See my sister's mission blog here!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A Week of Ups and Downs

Sounds like a week in the mission field. Hard, but incredible!

Dear family!

This week was really good. Frustrating at some parts and amazing at others. But i guess the only way we can have amazing experiences is to have some bummers too. Sit it is all sweet in the work. Wednesday this week we had one of our Zone leaders come with Elder Bannerman and I in a three sum and it was a lot of fun. He is from New Zealand and is a sweet guy. He helped us with a few ideas to be more effective in working with our members. He also interviewed Elijah (edwards son) for baptism and that went great.

Thursday was super hot and humid. it has been all week but thursday especially. it made lessons hard cuz you would sit down and get too warm and it make us a little bit out of it and it made it really hard to teach. Despite the heat we had some great lessons. That night we had an activity for all priesthood holders in the branch. We taught them all about the sacrament, its importance, and how to perform our duties in the course of administering it. IT went really well, the Schiffmans came and helped out with teaching and it was great. The reason we did it is because we have a lot of priesthood holders who were never taught what to do. On top of it all Sis. Schiffman made us Banana Bread muffins!!!! they were soo good! SO it was sweet literally
and spiritually:)

I guess the lord was giving us such a nice day because he knew the next day was gonna be like haha. Everything fell through even a lot of our preparations for the baptism this week were becoming shaky, we even went so far as to call the DL and cancel but he advised us to try despite difficulties. Saturday was much the same as friday. The Baptism actually didnt happen because people werent ready in time and things just didnt feel right so we pushed it to next week. So with this and other things that happened i was prompted to have thoughts that the world was against us, that no body cared about our work, and that it was pointless. then i realized those are all lies coming from the father of all lies. The truth is we have an incredible Heavenly
Father who wants what is best for us and will take time to teach us important lessons.so....Im learning!! hahah the day ended great though, we had a young mens activity and played games. 20 minutes into it the power went out!! but we had our flash lights and still had some fun.

Sunday was leaps and bounds better and made up for the hard the previous 2 days. We had great church attendance between members and investigators. lessons were great and we just had a great Sabbath day.

Monday the power was out all day long so we couldnt come email, we washed and played some games and relaxed and made up for lost sleep. but was nice.

Everything is amazing as usual! surprise surprise right? hahaha the lord is really looking out for us here and we are working our hardest to help the work move foreward! Anyay i hope you guys all have a great
week! i love you!

love, Bradley

Killing Snakes and Eating Cats: This is Africa!

Well, as you can tell from the heading, this was one crazy week for Elder McGuire! So, Read all about it!!! :)

Hey Family,

So ive decided im going to stop trying to keep track of time because it keeps flying by! the days and weeks and months are just a big blurr now. But the work is still incredible!
I got the package on tuesday this week so elder bannerman and i have been having like a couple pieces every day and its been amazing thankyou so much!!! kate and nate did great in their cd too!!!! i loved it!!! thankyou so much for the support! hahaha here Valentines day is pretty big and its called Chocolate day! so everyone says Happy Chocolate day! it was funny to hear.
So ive realized the way ive been writing my emails has been kinda boring so im gonna try and change things up a little bit and talk about the big stuff. So first big thing. On Wednesday we went to see one of our recently baptized converts. he was bent over his well with a long stick and he kept shoving it in and out. we asked him what he was doing and he said that there was a snake in his well and they were trying to shove it into the water and drown it so they could then bring it out. Lets just say it wasnt going so well for him. the water was like 20 feet down so it was hard to see down there. so elder bannerman and i decided to help. On the end of the stick was a nail sticking out at a 45 degree angle and thats what he was pushing with. Rather than push i took the stick and picked up the snake and i slowly raised it out of the well. In the meantime everyone started freaking
out and grabbing things to hit it with when i brought it up. On guy even grabbed a huge log! i was laughing so hard! Elder bannerman grabbed a machete and as i lifted it out he cut its head off and that was the end of it. So simple but everyone was super scared and it was hilarious! idk what kind of snake it was but it was about 7 feet long so pretty decent size;)

