¡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, January 2, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! IT'S 2012!


Hello!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! IT'S 2012!
its me again! wow these weeks are going by fast. I feel kinda like I was just here writing you guys like yesterday. Quite the change from the beginning of the mission where I felt like monday couldn't come fast enough.
This week was kinda crazy with the changes and the holidays. The first few days we were waiting for the new gringos to arrive and hosting an elder in our house and running him around to wherever he needed to be and Friday we did a cool zone meeting. We did a sweet activity with flour and building pyramids out of styrofoam cups. It turned out to be pretty fun and i think the Elders and sisters enjoyed it quite a bit.
During the later part of the week everyone started leaving the state and going to Mexico City or some place in the North of the country for the new year because new years eve here is a bigger deal than Chritmas. The area in a lot of spots looked like a ghost town and there was much less transportaion available. Due to all these things its been pretty tough to accomplish anything but knocking doors. we did, however, find a cool guy named Miguel while doing so! I contacted him and he let us in! ...this is the second time we've gotten in the door of someone's house in my entire experience here... this is a big deal. So we went in and taught one of the best lessons i've taught for a while with respect to the organization, the orchestration of participation between companions and the investigator, the presence of the spirit, etc. I felt so good afterward! I'm really excited to keep working with him this week. oh, and in the lesson something happened that has happened several times before but i wanted to mention it. During the lesson one of the main doubts/questions that Miguel had was about "saints" and why we refered to ourselves as such and all that. Well it turns out that was a topic I had just studied that very morning! so I had the answer right there ready for him with examples from the new testament where Jesus refers to his followers as "the saints" and explained that  there is no record of "saints" as the catholics believe them to be in the scriptures. But the point is that the spirit guided me to study that topic that very morning just like he has done several other times throughout my mission. D&C 100:6
For new years eve we went to eat with the same family we went with for christmas. They were nice enough to invite us over again! The food was delicious! It was a good time. We then went home and waited for the fireworks to go off at midnight. Last year I went to bed and totally missed the show so this year I decided to check out the Oaxacan new year :D it was pretty cool. I bought a couple sparklers for us. ...pretty extreme. We fit in quite nicely with the display haha. 
well, I think thats about all from this week. My time here is tickin' down quick. I've only got 2.5 months left! i'm going to do all I can to make them the best ones yet. 
As always thank you soooo much for your love and support. You are the best :)
Love,
Elder Spencer Henze