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.

Hola Familia!

So! I'm here! Just so you know, my normal p-day is on thursday, so from now on I will be writing to you on thursdays, but since we have this like, special half week since we first started, I get to check in with you today. It's highly encouraged that we write our families, so you know that I'm going to be writing you as much as I can. Also, thank you SO SO much for all of your letters! I mean, I'm the one who gets the most mail out of my whole district, which is a little embarrassing, but not really. SO keep it all coming. Dearelder is truly a blessing. Speaking of my district, they are great. I mean, they can get rowdy at times but that's just the nature of the beast. There are 13 of us, 10 elders and us 3 hermanas. OH! I should probably mention that I'm in a trio of hermanas. Which, is cool and difficult all at the same time. My companeras are Hermanas Deskins and Hollday. Hermana Deskins is from Ethiopia originally, but she was adopted 10 years ago by a family that is from a little town in southern utah that I don't remember the name of. She's serving in LA just like me. Hermana Holladay is from Lindon, UT and she's goign to be serving in the Mesa, AZ temple visitors center mission. I'm a little jealous because you know how much I wanted to serve in a visitors center. They are both hermanas fantasticos and we are all getting along really well. Out of the other elders, 6 of them are going to LA, 2 to Peru, 1 to Washington DC south, and 1 to Vancouver Canada. We spend a whole lot of time together and they're all really cool, so that's good. All different age ranges as well. Elder Wilson was a theater/opera major and Cal State Fullerton for the past 6 years, so we get along well :) BUT there's not flirting in the MTC so it's all just good fun.

Spanish is going really well I'd say! On the very first day in the MTC right after we checked in and got our nametags and things we went to class. And it was total immersion. Like, they were only speaking to us in Spanish and that's what all of our instructions were in. BUT It's really so similar to French that I have a rather easy time understanding things. AND yesterday, we had our first lesson with our 'incestigator' Oscar! He seems like a really cool guy and is very open to learning new things and to the gospel so I think we will have a good time teaching him. However, he doesn't speak any English and so we're gonna have to improve on our Spanish real quick like in order to be able to communicate with him. However, something that Maestro Catt (Hermano Gato) said was that if we are trying to speak mouth to ear, we aren't really teaching. It's when we speak heart to heart that the message really comes through. That's something that I definitely want to improve on for the next lesson we have (which I think is on Monday). I was so focused on being able to speak in spanish to him that the spirit wasn't as present as it should have been. We learned to pray and bear our testimonies (that's really it so far...) and so we were able to do that and get the spirit there for a minute, but it would be more beneficial to have it there the whole time. I mean, that's the goal, right??

I'm getting used to getting up early and being in bed by 10:30. I'm usually so exhausted by the end of the day that I wish I could go to be earlier. However, it's the 6:30 thing that's hard. PLUS we have to be IN class at 7:00 so if we want to shower and get ready in any amount of time and be to class ready for personal study on time we have to get up at 6:00. And we aren't allowed to get up earlier than that so we'll just have to start being super speedy.

Well, my time is almost up and I want to write some personalized notes in this email so I'll wrap this up. I love you all and look forward to your letters!

Yo se que Jesucristo es el Salvador su mundo, y estoy agradecido por la Evangelio de Cristo. Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdad. En el nombre de Jesucirsto, Amen :)   

BESOS!

Hermana Hensley

This is Dad. I think I will translate the Mormon language here.

P-day is Preparation day. This is the "day" or really only about 9 hours of the day when missionaries have "free time" So on p-day Shannon will be able to do things like shopping and laundry and write letters and other things like site-seeing or other activities that are approved by her mission president. So if you write her you will have to get used to not getting a quick reply. She will only have a few hours once a week to reply.

MTC : Missionary training center.

Companeras or companions. As a missionary Shannon will never be alone unless in her apartment and then her companion must always be in the apartment with her. Her companions are assigned by her mission president and are changed on a regular basis. I am not completely sure why this rule is in place but it has been this way for 30 or more years. Normally companionships are only 2 missionaries but as you can see, sometimes there are 3 missionaries in a companionship. What this means is that the 3 missionaries must always be together. They have privacy in their apartment or dorm room but when they are in public they must be together. So when she says “it is cool and difficult” you can appreciate what she is saying. It is cool to get to know 2 other girls but I am sure it is difficult to get them all to class at 7 AM on time in a group.

Most missionaries who are assigned to a foreign language mission do not speak that language before they are called. The MTC has been toured by many organizations across the years because they are able to take missionaries from not speaking or understanding a language and in 8 to 9 weeks not only have them speaking but have them teaching and reading the new language. So it is no surprise that on day one they stopped talking to them in English. They do have bi-lingual teachers and mentors but are very strict and very serious about “total immersion”. Shannon has the benefit of speaking French so learning a 3rd language will be a bit easier for her than someone who only speaks English.

