Hey fam!

Things are going pretty good here in Santa Ana. Looks like the wedding was super sweet and that Zack and Spencer are growing out their hair jaja. The rainy season has started and it rains just about every day! It had been raining about every night but we have only come home soaked about 2 times. Now it’s raining during the day and it feels like October. It’s been pretty cloudy during the day and then about 2 o clock to 4 it starts raining. Saturday it was super cloudy and basically sprinkling all day which was super awesome because the weather was perfect but the work is not perfect. It’s a lot harder to contact people or get members to leave with you when it’s cloudy and rainy... nobody really wants to do much and with a fast you gotta avoid the people who always give food jaja jk. Anyways this week was super fast and full of stuff. By the way I got your letters! Thanks! I got a huge group of like 8 letters on Friday when we had our district meeting I think that there had been a back up on letters but everyone was pretty jealous jaja. Its sweet I love to get letters even when Brynlee is just rubbing Florida in my face jaja --but seriously don’t hesitate to send them jaja. Also, thanks Granddad and Grandma it’s great to hear from you guys every week! I got the reception invitation Friday and it’s too bad it didn't come earlier because I might have been able to go jaja, but I had already made plans. It looks sweet but I’m a little confused at why I wasn't invited to the wedding? jaja jk jk. Anyways its super sweet to have conference and the song of hymns of our Savior --Come Thou Fount is super awesome. Are there more songs on the album or more like that song? If you just send it through email I can prob put it on the MP3 but it might be easier if you just send it to me although it takes a lot longer. Oh and the talk by Elder Holland is super awesome he really pulls out the machete jaja. The talk his grace is sufficient is super sweet also. I had listened to it before but it’s sweet to have it on paper. Anyways this week we moved! We weren’t living in our area before and we still don't live in our area jaja, but now we live  a lot closer. We were walking like 15 minutes to our area and 20 to the church.  Now it’s like 5 minutes by bus if we are lucky and 10 walking and like 3 blocks to our area which is way better although the house we are in now is Huge! At some point there were 4 missionaries in this house but now only 2. The thing that happened with the house is that the missionaries that were living here one ended his mission mid change. I’m not exactly sure why but anyways he ended mid change and so they closed this area which put no missionaries in this house. Well the house is much closer so we asked if we could move to the house and they said yes which was sweet. although when we showed up the house was super dirty so we have been spending the mornings and nights cleaning and yes I did what all of my brothers have done I went into the shower dumped straight bleach and now its white and not black. Now the house is pretty clean and its super sweet. Anyways this week was pretty sweet although we are finding a lot of investigators which is awesome they aren't progressing very fast. Although we have a family that’s a reference of a member that we are gonna have a family night with them. They were gonna come to church, but then his brother died so we are gonna throw down the lesson 2 which will help him a lot. The family is super awesome and he is super weak from what happened to his brother so hopefully he can find peace.  We have been teaching the mom of Claudia who is still attending the other ward but the prob is that it is earlier and she is super busy in her work right now. She goes to church and then goes to work but she said that it is going to calm down and that she will go at 10 the next week to our ward. but anyways we have been teaching her mom named Adela and she is super great but she owns a pupuseria and makes pupusas in the morning in the market and so she is super busy Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays because these days are the most busy. We went Sunday and she gave us pupusas as a gift which was sweet hopefully it’s not against the Sabbath. jaja. Anyways she was super busy and said she might be able to come but then wasn't able. She has seen the changes in her daughter since baptism and this really makes her want to be baptized but the big problem is the work. We have taught her to have faith and the Lord will prepare a way but its super hard. We are gonna try to keep helping her and do what we can and rely on the Holy Ghost so that hopefully she can receive the blessings of the Gospel. She has accepted a baptismal goal but if she can’t go to church it’s hard to keep it but we will see what will happen. The Ramirez family is starting to activate super well which is super awesome. They have been coming to church the last three weeks and 3 weeks ago she received a calling. The bishop said oh look all she needed was a calling and I was thinking this is what we have been saying since February! But it’s all good and she and Steven went to all 3 classes which was super awesome! Anyways I hope we are gonna have a sweet week. And you guys have fun in your trip!

LesAmo,

Elder Hendricks

Rain, Temple and Miracles

Letter from Parker April 20, 2015

This week was freaking sweet here in the S.A. of E.L. It sounds like everything is super sweet in the Lou. When are you guys gonna send the Elder Holland CES devotional talk? Could you also send the Book of Mormon audio in Spanish? That would be sweet! School of the Prophets by Joseph smith it’s like 7 lessons for the missionaries in the 1800s something like that... I think there is a mission Facebook page... you guys should check it out I could be on there ... jaja send the blue small oil vile also that’s in the house. Thanks for everything talk to you next weekkk... jaja jk

This week was super awesome though. We don’t have a lot of investigators but the ones we have are progressing like crazy which is awesome. Monday we ended P-day at 3 because we were going to the temple on Wednesday which was super awesome. Monday started the rain and it stormed like crazy! We got soaked which was great after a nice hot day. But the other nights we were in houses when it rained or back in our house. One night when we were planning we heard a lightning bolt and then thunder super loud it was crazy! And I was super glad to be in the house. Wednesday we got up a 4:30 to go to the temple which was super awesome. The spirit was super strong and it felt like I was home. The temple was super beautiful also. We went to taco bell after which was sweet because there is no taco bell in Santa Ana. Sunday was awesome. Carlos and Kevin were confirmed and I gave a talk which I took like 20 minutes and not 10 jaja whoops! I talked about leccion 3 and like every point and used sweet scriptures. It was there first time I gave a talk by only an outline but went super well although Elder Lopez didn’t have time to talk... I talked about the missionary purpose and each point which is lesson 3. Elder Lopez and I were waiting outside for investigators when Claudia walked around the corner from out of a class we had not expected here to be there because she had to work but she came to the ward before us which was way sweet and a huge miracle. She received answers to questions and when we taught her that night we were  able to set a baptism date for the 30 of abril!!! She said she wants elder Lopez to baptize her and is way positive! Its super awesome! Last week we tried to set a date but she didn’t want anything before June. Its super cool to see the change the gospel has in people’s lives. This week was way sweet though and we hope to have another great week.

