Enjoying the Ghana MTC

Elder Shirley with his MTC companion Elder Dilebo, from South Africa

Meeting room in the Ghana MTC

Letter calling Elder Shirley to be a zone leader in the MTC

Accra Ghana temple

September 6, 2018

Wow, what a week it has been!! Just to let you guys know, my Pday's are on Thursdays, so I will write again next Thursday and then the Monday after that since we leave in two Tuesdays (Sept 18^th)! So, they will give me one more chance to write back home on the day before I leave the MTC. Just like you guys back at home have been adjusting, I have been and still am adjusting to this mission life. It is a lot different than it was back home but it is a lot of fun and learning. I am enjoying the MTC a lot! The good thing is all of the stuff that we do is inside and the MTC is super nice here. We always have air conditioning and there is easy accessible water to drink and we get one sports time every day, although it is only for 45 minutes and that time goes by super fast. My companion’s name is Elder Dilebo and he is from South Africa. He is a really nice guy and knows a lot about the gospel. He is a convert to the church and was converted 3 years ago but he is already super strong in the church.

Let me tell you, they give us so much food every meal. You would not believe it. Mom, just imagine how much you make for the three of you now left at home in the family......that is how much food they put on a single plate. So we never go hungry which is good. The food is literally the same thing everyday, so it is getting old but it isn't bad to me. Every lunch and dinner is a meal made up of a huge plate of rice with chicken on the side in some sort of way. The meat is most of the time a lot different than the meat we have back home. There are a lot of different spices in it, but it doesn't taste too bad most of the time. It doesn't always look the best but you just have to get over that and eat the food. haha.

Anyways on Friday morning, me and my companion were made zone leaders! Pretty crazy right? We are zone leaders over about 23 elders and it has been a lot of fun to be that! All of the Elders here are such good people and everyone is always so happy. It has been really fun to make a lot of new friends here and talk with them about everything. There is definitely a feeling of comfort here. On Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting and it went really well. Since me and my companion were called as zone leaders, they asked us to teach the priesthood lessons for two of the districts, him teaching in one of them and me teaching in the other. So our sacrament meeting consists of about 23 elders and sacrament meeting goes for an hour, so during fast and testimony meeting, you don't really have a choice of if you want to bear your testimony or not because everybody had to, in order to fill the time! haha. It was a really spiritual meeting though and the spirit was really strong in the room. Also, the beginning of sacrament meeting goes a lot faster here because the sacrament only has to be passed to 23 people and there are no announcements or anything like that. Church started at 9 and we were already to the testimonies by like 9:10.

We are learning a lot in the classroom about how to teach people and a lot about chapter 3 in PMG, so that is good so we can be prepared once we get to the mission field. I am still getting used to getting up in the mornings because I really am not a morning person, but it hasn't been too bad so I am doing good! Yesterday, we went to the temple here in Ghana and let me tell you, the spirit was so, so strong in that room and I could feel that feeling of love from my Heavenly Father. I also could really feel the presence of my whole family in that session with me as well. It made me reflect back on the session we did as a family right before I left, and it was a special moment for me.

The biggest culture shock for me is just having all the Africans here and getting used to their accents. They are all such good people though and they are the nicest. Also, half of the people only speak French and half speak English so sometimes it is really hard to have conversations with people. Also, in our big meetings when we sing hymns, half of the people sing in English and half in French so it sounds actually really cool and really powerful!

Anyways I don't know if there is anything else to tell you as of now, but I will be excited to hear from everyone again next week!!

Love you all!

~Elder Shirley