Week 6 leaving the Ghana MTC

We are so grateful for technology and being able to talk to and see this handsome face! 

Caleb was hiding from me as I was taking a picture, you can see his thumbs up! 

Christa was sharing with Caleb how she wrote up a prayer in French and she wanted to know if it was right. 

We gave all the girls one on one time with their brother! 

Here is his closet the day before he leaves the MTC. 

Sunset ❤️

Pres Nelson’s birthday celebration they showed Africa wishing him a happy birthday and I had to snap a picture. 

I didn’t get a chance to ask what this was maybe a jet? 

Caleb got his first haircut! A native there does it for the missionaries. 

Before

And after! 

This is his filtered water bottle to take with him. 

I had asked him the day before if he ever had a thunderstorm because we were having one, he said no not one. Well this is the very next day! 

Caleb and his fun companion they are already talking about getting together after the mission❤️. 

President and Sister Lords. Caleb is going to miss them. 

Pictures at the MTC (missionary training center)

We found his flight! He didn’t know until the night before they left when he was leaving. 

This is his after the haircut shower hair!😆 You gotta love his face! 

I followed him the whole way on his flight! 

His air tags updated! Except for the one that is lost at the SLC airport! They are in his luggage. 

This was going to the airport in Ghana. 

A bus takes you to the airplane on the tarmac. 

 This is the bus leaving the MTC

The airport. 

The bus that takes you to the plane. 

The propeller small plane he took to Abidjan. 

This Elder is also Elder Robinson😆!

Caleb’s leg room on the plane! 

The mission president uploaded these and I was so grateful to see he made it! 

 

This is the Abidjan temple that is super close to being done! 

Caleb’s mission president and his wife the Litchfields.

 

Caleb’s first area is N’douci. It is a brand new area they just opened. There have been just five missionaries serving there before him. He said he thinks he is the only white guy in the whole village! He gets called Le blanc(the white) all the time! 

Here is a tour of the place he is staying. 

 

This is the courtyard you enter first there is the washing machine it looks like. They get bikes too! 

The drying rack for clothes. 

He said his showers are cold but he is so grateful for running water.  

You will notice the broken glass on top of the cement wall to keep people out. This is their front door. 

Caleb’s companion is from Abidjan and speaks very little English. Caleb is going to learn French quick! I got a text from a sweet lady in our stake whose son is serving there and her son said that Caleb’s companion is his very favorite elder in the whole mission! ❤️ Elder Kanh 

This is their taxi ride to the market! 

 

This is the market. 

I have a sweet lady in our ward whose husband is from Abidjan. I sent her this picture and asked what it is?  She said that this is rice and leaf sauce. She said her daughter who is from there likes it! 

He helped some people get water from a well. 

I just cried when I got this picture! This same sweet lady in my ward whose husband is from Abidjan, her husband was able to get a hold of someone there. Then somehow I got this picture of my Caleb! God is in the details! 

They were waiting for a guy to get out of the shower and a soccer game happen to be on! 

His companion does most of the speaking right now. Here is a rooster while they are teaching.

This was his church they don’t have a building to meet in so it is a member’s house. His companion ran sacrament meeting, Caleb bore his testimony. There was a guy that came in at the end upset that they were meeting together and started talking to Caleb about all these things. The funny part is little did he know Caleb couldn’t understand a thing he was saying. So the members were making fun of the guy at the end for it! 

The guy who is the branch president where Caleb is at served a mission with the guy in our ward! The connections are endless! 

His email from this week:

Allo!

This week has been crazy because I finally entered the field. The MTC was great, but this is what I came for. This email is going to be long, but it'll be one of the better ones… I hope. 

We left the MTC Wednesday, but on Tuesday we didn't have much to do in the MTC. We showed up for class as usual and our teacher said, great you finished, now don't come back to class. So we didn't. We spent time packing up, getting some MTC haircuts, and then went to a few farewell devotionals. On Tuesday nights we have a MTC devotional, and they don't tell us when we're leaving until after that. They said we were leaving at 6am, but have to be down there at 5am to weigh our luggage. 

