THE WEEK OF MIRACLES....WAS GREAT!!!!

hey family!!!
yeah last week was the week of miracles and it went GREAT!!! we have 4 new people that we are teaching! one guy is named nicholas and is native american. he wanted to know what the connection was between the b of m and his people. so he explained it to him and it made sense to him! and he just started asking us a bunch of questions and every answer that we gave he said "wow i really like that a lot" so i am pumped for him ha-ha. were seeing him this thursday and we also wants to go to church next sunday! soo the Hayes family, we had an appointment with them on thursday night, but she called us during the day on thursday and canceled on us because her and todd (husband) needed to go out...but we re-scheduled for tomorrow night and its going to be a dinner and lesson at a members house, so the spirit is going to be NUTS! and were going to try and set a baptismal date with robin and hopefully todd as well.
ok the e-mail rules...i can email whoever i want, but i email zane, but josh and i write pretty much ever week so it’s nice! i’m glad that the plague looks great!! ha-ha. i’m stoked for ryan and jill and spencer for the new house it looks sick! so is that daybreak?
but this week was great for elder svoboda and i, we contacted a lot of people, and got a lot done! i am stoked for the upcoming week and the appointments that we have! so i bought this cd called Sweet Potato Pie. a lady in our ward is in this group. it’s a Bluegrass gospel group you would like it ha-ha. her name is sonya Stead, she is way tight! that’s who we have the dinner slash lesson tomorrow with! so i’m pumped. but send me the right shirt ha-ha and get on that cd i want to hear ashleys voice. speaking of her i didn’t get her address to write her, can you get that somehow!! elder koehler is the MAN he is from sandy he went to alta, he is in the Apex ward and they are the elders we share the car with. but he is tight were both hoping we become comps on our mission, he has been our 6 months. so today were going to go get some ties from burlington coat factory. but the members have been feeding us well! saturday night we had dinner with the stake president and his wife and some recent converts, so that went very well and we left a good impression on him so that is always a BIG plus! the temple was AMAZING!! definitely smallest temple i have ever been in but it was so sick to be in there with my fellow comrads in action and the mission president and wife. but all is going well were stoked about this week and hopefully have a date set with the hayes family, so be praying for that for us please :) man my room is going to be different for sure. hope my room doesn’t give you too much trouble but i definitely know that having carpet would be so much better than hardwood floors ha-ha. well i hope all Q's were answered if not my bad ha-ha. i love you guys so much and miss you guys!!! i love doing WORK!!!
-elder henricksen
MORE APPARTMENT PICTURES

SHORTENED PREPERATION DAY (P-DAY)

hey family,
i do not have much time today on the computer, so sorry this email is going to be short! they shortened the p-day today because it’s the week of miracles! we have a temple trip on wednesday, so they are taking the time were going to be at the temple and making up for it up cutting our p-day short till one!(The Raleigh Tepmle is SO small! our Stake Center is bigger it I bet.but very nice) so we have to hurry and finish up so we can go shop, you should be getting another letter with a list of other things that i need sent to me, so be looking for that! but this week was cool, ill explain the robin hayes story next p-day when i have more time, we meet with them on thursday night. but hey sorry this is going to say nothing whatsoever but we got to get shopping before we have to get back out and work! well i love you guys and i will write a legit email next monday i promise!!
loved the package were going to get some panda right now and elder svoboda says thank you for the candy slash cookies and panda express gift card! i love you fam and miss you!!
-elder henricksen

HEY YA'LL FROM CARY NORTH CAROLINA

Hey Ya'll from Cary North Carolina!! The package was great!! I’m not sure what day i got it, to carried up in the work haha. but i think i got it on Thursday...so if that gives you an answer! haha

