tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2337973121983658842024-03-13T07:46:09.048-07:00Elder J. Bradley McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-57928358194186448542015-03-30T17:30:00.001-07:002015-03-30T17:30:11.182-07:00Little Update!<div>
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Dear Everyone,</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Elder McGuire will be home this week!! And as such, we were not sent a weekly update. Thanks for reading!! There may be one or two more in the future. <div>
Thank you for all the support!!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-51584978914150608642015-03-23T17:53:00.000-07:002015-03-23T17:53:45.861-07:00Highs and Lows!! But still a great week!!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week was....all over the place!!! ill get the highs and the lows.<br />
<br />
we'll start with the lows. hahaha so on monday evening our bishop<br />
called us and told us his wife had made fufu for us!!! we were so<br />
stoked!!!( that was a high) so we came and ate and ate and ate till we<br />
couldnt eat anymore. around 2am that night my companion and i both<br />
started....running;) hahaha on and off the whole night into the<br />
morning and throught the day. im sure i lost 15 pounds in one day!!!!<br />
we had some nice food poisoning. but dont worry by night time it was<br />
gone and we were back to normal. hahaha we have been a little leery of<br />
food offered to us by members since then. but we are fine and good<br />
now. the big bummer was that zone conference was on tuesday so every<br />
5 minutes while president stevenson, the assistants, and the zone<br />
leaders were instructing we were in and out. eventually we started<br />
just sitting next to the door so we wouldnt disturb anything as we<br />
moved. so that was our big adventure this week. the little of zone<br />
conference we did hear was great though!!!<br />
<br />
As for our proselyting this week some days everything fell through.<br />
and other days things went exactly as planned. just wish it was more<br />
consistently going as planned.<br />
<br />
The other big thing this week was our Stake Conference. Takoradi!! it<br />
was great!! our stake is huge!!! we have 2 zones of missionaries in<br />
this 1 stake and it made it up to be quite the gathering. At the stake<br />
center we filled every classroom hallway and then even sat outside<br />
near the windows to hear the speakers all of the missionaries stood<br />
around the edge so people would have places to sit. hahaha we felt<br />
like ushers or something it was great though. we had some<br />
investigators come and they said that the really enjoyed. it.<br />
<br />
Things are so sweet here and im just doing my best to enjoy every<br />
minute of it!! i hope you guys have a great week and ill see you all<br />
soon!!! i love you!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-6339567069528570672015-03-16T16:14:00.001-07:002015-03-16T16:14:24.980-07:00Spring is Here!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
Another sweet week here in Apowa!!!! a lot of great things happened<br />
and ill try and get em all in.<br />
<br />
So first things first we had Elder Dube of the Seventy came to our<br />
mission for a mission tour so on wednesday all of the missionaries in<br />
western region all came together to be instructed by him. He talked<br />
about a lot of things but the biggest thing he emphasized on was<br />
working with the members. He spoke about how if we want the work to<br />
accelerate the way its supposed to then thats how we will do it. so<br />
that was a great opportunity to be instructed by a general authority.<br />
<br />
Another great thing that is going on is our work with Redeemer. This<br />
week we have been reading the book of mormon with him and he is loving<br />
it so much!! his testimony is growing so strong and we pray he acts on<br />
it. Also personally i have been studying the Book of Mormon and it has<br />
been so amazing!!! i love it so much!!! I recently read Chapter 26 of<br />
Alma and it is where Ammon and the sons of Mosiah are gathered<br />
together just talking among themselves as they are preparing to return<br />
to Zarahemla. It made the idea of going home very real to me all of<br />
the sudden. I know i havent been as successful as those missionaries<br />
but i do feel good about the service that i have been able to give. my<br />
only wish was that i might have improved faster but im taking it in<br />
stride and doing my best to become the person Heavenly Father wants me<br />
to be.<br />
<br />
We also were able to extend a baptismal date to a new investigator<br />
named Justice this week. He has come to church twice and has decided<br />
that he wants to join. hahaha we told him we had to take some time and<br />
explain some more things to him before he would be read but he is<br />
excited and working towards his date in April.<br />
<br />
Everything else is just normal and amazing like missionary work is! im<br />
loving every second of it and doing my best to enjoy every last<br />
minute! i love you all!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-60883085890991720612015-03-09T18:46:00.001-07:002015-03-09T18:46:13.004-07:00A Week of Surprises!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
My week has been great and it sounds like you guys had a good one too.<br />
my week was up down and all around so here it goes!!<br />
<br />
This week another week of surprises for us here in Apowa, Alex<br />
(recent convert), is struggling with his activity right now, he is<br />
under a financial bind of sorts and so he often misses church to work<br />
and make money. he has been coming though and is scheduled to give a<br />
talk this coming Sunday. His Wife Hannah has another story entirely.<br />
For her she had a visit from her mother a few weeks ago and her mother<br />
is avid Roman Catholic and when she returned to find her daughter had<br />
joined another church she was not happy at all. She told Hannah she<br />
had to go to Roman Catholic, to add to it many people in her compound<br />
have been gossiping a lot about the church and all this pressure and<br />
tension finally came out on us this week. We went to visit her to<br />
check on her as usual and this time as we entered the compound she<br />
just came over and told us that we should never come back and that we<br />
had deceived her and a whole lot of other things that werent nice to<br />
hear. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to<br />
me so it was quite a shock. I've never had a recent convert lash out<br />
like that. It didnt feel good. Its sad that she has been confused by<br />
things that others have been saying. My companion and i have asked<br />
ourselves multiple times over the last few days if it was our fault?<br />
we taught her as best as we knew how, as we taught we could feel the<br />
spirit, she showed the desire by coming to church, she read the Book<br />
of Mormon with her husband and she would pray about it regularly. she<br />
would always say she knew it was true but all of the sudden its<br />
different now. Its been a blow to both of us but we are doing our best<br />
to overcome this and do whatever we can as guided by the spirit in<br />
helping her to come back.<br />
<br />
On a much more positive note our convert that was baptized last sunday<br />
was Confirmed this week and it was great. She had her Grandfather<br />
perform the ordinance and she was all smiles afterwards. Ruth is a<br />
sweet spirit and she loves doing missionary work as well. she asks for<br />
Pamphlets every week and gives them out to her friends.<br />
<br />
Also this week it was once again super hot!!! just like mom said im<br />
melting out here!!! but its helping my tan;) im gonna look like a<br />
ghanaian farm boy when i get home hahaha! Sunday really was the best<br />
day of the week this week. we had 4 investigators come to church and<br />
they are all awesome! people are starting to progress now and its<br />
sweet!!! this work is so awesome and i am loving every second of it!!!<br />
<br />
i hope things keep going well at home!!! have a great week!! love you!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-28629291232798339062015-03-02T18:50:00.005-08:002015-03-02T18:50:52.344-08:00Happy March 1st!! And Pictures!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
Well first off thats a huge bummer that Gus died! he was the best dog!<br />
he helped me a lot when we first got him. Goodbye Gus! Its good to<br />
hear that everyone is doing good though.<br />
<br />
Its been another great week out here in Apowa. we had some amazing<br />
experiences this week and i want to share a few of them with you. We<br />
have an investigator, Brother Redeemer, who we have been working with<br />
for a little while now. We have taught him most of the lessons and he<br />
has received them very well, he has kept all of his commitments except<br />
