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:

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!

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

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