Shoutout to My BOY Tan!!!!!

 Happy Birthday Tanner. I'm sure it will be a great one. Sounds like everyone is just partying like crazy down in Mexico, over in Japan, Cali, or at grandma's. We will be throwing a party for you Tanner out in Minnesota on the 28th but sadly mission rules says your not invited. I'll send pics though. 

     Because of the occasion, I think a tribute speech is in order.

  It's been 19 years of fun that's for sure Tan-Man. Here are a few of my favorite memories. 

1. When we started jumping on our beds and yours broke.

2. Making homemade fireworks out of Piccalo Petes. To bad they put a stop to those.

3. When you sang hey Mambo, Mambo Italiano like 30 million times when we went golfing.

4. The word run on game introduce by Jimmy Ferrel.

5. When you teed my golf ball up on the green and then hit it with your driver so I stuck a tee under your golfcart tire and popped it. Probably the funniest thing I have ever seen.

6. The Ute games. 

7. Getting my wisdom teeth out and having you talk to me about America. That ones a little fuzzy but the video is hilarious. Only a true bro would do that.

8. Going boating.

9. Swapping stories.

10. That one time we went to church with the Foggs. Truly unforgettable. 

     Well love ya tons and hope you have a super awesome week this week. Happy birthday Libby and James. I will write an e'mail for y'all next week. 

                              Love,

                                  Elder Henrie

Another Wild One

     I think I say this every week, but it was another wild one. Elder Morrow and I have been on the bikes this last week and Minneapolis got crazy. Once it gets warm everybody comes out and you see some stuff that makes you say , "Never thought I'd see that."

     Things are going really well though and we have had a lot of success and cool miracles. Probably one of my favorite so far on my mission happened yesterday. When Elder Hardy and I were out in Eau Claire together over a year ago we taught a 21 year old girl named Nalee. She was super cool and wanted to accept the gospel for super long but couldn't bring herself to be baptized. Long story short after learning from the missionaries for the past year in Eau Claire she moved up to Minneapolis this last week and we got in contact with her on Saturday. She told us that she wanted to go to Stake Conference on Sunday so we said we'd meet her there. 5 minutes before it started she sent us a text that said she wasn't going to make it but when we walked in she was there and started laughing at us. (She got us pretty good.) After the meeting she walked up and was like, "So, I want to be baptized when can I do it." So we set a date for March 28th which is 3 days before Elder Hardy goes home. I tried to keep a strait face when she said that but the fact that my brain had exploded might have shown. Also Elder Hardy and I ran and gave each other a huge chest bump. Super Cool miracle.

     The fam is doing great and is just saving up for their marriage license. We have been doing some pooling and they might have enough by next Saturday but we will have to wait and see and just keep praying. Also K is doing solid and has some great friends in the branch now. He has come to church the past 4 weeks and loves what we teach. We are going over tonight and are planning to set a date for April 11th.

     Glad that you and dad have a chance to party down in Mexico. Yes it is 40 degrees here but that doesn't stop me from busting out my Hawaiin shirt for our frisbee golf game this afternoon. Anyways peace and love and stay solid.

Pics

#1. Bike time

#2. Biked seven miles one handed to drop off a cake. #dilligence
#3. Couples Pic

World War 3

I've got sad news everybody. This week is my Sister Mark  :'(    

         Well this last week was just about as wild as that one time Tanner and I road flying Great White Sharks into that volcano in Hawaii with dynamite strapped to our chests.

     Thursday night Elder Morrow and I finished our scripture study class and we both felt like we needed to go visit the family of 7 that was planning to get married this Friday and we are glad we did. The first thing that the wife said when we went in the house is that she was getting a divorce and taking all the kids. (Since this isn't my first rodeo with this sort of thing it didn't suprise me as much as it probably should have.) My companion kind of went into shock for a bit but he leveled out after a few minutes. I told all the kids to go upstairs and then we began... What followed was basically World War 3 condensed into 2 and a half hours of the most intense marriage counseling know to mankind. To make a long story short by the end the both of them were praying together and were both apologizing so I consider it a success. They moved the wedding a few weeks back because of all the stress which is fine by me because after that I don't know if I had it in me to plan a wedding in two days. 

