Another week

Well Hola Everyone!

This week has just...wow. I feel like I say the same things in every letter back home that I wrtie. Oh well, considering that I do the exact same things every day might play into all of that.

So, i got sick again this week :( which is super sad, and they made me stay in so that I could for sure get to be 100% better. This led to more stress about not being able to work, BUT needless to say that I am well again and happy to be working.

As far as my area goes, it's pretty much the same. We aren't teaching anyone at the moment and so we're focused on finding people to teach. helping the ward members become excited about missionary work and helping them feel confident in their own ability to share the Gospel. We also had a big overhaul in leadership in both of our wards so, we're trying to get to know our new leaders, and help them understand our purpose and how we can work together to further the missionary effort here within the Stake.

My birthday is on Friday! wow! How crazy. I don't have any plans as of yet, and nobody signed up on our dinner calendar for that night - but there are some people who love the missionaries enough that I know I could call upon them for my special day haha :) It looks like I'll be celebrating with....missionary work! yeah! Just the same as everyother day really, only now I will get to tell people that I am 22 years old haha which is so strange.

There are some slight prospects in the area as far as people to teach, some referralls from the elders and some singles have been bringing their friends to activities so hopefully we'll be able to find someone with real interest and intent that we can start teaching! Ah Sister Malani and I have a good feeling for this area. While it may not look like much now, we have hope for the future :)

Whelp, that's really all for this week. It's slightly boring because I've been inside trying to not be sickly anymore. On the bright side, we started doing our morning exercise indoors where its warmer so as to not make my fellow missionaries and I any sicker. On the not so bright side, I still can't actually get the basketball to go into the basket.

Throughout all of the tough times, the Lord has been with me. I've been reading in 'Jesus, the Christ' which is amazing.  I'm learning all of these fun an interesting facts and knowledge abuot the life and works of the Savior. The most amazing and wonderful thing that I've been gaining throughout this whole process is a feeling. It's the testimony inside of me of the divinity of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the inscrease in love that I have for the people around me. It's the increased faith that I feel when I'm getting doors politely shut in my face. My mission truly is the hardest thing I've ever loved to do.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hna Hensley

Transfer 3

WOWEE! can you believe that this is the start of my 3rd transfer! I surely can't. I was looking at the calendar the other week and realized that Feb 26 is my 6th month mark! What?! I still feel like I'm just a brand new missionary. it's crazy how the time is fast and slow when you're on the mission. I only have 13 more months to preach the gospel! ahh! gotta get to work and find those who are waiting for me! :)

It was transfers this past Wednesday annnnnnnddddddd  - I'm still in North Torrance. Yup. I stayed right here. BUT Sister Fonokalafi has left me! She's training a new missionary at the VC (Visitors Center)  and so my new companion is Sister Malani! She's from Fiji and has been out for about 13 months. She's AWESOME. I mean, she's like a spiritual giant and I love her to death. Not to mention she's been nursing me back to health this past week too, man. I have so much respect for her already and it hasn't even been a week yet. I'll be sure to send pictures of the two of us next week when it hasn't been raining all the time :( rain doesn't make for good photo taking opportunities.

So, because I have been super sick on and off all week, I've had to stay in, or come in early. I have not been able to get in a full days work because my lungs just want to quit on me or I throw up. Either way it isn't fun and I'm just about ready to be done with this sickness. I'm feeling TONS better but I'm still on the mend and just have to watch out and make sure that I don't relapse and get even sicker than I was before, that would be bad. So your prayers are always appreciated - and know that I always pray for y'all back home as well. The weather has cooled off here a bit and it gets pretty cold at night, which is not good for my lungs - the doctor advised me not to go out walking/tracting when it's super cold, so we've been trying and scheduleing appointments with less active memebers and recent converts and it's been really successful! We're helping one girl who was totally inactive in August prepare to go on a mission! It's such a blessing. I could talk about her and how awesome she is all day long, but I'll move on to other things :)

Yesterday was Stake Conference, so we had a lot of extra time to go out and work. So, we went to go find an investigator that we've had to stop seeing and she wasn't home. So, we decided to look for a former investigator that lived down the same street. We found her! Her name is L and she's....well .... she's pretty great, and she wants us to come back and help resolve some of her concerns. It's going to be so good! As we were leaving she said "even if I don't become a mormon, I want to be able to defend you guys whenever people talk bad about you. I love the Mormon people" it was a pretty sweet experience.

This week has also been a week of miracles with the members! We had a girl in the singles ward who is an RM just give us a TON of shirts and blouses and coats form her mission, and a member is taking us grocery shopping today! what blessings! Some weeks, it's so easy to tell how much the Lord is looking out and blessing you. I think the lord gives us good times like these so that when the hard times come, when we don't feel like we can keep going, we can look back on the good times and realize that He is involved in the details and that he loves us very much. I'm happy to be in good times right now, even though I've been hacking up my guts at night, but I'm still working hard and doing my very best to try and find those people whom the lord has prepared to hear His word and come closer to Him.

