2015: 2 skype calls. 4 interviews. 4 Zone conferences. 5 companions. 4 areas.

Oh the weird markers of the time.

I officially have 53 letters to President from the year 2014.  My complete year in the mission is officially over.

That´s really strange...

I feel good about this year.  It is wierd to think about the experiences.  It feels like a different world.  I grew so much and yet I made so many mistakes.

I suppose thats the point of life, repentance, change, progress.

The next week I will have to start writing 2015 on my journals, checks, and letters.  Its a little weird.

This year feels sureal, like it didn´t happen, like a dream.  Yet the Physical evidences are all around me.

I had 2 skype calls.  4 interviews. 4 Zone conferences. 5 companions. 4 areas. Played the violin in 4 concerts.

I have that feeling of regret, and yet excitement for the new year.

Time seems to be slipping through my fingers.  Weeks pass in the time that days passed before.  The time hasn't changed, but I have.

I don´t know if I could explain in words what has happened this year.  Parts of me have disappeared, others have developed.  I think the change is for the better, but we will have to wait and see.

I have come to a knowledge of this gospel. Not only that it is true, but that it is complete.  That this is the rock on which we must build, because when we build there, we cannot fall. We may not see God in the way we see other people, but at the same time, his influence is unmistakable.  He is there, on the other side of a thin curtain that prevents us from seeing us.  He cries with us and lauphs with us,  if we could only break the veil, we would see how close he is.  He has not abandoned our tiny planet to the wrath of a desolate universe.  He has promised that things will get worse, but they will also get better.  He will support us every step of the way.

I love you, and I hope you know it.  Thank you for all the small sacrifices you have done to get me and keep me here.  I know I was a hard rock, but you guys chiseled me down, and helped me become what I am now.  Thank you for that.

I hope you guys have a great new years!

Elder Henrie

Bonus:

I asked Elder Henrie what he is looking forward to in 2015 and this is his list:

BYU.

Starting over as a new person.

Being organized.

Dating.

Finding the other half of my orange. 

Finishing my mission.

Hugging my family.

A lot more...

Merry Christmas everyone!

So, I am really happy right now.

This last week has just been so full of stuff.  We had 3 concerts with the group I was playing in.  They were really beautiful.

I really enjoyed going to the Mission Christmas party.  I liked the gifts that people sent to all the missionaries from the United states.

We were really busy this week doing a lot of stuff that wasn´t teaching people.  The husband of one of our investigators died, so we went to his funeral.  Because her son is on a mission (he´s the only member in his family), she asked us to be there the entire time.  We attended the Cathloc mass that they did in his honor.  It was interesting and yet sad to see what it lacked.  I shared with her that everyone will rresurrect and it was a slightly different take then seeing Christ on the cross.

I realized how marvelous it is to have a knowledge of what will happen.  We don't understand perfectly, but we do understand that we will see each other again.

Sunday we had to go early to the ZL´s house so we could go to the Christmas Party early Monday.  I spent most of the time playing ping pong.  President Bowler shared some great messages, and got everyone excited to go and work.

Yesterday we did our last concert in the Main Park of Danli.  I hope that we showed a lot of people that [The Mormons[ are really christians.  The program focused on that.  They always started with the He is the Gift video.

I know that Christ lived and died.  But he also ressurected.  He promised that everyone will live again, and those that obey, will be with their families forever in a state of never ending happiness.  My testimony is not perfect, but I stand with Nephi in that [I know that God loves his children[.  For that reason he sent us here and gives us his gospel.  So that we understand what happens to us here, and we have a hope for the future.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Henrie

Today we did a gift exchange among our zone.  I bought Hermana Cook (From California) a christmas mug, a stuffed lion, and colored pens.

Sharing the Gift

First of all. I love you mom, for everything you do and have done for me. I have been realizing lately again how blessed I am to have a stable family where my home was a safe and spiritual place. The church is true, even just for that.

 This week has been kind of crazy. There were changes, but I didn´t have changes. Elder Olivares and I are together for another change. We are really excited about that.

 I finished all the candy that Dan Wilson sent me about Monday. I was kind of in a sugar coma, but it was great. Give him and his wife all my thanks. The picture of Christ is in my house now, on the wall.

