Last Letter

Monday, September 25, 2013

 

I have an interview with President Slezak at 4....you got my flight plans right?? I get home at 12:40pm. I’m going to be super tired. I heard we leave President’s house at 3am and have to get up at 1:30am, so it’s going to be a riot as a lot of people just won’t go to sleep. Ha-ha that’s funny. I probably won’t go to sleep either-- it messes you up when you only sleep for 3 hours or so. Who knows how I’ll be when I get to St Louis. Anyway we are going to work hard this week—well those are my plans.  Unfortunately Elder Ika and I have different ideas, but hopefully it will work out for the best. 

 

What should I do with my boots? I was going to give them away to another missionary --I hope that’s cool.

 

Can you pick me up some garments I don’t really have any, because they are all really nasty. I’m going to throw them away.

 

This week went well. I gave a talk yesterday and I liked it. It went well, but I’m kind of scared of giving a talk in English. Good thing I have Elder Ika to help me improve my language before I get home. I’m going to be talking really funny. 

 

Anyway we were going to baptize this week, but all the dates fell through. It was terrible. It was the hardest week-- we just went from appointment to appointment and they all told us that they weren’t ready. I was losing patience and we didn’t really find anybody to teach so that stunk! But we just keep on keeping on and it was alright. Elder Ika expressed to me that he just wants it to be over. He is already going home early and said that if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have worked at all. He’s pretty trunky, but at least he doesn’t stare at the calendar like he used to. I will whip him into shape-- I don’t want it to end like he does and we can still get a little bit out of it. Anyway I’m doing good.

 

On Friday it rained...well it always rains and I got soaked so did my comp. We just went walking in the rain until we got home. It was kind of fun. At least Elder Ika takes advantage of every moment. He used to be really stoked about everything --I guess that’s how it goes sometimes.

 

I realized today that I understand the Bible in Spanish better than in English. In Genesis 19:1 it says "at even" I didn’t know what that meant until I read the Spanish scripture and then I understood it. That it means at nightfall. There are so many weird things like that in the Bible that I really don’t understand. It’s kind of weird. Unfortunately I have hardly read anything in English on the mish.  My English scriptures are still like new. Thanks for everything! I got to roll-- have a good one.

 

See you on Saturday.

 

Elder Hendricks

 

 

 

 

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Letter from Cameron Sept 16 2013

 

I don’t have much time. I’m doing fine. We went to visit converts today and are heading home quickly. Sorry see you next week.

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Zone Leader Conference

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Letter from Cameron Sept 9 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013

 

This week was really good. We had a lot of success and now we have investigators with baptismal dates! Ya buddy. But the problem is we are not going to be here, but at least they have their dates, and we will leave people to get baptized. We are working hard and having success -- these are really interesting moments for us. We are having a great time working and really getting along trying to deal with the ward, and a lot of stuff going on. We have a zone conference this next week and we will be giving a 30 training on the restoration --it should turn out well. This week I thought....the restoration that’s got to be the easiest lesson everyone knows how to teach that. But then I looked up at the board where the names of the missionaries were and realized that most of them only have 6 months or so….I guess it’s back to the basics. So it’s my turn to teach what we have learned, but it’s only 30 min so it’s pretty short. President Anaya has made some new changes as we have to be in at 9:00pm at the latest. I guess they’re having trouble with missionaries getting robbed and shot. At least that’s what he told me --ha-ha! Don’t worry mom I don’t have much time left. There was an incident where they did shoot at some missionaries in the mission, but they didn’t get hit. It probably scared the pants off them. It’s kind of a bummer because 8-9 is when the good teaching goes down, and when we have a lot of success. Oh well, we will see what happens with the new schedule and how things are going to go. On Monday the president of the Relief Society told us that we offended someone. She didn’t tell us who it was, but she wanted us to know to watch out for any gossip that might come our way. We gave a missionary training type thing to the RS and that’s when apparently we came across to strong and somebody was offended. My comp was kind of down about it. I thought it’s their choice to be offended like Elder Bednar says, but I’m not against throwing a little apology in there so they don’t stop going to church. Just let the Lord be the judge. I feel like there is no bishop in the world that doesn’t have problems with somebody. Anyway things are going good here don’t worry about me. I feel like the mission isn’t going to end (in a good way). It’s kind of like I’ve been here so long that how could it possibly end. I feel that I don’t comprehend what is going to happen the 28th of September. Oh well keep on keepin on baby! Thanks a lot for the help with the car. I guess we will make a quick Utah trip before Christmas. That will be interesting. That’s if you can’t get it out in time. Thanks!