for coming to church. Although he has only committed to that once.<br />
This week i think he was finally backed up against the wall of faith.<br />
We read Matthew 6 with him and spoke to him about the importance of<br />
prayer. He really loved the lesson but at the end he was very quiet.<br />
We asked him what he was thinking about and he said "i love what we<br />
just learned.....and it is in direct opposition to what we do in my<br />
church." We committed him to pray about it and we are very anxious to<br />
see what he decides. He is finally realize he can no longer sit on the<br />
fence he either has to commit and come or he has to kick against the<br />
pricks. We are praying for him.<br />
<br />
This week we also had a wonderful baptism. Her name is sister Ruth,<br />
she is 12 years old and is very smart. Her Grandparents are taking<br />
care of her and she has been coming to church for 3 years now. she<br />
should have been baptized long ago but for one reason or another she<br />
was not. It was great to be able to work with her and to help her<br />
understand the gospel better. When it was time for the ordinance she<br />
was so excited. Another great aspect of her baptism was that one of<br />
our recent converts (Enoch) performed the baptism. It was a growing<br />
experience for everyone.<br />
<br />
On tuesday i woke up and i was just tired!!! just totally and utterly<br />
drained, even though i got a full sleep i had no steam. i woke up and<br />
studied and did my best to stay awake. then we went out proselyting.<br />
honestly i dont know how i did it but we made it through the whole day<br />
and it was a busy one. the only explanation i have for the strength i<br />
seemed to pull from places beyond me was the sustaining hand of<br />
Heavenly Father. he helped me make it through just like he always<br />
does. Heavenly Father is always mindful of us.<br />
<br />
Everything else that happened this week was pretty standard but all in<br />
all it was great! . i hope you all have a great week!!! i love you!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
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Little Isaac in my sunglasses!</div>
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Using a dvd player, whoa!! Take that krissy!!! :P</div>
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Enoch and Ruth!</div>
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Baptism!</div>
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Ghanaian Stove!</div>
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....and Everyone!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-65066912216456124922015-02-24T14:00:00.000-08:002015-02-24T14:00:50.500-08:00Another Great Week!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
What a great week!!! it was just like last week!!! wouldnt ya know<br />
it!!! hahaha i guess it wasnt all the same but all in all it was<br />
good!!! Right now we have been working really closely with a young<br />
girl named ruth she is 12 and has been coming to church for 3 years<br />
with her grandparents but never was baptized. her parents relinquished<br />
custody to the grandparents so they are the ones raising her now. she<br />
is such a smart girl and should have been baptized a long time ago so<br />
she is going to be baptized this coming sunday after church so we are<br />
preparing for that.<br />
<br />
this week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Redeemer and he<br />
absolutlely loved it! he loves the church history. We are having a<br />
great time teaching him but he is struggling with coming to church. he<br />
is very deep into his faith and really loves his church but luckily<br />
the truth helps people leave those things behind so we are praying for<br />
him especially as he reads The Book of Mormon and prays about it.<br />
<br />
We also started working with a new Family this week. we were on our<br />
way to an activity at the church when we passed by this man and his<br />
children i greeted him in the local language and he responded and then<br />
asked who we were. we continued to converse in fante for a little<br />
while then i ran out of fante so i started speaking english and he did<br />
too. he was so happy that we could speak the language he asked about<br />
the church and invited us to come and teach him. So we've met with him<br />
a few times now and he is progressing we hope by next sunday he can<br />
come to church with his wife and 3 children. i love families!!!<br />
<br />
This week we had a great devotional in our branch. a member of the the<br />
stake came and gave training on a program called MY PATH its a church<br />
program that teaches people how to become self reliant which is a<br />
challenge for a ton of people over here. we had a lot of our members<br />
come so it was a great success. they are now offering courses to help<br />
train our members and they are doing great! the church is so<br />
incredible!!!! i know that its true with all my heart!!!<br />
<br />
well thats the big stuff this week!! i hope you all have a great week<br />
i love you!!!!<br />
<br />
Elder McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-35502348736998944702015-02-16T14:40:00.003-08:002015-02-16T14:40:43.711-08:00The Work Continues to Amaze!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week was another great week here in Apowa. Things are going well<br />
and i am happy! especially to hear from my amazing family!!! Emailing<br />
on mondays is still definitely a highlight in my week. Some<br />
missionaries get bored of emailing after a while but not me!!!<br />
<br />
This week started off with a great district meeting in takoradi. We<br />
were combined with the other two districts in the zone to hear<br />
instructions from the Julanders once again. It was a follow up on<br />
their previous instruction. We talked a lot about setting goals and<br />
making plans for the future. We spoke of selecting values and<br />
principles that would govern our lives. so as i was going over my<br />
notes i started looking at values for myself that i wanted to govern<br />
my life and as i did so i would pick one i really really liked and<br />
think about it for a while and then i would see another one and i<br />
would also really really like it and before you know it every<br />
Christlike attribute in Preach my gospel Jumped out onto my notes and<br />
all of the sudden things became overwhelming. i had to stop and think<br />
for a minute and remind myself that even Christ was not perfect at<br />
first. He went from "Grace to Grace" so i reevaluated and the second<br />
round was much better than the first. So it was a great instruction<br />
and i really learned a lot and it has helped me to look ahead at the<br />
coming months and years. Im excited!<br />
<br />
This week many of our investigators made wonderful steps of<br />
progression. This week we focused on the Plan of Salvation with<br />
Redeemer and we had some great experiences with him. As we finished<br />
the final part of the lesson where it speaks of the kingdoms of glory,<br />
we also spoke of eternal families, temple work and the amazing<br />
blessings of the atonement of Christ, he stopped talking and just put<br />
his head in his hands. After a minute he lifted his head and said "I<br />
need some quiet time with God" the spirit was strong and we could tell<br />
that he was feeling some swelling motions in his heart. We knew it<br />
because we could feel it too. We each bore our testimonies of the<br />
gospel and its truth and invited him to continue in prayer and enjoy<br />
his "Quiet time with God" so that he could sort out how he was<br />
feeling. he is doing so well and we are planning to give him a<br />
Baptismal date this week!<br />
<br />
We were also blessed with some quality referrals and found some<br />
promising new investigators. After teaching one brother named eric<br />
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he asked a question about<br />
infant baptism. We referred to Moroni 8 and he loved it. He was born<br />
in the Catholic church so he was baptized as an infant but he didnt<br />
think it was right. After he mentioned this he also said something i<br />
thought was interesting he said "we are born in the faith of our<br />
fathers and because we are young we accept and follow just like that<br />
but once we really start to learn about the faith we profess to<br />
believe so much we see that in reality we are lost...totally lost" its<br />
so true! it reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants where it states<br />
there are many kept from the truth because they "Know not where to<br />
find it" or simply "they are lost" thats why i love this work so much<br />
president. We get to go fishing! we get to search under the rocks and<br />
in the holes in the ground. Being an ambassador for Christ is amazing.<br />
<br />
Saturday night we went and got pizza!!!!! hahaha i havent had it in<br />
