I hope you're sitting down...

Monday, February 13, 2017

I've got some pretty cool stories for you guys today. #wereenjoyingpaa First off, on Thursday night we got a phone call from a member on the North-Eastern part of town. (Our area is the South-Western part of town) Brother David informed us that he had a referral for us name Jerry James. We were able to meet with Jerry James on Friday #holdontosomethingbecausethisnextpartisnuts!

Jerry James came into contact with the church through an in-law in Accra in 2002. He attended church once and had one lesson with missionaries where he was given a "Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" pamphlet and a "Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith" pamphlet. He then moved to the Northern Region of Ghana where the church didn't exist until only three years ago. He believed what the missionaries taught was true but could never find the church since he moved. For 15 years all he had to study were those two pamphlets and finally last Thursday he came into contact with Brother David who referred him to us. He's even been having dreams about reading the Book of Mormon, something he had never even held in his hands until last Friday. #holyrevelationbatman Needless to say he knows those to pamphlets inside and out, backwards and forwards you name it! When we invited him to be baptized he replied with a big smile, "Today!?" I love this man! He is a true example of faith, endurance and patience. I'm so grateful we were finally able to meet him and he can finally be baptized after 15 long years of waiting and searching. #ohmanthechurchistrueyouguys

Also, I mentioned a few weeks ago how we spent four days street contacting outside an event for Daniel Kolenda... Well turns out we actually picked up a solid investigator named Abigail from it. She came to church last week and really enjoyed her experience. She even came to midweek and church again this Sunday. We went to that event upon revelation from Elder Renfroe that someone was going to be there searching for truth and that they would be lead to us. I believe that person is Abigail. She's on track to be baptized next week! #revelationthroughseniormissionaries

Side note, did you guys know Batman is in the Book of Mormon? #Moronichapter7 You'll find it.

I was studying in Luke 12 this week and found a scripture that was super relevant to our situation. In verses 30-31 It talks about how Heavenly Father knows that we have certain temporal needs. And how if we first, "seek the kingdom of God, all these things shall be added unto you" (something like that). Basically we lost water again this week (yes, haha very funny). But I've noticed that we've never gone thirsty, and we've always had means to bathe, wash etc... So basically I've got a testimony that that is true. It's easy to get concerned with temporal things. Out here a lot of people have trouble coming to church because they feel like it's more important that they work to keep food on their table. But I promise that if you seek first the kingdom of God, everything else will fall into place.

P.S. Dear members of Evolution, I know y'all are going on tour soon and I better get some pictures from all y'all or so help me I'll march back to the states and beat you all paa! #butistillloveyou

--

Elder Henderson

Just another week...

Sorry fam... but unfortunately nothing super interesting happened this week. Most of the country is kind of in a bad mood because the Ghana Black Stars just got eliminated from the African Cup, getting knocked out of place by Burkina Faso so that was pretty disappointing. Also I heard Tom Brady just won another Super Bowl. #Whoopdeedoo.
 

Finding has honestly not been easy pretty much the whole time I've been here in Tamale. But I think we hit a record low this week. On the plus side we may be having some baptisms this month! #yay

We started teaching Mary (Rose's sister) and she's been attending church and progressing very well. I expect she will be baptized by the end of the month. We also found a member named Jocelyn who's records were still in Kumasi from when she lived there. She hasn't been to church for years because the Ghanaian tradition is that a woman must attend the same church as her husband. #thesexismisreal But she has been helping us to teach her next door neighbor, Gladys. And now Gladys wants to come to church! #spirit!

 

We also met Emmanuel, he's a referral from one of our former investigators (also his mother) Susanna. He's been struggling a lot with guilt so we found it a good opportunity to preach some repentance. #preachrepentancebaptizeconverts We invited him to be baptized in our third visit with him but he said he'd need a week to think about it. #ugh.

I'm back on a rice and stew diet... just for kicks and giggles. I'm attaching some pictures.

Also... at the Daniel Kolenda thing last week we met Abigail, who we invited to church and haven't had a lesson with yet... but she came to church! And seemed to really enjoy herself. She has even been calling us to make sure we can meet with her this week. She's powerful!

That's it for this week kids! I'm really enjoying myself out here and I love getting all of your emails! Please feel free to send pictures! Like... seriously... haha I love getting pictures...

Come, Listen, and Receive Your Miracle!

