Liquid Mordor. Week 6

It's so crazy that my MTC stay has come to a close! It's kind of sad, I've gotten really close to the Elders and my teachers while I've been here. But for the most part, I'm so excited to finally go and serve the people of Cote d'Iviore!

Elder Davis, Elder Summers, Elder Godfrey, Elder Lyman, 2 unknown Elders, and Frere Assou... (a teacher)

Elder Lyman and Elder Davis

Elder Lyman and his companion Elder Godfrey

 

 Here's two experiences from this week:

-Okay, on Saturday morning. We woke up at 5:30. Not to our roommates this time. Instead, we were awakened because of a CONCERT. The place that always has the great table is called Zenith Bank. We've always made jokes about Zenith, like with mock investigator lessons where the investigator works there and that the great table sells drugs, among other things. On Friday, a mini monsoon hit Accra, which was pretty cool actually. When we looked out the window, Zenith had a few tents set up. We thought it was normal, they were just setting up tents to protect the cars from the rain. But nope, the next morning at 5:30am I woke up to bass shaking my bedframe. Who on earth has a concert at 5:30 at a BANK??? (and 5:30am on a Saturday?)

This was around 6am. Elder Lyman said they played African music (Including rap), and "You Can Call Me Al". 

 

- Sometimes at dinner the cooks have this flatbread stuff that is cooked in leaves, but I have never tried it before. I asked for some and they gave me one of the bread-ish things, along with some pepe like I've had before. The pepe that I had before was really similar to medium hot salsa. This pepe wasn't as green and red, but more brown-ish, and had a lot more seeds than the other kind. I started eating the bread-stuff with the pepe, and I finished it all in probably a 2 minute period. One minute later, my tongue says, "Hey that pepe stuff was hot."
"Hey it was actually really hot."
"IT WAS WAY HOT!!!"
For maybe the next 15 minutes, it felt like someone had stuck a flamethrower in my mouth. There's a quote that Elder Godfrey had from Psych, "I'm sorry, was this chicken seasoned with molten lava?" "Dude, I can't see anything out of my left eye." "I see dead people." That explains my experience pretty well. I ate 1.5 rolls, drank 1 full bottle of water, and downed 7-8 glasses of mango juice to try and combat its fiery effects. It was so so terrible. I was sweating haha. I'm gonna call that sauce Liquid Mordor.

Anyways, those were just two fun experiences that I thought I'd add.

My testimony has grown so much while I've been here at the MTC. My thought for this week is in D&C 80:3. Elder David A. Bednar brought up this scripture during a devotional, and it kinda hit me.

 "Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss."

The context that Elder Bednar used was in discerning the Holy Ghost, which relates to my scriptures from week 4. If we are doing our best to choose good and follow the Savior's footsteps, then we can't go astray with the things that we do, because they will all be good. So on the mission field, if I am doing my best to be the best missionary I can be, wherever I go and whatever I do, everything will work out.

My next email will be from the field! Love you all!

- Elder Lyman

Also, the pictures of the rockets are from the Elisha district, my old district. Elder Davis and Elder Wright made 183 origami rockets throughout our last week there and set them up all over the room for Frere Maviny and Frere Afedo to see.

 

 

The rockets were everywhere they would stand, including light fixtures, windowsills, air ducts, the top of the white board, on top of the tv screen, artwork...

The picture of me making a weird face is from when I ate a whole sardine. It was the size of a hot dog and it didn't taste good at all. (E. Lyman likes sardines in a tin that he frequently takes hiking, but they're small. and flavored.)

One more thing Elder Lyman thought was interesting is that for the next two years he gets to live off of $68 per month.

The Best is Still Yet to Come. Week 5

Where did the past month go? Time has flown by so fast here. I'm 1/24 done with my mission already, and the best is still yet to come.
I actually really miss Frere Maviny. As I got to know him, he became cooler and cooler. He really wanted us to learn French and grow spiritually. I really get along with his personality.
My new teachers are Frere Arhin and Frere Dogbey. I really like them, I can feel their desire for us to grow and succeed on our missions. I love Frere Arhin. He's probably my favorite teacher I've had so far. Frere Maviny is a close second, but Frere Ahrin is my favorite.
My new district is great too. Elder Godfrey and I sit in the back right corner, with Elder Voss and Elder Parkinson to our left, and to the left of them are Elder Rosenbalm and Elder Summers, our new district leader. There's a companionship of 3 sisters that sit in front of us: Soeur Moyo, Soeur Lawal, and Soeur Idiong. It's a good district. I still kinda miss the old one, but issall good.
(ELder Lyman says that the MTC is like an every day, all-day long Seminary class with language lessons where they feed you ten thousand calories a day.)

