July 29 2013

Sorry everyone for not getting these letters on until now. I have several letters I will put together according to the week he sent them so you will have to go through each week.  Enjoy!  
Tammy

Hello,

The package I got from the ward I didn't have to pay customs on. Hopefully you'll get the letter I sent soon.

Yes the fire truck looked similar to ours back home, maybe a little smaller. And Yes they have sirens on them as well. It was funny to see the Zone Leaders show up riding in the fire truck, but I'm sure they enjoyed it.

In Scripture study I was just reading in Alma about lets see.. Ammonihah and Lehonti? Moroni had finally gotten Ammonihah to make a covenant with him about not returning to war against the Nephites, but immediately returned to the Lamanites and started to stir them up against the Nephites.

I love that story

Lehonti first prepared his army by raising them to higher ground - I figure that's what each of us are doing each time we do something right - Coming to church, Searching the scriptures, Saying our Prayers, Giving Service, Keeping the Commandments by being Honest, Keeping the Laws, Living Chasitity, Word of Wisdom, etc.

Second when he was asked to come down he wouldn't give in.

Sadly Ammonihah comes up nearly to where Lehonti was and asks him to come down just very very small, and even asks him to bring his guards with him.

I think we can relate that to us putting ourselves in situations where we know we might be tempted but we figure we're studying our scriptures and everything so we'll be strong enough.

As well Lehonti didn't know the full intention of Ammonihah, so Lehonti thought he was doing the right thing by coming down to the bottom of the mountain. He thought he would be in full command of the whole army or in other words he thought he had full control of the situation

I think that's the way Satan tempts us. He makes it look like we've got it fully under control and that by following his way everything will be alright.

But then Ammonihah poisons Lehonti slowly until he's dead.

So in the same way we need to realize that Disobedience to the commandments will eventually lead us to death and misery.

There's more but I think for sake of time I'll leave it there

For Studying -

Monday - We have a devotional for 30 minutes on Monday with the apartment and I get a couple scriptures from that. Usually I'll read a Liahona while I'm washing clothes as well.

Tuesday- I don't get to do personal and companion study because we're driving to Swedru for District Meeting - but I learn from District Meeting

Wednesday - I get 1 hour personal study and 1 hour with my companion

Thursday - same as Wednesday

Friday - same as Thursday

Saturday - same as Friday

Sunday - Usually I don't get any study at home because church starts at 9 and I'm just calling investigators before we go, but at church I'll read either what the instructors instructing on and just go through scriptures on my own (because I can't understand Fante), or I've been going through the old Testament a bit. I really loved Isaiah, It definitely has a lot concerning Temples, The Restoration, Jesus Christ, etc.

For what we've been teaching investigators and experiences -

Haha I thought when I came on my mission I'd be a cry baby when sharing my testimony out here, but I haven't really gotten that emotional while I've been out here.

But I loved the other day when we were teaching a man named Kofi about how Christ set up his church and how it fell into apostasy that he was really grasping it. (At the beginning this guy told us that he was set on his church and would never move) but we'd gone with the spirit and taught this guy about baptism, the fall of adam and eve, and baptisms for the dead and finally we decided to teach him about Christ setting up his church. He told us he couldn't come this Sunday because he hadn't gone to his church the past Sunday, but he said he would definitely visit us.

Sister Dadzie whom I have now come to find is Sister Forson, we've been teaching the Restoration. It's been really hard teaching her though because her husband starts thinking we're teaching him and then he stops translating to his wife and asks us a bunch of questions soo we've decided to stick with the pamphlet and we just read from it and then have him translate what we say.. for some reason he's been doing a lot better with doing it that way.

I know that the gospel's true, and I loved the thought  Sarah shared as well to look out of yourself instead of at yourself.

Elder Adair

24 July 2013

Sorry about Grandpa Salter. I guess I'm glad that we have nice hospitals though.

Oo that's cool about the missionary thing. I was wondering why they did so much contacting in Utah because really the best way is through referrals from members who at least know the person and can be there to support, and since there are so many members in Utah it seems like they'd get a lot of referrals.

Wow Zac is already out? That's cool. Yes, the 18 year olds are doing great here in the mission field. If a missionary is ready to come out at 18 it just shows that he was prepared and ready to come. I'm sure that Zac will be a sweet missionary as well.

