Well it’s official. I’m in Africa! I finished at the MTC. It was so awesome there and hard to say bye to everyone, especially the food, but it’s fine now. We started to travel Thursday morning and didn’t make it to Liberia until Friday late night. We flew from Salt Lake to New York to Ghana to Liberia. It was a wild time traveling. So ya arriving in Monrovia was an experience. There were all these people just rushing to get pass customs and get their bags and it was wild hahaha. We finally made it out and met President and Sister Thomas. They’re so awesome! We all packed up our bags and started to drive over to their apartment. It was about a 2 hour drive cause the roads here and driving are insane. It’s basically all dirt roads, no one stays on their side of the road, and it is so so bumpy. Basically the only rule is try not to hit anyone. If you honk you pretty much have the right of way to pass, but with everyone honking it doesn’t mean anything. So ya basically the whole drive I was cramped in the back of a truck with all our luggage and hoping I didn’t get in a wreck on the first night there. I got to call home and say that I made it to my parents. It was really nice to talk to them for a little. We got to the apartment had some sloppy Joe’s and pasta that Sister Thomas made for dinner, then had a little overview of the mission goals and what we would be doing in the morning. We said goodnight and went to bed. The best part is that right next door, there was a party for the president because elections are coming up, so they had speakers and music blasting all night. I swear it was a different language but I guess it was supposedly English. We woke up, went to the mission office, and had our orientation. We learned all about the mission, what not to do, all the medical stuff, and found out our trainers and first areas. My first area is called Virginia, and I’m assigned in this small town called Brayerville. It’s a little outside of Central Monrovia. I got to my apartment after saying goodbye to all my homies, around 3 in the afternoon. My companions are Elder Batila and Elder Nimely. Elder Nimely leaves for the bush on Monday so for now we’re a trio. Elder Batila is my trainer and he’s from the Congo. He’s a cool guy, his English isn’t the best but it’s still fun to hang out with them. It’s gonna be epic getting trained by him. The other missionaries in our apartment are Elder Folsom and Elder Lumumba. Elder Folsom is from New Mexico and Lumumba is from the Congo too. They’re both epic and we all have a good time together. But anyway I met my comps and then we went out to go meet some members. We had dinner at one of the houses which was just, big surprise, rice beans and chicken. It was really spicy but tasted really good. Since we have to be back in our apartment by dark we went back at like 630. Got settled, hung out, played some ping pong, ate some dinner, and went to bed. Funny story, the air conditioning in the bedroom of me and my comps is broken, like 90% of the stuff we have. So three of us sleep on the floor of the other room so its just great! Plus my mosquito net is in the other room so i just spray so much spray on before i go to sleep hahaha. We woke up, got ready and went to church which is right next to our apartment. I met all the members and bishopric. We got invited up to bear our testimonies so that was epic. After sacrament meeting, we taught Sunday school. One of the investigators came up to us after and wanted to learn more about the Restoration. So we taught him about that for a good hour. I got to teach about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was epic. But ya so then after church we went to the bishops house and just hung out all afternoon with the family. Got home before dark, hung out, ate then went to bed and here we are. 

Crazy story of the week/two days… as I was brushing my teeth and getting ready to go to bed, I was walking to my room when I saw a spider about the size of my hand just chilling next to the door. Golly I hate spider’s. I’m convinced they are helpers of the devil. I didnt have enough courage to kill it so i just left it alone. But ya since im sleeping on the floor, I was just praying it wasn’t gonna crawl all over my face during the night haha. It was disgusting. Totally forgot to take a picture though haha. 

There’s definitely a lot I have to learn out here. The Koloqua is wild and I don’t understand a word they are saying haha. Only really the members speak somewhat good English. So I’ve got to start learning that. Its awesome though cause whenever i tell anyone my name they think its Good Man. So they always say ahh you look like a good man and i know youll be a good man and good missionary so thats funny. It’s definitely a huge culture shock cause everything is different out here. Everyone stares at me wherever I go, probably cause I’m a tall white guy walking through their town that doesn’t speak Koloqua. I’ve gotten bit by so many mosquitoes and my body is covered in bites so hopefully my malaria pills do the trick. It’d pretty humid and hot but nothing I can’t handle. Overall, I’m pretty stressed out of my mind but I’m excited to learn all about the LIB. With me being new to the mission and all and not really knowing what to do, I’ve been saying a lot of prayers asking for comfort and understanding. The comfort I have felt after praying has been such a huge blessing as a new missionary. So invitation: whenever you feel stressed or sad or overwhelmed, just pray to our Heavenly Father and I promise that you will be comforted. I have personally grown my testimony of prayer so much in just these past few days. Prayer is so awesome!  

Love ya all!!! Send me emails and pics I would love to see some!!! 

Elder Good Man

1) checking out of the MTC

2) the whole group arriving in Liberia 

3) me and President Thomas and Sister Thomas 

4) me and the gang finishing out first lesson 

5) Me and Elder Batila washing our clothes 

6) me and Elder Nimely hanging out 

7) the squad at mtc, gonna miss those boys