January 7 2013

Heyy

 

Thanks for the update on your week. Sounds like things are going well. Sorry Tyson for not getting extra time. Sounds like a cool firework show you guys got to see though that's cool.

 

Hey Les Miserables, I've always wanted to see that musical. I've heard it's good but I've never seen it before. How was it?

  

The 2 weeks thing is for sure. I will be staying in the field two weeks longer than when first called but I'm actually glad about it because at one point in my mission I was sick for 2 weeks. Now I get to make it up a bit :).

Noww.. I was going to tell you about my week, but I don't have my planner for last week since it's a new transfer. soo it's not as easy to remember.. But I'll try for you

 

Oh by the way transfer news came and Elder Shinasi and I will be staying together for 2 more months (this transfer will be 8 weeks instead of 6 because of the 2 week change for the MTC thing)

 

Soo on Monday. I wrote you guys annndd umm. uh. I can't remember. The days are all mixed up in my head.

 

Things I can remember that happened at some point this week -

 

One of our recent converts has been proselyting with us. He's sweet! He knows the bible really well as well soo he's always pulling out scriptures while we're teaching. And for Christmas we bought him a bible and triple combination with the index, topical guide, and bible dictionary. And while we were teaching one guy about alcohol not being good he flipped to the topical guide and found scriptures to back it up as well. Haha I was happy about that. And he's really persistent and wants to go on a mission. I definately think he will. On Sunday he brought 2 of his brothers and his sister as well and then one of his friends. He has a strong testimony and has a lot of friends in the church as well. The friend that he brought to church though we've been teaching this week and he believes that everything we've taught is true. The problem is that his Grandmother won't let him leave his other church.. So we'll work with that. But his friend had friends in the church as well. In fact his best friend comes to our church soo if we can just get his Grandmother to allow him then I'm sure he'll become a strong member. But ya he's been referring us to all of his friends and even random people on the street that he finds to share the gospel.

 

We met with the couple we've been meeting with and they love everything we've taught them. Even the wife still wants to be baptized. But the guy is still struggling with getting an answer. I'm not sure what is holding him back. They promised to come to church as well but didn't show up.. So it's strange. I still feel like one day they will come.

 

One of the guys we were teaching is still concerned about money, but he loves the church at the same time. I think it's mostly because we're two white guys and he wants to go to England though. Which is kind of interesting because from what Elder Shinasi has told me is that they want to go to England so bad, but when they finally get to England all they want to do is go back home. But he didn't end up coming to church. Some of his comments made me a chuckle a little bit.. Like about him being a lion, and if someone has an evil spirit that wants to come and destroy him he would be able to destroy them with his spirit.. Just had to add that. Too funny not to.

 

Umm what else. I was sick with a sore throat which has changed into a runny nose and headache for the past few days. It's hard to proselyte like that. But hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow.

 

A few of those who we taught were able to receive the priestood this Sunday as well which was a special experience. I feel a lot more confident about them in this ward because there are so many members to help lift them as well.

 

But yup that's all the info you get for this week.

 

Hope everything's going well back home. Talk to you next week.

 

Love you

 

Elder Brady Adair

December 31 2012

Haha that's funny I called 1/2 hour early on Christmas, it sounds like it worked out perfectly because I actually called half an hour later than I was thinking. A member had prepared us a huge bowl of Fufu so it took me a while to finish it (And you don't leave until you are finished).

    My ties are fine. And I can get a tie for 1 Cedi if I ever want to get one.

Ya, it definately didn't feel like Christmas over here. It's totally a different culture for Christmas time here.

   It was a Zone service project. We took the wrong tro tro (bus) and ended up in the middle of no where so we went back home. Ya we were suppose to do the service, but the rest of the zone just did it.

   No I haven't used the money. There isn't really anything I need to buy. I actually lost my phone chip the other day soo it might end up costing 40 Cedis and I'll use the money on that :P.

            For the Throw blanket I haven't used it because it's hot enough in Ghana so we don't use blankets at all. My other apartment got cold for a couple weeks because the Elders were keeping the windows open and using their fans. But I'll save it until I come home if I can and then I'll use it then.

