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
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
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
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
Monday, March 10, 2014
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!
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!
Monday, March 3, 2014
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!
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!
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