Monday, November 26, 2012 - A Great Joke

Lets start this week out with a Joke!

So the husband comes home after a long day at work and sees the clock has fallen off of the wall so he just walks on by and goes to get something to eat. His wife walks in just as he had sat down to have a glass of milk and a cookie when his wife says, "you will never guess what happened today! I got home and your mom was coming to help me with the groceries and that studpid clock of yours that doesnt even  work correctly fell off the wall and almost hit her on the head! Can you believe that?" Only to have the husband respond, "That stupid clock is always late!" :D

For any of you that need this joke to be re-explained just ask someone else! You should always share, becuase it is the 1st and greatest commandment of the Kingdom of God and a good joke should never go unshared!

This week was a good week! Lots of sun and little rain and it feels like a Desert Summer! The only difficult part was that this week I had the Sisters of the Ward try to stuff me and not the Turkey! It worked! I mean we had lunch with a Sister who is totally awesome but just is sick of the incomodating people in the world but I will tell you what,  She Knows How to Fill a BOWL with ice cream and fruit! I mean it was like the size of my head and here it is mandated that you eat two of them  so I did and man she knew how to fill a bowl full of ice cream a second time even fuller than the 1st! For the first time in my life I was almost sure that I would drowned! you cant swim your way out if you drowned from the inside out!

Then on Sunday we have this married couple who are older and the Husband wants to adopt me because he likes me a lot and so we are trying to get him to be baptized but it is difficult! We had a barbecue with them on Sunday and well can I just say that 5 kilos of meat and 4 old people and 2 missionaries gives you a stomach ache! Their moto at the dinner table is that nothing is left over! Needless to say  it became a little difficult but we accomplished the challenge and I didnt even gain a single pound this week. Luckily this next week should be alittle more sparse. 

I think that this week I talked to more than 200 families and it is always amazing to see how people dont know how to answer a question. They only want to talk about what they want to talk about. The other thing I love is when people say, " that is not in my Bible,"  "I know Jesus Christ and only he can save me,"  "why do you want to complicate the simple things that Christ gave us to do," and my personal favorite, "I have already accepted Christ in my life, I have the Holy Ghost with me constantly and Christ will save me no matter the cost." This last phrase is usually uttered jsut before they light up a cigarrete or take a swig of the beer in their hand! Yet they dont want to listen, they dont want to hear and all you want  to do is help. Yet you cant! How many times has our heavenly father tried to help us and we chose not to accept?

This week I had a cool experience. We had left to make a visit with a Sister of the Ward and well as usually our marked appointment wasnt at home! But it just so happened that I had said, hi, to two teenagers on the street and they came running around the corner just after we had finished discovering that the lady we had planned to visit wasnt at home. Only to find out that one of the kids was a member of the church who had just recently moved here to our area and he and his brother wanted to keep going to church because they love the church! The oldest one is not baptized and I think he will be baptized quickly and the parents arent members so lets see if we can get them too!

Oh and another interesting event happened. For some reason drunk people love the missionaries and love to introduce us to their families. One night we were headed home and it was already 9 at night and this drunk guy come bounces accross the street slurring, I am a mormon too! All I though was OH BOY! Here we go again. Well he came up and hugged me and started to lead me into his house to have dinner! He was so drunk that his breathe was pure alcohol! Finally after not being able to pass him without having to shove him to the ground I accepted and talked him into just a glass of water and to meet his family! It turns out that his son is a member and wants to return to the church and his friend wants to know about the church so there you have it everybody! The Lord can work miracles for His children in any circumstance!

The weeks to come should be full of great stories so feel free to forward them or share them with whomever you may.

Love you all and  dont be a turkey! Seek for Christ and His Holy Spirit, especially as we prepare for this wonderful time of year and celebrate all that Christ has given!

Elder Hendrixson!

