Well good morning! Hope all is well in Texas again and that last week was as sweet as ever. We just got done playing some football (just with our own zone on a short pitch, 7 on 7). I tried my hand at keeper today, it was pretty fun and I did ok, but midfield is where I belong :) Keeper is just too stressful! I didn't give up any goals though, so it was all good. Today is transfer news day, so there might be a change coming. There are three guys from our zone going home this week. Elder Hill (Kaysville, UT) who was the AP< id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Izekor (Benin City, Nigeria). So there will probably be a lot of changes to our zone, we'll see I guess.
So the computer I am on is being crazy, so hopefully I actually get this email sent today, and get to read some of yours! But I guess I just need to count my blessings that I've actually got a computer huh?? Haha. So the week in Moree was sweet again as usual. I don't know if I talked about Elmina Castle in last week's email, but that's what we did last P-Day. Elmina is about 10 minutes west of Cape Coast, and that's where the other castle is. We went there for a zone activity and it was pretty fun. The main reason I wanted to go was to buy some Twi books. That's literally the only place in Cape Coast to buy them! So I bought three books that look like they will be good in helping me to learn it better. In one of out lessons this week I actually noticed myself being able to hear stuff without having to try to listen too hard. It's coming kakrakakra!!!!!!!!! I'll just keep working hard.
Tuesday was good, we had a combined district meeting in Cape Coast so that we could all see the guys going home one more time. It was a good meeting. I was really tight with Elder Hill, so it was weird seeing him for the last time. He was my zone leader for a transfer and then was the AP for three, so I saw a lot of him. After that we had a good day of proselyting. Jacob has started doing some family history stuff, and he's really excited about the temple. He filled out a full 4-generation pedigree chart and a few family group records, pretty serious stuff for Africa. The records are difficult here. Like for his Grandpa, the record was "Kweku, born about 100 years ago". It's good he is working on it! Oh yeah, that reminds me, here's a list of Ghanaian names if you wanted to know:
Day you were born.........Name (Male/Female)
Monday..................(Kojo/can't remember the girls)
Tuesday................(Kobina/Aba) they usually shorten Kobina to Kobe (as in Bryant)
Wednesday.........(Kweku/Ekua)
Thursday......(Yaw/Yaa)
Friday..............(Kofi/Efua)
Saturday.................(Kwamena/Ama) usually shorten Kwamena to Kwame (as in the worst #1 pick ever)
Sunday...........(Kwesi/Esi)
Tuesday night was epic. Elder Saunders told us that when he was on his mission, he would jump rope 1000 times without messing up every night, and when he got home, he could dunk. So Elder Mortensen and I have been jump roping every night to do that, but we've never been able to get to a thousand without messing up. We were starting to think it wasn't possible. But then Elder Mortensen got 1,120! So then I had to beat it, and I got 1,501! It was so sweet, I felt pretty good haha. But then, two nights later, Elder Mortensen broke 2,000! He got 2,166! I went to break it again, got to 2,000 and messed up at 2,024 :( Very sad. So Elder Mortensen is the Yamoransa jump rope king...at least for now. I'm gonna break it tonight!
Wednesday was a solid day again, we had our baptism class at night, not as many people came this time, but it was still a good class. We taught about Faith and Repentance and then we'll teach about Baptism and the Holy Ghost this week. The people that come seem to really like the class, they are always really engaged in the lesson, now we've just go to get 50 people coming a week so we can create a stake in Moree! :) We also taught this guy named Jephther- we had a good lesson- now he's excited about learning. It'll be cool to see where it goes with him. We also taught his mom after, and Jephther told us that he helped her to her reading too. Pretty cool!
Friday was sweet because Andrew went to the temple! We found out Tuesday that the Bakano branch in Cape Coast was going Friday, so we asked Andrew if he wanted to go with them and he said "Heck yeah!" (well not exactly, but basically :) They left early Friday morning and he called us at like 10 saying "guess where I am???" He was so excited. It was awesome to see him getting ready to go. He had the names of all his grandparents to do there, so he was pretty stoked about that. We saw him Sunday and you could just tell had had loved it so much. I let him take my camera and he took some cool pictures. Luckily, my camera didn't get lost in Accra haha. I wish we could have gone with him, that would've been SO tight!!!!!!!
We saw Elder Ahadgi again at the chapel site on Saturday. The chapel is coming along well, they're about to start building the roof. We talked to Elder Ahadgi for awhile, we talked a lot about Sunyani and what he thinks about the work there. He basically said that what is going on in Sunyani right now is going to be the model for the rest of West Africa. I don't know if I explained it very well, but as of two months ago, Sunyani had zero branches and zero members, but it is a city of over 1 million. The mission bought 4 missionary apartments across the city, all with a room big enough to have a small sacrament meeting. The missionaries go and contact and invite people to church at the apartment on Sunday. They are already getting 100 people at Church in Sunyani now. Elder Ahadgi said that at the rate its going there, there should be TWO stakes in Sunyani in 5 years. There's not even a branch right now. It'll be interesting to see.
We went to Yamoransa's baptism Saturday night, it was good. They haven't had a baptism in Yamorans in a while, but Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa have been working really hard and they're about to baptize a lot of people there! We proselyted with Bismark again on Saturday, that guy is such a stud!!! I can't believe he speaks Twi, Fante, English (fluently) and French (fluently) and he's only like 21. He needs to be a missionary now! Church was sweet on Sunday. Dennis, our convert from a couple of months ago, got to bless the Sacrament. We had a lot of investigators at church, including a sweet family, the Ano's. They've got four kids and are just really humble people who want the best for their family! Sunday night we chilled out by playing Settlers of Catan...man that game is ridiculous! Elder Mortensen got it from Elder Valentine (he was trained by him) and we played it for the first time. Too much fun! And way too frustrating! Haha.
Well that was it for the week. Next transfer is going to be sweet for Moree. We've got 11 people with baptismal dates right now.
A few random things I jotted down to mention:
-Justin's chocolate hazelnut spread is the bomb!! Thanks Amanda :)
-I FORGOT TO SAY HOW CRAZY IT IS THAT SHE HAD THE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wowzers....I feel tooooooo old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-How bout you guys Grandma and Grandpa?!?!?!?!?! Geez louise that's insane. The pictures are ridiculously awesome. Say hello to little Olivia for me!!!! Give her a "wapume" from Africa :)
Well, nothing else I can think of. Send my love to Denton 2nd Ward on Christmas Sunday. Love you guys!
Yebehyia wae
-Elder Brown
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
December 6, 2010
Mema mo akye! I hope the morning is going well so far in Tejas, the day has been good here so far.
This week was sweet! It was probably the fastest week on the mission so far. Our teaching pool is a little smallish right now, but we did a lot of contacting, which I thought would make the week seem longer, but it actually made it go by faster. We met some sweet people that I'll talk about. First off is that I forgot to talk about the Primary program in last week's email! Two Sundays ago we had the Primary program, and it was so tight! All the little kiddos memorized stuff and sang songs and the like, just like in America. It was pretty sweet. One kid was like the MVP, he memorized half the Book of Mormon it seemed like. He had probably four different parts, each were a solid two minutes long, and he didn't mess up once! And it was all in English. Pretty crazy he could do that!
Our FHE went really well at Bro Pratt's Monday night. About 10 recent converts/investigators came, so that made it really good. Bro Pratt taught the lesson (on living the gospel better in our daily lives) and then Elder Adams and I were in charge of the game. We couldn't think of ANY game to do. Elder Adams then had the idea to do a rock, paper, scissors tournament, so that's what we did! It was so fun, we taught it to them, and they loved it. They were getting so in to it. The winner was Vanicia, Belinda's sister. She beat Eric in the finals to take the championship and the coveted reward, an extra delicious FanYogo, which was the snack. It was a great FHE! Plus it made it easy to start teaching Belinda's sister, which we did a few times this week (she committed to baptism the first lesson on Tuesday).
Tuesday we had a good district meeting, and then a good day of proselyting after. We taught Belinda's sister, and then we had our longest time to contact yet. We contacted all evening. We walked down the road from Moree to Moree Junction and contacted along that for a few hours. We passed one of our investigators, Edward, playing football in a grove of coconut trees on the side of the road, so we stopped to play with them for awhile. It was pretty fun. Then we just made our way down the road to Moree Junction. The first people we met were some guys gyming, Seth and Evans. They are pretty cool guys, we have taught them each a few times since Tuesday, and they even brought one of their friends to the second lesson, Christian.
Wednesday we proselyted with a member who had just returned from living two years with his brother in Cote d'Ivoire, Bismark. He's a ward missionary in Moree. He speaks Fante, Twi, English, AND French. We had such a good day because he was with us. We taught tons of lessons, and he showed us a few less-active's to go visit. It was such a solid day. We got a lot of new investigators Wednesday, hopefully some turn out to be serious.
Thursday was pretty solid. The craziest part was that we went to visit a recently returned sister missionary. Sister Eshun, to ask for a referral and talk a little bit. She was telling us about her mission and she started talking about one of her old district leaders, who was named Elder Beeston! She couldn't remember where he was from, but chances are he's related to good ol Elder B somehow. If the former Elder Beeston reads this, let me know if you've got a cousin or something in the Ghana Accra mission! We met with another referral on Thursday, Solomon. He works on the chapel, and wants to learn about the church. The "Doctrine of Christ" teaching curriculum worked again and he committed to baptism as well. He's a really sweet guy, speaks really good English.
Friday was like Christmas for me! I got 7 packages! :D It was so tight! It honestly felt like Christmas morning ripping those things open. Thanks so much to everyone that sent stuff! It sounds like there is more on the way, so I'll be excited for those :) We went on splits with the Zone Leaders on Friday. We went with Elder Jackson (Centerville, UT) to Moree. Elder Jackson is tight, he's super smart, went to BYU. We talked a lot about BYU and stuff (man I miss that place!) and he taught us some cool stuff while we were teaching. We taught Francis again.
The weekend was good. Togbor came proselyting with us on Saturday, helped us to teach a lot of lessons. Frank Jr., the most spiritual guy in all of Moree came with us for a second, and while we were teaching a lesson, he goes and contacts a random guy, sits him down and teaches him. It was so tight haha. He's been off his mission (went to Cote d'Ivoire) for like 5 years, but he's still going strong! He works at the MTC, so he travels to Accra every week, and travels back to fulfill his calling as Stake Sunday School President. Such a stud! At night we met Andrew...his calling changed, he's not going to be the YM prez, instead he's the executive secretary.
Well other than that, nothing else I can think of right now about the week. Everything is normal! I love you guys so much, thanks for everything! I've got Christmas presents under the tree in my room, so life is good :)
Love, Elder Brown
This week was sweet! It was probably the fastest week on the mission so far. Our teaching pool is a little smallish right now, but we did a lot of contacting, which I thought would make the week seem longer, but it actually made it go by faster. We met some sweet people that I'll talk about. First off is that I forgot to talk about the Primary program in last week's email! Two Sundays ago we had the Primary program, and it was so tight! All the little kiddos memorized stuff and sang songs and the like, just like in America. It was pretty sweet. One kid was like the MVP, he memorized half the Book of Mormon it seemed like. He had probably four different parts, each were a solid two minutes long, and he didn't mess up once! And it was all in English. Pretty crazy he could do that!
Our FHE went really well at Bro Pratt's Monday night. About 10 recent converts/investigators came, so that made it really good. Bro Pratt taught the lesson (on living the gospel better in our daily lives) and then Elder Adams and I were in charge of the game. We couldn't think of ANY game to do. Elder Adams then had the idea to do a rock, paper, scissors tournament, so that's what we did! It was so fun, we taught it to them, and they loved it. They were getting so in to it. The winner was Vanicia, Belinda's sister. She beat Eric in the finals to take the championship and the coveted reward, an extra delicious FanYogo, which was the snack. It was a great FHE! Plus it made it easy to start teaching Belinda's sister, which we did a few times this week (she committed to baptism the first lesson on Tuesday).
Tuesday we had a good district meeting, and then a good day of proselyting after. We taught Belinda's sister, and then we had our longest time to contact yet. We contacted all evening. We walked down the road from Moree to Moree Junction and contacted along that for a few hours. We passed one of our investigators, Edward, playing football in a grove of coconut trees on the side of the road, so we stopped to play with them for awhile. It was pretty fun. Then we just made our way down the road to Moree Junction. The first people we met were some guys gyming, Seth and Evans. They are pretty cool guys, we have taught them each a few times since Tuesday, and they even brought one of their friends to the second lesson, Christian.
Wednesday we proselyted with a member who had just returned from living two years with his brother in Cote d'Ivoire, Bismark. He's a ward missionary in Moree. He speaks Fante, Twi, English, AND French. We had such a good day because he was with us. We taught tons of lessons, and he showed us a few less-active's to go visit. It was such a solid day. We got a lot of new investigators Wednesday, hopefully some turn out to be serious.
Thursday was pretty solid. The craziest part was that we went to visit a recently returned sister missionary. Sister Eshun, to ask for a referral and talk a little bit. She was telling us about her mission and she started talking about one of her old district leaders, who was named Elder Beeston! She couldn't remember where he was from, but chances are he's related to good ol Elder B somehow. If the former Elder Beeston reads this, let me know if you've got a cousin or something in the Ghana Accra mission! We met with another referral on Thursday, Solomon. He works on the chapel, and wants to learn about the church. The "Doctrine of Christ" teaching curriculum worked again and he committed to baptism as well. He's a really sweet guy, speaks really good English.
Friday was like Christmas for me! I got 7 packages! :D It was so tight! It honestly felt like Christmas morning ripping those things open. Thanks so much to everyone that sent stuff! It sounds like there is more on the way, so I'll be excited for those :) We went on splits with the Zone Leaders on Friday. We went with Elder Jackson (Centerville, UT) to Moree. Elder Jackson is tight, he's super smart, went to BYU. We talked a lot about BYU and stuff (man I miss that place!) and he taught us some cool stuff while we were teaching. We taught Francis again.
