Week 25 - December 30, 2019 "Chickens for Christmas"

What a week! Considering Christmas happened I guess I have a little to write about this week! Christmas Eve was honestly a highlight of the week. The church organized a big Christmas concert with a 5 stake choir and then also the catholic church, and some evangelical churches and our mission choir. Honestly it was one of the craziest concerts I've ever been to. The choirs just went absolutely crazy and sang songs so wildly. They just scream when they sing here. The evangelical churches had drums and guitars and just went crazzyyyyyy. They went so crazy that even a lot of the missionaries got up and started dancing. Honestly I felt like I was watching a high school party. The Tahitians just started a big mosh pit and everyone just went WILD. It got to the point where I had to pull some people out and be like bro that is not good. HAHAHA. 

Christmas day was pretty good! The highlight was definitely talking to my family! If I'm being completely honest I think it could've been better. I hear of many missionaries that say the best Christmas was Christmas on my mission. I'm sure that is because they spent the day out in sector teaching people. My comp totally just wanted to chill in the apartment all day though which was no fun. But talking to my family made it better. I'm just looking forward to next year and really making the most of such a special day! For all the kids wondering Santa does come to Africa for the missionaries! He really is the best! 

For those of you wondering about Christmas in Africa I'll give a short description; Christmas like we Americans know is does not really exist here. Pretty much all people do here is buy a chicken and kill it as a family and eat it. Christmas day the streets just smelled absolutely putrid. Chickens everywhere, chicken feathers everyone, guys butchering chickens everyone... it just smelled like a chicken butcher shop.

Santa visits only some kids, their must be a lot of kids on the naughty list because he doesn't visit too many. 

The rest of the week was good! My sector is huge and we have to walk like an hour to get to appointments, my legs are so tired but it's ok. It's getting me ready for BYU lacrosse in a couple years! We honestly don't have too many Amis and it's making it really hard. I just don't feel like I have a big attachment to this place yet because I don't really know anyone. We do have some though and we invited one to be baptized this week and he just jumped out of his seat and said OUI! Unfortunately he didn't come to church but at least he's accepted the track. 

Biggest accomplishment... I wore the same garments, white shirt and pants every day this week. I didn't think it was possible but it is. Props of living in Africa! I only did it because our water was cut the whole week and so I couldn't do laundry and all my other stuff was dirty!

Love you guys! I'm happy we are in this together!

Bises,

Elder Freedman

Week 24 - December 23, 2019 "Merry Christmas"

Merry Christmas everyone! It's fun just saying that because honestly you don't hear it here at all. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of my favorite things about Christmas every year has always been the Sunday before Christmas. I love the songs the Choir sings and just the Christmas Spirit that I always feel when I'm there. I was super excited to see how they did it here and listen to their Christmas songs. When we got there I bore my testimony and centered it around Christ's birth so I definitely felt like we got off to a good start. Then the next person got up and started talking and just said nothing about it, the next person nothing, then the Bishop got up... I was like ok here we go, Light the World, Bishop! And then he started talking about Adam and Eve. I was like NOOOOOO hahaha. We had all of these investigators there and we promised we were going to have a Christmas Sunday and it was just not Christmassy at all. But it's all good, just thought it was kinda funny. 

The first week as Zone Leader was super exciting. I honestly just feel like I'm learning so much. One day my companion just tells me I need to prepare a Spiritual Thought for a meeting so then I have to go study some topic and it's just extra reason to study and learn stuff and I really like that. 

Also this week we got to go to Dabou which is like an hour and a half outside of Abidjan and it's more like a village. We have a District out there so we went to do a district Council and that was really fun. This week we also had a Christmas party as a mission and it was super fun. We did a nativity reenactment as a Zone and at the end of it the night before the party my companion decided we needed to sing a song... But it was literally like the end of the night so we didn't know what we could do to sing. My companion really likes this song on my MP3 player, it's called Far Away by National Lights, and so he asked me if I could sing it for the Christmas party in front of everyone. I didn't want to say no; after all it's just another opportunity. So I sang a solo in front of the mission. It may have been painful for people to listen to but I thought it was kinda fun. 

