This Week's Pics!

Alright! We got more pictures!!!!

 

This is Elder Molemo and some boys digging the foundation for a house.

 

More kids joined the fun!

 

Elder McGuire and the helpers!

 

Fresh coconut milk. He said it is SO SWEET.

 

Nasty frog that they found in their apartment!

Baptisms, Mud Huts, and (of course) Food

Hello Family and Friends! It's monday again, and Eder McGuire sent us another update! Enjoy!

Dear Family!!!!

Oh my gosh!!!! so much has happened this last week that its insane!!!!!! so i guess ill start with tuesday, so tuesday is district meeting and we have to take a tro ride about an hour and a half down a dirt road that makes the road to mantua look like a golden highway. so we went to a town called Nkroful and that is where the other 4 elders in our district are including elder cardon! it was way fun to see him and the other elders and discuss how the work has been going, we then went out to lunch together and got fufu, i was liking it alot more and ate it just fine.

 

We then came home and taught and taught and taught some more for the next 3 days on friday the district leader had to come out to tarkwa to interview the 2 baptismal candidates we had so we did splits and i went to Nkroful for the day and was companion to elder cardon which was sooo awesome!!! the area that they are in is a little village and its way small so its hard to find new people for them but we did great. then saturday morning i came back to tarkwa and found out that 1 of the baptismal candidates failed his interview!! it stunk!! so we only were going to have 1 for sunday.

 

Then saturday afternoon we went to go help build this mud house but they hadnt started yet when we got there they had made us both a huge bowl of fufu so we sat and ate for about an hour. the only problem was i didnt plan on eating there so just before i had eaten a huge bowl of spaghetti that i had made. And it is super rude if you dont finish your food here!! luckily i realized my green water bottle was empty and me and elder moleme were alone in the room so i put about 3/4s of it into my bottle and pretended like i had eaten it all and i finished the rest of the food and it i was saved!!! we then got to where they were going to build the house but all they were doing was moving dirt for the foundation so we grabbed shovels and started digging while all these little kids would move it from one place to another it was way fun!!! then just before we left they picked some fresh coconuts from the trees and cut them open so we could drink the milk, it was soo sweet and good it was awesome!!

 

Then we came home and had coordination meeting with the ward mission leader. sunday was a hard day. We have a problem with our baptismal font, it leaks even when we plug up the drain and stuff. i think there is a problem with the foundation of it or something. and the other problem is our water tank that the city fills for us isnt big enough to fill it completely so we have been trying to keep it filled for the last 3 days and it just kept leaking and leaking. and when we fill it our apartment gets no water at all so weve had to buy water for a while now. then heres the really frustrating part the baptismal candidate didnt show up for church, so in the second hour me and 2 priests went to go get him. he was asleep, but we said we would wait for him while he changed, he told us he wanted to take a bath first but he would be to church in time for the baptism so we left and went back to church. WE waited and waited and waited and he never came!!!!!!! it was so dumb!! but i guess he wasnt ready if he didnt realize how important it was.

 

Then after that my companion planned 2 meals in a row for us at members houses!!!! the first was awesome!! we had rice and eggs with this meat sauce and it was delicious!! i was stuffed and we had another meal to go!! at the next meal the family made us the biggest ball of fufu i have ever seen for each of us!! i didnt think i would be able to eat it!!! it was way hard, i forgot my water bottle so i couldnt cheat again. so i ate and ate and worked on it for about an hour having to reswallow stuff a couple of times. i was finally to the last bite and the second it entered my mouth it all came back up!!! it was horrible luckily no one was in the room. and since this food is messy they give us a big bowl of water to wash our hands with so we cleaned it all up really fast and just made it look like my hands had been really dirty. once again i escaped this time much more painfully but it worked hahahaha. anyway thats my funny story for the week. once again the work is awesome here and we are working hard to teach and to prepare people completely for baptism, we already have 6 people committed for the month of may and i hope some of them will turn out. i hope all is well at home and from what ive heard it seems just awesome!!!! i love you all!!!

Love, Elder McGuire

Unexpected Email!

On Wednesday, we recieve an unexpected email from Bradley's Mission President and his wife! They sent us this picture and a short little note saying that Elder McGuire is doing well and he is excited and ready to go!
It was a WONDERFUL surprise!

Pictures of BRUNI

He sent us more pictures!!! I love it!

This is his apartment. They have some heavy duty mosquitoe nets!

 

This is the town of Tarkwa

 

More of Tarkwa.

 

This is Elder Moleme, Bradley's new comp.

 

Tony, Bradley and Fred (two investigators).

 

Gorgeous exotic flowers!!!!

The Frying Pan to the Fire

This is Bradley's first week in the field! He left the MTC on Tuesday, marking his 12th day on his mission! It's crazy how they moved him through so fast. Here's his last letter to us, and we will have pictures soon to follow! :) Love, Me

Dear Family!!!!!

Holy cow this place is crazy!!!!!! so much has happened this last week!!!!!!!! so first off i am in a place called tarkwa!! me and my companion are the furthest missionaries from the mission home right now!!!(about 5 hours drive) my trainer is from south africa his name is elder Moleme and he is hilarious!!! he is about 5 foot 6 and is skinnier than all get out but he is awesome!!!!

