Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s a privilege once again to be able to share a few words with all of you this holiday season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. It’s a wonderful time of year. I love it because it is all about Christ. It’s always refreshing to take another look at his humble birth, sinless life, and glorious resurrection, whatever form it may be. I would simply like to share today my feelings about the Savior as well as an experience that has greatly changed who I am today and made my mission all that it has turned out to be.

Just over two years ago I was sitting in my mission prep class at BYU-I listening to my teacher speak, and even though I regrettably don't remember much from that class, I will never forget these words. He said "You must start your missions now by praying that the Lord he will bless you beyond your own ability, to love the people wherever you serve. If you love the people you will love your mission." I was deeply touched by his remarks. And so that is exactly what I did. Almost every night before I went to sleep I prayed that wherever I served I would be blessed with love towards those people. At times I doubted that my prayers were even worthwhile. I remember thinking how can I even ask that when I didn’t know where I was going? But I continued to pray. A month or two later I received my call. I was called to serve in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission. I then began praying that the Lord would bless me with that same Christ like love that he has towards the Ghanaian people. And I prayed and I prayed, day after day. Well the time finally came, and my mission began. And those first few months I had the hardest time truly loving the people the way I should have. They were just so different. I was so judgmental. But I still remember to this very day night after night kneeling down at my bed side begging and pleading the Lord to bless me with charity and love for these beautiful people. I knew that without his help I could not do it, I could not truly love them as he did.

As I have reflected on this throughout my mission it has became clear to me that because we are begotten sons and daughters of our all loving Father in Heaven, we are born with and inherit the same ability to love as he loves. It’s in our divine nature, we inherited that ability from our Heavenly Father. I don’t know when it happened, but in a way very similar to the way that Jesus Christ loves these people, I also have come to love these people. All of those prayers, all of that pleading and begging that I would find within my soul that Christ like love for these people, all of those prayers have been answered. As I think about all of the investigators, recent-converts and members that I have grown to love my heart is full, full of love towards them and towards the people of Ghana, to an extent that I know is not possible without the help of my Heavenly Father. I now know why I love my mission so much and why it has been the greatest building block in my life. Because of love. Almost instantly my thoughts are directed to the Savior. If I love the Ghanaian people as much as I do, If I get worried when an investigator calls me in the middle of the night, , if I cry because an investigator starts crying, if I am happy because they are happy, if I dread the day that I have to leave this country knowing that maybe in this life I will never see many of them again, I can't even begin to comprehend how much Jesus Christ must love and care about me. Because of the love I have now for them, I have come to understand the love that he has for me. In a way I've never understood before, I now understand the true meaning of the atonement and why Christ did what he did. I feel so much closer to my Savior and feel like I know him so much more now than I ever have before. Now I have an idea what it is like for him, how he feels when I sin, when I do wrong, when I fail to choose the right, but at the same time I now know how happy he is when we repent. I know how happy he is when we are happy. I know now why the 2nd greatest commandment is to love all men as ourselves, because when we truly learn how to do that we know God and understand his love he has for us, and we love him with all our heart. Love conquers all things. Mom and Dad, Family and Friends, I love my mission and these people so much, I dread the day I will have to leave them. My testimony has grown so much and my desire to share the gospel has grown even more. But my love for the Ghanaian people is the true story behind my whole mission and the foundation of my joy and happiness. My prayer is that this Christmas we may all find our hearts given out in love. Just as our Father in Heaven showed his love for us by sending is only begotten son into the world, may this Christmas we also show our love for him by loving those around us. I know that Christ lives. He loves us. He is the Savior of the World. He is real. Of that I so testify, In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Baptism of 30 members in Bibiani

December 12, 2011

Well another week has come to an end. It was a mighty long and exhausting week, but it was a great week nonetheless. Friday we didn't have much to do in Kumasi because president was having district meetings (the same meeting we have been to 5 times and could repeat in our heads word for word) so he gave us the day off and said that we didn’t have to go to the district meetings. So instead we spent Friday driving around doing some errands and helping Prosper the apartment man to find some new apartments for the Elders. It was pretty boring day but we still stayed productive, and then in the evening we helped Elder and Sister Zoll prepare things for Saturdays big baptism out in Bibiani.

We left the house at 7 in the morning and got to Bibiani around 9:30 or so that same morning. We gathered all of the people up who were being baptized from the neighboring villages and dresseed them at the chapel and put all of them in their whites. By the way we just got them a brand new building to worship in, their old place was terrible. 30 people in all white is a powerful sight. I helped finish doing some baptismal interviews for those people who couldn't make it out Friday for the interviews. I interviewed one lady named Grace who had been waiting for this day for more than two years. She came to know that the church was true by picking up a BOM and reading and coming to know that all the rumors and everything people were saying was false. She was by far the most prepared person I have ever interviewed for baptism. For example when I asked her if she could promise to keep the Sabbath Day holy for the rest of her life, without hesitation she said "No!" I asked, "well, why not?" She said "Because what if I get sick and can't partake of the sacrament one week, then I have broken my promise" You should have seen her face when she said that. It looked like someone had just ripped her heart out. She really felt how important that covenant was and she was scared of breaking it. Then when I asked her, "well grace, if you are not sick then can you promise to keep the Sabbath Day holy every week by partaking of the sacrament?" and then she said with a big smile "Yes of course, always, and my savior will help me." It really blew me away how serious this was to her and I could really tell that she was determined to never, ever break that promise of baptism. It meant everything to her. Half the people being baptized live in a village 40 min away and they pay to rent a bus to come in at least every 2 weeks, which for them is a huge sacrifice. After everyone was ready, we loaded them all up and drove them down to a river about 2 min away. It was a beautiful place to do the baptism. Even the Queen Mother of the village heard about the baptism and she came to see it for herself. It was great. We had a lot of people there to see the baptism too that weren't members. Probably like 75 people upwards I would guess were there. Two members gave some really great talks as well. After all of the baptisms then we did all of the confirmations and then enjoyed some time together. It was one of the neatest experiences ever. The only thing that I was a little bummed about was that because I was the camera man of the whole thing I forgot and never got a picture with me in it, so I have nothing to show for the whole thing. But oh well it was still great.

The baptism finished by 4 then we drove to Sunyani. We got there late and then I wasn't feeling to good so I just went straight to sleep after dinner. We got up in the morning and worshipped and then sat in meetings for the rest of the day with the Branch leaders in Sunyani and with the Elders. Closed from that and then we recorded the weekly numbers for the whole mission late into the night. Got up this morning and played some basketball with the boys and we just got back to cape coast and right now it is about 9:45 in the evening. I am so excited to sleep on my own bed :) YES!

It was a really good week and we were able to do a lot of really cool great things. The baptism was the highlight of it all. Now I am just exhausted so I am going to bed. I love you guys and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas this year. Enjoy the Holidays. Love you.

