Watch me Whipple, watch me nae nae.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children young and old, we had a great week this week! Like seriously a GREAT week! Elder Whipple and I did thrust in our sickles, proselyted 50+ hours this week and reaped some serious sheaves. They shall be gathered into the garners, if you know what I mean. #lookitup #alma26:5

First off, can I just say that we have some of the coolest investigators in the world? Benjamin (who is from Lebanon) and his wife Linda needed an interview this week from our zone-leaders because of their Muslim background but they are remaining super powerful and came to church this week! They are in love with the idea of eternal marriage so we are working right now to help them prepare for the temple. #mindyoutheyneedtobebaptizedfirst #november4th Also, married couple, Alice and Ezekiel, came to church this week and they are also progressing rapidly. Especially Alice. She had her Book of Mormon out and was taking notes throughout all the meetings. Also, our other married couple, Joe and Mary drove their bus to church and took their daughter, Blessing, with them. It was great they took their bus because they were able to take many other members who live in Odumase home for no charge. Including our 18 year old less active member, Mary, who finally came back to church today! We are working to prepare her for a mission. Also, we met a guy this week name Andrews who has a brother who was baptized in Barcelona a few years ago and told Andrews to look up the church and join it. He also came. ALSO, our guy, Dove, came and we are preparing to baptize him this coming Saturday! The 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum's non-member wife, Comfort, finally came to church with him too! #itwasaprettygoodday. Needless to say our investigator class almost exceeded the Gospel Doctrine class. But yeah, anyway we had 10 investigators at church yesterday. And they are ALL progressing. #YEEAAAAHHHHHH

Elder Whipple and I have been getting a TON of success, and here's the interesting thing, God was the one who led all these incredibly well prepared people to us. We really didn't do much. All we really did was go out and sing some hymns on the side of the road. #africamissionthemusical Mind you, not all these investigators were found as we were singing, but none of them were found tracting. #mostcommonformoffindinginthismission I seriously don't have a better explanation than these people were all led to us by the Spirit. All we did was go out, do our thing, and try to be obedient and diligent in the process. "And behold the number of [our] sheaves." Diligence alone is simply not enough. When both companions are on the same page and striving to be exactly obedient, miracles happen. I'm a personal witness right now! #greatmarriageprinciple

I love you all! Doing great this week and I hope all of you are doing great as well!

PS I know it's been over a year but if you are reading this and you haven't emailed me in a while, I still love you, and as many as will repent will be forgiven. #thatisahint I do read all emails that come to me, even if I don't have time to respond to them.

PPS Haha, no I have not gotten hit by any moving vehicles this week. And no I've never been hit by anything moving faster than 5 mph.

PPPS This last bit is a public apology to my mother for forgetting to take pictures this week. Thank goodness for repentance #amiright?

Elder Henderson

Half-time Report

For those of you just tuning in, Henderson is leading 12-0 at the end of the first half. Which just goes to show that you simply can't have any true baptisms without proper Priesthood Authority. Here are the stats:

• Served with 6 companions (3 Americans, 3 Africans)
• Served in 3 areas (All different regions)
• Been hit by 3 cars and 2 motorcycles #manofsteel
• Gone through 2 watches
• Lost 25 pounds
• Thrown up 3 times
• Gotten Malaria 0 times (This is the real indicator of victory)
• Eaten 1 dog
• Converted 0 Muslims
• Baptized 0 seven-year-olds 
• Chased 1 intruder out of my apartment

As you can see it's been a pretty eventful year here in the sub-Sahara. But it has only been one year. The truly great thing about a mission is that I get two of them! I'm so excited to see what this next year brings. It has gone by really fast and I know this next year will go by even faster, so I need to relish every moment.

It's interesting, because, especially when you serve in a third world country, it gets really easy to complain about your circumstance. For instance, I got a picture today from one of my friends serving in the states. The picture was her zone and each companionship was standing in front of their respective car. The other missionaries in the cafe and I had a good laugh because our cars are our feet. And it's constantly 1000 degrees outside and indoors doesn't exist here. #acalsodoesnotexist

But overall the work makes every inconvenience so worth it. In fact it makes you start to enjoy the inconveniences. I feel like Paul who began to glory in his tribulations. Mind you, I don't suffer at all comparative to Paul (I honestly don't suffer at all). But this week especially I was heavily reminded that this is indeed the Lord's work and it is indeed the work I was called to perform.

I have witnessed some remarkable progression in nearly all of our investigators. I have seen the Book of Mormon change people's lives. From Benjamin, to Alice, to Solomon. I am witnessing some true conversion taking place here because of the Book of Mormon. And it is a real miracle.