Soeurs Moyo, Idiong and Lawal (from left to right)

 

French is coming along I guess..? It's pretty difficult, but I can usually understand most of what people are saying and what the scriptures say. It's still pretty hard haha.

On Saturday and Monday we went to the temple (thankfully it was in English), which was really good. Except for the fact that we had to wake up at 5 AM to the intercom (the world's worst noise ever created). It was hard to stay awake, but I did pretty good. I'm gonna miss going to the temple, I love it so much. I've heard that the Abidjan temple will be finished while I'm there, so that will be very exciting.

(From Left: Elder Voss, Elder Godfrey, Elder Lyman, Elder Parkinson, Elder Summers and Elder Rosenbalm)

 

It's crazy that I'm only a couple days away from becoming a real missionary. I leave to the field next Tuesday. I'll be able to send a few quick emails on Monday, but after that, who knows. It's so exciting and daunting at the same time.

(In preparation for leaving to Cote d'Ivoire Elder Lyman had the barber at the MTC give him a haircut. He said that the barber didn't know what to do with his multiple cowlicks or his widow's peak. So the barber shaved them off and waxed his neck. He also gave Elder Lyman a defined and angular hairline. An African haircut. Elder Lyman said "The back of my neck feels like the guy waxed my hair off with hot glue. He shaved my widow's peak and I lost like 5% of my hairline.")

It looks like he used hot glue.

 

My spiritual thought for this week is the chapter of Alma 26. I've been thinking a lot about serving my mission more and more and the reality of it has become more real. It's going to be hard. I hadn't really thought of that. It's gonna be really hard. This is a great chapter, but the verse that's standing out the most to me is verse 30.

"And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some."

It's going to be so hard on my mission, but no matter what happens, if I can influence at least one life for the better, my "joy will be full."

- Elder Lyman

Soft. Serve. Ice Cream. Week 4

Okay this week, events happened during the other days, but none came close to our activities that happened on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we got to PROSELYTE! It was kinda scary at first but at the end it was my favorite thing probably ever. My companion was Elder Erickson, and we went to the OSU area (not Ohio State University) in Accra from 8:30-4. I think that we proselyted for about 7 hours? Anyways, here's what I wrote then. (There are no photos because they were told to not bring cameras.)

Elder Erickson and I got our pamphlets and our phone, and piled into the back of a van with Elder Lifferth and Lizolo, and all of the sisters. When we got to the church  our driver didn't say anything. He just left right after we all got out of the car. So that was fun. We stood there for a while, then headed out to proselyte. We had ZERO training really, so we had to translate our 'get to know you' methods from French to English haha.

When we started, Elder Erickson and I went away from the main road and zigzagged down sidestreets, moving somewhat towards the general direction of the ocean in the morning. We were really timid to talk to people at the start, but eventually we got the courage. The first guy that we talked to was eating pineapple slices on the side of the road. His name is Basil. After a brief introduction, he was very interested, and we found out that he was the optimal investigator. He believes in God, but struggles with the lack of love in the world and how God lets his children suffer. Basil was so open to us with his thoughts, it was amazing. He shared the story of how his dad had married a woman, but then she filed a divorce and took everything. Because of that, Basil sleeps outside a relative's house because there's no room inside; he also doesn't have a full time job, so he just signs up for odd jobs. As Elder Erickson and I talked to him, I felt the impression to share a certain scripture. The scripture was Alma 14:10-11. We asked if he would read it, and he complied happily. As he read it I felt chills go up and down my arms as I began to feel the spirit very strongly. After he read that, we asked him what he thought and he said something along the lines of "Thank you. That really touched my heart. That was exactly what I was looking for." He was such a kind man. I'm kinda crying as I write this haha. He really wanted Elder Erickson and I to teach him, but we're going to Cote d'Iviore. After we had finished talking and had given him a plan of salvation packet, he told us that he had been struggling with alcohol and that day he felt like he should not take it, so we shared a brief word of wisdom overview with him. Ah, he was such a sweet guy. We got his number and then continued on. Ah, I wish that I could've continued teaching him. The next guy(s) that we met was this one guy (who's name I can't remember) and Ernest. The other guy called to us from across the street and wanted us to visit him tomorrow. He dragged his buddy Ernest over too, and Ernest told us that he used to go to church but now school had gotten in the way. They said they would go to church this Sunday, and they wanted us to be there too. But again, we aren't going to be. It's so sad. The next guy we met was Seth. Now Seth was interesting. He made us come into the restaurant where he was getting food. He told us about how alcohol was ruining his his family. It was pretty sad. There was a moment where he left and when he came back he confessed to us that he just drank some shots so... From then on he got crazier and kinda angry so we left...

