Week 46: Bautismos Por Los Muertos

We did 90 minutes of yoga this morning as a district and it was insane.

Anyway, this week was super cool! We got to go to the temple and do baptisms! Our mission president is now allowing us to go do baptisms once a transfer if we bring a recent convert who has never gone. So we got to take one of our converts, María del Mar, and do baptisms! It was such an awesome experience! Seeing the Madrid temple baptistry was so cool. I got to do confirmations for a while when we were there. And doing it in Spanish was SOOO COOL. I don't know why, but ordinances in Spanish are just way cooler than English. I loved being there in the baptistry! The spirit there is so sweet and it was just an incredible experience!

We teach English classes every Wednesday in the chapel. Elder Sasso teaches the beginner class and I do the advanced one. There's only one guy that comes to mine and we usually just spend the whole hour talking and having a conversation so he can practice speaking fluently. And it's so much fun! His name is Julian. His English is so good. He's from Madrid and he's like 40ish. He travels around the world to run different marathons. He's a pro. His fastest marathon was under two and half hours. He goes to the United States a lot to run, so he comes to English class so he can practice speaking more. But it's awesome meeting with him! He helps me a ton with my Spanish! He says helping me with my Spanish helps him with his English cause he explains everything in English and it makes him think more. So we both win. So talking with him has been super helpful!

I have now been shoved a total of three times on my mission. We went to pass by an old investigator this week, and as we were having a conversation with this dude through the intercom, some random midget Romanian came out of no where and shoved me out of the doorway and opened the door and told us to get lost and then slammed the door shut. Fun stuff.

Rosario is gold still! I love having lessons with her! I've seen so many changes in her in the few weeks we've been meeting with her! It's crazy how just 4 short weeks ago, we met her in the street. And now she's getting baptized in 12 days. She's doing perfect with the word of wisdom! She hasn't had a single cup of coffee since we taught it to her! We've taught her all of the lessons now, so now we're just reviewing and helping her feel ready. She's so excited to make this covenant and take this step in her life! I'm so happy for her! Teaching Rosario has been a confirmation that this gospel really does change lives. We really can have true happiness when we learn and live gospel principles!

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

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.

Week 44: Plan of Salvation

There's a woman in the ward named Rosi. Her mom has had cancer for a few months and was in the hospital and was very sick. Rosi asked us to come visit and give her mom a blessing this week. It was such a great experience. We sat there in the hospital room with the whole family all gathered around the hospital bed and we shared a spiritual thought. The spirit in that room was so powerful. After the message, we proceeded to give her a blessing. We went home to our piso that night with such a peaceful feeling. Rosi's mother really wasn't doing that well. But I know that she was in God's hands. The next morning, Rosi called us. Her mother passed away shortly after we left. She expressed to us her gratitude for our visit and for the spirit that was left in that room. She said her mother's passing was very hard, but at the same time it was very calming and happy. She shared with us her testimony of the plan of salvation and it was super moving. It strengthened my own testimony of the fact that she is doing great things up in the spirit world. I didn't get the chance to get to know her very well, but from what I've heard, she was an amazing woman. She was only 70, but she did so much good in her life. She was always serving others and following the example of her Savior. I know that the plan of salvation is real. Death is not the end. I know that families are forever!

Elder Hendrix and Rosi.

Rosario, our Peruvian investigator, is progressing so well! She's reading the scriptures every day and praying and is so excited to be baptized! She wants to make sure she's really prepared for her baptismal date of July 9th. She even made herself a baptismal calendar where she can mark whether or not she read and prayed each day before her mission, which is awesome because we were actually planning on making her one. But she beat us to it, haha. She's so awesome. She came to church this Sunday too and loved it!

Speaking of church, yesterday was my first normal Sunday here in my new area in Barrio 9 because last week was conference. So I got to introduce myself in sacrament meeting! But funny story- During the sacrament ordinance, the bishop walked over to where I was sitting and asked if I could give a 15-minute talk as well because one of the speakers didn't show up. I've only heard stories about this happening, haha. I didn't think it would ever happen to me. But it went alright! It was a great reminder that I need to be prepared at all times because you never know when you're gonna get called on, especially as a missionary!

