Monday, February 11, 2013 Without a Fridge, a Bathroom and a Microwave

Without a Fridge, a Bathroom, and a Microwave, could it be possible to live in the 21st Century thus?

Well I dont care if you believe that it is impossible. I am here to tell you that it is actually possible! This week our bathroom started leaking water into the store that we live ontop of and so the maintenance guy arranged for us to shower in another apartment and so atleast we could take showers and use the bathroom but it sucks having to leave your house to do your daily necessities. Not having a fridge is terrible as well so cold milk is not even an option and having fruits or vegatables is more difficult. We basically just eat eggs and bread and oreo type cookies and split a liter of milk between the two of us per day. It is great! hopefully it is for us to recieve a fridge and a microwave soon and our bathroom is almost done. Also all the electricity is 220V here but almost all of your household appliances are made to use 110V so it is fun to jerry rig almost eerything we do. I cleaned the kitchen today and it went from being an odd brown color to being a nice beige which was the original. :)

This week we did a lot of working but didnt get anyone of our self forces to go and visit because they dont live close enough so we just worked with a few of the neighbors of members who accepted to be baptised here in two weeks and the great part is that it is a family! Also we had a family night and it turned out really great and we gave a message about not procrastinating to repent by following God´s commandments and striving to follow and not be stuck in the trap of  Satan´s famous phrases of "I´ll do it tomorrow" or "All is well."

I hope that all of you are well and have a great Valentines Day week and treat your loved ones with respect and tell them that you love them!

Love you guys and keep up the good work!

Elder Hendrixson 

Monday, February 4, 2013 The Change Up

Well it just so happened that I will not be training this transfer but I will be the companion of an Elder Gustavo Silveira who will be going home at the end of this transfer! He is a really great guy and we are getting along very well. It might because he has a military attitude because he served in the Brazilian army and will return to doing what he did. He works with armored transport which is cool and we get along great and like he says all the time, "Only happeness and joy!" We work a lot but what I am liking is that we are working smarter and not harder!

My new area is a city in the municipality of São Paulo called Piedade. The town has about 40,000 habitants and it is a little back country town where most people live on small farms and such which is great and then they have a city section as well. We only work in the city because the other houses are really spread out and it is not very conducive to the best missionary work that we could be doing nor the most effective so only if it is a strong impression to we head out to the houses by there and such.

We had an activity this week that was called the end of the world that my companion made up and it worked out super great! We set up a bunch of fun things to do and printed out a fake money so that they had to pay money to dance or just play video games or other games or to get food or they could come and see the missionaries and do a task or answer a question to recieve a little money in return. Then we ended it and the lights went off and which kingdom of glory you were sent to depended on how many monies you had. It was very effective to see how people arrived in their individual kingdoms to see that not all there family was there or it wasnt where they wanted to go and who they wanted to be with so we explained about each individual kingdom and how to get there and what it would be like which was very interesting because they people saw that it is not possible to be of the world and do the things of god at the same time. That we need to do what we have been commanded and instructed so that we can have exactly what our heavenly father has promised each one of us individually and as families!

I love you all and hope that you are well and that you will continue to choose the things of god that we all may have a happy reunion and conjointing when the creator comes for the second time!

Love,

Elder Kyle Hendrixson

Monday, January 28, 2013 Pigs in the City?

{To see Elder Hendrixson's pictures that he discusses below, go the picture page...you can't miss them!}

Well this is us having a birthday party in our very straight kitchen and well lets just say we enjoyed our brownies!!! :) 

Oh and so my companion were out walking along and having a great sunday walking along and lo and behold in the worlds 4th largest city we found a pig ruttin around in the cities flowerbed!!! :P What a pig sty! Anyways I just had to take a picture with him so I did and I petted her for a little fun! The idea came accross my mind about the missionaries having free lunch for a month cause I had my leading stick with me to walk her all the way home for nice 2 hour walk from where we were! 