         Haha as for the clippers they exploded on Elder Holder soo we just go to the clipper guy now.

 

As for the mission field this week I think I told you most of it but here you go

 

Monday we had a Carole night in Takoradi with the whole stake and a couple of our recent converts came. During it the people started dancing in the front so we joined in (i'm still not sure if we weren't suppose to do that, but it was fun) and the Ghanains got really excited to see white people dancing. Then one of our recent converts played his song on the guitar which was cool, and afterwards I did a song. The guitar was tuned too high so I was straining but the Ghanains didn't care at all they loved it.

 

Tuesday for Christmas we had most of our appointments cancel but we had a quick district meeting where the missionaries just bore their testimonies. Then we met with a family without the parents, it was a sweet lesson though. We just sang a hymn together for Christmas which really invited the spirit. But it was hard at the same time because all the kids went to different churches so it was a challenge to teach them and keep them all interested. (People who can teach more than one person at a time are amazing teachers to me, it's difficult to keep everyone's attention.)

Then we had a member invite all the missionaries over for dinner so we had a big Bowl of Fufu with Groundnut soup. Finally I got to see you guys and talk for a bit. And our last person wasn't home as well.

 

Some Church Members

Wednesday we tried to meet with a bunch of people but they either weren't there or they were busy. We met a couple girls and taught them about baptism and they seemed interested. We also met with another guy in preparing him for his baptism. Then we were just finding new people throughout the day, but not to much success, and no members were home when we went. I went to one at the end but it was kind of a disaster. Haha.. All right I'll even tell you about it. We sat down together and I was just chatting with them trying to make them feel comfortable.. I asked them if there was any service in the ward we could do.. And then I just blurted out how we hadn't come to their house for a while and we were wondering if there was anyone they'd like us to see and they just said no. Yup.

 

Thursday We got out after weekly planning and eating lunch (which is like 1) and as we were leaving our neighbor asked us "You're finally leaving?" And I felt kind of bad, but hey I have to stick with the rules soo there's really nothing to be ashamed about. The first lesson we went to cancelled and then we met with a recent convert and just got to see how much he remembered of the restoration. We also met with a guy by his house and shared about baptism. The guy was mostly worried about money, but he's still a potential. Then we called up a guy who was like a biomed student and got to meet with him and share baptism. He was a smart guy and understood a lot about baptism soo it was a pretty straightforward lesson. Then we just met with a member to see if she had anyone she wanted us to go and visit, she said the people she knew were gone for holiday but when they come she'll let us know. Then we met with one of recent converts referrals and we found out she actually has a sister in the ward as well.

 

Friday we met an investigator and talked about families, the godhead, and prophets and invited him to church and he said he'd come. We met another guy who knows his scriptures really well but he hadn't kept his assignment at all so we weren't able to give him a Book of Mormon, sounds like we might have to drop him.. he was a really cool guy. Then we started contacting again and met a couple people.. one of them stopped the lesson half way and said it was too late haha, Then we met a muslim and shared the restoration with him. I really enjoyed it. The restoration really is the perfect thing to share with Muslims. I've always wondered what the best approach was, but that approach has been the best way so far and he wanted to meet again.

 

Saturday we went out with the AP's and had an alright day. But I lost my chip for my phone.

 

Saturday we had 7 investigators at church.. but they were all mostly kids soo it's not really that great.

 

And I'm out of time soo you will never know what happened the last two days

 

But yup I'm just trying to work smart as a missionary but it's hard. One of these days I'll figure it out.

 

Soo yup love you guys

 

 Elder Brady Adair

December 24 2012

Well you guys forgot about me on Christmas Eve :P

 

Haha no it's fine I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.

 

Soo I'll tell you about my week.

 

Mm Monday we just did a quick Family Home Evening with one of our investigators who was getting baptized on Wednesday. It went well and his brothers and sisters came and played some card games with us as well which was fun.  It was cool when we showed up that he was teaching one of his friends the things that we taught him about the gospel. And he was doing really well at it. I hope he becomes a missionary one day because he knows his scriptures really well.

