Hawthorne Week 4

Wow!

I can't believe the good news from home! Grandma and Grandpa - missionaries too!! What a blessing to serve the Lord in any way we can. Ah my heart just leapt with joy when I heard the news!

As far as missionary work this week - things have been good! We've had a lot of miracles! First of all, I don't know if I've told you about our investigator Jxxxx. She is wonderful. She's in her 50s and has a daughter who is a member of the church. She took the missionary discussions years ago, but now, due to difficult circumstances in her life she's ready and willing to accept the gospel. And she wants to be baptized! So we teach her 1-2 times a week and I just love her. She takes care of her mother at home who has severe dementia. It's just like being around Grandma Nena only her mother grew up in Iowa. I love being over there and enjoying their company and seeing Jxxxx grow in the Gospel. One great miracle with her this week was with the word of wisdom. We taught her about it on Wednesday when we had a lesson with her. She doesn't have any major problems with it but she does drink coffee (and she has for years and years and years). However, she wants to live all of God's commandment and so she told us that she was already cutting down to 1 cup a day, and that she would slowly wean herself off of it week by week until she stopped drinking it completely. And that when she ran out, she wouldn't buy any more. That was great news for us! Then we finished teaching about some other things and set up an appointment to come do service for her on Saturday. Well, when we came over to do service she just looked so excited. We asked her how she was doing with the coffee and she said she hadn't had ANY since our lesson! That the next day, she woke up just with a horrible stomach ache and so she didn't drink any, and the same on Friday and when she was feeling better on Saturday she didn't have any desire to have any!! Wow! What a miracle. She said she didn’t know if Heavenly Father worked that way so that she could stop drinking coffee, but she thought maybe he did :) What a wonderful experience that was!

Also, did I ever tell you about the creepy abandoned hospital in our area? Well there's a creepy abandoned hospital right down the street from the church, which we bike past on our way home at night, and the lights are always on inside even though it's been abandoned for years. it's quite scary. WELL the other day we parked across the street and noticed that the parking lot was fully of cars....and movie trailers! yup! they're totally filming something in it! And according to a member who lives down the street from the hospital, Sylvester Stallone was walking around the grounds on Saturday. Fun stuff :) I'll have to keep keeping my eyes peeled when we're in that area.

The last little bit of news from this week is that Sister Johansen and I are going to be singing at a musical Easter fireside on Easter. And I'm singing a solo!!! ahh!!! So please pray for me. I'm super nervous. I don't mind singing in groups, but alone....ahhh!!

I love you all! and I CAN'T WAIT FOR CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND! Ah it's like...almost better than Christmas. Seriously, take notes and soak in the opportunity we have to listen to a prophet of the Lord. Let their words be your compass/Liahona for the next 6 months. I love it!

-Hna Hensley

Hawthorn Week 3

Hola Familia!

Well, this week has been especially tiring. We only get allotted a certain amount of miles on our car every month, and we're low, like really low. And we have to make a few more trips up to the mission home before the end of the month so we've had to be conservative. Conservative in missionary terms means we've been biking pretty much all week, even in the rain.
The pictures are before we headed out into the drizzle to bike. not excited, and then fake excited haha :)  It was cold and wet, but we were able to see so many tender mercies of the lord because we've been on our bikes. For example, one day we had an appointment with an investigator, Fxxxxx, and his daughters, but he called earlier in the afternoon and cancelled.  He forgot that it was his daughter's open house at school. We were sad but still went to the area where he lived and tried so contact some other people. nobody was home. As we were biking down this one street all of the sudden we hear "Sisters!" and we turn around and it was Fxxxxx and his daughters! They were just walking back home after the open house. We pulled over our bikes and talked to them for a few minutes on the street and were able to set a return appointment. We go back and see them tonight. That was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord.