Elder Adams

December 4, 2011

Hello,

I am in Kumasi right now and we have a big weekend ahead of us up here. We are going to have a baptism in Bibiani tomorrow where we are baptizing 30 people who have been meeting together in a group for more than 8 years or something, but because of how far away they live the church hasn't allowed them to be baptized or really be established. They have been paying more tithing than any of the mission branches and they even double the highest paying branch in amount of tithes payed. They have been begging the church to send missionaries to them for years. They are among the most faithful people this church has ever seen. So tomorrow is going to be a really special day. I get to do a few interviews and be one of the witnesses for the baptism and I also have been given the assignment to be the camera man and do interviews of the people being baptized and all that. It will be a once in a lifetime experience and I am really excited.

On Sunday we will then head up to Sunyani and have a meeting with the elders up there and go on splits. We are also making the preparations for the Christmas zone conferences and it is going to be really sweet, we have a lot of really fun things that we are going to do and the instruction will be powerful as always. When it comes to Christmas I really don't want anything I would rather just have at least one Christmas where everything is focused on Christ and on its true meaning. It would make it one to always remember. I have been thinking about what to put in my letter but I haven’t really come up with anything because I put everything in last years letter, and we all know that somehow I have to make it way better than lasts years, so I am still trying to come up with something good, plus I am the only missionary out so that is also added pressure.

Now to answer some of your questions, when it comes to the police I have been stopped more times than I can count. They have on numerous occasions taken my license and filled out a court date and a ticket and all kinds of other things, but always all they want is money and so a lot of the people associated with the church they just pay them off and then nothing happens. But as for me I am very stubborn and I was taught that you never pay them, but that you can always find a way out. So sometimes I spend 30 to 40 minutes talking and negotiating my way out before they will let me go, but they usually get tired of me and know that I won't pay them so they just let me go. You do have to be very respectful and beg and beg and beg but in the end I ALWAYS get away free (knock on wood) But I have had to go to some extremes and at times practically get on my knees and beg for forgiveness and give them the big spill about how we are representatives of Christ trying to help their country and then that always gets them and they just turn their head, give up their pride, and let us go haha. It's a great experience. As for the retainers I have been wearing them pretty regular, but not every day but usually I never go more than a day without wearing them.

Well I am staying more busy than ever and the mission is so big that we are always going. I think it may be one of the biggest missions in the world. So it is really making me grow and making me stretch, a lot. But at the same time I love it. I talked to Pres the other day about staying in the office and he wanted to know if I wanted to be released for my last transfer. But as I thought about it I just said "I don't know what the Lord wants me to do, but you are entitled to that revelation so when you find out, that is exactly what I would love to do." So that's how it is going to be, up to him and the Lord but I really love what I am doing and would also love to be with the people more, but thank goodness I don't have to make the decision!!

Well I love you guys and hope that you are having a great Christmas season. I pray for you everyday and I am always thinking about you guys. So I was late in emailing this week but truly I haven't had much time, not even to sleep haha jk. but not really.

Love Elder Adams

Lots to catch up on. 6 new posts below.

11-28-11

Well it’s early morning here and we are off to Accra once again to try and get some Elders their driver's licenses. Pray that we get them, then I won't be the only one driving around here anymore. But I don't have time this morning to write much of an email, so I will write one when I get back tomorrow evening. I didn't get the pictures you sent so I don't know what’s up, maybe it just doesn't work cuz its Africa. Well I still don't know if I can transfer from BYU-I to BYU because I never deferred or whatever. Everyone is telling me that if I didn't do that then I would have to reapply? So you might need to check that. But yeah you can find out and see what the deal is and let me know. My toe is broken but healed and it is deformed, but not too bad so I won't worry about it. I didn't get the picture of the nativity set so try again. Okay I will email you tomorrow.

Love Elder Adams

New Companion and 31 New Missionaries

11-20-11

Okay so sorry I haven't emailed, things have been super busy this week. Monday we came home from Sunyani, we were there on splits over the weekend. Tuesday we drove to Accra and did the temple, airport, and MTC thing. Wednesday we picked up the 31 new missionaries from the MTC and I went with 8 of them from Accra up to Kumasi in the van, and a bus took the rest down to Cape Coast. That same day after dropping the Elders in Kumasi I drove back down to Cape Coast. We left at 7 in the morning and we got to the mission home about 7 in the evening. A lot of driving!!!!!!!!! Then Thursday morning we turned around and went back to Obuasi with 4 Elders. Obuasi is a new area that we just reopened. We have a mission branch there. They took Elders out of there a few years ago because they were troublesome. So we drove up there Thursday morning and stayed the night and came home on Friday evening. We met with the Branch Presidency and talked about what we expected to happen now that we are putting Elders back into that area. It was really good, and then we met with a lot of members and investigators that the branch missionaries were teaching. Obuasi has a lot of potential, it is a big gold mining city and they only have one branch there, so we are expecting it to grow really fast and hopefully become a district or something many years down the line. So the whole of the week we were traveling up and down up and down. That’s why I haven't emailed you this week. Don't get me wrong I could have found time, but I was just too tired and didn't want to do it haha sorry.

Anyway, the pictures that you sent were great but I need pictures with my recent converts. I am going to send them some pictures so if it is possible please send me pictures of me and what you would think is my converts or even members. Those are the ones that I need. As for just other pictures

they are fun to look at, but don't worry about those ones. 2nd yes I think my toe is broken. It is still deformed but whatever who cares the pain is going away. 3rd my new companion is Elder Hair from O'Fallon Illinois. He is tight and we were in the same class at BYU-I. We got quite a bit in common so things are going to be sweet. But man I do miss Elder Tadaeo, I freakin love that kid so much!!!! 4th, I fixed that camera that you are talking about and that is the one that I am using, the other one I just left it in the mission safe. It was broken but I fixed the lens for only 50 cedis. So it works great again. 5th, yes please you need to apply to BYU for me I don't want to worry about any of that crap while I am on mission. If you want me to do it I will just wait until I get home from mission. But if you can do it that would be sweet. However, I don't think I ever did a deferment at BYU-I so yeah that might be a problem I don't know. So let me know what’s up. I got the packages this week and they were great. Thanks for all that stuff that you sent I greatly appreciate it.

Love Elder Adams

Request

11-6-11

Sorry I am very busy, but I need you to please send me all of my pictures from my mission on a cd or dvd that you have, or some other way I need them to send to people and things like that so I would like to have all of them if that’s not to much to ask. Please I beg, as soon as possible. I will try to email you tomorrow.

