Daily MTC Life

Elder Shirley with some of the missionaries in his district

The track and volleyball courts at the MTC, along with a view of Accra in the background.

September 13, 2018

Well, this week was not as exciting because I have learned to settle into the lifestyle a little bit but there is still a lot more to learn! Every day goes like this. Wake up at 6:30, then you have til 7:15 to get showered, dressed and ready for the day. You then go to your assigned classroom from 7:15 til 8:00 and do your own personal study. After that we have breakfast for a half hour and then back to the classroom to learn about how to teach and lessons in Preach My Gospel. We stay there in the classroom from 8:30 til 12:30 with like 2 breaks of 15 minutes somewhere during that time. 

After lunch we go back to the classroom and learn some more. We sometimes do 30 minutes of reading the Book of Mormon, which is my favorite time because it is something different and it helps with always having scriptures on hand for when we leave the MTC to teach people. So, we are in the classroom from 12:30 til 3:45 with a break or 2 of 15 minutes again and then we leave for a 1 hour break of sports time where you can play soccer, basketball, ping-pong, volleyball or run around a track that is about 200 meters long. Usually I play basketball but I will occasionally play the other stuff too.

After sports time we go back to class from 5:15 - 6:00 and plan for the next day. 6:00 - 7:00 is dinner time and then after dinner we go back to the classroom. We do what they call teaching appointments here where we teach our teachers as if they are investigators just so we can practice how to teach real investigators once we get out into the field. I like these times because if helps me understand how to teach and I also like these times because it is something different than classes again. After we finish classes that night at 9:00, we go back to our apartments and get ready for bed, which includes journal writing and reading the scriptures, stuff like that.

The MTC really is a great experience and there is a big feeling of joy all of the time around here! It is a really good environment to be in all of the time. Here at the MTC everyone either speaks French or English and it is super fun to interact with the elders that speak French because we spend lots of time trying to understand each other. Haha, it is pretty funny. The other companionship in our room only speak French and so we have troubles understanding each other sometimes but that is what makes it fun. You learn how to use hand signals and really simple English so that they can understand. Also, they teach us some words in French so that has been fun to learn those words too. They are studying English so they get a little better every day but still have a lot to learn.

Anyway, that is it for me now! Mission field starts on Tuesday and I am super excited to get out of the MTC and teach real people!


Love you!!
~Elder Shirley

Questions of the week:

Question: You said you eat the same food everyday. Does that mean breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Answer: Breakfast is always some type of oatmeal stuff, a banana, bread, and beans, like the beans that you would eat in pork and beans in a can. Kind of weird to eat beans for breakfast. Lunch and dinner is like always rice with some kind of chicken with some type of cake and a piece of fruit.

Question: Have you noticed your testimony increasing? Has it been easier to understand the scriptures after lots of hours of study?
Answer: My testimony has grown a ton!! I enjoy reading and studying more for sure.

Question: What do you do in your personal study time?
Answer: Personal study time is usually reading over chapter 3 in Preach my Gospel and reading chapters in the Book of Mormon.

Question: What do you do for working out each day?
Answer: I usually play basketball, but I have occasionally played soccer and ping pong. I still haven't lost in Ping Pong. haha

Question: How is it going as zone leader? What opportunities have you had to teach or lead this last week?
Answer: Zone leader is good but it is pretty easy here at the MTC. I have had the opportunity to conduct a meeting and stuff like that. My companion and I go around each night to a different companionship in our zone and just meet with them to get to know them better, and then we share a scripture with them so that has been fun to do and get to know everyone around here and their background.

Question: What is your companion like? What about your Mission President?
Answer: My companion is really strong in the gospel, he was only converted 3 years ago but is so smart already. He has been good for me and I also like the MTC president. He is super nice!