Dear Family,
What a great week!!! it was just like last week!!! wouldnt ya know
it!!! hahaha i guess it wasnt all the same but all in all it was
good!!! Right now we have been working really closely with a young
girl named ruth she is 12 and has been coming to church for 3 years
with her grandparents but never was baptized. her parents relinquished
custody to the grandparents so they are the ones raising her now. she
is such a smart girl and should have been baptized a long time ago so
she is going to be baptized this coming sunday after church so we are
preparing for that.
this week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Redeemer and he
absolutlely loved it! he loves the church history. We are having a
great time teaching him but he is struggling with coming to church. he
is very deep into his faith and really loves his church but luckily
the truth helps people leave those things behind so we are praying for
him especially as he reads The Book of Mormon and prays about it.
We also started working with a new Family this week. we were on our
way to an activity at the church when we passed by this man and his
children i greeted him in the local language and he responded and then
asked who we were. we continued to converse in fante for a little
while then i ran out of fante so i started speaking english and he did
too. he was so happy that we could speak the language he asked about
the church and invited us to come and teach him. So we've met with him
a few times now and he is progressing we hope by next sunday he can
come to church with his wife and 3 children. i love families!!!
This week we had a great devotional in our branch. a member of the the
stake came and gave training on a program called MY PATH its a church
program that teaches people how to become self reliant which is a
challenge for a ton of people over here. we had a lot of our members
come so it was a great success. they are now offering courses to help
train our members and they are doing great! the church is so
incredible!!!! i know that its true with all my heart!!!
well thats the big stuff this week!! i hope you all have a great week
i love you!!!!
Elder McGuire
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
The Work Continues to Amaze!
Dear Family,
This week was another great week here in Apowa. Things are going well
and i am happy! especially to hear from my amazing family!!! Emailing
on mondays is still definitely a highlight in my week. Some
missionaries get bored of emailing after a while but not me!!!
This week started off with a great district meeting in takoradi. We
were combined with the other two districts in the zone to hear
instructions from the Julanders once again. It was a follow up on
their previous instruction. We talked a lot about setting goals and
making plans for the future. We spoke of selecting values and
principles that would govern our lives. so as i was going over my
notes i started looking at values for myself that i wanted to govern
my life and as i did so i would pick one i really really liked and
think about it for a while and then i would see another one and i
would also really really like it and before you know it every
Christlike attribute in Preach my gospel Jumped out onto my notes and
all of the sudden things became overwhelming. i had to stop and think
for a minute and remind myself that even Christ was not perfect at
first. He went from "Grace to Grace" so i reevaluated and the second
round was much better than the first. So it was a great instruction
and i really learned a lot and it has helped me to look ahead at the
coming months and years. Im excited!
This week many of our investigators made wonderful steps of
progression. This week we focused on the Plan of Salvation with
Redeemer and we had some great experiences with him. As we finished
the final part of the lesson where it speaks of the kingdoms of glory,
we also spoke of eternal families, temple work and the amazing
blessings of the atonement of Christ, he stopped talking and just put
his head in his hands. After a minute he lifted his head and said "I
need some quiet time with God" the spirit was strong and we could tell
that he was feeling some swelling motions in his heart. We knew it
because we could feel it too. We each bore our testimonies of the
gospel and its truth and invited him to continue in prayer and enjoy
his "Quiet time with God" so that he could sort out how he was
feeling. he is doing so well and we are planning to give him a
Baptismal date this week!
We were also blessed with some quality referrals and found some
promising new investigators. After teaching one brother named eric
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he asked a question about
infant baptism. We referred to Moroni 8 and he loved it. He was born
in the Catholic church so he was baptized as an infant but he didnt
think it was right. After he mentioned this he also said something i
thought was interesting he said "we are born in the faith of our
fathers and because we are young we accept and follow just like that
but once we really start to learn about the faith we profess to
believe so much we see that in reality we are lost...totally lost" its
so true! it reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants where it states
there are many kept from the truth because they "Know not where to
find it" or simply "they are lost" thats why i love this work so much
president. We get to go fishing! we get to search under the rocks and
in the holes in the ground. Being an ambassador for Christ is amazing.
Saturday night we went and got pizza!!!!! hahaha i havent had it in
over 6 months so it was a good preveiw;) So obviously im pretty happy
and im enjoying!!! today for an activity we went to the Julanders
house and we watched the Saratov Aproach! that movie is crazy!!! i
loved it!!!! i dont know how i would react if i got kidnapped like
that.....dont worry it wont happen!!! but anyway those are the
highlights of the week!! i hope you all have a great one!!! i love you
love,
Elder McGuire
This week was another great week here in Apowa. Things are going well
and i am happy! especially to hear from my amazing family!!! Emailing
on mondays is still definitely a highlight in my week. Some
missionaries get bored of emailing after a while but not me!!!
