March 17 2014

I'm coming home, I'm coming home. Tell the world I'm coming home. See you Wednesday. Love you :)

March 10 2014

Hey mom sorry I think my time is coming to a close.

But yes I've been keeping focused for this last week. I am getting excited to come back home though.

This week Bro Amoahko and his wife progressed really well and came to visit the church and they loved it. The Branch President is his Uncle and he has a brother in the church, so if they keep responding how they've been I definitely think they will become members. Even his wife made us some rice and stew the last time we taught them so that is a really good sign. I was soo excited to see them show up for church. It definitely feels good when you see the hard work you put in getting results. I won't get to see the end results before I leave, but it's looking really good. And the Branch President has been helping us alot in sitting down for the lessons and bearing testimony and then his brother bringing them to church - Members sitting in for lessons with their friends and bearing their testimonies and even them picking up investigators is definitely the most effective way for missionary work.

Next Monday I will go to the mission home and we'll do a little devotional and have a dinner there. We'll sleep over there. The next day we will go to the Temple and then drive to the airport and then I'll take off that night. I was excited to see the new temple video but I guess Ghana still hasn't gotten the new temple video yet.

Oh man that will be strange to start sleeping with a blanket again! Haha oh boy that will be interesting to be in my own room again as well. I imagine I'll be weirded out walking at the airport alone as well.

Sweet that will be a sweet lesson on the Sacrament. The sacrament really is so special, and it's definitely given me a lot of strength in focusing on the things that matter most.

It's alright I'm pretty sure giving a 15 minute talk will be a piece of cake. I feel like I have a greater understanding of the gospel as well now so that helps a lot.

Yes I'm not sure if I'll get to email next week.

Wow you've done a great job at emailing mom! Sorry I wasn't perfect at it!

Love you! See you Next week! Ah!

Elder Adair

March 3 2013

Hey that's a cool idea with the flat stanley thing. Ya hopefully it will get here fast enough.

Haha he finally was feeling well and then on Saturday he got sick again, but now he seems to be doing fine haha.

I don't really know what I want to do when I first get home. I'm sure just being home will be exciting. I figure play it by ear. I've been starting to remember a little bit of what it's like back home so I'm freaking out a little bit with my mind about to be blown of how advanced the technology is back home. I have a feeling it's going to be a little bit like coming back from a 2 year scout camp haha.

If I heard right I'll be home on the 19th of March at 10:20a.m.? is that right? What do my flight plans say?

It definitely doesn't feel real that I'm coming back home. I'm sure it will just feel like a dream that I'm back for a couple weeks.

Mm yes we've been eating Fufu and Banku, Egg Sandwiches and sadly Indomie (Top Ramen) for lunch haha it's a good thing I'm about to have a solid diet again haha.

Haha so you're saying that Jaxon was sleeping on the floor under the tent without a bed? That's funny. That's smart of Emily to make the tent over the bed in the first place.

Sweet! So Cherish will stay close to home?! Ah man she's got to get that house.

And cool so I'll get to see Brandon on the weekend? sweet!

This week for Ghana

Bro Ahin (a just recently returned missionary) has been trying to help us out a lot. He took us to his friends Bro Richard, Bro Sagoe, and Bro Yeboah. He's a really sweet guy and has a strong testimony of the gospel. He also had his mom prepare the 4 missionaries in our area Fufu with Light Soup.

When we taught Bro Sagoe he seemed very sincere though. I loved it when we taught him the Restoration and about Joseph Smith at the end he said he didn't know how to pray so we taught him how to pray and he gave just a super sincere prayer about whether our message was true. I hope that he will progress. He seems like he will be sincere in coming to know if our message is true though.

Sis Abigail was progressing really well and feeling that our message was true and she promised to come to church, but ended up not coming. So we'll just have to keep trying.

Well my times up sorry just short :P Love you.

Feburary 24 2014

Hey yes I'm sorry I did get those M&M's! Thank you so much dad I definitely enjoyed the Mnm's the most. Sorry I thought I had sent a letter.

Oh wow what color is dad painting the house?

Mmm with College I think I'll just stick close to home. I'll start searching what career I want to go into and then figure out which school to go to.

With finding in the area we seem to get a lot of first lessons but then the follow up lessons don't seem to go anywhere soo I don't know what we need to work on in the area.

