Met Martin Luther King

September 10, 2018

Roof top view

This week was pretty insane so I'm just gonna say a couple things (not the best ones, of course, hehe 😉). To start off if you ever have to take doxy in your lifetime. Drink lots of water. It just works out better that way. Doxy is the anti-malaria medication that we have to take every day and they tell us to take it with lots of food and water yadayada and we're all good. Well, I found out why they tell us to drink LOTS of water! Right before leaving for district meeting we were in a rush and I popped my doxy took a little sip of water and ran out the door and thought I would be fine. Noope. Turns out if you don't drink water it gets lodged in your throat and when it melts its burns a hole in your esophagus!! At least that is what it feels like. I thought I was going to die from my darn anti-malaria medication but slowly it's getting easier to swallow haha! 

Frere Roger, an amazing ami who is the one who is missing the leg from the car wreck recently. will talk more about him next week.

I went on splits with Elder Hall this week, another elder in our apartment and learned a lot of good things. It was kinda weird though having to show him where all the houses were and start off the lessons but it went really good. Well, after one of our last rendevous we both had to really go cause each house insists on giving you water so we decided to go to the church. For some reason, it was bolted from the inside so don't know what to do. We were quite a ways from the apartment so we decide to try and find somewhere closer but that's the thing here, there aren't bathrooms really anywhere besides just some wall. Well, it's getting bad like we REALLY have to go so we're walking these streets and get stopped by this guy who starts asking us really weird questions, meanwhile, I don't really know what he is saying so when Elder Hall flipped out a restoration pamphlet I just took it and told him all about it and then when I got done I decided to ask him if he was a member. haha Turns out he was already baptized so that was kinda awkward. Inactive though, so hopefully we made a good impression. We keep looking. We head to the sand soccer field where there might be one. There wasn't but some random guy was like "oh I know where you can go and started running his moto down the street and jumping on it trying to start it. We decided it probably wasn't a good idea to get on a motorcycle with this guy so we decided to walk where he told us. No bathroom there either. Finally I just give in to the African way and find a wall but Elder Hall refuses, and he said for us to just try and book it back to the appartment. Well, on the way back we got stopped by this drunk guy who started talking to us and wanted us to teach him right there. We've seen him before and he always wants pamphlets so we give him a word of wisdom pamphlet to read and explained to him that we can teach him but first he has to not drink before so he can understand what we're saying. Then the best part of the week right here. I ask him his name and after being offended that I forgot it he said IN ENGLISH "Martin Luther King, I have a dream" Literally the funniest thing ever. In all, we spent about 1.5 hours trying to find a bathroom and just ended up back at the apartment. 

After the story you can see why this would be a problem...

Anyway,s lots of other stuff but short on time but hope y'all have a great week!! The Church is true. This is literally Christ's church on the earth today and that is the best message anyone could hear so don't be afraid to share it like you know it!!

Love y'all! 

Elder Briggs

Other stuff:

It's pretty wild and my eyes have definitely been opened to how many different things you can put on a motorcycle as well as a bunch of other stuff but it's awesome. I like my area. It has the beach on it but it's not a nice beach but we don't really go there. We also have a huge port in our sector so we don't really go to a bunch of areas in it. My companion is awesome and oh boy the food. One thing that has hurt me is the Pima! it literally means spice and that's all it is but they put it in everything and is sooo hot. Like the kind of hot where it hurts coming out if you get what I'm saying... but I will get used to it... haha eventually. The language is coming slowly but it will come with more time I think. 

How many people can you fit in a Corolla...

Teaching on the rooftops!

September 3, 2018

This week we have been looking for more people to teach because we have a bunch of ami's that have progressed as far as they can without getting married and paying the dote (which is this dowery that you are required to pay here to the parents to be married *think Johnny Lingo* and can be really expensive) so we have kind of just had to stop teaching them lessons and are just waiting for them to be legal. 

Anyways it's crazy how new ami's just started appearing out of nowhere! First, we gave this pamphlet to this lady named Happy who has a little store on a corner and she called us to come teach her. Well, when we got there she had marked up the ENTIRE plan of salvation pamphlet!! There were notes in all the margins and all the extra study scriptures in the back were filled out and read! Ok, like this NEVER happens. I thought she had torn it apart to bible slam us and was like "here we go" but they were actually all just questions she had and they were actually really deep and serious questions! So, of course, we gave her a Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlet and we will see if she hasn't read the whole Book of Mormon by next time :')

First kill of the season. This monster has been living under my sink! We named her Lucy... (short for Lucifer)

 We also street contacted this guy named Roger in his 20s who lost his leg in a car wreck recently and are teaching him. And then last of all, there are these kids who have just been showing up to church for the last couple weeks who are between 11 and 14 and turns out they aren't baptized or even know about the church! So we will begin teaching them now along with a couple other kids that just showed up to church. The kids here are great. Apparently, they all just bring friends who end up getting taught and baptized. Hence why the primary is HUGE. 