Things are great here in Paraiso and Danli. The musical group that I am in is preparing hard for our big concert in La Casa de la Cultura here in Danli. It is a small stage, but it is going to knock the people out of their seats! We will do a bigger concert Sunday in the Stake Center.

This week my companion and I worked really well. It is nice to look back at a week, and although you may not have had all the results you wanted, you know you worked hard to make the goals. I am constantly working to be better. I am really feeling blessed for the holidays here.

The inicitive of the church is really great. We use it to contact. We invite them to remember Christ in christmas and we ask when we can come a talk about it. We usually share a scripture from the bible, and then from the Book of Mormon. It opens doors and gets people talking and asking questions. We talked with a lady named Sandra yesterday that was at first a little wierded out when we started to share from the Book of Mormon, but she became more interested as we explained it. We have another appointment to talk more about Joseph Smith and the restoration this week. I am loving every minute of my work here.

 We are busy, and I am learning to open my mouth like never before. We are seeing the blessings of that all the time now. There really are people that want to listen, you just have to talk to them to find out.

I love you guys and I appreciate you a lot!

Have a good week!

Elder Henrie

Good Times and Bad

So this week had its good parts, and its bad parts.

First of all.  I was practicing with the musical group here, and they announced to us that we were going to present on Saturday (2 days ago).  That was a big surprise, so everyone was working on it.  Elder O{Campos (El Setenta de Area) gave his permission and we were all working hard...

Then the boss of the person we had been talking to called (I believe her name is Sherry).  Apparently the conversation went something like this...

Hi, is this David? (El hombre in charge from our side of things)

Yea, this is David.

Hi, this is Sherry from the cultural department of Casa Presidencial.  I just wanted to explain to you that the person you were talking with was not authorized to be giving dates or times so that you could come.  She is really embarrassed and didnt want to call you, so I am doing it.  We just won´t have time for you in our schedule this month.

Oh...

If you want, we can give you 20 minutes to present something small on Sunday (our program is a little more than an hour).

No, that would be ok (we didn´t want to travel or present on a Sunday, to busy).

Alright, sorry for all that has happened.  But we have your number, we will call you.

............................

It was kind of annoying, but we are still going to do a presentation for the Stake and also in the Casa de la Cultura here (Cultural House). It should still be a great experience.  

..................................

In other news.  This was also an interesting week because we had to go to the Consejo de Lideres again.  It was pretty cool, they explained the [He is the gift inicitive to us.  They hadn´t done it very well before.  It was a pretty cool experience.  Elder Dalgo (El otro Lider de Distrito de aqui) and I left our companions in divisions.

I am pretty proud of Elder Olivares, he worked great even though I wasn´t there for casi 48 hours.  He is a fantastic missionary.

We had church (always great) and we went to watch the Christmas Devotional.

We decided that it would be a lot easier to tell everyone to watch it on the BYU Channel.  So, that´s what we did.

First, we made the error of telling everyone it was at 6 (correction, it was at 7 with the time change).  That was our first problem.

The other one was a little bit more embarrassing...

They showed it in english.

We haven{t talked to any of the investigators or familiys that we told to watch it, but I am sure some are mildly annoyed.  We were in the house of an Investigator, and I had to translate the entire time.  I really loved the Devotional, and the spirit was really strong.  It was great.

I really loved how everyone talked about the love of God and how we shold share it.  I loved every talk.

.................

Today I did a quick trip to Tegucigalpa to take an Elder to an Eye appointment, and here I am back in Danli to write.

It was a busy week.

I love you guys.  Special Shoutout to Dan Wilson and his wife that sent me a package.  I have almost finished all the candy.  I love the painting.

Thank you for everything that you guys do to support me.

Elder Henrie

Practicing the Violin Again

So...the biggest news of the week is...

I could be playing the violin in the Casa presidencial this 15th of december.  

Thus...this violin that I am borrowing from a member.

Now, before you all get really excited, it is not fijo (for sure), and I am not soloing.  I am probably going to participate with a choir of the Danli stake.  I am in a strange quartet of a clarinet, and 3 violins.  

Which means I will be practicing an hour a day here, just like at home.  Its very relaxing and means it can be difficult to work.  

I have no idea if President Juan Orlando will be present, but it is in his house.

