{It"S GoNNa Be CRaZY!}

Wow,

Monday night comes along and we were excited for a sweet family home evening with the family Remice. We got there and sensed something a little tense. We sang and prayed...and all of a sudden it all came falling down. Oderays and José started arguing about tons of things that were going on in their family. I realized why it had taken so long to do their marriage papers. God wanted us to help them with their problems first. Oderays had some problems with José taking one of their neighbors (female) to work in the city...and he was mad about a bunch of other things. It was a very tough moment for me. A very tough lesson. We tried to calm them down and just started talking about simple things...about their family, service, etc. We tried to leave the spirit there and leave them to talk it out. They`ve been together for a long time now and Oderays said they`ve always had these problems. We went back the next day to see how it went and they were still mad. So we committed them to serve each other every day. It was really cool because we were able to just teach them principles that we have learned as missionaries...listening to the whole story without talking first, serving your companion every day, praying together, really simple things. The Gospel really is simple...but like dad said in his email...studying the Gospel and living it is the best way to take care of problems, whatever kind.

So Friday night we visited them with President Ward and had a REALLY spiritual lesson about the Family, a Proclamation to the World. The next day they both went to the city to just walk around the temple and enjoy the spirit that there is there. We`re really excited and feeling like they are moving forward. I have never worried so much about a family in my whole mission. I pray for them constantly..even if i`m just blessing the coco krispies in the morning. They really are incredible and i love them soooo much!

I love you all a lot! I wish I had time to write everything I want to tell you...but one of the things to remember as a teacher is that speaking less is more haha president always says that. The church really is true. I don`t doubt in God`s plan for His children. I love Panama and the Panamanians. I feel like they deserve to have the Gospel. And fear can`t hold us back from sharing it. Honestly I feel like i have needed them more than they have needed me. I realize that I have changed a lot on the mission. I have learned patience, faith, love, humility, wow....so many different things that i needed before the mission. Now it`s all about being constant and trying to put them into pratice.

Mucho LOVE!

Elder Henrrrrry

Mom!

Happy Easter!

I`m really excited for this coming week. we`ve got two marriages, three baptisms, and a zone conference to get ready! It`s gonna be crazy! I don`t even have time to think. Sounds like Marsh man`s gettin buff eh? Tell him that it really doesn`t matter because everyone gets fat on their missions haha no just kidding i`m still stronger than him.

Thanks for everything mom...looks like i need to write a letter to Bishop Brewster now if you`ll do me the favor of sending it to him thanks :)

{I'M JuST PraYINg ThaT mY ShoEs LaST}

Hello family!

This week was great! I feel dead tired haha and it`s nice to be resting today...we are seeing lots of success in the zone and our area is doing great!. We found some great people to teach this week. Last nice we had a pretty sad experience. There is an ex bishop in our ward from russia, Bishop Glebov, and he wanted us to visit his wife because she`s been inactive for quite a while. She`s become confused because of things she read on the internet about the church and has eventually turned cold against the church. We were talking to her last night with her husband and she started to tell us about all the things that were `wrong` with the church. The only thing we could do was testify that the Book of Mormon is true and that by reading it and praying she could clear up her own doubts. She refused to read it. She told us that we would never remember her, talk about just being another number on the quotas that we have, and asked us not to talk about her in our meetings with the members. It made me really sad. I feel like her husband is struggling a lot to raise a good family. He has three little girls and the oldest just turned 8. Tough situation. But the experience really did strengthen my testimony in God`s plan and the importance of agency. We can`t force anything on anyone. I read the other day in the BoM that we are our own judges in the sense that we choose to be happy or miserable...Alma 41ish. She kept saying she felt peace but you could just feel it and see it in her eyes that she was confused and wanted to feel real peace. We had a similar experience with a member that just got out of prision. He had left to another church while he was in prision and it showed in his eyes that he truly wasn`t happy. Really tough moments...when all you want is for people to understand eternal families.

Bueno...on the other hand we did have some great experiences. My comp and I read a talk that the assistants sent us about the importance of challenging people to baptism...so in just about every lesson we`ve been inviting people to be baptized. It`s really been cool to see how people recognize our message when we explain to them our purpose. Several accepted the invitation gladly but we need to fight to get them to church. The Remice Ibarra family is doing good...we are going to turn in the LAST marriage paper today! And then they`ll give us a date for their marriage! Sweet!

I love you all fam! I hope AZ is great! Enjoy the heat because i`m enjoying it here in La Chorrera! I am pretty sure `winter` is coming up soon here in Panama...winter meaning slightly cooler and lots of rain haha it should be good though. I`m just praying my shoes last :) oh and i lost my wallet this week! But luckily it just had my driver`s lisence, copy of my passport, carnet, credit card from home and from the mission, thirty bucks, temple recommend, and photos. Buuuut, one of the missionaries in our zone called last night saying that he found my wallet in a taxi! I was pretty happy!

The church is true!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

Hey mom! Have a great week in AZ! Tell dad to hit a few slices for me on the golf course. Yesterday i gave a talk in church about why we do missionary work, based on a talk by Elder Oaks from the Liahona of September 2009...the talk really just teaches about baptism and the authority that permits us to go to the Celestial Kingdom. There is no other church or organization that can do that. He said that he appreciates the work of other ministries that convert bad people into good people...but that that does not permit them to enter the celestial kingdom. It`s a celestial work and only we can do it! It went well.

good luck with the heat in AZ! Luis Peralta just wrote me a letter from Alcalde Diaz telling me about his baptism and how i had helped him in that decision. It`s good to here that the work you do in one area keeps having an effect after you leave.

