Week 37 - March 24, 2020 "Goodbye Cote d'Ivoire"

Well this week has just been absolutely CRAZY! As sure as many of you heard because of Coronavirus I am back home right now. Getting re adjusted to this computer is a real pain again. BUTTT i'll start back at the beginning of last week to make sur eI dont miss any details!

Tuesday morning we got a call from President Lewis telling us that we needed to buy a bunch of reserves and put them in our apartment. He told us we should use half of the money they gave us every 2 weeks to buy it. So we did just that, we bought a bunch of rice, noodles, tomatoes, cookies, little random snacks and basically just anything we thought looked decently appetizing. It was super intense because I was the Zone Leader 1 too because Elder Colas was gone so I was having to make sure everyone understood and had done the shopping. It was probably the most stressful part of my mission so far and it was a great test of my french. But it was so awesome because I totally was able to get it all done! THEN the next day Wednesday night I got a call from my friend Elder Diederich and he just goes, "BRO we are going home" I was like whattttt their is no way, but he seemed pretty convinced... Soon enough President and Sister Lewis called me and explained the whole situation to me and said that I would be going home and I would receive a call to serve in a different mission after a 14 day quarantine at home. That was pretty much all he said, I was left with so many questions I wanted to ask but he was busy and had to call all the missionaries to let them know. That night I did not sleep at all. I was just thinking about the future which was extremely unpredictable and foggy. The next day we did a deep clean of the apartment, fixed up the area book, and packed our bags. After that we got a couple more lessons in, said bye to some people and then we did some souvenir shopping. Thursday passed and we did not hear anything new, Friday morning I got a call from the assistants and they told me I was going home! They said they had a flight for Saturday morning that I would be getting on. So Friday was filled with more last minute shopping and also saying bye to some more people. Friday morning I got up at 5 and ran over to the mission office. We weighed our bags (mine were both 10 kilos overweight, so I had to leave lots of clothes and books and other random trinkets), and then quickly shuttled everyone to the ok tu airport. When we arrived at the airport we were told that the airport in South Africa had just been shut down, and that was one of the airports in our route home that we were stopping at... So we didn't know what to do. I found a guy wearing a Florida shirt and asked if he was from America and he said yes. I then asked what his plans were to get home and he said their was a flight directly to JFK with lots of seats on it, so I quickly called President Lewis and told him about the flight. He got back to me and told me they had 5 seats left and that they put 5 Elders on the flight but that I was not one of them. I was like you've got to be kidding me I'm the one that found the flight. So I along with the other 30 missionaries went back to the mission office. They quickly scrambled to put us in apartments in port bouet near the mission office and airport. I was in the Vridi apartment with 5 other guys (Elder Facer, Lyman, Diaz, Angerbauer and Hammond) and it was the worst. We just sat in the apartment all day talked, played uno, studied and ate all while sweating because of the heat and lack of fans. The heat and just sweating and actually smelling musty is something that I will not miss haha. I also didn't bring any change of clothes so I was really just suffering in there. So then Saturday passed, and Sunday was just another day just like before. The only thing that kind of spiced it up was Elder Facer got a crazy allergic reaction to a nut he ate on accident and his face just blew up so we had to go to the office to get medicine, it was nice getting out a little. But then at about 8 o'clock we got a call saying we were going homeeee! I just remember getting up off the coach saying wahooo and giving everyone the classic double high five that dads give each other at their sons basketball games. It was a great feeling! 

When we got to the office I found that my bags were somehow still overweight again so I ended up just shoving a bunch of stuff in new missionaries bags that didn't have any souvenirs. The flight home was amazing though. We went to Paris and then L.A. and then SLC. But the amazing part was that for the 2 longest legs I was sitting in Business Class! I don't know how I was chosen to be one of the lucky 8 of us sitting up there but lemme tell you it was amazing.. I just popped my chair back into bed mode and I was out. The flights felt sooo short. I also loved them because we flew Air France and so I got to talk to all the flight attendants in french. It was so cooool! They all said I talked like africans but I mean hey at least we could talk! So the flights were great, the food was absolutely spectacular.. I had Salmon and some other fish and it was just so amazing, the side salads were very long awaited as well. I missed fresh food so much. 