LesAmo,

Elder Hendricks

Temple Conference and More

How’s the brood? I’ll start with last week because I didn’t have time to write everything. The temple trip Friday was super awesome. I was a guide and Elder Lopez taught in a class although it wasn’t really much it was an important assignment.  I just took all the people in my group to different stations I felt like a church history missionary jaja. But it was super awesome. Anyway the temple trip went like this-- we all met at the church and took a bus to the temple all free for everyone. When we got there all the people went to the chapel where they watched some videos and president spoke to them. Then they went to different stations and different missionaries taught different things like auxiliary organizations like Elders Quorum Relief society and young mens and young womens. Also the missionaries gave “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlets which was sweet cause this explains super well the standards and the whys for them. Claudia our investigator really liked this. Her friend and nieces are young but she is like 40 but it’s still awesome that she brought people and learned a lot and its progressing. Anyway the other stations were the Plan of Salvation, Family History, Angel Moroni and the doors of the temple, Conferences, and After Baptism. It started in the church and goes outside circles around the temple and then after they leave the stations goes back into the temple. It was a way spiritual experience and I had hoped that the members would have brought more people but we didn’t have many from the members. Afterwards Elder Lopez was asked to help drive Hermana Spjut’s car back but there is a tradition with the office workers to do different things after the temple trip because they are super stressed all day trying to put all of this together and keep it running smoothly so our group left and there was one more group so we helped with whatever thing they needed and then after we helped the office workers clean up the church and we left to see an area of San Salvador. I would have taken pics but left my camera in the car but hopefully I can get some from other people. It was super cool they had like photos in the road of Christ and other things cause it was Good Friday. they made it with like salt or sand and then later in the night I guess they have like some sort of parade and walk through it down the street it’s kind of crazy but they are super crazy about their religion here. Afterwards we went to Chilis! jaja It’s like a tradition with all of the office workers they work super hard all day and since Elder Lopez was going to drive home we got to go which was awesome! Yes I know what you’re thinking... Presidente did take a group of missionaries to eat at a restaurant that has a bar. But it was super sweet. So I guess when Colton was eating at Pappy’s after the temple I was eating at Chili’s after the temple jaja. We are going to have a mission temple trip the 15 of april which is going to be super sweet! I’m stoked to be able to go and enter! I think that they have like 2 temple trips a year for the mission and if one of your converts gets their endowment you can go I’m pretty sure one of Elder Lopez’s conversos is taking a temple prep class right now and were hoping that she goes before changes so that we can go also! It would be super sweet! Anyway Saturday started conference we felt like we hadn’t talked to anyone after conference because it had been so long and we hadn’t had time to visit some people. Claudia came to the first conference session and really like it which was super awesome we visited her later that day and she is really positive and we are starting to be able to see how God is preparing her. We went into the house and there was a photo of the temple on the wall. Which means she totally felt the spirit of the temple there and the power of temples. It was way sweet! Hopefully we can get her to church and help her to accept the gospel more in her life. Anyway conference was way sick! We had three investigators there and Pablo came to Priesthood session and all of the ones on Sunday. Elder Lopez watched in Spanish and I watched in English in another room because Its way hard to understand the translator and its wayyy!! better in English jaja. I’m pretty sure Saturday Cameron was glad he was engaged... they really laid that one down jaja. It made some missionaries that are close to going home start thinking about where their biggest priorities should be. Anyways I really liked the talk by Pres Eyring.  It had never occurred to me that fasting is a commandment of God! Also it made me realize I need to not think of myself and pay more fast offerings because there are millions of people out there that I could help with that. Some other sweet talks were Elder Holland... Wow that was a super awesome story and application to the atonement of Jesus Christ. His atonement is amazing! The other sweet thing is that I get to see his atonement everyday as it works in people and helps them to overcome their problems in life. Another talk well there were so many sweet ones but, the 70 that talked about Leadership in missions and how it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are the missionaries that God wants us to be, if we do that we are going to be successful and have no regrets. The other talk that about the guy on his mission and his comp got off the bike and he was wondering what he was doing and complaining and after heard a voice that said compared to me there’s not much difference between the two of you... WoW!! That was super crazy and humbling. Many times you think you know better than someone else but everyone needs to be humble. it’s like the talk about pride by Ezra Taft Benson about pride man that talk really makes you rethink yourself and your pride problems. The other talk by Brent H. Nielson was super awesome also. The way he compared the prodigal son and the story of his sister was way powerful! It’s a good application to use with part member families is that you need to keep loving them. Tons of families give up and don’t show love and this is completely wrong! Do as Jesus would do and things will all be alright and you will feel better about your relationship. Anyway... what’s up with Pres. Monson? He barely spoke in like all the conference and he looks super sick... Maybe he is working on delagating more?  jaja. After conference we had a baptism by Kevin and we had a friend in the ward baptize him it was super sweet but he is a lot taller than his friend and the water was low so after 4 tries they went to the knees and after like 2 tries they went sitting and after we got it! jaja. It was a little rough but all good. This week was good we are working on working with the member because we need more investigators. Also the family that went to the temple doesn’t live in our area so were probably going to pass on this reference. This is the problem with the church in Latin America nobody goes to their correct ward! It’s terrible because if someone goes inactive the missionaries can’t visit them! But last night there was a Meeting for the Endowed and we were curious of what this was for. It’s a stake meeting. Apparently the president of the stake had revelation for this during conference and this is what the area 70 said to do. but in the meeting he said (we didn’t go but heard it from members) if you are attending the wrong ward and don’t change they are going to start taking away calling and not giving temple recommends to those who don’t live in the area. We have a ton of illegals in our ward and some may go inactive from this but it’s like who’s going to stand faithful in the end. We are prepping for the second coming. anyways this week was super good. we had the baptism of Carlos he lives out of the area but lives with his grandma who lives on a mountain where nobody knows what area it is. Also his mom and Dad attend this ward. But eventually many people are going to have to return to their own wards. Which will make missionary work soooo much better! Anyway I continue to work hard with Elder Lopez and I am learning much from him. I really hope to be ready to work without him after this change. His is not baggy (trunky) and is trying hard not to end his mission that way. Anyways all is sweet here.