The weekend was good. Togbor came proselyting with us on Saturday, helped us to teach a lot of lessons. Frank Jr., the most spiritual guy in all of Moree came with us for a second, and while we were teaching a lesson, he goes and contacts a random guy, sits him down and teaches him. It was so tight haha. He's been off his mission (went to Cote d'Ivoire) for like 5 years, but he's still going strong! He works at the MTC, so he travels to Accra every week, and travels back to fulfill his calling as Stake Sunday School President. Such a stud! At night we met Andrew...his calling changed, he's not going to be the YM prez, instead he's the executive secretary.
Well other than that, nothing else I can think of right now about the week. Everything is normal! I love you guys so much, thanks for everything! I've got Christmas presents under the tree in my room, so life is good :)
Love, Elder Brown
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
November 29, 2010
Mema wo akye! Hope all is well in Tejas, I haven't read the email to find out the BYU-ewtah game yet, but I'll be hoping for the best!...just read it...oh well, no biggie. It was just the refs, of course :)
I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving last week until your emails! It's just August all year round here! So Happy belated Thanksgiving! We celebrated with a big plate of fried rice and chicken, it was ok. But I've got a lot to be thankful for, so its no biggie yo!
Well I'll get on with the week now. Tuesday we went on splits with the APs, we went with Elder Akoki (Cote d'Ivoire) out to Moree. He is the new AP and I don't know him very well, so it was cool to get to know him. He taught himself how to lay the piano growing up in Cote d'Ivoire, so we talked a little about that, he's a really cool guy. We made our own fufu and groundnut soup for lunch (groundnut soup is basically super spicy tomato soup with peanut butter in it) after district meeting. It was really good, but...it got to me later in the day. I got sick again in Moree! Not fun! But it was ok, I just came back and went to bed. I felt pretty crappy the rest of the week, but I endured, didn't miss any proselyting.
Wednesday we taught out baptismal prep class again. It went really well, had about 5 investigators, 5 recent converts, and a couple of members there. I was kind of out of it because I was still feeling sick, but it was ok. We taught The Restoration lesson with emphasis on the Restoration of baptism. It was good, I think everybody there came to understand better why baptism into the Church is the only true baptism there is. Ephesians 4:5 baby! Use that scripture pretty much everyday haha.
Thursday I just felt really crappy again, can't really remember what happened. Friday I felt weird still, but it was a really good day. We met with all of the baptismal candidates in the morning, Belinda, Bernard and Kobina. Then we got to play some football in the afternoon! It was sweet, Andrew invited us to come play on the 'Teachers' team for his school's Teachers vs. Students game because there were only 7 teachers playing. So Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa came out to Moree and we played the most legit football match I've played yet! It was so tight! They had uniforms for us and everything! We looked legit. And there were probably 200 people watching, so we got some time in the limelight :) It was awesome to play with Andrew, he was really good, and it was just sweet because now it feels like we're just best friends rather than missionary and recent convert. The game ended in a draw, 2-2, although the teachers cheated a little bit haha. There was this one teacher who was honestly a pro. We took some sweet pics and I was gonna send home, but this comp doesn't have a usb plug in. But the football was sweet! Since Andrew is a stud RC and we had two investigators on the students' team, we felt ok playing with em :) Later Friday evening, the Saunders (the senior couple in CC) needed Elder Adams to do a baptism interview for them in Abakrampa since they were joining our baptism on Saturday. Abakrampa is a village about 15 minutes past Yamoransa, it was a really cool place. The little side village we went to, New Ebu, is like a little town in central Utah! It is laid out in perfect blocks just like Utah. Moree is like a massive chaotic village, but New Ebu was just perfectly laid out in blocks. It honestly reminded me of Koosharem. They are putting Elders in Abakrampa this coming transfer, it will definitely be a great place to have elders.
Saturday we had the baptism! It was very cool, we combined with Mannkeisim and Abakrampa for it, and it went really well. Dennis got to baptize his friend Kobina. We had made him practice all week haha. I'm glad it was a good experience for him and Kobina. Dennis doesn't smile much, he's a very serious dude, but he was smiling all Saturday night. Even in the picture he's smiling! It was tight. Bernard was baptized by his best friend, as well, Stephen. The baptism went really well.
Sunday was interesting during church. Coolest thing: Andrew was called as the Young Men's President!!!!! And Belinda, before she was even confirmed, was called as the Relief Society secretary! It's so cool to see these "future leaders" turn into "current leaders" right before our eyes. So so cool. We also got a new ward missionary leader, Joseph, and assistant Timothy. We hadn't had a WML in probably two months, so it's good to have one again. We met with both of them after church, and I think they will both work hard. They're both prospective missionaries, so we'll be helping them prepare as well. Joseph is a funny guy, it'll be fun to see him learn how to be a leader like this. After church we just went to all of our recent converts and investigators to invite them to come to a special FHE with the bishopric tonight, hopefully they all come!
Today we played Abura in a highly anticipated football match. Abura had been talking up their team this transfer because they got a couple of guys who were really good. CC had been undefeated in the last 5 months so we were all excited! But alas, we lost 4-2. I scored a sweet goal though! Me and Elder Mortensen had a sweet drive, he received the cross perfect, let it bounce once, put a perfect header right over the defender, landed right where it needed in front of me, and then I did a little hesitation move and rocketed that soccer ball off the keeper straight through the posts. I felt pretty good, me and Elder Mortensen were pretty proud of ourselves haha.
Well that was the week! I'm sending off the Christmas package today, its nothing special, just a little something. A few random things: whenever dad writes "I worked a lot this week" in his emails, I always think it says "I worked OUT a lot this week" haha. Makes me think Dad's hitting the gym ;) Which he needs to! If he wants to go on the Amazing Race with me.
Also there's kid that lives above us that's 11 that's a stud. His name is Bismarck Brown, he's going to be the future Elder Brown in Africa! I let him wear my name tag while we were waiting for the bus for stake conference last week, he thought it was pretty tight :)
Anyway, I love you guys, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK H! Although I'll email him of course :) I just glanced at the email to make sure there are no urgent questions, and it doesn't look like there is. I'm going to read it tonight on the camera! Much love from Ghana land,
-Elder Brown
I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving last week until your emails! It's just August all year round here! So Happy belated Thanksgiving! We celebrated with a big plate of fried rice and chicken, it was ok. But I've got a lot to be thankful for, so its no biggie yo!
Well I'll get on with the week now. Tuesday we went on splits with the APs, we went with Elder Akoki (Cote d'Ivoire) out to Moree. He is the new AP and I don't know him very well, so it was cool to get to know him. He taught himself how to lay the piano growing up in Cote d'Ivoire, so we talked a little about that, he's a really cool guy. We made our own fufu and groundnut soup for lunch (groundnut soup is basically super spicy tomato soup with peanut butter in it) after district meeting. It was really good, but...it got to me later in the day. I got sick again in Moree! Not fun! But it was ok, I just came back and went to bed. I felt pretty crappy the rest of the week, but I endured, didn't miss any proselyting.
Wednesday we taught out baptismal prep class again. It went really well, had about 5 investigators, 5 recent converts, and a couple of members there. I was kind of out of it because I was still feeling sick, but it was ok. We taught The Restoration lesson with emphasis on the Restoration of baptism. It was good, I think everybody there came to understand better why baptism into the Church is the only true baptism there is. Ephesians 4:5 baby! Use that scripture pretty much everyday haha.
Thursday I just felt really crappy again, can't really remember what happened. Friday I felt weird still, but it was a really good day. We met with all of the baptismal candidates in the morning, Belinda, Bernard and Kobina. Then we got to play some football in the afternoon! It was sweet, Andrew invited us to come play on the 'Teachers' team for his school's Teachers vs. Students game because there were only 7 teachers playing. So Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa came out to Moree and we played the most legit football match I've played yet! It was so tight! They had uniforms for us and everything! We looked legit. And there were probably 200 people watching, so we got some time in the limelight :) It was awesome to play with Andrew, he was really good, and it was just sweet because now it feels like we're just best friends rather than missionary and recent convert. The game ended in a draw, 2-2, although the teachers cheated a little bit haha. There was this one teacher who was honestly a pro. We took some sweet pics and I was gonna send home, but this comp doesn't have a usb plug in. But the football was sweet! Since Andrew is a stud RC and we had two investigators on the students' team, we felt ok playing with em :) Later Friday evening, the Saunders (the senior couple in CC) needed Elder Adams to do a baptism interview for them in Abakrampa since they were joining our baptism on Saturday. Abakrampa is a village about 15 minutes past Yamoransa, it was a really cool place. The little side village we went to, New Ebu, is like a little town in central Utah! It is laid out in perfect blocks just like Utah. Moree is like a massive chaotic village, but New Ebu was just perfectly laid out in blocks. It honestly reminded me of Koosharem. They are putting Elders in Abakrampa this coming transfer, it will definitely be a great place to have elders.
Saturday we had the baptism! It was very cool, we combined with Mannkeisim and Abakrampa for it, and it went really well. Dennis got to baptize his friend Kobina. We had made him practice all week haha. I'm glad it was a good experience for him and Kobina. Dennis doesn't smile much, he's a very serious dude, but he was smiling all Saturday night. Even in the picture he's smiling! It was tight. Bernard was baptized by his best friend, as well, Stephen. The baptism went really well.
Sunday was interesting during church. Coolest thing: Andrew was called as the Young Men's President!!!!! And Belinda, before she was even confirmed, was called as the Relief Society secretary! It's so cool to see these "future leaders" turn into "current leaders" right before our eyes. So so cool. We also got a new ward missionary leader, Joseph, and assistant Timothy. We hadn't had a WML in probably two months, so it's good to have one again. We met with both of them after church, and I think they will both work hard. They're both prospective missionaries, so we'll be helping them prepare as well. Joseph is a funny guy, it'll be fun to see him learn how to be a leader like this. After church we just went to all of our recent converts and investigators to invite them to come to a special FHE with the bishopric tonight, hopefully they all come!
Today we played Abura in a highly anticipated football match. Abura had been talking up their team this transfer because they got a couple of guys who were really good. CC had been undefeated in the last 5 months so we were all excited! But alas, we lost 4-2. I scored a sweet goal though! Me and Elder Mortensen had a sweet drive, he received the cross perfect, let it bounce once, put a perfect header right over the defender, landed right where it needed in front of me, and then I did a little hesitation move and rocketed that soccer ball off the keeper straight through the posts. I felt pretty good, me and Elder Mortensen were pretty proud of ourselves haha.
Well that was the week! I'm sending off the Christmas package today, its nothing special, just a little something. A few random things: whenever dad writes "I worked a lot this week" in his emails, I always think it says "I worked OUT a lot this week" haha. Makes me think Dad's hitting the gym ;) Which he needs to! If he wants to go on the Amazing Race with me.
Also there's kid that lives above us that's 11 that's a stud. His name is Bismarck Brown, he's going to be the future Elder Brown in Africa! I let him wear my name tag while we were waiting for the bus for stake conference last week, he thought it was pretty tight :)
Anyway, I love you guys, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK H! Although I'll email him of course :) I just glanced at the email to make sure there are no urgent questions, and it doesn't look like there is. I'm going to read it tonight on the camera! Much love from Ghana land,
-Elder Brown
Saturday, November 27, 2010
November 22, 2010
What's up! Very glad to be able to hear from you guys again, as always! Hearing some updates from home always gets me ready to go for the week! I've gotten the first half of the Thanksgiving package (chicken, gravy, soup, potatoes), hopefully the rest of it will come this week! I got a package from Grandma Brown this week too, had some sweet candy and stuff! Anyway besides that, the week was really sweet. We played basketball on a court down by the beach last week, it was fun to be able to ball again. There are some guys that are pretty good in the zone, so it was really fun. I kind of hurt my shoulder playing though, haven't played a sport that involves the use of the arms in a while! That interrupted my morning work-out routine a little, but it wasn't too bad. I've been getting up a little early every day for the past few weeks and working out with the stuff we've got in the apartment. I'm getting totally ripped...haha. Fufu won't do that for ya I think. But I've actually enjoyed getting up at 5:30 and working out for a little while, it's hard, but it gets me ready for the day!
The week of proselyting went really well too. On Tuesday we held our first "Baptism Prep and New Member Class." Elder Adams had the idea to do it last week, so we decided to go ahead and try it. Basically we just want to have another opportunity each week for our investigators and recent converts to get together every week to be able to gain a solid foundation of knowledge concerning what we are teaching them, and then also to be able to become friends with each other and get more comfortable in the church setting. It went really really well. Elder Adams and I taught from 3 Nephi 11 about baptism in general, and it was really good for all who were present. We had a few investigators come, several recent converts, and a few members, so it was a very good mix to have. There is a new teaching curriculum that the missionary department has implemented, and basically our focus in all teaching is supposed to be baptism. We are supposed to talk about baptism in the first lesson with anyone we meet. So every investigator we have, we invite them to come to the baptism prep class, whether they have committed to baptism or not. I think it's going to be a really good way for them to learn better about baptism and about membership in the church in general. We're going to take each missionary lesson and teach at the class, but we're going to make everything stem from baptism. So for this week we are going to teach the Restoration, but we are going to focus on what that means about baptism, and why we need to be baptized into this church. We'll focus on the apostasy and the Restoration and let the Spirit take it from there! It should be sweet, last week's class was awwwwwesome.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference, it was sweet as always. Thursday through Saturday we stayed busy preparing the people who will be baptized this week for baptism. Belinda, Bernard and Kobina are all doing really well, and are just awesome!
We also had some fun messing with tro-tro mates on Thursday. They call the guys who you pay on a tro-tro "mates" and we just had some fun messing around with them while we were driving. I love riding on tro-tros, it's so fun. It's like a mini roller coaster ride everyday.