 

Tuesday we had District Meeting and we prepared for our Christmas Devotional thing on Friday. We were singing hymn 214 as a District. Haha it was suppose to be a talent show.. and we couldn't really think of anything we could do as a District. There were some funny talents though. We also started filling the baptismal font but the pipe wasn't working that well.. it was coming out really slow. We just had a couple lessons the whole day. People liked disappearing that day.

 

Wednesday I woke up at 4:15 to be ready for a zone service project we were doing for the deaf. We ended up leaving at 5:30 and getting to where we thought we were suppose to be.. ended up waiting for an hour.. finding we were in the wrong spot.. taking a tro tro.. getting lost. Giving up and coming home.

Got ready. Studied. Called the zone leaders to get a key to the chapel. They told us the font was totally empty. They said they'd try and come to the chapel but they had a couple lessons first. We took a tro to the chapel. Luckily Elder Shinasi saw them as we were going so we dropped off and grabbed the keys. (Talk about a miracle)

We walked to the chapel.. And yup there was no water in the font. We spent forever figuring out how we were going to fill up the font. We thought about buckets like last time.. But having only two people and having hardly any water left in the tank and just a few hours left until the baptism it didn't work. We tried the janitors closet water, but it was coming out super slow too. We found the grass hose, but the hose pipe didn't fit on the spout. We tried using a bunch of tape to just hook it to it.. didn't work. We tried rolling up some plastic paper and making like a funnel and taping it.. We tried stuffing a sachet water bag inside the hose and taping it to the outside of the spout.. We were ready to give up. Bishop told us we could hire some boys to use buckets to fill it up from the tank. Eventually I just took off the spout and stuffed the hose up the pipe thing and somehow it worked out. Once again the water wasn't very high but we were able to pull of the baptism without any problems.

 

Thursday most of our appointments failed again. We met with a member and he gave us someone we could go and see that had some questions about the godhead. We're just waiting until he gives us the go ahead now. While contacting we met some kid's mom that we had met earlier but as we discussed with the mom she talked about how she had a Book of Mormon but had hidden it away because she thought it was an evil book(she didn't want to throw it away in case it actually was god's book). But she told us she felt good about it after we had talked about it and said she'd find it and start reading it. Her boy seemed serious as well so I'm excited to see if that goes anywhere. We also talked with another lady about the restoration and how Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ.

 

Friday we had the Christmas Party. We had a little Nativity. Had a short talent show. I got to see Elder Barnett which was sweet. We watched forever strong which was cool. Had some food. And for a present they gave us a Kente Tie (I dont' know if i've told you that Ghana is famous for their Kente clothe) and on the Kente Tie it has the Gye Nyame symbol which means "Only God" (I guess to say that everything is possible through God) and it also has "Kia Kaha" written on it which means "Forever Strong". It's a sweet tie, but it'll probably be destroyed by the time I get home so I hope I can get another. We didn't end up getting home until like 8:30.

 

Saturday We met with a few people and I'm hoping a couple of them will turn out to be serious. But none of them accepted coming to church Sunday.

 

Sunday I told the Bishop about the confirmations and he told us that today was the day that the missionary's were suppose to take over church for the day and be in charge of Sacrament meeting, Sunday School, And Priestood. (Haha my heart sank when he said those words) Luckily he said because they hadn't warned us earlier he'd just have Elder Shinasi say a prayer and I could give a talk and the other two missionaries could give talks as well. The other missionaries ended up not having to give a talk. And they only had me talk for 5 minutes which went by super fast, I started talking and then they started tapping my shoulder telling me to stop.

I was super tired the whole day and we walked clear out to Fijai to start contacting.. It's like an hour walk though soo I feel like it's kind of a waste of time. But we found a couple of people. Sadly the Christmas season isn't in our favor because everyone's preparing for presentations in their churches. (Haha there celebration is church, not presents :P)

 

Well there's my week in a nutshell. If you've got any ideas for improvement just shout them out.

 

Love you, See you Tomorrow.

 

Elder Brady Adair

 

December 17 2012

I'm excited to get to talk to you guys on Skype, but 30 minutes will go in no time. That's weird to think he's 2 years old! Yikes. Times flying by.

