Dear family,
so the farewell has come and gone and now its time for the mtc drop off......i remember watching those out the window while i was working there.....they were soo.......hahaha never mind ive heard from friends that they are allowing you to have a bit more time than they used to so thats good. i can t believe that krissy is going now!!!!! time has gone by so fast! it seems like just yesterday she got her call. heck it seems like just yesterday i got my call!!! okay maybe it was a few days ago. but all the same im happy and everything is sweet!
president and sister shulz will be leaving on the 30th of june but this week was the last time that we got to see them in a zone conference. it was so great and sad! president gave a great instruction on teaching repentance to our investigators and he broke it all down and it was amazig. then sister shulz got up and talked about faith and about how mission is the mtc for life. then we did an activity with her she took us all outside and blindfolded us and told us to hold on to a rope. we walked all over the place tripping and stumbling the whole way but we didnt let go of the rope. then they made us let go of the rope and told us to wait for further instructions. so i waited and waited and eventually i heard someone singing come follow me.... i figured that was the instruction so i walked towards it and eventually someone gave me a hug and told me i had done well and took of my blind fold and the shulz's were there and a couple other missionaries. i looked around and we were in the middle of a field and all the missionaries were scattered across it. eventually everyone heard and came and it was a great experience and we learned a lot! after that we all ate lunch and then took our last pictures with them and said goodbye. luckily that night they came to our ward for a party we put on to try and get nonmember families to come and we had dancing and games and some talks and it was great! we got to see president shulz dance!!! hahaha but it was so great but that really was the last time we saw them. President stevenson will be coming on the 28th of june so we are preparing for that and itll will be great.
The world cup is in full force now and the people here are enjoying it! luckily because brazil is a few hours behind us we dont have to stay inside because most of the games are late at night. i was happy when usa beat ghana and no it hasnt been a problem but we get teased about it and we also do some teasing of our own but its no problem at all. the people here for the most part are very friendly and nice and we have fun with it all.
ive heard from everyone how well krissy has done and im so happy about that.im not surprised one bit that she did so well and i know she is going to be an incredible missionary! that is sweet that eric came. he told me he loved it and he was happy to help out. THats pretty crazy that craig passed out! hahaha he is still working out like crazy huh? hows the dating scene for him?
The work here is picking up gradually but it is still very slow. we are having fun though and we are working as much as possible with the members the only hard thing is our ward is shared between 4 missionaries and 95% of the members live in the other area but we are doing our best and we are keeping ourselves busy. WE actually got a lot of referrals from the party on friday and we will be busy following up with all of those. so we are happy and doing our best.
Because we are in a 4 man apartment we have been having a lot of fun together and it helps a lot when rough days happen or other things but we are having fun and working our hardest. i hope you all have a great week, especially with kristen! take pictures at the drop off okay!!! i love you all have a great week!!!!
love, Bradley
Monday, June 23, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Busy Week = Short Letter
Another busy week for all of us, which means a short letter from Elder McGuire and a slow blog update from me. Here it is!
Dear Family,
Another week has come and gone and there is so much happening!! the week was great! it looks like you guys are doing alright too. i hope fathers day was nice for everyone. in all honesty i forgot until the bishop announced it over the pulpit. but i still love my dad!!!!!! so ill do my best to hit the big stuff that happened this week.
monday and tuesday were full of goodbyes again. those are the worst. but they are necessary and i know im where im supposed to be. Wednesday morning we woke up and i got all my stuff together and we went to the station. 5 hours later i found myself in Swedru unpacking my stuff. SO my new area is in Swedru and more specifically EkwamKrom. its a suburb on the edge of swedru. So there are a lot of houses and its not as busy as the city. the city is huge and luckily we can find almost anything here. My apartment is big and and is a million times nicer than any i have stayed in before. i love it especially because its a 4 man apartment, i have only been in 2 man for my whole mission so this is nice.
In my Area the work has been really slow lately but elder moleme and i are working hard to change that and im confident things will pick up soon. The WARD is great here. yeah im part of a ward! we have a building and everything! our bishop is awesome and has lived in utah before. he is a hard worker and is committed to getting the members to work with us as missionaries more so needless to say we are working with him and we are excited for what is to come.
Being a zone leader there are a lot of things we have to do but its not hard, we have to collect numbers, report numbers, give instructions, go to leadership council meetings once a month, do interviews, go on splits, manage some money they give us for paying bills and other things,etc. its all part of missionary work! but we are working hard to get it all in.
really everything is great and i am absolutely loving mission. Im so sorry but i dont have much time at all so i gotta go. but i hope you all have a great week and ill talk to you next week!!!! i love you all!
love, Bradley
Dear Family,
Another week has come and gone and there is so much happening!! the week was great! it looks like you guys are doing alright too. i hope fathers day was nice for everyone. in all honesty i forgot until the bishop announced it over the pulpit. but i still love my dad!!!!!! so ill do my best to hit the big stuff that happened this week.
monday and tuesday were full of goodbyes again. those are the worst. but they are necessary and i know im where im supposed to be. Wednesday morning we woke up and i got all my stuff together and we went to the station. 5 hours later i found myself in Swedru unpacking my stuff. SO my new area is in Swedru and more specifically EkwamKrom. its a suburb on the edge of swedru. So there are a lot of houses and its not as busy as the city. the city is huge and luckily we can find almost anything here. My apartment is big and and is a million times nicer than any i have stayed in before. i love it especially because its a 4 man apartment, i have only been in 2 man for my whole mission so this is nice.
