Hello Everyone!
This week was great! We started out holding District Counsel
with all of the Districts in our zone which occupied 2 days of our week. We
only have 4 districts in our zone but they are so spread out and we have to go
travel to places like Dabou which is village an hour and half out of
Abidjan. My companion and I shared a message of obedience with everyone because
that is still something that we struggle with in the mission. All of the
missionaries accepted our challenge and said they would change and we are very
hopeful that they follow through. We had to talk to one companionship after one
of the meetings and tell them that the party that they attended on New Years Eve was no good and that we don't do that while serving on a mission. At times,
I feel like a babysitter and wonder why some missionaries feel that is ok but I
am trying to understand them and the backgrounds they come from. It is a big
problem however and it was actually a member of our ward that came up to us and
showed us a video of the missionaries in our zone dancing on New Years Eve.
After we spoke to them, they were heartbroken and they knew that they needed to
make changes and repent. I am hopeful that they do! Tuesday morning my
companion learned he had malaria so I had to do most of the teaching. Kind of
interesting... we called our DMP (Ward Mission Leader) to bring us medicine from the pharmacy and he
said "ok." 2 hours later he showed up with a big bag full of leaves,
traditional medicine. I was like "oh gosh" but surprisingly it worked and he was
better in 2 days.
On Thursday we went on splits with the Assistants and
it was SO fun! Elder Bell came to my sector and we had the best day. During our
leader counsel the last week our President told us that ever since they changed
the age of missionaries, the church has seen a decrease in our abilities to
teach. So our President has really been stressing that we need to teach
according to the needs of our amis, (investigators/friends) by the direction of the spirit. With Elder
Bell we really put that in practice and it was so fun to teach people things
that they have been dying to know for who knows how long. It really helps make
missionary work come to life. One of our amis really opened up to us about how
poor he is and how he has nothing. His house is tiny and it protects him from
nothing. Every night he wakes up, whether it's from itching because of 100
mosquito bites or from mice running all over his face and body. He just doesn't
know why God would put him here. Luckily this ami, Fr Brice, has a lot of
faith, so teaching him is really easy. We shared that as soon as he starts to
respect all of the commandments and when he joins the church, we know that God
will bless him and in many ways if he is faithful. I'm super confident that he
will be getting baptized soon! This week I found that I can teach the whole L1
Restoration of the gospel with the Book of Mormon! In fact it's more clear to
me...the organization of the church, the apostasy and the Restoration- its ALL
there. So cool! I know that if I can teach this lesson with just the Book
of Mormon, it'll be so much more powerful. I'm really excited to try it this
week!
I love you guys, you are the best ever! I'm happy to be in
this work together!
Bisou,
Elder Freedman
On splits with Elder Bell, one of the APs
Look at the mark on Andrew's shirt from his shoulder bag. This is how he looks at the end of every day. You gotta love it!
Look at the mark on Andrew's shirt from his shoulder bag. This is how he looks at the end of every day. You gotta love it!
Andrew and his comp Elder Cola from Haiti
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