Elder Hendricks

Temple and Conference

This week was super sweet and I hope I have time to write about all of it. Conference was super awesome. I’m pretty sure Cameron is glad to be engaged --wow they really put that down hard. Jaja! (Saturday’s sessions). It is way important to have questions at conference. I had like 6 but only two were answered clearly. I bet if I look through and study the talks and my notes the answers are there. It’s so awesome to hear from the apostles and prophets, I feel bad for the people who believe they only need the bible. Think of all the revelation they are missing out on. The bible only contains part of the fullness of the gospel. It’s like the story of the person in conference that started to read the bible, but found herself back reading the Book of Mormon. We have one investigator that I want her to know this is true and open her heart to the word of God. She is a great women and I hate that she is living in ignorance to the word of God. The true word is in front of her and all she needs to do is read!

The temple trip was super awesome. We had 7 Inv there. 1 family who has a son on a mission in Panama that I’m pretty sure I met in the CMM. We have been teaching this family that I feel sure we are going to baptize the 25th. The only prob is that they live outside of our area, but they have friends here. This was a prob yesterday. We had a baptism of Kevin after conf. Well he lives in Pyramidal right on the limit of Independencia. The bishop of Pyramidal found out and kind of got mad at us and told us not to. We told the bishop to send members to visit him, but he didn’t. So during the baptism he saw we were baptizing him and called president. Who called the ZLs, the other problem is that he has been attending church in another area. We have been working on getting him friends here and one of his friends in the ward baptized him yesterday it was super sweet! He is way taller, so I felt bad because he baptized him like ten times before it was right. The water wasn’t high enough so he went to his knees and it didn’t work. So then they went to sitting and we finally got it! jaja. It was quite interesting.

At the temple we had an investigator there that’s called Claudia. She brought a friend and 2 nieces to the temple trip and one wants to get baptized! She lives out of the area so we are going to pass the reference on and hopefully she can! It’s super sweet! The temple was way awesome. Claudia is a hard investigator but she learned a ton and came to conference the first session which I wasn’t expecting. We have noticed a change in her since. The investigators learned a ton at the temple and the spirit was awesome. Ill explain a little bit more next week about the temple trip, but it was way sweet! Anyways I’ll talk to you guys next week. Sounds like everything is sweet back home

Peace and Love,

Elder Hendricks

March 30, 2015

Hey Fam,

I doubt I will have time to write my family letter. The ZLs want us out of here ASAP. So basically when the time is up they kick us out. But I can prob do it another way I will see. This week is changes and I am staying here in Indepencia with Elder Lopez. This means that He is going to die with me. Yes it is his last change. We are going to work hard in making sure he doesn’t leave the mission baggy. That’s sweet for Colton to be in the office. Elder Lopez only trained for 6 weeks instead of 12 and after his first 6 weeks he went to the office and hasn’t been just a normal missionary since then. He went DL, ZL, AP, ZL, Trainer. Which is pretty crazy, but I’m glad I have a trainer who has a lot of experience from leading.

How much money did you guy put in my bank – 50? Could you take out 5.20 from my account and pay tithing. This week I’m super stoked about Friday we have an excursion to the temple with investigators. We go up there and about half the day. There are two groups one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But we are going to be there all day because my comp is Elder Lopez and he is driving one of the vans back in the night. It's gonna be sweet. President talks to all the investigators in the chapel and after there is a bunch of stations where they can learn about the temple. After Saturday and Sunday we have conference it’s gonna be super sweet. I hope we have a bunch of investigators at these things. There are 6 things so they have no excuse not to go to one jaja.

Sunday we had two people confirmed in church which was sweet. Steven and Noemi were baptized, but Steven and the family didn’t come to church. Pablo and Noemi were confirmed this weekend and we hope to have a baptism with Kevin... yes another! jaja its super sweet. Kevin has 16 years and he wants to be baptized he lives on the limit of our area, but it’s super close to the chapel. He is an inv from Molino that Elder Lopez brought over after changes the last time. He is a super good guy and wants to serve a mission also. He has had many challenges in his live and he lives with his grandma who isn’t very accepting to the missionaries, but she signed the form which is awesome.

From this last week the work continues to move forward. We have a new video from the church that we have been watching with member it’s called GraciasAQueElVive prob something like that. “He Lives” in English. It’s super awesome. This video is amazing and we have pass along cards with it. It’s kind of like “He is the Gift” from Christmas. Members are the best for references. All of our next baptisms are references from members and our old baptisms. Our bishop is super happy with us. I don’t believe this ward has had many baptisms is the past and the last two weeks in a row we have had 5 --the hermanas had 2.  It’s super awesome! The members are necessary for the work. Without them we wouldn’t have any chosen people to teach that are progressing. Anyways this week should be super awesome and I am way excited. We had dinner with members Saturday and saw a part of the women’s conference jaja. In order to improve the relationship between members and missionaries we have made a food calendar which is super sweet. The future missionaries are gonna love us jaja. Anyway, take care. Thanks for all the love and support.

Elder Hendricks

P.S. Don’t be afraid to share the gospel even just the churches new video. The worst they’re gonna say is no... 

Week 5 In Independencia.

Things are going good here. Seems like the party is over and back to work. Yesterday Pablo was baptized! It was super sweet and I did the ordinance. It was super cool and afterwards the spirit was super strong. We didn't baptize Steven because he didn't come to church. The problem with him is he is young and lives with a less active family that doesn't really understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Which makes it super hard for us to be able to get them to church. But, hopefully we can reactivate them and baptize him next Sunday. He understands the importance of baptism and wants to be baptized which is super sweet! At the baptism yesterday the mother of Pablo and his sister came and his sister has a little girl. I’ll send pics. But the mother has been inactive for a while and is a super nice lady. We are going to try to teach her also and reactivate her --vamos a ver. After the baptism Pablo shared his testimony and talked about how Alma had been racked with torment, but through Christ he was able to overcome. Pablo has faced difficulties but he has overcome them and made one of the greatest decisions in his life --to take upon him the name of Christ and follow him.

My Spanish is coming along really well. Yes, I can bear my testimony in Spanish. I can understand more or less of what people are saying. Church not really, but lessons ya. When people talk quiet or tell stories its super hard to understand although.

