See my sister's mission blog here!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Farewell to President Shulz!

Dear family,

so the farewell has come and gone and now its time for the mtc drop off......i remember watching those out the window while i was working there.....they were soo.......hahaha never mind ive heard from friends that they are allowing you to have a bit more time than they used to so thats good. i can t believe that krissy is going now!!!!! time has gone by so fast! it seems like just yesterday she got her call. heck it seems like just yesterday i got my call!!! okay maybe it was a few days ago. but all the same im happy and everything is sweet!

president and sister shulz will be leaving on the 30th of june but this week was the last time that we got to see them in a zone conference. it was so great and sad! president gave a great instruction on teaching repentance to our investigators and he broke it all down and it was amazig. then sister shulz got up and talked about faith and about how mission is the mtc for life. then we did an activity with her she took us all outside and blindfolded us and told us to hold on to a rope. we walked all over the place tripping and stumbling the whole way but we didnt let go of the rope. then they made us let go of the rope and told us to wait for further instructions. so i waited and waited and eventually i heard someone singing come follow me.... i figured that was the instruction so i walked towards it and eventually someone gave me a hug and told me i had done well and took of my blind fold and the shulz's were there and a couple other missionaries. i looked around and we were in the middle of a field and all the missionaries were scattered across it. eventually everyone heard and came and it was a great experience and we learned a lot! after that we all ate lunch and then took our last pictures with them and said goodbye. luckily that night they came to our ward for a party we put on to try and get nonmember families to come and we had dancing and games and some talks and it was great! we got to see president shulz dance!!! hahaha but it was so great but that really was the last time we saw them. President stevenson will be coming on the 28th of june so we are preparing for that and itll will be great.

The world cup is in full force now and the people here are enjoying it! luckily because brazil is a few hours behind us we dont have to stay inside because most of the games are late at night. i was happy when usa beat ghana and no it hasnt been a problem but we get teased about it and we also do some teasing of our own but its no problem at all. the people here for the most part are very friendly and nice and we have fun with it all.

ive heard from everyone how well krissy has done and im so happy about that.im not surprised one bit that she did so well and i know she is going to be an incredible missionary! that is sweet that eric came. he told me he loved it and he was happy to help out. THats pretty crazy that craig passed out! hahaha he is still working out like crazy huh? hows the dating scene for him?

The work here is picking up gradually but it is still very slow. we are having fun though and we are working as much as possible with the members the only hard thing is our ward is shared between 4 missionaries and 95% of the members live in the other area but we are doing our best and we are keeping ourselves busy. WE actually got a lot of referrals from the party on friday and  we will be busy following up with all of those. so we are happy and doing our best.


Because we are in a 4 man apartment we have been having a lot of fun together and it helps a lot when rough days happen or other things but we are having fun and working our hardest. i hope you all have a great week, especially with kristen! take pictures at the drop off okay!!! i love you all have a great week!!!!

love, Bradley

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Busy Week = Short Letter

Another busy week for all of us, which means a short letter from Elder McGuire and a slow blog update from me. Here it is!

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone and there is so much happening!! the week was great! it looks like you guys are doing alright too. i hope fathers day was nice for everyone. in all honesty i forgot until the bishop announced it over the pulpit. but i still love my dad!!!!!! so ill do my best to hit the big stuff that happened this week.

monday and tuesday were full of goodbyes again. those are the worst. but they are necessary and i know im where im supposed to be. Wednesday morning we woke up and i got all my stuff together and we went to the station. 5 hours later i found myself in Swedru unpacking my stuff. SO my new area is in Swedru and more specifically EkwamKrom. its a suburb on the edge of swedru. So there are a lot of houses and its not as busy as the city. the city is huge and luckily we can find almost anything here. My apartment is big and and is a million times nicer than any i have stayed in before. i love it especially because its a 4 man apartment, i have only been in 2 man for my whole mission so this is nice.