So I am a violinest for this december.

I feel a lot like I am with our christmas concerts in our house again.  The atmosphere is similar, they have actors that tell a story about a family and the true meaning of christmas.  It should turn out pretty cool.

I am arriving in the last stages, the other members of the group have been practicing for a while, including several other missionaries.

Other than that, our week was a lot of working.

This week, it will be a lot of working with music.  

It should be a pretty good week.

Elder Olivares and I are getting along very well, every day its fun to get out and work.  We are hoping to spend christmas together.

I am happy, wealthy (with blessings), and still learning the wise part.

Thank you for your prayers and everything you do.

Elder Henrie

I found fast internet

I cannot describe how happy I am right now. Literally, I feel free! Libre soy! Libre soy! (Let in go in spanish from Frozen)

I seriously feel so good to be with fast internet again. Seriously, All my photos uploaded in 23 minutes....YES!

Down to business. This last week was AWSOME. I also had a cough all week (I still do a little).

I relearned the importance of opening the mouth this week as I did it on a bus. We had a fantastic zone conference with President Bowler.

My companion and I are working really well together. The fun story of the week was that President Bowler promised us in the Zone Conference that if we tried our best to be obedient, God would bless us. Last night, My companion and I left a lesson at 9:22, and we have to be in the house at 9:30. So we began to run, slight couph and all. We ran, and a guy in a wierd motocar stopped and offered us a ride. We took it and made it to our house right at 9:30. It was our little miracle.

This week was a lot of walking and talking. I am very satisfied. This week for P'day, we watched How to train your Dragon 2. It was cool. It was a good end to the perfect week, and a good start to a better one.

I was reading in Alma 12 this week, and I realized that although I always had a testimony that the church was true, the mission has taught me that it is also complete. There are so many questions that people have about the doctrine of Christ, the plan of salvation, and about God´`s relationshiop with man. This church has the answers. I do not mean to brag, but I feel like I am. Many churches have a lot of truth, but we have the full picture, the complete puzzle, the choclate chips as well as the cookie. It just fits so well, I could never leave it for something else.

To give a small example: Lets say that there is a super powerful being who is our creator and father of our intelligence (like God for example). If he really loved everyone and was just, he would talk with everyone, not just with people on one continent (like the Book of Mormon and the Bible). And that is just one of many. You can´t find anything better.

I love you guys. You are fantastic and I know you guys always support me. Have a fantastic week"

Elder Henrie

Awesome week

So, this week was awesome.

In that we worked a lot.  

We really tried to put the plan that Elder Duncan left us to use in this week.  We divided our area, we visited members, and we just in general worked hard.

My companion is great. Elder Olivares loves to work and is so eager to share the gospel.  I hope that I can learn from him.  

I love everything about my area.  It has a great balance of fields and city.  Our house in the mero centro de Paraiso, but our area includes parts very rural.  We live in the middle of one of those random places you find here, where you can buy everything, but the trick is finding someone who won`t rip you off.

The good thing is that it makes it easy to compare prices!

The people here are very friendly.  They are willing to talk and like to talk, the trick is switching it to the gospel.  Its quite easy with the christmas photo I have from last year.

me: Hey, me gustaría mostrarle una foto de mi familia!

persona: Ok.

me: Mire, esta es toda mi familia, y un amigo (Yannik).

persona: Wow, tiene una familia bonita, es esta templo cerca donde vive usted?

me: Si, pero en nuestra iglesia tenemos templos y capillas.  Templos son muy especial....

Its kind of funny.

Sorry for that random dialogue, I don`t know what to write really.  

I am good, healthy, and happy.  My knee is healing up well and it doesn`t hurt.

We are working right now on finding as many people as we can, so that we can be even more busy than we already are.

For your information, the pictures of what looks like a disco party was a party we had with some menos activos.  She was turning 18 and the family hasn`t done so well economically this year, so we called the Jas (jovenes adultos solteros) and orginized something special to invite her.  She was embarrased at first, but got used to it afterward.  It did have a missionary purpose!

Things are going great.  I am looking forward to the day of the Turkey (the literal translation of what people call thanksgiving here) and all the rest of the holidays.

I love you guys, everyone.