Some different things -- people peeing in the street. Churches everywhere. Dogs in the street. Cars that have huge speakers on top that drive around super loud advertising things. But it’s all good. Jaja. This Saturday we have another baptism. This is with Naomi. She is the wife of a convert of a year. He is a super good guy and is a counselor in the Elders Quorum. She supposedly was baptized a year ago but there is no record of it so we are teaching her. We always teach at members houses with her cause they live way out of the area. It’s really common with converts here, because they become comfortable in this ward so they stay here. But she really wants an eternal family so most of our lessons have been focused on that. But it’s going super well and my comp is great. I am having fun and learning a lot from him. As far as the area we had splits with the ZL´s and DL´s this week and I have been humbled and seen a lot more of the poorer areas. But it’s all super sweet! 

Chou

Elder Hendricks

March 16, 2015

Hoy Familia,

How was the vacation? I really hope you guys enjoyed the beach. I wish I could go swimming. It’s super hot! But, it’s all good. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Things are going super good here in Independencia. I am learning a lot. We had 3 Investigators at church yesterday which was super sweet. We are hoping for 2 baptisms this coming Sunday -- Pablo and Steven. Pablo is the Brother of a member that we met the first week and have been teaching. He is a super good guy and was a miracle. The first week here we went to mutual and there he was sitting on the couch and wanted to be baptized. He is super accepting to the lessons and struggled to get to church the first couple weeks but yesterday he was sick and still came which is super great. He only came to the first meeting but its super awesome that he was there. He has various addictions and problems but we have been working really hard with him and he has been reading a lot and praying. We are going to have a fast Saturday and Sunday to help him with his problems so hopefully all will go well. He is a super good man and the gospel has and can help him so much.

A funny story about fasting Saturday as started a fast for Pablo and another man in the ward. They were going to fast with us, but Pablo was sick and so we decided to change the fast to next Saturday. We had already started so we continued on and fasted with the man in the ward. We went to the first house where we had an appt. There the lady offered us fruit and we said we had to go so we bagged it and saw the sister missionaries and gave it to them. Then afterwards we had an appt with Pablo and his sister was an about to make us drinks (not alcoholic), but we had Pablo remind her we were fasting. Anyways we continued after and realized we had a dinner appt at 7 and it was 6:30. We realized we couldn’t cancel and so we had to go and eat... I felt so bad. Because I want to help these two guys and do what I can so the Lord and the atonement can strengthen them in their problems, but we couldn’t be rude. So we had to end early and were going to fast next week.

Steven is another investigator that we have been teaching from about the first week. He is 13 years old and lives with a less active family that we have been trying to reactivate. They are a super nice family and the Mom always feeds us. Anyways Stevens Mom is not alive and his Dad lives in the U.S and from what I can tell he doesn’t really want much to do with him. But, Steven is super excited to be baptized. We really need to find him friends in the church in order to strengthen him especially with young people. For my birthday the work continued to move forward jaja. Pres. called in the morning and wished me a happy birthday. Were gonna probs buy some pastel today but who knows. But, we ate lunch with some members that we usually eat lunch with on Sundays they are super nice. We had carne asada and it was super delicious and cake and they smashed my face in the cake jaja. I’ll send some pics it was pretty funny. You can also see my sweet haircut in the pics jaja.

Quick question --did you ever turn in the DTG paper? I hope cause now I can’t get it. As far as questions I think you guys have... I’m in the city so most people aren’t super poor although there are some. Cameron made it seem like they would have nothing. They don’t feed us like they do in Mexico. The food is meat or something. Salad, if it’s washed its fine and bread or tortillas. We have only ever eaten lunch with members and they only eat papusas for breakfast and dinner. It’s illegal to eat papusas for lunch jaja Jk. Yes, El Salvador is ripe and ready for harvest. The mission goal is 1600 baptisms by the end of the year and two per companionship each month. The culture has fear of saying no. We met a man from Belgium the other day and he wasn’t very accepting to even a pass along card. The people will say yes though and then won’t be there or will hide when we show up jaja -- it’s kinda funny. We had inter changes with the ZLs this week and I stayed here. I thought we were going to get lost or I wouldn't know where to go or what to do with all the investigators but all went super well. We didn’t get lost and I led the lessons really well. There are papusarias almost everywhere. The Zls don’t always go to the office so I have no Idea if I got my cards. I’m trying to do the best I can to be healthy I've been a little sick, but let’s hope I stay good. My stomach has been adapting though. Yesterday we had sacrament meeting and it was missionary themed. The ward mission leader called an hour before church and asked me to give a testimony (yes, I can bear my testimony in Spanish) and my comp gave a talk. We are in the city of Santa Ana and about 45 minutes on bus to the mission office.

Anyways thinks are going pretty great here. 

Elder Hendricks

Week 3 in Independencia

How’s the beach? You guys are in Florida correct?  I should expect letters from all of you then because I know you’re just sitting around eating junk and watching rubbish. Did you guys get my pics from the mountain? It’s pretty sweet! I´ll send some other pics later. What’s the deal with the BYU app?  Should I wait for later or what? Maybe I can write the essays here and send them to Keisha and she can finish the application. That would be great but who knows? 

