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.