over 6 months so it was a good preveiw;) So obviously im pretty happy<br />
and im enjoying!!! today for an activity we went to the Julanders<br />
house and we watched the Saratov Aproach! that movie is crazy!!! i<br />
loved it!!!! i dont know how i would react if i got kidnapped like<br />
that.....dont worry it wont happen!!! but anyway those are the<br />
highlights of the week!! i hope you all have a great one!!! i love you<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McGuire<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-90506714265712950552015-02-09T13:59:00.004-08:002015-02-09T13:59:27.905-08:00Another Great Week!!Dear Family!!!<br />
<br />
so i just spent 30 minutes writing an email to you and tried to send<br />
it and it went away and so now im writing again!!!<br />
<br />
im so excited that little benjamin has arrived safe and sound and that<br />
he is healthy. I cant wait to come and see him soon!!!!<br />
<br />
As for the work this week things are going well and i am happy. this<br />
week was actually pretty slow for us and many of our lessons fell<br />
through. so we ended up doing a lot of walking!! but through our<br />
walking we found a lot of great people. 2 in particular are brother<br />
Malone and Redeemer. we went to their house trying to contact a<br />
referral but she wasnt there. Brother Malone and redeemer asked us who<br />
we were and what we were doing so of course we jumped right in there<br />
and explained and left pamphlets for them to read. When were passing<br />
by the next day they called us over and asked us to explain so we<br />
taught them and it was a pretty good lesson. they had understood the<br />
pamphlet and asked great questions. As we continued to meet with them<br />
throughout the week they continued to progress and they are loving the<br />
lessons. the best part is the light is coming into their lives. its my<br />
favorite part of missionary work to see the light coming.<br />
<br />
We are also enjoying a nice schedule for our power. currently we are<br />
having power for 12 hours and then none for 24! it makes keeping our<br />
food good interesting so we are buying things we can prepare that we<br />
dont really need to refrigerate<br />
<br />
The missionary work is great and my companion and i are having a great<br />
time in the work. i am loving every second of it and i am trying to<br />
learn as much as i can!<br />
<br />
im sorry its so short but my time is up i hope you all have a great<br />
week!!! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McguireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-75662172453383393522015-02-02T14:07:00.001-08:002015-02-02T14:07:04.860-08:00It's February!!! With Pictures!!!!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
so those are the highlights this week i hope you are all happy and continue to stay that way! i love you!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
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Awesome African Sunset!!!!!!</div>
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Robert's Baptism!!</div>
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My "Ground Hog Feast" </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-73180835024180945332015-01-26T17:47:00.001-08:002015-01-26T17:47:16.447-08:00Another Great Week!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week was another amazing week here in Ghana. I hope you all know that i love my mission and if there is anyone out there considering it, i would highly recommend it!! we had a lot of adventures this week and i have learned so much from the experiences so ill try to share a few of them.<br />
So we have been working closely with this couple we recently baptized. Hannah and Alex. this week we tried to focus on their family with them. Ghanaian family culture and the church family culture are very different. The tradition here is that the husband works and earns money and the wife does absolutely everything else. So when we taught them that husband and wife have and equal share in marriage that husbands are meant to help their wives and wives help their husbands, it was a little new to them. Hannah absolutely loved the idea and was excited. hahaha needless to say Alex wasnt all that ecstatic about it but he committed to helping his wife more. We will see how it goes.<br />
<br />
While visiting one of our investigators this week a man passed by to buy something (our investigator owns a little provision shop). we were sitting inside and he noticed our name tags and was interested to find out what we believe. He began asking questions about our basic beliefs and how we do things in the church, after answering most of his questions he paused and asked "Well did you people just copy my church?" we asked him what church he went to and he told us his denomination. Not surprisingly he actually went to a church that was begun by a member who apostatized from our church (but we didnt tell him that;) So he finally came to the question about living prophets and apostles. He was against it completely. He did not believe that they were important to the Church of Jesus Christ. As we quoted scripture after scripture he still found it hard to accept what we were saying. We bore testimony of the truthfulness of what we were saying and still it was difficult. It was amazing to me that with all the evidence he needed he still did not accept. We had done all we could to share the truth with him. It is so true when we read in the scriptures that in the last days people will be deceived by the craftiness of men. we see it every day! This man did commit to pray about what we said though and we look forward to our next appointment with him.<br />
<br />
This week i have also learned so many wonderful amazing things about The Atonement of Jesus Christ, and also about the person i want to become. One of the elders in the apartment im in has a book called "The Continuous Atonement" by Brad Wilcox. It is a great book and i learned many new insights about the Atonement. Jesus Christ has done the most amazing thing for each and every one of us. the least we can do is Appreciate it by doing the simple things that he asks that we might experience the full blessings of its redeeming power. On top of that we received an amazing instruction from the Julanders( mission couple in takoradi) about setting goals for the future and living a life centered on Eternal truths. They spoke of the importance of making decisions based on Eternal truth rather that circumstance and how it can affect our lives if we do so. I Loved every second of it and learned a ton.<br />
<br />
Those are a few of my favorite things that happened this week! i could write more but there would be no time to get it all! i love this work and i love this gospel! i hope you all have a great week!!! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-80861366216871172352015-01-19T19:21:00.002-08:002015-01-19T19:21:57.617-08:00Happy Martin Luther King DayDear Family,<br />
<br />
This week was a great one here in APOWA!!! the first full week was full in every sense of the word!! Tuesday was district meeting and it went great! Our district only has 6 missionaries in it so its pretty small, but we are all close and get along well together. We had a great instruction on our purpose as missionaries and i learned a lot.<br />
<br />
Many of our days were absolutely full of lessons and contacting. we found a lot of great new people this week and we are excited to see what the future holds for them. One particular guy named michael was really good. we went to his house trying to meet with his sister but she "pretended" to be asleep on the couch, so he invited us in and asked us to teach him instead. We had a great lesson on the restoration and he understood it all! he especially loved the Book of Mormon and how it helped him understand the Bible. we are excited to keep working with him.<br />
We also spent a lot of our time this week working with our baptismal candidates. We had Hannah, Alex, Robert, & Enoch. they have all been meeting with the missionaries for a long time and this week was their week!! President Stevenson came to interview 3 of them and they did well. Robert however didnt make it, i guess he had misunderstood that drinking coffee was against the word of wisdom. so he has been pushed off 2 weeks. but everyone else did great!!<br />
<br />
So saturday we planned to have our baptism at 3:30. we planned everything out and assignments were made to fill the font and get clothes and towels and other things. when we arrived there was about 4 inches of water in the font and the pipe wasnt working!!! i felt like i was back in tarkwa!!!! thankfully we had water it was just coming out of a different pipe so we had to use buckets and fetch the water and carry it to the font, but with 10 people we had the thing full after about 30 minutes. The baptism went well and it was a great experience. I love being able to take part in such a wonderful ordinance!!!<br />
<br />
