奇蹟 （MIRACLES ）

Pingdong is awesome! I just came from Jiayi who has 45-50 members at church every week, Pingdong averages between 105-115. It is amazing to see this ward work. 

To start off, Sister Guo up in Jiayi got baptized on friday!!! She is soo great and has such a strong testimony.  Right before I left last week, she told us that over the past year or so she has felt the need for a religion very badly in her life. She went to a different Christian denomination's middle and high school. So as she started to have this desire to go to church, she immediately to Christianity and went to many different churches in Jiayi and Tainan.  She explained to us that although she felt the need for Christ in her life she felt unsettled at each of the different churches.  This led her to pray and plead with God to help her find the truth.  As she fervently prayed she told us that she remembered two missionaries that she talked to in the park about a year ago, they told her of the restoration of the gospel and English class! She didn't know why, but said she knew she had to back to this English class, and that is where we met her! From the beginning you could tell she was very prepared to accept the Gospel.

This week I was able to go back to Chaozhou, one of my previous areas, on exchanges!  It was super fun to be back and see some of the members! I went with Elder Wu from Taipei. The best part of the exchange was that we were able to meet with one of the Investigators that Elder Sano and I started teaching while I was there. His name is Mikey 😃and is from the solomon islands. Since I left they have only been able to meet with him 4 or 5 times because his mom passed away about a month and a half ago so he spent a while back visiting home. Definitely a miracle we got to meet with him. During the lesson He told us that he reads the Book of Mormon every single day and literally can't go to sleep at night with out reading. He loves it and specifically told us that it has brought a light and hope into his life that he has found no where else. He believes it is the word of God and has a strong testimony of Christ. He expressed the sorrow that he felt for his mom, the member that came to the lesson with us also went through losing his mom 4 or 5 months ago and bore powerful testimony of eternal families and the importantance of ordinances performed that are found in the restored church. After the member spoke, we invited him to be baptized and without hesitation he accepted! It was a very special experience and his mom was definitely rooting for him on the other side! 

We spent a lot of time working with investigators and finding new ones! It's soo hot down here though! 

We have some super awesome investigators we're working with now, including 包家庭 (The Bao Family). Which is a Taiwanese Mom, dad, and 3 children. Super super humble and big desire to change. Last night we met and shared some commandments and sang "Families can be together forever" for them. They have a baptismal date set for the 26th of May! 

The work is going so well!

Love you all!

Elder Henderson 

何睿霆長老

My Comp, Elder Wightman

Train ride to pingdong

Biking down the street after some service

Nice stew

Going to do some service in the jungle

The other elders in our ward

You'll have to tell uncle Chris and that family that i am serving in the same ward as Elder Devon Potts, he used to be in their ward before it split. I met him a couple times up in Logan while visiting before our missions.  We have now shared 3 areas, and been in neighboring areas twice (served a very very similar mission) hahah, becoming a good pal of mine.

Went to Chaozhou for an exchange and got to see some friends!!

A few days after being transferred from Jiayi Sis. G was Baptised!! So happy for her!!

屏東！！

First off I want to congratulate my little bro Sam on getting his mission call to Salta, Argentina!!! Spanish definitely isn't as cool as Chinese but I guess it'll work hahah. 

I am so excited for him to be able to experience the happiness that comes from serving the Lord full time ：）

I made it to PD and I couldn't be more excited to be here! I love this part of the island and am very very grateful to be back. My new comp is Elder Wightman from California!

This week went well, tuesday we got a call from our bishop wanting us to go give priesthood blessing to a member's family member's husband who was in the hospital. We went over to the hospital and started talking to her, she told us that he had gotten sick very fast and it wasn't looking like it was going to turn out well. Right before the blessing, she walked up to her husband who was half conscience and just started to weep and talk to him about how hard it would be if the family lost him, through tears she told him that she couldn't raise the kids alone. To see how hard this was on the wife, to see how difficult this was for their family absolutely broke my heart.  At that point I really feel like I got a glimpse of how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father see us, they see us struggle, fall down and all they want to do is help! I had the biggest desire to help them, we both longed to teach them about the plan of salvation, we wanted them to be able to feel of the love, healing, and comfort that Christ brings! So at that point we gave him a priesthood blessing, the spirit was strong and I 100% believe that both of them felt the love of our Savior, they felt the comforting power that comes when priesthood is used to bless the sick and afflicted.  We hope that from this we can continue to help them learn about the plan of Salvation and the comforting truths it holds!

