The Life and Times of Elders Yao Afriyie and Kwaku Boakye

August 7, 2017

Well everyone, Cecilia was baptized on Saturday and confirmed (and sustained) on Sunday. #YEEAAAAHHHH!! #itsabouttime I always love having confirmations on fast Sunday because it gives the convert a chance to bear their testimony. Cecilia was very shy to speak into the microphone but the Branch President was gracious enough to translate what she was saying for us. She'll be a powerful contribution to the branch.

For those of you who are unaware, in Ghana the name you receive is based on the day of the week that you are born. So all us missionaries have our own Twi names. I was born on a Thursday which makes my name Yao. Elder Smith was born on Wednesday making his name Kwaku. Kinda fun. A lot of times since we are missionaries we get called Akwasi (Sunday born) and as we walk by we hear people saying "'kwase 'broni" #noproblem

Unfortunately, I'm skeptical about Godfrey and Felicia getting baptized this Saturday. We are still planning on them but Godfrey didn't come to church yesterday and Felicia has been out of town for funerals so it is very possible I won't get to see their baptisms since the life and times of Yao Afriyie and Kwaku Boakye could be ending this week at transfers.

We had a lot of interesting experiences this week. For one, about 3 months ago Elder Smith and I contacted a market preacher and gave him a Restoration pamphlet. He then promptly dropped off the face of the earth until Wednesday when he showed up at the front door of our apartment at about 7:00am. He said he realized that the church he was being a Pastor for at the time wasn't true and that after diligent prayer he said God told him he needed to talk to the white men. #noproblematall We had an emergency lesson on our front porch in our pajamas. #thepowerofprayer #noIdonthavepicturessodontask He came to church yesterday so that was sweet.

Well that's it for this week everyone! I'm looking forward to what will most likely be my last week in Offinso! Wish me luck!

Elder Henderson

When your mission language is Twi.

Our outdoor font

This is what happens when a Ghanaian and a Kenyan get ahold of a fire extinguisher. 

This is what Ghana looks like.

Cecilia and her kids at the baptism

Zion's walls shall ring with praise...

July 31, 2017

Well everyone, I've got good news and I've got bad news. I'll start with the bad.

The bad news is that Godfrey and Felicia are both very ill. As a result neither of them could come to church yesterday. The problem is that they are both somehow old and prone to illness. Felicia could still be baptized this week if she gets feeling better but if not we will have to postpone. Godfrey's baptism is scheduled for next week but if he doesn't make it to church next week we will have to postpone the baptism. And, with transfers coming up soon I'll most likely be leaving before then so I won't get to see it. #sadday

The good news is that Cecilia is all set for her baptism on Saturday and is more than ready (and anxious). She'll make a powerful contribution to the branch. Cecilia is powerful because she's such a hard worker and is such a sincere soul. Cecilia's victory is the kind of thing to make "Zion's walls ring with praise". #powerfulcecilia

We've been placing focus on a lot of our less active members of the church recently that were converted with the first missionaries that came to Offinso and quickly fell away after they left. The biggest downside to being a white missionary in Ghana is rumors get spread that we give people money or promise to send them abroad if they join the church. #nottrue So I guess that was often the case with some of the earlier converts in this area, who quickly fell less active when they realized that wasn't the case. Some of them have recently resurfaced as we have moved our proselyting efforts to other areas and we are currently working with the former Elders Quorum President, former Primary President, and one guy who believes that blessings eliminate the need for hospitals. #alsonottrue  We've got a lot of work to do.

Last bit... Shout out to Ondine Morgan who got called to the California San Jose Mission. And also shout out to Colton Condie who leaves on his mission this week!

Much Love to you ALL!

Elder Henderson

Sweet church in Old Offinso

Elder Smith taught some percussionists how it's done

This is me and the artist.

Powerful First vision painting I bought.

No excuses kraa!

Well kids this week was somehow somehow.

We had an exchange with the zone leaders this week, so that was pretty fun. Elder Ballard from Lehi came with us and Elder Kortu from Liberia went with the other two elders. We enjoyed saa. And met some pretty interesting characters. We had an encounter with this one guy who claimed to believe in everything. Yes... everything. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Traditionalism, Atheism, you name it. #thisguywasanoxymoron We offered to teach him but he said he wouldn't listen to us unless we would condone polygamy. So we stayed true to our values and went our separate ways.

