1st Email from the MTC

Yo, what is up everyone!! My p day is kinda of weird today, it is only in the morning so yall are asleep and my messenger isn't working (it's thinking I'm a hacker) so sorry if any of you messaged me on there.

Anyways!! This week has been amazing! I got to Ghana after 2 long days of travel on Thursday morning! When we got here we were the first group to arrive so we ended up sitting around a lot and we're pretty bored and very jet lagged, but after everyone else arrived it was such a fun day. I met my companion Elder Ike-Ake from Nigeria and he is such a dawg. In his tribe his name means "strong man" and that is very true for him. He is absolutely jacked! His voice is so deep and he has the coolest accent I've ever heard. We were called as district leaders while we are in the mtc 😎

Everyone is so nice here and it's so fun to see where everyone is from. I met some Elders from French Polynesia, a Sister from Tonga, a lot of Elders from Nigeria and Congo, a few Sisters from South Africa, and ALOT from America! Whenever anyone asks where I'm from I found out I can say "the factory" and they know right where I'm talking about, the great state of Utah. A teacher even asked where I was from and I said " Utah" and he said "oooohhhh another factory boy! There's a lot of you here!" Which was hilarious. My district is probably the best district here, we are the Moroni district and in that district we got me and Elder Ike-Ake(nigeria), Elder McClure (Cali) and Elder Lelekumo (Nigeria), Elder Harris (Cali) and Elder I (we don't know how to say his last name...not even the Africans!) (Nigeria), Elder Giles (factory) and his companion didn't show up till last night so I don't know him. Then, there are two sisters but I'm not sure their names...they don't want to talk to any of us. We are on the fifth floor which is the top and everyone says it's "the celestial floor" because it is the highest. I asked if it means we are the holiest and someone said “No, it means you need help so God keeps you closer to him" which didn't make sense but everyone laughed. Anyways, I absolutely love it here and can't wait to go to the temple next week. We are going twice a week for 5 weeks! Also, I found out I'm only here for 5weeks instead of 6 so that's pretty neat. My p day is on Thursday for next week I'm pretty sure. Love you all, the church is true, and The Book of Mormon is an amazing true book!

Love,

Elder McKee

Other interesting tidbits mom is adding in:

**Very humid, a very wet hot. legs get sticky the second he walks out of the air conditioning.

**Classes are about an hour each, then he get to move around for a little bit, the teachers are actually happy to be here so they are a lot of fun.

**Waking up at 6:30 is abuse!

**A couple people have asked if his ancestors are from Africa.

**Ghana is 6 hours behind Utah, so the first phone call this morning was 3 am. (Yes, Mom answered. She’s been waiting!)

**Red dot on his tag means his main language is English, Mission Language is French. People still try and talk to him in French, then walk away when he doesn’t answer.

**No one can say McKee. They say either “Manke”, “Moke”, and “Mck”

**An Elder from the Congo said Andy’s last name and his first name are the same. His first name is “Mokay”

**Had the grossest soup ever today. It smelt and tasted like an elk cup open and a little rotten. His Comp told him it was really good and it was melon seeds, ground up and meats added. Not our same type of melon. He said it’s a very common food in Benin and Nigeria, so Andy will have to learn to like it. ( Andy said it didn’t taste too bad, just the thought of a slightly rotten elk made it gross.)

** Chicken and rice with every meal, and one of them is always spicy.

**Figured out how to spell Elder I’s name. It’s Elder Igwesinwachukwu.

Andy and cousin Max Cooper met up in the MTC. Max is going to the Ivory Coast, but they overlap in the MTC by 3 weeks.

I'm so glad Andy has a familiar face there.

And we got our phone call! He was trying to figure out his phone over there and with the time different, he called at 3 am and we talked until about 6 am. We were excited to see him face! He sounded happy!