{A deaD moNkeY in tHe streeT iSn'T WeiRD tO Me}

ay ay ay

Mom, don`t even remind me that i almost have a year. It`s rough enough to leave behind your family, your country, and your culture for two years....but when i come back i`ll have to do it again...because i`m panamanian now. I love it here. I really do feel like it`s my home. Everything seems normal to me....haha a dead monkey in the street isn`t weird to me anymore...uhhh. That`s awesome that your going to be the Stake Young Women’s First Counselor (yes i copied and pasted that)... That will be an awesome calling!

Dad...we have zone conference every three months...never as a whole mission because its so spread out...i think there are four or five different conferences...we never have a mission conference all together. But we just had a conference with all the leaders in the mission this last week...it was a three day shindig...kinda really sweet.

Right now we`re finding pretty much everyone through references of members. We still contact a lot but references are way more effective. And no we don`t have bikes...lastimosamente...

i`ve got an experience about a blessing that we gave in Santiago. We went to lend service one day and the lady there said she had a sick neighbor who wanted a blessing. He also wanted us to pray for his home. So we got there and he wasn`t doing so good. I put my hands on his head and Elder Chevez put his hands on top of mine. After the blessing we were in the street and I took tell Elder Chevez had felt something. He told me he could feel hands on top of his during the blessing. It really strengthened my testimony of the priesthood and Elder Chevez had been struggling a bit so it was a good experience for him to have.

I also remember being in the relief society president`s home...she wanted us to pray for it because they had been robbed the night before. It was an incredible experience blessing that home. The priesthood really does work miracles when we have faith.

I`m soooo excited that Devan turned his papers in!!! He`s going to love his mission! Its super hard and worth every minute! And that`s awesome that Nate was made an Elder! It`s such a blessing to be able to serve in the different offices of the priesthood.

Ok...so this weekend we were talking with a recent convert family (some of them aren`t members) one of them is called Luis Rodriguez..he`s trying to give up alcohol and he came yesterday to church for the first time! He`s 21 and he`s such a stud! I told him if he stopped drinking for good i`d give up ice cream haha. We showed up early at his house and he was totally ready in his sweet shirt and good looking church shoes! Now he has a baptismal date for the 16 of oct. and his brother Ricaute as well...and Ricaute`s girlfriend Milagro! Awesome! There`s one thing about baptizing people in the mission. Elder Johnson told me that he could baptize a thousand people on his mission, but if he didn`t work and wasn`t obedient...it wouldn`t mean anything...i feel the same way. Baptisms aren`t success. Obedience and hard work is success.

And and one thing about Erick Sera...i told him i`d trade him backpacks when he goes on a mission (my backpack is kind of a big deal) so i hope you`re cool with that. Erick is a stud too haha

Love you all! I hope your week rocks!

Elder Henrie

ps general conference this weekend! Sweet!

{ThaT Doesn`t HaPPen in Panama}

Haha hey!

Right on...answers...

I`m in La Chorrera...Barrio equals ward, Cento equals center. There are six of us in the District...18 in the zone. One of the missionaries is from Australia...haha she`s awesome. Roughly 190 missionaries in Panama...don`t know how many zones...like 12ish.

That`s tough that Steve came home. Tell him hi for me and that I love him. I hope he`s doing alright.

As DL i talk to the missionaries on the phone about three nights a week. The coolest part is that i`ll do the baptismal interviews for the investigators in our district. sweet!

Sounds like life is sweet in Utah and better in Panamà! Tell the Utes to keep winning and the Cougars to KEEP LOSING! Dont worry i`m not watching the games grammy told me haha.

The guy that was suicidal...Carlos Alemàn, is now preparing for baptism! Sweet! And there`s an elder that just got into our zone, he came from El Empalme, my first area. He told me Erick Sera is getting ready for a mission!!! He`s one of our converts there. And he told me that Ceferino went to the temple! Awesome! And the brother of Emiliano, another convert, is going to get baptized! WORD! Things are still going well in El Empalme looks like haha.

This week has been sweet! My comps doing alright...yes he gets mail mom haha. He doesn`t like studying but he`s a good guy. I`m learning patience and we enjoy working together. I finally feel like i`m learning patience. Tough comps are always blessings.

