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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Lessons and Things

Here's another week's report!!! 

Dear Family,
Another great week has come and gone. im glad to hear how good all of you are doing even though byu lost....hahaha its all good.....everything happens for a reason right??? hahaha
so tuesday last week was fun. we went to takoradi again for combined district meeting and we all got new immigration cards. these ones last for a year which will be nice because then the area office wont have to renew our visas as often. We also had a sweet instruction on just getting out and talking to people in our areas. then to finish off we all got to watch the world wide training from june about working with members for teaching. it was sweet!!!! then we went and did some small shopping and by the time we made it back to tarkwa it was 8:30 and the day was over.
Wednesday was a nice working day and we had some good lessons. one in particular was with an investigator named shadrack. he is a cool guy and is ready to be baptized but his mom is a leader in another church and is against it. he is 26 though and just wants her to be okay with it. so we had a lesson with him about not being ashamed of the gospel. i liked it a lot cuz it reminded me of highschool when a lot of the time the cool thing to do was to be disobedient and to rebel and when people would stand up for the church a lot of them would get mocked. And its sad but true, a lot of the time when we stand up for the church we get mocked. but its the right thing to do. standing strong in the church and our beliefs is so important. Satan wants us to just give up and follow the crowd, but the right thing to do is to stand up for what you believe in!!!
Thursday was also a good day of working and teaching and we found some cool new people. hopefully something will come from them. i also was sad thursday. we were in a lesson and i wanted to pull out my camera to show someone a picture and when i got it out. the screen was broken!!!! i was sad! i hadnt used it in a couple days so i think when it was in my backpack, my backpack fell or something and it broke my screen. there is a guy here who claims he can fix it but it think its a long shot, so is it okay if i pull some money to get a new one? i know a place where i can get one in takoradi i just want to make sure its okay:)
Friday was a sweet day!!! while we were studying in the morning we had like 4 people call us and told us they wanted to meet with us. then a member called us and told us that she wanted to spend the day going with us. she is going on a mission and wants some experience. She also gave us 2 referrals and helped a lot in our lessons. so friday we got a lot of work done! we also committed a guy to a baptismal date so that was exciting too.
Saturday we met with a new guy for the first time and it was an interesting lesson. the guy is a tattoo artist and has some interesting views. he asked us about tattoos and we tried to explain how our body is a temple and we should treat it as such. he told us he believed it didnt matter what you did to your body as long as your heart is in the right place. I was surprised!  its sad just how much satan and the world can screw up peoples views on things. it actually ended up turning into a good lesson and we'll see how things go with him.
Sunday was great. i love church. we get to hear from members. they bear very simple but powerful testimony about the gospel and have a lot to offer, its great! we taught the young men and had a good time helping each of the young men in the branch pick a friend that they would bring to church next week and i think theyre gonna do it:) everyone wanted to feed us too so we ended up going to 3 members houses for meals. hahaha lets just say im getting good at sneaking food into bags and hiding them in my backpack. its great cuz then we have precooked meals for later hahahaha!
yesterday was an interesting day. we went to takoradi to play american football with the zone. we played for a little bit then some church members came and wanted to play football(soccer) so we had to leave the field. so we played basketball for a while too. we were going to email but the cafe in takoradi was closed cuz it was a holiday yesterday. and when we came back to tarkwa the power was out and it was raining like crazy!!!!!!!! its been raining a ton here and rainy season was supposed to be over like a month ago! im about to say im ready for dry season, but it is gonna be hot!!! lately its been averaging about 80 so its been nice.
So thats the week!!!! as far as sharing the gospel goes i want to add something. in one of elder hollands talks in a priesthood session a few years ago he talked about joseph smiths first vision. he talked about how the adversary did his best to "bind josephs tongue so he couldnt speak" but joseph was strong and the first vision occurred. he then talked about how all satan has to do is bind our tongues. tell us that we should keep quiet. Elder Holland then called for all those who would be strong, he begged that we "unbind our tongues" so that we can share the gospel. ive noticed out here that great things happen as long as we are able to open our mouths. if we keep em shut we go nowhere. so dont be afraid to share the gospel!!!
I hope you are all happy and have another great week!!! i love you all!!!
Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Some Culture and things!