Sunday they made that final step through that gate and onto the path leading to eternal life after they were confirmed members of the church. Sunday was sweet!! we left early so we could help all of those baptized so they would be to church, it involved helping clean up food, dishes, clothes, even fetching water from a well so the kids could take a bath. but by 9 we were all sitting under our pavilion in the sacrament hall.<br />
<br />
Missionary work truly is divine and as time goes on it just keeps going faster and faster, i was sure things would slow down with the transfer and everything but it just doubled in speed!!! i am loving my mission though and doing my best to make the most of these last few precious days!! i hope you all have a great week!!! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Bradley<br />
<br />
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My favorite meat in Ghana! Bush rat!! Only problem is that it is where ebola comes from so i havent had it for over a year :(</div>
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Pipe where the water comes from</div>
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The Full Font!</div>
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Elder Ukaegbu, Enoch, Alex, Hannah, & me!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-88707044408584056622015-01-12T20:04:00.001-08:002015-01-12T20:06:35.706-08:00New Area!!! and he sent PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Dear family,<br />
<br />
This week was a great week but a hard one. First things first i got my<br />
Christmas package which was great!! thankyou so much for the things<br />
you sent me they were much needed. hahaha i took out that new shirt<br />
and compared it to my shirts right now and....lets just say my idea of<br />
white was a little different, all my shirts looked yellow compared to<br />
it! so thankyou!!! today i also got a package from Krissy and Shar so<br />
i am a happy boy!! hahaha thank you all so much!!<br />
<br />
Saying goodbye to everyone was so difficult, i absolutely love the<br />
people in swedru and i will miss them a ton, so tuesday as full of<br />
saying goodbyes and takin pictures of everyone. We also had a combined<br />
district meeting and Elder Mngoma and i gave an instruction about<br />
sacrifice and it went really well.<br />
<br />
Wednesday i was gone by 8 am with the ivies going into cape coast,<br />
while there i ran into some old friends on mission like Elder Keetch,<br />
i was soo happy to see him and he looked great he is a zone leader and<br />
he is headed up to the bush in praso! hahaha but anyway after a few<br />
hours there i was on a tro with a bunch of other missionaries headed<br />
to takoradi. When we arrived my companion was waiting for me and we<br />
went to our apartment. im in a 6 man apartment and its big! i like it<br />
though and the missionaries in it are sweet! Our area is pretty big<br />
and a lot like my last one. The branch i am in is extremely new and<br />
extremely small. There are some powerful members though and it is a<br />
sweet place to work. Our church is small and our sacrament hall is<br />
under a pavilion hahaha its sweet! we are proselyting in 2 areas and 1<br />
of them is on the beach!!!:D i was so happy when i found out! ive<br />
never proselyted in an area near the beach so i am happy about that<br />
too. There are a lot of great investigators we are working with and we<br />
are having some baptisms this weekend too.<br />
<br />
Thursday friday saturday and sunday were all the same, work, work,<br />
work!!! it has felt so strange because no one has called me about<br />
problems in the zone or had to report numbers or baptisms or anything<br />
to me. why? oh yeah! im a regular missionary!!! still getting used to<br />
it but its good. it means i get to focus more on the people im working<br />
with.<br />
<br />
Mom if you come here you wont see any blue sky, it is Dry season, but<br />
this year i think they should call it dust season because the air<br />
quality is horrible!!! you can look at the sun all day if you want to<br />
because the haze is so bad! the dust is making everyone sick so we are<br />
being extra careful not to get anything.<br />
<br />
Life is good and i hope you are all happy and have a great week! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
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Christmas Package!!!</div>
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Me and Elder Ukaegbu!</div>
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Our Chapel....</div>
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...and... FUFU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-35690552285373785042015-01-05T14:01:00.002-08:002015-01-05T14:01:51.216-08:00Transferring!!!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week has been a good one as usual for us. The work is progressing faster than ever out here and we are loving the opportunity to be a part of it. I have been working with Elder Brown in a newly created branch and it has been sweet. It is awesome for missionaries when new branches are created because all of the members get really excited and they all want to help and give referrals. so the work goes and it really goes fast.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately im not gonna be here to see it all really get going, im being transferred! ive been released as Zone leader and i am being transferred to Takoradi i would say im going to be in the same zone that i started in but my first area is now a zone all on its own! when i was there we were the only missionaries, now its a zone!!! so awesome. So my area is called Apowa and its on the outskirts of the biggest city of the mission, the suburbs really so it should be sweet, ive proselyted there before on splits so i will luckily know a little about the area. My companion is Elder Ukegbu from Nigeria and he is going to be great to work wtih, im excited to learn from him and to become a better missionary.<br />
<br />
So needless to say this whole week has been full of taking pictures and saying goodbyes. its so hard to be leaving. i have been here for 7 1/2 months now and its the longest area of my mission so far. I love the people here with all of my heart and i will miss this place a ton! it was especially great that the news came this weekend because a lot of people i met when i first came here had gone, but because of the holidays they had come back to their home so i got to say some goodbyes that i didnt think i would get to.<br />
<br />
Some fun events this week were helping a woman kill a 7 foot long black mamba snake with a big piece of bamboo. it was super funny because everytime we swung the bamboo a bunch of people watching would cheer! it was hilarious! also this week we got fed a ton! when you leave everyone wants to cook for you! we have 2 meals planned tonight and like 3 more tomorrow hahaha. mission is sweet!;)<br />
<br />
Anyway those are the main events of the week. im sure i will have a ton to write about next week so until then i hope you all make it a great one! i love you!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
BradleyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-55941356154358681122014-12-30T17:34:00.002-08:002014-12-30T17:34:24.890-08:00Happy New Year!!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
It was so great to be able talk to and SEE all of you on<br />
Christmas!!!!! you all look wonderful and happy and it really just<br />
made my day and my week and the last 8 months! hahahaha<br />
Most everything else this week seems Secondary to Christmas. Tuesday<br />
and Wednesday Elder Brown and i spent the day traveling and doing<br />
baptismal interviews for the District Leaders in the Zone.<br />
<br />
On Christmas we woke up and Elder Browns parents had sent us each a<br />
stocking with a tie and some candy in it so he had those out for us.<br />
so we had a nice little Christmas then we Cleaned ourselves up and<br />
went out for a bit. Then we got our computers set up for Skyping. WE<br />
also went to the market and we sang Christmas carols for a lil while<br />
and it was really fun. Then i got to call you!!! which was amazing!<br />
then we went to our bishops house. WE had youth, single adults, and<br />
families from the ward come and we all Pounded fufu, talked and i<br />
played my guitar for everyone and we sang some Christmas carols<br />
<br />
Friday was a regular day of teaching in the area and it was a good<br />
one. we contacted some referrals and found some great new people to<br />
teach, it was just a solid day of missionary work.<br />
<br />
Saturday was a great day, We woke up early and headed out to church.<br />
We cleaned and filled our baptismal font and by 9 our baptismal<br />
Candidates had arrived. Ezekiel, Ebenezer, Emmanuel,Mary, and Steven<br />
were all baptized. I have had opportunities to work with everyone here<br />
and some we have been working with for a while now. But they were all<br />
