22 and 2 months

Hi y'all! 

Welp, I'm officially 22 and as of today I have officially been gone for 2 months! It's crazy because the first month felt like a YEAR but the 2 month felt like a week! Time is really starting to fly by and I am loving being a missionary more and more every day.

Saturday was my birthday, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your wishes and love! I had the best birthday and it was so fun to open some packages from home! My companion Sister Smith is amazing! She went out of her way to make me feel special. She decorated our apartment with streamers and balloons while I was sleeping and even recorded herself singing happy birthday for our alarm in the morning! It was so sweet ha and she made me pancakes for breakfast :) We made a cake and took it over to a less active families home and they sang happy birthday and ate it with us and then we were able to have an awesome lesson with their 15 year old daughter who isn't a member. We spent the afternoon knocking and then went out to eat with a super nice couple in the ward who took us to the best restaurant. I finally tried some shrimp and grits and it was delicious! and then they also bought me a cute little cake and we took it over to another members house to eat it ha naturally my birthday was filled with lots of food and cake and of course before the night ended we stopped at this really yummy ice cream place for ice cream. It was funny too because the Elders all showed up there at the same time as us haha 

But even besides my amazing birthday it was a really good week! I have really felt the Lord's hand in my life this week as I have tried to be more consecrated and submit my will to Him. Yesterday I got to speak in church for the first time. I was asked to speak on Alama 5 and having a Mighty Change of Heart. I invite all of you to go read that chapter and focus on that change of heart. It was such a good learning experience for me. In order to have a change of heart we first need to be humble, trust in the Living God, and remain faithful unil the end. I love that reallly all three of those go together. I have been learning so much about each of those attributes and striving to develop. One of the first big lessons I learned beginning in the MTC was that the opposite of faith is fear and that fear blocks having trust in Heavenly Father. In D&C 63 it say's that their prayers were not answered because they had fear in their hearts and didn't trust God. As I have put all my trust in Heavenly Father to protect and watch over my family and trust Him to change me, I've been so much happier. I have felt so much more peace and also been able to feel more joy. 

Our purpose in this life is to progress and become more like our Father in Heaven. And the only way to do that is through Him. He has given us everything we have, our bodies, our families, our temporal blessings.. if we give those back we're simply returning something. There for the only thing that is truly ours that we can give Him is our agency or our will. Having a change of heart requires us to turn our will over to Him by being humble, trusting and faithful. :) I hope that makes sense. 

Also, I would just like to share a quick testimony of the Book of Mormon. This week Sister Smith and I tried to really focus on using it in every teaching opportunity we had. In preach my gospel it says Tte Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is the most powerful resource in conversion. It really is! As I have spent time every day studying it and learning more about it it has strengthened me so much. When we open it up and share from it while teaching it lets us get out of the way of the spirit and gives the investigator and direct line to learning from Heavenly Father. We had more lessons than ever before and taught with so much more unity when we turned everything back to it. I know that the Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ and is the solid evidence that Christ's one true church has been restored to the earth again. 

I hope y'all have a great week and know how much I love and miss each of you!! 

Ps. Sister Smith has a blog too and it www.southcarolinasister.blogspot.com check it out!

Love,

Sister Hendrix 

stay sweet! :) 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi! I hope y'all had a great Mother's Day!! 

It was so good to talk to my family and see all y'alls faces! I think I cried more than any of you and I bawled for a couple minutes after we hung up but it was okay ha Brother Isaksen brought me some tissues and was super sweet. It was so great and comforting to be in a members home. Sister Smith and I had the opportunity to come stay the night with some members actually. Brother and Sister Isaksen, Brother Isaksen is the Stake Patriarch and Sister Isaksen is in the Stake Primary Presidency. They are the sweetest! They have a beautiful home right on a lake and it has been so fun to be here with them. One of their daughters and her family have been here as well. Spending the day with a family and in a loving home is just what we needed! I am so grateful for my family and I truly love and miss y'all more than you know. I just think about when I get home and how I'll never want to leave your sight again! But seeing and talking with you gave me so much comfort and strength and made me want to serve and be the best missionary I can be. I know that this time will go by so fast and it's such a privilege to dedicate every single day to the Lord for 18 months. I will never have this opportunity again and I want to use it the best I can. I feel like a lot of questions I had in my life prior to my mission are being answered now and I never would have gotten the answers had I not followed what the Lord wanted me to do and served a mission. 

