Some Culture and things!

He's still amazing!!!! (Of course) Here's his letter for the week!

Dear Family

Wow it sounds like you guys had a blast this week!!!! that cabin is huge!!!!! were going there when i come home right???? hahaha thats crazy about grandma and grandpa's car! i hope everything is alright with them. and mirror lake!!!! you guys sure know how to make a missionary jealous hahaha;) its ok though the work is still as incredible as ever here!!

tuesday we had district meeting and it went great! i instructed on humility and it went really well. everyone in the district was willing to contribute and it turned it into a great discussion. i hope all of you contribute in church classes!! it helps the instructor out a lot!;) hahaha  and it makes it a better possibility to be guided by the spirit. so the meeting went well. and afterwards we always go get fufu together. 2 elders in our district dont usually like to join us but this week they decided to stick around and it was good. our district is becoming more unified now that we are getting to know each other better. After district meeting we came back and had 2 lessons to finish out the day.

Wednesday was a good day, we planned what looked like a busy day but not much ended up going as planned but i guess in the end its not about our plan but the lords plan. its also been raining a lot lately. we were walking and we heard a low rumble coming behind us. we turned around and it was a rainstorm coming our way. we could actually hear it because it was raining so hard and all the roofs here are made out of sheets of metal so when the water hits them its way loud. so we ducked under and overhang of a building and waited the rain out. that night we had midweek and seminary and it was a good day.

thursday we did splits because there was an interview in one of the areas for baptism. so i went to Axim with elder cardon and Elder keetch stayed in tarkwa with elder Hackmiester. splits were good, the interview was good in the fact that we realized that their candidate needed a little help and a little more teaching before he could be baptized. the law of chastity is a huge problem out here. They have traditional marraige here and it is EXPENSIVE and when guys dont have the money to pay they just move in with their girlfriends and after a certain period of time they are considered married. so needless to say we have a lot of lessons on chastity hahaha. it was cool to be in axim. its a fishing town right on the beach. i love being by the water! but tarkwa is nice because its the Area with the most hills in the whole mission hahaha.

Friday and saturday were good days as well. we stayed busy and taught quite a few lessons. i also got a sweet african painting! so we are teaching this young boy named Parden and weve been meeting with him for a while. he is really intelligent and likes the church. His mom will Not let us give him a book of mormon though so its been hard. all of their extended family are members but as for the parents they dont really want anything to do with the church. but they like us and they like that we study gospel principles with their son. they said that it would be okay if we just shared stories from the book of mormon though. so saturday we spent 2 hours talking about Ammon and and also the 2000 stripling warriors. He loved it!! i hope something changes to allow us to move forward with him.

Sunday was also a good day, church went well and we had some good talks in sacrament meeting. after church a member fed us and we met with a few people. there were a couple times where we took some turns not really understanding why but we ended up finding a member who had been trying to call us and had the wrong number and wanted a blessing. and also we found an investigator who we've not been able to see for a little while and it was great!!  the lord really does guide this work!!!

i realized i havent told you guys too much about the culture here, so here a few things off the top of my head.

they speak english here but its kinda different and they say a lot of funny things. like when you are saying "only a little" you say "small small". if you havent seen someone in a while you say "Hey long time!!". if something is broken or out you say " it is finished". a really funny one is when you say something that doesnt sound believable you say "Are you correct?". if you want to find the biggest concentration of dancers and drinkers just walk around on sundays and look for Funerals. people make funerals out to be the biggest party youve ever seen here. there is way more but thats what i can think of right now:)

Anyway i hope you are all happy and are doing well!! i love you all!! have a great week!

Love, Elder McGuire

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!

Oh MY GOODNESS!!!!! I got TWO WHOLE PICTURES TO WORK!!!! Hahahaha! I know it's not much, but I am SO excited for these ones!!! Here you go fam!!!!

This is the Lake he was talking about!

It looks gorgeous!!!

Football, Lakes, and MORE!

Sorry family! I know that this one took me a little bit longer! But, here it is! Love ya!!!

