{It'S TouGH buT I LoVE iT!}

Hey fam!

Crazy week. I heard about the earthquake in Japan and was just worried about Matt over there. But i wasn`t too worried because i know God protects His missionaries. It`s good to know that they are all alright, but i`m sure the Palmer`s were going crazy! Matt finishes up his mish this month! It`s crazy how fast it has gone.

This was a really good week! We had about 16 people that told us they were going to go to church on Sunday. Well...none of them came haha. It was kind of just funny in the morning as we were walking around to pick people up. I told my comp that it was like the apostles at the start of the apostasy...one by one they were killed. But we got to church with a few less actives (cool story about that, hopefully i`ll remember to tell it while i`m writing) and i was just praying that someone would show up to church. This lady named Valentina showed up with her husband (member) and her kids! It was really cool! We`re excited for her and hoping she will progress. She`s a really humble woman and said she wants to get baptized. We just have to make sure she`s married.

So, the last active story. We were going to an appointment saturday night and we were pretty excited for the appointment (with Elizabeth and Abraham) but we saw an old couple sitting on their porch. I felt the small prompting to talk to them and so we headed over to contact them. Turns out the sister (Hermana Ortiz) is an inactive member and her husband is not a member. We went into their house and found out that she didn`t go to church because of a conflict with another member (classic story eh?) so we talked about forgiveness and invited her to church. Before agreeing to go to church...she asked us why we had stopped. She said that if we told her why we had stopped that she would go to church. We told her simply that we felt the need to talk to her because that`s what the Spirit said. She said the closing prayer and thanked God for sending us to her house. The next day, Sunday, there she was at church! It was a really great experience. We`ll see if we can start teaching her husband, Elias.

We also had a crazy experience at our house. One morning i was by the back door and i thought i heard something fall on the back patio. I went outside and there was a HUGE iguana in our backyard! It was gnarley! We think it fell in and it didn`t really have a way to get out. But one of our neighbors caught her and we`re pretty sure that they had a nice little barbecue hahaha. Oh and we saw a sloth yesterday on the telephone line...they call them ´lazy bears` in spanish. They move soooooo slow it was almost boring to watch it! But i`ll try and send some pictures of the iguana :)

Well fam i love you! Thanks for all your support. We had some tough situations with missionaries this week but everythings picking up. life is good in the mission. my companion is great and the work is moving. It`s tough but i love it!

Mucho love,

Elder Henrie

{I ReaLLY Do LovE TeaCHiNg PeOplE}

Family!

Yes, Elder Valenzuela is from Peru...but everyone thinks he`s from Venezuela because of his name. He`s a super awesome missionary! And we`re both zone leaders here in Chorrera. We came into the mission on the same day, so we`ll be leaving together (obviously). He`s got a good spirit and we`ve been working really hard. It makes me feel kinda bad that Matt`s had some tough, lazy missionaries. We`ve got a couple of those in our zone. We went to Panama City twice this week for meetings but this coming week should be more or less normal. Panama is currently celebrating `Carnavales`...the most wicked party that there is on the western hemisphere. What a disater. Elder Valenzuela and I were walking on the street the other day and this drunk guy came walking up to us, stopped for a moment, and then just started puking in the street! What a sight! He was heaving super hard...i guess that`s what we call `true happiness`. Yeah it`s pretty nasty here...but we`ve kept out of any dangerous spots and we`ve avoided the water (the tradition during this time is soak people on the street with buckets of water).

This week we`ve had some really great experiences this week. We`re working a lot with the familia Serrano (a member family that I worked a lot with in Santiago!) They are an incredible family and they are giving us lots of references! We talk Hermana Serrano`s neice, Elizabeth, and her son, Abraham. We`re probably going to invite them to be baptized when we go visit them on Wednesday. Elizabeth read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and said afterwards that she really had a strong desire to keep reading. She said she felt really peaceful when she reads it. The problem is her mom...she`s super catholic and critisizes her for investigating the church. She`s a really great investigator though.

Yesterday we had a really good experience as well. We were working in the afternoon and it was SUPER hot! Nobody really seemed that interested but we met this guy who was reading the paper outside of his house, Hermano Abrego. He let us in even though he said he was Catholic and had his own views (we had to insist a little bit ;))...and we invited his family, his wife and two daughters, to listen. The paid a lot of attention during the lesson and when we described the First Vision the spirit was really strong. the mom said she would have questions for us on Friday when we return! Awesome family!

