December 26, 2011

Because we talked to Griffin yesterday, there wasn't a "real" email for today :)

December 19, 2011

As for the week, it was legit as usual, great experiences once again. The highlight was the baptism Saturday night, it was a way powerful baptism. The baptism was for Stavoca, as well as for Johnson. Stavoca has such a strong testimony, it is sweet. Every time we taught the days before the baptism, she was just so stoked for it. She has been telling all of her friends about the church, she is already calling it "her" church, it’s so tight. Then Johnson is just a stud young man who has a lot of potential. The baptism was really spiritual! We had it at 7 PM, so it was dark outside, and since we don't have an indoor font, we used our portable one outside. It is the Hamatan season right now - the season where sand from the Sahara blows down into the southern parts of West Africa, which makes it somehow cold at night. (Alright cold isn't very accurate, but let’s just say I don't sweat when I sleep!!!) So in the night it felt really good, probably in the 70s somewhere, and so when we all went outside for the baptism, it just felt so cool. Then, everyone was completely silent for the ordinances - usually there are babies crying or people whispering or whatever, but this one was completely quiet. So we had the stars overhead, and clear black night, and it was somehow cold, and the ordinances went off perfect! It was probably the most spiritual baptism I had. Walking back home after, Elder Speechly and I just had the biggest smiles on our faces and we just kept talking about how awesome everything is here. We both just couldn't stop talking about how much we love Africa... and it’s true, this place really is something. So that was the focus of the week, we were busy preparing them and making sure everything was ready the whole week, and then had a lot of good teaching in between as well. What else from the week.... everyone is travelling for Christmas... which stinks, but oh well. We will be super bust in January because all of our recent converts will come back. They have all either been gone or will be gone the next weeks, so January we will be busy working with them. I went on splits twice this week, Wednesday with Elder Robert (Nigeria) and Friday with Elder Iziegbeaya (Nigeria). I love splits because you get to know the other elders so much better. Obviously working with your companion is the most important, but being able to spend a whole day with them was great. They are both great missionaries. Both young on mission (Elder Robert 6 months, Elder Iziegbeaya 3) and they are both doing great. They both have great companions who are teaching them well. Had great days with both of them, taught a lot and found a lot of new people with them. Had 4 new investigators when Elder Iziegbeaya came - one of whom I contacted on Wednesday with Elder Robert, and he had read the entire Restoration pamphlet three times before we even came on Friday, and wanted a Book of Mormon the second we were there. It was a sweet lesson, have another appt with him on Tuesday, hopefully all goes well! Confirmations went great on Sunday, and everything is going along well. Oh yeah, had a sweet sweet meeting with Al-Sadat on Thursday. We are doing our best to meet all of the recent converts (all of the members! haha) every week to help continue to go strong, and so this week we had a good meeting with Al-Sadat. Anyway, all is sweet in Sunyani. We came to Kumasi today for a football match, it was at Kwamo. Got to see some of my old peeps. Elder Nathan is doing great. We are having our Christmas party on Friday, it’s gonna be sweet. Well my family, I love you and I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. Its going to be a great Christmas season here, I hope you enjoy in NYC, love you guys! Merry Christmas! Afehyia paa!!!! -Elder Brown Merry Christmas from Elder Brown to everybody in Tejas!!!!

December 12, 2011

Ayeekooooo. Man weeks just fly so fast here.... seems like every day is Monday and I am starting a new week! This past week was pretty crazy, just with going to Cape really. Left early Tuesday morning, made it to Kumasi around 10. Then waited with the Kumasi zone leaders for the STC bus. Our group of zone leaders up here is so tight: Elder Briggs (UT) and Elder Hernandez (UT) are the Bantama zone leaders. They are both really cool. Elder Alba (UT) and Elder Hailermariam (Ethiopia) are the Dichemso ZLs. Me and Elder Alba have been around each other our whole mission so we are pretty tight, and Elder Hailermariam is so tight. He knew Pres and Sis Andrus in Ethiopia, said he got an email from them last week. Then of course me and Elder Speechly. So we had a fun ride down. We had a super nice bus with these big leather seats that reclined super far, so it was pretty comfortable! Got to the mission home pretty early, like 5, and just got to chill the rest of the night with the assistants and Pres and Sis Shulz. Then we had ZL council in the morning. Talked about a lot of stuff, how we are coming along on our goals, how our efforts to have more gospel conversations with new people are going, and several other things. Then, headed back up to Kumasi. It took us fo eva to get back too because we took a different way, went through a gold mining town called Obuasi and ran into traffic. Didn't get back to Kumasi until like 7 so we had to stay the night at Bantama apartment. Slept on the floor in their living room. Also stopped by the Zoll's apartment to drop some stuff, love da Zolls!!!!!! They had a huge baptism this week for some people out in a tiny mission branch way far from Kumasi that hasn't had missionaries in like a decade. Some members there have been teaching people and finally got the ok to baptize them, so Elder Zoll was in charge of getting like 30 people out there baptized last Saturday. Finally got back to Sunyani Thursday morning. We are preparing two people for baptism this Friday. They were supposed to be baptized on Christmas, but they are both travelling for Christmas and want to be baptized before they go. The first is Johnson who I told you about last week, the other is a sweet lady that Joseph referred to us. She has really started to love the Gospel. She came to church like 3 weeks ago, and we have been teaching her since. Her daughter asked us for a copy of the children's hymnbook because she likes Primary so much. She is super super shy but is the cutest little girl ever, we should baptize her with her mom on Saturday as well. Saturday we were able to bust out a solid day. Had a few new investigators, met with the ones being baptized, and made a lot of new contacts. That’s like my favorite thing now, finding new people. Just talking to anyone and everyone to be able to let them know who we are. I never really contacted a lot my whole mission because we had people to teach and I would just go from appointment to appointment, but now we are way more focused on trying to talk to more people, it makes everything more exciting and fun. You never know who you might find! In the morning we fixed up the Bennet's old place because Pres and Sis Shulz were coming up, so they needed a place to sleep. They were coming up to check on Sunyani, do some temple and priesthood interviews, have a training meeting with the Branch Presidencies, and a meeting with the missionaries, oh and interview all the missionaries. Talk about a busy man...... I can't believe how much he goes through…there are 150 missionaries in our mission. So Sunday was cool, a lot of craziness with President being around, all of the members were excited. Our meeting was really really good. As I’ve said before, President is a very inspired man. He gave a sweet instruction about how important our message is, going deep deep into the plan of Salvation, about what it really is we are helping people to know, and then went into how we had to be the best we can to help people learn about that plan. After that instruction, I finally got to have an interview with President. It was really good. The work is not easy in Sunyani....and so it was just nice to sit down and talk about whatever and just know that you are appreciated by someone. He placed a lot of emphasis on my family and education. It was a sweet interview. Played basketball this morning with Elder Adams before he and his new comp - Elder Hair (Illinois) headed back to Cape, and now just enjoying my last moments of P-Day. Mission is sweet and great things are happening. I have gotten a lot of packages, one from Greg and Mindy and the Christmas box from you guys, and two envelopes from Grandma H. Crazy how close Christmas is. Love you guys, -Elder Brown

