Elder Gabe Wawro in GHANA: First Round of MTC Pictures

Yeah, so Africa is HOT. And it is at least 3 times as humid as Texas, so if I walk outside I sweat instantly, it is so weird!

Food and stuff is interesting, mostly rice and chicken which is getting a little old. But I learn cool stuff here and there, but mostly just where scriptures are! I ALSO NEED THESE MARKERS CALLED 'TEXTOS'. Elder Waihi has them and they are great for marking scriptures. I don't know the official name for them, but they are really fine-tipped markers, that are basically highlighters, but they draw very thin lines that don't bleed through paper so they are awesome! I bought a green hymn book today and a Book of Mormon in Twi (the last one was in Fante) and then rushed home from the temple so I could email as soon as possible!!! Elder Waihi and I just got Books of Mormon in Twi so were gonna study together!!

We have a tie exchange on Monday next week before we leave, so i will inherently give more away than I take (especially after all the awesome ties given at the "Pies and Ties" going away party), but so far, the Barrientos ties is a hot ticket. It is gorgeous. So, we'll see if I trade it and what I trade it for! :) Actually, I don't think I will because I love wearing it. I have 400,000,000 more to trade anyway. Ha ha :)

I leave the MTC next week on Tuesday, so I don't know if I'll get to email next week. Yikes. But I hope I have a good trainer - it seems like missionary work is super awesome here. It's crazy though, they have thousands of churches all run by "prophets" which I think is hilarious. So that'll take some getting used to.

Turns out, using your left hand for stuff in Ghana is considered rude unless you're eating with your left hand. How Weird???!?!??! Like, reaching, shaking, handing money, touching stuff, all bad with the left hand. Good thing I am right-handed! :)

Still learning the basics of speaking Twi like 'where are you from', 'how are you', 'what's up', 'goodnight', 'thank you', and a little more!

So this past week has been dragging on in the MTC. We sit in our classrooms most of the day except for meals which makes it worse. :) Our breakfast usually consists of 1 of 4 types of Oatmeal, homemade bread, oranges or bananas, and sometimes a drink like hot chocolate or fake milk 9which actually isn't half bad!) Our teachers for our class are Brother Afful (ah fool) and Siter Nkansah (nn kahn sah). Brother Afful is a much better teacher, and he is crazy about moving to the States for college because he doesn't like it much here. He is really funny whether he tries to be or not, and he is a really great teacher overall. Sister Nkansah is decent, but she has a temper which gets annoying sometimes. Elder Waihi and I try to lighten up the class with funny faces, jokes, doodles on the board, or just laughing at random things... :) She doesn't like that very much, and especially doesn't like when we laugh too much, but oh well, only 1 week to go!!!

Elder Waihi and I rock at teaching. We know the material pretty well, but our biggest problem is not knowing where scripture references are or laughing during a lesson at something the investigator says... :) But Elder Waihi and I are pretty good friends, he is super awesome, and I learn a lot from him for sure!!!

I tried this new drink called milo this week. It is basically chocolate milk, but it doesn't have to be cold. It's very chocolatey and quite delicious! They don't have many sweets at the MTC, so I cherish all the sweets we get like milo, chocolate muffins, or the locally made nutella spread which I LOVE. When we go to sleep at night, we have all the American guys in our room except Elder Dudley who is next door with Elder Ridell (rye dell), but he is from Sweden. Sometimes at night, we will all be singing a hymn while getting ready for bed, and sometimes we break out into the remix version with drumming, banging on the walls, and of course beatboxing with sweet harmonies! A little taste of home and memories of Brittan and I jammin' in the car or our jam sessions with my DHS homies in the dressing room. So. Good. :)

All the American elders plus Elder Waihi and Ridell are basically famous around the MTC because we are the minority, which is pretty sweet because everybody knows our names. :)

I had 'Fufu' last Friday and what an adventure that was...yikes. It is like a doughy type stuff but it is SOOOOO STICKY. You first start off by washing your hands in a bowl used by everyone else because you have to eat with your hands. Then after washing, you have to grab your fufu with your hands and rip off little pieces. I emphasize little because you aren't supposed to chew it, just dip it in the soup of the day and down the hole. It feels so weird and gross, almost like swallowing a hot ice cube that gets stuck sometimes which is horrifying! :) HAhahahahaaaaa! It comes in balls about the size of a softball, and I ate half so I would say I did good for a first try for sure. I'mma just have to warm up to it! The texture is basically play-doh, and it has no flavor too. What a strange food. Nothing like America.... but guess this is what I signed up for. :)

I also am learning how to weave beads into stuff. I am learning at the moment, so I am not super good, but the end result is way cool! I am planning on weaving a tie at some point on my mission and sending some home for you guys to wear for church maybe. :)

I caught a lizard today in class and we named him Zoram. I thought nothing of it because it was only like 3 inches long, but of course, Elder Waihi and I came up with a great idea of scaring people with him! :) First, we scared our class, but the best part was scaring Elder Adeloye! He is already a hilarious guy from Nigeria, but he screamed like a girl, jumped probably 5 feet in the air and ran back into his room and we were all dying laughing! Then Sister Arthur put Zoram outside where she preceeded to knock him off the edge to his 15 foot death. Sad day.