Next interesting experience. (Reader Discretion Advised) hahahahahaha! On Saturday morning we went to our first lesson and our investigator was throwing dried pieces of fish on the ground. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was trying lure his cat. Eventually it came. So we then watched him and his son grab it and shove it into sack. then his son walked off the porch and around the house......we dont know what happend next but we heard 3 super loud bangs against the house wall and that was it....yeah they killed it. kindof an
interesting pause in the lesson. so the rest of the lesson went well and then he invited us over for dinner that night. so a few hours later......hahaha we came back and had fufu and elder bannerman and i each had a cat leg in our soup and it was SOOOOOO GOOOD! yes i said it I ATE CAT!!!! and it was Delicious!!!! hahaha im sorry to anyone who reads this and likes cats....i like them too....;)hahhahha
Alright on to bigger and better things. SO our investigators are all doing really great! we have 1 baptism coming up this weekend and 5 more people with baptismal dates within the next month so we have our work cut out for us. We have also been working with a lot of our recent converts to prepare them for receiving the priesthood and callings. I have also really been loving studying lately. For a long time on my mission i didnt use a study journal, but in the last 3 months i started and it has helped me so much! i am becoming way more effective in my study and im learning tons! there is sooooo much to be learned and sooo much i can improve on! thankfully with the support of an amazing family and my heavenly father i am absolutely loving my mission!

Today has been great. we woke up and came to praso and we did a service project as a zone. WE helped a member move some dirt and sand for the foundation of her new home. there were 12 of us and we did some good work. but in that i want to say a big thankyou to dad for teaching me how to use a shovel!!!! its the most effective tool in the world! and apparently not too many people know how to use one! hahaha but we did some good work and had some fun!

im glad to hear that everyone is keeping their spirits up and having a good time. I bet the long weekend was nice. anyway family, i love you all and i hope you have an amazing week!!!!! i love you!

love, Elder Bradley McGuire
x

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Two More Emails and Lovin' the Work!!!

Hey Everyone! I'm so sorry that I have been so slow on these posts!!! Here's the most recent two emails that we've received from Elder McGuire! Sounds like he's been doin great!

February 10
Dear Family,

IT sounds like things are starting to settle down for everyone which is good i think. Being busy all the time is no fun! hahaha except if you are a missionary;) then its a blast!!!!!! Our week has been great and like you i feel like its been quite similar to many others.

The work was all very normal this week. tuesday was district meeting and i got letters from shar so i was super happy. the rest of the day was nice and normal. Wednesday our district leader came for interviews for 2 of our baptismal candidates and they also went great. Both of them passed and were more than ready. Thursday we were all over the place and we ended up teaching 8 lessons and talking to a ton of other people. Friday there was nothing to huge that happened except for the fact that i was teaching and walking and serving for the lord!

 Saturday Was an amazing full day too! We woke up and went and weeded some more of that super bushy place that our recent convert has and we finished with what he needed. Then we came back home and changed and then went to PRaso for the baptism. Michael and Etse were the two who were baptized. Michael is 19 and Etse is 16 they are brothers and they have an older brother on a mission. Their parents have left them and their family so Michael and Etse are the providers for the family. They have a Cocoa farm that they work on and with that they support their family.  Such incredible young men! So the baptism went really well and they were soo happy to be baptized.

Sunday was and always is the cherry on top of the week. Michael and Etse were Confirmed members of the church. and Bro. Edward recieved the AAronic priesthood. We also had a few investigators come to church and some amazing lessons afterwards. So withing the time here i have worked with and seen the conversion of a young family. Sis Rosemary and Bro. Danquah are husband and wife  and they have 3 kids 2 boys parker and prestons age and a young 2 year old daughter. All those old enough to be baptized have been and they are an amazing family. LAst night they invited us over for Family Dinner and it was great. Here nobody eats as a family. its all separate. So elder bannerman and i were stoked for it and it reminded me a lot of family dinner at home! it may seem like such a small thing but it really has such an impact! thanks mom and dad for always having family dinner together!

