Thanksgiving Week!

Sorry that this letter is late! Today I am grateful for letters from Elder McGuire!!! Here's the latest!

Dear Family!

So i feel a little sheepish after mistaking thanksgiving, i thought it
was always the third thursday of november?? oh well i get to celebrate
it twice now!!! hahaha! It sounds like everyone had a good week. i was
laughing so hard i was crying when you told me about preston and his
shoes, but at the same time a little angry at the teacher, hahaha but
it wasnt her fault just lack of communication. But lack of
communication can cause huge problems everywhere! its a big problem
for missionaries and investigators, if proper communication doesnt
take place, we miss out on a lot of important things and it ends up in
someone getting hurt. Communication is KEY!!!

My week was a good one and we were able to get some really good work
done, and we have some awesome investigators. We will even be having a
baptism this coming weekend so i am excited! itll be our first one
since i left tarkwa. Thursday was a funny day for me because i kept
thinking of all the things the family would be doing for thanksgiving!
hahaha whats even worse is that it wasnt thanksgiving!!! hahaha its
okay now i can focus better this week;)

This week there were also 2 funerals in nyenasi which made things
ridiculously busy. Ghanaians and Funerals are like byu and utah fans
gathering to watch the rivalry game. Everyone comes and it is just
mayhem. The funerals are just giant parties that go on for like 3
days. But despite the music and the dancing and the alcohol everywhere
we were able to still have some really sprititual lessons and we were
able to make some good progress with our investigators, hopefully
we'll be having a couple more baptisms next month.
on Friday and Saturday the power was out and lets just say its much
better to have the power on! hahaha

The candidate this week is a woman named Sis. Elizabeth. she is in her
upper 50's and she has been around the bend when it comes to churches.
She has been in them all but she says that she never quite found what
she needed to fulfill her. She already has a testimony of the gospel
and a determination to follow jesus christ to the end. A lot of time
people treat baptism as a small thing, but it is no small thing. Not
only does it allow someone to experience the full blessings of the
gospel, it qualifies someone to enter into the kingdom of heaven, the
thing we are all desire. Baptism is NOT a small thing. Baptism is
huge!!!!! i am so happy to be able to be part of such a wonderful
thing here in nyenasi.

Today in district meeting we were all trying to decide on something we
would do for the mission conference christmas party talent show. itll
be on Dec 13th. We decided that we would sing angels we have heard on
high as a zone but we would change it to PRASO we have heard on high
and have some fun with it. (praso is our zone) They want me to play it
on the guitar so im gonna be practicing, im so happy that i can still
play all the way out here in the jungle!! hahaha

Anyway thats my week!!! i hope everyone has an awesome thanksgiving
and i hope we can all avoid problems with our shoes too!! haha I LOVE
YOU ALL!!!

Love, Bradley

BACK TO WORK - Pictures!!!

We got TONS of pictures from Elder McGuire this morning! hahaha! This is better than Christmas day for me! I'm in heaven!
Here they are!

This is Kakum National Forest!

These were some awesome sunsets!

Cool Storm Cloud

A Friend in our apartment! EW!!!

My new kitchen!

Fisherman on the beach

The castle

Me and Elder Bannerman

Me and my package! Thanks boys!!!!

BACK TO WORK!

One of the most used movie quotes at our house is,
"You know what my grandfather says? GET BACK TO WORK!!!" - Cool Runnings
 I feel like Elder McGuire had a week like this! haha! :D

Dear Family

This week has been quite eventful and i am happy to say that i am back in my area and back to work! Im glad to hear that everyone is doing good and that everyone is staying busy. in case you guys didnt know Its Thanksgiving this week!!!! you all better eat your hearts out for me!! hahaha and dont forget to be thankful for everything god has given to us;) ive come to appreciate the statement that "you dont know how good something is till its gone" hahaha but really we should be thankful and show are grattitude for all that god has blessed us with. He didnt have to bless us with everything that we have but since he loves us he chose to do so. so Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful this week for the following:
On tuesday it was the final day of the trio, we had fun and taught some good lessons and then that night all the elders that were leaving packed up their things. Wednesday morning we woke up and the elders who were transferring left and we stayed and studied. then we went out and proselyted till around 3. Then at 3:30 our new companions came! The new elder that i am training is Elder Bannerman. He is a Ghanaian and is from Accra. He is really great and we are gonna have a lot of fun/success together. So my new companion came and together we went to Nyenasi to move back in......When we got there there were people at our apartment working. I knew that people would be doing a couple things at our apartment to fix some stuff but nobody told me just how much! They cleaned up our cabinets and put new covers on them, they tiled the floor, and painted. but they werent done when we got there. so we couldnt stay. So that night my companion grabbed a change of clothes from his bag and we had to go back and spend the night in praso.

