Week 5 at the MTC

Another great week at the MTC! It's been pretty sad, we said goodbye to Brother Hay this week, but got an awesome teacher to replace him. I'm excited for the new adventure with this teacher! Time is definitely starting to speed up which is nice.  Only have 4 weeks left here and I couldn't be more excited to get to Taiwan!  Class sometimes gets old but feeling the spirit everyday NEVER gets old!  

We had a pretty funny experience this week,  Me and my comps were teaching about the Holy Ghost and what it can do for us.  So the word for peace and fat are super close: So instead of saying "The Holy Ghost helps you feel peace" he said "The Holy Ghost helps you feel fat"  Our investigator starting laughing really hard and then we all realized the mistake and busted out laughing.  Atleast it was here and not in the field. haha but I know there will be plenty more of those kinds of stories to come.

The language is still pretty rough but I'm making progress.  I have started to make huge and almost impossible goals to accomplish in my language study, which has really helped me work a lot harder to try and achieve the goals.

Last night we heard from Elder Schwitzer of the 70.  He gave kind of a different than normal talk to us.  He talked about Commandments.  I have always thought of commandments as rules for us to follow because God tells us to.  But no, commandments are given to us so we can show our love and respect to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and create a stronger relationship with them.  Everyone of the ten commandments relates back to either our relationship with God, our Parents, or Others.  And by following them we truly become disciples of Christ.  If you are looking to develop a Christlike Attribute, choose a commandment to follow that goes along with the Characteristic and actively try to keep it.

I think this is the most excited I have ever been for Conference, in the past I have usually taken for granted the opportunity that we get to hear from REAL prophets who are called of God to guide our church today.  It really is an incredible experience and I hope you all get to watch at least some of it!  Sadly, I am not in the MTC choir that is performing at the Saturday Afternoon Session of conference but I do have a ton of friends that are in it so make sure to watch!!

I heard a story this week that hit me with the spirit so strong.  One day in a small farm town, there was a Father reading the news paper in his house.  He got the impression to put down the paper and run out into his backyard.  After ignoring it a couple times, it hit him hard again. So he put down the paper and ran into his backyard, as he ran to the backyard he had the impression to run into the orchard, as he ran into the orchard he saw one of his horses running by.  He had the impression to run after the horse, he took an angle and grabbed onto the horse, as he did, he saw his 6 year old son, Elder Bruce R. Mcconkie being dragged to his death.  He settled the horse down and saved his sons life.

If he would have not listened to the prompting of the spirit he would have lost his son and the Church would have never had this great Apostle.  Remember to always listen to the promptings of the spirit because they are real!!

Thanks for all the love and support

Love,

Elder Henderson

Week 4 at the MTC

1 Month!!! In a couple days will be my 1 month mark and I can't believe it, it's flying by!! The MTC is still pretty good.  This past week, has been a good one! Nothing too special but learned a lot! Chinese is still difficult but getting better.  

This past Sunday I was made district leader, which has been fun so far.  I'm excited for this opportunity in the upcoming weeks! It's been going good so far and I feel like I can help the district out. I'm pretty pumped, I get to go pick up the mail so I'm the first one to see who got dear elders or packages! 

We have been ballin hard in Soccer and Basketball these past couple weeks and luckily no more injuries. ha,ha

We go into our lessons with a plan in our heads and basically say whatever the spirit tells us. I have never felt so confident in my Chinese so that is good. It comes so naturally when I'm bearing my testimony. It's so cool. All my teachers and the branch president are so awesome. I'm so sad my favorite teacher Thadius Hay from Herriman is getting another job with a Chinese company and tomorrow is his last day. he is amazing!!

Last night we heard from L. Whitney Clayton, who is in the 70 presidency.  It was really good, he talked about us realizing the strength of our position.  Out of all the churches on the Earth, we are the only one with an answer to every question.  Most other church's have grey areas where it is up for grabs. In a quote from President Hinckley, He says our religion is either true or not.  Find out for yourself.  I feel like that's a testimony in itself for the Prophet of the Lord to say that with that much confidence.  He knows it is true and he knows if you truly ask with real intent you will receive an answer for yourself.

This is the MTC so not a lot of exciting stuff happens here haha so sorry for the short email!

I want to tell the Hayden Brown family Thank you for the packages, you are awesome!! Can't wait to see you Hayd in a couple weeks!

Love you all thanks for the love and support!!

