August 29, 2011

Family,

   Well I’m just really in a good mood. Our last week was great and I’ll tell you about it in a second. But to mom’s questions: Ask that Elder where he is from and what ward he’s in, tell him I’m in Atlanta, in the Atlanta ward. It has been getting cooler in the mornings and evenings, it’s not as humid lately, but it was 100 on Saturday.  We haven’t felt the Hurricane at all.  Zone stuff doesn’t really interfere with our teaching or work at all. I did send pictures; i put them in the mail on Friday i think.  I love your question about teaching mom. We don’t have a ton of investigators that we are actively teaching, some days we may only teach 1-2 lessons, but really that’s our fault, we just need to take more opportunities, and be more effective in our use of time. But teaching is by far my favorite aspect of missionary work. There really is nothing like sitting down with someone and focusing on what God wants them to know, and being able to deliver that message to them in a way that they understand it, or in a way that it affects their feelings.  If it’s a good spiritual lesson it is a very intense experience, but it feels so good to teach by the spirit. You should invite the missionaries to come over and teach you the first Lesson, make sure Julie and Darren are there, I’m sure the missionaries will do it.  And it’s always interesting and challenging (in a good way) to learn how to teach with your companion, because we all teach differently. Sometimes it takes a while but sometimes it works right from the beginning, with Wunderli we had the same teaching style and it worked out well, Sly and I though, were all over the place at first but we really were able to figure things out, so teaching is really awesome, i love it. We have some great people that we are teaching and that is why I was so excited about this past week. First of all, the young Kid that we are teaching that grew up on the streets is getting baptized today, and he asked me to baptize him so I am really excited and feel it a special privilege for sure. I love that kid so much, i have learned more about the Love of God by seeing his journey than i have with any other experience in my life. It is comforting to see how much God is a part of our lives and how much he wants us to have what we truly desire.  His story is amazing but it’s because he was willing to "go and do".  We also got a referral from Mormon.org (that website has boosted missionary work in an absolutely ridiculous way since they changed it up last January, go visit it, it allows each one of us to do missionary work.). But it’s a young couple, who used to go to church in Samoa, and they are living here trying to find some work and they have been eating up everything that we have taught them. They are going to be baptized on Sept 11, and they are super excited for it, and they are such funny people. I feel like we have laughed more that we have taught with them.   We also had Elder Clarke of the 70 come to our Zone Conference this last week, he really gave us some good instruction, it excited me. I felt like his instruction was tailored specifically for me, he is a really intense guy!  I love the mission, it’s such a great experience, I’m so glad to hear of all the missionaries in our ward right now.  By the way how is Y'alls missionary work going, i mean everyone in my family. I sure hope that your mindful everyday of missionary opportunities, easy for me to say but it is really important. With all of the commotion in the world right now, people need to see how calm we as faithful followers of Jesus Christ are in the future. I love you all so much, Send pictures sorry I’m so slow, hey mom send me a new card for my camera will ya, I’ll send more pics from tonight. I love ya all.

Elder Hendrix

Julie,

   Hey there fella, sorry I haven’t written to you forever, i was glad to hear from you. Are you starting 3rd Grade? You’re getting old, i remember my third grade teacher, Mr. Hansen he was cool, ask Brice about him cuz he was in my class in 3rd grade.  Don’t worry hurricane Irene is far away. I haven’t recorded anything yet, sorry i will now though i loved listening to what you had to say on it, I’ll send it back, do i need to send the whole thing back or just the Tape?  Tell Joneichae and Jaden hello for me, and tell Joneichae that she is Crazy, like you!   I love cookie monsters club, i think you should send me something yall make, ok.  I love the Articles of faith; do you know why Joseph Smith wrote those down? that’s you homework for this week, ask Dad why and tell me in your next e-mail.  Don’t have any boyfriends they are just trouble. Tell Darren that you love him every day, and also tell him to write me an e-mail too. I love you i can’t believe you’re so old, almost 9....wow....and you’re still a big crazy face!!

