Family,
Hello to you all, it’s getting kinda cold now, i like it. Happy Halloween. We had a great week, good things are happening. We haven’t given anyone a date yet but we had some come to church and we are teaching a lot of people right now, we will see how committed they are, but we are excited. We are teaching one family, a single mother with 4 kids, and she is just a great lady. She is really struggling because she has to do everything by herself, it’s really sad to see, but single mothers are the norm around here. She really wants to get closer with her Savior and know the truth, but there is just a lot of stuff going on in her life right now, pray for her, her name is Cheryl. Her kids came to church on Sunday, and they loved it. We have been having lots of success working with Less-active members. We went to visit a member who had been offended a couple weeks ago and said that he wasn’t going to ever come to church again. We went with our Branch mission leader, when we first pulled up you could tell that the brother did not want to talk to us but our Branch mission leader is really awesome, good with people so he let us in. He was still upset throughout most of the lesson, but i think he felt our love and true concern for his welfare, and we did care about him that’s why we visited him we were worried about him. At the end of his visit and after another great visit he has decided that he will come back to church and that he needs to go talk with the Branch president. I thought about the timing and attitude of our visit. You see he had only stopped coming for 3 weeks, but i think that if we would have waited for months, which is usually what happens, then his bitterness would have grown until his heart would have been too hard to reach. His heart was still tender and he was still close enough to the spirit to allow it to work in him, with more time he would have gone farther and farther away from that true spirit. As i thought about that i decided that i will always strive to bring quickly back those who have fallen away, that they may know that we love them. In the parable of the Lost sheep I’m sure the Savior meant, that the Shepard would drop all and go find immediately. You cannot do missionary work without love, and when i think of love i think of whole hearted service, which i do not give, but i sure hope to learn how to. Everything is going good, I will most likely have a new companion next week this Wednesday is transfers so hopefully I’m still here. I love you all so much, every time I read a letter from family I just get this grin on my face and tell my companion "don’t you just love your family" thanks for all of your letters, and don’t ever apologize for not writing more, I am more than pleased with how much y'all write me, I need to apologize, i never write anyone. Y'all are the best!
Elder Hendrix
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
October 24, 2011
Family,
Ya know E-mail time for missionaries on Monday morning is very interesting; some missionaries live and die for it. Some have to have 2-3 hours. Some e-mail tons of their friends and some only one person and it’s just a funny time of the week. Me i don’t get all that excited about it, but every time I read and e-mail from home it just puts a smile on my face. Ya know we had an awesome week, A couple people told me that they had been thinking about me a lot this week and praying for me. I needed that and I felt extra strength this week, i really did. Thank you for your prayers and letters and packages!!!!!!! Well the work here is really just going so well, even though we don’t have anyone on date to be baptized and we don’t really have any investigators that are progressing. But lives are changing, we are being directed by the spirit and good work is being done for sure. I’m really excited about the work. I have learned a good lesson these last couple weeks. When we serve God with all of our heart, and commit ourselves to be improved repenting constantly God blesses us. It sounds simple but it’s so profound, because it’s hard to do that sometimes, we have to struggle and suffer to receive the blessings of Christ’s atonement. That is a really cool story, about Brother Robinson, way to go missionaries. Thanks for the package we enjoyed it, thanks for the GPS!! We got the Pizza too, we were way surprised, when someone knocks on a missionaries door and 9:45 at night, it could be anyone, but we didn’t think it would be a pizza girl, tell dad i gave her a "nice tip". Sounds like everyone is doing good, I’m glad y'all had a good time playing crud, did the win stay in the family? Well sorry I’m so short but everything is going well, nothing too exciting is going on, except I am learning so much about the gospel and about myself. I hope you are all doing good missionary work, Kari what you can do if you’re not doing anything right now. Grandma sent me a good quote about missionary work, I’ll send that. Tell that punk Brice to e-mail me so that I know what’s going on with him, i miss him. The gospel is so great! I love you all, wish us luck.
Elder Hendrix
Julie,
You make me laugh! How did you get so funny! I can’t believe dad and Darren didn’t even invite you to go hunting! I want to let you know that i love you even though you are crazy, well not really.....actually for sure...big time crazy!
Darren,
You’re the man! I can still wup you though, but we’ll have to see when i get back i guess. I aint scared. Love you too!