Since you guys are all together I was wondering what the Libro de Mormon Cameron had after his mission_ from Landon or whatever_ I’m curious of the best way to organize my scriptures for lessons and stuff... I’m pretty sure my comp has all of the scriptures memorized. As for Grandma and Granddad I received the letter from that’s in the envelope that’s the first that’s not in pouch or folded. I think it’s the first one to be sent to the mission that’s why it came faster or maybe pouch is slower... anyways as for this week it went super-fast! it was way good though things are slowly getting normal and I´m getting more and more used to the people and the language although some days I´m lost when people talk or during lessons. Monday we found a lady to wash our clothes which is super sweet! I think were spoiled being in the city but who knows_ all I know is that if we had to wash our own clothes apparently it would take all day. After we wrote we met some other missionaries in the centro and went to this restaurant called pollo campestro it was pretty good but it was like a Latino kfc but we just went to have lunch and see some other missionaries. Afterwards we met this man who is a Jew outside who some of the other missionaries had tracted into before. He was a super nice guy and told us Pollo Campestro wasn´t clean ja ja. Anyways, I´m pretty sure he works here. He is from Israel but lived in the U.S. for like 30 years. He knows Hebrew, English, and Spanish. Afterwards I got a watch! I hated asking my comp all the time what time it was. I didn´t want to wear my other watch because I didn´t want to attract attention to myself so I´ll prob just pack it away until later. We had a 2 Noche de Hogar which is FHE here and I thought it was so cool how the Church is the same everywhere you go. People talk, teach, and learn, all the same with the church no matter where you are at in the world. It’s so sweet! Wednesday was a rough day. We had tons of appointments fall through. People were kind of rude but it doesn’t matter they´re all children of God and if he can love them I can too. Anyways, we even had a Lady who is super good and came to church last Sunday we taught her and she was super accepting to the Gospel and she loved church. But, she said she was too accustomed to her own church. It’s a shame that she’s now a member because she is a great lady but, maybe later she will open her heart. We had taught her a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation and she wants to live with her family again but she is too accustomed to her own church but maybe later. A lot of the time when people say no you just have to realize your planting seed and hope that later they will accept the Gospel. Anyways, I was getting pretty down but we were walking down the street and saw a Man walking with his Daughter and I said to my comp lets go talk to him. I went and started talking to him and we explained who we are and what we do and he just started crying and said I want to change. We asked if we could teach him and we went to his house and to his Family and taught them Lesson 3. His wife is pregnant and they have 3 kids 1 is Over 8 which is sweet. Families are so great. Because our message is so focused on them and families are usually more open to the Gospel because they are humble and want to live eternally together. Anyways He was super accepting to the Gospel and when we invited him to Church he said yes and looked at his family and said vamos which is interpreted to mean let´s go. It´s so great to know how God is preparing chosen people to hear the Gospel every day and We can´t give up when times get hard that’s when God tests us If we can make it through that’s when he blesses us. Thursday we had a Multi'Zone meeting it was super long but super good! Elder Lopez and I prepared a sweet lesson about Circulos de influencia or circles of influence. We drew circles on the board and had 3 people shoot at it with a toy bow and arrow from differing distances. We showed after how each point in the target is a member or someone who relates to the church less active, inactive, leader, anyways each of these people has a circle of influence and the majority of the time your investigators will live in these circles of influence. These areas are the best place to work because the neighbors are people that see them recognize a difference and we can use these member to receive references to teach. We talked how Ammon and King Lamoni met his father at first he said to kill him when he said no and other stuff happened jaja) I explained better in the lesson= after the father desired to learn about this religion. Not because of the missionary but because of his son. The Member. It was a great lesson none the less. Also at the multizona all the missionary companions got cell phones which is so much better for missionary work. Many times we will go somewhere and an appt will fall through or something this will help so much to be able to confirms lessons in the day.  But things are going super great here. The man and his family got sick and wasn’t able to go to church but there’s always next week! Yesterday we went and had lunch with a family in the ward and they asked when my birthday was I told them the 15 and they freaked out and invited us to lunch next week jaja. I honestly didn’t think I was going to do anything for my birthday and didn’t really care. Maybe just buy a cake or something Saturday night. You guys should check out the Satan’s rebellion and the doubts and questions part of the Liahona this month. They are super good talks! My Spanish continues to improve and things are getting better. We had a man at church we have been trying to get to church for a while and finally came. So now we have a date for the 22 and hopefully 1 for the 15. Elder Lopez really knows what he’s doing. But it’s hard because sometimes I get caught up in greeny pride. Hahaha anyways what do you guys want to know? Have fun in Flo Rida! I have like 20 more minutes if you want to say anything else. I will send some sweet pics from the week.

Peace and Love,

Elder Hendricks

P.S. Tell my Boys to write me! I want to here from them and about the Lou

Week 2 from Santa Ana

Buenas,

Sounds like things back home are going real good. aww how I miss snow. It super hot here but its all good-- I get used to it. What did you guys do to my Room? Whatever though haha. That so sweet BYU beat Gonzaga! It's whatever with the Thunder though because once Westbrook and Durant are out they struggle a lot. 

I have a video for Brynlee to watch: the Mormon message about the little boy and the scorpion. Tell her to write me about it and apply it to her own life. Things here are going good. I can understand more and more each day although there are some days I feel like a take a step back. I do feel like a bag of sand in each lesson although I bear my testimony and can say some memorized things like the how to begin teaching. I had it all down in the CCM but here my mind is blank. It's super hard but other than learning the language I also have to learn to teach the gospel in that language. I need to think the gospel in Spanish. It's super hard because at times I feel like I'm losing my understand and abilities, but it will get better. As Elder Bednar said once-- most people don't realize the strengthening ability of the atonement along with the healing. The only thing i really need to understand is when the spirit talks to me. In the CCM I was playing piano for sacrament meeting and president asks me if I could play a song for the devotional that day so I wrote a piano rendition to "O My Father" and played it. It was super sweet.

Anyway we had a talent show in our ward and I almost had to play a song and was gonna play it but I didn't have to. Another sister in our ward played the guitar and the four of us sang "I am a child of God". I hope you got my mas Cerca Dios de Ti song I sent. Anyways the people here are super great. We have only ate lunch at people's houses and they don't eat papuses for lunch only breakfast and dinner. Although all the ladies here always make tortillas and so you always eat tortillas at meals and they're not American tortillas jaja. they always offer refresco to us though and the drinks here are super delicious. there is a soda here that is super popular only here its called Kolashanpan you guys should look it up and try it its super good. As far as letters-- all letters go to the mission office so you don't have to worry about my address changing. Thursday the new people went to San Salvador. It was cool and I got to see the temple. There is an activity with the mission to bring investigators to the temple in April to see it and walk around.  It's not to far away like 45 minutes. 

Anyway the van broke down on the way there and we had to take a bus back. 4 new missionaries I had no idea what to do but we made it safely back. It was an interesting experience because in the city every time we stop salesman get on the bus and sell to us jaja. I slept basically the whole time. We got to the mission office where my comp was and we got on a bus to go back with another set of elders and did a bus contact It was super cool. We just told the bus who we were and asked if anyone wanted to make changes in their lives. We got a couple references and handed out cards it was cool though. Sunday we had 3 baptism dates set for the 15 but only 3 people came to church and 1 from that group. Hopefully we can have more. When we found out one of the guys wasn't coming we left the church 5 minutes before to go get him. I thought of the scripture to leave the 99 and get the one. It was a great experience for me as to what is missionary work. We have to leave the 99 and get the 1 although he wasn't able to come it was a lesson to me. the first week here we went to mutual and here everyone goes. We met a man who was the brother of a member that wants to be baptized he has missed 2 sacrament meetings but he is super excited to learn and hear of the gospel.  anyways the peanut butter has been great i eat it about everyday jaja.

