February 11, 2015

Hey Mom,

I´m so glad ya´ll are doing so good, Please give Luke a massive hug for me and tell him congrats and tell him how proud of him I am. That´s awesome that Jacob is loving the ROTC program, I pray for him everyday in regards to that and his schooling. I also pray for you and Dad too. I did a fast from yesterday afternoon to this afternoon for the families financial situation and specific things for you, Dad, Jacob, Luke, Ron III, Danny, Lene', and Darcy, Ya´ll have been on my mind a lot this past few days, but don´t worry, the Lord is preparing the way. So my baptism is this week on the 14th, I accidentally told you wrong and I can´t remember if I told you that he asked me to baptize him, and this Friday guess what he´s going to cook for us....... Burgers!!!!! I´m so excited!!! Funky foods, no not really, just a bunch of beans, rice, chicken and meat. Although I did have mashed potatoes with peppers and broccoli and eggs, it was a real meal that was healthy, that blew my mind haha! I didn´t think it was possible in this country haha!  Interesting people, there is a guy who is a drug addict and alcoholic who yells at us every night we pass by him, and he was following us home one night and my companion like yelled at him and told him to leave so he did haha!

 Transfers are on the 25th so not next week but the week after, and I´ll more than likely be getting a new companion.  Spiritual experience, we went contacting for the first time this week and oh boy that sucked haha but we went the next day too and it was like night and day, all I did was study a little bit what I would say and that made a world of difference, the Lord said, ¨seek ye first to obtain my word¨ and that is so true, if we don´t know the doctrine how do we expect to teach anything? But all is well and what not, I´m glad you pray for my protection everyday because the people here are nuts haha! If you have more questions feel free to ask. 

I´m so happy that everyone is doing so good and everyone is happy, I´ll try to send my memory card home soon so you can take the pictures off of it and see how I´m doing and all that good stuff. 

Mom, I love you so much and I´m so happy that you are my Mom, I wouldn´t want it any other way. 

I love you so much Mom,

Love Elder Henze

February 4, 2015

Hey Mom,

 President Douglas is super awesome and I told him thank you for y´all and no he hasn´t followed up with me yet and honestly I can´t blame the guy he has to take care 200 plus missionaries that complain all the time so in time he will get with me haha. Give Luke a giant hug for me and tell him congrats. 

So with the Spanish, your dead on, I´m learning quickly and I can speak really well but it´s the understanding that gets me and I was talking to Elder King one day and he told me that right now the Lord doesn´t need me to understand people he just needs me to be his mouth piece and in time when he needs me to, I will understand, and I´m trying really hard to listen and get what I can out of everything that is being said but in time I´ll get it. 

So my faith building experience happened this past Sunday and it´s not what you would expect and don´t freak out. So last week our ward mission leader was attacked and robbed and was pistol whipped in the face and now his eye is sown shut so it can heal, but his sons Botiko and Carlos and another guy went out looking for this guy.  On Sunday we went over to his house to eat lunch and it just so happens that they found one of the guys that did it and Botiko almost stabbed the guy three times (he tried three times to stab him) but our ward mission leader told him no and that he was making the family look bad so he left for a few minutes. My companion got the feeling that we needed to leave and so we grabbed the food and left. Later that day we saw Carlos and he said that after we left they all noticed and basically said, ¨crap the missionaries left, that means the spirit isn´t here.¨ and that is what kept them from killing that guy. We have a huge influence on the members and the people around us and they know that we carry the spirit and if we leave people (everyone) notices. Later that night while we were planning we heard four gun shots down the street and when we looked out the window we saw the SWAT team swarming after someone hahahahaha that was funny. 

That is awesome that Colton is going so soon, I´m so happy for him. And Daniel too that is Super awesome! Let me know where he goes.

Well Mom, I´m healthy and well and I´m loving the mission. We got a couple married yesterday and next Saturday they will be baptized. 

I love you so much Mom, and I miss you like CRAZY!!! But that is why I am out here, for the family.

I love you Mom,

Love Elder Henze  

January 28, 2015

Hey Mom,

I know right now is a difficult time so I´m just going to leave you with my testimony. The details of my week are with Dad.

Mom, I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was established for our progression and that the Plan of Salvation is a perfect plan, The Lord loves all of us and is always with us in our times of difficulty and trial. There is a story that says a man was walking with Christ on the beach and there was two sets of foot prints but when times got hard there were only one set of foot prints and he asked Christ why he left him in the hard times and Christ replied that when there was only one set of foot prints, that is when Christ was carrying him. 

Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are ALWAYS with us and when the times get hard they are always there to bare us up and carry us in our trials. 

I´m so grateful for our family and for this Gospel and for the knowledge we have. 

I love you so much Mom and I know Grandpa is with you too.

I love you

Elder Henze

And to Dad

Hey Dad, 

I´m glad yáll could make it to Grandpa´s funeralt. I pray for the family everyday and I know that all is well even in this hard time, God is always with us, Christ knows our pain and He will help us in our times of need.

 I´m still pushin' and yes I have felt Grandpa´s and Nana´s help in all of my lessons. I had a cool experience yesterday because I was a little frustrated because I wasn´t understanding people yet and I´m still not and when we got home that night my comp. told me that yesterday was my best day by far and that what I´m saying is super good, so God right now just needs me to speak and listening and understanding will come later when He needs me to be able to do that, it was deffinately a cool answer to a prayer and one I really needed so I made a promise to God that I would become the best speaker I could while he needs me too and when I will understand I will be the best I can at that too so I´m tryin hard to do my best.

That´s awesome Luke´s game went well and that is freakin AWESOME that he got MVP! Be sure to give him a hug for me. 

