{TheY ArE SupER ExciTED AbOuT MissIONaRY WoRK}

Henries!

Week 1 of a new change. We are teaching a really cool columbian lady named Janet...she´s a reference from Sister Ward...she accepted a baptismal date for the 15 of october! She´s so awesome...today we visited her and she asked what she needed to do to get prepared for baptism. We also have an investigator named Olinda who will be baptized on the 15th as well.

We are looking for a family that can progress this change. Sorry it´s so late writing to you all. We had to move some missionaries today and then we went to teach some appointments and came to the office to do the number reports of the week. So it´s been kind of a crazy day.

The mission is going so well. I feel like it´s all coming together. Everything i´ve been needing to learn in these years here on the mission is coming together. I feel really great and peaceful about everything. I LOVE our investigators and our area! They are so incredible. Unfortunately we don´t get to know the members as well because there is less time for activities and service in our own area but I really love the members in our ward. They are super excited about missionary work.

I am really excited for Will! He´s going to have a great time on his mission!

I love you all!

Elder Henrie

ps i´m sorry it´s so short...I promise i´ll give a more full report next week on everything that´s going on...but we need to go home now haha

{ThE PlAN oF SaLVaTioN}

Fam!

We´ve finished week six of the change, meaning this week starts a new change. I´m excited for this change...general conference, we have some possible good baptisms, and Elder Ortega and I will be comps for six more weeks. This past week four missionaries were sent home. We went to the airport to take two of them, and one of the missionaries there, that i´ve known since my second area, came up to me and just started sobbing. He felt terrible and uncertain about everything that was going to happen. I read this morning something that Joseph Smith said about hell, that the suffering of the wicked is knowing that they won´t obtain the glory that they could have otherwise enjoyed. I think that is what happens sometimes to missionaries. Sometimes they lose sight of their potential and don´t obtain the blessings that God wants them to have.

But the mission looks really good now and we´re ready for changes. The missionaries really are working hard and we are seeing lots of success in the mission. I love it here! The panamanians are awesome. We had a talent show in our ward last week and the members did some really funny acts. One of the members, from Mexico, worked in the circus several years ago, so he had some really funny talents. He had a "knife throwing" act that had everyone laughing. It was a really good night.

Yesterday morning we went to look for investigators for church, but unfortunately there was no water in the city so none of our investigators could shower and they really didn´t want to go to church like that. But I did! :) It was a good day in church...Elder Laidler´s last day. It´s crazy that he´s going home already. He´s been a good missionary here.

Well family I love you a lot! GO UTES!

Elder Henrie

Hey mom,

Sounds like there´s been some tough situations. I´m really excited for Jeremy! Korea! That´s going to be a very interesting mission. I feel like this time the changes in the mission have been much easier...maybe it´s just because i´m getting used to the organization of everything. President told me that this is what happens every time, by the time the elders in the office get the hang of things, he has to kick them out and bring new ones in haha. But I guess that´s how life is.

I´ve been really interested this week in studying the plan of salvation. I´m not sure what but I´ve come up with lots of questions in my studies. I feel like having questions is always good to learn. And I really do keep learning. The problem can be that sometimes we don´t have much time to study but I fit it in wherever I can. I really don´t doubt. I have no doubts about the plan of salvation. Every day I understand it better. Before the mission I always thought of it as God´s way of comforting us and giving us hope for the next life. But it´s really a lot more than that. In God´s plan we learn who we really are and who we have to become. And He shows us how to do it.

I´m grateful for the Gospel. I hope that more people here can accept it. Kenny is doing really well. He has to be my all time favorite investigator. He has so many good questions and really wants to do what God wants.

I love you mom!

Elder Henrie

{ThE ChuRCh iS TruE!}

Henries!

I can´t say that it´s been the easiest week of the mission. I have had A LOT of good experiences this week with the priesthood power...but unfortunately there were some very bad decisions made by some of the missionaries here. Last night we were talking to an elder about what is going to happen. He had made some mistakes here in the mission and is really scared. It´s just hard to see President Ward show so much confidence in his missionaries and then seeing them let him down. I am grateful for the rules on the mission. I´ve come to realize why we need to obey. It´s not just because we have to, or even because we want to. It´s to become more like Christ, to develop the characteristics that we´ll be needing after the mission. I read Isaiah 48:10 this week: "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." The mission that God gives us here really does refine us if we take advantage of it. I feel like I am still being changed by the experiences that I am having daily here on the mission.