Ya know E-mail time for missionaries on Monday morning is very interesting; some missionaries live and die for it. Some have to have 2-3 hours. Some e-mail tons of their friends and some only one person and it’s just a funny time of the week. Me i don’t get all that excited about it, but every time I read and e-mail from home it just puts a smile on my face. Ya know we had an awesome week, A couple people told me that they had been thinking about me a lot this week and praying for me. I needed that and I felt extra strength this week, i really did. Thank you for your prayers and letters and packages!!!!!!! Well the work here is really just going so well, even though we don’t have anyone on date to be baptized and we don’t really have any investigators that are progressing. But lives are changing, we are being directed by the spirit and good work is being done for sure. I’m really excited about the work. I have learned a good lesson these last couple weeks. When we serve God with all of our heart, and commit ourselves to be improved repenting constantly God blesses us. It sounds simple but it’s so profound, because it’s hard to do that sometimes, we have to struggle and suffer to receive the blessings of Christ’s atonement. That is a really cool story, about Brother Robinson, way to go missionaries. Thanks for the package we enjoyed it, thanks for the GPS!! We got the Pizza too, we were way surprised, when someone knocks on a missionaries door and 9:45 at night, it could be anyone, but we didn’t think it would be a pizza girl, tell dad i gave her a "nice tip". Sounds like everyone is doing good, I’m glad y'all had a good time playing crud, did the win stay in the family? Well sorry I’m so short but everything is going well, nothing too exciting is going on, except I am learning so much about the gospel and about myself. I hope you are all doing good missionary work, Kari what you can do if you’re not doing anything right now. Grandma sent me a good quote about missionary work, I’ll send that. Tell that punk Brice to e-mail me so that I know what’s going on with him, i miss him. The gospel is so great! I love you all, wish us luck.
Elder Hendrix
Julie,
You make me laugh! How did you get so funny! I can’t believe dad and Darren didn’t even invite you to go hunting! I want to let you know that i love you even though you are crazy, well not really.....actually for sure...big time crazy!
Darren,
You’re the man! I can still wup you though, but we’ll have to see when i get back i guess. I aint scared. Love you too!
Monday, October 17, 2011
October 17, 2011
Family,
Everything is just great. I have been very humbled this last week, and i hate that! Ya know when the Lord just shows you how weak you really are, but i guess it’s good. We had a slow week and we just haven’t seen many fruits from our labors yet since we have been here. There are so many people who need what we have but they just won’t take it, or we just don’t know how to give it to them, i don’t know. But this next week is lining up to be a good week, today on our way into the library we found a guy that we had taught only once, and it was a great lesson, he really is looking for something and is in serious need, but after we taught him we lost him and couldn’t find him until like 30 min ago, so we are about to have a seriously good week!!
Mom just a little bit of my thoughts on the Book of Mormon. I have been specifically interested the last couple of days in Mormon ch 8: 33-34 (I’m not actually positive on the verses), it is where Mormon says that he as "seen our day....and he knows our doing...Christ has shown you unto me", that is a powerful thing. He put into the Book of Mormon everything that is in there, he knew that it was going to be brought forth in our day and that it would need to apply to our needs, and he knew exactly what we were going to go through. What got me started thinking about this was E. Andersons talk in the Oct ensign, he talks about how the Book of Mormon was written for our day and he quotes that scripture. In preparing for your talk you should look at Ch 5 of preach my gospel. I know that I absolutely loved reading the book of Mormon during president Satterfield’s challenge, I came to understand more than I ever had before how it is so much for our day, and how full it is of doctrine that can apply to many different challenges. I know that it had a huge effect upon the character of our missionaries, our faith throughout the mission increased dramatically. But you should E-mail Sis Satterfield if the bishop wants you to talk about the reading challenge, ask her what affect it had on our mission?
Well i love you all so much, and I do miss y'all, I am so grateful for my family and friends. Please pray extra hard for me this week that I can be stronger in the Lords service, and pray that we can find and teach with power, those who God is preparing. Thank you
E. Hendrix
Julie,
You are so awesome, I’m sorry i haven’t sent your Tape recorder yet, I hope I’m not in too much trouble, i will send it soon. How is school going? I can’t believe you are almost 9. Are you in 3rd grade? What is your favorite thing about volleyball (except that Mr. Rapp is your coach)? How are the 49ers doing, how is Patrick Willis doing? What are you asking Santa for Christmas? You should go hunting with Dad this year, he would love to take you. I love you!