1. Chinese Mean Muggin

2. Missions

3. What we do for fun at lunch

4. View from the Temple today

Week 3 at the MTC

Another awesome week at the MTC!! It's been pretty crazy though, an Elder in my District went home this week.  It was really sad to see him go.  So I am now in a Trio, which has definitely been an adjustment.  My new comps name is Jace Miller from American Fork, Utah and played rugby last year at Air Force.  He's a cool dude. 

I'm starting to realize how hard this language actually is. haha The Chinese language sentence structure and the tones are unbelievably hard.  One word has four meaning and depending on the tones you use they are four completely different words.  But the challenge makes the MTC interesting and it's going to be sick when I can speak this crazy language. haha

We have been spoiled at the MTC the passed couple weeks,  three Apostles!!!  Sunday night, M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us.  It was powerful, he talked about having enthusiasm in your call and to remember you only have 2 years, so make the most of it.  It really hit me because 2 years in a lot of ways seems like a long time, but looking at it compared to a lifetime, it is just a small section.  I need to take advantage of the time the Lord has given to me to do this and take advantage of it!  It's been such a blessing to be doing this,  my testimony has already grown so much and I can't wait to keep working hard.  The MTC is definitely a grind haha, you just got to make it through this and then the real fun comes, so I've heard.

Then last night, Quentin L. Cook spoke to us, it was awesome!! I felt like he was talking directly to me.  He talked about the 4 love's missionaries need to have:

1.Love for your companion- There is a reason you are with them and you can learn a lot from their example.

2.Love the People- Respect them and their traditions, cultures, and food.  Want to become a Taiwanese person!!!

3.Love your Mission President- It was interesting, he said a lot of mission calls are assigned based on how they think the Mission President can help the Elder or Sister.

4.Love the Savior-The most important one, without love for the Savior, there is no reason to serve him.  He is the reason we're here and through him we can all come close to our Heavenly Father.  Missionaries serve to help people realize that Jesus Christ, Atoned for THEIR sins, EVERYONE'S! Not just the popular, or the rich, or successful, but everyone who has ever walked this earth! It such a powerful message we have and it saves lives, I'm so grateful I get to share it with the people of Taiwan.

I've tried hard this week to know the doctrine, they've stressed to us to know it in English first before knowing it in Chinese, so I've been trying to study Preach my Gospel, I feel like its helping.

So me and my comps have gotten really close with this district who is going to Hong Kong, there classroom is right next to ours.  And they're all from the UK!! They are so funny to listen to and we play soccer with them all 

the time! I'll send a pic of us in the next couple weeks.  There is also an Elder from Papau New Guinea we've been doing stuff with, he's really cool!

Thanks for all the love and support! Love you all!

1.The Trio-My new comp Elder Miller and Elder Harms

2. Elder's Boud and Campbell-Good luck in Singapore and Nicaragua!

3.See you in 2 Elder SchyShoe good luck in Madagascar!

4. "Swag Tags" we got yesterday

5.Elder's Packer and Boud

6.Taichung Bro's. Elder's Nelson, Miller, Call.  Me and Call will see each other in 6 weeks!!

7. Some of my favorite Elder's in the Zone

Week 3 at the MTC

Another awesome week at the MTC!! It's been pretty crazy though, an Elder in my District went home this week.  It was really sad to see him go.  So I am now in a Trio, which has definitely been an adjustment.  My new comps name is Jace Miller from American Fork, Utah and played rugby last year at Air Force.  He's a cool dude. 

I'm starting to realize how hard this language actually is. haha The Chinese language sentence structure and the tones are unbelievably hard.  One word has four meaning and depending on the tones you use they are four completely different words.  But the challenge makes the MTC interesting and it's going to be sick when I can speak this crazy language. haha

We have been spoiled at the MTC the passed couple weeks,  three Apostles!!!  Sunday night, M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us.  It was powerful, he talked about having enthusiasm in your call and to remember you only have 2 years, so make the most of it.  It really hit me because 2 years in a lot of ways seems like a long time, but looking at it compared to a lifetime, it is just a small section.  I need to take advantage of the time the Lord has given to me to do this and take advantage of it!  It's been such a blessing to be doing this,  my testimony has already grown so much and I can't wait to keep working hard.  The MTC is definitely a grind haha, you just got to make it through this and then the real fun comes, so I've heard.

Then last night, Quentin L. Cook spoke to us, it was awesome!! I felt like he was talking directly to me.  He talked about the 4 love's missionaries need to have:

1.Love for your companion- There is a reason you are with them and you can learn a lot from their example.

2.Love the People- Respect them and their traditions, cultures, and food.  Want to become a Taiwanese person!!!

