March 29th E-mail

Family,
Sorry I couldn't email last week cuz the internet at the cafe wasn't working and before that we had a mad game of soccer. I'm starting to actually like soccer, even this early in my mission. And I haven't gotten sick yet, but now I think you just jynxed me. So thanks :-). The tournament sounds amazing so we won't even talk about that. I need the day people were born like Monday. You can find your Ghanian name. My name is Kojo. Just something fun I wanted to do. I haven't written anyone. I'm busy so just tell them to chill.

I get to go to the temple like once a year, but I don't know when that is yet. Anyway we were able to listen to Elder Dickson from the Seventy two weeks ago. It was pretty amazing, he is a powerful man. He only has one arm and he is a studly fly fisherman from what he said. Can't imagine doing that with one arm, but he said he is good at it. Pretty impressive. One thing that I liked in his talk is this. He said, "When we make sacrifices we come to Know Christ, and walk where he walked. When we sacrifice we become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ". I thought that was pretty powerful.

Dad, sounds like China was a crazy trip, but successful. Thats some pretty crazy food you have been eating, I haven't had anything that crazy just yet. Mostly like fish and weird Ghanian foods like fufu. Please don't ever talk about fast food places again!!! That kind of stuff cuts me real deep! Anyway, China sounds like a neat place. I can't imagine seeing that many people stuck in one place. Thats pretty sweet that you were able to have sacrament meeting online and stuff. What a neat experience.

Everything has been going good. I have some digestive problems however. Enough said. I won't give the details on that but the food is just not enough variety or something. All I eat is rice, bread, oats, eggs, and the candy you send me. We have no milk or anything like that. And the fruit we don't get very often. Everything is great despite some of the minor difficulties.

I love my comp he is a stud. We are just living it up right now. It's pretty sweet. The work is good. I had my 1st baptism this week at a chapel with a font. It was a nice building. We baptized a 27 year old man named Samuel Otoo. He is a stud and gunna be a powerful man. We only had one baptism though. He was it. We have one coming up on May 1st and it should be a good sized one. We had 12 investigators at church this week and they are all progressing. We'll see how it goes. I had my 1st interview with Pres. Sabey. WOW is that man powerful. He taught me some pretty sweet things in that interview that I will never forget. I am loving the mission and learning so much in my study. Study time is the best part of my day. I love learning new things. The church is true and I know that the next two years will set the foundation for the rest of my life. I am trying to take it all in. Thanks for all you do for me. I love you.
Love Elder Adams

Pay Day Letters

(The letters home are dated 3/3/10) In our Ward we refer to the good things our kids do a s "pay days" They make up for some of the things our kids may have done in the past! These are excerpts from Garrett's letters home. No I did not make any of this up!

Dear Mom,
My dearest mother whom I love so much! How are you? I hope all is well and that everyone is obeying you! You are the Boss! I can say that now because you can't come after me:) Basketball is over...see the blessings really are coming. Ha Ha JK.
I wrote separate letters so I could tell you each some things. I just wanted to tell you what a great mother you are. The best mom in the whole world. You have taught me so much I can't even try to explain. I am thankful to be blessed with good parents who taught me about God our Father and Jesus Christ. Without you in my life I wouldn't be out here doing what I am. I wouldn't be a missionary, so Thank You!
My new companion is from Las Vegas. I told you about him in the email. He is a cool kid. I'm excited to serve with him. My area is awesome, crazy and hectic. It is a great combination.
I got the care package. I was so excited and ate most of the food that day. It is almost gone now, but it tasted so good, I gained any weight I had lost right back. But man it was worth it. The jerky sticks were delicious:)
Washing clothes by hand is definitely not the same as having you wash them for me. My hands were bleeding and I have rashes on my wrist, but it is kinda fun I guess.
Now I just want to let you know you are in my prayers. I love you and I hope the blessings come. They will. I want you to know God lives and that he is watching over us, as long as we are obedient we will receive blessings. So keep up the good work and keep everyone in order. You're the best Mom a son could ask for. I love you with every beam of my heart.
Elder Adams