Sweet experience yesterday. First off, last week we were on our way home and i saw a guy sitting outside...i almost didn`t talk to him. We walked by him and then about five seconds later i told my comp we HAD to go back to talk to him. So we went back and introduced ourselves...he was pretty positive and told us to stop by one sunday. So we went yesterday and the whole fam was there! There were like five or six men there and they were ALL listening...that doesn`t happen in Panama. And then it started raining. I started to say the words of the first vision and i swear it started raining harder. Finally....at the very end...the rain calmed...and i said `Èste es mi hijo amado. ¡Escùchalo!`...this is my beloved son...hear him!. How sweet! We`re going back on thursday...really a powerful experience!

Also another guy named Josè Cambronero. Last sunday it was super hot and my comp kept saying `i want to go home, etc ` haha but he was kind of joking. Anyway i told him we were going to find someone...we got kicked out of someone`s house by a gnarley lady and finally, FINALLY, we found this guy. He was outside playing ball with his kid alan. It was the last house. And we taught him, left him a Bof M. And went back yesterday.

Yesterday he showed us that he had basically finished 1 Nephi! Wow! We took a member with us and he testified super powerfully. It was such a sweet lesson!

Fam. Alonzo...ya no. Satan stuck his foot in on that fam and now theyre going with Jehova`s Witnesses. The guy really just likes when we go over there but they don`t want to come to church or talk about baptism....man i was sad after that lesson.

Send my love to everyone and tell grammy thanks for the worldly news! haha and thanks for the letter to my companion!

Love you all!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

I love you!

tell Greg that i love him and it`s worth it! I was thinking this morning about all the miracles i`ve seen on my mission and i wouldn`t trade it for anything! We`re really helping people and it`s incredible. Say hi to Lib!

MISIÓN PANAMÁ CIUDAD DE PANAMÁ

September 8, 2010

Dear Elder Henrie:

Thank you for accepting the calling to serve as a District Leader in the Chorrera in the Panama Panama City Mission. This calling has been extended to you after careful consideration and prayer. It is a calling from the Lord, and it will require your very best efforts. You have been called to serve in this capacity because of your good example, your obedience, your diligence, and because of the potential that the Lord sees in you. As you seek guidance from the Lord and work diligently, you will be blessed to carry out the work that the Lord has prepared for you to accomplish.

You will need to thoroughly understand and teach the purpose of a missionary, which is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

A mission leadership position requires that you always set a good example, always keeping the commandments of the Church and following the rules of the mission. You will need to be familiar with the guidelines found in the Mission Manual and in Preach My Gospel. As a mission leader, you will have the responsibility to assist the mission president by teaching correct principles to missionaries and by helping to assure that missionaries under your stewardship strictly follow the missionary daily schedule and apply the proselyting guidelines taught in the mission.

As a District Leader, you will teach and train the missionaries in district meetings. You will be expected to help all missionaries carry out their work in an exemplary manner. You will be directly responsible to see that the missionaries in your district understand and follow the mission rules and work according to the daily mission schedule. In addition, you have the responsibility to help missionary companionships set proselyting goals centered on the key indicators and to exercise their faith to achieve their goals.

Thank you for your desire to serve the Lord with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength. Thank you for accepting this calling to serve in the mission. The Lord will strengthen you and direct your efforts as you prayerfully carry out this assignment (Joshua 1:1-9; Proverbs 3:5-6). I look forward to working with you and stand ready to help you in any way I can.

Sincerely,

{PanaMeñoS are sO Rad!}

Familia!

Whats up eh? I`m in Chorrera now! Barrio Centro! It`s definitely different being in a ward. It`s like...missionary work right off the bat. Our members are sweet! And one cool thing is that Elder Poli just left this area...he`s a zone leader now! So i`ll be taking care off his converts while i`m here. My comp is Elder Bravo from Nicaragua. The first thing Elder Dangerfield told me when I told him Elder Bravo was my comp...haha `help him out`. It`ll be ok though. I told him straight up that we`re going to be obedient and work. But yeah he`s kind of struggling hardcore. I miss Elder Chevez. What an awesome elder! And I miss Santiago A TON!! But, like Bocas, I feel good about what we did there

I`m district leader here in Chorrera. It should be a good opportunity to serve. I`m kind of intimitated. But i think it should go well. We had a sweet experience with our neighbor. I talked to him like the first night i got here (wednesday) and the next morning he came over to our house telling us he wanted to commit suicide the night before. We taught him the plan of salvation and talked about how much God loves him and the gift that we have of living here in the earth. It was really cool. And he came to church yesterday!