sooo happy to enter in to the waters of baptism. They are such sweet<br />
experiences to be a part of!!! Also that day we had a wedding<br />
reception for a member of our ward and she asked us missionaries to<br />
sing so we all sang "Love at home" hopefully it was what she was<br />
looking for. haha<br />
<br />
Sunday was so great! the area Elder Brown and i are working in was<br />
Just split into a new Branch so we are very small in number. Elder<br />
Brown and i get to Bless the Sacrament which is nice, its been a long<br />
time since i have had the opportunity to do that and it really is a<br />
blessing to be able to participate in it.<br />
<br />
The missionary work is moving on and we are all happy! Transfer news<br />
comes this week so we'll see if i am gonna be packing my bags next<br />
monday! i hope you all have a great week! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-81479364233169089332014-12-22T10:55:00.000-08:002014-12-22T10:55:09.257-08:00Christmas is Almost Here!!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week sounds awesome!!! im glad you guys are having so much fun<br />
right now! i have a lot to tell you guys hahaha and ill do my best to<br />
put some here but i think ill also save some for Christmas;) so here<br />
goes!<br />
<br />
Tuesday was our Christmas Devotional Zone Conference. It was sooo<br />
great! it was Only our zone that was there because we are kinda far<br />
away from all the other zones. But we had a great meeting. First we<br />
received some instruction from Pres. Stevenson on Obedience which was<br />
great. then we broke into teams and had some fun team work activities.<br />
some were real hard and some were pretty easy but they were great!<br />
then we had the biggest meal ive seen in a long time! chicken, rice,<br />
stew, drinks, brownies! hahaha it doesnt sound like much to for us it<br />
was amazing! hahaha. Then to end the meeting everyone sang some<br />
christmas hymns for talents. I played my guitar for everyone and they<br />
enjoyed it. And we got to hear some Christmas Messages and watch the<br />
new nativity video. all in all it was amazing!<br />
<br />
The rest of the week was all proselyting. which has been great! We<br />
have worked hard and we are really building up our teaching pool in<br />
this new area. We have had a lot of opportunities to share messages<br />
about Christmas and its True meaning. ITs nowhere near as big here as<br />
it is at home. The common thing to hear from people is "Hey! when are<br />
you going to give me my Gift?" Everyone asks! we then do our best to<br />
help them understand that Christmas is not about Getting, but Giving!<br />
today we had a Zone Christmas Party and we got to watch Mr.Cruger's<br />
Christmas! it was great and i still love it! i understand it a lot<br />
better now than i did as a little kid haha. But the over all message<br />
in that movie is "I Love You". that message is not very well portrayed<br />
when we are asking for things. Lets give!<br />
<br />
One last thing ill share this week. On Sunday we were at church and<br />
the sacrament was about to be blessed. Right before a little boy about<br />
4 years old named Nii( he is in the family we baptized last month) He<br />
came over and sat down with me. He is kindof a crazy kid, full of<br />
energy, who never stops....Just like Preston! anyway as the Bread was<br />
about to be blessed i told him to fold his arms and close his eyes. i<br />
had to help him fold his arms but he did it and was very reverent<br />
during the passing. Then it was time for the Water to be blessed. this<br />
time instead of having to tell him to fold his arms, he wrapped his<br />
arms around himself so far they could touch behind his back and closed<br />
his eyes with all the force he had in his 4 year old body and was<br />
perfectly still. I LOVED IT!!!! at 4 years old this child couldnt<br />
understand much but he understood that when we take the sacrament we<br />
fold our arms, bow our heads, and close our eyes and we are still.<br />
Listening to the covenants we are renewing, pondering our saviors<br />
sacrifice for each and every one of us, and recommitting ourselves to<br />
be better. It was a simple experience but i loved it and Heavenly<br />
Father Taught me a new respect for the Sacrament through a 4 year old<br />
Child. A Sweet Experience.<br />
<br />
Anyway family thats what i have today i know its small but ill tell<br />
much more on Christmas! I cant wait to talk to you!!! i love you so<br />
much!!!!<br />
<br />
Love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-47671065615849639282014-12-15T13:49:00.003-08:002014-12-15T13:49:39.115-08:00Tis the Season!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
Everything and everyone sounds great! I happy to hear that you are<br />
happy and that everyone is safe.<br />
<br />
My week was a rollercoaster so i will do my best to get it all in!<br />
<br />
Tuesday was a meeting day for us! we first started out with all of our<br />
zone coming together for a combined district meeting. all 30<br />
missionaries! it was a little different having almost double the<br />
amount of people and a little intimidating. But in the end it was<br />
great! we gave our report on our leadership council and announced some<br />
new policies and changes coming into the mission. It was a great<br />
meeting though and had some great participation from the zone. we also<br />
had everyone stand and introduce themselves so that we could all get<br />
to know each other. After that meeting we had a training meeting with<br />
the district leaders and the sister training leaders and spoke to them<br />
about the need for everyone to do their part. Managing 30 missionaries<br />
isnt a hassle if we all do our part! so we had a nice meeting and it<br />
was successful. After that we had just enough time to grab some lunch<br />
and catch a ride to our next meeting. Stake PEC! it was soo great and<br />
we made it through our report quickly and effectively. the stake<br />
president and his counselors are great and they are really energized<br />
about missionary work. they want the stake to grow enough that by 2016<br />
they can split! and the stake was just created this year! so we are on<br />
it hahaha. After the meeting we went on splits that night and i was<br />
happy to just have a peaceful tro tro ride home. that was cut short<br />
about halfway when our tro broke down and we had to get out and wait<br />
for another one to come and pick us up. boy life is never boring out<br />
here.!<br />
<br />
Wednesday was a normal and great proselyting day and i was working<br />
with a brand new missionary of 2 weeks. he is ghanaian and is such a<br />
great missionary. he worked with missionaries a ton before he came so<br />
he already is awesome at teaching. we had a great day and switched<br />
back to our companions that night.<br />
<br />
the big thing is the companionship in our apartment is needing some<br />
serious help right now so our mission president called us and asked us<br />
to change companions. so i am now companions with Elder Brown and i am<br />
proselyting in his area and elder Mngoma is with Elder Browns<br />
companion. We will stay this way till the end of the transfer. Elder<br />
Mngoma and i are still the zone leaders though and we still are doing<br />
baptismal interviews and a slew of other things we are just doing<br />
things a lil different hahaha. weve had a heck of a time keeping on<br />
top of it all but in the end things are still great and we are all<br />
happy.<br />
<br />
This sunday was the big day of the week. Our ward split. So now there<br />
is a ward and a branch. many of the leadership was in the branch so in<br />
both cases many new leaders have been called and there is a lot of<br />
work to be done! we are excited though because it is going to make<br />
travel for our investigators much easier because some of them live far<br />
away but now with the split they arent far at all.<br />
<br />
It has been a wild ride this week and the time is flying. i am<br />
grateful for this time to serve though and i am enjoying every second<br />
of it! i am sooooo excited to talk to and see you next week!!! i love<br />
you so much! have a great week!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-6465637730530724532014-12-08T20:36:00.001-08:002014-12-08T20:36:48.997-08:00Another Great Week in the Field!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week was a great week for us and it sounds like it wasnt too bad<br />
for you guys either. We are all busy and doing our best to manage it<br />
all. So ill do my best to get the good stuff in our week.<br />
Monday night we did FHE at the Ivies and had a recently converted<br />
family join us. I was assigned the lesson so we talked about the true<br />
meaning of Christmas and that it is Christmas and not "xmass" everyone<br />
calls it that here and its disappointing. but we got that straightened<br />