These kids are hilarious! This little girl, who is 4 named Blessing, is the most cute and weird kid I've met and she does this to me every time she sees me.

Ate my first fish head this week! guess where? Yup, the same place I ate the chicken head! They really like heads at this house. We were eating patte with this family and there is just cow skin and this fish head in this sauce so I figured I would have to eat one or the other so I started eating parts of the fish head to try and make them happy but then the dad must have got the idea that I really liked it and ripped out the core brain and skull and gave it to me. I just prayed for strength to overcome my gag reflex and that I wouldn't choke on a bone and die and chewed it up and swallowed it. 

Seur Seraphines baptism

We had another baptism this week of Seur Seraphine which went really good. She is definitely converted and a really awesome lady! Midway through the baptism, we had to give Seur Gentille (the really big lady who gave us the fire juice) a blessing because she had malaria and was just laying on the ground in super bad shape so that was kinda crazy. And on the way home, we went to get in our taxis and our entire ward had gotten into our taxis!!! Literally like 10 people + big mama Gentille!! Everything was full from the trunk to the front! Faces pressed to the glass and everything. Apparently, they all wanted a ride back so the rest of us all got in another taxi. Haha, definitely the highlight of my week :')

Love y'all!

Elder Briggs

I will answer some questions.  
Yes, I take my malaria pills and they don't make me sick, but they do give me really vivid dreams so during the MTC I started keeping a dream journal but I should probably burn it when I get home because they are really weird. Like last night I dreamed that you wanted me to help you forge a passport and I told you you shouldn't do it but you did it anyway and had me drop you and dad off at the airport and then next thing I heard you got caught and had a $200,000 fine and 1.5 years in prison and I felt bad for letting you do it. Yeah, really weird dreams. Some of what I eat is corn, I mean it just depends cause every doughy fufu or patte is either made out of corn, rice, manyock (don't know how to spell it) and inyam (also don't know how to spell). We have toilets and I prefer to use toilet paper but some places you can't get it so you just use the showerhead. Everyone else though just goes either in the road or they have this squatting hole thing in their little complex area that connects with all the other people around them. My companion is really good and I would say is probably one of the top obedient in the mission and is a good guy. It's just hard though because he speaks English so when it gets hard sometimes we just speak English so it's not complete immersion. But we talk a ton more now so that's good. Language is rough but it will come hopefully. I just can never understand anything anyone is saying and am not super confident in what I do know because a lot of times I'll say stuff and it won't make any sense to them. Everyone in the streets speaks ewe so I only hear French if they are talking to us really because French is everyone else's second language too. So none of the little kids really know French cause they learn it in schools and I'd say about half the lessons we teach are translated into ewe by a member. But sa va alle! (it will come) that's what everyone says to me so it's good! 

Love you, Elder Briggs

Premier bapteme

August 27, 2018

Severine is the dude in the middle
 the other kids are his cousins

We had an amazing baptism this Saturday of an ami named Severine! He is the guy who can speak really good English too because he learned it at a school in Benin so he is one of the few people I've really been able to talk to good and teach in English! I literally love this guy he is such a stud I was very honored that he asked me to baptize him. He was baptized in the outdoor font that is at the church in Souzanetime in a different sector along with this other girl that the sisters taught. We had his baptismal date set for a couple more weeks but at church, he kept coming up to us and saying that he couldn't wait that long so we moved it to this Saturday. He is cousins with the bishop here but doesn't have a very good family situation but has an amazing, amazing testimony. He bore a super strong and simple testimony after the baptism too that brought the spirit. This guy was definitely converted to the gospel long before he was baptized and I've definitely seen what the gospel can do in people's lives. 

Font

Most all of us have lived our whole lives in the gospel and I don't think we really can see the happiness that we already have in our lives that the gospel brings but trust me, any ounce of happiness that you feel is from this gospel so don't go looking for it elsewhere when its already in your hands! We have been teaching the sister of a sister who is a member and she accepted a baptismal challenge!... haha only problem is that she lives in a village up north of here that doesn't have the church in it yet and was leaving the day after to go back so we just have to hope that the church gets up there soon. 

