March 22, 2010

HEY! This place is AMAZING. The ocean and the beach are so gorgeous. One of our investigators right now lives over the Bay. When we meet with him we have lessons on the dock. At night the whole skyline is lit up and in the mornings he says there are dolphins and manatees in the bay! right out his door! i can't wait to see that. I love being on an island. I knew from the beginning that i was supposed to serve on an island at some point and i didn't know how it would be possible. They haven't had sisters on the islands for like 6 years. Its just amazing. our island is pretty small so we just walk everywhere. I love the people! they are all so wonderful. And the food has been way good. There are so many miracles in the mission. The Lord is SO aware of all of our investigators and the people we meet. He is very direct with us and leads us along. We have some amazing investigators right now. one of them is antonio. He is like 30 and moved here from iowa. his mom told him he had to go to church and gave him directions to it. he lost the directions and ended up walking into ours. so cool. We are also teaching a brazilian kid named pablo. he is struggling to know that there is only one true church but i think he'll figure it out. people are really receptive here. The amazing thing to me has been how many people are not catholic. there is a huge jewish community here. there are like 2 different jewish schools. there are also a lot of santeras or in spanish santerias. they're crazy i won't tell you about them. my feet will get better soon. right now i have blisters on the bottom of my feet too. As far as mail goes send it all to the mission home and they forward it to me wherever i am and i get it either the same day or the next day. i would love getting journal letters from you because i'm still on a time schedule.

So i forgot to tell you about Elder and Sister Gibbons! they are amazing. Tell Jeannie through me that they said hello haha. They pulled me aside because they had looked at all my information and asked if i was related to her because they saw I was from Fallon and what my last name was. They are just the sweetest people ever. I cant even express to you how much i love it here. I love seeing all the mango and coconut trees and all the beautiful tropical flowers. This week it hit 60 and everyone was wearing coats and scarves haha. Its because of all the humidity. Today it POURED rain. It was another one of their "afternoon showers" which would drown the whole state of Nevada. Its fun though. We were going to take pictures to e-mail home today but it was just too wet outside. Hopefully next week. It kinda sucked because we had just got down washing and waxing our car by hand. Oh well. The people here are all just so amazing. they are really funny. I love them. they are all super nice and helpful. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish in this area. The Lord definitely has something in store for it. One of the goals of the English YSA branch which has about 50 members is to become a ward this year which would include a lot of missionary work. The culture here is amazing. There are people from EVERYWHERE. Our mission is a mission of visions and dreams just like in the latin culture. I never really thought that the Lord still talked to people in that way but He does. This is the most amazing mission ever. There is so much amazing stuff going on right now. I love you all! I'm praying for you every single day. Do your missionary work! it really is the responsibility of the members to find the investigators. Make sure you are doing your part. I used to think that sharing the gospel was a hard thing to do, but its not. Share your testimonies often. God lives. This is His church. He leads and directs it. Have a good week!!
Also i got your package! THANKS! I totally ate all the cookies already. The great thing about florida is that they never harden. If anything they just get softer. SO GOOD- you can send me cookies any day.
Next week hopefully my letter will be a little better. I couldn't get a library card again because of no proof of mail address so i'm kinda just waiting to get everything worked out in this area. LOVE YOU!
Hermana Hendrix

March 15, 2010

no e-mail or letters this week?? did you all die or somethin?? (don't worry- we sent them, just to the wrong e-mail address) just kidding. Well i'm here in Florida and its crazy. My trainer is from Las Vegas and i actually had class with her before the mish up in idaho. Her name is Hermana F. We are white washing an area which means we are both new to the area. they haven't had sisters here for over 6 years. We're on Miami Beach so yes south beach and the spring breakers are all in my area. We are on an island! i knew i was supposed to serve on one i just didn't know how. Our area covers like 4 little islands and we just walk everywhere. We've been super busy just trying to meet everyone. We serve in a spanish branch and an English YSA ward. Its been really fun. I have met someone from like 15 countries already. They are so diverse here. We even met a lady from Holland. She asked me if i was irish or greek. i said i didn't think either and she told me that i was wrong and she was sure i was one of those two and just didn't know it haha. later that same night we met a cubano lady who has an inactive son. it was really funny because we had randomly met her on the street the day before and she totally blew us off. She asked me if i was cubano. i told her no haha It is so humid here because we are right on the ocean. the bay is out one of our windows and the ocean is 2 blocks the other way. we can walk the whole island in like an hour or something. My feet are covered in blisters thats been fun. on the end of every toe and underneath every toe is huge blisters. when i take my shoes off i can't even walk. i ended up having to buy a new pair of shoes today. I've also been sick the whole time i've been here. i was sick in the mtc too so i'm not really suprised. This place is nothing like i ever imagined. but i love it. we have to be a little cautious walking around in the dark but we just stay on lit streets and the lord watches over us. mom don't be scared by that comment. umm because its my first week and i don't have any mail for proof of address i can't get a library card so they only gave me 40 minutes instead of an hour. Life is crazy and amazing. i love the people. they are crazy. gotta go! love you! BYE!!!
Hermana

