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 :)