Godfrey wheeled himself to church again! I officially declare that none of you have any excuses. #powerfulgodfrey #myinvestigatoriscoolerthanyours It was powerful because just the day before we were talking to him and he was expressing concern about being able to come to church again, and as much as we would like to help contribute for a taxi fair for him to come, rumors have spread that the missionaries have been paying people to come to church so paying for someone's taxi fair would be inappropriate. We basically told him that whether he came was completely in his own control, and if he tried to come Heavenly Father would help him. The man has faith.

We also had a sweet experience on the exchange with Elder Ballard #norelationtotheapostle. There is a woman named Felicia who doesn't speak any English and who has been coming to church for weeks and last Sunday we finally followed her home and followed up with her on Wednesday on the exchange. Felicia too is POWERFUL! She keeps telling us she knows the church is true because she, very distinctly, feels something warm inside her whenever she comes to church and is around missionaries. #thatsthespiritfelicia She looked so excited when we asked her to be baptized! She and her two sons should be getting baptized on August 5, along with Cecilia, who told us that she will do anything to be baptized! It was a good week, fam!

I'm emailing from Kumasi today because we had a zone activity today. You know what that means... I'm going to KFC after this, baby! I'm going to enjoy kraa! I love you all so much! I've been studying a lot in the missionary chapters of Alma. My challenge to everyone is to develop the faith of Ammon. Have so much faith that if you needed to cut a bunch of dudes' arms off, you could do so with no complications. #yayforthespirit!

Elder Henderson

I still feel like a pony...

Dear Children,

Another week has gone by here in Offinso, Ashanti Region, Ghana, and I just wanted to share a few things that have crossed my mind this past week.

1. I still feel like a pony. Everyone still points and stares as I walk by. I'm the center of attention everywhere I go. Small children always want to touch me. And drunk people seem oddly drawn to me whenever I'm in a powerful lesson with someone. #sikaansa

2. Missionary work is really powerful when it is really powerful. We started traveling to the far part of our area this week (Old Offinso) and we've been having wild success there. It's really interesting to see how there are people who have been so prepared to hear the gospel that they are willing to save up money to take a taxi to church every Sunday. Lucky for us, the Elders Quorum President Brother Boadu lives in Old Offinso, and he has been a tremendous help to us over there. (He's really popular, all our investigators over there know who he is.) We even had one of them come to church! Godfrey! The man has polio... wheeled himself from Old Offinso all the way to church and said he'll do it again next week! Remember this the next time you think getting out of bed to get to 9 o'clock church is too hard. #gogodfrey!!!

3. Training is the best! You guys, if I could get a missionary as young and ambitious as Elder Smith every transfer I would take it. This has easily been the best work of my mission with this guy. 

4. I want you all to know that missions are not easy. There is actually a lot of stress involved in missions that drive a lot of good people away. But it helps you grow so much. My capacity for endurance has sky-rocketed (despite my plummeting weight). If you are considering serving a mission, it is because the Spirit is prompting you to do so. I promise serving a faithful mission is never the wrong choice. 

I love you all! Here is a powerful picture of our LDS Bible video Jesus making onto an apostate church's poster.

Elder Henderson

Boldness is a Christlike attribute.

Well kids this was definitely an interesting week,

Allow me to begin with the bad news... Cecilia, Luanga, Kwame, Josephine, Fried Rice Frank, and a host of others all need to have their baptismal dates postponed... Various personal reasons... #Ifitsnotonecommandmentitsanother

I won't go into too much detail but we are currently working with chastity issues, word of wisdom issues, Sabbath day observance issues, and several others that are superseding testimonies of the Restored Gospel right now. So we are honestly going back to the drawing board with a lot of these guys.

The thing is, our investigators are all so powerful that I don't want to hastily drop them. The ones I mentioned above are all investigators that have developed testimonies but are being held back by one thing or another. I was wrestling a lot over this this week and I came to the conclusion (by divine instruction) that I needed to be more bold in my teaching.

We first really applied this on Thursday. Elder Smith and I went to Cecilia's place with our favorite member, Francis, to teach her for a scheduled appointment. Come to find out that she had forgotten about it and was out of town for ANOTHER FUNERAL. So instead we decided to share a message with her daughter who was in the house. As we were sharing Kwame came by and greeted us and told us to wait for him and that he would be right back. After greeting us he immediately walked over to a provision shop and bought a pack of cigarettes.