Dear Dad,
It is good to hear that everything is going well. I have been receiving so many letters from you and mom. That's awesome you get to go back to China again. Sounds like quite the experience. Well Ghana has been amazing so far. The MTC was a cool and very spiritual experience. But really it didn't prepare me for what was in store. I have learned 10 times more in my 1st week out. My new area is a tiny village on the beach. Mostly fisherman live and stay in Moree. In this tiny village live about 20,000 people. It is hectic! Most people live in clay or brick huts. There is not much of a drainage system. You just sit down and go wherever you want, so the town is covered in crap. It is quite smelly at 1st, but you get used to it. There are hundreds and hundreds of goats, chickens,dogs, cats, an other animals everywhere. They just roam the streets. You don't put them in a pen or anything. I have seen more than my share of naked people. It is disturbing, but after a while you don't realize it. So far it might sound pretty rough, but I LOVE IT! The people are so nice. They always say hi and yell things at us that we don't understand. They speak a language called Fante. It's like nothing I've ever heard. We try to find English speaking investigators, or else we don't get very far.
Now I will tell you about my first week of teaching. The first day I was scared and really freaked out, but I got over it. I helped teach a few lessons as the week went on and have learned to communicate pretty well with the people. My very 1st lesson I sat and listened to my companion teach. Then he gave it to me and said "now my companion will teach you." I taught about God is our loving Heavenly Father and Families. I can't recall what i said, but I know the words weren't mine. The Lord was surely speaking through me by the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was a feeling I will never forget. Slowly I have been getting better at teaching and now my comp and me teach about the same amount. It is hard, hard work but I know it will come with time and study. I'm doing my best.
I had my first Zone Conference today. It was one amazing and powerful meeting. Pres. and Sister Sabey are so powerful. He is like crazy genius and so smart! One of the most spiritual men I've met in my life.
I know now with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. That it is the word of God. That through it we will come to know Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father more personally. We will become more like our Savior and Redeemer. The church is true. There is no doubt in my mind. I know for myself now. It is the greatest feeling to know, and not to just believe. I love you and miss you. You are the best Father in the world.
Love, Elder Adams

Miles,
My big, but little brother. How is life? I'm in Ghana now, it's a sweet place man. The people are so nice and friendly. They love white people and the kids think we are the best thing ever. They just run up to us and touch us cuz we
re white......Also stay away from girls, they are trouble. "You have to serve a mission before you have permission!" (form the book of Elder Adams) Never forget that! More important, read the B of M now! I didn't and now I am paying for it. Listen in seminary and mark your scriptures. It will be a blessing when you are on your mission, so read and study often. Next pray morning and night. If you do anything do these two things. It will be a blessing in the future. Don't pass up the opportunity to prepare now! I want you to know the church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is a source of revelation.\, so use it man. I love you and know you love me back, you don't have to say it:) Remember who you are!
Much love,
bro/Elder Adams

The Work is Sweet

The Fam
Well this week was pretty sweet. Our investigators are really starting to come along now. Some of them have had dreams and some have even had visions as answers to their prayers. It is really cool to sit down with someone and listen to these wonderful experiences they have had. I'm really starting to get used to this place. It is growing on me everyday and soon it will be more like a home. The work is sweet and we always have success. The people here are so easy to teach and always have a strong testimony that God exists. Its just the nature of the mission, even if you don't work hard you will have success. But I promise I am working hard so don't worry. The people that I am teaching are really sweet. There is one family that I am teaching. We had asked them to pray about Thomas S. Monson and they both had visions. Its seems like everyone here expects that they will have an answer to their prayers, and their faith is so strong, that they receive dreams and visions as their answers. The people are very visionary. Its awesome. The teaching is getting better everyday, we have multiple people that we are preparing for baptism already. I think we will have a baptism in the next weeks and then another in April. The work is great and the the Lord is really blessing me.
Something crazy happened, as I was walking yesterday from church a goat had a baby right in front of me, and I didn't even know it until it popped out right by my feet. It was just really random to see so I thought I'd share.
It rained yesterday and it felt so good. It got cold like 75 degreed maybe. But then everything turned to mud and my shoes and pants were covered. It gets pretty messy when it rains. This week we have a mission conference and Elder Dickson of the seventy is coming to speak to us. Im pretty excited. Everything here is going good. I'm loving the mission. Hope all is well back
home. Keep me informed on everything. I know the church is true with my whole heart. May the Lord continue to bless you. I miss you and love you all. Especially you Mom!
Elder Adams