Elder Henrie

The internet here is SUPER SLOW.

I had a great week.  I had to go to Teguc for a meeting with all the Lideres de Zona y de Distrito de la mision.  It was good.  They gave a lot of great advice and animated us.

This meeting also meant that I was wearing the same shirt and the same pants for 3 days.  We left tuesday, wednesday we got back to late to catch a bus to our area, and so thursday I returned.

Other than that it was a great week.

We got to see some cool sights around Paraiso and Danli.  Everyone here is getting ready for the big coffee harvest.  Its REALLY big here.  I can`t even explain.  Like 5 coffee companies have factories here.  Everyone that has a field has at least a little coffee.  It is crazy.  Its the economy of this town.  

It also means that for the next 3 months, lots of people will come here to work harvesting coffee, it just occured to me that its a great missionary opportunity.

I really do love it here.  Its bueatiful and fresco (cold).

Our house is now really safe, so don`t worry about that.  The owner spent a lot of money in that.

Things are great here. I am happy and we have a great group of missionaries here.

Have a good week!

Elder Henrie

 This looks delicious and healthy.

So...I had changes!

 New Companion, Elder Olivares

A lot of changes, actually.

For the first time in my mission I am in what we call the Orient (or the east).  I am literally as far east as our mission goes.  We are 20 minutes from Nicaragua (seriously, its the limit of our area).  

The area is called Paraiso (Paradise in ingles).  It is very green and very beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Tatumbla.  I am happy that the lord always manages to send me to cold places in the winter, I would feel out of place without it.  It has been really ¨cold¨ lately.  Meaning, 10 degrees Celsius or like 40 Fahrenheit.

Its not actually that cold.

But that doesn`t stop the people here from bundling up.  Mostly to keep out the constant rains.

It was kind of funny to get here.  We got on a bus until the bus stopped, and I was like ¨oh, we must me here¨.  Just in time for the ZL´s to tell me that I had to take another bus another half an hour to arrive to my area.

I feel like we are on an island, but it is really fun.  We have 6  Elders in this area, and I have the most time.  I am officially old.

I am still a District Leader, and my new companion is named Elder Olivares.  He is from Chile, from a town called San Felipe.  He is a convert of 2 years and is currently the only member in his family.  He is a great guy and is really excited to be in the mission.  He only has 2 months, but is very excited to be here.

His previous companion and him were already teaching some people so we are working with them.  We are also doing all the normal missionary work.

Our house is really nice, except for one thing...

On Friday night, we went to work (as usual) and when we came back I noticed that the back door was open.  I was like ¨Freak, we left the door open¨ and then I noticed my speakers and my mp3 player was missing.  After a little investigation, we found that we had left open tiny bathrom window (correction, they were always open, I never touched them) and theives had taken out the screen to get in.  We followed the tracks to over the roof of the next building (there are little footprints) to another building.  

The funny thing is my mp3 was already damaged and my speakers were 3 years old (my time plus the time of the Elder that I bought them from when he finished).  Their value was very little.  We called the Owner and today they spent all day welding into place metal grating so that our house now looks like a prison.  It should be really safe from the Zombie Apocalypse now.

The house is now super safe with the metal grating that they put on everywhere.  It honestly made me lauph.  The good thing is all the music is backed up somewhere online, except the Mormon tabernacle choir music (mom if you could upload that to my dropbox please).  Basically what I am planning on doing is buying one of the cool Honduran speakers that you can plug a usb into (I still have the small one you sentmy last christmas).  I was planning on selling my speakers anyway to another Elder here and buying Honduras speakers anyway.  I found some cool ones that have like a study light on them too.

I am happy and really excited to be in this area.  Everything seems to be smiling on me and reminding me of how blessed that I am.  God really does bless us with everything that is important, he has promised that we won`t fault anything and I have seen that blessing.

I love you everybody!

Elder Henrie

Quickly

I feel apresionado.  I don`t know why.

First of all.

There are changes this week.  They will advise us tomorrow.

Anxious anticipation.

I am happy and sad.  This will probably be the first time I leave an area in normal changes.  Not in mini changes.

I will miss a lot of people from here in La Honduras if I leave (its pretty fijo).  There are so many great people here, and I will leave many friends.