In my Area the work has been really slow lately but elder moleme and i are working hard to change that and im confident things will pick up soon. The WARD is great here. yeah im part of a ward! we have a building and everything! our bishop is awesome and has lived in utah before. he is a hard worker and is committed to getting the members to work with us as missionaries more so needless to say we are working with him and we are excited for what is to come.
Being a zone leader there are a lot of things we have to do but its not hard, we have to collect numbers, report numbers, give instructions, go to leadership council meetings once a month, do interviews, go on splits, manage some money they give us for paying bills and other things,etc. its all part of missionary work! but we are working hard to get it all in.
really everything is great and i am absolutely loving mission. Im so sorry but i dont have much time at all so i gotta go. but i hope you all have a great week and ill talk to you next week!!!! i love you all!
love, Bradley
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Zone Leader and Rain!
Hello Everyone!!! The excitement never ends for Elder McGuire. This week had a plenty more adventures! I apologize again for being so slow on these! Things have been crazy for me getting ready for my mission! I cant wait to join Elder McGuire in the mission field!
Hey Family,
Wow you sure know how to make a missionary Jealous!!! you guys are having so much fun!!! its okay im having just as much fun here! i hope i get to show this place to you one day! its so amazing!!!! this week was a great week and we got a lot of real important things done.
Rainy season truly has begun!!! all week this week it was raining and it made proselyting a joke! when it rains here its not just a light drizzle that you can walk through, its a torrential Downpour and you may as well jump into a swimming pool if your gonna walk through it so it made moving hard. Some times we would be lucky and be in a lesson when the rains came, other times we just had to hide under an old fruit stand with a metal roof full of holes or something like that. It rained so hard one night that it turned the dirt road leading to our house into a river and there was no way around it so we just pulled up our pants and walked through it. it was sweet! hahaha
Also they have been taking the power out a ton lately. this week they kept it out for 3days so our food in the fridge went bad and on friday we woke up with no power, no water(the pump that brings our water through the pipes runs on electricity ya know..), no propane for cooking(it ran out the night before), and no phone(the battery died cuz we couldnt charge it) to call anyone for help. but we made our way through it and in the after noon our power came back so we had water and a phone again and that night the aps brought us a new propane tank, so we were much happier that evening hahaha. i love AFRICA!
This week we also decided to get serious about exercising so we woke up at 5:30 every morning.....lets just say i was happy to sleep in till 6:30 today;) hahaha
For actual missionary work this week thing were good. We were able to do alright even with the rain trying to keep us down. We were working really closely all week with John our baptismal Candidate. and on Saturday we went to Yamoransa and he was Baptized. It was so great! he brought his 3 daughters with him and they were all so happy. we were Also happy because its been a long time coming for him. WE also have some other great investigators that have progressed well this week and we will be having more baptisms at the end of the month.
I wont be here for those baptisms though...on the way home from the baptism i got a call from President Shulz. he Called me to be a Zone Leader in a city called Swedru. and you wont believe this but im gonna be with Elder Moleme again!!!! hahaha he is the Zone Leader over there and president wants us to be together again. Im happy because it takes away the curve of getting to know a new companion and itll be cool because we are totally different missionaries compared to how we were a year ago. So yeah im getting Transferred. Im gonna miss Abakrampa and Elder Adjavon but i know this is how its supposed to be. The Missionary who is coming to replace me here is my Great Grandson. let me explain, i trained elder keetch(my son), Elder Keetch trained elder Williams(my Grandson), and Elder Williams trained elder Hardy(my great Grandson) hahaha make sense! anyway he and Elder Adjavon are gonna be great here and they will do awesome.
So needless to say this weekend has been full of goodbyes. i have made a lot of good friends here and its always hard to leave. tonight 3 families have asked that we see them for family home evening and a meal.....i havent eatin all day in preparation hahahaha! so i guess next week ill be emailing in Swedru but until that time i hope you guys have an amazing week!!! i love you all!!!
love, Elder James Bradley McGuire
Hey Family,
Wow you sure know how to make a missionary Jealous!!! you guys are having so much fun!!! its okay im having just as much fun here! i hope i get to show this place to you one day! its so amazing!!!! this week was a great week and we got a lot of real important things done.