Dad I love you and I know that Christ lives and that He loves all of us and does our Heavenly Father, I know that is always with us in all of our trials to bare us up. There is a really cool story I read once, I will need to find it and send it to you next week. 

Dad I love and miss you so much and I´m not comin' home until the work is done so until that time I´ll keep pushin'.

Love Elder Henze

January 21, 2015

Hey Mom,

So I did get the package finally, and the cookies were delicious!!!

So on Luke´s camp out, did he get anymore merrit badges? And that totally sucks that he has practice at 0600hrs hahaha. Yeah you´ll have to send me some pictures and such and let me know how he did. 

I hope sister Hunter gets better soon that doesn´t sound too good haha, and I can promise you that the weather here is way better than there, and yeah I have blue skies, and it´s still hot everyday haha. 

So for contacting, my comp doesn´t like to knock doors or contact at all really, we ask for referls or we just talk to people randomly and ask them questions or they ask us questions so that is pretty interesting sometimes, but mostly we work on the people we have now and the less actives. We finally have a date with Andres and Bielka for the 7th of Febuary, and they can´t wait! It´s super cool to see how excited they are to be a part of this church. 

My spiritual experience this week, well I had an interview with president..... Haha no just kidding I didn´t get a calling haha but it went really well, I love my mission pres. I told him my concerns with the language and my other concerns and stuff and he just calmly gave me some examples and at the end he just told me just to have more faith so I´m working on that. After my interview with pres. I had to tell a story or experience to his wife and so I told about the one when I went on splits in my area and I had to be the senior comp for the day. While I was in the middle of talking he came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders then explained to his wife that I was an extrordinary missionary and that I was going to amazing things, and he did this really loud so everyone in the office could hear haha and after he said that I just about started to cry haha. So I know I´m supposed to be here but I´m still waiting to find out why. That helped my testimony that the Lord knows each one of us individually and he knows our needs and desires, we just need to have faith and trust that everything will work out the way they need too. 

Mom, I love you and I know that the Lord is mindful of you and He loves you very much, yes more than I do so don´t worry, all is well. 

I love you Mom

Until next week.

Elder Henze

January 14, 2015

Hey Mom, 

I´m sorry to hear about Grandpa, no it´s not surprising but it´s still sad to hear. 

It´s a relief to hear that Jacob is joining the ROTC program and Luke made the A team, keep me updated on his games and what not. 

So transfers were today and our District Leader is training until he dies (finishes). I´m in a ward and there is only one ward that I visit and it is a normal church building thankfully and the members are not really motivated, to be honest we have investigators that are more motivated about it than our members. We meet at 0900hrs so nice and early and we always have to be an hour early. We have a couple new investigators finally and one of them is looking really promissing, his name is Jerimias (ask Jacob how to pronouce it in spanish) and with Andres and Bielka, we´re setting a date with them tonight to get married and baptized, so it should be fun haha.

Thank you Mom for your prayers I definitely need them, I´ve had some good experiences and some not so good but I know through every experience there is something I have to learn so I just keep truckin' along haha.

I love you Mom, The time is flying by and I can´t wait until I see you on Mothers Day. 

I love you 

Love Elder Henze

And one for Dad :)

Hey Dad, 

Thanks for letting me know about grandpa and what´s going on, I´ll be sure to keep him in my prayers, I´m grateful Dad that we have this Gospel and the knowledge we have of the life here after, all is well and I know that everything will be okay. I´m glad yáll went to go visit him though, Mom needed that.

So did Jacob join the ROTC program? What was Luke´s score on his hunters safety test? 

The workouts are good and I´ll make sure to improve every week. 

Mary has my address and phone number? Did she ever go to the office? I´ll just expect a call from her soon then haha. 

The Spanish is getting better little bits at a time but it´s getting better. 

I was raised to give my all so that is what I´m going to do. I love you Dad and I´m so glad I have the chance to serve the Lord here in the DR I have seen the blessings that this Gospel brings to the lives of others through us as missionaries.

I love you so much Dad and I can´t wait to see you again on Mothers day.

I love you Dad, 

Love Elder Henze

January 7, 2015

Hey Mom, 

So it´s been good and the New Year (año nuevo) was good too, we had a sleepover at our ZL´s house and that was pretty cool . So for New Years in the DR, they have parties all over the place and when the clock strikes 000hrs fireworks go off everywhere and people start shooting in the air for no reason at all and people get robbed and all that good stuff ha ha it´s pretty crazy to say the least, and yeah we came in early New Years Eve we called it a day at about 1800hrs (I can´t find the colon button so that´s why I´m using military time) when it just starts to get dark. Yeah these past few weeks have been really hard, with the language and with being away from the family, and I don´t feel like I have anyone here I can really open up to so that´s not helping either. 

That´s awesome Luke is doing all that stuff, lucky turd gets to go snowboarding, I can´t even see snow, but I saw the beach today from like 100 miles away. We climbed to the top of Pico Diego and saw the ocean. Squirrel... haha Anyway, How were the tryouts? 

So our investigators are doing good, Andres and Bielka are moving right along but they are still wondering if marriage is right for them and really that is the only thing holding them back from baptism. We had a lesson with them yesterday about following the prophet and that went well. Andres´s parents were there and his mom started crying and saying what a blessing and a help we have been to him in his life to help him change for the better and then she said when she goes back to the states she is going to go to church and bare her testimony and say how awesome the Mormons are hahahaaha that was  hilarious! ha ha!! They´re really only our best investigators, no one else is progressing which sucks. 

The weather is always hot except for at night it actually gets cold.  The average temperature is about 80 or so  

I´m just guesstimating so don´t quote me on that haha. 

Tell Colton I said congrats and give him a hug for me please. 

I love you so much Mom and I can´t wait to see you on Mothers day! 

I love you

Love Elder Henze