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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Happy New Year!!!!

Dear Family,

It was so great to be able talk to and SEE all of you on
Christmas!!!!! you all look wonderful and happy and it really just
made my day and my week and the last 8 months! hahahaha
Most everything else this week seems Secondary to Christmas. Tuesday
and Wednesday Elder Brown and i spent the day traveling and doing
baptismal interviews for the District Leaders in the Zone.

On Christmas we woke up and Elder Browns parents had sent us each a
stocking with a tie and some candy in it so he had those out for us.
so we had a nice little Christmas then we Cleaned ourselves up and
went out for a bit. Then we got our computers set up for Skyping. WE
also went to the market and we sang Christmas carols for a lil while
and it was really fun. Then i got to call you!!! which was amazing!
then we went to our bishops house. WE had youth, single adults, and
families from the ward come and we all Pounded fufu, talked and i
played my guitar for everyone and we sang some Christmas carols

Friday was a regular day of teaching in the area and it was a good
one. we contacted some referrals and found some great new people to
teach, it was just a solid day of missionary work.

Saturday was a great day, We woke up early and headed out to church.
We cleaned and filled our baptismal font and by 9 our baptismal
Candidates had arrived. Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Emmanuel,Mary, and Steven
were all baptized. I have had opportunities to work with everyone here
and some we have been working with for a while now. But they were all
sooo happy to enter in to the waters of baptism. They are such sweet
experiences to be a part of!!! Also that day we had a wedding
reception for a member of our ward and she asked us missionaries to
sing so we all sang "Love at home" hopefully it was what she was
looking for. haha

Sunday was so great! the area Elder Brown and i are working in was
Just split into a new Branch so we are very small in number. Elder
Brown and i get to Bless the Sacrament which is nice, its been a long
time since i have had the opportunity to do that and it really is a
blessing to be able to participate in it.

The missionary work is moving on and we are all happy! Transfer news
comes this week so we'll see if i am gonna be packing my bags next
monday! i hope you all have a great week! i love you!!!

love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire


Monday, December 22, 2014

Christmas is Almost Here!!!!

Dear Family,

This week sounds awesome!!! im glad you guys are having so much fun
right now! i have a lot to tell you guys hahaha and ill do my best to
put some here but i think ill also save some for Christmas;) so here
goes!

Tuesday was our Christmas Devotional Zone Conference. It was sooo
great! it was Only our zone that was there because we are kinda far
away from all the other zones. But we had a great meeting. First we
received some instruction from Pres. Stevenson on Obedience which was
great. then we broke into teams and had some fun team work activities.
some were real hard and some were pretty easy but they were great!
then we had the biggest meal ive seen in a long time! chicken, rice,
stew, drinks, brownies! hahaha it doesnt sound like much to for us it
was amazing! hahaha. Then to end the meeting everyone sang some
christmas hymns for talents. I played my guitar for everyone and they
enjoyed it. And we got to hear some Christmas Messages and watch the
new nativity video. all in all it was amazing!

The rest of the week was all proselyting. which has been great! We
have worked hard and we are really building up our teaching pool in
this new area. We have had a lot of opportunities to share messages
about Christmas and its True meaning. ITs nowhere near as big here as
it is at home. The common thing to hear from people is "Hey! when are
you going to give me my Gift?" Everyone asks! we then do our best to
help them understand that Christmas is not about Getting, but Giving!
today we had a Zone Christmas Party and we got to watch Mr.Cruger's
Christmas! it was great and i still love it! i understand it a lot
better now than i did as a little kid haha. But the over all message
in that movie is "I Love You". that message is not very well portrayed
when we are asking for things. Lets give!

One last thing ill share this week. On Sunday we were at church and
the sacrament was about to be blessed. Right before a little boy about
4 years old named Nii( he is in the family we baptized last month) He
came over and sat down with me. He is kindof a crazy kid, full of
energy, who never stops....Just like Preston! anyway as the Bread was
about to be blessed i told him to fold his arms and close his eyes. i
had to help him fold his arms but he did it and was very reverent
during the passing. Then it was time for the Water to be blessed. this
time instead of having to tell him to fold his arms, he wrapped his
arms around himself so far they could touch behind his back and closed
his eyes with all the force he had in his 4 year old body and was
perfectly still. I LOVED IT!!!! at 4 years old this child couldnt
understand much but he understood that when we take the sacrament we
fold our arms, bow our heads, and close our eyes and we are still.
Listening to the covenants we are renewing, pondering our saviors
sacrifice for each and every one of us, and recommitting ourselves to
be better. It was a simple experience but i loved it and Heavenly
Father Taught me a new respect for the Sacrament through a 4 year old
Child. A Sweet Experience.

