15 April 2013

Hey mom sorry about last week. My companion's clothes were still wet and soo we didn't get out until P-day was over.. So I wrote you a letter instead. I wasn't sure what to do really.

I've been doing well. The area is good and this Sunday was sweet. 4 of our investigators came to church and 2 of them seem serious soo we're praying. 1 of them (Sis Patience) we've been working with since I got here and she never came until today soo I was excited. But I also had to do a couple Baptismal Interviews so I didn't get to talk to them much. 

Sis Evelyn is our recent converts step mother and she's for sure going to be baptized at the end of the month

Sis Anita is a friend to Bro Emmanuel and we had backed off for a while because she wasn't keeping commitments but then she surprised us by coming this week. - She knows that the gospel is true but doesn't want to leave her church.. Soo we'll give it time.

Finally Sis Elizabeth, She lives far from the church so I was surprised when she showed up. For her at first she didn't like the sound of the Book of Mormon but as we explained about it she became really interested. We've only taught her a couple times soo we'll focus on her more now.

This Wednesday we have 15 New Missionaries coming and only like 4 going. By the End of the year we'll go from 100 to 200 Missionaries.

The Last baptism was a couple months ago. Soo we're trying to figure out what we're doing wrong.

Umm my companion would like..  I don't know. I don't think he'd like chocolate, and pretty much anything else you'd ever need you can buy here.

Mm I went to the Primary a couple weeks ago, but they were speaking in Fante so I couldn't understand anything. I don't have a guitar, Elder Trevin Adair has one at his apartment, but he just got called to Elmina to train a new missionary.

The kids don't play instruments really. The Bishops son plays the piano for sacrament and there's one other guy that plays the piano when he comes (I felt bad, the other day he asked me to play the closing song and I totally forgot)

Nope I still haven't seen Conference yet. Maybe in a month or so. Hey at least I know I'll be in this area still (I got transfer news Saturday and I'm staying in Kweikuma with Elder Oodoh) soo the conference will be in English! Yupee.

Thanks for the scripture about the Holy Ghost, I think it's something I can work on a lot haha.

Soo time is flying by quickly.

I got a sore throat this week, but luckily it was only bad for a day and then the rest of the week I've been fine with talking and everything. Haha I was drinking loads of water and I had to go find a toilet after every lesson. 

My area is full of Muslims and they're extremely nice, but it's interesting that most of them I teach want to be Christian. Their religion has some disowning thing if you stop going to their mosk soo nobody wants to leave.

We also saw Sister Jennifer this week, she and her husband were very serious about the church since I came here, until she had her baby and everything went upside down.. Now her husband works all the time and she's busy taking care of the 2 kids. I asked her if she remembered anything we'd taught with her and she said she'd forgotten it all.. Heart Breaker.

Brother Bynee believes in the Book of Mormon, but his wife hardly wants to hear about it.. And he works on Sunday. :(

Sister Vida has been sick for a long time, we finally got to the Book of Mormon with her and she wouldn't take it. But when we see her again we'll discuss it more with her.

Yup and that's mostly the area for now

Love you guys

Elder Adair

April 1 2013

Uh Huh Thanks for letting me know when Mother's Day is :) I probably wouldn't have found out until the day.

I've only got short time to email today, but yes I got dad's letter 

Sorry to here Jaxon was sick. That's the biggest thing they're always telling us is to drink water here. Water is the miracle drug. The most severe sicknesses missionaries get are solved by drinking water.

The weather sounds nice over there though. Those bike rides were always the best.

Mm China Platter. 

Mm this week we've been searching for new investigators

There's a couple we've been teaching with a baby and the father is understanding really well and wants to come to the church but has work on Sundays. His wife was doing really well until we came to the Book of Mormon and people around her area have been telling her that it was a book we made up.. So we're just working with that one

Then there's a girl that's a Sister to a recent convert we've been teaching, but her mom keeps sending her in the morning on Sunday's so she isn't able to come to church. The hardest thing about older people is that they don't speak English.. Soo it doesn't help.

There's also a lady named Vida who is mostly scared to leave her church, but I'm thinking that with time she'll join the church. We'll see.

Finally Anita who committed to a baptismal date, but isn't being serious. She told us her parents were making it so she couldn't come to church.. But we later found that her mom was practically encouraging her to come. Soo we've decided to leave her alone until she decides to be serious and tell us the truth.

