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