And holy cow!! i thought the culture shock was bad in the mtc!! its way worse out here but its awesome. and guess what?!!? i am learning 2 languages right now most the people here in tarkwa speak either fanti or tree and not many speak english so its been crazy sitting in lessons not really know what was going on because i couldnt understand the people. but i am studying and its coming along. Our apartment is in the basement of the church building. this area was only opened 5 months ago so the branch here is only 5 months old!! my trainer was one of the elders who opened it!!! while they were opening the area my trainer was being trained by his comp so my comp has only been out 5 months almost 6 but he is awesome. he cant quite speak all of the languages but he can say enough. the work here is awesome!!!!

We have already taught a ton of lessons!! and i am doing pretty well at getting all the points and everything. we found a guy on friday taught him the first lesson, then saturday we taught him again, then sunday he came to church and we have already set a baptismal date for him in may!!!!! elder moleme and his previous companion were teaching a few people before i got here so we are baptizing them this sunday!! and im gonna be doing 1 or 2 of them!!! this is so crazy!!!!! we are working hard to find people because we dont have very many to teach but we have faith that we will find those that the lord has prepared. so the branch that is here is very small and they have me already teaching gospel principles class to the adults of the branch. i cant say it enough it is so awesome here!!

I am still getting used to the food here but it is beginning to be good. like we said we dont often eat a members houses so we cook all of our food ourselves at the apartment. when we left the mtc they gave us these special filtration waterbottles that we carry everywhere with us so that is how we get pure water while we are tracting. at all of the apartments here in the mission they have been equiped with a filtration system so we can have clean water. my health is great i have had no physical problems what soever besides the sunburn i got earlier today.

IT IS HOT HERE!!!! oh my gosh i didnt know it could get this hot but somehow it does, i have adjusted to it though and things are getting way better. I have loved hearing from all of you it helps so much you wouldnt believe it!!!!!! its funny here because not many of the natives have seen a white guy in real life so when i walk by all the little kids yell " Oh BRUNI!!!!" it means "hey white man!!!!!!" its so funny!!!

OH we are doing a service project this saturday where we are going to help some friends of one of the members build a mud house!!! i am so excited!!!!!! its gonna be a blast Sorry if i didnt answer all the questions but thats all i really have time for. Just know that i am doing great and i am praying for everyone back home and i love all of you!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder McGuire

More PICTURES!!!!

I LOVE PICTURES!!! And he sent SIX of them! He has a happy little sister right now!
The first three pictures were taken at the temple in Accra.

 

 

These pictures were taken at the MTC!

 This is his district... We think....

More From the Last week in the MTC... and more about FOOD!

This is a big letter from Bradley, but we LOVE hearing anything from him! Love you Family!

 

Dear Family,

Ok!!!! so now i can get down to it. i am doing great!!!! the work here is so awesome!! i didnt know that i could change so much in just 12 days!!!!!!! my testimony has been strengthened so much, and all i can say is I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!! i love reading the book of mormon and we get to do it every day. we've been practicing teaching a lot and i feel like im getting it but i know i am no where near where i need to be but ill keep trying my best!!

 

So as for food, everything has rice with it!! its usuall chicken and this red meat sauce and rice!! but theyve started making us these real ghanain dishes lately. they made us this stuff called EBA its like playdough and you get a handful of it and dip it in this fishey spicey oily sauce that is just horrendous and i choked it down but it was horrible and they eat it a lot in my mission.....thank goodness i wont be eating at members houses:) we also had boiled plantain today it was alright its like a banana and a potatoe put together and i think i will get used to those. OH! and the pineapple here is amazing!!!! its sweet like ours but it tastes creamy at the same time so just imagine like a pina colada its way good!!!

 

There are mosquitos but since its so hot during the day they dont come out but they do at night. thankfully all of the windows and doors here have screens but in the field i will always have a mosquito net over my bed. and for preston they actually speak 4 different dialects in my mission and each dialect is specific to the tribe and i will probably be learning all of them so i kindof am speaking a different language i just wont learn it here in the mtc.

 

Everything here is going awesome!!! instead of having mice inside the building we have wall gecos, they are these little lizards that run all up and down the walls and there fun to play with. there are also really big lizards that hang around outside, i saw one that was about 2 feet long and im positive i will be seeing bigger ones later.

 

Adjusting to life here was really hard at first thank goodness there are 8 americans here, we all talk at night about the differences of back home and what is new and weird. it helps to have people to relate to. One elder in particular in my district Elder Cardon has been awesome!! we talk every night and are like best friends and its awesome!! i hope i get to serve with him later in the mission!! tonight my mission president is coming to the mtc!! he is interviewing all of us going to cape coast and telling us all whats going to be happening. then tomorrow at about 6 am were piling into 3 vans and driving about 4 hours to our mission. and i will be with my new comp in my new area by tomorrow night. its so crazy that in less than 2 days i will be teaching real people!!!! i cant wait!!!! im also excited because they say that in my mission the baptism goal is 2 per week and more often than not people exceed that goal!! i am soooo excited!!!! i cant believe that less than 2 weeks ago i was living back with you guys and working all the time, i am so happy to be here and i know this is where i am supposed to be!!! i love you all and when i talk to you next i will be in the field!!! wish me luck!!! i love you!!!