Jacob, our recent convert, is a barber, so we always go to his place to get our hair cut. He cuts the African way, we're the only oborufo who's hair he has ever cut, so he just does it the way he knows! So yep, my hair looks like P-diddy's or fitty's. No big deal.
We helped Andrew finish his basic family history stuff on Friday. We got all the info into Familysearch for his grandparents who have passed away, and he'll be able to go to the temple next week to do their work, pretty sweet! He got the Melchezidek Priesthood on Sunday at stake conference. He was so excited. So awesome to be able to see that for him. 2 and a half months ago, we didn't even know who he was...Ye da nyame ase. SO AWESOME!!!!!
Saturday I went on splits with Elder Katoa in Moree. It was sweet, we taught a bunch of lessons, and had a lot of fun cruising around Moree all day. Elder Katoa loved Moree. He is so tight too. He's a powerful guy. In physical and spiritual strength! He's one of the reasons I've started working out for an hour every day! Haha.
Sunday was Stake Conference. It was one of those big regional conferences broadcast from Salt Lake, so we got to see Elder Oaks, President Packer, Sister Dibb, and Elder Cristoffel Golden (area presidency, from South Africa) speak. We went to the Abura stake center to watch it. The Stake center was PACKED. Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. They will be splitting the stake here by the end of next year I'm sure. It was sweet to see so many members there together. Elder Oaks spoke a lot about putting off old traditions that aren't in line with the Gospel.
Well that's it for the week. I love you guys, thanks for everything!
Alright well thanks again for everything, I'll be looking forward to the packages :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! and everybody else that reads this too!!!!
Yebehyia,
Elder Brown
The week of proselyting went really well too. On Tuesday we held our first "Baptism Prep and New Member Class." Elder Adams had the idea to do it last week, so we decided to go ahead and try it. Basically we just want to have another opportunity each week for our investigators and recent converts to get together every week to be able to gain a solid foundation of knowledge concerning what we are teaching them, and then also to be able to become friends with each other and get more comfortable in the church setting. It went really really well. Elder Adams and I taught from 3 Nephi 11 about baptism in general, and it was really good for all who were present. We had a few investigators come, several recent converts, and a few members, so it was a very good mix to have. There is a new teaching curriculum that the missionary department has implemented, and basically our focus in all teaching is supposed to be baptism. We are supposed to talk about baptism in the first lesson with anyone we meet. So every investigator we have, we invite them to come to the baptism prep class, whether they have committed to baptism or not. I think it's going to be a really good way for them to learn better about baptism and about membership in the church in general. We're going to take each missionary lesson and teach at the class, but we're going to make everything stem from baptism. So for this week we are going to teach the Restoration, but we are going to focus on what that means about baptism, and why we need to be baptized into this church. We'll focus on the apostasy and the Restoration and let the Spirit take it from there! It should be sweet, last week's class was awwwwwesome.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference, it was sweet as always. Thursday through Saturday we stayed busy preparing the people who will be baptized this week for baptism. Belinda, Bernard and Kobina are all doing really well, and are just awesome!
We also had some fun messing with tro-tro mates on Thursday. They call the guys who you pay on a tro-tro "mates" and we just had some fun messing around with them while we were driving. I love riding on tro-tros, it's so fun. It's like a mini roller coaster ride everyday.
Jacob, our recent convert, is a barber, so we always go to his place to get our hair cut. He cuts the African way, we're the only oborufo who's hair he has ever cut, so he just does it the way he knows! So yep, my hair looks like P-diddy's or fitty's. No big deal.
We helped Andrew finish his basic family history stuff on Friday. We got all the info into Familysearch for his grandparents who have passed away, and he'll be able to go to the temple next week to do their work, pretty sweet! He got the Melchezidek Priesthood on Sunday at stake conference. He was so excited. So awesome to be able to see that for him. 2 and a half months ago, we didn't even know who he was...Ye da nyame ase. SO AWESOME!!!!!
Saturday I went on splits with Elder Katoa in Moree. It was sweet, we taught a bunch of lessons, and had a lot of fun cruising around Moree all day. Elder Katoa loved Moree. He is so tight too. He's a powerful guy. In physical and spiritual strength! He's one of the reasons I've started working out for an hour every day! Haha.
Sunday was Stake Conference. It was one of those big regional conferences broadcast from Salt Lake, so we got to see Elder Oaks, President Packer, Sister Dibb, and Elder Cristoffel Golden (area presidency, from South Africa) speak. We went to the Abura stake center to watch it. The Stake center was PACKED. Honestly it was pretty ridiculous. They will be splitting the stake here by the end of next year I'm sure. It was sweet to see so many members there together. Elder Oaks spoke a lot about putting off old traditions that aren't in line with the Gospel.
Well that's it for the week. I love you guys, thanks for everything!
Alright well thanks again for everything, I'll be looking forward to the packages :) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! and everybody else that reads this too!!!!
Yebehyia,
Elder Brown
Saturday, November 20, 2010
November 15, 2010
Ca ya bien!!! Alright, first things, Elder Mortensen got Bacon n' Cheddar easy cheese in a package last week and you HAVE to send it to me!!!!! OK?!?!?! It's amazing!!!!!! So now that that's out of the way, on to the good stuff :)
So this week was so sweet. Probably the sweetest week so far on my mission. It just flew by, and even though it wasn't really anything special finding or teaching wise, it was just awesome. I never really felt worn out during the day (Except for Sunday, which was Fast Sunday...not nice not eating or drinking when its 103!!!!!!!) and the days were all productive. Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa, because Elder Adams went to a special training meeting for DLs and ZLs in Cape Coast. It was really good. The work in Yamoransa is kind of slow right now, but they are working really hard to speed it back up. We contacted for a little while, taught a first lesson to a member referral, and met with a couple of recent converts. They have a sweet recent convert who we taught right before he left for the mission prep class in Ola. He's definitely mission bound next year. Then we taught a recent convert who I had actually taught several times with Elder Chesa, Timothy. He's a really cool guy too, he was the first guy I taught 5+ times who got baptized, so that was especially cool. Wednesday was basically the perfect day of missionary work haha. Absolutely nothing fell through, we taught 12 lessons. It was crazy! We met will all the people we wanted to, contacted a couple guys who seem really cool and are friends with some members, and taught 4 recent converts. It was just awesome! Never had a day like that, hopefully there are some more coming as we work hard though :) Thursday and Friday were normal, met with Belinda a couple times, she committed to baptism! I'm really excited for her.
Saturday was the sweetest. We taught some great lessons in the morning (Belinda), and then we went out with the Young Men's president, Bro. Hawkson. and visited all of our YM-aged recent converts. We met with Isaac and Steven, the two best friends who were baptized a little while ago. It went really well. Bro. Hawkson just taught them about how they need to be reading the scriptures plenty, about how important the Book of Mormon is. That is exactly what we wanted to talk about, so it worked out well! We also met with David, talked about the same stuff.
Saturday night, we roasted a pig for a dinner!!!! It was Elder Mortensen's year mark, and since Elder Katoa knows how to roast a pig, we did it! We bought the pig from bishop and it was huuuuuge. Elder Katoa said it was the biggest pig he has ever killed and cooked. He actually had some trouble killing it, but he eventually got the best of it. Seein him kill the pig was pretty crazy. Then we went back to the apartment, built a fire outside, cleaned the pig, stuck it on a stick and roasted for two hours! I was a little skeptical about how it would taste, just because didn't put any spice, seasoning sauce or anything on it. But oh my word....it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I probably ate more meat Saturday night than I had my whole mission. It was ridiculous, tasted like something straight from Fogo de Chao. No joke. Goodness gracious, that thing was better than just about anything. And the experience of cooking the whole thing, from life to meal was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll have to do it as a family on our next family campout....haha :)
Sunday, it rained superrrrrr hard in the morning. I heard the LOUDEST clap of thunder I have EVER heard, hands down. I was asleep, and it literally made me jump out of bed. Elder Mortensen thought a bomb had gone off and we were under attack for about 5 minutes. It was insane. It shook the house. And then since people think rain will kill them here, no one came to church! I counted at the start of sacrament...there was 19 people there. 19!!!!!! Not to say how awesome we are or anything, but about 8 of those were recent converts or investigators :) Andrew blessed the sacrament again (by memory) and we confirmed Jacob (since last week we watched conference, we didn't do it then). Elder Adams and I bore our testimonies in testimony meeting. Elder Adams threw down some Fante (Minyim de asor no ye nokwar- I know the church is true) and everybody liked that. It was a cool testimony meeting, just because there were so few people there. Andrew bore his testimony, that was sweet. We walked all the way to Abakamoru before church to pick an investigator up to take to church, Edward. We walked in the rain all the way out there, and he came with us. He had a pretty good time. One of his best friends, Enoch, is a member, so hopefully something comes from that. He's a really cool kid.
Something kind of cool-there is an Ethiopian in our zone, Elder Mekonen. I remembered that Pres. and Sis. Andrus are serving there right now, and I asked him if he knew them, and he said he did! He couldn't stop talking about how awesome they are and about how much he loved them. He said he would meet and talk with him all the time, he helped him get out on mission. He even said that last year he went to Thanksgiving dinner at their house! Pretty Sweet! Small world, eh?
So anyway, I can't think of anything else awesome right now. I got your package today, the one with the Christmas tree and stuff in it! Can't wait to set it up and decorate it :D You and Sister Adams must be talking, you guys send me and Elder Adams the same stuff :) He just got a package of the same Tyson's chicken last week, and the same mashed potatoes! Its cool though, bc that stuff is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just keep sending any cool stuff you can find! Especially easy cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad the Wildcats won, hope they crush Cedar Hill this week! The Cougs might have a shot in SLC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! Thanks for being sooo awesome! Yebehyia!
Love, from Cape Coast, Ghana,
Elder G. Hebertson Brown
So this week was so sweet. Probably the sweetest week so far on my mission. It just flew by, and even though it wasn't really anything special finding or teaching wise, it was just awesome. I never really felt worn out during the day (Except for Sunday, which was Fast Sunday...not nice not eating or drinking when its 103!!!!!!!) and the days were all productive. Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa, because Elder Adams went to a special training meeting for DLs and ZLs in Cape Coast. It was really good. The work in Yamoransa is kind of slow right now, but they are working really hard to speed it back up. We contacted for a little while, taught a first lesson to a member referral, and met with a couple of recent converts. They have a sweet recent convert who we taught right before he left for the mission prep class in Ola. He's definitely mission bound next year. Then we taught a recent convert who I had actually taught several times with Elder Chesa, Timothy. He's a really cool guy too, he was the first guy I taught 5+ times who got baptized, so that was especially cool. Wednesday was basically the perfect day of missionary work haha. Absolutely nothing fell through, we taught 12 lessons. It was crazy! We met will all the people we wanted to, contacted a couple guys who seem really cool and are friends with some members, and taught 4 recent converts. It was just awesome! Never had a day like that, hopefully there are some more coming as we work hard though :) Thursday and Friday were normal, met with Belinda a couple times, she committed to baptism! I'm really excited for her.
Saturday was the sweetest. We taught some great lessons in the morning (Belinda), and then we went out with the Young Men's president, Bro. Hawkson. and visited all of our YM-aged recent converts. We met with Isaac and Steven, the two best friends who were baptized a little while ago. It went really well. Bro. Hawkson just taught them about how they need to be reading the scriptures plenty, about how important the Book of Mormon is. That is exactly what we wanted to talk about, so it worked out well! We also met with David, talked about the same stuff.
Saturday night, we roasted a pig for a dinner!!!! It was Elder Mortensen's year mark, and since Elder Katoa knows how to roast a pig, we did it! We bought the pig from bishop and it was huuuuuge. Elder Katoa said it was the biggest pig he has ever killed and cooked. He actually had some trouble killing it, but he eventually got the best of it. Seein him kill the pig was pretty crazy. Then we went back to the apartment, built a fire outside, cleaned the pig, stuck it on a stick and roasted for two hours! I was a little skeptical about how it would taste, just because didn't put any spice, seasoning sauce or anything on it. But oh my word....it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I probably ate more meat Saturday night than I had my whole mission. It was ridiculous, tasted like something straight from Fogo de Chao. No joke. Goodness gracious, that thing was better than just about anything. And the experience of cooking the whole thing, from life to meal was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll have to do it as a family on our next family campout....haha :)
Sunday, it rained superrrrrr hard in the morning. I heard the LOUDEST clap of thunder I have EVER heard, hands down. I was asleep, and it literally made me jump out of bed. Elder Mortensen thought a bomb had gone off and we were under attack for about 5 minutes. It was insane. It shook the house. And then since people think rain will kill them here, no one came to church! I counted at the start of sacrament...there was 19 people there. 19!!!!!! Not to say how awesome we are or anything, but about 8 of those were recent converts or investigators :) Andrew blessed the sacrament again (by memory) and we confirmed Jacob (since last week we watched conference, we didn't do it then). Elder Adams and I bore our testimonies in testimony meeting. Elder Adams threw down some Fante (Minyim de asor no ye nokwar- I know the church is true) and everybody liked that. It was a cool testimony meeting, just because there were so few people there. Andrew bore his testimony, that was sweet. We walked all the way to Abakamoru before church to pick an investigator up to take to church, Edward. We walked in the rain all the way out there, and he came with us. He had a pretty good time. One of his best friends, Enoch, is a member, so hopefully something comes from that. He's a really cool kid.
Something kind of cool-there is an Ethiopian in our zone, Elder Mekonen. I remembered that Pres. and Sis. Andrus are serving there right now, and I asked him if he knew them, and he said he did! He couldn't stop talking about how awesome they are and about how much he loved them. He said he would meet and talk with him all the time, he helped him get out on mission. He even said that last year he went to Thanksgiving dinner at their house! Pretty Sweet! Small world, eh?
