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

13 May 2013

Sorry last night I thought I had a vodafone chip for calling home, but when I got home I couldn't find it. And it was Sunday so I couldn't buy a chip. So today I'm going to buy one and call you guys at seven. I'll call quick after I'm finished emailing to let you know as well. Sorry.

 

My companion is going to call home today as well.

 

I haven't gotten any of the packages yet, but i'll let you know when they come.

 

Don't worry yourself too much about the missionary opportunity. I guess I forget that in Utah everybody is Lds, and so it's not as easy as it is here.

 

Soo today I have a full hour emailing :). Yay.

 

This week we had a baptism, Sister Evelyn. She really loves the church, and she wants to help her husband join. She's a really sweet lady and she's just been coming with her daughter in law.

 

Mm we also found a less active member who hasn't been coming, we taught him a couple times and then he disappeared. Hopefully we'll see him again.

 

On Tuesday we went on splits and I got to go with my zone leader Elder Weaver to his area. He's a good missionary and so it was nice to learn from him. There was a member that made our District (8 missionaries) some nice Fufu with Nketenkwan (Peanut Butter Soup).

 

On Wednesday we didn't get to teach anyone, but we had a baptism in the evening which went well.

 

Thursday we visited Anita and her family and just did some small service. We were teaching her but her mom didn't want her to get baptized and told her she would be kicked out of the house if she was baptized. We also saw Lot and just taught him quickily about the law of chastity which surprised him but he agreed to live it. I also got to meet the less active my companion had met on Tuesday when we were on splits, and we taught him (Charles) about Charity. Then everyone else cancelled.

 

Friday we saw Charles and taught him about forgiveness, we saw a girl named Linda and taught her again about the Godhead because she didn't understand the first time. We saw a couple mothers Hannah and Beatrice and just taught them small about prayer. And finally we just saw a couple members. One to get visiting teachers for Evelyn and one to just get her to help with missionary work and pray for some people we're teaching.

 

On Saturday we only saw Lot again and we taught him Word of Wisdom. Once again he was surprised about not drinking any alcohol, but agreed to living it. The rest of the day the appointments cancelled.

 

Sunday Evelyn was confirmed. After church we saw her quickly and just taught about enduring to the end. We saw Patience and went over Sabbath day a bit more with her. With Patience she has two jobs that just take up a lot of time and she's never free on Sundays, but she's trying to shift her schedule to have Sundays free. We also saw Joana whom I was teaching like 7 months ago but her work got to busy as well, now she has Sundays off so we're hoping to help her come to the church again. Finally we went to see Lizy who has come to church twice but went on vacation for a couple of weeks somewhere and now has come back. She seems to really like the church but her husband wants to be baptized with her soo we're hoping to start teaching him on Tuesday. At this point it was 7 and I was suppose to call home, but we still needed to hit our gospel conversations goal for the week. Soo we started finishing them but then it was 7:30 and I just decided I better call. But then I found that I didn't have a vodafone chip. We went home and looked for it but couldn't find it. And the members next door were sleeping. Soo I figured I'd call today (Monday).

 

Sorry you guys waited and waited for me.

 

Soo tonight the missionaries are invited to some party in Takoradi for mothers day. I'm confused about what's going on, but I'll go with the flow I guess.

 

Well the church is true, thanks again for the example you are to me mom.

 

I hope you had a wonderful mothers day.

 

I wish I could give you a hug for mothers day, but it'll just have to wait a little longer.

 

Thanks for being so loving to us in the family. Thanks for the sleepless nights to make sure we came home safe, thanks for the time one on one going out to eat.

 

Thanks for still loving us when we were stubborn.

 

Thanks for paying for the piano, guitar, and voice lessons.

 

Thanks for the wonderful food you cooked.

 

Thanks for the support and encouragement.

 

You are the best mother in the world

 

Elder Adair

6 May 2013

Hey today is going to be another short email. I'm not really that busy, and I'm district leader soo not too much responsibility really.

Soo I'll call you on Sunday at 7 in the evening. Soo whatever time that is over there.

I'm good, I'm in the same area. It's called Adiembra.

My companion is doing well.

With the area we had Pres. Shulz come do interviews this week.

Umm.. We'll have a baptism coming this week.

We watched General Conference yesterday, but I didn't get to see to much of it because we were making sure the baptismal interview happened.

Part of my responsibility as District Leader is I get to go on splits with other missionaries in my district. I went with Elder Ntzie this week from South Africa, he's only been out a couple months but he's a powerful missionary so it was fun to teach with him in his area.

Well I guess thats all I'll say. I've got to go.

Love you family

I'll talk to you Sunday

Elder Adair

29 April 2013

Hey mom I only have a quick 9 minutes to reply to your emails, but I'm doing well so don't worry. Just expect on and off emails for a little while, Haha I'll explain when I come home.

Thanks for that talk by Elder Holland, I wish every missionary could hear that talk before he goes out.

That's good to hear the twins are healthy. And Lydia is a common Ghanaian name soo that's kind of cool.

Thanks Grandma for the email, Don't worry I know I've got the best grandparents in the world. Sorry I'll try to reply when I can.

We'll have a baptism in the coming month, Her name is Evelyn. She's the step mother of Shem (12) that we recently baptized.

Well hope everything is sweet back home. Sorry once again for the short emails. Just give it a couple months and it should return back to normal.

Love you

Elder Brady Adair

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