The first thing I noticed about Utah when we landed in Utah is how cold it is here! Sheesh, it's freezing, I totally forgot about how cold it is and I was just dying in my short sleeved shirt. Seeing my family was SO fun though. They made every missionary go out 1 by 1 into the airport parking and find their families quick to avoid chances of spreading or contracting Corona so that was kinda interesting but it still was great. Kinda weird but great. I definitely didn't feel like I was finished but like my families poster said it has been a nice inter-mission break. When I got home I didn't get released because we are hoping that I get reassigned pretty quickly, so my days are pretty boring. I just wake up, workout, study and then fill my day with hanging out with the family, playing games and doing other random stuff to pass the time away.  

It's pretty sad thinking about the possibility that I will not serve anymore in Cote d'Ivoire, but at least I can say that I gave it my all. I didn't leave anything behind so honestly i'm not that bummed. I know that whatever happens is going to be good and i'm just here to serve so it doesn't really matter where. But this week has definitely been wild and quite the adventure. I will never forget the time that I got emergency evacuated on my mission because of a crazy bizarre epidemic that broke out!

Thanks for all the support you have all given me all along this journey. I was talking to my Grandpa today and he told me something that I loved, he said "Just keep trying, just keep fighting, just keep praying" I love this and I know that as we all continue to give our all to this great cause and fight for what matters most all while praying to our Father in Heaven to help us with it we will do amazing things no matter where we are!

Bises,

Elder Freedman

Week 36 - March 16, 2020 "Dreamsss and Fish and Chips"

Well Coronavirus has arrived in Cote d'Ivoire. Honestly, I'm already tired of it. My name instantly changed from "the white" to "coronavirus". The first time I heard it I was just like you have got to be kidding me. Also all the corona talk is just getting really old. Every house the same story, I guess it's nice though we get like an hour to hour update on it from everyone we teach. Although it's starting to pop up a little here in Abidjan, I am not afraid of it. I just don't think its getting to me for some reason. Luckily it hasn't really slowed the work down at all, our Mission President just told us to buy hand sanitizer and we should be good to go!

This week we met the coolest guy! His name is Fr. Richmond and his girlfriend is a member but he is not yet. He is probably about 30 has some twin little girls and he went to the church universelle. Ever since the first time we saw him I just felt like I could see him as a baptized member of the church. When we met with him he started asking us some really good questions like what is special about our church, why we love the church and all that. We responded and the spirit was really strong. At the end of the lesson he told us he needed to tell us something... He said that about a year ago he had a dream that he saw 1 white guy and 1 black guy dressed nicely that came and talked to him. He said that these 2 people told him that he needed to move to Gesco and that he needed to bring his family with him. Well that's exactly what he did, he grabbed his girlfriend and his 2 girls and they moved here. He decided that he didn't want to go to his church anymore and soon enough he accepted to hear from us the missionaries. We showed up at his house and started teaching about the importance of families. He said he was just absolutely shocked by our appearance and message, and that he thinks that it was Elder Colas and I who showed up to him in his dream. When he told us that, I was just like WHOA! I remember getting my call about a year ago and just praying that the people of Cote d'Ivoire would be getting prepared for me... Sure enough they have been! What an amazing miracle, I'm so excited to teach Fr Richmond some more!

I also found a new amie who is from England. I started talking to her and her teenage girls (in English (and asked her if she knew what fish and chips are, and told her that I love them so much! I was totally just trying to lead her on to invite me over to eat with them and sure enough she said that she is going to invite us over this weekend, and we aren't going to be eating futu, but instead fish and chipssss! Total scoreeeee! I also asked if she had ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she said she said she knew it very well. Turns out she had been talking to the missionaries in England before she left and even has The Book of Mormon in her house here in Cote d'Ivoire. How absolutely wild is that! I feel like the lord has really placed me here for a reason!

