"I'm glad I believe in Him so I won't get straight wrecked!" #2nephi6:14-15

June 19, 2017

Well kids we had an interesting week this week.

First off, the training is still going strong, the subject line for this email is the Elder Smith quote of the week which I took from our companionship study a few days ago. #thejoysofcompstudy I had a good laugh over that.

Also, we went to the farm for a part member family this week. The children are all members but the parents are devout baptists and have never even set foot in the church before... but never fear! We've been really stressing temples and families with these two... hopefully it stirs something in their hearts. The mother, Sister Harriet LOVED The Family: A Proclamation to the World. But the father won't sit down with us, so it's a work in progress.

The work was actually very slow this week. Elder Smith and I are working really diligently but our luck was just kind of rotten this week. It didn't help that our golden investigator, Luanga was out of town. But never fear! He got back late last night and should be getting baptized soon! #seeourpowerfulinvestigators

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how missionary work works in Ghana (which is probably most of you) We are currently working with a teaching pool of about 25 investigators #giveortake and right now we are in a process of separating the wheat from the tares if you will. This basically means we are trying to focus on those who are more serious about the message and seeing who all will progress then keeping those and trying to find more. Twenty-five investigators is a lot but you know what they say, "The bigger the pool, the more room to swim." #missionariescantswim

Happy Father's Day to all! (Especially MY dad!)

Much love,

Elder Henderson

I can see clearly now...

June 12, 2017

So I just found out that Johnson and Osei are in the process of being prepared to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! I'm so happy I'll still be in Offinso to see that happen. Osei has been going on and on about how much more enlightened he is since receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He said he's even understanding biblical passages better than before. That guy is a stud! #powerfulrecentconverts

Well things have been going well, we are getting a pretty consistent 5 investigators attending sacrament meeting which is great! Sacrament meeting attendance is directly correlated with baptisms in case you didn't know. #revelationthroughchurchattendance 

Josephine is LOVING Young Women thanks to our amazing Young Women President in the branch. Also Luanga is progressing tremendously but we've had to postpone his baptism because his fiance doesn't want him to live the law of chastity. It's hard because they have two kids and he's planning on marrying her soon anyway so the goal right now is to get them married as soon as possible.

Also,  the training is going great and I'm actually learning a lot from Elder Smith! #theteacherhasbecomethestudent We have mid-transfer training in Kumasi this week so that should be fun. I'm really excited! #theyaregoingtofeedus

Also, the rain in Ghana today has been nuts! #goodthingwehaveumbrellas Don't worry I sent pictures! And now, finally, I can see clearly now... the rain has gone!

Just a reminder to heed President Monson's call to study the Book of Mormon every single day! If you are reading this and you are still having doubts about God, the church, and whether things I testify the truth of every single day are actually true, prayerfully study the Book of Mormon. The sincere seeker of truth will get a powerful answer. Just remember what it means if the Book of Mormon is true. Think about what it teaches and compare it to what you know the Character of Jesus Christ to be. I promise it is true. I love you all!

--

Elder Henderson

I like to look for rainbows

Monday, June 5

Well, Mary was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was super exciting! We were a little concerned because just a couple hours before the service it started pouring rain! And in Ghana when it rains the whole country shuts down. When the time for the service came and it still didn't let up we were worried we would have to postpone the baptism. But luckily our candidate and our presiding authority showed up anyway and we carried out the baptism in the pouring rain. (The font is outside.) All I could think of was that primary song about looking for rainbows after rain. It actually made the baptism a pretty special experience. Mary was determined to not let anything postpone her baptism.

The training is going really well! Elder Smith is a solid, well prepared missionary and I'm really happy to be working with him. Like seriously, some of my strongest spiritual experiences have occurred in lessons that we have had together just in the past week. For some reason we ended up sharing a lot of lessons about the Temple and the Plan of Salvation this week and as a result we both grew a lot! Along with the investigators we were sharing with. Between the four Elders in our district we had 11 investigators at church this Sunday totaling about a quarter of the congregation. It was powerful!

Also, I want to send a shout out to Sister Braun for your call to Tokyo! Say hi to Elder Kaiser for me!

So one of the things I've noticed people struggle the most with in sincerity in their prayers. Not just sincerity but being specific. Thanks to the influence and false teachings spread by the great and abominable church #whoreofalltheearth many people simply don't understand the purpose behind, or the vitality of a sincere prayer. We had an experience where we were teaching Josephine (an investigator we found this week) who was refusing to pray in front of us, wasn't receiving answers to her personal prayers, and was getting confused by the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation. After going through things and trying to explain it more simply she still wasn't getting it. Soon my mind turned to 2 Nephi 32 that tells us if we don't understand something it is because we aren't asking God in prayer. I decided to share this with Josephine. After some explanation she agreed to pray in front of us and to make her prayers more sincere and less repetitious. Ever since her understanding has totally expanded. It's been powerful. #thepowerofprayer

So let it be said. If your testimony is being held back by a lack of understanding... maybe you should revisit 2 Nephi 32 and think about making your prayers more sincere. Also see D&C 9. Conversion cannot come without understanding. Understanding cannot come without prayer. Much love to you all!

Elder Henderson

Black by popular demand!

Good news! As it turns out, Mary is indeed "married enough" to be baptized! #thankgoodness She'll be baptized this Saturday marking my son's first baptism. #wahoo We were preparing her for her interview on Saturday when towards the end of the lesson I got the distinct impression to pull my handy-dandy pocket hymn book #handydandy and sing If You Could Hie To Kolob... all 5 verses. I explained how Kolob is the closest planet to where God lives and as she listens to the lyrics she should apply them to how baptism will help her to draw closer to God. It was super powerful and the spirit was super strong. When we left she had this powerful big smile on her face. It was sweet oh!

And yes! I picked up my son this Wednesday fresh from the MTC! Elder Smith from Kansas. Already he is super powerful! And hilarious. I definitely think we are going to enjoy these next two transfers.

This week is going to be really interesting. We are pretty much clearing out our teaching pool and starting fresh so we will be doing lots of finding this next week. It should give Elder Smith plenty of the experience he needs in order to be self-sufficient as a missionary. Haha. Right now on the temporal aspect of things, trying to teach him how to prepare food in Ghana is kinda hilarious. #nothinglikeamerica Several times he's asked me where he can buy certain things (particularly food items) and I just laugh in response. Don't worry, it's coming along nkakra kakra akoko benim nsuo. #likeachickendrinkswater

I'm attaching some powerful pictures also. I love you all! I'll send another update next week!

PS I've been getting a lot of emails from concerned friends and family who think I'm wasting away to nothing. Don't worry kids, haha, the weight loss is a good thing.

Elder Henderson