He's still amazing!!!! (Of course) Here's his letter for the week!

Dear Family

Wow it sounds like you guys had a blast this week!!!! that cabin is huge!!!!! were going there when i come home right???? hahaha thats crazy about grandma and grandpa's car! i hope everything is alright with them. and mirror lake!!!! you guys sure know how to make a missionary jealous hahaha;) its ok though the work is still as incredible as ever here!!
tuesday we had district meeting and it went great! i instructed on humility and it went really well. everyone in the district was willing to contribute and it turned it into a great discussion. i hope all of you contribute in church classes!! it helps the instructor out a lot!;) hahaha  and it makes it a better possibility to be guided by the spirit. so the meeting went well. and afterwards we always go get fufu together. 2 elders in our district dont usually like to join us but this week they decided to stick around and it was good. our district is becoming more unified now that we are getting to know each other better. After district meeting we came back and had 2 lessons to finish out the day.
Wednesday was a good day, we planned what looked like a busy day but not much ended up going as planned but i guess in the end its not about our plan but the lords plan. its also been raining a lot lately. we were walking and we heard a low rumble coming behind us. we turned around and it was a rainstorm coming our way. we could actually hear it because it was raining so hard and all the roofs here are made out of sheets of metal so when the water hits them its way loud. so we ducked under and overhang of a building and waited the rain out. that night we had midweek and seminary and it was a good day.

thursday we did splits because there was an interview in one of the areas for baptism. so i went to Axim with elder cardon and Elder keetch stayed in tarkwa with elder Hackmiester. splits were good, the interview was good in the fact that we realized that their candidate needed a little help and a little more teaching before he could be baptized. the law of chastity is a huge problem out here. They have traditional marraige here and it is EXPENSIVE and when guys dont have the money to pay they just move in with their girlfriends and after a certain period of time they are considered married. so needless to say we have a lot of lessons on chastity hahaha. it was cool to be in axim. its a fishing town right on the beach. i love being by the water! but tarkwa is nice because its the Area with the most hills in the whole mission hahaha.
Friday and saturday were good days as well. we stayed busy and taught quite a few lessons. i also got a sweet african painting! so we are teaching this young boy named Parden and weve been meeting with him for a while. he is really intelligent and likes the church. His mom will Not let us give him a book of mormon though so its been hard. all of their extended family are members but as for the parents they dont really want anything to do with the church. but they like us and they like that we study gospel principles with their son. they said that it would be okay if we just shared stories from the book of mormon though. so saturday we spent 2 hours talking about Ammon and and also the 2000 stripling warriors. He loved it!! i hope something changes to allow us to move forward with him.
Sunday was also a good day, church went well and we had some good talks in sacrament meeting. after church a member fed us and we met with a few people. there were a couple times where we took some turns not really understanding why but we ended up finding a member who had been trying to call us and had the wrong number and wanted a blessing. and also we found an investigator who we've not been able to see for a little while and it was great!!  the lord really does guide this work!!!
i realized i havent told you guys too much about the culture here, so here a few things off the top of my head.
they speak english here but its kinda different and they say a lot of funny things. like when you are saying "only a little" you say "small small". if you havent seen someone in a while you say "Hey long time!!". if something is broken or out you say " it is finished". a really funny one is when you say something that doesnt sound believable you say "Are you correct?". if you want to find the biggest concentration of dancers and drinkers just walk around on sundays and look for Funerals. people make funerals out to be the biggest party youve ever seen here. there is way more but thats what i can think of right now:)
Anyway i hope you are all happy and are doing well!! i love you all!! have a great week!
Love, Elder McGuire

Thursday, September 12, 2013

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!

Oh MY GOODNESS!!!!! I got TWO WHOLE PICTURES TO WORK!!!! Hahahaha! I know it's not much, but I am SO excited for these ones!!! Here you go fam!!!!


