September?! Seriously?!

Hello family!
Sorry to trick you and make you think that you’d get an
email yesterday,but it was Labor Day and libraries were closed.
So here it is, in all its glory. Papillion continues to astound me.
When I left Winter Quarters I really couldn’t imagine being able
to love another area or another ward. I didn’t think I’d have place
in my heart. But I truly love it here. We have had some incredible
experiences that have let me know that the Lord wants me to be here.
I’ll start off by telling you about a miracle the Lord gave us;
it was kind of a funny experience. Thursday was our temple day
and we were supposed to be there by 3:30pm for the 4 o’clock session.
Papillion is a good, solid, 30 minutes away. We had to take the car
in for an oil change that day so we scheduled it at 2pm which should
have left us plenty of time to get there. Well, the oil change ended
up taking an hour and a half! As we drive away from Jensen auto and
tire at 3:30, my heart sunk. I wanted and needed to go to the temple so
desperately, I didn’t know how we’d make it. I knew I couldn’t pray for
the Lord to help me speed there, I was pretty sure that wasn’t allowed.
So I tried to worm my way around it by praying that the Lord would clear
the roads so that traffic wouldn’t be bad. I don’t know how the Lord
did it, because I really wasn’t speeding that bad, but we
made it in 15 minutes! Just in time to run in, change, and be in our seats.
Really, I didn’t speed that bad! And don’t worry, I repented and told
President Newman about it, he just laughed at me. I was very grateful!
Oh yeah, we found that McDonald’s family! I know can you believe it!
We told our district about it after our meeting on Tuesday so we all
headed over there for lunch, excited to find this new family. Right as
we got out of the car, a man started walking towards us and recognized us
right away as missionaries. We started talking to him and he accepted a
Book of Mormon and a return appointment! Only one problem, he didn’t
live in our area! He lives in Gretna! The Gretna Sisters were there so
they set up the appointment. I haven’t given up hope though, that we’ll
find a family for us there too! I’ll keep you posted.
As for the work in MY area, it’s great. The Grote family is doing awesome!
We took Bishop Lyman over there on Friday and we taught more about the
Restoration, they again had great questions. We also taught them about
eternal families which was a surprise for them. Shallaine, the Mom,
said that she had always been taught that after we die we don’t remember
anything about this life. So we don’t remember each other. How sad is that?
She said that she never really believed that anyway. They loved that doctrine
(probably because it’s true) and the Spirit was so strong as we taught it.
Angel is doing great. We taught her the Restoration and she caught on so quickly.
She is probably the smartest 13 year old I’ve ever met. Teaching her has
been a lot of fun. We are also teaching Vicki Baldwin. She has been taught
for a while now and it’s time for her to be baptized. We were also able
to visit a couple of families on Sunday who aren’t active. It was
interesting how that night, all of our appointments cancelled, and our
backups failed, and so we had to go to our plan C. It turned out that its
right where the Lord wanted us to be. One of the families, the Rodgers, was so
welcoming and was excited to have us there. They hadn’t seen the
missionaries for a while. For the last couple transfers, not much work has
been done here because one of the Sisters was sick. Anyway, as we were about
to leave, Ron, the Dad, said “Sisters, I’m so glad you came, not 10 minutes
before you knocked on the door, I was packing up my things to go to the hospital,
but now I’m feeling so much better. In fact, I don’t even have any pain.”
He is suffering from several medical conditions and has been in and out of the
hospital the last couple years.
Okay, one last story for you. Last night, we were out trying to visit some members.
This ward is huge and the Elders Quorum President gave us a list of people that
no one knew and asked us to find them. The Spellmans were one family on the list.
We went out to visit them, but alas, they were not home. I saw their neighbors
outside so we started walking over towards them. The Mom,Cheryl, was out on the porch,
talking to her friend. As we walked up the drive and said hello, we got one of
those dreaded looks. She asked, quite shortly,“Can we help you with something?”
“Yes,” I said, returning her look with a smile, “we’re the new missionaries for our
Church in the area and we were trying to meet your neighbors who belong to our Church.
Do you know a good time for us to try and catch them?” Long story short, we just
started to chit chat about them, then Papillion, then the military where her
husband works,and kind of random things. Each time, I would try to make mention of the
Church, or missionaries, or something like that. After a while, I asked her if she
was familiar with the Church. She then informed me that her husband was a member and she
sent her son inside to go get him! They are Steve and Cheryl Empey, and their names
were no where to be found on the ward records! He seemed quite surprised to see us,
and at first it didn’t seem like a good surprise! Anyway, we started talking about
the Church and she claimed to be agnostic but had a Roman Catholic background.
I asked her if she had ever read from the Book of Mormon and she confessed that she didn’t
really know what it was and had kind of tuned out every time Steve tried to tell her.
Well, I took that opportunity to teach her briefly about it and as soon as the Spirit
came, the phone rang. Satan is such a jerk. She had to run in and grab it so we
talked to Steve for a couple more minutes and asked if we could come back and teach
them more. He readily agreed and even seemed excited. I think he’s been inactive
for some time because he has never read the Book of Mormon all the way through.
They have four children and are so great. I love seeing the Lord use us to find and
teach those who are prepared. It’s really an incredible feeling. We don’t really do much,
we just obey.
Well, I’ve got to run. Thanks for your prayers and support. Keep it up!
The Church is not only true, it’s the means for peace in this life, and in the life to come.
Love, Sister Henson