Thursday we woke up and studied in praso and we really got to know each other. So after studying we went to nyenasi and proselyted all day there. We taught some really good lessons and even though Elder Bannerman is new he is a great teacher we just gotta work out the kinks and we'll be awesome! so we were there all day and the apartment still wasnt done, so we had to go back to praso again. Friday we did basically the same thing Except we got to stay!!! and i got the Package!!!! from the time it left bountiful to the time it was in my hands was only 14 days! i was soo happy. Thankyou parker and preston for the halloween candy!!!! i have been loving it! i haven encountered a problem though. i can only eat about 1 or 2 pieces before the sugar becomes too much for me hahaha. but its good because i can enjoy it for longer. Yes elders do get envelopes and packages. The boxes just take a little longer and you have to pay duty on it but its really not to bad at all. So i got my package and i was soo happy!!! Even though our apartment was nice and new, it was dirty from all the work, so elder bannerman and i cleaned for about 3 hours for friday night and called it a day. Then Saturday morning we spent about 3 more hours cleaning and our apartment is amazing now!!! haha i can actually keep food in the kitchen! can you believe it?! So now that all this has happened we could really get back to focusing on the lords work. So the rest of saturday we were able to teach some good lessons and also commit and investigator to baptism for next month so that is exciting!

Sunday was just awesome! we had good attendance at church, my companion bore his testimony and taught an awesome lesson in sunday school. We had 5 investigators come to church and all of them are progressing! After church we taught some nice lessons and we got fed by one of our investigators and it was just a good end to this crazy week.

Today has been great! we woke up this morning and we came in to cape coast for sub pday. we played some basketball and it was right on the beach by the castle! i finally got to go to the beach and play in the sand and stuff! i love the beach so much so i guess its a good thing im up in the nyenasi hahaha.

So that was my week! the lord really has blessed me a lot this week and i cant wait to continue on in the work! I hope you guys have an awesome week and an awesome thanksgiving! when you go around the table asking for what we are thankful for tell them that elder McGuire is thankful for the Best Family in the World!! and the opportunity to share the gosple with the people of ghana!

I love you all!!!

love, Bradley

P.S. i would love timtams, cocoa, beefjerky, music, a memory Sd card for my camera, pictures, letters, a head lamp(mine broke), maple flavoring, peanut butter, peanut butter m&ms, and really anything you would want to add, these are just some ideas

A Crazy Week in a Trio!

Here's the latest from our Mowgli a.k.a. Elder McGuire! (hehe)

Dear Family,

This week has been kinda crazy and all over the place. But the work is
still the same and still amazing.

So tuesday night Elder Atila packed up his things and i packed a small
bag for myself and we spent the rest of the night talking and having
fun for our last time.

Wednesday we woke up in the morning and came to praso. we sent elder
atila off to his home town and i went and put some stuff in the praso
missionaries apartment. i have been in a trio with my district leader
and his companion all week. lets just say i love missionaries but
trios are hard!!! hahaha it has been fun though. the district leader
was in the mtc with me and we are good friends. so wednesday we
proselyted in their area and taught a few good lessons and just did
work.

Thursday Elder Egbert(my DL), Elder Lucas(another elder in my
district), and me all went down to cape coast to the mission home for
a training meeting because we are all training this transfer. IT was
nice to get some instruction again although it was much the same as it
was last time. I really like the instruction though and it really puts
emphasis on the importance of being a good trainer. I hope i can do it
again! haha so after the meeting we all came back to praso and
proselyted for the rest of the night.

Friday we actually got to go back to nyenasi which was nice because we
actually got do some work in my area and teach some of my
investigators. We have some really good people we are working with
right now and i think we will have a baptism at the end of this month
so thats exciting. I also picked up a cold friday and its been with me
ever since, its funny, i got a cold right before i trained last
time!!!! its alright though it hasnt hindered the work and i think is
breaking today:)

Saturday was awesome! we did a service project at a members shop in
praso. Poured a concrete pad in front of his little shop. it took a
long time because we had to haul sand and dirt from far away to build
it up and then we had to mix about a yard of concrete by hand! i loved
it! its been forever since i mixed concrete and it gave me a chance to
show ghanaians that white boys can work! hahaha they think we arent
strong and dont know manual labor so much. lets just say i showed them
otherwise. it took up a lot of the day, but we still had enough time
to teach a couple lessons and get some good work in. But by the end of
the day i was SOOO tired! being sick didnt help either so i just went
straight to bed when we got back.Right before i went to bed we got
transfer news and found out that a bunch of people in our
zone/district are getting transferred. with transfers and people going
home, 1 person from each companionship is leaving so this next
transfer should be interesting. We did find out Elder Moleme is coming
up here to be the district leader so it will be fun to be near him
again!