The sketch things you see...

I saw my first voodoo party this week! We didn't stick around and watch it but they set up these huge tents in the middle of the street and fill the road with sawdust and then have these crazy dancers covered in all this paint and they have a ton of drums. They stapled up these goats they skinned and had all this pics of animals drawn all over the walls! I don't think they would have liked it if we stuck around though so we left pretty quick. 

The amazing "cake" me and elder hall made bullock for his birthday! its fried chocolate bread we call the Cinoconutanna (cinnamon, coconut, nuttella, and bananna) 

We celebrated my father Bullocks birthday this Sunday on the 26th! Me and Elder Hall (the other elder in our apartment) are pretty nice guys so we spoiled him with a sweet lunch and We celebrated with hotdogs, sweet baby rays bbq sauce, pineapple, and guava! 

Love yall! Elder Briggs

This is the candle for elder bullocks birthday me and elder hall made... 

I respect this guy. Selling chickens... on his head.

"So you don't know what it is... and your eating it"

August 20, 2018

Found a nice beach today and this is insane,
 the fishermen actually go fishing in these things!! 

Hey y'all, I survived my first full week in the field! We have just been teaching every day and have some amazing amis who have baptism dates fixed who will be getting baptized soon! There are a bunch of people we are teaching who are about ready to be baptized but most people here are blocked by the dote which is this dowery thing required in Togo to be able to be married and is really expensive but they are all working hard to get it paid so they can be baptized. 

We are teaching this stud named Severine and he learned English cause he lived in ghana for a little bit so those are definitely my favorite lessons because I can actually understand what is going on and teach in English :') The members here are awesome too and are always willing to translate and want to feed us and are always bringing friends to church. Haha, literally model members and I love them so much!! 

If you give this guy the bread he will hook you up with street meat sandwiches which are dang good!

And speaking of food.. hehe.. definitely got some fun stories of that! This was a little over a week ago but we had our first rendezvous with these awesome members who got baptized in April. So they bring out this stuff called Patte which is just this big ball thing of sticky stuff that can be made out of a different couple things but you and the family just sit all around it on these little benches and everyone picks this stuff up with their hands and dips it into this sauce stuff (usually fiery hot) but its got all kinds of meats and chopped up stuff you don't really know what it is you just kind of eat it so we were all sitting around eating and the Dad told me to eat the meat in it (which you have to do of course) so I pick up this bony thing I can't really see cause it's covered in sauce and put it in my mouth and just rip off whatever comes off, chew it up and eat it, So I'm eating it and I'm like "dang this bone is kind of round" and then it hits me... I spit it out and look at it and its a chicken head!! haha yup It was pretty traumatic for my first meal with members. 

A bunch of kids who live in the same compound

We were at this other member's house this week and everyone calls her "mama gentille" because she is this huge lady who loves to feed the missionaries so we're teaching her niece and she comes in and makes us drink these bottles full of this brown stuff. We told her we were teaching but she insisted and so all these kids gather around and I know what this stuff was cause I tasted a drop another time and it's this ginger juice straight which is literally LIQUID FIRE!!! We decided to just chug it and I honestly couldn't breathe for a good half hour, its like straight tabasco sauce! Turns out, around the elders it is called the "double headed fire juice".. for a very good reason. 

This ginormous wasp flies into our apartment and the first pamphlet my comp grabs to kill it.. coincidence. I think not.

Anyway, This week I had some of the most spiritual experiences I have had so far in my life and I just want to let each and every one of you know that I know without a single doubt in my mind that the power of the priesthood is real. It is not just something that sounds nice or something that gives titles in the church it is the LITERAL power of God on this earth and is as tangible as you and me or anything else. God HAS restored his authority, power, and church back upon this earth! Love y'all and hope have a good week!

