28 June 2010

Hey everyone I hope you guys are all having lots of fun. I guess most of you have been in the car for hours. The trip to Utah sounds like fun. Hope no one gets hurt or sick or anything. Anyway this last week was pretty sweet here in Ghana. I went to Oda again on tuesday with Elder Moses so Elder Kivaya could do our baptismal interviews in Asamankese. Elder Moses is pretty funny. He's from sierre leone so he has a kinda strange accent, but I'm pretty used to strange accents. Man, Oda has been struggling this transfer. It seems like they just have tons of not serious investigators. Anyway then on Wednesday Elder Kivaya and Elder Moses came to spend the night so one Thursday we could all travel to Accra as a district. On Thursday we were in the trotro for pretty much ever. We rode down to accra to first go to the temple and then to have interviews with President Smith. The temple was really great as usual. I love being in the temple. You have no stress and total peace for hours. Then we had some lunch and the mission home and had interviews. As usual my interview lasted like 2 minutes. I think I chatted with the office couple longer than with President Smith. He just told me to be exactly obedient and sent me on my way. Elder Stout said in his interview President Smith almost made him cry--because of all the nice things he said. Speaking of Elder Stout, he's getting excited about going home, but I think he's realizing more and more how much he'll miss being a missionary so we're working harder and harder. Anyway after interviews we came straight back and spent hours in Accra's traffic, squished into a trotro. Saturday was the worst day of the week trotro wise though. First thing on saturday was a great baptism though. We had to rush and fill the font though. We had I think three hoses filling it as the baptismal service started. Moroni and Celestina's dad, Redeemer, was the baptist for Moroni, Celestina, Mary, and Ernestina. We didn't think Kingsly was going to make it in time, but he came in right as they were baptizing Ernestina so we had him quickly put on the white clothes and baptized him with the others. Then after the baptism we took a trotro to Oda to do splits to do some interviews. I went with Elder Kivaya to Kade. We spent like an hour in the station waiting for the car to fill up. Just before we got to Kade the back windshield shattered and pieces started falling out and glass was blowing inside. We all were shouting at the driver to stop, but he wasn't serious at all, just said that we were almost there. When he dropped Elder Kivaya and I he grabbed the biggest pieces dangling from the van and just through them out on the road. Like, I said: he's not serious at all. Then we had an interview for Frank and went to the station to ride back to Oda. Then back to Asamankese were we had to spend the evening inside because of the Ghana match. Guess the USA lost. Well not much else happened. On sunday we were hoping to give baptismal dates to this one family, but the mom went to her old church instead. And while we were teaching them this old lady came and interrupted the lesson by telling jokes in twi. Probably rude jokes I'm pretty sure. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on our contacts for the week. Well I love you guys too much. Hope you are having a fun summer. The church is really true, and being dilligent and valiant is worth it. If anyone is wondering being on a mission is the greatest thing. I've learned there is nothing like serving the lord. Spell check isn't working today so sorry about that. Love, Elder Bradford Chambers

21 June 2010

Hey everybody! Happy Father's day, dad! I hope you guys are all doing great. I love you guys so much. I hope Owen and Patrick are having a fun summer. I hope maybe the letters I wrote you guys have come. We had a pretty busy week as always. On wednesday we had to travel to koforidua for leadership training (Elder Stout's the district leader). It was really interesting. President Smith taught us about the micromanagement techniques that President Monson had taught him many many years ago. He shared a quote that I like from President Monson: "When we deal in generalities we shall never succeed; when we deal in specifics we shall rarely have a failure. When performance is measured performance improves. When performance is measured and reported the rate of improvement accelerates." Then on thursday we had exchanges with elder kivaya and elder moses in oda so elder kivaya could do a baptismal interview for gertrude. She was so happy at her baptism on saturday, it was so awesome to see. She's really committed. So I spent thursday back in Oda with elder moses. It was a little strange being on exchanges in my old area. I still know it a lot better than Elder Moses, so I showed him a couple shortcuts. Then on Friday we had a busy day trying to see all our baptismal candidates in the Asamankese branches. This Saturday we'll have a baptism for five of them: Celestina, Moroni, Kingsly, Ernestina, and Mary. Moroni's father introduced him to us 2 sundays ago just after he had turned nine. He knows the story of Joseph Smith super well, especially the part about Angel Moroni. It was funny to hear him tell it for us. Celestina is his older sister. So then on saturday we went to Kade and had Gertrude's baptism, like I said. In the afternoon we took the senior couple in Obomasu, the Terrys, to do a few abortion interviews for us. Frank and his wife gave us a huge pot of banku and some okro stew to take with us. The Terrys didn't want to share it with us so we got the whole pot. Elder Stout doesn't like banku which means basically I have a whole pot of banku to eat. I'm still working on that. On sunday we went to Kade for church. It's a pretty small branch. I think about 30 people came to church. They don't have a chapel so we meet in a rented house. We had a really nice quorum class. They gave it to Elder Stout to teach. (Which I guess they do every time he's there.) He taught basically lesson one, the restoration. At the end he asked the class to bear testimonies about how they came to know the church was the only true and living church. After a few an investigator who we hadn't met yet and had just come to church for the first time bore a sweet testimony. He told about how he had been living with a family and was cleaning when he found a copy of the Book of Mormon. He didn't know what it was, but he opened it up and saw it was like a bible so he began to read it. He said that he read a verse that told him if he prayed he could be shown if the book was true. So that's what he did. He prayed and he said that he felt good about it. Then that night he had a dream in which the book grew to become very large and writing appeared on it saying, "a new song that is pleasing to the lord". When he woke up the book was normal sized and the writing had gone, but he knew that the book was true. It was awesome. Then another new investigator said that he too could say that the church is true from the teaching he saw about the plan of salvation in the gospel essentials class. The spirit was really there in its strength. Well that was the week in brief. I just left out some stuff about it raining all the time, being cramped in leaky and faulty trotros for hours, and having people be world cup crazy all the time. I'm pretty tired, I had to get up early wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday to ride in trotros to different towns. Other than that I've been having a sweet time. Elder Stout is a great companion and a sweet missionary. The areas have real potential and the investigators are for the most part progressing. We have baptisms scheduled for each week left in Elder Stout's mission so he's psyched about that. The spirit has been with us as we've been teaching and people are gaining faith. It's been so humbling to see things work out like they do. Well I love you guys, and I hope you are all safe and happy. Love, Elder Bradford Chambers

14 June 2010

Hey everyone. you guys sound like you are getting into the summer just fine. High adventure sounds like it was fun. I'm still in Asamankese with Elder Stout and Elder Moses and Elder Kivaya are still in Oda. They added an new area to our district as well, Suhum, but we haven't met them yet. So I'm guessing Elder Kivaya will finish in Oda, which is what I think he wanted. He only has two transfers left. His whole mission he's been to three areas: nsawam, oda, teshie, and then oda again. My whole mission and I've been in as many areas as he has. Elder stout will finish here in asamankese which is what he wanted as well. He's excited to finish his mission strong. We have 9 people with a date and are hoping to give some more people dates for before he leaves. I'm hoping he'll save some people so I'll have someone in our teaching pool for next transfer. Just kidding. I'm mostly worried about learning as much of the 3 branches in our area before he goes. It's tough to learn when we travel between two different towns each week. I don't want to have the work slow down at all when he goes. Well the computer here is not all that great so maybe I'll wrap up for today. We have a baptism next saturday in kade if the interviews go ok. the lady that liked elder moses should be among so that'll be great. if you send a package any time soon could you add some role on deodorent, cinnamon, and maybe instant mashed potatoes? Thanks, I love you guys a ton. have fun at work, youth conference, in utah, and things. love, elder chambers.

7 June 2010

Hey everyone! How's life? Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you guys are preparing to enjoy your summer vacation. First off the big news is I got transferred today. I'm now in Asamankese. I'll tell you about how that happened later. Last week went pretty well. We gave two people baptismal dates, but neither came to church on Sunday so we were sad about that. Also this week we had zone conference. We learned that mission is still progressing. Our district didn't achieve our goal but the zone was able too. We learned that as of that day, June 5, the mission would have 1000 baptisms for 2010. Most of the zone conference was on how we can build better unity with our companion and on exact obedience. Two things president smith the spirits really been prompting him that the mission needs to improve on. I'm sure as we apply what we learn things will really progress. I also got some letters you sent at the end of may. Thanks! What I didn't get was either the May or June Liahonas. So still no conference talks for me except the 1 session we watched a few weeks ago. Anyway yesterday as we left our weekly FM at the branch president's house President Smith calls and says he needs us to perform an emergency transfer--just three days before normal transfers. One lady in Asamankese has fallen for Elder Moses so I swapped with him this morning. I went to Asaman and he went to Oda. So until transfers on wednesday our district has the same people. Only I'm now in Asamankese with Elder Stout. This is Elder Stout's last transfer. He's from Price?, Utah. Not Bryce, Utah. He's a great missionary and I'm really looking forward to the transfer. I don't know anything really about Asamankese. I just got here this morning. What I do know is that we cover three branches. 2 Here in Asamankese and 1 in Kade, which is like an hour trotro ride away. So I get plenty of trotro time...just what I was hoping for. Also word is they are opening Suhum this transfer (Wed.) and so they'll be joining the district. They were also having plans to add another companionship to asamankese, but 2 elders went home last week so that got put on hold--we think at least. Well I'll let you know how everything goes next monday. On Saturday I sent you guys a bunch of letters, so be expecting them. I think I wrote one for everyone except Mom and Dad. Sorry bout that. Love you though. I hope everyone enjoys the last week of school. Love, Elder Chambers

31 May 2010

Hey everyone. How's memorial day? I'm glad the internet is working today. Last week I couldn't read/send anything. Anyway the last two weeks have been very busy for us. We had baptisms the last two saturdays. First was Sarah and her son Thompson. Then this last Saturday was Gifty and Anita. Elder Kivaya has been teaching all these people for a super long time, and I think he's really happy they have finally been baptized. Gifty and Anita were both miracles. Gifty came to church for the first time since I've been in Oda 3 sundays ago just out of the blue. Then Anita after rejecting a baptismal date last week wednesday told us last week saturday to add her name to the list. It was really cool. Anita's younger brother did the baptisms. The last two weeks were also the last two weeks of the transfer. The last two weeks of the transfer are kind of like the redzone of the mission. Everyone who is behind in their goals (like us) is struggling and praying for those two weeks. One of our candidates, after begging for baptism and complaining about it for months, was finally prepared with her twin sons for saturday, but unfortunately for some reason she's decided to avoid us and we couldn't get the interview accomplished, and she didn't show up to the baptism or church on sunday. Well whenever she has the desire we'll sacrifice and prepare her again. Well I guess this is the rainy season. And soon to be world cup season. So the work here may slow a bit. Here no one likes to do anything or go anywhere when it is raining. On saturday it rained at like 3:30-4:00 and the baptism was at 5:00. We started at 5:30 and in total there were I think 12 people around. Anyway I took some time to write you guys letters during some rain. I'll send them at zone conference this Saturday. Well I love you guys. Happy birthday Spencer! Happy birthday Dad! Happy Memorial Day everyone! Congrats on finishing another school year, Talk to you later.