E-mails to Family

Paps,
This week was a pretty good week. We had a baptism on Saturday that went very well. We baptized 5 investigators, and we already accomplished the goal that we have for the World Cup. It was a cheap way to do it though, so we are going to accomplish it again. We were meeting with one of our baptismal candidates on Friday. After we finished the lesson we asked her if she had any referrals for us because the world cup was on, and we need to find someone during that time to baptize. She pointed to a small girl 11 years old. We found out that it was her younger sister and that she too needed to be baptized. The parents have both been sealed in the temple and so we interviewed her on Saturday before the baptism, and then baptized her right afterward. It accomplished the goal that doesn’t even end until September 20 something. And it is only 9 days into the goal. It is a pretty cheap way to do it so we are going to try and accomplish it again. But it was pretty sweet. The baptism went very well. We had like 50 people there and most us the missionaries and President. We had a joined baptism with the Saunders and all in all there was like 10 people being baptized. It was very sweet and well organized. We taught a sweet lesson with Sammy yesterday. It was awesome. We finished up teaching him the Plan of Salvation, and then at the end he bore testimony that it was true. Even bore testimony on tithing, and how when he pays his tithing in his church he always has money, but when he doesn’t he usually suffers that week. Sammy is such a stud. I pray that we can baptize him because he would be a Bishop here in no time.
I had a pretty cool encounter this week with a snake. We saw this snake catch a lizard and just devour it in like seconds. It was awesome. I got some sweet pics of it from like 10 feet away, I didn’t want to get any closer incase it could kill me or something ha. Then these Ghanaians came running out and killed the snake in seconds. They just attacked it with these wooden axe things. Flippin Barbaric!!!! It was so tight.
Well it sounds like everything there is going awesome. I hope that you all enjoy you vacation this weekend. My whole life I never went anywhere outside of the western states. The farthest I ever went was Idaho. And now I am in Africa. The Lord blessed me with that, but now that Miles gets to go to Florida he will probably go to like California on his mission. Ha-ha. Sounds like it will be a fun trip. Everything here is going awesome still and I am with Elder Mackay for at least two more weeks. I will try to get some ties sent home as soon as possible for the bishopric. Thanks for all that you do for me, you are the best. The church is true, and I am grateful to be here in Ghana doing the Lords work. Thanks for getting me out here. It is the best thing I could have ever done. Love you.
Love
Elder Adams


Mom,
Well I sent the longer letter to dad this week so I will just talk to you about other matters not pertaining to the mission. So the thing with the PAC10 is tight. I want to go to Utah now for sure so look into that. I sure hope that Grandma gets better, that really scares me. I need to see them again. I will pray for her, and give her and granps my best. I was always hoping on getting the Honda when I came home, buying it from you, but I guess that is out of the question.
Ghana is a pretty cool place to be during the World Cup I must say. It is interesting to see. The proselyting during the Cup sucks so badly though. Holy Crap! There is nobody to teach or even contact they are all watching the game. Sounds like Florida is going to be a pretty sweet trip try not to have too much fun. Just so you know I never went east of Utah and never went anywhere cool my whole life, until now :). In my interview with president he told me that I would be staying in my area for a while so I don’t think I will be going anywhere anytime soon. Well have a good week and know that I love you. The gospel is are only way to true happiness, so live it and live it well.
Love you Elder Adams.

Bro,
What’s up man. It’s been a long time, it’s like you didn’t even know that I was in Africa this whole time, but no worries sometimes I even forget. So how’s life? Sounds like you had a little accident the other day ha-ha,, now you can’t make fun of me but I can make fun of you. HOSA ,what a joke. JK yeah you’re right I should have joined but I wasn’t that smart I guess. I’m pretty jealous that you get to go to Florida, but that is pretty tight. You will be sleeping in a gangster hotel and I will be on a cement floor with a mosquito net. But mine is still better. So how are the ladies? Hopefully you don’t have any and if you do it should be some girl who is an angel. No bad girls!! How’s the golf game? Still rockin it?

Well you guessed it, I’m going to tell you to read and study the scriptures, cuz that is what I wish I would have done. If anything just read the BOM and when you read for understanding not just to read, otherwise it is pointless. And pray every morning and night. You need to make that a habit. Even on my mission it is hard to do sometimes because I never made it a habit. So work on that stuff.
If there is anything cool going that has nothing to do with mission tell me. I get bored sometimes I need some interesting facts and stuff. Okay, well I love ya and thanks for writing little brother. Keep the name strong.
Love Elder Adams
ps. how tall are you?

Mission Photos

click on photo and it will take you to an album of photos

E-mail 6-14-10

Family,
Well I received the package that you sent me with the maple syrup, powdered sugar, and all of those wonderful things. I was so stoked to receive that stuff, but I’m afraid to use it now, they are like my most valuable possessions. I received grandpa’s package as well, and he did well!! All of the food and stuff from you two was awesome. It definitely made the week. SO this week a received three huge packages (Patrice sent one too) and everyone thought it was my birthday, so you’ve done well, and it is much appreciated.