In my Area the work has been really slow lately but elder moleme and i are working hard to change that and im confident things will pick up soon. The WARD is great here. yeah im part of a ward! we have a building and everything! our bishop is awesome and has lived in utah before. he is a hard worker and is committed to getting the members to work with us as missionaries more so needless to say we are working with him and we are excited for what is to come.

Being a zone leader there are a lot of things we have to do but its not hard, we have to collect numbers, report numbers, give instructions, go to leadership council meetings once a month, do interviews, go on splits, manage some money they give us for paying bills and other things,etc. its all part of missionary work! but we are working hard to get it all in.

really everything is great and i am absolutely loving mission. Im so sorry but i dont have much time at all so i gotta go. but i hope you all have a great week and ill talk to you next week!!!! i love you all!

love, Bradley

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Zone Leader and Rain!

Hello Everyone!!! The excitement never ends for Elder McGuire. This week had a plenty more adventures! I apologize again for being so slow on these! Things have been crazy for me getting ready for my mission! I cant wait to join Elder McGuire in the mission field!

Hey Family,

Wow you sure know how to make a missionary Jealous!!! you guys are having so much fun!!! its okay im having just as much fun here! i hope i get to show this place to you one day! its so amazing!!!! this week was a great week and we got a lot of real important things done.
Rainy season truly has begun!!! all week this week it was raining and it made proselyting a joke! when it rains here its not just a light drizzle that you can walk through, its a torrential Downpour and you may as well jump into a swimming pool if your gonna walk through it so it made moving hard. Some times we would be lucky and be in a lesson when the rains came, other times we just had to hide under an old fruit stand with a metal roof full of holes or something like that. It rained so hard one night that it turned the dirt road leading to our house into a river and there was no way around it so we just pulled up our pants and walked through it. it was sweet! hahaha

Also they have been taking the power out a ton lately. this week they kept it out for 3days so our food in the fridge went bad and on friday we woke up with no power, no water(the pump that brings our water through the pipes runs on electricity ya know..), no propane for cooking(it ran out the night before), and no phone(the battery died cuz we couldnt charge it) to call anyone for help. but we made our way through it and in the after noon our power came back so we had water and a phone again and that night the aps brought us a new propane tank, so we were much happier that evening hahaha. i love AFRICA!
This week we also decided to get serious about exercising so we woke up at 5:30 every morning.....lets just say i was happy to sleep in till 6:30 today;) hahaha

For actual missionary work this week thing were good. We were able to do alright even with the rain trying to keep us down. We were working really closely all week with John our baptismal Candidate. and on Saturday we went to Yamoransa and he was Baptized. It was so great! he brought his 3 daughters with him and they were all so happy. we were Also happy because its been a long time coming for him. WE also have some other great investigators that have progressed well this week and we will be having more baptisms at the end of the month.

I wont be here for those baptisms though...on the way home from the baptism i got a call from President Shulz. he Called me to be a Zone Leader in a city called Swedru. and you wont believe this but im gonna be with Elder Moleme again!!!! hahaha he is the Zone Leader over there and president wants us to be together again. Im happy because it takes away the curve of getting to know a new companion and itll be cool because we are totally different missionaries compared to how we were a year ago. So yeah im getting Transferred. Im gonna miss Abakrampa and Elder Adjavon but i know this is how its supposed to be. The Missionary who is coming to replace me here is my Great Grandson. let me explain, i trained elder keetch(my son), Elder Keetch trained elder Williams(my Grandson), and Elder Williams trained elder Hardy(my great Grandson) hahaha make sense! anyway he and Elder Adjavon are gonna be great here and they will do awesome.

So needless to say this weekend has been full of goodbyes. i have made a lot of good friends here and its always hard to leave. tonight 3 families have asked that we see them for family home evening and a meal.....i havent eatin all day in preparation hahahaha! so i guess next week ill be emailing in Swedru but until that time i hope you guys have an amazing week!!! i love you all!!!

love, Elder James Bradley McGuire