I think any area is good, it just depends on your attitude towards the area. But I've been in the area for 10 months so we just seem to be on a slower point right now. It gets hard when it feels like you're having little success though.

I've really been enjoying Elder Collette, he's a sweet missionary and works hard. He has a lot of good ideas as well. He has a positive attitude towards the work and comes up with ideas throughout the day of what we should do.

So this week we did a lot of street contacting and we tried to meet with a couple referrals from members. There is a boy named Brother Capture who was a referal and he has potential but it's kind of up to him if he decides to start visiting the church. He seems to be gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but there's something that's holding him back from coming to church. 

Elder Collette's had a stomach ache the past couple days. I guess I've just been getting lucky that I don't get sick.

Well I love you

Elder Adair

February 17 2014

Hey mom,

Sorry mom Just don't worry everything is always fine in Ghana.

It started raining last week and before I was able to send my email last week the power went out. And our village being so far away from the place we email I had to wait a week to email again.

Haha I'm sure I'll just be nervous for the talk for the fact that I'll be in front of a bunch of white people again. Does dad know what my topic is or how long the talk is suppose to be?

Wow that's a cool story of our ancestor. So most of our ancestors were from Sweden and England? That's sweet that their stories are getting so easy to access. And that's cool that she was one of the people to see Brigham Young as the one chosen to continue to lead the church.

This week for us.

Well first Elder Collette came for his first time to our chapel in Odoben. And I was joking to the 2nd counselor that he should give him a 20 minute talk and added that I was just joking. But apparently he liked the idea anyways and had Elder Collette give a talk. Elder Collette gave a talk on Faith. But I guess now that we've been missionaries it's not to difficult to think of a quick talk to give to the members. Especially in Ghana.

Elder Collette loves to chase the little kids. And the little kids have been even more scared of us recently. The other day a lady was holding her two kids and they just started screaming at the top of their lungs. The lady called us over and she was getting a good laugh at the two kids screaming at us because we were white.
    As well Elder Collette scared a little kid who was drinking his porridge and the little kid freaked out and threw the porridge at him.
   One night Elder Collette chased a little kid down the street and the kid left his sandals behind and took off.

At night I've been enjoying Kili Wili. The fried bananas. Elder Collette loves Fufu so we've been enjoying that too.

With Contacting we've been trying to get members to help us find people to teach and then just doing a lot of street contacting.

On Sunday we went to pick our one sort of serious investigator Sis Alberta but she had slept over at her church's mission house haha.. So yup.. Haha this past week during our Weekly Planning I just had a burst of laughter just to let out the stress as we saw that we wouldn't even be able to give a solid baptismal date until around the time I leave Ghana. Elder Collette has a good attitude so that's nice and he's a hard worker as well so it's nice when he gives suggestions of things we can do as well throughout the day.

The power has been going out every day this past week. I guess they're working on the power lines. I don't mind it at all though. I sleep fine without a fan. I haven't been making any stews so nothing's been getting spoiled in the fridge. I've been getting lucky by getting to iron my shirt before the power turns off. And there's been just enough pressure for our water to fill up a bucket for showering when the power is out.

I did a Instruction on Working with Members during District Meeting on Tuesday. And just compared an investigator who had a member friend helping them as they were converted compared to someone who didn't have a friend as they were converted. I think it was a good thing to instruct on as 3 of them were brand new missionaries and one of the biggest challenges on mission is just finding someone who is solid and will remain converted.

Let's see last Monday we did a service project as a Zone and painted a childrens schoolhouse.

The mosquito's seem to be out lately because I've been getting bitten a lot recently I might start putting on Mosquito Repellant.

Elder Mafundityala from South Africa is the other new missionary in our apartment. He's had some funny stories to tell us. Including a story about going to the bush to become a man. It's an interesting story but I guess I'll leave to tell it to you in person haha.

At night we're still playing games. Elder Loader doesn't really like games but he'll play every now and then. Elder Mafundityala loves the Monopoly Deal though.

He also likes to switch off the pump when we're showering. So Elder Collette made a plan to turn off the pump and lights at the same time and tell him the power went out. It worked pretty well.

Last night we taught a solid referal named Brother Capture. I'm not sure of his real name yet, but I think he will be a solid investigator from what we saw so we're praying. He's 17 and turning 18 in a couple months soo we will see.

