Pictures of My 1st Christmas out in 
the Mission Field!!!

The assistants stopped by early Christmas Eve to give 

Elder Irwin his package!

My 2nd Christmas Eve Breakfast..... hahaha

 

 My Christmas morning attire!

 

Tell the Flora Vista  Ward "Young Women"

Thank you!! I loved it! 

All the scripture quotes made me laugh!!!    =)

My companion Elder Irwin... yes he is a character...hahaha 

On the back of the cape it has a big 

"I... try not to judge too much"

There are stories to the cape and hero shirt!

 My "Christmas Gift" to myself...a Type Writer..
so I can send letters faster!!! 
(Sheepish Grin)

We spent Christmas Eve with the Long  family!!!

 Dear Family and Friends,

 

When I said it was going to snow Wednesday... I didn't realize how much! We got 10 inches of snow!!

Our Mission President banned driving that day because of the roads!  Now, 10 inches might not seem like a lot, but for Ohio... who are not the best drivers in snow...it was a lot!!!

That morning we walked 4 miles...in the snow...to the library… just to find out it was closed!!! When we found out that it was closed I suggested we go shovel out a less active, older ladies home, who lived behind the library. She was so happy that we shoveled her snow!  =0   I felt so good! Then we walked back the 4 miles to our apartment… hahahaha…and had lunch! 

  

After lunch we started walking to an appointment and on the way we saw this young lady shoveling out her driveway with her car parked on the curve. She had stayed some place else for Christmas and so when she got back home she couldn't get her car into the garage until she shoveled off the driveway. She only had the one shovel so I offered her help and started shoveling the snow. While I was shoveling my companion started talking about the church. We were able to get a teaching appointment for Saturday!    =)

The Lord blesses those who serve… that’s a for sure thing!   =)  

Later that day we walked to another lesson, this was with our investigator who works at Wal-Mart. We haven't been able to teach her a lesson since we invited her to live the Word of Wisdom. A member came with us, who once had a Word of Wisdom problem. He shared a powerful testimony of how it changed his life when he committed himself to live it. Wow…it was a very special lesson! We also shared with her about how the priesthood can be used for giving blessings; then we asked her if she would like to have a blessing. My companion did the anointing and I gave the blessing. I have only given a few blessings... and only to family members... I was a little unsure of myself, but I was able to feel the spirit as I spoke the comforting words to her. I hope that she can now continue to progress.  She did share her testimony of how she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. She said that when she had stopped reading the Book of Mormon she wasn't as happy.

So I committed her to read the Book of Mormon every day!    =)   She said "yes I will”.

That night our dinner appointment was at 8:00pm. We didn’t have any other teaching appointments, and because we could only walk to wherever we went, we decided to go to some near by streets and started knocking on doors, offering blessings and prayers for people.  We weren’t accepted that well, but we were able to share the warmth of kindness with others. At 8:55pm we decided we should walk back home…hahaha..

Because of it being dark and with all the snow, we found ourselves a little lost.  So for the next 30 minutes we just walked around our neighborhood trying to figure out where we were. We finally stopped at someone’s home and asked where our street was…. Hahaha…. it was just the next block down!

Man… if we lived back in the West we would have had mountains as points of direction …but here, we have no such thing!   hahaha.

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas week and will have a Happy New Year!

I love all of you!

Love,

Elder Henke!

Christmas day at 10:00 am MTS time, 2012, we were able to speak with Elder Henke!!! 

We were soooo happy and excited to speak with Robert on Christmas day!!! We did a three way call with Richard, Celeste, and Krista up in Idaho. Cammy, Dad and I were listening down in New Mexico!!!

He was quite over come with emotions of love and joy! He said that he would “cherish the love that we all have for each other and not ever again take it for granted.” And that “I had never felt such powerful emotions as I did this Christmas!    =)   If that is just a little of how Heavenly  Father feels about us,  then I can't even imagine the importance of sharing the gospel to others  so that Heavenly Father and all of us can return to Him and live together forever as a family!!!”    =) 

Robert said he loves being on his mission, being taught by the Holy Ghost, and hopes that soon some investigators will come into the Church!

He thanks everyone for the Love, prayers, letters and packages that he has received!!! 

Thank you all so very much!!!