Love you,

Elder Adams

ps. sorry to be so demanding :)

Tour with Elder Gavarret

10-31-11

Well I guess since I didn't email last week I have a lot to talk about, and I will try to cover the last two weeks as much as possible. So let’s go back to last week. Elder Gavarret of the seventy came and toured the mission for a few days so we had the opportunity to learn from him and he really gave me a lot of advice on what I need to be doing as an assistant and my role especially in helping the mission president. It kinda blew my mind a little bit and almost made me feel like maybe I am only doing about half of what the brethren would expect of me. I also gave two instructions in those mission tour zone conferences. There was a little more pressure than normal haha. I had about a 30 min interview with Elder Gavarret after the conference one on one. He was pretty straight forward with me and told me what I did good, but at the same time a lot of what I need to be doing when it comes to taking care of every little detail, planning, etc. and what the duties of an assistant are. But overall it was pretty good. He didn't speak very good English because he is from South America and it was hard at times for him to say exactly what he wanted but he did
pretty well. He has only been learning English for one year. Here is something funny... he told me that he could tell I am a very spiritual person in my interview. I almost started to laugh haha. So it was nice to have Elder Gavarret tour the mission, but it did take a whole lot of work from President and Sister Shulz and a little from us so it was a bit of a relief and relaxing when the tour was over. We could all breathe again. We have a few decisions and adjustments to make now after the tour pertaining to some things that Elder Gavarret mentioned during the zone conferences. Maybe a few things that will change the culture of the mission a bit, but I'm sure its all for the better. So we are in the process now.

As for the rest of this week we taught in our area a few days, celebrated birthdays, went on all day splits in Takoradi and Sekondi Friday and Saturday, and then were in town to worship in our branch on Sunday! And we had two investigators at church and one powerful member referral also at church. So it was a good week. We are teaching 4 people who have the potential to be baptized, and one of them has a baptismal date. It might not sound like much if you were a full time missionary in this mission, not much at all, but for us because of the small time we have its pretty exciting I think. We only get a few hours a week sometimes. We just had FHE with the Laing family in our branch and they invited the women they referred to us so she was there and they are going to be really good fellow shippers so I am sure she will be baptized. She is a sweet sweet girl. I'm happy. Thursday Sister Shulz cooked us chicken fajitas and cheese cake for our birthday dinners and man was it good. She is an amazingly powerful cook. Cheese cake is amazing, but the process that goes on after eating inside can be quite painful if your body isn't ready for that kind of food! I suffered afterward small small. The sacrifices we make haha. We taught the 5th Sunday combined 3rd hour yesterday in church and taught about a branch mission plan and presented to the branch a branch mission plan and how it is to be carried out. It went well but you could tell that 90 percent of the members thought it was some new doctrine they had never heard of haha. The church is still young here.

Today we played football and I tried to kick the dang ball so hard I think I nearly broke my foot in the process, and the funny part was I totally missed the ball. Soccer just isn't my game... Oh and I also got a sty in my eye this week which sucked, and my investigator popped it for me, it was disgusting!!! That's true love. Something else random this week is a got a original Larry Bird Celtics Jersey from a random guy on the street. The old school jerseys from back in the day. So I was on splits and we were moving to an appointment and I saw him so we contacted him and with our smooth talking got him to just dash it to me and all I had to do was give him a shirt he could wear home. I bet it’s worth big money. It's way sweet. We have been in the process the last week also of doing transfer and I swear transfers shouldn't be this hard. We have 31 new missionaries coming this transfer, and only 10 going home so we have to find new areas and apartments and cities that we want to go in to in order to have places to put all these elders. We are opening a new city called Obuasi were all we have right now is a mission branch with no missionaries. That means we need 31 new trainers, and with their companions that is 62 missionaries. Then we already have 18 being trained, that’s 36 missionaries which makes 98 total missionaries training or being trained. Then we have 18 zone leaders which is 116 and we only have 150 or so missionaries so it’s hard to make some many changes work. But it has to work and it will and to be honest we are pretty much finished with the transfers and it all looks to be pretty dang good. This mission is seriously growing. It's crazy. So I am getting a new companion this transfer, that is true and I have to train him before I get out of here so that will be fun again. Well I love you guys and hope you all had a good Halloween this year. Things couldn't be better here, I am really learning a lot and I am happy and enjoying every second of it. God bless you guys. Love you

Love Elder Adams

ps. Tadaeo got the package and loved it, im sure he emailed you.
pss. Things I need ASAP..
1. deodorant (mine is finished)
2. Toothpaste ( I don't like the fake cheap African stuff)
3. Vitamins please
4. Crest White Strips ( Ghana toothpaste and water and my lack ofbrushing are not keeping my teeth white haha)
5. I got some Proactive from someone and that stuff is great. If you can I just need the reparing lotion, its the best for me yet. But if not easy to find or if its expensive don’t worry about that one.

Love you :)

Kakum National Park

10-17-11

Hi everyone,

Well I don't have much time so I will be fairly short this week. We started the week off by having Pres Shulz join us in attending a branch council in our branch. Our branch is very inexperienced and so pretty much we just taught the leaders in the branch how to conduct a branch council and more specifically how to carry out a branch mission plan within that branch council. All in all it went well and they understood, but the challenge will be to see how well they implement what they have learned when we are not around. After that we had zone council report on Wednesday, which was cool because it was sweet to see all of the new zone leaders like Elder Brown and Elder Smith. Those guys are cool guys. Then Wednesday evening through Sunday we were in our own area and finishing up some things in the office so it was a pretty relaxed week and we never had to travel, which is very uncommon now a days. We gave one man that we are teaching this week a baptismal date which was sweet and he said that he wanted to be baptized. Then we contacted this old man with diabetes who is a really cool old guy. We have taught him twice now and he is really progressing, but it will be the real test when we invite him to church this week, so we'll see if he comes. We also met a less active man this week who was baptized a few years back, and due to work he became less active shortly after he joined the church. We met him randomly the other day and came to learn that he was a member of the church, so we visited him at his house and he was a really nice humble guy. He did have a 5 foot marijuana plant growing in his back room so we will have to address that with him here very soon. But after sitting with him for a few minutes we invited him to church. He said that he would come next week for sure, but that this week he had to clean his house because nobody has been taking care of it while he was away. So we offered to help him clean it on Saturday. We cleaned with him in the morning for about 3 hours and by the time we finished his house was spotless clean. And so because of what we did for him he was able to finish everything on Saturday and came to church on Sunday and had a great time. We talked to the Branch Pres about him and he is going to start working with him so hopefully he continues to come. Sunday was our branch conference and we had about 100 people or so there, but about 30 or more of them were from the stake so it wasn't as good of a turn out as we would have hoped for.

The pictures are from today. We visited the Kakum national park and went on the canopy walk and then saw a few crocs along the way. It was a fun day. Well that’s about all I got to share with you from this week. I love you and I am really having a great time. This week will be a fun one because a general authority, Elder Gavarrett, is coming to tour our mission and we are doing two zone conferences and then he may come and teach a few lessons with us so that would cool if he does. So the next few days we will be preparing our instructions and stuff like that, ya know gotta make this a powerful one. Then we will be headed back to Kumasi on Sunday. Right now Pres Shulz is at a mission president seminar so we are just here preparing for Elder Ggavarrett. It should be a good week. Anyway thanks for everything and for all your support. I love you guys, have a great week. God Speed!