I've said this before and I will say it again: If you are considering serving a mission, do it. You can't say a mission is not for you. Missions are for everyone. If you face any challenges disagreements, or doubts in regard to the church, revisit and reread the Book of Mormon. Those who read the Book of Mormon daily develop the faith to move mountains. I've witnessed it. Society is flawed and has stumbled greatly. If you put your trust in the Scriptures and the Prophet more than a world that preaches moral relativism, you will be happy no matter what trials enter into your life. The family is the basic unit of heaven. They exist for our happiness, and they are the design by which exaltation is accomplished. We cannot attain true happiness without it. Remember that all good things come from God. And also, all things that come from Him are good and for the benefit and love of the children of men. I love you all! I wish you all the best for the next year until we meet again and I can witness to all of you in person the truth, as I have witnessed it first hand. Love you!

Whippled into shape!

This week... this week this week this week. You guys, the work MOVED this week. First off, I hope you all watched General Conference because it was particularly incredible this year. I also hope that you paid extra close attention to the addresses by President Nelson and President Eyring. Seriously amazing. I only got to watch, Saturday Afternoon, Priesthood, and Sunday Morning sessions, but I was still seriously moved by what I saw and heard. Elder Whipple and I were a little sad when none of our investigators showed up at the stake center at the start of the first session but afterwards we found that two of our investigators had actually shown up and we hadn't noticed. Solomon and Ezekiel. We were even happier when Solomon (apparently very moved by President Nelson's incredibly powerful remarks on the Book of Mormon) informed us that he was going to return home so he could study the Book of Mormon more!!! #apostlepower! #nelsonIchooseyou

This week I also promised Steven that if he decided to come he would hear a message that pertained directly to him. He and his wife, Ruth, showed up to priesthood session and from what he said, the promise was fulfilled. We also had some new investigators, Joseph and his wife Mary, #hahayesiknowivealreadymadetheconnection, came and spent their time in the relief society room where we had a translation in Twi going. They seemed to enjoy though we were really pleased.

Elder Whipple is very VERY powerful! This week we were able to get right to work looking for new ways to find. We began by going into town and just... singing! AND IT WORKED! We found like, 10 new investigators this week. It was powerful. #thepoweroftheatrekids #signingmissionarythesequal One investigator was a guy from Lebanon. Benjamin! #benjiforshort He's super powerful but still he couldn't make it to conference. 

We are exploring all kinds of new ways to find and I'm super excited to see what we come up with.

I just want to take a moment and sustain the words of President Eyring at the Priesthood session about our church leaders. I had a dramatic impact on me and I just want you all to know that I know that these men are called by God. The only perfect man who ever lived was the Savior. And the fact that God knows each of us so well as to know perfectly who to call to govern His church for the greatest benefit of everyone is truly a miracle. I think we can all follow President Eyring's council and be less critical of our church leaders. Without our faith success is not possible. It is the same way that a missionary cannot gain success if the investigator does not develop the faith to act and repent. We can strengthen the kingdom drastically if we decide now to recognize that God operates always through his chosen servants, and develop the faith to sustain them, and follow their council.

Love you guys! Here are some more pictures! (Mostly consisting of myself, and Elders Whipple, Barnum and Dennis.

Elder Henderson

 

Proselyting with Elder Whipple

French Toast Sunday!

Elder Boima (From Sierra Leone) and me on our way back from D.L. Training

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. OW.

September 25, 2017

Eusbett [a restaurant] was nice! Just in case anyone was wondering. I have pictures, but they will have to wait until next week because I'm running out of time and pictures here take a long time to upload.

Transfers came this week! Elder Effiong is getting transferred to Obuasi #cityofgold which is essentially on the other side of the mission. My new companion is going to be the only other theatre geek in the whole mission, Elder Whipple! I'm super excited about that! He's from Missouri, I've been in the same zones as him most of my mission and this last transfer he was my zone leader. Now he's been released and he's coming to be my companion for his last transfer before he goes home.

Elder Forrest is also getting transferred. He's going to Konongo (Nkawkaw), to be a zone leader. So with him leaving I'll be the new district leader in the Penkwase district. I'm heading down to Kumasi today for district leader training.

We started going to the gym this week. #hencemysubjectheading It's been a great way of making sure I'm up by 6:30am but man... I'm sore. This is the first time I've lifted since I've come on my mission so... nkakra kakra akoko benim nsuo, I am managing. I figured it would be a good idea since I'm currently skinnier than I've been since I was 16.

Anyway, much love to you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Henderson

Zip-a-dee-ay and Heigh-dee-ho!