We had a zone conference this week! It was super cool! Our mission president was here and spent like a solid hour talking about the importance of having a clean piso and making a serious effort to fix it up. And I'm so grateful for it, because there are definitely missionaries here that needed it! Some people here refuse to clean their piso and it's disgusting.

My old investigator Felix came to visit me here in Madrid! He still lives in Torrejon and he drove over here for P day today! It was so awesome to hang out with him! He's doing good! He's still reading scriptures and praying. He's such a cool guy!

It's getting so hot here in Madrid! I'm sure it's not as hot as Arizona, but it's dang hot! It makes me very grateful for the United States where air conditioning exists. There's hardly anyone here that has air conditioning. But it's ok because literally every member we visit gives us a giant cup of horchata and like half a watermelon. I'm getting some sweet tan lines too.

That's it for this week! I love you all!

Elder Hendrix

Week 43: Barrio 9

Hello everyone!

It's been a crazy week!! As I mentioned last week, I've been transferred. I'm now serving in Madrid in my new area called Barrio 9. And so far, I love it here! Being in Madrid again is so awesome! Last time I was serving here, I was a new missionary who struggled a ton with Spanish. And now that I'm back, it's been so cool reflecting on the last few months. My confidence in the language has increased so much, I'm better at talking to people, my testimony has grown a ton, and I'm just a billion times more happy and grateful to be a missionary! I've missed Madrid. There are so many different cultures here. There are actually hardly any Spaniards in the ward. There's a ton of people from Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, a million from Ecuador, Columbia... So many cultures! I love Latin American people so much! And the members are so nice! We had meals EVERY DAY this week!! And everyone is so motivated to get involved in missionary work! There are some solid families here too. It's been so awesome getting to know the members and talking to the people here! It's been an amazing first week here! We're already seeing so many miracles!

So first off, I'll talk about my new companion Elder Sasso. He's from Pittsburg and has been in the field for 22 months. This is his last transfer. I love serving with him! He's a machine! Honestly, he's one of the most hardworking missionaries I've seen. He's very motivated and talks to EVERYONE. I thought I knew what "talk to everyone" means, but this guy seriously talks to everything that breaths. It's so awesome! We've received a ton of references this week already. He's really funny. He and my friend Nick Berrett are exactly the same person I swear. Exact same humor and everything. He even has glasses. It's awesome!

Anyway, we've had some pretty sweet experiences this week! Here's the highlight... We were street contacting Monday night (the day I arrived here) and we stopped this woman named Rosario. She's from Peru and lives here with her daughter. She said we could come teach her in her home so on Wednesday, we passed by. And we had an AMAZING lesson!! This woman is dang prepared!!! She was so ready to hear the gospel! We
invited her to be baptized, and she said yes! We've already set a date for the 9th of July, and it's looking so good! We've already taught her a second time and she's so excited and anxious to learn! And she came to church yesterday!! We're so excited to work with her and help her progress towards baptism! More updates to come!

We were on our way back to piso one night this week, and when we got to the door, it was like 9:58 (we can go inside at 10 pm). So we decided we would do a quick pass-by of a reference we received a while back. We stopped by this guys piso, rang his bell, and he answered! He let us in and we talked to him for a while! His name is Isaac. We taught him and his brother Daniel the Restoration of the Gospel. It went really well! They said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! It was a great reminder of the importance of staying
obedient and using our time effectively all the way until we need to be inside piso. If we had gone home right then, we wouldn't have been able to teach this guy! Obedience is so important!

We were out contacting one afternoon, when this random dude comes out of nowhere and says "Hey elders! I have someone you can teach!" It was weird. We had never even seen this guy. But he walked us to a random piso and knocked on the door and then walked away. These people that answered though, it turns out that they're members! It's a couple that moved here a few months ago, but they've been really nervous about coming to a new ward, so they just never came. We shared with them a scripture about the Sabbath day and stuff and them invited them to come. They said they were very happy that we stopped by and talked to them! And guess what! They came to church yesterday! And they had an awesome time! All the needed was someone to invite them! There are less active members out there, and sometimes all they need is someone to reach out to them. I'm so grateful we were led to their home!

Basically, we're seeing a lot of miracles in this area! I'm so grateful to be here in Madrid. I'm so grateful for missionary work and for this time that I have to serve the Lord in Spain.

I hope you all have a good week!