I’m glad you received the pictures finally, sorry it took so long. Most of them are of Elder MacKay because we thought he was leaving and I always carry my camera around so I took lots of pics for him. As for the whole church thing, for some reason that day they just had on lots of white clothes, usually it will be a mix of all colors. It is a ward, it’s in school house with mosquito netting for windows and a wooden roof, usually we can fit everyone, but it’s always crammed. The pics of the village is part of my area. There aren’t any pictures of where I live, those are all us at investigators playing in the rain (first time it rained since I’ve been here). Well I won’t say to much to Miles about the accident because I know he is already getting a bunch of crap from everyone and feels like a complete retard. Well I felt like a retard after my wreck. So all I will say is welcome to the gang.

Well this week went a little slow. We are preparing for a baptism and we can’t get any records from people, because they don’t exist. That’s a big problem here, no one even knows their age or birthday. So that has been somewhat hectic, and then with the World Cup started everyone is watching the game, so it is pretty slow. It was pretty sweet to see how Ghana reacted to their win. Every time something happened, like at all, you would hear a massive roar go out across the entire village. It was so freakin tight. And then when they scored people were out in the streets yelling and stuff . After they game we had groups of people marching around in the streets just cheering and every cab driver was holding down the horn. Its so cool how into it they get and how much it runs their lives.

As for church, the Oppong family didn’t come like they promised and the two boys probably won’t be coming for a very long time. I think we still had 15 investigators at church, but not the ones we have been focusing on. However, this week I did get to experience my first butt chewing on my mission. It was intense. We went over to Joel and Angleberts place before church to pick them up, and when we got there the boys weren’t dressed. Then as soon as we stepped into the room their mother began to give it to us!! OH SHE FINISHED US!!! She just went crazy on how we are taking her boys from her and telling them to leave their church and come to ours, and how we told them not to mind her anymore. She even went as far as to tell her boys to leave and come live with us. Some of what she had said was true, not all, but some. Hey it’s not my fault that God told them Joseph Smith was a prophet. So finally we calmed her down and left by ourselves. So I think we might have to take it slow with them, and continue to try to teach and serve the mother. (she even gave it to our bishop over the whole thing) I think that’s about all I got for this week, nothing that amazing. But the work is still moving forward and we are working are butts off. It doesn’t get any better than this!!!! The gospel has brought me more joy and happiness in my life than anything else, and a mission only expands that. It’s amazing. It’s true. It’s everything.
Love Elder Adams

Wading Through Rivers

Well another week down the drain. They are beginning to all run together and now I can’t even keep track of how many weeks I’ve been out, it’s crazy. Well this week we ran into all sorts of adventures, it was an eventful week. Tuesday one of our recent converts called us and was like all depressed and stuff, so we went over there to talk with him about why. It ended up that his girlfriend/wife kinda dumped him or whatever. I don’t know what they would call it here, but they are going through a rough patch. Anyway she is a member and really pushed him to be baptized, so this will tell us if he is really having a testimony of his own, or if he was just following her. We got to play relationship counselors a few times this week before we turned it over to Bishop. I hate that crap!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday we proselyted with young man named Joseph Mensah who is preparing to serve a mission. It is pretty sweet we have like 5 or 6 kids that me and Elder Mackay are focusing on to help go on missions. So we just find them and then turn them into ward missionaries to give them something to do, because otherwise they would be sitting around doing absolutely nothing in Moree. In also helps us because we still can’t speak Fante. On Wednesday I was pounding fufu for a family and I pounded for about 25 min. I was almost finished and the blisters on my hands that formed during that time broke and blood was running down my hand. I didn’t really notice, but once the members saw they all started freaking out and wouldn’t let me finish pounding, it was pretty funny. Whenever we pound fufu they just laugh at us. After we pounded fufu we went over to Brother Pratts house again, and we learned how to cook Jolof rice. It was amazing stuff. They are so cool. They just fight and joke around like just like our family, its fun when we go over there, it reminds me of our house. So today we are making the jolof rice they showed us how to make, so we will see if me and Elder Mackay can cook at all. Then tonight we are going over there to have family home evening with them and Sammy’s family.

On Thursday we had a lesson with two boys named Joel and Anglebert. They are way cool kids and are loving the discussions. I can see them being baptized and serving missions. They are 16 and 17 I think. But we asked them to pray about Joseph Smith and to write down how they felt after they prayed and what came to their minds (we usually won’t do this because most people can’t write). When we returned the next day they both pulled out a piece of paper and read them to us. Holy crap these kids are powerful. Joel wrote like a full page letter on how he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and how he felt. Angleberts was not as long, but it was powerful. He said he heard a small voice whisper in his ear that Joseph Smith was his prophet and that needed to follow him. It was so sweet. So immediately we invited them to church.