The hardest thing for me right now is music. I always find myself whistling music from Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and How to Train your Dragon. I don't sing much music, but I struggle with the film scores for sure!!! Trying to get better about that.....yikes.

Elder Waihi got picked to give a talk on Sunday which was awesome. He is gonna be an outstanding missionary. He gave a talk about Faith which the mission president's wife mentioned later that night in our devotional. The rest of Sunday was relaxing, we had time to do personal study, (AKA nap time for everybody... whoops....). But anyway, we watched 'The Testaments' movie which had Elder Waihi and I crying by the end which was good bonding time for us both. Super good message about Christ and is about the Nephites. LOVED IT. It was hard to watch with Africans though because they were loud and laughed too much, but it wasn't too bad.

Basic manners of the Americas are lost here. It is wild. So we all form a line at dinner, but 90% cut right to the front and just step right in front of you which baffles me, but I'm getting used to it. Also, cursing is not that uncommon here which is awkward at times. Occasionally an Elder will walk in and when they walk out, they swear about something or give the bird, which makes all the Americans angry and such, but everyone else thinks it's natural which is worse! Most times it is hilarious, but that will take some getting used to as well... :)

It rained on the 21st and it reminded me of good ole' Texas rain storms! There was tons of rain, but all the white guys had to get money out of the ATM for the Temple today, so we walked in the rain. We all got suited up and walked with our umbrellas, raincoats, crocs and all to the ATM and even grabbed food at the gas station next door.

Everything is much cheaper here. I bought a can of milo, a snickers bar, and 2 pieces of Ghanaian chocolate and it only cost me 4 US dollars which was crazy! We came back, but nobody else wanted to play Futbol in the rain like I did, so we played ping pong which was absolutely hilarious! Elder Waihi is really good and he played Brother Afful which was fun to watch! Wish I had my camera for pictures. We finished that day off by going to Elder Dudley's class and telling them about our lives before and after the mission which was really great to get to know everybody!

On a serious note, I was talking to everybody about college and I was really thinking about BYU Provo, so who knows, maybe I can get in if I register early enough. Or if I am smart enough... LOL

I haven't missed a day of journal writing yet and it is a good way to get sleepy before bed for sure. Yeah, now that I am here, I don't know how you can only write one page a day!!!! THERE'S SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT. Anyway, when I start sending journals home, if you guys wanna read a page every night at family prayer so you can get all the details and stuff, that would be better than emails, except you'll have to decipher my handwriting... ha ha.

Two nights ago Elder Adeloye had our room dying because this Elder Israel, who is kinda annoying and comes into our room at like midnight, came in and was loudly talking about his "doctorate". Elder Adeloye had us rolling because Elder Isreal was there for a while and after 20 minutes of him talking, Adeloye says, 'Goodnight everybody, Oh Elder Israel, you're still here?' HAHHAHAAA! It was so funny, but I guess you just had to be there and be as tired as we were!

Elder Precious is Elder Ridells companion and he is pretty immature which is hilarious because Elder Ridell is 26, has been in the military, and keeps him in line which I think is hilarious!!!!! :) Elder Precious went to draw on the white board with a highlighter, and Elder Ridell stood up and him being like 6 inches shorter than Elder Precious, stands up and tells him to stop which Elder Precious didn't like much, so he went to push past Elder Ridell and Ridell put him in a Guillotine headlock until he tapped! HHAHHAHAAAAAA! It was perfect because Elder Ridell is very composed and mature, so he and his companion are polar opposites. Elder Precious sometimes tries to slapbox with me, but never anything as bad as Elder Ridell has to deal with. The only thing I ever have had to do with Elder Precious is squeeze his hand in a handshake competition and win, so that was good I guess. :) Elder Ridell is super relaxed like I am, but he has a degree in Physiotherapy or something like that, so he is pretty smart as well! I like the heck outta him too! :)

The people who play futbol here have these soccer sandals which are so cool. I will be purchasing some when I leave the MTC. They are made to give you control and let your feet have air and let you grip the grass well. They are sweet!!!

Basically everybody is ready to leave the MTC - we are itching to get out into the field. We having 19 missionaries going to the Kumasi mission, and we will be flying, so I hope I get to sit by somebody I know. That'll be a sad day saying goodbye to Elder Waihi and others for sure. But it'll be so cool to see everyone at transfers! Maybe at the end of the mission I'll get to serve with a buddy!

I am getting off now to go play some futbol!! Love ya Mama! :) Love you guys and everyone please write! Tell Derek I love him and miss him a bunch and to enjoy Lord of the Rings while I am gone. Tell Brit I love her and miss her goofiness. I sent dad an email and tell Carina I love her pics from home! :) Catch ya in 2 weeks! Luh you mama :))))))💙

Elder Wawro :)

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