Rainy season truly has begun!!! all week this week it was raining and it made proselyting a joke! when it rains here its not just a light drizzle that you can walk through, its a torrential Downpour and you may as well jump into a swimming pool if your gonna walk through it so it made moving hard. Some times we would be lucky and be in a lesson when the rains came, other times we just had to hide under an old fruit stand with a metal roof full of holes or something like that. It rained so hard one night that it turned the dirt road leading to our house into a river and there was no way around it so we just pulled up our pants and walked through it. it was sweet! hahaha
Also they have been taking the power out a ton lately. this week they kept it out for 3days so our food in the fridge went bad and on friday we woke up with no power, no water(the pump that brings our water through the pipes runs on electricity ya know..), no propane for cooking(it ran out the night before), and no phone(the battery died cuz we couldnt charge it) to call anyone for help. but we made our way through it and in the after noon our power came back so we had water and a phone again and that night the aps brought us a new propane tank, so we were much happier that evening hahaha. i love AFRICA!
This week we also decided to get serious about exercising so we woke up at 5:30 every morning.....lets just say i was happy to sleep in till 6:30 today;) hahaha
For actual missionary work this week thing were good. We were able to do alright even with the rain trying to keep us down. We were working really closely all week with John our baptismal Candidate. and on Saturday we went to Yamoransa and he was Baptized. It was so great! he brought his 3 daughters with him and they were all so happy. we were Also happy because its been a long time coming for him. WE also have some other great investigators that have progressed well this week and we will be having more baptisms at the end of the month.
I wont be here for those baptisms though...on the way home from the baptism i got a call from President Shulz. he Called me to be a Zone Leader in a city called Swedru. and you wont believe this but im gonna be with Elder Moleme again!!!! hahaha he is the Zone Leader over there and president wants us to be together again. Im happy because it takes away the curve of getting to know a new companion and itll be cool because we are totally different missionaries compared to how we were a year ago. So yeah im getting Transferred. Im gonna miss Abakrampa and Elder Adjavon but i know this is how its supposed to be. The Missionary who is coming to replace me here is my Great Grandson. let me explain, i trained elder keetch(my son), Elder Keetch trained elder Williams(my Grandson), and Elder Williams trained elder Hardy(my great Grandson) hahaha make sense! anyway he and Elder Adjavon are gonna be great here and they will do awesome.
So needless to say this weekend has been full of goodbyes. i have made a lot of good friends here and its always hard to leave. tonight 3 families have asked that we see them for family home evening and a meal.....i havent eatin all day in preparation hahahaha! so i guess next week ill be emailing in Swedru but until that time i hope you guys have an amazing week!!! i love you all!!!
love, Elder James Bradley McGuire
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Apologies, Phone Calls, Fufu, and Bones!
Well everyone, I owe you all a HUGE apology! I am so sorry that I have been so slow about these last few emails! I'm so sorry! But, here they are now! It's crazy how much can change in just three weeks (which explains the title of this post). I hope you enjoy the pictures and the stories as much as I do!
Letter From May 12th ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Family,
HOly cow i loved talking to you yesterday sooo much!!!!! it was soo awesome to hear everyones voice and to hear how you are all doing. it sounds like you guys are going to have quite an amazing summer!!!! They celebrate mothers day here but its not too big of a thing but they remember it and make it known so it was alright.
For me there werent too many things that i didnt get to tell you about my week in my letter but ill try to remember some...Well to be honest the week was just one solid week of missionary work. we have actually been having trouble meeting with people lately just cuz when we come around people always say they are busy or they arent home. So needless to say we walked a lot this week. but it was good because it gave us the opportunity to really slow down and talk to people on the street and also to visit some members. its hard to balance everything but we are trying really hard to be effective. Luckily the members are enjoying our companionship so they have been offering to come and help us teach more lately which is soo nice. they are also giving us some good referrals and we are praying that we have some of them progress and keep commitments.
That is awesome that dan and krissy are studying pmg together!!! when i studied pmg before my mission i didnt do it right so it didnt have much affect on me but i know dan has it down so that will be great. Im glad to hear that grandma great is doing well, i have been thinking about her a lot lately so im happy to know she is doing alright.
For my clothes they are all doing okay and hanging in there. the belt loops in my pants are wearing out a bit but its nothing big. there are tailoring shops everywhere here so if i need something fixed its no problem my shoes are strong and dont look like they are giving up anytime soon. I absolutely loved the ties that you sent me! the nice thing is that if any of my stuff dies i can find it here so i think im alright on clothes. i sat up last night trying to think of things i need and i couldnt think of anything too big. some beef jerkey, peanut butter, and cookie mixes are always great! but anything you think might help i would love it! im just not creative!!!hahaha but you always do amazing!
ANyway i hope you all have a great week and i will report back next week!!! i love you all!
love, Bradley
Letter From May 12th ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Family,
HOly cow i loved talking to you yesterday sooo much!!!!! it was soo awesome to hear everyones voice and to hear how you are all doing. it sounds like you guys are going to have quite an amazing summer!!!! They celebrate mothers day here but its not too big of a thing but they remember it and make it known so it was alright.
For me there werent too many things that i didnt get to tell you about my week in my letter but ill try to remember some...Well to be honest the week was just one solid week of missionary work. we have actually been having trouble meeting with people lately just cuz when we come around people always say they are busy or they arent home. So needless to say we walked a lot this week. but it was good because it gave us the opportunity to really slow down and talk to people on the street and also to visit some members. its hard to balance everything but we are trying really hard to be effective. Luckily the members are enjoying our companionship so they have been offering to come and help us teach more lately which is soo nice. they are also giving us some good referrals and we are praying that we have some of them progress and keep commitments.
