Moyamba Week 7

Photos at the end of this one are a bit graphic, heads up.

Once again I am still in Moyamba, but now I’m not the youngest!!!

This week Elder Kabosha got his new companion who was straight from the MTC. Elder Flake is from Arizona – he’s super nice and plays basketball and football – so we’ll be friends . It's nice to have another young missionary to be friends with. It’s also fun to look back and see him struggle and remember the times where people would talk to me and I wouldn’t understand anything. All is good though and I continue to give him encouragement as each day moves along. This week was a super long week but at the same time it went by quick. Crazy how time works.

Tuesday: Elder Kabosha was with Applegarth and I and it was super hot.  We struggled to stay awake through our first few appointments, but we made it through and cleaned the apartment for the green’s arrival on Wednesday.

Wednesday: We ate Irish Potato again (you’ll see that we eat it a lot) and went to Kabosha's area for the day. It was cool to see a different part of Moyamba, but it also makes me thankful for where I’m assigned to. Elder Flake came and we pretty much did the same thing that we did on my first day.

Thursday: Nothing interesting happened just taught some lessons and watched it rain.

Friday: It rained again and rained and rained and rained. We taught some lessons but nothing special.

Saturday: Was a great day. For one, my SOG knife came in handy again. This time a pig. SO currently we have a freezer full of pork.  After that, pretty much all our appointments bounced. But there are some great picture that I’ll try and send next week.

Sunday: We had church, and like I’ve said before, the Missionaries pretty much hold this branch afloat. So while Sundays at home are very relaxing, it is quite different here. I taught all the investigators which was about 25, but the two most important investigators we have didn’t come to church for the fourth week in a row.

In other News, next week we go to Bo again for Zone Conference. So hopefully I will be able to email in the cafe and send some pictures your way.

Elder Hendricks

Answers to questions:

General Conference is up in the air, members here don’t even know what that is so they won’t watch.  If our wifi works, we’ll watch it.  Here it’s live at 5pm  and 9pm.  But the lack of power here makes watching difficult.

Pretty much everyone we teach is Christian, there are boku (krio for "a lot") churches so most everyone goes to church somewhere.

Main form of transportation:  Motorcycle, and pretty much the only people that own a bike use it to make a living as a taxi.  I know of two people that have a car, very rare to see a car here.

How has your testimony changed?  My testimony has changed so much.  I knew that on my Mission I would have to rely on the Lord, but I never thought this much this early. So I have seen things that would not have been possible without the Lords help.  And also the amount of lessons we teach and times we bear our testimonies just continue to strengthen them.

Moyamba Week 6

So after six weeks I am still standing! And this past week was defiantly the best.

Tuesday: I took some lappas to our tailor friend for him to make me a jacket. He makes a lot of things for the elders and is really good at what he does. Proselyting was pretty normal but we ran out of gas for our generator, which kinda shows how the mission forgets about us because we had been asking for more gas for a week. So we had no power for two days, and of course each night it was hot as all get out, so we pretty much just slept in sweat.

Wednesday: Was the best day of the mission so far, we first went to one of our investigators that is really smart, and asks questions that make us think, rather than just the normal easy questions we get asked, the problem is we didn't think he was progressing. But this lesson the Spirit was strong and he had said he needs to baptized. It was way cool to be there and see him realize for himself. And we finished the day off with Irish Potato. The Irish Potato Lady runs one of 3 restaurants in Moyamba. Irish Potato is by far our favorite so let me tell you what it is. It is spaghetti noodles mixed with Irish potatoes, or normal potatoes to us Americans, with cucumber, onion,
tomato, fried plantain or sweet banana, a lot of ketchup and mayonnaise, top off with an egg. Served with bread. It sounds gross but let me tell you it doesn't have rice or palm oil so sometimes its the best thing on the planet.

Thursday: First off Happy Anniversary to the One and Only Gary And Kristin! It was a pretty average day except for the fact that when we started dinner it started to rain, we didn't have our umbrellas but we were at the members home so we figured it would pass over by the time we were done. It didn't. S finally around 10pm we finally had to walk the three miles home in the pouring rain. FUN.

Friday: Was transfer news day. Elder Applegarth and I will be staying another transfer together but Elder Gamil got transferred to Freetown, And I guess I was a lab rat on training in the bush because Elder Kabosha will be training a new kid on here starting Wednesday. So not only will I not be the youngest in the mission anymore, but not even the youngest in my apartment.

Saturday: We had another baptism, this time Elder Applegarth and I baptized three people. I got to perform the Baptism and it was super cool. That night we were having a little party for Gamil and our snack lady closed shop early so we were trying to find another place to buy our sparkling cider. When we walked by the lone club in Moyamba. So we went clubbing on a Saturday night to find our drink. And by clubbing I mean we walked to the bar in the back, bought the drink, and walked out. And like all clubs, there were colored lights and loud music except there was only like 10 people inside sitting on couches watching soccer.

Sunday: I blessed the Sacrament, gave a talk, taught the second hour, and taught the third hour. So church isn't quite as relaxing as it is back home. But the missionaries keep this branch afloat so whatever we can do to help.

This morning Gamil was picked up at 6 am and we had an appointment at 7 so after that we went to the bank, saw small, small American sports highlights and now I am here.

I am doing great and love missionary work. It is like nothing I have ever experienced but the spirit I have is like no other. This transfer I get to help a new kid in my apartment as well as help my companion go home so it will be a good contrast.

Elder Hendricks

Sorry about pictures our wifi still isn't strong to send

Once again, we had a chance to ask Elder Hendricks some questions, and here are his replies:

Our church building is an old doctors home - a two story building with the big room - capacity of probably 60 and we cram about 70 in for Sacrament. The Church has a generator to run fans and lights, but most people come to charge their phones. The organ is an electric piano older than me so no, you can’t make it play automatically and whenever you play middle C with F is sounds terrible, so it makes for interesting hymns. 

Yes they eat lots of bread, but no sliced bread - think kinda like a hoagie roll, but better. And everywhere you can find people selling it.

People will do anything because we're white. If we put up flyers saying we were having a baptism with our faces on it, the whole town would show up to see the what the white people were doing.

I don’t know why we have a freezer but no fridge.  The freezer keeps our stuff cold. The Branch President is Edison Bannister – he’s a police officer,  35 years old and has been a member since he was 14.

Elder Applegarth killed the deer. He hunts a lot back home so knows how to do that kind of stuff.  What we didn’t eat, we gave away. The deer was actually full grown, but bush animals are small here. Yes, killing the deer is normal.  People here kill and eat anything that moves beside dogs. I even had porcupine and grasscutter (which is like a huge rat). People here also love mayonnaise so it’s a good thing I’m here and not Mom.

We can buy fuel in town, but the mission prepays because it’s expensive.  We ran out of money and they haven’t paid so...yeah.  We run the generator all night, otherwise it gets hotter than all get out.  No, I didn’t get a new camera, oops.  The lappas jacket is cool and really tight so I shouldn’t gain any weight or it will just be something in a box, but I think I paid like $10 US dollars for it so...

All is well and I’m having fun. 

Moyamba Weeks 4 & 5

WARNING: a photo has been added at the end and is a bit sad.
Last week we didn't hear from Will until Friday (he usually emails on Monday), and here is what he sent: 

Sorry I wasnt able to email this past monday, our wifi has been having serious problems and what we are doing now probably isnt even allowed but im doing it anyway.

Zone Conference good is was cool to see a different side of Salone, the "city" or what they call it. 

I am doing fine and im still alive, our front door broke and wont open but in Bo i spent 152,000 Leones (about $17.50) on groceries so were are eating somewhat better than before.

Baptism went great and we did it in a river so when we have better wifi ill send them and tell you about what we did this week. HAHA, it involves a change in a classic DIsney Movie. Ill let that sink in.

Love you all,

The Work is Spiritually rewarding in the fact that we have 3 more baptisms next week, but i am convinced it is one of the hardest missions physically, but all is for our good!.

Elder Hendricks 

I left that unedited so that you could enjoy the confusion we had when we recieved it. BUT he was safe and seemed happy, so we didn't think much of it. Here is what we got this week:

To start off, I would like to wish everyone a happy start to thecollege football season and Go Cougs, both BYU and WSU!

The mission isnt going to send us a new wifi router until transfers, which is next week, so we are currently using the branch presidents. But hey it works! I dont think I'll be able to send photos, so those will have to
wait.

The last two weeks have been crazy so I'll try my best to summarize them. We went to Bo for Zone conference and the Mission Tour for Elder Nash. It was nice to talk to Elder Nash about Seattle and when he shared he story about growing up in Seattle he looked straight at me. The best part about Bo was the supermarket. Moyamba doesnt have a supermarket so I spent a lot of money on sugar cereal, peanut butter, jelly, and candy. And i spent almost equally as much at actual resturants because it was something different than rice. We were in Bo tuesday to thursday and came back just in time to get ready for our Baptism we had on September 1. That was how Elder Applegarth and I celebrated college football. We didnt actually baptize her, President Bannister did, but on Sunday when standing up to confirm her, Elder Applegarth informed me that i would be confirming her, So i had the awesome first chance to do that!

This past week went fast and slow, and you're are probably curious with the subject of this email (Salone Bambi) and about my small comment about a disney film so i will explain.