French is definitely the biggest struggle right now but I think I'm pretty hard on myself too. I can teach and talk and my companion says I'm actually pretty good. So I know that I'm getting it but I'm not totally fluent yet. I love being Zone Leader though and getting to know other missionaries and getting to be an example. I love that about it. 

I hope all of you guys have the best week ever. Something I haven't really thought about too much until I got here is the beauty of the manger. When I think about the mission of the Savior and the manger they go hand in hand. Everything he did on this earth was to understand us. he was born in a manger to understand us. He was born in literally the worst of the worst. And because of that he is Wonderful, he truly is the Prince of peace, our Savior our Redeemer... the mighty God. I know that he was born and I know that he lives. I know that there is peace in him and I know that he loves us. I'm grateful for him and for this Christmas Season. I love the Christ.

I love you guys. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Thanks for being in this work with me!

Bises,

Elder Freedman

Andrew's Companion Elder Cola from Haiti

There are many more trees and jungle in his new area

They recently opened the first KFC in the Ivory Coast very close to their apartment

Week 23 - December 16, 2019 "Transfers!!!"

I have so many thoughts going through my head right now, I don't even know where to start, so much to say. I guess the most exciting thing is that I got called to be the Zone Leader in the Niangon Nord Zone. To say the least I'm kinda freaking out in every way. I'm super excited to have this awesome opportunity but I'm also kinda nervous. I guess change is kinda hard and I feel a little pressure to be the best I can be but I know I'm called here for a reason. I'm worried about people disrespecting me and not knowing what advice to give people. I know I just gotta work hard and be the best I can be and then God will help me and the Spirit will Guide. 

Niangon Nord is the biggest zone in the mission and it even encompasses some villages and fun stuff like that. I will get to do splits in places where white missionaries aren't even allowed to go which will be interesting. My new companion is from Haiti and his name is Elder Cola. I honestly know nothing about him yet I've only been here for like 2 hours. Next week i'll give a good update on him! 

I'm going to really miss Koweit though. I love that place so much. I loved my companion I loved my apartment, I loved our amis, I loved everything about it. Ill never forget the sun beating down on me and making me sweat so much that it felt like I jumped into a swimming pool. It made putting sunscreen on kinda pointless because it just came off as soon as I stepped outside. But really I was just so comfortable there I'm going to miss it. Most importantly the experiences I had there I will never forget. I found God in Koweit. 

We had a Zone Conference this past week and in every Zone Conference our President calls on someone randomly to give a short talk and he chose me to give the talk. I decided to talk about integrity. I love this characteristic and I think its something as missionaries we need to have. I talked about the example of the stripling warriors. It talks about them being true and honest in all things and at all times. I shared that as Disciples of Christ, which WE ALL are, we must follow this example. We need to be honest, we need to be hard working, we need to be obedient to the commandments. 

I love you guys. I am especially happy to have you guys on my team right now as I start this new adventure. Thanks for praying for me!

Bises,

Elder Freedman

Week 22 - December 9, 2019 "It's a White Christmas! Sort of..."

Whats up everyone! To start out this week was superrr rough. All of our appointments just got cancelled and the ones that were good just did not go the way that I wanted too. Seriously they were like the kind of lessons were, you read the same scripture for 30 minutes asking the same simple question and they just don't have a response because they are not paying attention. Its so hard to teach people that literally just seem to not care at all. 

