Monday, May 21, 2012

So Elder Hendrixson had his second baptism and this is what he had to share about the experience ...

"Alright so her name is Dominyk and she is 17 years old and is the girlfriend of one of our less actives that has returned because of her and wants to serve and mission and so does she. She really is one of the elect and will be a strong member and it is awesome! Her whole entire family is being prepared because of her and she really is being the best example!! I will write more next week! this week has been crazy! sorry everyone for not writing more!

Love you all and keep up the good work at home,

Elder Hendrixson

Monday, May 7, 2012

I am not sure where the time is going, but I have fallen behind in keeping Elder Hendrixson's blog updated.  So here is what we received from him in early May ...

"My new companion is Elder Luna and he is from Joao Pessoa, Paraiba and he only has two months left on his mission and he is really awesome and I am learning a lot from him and he is learning from me.

Missionaries have been in this house for 7 years. They have never painted it and there is so much smog in the air that the walls are black.

The paint they used is terrible! I can litterally wash it off with a rag! Not to mention they painted it and were not patient so it bubbled, especially on the yellow walls, so I have been filling the settlement cracks and holes in the wall with concrete and then get to use a finishing product to make the wall smooth so that we can paint by saturday! Where I will find the time? Who knows but it will get done. I love having a Dona of the house that whines and complains about everything in life and is happy with nothing and everything is someone elses fault! This has been the story for the last 5 years and they havent painted the house in five years! Finally they gave in and I have the privelage of getting to have both the managers of the house treat me like I know nothing just because I am supposedly an American who has never lifted a finger to work in my life. Sadly, they have no idea what the truth is. Lets just say the patch work of Jair is about that of a five year old!

Needless to say today was a good break from the missionary work but I was glad to have an excuse to leave the house and not have to have Jair sneaking in and out like a phantom with his weezing cause he smoked too many cigarrettes! Man he gets on my nerves really bad!

 Other than that this week has been really great! We have been making a lot of progress with our investigators and they are fullfilling their parts! We had a really interesting lesson where literally Satan incarnate walked in, right in the middle, and then we had to try and salvage. It was a bit of a stressful situation. Our investigator was fighting with his girlfriend but he told her not to come over because we were there . . . well she came anyone and totally killed it so we sat and wasted a little time talking about how it is important to have the spirit in a lesson and how when we are upset with the people we love it is even more important to have the spirit be there to guide and direct that we dont create and environment of contention and that we have our relationship include the Lord and the spirit that we are guided better and in a better direction! haha they even listened and she calmed down a lot. Then we finished the lesson. In route to leaving I wished them both just a vague good luck and a wink and we vamosed as fast as our feet would take us-laughin all the way! Man I dont miss having to deal with that problem one bit!

Love,

Elder Hendrixson

The Joys of Care Packages!

So the first box I sent Elder Hendrixson had a bunch of goodies in it. Figured after a couple of months in Brazil he was probably ready for some American junk food. I have received several messages regarding the contents. Here are a few comments which made me smile ...

In an email he said: "Thanks for the Oreos I ate them and it was like heaven each and everyone!! interestingly it is so humid here that they get all soft if you leave one on the table!"

The letter I received this week started off with "Can I just say that gummy worms were the best idea ever! They are delicious, they don't melt, and they made a great joke. I got my companion to spew this stuff called tere re. Its this stuff called "yerba mate" which tastes exactly the same as alfalfa but he loves the stuff. I guess it really hurts when you rocket pieces of straw through your nose. Anyways, all I did was stick two worms in my nose, then turn around and he just lost it. It was the best. I laughed till I cried and kept laughing. It was probably the highlight of my week."

Hope he gets his second care package soon, if he hasn't already received it. Even though I send it priority, it still takes FOREVER to reach him. And Courtney and Reed sent him one too!! In the process of putting care package number three together this week. :]

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

We received a bunch of letters today - one addressed to each of us personally - his dad, me, Taylor, Sydney, and Grandma and Grandpa!  It was fun to share what he wrote each of us.  Here are some of the things he wrote in my letter ...

"I have found one interesting thing about writing letters to people during my mission. That I love to write letters and that I never tell anyone person the same stories except for the big important ones. Other than that I have experiences that I share with different people and every letter is a different angle and I think that it is fun.  Brazil is a lot like Europe.  The buildings, the structures, the way people drive, how the people spend their time ...  They paint things bright funny colors.  Its about the partying and the fun not the house or the quality of living.  I find it really interesting.  Everything here has a gate!  Not to mention what looks like one house usually leads into 10 houses and you just clap or holler a name to get them to come out.  Everything here is concrete, and these really wimpy looking bricks.  They throw up 20 story buildings like gingerbread houses.  It is pretty impressive.  I find it fascinating.  I have decided that I want to take an architecture class.

"I think you would like Brazil.  Its not too hot and its not too cold and you can wear whatever you want all year round, but for me I would rather have the heat and cold and the country than be in a huge over populated city with really bad traffic and the only problem is that unless you buy american products, Brazilian products are {not very good}... They have some really good fruit here.  I am sure Brazil has something else good that is produced here but I have no idea how Sao Paulo ever made it to being the 3rd largest city in the world.  It is weird though.  The oranges here are green and yellow.  I have never seen an orange one.  I am gonna drop a lot of weight on my mission I can just tell but I would mind being about 160 or 170 again :)  That means I will lose 80lbs. during my mission.  That would be a little strange.  I would come back a whole new person or lack of a whole person. hehehe.

"Other than the little frustrations life is good.  I am learning more about the gospel everyday and my patience and capacity to just let things go is growing immensely not to mention trying to be optimistic has been a trial but all I have to do is think about what sharing this message with people could do to change their lives.  I wish I could speak Portuguese fluently already cause I would be so much more effective and be making so much more of a difference here but I truly am doing my best and I am learning to accept that, which is definitely one of those mountains Elder Eyring spoke about.  Also Mosiah 4:27 is a good part to remember when trying to accept that your best is accepted."

Mosiah 4:27  And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.