Well hello again everybody, another week has flown by and here i am gain wondering where the time went. I had a pretty tough and miraculous week this week, and once again i find myself wondering at the miracle and the opportunity that is the mission. Thanks for letting me know about who has thier mission calls and everything. its so crazy that all these people i know are either on thier missions right now, or are getting ready to leave, it really is an exciting time in the work of the lord right now in the world. i really am blessed and thankful that i am serving my mission right now in the crazy country that is guatemala. To all those perspective mssionaries that may happen to be reading this (if any haha) i just want to say that there isnt anything more challenging, more tiring, or more of a blessing than to serve a mission. i have been tried probably the hardest in my life here in the mission, but i have learned and progressed more than ever in my life in just these past short months here on the mission. I am forever indebted to my savior jesus christ, his sacrifice for me and for the opportunities and challenges that i have been given to grow. To answer a question from holly, yes there are a lot of changes happening in the mission right now and in the next month. so in the next couple weeks, 10 new missionaries are coming in that have visa problems and cant go to thier assigned missions, and then 3 weeks after that 40 new missionaries are coming in and only about 6 are leaving. so pretty much in these next few weeks our mission is going to be recieving 50 new missionaries when we have about 190 right now in our mission. that means there are going to be a lot of trainers, and there is a good possiblity i could find myself training in the next couple weeks, which is a big responibility and puts a lot of pressure on me. i still am very new in the mission and i have so much i still need to learn, and its a little daunting to be teaching somone how to be a missionary and to teach when i am still learning those things, but i know that if i do, the lord will strengthen me as long as i have faith and remeber the savior in all things. So right now that is the big news going on in the mission, just a ton of newbies.
Well this week has been really challenging for Elder Cachipuendo and i as a companionship and for me personally. So after our baptisms last week it kind of felt everything dropped and we didnt really have anyone. we still have the references from favio, but they live super far away so its hard for us to go visit them. that and just the fact that elder Cachipuendo and i have had different ideas on how to work and what we should do, we both have been kind of frustrated with each other and our communication has kind of dropped off which isnt good when your a missionary. so long story short and to spare the details its been a hard week trying to get along and to work, so it feels like our area kind of dropped off. for instance, we had a movie night activity in our ward this past week to animate our ward and get them involved with us in the la obra misional and just to have an activity where our investigators could come and have a good time. so we spent all day getting everything ready, finding popcorn which is incredibly dificult here in Guatemala and getting the movie ready and everything. the hour of the activity comes and goes and it literally was us, and our bishop and his family. thats it out of our intire ward that we invited and our investigators that we invited as well. it was really pathetic and we did not feel so great after that. it was just a hard week to feel good about getting out and trying to work hard when everything was not working.
But im not sure what happened, but yesterday was a day of milagros! so we tried really hard to get people to church but everyone we went and visited in the morning gave the lamest excuse why they couldnt come, or just werent at there house which i still dont understand where they go at like 7 or 8 in the moring on a sunday. so we thought that we were not going to have anyone in church, but then we get there, and one of the reference families that live super far away actually came! and another girl thaat we didnt even know, that isnt a member of the church came to church alone! i know it doesnt sound like a lot for you all back home, but its incedibly stressful to try to get people to church, and when they actually come on thier own, its the best feeling ever. so that happened first of all, and later in the day yesterday, we went with one of our investigators that has come to church a lot, but has not wanted to be baptized, so we had an awesome lesson where we talked about joseph smith and the first vision and challenged him to be baptized, and he said that if he recieves an answer to his prayer, he is going to be baptized this saturday! so in all we might be able to baptize 3 people this month which would be the most that ive baptized in a month on my mission. Yet another miracle that happened yesterday was that we went to this lesson, and we found and taught 2 families in the same lesson! they are both super positive families, and we challenged them to be baptized in the first lesson yesterday and they both said yes. it was a super awesome lesson, and the best thing is that the y live right next to the church, so it wont be a huge challenge bringing them to church everyweek. pretty much its the best situation a missionary could ask for and we are super excited. the one thing that i learned out of all of this is that it isnt important what challenges appear, this work is the work of the lord and it will move forward no matter what. what a crazy awesome experience the mission is and im super grateful to be a part of it.
Thanks for all the emails and im glad that calvin´s party went well and wish him happy birthday for me. Congratulations on the mission call marcus!
Well i love you all and i wish the best for you this week! before you know it we are going to be in march! Crazy!
Keep strong and carry on,
-Elder Henderson
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