August 22, 2012

Family,                                                                                                           

  Sounds like everything is going well for you guys these days, that’s good to hear.  Everything here in the ATL is just fantastic, though the work did take a slight hit this week, we just couldn't get people to keep appointments. The family that we are teaching, that are set for baptism, moved and we are not sure where yet, but they are still in the area somewhere.  But are we discouraged?..... Naw, this is the Lords work, he's in charge.  Plus i have learned a lot this week; i have had the opportunity to receive much personal revelation. Isn’t revelation so cool, we can actually know exactly what we need to do in our lives to fulfill the will of God, and the steps are simple: Pray/ponder, Read the Scriptures and go to Church.  I love my companion, by the way, he is the best.  It’s kinda like serving with your dad, he’s just so darn wise.  Oh boy i haven’t told you what happened last Monday night.  Ok, so this kid we are teaching, he’s 18, he is so awesome. We have been teaching him for a while (i think i told you about him but I’m not sure).  He grew up in the Hood, literally within the Gangs. But somehow he just gets it, he knows that there is a better life for him outside of what he is surrounded by. Man i love him, and hope so much the best for him. It’s so sad to see, and we see it every day. People who are just stuck in a life that they don’t want to be in, but they don’t see that there is another way, it’s honestly not that they are not good people it’s just that they don’t know that there is another option. I have definitely gained a new perspective serving here.  It’s amazing to see the Lord working with him, he is going to be baptized next week, but anyway.    He is going to the YSA ward, and for FHE last Monday they went cliff jumping on the Chattahoochee River.  He has never done that before so we told him that he should try it, but most intercity black kids don’t swim very well. So he tried to swim across the river and  got scared that there were snakes and dead bodies in the river, and he started to drown. Someone pulled him out of the water, but he had taken in a lot of water, so they called an ambulance and gave him a blessing. He said that they told him that he died in the ambulance, but they revived him and he had to spend a few hours in the hospital. He is fine now, and crazy enough it actually strengthened his desire to change his life and get baptized. But that was scary. You really do come to Love those that you teach and serve.  Well there you go, those were some pretty random thoughts, The Lord loves us all so much, i am so thankful for the opportunity to serve a mission for the Lord in Georgia at this very time.  I have a lot of weaknesses but i can think of no better place than the Mission field to make my weaknesses become strengths.  Mom and Dad, thanks for being PERFECT parents! Thanks for Loving God! I love you all; i will send pictures....sorry I’m slow

August 15, 2011

Family,                                                                                                           

  Well we had a great week. I think I told yall about my new companion last week so i won’t go into that except that he is awesome. He is really wise, i think i told you that he turns 25 in September so he is really mature and just knows what he wants and how to get things done.  We had a really cool experience this last week, it was our first day together and we weren’t finding anyone at home and nothing was happening, Elder Landsaw suggested that we pray so we did. We ended the day with 5 people who set dates for baptism, and then all of them came to church on Sunday!! We were really excited. We had a great experience with one of our investigators, i won’t get into details... it would suffice to say that the Lord made possible something that to our investigator and US thought was impossible and he is set to be baptized next Monday! As missionaries, especially myself, we worry about all of the challenges that people face to progress towards baptism and there are tons, but the Lord is always preparing a way for those people who are the elect of God.  As we were sitting with this investigator and he was telling us how he overcame this challenge i felt so blessed to be an eye witness to the Lord working miracles in someone’s life.  My testimony this week was strengthen that this is truly the Lords work, We were taught by Elder Gay that the Lord is preparing people but we have to come unto him and find his way, to find the "Effectual Door" (D&C 112: 19) and then we will be able to bless the Lives of people like Ammon and his brothers. The Gospel is so dang true!! But even better than that, if you can believe that we had literally a once in a lifetime opportunity on Saturday. Elder M. Russell Ballard came to this area along with Elder Gay, who came a couple weeks back. I was able to sit through two meetings as we were taught by one of the 12 apostles of the Lord. (One quick funny story: I was heading to the bathroom before our first meeting and i was walking kind of fast around a corner and I ran into Elder Ballard head on....Kind of cool....but kinda embarrassing too) The First meeting was really small, 14 missionaries and President and Sister Satterfield and Elders Ballard and Gay.  WOW I literally sat 6 feet away from an apostle as he taught us for an hour, as I looked at his eyes and listened to his voice i could feel nothing but purity. Pure Love for us the missionaries, and the work of the Lord.  It was amazing to see how non-chalaunt (i don’t know how to spell that) he taught such amazing doctrine.  Something i will never forget is the person that i saw that day, i felt like he was completely a servant of the Lord!  Then we had a two hour meeting with All the Missionaries in our mission all of the Stake presidents, Bishops, and ward mission leaders from our mission and Elder Gay and Elder Ballard Pretty much told us, of the "Georgia Atlanta Council" That we are not doing as good as we should, they told us that there are 100,000 people in our mission area that are being prepared now. It has been cool to see that the work is really progressing in our mission in the last 2 months, and i got the feeling that it is starting now and will continue to explode. There have been prophecies about the church in the south growing to like a million members and it’s just cool to be able to be a part of that, I feel that it is definitely happening.  Well the Work is really really going well, thank you so much for your prayers last week, you have no idea how much they really did help me i have a strong testimony of the power of prayer, thanks for strengthening it! Love you All!