-Elder Briggs

When it rains, IT RAINS

Haha ya i can tell you "some stuff".. just not the parts about us getting kidnapped and held for randsom and our epic escape that happened this week. no big deal. ;) We have been giving a ton of blessings here! I didn't realized how much the priesthood is used as a missionary but idk especially here we give a toon. Haha and whenever we go into this members house who has this little tv she is always watching these african shows and let me tell you their media is insane!! Like I can't even describe it but there is the weirdest stuff in the world and they believe that all of its true! Like mermaids, and cursing family lines, you name it it exists and telling them otherwise is a waste time so you just have to go around it in lessons. It's really good out here we are just teaching but ya its hard not knowing French but I've learned to just smile and speak the little I do know to people and it makes them way happy. The food is good! We went to this super marche in Lome today to the only place that sells Cinnamon toast crunch!! hehe I will not tell you how much it cost but it was worth it 100%. For lunch and dinner we usually just get food from these street mamas like spagetti, or street meat sandwiches but trust me its not as sketch as it sounds as long as you check yourself before you know what your getting into. I have think I've lost a little weight from the MTC though because they dont really have protein here so I mostly just rely on the peanut butter we bought (also outragously priced) to make up for that. They eat alot of fried stuff but also a toon of fufu and patte which techniqually has no nutritional value just makes you full but that's only a couple times a week. We have plenty of food though at the appartment if we want it. Ya where we live would definately be insane in america but here it is just a miracle we have running water cause everyone here just has this community circle things with wells in the middle. one night this week it just hit me in this way that can only be known by living here, like from all the pictures, stories, even visiting I don't think you can ever truly know until you know. I almost started crying cause I just looked around and realized that it was literally smaller than most storage units people in america have and was not even close in quality and this is there life, yet some how they are so insanely happy. Just take my word for it we are soooo insanely blessed Love you!! also did you send that MP3 chip yet? I found out you can get stuff here! all of the elders have gotten there packages and stuff it just takes 1 month to 2 depending on how you do it but my comp says he has gotten all his stuff. (so also if able please send more clippers ;) )

Love Elder Briggs

I'm in Togo y'all!

August 13, 2018

Plane ride to Benin

Oh, jee it sure has been a long week! ( in a good way of course) but just a tooon of experiences so I will sum up as much as I can remember without making it to long. We left the MTC about 6 in the morning Tuesday and flew in this sweet double prop, four-seat wide plane to Cote d'Ivoire where we had a 9-hour layover until our plane left that night for Benin. I flew with 12 other elders going to Benin; a bunch from our two districts and from Utah. Once we landed we went to stay in some other elders apartments that night and my poor companion Elder Cullota had an entire suitcase disappear or just not show up at the airport so I sure hope they can find it. 

The next morning we went to the mission home and met with president Guerry and his nice wife where we got a bunch of information and stuff done and found out where we would go. Me, along with 5 others got sent to Togo so that day we got driven to our missions! And let me tell you the driving is INSANE! There are thousands of these little moped motorcycles things that everyone drives and sides of the road are just an option. It's mostly just the bigger car gets to go and there is no speed limit so most the time our driver was just laying on the horn and blowing past everyone inches away but that's just how it goes. 

My sector

I am in Ablogame, Lome sector which technically has the beach as part of it! The roads in our sector are all dirt and rock. You name it and it is in the street. People just throw it all out there (or relieve it all out there) and it's so awesome cause you never know what you're going to see each day. There are goats and chickens EVERYWHERE and I'm not really sure who owns them... there are also lizards everywhere and luckily we've only had a couple cockroaches so far but hopefully, a cleaner kitchen will help with that. Our apartment is nicer than most as I hear it from the elders and even though everyone here has wells we have this huge tank in our apartment that makes it so we can have running water which is super nice. And I have been blessed with an awesome trainer!! His name is Elder Bullock and he is from Lehi, Utah. We also share the apartment with Elder hall from Heber and Elder Manza from the Ivory Coast so they have gone easy on me this first week and Will begin to wreck me with the language this week by only French which will hopefully help because haha it's like they say "the language I learned in the MTC is not the language I'm hearing" haha but Elder Bullock has been nice and lets me bear my testimony at the end of lessons on whatever it is I pick up of what they're talking about and it is coming " se va venir" as everyone tells me. 

These cute members decided to walk us home after church.

Everyone here is so nice and the ward is awesome! I got to give my testimony in sacrament meeting hehe but from their looks, I'm not sure if they understood... They all speak this language called ewe (ev-ay) here so French is everyone's 2nd language too so most of the kids don't speak french and about 1/3 of our lessons we have a member to translate for us. The kids here are literally THE CUTEST kids I've ever seen in my life though and ah there just such funny kids. Every time we walk by almost ever single kid does this singing chant thing saying "yovo yovo, Bonsoir" which is a mix of french and ewe saying "white white, good evening". some are making fun of us but most are just so excited to see white people. Anyway, I could go on and on and on but luckily I have 2 years to do that haha. I love this place and I love these people!! (oh also another reason to love this place is that it is the only place in the world where you can walk down the street to go buy late dinner in your pajamas and it is above normal. How sweet is that!) Love y'all and love this gospel!

