Semena Seis

Well. I literally feel like I just sat down to type y'all the weekly email yesterday. This week has just FLOWN by. It's crazy. I mean, I haven't been out that long and it's already just flying by - that's a good sign for times to come, yeah? Hmmm let me check my list that I made last night of things I wanted to make sure to tell y'all....OH I am super excited about conference this weekend!! 1) Because I don't have any classes or anything except conference on saturday AND 2) I get to listen to prophets and apostles for 2 solid days. I'm pretty much stoked. I get to watch it here at the MTC in the gym, where they hold all the devotionals and music and the spoken word. I'm a little sad because I don't have anything to color while I watch this time :( BUt I guess that just means I'll pay more attention this time then I have in the past ;) Either way, I'm really excited. Sadly, I wasn't able to see the General RS meeting, but they are going to be broadcasting it here during the time slot of the priesthood session so I'll get to see it Saturday night. But from what I've heard from my branch presdidency's wives and from mom and dad - it should be pretty good too! I was pretty sad to hear this week that Tessa died. It came as quite of a shock to me actually because I had, in a way, kind of forgottena bout the dogs. But, I got the letter at the end of the day so I was able to have a nice little cry and I've been ok :) I know she's running around in whatever the equivalent of the celestial kingdom is for animals :) OH mom - HLJ stands for Hasta Lo Justo :) Something interesting that happened this week was that we got a new teacher! BUt, sadly, that also means that we lost a teacher this week. Hermano Garcia got a new, better, job working on creating the MTC manuals/learning materials for native spanish speakers learning portuguese (and vice versa) so he went down to work in the basement of the MTC and had to leave us. It all happened really quickly, like, he found out he got the job on friday, found out that he started on tuesday on monday and so monday night was his last night with us! It was sad to see him go but he's going to come back and visit us! So that's good. Our new teacher is a Hermana! Her name is Hermana Edwards and she is the prettiest, sweetest, nicest person ever. She served her mission in Paraguay and came home in December. So with a new teacher also means that we got a new investigator! Since we were no longer able to teach Arnaldo (Hno Garcia) we are now teaching a lovely woman named Carmen. She is married to a less active member who just loves the church and the missionaries. She told us that she was against having the missionaries over for a long time - in fact - she told us that she used to say that "the only way the missionaries are getting into my house is if I'm dead!" but her husband saw another set of sisters in the street last week and she agreed to have them over. She was so touched by their message that she said missionaries could come back and we were referred to her. We've only met with her once (and only will once this week because of conference) bgut she's amazing and I know that this is going to be a great new experience with her. OH! And I'm so glad y'all are trying to fill the temple!! I can definitely testify of the power of going to the temple. I'm so excited for the boost ya'll are going to get when y'all go :) :) My companions and I are still getting a long well for the most part - there are those moments where we need some alone time, but nothing major ever. Hermana Deskins and I are both going to the same mission so we have the same departure date, but since Hermana Holladay is serving in a visitors center she stays here for an extra week after us :( which is sad. They will probably reassign her to another district and new companions for that whole week since the rest of our district leaves when I do. Well - I'm sorry that this email is going to be shorter than the rest. I just don't really remember much of this week since it was so fast! But know that I'm diong well, that I love the Gospel, and that the spanish is moving along nicely and I can't wait to get out into the field and start teaching real people :) I love you all and miss you and love hearing from you! Hna Hensley