     They all came to church this Sunday as well and it was one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings on my mission. Usually during fast Sunday all the grandmas get up and start sharing about the journey in Laos which is pretty cool but I've heard it 14 times. During sacrament there was the coolest testimonies born, even P the non-member I taught in St.Paul got up and dropped a Spirit Bomb on the whole congregation. She talked about how bad she wanted to get baptized and how lucky all the members were that they got to make covenants with Heavenly Father. Really cool for our investigators to hear.

      Last highlight of the week is that this guy K that we have been teaching, (who before we started teaching knew nothing about Jesus Christ,) is progressing super well and has come to church a couple times now. It is always awesome to teach people who don't know God and watch them grow. 

                                                     -Elder Henrie

I Am Pumped

    I love weddings and we have another one coming up this week for the family of 7 that we are teaching. We had to move their baptism to March 14th because the wife found a job and the husband is going back to school so the only time they are available to be married is this Saturday. I am pumped. Also their son Kobe passed the first round on the Voice tryout. He is doing another audition Wednesday and then if he passes that he gets flown out to Hollywood to try out in front of the judges and will be on tv and stuff. I told him that when he makes it big he shouldn't forget his roots. A.K.A. me. 

    Their life has changed so much since we met them. The husband was in depression and their family was struggling big time financially and now he is going to school and she got a full time job. People often ask how can we believe what we can't see. Well I saw this family do a complete 180 and that is proof enough for me that the Word of God really does have a more powerful effect on people than anything else.

     Yes it is freezing cold up here but I'm use to it by now. Yesterday we had a way funny experience. We knocked on a door when it was -9 and this lady opened it for a second and she said, "It's way to cold for you to be outside, go someplace else." In my head I'm thinking, your right it is really cold, maybe you could let us in. But then we found some super cool lady walking with her kid to the car outside and so it ended well.

     Dad, I forgot to mention this about the cold. So it turns out are apartment has this thing called Radiant Heat. Which means all the heat for the house comes from your pipes and not your vents (Or in other words, our apartment is ghetto.) and I'm sure in theory it works great but when the pipes freeze it really does you no good. So yes, I am cold every day from 6:30-10:30. I'm sure it is preparing me to climb Everest or something like that though so no complaints.

Mom:  I can't believe you met Todd Sylvester and that he went to Brighton. That is so cool. Go to LDS.org and go to mormon messages and watch Hope of God's Light. I love that video. Love you to mom and I'll be careful. Don't worry I've got all my Asian mafia friends to back me up.

A Short One

 Not much time this week but it is transfers this week and one of my sons Elder Yang is getting sent to Eastside with Elder Young. It was fun to have him for two weeks and I hope that he does well. I am glad Elder Morrow and I are still together as well because we have become great friends.

     The family we are teaching is doing good and things are going well.

Handsome Dragon

Great news everybody, in addition to the new baby in the fam, I also have another son. His name is Elder Yang and he is from California. He has such a great spirit and it has been fun to train him along with Elder Morrow. 

     We have been so blessed in our area lately and I know it is because of the faith of these two young elders. The family of 7 that we are teaching told us that they want to get legally married this next week and we are teaching them the word of wisdom tomorrow. Even though we haven't taught them it yet they already stopped drinking and said that they want to quit smoking now as well. They asked us this last Saturday to take out their Shaman alter and bless their house so also tomorrow we get to do that which is always a blast. This family has changed so much since we met them. In literally a month they went from not knowing anything about God and doing shamanism to being regular church goers who cook for the missionaries. :)   The only reason that they have made the changes that they have is because of prayer. They have seen so many miracles and it has been really humbling to witness. 

    One of the investigators we teach has this attitude of wanting proof or wanting us to compel him to believe. Yesterday I finally told him, It is great that you want us to give your answers and prove to you that what we teach is right but there is two problems with that, 1. I'm really not intelligent enough to do that. and 2. the source of all truth is God, so if you want to find these things out then get on your knees and start searching. It is such a comfort to know that in life's biggest decisions and in searching for life's answers, a simple prayer is all we need, with faith to act on our answer we receive. And if we have the two of those things this life not only becomes easier, but exciting and intriguing. How much better could it be then to tell someone, " Yeah, this morning I talked with the Creator of the entire universe about what I should do to find peace, and he told me this..." It really is so awesome.

     But I'm glad things are going well and congrats to J Dub and Jess on the baby. Please name him Nraug Zaj. (Which in English translates to Handsome Dragon.) Seriously if you name him that I will never ask for anything from the two of you again.