 

Elder Hendricks 

 

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Letter from Cameron September 2 2013

 

Monday, September 2, 2013

 

This week was great! I meet an ex-drug dealer from the US. He was a funny guy that explained to me and helped me realize the green difference between America and Mexico. He talked about his life and how awesome he had it. Maybe not so much the fact that he lived in America, but the job he had. He told us that he was a drug dealer and has a ton of money. He was transporting a half a ton of cocaine from the border of Mexico to the United States when the FBI got on his tail and pulled him over. He was sent to jail for life. He spent 10 years in jail and they deported him back to Mexico. In Mexico he spent 3 years in jail and got out on good behavior claims --it’s kind of crazy. We talked to him a little, but the problem is he was born in Mexico and they moved to the US when he was like 6 months old so he has been working hard down here and learning a lot about life. Making money for him is a lot harder here. What one person makes in Mexico in a day is like minimum hourly wage in the US --it’s kind of interesting. He is now getting to know what real work is, but he talked about opportunities there are in the U.S. and how here in Mexico there is nothing. He is working really hard, but not making a lot money. He never became an American citizen, so he can’t go back. He doesn’t speak much Spanish, because he grew up in the US. That’s what happens sometimes --it’s kind of interesting how some people really get their lives messed up. He is now 40 years old and starting out from scratch. It really made me proud and grateful to be an American. What a blessing it is just to be born in a certain country --but where much is given much is required. That’s a little bit of what happened this week. We also fasted that people would go to church and had 5 in church. Fasting is bomb almost always works. So we had 5 at church and 6 if you count a friend that somebody brought. That was pretty cool!

 

My thoughts about the car....I really want to buy a car that has been a desire I have thought about, but I don’t know if that car is really the best choice from me. But if I lose the opportunity it might not come back around and all I know is you don’t make decisions like this in one day. I need to sleep on it. I’m pretty set on the idea, but give me a week.

 

Anyway this week was really good for us and we had a lot of success. Also this week we had a zone leader conference and President Johnson raised the number of times the investigators have to go to church to 5 times!! That’s crazy so we talked to president about that and I think it will be for the best. That’s about the week. We are doing awesome and are working ‘til the end. Thanks for everything!

 

Elder Hendricks

 

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Letter from Cameron 8/26/13

Monday, August 26, 2013

This week was pretty good. We are making a booklet of our area list and dividing them by street. It’s working pretty well and makes finding less actives a jiffy, so that’s good. We are working hard and have found a few. This week they called a new assistant he’s really new. He has like 10 months and every time I talk to him on the phone I feel like asking him if he’s depressed, because he always seems like it --kind of an interesting guy. This is the first time I have reported to someone with less time in my mission and it’s my last transfer ha-ha that’s kind of interesting.

Things are going great and we are making progress in the area. Things have gone really good with my comp he is a great guy! Today he realized he only had 100 pesos left, so I offered to give him some of my money. I had like 500 pesos and it was no big deal. I told him that he had bought enough stuff for me that it was my turn to repay him anyway. He was about to pull money out from his home account, but finally accepted the money. He’s a funny guy. Why would I just sit around with all my money and watch him suffer, that’s not cool plus I had a bunch, so I might as well share it. Any way things are going good here.