That is awesome that dan and krissy are studying pmg together!!! when i studied pmg before my mission i didnt do it right so it didnt have much affect on me but i know dan has it down so that will be great. Im glad to hear that grandma great is doing well, i have been thinking about her a lot lately so im happy to know she is doing alright.
For my clothes they are all doing okay and hanging in there. the belt loops in my pants are wearing out a bit but its nothing big. there are tailoring shops everywhere here so if i need something fixed its no problem my shoes are strong and dont look like they are giving up anytime soon. I absolutely loved the ties that you sent me! the nice thing is that if any of my stuff dies i can find it here so i think im alright on clothes. i sat up last night trying to think of things i need and i couldnt think of anything too big. some beef jerkey, peanut butter, and cookie mixes are always great! but anything you think might help i would love it! im just not creative!!!hahaha but you always do amazing!
ANyway i hope you all have a great week and i will report back next week!!! i love you all!
love, Bradley
Cool poster at the Elmina Castle
Easily the biggest fufu I've ever eaten!!!
The district
Ghanaian resourcefulness...those are flip flops used for gate hinges!!
Letter from May 19th~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Family,
I talked to you only a week ago and already so much stuff has happened and is happening!! for you and for me! hahaha i have the same problem with writing so before we come to email i take a few notes out of my journal so i can remember everything to write. its so crazy to think that school is going to end soon!!!! it looks like everyone is ready for a fun summer!!! thats so cool that you guys are going to oregon!!!! are you going to bend again? thatll be great!!!
So here is the week for me. On Tuesday it was District meeting as usual. everything went well and the district is great! i got 7 letters and 3 were from shar so needless to say i was a happy boy. hahaha Proselyting was great the rest of the day and we had an interesting experience. We were in a little town on a busy road just outside of Abakrampa and we were kind of lost. we were on our way up a road to meet a member when we thought we should go back to the main road. we didnt know why because we new we were going exactly where we planned. but we went anyway and just waited there for a second. and while we were standing there a car pulled over and the driver called me over in a very good american accent although he was black. i went and talked to him and he was from the states!!!! he was looking for a town that was about an hour away and he was lost. he actually stayed in accra. so we gave him some directions and chatted a lil bit. he knew we were the "Mormons" and that we were on missions and he was cool. unfortunately it wasnt until he was driving away that i hadnt talked to him much about the gospel or anything!!!! i realized he was the
reason we had to come back to the road! i felt like i blew it! after wards we went back to the trail we were previously on and found the member we were looking for. luckily the american gave me his number so i called him later that night to see if he made it. he answered and we chatted and i invited him to talk to the elders the next time he saw some in accra. I dont know if this will affect this guy at all and i probably will never find out but i know it happened for a reason. i hope i did what the lord needed me to do!
Wednesday and thursday were super busy full of lessons and working with new and old investigators. we have had a problem with some of our investigators coming to church lately and we couldnt figure out why. finally it came out this week. One of them said he didnt have black pants and a white shirt and so he didnt want to feel like the odd one out when he came. The other thought we payed collection in church(they do it a ton in the churches here!) and because he thinks the church has a lot of money he said he didnt have enough for collection. in both cases we explained the situation to both of them and they understood.....both of them were at church on sunday!!!! so we were happy hahaha kinda bumbed we didnt figure that one out sooner though. but we got it now!
Friday was like the opposite of wednesday and thursday, everything fell through and we walked a ton! we did get to have an activity at the church though and we watched the testaments. the members loved it and learned a lot from it.Saturday was nice we were able to go to farm and plant corn and weed, its been a while so we were happy about that. Then we also visited an old man who had one leg cut off just below the knee and the other leg was kinda messed up and his foot was all disfigured. we asked him about it and he told us that he had been in a car crash. then he pulled out a cup and showed us this rock looking thing inside. then he told us it was his heel bone! they had to remove it from his foot after the crash!!! it was so crazy the funny thing was that before he told us it was a bone elder adjavon had been trying to pull it out of the cup but it kept slipping(it was stuck) when he heard the word bone he dropped it and it was hilarious!!!!!
Sunday was a great sabbath and we had a nice day. we had a lot of investigators come to church and things are progressing gradually. the work is amazing!!!!
Im glad to hear everyone is still doing good and i hope you guys are ready because it sounds like you are going to have an incredible summer!!!!! dont worry i will too!!!!!!! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!
love, Bradley
Letter From May 26th ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Everyone!!!
Ya know i dont ever remember life at home sounding so crazy and all over the place as it is for you guys! but im glad you are all having fun and staying busy. weve been doing just about the same thing here and i get so tired some nights i have to get my companion to peel me off the floor because i missed the bed when i was collapsing into it. but i am loving every second of life out here.
