Another Two Week Post

Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I haven't gotten a chance to put up these letters yet! This is the last week of school and I have finals this week and next week, so you could say its been crazy! So, here's the last two week, enjoy!!

April 7, 2014
Dear Family,

It was conference this week! im so jealous of all of you that you got to watch it! i think ill get to listen to it soon but wow i really took it for granted back home! direct counsel from the prophets every 6 months! how perfect is that?!
This week was a great week for me and from the sound of things pretty great for you guys too! On Monday right after i finished emailing i got my package!!!! i only had to pay a couple bucks on the duty so it was awesome and cheap! thank you soooooo much! i have the best family in the world! elder adjavon and i made the brownies and put in the candles and had a lil bday party that night! the journal is awesome! the shirt is great and fits perfect! and the food oh wow the food! thankyou so much!!!! its all great!

Tuesday was a good day. district meeting went really well and helped me a lot in the instruction again. i also got 7 letters on after district meeting so yeah ive been a really happy boy this week!!!! after district meeting we had a lot of fun, we always go get fufu afterwards:) then we had some real nice lessons with some investigators that night.

Wednesday was just a great normal day of missionary work but during the day i noticed something interesting. i have become extremely cautious in the missionary work. cautious of who we meet with and who we stop teaching. i Just want to be effective in the work. Here in ghana everyone is willing to listen to you whether they will follow or not or even want to talk. thats good and bad for us because its easy to teach lessons. but hard to find serious people willing to take steps to follow. i also think a big reason is that i am just new here and im still getting to know everyone but i know the lord will help us as he has. i just want to work hard

Thursday was also another great workday and on top of it our zone leaders came out and interviewed our baptismal candidates and they both passed so we were really happy. Friday again was much the same. in the morning we went to a little village just outside of abakrampa about the size of nyenasi. We were walking on the road and a guy with a big pickup truck stopped and offered us a ride so we hopped in the back and it was a nice little ride. i havent ridden in a truck like that in a long time!

Saturday was probably the busiest day of the week. We went to another area in the district in the morning to go help a companionship solve some problems they were having. In the end it all boiled down to communication. lack of communication. Communication is so important and when we fail to communicate it can cause some really big problems. so i chatted with each of them and they promised to work on it and as of right now they are way happy. so we came back after that and taught a couple really awesome lessons then in the after noon we went with our baptismal candidates and  a few members to the chapel in yamoransa and had a baptism! it was so great! elder Adjavon did the baptizing and it was a sweet experience. Sister Susanna and Wisdom were both baptized and they were both extatic about it. the lord is helping us so much! Also in the course of satruday we went to a funeral for on of our investigators. his mom passed away. but the thing about funerals is that they are just huge parties! they gave us some sprite to drink and then after we finished with that they brought us some vodka! hahaha we thanked them and said we had to leave and we got out pretty quick. so yeah quite the day.

Sunday again was the best day of the week. Church was wonderful and we had quite a few people come. After church we had some really nice lessons. Heavenly father really guided us, we had 3 lessons fall through but thanks to the spirit we found ourselves filling the time with other lessons with other people that were all great. Fasting was also great! i really feel like when we fast our spirit gets to go to an all you can eat buffet and just chow down. i love it! so yeah sunday was great

Today has been nice, we went as a zone to the Elmina Castle Its the oldest  and largest slave castle in all of Africa and it was cool to see. it was just like cape coast with much the same story but its a huge piece of history. this castle is one of the main reasons we have african americans today. this is where they all came from. so yeah pretty huge. but everything is going great and im loving mission a lot! its hard to believe a year has gone by!!!! i hope i can work even harder this year and become what the lord really wants me to become.
thats me for the week! i hope you all have a great one! keep having fun and i will talk to you soon! i love you!!!