On Saturday I had a cool experience. The bishop went to the seminary bowl all day that they had at the stake center. I knew that we had an appointment with a family that hasn’t gotten married yet, and I felt like he should go with us. We went to work and all day and I was trying to get a hold of the bishop, but didn’t know where he was. I called him a bunch of times. Turns out that his phone is broken, but anyway we were looking for some less actives on his street when he pulled up at about 7:30pm from the seminary activity.  I went over to talk to him and realized that he was really tired. I guess he had started really early in the morning and he was pretty beat. I felt like I still needed to take him to the appointment, so I asked him nicely if he could go with us. He told me to come back in 30 minutes because he was going to eat and what not, and then he would tell us if he could go. So anyway we came back in a half an hour and he was finishing up eating. He doesn’t have any children because his wife had cancer, and she can’t have kids the doctor said. He finished and said elders lets go. At that moment I noticed that he was really tanked and was feeling it to, but he decided to go with us. I was a little confused because I felt all day that he should go to the appointment and at the last moment it was like everything wasn’t going to work out. We got to the appointment and the bishop started talking... and talking...and talking and didn’t stop. He talked and taught what I thought was one of the best lessons I had ever seen in my life. I just kind of sat back with my mouth open and listened to how well he got into the heart of the investigators. Well to make a long story short we gave them a date to be married, and it worked out well. They liked it a bunch and went to church the next day. It was great! When we left the bishop he told us that when he was in the lesson he felt absolutely no sense of tiredness just the desire to help them. And then as he left he told us that once again he was tired and ready to go to sleep, but even then he took us home.  The next day at ward council he told the story and some of the sisters were upset that we did that, saying that we didn’t even advise him and "how could you ask him do something like that when he was tired." That was what I felt from there looks and comments. I felt that the Lord told me who needed to go and when the Lord speaks he speaks. How was I supposed to say "no Lord he needs a break" ....the lord prepares the way and that’s what happened so it was really cool. The bishop’s point in sharing the story was to help the members of the council understand the importance of working with the missionaries. I loved it and it was an awesome lesson. The best was that the investigators who were sheepish to accept their date to get married in 2 weeks and wanted to wait more. What I have seen in my life is that many members see a personal decision like that or when to get baptized and tell them to do it when they’re ready not when the missionaries say to do it. This really bothers me some times and I thought that the bishop might say something similar. But he didn’t and when they said they wanted more time he told them to not procrastinate the day of their repentance. Boom baby! It was awesome and I felt like that was exactly what they needed to hear. The bishop is boss; he’s really young only 35 years old, but really a great guy! The ward really doesn’t support us too much, but he sure does. So I feel good about that.

Sounds like a lot of fun at the Hendricks home. Baseball games and seminary classes wow. That’s cool --what time are you getting to bed?? Ha-ha don’t worry about me we are doing fine. Do you guys know when Tre gets home? He could beat me even though I went in first. It all depends on the departure dates. Does Steve Foley still have the job opening? I really hope so --I will just keep on praying and have faith. I really need it. I want to start working the Monday after I get home. That would be the bomb and it’s what I would like to do. But we will see what the Lord says. Thanks for everything!

Elder Hendricks

 

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Letter from Cameron August 19 2013

Monday, August 19, 2013

I’m staying here with Elder Ika!! I can’t believe it!!! No one had changes in the whole zone! That’s crazy but super cool. I didn’t want to go or change comps that’s so awesome so we will be finishing together!!!! That’s boss. I’m so stoked for this transfer. We are going to tear it up and have a great time doing it.

This week we hit some hard times. It’s funny how if you don’t have problems with your comp then you have problems in other aspects. I was thinking this week how I would love to have a transfer with no opposition. But then I was listening to a talk on the sacred grove and how it’s necessary that we have opposition or we start to focus on things that don’t matter. I realized that this was a silly thought I had. What I was really saying was "I wish I had a transfer where I didn’t progress....that would be really cool.”  How silly! Anyway so the trouble with the ward and area goes on, but that’s cool-- why not give me a challenge to keep me progressing?