Dear Family,

BYU WON!!!!!!! wahoo!!!!! i was so excited!!!!!! hahaha and im glad to hear that you all are doing well!

My week was good, a little bit slower than usual but good.

      Tuesday we didnt have district meeting because we were having combined on wednesday. so it was a normal day for us except for the first 2 hours of the day nobody could meet with us so we just walked around contacting. which i like a lot but sometimes it gets a little uneventful hahaha. but we taught some good lessons that day and had fun. we also found a restaraunt that sells wings!!!!!!! i was freaking out!!!!! hahaha lets just say they are NOT american but i liked what they were. needless to say i will be gaining weight when i come home hahaha.

      Wednesday was a fun day. we went to takoradi for Combined district meeting. President shulz came and he interviewed us all 1 on 1 and i loved it!!! i loved just being able to talk to him and ask for advice and just meet with him. he is so awesome! we also received some nice instruction from Sis. Shulz and  the APs and the Zone leaders. Remember how we had that miracle baptism. so president shulz talked about goals for the mission. he told us that as a mission we had a goal of 372 baptisms for this trimester. and we had 373!! if our baptism wouldnt have happened we wouldnt have met the goal as a mission!! and we have never met our goal since president shulz has been mission president. So...yeah thats sweet!!!! the meeting took most of the day and we made it back only in time to have one more lesson before we called it a day. 

      Thursday was a good normal day of teaching lessons and having fun!! we ran into a member who was selling food who decided to give us some. as she walked away she said enjoy the octopus!!!!! hahaha yeah octopus! we took it home and it was actually pretty good with Ketchup;)!

    Friday we went to Agona, and area in our district, to do some interviews for baptism. We were only supposed to be there for a couple hours but ended up spending the whole day because some of the people that needed interviews were hard to get ahold of and it just took a while. so we came back and had 1 lesson before the day finished up. 

       Saturday i woke up in the morning and elder keetch told me that he had spent the night Throwing up and didnt sleep well at all. so he slept for a while that morning while i studied. he said he was feeling alright. so we went to a ghanaian traditional wedding/dowry ceremony. it was for a cousin of one of our members that we knew. it was pretty cool and it was funny because they would stop everything and translate it into english so we could understand. it was interesting but it also made me sooo grateful for the temple and the power of the priesthood in our church. after keetch wasnt feeling so hot and the young women were having an activity at the church so we came back home and spent the rest of the day in. at 6 we had seminary and had a good lesson on faith. i tried to get the kids to do the faith fall where you stand on a desk and fall backwards without bending your legs and the kids would catch them. no one would do it!!!! but it was fun. then we had a lesson at the church at 7 with and investigator and finished the day. 

so sunday we woke up and keetch still wasnt feeling great so he slept. by the time church was over he was feeling good enough to go out. so we went to a members house for lunch and then went and had a few good lessons that night and visited a couple other members so we still had a good day.

Today we did a little exploring! i found out that there was a small lake(more like a big pond) in our area so we went with a member to check it out. it was sweet and i was dying for a fishing pole!!!!! so we were there for about an hour and a half and then came back, I MISS THE MOUNTAINS!!!!!!!! so ill just have to spend a lil extra time up there when im home but i absolutely love it here and i am happy:)

I hope you guys have another great week!!!!!!! be safe and work hard!!!

I love you all!!!

Love, Elder McGuire

P.S. Go COUGARS!!!!!

A Week of Miracles!

Dear Family,

This week was great! we had a few miracles and have been working as hard as we can. it sounds like you are all doing well and a lot of changes are happening back home, kaitlin in highschool and krissy in college!!! next thing your gonna tell me the first grandchild is on the way....(I hope so;) hahaha. mom and dad? how do you feel about being called Grandma and Grandpa??? hahaha

Anyway ill start with tuesday as usual. Tuesday we had district meeting as usual and it went pretty good. it was the first time that we have had just our district at the meeting and i was in charge since i became district leader. i did my best but i know ive got a long ways to go. I got my package!!! the bybees were driving through town and dropped it off for me!!! thank you grandma so much it is amazing!!!!!! i love you guys!!!!!!After district meeting we came back and had to do our washing and shopping because we didnt have time on monday since we were in takoradi. So that ended up taking up the rest of the day because our water was being difficult as usual.

