Week 81: Stegosaurus Soares

We had zone conference this week! I loved it! Elder Ulisses Soares from the Seventy came to the islands to have a meeting with our zone. He's the coolest guy! His native language is Portuguese, but man his English is almost perfect. We talked a lot about goal setting and how we can improve in order to reach the goals we set. We had a discussion about why goals are even important. A thought that I had was that goals help us recognize the progress and changes we are making. If we are constantly reflecting and seeing where we are with our goals, we will be able to recognize that we really are working. Sometimes it doesn't feel like we've come a long way, but when we look back at the things we have already done, we'll be able to see that we really are putting in effort. Elder Soares talked about how sometimes as missionaries we get down on ourselves and think we're not doing enough. But that's why goals are important! If we make reasonable goals that will help us stretch, and we constantly review our goals, then we will recognize our progress. And even if it's little progress, it's still progress! We just gotta keep on having faith that we can reach them! Elder Soares is awesome. The meeting was very personal. There were only about 30 of us missionaries and everyone was able to participate. I'm grateful for Elder Soares' instruction and counsel and I'm excited to apply it! I was asked to provide a musical number too which was cool. I sang Brillan Rayos de Clemencia. It went pretty well!

Anyway, as I mentioned last week, the whole zone conference thing was in Gran Canaria. So the whole zone had to travel over there. However, I had to travel 2 days before everyone because I have to do exchanges with the missionaries there once a transfer. So I got to spend a day with an old companion of mine, Elder Trassierra. It was really weird working with him again. We were companions in Galicia about a year ago. We didn't get along very well, but it seems that we have both changed quite a bit since then. During our exchange, we talked a lot and reflected on our companionship and the things we had learned from each other. We actually had a pretty fun day together! We taught several lessons and talked to a ton of people in the street. It was a good day!

Elder Hendrix attended Maria's concert.

The work is going very well here in Tenerife! We have several investigators that are doing great! One is Maria. I believe I've talked a little bit about her before. She's from Barcelona and we've been teaching her for about 6 months now. She's the nicest woman. We've had some awesome lessons with her. The only problem though is the principle of faith. She says she needs more information and needs to study more in order to know if this is what she needs. Its weird, because she has said she knows that everything is true. She believes the church has been restored, she believes that Jose Smith was a prophet, and she knows the book of Mormon is true. So in our last lesson, we asked her what is preventing her from being a member of the church. She said nothing! She said she knows it's true, but she keeps on having little doubts come up. We're working on helping her focus more on her faith rather than her doubts. She's so close! Adversary just works hard to knock her down. But I know she'll be baptized soon! She's the sweetest woman. She's part of a local choir here in Los Cristianos and had a concert on Saturday night, and she invited us, so we asked President if we could go and support her, and he said yes! So we went to see her, and we brought Mayalene and Miguel with us. Those two are doing great as well. They're continuing to read and pray together. We had a lesson with them this week and did a lot of follow up to see how they're doing with everything. We asked how they're feeling about baptism and if they've talked about it. They said themselves that they're so close! They want to do it. They feel good about it! They're going to pray together about setting a baptismal date. They just want to continue investigating and getting to know the church a little more. They're so prepared! They've been coming to church and ward activities and they've really been enjoying getting to know the members! We're doing a noche de hogar with the Villalobos this week and they asked us to bring Mayalene and Miguel, so we're really excited for that! Mayalene and Miguel always tell us how welcome they feel here and how much they love the support they receive. I love that couple! We're gonna go on some sick double dates when I come back to Tenerife down the road. 

Speaking of the Villalobos, Hermano Villalobos gave us a call the other day and asked us to come over and help him lift something heavy up to his piso which is on the third floor. So we gladly showed up and he was there waiting outside of a moving truck. He opened up the door and there was a piano inside. He said it was for his daughter. I asked him if it was her birthday or something, and his answer was "no, she's just a good daughter." Hermano Villalobos is awesome. Anyway, we had a fun time getting that thing up three flights of stairs... But hey we did it! So that was a fun little service we got to do. A member in the ward named Anna heard about it, so she came up to us at church last Sunday and said it was her turn. So we went to her home a few days ago and helped her clean her house. Service is fun! And it makes the members happy. And when members are happy, the missionaries are fed. When missionaries are fed, they work harder. What am I trying to say? If there was a Chikfila here on Tenerife, the missionaries would work extra hard and the members would be extra happy. 

The weather here continues to please me. The back door has been open for about 3 months now... And it will stay open. Because the ocean breeze is perfect. And the gospel is perfect. And teaching the gospel by the ocean is also perfect. And I live on an island. And that is perfect.

Well that's about all I got for this week! I thank you all for the love and support you give! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Week 80: Blankets are Neat

Today has been super busy, so I'm on a time crunch!

So for the past month, our stake has been doing a blanket drive to send to Syria for those who need them. We collected blankets for like 4 weeks, and on Saturday we all traveled to La Laguna in the north to put them all in boxes and prepare them to be shipped off. It was a ton of fun! There were about 50 members from all of Tenerife that came to help. In total, the stake collected almost 3000 blankets. I loved serving that day! There was so much energy there and everyone was really excited to help these people in Syria!

The missionaries meet in La Laguna to pack boxes of
blankets to send to Syria.

This week has been weird. I had to fly to Gran Canaria again to do exchanges. So I've been here since Monday. And actually, we have mission tour tomorrow, so our whole zone traveled here today. We changed p day to today and played soccer all day! I'm pretty dead right now. But I'm so excited for mission tour tomorrow! Elder Ulisses Soares from the presidency of the 70 is coming to speak to our zone.  I'll have to report next Monday! 