 

Haha I'll have to wait a while to see that Nativity Video.

 

I can't even remember what letters I've sent anymore. This email system is nice because it reminds me of who I've written back. But ah Mitch I miss that guy. How was he doing? Did you get to talk much? Tell him I'm expecting a long email for Christmas, or else he's in big trouble when I get back. :P And that means this Christmas not next Christmas (no excuses).

 

Oo the great gingerbread house party in which I've never made a successful gingerbread house that could stand.

 

Wait how far along is Emily in her pregnancy? I can't remember how long ago you told me about it.

 

Haha soo with the video with Elder Barnett (My companion who had my memory card), can you tell me what he said? I got to see his new house but I didn't get to hear what he said in the video because I'm not allowed to wear headphones and the computer I was on didn't have sound. But ya he was a sweet companion.

 

Mm I'm not sure I've gotten over my picky eating. But I can probably eat anything you want me to eat.

 

The video of us getting water out of a whole was us filling up the baptismal font. One bucket at a time. After that video I climbed down inside the whole and was soaked with water for the baptism. It was an interesting experience.

 

Ya right after you guys told me that you visited the Alligators I got to go see them. But I thought you guys got to touch them as well.

 

That guitar was the nicest one I've found it Ghana, I'm not sure which missionary bought it but it almost seems like it's from a different country.

 

Yes they have Cocoa trees here (I haven't seen one in the areas I've been, but I know there's a factory near by here), In fact I've heard Ghana makes the best chocolate in the world. But it's expensive for them to make. I still haven't bought a chocolate bar here though so I can't tell you how good it is. Maybe I'll get one today.

 

Mm the mosquitos haven't bothered me much. Elder Shinasi seems to get bitten alot. I've gotten just a few mosquito bites lately.

 

Yup I'm all set for Skype on Christmas, thank you.

 

So this week we've mostly been knocking on doors going from house to house searching for new investigators. We haven't had much luck with that though.

 

We were able to do some service for one guy though in painting his house. We only got to paint half of his house before we had to leave to get ready for someone else we had to teach, but it was a good experience and he ended up coming to church on Sunday.

 

We've been preparing for a baptism this coming Wednesday. I'm terrible at planning, but I'm getting a small understanding of how to prepare for the next time it happens.

 

We had one family commit to coming to Church and they didn't show up. It was sad. They've come a few times, and they're growing in their testimony of the things we're saying, but when we invited the guy to be baptized he wasn't too happy because he had been baptized before and felt that it was right. We'll keep working with them though, it's too bad we only see them once a week.

 

I think something I'm learning is just judging my work according to what God thinks rather than what other people think.  

 

I think some things I can work on is helping the investigators have good friends in the church. Are there any ideas you guys have on how I can help the investigators have friends? Mostly I've just been getting people to sit with them at church to help them have friends. Seminary, Institute, and Midweek are usually good as well but they're usually working during the times those things happen.

 

Alright well I love you guys

 

Elder Brady Adair

 

Dec 4 2012

Hey!

 I am in my new area and I'm loving it!

Mm I haven't seen any monkeys here. There was one lady in an area close to mine that had one. But the day I went on splits to their area she had sold it so I never got to see it.

But the trees are awesome here. Kweikuma (the area i'm in now) is even cooler than my last area. They just have all different types of decorative trees here. But mostly it's coconut trees, palm trees, and plantain trees. I've seen some cool evergreen trees here as well that I hadn't seen in Cape Coast (my last area).

 

Strange things you see here are big spiders (we keep finding them in our apartment), cockroaches, lizards (I understand what Todd meant when he said you'd see lizards on the walls at places they'd eat, centipedes (or maybe they're millipedes? I'm not sure), Goats & Chickens (they just wander the streets), I've seen some turkeys (which I hadn't seen in Cape Coast), They had a big Muslim  party where they slaughtered a big cow (we saw it walking home and it was fine, the next day going out it was slaughtered and hung up roasting), they have dogs here but they aren't really pets they're usually for eating (but i'm in a nicer area now so sometimes you see someone with a pet dog), cats are for eating (I still haven't eaten dog or cat, but i'll definately eat it before I finish), I saw a vulture once in my last area (those things are huge, I never realized how scary looking they are), you see a lot of ravens but here there's a lot of diversity of birds.

