Monday, April 25, 2011

Elder Adams now an AP April, 4 2011

Fine Morning,
Well it sounds like you are all doing really well. As for me the last few months have been pretty crazy as you know. Opening up the new group in Atonsu and then being called to be a zone leader in Bantama brought a lot of excitement to the work. It's been a really awesome past 3 weeks in Bantama and I have had some of the coolest experiences of my mission in these past 3 weeks.

First we had zone council this week so we traveled to Cape Coast on the bus on Tuesday morning and we arrived there that evening and we enjoyed dinner with the Sabey's and the Saunders and the Assistants. It was sweet. We slept over that night in the mission home the 4 of us Zone leaders from Kumasi, and then we had Zone Leader Council the next morning with all of the Zone leaders in the mission. After eating lunch following the zone leader council, we got back on the bus and went back to Kumasi. We arrived there late that Wednesday evening. It was a fun, but long and tiresome few days.

Second I would like to tell you about a guy named Bro. Morgan and this Sunday. I told you a little bit about him last week and the lesson that we had with him. Well here is the background to his story again. He became a member of the church more than 10-15 years ago, I'm not sure how long exactly. Through his conversion to the church his whole family also followed him and they were all baptized including all of the kids, 5 kids in number. Very solid family. Now fast forward to today.... his whole family is super powerful and active except him, he has been less-active for more than 10 years now. His wife is currently the 1st councilor in the Relief Society Presidency and is super powerful, and some of the kids are preparing for mission and all of the kids are fully active and love the church. Missionaries have been teaching and going to visit him for more than 5-6 years I think. So when we got to him he didn't really want to hear a whole lot from us, but then we had that super powerful lesson with him last week Sunday and he promised to come to church this week! WELL HE CAME!!!!!!!!! THE WHOLE FAMILY CAME AND SAT TOGETHER AND THE WHOLE WARD WENT CRAZY AND WAS SO EXCITED TO SEE HIM!!!!! So basically it was just amazing...... Also yesterday we had a baptism and Mame and Mother the 2 Muslim girls were baptized and that was super cool too! So yesterday was the sweetest Sunday ever in Bantama Ward! And I wasn't even there, I missed the whole entire thing because I was transfered again!!

Okay so here's where things get really crazy, pay attention. President had an emergency transfer with about 1/3 of our zone members in Kumasi. The two areas were burned and cleansed and all new missionaries came to those two areas in our zone. Elder Wright the current assistant was released and came to be the district leader in that area to assist and fixing everything and making the dead areas fruitful again. We, as I said Elder Wright was released.........That's when I received a phone call from President Sabey, only seconds after hearing about the transfer. This is all going on Thursday the day after getting back from Cape Coast. I'm sure that you will be as surprised as I was. I am the new assistant to President Sabey! Crazy right! And so I was sent back down to Cape Coast Friday morning with all of the elders that were transferred and now I am sitting in the mission office. It's been freakin insane! So I got here Friday night and that means that I wasn't at church Sunday in Bantama, and that I missed all that awesome stuff with Bro Morgan and the Muslim girls.

So that means that now I am companions with Elder Mackay again and will be I am sure until he goes home in 5 months. I have so much to learn. I was only a Zone Leader for 3 weeks and so I know very little about how things work and now I have to learn a lot more. It's a heck of a load, but man am I excited. So things are crazy right now. I hope you understand a little bit of this email, there’s a lot in there. Well I love you and I thank you for everything. Now just pray for me that I may figure things out really fast. Love you and take care.
Love
Elder Adams

ps. I was practicing driving stick yesterday, it was ridiculous!!!!
pss. Elder Mackay has only been an assistant for 3 weeks, yup we are lost!!!!!!!
pss. I am working on the photos and burning a cd. I should send one off in the next week or two. Patience is a heavenly virtue, and heaven is eternal, so make that patience eternal haha. It's coming but I can't make in promises now my schedule is booked 24/7



Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Zone Leader in Bantama & Learning to Sing!!!







3-27-11

Fine Morning,
Well I am sorry that my emails haven't been all that good lately but really its just hard to sit down and remember everything, but things have really changed a lot so I will do my best to fill you in. So my Zone is the Bantama Zone and in our zone we have 30 missionaries. We have 6 sister missionaries, 22 Elders, and a couple, the Bennets. Our Zone covers the north west part of Kumasi, and then we have 10 elders in Sunyani were they are opening the new areas. The Bennet’s are in Sunyani so they help us out a lot and we don't have to go there as much only once or twice a transfer. Elder Speechley is in my Zone and Elder Brown is in the other zone on the opposite side of Kumasi near to Atonsu. Right now there are about 50 or so missionaries in Kumasi altogether. The Other zone is Dichemso Zone the one I was in before coming to Bantama. We also have a big city called Obuasi that is an hour or so away and we go there to conduct baptism interviews and help out a branch that they have down there. We are going down to Cape
Coast tomorrow and we will stay in the mission home and then we have Zone Council on Wednesday morning and then we will get back that night. So there is a lot of traveling involved and we are always running around to do something. (right now I am in the middle of trying to pay a man who fixed some missionaries fridge who wants 120 cedis, so I am on the phone at the same time) My zone is really sweet though. We have 6 of the sweetest sis missionaries in our zone. They are really good cooks too. But we
never have any problems with them. Sunyani is full of sweet missionaries and we never have any problems there, and the rest of the Elders down here are way cool so its really fun. You do have to learn to deal with situations that arise evey now and again, but nothing too drastic.


