ZONE CONFERENCE & TWO EXCHANGES

I am writing this email late, we had to get some other things done this morning. We went to Wilson to a place called Buffalo Wild Wings, it was LEGIT! Very good wings. We were going to golf, but we got there, there were lakes in the middle of the fairways so we bagged that for the day. Remember Clark from Goldsboro Ward? He came down today and chilled with us that was fun.

This week was great, it flew by though...I was up in Roanoke Rapids till Wednesday and switched back. There is a huge paper mill there and man, it can get RANK. This week is Zone conference, so I am pretty stoked for that! Tomorrow till Thursday I will be in Rocky Mount with Elder Thompson on exchanges. Being district leader is fun going on exchanges a lot.

DISTRICT MEETING (Elders, Fastje, Henricksen, Jensen, Thompson, Nielsen & Christensen)
(VIDEO)DISTRICT MEETING RAP
Investigators...while I was gone, Elders Nielson and Fastje met with Mike and had dinner with them. They talked about the Spirit. Elder Fastje related to Mike really well. I guess they had the same childhood growing up, gothic and all that ha-ha. This was good for Mike. This week we didn’t really have sit down lessons with our investigators, but we checked in with a lot of them, to see where they stand on in their interest. This helped us out a lot to know where they stand and what we need to focus on for them. Vannicia, a less active we have been working with, came to church on Sunday! It was legit to see her there. Jeff has only missed 2 Sundays since we have began to teach him, so he is going strong!
LILLY AND EMMA

Elder Nielsen is doing great; he is becoming a great missionary. He is teaching very well and is relating well with our gators. While I was in Roanoke, he took over the area well and tore it up! You were asking about the word "skreet" or "skraight" is the southern way to say street or straight, just replace the t with a k ha-ha

Well, I miss and love all of ya’ll. I hope all is well. I love this work. Skraight outta Tarboro,

Elder Henricksen

A TWO EXCHANGE WEEK & A COOL STORY

Today is Tuesday (Library closed yesterday)...and for p-day yesterday, we DID golf! It was nice weather. The course was definitely in bad shape, because it rained all day Sunday pretty much. We still got in 9 holes and I beat Elder Christensen by one stroke ha-ha. I am currently in Roanoke Rapids. It is up by the Virginia border, it’s a bigger town than Tarboro. I am here with Elder Jensen; he was in the four Elder group with me in Goldsboro. It has been fun so far. We will be doing two exchanges this week; I am up here in Roanoke until tomorrow, then after the District meeting the Zone leaders are doing a split with me in Tarboro and Nielsen is going to Clayton with the other Zone Leader. We will be separated almost this whole week.
ON EXCHANGE W/ELDER JENSEN


BACK HOME TO GOOD OL' NC

This week was pretty good investigator wise. We had to reschedule most of them to this week. Mike was out of town, so we should be getting with him this week, and the same with many of our investigators. Cool story though; we were walking to the "skreet" the other day, and some guy just calls us over and wanted to talk to us. (his name is Martelli). He mentioned how he has seen us around a lot and wanted to know what we are all about. We ended up walking about the town of Tarboro with him for like 30 minutes talking about the church and different things. It was SWEET! We should be getting up with him this week to talk more, so that was a miracle! This week he did meet up with many Less-active members. Darnita being one of them. Her grandma is an active member, but we stopped by and talked to her forever. She is a TRIP, one of my new favorite people ha-ha, She came to church on Sunday! That was exciting. We have also been working also with a part-member family the Brewer's. He has been coming to church for like 20 years...we have been getting more concerns and questions out of him and he has been coming to church weekly, but not staying for all the meetings, so we're going to work on that.

Well my fam, I miss you and I love all of ya'll, hope all is going well. I am praying for you. This is the Lord's work and I am honored to be a part of it to declare His word!

MAHOLLA,
-Elder Henricksen

ONE YEAR!!!

This week was pretty legit! Last p-day we didn’t get to golf, it was too cold :( and I don’t think we are this week either...because the Rocky Mount Elders are moving out of their apartment with members and moving to a new apartment. We are helping them out a little bit. Yes I have met Elder Christensen. I have actually gone on exchanges with him in Tarboro so we have gotten to know each other well, he is a tight kid and we had fun fo sho!

