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

Week 30 - February 4, 2020 "No water - What Can You Do?"

Weekly Water Update... YUP didn't have any this week. Our water filter broke so when water came on for 5 minutes we couldn't fill up bottles so we had to order some of those blue jugs that they put in the water machines but then Friday night they ran out. We called them to bring us more but didn't make it in time so Saturday and Sunday we just had absolutely no drinkable water in the apartment. Thank goodness Sunday was fast Sunday because I didn't want to drink anyways so that was good, but Sunday night was brutal with no water and not being able to go out and buy any. First thing Monday morning I just ran out and bought some bags of water. 

We had transfers this week and nothing new happened here. I'm still in Gesco working with Elder Colas. Honestly I'm pretty happy  because I feel like we are starting to make some progress. We set our first baptismal date this week with the Fr. Rodess for 22nd of February. He's a super cool guy and sings Zoglo for his job. It's super popular African music and Fr. Rodess is actually super good. He hasn't come out with anything yet but soon I know he will be on the Itunes top 10 list! Our other amis are doing good and Fr Brice is classic as always. I cannot go one lesson without laughing with him. He is VERY passionate about Jesus and is very strong and confident in the way he talks about him. He just screams and shakes and we always have to calm him down. But he's starting to change and make progress. He decided that he wanted to be 100 percent with us this week but then he didn't come to church so that was unfortunate. Hearing his stories about  his Voodoo life and how he would drink fresh dog and chicken blood and then make serpents out of water is pretty wild but it's super fun. 

One of Fr. Brice's problems is that he really wants a sign. He wants like a vision or God to appear to him to tell him that the church is true. We try to tell him to have faith and just take a step forward but its hard for him. This week I was studying a little bit about "signs" because it's true that God did say "ask and ye shall receive" but does that literally mean if we ask for a vision we get a vision. I think YES if we have that much faith and have put in all the effort to get that we can have a vision like that. BUT I think it's better to just ask for a confirmation if things are true. I think that that is better because it's through the small and simple confirmations that the Holy Ghost can testify to us. My question was really just what do we have to do to either get these small or big confirmations? As I sat there reflecting on this I randomly thought of the primary song "search, ponder and pray". I really liked this simple response and how the answer is just a primary response to the question. I really know that if I can help the Fr Brice to apply these simple principles he will get a response to his question. 

Everything is good here and I got some bagged water to drink so I wont die of dehydration, and! time is starting to move quicker! I love you guys and I get to be a part of this work with you all!

Bisou,

Elder Freedman

Fr. Brice's Home 

These boys just walk into Andrew's apartment to play

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