This week started off with a great district meeting in takoradi. We
were combined with the other two districts in the zone to hear
instructions from the Julanders once again. It was a follow up on
their previous instruction. We talked a lot about setting goals and
making plans for the future. We spoke of selecting values and
principles that would govern our lives. so as i was going over my
notes i started looking at values for myself that i wanted to govern
my life and as i did so i would pick one i really really liked and
think about it for a while and then i would see another one and i
would also really really like it and before you know it every
Christlike attribute in Preach my gospel Jumped out onto my notes and
all of the sudden things became overwhelming. i had to stop and think
for a minute and remind myself that even Christ was not perfect at
first. He went from "Grace to Grace" so i reevaluated and the second
round was much better than the first. So it was a great instruction
and i really learned a lot and it has helped me to look ahead at the
coming months and years. Im excited!
This week many of our investigators made wonderful steps of
progression. This week we focused on the Plan of Salvation with
Redeemer and we had some great experiences with him. As we finished
the final part of the lesson where it speaks of the kingdoms of glory,
we also spoke of eternal families, temple work and the amazing
blessings of the atonement of Christ, he stopped talking and just put
his head in his hands. After a minute he lifted his head and said "I
need some quiet time with God" the spirit was strong and we could tell
that he was feeling some swelling motions in his heart. We knew it
because we could feel it too. We each bore our testimonies of the
gospel and its truth and invited him to continue in prayer and enjoy
his "Quiet time with God" so that he could sort out how he was
feeling. he is doing so well and we are planning to give him a
Baptismal date this week!
We were also blessed with some quality referrals and found some
promising new investigators. After teaching one brother named eric
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he asked a question about
infant baptism. We referred to Moroni 8 and he loved it. He was born
in the Catholic church so he was baptized as an infant but he didnt
think it was right. After he mentioned this he also said something i
thought was interesting he said "we are born in the faith of our
fathers and because we are young we accept and follow just like that
but once we really start to learn about the faith we profess to
believe so much we see that in reality we are lost...totally lost" its
so true! it reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants where it states
there are many kept from the truth because they "Know not where to
find it" or simply "they are lost" thats why i love this work so much
president. We get to go fishing! we get to search under the rocks and
in the holes in the ground. Being an ambassador for Christ is amazing.
Saturday night we went and got pizza!!!!! hahaha i havent had it in
over 6 months so it was a good preveiw;) So obviously im pretty happy
and im enjoying!!! today for an activity we went to the Julanders
house and we watched the Saratov Aproach! that movie is crazy!!! i
loved it!!!! i dont know how i would react if i got kidnapped like
that.....dont worry it wont happen!!! but anyway those are the
highlights of the week!! i hope you all have a great one!!! i love you
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 9, 2015
Another Great Week!!
Dear Family!!!
so i just spent 30 minutes writing an email to you and tried to send
it and it went away and so now im writing again!!!
im so excited that little benjamin has arrived safe and sound and that
he is healthy. I cant wait to come and see him soon!!!!
As for the work this week things are going well and i am happy. this
week was actually pretty slow for us and many of our lessons fell
through. so we ended up doing a lot of walking!! but through our
walking we found a lot of great people. 2 in particular are brother
Malone and Redeemer. we went to their house trying to contact a
referral but she wasnt there. Brother Malone and redeemer asked us who
we were and what we were doing so of course we jumped right in there
and explained and left pamphlets for them to read. When were passing
by the next day they called us over and asked us to explain so we
taught them and it was a pretty good lesson. they had understood the
pamphlet and asked great questions. As we continued to meet with them
throughout the week they continued to progress and they are loving the
lessons. the best part is the light is coming into their lives. its my
favorite part of missionary work to see the light coming.
We are also enjoying a nice schedule for our power. currently we are
having power for 12 hours and then none for 24! it makes keeping our
food good interesting so we are buying things we can prepare that we
dont really need to refrigerate
The missionary work is great and my companion and i are having a great
time in the work. i am loving every second of it and i am trying to
learn as much as i can!
im sorry its so short but my time is up i hope you all have a great
week!!! i love you!!!
love,
Elder Mcguire
so i just spent 30 minutes writing an email to you and tried to send
it and it went away and so now im writing again!!!
im so excited that little benjamin has arrived safe and sound and that
he is healthy. I cant wait to come and see him soon!!!!
As for the work this week things are going well and i am happy. this
week was actually pretty slow for us and many of our lessons fell
through. so we ended up doing a lot of walking!! but through our
walking we found a lot of great people. 2 in particular are brother
Malone and Redeemer. we went to their house trying to contact a
referral but she wasnt there. Brother Malone and redeemer asked us who
we were and what we were doing so of course we jumped right in there
and explained and left pamphlets for them to read. When were passing
by the next day they called us over and asked us to explain so we
taught them and it was a pretty good lesson. they had understood the
pamphlet and asked great questions. As we continued to meet with them
throughout the week they continued to progress and they are loving the
lessons. the best part is the light is coming into their lives. its my
favorite part of missionary work to see the light coming.