Love Elder Adams

Visit members in Kumasi

10-9-11

How's it?

Well it has been another pretty normal week here. Well at least for us. Transfers all seemed to go really smoothly, but it was hard to see that group go home there were a lot of really great Elders in that group. The new guys seem, well green, but they seem to be a good group and we have some good trainers again. After transfers we headed up to Kumasi again to finish the apartment checks and stayed over the weekend. I was able to go to church in Atonsu and then go on splits with the Elders there and see all of my old people which was just awesome. They are all doing really great. The one guy that I baptized named Bright, who was pretty much a straight up gangsta (he just told me a story about how he blew up his brothers car with gas and a match, and then almost killed them with a cutlass) ya he is so powerful and never misses a week. He referred his best friend to the missionaries since I left and he and his wife are about to be baptized as well as Brights wife which is just sweet. But his friend has the same story. They were both just straight up G's living about as low a life as you can live, and now they are both just powerful in the gospel. It is amazing to see the changes the gospel can make in peoples lives. Brights friend gave me a huge hug when he saw me for the first time because he said that he had heard so much about me and was so grateful that we converted Bright because Bright converted him. So anyway I saw them, then some of my favorite members that are still around, but my other three converts are all gone. The one in the wheel chair is is Accra, and the other two are schooling in places a few hours away. But it was a lot of fun and we ate a lot of food. Brother Bright feed us fu fu at 4 pm, Sister Asore fed us yam at 6 pm, and then Sister Dina fed us pasta at 7 pm. I thought I was going to die it was so much food, but we managed to eat it all. It was a great day, and we even got to ride in a tro tro which I haven't done in a long time.

Over the weekend we also got the chance to go to a wedding of some members from Bantama Ward and it turned out to be a big thing. There were about as many people there as you have at stake conference. But when it came to the kissing of the bride things became hilarious. In Ghana affection is something that they never show, so when it comes to the kissing of the bride everyone just goes crazy, they pull out the cameras, cheer, yell, scream, it is just nuts. The groom, who I happened to know, is also a funny funny guy and he made it hilarious. He had his best man pat his lips with his hankey, then he would go in for the kiss and then back out and get everyone to cheer louder, it was just funny. Then when he actually kissed her everyone just went crazy. It was definitely not like back home, but it was so fun and interesting to see how the people were acting at the wedding. Like a bunch of kids. Great memory. Well other than that not much else from this week to share, just a pretty normal week of traveling and going on splits. Now I just have to finish up this pile of office work that we have before us, so I better get back to that. Love you!!!! And God bless you guys.

Love Elder Adams

10-2-11 Love for the Ghanaian People

Hi Family,

This week has been kind of a spiritual emotional rollercoaster for me in lots of ways. But I feel like I should share it with you. It is the greatest lesson I have ever learned. We went to Kumasi on Wednesday and then up to Sunyani, and then back down to Cape Coast yesterday which is a six hour drive from Sunyani. I had a lot of time to think ponder and pray over the last few days. The whole of my thoughts over the past few days have been solely focused on love, love for the Ghanaian people. Exactly two years ago today I was sitting in my mission prep class at BYU-I listening to my teacher speak, and even though I regrettably don't remember much from that class, I will never forget these words. He said "You must start your missions now by praying that the Lord he will bless you beyond your own ability, to love the people wherever you serve. If you love the people you will love your mission." And so that is exactly what I did. Almost every night before I went to sleep I prayed that wherever I served I would be blessed with love towards those people. At times I doubted that my prayers were even worthwhile. I remember thinking how can I even ask that when I didn’t know where I am going. But I continued to pray. A month or two later I received my call. I began praying that the Lord would bless me with that same love that he has towards the Ghanaian people. And I prayed and I prayed, day after day. Well the time came, and my mission began. And those first few months I had the hardest time truly loving the people the way I should have. They were just so different. I was so judgmental. But I still remember kneeling down at my bed side begging and pleading the Lord to bless me with charity and love for these beautiful people. I knew that without his help I could not do it, I could not truly love them as he did.

Over the past week this ran through my mind. As I reflected on it, it suddenly became clear to me that because we are begotten sons and daughters of our all loving Father in Heaven, we are born and inherit the same ability to love as he loves. It’s in our divine nature, we inherited that ability from our Heavenly Father. We can love as he does, it is possible. As I sat in the Sunyani Group conference on Sunday and heard Elder Vanchere who is going home bear his testimony about the love that he has for these people and how he was sad that he had to leave, and as I saw his converts cryin,g I broke down. I was overcome with emotions and tears began flowing because I knew that I had that love. In a way very similar to the way that Jesus Christ loves these people, I also love these people. All of those prayers, all of that pleading and begging that I would find within my soul that Christ like love for these people, all of those prayers were answered. I was overcome with the spirit. I always had it somewhere, but it now became so real to me. As I thought about all of my recent-converts and members that I had grown to love my heart became full, full of love towards them and towards the people of Ghana, to an extent that I knew was not possible without the help of my Heavenly Father. I now know why I love my mission so much and why it has been the greatest building block in my life. Because of love. Almost instantly my thoughts were directed to the Savior. If I love these people as much as I do, If I get worried when an investigator calls me in the middle of the night, if I dread the day that I have to leave this country knowing that maybe in this life I will never see many of them again, if i cry because they cry, if I am happy because they are happy, I can't even begin to understand how much Jesus Christ must love me. I have come to understand in a way I've never understood before, the true meaning of the atonement and why he did what he did. I feel so much closer to my Savior and feel like I know him so much better than I ever have now. Now I know what it is like for him when I sin, when I do wrong, but at the same time how happy he is when we repent. I know now why the 2nd greatest commandment is to love all men as ourselves, because when we truly learn how to do that we know God, and we love him with all our heart. Love conquers all things. Mom and dad I love my mission and these people so much that I fear, I dread the day I will have to leave them. Because of this I am beginning to feel like my time is coming to an end here in the office because I need to be out in the homes of these people, in their families, building relationships of love and giving all that I can until the end of my mission, spending time with them. I have learned so much here and I want so much to put into practice the many lessons I have learned and the skills I have acquired, and just love the people. It's been a very emotional week. At times I feel like I am missing out on the true joy that comes from teaching loving and baptizing and seeing people change their lives. That's how I want to finish my mission. But I know that I must lift where I stand and I will do whatever the Lord asks of me. It's been a great weak. My testimony has grown so much and my desire to share the gospel even more. But my love for the Ghanaian people is the true story behind my whole mission and the fountain of my joy and happiness. I can't believe I have only 4 months left. God bless you and always know that I love you.

Love Elder Adams

ps. If the circumstances are right, would it be okay if I extended?

Rockin a New Style! September 26, 2011

How is it????
We were visiting a less-active women who we have been teaching and we were trying to get her to smile and be happy, so this is the only way we would get her to laugh. Sometimes you have to be creative. She is the one in the background, her name is charlotte. And she came to church today! Thought this might make you laugh a little.