After Seth, we continued back for lunch, but on the way. BUT ON THE WAY. Elder Erickson and I stopped at KFC. And got. Soft. Serve. Ice. Cream. That was the best thing I've had for the past 3 weeks. It was amazing.

Lunch was chicken and rice of course, at the church, then we went back out to proselyte. We went the opposite direction than we did last time, and we decided to talk to really anyone we saw. The first guy we saw after lunch was John. Another sweet guy. He was working, loading some stuff into a van, but stopped when he saw us walking by and ran over. He was very interested. He believed in God, and wondered about what was going to happen after death. He had to go quick, so we quickly got his info and gave him a pamphlet. It's cool how people are so willing to talk to you. Especially because we're just some white Americans haha. The next people who's info we got are kind of a blur, so I'm sorry that I won't have as much detail as the other 4. As we walked down a sidestreet parallel to the highway, we talked to 4 people. Naina, Elvis, Amelia, and Manuel. Naina was interested, we gave her a restoration pamphlet. Elvis seemed like he might've been homeless and he wasn't very responsive... but we still talked to him and he gave us a phone number. Amelia was sweeping the road but she wanted us to stop by her house later. Manuel was around a corner and I barely saw him, but we went and said hi. He was very interested, and he ran inside the building that he was guarding to write his contact number on a sheet of paper, so that was fun.

The next few people were on various streets, so I'll list them together. Ken called us over to his restaurant. He spoke very discernable english and was quite interested. Rita... I can't remember her very well but I think she wanted to come to church. Shmael (?) and Samoa were very interested, they wanted all 3 pamphlets. Sanny Addini was muslim and we gave him a pamphlet. I think he was just happy for some white people to talk to him haha. Panin was very very interested. Apparently he's a painter and he painted some things for the church before, so that's super cool. He wanted all 3 pamphlets. Bamba was chilling on the side of a road on a lawn chair. He is Presbyterian (?) and says that he loves Jesus Christ. We gave him a doctrine of Christ pamphlet. Blaise & Thomas. Thomas was very interested, and his sister Blaise wasn't as much. We gave them a plan of salvation packet. Juda was painting a house and I think he gave us a fake number haha. I don't remember anything about Addo. Deriana was not very interested, but we gave her a pamphlet anyways haha. Our last guy, Seprosper (?) was actually kinda funny. He kinda yelled and called us over. When we came over, he just excitedly exclaimed "I am going to the bank!" We were kinda surprised haha, it was so random and enthusiastic. He was interested; he wanted us to come over later after he went to the bank haha.

And, on the way back, we got two more ice cream cones from KFC. Best decision ever haha. I also gave Soeur Obalana my extra cash and she bought herself one too.

So, that experience was TOTALLY AWESOME. I mean, I got sunburned pretty bad, despite my efforts with sunscreen. Okay, also. The sewer system in Accra is along the sidewalk... Imagine a trough (as wide as cinderblocks) that runs between the road and buildings (because in most places there isn't anything close to being a sidewalk) that's sometimes covered, but is usually just open. That's their sewer. Many many times during the day we would see people come out of nowhere and just relieve themselves in the gutter (Standing and squatting). So that was super fun. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what everywhere smelled like. Oh, the gutter also had dead fish in it from someone's meal and other random garbage. Smells awesome.

Sorry I got sidetracked haha. But anyways, I loved the opportunity to proselyte, especially with Basil and John, Such sweet guys, I hope that they find happiness.

The rest of the week was good. The new elders came on Friday and Saturday, so that was fun. The elders in my room are both from DR Congo, and their names are Elder Djina (Gina) and Elder Nzeza (Zeehzuh). They're pretty cool, and they're French speakers, learning English. Elder Djina is very talkative, while Elder Nzeza is reserved for the most part. They're honestly really cool, except for the fact that they turn the lights on at 5:30 every morning. It's the kind of the absolute worst!

Every morning I either wake up to the shower turning on and off in rapid succession (for some reason the African elders do that, I don't know why. It's on for 2 seconds, then off, then back on, then back off, and so on), Elder Djina singing, Elder Nzeza brushing his teeth (it's so loud. SO LOUD. I don't know how he manages to create that volume with a toothbrush and his teeth. It's like he brushes his teeth with a megaphone by his mouth.)(perhaps this is where aversions to being around others who are brushing their teeth come from) Suuuuper fun haha. Those elders arrived along with about 120 other new elders this week. It's honestly amazing how quickly the Lord is moving the work forward.