Elder Ika talked to me this week and told me that I helped him shaped up a lot. I guess he wasn’t too obedient before I came. Tongans are pretty good at conforming to other people, but I didn’t even realize that he wasn’t used to being obedient. So that’s cool that he wants to do it. We also talked about what would happen if we didn’t come on the mish. He expressed that he thought that other missionaries would have just baptized the people he had. But we came up with the idea that we are on a team that doesn’t have backups. In football if one gets hurt it’s not that big of a deal the backup just hops on and does his job, but it’s not like that here. There are no backups there’s just us and the Lord and the other 75,000 of his missionaries. So if we’re not here that’s ruff and nobody is just going to do the work for us. The Lord needs all he can get. So anyway it will be an awesome change.

Just like you guys we fasted this week too. It was kind of funny right as we were kneeling down to end the fast and go to the food appointment at 2 the sister called us. Like seriously-- I knelt down, bowed my head and right as the words were going to come out of my mouth to say the prayer the phone rang. It was the sister that was going to feed us and she told us that she was running behind and that we shouldn’t come by until 3:30 --it was like 1:30 at that time. So we waited some more-- but we were having enchiladas verdes so I didn’t really care. I love those things!

Anyway this week was pretty good as we fasted because he have some investigators with marriage problems. They busted out fighting in one of the lessons and a scripture came to my head as they were arguing. It was “contention is of the devil." I shared it with them and maybe it was direct, but I’m known for being direct. They were yelling and screaming and I started to reflect on how common marriage problems has been in my mission. Unfortunately it doesn’t really excite me for marriage, but I guess a house built on Christ won’t fall, right? So they were yelling things like “You cheated on me 5 years ago”. “You weren’t there when I had the baby”, “your family drinks a lot”...and so on and so forth. You can probably imagine. So I told them that we were going to fast to see what Heavenly Father would say about the relationship. So that was Wednesday. We fasted Thursday to Friday and had another appointment with them on Friday night that went pretty good. They were a lot calmer and decided that it was for the best if they could work things out. I agreed with them. A sister was with us and talked a little about her marriage it was pretty cool, so just 2 days and a fast sure changed a lot of stuff. Thanks to Heavenly Father! So hopefully they can keep progressing and get baptized soon and that would be cool in our last transfer for Elder Ika and me! So we are stoked and ready and can’t wait to get working this transfer and finish with a bang. Things have been great here I love the mission! It’s awesome and my comp is great. The ward is rough but we are doing it.

So anyway I heard that Cailan Tuttle got married. It’s funny that Sister Finnegan told me that as if I already knew ha-ha. I didn’t know anything, but whatever. I could care less about silly girls.

Oh, to answer Mom’s question. I feel like the essence of 1st Nephi 3:7 is that Nephi had such confidence in the Lord that he knew all things were possible. I feel like we as human beings say that there are things that can’t be, but we don’t trust the Lord. But Nephi trusted it the Lord and knew all things where possible through him. This scripture was a great help to me when I learned Spanish. My mind said that I couldn’t do it, but my spirit was willing. I had the faith and I did it. So at the end of the day it’s a great example to us missionaries. All things are possible thought Christ and we shouldn’t have to worry. That is what it says in Alma that everyone took off without worrying about what they were going to eat, drink or dress with.  That is true faith, the faith that Nephi had. So that’s about everything.

Last night we walked by the church and we found the bishop and we talked to him about the problems that the ward is facing. So we talked to him and I realized he is super dedicated and an awesome bishop! I love the guy. He’s kind of a dork some times and it cracks us up, but he is honestly really respectable and a great man and loves what he does and slaps opposition in the face. It was a good talk and I walked out feeling more energy to work and have success with him and the ward. Anyway that’s it.

Thanks,

Elder Hendricks

 

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