Monday, July 30, 2012

"This week was interesting. We did a lot of teaching and a lot of teaching with members but it just doesnt seem like a whole lot will come of it while I am here. We have made a goal to contact 10 people before and after every appointment we have to hopefully find the elite of the Lord and help things out around here. 

I am starting to organize a program to teach english to help find new investigators in the area and work with the ward to do family nights and more activities together at the Chapel and it takes a lot of time and planning.  

I have started putting on a little weight and I know it is because the food here is some really good stuff and that it is a huge blessing o I am trying learn how to enjoy the taste and the good stuff but I am not sure you all know how hard it is to refuse good food. I mean it is me we are talking about and the sister either A: Guilt trip you into eating their food, or B: they beg you to eat more and if you dont they go right back to A and then you have a contstant flow of pattern ABBAABBAABBA and eventually you sacrifice wieght for your own peace of mind! ;) 

I MEAN WHAT A SACRIFICE! :P

I made cookies this week and everyone loved them at lunch and they were gone in a heart beat! The best thing is they all think that it is super hard to make them and they could hardly believe that I could fend for myself in the kitchen. I mean I know I am a boy and that I am an only child with only 19 years of age and that I am in a foreign country and that I am an American and in their minds we dont do anything and that I have never lifted a finger to work in my life. Luckily we popped the egotistical bubble with a cookie needle! YUMM!!!!

I want to thank all of you who read these and want you to know that I love you all very much and that I miss you and that all of you are special in my life and that you will all continue to be important.

READ THE SCRIPTURES

HAVE A QUESTION

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

THEN ASK GOD IF THERE IS ANYTHING MORE OR IF YOU CAME TO THE RIGHT CONCLUSION AND TO SEE IF THE SCRIPTURES ARE TRUE!

THEN SAY THANKS!

My self made quote for the week is that ATTITUDE is the difference between heaven and hell!

 

Atitude está a diferencia dentro os céus e o inferno!

Love,

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, July 23, 2012

"Wow I am super short on time today. I had a lot of stuff from the mission to read so I am going to have to type super fast and abbreviate.!!

This weeek was a good week and thank goodness we had a tour of the mission with Seventy Claudio M. Costa who came and gave us some of the best training of my entire life but I cant tell cause it is top secret!

We had five days of just money for lunch so I mean I got my fiber in! ;) Just kidding but I did live on my own cooking which I mena I am a good cook but I prefer when other people make it. My companion wont eat my food it is too spicy for him!

WE met some really awesome people.

I finished the book of Matthew and man it was super great! Also I think the sermon on the mount was my favorite part but really chapter 27 hit me like a freight train it was great! Also I got a hair cut and I look good! :)"

Monday, July 16, 2012

I am a DAD!

That is mission talk for I was called to be a trainer about two weeks ago. Sorry everyone for not writing on the 9th but all the lanhouses were closed due to the fact that we had a holiday.

Alright so quick funny story. Well we got there for transfers, there reffering to the Mission Home, and well I was looking around for my new greeeny and well all of a sudden someone was like wait! You have a training meeting, yet no one told me so I was quite fashionably late and man did I see a lot of really familiar faces there.

Yes I know you are all just thinking that hey, he just got there, and that there is no way I know what I am doing but I hate to tell all of you that the Lord begs to differ! :P Anyways my greeny is named, Elder Saulo Ferreira and he is actually from the State of São Paulo! He has only been a member for a year and a half!!!! Can you believe that? I mean this guy has some conviction and is has been great! He only has one little thing that bugs me a lot and that is the fact that I will say we are leaving at 12:00 and we always end up leaving a half hour late. I dont know what he does for this half hour besides that fact that he walks back and forth between the room and the bathroom and the kitchen so I just wait, kneeling, and trying not to give to many obvious hints!

Other than that he is an only child and he is really great! He works hard, studies hard, and wants to be the best missionary that he can possibly be and so I have been walking him to death, stuffing him full of more food than he wants to eat and making him talk to strange people, visit strange places and his head is still spinning as we sit here because I can see it out of my periferals! :D Oh how I dont miss being super brand new.

I am still in the area of LAPA and loving it and it looks like we will be having a bit of a drought on baptisms for a little while but I hope not too long because the Lord has many children here that are just waiting and I know it. It is just a matter of finding them! Personally I have knocked on more doors and talked to more people in the last few days than I have in quite a while. It find it really interesting that I finally have a fire and a desire to work now that I am the head of the program. When I was a junior it was just a lot tougher and all I have to say is that being a Senior campanion makes you get out of you shell and really explore what you have to do and how you can best do it and I sure do love it!!!

We still have an amazingly large amount of work to do but I ready for it. I am not tired, I am not hungry, and I am definetly not done in this area or will I be any time soon, which is great because I know that Elder Ferreira and I are going to make a huge difference here and that we are what is needed here, right now and for as long as we need be.

Oh and one of my goals is to finish the New Testament in Portuguese by the 20 of August!!! :)It is about 10 pages a day!

Love VERY MUCH,
ELDER HENDRIXSON

P.S. Elder Ferreira constantly tells me that he is more beautiful than me. Personally I dont agree but I let him think what he wants, it is more fun that way especially when he tells the members! He will learn!!! :)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Anyways other than that this week has been good and really crazy! WE have adone a lot and a lot of walking and man can I just say that I miss being able to have nothing time! I mean we wake up get ready and study then the whole rest of the day we just talk to people non-stop and have a great time and it is really relieving when someone actually wants to talk to you because most people are just like, I dont know you and therefore you are dirt! Ya it stinks but I guess that i the life of a missionary (salesman). Then you have the fact that I absolutely hate that whenever we walk past some other churches, freaky fanatic meatings, they are doing all sorts of weird stuuff and it is stuffed to the gills! Why isnt our church stuffed to the gills! If people would just be open to our message they would see how wonderful it is!

My companion is going home on Wednesday and I will be recieving a new companion. WHo he is I have NO IDEA!! I hope he is a good one and that I am not going to want to beat his head in! I am grateful that I can keep going here in LAPA because I feel that there is a lot more work here that I have to do so I dont mind staying plus I already know the members and they love me as a general rule ;) and ya so I dont mind staying but it will be nice to have some new legs and some new things to learn from someone else! 

I want to wish all of you a Happy 4th of July and just to let you all know it will be about sixty degrees and beautiful here while you are all cooking but the sad part is that it is not a holiday down here so I am going to strut in my big red, white, and blue tie and be a patriotic American because I can! Luckily there will be plenty of fireworks because there will be a soccer game that night Corinthians vs. Boca in Argentina. 

I miss all of you and love you all and hope that you are doing well and that any of you who want to write me are more than welcome!!! 

Keep the flag waving at your homes and it will never fall because it is in our hearts!

Love the American way,

Elder Hendrixson :)

Monday, June 11, 2012

Alright so this week was pretty good. We could call it the week of Hell freezes over and all the people we want to talk to are bundled up inside the house! Man it was cold this week and no one was out or wanted to talk and then you could add the fact that it rained practically all day every day! Talk about a fun week to have soggy toes! Can I just say that the first person to actually create a water proof missionary shoe will be a revolutionist because mine say water proof and I think they should change it more to like water resistant! Oh and I bought a new umbrella this week because lets just say,yes I have lost a lot of weight, but it is not nearly enough to fit under a compact umbrella, so I bought a great big gigantic one!!!!! :D WE ARE STILL DOING STUFF LIKE AN AMERICAN!!!! Thats right! You can take the boy out of the WEST but you cant take the WEST out of the boy! 

Other than that this week ws a hungry week because our Rel. Soc. Pres. Totally blew us off for the last two weeks and so nothing was scheduled, our phone was out of credits and so we scavenged for ourselves . . . needless to say I think I will be addicted to beans and rice for the rest of my life! Without them man its like your blood gets all thin and you just dontwant to do anything at all!!!!

So the pictures are just some cool ones that I took and Meg I am getting better with a camera!!! I love technology at times, and others no because I cant tell you how amany freaking broken computers we help people with here!

Anywyas the highlight of the week was getting to watch all of the sessions of the Dedication of the Manaus Temple!! Man they were good and it was a good Sunday. My favorite message of all of them was this! Pres.Uchtdor: Walk infront of the Lord with all your heart! Man that was a powerful message he gave and that was the first. The second was more subtle and abbout pioneers and how when we keep working and doing we recieve the blessings in the end. Ant the third was given by Elder Cook and he talked about how having your own light is very important because if we just live on borrowed light then we cannot ever have the glory of the sun but can only be as the moon.

Love all of you and the work will go on!

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, May 28, 2012

Alright so where to start! This week for p-day we went to this huge park called Parque Villa Lobos! It is super sweet and I think it is about equal to what Central Park in NY and this park and one other in São Paulo. They have all sorts of stuff and it is really fun to just go and relax. My companion and Leonardo, one of our less-actives played soccer, and I sat and talked with our recent convert because lets just say I dont really play soccer to the level of the Brasilians and so I was not in the mood to embarrass myself. I am getting better though!

Alma 22:14 is my scripture for the week because it is so descriptive! It just hit me really hard and it is kinda interesting to see a different language can add just that much more shabam!

Thought for the week: It is not my way that the work should be done, but the way the one who designed it said it should be done. For me I love to get things done right and get them done fast-unless its weeding, then I procrastinate like a pro! Anyways I have found that mission work is just a work that should be done with patience and at a moderate pace in order to make sure that all the details are taken care of.

Story for the week! :D

So my companion Elder Luna is a spaz! He loves to joke and play and have a good time but he also works diligently. Well we have two investigators Marcelo (16) and Marcos (15) who honestly are just problematic. Well we have one sister in our ward who is just awesome named Wilma and she introduced us to them. Well These two decided that it would be really nice to throw a surprise party for their mom who has slowly but surely been growing to like us. When I first arrived she wanted nothing to do with us and would not even hardly say hi to us! Anyway we were late to the party which was the 1st B-day party they had ever had in their household! Can you believe that? Anyways, we showed up and my companion decides to vigorously shake her hand. Why? I dont know, but he ended up spilling her soda all over her lap. In my mind I was just talking to myself because I was just waiting for her to burst out into her usual ranting and raving about us and life but she just laughed it off and smiled and I was completely floored! the woman I knew had been abduted by Aliens!!! It was a really good night and the cake was absolutely amazing!!!

Today for p-day we just played soccer and board games and had a good time! We have some interviews this week and so we will see how they go through and if two boys will accept!

I love you all and trust me I miss you all sufficient! So I pray for you everynight to have more of the spirit along with greater influence!

Love,

Elder Hendrixson

Written May 2, 2012

"I want you guys to know that without a super strong testimony no one would ever serve a misison, but it is these missionaries that keep going their eitire missions who really get the most and I know that is how I want to be.  My family is who taught me how to never give up and how to finish strong and also to do it right the first time."

"Man, it has gotten cold here too and these houses hold out the cold like a cardboard box with 4 windows!  Needless to say I wil probably be guying a coat before it get sany colder.  I hate getting out of bed int he morning to study!  The studying is not the problem, cause I really love the studying, but it's the cold and the tired.  I am sleeping more than I ever have here and I am still dragging my sorry butt out of bed ...  if I get up on time I am just super tired all day."