Yes, we have water now. We had a fire truck come and fill up our tank.

We don't refrigerate eggs here. I never knew that you could leave them out of refrigerator before I came out, but everyone does it. I think if you keep them in the fridge they just last longer.

As for making my own soup I've just been enjoying Elder Oluk's cooking bean stew, and then I just make like a tortilla to eat it on for lunch.

Yes I've gotten the package from the ward as well. I sent them a letter last week. I just sent it to our home so I don't know what you want to do with it.

This week I got to play some card games with Elder Lee. He's from California.

We also were showed around to some less actives by our branch mission leader. So we're hoping to help some of them return back.

Some of them their issues are with money such as not having a belt, and needing to work on Sunday so they can eat.

Some are Word of Wisdom issues and so they don't feel comfortable coming to church.

Some don't have any reason and they say they'll come but then don't show up.

We were able to meet with Bro Dadzie's Wife once. We're hoping to baptize her in the coming month. The problem mostly is that they aren't keeping to the times we set up to come and teach them haha. It's funny when we are teaching to have her husband translate for her though because he wants us to teach too deep. He'll ask us how the prophets could write if they weren't educated and if they didn't have ink.. or He'll answer the questions we want him to ask his wife. Haha. (He's an older guy)

Solomon showed up again yesterday. He said he was having financial issues and had to go to his parents to get money. We reviewed the Restoration with him and it sounded like he's understanding it all. I was worried because my Brofo (English) is too much for him. We gave him a new baptismal date of the ending of next month. so we'll pray that he doesn't make an excuse this week. We'll have Enoch (a member) call and invite him this Sunday.

Joseph we've been teaching but when it comes to coming to church he'll say he's sick, or he has to fetch water, etc. So today Mission Pres. came to our district meeting and just talked about having members invite them even if it's over the phone and so we'll do that.

Mami Faustina we only taught once this week, she kept on being busy and not being home at the time she'd set up with us. We just taught her that she has to make sacrifices if she wants to keep meeting with us. She lives with a couple members so we're still working with her.

We met Kweku, Kwame, and Jennet this week. So we'll see if that goes anywhere this week.

Martin didn't come to church like he had promised, and didn't even show up when we came to teach him... Too bad he was doing so well.  His new job has just made it too difficult to see him.

Sister Lizzy came to church this week though. Prince (a member) invited her. We taught her like a month back. Talking to her after church it just sounded like she just came to visit though and didn't really want us to continue with teaching, but we'll see if anything happens by the end of the week.

Are our dogs still alive? haha

Are the twins keeping you up all night?

So who's all living at home now?

Love you -

Elder Adair

16 July 2013

Oo 2 more days until Sarah she takes off! That's exciting!

Haha as for coming to Ghana to pick me up after my mission -it's alright- I'll enjoy coming home to see you guys.

So transfers happened this last Wednesday (Time is going far too quickly).

My new companion is Elder Kirumira from Uganda. He is a sweet guy.
He's been a member since he was 9? He's the first to serve a mission
in his family. He loves football and wants to go into something with
sports when he returns home. Sadly he doesn't know how to cook Chipati
which is the famous Ugandan dish. But I will continue to make my fake
Chipati which is basically just a flour tortilla with beans (A bean burrito eh?).

As for the water situation we're working on it. We'll be fine no
matter what happens. We can fetch from a well in town if it comes to
it. But we went to the fire station yesterday and they should be
bringing us a water truck this week. But it cost the mission 300 Cedis
soo it wasn't cheap.

Haha that's funny about the packages. Alright I'll enjoy them. And I'll be sure to send Grandma a thank you letter.

My friends are doing well. Elder Creager sounds like he's doing well
in Jamaica. Camille is doing well with her family. Tia as well.

Holidays in Ghana mmm They don't have Halloween. I don't think they
have St. Patricks day. They don't have Thanksgiving. They don't have
4th of July or 24th.

As for Holidays they do have.. To tell you the truth I'm not really
sure. Every now and then I hear that it's a Holiday but it seems to be
just a normal day for them. I know they have a Traditional Festival in
like August time for the Traditionalist Religion in which all the
chiefs come to Cape Coast and sacrifice goats and the kids wear masks
and some people dress up. I think they do dirty dancing and stuff as
well so the church usually sends the kids on Youth Camps so they don't
have to be around it.