Well it was another fairly normal week with a lot of time in our own area. But we started off the week on Tuesday going with Pres and Sis Shulz to do apartment checks in the Swedru Zone. Right now I know every single area, chapel, and apartment in the mission, but one. And that is Odoben which is the closest area to the Accra mission and the only place in the entire mission that I haven't been. So on Tuesday we were going there first to begin the apartment checks in the Swedru Zone. Well on the way we got false directions, and we actually ended up driving 45 min outside of our mission boundaries and into the Accra mission. And so we got lost and we never found Odoben and so I still don't know where it is and still haven't been there. Anyway it was pretty funny, not to mention President wasn't happy at all so that somehow made things even funnier. But we did find the other apartments in Swedru and we finished the apartment checks there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Thursday we spent most of our time in our area. Right now we kind of are going through some tough times in our area. All of our people are kinda falling like flies due to one or two things and now at the end of this week we only have 1 serious investigator left that we are still going to continue to teach. Four of them flat out lied to us and then ran away haha, so I don't think we are ever going to go back to them. So now we are somehow starting from scratch and we are going to just work hard and visit the members and see what happens. So Thursday was disappointing. Friday we did the apartment checks for the Assin Foso zone, nothing to talk about there. I guess we did finish up the transfer that night on the board and chose all of the new trainers and zone leaders etc. Saturday there was a stake football tournament and we went and watched for a bit. Moree played Bakaano and that was pretty funny to watch because I new almost everyone. Bakaano actually ended up winning the entire tournament and won like 4 or 5 games which was crazy cuz we weren’t that good, we just had a bomb goalie that blocked everything. Then the rest of the day we found out that all of our investigators weren’t all that serious and by the end of the day we didn't have much left. Kind of a tough week. Even at church we didn’t have a single investigator, which I don't think has ever happened really through my whole mission. Sunday after church we took part in some home teaching with the elders in the ward and then went around with the relief society to show them some less actives and visit some members.

Well that was about the whole week in a nutshell. So it was a bit of a downer because we have been working really hard, but to no avail. So we are hoping for a good week this week and some new investigators that will progress for us. I think it is a good humbling experience for me, it makes me pray harder and rely more on the Lord to help us through these times. Oh wait, we are going to Kumasi on Wednesday and we aren’t coming back until Sunday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crap I guess we will see what happens in two weeks. Well I am doing good, as for my companion I will let him email you small about himself.

Here's Elder Tadaeo.

l am brodreck tadaeo , l am from zimbabwe a city called Bindura it's under Harare Zimbabwe Mission . ln my family we are five three girls and two boys , l am the third born . Me and my sisters we are members , and my father he was a member but he died Sep 2006 . My mom she is not a member , but soon she will be when l go home . l am the first one to come on mission. l like to play cricket , american football, soccer, basketball.l like hiking , talking stories , listening to music .l am 22 years old but soon l will be 23 this coming October 29.l like reading BOMormon and other church books . l forgot one thing yaa l like joking too muchooooooooooo.l love missionary work and also working with Elder Adams he is cool elder , in my mind l awalys call him MR NICE GUY but he doesn't know that yet .

And yes he would like you to send him a package. And you can email him he would like that too, but he won't say it so I will say it for him. brodreck.tadaeo@myldsmail.net Well that is really all for this week. I love you guys and will talk to you later okay bye bye now. Nyame Nyira Wo.

Love Elder Adams

Sept. 16th, 2011

Hey,

Sorry I am late with my email this week. Everything is just moving so fast around here. I got the packages that you sent yesterday, so it was like I had two birthdays one last week and one this week. But we didn't really do anything for my birthday, so basically it was just the packages. Thanks for the camera and other goodies, I will be sure to take lots of pictures okay. I can't rely on Elder Mackay to take the pictures for me any more, so I will have to start. I like the card that you picked out, I can say that it was pretty much spot on for someone like me!! I also really liked the short messages from the family and pictures. It looked like a real fun family reunion. I like how we don't have one for the 20 years that I am alive, and then once I am out of the country we throw a huge party. I SEE..... I honestly don't know who any of those kids are in those pictures though. It looked like you guys had a good time.

Well were do I start? The last two weeks we have been going around and having training meetings with all of the bishops and stake presidents in each stake. So far we have done the Kumasi Stake, Cape Coast Stake, and Assin Foso Stake which we did last night. We are teaching them how missionary work is to be run in their wards and we talked about a lot of things like ward council meetings, PEC, ward mission leaders, ward missionaries, stake coordination meetings, coordination meetings with the missionaries, and a whole lot of other stuff. A lot of them I think didn't fully understand that the Stake Pres holds the keys to the missionary work in the stake, and the bishops hold the keys to the missionary work in their wards. Basically in a round about way the purpose of the meeting was to help them to understand that they are in charge of the missionary work in the stakes and wards, not us, we are just there to help. I already know that it is going to make a big impact on the missionary work. The members are going to give a lot more referrals. Each ward set a goal for baptisms by the end of the year. Add those together and you get the stake goal, and then add those together and we have the mission goal for baptisms from Sept. to Dec. We just have one more meeting to do tomorrow and then we will have done all the stakes and it is just left to have the meeting with one of the districts and then we will have the mission goal for baptisms by the end of the year. If you were wondering our branch set a goal for 18!!!!!! And we are the only 2 elders in our branch so we got a whole lot to do! And not much time, especially for us so its going to really make us use every single solitary second that we have of our day working working working. Pray for us please! I will say that it has been interesting to see what the leaders of the wards have to say about the missionaries. A lot of things have been said, both bad and good, but mostly good. It is interesting to see what they really think though. It also made me feel pretty uneasy standing up in front of 1 stake presidency, 8 bishops and bishoprics and their ward mission leaders teaching them about their duties haha. You can imagine how I felt. But it was good and it was fun. I am a lot more comfortable standing up in front of people and talking now than I ever was.

Now that Elder Mackay is gone I have to take care of everything on the computer, which sucks, but I am getting better with the stupid machine. It just ticks me off sometimes cuz it takes me forever to figure out something that should take 5 sec. in excel. Pres has been having us put together year to date baptisms for each ward and stake and we don't have that already so we have been doing a lot of searching and finding to gather the information as accurately as possible. I tell you it not easy! But we have managed to put together 4 separate spreadsheets for the stakes and their wards baptisms so we are doing okay so far. The other big task that we started today was the upcoming transfer. We have 15 elders going home and then 19 new ones coming. That means we have to find 19 new trainers and we can’t choose any of the other 12 who are already training, and then the following transfer we have 29 elders coming meaning 29 more new trainers!!!!!!! I tell you again, it not easssyyyyyy!!!!!! haha but we are doing all we can. When those 29 elders come that is really going to be a crazy transfer.