We love Monday E-Mails

Family
Everything is going so good my two first weeks. The days go by so slow but the weeks just fly by. Its been great. Now I have been trying to learn the language and it is really hard. I can only say... What is your name? and My name is.. Its a hard language to learn. They talk really fast. Im picking up a few things slowly. About 50% of the males speak English and less than that for the women. So we try to find people that speak good English. Otherwise we have to have a translator. As for the animals there is nothing really. I haven't seen anything other than farm animals and lizards. Sorry. Washing clothes really sucks and my shirts are starting to turn brown already but I'm in Africa so its alright. As for money, I'm doing good the money we get has been enough so far. The only thing that I buy is food and water. I have been eating rice and bread for breakfast and dinner. As for lunch we never eat it. We don't eat from 10 in the morning until 7:30 at night. We usually don't have time. I think that I can send you pictures but I haven't taken very many yet so i will work on that this week and send you some next week. We have two African Elders that live with us they are pretty tight. We went to the beach today and played some football African style. It was pretty sweet I guess but I'm not very good. The heat is so insane here I can't even explain it. I drink about 4 gallons of water a day here. I haven't lost much weight I don't think yet but I am starting to I can tell.

The missionary work has been going good. We have two people or so that are ready for baptism. One for sure. We have a good amount that are progressing and we hope they will be ready for baptism in the next month or two. We might have a baptism this month. We have been teaching some sweet sweet people. We have one family that came to church this week. The wife was inactive and the husband was not a member but we are going to hopefully baptize him and then the whole family can be sealed in one year. The work is great. It is not easy but it is so worth it. It is the Lords work, I have already seen miracles and amazing experiences happen. Nothing brings greater satisfaction than this work. Everything at home sounds good I hope all is well. Keep me informed on everything that is going on. I miss you all so much. If you send me something send it in a smaller box cuz i had to pay money last time okay. Thanks but if you have a lot of stuff then don't worry about it. I could tell you more but I 'have any time left on my computer so till next week this is all I have.
Much love Elder Adams

Dad
Sounds like the lord is keeping you busy. That's good now i know how it feels. It really is great. I love the missionary work so much. Sound like Mom is busy with school and you with work. Hope everything goes good. Have fun in China that will be sweet send me some pics ill send some to you next week. The language is hard to learn. They don't have books or anything so i just pick it up as we go. I have a few words but that all. The cooking is okay all I eat is rice and stew and the candy that you sent me. So it is not that bad. I can communicate okay with the locals you just have to change the way you speak. You can't say things like it's good. It has to be IT IS good or they won't understand it. My apartment is pretty nice. Well at least for Africa, it has a kitchen, rooms and a bathroom. It's not bad at all. Eeverything is concrete the floors and all but we got things like tables and chairs. Living like a king baby! The church building that we worship in is horrible. Its a wooden shop pretty much with little wooden desks that are made for little kids. We cram like 150 people in a building the size of our living room. It's hectic. Me and my companion are getting along great he is way tight and easy going. But we work hard. The work is great we have a few ready for baptism and
more to come. I will tell you more when we get closer to baptizing them. The church is the same everywhere. It is indeed true and it's great to see it bless peoples live. I'm loving every second so far. I love you.
Love Elder Adams

