Tak´Alik Ab´Aj

Buenas Tardes!!!!

Well shoot. I can’t believe another year has come and gone and 2014 has officially started!!!!! It feels super weird to think about all of last year I was here in Guatemala, and that I have been away from home for quite some time now. When I think about getting home later this year, I kind of get scared to tell the truth haha. I don’t know it’s kind of a strange feeling. I miss everyone back home and the comforts of life, but I have become so accustomed to everything and the mission life helping people grow spiritually and growing personally. It really has been an incredible time, and even with all the hard times I have experienced, I have loved every bit of it. I am definitely going to miss the other elders here in the office, I have had some good times and made some amazing friendships, but I also know it’s time to put on a different suit jacket.

Talking with you all on Christmas was awesome! It was so good to see everyone even though it felt kind of awkward at times but it’s all good. I can’t believe how big the boys are now! They seem so huge and when I left they still seemed so young. It’s exciting to here that Collin has officially started his college adventure up in Idaho! That will be very cool, take advantage of the time you have man! College as an amazing time to learn and to grow, so just enjoy it and work hard!

Holly and Curt, I too hope this year turns out to be better one for you all in many respects, but most of all for curt to make some money and find the success you have been looking for. It will be crazy with the new baby and all, and I'm excited to see you all again back in Provo later this year!

Mom, I just want to thank you for your weekly emails and your love and support. I couldn’t ask for a better mom for all that you do and have done. Just keep going strong! (And don’t move houses yet pleaseJ)

Well to catch you all up on what has gone down since Christmas, is well, I am still here in the office, just finishing up the training of Elder Amundsen, and then I leave next Wednesday to go back out to the field. President told me that he already has my area picked out and everything, but I probably won’t know until Wednesday morning! Oh, and Elder Pulsipher who I introduced to you all is also leaving the office with me this Wednesday, president decided that he wants him in the field so his replacement came this week, and he is training him this week and then he is gone as well. (His job is a little easier to train haha) We have been speculating that president might send us out as companions which would be awesome, buuuuuut probably not.

So this past Monday as well we had our mission Christmas devotional/activity. So all the missionaries prepared acts to do and everything, it was pretty awesome, there were a lot of cool things people did including the act we did as an office and everyone liked it. It was pretty fun and I’ll have to show you the video after the mission. So the rest of this week and last week as well it has been almost impossible to do missionary work because everyone down here celebrates Christmas and new year’s crazily. They celebrate it by having crazy parties where they just get wasted, and then at midnight, they blow up the sky with tons of fireworks, and it’s just insane. So it’s kind of difficult for us as missionaries to try to visit people because nobody’s home, or they are drunk, or they are in the street shooting off a ton of crazy fireworks. So for that we have not been able to follow up with almost all of our investigators. But the nice thing was that President invited the office over to his house for new years so we went over there and ate a ton of food to the point of almost throwing up, but it was really fun. The only thing was that the next day everyone was sick except for me so we didn’t get to do a whole lot to bring in the new year. Most of all, I have just been getting ready to leave the office this past week. It’s going to be really weird after being here for 8 months, but I am super excited to get out and have my own area where I can work hard these last few months and not have to worry about money! So my p-day is going to be changing once again, but back toMonday for the rest of my mission, so I will not be writing you until a week from Monday, and by then I will be in my new area with my new companion and everything!

I have learned a lot here in the office, a lot about communication, problem solving, and really christlike love. I feel like I have a better understanding of what missionary work is. It’s not what I thought it was 18 months ago when I started, and really I am just ready to get out and do my best to help people and help them feel the love that god has for these people.

Oh and by the way, for my last p-day here in the office, we went to some ancient ruins called Tak´ alik ab´ aj which was an ancient city near here to reu that existed about 800 years before the coming of Christ, so it was totally a jaredite city if you know your Book of Mormon history. I am serving in the land of the Book of Mormon! It was so cool becasue unlike in the states, there are no rules or regalations here in guatemala, so our tour guide totally just let us sit on and touch all these 3000 year old ruins haha. we got some sweet pictures, and they even had monkeys and jaguars where we were at so i got some wildlife pics! But anyway, it was super cool, and I am going to attach some pictures.

I love you all, thanks for everything!

Elder Henderson

Oh and i forgot to mention! Elder Pulsipher´s replacement here in the office is Elder Krueger who actually went to Pinecreek high School for a couple years and knew the Koffords! Pretty small world! He says to tell the koffords hi!

Pictures from the ancient jaredite ruins:

1. "praying" on an ancient prayer altar 

2. The remnants of a pyramid/temple with a ramp

3. Symbol of a man... quite an interesting man... haha 

4. MONKEY

5. In front of another Pyramid thing

6. Us sitting on the steps of an ancient temple