This last Tuesday, we went to Chorrera and did divisions in the area of Barrio Centro (my old area) to see how Elder Portillo (the District Leader) was doing. I went with him and we started contacting in a little neighborhood by the church. The second house that we contacted let us in. Turns out the lady inside, hermana Vergara, is a member. And I recognized her from when I had been in the ward. She seemed really surprised that we were there and asked us who had called us to send us there. We just explained that we were contacting and felt like we needed to be in that area. It wasn´t some huge sensation...just seemed like the right place. She told us that she had been really sick and needed a blessing. She had been thinking about it that morning and was hoping that she could talk to the missionaries. Her son, who has the priesthood, lives in San Miguelito and couldn´t be there. We gave her a blessing that was really special to me. I don´t know what will happen but I felt like she would be ok and be able to heal. After the blessing we taught a guy that was visiting her from Tocumen and then continued on our search.

The next house we went to was a lady named Lesbia. She told us that she had not been feeling well because she had fallen earlier on the street and was having knee troubles. When we talked about the priesthood, she asked us if we could give her a blessing. I felt like we were guided to visit those people who were in need of a blessing from the priesthood. It really was a great experience for me and I think it really helped Elder Portillo.

One more awesome experience. We are teaching this guy named Kenny, he´s from Peru, probably one of the most sincere guys that I´ve met, but he doesn´t progress. He lives with a family of recent converts so we teach him with them every now and then. He´s always had doubts about the Book of Mormon and its origin. When we got there on Wednesday, my companion asked him if he knew the story of the people of Israel. I thought it was kind of an odd question haha but that´s how the lesson started. We said a prayer and my companion began explaining the story. I figured I would just go along with it because he had to have some sort of point. We talked about the twelve tribes and their dispersion...and how Christ came to visit the lost sheep here in the Americas. My companion showed kenny a little piece of paper that had a list of scriptures that he had studied about the topic. Kenny was reading it and saw a question written on the bottom of the paper: "Where does the Book of Mormon come from?"...he looked at it, pondering for a moment and then looked up at us. It was obvious that he had felt the Spirit very strong during the lesson. He said, "this is the question that i´ve had ever since this book came into my hands." He finally understood it! He almost didn´t come to church yesterday because of work, but it rained really hard and he couldn´t work. So he went to church instead :) I LOVE this guy! I wish you could meet him. He´s an incredible person and has so many good questions. I guess what I learned was to stick with your companion in the lessons, because the Spirit really does guide this work. I asked him afterward what had made him go in that direction, and he simply replied, "it´s what I felt"

So those are a couple of the experiences that I was able to have this week. I am happy here in Panama. After what happened this week in the mission I thought about the scripture "wickedness never was happiness". I wondered what was it that made people so unhappy in their sins. From my studies I concluded that with each sin, we become less like our Father in Heaven and in a state contrary to his. "They are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness" (Alma 41:11)

I love you all! Be happy because the church is true!

Elder Henrie

Hey dad!

Quick note...Jotam will hopefully go on a mission in one year with his brother Wilfredo. This Saturday i´m going to the temple to see Ceferino Castillo receive his endownment to go on a mission! I´m really excited for him.

This week i´ve been reading a bit about the kingdom of israel. It has helped me understand what we are really doing here as missionaries, gathering the house of israel. Wow, lots of interesting history. I understand why you have loved studying the old testament. Thanks for teaching me to love the scriptures!

Love you dad!

Elder Henrie

{TheY...LooKeD GUAPOS!}

Henries!

I finished the Book of Mormon a couple of days ago! It was a good experience. I had never realized how many times Moroni "exhorts" us to act in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon. I learned a lot. From Elder Martino´s visit to Panama I decided that this time around studying the Book of Mormon I want to focus on what I can learn about the Atonement and how I can apply it in everything I do. I have lots of questions about it and I think it will be good to look for the answers.

Sunday was a little tough...our investigators didn´t show up to church. But we´re planning on working more with members this week and trying to get a family to church this sunday. Hopefully we´ll receive that blessing. Things are going great in the mission. The mission has made a lot of progress in baptisms and I feel like the converts are stronger than ever. It was sooo neat to see so many young men and women at the dental brigade to be able to go on their missions. On Tuesday morning we were in a bus going to the brigade...and we saw two young, long-haired guys walking to the church. Jotam and Wilfredo! We picked them up and headed to the church. One of the first things that they found out was that to have the free dental care done, they would have to cut their hair. It was a tough decision for them...they´ve had long hair since as long as they can remember. They were also thinking a lot about their mom and their decision to serve a mission. It was hard for them to decide because their mom isn´t really all for them going on missions. And Jotam says it´s hard because he wants to go to the same mission as his brother (they´re really close brothers).