However, with all the tender mercies also comes the stories about how I'm still not horribly coordinated on a bike. In fact, I totally biffed it on my bike. I don't know what happened - just that all of the sudden both my bike and I were on the ground. I was fine, and so was the bike, but it was sure embarrassing. Especially since it was on the sidewalk right by a traffic light, which happened to be red so there were about 15 cars that just sat and watched me fall. But, oh well, I made it through without any scratches or anything. Also, one night when we were coming home all I know was that I went to turn but instead ended up against the wall. and since I didn't want to fall off of my bike again, I just hung there for a minute. Sister Jo turned around because she heard me scream and then just started laughing. and i had to admit. it was pretty funny. ALSO yesterday we biked to church and when we got out (at like, 4:30) it was SUPER windy and I was almost, literally, blown of my bike twice. It's ridiculous. haha So fun bike adventures!

Yesterday, sister Jo and I experience another small miracle. We had an interview with our district leader at the church at 8:00 PM. When we finished it was time to go home for the night. Since we were the last ones to leave the church we had to lock the gate. Which normally is fine. However, last night as we were moving the gate, one of the pins that goes through the gate and into the ground came out of the gate. We tried and tried and tried and just couldn't get the bar to go back in. Like, it was ridiculous. It was cold and dark and we were tired and getting frustrated. While sis Jo was working at it I said a prayer. I knew that, even though it was a trivial thing to ask, it was very important for us to get the bar back in so that we could go home and plan. All I can tell you is that the bar bent and we were able to close the gate and go home. It was a great testimony builder of the power of prayer and how prayer works through our actions.

One last thing before I head off to write my letter to president. Food adventures, I pretty much jinxed myself last Monday saying that I haven't had to eat anything weird or that I didn't like. Well, that night for dinner, we had salmon. yup. It wasn't breaded or anything, just baked. I at my whole piece. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it's still definitely not something that I would choose to eat. But I survived! and I think my body went into shock because of all the omega 3's haha.

In the Tongan ward they love to feed us. And, they don't do anything small. There was a relief society birthday activity and it was a feast with music and performances and everything. it was crazy. I ate lamb ;/ which tasted fine but was really fatty. And, my poor body is just not used to all the meat and heavy food. At every activity they have food. No matter what it is. Even if they're just having choir practice, or dance practice - theres food afterwards.  Tor example, when we went to the church for our interview last night, the Tongan ward was having choir practiced. they finished and had like, fried dough (like, donut balls w/out sugar) and this strange herbal hot white coco that tasted like warm liquid fruity pebbles. They gave us missionaries all the leftovers. You don't have to worry on that front, my temporal needs are all taken care of, even if I'm going to gain a million pounds :) haha

As for learning Tongan, it's hard! I can sing in Tongan out of the hymnbook  and I know a couple of words, but beyond that I have no idea. We'll see how that progresses too. Mostly I'm just lost in all of the meetings we go to.

well - that's all for this week! love you all!
Sister Hensley

Athens Week 2

Just so you know - I'm having flashbacks towhen i was in wales...this
keyboardhas a spacebar  thatsticks. so,if it lookslike many of my
words don't have spaces inthem, feel free to edit this before youpost
it so that it's easier for everyone to read. i don't have time to go
back and fix it all for y'all :( sorry!!

Note: It was fun to read this letter all messed up and all but I have cleaned the rest of the letter up.




Taro Root

I've now successfully survived two Sundays in the Tongan ward and two weeks of dinner appointments with them! They are so kind and generous and loving. There is a companionship of elders that also serve in both of our wards, and so we alternate days between the two of us for the two wards for who gets to feed us. On the Tongan days we always know that we'll be fed. Even if we forget to call ahead, they make sure they do something for us. Sometimes they take us out, and other times they make traditional food for us. Tongan food is good but it's all very...heavy! Lots of meat and potatoes. It's hard for me to eat all that I'm given (especially because it's good and I want to eat all of it) but I do my best. Who knows, by the time I come back home you might be surprised at the amount of food that I can eat  The good thing is that I haven't had any really strange food adventures. About the strangest thing that I've eaten here is something called taro - which is like a super dense potato/sweet potato. It's good but boy does it stick to your ribs! My bones are definitely going to be nice and strong by the end of this transfer for sure.