I have 10 more minutes now that i'm done writing my letter to pres. I already spoke in both wards. In the spanish branch i had to introduce myself and then in the english ward i had to give a 10 minute talk. We didn't even know about it but their speakers didn't show up. my comp only took like 2 minutes and she said the bishopric was mad at her. I was second so ended up having to take like 10 to 15 minutes. I still can't speak spanish so its rough. Especially since we are both new to the area and we actually replaced 4 elders. Our apartment was so gross when we got there. We cleaned for like 6 hours. Food, mold, dirt, bugs... you name it and it was there. Anyway the Lord has blessed me so much. I can pretty much understand what everyone says which is amazing since they talk so fast but i just can't talk back. I can't understand the old cubanos though. Their accent is crazy. Its going to be hard to adjust to all the different dialects. Pres said once we get the spanish down he usually puts us in an english area so that we have to work at it and then we go back to spanish. He mixes up companionships with language sometimes too. They have like every language in this area. Also i rode my bike the other day. Its way nice but its a pain to take around because when you lock it up you have to take off the front tire and lock it and then put it back on. Plus the traffic and drivers are out of control. They are worse than europe drivers which i didn't think was possible. We live directly across the street too and we have the most beautiful chapel in the whole mission. one of the prettiest in the world. look it up- miami lakes chapel. Well gotta go again. LOVE YOU!

Marach 5, 2010

Hey! Things are going so good! I have never been so busy and tired in my life. We teach any time we can. Yesterday we taught 12 lessons. Usually we do 5-10 plus our study time and class. Before this week we were doing 1 or 2 lessons a week. We love teaching. We have really been pushing ourselves this week. I prayed last sunday at the fireside. They say where you were from so a few people came up to me afterwards asking me about people in fallon. One of them was a sister who i became friends with when i first got here and she knew my companion. She asked me if I was related to cousin Mark- he works for her dad. Then she told me her uncle worked for some people in Fallon. I asked her what his name was and she told me Duane Coombs. I couldn't believe it! So we chatted about Duane and Heather and Desi. Also Gayle Tolzmann's sister is her. And one of my other friends here had classes with Heather Bake (lewis). Craziness. As far as missionaries in Chile go... all but the ones going to concepcion will leave on monday. They were all held back for a week because the airport was closed with damage but it is back open. The roads into concepcion are still ruined so they have to wait til the 15th. S was supposed to leave last monday but she will be leaving this monday instead. They will have so many opportunities to serve. We have talked a little bit about messages for families or people affected by the earthquakes. There is a good chance we will come across people who have families both in Haiti and Chile. The language is coming along. Definitely not fluent and its a struggle but i know that the Lord will help me to figure it out. Usually it takes 5 or 6 months in the field to be fluent. Its so crazy to think that i'm leaving in 4 days. There are 11 of us going to Florida together and 5 of us are from the same district. I'm so excited we get to stay together but REALLY sad that E Shatzer and E Lowry will be on their own. Our district has been really close and we spend all of our time together. I see Holt almost every day still and I think we go into the field the same day. I always chat with him for a couple minutes. He is going to be such a great missionary. He looks so happy its amazing. I have definitely had the best week of my mission so far. I'm loving it! We are having so much fun and working ourselves to death. I don't know how people have a chance to sit around and do nothing their last week here. We were told thats what always happens as soon as people get their travel plans but it was the complete opposite for us. Today is our last p-day and there is still so much to be done. I love you so much and i love hearing from you! the church is SO true. there is no doubt in my mind that God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph smith. I know that the book of mormon is true. There is no other book that can answer the questions of every person in the whole world no matter what stage of life they are in or how they grew up. I know that we have a prophet today- Thomas S Monson. God lives and loves each one of us. in the name of jesus christ amen
LOVE HERMAN

February 26, 2010

Hi family! this week has been so crazy. We sat down yesterday and set the goals of what we want to accomplish in the next two weeks. We really want to stretch ourselves and work our hardest. Its amazing how much you can accomplish in such a short period of time here at the MTC. We got our travel plans yesterday and i about had a heart attack. i don't feel ready to leave here yet. We leave here at 4am on the 9th to go to the airport. we then leave at 8 and have a 45 min layover in cincinati. i'll most likely be calling at like 5am to talk to you on the 9th. Sorry its so early but i won't be able to do it during my layover. This week has just been really busy. Lots of meetings and stuff. Oh also i have been asked to pray at the fireside on sunday. that almost gave me a heart attack as well. i'll be praying in front of like 2500 people and i don't even remember how to pray in english. Me and Hermana H have been doing a lot of teaching the last couple days. We're trying to get used to teaching with just the two of us. Its hard but we'll get the hang of it. almost all of our friends here at the mtc are either leaving this week or are already gone. i guess thats what happens when you're here for 9 weeks. you just watch everyone come and go. I did finish the book of mormon again this week. i finished it on my 7 week mark. It was so good! i would spend all day reading if i could. last sunday Janice Kapp Perry taught relief society. She is such an amazing lady. We were able to sing a medley of a bunch of the primary songs she has written and then an hour later our district of elders that were leaving sang armys of helaman in sacrament which she wrote. Next week our district is singing before we leave. i'll probably bawl my eyes out. I do that a lot around here. Ummmm I can't even remember what else has happened this week. I'm sure i'll think of more as soon as i send this but i'll prob send a letter too, hopefully i have time i have a bunch to write back to this week. Tell everyone i said hi and that i love them. did you get my pictures i just sent home?? What else is new at work? The church is so true and the lord blesses us so much. I know that God lives and that he is our Father. I know that Christ sacrificed his life for each one of us and felt every pain or sorrow we will ever feel. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw both God the Father and Jesus Christ and they called him by name. I know the book of mormon is true and it can answer any question we ever have in our lives. I love you all so very much.
Hermana Hendrix