So, they ended up deciding to do it. They both cut their hair and looked GUAPOS! It was super cool and probably one of the best experiences for me in the whole brigade. All the dentists complimented them and they were probably the two most famous young men there by the end of everything. haha what an experience. And Jotam bore a powerful testimony in church yesterday about the love he has felt from the members and how grateful he is to be a member of the church.

We also had a few good finding experiences this week. Last night we found a kid from Bocas del Toro named Roberto who had lots of questions about the Plan of Salvation. He believes in reincarnation so it was an interesting conversation.

I love you all a ton! I´ve been praying for you!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

I love the mission! I am happy and...tired haha. The weeks are going by really fast. Changes are coming up pretty soon which means that there´s a lot to do. That´s crazy that Marsh has his first date comin up! It should be fun for him. If he needs help renting a bus tell him that we´re professionals in that here in Panama City. One of the bus drivers of the brigade group is called Edilberto...he´s a really cool guy and i´m hoping the missionaries in his area can teach him.

I was talking to a member yesterday about having a family sealed in the temple. It is a super rare blessing if you think about the percentage of people on the earth today that have been able to go to the temple. I´m grateful for having a family sealed in the temple. It has helped me understand the importance of goals and priorities. That has definitely been a strength that I have learned here in the mission, the importance of goal setting. It´s good to know that everything I learn here will be applicable throughout my life.

Oh, quick thing...THANK YOU for the cookies! Dr. Roundy and his wife are really good people. He fixed my messed up tooth for me so now it doesn´t look as ugly. And everyone there really enjoyed the cookies...they told me to thank you and that you did an excellent job! I felt pretty spoiled with home made cookies ;)

I love you mom! Thanks for everything. I hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Henrie

{ThEy ArE GreAT ExaMPleS tO Me}

Hola familia!

So it´s really late and we still have to send the mission number reports to the church website. But I feel like all of you are more important than that right now. I need to share one of the best experiences of the week. Starting saturday...Elder Robinson, an elder in Alcalde Diaz, had an accident in a service project so his companion was with me yesterday in the afternoon. We were contacting in a nice neighborhood looking for a family to teach. We had prayed to have success there and I felt the need to look in an area that we had never been in before. We saw a young guy with his security work uniform on an decided to talk to him and a guy he was standing with. The kids name is Eladio. He told me he was from Almirante, in Bocas del Toro. He said that he had talked to missionaries before, and with a couple of questions we found out that he actually had a baptismal date but he had to leave Almirante to find work. He has been here in the city for a while.

I asked him about the missionaries that he knew...if he knew an Elder Stoddard, one of the missionaries in our district in Bocas. He said YES! That HE was the one who had taught him! Elder Stoddard had told me a really long story about a kid named Eladio Molina who was going to be baptized but had to go away to an island for several months. Elder Stoddard was way excited about this kid and said to know that he had suddenly left to go to that island. It was a really good experience for me to know that God does guide us. To know that this really is His work. I am glad to form part of it. It is a demanding work. President Ward said in zone conference last week that Panama is "not for sissys!"

Speaking of zone conference, Elder Martino from the area presidency came to a mission tour this week. We had a meeting with him and President last Monday night about mission needs. It was a very spiritual week with him and built my testimony to see him and his wife working and testifying. Sister Martino is helping out in the dental brigade so I still see her every day. Also, the area president, Presidente Falabella, was their today. There are so many amazing leaders in the church and it builds my faith listening to their testimonies of Christ and watching them share the Gospel with everyone. They are great examples for me.

Thank you all for your support! I love you a TON!!!