The week was great so ill try and hit all the highlights. on tuesday for district meeting we talked about what it is to be a succesful missionary and how to serve with all our heart, might, mind and strength. i was amazing i was able to see some things i really need to work on. the lord chooses to humble us at such strange times huh??;) hahaha it was awesome. i was studying my scriptures this week and i read something interesting that i wanted to share. in Jacob chapter 4 Jacob mentions how the Jews "looked beyond the mark" in reference to the doctrines of the church. They couldnt be happy and live with the basic doctrines of the church. they wanted more! deeper stuff, more complicated stuff. So the lord did exactly what they wanted him to do.....he gave it to them! (or in someone else's words "Fed it to them" hahahah!) as a result they got lost in the letters of the doctrine and ended up not being able to build on the "Rock of our Redeemer". as a missionary i dont want to look beyond the mark! i want to hit it in the bulls eye! i know as we all do our best to not get tangled up in the many stipulations and policies and points of doctrine that we dont miss the big picture! that Jesus Christ is our lord and savior and all he asks is that we repent and keep his commandments and we will attain salvation! so lets do it!.
We also had a awesome experience with the spirit this week. It was saturday and my companion and i were planning what we would teach in our lessons for the day. We came to an investigator and we were totally stumped. this is an investigator who has had a long complicated ride in his investigation of the church. we went to our knees and petitioned the lord for guidance. We felt impressed to read D&C 20:37 with him(the requirements to be baptized as stated in the scriptures) and planned a lesson around it. Later that day when we went to see him he showed us something he had written in his note book. it was more or less a promise to himself that he would prepare himself to be baptized by a certain date in july. We talked about it with him and shortly he received a phone call calling him in to work. so we had to wrap up the lesson so he could leave. we never got to deliver the message we had prepared. but afterwards i realized the message we had prepared wasnt for him but for us ourselves. The lord knew he had made this commitment to himself already, he just wanted us to remember how to help this man prepare himself. i was grateful for the fact that Heavenly Father had given us what we needed when we asked. not necessarily what we asked for but it was the direction we needed. Father in Heaven really does lead and guide this work!
On another note we also had some fun this week going to farm and weeding as usual. I also found coconut milk at the store a bit ago so i made ponipopo!!! it was sooooo goood! hahaha i miss food;) Also on sunday we had stake conference in cape coast with all of the branches that are under the mission. it was a roller coaster ride getting everyone to the stake center but we all made it there and back in one piece thankfully.
sorry im low on time today we gotta go shop so we can get home for some lessons tonight! hahaha gotta love missionary work!!! i love you all and i hope you had a great memorial day!!!!!!
love, Elder James Bradley McGuire
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Never a Dull Moment in Abakrampa!
Well, it's always an adventure in Africa! We are so excited to talk to Elder McGuire next week!!!!!!!!!
Dear Family,
Everything sounds so great at home!!! im glad you are all happy and having fun! between sprinklers shooting up into the air and toilets tipping over you guys had a ride this week! hahahaha
This week for me was pretty normal but great as ever. 1 awesome thing is that no matter how many times we do the same thing this work never gets old because its soooo special!
Tuesday was a fun day. District meeting was great and we talked about helping people keep commitments. Commitments are so important! If people keep them they progress quickly and learn a lot. Those who dont do not progress and they often are doubting what we say because they have now witness of its truthfulness. The sad thing is when people fail to keep commitments....a part of you wishes you could force them but we all know thats not right...We just care so much for the people that it hurts when they dont progress. So we all do our best to help as much as we can with out doing it for them. So it was a great meeting and i learned a lot. After we went and got fufu together as usual. normally we each buy 1 cedi of fufu and it is plenty to fill you. Some of us got a lil adventurous though and we got 3 cedis instead! WE all finished but i thought instead of walking my comp would have to roll me the rest of the day on my fufu belly. But we managed to do okay
Wednesday we went on splits again, i needed to interview and investigator in another area so we did splits. The interview went great and the woman had a burning testimony of the book of Mormon during that day we were teaching a lesson to a guy while he butchered and cooked a dog right in front of us! it was so cool! when he started cooking it it smelled sooooo good! we wanted to try some but had to leave before it was ready. Ill try some soon...dont tell Gus!!!
Thrusday was a classic day of planning, studying, praying, teaching, walking, talking and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ the entire time. We have a lot of great investigators and they are all progressing slowly but steadily. We are praying that they can just keep their commitments and we'll be following up and definitely things will continue to move forward.
Friday morning i woke up startled because i hadnt heard the alarm. It was pretty bright outside. I was worried we had slept through the alarm! i jumped out of bed to check the time and i got to my watch to see that it was 6:29! haha the alarm went of 30 seconds later....its good to know missionary standard time is engrained in my body! hahaha IT was a great normal day and we are having fun in the work. Ive started reading the Book of Mormon again in my study and i love it! I love that no matter how many times you read it there is always more to learn! i want to learn as much as i can! Saturday was the same as friday and we were nice and busy all day.
