¡bienvenido!

Spencer Michael Henze served a 2 year, full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints among the people of Oaxaca, Mexico (pronounced wa-ha-ka). This is the week-by-week account of his service. Elder Henze returned with honor March 21, 2012.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Letter from Spencer 6/3/2010

Hey Spencer fans! Jamie here. Sorry there hasn't been many new posts - Elder Henze is still stuck in limbo waiting for his visa, so we're all kinda just waiting to see what happens. BUT - we did get this sweet letter from Spencer the other day, and I officially got permission from the man himself to share it with everyone :) So here ya go! Enjoy.


"hi! ... i'm just gonna tell you about some cool things that have happened to me lately that I forgot to put in the letter I sent out to you yesterday. So last tuesday D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to us. it was way cool. he taught us a bunch of stuff from D&C. then afterwards we went out to wave bye to him (its usually customary for the apostle to just get in his car and drive away and wave to us) (and they all drive toyota camrys) and he opened his door and put his bag in the car then shut the door without his wife getting in... kinda strange. then to our astonishment he started walking over to the side I was on and I was at the very front of the pack of missionaries so i was like "NO WAY!" he walked right up to us and started shaking hands and talking to the missioinaries! this was a first. well I (keyword) was at the front of the pack, but somehow about 15 elders managed to slunk in front of me. irritating. but i was still among the first to shake his hand! he pronounced my name Henz but oh well. it was still way cool to shake the hand of an apostle! also Elder Foster from the second quorum of the seventy came this tuesday and talked about a lot of cool stuff about prayer and God and a bunch of other stuff but he showed us a couple short videos about science stuff :D one was where they pointed the hubble at a patch of "empty" space that was about the size of a grain of sand held out at arm's length, zoomed in, and left the shutter open for several days. what they found was insane. in that tiny patch of empty space they found over 10,000 galaxies each containing several billion stars and tons of planets. with some physics calculations they were able to determine roughly the distances of these galaxies and put together a 3-D visualization of what it would look like to travel into that seemingly empty spot of space at unreal speeds and eventually pass by all these galaxies until the extent of the picture. it was unbelievable. it was a lot like I had imagined when contemplating the universe in my own head. he showed us this to give us some rough idea of what God took moses out and showed him that one night as recorded in the book of moses. he related that to knowledge and success and how when that comes externally we will always want more. even though moses had seen at that time more than any scientist could hope to see today he still wanted to know more. he then said when we truly understand our divine heritage and who and what we really are thats when we are truly satisfied. it only comes from within. we need to connect to that "stream of living water" which is Christ and we will "thirst no more." this knowledge only comes from prayer and the spirit. the next video was about Earth and how every aspect of the earth is perfect for sustaining life. down to the density of the earth's core so that its gravitational field could pull in and sustain just the right thickness of gas molecules around the earth to create the protective barrier called the atmosphere that protects us from everything from harmful rays of the sun to most space debris. and how it is jsut the right thickness that it allows just the right amount of light from the sun in and to escape so we don't burn and keeps just enough in that we have sufficient heat. how the earth's crust is just soft enough that it can release just the right amount of heat from the earth's core so that we don't burn. those are only a couple small examples. but if you think about it logically, there's NO way this could have all come about by chance. God created this earth for us because he loves us and wanted us to be able to have this experience. also to think that God is in charge of all those other millions of galaxies in the universe brings a new light to how powerful and omnicient he really is. also knowing that it makes us appreciate more how amazing it is that we, through prayer, can communicate with him. and that he knows us by name. also about prayer he talked about how its a principle of agency to decide to pray and that God doesn't usually answer prayers untill we ask. but when we do ask it says in D&C that our prayers are heard and recorded and god has committed to us that he will answer them. we just need to be patient and wait on the answer because he will answer in his own time and way. even if it takes a lifetime, he will answer. anyways, it was a cool talk. I just wanted to share some hilights with you. i didn't really have time to proof read this so hopefully it all makes sense. k well i will talk to you later! have a good week and tell everyone I say hi and that I love them.


love

-Elder Henze"