Exodus from the land northward...

Hey everyone! I know you are all dying to know: yes I'm getting transferred. #sawthatonecoming Right in the nick of time too because it's starting to get hot saa! The other day, Elder Prior and I were out proselyting and I had a juice that was starting to taste like cider. This was later in the day after it had cooled off saa and so we called Elder Renfroe to ask what the temperature was outside. It was 104 degrees, and it was the cool part of the day.

 

Night isn't much better, I'm kinda used to it but Elder Prior hasn't been able to sleep kraa. He's got a thermometer on his alarm clock... In our bedroom, with all our fans going it's about a consistent 95 degrees all night. And they say that March is the hottest month of the year up here so I'm really grateful to be going down south to Kumasi just in time for rainy season down there #bittersweet. Elder Prior is staying up here to #melt #haha.

 

My new companion is Elder Otiano #spellingmaybecorrectedbynextmonday, he and I will be whitewashing an area [means both missionaries are new to the area] in Kumasi called Offinso. He's going to be district leader. I've heard lots of great things about this missionary. He's from Kenya. I'm really excited to be working with him!​

 

I'm also sad to be leaving though because Abigail and Jerry James are getting baptized this Saturday and I'll be missing it by only 3 days! I'm actually really upset about that. Abigail and Jerry James have both progressed better and faster than I possibly could've imagined. And both are such great examples of faith to me. I spoke a lot about Jerry James last week, so this week I want to share a sad experience about Abigail.

 

So Abigail stays with her sister and her brother-in-law. Last week they saw her throwing out some of her Pentecostal merchandise and asked her about us. When she told them she intended to baptize into the church they freaked out and said if she did that she couldn't live with them. She didn't back down and so they kicked her out of the house. She's been homeless for several days because of it. We didn't know this until she told us at church yesterday. Luckily we've got some great people in the ward who are helping to find her a place to stay. But despite this hard core persecution she's been getting she is remaining strong and looking forward to her baptism this Saturday. I'm hoping to get a call from Elder Prior once the baptisms are over with.

 

So my question for all my friends and family is this: are we like Abigail? If we are backed up against the wall and have only our faith in Christ to rely on, will we stay true? Are we willing to risk everything we have for what we believe in? Do we have enough faith to follow through? I'd encourage all of us to pray for the strength to remain faithful when the going gets tough. I'm so proud of Abigail and proud to call her my friend. She truly has strengthened my testimony this week. Love you all! Hang in there kids!

 

P.S. I know Evolution is going on tour this week... Guys please send me pictures!!!! Love you guys, good luck!

 

Abigail and me

Elder Prior and me waiting for Jocelyn (a less active member we've been teaching hymns to)

When you run out of food on Sunday this is what you get for dinner (rice, spaghetti sauce, and sardines)

Ghanaian PSA's

SOMEONE SEND ME HAYDEN'S EMAIL!!!!!!!!

Hello beloved friends and family!

First item of business, happy late birthday Hannah! #andthebestbrotherawardgoesto....

 

Also, I was going to avoid writing about this but I guess everyone already knows so I'll just give you all the details. So last week we had a particularly hot night and my fan was kinda malfunctioning because of #ghanapower so I was just laying there awake in the middle of the night and glancing over to the window I saw a shadow of a man walking by... which is a little concerning because our compound is fenced off. So I woke up Elder Prior and told him someone was in the compound. The two of us got up to investigate. We were making our way to the front door when out of our kitchen walks a guy in a mask (we named him Stew). It is at that moment that my dear companion fearlessly said, "What's up bro?" Then we chased him off the compound while yelling at him to alert the neighbors #justincase. Then we went back to bed. Since then we have taken better precautions regarding the security of our apartment so Stew won't be able to come back without making lots and lots of noise.

 

Proselyting was really slow this week... like really slow. Finding in Tamale continues to be dismal. And most of my previous investigators have lost interest in the message so as of late our teaching pool has been kinda pathetic. But transfers are also coming up soon and I suspect to be transferred down south. #nothingtobackthattheoryup 

 

Abigail and Jerry James are both on track to be baptized March 5 (after transfers). Abigail would have been baptized this week but she had an emergency and couldn't attend church this week. 

 

I love you all. Evo I hope you all have your pictures from tour ready to send me! 

Also shout out to my main man Hayden getting engaged to my old friend Maddi Ross... #Thatthrewmeforaloop.

 

I hope you all know that I truly appreciate all of your emails. Many of you share spiritual experiences or scripture passages that mean something to you and I hope you all know that they all have meant something to me too. I truly know that this church is true. And I truly know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It's really easy out here to get in the bad habit of using the bible to debate instead of bearing plain and simple testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through Joseph Smith. To quote Brad Wilcox, "In order to know Jesus, you must know Joseph." To all my missionary friends out there... never hesitate to bear testimony of Joseph Smith. That is where the power of our teaching is built upon. Love you guys! ​​​​

--

Elder Henderson

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.