J'ai une ecriture maintenant. C'est a sujet de une experience dans Lake Powell. L'ecriture est dans le livre de deuxieme rois, chapitre six verset six-sept. Lisez-le. C'est tres bien.
( roughly translated Elder Lyman says "I have a scripture that relates to an experience in Lake Powell. The scripture is in 2nd Kings 6:6-7. Read it. It's very good." )
That scripture was not necessarily important other than the fact that it reminds me of when I tried to make a shovel float.

Anyways, my spiritual thought/scripture from this week is about the Holy Ghost. I've often wondered about the promptings of the spirit and how you can discern them from your own thoughts, and the such. But, as I was reading in Ether and Moroni, a couple of scriptures caught my attention. I'm not going to insert them here, but I'll summarize my thoughts on the subject. I had always wondered about that, and I'm far from perfect when it comes to being able to identify spiritual promptings, but these passages helped a lot. My thoughts were that if a thought is good, whether or not it is of our minds or of the spirit, then we should do it. Why should we hold back? And if there's two good things, then we should choose the better choice. If it's our thought and it's good, then it is most likely in harmony with God's will. If it's from the spirit, then it's definitely in harmony with God's will.

"I show unto you the way to judge... whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me." (Ether 4:12, Moroni 7:13,16, 10:6-7)

I just thought those scriptures were really cool and I'm going to try better at recognizing the spirit. If it's a good thought, then do it, don't worry where it comes from.

I hope you are doing well! I want you to know that Heavenly Father is real and He will answer your prayers if you ask.

- Elder Lyman

Not from this past week, but needed at least one photo on here today.

Time is weird. Week 3. Or is it month 3?

Next week I'll be in the French branch which is kinda scary... Once we transition to the other branch, French is the only language we can speak, unless our teachers say we can speak English. It's a really daunting prospect, but I'm sure it'll be okay.

My French has been getting better! It's still extremely hard to apply the words we study into active vocabulary, and even harder to use it in practice lessons with Frere Maviny & Frere Afedo. Nevertheless, I am still very excited to be able to learn this language so that I can serve the people of Cote d'Iviore.

Reading from Le Livre de Mormon (Book of Mormon in French)

 

 

 

During sports we played basketball for a day or two. I'm really really bad at basketball, so my team wasn't the one that played the most. Then we discovered that there was a 4-square ball and a 4-square arena (?) in the auditorium. Now that is by far the best game. We usually have a line of 20 people playing 4-square. It's such a good time.

It looks like they fit in time for paper football as well

 

 

 

We switched rooms, floors, and companions today. Elder Summers switched with Elder Godfrey, so my new companion is Elder Godfrey (an elder headed to the same mission who Elder Lyman met a few times before heading to Ghana)!
I'm still in the same district as Elder Summers, so that'll be fun!

All of the elders that were here before us left on their missions this morning.

Elder Dwumah, Elder Lyman's favorite native who left the MTC for the field

Group photo before the departing elders left

 

 

 

 

It made things a bit more real to me: we're actually going out to serve people. So far, the MTC has felt like spiritual school in Africa; it doesn't feel like a mission yet. It'll be a huge culture shock when I land in Abidjan and go to my apartment where I understand no one.

Time is weird. Each day here feels like a week, and it sometimes seems like our next P-day or being able to sleep seems so far away, and in retrospect, the time I've spent here seems like it's been a year. But then, sometimes I'll look at my watch and think 'It's already 5:00?' or 'holy cow, Sunday is tomorrow?' Time is weird.

The elders in Elder Lyman's district

 

 

 

 

I know that my mission will be the same way, just on a bigger scale. At the beginning it will seem like each day takes forever and that the mission will never end, but near the end, I'll look back and wonder where the time has gone and be amazed that my mission will almost be over.

 

 

 

That's why I have to prepare for my mission now, so that I can treasure up every moment I have out there. I can't wait to be out in the mission field, despite how scary it can seem at times. I'm SO ready to help people feel God's love and share the gospel with everyone.

Love you all!

- Elder Lyman

I will come for your meat! Week 2

Sorry I wasn't able to write as much as I would have liked to last time. The field is ready to harvest, and so we have to prepare ourselves to enter that work.

Let me add here how blessed I am with my companion, roommates, and district members. My companion is Elder Summers. He's from Idaho, and he's honestly the best. (He reminds Elder Lyman of one of his favorite people, and friends, Dallin Cardon) He seems to share the same excitement for learning French and going to the field as I do, so we get along well. He played football and baseball, and is very funny. He constantly makes me laugh. We get along really well, so that's a blessing. Our roommates are Elder Anderson and Elder Dwumah. Elder Anderson was homeschooled, from Utah, and knows a decent amount of French. He's an interesting person to talk to. Elder Dwumah is awesome. He's from Ghana, and he knows 4 languages. He is one of the most spiritual people I've ever met. I have a lot of respect for him. He also snores like his life depends on it. I'm convinced you can hear his snoring in the neighboring rooms.