I think around the same time in Odoben (the place I am now) the guys
dress up as girls for the day and the ladies dress up as guys. I'm not
sure why though.

When I was in Sekondi the Muslims had some Holiday where they
Slaughtered Cows. I think they just ate it though. But that was
interesting walking around town seeing a bunch of slaughtered cows.

That's all the Holidays I can really think of.

They celebrate Easter, Christmas, and New Years. I think Easter is
their biggest celebration where people go to the beach and dance and
drink.

Soo this week I mostly just said goodbye to E Tembedza who was
transferred to Eshem in Sekondi Zone. He said goodbye to a few people
in the Branch and Investigators.

Wednesday I got my new companion. We said hi to the Branch President
and I brought him to the Broni family because they had me promise to
bring him.

Thursday was a hard day haha we were basically just searching for new
investigators again.

Emanuel and Martin have disappeared. I finally got a call in the week
from Emanuel and he told me that he had moved to Accra and wouldn't be
coming back until December.. I met Martin this Sunday after church
saying that he had a new job that caused him to go and he mostly stays
in another town now. He said we can meet with him this Saturday and
that he will come to church next week. Soo this will be the 5th time
he's come to church. I'm not really sure what we will decide to do
about his baptism. On Saturday we will talk it over with him and get
it sorted out.

A member got married to some lady and we taught her once now, but she
likes the church and wants to be baptized soo we're just teaching her
now and she'll probably be baptized the beginning of August.

We also have one other boy named Solomon who has been meeting with us
a few times during the week and accepted a baptismal date and promised
to come to church, but once again failed and went to his parents.. Soo
it's not looking too promising but hopefully next week he will start
keeping to his word. If not.. Ouch.

We've got a goal of 6 for the Trimester (4 months), but so far we only
have 2. We have a month and a half to get the other 4. Oo ah. Pray for
a miracle.

In the end the gospel is true, and I've been so blessed by it. Thanks
for all you do.

Love you guys

Elder Adair

11 July 2013

Hello Family,

You asked if I have been playing the piano, I did play once at a funeral, but I sure hope the volume was down because I couldn't hear the piano and I made a bunch of mistakes.  I did play once for a missionary Sunday when all the missionaries take over the ward stuff.. but that was embarrassing as well as I messed up the sacrament hymn terribly... Luckily I got to give a talk and talk a little bit about forgiveness :P.

The problem mostly is there is no time to practice as a missionary. I tried doing it before sacrament meeting, but I can't play them very well soo I guess it'll have to wait until I get home and improve a bit more.

Uh huh! Now it makes sense how you see Emily so often. That is sooo cool! So do we get to do crazy vacations to Europe now? Haha. Ah that is crazy that you can get a free ticket, those things are expensive! She better stay at that job.

Oo you are enjoying! Melanie sent me a picture of Jaxon, Suzy, Emily, and Tyson. They all look so different!

As for Bro. Martin he wasn't able to get baptized. I don't know if I told you he has gotten a job so we felt good about him being baptized. But at the same time his job has now made it impossible for us to teach him because he's always at work. Sunday as well he didn't show up. Soo we need to pray and think about how to help him.

As well as Bro. Martin's brother, Emmanuel. He didn't show up to church. But when we met with him during the week and taught about the Book of Mormon he was really excited and telling us how he loved the church with it's reverence and the teachings. Plus he went over Christ's Sermon on the mount  in the bible and Book of Mormon with one of his friends who is a member, and he was excited how the Book of Mormon was in support of the bible.

Transfer News came this Saturday and Elder Tembedza is moving to Sekondi to a place called Essama.

I'm actually receiving the Companion that my son - Elder Shinasi - was with. His name is Elder Kirumira from Uganda, Africa. He seems like a funny guy, but he's not too excited to come to Odoben where there is no water haha.

I don't know if I told you the news that a couple weeks ago Elder Shinasi told me how I can now email friends, he'd talked with the mission pres. and the rules were apparently changed for missionaries all over the world. I'd heard rumors, but they've finally been confirmed so I was excited. I've gotten to write Camille and Adam and Mitch.