Sister G passed her baptismal interview and is ready for baptism on this upcoming Friday! Little sad I wont see it, but as long as she get's baptized I am good!  It has been so cool to see how much progression she has made since the day we met her. She really has gained a huge desire to be baptized and follow Christ, and that came from her reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day! Just another thing that has strengthened my testimony of how important it is to develop a personal relationship with God through scripture study and prayer.

Love you all, thanks for the love and support!

Elder Henderson

Wow! Argentina, that is soooooo awesome! You are going to do amazing things there, and i can't wait you to have this experience.  With out a doubt in my mind i know that August 7th is the day you need to leave on your mission, and August 29th is the day I need to go home.  Yeah it made be a minute, but the Lord is in charge! Something that has been going through my head recently that Brent Wright told me right before I left. "If i would have left one day earlier or one day later my mission would have been completely different.  He even knows the exact day that we need to go! IT'LL ALL WORK OUT:)) Couldn't be more proud of you Sam. and hope you remember that my third guess on the email i sent you last week said "Argentina Saltes something mission" hahahah Love you all!


The pictures are saying goodbye to Jiayi. Picture with Elder T and some members and a picture by the Church Building!

The Work is going Well!!

The work is going well here in Jiayi. Sister Guo is doing great! We shared with her some commandments this past week and she is preparing for her baptismal interview at the end of this week.  She is so awesome and really progressing. 

Ever since Elder Nelson's talk on personal revelation, I have studied it and have gained a bigger desire to help each of our investigators to know how to seek and receive personal revelation.  I now better understand this amazing principle and how it can really help these investigators develop a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father.  As I have studied it I also feel like I have been spiritually uplifted,  I have started to seek and receive more spiritual revelation than I ever have before!  As a companionship we have really tried to help each of the people we are teaching to better understand this principle and it has been awesome to see them make an extended effort to receive this revelation.

Thank you for the love and support!

Elder Henderson

                              Saw Elder Densley and some other missionaries at mission leadership council! 

Letter to the Priest Quorum

Dear Parkway 8th ward Priest Quorum,

I wanted to write this letter to all of you to let you know my feelings toward missionary work.

I know we are all in different situations and there are definitely many things that can get in the way of our service to the Lord, whether it be school, work, Family situation, girlfriend, feel not good enough, unworthy (just repent).  But I can tell you for me personally a mission was the best decision I could have ever made and I want to tell you a little bit why. I promise you that if you put the Lord first, He will take care of the rest and provide for your needs.

I can't completely describe all of my feelings towards the last 19 months of my life. But I will try to share a little bit. 

I did not understand the magnitude of a call to serve the Lord until I got into the field and started to experience it.  Without a doubt in my mind, I have felt that God is in charge of this and He is REAL. A mission has influenced my life for good more than anything I have ever done. I have learned to trust God, be obedient, love others, be responsible, be selfless, put the needs of others before mine, deal with/ work through problems/challenges, have unity with another person (companion), experience joy the way God prepared for us to, receive personal revelation, keep a budget, and use the priesthood to bless others, to name a few things!

The mission life consists of waking up at 6:30 am. Planning for your days events and in particular specific people that you are going to help that day better understand the gospel that brings light and hope into lives. Study the Gospel to help others. Going out, serving others, sharing the gospel with others, and always putting the needs of others before yourself. Sometimes it is not always easy but it really is a lot of fun.  All of it is centered around others!

To be honest, my weaknesses have been exposed, at times I have felt not good enough to the point of tears, I have felt I can't keep going, I have felt sorrow when people reject or choose to not accept the happiness that the Gospel brings. And I am sure each of you will have these feelings at some point in the field, but it is all for our gain and benefit.  I am convinced that it is to help us better understand what Christ did. Obviously He felt this to an incomprehensible level but through struggles we can better appreciate the love He has for us. Another reason we go through struggles, I believe, is to not only feel the lows sometimes, but to feel the highest of all highs.  I have experience more satisfying joy on my mission than I have anywhere else in my life! 

