Dear Everyone,
Thank you for all the support!!
Monday, March 30, 2015
Little Update!
Monday, March 23, 2015
Highs and Lows!! But still a great week!!!!
Dear Family,
This week was....all over the place!!! ill get the highs and the lows.
we'll start with the lows. hahaha so on monday evening our bishop
called us and told us his wife had made fufu for us!!! we were so
stoked!!!( that was a high) so we came and ate and ate and ate till we
couldnt eat anymore. around 2am that night my companion and i both
started....running;) hahaha on and off the whole night into the
morning and throught the day. im sure i lost 15 pounds in one day!!!!
we had some nice food poisoning. but dont worry by night time it was
gone and we were back to normal. hahaha we have been a little leery of
food offered to us by members since then. but we are fine and good
now. the big bummer was that zone conference was on tuesday so every
5 minutes while president stevenson, the assistants, and the zone
leaders were instructing we were in and out. eventually we started
just sitting next to the door so we wouldnt disturb anything as we
moved. so that was our big adventure this week. the little of zone
conference we did hear was great though!!!
As for our proselyting this week some days everything fell through.
and other days things went exactly as planned. just wish it was more
consistently going as planned.
The other big thing this week was our Stake Conference. Takoradi!! it
was great!! our stake is huge!!! we have 2 zones of missionaries in
this 1 stake and it made it up to be quite the gathering. At the stake
center we filled every classroom hallway and then even sat outside
near the windows to hear the speakers all of the missionaries stood
around the edge so people would have places to sit. hahaha we felt
like ushers or something it was great though. we had some
investigators come and they said that the really enjoyed. it.
Things are so sweet here and im just doing my best to enjoy every
minute of it!! i hope you guys have a great week and ill see you all
soon!!! i love you!!
love,
Elder McGuire
This week was....all over the place!!! ill get the highs and the lows.
we'll start with the lows. hahaha so on monday evening our bishop
called us and told us his wife had made fufu for us!!! we were so
stoked!!!( that was a high) so we came and ate and ate and ate till we
couldnt eat anymore. around 2am that night my companion and i both
started....running;) hahaha on and off the whole night into the
morning and throught the day. im sure i lost 15 pounds in one day!!!!
we had some nice food poisoning. but dont worry by night time it was
gone and we were back to normal. hahaha we have been a little leery of
food offered to us by members since then. but we are fine and good
now. the big bummer was that zone conference was on tuesday so every
5 minutes while president stevenson, the assistants, and the zone
leaders were instructing we were in and out. eventually we started
just sitting next to the door so we wouldnt disturb anything as we
moved. so that was our big adventure this week. the little of zone
conference we did hear was great though!!!
As for our proselyting this week some days everything fell through.
and other days things went exactly as planned. just wish it was more
consistently going as planned.
The other big thing this week was our Stake Conference. Takoradi!! it
was great!! our stake is huge!!! we have 2 zones of missionaries in
this 1 stake and it made it up to be quite the gathering. At the stake
center we filled every classroom hallway and then even sat outside
near the windows to hear the speakers all of the missionaries stood
around the edge so people would have places to sit. hahaha we felt
like ushers or something it was great though. we had some
investigators come and they said that the really enjoyed. it.
Things are so sweet here and im just doing my best to enjoy every
minute of it!! i hope you guys have a great week and ill see you all
soon!!! i love you!!
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, March 16, 2015
Spring is Here!!
Dear Family,
Another sweet week here in Apowa!!!! a lot of great things happened
and ill try and get em all in.
So first things first we had Elder Dube of the Seventy came to our
mission for a mission tour so on wednesday all of the missionaries in
western region all came together to be instructed by him. He talked
about a lot of things but the biggest thing he emphasized on was
working with the members. He spoke about how if we want the work to
accelerate the way its supposed to then thats how we will do it. so
that was a great opportunity to be instructed by a general authority.
Another great thing that is going on is our work with Redeemer. This
week we have been reading the book of mormon with him and he is loving
it so much!! his testimony is growing so strong and we pray he acts on
it. Also personally i have been studying the Book of Mormon and it has
been so amazing!!! i love it so much!!! I recently read Chapter 26 of
Alma and it is where Ammon and the sons of Mosiah are gathered
together just talking among themselves as they are preparing to return
to Zarahemla. It made the idea of going home very real to me all of
the sudden. I know i havent been as successful as those missionaries
but i do feel good about the service that i have been able to give. my
only wish was that i might have improved faster but im taking it in
stride and doing my best to become the person Heavenly Father wants me
to be.
