Keep going! Keep working. I love you!

This was an interesting week. After a really strange week of meetings and divisions, we had a nice solid week to work in the área.

     It was really, really, sunny this week. Which reminded me a ton of Washington summer mornings. It was such a beautiful scene to go out and see all the trees in the morning sun. It just made me wanna go preach to people haha. So we were able to work a lot harder than normal, which was nice :) We've been improving a lot and have really exciting plans for the future.

     Elder Vazquez and I have just been having huge difficulties bringing people to church. This week was no exception. But we've been trying, and we are trying, and we'll find the solution one of these days :) I'm not letting it get me down. And I see all these little, sometimes funny signals that I feel are like God just urging us to keep going, keep on working. Like one day that someone gave us papaya, then another person gave us something else, and we ended up with our hands full of bags of fruits and things. It was just like God saying "good work! Enjoy the food. Keep going! Keep working. I love you!" That's how I felt. I think that the tough times really make the tender mercies stand out in our lives. Yeah, it's been a struggle, but I'm really grateful with God for it. I feel like I'm learning things that I wouldn't have learned if we were having success right now.

     In my studies this week I've been loving the book of Mosiah. I love the story and the principles of leadership that are shown by Ammon, Limhi, and Alma in their different stories. I just feel like these chapters are full of small, delicious principles to learn, woven within the individual verses as well as the overlapping stories. For example, Limhi is a great example to me, I love how he tries to lead his people but there's just this obvious imperfection in him, and I get that feeling as I read the whole story, but there's also verses which greatly impact me, like when Limhi felt sad as he heard that his dad died, because he loved him, even though his dad had ruled in wickedness.

So yeah. Lots of learning this week.

Have a great week, everyone! Enjoy your scripture studies :-)

-Elder Henry

Q&A with mom--
Are you feeling trunky? " I really don't feel trunky. And I don't feel like it's that close, either. I just feel like a happy Little bumblebee."
How is the District? "we all get along super well in the district. One of the best districts I've had in my mission :)"
Shavonne's brother Aaron getting engaged to a young lady he served with: "Clasico. Ask Shavonne if he was her zone leader. It's always the zone leader." (except our son Michael was his now wife's Shavonne's District Leader, not Zone Leader, hahaha--and it is a reconnecting at BYU thing--that BYU magic turning mission friends into eternal companions!)
What are you eating/favorite foods/how much do you walk each day? "Rice and beans, rice and beans, the restaurants sell rice and beans, and a lot of miles. ;-) I love food here, but I would die for a hamburger from Ivannia. She makes the best hamburgers in the world haha"