September 18, 2017

Man! Thank you all so much for the powerful Birthday wishes! It only took 11.5 months of my mission but I'm finally 19. #oneyearolderandwisertoo I know all of you want to know what I did for my birthday so I'll just tell you... I proselyted. But never fear, because tonight I'm going to feast at Eusbett! #feastuponit Eusbett is the hotel here in Sunyani. A few weeks ago we scouted out the restaurant. It has a lot of food that I haven't seen in a very long time so I'm excited.

My birthday was actually very VERY sweet because I had the wonderful privilege of confirming Kelvin. It was a really powerful experience. I was actually worried (and so was he) because he came late and even missed sacrament. We were worried we would have to wait until next week but luckily after the last talk the Branch President called us up and we were able to do it just before the meeting ended. Now we are working on family history with him. #yayforgenealogy

It's interesting because family history is really REALLY difficult to do in west Africa where absolutely no records were kept by anyone until Ghana gained independence from Great Britain. So he's gonna have to do some digging but we are hoping to get his mom involved in helping out with this as a means of introducing her to the gospel. She's a great woman but she has never had any interest in meeting with us or leaving her apostate church. #seedifficulties

Well, I hope you all know how much I love each and every one of you. I love hearing from you guys #andgettingpicturesfromyou and I'm so grateful for the overwhelming support I've been getting from home. I want to make it very clear how much credit my parents deserve for my being here. I love them so much and I'm so grateful for their amazing examples to me. I hope someday to be as powerful as my mother and father. I love you guys.

PS Here is a picture of my birthday banku!

Elder Henderson

Birthday Banku

At Zone Conference with Sister Cosgrave

"No unhallowed hand will stop this baptism from happening!"

September 11, 2017

Man, this week was interesting. #veryinteresting

First off I had a boss exchange with Elder Forrest. #forgottotakepictures

But also, Kelvin's baptism!! Which by the way was in jeopardy when we showed up Sunday morning before church to fill up the font and the water pump at the church spoiled. So we had to get in touch with the District president, take our candidates and our baptists AND our Presiding Authority, to the District Center, and do the baptism there. It was sweet in the end. I attached pictures.

We had another hiccup when the other companionship's candidate couldn't get himself all the way under the water. Seriously for the life of him he couldn't do it. Finally after like, 8 tries they were successfully able to immerse him in the water.

Kelvin did it on the first try. #gokelvin

Sorry guy's that is really all I've got this week. Love ya!

Elder Henderson

IT'S MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

September 4, 2017

Today is a very special day friends and family because today my mom turns... not a day over 25.

If you have not had a chance to wish her happy birthday, the day is still young! Therefore I officially dedicate this email to my wonderful mother. And her birthday gift... LOTS OF PICTURES!!! #YAAAYYYYY

This week has been interesting. My companion has a twisted ankle so that is the only real explanation for the pictures below. We've been seeing this mystery nurse woman who apparently has the remedy. What you will see below is my companion in lots and lots of pain. #wedontseeheranymore

We had District Conference this week and it was awesome! All the missionaries #exceptelderguevara in the Sunyani zone participated in the District Choir. It was pretty special #tonedeaf but special. The good thing about it was it really invited the spirit into the meeting.

Mine and Elder Effiong's plan to get 6 investigators at District conference did not go well. We fell victims to the classic case of investigators telling us they were on their way to the district center just to get us off their back. But we did have two investigators show up. Kelvin and Gloria. Both are youth age. Are youth represented this week and honestly our adults kinda failed us. It may be time to clean house. #youthpower

Kelvin remains super powerful and will be getting baptized on this coming Sunday.

Gloria is a neat story. Gloria was a fresh investigator when I got to Sunyani and she had never come to church before. When we met were her last week she confessed to us that she initially didn't believe what we were teaching her at all and hadn't been keeping any commitments. We boldly invited her to just try keeping commitments and reading the Book of Mormon on her own and praying about it, promising that she would feel good about it if she did. We asked her to read King Benjamin's sermon and kinda left it at that.

The next time we met with her she told us that she had been reading and that as she was reading the things in the Book of Mormon were starting to make perfect sense. She said that after she prayed she felt like the book was true. We explained that that was the Spirit and she should remember that feeling because it will continue to teach her. 

After District Conference she was really anxious to be baptized. The only problem is that she leaves for boarding school next week, and probably won't be back until Christmas. But she is taking the Book of Mormon with her and has promised to read it every day.

That's all for this week kids! Remember to wish my Mom a Happy Birthday!

Elder Henderson

My comp and me outside the District Center

Elder Effiong and the foot lady

Elder Forrest trying to compose a rap

The view from inside the mosquito net

My companion and I looking flexing for District Conference

My companion and I looking flexing for District Conference

Us with Gloria and Kelvin

District Choir

Our flexing district

Elder Forrest and me