Last Day in GHANA MTC

Hello!

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be in the mission field in the Ivory Coast! I have 15 minutes to write this email, so I will include just one thing that I learned this week. 

WHERE WILL THIS LEAD?

The MTC president gave a great object lesson this week during a branch activity. In a small room, packed with 40 missionaries, he pulled out a 2 Cedis bill (Ghanaian currency). "How much is this?" he asked, "2 Cedis," everyone responded. 

He then pulled out a 10 Cedis bill, and the room got a little more quiet. Was he going to give the bill to someone in the class? That's a bit of money right there. He taped the 2 Cedis and 10 Cedis bill on a whiteboard. He then took out a 50 Cedis bill, and the class went silent. Is he going to give this money to someone?? How can we get that bill??

He arranged the bills next to each other, and drew a dot on the board. "We are all at this dot. It is our point of decision. Now, we can take a couple paths from our current point of decision." (He drew straight lines from the dot to the respective Ghanaian bills) "We can only choose one path. Which path should we take?"

And it was apparent that the respective bills represented different kinds of choices we can make (bad, okay, best..or even good, better, best...or even popular, not as popular, minority).

It was obvious that we must take the path that leads to the 50 Cedis bill. I mean, it was right there! But there are a couple takeaways I got from this lesson about making the right choices.

Often, we can't see the path to the "50 Cedis bill," and that's why the decision is hard.

When others take the path to the "2 Cedis bill," they will often wave their reward in the air, mocking those who are patiently and faithfully making their way toward the 50 Cedis bill. This is discouraging...we think to ourselves, "look at those others, they are 2 Cedis richer! What am I doing, hoping that my patience will pay off in making this harder decision, walking toward the 50 Cedis bill?"

We can't see all of path to the respective bills, and there is only one source that can see both where we are, where we need to be, and what we need to do to get to where we need to be...and that is the prophets, scriptures, and personal revelation. We have to have the humility to trust in the scriptures, and the prophets, and not trust the crowds of people who are waving the 2 Cedis bills in our faces..."look at this pleasure I have, it's so easy to obtain! What are you doing, your wasting your time! There is no 50 Cedis bill!"

This object lesson really touched me. We often need to make hard decisions to live happy lives. Amen.

I will attach some final MTC goodbye pictures in a separate email! I had a great overall experience, and I am proud of the friendships I made, and the ways that I have been stretched, and the ways that I have repented and grown. I think that the missionaries who just forget themselves had the best time. The MTC wasn't a 24/7 spiritual high comfortable joyride, but there were so many little moments of inspiration, thoughts, access to the spirit

Love you all,

Elder Evans

MTC French Branch

Elder Evans, Penultimate Ghana MTC Update

Hello!

With one week left, I am ready to go out into the real world. The food at the MTC has been nutritious and delicious, the French elders have been patient and willing to converse with us French-learners, and I am learning that the version of Elder Evans that Heavenly Father needs is a version of Elder Evans that can only be achieved through daily repentance. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

This Monday, I accidentally discovered that it was a Sister in our district's birthday this Wednesday! Happy accident, I saw her screen as she was logging into a learning language website, using her birthday as her password. 

On her birthday, the elders in our district finished our breakfast early, so we could make a big happy birthday sign on the classroom board. We turned off the lights and surprised her when she walked into the classroom. Her present that we presented to her was a French dictionary, wrapped with clean toilet paper and duct tape. We even let her control the classroom AC for the day (she prefers hot temperatures). We had to take her present back once class started, because it was Elder Pierce's. Happy Birthday Soeur Moze!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS:

To everyone who prays for the missionaries, thank you. I had a couple of days in a row this week where I had trouble getting out of bed/was discouraged throughout the day, but this Monday I had a cool experience.

I took a few minutes to get out of bed this Monday. After reluctantly getting up, I sat on my bed, not feeling motivated to get to work. A few moments after I sat up, my mind and my emotions were just flooded with gratitude for various people in my life. All these memories of happy moments with family members came to mind, and the incessant thoughts of discouragement seemed to float away for a few minutes. It seriously felt like I was EXPECTO-PATRONUM-ing all my sad thoughts away (Harry Potter reference). 

While I wasn't elated for the whole day, the few minutes of really pure, bouying joy gave me the motivation I needed for the rest of the day. 

To everyone who prays for the missionaries, thank you!

THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY:

I love breakfast at the MTC, there's oatmeal every day. Are we in heaven already??

The funny thing is that the kind of "oatmeal" changes everyday, with differing sizes of oatmeal particles, texture, and color each day. And each "kind" of "oatmeal" has a different name, that is completely unrelated to oatmeal.

For example, this morning we had the most fine-particled oatmeal of the week, and it is a deep, chocolate brown color. It is called "Tom Brown." Tom Brown is delicious! Way more delicious that it's overly-sweet, chunkier cousin, Sourdough Cornmeal.