Wednesday I did splits with Elder Nokes in my sector and I was super excited for that. My plan was to teach a bunch of lessons and maybe even set a baptismal date. But when Wednesday came we went out searching for our amis and nobody was there. We shared two ten minute lessons on God's Love and that was it! When we got back that night I literally just felt awful. So unsatisfied. Like I was just so bummed I thought it would be the best day and it just wasn't. But when I reflected on the day, I realized something that I think will help me the rest of my mission. I realized that I was just going to appointments and not looking out for others. I was so focused on what I had planned I never said hi to others. The lucky thing about life is we aren't stuck in our mistakes. Instead of weeping in my sorrows I looked at the next day as an opportunity to be better. Not gonna lie I was singing the Annie Song, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow, a lot that night. And sure enough it did. Thursday through Sunday were some of my favorite days on the mission so far! We found a lot more people to teach as I just looked out of my way just even a little bit. We have so many cool new amis now. One is a professional soccer player for some team in Cote D'Ivoire and each one of the others has a super cool story too. A lot of them live in this new hidden neighborhood we found.  It's called Cartier Nestle and the houses in it are so nice. I'm pretty sure it's the company Nestle Chocolate that owns all of them and it's for all the people that work in headquarters here. It's a super big company here because Cote D Ivoire is the biggest cocoa producer in the world. You would think people eat more chocolate but they don't and I'm ok with that because it just leaves more for me! But all of our amis seem so interested and it's been so fun teaching them. Each night we plan and as I look at the people we are gonna teach I just get so excited. I actually love them. I was SO happy at church when I got to sit next to 2 amis. Usually 2 people isn't super impressive but I didn't care. I was just so happy they were there. It made waking up at 5 so worth it! Also Being able to speak french and teach makes a HUGE difference. I can actually connect to the people and I know them and they know me. Much more than just people I see but they are really my brothers and sisters now and I just want to help them. So even though this week wasn't like anything astounding I learned some super important lessons. It's super cool being here on the mission because I can see how the bad days make the others better. If I never had the super hard first couple days I never would have learned what I did. 

I've always been super excited to serve a mission and share Christmas messages with people but here in Africa, Christmas just doesn't exist really. I haven't seen any decorations and every time I tell people Merry Christmas they tell me I'm crazy and that it's not Christmas yet. But that didn't stop Elder Nokes and I in our apartment. After walking a mile Elder Nokes and I found paper to make snowflakes and now our apartment is looking nice and Christmasy. We are also working on a parody of baby it's cold outside... Stayed Tuned ^baby it's hot outside^ will be an itunes top 10 song. hahahah 

Je vous aime! I'm happy we are all in this together!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

I have no clue what he's wearing. It's some African vest "lots of people wear"

They are teaching these guys

Andrew and Elder Nokes

Week 21 - December 2, 2019 "Thanksgiving Feast"

Bonjour! I hope everyone had the best Thanksgiving ever because this year's Thanksgiving was one that I will never forget! They don't really sell Thanksgiving food here in Africa but we did our best and it actually turned out pretty successful! We were able to find some of the ingredients to make mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, peas,  and rolls. Elder Nokes had gravy packs we used, and we made apple pie for desert. If you ask me that's pretty dang impressive for a couple of guys that don't really know how to cook. Oh yeah and I forgot... what's Thanksgiving without meat? Unfortunately the don't have turkey here but they sure do have a whole lot of chickens. So my comp and I, after sector went and bought 2 chickens for $5. It was classic just walking through sector with our missionary clothes on carrying live chickens. They kept trying to fly away but I had a good grip on their feet.  They weren't going anywhere! Everyone loved seeing the white guy carry chickens. They all got a good laugh out of that. Luckily we have 2 Malagasy in our apartment and they know how to kill and clean chickens so we weren't just completely in the dark with this part. They let Elder Nokes and I kill them and they said the best way was to just grab them by the neck and swing 'em around. It actually worked pretty well but what I didn't know was that when you swing them around they poop a lot.... Unfortunately, I was behind Elder Nokes when he started so I just got blasted with chicken poop, which was not pleasant. The whole time we were doing this they were just laughing saying if your mom knew you were doing this I don't think she would be happy... SORRY MOM! After we finished that the power went out in our apartment which made preparation super tough and put a real damper on everything but it was still good and just made it even more memorable. The Malagasy cleaned and cooked the chicken. Thanksgiving was a real feast! 

