Week 88: Update from the Canaries

This is the coolest mission ever. I get to meet people from all over the world here. Tuesday morning, we went to street contact and knock doors in a small pueblo for a few hours. In those 2 short hours, I met a Peruvian, Argentinian, Nigerian, a family from Switzerland, some Bolivians, half the population of Senegal, a bunch of Chileans, Italians, a German volleyball team, a cat, a brick, a sweaty Colombian with only 8 fingers, and a Swedish fish. There are so many cultures here and it's so cool to learn a little about each of them. I feel like I've basically served in every country in South America haha. I've tried all the typical food from each country too which is awesome. This mission is also really weird though because you would think that Spain would be filled with Spaniards. Wrong. I've actually met very few Spaniards in my mission. Madrid is all South Americans. And Tenerife is like half Italians and half Canarians.

This week was a good week! It's starting to get really hot. The Canarias get heat waves every once in a while that are accompanied by a sand invasion from the Sahara. A few days ago it was low 70s, but yesterday it was like 93. It's really weird. They usually last like 2 or 3 days. So yeah this week has been brutal as far as the weather goes. It's super humid too which is also killer. Makes me miss dry Arizona heat.

Sacrament meeting yesterday was really cool! There were a ton of tourists here for Holy Week. This entire week has been a holiday. Nobody has work or goes to school. So we had a full chapel. The four of us missionaries were all in different classes during Sunday school so we could help translate. I got to be with the youth to translate for this 17 year old Scottish. He made several comments in the class that I had to translate for, and man it was rough. I still don't believe that their language is English. I can't understand half of it. I don't know how you do it Elder Oxspring. Spanish is way easier than Scottish English. Either I just don't understand what they're saying, or it's just straight gibber talk. I don't know man. But hey they're nice people. :)

Mayalene and Miguel came to church! Man I love that couple. They're amazing. The ward members keep asking us when they're gonna be baptized because they would be such incredible leaders haha. Which is totally true. And our ward needs more leaders! They're doing really good. They're such amazing examples to me. As I've explained previously, Mayalene works taking care of an abuela in a small pueblo up north. She has to live in her house. She starts working Monday at 6 am and gets off Sunday at 9 am. So she and Miguel only get to be together for barely 21 hours a week. But the amazing thing is that they come straight to church when she's off work so they can get there on time for sacrament meeting. They know that it's what they need. I'm sure it would be easy to not go, as I'm sure it's not the first thing that the world would do when they only get to be with their spouse for that day. But Mayalene and Miguel feel the spirit there and they know that it's what their Heavenly Father wants them to do. We met with Miguel this week, who is still living here in Los Cristianos, and we talked a lot about baptism. He explained that they have discussed the subject a lot lately, and that they've decided they want to do it. They're ready. So we talked about a date. We're gonna have a lesson with the both of them this week so we can talk about it together. Updates to come! But woah they're so awesome. I'm grateful that they're recognizing the blessings of making sacrifices by coming to church. I know that they will be blessed for it!

Beach volleyball went really well this week! We play every Saturday morning. This past week, lots of new people came! A member family, the Villalobos, came and brought a friend! We also had several of our investigators there! This activity is continuing to grow and we're really grateful for it! We love getting together with those we teach as well as the members to have fun together and play some sports. It's gonna be tough getting transferred from this area. Apart from living on a beach, the people here are awesome. We have some awesome friends, and the Villalobos too have always been so supportive with our activities we plan.

Here's an interesting experience I had this week. I had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview for one of the hermana's investigators named Jose. He's a really cool guy. He had an interesting question that made me think. With his permission, I'll share that he has had a difficult time overcoming a smoking addiction. It's been a rough battle for him to leave cigarettes. He has been smoking for over 30 years, so it has been a hard change for him, and continues to be a struggle. As we were discussing the Word of Wisdom in the interview, we discussed that the our bodies are gifts from a God who loves us. He expects us to take care of them and to do the things that promote good health. However, perhaps others have had the same question that Jose asked me: We know that we will all resurrect with perfect bodies (Alma 40:23). So if we'll eventually have a perfect body, what's the purpose in working so hard to take care of the one we currently have? Smoking is not good for the body, but why is it still so bad even though we won't have these imperfect bodies forever? Well, God promises blessings to those who keep the commandments. One of those commandments is the Word of Wisdom. He wants us to be happy, and He promises us everlasting joy only if we do what He has asked us to do. A scripture that comes to mind is Mosiah 2:41 Read it. I, like Nephi, don't understand the meaning of all things. But I do understand the fact that God loves us and wants us to be able to live in His presence again. And to do so, it is essential that we keep His commandments, which is an expression of faith. For some, the Word of Wisdom can be a trial of faith. But we must remember that endurance through trials results in blessings.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter and ate lots of recess peanut butter cups for me. Those don't exist here. :/ Neither does Chick-fil-A. But man the bread here is bomb. Until next week!