Sunday was nice, we woke up and went to the praso elders ward so my DL
could bear his testimony one last time, then we went to nyenasi. It
was branch conference this week so we had the district president and
his counselors there to speak and instruct and it was nice to have
some leadership helping out. there were a lot of good lessons and a
bunch of people came to church. i hope we can keep it that way!

Monday was pday and it was nice to have time to relax, i slept, and
wrote letters and we played some games. We tried to email but the
power went out so we couldnt. One of the Elders brought monopoly so we
played all day yesterday, haha i forgot how fun board games were!!!
then monday night we went and visited some people but it started to
pour rain so we went back to the apartment and were in for the rest of
the night.

Today was district meeting and we had a great lesson for our last time
with everyone in this zone, im gonna miss some guys but thats how
mission is. My new companion will be here tomorrow and im way
excited!!! not only to get my new companion but to get back to my
area. As much as i like to play third wheel, im ready to get back to
work.

Altogether a great week! im glad to hear that you are all happy and
are having fun! The weather here is still the same hot and humid. Soon
we will be in Hamattaan which is the dry/dusty season and its gonna
get hot so we are all gearing up for it!. My clothes are holding up
well so far and im getting good at hand washing haha.

I was sad to hear about the Philippines and the hurricane. i hope that
the spirit can be working through people so that the help that is
needed may be given. i hope and pray that the missionaries are okay. i
know one of my friends(Caleb Eliason) will be there in january so he
will have his work cut out for him!

Also i like what you said about we need to put in our work to expect
blessings. We talked about prayer in district meeting today and a
missionary shared a sweet quote "Pray like it all depends on god, Work
like it all depends on you" i like that a lot! so i hope with all our
prayers we can also work hard to fulfill our responsibilities and do
our best.

I love you all!!! have another great week and dont forget to keep smiling!!!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

Rain and Snow!

Here is Utah, the snowy season has begun! And in Ghana, it doesn't snow, but it does rain! And it rains a LOT!!! It's comforting to know that wherever we are right, it will feel like the sky is falling! haha!

Dear Family,
It sounds like you guys had quite the week all around between working
and halloween and everything, i guess there is never a dull moment
for anyone in our family!
this week was a great week in Nyenasi. We taught a bunch of lessons
this week and our investigators are really starting to progress. We
committed one of them to baptism this week too!
The rain has picked back up again and it rained everyday this week. on
friday it rained harder than i have ever seen it rain in my life. the
only thing missing was the 80mph wind and it couldve been a hurricane.
there was a ton of lighting too and it was loud! it was so cool! i
loved it! Also as far as cool things in nature this week go. There was
a solar eclipse on sunday! it was sweet and we could see it really
well. from where we were the moon didnt pass completely in front of
the sun but a lot of it did! its so cool to see all of the amazing
things the lord created for us to see. Every clear night i can see
more stars than i have ever seen before and i love it! it reminds me
of being up at the west fork looking up at the stars. hahaha i liked
how you said it probably seems like a camping trip sometimes. you
would be suprised just how much it does, but its okay because i love
camping!! haha
its so true about the work in all of the church hastening. i have all
of the conference talks on audio and i listen to them over and over
again and every time i seen new things that i can be doing and the
members as well to further the work of the church. it just goes to
show that the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands, rolling
forth to fill the whole earth" is really picking up speed! and i know
how much the missionaries appreciate it when members help in the
missionary work too. Elder cook gave a CES Fireside this year and it
was also featured in the ensign for october, and the talk was entitled
"What 'ere thou art act well thy part" and its so true! Where ever we
are assigned we should all be fulfilling our duty so that we can
better serve the lord!
In other news my companion elder atila is leaving this wednesday but
the transfer isnt for another week, so i am going to be in a trio with
my district leader and his companion for a week. I also found out that
i am going to be training again this transfer!! i am excited! i loved
being with elder keetch to train him and im up for round 2! hahaha
my Snow day is going to be on the 8th! this friday! haha i hope no one
else has picked that day! also thanks for the package! i cant wait to
get it! another thing i wanted to ask for was a flash drive with music
on it. president shulz allows us to have any music that teaches
doctrine and is spiritually uplifting. so firesides, efy music,
joseph, trek, recordings from family, good christmas music;) anything.
i would love that!
I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week!
love, Bradley

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