Half way through the MTC



My District

 Hola Mi Querida Familia! (Y los otras persona quien estan leyendo mis cartas) Well, I'm officially halfway through my time here at the MTC! It's week 5 in MTC weeks and man the time has flown. It's like the days go slow and the weeks go fast. This week in particular has felt crazy fast to me. Oh - Make sure you date your dear elders! They print them all on like, long sheets of paper consecutively, not separately by person, so they're like all connected with just a little heading of who submitted them. I can't always tell what order they go in so make sure you date those suckers! I love getting them!! So, a lot of people have been asking specifically about my daily schedule. So, I thought I'd type up my Saturday schedule for y'all 6:30 Get up and get ready 7:00-7:30 personal study (classroom) 7:30 breakfast 8:10-9:10 TALL (our language program on the computer) 9:30-10:20 Gym 10:20-10:50 shower/get ready after gym 11:00-12:00 lunch 12:45-3:45 Class 3:45-4:45 Language study 5:00 dinner 5:45-8:45 class 9:00-9:20 Daily planning 9:30-10:15 personal time/companionship prayer 10:30 lights out And my other days are pretty much just variations on that. exciting, no? My Spanish is coming along well. Our whole district is starting to speak it more and more outside of class and that's helping a ton. I'm constantly surprised at the amount of voacb and words that I actually know, and the things that I can actually say. It's rather amazing actually. SO the real highlight of this week revolves around the special edition of the ensign for October. SO The whole issue is dedicated entirely to the Book of Mormon. All of the members of the 12 and the first presidency wrote something in it, as well as a few members of the 70. There's a timeline and a whole bunch of other amazing things in it. WELL word got out that we were going to have a 'very special speaker' for this Tuesday’s devotional and they wanted all of the missionaries to have read and studied the ensign before he came to speak to us. SO we each got a copy of it early (I still don't think it's been released yet) SIDE NOTE - MAKE SURE ya'll get it and read it and study it and love it Back to the story, so normally when we hear that someone special is coming we get to the gym like, 45 minutes early. Well, this time we were an hour and a half early and we ended up sitting on the first row behind all the senior missionaries (they get to be right up front) so about 8 rows back. GUESS WHO CAME! No, not President Monson, but Elder Russell M Nelson. If y'all remember right that would be 3 apostles in 4 weeks, which is pretty much crazy for the MTC. I am so blessed sometimes! His talk was pretty amazing, he just talked about the Book of Mormon, reinforcing what was said in the Ensign and bearing testimony. But he also had a great sense of humor and was really laid back with all of us. Here are 2 of my favorite funny quotes from the evening: "I bring greetings from the first presidency and the other members of the 12. We're all in town and doing well. We're excited about conference and we're excited that 2 weeks from now it'll be over" When trying to have someone adjust the lights so that we could see a slide on the projector screen "Can you dim the house lights a little, or is that against the Word of Wisdom?" "Pretend that I'm a just an investigator, or that I'm an apostle. Which I really am" Apostles are real people too - I love it! I just want you, my darling family to know, that I now for the first time in my life, have a BURNING testimony of The Book of Mormon. I don't know how to explain it, but a change has come into my heart that I can't deny. I've never read it cover to cover, but I have read the whole book, and I know that it is the word of God. It is truly an inspired book and is the KEY to our personal conversion. YO SE que el libro de mormon testifies of Christ, and that a person can become closer to him and to our Heavenly Father by reading that book than by anything else. I feel privileged to have a chance to share this book with those who have yet to read it, who have yet to feel it's power and influence in their lives. Like I said, I no longer can deny that the book of Mormon is truly the word of God. It's wonderful feeling to have that pillar of fire constantly burning in your heart. I wouldn't trade it for the world - and it's made my days here SO much easier to bear and my time here SO much more enjoyable. Well, I'm also pretty excited to go to the temple today. GO TO THE TEMPLE all of you who are able at LEAST once a month. It's magnifico. I love you all and love hearing from you and can't wait to hear your responses to my life. And about your life. The church is true. The Lord loves us. Life is beautiful. Until next week!!! Nos vemos! Hna Shannon Hensley

I'm Still Alive!

Hola Familia!

Well. As the title of this email suggests, I am still alive. Although. this week it's been quite a struggle.

Saturday afternoon I came down with a nasty case of death, otherwise known as the common cold. I slep through gym, tried to take some of the little cold medicine I had (benaydrl and like, claritin) so that I could make it through to the lesson I had to teach that night. Well, through a miracle of faith, I didn't pass out during the lesson, and i even was able to get some spanish out! (a sick brain does not equal a brain that is very capable of speaking spanish) and then sunday I crawled out of bed and crawled to sacrament meeting and then went home and just slept. all the day long. then crawled out of bed for devotional. Monday I porbably should have gone down to the free clinic to get some real sudafed, but I was feeling slightly better so I bought some afrin and some tylenol sinus and i've been getting better ever since. As for today, I didn't even need the afrin and just took like, a tylenol sinus. I'm still a little exhausted, but I plan on napping at some point during my pday today so I should be ok.