Con Amor,

Elder Hendricks

February 23, 2015

First Week in El Salvador

Wow! that was a lot of reading. It's all good. It was a lot because I had no time last week to read we had like 5 minutes to write a letter but it's all good. I miss the CCM it was so nice and air conditioned.  It's way hot here!  There are not many mosquitoes but we will see. I haven't been sun burned until today. 

Today we hiked up the mountain by the city. It was super beautiful but really dry. It hasn't rained here in like 6 months. People here are always burning their trash in the street or the sides of mountains or something who knows? It was super awesome but took a lot of the P day. Hopefully you got my pics and hopefully I can write a little more next week but we shall see. you guys were pretty accurate on guesstimating what I was feeling but if you have been their before it's easy to empathize. Man missionaries in the states have it way easy! It's hardly a mission. This is way harder than I thought it could be. As I said with empathize. Each experience is different but the same so we shall see. So the end of the CCM was good. Monday night our district went to President's apartment in the CCM and watched "Meet the Mormons" with president with popcorn and soda. It was way sweet! Sunday night president came to us after a devotional and said a man who works at the temple had a stroke and they need guys to give platelets. (Landon will understand) anyways we went at like 10:30 and didn't get back until 2:30. It's the latest I'll ever stay up in my mission.  Anyway we went and I almost passed out during the sample so i couldn't do it haha. 4 guys from our district came with us and 2 had too small of veins so they just had other people give platelets and we gave blood. I didn't give cause I didn't want to pass out. Another guy passed out haha it was all super good though. I found out I have B positive blood. Hopefully the man that had the stroke ended up okay. The whole time I was thinking about how I want to help this man I don't know and do all I can so I was bummed, I could give blood but I was thinking of Mosiah 2:17... only in the service of your God. We said in our district we came to spiritually save lives but hopefully tonight we can physically save a life. Anyway the bus ride went super well and was only like 3.5 hours. We got Santa Ana and street contacted a little then met the office Elders, had some lunch, and then we ate dinner at president's a papusa (of course) haha and some other stuff. My trainer is super good! He's only been a member like 3 years. But he works super hard. He's been an assistant for like 8 months--zone leader you name it haha. everyone at changes said they were super jealous cause he's like the best in the mission. I'm pretty lucky and want to learn all I can. The Spanish is coming along pretty well. I'm kinda useless right now though and feel pretty bad cause I can't do much and never know what's going on. It will get better though. Our ward is super good and they want to work which makes it way easy. I've had papusas twice and they are super good. ones with garlic and cheese are way good also! anyways hopefully i can say more next we. but we shall see. 

Adios 

Elder Hendricks

Dear Hendricks Family,

            We are happy to announce that your son, Elder Hendricks, has safely arrived in our mission. The night of his arrival, we enjoyed getting to know him during dinner at the mission home, and we can tell that he is going to be a great missionary. We are grateful for the sacrifices you and your missionary have made that allow him to be here. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his blessings upon your family. We are very happy to have your son with us and we know he will bless the lives of many people here in the great country of El Salvador.

He has been assigned to the area of Independencia in the Modelo Stake. His companion is Elder Lopez from Guatemala.  He is a determined, hardworking missionary who is diligent in the Lord´s work. We expect to see great success from this companionship.

President and Sister Spjut

February 17, 2015 at 1:40:40 PM CST
I don't have much time to write this week. I will write monday with all the details or from what I can remember from the rest of the CCM and my first week. We arrived in Santa Ana this morning and will have changes tomorrow. 

Peace and Love,

Elder Hendricks

February 11, 2015

Okay I have 23 minutes and about an hours’ worth of stuff to say so hopefully I will be blessed. J

This week was great. I leave Tuesday for Santa Ana. I will miss the hospitality and the people here but I’m am excited to finally get to share this great message. Monday I got your package. Thanks! It’s been really nice to have!  And I got a letter from Granddad and Brynlee a couple days ago. I think mail from Utah takes longer but Idk. Tuesday we got to leave the CCM and see the City. It is a beautiful city. The architecture is amazing. We went to the central commercial which is a market and I was feeling great when a guy ran up to the new nurse lady who had only been here a week and snatched her necklace. It was really freaky. He ran off after that. I immediately put my watch in my pocket. We walked around the market and saw some stuff. I didn’t have much Guatemalan money so I didn’t get anything. We went to Wendy’s afterwards and it was great to finally have some “American” food. After we went to this plaza and began talking to people. It was harder than I thought. Especially to get started. I felt like I was in the movie “The Best Two Years”. But as we began to talk to more and more people it became easier and at the end a guy came up to us and started talking to us while I was talking to someone else so my comp started talking to him and I continued talking. I only gave out 2 pass along cards cause time was a little short. But a friend in my district gave out 4 LDM. It was a sweet experience even if I could understand much of what they were saying. We heard a great talk about the atonement on Sunday by Elder Holland from June 2006 and a great Devotional with our president that got us fired up. We now say “fuego arriba” to our mission president all the time haha. He says much of how we need to smile because people don’t want to listen to sad people.  That kind of reminds me of your experience dad haha. Yesterday elder Jose Alonzo from the area 70 of Central America came to the CCM and talked to us. Our district had a great a capella special musical number of mas cerca Dios de te. It was a great experience and brought the spirit in really well. He talked to us about Enos and prayer. He also talked about D&C 11:21 and if we desire something we can have it through Christ. We had an amazing district meeting after but the spirit constrains me to talk about it.  It’s just a lot and it was a pretty emotional meeting because our DL told how he had a friend die of cancer who was one of the happiest people and best friends he had and how his grandma died just a week before he left. Later he said it’s just as hard to lose a family member as it is to have one fall away from the church. Which is pretty true. Although with your family member you know you can see them again if you and they are faithful. But things are going great here. BYU needs to pick up some slack. oh yeah we got like 20 new American’s it’s crazy and one came all the way from New Zealand. I told him my dad went there on his mission. I can’t remember what part. He didn’t say much about Wellington but he seems like a great guy. He is going to Coban Guatemala. Which is the jungle and they speak q’eqchi. It’s the native language of Guatemala. A guy in our district taught us a little he is one of my best friends in the zone. And our ZL. He is going to Qtalcenango and his dad went to the same mission which is crazy! Anyways I’m excited to leave Tuesday. I’m pretty sure I take a bus. I’m going to miss some people here. Hope things are going good at home. I can’t believe you are disgracing my room like that. I’m pretty sure that I write Monday but not 100 percent. Anyways peace and love, Elder Hendricks. Keep up the letters and tell my home boys from the Lou to write me.