love, Elder Bradley McGuire




March 31, 2014
Dear Family,

Another sweet week! hahaha. okay so for your questions. Im in a branch of about 300 members with about 60-80 who regularly come. luckily they all understand doctrine and most of them speak english. the challenge here is meetings and activities. and as always tons of less actives so we have our work cut out for us. my new area, called Abakrampa, is about 20 minutes outside of cape coast. its about 3 times the size of nyenasi and is a bit more of a town than a city. Everything is great here though and im really happy. I forgot what it was like to be in a big area. Tarkwa was Huge and Nyenasi was tiny so between the too i got mixed up. ive been sore because we walk a lot more than in nyenasi. In the village when we would walk around all day we would never get very far because there wasnt many places to go to haha. here we have places to go:)

The work here is going really well. We have a lot of progressing investigators who are really close to baptism. we should have at least 2 maybe 3 this weekend so we are working really hard and we are stoked for them. My companion and i are having a lot of fun and we are getting to know each other a lot better. i am still getting to know the area and the members but hopefully soon ill have it down. Being district leader has been fun so far. in my first instruction last tuesday i talked about humility. The lord really helped me a lot and we had a very powerful lesson. Everyone participated and we learned a lot from each other. im hoping i can keep going with that. Our big struggle in our area and the district is getting member present lessons. Working with members is so important out here because it is way more effective! so we are all working to do better on that.

On Friday this week we had some interesting things happen. Firstly our power box was sparking so our power went out and it was down all day. secondly WE had some people form the environmental health and sanitation board come to our apartment. We have a big hole behind our apartment where all of our water drains too and they told us its against health code and as a result we were being sent to court to pay a big fine. they didnt give us any warning or anything just sending us directly to court. This was frustrating because our apartment is part of a big compound of apartments and we are renting. But our land lord wasnt home so they were blaming it all on us. so we went to the city building to talk it over with them and how they needed to give us a warning and time to fix it before they take us to court. They knew that they were wrong but they said they wouldnt take away the court summons until we bribed them ( they didnt actually say that since its illegal but its what they wanted) when i refused to bribe them they got mad and i did too so we just left. we walked around for a while because i was furious so i had to cool off. but then we got back to work and had a great day. LAter that night our land lord came home and said he would take care of everything. he also had an electrician come and fix our power so we were very grateful.

Saturday was a great day we taught some nice lessons in the morning then in the afternoon we played football with the youth and cleaned the church for an activity. it was great and we had a lot of referrals come. After that we went to an old woman in the branch and helped here to clear out her yard. she had a bunch of dead banana trees and leaves everywhere so we worked for a while. this woman is also the mother of our branch mission leader so after we were done we had a meeting with him to talk about the missionary work and how he could help us more.

As always i love sundays. Just being able to take the sacrament is a great blessing and i love being able to participate every sunday. After church we had great lessons and things just were really good. today has been nice, weve washed and now were gonna go shopping and go home. im also getting my bday package today so i am really excited!!!!!

Im glad to hear that everyone is happy and doing well at home. please keep going! have fun!!! its okay to have fun(in the right way)! President shulz always tells us if we are not having some fun during the work then we are doing it wrong. and i know that to be true. it makes everything so enjoyable! i love you all so much! have a great week!

love, Bradley

Short and Sweet!

So, Elder McGuire is leaving Nyenasi today, so his email is only about 3 paragraphs long! I feel totally jipped!!! But here it is anyway.

Hey Family!!!

it sounds like life is just a rollercoaster at home with everything going on. between people being sick and prestons wonderful escapades(Preston accidentally broke the oven door) you guys never have a dull moment!!!! ive had quite the week with transfers so ill try to get it all in!

On tuesday after district meeting i spent the day saying goodbye to everyone in nyenasi. it was so hard i have mad so many close friends and i am going to miss everyone! that night a bunch of members came to the church and threw a party for me because i was leaving. a lot of  people were crying and it was hitting me pretty hard...i was leaving! all of the crazy things that had happened to me and the experiences i had have made this little village my home and now im gone!

So wednesday we woke up and left with my bags. 3 of us in the zone got transferred so we met in praso and left for cape. i had to say goodbye to bannerman right there. im gonna miss that guy. he was crazy and wierd but i loved him. so i met my new companion elder ADjavon in Cape coast and we got a taxi to our area. its about 30 minutes outside of cape in a smallish town. aba krampa is way bigger than nyenasi, with paved roads, cell phone service, and water that comes out of a pipe! its worlds away from nyenasi.