This week at our Tuesday devotional ELDER M. RUSSELL BALLARD spoke to us! How awesome! 2 apostles in 3 weeks. It's so interesting listening to the differences between the two apostles. They both have that same spirit - a spirit of truth and revelation and christ - but it's completely different! I don't know if that makes sense....like, Elder Holland is powerful and forceful and full of like fire and passion. Everything he said just like, hit me in the heart and made me cry with el Espiritu Santo. Elder Ballard, on the other hand, was calm and peaceful. I just wanted to sit and listen to his sweet spirit the whole time. Sister Ballard spoke too and the two of them just - filled the room with a sense of love and calm and the spirit. It's just such a testimony to me of the different ways in which the holy ghost and speak to us, and the different roles he plays. Sometimes he's still, small voice that comforts you and fills you with peace, and other times he's like a trumpet, proclaiming to the world that Jesus is the Christ and testifying of His divinity and the truthfullness of the restored gospel. If you are looking for something to study this week, I would invite you to study the roles of the HG, maybe look through the topical guide of read about him in the bible dictionary and share you insights with each other and with me - I'd love to hear them. Also, I've been studying a lot about prayer and how the HG can testify through the immense power that is behind prayer. Talks, quotes, insights on any of those things wouold be just wonderful :)

The spanish is becoming easier and easier - but it's still something that I really have to work out. I've learned the beneifit of actually studying and how IMMENSELY important it is to actually speak it whenever you can. It's a goal that our comapnsionship is trying to work more on this week. HOWEVER last night, after a great lesson with our investigator Arnaldo on Faith, Hermano Garcia asked me if, while the last group was teaching, I would study up the principle of how to begin teaching and be prepared to demonsraight it with the class when he finished with th elast companionship. I thought he meant my whole trio teaching together so we practiced together doing different parts, etc. When he came back in the room, I found out that I had to do the whole demo BY MYSELF IN SPANISH! I said a wuick prayer and jsut went for it. Not only did I demonstraight the principle correctly, but I spoke in solid spanish with Hno Garcia for like, 8-10 whole minutes!! EL DON DE LENGUAS!!!! But seriously. It only comes with hard work - and I can definitely work harder. But it's nice to know that the Lord is blessing me a little bit at a time.

Well, with the few minutes that I have left, yo quiero compartir mi testimonio. Yo se que Jesucristo es MI Salvador y Redentor, y tambien, nuestro Salvador y Redentor. YO SE que Dios no ama MUCHO MUCH. Yo se que la oración es un principio del PODER, y que Dios escuche nuestros oraciónes. Yo se que si nostoros preguntamos a Dios, Dio da a nos respuestas, porque Él es nuestro Padre Célestial. Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera y José Smith fue un profeta de Dios. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

I have more to say, but no time. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you!!! Have a beautiful dia!!

Con AMOR

Hermana Hensley

Week Three! Hola!

This week, has been up and down for me. Time of really struggling to know if I should be here, if I could even do this work, if I would ever be able to speak spanish, if I could even teach in ENGLISH for that matter, and if it was really the best thing for me to be here right now. And let me tell you - the Lord answers prayers. Really and truly. Entonces we finished with our first investigator, Oscar, last Thursday night and on Saturday when we got our 2nd teacher - SURPRISE! it was Oscar! His name is really Hermano Garcia and he's from Colombia. His parents were converted by missionaries in Colombia and he's been a member all his life. Right now he's going to school at BYU and he served his mission in Chicago speaking spanish. My other teacher is Hermano Avila. He's a Mexican American who grew up in LA and is bilingual. However, he served his mission in Mongolia and so he often prays and or gets frustrated in Mongolian. He's also going to BYU. ANYWAY this week we started teaching 2 new investigators, both of which are 'represented' by our teachers and are actual people that they either taught on their mission  or are very special to them. For example, Oscar, our first investigator, is one of Hermano Garcia's good friends from Colombia. We taught Eddie (Hno Avila) first. And that lesson just crashed and burned. We were toally unprepared, and our Spanish wasn't there, but more inportantly the spirit wasn't there. I mean, ok, I guess it was but it was just scattered. We weren't unified as a companionship and things just kind of fell apart. I mean, we walked out of the lesson feeling ok - but then in our class period afterwards Hna Holladay just started crying. No bueno. I was seriously doubting my self and struggling all week. Until yesterday.