In our district, we have Elder Davis & Elder Wright, Elder Shuldberg & Elder Ayat, and Soeur Peterson & Soeur Oballana (I'm not exactly sure how to spell her name). Elder Davis is our district leader and always plays the hymns and postlude music in our meetings. He's really funny. Elder Wright is pretty cool. He's really quiet and mellow. Davis is from Arizona and Wright is from Utah I think. Elder Shuldberg is from Texas, and he's really funny as well. Elder Ayat is from Nigeria, and he's interesting. He's pretty funny most of the time. He speaks pretty understandable English.
The soeurs are always late and always laughing during lessons, I don't know much about them. Soeur Peterson told me her conversion story, which was really cool. Our two teachers are Frere Maviny and Frere Afedo (Frere means brother). Frere Maviny is very energetic and has good English, but is still learning. He teaches our language classes. He's really cool, but he gets mad at us a lot. Frere Afedo is more calm. He teaches our doctrine classes. He's the one that says "If you do not pray in French, I will come for your meat." Meaning he will come take meat from our plates at lunch & dinner. It's only funny with his accent. Elder Summers and I always pray in French at our meals. Frere Afedo tries so hard not to laugh at some of the things we say, but he usually can't.

we especially pray over gizzards (which are actually pretty good)

 

 

 

 

The sheer amount of material that they give us is insane. Trying to keep up with their lessons and remember them is virtually impossible. I'm trying to do my best to stick with it, but it's like learning French is compared to drinking through a straw, you can only drink so much at a time, and at the other end of the straw is a FIRE HOSE. Just kidding. It's not that bad, but it's more than I originally expected. Learning French is hard, but it'll come.

The MTC here is honestly such a good time. I've learned so much about different cultures. For example: smelling food is apparently very very offensive. I've been told by almost everyone here that if you smell food that someone has prepared for you, they'll slap you and never cook for you again. Gotta watch out for that. Being at the MTC has been a series of ups and downs, but overall it's been a joy. Yes, learning the language is hard and a lot of progress is demanded in a short amount of time. Yes, they force feed you 5,000 calories worth of rice every day. But everything else makes it so worth it. I love all the elders and soeurs here. Before my mission, a lot of us probably wouldn't have been friends, but we are here, where we all have the same purpose and objective in mind.

The view of the ocean from the MTC 

 

 

 

Here's a few things that have made me laugh really hard over the past week:
-Elder Summers.
-The "great table" in the parking lot out our window (we're pretty sure that's where people do drug deals)
-Elder Davis. He always describes the food here in the funniest ways.
-The cheeseburgers that they served for dinner one night that had no cheese
-The African elders. The French elders are especially funny when they speak in English
-Foosball during sport time. All of the tables are broken in one way or another, and one is broken so much that you can make a wall with three of the defenders on one side. It's very entertaining.

 

Some events that have greatly strengthened my testimony:
-An MTC devotional by Elder David A. Bednar
-Be One. This was a broadcast that celebrated the 40th year anniversary for when all races were able to receive the priesthood. It made me cry a lot.
-Sunday
-Personal study
-The temple I can't begin to express how much my faith and knowledge of the gospel have grown in just these past two weeks. The temple is closing for cleaning. I'm gonna miss it, the temple is such a great blessing.

The scriptures are also such a great blessing. As I've spent more and more time searching them, my testimony has grown greatly. The love I have for this gospel, the people here at the MTC, you guys back in the states, and the people I am preparing myself to serve has grown so much.

Elder Lyman really likes the artwork at the MTC

 

 

I have a scripture I would like to share. In Jacob 4:10, it says: "Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel The Lord, but to take counsel from his hand."

There's more to the scripture, but that part stood out to me the most. It was in the afore-mentioned devotional by David A. Bednar. He said something along the lines of "Prayer isn't for us to tell God what we want, it's for Him to tell us what He wants." That made me really think about my 

prayers. As I tried to do that, I found that if I let the words flow without too much forethought, words that I hadn't thought of saying came out of my mouth in my prayer. Hopefully that makes sense.

 I promise that the power of prayer is real. If we pray with real intent and faith, our questions will be answered. I have a personal testimony of prayer. I know that it's true. Love you all!

-Elder Lyman

The size of the soccer goals... And the African elders are really good at getting the ball in there