Wedensday was a good day. we had a bunch of lessons and they all went well. we have been working to prepare a few people for baptism so we have been busy. wednesday was also midweek and a bunch of people came. we had a lesson on peace that was good. so the week i got here a trial started in ghana deciding whether or not the president of the country won the election unfairly. it has been going for a long time. and thursday they were giving the verdict. so wednesday night everyone was on the edge of their seats. they were all nervouse because people have been hearing about these rebellions and things in other countries and they were worried that the same thing would happen here. we actually had a bunch of our members tell us to stay inside all day long just in case. we got the final word from president shulz that night that it was okay to go out and work.  but everyone was nervous.

Thursday. the decision came and everything was fine. there were not rebellions or anything. it was pretty cool though they had cops and soldiers driving the streets with guns and tear gas launchers just to intimidate everyone. but yeah nothing happened. we ended up teaching a couple good lessons and the zone leaders came and interviewed 2 of our baptismal candidates and that took up the day.

Friday elder keetch and i went on splits. The elders in Nkroful had a candidate for baptism so i went to interview. so i was with elder cardon again! its been a while since weve done splits so we worked hard and had fun and the interview went great and their candidate was more than prepared. elder keetch also did great here in tarkwa.

Saturday was a long day but turned out to be amazing! we came back from nkroful and were trying to get ready for the baptism. we only had a little bit of water in our font and the water ran out again! we didnt even have enough for sitting baptism. so we called the zone leaders to see if we could come to takoradi. they said it would be better to just wait and do it later. we were okay with that but i didnt want to wait because it was the last day of the month and we wouldnt have met our goal for baptisms. and as a zone we wouldnt have made our goal it was dependant on our baptisms. and our candidates were really excited. But we had absolutely no way to get water. there are no wells near by our place and buying water was tooo expensive. while we were trying to decide what to do a member came to the church and wanted to talk to us about some gospel stuff. while we were talking a rainstorm came out of nowhere so we decided to put out buckets to catch some water.
it was raining hard so we were dumping buckets into the font to try and fill it. the second that we had enough water to do sitting baptism. the rain stopped and the clouds went away! i dont think i need to say it but i will. the lord blessed us with a miracle and we were so greatful! he really does watch over us out here! so we were able to have the baptism and it all went great! I baptized Stephanie (20) and elder keetch baptized Justice (17) they were brother and sister and it was sweet! to finish out the night we cleaned the church and had a small seminary meeting. yeah awesome day!

Sunday was also really good! Church was at 9 as usual and we had stephanie and justice's confirmations. We also had a baby blessing. here baby blessings are a huge deal so all of the family members of the family came to church and none of them were members. so we had 28 people in our investigators class rather than the usual 6or7 it was sweet! we got a lot of contacts out of it and i think we are going to be able to actually work with a few of them. also there is this lady that we buy bread from every week and she likes us a lot so she randomly decided to come to church too! so we were full at church. 

Today has been nice. we woke up and did our washing. thankfully our water has cleared up some. it has been too dirty to use for the last 3 weeks so we have been using Satchet water that weve bought to shower and cook and do dishes. but its cleaner now so were happy:) also President and Sister Bybee came and gave us haircuts. we just finished shopping and after email were gonna go to fhe.

So thats the week!!! it was amazing. NEver forget that the lord is there and he wants to help you and me and he will as long as we are obedient to his commandments! i love you all and i hope you have another good week!!!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

P.S. keep football updates coming;) hahaha

First week on the Job

Dear Family!!!!

Another week has come and gone and i am happy as ever! the work here is awesome and im glad to hear that you guys are all doing well too!!

tuesday was an awesome day. we had a combined district meeting in takoradi and we had a nice lesson. the elders that were all being transferred stood up and bore their testimonies. then we went to this place called Garden Mart and it has a bunch of american things in it and i found blazing buffalo ranch doritos!!!!! i was soooo happy!!! then we came back to tarkwa and had a good lesson to finish off the day.