EN FRANCAIS:

I attended an endowment session today, listening to a French headset! I did an endowment session in French.

TESTIMONY:

In Ether 2, The Brother of Jared was obedient to the commandments he recieved, yet he still ran into problems ("Yes, I made this boat, but how are we going to breathe?? How are we going to see?") 

Especially when we are trying to be obedient to rules and commandments that we do not completely understand, it is a little scary to be obedient. We want there to be some confirmation right away that our courage to be obedient will pay off. But it does not always work like that.

We have to show some faith when we are obedient. There are blessings for obedience, but there are blessings because it is hard. It's scary sometimes to be obedient. But why not try obedience, and see that there are blessings? Why not take a chance and learn a higher principle of living by seeing blessings come obedience, blessings that are not seen in the lives of those who are disobedient?

Heavenly Father wants to work through us, and do greater things through us than we can do alone, but we have to do it His way. I know that humility and faith are essential to obedience. 

Love you all,

Elder Evans

Africa (Missionary Heaven)!

Hello!

I had a lot of new experiences at the MTC this week. 90% of the MTC left to go on mission, and a new 90% of missionaries came in. The feeling of being a 6-week missionary, watching all the new 3-week missionaries come in, is comparable to being a senior in high school after you've already been accepted to college, and you just want to move on to the next exciting stage of life. 

PROSELYTING IN ACCRA, GHANA:

For 4 hours this last Wednesday, us MTC missionaries were thrown out into the mission field! Speaking English. Holy cow, the field is white and ready to harvest in Africa. I was so nervous about people being too busy to talk, or avoiding us completely, but out of the 21 people we met, 17 gave us their numbers, seemed very interested, and wanted to talk to the missionaries again. WHAT??!!

When I would ask simple questions like, "Do you have a belief in God?" or, "Do you believe that God loves you?" almost everyone would respond with a sincere, heartfelt response of their life experiences with God. Almost no one acted like they did not have time for us. I was assigned to teach with a French Elder learning English, so I did a lot of the talking. However, at the end of every lesson, my french companion Elder Lenge would bear an English testimony, "I know if you read this brochure, every day, every day, God will bless you, your work, your family." 

Proselyting wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, though. But a lot of it was. There was a 50 minute stretch at 1:00 in the afternoon when we talked to almost nobody. Just hiking through Accra, not a lot of people interested. I was getting pretty discouraged, it was hot, I was hungry, and as more and more time passed, I felt more and more guilty that we weren't getting work done. 

Then, in the last thirty minutes of our proselyting time, a man actually called us over to his shop on the side of the dirt road and actively asked us questions about the gospel. He had a lot of questions, and I loved being able to bear my testimony and was amazed by the love I had for this man who wanted to know more about our church.

I felt that this conversation we had with this man was a small reminder from Heavenly Father that He still loved us, and was thinking about us. I'm sure going 50 minutes in the hot sun without talking to someone is something that I will have to deal with more often, but I am glad that Heavenly Father gave me the little bit of encouragement that I, a fresh, hopeful missionary, needed. I loved this trial-by-fire proselyting experience in Africa (missionary heaven).

HAPPY, BOLD, SUPPORTIVE FRENCH BRANCH:

I am now in the French Branch for Sunday meetings in the MTC, which is 80% native French speakers. Every week, we prepare talks in French, and this last Sunday I got to give a talk in French! At the beginning of the talk, I thanked all the francophones (French speakers) for their patience with our accents.

I have had the humbling experience to have been called as a zone leader in the French branch. Holy cow, the members of our zone are encouraging, patient, faithful, and so happy!

This Sunday, I led the discussion in our French Priesthood meeting about the Holy Ghost. While it wasn't perfect, several members in our priesthood quorum were so positive and thanked me for my efforts after the lesson! 

I was so impressed with the faith of the African elders during the lesson about the Holy Ghost. They made comments during the lesson with so much sincerity, and there were no hidden agendas, and there was no feeling that they were trying to impress anyone with their comments. 

I don't know what I am bringing to the table in this leadership position. The members of our zone are so obedient and happy and faithful, I look up to them all. 

I figure that if I am praying to know what I can do to help the other Elders and if I just give myself freely to them, whatever their needs may be, I'll be guided to do what needs to be accomplished in the French Branch. Heavenly Father works through brute materials. It's not a confidence in myself that I need to develop, but a confidence in Christ and Heavenly Father. 

INJURY:

I rolled my ankle playing basketball. Nowadays, I just kind of Tiny-Tim style hop around the MTC. 

TESTIMONY:

I love King Benjamin's speech in Mosiah 4 in the Book of Mormon. We are so indebted to our Heavenly Father. The air we breathe in our nostrils is because of Heavenly Father. How great a need we have to just serve each other, and give of ourselves freely. 