E. Hendrix
Ps. your.......to be continued
Everything is just great. I have been very humbled this last week, and i hate that! Ya know when the Lord just shows you how weak you really are, but i guess it’s good. We had a slow week and we just haven’t seen many fruits from our labors yet since we have been here. There are so many people who need what we have but they just won’t take it, or we just don’t know how to give it to them, i don’t know. But this next week is lining up to be a good week, today on our way into the library we found a guy that we had taught only once, and it was a great lesson, he really is looking for something and is in serious need, but after we taught him we lost him and couldn’t find him until like 30 min ago, so we are about to have a seriously good week!!
Mom just a little bit of my thoughts on the Book of Mormon. I have been specifically interested the last couple of days in Mormon ch 8: 33-34 (I’m not actually positive on the verses), it is where Mormon says that he as "seen our day....and he knows our doing...Christ has shown you unto me", that is a powerful thing. He put into the Book of Mormon everything that is in there, he knew that it was going to be brought forth in our day and that it would need to apply to our needs, and he knew exactly what we were going to go through. What got me started thinking about this was E. Andersons talk in the Oct ensign, he talks about how the Book of Mormon was written for our day and he quotes that scripture. In preparing for your talk you should look at Ch 5 of preach my gospel. I know that I absolutely loved reading the book of Mormon during president Satterfield’s challenge, I came to understand more than I ever had before how it is so much for our day, and how full it is of doctrine that can apply to many different challenges. I know that it had a huge effect upon the character of our missionaries, our faith throughout the mission increased dramatically. But you should E-mail Sis Satterfield if the bishop wants you to talk about the reading challenge, ask her what affect it had on our mission?
Well i love you all so much, and I do miss y'all, I am so grateful for my family and friends. Please pray extra hard for me this week that I can be stronger in the Lords service, and pray that we can find and teach with power, those who God is preparing. Thank you
E. Hendrix
Julie,
You are so awesome, I’m sorry i haven’t sent your Tape recorder yet, I hope I’m not in too much trouble, i will send it soon. How is school going? I can’t believe you are almost 9. Are you in 3rd grade? What is your favorite thing about volleyball (except that Mr. Rapp is your coach)? How are the 49ers doing, how is Patrick Willis doing? What are you asking Santa for Christmas? You should go hunting with Dad this year, he would love to take you. I love you!
E. Hendrix
Ps. your.......to be continued
Monday, October 10, 2011
October 10, 2011
Family,
Well sounds like everything is going good with you guys. Dad you lucky bugger! We had a really good week, we still haven’t found anyone who is really progressing, but we sure do see miracles every day, truly they happen every day. Our weather is great, it is beautiful, i cant wait till all of the trees change colors, I’ll take some good pics and send them, but the weather is really nice. I don’t miss living in the city, but i do miss that area a bit, i talked to E. Landsaw the other day and lots of good things are going on over there right now, some of the people we were working with are doing really well, so that is exciting, but Thomaston is really great too, i enjoy the southern country folks. You get to meet some real good people. We are teaching a lot, just we are trying to find people to teach who are willing to keep commitments and come to church, but this week we have some appointments and families that we are excited about.
So we just heard about this guy who said we are a cult yesterday. I don’t think it has a negative effect on the work, especially because it came from what sounds like a looney, it gets people curious, and since mormon.org is everywhere people are visiting that site more and more regularly. Here in the Atlanta area the church is doing a "media blitz" so there are big billboards and TV commercials, I’ve already seen 2 on TV and we don’t watch TV. I think it probably hurts Mitt now, but in the long run i think it helps missionary work. I don’t know, most people who will believe what that guy says are people who already have ideas about us that are similar to his, but people who have no negative ideas are just going to be curious about us. Even with the Election being a year away we get quite a few comments about it, when people see us they will just start talking about how they like Mitt or they are voting for him so then they go off about politics and of course we have no idea what is going on, but ya know it’s really great that the church understood how powerful the media was long before any of us did, because now they are prepared to share our message the way that most people obtain information, it was revelation to our prophets I’m sure. You guys need to get familiar with mormon.org if you aren’t already. You should get on it and check it out for FHE or something.