Being district leader is much the same as it was when i first was called but now i feel much more qualified for it haha. on thursday i had to go to another area in the district to do a baptismal interview, so it started right out the gate! but splits was way fun i got to know a lot of the elders in the district. all of the elders in the district have been out 7 months or less so that makes me the oldest in the district which is a little weird but its fun!

So friday, saturday, and sunday was spent doing service and getting to know the people, the area and my companion. that is another hard thing about transfers. leaving a place you know so well to a place where everything is different. but im working at it and things are going good! my favorite day was sunday because i really got to meet a lot of members and get to know a lot of people. ive realized as you move from area to area its the members that make you feel at home. the members are great here and i already feel a bit more comfortable than normal. but the work continues!

today we came together as a district and played some soccer to get to know each other and we had some fun! now were emailing and heading home! sorry its so short this week we gotta get going! but next week im promising big emails and pictures!!! for reals this time!!!! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!!!

love, Elder McGuire

Last Week in Nyenasi

Sounds like a good and sad last week in Nyenasi! It's always hard to say goodbye to the people who you love and care for. So far, Elder McGuire has served in two areas in Ghana. And, as always, he's still smiling!

Dear family!!

Wow so much news!!!!! that is so awesome about krissy and i know she is going exactly where the lord needs here! shes not the only one moving! im getting transferred tomorrow! im going to a village down in cape coast called aba krampa. im gonna be with a Ghanaian named elder Adjovan. He is cool and ive met him before. I am also going to be the district leader too! im happy because last time i didnt feel like i did a very good job so this is my second chance:)

This week was awesome for me! im sorry i dont have much time but ill try to get everything! So on tuesday morning we helped a guy rip out all of the cabinets in our kitchen. they are going to replace them to try and get rid of the rats. when we pulled out the cabinets we found 10 dead rats rotting. they had all died from the fumigation a couple weeks ago and they were smelly! later that day a little kid told me he had something special that he wanted me to buy from him. i asked him what it was and he pulled a tortise out of his bag! so of course i bought it! he told me how to cook it, and me and elder bannerman brought it home and cooked it over a fire! haha it was sweet! and yes it actually tasted good! we ate it with rice and mushrooms. it was sweet! i know im crazy!

wednesday we had a missionary fireside for all the members and they came and were able to ask questions about anything they wanted. we had the Schiffmans come over and help us out and it went really really well. we taught the members how to share the gospel with their friends. after we were done we grabbed a couple things and the schiffmans took us to praso. they took us to their house and made us dinner and it was sooo goood! then that night we stayed with the elders in praso.

Thursday we woke up in the morning and all went down to cape coast. Elder Vinson of the quorum of the seventy came and he instructed us all about our purpose of missionaries and about working better with the members. it was sooo incredible and i learned a lot! i cant wait to study more about what he taught us.

Friday was an amazing proselyting day. we taught a ton of lessons. studies were amazing and we just had fun being missionaries. when we came home we found a spider in one of my shoes that was as big as my palm and im not exxagerating this time. it was huge! easily the biggest one ive seen out here!

Saturday we woke up in the morning and had a program with the young men. We played soccer and it was soo much fun! they all showed up an hour late but we were still able to play a couple matches. After the games we were super tired but happy. we had 3 nonmembers come and hopefully they will bear fruit soon. Saturday we also found out about transfers so we were freaking out about all of that.

Sunday was a good one for the last i will have in nyenasi. Church was great and the lessons were awesome. the whole day was full of goodbyes to everyone. the same yesterday too. its always so hard to leave the people you grow to know and love. but they will always be in my heart.