Elder Hendrix

August 8, 2011

Family,

    I haven’t finished the Book of Mormon yet, i have the last chapter to finish, i wanted to save it for last to read it all at once because it is so good. You are right mom; it is FULL, from its first chapters to the very last one. It’s cool because all of the stories teach powerful important lessons, but within the stories there is constant doctrine taught. It has been a huge blessing for me to read It this way, i feel like i want to read it like this every time. I am going to start studying it slowly, which i am really excited for because it teaches doctrine so deeply especially on the atonement.  It is a fact: if you read the Book of Mormon, your day will go better!  Our week was pretty good, we had a great showing at church, the lady from New York, that we have been trying to get to come to church, finally came, yea! And we think she really liked it, we will see her tomorrow.  The Lord is just blessing us so much, we have challenging opportunities with people but it’s such a pleasure to share the Gospel with people who are the "Elect of God", it is such a sweet experience to see them, see the way that the Lord is preparing for them.  Elder Wunderli goes home on Wednesday; it was such a great experience to serve with him. He taught me a lot about missionary work, leadership, myself and life, along with more insignificant sports trivia, and lack of sleep from staying up late talking about sports....I’m looking forward to getting more sleep next transfer. But he is awesome, most defiantly i made a great friend over the past 6 weeks.  I will not be getting transferred and I already know who my companion will be: Elder Landsaw he’s from Bountiful, he’s a really awesome kid, and most important he has beautiful hair.  He was an assistant with Wunderli while i was with Sly so I’ve got to know him pretty well already, we will get along really well. He is an older missionary too he is 24, he is the man.  I have been pretty lucky to get two dropping AP's two transfers in a row, it’s because God knows that i need the training. I have been struggling lately, sometimes in your mission you go through periods where you feel the spirit more than other times, or where you are not as effective, and it affects your attitude you start to get discouraged.   I have been feeling a little bit of all of those, which is silly because the Lord is blessing us so much.  I’m kind of a wimp.  Through it i have been able to realize (AGAIN) that i must rely on the Lord for strength and wisdom. Yesterday during the sacrament i was reading Ether 12:27, I love the Sacrament by the way,  and it helped me to realize that i cannot worry about the weaknesses that i have, the Lord is giving them to us so that we can become like him some day. If we realize our weaknesses then we become humble, and we cannot receive instruction from the Holy Ghost if we are not humble, and if we don’t receive instruction from the Holy Ghost then we cannot progress. But the Lord wants us to come unto him, so that he can show us our weakness. I love God; everything he does is for us, so that we can be happy. I hope that i can be better so that i will be able to help his children feel and know the Spirit. I love you all so much, You truly are the greatest family of all time!!!!!  

August 1, 2011

Family,                                                                                                                       

   Sounds like all is well! I Love you all so much. I’m going to keep this one really short.  We had a great day yesterday. 3 investigators came to church, so that was exciting. It is so important for investigators to come to church, as it is for us also.  The spirit is always there, how can they know about our church if they never come. Church is another opportunity to receive revelation, and probably the easiest because all you have to do is show up. Elder Wunderli and I had talked about this after last week and we decided that we were going to focus on receiving revelation ourselves so that those that we teach will do the same, and we did and it made our purpose more clear and we came to understand better what the Lord expects of us. All of us should view sacrament meeting as a way to receive revelation, when we do this we are better able to do what the Lord wants us to do. Sacrament is so personal, it’s one of my favorite times of my week (probably because I’m selfish) because it is the time that i can’t think about anyone else but me, and my relationship with God. Yesterday a guy in the bishopric explained that the sacrament is like pac-man, we eat up all of these little dots and as we eat them we become stronger and more able to destroy the little ghost that cross our path, it was kinda cool.  Well the Book of Mormon is awesome!!!!  It is truly for us right now, and we are promised that if we study it and follow its teachings we will receive eternal life.  There have been times that i have struggled on my mission, I’m either confused or down, but when i went to the Book of Mormon i just felt good, it’s great. It happens because it teaches us who we are, and God has made us a promise that if we study it then we will be happy.  I love you all so much, the work is going great! The ATL is the Best, i am so glad to be serving in the Georgia Atlanta Mission!

Elder Hendrix