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.

Week 59: Bautizar Soñando

Maria's baptism in Madrid.

This has been quite the week! 

I'll start out with the highlight... MARIA GOT DUNKED!! Man I love that woman. She was so prepared and golden. We had a lesson with her the night before and talked about her baptismal service and she was just so excited! She has developed such a strong testimony of the gospel. She has changed. She's not the same Maria we met 2 months ago. I remember the first day we met her in the street. We had a short conversation and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was super nice and very receptive. And she has just been golden ever since. She understands the gospel. She knows Joseph Smith was really a prophet. And ah! she's the most amazing Dominican lady you'll ever meet. 

We did the baptism right after church yesterday. And it went so well! The whole ward stayed for it. The members are so supportive and loving and they've just done such a good job at welcoming Maria into the ward! My companion Elder Lopez baptized her, and I had the privilege of confirming her. At the end of the service, Maria shared her testimony and man it was beautiful. I LOVE THAT WOMAN. Teaching her has strengthened my testimony of the power of the gospel. Throughout my mission, I've been able to witness several times that the gospel really does change hearts. And I've definitely witnessed it with Maria. I KNOW this is the true church of God that has been restored on the earth. Living the teachings of Jesus Christ will change you. I know that God wants us to be happy. And in order to achieve that happiness, he has given us the gospel. There is nothing else we can do on this earth that will give us true eternal happiness than that which living the principles of the gospel gives us. So live it! It works! Just ask Maria. She's a champ.

That night, we went to Maria's house with the hermanas and had a big Dominican dinner. And man it was glorious. I don't know if I've said this enough times, but I LOVE THAT WOMAN.

We had a zone conference this week! It was so good! We talked about using the Book of Mormon to answer questions of the soul. It was a good reminder that the Book of Mormon really does answer questions. Sometimes we find answers to questions that we didn't even know we had. I love using the Book of Mormon in teaching so much! I know that book really is a testament of Jesus Christ, as well as a testament of the fact that God really does love us. That's why he gave us the book. Because he loves us! Anyway, we did a lot of practices in the meeting. We practiced introducing the Book of Mormon as something that helps us find answers. And it was a good learning experience. I love zone conferences. President Pack is an inspired man. I always learn something from his counsel that I can apply in the way I work to help me improve. I'm grateful for such a supportive president who has such a love for the Book of Mormon. I'm excited to strive this week and use the Book of Mormon even more in teaching to help people find answers!

Yesterday at church, Hermano Rojas gave an awesome talk that I wanted to share. He's a counselor in the bishopric. He talked about "Sunday members." As members of the church, we need to remember that we are followers of Christ EVERY day and not just Sundays. What are we doing outside of church? We need to always use the atonement, and not just on Sundays when we take the sacrament.

Transfers are this weekend! I might get a new comp. Updates to come.

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

The subject line is actually hilarious. You gotta know Maria to understand it though. 

Elder Lopez baptized Maria and Elder Hendrix confirmed her.

Week 58: Kevin the jefe

Kevin got baptized this week! We went over to his house earlier this week to teach him how to tie a tie, and he introduced us to his family. He lives with his parents and his two sisters. We got to get to know them a little bit and they seem like super nice people! His mother expressed to us her gratitude for what we've taught him. She doesn't know much about the church, but she explained to us that she has seen a change in Kevin since we started teaching him. He's a lot more respectful at home and just a better person in general. I know
the gospel has changed that kid! He asked us to start teaching his family, so we had our first appointment with them yesterday! They're really receptive and they're down to listen! Anyway, his family all came to support him at his baptism and they seemed to have enjoyed the service! They came to church the next day with him and stayed all three hours! So we're super excited to continue visiting them. They're Bolivian so they make bomb food too. So that's a bonus.

Elders Hendrix and Lopez and Kevin's baptism

We had a sweet lesson with Maria last night. She was able to recognize the spirit for the first time in her life. She said she always thought she knew what it's like, but she explained to us that after last night, the spirit had a whole new meaning for her. So that was super cool! She's a champ! We're super excited to help her continue progressing and get dunked! More updates to come... Oh! She made us arepas yesterday too, and for that reason, I am grateful. I love those things.

