June 27 2013

Haha first of the explanation of why I didn't email yesterday - Normally we have District Meetings on Tuesday and it's in Swedru so we take a Van (Tro tro) to there from Odoben.

But this week we had a Mission conference today and the whole mission came together soo no District Meeting, Thus why it's Wednesday and I'm emailing late at night. (Because we had our Conference in Abura/ Cape Coast and now are traveling back for the night).

Yup we got our water pouches from the Branch President.

I'm no longer a District Leader. Just a normal missionary for now.

That Book of Mormon reading sounds like a wonderful idea, but Odoben is Full of Fante speakers who don't read English or Fante for that matter.. Soo it's a bit difficult :P.

Uh huh the packages have come! I got the two from you with the MnMs, Jerky, and Money, and the one from the ward with the calendar and candy.

Grandma's never came though.

The MnM's were gone with in a couple days, I felt a little sick, but I couldn't resist.

Sweet I'll enjoy the birthday package.

What's Brandon doing these days? Is he still working at the Hospital? Any Friends he's been going out with?

For me this week we have a baptism coming up on Saturday

His name is Bro Kobbie and he's friends with a ward member. He can speak English very well, but for some reason can't read English. But he's been coming to church each week and feels that the message is true. He's 21.

On Monday we went to farm at Bro Kwesi's (Recent Convert), and I was worn out within chopping a few weeds with the cutlass. But I enjoyed the cocoa and the oranges. Also a boy we were with climbed a huge coconut tree (I don't know how big they get but this one had to be 100 feet or so) and threw us down some coconuts, I think the first coconut I had in Cape Coast just wasn't good because I like them now.

During the week we were just teaching

We're teaching a boy named Bro Robert, He is basically losing his faith in Christ and so we've just been helping him build his faith again. He has a sickness that he wants to be healed but it just won't go away. We taught him the Plan of Salvation which was completely different from his belief as a Jehovah's witness, but I think it was helping him understand more about why he isn't just being instantly healed from his sickness.

We're also teaching Bro Martin who was also suppose to be baptized this week, but he didn't come to church because of stomach pain. Also we don't want to baptize him until he finds a job and knows that he is staying in Odoben because otherwise he'll move and become less active.

Bro Martin's brother, Bro. Emmanuel came for his second time this Sunday. It was funny because we didn't know they were brothers until he started coming to church (they live in different homes), but he's progressing quickly as well and likes the church.

We taught a few other people such as Sis Lizzy who's friends with a member, but doesn't really want to change from her church. Sis Ernestina who doesn't really want to meet with us but came to a district conference a few weeks back, she's friends with a member. Gifty whom we started teaching, but then found out the other missionaries were also starting to teach her at the same time.. haha funny situation. She was confused that we weren't the same missionaries. Napoleon who we taught a couple times, but his understanding wasn't that great so we've decided to move on. Bro Ali who we taught once because his brother kept telling us to teach him, but he wasn't there when we set a return appointment. Then finally Sister Ester who is Bro Kobbie's (the one being baptized) friend, but sadly she's moving to Swedru for schooling now.. So no luck.

but there's a little bit about the week.

The companionship is going well and the area is good.

Also finally Elder Shinasi told me this morning that it's official that we can email friends now and even we can use internet for a little over an hour. So that's cool.

Well Love you mom! Talk to you next Tuesday

Elder Brady Adair

June 18 2013

The 2 ten dollar bills and the beef Jerky haven't come yet. If it doesn't come don't worry too much. The mailing system isn't too safe.

I never received the money from grandma either.

If you want to send a package. Just fill it with chocolate :).

I have electricity. But as usual it will go out a few times during the day. But electricity doesn't bother me at all. There's not much we use it for.

We have a well outside our apartment that we fetch water to bathe. And when it rains our tank fills up and we can get it from the pipes.

Mm Ghana has a lot of Beautiful plants so I would say it always looks pretty. It's just that garbage is always thrown on the ground and in the gutters.

Yes the place is poor, Ghana in general is poor though.

The people are responding well. Right now we're hoping for Brother Martin and Brother Kobbie to be baptized on the 29th. With Bro Martin we need to help him find a small job so that he can continue living in the area, and with Bro Kobbie we're just finishing up the lessons mostly.

This week we did a lot of contacting and received 8 new investigators

Bro Kwesi's parents
Bro Robert

Bro Napoleon

Bro Emmanuel (He's friends with Bro Martin and came to church)

Sis Lizzy

Bro Joshua

Sis ? I forgot her name. But she was a referal from the ward mission leader.

