Esta bien loca!

Hey fam and friends!

Another week has gone by in a blur and here I am again writing you all. I hope you’ve had an awesome week and weekend with Collin’s graduation and going to the temple! Sounds pretty exciting to me at least. 

CONGRATULATIONS COLLIN!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe you are graduated from high school. It feels like the other day I was graduating high school and all of that. Its gone by so fast, but im proud of you and im looking forward to when you receive your mission call!

I also want to say congratulations to Rich for going through the temple as that is a major step in your life, that will forever bless you.

As for me I had yet another crazy week, but then again I don’t think there has just been a normal week in my mission. Living in Guatemala and being super busy and stressed out all the time takes care of that haha. But in all seriousness I had a good week learning a ton of new stuff and getting better at the work I am doing and everything.

To answer a few of your questions, yes; I am getting a little bit more used to the life in the office and my job. I haven’t gotten used to the lack of sleep but I think that will just continue for awhile. I learning bit by bit my responsibilities that I have and how I have to do things, but something interesting is that I feel like I’m learning how to work with people better in the way of speaking, controlling certain situations and being in the business world I feel like. I have to be careful with almost everything I say, or people will take it the wrong way or I might give up too much information about something that we are doing in the office or something that president is doing in his work, so I always feel like I have to control what I say which is something different I haven’t paid too much attention to in my life. Just talking with president Maravilla is always an experience because if I don’t ask the right questions he won’t give me the answer I need or help me out with what I’m doing. Its hard to explain and it probably doesn’t make sense to you all what I’m trying to say, but I’m learning valuable skills that I will be able to use later in my life in my career to be more successful and learn how to talk negotiable and more formal with people. 

Now that I’ve bored you with all of that nonsense, the highlight of my week is that we went to the mountains that are in our mission!!!! Basically 70% of our mission is on the coast where it is super blazing hot, but the other 30% is in the mountains. Where its actually pretty cold, where the missionaries actually where sweaters and jackets when they go out and work. I have obviously never been there in my mission, but this past week president went to the mountains to do interviews with the missionaries, so as the missionaries in the office we went up there to help him out and everything. It was so awesome! Driving up there we got above the clouds and we were driving on the mountainside through clouds and all these majestic looking mountains, it was pretty cool, and I tried to get some pictures but I was inside a car so they didn’t turn out so well. It was also pretty cold, I had to wear my one and only sweater that I have because it was pretty cold, and it honestly reminded me of good ole Colorado in the trees and the climate and everything, it was pretty awesome and strange at the same time. We also drove through Quetzaltenango which is in a different mission where the temple is to get back down out of the mountains, so I was able to see the outside of the Quetzaltenango temple which was pretty sweet. 

Well I feel like I’m writing a bunch of random kind of boring stuff, but really a lot of my week has been doing office work running around working with money, going to banks, trying not to get jumped by Guatemalan people while I’m carrying money and dealing with all of the craziness 230 18- 23 year olds cause. It still is super weird not having an official area to work in and not having official investigators, and I’m still getting used to that, but it also makes me miss working in the field sometimes. We just try to do our part contacting people while we stand in lines places or buying things and doing divisions with the missionaries. We also received references from other missions that are in an area that don’t have missionaries right now, so this week we have plans to go find these references in this lost village called caballo blanco in the middle of nowhere and maybe have investigators as an office and be some of the first to baptize people while working in the office haha! We’ll see what happens at least.

Well sorry this email is kind of boring and full of random stuff, but I’ve been busy doing a lot of the unglamorous part of missionary work. Elder Anderson has been teaching me well though and is a great guy. President Maravilla is always commenting on how well he has managed the finances for these last several months. I’ve been learning a lot and doing well, always trying to have the spirit with me to guide me and direct me even in this different type of work. 

I’m glad you all had a good time in Colorado for Collins graduation, and I’m still praying that you can find a good job Curt, and I wish you the best in that. Thanks for all your emails and support, I really do love you guys. Keep goin strong and have another good week this week! 

Con muchisimo amor,

Elder Henderson

P.S.    Aquí están algunos fotos. Disfrútenlos! (Curt's translation: Here are some pictures. Enjoy them!)

One is really blurry, but it shows how the mountains are a little bit

Hey here are some other fotos ive been meaning to send.

1. Elder Rivera y yo en nuestra casa (Elder Rivera & I in our house)

2. Yo con la familia de obispo, sin obispo (el no estuvo en la casa en ese momento) - (Me with the Bishop's family, without the bishop, he was not home at the moment)

3. La iglesia en Catarina (mi otra área) - (The Church in Catarina, my other area)