So anyway, I can't think of anything else awesome right now. I got your package today, the one with the Christmas tree and stuff in it! Can't wait to set it up and decorate it :D You and Sister Adams must be talking, you guys send me and Elder Adams the same stuff :) He just got a package of the same Tyson's chicken last week, and the same mashed potatoes! Its cool though, bc that stuff is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just keep sending any cool stuff you can find! Especially easy cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad the Wildcats won, hope they crush Cedar Hill this week! The Cougs might have a shot in SLC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! Thanks for being sooo awesome! Yebehyia!
Love, from Cape Coast, Ghana,
Elder G. Hebertson Brown
Monday, November 15, 2010
November 8, 2010
Wazzup! Sounds like its been a sweet week in Denton, besides the Rangers losing :( Sorry about that, but oh well, they'll win it in 2012!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to here H was a human highlight reel, wish I coulda been there. And finally BYU! That's just what they needed, a bye week to get regrouped and then pound a terrible team into submission. Sounds like Heaps was pretty efficient. I just hope (but not pray, that's bad) that the Cougs can pull it together for another miracle in Salt Lake in a few weeks. I'm getting a lot of grief from the U fans here and so it'd be nice to have scoreboard for another year. Hopefully the U gets derailed a little bit because of the TCU pounding. Does it look like TCU will have a shot at the National Championship? Hope so. Glad Guyer won, I'm sure the refs were gunning for a Southlake win. Not even kidding, I bet they were.
The work on the chapel is going sweet. Pres. Freeze asked if I was digging a grave in one of the pics, but I was digging a hole for a foundation pole actually! Well I didn't dig all that much, sort of just climbed in for a pic :) It's sweet to see the work going, they put up lights so they can work at night too. And a lot of the people working are members of Moree ward.
So here is the news from the week. First off, we got our water back on (Ye da nyame ase). It would have been sooooo terrible not having it on for a longer period of time. Elder Katoa came on Wednesday, he's so tight! His last two companions were marines, so he's gotten huge. We're all gonna work out a lot this transfer so we can get big like him haha. He played professional rugby in Tonga, so maybe we'll learn a few things about that. He loves to roast pig, so we'll be doing that this weekend for Elder Mortensen's year mark!!!! It's gonna be sweet!!!!!!! He's just a really cool guy.
The rest of the week went really well. We've got a really cool new investigator, Belinda. She came to the church with her uncle a few weeks ago, and she has loved everything we have taught her.
I finished my first journal last week! Pretty crazy....it was the one Grandma H gave me, so now I'm on to a new one. Alright only twelve minutes left, so I'm not stopping to correct anything, if there are errors, kose aye! So the week besides that was cool. We have a phone when we proselyte now since Elder Adams is the DL, so that makes things a little bit easier. Our teaching pool is somewhat small still, but it's growing as we're getting some more referrals and stuff. We met with Francis again finally last week. He's a really really good guy. We met a guy named Akom who is really cool. He's an older guy, maybe late 50's. We go into his room and he's got a Book of Mormon, a Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Heber J. Grant and at least five others!!! Crazy. He said his brother who died recently was a member, and that he just likes to read about anything religious. It will be interesting to see how it goes. He is a Buddhist...and since I think Buddhism is pretty dang sweet, it'll be fun to teach him. I can throw down with some of my knowledge of the Dhammaphada :) Aunt Krissy even wrote a quote from Buddha in my little family book which I love!!!!!! Ps I love that book.
Anyway, four minutes left, gotta wrap up. One thing I can't forget: I want a package of just cheese!!!!!! There is no cheese here!!!!!!!!!!!! EZ Cheese, nacho cheese packets, blocks of cheese, anything!!!! E. Mortensen said he got a package of cheese, and that it was the sweetest package ever. So send me a flat-rate envelop chocked full of cheese :) Tons of EZ Cheese and Cheese Whiz all right?! :D I can already taste the bacon cheddar cheese whiz in my mouth :) Well actually I can't because it's not here!!!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!! A lot
Buh bye,
Elder Brown
The work on the chapel is going sweet. Pres. Freeze asked if I was digging a grave in one of the pics, but I was digging a hole for a foundation pole actually! Well I didn't dig all that much, sort of just climbed in for a pic :) It's sweet to see the work going, they put up lights so they can work at night too. And a lot of the people working are members of Moree ward.
So here is the news from the week. First off, we got our water back on (Ye da nyame ase). It would have been sooooo terrible not having it on for a longer period of time. Elder Katoa came on Wednesday, he's so tight! His last two companions were marines, so he's gotten huge. We're all gonna work out a lot this transfer so we can get big like him haha. He played professional rugby in Tonga, so maybe we'll learn a few things about that. He loves to roast pig, so we'll be doing that this weekend for Elder Mortensen's year mark!!!! It's gonna be sweet!!!!!!! He's just a really cool guy.
The rest of the week went really well. We've got a really cool new investigator, Belinda. She came to the church with her uncle a few weeks ago, and she has loved everything we have taught her.
I finished my first journal last week! Pretty crazy....it was the one Grandma H gave me, so now I'm on to a new one. Alright only twelve minutes left, so I'm not stopping to correct anything, if there are errors, kose aye! So the week besides that was cool. We have a phone when we proselyte now since Elder Adams is the DL, so that makes things a little bit easier. Our teaching pool is somewhat small still, but it's growing as we're getting some more referrals and stuff. We met with Francis again finally last week. He's a really really good guy. We met a guy named Akom who is really cool. He's an older guy, maybe late 50's. We go into his room and he's got a Book of Mormon, a Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Heber J. Grant and at least five others!!! Crazy. He said his brother who died recently was a member, and that he just likes to read about anything religious. It will be interesting to see how it goes. He is a Buddhist...and since I think Buddhism is pretty dang sweet, it'll be fun to teach him. I can throw down with some of my knowledge of the Dhammaphada :) Aunt Krissy even wrote a quote from Buddha in my little family book which I love!!!!!! Ps I love that book.
Anyway, four minutes left, gotta wrap up. One thing I can't forget: I want a package of just cheese!!!!!! There is no cheese here!!!!!!!!!!!! EZ Cheese, nacho cheese packets, blocks of cheese, anything!!!! E. Mortensen said he got a package of cheese, and that it was the sweetest package ever. So send me a flat-rate envelop chocked full of cheese :) Tons of EZ Cheese and Cheese Whiz all right?! :D I can already taste the bacon cheddar cheese whiz in my mouth :) Well actually I can't because it's not here!!!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!! A lot
Buh bye,
Elder Brown
Sunday, November 7, 2010
November 1, 2010
Hey what's up everybody. It's been a pretty crazy week, it was really sweet though.
We just got transfer news, Elder Wiah is going up to Kumasi to be the Dichemso zone leader, and Elder Adams is the new district leader here in Yamoransa. Pretty sweet because now we'll get to take the phone when we proselyte, that will help so much. Elder Mortensen's new companion is named Elder Katoa, he's Samoan. He was in Abura zone (the other CC zone) for a while so I've met him a few times and he's super tight. we'll have a lot of fun in our apartment this transfer I'm sure.
So anyway on to the week. A lot of sweet things happened. First off is that we met an Area Seventy, Elder Ahadgi, at the chapel site one night. It was really sweet. (He is actually in a picture in the gospel principles book, in the eternal marriage chapter). We talked to him for about an hour and he told us some really sweet stuff. He told us to read 1 Nephi again and compare it to Joseph Smith. Pretty cool. He also has a cool conversion story, he was a stake president 3 years after he became a memeber. A bishop 8 months after being a member....serious stuff!!! Wednesday we went to farm with Bro Buateng from the Yamoransa ward (same guy we went to FHE a couple weeks ago). We thought his farm was right by his house, but nope, it was a solid hour and a half walk outside of Yamoransa. We were supposed to help him harvest some trees he was growing to make charcoal, but the chainsaw didn't work, so we walked back to Yamoransa!
Funny story- I made some syrup about a week and a half ago to use for French toast. All I used was brown sugar, white sugar, water and a little bit of Elder Mortensen's mapeline. But about four days after I made it, that stuff turned into grade A alcohol. It WREAKED. It fermented so fast it was ridiculous. Guess I'll just have to put it in the fridge next time!
Anyway, one day we were walking to meet Jacob at his house, and we passed these kid that were all gathered in a group. We saw that they were all gathered around this one kid who was playing a home made drum set! It was so sweet, he made it out of three water jugs and tomato paste cans and lids. It was legit, and he was super good! He had made a bass with the foot pedal and everything, had made a hi hat out of two tomato can lids and had like 6 other cymbals and drums. It was so sweet. I sat down and played a little bit haha. I got a pic so you'll see it at some point, but man it was so tight. Chris would have thought it was super sweet.
We went on splits with Elder Izekor on Friday and that was really sweet, he's a really powerful guy. He helped us out with a lot of the investigators we were teaching. He said that Moree is sweet and that it looks like we're doing a great job, so we'll work to keep that up!
Our baptism this weekend went well, but not as planned at all. Friday the water stopped running in Yamoransa. We have a reserve tank that we use when the water stops, but it was empty too. So we've gone without running water for a few days. We were showering with water we fetched from a place like half a mile down the road and stuff. NOT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! Be grateful for running water. You can't do anything without it! Anyway so made it so that the font in Yamoransa couldn't fill. So we had to change it to the beach while we were at church on Sunday. We had already rescheduled it from Saturday or a couple reasons, and so it was pretty crazy to have to change it again from Yamy to Moree beach. Mankessiem were coming to join our baptism, so we had to get a hold of them and everything, crazy crazy. And then of course baptizing in the ocean is just ridiculous. But Jacob was baptized as well as Esther, so it all worked out fine.
Today's P-Day has been pretty hectic. With the water being off and everything our apartment is a mess and we could wash any of our clothes, so it was just weird. We had a banana cake party with the zone, me and Elder Bunker made em. They were really good, and we got to watch the Priesthood session of conference too. Finally got to see some of conference! I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.
Well everything is going sweet here. I'm getting more and more into it, starting to lose track of days and stuff. Is it really November? I love you guys!
-Elder Brown
Go Rangers! (Unfortunately, the Rangers lost the World Series that night---Opening Dayis April 1st! :)
We just got transfer news, Elder Wiah is going up to Kumasi to be the Dichemso zone leader, and Elder Adams is the new district leader here in Yamoransa. Pretty sweet because now we'll get to take the phone when we proselyte, that will help so much. Elder Mortensen's new companion is named Elder Katoa, he's Samoan. He was in Abura zone (the other CC zone) for a while so I've met him a few times and he's super tight. we'll have a lot of fun in our apartment this transfer I'm sure.
So anyway on to the week. A lot of sweet things happened. First off is that we met an Area Seventy, Elder Ahadgi, at the chapel site one night. It was really sweet. (He is actually in a picture in the gospel principles book, in the eternal marriage chapter). We talked to him for about an hour and he told us some really sweet stuff. He told us to read 1 Nephi again and compare it to Joseph Smith. Pretty cool. He also has a cool conversion story, he was a stake president 3 years after he became a memeber. A bishop 8 months after being a member....serious stuff!!! Wednesday we went to farm with Bro Buateng from the Yamoransa ward (same guy we went to FHE a couple weeks ago). We thought his farm was right by his house, but nope, it was a solid hour and a half walk outside of Yamoransa. We were supposed to help him harvest some trees he was growing to make charcoal, but the chainsaw didn't work, so we walked back to Yamoransa!
Funny story- I made some syrup about a week and a half ago to use for French toast. All I used was brown sugar, white sugar, water and a little bit of Elder Mortensen's mapeline. But about four days after I made it, that stuff turned into grade A alcohol. It WREAKED. It fermented so fast it was ridiculous. Guess I'll just have to put it in the fridge next time!
Anyway, one day we were walking to meet Jacob at his house, and we passed these kid that were all gathered in a group. We saw that they were all gathered around this one kid who was playing a home made drum set! It was so sweet, he made it out of three water jugs and tomato paste cans and lids. It was legit, and he was super good! He had made a bass with the foot pedal and everything, had made a hi hat out of two tomato can lids and had like 6 other cymbals and drums. It was so sweet. I sat down and played a little bit haha. I got a pic so you'll see it at some point, but man it was so tight. Chris would have thought it was super sweet.
We went on splits with Elder Izekor on Friday and that was really sweet, he's a really powerful guy. He helped us out with a lot of the investigators we were teaching. He said that Moree is sweet and that it looks like we're doing a great job, so we'll work to keep that up!
Our baptism this weekend went well, but not as planned at all. Friday the water stopped running in Yamoransa. We have a reserve tank that we use when the water stops, but it was empty too. So we've gone without running water for a few days. We were showering with water we fetched from a place like half a mile down the road and stuff. NOT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! Be grateful for running water. You can't do anything without it! Anyway so made it so that the font in Yamoransa couldn't fill. So we had to change it to the beach while we were at church on Sunday. We had already rescheduled it from Saturday or a couple reasons, and so it was pretty crazy to have to change it again from Yamy to Moree beach. Mankessiem were coming to join our baptism, so we had to get a hold of them and everything, crazy crazy. And then of course baptizing in the ocean is just ridiculous. But Jacob was baptized as well as Esther, so it all worked out fine.
Today's P-Day has been pretty hectic. With the water being off and everything our apartment is a mess and we could wash any of our clothes, so it was just weird. We had a banana cake party with the zone, me and Elder Bunker made em. They were really good, and we got to watch the Priesthood session of conference too. Finally got to see some of conference! I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.
Well everything is going sweet here. I'm getting more and more into it, starting to lose track of days and stuff. Is it really November? I love you guys!
-Elder Brown
Go Rangers! (Unfortunately, the Rangers lost the World Series that night---Opening Dayis April 1st! :)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
October 25, 2010 with pictures!