Hello dearest family and friends! How are you? I'm fine. #ghanaislit This week was pretty interesting. It was a slow proselyting week because none other than Evangelist Daniel Kolenda was in town! He came all the way from Florida just to baptize all of Tamale with the Holy Spirit, distribute the blessing of Salvation to all, and set fire to witch doctor items. Literally every Christian in Tamale was there to "receive their miracle." So as you can probably guess, having lessons was kind of a struggle since this guy was going all. freaking. week. #yayforapostatepreachers

It was okay though because we countered by street contacting right outside the event and we were able to pick up a few investigators who for some reason felt unfulfilled by their experience with Mr. Kolenda. #wehadthespiritwithus 

Also on Wednesday we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast with Elders Oaks, Anderson, Bednar. It was really good! I'd encourage everyone at home to get on lds.org and watch it because it has some really good information even for non-missionaries. In it they also made some changes to the daily schedule that gives us more flexibility with our schedules. For instance, personal study can now take place for 60 minutes between the hours of 6:30-10:00 and companionship study can take place at any unproductive time of day. Also, our key indicators have been reduced. We'll no longer be reporting how many lessons of any kind are taught, how many referrals are contacted, or how many investigators are progressing. So that's a pretty big change.

 

That's pretty much it for this week! Love you all! 

This field is where the school kids come to poop.

 

 

 

 

Ordering Pizza with Elder Crane, Sewell, and Prior (Left to Right)

This is what your desk should look like during personal study.

Quintessential Ghana.

This is what we use to get around. #publictransport

#sexismisreal Friendly Reminder

Selfie with the Ghanaian wildlife.

Elder Prior eating lunch.

Pretty fly for a couple white guys.

The promised land.

#dynamicduo

Hey guys! My first week out of training was powerful! Elder Prior is pretty sweet too. So that's good!

 

We were teaching our investigator Lucas this week and his son shows up. His son's name is Moses... and he was very offended that we claimed that the Book of Mormon was the word of God. #ohboy He proceeded to very passionately declare that they entire word of God was found between Genesis and Revelations, and he knew we were not from God because only the Bible could possibly contain the word of God. #waitforit It was at that moment that my lovely new companion, Elder Prior, who was meeting all these people for the first time, fearlessly whipped out 2 Nephi 29 (look it up). You'd think it would cause more contention but it actually brought the spirit very strongly. It's just proof that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It really strengthened my own testimony of how powerful the Book of Mormon can really be. Moses may hate us now, but it left a profound impact on Lucas and he even started defending us and the Book of Mormon to his son. #boomgoesthedynamite And since then has even started keeping his commitments. I think I'm in for a pretty sweet transfer.

In other news, we've got a pesky monkey who keeps getting into our apartment's compound and stealing mangoes from our tree. By the way... we have mango and banana trees on our compound. It's pretty sweet. #imaregularfarmer

Hey, speaking of farming, Elder Prior is a total farm boy. Even on his desk he's got a cow, and some little tractors. It's very powerful.

Also, we found Pepsi today! It was very exciting. We will be enjoying this week. We also found out about a restaurant in town that sells lasagna, pizza, calzones etc... So you can guess what we are doing for dinner tonight! #hehehehehe

Anyway, that's all I've got for you today.

Out with the old, in with the slightly less old.

Hello blessed family and friends!

I am pleased to announce that Rex has received the Aaronic Priesthood! I'm super excited about that! He and Rose are both still going strong in the church and I don't foresee any major problems so...yay! #yay

Also, I'm finally done with training which means from here on out #anythingcanhappen at each transfer.  As for me, I'm staying here in Tamale. My dear companion, Elder Amakye, is going to spend his last transfer in Ofinso, which is an area near Kumasi. My new companion will be Elder Prior! #justwait

So Elder Prior is from Salem, and is also the cousin of Sister Morley. For those of you who don't know Sister Morley...Elder Prior is Rich Morely's (director of ALA) nephew. So...this should be fun. #connections My understanding is he goes home sometime in May or June, I think...hence my subject heading. #hence

As for the singing...we didn't really do any tracting this week, so I don't have anything to report. And the current state of our investigators has not changed...so...basically it was a slow proselyting week. We did have one experience that was pretty interesting, though...

We were just walking out of a lesson when we were approached by Naomi. She pulled the two of us aside and confessed that she had seen us come and go several times and that "God told her to speak to us." #finally The problem is that she is a student and left for school this week. And since her school is a boarding school (basically a prison) and doesn't let her leave for church on Sundays, we probably are never going to see her again. We ended up leaving her with a restoration pamphlet and a copy of the Book of Mormon and said to call us if she has any questions. It was basically all we could do. We were really disappointed.

