Thanks to our Soldiers!

Family,
Everything is going so well. We don’t have a ton of people to teach right now, so we had a week of just going out trying to find people who are being prepared. We are really busy with lots of other stuff too so we had a pretty hectic week and things will just be more and more hectic through the rest of our transfer. We had a great Sunday, all three of the part member families that we are teaching came to church and had good experiences, we are excited and confident that they will be baptized soon. Because our ward boundaries cover Ft. Benning, one of us goes to a branch on the base for all of the Soldiers in basic training. So I went this week it was cool to see the guys blessing and passing the sacrament all dressed in their camo. I just went around and shook all of their hands and talked with them, many of them were returned missionaries. It was fun, there was about 100 soldiers all of them were really young kids. But I felt sort of low in their presence. During the sacrament there was a spirit there that felt different than the normal sacrament meeting. I don’t know how to explain it, but I thought about how pleased God must be for their service. And how good their service was to us all, and how courageous they are to become a member of the US Army. Then after church, they had a baptism and one soldier baptized his friend. There were some other soldiers that were there and it was cool to see their brotherhood, it’s pretty similar to the brotherhood we have out here on our missions, with those that we serve with. But still it felt different knowing that they are being trained to put their lives on the line, I don’t have to worry about that. It was an eye opening experience and I can’t wait to go back. The work is going well. We had a missionary meeting this week and there were 18 of us in the meeting with President Satterfield. At the end we were able have a testimony meeting. I witnessed young men with many weaknesses get up and bear there testimony about how their mission experience has brought them closer to God, and felt the spirit and knew that is what it is all about: developing a relationship with God, there is no greater knowledge we can have. And missions do that to young men no doubt this is Gods work. I love you all so much, thanks for your examples of devotion!

Elder Hendrix