So the food we cook the water is always boiled. And I have a bottle that I drink out of that filters the water so it is clean. We've talked with the Zone Leaders and our District President about it and they're going to buy us water Sachets to drink pure water.

As for the emailing on Tuesday my companion told me that the Mission President said it was alright for us to email on Tuesday because of the area we are living in. But I will write him in my next President's letter to make sure it is okay.

Even today I was going to buy some food because I can't find it in my area.. but I don't know if I should be doing that either.

Mm for King's in Ghana I'm not really sure what they do. But yes most places have a King in different area's of Ghana. They seem more just like a Governor or something. So yes the place I am in Odoben has a King, but when I met him he doesn't speak English soo it doesn't seem like he'd really do much.

Thanks for asking Dave and Shawn I'll start trying those things out.

Soo yup as for the area I think we're doing well.

We've got to work on starting to have PEC with the Branch Pres. and Ward coordination with the Branch Mission Leader.

I don't know if I told you that the Branch has 600 members but only like 100 are active.

On the First Sunday of the Year 400 members came. Then the next week it dropped back down.. Haha that goes to show how important it is here to go to church to show god you're thankful for living another year on that first week.

Well I love you mom

And Happy Father's Day Dad!

Dang I forgot to give your letter to my district leader.. Sorry I'm not very up to date on Holidays over here. But you are the sweetest dad ever! Maybe I can get it to them somehow before I go back to my area.

June 11 2013

Hey that is cool that you were reading about Saul as well. I was just reading about him yesterday on my P-day. It's an interesting story. I didn't notice that it was the 2nd time he disobeyed that the Lord said he would lose the kingdom. The first time he offered burnt offerings when he didn't hold the priestood authority, but when he repented the Lord forgave him. 

The second time he didn't kill all that was in the city as God had commanded him.

That's funny though we both read about it.

umm soo ya an update for the past few weeks

I'm now in Odoben, known as "the bush" or it's name from the Fante language means Love Town.

I'm with my new companion Elder Tembedza. He's a sweet humble guy. He's from Zimbabwe (I keep saying Madagascar, but it's wrong). He's got a date back home, but she's not a member soo it sounds like he's not planning on it going anywhere. He did Agriculture in high school and his dad has a farm, so that's what he's planning to do when he goes back. He is very superstitious haha, He believes magicians are really sorcerers from Satan so I was explaining to him it was all just a mind trick that looks like it's real. The scariest thing he has seen is a ghost apparently when he was 15. I didn't get too much detail on that one because we were about to start a lesson. But there's a little info on him.

In my apartment is Elder Kalahiki Anthony from Hawaii, and Elder Oluk from Uganda. Elder Kalahiki was a rapper back home, dried fish with his brother and sold it (apparently it's top quality thing they do in Hawaii) he also was a tree trimmer. He's a convert to the church and his parents have converted while he's been on mission.

Elder Oluk, mm he makes interesting food, and is always happy. So he's a fun guy to be around. I'm still waiting for him to make Chipati (the famous food of Uganda.. mm I love it).

As for the apartment the biggest problem is the water. I've been using my Sachelle filter bottle to save me (they gave all the missionaries one in the Mtc). We basically live off of rain water. And luckily it's rainy season so it hasn't been too bad.

The Branch has 600 members but only about 100 of them are active. So pretty much everyone we meet is a member. I meet at least 1 less active a day. Apparently the church use to give out bikes and stuff and so alot of people were coming for the free stuff haha. I think this was before the church was officially set up in Ghana.

There are tons of kids my age in this area. More than I've seen in any other area.

We're working on 3 people for baptism this month.. But it's not looking like it's going to turn out as we thought

Benjamen - He's an 18 year old boy who they taught more than 6 months ago, but he just wasn't progressing. At least he wasn't coming to church. Then the first Sunday I was here he came to church and said he decided he wanted to be baptized. We started teaching him and he's a really smart guy and believes that the church is true. Sadly this last Saturday he travelled and wasn't able to make it to church. So we'll find out if he truly does have a good reason this week or if he's not really being serious.

Kobbie- Sweet guy and will definately become a member some day. He gave me my first Cocoa. They have a lot of Cocoa farms in this area. Anyways Cocoa has a white fruit inside of it. It's just a bunch of seeds with a thin layer of white fruit that tastes really good. I never knew Cocoa was a fruit. Anyways then after they've eaten the fruit they leave the seeds out to dry in the Sun and then they sell them to other nations I guess. Soo even though Ghana is one of the biggest Cocoa producers. They don't have the chocolate here in Ghana.