So thats the highlights of my week. I know its not much but its the important stuff. To be totally honest i feel lost in the work right now. The days and weeks have blurred together and  the one thing that has stayed consistent is the fact that im serving the lord and im loving every second of it! i hope you are all happy at home and have a great week! i love you all!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire



February 3

Dear family!

Im glad to hear that everyone is still doing good! hahaha some funny stories all around! ive got some funny ones of my own this week;) i feel like every time i tell you i had a great week you can just roll your eyes and say "haha oh really?!" but....YES! another sweet week!

so on tuesday after emailing we saw our new couple for praso on the road and they picked us up and drove us to the church for district meeting. they are the Schiffmans from Hooper Utah. Elder Schiffman was PRes. Shulz's bishop before he left and sis. Schiffman worked as a nurse at Lakeview hospital so they know bountiful. So yeah they are awesome and will help us a ton! After District meeting we taught 3 lessons and it was a pretty normal day.

Wednesday was a day missionaries dream about. haha we had awesome study And went out to work. We started off by doing some contacting and having a lil fun with it. There is this game called Draft, its a ton like checkers just a lil different. Anyway all the old men in the village do nothing but sit around all day playing and they get super in to it! its hilarious! So elder bannerman thought we would try our luck. The old men just destroyed us everytime but while we played we would talk about the gospel . Even though we were losing it was a blast and we got some good contacts our of it. The rest of the day we were able to meet with every single person we planned. Members were with us for all the lessons and we even found some new people to
teach. WE met every goal we set for the day and taught everything we planned. i say its a dream day because rarely do things ever follow the plan we set exactly so we were happy about it.

Thursday we woke up and the water in our tank ran out. WE went to pump more from the well to the tank but the pipe was clogged full of mud and no water was coming. Luckily the well was empty except for about a foot of water. So we took down our clothes line and doubled it up and
i repelled down into the wells bottom and with a bucket and a cup i cleared all the mud away from the pipe. Everytime the bucket would fill elder bannerman would pull it up and dump it out. we felt like miners! Pretty crazy, it was either that or have no water. so we chose water. So i climbed out and got ready for the day and studied and everything then as we were leaving the apartment we notieced waterleaking out of the church. We opened it up and the church was flooded!! A sink fossit was left on by a seminary student the night before and so thats why we were out of water. it emptied the tank during the night. So elder bannerman and i mopped all the water up. Finally we left to go out and proselyte. At 4 the Schiffmans came and we talked about our branch with them and how we will work together to get things really moving. They are so awesome and it felt nice to tell someone about the struggle who can actually help us! So we made a plan. The rest of the day was good old proselyting.

Friday was like the exact opposite of wednesday. everything but 1 lesson fell through. Usually days like that are terrible. but we were able to get around and talk to a ton of people and we found a few we can start teaching. It also rained all night which was nice because it cooled things down. it also hasnt rained here in a long time and all the farmers were happy about it.

Saturday we went and weeded a cocoa farm for an hour and then went about our normal doings. Saturday was transfer news and we found out that were staying together for another transfer. Im happy because there is a lot of work to be done here and i know there are still things the lord wants me to learn here.

Sunday was amazing. Church was incredible because the schiffmans came. A lot of people came and everyone was at their best to impress them. Thankfully the Schiffmans will be here often so things will gradually be improving and everyone will keep on top of stuff.

Our Baptisms are coming up this weekend and we are stoked for it. our REcent Converts are doing great and are going to be powerful members of the church.

Birthdays here arent as big as they are in the U.S. but they still somehow celebrate them. They do celebrate Valentines day im not exactly sure how yet but id assume its pretty similar. minus the candy. i think my favorite tradition here is that you only use utensils to eat for rice. everything else its your hands! so its not my fault if i come home and have terrible eating manners;) hahaha

Im glad parker got my letters. I sent one to each of the grandmas also so hopefully they get there before their birthdays. You dont have to worry about me getting kidnapped! that only happens in Nigeria so they dont sent White elders there anymore, but im safe here! hahaha. The weather is still hot as ever here but its cooled off the last few days its only in the low 80s so weve been enjoying it.

Anyway i hope you all have an amazing week and keep having fun! i love you!!

love, Bradley