These are some pictures Griffin sent us. They came on a CD, so I'm not 100% sure who/what they are all of :) Enjoy-
We are pretty sure this is Elder Brown's zone:
Griffin wrote about the baptism in the ocean, here is a picture from it:
We are assuming this is him helping at the new chapel in Moree:
We are pretty sure this is Elder Brown's zone:
Griffin wrote about the baptism in the ocean, here is a picture from it:
We are assuming this is him helping at the new chapel in Moree:
Memo wo akye! That's so tight the Rangers won, I was so excited to get the email to find that out! Of course it doesn't happen until after I leave, but oh well. Hopefully they stick it to the Giants. Are you going to go to one of the games? You definitely should. You have to in fact, I am making it a requirement. If you don't I won't send you an email next week :) Random question, is Max Hall starting for the Cardinals? I heard he was...I also heard Michael Vick is tearing it up. Truth?
So anyway I got your package with the jump rope and CD player this week. Everything is good, you sent me the same exact CD player Elder Adams has, really ironic haha. That Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD you sent me is so hilarious! It just makes me think of Sunday back home, hearing Bruce R. McConkie's voice and everything, so weird. But very cool :) The Oreos were flipping amazing, those are my favorite kind of Oreos, so you've done well. They were gone in about 20 minutes haha. The stickers and Pez dispensers are always awesome as well!
The week was pretty good, seemed like we weren't busy at all just because we were so busy last week with the big baptism. We've still got some sweet investigators right now, like Jacob who will be baptized this weekend, but we just need to find some more to have a full teaching pool. We'll have to teach a lot of recent converts too over the next few weeks, so we'll at least stay busy with that. Andrew blessed the Sacrament in Church on Sunday, it was so sweet! He's just an all-around stud. Isac passed the Sacrament too.
The ward is taking a temple trip in a few weeks, so we will be preparing a lot of our recent converts for that. Andrew is especially is excited, we have already filled out some basic pedigree stuff with him, up to his grandparents. With our new mission goal, we need to help one of our recent prepare names for the temple, and I'm sure we'll be able to accomplish that with Andrew soon. Isaac was a referral from Stephen, a recent convert himself, so we completed that half of the goal already.
Well I can't really think of anything else from the week. Thanks for the Fante trip, I literally called the Saunders the morning before I got that package asking if we could order Fante triples, but I got one in my package that very day! We went farming this week at a less active lady's farm. We weeded and chopped stuff with cutlasses for a few hours, I got about 7 blisters on my hand...not fun haha. But my hands will toughen up. We met with the bishopric yesterday at church to teach them about what's expected of them with missionary work in the ward. We're trying to set it up where we have home teachers for investigators before they are baptized, so hopefully that works out. We got Preach My Gospel books for the whole ward council. The chapel is going well, there are problems just like with any chapel, but its going well. Most of the people working on the chapel are members, so that's sweet. Its right at the front of town; it'll be the first thing anyone see when they come into town. Sacrament meeting attendance will probably double once it is finished. The missionaries in Moree will have a field day once it is finished. Who knows, it could even be me! That'd mean I'd be in my first area for a year. It happens here, one guy stayed in his first area for 14 months, left for 3 months, and then went back to his old area, and he is going home next week. Pretty crazy.
Anyway thanks for everything. I love you and miss you a ton, but I don't think I could be anywhere else in the world right now!
I love you guys!
-Elder Brown
Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
October 18, 2010
Yo yo wazzup. I say yo all the time here, it's actually a Fante word that means "ok" but I just use it for everything haha. Anyway I was really glad to hear the Rangers won, right when I leave they play for a pennant! Geez. Oh well, I'll be hoping for the Rangers-San Fran world series. BYU (football)...glad I'm in Africa :)
So anyway the week was sweet here, really hectic, but that's how its supposed to be! The highlight was on Saturday with the baptisms, I'll get to that later. We had a fun FHE at a Yamoransa member's house last Monday. The funniest thing was he had his little 5 year old son conduct the music and it was sooooooooooooooooo flippin cute. The kid was directing perfectly! It was a pretty normal FHE, and they gave us these plantain cakes. They were really spicy...They said it was their specialty. They are a really sweet family, so it was fun. Especially the kid conducting.
So basically the whole week we were busy preparing for the baptism. We have got some sweet investigators that are doing really well, one is John. We met him randomly, he walked into a members house while we were teaching their daughter getting her ready for baptism. He read the Restoration pamphlet and the Joseph Smith pamphlet in a week, and is already telling us how excited he is to learn more. He has come to church the last two weeks too. He is already talking about going on a mission (he's 22) and he is just so excited about the church. it's sweet to see guys like that. Another guy is Jacob, his girlfriend is a member, so of course he's doing well...haha. He'll be baptized in the next couple weeks, he has been coming to church for awhlie. He is a barber so he cuts our hair for free. I get sweet African haircuts every week! He never cut an oboruni's hair before me and Elder Adams haha.
The baptism was on Saturday. This was definitely my favorite baptism so far, it was my first baptism where I have been involved in the finding and teaching process with each investigator from the beginning. We've been blessed to have a lot of success lately, we had this baptism and will have another sweet one soon, and it's just because we've been working hard and doing what we're supposed to. We proselyte the full nine hours everyday, and it's really paying off.
Well it's sweet to hear from you guys every week. We played some frisbee on the beach today, and we'll probably have a burrito night withe Elder Pinnel and Elder Bunker (my MTC mate) tonight. We can make some legit tortillas and then put rice, tomato stew, beans and canned tuna on it. Mos def not Chipotle, but what can ya do? :) I was craving a chipotle chicken sandwich on asiago focaccia the other day :) Eat a couple for me this week.
I love you guys, you guys are freakin awesome! Thanks for everything and keep loving life in Tejas (and California, and Utah, and Oregon, and anywhere else all my peeps might be!)
Love from CC Ghana,
Elder Brown
P.S.- Elder Brown says sorry to everyone this week about not having enough time to write everyone!
So anyway the week was sweet here, really hectic, but that's how its supposed to be! The highlight was on Saturday with the baptisms, I'll get to that later. We had a fun FHE at a Yamoransa member's house last Monday. The funniest thing was he had his little 5 year old son conduct the music and it was sooooooooooooooooo flippin cute. The kid was directing perfectly! It was a pretty normal FHE, and they gave us these plantain cakes. They were really spicy...They said it was their specialty. They are a really sweet family, so it was fun. Especially the kid conducting.
So basically the whole week we were busy preparing for the baptism. We have got some sweet investigators that are doing really well, one is John. We met him randomly, he walked into a members house while we were teaching their daughter getting her ready for baptism. He read the Restoration pamphlet and the Joseph Smith pamphlet in a week, and is already telling us how excited he is to learn more. He has come to church the last two weeks too. He is already talking about going on a mission (he's 22) and he is just so excited about the church. it's sweet to see guys like that. Another guy is Jacob, his girlfriend is a member, so of course he's doing well...haha. He'll be baptized in the next couple weeks, he has been coming to church for awhlie. He is a barber so he cuts our hair for free. I get sweet African haircuts every week! He never cut an oboruni's hair before me and Elder Adams haha.
The baptism was on Saturday. This was definitely my favorite baptism so far, it was my first baptism where I have been involved in the finding and teaching process with each investigator from the beginning. We've been blessed to have a lot of success lately, we had this baptism and will have another sweet one soon, and it's just because we've been working hard and doing what we're supposed to. We proselyte the full nine hours everyday, and it's really paying off.
Well it's sweet to hear from you guys every week. We played some frisbee on the beach today, and we'll probably have a burrito night withe Elder Pinnel and Elder Bunker (my MTC mate) tonight. We can make some legit tortillas and then put rice, tomato stew, beans and canned tuna on it. Mos def not Chipotle, but what can ya do? :) I was craving a chipotle chicken sandwich on asiago focaccia the other day :) Eat a couple for me this week.
I love you guys, you guys are freakin awesome! Thanks for everything and keep loving life in Tejas (and California, and Utah, and Oregon, and anywhere else all my peeps might be!)
Love from CC Ghana,
Elder Brown
P.S.- Elder Brown says sorry to everyone this week about not having enough time to write everyone!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
October 11, 2010
There was no email from Griffin last week because the power went out as they were checking email! Here is his letter from last week:
Wow it has been quite the adventure finally getting to email again. The power went out while we were emailing last week, so I got to read most of the emails, but didn't send any. Then today we went to a cafe, and while I was reading the emails, the network went out. So we went to another cafe where it was working, and it honestly took 30 minutes for the computer to load and everything to actually get to the inbox. Geez louise. Anyway so let's just hope the power stays on for a little bit. Everything is going well here.
So anyway on to the important stuff! I can't remember all that happened two weeks ago, but I'll go through the biggies real quick. First thing is that I got sick for the first time. Threw up on the job in Moree, luckily it was on the outside of town so nobody really saw it. It was my own fault though, earlier in the day we passed a family who had a giant pile of fish they were cleaning. We stopped to talk and help and we saw that they had some sweet sea creatures in there! Barracudas, sting rays, baby sharks, all that sweet stuff. So....I picked a few up and started playing with them and taking pictures with them haha. And then I ate some bowlfruit right after...bad idea! But oh well, I got sick and had the oll "runny tummy" but it only took me out of commission for one day. Other than that I can't remember anything sweet that happened. We had interviews with President and those went really well.
We had a special "temple training" meeting on Friday, it was super sweet. It really stinks we won't be able to go to the temple for 2 years....especially because our temple training got me all excited! Plus we got the new Liahona that is the temple issue, and it made want to go even worse!!!!!!! But oh well, President just talked a lot about the significance of the temple, and a lot more about marriage. Basically it was a marriage training, not a temple training haha. But I guess the two go hand in hand. We also learned a little bit about how to do family history, since that is part of our new goal. I also got three packages on Friday, 2 from you guys and one from Grandma H. Super sweet, thanks a bunch!
Today we played football against Abura zone (the other zone in Cape Coast, the western part of Cape Coast). One of their zone leaders played on the soccer team at BYU. We won 2-1 or something, the field was soaked through because it poured last night, so it wasn't even that fun. The funniest was just that President Sabey came and reffed, so that was fun. He has yellow and red cards he used and everything, pretty sweet haha.
We didn't have a baptism on Saturday, it's this coming Saturday. Andrew is going to be baptized is well as: Isaac- the best friend of Stephen, a recent convert; Isaac-also the best friend of a recent convert, Enoch; Dennis- a really tight fisherman thats about 18, actually speaks English a little; and four kids, Faustina, Esther, Comfort and Albert. It'll be a really sweet baptism. Other than that, there is nothing big planned for the week, we'll just be busyyyyy getting ready for the baptism. Oh yeah, we had 19 investigators at church yesterday, it was so tight! A lot of them were fisherman who had traveled or will be traveling soon, but it was still so sweet! We got a picture with all the guys that came, because every single one of them came in a white shirt! It was so sweet.
The work is still sweet in GCCM, things are really moving along in Moree. The chapel is going great and the members are giving us lots of referrals, so there is nothing to complain about! I even started throwing down some Fante with the people and they understand me! Now I've just got to be able to understand them...haha
Thanks for everything, I love you guys! The pictures you sent are sweet, just keep sending more and more!
Love,
Elder Brown
Wow it has been quite the adventure finally getting to email again. The power went out while we were emailing last week, so I got to read most of the emails, but didn't send any. Then today we went to a cafe, and while I was reading the emails, the network went out. So we went to another cafe where it was working, and it honestly took 30 minutes for the computer to load and everything to actually get to the inbox. Geez louise. Anyway so let's just hope the power stays on for a little bit. Everything is going well here.
So anyway on to the important stuff! I can't remember all that happened two weeks ago, but I'll go through the biggies real quick. First thing is that I got sick for the first time. Threw up on the job in Moree, luckily it was on the outside of town so nobody really saw it. It was my own fault though, earlier in the day we passed a family who had a giant pile of fish they were cleaning. We stopped to talk and help and we saw that they had some sweet sea creatures in there! Barracudas, sting rays, baby sharks, all that sweet stuff. So....I picked a few up and started playing with them and taking pictures with them haha. And then I ate some bowlfruit right after...bad idea! But oh well, I got sick and had the oll "runny tummy" but it only took me out of commission for one day. Other than that I can't remember anything sweet that happened. We had interviews with President and those went really well.
We had a special "temple training" meeting on Friday, it was super sweet. It really stinks we won't be able to go to the temple for 2 years....especially because our temple training got me all excited! Plus we got the new Liahona that is the temple issue, and it made want to go even worse!!!!!!! But oh well, President just talked a lot about the significance of the temple, and a lot more about marriage. Basically it was a marriage training, not a temple training haha. But I guess the two go hand in hand. We also learned a little bit about how to do family history, since that is part of our new goal. I also got three packages on Friday, 2 from you guys and one from Grandma H. Super sweet, thanks a bunch!
Today we played football against Abura zone (the other zone in Cape Coast, the western part of Cape Coast). One of their zone leaders played on the soccer team at BYU. We won 2-1 or something, the field was soaked through because it poured last night, so it wasn't even that fun. The funniest was just that President Sabey came and reffed, so that was fun. He has yellow and red cards he used and everything, pretty sweet haha.
We didn't have a baptism on Saturday, it's this coming Saturday. Andrew is going to be baptized is well as: Isaac- the best friend of Stephen, a recent convert; Isaac-also the best friend of a recent convert, Enoch; Dennis- a really tight fisherman thats about 18, actually speaks English a little; and four kids, Faustina, Esther, Comfort and Albert. It'll be a really sweet baptism. Other than that, there is nothing big planned for the week, we'll just be busyyyyy getting ready for the baptism. Oh yeah, we had 19 investigators at church yesterday, it was so tight! A lot of them were fisherman who had traveled or will be traveling soon, but it was still so sweet! We got a picture with all the guys that came, because every single one of them came in a white shirt! It was so sweet.
The work is still sweet in GCCM, things are really moving along in Moree. The chapel is going great and the members are giving us lots of referrals, so there is nothing to complain about! I even started throwing down some Fante with the people and they understand me! Now I've just got to be able to understand them...haha
Thanks for everything, I love you guys! The pictures you sent are sweet, just keep sending more and more!
Love,
Elder Brown
Monday, October 4, 2010
September 27, 2010
Memo wo akye! Sounds like you and H are having fun on your own back in Tejas. Hopefully the house doesn't fall apart later today. I'm not sure if I'll have time to write Mom too, so at least forward this to her as well. Thanks for all the updates. Sounds like it's definitely a rebuilding year for BYU. Elder Adams is from Reno so he's pretty happy UNR won. It sounds like UNR is pretty legit though, wins versus BYU and CAL on the road is pretty good, Kaepernick is probably getting a hard look for the Heisman I would guess. Hopefully BYU can just get out of the year with 8 wins or something.
Anyway, this week was another sweet week in Africa! It rained a ton this week, pretty much every day. I had Toto stuck in my head all day. I only know one line to the song so it kind of got old, "I miss the rains down in Africa...doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo." I'll have to learn the whole song when I get home ;) But I love the rain here, it keeps it from being a gazillion degrees all day. Plus I get to rock my bright yellow rain jacket :) That thing is so fresh! Tuesday we had a combine district meeting in the Cape Coast Chapel since it was the last week of the transfer. There were four guys that left, so it was good to see them before they left. The other elders who left were Elder Marmimira (from Zimbabwe, transferred to Sunyani), Elder Hodson (from Orem, transferred to Swedru), and of course, my boy Elder Keller (went to Kumasi). Elder Bahme and Elder Pinnel came down and chilled with us in Yamoransa on Wednesday for a little while before he went to the mission to get the low down on Sunyani. It was fun, Elder Pinnel's new companion is my MT, Elder Bunker. It was sad seeing Elder Keller and Elder Bahme go, probably won't see them for a while since they're in the northern part of the mission. Elder Wiah's new companion is Elder Mortensen, from Centerville, Utah. He's really cool, he was training my MT, Elder Rosquist, in Swedru.
Thursday we taught Andrew again. He came to church again on Sunday, and will be baptized October 9th, the first day he can! Investigators have to come to church four times before they can be baptized. He'll probably end up being in the Elder's Q presidency or something before I even leave.
Saturday was sweet, Augustina was baptized. It was a really cool baptism because it was really small, only her family came, but was sweet because her baptism completes the family. Next stop, the temple! All of the people we baptized last Sunday were confirmed this Sunday, except for David, who came late for some reason...He'll be confirmed next week. A few recent converts were interviewed to receive the Priesthood yesterday, too, so it will be sweet to see them ordained on Sunday.
So it was another sweet week in Ghana! We won't get to see conference this week, probably not for a month or so. Thanks for all the love and support and everything! It's awesome to hear from you guys every week!!!! Love you guys, stay fresh in Texas.
-Elder Brown
Anyway, this week was another sweet week in Africa! It rained a ton this week, pretty much every day. I had Toto stuck in my head all day. I only know one line to the song so it kind of got old, "I miss the rains down in Africa...doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo." I'll have to learn the whole song when I get home ;) But I love the rain here, it keeps it from being a gazillion degrees all day. Plus I get to rock my bright yellow rain jacket :) That thing is so fresh! Tuesday we had a combine district meeting in the Cape Coast Chapel since it was the last week of the transfer. There were four guys that left, so it was good to see them before they left. The other elders who left were Elder Marmimira (from Zimbabwe, transferred to Sunyani), Elder Hodson (from Orem, transferred to Swedru), and of course, my boy Elder Keller (went to Kumasi). Elder Bahme and Elder Pinnel came down and chilled with us in Yamoransa on Wednesday for a little while before he went to the mission to get the low down on Sunyani. It was fun, Elder Pinnel's new companion is my MT, Elder Bunker. It was sad seeing Elder Keller and Elder Bahme go, probably won't see them for a while since they're in the northern part of the mission. Elder Wiah's new companion is Elder Mortensen, from Centerville, Utah. He's really cool, he was training my MT, Elder Rosquist, in Swedru.
Thursday we taught Andrew again. He came to church again on Sunday, and will be baptized October 9th, the first day he can! Investigators have to come to church four times before they can be baptized. He'll probably end up being in the Elder's Q presidency or something before I even leave.
Saturday was sweet, Augustina was baptized. It was a really cool baptism because it was really small, only her family came, but was sweet because her baptism completes the family. Next stop, the temple! All of the people we baptized last Sunday were confirmed this Sunday, except for David, who came late for some reason...He'll be confirmed next week. A few recent converts were interviewed to receive the Priesthood yesterday, too, so it will be sweet to see them ordained on Sunday.
So it was another sweet week in Ghana! We won't get to see conference this week, probably not for a month or so. Thanks for all the love and support and everything! It's awesome to hear from you guys every week!!!! Love you guys, stay fresh in Texas.
-Elder Brown
Friday, September 24, 2010
September 20, 2010
Good morning Brown ebusua! How is it back in Texas? The e-mail is a little later today, we've kind of been all over the place today. We went to Takoradi as a zone to play them in football in the morning. Takoradi is like an hour away so we left really early at like 7. We played there for a while and then headed back. A companionship- Elder Valentine and Elder Haderlie- had found this pizza place in Cape and they wanted us all to go, so we went there at like 1:30 when we got back. While we were eating , everybody was anxious for transfer news, and we got it while we were there. Everybody was excited because they are opening a new area way up north in a place called Sunyani and everybody wanted to go there. Me and Elder Adams are staying together in Moree. I'm glad for that because we've got some sweet investigators right now.
So overall the week was pretty good. It started off cool on Tuesday obviously with the visit from Elder Sitati. He taught some really cool stuff about the "Questions and Answers of our Stories of Latter-day Saints and as missionaries." Then he talked after lunch about using time wisely. The week went pretty smooth after that, we were just busy preparing for our baptism on Sunday. There were other three children from the ward that we baptized on Sunday. There were three children from the ward that we cool for sure but...it was ridiculous with the waves! It went well, it was just hard haha. I was doing the baptizing and I had to try time it perfectly with the waves. I would have to try to finish the words as fast as I could before a wave came. It was super sweet but... I don't know if I want to do it again haha, it was just too crazy!!!!!!! All in all we baptized four converts and three children from the ward.
I didn't do my piano class this week, we were teaching a lesson really far from the chapel and we wouldn't have gotten there on time anyway. A few people showed up so I felt bad it didn't work out, but the lesson was more important. It was with a guy named Ishmael, he's got a baptismal date for October 9th. The guitar I got is sweet. It's a "Givson" not a Gibson...haha. But it's not bad. it's a classical, nylon string guitar. I haven't used it for performances yet, but maybe at the next baptism or something!
Here's some random thoughts and happenings from the week:
-A lot of people think that the LDS Church=the USA here. We have had two people ask us if the building on the one dollar bill is the Salt Lake Temple.
-Amos, the guy we baptized Sunday, has a Dirk Nowitzki jersey he always wears. Now if I can just baptize someone with a Josh Hamilton and Marion Barber jersey I'll have my Dallas bases covered! It's funny all of the random clothes you see here. They call it "Obruni weiwu" meaning "white man died"
You've got to stuff those flat-rate packages super full!!!!!!!!!!! I got yours with the stuff last week and you could've fit WAYYYYYYYYYY more stuff in there!!!! It's ok though :) Just remember that those are duty free so you can stuff (almost) whatever you want in there.
Thanks for the updates from home. Stink about BYU again (the football team lost), hopefully they turn it around and start clicking. Hopefully Heaps is number 1 now. Sounds like Hayden tore it up again, hope his game goes well this week. I had a dream that the Rangers beat the Yankees in five games in the first round of the playoffs, so hopefully it happens!!!!!!
Anyway, it was another great week in Ghana. It's tough, the days are long, it's hot and it's taught not understanding anyone, but I'm getting there. The guy we are teaching right now, Andrew, is just so great. He came to church yesterday and even came to the baptism after. He is going to be baptized October 25th.
You guys are awesome, I love you and miss you guys so much, but its great being here. I got your pictures and the letter today. I just want lots of pictures of family and friends from back when I was home. I'm not too worried about landscape or anything, just my peeps!
Thanks for everything, I love you guys!
Elder Brown
So overall the week was pretty good. It started off cool on Tuesday obviously with the visit from Elder Sitati. He taught some really cool stuff about the "Questions and Answers of our Stories of Latter-day Saints and as missionaries." Then he talked after lunch about using time wisely. The week went pretty smooth after that, we were just busy preparing for our baptism on Sunday. There were other three children from the ward that we baptized on Sunday. There were three children from the ward that we cool for sure but...it was ridiculous with the waves! It went well, it was just hard haha. I was doing the baptizing and I had to try time it perfectly with the waves. I would have to try to finish the words as fast as I could before a wave came. It was super sweet but... I don't know if I want to do it again haha, it was just too crazy!!!!!!! All in all we baptized four converts and three children from the ward.
I didn't do my piano class this week, we were teaching a lesson really far from the chapel and we wouldn't have gotten there on time anyway. A few people showed up so I felt bad it didn't work out, but the lesson was more important. It was with a guy named Ishmael, he's got a baptismal date for October 9th. The guitar I got is sweet. It's a "Givson" not a Gibson...haha. But it's not bad. it's a classical, nylon string guitar. I haven't used it for performances yet, but maybe at the next baptism or something!
Here's some random thoughts and happenings from the week:
-A lot of people think that the LDS Church=the USA here. We have had two people ask us if the building on the one dollar bill is the Salt Lake Temple.
-Amos, the guy we baptized Sunday, has a Dirk Nowitzki jersey he always wears. Now if I can just baptize someone with a Josh Hamilton and Marion Barber jersey I'll have my Dallas bases covered! It's funny all of the random clothes you see here. They call it "Obruni weiwu" meaning "white man died"
You've got to stuff those flat-rate packages super full!!!!!!!!!!! I got yours with the stuff last week and you could've fit WAYYYYYYYYYY more stuff in there!!!! It's ok though :) Just remember that those are duty free so you can stuff (almost) whatever you want in there.
Thanks for the updates from home. Stink about BYU again (the football team lost), hopefully they turn it around and start clicking. Hopefully Heaps is number 1 now. Sounds like Hayden tore it up again, hope his game goes well this week. I had a dream that the Rangers beat the Yankees in five games in the first round of the playoffs, so hopefully it happens!!!!!!
Anyway, it was another great week in Ghana. It's tough, the days are long, it's hot and it's taught not understanding anyone, but I'm getting there. The guy we are teaching right now, Andrew, is just so great. He came to church yesterday and even came to the baptism after. He is going to be baptized October 25th.
You guys are awesome, I love you and miss you guys so much, but its great being here. I got your pictures and the letter today. I just want lots of pictures of family and friends from back when I was home. I'm not too worried about landscape or anything, just my peeps!
Thanks for everything, I love you guys!
Elder Brown
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
September 13, 2010
Mema woaha! or I guess it'd be memo wo akye for you guys right now since it's morning there. How is it going back home? It's going great here, it was a really good week. We just got done playing ultimate frisbee on the beach.
The dinosaur bookmark is sweet!!! I use it all the time!!! Just pictures of family and friends really, I need more of those. Everybody asks to see pictures and I don't have many. (Editor's note-Griffin would like pictures!)So this week was pretty sweet! I went on splits with Elder Keller in Yamaronsa on Wednesday, so that was fun. Elder Keller is from Salt Lake and has one year let. Tuesday's district meeting was good.
I was going to teach a piano class at the chapel on Wednesday night, but then we went on splits, so that changed that. Literally like everyone in the ward wants to learn how to play the piano, probably 15 people ask me every Sunday to teach them. So I though that I could just teach a class once a week, and if they want to come, they have to bring a friend to come learn too! Everybody wants to learn so bad that they really will bring someone. So I'll do that this week.
Elder Adams' birthday was sweet. The Saunders (the couple missionaries) came by in the morning, brought his b-day packages and a cake! So we sort of had a little party in the morning, had cake for breakfast...haha. Then at dinner at the Pratt's we each got a huge plate of jollof rice and chicken, and then on top of that, a huge bowl of fufu with more chicken!! And we all got three Fantas and banana cakes to top it off. It was huge. We watched the last priesthood session of conference on DVD while we were there, played I-Spy during the songs for Elder Brown (Griffin was in the BYU Men's Choir that sang at the Priesthood Session during April Conference) Brother Pratt thought it was pretty sweet he could see me on the TV! Haha! We were so stuffed that night...I fell asleep nice and early.
Well overall it was another great week in Moree! We'll be having a baptism on Sunday, four people- Augustina, David, Ezra and Kwesi. It'll be at the beach so I'm super excited for that! The people we are baptizing are all really sweet people.
It's starting to get really hot here, the rainy season is coming to a close. Saturday it rained for a while, we had to sit in a house for a while to wait for it to pass. There are like a gazillion funerals going on in Moree and Yamaronsa right ow. They have set times throughout the year that you have to have funerals, they can't have them except for the weekends that are every three months or so.
Sorry to hear about BYU, that really stinks. Seems odd they kept Nelson in....hopefully they get it together for Florida State. Glad the Rangers are staying strong, maybe it's their year!!!!
We had "steak and potatoes" for Elder Adams birthday dinner the day after. His mom sent him a ton of beef jerky and powdered mashed potatoes. The powdered mashed potatoes were awwwwwesome. Idahoan loaded baked powdered mashed potatoes** (see bottom)
Thanks for all the love and support! The work is sweet here! Elder Joseph Sitati is coming to tour the mission the next few days, so we get to hear him speak tomorrow, it'll be sweet!