We met Edna this week and she was a contact I made while on a split. She tried to tell me that she was Catholic and I didnt buy in so I told her we could come by and present a Book of Mormon to her and she could have one as a present. She really liked the idea so we marked and faulted because of some difficulties and well we happened to be passing by and I really had a strong urg to visit her so we did and she listened very attently and had a true and pure desire to know and read and pray and I am stoked!! :)

Monday, January 21, 2013 Fruit Sack?

Alright so just for all of you I thought I might include the amount of fruit that we recieve for a week! I basically only eat fruit for breakfast now as a drink and on a plate because this was the haul for one week of fruit and it is a lot. I mean I went to pick up the decievingly heavy bag and found out that it was loaded with about 25 kilos or 55lbs of fruit! I mean that is about like eating 2 to 3 pounds of fruit a day and all the stuff here is farely fibrous if you catch my flow. In the picture is 2 melons a pineappe two types of mangos. Green oranges that are actually ripe on the inside. Goiaba, apples, cherries, grapes, and foot-long bananas and plumbs!! Yay!! Stone fruit! One of the things I miss the most!

Yeah so the work is going alright but if we just continue with faith the Lord will bless our efforts. This is the hard thing about being a laborer in the vineyard of the lord, but he has promised that for all of His servants that if  they will work with all the heat might mind and strenght that the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not and that when the bridegroom comes we will have sufficient oil within our lamps to keep us safely within reach of entering in with our Lord to recieve what he has ultimately promised us and that is Eternal Life! :)

The Gospel of Christ is for each one of us and that is directly linked with the Church that he organized and gave to us as men to take care of. It was taken away and we were without the sustinance of which we needed but that has been fully restored and brought to the light that we need not perish or dwindle in unbelief but believe and act that we may assure our mansion in the heavens.

May your prayers be answered and our families be blessed. 

Love you all and pray for your well-being, 

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, January 14, 2013 Sup!

Alright so there are a few things that I am really greatful for and that is that one there is modern medicine named Prilosec that works miracles for people that have heart burn! :) 

The Second thing would be that when you try to go suit shopping here in Brazil you had better be about the size of a toothpick because they don't make pants in my size and I barely could find a suit coat that fits. Luckily they do exist you just have to find a store that has them. By the way I grew again. I think I got a little taller and of course as usual a little wider in the shoulders for all of you who like to think I only grow in the table muscle.

Other than that I think my companion and I got soaked about 3 times this week by the wonderful São Paulo summer weather where it rains almost everyday but infrequently that young men don't want to carry an umbrella all week and man I think taking rain baths are great because it is about the closest thing you get to jumping in to the pool. Man I miss swimming!!!

 Anyways we actually taught some really nice people this week, about 13 of them but they don't live in our area so unfortunately they won't be investigators for us but at least they are getting to know the gospel and how wonderful it can make their lives become because not only is it guidelines but it is a way of live that really will be to us the best things that we can imagine and our hopes and dreams will come true in better and improved ways than we can imagine as we are obedient to our Heavenly Father who loves each  one of us.

I know that this is the way and these are the blessings of god that we bring to people in their lives and I know that we can all recieve the gifts of God if we are obedient even if we dont know why it is important to be obedient!

I love yo u all and pray for you always and wish you the best! 

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, January 7, 2013 The Week!

