November 22, 2011

Family,
How is the world’s greatest family? Mom let me answer your questions :) I don’t need any new garments. Now i need everyone to listen to this one...NO CANDY!! I don’t need any sweets, I’m filling out as they say, I look extra plump so i don’t need any sugar to speed up that process. I want you to send me nothing for Christmas, I’ve never had a Christmas without any gifts and i know that i have taught people who have, so give some gifts to someone else that actually needs it. But if anyone wants to send me something, a letter/pictures would be awesome, ill open them all on Christmas morning. Look now it’s easier on everybody, they don’t have to feel obligated to get me anything. It will be a great Christmas, plus that just means i get double presents next year. Though i do not want any presents i could use another journal, i now crazy I actually write in a journal....sometimes.
So this last weekend Sister Gladys Knight was in Atlanta with her Grammy winning SUV (Saints Unified Voices) choir and they put on a series of firesides, 2 a night for 3 nights. It is completely geared toward missionary work. And our mission has got over 1,000 referrals since they started on Friday. We went last night it was really fun, unlike any other LDS choir concert, it was upbeat "Gospel music", and people were shouting amen and clapping. Then Gladys and her Husband bore there testimonies and essentially told there fellow African Americans that they could not afford to not look into this church, they were very strait forward and blunt. But the spirit was really strong, the music was great and she is just a great lady. She pretty much feels like the Lord has given her the gifts that he has so that she can preach the Gospel. Ya know that is truly how we all should feel, it has been interesting to me to find out how vital sharing the gospel is to our salvation, that is pretty much what the D&C tells us over and over and over. But she was a great lady, the fireside definitely made me want to be a better person, and come to know my savior more.
We had a good week. We are teaching 5 young kids and they are so much harder to teach than adults, its testing our abilities, but they are great kids and it is great to see their family do so good, all (but Dad) came to church yesterday. We also got a referral from a guy who had checked out mormon.org and requested a missionary visit. He is a super good guy. He’s 24 and married, played college baseball, and his wife actually did her grad school at Utah State. We met with him at our church and he just wants to love and serve God. I think he is looking for religion that is deeper and more spiritual, and more in line with the New Testament, so we are excited to teach him and his wife we will be seeing them tomorrow. But the work is good and we are trucking along with our little diversified companionship, the other day we were eating at Chili’s and everyone there was staring at us, but why wouldn’t they: A chubby white guy, a short Asian, and a tall Black guy all about 20 yrs. old dressed up in suits on a Saturday afternoon. I love you all, keep up the awesomeness!!

Elder Hendrix