Last night we had a great experience. So Sunday evening can be a tough evening, you’re at the end of the week and we had no appointments, so that excitement and fire is just dimmer than other times. I was tempted to slacken my might if you will, but i realized that my attitude was not in harmony with Christ’s, so i made the decision to give it all i had for the rest of that evening. During the course of the next couple hours we found a new family to teach, had great lesson with a less-active lady who really needed the encouragement and had one of the most spiritual lessons i have ever had with one of our investigators. He does not believe in God, which is very very rare in Thomaston! I had the experience where you gain (strengthen) your testimony in the bearing of it. And as it teaching is D&C: if you teach with the spirit both the teacher and student will be edified and you will rejoice together. I had the opportunity to bear a pure testimony of our Heavenly Father, that He lives and the He has a plan for us. And we really saw a change in this young man, I felt so good, and i was thankful for the experience because it taught me a powerful lesson. That my purpose as a missionary is to dedicate my time to the service of God, and if we truly dedicate ourselves, we will be blessed beyond our understanding. I didn’t ever think about or know that my testimony was going to be strengthened if I would give my best effort, I just knew that is what God wanted me to do, and then he blessed me with what I needed. Sounds like you all are doing well it is great to hear. I love you all, stay good.
E. Hendrix
Well sounds like everything is going good with you guys. Dad you lucky bugger! We had a really good week, we still haven’t found anyone who is really progressing, but we sure do see miracles every day, truly they happen every day. Our weather is great, it is beautiful, i cant wait till all of the trees change colors, I’ll take some good pics and send them, but the weather is really nice. I don’t miss living in the city, but i do miss that area a bit, i talked to E. Landsaw the other day and lots of good things are going on over there right now, some of the people we were working with are doing really well, so that is exciting, but Thomaston is really great too, i enjoy the southern country folks. You get to meet some real good people. We are teaching a lot, just we are trying to find people to teach who are willing to keep commitments and come to church, but this week we have some appointments and families that we are excited about.
So we just heard about this guy who said we are a cult yesterday. I don’t think it has a negative effect on the work, especially because it came from what sounds like a looney, it gets people curious, and since mormon.org is everywhere people are visiting that site more and more regularly. Here in the Atlanta area the church is doing a "media blitz" so there are big billboards and TV commercials, I’ve already seen 2 on TV and we don’t watch TV. I think it probably hurts Mitt now, but in the long run i think it helps missionary work. I don’t know, most people who will believe what that guy says are people who already have ideas about us that are similar to his, but people who have no negative ideas are just going to be curious about us. Even with the Election being a year away we get quite a few comments about it, when people see us they will just start talking about how they like Mitt or they are voting for him so then they go off about politics and of course we have no idea what is going on, but ya know it’s really great that the church understood how powerful the media was long before any of us did, because now they are prepared to share our message the way that most people obtain information, it was revelation to our prophets I’m sure. You guys need to get familiar with mormon.org if you aren’t already. You should get on it and check it out for FHE or something.
Last night we had a great experience. So Sunday evening can be a tough evening, you’re at the end of the week and we had no appointments, so that excitement and fire is just dimmer than other times. I was tempted to slacken my might if you will, but i realized that my attitude was not in harmony with Christ’s, so i made the decision to give it all i had for the rest of that evening. During the course of the next couple hours we found a new family to teach, had great lesson with a less-active lady who really needed the encouragement and had one of the most spiritual lessons i have ever had with one of our investigators. He does not believe in God, which is very very rare in Thomaston! I had the experience where you gain (strengthen) your testimony in the bearing of it. And as it teaching is D&C: if you teach with the spirit both the teacher and student will be edified and you will rejoice together. I had the opportunity to bear a pure testimony of our Heavenly Father, that He lives and the He has a plan for us. And we really saw a change in this young man, I felt so good, and i was thankful for the experience because it taught me a powerful lesson. That my purpose as a missionary is to dedicate my time to the service of God, and if we truly dedicate ourselves, we will be blessed beyond our understanding. I didn’t ever think about or know that my testimony was going to be strengthened if I would give my best effort, I just knew that is what God wanted me to do, and then he blessed me with what I needed. Sounds like you all are doing well it is great to hear. I love you all, stay good.
E. Hendrix
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