Friday was my favorite day of the week. This is when things got fun. It stared off sweet because one of the young boys in our ward received his mission call to Nigeria. We were like the first ones to know. It also rained all day long and the entire village of Moree was practically flooded. The first part of the day we had to climb a hill to get to an investigators house. I swear it took like 20 min to go 100 yards because the mud was so slippery and we were trying not to fall. There were multiple close calls. The first few hours of the day we were trying to avoid the water and running rivers through town, but after a while we got tired of that so are just started walking right through the middle of 6 inches of water the rest of they day. We had an appointment on the other side of town, right near the beach later in the day. We had missed an appointment with this same women the day before because we lost track of time (the first missed appointment on my mission) and so we had to make sure to be there today. On our way we ran into a river of water about 20 or 30 yards wide and about 2 feet deep in some places, and it was the only way we could get to the place unless we wanted to walk around, but we didn’t have time for that. So we went trucking right through this river in our Priesthood Attire and everything. Everyone was looking at us and even some would cheer now and again. It was so tight. I finally felt like I was serving a mission in Africa. This is what I had imagined it to be like, going through rivers just to get to our next lesson. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had yet. Then after we taught the lesson we went back the same way just so we could walk through it again. The rest of the day we were soaked and my shoes weighed about 10 pounds. Gotta love it!!

Saturday I gave a priesthood blessing to a sick woman in our ward. I always get super nervous when I have to give blessings, but they always turn up being memorable experiences. Saturday we met with a family who we had only met a few times maybe a month or so ago. So we went back to them and invited the entire family to church, normally we won’t do that but we felt they would come. There were 5 kids and then the husband and wife. The next day at church when we arrived we saw Joel and Anglebert standing outside the chapel. This made us very happy. They didn’t feel very comfortable because they were wearing checkered pants and one didn’t have a tie on. But we didn’t care what they looked like. So we sat down in sacrament meeting and realized that Joel and Anglebert were no longer around. We had no clue where they had gone. So we continued with church and decided that we would go visit them later and see what happened, and why they left. About 30 min into sacrament meeting the family we had invited to church (the Oppong Family) showed up. The entire family all 7 of them. It was probably one of the happiest moments on my mission. To see an entire family walk into the chapel together with smiles on their faces, almost brought me to tears. That’s when I realized why families are so important in the sight of God. When a family is united and happy together, there is nothing greater. Now all I want to do is baptize this family. That’s all I want. To see all of them baptized together would be one of the best experiences of my life. I sat there in church the rest of the day and just thought about you guys and how important my family is to me. It was a very spiritual sacrament meeting. Okay, so after church we went to see if Joel and Anglebert were at home to ask them why they left. We met them and the first thing they said was that their mother needed the house key, and they had it with them so they had to go home. Well right off the bat I knew that wasn’t the real reason (its crazy how you can always tell if they are telling the truth or not). Finally we got them to say why. They explained that they both had walked up to the door of the chapel and looked in, and that’s when they got scared and ran away. They were terrified of all the people looking at them and they felt out of place because they didn’t have on ties as well. It was so funny how they said it. Joel was like "well I was... I was.... uhhhhh..... I WAS SO SCARED!!!" It was funny, but at the same time I felt bad that we hadn’t done a better job of making them feel comfortable. Anyway we asked them if they wanted us to give them the ties we were wearing right then, thinking they would say no, and that we could give them one later. But they said yes and so we gave them our ties and me and Elder Mackay didn’t have a tie for the rest of the day. Man did it feel so weird walking around without a tie on. The last appointment we had was with Sammy at Brother Pratt’s house and he gave both of us some ties to wear because he couldn’t stand to look at us without ties.

So that about concludes this weeks events and all that happened. This week was awesome. I really came to see that the experiences and memories you have on you mission couldn’t happen anywhere else. And that they will change my life forever, even the ones that seem small. I’m so grateful to be in Ghana serving the Lord, and I am especially thankful to all of you for helping to get out here and for pushing me to come on my mission. It will be the best thing I’ve ever done. The church is true there is no doubt in my mind.

Well sorry I talked so much this week but I just thought you might enjoy those stories a little bit. Sounds like everything is going awesome back home. I hope everyone is enjoying school being out and having more free time. Mom I need a few things. I could use some SPF 70 OR HIGHER IN SUNSCREEN. I have been talking the doxycycline and I have been getting fried like crazy. Well that’s about all I got, except I can’t believe dad has a flippin blackberry now. What the heck, he is letting Bishop rub off on him? He probably is all about the texting now too. Okay well I love you all and take care. Talk to you next week

Love Elder Adams