Week 64: Siguiendo a Nefi

We had a GREAT lesson this week with an investigator named Silvana. Silvana is 27 and from Bolivia. She's Kevin's sister and she's a champ. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her to a few weeks ago, and it was a little difficult getting in contact with her after that. But she finally called us back this week and said she had questions and needed help! So we met with her and Kevin in her home and she had read the first few chapters already. She said the story is so interesting and that she wants to understand the principles that Nephi is teaching. We read through chapter three and four. I love those two chapters so much! 

Silvana explained to us that she loves the example of Nephi. He and his brothers were given a task that wasn't easy. His brothers complained and wanted to go back, but Nephi stayed faithful and obedient and listened to his father. His unshakable faith is so inspiring. Silvana explained that one thing that stuck out to her was how Nephi and his brothers had to attempt obtaining the plates several times until the Lord delivered Laban into their hands. She basically taught herself that the Lord really does do His part after we do all that we can. When we put in the effort instead of just giving up after the first attempt, we will see miracles! Anyway, Silvana is a champ and we're so grateful for her desires to continue learning! The spirit is always present in those lessons, and I know that she recognizes it.

Ugh time crunch... All is well here in Barrio 4! Time is really flying by. I love this area so much!

Love you all! Have a good week! Send me pictures cause I miss you all.

Elder Hendrix

Week 63: Noche de las Naciones

Last Monday after P-day, we had a cool experience! We were sitting on a bench under a tree looking for an address on our map while it was pouring rain, when out of no where this woman came up to us and asked us if we could help her fix something on her phone. She said she's bad at technology and asked us if we could help her. So of course we did! We started talking and found out she's from the Dominican Republic. We told her we have a good friend from her country (Maria) that always makes us morir soñando. She lit up and said she makes the best morir soñando and we replied by explaining that we're always looking for new ones. She invited us to her house to try it, so we went the very next day and had some! She's super nice. Her name is Delmira. We gave her a Book of Mormon and talked about the restoration of the gospel. She's moving back to her country soon, but she says we can pass her information to the missionaries over there! So that was a cool experience meeting her. Morir soñando never fails when contacting Dominicans. 

On Saturday, we had a talent show thing. In the church in Spain, each ward does an activity every October called La Noche de las Naciones (night of the nations). We did it when I was in Torrejon last year. Since there are so many nationalities in Spain, everyone brings a typical plate from their country and we have a big multi-cultural dinner. So that was super cool! We had a talent show before the dinner, and it was really good! The whole activity was just a huge success. We had 6 investigators come and they loved it! All of them actually ended up staying later than us. 

I'm so grateful for the member support in this ward. They're so welcoming and just take over for us a lot. I've never served in a ward with this much member support. There are a lot of awesome families! The Vaca family invited us over for dinner one day this week. Hermana Vaca invited a couple that she works with that she wanted to introduce to the missionaries! It's a young Dominican couple and they're way awesome! We talked about our purpose as missionaries for a little bit and gave them a Book of Mormon, and then we all played UNO for a while and it was so fun. We get so competitive. And the couple totally trusts us! It was just a good natural conversation and then we played a game and had fun. We're going to begin teaching them this week. They came to the ward activity and had a lot of fun! We enjoyed getting to know them better! Moral of the story: Introduce your friends to missionaries because it's 1000 times more effective when the members are involved. Members have friends who trust them, which means they feel more comfortable if the member introduce them to the missionaries. And thus it is. 

And so yeah.. The work is going well! We're having lots of lessons and teaching lots of people and staying real busy! Elder Escobar and I are killin' it out here! It's been really rainy all week, but that's ok because we're almost always inside homes anyway because there's so much work here so it's all good. 

Love you all! Have an awesome week! Send me photos of your faces.

Elder Hendrix

Week 62: Blessings of Seminary

We have a recent convert named Luis. He's a stud. He's 17 and he's from Venezuela and speaks perfect English. He learned most of it just from being with the missionaries. I love that dude. He's a great example to me. He has a rough life at home, and has had some challenges seeing his family suffer in his country. He's the only member in his family. He met the missionaries a few months ago when they invited him to play futbol. He began taking the discussions and was baptized in June. He's an awesome member missionary. He's always wanting to help us with lessons. He accompanies us about every day. 

Earlier this week, we had a really good lesson with him that I'd like to share. The youth here in this part of Madrid are very blessed to have a seminary teacher. There are a lot of parts of the world where seminary isn't offered because the church is so small or because there isn't anyone to teach it. The church here in Spain isn't huge, but it's growing. And here in Madrid, the youth are able to attend seminary. Luis has been struggling with his attendance. He has had very little desire to wake up early and go study scriptures. 

It made me think about my own seminary experience when I was in high school. There were plenty of days when I headed to seminary (or chose not to go at all) without that positive mindset that we need in order to receive the fullness of blessings that come from attending seminary. Seminary seriously is a blessing. It's such a great way to build your testimony at a young age. I know that my decision to fully participate in seminary has blessed my life. It didn't only bless me during my high school career, but It has affected me throughout my mission. And I know that I will look back several years from now and think about how blessed I was to be able to attend seminary and to have had taken advantage of such an amazing program. 

For those of you currently enrolled in seminary, I invite you to keep going! Seminary is the best! Learning as much as you can about the gospel at a young age is the best thing you can do right now! Continue attending and participating and I promise you that your love for seminary and the gospel will grow. And to those of you who are struggling with desires to attend, I invite you to stop doubting and just go! It will be the best decision you make in high school! Pray for strength and ask Heavenly Father to help you develop the desire to go. If you do your part and act, He will do His part and help you. The seminary program was organized by inspired revelation. I know that's true! Therefore, go. 

Anyway, we had a nice discussion with Luis about how important seminary is, and it went really well! He's a great kid and I know that his decision to attend will bless him forever! God wants us to be happy. And when we do things that he asks us to do, we will have that happiness! And who doesn't want to be happy?

And that's about all the time I've got. Have an awesome week everyone! Send me letters 'cause letters are nice.

Elder Hendrix

Week 61: The Work Continues

Sorry this is gonna be another short email. We went to the zoo today and that took up most of P-day. But hey, it was awesome!! They had kangaroos and pandas there, so that was pretty sweet.

So here's an update on my new companionship! Elder Escobar is awesome! He's from El Salvador but lives in California. We get along super well! I love that dude! All we do inside piso is sing songs and make dance videos. He's awesome. His Spanish is way good too, so it helps me a ton. I'm super excited for this transfer. We work really well together and we're excited for another good week this week.

We keep visiting Maria pretty frequently. She's doing great! She has the missionaries over to eat Dominican food like twice a week. She's so awesome! I love that woman. She's super funny. We play Uno with her sometimes and it gets pretty hilarious. Every time she puts a card down, she thinks she won. Haha! It's awesome. 

Ugh no time. Sorry this is another short one. I'll end with my testimony of the importance of this work. I'm so grateful to be here as a missionary sharing the gospel! I love teaching so much and it makes me so happy to see the change that can happen in people if they apply into their lives the principles of the gospel. I know that the gospel blesses us! God has given it to us because He loves us! 

Here's a picture! Have a good week!

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix with his district at the Madrid zoo.

Week 60: Our Potential

"Treat people as if they have already become the person that they have the potential to be." This is something that hit me hard this weekend in Conference. In the priesthood session, President Eyring talked about treating others in a way that helps them recognize their potential. We need to help people recognize the fact that they really are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father who knows each of them personally. Understanding that simple doctrine is so powerful. Our Heavenly Father really does care for us and wants to bless us. For that reason, he has given us His son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, we can develop faith, repent, be baptized, progress, and continue striving to keep the commandments, and eventually become perfect. And that applies to everyone. We have so much potential! So why not share this knowledge with everyone by the way we treat them? The examples we set can go such a long way. Treat others like they're sons and daughters of God, because that's exactly what they are!

I don't have a ton of time today cause of transfers... My companion Elder Lopez got transferred to a different area. My new comp is Elder Escobar. He's from Huntington Beach and plays guitar like a champ, so I'm sure we'll get along just fine haha.

Until next week! Love you all! 

Elder Hendrix

Logan's district is happy to get Snickers.

New companionships on transfer day.