We also were able to extend a baptismal date to a new investigator
named Justice this week. He has come to church twice and has decided
that he wants to join. hahaha we told him we had to take some time and
explain some more things to him before he would be read but he is
excited and working towards his date in April.
Everything else is just normal and amazing like missionary work is! im
loving every second of it and doing my best to enjoy every last
minute! i love you all!!
love,
Elder McGuire
Another sweet week here in Apowa!!!! a lot of great things happened
and ill try and get em all in.
So first things first we had Elder Dube of the Seventy came to our
mission for a mission tour so on wednesday all of the missionaries in
western region all came together to be instructed by him. He talked
about a lot of things but the biggest thing he emphasized on was
working with the members. He spoke about how if we want the work to
accelerate the way its supposed to then thats how we will do it. so
that was a great opportunity to be instructed by a general authority.
Another great thing that is going on is our work with Redeemer. This
week we have been reading the book of mormon with him and he is loving
it so much!! his testimony is growing so strong and we pray he acts on
it. Also personally i have been studying the Book of Mormon and it has
been so amazing!!! i love it so much!!! I recently read Chapter 26 of
Alma and it is where Ammon and the sons of Mosiah are gathered
together just talking among themselves as they are preparing to return
to Zarahemla. It made the idea of going home very real to me all of
the sudden. I know i havent been as successful as those missionaries
but i do feel good about the service that i have been able to give. my
only wish was that i might have improved faster but im taking it in
stride and doing my best to become the person Heavenly Father wants me
to be.
We also were able to extend a baptismal date to a new investigator
named Justice this week. He has come to church twice and has decided
that he wants to join. hahaha we told him we had to take some time and
explain some more things to him before he would be read but he is
excited and working towards his date in April.
Everything else is just normal and amazing like missionary work is! im
loving every second of it and doing my best to enjoy every last
minute! i love you all!!
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, March 9, 2015
A Week of Surprises!
Dear Family,
My week has been great and it sounds like you guys had a good one too.
my week was up down and all around so here it goes!!
This week another week of surprises for us here in Apowa, Alex
(recent convert), is struggling with his activity right now, he is
under a financial bind of sorts and so he often misses church to work
and make money. he has been coming though and is scheduled to give a
talk this coming Sunday. His Wife Hannah has another story entirely.
For her she had a visit from her mother a few weeks ago and her mother
is avid Roman Catholic and when she returned to find her daughter had
joined another church she was not happy at all. She told Hannah she
had to go to Roman Catholic, to add to it many people in her compound
have been gossiping a lot about the church and all this pressure and
tension finally came out on us this week. We went to visit her to
check on her as usual and this time as we entered the compound she
just came over and told us that we should never come back and that we
had deceived her and a whole lot of other things that werent nice to
hear. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to
me so it was quite a shock. I've never had a recent convert lash out
like that. It didnt feel good. Its sad that she has been confused by
things that others have been saying. My companion and i have asked
ourselves multiple times over the last few days if it was our fault?
we taught her as best as we knew how, as we taught we could feel the
spirit, she showed the desire by coming to church, she read the Book
of Mormon with her husband and she would pray about it regularly. she
would always say she knew it was true but all of the sudden its
different now. Its been a blow to both of us but we are doing our best
to overcome this and do whatever we can as guided by the spirit in
helping her to come back.
On a much more positive note our convert that was baptized last sunday
was Confirmed this week and it was great. She had her Grandfather
perform the ordinance and she was all smiles afterwards. Ruth is a
sweet spirit and she loves doing missionary work as well. she asks for
Pamphlets every week and gives them out to her friends.
Also this week it was once again super hot!!! just like mom said im
melting out here!!! but its helping my tan;) im gonna look like a
ghanaian farm boy when i get home hahaha! Sunday really was the best
day of the week this week. we had 4 investigators come to church and
they are all awesome! people are starting to progress now and its
sweet!!! this work is so awesome and i am loving every second of it!!!
i hope things keep going well at home!!! have a great week!! love you!!
love,
Elder McGuire
My week has been great and it sounds like you guys had a good one too.
my week was up down and all around so here it goes!!
This week another week of surprises for us here in Apowa, Alex
(recent convert), is struggling with his activity right now, he is
under a financial bind of sorts and so he often misses church to work
and make money. he has been coming though and is scheduled to give a
talk this coming Sunday. His Wife Hannah has another story entirely.
