Sept 23 2012

Hook? Man that is one of my favorite movies. We watched that up at the
cabin with Spencer. I think you watched it too right? Oo and you guys
are even at a cabin too how funny. 4 wheelers and the cabin, dang that
sounds fun.

That's cool about the temple. Haha it's funny how much Suzie loves the
temple. She's going to be an awesome mom when she grows up.

Transfers went well. I was a bit terrified when I got the phone call
from Pres. Shulz, but then he just talked to me for a bit and then
asked for Elder Barnett :). I'm going to be with a guy named Elder
Holder from Kaysville, Utah I believe. Have any of you heard of that
city? I'm trying to remember.. It sounds familiar... Haha jk I know,
but I'm kind of excited to have someone I know so close. Elder Barnett
is leaving to a place near Takoradi I can't remember what it's called
but it's a completely new area where missionaries have never been and
he's training a new guy whom we don't know his name yet. There is an
Elder Hintze coming from Utah, do you know if he's related to Dusty
Hintze? I guess I'll find out soon.

Yes I can't believe it's been six months. Elder Barnett gave me a Dr.
Pepper to celebrate haha it was amazing and made me think about you
and Todd. I told him how you guys are like addicted to it.

My week was wonderful. Selima was baptized last week and confirmed
this week and Racheal was baptized this week. They both went on a
young womens convention thing and made a lot of friends and got closer
to the girls in the ward. They even stood up and bore their testimony
and Selima's voice was gone. It was awesome. Yesterday we did a family
home evening with the Saacky family - Sister Saacky, Benista, Irene,
Augusta, Racheal (their neice), and Richard (their nephew). We did a
short spiritual thought and then played some games. One was called
Elephant- we've played it a few times in our game night at Doug's, but
they were really quite good at it, it was fun and they loved it. We
also had them guess people from the scriptures. Their family is
probably the one I'm closest to especially because we taught Racheal
alot at their house so we got to know them. And the school they went
to was right across the street from our apartment.

I've sent the letter but they take a while now because they have to
get to the mission office and get sent from Africa.

The mission president is good, we had interviews with him last week.
Haha  But I got to talk with Sister Shulz a bit before the
interview and that was nice just to see that they're normal people and
they're cool.

They haven't moved the church yet, I'm guessing it will be a while
because their are a lot of strange rules that I obviously don't know
so when it happens i'll be excited though.

My companion and I (I would've totally said Me and my companion if I
wasn't on a mission haha, look it's making me a bit more proper) get
along great, I'm going to miss that guy. He's been a little bit
nervous about training in a new area, which is funny to see because
I'm never seen him nervous before.

My feelings on mission - Umm.. I don't know it has been totally
different for me. It feels more like a dream because you meet so many
different people and you try to be friendly, but not be fake. One of
the hardest things for me is trying to teach people and not lessons.
It's cool to teach these people what we believe though because it
makes the things you are teaching more realistic in my mind. It makes
you realize where my faith is strong and where I need to improve. In
the end though the mission experience is cool because you get to see
people changing their lives, and also by choosing to accept the gospel
they are giving a better chance for their children. It's hard to help
them understand how important the priestood is though because a lot of
their beliefs are already the same, but they don't understand how
essential it is to have authority. Because they all seem to accept
that god is their father, they all believe they will return back to
him one day, they all believe that they'll be with their families
again, but they don't understand how. The truth about mission is that
you really have to experience it for yourself though.

Yup the other missionaries are living on that tight of a budget,
except for the candy they get. I'd say I'm one of the more healthy
ones. Because I make sure I get fruit and vegetables everyday. One
thing though my stomach has been hurting still so I finally called up
Sister Shulz and she told me to quit with oil. I've stopped for a few
days now and my stomach is feeling good again. I think she said it was
my gallbladder? This is going to be interesting not having oil for the
rest of my mission. By the way I think I've gained 20 pounds which is
weird because I haven't met anyone who's gained weight on their
mission here. I'm thinking the scale I was on was wrong, but I can
definately tell in the mirror that i've gained weight.

I would spend the extra money on healthier food but the problem is I
only go into town on Mondays and it's kind of hard to get food that
will last and that I want to carry back to the apartment. I'm pretty
sure I'm eating a pretty healthy diet though, it's got to be better
than my 2 hamburgers every day at DQ back home.

For a Pen Pal you should have them look up Paul Wesley on Facebook.
I'll tell him this week that he might have someone add him from Utah.
Anyways he's a cool less-active Ghanaian that loves to help other
people. He's always making stews for us missionaries and he's always
got some experience of helping others out. The thing is I don't think
they write very much so it would probably be easier to get someone
from outside Africa, but you can try if you want.

The mail situation is fine. I get a letter every now and then. I'm not
too much a fan of writing anyways haha I mostly do this for you guys
;). I'd rather talk to you about it face to face when I get home in 2
years.

I'm feeling good, I'll probably be nervous next week after I've shown
my new companion my area. I'm nervous because we need to start finding
new people to teach now. I hope to learn a lot from my new companion
with that. I feel like we're working really hard, but we're not
getting the success that we should be getting. When I go on splits
with other missionaries it seems like they do mostly the same things
as us though. I just have to keep telling myself as long as I'm doing
my best that that is all that really matters.

Tell mom I'm sorry her letter is going to be short and my computer
will probably die before I send it haha.

Love you all

Elder Adair

P.S. If Courtney Tribe or Leslie Frandsen are looking at this thanks
for the emails haha.




Hey mom sorry my time is almost up, I hope you and Cherish just feel
like I am writing to all of you guys when you get my emails.

Keep doing emails like this on what you're doing for the week I like it :)

The women carry a lot of things on their heads yes. Usually it will be
people that are selling like bread sandwichs and sometimes they are
fetching water but that is usually the kids that fetch it but yes they
carry it on their head.

Yes the women do a lot of sewing and they make really cool dresses. If
you want to get a dress cheap this is the place to be. They can make
any type of dress you want. Elder Barnett is having someone do a
couple Kente ties for him. Kente is like the fabric of Ghana.
Apparently they really respect you if you wear Kente. I think the men
usually do men's clothing and then the women do women's clothing.

Mm a couple people we teach at their homes, a couple at their shops, a
couple on the streets, just wherever really. As long as we can sit
down.

It's true we usually teach men because the older women speak Fante and
the women our age usually want to flirt. So usually the women we teach
are member referalls. There are a couple sister missionaries but they
are in Abura. They don't send white sister missionaries here, I'm not
sure why. I'm sure they have good reasons, but I just haven't heard
them.

I'd say yes the men are just as interested to hear the gospel as the women.

One thing I wonder about is how to form a better relationship with the
members, I wonder sometimes if I'm too focused on having a lesson to
teach than focusing on how effective that lesson will be. I think
learning to be a missionary is a life time thing because it seems like
you mostly have to figure it out for your own, people can tell you
what to do but different people can do different things better.

Anyways my times up

Love you mom and dad