Yesterday I was able to give a baptismal interview to an 11 little girl, that reminded me sooo much of my little sister Mali.  During the interview she told me she wants to get baptized because she knows that Heavenly Father exists. After she said that, I looked at her with tears in my eyes as if it was Mali, and as the spirit came over me very strongly I told her "I KNOW HE LIVES AND LOVES YOU." The joy that it brought into my soul, to see this 11 year old Taiwanese girl have a desire to better understand her relationship with her Heavenly Father, follow Jesus Christ, and come home was priceless! I have had many experiences like this that have brought me to some of the happiest points in my life. Helping others feel of God's love for them is one the most rewarding things you can do in life, I PROMISE. As a missionary it occurs very often! 

I have learned lessons and grown in ways that I never could have except I be willing to sacrifice two years of my life to serving our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. My mission has helped me realize the true meaning of life, it has taught me to trust God, and put Him first in everything. I HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER. I can tell you that your mission will not be perfect, things don't always go as planned or your way, but being in the service of the Lord brings a peace to your soul that you can't experience anywhere else. If you let Him, the Lord will mold you into the son, brother, colleague, companion, friend, father, and spouse you need to be for the rest of your life.

I promise you will never regret going on a mission, so trust God, have faith and GO!! Start preparing now. You personally can only go so far, but Jesus Christ can pick you up and take you the rest of the way. Going on a mission has changed my life FOREVER in the best way possible.

For those of you who are thinking about going:

READ THE BOOK OF MORMON WITH A SINCERE DESIRE TO KNOW IT IS TRUE AND PRAY ABOUT IT.  I promise you, God will answer. You will through the Holy Ghost come to realize the reality of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.  Your thoughts on church will change from "just a fun place for your family to go together" to literally knowing that this is God's church and by following it's teachings, you can receive happiness in this life and the life to come. That's when a desire to serve God's children comes! This is God's church on the earth, and if it be the will of God, (everyone is different), go fulfill your responsibility that you accepted in the pre-earth life. It will change your life.

Love 

Elder Michael Henderson

Grave Cleaning Day!

Sweeping Tombs Festival" We did some service with members in the ward. Went to a graveyard and cleaned up! It was super busy.

first pic is us riding our bikes up the hill to the cemetary

2 the graves in Taiwan

3 My comp with some scary tools

1 People just burn all the branches and weeds off of the graves. pretty scary lol, just huge fires going off everywhere

2 us and some members

3 cleaning graves

1 Elder Tsai is a beast

2 The District

3 Cool Headstone

Taiwanese people a couple years after they bury the people, dig them back up, and give the bones to the fam (i don't know who digs them up) but let me tell ya, half these graves have a big hole behind the head stone right where they dug up the body!