Sunday was a lil bit different this week. We got 2 sessions of General Conference on DVD, Sunday morning and Saturday afternoon sessions. so for church we watched conference! it was translated in Fante though so i studied scriptures for a few hours...it was nice though and i enjoyed it. I have them all on audio so ive listened to them already. The members REally enjoyed it, During PRes. Uctdorfs talk about grattitude, when he shared the story of the 9 foot long loaf of bread cut into 2 slices a member said " Wow! that guy had enough food to last a life time! he better be happy!!" he didnt really get the concept of what pres. Uctdorf was teaching so we explained it to him later and he understood. But it was just a reminder that people out here dont have much and that we should remember how blessed we are to live where we do. Never take it for Granted!
So obviously it was a great week! hahah i know you are probably sick of hearing it but i figure its better than a bad one! haha
im super happy to hear that everything went well with krissy at the temple! its soo amazing! and i cant wait to talk to you on sunday!!!!!!!! so i cant remember but i think church is 11 in the morning now??? i was thinking of calling at 7 am at home time i hope that is okay!! so have a great week and ill talk to you on Sunday!!!! i love you all!
Love, Bradley
Dear Family,
Everything sounds so great at home!!! im glad you are all happy and having fun! between sprinklers shooting up into the air and toilets tipping over you guys had a ride this week! hahahaha
This week for me was pretty normal but great as ever. 1 awesome thing is that no matter how many times we do the same thing this work never gets old because its soooo special!
Tuesday was a fun day. District meeting was great and we talked about helping people keep commitments. Commitments are so important! If people keep them they progress quickly and learn a lot. Those who dont do not progress and they often are doubting what we say because they have now witness of its truthfulness. The sad thing is when people fail to keep commitments....a part of you wishes you could force them but we all know thats not right...We just care so much for the people that it hurts when they dont progress. So we all do our best to help as much as we can with out doing it for them. So it was a great meeting and i learned a lot. After we went and got fufu together as usual. normally we each buy 1 cedi of fufu and it is plenty to fill you. Some of us got a lil adventurous though and we got 3 cedis instead! WE all finished but i thought instead of walking my comp would have to roll me the rest of the day on my fufu belly. But we managed to do okay
Wednesday we went on splits again, i needed to interview and investigator in another area so we did splits. The interview went great and the woman had a burning testimony of the book of Mormon during that day we were teaching a lesson to a guy while he butchered and cooked a dog right in front of us! it was so cool! when he started cooking it it smelled sooooo good! we wanted to try some but had to leave before it was ready. Ill try some soon...dont tell Gus!!!
Thrusday was a classic day of planning, studying, praying, teaching, walking, talking and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ the entire time. We have a lot of great investigators and they are all progressing slowly but steadily. We are praying that they can just keep their commitments and we'll be following up and definitely things will continue to move forward.
Friday morning i woke up startled because i hadnt heard the alarm. It was pretty bright outside. I was worried we had slept through the alarm! i jumped out of bed to check the time and i got to my watch to see that it was 6:29! haha the alarm went of 30 seconds later....its good to know missionary standard time is engrained in my body! hahaha IT was a great normal day and we are having fun in the work. Ive started reading the Book of Mormon again in my study and i love it! I love that no matter how many times you read it there is always more to learn! i want to learn as much as i can! Saturday was the same as friday and we were nice and busy all day.
Sunday was a lil bit different this week. We got 2 sessions of General Conference on DVD, Sunday morning and Saturday afternoon sessions. so for church we watched conference! it was translated in Fante though so i studied scriptures for a few hours...it was nice though and i enjoyed it. I have them all on audio so ive listened to them already. The members REally enjoyed it, During PRes. Uctdorfs talk about grattitude, when he shared the story of the 9 foot long loaf of bread cut into 2 slices a member said " Wow! that guy had enough food to last a life time! he better be happy!!" he didnt really get the concept of what pres. Uctdorf was teaching so we explained it to him later and he understood. But it was just a reminder that people out here dont have much and that we should remember how blessed we are to live where we do. Never take it for Granted!
So obviously it was a great week! hahah i know you are probably sick of hearing it but i figure its better than a bad one! haha
im super happy to hear that everything went well with krissy at the temple! its soo amazing! and i cant wait to talk to you on sunday!!!!!!!! so i cant remember but i think church is 11 in the morning now??? i was thinking of calling at 7 am at home time i hope that is okay!! so have a great week and ill talk to you on Sunday!!!! i love you all!
Love, Bradley
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Another Awesome week in Abakrampa!
He's still doing great! (Of Course) Elder McGuire's letters make me so excited to get out in the field.
Dear Family,
I dont think you guys have a boring week at home!!! thats good! lifes gotta be exciting and always is! it was the same for me this week. ALL OVER THE PLACE~!~!
Tuesday was DM as usual, i had another elder in the district instruct and he did great! After district meeting we had a lesson with that former investigator i talked about last week bro. Dentu and it was great! he is really interested in learning about everything again but he has one problem. He is too afraid to leave his church! i have found that to be a huge problem with people here! they are afraid of what everyone thinks about them! but we are working on it and hopefully things start moving with him.
Wednesday we did splits again with Different elders. They had 3 baptismal candidates that needed interviewing. I love interviewing investigators for baptism! i love asking them how they gained their testimonies of joseph smith. Sometimes they share profound experiences and other times its just as simple as knowing that its absolutely true. but whatever it is they all have this light in their eyes and its so Amazing to see!