December 5, 2011

Maaaakyioooooooooooo!!!! Mpaakyew wapumtesen?!! Mennin se bibiara bohkoh. Life is cool in Sunyani town.... Sunyani is so tight. It’s not big by any means. The town center is busy, but you can walk from one side to the other in like 15 minutes. Kumasi was just gigantic, so it’s cool to have this smaller scale place to serve in. Before I forget, Happy birf to H!!!!! That’s crazy..... wowzers. Things are moving along huh?! As for this week deea... it was sweet! We had FHE with a family and it was tight, talk about delicious fufu!!! We played gospel pictionary with them. Funny what little games like that do!!! Sweetest thing about the week: I have become a reggae artist. Remember the recent convert who joined the church after meeting a member on FaceBook? Well, he turns out to be an aspiring reggae musician. I mentioned that I wanted to do a musical number for the party at Christmas, and he was like yeah, I want to too. So we decided to have a jam sesh and it was so tight! He is seriously good! He has got soul, which is all that really matters, especially in Reggae! So he plays the little drum thingy - a gimbay? - and I play the guitar and we both sing. We had like 4 jam seshs last week. Haven't had a serious jam sesh fo eva!!!! So it’s tight to be able to do that and it actually be ok for a missionary to do! So far we have a sweet version of The First Noel down, as well as Joy to the World and Angels We have Heard on High. We have even started to make good friendships with some of his rasta buds because of it (he was super rasta before he was baptized). One of my favorite people right now is a recent convert named Joseph. He recently saw the missionaries, called out to them, and completely changed his life. Now he has such a strong testimony, is doing his best to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, and is referring people to us left and right. hmm..... what else. Went out to a place like an hour outside Sunyani, called Berekum. It was a pretty big place, untouched by missionaries. It is about half the size of Sunyani I would say. It would be cool to go open that place up! We have some solid investigators that are progressing, have a baptismal date for Christmas with a guy named Johnson!! We'll have a white Christmas in Sunyani!!!! So, can't really think of much else. Serving in Sunyani is as awesome as ever. Tomorrow we go down to Cape for ZL council. I'll see my boy Nzuki!!! I love that guy. Probably the biggest thing I learned this week was something I talked about in my farewell talk, but this week it just rang so true. I read that quote from Ezra Taft Benson again, the one about how Christ changes people from the inside out, while the world tries to fix problems from the outside in. It’s crazy.... every day I walk through some pretty big problems that are just unsolvable. Poverty, societal problems, corruption, politics, etc. Some people get mad at us that we are trying to change people before we try to help with all of these big big problems that are around us. But that’s the thing.... Christ didn't come to the earth to fix all of the problems with human society. He came to change people, one by one, which then allows the world to change. It’s not about fixing all of the huge problems around us, it’s about helping people, one person at a time, to find happiness and righteousness and charity. Then the world can change. My man Tom Delonge said something like "if you change the world around you, you can change the world itself." Being in some hospitals this week, seeing some other problems, and having people say some things to me made me realize that this work really is the greatest work in the world, even if other people can't see it. We might not be erecting highways and hospitals and destroying poverty. But we are helping people bring themselves to a better state of being, one by one. So, the problems will always be there, but the gospel is still true. Love you guys!!! -Elder Brown

November 28, 2011

Ayeekoooooooo. Hope everything is cool in Tejas, it’s all hot here! Haha... I have been sweating like a mad man the last few days.... Crazy.... I weighed myself when I was at the mission home a few weeks ago... I was like 65 kilos or something. So my body hasn't really changed one bit! It doesn't matter how much I eat... at this point I probably lose like 2 kilos in sweat daily. So yeah, it has officially hit the dry season.... no more rainy season for me in Ghana. Just a dead sprint in the dead heat to the finish. But actually it rained this week once... really random. Anyway, the week was definitely a success. Monday night we met with Richard and by the end of the lesson, decided that baptism on Saturday was the right thing. He really really wanted to, so we told him we could meet every day and baptize him on Saturday! So he was the focus of the week. We also baptized two of President Owusu's kids on Saturday. Well they are not really his kids, but he calls them that. Their way they call "brothers", "sisters", "children", "mothers", etc. is much more broad than we do. Basically a cousin for us = a brother or sister for them. Any woman that could be your mother you can call your "maame" - pronounced somehow like "mommy". So if I address every woman I meet as "maame", I apologize... ‘tis a habit now! And any older man you can call "wofa" - basically means uncle. So anyway, the two kids are his nephew and niece. They have been coming to church forever and were begging to get baptized. Oh my goodness.... I just remembered.... So we did their interviews on Friday evening. Before the interview, President Owusu had us eat some fufu. The fufu was very nice... and then he put the meat in. I ate an eyeball. A real, rubbery, had been working that morning in the goat's head, eyeball. It was sweet! Haha... it was a cool experience. Elder Eldredge was with me doing the interviews and he refused to eat the other meat in the soup... the goat's hoof. So, that was probably the funniest part about that baptism! And again, Satan is a plumber. We combined our baptism with the Penkwase guys - Elder Brown and Elder Robert. We filled the font in the morning. And of course, when we got there, it had been leaking and was empty. So... we bucketed in water once again! I had to go get up on top of our reserve tank, lower a bucket down in, and pour it down like 12 feet into buckets for them to take and put in the font. But, we conquered the devil once again and everyone was baptized. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I guess I haven't told you. Our apartment is a lot like Kwamo, we live where we have church. We live in Penkwase where the branch meets there, and then go to Nkwabeng where our branch meets. Our chapel in Nkwabeng is where the Bennet's used to live. So we live in a pretty nice compound thing. Basically a small house with a big fence around it. The church is so young here..... wow. That’s probably my biggest source of stress.... knowing how young the church is here. And even though I have no real authority... I feel like so much rests on me. I feel like I have to do everything perfect… because so much is reliant on the missionaries. And of course as the zone leaders... we have to set the right example. So... it has made me be pretty strict on doing things right.... luckily Elder Speechly is keeping my head level. Anyway, life is cool all around. Last night we had a sweet experience walking back to the chapel to grab our bikes and ride home (we walk more now). It was dark, around 8, and the road we were walking on didn't have many lights. A guy came onto the road from one of the side roads leading off. We greeted him and he was pretty amazed that we were talking to him in Twi. That’s probably the best conversation starter there is, being able to show them we care about them enough to try to learn the language. So anyway, we got talking, he asked if we were students, then we introduced ourselves as missionaries. Told him a little bit about what we were doing, and said something like "we are here to help people who are searching for something more, who have questions about life". He answered "Like me". I kind of didn't know what to say, but then realized that he was one who really was searching for me. It was tight. So we have an appointment with him for Wednesday afternoon. His name was Samuel, he's a teacher. We watched "On The Lord's Errand" - President Monson's bio today for P-Day. It was sweet... makes you want to go out and just do everything right and have awesome experiences like he has. It’s hard to always do the right things.... more than hard I guess... but he is one to have a better hope that it is possible. So that’s about all from the week! I can't think of anything else I need right now... got some packages on Thanksgiving. One from Greg and Mindy - jampacked with mashed potatoes! It was a sweet Thanksgiving treat. As for Thanksgiving here... I had mashed potatoes and sausage. And Elder Speechly had some stuffing sent, so we enjoyed! Alrighty, well, I love you guys, thanks so much, I am vewy vewy thankful for all of you, and I am happy to be here where I am, doing what I am doing. Ennye easy koraaa, but it is sweet!!!! Love Elder Brown

November 21, 2011

Yo morning morning morning! I hope life is eyie paa for you guys, it is going on pretty well here. As always, it was a crazy week, but things seem to be settling down and the month should finish out pretty well. Transfer weeks are always a bit crazy, and getting a new companion shakes everything up a bit. Tuesday Elder Mapanje wanted to visit all of the recent converts and members and say goodbye… got some amazing fufu from the Mills family. I am starting to really really love fufu. Anyway... Wednesday morning we woke up early and took Elder Mapanje to the metro mass and sent him down to Kumasi in the bus. I paired with Elder Mathemba the rest of the day because Elder Speechly was coming from Cape Coast and wouldn't make it until Thursday morning. So me and Elder Mathemba had a good day together, watched conference in the evening with the members for their mid-week activity. Pretty good, I think it was the Sunday afternoon session, the one where everybody got sustained. I liked D. Todd Christofferson's talk a lot. Then Thursday morning we went to the bus station again to pick up Elder Speechly and Elder Mathemba's new companion, Elder Izeagbaya. Got back and did our weekly planning, and then Elder Eldredge came to do our baptism interviews. So Friday was the first full day proselyting with Elder Speechly and it was sweet. He's a stud missionary for sure…we got right down and got to work. Had 5 new investigators on Friday. We knew each other pretty well down in Cape - he served in Assin Fosu for 13 months, so we had some P-Day activities together and would meet up at zone conferences. He is a big joker, but knows how to get work done and when to be serious. Just a really lovable guy in general. He has definitely lightened me up quite a bit, and we are going to have a lot of fun over the next few months. Saturday the baptism went off without a hitch. Femi and Kelvin were baptized. There was a lot of support from members. Had a solid day of proselyting after. A cool lesson in the afternoon with some referrals from a recent convert, Joseph. He took us to some of his neighbors - Benedicta and Gifty - and they were really interested. In the evening we attended a baptism for the Penkwase elders - Elder Brown and Elder Robert. Then on Sunday we had part 2 of our baptism for one of our families. I don't think I have talked a ton about them, but they are cool. A while ago a guy introduced himself to Elder Mapanje and Elder Russell as a member, but had not been to church in years because the church was not in Sunyani. He was baptized in Accra in 2000. So we started meeting him and working with him, helping him to get activated a bit . He is a bus driver - shuttles workers to the gold mines on the outskirts of Sunyani - and is really really busy with that. So anyway he had us start teaching his three kids. They started coming to church and eventually wanted to get baptized. It was going to be Saturday, but he told us last week that he would be driving, so we pushed it to Sunday. Sacrament started and he wasn't there yet, as well as Sunday School. But then, one of the greatest moments I will have on my mission occurred! It was so tight, about half way through Sunday School, a huge bus pulls up outside the chapel, and out jumps the father, in a white shirt and tie, ready to witness his kids’ baptisms. It was awesome. The memory I will have of that huge bus pulling up outside the chapel will always be in my mind. Especially because like 3 minutes before it pulled up, I was asking myself if it would be could to baptize the kids without the father there, and I was praying pretty hard that he would show up. When I heard the noise of the brake on the bus, I knew my prayer had been answered! Definitely something I will always remember. After church I finished showing Elder Speechly around Nkwabeng, and taught some good lessons. Had a sweet lesson to finish the week with a guy named Richard. He is about 21, a student at Sunyani Polytechnic. We had been teaching him and not much had been happening, but he came to church yesterday, and then we met him on Sunday he said he wants to be baptized this very Saturday. It might be a little soon, but he really wants to because he will travel to Accra for the Christmas holiday and wants to be baptized before he leaves next week…we’ll see if he’s ready. Well that’s about it for the week. Things are sweet, mission is awesome, and it is very very very very very very very very hot here. Thanks for everything again, say Hi to everybody for me back in Denton! Love you guys, -Elder Brown