 

Haha I don't remember what I wanted for Christmas. I'm pretty relaxed with the stuff that I have. Ohhh maybe Calcium pills? Like one's that I could just take one a day and get my full calcium needs? With the increase on our subsistence money I've been getting some powdered milk so I'm finally getting some calcium.

 

I ate a full crab. They just eat it shell and all. It actually wasn't too bad.

 

I'm doing good with the investigators.

 

One guy we're teaching is fully ready for the gospel so really we're just going over what he needs to know before he's baptized and he has friends in the church so it's good.

 

One guy has really grown in his testimony. He believes in Joseph Smith being a prophet and the Book of Mormon and everything, but he's just having a little difficulty believing there is only one true church, but as we talked about it more he's understanding more.

 

Another guy is continually coming to church but he's been busy with school and stuff so we haven't been able to teach him as much. Plus he's probably moving out of the country soon soo we'll just work to make sure he believes this is the true church and everything. But he seems to feel good about everything.

 

Another guy we're teaching is loving the teachings and even brought his little brother and sister. (I didn't realize his sister spoke English til this Sunday because she's always been shy though and just speaks in Fante.)

 

There's a couple we're teaching as well and they have a child, but the man is having a hard time comparing the teachings to the things that he's learned. They've come 3 weeks in a row to church now though. His wife believes though. Every time we go and see them they have lots of questions which is cool because it makes us go home and study.

 

So the work is going well in the area.

 

Sorry about the short emails you've been getting but sometimes I get 4 or 5 emails and it's hard to reply to all of them in just 1 hour.

  

Soo yup I'm just trying to be a good missionary. I'm still not working very well with members though. Because I don't like just taking a member to a lesson and them sitting there the whole lesson getting bored.. but then it's hard to find time to prepare them for a lesson so they can teach. Hmm.

 

Elder Shinasi and I get along great. We seem to have the same teaching style as well so it's easy to teach people and help them understand. He really likes to answer whatever question comes at him as well so he knows his scriptures well and he's helping me improve.

 

Umm yup. I love you guys thanks for the great example you've been to me.

 

Elder Adair

November 19 2012

 

Oo Thanksgiving is coming up now? I forgot this was the season of Holidays. I've started singing a couple Christmas songs over here, but it feels weird because there's no snow or Christmas trees. I'm glad though because that would remind me too much of home.

 

Sounds like the family is doing well :) Thanks for the update.

 

For me the week has been pretty good. This week we had a conference for Africa and we got to hear from the prophet, but it was hard to get investigators to church again because it was in Takoradi. The church members encouraged our investigators not to come because they wouldn't be able to hear anyways haha. (Which sounds strange, but really they can't understand our American accents. Even still when I'm teaching, people can understand Elder Shinasi far better than they can understand me.) But the prophet spoke about rescuing the less actives and he gave some stories about war and such. It was good for me. It's a good reminder for me because I think a lot of the time we get too relaxed with ourselves and with all the time we have - that we don't look out for those who are struggling.

 

Umm two of the guys we're teaching are progressing really well - (We've been advised we can't use actual names because it's illegal. Good advice right?)- But we'll call them Kofi and Quame. One of them we met on the street and Elder Shinasi has been continually saying he wants to try out Yam (I'm not a big fan so I haven't really encouraged him) Anyways we were passing a place where they were selling it and the lady was telling us to come buy some. We said "No we don't have enough money", and so a random guy, Kofi, offered to buy it for us. (And using my extreme book of mormon knowledge about.. Ammon? Haha maybe not extreme knowledge.. But about how the King offered him half of his Kingdom and instead he asked for the King to listen to the gospel) Soo I turned him down and said "No, we aren't here for food, but we'd love to share the gospel with you".. and it started from there. We were able to teach him about how Christ was baptized (Matthew 3:13-17, and then it's symbolism of death, burial, ressurection - Romans 6:3-5.. And such and such) And he got all choked up and was about to cry. And from then on he's just been seriously thinking about everything we've shared with him. He came to church and loved it and accepted to be baptized. This week he wasn't able to come to church because his friend died and they were having a funeral, but ya he's a sweet guy.