One of the favorite things that I studied this week was the story of the Stripling Warriors. I have always loved their story but I gained a greater appreciation for them by one word that is included in their story. In verse 21 it says that the Stripling Warriors obeyed with EXACTNESS. There was no wavering no excuses no nothing just obedience. And look at how successful they were! This scripture gave me so much hope and built my faith so much that if we obey with exactness "we will be blessed immediately"(Mosiah 2). I know that this is so true!

Well good luck with Coronavirus everyone. Hopefully you don't get sick! Oh yeah I also got a new companion. I'll be working with Elder Owurouka, a Nigerian, here as Zone Leaders in Niangon Nord. I'm gonna miss working with Elder Colas. I'm just not the biggest fan of changes and we were working pretty well together. 

Love you guys thanks all for being you and being the best! I'm praying for you guys!

Bises,

Elder Freedman

Week 35 - March 9, 2020 "Fights, Fights and More Fights"

Hello friends! 

I hope everything is going good at home! Something that I had never seen that I have heard so much about here, is the way the people treat robbers after they catch them. I was unfortunate enough to see 2 of these instances this week. Both of the "robbers" were probably about 15 years old and when we saw them they were both surrounded by crowds of around 50 people. The things I saw made me sick. The "robbers" got absolutely beat up. I was so surprised. One got whacked by a 2x4 across his head and continued to get a bunch of knees to the face followed by lots of slapping and hitting from what seemed like people who did not need to be involved in the scene. It made me sick to the stomach and I just wished so badly that everyone there could have the gospel. Honestly, how much different do you think the world would be if everyone had the knowledge of the restored gospel? I just see a world of peace and happiness. Or in other more Book of Mormon terms, I see a world full of "joy". I don't know why this week there was so much fighting but at our ward activity this past Saturday things heated up. A girl in the Young Womens presidency and the Primary president got in quite the brawl. The Young Women's president was upset over the mess the primary kids were making and the at the end of the fight the 2 ladies ended up with clothes shredded. It was pretty disappointing considering we had 4 investigators at the activity. I went back to help figure things out but honestly I just ran out of the room after I saw how absolutely out of control the women were. The 2nd counselor couldn't settle it himself so we called the bishop and Elders quorum president and they came and calmed everyone down. 

     ON A MORE MISSIONARY WORK NOTE; we have one investigator Sr. Sandrine who should be getting baptized this week! Im praying for that everything goes good up to Saturday. Since her first day at church, she has blended in super well with the ward members and its so nice to have an investigator like that. We found some super good new contacts and I'm soo excited to teach them. So honestly the work here is moving good. Even when our plans fall through we always seem to find someone to teach. That's probably the best thing about Africa, is that it just always seems like their is someone to teach. 

     My companion and I study one section of the Doctrine and Covenants every morning I love that book so much. I know for myself that Joseph Smith was a prophet, the things that he did were not easy but I am eternally grateful for him and his sacrifice. Reading the stories of his service gives me so much motivation and appreciation for everything that he did. And never before have I been more excited for a General conference than I am for this next one!

I love you guys, sorry for the longgg email but it's hard t describe all the stuff I see in short emails! Shoutout to Timpview Lacrosse, BEAT EAST!! Love you guys!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

This is the scene of the punishment

Week 34 - March 1, 2020 "Dog Yummy!!!"

Hello everybody!!! First thing I'll say, because I know you're all wondering, is no, Coronavirus is not here in Cote d'Ivoire. So the work is progressing like normal! We have one investigator, Sr Sandrine, who is continually progressing towards her baptismal date on the 14th of March which is exciting, and we have another investigator, Sr Melissa, who is so ready to get baptized so we are going to try to get her set for the same date this week. 

Something kinda funny from the sector this week is one of our investigators was telling us the reasons for which he started talking to us. He said the first reason is because the valley we were in is run by the gangs. He said all the guys do down there in deal drugs, steal, and kill and he was afraid that if we kept walking around down there looking kinda clueless we would get jumped. So he called us over to make friends with us so that the other guys knew that we had a friend there and not to touch us. Second reason was he wanted to hear about our message. He has turned out to be a really good investigator and he even speaks English because he escaped to Nigeria during the war! 