Oh by the way, today for P day we went bowling with our district, and we made a deal that we would all pitch in to buy the winner lunch. Little did they know, I'm a champ. So basically, I got 7 strikes in one game and scored a total of 202. So I ate for free at Brasayleña. And thus it was.

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix bowling with his district in Madrid, Barrio 9.

Week 42: Caridad

I have no time, so sorry if this is short... I got transferred! I'm going to the center of Madrid to serve with my new companion, Elder Sasso. He's from Pennsylvania and has been in the mission for 22 months. I'm super excited to serve with him! And I'm so pumped to be in this area of Madrid!

My companionship with Elder Trassierra was quite the experience. I haven't written home much about how it went, so I'd like to talk about things I learned with him. The three months I served with him were the hardest three months of my life. He was extremely difficult to be with. There were days when he refused to speak to me. He was never open with me and it was just difficult to love him. I would wonder why the heck, of all people, I was assigned to serve with him. I felt so trapped in that companionship. I always felt so discouraged. I spent every night at my bedside just asking God to help me to understand why I was out with this guy. There had been times when I just felt alone. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I always felt like those 2 transfers were a huge waste. 

Though, as its over, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on it. In reality, I learned so much from him. I feel like Heavenly Father put me with him because He loves me. He knew I would experience a challenge, but He wanted me to be able to grow from it. In my companionship with Elder Trassierra, I learned a lot about charity. I thought I knew what charity was before, but now I really feel like I understand why it's so important. I think about the Savior. A lot of people rejected Him and had so much hatred towards Him. But He continued to love and serve them unconditionally anyway. I thought about this throughout this companionship. I tried so hard to serve my companion and do everything I could to help him. He may have never expressed gratitude, but that's when I am reminded of how amazing my Savior is. There were people who would never listen to Him or even acknowledge that He was there. But He still loved them. He still helped them. He still saw them as sons and daughters of God. 

I feel like Elder Trassierra taught me to love the Savior. He taught me what charity is. I've come to better understand the importance of enduring and keep trusting in the Lord, because He knows how we feel. Sometimes we are given trials that seem impossible to endure, but that's when our faith is tested. With faith, along with following the example of the Savior, we can do whatever God requires of us. My appreciation for trials has increased. I'm very grateful that we are given hard tasks, because it gives us an opportunity to show God that we trust Him and have faith in Him.

I love you all! More info on my new area to come! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Week 41: Be Obedient!

Dave Zimmerman, the man on the right, was traveling in
Spain and met Elder Hendrix and two other missionaries.
The man in white is a recent convert.  They were at a park
 in Madrid when they attended a conference with Elder Bednar.

There is a brand new chapel in Coruña (like 45 mins from my area in Santiago) that was just built and it's dang beautiful. It's the first chapel in all of northern Spain. So last week, our entire zone went out there to spend a whole day passing out flyers for the open house. We were paired with other missionaries from the zone, and I was out with Elder Holt and we had a ton of fun! He's one of my best friends in the mission. Together, we passed out just under 2000 flyers.

We found a new golden investigator! His name is Juan and he's 25 and from Venezuela. We found him in the street a few days ago. We finally got to meet with him this week for the first time. We taught the restoration of the gospel and it was so powerful! We got to the Joseph Smith part and read the verse in James that Joseph read when he was searching for a church. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." I asked him if he's ever had an experience where he asked God a question about something he wasn't sure about and then received an answer. His reply was money solid. He smiled and said it's funny that I ask that question. He said he is in the exact same position as Joseph Smith, looking for an answer of what church is right. And he said at that very moment, he had received his answer. He said while we were sitting there teaching him, he found his answer. He said he doesn't know hardly anything about our church, but for some reason he feels it's right. We asked him to be baptized and he said yes! And he even came to church yesterday! Miracles are happening here in Santiago! We're finding!

Funny story... So I've been really sick this week with congestion and headache stuff. Well, one day this week when we were in the church, I turned around to sneeze right as one of the Hermanas' investigators walked through the door behind me and I accidentally sneezed all over here and I'm pretty sure that's the reason she didn't come to church yesterday.... Oops.