This is the Lake he was talking about!


It looks gorgeous!!!


Football, Lakes, and MORE!

Sorry family! I know that this one took me a little bit longer! But, here it is! Love ya!!!

Dear Family,
BYU WON!!!!!!! wahoo!!!!! i was so excited!!!!!! hahaha and im glad to hear that you all are doing well!
My week was good, a little bit slower than usual but good.
      Tuesday we didnt have district meeting because we were having combined on wednesday. so it was a normal day for us except for the first 2 hours of the day nobody could meet with us so we just walked around contacting. which i like a lot but sometimes it gets a little uneventful hahaha. but we taught some good lessons that day and had fun. we also found a restaraunt that sells wings!!!!!!! i was freaking out!!!!! hahaha lets just say they are NOT american but i liked what they were. needless to say i will be gaining weight when i come home hahaha.
      Wednesday was a fun day. we went to takoradi for Combined district meeting. President shulz came and he interviewed us all 1 on 1 and i loved it!!! i loved just being able to talk to him and ask for advice and just meet with him. he is so awesome! we also received some nice instruction from Sis. Shulz and  the APs and the Zone leaders. Remember how we had that miracle baptism. so president shulz talked about goals for the mission. he told us that as a mission we had a goal of 372 baptisms for this trimester. and we had 373!! if our baptism wouldnt have happened we wouldnt have met the goal as a mission!! and we have never met our goal since president shulz has been mission president. So...yeah thats sweet!!!! the meeting took most of the day and we made it back only in time to have one more lesson before we called it a day. 
      Thursday was a good normal day of teaching lessons and having fun!! we ran into a member who was selling food who decided to give us some. as she walked away she said enjoy the octopus!!!!! hahaha yeah octopus! we took it home and it was actually pretty good with Ketchup;)!
    Friday we went to Agona, and area in our district, to do some interviews for baptism. We were only supposed to be there for a couple hours but ended up spending the whole day because some of the people that needed interviews were hard to get ahold of and it just took a while. so we came back and had 1 lesson before the day finished up. 
       Saturday i woke up in the morning and elder keetch told me that he had spent the night Throwing up and didnt sleep well at all. so he slept for a while that morning while i studied. he said he was feeling alright. so we went to a ghanaian traditional wedding/dowry ceremony. it was for a cousin of one of our members that we knew. it was pretty cool and it was funny because they would stop everything and translate it into english so we could understand. it was interesting but it also made me sooo grateful for the temple and the power of the priesthood in our church. after keetch wasnt feeling so hot and the young women were having an activity at the church so we came back home and spent the rest of the day in. at 6 we had seminary and had a good lesson on faith. i tried to get the kids to do the faith fall where you stand on a desk and fall backwards without bending your legs and the kids would catch them. no one would do it!!!! but it was fun. then we had a lesson at the church at 7 with and investigator and finished the day. 

so sunday we woke up and keetch still wasnt feeling great so he slept. by the time church was over he was feeling good enough to go out. so we went to a members house for lunch and then went and had a few good lessons that night and visited a couple other members so we still had a good day.
Today we did a little exploring! i found out that there was a small lake(more like a big pond) in our area so we went with a member to check it out. it was sweet and i was dying for a fishing pole!!!!! so we were there for about an hour and a half and then came back, I MISS THE MOUNTAINS!!!!!!!! so ill just have to spend a lil extra time up there when im home but i absolutely love it here and i am happy:)
I hope you guys have another great week!!!!!!! be safe and work hard!!!
I love you all!!!
Love, Elder McGuire
P.S. Go COUGARS!!!!!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

A Week of Miracles!