We are also enjoying a nice schedule for our power. currently we are
having power for 12 hours and then none for 24! it makes keeping our
food good interesting so we are buying things we can prepare that we
dont really need to refrigerate
The missionary work is great and my companion and i are having a great
time in the work. i am loving every second of it and i am trying to
learn as much as i can!
im sorry its so short but my time is up i hope you all have a great
week!!! i love you!!!
love,
Elder Mcguire
Monday, February 2, 2015
It's February!!! With Pictures!!!!!!
Dear Family,
Im so happy to hear about how good you are all doing!! i cant believe its February!!! it get scarier every week at thow fast time is moving. It just seems to be picking up speed with every week. This week was another good one though and ill see if i can hit the highlights.
we have a young man named robert that we have been teaching for a while now and he is great. This week he even came with us to teach people. On satufday he was baptized and sunday confirmed a member of the church and it was so awesome. He asked me to baptize him which just put a cherry on top of the whole thing, i havent had the opportunity in a a while to perform the ordinance so when he asked i was happy to do so. I am aamazed at just how much the gospel can change peoples lives!!! im so lucky to be sharing with wtih others here in Ghana.
There is another woman named Rosemond that we have been teaching foa whaile as well. Her story is a lil different though. She is young, smart and keeps almos all of her committments. She reads the Book of Mormon, She has prayed about it and she knwos its true too. But she just cant seem to come to church. When we asked her what her problem was she just told us that what we teach is nice but joining a church just isnt what she is focused on right now. She said ill come "one day, one day" (ghanas favorite response to an invite to church) we wish we could have seen it earlier,so now we are moving on to bigger and better things.
Friday we had interviews with president Stevensn and they were great. To be honest mine wasnt all that long.hahaha ithinks its because if he knows im hapy and doing my best then its all good. and it its! While we were being interviewd we were instructed by 2 district leaders,the assistants, and Sister Stevenson. All were great and i enjoyed them all. I also got to see some old friends from mission which was great too.
this week i started exercising seriously with another elder in my apartment who was a football/track/swim star at home. lets just say ive been walkinga bit slower these days! haha im so sore! i dont remember it being this hard! its okay though and im getting back intto the sweing of things.
Living in an apartment of 6 missionaries is much different than 2 and 4 man apartments. More drama for shure, but also more fun. We have had some adventures this week, The other night our shower fossit broke off the wall and was leaking bad. Everyone had all these extravagent ideas that we should shut off our water andjust fetch water till we got it fixed. That seemed like too much work for me so i just carveda cork out of wood and stopped the leak. it was funny because to some of the elders it just seemed too simple. but it worked! sometimes in life...well most of the time in life i feel like the simplest answer is the best!
so those are the highlights this week i hope you are all happy and continue to stay that way! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Im so happy to hear about how good you are all doing!! i cant believe its February!!! it get scarier every week at thow fast time is moving. It just seems to be picking up speed with every week. This week was another good one though and ill see if i can hit the highlights.
we have a young man named robert that we have been teaching for a while now and he is great. This week he even came with us to teach people. On satufday he was baptized and sunday confirmed a member of the church and it was so awesome. He asked me to baptize him which just put a cherry on top of the whole thing, i havent had the opportunity in a a while to perform the ordinance so when he asked i was happy to do so. I am aamazed at just how much the gospel can change peoples lives!!! im so lucky to be sharing with wtih others here in Ghana.
There is another woman named Rosemond that we have been teaching foa whaile as well. Her story is a lil different though. She is young, smart and keeps almos all of her committments. She reads the Book of Mormon, She has prayed about it and she knwos its true too. But she just cant seem to come to church. When we asked her what her problem was she just told us that what we teach is nice but joining a church just isnt what she is focused on right now. She said ill come "one day, one day" (ghanas favorite response to an invite to church) we wish we could have seen it earlier,so now we are moving on to bigger and better things.
Friday we had interviews with president Stevensn and they were great. To be honest mine wasnt all that long.hahaha ithinks its because if he knows im hapy and doing my best then its all good. and it its! While we were being interviewd we were instructed by 2 district leaders,the assistants, and Sister Stevenson. All were great and i enjoyed them all. I also got to see some old friends from mission which was great too.
this week i started exercising seriously with another elder in my apartment who was a football/track/swim star at home. lets just say ive been walkinga bit slower these days! haha im so sore! i dont remember it being this hard! its okay though and im getting back intto the sweing of things.
Living in an apartment of 6 missionaries is much different than 2 and 4 man apartments. More drama for shure, but also more fun. We have had some adventures this week, The other night our shower fossit broke off the wall and was leaking bad. Everyone had all these extravagent ideas that we should shut off our water andjust fetch water till we got it fixed. That seemed like too much work for me so i just carveda cork out of wood and stopped the leak. it was funny because to some of the elders it just seemed too simple. but it worked! sometimes in life...well most of the time in life i feel like the simplest answer is the best!
so those are the highlights this week i hope you are all happy and continue to stay that way! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Awesome African Sunset!!!!!!
Robert's Baptism!!
My "Ground Hog Feast"
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