Wednesday was transfers so since wednesday ive been the district leader!! for us though in our area nothing changed. we taught a bunch of lessons. one in particular was really cool. So we were going to teach this guy named Shadrack and he is way cool! this was a big lesson for us because we were trying to decide whether or not to drop him and this lesson would tell us what to do. so he lives in a furniture workshop and when we walked in everything was loud, there were sanders, saws, and radios. but we sat down with him and just kinda started to talk. we got to a point that we wanted to pray to begin the lesson and i realized that everything had been turned off and everyone was gone but us. We had a great lesson and he started off by telling us that he knows the book of mormon is true!!!! needless to say we were so excited and he is going to be baptized in the next 2 weeks! it was a great lesson.

Thursday was a busy workin day with lesson after lesson. we also had 3 people give us food and it was all yams with this stuff called contombre. it was good the first time...after that we just had to force it down. it is very rude to refuse food here, you might as well slap someone in the face. so we ate and im heavier now hahaha not really;)

Friday i had my first interview to do as district leader for a baptismal candidate. it was in a place called Axim which is about 2 1/2 hours away so we left around noon and had the interview at 3. it went really well and it was interesting to be on the other side of an interview but it was great and the young man was more than ready to be baptized. we made it back to tarkwa just in time to have 1 last lesson to finish off the night.

Saturday we were tired. from the traveling and the lessons we were just tired. but the lord took care of us. from the way our lessons were planned out it looked like it was gonna be a long day of walking. but we had 2 cab drivers pull over and tell us they would take us where ever we wanted for free. i was so greatful! heavenly father really does watch out for us. so we had some amazing lessons that day and it was great. also that night i made a grill out of bricks and a metal grate and we had grilled chicken and rice for dinner and it was sooooo good!!

Sunday was also great as usual. church was nice. we had a confirmation and 5 investigators came. after church we went to a members for lunch and then to a lesson right after and it was a good lesson and helped us understand better what we need to teach. after that the branch president had us over for dinner and it was also great! then to finish off the night we taught a guy named eric. we were introduced to him by a member but he didnt seem too keen on meeting with us. but we called him and he told us to come over. so we came and i brought my guitar. the first time we met i had noticed he had a guitar and he told me he wanted to learn how to play. so we came and had a good lesson with him and after i taught him guitar for a bit. i played dream big and he loved it! everyone likes that song out here. but i was happy i could use my guitar to help the work along.

Today has been great. we came to takoradi today and played basketball and we had a great time. now we are emailing and after we will go home and shop and do our washing. i love you all and hope you are ready for school to start!!! hahaha

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

Here's another one! AND HE'S A DISTRICT LEADER!!!!

Hey guys! Sorry I've been really slow at getting this one up here this week! Here's the latest and greatest from our friend in Africa!

Dear family,

Wow it souds like you guys are having a great time! it seems like summer is starting to wind down and school is winding up! i didnt realize just how fast this "summer" has gone! here the weather is always the same so its weird to call it summer hahaha.

so on tuesday we had district meeting as usual and it was good. it was the last time we will be together as this district because transfers is this coming week and we have some elders who have been here for a long time including our district leader...ill talk about that one in a bit;) so we came back from district meeting and we had some nice lessons to finish out the day.

Wednesday, thursday and friday were all basically the same just work work work. we taught a bunch of lessons this week and we walked all over the place just like usual! but the awesome continue to be awesome and i am absolutely loving every second of it because i am growing so much!. there was an exception for friday, one of the pipes out side our house burst and water was going everywhere! thankfully to all those times dad took us boys out to fix the sprinklers on the mow strip i was able to fix it up in just a few minutes after we got some supplies. so thanks dad!!!!

