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