Peña de San Marcos

Things were cool this week.  We did divisions with Elder Rivero and Elder Foster.  I got to go and visit Las Unidas, a quite bueatiful community just outside of Choluteca.

We had interviews with President Bowler.  He basically told me that he would see me the 4th of July for my final interview.  We talked a little about the area and about our investigators.  I think things went well.

I am happy with what I am doing and how I am finishing.

Today we went to the Peña de San Marcos.  Its basically a cool hike where you are next to what looks like a huge drop, but isn´t that big.  But there is a lot of wind, and so it feels higher.  We did a stick pull, and enjoyed the cold (rare here in the south).  It was very beautiful.  I would have taken more photos, but my camera died.

Thank you for everything you guys do for me.

Elder Henrie

No Longer a Leopard

Again I am so happy this week.  I don´t know how to describe it.

I feel weird as things seem to be resolving themselves and finishing up.  I typed my final report today, ready to present to President in my interview with him on Wednesday.

This week was full of being really really busy.  I am trying to have the best change I have every had.  Our logro of the week was that one of our investigators named Isidrio went to church. It means that if he continues going that he can be babtized this month.  He has health problems, so it has been a fight, but he made it.

It is raining super hard right now.  But that´s Honduras during this time of year.  Rain, Rain, and more Rain.

I love you guys.  I don´t know really what to say.  I can only share what I found in my spanish to english dictionary when you look up honduras.  It says basically, to be out of one´s depth.  That´s how I have felt here.  But at the same time, I have loved it.  I just had to learn to scuba dive first.

I want to testify that the mission has been the best 2 years of my life until now, and it will be, until I get married and eternity starts.

Thank you for everything you guys do for me.  I love you.  Take care of yourselves this week.

Ps.  I am no longer a leopard.  I changed back.

Elder Henrie

Turning into a Leopard

First of all.  I am not dying, I do not have any weird tropical disease.

I am simply turning into a leopard.  Or at least that´s what I tell people.

What I have is basically a heat rash.  It happens when you take a white gringo from cold utah and make him sweat more than he has sweat in his entire life, in a matter of 7 weeks.

It is not dangerous, I just have to put on a lotion every day and bathe twice daily.  It should go away in 3 to 4 days.

This week was great.  First of all great because I stayed in my area.  I will be finishing my mission with Elder Hernandez.  All the other missionaries are trying to make my baggy, but I strive onward, leaving them all behind.

I am doing my best to make sure I work just as hard (or harder) than I have in all previous changes.  Thus the skin
condition for sweating a lot.

I am happy, happier than I could ever describe, and I am sad, sadder than I could ever describe.  I feel the ending, and at the same time, a beginning.  But I always feel the saddness knowing that I will never be a missionary here again.

So I follow onward, or as they say it here, Estoy en la lucha.  The fight against evil, and tiredness.

I am so grateful for my time here, I have loved it and I don´t want it to end, but all things have to end.

Please take care of yourselves, and I will do the same here.

I love you,

Elder Henrie

What was the most important thing you learned on you mission?

That when you stop worrying about what others think, and it only matters what God thinks, is when you are so happy nothing can cover it.

How did the Atonement change you?

It helped me change little by little, slowly recognizing weaknesses and making them strengths.  As I realized how much it cost, it helped me make sacrifices to help others.  As I understood what it has done, it made me eager to help others be changed by it.

Did you love your mission? Why? How did you develop that love?

Please don´t talk about it in past tense yet, I still have 39 days left.

I have loved my mission more than anything I can describe except maybe my family.  I have learned firsthand that there are wonderful people in all places, languages, and walks of life.  As I received so much love, It just became normal to give it back.  As I worked and helped people, and I saw how it helped them, I felt that joy that only comes from the spirit.  It became like an addiction, but a good one.  The children of God are happiest when they fufill their purpose, and their purpose is the same as his, to bring to pass the inmortality and eternal life themselves and others.

I also love it because I learned what is really important, and it basically is that you and your family are truly happy and bound by covenants that you are constantly living.

"...our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, ..." (Jacob 7:26)

I don´t know how to express how I feel.

I feel like everything is a dream.  But I´m now at the point where one is waking up and the colors start bluring together and the sounds mesh as your mind changes from fiction to reality.

I will continue working until the end.  And I will work hard.  I will enjoy this last bit of time the lord has given me and will treat it like the gold I now understand it is.

Then will come the time.  The time to face reality. 

Thank you for everything you guys have done for me.  I have lived well here for the last 2 years.  Thanks to your sacrifices and love.

This week we did more of what missionaries do.  We worked and taught the gospel.  Our new method of contacting is harder, but the people we find are more interested and more dedicated.

We are still working with the old people.  We should have 2-3 baptisms here soon.  But we are making sure they are converted, not just baptisms with water, but with fire and the Holy Ghost.

I am happy and content.  I know that the lord blesses and protects me every day.  I love every one of you.

Thank you.

Elder Henrie

A Photo Scavenger Hunt for P-day

This week was really good.  We got a lot of work done and we wasted very little time.  Which is exactly how I like it.

We did a photo scavenger hunt for the zone activity today.  It was the last brainchild and gift of Elder Stoddard, who leaves here sunday. I am gonna miss him.

I am happy and working.  This week we had our stake conference.  Hermana Bowler and the new senior couple came to see the houses.  Ours was good.  They asked us to clean up the backyard.

One of our investigators brought a friend to church.  She isn´t from our area, but she went.  The investigator told us that her friend told her that ¨the mormons are more lost than anyone else¨ and all she said was ¨come and see¨.  It was cool.

One the other side of things, we saw how satan works very hard when someone is trying to do the right thing.  Lots of people have had problems, and we are working to help them have faith and trust in God´s timing.

Things are good today.  Thank you for everything you guys do for me.

ELder Henrie

Chasing away the baggy monster

Things are good here in Por Venir.

I enjoyed a fun skype call yesterday with the family.  I could see them perfectly, but it was a little hard for them to see me.  It was great to see all the family.

I am good and happy here.  I am working my but off, but that is when a missionary is happiest.  I chase the baggy monster away by working and focusing on the basics.

It doesn´t mean that I´m not making plans.  The other day as I listened to conference, Elder Oaks reminded me to make spiritual goals for when I return as well as physical goals.  So I started reading up in the Book of Mormon of what the best missionaries do when they return home.  It was an interesting study.  I will share more of that later.

This week was full of a lot of work.  We have been really busy and we are finding a lot of new people.  We are also focusing on finding and trying to reactivate some less actives.  There are a lot of great people here that are really acceptive.

I am enjoying life and I am happy.

Thanks for your prayers, I appreciate them.

Elder Henrie

Hot but working Hard

We have a new way to contact people now.  We challenge them for baptism in the first contact.

It sounds crazy, but it works, and it helps us know who is actually interested in recieving an answer from God.

A member whom I told said for him it was another fufillment that God is accelerating his work.  I hadn´t thought of it that way.

It has been very hot, but I love it here.  I am loving being with my companion.  He is obedient and likes to work hard,  nothing more really matters to me.  I want to end the best way I can.  It is weird to be counting down the time, but I am good.

I decided this week that something I have to do is always help people after talking to a woman who got offended when she really needed help and no one helped.  We are now helping her get to know the church is true, but not always its members.  I always want to be someone that people can ask.

Thank you for your prayers. 

Elder Henrie