CCM Guatemala February 2015

CCM District February 2015

Letter #5 February 2 2015 Hey Fam, Things are going good here in the CCM. It looks like everyone figured I would be writing tomorrow or Wednesday. Jaja (He has had a different p-day or time to write every week and this week it was Monday) Yesterday was a good fast Sunday. I think it was the first time in my life I went a whole 24 hours exactly jaja. The Latinos and 1 district of Americans leave tomorrow. In the morning we are going to the temple. And in the afternoon we have to be out of the building for cleaning so we are going to the central market. I’m pretty excited. So is the rest of our district. I’m picturing a really dirty and unsanitary Soulard (St Louis Farmers market) but who knows? We get new Latinos Wednesday and Tuesday. I think it’s all the Latinos that will be going to my missions because I haven’t met anyone else going to Santa Ana. We must come 4 weeks earlier than the Latinos. We are learning a lot here. I’m pretty sure my teaching skill has improved a ton. But compared to the teacher we are pretty bad. Our evening teacher is a Guatemalan native. He is super cool and speaks really good English. He served his mission in Salt Lake City. All the guys in our district think he is one of the three Nephites. One reason is because last week we all went to the temple and he was a worker there. He is only like 22. it’s crazy but he can teach with some serious power. Yesterday we watched 2 videos. Usually we watch a video of a devotional and then go to president’s apartment. Only the North American’s go which we pretty lucky to get close to our president while in the CCM but it’s the other North Americans last Sunday so they only went. So we watched the Joseph Smith story which is a great movie and a MTC devotional with Elder Holland from March 2008. Man, that guy will singe your eyebrows off! It was a great devotional. Tim Perkins said the opening prayer haha. Elder Holland said “Don’t you dare go home with regrets”. He also talked about how we are God’s investigators. If we want our investigators to pray he wants us to pray. It was really good. He also told us were apostles with a lower case “a” but don’t said to not misquote him on that. We had a health lesson yesterday. It was pretty gross but really good to hear because I don’t know how much they are going to tell us in the mission field. I hope I don’t get bit by any Chuchos. Basically they said some vegetables you want to buy pre washed in packages and fruits you want to clean and spray your house for bugs. The other two 70 (not the highway) that were at the devotional were elder Anderson and Elder Kevin Duncan and Elder Craig C. Christensen. It was a good devotional but I told you about it last week. umm... well I only got old emails so I didn’t have much to read and I have like 30 minutes left so I’m prob gonna start writing about random stuff. I know what happened in the super bowl. Pretty lame I missed it. Sounds super exciting. Patriots won 28-24 Seahawks threw an interception with 20 seconds left in the end zone. Poor Richard Sherman guess he is no longer the best in the league. But I hate the patriots less than the Seahawks so I’m glad the Seahawks lost. Especially after last year that they are in the rams division. Does the patriots winning show that they deserved it or what? I guess this will go down as a controversial year. We heard about it last night from President haha. Poor thunder losing to the Cavs. Dang LeBron thought he was gonna be out longer. and how does BYU lose to San Diego? They must be falling apart. Our president said that when he was a mission president in Mexico Leon his brother (I think its Tyler?) was his assistant for a time haha. Scripture for the week: Alma 22:18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou are God, wilt thou make thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead. I read this this week and wanted to share. It’s a powerful scripture from a man who wanted to hear about the Gospel and had never believed in God or even thought he existed but from a simple prayer with real intent and having faith was able to learn much. Anyways I think that’s about it for the week Love, Elder Hendricks

Tue 1/20/2015 12:15 PM

Week 3 here in the CCM. Things have been getting pretty routine here. I bet you guys don’t even feel like I'm gone. I forgot to ask why Mom didn't write last week except for 2 forwarded letters. Whelp whatever. The computers weren't working so I’ll prob sent out my letter in two parts. We have lunch and then we are going to the central market it’s going to be sweet I hope. This morning we did a temple session in the Guatemala City temple it was way cool. We did it in English and like 2 ladies had translators. It’s pretty quiet here cause all of the Hispanic Elders have left for their missions there is 2 American districts here and we have all been doing different stuff together for today. During sports we started playing volleyball after the Latinos leave cause we have sports 30 min after cause it overlaps and now in order to get ripped our mission president is ripped and does these work out videos so me and another Elder are going to do them cause he told us to start to jaja. We going to get super ripped. After though we play volleyball with our district and its way fun. I forgot to tell you the first week here they gave us all haircuts so now my hair is super short but it’s starting to grow back to normal but its makes my head look all round jaja. I also forgot to make sure you guys tell Jackson happy birthday for me. I wish i had addresses so I could write letters but i guess not. I bought some colored pencils at the store but I still have to wear my glasses and shave without a handle but I’ve learned to live with it. What does the mission book in my room say about contacts because people coming to Guatemala said not to use them but I don’t remember that. I haven't seen anyone else wearing contacts. So I’m a lot better now. The nurse gave me a traveler’s diarrhea pill. And now I’m a lot better although someday the food in the cafe in gross and sometimes its good. In church they always make me play the piano and don’t let me choose the song I guess it’s just a Latin thing they want to do whatever they want idk. Plus its super hard cause if you lose your place you don’t know where you’re at. Cause it’s all in Spanish. I wish I had stellar piano skills but i don’t and the Latinos don’t like some of the American favorites but whatever I do the best I can. The other day i had to get a tetanus and a typhoid shot. i guess we messed up idk. one missionary in our district told us this funny story about how when his Dad was on a mission they taught a lesson and he had one job to do that was to read 1 Nephi 3:7 he said his Dad accidently read 3 Nephi 3:7 and I’ll let you guys read that one ha its pretty funny though. But things are going really great here. I’m starting to understand what it really means to study before the mission i would just read to learn and stuff but as a missionary there is so much to study and look up because you have so many resources and so much they you want to study and learn but you don’t have enough time. We also have been improving our teaching skills our last lesson went super Good lessons should be way more personal and the only way to do that is through asking inspired questions. You start to realize people that are so ready for the Gospel when you teach and know what they need and how you could teach them like the lady at the food pantry. Anyways I don’t think I’ll be writing later so I won’t see your emails if there is any :( so I better hear double. ha-ha