Another experience. We were street contacting (my comp and i are both new to the area and we`re starting from scratch haha) and we found the familia Alonzo! Sweet fam...Elder Poli and his comp had already taught them in the past and they are pretty much ready to be baptized! Hahaha we just have to work on getting them to assist to church.

That`s really crazy about the health problems going on in the ward. Really sad but the miracles always come in times of trials. I read a talk from the conference Liahona about patience and Elder Utchdorf says that we don`t just need to endure...we need to endure well. What an awesome quote. I know it`s true. Patience is not just waiting. It`s action, and perseverancia. Don`t know that word in english.

I think God keeps giving me disobedient companions because he wants me to learn to love them haha. But i`ve got a good attitude about this change. I`ve been hearing a lot of `i don`t want to work, i want to go home and sleep, i want water, it`s hot, there is nobody here` but i know we`re gonna have success here.

We`ve already got potential. Well family i love you all! Keep me in your prayers! JP is a junior??!!! Que va hombre...i hope everything is awesome in utah town, but i know it`s not as awesome as panama! The church is true!

Elder Henrie

ps yes i`ll be writing on mondays now haha

mother!

Hola! What`s up? I`m really stoked about my new area. I miss Santiago a lot but the relief society president made me promise that i would return...and i shook hands on it. Just so you know.. That means i have to go back to Santiago someday. Yep. And you have to meet the people there. Mom, panameños are so rad! They are way funny and happy.

Quick experience from yesterday. My comp wanted water so i told him we`d have to find someone to teach so we could ask them for water. Finally we found a positive guy. Turns out his wife hates mormons and kicked us out...wow haha super intense. But he did give us water! hhaha. and then we kept going until we hit the LAST house on the street....we talked to the guy who was outside with his kid, Josè and his son Alan. What an awesome guy! He had lots of questions and knew a little bit about the church. We gave him a Book of Mormon...now we just need to baptize him! Hahaha he`s from Costa Rica and is really interesting.

Oh and we met a guy from Pennsylvania...wow tough crowd. I love my new area! Pray for my comp!

Chao ¡cuìdate!

Elder Henrie

{I fEeL ComPleTe}

Whoa!

I´ve got a lot to write here. Elder Johnson`s first name is Derek...

Send this to matt jackson...

Matt...te quiero. Espero que sigues trabajando duro hombre. No dejes de orar y ayunar. El señor realmente nos da pruebas en la misiòn para que crezcamos. i love you matt. I know what it`s like to have a rough companion. But it all pays off in the end. I learned to respect and love the tougher companions and I`m really grateful that i had those super long changes with them. I`ll be praying for you. We`re in a great work! it all pays off. Be a good missionary! And don`t worry about the language and the teaching...it all comes with work.

Ok...this week was incredible. Saturday...we went to help a members mom with the gnarley grass in front of her house (i`m still suffering from the bug bites on my nalgas) and then we had such an incredible fireside. We started the fireside in the court outside the church building. The theme was `be like little children` we started by reading from the Book of Mormon about Christ`s coming to the Americas. And then we read in chapter 17 of third nephi when he blessed the children and cried. Afterwards we gave everyone a moment to write on a piece of paper what they were going to change to become more like little children...and what they were going to leave behind. Afterwards...everyone stood up, said what they wrote, and burned it in the fire. (it wasn`t raining because the whole branch fasted so that it would be an awesome activity) Then we had a moment of silence and played some really soft hymns. Everyone started crying. Afterwards they all bore testimony about how they had felt. It really was one of the best moments in my mission!

Tomàs and Cathy Salinas almost didn`t come for lack of money but i called them and told them the Lord would bless them if they came. They came and Cathy told me afterward they she felt incredible and the experience helped her with a lot of questions and doubts. Then she and Tomàs sang a song to finish the activity....SWEET!

The next day was fast and testimony meeting. Everyone talked about the activity. I bore my testimony and really felt like I have a family here. Teonila Rodriguez (one of our converts) bore her testimony about the first time she met with us and how she came to know about the Restoration. Tomàs blessed the sacrament. Cathy is talking about and excited to go to the temple. And Arnulfo Flores is solid! I feel complete. I feel like i`ve done everything i can in Santiago.