Anyway family thats what i have today i know its small but ill tell
much more on Christmas! I cant wait to talk to you!!! i love you so
much!!!!

Love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire


Monday, December 15, 2014

Tis the Season!

Dear Family,

Everything and everyone sounds great! I happy to hear that you are
happy and that everyone is safe.

My week was a rollercoaster so i will do my best to get it all in!

Tuesday was a meeting day for us! we first started out with all of our
zone coming together for a combined district meeting. all 30
missionaries! it was a little different having almost double the
amount of people and a little intimidating. But in the end it was
great! we gave our report on our leadership council and announced some
new policies and changes coming into the mission. It was a great
meeting though and had some great participation from the zone. we also
had everyone stand and introduce themselves so that we could all get
to know each other. After that meeting we had a training meeting with
the district leaders and the sister training leaders and spoke to them
about the need for everyone to do their part. Managing 30 missionaries
isnt a hassle if we all do our part! so we had a nice meeting and it
was successful. After that we had just enough time to grab some lunch
and catch a ride to our next meeting. Stake PEC! it was soo great and
we made it through our report quickly and effectively. the stake
president and his counselors are great and they are really energized
about missionary work. they want the stake to grow enough that by 2016
they can split! and the stake was just created this year! so we are on
it hahaha. After the meeting we went on splits that night and i was
happy to just have a peaceful tro tro ride home. that was cut short
about halfway when our tro broke down and we had to get out and wait
for another one to come and pick us up. boy life is never boring out
here.!

Wednesday was a normal and great proselyting day and i was working
with a brand new missionary of 2 weeks. he is ghanaian and is such a
great missionary. he worked with missionaries a ton before he came so
he already is awesome at teaching. we had a great day and switched
back to our companions that night.

the big thing is the companionship in our apartment is needing some
serious help right now so our mission president called us and asked us
to change companions. so i am now companions with Elder Brown and i am
proselyting in his area and elder Mngoma is with Elder Browns
companion. We will stay this way till the end of the transfer. Elder
Mngoma and i are still the zone leaders though and we still are doing
baptismal interviews and a slew of other things we are just doing
things a lil different hahaha. weve had a heck of a time keeping on
top of it all but in the end things are still great and we are all
happy.

This sunday was the big day of the week. Our ward split. So now there
is a ward and a branch. many of the leadership was in the branch so in
both cases many new leaders have been called and there is a lot of
work to be done! we are excited though because it is going to make
travel for our investigators much easier because some of them live far
away but now with the split they arent far at all.

It has been a wild ride this week and the time is flying. i am
grateful for this time to serve though and i am enjoying every second
of it! i am sooooo excited to talk to and see you next week!!! i love
you so much! have a great week!

love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire

Monday, December 8, 2014

Another Great Week in the Field!!

Dear Family,

This week was a great week for us and it sounds like it wasnt too bad
for you guys either. We are all busy and doing our best to manage it
all. So ill do my best to get the good stuff in our week.
Monday night we did FHE at the Ivies and had a recently converted
family join us. I was assigned the lesson so we talked about the true
meaning of Christmas and that it is Christmas and not "xmass" everyone
calls it that here and its disappointing. but we got that straightened
out and they really enjoyed it. man im thinking christmas right
now!!!!
Wednesday we had Mission Leadership Council and we talked about a lot
of good things. We discussed new standards of excellence, the doctrine
of obedience, and also a new way of setting goals. Essentially mission
is changing a lot and it is great! we are doing our best to accelerate
the missionary work here to keep up with the pace the Lord has set.
tomorrow we get to report it all to the rest of the missionaries in
our zone so we get the fun part of seeing just how many waves these
changes will make hahaha. Elder Keetch was also called as a zone
leader this transfer so he was there and i got to see him. I havent
seen him in about 7 months so we were both pretty happy and we talked
a lot.
Friday we did some splits with a companionship new to the zone and
they were great. my companion went to their area and i stayed in ours.
We had a great day, finding new investigators receiving referrals and
teaching lessons. it was a fulllllll day! i guess that was good
because the next day was the exact opposite. all of our plans fell
through and we didnt hardly see anyone that we needed too. We were
able to see Fred though! Fred has changed lately and has found
challenges and trials and as a result he stopped coming to church for
a little while, we were able to teach him some good principles and he
committed to doing better. i think it worked because sunday he was
early to church and ready to get back into things. The lord is so
wonderful!!!! the spirit was able to touch Freds heart and he made the
decision to follow the promptings and come back. this gospel is true!