Elder Hendrix

Week 87: Mapping out salvation

First I'd like to say that I'm like a level 9 chef now. I made the most incredible chicken quesadillas ever this week.

So we've started doing something cool with the members to help them get involved in missionary work. Every time we visit them, we take out a map of the area. The members know their towns better than we do, so we ask them to choose a street on the map where we can go contacting immediately afterwards and try to find someone to teach. It's really cool and it really helps the members feel supportive and they seem to be a lot more encouraged. For example, this week we ate lunch with Anna and Mario, and Italian couple in the ward, and we asked them to choose a street for us. We went to that street right after the eating appointment and talked to everyone we saw. That night when we finished the day, we gave Anna and Mario a call to report on how it went. We explained to we received a few phone numbers of people and that we would continue letting them know how their progress goes. It made them feel so happy and involved! They were really excited that we had found people to share the gospel with! And it's all because they helped us find an area to talk to people in. It's a cool little activity we're really excited for. I feel that it has been a great trust builder too. The members see that we're here to work and that we need their help. I feel strongly that this technique will result in miracles. The members are beginning to better understand the beauty of missionary work and the need of participation.

As always, we played beach volleyball on Saturday morning with our friends and some members. This past Saturday went really well! We had several new people come that we haven't seen in a while. I think it's becoming a pretty popular activity. We love spending time with those we teach and just have fun. We played some soccer too. My calves are super sore from running so much in sand.

Yesterday was a great day at church! We had several investigators there! Mayalene and Miguel are once again regularly attending, which is awesome! It's so difficult to teach them though because work destroys lives here. Mayalene's only time off is literally Sunday at 9 am to Monday at 6 pm. She works 24 hours a day for more than 6 days a week. She takes care of an old abuela and can't accept visits from us in the lady's house. However, we're very grateful and happy that she and Miguel continue to come to church and take 3 hours out of their only time they have to see each other in the week. They're progressing well and they're continuing to read and pray. We still have a few things to teach them until they can be baptized. Actually, it's been quite a while since the last time we taught them together. Work is just preventing a lot. But we're continuing to keep them in our prayers! I love those two. They're such great examples of people who really understand the promise given in Matthew 6:33. If we follow God and do all that he asked us to do, everything else we need will come.

Today for p day we did an awesome hike! Hermano Cena, one of the members here, is the coolest guy ever. He takes us on the coolest hikes to see the coolest places. We hiked a mountain called Masca. It took forever and my legs are dead, but it was so worth it. It took about 7 hours, but the views were insane! I got lots of cool pictures.
Hermano Cena is such an awesome guy. He's one of the first Italian Eagle Scouts. That man is way smart and he's a very dedicated member of the church. We love the support he gives us!

Love you all! Make some chicken quesadillas.

Elder Hendrix

Elders Hendrix and McDade in a cave on Masca.

The view from Masca.

Elders Hendrix and McDade with the Hermanas on Masca.

Elder Hendrix at the top of Masca.

Week 86: Stay faithfully in the choir

I loved general conference this weekend! I have to say that one of my favorite talks was Elder Holland's in the Saturday  afternoon session. He spoke about being part of Christ's choir and singing the song of redeeming love. I especially loved when he spoke about the requirements of singing. "There is a place [in the choir] for everyone who loves God and honors his commandments." It doesn't matter your age, race, likes, dislikes, background, marital status, sexual orientation, etc. God wants and needs more singers. And each and every one of us is invited to participate. And even if you join the choir without having any singing experience, that's perfectly ok. Because the choir is designed to help us develop and be strengthened. "Come as you are, but don't plan to stay that way." Christ's atoning sacrifice molds us into what God wants us to become. So don't forget to remember Him and trust Him! If you're not a dedicated choir member, I invite you to recommit and listen to the choir director. Because He knows what will help you grow.

I guess I turned 20 this week or something. Weird. It was a really fun day though! To start, the hermanas made me French toast and brought it to our apartment cause they're awesome. Then we played beach volleyball in the morning with our investigadores and friends (just like every Saturday), and then one of our investigators, Jose, bought us smoothies. Later, the Villalobos family surprised us and took us out to eat lunch in a restaurant on the boardwalk by the beach. So that was really cool! I ate some real tasty chicken. Then, they took us to the church where they had prepared a cake to eat. It was super good! I love the Villalobos. They're the nicest people ever. Then we had general conference in the afternoon, and then had a lesson with Miguel, and then some more members wanted to take us out to eat dinner. So it was a pretty good day! Lots of food, lots of pictures, more food, friends, and food. Can't believe I'm 20 already. It's weird. So yeah my birthday was overall pretty fun! I'm grateful for such loving members here. They do so much for us. The only sad part of the day was that I received my flight itinerary to go home. It's scary haha. Looks like I'll be seein yall on July 25th at 5:40 pm, Which is actually terrible cause that's rush hour. The Chikfila line is gonna be so long.

I'm loving Tenerife. It's getting a little warmer now, but the work here is incredible. I love the people we teach so much. They're all so amazing and it has been awesome watching their progression. I can't imagine a better place to be that here on the mission. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'm grateful for all the love and support!

Elder Hendrix

Oh yeah there's a giant lizard living under our fridge. We've been trying to catch it for days now. Updates to come.

The Villalobos family and the Hermanas celebrate
Elder Hendrix's birthday.

Birthday dinner in Tenerife.

Week 85: Carnivals are lame

Elder Hendrix enjoys the ocean view in Los Cristianos.

Elder Hendrix lives just a short walk from
this beach in Los Cristianos.

Elder McDade and I are killin it out here in Spanish Africa. He's a really cool guy. We had a great first week together and we're excited to keep working hard. He's about 18 months old in the mission. He entered the field a transfer after me, so we're a really old companionship. Which is super cool actually. We've both had really young companions for the past year, so it has been a really weird but relieving change for both of us. We're both pretty experienced missionaries and we have no problem with the language, so we're gonna take advantage of this companionship and get things done. It's so much less stressful, so we're really motivated and excited to be together. Elder McDade is really cool. We get along super well. He's really tranquilo. We have a really similar personality.

Elder Hendrix with his new companion, Elder McDade.

As for this week, we had lessons with several investigators! We were able to visit Mayalene and Miguel finally, which was awesome! They're doing really good. They haven't been able to come to church lately because Mayalene got a job kinda far away and had to move there. So that stinks. But at the same time, we're really happy for them because they've been looking for work forever. It's really hard to find work on this island. But they're continuing to pray and read! We had a really good conversation with them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They still have a strong desire to be baptized, which is great! They think they'll be able to come to church a little more next month because Mayalene will start having Sunday mornings off. So we're excited to continue teaching them and helping them learn more!

So we got probably a solid 10 minutes of sleep this entire week haha. The carnival is here. It comes to Los Cristianos once a year, and it just so happens to take place literally right outside our piso. We have a perfect view of the whole thing, which is cool, but it's always so loud and they blast music with like 7382 inch subwoofers until 5 am. It's insane. And on the weekends they have huge parties. Literally thousands of people come. There's a huge stage they set up where they have like bands and stuff. It's cool hearing modern music again, but it's ridiculously loud. It's cool watching the mosh pit though. It gets pretty insane. I took a few pictures of it from our apartment. I'm so excited for it to be over this week. I think there's only like 5 or 6 days left. We'll be able to finally do studies and not have to yell at each other to hear haha.

A view of carnival from the piso.

Today for P day we walked around the boardwalk and took some awesome pictures. I've been here for almost 5 months already, and it's still not getting old. Haha I love Tenerife! Check out my blog to see all the cool pictures I took today.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Hendrix

Week 84: Make sure all the digits are there!

That week number is getting pretty big... :(

It has been a pretty busy week over here in Tenerife! We saw lots of miracles this week! We found lots of new people to teach and we're continuing to work hard.

We had a cool experience with a Nigerian dude named Antony. After having spent a solid 3 hours contacting in the sketchy streets of El Fraile without seeing much success, we found ourselves waiting at the bus stop to head back to Los Cristianos for lunch. A man approached us at the bus stop and asked who we were. We were happy to introduce ourselves and talk about what we do. We had a cool conversation with this man, Antony, about the Savior Jesus Christ. He's a very religious guy and loves his church. He said he would love to hear more about what we preach. He even told us that the spirit told him to come speak to us, which is already a miracle that he recognized that! So we wrote down his number and scheduled a return appointment. We called him the next morning however to find out that the number he had given us was wrong. It didn't exist. So that was pretty upsetting. So we prayed hard that we would be able to meet him again one day so he would have the opportunity to hear the gospel. And the very next day, exactly that happened!! We were on our way to an appointment and we ran into him by the bus station in Los Cristianos! I can't even imagine the odds of that happening. I mean this island isn't big, but it's not too small either. I know this wasn't just a coincidence! 

Anyway, we discovered that Elder Hendrix is actually just dumb and missed a digit when writing down the phone number... Haha he said he was anxious to get a call! So we sat down on a bench and taught him the restoration right there. And it was such a miracle lesson haha. As soon as we got talking about Jospeh Smith, it seemed like Satan was just trying to do all he could to stop it. A man approached us and asked about a bus schedule, then another dude asked us for money, then a woman asked us if we had a lighter so she could light her cigarette, then a kid tried selling us carnival tickets and wouldn't leave. There were sooo many distractions that came up during the lesson. But as soon as we finished talking about Joseph Smith, they all stopped. It's just interesting how that happened. Satan clearly doesn't want people to hear about the restoration. Haha but the lesson ended up going really well! Antony was really engaged and not distracted. There was a good spirit there. I'm so grateful he was so focused and had real intent to learn about what we're here to teach. We're excited to teach him again!

So transfers came out this weekend. My companion Elder Bellon got transferred. So I'm getting a new comp this afternoon! His name is Elder McDade. Updates to come! But I'm super excited for a fourth transfer here in Tenerife!! We've got lots of work to do!

Hope you all have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

TELL MY MOM HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY SHES TURNING 29!!!!!!!

Each of Elder Hendrix's companions sign his guitar.

Week 83: Talents

This week was weird. We went through a heat wave. It was like 68 degrees one day, and then literally over night it went up to 90. So weird. So we had a sweaty week with insane humidity. But it's all back to normal now thankfully! 

So Mayalene and Miguel moved to a little pueblo up north called Alcala. Mayalene got a job up there which is awesome! She works in a rest home 24 hours a day for 6 days a week. Finding work over here is really hard. So they're really grateful she found something! So we're really happy for them! We just can't teach them as often now. Which is tough. But they're doing really well! They're reading and praying together when they can and they always have questions about what they've read. We went up to visit Miguel one day this week. He doesn't see Mayalene too often, so I think he gets a little lonely. So we went up to eat lunch with him. He showed us around Alcala too. It's a cool little town! There are some amazing views from the coast too.

Sacrament meeting was really good yesterday. The theme was developing talents. Claudio, a member of the bishopric, gave a really great talk. He talked about how the Lord has blessed each of us with special talents and abilities that are waiting to be developed. We just need to look for them and use them. He talked about a quote of some famous golfer. I can't remember who he was, but there's was one game where he totally destroyed and set some kind of a record or something. One of the players told him he's a very lucky player. Then he responded "Yeah. It seems like the more I train, the luckier I get, doesn't it?" Claudio talked about how if we work hard at developing our talents, we will be able to master them with the Lord's help. He wants us to use them! That's why He gave them to us! This golfer wasn't lucky. He had found a talent that he chose to strive for and develop. And after hard work and dedication, it paid off. Cool stuff.

Anyway, sorry this is short. I love you all! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Hendrix

Week 82: A living prophet

Elder Hendrix on a p-day trip to Teide.

It has been a busy week! We're continuing to work hard out here in the island of Tenerife. We've seen several miracles this week. We were able to get in contact with several old investigators that we are finally reaching again. So that was cool! We had several lessons with new people and we're excited to continue teaching them. 

This past Saturday, we got permission to play beach volleyball with our investigators and several less actives. We had so much fun! I haven't walked barefoot in sand for a long time! It was incredible. Everyone really enjoyed the morning! Several people showed up, as well as some members that wanted to come support! I've got some pretty solid tan lines now, so as is well.

This week we were out in the ghetto pueblo city of Guaza knocking doors. That place is sketch. But we talked to so many people. Unfortunately, nobody was receptive, but I have faith that at least some seeds were planted. We get rejected so much here in Tenerife. But we're doing good at staying positive! There was one contact in particular that really made me think. We knocked the door of a old islander, who was initially quite pleasant to converse with. He invited us in and we started preachin. He was quick to reject us by expressing his assurance that we have no clue what we're doing. He called us liars and let us know that we have no idea how God works. He said that God doesn't call prophets anymore. We simply shared our testimonies of a living prophet. We boldly represented our Savior by sharing restored truths of His gospel. However, this man continued to criticize us for our silly beliefs in a living man that receives revelation from God. He kicked us out of his home. 

Reflecting on this experience however, has helped me better understand how much of a blessing it is that God continues calling modern day prophets. I know that God loves His children. He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet and restore the same church that Jesus Christ has organized. President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. And every person has the right and opportunity to receive the greatest blessings of this knowledge, but it is essential to first allow yourself to accept it. I know that God calls prophets, because I have followed the counsel of the scriptures, which teach us that by applying what they teach we are promised a confirmation of their reality. Ether 12:6 says "...dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Man, this man's trial of faith is accepting the fact that God has called a prophet. In order to receive that witness, it is necessary that we exercise our faith by following their counsel and trusting that God himself has called them. 

Today for P day, Hermano Villalobos took the four of us missionaries on a little road trip around Tenerife! It was so cool! This island is absolutely beautiful. The Lord sure knew what he was doing when He put this little piece of land in the middle of the ocean. There are so many amazing views and things to see. I'll try to attach pictures...

Well, as always, I hope you all have a great week! Until next Monday!

Elder Hendrix