One of the members had a dream that i told her i had to leave. She told me not to in her dream, but said that i told her that there were people waiting for me in another area. I can`t wait to meet them! God works miracles for missionaries. I think i`m slowly beginning to understand why we do missionary work. I`m starting to get it. We`re here to save people.

It was hard saying goodbye. Teonlia and her daughter who will be baptized soon were crying and told us that there will always be a family in Santiago who remembers us. It was tough saying goodbye to the members. Really, I love these people. I love them. I know i`m going to have a lot more difficult moments on the mission, but it`s awesome.

Elder Chevez and i don`t want to split up. He`s been a good comp. I`ve been super strict with him and he`s had a rough two changes but i`m really glad he`s enjoyed it so much. He cried when i told him i have changes. He`s an awesome missionary and I know he`ll keep working hard in Santiago.

I`m happy. I really am. I feel completely satisfied with what we`ve done here. I know I wasn`t close to being a perfect person and much less a perfect missionary but i`m loving it. I know that God is watching over his work. I know that we have angels protecting us. Because there are some places in Santiago that aren`t safe. But God has warned us several times. He`s carried us out of bad areas and let us to good, humble people who were ready...

I love Santiago. I don`t want to leave but at the same time I`m ready for more. The mission goes by fast. Really fast. My ward mission leader talked to the president last week to see if i could stay here...but he told him that i`m heading out. And the President told me as well that i`ll be having changes. Pray for Elder Chevez and his future companion. His dad has been struggling.

I love you all! The church is true! hahaha keep going!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Tanner

ps tell the brewster`s i love them and I put Steve`s name in the temple. I`ll be praying for them. Oh and the temple was sweet! As usual. You should go to the temple! hahaha love you!

{I aM wiTh You in THe spIRit}

uh huh!

Wow...really rough news about Bishop Brewster. I`ll be praying for him and his family a lot. that`s super hard to hear. It`s a good thing we have the gospel to get us through trials like this and that we know that the trials make us stronger. I hope their family is doing well. Tell them I love them.

i loved the pictures of lib starting school haha hilarious. I can`t imagine her causing a riot with all her little friends. I still find it hard to believe that she`s in school already!

We had a good week this week. We`re going to the temple on Thursday because our zone met the goal we set for baptisms! Sweet! I`ll be in there with Elder Johnson...my friend from high school. Dang man. I`m really excited! We had a lot of success this past week. Lots of good lessons and good experiences. We taught our branch presidents son who just got separated from his wife and kids. He`s really suffering a lot and he wants to be with his family. It`s hard to see...and he carries a photo of his family around with him everywhere and sleeps with it by his bedside. It hurts really bad because he keeps saying he knows they will be together. We talked to him about the peace that we can find in the Book of Mormon and submitting ourselves to God`s will and forgetting about what we want. But we saw him yesterday and he seems a lot better.

We also taught a lady named Omaida who just lost her husband to cancer...she was a reference from another contact. It was a really good lesson. she just kept talking about the peace that she wanted to find in this life. The plan of salvation really does offer us this peace.

We`ve also had some more problems with our leadership...our investigator family...los pardo..had a bad experience with our branch mission leader. kind of not good. But we`re working through it. The wife...Miriam, is starting to doubt the book of mormon. But we went there last night with a member and had a good talk about it. She seemed committed to read it and pray.

That`s really all for this week. Changes are comin up...don`t know if i`m going or staying but I really love the branch of Santiago!

I was reading in the bible the other day and read a scripture that made me think about you all...dice, `Although I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.` Col. 2, verse 5. That`s how i feel about you all...keep being awesome!

Mucho love,

Elder Henrie

Mom!

Hey mom! Thanks for the email! I hope all is well. really excited for the temple this Thursday! I`ll be thinking about you all while I am there. I still remember perfectly my first time entering the temple...what an incredible experience.

Thanks for praying for me..it keeps me going. I`ve been super tired lately because i don`t sleep much...panamanian dogs haha. But i`m doing really well. Still working and trying to be a good missionary, like libby told me to be when we talked on mother`s day haha. Love you mom! Thanks for everything!

Elder your son

ps the pictures I sent are 1. a rotten egg that was SUPER rotten. It tasted alright though. and 2. a frog faking dead after I THOUGHT I killed it with an umbrella. Chuso.