I've been studying my notes from the Elder Bednar conference a lot this week. One thing that I've been thinking about a lot is when he said "knowledge is gained by obedience." Like Nephi explains, the gospel is plain and precious. It shouldn't be difficult to understand. But our faith, diligence, and obedience are what help us better
understand gospel principles. Exercising faith by acting helps us understand why we have commandments and helps us see promised blessings. Sometimes it is difficult to explain this to investigators. When we talk about blessings that you receive when you go to church or read the scriptures, it might seem weird or not make any sense to them. But if they're obedient and have faith and act, they will better understand why it is important. For example, not drinking coffee seems dumb to a lot of people. They don't see how it will bless them. But once you act and exercise faith and avoid coffee, your understanding of the importance of the Word of Wisdom will be more familiar and you will be able to see the blessings that come! Knowledge and understanding is gained by obedience!

Out of time! I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix visited La Playa de las Catedrales near Lugo.

Week 40: Elder Bednar in Madrid!

Elder Hendrix and Hermana Contreras,
who he knew in his Torrejon district. 

 

Elder Hendrix with two temporary companions
during his visit to Madrid to see Elder Bednar.
They met the Polish woman and the man on
 the right is an investigator.  They are in Burger King.

This has been the longest week ever. But it's ok because we got to see Elder Bednar! I drove down to Madrid Thursday morning with the Bakes to fill an extra seat in their car so we wouldn't have to pay for a train ticket. There was only room for one person, so my companion stayed in the north with some other elders and they came down Saturday morning. But basically Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I hung out with random elders in Madrid. I've been a traveling companionless missionary for 3 days. It was a ton of fun though! 

Anyway Saturday night was the conference with Elder Bednard. It was sooo cool! Such an amazing experience that I will never forget! He did a question and answer thing and it was such a cool 3 hours! One thing he talked about was how we focus too much and worry too much about having perfect lessons and being perfect teachers rather than allowing the spirit to give the perfect lessons and be the perfect teacher. We worry because we don't feel like we have enough knowledge. We worry because we don't know answers to every question. We worry because we don't know where the sword of Laban is. We worry because we're nervous. We spend too much time thinking about ourselves as the ones to convert the people rather than allowing the spirit to use us. The spirit is who talks to the people. The spirit is who touches their hearts. 

Sister Bednar talked about how there are a lot of people who say "So-and-so was my missionary! This missionary converted me and showed me the gospel!" But are we really the people who do the converting? No. It's the spirit. We are simply bridges, allowing the spirit to cross over and speak to them. We are the instruments. Therefore, we need to quit spending so much time worrying about what to say, or worrying about having a bad lesson. Because we're not the teachers. The spirit is the teacher. Now, this doesn't give an excuse to slack off and rely on the spirit to do what we didn't study for. We have to do our part and invite. We have to pray, study, be worthy, be faithful, work hard, be diligent, be obedient.... and then stop worrying. I have so much love for the Bednars. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to hear from a literal apostle of God. I know that he is a special witness of Him and that he has been set apart by the power of the priesthood as a prophet, seer, and revelator. So awesome hearing from him! He didn't shake hands, but that's ok. His counsel was so inspiring! Anyway, after the meeting, everyone went outside and we got to talk to friends in the mission and it was awesome! 

AND THEN THE COOLEST THING EVER HAPPENED. My comp had to go to the bathroom (that's not the thing). So we went to the bathroom upstairs in the chapel because nobody knows about it and there were a million people in the one downstairs. So we were in there doing our stuff, and as I pulled the door to go out, this guy was walking in at the same time AND THAT GUY WAS ELDER BEDNAR. I KID YOU NOT. I WOULD HAVE PEED MYSELF IF I HADN'T JUST PEED. He shook my hand and gave me a shoulder grab and it was the most intense moment of my life haha. And then his body guard stood outside the door while he was inside. But DUDE I MET ELDER BEDNAR AND IT WAS CRAZY! AND in a bathroom!

We stayed in Madrid yesterday morning to go to church. It was stake conference for the Madrid East stake, which is MY OLD STAKE. I got to see all of my friends from good ol' Torrejón! It was amazing! So many faces I've missed so much!! It was so awesome seeing everyone again!

We drove back late last night. It's been a crazy week, but such a memorable one!

I love you all!! Have an awesome week! I would give a shout out to all you 2016 graduates, but 2015 was already the best. Stay safe!

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix emailing his mom.

Elder Hendrix shakes hands with Hermana Iregui
who was in his Torrejon district.

Elder Hendrix in Madrid with some temporary
companions and hermanas.