A little background on Kwame... when we first met him he was high as a kite. #letsgoflyakite We taught him at his request and the first thing we talked about was the Word of Wisdom. Ever since then we have been working diligently with him to help him overcome his drug, tobacco and alcohol addictions. Since then he has stopped drinking and doing drugs but has been seriously struggling with quitting smoking.

When we finished teaching Cecilia's daughter we saw that Kwame was smoking and decided to leave, but he noticed us and stopped us saying he was sorry and that he didn't want to, "make us mad". To that I kinda instinctively said, "No no, we're not mad." But then a little voice in the back of my head said, "Be bold." So I went with it. I told him I was actually really upset and that every time he smoked a cigarette that he was subjecting himself to the captivity of the devil... Then I said he shouldn't be doing it for me, he should be doing it for himself. (This wasn't my exact language but needless to say I was very bold).

But something really powerful came out of this... Kwame was more contrite about his addiction than I have ever seen him before. We saw him again the next day and he said that he intends to be 100% drug, smoke and alcohol free by 15 July. Please keep him in your prayers! If he can then this would be huge for him! It will be physical, real, proof that the Gospel of Christ can help anyone, in any situation, and is by far the most powerful antidote for addiction.

I love you all! Enjoy these pictures! They include goodbyes to Elder Christiansen, kente weavers, and my dinner last night!

Elder Henderson

Happy Birthday America! (And Brook and Syd)

The 2nd Counselor in our Branch Presidency was very anxious to invite us over for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate, "The America Birthday". #worldsgreatestholiday And if any of you have any objections to that hashtag you can take it up with Nephi. #choiceland #aboveallotherlands While we unfortunately won't be able to blow anything up this 4th of July, we will get to eat lots of fufu (which should cause some considerable damage to our toilet) so that should make up for it! #countyourblessings

We had transfers this week and my dear friend Elder Christiansen will be leaving Offinso and going to Obuasi. I'll miss him. The past four months have been powerful. #amenbrother 

Also, last week was somehow a struggle with missionary work. We had a lot of investigators fail us which tends to be somehow discouraging especially when the last 6 weeks have felt so productive. It's amazing the damage one great and abominable preacher can do to someone's testimony. #theblindwillalwaystrytoleadtheblind

Cecilia is still on track to be baptized next Saturday but the problem is that we haven't seen her in over a week. She keeps cancelling on us to attend funerals. (Funerals are major events that can last weeks at a time and a huge part of Ghanaian culture. Saturdays are often unproductive because the whole country is at some kind of a funeral). So hopefully we won't have anymore delay this week.

We started teaching the guy we always buy fried rice from! Fried Rice Frank! #friedricefrank He's super powerful and has three adorable daughters. Agnus, Mary and Daniella. His only problem is that Sunday is his biggest day for business because it's the day that all the great and abominable pastors break the Sabbath after Church and come get fried rice from him. We are working on it.

Love you all! Happy Fourth of July and also shout out to Brooklyn who's birthday is today and Sydney who's birthday was last week! Love you guys!

Elder Henderson

Now I know how Moses felt...

June 26, 2017

Friends and Family! I'm just now coming from KFC so I'm REALLY HAPPY! 

We climbed a mountain today!... I say mountain but it was more like a hill. It's like hiking Thanksgiving point for all you Utahns. But it was still fun! While we were there we contemplated deep doctrine and tried to imagine how Moses felt when he spoke to God face to face... #normalstuff

Well kids this week was somehow powerful... we had Stake conference and the Stake President spoke about something he called, "Pick and Choose obedience". He emphasized the importance of being completely obedient in ALL things and not just some things. It was really good. And there were some random white people there! #Itwasweird.  They're from Highland.

Elder Smith and I have been working really hard this week and are expecting to have some baptisms very soon! Cecilia, who we just met a couple weeks ago but seems to be progressing really well. The only concern is that she doesn't speak a lick of English. #mentebrofo #butthatsokay She gets really excited every time we go to see her so I'm assuming that's a good sign.

Much love to you all! I'm kind of in a hurry today, sorry! 

Elder Henderson