Elder Briggs

 

Finally OUTTA HERE (in a good way)

August 6, 2018

My district

Last week here at the MTC and leave tomorrow! This week we mostly just wrapped up all our grammar stuff and lessons but cool thing Saturday, is that Elder Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric came (technically not for us) but he stopped in and talked for a while to us about the gathering of Israel and how if we pray to find the elect every day we need to open our mouths and talk to everyone because you can't tell who the elect are before you meet them.

We leave tomorrow at 6am and fly to Ivory Coast where we have a 9-hour layover and will get to Benin about 9pm tomorrow night so luckily the stud Elder Harman brought SPIKE BALL!

President (of the MTC)

Haha, after tomorrow it is going to be all French from here on out so I'm praying I don't get destroyed to bad but since this is my last email from the MTC I want to attempt to bear my testimony to you in french!  Only With the promise from you that you will not attempt to google translate It... hehe but even if you did it still might not make sense ;) (also don't know how to make accents on this keyboard)

 

Straight out of Lion King sun set.

 " Surtout et premier, je sais que Dieu vit et que Jesus Christ vit. Je sais cette avec tout mon coeur. Je sais que Dieu nous aime et pars que il nous aime il a envoye son fils, Jesus Christ a mourir pour nous pour que nous pouvons repentir et ressentir paix en notre views. Je Sais que Jesus Christ remonter en le traisieme jour. Je sais que le garcon joseph smith a vu notre Pere celest et Jesus Christ et a traver la pouvoir de Dieu il retabi cette l'eglisesur la terre dont est la meme l'eglise que Jesus Christ a etabli. Je sais que le livre de Mormon est la parole de Dieu. Je sais que le prophete Russsel M. Neilson est la vraie prophete de Dieu et que il avait tout les clefs necessaire pour salut. J'aime Dieu et mon frere Jesus Christ avec tout mon coeur. Je dit ces choses dans la nom de Jesus Christ, Amen."

-Love Elder Briggs :)

Translation (by Google Translate;)

Above all and first, I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ lives. I know this with all my heart. I know that God loves us and leaves that he loves us he sent his son, Jesus Christ to die for us so that we can repent and feel peace in our views. I know that Jesus Christ goes back in the last day. I know that boy joseph smith saw our celestial Father and Jesus Christ and through the power of God he restored this church on the earth of which is the same church that Jesus Christ established. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that the prophet Russsel M. Neilson is the true prophet of God and that he had all the keys necessary for salvation. I love God and my brother Jesus Christ with all my heart. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. "

 haha guess what.. I already busted the hair trimmer and im not even out of the mtc.... turns out I didnt realize that you need an adapter from 220 to 120 so I plugged it in, turned it on, and it blew up.. crap. Im going to try and find one once I get to benin cause i really need one! even just in the mtc not gonna lie the barbers a cool dude but cant cut hair at all.. like i just have chunks of hair cut out and my poor companion got his hair line cut like a poly haha!!

2 miracles in a week!

August 1, 2018

Alright, technically that title is a lie because one of them is the one I promised to tell y'all last week but I want to tell y'all about two. The first one is about my instructor Frere Avana. Last week he had this insanely bad neck problem for a couple days. The pain was so intense that he had to be in a neck brace and when the pain would shoot in spurts up his neck he would almost pass out. He had received some blessings but after 3 days it was still bad. He was reading in Ether about the brother of Jared and how he stretched the Lord's capacity of what most men thought he could do because of his faith. He decided to put it to the test. He didn't give specifics but he said he had an amazing experience and through prayer his neck was healed and that very day he was back in class teaching us. I love this guy so much. He is such an amazing teacher and loves the gospel so much. 

 Elder Toa who is a literal freak of nature from Tonga! I would never want to get in a fight with this beast but luckily he is one of the nicest guys I've met and a teddy bear :')

The second one is about the gift of tongues. Hehe, nope not about me but about this other elder named Elder Vakamelilio. He is this super yoked guy from Tonga (who I am pretty sure will marry the princess of Tonga if there is one). Anyways he only spoke Tongan before he got here and is learning English. A couple days in I talked to him and didn't know that he didn't know English. He understood me and responded really well and I just assumed that he already knew English. I started talking to him more and about 5 days after he had gotten there he told me that before he got to the MTC he knew 0 English. He said he didn't even know how to say "how are you," but on the second day he read the Book of Mormon all through the night in English on an act of faith that God would teach him English and by the next day he could speak and understand English!!! Like WHAT!!! He does that a lot of nights (not the whole night just till super late) reading it in English. (haha I asked him why he is never tired and he said "because I am Tongan"). 