November 14, 2011

Maaaaaaaakyi. Ette sen?? Menim se eyie paa owo me fie nne, me do afa no paa!!! Anyway, I hope everything is going along great today. The work is moving along, had another crazy week.
So the week was crazy, but a lot of good things happened. Went down to Kumasi Tuesday morning (rode on the tro tro there by myself, it was scary!! jk of course, I am a big man now...) and met up with the other zone leaders there to ride down to Cape with the Assistants (Elder Adams is still an assistant). It was sweet being able to ride in the nice mission van with all of the guys - Elder Adams, Elder Alba, Elder Kouakou, Elder Briggs, Elder Tadeo, and Elder Clements. We got to Cape in the evening and had dinner there. Oh yeah! We pass by Moree Junction on the way to the mission home, so when we were like 100 yards from it, I mentioned to Elder Adams I hadn't seen the Moree chapel yet, and so he turned down Moree Junction so I could see the chapel! It was SO legit! The chapel is amazing. It is literally the first thing you see when you get to Moree, and the steeple just dominates that entire view... it is awesome, so so awesome. I can't believe that chapel is finished. The first chapel I helped build! It was so cool I got to see it.

So then we had zone leader council in the morning. It was really good. President is truly an inspired man. Over the last few months, the three main things I had personally been thinking I needed to work on to be more effective were (a) using Preach My Gospel a lot more and a lot better (b) how I used p-days, and (c) my appearance. Those three topics were three of the main things discussed, so it seems like that’s what the Lord needs for the mission as a whole.

Didn't get back to Sunyani until like 11 PM... it was terrible. We took an old rickety tro tro - probably meant for like 15 people, had probably 22 or so on it - from Kumasi to Sunyani. And then early the next day had to take care of some issues... being a zone leader is... well... fun. Went on splits to Estates the first day we were back. Elder Mathemba is tight. He is from Zimbabwe, we had a fun day of teaching together. Taught a sweet family. They were baptized a few weeks ago. We taught them about temples and eternal marriage, they had already learned a lot about it, when I asked them if they would prepare themselves to go to the temple to receive their endowments and be sealed as a family, the father said "Elder, you don't understand, it’s not a question of if we want to go, just of when! I am ready to go this very second! And you better believe next October I am going to be there the first day I can!" It was pretty tight. We don't baptize a lot of people we contact here, but this family was an old-fashioned tracting contact, so it’s cool to see the fruits of that work. Elder Mathemba and his trainer, Elder Vancherie, knocked on their door in August.

Found out my new companion on Saturday. My new companion is... Elder Speechly. I have probably mentioned him before, we knew each other pretty well in Cape. He is so tight and so funny, the next few months are going to be a blast. He goes home in February, so I will probably be his last companion. He is from Ogden I think. He is a funny funny guy... hopefully he will keep me lightened up! He has served in Sunyani before, so he is happy to come back I think. Elder Mapanje is going to Obuasi, a new area south of Kumasi. He will be opening up the area with the guy he is training and another companionship. He is excited, but sad to leave Sunyani. Been here 11 months. He gave a talk in Sacrament yesterday, pretty sweet.

As for other transfer news.... Elder Hernandez is going to Bantama to be a zone leader. Sounds like Elder Nzuki is finally leaving Moree, off to Swedru to be a zone leader there. Elder Rosquist is training AGAIN (3 times!!). Not much else really... well I guess there was a TON else - 31 new missionaries are coming on Wednesday - but since I am in Sunyani, no one knows me anymore and I don't know anyone else! So, I just stay here in my little corner of the mission and have the fun I can.

Welp, all is cool here. I got a bunch of mail when we went to Cape. Packages from you guys and G&G Brown, as well as letters from you guys, letters from both Gma H and G&G Brown, and some other peeps. Thanks everybody for sending me stuff, it makes everything cool! Our baptism on Saturday should go on as planned. Most excited for Femi, he is solid! Brought two friends to church on Sunday and gave the opening prayer to Elder's Quorum.

So, there is the report from Sunyani! Me and Elder Speechly have our work cut out for us! It’s gonna be fun. I started by saying how crazy the work is - and it is! - but this is the best work there is. It’s not easy koraaaaaaaa, but I love it. The reason is very very simple. Me and Elder Nathan were talking about the reason for a mission once... and I told him I knew exactly what it was. And I think I do. I told him to go look for it, bc it was described perfectly in a scripture. After one lesson where I read the scripture, he found it. And of course you know the scripture! It’s hanging on the wall at the church with my picture next to it! I love you guys, you are the best, and I know why I am doing all of this, thanks for helping me figure it out.

-Elder Brown

November 7, 2011

Life is pretty cool in Sunyani… Elder Hernandez and I are together for the day. Then tomorrow I will head down to Cape Coast with Elder Mapanje for zone leader council. So, should be fun again! This time the assistants are taking us, so it will be a very nice ride without any WWE playing the whole time. As for the week behind us, it was legit as usual. That’s what I have realized out here, that sometimes on Monday you look ahead to the week and wonder how anything productive is going to happen. You have no investigators, you are having different problems to work on but you just do the right things and at least one good thing will happen and the week will be a success. We are teaching this guy named Benjamin. We finished out the Restoration, he is reading the Book of Mormon pretty steadily, and started the Plan of Salvation. His only big concern is about why there is so much suffering in the world. We spent a couple hours over a few days basically talking about that question, and he seems to be getting small small every time we come. The Book of Mormon is so good to use with that (2 Nephi 2), so he is taking it in pretty well. Oh, he even asked us if we have Seventies in the church, so it was pretty cool to explain about how the church is organized. He promised he would come to church... Today we played football with some members. It is a holiday here today (Muslim) so they wanted a rematch versus some team they played a few weeks ago. So we teamed up with the members to play some other people, it was pretty fun. I realized though - bc we weren't just playing with other missionaries - that I am very very very very bad. Wish I was good at football... but oh well! Femi came to the match and was super into it - he is really a part of the branch now. He is committed for baptism the 19 November, so everything should go well with that. Oh, I just met a guy at the bus station who has been to Denton before! How sweet is that! He was a truck driver in the US for 6 years, lived in Tulsa. He even knew Owasso! And of course, he has been to Temple Square, so maybe there is a bit of potential there. His name was Abel, and lives somewhere in Kumasi, so hopefully the missionaries there meet up with him. We had a really good lesson with a family out in Odumase - a pretty busy village on the edge of our area - on Friday night. We hadn't met them in a little over a week, so it took a little while to get the lesson going. We explained about the Book of Mormon, focused on the Restoration, and by the end he was pretty excited to read. They are a sweet family and would be great to have as the church gets started in Odumase. They also promised to come to church.... As for someone who did come to church, a guy named Alfred, he is a sweet sweet guy. He is the friend of Al-Sadat. He came to church, in a suit, on Sunday and even bore his testimony, saying he knew it was the church for him and he just felt like there was so much more to learn here. We haven't gotten to sit down and teach him much - but hopefully this week we can. Al-Sadat said he wants to get baptized ASAP. I went on splits with Elder Obasi on Saturday and it was a really good experience. He is about 6 months out, from Nigeria, a very humble guy that wants to do what is right. We taught some great lessons while we were out there, President Sabey told me that I should pray for miracle when I go on splits with missionaries I am leading, and we definitely had some on Saturday. Had one lesson about the Restoration where the guy, Douglas, mos def felt the spirit super strong, and because I taught it a new way from what he had usually been doing, I could tell Elder Obasi learned a lot about what he could be doing as a missionary. It was sweet, splits are tough and sometimes you are a little unsure about how it might go, but this one was great! Well, time is short today, but everything is going cool! Thanks again for everything, the work is going great, Nkwabeng is progressing nicely and the members are learning well! My regards to everyone back in Denton! Oh one last thing. Got a call last night from Cosmos back in Kwamo. He got the Melchezidek Priesthood yesterday. It is just so fulfilling to hear of things like that happening. To think that 9 months ago I had no idea who Cosmos was, and now to know that he has received the Priesthood and has changed his life completely... it is something. Mission is something... The Gospel is something! And it is true, it for sure is true, and brings the real kind of happiness that everybody wants!!

