Tengbeh Twn (6/24/19)

This week was super awesome.  To start out we made no bake cookies with the elders in Wilberforce one night so now we know how to do that, which means trouble. Also we got some awesome free meals from members and investigators this week. The best one for sure was a youth in our ward named Hawa made for us pasta one afternoon. It was nice it had like onions and pepper inside and more importantly a ton of spam. Spam is like the best. 

In terms of work this week, because I guess a missionary should do more than just eat, it was not easy. I don't really know why but we had a lot of people that just dropped our appointments or lesson and not a lot of serious people were seen. Plus it rained a bunch this week and when it rains if you step outside you are soaked within like 15 seconds and the Sierra Leonean attitude is that if it rains it ruins the whole day and why even try. So that makes for interesting times. 

But.. Saturday Elder Hadlock and I went on exchange. For those of you who don't know Elder Hadlock is like my best friend that I have met on mission. We have been looking forward to this exchange since he first told me at the beginning on the transfer. Elder Hadlock is from near Farmington Utah i think, but who really cares because it Utah, but I've looked past that part and gotten to know him on the inside. The inside is like that same as me. All Sports. We talk sports like no ones business and just are chilling.

The exchange was awesome it didn't even feel like missionary work because we were just laughing and talking all day. We taught some cool people and at the end of the day we looked back and realized all the work that we had done. 

Looking back I have realized that before I came on mission I took the Book of Mormon for granted. I love the Book of Mormon and know with all my heart that it it true. So Encourage those that are reading it to continue and those that aren't to start. Plain and Simple.

Elder Hendricks 

Nice Cream (6/17/19)

This past week has been really fun! 

We had lots of work to do, which made it go really quick and I even went on exchanges with an elder in our apartment. 

Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Kraemer, from Nampa Idaho. He's a cool day and I got to go to his area in Congo Cross. It's right next to Tengbeh Town but it's at the bottom of the hill and you don't have to climb it so that was sweet. Its also right on the water which is also cool. Also Elder Kraemer likes to cook so I enjoyed his cooking all day. 

Friday night we decided that after a long hard week of work we need to blow off a little steam. And therefore Friday Night Flex was invented. We went to Aberdeen and enjoyed. Ice Cream. There is a shop there called "Nice Cream" and it was very nice. It was so good and we were on the beach and sunset so that was pretty dope too. 

Saturday night we had an activity with my district a ping pong tournament. Elder Faddis (from Utah) and Elder Tuione (also from Utah) suggested it. Little did we know that they were super good and smoked us all. But your boy got third place so I was feeling pretty good. But after the tournament was over I lost to Elder Faddis 7 times in a row, but we don't need to stress on that part. 

Sunday I had the awesome chance to give a talk in my ward. The weirdest part was having to give it in English. The official language of the country and the Church is English, but everyone talks Krio. The Stakes in Freetown are stressing more that church needs to be in English so I had to struggle my way through giving it in English. I only mixed in Krio one or two times on accident. 

The topic of my talk was Missionary work. I really enjoyed studying it through out the week and deciding on what I should stress on the most. I choose that fact that all of us can be missionaries, whether we have a call or not, by being good examples and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we truly show ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ that does more than we can ever imagine. As people are watching us everyday and every minute. They will be able to tell a difference and seek to why there is a difference. I testify that is true as I have seen it on my mission.

Elder Hendricks 

1. Ice Cream, Beach, and Sunset

2. Elder Burns and I and our Ice Cream

3. Ready for ping pong

4. Our view from our apartment this morning with my really blurry camera

#ballin (6/3/19)

This past week has been full of crazy things.

As you know I am in Freetown now in Tengbeh Town. The Tengbeh Town Ward is in the Freetown stake and we have an actual building that The Church built for us so it is something new for my mission.  The Church though still struggles small and the ward has a lot of less active members so we still have lots of work to do.

In terms of where we proselyte, it is straight up and down hills. Like big hills. I feel like I am going hiking walking to appointments. I have tried to compare it to lots of things, like Y mountains or Somerset hill but I think that best way that I can describe it is and most days we debate walking up the hill or taking taxi up to the top and "dropping in". I feel like I am taking the ski lift in and dropping into the bowl. And from standing on top of the hill it looks like that too haha. But I guess it just means I am going to have real nice legs after. 

Freetown is different in many senses. There are really rich people here with really big house and then there are still really really poor people too in shacks. Most places are big compounds with gates so it makes it really hard to contact here because everyone lives behind lock doors and it's very taboo to knock on a door here, I know funny right. 

Elder Burns is cool, he's from Arizona like around Gilbert and he goes home in just under 2 months. We have a lot in common so we always have stuff to talk about, and I am just trying to keep his head in the game for the next 2 months. 

One thing that I love about Freetown in the food that we are given. It smashes anything I have ever been given before on mission. Whether is rice and beans, or fried fish, or spaghetti its nice, and they always give us a soft drink with it too so just know that I am enjoying the food here. Also they have a new restaurant here, Chicken Town SL, google it and see how we enjoy!

This morning we went to the national stadium and played basketball, it was the first time I have seen a net since the mtc so it was super nice. 

This week I was reading the Book of Mormon inside Helaman chapter 10. I think that there is a valuable lesson that we can all learn here. After the people had witnessed Nephi's proclamation that the chief judge was dead, and how it came true they exclaimed "that he Nephi was a prophet" ch.9 v.40. Yet by chapter 10 they went back to their old ways of sinning. As we learn that Russell M. Nelson is a true Prophet, it must change our lives for the better. If we return to our old ways we never truly knew. Let the Gospel change your life. 

Elder Hendricks