This week was a hard week with not too much progression, more of a digression. But we'll pray for a miracle and work our butt off again and hope to turn it back again :).

We decided to back off on Bro Robert. He hasn't really been keeping commitments and it's been like 4 weeks that he hasn't come to church. Hopefully in time he'll make the decision to visit.

A Bro Solomon who was progressing really well all of the sudden didn't show up for when we had planned. His phone wasn't working so hopefully that was why. He called us to see him today.

We met a members son - Bro Barnabus, but he's just been dodging us since the first time we met him.

Sister Ernestina - her family are members and they really really want us to teach her, but she'll act like she's asleep when we come.. so I think we'll have to back off with her as well.

Bro Ali - he's a sweet guy, only met with him twice so we don't know if it'll go anywhere yet. He promised to come to church but didn't show up soo we have it planned to see him today. We'll see how it goes.

But there's a little update on the investigators we're working with

Love you guys

Elder Adair

July 1 2013

Mmm hmm. So today you get an email on Monday, because we had to come to town to pick up our subsistence money for the month. Sorry for the jumping around :P you never know when an email might come.

It feels like you guys get to see Emily and Tyson pretty often. I guess you're rich because none of the kids are home now huh? :P

I can buy toilet paper here haha don't worry about that. But I'm fine with waiting for the package. It's probably good that I'll get a little break from the last package haha.

The baptism went alright, only a few members came to the baptism, but I felt like it was really good for Brother Kobbie.

Mm my health is alright with the normal missionary work, but if I go beyond that I get tired really quickly.

This is a different Brother Emmanuel ( Like everyone is named Emmanuel here), but he's still progressing well. He came to church this Sunday and will be baptized in the next couple weeks.

We're also planning for Brother Martin to either be baptized this week or next week.. He showed up to church after sacrament and has been a bit hard to get time with him to teach, but he has a job now so he'll stay in Odoben until December at least and then will move to a place in Accra where the church is.

Brother Robert came to the baptism which was cool. He's been having a hard time believing in Christ, but I feel like his faith is growing a bit. The baptism he was a bit uneasy with because the members came late ( Ghanains are always late. They get to work like 2 hours late haha). Then it was my fault with the person who was baptizing. He was a recent convert and he didn't know he had to say any words when he baptized someone.. So we had to switch for someone else. But Brother Robert said he'll come to church next week which is good news because he's never said he'd actually come before.

We met with a Less Active Recent Convert and had a really good lesson and helped her to understand the importance of the restored gospel and she was planning to come to church, but I guess then her mom had her come to her church.. I really thought she was actually going to come.

I got to play the piano while we were waiting for the baptismal font to fill up. It sure felt nice. My companion fell asleep listening to me play.

On Sunday we woke up to blasting music in our apartment compound. They were having a baby blessing. They sure love blasting music in Ghana.

We met a new girl named Sister Joyce, she was really excited for us to come and teach her. She told us she would come to church, but then ended up not coming. Hopefully in the future it will go somewhere though.

As an apartment our water tank is getting lower and lower. We're starting to think we won't even have any water to fetch even from our well. Soo we'll see what adventure comes up in these coming months.

At the mission conference I talked to Elder T Adair and we made a deal for his guitar. Another missionary is going to have it one transfer after he leaves and then I'll get it for the rest of my mission for 15 Cedi. Sounded good to me. I can't believe he's leaving next transfer though along with Elder Kitchen.

Elder Saili is going home in a week now, I don't know if I already told you about him. He's from Samoa. Along with Elder Kinikini and Elder Abioye who were the old AP's. They gave powerful testimonies.

Well love you all Hope everything is Sweet at home

Elder Adair

June 27 2013

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

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

Yup we got our water pouches from the Branch President.

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

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

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

Grandma's never came though.

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

Sweet I'll enjoy the birthday package.

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

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

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

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

During the week we were just teaching

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

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

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

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

but there's a little bit about the week.

The companionship is going well and the area is good.

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

Well Love you mom! Talk to you next Tuesday

Elder Brady Adair

June 18 2013

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

I never received the money from grandma either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bro Kwesi's parents
Bro Robert

Bro Napoleon

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

Sis Lizzy

Bro Joshua

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well I love you mom

And Happy Father's Day Dad!

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