1 Year! (7/22/19)

So first of all this past week was the legend Gary Hendricks, birthday. So a big happy birthday to him and as i thought of him this week I could not decide what I have missed more about him, playing golf together, or his selfies of instagram. But, luckily Goodies (the grocery store by our apartment) had cereal on sale, so I ate like 6 boxes of Choco Rings this week. 

Elder Scwenke and I have been straight balling this week. His english is getting better and better each day and the amount of blank stares I get each day is going down. Its pretty much only when people speak Krio to him that he has no idea. I find it hilarious even though it was exactly what I was like tra day. 

This week marked 1 year since I have done a lot of things, Seen my parents, played golf, and breathed American air. Honestly it has gone so fast and awesome to think that I be home in a year. So on Friday we went to lunch with Elder Hadlock and Lunga, at a burger place. It was nice and a cool small thing to do. 

Also this week we had Elder Scwenke's first baptism. Sister Kadiatu Bangura. An awesome mommy that has a son that is a member. I had the awesome opportunity to baptize her as well, because the person supposed to baptize never showed up. Nonetheless is was an awesome baptism and the Spirit was there a lot. She bore her testimony and it was an awesome testimony. 

Lots of people are asking me about the people we teach so today I want to share and interesting experience that I have had with one lady that we teach. 

This sister's name is Aminata, she is a grandmother and lives her life in a small sand brick house and spends her time farming and selling her leaves in the market. She can't read and can't speak english at all. She has multiple kids and lots of grandkids that spend time at her house. Aminata walks to church every Sunday (probably a little over a mile walk). As you can probably guess she was never educated and isn't the brightest and she will never be baptized because she can't really remember anything we teach her. 

At this point you are probably asking yourself why do even try then. Because this past week I have a very strong feeling that she will accept the Gospel in the next life and be able to make all the covenants with Heavenly Father at that time. I feel that we must not stop trying and even more recently we have been teaching her kids and helping her grandkids learn more about Christ. 

I think sometimes we get caught in the thought that missionary work is all about teaching people, but it is important to understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so much more than that. It is about doing what Christ would do. As I continue to live my life currently as a missionary I have thought many times how can I become more like Christ. And I invite all of you to ask yourself that same question, and act upon it. 

Elder Hendricks

1. Birthday Dinner at Radisson Blu

2. Mama I made it (1 year) with the wonderful Elder Hadlock 

3-4. Baptism

My First Experience Training (7/15/19)

This week was action packed, for those of you who don't know I am training right now. Or that means my companion is fresh out of the MTC and brand new to the country. Ill talk about it later but there was lots of fun to be had before he came.

So because he was coming from the MTC he didn't arrive until Wednesday which meant Monday and Tuesday I did not have a companion, I just hung out with the other Elders in my apartment those days, but I did get to sleep alone in my room. Its been almost a year since I slept alone in a room, and I never thought the feeling of waking up and not seeing another dude 5 feet from you would feel so good. 

As most of you know Tuesday was also my birthday. It was pretty dope and I feel so much older now. I mean I am 20 so... But on Tuesday we proselyted small and then I was prepped to train the kid coming from the MTC and then we went to the Radisson Blu Hotel. Super nice Hotel in Freetown and we flexed out and got pizza. Like nice pizza. It filled us up and tasted like American pizza. Then we went back to our apartment and ate cake. So all in all it was a nice day. 

Wednesday my son came. First off they told me that they would drop him off around 12:30 and they came at 4:30 so that is Sierra Leone for you. But my son's name is Elder Schwenke. He is Samoan and is learning English. Him and his brother went to the MTC at the same time. He seems cool but is really quiet. He likes Cardi B and playing basketball and volleyball, and has a girlfriend back  in Samoa. That most of what I know about him .

This past week has been trying to show him around our area and help him learn more and more about the country. It has made me think back a lot about the time that I first came to this country and it makes me laugh and see how much have grown. 

As I continue to serve Heavenly Father and try my best to come closer to him and help other do the same, I can really see God's hand in my life. Not just over the past year, but through out my entire life, how he blesses us and truly does love us and wants the best for us.

Elder Hendricks 

1. Go America

2. The Beach 

Other pictures from the restaurant wont send sorry

President and Sister Harper (7/8/19)

This past week was awesome, filled with lots. We also took a lot of photos and forgot our camera or they got magically deleted so sorry. 

It started Tuesday with our combined Zone Conference in Kissy (eastern part of Freetown). All missionaries from Freetown, Waterloo, Kissy, Makeni, and Guinea came to meet President and Sister Harper. President and Sister Harper are our new mission president and his wife from Idaho. That is about all I know about them, they seem really nice but I haven't had an actually conversation with them so stay tuned. There was a bunch of missionaries there so it was cool to see a bunch of missionaries I haven't seen for a long time. 

Afterwards we made no bake cookies while poured rain all afternoon. So that was lit. 

Thursday was the 4th of July and we were told if we don't celebrate we don't love our country so we went and found a BBQ sandwich place and then got ice and donuts afterwards. I can't think of a more American way to celebrate in Sierra Leone.  

Friday we got transfer news and Elder Burns got transferred to the eastern part of Freetown and my new companion will be brand new, so that should be interesting we will see what I can teach him.  

Stay tuned as he gets here Wednesday.

Love you all,

Elder Hendricks 

Boring Week (7/1/19)

This week was not glamorous at all but Mary forced me to send an email so here it is.

The best thing that I ate this week was Shawarma after our district council. If you haven't had shawarma before i would highly recommend you try it. Its basically like a burrito but like European so its real nice. I throw in the worst thing i ate this week for kicks and giggles. Fofo and Okra soup, if you have never had fofo and okra soup...your're lucky. Imagine a really sour dough that you can chew so you just swallow big balls whole, coated in slimy okra. As you can imagine not good. If you would like a visual feel free to google imagine it. Lets just says I enjoyed the Shawarma and suffered through the fofo, but I did finish it all. 

My favorite lesson that we taught this week was definitely to our fairly new investigator Oedette. Oedette is 11 and super smart for an eleven year old in Sierra Leone. Its very funny tot each kids here because they are trained to be ultra respectful to adults because if they aren't they get beaten. So, Oedette is always super scared and nervous to talk to us and I think its hilarious. Each time we go back she becomes more and more comfortable. 

The way that we started teaching Oedette is that the Baimba family in the ward is currently trying to adopt her. The Baimba family is a super strong family, one returned missionary, two on missions, one leaving next year, and a bunch of other kids that are awesome. The father is the first counselor in the bishopric and they love us the missionaries. So as we started teaching Oedette I thought that is was going to be like other kids that I have taught were we teach very simply, but this was not the case.

This past we taught the Plan of Salvation or Heavenly Fathers Plan for us to receive Happiness. As we taught everything was normal and we moved along about the pre-motral life and Adam and Eve. As we came to our Earth Life and the Atonement of Jesus Christ it reminded me of something very important that we can forget. 

Jesus Christ is there. He will never leaves us because he loves us. This past week in Come Follow Me it talked a bunch about how He is Risen. Because he conquered death he gives us peace from all things. He gives us Hope in all things. And most importantly He is always there when we have no where to turn. 

I think sometimes in our lives we can forget that, but we mustn't. As we truly understand that He is always there our lives will be brighter, happy, and more enjoyable. I have found myself feeling down time to time while be on mission, whether the fact that I am without my family or just the struggles of missionary work. But as I focus my attention back of Jesus Christ I always feel joy and peace in the knowledge that because He rose, so will we. And how can I feel down knowing I will live again.

Elder Hendricks