Thursday The Book of Mormon Worked wonders for us once again! we have a new investigator and he needed to hear about it so we just went through everything and he understood it all really well. Even before the end of the lesson he was saying that it was true and that he wanted to be baptized!! i love missionary work!!! We also had interviews for 2 of our investigators so the Zone leaders came. Both of the interviews went great and we were super happy. also that night the power went out and came back on 3 times in less than five minutes and its been off and on ever since! gotta love ghana!!!
Friday was a slow day but it gave us time to visit members and investigators and invite them to the baptism on saturday. We were also inviting everyone we could talk to, to come to church on sunday, we were having branch conference! Saturday was amazing! we woke up in the morning and went with Sis mary one of our investigators to be baptized to her farm. I love weeding the orange groves!! always smells amazing! i was taking a break and picked a fresh orange and was peeling it with my cutlass and accidentally peeled into my finger! it wasnt to bad but we had to go home and clean it up. But its all good now and its pretty healed up. So we came home and got cleaned up and then went with our 2 investigators and a couple members and we had a baptism! it was great!!!!! everything went according to plan and some amazing ordinances were performed. Elder Adjavon did the baptizing and was really happy as well. We also got transfer news that night and guess what?! im staying. hahaha we knew it. im happy! ive spent the last 6 weeks getting to know the place now its time to do some real good work!.
Sunday was awesome! We had branch conference and it was incredible. Sister Mary, and sister Juliana were both confirmed members of the church and it was a great experience. President and Sis. Shulz came as you already know and they helped a lot. then they came to our investigators class which we were a lil nervous about but it was all good and we had a great lesson. After church we had some great lessons. We actually got to meet with Mary after church and she just kept telling us how happy she was and how she wanted to invite all of her friends to come and experience the joy that she felt! it was like the icing on the cake to a great week!
You guys have really been moving with all thats been going on! with Krissy moving home, Amelia Graduating, Dad at meetings, the boys going to scouts, kate at fools for jazz and school! how do you keep up? hahaha i know how. you are all just amazing!! i hope you know that and i hope you know that i love you all so much!!!! have a great week!!! i love you!
Love, Bradley
Dear Family,
I dont think you guys have a boring week at home!!! thats good! lifes gotta be exciting and always is! it was the same for me this week. ALL OVER THE PLACE~!~!
Tuesday was DM as usual, i had another elder in the district instruct and he did great! After district meeting we had a lesson with that former investigator i talked about last week bro. Dentu and it was great! he is really interested in learning about everything again but he has one problem. He is too afraid to leave his church! i have found that to be a huge problem with people here! they are afraid of what everyone thinks about them! but we are working on it and hopefully things start moving with him.
Wednesday we did splits again with Different elders. They had 3 baptismal candidates that needed interviewing. I love interviewing investigators for baptism! i love asking them how they gained their testimonies of joseph smith. Sometimes they share profound experiences and other times its just as simple as knowing that its absolutely true. but whatever it is they all have this light in their eyes and its so Amazing to see!
Thursday The Book of Mormon Worked wonders for us once again! we have a new investigator and he needed to hear about it so we just went through everything and he understood it all really well. Even before the end of the lesson he was saying that it was true and that he wanted to be baptized!! i love missionary work!!! We also had interviews for 2 of our investigators so the Zone leaders came. Both of the interviews went great and we were super happy. also that night the power went out and came back on 3 times in less than five minutes and its been off and on ever since! gotta love ghana!!!
Friday was a slow day but it gave us time to visit members and investigators and invite them to the baptism on saturday. We were also inviting everyone we could talk to, to come to church on sunday, we were having branch conference! Saturday was amazing! we woke up in the morning and went with Sis mary one of our investigators to be baptized to her farm. I love weeding the orange groves!! always smells amazing! i was taking a break and picked a fresh orange and was peeling it with my cutlass and accidentally peeled into my finger! it wasnt to bad but we had to go home and clean it up. But its all good now and its pretty healed up. So we came home and got cleaned up and then went with our 2 investigators and a couple members and we had a baptism! it was great!!!!! everything went according to plan and some amazing ordinances were performed. Elder Adjavon did the baptizing and was really happy as well. We also got transfer news that night and guess what?! im staying. hahaha we knew it. im happy! ive spent the last 6 weeks getting to know the place now its time to do some real good work!.
Sunday was awesome! We had branch conference and it was incredible. Sister Mary, and sister Juliana were both confirmed members of the church and it was a great experience. President and Sis. Shulz came as you already know and they helped a lot. then they came to our investigators class which we were a lil nervous about but it was all good and we had a great lesson. After church we had some great lessons. We actually got to meet with Mary after church and she just kept telling us how happy she was and how she wanted to invite all of her friends to come and experience the joy that she felt! it was like the icing on the cake to a great week!
You guys have really been moving with all thats been going on! with Krissy moving home, Amelia Graduating, Dad at meetings, the boys going to scouts, kate at fools for jazz and school! how do you keep up? hahaha i know how. you are all just amazing!! i hope you know that and i hope you know that i love you all so much!!!! have a great week!!! i love you!
Love, Bradley
Monday, April 21, 2014
PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!
We got pictures from Elder McGuire and I'm SO HAPPY!!!!!!!! He wrote the captions himself! Enjoy!!!!!!
Hey Family!!
Wow you guys had an awesome week!!! its hard to believe how fast time is going out here!!! sometimes i have to pinch myself so i can notice and enjoy it even more!!!
This week was really nice out here and we got a lot of work done!!! on tuesday district meeting went well and it was combined with the whole zone so i didnt instruct the Zone leaders did. for proselyting we just took our time and found ourselves doing a lot of unplanned service, from pounding fufu, to carrying water from wells but all in all it was just a sweet day of work.
Wednesday we went on splits with some elders in the district and it was really great. i got to work with a trainer and see how he was doing with everything. his name is Elder Hodges from washington and he is a great missionary, he is doing great at training and he is just a solid missionary. we had a lot of fun and talked a lot.
Thursday i was back in abakrampa and we had a full day of work cut out for us. it was amazing!!! one lesson in particular was incredible! We were teaching a former investigator who had asked us to come and help him understand about the book of mormon. He said whenever he read he couldnt understand. So we came and talked about everything under the sun and above about the book of mormon. about where it came from, the importance of it and how it can help us draw closer to god than anything else in this world. As we testified of the truths we know, the spirit helped us out by testifying to the heart of this good man of it as well. The spirit was so strong he was actually shaking physically. after a big part of talking he was quite for a few minutes and then he said " i know that this book is from god" its true! it is!!! so we will definitely continue working with this man very closely in the future.
Friday was also a great day. When we teach a lot of the time we struggle in the work because a lot of people we meet with arent serious about keeping commitments or they just dont show us their desires or what they are looking for within our teaching. But on friday everyone got serious!!! everyone opened up to us and it was great because we now know how we need to proceed with each of them. also one of our lessons was in village about 20 min walk outside of ABK and the investigator gave us an 8 foot long piece of sugar cane after the lesson!! so we were walking on this dirt road with a huge sugar cane and everytime a car passed people were staring, it was hilarious!
Saturday was a typical day and the work went on. Sunday was amazing! Easter always is. Because it was easter a ton of people came to church and the talks and lessons went great!!!! it was a great time to remember the sacrifice and resurrection of our savior.
Okay im sorry but my time is out! those pictures took a lot of time! i promise i will send more next week!!!! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!!!!
love, Bradley
This is Edward from Nyenasi he was baptized by Elder Bannerman in January
Huge Coconut!!!
Okay this was the baptisms for Bro. Duah (right next to me) and then Sis. Rosemary the short one. She was baptized by her husband also in January.
Me in the well.
Elder Bannerman and I.
The snake we killed! :)
Elijah and Salomey's Baptism...Edward baptized his sons Elijah and Salomey.
Inside the Cape Coast Castle.
Hey Family!!
Wow you guys had an awesome week!!! its hard to believe how fast time is going out here!!! sometimes i have to pinch myself so i can notice and enjoy it even more!!!
This week was really nice out here and we got a lot of work done!!! on tuesday district meeting went well and it was combined with the whole zone so i didnt instruct the Zone leaders did. for proselyting we just took our time and found ourselves doing a lot of unplanned service, from pounding fufu, to carrying water from wells but all in all it was just a sweet day of work.
Wednesday we went on splits with some elders in the district and it was really great. i got to work with a trainer and see how he was doing with everything. his name is Elder Hodges from washington and he is a great missionary, he is doing great at training and he is just a solid missionary. we had a lot of fun and talked a lot.
Thursday i was back in abakrampa and we had a full day of work cut out for us. it was amazing!!! one lesson in particular was incredible! We were teaching a former investigator who had asked us to come and help him understand about the book of mormon. He said whenever he read he couldnt understand. So we came and talked about everything under the sun and above about the book of mormon. about where it came from, the importance of it and how it can help us draw closer to god than anything else in this world. As we testified of the truths we know, the spirit helped us out by testifying to the heart of this good man of it as well. The spirit was so strong he was actually shaking physically. after a big part of talking he was quite for a few minutes and then he said " i know that this book is from god" its true! it is!!! so we will definitely continue working with this man very closely in the future.
Friday was also a great day. When we teach a lot of the time we struggle in the work because a lot of people we meet with arent serious about keeping commitments or they just dont show us their desires or what they are looking for within our teaching. But on friday everyone got serious!!! everyone opened up to us and it was great because we now know how we need to proceed with each of them. also one of our lessons was in village about 20 min walk outside of ABK and the investigator gave us an 8 foot long piece of sugar cane after the lesson!! so we were walking on this dirt road with a huge sugar cane and everytime a car passed people were staring, it was hilarious!
Saturday was a typical day and the work went on. Sunday was amazing! Easter always is. Because it was easter a ton of people came to church and the talks and lessons went great!!!! it was a great time to remember the sacrifice and resurrection of our savior.
Okay im sorry but my time is out! those pictures took a lot of time! i promise i will send more next week!!!! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!!!!
love, Bradley
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