Love, Elder Brown

October 31, 2011

Maadwo! Hope all is well in Tejas, things are pretty cool in Sunyani. We have had a pretty quiet P-Day today. I am really happy for quiet P-Days because those were non-existent in Kumasi! It’s nice to just have a day to rest and not worry about anything, just get ready for the week ahead. We were going to go to Kumasi today, we get to go for P-Day once every three months to have an activity with everybody there, but me and Elder Mapanje just wanted to stay back, rest, and get ready for the week ahead. As always it was a crazy week so we needed a rest! And going to Kumasi is the opposite of rest. That place... it is something! So today was spent cleaning, washing, and sleeping a little bit. It’s weird how relaxing cleaning can be now.... and to see everything looking nice and organized makes me really happy... guess I am growing up. As for last week, it was cool. A few moments where I wished that my calling to help the church grow was to just pull a handcart a few hundred miles into the desert and then have lots of kids, but as always, by Sunday night, everything was A-OK. Still not a lot of people to teach, so days are a wee bit long, but we are trying our best. We are getting better at teaching together, and members are really excited about the work, so things are sure to pick up quick. Plus, we do have a few solid people like Femi, who came to church on Sunday and is getting really involved. Whenever I feel a little down about not having tons of people to teach, I think back to my first few months in Kwamo, when we had no one! Not one!! Haha, so my faith is definitely strong in the aspect of that when you do everything you can do, the Lord helps you find people like Andrew and Cosmos and Eric and Anarfi and Mensah and the rest. So, we shall continue pressing forward! Tuesday night we had a good lesson with Femi. We are into the Plan of Salvation now, he started loving it from the start. Started with the Pre-Mortal existence and he was asking really good questions and was understanding really well. We had another good lesson with him Friday, he had really good questions about life after death, so we spent a while talking about that. I am definitely enjoying myself here, all of the new opportunities and experiences are teaching me so much. The places and people I have been around on my mission have been exactly what I need to become what I need to become, and Sunyani definitely isn't any different. Moree was hard, but you could find people to teach and there was a lot of members. Kwamo was a whole new ball game, really hard to find people to teach. Now Sunyani is a whole new thing. I thought it would be a lot like Kwamo, but it is proving to be a whole nother animal. Our branch president has been a member for 8 months! And our first counselor for 3! We get asked questions every day about how to run the branch... and um... I am 20 years old and have had callings such as Deacon's quorum president and Sacrament pianist. But… luckily I have seen a lot of things growing up, so I can offer a little bit of help. Elder Mapanje was the ward clerk in his branch in Zimbabwe before coming, so he gives a lot better input than me. I just try my best! We taught the 3rd hour of church yesterday. Trying to help our little branch understand a branch mission plan. We tried to help them see how we could get the number goal into names so we can find people to accomplish the goal. We explained a little bit about the auxilliaries working to find referrals from specific members. Hopefully understanding how prayer will help them, will let them think of future leaders and families that will help the church to continue the strong foundation that is being built here! Prayer is definitely the key in anything! Well guys, life is great here. Never easy, but it is great. You guys help me so much, when it’s been a tough week, everything is fine after emailing, thanks so much for everything. I got an email from Elder Nathan's parents, pretty sweet to hear from them. Elder Nathan seems to be doing really well in Kwamo. So... keep doing the great things you are doing and I will do my best too! As I always say, my testimony is growing every day and I am learning so much day by day, little by little. Having to figure things out for myself is letting me become a lot better in solving problems and becoming more effective in general. I am very very thankful for the experiences I have been given, since I was just a small small boy, that have made me who I am today and allowing me to become a little better. Even when the experience seem absolutely terrible when you are growing through them! It’s always hard to keep the eternal perspective, but I think I am getting better at that too :) I love you guys!!! Love, Elder Brown

October 25, 2011

Don't worry, I am ok! Haha, sorry for the late email. Yesterday we had a conference down in Kumasi, so today is our P-Day. The conference yesterday was pretty cool. Another Uruguayan General Authority came to visit us, Elder Eduardo Gaverret of the Seventy. It was an interesting meeting... he gave good instructions. The main thing we talked about was goals. Elder Gavarret made it clear that we need to have goals for our companionships, districts, zones, and the whole mission. The main thing I learned this past week is communication... getting used to a new companion. Elder Mapanje mentioned to Femi after our lesson that he had completed university before coming on mission, which I thought was pretty cool. Later that night I asked him about it and he said yep, he had finished Uni before coming with degrees in History and Philosophy. Pretty legit. Then I asked him what he wants to do after and he said he wants to get a Masters in International Relations! So of course that started some good conversation, which lasted the rest of the evening. He has great goals in life. It will be cool to see where he goes, he wants to be a diplomat or work at the UN. As for teaching, last week was very successful. Elder Mapanje and I have very different teaching styles but we are blending them into quite the harmony of abilities and skills. Our lessons with Femi, with Barnabas and Felicia, with the recent converts, and with some new people we contacted were really good. We still need more sweet investigators, but of course those come as you work hard and the Lord prepares people for you. Looking back at my first few weeks in Kwamo.... man I had NO hope!!! Haha, but things turned out, well, amazingly. So I have great faith the same will be true here. We will be doing a lot more contacting. So, I love you guys a ton. I am learning so much out here. I feel like every day is the first day of my mission. In Abraham 2 verse something it says that 'eternity was our rock and our salvation while we traveled in the wilderness'. That’s what I feel like out here, just traveling in the wilderness, things are happening every second that are teaching me about every little thing I need to know. Time is just such a weird concept on mission, it’s weird to think anything else is going on throughout the world! Just focusing on yourself, your companion, your missionaries, and your investigators causes you to understand things a lot better. So anyway, you guys are awesome, thanks for everything, and stay strong! The Church is true, God loves us, and Jesus is most definitely in charge. Love you guys!!!!! Elder Brown

