SLC to ACCRA

July 5, 2018

Bonjour yall? comme se va? Yup. Practically fluent now please forgive me if I cant remember how to right English ;) This is definitely no place like home!! So I won't try and bore y'all with amazing convert stories (mostly cause I don't have any yet) so I'll just try and what's up and how things happen over here in Accra cause I practically know so much from one week. 

Plane ride was a fun 16 hours! And no one lied. You really can't sleep on a plane and the nuts are just about the best thing you can eat. I flew over with about 15 other elders going to the ghana MTC, so luckily I wasn't alone. A bunch were from around with one (shout out to elder Nokes) from Riverton that I raced against in xc! Lots of cool guys. I placed my first Book of Mormon on the plane!... almost. hehe I sat next to this girl from Poland on the way over and she was super interested. we talked for almost 4 hours mostly all about the church but she said she couldn't take the book because she wanted to be loyal to her church. Don't worry, elders will find her someday. 

Elders flying with me

The city of Accra, Ghana

More missionaries I flew with

The great Sahara Desert

Africa is awesome! we got greeted at the airport with a live band playing full time. I got my companion Elder Collota from Mississippi and we room with these 2 guys from the Congo who don't speak any English, only french. They are studs! They wake up at 5 most days and study. Goals. Everything is so busy at the MTC here. If you think 7 hours of school is long, try the MTC! It's been almost straight classes from 8am to 9pm and if it's not a class... it's a devotional. But it's ok because the gospel is probably the best thing you could be learning all day! The only problem is that every class we have, language or gospel, is in French so I'm not exactly sure what anyone is saying right now... but I definitely understand a ton more than a week ago! Looking back, the gift of tongues is amazing! One week in and we're already starting to attempt to teach lessons in French. It's more like charades though. 

Comp Elder Cullota and Elder Kaokao

I know your all wondering about the food so here it goes. Breakfast is really small. Usually consists of some type of bread, tinnny banannas, beans, a hot dog (ya i don't know either), and some type of soupy porridge stuff either this bean peanut stuff, liquid wheat stuff, liquid bread stuff, or oatmeal (which is insanely good). Lunch and dinner are usually rice with some kind of sauce and meat usually turkey but other times not really sure. And the fish they just cut in half and throw in which is crazy! But me and my companion still arent quite sure what is in the saucy stuff. Sometimes we find hair, frozen meat, pig brain (no joke), etc.. But it is usually super good!! The juice is nectar from the gods and we have it with every meal usually some crushed pina colada stuff or blended mangos straight. 

Breakfast

Fourth of July dinner

No joke.  A brain.

Spoons here are as big as my face.

And Africans looove cameras!! They always ask to take pics on your camera just for fun. Oh, also when we were getting off at the airport the drivers here are insane!!  On the 15 min ride to the MTC we saw tons just lay on the horn and go through a red. drive against traffic to pick people up on their little motorcycles, Ya, just crazy stuff like that. We went to the temple this morning and it was so amazing!! So many of the Africans haven't been to the temple before and was their first time so it was cool to see that! It is a super small temple but really pretty. 

Sweet view of the temple from apartment window

Oh, also it's crazy humid here but not as hot as you think. The AC doesn't really work in our room but you just get used to it and then it's not bad anymore at all. The power is also weird too; like sometimes the power just shuts off and then turns back on in a couple min and they also don't have tap water. All the drinking things and drinking water is in these dispenser things with jugs on top. Just tons of little things that I don't realize are different until your not in the US. Speaking of which happy 4th of July!! They let us celebrate here by giving us turkey and fried rice which was way good! but we couldn't sing or anything cause I guess its offensive here but we sing in our hearts. 

Shout out to my boy Elder Dansie entering the MTC today!! hehe 

Love yall!  :)

Elder Briggs

First cockroach

Special training you don't get down at the Provo one... ;)

Hehe, the congo roommate elder Kashala in my room? Ya, this is how he figured out how to charge his camera battery. genius!

