Arrival at Ghana MTC

Dear family,

 

The lion bite is healing well, I can almost walk again.

 

Well after 24 hours on that dang plane, I finally made it to Ghana and my gosh, it is hot here.  I spent most of last night sweating to death.  My travels went fine.  I met up with another elder in Dallas about an hour before the plane left.  After that we met up with about five other missionaries in London and all got on the plane together for Ghana.  We spent about an hour on the runway waiting for them to fix something and it got really hot in the plain.  There are about 15 other Americans here, most are from Utah, then there are some Tongan elders and one from the UK.  Upon arrival in the Ghana airport you step out onto the runway and are immediately greeted by the humidity!  After that we all sat around the baggage claim waiting for our bags to show up and thankfully they did.  We then proceeded through customs, and I was convinced that I was going to end up on an episode of Locked Up Abroad.  We got through no problem.  We then when out front and were greeted by a member that did not look totally convincing that he was the one we should be going with because he was not wearing a white shirt.  It wasn’t until I saw his garments out from under his shirt that I was convinced that this was an intelligent idea.  We went out to the parking lot (dirt lot) and all crammed into a van.  The locals were eager to help us get our bags into the van but after they asked for a tip we were told not to give them anything and so we just told them we had no money.  One of the boys traveling with us was especially singled out and we were convinced that he was going to get jumped but then we all got loaded into the van and he drove away fast!  We arrived at the MTC around 12:00 pm.  We were welcome by the missionaries who had been in for a month learning to speak French.  We were given a snack (leftover breakfast) and sent to our rooms for the night.  I wasn’t too fond of the snack like muffin thing they gave us and I didn’t finish it all.  You will be happy to know that there is indoor plumbing in the MTC and hot showers, but there is an electric fence around the compound.  There is no AC in the rooms but there is a small fan (it doesn’t help).  This morning we all got orientation and were given our pills for stuff?  Almost everyone in the MTC at the moment are going to Sierra Leone.  Today we should be getting all the African elders in and it looks like I have a local as a companion in the MTC.  Last night I was second guessing my decision to serve but come this morning I am fine with it.  Well we only get about 30 min to email and others are eagerly awaiting their turn, so I will write on Monday!!!!

 

Until then I LOVE you all and hope you aren’t too worried about me.  Get some sleep mom and dad, I will be fine and staying up isn’t going to help.

 

I love you all so much.

 

From your missionary,

Elder Gebauer