                                                          Love,

                                                             Your Favorite 4th Son

Something Pretty Awkward

 The good news is that Tanner and Misa aren't the only ones getting married. The parents of the family of 7 that we are teaching are currently just Hmong married but are planning to meet this next Sunday to talk to our branch president about getting legally married so it looks like everything is going well for all of them. The dad's grandma died this last week so they weren't able to make it to church but we doorbell ditched them and left them a note with some cookies. The Law of Chastity lesson that we taught them this last Thursday was probably the funniest thing ever. I almost started crying. Elder Morrow (bless his heart,) started off with ,"Today we're going to teach you about something pretty awkward." I started laughing because he was so nervous and after that he eased up and the lesson went great. 

      These past couple weeks, one of the coolest stories on my mission has been unfolding. Elder Morrow and I have been teaching a homeless guy named Vang. He has been coming to church for the past 5 weeks and really wants to change his life but feels like he is just stuck in a rut. The one thing keeping him back from baptism has been smoking since he has been smoking since he was 8 years old. Before we began teaching him, he was an atheist, thought God was a joke, and told us that he knew without a doubt that there was nothing after this life. After his prayers, reading the scriptures, coming to church, and several priesthood blessings, he has changed so much. You can see it on his face. We invited him this last week to pick his own baptism date and he picked Feb. 17th. It was so crazy when he chose that. It is super soon but just yesterday, Vang gave up smoking for good. Boom! So awesome. 

      Also, our investigator Mong and his wife Nag came to church yesterday. After sacrament our branch president invited them to meet with them in his office and they apparently had a great talk so it's looking good for him as well. 

       All is well here and best wishes to Tanner and Misa. Looks like it was a great wedding. Tsuas yog kuv tsis nrog nej sawv daws nyob xwb. :)

Sorry it's kind of hard to set aside time to think about school stuff. I will be doing block classes this fall. It means you start halfway through the semester and still get all the credits you just go to school twice as much. I thought about it and felt that if I come home early to start in September then I will feel I did not finish all that I set out to do. Call the mission office if you have questions.

That's All I Ask

It's been in the upper thirties and even got up to 40 this last week so Elder Morrow and I busted out the short sleeves again and did a ton of biking. Also we have seen the sun for more than 4 hours every day so it's pretty great up north. That is sweet about all the people receiving mission calls. Super pumped for them all. Also if you see President Clements tell him that I am grateful for what he did and I can still answer yes to Alma 5:26. 

     Dad, the baptism that we have planned for the 21st is actually in Feb not this month but yeah it is going well. Also super good news about that family of 7 that we met. They were supposed to go out to Chicago to take their son to America's got talent because he is a boss at singing but there car wasn't working and so this week they came to church. At the end of church they walked up and said, "Yeah we love it here and we'll be coming every Sunday from now on." Boom super cool. They have had such great fellowship from the members and so that has been really neat to see. This week we set a date for all of them on Feb 28th so pray hard for that one.

      On Saturday we had the annual Elders Quorum Activity of going ice fishing and it was so much fun. We had some investigators and less actives that we have working with come and the good part was that they showed up at church yesterday too. We played football on the ice and it was so intense. The ice was super thick but all the snow was cleared off so you could see through to the water. Crazy stuff.\

     Glad things are going well and that Tanner's interview went well. Have tons of fun at the wedding and J Dub, you totally need to pull the SuperDuperWallyWooperAlleyOoperBounce on the dance floor as tribute to me. That's all I ask. Thanks everyone for your letters. Peace

                                                                   -Elder Henrie

Me with a huge machine thingy!

The crew!

Whatup

Whatup Whatup happy Monday y'all. Things were crazy this last week AND we saw a ton of miracles. Mong and his wife Nag are still doing awesome and arre planning on being baptized on the 21st still so all is good. 

    Taught a man named Vang with our branch president on Saturday and it was one of the most spirtual lessons on my mission. We have taught him for about 5 weeks now and he has been struggling with the word of wisdom but has been coming to church and keeping his other committments. He is currently homeless but is a super cool guy. We taught him and flames were flying and the Spirit was dropping bombs left and right and finally our branch president gave Vang a blessing. At the end of the blessing Vang just sat there quitely and then started to cry so I asked him,"What did God just tell you?" Then he said, "I'm not sure, but I know God's love is real." Super awesome moment in this man's life and hopefully it gives him the motivation he needs to quit smoking. 

