The Week

Dear family and friends,

What a week, as my friend Ryan frequently says. We won some and lost some, found some new investigators and left some old ones. In short, it was a very normal missionary week.

Today I´m starting a brand new agenda. You return missionaries know what that means... change meeting is this week! Hna Merrell and I don´t know yet if we have changes. The district leader will call us tomorrow night with that news. (Fun fact: a missionary agenda is basically just a daily planner, personalized for missionaries. Each one has space for only 6 weeks: the duration of one cambio.)

The most positive investigator we taught this week was a middle-aged man named Jesus. He´s religious but doesn´t attend a church regularly. He wants to change his life to be closer to the Savior Jesus Christ and was very receptive to our message. We have high hopes for his personal progession. The challenge will be finding him, because he works a lot, and doesn´t have a fixed schedule. But with God´s help, things will work out. :)

I hope you all had great weeks! Enjoy Halloween when it comes. El Salvador doesn´t celebrate it or Thanksgiving, so we´re already moving on to Christmas here. That Holy Night, when our Savior was born!

Much love,

Hna Henrie

Good times in El Salvador

This week, we had an AWESOME lesson with an investigator family. They are the Martinez family, and the reason the lesson was so awesome was because of the members that were there supporting us, Hno. Antonio Rodriguez and his wife.

Members make such a difference!

We talked about the Articles of Faith. The Rodriguez couple bore their testimonios about every single one. (We only shared the first 6; there are 13 in total.) It was such a faith builder to me to see these faithful members share their powerful testimonies with their friends. They´re definitely eating their spiritual vegetables, that is to say, reading the scriptures and praying every day, because the Spirit was strongly present when they spoke. David, the head of the Martinez family, was very affected by their testimonies and felt newly committed to ask God if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

The blessings of the restored priesthood authority and restored Gospel fulness, found only in this Church, are so much greater than many of our investigators can even comprehend! I´ve been reminded over and over again of something President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in General Conference. He gave an example of how our more advanced technology has enabled us to study the universe much more accurately, and that before we had this technology, we foolishly believed our galaxy to be the only one in the universe. (or something like that.) It´s the same with the gospel - there is so much more to God and God´s Plan of Salvation than the majority of people realize.

It is a great blessing to be a part of this Church. I know it´s true. I know it´s God´s kingdom on earth today. I wish everyone knew it. If they would only open their eyes. If only they would just take that leap of faith and ask God if our message is true. Here in El Salvador, I have met many, many very intelligent people who have studied Christ´s life and doctrine a TON. But even so, in the beginning it´s always hard for them to understand that there´s MORE. There are more blessings and understand available to them, if they would just ask God.

Stay true to the faith! Remember, even though in comparison to God we are nothing, for God, we are everything. (That´s from another quote by President Uchtdorf.) It will all be worth it!

Love you lots,
Hna Henrie

Rainstorms :)

We´ve been having some intense rainstorms. In El Salvador, it typically rains hard for 30-40 minutes at a time, then drizzles for a while or stops raining for a while. This is how it looked on Thursday as we headed out to work after lunch.

Dear family and friends,

How great to hear from you! Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to send me a note. Or a picture. (shout out to Aunt Connie, who always sends lots of pictures :D)

This week, it´s been raining a lot. People tell us we´re nearing the end of ´winter,´ meaning the rain will stop soon, so I´m enjoying it while I can. It´s funny, because technically we´ve been in ´winter´ time for months now, and it hasn´t rained nearly as much in all that time as it did in this past week. I love the rain. It cools everything down and calls down the fog from the top of the mountain.

Man oh man, but Cojutepeque is beautiful.

Funny moments of the week: when I went on intercambios with Hna Huamani (I served with her in Apopa), we got to talking about Apopa and missed the bus stop to Hna Huamani´s new area. We basically just jumped out of the bus while it was at a stoplight and ran back to where we were supposed to be. :) Then the next day, on our way to change companions again, the same exact thing happened. Only this time we were on the freeway. Luckily, buses make stops on the side of the freeway all the time here, no biggie, we just made the bus stop and walked alllll the way back up the hill toward our meeting place.

Other than that, and the rain, it was a very normal missionary working week. I love love LOVE being a missionary. I also have new respect and love for my companion. Hna Merrell did many small acts of service for me this week. I´m grateful to be serving with her, in Cojute, El Salvador! As my friend Hna Boren often said in her letters home: God is good.

Love you all!
Hna Henrie

I had an intercambio with Hna Huamani!!! (I served with her in Apopa) She finally got transferred out of Apopa and is now one of my Hermanas Líderes! It was one of the best days. I love and admire Hna Huamani a lot.

Our cocinera gave me a dress. I chose to wear it today.

General Conference

Dear family and friends,

The big event this week was General Conference. Five wonderful sessions of soaking up the timely advice God has for our lives. Some of my favorite themes were: 1) stand up for what you believe in. Do you fear man more than God? 2) Don`t jump out of the ship of Zion (a metaphor for the Church of Jesus Christ). If we stay strong, she will carry us safely into the harbor. 3) Actively `come unto Christ` by making time to pray, study the scriptures, teach and strengthen your family, and attend the temple. As we develop these habits, peace will fill our lives. There is NOTHING we can`t overcome with the Savior`s help.

Hna Merrell and I also experienced many tender mercies of the Lord this week. Here`s one of my favorite stories:

We met Hno. Jaime and his wife purely by chance. They`re an older couple (probably in their sixties or seventies) and we found them when we contacted the wrong house by mistake. As we attempted to explain lesson one (as typical señores, they had many comments that didn`t have anything to do with the lesson), we were stunned when Hermana Rosalinda said out of nowhere, `Josè Smith was a prophet of God. Mirad, vos, in this picture, Josè Smith is receiving the Priesthood.`

It turns out, Rosalinda is a member of the Church! It`s just been a while (years) since she last attended. Jaime, on the other hand, is not a member, but he readily accepted our baptismal invitation. Then they committed to attend Conference with us.

At the end of the second visit, we asked if they were ready for tomorrow. We meant to attend the Conference, but Jaime said, `Yeah, for the baptism, right?`

`No, la Conferencia,` we replied.

He said: `Oh good. I was kind of worried. Baptism is serious stuff, and I wanted to be more prepared!`

My jaw almost literally dropped. This man has so much faith he was willing to be baptized the same weekend in which we met him. He felt the Spirit strongly during the Conference (they attended the Sunday morning session) and is moving forward con todo.

Needless to say, we feel really blessed to have found him and we look forward to more miracles in this coming week.

I hope you all have seen miracles in your lives this week! I love you!

Take care,

Hna Henrie