I will probably leave my (currently) longest comp, Elder Parker, with whom I have been for the last 4.5 months.  

I have been in this area 6 months, and I have been in this zone 8 months.   Thats a long time.  I have seen a lot of changes in that time.  I think I am a better person, a better teacher, and a smarter missionary.

This week we had a babtism!  Ingni decided to enter the waters of babtism and make a covenant with her Heavenly Father.  It was a very special way to end my time here.

Sorry, I don`t have my camera, or I would send pictures.

We had a great week last week, our best while here in La Honduras together.  It was really fun, and we worked a ton.

Things are good here in Honduras.

Elder Henrie

I am happy

It was a great week.

First of all, the biggest news is that I made hot chocolate mix.  I used powdered milk and cocoa powder.  It is really good.  I drank so much hot chocolate this week.  I will probably give myself kidney stones.

We had interviews with the President.  Mine was really short.  He asked me if I had any questions or if I had something I needed.  I told him that no.  I only had a question about what music was appropriate.  He told me to be self sufficient but to stick first with church stuff.

I did divisiones with Elder Taylor and Elder Hunter.  This time I went with Elder Taylor to his area.  It was productive divisiones, and Elder Taylor (de Nicaragua) is a good Elder.

The President told me nothing exact about changes, but based on the amount of time I have here (6 months in this area, and 8 in the zone) It is SURE (basically) that I am leaving.  It makes me kind of sad, but I am also excited.

We hope to have 2 babtisms this week.  We are working hard with the 2 so that they both go through.  One wants the support of her parents, and the other wants to be really sure.  I have faith that both will happen.  God is a God of Miracles.

I am happy.  Today for P-day we went to play soccer.  It was really fun and I just feel so great afterward.

I love you guys.  

Elder Henrie

Not a lot happened this week

The truth is that not a lot happened this week.  We did a lot of working.

The biggest news is that we hope that two of our investigators will get babtized this month.  Both have been investigators for a while, and they are now ready.  Our job now is to animate them so that they do it.

I had a wierd moment this week when I realized that Parker and I have now been together like 4 months.  It has been interesting to learn about myself while working with him.  I feel like with him the time has flown more than with any other companion.  Weeks feel like days, and days seem like hours.  It comes from the work we do.

I have been very satisfied with this week.  We had our bad moments, but the lord blessed us a lot.  I saw the blessings of testimonys, the scriptures, and the prophets.  I saw how direct the prophets can be in helping people get better.

I know that our lives are difficult, but I also know that God does not abandon us in our trials.  He may limit his help, but he doesn`t leave us.  He loves us too much to do that.

Thank you for all of you.

Elder Henrie

CONFERENCE!

The highlights:

CONFERENCE!

Was that great or what!  Something that really hit home this time was how amazing and important it is that we have LIVING apostles and prophets.

The majority of the world believe in some leader, some guy (or woman) that had a vision (or something) and wrote a book.  We do as well, we believe in Joseph Smith.  But there is an important difference.  We believe that Joseph Smith had successors, and they continue today.

Thats marvelous!  While everyone else has some book, we have a constant source of knowledge and truth.  It continues.

Just ask someone, what is better.  A book of truth that is thousands of years old, or a man, who although he teaches from that book, can also add truth to the book.

It kind of shocks people.

Like it says in the Book of Mormon.  God is God, and he can speak just as easy today as he did in the past.  He still loves us the same, he still is just, and he still speaks.

Imagine trying to make your way from one side of your town to the other.  Someone can give you a map from when it was founded, or you can use google maps.

What do you take?

Sorry for the long rant about that, but it is very important.

I had a good week.  I was a little sick this week on Wednesday, on the same day that Elder Parker was sick.  At least we only lost 1 day of work, not 2.  I am much better now.  

We worked pretty hard talking with people to bring them to conference.  As always, some did and some didn`t.  But those that did learned something!

It was a great week.  We had our challenges, but those are part of a life that is designed to make us stretch!

I love you!

Elder Henrie

Not a lot of time

Not a lot of time.

That has prety much defined my week.  

I have been really busy.  We spent a lot of time doing what missionaries do.

Work and sweat and slave...(anybody recognize the John Bytheway reference?)