Ugh so little time today. Hope you all have a great day! I promise my next email will be more detailed! Love you all!

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix on an exchange with a previous
companion, Elder Trassierra.

Week 79: Thomas the Train (part 2)

Saturday night was really cool. Thomas baptized his son! Oscar turned 8 a few weeks ago, and wanted so badly to have his dad baptize him. As I shared with you a few weeks ago, Thomas is a train, and not even his disability can prevent him from fulfilling his sons' desires and showing him how much he loves him. Thomas came extra early so we could help him get changed to his baptismal clothes. We lifted him up into the font, and there was another member inside to help him baptize. Thomas was so grateful for the request of his son. He's such an inspiring man. He has so much love for the gospel and just wants to be happy and serve! The baptism went really well. Thomas did a great job. And as soon as Oscar was lifted out of the water, he had the biggest smile on his face! He gave his dad a big hug. Those two are incredible. They're amazing examples to me. I was talking to Thomas afterwards and asked him how he felt baptizing his son. He said he was never nervous about it. "I may not have legs, but I have a son. And I love him." I'm grateful for the faith of this man and the great desires he has. 

Speaking of faith, we had a great district meeting this week! We talked a lot about strengthening our faith to find new people to teach. When I was younger, my mom explained to me that exercising faith is like wrapping a present. I can go find a nice gift for someone and wrap it up and make it look super nice, but the action of faith would be giving it to someone. Relating that to missionary work, we have this fancy wrapped gift, or gospel message, and it needs to be given away. If we just carry it around without presenting it to others, it won't be accepted. The first person we offer it to might not accept, but that doesn't mean nobody will. It just means we've got to keep on presenting it to people until we find someone. And I know that those people are out there! We just have to have faith and take action and give away that gift that has been so neatly wrapped. We had a great discussion about this analogy in district meeting and we're excited to get to work this transfer and share the gift! 

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Hendrix 

Thomas baptized his son in Tenerife.

Elder Hendrix enjoys frangollo, a dessert made
by his nonmember friend, Jose.

Week 78: Noah was right

I gotta start with Mayalene and Miguel. I love those two so much. They're the most incredible people ever! We had another great lesson with them this week. We talked about the sacrament and the atonement. We helped them understand what the sacrament is for and why it's so important. They're continuing to ask good questions. They're progressing really well! They really love the Book of Mormon. We asked them about their favorite parts so far, and Mayalene talked about Lehi's vision of the tree of life. She explained every little detail of the story. Teaching them is always such a cool experience. We've had some really spiritual lessons with them. 

They came to church yesterday too! Gospel principles class was pretty cool with them. When the teacher ended the class, Miguel said he felt very grateful for all that the members and missionaries have taught them. He said that he thought he came here from Cuba with Mayalene to look for better work, but it seems like he came for something more. They recognize the spirit every time they're in the church. They've explained to us how welcome they feel. It was hard for them to leave their country when they moved here a few months ago, but they've told us that developing relationships with the members here, as well as being introduced to the gospel, has been very comforting. Ah, I LOVE THAT COUPLE. We talked a little about about baptism when we taught the this week. They said they would like to do it, and feel very strongly that this is the right path for them, but they want to continue with the discussions for a little longer until they set a date. Which is totally normal. We don't want to rush them into it or make them feel pressured. Updates to come! They made us Cuban food this week. It was super good! And I think today we're going mini golfing with them. 

We've started playing futbol on Saturday mornings. We used to play every week, but we had to stop because a lot of people were busy during the holidays. But we're back at it again! We played this last Saturday and had several people come, including Mayalene and Miguel! The hermanas had a few investigators there too. Several less actives and members in the ward came, so we had some success with that! I'm excited to continue playing each week. I think we should have even more people there this weekend. I need to get into shape too! I was dying last week, and we only played for about an hour. 

So here's an interesting story! There was a baptism yesterday at the church. There's a woman in the ward whose record was lost or something, so she had to get rebaptized. They were planning on doing the ordinance right after church, so they started filling the font in the morning cause it takes several hours...or so they thought. During the last hour, the bishop was having an interview in his office, when he noticed some water coming in under the door. He went to open it, and the entire hallway was completely covered. He grabbed my companion and I out of priesthood so we could help clean it up quickly before church ended and people noticed, but it was too late. It was way more than just the hallway. It was the entire church basically. Everybody was upstairs cause that's where the classrooms are. But man, it was a disaster. Apparently the person filling the font forgot about it. There were probably 3 inches of water throughout the building. There was so much water. I kid you not, we used buckets to scoop water out of the building. It was that deep. It took over 3 hours to get all of the water out, and that was with about 10 people working. Actually, I lied. We didn't get it all out. But we tried. But man there's some serious water damage in there. We had to use all the dust pans to transfer the water into buckets and then to pour outside. It was such a mess. But hey,the baptism happened! I've never seen a baptismal service quite like that though. It was definitely interesting. Everyone blamed relief society for having such a spiritual lesson. It made everyone cry literal rivers.

Our ward mission leader, Arcely Camargo, is absolutely insane at ping pong. He's from Uruguay and is in his 60s, but man he is impossible to beat. Last week, I played him like 5 times, and my best score was 3-15. 

And that's about it for this week. Love you all!!

Elder Hendrix