Week 29 - January 27, 2019 "No More KFC for Brice"

This week was so good! I had some awesome lessons and I have started to really adjust to and like my sector, Gesco. No lie it's taken a while, longer than I've wanted but we are starting to teach some great amis. I feel like I'm starting to stake some ground here and people are getting to know me better. We had one lesson with the Fr. Bamne this week who currently lives with his girlfriend, which is the reason he can't be baptized. I have given him a Book of Mormon and I cannot explain how happy he was when I gave it to him. His smile was something that I really can't explain. He grabbed his girlfriend and they were both seemed so happy and when we invited them to start working on their marriage they said they would! I really hope they can progress! 

Fun Fact...marriages here are super expensive because it's a 3 step process. First, you meet the parents and bring them a few nice gifts that are usually a little expensive. The second step is called the Dote and the husband goes to the wife's family and takes everyone new clothes, bags of rice or other food and money or whatever else the family might want... then last, they actually tie the knot. The couple goes to the city and declares their marriage. Then, a big reception follows after with food and dancing and presents. These weddings are SUPER expensive for the people here. This is why so many of the people that you will find here are not married. As missionaries this is our biggest deterrent from baptizing. I often try to suggest to couples to go to the city and declare their marriage first and then afterwards, once they have plenty of money, they can give all of the gifts. I love teaching the temple, the free marriage that God has provided us so that we can live with our families forever. Every time I teach about the temple, I see people look at marriage in a more important way. 

Each time we teach Fr. Brice he asks us for a little bit of money to eat... So after this last appointment we decided we would go eat together. I had the fun idea to go to KFC with him, the new nice restaurant here! We went and ordered and I paid for him. I was so excited to see his reaction to his first American meal. Right after we got our order, he asked if we could go outside because the AC was too cold for him inside which I thought was pretty funny... Then he didn't even eat the KFC! He said he needed some acheke! Its Ivorian food that is kind of like rice, and quinoa. He put all of the KFC  in a bag and insisted that I buy him acheke and he wanted to eat it at his house. I tried to get him to taste the KFC but he wouldn't. He was really grateful for the food though and I hope that he continues to progress. No more KFC for him though!

I'm doing good out here! Feeling comfortable where I am and I am really happy. I am getting better at the language too which is awesome! Thanks for everything you guys do for me from home. You're all the best!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

[Andrew did not send any pictures this week so I took some from his mission presidents blog. They were taken at zone conference I believe]

Week 28 - January 20, 2020 - "Floods and Stuff"

This week I flooded the apartment building.... For the whole week we had no water, it was actually ridiculous. Well, one night at 4 in the morning I started hearing constant rings from the doorbell. I woke up and looked out the window and just saw 4 mamas together at the bottom of the building. I just ignored it and went back to bed. Well 6 am came around I started to just do my exercise and then I get some knocks on our door. As I walked to the door I started to notice the floor was super wet. I open the door find those same mamas standing there just MAD. They started yelling at me and told me that I flooded the building. I didn't really know what to say, my french isn't that good yet, so I just stood there and got wrecked by all these mamas. From what I got out of it they said water came on at 1 A.M. and we left our kitchen faucet on so water just flooded our kitchen, which was true, the kitchen was flooded. It then started going out the door which is right next to the kitchen. The water ran down all the stairs and into the neighbors houses flooding their living rooms and kitchens. I apparently broke someone's suppressor too, which is no good... I spent the whole morning just cleaning which honestly was the worst. I felt so bad and just felt SOOOOO white. Everyone in the neighborhood heard about it and made sure to tell me too. 

On a more Gospel note... We had Zone Conference this week and it was awesome. Our president talked a lot to us about being obedient because we love the Lord. As some of you might know obedience is kind of a problem here so President Lewis is really focusing on teaching us the importance of obedience. The things he shared hit me. For me I feel like I have really been obedient because I want to prove people wrong. My mindset has been, NO, I want to show that serving a mission while being obedient is possible. But I think that's wrong. He taught us that we should be obedient because we love the Savior. I really think that if I am obedient because of my love for the Savior it'll have such a bigger impact on me and other missionaries and the people here as well. 