Saturday was a crazy day!! we woke up and studied like normal and went and taught 3 lessons for the first few hours. then a member had us come over and she taught us from start to finish how to make fufu and everything that goes with it and it takes about 3 hours!! but it was awesome and i gained a whole new appreciation for fufu. hahaha and now you all have to prepare yourselves because i am an expert on making and eating fufu so all of you are going to enjoy when i come home;) hahaha. at 5 we came back to the chapel for cleaning and for seminary and we had a lot of fun. Saturday was also the day for "Transfer News" where we find out who is getting transferred in the zone and how it affects us. be fore we got any news i got a call from the APs......they said that they were calling on behalf of president shulz and they said that they had a new assignment for me. they told me that my district leader was being transferred to another are and that i was called to be the new district leader!!!! what the heck!! i haven't even been here for 5 months yet!!! so needless to say the next little while is going to be interesting!! im gonna need your prayers! but i am going to do my best to fulfill the assignment the lord has given to me. Also, president shulz likes the district leaders to stay for a while once their called so i think that means im probably gonna be in tarkwa for at least a few more months, so i might not be goin to a new area till christmas or something but i guess we'll just have to see!!!

Sunday was also a great day. we had an awesome day for church but only a few investigators showed up. but after church we were able to meet with some people and give them baptismal dates so that was exciting.

today has been great too and we are going to the branch presidents house for FHE after this:)

Keep having fun everyone with the last couple weeks of summer and be safe and work hard!!! i love you all!!!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

Working Hard!

Dear family!

It sounds like everyone is doing well and im happy to hear it! keep it up!

the week here in tarkwa was great and we got a lot done!!

tuesday was district meeting as usual and it went well, we came back to our area and just worked hard and had some really good lessons that night.

Wednesday was sweet. it was work work work. we found some new people that are awesome and i hope we can get somewhere with them. Wednesday morning when we were planning what to teach an investigator we both had no idea what to do so we got down on our knees and prayed and it was awesome!!! we came up with a few ideas and they ended up being perfect for what he needed and the lesson was powerful!! prayer is amazing and heavenly father really does hear and answer our prayers.

Thursday was a good day. we have this investigator that we have been teaching since before i got here and he knows everything about the church and he knows its true but he doesnt come to church!! so finally we layed it down and said that we wouldnt come anymore unless he started coming to church. i hated doing that because i love the guy to death and he is awesome. but guess what?! it worked!! he came to church! if he keeps coming the next couple weeks he will be able to be baptized! i really hope he makes it!!

Friday was a great day we had some good lessons. one in particular stood out, i was probably as bold as i have ever been when teaching a lesson. we have been teaching a guy for the last month and he has done well. but he doesnt really take the book of mormon seriously because he loves the bible and says everything in the bom is in the bible. so i went and read 2nd Nephi 29 which kinda rags on the bible and people who say that only the bible should be used. it was bold but i think he got the message and actually it ended really well. Friday was also Samuel's interview for his baptism and he did great!! after the interview elder keetch and I went with our district leader and his comp to a resturaunt and got PIZZA!!!! it was sooo good and i  was soo happy!

Saturday was long!! we woke up studied and then went with a member to a village about 30 minutes away to teach a lesson and when we got there the guy we were going to teach didnt even show up! and we had to hurry back to the church for sams baptism. but when we got back the town was completely out of water!! the branch president thought we should wait for a while to see if it would come but it never did. so we decided to have the baptism on sunday. so we went out to teach some lessons and everyone we planned to see didnt show up and we ended up contacting for 3 hours! then we came back to the church and had seminary and we had fun!! the lesson was on unity so i taught all the kids how to do the human knot. they figured out that they had to work together to get untangled and they all had fun.

Sunday was a great day. church was awesome and we had a bunch of investigators come, including raymond so we can keep seeing him. after church there still wasnt any water so we headed to takoradi to the stake center to do the baptism. we had a whole 5 people there and we had a nice little baptismal service. it actually was great and sam was sooo excited to be baptized and i was soo excited too so i got to baptize him and it went great. we came back and went to a members house and had fufu with sam to celebrate and then taught a couple lessons to finish out the day.

Today has been good and they came and Fixed our font AGAIN so hopefully it wont be leaking again. ive got my fingers crossed!!! thanks everyone for being so amazing and supporting me out here!! i love you all!!!

HAve a great week!!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire