Letter to his little brother Miles Jan. 22, 2012

Miles,

Bro that is so tight that you got your call to freakin Paris, France!!!! Are you nervous to have to speak and learn French? But when you get home man you will be able to get any girl you want after you talk to her with your sexyF rench accent haha. Man so you didn't even tell me when you have to report to the MTC??? (May 30th) And you better be coming back for my homecoming man, I don't care of you have school or not son. Man I am so pumped to see you bro. Your gunna have to teach me how to get the ladie,s man I totally forgot everything and I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get a date with anyone. Keep working hard man and read your scripts and say your prayers everyday nothing is more important than that, not even all those cute girls running around. Alright bro waiting to hear back from you man. Take it easy.

Love Elder Adams

January 22, 2012

Hey mom,

Yeah so I am sorry that I am late with my email this week but you can't be mad at me we have been working really hard. We left early on Monday to go to Kumasi for Zone Meetings with BANTAMA SUNYANI AND DICHEMSO, and also to go on splits. We just got back from Sunyani about 15 minutes ago and it's been a long week with way to much driving, but a great one nonetheless. I even tried to find some time to email you in Kumasi but we just couldn't do it sorry. I also had what a would say was the most powerful lesson of my entire mission hands down!!!!! I will tell you about it, but let me answer some of your questions first.

First off I don't really care where we go to eat if that is the plan, all I know is that I don't want any rice, chicken, fish, bread, or eggs!!!!!!!!! I have been eating that everyday for two years. Maybe a steak and a fresh salad would be nice haha, but really anywhere is cool with me. Yeah about the invisalign retainers... me, Brown. Speech and Hair went on splits yesterday and were on the way to an appointment when we passed a nice basketball court. So we played a game to 5 points, me and Speech vs Brown and Hair. Meanwhile, my retainers which I had put in my front shirt pocket behind my tag fell out during the intense game, because they were no longer there when we got back to the apartment and that was the last time I remember having them. So now I have no retainers and my teeth will probably be crooked by the time I get home. Hey come on, I did pretty well, I almost made it 2 years. Yes, Speechly is very much like Kent and I think that is why we are so tight. Speech is flippin funny man. Yeah I totally talked to Elder Alba about that two days ago and he said that they were cousins somehow and that he knew them. It is a small world.

Okay as for garments they don't sell the drylux ones here in Ghana and those are the only ones that I personally like. So you are going to have to get me like 10 pairs of the drulux garments before i get home please. They are all mediums the ones that I have right now so you should order the same bottoms, but maybe some large tops. The medium tops are kinda small now but at the same time they still fit. Maybe just a few large ones so that I can try them. And don't get me the celestial smile ones, I want the crew neck ones. I am pretty sure I will leave all of my clothes behind because most of them are pretty worn and some other missionaries have already asked for them. Really the only ones I will bring home are the ones that I am wearing. I will just figure out what I need when I get home. I have no clue. Do I have a topic or am I free to share whatever I feel like and just tell powerful stories or what??? That would be sweet, but if I have a topic let me know. That would be sweet if Miles went through the temple right when I get back, I totally want to go to the temple that first week anyway. And he better be flying or diving back to see me and be at my homecoming!!!!! You hear me! I already picked some stuff up for the girls, I didn't forget. I already have most of the things that I want to take home, but maybe I will buy a painting or something like that and a few other things. As for the African print material give me some idea of what you want there is a whole lot to choose from. And how much do you want me to bring home?? Okay I think I have answered all of your questions so now let me tell you about our week and share with you what went down in the lesson that me and Speechly taught yesterday.

So we went to Kumasi On Monday, and on Tuesday we had a zone meeting with the Bantama zone along with their interviews with Pres, and then splits with the zone leaders in the evening. Then the same thing again with the Dichemso zone on Wednesday. Thursday morning we went up to Sunyani and had the same meeting with the Sunyani zone and then we went on splits with the Sunyani Zone Leaders from about 2 in the afternoon to the end of the day. For most of the day I went on splits with Elder Brown (my son) which was way sweet, just like old times. Those guys are doing really well up in Sunyani and have a lot of really cool powerful converts and investigators. Brown can speak the twi pretty well too, like he is way good. Kinda embarrassing cuz I suck at it but whatever, I never would get to use it as much anyway even if i could speak it because we don't proselyte as much. But I am totally jealous cuz its way cool, and Speechly is like fluent, man he is way good. For each of the zone meetings we had to instruct and we talked about becoming Christlike missionaries and how the success of a missionary and his mission is directly related to how Christlike he becomes on his mission, because a Christlike missionary will always be a successful missionary. Then we talked about how charity and love is the one Christlike attribute that encompasses on the other Christlike attributes, and how if we can possess that attribute while in the field it will help others not of our faith recognize us as reps of Jesus Christ more than anything else. Then we talked about how we can acquire the attribute of charity and love as missionaries and apply the same to our missionary efforts. It was pretty good I think and I pray it will have an affect on the Elders and give more of a drive to perfect themselves while in the field, because there is no better time and place to do it.