      Also we were knocking doors this week and we found a family of 7 that is looking for a church and is pretty much the coolest family in the whole world. They keep all their committments and do everything we say so that really helps. We are planning to set a date for them this Tuesday so pray hard for that one. But gotta go. Toodles

Shoutout to the Amachers for getting a mission call!!!! Good luck Tanner and Misa

I Saw A Ton Of Miracles

Fist of all, Happy Birthday to the classiest mom this world has to offer. In light of the last 19 years of you being my mother, I wrote you this poem

                                              Dear Mom

                                     You truly are the bomb

                      You wiped my boogers and picked up my socks

                      Even dragged me out of bed well past 12 o'clock.

                    Words can't describe your cooking it's tremendous

                             By golly mom I think your stupendous

                         Ya done taught me well and told me the way

                       To be a good little lad and my respects I must pay

                          Your the best in the world oh mother dear.

                   Best luck to your goals and dreams in this your 35th year

       

    This week was awesome and Elder Morrow and I saw a ton of miracles. He is doing awesome and picking up all the stuff he needs to do way fast which is nice. Me and him really get along and he actually went to the same school as Bray back in Heber which is cool.

     We have been teaching this guy named Mong for the past two weeks and his wife Nag (That's literally how you spell it in Hmong. Hilarious I know) and they finally made a huge breakthrough. Mong was raised going to church and has struggled to find out if Joseph Smith is a prophet or not. We took him on a church tour and took one of the priests from the branch teaching with us. Before we took him into the chapel the priest challenged Mong to read the first vision to himself and then to pray and ask God about it. We all sat in silence for about three minutes and then he turns to us and says, "So when I read the words, I felt really good. When I prayed about if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if this was the only church that is true on the earth I felt really good again. Then I started to think about all the reasons that I couldn't join the church and that feeling went away."

     We had him read Moroni 10:5 and then invited him to be baptized. He said yes and then added that he wanted to have his wife baptized as well. The best part though was when he said that he didn't know if he would be baptized that night, the next day, or in a month, or even next year. We were sitting there in silence and then I started nudging Elder Morrow's knee (guess I forgot to tell him about setting dates, whoops) and then Elder Morrow comitted him to the 21st of Feb. Super excited for him and his fam.

     But love ya all and happy marriage to Tanner and Misa and Happy B-Day mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      

Pic: Selfie for mom     

          

Happy New Year

  We had transfers this past week and I know have my first son. Elder Morrow. He is an absolute stud. He is from Utah and used to go to Wasatch high school. He loves basketball, football, and pretty much every other sport. I am super excited to have him. He works hard and he wants to be here so it will be awesome to get to train him. It's a lot different than what I'm used having a brand new companion but it is really fun too. He has a ton of faith which has been really good for our investigators and for myself too. 

     On one of the first nights that he got here we had a really fun experience. We went to stop at a gas station because Elder Gardiner had to go and while Elder Morrow and I were waiting this Hmong guy walked in and he was shivering because it was so cold and he had a coat that was super thin. We started talking to him and found out that he is from Laos and has only been here for 3 months. He has two young babies and a young wife. Right now he doesn't have work and he is just living with Hmong people that he meets while walking around and then they kick him out after a little while and then he goes and find somebody else to live with. As I was talking with him I just felt the Spirit so strong and was filled for so much love for the man. I told him that I wasn't letting him leave the gas station unless he traded me coats first. He said no at first and then I told him that we had like 5 extras back at our appartment. So he traded me coats and then my companion gave him his hat. He put them on and had a smile from ear to ear. He just kept saying thank you over and over. He was so grateful for what we had done that honestly I almost started cying because I realized how lucky I have it and how hard some others do. While all this was going on a couple of guys were yelling at the cashier because he couldn't understand what they were saying (for some reason they thaught that would help,) because he was behind a glass window. Looking back on it I realized how different my life was from those guys who were around my age. Even though we were in the same gas station only a few feet apart and nearly the same age, I was standing there feeling as happy as I ever could feeling the Spirit while they were getting frustrated at a cashier because he couldn't understand what flavor of Swisher Sweets they wanted to smoke. It is amazing the difference that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will make in our life. So get out there and start living it this next year, there is nothing greater or more fun, then living life as a disciple of Christ. Love y'all and have a happy New Year.