Laura informed me that my blog is a little boring because it's just my letters haha and I am sorry! I am going to try to start putting some more exciting things on here. Today we went to this awesome little historic town called Abbiville! South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union and it all started in Abbiville and then they also signed the papers to end the war there too! After we came back to the house and baked some chocolate cookies in true southern style! Aka lots of chocolate and butter and sugar haha and you will be proud to know that I didn't use a recipe! It was painful. But I'm learning how to not always have to have a plan and be in control... haha but I do have the recipe for those of you who are interested :) We're going to come back another day and make rolls so stay tuned for that! 

I'm about out of time so I just want y'all to know that I love you and miss you! Thank you for your continued support and prayers! Heavenly Father also loves you and I promise is aware of you individually and He's waiting to bless and answer your needs. We just have to ask :) Soooo basically don't forget to read and pray every day! (does that rhyme? :) ) 

Ps. I'd love to hear more about how you saw the Lord's hand in your life this

Stay Sweet!

Strawberry Picking

Hello everyone! 

I hope y'all are having a great Monday! I apologize that I'm emailing a couple hours later than I normally do. This morning we decided to go do something besides just stay at the apartment on P-day and do the usually things. So we went and picked strawberries!! There's a place here called the Hardy Berry Farm! Which is funny because it sounds like it should actually be in Logandale... haha but its a super cute little place. You can go and just pick all the strawberries you want and they're a little cheaper than the ones in the store too! I picked like 2.5 lbs and I'm going to freeze them and put them in smoothies :) I make a smoothie for breakfast almost every day ha. 

Other wise it has been a good week. I've seen the Lord's hand working in my life and the lives of our investigators. Unfortunately a few road blocks have come up and Mike and Daniel will no longer be being baptized this coming Saturday :( :( :( but they are still pressing forward! Which is so awesome. It's so true that when you are trying to do what's right the adversary will do whatever he can to stop you! But in Ether ch. 12 it says that the Lord reveals Himself to us only after the trial of our faith. I know that is so true! 

This evening we are going to dinner at the house of one of my favorite families in the ward who are working hard to be active again. And we are bringing one of our investigators, whose just 17 years old, with us! She's really great and I am excited for her to be fellow shipped with this family. 

This email is just short and sweet but I hope in some way it will help to strengthen your testimony in our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that it's only through him and the enabling power of the Atonement that we can progress through this life. I am so grateful for it and the miracles I see every day because of it. A little miracle we had the other day was we saw a nice lady our working in her flower garden, we went up and talked with her for a few minutes and we didn't get the feeling that she was very receptive but she was still so sweet! We offered to come back and help her with her yard anytime and just before we were leaving, even though we were standing in the middle of her yard, I had the feeling to ask if we could say a prayer with her. She got so excited and said yes but please come inside and pray with my daughter! We went inside and her daughter was in a recliner and sleeping. The lady explained that she had cancer and it was very evident :( I was so grateful for the impression I recieved from the spirit and the opportunity I had to say a prayer for her and her mother and the rest of their family. 

God works in small and simple ways through other people. I know that if we pay attention and they can have those little miracles all the time :)

What are some ways you have seen the Lord's hand in your life? I would love it if you paid attention to that this coming week and then email me about it next week!! :) 

I love y'all so much and hope you have a great week! And Happy Mother's Day coming up!!

Love,

Sister Hendrix