Now everyone is just gearing up for christmas and we are all looking
forward to zone conferences and activities. I also particularly love
teaching about he savior to people who dont understand the true
meaning of Christmas. After we discuss it with them you can see a
happiness come into their countenance that wasnt there before. they
really catch the vision of what this holiday is all about. THE SAVIOR!

I also wanted to say a big happy birthday to my awesome brother
preston!!!! bud i hope its awesome and i hope you are excited for your
baptism! i love you buddy!

Family i love you so much and i am so grateful for all the support
that you give to me!!!! i hope you have a great week! i love you!

love,
Elder Bradley McGuire

Monday, December 1, 2014

It's December!!!

Dear Family,

This week has been a great week and i am very thankful for all that has happened with you and with me! The furneral sounded like it went well. its a great time to share the message of the gospel. We had the opportunity this week to do a baptismal interview for a man who worked at a mortuary. while an elder was doing the interview another man gave us a tour around the mortuary. it was interesting and the showed us EVERYTHING. i learned some new things this week and i have also gained a new appreciation for the plan of salvation. i am so thankful for the infinite atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ!

The first two days of the week were full of packing and saying goodbyes. Elder Tembedza was going home!!! i was sad to see him go, we had a great time together. Wednesday was transfers and i went and met my new companion Elder Mngoma in Winneba. Formerly Winneba and Swedru were separate zones but now we are combined. Thats why they put us together, that way we would still know the zone and be familiar with everyone. Elder Mngoma is great and i am so excited to serve with him. he is such a hard worker and he is funny!!! i am going to enjoy my time with him.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!(in case you guys forgot) For us it was a good day of proselyting then in the evening our bishop invited us over and we pounded fufu and ate till our eyes bulged out! they lived in utah for 7 years so they understand how it goes;) hahaha then we came home and ate ice cream and i made dessert pizza, we were blessed with food that day for sure! also any time we stopped someone to contact them on the road we always talked about being grateful for gods blessings it was nice. Even we had an investigator come to bishops for dinner so we taught him what thanksgiving was and then we went around the table and said what we were thankful for. He said he was thankful for food hahaha dont worry were working on him!;) but i also agree! i am definitely thankful for good food!

On Saturday we went to winneba for a big stake activity with 3 wards. they had a tournament type thing with a team from each ward and then a team for the missionaries. we played football, volleyball, mancala, scrabble and a few other local games. it was a blast! then at 5 we had a big baptism. My companion was preparing a family to be baptized before he was transferred. luckily we were very close, so we went and supported and it was great service. Families are so wonderful!!

Sunday was a great day simply because we were in no hurry to be anywhere. we had appointments sure but we werent running with our hair on fire like usual. we had the confirmation of 2 of our converts recently baptized,  prince and patrick. it was great and they are both great young men. After church we spent the day visiting all of our recent converts. it was good because we are helping those who are still struggling a bit and those that are progressing well all gave us referrals. the people here are so amazing. Although Swedru is like the sodom and gamorah  of our mission there are still extremely amazing people here!!!

So thats my week! i hope i got it all! i hope you all are doing great and are happy this Christmas season!!!! i love you all!!!

love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire


Pictures!!!!

I found pink chicks!!!!!!

Personal study by Osmosis! My comp was tired... :)

So when things are for rent here they say "For Hiring". I think here they forgot to turn on spell check when they were painting ;)

Baptisms for Kweku, Prince, and Isaac!