We had our first lesson with a man named Arnaldo Llamas. He's 50, form Mexico, and he's living in c

Chicago right now working to make money to support his family, send one of his sons to school in Monterry and hopefully bring them to the US in a year.  He was a media referral, meaning that he saw a commerical on the TV for the "finding faith in Christ" video and he called and ordered one. We then were bringing the video to him, and stopped in to give him a message as well. WELL we were scheduled to be in that appointment for 15 minutes, and we had planned to just share a short message, give him a Book of Mormon, and then ask to come back and then we'd share a full lesson. The Spirit is a funny guide sometimes. We ended up teaching for FORTY FIVE minutes. IN SPANISH. Yeah. I mean, it was broken, but it didn't matter. He understood us, not because our Spanish was perfect, but because the Holy Ghost was speaking to his heart. We even asked him to be baptised. He said he might, but that he wanted to pray and read a bit first. We had him pray at the end of the lesson, after we taught and guided him though the steps, and he said the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard. Asking to bless his family back in Mexico, to bless us hermanas for the work we were doing and for bringing us to him, he asked to know the right path for him, how to be a better example for his family, and to know whether or not to be baptised was the right path for him. After that lesson - there was nothing in the world I could ask for. I had been struggling all week to learn how to fall in love with this work. Our teachers tell us all the time that that's what we need to do - and I was struggling! I honestly didn't know if I could, or if I even would. But after meeting with Hermano Llamas I can see that light. I can see how I could fall in love with this. It's gonna take some time for the love to outweigh the fear, but it well eventually. I just know it.

AHH! Well, my time is running short. I'll be off until next Thursday!

 LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Hermana Hensley

Week Dos!

Hola familia!!!

I've have now officially been in the MTC for over a week! And it's been amazing. I don't have a whole lot of time, but I am on a better computer so this time I won't be as worried about what I'm typing. However, there's like, super high security on these computers so i don't think that i can email you pictures right now. I'll just print some of my favorites out in the bookstore and then send them to you the old fashioned way :) Hopefully y'all got the other "old fashioned" letter that I sent as well. i don't know how long it takes for the snail mail to get out to Houston, but i don't think that it's that long.

 I thought it would be a good idea for me to tell y'all a little bit about my schedule. Well, pretty much every day is the same, just in a different order. i get up at 6:30 and have 30 mintues to get ready before i head to the classroom for 'personal study time'. then we have breakfast at 7:30 until 8:00. Then my day varies. Pretty much every day I have class and TALL (which is a language learning program on the computer - you can listen to native speakers, practice speaking, learn vocab, phrases and grammar, etc) and lunch and dinner and an hour or so of personal language study, companion study, and planning sessions. Tuesdays we have devotionals and workshops, on my p-day (today) i get to do laundry and GO TO THE TEMPLE!! WHICH I AM SO EXCITED TO GO THIS AFTERNOON!! Our whole district is going together. We get to go to the temple every week for about 2.5 hours.  I'm excited.  Back to my day- I usually have gym time for about an hour (like I mentioned) and then personal time is always at the end of the day. It's from 9:15 to 10:15. That's where we can journal, brush our teeth, shower, etc. Then at 10:15 we have quite time. which is exactly what it sounds. and then lights out a 10:30! I know, sounds exciting doesn't it? We don't ever get to go outside hardly because our branch president said that he wants our district, personal, and language studies to be either in the classroom or on the same floor as our classroom. which makes us all a little stir crazy by 9:15 at night. But we are lasting ok so far. Only 8 more weeks to go!!

