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.