So district meeting this week was intense. I invited Veronica from my first area to come to the meeting and pretend to be an investigator. I wanted to teach the restoration as a district so we could observe how other companionships teach and such. Practices with missionaries are difficult sometimes cause it's hard to accurately play the role of an investigator. So I invited Veronica and told everyone that she was a real investigator of some other missionaries. And Veronica did super well! She asked some hard questions during the lesson. It got everyone thinking. It was a cool teaching and learning experience! And the lesson was super powerful. Afterwards, we ended, and then I told everyone that Veronica is actually a member. But it was cool
because Veronica gave us feedback and shared with us her thoughts.

And that's about it. The weather is finally getting cooler so that's awesome!! I'm gonna need to break out the sweaters soon.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Week 57: Sick and Afflicted

Well the 57th week of the mission sure was interesting... And slow. And really quite miserable to be honest. I woke up Wednesday morning projectile vomiting, and it didn't stop until Saturday. And that morning, as soon as I thought all was well and I was finally recovering, my companion decided to jump on board and throw up too. It was great. And the exact same thing happened with the hermanas in our ward. Hermana Wihongi started dying the same time as me, and then our comps decided to die right after we started getting better. So basically, the work here in Barrio 4 has been pretty rough lately.

We're pretty sure we've come to the conclusion that it was some food that a family in the ward fed all of us on Tuesday. But idk. But man, it sucked. Throwing up, super high fever, ginormous pills (I hate taking pills). I couldn't eat anything at all. Literally everything I would eat or drink would just come right back up. So I lost pretty much all the weight I've gained on my mission! So I guess that's a plus. Oh and I grew a pretty sweet beard. And man that thing was full and luscious. So yeah it's been a slow week! However, we did manage to get a few lessons in before all of this nonsense happened. We met with Maria and Kevin and helped them prepare for their baptismal interviews which will happen this week! They both feel confident and they're really excited! Their baptism will be this Saturday at 3:00! They both were at church yesterday and man they're just solid. I'm so excited for them! 

Anyway, that's about it for this week! Sorry my emails are getting so boring. Also here is a quote that I really wanted to share because I know and love the Lord:

                       I now can say with all certainty
                       That I know and love the Lord.
                       I can testify with them of old
                       As I preach His holy word.
                   I know what He felt in Gethsemane
                       Is too much to comprehend.
                       I know He did it all for us;
                       We have no greater Friend.
                   I know that He will come anew
                       With power and in glory.
                       I know I will see Him once again
                       At the end of my life’s story.
                   I’ll kneel before His wounded feet;
                       I’ll feel His Spirit glow.
                       My whispering, quivering voice will say,
                       “My Lord, my God, I know.”
                                                     -Boyd K. Packer

Oh, and here's a video of my bishop shooting me with an airsoft gun last week.

Elder Hendrix

Week 56: Dunked at 85

Elder Hendrix and Lopez perform baptisms.

The hermanas in our ward have been teaching a Spanish family and they were finally baptized this weekend! And man it was intense. The family consists of two brothers in their 60s and their 85 year old mother. That's right. 85 year old Spanish lady got dunked. I had the honor of performing the baptism, and dude I was so nervous. It took like 3 people to get this poor old lady in the font. It was epic, but hey it worked out! She's clean now! But let me tell you, it wasn't easy. But they're such an awesome family! They're very happy with
their decisions! They got confirmed in church on Sunday and I had the opportunity to do the confirmations as well! I love seeing people receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and seeing how much this gospel really can change people!

Here's some updates on a few of our investigators...

Kevin. Kevin's progressing really well! We had a lesson with him last night and we watched the restoration movie. He has a solid testimony of Joseph Smith. We're so excited for his baptism! His baptismal interview will be this weekend.

Maria. This woman will NOT stop giving us morir soñando. It makes me feel awful every time,  but hey she's an awesome person. She's reading the scriptures and keeping commitments and she's just solid! She will be baptized with Kevin on the 17th.

Joaquin. This crazy guy isn't getting any less crazy. He still sees prophets everywhere he goes and has visions of wizards and stuff. But he's still a great guy! It's been really interesting teaching him. But he's got some solid potential! He has come to church a few times and has liked everything we've shared with him.

And that's about all that happened this week! It's still blazing hot and I sleep with frozen water bottles every night, but hey I can't complain! This is the work of the Lord!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Hendrix