For her she had a visit from her mother a few weeks ago and her mother
is avid Roman Catholic and when she returned to find her daughter had
joined another church she was not happy at all. She told Hannah she
had to go to Roman Catholic, to add to it many people in her compound
have been gossiping a lot about the church and all this pressure and
tension finally came out on us this week. We went to visit her to
check on her as usual and this time as we entered the compound she
just came over and told us that we should never come back and that we
had deceived her and a whole lot of other things that werent nice to
hear. This is the first time something like this has ever happened to
me so it was quite a shock. I've never had a recent convert lash out
like that. It didnt feel good. Its sad that she has been confused by
things that others have been saying. My companion and i have asked
ourselves multiple times over the last few days if it was our fault?
we taught her as best as we knew how, as we taught we could feel the
spirit, she showed the desire by coming to church, she read the Book
of Mormon with her husband and she would pray about it regularly. she
would always say she knew it was true but all of the sudden its
different now. Its been a blow to both of us but we are doing our best
to overcome this and do whatever we can as guided by the spirit in
helping her to come back.
On a much more positive note our convert that was baptized last sunday
was Confirmed this week and it was great. She had her Grandfather
perform the ordinance and she was all smiles afterwards. Ruth is a
sweet spirit and she loves doing missionary work as well. she asks for
Pamphlets every week and gives them out to her friends.
Also this week it was once again super hot!!! just like mom said im
melting out here!!! but its helping my tan;) im gonna look like a
ghanaian farm boy when i get home hahaha! Sunday really was the best
day of the week this week. we had 4 investigators come to church and
they are all awesome! people are starting to progress now and its
sweet!!! this work is so awesome and i am loving every second of it!!!
i hope things keep going well at home!!! have a great week!! love you!!
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, March 2, 2015
Happy March 1st!! And Pictures!!
Dear Family,
Well first off thats a huge bummer that Gus died! he was the best dog!
he helped me a lot when we first got him. Goodbye Gus! Its good to
hear that everyone is doing good though.
Its been another great week out here in Apowa. we had some amazing
experiences this week and i want to share a few of them with you. We
have an investigator, Brother Redeemer, who we have been working with
for a little while now. We have taught him most of the lessons and he
has received them very well, he has kept all of his commitments except
for coming to church. Although he has only committed to that once.
This week i think he was finally backed up against the wall of faith.
We read Matthew 6 with him and spoke to him about the importance of
prayer. He really loved the lesson but at the end he was very quiet.
We asked him what he was thinking about and he said "i love what we
just learned.....and it is in direct opposition to what we do in my
church." We committed him to pray about it and we are very anxious to
see what he decides. He is finally realize he can no longer sit on the
fence he either has to commit and come or he has to kick against the
pricks. We are praying for him.
This week we also had a wonderful baptism. Her name is sister Ruth,
she is 12 years old and is very smart. Her Grandparents are taking
care of her and she has been coming to church for 3 years now. she
should have been baptized long ago but for one reason or another she
was not. It was great to be able to work with her and to help her
understand the gospel better. When it was time for the ordinance she
was so excited. Another great aspect of her baptism was that one of
our recent converts (Enoch) performed the baptism. It was a growing
experience for everyone.
On tuesday i woke up and i was just tired!!! just totally and utterly
drained, even though i got a full sleep i had no steam. i woke up and
studied and did my best to stay awake. then we went out proselyting.
honestly i dont know how i did it but we made it through the whole day
and it was a busy one. the only explanation i have for the strength i
seemed to pull from places beyond me was the sustaining hand of
Heavenly Father. he helped me make it through just like he always
does. Heavenly Father is always mindful of us.
Everything else that happened this week was pretty standard but all in
all it was great! . i hope you all have a great week!!! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Well first off thats a huge bummer that Gus died! he was the best dog!
he helped me a lot when we first got him. Goodbye Gus! Its good to
hear that everyone is doing good though.
Its been another great week out here in Apowa. we had some amazing
experiences this week and i want to share a few of them with you. We
have an investigator, Brother Redeemer, who we have been working with
for a little while now. We have taught him most of the lessons and he
has received them very well, he has kept all of his commitments except
for coming to church. Although he has only committed to that once.
This week i think he was finally backed up against the wall of faith.
We read Matthew 6 with him and spoke to him about the importance of
prayer. He really loved the lesson but at the end he was very quiet.
We asked him what he was thinking about and he said "i love what we
just learned.....and it is in direct opposition to what we do in my
church." We committed him to pray about it and we are very anxious to
see what he decides. He is finally realize he can no longer sit on the
fence he either has to commit and come or he has to kick against the
pricks. We are praying for him.