We have a lot of Amis that are so close to being on the verge of progressing but our church time is super tough. Our church starts at 7 here so everyone always just sleeps through. It's hard for us as missionaries too because we have to wake up at 5 so that we can go find people before church. We always go knock on people's doors that said they would come and they are just asleep. It's the biggest bummer. We have one Ami that comes but her problem is that she doesn't speak french. We have to teach with an interpreter every lesson and I think its super hard for the interpreter to translate into tribal and his explanations end up being long and confusing so by the end of the lesson she ends up forgetting everything. She wants to get baptized but she doesn't know anything and doesn't speak french so I don't even know how she would do a baptismal interview. It's ok though Gods got us.  It'll all work out. 

I've been surprised with how un-Christmassy this December has been but I honestly think it's a blessing that absolutely NOTHING happens here. No Christmas decorations anywhere and it's still just like 100 degrees and feels like any other day. Everyone is always telling me I look like a tomato and need to find a hat. I'm always just like, trust me if I could find a hat here I would've bought it! hahah I'll keep looking. 

But the work here is advancing. I'm loving being able to speak better and actually hold my ground in a lesson. It makes the work so much more fun!

I love you guys. I'm so happy we are in this work together! Thanks for all the prayers!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

Week 20 - November 25th, 2019 "All is Good in Abidjan"

Life is goooooood in Abidjan! Best news this week is that Sr. Evet got baptized! I'm honestly so proud of her and I have learned so much from her. I'm not gonna give many details but let's just say her path to being baptized wasn't the smoothest. But watching her get baptized was a real testimony builder that God is there and that through Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of anything we do. He loves us that much. I'm so happy for her just SO happy! 

I had a couple super cool experiences in sector this week I want to share. First, one time we were just walking in sector and this girl just came running up to us. She came up and her face was just distraught and she asked us if we were Christians. We said yes and she told us to follow her to her house. When we entered into her super small house we saw her husband laying there on the floor just absolutely just crippled. He had  band aids covering her neck and you could every bone in his body he was so skinny. His wife asked us if we could give him a blessing and we continued to ask if she had faith and all that stuff that he could get healed. She said yes and so we gave him the blessing. I'm telling you I felt the spirit so strong it was amazing! The whole time I was just thinking about Jesus healing Lazarus. I honestly felt like I was doing the same thing that Jesus did when he was on the earth. Unfortunately her drunk brother came storming in after and started trying to speak English with me and was just saying how he wants to go to Las Vegas and he just totally ruined the spirit. But either way it was an unforgettable experience. Secondly, we were out doing some contacting and my companion presented us as disciples of Jesus Christ. The women then asked us the question "if you are disciples of Jesus Christ would you really die for him?" For some reason this question just really hit me this time. I've been asked that a bunch of times and always responded yes but never really knowing why. When we walked away I started reflecting on this question.... Would I really die for Jesus Christ? As I reflected on this question I really found a why to my answer yes. I would die for him because hes my savior, because I love him and because I know he loves me. Because of him I know that I can live with my family forever and that's something that I am so grateful for. 

I'm getting used to the food here and actually, I am really enjoying pig snout and rotten fish now. Like, I'm happy when I eat it which always amazes me. If you think that that sounds gross you're crazy! Its good stuff! Also our water got turned off for 4 days again this last week which was tough but we made it through. Smelled bad but that's ok everything here smells bad hahha. 

My french is actually getting pretty good. I can talk to people pretty decently and like teach lessons and everything. Its honestly the biggest blessing ever. Its so cool being able to speak even a little bit of another language.

Well that's about it for me this week. Just know I love you guys so much and that I pray for you all day. I'm thankful that we are all in this together!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman