The Big City (5/28)

First off I am very sorry that I didn't email last week, the internet in Kenema sucks. And I am sorry that this email is coming a day late because yesterday I was busy traveling across the country to Freetown!

Yes, I was finally transferred to Freetown, the first time I have been back since I cam last August, but we will talk about it later. 

Last Monday we had a Zone Activity were we went to the river beach in Kenema and played soccer and Frisbee and other fun games it was super dope and a lot of fun. In terms of the work this past week it was awesome. Kpayama area continued to not disappoint and bring a bunch of people closer to Heavenly Father through the Gospel. 

On May 18th we had two baptisms, this past week we had another. What made this baptism so cool was that is was combined with four other branches in Kenema. There was a total of eleven people getting baptized all on the same day! It was such a cool baptism to be at, as there were so man people that the District President made a comment that he felt like he was in a normal Sunday service on a Saturday morning. It was awesome to see how much support they had in their choice to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. 

Friday night was when we received our transfer news, and I was told that I was going to Tengbeh Town, in Western Freetown. My companion is Elder Burns, he's from Arizona and he's cool. He goes home at the beginning of  August so he has been here a while. I left Kenema Sunday afternoon and spent the night in Bo where we then left for Freetown at like 10:00am. We arrived at like 4:30 and the area has some huge mountains I get to climb while proselyting. (Think like walking up somerset hill every day) But one awesome thing is that I am super close to the golf course! 

I love the Gospel and I know that the church is true. I love the Book of Mormon and want to thank you all for the love and prayers that you offer for me!

Elder Hendricks 

1.We went for a hike a few weeks back

2. Baptism

3. 5 branch baptism

4. Don't get fined 

Meese (5/6)

This week was awesome!

It all started on Tuesday with exchanges with Elder Dube. I had the chance to go to IDA. Its an area in Kenema and it was so awesome. Elder Dube is from Zimbabwe and he came on mission one transfer before me. It was so sweet and he's basically like a pro soccer player but he likes to golf, so as you can imagine we had no problem talking. Also, we got so much food! we ate so much and ended visiting the Relief Society President of the IDA branch. She lived in Allen Texas for 22 years and was an ordinance worker in the Dallas Texas Temple. And on top of it, she has a grandson that is in the NFL and played center for BYU from like 2014-2016. So we legit talked about Provo and what she liked about Provo and what I liked. (Her favorite part in the Y on the mountain)

Our apartment was kinda gross. Just think dust everywhere. And not dust mites but dirt dust from the dirt road outside our apartment. Well you can look on the bright side that we don't have cockroaches but...we had a colony of mices...mice...meese? Notice had though. In a span of 2 days, we killed 14 mice. We catch them using sticky paper so now we only have like 3 running around.

In terms of work this week it was awesome. We have 3 different people that are preparing for Baptism on the 18th of May! And I am super stoked about it. Also, we had 11 different people come to Sacrament meeting yesterday so between them and our recent converts and less actives we do not have a shortage of things to be doing! The work is moving great!

This week I was listening to a BYU speech by Elder Holland. "Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments" if you have not listened to it it is an awesome talk. He explains about us and our relationship with our Heavenly Father and about how we can improve that relationship.

It makes me think more about how much Heavenly Father loves us, no matter who or where or what you are going through, he LOVES us. He will always be there for us, so we should try our best to be there for him.

Elder Hendricks 

2. My boy Musa and I

3. Elder Roche and I were twining today playing soccer

Independence Day (4/29/19)

This past week has been awesome!

As an apartment we decided that each of the companionship would ask a member in our area to make us a big pot of plasauce (African food, usually anything from leaves to beans to soup to put on rice.) We enjoyed this past week in our apartment eating beans, cassava leaf and boil soup. 

This week in terms of work was really fun. Lots of walking and crazy things to do. Like I have said before our area is huge so we had lots of walking. I have really enjoyed the walking which might surprise my mom because I think all she remembers is all the times I would complain before our family hikes. I mean what can they say mission turns boys to men ;)

Because last week was Easter all the schools locked and they have this two week breaks. So its really fun because a few people are not in town which makes it fun but other than that we are chilling. We still have an awesome branch with awesome members that are super fun to work with and strengthen. Like yesterday we had a Branch Council where we worked together. It was sweet.

In other news we found a great new restaurant that sells fried rice and it is super sweet and cheap so we spend like a bunch of money there. Also we went there on Saturday. 

Saturday was Sierra Leone Independence Day. The new President of the country has been real strict on the whole celebration for Independence day. So it was actually anti climactic because nothing really happened and we got hyped up to see a bunch of crazy people running through the city. 

This week should be super cool too!

Elder Hendricks

Just a reminder:) 

Easter Week (4/22/19)

This past week was interesting. 

Being the first week of the transfer we had lots of meetings and different councils on what our goals and objectives for this coming transfer are. 

It was super fun to meet with all the missionaries in our zone for a lot of different times this week. Our big goals this transfer are to ask more inspired questions. As we really ask questions that the Holy Ghost put into our mind, it really helps us understand the needs of the people that we are teaching. If you have never taught anyone, it is impossible if you don't know what they need to earn. So to I am super excited to focus on this and see how it improves our teaching.

Elder Abara and I are getting along fine. He's from Nigeria so it creates for some real awkward cultural differences sometimes, but nothing that you shouldn't experience in a mission. We taught some killer lessons this week and even felt the Spirit a lot so it was super cool to do that. We have one dude that is preparing to be baptized at the end of this transfer and hopefully a few more when we reach there.

Easter Sunday was interesting. Yesterday was the day prepared for the whole country to watch General Conference. So we met in one building and watched the Sunday Morning session. It was so crowed and it was super cool. Little did everyone know though, we would watch 3 sessions back to back to back. To make it short, by the time the second sessions started it was less than half full and by the time the third sessions started there was the missionaries and 4 members. Quite the change from starting with upwards of like 300 members. But to say the least I enjoyed watching conference again, and I was surprised to see how much was actually talked about Easter and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

This morning we woke up and played soccer and then went and ate fried rice and chicken before coming to email, we have a FHE planned for tonight and it should be sweet!

I love this Gospel, I know I say it a lot but it could not be more true! It has blessed my life and while I share it with people in Sierra Leone I invite all people back to home that are not members of Christ's Church to look into it and see how it can bless yours!

Elder Hendricks 

1. All the Elders in Kenema Zone last transfer

2. Your missionary whooligans   

Tiger is the G.O.A.T. don't @ me (4/16/19)

First off Tiger is the greatest of all time. Elder Kunz, the senior missionary in Kenema was the one that broke the news to me, Monday morning at 6:30am I did not believe it until I saw it for myself.

Y'all can ask my Dad I called it last week and in fact, In July when i was still in the MTC, my father emailed me about how Tiger was close to winning the Open. I proceeded to write in my journal that night I knew Tiger would win a major while I was gone. Called It. 

While it might seem like this took up most of my week, it didn't and I was still focused on the work. Just Monday morning.  

This past week was good, Elder Abad and I continued to do work and get along. We were planning to have a Zone Activity on Friday night, we were going to watch Remember the Titans as a zone. I was in charge of planning it and 5 minutes before the building was deemed unusable because of District Conference the next day. So the 10 bags of popcorn that I had popped ended up going into our bellies haha.

That night we ended up just going to a restaurant and to receive our transfer news. Elder Abad ended up getting transferred so I have a new comp. Elder Abarra, hes from Nigeria so its my first African companion so thats cool. He's a pretty cool guy and we came on mission the same time so its cool to remember stupid things that happened in the MTC. 

I love this Gospel and as Easter is this coming Sunday, I love to think of the Saviors life. How this time is time to celebrate not his death, but his resurrection, because it means we too will raise. It means that nothing can overpower us to the point where we will not be able to have a perfected resurrected body. I know that we go through trails in our lives to make us better and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be lifted up and feel the love of God and Christ.

I hope that you all can have that same feeling as we celebrated the Resurrection of The Christ this coming Sunday.

Elder Hendricks

sorry no pictures im lame