My New Favorite Book

Dear family and friends,

First off, to answer Mom`s question, NOBODY HAD CHANGES in our ward! The fantastic four hermanas misioneras are still together. We didn`t believe it at first when the mensaje cayò del lìder de distrito. We`re really happy to stay together. And Hna Infanzon is officially my longest lasting compañera. We`re going on 4.5 months now. That night, we just happened to see the bishop and his wife in the hallway of the chapel. He saw us and said, `Ah, que bueno! Ninguna de las cuatro se cambiaron!` (`Ah, how good! Nobody changed!`) We were all smiles as we said, `Nope, we`re staying together!` Then his wife told us that he had actually called the mission president to ask him to let us stay in the ward. The bishop turned beet red, but I felt really good. I know we`re doing good work when the bishop asks Presidente not to give us changes.

As for the rest of the week, it looked a lot like last week, which is good because it means we hit our goal for lessons again! We found two new mujeres, one age 22, one age 50, who are both SUPER positive! The younger one is Joana, recently married (the first miracle about her is that they`re actually legally married, which is rare in this country) with the cutest little girl (age 2). Her grandma had received visits from hermanas misioneras previously, so she already knew a little about the Church. She accepted the commitment to prepare for baptism in the very first lesson and is reading everything we give her. This past Saturday we met her husband.

More on Graciela next week. Time`s up. The zone leaders are buzzing in our ears. haha. Elderes...

LOVE!
Hna Henrie

My new favorite book :) Cheesy, but true. My favorite book is actually the Book of Mormon.

The best inspiring stories are true. :)

Miracles!

My hermanas :)

Dear family and friends,

We taught some really prepared people this week. The young couple who called to us and asked us to visit them went to a Church activity, read all of the folleto of lesson one and have started reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. Their names are Victor and Mercedes, they have a little baby girl and we have high hopes for them! It´s a pleasure to teach people who are really searching.

The Lord blessed us in GREAT measure in every aspect of the work this week. We finally met several goals for lessons that we´ve been striving toward for months, and it felt really, really good to be able to reflect back on the week and know we used our time efficiently, doing the Lord´s work. He really guided us in our steps this week, from who to visit and when, to teaching by the Spirit throughout the whole lesson, which touched people´s hearts and helped them understand.

Specifially to the area of Centroamérica, every member of the Church celebrated something called La Semana de la Familia, where each ward prepared short talleres with temas such as strengthening family relationships, emergency preparedness, teaching jovenes to live closer to God, etc. It was a great opportunity for each member to invite nonmember friends or less active members of the Church to hear inspired messages about how the teachings of God and Jesus Christ bless families. Hna Infanzon and I were blessed to have at least one investigator at every single night. Two families even brought friends and introduced us to them, so we have some new investigators too! ... And in the show de talentos on Saturday all the missionaries in the zone performed a short skit. An elder took video, which I´ll put on my photo drive to send home. Dad and Tyler will hopefully be able to translate. It was a funny skit. :)

WHAT A MARVELOUS MESSAGE IS THE MESSAGE OF THE RESTORED GOSPEL! It changes people´s lives. God changes people´s lives. By helping us all live more in harmony, and on a higher plane. His expectations are high, but Jesus Christ is with us every step of the way. Brad Wilcox calls the grace of Jesus Christ our ´constant energy source,´ and I encourage each of you to pause to reflect on how you are using that energy source in your life. Don´t give up! Never give up! There´s always something in life for which we can be grateful, and there´s always hope for us to be able to change and improve. That´s what the grace of Jesus Christ is all about. That´s why He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and later, on the cross.

I bear my testimony that Christ loves each of us, even in our imperfections, and He is always there knocking at our door. Our job is simply to let him in, to accept His teachings and continually strive to live them. And when we do, a lasting peace and sense of joy come into our lives. It´s really true. I´ve lived it. I AM living it. I´m watching others learn and live it too.

I love you!

Hermana Henrie

The elders singing to me as they surprised me with a birthday cake last p-day!

It was a very yummy cake. :) vanilla with frosting similar to the taste and consistency of whipped cream and fruit on top. The writing says, ´Feliz cumpleaños Hermana Henrie´

They pushed my face into the cake. que barbaridad (that awful)... haha

We didn´t have a knife so we cut the cake with a corner of the cake box :)

On the morning of my birthday, the hermanas decorated my mesa while I was in the shower and made me a typical breakfast: frijoles con huevo y pan tostada. YUMMY! (they put two candles into the frijoles and made me blow them out before I could eat. it was funny)

Hna Huamani me regaló (gave me) this giant mango. It was delicious!

Hna Infanzon made us all bean tostadas for dinner one night this week. She made the smiley face out of mozzarella cheese. haha I LOVE FRIJOLES. Todavía no me ha cansado de comer los frijoles. Nunca jamás. (I have not tired of eating beans yet. Never ever) :D

Mother's Day Skype Call and a Successful Week

From Mom:  It was so great to get to see that cute smile yesterday. She didn't have a long time to talk and the connection wasn't great but it was wonderful to see her smiling face and meet her companion. She says, "Keep the letters coming." I sent her a bunch of piano music and she has been playing it. I know she plays for church each week including prelude and sometimes special musical numbers. She had a birthday party and one of the members made a "Hma. Henrie" pinata in her honor for her party.