I dont think i have ever seen Bambi but i know how it goes, he sees his mother die, runs off and lives a happy life with thumper and friends. Well Salone Bambi goes a little bit different. Im not sure if
Salone Bambi watched his mother die but after he ran off he was caught by a 13 year old boy. Still alive, the boy tied the deer up and took off for town to try and sell the deer. When riding his bike, the boy saw
two white missionaries headed back from town from an appointment. He proceeded to get off the bike and began to talk price with the missionaries. They agreed on a price of 125,000 Le ($14.37) and the missionaries went away happy as they had just got a new pet. They got home and tied it to a tree and went back out to finish their work.

They returned home that night to find the deer in the same spot but when checking right before they went to sleep, it was no where to be found. Sadly they went to bed and decided to look in the morning, Well
the next morning the found the deer in the bushes of their compound and tied it tighter to the tree.

The story does not end well for Bambi and as the following morning we killed Bambi with the help of our 15 year old friend that we pay to do laundry. Elder Gamil cooked the meat and we have been enjoying deer
meat sandwiches since!

My proudest moment in this whole story is that it was my SOG knife that was used to slit the throat and skin the deer, so thank you Drew!.

Other than that great story this week was long because there was a YSA conference in Bo that we urged a lot of investigators and members to go to. To our surprise almost everyone went!, which left almost no one to teach here. But we made it through.

Still Crazy to think i am on my mission but I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Elder Hendricks

Moyamba Week 3

I still have a hard time believing that I am actually in Africa!

This past week was a pretty average week, it rained a lot which was good because it was starting to get really hot. But thanks to the rain I have been cold a lot of this past week, even though it has not dropped below 78 degrees. My Krio is coming along nicely and I am starting to understand more and more things that people are saying to me. 

The food hasn't gotten any better, but it hasn't gotten worse so that's good! We had a senior missionary companion come last thursday from Bo and inspect our apartment, they brought us peanut butter and jelly, I don't think I have loved a PB&J that much, it tasted so good. I have also determined that I miss the smell of good cooking most. Yesterday was Elder Applegarth's 22 month B-day so Elder Kabosha made cake, and it smelled so good.

Today we taught a few lessons in the morning, which we don't usually do because people aren't around in the mornings. We were served rice and benin, which is basically spicy sand. Elder Applegarth and I suffered through it, but he told me this is why we normally don't go out in the morning. 

Yesterday in Church I played the organ, or electronic piano. It was a disaster hahahahahaha, but we made it through it. And a brother even told me I had a hidden talent, he's blind so maybe his ears don't work all that well either.

Tomorrow we leave for Bo, for Zone conference and The Mission tour for Elder Nash to come, Elder Applegarth has been excited for this since I arrived because he said we can actually get some good food, and cool things so stay tuned. 

Other than that, things are going great! We have our first baptism this coming saturday! And four more with dates, So the work it great!

Elder Hendricks (below the photos is more!)

1. Me and the cute naked boy (this time he had clothes on so I had to take a picture, we went back today and he came running out to greet me. So I have a new friend)

2. Elder Applegarth and I with the bush behind us, it was pouring if you couldn't tell.

3. Missionaries with the branch President

4. Elder Applgarth and I

5. Elder Kaboasha and Applegarth celebrating his 22 months

WIll spends a couple hours on the computer on P-day, and so we have the chance to chat back and forth a bit with him. Here are the answers to a few questions asked by Mom/Dad.

Tithing has just been sitting in a box for the past year, so it wasn’t too hard to sort out, but just long time entering all the slips. The generator in our apartment powers all the lights and outlets so we can have fans and makes our freezer work. Nothing too big, but it makes a big difference. We have a kitchen that consists of a sink and a four burner stove and an oven.  I have a feeling ill be in Moyamba for quite a while. We do some food prep in our apartment like breakfast but we don’t have a way to keep anything besides rice and oatmeal, so we have to buy right before we cook. Elder Gamil does a lot of the cooking for us, he likes to try new things, and Elder Kabosha likes to bake and usually burns whatever he bakes, luckily for me I enjoy burned cookies. we don’t do a lot of physical service as most people won’t let us, but my favorite thing to do is read The Book of Mormon to a blind man in the branch, we do that about 3-4 times a week. A lot of people can’t read out here in the bush so it makes teaching difficult sometimes, but most people are really smart. The market we can buy like most cooking stuff like flour and sugar and vanilla, but the more American it is, the more expensive. And we can’t find peanut butter here so we have to wait for someone to bring it.

We do have a cell phone, one per companionship (like moms phone before her iphone; most people have phone but few don’t) it works on a prepaid credit type of system. Contacting is challenging in the fact of finding serious people. Everyone will talk to us because we're white, it a challenge finding those who care. And Moyamba is like 90% Muslim. And yes I sleep under a mosquito net. Most citizens also sleep under a net. We are given a special bank card, and every two weeks we pull cash from the bank. There is no store in Moyamba so all street vendors. The missionaries have favorite ones where the owners give us deals.