hmmm now what do I want to say with my remaining 17 minutes...there's so much! First off, I really am grateful for the dear elders, and I’m sorry if i don't reply to all of the questions that are asked of me in them. It's just nice to hear y'alls voices and know that everything is going ok. The Spanish is going well and it's getting to the point where when I’m taking notes in devotionals or at church that i can't remember the english word for things. let alone how to spell it, so my journal entries and notes are totally in spanglish, which i never thought would happen AND I gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday IN SPANISH. yeah, i'm pretty mucha  pro at praying in Spanish, even with my limited vocabulary...OH My investigator! Mom asked about our investigator Oscar....well he's not real. OK haha he is, but the actual person is a member of the church who volunteers to work here at the mtc. they come here during specified times and are taught by each one of the companionships in the district separately, as if he (or she) were our own personal investigator. The man who we were teaching isn't really Oscar. HOWEVER Oscar is a real person. His story and life and circumstances are real. So it's like teaching a real person by proxy (hopefully that makes sense) Between Friday and today we taught Oscar 3 times, all in espanol! It can be super frustrated to be having the spirit prompting you know what to say, and guiding you as to know what Oscar needs to hear and not have the vocabulary and the skill level to be able to say it yet. However, we made some really good progress with him, and definitely had the spirit with us in our lessons. however, we were so excited to teach him again Friday (like we assumed) and invite him to be baptized, but we found out that we are done with him and will receive 2 new investigators on Monday! ah! 2 at one time! I know we can do it but man, it's going to be a challenge. Your thought and prayers are definitely appreciated for our companionship.

h, also the branch president asked me to be the coordinating sister for our zone. This means, basically, that I'm the zone leader for the sisters. I go to branch council, special coordinating sister meetings (which is like where we discuss RA type things for the floors we live on) and I got to like, leadership meetings. Basically I watch out for all of the sisters in our zone, which, isn't too bad at the moment since it's just mi companeras and I. Yup. There's only 3 hermanas in our whole branch/zone. it's crazy sometimes, but we keep those elders in line. Also, if we ever get new sisters in the zone (which we didn't this week) then I help orient them and check up on them, help them get settled, tell them the rules, and am like their 'big sister' or 'counselor' for their first few days here. We didn't have one of those, which totally makes me a little upset. We finally got the hang of all the rules and learned everything we needed to, but it would have been nice to have a sister who told us all of those things the first night here. We made fools of ourselves a few times, but we've pretty much adjusted now.

WELL my time is coutning down and i want to make sure it doesn't boot me off before i send this. I love you ALL and i love my savior. Next letter, I will have to tell you about the AWESOME devotional ELDER HOLLAND gave this past Tuesday. He truly is called of God. It was an amazing experience. I can't believe I didn't get a chance to tell y'all about it in the email. will do soon, I promise :)

PAZ Y MUCHAS BESOS

Hermana Shannon Hensley :)

This is Dad,
Translation time again. I don't think there is much in here to translate but if anyone reading would like an explaination of anything she says just ask.

She talked about a Branch/Zone.

A Branch is what we call a church congregation.  So when she talks about her Branch she is talking about the congregation she goes to on Sunday.

A Zone is a group missionaries. The Church has over 50,000 or more missionaries serving at any given time.  Their work is so different from the general population that they are organized into groups that are based on location.  The basic organization is a District.  A group of Districts make up a Zone.  A group of zones make up a Mission.

These numbers are just customary and there are no hard fast rules but this gives you an idea of the meaning of the words Shannon is using.

A District has between two to six companionships or from 4 to 12 missionaries.
A Zone is two to 6 Districts or 24 to 72 missionaries.
A Mission is normally made up of between 300 and 350 missionaries and the mission president organizes the Districts and Zones.

Each District has a leader or District Leader or slang will be just a DL.
Each Zone has a leader or ZL.
A mission will have a few missionaries that serve in the Mission President's office.  They are called Assistants to the President or AP.  And if you really get slang they are called APE's
And normally all of these leadership positions are held by the young men.

With all of that being said Shannon said that when she was at Church on Sunday her Bishop, who acts like a mission president for missionaries in the MTC, asked her to be a leader for all the sisters in her Zone.  So in effect she is the ZL for the girls.

She also asked for us to pray for her to help learn the language and lessons.