This week we also had a wonderful baptism. Her name is sister Ruth,
she is 12 years old and is very smart. Her Grandparents are taking
care of her and she has been coming to church for 3 years now. she
should have been baptized long ago but for one reason or another she
was not. It was great to be able to work with her and to help her
understand the gospel better. When it was time for the ordinance she
was so excited. Another great aspect of her baptism was that one of
our recent converts (Enoch) performed the baptism. It was a growing
experience for everyone.
On tuesday i woke up and i was just tired!!! just totally and utterly
drained, even though i got a full sleep i had no steam. i woke up and
studied and did my best to stay awake. then we went out proselyting.
honestly i dont know how i did it but we made it through the whole day
and it was a busy one. the only explanation i have for the strength i
seemed to pull from places beyond me was the sustaining hand of
Heavenly Father. he helped me make it through just like he always
does. Heavenly Father is always mindful of us.
Everything else that happened this week was pretty standard but all in
all it was great! . i hope you all have a great week!!! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Little Isaac in my sunglasses!
Using a dvd player, whoa!! Take that krissy!!! :P
Enoch and Ruth!
Baptism!
Ghanaian Stove!
....and Everyone!
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Another Great Week!!
Dear Family,
What a great week!!! it was just like last week!!! wouldnt ya know
it!!! hahaha i guess it wasnt all the same but all in all it was
good!!! Right now we have been working really closely with a young
girl named ruth she is 12 and has been coming to church for 3 years
with her grandparents but never was baptized. her parents relinquished
custody to the grandparents so they are the ones raising her now. she
is such a smart girl and should have been baptized a long time ago so
she is going to be baptized this coming sunday after church so we are
preparing for that.
this week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Redeemer and he
absolutlely loved it! he loves the church history. We are having a
great time teaching him but he is struggling with coming to church. he
is very deep into his faith and really loves his church but luckily
the truth helps people leave those things behind so we are praying for
him especially as he reads The Book of Mormon and prays about it.
We also started working with a new Family this week. we were on our
way to an activity at the church when we passed by this man and his
children i greeted him in the local language and he responded and then
asked who we were. we continued to converse in fante for a little
while then i ran out of fante so i started speaking english and he did
too. he was so happy that we could speak the language he asked about
the church and invited us to come and teach him. So we've met with him
a few times now and he is progressing we hope by next sunday he can
come to church with his wife and 3 children. i love families!!!
This week we had a great devotional in our branch. a member of the the
stake came and gave training on a program called MY PATH its a church
program that teaches people how to become self reliant which is a
challenge for a ton of people over here. we had a lot of our members
come so it was a great success. they are now offering courses to help
train our members and they are doing great! the church is so
incredible!!!! i know that its true with all my heart!!!
well thats the big stuff this week!! i hope you all have a great week
i love you!!!!
Elder McGuire
What a great week!!! it was just like last week!!! wouldnt ya know
it!!! hahaha i guess it wasnt all the same but all in all it was
good!!! Right now we have been working really closely with a young
girl named ruth she is 12 and has been coming to church for 3 years
with her grandparents but never was baptized. her parents relinquished
custody to the grandparents so they are the ones raising her now. she
is such a smart girl and should have been baptized a long time ago so
she is going to be baptized this coming sunday after church so we are
preparing for that.
this week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Redeemer and he
absolutlely loved it! he loves the church history. We are having a
great time teaching him but he is struggling with coming to church. he
is very deep into his faith and really loves his church but luckily
the truth helps people leave those things behind so we are praying for
him especially as he reads The Book of Mormon and prays about it.
We also started working with a new Family this week. we were on our
way to an activity at the church when we passed by this man and his
children i greeted him in the local language and he responded and then
asked who we were. we continued to converse in fante for a little
while then i ran out of fante so i started speaking english and he did
too. he was so happy that we could speak the language he asked about
the church and invited us to come and teach him. So we've met with him
a few times now and he is progressing we hope by next sunday he can
come to church with his wife and 3 children. i love families!!!
This week we had a great devotional in our branch. a member of the the
stake came and gave training on a program called MY PATH its a church
program that teaches people how to become self reliant which is a
challenge for a ton of people over here. we had a lot of our members
come so it was a great success. they are now offering courses to help
train our members and they are doing great! the church is so
incredible!!!! i know that its true with all my heart!!!
well thats the big stuff this week!! i hope you all have a great week
i love you!!!!
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 16, 2015
The Work Continues to Amaze!
Dear Family,
This week was another great week here in Apowa. Things are going well
and i am happy! especially to hear from my amazing family!!! Emailing
on mondays is still definitely a highlight in my week. Some
missionaries get bored of emailing after a while but not me!!!