But they are the main ones. Oh and there's a lady named Evelyn that came to church this Sunday who's Sisters to a recent convert. She seemed like she wants to learn so we will find out this week. 

Today was a bad Sunday for Recent Converts though. Only Emmanuel and Regina came which was sad

Anyways time up

Love you

Elder Brady Adair

25 March 2013

Hey mom,

Good to hear Cherish is doing well :P

Sorry Emily :P Don't worry next month you will have no sleep and have 3 kids to deal with :) Hehehehe, and I'll get to see them when they start talking. Sweetio.

Oo ya I liked that talk on the temple. And it's true there are always things we can improve on.

Mm I don't need new pants or shirts. I can get a nice shirt for 4 dollars here anyways. Soo expenses are cheap here.

For P-days this is the usual- 

Wake up. Soak my clothes. Do my clean up job (Dining Room, Kitchen, Bathrooms and Showers, or Sweeping and Mopping the Hallway), Sweep my room, Sweep the study room, Eat Breakfast, Wash all my white shirts, my undergarments, bedsheets, pants, socks etc. Then I shower, shave, Iron my shirt, Polish my shoes, If we're lucky we get to do devotional for 30 minutes (I'm still not sure if that's a requirement), Then I email for an hour while eating a loaf of bread :), Go shopping, Come home and eat dinner and while eating I might be able to write a letter. Then we head out for FHE. 

But Luckily Elder Oodoh and I bought a huge bag of rice and a huge box of chicken soo that covers most of the travel time to takoradi for shopping for the month rather than going week to week, and we can just shop at the local shops by our house. Soo today we were able to do some service for a member and I had about an hour still to write a letter.

Cape Coast is about an hour away by car. It's really not far at all. It's more just bad roads.

Cape Coast is like 3 hours from Accra I think? Once again it's the bad roads, not the distance that makes it take that long.

Being District Leader hasn't been that difficult really. It's basically just like being a normal missionary, except I need to teach the instructions in District Meeting soo I just have to use up my study time preparing.

The more difficult ones are being a Trainer and Zone Leader. But I've started getting more of a hang of the missionary life soo it's not that difficult. The hardest part are the first 3 months and then for me the shock of training for the first month or so.

Ya I'll let Elder Oodoh know. He's been a great companion to be with. He's taught me a lot about working with members more effectively, and a lot of other parts of the work. 

For Mother's day I think I'm just going to use a phone, because that was the best internet connection around here that I used on Christmas. 

When is Mother's day though?

Hey by the way can you send an email to Adam Creager asking if he ever got my letter? He hasn't emailed me back and I sent it quite a while ago. Tell him I'm sorry I can't email him, but I can only write him letters. Tell him to continue emailing me though because I can read his emails.

But don't stress about who's emailing me haha, mostly the emailing is just for you.

Sorry you got the email late tonight, it was power out.

The mission is going well and the gospel is true. 

I've been learning a lot about Charity lately, my companion likes to remind me a lot about it. But it's true that as you become Humble as a child and apply the principles of the gospel, your burdens become a lot lighter. I don't know if you guys have the Preach My Gospel Manual back at home, but if you study the Christlike Attribute section and then give yourself a few things throughout your week that you would like to improve on in that area. It's cool to see it make changes in your life.

Well I got to go Love you

Elder Brady Adair

March 4 2013

Hey I'm not sure if you went on vacation or where you went?

Grandma sent me an email saying I didn't have time to read emails? I don't know if I said something that made you think I don't have time to read emails?

This is week 3 of no email? You doing alright?

Soo This week I found out that Elder Shinasi is moving to Swedru and is white washing the area with Elder Randall. 

My new companion is Elder Oddo from Nigeria, so I'll get to meet him this Wednesday. We're staying in Kweikuma.

We're still striving to find new investigators. We're back to the point where no new people are coming to church and we aren't sure why. We're thinking we need to step it up with the members. And we've been slacking on teaching about promises soo we'll try that as well.

I'm really still not sure what to write in these emails. What do you guys want to hear about?

We did a FHE on Monday and the guy decided he didn't want us to read from the Book of Mormon and he just wants to read from the bible.. Silly silly

We taught about keeping our covenants to a recent convert who was struggling and it seemed to help out ( I'm still wondering if we're baptizing them too early though) 

On Tuesday We taught a guy who was taking off to school but he said he'd visit on Sunday (didn't happen)

We taught Suzy but we'd forgot to leave her with something to read soo that didn't help much with her keeping her commitments. She might be potential, or might not.

Anyways at the end of the week no one came to church except someone brought their sister whom wasn't a member and we'd never met. Hopefully she turns out to be serious soo that was kind of exciting.

A couple spot lights for the week:

Isaac has been reading the Book of Mormon and really feels that it's true and wasn't written by men's wisdom but by the inspiration of god. It was cool to see him reading it and applying it to his life.

We met a nice couple that have been keeping their commitments and although we have just started they seem to be gaining a testimony of what we shared.

Also during the week after district leader training I got to go out with a guy who was struggling with his companion and it was just nice to comfort him a bit and let him know that he's doing well. 

Finally one of our recent converts is falling in love with one of our investigators haha soo it's funny to see them holding hands after we teach her about the gospel. 

Mmm hmm Mm hmm. 

Elder Brady Adair

P.S. Love you

February 25 2013

Hellooooo

 

Another week's come and gone.

 

I got a call this morning that I have a meeting in Cape Coast as a District Leader. Here goes another step into the dark :). Woot.

 

Soo this week Regina, Joseph, and Shem were baptized and confirmed. They were so excited and they each love the church soo I'm sure they will stay strong.

 

Nich Jr, Misheal, and Nana didn't show up this week :( we'll keep helping them out.

 

Emmanuel and Prince are still strong and Emmanuel continues to be a powerful 2nd missionary.

 

No new people came to church this week. We're just meeting a lot of people who won't keep their commitments soo it's hard to know when to focus on new investigators.

 

Soo info on the people we're teaching

 

Richard believes the church is true but he doesn't really like coming to church, he wants to learn more deep doctrine rather than the basics we're teaching him. So we think we'll just do a study of the book of Revelations with him and see if that helps.

 

A girl named Anita, but she was busy when we were suppose to see her this week. She has potential though because she's friends with Emmanuel and noticed that their should only be one faith (which is rare).

 

A girl named Suzy, She's confusing. She doesn't seem to excited when we teach the message but afterwards she'll walk with us to our next appointments and says she'll come to church, but she hasn't come the past two weeks.

 

We stopped teaching Afful for a time because he's just lost interest. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. He just finds church boring and wants to dance.

 

Ken is a guy we met dirt road contacting, We've taught him the Restoration and Book of Mormon but he doesn't believe it, but says he will pray about it. He says if he gets an answer that he should read the Book of Mormon he'll read it, if not we should stick to the bible. Sooo let's hope he actually prays.

 

Isaac is a guy that is super smart and picks up on things quicker than anyone we've taught. He's read the first 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon and is really loving it, he couldn't come to church this week or next week, but he says the following week he will come.

 

Grace is a lady who's only free on Sunday, she can't read very well so it's super hard to tell if she's read. That gives me the idea to have her right down what she reads.. mm hmm good idea. We've taught her the Restoration and she seems to be slowly gaining a testimony but she keeps saying she won't leave her church.

 

Paul a guy we just met the other day, he's a cool guy but hasn't been reading so we taught him about keeping promises, either we've scared him off now or he'll start keeping commitments.

 

Lot is a guy that knows Shem soo we've taught him small but he hasn't kept any of his commitments either. He said he'd come to church but he didn't come.

 

Soo that's most of our main teaching pool. I don't feel like we're working smart because there aren't any members actively involved with any of these people except for Emmanuel and Nicholas who help us teach everyone.

 

Umm today if we still have time we're going to get pizza to celebrate my year mark. Hopefully we can find a pizza place in Takoradi.

 

The mission is going well, I've learnt a lot and am still growing.

 

The two attributes I've been working on this week is Charity and being Humble. It's cool because as you learn about the principles you can apply it throughout the day and it makes a difference in the teachings. Soo I guess I'd invite you guys to use Preach My Gospel and pick a couple attributes you want to work on and then study it and apply it throughout the week.

 

I know the gospel is true and as we apply it in our lives we'll find greater joy and meaning in our lives.

 

Hey dad I've got a goal for you to set as well. When I get home you're going to go through the temple with me alright? Alright.

 

Love you all

 

Elder Adair

 

February 18 2013

 

How's the family doing?

 

Cherish are you enjoying the work? Do you have much time? How big is Suzy? How's Todd's work?

 

Brandon how's the hospital? I'm still not clear exactly what you do for work. You're saving up to buy me a nice dinner when I get home right? :P Joke joke. I've probably said it a million times now, but I'm looking forward to getting to go to the Rec Center with you when I get back.

 

Emily how's being pregnant and having a kid at the same time? Any fun mood swings yet? Hehe. What's the news about Texas. Are you enjoying it now? How's Tyson liking it?

 

Brady how's it in Ghana? Enjoying the Fufu? What about the Rice Balls with Abenquan and Okra Soup and Fish?

 

Mom how's having no kids in the house? Umm do you still want a dress? I don't know if my style has become Ghanafied. The style in Ghana is basically everything goes.

 

Dad I can't talk about Politics so I'm not sure what topic we should move on to :). Let's see it's March.. and it was Valentine's day. Uh huh soo what did you guys do for your date? How's the work cut? When do you get to retire?

 

For me, the weeks been good. we've got 3 baptism's tomorrow. Regina(17), Joseph(13) and Shem(12). They're all young but I'm really confident they'll stay active for the rest of their lives.

 

We're still searching for investigators that will stay. For some reason they don't like to keep their commitments lately.

 

On Sunday we didn't have any new investigators come.

 

Brother Misheal got called as Elders Quorum Assistant and helped go out teaching with us during the week which was really cool.

 

Brother Nana got called as Assistant ward clerk.

 

Brother Emmanuel was suppose to be called as a ward missionary but something happened and he had to leave.

 

Brother Prince is doing well but he's been busy so we haven't been able to teach him at all

 

Brother Nicholas Jr had Pink Eye so he didn't come to church. He has the worst luck for getting sick.

 

Soo that's the update on Recent Converts. But any ideas on how we can help them get friends in the church? I think that's my biggest concern for them. Because I could get moved at any time. The ward has been really helpful in helping them out.

 

Umm my tooth finally fell out. I was eating rock hard spring rolls and pop. Soo I'm using the retainer now and it's fun to pop out my tooth to scare people. They think it's Juju at first. The problem is it makes it super hard to talk and now the Ghanains can't understand me at all.. they could hardly understand me in the first place.

 

So yup. We've gotten a few referals from members but the referals only show up the first time. Hopefully they'll turn into something though.

 

Oh I didn't tell you Elder Quinten L. Cook came and visited us. His wife shared about gaining Christlike attributes and she talked about a great way to gain them is to sing hymns. Sing a hymn about patience when you need more patience. Sing a hymn about Obedience when you need to be more Obedient etc.

 

He talked about Extending Commitments and Establishing the church where ever we are. That we are here to be ward and branch builders, not just to get baptisms. He talked a bit about D&C 112 as well which talks about being humble, and as we spread the gospel an effectual door will opened for us, and about this being the last dispensation and how we are responsible for the lives of those we are meant to teach.

 

It was cool to meet him.

 

Umm yup. Sooo I love you guys

 

Elder Brady Adair

 

P.S. Happy Valentines day last week :P

 

February 11 2013

Heyy

Wow Travis Carlile is taking off? Now I do feel old. But Yes that talk from
Elder Holland was sweet.

Which reminds me :). I have an assignment for you. :) Hehe

I want you to prepare someone to meet with the missionaries who work
in our ward/area. I don't know how busy the missionaries are in our
area or how they work, but maybe you could invite someone to a Family
Home Evening with the missionaries ( You could get a hold of the
missionaries and see what would work best for them even, like what
they would want you to do)

Even if it's just a normal lesson they share and you sit in and bear
your testimony that would be cool.

I was just reading a quote in Preach My Gospel from Gordan B Hinkley that said:

"It will be a great day when our people not only pray for the
missionaries, but ask the Lord to help them to assist the missionaries
who are laboring in their own ward."

Maybe you could even teach someone to do genealogy work for their
ancestors and then explain the reason you do genealogy work.

Or whatever creative idea you can come up with.