I love the blanket! it was so cool to be able to read everyone's things that they wrote! and its just warm, not that I need that. The last couple days it has been 50-60 degrees! i love it! and the nights are just wonderful. We get like 45 mins on the computer to email and whenever we want to write someone during the day we do that. We are going golfing today with a bunch of the Elders! Its Elder Shefflers bday he is 21 and he is in my district.Golf P-day Sister Neilson & Jensen, Elder Sheffler, Blake, Svoboda, and Koehler Car Shot front left Elder Svoboda, right front Koheler, back left Blake, back right Sheffler
The week went pretty good, we didn’t get that many new investigators because were still trying to get to know the less actives and part member families and the members in the ward. This week Elder Svoboda and I decided to step up our game and tare it up this week in numbers and find people to bring to the Gospel. Wednesday was companion exchange day so I went with my district, Elder Hooper, for the day and just did some work and tracked and just like a normal day but with a different companion.
Yesterday (Sunday) when we were going to Brother Allens house (ward mission leader) we decided to knock some doors and we stopped at this one ladies house (20ish) and we talked to her a little bit. She said she had time to talk about it now, so we pretty gave the whole first lesson right there on her front porch haha! It was great! I love how simple our message is! She was picking up on everything quickly when we explained about Prophets and Apostles and how they are chosen and how Joseph Smith received the authority to do so. She got it, so we left her a pamphlet on the Restoration and gave her our number. We are hopping that she will call back for a second visit! As I was reciting the First vision to her, i just felt the spirit so strong with me as i said it, and she never left eye contact with me as I said it. It was AMAZING! wow haha.

We have an appt with Robin from the last email, on Tuesday with the whole family and the husband which is great! I am stoked for that! The members in the Ward are great people. Bro Eller and Anderson we meet yesterday and I love them, they are pretty much like me, joke around and just chill and laid back!

A lady in our Ward (sis Stead) is in a bluegrass band with her friends haha, its like gospel bluegrass, so im going to get that for pday use! Well by our goals that we have this week next week should be great and more stories to tell, we just met with a bunch of less active and members this week.

I love you guys and i miss you so so much! PEACE!!!!

-Elder Henricksen

FIRST EMAIL FROM CARY NORTH CAROLINA

Blake starts off introducing his Missionary companion, Elder Svoboda. “he is cool, he is from Concord California near the bay, and has been out for 21 months and he is not trunky which is great that he still works hard!! He has taught me a lot, and has made me do a lot of talking which has helped me out a lot!

We then get a little insight of a day in the life of Blake the Missionary.….well we wake up at 6:30 am and work out for 30 mins, our apt has a workout gym so every other day we switch off with that and staying in the apt. then study till 10:30 am, then tract, contact, appointments, knock on doors, lunch, more of that stuff, dinner and usually do exchanges with members and meet with people. So it’s pretty cool, keeps us going. I say we eat with members about 3-4 times a week if that...but people drop stuff off too and i have soups, sandwiches, and left over chicken some sister brought us, so meals are good so far! Blake then gives us the lowdown of his first official Preparation Day (P-Day) in NC. Once they leave their apartment it’s off to grocery shop. Blake claims to have some “Legit” shopping skills. Ahem…I believe this came from all the years he was my Saturday shopping buddy. Blake emails us from the public library computers. Now you can understand why Monday is now my favorite day of the week. I get my weekly dose of Blake.

Next they are meeting up with some other Elders to play Basketball and Nerf Dart guns. Evidently Svoboda has a “Sick Collection” of them. I am glad they are adding recreation/fun into the mix of their hard work.



Now a breakdown of events since arriving in Cary, NC 1/27/09

27th We got to our apartment from the transfer meeting and kind of unpacked some stuff and just went straight out to contacting and knocking on doors so straight into the WORK!! and Sis Lanoza took us out to dinner at Taco Bell that night ha-ha so that was LEGIT! went on an exchange that night with Bro White and meet some members of the ward and just say were here and ready to serve.

My new home away from home. NC flag and me in my "Greenie" tie.


28th We did a little bit of shopping just to last till monday and did a lot of contacting and tracking around our area and ran into two new investigators . That night Brennen took us on exchanges, he’s a returned missionary from the Cali mission, and just meet some more members and got to know some families which was fun!

29th Was pretty sweet! we started out getting 2 new "gators" while contacting on the streets and we have appts with them tomorrow and Thursday so I'm stoked for that! but that night was great! Bro Wade came with us on exchanges and we went to this ladies house named Robin Hayes (an investigator) and got to know her a little, she loves us and quote "Loves how the book of Mormon explains stuff very well and the power of it!" :) i was so happy if you could imagine ha-ha!!!

30th Well just the normal contacting and tracking around the city of Cary and that night we kind of had some bible discussion going on with a family...the family loves us so much and both of us were able to get our point across, so it was a kind of nice bible bashing ha-ha, but hopefully they kept their commitment we left from Moroni 10:4-5 the promise. but yeah church went great, there are some great people in the ward and everyone welcomed us with great love! and one lady invited us to dinner that night and it was great eating. we bore our testimonies during the meeting so everyone new who we are and what were about.

"But the work here is so great! I love being here and actually going through the real thing!!! and you know just bringing people closer to Christ!"