Pressure Cooker. Week 1

Hey everyone! There is so much more that I would like to put in here, but I'll save it for my journal. This is a brief regurgitation of my experiences.

The MTC is so crazy. Someone once said that this place is a pressure cooker, and they are absolutely right. There is so much material that they give to you here in so little time, it's amazing that we retain any of the material, and still feel energized throughout the day, minus the jet lag of course. This place is amazing. Each day feels like a week alone, and a week feels like a month or more. It's so wild. 

When people describe this place as a pressure cooker, I can't think of a better description. There is so much that you're taught, it's almost overwhelming at the start. It gets easier as time goes on. We become more used to the amount of material that we're expected to learn, and it's fun. I'm excited when I get to learn new French. It's exciting! I love to learn new languages.

An average day here is: Wake up. Get ready for the day. Go to the district classroom (ours is Elisha). Do personal study. Plan your day with your companion. Have language study with Frere Maviny. Go to the Joseph Smith room and have language/doctrine study. Dejeneur (lunch). Go to the auditorium for a presentation of some sort with the MTC president usually. Sports time (usually Elder Summers and I lift for a bit then play foosball with the Nigerians, who are INSANELY good at it). Clean ourselves up after sports, then go to the doctrine study class with Frere Afedo. Go to dinner. Then more doctrine studies with Frere Afedo, presentations in the auditorium, etc. Then we go to our rooms, study, then go to bed. Except while I'm writing in my journal, craziness is happening in the dorm hallway.

Let me add a quick note here. The Africans are so cool. I love them, they're so expressive, and even though most of them don't speak English, you can tell that they have the Spirit with them. Anyways, the halls. The Elders on my floor are mostly Africans. They're so wild. Most nights, as I'm trying to write in my journal, there's a constant noise in the hall. They use different noises and clicks and yells and stuff like that. Yelling and noises and just pure wildness. It also smells very very bad in the halls. There are a few Polynesian Elders here that're learning English, and they're the biggest pranksters. 2/5 knocks on your dorm door are the Tongan Elders walking by knocking on all the doors. It's a wild time, I'm tellin' ya.

 It's not as hot as I expected when I came here. I mean, it's pretty hot and very very humid, but I was expecting it to be like Mordor or something like that. The water that comes from little water dispensers around the facility is nasty. For those of you that don't know, I have a water preference. Some water tastes good, some tastes bad. For those that do know, the water here is a tier below Dasani, or in other words, borderline nauseous.

Now, time to talk about the food. The cafeteria food is wild. Everything here is wild haha, sorry for that being the adjective I use most often. The food is usually good. There's always fruit juice, fresh rolls & bread, and two bowls of this stuff called Pepe. Breakfast is usually weird or anchovies or something weird like that, so I eat 7 or 8 rolls with the nutella stuff there (top choco?). Yes, I had Nutella haha. We also take our Doxy (Malaria medication) with hot chocolate every morning. Lunch and dinner are always, always, rice and the option of fish or chicken. There's also this beef sauce that tastes like marinara and lasagna sauce? I don't know how to exactly explain anything here, but that sauce is good. There's other options to go with that, vegetables, and some salads. The fish is always a whole fish, but small. The whole fish is cooked. They give it to you with its entire body, head and all. You have to take it apart with your hands and eat it. The chicken is always wings and drumsticks, which is also good.

The missionaries are fed very well in Ghana

 

 

 

 

But. BUT. There is another option for dinner, and it's the native Ghanian foods.

Thank goodness I'm going to Cote d'Iviore. The Ghanian food almost always tastes EXACTLY how a farm smells. It's usually this soup or stew with spices and stuff in it. I swear it's just blended farm. Not my favorite. There's not many foods that I don't like, but that one is definitely one of them. The stuff that they dip in it comes in a plastic package, and it tastes like cornmeal that feels like play dough (?) and sometimes has the aspect of the consistency of jello. Imagine a fist sized blob of cornmeal that feels like play dough and sometimes jiggles like jello. It's weeeeird. Not usually my favorite thing. But, one night, the blob was white and tasted like sourdough, but in the actual dough form. That one was really good.

Other than the farm food, I love this place so much. The atmosphere is more spiritual than any I've experienced. It's incredible. I love that I am learning French. In just 6 days, I've almost surpassed my Spanish. The gift of tongues is real. I can't add enough emphasis on how wonderful this place is. Many missionaries say it's too difficult, that they miss people back home (don't worry, I do ;)), that the food isn't their favorite, etc. If you do your best to focus on the Lord and center our thoughts on him, then this experience truly becomes joyful. I'm very eager to go out into the field and bring souls this same joy. It's such a wonderful feeling.

(View of the Accra Ghana temple from the MTC)

 

 

 

 

Here are some phrases from the past 6 days: 

-"If you do not pray in French, I will come for your meat." - Frere Afedo (one of my teachers)

-"I lost the game." - Elder Summers (my companion)

-"Pourquoi?"

We have limited time to email, so I hope this email gives a brief explanation on some of the aspects of life here. There's pages and pages of things I could put in here, but my e-mail time is short, and I'm not sure I could include everything.

I want everyone to know I'm doing wonderfully, and I hope everyone is as well. 

I want you to know that I love you. Whether you're one of my closest friends or someone that I don't know that well personally, I care for you and I miss you. Thank you for how you've influenced me for the better and been there for me. If you want to email me, my email address is mackinnon.lyman@missionary.org

I love you all, until my next p-day... (I'm not sure when it will be)

- Elder Lyman

(Not sure what this is a photo of, and maybe Elder Lyman knows. It's obviously two men at a table, but why? What are they doing there? I can't wait for an explanation)

I made it here safe and sound

Well, I made it here safe and sound. All of my bags arrived here without any hassle. My Ritz crackers are still intact. ;) The first plane ride was very long, but thankfully I slept through most of it. It was hard not to watch Endgame on the screen next to me. I got off the plane and met up with the remaining elders in Amsterdam. We got on the plane and flew for the next 6 hours to Accra. This plane ride wasn't as light. I had a window seat again but a guy that didn't speak English was there so I just took the middle seat. It was a good nonetheless. I read through a good portion of Alma where he and Amulek are teaching the Nephites.

When we landed in Accra, the humidity was VERY present, but thankfully it wasn't too hot, as it was 8pm here. Me and the other 30 or so missionaries from the states went through customs. As we approached the officers that let us through, I realized they were asking for yellow fever cards. I checked my bag and... couldn't find it. THAT was really stressful. Eventually after checking it for a third time, it was safe and sound in the pocket I had initially put it in, oddly enough. I decided that was my first little miracle of this amazing journey that I have started.

When we got to the MTC, we were warmly welcomed by the 3 week missionaries here. We had a brief orientation and got our first companions. My companion is Elder Summers. He's from Idaho, and he seems really cool. I'm looking forward to the next little bit in the MTC with him. We share our room with two other elders (Whose names I can't remember yet, I'm terrible with names), but they seem really cool. The African elder, he's from Ghana, everyone calls him "the president." He is really cool.

It's so crazy that I'm here doing this. Just a couple days ago it seemed like a distant mystical trip, but here we are, preparing to serve the people of Ivory Coast. It's such a blessing

Love you all!

-Elder Lyman