My apartment is sweet. It’s me and Elder Christensen and then 2 other missionaries Elder Hoffman and Elder Kundiona from Zimbabwe. It’s sweet. The apartment doesn't really compare to the one in Atonsu but I actually like it a lot more for some reason. Just small, has one living room and a kitchen with our 2 bedrooms and a small bathroom and that’s about it. Our area is sweet. We travel a lot to get from appointment to appointment. We baptized a woman last week named Dora and she was confirmed on Sunday. She is super powerful and now we are trying to work with her husband to get him to come to church but he is a little shy and his English is no good so he doesn't like to be around us much. There are two Muslim girls, Mame and Mother who we are preparing for baptism right now. There grandmother has practically disowned them because she is a hardcore Muslim, but they are still going strong and come to church. They closed there shop on Sundays and are obeying all of the commandments. It’s really sweet because they never even knew God before and now they are putting everything away for God. We also have another man who is prepared now for a long time to be baptized but we are working on getting him married before he can be baptized. I have never taught someone who is more in tune with the spirit. You would think that he has been a member for years. When we read the Book of Mormon he finds things and expounds on them, things that I haven't ever noticed before. He is a Rockstar. We are also working with 5 husband and wife families some that are part member and some that are both investigators. So we have great investigators right now and families. The families are the most exciting I love teaching families. We taught one guy yesterday that became a member a long time ago and now he is less active, but when he became a member he converted his whole family and they are now very active and powerful so we are trying to get them to help him to come back and be sealed in the temple. In our lesson yesterday the guy went off on the importance of the temple and families, but when we ask him to commit to come to church he just says "when I am prepared". Then something crazy happened that I have never experienced. The spirit told me to do something I would never do myself. It told me to make the guy feel terrible, to make him feel guilty, and ashamed. So I acted on that prompting and I gave it to him and I made him feel ashamed of himself and expressed how disappointed his family was in him and how he is selfish for not giving them the best they deserve. That is to live together forever in the temple. He was very humbled and nearly in tears, and then he said those words we could never get him to say. "I will be at church this Sunday". And he made a promise to the whole family that he would come. It was intense!!!!!! So I have faith that he will come back to church this Sunday. That’s what we will be fasting for this Sunday.

Thank you for the emails and updates. I hope everything is going well back home. Maybe you could fill me in a little bit more. I filled you in this week on where I am and what I am doing, now it’s your turn!! The church is true and I love you all so much. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Have a great week and God Bless.

Love Elder Adams

ps. About your other questions. I have no idea where I want to go to school or what exactly it is that I want to do. If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know. Its something I don't think about
a lot but when I due I am clueless at what to do.
Things I would like.
1. Everlast speed jump rope. All I do is jump rope so I want a really good the ones I have suck.
2. Floss
3. Razors, shaving cream i have plenty but razors are almost gone just send a few.
4. Drink packets, and lots of them please!
5. Pens, black only
6. Ppictures, haha I will send you some don’t worry but I would like some too
7. A dietary book of some kind. I am going to go on a serious diet and workout and try and get back into shape but I don't know enough about what things to eat. Look for some kind of book that might help
with diet and food tips and maybe workout ideas.
8. This is really going to surprise you, but I am practicing my singing, so if you can find a book that might help with singing tips to that would be sweet . I want to learn so that I don’t embarrass myself to much.

Sweet, thanks mom and dad.
Love you So much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Short & Sweet email

3-20-11

Well it is 10 pm and we just got to the cafe after having a crazy hectic day. We had to wake up at 5:30 so I am dog tired right now too. But I love it, there is a lot of opportunity as you said dad to teach and especially serve others as a ZL so I am not complaining because that is where all of my joy comes from. There is no greater feeling than to be engaged in helping others all day, everyday. And I have a feeling there will be plenty of opportunity for that. I have splits this week, leadership training, baptismal interviews to do and a whole lot more so we are super busy. The down side is that we don’t have a lot of time in our area to be with our investigators but our investigators are awesome so I am not too worried. Umm well I am going home and am tired and the time is far spent. I love you and pray for you everyday. Sorry it’s so short. I love you so much. Take care.

Love Elder Adams