I promise im a good missionary and we have been proselyting in between all of this other stuff and we have been making great progress with people. we have 2 young men preparing for baptism at the end of the month and many others coming along. Elder bannerman has his work cut out for him here!

the answer to the movie quote! Hercules! i quote it everytime we fill up our tank from the well! hahaha.yes preston does sound like someone we all used to know;) hopefully he will be a little smarter than that other kid;) thanks for the package! i cant wait to get it! sorry my time is going! but ill email you next week and hopefully some pics will be with it!

i love you all so much!

love, Bradley

Farming, Hornets, and Searching for Souls

Sounds like another fun week!!! Elder McGuire has the best attitude about it all!

Hi Everyone!

Im glad to hear that everyone is doing so well! the basement looks great! im not even gonna recognize our house when i get home! hahaha but im glad that everyone is happy!

I guess you could call this week our week of service. We went to farm 3 times this week and helped a lot of people in other small ways too! One of the days we went to farm we were planting corn with a member and that was pretty fun. We were planting and the member we were helping kept telling elder bannerman that he was doing it wrong even though he was fine. then he started talking about how he was amazed that a white guy knew how to plant corn! hahaha it was hilarious! elder bannerman kept getting annoyed though so i had to come up with and excuse to leave so no problems would come;) hahaha

Another day we went we were weeding a big bush and all the sudden i had hornets all around me! i had weeded into a hornets hive! i got stung like 9 times and i was running and screaming the whole way! hahaha it was actually pretty funny! i threw my cutlass and gloves and jumped around. needless to say my companion was laughing.

Thursday was Ghana's Independence day and its a big thing here. All of the schools go to the town football field and they march in this military parade type thing. it was actually pretty cool so we went and watched it for a while. also on thursday we also had a great lesson with one of our investigators. Her name is Tina and we've been working with her for a while she has been struggling lately so we did our best to help her find her desires. halfway through the lesson one of our members randomly showed up. and helped us to finish the lesson. We had no idea but the member that showed up is good friends with tina and he helped us a lot. hopefully we will be able to give tina a baptismal date soon.

Today we came down to cape coast and we took a tour of the castle! hopefully i will be able to send pictures!!!:/ Right now we are working with a lot of new investigators and we are still trying to figure out who to continue working with and who to drop. A lot of people out here at first seem so happy and so accepting
but after a couple visits you realize they are not serious at all so we are just praying for the gift of discernment so we can get into things deep with people.

everything is going great for us out here and we are having fun! transfers are coming up next week and i think im going to be leaving but i guess we will see! sorry this is short but the pictures will add a lot! i love you all family!!

love,Bradley

P.S. Sorry we were in cape and the power went out! no pics:( i promise soon!

Bit by a RAT!!!

Another crazy week in Ghana!!! And yes, he was bit by a rat! But that whole part about rabies shots is a joke, and NO, he is not coming home because of it!!! :)


Hey Everyone!!

It sounds like everyone is soo busy! im sure it is keeping things interesting for you guys. I cant believe you're ripping out the basement bathroom!!! thats awesome!!!!!!! hahaha i laughed so hard when you said laron built things to stay! hahaha. the rain sounds nice, its been hot here as usual but things have really dried out. ITs not humid like it used to be so it actually kinda feels like home a bit but still hot and dusty! but im used to it so its not a big deal:)

This week we were all over the place! we had some pretty crazy stuff happen haha so here we go!

So first off on tuesday interviews with president were Awesome! then we were also instructed on how to incorporate family history into our early lessons with our investigators. Did you know a recent convert can go to the temple 6 weeks after they are baptized and do baptisms for the dead?! haha i sure didnt! so now when we prepare investigators for baptism we have them prepare names to take to the temple so as soon as they can, they can also go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead for their own family members. How awesome is that?? in the instruction they told us in 2003 the total church membership was 6 million with 4 million active. In 2013 we had 15 million members with only 5 million active. So to help the active number increase we are really working hard on getting people to the temple to help them have a lasting conversion.