Monday, November 19, 2012 - Raising the Bar and Stuffin the Bird

Well this week has been a great week because I recieved a wonderful piece of news that our President now wants us to have 30 conversations about the Gospel everyday! That is a freaking lot especially when the person just tells you to bugger off cause he is sitting there on his porch with nothing to do and he tells you that he is just about to leave. Then you go to the next house and you can see their freaking steel wool hair sitting there on the couch and they just ignore you like you are a barking dog and then the next and the next and the next. Pretty much but we had a lot of great conversations that resulted in those people who actually want to hear abut the gospel and then after all the bad experiences your heart soares and you are jsut super happy to talk to the person.

Last night I had a realization that only people who are truly happy would walk for 30 minutes straight and give a salutation to all of those people with a smile in your path after walking all day in the sun, rain and talking to a bunch of badly mannered people. The Lord I think finally prepared a way for a house for us to move intoand stop sleeping on the flooor and sharing a fridge that is 3´for1 1/2´ for 4 Elders. THe thing is stuffed! Then this week was tough because the grass is always greener on the other side! THe other two Elders stayed in the house all week because one of them has the Chicken Pox! Yup so they were bumming around in the house relaxing in my hammock and I was working. Not to mention they couldnt leave to buy groceries so my cold milk and water started dissapearing and let me tell you when you come home after sweating your butt off all day you want something cold and when you go to grab it and it is not there you get a little peaved! I mean I only ask that you ask or tell me that you used it so I dont have this expectation and then its not there! That is the worst! Other than that the week was great! I mean I would rather be working than trapped in the house! A few days would be nice but only to have a holiday but really working is oh so much better!

Well to all of youthat are in the STates! Have fun stuffing the bird and your faces! My thanksgiving with be bean and rice and this little filet of beef that is cooked until it is shoe leather because that is how the Brazilian like it! Yet the beans and rice are always yummy and eating is not for pleasure, right?

Miss you and have a great Thanksgiving and I will too!

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, November 12, 2012 - Who's Up For Round 3?

Yup that is right my family and Friends I am up for round 3 of training a noob! His name is Elder Hermilio Dos Santos Mota who is from Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil! Yup he is 22 years old and he is engaged to a girl he met when he had 16 years of age and it has only been her since then! We get along really well already because he has a life and likes to make jokes and to just be a fun person all around and to play soccer. He almost went professional but he blew out his knee! He was baptized with 9 years of age and he is the second person in his family to serve a mission. WE worked our tails off this week and it was in the rain. No it was not the kinda joke that we get in St. George we are talking who turned on the freaking shower! You end the day and no matter how water proof your shoes are it just doesn't cut it when gravity comes into play and it starts from the knee then to the ankle and all the way until it reaches the end of your toes! What Fun!!!! Anyways he made a lot of progress this week and we will make even more this week and we will be a contact making machine! I can see that good things are to come with these coming six weeks! The Lord has big plans I can just feel it! So keep up the prayers please! I could use all the help I can get!

As for some funny things that happened this week! We had a junk food night before transfers and well lets just say one Sister in the ward gave us this cake and I had to spit it out after I ate it because she had soaked it in what tasted like skittles liquid with a choclate covering. I hate to say it but it is still in the fridge to this day and well skittles and chocolate just don't go together! Then the very next day we got back to the bus terminal - I forgot to inform you all that I have turned into a bugs bunny and eat one big carrot everday about 9:15 in the morning and all the Elders just laugh at me - so when a bum came along the sidewalk seeing all the Elders and Sisters dressed and fancy of course he thinks of asking for food and well I had happened to pull out my carrots because of course I brought one for my new companion! He didn't want it and so I gave the bum a CARROT! He walked away shaking his head and seeming a little bit dissatisfied but eating the carrot all the same and yes all the Elders laughed at me but I asked which one of them had helped someone today? :P

Also it just so happened that socks in the mission last for 11 months but they become more like an iron grid without any fluff and its just more like a protective layer. how did I find this out? Well I had only been using 8 pairs and they started loosing color so I grabbled my other 10 pairs from the Mission Home and started wearing those! WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! They were so soft and comfortable, weird, but hey in the mission it is all about the small pleasures!

Other than that this week was full of miracles but specifically one that stood out. WE were knocking doors in the rain and well this guy came out and started talking to us like he was a member. Well it turns out he had been a member since he was 15 years old and fell away at 18 because of problems with the doctrine of the church and just didnt find his response. This guy wasn't even on the radar and we found him because of a long day of knocking and not finding!!! The Lord works miracles but first comes the trial of faith! (Ether 12:6).

Love you all and wish you the best week! Keep your heads up and keep smiling!

Love, Loyalness, and Faith is a good recipe for being like Christ but none of it is worth anything without the Priesthood being restored for us in these Latter Days!

Elder HendriXson!!

Monday, November 5, 2012 - Transfers!

Hey Everyone!

This week is transfers and well let's just say that I am not happy at all . . . my companion and I have gotten to be super close and he has learned a ton this transfer. He made a huge effort in not being so timid, I mean being timid around me is a little hard! Plus he got to be really good at the basics because I learned from all my family that if you keep beating eventually you get to where you need to be and changing tactics is great too.

My companion figured out finally that I am just a box of surprises! He is always leaving lessons and we talk and he is always telling me, "You know, I just never know from which direction you are going to come." Then he goes on to say that he is gonna miss having me for a companion and well of course I never have let him know that I am truly gonna miss the guy, cause I wouldn't be Elder Hendrixson. ;) Shhhhhhh, but I really am going to miss the guy a lot. We had a heck of a lot of fun together and we worked hard but he still has a lot of lessons to learn from his next trainers. Now we will just have to see who exactly my next companion will be.  The interesting part is that I have never had a steady companion. I seem to always be recieving new ones! I mean this will be my 6th companion in 11 months! 

This week was a really tough week for us becuase we just seemed to absolutely suffer until Sunday. I mean I talked to a lot of people but no one for the life of them wanted to listen! I mean they were just down right rude and my patience was wearing super thin and I just wanted to be straight up with people and well unfortunately you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar! Man the truth hurts! So I consented to being cordial and practice my longsuffering! The really cool thing was that I remembered to do a fast for Fast Sunday and can I just say I finally have a testimony about fasting! I never really had one before but after I fasted so that I could remember and be ready to fulfill my purpose as a missionary and partook of the Sacrament everything just seem to stop being so prominant and bug. It all turned into little challenges and problems and smaller mountains to climb until we reach the tree of life!

Remember family and friends that the Gospel of Christ is the only way back to our Heavenly home and that we start our journey after partaking of a renewal of birth and passing into the Kingdom of God here on the Earth and that we may then start to produce our eternal harvests and make progress on our pathway eternally. Remember the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Kingdom of God here on the earth and that through the true church we encounter the only true Ordinances of the Gospel of Christ!

Love you all!

Elder Kyle John Hendrixson 

Monday, October 29, 2012 - I Must Be a Reptile!

Okay so the topic for today may be a little weird but I will explain myself! :)

First lets talk about the good things that happened this week. We had 2 of the people we are teaching come to church.   One we will be marking a baptismal date with her this week and explaining that yes you can be baptised again because you only took a bath the first time because she wasnt baptized under the authority that would be necessary if we are to follow Christ who was baptized by a worhty and true priesthood holder. Here we come with scriptures and salvation.  Also it was beautiful weather this week and it could not be better! It will only get better. I must be a very sweet person because the mosquitos just seem to love me while  I sleep! We found some new investigators this week and they seem to have a very deep interest in the gospel and partaking of the fruits that the gospel will help them produce. And a blessing as always would be that we "were worthy to suffer persecution in the Name of the Lord." (Acts 5:31) :) 

This week we had a special conference with our mission because of an inspiration that our Mission President recieved and decided that it could not wait until December. Man was everyone nervous , exept me. :) I even tried  to make a bet with my companion that this conference was not to just be a rebuking fest of the Pres. I was rather on the contrary. I was expecting a straightening of a few of the things that were wrong in the mission and then to recieve instructions of how to be better missionaries and really get to hear some good stuff and how the President had an inspiration of things to do. It actually had to do with the special assignment he gave us to read The Book of Acts in 4 days and how that we should have learned a few things from the assigmnent he gave us and that we would recieve the same revelation he recieved if we asked the Lord! How cool is that? Needless to say it was a super great conference and it is always nice to see a lot of those friendly faces and people  you don't get to see very much!

Okay now lets get to why I am a reptile! That statement was based on I love the heat and the sun! I mean it is frying outside but it is not even close to reaching St. George or Fresno heat so it is all good! Not to mention that when I am in the sun I feel like someone is pumping energy into me! The only time that it becomes dangerous is when I have sweated so much that the sunscreen has melted off of my face and I have to reapply! Yup I love the sun but my skin is a natural enemy! Although it gets to be really tough if we get to talking to someone in their house because they usually turn the lights off so that it is cooler and well like a good reptile I just want to sleep so I start to yawn and can't stop and my companion starts to go to sleep on me at times because the heat just sucks the energy right out of him and me, but I still love the sun! It is way better than a rainy day or a cloudy day! For me I just say bring on the heat because it just makes another excuse to stop and ask for a cup of water so that we can talk to the person. Including one time this week a person felt pity for us and invited us to come in and sit down, so logically I got to talking and having a g ood time and found out that they had had an unfortunate death in the family and he was really bothered about what another religion had said so I opened up the Bible and the Book of Mormon and we said a prayer and got to it! He didn't accept to let us come back because he wanted his religion and I was a little sad because you could tell he loved to hear our message from the word of god, but yet he still chooses to be blind to  the truth!  Maybe one day he will recognize what we said to be true and the seed that we planted will grow so that he can  recieve the plentitude of blessings that The Lord will drop on his doorstep in return for entering into the kingdom of god.  Follow the first 4  principles and ordinances of the  Gospel of Christ! Check out Hebrews 6:1-2  this was my scripture for the week.

Oh and I almost forgot! Our Sunday School teacher didn't show up on Sunday so I winged the lesson and man did I do a good job! It was on Temple Work and Family History! Those are two things that I am not very confortable teaching but luckily the Holy Spirit was with me and gave me a sweet game plan!

The people in the class asked very few questions and all of them commented on how clear I was about it that they understood! Man I sure do love teaching about the gospel of Christ. Any part of it always has something new to learn and when you are the one teaching I feel like you learn so much more . I can just say that luckily the Lord is helping because otherwise we all know that I would complicate things until I made the earth spin the other way!   ;)

With laughs and a boisterous smile. I love you all and miss you like a fish misses water!

Elder Kyle John Hendrixson!

{Surprise! Kyle is truly a Hendrixson - the son of a reptile and the grandson of a reptile!!  Who would have guessed!! }

Monday, October 22, 2012 - Was I Dreaming or Awake?

This week I was super tired and we worked until I just couldn't take it any more. Relaxing today was a very much welcome thing within my week and this week should be the same way. WE actually reached our goal of 14 other lessons this week which was great and very welcomed! Very few people wanted to hear but the few that did seem to have some promise. It just so happened that we had two investigators in church this week.

One is a lady who has the only video rental store here in my area and she is super sweet. Yet she has been passing through a difficulty in her marriage and just needed a little bit of  the gospel. I made her a promise that if she would come to chruch she would recieve an answer to the problem she is having and it happened!! Can you believe it? I thought I was dreaming! Yet I sure am glad that I wasn't and now she said she felt like she was at home and that this was the place to be and promised to visit again but is a little hesitant because of the religion she goes to but the good part is that no matter what the Lord will prepare the hearts of his children and who do better than he could? No ONE!

The second is an employee of our Bishop.  He is 17 years of age and he loves the church and he will come again, so two dates of baptism here we come! I am super excited for what the Lord has planned to happen this week for us and we will be glad to see His hand in the things that we will be doing this week. HE really sent his armies of angels to help us this week and I expect nothing more and nothing less this week and all the weeks to come!

Love you all!!!!

Elder Kyle John Hendrixson