We all have our own struggles. "Are we not all beggars?" I have developed a greater testimony while in the MTC that if we want to develop greater charity for others, we have to serve them. If we feel spited or bitter, respond with understanding. Although it's more natural to wallow in gossip and bitterness, we need to take the higher road and love.

Know that I am happy, well fed, and trying to be more Christlike.

Love you all,

Elder Evans

Elder Evans is alive and working hard in the greatest work on the face of the earth.

 I am 3 weeks away from leaving the Ghana MTC and serving in the Ivory Coast.

UNITY WITH THE FRANCOPHONES:

There is a group of about 4 American missionaries and 8 African missionaries that eat all of our meals together. We teach them English while they teach us French, and it's really cool to see how far we have come since the beginning of our MTC experience, were a lot of the Americans clumped together, and the African missionaries did the same. Almost everyone has grown up and there is not a lot of division between races anymore. Yay!

SOCCER:

My companion and I now play soccer often during sports time. We were both really worried that we would get shown up by the francophone missionaries, but I have found that I have a lot of fun, even if I can't dribble the ball well, just running out, playing a very inefficient and energy-sapping form of defense.

PRESIDENT NELSON'S ADVICE ON RECEIVING REVELATION:

This week, I have tried to make a more sincere effort to receive revelation. As President Nelson said, "I think that we severely underestimate how much the Lord wants to speak with us!" I have tried to set apart more sacred time to read the scriptures, and also set apart time after to just listen and be attentive to my own thoughts. 

Before just a few days ago, I had never really considered just how much of a difference setting apart time to listen to the promptings of the spirit can make.

 I invite any reading this to not only make time to read the word of God and pray, but to also make time to LISTEN!

CONTACT WITH AMERICA:

Two researches from Provo came to do some focus groups and ask missionaries about their experience in the Ghana MTC. I actually really loved sharing my thoughts on the emotional, social, and functional nuances of the Ghana MTC. It was interesting to hear this researcher restate our thoughts back to us in a more packed, compact, and educated manner. 

The Ghana MTC has been a very positive, but different experience than I expected. I think a willingness to just roll with African culture is very important. 

TESTIMONY:

Heavenly Father loves us, and he wants to talk to us. If we make a sincere effort to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and have a willingness to act, even if we "don't know beforehand what we should do," Heavenly Father will bless us for our willingness to obey. 

Love you all,

Elder Evans

Happy Fourth of July from the African continent!

A lot of memorizing, attempted French conversations, and prayer is going on here at the MTC. I love it. The initial excitement of the newness of being in the MTC has worn off. However, everyday we learn about Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and I have had a lot of sweet experiences feeling the Spirit.

WEEPING:

Holy cow, I love singing hymns here. When the whole MTC gathers together to sing hymns, all 120 of us, half of the crowd is singing French, the other half English. The African elders sing extremely boldly, some of them more in tune than others. I have not made it through singing a lot of hymns here without crying. I just love the combination of unintelligible lyrics, proud loud singing, and varying levels of vocal proficiency all coming together to reflect the undeterred courage of all the Elders in the MTC.

AFRICAN ELDERS:

But seriously, a lot of the African Elders here have sacrificed a lot to come to the MTC. A good portion of them have been members for only a couple years. It has been eye opening to talk with the African Elders about their life before the mission. One Elder, Elder Ilunga from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one of 15 children in his family, and is the only member of the church. He met with the missionaries just two years ago, was baptized, and has now put forth the faith to come on a two year mission. HOLY COW!

My companion, Elder Johnson, introduced our roommates (who are from Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo) to cinnamon gummy bears. Elder N'Cho tried one, loved it, and then asked if the bag of cinnamon gummy bears was for everyone to eat whenever they wanted. Of course they are!

THE GHANA MTC CROSS COUNTRY TEAM:

During our hour of "sports time" this week, I have started running around this little sidewalk that runs around the soccer field outside the MTC. The first time we ran, it was just me and my companion who would run, but we have amassed followers into our running group and have 6-8 guys that come running with us! It's a good opportunity to practice speaking French.

DEVOTIONAL FROM A MEMBER OF THE SEVENTY:

Elder Martinez, a church authority from the Seventy, came and spoke to us this week. A couple points I loved:

-Preach My Gospel is not a sales manual. As missionaries, we are not becoming shrewd salesmen. Preach My Gospel is a manual for how to become the tool that Heavenly Father needs.

-When we are obedient, we learn. When we are disobedient, we are just trusting our own knowledge...think of some parent reprimanding their child, "Why did you do that?"...the response is almost always, "I don't know."

-My mission is a tithing for my life. I am devoting 2 years of service to Heavenly Father, despite difficulties, and will see blessings throughout the rest of my life.

MY TESTIMONY:

The devotional was great. Also this week, I've thought a lot about how personal the Atonement was.

Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world for us. 

I've often thought, "Oh, well He knew that everything was going to turn out fine, He would resurrect after being crucified, He knew everything was going to go according to God's plan.

But in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked that if it was possible, that this burden could be taken from Him.

I think of how when people go out of their way to be kind, or they do something nice for me, I am always really touched, and appreciate that a lot. This week, I have come to feel that the Atonement was a similar intentional, personal act of service, but could have only been done by someone with an infinite capacity to love.

 It was like having someone genuinely complement you...but times infinity

Like someone carrying one of your heavy bags when you're walking to the car from the grocery store..but times infinity.

Like someone talking to you when you are struggling...but times infinity. 

I feel so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Despite my imperfections, God loves me. I am able to repent and become better everyday. I want so badly to become the best missionary I can to help others in the Ivory Coast find the same joy that I have.

Ghana MTC July 2019

Ghana Temple right next to the MTC

Elder Evans is still alive!

I was extremely stressed before coming to the Ghana MTC...I was worried about getting along with African Elders, worried about the cafeteria food not being enough or not being good, worried about the showers only having cold water, worried about my testimony...

But everything is very ok! I am loving it at the Ghana MTC.

3 catering companies are competing for being the official caterer of the Ghana MTC, so the food we eat is delicious (rice, meat, exotic fruits and vegetables, yummy African food) and we get a lot of it. I am well fed, all the time.

The African Elders are awesome. The mission president and his wife emphasize that us elders are the "pioneers of Africa." The African Elder's are so solidly grounded in the church, and when they bear testimony of the church, they state the fundamental principles of the gospel with such sincerity and love. They are not concerned with "looking like a gospel scholar/expert," but instead state the truths that they know to be true.

Talking with the Native French speakers is one of the best parts of the Ghana MTC. Most of the African Elders know Elder Evans as the ho tries to speak to the African French speakers, and they are always so kind and happy to speak to me in French. During meals, my district (group of missionaries) and I will sit among the French speakers, and they help us improve our French, and we help them learn English. When passing African French speakers, I'll often call out French phrases that I'm learning, they laugh, I laugh, and then they respond with an English phrase. 

It's really fun, because the Elders who embrace making mistakes when practicing the language have the best time. 

I would guess that there are about 150 Elders in the Ghana MTC. I would say about 35 American Elders, and then the rest are from the African continent. 

The showers have warm water! However, it is so hot, I often take cold showers.

There are a couple of really good ping pong players here...I lost two games yesterday.

In the last two weeks, I have come to know better that oftentimes, we just have to act, even if we do not know exactly how things are going to turn out. Jumping into a French conversation is intimidating and sometimes embarassing, but it always benefits me in the end. I am not the perfect gospel teacher, but I must open my mouth, and take action having faith that Heavenly Father appreciates my efforts to serve Him.

I know that the principles of our gospel lead to happiness, I know that the Book of Mormon has brought me happiness, and I know that repenting and utilizing the Atonement has brought me peace. The Book of Moromon is True.

See you all later!!

Bonjour tout la monde!

I just arrived in Ghana last night, and have eaten 2 meals at the MTC, both of which were delicious. Yesterday consisted of 13 hours of flying, and 10ish hours of waiting at airports, so I am very excited to start getting to work at the MTC!

I am very grateful for the French I have taken. I am able to communicate with Native french speakers pretty well...I'm often smiling while I'm speaking, because I know I'm making errors, and it's apparent to them that I am making errors, but I think that they appreciate that I am trying really really hard to speak well. Most American Elders here have not taken any French, so it is nice to be able to communicate. My companion for the MTC is Elder Johnson from Blanding, Utah. We have gotten along very well, and have 2 Elders that are from Africa that we share the room with. They have been really nice, and I'll often ask them how to say things in French, and they'll ask us questions about English. They tried Twizzlers for the first time (from Elder Johnson) and loved them.

So I am alive! Hope everything is going well with everyone. 

Elder Evans

Au Revoir Elder Evans!

Au revoir Elder Evans! We will miss you like crazy but are so happy for you to have this opportunity to serve and teach the people of Africa.

June 20, 2019"Saw your cute son in the Amsterdam airport! Not close enough for him to see us, but just wanted to update you! He was all smiles."Cristin (The best news from a traveling friend before we had heard from Will.)

(Email from Ghana MTC President)
"Greetings from Accra, Ghana!
We are pleased to report that your missionaries arrived safely tonight at the Ghana MTC. They look very tired (it is nearly midnight) but happy. We're delighted to welcome them. They join a group of 150 missionaries from 24 countries for this 3 week cycle. We have missionaries from homes in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, Columbia, France, countries from all over Africa and other locations...
This is a remarkable place to serve! The Church is growing rapidly with people who are faithful, strong, and committed. It is a special time and the Lord's had is over this area. "