Family,
First i would like to answer your questions Mom. I’m really not focusing too hard on my Spanish because it’s only for one transfer, but i am learning some. I actually don’t serve in a branch or a ward it’s a group, there are about 15 regular attendees. There used to be more but the work has suffered in the past, and in June they are going to integrate the Spanish group into the Auburn family ward. We don’t serve on the campus though, we serve around it but there are missionaries who serve in the student ward. In fact i don’t think I told you but there are 3 companionships in Auburn, Elder Wood and I live with another companionship who cover the family ward and town called Opelika, one of them is Elder Midgley, my MTC companion. How excited i am to tell you all of the wonderful things that have been happening in Spanish Auburn!
First of all, Elder Wood is so stinking awesome, I feel so blessed to serve with him. He loves people, the people we teach are his motivation, he only thinks about them. He teaching with "power and authority", he teaches "by the spirit", not "by some other way". He also cares so much for me and my comfort and he takes so much effort in teaching a dumb-ol gringo like me Spanish. He is just humble and we really really work well together, we seriously work ourselves into the ground I’ve never been this tired, it’s absolutely awesome. We see so many miracles, we have got probably 8 investigators who we are really confident in right now. Each one of them has a true desire to learn, they have all been prepared to hear the message of the restoration. Yesterday we knocked on an old investigators door that we have been trying to contact since i got here, Carlos, but we hadn’t talked with him yet. We were just in the area so we knocked on the door, not really expecting or thinking much would come from it. But he was finally there, I’m telling you I’ve knocked on his door like 15 times and nothing, so we went in and again my companion followed the spirit so well and started teaching in a way he had never done before, because he has never felt comfortable doing it. He followed the spirit and the lesson went great, (at least that’s what he said, i would really know I didn’t understand any of it) and Carlos accepted baptism and he wants to be baptized on May 20, and he will because he is so humble. We had experiences like that all week. Sat: we were tracting in a trailer park and we decide to knock on a door of a trailer we have passed by dozens of times, and the kid inside invited us right in, we had a good lesson and he wanted to come to church. Then we went out on a team up with an awesome guy from our group we visited 4 investigators and committed 3 of them to come to church and all of them had rides and they were coming for sure. Fri: we were just standing outside in an apartment complex talking about where we should go and a lady came out of her house and started asking us all sorts of questions and we answered them and she really liked us and what we were talking about, we shared a scripture from the book of Mormon and she said she was going to come to church. Thur: We found an old investigator and had a great lesson with him and we will teach him again. Wed: We found a new investigator (Lorenzo) that we were most definitely lead to, and we used some techniques and we learned in district meeting and had studied that morning and the spirit was so strong in our quick lesson, and now we have taught Lorenzo 2 times and he is a humble seeker and listener. Tue: we had two great lessons with investigators we hadn’t seen in a long time, they were important lessons for their progression. So going into Sunday we were on a spiritual high, we had 5 investigators we were expecting to be at church for sure. Everything was too solid for plans for fall through... but only one showed up. That is what our week has been like: huge high's, miracles new investigators and great lessons accompanied with much fatigue and then a huge let down on Sunday. But we again like last week resolved to not let our spirits down, we were going to exercise our faith and do the same good work the next week, we truly felt that we were being lifted up by the Love of our Lord, Elder Wood and i have felt his support.
Now i was so excited to tell you this and so excited to tell you where all of these people go, and miracles lead too, but about an hour ago i got a call from Pres. Satterfield and he said that he needs to move me again! There is a missionary who has to be sent home for medical reasons and his companion is coming down here and i am taking an English elder from a 3-some and going to the whitewater ward in peach tree city. I am so willing to do whatever the mission president asks me, and I’ll do it knowing it is according to the Lords will, and that i have much to learn from it, I’m truly excited for a new challenge. But I am so bumbed, almost heartbroken to be leaving this area and Elder Wood, we were talking last night while lying in bed about how grateful we are for serving together and the things we have learned from each other. We were talking about how the mission is full of "ups", followed by "downs", leading to tough times, which (if we have faith, humility and stay diligent) will eventually become an "Up", and that cycle continuously repeats itself. It’s a refining process, it’s truly living life but on steroids because that cycle literally happens on a daily, weekly and transfer time scale, as you can see by our last week. I even joked last night to elder wood that it almost too easy serving with him, i guess i jinxed myself. Ha Ha all you can do about this is just "smile and wave", no need to get down, i have a testimony of attitude, in fact in 1 Nephi read the last verse in Ch3 and the 1st verse in Ch4 and compare the attitude of Nephi, verse the attitude of Laman and Lemuel. Optimism leads to faith and faith leads to obedience. Pessimism leads to fear, and fear leads to disobedience.
It is my testimony to all of you!!! That the Lord challenges us each day and we can wake up and decide how we are going to face those challenges. If we do it with faith, we will become what our Father in Heaven knows we can become, even like He is! I love you all and definitely pray for me, pray that i may travel safe, haha. Love Y'all!!
Elder Hendrix
