Each Life That Touches Ours for Good

Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.

It was a blessing from above to have Luke, Liz, Caden, Halle, Noah and Abby come for a visit.

One of the few photos with all the kids and us in it. What a feast for hug-starved grandparents.

Our first in-person visit with Abby angel. Love at first sight!

They all enjoyed Lake Banook, right across the street from our apartment.

PEI is just as beautiful as advertised. We accused Liz of coming to see Anne instead of us. We saw Anne's house, her musical, her lake of shining waters, and the beautiful fields.

Anne's beach was one of the best of the trip. 

Grandpa and Halle at the lighthouse by the PEI ferry.

We bumped into Bishop Sexton and his boys at Hopewell Rocks during their YM Camp. This bishop shows Christ-like love for everyone and always focuses on what people are doing right. 

The hours in the car were more bearable due to naps and a portable DVD player. The kids were real troopers.

Halle with an e at the Anne room at the Mission Home. Noah was grandma's buddy and  also came and saw the room, but we will save that photo for future blackmail.

The MPW (Mission President's Wife) got a baby fix via Abby.

Caden and Noah loved all the guns at the Citadel.

A huge shout out to Luke and Liz for bringing 4 kids to see us and enduring cancelled flights and disrupted schedules. What a great gift.

What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christ-like friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

Emmeline Barnett, who was baptized last month, is one of our Christ-like friends with gentle ways. Her faith strengthened ours. This was one of the highlights of our mission.

Attending her baptism was a great opportunity to see some of our other friends who have strengthened us and enriched our days.

Camelle and Manida Currie, who enriched our days as they accepted and lived the Gospel.

Louise (and Barry) Hatt--our eternal friends--with Camelle, the photo bomber.

David (and Carol) Ray, the gentlest of friends and parents, have enriched our days.

Sister Kadisch (and the PB). How we miss her love, example, hospitality, and missionary spirit. Yes, we admit, we also miss her wonderful cooking and farm-fresh brown eggs.

Guess who with Elders Gibbs and Skinner and Pat Hatt? Elder Skinner kept the work going strong in Fredericton. We love him like a son. Great Elder Gibbs was there doing exchanges and Pat is a stalwart ward member and friend.

More amazing missionaries. Sister Drew shared her beautiful voice in the concerts, but her real talent is loving service. Sister Weaver started her mission at the MTC with us and has also grown to become a powerful missionary.

Many more friends and missionaries escaped our camera or were the victims of our lack of photography skills. We love them all, even without a picture. Besides, this is a pretty long post as it is.


When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

Some of CHM's finest Elders departed for home on July 4. They will forever hold a place in our hearts.

 The day of the baptism, our across-the-hall neighbor, Bob Anderson passed away. He and his wife, Theresa, are our adopted family we will remember always.

One sweet memory with Bob & Theresa was our last night out before we were transferred.

Bob seems to be pointing heavenward. His passing has given us a sweet memory and brought us nearer to the Lord. There are no permanent goodbyes in the Gospel.

Each of you has touched our lives for good.
With much love,
Elder & Sister Hendrickson

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,

We love the missionaries with all our hearts.

Joyous reunion with Sisters Gochnour and Turner--and Skinny Pop

Surprise visit from Sisters Lewis and Vera. One of the perks of working at the office.

Many hands serve in many ways. We enjoyed a group of Saints from St. John's NFLD who came to serve in the temple. Our tech missionaries, Elders Bodine and Fortier, worked hard to help film and design our new senior missionary brochure. (If anyone is looking for the best place on earth to serve as a senior couple,this is it.)

Our tech "Smarties," Elders Bodine & Fortier

President and Sister Leavitt hosted a farewell dinner for the Shields and the Calls. Both couples have served well and blessed the wards in their areas. We also did the filming for the senior brochure videos that night.

We will sure miss "fiddling" around with Elder and Sister Call. We have shared many adventures and beautiful spots as we have toured the mission doing concerts. Bravo for their great work.

We used our voices in the missionary choir and ward choir at stake conference. Sister H. leads the ward choir and Elder H. speaks to the saints in NFLD about once a month via Skype.

Enjoyed the voices of some of our ward members at a Celtic concert. Plaid ruled the day and the the choir and audience loved sharing favorite music.

Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his earth rejoices;

It was a wondrous thing to use technology to witness Caden's baptism. Another wondrous thing was the Canada-wide stake conference broadcast the next day. 

It was also wondrous to have Elder & Sister Snow visit our mission. We were inspired by their training and messages and warmed by their genuine goodness. It was a blessing to have an interview with Elder Snow and to enjoy dinner with them at the Mission Home.

Who, from our mothers' arms,
Hath blessed us on our way

Our mission mom, Sister Leavitt, loves and blesses all the missionaries, including us.

Sister Leavitt does lots of hosting and always sets a beautiful table. She is also an excellent piano student.

With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

The beauty right outside our window is a gift of love.

Many Titanic victims gave their lives as a gift of love to save others.

Friends, such as Elder & Sister Thatcher are a gift of love.

Our friends, Elder & Sister Wiebe, share their gifts with love. 

The office couples enjoy a gift of love serving together and socializing. These photos show our supper date for wonderful fish at Masstown Market. President and Sister Leavitt were out of town, but they stopped later in the week and enjoyed it.

Oh, may our bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us in his love,
And guide us day and night,
And free us from all ills,
Protect us by his might. 