Soo I'm even giving you a time limit :P. You have until the end of
may. And I hope it makes you nervous. Hehe

Alsoo one of our investigators was asking me specifically how the
church uses the funds of the church, like how much money on chapels,
how much on temples, how much on missionary work.
  Can you find that out for me? I figure their has to be records of it
somewhere. Or is it all private information?

Haha I can't remember what I wrote in the beginning on Tia's letter
but that's funny. Scentsy candles eh?

Wow they actually are changing the postal system. How long until you
get to retire dad? Does that mean they'll lower your pension?

Oo I'm jealous of the plays. Those are always cool. I keep missing the
good ones though.

Mm the rainy season.. I can't remember when it was. It almost seems
like it was in July. But ya it cools down for the rainy season. Right
now it's hot and the power out's are starting up again, they haven't
had very many of them in this area I forgot what it was like.

My companion doesn't dance much, but maybe if you look up Elder
Shinasi on facebook you can find some of his videos, or maybe on
youtube. Haha he probably has long hair in some of the pictures
because he's a convert.

We live with 2 other missionaries. Elder Sandy from Sierre Leon, and
Elder Eruba from Uganda. They are cool, Elder Sandy made me a
wonderful bean stew the first couple of weeks he came. Elder Eruba
makes some powerful Chipati with bean stew as well. It sounds like if
you want to see the wild life you should go to Uganda. We talk
together small, mostly I can just never think of things to talk about
:P.

Mm creative things I've seen.. Mm I don't know if I told you how for
Christmas some of them would dress up in like clown costumes and go
around asking for money.

Mm the other day I met a guy that I liked his shoes and he told me he
had a tailor make them for him. sooo you can customize your shoes I
guess which is cool.

I don't know if I've ever told you that they wear Black and Red for
Funerals which happen every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (They have 3
day funerals). And it's more like a boring party where people just sit
in plastic chairs under a camping cover and they have super loud
speakers you can hear across the whole town playing rowdy music. Also
they'll tie red ribbons to their cars and get like 20 drivers to just
honk around the town.

For Weddings they wear White and blue. And they actually look kind of
high tech. But it's the same for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But the Funeral wear is what I imagined Africans to wear when I got here.

Africans churches love to sing and dance and speak in tongues so you
can hear the "Habina Habina" all the time.

The little kids love to shout from the top of the hills "Obruni
Chewing Gum (it sounds like they say Ching gum) Fou Wo Toe" which
means White man you have chewing gum on your butt. Most of the time I
don't think they know what it means though. I asked a little kid what
it meant and he told me "it's a story"

I'm still learning the Fante, but I'm terrible at hearing it and
saying it. Because of my American accent they mostly give up on trying
to teach me. Elder Shinasi picks it up really fast though and they
understand him soo I'm learning a bit from him.

I could get you a dress. I don't know if you want me to send it now or
if you want to wait until I come home and I'll bring it in my
suitcase. But Ya I think the dresses are pretty cheap. Like 20-60 Cedi
max. It's mostly just paying for what material you use.

Haha.. Pictures.. Woopsy. I better get on that.

Ya I'm sleeping great. I think I get more sleep on my mission than I
did back home. Except now I drink more water so I wake up like 3 times
a night.

Haha wow that would be interesting to meet a missionary from Ghana. He
must be from the states though. Usually American Ghanaians are
completely different from Ghanains that live here. I've met a couple
from London and Canada, they're a bit rude.

Our investigators well

Emmanuel's brother (13) and sister (17) are going to be baptized next week.

One of his brothers (18) keeps on having mood swings and not coming to
church soo we'll just have to give him time. But he loves the church
and it's teachings

Shem will be baptized next week as well. He's 12. He's a sweet kid.
Once again a bit stubborn about having lessons though :P.

A boy named Daniel (19) came to church this week, he brought his
friend Emmanuel, but they ended up leaving after sacrament meeting. I
think Daniel liked it alot but his friend didn't soo Daniel said he'd
come for sure next week.

Then Emmanuel brought a guy named William. (Seriously Emmanuel is like
a 3rd missionary now) We've taught William a few times but he's been
hard to get a hold of with his work schedule.

Welll I think I'm out of time. But the work is going well and We're
happy with whatever God decides to bless us with :).

The Church is true. Just like the sky is blue. God loves you too.

Your all time favorite

Elder Brady Adair