Wow this week seemed to go by fast!! I am really trying to focus on the investigators and that has helped the days go by a lot faster! But unfortunately I still come home utterly and completely wasted. Just yesterday I was feeling even more wasted because it was fast Sunday and I just felt like giving up. We watched a clip about missionary work in church. Elder Ering was the main speaker he said something very profound, he said "every time my body begs for relief from the day to day tasks I look at how the Saviors body must have begged for relief right before and after Gethsemane. I then have the motivation to press on ward." These word were a comfort to me and they turned my whole day around. This mission is HARD!!!! I was reading the verse in 2 Nephi 27 (i think) where it says wo to those at ease in Zion. Salvation is not easy. It never was! It wasn't easy for the greatest of all. If we want salvation we must pay a price. But don't look at the price because that's not what matters. What matters is the gift we get from it.
Dad no I haven't received your letters yet. I guess it takes quite a while for them to come here to Jamaica, just like packages. But I am extremely excited to get them. I am hungry for knowledge and I can't seem to fill this void or pit. I am constantly wanting more. I read the scriptures while I eat and stuff like that. There is hardly ever a spare moment for me. But it's not enough. So I look forward very much to the time when I get to read them.
Mom I will take a video of the apartment and everything. I have been taking pictures of the sun rises here because when I run they are absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of you. One problem though I have no way to charge Nikayle's camera sooooo yeah I'll use it as long as possible. And yes they actually say that to us. They are very blunt here and they have no problem telling us everything they think and every whoredom they have committed. I guess it's just the culture. I look forward to the packages!!! I can't wait!
Carter I'm glad to hear that you finally sighted your gun way to go!!! Have you spent some time in the Book of Mormon recently?? I hope so there is so much there you need to get started right now!!!!! Enjoy the time you have with Dad and ask him as many questions as you can. He is absolutely brilliant!
Joshua, Way to be little man!!!! I'm happy to hear about your game. Your always getting better and that's how it needs to stay throughout your life. Your story about your teacher made me and Elder Mathewson laugh. You are a trouble maker, but a funny one....reminds me of well me when I was younger. My advice to you is to fill your time with wholesome activities. Practice and set aside time to every day outside of your team's practice. Read from the Book of Mormon everyday!!!! You must do this understand??
Nikayle, Way to go on your game!!!! You are always getting better every time I hear from you. Keep it up!!! Same goes for you fill your day with whole some activities. Keep being the sweet princess you are. I love you.
Siri, Little one, I am starving too!!!!! I want to eat so much but there simply isn't enough of the food. It's ok you'll get used to it. A missionary huh? For Halloween? Sick!!! But you should plan to be one for real ok? You would be flipping awesome at it!
Brixen, guess what?! NOTHING! HAHAHA gotcha. :) No I won't come home this Halloween or the next but I will soon come home. And I can't wait for that period of time to pass.
Okay so for me this week......Well first things first it is finally raining outside!!!!!!! YES! There are rivers in the streets and it's flipping awesome. The Jamaican's hate the rain but I love to ride in it. It cools everything down. I was given a key board so I could practice piano and well the branch president found out and called me into his office yesterday. He asked that I play in sacrament, every single week......Wow it's not like I have enough to do. But I'm sure it's for the best. So I did play yesterday hymn 29, 194, and 239. I had to learn hymn 194 in like 10 minutes but it turned out alright. I practice 15 minutes before every meal. Hopefully I'll be prepared for next sacrament meeting.
There have been several experiences through out the week. I can't write them all down so I'll just write a few of them. I finally got a yard name (aka nickname) people around here are calling me likle tree or Little Tree. (I tell them I am Elder Henderson but that does help much.) They think I am huge or something along those lines. I guess working out is helping. :) My companion and the Zone Leaders who live with us keep telling me I am going to go to Caymon or the Bahamas because only the best missionaries are sent there or something. They also say that I will be the youngest AP ever in this mission.............I don't think they know who they are talking too. I am not suited for that job, there are many more that are better prepared than I. (Although I think it would be fun to go off island). There's only one thing I know and that is this. I don't care what anyone thinks of me, or what I am doing. I don't do it for them. I do it because I only want to do what My Father in Heaven wants me to do.
So on Tuesday we were seeing another investigator and on the way home a different investigator called out to us. We went over and she recited how she just lost her brother that day. It killed my heart. She asked for a blessing for her and her boy (he's 1ish). I had the privalage of blessing the little boy, and Elder Mathewson the Mom. I was prompted to heal the boy in the blessing for he had some sort of mental illness but I wasn't sure at the time so I brushed it off. As I concluded the blessing the little boy looked right at me as if pleading for release. I haunted me, I couldn't get my mind off it. As we finished and turned and rode away my mind still had that image of the little boy looking right through me pleading. I slammed on my breaks I said a quick prayer if I was supposed to go back and heal the boy to which I got a resounding yes. It was very powerful feeling. Elder Mathewson was wondering what was going on and he had trouble keeping up with me as I raced back to the house where this Mother and boy lived. I went to the door and asked her to bring her son back out here. I blessed that little boy to be heal, completely healed and to grow up as a normal boy. When I finished the blessing she asked me, with tears in her eyes, why. I simple said I didn't finish what Heavenly Father asked me to do when I was here a few minutes before. We saw the kid a few days later and well his body was a little bit better looking (he was super skinny) but he was now mentally sound.
I don't understand why the Lord is asking a stinking 18 year old punk to do these things! He could be asking Elder Mathewson who is much more prepared and worthy but he asked me. Why me? It was a very humbling experience. From that experience I decided to never again be afraid to tell someone something in a blessing. I have got to be very frustrating to the Lord, but I am grateful he puts up with me.
Now please don't take this story the wrong way. I am not trying to say how great I am. I am simply telling you what has been done and said. I love you all. Never ever ever do something that you will regret. Only do what the Lord wants you to do and everything will work out. I promise! Remember Salvation was never easy, we must pay a price. And when your body screams for relief look to the Savior who will strengthen you and help you as he has done for me every single day! I love you all, you all are always in my prayers. Keep the faith.
Elder Henderson
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