I don`t have a lot of time.  I feel like I have been here along time.

We went to the temple as missionaries with investigadores.  It was good.

We brought 2 investigators G. and I., who we have been working a lot with.  This time was different than the others as we gave classes about the temple.

It was a good week, with a good mix of personal development and hard work.

I invite everyone to look at everything that is normal, and try to look at it in God´s eyes.  Many times, what is normal, can be something that we need to do better.

I love you all, I had a good week.

Elder Henrie

Interesting week

This was an interesting week.  I made some mistakes and learned some lessons.

Not to worry, nothing serious, but yes interesting.

As I believe I have already mentioned.  I have begun reading the Book of Mormon de nuevo, desde el principio.  I am underlining every reference to the savior or to God.  There are a LOT.

Today, I was reading about when Nephi broke his bow.  I noticed two things that I never saw before.  First, Nephi talks about how God led them in the fertile parts of the wilderness, and second, there is never a mention of lack of water.  It made it so much more serious for me when they began to complain, because they had forgotten the blessings that God had given them.  It made me remember Elder Uctdorf´s talk from the last conference.

In other news.  I am still here in the Guaymuras zone, and in the same area.  I feel like there are still a few loose ends that the Lord needs to teach me, and I´ve already seen some of them.  I am busy and happy.

I am still with Elder Parker as well.  We get along well, and as we always seem to eat in the house, we bought a TON of food today.  I wish I had taken pictures.  We bought 16 cartons of orange juice (8 liters), just to give you an idea.  The goal is that we have enouph food for the entire week, and we don`t have to buy food again.  I was proud on the overall healthiness of our purchases, including 2 bags of peanuts just for me (I just finished one now).

We have a lot of great people we are working with.  I. would like to get baptized, but her mom doesn't want her to.  She is technically above age, but we don`t want to cause problems in the family.

We also found two new part member couples this week that we want to begin teaching.  I constantly wishing we had more time.  To help, we have been following the advice of Presidente Duncan and planning better.  We have been dividing the area into small zones, and we are planning on working on one zone per day.  It helps us be more effective and also makes it easier to call members to accompany us.  

Things are great here in the ward.  The other Elders (Day and Mendoza) had 2 babtisms last week.  One was D. a little girl that was our investigator that we passed over.  We unfortunately couldn't go to either baptism because we couldn't bring anyone.  It was a good week.  We have already seen miracles of having 4 elders here.

Things are doing good.

I love you guys!

Elder Henrie

This week was pretty much AWESOME

(If Graig doesn't send a picture I ask him to send me a selfie.)

It was also really busy.  We had a lot of meetings.  

The best was by far the Zone conference with President Duncan.

Elder Smith (also from Lehi, and in my group) said it something like this...

That guy came here and in 2 days changed the entire mission.

That pretty much sums it up.

He gave a lot of small but great suggestions, and in general animated us to work more effectively.  It will take a while to put all the suggestions into practice, but it will help us out a lot!

I really liked one of the illustrations he used..

VISION

              meta

              meta

              meta

              meta

              meta

Planamiento

Meaning, once you have a vision, you first set the goals that you will need to lograrlo (make it happen) and you make plans for every goal so that it happens.

Then of course you have to do it.

He made a lot of suggestions, but I will give the ones that most impacted me:

30 minute lessons (only teaching a few principles)

Each missionary should only talk 10-20 seconds (it keeps things energized and is easier for the spirit to participate)

When teaching Menos Activos, just sing a hymn and read a small lectura del libro de Mormon.  Then let the spirit work.

He also really emphasized the need for good planning.

The cool part about it was that I had already heard or seen many of the suggestions.  But he wrapped them together into a marvelous tapestry of effectiveness.  It will definetly change the mission.

Phew, I feel like I was talking a lot there and a need to take a breath.

.

.

.

Ok, done.  Things are looking good this week.  It is changes.  If someone leaves, it will probably be me.  I just don`t know where.  I started giving out thank you notes and feeling sad, so it would be funny if I don`t have changes.

Anyway.  Things are good!  I made some random art this week with things around the house (I now have about 5 pounds of Honduras coins, kind of funny seeing as they are going to stop using them).

Thank you for your prayers and your support.  I love you guys"

Elder Henrie