This week started off with a great district meeting in takoradi. We
were combined with the other two districts in the zone to hear
instructions from the Julanders once again. It was a follow up on
their previous instruction. We talked a lot about setting goals and
making plans for the future. We spoke of selecting values and
principles that would govern our lives. so as i was going over my
notes i started looking at values for myself that i wanted to govern
my life and as i did so i would pick one i really really liked and
think about it for a while and then i would see another one and i
would also really really like it and before you know it every
Christlike attribute in Preach my gospel Jumped out onto my notes and
all of the sudden things became overwhelming. i had to stop and think
for a minute and remind myself that even Christ was not perfect at
first. He went from "Grace to Grace" so i reevaluated and the second
round was much better than the first. So it was a great instruction
and i really learned a lot and it has helped me to look ahead at the
coming months and years. Im excited!
This week many of our investigators made wonderful steps of
progression. This week we focused on the Plan of Salvation with
Redeemer and we had some great experiences with him. As we finished
the final part of the lesson where it speaks of the kingdoms of glory,
we also spoke of eternal families, temple work and the amazing
blessings of the atonement of Christ, he stopped talking and just put
his head in his hands. After a minute he lifted his head and said "I
need some quiet time with God" the spirit was strong and we could tell
that he was feeling some swelling motions in his heart. We knew it
because we could feel it too. We each bore our testimonies of the
gospel and its truth and invited him to continue in prayer and enjoy
his "Quiet time with God" so that he could sort out how he was
feeling. he is doing so well and we are planning to give him a
Baptismal date this week!
We were also blessed with some quality referrals and found some
promising new investigators. After teaching one brother named eric
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he asked a question about
infant baptism. We referred to Moroni 8 and he loved it. He was born
in the Catholic church so he was baptized as an infant but he didnt
think it was right. After he mentioned this he also said something i
thought was interesting he said "we are born in the faith of our
fathers and because we are young we accept and follow just like that
but once we really start to learn about the faith we profess to
believe so much we see that in reality we are lost...totally lost" its
so true! it reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants where it states
there are many kept from the truth because they "Know not where to
find it" or simply "they are lost" thats why i love this work so much
president. We get to go fishing! we get to search under the rocks and
in the holes in the ground. Being an ambassador for Christ is amazing.
Saturday night we went and got pizza!!!!! hahaha i havent had it in
over 6 months so it was a good preveiw;) So obviously im pretty happy
and im enjoying!!! today for an activity we went to the Julanders
house and we watched the Saratov Aproach! that movie is crazy!!! i
loved it!!!! i dont know how i would react if i got kidnapped like
that.....dont worry it wont happen!!! but anyway those are the
highlights of the week!! i hope you all have a great one!!! i love you
love,
Elder McGuire
This week was another great week here in Apowa. Things are going well
and i am happy! especially to hear from my amazing family!!! Emailing
on mondays is still definitely a highlight in my week. Some
missionaries get bored of emailing after a while but not me!!!
This week started off with a great district meeting in takoradi. We
were combined with the other two districts in the zone to hear
instructions from the Julanders once again. It was a follow up on
their previous instruction. We talked a lot about setting goals and
making plans for the future. We spoke of selecting values and
principles that would govern our lives. so as i was going over my
notes i started looking at values for myself that i wanted to govern
my life and as i did so i would pick one i really really liked and
think about it for a while and then i would see another one and i
would also really really like it and before you know it every
Christlike attribute in Preach my gospel Jumped out onto my notes and
all of the sudden things became overwhelming. i had to stop and think
for a minute and remind myself that even Christ was not perfect at
first. He went from "Grace to Grace" so i reevaluated and the second
round was much better than the first. So it was a great instruction
and i really learned a lot and it has helped me to look ahead at the
coming months and years. Im excited!
This week many of our investigators made wonderful steps of
progression. This week we focused on the Plan of Salvation with
Redeemer and we had some great experiences with him. As we finished
the final part of the lesson where it speaks of the kingdoms of glory,
we also spoke of eternal families, temple work and the amazing
blessings of the atonement of Christ, he stopped talking and just put
his head in his hands. After a minute he lifted his head and said "I
need some quiet time with God" the spirit was strong and we could tell
that he was feeling some swelling motions in his heart. We knew it
because we could feel it too. We each bore our testimonies of the
gospel and its truth and invited him to continue in prayer and enjoy
his "Quiet time with God" so that he could sort out how he was
feeling. he is doing so well and we are planning to give him a
Baptismal date this week!
