’s baptism and a special Stake Conference in our stake.  Melanie was baptized and confirmed on Saturday! It was a very good service, she felt the spirit and she felt very good after the baptism. I think that she felt a weight lift off of her shoulders. She definitely had a different spirit about her since the baptism and confirmation. Her parents came, and they loved it. I think that their hearts were really softened by the spirit. She was worried about how they would react, but it went well! Thanks for your prayers. During the service i really felt joy as I thought about and felt that she will have a profound effect on her family and her posterity will now be born under and live in the covenant. She will be a leader in the church for sure. She will affect so many people inside and outside the church. It was more than just her life affected on Saturday. Those thoughts do bring joy to your heart. It's a blessing to see firsthand God work in the life of someone as they become converted to his Gospel.  On Sunday we had stake conference and Elder Rasband came. Before the meeting he was walking around with the stake president greeting people and he came up to Fisher and I. He asked us about the work and we talked with him about Melanie for a little bit, and he asked us to introduce her to him, so we did. I think that was really cool for her, and he was excited to meet her. It was cool to see him walk around and just talk with everyone. He gave a great talk. It was about families. He quoted Pres. Kimball when he said "No success can compensate for failure at home", then he went on to talk about what Pres. Kimball said "failure at home" actually meant. Failure at home occurs when parents quit trying, as he talked about that and other principles I was filled with thanks for my family that never gave up on me. I’m so thankful to Mom and Dad, because they never quit trying, and I know that they never will! It was a great conference, and just a great week. Love you all so so much.

Elder Hendrix

Emotional

Family,

      Well it was a great week. Sounds like home is the exact same when I left, that is good. Mom tell Livi, Makae, and Bex Hello for me. Tell D-bo to say hi to coach Barr for me. Tell Darren to e-mail me about the baseball season, I would be interested to know how he is feeling about the season and his play so far. 

  This last week was crazy. We had transfers and it is just one big meeting and mini meetings before and after. Fisher compared it to putting on a "Show", it does kinda have that feel, just without the entertainment aspect, but we have a lot going on at those meetings. It was a very emotional meeting for Fisher and I, and really for everyone who was there. Elder Landsaw went home (I served with him in Atlanta), along with a bunch of other missionaries who were leaders in the mission for a long time. First of all Landsaw become a close friend to me and someone whom I could always seek advice from. We had a great experience together, we taught and baptized Montavious and he just taught me a lot and I love him like a brother. Elder Fisher was trained by Landsaw and when Fisher came out he was kind of a mess, not converted and just not prepared for his mission. But Elder Landsaw pretty much changed to course of his entire life by his example and teaching, so Fisher was crying like a little baby. HAHA I was conducting the meeting and right after all of the guys going home walked out of the chapel I was supposed to get up and announce some stuff, and there was some confusion between sister Satterfield (who was also balling) and I. I tried to announce some stuff but just couldn’t, so i Just mumbled some stuff and turned the time over to her and President (He didn't cry). Anywho, about 75% of all of the missionaries were crying it was very touching to see the unity that is built within a mission, so much love and brotherhood. One of the most special parts of the meeting was to hear Elder Stephens bear his testimony. I served with I’m at the very beginning of my mission, and he really had no testimony when i was with him. But he bore his testimony about how much he has grown on his mission and that he hopes so much that he will stay on the path that he got on during his mission, when he goes home. Which is cool because when i was his companion he said he was going to go home and be less active, so missions are great. I attribute the love within our mission to the Satterfields who will have their last transfer meeting at our next one. So that is going to be another tear jerker, I love them so much!

 We also taught Melanie again this week. She is going to be baptized this Saturday at 4. We are so excited; she is really a special person. Please pray for her. She doesn’t have any support from her family and this is a big step for her so she is very nervous and all the prayers would really help her. I also want to tell yall how much I love my companion! He is so awesome, just cares so much about others. He is a great missionary, a fantastic teacher and a better human. He is someone that definitely look up to, and i will learn a lot from him. He is super funny, and a little rough around the edges, I mean he's a mechanic and from Pocatello, but he just "gets it". Ill most likely be serving with him the rest of his mission 3 transfers. So were stoked on that. Love ya'll so much!

Elder Hendrix

Literally NO TIME!

Family,                                                                                                                       

  I literally have no time so I will give you some updates on the mission. First did you send those meal worms? So Elder Montiel got a new companion, so I’m not serving with him anymore. But the family that we have been teaching is doing great. Their mom got baptized on Saturday and it was a great service. Afterward her youngest son said he wanted to get baptized too. The two older boys are still being taught, it was cool to see them all dressed up for the baptism together. When I worked in Columbus with Elder Wiberg we taught the Hatch family, well the son got baptized and Sis Hatch is going to be baptized in a couple weeks. Although Elder Wiberg is being transferred this week I will probably be able to go and take him to the baptism when it happens. He says that that family has changed so much and is doing so so good! The Gospel is great.

    We had an awesome week. So this Wednesday is transfers so the last few days have been crazy. The week started out with us just sitting in President’s office with him and counseling about missionaries and transfers, and placing them in areas. It was a cool experience. President cares so much about the missionaries.  That was a fun experience. So the rest of the week is just preparing for a new transfer, figuring out rides and new areas, closing areas and bikes and all sorts of meetings so we have worked pretty hard. I will be staying with Elder Fisher, he’s from Pocatello, He is so awesome I’m going to probably serve with him till he goes home (4 1/2 Months). I will learn a lot from him and he has already become a great friend.

   So I don’t know if I told you about M***, she is an investigator who has been coming to our YSA ward, she is so awesome!!!  She prayed about baptism and she is going to get baptized on April 28th. WOW I’ll have to tell you more about her next week, but she has really embraced the gospel like I have never seen. It is so cool. She is so hungry, she was begging us for a Doctrine and Covenants. I’ll talk more next week!!

  Love you all so much. Do missionary work it’s the best. Share the Gospel cuz it’s so fun!

Elder Hendrix