{It waS TouGH to See}

Fam!

Well this week was sweet! We had a really interesting/intense experience on Saturday. We were trying to get to an appointment that we had at 2 in this area called las camelias. And we were on a street thinking that we could take a little ´shortcut´ seeing as how there was a little pathway that we figured would make it to las camelias. we didn`t want to walk the ten minutes around. Work effectively right? Hmmm wrong. Turns out we walked into this guandu farm. And the grass there isn`t grass...it`s like walking through bamboo...ridiculous. We saw a little riverbed that looked like an out. And it was headed up this super steep hill that was going in the direction that we were wanting to go. Well a little ways up and we ran into a problem. Like a twenty foot cliff in front of us. We were pretty bummed and at this point let`s just say that the ten minutes we could have spent walking around were already up. we ended up scaling this little part to the side and i got SUPER dirty haha. I think it literally took us like an hour to make it through. What a joke. We got to the appointment super dirty and sweaty and the family there was pretty surprised haha but they received us and it was a good lesson. They weren`t even mad that we were an hour late.

but everything is good! The work is good and i`m happy! I probably have changes this week we`ll see..i`ll be excited either way. I`m excited to get to know more of panama and work in new areas. I feel good about what we`ve done here in La Cabima and i feel like we`ve had good success. Yesterday was a really good sunday...the recent converts all showed up, the chapel was pretty full, two investigators came (daniel pinto and his mom, Graciela), I felt happy. I really have felt real joy here in this area!

I don`t know what else to say about this week. We`ve been working to finish up the change and everything looks good! I hope all is well and that you guys keep me in your prayers!

I love you!

Elder Henrie

Hey mom!

Well this week has been good. Unfortunately Luis didn`t get baptized this week because his grandma got sick and he had to go to San Miguelito for the weekend. It made me a little sad because the font was already filled up and everything! haha so i probably won`t see his baptism but as long as he makes the covenant we`re good!!

Tyson and Bryant are back!! Wow that`s crazy! And pat is dating mary webb haha that`s funny those guys are awesome. I haven`t heard a lot from them so it`s good to know they are good. tell bryant and tyson hello for me and that i hope they`re doing great!

Mom i have to thank you for your example. We had a tough experience this week with a members mom and i`m just really grateful to have parents that have guided me and taught me well. The kid`s name is Erick. He`s 18 and getting ready for a mission. Him and his brother got baptized three years ago. And in the lesson with his mom (who is not a member) Erick expressed a really sincere desire for her to be a member so that they could read the scriptures together as a family, go to church, etc. But she just started telling him that as a member of the chuch he needed to do better and give a better example and that she didn`t want to get ready for baptism. Erick was really heartbroken. We asked him to say the prayer at the end and during the prayer he just started crying. He definitely understands what it would mean to have a family in the gospel. It was tough to see and it`s going to be tough for him to be a missionary without any real support.

So thank you for giving me that support. I love the mission! It`s been so good here in Alcalde Diaz! I think i`m outta here this week and i`m going to miss the members and the converts here. Juan Carlos, one of the baptisms here, received the priesthood yesterday! Sweet experience!

love you mom! Don`t worry about my birthday too much...tell Libby to make a list for me!

Love,

Elder Henrie

{One Of thOSe GooD MomEnTs}

Fam!

Ok sweet story to tell...first off thanks for all the emails and photos. the best photo had to be the one with lib and gracie! Laura seems to be kinda stuck on some problems but we`re still working with her. Daniel couldn`t come to church but he went to a valentine`s day activity on saturday and said he loved it! We definitely see progress in him. But the best experience we had this week was at church yesterday with Luis. we went to talk with his mom in the morning about what we had been teaching him and how she feels about it. She`s catholic...but she really supports him and she`s a really good person. So we went to church with luis yesterday...and the four missionaries in our branch all talked on missionary work. I talked about fellowshipping. Elder Hine`s talk was the best though cause he`s such a paiaso.

Anyway so Luis came up to us after the meeting and said `Hey Elders come here i want to tell you something`. He looked really happy! And then he started telling us that he had felt something incredible during the meeting! He said he couldn`t describe how happy he had felt and he said `can i get baptized on Saturday?`...hahaha uhhhh no. It was so amazing! So Elder Astleford...another missionary in our branch did the interview right there and he is going to be baptized!!! It was soooo cool! He looked so happy and the members were really excited for him!

It was for sure one of those good moments on the mission that make all the hard work pay off!

I love you guys and i`m super excited for this saturday! Pray that it all goes well! I honestly don`t know if ill have changes or not from Alcalde Diaz. It could go either way. I`ve been here since October so we`ll see what happens. Either way i`ll be happy. I love the members and the people in our area. They are really incredible!

Unfortunately i couldn`t get the disney card from lib haha i`ll try and open it again to see what happens. I`m excited to know if i`m going to have a neice or a nephew...a georgia or a james...so let me know!

the church is true!

Elder Henrie

Mom!/libby!

Happy Valentine`s Day! Here we call it `El Día de Amor y Amistad´ haha The Day of Love and Friendship`...that name is way too long. I hope things are good. I am doing well and happy here in the mission. Things are picking up in our area and the members are great. The panamanians really turn into your family while you`re a missionary. It`s cool to meet so many good people.

This week we`ve got a lot to do to get ready for the baptism...hopefully all goes well! I love you!

Elder Henrie

ps lib that was a great picture!

{I LoVE iT HerE}

FAMILY!

Sorry if you didn´t get my email last week...i got a message today saying it didn´t send. Oops. Sounds like California was a blast! I liked the pictures. Esp of dad and marsh on california screamin. haha this week was pretty good. It went by super fast except for Sunday. My comp had some sort of virus and had a pretty bad fever. So we went to a clinic yesterday (first time in the mission missing church) and they gave him some antibiotics. I was SUPER bored sitting in the house all day. There´s not much to do in the house of a missionary haha that´s why we´re never in the house. But the members were helpful...they brought us dinner after taking my companion to see the doctor.

Good experiences this week! We are working with this kid named Daniel Pinto. He went to church in a different chapel a couple weeks ago and went to ours in La Cabima yesterday. He´s a really good kid. He read 3 nephi 11 and is one of those people that retains everything! He´s great and we think hes gonna progress. Elder Hine visited our investigator Laura while i was in another area on divisions and he said she was drinking when he showed up. Kinda sad...but we´re going to keep working with her to see if her cousins who are members can help her out. Luis Peralta didn´t come to church yesterday unfortunately because he was working...but he´s still doing really well and we´re super excited about him. He really is one of the greatest investigators i´ve met.

Tomorrow we´ll have interviews with Presidente Ward! I´m really excited for that. They´re always really helpful and i feel like he always knows what to say to me in the moment that i need it. He´s super funny too. Yesterday Elder Hine was telling him his symptoms and president said ´well don´t die dude you´ve only got three months left.´haha but the spirit is always strong with him and he´s made some really good changes in the mission.

Well i love you all and i pray for you! The church is true!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

It really was a good week this week! Lots of interesting moments. Sometimes, when i feel like i´m used to panama something new happens that i really wasn´t expecting. I love it here. Time goes and it keeps going. Everyone told me the second year goes by faster but i didn´t know how serious they were about it. I am still learning a lot from the people here. One of the most spiritual moments this week was on saturday. This lady in our neighborhood lost her husband very recently to an unexpected disease. She is the neighbor of a really strong member family and everyone is having a hard time with it. When we were in her house with her and her son...i just thought about james. And i started talking to her about him. And how my mom had taught me to get through it. I told her i still missed him...but i can only remember the good things about him...and we have to stop saying ´what if???´

It doesn´t do us any good to dwell on what could have been. I am grateful for God´s plan and the blessing that it is to share it with the panamanians!! Love you a ton mom!

Elder Henrie :)

ps sunrise from our house! Sweet!

{BueNo... AwEsoMe And diFFicuLt Week!}

Familia!!

Bueno...awesome and difficult week! We had a few really tough days and last week was pretty tough but it all payed off. A few days ago we were in a lesson with Luis Peralta and we put a baptismal date with him! He accepted it! He`s got some problems with some of the commandments and was unsure about keeping them or not. So yesterday we took him to meet Fernando You (the convert here that got baptized on Nov. 11) so that Fernando could share some experiences with him. Fernando talked about how difficult it was for him to make sacrifices and living all of the commandments before his mission. He bore an INCREDIBLE testimony about how the Book of Mormon, not the missionaries, provided him with answers to his questions. He talked about how every time he had doubts or received criticism from friends or family, he relied on the Book of Mormon. Definitely the best lesson of the week. I was thinking about how cool it would be to see FERNANDO baptize LUIS! Hahaha just pray that everything works out.

After we put a date with Luis we went to teach this girl we`ve been working with named Laura. Her cousins are members and she is really smart. She reads the Book of Mormon and retains everything she reads. She really does have a desire to change her life...that she said she had really never felt before. I love how God prepares people to hear the Gospel. So we put a baptismal date with her too, but we need to get her assisting to church first...that was a sweet day!

It`s been super hot these past few days. I think i`m totally used to it now. You walk outside at 10 am and you`re already soaked with sweat haha kinda nice. But it always pays off. We had a cool experience yesterday too. Sundays are pretty hard because we don`t ever eat dinner until we get home at 9 pm. So from 8 to 9 on sunday nights is a big test sometimes. Last night we were contacting and we met the mother of a recent convert that never has listened to the missionaries. In fact, the missionaries had to go at 6 in the morning to teach this convert because her mom was against the church. But we asked her if we could just sing a little hymn and we talked to her for a couple minutes outside on her porch. She seemed a little more interested and a lot more open after the conversation. We`ll see if we can start teaching her this week.

I love you all! The church is true and this work is super awesome! I`m really enjoying this area still. I think it`s coming to an end here in Alcalde Diaz but who knows, they could leave me here another change. Stay strong fam!

Con lots of amor,

Elder Henrie

Mom!

Hello! Things are cruisin here in our area. We had a pretty solid week. No one came to church which was a little tough but we had some sweet lessons and good experiences. Things are going great with Elder Hine. He`s a good missionary and a great comp. He`s pretty nuts haha definitely has the spirit and that`s one of the most important things in this work.

I hope you all love Cali! Have a good relax there and i`ll be praying for ya this week. This morning i read Mosiah 3...really a powerful chapter about the Atonement. I`m definitely greatful for the Atonement here as a missionary because it would be hard dealing with so many imperfections without a way to get better. I love King Benjamin`s discourse about it.

The atonement is real. I know it is. I love seeing people accept it here in Panama! Love you mom have a great trip!!!

Mucho amore (como dicen los italianos),

Elder Henrie

A Letter to Tanner (& Matt):

Dear Elders, How we love reading your letters! Your families are doing well and we are all much blessed.

Bob and I are reading a book about William Tyndale who translated the Bible from Latin to English. His story is remarkable. I was familiar with his name and the fact that he did the translation, but not with the amazing zeal and determination he had to use to accomplish the translation. The book is written by Michael Wilcox , who compares Tyndal’s story to that of Joseph Smith. William Tyndale was burned at the stake only because he wanted everyone (King to ploughboy) to have access to the Bible. I am amazed at the great sacrifices made for us. The book is titled, Fire in the Bones. When I read your letters I detect the same spirit in each of you. Thank you! Keep it up!

Last night I saw a documentary about Brazil. There are some BIG rodents in those forests.

We are still in winter---snow again today. Bob and I are well.

· Erin and John, with Marshall and Libby, are off today to California –Disneyland. It is a surprise to Libby.

· J.W. and Jessi came last week for supper and games.

· Lyssa has had an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin on Saturday. She was blessed to have a Dr. next door who ran to help her and she is fine now, but it was scary.

· BYU is doing great! Jimmer Freddette made 43 points in the win over San Diego and only 32 points in the loss to NM.

· U of U is doing a little better, but lost to Colorado State.

· The Jazz are spiraling downward.

· Leena is improving in her ability to speak. She will be 4 in June.

· I saw Dalton’s basketball game last week. He is becoming a very intense little player and has been in a growth spurt.

· Eliza’s basketball team is coached by Kent. They have won every game. I saw them play on Saturday and I can tell Eliza has been taught by her dad as when she jumps up to get the ball in a crowd she throws her elbows on the way down.

· Megan has been asked to Valentine Ball at Timpview. When I was at the house Ruthanne and Megan were choosing a dress for her to wear. David was astounded that she would “buy a dress just for ONE dance”.

I love you both more than I can say. You are such honorable young men. Thank you. Be safe. Be obedient. Brush your teeth. Love, Grammy

{ThE FaMiLies We'Ve BeeN TeaCHinG KiNd of CRaSHed}

Mom!

Hahaha hilarious story about the relief sociey basketball game!! I can only imagine! I would have been front and center cheering you on! Even if you scored in the wrong basket :) haha great story!

Congrats on the puppy...she seems like a winner. And that`s crazy that Marshall is getting glasses. I hope they look something like the ones you sent in the picture of him. That would be fantastic! haha

Well mom...i really love ya. The mission is good. Great, actually! And it keeps moving by faster and faster. There is definitely a sense of urgency and a need to share the message with everyone. I am lovin it here in Alcalde Diaz. I don`t know if i`ve told you but it`s one of my most beautiful areas...if not the most beautiful.

The people are incredible! So humble and loving. Sometimes they reject you just because they really don`t know what we have. And because not everyone let`s strangers into their house. If only everyone could understand...haha but i guess that`s kind of the idea of missionary work.

I`m glad God trust`s me enough with His Son`s name. I`m grateful for missionaries now. Before coming here...i didn`t have any idea what they did. But now i get it. It was tough this week...really tough. I think it was hard in our whole zone for some reason. But i feel good because we are all trying. We are working even when it`s hot haha. I love these people mom...i wish you could meet all of them and listen to their stories. But i can only tell you so much. You know in the Book of Mormon how they say they couldn`t even write the hundreth part of their experiences? I sometimes feel that way about these emails haha

Love you mom!

Your son,

Elder Henrie

Hello!

I`m glad that Book of Mormon finally made it...kinda had me worried. Yeah me and Elder Hine are still zone leaders in Alcalde Diaz...we are gonig to teach tomorrow in zone conference about how to receive revelation from the Book of Mormon...haha the assitants told us last night, giving us plenty of time to prepare!

Gracie`s a cute dog haha i`ll bet she`s the new center of attention for awhile now.

The families we`ve been teaching kind of crashed. The majority of them can`t move passed the beliefs that they already have to give the book of mormon a chance. It`s hard when you know that people went to ask other people instead of God about the Book of Mormon. It doesn`t really work that way...

So we`ve been focusing on finding a lot of new people. We only had one guy come to church yesterday and he showed up a little drunk. So we`re really focusing on that committment right now.

Things are going good in the mission. With Elder Hine...we have a lot of experience with respect to diligence. At 8 45, the night before preparation day...tired, etc, God blesses you with a family if you keep working. It was a pretty tough week with some bigtime rejection but we`re hanging in there with hope of finding someone. You have to talk to a lot of people in panama to baptize one person....and that makes it all worth it.

Good luck with Gracie this week! Hope you can get some sleep! Haha i love you all!

Elder Henrie

{DiliGenCE is SuPer impoRTaNT HerE!!}

Saweet!

This week was awesome! My new comp is Elder Hine...from New Mexico. He`s been out in the mission about 20 months...i`m still here in la cabima and i`m lovin it. Turns out the sweet family we had found, family villalas, is in the interior right now...until next saturday haha. But we have found some incredible families in the last few days. Elder Hine is really awesome. He really pushes the work and always has a good positive spirit. He`s really a great missionary and i can tell this change is going to go by fast. Last Friday president ward came with us to visit one of the families we are teaching...la familia Soto-Góngora. SUCH a good family. And it was cool to teach with president there. We were going to teach the word of wisdom...but when we got there we decided it would be better to read the book of mormon.

We also found this family named Herrera. They are sweet! They have four kids...but usually just their three daughters are there with them. One of their older daughters is super catholic but when we taught them about the book of mormon they seemed really interested. We found them at about 8 20 at night. The promise of finding families at night has seriously worked every night this past week. We will have an entire day of heat, rejection, and lameness, and then find a great family when time is almost up. Diligence is super important here!

Last night we had kind of a tough experience. We found a good married couple and they were asking a lot of questions. They assist to a church called Hosanna, but they were pretty open. So we put a return appointment and got up to leave. As we walked out their aunt was there and she got on us for coming to their house. She said mormons werent welcome there and that they already know the word of god...and that we couldnt come back. All we could do was testify and leave. It almost made me mad, but my comp walked out calmly...really showing an example of christlike love for the people here. But no worries...we went and taught the familia herrera after and that brought my spirits up!!

Did i mention that elder Poli went to San Blas?! haha he was wanting to go there...san blas is kind of a paradise supposedly here in panama :) goin to chill on the islands baptizing kuna indians! He was way excited!

In the changes...president ward laid down the law...unfortunately it was something that needed to be done.. He stood up and said that if he caught anyone with a phone, headphones, ipods, etc. he would send them straight home. Pretty sad, but i really think that culture of the mission is changing a lot. Things are becoming a lot more spiritual and i think a lot of the missionaries are starting to understand better our purpose.

Well i love you all! I`m kinda disappointed that you bought a ´golden doodle´ when there`s plenty of strong pitbulls and rotweilers here in la cabima haha don`t know how well Gracie will stand her ground against them!! Hahaha sorry bad joke mom.

Love you guys! The church is true!

Elder Henrie