We were also blessed with some quality referrals and found some
promising new investigators. After teaching one brother named eric
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he asked a question about
infant baptism. We referred to Moroni 8 and he loved it. He was born
in the Catholic church so he was baptized as an infant but he didnt
think it was right. After he mentioned this he also said something i
thought was interesting he said "we are born in the faith of our
fathers and because we are young we accept and follow just like that
but once we really start to learn about the faith we profess to
believe so much we see that in reality we are lost...totally lost" its
so true! it reminded me of the Doctrine and Covenants where it states
there are many kept from the truth because they "Know not where to
find it" or simply "they are lost" thats why i love this work so much
president. We get to go fishing! we get to search under the rocks and
in the holes in the ground. Being an ambassador for Christ is amazing.
Saturday night we went and got pizza!!!!! hahaha i havent had it in
over 6 months so it was a good preveiw;) So obviously im pretty happy
and im enjoying!!! today for an activity we went to the Julanders
house and we watched the Saratov Aproach! that movie is crazy!!! i
loved it!!!! i dont know how i would react if i got kidnapped like
that.....dont worry it wont happen!!! but anyway those are the
highlights of the week!! i hope you all have a great one!!! i love you
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, February 9, 2015
Another Great Week!!
Dear Family!!!
so i just spent 30 minutes writing an email to you and tried to send
it and it went away and so now im writing again!!!
im so excited that little benjamin has arrived safe and sound and that
he is healthy. I cant wait to come and see him soon!!!!
As for the work this week things are going well and i am happy. this
week was actually pretty slow for us and many of our lessons fell
through. so we ended up doing a lot of walking!! but through our
walking we found a lot of great people. 2 in particular are brother
Malone and Redeemer. we went to their house trying to contact a
referral but she wasnt there. Brother Malone and redeemer asked us who
we were and what we were doing so of course we jumped right in there
and explained and left pamphlets for them to read. When were passing
by the next day they called us over and asked us to explain so we
taught them and it was a pretty good lesson. they had understood the
pamphlet and asked great questions. As we continued to meet with them
throughout the week they continued to progress and they are loving the
lessons. the best part is the light is coming into their lives. its my
favorite part of missionary work to see the light coming.
We are also enjoying a nice schedule for our power. currently we are
having power for 12 hours and then none for 24! it makes keeping our
food good interesting so we are buying things we can prepare that we
dont really need to refrigerate
The missionary work is great and my companion and i are having a great
time in the work. i am loving every second of it and i am trying to
learn as much as i can!
im sorry its so short but my time is up i hope you all have a great
week!!! i love you!!!
love,
Elder Mcguire
so i just spent 30 minutes writing an email to you and tried to send
it and it went away and so now im writing again!!!
im so excited that little benjamin has arrived safe and sound and that
he is healthy. I cant wait to come and see him soon!!!!
As for the work this week things are going well and i am happy. this
week was actually pretty slow for us and many of our lessons fell
through. so we ended up doing a lot of walking!! but through our
walking we found a lot of great people. 2 in particular are brother
Malone and Redeemer. we went to their house trying to contact a
referral but she wasnt there. Brother Malone and redeemer asked us who
we were and what we were doing so of course we jumped right in there
and explained and left pamphlets for them to read. When were passing
by the next day they called us over and asked us to explain so we
taught them and it was a pretty good lesson. they had understood the
pamphlet and asked great questions. As we continued to meet with them
throughout the week they continued to progress and they are loving the
lessons. the best part is the light is coming into their lives. its my
favorite part of missionary work to see the light coming.
We are also enjoying a nice schedule for our power. currently we are
having power for 12 hours and then none for 24! it makes keeping our
food good interesting so we are buying things we can prepare that we
dont really need to refrigerate
The missionary work is great and my companion and i are having a great
time in the work. i am loving every second of it and i am trying to
learn as much as i can!
im sorry its so short but my time is up i hope you all have a great
week!!! i love you!!!
love,
Elder Mcguire
Monday, February 2, 2015
It's February!!! With Pictures!!!!!!
Dear Family,
Im so happy to hear about how good you are all doing!! i cant believe its February!!! it get scarier every week at thow fast time is moving. It just seems to be picking up speed with every week. This week was another good one though and ill see if i can hit the highlights.
we have a young man named robert that we have been teaching for a while now and he is great. This week he even came with us to teach people. On satufday he was baptized and sunday confirmed a member of the church and it was so awesome. He asked me to baptize him which just put a cherry on top of the whole thing, i havent had the opportunity in a a while to perform the ordinance so when he asked i was happy to do so. I am aamazed at just how much the gospel can change peoples lives!!! im so lucky to be sharing with wtih others here in Ghana.