out and they really enjoyed it. man im thinking christmas right<br />
now!!!!<br />
Wednesday we had Mission Leadership Council and we talked about a lot<br />
of good things. We discussed new standards of excellence, the doctrine<br />
of obedience, and also a new way of setting goals. Essentially mission<br />
is changing a lot and it is great! we are doing our best to accelerate<br />
the missionary work here to keep up with the pace the Lord has set.<br />
tomorrow we get to report it all to the rest of the missionaries in<br />
our zone so we get the fun part of seeing just how many waves these<br />
changes will make hahaha. Elder Keetch was also called as a zone<br />
leader this transfer so he was there and i got to see him. I havent<br />
seen him in about 7 months so we were both pretty happy and we talked<br />
a lot.<br />
Friday we did some splits with a companionship new to the zone and<br />
they were great. my companion went to their area and i stayed in ours.<br />
We had a great day, finding new investigators receiving referrals and<br />
teaching lessons. it was a fulllllll day! i guess that was good<br />
because the next day was the exact opposite. all of our plans fell<br />
through and we didnt hardly see anyone that we needed too. We were<br />
able to see Fred though! Fred has changed lately and has found<br />
challenges and trials and as a result he stopped coming to church for<br />
a little while, we were able to teach him some good principles and he<br />
committed to doing better. i think it worked because sunday he was<br />
early to church and ready to get back into things. The lord is so<br />
wonderful!!!! the spirit was able to touch Freds heart and he made the<br />
decision to follow the promptings and come back. this gospel is true!<br />
<br />
Now everyone is just gearing up for christmas and we are all looking<br />
forward to zone conferences and activities. I also particularly love<br />
teaching about he savior to people who dont understand the true<br />
meaning of Christmas. After we discuss it with them you can see a<br />
happiness come into their countenance that wasnt there before. they<br />
really catch the vision of what this holiday is all about. THE SAVIOR!<br />
<br />
I also wanted to say a big happy birthday to my awesome brother<br />
preston!!!! bud i hope its awesome and i hope you are excited for your<br />
baptism! i love you buddy!<br />
<br />
Family i love you so much and i am so grateful for all the support<br />
that you give to me!!!! i hope you have a great week! i love you!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder Bradley McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-16270012559330651212014-12-01T14:00:00.001-08:002014-12-01T14:00:37.379-08:00It's December!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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!!<br />
<br />
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!!!<br />
<br />
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!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
<br />
Pictures!!!!<br />
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I found pink chicks!!!!!!</div>
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Personal study by Osmosis! My comp was tired... :)</div>
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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 ;)</div>
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Baptisms for Kweku, Prince, and Isaac!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-25126575192762272572014-11-25T19:31:00.000-08:002014-11-25T19:31:30.057-08:00It's Thanksgiving!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
You all are so great! its so awesome to see a family rally around each other and help one another out when things are crazy and there is always so much to do! strong families also really help a ward be strong. we dont have so many out here, but we are extremely grateful for the ones that we do have.<br />
<br />
This week was a pretty slow one for us but i have learned a lot and the work is moving forward! This week was mostly full of goodbyes for my companion. He is going home this week so we had to see everyone before he went.<br />
<br />
Through out the course of the week i realized that i had lost one of my memory cards with all of my pictures on it from the first year of my mission. i looked everywhere for it! i picked up the apartment and dumped it upside down, and even asked any members or investigators if they had seen it. eventually i realized it was gone. i prayed to Father in Heaven that i would be able to recover the pictures. 3 days later one of the Elders in my Apartment was walking around the outside and he found it on the ground! some may say coincidence but in reality it was an answer to my prayers and it strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father listens to and hears All of his children.<br />
<br />
We had stake conference this weekend in our stake also and it was great! it was a broadcast from Salt lake recorded on a dvd for us. the messages were directed towards africans specifically and they were great! they addressed a lot of issues that are prevalent in ghana.<br />
<br />
Also this weekend we got Transfer news!!! dun dun dun!!!!! hahaha transfers are the thing all the missionaries in the world are excited for, stress about, and lose sleep over. For us in our zone we actually dont have to many transfers. My new companion is going to be Elder MNGOMA he is from south Africa and has been on mission for almost 18 months now. he is sweet! he is coming from the zone right next to ours. the big news with this transfer is that the zone my new companion is coming from is combining with our zone. this is huge because it will make us to be the largest zone in the mission! were going from having 16 elders to having 30!! and 6 of those are going to be sisters so we are bucklin up for a wild ride! hahahaha im excited though. All i can say is lets do it!<br />
<br />
Also i have now sent all my christmas packages off to you guys so hopefully youll see it soon! it might be a little late for christmas and if so i guess itll be a nice new years present hahaha.<br />
<br />
Anyway i hope you all have a great week and that you all have a great Thanksgiving!! im thankful for all of you!!!!! i love you!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Bradley<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-26286045737663023632014-11-20T13:56:00.000-08:002014-11-20T13:56:14.947-08:00Pictures!Hey Everyone!<br />
<br />
Bradley's Mission President posted a couple of pictures of him on his blog. Here is the link (The stories are pretty great)<br />
<a href="http://stevensons-in-ghana.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://stevensons-in-ghana.blogspot.com/</a><br />
And here are the Pictures!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-50153369616774619642014-11-17T14:00:00.003-08:002014-11-17T14:00:56.460-08:00I am Thankful!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
I think that i am going to copy mom this week! First of all Im thankful to hear from a family each week that loves me and supports me and means everything in the world to me!. I am thankful for hints from my mom to send pictures( i promise next week i will!)<br />
<br />
Im thankful that the lord has prepared people for us to teach here in my area and for their progress. Im thankful for little miracles that allowed us to have 3 amazing baptisms this evening. That members have the courage to refer a friend and in turn that friend brings 2 other friends with him and they are all baptized together. That is progression! that is missionary work! that is what the lord wants! Things never happen on accident everything that happens everyday can be learned from and i am learning so much!<br />
<br />
Im thankful for Cars! haha Cars that the assistants and the mission couples can drive as we go to District meetings all over kingdom come. im thankful for 4 wheel drive that can take us over the most treacherous roads that ghana has to offer! Im grateful a wonderful mission president who cares and takes time to listen when needed and works so hard for each and everyone of his missionaries. Pres. Stevenson is so great!<br />
<br />
Im thankful for technology/Electricity! in all its forms! like when you are showering and just as you pull out the bar of soap the power goes out and the pump that is pumping the water shuts off and all of the sudden there is absolutely nothing to rinse your body with!(hahaha im also thankful that that was just a prank played by a missionary in the apartment!) Im also grateful for Computers.1 so that i can talk to my family every monday. 2 so we can create a report that makes reporting at stake meetings sooo much more simple and effective!!!<br />
<br />