Okay so other random things that we did this week. We counted out the subsistence for the whole mission and packaged 129 pieces of paper with money. We had a sisters workshop here at the mission home today teaching and training them which was fun. We played football, on Monday, we got a new mission van with a sweet stereo system that we can rock out in to our motab cds, its powerful. We had our last zone conference in Kumasi and then went on splits for two days with Bantama and Dichemso zones which was a lot fun. After teaching an investigator about the priesthood we gave the investigator a blessing who was having major headache problems that had gone on for a long time and she was fully healed the same night and now she has a powerful testimony of the priesthood. (even though she is still having trouble leaving her church) At church on Sunday we had 5 less-actives come that never come to church because the week before we took the relief society sisters around to do visiting teaching because they knew none of their homes. The power of visiting teaching is unreal! One of the women was one that we reactivated which was sweet.

So in short it has been a wonderfully long but very successful week and a half. I can't even begin to explain how much the Lord has truly been blessing us and especially in our area. We have 3 or 4 people who I think can be baptized within the next month or two which is great. The last 3 weeks we have had a lot of time in our area and it is really starting to pay off and I am excited. My companion is the man, I seriously love Elder Tadaeo so much. You just can’t have a bad day with the kid. He is so funny so happy so goofy and he is working hard so things couldn’t be any better. I know the church is true and I am having a great time teaching the gospel. I don't think there has ever been so much required of me before from the Lord, and at times I don't know how we keep on keepin on, but we are still keepin on because the Lord is by our side and he is there every step of the way. Because it is his work I know that there is nothing to worry about if I just do all that I can, because then he will do the rest. My family, I love you and thank you for everything. You guys are the best. Have a good week and can't wait to here from you again next week.

Lots Of Love,

Elder Adams

ps I also got the package from grandpa and grandma. Love them, thanks.

Aug. 29th and Sept. 5th

On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 The family, Well I can see that I have once again dug the hole a little deeper than before, and instead of climbing out I just keep falling back in when it comes to this emailing stuff. I can see that mom, you're a little annoyed with you son now a days haha. Sorry oooo. You know I still love you. As for this past week I did get sick on Friday night, but by Sunday I was feeling a lot better and the malaria, if it was even malaria, was pretty much gone. I was only feeling crappy for about a day before I started to feel fine. The thing that made it not fun was we had to drive up to Kumasi on Saturday to pick those missionaries going home, the day that I wasn't feeling good. The roads are extremely bumpy and we had to drive the old mission van, which when you put those two together make for a very uncomfortable ride when you have diarrhea and a giant headache. But luckily I never spoiled my garmies. Surely a tender mercy. Sunday we worshipped in Kumasi. We went to Bantama 2nd ward which is where I served about 3 weeks before coming to the office. Elder MacKay also served there for about 3 months before coming to the office. Pretty much nobody even remembered who I was except for like the Bishop and one or two of the other leaders in the ward, which was expected because I didn't really remember too many of them either. There was the one Lady though ( sis morgan) whos husband me and Elder Christensen reactivated who had been less active for like a decade. I was surprized, but she recognized me and remembered my name and everything and was excited to see me. So that was pretty cool. I got to talk to her for a little bit and she seemed really happy now. It makes me feel like the Lord knew me and needed me to serve there for that purpose of helping reactivate Bro. Morgan. I was only there for 3 weeks, but the Lord knew that and he understood that even if it was only 3 weeks, he had me there for a purpose. Anyway it was cool to visit Bantama. Elder MacKay got to see a lot of people he wanted to meet before he went home, it was good for him. We came back to the mission home Sunday night and then had dinner with those Elders going home. After dinner around 8 p.m. we went and taught a lesson, Elder MacKays last lesson, to a women name Rejoice. She is the wife of a member in our Branch named George Koomson, and he is somehow active but somehow less-active at the same time. He is just really busy with work and travels a lot so it is hard for him to come to church on a regular basis. But he has a strong testimony and he wants his wife to follow him to the church. She is currently attending ICGC, which is a church but I can't remember what it stands for. She is a strong member of her church. They are getting ready to do the civil marriage in her church and ICGC believes that once you are married the wife should follow the husband to his church, even if it means they have to leave ICGC. So basically George could force her to attend Our church but he is a good guy and he wants her to have a testimony and only follow him if she believes it is true. He doesn't want to force her to do anything. Rejoice has met with missionaries in the past, but she has always been reluctant to meet with them. I think she found the missionaries before to be somewhat of a burden and an annoyence. Some months back we tried to meet with her but she just told us to leave in a pretty rude way, and you could see that she didn't really want much to do with us. But we tried again about 2 weeks ago, and this time she let us in with a smile on her face. Instead of just preaching her we felt like we needed to just become friends and gain her trust before. So the first lesson we had we talked to her about her and her life and really got to know her. We left pretty good friends and now we have a strong relationship with her and she really likes us. The following lesson we felt prompted to start by teaching her the plan of salvation SORRY I GOT REALLY BUSY JUST NOW. I will send the rest of the email tomorrow, but this way you will know that I am alive and well if I send this much :) love elder adams Alright I am back its only been a week haha. Well Iwill finish the email that I started last week. We taught sister rejoice about the plan of salvation from the beginning and used the bom a lot and she agreed with everything that we had taught her. It was really good bacause she saw how the bom agrees with what she already believes, and she saw that it really was a good book, not what she had thought. I have been using the bom a lot the last week in the lessons we have been teaching and on splits and it has really made my teeaching more powerful as I have really tried to use it more. Anyway since that lesson we have now taught her 2 times, that is me and elder tadaeo. Thats my new companion he is tight. I will tell you more about him later. Things are going well right now with sister rejoice. We taught her last night again, it wasn't the best lesson because she was really tired and we could only meet for a few min, but she made time for us. She is doing well. Well thats all I can remember from last week because a lot has happened since then. This last week was zone conference and me and Elder tadaeo have given three trainings during the conferences on how to use the new training program that the brethren have jsut come out with. its a 12 week program for trainers to follow with their new trainees when they come. It is a super powerful program and I can see it will make a huge difference in all missionaries abilities to teach. The church has also mass produced thousands of mini dvd players so that every companionship in the world can have their own dvd player in the apartment to use to watch Training dvds from preach my gospel. (Talk about a lot of broken dvd players in the next few months) So that program started this last transfer and we have been busy with it. Its great. I hope the elders use the dvd players the right way, because they are powerfully effective. So my new companion is elder tadaeo from Zimbabwe. He is seriously the funniest elder I have ever met and I love the guy to death. He has never been in a leadership position before so he has a lot to learn when it comes to how the mission runs and all that, but he is ready to work and ready to learn. He is extremely humble. Anyway we laugh all day long because he is just so funny. I am really excited for the next few transfers it will be a lot of fun and we have more time in our area to work hard. Elder Tadaeo was training in our branch, so last transfer there were 4 elders me elder mackay elder tadaeo and elder nwatu. Now its just me and elder tadaeo and we are companions. he already knows people to teach and now we just have double the work to do, its sweet. We picked up some good investigators and we are really enjoying our area right now. President and sister shulz are pretty well oriented now so we have more time to proselyte. Right now I am emailing from elder zolls laptop in kumasi. We are about to eat dinner with pres and sister shulz and the zolls. We have the last zone conference tomorrow up here with about 50 elders and sisters to wrap things up and then we will stay for a few extra days and go on some splits with these northern zones. It will be an eventful and fun week. Sister shulz is a bomb cook and makes the best food and she said that she is going to cook me a birthday dinner, and she even said that she is going to try and make me some cheese cake. I love her. Well i can't believe I am turning 21, I still feel like since I turned 18 I just stayed there. 21 sounds old -to me. But not as old as you mom and dad. Your grandparents and empty nesters, haha now that is old. jk. Well i think that is all for today. I love you and pray for you every day. God bless Love Elder Adams

July 25th, 2011

Family,

It was good week. It's hard not to have a good week in Ghana. This is a pretty amazing place full of wonderful faithful people. I had some very memorable experiences this week. The Moree chapel is now complete!!!!!!! They will worship on the 7th of August, and it looks so amazing. Seriously though, it is the most beautiful chapel is Ghana. Like you Dad, I am sure I am a little biased though too. So we have been invited to the opening and it will be a fast Sunday so I am sure that it will be a powerful meeting hearing the testimonies of everyone. Man, I am so excited. But Moree held a baptism there this week on Friday. It was the first ever event at the new chapel. I participated in confirming one of the children of record along with Andrew Aikins my recent convert from Moree, during the Elder Brown days, who was voice of the confirmation and blessing. It was such a neat experience to be able to lay our hands on someone as Melchizedek Priesthood holders together and to see him repeat perfectly the words of the ordinance. Someone who just a few months ago didn't even know the gospel. I can't explain how happy I am to see some of my recent converts progressing so well in the church. He is also getting married soon to a very powerful member and will be sealed before I go home. Isn't that something?!!! Well it was a good week. I am glad that you had a good week out at Smith Creek. Greet everyone for me. I love you all and the gospel is true. Just seeing how it has blessed people like Andrew is enough evidence for me to know that it is indeed true. I pray for you always. Have a great week.

Love Elder Adams

July 17th, 2011

My First Big Mistake

Hey everyone, long time haha. Sorry I have been a slacker the last few weeks when it comes to emailing. One week I typed up my email and then I deleted it and was mad because I had to type it again, and I ended up actually not typing it again. And then last week I read my emails and just forgot to respond back. Sorry. We are on our way to Accra right now actually to take for missionaries back to Ivory Coast who came to our mission during the war. It’s funny that you mentioned Mom in your letter about Miles getting called on the last second to give a talk in church. We showed up to church yesterday about 10 min before it started, and about 5 min before sacrament meeting the Branch President asked me to be the first speaker and give a 15 min talk. So Paul Young wasn't lying when he said you need to be ready at any moments notice. Sometimes 5 min is all the notice you get haha.

Well when I get back from Accra I will send another email to make up for the last 3 weeks of not emailing. I am doing great and healthy as can be. So don't be trippin alright.

Love You,

Elder Adams

Well we just got back from Accra. It's about 7 pm our time. We dropped 4 missionaries at the Area office/temple, and their flight leaves tomorrow to take them back to Ivory Coast. Me and Elder Mackay took them in so that Pres. Shulz could take care of other things back here. They've been running around a 100 miles an hour the last few weeks and the last thing I am sure they wanted to do was go back to Accra for a 3rd time where it's just crazy traffic all the time and stressful. So we offered to take them in for them, just me and Elder Mackay. After we dropped them off we drove around for a little bit so that I can learn Accra a little bit better. After the Saunders and Elder Mackay go home I will be the only one who knows Accra other than the Shulz. So today me and Elder Mackay mapped out a short cut in and out of town that we didn't know before. It took us a little while and a few wrong turns, but eventually we found the road we were looking for and hopefully in the future it pays off and saves us a little bit of time on transfer days getting missionaries back a little bit earlier to the mission home from the MTC. I have been to Accra 3 times in the last 6 days. We went in last week Tuesday for transfers and came back on Wednesday with 16 new Elders, then we took 3 Elders in on Thursday who are leaving our mission and going to Ivory coast, and then 4 more leaving back to Ivory coast again today. We have been doing a lot of driving the last few days. I drove Presidents car the other day (automatic) and it felt so weird. I just kept on trying to use my left leg to push in the clutch when there obviously was none. I am pretty used to the stick now a days. But when you get to drive an automatic (presidents car) it's so glorious. Just lay back, relax, and enjoy. Driving a stick in Ghana is less comfortable because there is so much stop and go mixed with traffic (my left shoe is starting to wear out). But it is a lot of fun.

When me and Elder Mackay first started together as assistants we asked ourselves "How many big mistakes do you think we will make?". When I say big mistakes I mean crash a car, get chewed out by President, destroy an irreplaceable file, things like that. We figured that we would make a few a long the way. Well last week I made my first big mistake. In the mission we have 3 large safes. One of which contains all of the missionaries iPods they brought, some money, and other expensive personal items. The other day I was looking in that safe for a GPS system used to map out the boundaries of new groups and branches. To open the safe you unlock two bolts and then there is a combination you have to do also before it will open. So I was locking it back up and I moved the combination around in the process, which was always left untouched in the same position (I never knew). They have always left the combination and one of the locks untouched and in the correct opening position so that all you have to do is unlock one bolt and the safe opens. So anyway I moved the combination around (if you asked me why I couldn't tell you) and come to find out it hasn't been touched in over 3 years, it’s just been sitting in the correct position forever, and nobody knows the combination!!!!! So the safe was now locked and nobody knew the combination. Inside were all of the missionary’s iPods, cameras, and the Saunders money!!! BAD SITUATION! But I didn't know what I had done. I just went on with my day like normal thinking nothing of it. Until the next day when Sister Saunders went in to open the safe and realized what had happened as she couldn't open it. She wasn't too excited about it. So I heard from President Shulz that Sister Saunders was a little little angry because somebody had moved the combination and she couldn't open it. The second President Shulz told me that I just had one of those bad feelings you get when you know you did something really stupid and you are in for it! So I went over to the office and told Sister Saunders it was me (totally expecting the worst). She didn't really lay into me to much, just kinda made me realize I was an idiot for not asking how to open the safe haha, which was true. Sister Saunders is just a sweetheart! Nothing really seems to get her too upset, and we all know having me and Elder Mackay in the office she has all the right to be upset, annoyed, ect. haha. So she emailed President Sabey and asked him if he knew the combination. He didn't!!!! But he did think that maybe there was a piece of paper somewhere in his office that might have the combination on it. I found it and with my fingers crossed went and tried the combination listed on the safe. Turned out that we got the safe open, thank goodness!! So that was my first real big mistake I think that I've made so far, moving the combination to the safe that hasn't been touched in more than 3 years. At least the first big mistake to my knowledge, I’m sure there are many more. But on the plus side now we know the combination thanks to my stupidity. Anyway I thought you might get a kick out of that.

Things are a little bit different now. We don't get to do much proselyting these days because we have a bigger responsibility in teaching President and Sister Shulz everything that we know and helping them the best we can. They are doing great and really they don't need much of our help. We have been spending a lot of time with them and they are really great people. They are so faithful. This is their third mission and you can just see how they will do anything for the Lord. It is different and I really miss teaching investigators a lot. I think we have only had 2 half days in our area the last 3 or 4 weeks, but I can really see where we are needed right now and I am so glad to be able to help in whatever way they need us to. I forgot to say that we went to the temple again and it was so sweet. There were so many things that I understood that I never before noticed or thought about. It was a real spiritual boost being able to go to the temple. When I leave I feel so much more driven to be the best I can. The last few months have been full of really great experiences and I really have been learning a lot, not just about church, but about life. There is just so much you learn as a young kid serving around great couples like the Saunders, the Shulz, the Zolls, the Sabeys, the Lambs, the Bennets, etc. A mission is a great thing. Well mom and dad, I don’t know what else to tell you. Things are going really good. I can feel the pressure a little bit as the Saunders are going home and Elder Mackay too, but I am not too worried cuz the Lord will make it all work out. I am healthy and doing really well. I love you guys and I am so grateful for all that you do for me. I pray for you daily. This email is the beginning of a repentance process, so you can expect an email weekly unless something crazy ridiculous happens, it is Ghana so there’s a chance. I love and miss you.

Love Elder Adams

Accomplishing Mission Goals (3 new posts)

June 26, 2011

Dear Fam,

Another week has flown by. The weeks of late have been just flying bye so fast. I can't believe how fast the time is going. It's just ridiculous. It is really starting to freak me out because before I know it I am going to be finished with my mission! Having the Sabey’s, Saunders and Elder Mackay all finishing their missions within the next 8 weeks doesn't help. It doesn't feel right, it's gone to0 fast. I still feel like I just got here. I do not want to leave my mission, I love it so much, and maybe my email this week will shed some light on why. On why this has been the greatest and most cherished time of my life. But I still have about 7 months, thank goodness!!!!

Well we have officially finished our mission goal to have every missionary in this mission baptize someone who has a family member in the church, and then to also help a family to be sealed in the temple! I can now relax and breathe!!!!!! Can you believe that, who would have ever thought that was even possible? Could you imagine if you tried to do that in any other mission in the world, it would be impossible. To have 68 families get sealed in the temple in only about 4 and half months. And have 68 companionships baptize someone who has a family member in the church already. It just blows my mind. The people of Ghana have so much faith. There is no other place like this in the whole world. In the last 17 months I have never met someone who doesn't believe in God. And I can count on my fingers the number of times someone has rudely rejected me. Ghana is just different. During this goal the adversary has made many attempts in trying to block our way, to stop us if you will from accomplishing this goal. We had all of the Ivoirians come to the temple for refuge, and during that time we couldn't send people to the temple so that made the goal even harder. We had 10 families go to the temple and not get sealed because of paper work problems, miscommunication, etc. One family even did proxy sealings and thought they did their own. We had families just this last week prepared to go who said they weren't able to go now. Just everything that could go wrong went wrong. But that didn't stop us. That didn't stop this goal that the Lord had given us from being accomplished. We worked around all of those things. We helped each other. We found families in other areas and we prepared backups and even this last week we had 3 backups for every companionship who hadn't finished. We made sure they had recommends, family group records, correct records, busses scheduled to get them there, everything we could possibly do, we did. And because we did everything we could possibly do, we put ourselves in a position where we knew that the Lord could, and would do the rest. We saw miracle, after miracle, after miracle. We saw families make sacrifices; we had families call us out of the blue saying that they wanted to go to the temple to be sealed, and to be sealed on the day the goal ends!!!! And on the 25th of June the Nyanka family helped the last companionship finish as they were sealed in the temple with their young boy!! A family who called us out of the blue, and who without we would never have accomplished this goal. I have learned so much from this goal. But if I have learned one thing, I have learned that this is the Lords work and not ours. I learned more than anything that when we do all that we can do the Lord will do the rest. And that is exactly what happened, and it was amazing. It was remarkable. My mission has changed the way I look at life. I know this is the only true church upon this earth. I know this work we are doing is not our own. It is our Father in Heavens, and we are so privileged to be instruments in his hands. Nothing brings me more joy or satisfaction than to help him in his work.

Today we just had President and Sister Sabey’s last zone conference. It was sad, and it is going to be hard to see them go. I have come to love President Sabey and Sister Sabey so much. I have never met better people. I am so grateful to have served with them and to have gotten to know them as much as I have. President Sabey will do anything for the lord. I learned so much from him and I am going to miss them so much. Being his assistant has been great. We just finished having dinner with the Sabey’s and the Saunders, probably for the last time. We made the Sabey’s a video of each companionship in the mission and it was really neat. Some sang songs, some made jokes, some said goodbye, and some did really good impersonations of Pres. and things like that. We put it in and watched it with them after dinner and they loved it. Then we had ice cream. We had great time tonight with them. After the video we sat around and we just talked. Everyone there will be going home soon so I am kind of hanging around, and pretty soon it will be just me and President Shulz and a new office couple. That's when it finally dawned on me that they are going. Man I am going to miss them so much. I don't believe there has ever been a greater mission president than President Sabey.

So the Shulz’s will be arriving on Wednesday and the Sabey’s will be going home on Thursday of this week. Things are going to really change around here. It will be sad but at the same time it will be so exciting. I am really looking forward to serving with President Shulz and Sister Shulz and I know that I will learn so much from them and come to love them just the same way I love the Sabey’s. It's gunna get crazy around here in the next few months. I am really looking forward to it and can't wait to meet the Shulz’s.

Holy shnikeze!!! What a week you had. I can only imagine how stressful that was. And I think that some days for me are stressful, but I can only imagine what that was like. I talked about doing all we can and then the Lord will do the rest, and I think you can understand what I am talking about by recent personal experience. Sorry about the crazy mess, but at least it wasn't anything that you did. I am glad things turned out okay. Well Tristin you should just name the baby Garrett because that is the most powerful name that starts with a G and anything else would just be a step down. jk. But I hope everything goes well and that the baby isn't ugly, haha okay jk again. That wouldn't happen with our genetics. Well I hope you have a better week this week mom and dad and that things are a little less stressful. I love you guys so much. I pray that the Lord will bless you everyday. Take care and God bless.

Love Elder Adams

ps. I got the packages. Thanks so much. The back brace works! Love you.

pss. The answer to the Holland question was the latter one you gave. You got it!