There is another woman named Rosemond that we have been teaching foa whaile as well. Her story is a lil different though. She is young, smart and keeps almos all of her committments. She reads the Book of Mormon, She has prayed about it and she knwos its true too. But she just cant seem to come to church. When we asked her what her problem was she just told us that what we teach is nice but joining a church just isnt what she is focused on right now. She said ill come "one day, one day" (ghanas favorite response to an invite to church) we wish we could have seen it earlier,so now we are moving on to bigger and better things.
Friday we had interviews with president Stevensn and they were great. To be honest mine wasnt all that long.hahaha ithinks its because if he knows im hapy and doing my best then its all good. and it its! While we were being interviewd we were instructed by 2 district leaders,the assistants, and Sister Stevenson. All were great and i enjoyed them all. I also got to see some old friends from mission which was great too.
this week i started exercising seriously with another elder in my apartment who was a football/track/swim star at home. lets just say ive been walkinga bit slower these days! haha im so sore! i dont remember it being this hard! its okay though and im getting back intto the sweing of things.
Living in an apartment of 6 missionaries is much different than 2 and 4 man apartments. More drama for shure, but also more fun. We have had some adventures this week, The other night our shower fossit broke off the wall and was leaking bad. Everyone had all these extravagent ideas that we should shut off our water andjust fetch water till we got it fixed. That seemed like too much work for me so i just carveda cork out of wood and stopped the leak. it was funny because to some of the elders it just seemed too simple. but it worked! sometimes in life...well most of the time in life i feel like the simplest answer is the best!
so those are the highlights this week i hope you are all happy and continue to stay that way! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Im so happy to hear about how good you are all doing!! i cant believe its February!!! it get scarier every week at thow fast time is moving. It just seems to be picking up speed with every week. This week was another good one though and ill see if i can hit the highlights.
we have a young man named robert that we have been teaching for a while now and he is great. This week he even came with us to teach people. On satufday he was baptized and sunday confirmed a member of the church and it was so awesome. He asked me to baptize him which just put a cherry on top of the whole thing, i havent had the opportunity in a a while to perform the ordinance so when he asked i was happy to do so. I am aamazed at just how much the gospel can change peoples lives!!! im so lucky to be sharing with wtih others here in Ghana.
There is another woman named Rosemond that we have been teaching foa whaile as well. Her story is a lil different though. She is young, smart and keeps almos all of her committments. She reads the Book of Mormon, She has prayed about it and she knwos its true too. But she just cant seem to come to church. When we asked her what her problem was she just told us that what we teach is nice but joining a church just isnt what she is focused on right now. She said ill come "one day, one day" (ghanas favorite response to an invite to church) we wish we could have seen it earlier,so now we are moving on to bigger and better things.
Friday we had interviews with president Stevensn and they were great. To be honest mine wasnt all that long.hahaha ithinks its because if he knows im hapy and doing my best then its all good. and it its! While we were being interviewd we were instructed by 2 district leaders,the assistants, and Sister Stevenson. All were great and i enjoyed them all. I also got to see some old friends from mission which was great too.
this week i started exercising seriously with another elder in my apartment who was a football/track/swim star at home. lets just say ive been walkinga bit slower these days! haha im so sore! i dont remember it being this hard! its okay though and im getting back intto the sweing of things.
Living in an apartment of 6 missionaries is much different than 2 and 4 man apartments. More drama for shure, but also more fun. We have had some adventures this week, The other night our shower fossit broke off the wall and was leaking bad. Everyone had all these extravagent ideas that we should shut off our water andjust fetch water till we got it fixed. That seemed like too much work for me so i just carveda cork out of wood and stopped the leak. it was funny because to some of the elders it just seemed too simple. but it worked! sometimes in life...well most of the time in life i feel like the simplest answer is the best!
so those are the highlights this week i hope you are all happy and continue to stay that way! i love you!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Awesome African Sunset!!!!!!
Robert's Baptism!!
My "Ground Hog Feast"
Monday, January 26, 2015
Another Great Week!!
Dear Family,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
love,
Elder McGuire
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
love,
Elder McGuire
Monday, January 19, 2015
Happy Martin Luther King Day
Dear Family,
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.
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.
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!!
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!!!
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.
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!!!
love,
Bradley
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.
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.
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!!
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!!!
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.
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!!!
love,
Bradley
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 :(
Pipe where the water comes from
The Full Font!
Elder Ukaegbu, Enoch, Alex, Hannah, & me!