1 Elder Tsai is scary with a sythe looking thing

2 Cleaning the graves

3 Jiayi 2nd ward bishop and my good pal Elder Brenchley

some headstones

Li-Ho Li-Ho

This is a transcript from a voice recording

Li-ho li-ho, that's how you say Hello in Taiwanese. That's how we start every single conversation we have with people on the street. This is Elder Henderson, it is April 2nd 2018. I am just so happy... Happy to be here, happy to be able to do this voice recording for you. We had conference, we did not get to watch it. I really wanted to be a part of the Solemn Assembly. But that's okay, we'll watch it next week. We have watched parts of the solemn assembly....I couldn't wait. It happened about midnight or 1:00am over here, that's when conference started for us. So we were not awake for it. I support and we sustain President Nelson. We listened to a couple of his previous talks, he is great! Elder Sauros and Elder Gong are going to be awesome Apostles. I think it is so awesome that they are the new apostles. The members are very excited over here, because Elder Gong is of Chinese descent. He served his mission in Taipei Taiwan. It is quite awesome that someone of Asian descent gets called to be an apostle. Super super cool! This week, we had a great week. 
Highlights of the week are exchanges, Zone conference, and an awesome Easter Sunday. Starting off on Monday night we met with a new potential investigator, me and Elder Anderson. We met her at a train station. She is super super cool. She is a great person and a college student. We gave her a chapel tour and she loved it. She is willing to learn more. Tuesday we met with a few of our investigators and kind of just had a normal day. Visited some members and talked about our investigators. We have one of our investigators a sister who is really starting to come along. We talked to her a lot about baptism this last time. What baptism truly means and basically asked her if she was ready to be baptized. She said she's going to think about it. She has some concerns about it because of her family. She comes from a not Christian background. She comes from a Buddhist background and her family has traditions. It is up to her to realize and understand that it's not a big deal. She is super excited for baptism but she has not set a date yet. We know that she has a desire to be baptized and so we will keep meeting with her and talking with her. Wednesday we went to one of our secondary areas the city next door. We met with some members. We met this mom who is probably in her 50s and is not been to church in a while. She was baptized when she was a teenager. We went to her house and met with her and her twenty something year old son. He is not a member. They are both super super awesome. We are going to try to start working with them. Help them come back to church. Help the son meet the church. Wednesday night we had our English class. Thursday we went on exchanges with the Doolio Elders. I have not been to Doolio in a while. It is where I served a while back. I went with Elder Francesconi. He got to Taiwan two weeks ago. A lot of members in our zone are very very young, they just got here. We went on exchanges and had a great Exchange. He had to waited in Florida for one transfer for his visa. He is a great missionary, he is from North Carolina. He is 6 5. Friday we had Zone conference. It was super super spiritual meeting. Me and my companion had a training about planning and and how to plan more specifically to the people we are meeting. I think it was effective. I think it will really help. One of the things that we proposed was to do with our Zone was something called boom week!  We are trying to increase our key indicators. At least by 1. Our key indicators are trying to get a new investigator, so this week we are trying to increase our investigators by 1. We are trying to increase our number of baptismal goals or people by one.  Try to get one more person at church then we did last week. We are trying to help our Zone lift the vision! Help them a little bit more and push them and encouragement and inspiration to become better than they are now. We all need it, we need to raise our vision and become a little bit better. We are setting specific goals and specific things to do that. I think it's going to be a super good week. That was our training. President Teh also did some great training. We talked about other Stephenson's address that he gave to us a few weeks ago when he was here visiting. Saturday, we met with a few investigators and we had some time to tracked. We went to a park and we did a Book of Mormon contacting. It is where we go up to people and we tell them we are doing an experiment, we ask people to open this book that we have, The Book of Mormon and read a random page. And then see what this page helps you realize about your relationship with God. What parts stand out to you. We did that with a few people and had super cool results! We had some people who had a really good experience reading the book of Mormon. We also set up with a guy named ?? He has the same Chinese name as me. We will be meeting with him tonight Monday night. We are very excited about that. Sunday we had a great Sabbath day. There was a missionary that came back visiting Taiwan. He went home a few transfers after I got on island. He was in my district, I totally looked up to him. He served in our ward. In Jiayi for 6 months. He came back and visited and I got to see him. We had a super spiritual Sabbath sacrament meeting. Lots of people shared their testimonies. We had normal church this week. Because we will watch General Conference next week. There was a lot of nice testimonies.

Last night we went to dinner at the Jong's (??) house. We had some super super good food: dumplings and boiled cabbage and vegetables and a thicker tortilla with green onions in it and inside it has vegetables and meat and it is one of my favorite foods Ever! We had that at the members house and it was better than any restaurant I have ever had. He is a member of the bishopric and a super good cook. Brother Jong. That's basically what we did, we met with a less-active last night and who is willing to come back and we are going to continue to meet with him. That's about it for the week good to talk to you! I want to wish Ana a happy birthday. I'm sorry I didn't email you last week about it. But I know it's 3 days late but I hope you had an amazing 13th birthday on the 30th of March. I definitely thought about you and told many people that it was my little sister's birthday today. I can't believe you're already 13 but you are an amazing girl and beautiful, amazing, athletic and kind person! You have helped me a lot in my life and given me a desire to help other people be better. So thank you Ana and the rest of the fam I love you all so much. That's all I got for today!!

bye bye

Elder Henderson Jiayi