I love you all, I love my Savior, I know that only through keeping the commandments and striving our very best to learn of the Savior can we find true peace and joy in this life. Have a wonderful, wonderful week (stay dry if you're hear in CA!)

Love,

Hna Hensley

Temple Week

So! the temple.

It was great!  Really, the Los Angeles temple is the 2nd largest temple in the world (Salt Lake is the biggest) and....yes. I can attest to that. It felt ginourmous on the inside!

I felt like I hadn't been to the temple in forever and so it was really, really nice to go. I wanted to stay in there all day long and do everything that I could, but we just didn’t have the time. I'm definitely going to try and go once a week when I get back home. And by then there may be a 2nd temple in Provo! How, crazy is that, huh?

In the temple I got to have some spiritual 'me time' which I feel like I don't get to much here, on the mission. Yes, you learn and grow personally, but almost all of your focus is on other people it was nice to just sit and only think about me and my relationship with God.  Being in the temple for just a few short hours seems to like, recharge my batteries and made me super peaceful all at the same time. I just want to take everyone with me there after the mission! It's so cool! and huge! and beautiful! We went to the 8:30 session and it was just my zone. Sister Fonokalafi and I are the only sisters so thank goodness there were 5 other ladies in the session so we didn't feel so lonely. On the men's side, it was just all Elders, plus maybe 2 other men. But it was really nice. Like I said, I could have stayed in there forever.

Note from Dad.  Unlike our regular Sunday meetings in the Temple men sit on one side of the room and women on the other. Each room can sit about 50 people, 25 men and 25 women. To have one side full and the other empty is unusual.

This week, WELL - crazy town!  I need to really start bringing my journal with me to the library to help me remember everything.   Here are the top items.

We met a really awesome girl who we will start teaching this week who would attend the singles ward.

We got to go to a baptism for one girl that Sister Fonokalafi taught in her last area.

We had to drop another girl we've been teaching who had a baptismal date because she's not progressing.

We taught a family from India.

I almost twisted my ankle playing football today.

I made it through New Years without dying from baked goods, I mean people kept giving us sweets (seriously. cake after cake after cookie after brownie. I just want like, some bacon. or jerky people!)

We're going to start teaching/attending/supplementing a family history class at the stake center to try and strengthen the ward and find new people to teach.

I went on exchanges to another area and taught a CRAZY lady who had CRAZY stories and some awesome spiritual experiences.  I chuckled inside the whole time she was telling us the stories at the ridiculous things I was hearing. Her life was like, 6 episodes of CSI.  However, I am so excited for the sisters who work there because she is pretty golden, you know, beneath the crazy. 

I had interviews with President (they happen every other transfer) and transfers and next week! SO I'll write to you next Monday and we'll see if I move! Sister Fono and I want to stay together another transfer (or course) but she goes home soon...so they might steal her back to the visitor's center

:( 

 But we shall see!

That's the summary for this week! Once again, I know it's super short but I have to write my weekly letter to president and then scoot on outta here. I swear, and hour gets shorter and shorter every week. I still have 1 load of laundry to do.....eek!

I love you all - be safe and know that y'all are in my prayers!

Hna Hensley

Week 11

This post came off schedule last week and I am just now getting it posted.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wow. I can't believe it's 2012 and when some people are saying the world is going to end, and I'll be on a mission. How lucky! I guess it's straight to the Celestial Kingdom for me....  Just Kidding.

But 2012 has been great so far! We've got some new investigators that we're working with (and by that, I mean we went tracting and some people told us we could come back, so we've got some potential on the horizon) and all of our recent converts are coming back into town from their vacations and so it's great!!

Or family has a tradition of eating grapes at the stoke of midnight on the new year for good luck.  I, sadly, did not get to eat grapes here (you think grapes are expensive because they're out of season....try getting them in LA when they're out of season. Sheesh) but I thought about it. I was asleep at midnight anyway :)

We had to be indoors at 6:00 on new year's eve for safety, so our zone got together and we played some indoor sports game involving a soccer ball and running at the gym of the stake center. I don't really know what it was - but it was fun. We played that for 2 hours (which....I mean it was fun, but some variety would have been nice too) and then they talked about the zone goal for this next month (what we wanted to focus on as missionaries in our zone) and then we drove home!  Some members gave us some sparkling cider, so we did have a little celebration after planning :) and then in bed at 10:30! It was a good day though.

You may think it's strange that it's Wednesday and I’m writing. Well, we got to go to the temple today....AH! I just looked at the time and I still have to write my mission president! I guess the temple will have to be continued.....but it was wonderful :)

Love!!

Hna Hensley

 ps - wow. this was a pitiful update. please forgive me.