ONE YEAR!!! it feels weird I guess, it hit me in bed that night that I’m half way through this amazing journey, and it made me sad, so its all out till I come home! I’ll take the advice that Elder Holland gave at the MTC, “when you come home from your mission, you better have them bring you in on a stretcher.” ha-ha. Crazy, where time goes.PRPARING FOR THE TRADITIONAL "ONE YEAR" BURNING OF THE SHIRT <ELDER ANDERSON AND I WHERE IN THE MTC TOGETHER AND CAME TO THE NC-RAL MISSION TOGETHER TOO...BEFORE HE IS TRANSFERRED..WE ARE BURNING OUR “ONE YEAR” SHIRTS TOGETHER ON CHRISTMAS EVE

(VIDEO)BURNING OF THE SHIRT

We taught a lot of investigators this week! First one is Mike! I am not going to lie, it was the best lesson I have had with him. He didn’t go off on any big tangents and he stuck with what we were teaching. He said he agrees with pretty much everything taught in our lesson. (Lesson 3, the gospel of Jesus Christ) it was sweet! After Elder Christensen and I bore sweet testimony of the Spirit and its important role. When we were leaving, he asked us some questions about the spirit, so we told him next time we'll hit hard core on the spirit. It is a GREAT sign that he is turning away from his intellectual side and hopefully turning toward the spiritual side of gaining knowledge! We taught Curtis; that went pretty well. It was a short lesson just kind of taught brief about the restoration, because he had to get to work soon. He understood for the most part what we taught, and said probably not this week (yesterday) but next Sunday he should be at church! PRAY! Also taught Dillon, went ok. He gave us some of his concerns and questions. He just believes so different than we do ha-ha. We are going to do some hard core studying and finding answers to his questions. We taught Phyllis, she has had a Book of Mormon for awhile, and kind of taught by previous missionaries. We read Alma 32 with her and had a great discussion about it. She is very interested in the lessons, so we will be starting those this Thursday with her. Phyllis said same thing as Curtis about church, hopefully this Sunday :) be praying. She is a cool lady and she said "I love reading this book (Book of Mormon) it's so easy to understand, and its helps you understand the bible." so I’m uber stoked for her on Thursday!

Our fireside went pretty good, we had about 26 attend, which isn’t too bad, but our last fireside was better attended. It was still fun, and last night I also had a first! District leaders get to conduct the baptismal interview for baptisms in the district, so last night i was able to do so! One of Rocky Mount's investigators is getting baptized, so I got to interview him, and it was GREAT! I had him bare his testimony to me and he was set and ready to go, so good spiritual boost.

I hope all is going well and know how much I love ya’ll and miss ya’ll. This is the Lord's work and I’ll keep going until he stops me ha-ha! Keep on keeping on.
Love you!
Skraight outta Tarboro,
Elder Blake henricksen

HAPPY NEW YEAR & "TRANSFER OF MIRACLES!"

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! What’s going on! I’ll just first say that it is CCOOLLDD! Last 3-4 days has been like 20° with the wind! On bikes with a headwind is like running into a brick wall ha-ha. We get the car this week, I’m grateful for that! This will be the first P-day that we're not going to play golf:( …it’s WAY too cold for that, so I’m ok with it. New Years day was just another day of missionary work, but I did have to go to Raleigh pretty much the whole day for a ZL/DL meeting. All the Zone and District leaders got together for meeting to come up with ideas of what we can do to be better leaders and to learn from the Spirit. The meeting was SWEET, the spirit was strong and some very good information was given by President Cotterell and other missionaries. This Sunday, we will be putting on another Missionary Fireside, and it’s going to be on setting up family Mission plans. It will help the Branch reach their Branch mission plan! It should be great and hopefully give the members some motivation to give us referrals!

AROUND THE TOWN OF TARBORO
OH THIS REMINED ME OF HOME..LOOK FAMILIAR
Let’s see, this week we met with a lady named Donna. She has kind of talked to the missionaries in the past. We were looking through the area book we have and found her name and we felt good about it, so we stopped by and had a great discussion. Right now she is studying with the Jehovah Witness and she feels pretty good about them but disagrees with some beliefs and the things she disagrees with, our church answers that question better for her. We are going to start teaching her and hopefully she will come to know for herself that it’s true! While we were walking around Tarboro we decided to stop by a potential investigator named Curtis. We talked a little bit. He mentioned how he is excited about the New Year so he can change up his life and make his family better. Right there we both bore testimony of families and Prophets. We could tell by his eyes that he felt something, so we're going back Wednesday to teach him! I’m stoked for him! What better church than the LDS church to want to become more united as a family unit. Jeff is doing pretty good, he has come to church every Sunday since we started teaching him, but he is struggling right now job wise, he has 2 jobs, but one of them the work is slow right now (golf Course) so it’s putting him in a rough spot right now. We have a dinner with him Wednesday night, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

Brother Bass made us some of his famous French Toast. MAN! it was GOOD!! You will have to get that recipe from him!

This transfer, Elder Nielsen and I decided that were going to call it the TRANSFER OF MIRACLES! Every prayer that we pray as a companionship or personal we're praying for miracles that lead to baptism! So we are going to be working like crazy! I’m stoked for this transfer and week 6 of this transfer is Temple trip! WOO!


OVER THE DOOR VALET MENTIONED BELOW
Well my familia, I love you more than I love my hanging over the door valet! ha-ha. I miss you and hope all is going well. You’re in my prayers all day everyday!

-Elder Henricksen