 

The other guy was playing guitar on the street to his girlfriend and we were able to share with him about the temples and how families could be together forever. He was surprised and wanted to learn more so we just took his address and a while later returned. We taught him about baptism's for the dead because his grandmother had died.. Taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And his testimony is just really growing soo we're really excited for these two.

 

A third guy we've been teaching who's totally prepared for baptism but we just haven't had time to teach him. But we have finally been able to teach him about the plan of salvation and he just loved it. He's been coming to church for a couple months now as well so he'll for sure be baptized in the coming month.

 

There's also a couple family that we're teaching. I get a little nervous with them and all their questions. It makes me realize how small my scripture knowledge is. They came to church, but found it kind of boring. But they seem to agree with all of the teachings soo it's just really a matter of whether they'll give up drums for hymns.

 

Mm we keep finding new people, but then they dont' show up for the second lesson.

 

The Mission President's encouraged us to work smart soo this week I've set aside time for us to see members and get them involved in the work. Because usually the problem is we just have so many appointments that we just don't have time to see the members. (Not that we aren't seeing them, but I think it will be more effective now that I've set the time aside ahead of time)

 

But any missionary tips from any old missionaries back home? How to work with members?

 

Elder Shinasi is doing well as a missionary, I just hope that I'm training him right. But I'm trying to improve and make sure he's ready to train in the next 6 weeks.

 

I'm going to try and send you pictures today through the mail. Umm I'm sorry I haven't taken very many pictures. And I didn't really take pictures of the environment. Most of my memory was taken up from video's I took of me playing songs on the guitar haha.

 

Well love you, I'm not sure which day Thanksgiving is on soo Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Elder Adair

 

 

November 5th 2012

That's good advice about looking at people as they can become rather than what you see. I saw that talk when I went to midweek a couple weeks ago, but I left before they talked about it. I'm sure it would have been in Fante anyways though. My companion is getting use to not understanding anything at church.

 

But hey that reminds me, Yesterday I got to watch part of General Conference! Elder Hollands was powerful like usual, and I think the other was Dallan H Oaks? About the Family? Those were cool. I also loved L Tom Perry's letter to his mom haha I was totally crying during that part, his letter was perfect haha it was like it came straight from my mouth to you. Then Thomas S Monson about recording our blessings in our journals. That's something I want to improve on. I need to catch up on my journal from this past week. So far I've done well on writing in it everyday except for like the MTC I think. I don't know if that's advised to do one week at once, but it seems to work fine for me.

 

Mitch Davis, that guy. Man I miss him. But he's still keeping up with his recording studio? Sweet! I'll come home to a professional studio. Is he going to school right now for recording or he's just getting people by himself? He's a smart guy he'll probably get a business started all by himself. Haha I'm glad his brother still listens to my music as well.

 

Eh it's alright mom I can get good food here in Ghana. If I really wanted to I'm sure I could find a pizza place. Just make sure that you guys set up an account for me on Skype, in fact get on it right now and send me the details so I can be prepared to Skype you during Christmas.

 

The Dear Elder letters haven't come yet, but I'm in a farther area from the mission home now so letters will probably take twice as long. Err hmm.. I know Elder Shinasi got a couple letters though.. Give it a couple more weeks, if they don't come then you can just start sending them the normal way. How many letters have you sent through Dear Elder?

Soo hopefully I'll send you some pictures next week. But you're going to be disappointed because I haven't taken very many. You'll just get to see a couple of the people that we taught.

 

The week's been good, we've just been finding new people to teach and we've been having good success. I'm trying to figure out how I can work with the members better though. A lot of the people we've found through our own efforts and so they don't really have a friend in the church or anything yet.

 

Well I better start writing Cherish before my time runs out. Love you!

 

Elder Adair