Week 45: Power of Prayer

This week was pretty great! We had two lessons with Rosario and they went super well! Her baptism is in 3 weeks and she's way excited! She came to church again yesterday and all the members keep on asking about her baptism and how excited they are for her! She has already made a lot of friends in the ward. We went over the Word of Wisdom this week, and she said she would drop the coffee and start living the commandment because she loves the Lord. She said it will be hard, but that she will put her trust in the Lord because she knows that He will help her. And that's so true! When we trust Him and show our faith in Him by keeping His commandments, He will bless us! And how great is the joy that comes!

Elder Sasso and I made a goal of praying more often throughout the day. We've had quite a few lessons fail us lately, and we always wonder if the Lord is trying to guide us somewhere else when that happens. Earlier this week, we met this Bolivian dude named Diego. He seemed like a really cool guy and we were super excited to meet with him this past Tuesday! Our lesson was at 9:00 at night, but he texted us at like 8:58 and said he was at work late and couldn't come. Things like this happen sometimes, but it's important that we don't get discouraged or lose hope. Times like these are when we need to keep going and keep working and find other things to do! So Elder Sasso and I sat down on a bench close and put our goal into practice and said a prayer asking for guidance. We decided to go pass by some old investigators on a nearby street. While we were walking, this couple came out of no where and stopped us. The man, Eddy, told us he had a friend back in his country in Bolivia who is a member of the church, but he had never really investigated or talked to his friend about it. He said he was interested in what we do as missionaries. He and his girlfriend invited us over to their piso right then to eat some Bolivian food that they had made earlier. So of course we went! We talked about Jesus Christ and His gospel and they were so receptive! They're such nice people! It was such a miracle running into them! They invited us to come back, so we will probably meet with them again this week. But this experience increased my testimony of the power of prayer. Sometimes our plans will fail us, and sometimes things don't go the way we would like, but when we trust the Lord and pray for guidance and direction, He will give it to us! We just have to show our faith and act! And pray! And read scriptures. And go to church. And drop coffee. And all that fun stuff. I testify that miracles happen when we put our faith into action!

Elder Sasso is awesome. We have a super great relationship! I love his attitude towards this work. He goes home in 3 weeks, but he's still on fire! He doesn't want to stop! He really is a great example of someone who endures to the end. He reminds me of one of my young men's leaders, Brother Mask. Back when I was in young men's, we did a lot of hikes as a quorum, some of which were definitely not easy! But one thing Brother Mask always did when it got hard was relate it to a mission. He would relate the distance left of the hike with the number of months left in the mission. Like when someone would start to slow down or take their backpack off for a while cause it's so heavy, that's when he had the most energy and motivation. "Month 21! Only 3 left! You got this! Finish strong!" Elder Sasso is someone who wants to finish strong. He doesn't drop his pack and just take it easy for the last mile. He just keeps on killing it. Yeah the trail is steep sometimes. Some days are really hard. But we shouldn't lose motivation or get lazy. Elder Sasso understands that. It's inspiring. I want to finish my mission like that. I'm grateful to have been blessed with such a stud of a companion.

So yesterday at church, this random guy in the street walked in and came to sacrament meeting! We talked to him afterward and he said he was just walking by and and saw the church and just felt like he needed to come in! His name is Leo. He said he really enjoyed sacrament meeting! We got his info and we're hoping to teach him this week!

I'm once again grateful for the random talents I worked to develop before the mission. A few months ago, I used my ability to ride a unicycle in a contacting situation. And this week I got to play the ukulele! We were going through a park and we saw this huge group of kids about 16-17 years old and there was a kid in the middle playing a ukulele. Everyone was clapping and singing and stuff. So we walked over there and joined them! I asked if I could give it a try, and she said sure! So I played ukulele and apparently I was playing chords to a famous Latino song, so everyone was singing to it but I pretended that I knew it, but to be honest, I have no idea what song it was. So that was fun. But then they asked about us and who we are and stuff, so we got to talk about the gospel with a bunch of jovenes! Some of them gave us their information and have interest in hearing more! So that was super cool! It's so cool being able to use my talents in the mission field!

And that's all the time I've got! Thank you everyone for all of your emails and support! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Sister Pedraza fed Elder Hendrix and his comps in Madrid
and sent this picture to Mom.