Aww, thanks so much for the pics! If I wasn't sitting next to my companion right now I probably would have cried. flying was so cool! we went over the Sahara desert got some pics I'll tell you a bunch in the email I send out but I'll tell you the stuff that I'm not going to say to you cause your specialer than the rest ;) Flying wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! There were a bunch of missionaries there going to Ghana like 20 and 9 going to my mission so I just followed them. Plane food is gross though. Turns out one of the elders who is Ben Fife's friend is actually a Riverton kid that I raced against in highschool! He is the Riverton kid who beat me at regions by like 30 sec. We get along way good and I'm so sad that we're not going to the same mission. The other elders are cool though. On the way to Ghana, it was like all Africans but somehow I got right in between these two Europeans. I talked to this girl from Poland for almost the whole 6 hours. She is 22 and going to Ghana to do research but she was so blown away that I was doing this for my church. We talked about the church, doctrine, dynamics, everthing for so much of it but she wouldn't take a Book of Mormon cause she wanted to be loyal to the catholic church. But she seemed super interested and seems to really respect the church now. Yes, i got a pillow! and the dude selling it to me was from the Congo so we talked a bit! The MTC is literally so insane. I didn't think it would be so crazy I guess. everything is so packed and they want you to memorize all this stuff and study all this stuff but there just literally isn't enough time because everything is so tight. Everyone but me and one other kid and my companion took french in high school so we are way behind cause we can't understand anything even instructions cause its all in French.  Me and my companion, Elder Collota from Mississippi, were just so frustrated two days ago that we couldn't understand anything and weren't being able to memorize, understand, or speak anything. All the teachers here talk to you as if you already knew French and some get mad when you don't understand what the heck they're saying. But the past two days we have been doing way better. We decided to try and be even more obedient and pray more and things are starting to stick and the amount we have learned in 2 days is crazy. We were doubting the gift of tongues but now that we think about it we've learned a ton in just 1 week! We even bore our simple 2 sentence testimony in French on fast Sunday. Best testimony meeting I've ever been to. The spirit was so strong and Africans bear such strong testimonies of just what they know. Even the mission president started to cry when the Samoan who didn't know any English bore it in English and even I almost cried. (crazy right) It feels like we have been here a month. There are only about 120 missionaries here, only about 1/3 white so tons of Africans from mostly Ghana, Nigeria, the Congo, and Uganda. also some Samoans. There such funny guys though. We room with 2 other ones from the Congo and they don't speak any English. The first couple days they would wake up at like 5 in the morning and just start talking and studying cause apparently that's when they wake up but they have such strong testimonies it's crazy. They are always studying something and relying so much on God for everything. It's really impressive. They didn't know what a fire alarm was or other just random stuff! Most of the Africans weren't endowed or had even been to a temple so they got endowed today along with shots yesterday. We went to the temple this morning it's right next to the MTC practically on the same grounds and it's really pretty but the smallest temple I've ever seen in my life!! It only seats 40 people so I bet it gets packed sometimes. My companion is a real nice guy. Sometimes needs a little push (as do I) to get out of bed or be on time or just love it but he is cool and we get along good. The food? depends... the fruit is the best in the world. The juice is just straight up blended fruit and also is the best in the world. like days with just straight mango juice. mmmmm. hehe The breakfast depends. Days with oatmeal is good! All days we get beans and a hot dog usually with bread and some porridge thing. Dinner is usually good. Rice with some sauce on it and mystery meat. So far we've found hair, whole fish, uncooked and frozen meat, and a pig brain all in 1 meal! you just never know. but somedays it is way good so it's nice. I'm glad to hear everyone cried over me, a whole lot better than no one ;) Idk if I'll get ice cream again so have some for me! How is the reunion going? How was the 4th? We started singing the national anthem but then got stopped because it turns out its offensive to be patriotic in Africa. weird. Ah, I wanted to see Newsies so bad. Say hey to all the family for me! 

love elder Briggs