   Anyways with Kobbie he's got strong member friends in the church and is really receptive to the teachings. The problem is he keeps travelling to Accra to do work soo we might not make it by the end of the month for him to be baptized.

Martin - Another sweet guy with a strong member friend. The problem is next month he is travelling to a town where they don't have the church. So unless we can sort something out about how he's going to go to church in the place he's travelling to we will have to cancel. When we explained the Apostasy to him he really grasped it (and here in Ghana it's easy to see the apostasy because you can even see 4 churches occupying one school.. I was kind of laughing this week seeing that they were drumming and they were so close together.. not sure how you can learn the gospel in that kind of environment. That's something cool about our church is you can see that they really focus on the teachings and learning to live them rather than dancing)

Then some of the others we're working with

Yaw, he would be ready by the end of this month for baptism but he's only 16 so it will probably take a few months. He has a strong member friend who helps translate because he doesn't speak English. I think he will be a good member though and his friend helps him a lot.

Abena, she travelled to somewhere so we haven't been able to contact her again. But she was taught by previous missionaries and she was super receptive when we started teaching her. So we're crossing her fingers that she just didn't have the chance to warn us she was traveling. She'll be back tomorrow so we'll check up.

Sophia, she seemed serious at first but now she doesn't find time to meet with us. She has a friend named Alberta who knows all of our hymns yet for some reason won't come to church and I think Sophia is kind of slacking off because of her.

Francis, He was ready for baptism but his father wouldn't allow him. His father wants him to become a pastor in another church and so if he was baptized he wouldn't be able to. The branch pres. said he'd go talk with the father because they are friends.. but it never happened. So we're thinking about starting to teach the mother and then eventually the father and see if we can go anywhere with that.

Ernestina, and Dominic are a couple others we've been trying with, but it doesn't look like it's going to go anywhere.

Recent Converts

Steven, Quasi, Clinton, and Bright seem to be the powerful recent converts who have been doing great

one's we need to help

Tony - He has an HIV virus and so he hasn't been able to come. The last time we saw him he was recovering, but it just sounds like a disease that changes quickly. One day you'll look like you're going to die, the next day you can be  working in the fields.  So with him we've just been visiting and encouraging him.

A different Steven - He hasn't been giving us time to go and see him. He promised to come to church, but then we saw him after church looking just fine with some friends.. So we'll keep trying to help him

Nadia - after her baptism she travelled to Accra and now has just come back, we taught her about the importance of the Sabbath, but once again she didn't show up this week, and had no excuse. Soo we'll see her this week.

Christina - and old lady who's leg has been paining her so she hasn't been able to walk to church, hopefully in a couple weeks she'll be good again.

Well this sure felt good to write a solid email again :). Last week my computer timed out and I didn't know it so when I sent the email it was just lost.

I've been doing well. Elder Shinasi (my son that I trained) is in my district so I get to see him every Tuesday. He's been having dance offs in the apartment, and from the videos he took on his camera he was slacking off while I trained him. He didn't show me half of his moves! That guy... Haha.

We email on Tuesdays because we have to do it in Swedru after district meeting because Odoben doesn't have internet.

Let's see.. What else.

We went to Cape Coast last week for a Zone Activity and I played Ultimate Frizbee. It just wore me out within a few seconds. but it was fun.

I got to see Elder Barnett, Elder Shinasi there as well and just talk with them about how they're doing.

Elder Shinasi has been enjoying pizza too much (I'm too tight with my money haha). And has been telling me about all the Juju that goes down in his area. Apparently they have gangs that sacrifice people. But they don't mess with you if you're not a gang member. Haha he was telling me they had to call Pres. Shulz because they had passed by a funeral and they were told it was one of the gang members that had been sacrificed. I never expected that happening in Ghana. The people are so peaceful.

Elder Barnett has stopped enjoying in Takoradi (He was proselyting in the main town so he was buying Snicker bars and Dr. Pepper all the time. Haha and now he's a Zone Leader up in Assin Foso? Or Twifo Praso? I get those two mixed up.

well hope you enjoyed the email

Love you mom

Elder Adair

03 June 2013

Hello everyone, this is Tammy.  I did not get a letter from Brady last week and this is the letter I got this week-- enjoy!

Waaaaaaa mom I just wrote you a nice long letter.. but because of
computer problems it all got erased. I'm really sorry, just wait until
next Tuesday and I will write you a nice long email. I'm in a new area
now.

Love you mom

Elder Adair