Im thankful for Saving Ordinances, With The baptisms tonight and the confirmations of our previous converts yesterday i have been able to think a lot about these important saving ordinances. IT is such a special thing! and I love being able to work towards those ordinances with investigators and myself. I got a call earlier today from Prince Baidoo. In case you dont remember Prince was my first baptism here in Ghana. I learned about 8 months after i left he had fallen less active. i wrote him a letter and encouraged him to come back. Today he told me that 3 weeks ago he went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms for the dead!!!! soo sweet!!! now we just gotta get to the Endowment!!!!!<br />
<br />
Im Thankful Good people in the ward and also in the Zone that can make a Preparation day memorable. Today we roasted 2 pigs and a goat and ate a ton of food after doing a service project to level a road that is absolutely horrendous leading up to a church in Swedru. Then those Same people after working and sweating all day Turned out for an amazing Baptism/YSA Family home evening! these are the moments that i will never forget!<br />
<br />
Finally Im thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For the ability to be comforted by his Everlasting sacrifice which was not only for our sins and transgressions but also for any kind of pain or suffering that we will ever endure. When appointments go all wrong. nobody wants to listen to you, and it seems like there is no way things can get any worse. A light shines through and the Atonement of Jesus Christ is there to help us all! im also thankful for the way the Atonement helps us to let go of things of the past and with faith look toward the mysterious wonderful future in front of us!<br />
<br />
Family i love you so much and i hope you all have a great week!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
P.S. Dont Freeze to Death!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-30404077718588341972014-11-17T13:58:00.004-08:002014-11-17T13:58:36.926-08:00Love November!!Dear family!<br />
<br />
Wow you all sound so busy! im glad to hear that amid the chaos and the<br />
fun and school and everything that you are all happy and safe. It<br />
helps to know that my family is happy, it makes me happy!<br />
<br />
This week has been a great week for us in Swedru. This week we went to<br />
Mission Leadership Council and it was great! we talked about the way<br />
we contact in the mission and how it can be improved there were a lot<br />
of great things shared and i think some good things are going to be<br />
done to help the missionaries to better understand the importance of<br />
contacting. We also had a bit of fun. Elder Moleme, my trainer, is<br />
still a zone leader in the mission and he is going home this transfer,<br />
Wednesday was the last time i got to see him so i and a few other<br />
Elders tried to make it memorable. We got the office Elders to tell<br />
him that he had a package with a duty of 25 cedis from america. He was<br />
obviously surprised since he is from south africa and has never gotten<br />
a package from america. So he was so excited the whole entire day. He<br />
thought he was getting a package from some mystery family in<br />
idaho....In reality he was getting an old pair of shoes and an old<br />
broken music player that he had left in our apartment before he was<br />
transferred. We used an old package box of one of the Elders in our<br />
Apartment and made it look real and put a new address on it and<br />
addressed it to Elder Moleme. So After we had closed our meeting it<br />
was time for us to get our supplies and mail...he was seriously so<br />
excited! he got his package and gave Elder Larsen(one of the<br />
assistants) the money for the package and took it. Everyone was asking<br />
who could possibly have sent the package and they wanted him to open<br />
it and he was protecting the thing like a mama bear protects her cubs!<br />
hahaha eventually they convinced him to open it while we were still<br />
there....When he opened it he pulled out his old shoe...looked at<br />
it.....and through it on the ground then pulled out the note we had<br />
left for him. The second he finished and everyone had realized what<br />
had happend and i tell you there was not a dry eye in the place!<br />
everyone was laughing so hard they were crying!!! sorry that was a bit<br />
long...it was so funny! back to real missionary work;)........<br />
<br />
......All day Thursday we were traveling going to 2 areas doing<br />
baptismal interviews and splits with the missionaries there. One of<br />
the Elders i Split with wasnt feeling good so we took him to the<br />
hospital and they tested him for malaria and he tested positive so<br />
they gave him and IV and some drugs and then we went home. i felt bad<br />
for him Malaria is so common out here! luckily ive avoided it my whole<br />
mission(dont worry im knocking on wood right now!) and i hope it stays<br />
that way!<br />
<br />
Friday my companion had caught my cold in full force and he lost his<br />
voice as a result so teaching was funny. luckily we had a ward<br />
missionary with us so i wasnt teaching solo and by the end of the<br />
night his voice was mostly back.<br />
<br />
Saturday has turned into Cleaning and Soccer for the ward and of<br />
course us missionaries were there to support every step of the way. we<br />
even had 2 investigators come so we were really happy. im getting<br />
better at soccer all the time although im nowhere near these guys but<br />
its a lot of fun and a great way to bring people together out here.<br />
<br />
Sunday was Awesome. Church went well and we had a lot of investigators<br />
come. It was great because we had a baptism after church for two of<br />
our investigators and the rest got to stay and watch! i love having<br />
investigators come to baptisms because every time, afterwards, whether<br />
they have a baptismal date or not, they always ask "so when is my<br />
baptism?" that was the case for 3 of our investigators on Sunday. So<br />
now they all have dates for the 22nd of this month! the work is really<br />
moving out here!<br />
Those 3 investigators were Issac, Kweku, and Prince they are all<br />
friends and they live in the same neighbor hood so they help each<br />
other out a lot when it comes to learning and also keeping their<br />
commitments. We were able to teach them after church and they are all<br />
so excited to be baptized. i love it when people just get it! they<br />
understand the gospel and they want to follow out of a desire to do<br />
whats right and to follow Jesus Christ. this work is amazing!<br />
<br />
Anyway i hope you are all doing well and are happy! keep it up! i love<br />
you all!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-71226013397918501092014-11-03T13:59:00.005-08:002014-11-03T13:59:52.853-08:00November is Here! Along with a bunch of Pictures!!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
Halloween sounds like it was great for everyone and with fall coming on i can imagine things are starting to cool down finally! for us things are just warming up and soon we will be baking in the oven!! Hahaha i was reading the email and when mom mentioned AFV in my head im like "What is that??" it took me like 5 minutes of thinking hard to remember!! hahahaha i love that show! i guess its been a while huh?;)<br />
<br />
As for me this week was a good but rough one but i am happy overall. I was fighting a cold all week long which was no fun but it didnt slow us down too much. The big thing that slowed us down was our surprises. Our investigators that we were planning on baptizing didnt make it. Some up and traveled with no notice and others just had things they needed a little more time to work on but we are okay and im confident they will be ready before the month ends. This work is so great!!! out here its easy for missionaries to get into a routine of pushing people through the process of teaching. but we are doing more than that we are helping these people understand eternal principles and the fact that their<br />
Father in Heaven loves them and wants them to be happy. So we are working on it!<br />
<br />
The Iveys took a trip into Accra this week and while they were there they were able to get me a new camera that is great! its so nice having a couple in the zone they help with the work so much! hahaha so now im sending pictures everyweek so even if i do get robbed again i dont lose any pictures!<br />
<br />
This week the work has been great but we have been missing one of our recent converts. Kwesi just kinda disappeared and we dont know where he is at all. we we havent seen him in 2 weeks and he hasnt contacted us or anything. we hope and pray everything is okay.<br />
<br />
In happier news hahaha well maybe it only makes me happier, members came and helped us clean the church this week!!! hahaha usually its us and like 3 other members cleaning every week but this week all of the youth came and a lot of others! it was great it only ended up taking us 45 minutes so it was just enough time left to play a football game with the youth. im actually not that bad anymore;)<br />
<br />