When we came home on tuesday night from proselyting we walked into our kitchen and there were 4 rats on our counters. . This isnt new, it happens often. So elder Bannerman and i did our best to catch them like usual. I cornered one and blocked the exits with my hands. The rat didnt care and ran right into my hand. So i grabbed it quickly to throw it on the ground and kill it. When i grabbed it, it bit me! nothing big, just like i had been pricked by a needle so i threw it and it died. hahaha cool story right?
wait..it gets better!;)
The next morning we went and farmed with the 2nd counselor in the Branch presidency then came home, showered, studied, and left. I decided i ought to call Sis. Shulz to see if i needed to do anything about the bite. So i called and explained and the both of us werent too worried. But she called the area doctor just to make sure. She called me back a little nervously to tell me that i had to take some meds and maybe get a series of rabies shots. He had to call Salt Lake to find out. Now here is the bight part. No one in Accra could do the vaccination so if no one in cape coast could do it i would have had to come home!!!!!!!! yeah crazy! haha now you know i havent called to tell you anything yet but.....hahaha just kidding!!!! im not going
anywhere!! i just have to take some anti bacterial meds and itll all be fine! but yeah quite the adventure!
Because of this little incident on thursday a guy came and fumigated our apartment and we are going to get new cabinets soon too so yay! Because of the fumigation we had to spend the night in praso but we were back here by friday morning. So those were my crazy experiences this week! haha

As far as Actual missionary work goes we werent able to have as many lessons this week as we have been having but we were still able to get a lot done! we found some new investigators and prepared 2 people for
baptism. Edwards Son Elijah was already ready but because of what happened last week we were doing his baptism this week. So along with Elijah we also had a young girl named Salomey, she is thirteen and in a part member family. She has been coming since she was a little girl but was never baptized so we were happy to be able to work with her! So on saturday afternoon we had their baptisms and everything went great! we had a member of the branch presidency come and Edward baptized his son and Salomey. the lord is blessing us so much to be able to be part of this work here in Nyenasi. On sunday we had their Confirmations and it was amazing. The glow in their smiles lit up the entire chapel. everyone was behind them to supporting them the whole way. our members are getting better and better every week at helping in the work and it is really helping us!

So thats the week! i hope i didnt scare you guys too much! hahaha but really this work is amazing and the lord is protecting me. i am so greatful for all of your prayers and support! i couldnt do it with out you! because of you i can say I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! i love you all so much! have a great week!!

Love, Elder Bradley McGuire

P.S. yes i could bake a cake. no we dont have ovens but im resourceful like lynett said:) hahahaha!

A Week of Ups and Downs

Sounds like a week in the mission field. Hard, but incredible!

Dear family!

This week was really good. Frustrating at some parts and amazing at others. But i guess the only way we can have amazing experiences is to have some bummers too. Sit it is all sweet in the work. Wednesday this week we had one of our Zone leaders come with Elder Bannerman and I in a three sum and it was a lot of fun. He is from New Zealand and is a sweet guy. He helped us with a few ideas to be more effective in working with our members. He also interviewed Elijah (edwards son) for baptism and that went great.

Thursday was super hot and humid. it has been all week but thursday especially. it made lessons hard cuz you would sit down and get too warm and it make us a little bit out of it and it made it really hard to teach. Despite the heat we had some great lessons. That night we had an activity for all priesthood holders in the branch. We taught them all about the sacrament, its importance, and how to perform our duties in the course of administering it. IT went really well, the Schiffmans came and helped out with teaching and it was great. The reason we did it is because we have a lot of priesthood holders who were never taught what to do. On top of it all Sis. Schiffman made us Banana Bread muffins!!!! they were soo good! SO it was sweet literally
and spiritually:)

I guess the lord was giving us such a nice day because he knew the next day was gonna be like haha. Everything fell through even a lot of our preparations for the baptism this week were becoming shaky, we even went so far as to call the DL and cancel but he advised us to try despite difficulties. Saturday was much the same as friday. The Baptism actually didnt happen because people werent ready in time and things just didnt feel right so we pushed it to next week. So with this and other things that happened i was prompted to have thoughts that the world was against us, that no body cared about our work, and that it was pointless. then i realized those are all lies coming from the father of all lies. The truth is we have an incredible Heavenly
Father who wants what is best for us and will take time to teach us important lessons.so....Im learning!! hahah the day ended great though, we had a young mens activity and played games. 20 minutes into it the power went out!! but we had our flash lights and still had some fun.

