Je suis bébé de Tolman

That's probably the thing I've said most this past 4 days and it translates to "I am Tolman's baby” (Tolman is my trainer, btw)

(Also with mission rules i can't use messenger so if you want to talk email me! @ andrew.mckee@missionary.org!)

(Also i can't be in others google photo albums, so sorry if I left yours! It’s a weird rule, but i gotta follow it. It wasn't anything personal! Add pics to your emails, I can see those!)

I'M IN THE FEILD EVERYONE! and let me tell ya it's been a fever dream, I have no idea what's happening and none of it feels real. I'm going to start from last Wednesday morning and go till right now and say briefly what happened.

Wednesday morning we said goodbye to everyone and left the MTC to the Ghana airport, got on a 40 minute flight to Togo, then a 2 hour layover, then a 25 min flight to Benin! It was the shortest flight ever, it legit went like this: take off, pilot announced "we are at cruising altitude" (5 minutes later) decent and landing I didn't even have time to fall asleep. iIt was sick tho. After that we went through customs which was so easy... just handed them my passport and visa then they handed it back and I was through. We got our bags and went to the mission home, met the President and his wife, had an interview with him, and ate pizza. After interviews we met our trainers (mine was already in Togo so I said hi over zoom) and then we went to bed.

Thursday all the missionaries going to Togo (which was me) loaded into a bus and headed to Togo, met at the stake center, and met all our trainers. My trainer is Elder Tolman, from Utah. He's been here about a year and 2 months. His French is very impressive. Someday I'll be good as him. We went to the house, dropped our bags off, delivered some things for other missionaries (he's an office elder so we drive a little more than other missionaries) and we went out tracking. First house we went too I understood Tolman saying "bonjour" and then nothing else. As we left I was scared cause that didn't sound like the French I learned and said to Tolman "man dude my French is awful I didn't understand anything!" And he just laughed and said "that wasn't French it was Evé, a local language" and Tolman is learning Evé and Fon just cause he was bored after learning French! Now he can talk to anyone, which is so cool. Me someday.

Friday was a full day of tracking and teaching and I met some members and talked a tiny bit more French, it was a good day. One person told me I speak worse than her 2 year old daughter and I said in English (she didn't understand) "well I've been learning for 3 weeks, your baby has been learning for 2 years" and Tolman just laughed. Nothing else happened on Friday, just trying to get used to the area.

Saturday was fun! We met with more members and friends on date for baptism! One is an 11 year old girl, her parents aren't interested but she is and LOVES the Book of Mormon. As Tolman was talking to her she was looking at me and says "why isn't he talking, I don't like it, it's weird" and Tolman says "say something in French" and I go " je na parle par français" and she just laughed then continued with the lesson. This day I also tried Togolese foo foo, and it was interesting, but I ate it all. The fish taste was gross, and I almost barfed.

Sunday was fun! Introduced myself to everyone in the ward and spoke to them as much as I could. They were all nice and helped me with my French a little. I've learned that all these people are so happy you're trying to learn they don't care if you mess up, they might laugh, but then they will correct you and move on! So nice. After church we went to some lessons we had planned with new members or people we didn't see at church who said they would come. It was so fun, met some amazing families, played soccer with some kids, ended up kicking their ball over the house on accident (They got it back), did a butt load of walking, and met someone who was like "the missionaries told me to come to their church, I went and no one was there!! Where were you?!" Turns out she went to the wrong church, she's gonna try again next week!

Monday P-DAY!!!

The sun shines little brighter on p days ladies and gentleman. Today I got to talk to friends and family back home and let them know I'm alive and thriving. This morning we went and played basketball and it was so fun, we were all messing around and just having a grand time. After basketball we went to get burgers and as they were being made we went to a store called "champion" (their Walmart" and it was an amazing place, mainly cause jt was air conditioned! It felt so good inside, and there was so many snacks. I got some drinks, chips, chocolate, ice-cream and I am so happy to eat.

That catches us up. Sorry this email is long, this is my life now. I am in the Kelegougon area in Togo. if you can find the stake center in Togo that's my church, it's huge and has about a million fans!

Love you all! Miss you tons! Something that has helped me through these days is reading my Patriarchal Blessing. It always makes me happy and know that God is truly watching out for me and has a plan! Go read yours if you have it. If not go see what the new intro to the BOM is! ame out about 2 weeks ago! It's pretty cool!

Love you all miss you all! Till next week

-Elder McKee

Andy and Ike-Ake singing the morning before leaving Ghana MTC.