October 10, 2011

Morning morning, fine morning. How is life?! Good? Good. Life is pretty good in... Kwamo. I mean Sunyani. Man it’s still weird I am not there! But in all honesty, it’s not. Haha, if that makes sense. Anyway, the week was cool. Transfer weeks seem like the absolute longest weeks of human existence, but it was cool. Wednesday, Eric came to pick me up to take me to the metro mass station, pretty cool to have your recent convert drive you to the bus station when you are transferred. Sammy tagged along too, I love that kid. He wanted to learn how to play the keyboard, but obviously he has no one to teach him now. I found him a book that you can teach yourself with, and I gave that to him the day before I left. He started crying when I gave it to him... it was tough! Leaving Kwamo was tough. Basically spent Sunday to Tuesday visiting people, saying good bye, and was still able to teach some good lessons. Then woke up early Wednesday, caught the earliest bus to Sunyani, and was there by 11. Elder Mapanje was there to pick me up at the station. He is a sweet guy, he is from Zimbabwe and has been in Sunyani for like 10 months now. I am replacing Elder Russell (Seattle), they had been companions for 10 months. Wowzers. It is weird having a companion that is not new. For 7 months I have been training. I just want to do everything I want to do... but they have been doing things a certain way, and I just can't come in and change things. SO it’s cool learning new things. We ride bikes. A LOT. Which I have never done on mission before. I like walking. Sunyani (pronounced "soon" as in the very near future - "yani" as in one of the greatest musicians of our time) is a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet town. MUCH different from Kumasi. It is very quiet, very relaxed. Still a lot of people. Just not very congested. There are no trotros, only taxis. It is the cleanest city in Ghana! Our area is called Nkwabeng. We live in Penkwase, and have to ride bikes every day to our area. Last week, Pres Shulz came up here and organized all of the groups into branches, so that is nice. Almost everyone has been baptized since last year September. And we had 46 people at church on Sunday. Elder Russell and Elder Mapanje have done some great work, I am excited to keep it up. Man there is just so much to write about! Our teaching pool isn't as big as it should be right now, so we have got some work to do. But we at least have one sweet investigator, Femi. He is from NIgeria, here on business. He is a referral from Hassan, and came to church on Sunday. We have taught him about half of lesson 1, and we are going to teach him again tonight. Also two families. The recent converts here are pretty good about giving referrals, it’s just that there aren't many members!! Haha. So I will probably have a lot of contacting ahead of me again. The church is so young in Sunyani it’s crazy. So it’s pretty cool to be in a new place again, see how it grows. One of their recent converts is named Al-Sadat. He is half Egyptian, half Ghanaian. Well, like I said, there are a billion things I could write about, but as always... time is short. Long story short, transfers are tough, but things are cool. The missionaries are awesome up here, very obedient, very hard working. I get to go to Cape Coast tomorrow for zone leader council. I will be on a bus ALL DAY tomorrow. Oh well.. haha. Go Rangers! And congrats again to Hayden! Love you guys, -Elder Brown Send my regards to everybody in D-Town!!!!

October 3, 2011

Good to hear from everybody as always. Sometimes you just get so wrapped up in everything out here, you wonder if there is anything else going on…And so the awesome emails always keep me sane :) Welp.... I am off. Wednesday I leave Kwamo. President called Saturday night, I am going up to Sunyani to be with Elder Mapanje, we wil be the zone leaders up there. I am pretty excited to go up there. Sunyani is going to be an awesome place, everybody that has served there has loved it. It’s funny though, with the transfer, all I wanted to do was serve in a ward or branch...and in Sunyani.... all of the units are groups. 4 units, all mission groups - not even branches yet. About 80 total members in all of Sunyani. The missionaries conduct Sacrament meeting, and the zone leaders, along with the couple missionaries that are there, are the ones in charge of training the future leaders of the groups. So anyway, I am excited for it. It will be tough leaving Kwamo. Yesterday was tough. But, it’s all going to be sweet! The last week in Kwamo was awesome, we saw some great success. I had been worried about leaving Elder Nathan with a little bit of a thin teaching pool, the hardest thing when you are training (.... I had 0 investigators when I started with Elder Timothy....) so we wanted to be able to fill the teaching pool with a lot of serious people so he could teach the new guy well. And you don't just wake up one morning and say "I am going to find serious investigators" and they come. Haha. But, as I have learned before, when you commit to do something the Lord has said, and you put your trust in him by doing every little thing he has asked you, he provides. Saturday we taught a guy named Kwabena. He had come to church a few times with his friend, who we have been teaching, but we had never been able to pin him down to teach him. Saturday we had an awesome lesson with him, and at the end of the first lesson, he committed to be baptized 15 October. The night before, we taught a guy for the first time who me and Elder Thompson had met in Ejisu while we were together on Wednesday. He said that he is a "seeker" - he wants to find the truth. It was sweet because we met him on Wednesday morning, and invited him to mid-week (an activity all of the wards/branches... groups ;) do here - basically like mutual for the whole ward) that night. We didn't know it actually wasn't happening bc Bro. Timothy was out of town, but he showed up at 7 for it, and no one else was there. He called us and was like "I am at your church, no one is here". So obviously he is very serious! We taught him Friday and he came to church with his girlfriend on Sunday!!!! Pretty awesome!!! I was worried that we might have a thin teaching pool, but I leave Kwamo with 9 people who came to church yesterday for Elder Nathan, a dozen progressing investigators, and 8 investigators with baptismal dates. So I guess that’s pretty deep. Well, time is finished. A lot of more awesome stuff from the week, but I gotta get going. I love you guys so much. Things are great here... sometimes I have to laugh about the struggles I have... because the people I have taught here, everything has happened has been so amazing. So I am excited to go see that happen in another place. I love you all!! -Elder Brown

September 26, 2011

Bummer. Friday night we were teaching... The phone starts vibrating in my pocket and without looking my first thought was "Its president.... transfers". I look down at the phone, and I was correct I saw "Pres Shulz" on the caller id. So we call him back at the end of the lesson, and... It he tells Elder Nathan that he is going to be training a new missionary next transfer (a week from this coming Wednesday). So... it looks like my days in Kwamo are few. Bummer. How can I leave this place? In all honestly... this was why I came on a mission. So, I will do my best getting psyched up to go to a new place, with a new comp, doing a new thing. Just don't know where I am going yet. The reason we found out so early is because they are going to be having a special training meeting for all the trainers in Cape Coast on Wednesday. So Elder Nathan gets to shoot down to Cape Coast tomorrow morning, I will be with Elder Thompson, from Orem. He is going home next week, so it will be cool to spend a couple of days with a seasoned vet, learn some stuff from him. Heck I haven't been with a guy older than me on mission for like 10 months. Crazy. So this week will be pretty tough. Hopefully I can just go to work, make sure Elder Nathan has plenty of people to teach, and teach him a few more things so he can be prepared to train this early in his mission. Training after 3 months? Wowzers. He is in for something else :) So anyway.... The work in Kwamo is going on well. We have a lot of investigators right now. They love what we teach... we’re just working on commitment. So I decided to study ch. 11 in Preach My Gospel (Help people make and keep commitments) and I can already see a difference in our investigators' progress. Henry kept both of his commitments the rest of the week (still didn't come to church... but next fo sho :). A lot of our new investigators realized we were serious in teaching from the get go because we were doing little things like asking them to write down their commitment so they don't forget, and informing them that we would like to come to see them daily to make sure they are keeping their commitments. Which... is what Preach My Gospel was trying to tell me to do for the past... well you know how long. So anyway, Preach My Gospel is pretty incredible and every missionary needs to actually read it. And read it before they come on a mission (Hayden). Sweetest thing from the week: We were able to teach the family we’re working with on Tuesday - we are finally really really preparing for her baptism - and had a good lesson. We scheduled another appointment for Thursday, but that fell through. But it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We knew that because we had not been able to teach her the night before church, it would be a true test to see if she would come to church with no one's encouragement, completely on her own accord (Her husband was out of town, and her phone was off, so we couldn't even call to make another appointment or remind her about church or anything). After Elder Nathan and I went through our plans for the day before church started, we prayed that she would be able to come to church with the kids, on her own, without any encouragement from anyone. She was a little late... but she came, all by herself, with her kids along with her. It was a perfect day at church too, investigators class was perfect. She had Lizzy, our recent convert, sitting next to her, then another sister also in the class helping out, and the class was taught by Daniel (just baptized 22 Aug). The father will be out of town this week, so we are going to move the baptism to 8 October - who knows where I will be :( So anyway, everything works out the way it should, and it shows that she will be able to stay active and progress in the gospel. Welp, sorry it’s a bit shorter today, time is short. We played dodgeball and touch football - as in REAL football :) - today. It was way fun. Everything is awesome! You can make a guess about where I might be going next week... You guys are the best, I love you so much! Good luck in everything you are doing and thanks for everything you are doing!!!!!! Love ya, Elder Brown