I was sick again this week  I caught a really bad cold and was coughing and sneezing up a storm for about 3 days. I'm feeling much better now, and through it all we were still able to get a lot of good work done. So the week wasn't a total bummer even thought I felt like I was dying pretty much every day. Speaking of which, you never thought that losing one hour of sleep would make such a big difference....well.... the struggle that I had staying awake all day yesterday can certainly attest to the falsehood of that statement. Daylight savings times was a struggle for Sister Jo and I. It's almost akin to having really bad jet lag. Today was better, but having to go out and play frisbee in the dark before the sun has come up is going to take some getting used to for sure.

Because of the illness there's not much to tell for this week! The work is good, we have some great investigators that are progressing, I see tiny miracles in my life every day here and I love my companion! All is well here in Hawthorne!

Much love to everyone,
Sister Hensley

Hello from Athens!

Well!

As you may have figured out by now, yes - I have been transferred to the Athens zone! I'm serving in the city of Hawthorne and I cover 2 wards, an English speaking Ward and a Tongan speaking ward Sunday was a very interesting experience for sure.  First, I'm attend church from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM and then have a correlation meeting from 5:00 to 6 PM. Yeah! That's a lot of church to adjust to! Plus, the Tongan ward is all in Tongan (which I don't speak...surprise!) In the Tongan ward we go to a small English speaking Relief Society class (there's 5 of us) and then to an English speaking Sunday School class (there's about 7 of us because the Elders join us haha) and then we go to Sacrament meeting and get fancy headsets and listen to a translator make it all understnadable English for us. Unfortunately, the headsets weren't working this Sunday so I listened to some very lovely testimonies in Tongan. I'm sure that they were very beautiful, since I felt the Spirit, but oh how I wish I knew who they were or what they actually said. *sigh* But its alright I have 6 whole weeks (at least) to figure it out!

Transfers also means a new companion! yeah! But you'll never guess who it is....that's right! I've been reunited with my mother! Sister Johansen and I are companions again only now we're about 15 minutes north of where we were before isn't that ironic? It's actually super strange because it is almost unheard of to be put back a with former companion, but here we are. Apparently the Lord still thinks that we have things to learn from each other! It's crazy!  It is definitely a blessing for me to only have to adjust to a new area, not to a new companion too. The Lord knows us individually and will meet our needs if we let Him!

Since coming to Hawthorne there have been quite a few....adventures! First of all, our Zone Leaders had their car stolen Thursday! yeah! Apparently they left the keys in the Watts church building on the desk in the clerks office and someone just walked off the street, took the keys and drove off with the car! Yeah! Some people....anyway the only real sad thing about it was that all of our mail for the week was in the trunk! But, we were all relived that nothing else of real value was lost. The Elders had their phone and backpacks with them, but their house keys were attached to their car keys. They had to bunk with another set of Elders for a few days until their landlady could make them another key. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE the car was found!!! The zone leaders told us today that the car had been found, and that it probably still has all of our mail in it. Apparently the perpetrator was apprehended about 2 blocks from the church building that same night.  He wasn't able to get very far, or take anything from the vehicle and the police have had it in impound since then. So, hopefully I'll be getting a double dosage of mail this upcoming Friday! Exciting! haha, that was adventure #1.

Adventure #2 happened today as we were pulling out of the car wash. First of all, it was the most epic car wash I have ever experienced. It was a rain forest. YUP, a themed car wash with everything including monkeys and a giraffe with leaves for towels - and it was only $5! Oh the joys of serving in....Hawthorne.  Anyway, there was a LOT of construction right on the road around the entrance/exit to this car wash. There was quite a bit of traffic. So, I pull out around all of the cars and things, trying to be super careful and finally I think "I'm clear!" then right as I start to go Sister Jo yells "CONE!" ....but it was too late. So today, we're holding a funeral service for Ernie, the traffic cone who was brutally murdered by a hit and run grey Toyota Corolla at approx 1:28 PM....on the bright side - the car is ok!  YAY for no mission car damage fines!

As for the missionary work in this area....it's different! We have some investigators, but mostly we're still finding those whom the Lord has prepared. I know they're out there!! I have faith and hope and am looking forward to finding them and enjoying the rest of the week here in Hawthorne!

The Gospel is true!!
Love, Hna Hensley

PS - this is proof that sister missionaries do make it rideing bikes in skirts. Sister Malani and I biked all day on Tuesday, right before transfers.