Dear family and friends,

Hmm. This was a really normal week. Besides getting to talk to my family via Eskype yesterday. (Lookin` good, family!) Some highlights:

We had FIVE investigators in church yesterday! Hna Infanzon and I brought three, and then my recent convert Rosa brought her husband and her daughter. She has a powerful testimony and a lot of faith. I admire her fire, and I was SO HAPPY to see her husband Ismael that I wanted to jump up and down for joy. They live in Nejapa, which if you remember back to a few months ago became a forbidden area to us, meaning Rosa has pretty much been on her own in the sometimes difficult transition from new member to member-for-life of the Church. Nor could we teach her nonmember family members unless they came to the chapel or a member`s house in our `new` (condensed) area. It was Hno Ismael`s first time in church, and he liked it a lot! Hna Infanzon and I have a lot of hope for that family.

We visited a new investigator and her family who had read the entire folleto of lesson one and had a bunch of questions for us about the Book of Mormon. I loved it because they really seem to be searching for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. They seem very prepared.

We continue to teach Carlos, who we sometimes nickname `the Pizza Man` because he sells homemade pizzas from his motorcycle. He always reads the `tareas` we leave him, and more. He takes notes during our lessons, and he always notes when our next teaching appointment will be so he won`t forget. This is a man who has visited several different churches and still feels there is something missing in his life. It`s a privilege to teach him the principles of the restored gospel, and we hope to see him in church this Sunday!

The Lord blesses us each day with new investigators and a lot of referrals. One GREAT thing about El Salvador is almost everyone we talk to on the street tells us we can come by to teach them. Our biggest challenge is sorting out the referrals. We give priority to the ones that seem the most positive. Something neat happened last night with referrals. We were on our way home when a young couple called to us from across the street. THEY asked US to come visit them, to answer some questions they have about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It`s really something special when people take the initiative to ask you as missionaries to come teach them. We`re excited to pass by them.

I know this Church is true, that we have a living prophet and apostles who have been called of God and given the authority of God to direct God`s church according to His guidance. We have the RESTORED gospel of Jesus Christ, including the same priesthood authority that Jesus Christ gave to His original twelve apostles.

Cuìdense, todos. To my mother and all my `second` mothers, I hope you had a very HAPPY MOTHER`S DAY!

Much love,

Hermana Henrie

A friend from barrio Los Naranjos. We just happened to run into her and her new husband on Friday after zone conference. They were celebrating in the capilla. :)

Playing `Don`t Eat Pete` with President and Hermana Glazier last P`day. :)

Una Buena Semana (A Good Week) & a Marriage Proposal (but that is not what made the week good)

We made lunch for our cocinera Hna Arely on Friday. Hna Infanzon and I made mashed potatoes and gravy. The potatoes turned out PERFECT. Ohh, they were good. It was so good to taste mashed potatoes again. Hnas Cano (hondureña) and Huamani (peruana) made a Honduran dish where you put refried beans and eggs together in a flour tortilla. Hna Cano made the tortillas homemade, and they had a different flavor from typical Salvadoran tortillas. More like what you find in the States. Delicious! Hna Arely was very happy. :) :) we love her!

Dear family and friends,

What a luxury it is to take my time reading your emails and sending fotos to my mother... but suddenly here I am writing the weekly letter with three minutes to go! How quickly we adjust to the blessings in our lives. haha va a creer que dejé eso pasar

We had a funny week. Funny as in hilarious. One event in particular I´m thinking of is when the 70-year-old father of one of our investigators proposed marriage to both Hna Infanzon and I in the middle of the street in Los Angeles. (It wasn´t a big deal, he just said he would like to marry us when we stopped to say hello. haha we just said, ´great to see you, we´re on our way to an appointment, take care, adios!´ He´s a nice, grandfatherly old man with an occasionally quirky personality)

We had some very spiritual lessons this week. I mean lessons where the Spirit was so strong in everyone´s hearts you could almost see him in the room with us. Hna Infanzon and I have the feeling that good things are coming to this area. We will continue to improve the efficiency of our work (working smarter, because I honestly don´t think we can work much harder) and I know we will see the fruits soon!

Love,
Hermana Henrie

Presidente had my package! and a DVD player for us! We use it to preview the videos we want to show investigators, and also to play our CDs. Thank you for the flash drive with Mormon Messages! We can´t wait to burn them onto a disc so we can watch them!

Hna Infanzon´s and my old shoes. :) The new ones came just in time, and they fit great!

fotos de la conferencia multizona que tuvimos el martes. :)

Birthdays in Abril, Mayo y Junio. Hna Glazier made us banana bread. :)

la zona Apopa!