Culinary Adventures and much more ahead!

P-day was on Tuesday this week because new missionaries will be arriving on Thursday.  His P-day next week should be back to Thursday.

Hello everyone! Everything is going great here in Ghana with some awesome opportunities coming up!

FRIDAY

I ATE FUFU! It's this dough ball at the bottom of a bowl of soup/meat broth. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it. All the natives thought it was funny when I was eating it because you're not supposed to chew it and on my first bite I just went to town. I was one of the few American Elders who had it too. Such a cool experience!

We had a lesson where we taught a "person" and he just yelled at us because he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon and only in the Bible. Thankfully, Elder Roth and I had forgotten our Bibles that appointment. Never again.

SATURDAY

Nothing too crazy on Saturday this week. Just lots and lots of French. I try to read the Book of Mormon in French every day so that I can better and it's doing me so much good with the language!

SUNDAY

I FINALLY got to play the piano in sacrament meeting and I loved it. I asked a member of the branch presidency for the hymn numbers and they were all hymns I've never played before. Go figure. It went pretty well regardless. Also, about the music here. ITS SO GOOD. When the natives sing, THEY SING. They also will sing when ever I play prelude and so we almost play a game of which song I'll play next. The first meeting we sang in was just a solid wall of sound. Almost as thick as the humidity.

So the English Speaking Elders are only here for 3 weeks, so it was their last Sunday. After the meeting, I wanted to play some postlude so I flipped to a page and started playing. It was God Be With You Til We Meet Again. Go figure again. 

MONDAY

Time flies fast. I'm almost to my third week here and that is mind boggling. 

I got to play football today with some of the Elders on a field here at the MTC. They are so insanely good, I cannot comprehend seriously anything. 

Also, Elder Roth and I did 100 pushups too. 

Fitness Club: Ghana Edition. Boom.

Roomies  (Elders Brooks, Langi, Roth, and Simmons)

TUESDAY (haha today)

We've had some classes today, but a lot of it is just all gospel and French. 

Tomorrow we have the humbling opportunity to proselyte. They put us in companionships and drop us off here in a part of the city of Accra. I'm with Elder Dion, a native Elder who's learning English (he speaks fluent French) and we're both Zone Leaders for the day!! We'll be over about half the missionaries going out, so about 20. I'll definitely be wearing sunscreen and a hat tomorrow haha. 

Also, General Conference this weekend. Woot!

Elder Roth and I are also getting new roommates who are native French speakers and who are NOT learning English. Go figure again again.

Tons of new missionaries are coming in this week, so my next p-day won't be for a while.

I love this gospel and the goodness and light it will bring.

Elder Brooks

Breakfast this morning (Oats are my fav)

Cool carving here of the Tree of Life Vision 

Notes from our video call this morning:

The MTC has felt a little like summer camp up until now but tomorrow it gets real when they go out in the city to contact people.  They'll be contacting in English, since that is what is spoken in Ghana.  They can teach a discussion if people are interested.  He's heard that there are people that are baptized as a result of the MTC missionary contacts.  His zone (about 20) will be dropped off at the stake center in the Osu area of Accra and they spend all day contacting.  It's about 15 minutes from the MTC and he's heard there is a KFC there.

He's taking the malaria medication Malarone for now instead of the usual Doxycycline.  Malarone doesn't make you as sensitive to the sun as the Doxycycline does.

They are teaching concepts in English and then French.  They do great with English but struggle with the French.

The fufu is a dough ball that they add broth or soup to.  You eat it with your right hand - you reach in the bowl and grab some.  You are supposed to swallow it without chewing.  It doesn't taste bad, it's just part of the culture to not chew it.

The missionaries love to sing!  The unfamiliar hymns were 119 (Come We That Love the Lord) and 158 (Before Thee Lord, I Bow My Head).  The sacrament hymn was 194 (There is a Green Hill Far Away) and he had played it before.

He has memorized John 14:15 and Moroni 10:4-5 in French.  As he was reciting John 14:15 to us the other missionaries in the room laughed.

He's excited to watch the Book of Mormon videos, but decided he'd better watch the missionary safety videos first.

He heard that BYU lost the football game - it was a "Toledo Surprise" - haha.

All of the missionaries that are there for only 3 weeks left this morning.  The MTC is pretty empty and the lines are really short.  His roommate, Elder Langi left.  He is from Tonga and is going to Uganda.  One night as they were going to sleep, he called over to Jonah and said "I'm going to name one of my sons Brooks Langi."

There are 3 small English branches (about 30 people) at the MTC.  They have been attending one of them.  Next week they start attending the large French branch that meets in the auditorium.  They may be called on to speak in French.