I`m reading right now in Alma, and this morning I read about when Ammon was teaching Lamoni. Noticed that he really teaches him according to his needs and he serves him to gain his confidence. Hopefully i`ll be able to improve teaching to get to be more like him. I really do love teaching people. It`s super fun! I wish I had more time to be here in the mission with these great people but God only gives us two years here...but he knows what`s best! We`ve been working hard these past few days...i`ve been getting home completely dead and it`s a great feeling! Saturday we fasted but we realized that we didn`t have lunch on Sunday, oops. So we ended up eating corn flakes and gatorade in the house to break the fast. But all in all it`s been a great week.

I love you all! Send Matt Jackson my love and tell him to keep pushing. The standard of the mission panama is `Forever Strong`! The church is true!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

I hope trek planning is going well. Honestly I don`t have any good ideas for it. If you want it to be really tough...you can have them all be missionaries for three days! Haha...wow you`re right i do put `haha` like every line on the emails eh? Oh well...mom my companion is a stud! He`s super obedient and hard working. This morning was super funny. We woke up super tired (as usual) at 6 30...and he`s like `6 30 already?! I`ve been waiting forever!! Let`s do our exercises!!` He`s great.

Tell Bry hello for me...and if he misses his mission, let him know that Panama is the world`s best mission so he doesn`t really know what he missed out on haha!

Love you mom!!

Elder Henrie

{i'Ve GoT a Lot TO dO}

Henrie`s!!

Well it was a really great week! I got transferred from Alcalde Diaz...and they sent me right back to La Chorrera!!! Sawweet! I`m not in the same area as i was before, if that answers your question mom, but i`m really close. And i already got to go to my old area to do a baptismal interview on Friday! I saw a lot of the people there that i had taught and some of the old ward members. It was cool to see Ricaute, a young guy that we had taught that got baptized when i left. But it was kinda tough to see his brother Luis, he was also going to get baptized but when i had emergency changes from Barrio Centro he got drunk and he`s still having problems with the word of wisdom. He looks a lot more sad than he was when i left.

But i love the new area, it`s called Barrio 1. My comp is Elder Valenzuela de Perú. He`s a really good missionary and we`re excited to work here in a stake! In fact, the stake president, Presidente Ruiz, lives basically right next to us. And the members are great. They`ve already asked us when they can leave with us to visit references that they have and everything. It`s really different being in a stake than a district.

That`s weird to hear that Marsh is already well into school...today the kids enter school in Panama. It`s kind of a crazy day. my comp only has three weeks in the area so he really doesn`t know where anything is and me...much less. But we`ll have a good time figuring stuff out. Mom, with respect to your questions, I think we have 190 missionaries (meaning 95 areas), 13 zones, 21 missionaries in our zone, and a partridge in a pear tree. I don`t think it`s common for a missionary to go back to the same area but i know it happens every now and then in special cases.

We haven`t had too many crazy things happen yet in Barrio 1. Our zone is pretty good. The majority of the missionaries understand their purpose in the mission. I feel like i get to understand that purpose more and more as the time goes by. I heard from a lot of return missionaries that once you finally figure out what the mission really is and you have the experience you need to be a good teacher and do what you need to do...you have to leave. I`ve only got eight more months here in Panama and i`ve got a lot to do. I love the Panamanians. They are like my family! I told this family yesterday that their daughter Rose reminds me of Lib. She`s five, going on six, and loaded with energy! haha

Dad i really liked the letter you wrote me, especially this quote:

´´Too often we go through life with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn, anxious to let others know when they have erred in some way.``

Very true. I`ve noticed that I do that as a missionary. I think i focus sometimes on other missionary`s weaknesses without really looking at the small things that i need to work on to be 100 percent obedient and hard working. I think i really am starting to understand obedience better in the mission. You can just keep the rules because they`re rules. You have to do it because you love God and the people and because you really want them to feel the spirit that we have so that they can make covenants with God.

I love you all! Any news on my nephew wolfgang?? I hope you`re all well! The mission for the week has set this goal...olvídese! (Forget yourself) and i really want to work on that. That`s what the mission is about!

I love you...the church is true. Keep the commandments and God will bless you, and me. thank you for everything you do!

Mucho love,
Elder Henrie

Hey mom!

Wow that`s great that Steve`s out on the mission again! He`s going to have so many great experiences! Marsh drove yesterday?? In panama that would have been a SUPER steep ticket. I talked to a kid who drove when he was fifteen and he had to pay several hundred dollars haha ooops. But the driving age here is 18...that would be lame. But I think it`s also legal to drink when you`re 18. Sweet...here`s a car, and a beer...good luck.

Ok sidetracked. Well mom I pray that you`re doing well. I`m not sure if you all hide any tough things that happen in the family because it seems like your always doing well.. But i know you will all be passing through trials while i`m here in panama and i hope you have the strength to get through them. The trials i`ve had in the mission have been intense at times and really i`ve had moments when prayer is the only option left. But it works :)

I love you mom!

Elder Henrie

{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