September 19, 2011

Morning! Just a good day out in Kumasi, no craziness with transportation, because we decided not to go into to town today, nothing really to do there. We took a quick trip to Asokwa to pick up our subsistence, but now we are just back doing the normal things in Kwamo. Actually out at Ejisu right now, it’s the biggest town in our area, about 25 pesewas on a tro tro to the east down the Accra road. It’s the only place with an internet cafe in our area. Anyway, this might have been the fastest week of my mission. They are really just flying by now, it’s crazy. I am doing my best just to figure about time and just go to work every day. I honestly have to think about how long I have been out here if someone asks me. I always just say ".... me ba Ghana dada dodo.". Haha, meaning, I have been in Ghana for too long. But of course it hasn't been too long at all! Things are going great in Kwamo. It’s weird to have been in my first two areas for so long. I honestly feel like I have talked to everybody in Kwamo, so finding new investigators is tough. I would guestimate that Kwamo has no more than 3,000 people in it. There are some other villages around yeah, but it’s hard to get out there, so we normally stay in Kwamo. Kwamo is small. Like... really small. Kwamo itself would be like, a little bit bigger than Oaks of Montecito. Probably about the size of Forrestridge or something. Often when something goes wrong... go find Elder Brown!!!. Like yesterday, I was teaching the youth Sunday School class. As I was teaching, a sister bursts open the door, "Elder Brown! Bra bra!!! Nyimpa bi se yare paa! Bra bra bra!!!" A girl was feeling sick and had gone to another room to get some space. She was just sitting there, shaking, obviously very sick, and no one knew what to do... so they call Akwasi Poku... aka Elder Brown. They wanted her to go to the hospital, but she didn't want to go. Apparently they thought I could talk her into going.... I had no idea what to do either... she was shaking so much, I was just like.. ummm, is it malaria? No idea what to do or say haha. Then I just had someone bring some pain pills, and then me and Elder Nathan gave her a blessing. It helped her out... but then she threw up. Eventually someone took her to the hospital, and I think she is ok. It’s cool to have such a big effect on the people here. As for proselyting, it went on well this week. We have a ton of investigators right now. We do a lot of walking because people always fail their appointments. And like I said, I feel like I have talked to everyone in Kwamo, so going out contacting is not as productive as it used to be. We continued our farming this week. My hands are torn up. I will send you a sweet pic next week, I look like a real man ;) Haha. Just call me Farmer Brown. Our farmer friend/investigator is keeping me going. As long as I can always have one sweet investigator, things are ok. He is the next Eric. In fact, we took Eric to teach him with us yesterday, they live really close to each other. He has progressed so far. His baptism is set for 1 October, and he is super excited for it. Taught him about tithing last night, he is set to do some great things! His wife doesn't speak English, and since we can't really teach in Twi, it makes it difficult to make her feel comfortable with learning from us... but I have faith it will work out! I will just have to be more dedicated in progressing to be able to teach in Twi. Ennye easy koraaaaaaaaaa! But I will do it :) His son comes to church with him though. He is 11, and is making friends with the young men, already excited to be able to pass the Sacrament and such. Told us the other day that he wants to be a missionary one day, I am sure it will happen, he is a serious kid. So this investigator is awesome, and is my golden guy right now. Josephine is doing well too. She is just a veryyyyyyyyyy busy mom. Her husband is so busy with his business that she is always all over the place doing things for him, for the kids, and a lot of other stuff. She is still committed for her baptism, I am just hoping we can pin the family down enough to be able to teach her everything. The testimony is mos def there, but we haven't been able to teach any of the commandments yet. So this family will be our focus for the rest of the transfer. It will take some work, we will probably have to be a little bit of a nuisance, but it needs to happen. The Zolls are doing well to help them learn the ins and outs of being a busy business man and family, and being able to use the Gospel to the fullest. We will have to work hard, but I am sure she will be able to be baptized on 1 Oct. We will be doing our best! Elder McFarland and Elder Larsen had a baptism on Saturday, always nice to help out with that. We had three investigators come to see it. The members are taking the ward mission plan super seriously, it’s pretty tight. Guess what the goal they set for the rest of the year is.... 23. Wowzers! Going for the big 2-3, inspired by MJ I guess. So that means that we have to baptize 23 people before 1 Jan. That’s a lot. But, if the members are serious, why not?! So now we gotta revamp the teaching pool. Elder Nathan is doing really well, the group is doing well and mission is going along great. We are going to head out to a village called Bonwire to check out their Kente stuff after this. It is where all of the Kente for Asante region is made. So it’s a pretty cool town. Welp, I love you guys!!!! Mission is awesome, just doing the small small things I can do. Congratulate Ben for me, and say hi to everyone else that is awesome back in Denton 2nd ward. Aka, everyone! Love you guys.

-Elder Brown

September 12, 2011

Morning morning morning. Its morning there right? Yeah I guess so... it’s like 2 here so it’s what.... 8 there? Idk really haha. Anyway, life is going on well in Ghana land. Played a nice full pitch football match this morning out in Bantama. Transportation in Kumasi is RIDONKULOUS. ABSOLUTELY RI-DONK-U-LOUS. Left the apartment at 7:50.... arrive at Bantama 9:20. Kwamo to Bantama is about the distance equivalent of maybe.... our house to the square. Maybe a little longer, but still. Holy guacomole. Our whole p-days are just wasted on tro tros. So when you get frustrated with traffic on loop 288 (is that still there) just think about Elder Brown, sweaty and packed into a van with 15 other people with the sun beating down, trying to make it safely to the other end of town :) Haha. But it’s all good though. Tro tro rides are fun. I hope I get to see you guys take a tro tro some day.... would be quite an adventure ;) Welp, the week was pretty legit. Nothing too special happened, just solid missionary work. The best part of the week was the progression of one of our investigators, the one who got up and bore his testimony last week. We told him we would come help him out at his farm this week, so we grabbed our cutlasses and trekked out to his corn field early Wednesday. Turned out he needed a lot of help. He hadn't been able to plant the corn at the right time because of some complications, so he planted it as fast as he could without spraying the field with pesticide to get rid of the weeds. So we had to go and rip out all of the giant weeds on the corn field. We did it for like 5 hours on Wednesday, then another 5 hours on Friday, and we have probably only gotten about 25% done. So we have got more work to do this week! Farming is really cool though. Just relaxing to be out there, doing something that doesn't really require much brain effort, and just work hard. We used pick-axes to rip out weeds.... ‘twas a serious work out. So we did that for him twice in the week, then taught him on Saturday night. We were on splits with some ward missionaries (well actually, recent converts ;) Anarfi and Mensah) and me and Mensah had a great lesson with him. Basically talked about how church has made him feel. Said that it is adding a lot of understanding to his life and that it makes him feel good. We were able to teach about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring us Salvation, that The Bible and The Book of Mormon are testaments of that, and that it has been restored in its fullness to the earth through a prophet today, and the Spirit was able to teach him it was true. I told you about the first time he came to church right? That the night before we asked him to pray to know that what we taught him was true, and that we wouldn't expect to see him at church until he received an answer for himself. He was at church the next week. Pretty sweet! He brings his son, Ezekiel to church with him, so there is great potential there!!! Hmm.. what else from the week. Uh huhhhh, !!!! So Thursday, Elder Nathan and I were sitting in our weekly planning session, and we get to one of our families. We just sit there trying to figure out what to do. We had tried to call them either the night before, or that morning or something, and they hadn't picked up. So we are sitting there, and we are talking about them, and just come to the conclusion that they have to be our biggest focus right now. We were trying to figure out how we could help them the best, when at that very moment, the phone rings! Guess who it is? President Shulz telling me I am getting transferred to Burkina Faso! Just kidding. It was Josephine!! She told us that she wanted to meet that night. We invited the Zolls to come as well, bc they taught her with us that one time and loved her, so they tagged along. Luckily Charles was also there and we had a great discussion with them. First, Charles was wondering about tithing, so it was perfect to have Elder Zoll there with us, a fellow big business man, to talk about the blessings of tithing, how to pay it, why to pay it, all that, and Charles was convinced by the end. Then, for Josephine, we taught about the Sabbath Day. It is hard for her to come to church because Charles is always travelling, and coming to church on her own with three young kids is tough. But again, it was perfect that the Zolls were there, bc Sister Zoll could talk about how hard it is to go to church when the husband is travelling, but why it is so important, and how it will bless us so much. So all in all the lesson was perfect. And to end, the Zolls showed a Mormon messages video thingy from Neil L. Anderson, about how "You Know Enough". ‘Twas perfect. And then Josephine had made us stir fry with chow-mein noodles. Stir-fry? STIR-FRY?! Isn't that what I used to hate growing up?! Holy guacomole.... times have changed. Times have changed. Or I guess living in Ghana eating nothing but eggs and bread and rice and cassava does that to ya. Wowzers. Then we go to teach her again on Saturday. The Zolls came again. It had been forever since we had just simply read the Book of Mormon with her, so we read Alma 32, and again, it was great! Then at the end, the Zolls showed another Mormon Messages thing, this one about the temple. It was so sweet.... man.... the temple..... I love da temple. I haven't seen a temple in well, you know how long. The video was perfect, bc the Zolls explained about how right now her faith is small like the seed in Alma 32, that one day it will be knowledge as she understands the blessings that temple covenants provide for us. Pretty sweet. She promised to come to church on Sunday... and she did! Along with her 3 kids. Church yesterday was interesting. So Last Tuesday we had our first zone conference with President Shulz. It was sweet, talked a lot about how to train a new missionary. Because there are at least 45 new missionaries coming into our mission before 1 January. Wowzers. Our mission is going to be so much different. Elder Adams told me that there is another Elder Brown coming, this one from Florida. So we will have 3 Elder Brown's in GCCM. I will be the grandfather of them all! How sweet would it be if I got to train Elder Brown? Let me answer.... ummmm, so sweet???? I think it would be cool just to train for the rest of my mission. Every two transfers just get a fresh dude and train him up the right the way. That would be pretty cool. But we shall see what the Lord has in store! Anyway so we talked about that, but then at the end talked about our new mission goal. President Shulz wants all of the wards to develop a ward mission plan. Now the members are like WAY excited about missionary work, should be fun to see what happens with it. It’s going to be a cool goal. I got sick over the weekend, not fun koraaa!!! Some bad chicken I ate on Friday. But, was still able to proselyte, just not very fun! Glad the Cougs at least put up a good showing against Texas, too bad they lost, but oh well. Seems like the team should be ok. Hopefully I can hear the cheers all the way in Kumasi on Saturday :) My regards to everybody in D- Town. Love you guys!!!

