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