Mucho amore,

Elder Henrie

ps here`s the letter Luis Peralta sent me (he`s learning english and speaks pretty well) :)

Hi my frend, I really hope you are ok , I writhe for said take the baptism the 19 of the last month and you help me so much in me decision and give me the confidence I needed, thanks for everything I miss you and love you, be strong, take care, god bless you

{We KePT WalKInG}

Fam!

Ok...lots of cool experiences this week. Thanks for your emails! Dad when you wrote about becoming like a child it made me think about an experience i had yesterday at a member`s house eating lunch. One of the member`s friends was there and her daughter, with a handfull of grapes, came over to say hi (a two year old little girl, really cute) I reached out to shake her hand and instead of shaking my hand i just felt half of a soggy grape in my hand. Haha she thought i was asking for food and was more than willing to share. Elder Valenzuela and I were talking about it after...and how innocent children are, and how willing they are to give of themselves.

The other day we were going to visit another area to meet a baptismal date, and we were running late. Luckily there are lots of awesome taxi driver`s here haha one of them pulled up and told us to get in. He`s a member from a different area, Ivan. He had given us a free ride before and he took us again. Normally it would cost about two bucks to get to the area we were going to (that`s a lot by the way) and he told us not to worry about it. We were thinking he was a less active member. When we stopped he asked us to give him a blessing right there in the taxi. So we did...and i`m not even really sure what it was that he needed. I just remember telling him to take care of his family. And we saw him at church on Sunday! It was really cool...

Ok...another experience. Yesterday was pretty tough. Sunday night`s can always be hard after a week of work and all the appointments are falling...but we kept walking. The last appointment we had was kind of one of those that we weren`t sure about...an hermana named Cuti and her fam. She answered the door and her husband came up and invited us in. Super nice family! They started telling us that they had been having lots of family problems and really needed help. They said that they had almost gotten divorced in the past...several times. It was really cool to just listen to them and understand how quickly the people put their trust in us as missionaries. I dont know if i`ll ever have that blessing so strong after the mission. So many people we teach trust us with their problems and their needs. It was great to share the plan of salvation with them and talk about how family prayer could help change them.

We have a family home evening tomorrow night with the Remice family in a member`s house! Should be great! I feel good about this change! The zone is working super hard and inviting EVERYONE to come unto Christ! There are 36 people right now with baptismal dates in our zone! I haven`t seen that in a zone before in my mission and i feel blessed to be with such hard working missionaries now! The entire zone is solid! President Ward took out a few missionaries that were struggling here in Chorrera and sent us some really strong ones.

I love you all! Thanks for your support! Pray for the Remice family and for Valentina! Love you!

Elder Henrie

Hey mom!

I`m happy in the mission...I feel focused. And i know that God will bless me if i`m dilligent and obedient. I feel like the way i look at things has changed. I was reading about pride the other day and i right that a part of pride is putting more importance in that which comes from the world than that which comes from God. I`m learning to put more importance in Godly things. I love the mission! Rain, sun, all of it. It`s been pouring like crazy this week...and every time it starts raining me and Elder Valenzuela smile at each other and go for it!

Too bad Libby is sick...tell her to get better :) I love you mom and i hope that all goes well on the homefront. Until next week!

thats amore,

Elder Henrie

{TeaCHing TheM ThE WoRD oF WisDOM}

Henries!

So it was pretty fun going to the Remice family`s house and teaching them the word of wisdom the time after we had broken it in their house haha [Tanner innocently drank tea, because the box said "All Natural", and he thought it was herb tea--- see last week] but they accepted and are really excited! They came to Sunday afternoon conference...and Hermana Valentina came to sunday morning`s session. It was really cool. I loved the messages that were spoken. Elder Holland is always my favorite. I think Elder Eyring knew that everyone was waiting for his name, and when he said Elder Holland would be last he gave a little smirk. haha but his words are very powerful. I thought a lot about President Monson`s words about having to cancel sealings. That would be so sad. After so much work to make it to the temple...only to be canceled.

This week has been incredible in the zone! Last month was super low with the baptisms...but this week the zone has been putting baptism dates like crazy! We`re really learning to `invite others to come unto Christ` by helping them get prepared for baptism. We`ve been doing divisions a lot this week...more than i`ve ever done in one week. We went to four different areas to either get to know investigators or put baptismal dates with progressing investigators. It`s been really great. I`ve been kind of exhausted, so general conference was a nice break to rest and learn from the prophet and the apostles.

Unfortunately some of the missionaries have had some difficulties in these past weeks. President called last night and took one of them out this morning. He`s probably going to be sent home. It`s sad to see so many missionaries with so much potential that don`t understand the blessings they are receiving. It`s like the story that Elder Uchtdorf shared about the guy that took a trip, saving all his money until the very end when he found out that everything was included with the ticket...I learned in conference, when the choir sung `I`m trying to be like Jesus`, that i need to put for the effort to love every single one of the missionaries. I had told the missionary that left this morning that he wasn`t going to be happy if he kept acting like that. His comp is one of the strongest missionaries in the zone and i look up to him a lot. His name`s Elder Alley...he`s a super powerful missionary with a great spirit.

I love you all fam! I hope we can all put into practice what we`ve learned in conference. Priesthood session wasn`t quite the same...but it`s super enjoyable to be with a bunch of missionaries and humble members who want to learn. I feel like i`m learning how to learn being here with them. Panama is great! I LOVE this area! I really hope they don`t change us this week! Elder Valenzuela is a great comp and he pushes the work a lot here.

Mucho love,

Elder Henrie