So we showed up at 5am and they started weighing our luggage. They said that both our luggages combined had to be under 40kgs. A couple elders were able to do that, but I was not one of those. Mine were way over, and I couldn’t do anything about it. So they loaded us up and headed to the airport. We got there at 6:30ish, but the Air Cote d’Ivoire airline spot didn’t open until 7am. So we hung out for a bit before they could start checking our luggage. 

Most of the Elder’s got through just fine, but a few of us had to go to an ATM and get Ghanian dollars, and then pay for the overweight luggage. It was annoying but it worked. I thought it was going to be expensive when they showed me $600, but that was in Ghanian dollars, which is like $40 American dollars or something. I'm just glad my luggage didn't explode, or the ATM stole my debit card. Because those things happened to other elders…

The Accra airport was small, but we were able to get some burgers while we waited for the plane which was nice. When it was time to board we went down to these stairs outside on the tarmac. We then got bussed over to our plane. It was a small, duel propeller plane. It was the first time, at least I think, that I’ve been in a propeller plane, but the flight was nice. The flight was less than an hour over to Cote d’Ivoire. 

Once we landed, got our luggage, went through the passport station and customs, we saw our mission president and his wife waiting for us. They got a picture with us, and then loaded us into a couple different vans. I drove with President and Sister Litchfield. It was an hour-ish drive to the mission office. About halfway there we stopped at the Abidjan Temple that is under construction. It looks nice, but it still has a way to go before it is done. 

The driving here is absolutely insane. There are no such things as blindspots, lanes, or yeah. They just drive where they want, and then squeeze the gaps. 

After we made it to the mission office. We had some Burger King, and went over some basic stuff with the ap’s. After our Mission President interviewed all 12 of us, 10 of us being white Americans, we got together and he would tell us who our trainer is. I know some mission presidents have the trainers selected in advance, but ours likes to do it after he talks with us. We would stand up one by one, and then he would tell us who it was. All of the trainers were there to take us to our area. We would get a picture with them, and then immediately head out. 

My companion is Elder Kanh. He is a native Ivorian, which means he speaks basically no English. Which I’m cool with, but he also knows everything about the country, along with the different dialects. So getting around town is really easy with him. He is an awesome companion. 

One of the office Elders is Elder Hurren. He lives in my stake a couple wards away from us. I didn’t really know him before, but his parents had talked to us after we knew we were going to the same mission, although he has been here for a year. As soon as I met my companion, he turned to me and said, “You’re going to a village!” In other words, you're going to one of a few sectors in your mission that is not close to Abidjan. Most of the areas in our mission are in or right next to Abidjan, but there are a few places that are not, and I’m one of them. It is called N’Douci. I got told that Apple Maps doesn’t know where it is, but Google Maps does. I don’t know though since all I got is an Android. 

In our apartment, or little house, it is just me and my companion. We are close to the middle part of town. We have running water most of the time, all of our doors close, and we have a small kitchen. I think that's all you need. Side note, if you spent a week here, it would completely change your perspective at how well we have it back at home. Oh and when I get back home don’t come complaining to me about your food or having to take a cold shower for a bit haha. I’ll just laugh at you.

Anyways in the few days I’ve been here we’ve taught a bunch of people, went to the market a couple times, and had a good time. Our schedule is pretty chill since we do most of our investigating during the afternoon till about 7pm. I think I am the only white guy in this entire city which is awesome. If I got a dollar for every time I got called le blanc, I would be able to pay for my whole college when I get back home, plus some. I love it though, it’s so funny. 

Spiritual Thought:

I was studying Alma 7, when these verses stood out to me: 

23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. 

24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works. 

I like these scriptures because it's almost a list of things we need to do to become Christ-like. Jesus Christ is perfect, and we are not. But if we strive to become like him, and are constantly becoming better, we can one day become perfect through Christ. 

Also funny thought: the book of Revelations in the Bible is translated to “Apocalypse” in French. 

Bonne Journée!

Elder Robinson