 -Elder Brown Pics

Kwamo group (I got to take pictures during church a few weeks ago to send to the Apostles. Pretty sweet huh?)

Macbeth ad. I mean, farming… and eating raw plantain (not very good

September 5, 2011

Glad to hear the ol' Cougs got the season started off right, even if it was a little shaky. A win against in SEC on the road team is something to think about. Have fun in Austin this weekend. I can't believe its football season again. I mean wowzers... where has the time gone.

Well today has been a unique P-Day. President Shulz is changing things up a bit, now we won't be having a P-Day activity every week like we have been. Every first Monday of the month, we will deep clean our apartments. So, that’s what we did all this morning. Honestly, I enjoyed it haha. Cleaned EVERYTHING and now our apartment is as fresh as can be. Cleaning out the fridge was... gross. But all is good :) Your son might be living in the cleanest missionary apartment in the world. And it has a baptismal font in it.

We had a combined district meeting last Tuesday to get some info from the zone leaders about some stuff. Like I said, President Shulz is changing things up a bit, which is going to help us out a lot. It’s always nice to get together with everyone from the zone, and of course, the Zolls always bring FanIce (ice cream). The rest of the day proselyting after that wasn't too successful. Almost every appointment failed, and one that did didn't go as well as we would have hoped. We have been teaching a family…they are pretty cool and have liked our teachings, especially the father, he even said he wanted to be baptized. We will pray for the best.

Oh yeah, I know how to cook now. Like, really well. I can make tomato stew like nobody's bidness and cook up beans like I am from downtown Mexico City. So I guess that’s really not much, but hey, it’s ok right?

Wednesday we got to go out to a part of our area we had never been to before. There is a fairly big town called Juaben about 20 minutes out from Kwamo; there is one member that lives there, but we had never been out there. On the way to Juaben is a small village called Bonwire (pronounced Bone-wee-eh) that is the main place in Asante region where they weave Kente cloth. The Zolls needed us to show them out there and so we got to ride out there with them. It is a pretty cool little village. Kente is everything! I got a sweet Kente tie, and I am gonna go back on a P-Day sometime to buy some more. You can design them
yourself, so I am gonna draw up some sweet designs :)

Earlier in the day, we had been in Ejisu and had two sweet lessons. One was with a guy we contacted by the taxi station there named Wiradu. He is student at UST, and we had a great lesson with him. He said he was Christian, but he didn't attend any church because
he was just too confused by all of the different sects of Christianity. So we talked about the Restoration and ended up giving a Book of Mormon to him. Taught him again later in the week, and it went great again. Wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but we will meet
him this week and he said he could come next Sunday. Then after him, we went to an appointment with a guy we contacted last week named Adolf. We had a nice discussion, he had heard a lot about the church, not all good things, but he said he doesn't believe them, and even had a friend that is a member. We came back on Wednesday for our appointment and had a good discussion. He had read all of The Restoration pamphlet we had given him, had understood it well, and had good questions about it all. He ended up being concerned that we were too busy trying to teach people about the Restoration and weren't focusing enough on teaching people about Jesus. Sure he has a fair point, but we told him in our first meeting that our purpose is to help people come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And that can only effectively come when people understand the Restoration. We had a good lesson and eventually helped him realize exactly what we were there to do - teach HIM, what HE needed at that time. Obviously he already knew about Jesus Christ, so all we needed to do was fill in the gaps of how to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ to its fullest. All in all it was a good lesson, and he promised to read, ponder, and pray more.

Thursday we walked so much. Out to Tikurom, out to Fumesua, and then to the far side of Kwamo. We were pooped at night. Two great things happened though. First, we walked out to Tikurom even though we hadn't seen our investigator there for over a week, and couldn't reach him on the phone. He told us he would be in the house all week, and we knew we needed to go see him, even if we had to walk that far. So we walk all the way out there... and he's not there. It was a little discouraging, but as we started to walk back from Tikurom, we met him getting out of a taxi, and he was very happy to see us. His name is Yaw; we’d only taught him once, but he was way prepared for the message of the Restoration and so we had to make sure we didn't let him slip through our fingers. We discussed small, but the funniest part was that he asked us about The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Haha, so we are going to bring him a CD to listen to this week. He said he was going to come to church on Sunday, but alas, it did not come to pass.

Second great thing was that we found one of our families in the house. It’s been like...over a month since we have seen them. She was so happy to see us, she made us sandwiches :) She was the one who had lived in Ohio for a couple of years. We caught up a little, and then
made another appointment for the next day. She asked us a little about tithing, and then mentioned how she had been thinking a lot about how her baptism needs to happen soon. Hopefully we don't have any month layoffs again so that can happen!

Hmmm, taught Mark the Belgian again. Don't know if I told you about him. He came to church with the Timothys a few weeks back. It is SOOOO challenging teaching him. But pretty cool. He is a way cool dude. So it’s a cool experience getting to sit down with him. He speaks French, Flemish, German, and English.

So before I run out of time, the coolest part of the week was yesterday. It was Fast and Testimony meeting (I am a pro at fasting now, I wasn't even hungry when we got back to the apartment at night) and the testimonies were awesome. All in Twi of course, but I could
understand small small. It was one of those weeks where you felt like you hadn't accomplished much, and were just trying to figure out how to do things better. So then first, Cosmos gets up to bear his testimony; perk-up number 1. Then Emmanual, our ward
missionary, gets up and bears his testimony. He talks about how during the week, when he came to teach with us, someone asked us if we are trying to win souls to the church, or to Christ. He said that when I had the investigator read 2 Nephi 25:22-26, his whole mind changed about what missionary work was, about what the church was about. Pretty sweet to hear that; perk-up number 2. Then, Anarfi, in his black suspenders and bowtie, gets up and bears his testimony, talking about the first time he met me and Elder Timothy as we were taking our garbage to the dump about 3 months ago, and how much better his life has been since then; per-up number 3. Then I bear my testimony, in Twi, and I actually did ok! Then the icing on the cake was after me, an older guy in a wrinkled blue shirt gets up to bear his testimony. It was Blatta, our investigator who has been going back and forth for so long. He talked about how for his whole life he has been trying churches, trying to find one that feels right, and that he never had. But he said that there at the church, that day, he finally felt right; THE perk-up!!!! It was so sweet, me and Elder Nathan just kept looking at each other with the biggest smiles on our faces.

So the week was sweet as usual. Just plugging along the best I can. We have zone conference tomorrow, first one in a long time, first one with President Shulz. Should be cool. Other than that... everything is eye paa! Love you guys, cheer extra hard in Austin this Saturday, and
tell me cool things!