3.Love your Mission President- It was interesting, he said a lot of mission calls are assigned based on how they think the Mission President can help the Elder or Sister.

4.Love the Savior-The most important one, without love for the Savior, there is no reason to serve him.  He is the reason we're here and through him we can all come close to our Heavenly Father.  Missionaries serve to help people realize that Jesus Christ, Atoned for THEIR sins, EVERYONE'S! Not just the popular, or the rich, or successful, but everyone who has ever walked this earth! It such a powerful message we have and it saves lives, I'm so grateful I get to share it with the people of Taiwan.

I've tried hard this week to know the doctrine, they've stressed to us to know it in English first before knowing it in Chinese, so I've been trying to study Preach my Gospel, I feel like its helping.

So me and my comps have gotten really close with this district who is going to Hong Kong, there classroom is right next to ours.  And they're all from the UK!! They are so funny to listen to and we play soccer with them all 

the time! I'll send a pic of us in the next couple weeks.  There is also an Elder from Papau New Guinea we've been doing stuff with, he's really cool!

Thanks for all the love and support! Love you all!

1.The Trio-My new comp Elder Miller and Elder Harms

2. Elder's Boud and Campbell-Good luck in Singapore and Nicaragua!

3.See you in 2 Elder SchyShoe good luck in Madagascar!

4. "Swag Tags" we got yesterday

5.Elder's Packer and Boud

6.Taichung Bro's. Elder's Nelson, Miller, Call.  Me and Call will see each other in 6 weeks!!

7. Some of my favorite Elder's in the Zone

Week 2 at the MTC

Hey there,

I'm not going to lie week 2 at the MTC was way better than week 1.  We started off last Thursday with my companion taking an elbow in a basketball game and having to go to the emergency room and get stitches.  Haha I got to ride in a car and see a TV!! I feel like such a rebel haha.  I'm loving it here and couldn't think of a better way to be spending my time.

This last Sunday, Chad Lewis who played football for BYU and then in the NFL came and spoke to us.  Turns out he went to my mission!! It pumped me up so much, he showed a ton of pics and shared a bunch of stories about his time in Taichung, Taiwan.  He talked about how we shouldn't let anything get in the way of our work.  We are only missionaries for two years and we need to take advantage of that time.  It was a really cool talk.  Afterwords, we watched a fairly new Joseph Smith movie going through the story of his life,  through the eyes of someone reading about him.  The spirit was so strong and it was such a testimony builder for me.  All I could think about during the movie is that there would have not been that much persecution if the work they were doing wasn't true.  Just that to me, is a testimony builder.  So if you haven't seen it, go watch it!!

We have taught I think like 7 or 8 lessons now in full Chinese and I can tell you that it is getting a lot easier to understand and i'm talking a lot more.  Even though this is such a hard language to learn, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do this. 

My teachers are so amazing and I have learned so much about not just knowing the doctrine and the language, but using the spirit to teach people.  David A. Bednar "The best missionary is one who get's out of the way, and let's the spirit teach" and that is what I am trying to do, teach by the spirit not lessons.

Yesterday D. Todd Christopherson came and spoke to us.  I have never had my testimony of prophets strengthened so much.  As he walked into the room tears came to my eyes and I felt the spirit so strong.  These men are truly called of God.  He taught us about how we need to teach repentance, it does no good to teach somebody about the gospel if they cannot relate to it.  We as missionaries need to teach in a way where we can help them relate and truly feel the need for the gospel in their lives.  And it has definitely helped me to realized that I need this too, I need to be truly converted if I want to be able to teach the people of Taiwan through the spirit.  It is a powerful tool and it is changing the world.

I'm so grateful I get to be apart of this amazing work being done across the world,  it truly is an amazing time to be apart of the only true church on the earth.  Get down on your knees and pray for yourself to know if you are truly converted.  Do you live this gospel?  In the bible when Jesus appears to Peter and his disciples after the crucifixion he asks him three times, do you love me?  I truly believe when we get to heaven, God will ask us, Did you love me?  Did you show your love to God through your actions on Earth?

Love you all and have a good week! ​​

Elder Henderson

Pic 1 - Elders Serassio and Henderson

Pic 2 - The District

Pic 3 - Elders Packer, Boud and Henderson

Pic 4 - Elders Henderson and SchyShoe

Pic 5 - Elders Hunt, Call, Henderson and Harms

Pic 6 - Selfie with the Fast Sunday tie Mikey, Sam, Bubba and his dad wear

Pic 7 - Elder Henderson with Elder and Sister Johnson. He was so excited to see them.