Adíos

Elder Hendricks

P.S. someone should tell Elder Anderson that the chocolate milk here is gross

P.S.S They took our cameras and MP3s when we got here but ill have the camera at the central market today so hopefully I’ll have some sweet pic next week

Wed 1/14/2015 11:00 AM

How’s it going!? Sorry if my typing is bad but these Keyboards are really annoying. It has the layout of a regular keyboard but the letters on the keyboard show the layout of an American keyboard.  Anyways things are going real good here. When did Mike get home? Oh and thanks for the scores. I was gonna be real upset if I logged on and didn't hear one thing about the playoff game. Seems like Ohio state’s 3rd string QB was too much for the Heisman winner . But I cant believe no one has told me about the NFL??? Seriously?

 So this week has gone by really fast although the first day was stinking slow. Even though we slept like half of the day . I think it was slow because that night flight was so long it stunk. But things are going real good. Besides the fact that everyone here feels like they are in prison . So everyday I get up and make some toast it’s delicious. I love it. My life is good. jk we get ready for the day have personal study then language study. (and I’m just gonna give up on punctuation now cause this keyboard is annoying sorry) but then we get taught lessons like all day we have lunch at 12:30 sports at 3:30 which is really funny because the walls around the sports area which is outside is like over ten feet tall so it’s like playing sports in jail. And somehow two elders have managed to hit a basketball and a volleyball over the fence . Now the sisters can’t play volleyball anymore. But there is a gym area next to the basketball and volleyball courts that have ellipticals and weights to use. Usually I just play basketball with the Latinos and then run once they leave cause we have sports 30 min after them. But it’s sweet. The weather here is amazing but some of the Latinos think its cold  I’ve heard a lot of people say El Salvador is hot but I’m pretty sure that’s all relative... idk but Santa Ana is in the mountains I’ve heard and most people are from San Salvador and not Santa Ana and it’s hotter in San Salvador. The food here is pretty good but lately it’s been making me sick... I’ll get to that later ha. We have a teacher in the morning and a teacher in the afternoon evening. My companion is Elder Kesler. He is from Oregon and he is a super nice guy. Only the sisters here are from Utah and I didn’t see them on the plane we all met up in L.A. which is Huge. The airport and the city from what I saw on the plane. We had a sister from New Jersey that lived in Mexico and she is only here for two weeks so she isn’t in our district. And an elder from California who is in the Latino district who knew Spanish. Our district is just the Americans that all came in at the same time. There is three elders from Oregon who didn’t know each other before and they are all going to the same mission Guatemala este. And another Elder who is from Washington who is going to qtalcennango. And the sisters are all from Utah 3 are going to qtalcenango and 1 is going to my mission. Anyways, every night we teach our second teacher as a mock investigator. Which has gone really well. He has said our lessons have been getting better but he says that to the whole group so I hope they are getting better. After our fourth lesson we got him to commit to baptism which was super awesome. He is getting baptized Friday at 7 (haha). My companion knows Spanish pretty well so it makes our lessons really easy cause we can both talk and understand what our teacher is saying during the lessons. So anyways now to make my letters like Cameron. Yesterday I woke up and my stomach was hurting. I had diarrhea and food didn’t seem too appetizing. I had some fruit and yogurt for breakfast. We went to study and I couldn’t stay awake. After falling asleep I woke up and my stomach hurt really bad and so I told my comp I needed to go to the bathroom I went down there and puked like 8 times in the toilet and went back to study.  Later I asked the zone leader if I should go to the nurse to get Gatorade and 7 up which is what the card says so do but the nurse wasn’t there so I got some pepto and tums from the ZLs I couldn’t eat anything at lunch but after we went to the nurse and she gave me a pill and Gatorade and crackers and by then I was feeling pretty achy we went to distribution and while I was waiting I had to sit down. I couldn’t hold myself up. That was before lunch. Oh and the temple is closed now but apparently we get to go every morning on P-day which is sweet. The only thing separating the CCM and us is a gas station and there’s guards in front of it holding shot guns which is crazy. Gas here is like 20.20 which is i guess like 3 something dollars in American money. I exchanged some money for Guatemalan money so when we go to the central market I can get something if I want to. anyways after I went to the nurse she said if you need to sleep do it so I went to sleep and slept from like 1-7:30 and I was feeling better the other elders came in and said there was an apostle here so I was like I’ll get up for that but he was actually in the Provo MTC and it was broadcast here which was lame but it was a great devotional David F. Evans spoke along with sister Nelson and Elder Nelson. But, an apostle is really coming but not until the 26th I think its Elder Anderson. Anyways. It’s really sweet to have Latinos here we talk to them at lunch breakfast and dinner. Oh and I’m feeling better today. We are getting to know the Latinos and stuff but it’s going to stink next week when they all leave and we have to meet new ones. there is another district here that’s is like a week and a half ahead of us that has Americans-- they came a couple days after Christmas I’m pretty sure and I think we will get more North Americans next week. But time flies pretty quickly when you only have an hour anyways                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 peace and love, Elder Hendricks.

P.S. If you want to send stuff they said don’t put stickers on it of the virgin Mary or anything just put elder Parker Hendricks p.p.s i forgot my shaver handle and contacts case so I have been wearing my glasses. Oh and hangers would be nice if you guys want to send them although I can buy them here. They said it takes 12 days. Anyways I’ll talk to you guys later.

January 7th 2015

Greetings,

This is your son Elder Hendricks. Just writing to tell you I made it safely into Guatemala and I am in the CCM now. We are supposed to tell you that my P day is on monday and not wednesday. Things are going pretty good here. We arrived at 6:30 this morning got to the CCM had some breakfast met the President who is pretty awesome. Then, we took a nap. We got up for lunch and then now we have started our day. Well we only have 5 minutes so all is good here. Have fun in lame ol' missoura jaja.

Peace and Love,

Elder Hendricks