¡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.

Monday, December 13, 2010

TRAINER

Hey everyone!
I´m still doing well here in good ol Oaxaca Mexico. things are rolling along well and I´m healthy and happy :) so this week is the beginning of a new change! all the last 3 weeks they were telling us there weren´t going to be changes this time because of the choir thing and whatever else, but that was only true for most of the mission. I received a change though! Elder Alcantar got sent to Juchitan which is over by the coast somewhere and i´m going to be training a greenie! His name is Elder Martinez (odd name for a Mexican... haha) and he is getting situated with paperwork right now in the offices and they´re gonna send him to me in my same area Antequera sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. I´m pumped but equally nervous. I don´t really feel ready to be training right now but apparently the Lord thinks I am so I´m just gonna put my trust in him and do my best and see what we can get accomplished! So thats my big news for this week! I always knew I´d be training at some point in the mission but I had no idea it would be this soon! It should be cool though. I´m just gonna set the best example for him that I can and teach him everything I know and help him to get a good jumpstart in his mission. we´ve got a baptism coming up soon depending on the health of Hugo. He´s pumped to get baptized but the poor guy is having all kinds of health troubles. no doubt Satan is capitalizing on his situation to make it harder for him. but thats how it goes. He´ll follow through I know it. other than that we´ve got 4 others on date but we´re going to have to put new dates because they wont come to church! oh well. patience.

I was able to learn a lot from my change with Alcantar. He had some strengths that I was able to learn from and dealing with his weaknesses with the help of the lord helped me shave off a few of my rougher edges. I´m a better person because of the time I spent being his companion. The mission is extremely unique in that you can learn SOO much in so little time. its like intensive training for life. I´m learning more about myself, the world, the gospel, relationships, and all kinds of other skills that would be hard to acquire without an experience like this. and all the while i´m able to bring other people to the path to salvation. I´m definitely grateful for this opportunity. I know the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the most important book for us that exists. God is our father and has a plan for all of us and thanks to Christ that plan can now be realized. It´s our responsibility to do our part though, and if we do our Heavenly Father has promised us Eternal Live. not just living forever, but living in his presence and experiencing more happiness and peace than we can even begin to imagine here.

one example I like to use to help people prioritize a little more is that if someone wants a car, what are they willing to do to get it? many dedicate the better part of their lives to a job for a time and live without certain things that hold them back from achieving their goal, and on and on. well, if they´re so willing to do all that for a car that only brings a few years of cheap happiness and someday will return to be dust, how much more should we devote our lives around the teachings of the gospel and strive to achieve Eternal Life with the Father and our families which is true happiness and never ends... I think if people only knew what they were throwing away every time the distance themselves from God there would be a LOT less crap in the world and a LOT more valiant people. unfortunately that takes away the need for faith and in result takes away our agency a bit which God will never do so the general public will never see that there´s more beyond what the material world has to offer. I´d like to invite you all to try to imagine the celestial kingdom as vividly as possible. when we have a vision in mind it is worlds easier to focus on achieving goals.

anyways, I gotta go but I hope you all are doing GREAT! I wish you all a very merry Christmas season!

Love,
Elder Spencer Henze

Christmas tree (below)




(pic above) "Apparently right now is the fiesta of the virgin Juquila. they make giant paper mache people and walk around in parades with marching bands who were never trained in music and women carrying flowers with really concerned looks on their faces. then there's always the mezcal man who cruises around the parade distributing mezcal (extremely strong tequila) to underage people. and sometimes they hand out sandwiches." -Elder Henze