Also for church this week we finally got the Conference DVDs so we got to watch the Sunday morning Session!! it was so powerful!! my favorite talks were the first 3 about sustaining the prophet! with Pres. Eyring talking about receiving personal confirming revelation. Elder Nelson about sustaining leaders and also Sister McConkie about sustaining leaders!!!! all i can say is i sustain my leaders!!!! but obviously there are a lot of ways we can all improve. Its sad to think that people have problems sustaining those called by God to lead. Its a good thing we know God blesses us with out reservation when we keep his commandments without reservation.<br />
<br />
I hope that was a good update for the week im gonna cut this one short so i can also send some pictures!! i hope you all have a great week and are ready for a blast of cold coming your way!!!! i love you!!!<br />
<br />
love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuire<br />
<br />
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This is the corn we planted with kwesi 2 weeks ago! its already growing up</div>
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This kid is so cute!!! his name is Nii Nortey and he is a fire ball!</div>
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Our iron broke this week so we had to improvise! (it didn't really work)</div>
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We were gutting our watermelons!!</div>
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My watermelon-o-lantern</div>
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I was a baseball player for Halloween!</div>
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My companion and i in our Halloween costumes</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-72332545303992940362014-10-29T14:07:00.001-07:002014-10-29T14:07:32.550-07:00It's Halloween Week!!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
This week has been great week. it sounds like everyone is ready for another long weekend! but it also sounds like you have already had a lot of the halloween fun! this week we are going to carve watermelons because we dont have any pumpkins it should be fun though.<br />
<br />
As for life on this end things are pretty normal. We had a pretty slow week this week but things are progressing steadily. We are actually having alot of success in a new area. We base out of one small village but sometimes we go to the other small villages around. For a long time we were going to a place called manso. The stake patriarch lives there and we figured we would have some good success out there but as we were going the people just werent receptive and we had a difficult time teaching people. On a visit to the patriarch he suggested that we go to another town instead of his. So we started going out there and man o man that place has done so great! we have already baptized one young man there and we have many more that we are working with closely. Now every time we see our patriarch we ask him for any other suggestions he has for us;) hahaha<br />
<br />
This week i also had my first real run in with Anti-mormon material. being out here in africa we havent had to deal with it to much so much as just small rumors. This week on of our investigators asked us about an article he had found on the internet and he asked us to explain a lot of things to him. We did our best but in the end our efforts were futile. he had already invested so much into it that he thought it was all true and wasnt really listening to anything that we would say. Its so sad how a little thing like that can cause someone to not want to listen to the message of the restored gospel. Satan really is working hard. Luckily we know he will never win!<br />
<br />
It was Elder Bolabasaga's (an elder in the apartment) birthday this week so his companion took us all out to pizza! it was so good! hahaha its been a while. i have gotten adventurous though and ive started making banana bread and its so good! i got the recipe from a member and its great!<br />
<br />
Also exciting news this week. we found a new family to work with. Actually we didnt find them the other elders in our apartment did. They were walking home from their area one night and met a woman on the street with her kids and invited her to com to the church. She did and brought her husband along with her and they are solid. They have told us that they have already made up their mind to join our church and they are so receptive to the message to the gospel. They truly have been prepared. I love working with families!<br />
<br />
We have been working with a few part member families lately and they are all progressing really well. We are hoping to have 6 baptisms this weekend so we are working hard to prepare them all for their day. This work is so great!!!!<br />
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This week i applied President Monsons talk from priesthood session. Ive learned so much! i think the biggest one was about planning effectively. Ive always noticed that the days we plan more in depth always go better! The days we dont plan as in depth dont always work out so well. So like a ship with out a rudder, a day with not good planning will not go very well!!!! obviously this is not new but ive noticed it in a new light this week.<br />
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I hope you all have a great week and have a great halloween!!! make sure to eat some extra candy for me okay!!! and take plenty of pictures!!!!! i love you all!!<br />
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love,<br />
Elder James Bradley McGuireAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233797312198365884.post-47362399888444704202014-10-20T14:02:00.001-07:002014-10-20T14:02:22.492-07:00Top 10! (Well, actually 4, but who's counting?) ;)Dear Family,<br />
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This week was another good one!!! i guess im gonna copy mom and do the top 10 of my week!!!!<br />
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10. i guess this one should really be 100 though. Last night We got robbed! not by gun point or anything but while we were in the apartment someone reached through our window and stole my camera off my bed. we have 2 sets of bars on our windows to prevent that. its happened before in our apartment but i wanst here yet. so yeah it was as big bummer but im learning from it and trying to make the most of the experience!<br />
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The teteh family, the family recently baptized have had some challenges this week. One of their sons fell sick and has been in the hospital for 5 days. Thankfully today he is coming home and he is doing okay now. We have been praying for them and we are trying hard to help them continue their conversion to this wonderful gospel. <br />
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We had a really nice lesson this week. We have an investigator that we have been struggling with for quite a long time now. We would teach and on a follow up appointment we would ask if he remembered what we taught and he couldnt recall a single thought. We decided to bring an art book to teach him with. As we went to the appointment we were missing one thing, a translator. The young man doesnt speak english at all. All of our members were busy and didnt have time to accompany us to the lesson. We went hoping to just help him see a few things with the pictures. As my companion and i stumbled through all of the fante we new in describing the pictures and connecting them to the restoration of the gospel he understood everything we said. Some would say that is a small thing but it really was a miracle.<br />
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Okay i guess im not doing 10 but ive got some more good stuff;) hahaha<br />
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Today WE did a service project as a zone and went and helped one of our recent converts plant his farm with corn. He is disabled and could have done it himself but it would have taken forever. So it was a great service project. The sky opened up while we were planting and we got soaked but we had a blast.<br />
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i just wanted to tell you guys thankyou so much for the voice recordings you sent me last week. they were exactly what i needed to get through a hard time. im taking the challenge that you came up with after conference to apply one thing a week till next conference. this week i started with Pres. Uchtdorfs talk in priesthood session. "Lord is it i?" as i have applied this this week i have learned alot about myself and about others. But all in all i have learned a lot. I think the biggest thing is that no matter what we are doing there is always something to be learned! so look for it and learn it! i love you all! have a great week!!<br />
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Love, BradleyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833324301050757417noreply@blogger.com0