Love, Elder James Bradley McGuire

The Food and the Time...

Bradley sent us this email at 5:00 this morning! There is an 8 hour time difference between America and Ghana. So even though it was 5:00 a.m. for us, it was really 1:00 p.m. for him! Crazy!

 

 Dear Family,

I've learned so much in the past 12 days its been insane!!! we leave for the field tomorrow!!!!! the food here is all rice and chicken or rice and beans and stuff. they had a version of fufu for lunch one day and it was disgusting!!! its like a ball of salt dough our playdough and you grab a little handfull of it and dip it in this fishey spicey just disgusting mixture of a soup and then you just swallow it like you would swallow pudding or jello and its really hard to stomach and they say that they eat it alot down in cape coast. thank goodness we dont eat at members houses very often!!! i cant wait to be cooking for myself!!!!!! anyway im out of time but i am probably writing again today but if not, i love you all!!!! anyway gotta go!!!

i love you!!

love elder mcguire

MTC Pictures

Here are some pictures of the MTC! :) We LOVE pictures!!!

First Letter Home!

Hey Family! Here's Bradley's last email that we got from him! We love getting his emails!

 

Dear family!!!!

 

Holy cow!!!! its so crazy here!!!! i cant believe that its only been 4 days!! it feels like its been an eternity!! the first day here was so ridiculously hard!! i was writing in my journal that night literally with sweat dripping off of my nose and it was the coldest i had been all day long. it is soo hot here!! if someone wouldve asked me if i wanted to leave that first night i wouldve done it in a heart beat it was soo hard to adjust to everything!! but now its INCREDIBLE!!!!!! the food is flat out weird they make rice with everything and they have weird spices and just kinda throw everything together into mixtures. and they only give us one plate of food but it is heaping!! its hard to eat all of it, especially because of the new tastes and stuff. but i am starting to like it alot more. My companions name is Elder Quasie!! he is so awesome!!! Dad if you could take elder cabral and make him black he would be my companion. He is so hilarious yet he has an amazing testimony!!! i am so blessed to have such an awesome companion!! ive already taught 3 lessons and ive harldy been here long enough to know everything. but thats the way it is here. we leave next wednesday to the mission!!! im only gonna be here for 12 days!!!! holy cow!!! we were right about the whole return trip thing, it was just to show that we could afford to go home. the culture is so different here!! the elders here come from almost nothing and yet they have everything because they have the gospel in their lives. Alot of the elders only have 2 pairs of pants and a couple of shirts. so they all go wash thier clothes in the sinks right before bed. and the ones that do have like 10 shirts and all the other stuff they still wash them by hand because they would rather do it themselves than have them put it in the laundry baskets for the mtc to wash. Showers here are all cold, but thats amazing because it is so hot all of the time that its the only thing you can stand!! there are swamp coolers in all of the class rooms but nothing in our bedrooms so needless to say sleeping is the hottest part of the day for us. Conference was awesome!! i got to watch both saturday sessions and the sunday morning session and they were great!!! tons of talks about africa!!! i was so happy!!! sorry if i didnt answer all the questions but time is short so i have to go but i love you all and cant wait to here more about home!!

 

Love, Elder James Bradley Mcguire

Elder's first day

The day that Bradley arrived in Ghana, he sent us this email!

 

Dear Family

 

Im here!!!! we all made it in one piece!!! the flight from new york to ghana was super long!!! luckily i took that dramamine and i slept for about 8 hours of the flight off and on so it was way nice!!! when we stepped off the plane it was super hot!!! it hit us all like a wall!!! we made our way through customs and it took a while and we had to hurry through as fast as possible because the longer we stood in one place the more people looked at us and wanted to stop us and ask us questions, a few of the elders had to pay the customs officer 20 bucks just to let them pass, but luckily i escaped with out losing any money there were 2 elders waiting for us near the exit of the small airport. i was the first to make it out so they pulled me aside to wait for the others. once we all got to the exit the elders gave us like 50 joseph smith pamphlets. they did this because when we walked out to the van tons of people just swarmed us trying to "help" us with our luggage but all they were looking for was money so to get them to leave us alone we handed them pamphlets instead. they only had 1 big van for us and there ended up being 14 of us 2 of which were sisters from africa and 3 elders from africa. needless to say we couldnt fit all of our luggage in the van so one of the elders who came with us stayed at the airport with our luggage while they sent another van out to get him. the drive was about 45 minutes to the mtc and it was crazy!!! the only way i can describe it is that its exactly like the beginning of cool runnings when he runs down the busy street and its packed and people are carrying stuff on their heads. anyway i gotta go!!! sorry but its dinner time and im getting kicked off but im here safe and i love all of you!!!

 

 

love elder mcguire!!!

Airport goodbyes...

Elder McGuire left on April 5, 2013 for the Cape Coast Ghana Mission. He will be spending his first two weeks in the MTC in the capital city Accra. Here's some pictures of the airport!