Yebehyia,
Elder Brown
Griffin has mentioned that it is "sweet" to get stuff like powdered drinks, powdered soups and sauces. If you ever want to send anything to Elder Brown, use the address on the blog page and it's best to use the Flat Rate envelope from the US Postal Service...please do not send electronics or CD's...tape the envelope well! :)
The dinosaur bookmark is sweet!!! I use it all the time!!! Just pictures of family and friends really, I need more of those. Everybody asks to see pictures and I don't have many. (Editor's note-Griffin would like pictures!)So this week was pretty sweet! I went on splits with Elder Keller in Yamaronsa on Wednesday, so that was fun. Elder Keller is from Salt Lake and has one year let. Tuesday's district meeting was good.
I was going to teach a piano class at the chapel on Wednesday night, but then we went on splits, so that changed that. Literally like everyone in the ward wants to learn how to play the piano, probably 15 people ask me every Sunday to teach them. So I though that I could just teach a class once a week, and if they want to come, they have to bring a friend to come learn too! Everybody wants to learn so bad that they really will bring someone. So I'll do that this week.
Elder Adams' birthday was sweet. The Saunders (the couple missionaries) came by in the morning, brought his b-day packages and a cake! So we sort of had a little party in the morning, had cake for breakfast...haha. Then at dinner at the Pratt's we each got a huge plate of jollof rice and chicken, and then on top of that, a huge bowl of fufu with more chicken!! And we all got three Fantas and banana cakes to top it off. It was huge. We watched the last priesthood session of conference on DVD while we were there, played I-Spy during the songs for Elder Brown (Griffin was in the BYU Men's Choir that sang at the Priesthood Session during April Conference) Brother Pratt thought it was pretty sweet he could see me on the TV! Haha! We were so stuffed that night...I fell asleep nice and early.
Well overall it was another great week in Moree! We'll be having a baptism on Sunday, four people- Augustina, David, Ezra and Kwesi. It'll be at the beach so I'm super excited for that! The people we are baptizing are all really sweet people.
It's starting to get really hot here, the rainy season is coming to a close. Saturday it rained for a while, we had to sit in a house for a while to wait for it to pass. There are like a gazillion funerals going on in Moree and Yamaronsa right ow. They have set times throughout the year that you have to have funerals, they can't have them except for the weekends that are every three months or so.
Sorry to hear about BYU, that really stinks. Seems odd they kept Nelson in....hopefully they get it together for Florida State. Glad the Rangers are staying strong, maybe it's their year!!!!
We had "steak and potatoes" for Elder Adams birthday dinner the day after. His mom sent him a ton of beef jerky and powdered mashed potatoes. The powdered mashed potatoes were awwwwwesome. Idahoan loaded baked powdered mashed potatoes** (see bottom)
Thanks for all the love and support! The work is sweet here! Elder Joseph Sitati is coming to tour the mission the next few days, so we get to hear him speak tomorrow, it'll be sweet!
Yebehyia,
Elder Brown
Griffin has mentioned that it is "sweet" to get stuff like powdered drinks, powdered soups and sauces. If you ever want to send anything to Elder Brown, use the address on the blog page and it's best to use the Flat Rate envelope from the US Postal Service...please do not send electronics or CD's...tape the envelope well! :)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
September 6, 2010
Rise and Shout! Not gonna lie I was anxious all week to hear the news haha (editor's note- BYU football winning). It's good they won, I would've gotten depressed...haha just kidding. But sounds like it went well, the independence news is really sweet, the ESPN deal is awesome. It'll be sweet to see how it all works out.
Sounds like all is going well back home. The week in Moree was good! We had our baptism on Saturday. Four people were baptized on Saturday from Moree. We did a big combined baptism with Mankessim, Yamoransa, and Abakrampa so there was like 10 people baptized or so.It was a really good baptism. I played the piano and like halfway through the opening President Sabey comes and sits down right in front of me so I was trying not to mess up and stuff haha. Sister Sabey was impressed with piano skillz, she said she was thinking about how her mother told her when she was little that she needed to learn the piano!
The week was sweet. We got a sweet referral from Papa Fynn. He introduced us to his friend Andrew. We've met with him three times already, taught all of the Restoration lesson. He says that he really likes it and that it is "uplifting" him. He has a cousin that's a member, so he came to our lesson on Sunday.
We went on splits with one of the APs on Thursday, Elder Hill (Ogden, UT)...he helped us learn a lot. He plays the guitar and is super musical and stuff so we had a good time talking about music and messing around on the guitar. The other AP is Elder Agyemang, a native Ghanaian from Kumasi. The chapel continues to go forth, they are setting the foundation today.
I'm actually pretty stoked about learning Fante and Twi. I can learn Fante and Twi and then when I get home go study abroad in France or whatever to perfect my French. Plus I think if I stay in the International Relations majors I want to learn a language like Mandarin or Arabic for the major. We'll see though!
Thanks again for everything. I got package last week, all the ties are sweet!!!!! The skinny tie is especially fresh! I love you guys, thanks for everything!!!
-Elder Brown
PS-tell everybody via the blog or whatever I wish I could email everybody every week but I only have small time, so id I don't email you back it's not because I don't love you!!!!! I even have to type like a mad man to email a few people each week.
The picture is from the Cape Coast castle. We went there today with Elders Bahme, Pinnel, Keller and Wiah. Very sobering thinking about what went on in there. I walked through the "Door of No Return" and sat in the dungeons. It was very humbling.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
August 30, 2010
Good morning! We headed into Cape early this morning so you'll probably get this right when you wake up, hope it helps ya have a good start to the week :)
Thanks for all the updates, sounds like everything is going sweet back there. Sounds like Guyer is going to be legit this year.
So this week was another sweet week in Ghana! Nothing too special or out of the ordinary happened, it was just a solid week. Our rockstar ward missionary, Daniel, went back to school in Cape last week, so we've been having trouble getting a translator to go with us, but it was still ok. When we don't have a translator...it's tough, because not many speak English! I got a Twi book to study though, so I'll be able to learn a little bit faster. Twi is just a simplified, easier form of Fante, so I'll still be able to communicate to Fante speakers in Twi. Fante speakers can understand any of the Akan languages, but the other languages, like Twi, cant understand Fante as well. I have that Twi book to learn grammar and stuff, and then I have a small Fante dictionary with some basic words and vocabulary. I'm beginning to be able to read Fante ok, but understanding it when people speak is a whole different ball game. So anyway, Daniel would go proselyte with us every day to translate, but he's gone now. His brother Enoch goes with us sometimes, but he's in high school, so he can't go during the day. There's another guy, Joseph, that goes with us sometimes, and he's really tight. Two other ward missionaries, Stephen and Mary, go into the MTC on Friday. He is going to Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission and she is going to the greatest mission in the world! Ghana Cape Coast!!! It'll be weird because she would translate for us sometimes, and now she'll be my fellow missionary in GCCM. Stephen has a twin who is on a mission in Nigeria Enugu. They converted together when they were 16 or so, and then their older brother converted, and now we are baptizing his younger brother Kwesi, on Saturday.
We spent most of the week preparing for our baptism this coming Saturday, we finished up teaching and preparing Albert, Kwesi, Comfort and Victoria, and Doris, so they'll be baptized on Saturday. We were going to do the baptisms in the ocean, but the Abakrampa sisters and the Yamoransa elders wanted to join up with our baptism, so we'll just be having one in the Yamoransa chapel. We also taught a really cool guy named Ishmael a few times last week.
The work on the chapel continues to go forward. They are doing the final leveling of the ground today, building a fence tomorrow and then they begin building the chapel itself on Wednesday. I'm sure Elder Adams and I will help plenty. Right now, kids just play football on the land because it's the only large flat area in all of Moree! They'll be sad when they start building. We stopped and played some football with them for a while the other day, the kids here are so tight!
Thanks for everything, it's so sweet to hear from you guys every week.
Love, Elder Brown
P.S. Cheer extra for me when the Cougs take down Sarkisian and the Huskies on Saturday. My guess is 37-17 Cougars.
Thanks for all the updates, sounds like everything is going sweet back there. Sounds like Guyer is going to be legit this year.
So this week was another sweet week in Ghana! Nothing too special or out of the ordinary happened, it was just a solid week. Our rockstar ward missionary, Daniel, went back to school in Cape last week, so we've been having trouble getting a translator to go with us, but it was still ok. When we don't have a translator...it's tough, because not many speak English! I got a Twi book to study though, so I'll be able to learn a little bit faster. Twi is just a simplified, easier form of Fante, so I'll still be able to communicate to Fante speakers in Twi. Fante speakers can understand any of the Akan languages, but the other languages, like Twi, cant understand Fante as well. I have that Twi book to learn grammar and stuff, and then I have a small Fante dictionary with some basic words and vocabulary. I'm beginning to be able to read Fante ok, but understanding it when people speak is a whole different ball game. So anyway, Daniel would go proselyte with us every day to translate, but he's gone now. His brother Enoch goes with us sometimes, but he's in high school, so he can't go during the day. There's another guy, Joseph, that goes with us sometimes, and he's really tight. Two other ward missionaries, Stephen and Mary, go into the MTC on Friday. He is going to Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission and she is going to the greatest mission in the world! Ghana Cape Coast!!! It'll be weird because she would translate for us sometimes, and now she'll be my fellow missionary in GCCM. Stephen has a twin who is on a mission in Nigeria Enugu. They converted together when they were 16 or so, and then their older brother converted, and now we are baptizing his younger brother Kwesi, on Saturday.
We spent most of the week preparing for our baptism this coming Saturday, we finished up teaching and preparing Albert, Kwesi, Comfort and Victoria, and Doris, so they'll be baptized on Saturday. We were going to do the baptisms in the ocean, but the Abakrampa sisters and the Yamoransa elders wanted to join up with our baptism, so we'll just be having one in the Yamoransa chapel. We also taught a really cool guy named Ishmael a few times last week.
The work on the chapel continues to go forward. They are doing the final leveling of the ground today, building a fence tomorrow and then they begin building the chapel itself on Wednesday. I'm sure Elder Adams and I will help plenty. Right now, kids just play football on the land because it's the only large flat area in all of Moree! They'll be sad when they start building. We stopped and played some football with them for a while the other day, the kids here are so tight!
Thanks for everything, it's so sweet to hear from you guys every week.
Love, Elder Brown
P.S. Cheer extra for me when the Cougs take down Sarkisian and the Huskies on Saturday. My guess is 37-17 Cougars.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
August 23, 2010
Wowzers, I am really tired right now, so if I say anything weird, I apologize in advance :)
Sounds like all is gong sweet back there. That's exciting school starts today! BYU independent...I don't know about that! But we'll see I guess, I'm glad I'll get to see Texas in Provo when I get back though!
So this week was kind of weird, we were doing a bunch of other stuff so we didn't have a ton of time to proselyte. We only had one day of full proselyting scheduled. Tuesday we had zone conference, it was pretty sweet. President Sabey spoke about agency and it was super sweet. So that took up our whole Tuesday with travel and everything. Wednesday was our only full proselyting day so we worked hard to prepare for our baptism (in the ocean!) next week. We're starting to get all the records of the people together so we don't have to worry about it last minute. 5 people are getting baptized on the 4th of September, and then we're going to have another at the end of September for a few more people. Thursday the new zone leader, Elder Wright, came on splits with us, and we spent the first few hours clearing the land for the chapel. I got to use a cutlass (machete) for the first time, my hands got eaten up!! It was sweet though, we and like 6 other guys cleared a ton of land. Thursday night we taught Sammy, I don't know if I told you about him, with Elder Wright. Friday we started the day by clearing the land again for the chapel. Elder Adams and I went to town on this gnarly bush with our cutlasses. It was sweet!
Saturday morning there was a Pan-African service project, so we went and helped with that. Moree ward was assigned to paint an old hospital in Cape Coast, so we went with them to do that. You should've seen the hospital dad...It was basically 10 or so little one-story, one-room houses, each with its own function. It looked like an old scout camp or something. And it's still a pretty busy hospital! After that Elder Adams and I went to Moree to meet with some people that are getting baptized. Then we went straight back to Yamoransa for a baptism. Two people I taught several times on splits, Randy and Timothy, got baptized. They're both sweet guys. Me and Elder Adams were the witnesses for that, 10 people got baptized. I played the keyboard at the baptism, first time I have so far! Oh we also taught Francis on Saturday. Sunday was pretty normal, just church and then visited some people.
Anyway, other than that the week was sweet! We had a "world cup" between the Cape Coast, Assin Fosu, Swedru and Abura zones today. Cape Coast cleaned up, and I scored my first goal! It was so sweet haha. I can see why people get addicted to football, it was like the best feeling ever when I scored! And it tied the game up and sent it to penalty kicks so that was sweet too :) Learning Fante is pretty rough, but I'm doing my best. There are no books or anything so it's all oral pretty much. And the language is soooo subtle. For example, to say "I know you" you say minyim." To say "I don't know" you say "minnyim" holding the n for a split second longer. But it's coming.
Hope all goes well with school for H and all that is going great for you guys! Africa is still sweet and I'm loving life here! We got some burgers today and Elder Keller paid because it's his one year mark, so that makes you love life a little more :) Brother Pratt is cooking jollof rice and....octopus (!) for us on Thursday!
Elder Brown
Sounds like all is gong sweet back there. That's exciting school starts today! BYU independent...I don't know about that! But we'll see I guess, I'm glad I'll get to see Texas in Provo when I get back though!