First E-Mail

We got our first e-mail today and it was great! Elder Adams' email account has changed so please be sure to update it in you contacts. On the side is a map showing where Moree is.
I found some info. about the town Moree from Elder Adams companion Elder MacKay.
"To get to Moree, we take a tro-tro for about five or ten minutes down the road, then we have to take a taxi for about five or ten minutes and we're there. sometimes we have to wait for ten or twenty minutes for a taxi or tro tro to come by though. (tro tro's are basically an old ghetto vw van that people PILE into and travel for very cheap, and works essentially the same as a really poor version of bus.

Moree is a VERY poor village. There will be kids with very little or no clothing wherever you go. it really breaks our hearts to see the environment that these kids will spend their lives in. It is humbling. you are all lucky in America. The kids are my favorite, though. they have a little chant that they do whenever they see you, they go "obruni, obruni, how are you? i'm fine, tank you, and you??" Moree is a huge village with lots of hills and mountains. I'd say it's probably like ten miles in diameter. The people are so prepared for the gospel though.

I'm Still Alive !!!

Okay mom you ask a lot of questions. I can't even remember half of them so I will do my best to answer them. The MTC was sweet. The president was the couple Aunt Steff told you about from Utah. Their name is Froerer. Me and Elder Speechly in the MTC became way tight. He is so cool man you should totally keep talking to his mom and keeping me updated. The MTC food was okay I had some good fruit, hot dogs for breakfast, fufu, banku, and some other weird things like a fish head. I learned a lot in the MTC like I already said. It was cool we got to go to the temple 2 times and do baptisms and sealings as well as endowment session. All of the workers were mostly black. The temple sealer was white but I don’t know where from. We had basketball courts at the MTC but the rim and the ball were more like a hanger made into a circle and a soccer ball. But we still had lots of fun playing. I got your first letter about 3 weeks later and then the others and the package took about the same I think. We did not get to see Elder Holland speak. He spoke the day before we got here which really stinks cuz they say we won’t have another apostle come my whole mission. President Sabey came and picked us up from the MTC on the 24th and we came down to Cape Coast that morning. We got all the stuff taken care of at the mission home and then we got our new companions. My new companion is FROM LAS VEGAS. How crazy is that! His name is Elder MacKay. He is way tight and I have already learned so much from him it’s crazy. And he has only been out for about 6 months. His parents are Sid and Dawn MacKay. You should look them up and talk to them. I gave them your email address as well. I live in a ghetto building everything is concrete, I have to use a mosquito net, and I saw a spider in my room like the size of my hand ha-ha its nuts! I live with two Africans as well but it’s really not that bad. I have running water, a toilet, and even a shower. I washed my clothes today by hand and my knuckles are bleeding like crazy and it is so hard to get those clothes clean! It’s an awesome experience though. Okay now to the good stuff. I have already taught like 20 lessons and gone proselyting for the past 4 days. My area is called Moree and it is a village like the people live in dirt huts and everything. It’s right on the ocean and they have little wood boats and stuff they use to go fishing it is so hectic. There’s like 20000 people in the little village and it is the poorest place I have ever seen on Earth. So humbling! It is so sweet the people are so nice and we have been teaching some people that could be baptized here in a month of two. The work is pretty successful in this area I guess. My first day I was so scared I didn’t know what to say and then like everyone says it just comes out. The first lesson I taught was about God is our loving Heavenly Father. I taught a man about the age of 30 and he just looked at my like I was crazy. Ha-ha it was great. They speak a language called Fante and most of the people don’t speak English so I am trying to learn but it is so hard. I love everyone and thanks for all the letters mom and dad. I love you so much. I am learning so much and I know it will be the best two years! Miles whit and tris I love you too and write me back soon. I will email to you all very soon, like in a week.
Love Elder Adams