MTC Week 6

By far the best week of my mission so far! It started last Friday with a pretty crazy experience. We were chosen as the "best" Chinese district and so we had the opportunity to host three Chinese Government Religion officials. They are here in the US studying Christian Religion and wanted to see what the Mormon Church does and how missionaries learn Chinese. We all introduced ourselves and it made me laugh because they were ALL filming us as we tried to speak Chinese, it was awesome! With the Three of them they brought like 6 others. I'm not technically sure who they all were but there were a lot of people. This was a huge deal, the MTC President was in our classroom along with two members of the Seventy. The coolest part of the experience was that I was in a room with like 9 Chinese people who I couldn't understand, but I felt the spirit. I hope they did as well because this could be a big thing for the Church. Who knows maybe missionaries in China are a lot closer than we think.

Conference was amazing. It was so cool to watch with so many missionaries and the spirit was so strong. I love how much the speakers focused on Jesus Christ, the Atonement, and the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland's quote that was used a couple times really hit me hard: "We cannot sink lower than the Atonement's light can shine." It so important for us as missionaries to help people realize that however far off the path they think they are, their Heavenly Father is always willing to help us all return to him, it's just a matter of us reaching out towards him. Since I've been here and during the talks I realized how important the Book of Mormon is in helping people realize the importance of the church. Elder LeGrand R Curtis Jr.'s talk was powerful, as he told many stories of people being converted through discovering a Book of Mormon. Gary E. Stevenson talked about the Book of Mormon truly being another testament of Jesus Christ. The Lord is mentioned in 1 out of every 1.7 verses, which blew me away. One of my favorite quotes "As we look to the Book of Mormon, We look to the Lord."

One of the best stories from the week: A man in my ward, Will Thomas, who is in the tabernacle choir emailed me this past week, he talked about how my mission and how they were preparing for conference. He told me about the final song "Let us all press on". When I saw him on the screen the spirit hit me soo strong and it brought tears to my eyes. The words have brought a totally different meaning to that song for me. I went into that last song looking for him the entire time, the words hit me so powerfully and i started to cry. about 3/4 through the song I hadn't seen him yet, but as the choir sang the last line of the song, He got a complete close up. The spirit hit me so strong, I know for a fact it wasn't a coincidence that the camera was on him that last line, because the spirit needed to testify to me of the importance of this work and he did it through him.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and help people realize they have a Heavenly Father who loves them. I know this is the best thing for me to be doing with my life right now.

Thanks for all the prayers and support! Until next week!

Elder Henderson

Link to Let us all press on from Sunday Conference. Final shot is of our Dear Friend Will Thomas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-o212ben4

The first 4 pictures are friends who went into the field this week! All Chinese speaking but serving in the US.