Love you Mom talk to you soon

Elder Adair

February 2 2014

Sorry for the last couple of weeks. I will still get to email. We just had a couple weeks with computer problems. The internet isn't the best in Ghana so sometimes you just don't get lucky. So yes I'm still in Odoben I'll be with a guy named.. I forgot. But I'll meet him on Wednesday haha. So it's funny I've only served in 3 areas my whole mission. I kind of followed in Bro James Jackson's footsteps.

That's sweet. Dad doesn't really need to work as much now that all the kids are moved out anyways right? I imagine since you have 4 less mouths to feed.

How often does Cherish come to visit you guys nowadays? Has she been enjoying her job?

This week was Elder Harris's last week on Mission so for District Meeting he made us all brownies which were delicious. I gave an instruction of Recognizing the Spirit, and the Importance of having the spirit with you during the work. It went well I thought.

This week I was just studying for my next instruction on "Finding People to Teach". Haha I actually kind of did it for myself but I figure it was a good one for the whole district as well. It usually takes me a full week to prepare for instructions. Haha they make me nervous still even though I've been a district leader before. I just have a hard time thinking up topics to instruct on, and then making them interesting and long enough to fill the 1 hr 30 min to 2 hour instruction. Turns out that they're actually doing a combined district meeting this week anyways and so Elder Wade will instruct instead of me.

So with Transfer News Elder Adams (My current companion from Utah) is going to Takoradi which is in the West of the Mission While I'm on the East side. He's going to be with one of his Missionary Training Center people he came with. Elder Collins (same apartment as me from California) is moving to Assin Fosu to train a new missionary, He'll be a great trainer. He's a very sweet guy. Elder Loader (from California) is training a new missionary in the same apartment as me. So it'll be fun. Elder Loader's a sweet guy haha.

On Saturday Elder Collins, Elder Loader, and Elder Brown went to the training meeting so Elder Harris came with Elder Adams and I. It was a slow day but we did teach a nice Less active lesson about the 10 virgins which was a nice lesson and she committed to coming to the church. It didn't end up happening, but I still thought it was a good lesson. We also got a nice referal from a member that will hopefully progress into something.

It was funeral day so when we went to get Fufu from our usual Chop Bar it was rented for making food specially for the funeral. But we went to the chop bar that usually isn't open and it was and I love the fufu there the best so I was happy.

We all met up when they got back, but it started raining so Elder Harris and Elder Brown slept over the night. They were telling scary stories most of the night haha it was kind of fun. Then we put our 4 mattresses together so we could have 6 of us together. Elder Brown made me laugh when he started rolling across everybody saying "steam roller!" haha that guy's funny.

On Sunday we went to pick up our investigator to come to church but her daughter was very sick so she said she wasn't able to come. Haha our church hasn't been starting until like 8:45 instead of 8:30 because everyone has been coming so late. Brother Thomas taught Elder's Quorum which he is a good teacher I like it when he teaches. I was asking the boy next to me questions to see if he understood and I felt like I was able to help him understand a bit better which was nice.

After church we went out for a bit and tried to find people to teach but not much success.

Well there's a bit of my week.

Love you guys.

Elder Adair

January 13 2014

Wow Texas again? Soo if you can get to Texas for that much. How much would it cost me to go to places like England, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya?

The District has been good. I've actually only done 1 instruction so far because the Asikuma Elders apartment wasn't finished so we combined with another district the past 2 weeks.

Umm the emails have been jumbled around. Today I'm emailing on Monday late at night because we went to Cape Coast as a Zone Activity and visited Elmina castle. Last week we emailed in Swedru on Monday for P-day. The week before that it was combined districts in Swedru so we just emailed in Swedru on Tuesday. My area in Odoben always seems to have random emailing since we tend to have to travel a lot.

The water has been working great. We now have enough water for our apartment to supply a whole town for hundreds of years. Soo we now have working showers, toilets, etc. We'll probably never have problems with water ever again.

I don't know how much they carry on their head. They can carry really heavy stuff though if they want to. They usually send the kids to fetch water and I swear it's like fifty pounds of water that an 8 year old carrys. I do not understand how it is possible. From my understanding the water should crush them. As well if they go to farm they'll walk home a couple miles with a big bucket of oranges, Cassava, Plantain, Firewood, etc. I don't know they do it.