Another kinda fun thing I did this week was I ate dog. We did splits at Dabou and one of the Elders had ordered dog with sauce grain and so I had a little bit and it was DELICIOUS! Kinda made me think of Halle a little bit which was a very grim thought but it tasted good! 

Andrew added the picture of Halle for dramatic effect...

We had stake conference this week and I was surprised with how normal it was. They had a good choir and like it seemed like I was at a stake conference at home. It was nice to really feel the spirit at a church meeting again! We also had 8 investigators that came and that was amazing considering they all had to pay transport and it wasn't at the normal chapel as usual. 

Another week without drinking water. We do have dirty shower water but only bags for drinking. Probably the most annoying thing right now is just the fact we have no clean plates or utensils. They are all just sitting in the kitchen growing mold on them. HAHAHAH

Another good week overall. Shutout Ben love you bro. Thanks everyone for praying for me though! We are really in this together!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

Week 33 - February 24, 2020 "Baptized Fr Rodhes!!"

Fr. Rodhes got baptized!!!! Wahoo! I was so happy for him! Kinda funny because right before the baptism service the ward mission leader started the conversation of how hard his life has been ever since his baptism. Everyone in the ward started chiming in too and I was honestly worried that Fr. Rodhes was going to back out right before the baptism but instead he did something super cool. He just said, "hey guys yeah I know it'll be hard but I've made my decision and I'm ready to follow Christ". I was like wow you're such a beast, everyone got super quiet and after that we honestly had a super good baptismal service. Another cool thing that happened was with the Fr. Brice, when we started talking to us he told us that he just sees something different in us. He feels like we are really sanctified and different from the world. I've heard so many stories about other missionaries having these kind of stories and it was cool to feel like whoa I'm like them too. I'm not saying that to be prideful or anything I just think it's cool to see that things that Jesus said about how "we will be lights to the world" is true. After that we taught a super good lesson and he told us that as long as we had piano he would come to church. (the africans love noise at church). So I was super excited to finally see him there and made sure we had piano, but then he didn't come. I honestly don't know what we will do with him, but we will keep trying. We also set an ADBF for our friends, Sr. Sandrine this week and that was really exciting. She's awesome because she always makes us food whenever we are at her place. She makes really good futu banana and all these crazy sauces to go along with it. 

Water Update; Nothing changed.... Still no water. We had a new American elder with us this week because his companion was sick and its been fun to see his reaction to bagged water. I have definitely forgotten a little bit just how abnormal it is to not have water. I have loved laughing about it with him, it's been super refreshing. 

Everything else is going well here. It feels like I just ran over an accelerator power up on Mario kart and time is starting to go a lot quicker. 

I really like a scripture in D and C section 78 verse 18, it says 18 And ye cannot ^abear all things now; nevertheless, be of good ^bcheer, for I will ^clead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the ^driches of ^eeternity are yours." I love how he says "for I will lead you along" Even when times are hard I know that he will lead any of us along. 

I love you guys. Thanks for being awesome and for giving me the strength to do this. I love you. 

Shoutout Ben

Love, 

Elder Freedman

Week 32 - February 17, 2020 "Whatever the price to trust Jesus Christ.. It's worth it!"

This week was so awesome! As I sit here and question myself where to start, I just don't know. I'm just very thankful. I'm thankful for YOU my family and friends, for Côte d'Ivoire, for this life and the opportunity it gives me to change, I'm grateful for the blessing of the mission, the lows it gives me to have many more highs, I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and for his life. I listened to a video this week and their was one sentence that really struck me, it said "whatever the price you must pay to trust him (Jesus Christ), it's worth it." Because of this sentence I've had the power to really work hard this week and I've had an extra motivation to serve him and be obedient. I realize that this really is not for me and I need to put all my trust in Christ. The promise and blessing isn't always clear but "it's worth it". 