Happy new year. This week not much happened at all but I thought I would write you all let you know that I am good to go in THAT THE MISSION IS GOING AND THAT IT IS AWESOME TO LIVE WITH TWO OTHER AMERICANS IT IS CRAZY HOW DIFFERENT THE CULTURES ARE AND I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE CAUSE I HAVE ONLY LIVED WITH BRAZILIANS FOR A YEAR BUT MY HEART SINGS TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND BE ABLE TO TALK ENGLISH AGAIN. I LOVE PORTUGUESE BUT IT IS JUST NOT THE SAME THING! mISS YOU ALL AND WISH YOU THE BEST AND HOPE THAT YOU ARE WELL AND I HOPE THAT WITHIN THIS NEXT WEEK I WILL HAVE SOMETHING GREAT TO TELL ALL OF YOU AND NOT JUST THIS JUMBLE OF THINGS. I REALLY HAD THE LORD HELP ME THIS WEEK BY ANSWERING MY PRAYERS AND HELPING ME TO UNDERSTAND THE GOSPEL BETTER AND TO HELP ME BE MORE AT PEACE AND BE ABLE TO LOVE THOSE AROUND ME AND WHO WE TALKT TO AND REALIZE HOW MUCH BETTER IT IS TO HAVE PEOPLE TELL YOUTHAT THEY TRUST YOU AND LOVE YOU NOT THAT THEY LOVE HAVING YOU AROUND BECAUSE YOU ARE GREAT. THE WORK MUST GO ON AND KEEP UP THE WORK THAT YOU ALL DO AND CONTINUE HELPING ALL THOSE AROUND YOU WHO MIGHT BE IN NEED OR A LITTLE MORE UNFORTUNATE. 

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD HERE ON THE EARTH. THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN CONFIRM THAT IS GOD AND JESUS CHRIST THEMSELVES. I KNOW THAT GOD RESPONDS BECAUSE HE CONFIRMED TO ME THAT THIS IS THE WAY. THE WAY TO ALL THE BLESSINGS AND HOW TO FOLLOW IN THE PATHWAY THAT CHRIST CREATED FOR EACH ONE OF US AND THOUGH IT MAY NOT BE EASY, IT IS NECESSARY. JOSEPH SMITH WAS A TRUE PROPHET AND THAT THOMAS S. MONSON IS THE PROPHET OF OUR DAYS, HERE TO GUIDE US, AND DIRECT THAT WE MAY HAVE THE PEACE AND HARMONY WITHIN AN EVERMORE TUMULTUOUS WORLD THAT IS AGAINST WHAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS INSTRUCTED! 

SEEK THE TRUHTH AND YOU WILL FIND IT SO JUST EMBRACE IT WHEN YOU FIND IT AND ASK OF GOD!

LOVE,

ELDER HENDRIXSON

Monday, December 31, 2012 New Years!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you all are all doing well and that the Christmas holiday treeated you all well and it sure was great to get see all of you-my family- on skype. I mean it was just great to also get to talk to you in real time because it gets kinda tiring to be behind for two weeks everytime I get stuff. Thanks for all of you who wrote and let me knew that you were thinking of me even though you all have a lot on your plates already with the festivities and playing santa and chef! I had a very special Christmas. It was nothing special but all the spirit that was here and just how everyone treats you and all that stuff and it just had a special feeling about and not to mention that we ate a heck of a lot of good food. I mean our fridge was stuffed full. Luckily now it is starting to dwindle and the only think I have bought for two weeks was milk. Apparently brazilians dont really drink milk but my entire family knows that if I could I would drink milk for every meal of the day! :)

Other than that it has just been rainging a lot and we have been caught out in the rain alot without our umbrellas but thats okay because it is good for the soul and the stink. ;)

Keep strong in the faith and know that your heavenly father loves you all! :) 

Until next week! 

Elder Hendrixson :)

Monday, December 24, 2012 Christmas?

Alright so I am still having a very hard time believing that it is Christmas or that Holidays exist because on the mission they DON'T! But anyways I can still tease all of you becasue it is like 80-90 degrees here and we sweat our butts off everyday and we like it. I just recently got moved to a brand new area called Vila Yara, Osasco, which is technically like a city within a city and it is pretty cool but we live 30 minutes away from our area in another area in a house that has 1 bedroom, 1study room, a kitchen and a bathroom-which is very narrow and very long and had mildew all over the walls. I mean this place is so skinny that I sit on the porcelain throne and have to put my feet under the toilet and put your knees out really WIDE!! the space between the wall and the sink is less that a foot and you have to passs that to get to the shower which is funny as well because you have a big old utility sink in the middle of your shower area! Oh and we live with two other Elders as well. If I remember I will have to take some pictures!!! Just for you MOM, I bought a whole liter of Pine Sol and scrubbed the crap out of that place because it smelled like musty urine that had been ther long enought to ferment and then grow legs so that the smell could walk all through the house!