The legendary Elder Vakamelilio

The man Frere Avana himself! keeping guard while we eat our pizza from the one Pizza Hut in Accra that he smuggled in for us!!

This elder is a super humble guy and hasn't really talked about it much but it is the biggest example to me that the gift of tongues IS REAL! He had a desire to learn English and the faith that God could help and through that desire and faith, the gift of tongues was given to him. Now that doesn't mean that God is going to answer every fervent prayer we offer in the way that we want because that is not always gods plan for us, but it is a testament to me that he does answer us according to our faith in him so one question I would like you to ask yourself this week is, think of how much faith and trust you have In God right now in your life and how you can better strengthen it to rely on god in "all things"

Love yall!!

-Elder Briggs

Manna from heaven

Haha ya, my companion says I sleep talk almost every night but he can't really understand what I'm saying. Now I think he has just got used to it. lucky him.

Got to go out for 1 day!

July 27, 2018

Razor wired church

Sorry it's been more like a week and a half, pdays are super weird here and switch to different days in the week so I never really know when the next one is (hehe but I'm sure glad its today because  I'm out of clean clothes).

Last week, the day after last pday I had my mind blown going proselyting. I thought I was in Africa, but I didn't really know it until I got out of the MTC for a day :') We were dropped off at a church house about 10 minutes from the MTC and then from there we went out in the streets and shared messages, handed out pamphlets, and got people's contact information who wanted to learn more. Haha, it was literally a celestial proselyting experience and no joke when you hear the church is growing in Africa, it is GROWING! Me and my companion were pretty scared cause we had been practicing everything in French not English and so the first person we walked up to we asked if they wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ, to my surprise he said Yes! We told him about the plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon and asked if he would be interested in learning more. To my surprise once again, he said yes!! Well, it wasn't just this man, EVERYONE wanted to hear our message!! It was literally crazy how many people wanted to hear it and I can count on my hands the number of people that didn't want to hear it or learn more!! We came up to these two young guys and asked if we could share a message. They nodded and we proceed and after we got done they just looked confused. Haha, then we realized they didn't speak English and after saying bonjour they lit up! We found out they are from Togo and we were able to share a short broken message about the plan of salvation in French to them and I just happened to have some pamphlets in French that we had been using for role plays. Who knew we would actually hand them out! A couple of people we couldn't communicate with at all because the just spoke trwei* but still got their contact info by pointing at the picture of Jesus on the pamphlet and making a phone sign with our hands. Haha, either they want to learn more... or they thought that we were telling them that Jesus would call them so I hope they're not disappointed :') But it got me so pumped to go out in the field now!! Africa is definitely white and ready to harvest. 

Roundabouts got traffic guys!

Also for all you who know the stud elder Knecht I got to talk to him on the phone which was way awesome! We were proselyting in his mission so all the elders knew him and called him up for a sec but he is an amazing missionary and I think one of the models of what a missionary should be. don't have much time but next email I will share a sweet miracle that happened here at the MTC this week that my stud teacher Frere Avana shared with us! Love you all, Elder Briggs

These little street stores are EVERYWHERE!

View from the awesome elder's apartment who found us!

What about most streets look like. (hehe there are chickens and goats EVERYWHERE eating all the stuff all over town)

Hehe we found this short cut alley that has an ironic sign

A busy street 

Thanks mom! love you! We got to go procelyting this week and it was so amazing! the amount of poverty here, even in just accra ghana is insane. makes me wonder what benin will be like.  We were only 10 minutes away from the mtc but it is crazy. hehe everyone just goes to the bathroom where ever, the gutter, on a wall, you name it. Theres chickens and goats everywhere just eating crap in the streets just cause like everywhere is the dump. There arent trash cans or anything like that so its just becomes street corners. I love it though. when we were out we were walking down the street and walked past this younger man. He looked pretty sad. we kept walking and the spirit told me to talk to him. We had already past him but it was crazy it was like my feet were stopped and turned around and before I knew it I was running back to catch up to him. We told him about the plan of salvation and he was super interested. He was really sad and distraught because he couldn't work his had got in a moto accident and couldn't go because of his foot. (it was all infected and had this big open wound on it) He left alot happier though and I really hope that the missionaries contact him. Love you!

Your son Elder Briggs