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