Sunday was leaps and bounds better and made up for the hard the previous 2 days. We had great church attendance between members and investigators. lessons were great and we just had a great Sabbath day.

Monday the power was out all day long so we couldnt come email, we washed and played some games and relaxed and made up for lost sleep. but was nice.

Everything is amazing as usual! surprise surprise right? hahaha the lord is really looking out for us here and we are working our hardest to help the work move foreward! Anyay i hope you guys all have a great
week! i love you!

love, Bradley

Killing Snakes and Eating Cats: This is Africa!

Well, as you can tell from the heading, this was one crazy week for Elder McGuire! So, Read all about it!!! :)

Hey Family,

So ive decided im going to stop trying to keep track of time because it keeps flying by! the days and weeks and months are just a big blurr now. But the work is still incredible!

I got the package on tuesday this week so elder bannerman and i have been having like a couple pieces every day and its been amazing thankyou so much!!! kate and nate did great in their cd too!!!! i loved it!!! thankyou so much for the support! hahaha here Valentines day is pretty big and its called Chocolate day! so everyone says Happy Chocolate day! it was funny to hear.

So ive realized the way ive been writing my emails has been kinda boring so im gonna try and change things up a little bit and talk about the big stuff. So first big thing. On Wednesday we went to see one of our recently baptized converts. he was bent over his well with a long stick and he kept shoving it in and out. we asked him what he was doing and he said that there was a snake in his well and they were trying to shove it into the water and drown it so they could then bring it out. Lets just say it wasnt going so well for him. the water was like 20 feet down so it was hard to see down there. so elder bannerman and i decided to help. On the end of the stick was a nail sticking out at a 45 degree angle and thats what he was pushing with. Rather than push i took the stick and picked up the snake and i slowly raised it out of the well. In the meantime everyone started freaking
out and grabbing things to hit it with when i brought it up. On guy even grabbed a huge log! i was laughing so hard! Elder bannerman grabbed a machete and as i lifted it out he cut its head off and that was the end of it. So simple but everyone was super scared and it was hilarious! idk what kind of snake it was but it was about 7 feet long so pretty decent size;)

Next interesting experience. (Reader Discretion Advised) hahahahahaha! On Saturday morning we went to our first lesson and our investigator was throwing dried pieces of fish on the ground. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was trying lure his cat. Eventually it came. So we then watched him and his son grab it and shove it into sack. then his son walked off the porch and around the house......we dont know what happend next but we heard 3 super loud bangs against the house wall and that was it....yeah they killed it. kindof an
interesting pause in the lesson. so the rest of the lesson went well and then he invited us over for dinner that night. so a few hours later......hahaha we came back and had fufu and elder bannerman and i each had a cat leg in our soup and it was SOOOOOO GOOOD! yes i said it I ATE CAT!!!! and it was Delicious!!!! hahaha im sorry to anyone who reads this and likes cats....i like them too....;)hahhahha

Alright on to bigger and better things. SO our investigators are all doing really great! we have 1 baptism coming up this weekend and 5 more people with baptismal dates within the next month so we have our work cut out for us. We have also been working with a lot of our recent converts to prepare them for receiving the priesthood and callings. I have also really been loving studying lately. For a long time on my mission i didnt use a study journal, but in the last 3 months i started and it has helped me so much! i am becoming way more effective in my study and im learning tons! there is sooooo much to be learned and sooo much i can improve on! thankfully with the support of an amazing family and my heavenly father i am absolutely loving my mission!

Today has been great. we woke up and came to praso and we did a service project as a zone. WE helped a member move some dirt and sand for the foundation of her new home. there were 12 of us and we did some good work. but in that i want to say a big thankyou to dad for teaching me how to use a shovel!!!! its the most effective tool in the world! and apparently not too many people know how to use one! hahaha but we did some good work and had some fun!

im glad to hear that everyone is keeping their spirits up and having a good time. I bet the long weekend was nice. anyway family, i love you all and i hope you have an amazing week!!!!! i love you!

love, Elder Bradley McGuire

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