Elder Henrie

Querida mom,

What a week eh? First point...people avoid breaking their toes by being born with smaller toes haha sorry that´s a bit mean. Yeah I met Dr. Roundy! Really a nice guy! And we´re all enjoying the cookies in the ´dental office´ in the chapel in San Miguelito. I liked the note you sent with them so thanks a lot. We´ve done a lot this week. Saturday night the dental brigade started. So we´re there helping to translate during the day. I saw some people from my first area...El Empalme. Ceferino Castillo was there! He´s going on a mission soon! He wants to go to El Salvador I´m excited for him. Jotam should be going with his brother Wilfredo tomorrow. Wilfredo blessed the sacrament yesterday and did a really good job. Church was great! Sister Ward brought her hair dresser to church (she´s from Columbia and wants to know more about the church). And we had an investigator there named Olinda who wants a book of mormon.

Last night we were contacting in a tough area. NOBODY wanted to listen to us. NOBODY. It was kind of interesting. Elder Ortega was wondering if we weren´t in the right spot. But I told my him that we were GOING to find a family before going home. We had prayed specifically for that blessing after dinner and we had worked for it all day without ONE lesson. We kept walking and everyone was either catholic or asleep. Finally we got to a house that rejected us and then President Ward called with some bad news about some missionaries in Bocas del Toro...as my comp was talking to him we saw a girl pull up in her car in the neighbor´s house and her dad came out to help her with some things. I felt like it was them...the family that we wanted...la familia Jaen. We went up and just had barely started talking to them when the dad said "sure come on in! Let me get you some lemonade it´s kind of hot inside." Wow...we sang Family´s can be together forever and started talking about families. I told them how deeply I love my family and why. We then started asking if they had heard about the book of mormon. They had lots of questions and the spirit was just strong in their home. We didn´t even have to ask if we could say a closing prayer, because the father said we should end with a prayer! We put an appointment for wednesday and he said that his wife would also be there to listen to the message. Pray for them! Our goal is to get them to church!

I love you mom...thanks for your encouragement. This week has been a little tough. Sometimes I feel like I have to be absolutely perfect...and looking back at things I know I´m not. But it´s good to know that we can repent...and to know that I´m trying as hard as I can to work and obey what God wants me to do. The mission is good. I feel peaceful still. I need to keep trying harder. I think maybe it´s hard because being in the office I have a hard time finding the hours needed to really study the scriptures. Example...we left early this morning and until now I´m writing you. Well...I love you. Thank you!

Elder Henrie

{ThaNK You FoR TeaCHinG Me NoT tO DouBT}

Fam!

This week has been a week of WORK! We went to San Isidro on tuesday (about 15 minutes from the city) to visit that zone and we went on divisions with the zone leaders there. On Friday we did divisions in Alcalde Diaz, area of Las Lajas. I had been there on divisions before when I was a zone leader there...really great area. The branch president there is from Ohio and is a really humble leader. And in our own area we´ve been working a lot to take advantage of the little amount of time that we have. We found some great people, a Chiricano named Cristian who came to church yesterday, a Comlumbian lady named Judy who accepted a baptismal date for the 17 of september, and a young girl named Olinda who contacted us in a building called Chucunaque. President Ward went to our ward yesterday and bore a powerful testimony in the investigator´s class. I hope that his testimony helps the investigators who were there to be baptized. Olinda wants to know about baptism, so we went there with Jotam (he left with us in the afternoon yesterday). He is a NATURAL missionary. He just starts talking with people about the church and answers their questions about what he felt and why he chose to be baptized. It was great to see him bearing his testimony. He will be going to the "denal brigade" here in Panama to get all his dental work done for the mission. The Elders Quorum president told him that it would be good for him to go...and that way, if he decides to go on a mission, he will already have that paperwork. His brother, Wilfredo, is also going to go! I´ll be there to help with translating, so I guess I´ll get to meet Dr. Roundy.

Wow, felicidades to Quinton! That´s great that he´s married! I hope it was a good experience. It´s strange to think of all the changes that happen in two years haha.

Dad, thanks for the letter...it was pretty inspiring. I like thinking about the letters that Paul wrote. He always expresses love and exhorts the members that he had served to keep the commandments. It reminds me of the importance of sending letters to the people I have met. I saw Juan Carlos Estrada the other day...he works in our area. I was SO happy to see him! I had been thinking about him a lot in this past month and had felt the need to write him. So, seeing him just pushed me to doing it. I sent him a letter that will hopefully help him. One time I saw Luis Peralta in Chorrera and he showed me a letter I had written him that he kept in his wallet. I think that little boost helps a lot of people to keep moving. The letters that you all write me definitely do that for me!