This is my new companion Elder Juan Vazquez who is from Paraguay! He is a really nice guy but it will be an interesting transfer. He is a great teacher and he really does have a great testimony that a lot of people like to hear.

The only other down side of this is that our Chapel is like 50 minutes from our house and I mean it is a long ways away!! Oh and I have the great big pleasure of finding a new place for us to live again!!! The ward is really great and is basically a good mix and they are really excited to ahve us here!

Lastly but not at the least unimportant. I want to wish you all A Merry Christmas with lots of fun and cheer and that you all can remember that the people next to you during the Holidays are the ones we need to serve the most so that we can be at peace within a world that is every minute more troubled and filled with sorrow and fear. Stay firm to the Teachings of Christ because they will never lead us astray because they invite Holy Spirit to Testify and Teach of those things that our human capacity could never come to coprehend the greatness of all that is around us and our potencials as children of God whom Christ was a Child of God as well so we have the same imense capacity and pre-ordination! 

Love you all,

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, December 17, 2012 Spreading a little Christmas Cheer

Ho ho ho ho hot!!! Yes I have never had a hot Christmas in my life!!!! I mean then you put all of the Christmas music and things that I like and relate to then try to put it into a language and a culture where about 0.00% of the people know what snow is. Yep so needless to say you can throw all the parties and put out the decorations but I still dont believe it! I mean it is like April Fool's day for a month so my new phrase is bah humbug and nobody knows what it mens so too bad for them! Christmas on the mission only means that you get to change up the message you give and the fact that people either feel bad for you or they try and throw a fruit cake at you! Yup they actually eat that brick of a thing! They do have one that is made of chocolate that is actually really good but of course they dont throw that one at you! I mean not even the dog will eat the fruit cake.

Other than that I have been playing Tom Sawyer all week long in our house! We live with two other Elders who lets just say are less than my rivals and more than annoying!!! So I started my usual I am tired of doing their stuff so I conned them into doing their stuff and my stuff by saying that I will cook and well they do the dishes and clean the kitchen, sweep the floor, and buy the food! What could be better? Nothing! I get to focus on the work and get to life why my headache goes away and when they keep me up at night I can just keep thinking over and over again, "THE JOKE IS ON YOU!" :) Yup I haven't changed much in this aspect.

We had an activity finally in the church that was very successful and got us some great references but I don't know if I will be staying here it is a very high likelyhood that I will be moving areas or my companion could be. One or the other so stay posted for the next fun part! :)

Love you all and make sure you treat all those you love with a CHRIST-mas like cheer! :)

Monday, December 10, 2012 How much can a missionary walk . . .

How much can a missionary walk if he can't walk?

Só pra vocês saberem que tivermos um batismo esta fim de semana e que os detalhes do batismo quem foi são tudo lá nas perguntas em baixo! :)

 This subject phrase is based on the classic phrase of how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck couldnt chuck wood?

As to let you know I am pretty sure that missionaries dont walk. We glide! I mean it is crazy how much we walk and keep a smiling and having a good time and talk to some of the most rancorous people you could ever imagine but that is okay because they just dont know what they are missing out on! 

Just to let you all know, I am super happy they got new keyboards here at the Lanhouse because now I can type without feeling like I am trying to play wack a mole! 

Also we probably walked 20km everyday and our appointments were falling through like if you tried to but refried beans on the barbeque! Its not FUNNY!!! 

The even funnier part is that my Brazilian companion complains more about the heat than I do. Mostly because St. George or Fresno are way hotter than This place is by about 10 degrees Celcious! Yup that is enough to fry an egg! We had some great adventures this week.