So this week was kind of weird, we were doing a bunch of other stuff so we didn't have a ton of time to proselyte. We only had one day of full proselyting scheduled. Tuesday we had zone conference, it was pretty sweet. President Sabey spoke about agency and it was super sweet. So that took up our whole Tuesday with travel and everything. Wednesday was our only full proselyting day so we worked hard to prepare for our baptism (in the ocean!) next week. We're starting to get all the records of the people together so we don't have to worry about it last minute. 5 people are getting baptized on the 4th of September, and then we're going to have another at the end of September for a few more people. Thursday the new zone leader, Elder Wright, came on splits with us, and we spent the first few hours clearing the land for the chapel. I got to use a cutlass (machete) for the first time, my hands got eaten up!! It was sweet though, we and like 6 other guys cleared a ton of land. Thursday night we taught Sammy, I don't know if I told you about him, with Elder Wright. Friday we started the day by clearing the land again for the chapel. Elder Adams and I went to town on this gnarly bush with our cutlasses. It was sweet!
Saturday morning there was a Pan-African service project, so we went and helped with that. Moree ward was assigned to paint an old hospital in Cape Coast, so we went with them to do that. You should've seen the hospital dad...It was basically 10 or so little one-story, one-room houses, each with its own function. It looked like an old scout camp or something. And it's still a pretty busy hospital! After that Elder Adams and I went to Moree to meet with some people that are getting baptized. Then we went straight back to Yamoransa for a baptism. Two people I taught several times on splits, Randy and Timothy, got baptized. They're both sweet guys. Me and Elder Adams were the witnesses for that, 10 people got baptized. I played the keyboard at the baptism, first time I have so far! Oh we also taught Francis on Saturday. Sunday was pretty normal, just church and then visited some people.
Anyway, other than that the week was sweet! We had a "world cup" between the Cape Coast, Assin Fosu, Swedru and Abura zones today. Cape Coast cleaned up, and I scored my first goal! It was so sweet haha. I can see why people get addicted to football, it was like the best feeling ever when I scored! And it tied the game up and sent it to penalty kicks so that was sweet too :) Learning Fante is pretty rough, but I'm doing my best. There are no books or anything so it's all oral pretty much. And the language is soooo subtle. For example, to say "I know you" you say minyim." To say "I don't know" you say "minnyim" holding the n for a split second longer. But it's coming.
Hope all goes well with school for H and all that is going great for you guys! Africa is still sweet and I'm loving life here! We got some burgers today and Elder Keller paid because it's his one year mark, so that makes you love life a little more :) Brother Pratt is cooking jollof rice and....octopus (!) for us on Thursday!
Elder Brown
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
August 16, 2010
Wapume?? Last week was a long week. It was good, but I'm definitely glad it's P-day. Nothing really got shaken up with transfers, our apartment is the same. We got new zone leaders, both from Kumasi, because one of the zone leaders, Elder Strong, went home last Tuesday, and the other one, Elder Hill got called to be the new AP. But other than that, our zone is pretty much the same. I'm officially done with my first transfer! And I just started using my second planner today...time flies haha.
So nothing too crazy happened last week. On Wednesday it rained ALL day. It just poured and poured and poured. The Buabins gave us some umbrellas to use but we really didn't even use them. We just got soaked instead! When it rains here, people stay inside all day. Moree looked like a ghost town while it was raining because no on was outside doing anything. They were all cooped up in their houses. It was still cool though, we got to visit a lot of people because they were all home! haha. Two of my favorite people to teach are Albert and David. Albert is about 16 and David is probably 14 or15. They have both been coming to church for a while, and now they're getting ready to be baptized. They're really tight kids.
I don't know if I've told you about Francis. He speaks perfect English so it's sweet to be able to teach him and actually understanding everything. Our lessons with him are usually an hour and a half, no matter what. He says the church makes perfect sense. He says he wants to be totally sure before becoming a Latter-day Saint, so he said it might take a while for him to make a decision to join the church. It'd be super sweet to come back and check on him if he's not a member ;) Eric had a dream he was getting baptized and confirmed, so he committed to baptism yesterday. Spiritual dreams are super common here. The area president said that all Africans just have a greater sensitivity to spiritual gifts like that, and so it's really common to get things like that. A guy here, I can't remember his name right now...had a dream about Thomas S. Monson before we even taught about him. He recognized the picture of him. He traveled for fishing season though we haven't seen him in a while.
I'm starting to like fufu. I had some at somebody's houseon Wednesday and it was soooo good. He made the most delicious soup ever with it. It's called light soup and it's basically just spicy tomato soup. Sooooo good. I ate so much haha.
So anyway, that's really it from the week. We've got zone conference tomorrow so that will be sweet.
So...
News on BYU football...who's the QB, what's the RB situation looking like, all that jazz. Any major injuries or newcomers? Give me a two-deep of offense and defense :)
Love you guys!
Elder Brown
So nothing too crazy happened last week. On Wednesday it rained ALL day. It just poured and poured and poured. The Buabins gave us some umbrellas to use but we really didn't even use them. We just got soaked instead! When it rains here, people stay inside all day. Moree looked like a ghost town while it was raining because no on was outside doing anything. They were all cooped up in their houses. It was still cool though, we got to visit a lot of people because they were all home! haha. Two of my favorite people to teach are Albert and David. Albert is about 16 and David is probably 14 or15. They have both been coming to church for a while, and now they're getting ready to be baptized. They're really tight kids.
I don't know if I've told you about Francis. He speaks perfect English so it's sweet to be able to teach him and actually understanding everything. Our lessons with him are usually an hour and a half, no matter what. He says the church makes perfect sense. He says he wants to be totally sure before becoming a Latter-day Saint, so he said it might take a while for him to make a decision to join the church. It'd be super sweet to come back and check on him if he's not a member ;) Eric had a dream he was getting baptized and confirmed, so he committed to baptism yesterday. Spiritual dreams are super common here. The area president said that all Africans just have a greater sensitivity to spiritual gifts like that, and so it's really common to get things like that. A guy here, I can't remember his name right now...had a dream about Thomas S. Monson before we even taught about him. He recognized the picture of him. He traveled for fishing season though we haven't seen him in a while.
I'm starting to like fufu. I had some at somebody's houseon Wednesday and it was soooo good. He made the most delicious soup ever with it. It's called light soup and it's basically just spicy tomato soup. Sooooo good. I ate so much haha.
So anyway, that's really it from the week. We've got zone conference tomorrow so that will be sweet.
So...
News on BYU football...who's the QB, what's the RB situation looking like, all that jazz. Any major injuries or newcomers? Give me a two-deep of offense and defense :)
Love you guys!
Elder Brown
Monday, August 16, 2010
Fun picture- 8/16/10
Griffin sent this picture with his letter from this week (which I will post later). Here he is doing laundry with his companion:
August 9, 2010
So, the week was pretty sweet, we got a new guy in the apartment on Tuesday. Elder Wiah from Liberia. He's really tight. He's like 6'4" and really chill. He's pretty quiet but he's really cool. We had to go to a bus station in Cape Coast on Tuesday to get him. So he's companions with Elder Keller now. A while ago we randomly me this guy named Eric. We were teaching someone on their front porch and he just came u and sat down and listened for like a minute and left. He doesn't speak any English, but we told him we'd come teach him some time. So we teach him on Wednesday, not thinking he was super serious or anything. We taught him about the Restoration. Then he said he's been to every church in Moree except the Latter-day Saints and he'd never found the truth. It was pretty sweet. He came to church on Sunday that was sweet too. He's got nine kids, four sets of twins and one single! Crazy! So hopefully all goes well with that.
There's this guy in the ward that's so sweet, Nana Kofi. He just joined the church a little under a year ago. He's probably like 80 or 90. His wife died not too long ago, so he's super excited to go to the temple in September. We visit him a ton just because he's so cool. We pass by his house every day, and he's always just chillin in the window, and when we come by he pumps his fist in the air and gives the sweetest toothless smile ever. The only English he knows is "How are you" and "I'm quite fine sir." So sweet.
I got to do my first baptisms on Saturday. They were people some sisters taught, and they asked us to run the baptism. So since I haven't done it before, I got to baptize. It was pretty sweet. I wasn't very good, but I didn't drown anybody :) It was a mom and three kids, so it was really cool. Me and Elder Adams have a baptism scheduled in a few weeks, so we'll be busy preparing some people for that in the the next few weeks. It's gonna be in the ocean! It'll be sweet.
Anyway that's the big news of the week. We went to Takoradi today to play football against the combined Takoradi and Sekondi zones. We beat em 5-3. Takoradi is about an hour and half west of Cape Coast. This week is the last week of my first transfer! People will find out about transfers today, so I could get transferred but...I'm not. haha. Our zone will get shaken up a little bit though because both our zone leaders are leaving. One is going home and on is becoming AP. So we shall see. I didn't eat anything too funny this week...just eating a lot of rice, egg sandwiches and Gari. I had some banku that was suuuuper spicy. I had it when I was getting sick and it made my nose run so bad. I like Banku though, it's pretty good. It's like fufu but it's made out of corn and casava instead of just casava. The food is so spicy here, I love it. I got a package from Greg and Mindy today, stocked with candy :)
Well mission life is going great! Couldn't ask for more!
I heard Shaq went to the Celtics, that's weird. Let me know how its going as college football gets ramped up again. Thanks for everything! And remember, always stay fresh! :)
Elder Brown
There's this guy in the ward that's so sweet, Nana Kofi. He just joined the church a little under a year ago. He's probably like 80 or 90. His wife died not too long ago, so he's super excited to go to the temple in September. We visit him a ton just because he's so cool. We pass by his house every day, and he's always just chillin in the window, and when we come by he pumps his fist in the air and gives the sweetest toothless smile ever. The only English he knows is "How are you" and "I'm quite fine sir." So sweet.
I got to do my first baptisms on Saturday. They were people some sisters taught, and they asked us to run the baptism. So since I haven't done it before, I got to baptize. It was pretty sweet. I wasn't very good, but I didn't drown anybody :) It was a mom and three kids, so it was really cool. Me and Elder Adams have a baptism scheduled in a few weeks, so we'll be busy preparing some people for that in the the next few weeks. It's gonna be in the ocean! It'll be sweet.
Anyway that's the big news of the week. We went to Takoradi today to play football against the combined Takoradi and Sekondi zones. We beat em 5-3. Takoradi is about an hour and half west of Cape Coast. This week is the last week of my first transfer! People will find out about transfers today, so I could get transferred but...I'm not. haha. Our zone will get shaken up a little bit though because both our zone leaders are leaving. One is going home and on is becoming AP. So we shall see. I didn't eat anything too funny this week...just eating a lot of rice, egg sandwiches and Gari. I had some banku that was suuuuper spicy. I had it when I was getting sick and it made my nose run so bad. I like Banku though, it's pretty good. It's like fufu but it's made out of corn and casava instead of just casava. The food is so spicy here, I love it. I got a package from Greg and Mindy today, stocked with candy :)
Well mission life is going great! Couldn't ask for more!
I heard Shaq went to the Celtics, that's weird. Let me know how its going as college football gets ramped up again. Thanks for everything! And remember, always stay fresh! :)
Elder Brown
Monday, August 2, 2010
August 2, 2010
Elder Brown playing frisbee with his zone near the Cape Coast CastleHello again! It definitely feels weird that its already August, but thats good I guess! This week was pretty sweet. Last P-day, right after we e-mailed, we heard about the only place in Cape Coast that has American food. I blew 11 cedis on two burgers and two orders of fries. It was soooooooooooo good it was ridiculous. Today we went to the beach, right by the Cape Coast castle, and played some ultimate frisbee. It was pretty sweet.
Anyway, so I did my first instruction at a meeting on Tuesday, at district meeting. I taught on chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel, Making and Keeping Commitments. One thing I don't think I've told you about yet that's different about Cape Coast mission is that we have something called the Promise Pattern. It's the first thing we'll ever teach to anyone. It's only like a 15-minute lesson, but we have to teach it to absolutely everyone we teach. Basically it just teaches about the importance of making and keeping promises. Its really sweet, President Sabey's such a stud for using it. I went on splits with Elder Chesa again on Tuesday. We went out to a place called Asieduthats in their area to teach a guy named Timothy. He committed to baptism, so that was sweet. He'll be baptized on the 14th of August. While we were out on splits, we were climbing some stairs up to an apartment to teach a lesson, and there was this cat sleeping on one of the stairs. I was like 6 or 7 steps below Elder Chesa, and I wasn't really paying attention to what Elder Chesa was doing. All of the sudden he calls my name, and being the crazy guy he is, he throws the cat at me. So I've got this cat flying at me and I just let it hit me in the fact and it just falls to the ground. Elder Chesa got quite a kick out of it. Thursday was pretty normal, too, the coolest thing was that we taught again (the guy whose wife died) and he committed to baptism. It was really sweet. And I saw a goat give birth. It was weird.
Saturday was a little different, we didn't do any proselyting. Our zone got to go play a football game against a recent convert's club team so that was cool. We thought we were gonna get killed like 8-1 or something, but it was only 3-1 haha. All the guys on the other team were telling me I was pretty fast for an abruni haha. Then later in the day we had interviews with President Sabey. The interview was really good, we just talked about getting used to the mission and stuff. President Sabey is so cool. Elder Chesa got transferred later that evening, so we've been with Elder Keller for little while, he's got a new companion coming tomorrow though. Sunday was pretty cool, since we were in a threesome, we decided to all split and go with a ward missionary to visit tons of people. We visited like 15 plus people in a couple of hours between us.
Other than that, the work is going great! We're going to grab a burger (or 3) today again. I had some weird food this week...cow skin. I'll just leave it at that. My favorite African food so far is still jollof rice, but banku is pretty good too. And I'm addicted to this stuff called Gari for breakfast. It's made out of ground up cassava (like a yam) and I put chocolate powder and peanuts in it, very good.
So everything is going good! Thanks for all the support, reading emails is so sweet, I got like 15 today, it was very nice :) The work is so sweet, I've really gotten used to how I need to teach and everything, and I'm really starting to feel comfortable. My testimony is growing everyday and I'm learning new things everyday. It's so awesome to be here, and I'm loving every minute.
Love you guys so much,
Elder Brown
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