This week has been very rewarding! Elder Ortega works HARD...and he pushes a lot to just keep going and not waste time...I really respect him a lot. And he has an incredible capacity of remembering scriptures and using them to help people find answers to their questions. I´m glad to have such a good comp in my last area. And Elder Laidler is still in our house which makes things really fun. Being companions with someone just makes you good friends because you go through a lot on the mission.

I love you all! The church is true! I´m heading towards the end of the Book of Mormon again and it´s been teaching me a ton!

Elder Henrie

Mom!

Yesterday we visited a lady named Monika...she´s a recent convert and her husband was there as well. I think her husband hates us haha he´s jewish and doesn´t really understand our religion yet. But Monika was having a tough time and was worried about what is going to happen with her kids in the future. I shared with her about how you and I would always talk in the mornings before I left for work. I talked about your testimony and the impact that it´s had on me. Then we shared some scriptures about how the mothers of the stripling warriors had taught them not to doubt. Thank you for teaching me not to doubt...I love you!

Your son

{wE've Had A LitTLe MoRe tiMe tO WoRk}

Alright y´all!

This week has been nuts. Week of changes...meaning zero sleep. Elder Poli went home on Thursday morning. It was good seeing such a good friend finish his mission so strong. I was thinking today about when I lived with him, Elder Stoddard, and Elder Monroy in Alcalde Diaz...had to be the most obedient house i´ve ever lived in. And we had a ton of fun with them. I´ll definitely miss those that left this change. Yesterday we didn´t go to our sacrament meeting because we were asked to speak on missionary work in San Miguelito. That was a nice opporunity and I feel like the wards there are really excited and the missionaries are doing great things.

Unfortunately we didn´t have investigators in church yesterday...we´re still fighting for that. But I had some good experiences with a new elder named Elder Slater in Guadalupe. He got here last week and we did divisions with them because my comp had been in that area before and he wanted them to know some investigators. We got rejected a lot during the day and then it started raining. Kind of jokingly I told elder Slater that we had to be rejected all day before God would guide us to a family. And that is how it went down :) all day we didn´t really have any success. We had found a really cool guy Adán that was willing to listen to us. Then, along comes his brother before leaving to work. "hey guys what are you reading?"..."the book of mormon"..."yeah?..." and then he went off. He started talking about how the bible contains all truth and there´s no need for another book, and that the only prophets that God called had written everything that needed to be written in the bible. Before he could get to far we just stopped him and testified about the book of mormon. A nice testimony moment but we didn´t get the chance to teach Adán.

Later on we decided to go to one more street. The last street we went in to contact we found an awesome family! There were about seven young men living there...and they all had lots of good questions. It was fun to be with a new missionary and watch him try so hard to speak the language.

Learning a language is tough. I still pray for the gift of tongues to really try to make better my accent. I notice that when i do pray for that gift people tell me that I speak well...and when I don´t they sometimes say "what?" or i´ll make mistakes when I get tired haha it´s an interesting process.

I´ve been excited because we´ve had a little more time to work this week. We were contacting in these two buildings called Chucunaque...old, run-down, 15 story buildings that DON´T have elevators. It´s fun hiking up those stairs. But there definitely are a lot of good people there. We found a good family a couple days ago and we´re going to meet with them this Tuesday, the Martinez family. They have family members who are members of the church and they know a little bit about the BofM. Good fam.

I love you all! The church is super true! I´m learning a ton here in the office. It´s been a huge blessing to learn how to be organized...more or less, and to learn how to plan better. And i´m almost done with the Book of Mormon again! I have learned lots of new things about studying this time around.

Mucho love,

Elder Henrie

ps dad i reread my goals like you said i should...that really helped me realize that i am doing what I felt like i needed to do. It´s good to remind yourself of goals and I felt really good with the goals i had put and the ones that I have now :)

Dear mom,

Yeah Stan Harding! Really nice guy. We have met quite a few folks from the US that come to visit. I really like that aspect of our ward. There are people from Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, and of course, Panama. Really diverse ward. I hope little James is happy and chubby. I have been praying for him and for all of you. I am grateful for a good family. It´s pretty rare to have a good family here in Panama. It´s not easy. In our area there are some places full of crime...and it´s sad to see little innocent kids running around in places like that knowing what they are being taught by those around them.

The mission is great mom! I learned this week that I need to be content with the assignments that God gives me. I think I would have liked to finish in an area fully focused on that area and those investigators...but I read in Alma 29 and that helped me recognize what are the things that I really should desire.

I love you mom!

Elder Henrie