Our lunch appointment that is clear out there fell through and man was I hungry! So we went to the lady who arranges our lunches hoping that she would have some bread and butter just to put a little fuel in the tank! Which she did and we were able to grab her husband and bring him to a lesson that we had which turned out to be great. Then we had to walk clear to the other side of the area which is like 5 miles so we just headed out! The funny part is that we got there, went to an apointment, and still beat him to the chapel in under an hour! I mean like I said we dont walk. I mean the joggers barely pass us and we are hardley breaking a sweat! Missionaries obey the word of wisdom which is: eat like a dog because you really have no idea when your next meal is going to be! ;)

Love you guys and wish you the best and I pray for you all every night that the Lord can be your Guide!

Elder Hendrixson!

Here are some answers to some questions that it is quite possible that a few of you might have so just for gentileza(politeness) here are the answers

How are things in your mission?

The things in our mission are on the brightside. Our Presidente has promised us some major success if we will be obedient, diligient, exact, honor, and honest. Not to mention that if we will invoke blessings in the name of the Lord and walk forth with faith we will see the barriers falling and the walls of Jericho crumbling!

Any mission meetings?

Actually we just had our special Christmas zone conference which was cool and man were there some terrible musical numbers. I mean just think about a mariachi mexican band but put it in portuguese with suits and ties and santa hats. One vocalist, a recorder, a violin, and an acoustic guitar. Ya not exactly what I would think about as a success and our President stood up after they finished singing Joy to the World and commented that after that who wouldnt want to be a muslhim! I lost it! That was the best joke I have heard in a long time!

Who is your current companion?

My current companion is Elder Mota and he is totally awesome. He is from Fortaleza and he is from Ceará.

Did your baptism happen?

Yes the baptism happended and it was great! The family was all there and the entire ward as well with a special presentation by the ward!

Who was it?

His name is Derek, he has 9 years of age and is the son of parents that are less actives that we are in the process of reactivating. Derek really comes to church with his grandparents and he loves it! He comes on his own because of his old testimony. He is a guiding light for all the people in his family and his grandpa is who baptised him and it was a very great and special experience! :)

How did you contact this person?

We contacted him because his grandfather and father asked that we teach him so that he could be baptised. Generally he would have been a baptism for the ward but unfortunately they didnt trust in themselves enough so they called in the professionals. Therefore he was a convert baptism.

How long have you been teaching him/her?  

I taught him for a week but I have been planning this baptism since I got here! The parents kept having marital problems. Fault of planning and the family not coordinating and it ended up being one of those scenarios that we ended up fortifying everyone else and the one who was strong had to suffer and wait!

How is the new ward?

The new ward is good they want a lot of things to happen and they make some very upscale scemes. They also want to have a lot of things happen! This is all nice and we will take all the enthusiasm as is possible.

What's the name of the ward? 

The ward I am in is called Vila Angelica which is in the Trujilo Stake

Monday, December 3, 2012 Put on the racing slicks ...

Put on the racing slicks because here we go!

Well it just so happens that the month of a missionary in December is absolutely CRAZY!!! This way you dont even have a chance to miss your family because you want to be swamped with baptisms and have a white Christmas. Just for you all to know that it is like a 100 degrees down here for Christmas so the only thing white is a monkey suit and a guy in some white pants a white shirt and a white tie! HAHAHA so here we go! Its not like I can visit my family so I am going to become a part of about thirty other families and want to puke my guts out because they are already inviting us for dinner and other stuff like that. i think they are just trying to expand our stomachs!!!! 

This week was a little slow and nothing really big happened other than I found some new fruits that are very yummy!!! :) 

We have a baptism this week as we now have final fixed the marital fighting cycle and they are going to seek the spirit of God at home and not the Spirit of Contention. 

This week will be a good week and many a miracle will happen. Love you all and remember that we should always seek to produce spiritual fruits especially in this Christmas season!