Medomo paaaa

-Elder Brown

August 29, 2011

Alright, so on to the week at Kwamo. Week started well last week, district meeting in Asokwa on Tuesday, was in a threesome with Elder McFarland all day Tuesday and Wednesday most of the day. Elder Nathan and Elder McFarland had fun together, an Aussie and a New Zealander have a lot of nice banter when they are together. Had a sweet lesson with Oppong on Tuesday night. Finished out The Restoration lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he is still getting ready for the baptism on 17 September.
Anarfi proselyted with us on Wednesday. It was pretty sweet. He was really able to help us out in teaching. Him and Mensah are sweet, they said last week - "we want to come walk with you so we can get more members" - no problem!!! And of course, Anarfi was looking as fresh as ever. Nice crisp plaid yellow shirt, with slim cut brown trousers and Sperry topsiders - Mensah was wearing a purple shirt with a purple and black sweater and a black bowtie when he was confirmed. How fresh is that? Let me answer.... ummmmm.... so fresh?!!?!?!? We went out to Ejisu in the morning on Wednesday, tried to find some people we hadn't seen in a while out there, because we haven't had time to go there in like 3 weeks. Got some new contacts, met some old people, and played some ping pong at an investigators house. A big thing is that people buy a ping pong table, set it up outside of their house, and make kids pay 10 pesewas to play on it. But he let us play for free... man that guy was so good! His name is Alexander, a cool guy for sure. Anarfi won the Kumasi Stake YSA ping pong tournament, and Alexander still beat him like 21-8.

Wednesday night we went to town to pick up Elder McFarland's new companion. His name is Elder Larsen, from Loa, Utah. It’s like 45 minutes outside Richfield, said he knows Koosharem. He is loving Kwamo! It’s cool having a new guy in the apartment.
The week continued well, we have a lot of people to teach, it’s just that most cannot meet all that often. The day times are usually pretty slow, and then we have a lot of appointments at night. But we are still finding some success. Have a baptism planned 17 September.
Friday was loooooooooooong. I had red-red (beans, gari, and LOTS of palm oil) for lunch and it killed me! The day dragged so much. But luckily we had some good appointments at night that pulled it all through. Taught Blatta, he is really starting to get a testimony.
Mensah and Daniel were confirmed yesterday, now we just have to REALLY focus on making sure these converts stay strong. I love you guys so much and thank you so much for everything you do! Like I said, thank you for every little thing you ever did!!! I am trying to reciprocate it the best I can out here :) My regards to everybody back home. Oh yeah, you said there are 5 missionaries from our ward. I can only think of like 3. Who are the rest? Love you guys!!!

-Elder Brown

August 22, 2011

Griffin with some newly baptized members

Yoo!!! Ette sen! Paakyew eye wo ha na me anigye paa sisia. Kofra se me e-mail dapen akyire twa kakra, nanso nne email beye dadaada paa. Typing Twi is weird.... they don't really ever write it, it’s pretty much only spoken; I have only met one person who doesn't speak English that can read Twi. Anyway, my Twi is coming along kakrakakra. Elder Nathan thinks I am fluent but ennnye nokore koraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. The big news I meant to tell you in the second email last week was pretty sweet. I played golf last Monday!!! That was our p-day activity. It was so legit! The course was amazingly nice. Honestly it was better than something like Lake Park. With the exception of the greens (which were maybe the quality of TWU) it was comparable to Oakmont. Pretty crazy huh?! I didn't think it would be that good, but it really was. My first tee shot in Africa was a beaut too. I was way nervous, I was the first to tee off; no range, haven't swung a club in well, you know how long, and everybody watching. But I striped it right down that Ghanaian fairway and finished up with a solid par on my first hole in Africa. Pretty cool huh?! I played pretty decent, maybe 7 over or so on 9 holes - not too shabby when you haven't played in well, you know how long. Pretty much bogey golf - no birds. I played with Elder Mortensen and Elder Alba. Alba is legit - he birdied the first hole. Mortensen is pretty good, about like me, and Vancherie had never played before. Elder Nathan played in the group behind me with Elder Zoll and some other guys.

So that was the sweetest part about last P-Day. That’s why my email maybe seemed a little all over the place, I was way anxious to go golf!!! So if H sees Coach Adams around he can tell him I played in Africa! I felt so weird playing, esp bc the course was so legit, felt like I wasn't on mission anymore. I had a burning desire to get super good when I go home, maybe to go to like one of those golf academy things in Arizona for a summer. It’d be nice to be able to shoot 75 no problem on a regular basis.

Then after P-Day we had a great week. Tuesday we had a combined district meeting with the whole zone because a ton of guys just finished their missions. Pretty insane. Remember Elder Keller? Elder Bahme? Elder Jackson? Elder Wiah? Yep, they are all on their ways home. 19 missionaries going home tomorrow. Pretty crazy. These guys were about 10 months out when I first came. So we had a big zone meeting so we could see everyone one last time. It was nice, all of the departing elders bore their testimonies, always a good experience. I think there are 5 from our zone that left. Then we had a good day of teaching after that. Lots of sweet new people to teach. Like one family, think I talked about them last week - Oppong and Comfort. Oppong is a radio announcer and Comfort is a nurse. We contacted Oppong ourself, but luckily he lives really close to a member family. So we have been taking their 18 year old son, Emmanual to go and help us teach. Oppong committed to be baptized 17 Sept. We had GREAT success with another Comfort this week though. We went throughout the week to visit, since her son Sammy was just confirmed last week and he was preparing to pass the Sacrament for the first time. On Saturday we had a great lesson with Eric and Comfort together, and at the end, we invited Comfort to come to church to see her son pass the Sacrament for the first time. She came! She also made us ampesi - the best Ghanaian dish - twice this week! Anyway back to the first family, last night we taught all of the Restoration lesson, finished by giving him a Book of Mormon. We will be back this week to make sure all is progressing well.

We are teaching this really sweet guy named Blatta. Elder Timothy and I contacted him a long time ago. We were at his house, we started talking to him, and he started asking about the Book of Mormon. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and booked another appointment, but didn't see him again for a few weeks. We finally pinned him down and taught him after Elder Nathan had gotten here. There is definitely a seed within him or he wouldn't keep inviting us back. AND he came to church yesterday. Sweet story regarding that. Saturday night we had a lesson with him, we sat down planning to start talking about the Plan of Salvation and reading the Book of Mormon with him but we felt we should maybe just watch the First Vision video with him. So we popped it in, and we had a great time watching it. After we just discussed about what he understands about what we have taught him. I think the Spirit really hit him hard at that point as we just stated the truth and testified of it. All we asked him to do was to pray and ask God to know it is true. He admitted to us that he had never prayed to ask God if He really had appeared to Joseph Smith and to know that the Book of Mormon was true, and we told him that there was no way he could ever hope to know our message is true until he asks for himself!!! He realized that was true, and committed to pray that very night. Then, to make it as meaningful as possible, we asked him to commit that when he received his answer from God that what he have taught is true, that he would come to church. And he said "ok, if I receive an answer, I will come tomorrow". We promised him again that he would receive an answer and went on our way to our next appointment. You can imagine how happy I was when I saw him walk through those doors at Kwamo Junction 9 o’clock yesterday!!! So I guess he received an answer ;)

Yesterday at church was awesome. 8:15 yesterday, Degraft rolls up in his fresh white shirt and tie, twenty minutes later Eric is there with Comfort, then Thomas comes in, then Cliff, all in 5 minute intervals. On top of that, Blatta came, and Teddy came as well. So all of the recent converts were there yesterday, plus 9 investigators, plus the two who were baptized. Oh yeah the baptism! Haha almost forgot about how I fulfilled my purpose as a missionary this week. Daniel was baptized - by his friend Alex - as was Emmanual, Anarfi's friend. It went great. Daniel is the guy who heard about the church from his aunt in Ohio. And then of course Mensah!

After the baptism yesterday we had to take Elder Newbold to Bantama chapel to meet up with the assistants who were taking the guys who had finished down to Cape Coast. Crazy seeing all those guys go!!! We got transfer news Saturday night (we usually get it on Mondays) - no changes for me. Me and Elder Nathan still together in Kwamo, Elder McFarland is going to train here in Kwamo. A lot of changes throughout the mish with 19 guys going and 12 coming, but I am happy to stay the same! Elder Adams told me Elder Nzuki is training - still in Moree!! He will be a great trainer.

Hmm... what else. We farmed with a guy named Joe on Friday. We offered to help him out. He liked it a lot, I think it showed him and the people that saw us helping what we are all about. We ran into him Thursday coming back from his farm, and offered our help planting the corn. So we had fun with that, hopefully he gets to eat lots of banku because of it!!! Taught a preacher on Wednesday of The Church of Christ. What’s that one scripture that said the people were astonished because "Jesus taught with authority, not as the scribes"? Well I felt like that teaching this guy. It was a cool experience. He was a little humble by the end and said he would start to read the Book of Mormon and pray, so hopefully (for his sake) he does that. We will go see him tomorrow.

Well, the time is far spent. We had quite a week!!! Love you guys so much, you are the best. Love you all!!!

-Elder Brown