Dear Family,

This week was great! we had a few miracles and have been working as hard as we can. it sounds like you are all doing well and a lot of changes are happening back home, kaitlin in highschool and krissy in college!!! next thing your gonna tell me the first grandchild is on the way....(I hope so;) hahaha. mom and dad? how do you feel about being called Grandma and Grandpa??? hahaha
Anyway ill start with tuesday as usual. Tuesday we had district meeting as usual and it went pretty good. it was the first time that we have had just our district at the meeting and i was in charge since i became district leader. i did my best but i know ive got a long ways to go. I got my package!!! the bybees were driving through town and dropped it off for me!!! thank you grandma so much it is amazing!!!!!! i love you guys!!!!!!After district meeting we came back and had to do our washing and shopping because we didnt have time on monday since we were in takoradi. So that ended up taking up the rest of the day because our water was being difficult as usual.
Wedensday was a good day. we had a bunch of lessons and they all went well. we have been working to prepare a few people for baptism so we have been busy. wednesday was also midweek and a bunch of people came. we had a lesson on peace that was good. so the week i got here a trial started in ghana deciding whether or not the president of the country won the election unfairly. it has been going for a long time. and thursday they were giving the verdict. so wednesday night everyone was on the edge of their seats. they were all nervouse because people have been hearing about these rebellions and things in other countries and they were worried that the same thing would happen here. we actually had a bunch of our members tell us to stay inside all day long just in case. we got the final word from president shulz that night that it was okay to go out and work.  but everyone was nervous.
Thursday. the decision came and everything was fine. there were not rebellions or anything. it was pretty cool though they had cops and soldiers driving the streets with guns and tear gas launchers just to intimidate everyone. but yeah nothing happened. we ended up teaching a couple good lessons and the zone leaders came and interviewed 2 of our baptismal candidates and that took up the day.
Friday elder keetch and i went on splits. The elders in Nkroful had a candidate for baptism so i went to interview. so i was with elder cardon again! its been a while since weve done splits so we worked hard and had fun and the interview went great and their candidate was more than prepared. elder keetch also did great here in tarkwa.
Saturday was a long day but turned out to be amazing! we came back from nkroful and were trying to get ready for the baptism. we only had a little bit of water in our font and the water ran out again! we didnt even have enough for sitting baptism. so we called the zone leaders to see if we could come to takoradi. they said it would be better to just wait and do it later. we were okay with that but i didnt want to wait because it was the last day of the month and we wouldnt have met our goal for baptisms. and as a zone we wouldnt have made our goal it was dependant on our baptisms. and our candidates were really excited. But we had absolutely no way to get water. there are no wells near by our place and buying water was tooo expensive. while we were trying to decide what to do a member came to the church and wanted to talk to us about some gospel stuff. while we were talking a rainstorm came out of nowhere so we decided to put out buckets to catch some water.
it was raining hard so we were dumping buckets into the font to try and fill it. the second that we had enough water to do sitting baptism. the rain stopped and the clouds went away! i dont think i need to say it but i will. the lord blessed us with a miracle and we were so greatful! he really does watch over us out here! so we were able to have the baptism and it all went great! I baptized Stephanie (20) and elder keetch baptized Justice (17) they were brother and sister and it was sweet! to finish out the night we cleaned the church and had a small seminary meeting. yeah awesome day!
Sunday was also really good! Church was at 9 as usual and we had stephanie and justice's confirmations. We also had a baby blessing. here baby blessings are a huge deal so all of the family members of the family came to church and none of them were members. so we had 28 people in our investigators class rather than the usual 6or7 it was sweet! we got a lot of contacts out of it and i think we are going to be able to actually work with a few of them. also there is this lady that we buy bread from every week and she likes us a lot so she randomly decided to come to church too! so we were full at church. 
Today has been nice. we woke up and did our washing. thankfully our water has cleared up some. it has been too dirty to use for the last 3 weeks so we have been using Satchet water that weve bought to shower and cook and do dishes. but its cleaner now so were happy:) also President and Sister Bybee came and gave us haircuts. we just finished shopping and after email were gonna go to fhe.
So thats the week!!! it was amazing. NEver forget that the lord is there and he wants to help you and me and he will as long as we are obedient to his commandments! i love you all and i hope you have another good week!!!
Love, Elder Bradley McGuire
P.S. keep football updates coming;) hahaha