Dear Family,
I must say that the mission is quite the experience, it's great and just plain hard at times. This last week was probably one of my best weeks of my entire mission, we taught tons of lessons we found really solid investigators. One guy we tracted into was getting drunk on his porch because "it’s the only thing that makes life bearable", he started to tell us that he was Christian, but he was a Satanist too, obviously he was very confused. He said that "God aint here on earth, this is Satan’s domain", he was yelling at us and being very rude, not letting us talk. At one point I thought he might attack us. But I looked at him in the face and said "the power of God is on earth!", i felt the spirit very strong. My companion taught him about the Love of the Living Christ. We talked to him for about 30 min, and in that time he completely changed. We told him our message will bring him peace. Before we left he said, holding back tears, "all i want is peace, i just want peace". It was truly amazing to see that change, we haven’t seen him since but we will see him soon. That same day we talked to a lady, she is married and has two of the cutest little kids in the world, she had talked with the missionaries in the past, but quit because her family freaked out when she told them that she went to the LDS church, they are southern Baptist. She told us that she didn’t believe in the Baptist religion, she wanted to find somewhere that she could feel the spirit. As we talked with her she told us that while in the Celestial room at the temple open house she felt the spirit and cried. We helped her to realize that that was an answer that she was looking for. But she told us that she still had other concerns about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We left thinking that we would have to work with her for a while and see if she could get over those concerns. We came back two days later and sat down with her and the first thing she said was "I’ve decided to be baptized", we were really caught off guard i thought "which church?" cus i was so surprised. She was already planning on coming to church and everything. Now her husband isn’t really religious but she assured us that he would follow her, so we were excited, we set a date and she came to church (husband was going to come but he got called into work). Church was perfect, she heard exactly what she needed to hear and when she left she was definitely at peace with her decision. I was so excited, i felt a love for her so strong and her kids too, a love that is only born of the spirit. A loving desire for them to start this eternal covenant with their Heavenly father, and prepare for more. It’s hard to explain, and i have loved some investigators before but, from the time that we told her that we were here to help her come closer to her Savior, this one was different. But she called us last night and said that she wasn’t going to be baptized and that she didn’t want us to come back. Her family flipped out again, and her husband, obviously worried about her parents disowning her and the children, and bad blood between them for a long time didn’t support her either and pretty much told her he would divorce her if she did, and i can understand his view because he doesn’t know it’s true like she does. She isn’t worried about her parent’s opinion, that was resolved at church, but it’s either baptism or divorce. This honestly makes me cry. She knows it’s true, but nobody will support her, i cringe to think of the confusion and loneliness she feels. All i can say is that this one is tough for me to take please pray for Melissa. I’m pretty beat down but there is more work to be done and we have many other investigators that are ready to receive the gospel, so i must forget my pain and know that the Lords hand is in all things, and he loves and blesses all of his children. I love you all, pray for the missionary work throughout the world, pray for my companion and I. I’m so excited to see that you are taking Pres. Satterfield’s challenge!! It starts for me on Wed. I love you all, this gospel is true; I know that it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Elder Hendrix
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