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