Wednesday, December 22, 2010

December 13, 2010

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 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

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