We are grateful for the most wondrous gift, the Atonement of our Savior. We know he keeps all of us in His love and guides us and protects us.

Medley: I am a Child of God, God Be With You, I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go

Since I've taken three months off, I will try to summarize with three songs.

March:  I am a Child of God
I am a Child of God and He has sent me here.
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

The Orange Blossom Family Special concert series brought many children of God and their parents kind and dear together for fun, wholesome music and entertainment. We are a little sad that it's over, but very glad that it happened. Fredericton shone as bright as our lighted sign by having many new friends and family members attend the concert here.

The amazing Bishop Sexton had Elder H. find this sign. Brother MacGougan and his mom did the letters, and Brother Vienneau cleared the snow so it could be put in place. It was great advertising for the last two concerts.

We love the musical missionaries who have generously shared their talents, Elder and Sister Call as the director and assistant to the director, and President Leavitt's vision and generous support to make it all happen.

The Phantom after one of the final concerts.

Parents and children of all ages enjoyed two fun activities organized by our young missionaries. First, the Elders gave us "Sixty Seconds to Score," a Minute to Win it-type activity. Then the Sisters put together a fun Valentine's party for everyone.

On St. Patrick's Day, we felt LUCKY to know so many of God's choice children here in Canada.

April:  God Be With You

God be with you 'til we meet again.
When life's perils thick confound you,
Keep His arms unfailing 'round you.

With heavy hearts we accepted a call to leave Fredericton and move to Dartmouth to work in the office and serve in an entirely different way. It felt as if someone had cut out our hearts with a dull knife. However, we are so grateful that part of our hearts will always be here. No one can take away the love and memories of the people and experiences that made this year the best in our lives so far.

(We regret that we didn't get pictures of all those who took time to wish us well or invite us to dinner including Davie & Carol Ray and Don & Faye MacRitchie and others).

 





Elder H. combined farewell dinners with his birthday celebration. Elders Hunt and Skinner made amazing home-made tortillas for our Mexican dinner. We broke out the party hats the Sisters gave Sister H. for her birthday. The famous pink iPad recorded the moment.

Donna Clark and her girls and Theresa hosted a farewell supper with our friends from Carrington Place Apartments.

Glenna, Pauline, Betty, and Mrs. Wilson at the apartment supper.

Farewell buffet dinner with our across-the-hall neighbors and adopted parents, Bob & Theresa Anderson.

Family Night with Bishop Sexton, Carin, Jacob, Mason, and Liam.

Sisters Gochnour & Turner are shining lights that were hard to leave. We loved watching the General Women's Meeting with them and Emmeline.

We made a final visit to Manida's seamstress shop. It was here we taught our first missionary lesson. We have been blessed and see these two become fully active in the church. They are our friends forever.



Last YW activity with Avery Pierce, Camelle Currie, Sam Hatt, Tanya Knudson, Summer Augustine, Janessa Harker, and Emmeline Barnett. They made a scrapbook page with photos and notes. How blessed I have been to know them.

Rachael Mattice showing her flexibility at our last YW activity.

Barry & Louise Hatt took us and their daughter Jessica to dinner at the Diplomat. They were the first members we met and have been wonderful friends, fellow missionaries, and examples of love and service.



Terrible picture of the wonderful missionaries at our last district meeting: Elders Hunt, Skinner, Hatch, Jensen; Sisters Turner, Gochnour, Sandberg and Doherty, and Elder & Sister Call.

 

So hard to say goodbye to these wonderful missionaries we have come to love like our own children.

 

May:  I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go

But if by a still small voice He calls
To paths that I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine:
I'll go where you want me to go.

Surprise! There is much to love and enjoy here in Dartmouth. The walking trail and Lake Banook are next door and across the street. The Mission home, with our beloved President and Sister Leavitt, is shouting distance away. We can attend the temple in less time and have a better parking spot than we ever could in Utah. The people in our ward are welcoming and kind.

Farewell gathering at the mission office for Elder & Sister Davis, joined by Sisters Leavitt, Ranglack, Wiebe, Thompson and Curtis.

We had the opportunity to sing in the choir and perform with  the BYU-I Sinfonietta orchestra on Easter Sunday.

We love the energy and commotion of being in the office with so many young missionaries coming and going, calling,  and sharing their enthusiasm and love for the Gospel. Elder and Sister Davis left things is perfect order at the office and in the apartment we took over from them. We could not have better co-workers than Elder & Sister Wiebe and Elder and Sister Thatcher. The days are busy and simply fly by. We know the Lord has called us here and will guide us to those we should meet and teach.

Reunion at the office with Sister Broadhead. We went street contacting before she left for home.

Our beloved Elder Hawkes preparing for the big transfer back home.

Sister Sandberg heading for Newfoundland.

What a blessing to have some of our beloved Fredericton friends come to visit and others meet us at the temple.

Elder & Sister Heninger (the new Fredericton couple that are taking care of things very well), Susan Gorman, and Melvin Nash came on the bus for the temple trip. What a great place to meet good friends.

Adam Strangemore, a stalwart recent convert, visits the temple for the first time.

 

Daisy Street, who was in YW in Fredericton, now lives close to Halifax and we've seen her several times already.

YW (Naoise Moeller & Emmeline Barnett) and the Temple:  a heart-warming combination.

We are happy that we are where the Lord wanted us to go and we are working on learning what He wants us to say and especially what He wants us to be.