This week has been filled with blessings. I've seen our amis progress immensely. I'm so grateful for each of them and hope we can continue to help them. I feel especially lucky this week to be here with the Fr. Rodhes. He has had a baptismal date for a little bit now and Friday we went to go check on him, share a message and see if he was ready for his baptismal interview that we had planned for Saturday. When we got there, he just said " Elders I don't know if I can do it anymore" I don't know if I want to be baptized. He said that his family was very against it and was discouraged by his mom who was doing everything she could to forbid and prohibit his baptism... As I searched for things to say I was pushed to share an experience of my friends from back home. As I shared this experience with him he was really touched, and went on to tell us that he decided he still wanted to be baptized and that if he had to do it alone without any of his family that would be ok. When he said this, I was so happy, what a good example of faith Fr. Rodhes is to me.

Another blessing I saw was with the Fr. Bagnmi. He has been coming to church for the past 3 months but lives with his wife and they are not yet married so that's what's keeping him from being baptized. As we met with him this week he just shared with us how bad he wanted to be baptized but he didn't have any work and that's what was keeping him from being married. He said If I could have a little bit of money I would go to the Mayor and get married so quick, but he just doesn't have any work. My companion was impressed to talk about the role of Dads with him and how they aren't just there to temporarily provide for their families but also spiritually provide for them. We talked about the importance of praying as a family and also doing family home evening. We shared that we know that if he will do that and show how he is ready to take care of a family to God, God will bless him with work or the means to do his marriage. He was really touched and accepted it. What a blessing to teach someone who accepts something so easily! Sunday, he and his wife talked with the Bishop again and seeing them with him made me so happy. I know that God will bless their family. 

Those are just 2 experiences that really touched me this week. They made me really grateful to be where I am. As President Eyring said, "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest of times in life, can be a pleasant." I'm really grateful for this time that I have here and when I look at it with big goggles I'm eternally grateful and just so happy.  

Oh also no water this week again! That makes 5 weeks without running water but it's alright. Bagged water is doing the job! 

I love you guys and I'm grateful for you and your stories and testimonies! I've felt very close to you as I have tried to bring others closer to Christ. I know that "whatever the price we must pay to trust him, is worth it." Put him to the test and I know that he will not let you down. 

I love you guys sooooo much. We are really in this together! 

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

Week 31 - Feb 10, 2019 "Joyeux Anniversaire Charlie!"

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLIE! I love you so much bro! I will never forget the good times we had together. Also you're just amazing at skiing and a baller at lacrosse and you make us all look bad. But also you just have the softest heart and you help me to remember to always look out for people that need a hand. I love you bro thanks for being you!

This week was awesome though. I have been getting along with my companion pretty well and I feel pretty lucky to be working with him. He's super cool because he speaks french, he's from Haiti, he eats normal food, and he has a lot of the same cultures as us... I mean we are all from the american continent. I just think he's a cool guy and this week has been fun. Water has been a little better this week... We haven't really had any again but we found out that it comes on specifically at 1:45am so we have been able to wake up and fill up the tanks for the couple minutes it's there. 

The work here is going better! We still have Fr. Rodesse progressing and getting ready for his baptism the 22nd which is exciting! We've been really trying to get these 2 girls to accept baptism too so they can be baptized the same day but their mom is being super difficult. Their Dad is a member and he is down for it to happen, but the mom is telling them they shouldn't be baptized so it's pretty tough. We just hope they can really pray and receive the confirmation that they receive to decide for themselves what they should do. Something that I've loved about teaching Sarah and Aillah are their questions. Ailla is 10 and she asks the best questions like "why are we here" or "what is God like?" or "Why can't I see him". I love talking to her because she really is just so innocent and wants to know the answers to these questions. It makes me understand why God tells us to be like the children. 

The days in Africa are HOTTTT, we don't really have water, sometimes the food gets my stomach pretty turning and walking for an hour and a half to get to lessons gets tiring but honestly the story of the restoration makes it worth it. Something about Joseph Smith and the pillar or light that he saw gives me SO much peace and happiness. I know that its real something about it just makes sense to me. I love it, its awesome! 

I love you guys, I pray for you every night and I'm happy I am not alone in this! 

Bisou,

Elder Freedman