I was super excited this week to fix a baptismal date with the Fr. Brice this week... but when we showed up to his house this week we found a girl with him. The girl was awfully young, maybe 17, and they claimed to be getting married. I couldn't help but just feel so bad for this girl. She seemed super uncomfortable and didn't really have a family to really support her or anything. Her family was all in a village so he really is like her only hope. We tried to help but they claimed that they both wanted to be doing it. Then Brice started to go all pastor on us and started screaming deliverance speeches. It was really bizarre. We are going to keep teaching him but it's been kinda interesting for sure. 

I was reading in Enos this week and one scripture really stood out to me. I think it's verse 2 or 3 and Enos says that he was pondering on how his father had told him how joyful the members of the church are. I really love this church because it has made me happy and it's made my family happy too. I know that anything that does engage in this gospel will find so much joy in it. The way Jesus lived his life was with joy and anything we do to get close to him will bring us joy!

I love you guys! Thanks for praying for me! We are all in this awesome work together!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

I love you guys as always, thanks for praying for me I always need your prayers! I'm happy we can be in this together! 

Week 27 - January 13, 2020 "Of Mice and Mosquitos"

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!

 Andrew and his comp  Elder Cola from Haiti

Week 26 - January 6, 2020 "Therefor, Be Ye Perfect"

New years in Cote d'Ivoire really is just wild. This place goes off. We had to be in early at 5 o'clock because they start the parties early here. Here, New Years is MUCH bigger than Christmas. Everyone gets in nice new African clothes and walks around and eats a bunch of food. It's a day that most people spend time with family which was nice to see for once here, families together. The 31st everyone launches fireworks. It honestly could have been more intense than July 4 in America. Everyone launches BIG fireworks! The 1st our president said that we couldn't go out of our apartment. So we spent the whole day cleaning. I think he was super smart to make that rule because even the 2nd everyone was still super drunk. All the kids went around saying Bonne Ane L'argent, that means Happy New year money! Being the white here it made me a really hot target for the kids. I can't tell you how many times kids came up and asked me for money. It got so tiring but it made me feel some sympathy for parents on Halloween. 

This new sector has been kind of hard for me. I came from a Sector with LOTS of amis to a sector with near to none. I've been trying hard to find but for some reason it just wasn't working. This Friday I decided I would call everyone inside the sector book. I probably called like 150 old investigators. We found 7 new amis and honestly I was super happy. 7 is a good amount and already this last Sunday one of them came to church! We had 5 amis there this Sunday which wasn't horrible but now we just work super hard! We don't have anyone on date yet for baptism but we have some good amis. This week we found one polygamist family, one guy that believes in fetish (a local tradition where they believe in Black Magic), and one guy that doesn't believe in God. We definitely have our work cut out but having amis like that is super fun. It makes teaching a little hard and the questions they ask are different and really make me think. 

A couple days ago I had a pretty scary experience. We were walking back from sector one night and this guy just started following me. Probably for like 10 minutes he followed us than we started talking to someone and he just came up and got in my face. He didn't say anything but he just kinda sat there in my face like staring at me. My companion noticed and we just ran into the cyber across the street. We figured he wouldn't do anything to us in the Cyber but then he followed us. He blocked off the entrance and just sat there staring at me for 20 minutes. I kept looking at him and he kept flashing these hand signs at me and just smiling. He would then talk Nushi (pigeon french) to people and they would all just laugh. My companion just told me we had to keep waiting and eventually he left. I honestly was pretty uneasy though. When he looked away I put all the money I had on me in my socks hahahahah. 

This week something that really hit I found in 3 nephi 12, verses 47 and 48. It says something like, Old things have happened and passed... New things are to come! Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your father who is in heaven in perfect.-    I really feel thankful to be a missionary because if there is anytime I have to become perfect its right now! I know that I'll make mistakes but I also know I can repent. No matter what our old lives were we don't have to live in that anymore. The invitation from God is to leave it behind us and to become BETTER. MORE like him. I'm so grateful for my savior and that he sacrificed so that I can become more like him and his father, SO that's my goal this year, is to be perfect like he is. And that's my invitation to you. If you have some things holding you back, let it go. Make it become the past and become more like our father in heaven. I know that he lives and I know that he loves us! 

I love you guys! We are all in this work together, thanks for cheering me on!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

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