Okay so that is that. Now after the meeting in Sunyani I went on splits with Elder Brown for the day and it went way good and we had some good lessons and talked a little bit about mission and life. It was fun. We met back up with Elder Hair and Elder Speechly in the evening to go and teach (with all 4 of us) a very important lessons to their most powerful investigator who is really rich and also really smart (she drives a BMW). On the way to teach that women (Sis Ivey) that is when we stopped and ended up playing a small game of basketball in the dark which was a lot of fun. I totally drilled a 3 in Brown's face to win the game haha. So when we got to Sister Ivey's house we realized that it would probably be best if only two of us taught her and the other 2 Elders went to teach another man who they had set an appointment with at the same time. So I ended up staying with Elder Speechly to teach Sister Ivey about the restoration. It was hands down the most powerful lesson of my mission. But I am sorry I am going to leave you hanging because I will most likey tell the story at my homecoming. That way it will be more exciting for you to listen to it. It was a great week and I still love missionary work so much. Days like yesterday make it so worth every sacrifice and all the hard work we put in. I love you guys and hope to hear from you again in a few days. I will write my essays tomorrow morning for BYU, I promise. Okay love you

Love Elder Adams

January 16, 2012 Bakaano is my Favorite Area

Sorry I thought I had already answered your questions that you asked me. So I did receive the 2nd package with he cereal and the computer storage. It's perfect and I will be able to bring home a lot of really cool things on it. I just haven't figured out how to take Sister Shulz pictures off of her computer yet because she has a mac book and those things are crazy confusing.

So this week was a pretty good week. We were in Cape Coast the whole of the week and we were able to teach a lot of people in our area. We also went on splits one day with the Elders in Elmina which is the biggest fishing village in the entire mission. It's a pretty cool place. Splits are always fun if the Elders are working hard and have some good people to teach. As for us, we have 2 other Elders in our area now and so anyone that we start teaching that is serious we end up giving to them to teach because they only have a few investigators right now, and they are in the area everyday and can teach them on a regular basis. So we have been more of the finders these past few weeks, and we have found a few really good people. However we did have 2 really good progressing investigators that we were sure to be baptized but one of them moved to Accra on Saturday and won't be back for 2 months, but the other one came to church on Sunday it's just hard to meet him because he is a taxi driver. Like I have said before we spend almost all of our time working with the less-actives and part member families. I think I have taught 6 or 7 different part-member families in the last few months, but so far no luck in getting any of them into the waters of baptism. Some of them know a lot about the church and their biggest concern is they say the members don't really live the gospel that they proclaim to be true, so they find it hard to follow. So it seems that it has been more of my job to just plant the seeds and help them see the goodness of the church, and pray for more success in the future. But since I have been here there have been a lot of less-actives that have started to come more often. There was one girl in her early twenties who we have been visiting this week that finally came to church on Sunday and she even gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. I guess you could say that we are the home teachers for Bakaano Branch because the home teaching program is completely unused in our branch. But I think I can say that Bakaano has been my favorite area. I have such a close relationship with so many of the members because of how much we work with them and their family members. A lot of them found out that I am leaving soon and are planning to feed us a treat or do something special, so I have a feeling that my last week I am going to really suffer trying to eat so much food. It does have its pluses going home with the less-actives because I make them all promise me that they will come to church before I leave, and they always agree to it so we will have to see what happens haha. Yesterday was President Shulz birthday and they are out of town so we have to rush right now to get him his B-day present before he gets home from Kumasi. So I think that is about all for this week. I will try to finish typing all of those essays for BYU today if I can get time. We are going to have a super busy week this week and next week because we are having zone meetings and interviews throughout the mission so I have to go and prepare my instruction which is "go about doing good". Have a great week and I will talk to you later. Love you guys

Love Elder Adams

December 26th (Need Portable Hard Drive)

Hey good afternoon,

Sorry I forgot to ask you about something last night while we were talking. I have all of Sister Shulz pictures that she has taken since she has been in Ghana and also all of Sister Sabeys photos from her mission, which are all here on the mission computer and a lot of them are really sweet pictures that I want to take home with me, but I don’t have time to sort through thousands of pictures. I also have my own pictures that I want to take home with me that are saved onto the office computer, BUT I don’t have anything that I can store them on that has enough room to hold that many pictures. It’s like more than 20 GB I think so I was wondering if you could send me a portable hard drive or something that can hold a lot of pictures. I also have all of the original documents that the pioneers of Africa were writing to church headquarters before the church came to Ghana, they are all scanned into the computer and I want to be able to take them home. So it would be sweet if you could help me out by sending my some kind of portable hard drive with enough GB to hold all of this stuff. It was great to talk to you guys the other day. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the rest of the holdiays. Love you guys. OHH I also still want a lot of pictures of my converts and stuff so that I can write them a letter and send them a picture before I go home. I don’t know how but is there some way that you can send me pictures of my whole mission so that I can sort through and find the ones I want. I never really thought about needing them until now.

Love Elder Adams

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