Monday, January 12, 2015
New Area!!! and he sent PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear family,
This week was a great week but a hard one. First things first i got my
Christmas package which was great!! thankyou so much for the things
you sent me they were much needed. hahaha i took out that new shirt
and compared it to my shirts right now and....lets just say my idea of
white was a little different, all my shirts looked yellow compared to
it! so thankyou!!! today i also got a package from Krissy and Shar so
i am a happy boy!! hahaha thank you all so much!!
Saying goodbye to everyone was so difficult, i absolutely love the
people in swedru and i will miss them a ton, so tuesday as full of
saying goodbyes and takin pictures of everyone. We also had a combined
district meeting and Elder Mngoma and i gave an instruction about
sacrifice and it went really well.
Wednesday i was gone by 8 am with the ivies going into cape coast,
while there i ran into some old friends on mission like Elder Keetch,
i was soo happy to see him and he looked great he is a zone leader and
he is headed up to the bush in praso! hahaha but anyway after a few
hours there i was on a tro with a bunch of other missionaries headed
to takoradi. When we arrived my companion was waiting for me and we
went to our apartment. im in a 6 man apartment and its big! i like it
though and the missionaries in it are sweet! Our area is pretty big
and a lot like my last one. The branch i am in is extremely new and
extremely small. There are some powerful members though and it is a
sweet place to work. Our church is small and our sacrament hall is
under a pavilion hahaha its sweet! we are proselyting in 2 areas and 1
of them is on the beach!!!:D i was so happy when i found out! ive
never proselyted in an area near the beach so i am happy about that
too. There are a lot of great investigators we are working with and we
are having some baptisms this weekend too.
Thursday friday saturday and sunday were all the same, work, work,
work!!! it has felt so strange because no one has called me about
problems in the zone or had to report numbers or baptisms or anything
to me. why? oh yeah! im a regular missionary!!! still getting used to
it but its good. it means i get to focus more on the people im working
with.
Mom if you come here you wont see any blue sky, it is Dry season, but
this year i think they should call it dust season because the air
quality is horrible!!! you can look at the sun all day if you want to
because the haze is so bad! the dust is making everyone sick so we are
being extra careful not to get anything.
Life is good and i hope you are all happy and have a great week! i love you!!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
This week was a great week but a hard one. First things first i got my
Christmas package which was great!! thankyou so much for the things
you sent me they were much needed. hahaha i took out that new shirt
and compared it to my shirts right now and....lets just say my idea of
white was a little different, all my shirts looked yellow compared to
it! so thankyou!!! today i also got a package from Krissy and Shar so
i am a happy boy!! hahaha thank you all so much!!
Saying goodbye to everyone was so difficult, i absolutely love the
people in swedru and i will miss them a ton, so tuesday as full of
saying goodbyes and takin pictures of everyone. We also had a combined
district meeting and Elder Mngoma and i gave an instruction about
sacrifice and it went really well.
Wednesday i was gone by 8 am with the ivies going into cape coast,
while there i ran into some old friends on mission like Elder Keetch,
i was soo happy to see him and he looked great he is a zone leader and
he is headed up to the bush in praso! hahaha but anyway after a few
hours there i was on a tro with a bunch of other missionaries headed
to takoradi. When we arrived my companion was waiting for me and we
went to our apartment. im in a 6 man apartment and its big! i like it
though and the missionaries in it are sweet! Our area is pretty big
and a lot like my last one. The branch i am in is extremely new and
extremely small. There are some powerful members though and it is a
sweet place to work. Our church is small and our sacrament hall is
under a pavilion hahaha its sweet! we are proselyting in 2 areas and 1
of them is on the beach!!!:D i was so happy when i found out! ive
never proselyted in an area near the beach so i am happy about that
too. There are a lot of great investigators we are working with and we
are having some baptisms this weekend too.
Thursday friday saturday and sunday were all the same, work, work,
work!!! it has felt so strange because no one has called me about
problems in the zone or had to report numbers or baptisms or anything
to me. why? oh yeah! im a regular missionary!!! still getting used to
it but its good. it means i get to focus more on the people im working
with.
Mom if you come here you wont see any blue sky, it is Dry season, but
this year i think they should call it dust season because the air
quality is horrible!!! you can look at the sun all day if you want to
because the haze is so bad! the dust is making everyone sick so we are
being extra careful not to get anything.
Life is good and i hope you are all happy and have a great week! i love you!!!
love,
Elder James Bradley McGuire
Christmas Package!!!
Me and Elder Ukaegbu!
Our Chapel....
...and... FUFU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, January 5, 2015
Transferring!!!!!
Dear Family,
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.
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.
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.
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!;)
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!
love,
Bradley
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.
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.
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.
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!;)
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!
love,
Bradley
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