This week we were working hard with Bro Eric, he seemed to be gaining a testimony of the message we had to share. But when it came to visiting the church he made up excuses of why he didn't come.

As well we were teaching Bro. Shaibu, he's a muslim but was really interested in the message we had to share.  But he had to help them build a house or something on Sunday so he wasn't able to visit the church either. But ya with his religion and everything it will probably be a very hard switch.

Love you

Elder Adair

Jan 6 2014

Hey mom,

 

Wow sweet Brandon will do a great job at Home Depot and with the schooling.

 

Nicky sent me an email about what he's up to. It was good to hear from him, sounds like he's doing well.

 

Yes it's nice to be District Leader again, it gives me a chance to learn how to teach better.

 

Sister Evelyn hasn't come back from her vacation for the school break. But we'll see next week I guess.

 

Bro Eric is still doing well, this week he had a family member who named their baby so he wasn't able to make it to church, but we are hoping for this coming week. He likes the teachings though and he keeps telling us that it is true. I'm not sure that he has quite understood that we mean that it is the only true church though. A lot will depend on if his member friend Sis Millicient will be serious as well.

 

Sister Vida likes the teachings but she's not really willing to sacrifice her time to learn. I think eventually in the future she will join the church, just because her daughter is very converted.

 

This week we went to farm with Elder Collins and Elder Loader to help their recent convert. So we some weeding with their macheties or cutlasses. Just for a couple hours though so it wasn't hard really. Then they made us some Plantain "Brahdi" with Kotumbre Froyeh - Green Leaf Stew. Apparently Sis Sarah was cooking the stew and just stook the oil and the plastic bag in together and just let the plastic bag melt in it. Elder Loader saw it but didn't tell us until afterwards. Haha and now he's sick. He's been running to the toilet a lot.

 

We did a lot of talking to people on the streets this week, A few lessons with members trying to strengthen their understanding of the gospel and helping them to do missionary work.

 

This week a lot of the members came to church for the new year. It was nice to see everyone to come. It gives you a bit of courage :). Brother Ivie came as well and he instructed the branch a bit about how they should sit together as families during sacrament meeting, as well he talking in Sunday School about them teaching the lessons in English. He explained that speaking Fante is fine if they are just planning on living in the village forever, but if they want to help themselves and go on to University and further their education they need to know how to speak English. He explained that by speaking in Fante they aren't doing themselves a favor. He also explained the importance of coming to church on time, and using the correct books for teaching and such.

 

Sister Georgina and Sister Ester started coming to church again so we've started reviewing Lesson 1, Lesson 2 and Lesson 3. Haha I'm giving you homework, do you know what those three lessons are? Those 3 Lessons are what we should be sharing with our friends. It helps them focus on the big picture of things.

 

They are both younger 15 and 14 so if they do continue to learn and keep their commitments then it will be probably a couple months or so before they will be baptized. We actually found out that their mother is actually a different person than we supposed her to be as well. So apparently Them and Sister Mavis (A member) are cousins rather than Step Sisters. Ghanains make it so confusing when they tell you who is their brother, sister, or father. Really they could just be meaning they are close to each other.

 

During study I was reviewing about teaching skills, kind of just gliding through them

 

 for example teaching in Unity. How you should be switching off with your companion every few minutes, how you should bear testimony of what your companion has shared, and when you aren't talking you should be paying attention to how the investigator is responding by his actions.

 

or teaching with a member. It strengthens the members testimony as well as giving support to those you are teaching by giving them a friend. Especially bringing recent converts, and if they are from the same old church it is even better.

 

teaching for understanding - If you just teach but in the end they don't understand you've wasted your time. So it's important to ask them what questions they have about what you've taught or to restate what they understood from what you taught them.

 

teaching from the scriptures - the prophets have asked us to teach from the scriptures. To do so we introduce the scripture's background info a little bit, read the verse together and explain words they might not understand, and then apply it to them for example if you read about baptism you would relate it to them and then promise them of the blessings that will come as they do so and then bear your own testimony about the blessings you've received as you've done so.

 

asking questions - Jesus Christ asked a lot of questions which made the people think and helped them apply what he taught. I'd written down how Sister Shulz talked about using What, How, and Why questions which help the investigators to apply what you're teaching them.

 

Soo yup there's a little bit about my week.

 

Love you

 

Elder Adair