Anyway...that's pretty much all the news I have for you guys today. I love you all.

P.S. I find it funny reading some of my friend's missionary emails and them talking about how they found a lizard or a rat in their apartments and I'm over here in Ghana chasing goats out of my kitchen. #3rdworldproblems

Kintampo Falls

Brother Rex received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday.

Elder Henderson sporting the haircut his companion, Elder Amakye gave him.

Oh man, the church is true!

You guys! This week was crazy! I don't even know where to begin. #indecisiveness

Basically, the church is true. So... yeah that's good news! #yayforthegospel

So Steven has moved to the Kanvilli area and thus will continue to be taught by the Sisters. And also our less active family has moved to Vitin and thus will continue to be taught by our district leader... so basically we were left this week with honestly not much to do aside from finding.

The problem was that since I got here our finding attempts have just been dismal. So I sought some council from the mission president who suggested I sing to the people I tract. #mightaswelltry You guys we exceeded all of our finding related goals this week AND more than doubled our New Investigator goal! #listentoyourmissionpresident

Among those new investigators is a family of 8! Gabriel Sr., Comfort, Mary, Fred, Alice, Enoch, Isaac and Gabriel Jr.. When we first met them we were pleased to find out that Alice and Mary are also singers. And they were all super receptive to us! However only four of them have accepted baptismal dates so far, but never fear the #singingmissionary is ready and prepared to help these people get converted! The addition of this family to our branch would be HUGE! We really want this... haha.

In other news this is my last week of training and it's also transfer week so anything can happen... officially.

Thank you all so much for your emails. I love you all! Please send prayers eastward for this family!

Elder Henderson

2017...The Year Jimmy Was in Africa

Hey there blessed family and friends! It's getting late and I have to return to my apartment very soon so unfortunately I won't be able to do many personal emails today.

First off, New Years has been very interesting! Proselyting has been dismal because everyone has been at their own church... Everyone, that is, except for the Latter-Day Saints. We had a whopping three members at Sacrament Meeting yesterday which may be an all time low for the mission. The good news is that those members included a less-active family that are on the brink of re-activation! So yay for missionary work! #yay

I also had two FM's (Free Meals) today... which is why I'm emailing so late. One was at 3:00 where we had rice balls and groundnut soup and the other was at 4:30 where we had all you can eat rice, pasta, and chicken. It was delicious but we put down so much food. Like... I'm talking we ate SO MUCH! #yayformyinevitablerunnytummy 

The first FM was with one of the members of our district presidency and the second was with the acting-president of the Tamale Rotary Club. I guess sometime the transfer before I arrived in the Tamale zone did a service project for the Rotary Club helping them with a blood drive they were organizing. As a result they were able to collect almost 400 pints of blood. The FM today was to express gratitude for that. (Even though most of us weren't even there when the service project took place) #Yayforreapingthefruitsofsomeoneelseslabor It was fun and delicious but I've lost almost 20 pounds since coming to Ghana and now I feel like tonight I gained it all back. #yayforcalories

Many of you are curious about Steven so just to let you all know, he is progressing well and should be baptized by the end of the month. We've had to postpone his date to the 22nd but we shouldn't have a problem getting him there. It's great to see him looking forward and eager to be baptized.

It's weird to think that when I look back at my life and reflect on 2017 it will be "The year I was on a mission." My mind is honestly still in October (when I left) and it might stay that way my whole mission (especially since I will also be returning home in October) but I seriously can't believe that it has already been three months since I left home. And I can already say with infinitely more surety that this truly is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. A mission is for everyone. If you are on the fence about serving a mission, I would encourage you to do it. There is nothing else in this world that you could do that would be better. Whenever I get discouraged or homesick, (and believe me I do) #everymissionarydoes I just remind myself that there is absolutely nowhere else in the world that I would rather be than in Africa right now, teaching people about my church from back in Utah. The convert baptismal ceremony is really an amazing thing to witness but for me the most special part of a convert baptism is the part people don't typically think of... It's the confirmation that happens the next day. Every time someone is confirmed a member of the church, the realm of the influence of Christ expands further and further and God's kingdom becomes more firmly established. It is my prayer and my prophesy that one day Tamale with experience the same devotion and organization that the church has in Utah. I love you all so much and I can't wait to get the New Year started.