Shannon mentioned someone named Oscar. This will be an employee who is role playing with them to help them develop their lessons. As I said she will be able to teach lessons in Church to non-English speakers when she leaves. It may not be perfect after 9 weeks but it should be close enough to get by if she had to do it.

Maestro Catt (Hermana Gato) will also be an employee or one of her teachers.

The daily schedule in the MTC and missionaries in general is from 6:30 AM until 10:30 PM seven days a week, as she said she can get up no earlier than 6 AM but I don’t see that happening with Shannon anyway. This will also be the expected schedule for the entire 18 months she will serve. Other than p-day which starts at 9:30 AM and usually ends at 6:30 PM, there are no breaks or holidays. This also means they are expected to be “a missionary” at 6:31 PM on p-day. They are always expected to act in a manner becoming a missionary but p-day is like having a day off. She will only be able to make 2 phone calls a year home, Christmas day and Mothers day if you would like to talk to Shannon you will have to be at our house when she calls. Of course local customs and common sense are to be used in abundance and each mission has some minor differences but as a rule of thumb this is a missionary schedule. Deviations from the schedule must be approved by the mission president.

Also in the MTC they get a limited time on the computer to write email, this is just due to the missionary to computer ratio, they must use the computer center at the MTC and all are on a schedule. The limited time on a computer for email will hold true after she leaves the MTC but for other reasons. They will not have a computer in their apartment. She will have to go to some type of public place for computer access. This is usually the public library. So reading email and replying to email will be difficult. It is better if you can send her regular mail. She can read the letters anytime she has a free minute and she can hand write letters from any place. So snail mail is by far the best way to communicate with her.

While in the MTC there is a service at www.dearelder.com that will print your letter and put it in her mailbox. This is the quickest and easiest way to get letters to her but you will have to wait for p-day for her to reply. She has listed all of the info you will need to send a letter from there below in this blog.

Officialy at the MTC

Shannon officially entered the Provo MTC yesterday at noon. Her Aunt LeAnn dropped her off after having a lovely brunch with her earlier in the day. She reported that Shannon was excited and ready to get started! She was whisked away with the other newbies and we are all anxious to hear her first report next week on her desingnated P-Day.

Another missionary from our home Ward- Elder Jacob Williams- was also assigned to the same mission as Shannon and has been in the MTC a few weeks already. His Mom relayed that he mentioned Shannon's arrival on is missionary blog. I hope he doesn't  mind me sharing it here:

"I was called as Zone Leader this past week! And as a result... I get to have a list of our incoming missionaries. I get to give them an orientation when they get here Wednesday night and again on Thursday night along with a tour... and guess what? I got the list of incoming missionaries on Sunday during a meeting that the ZL's have with the Branch Presidency... and lo and behold I see Shannon Hensley's name on that list! Yep. She is in the newest District in our Zone and I am in charge of them (and all the rest of the missionaries in our zone) for the next 4 weeks! So that was exciting (:"

It's a small gospel world! Both from the same ward- going to the same mission and now in the same zone. I'm sure they will become good friends and it is nice to know she will have a familiar face around to help with the transition.

As soon as we hear from her we will post it here. Please keep her in your prayers!

MTC Address

Hey all! (soon to be) Hermana Hensley here!!

I just got an email from the MTC with my final and official address! I just thought I'd post it here in a post before I update it down in the info box below...

Sister Shannon Elizabeth Hensley

MTC Mailbox #291

CA-LA 1026

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

So PLEASE everyone write me here! It pretty much will mean the world to me if you do. And, I'll definitely write you back, because I'm loyal like that and love to write letters.

ALSO if you don't know about www.dearelder.com then here's your chance to learn! It's pretty much awesome AND it allows you to send FREE, SAME-DAY letters to me in the MTC! Yeah, you just click on "write a missionary", fill in my information in the info boxes, and then type away! When you're all done, hit send and they'll print it out and put in my mailbox FREE! Pretty awesome. Just be sure that if you do that that you type the date which you write it, so that I can keep track of everything :) Actually, that goes for whatever letter you send me, but the ones that come through the post will at least have a postmarked date stamped on the front of them :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! And hope to hear from you once I'm in the MTC! (August 24)

-Hermana Hensley

We are almost there.

With this post I have opened the blog to the public. You can subscribe now and start getting the feed.


We are getting really close to the day Shannon will enter the MTC.

She almost has her wardrobe in order. Only a few items left.

She reports on the 24th.