January 24, 2011

Wowzers, what a week! I think I can just end the e-mail there....too much! Geez louise this was quite the week. But oh well, I like the busy-ness way more than boring-ness. Not that any week has been boring! So let me just jump right in with what happened this week.

So, I don't know if I talked about it last week, but the focus of the week was Saturday, our district was having a combined baptism, about 25 people were going to be baptized. So basically everything for the week was focused on that. Tuesday we had our district meeting, we did a lot of talking about what we needed to do for the baptism. We and Yamoransa decided to take the lead for getting everything organized, since we are the ones living next to the chapel. Remember how many problems came at our last baptism? Imagine my fear looking at a 25 person, four unit baptism. So we had a lot of planning to do. On top of that, we heard it through the grapevine that there were going to be cameramen from the church in Yamoransa and Moree filming for a new "Introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" film, so of course we were talking to the Stake President (President Kaku), bishops, and President Sabey trying to get them involved. President Sabey said there was a good chance they would come, so that added pressure made everything seem crazier! President Sabey told me everything needs to be perfect, so I was pretty freaked out about a 25 person baptism. So all of my focus was on that all week.

Tuesday was the only day I actually was in Moree until Saturday. We went, taught Phillip, taught a family, and visited some other people and the bishopric to make sure everything was cool for the baptism. But preparing Phillip and the family was the most important. Phillip is a stud by the way, I love that guy. He is awesome, one of my most favorite baptisms yet. I had been frustrated about how I really hadn't been teaching full families, so the family we are teaching makes me so happy. They are going to help Moree ward have a solid foundation of families. And to see them go to the temple next month will be awesome! They are so excited for that.

Wednesday I went to Mankessim to interview Elder Bunker and Elder Alba's candidate. Man is he a sweet guy. His name is Kwesi. He is about 60 years old, and has been looking for a true church his whole life. He was so excited to be joining the church. Honestly, the interview was so cool. In the afternoon I came back to Yamoransa to do their interviews. They had 6 to interview, all really cool people. Most spoke English. Oh yeah, there is a really cool story about one of them. His name is Michael. Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa had been teaching him for a little while, and they learned he was married and they always asked to meet his wife, but she lives in Abakrampa. So they never really met here. But how awesome is this: When they asked Michael if he would like to be baptized on the 22 Jan, he started crying and said, "Yes, and that is the day my wife is getting baptized too". His wife was being taught by the missionaries in Abakrampa the whole time, but for some reason, he didn't tell them that! So he knew she was going to be baptized that day too, and so when they said that, he just lost it I guess! How sweet is that?! They were pretty excited about that. I had the privilege of interviewing them both, so that was awesome.

Thursday, we had a leadership training meeting in Ola. Friday I went to Abakrampa for their interviews. They had 12 people to be interviewed, so it was a very long day. But it was fun. They are the first Elders there ever, so they are finding lots of success. It's a village, and since Elder Smith speaks Twi, they are going to teach a lot of people there. I got to interview Regina (Michael's wife) while I was there, so that was a sweet experience.

And then Saturday....holy moly. I think I used all of my phone credit for the entire month on Saturday. In the morning, we hiked up to the chapel, set up the chairs in the chapel, set out everyone's clothes in separate changing rooms, we labeled everyone's clothes so there wouldn't be confusion (we got the clothes out on Thursday so we didn't have to worry about not getting the closet door open :) We labeled the changing rooms, wheeled out the TV, set up the piano, made sure that the font was filled, set up the Relief Society room for the baptisms, and a million other things I can't remember right now. The camera crea was there the whole time, interviewing a guy from Moree named John (aka Sika sam, a way cooler name. Sika means cash. Haha) And they told us they would be coming for the baptism. Oh man, way more stress! Then we jetted off for More to meet the Zone leaders so they could do the interviews for our candidates. The baptism was going to start at 4, so we told everyone we were leaving at 1:30. I did one more interview for Yamoransa, and all of their candidates were there by 3, changed and ready to go. Mankessim showed up a little after 3, as did Abakrampa. Every candidate was changed and sitting in the chapel by 3:30! No joke!! It was a true Ghanaian miracle, not kidding at all. The camera crew showed up around then, and filmed us doing normal baptism stuff, taking pictures together, greeting people at the door, etc. The chapel was pretty much full with people from Mankessim, Abakrampa, and Yamoransa to support, and their bishop was there ready to start. It was like an actual meeting back home! Everyone was there early ready to go! So I played some prelude music from 3:45 to 4, and the baptism started at 4 o'clock sharp! CRAZY!!!!!!! President and Sister Sabey walked in right at 4 o'clock, so they were impressed haha. The baptism went smoothly. 22 people were baptized. It was crazy running around everyone's clothes between the classrooms where they changed and the bathroom after their baptisms, but everything went well. Elder Bunker got a close-up from the cameramen. The baptism wrapped up, the talks were powerful, the crew was impressed, and president said he had never been to a better baptism. Man, it was a miracle. An absolute miracle. I was so worried about it, but the guys in our district did awesome. Man it was awesome. And maybe you will get to see it on the film that will come out in the summer! Keep an eye out for it in the distribution centers/bookstores. The cameramen followed Elder Mortensen and Elder Katoa on Sunday and interviewed them today, but I'm glad I got to be a "behind the scenes" guy haha. If you just get a glimpse of my face, that'd be awesome :) They are interviewing Andrew tomorrow, so I am way more excited for him to be on it than me. I hope you get to meet him through this video! He is so powerful.

Sunday, another miracle, everyone was at church on time to be confirmed. Phillip was so excited, and our family looked as happy as ever. This week was crazy, but so so awesome. I felt more accomplished Sunday night than I ever have on the mission. Man oh man. Then, to top it all off, we had another miracle Sunday night. Remember Seth, our sweet investigator that was going to be baptized but moved to Takoradi? Well, the missionaries there could never find him. We tried calling him every day, but no answer. We thought we had lost him! But, as we drove home in the taxi, the taxi randomly stopped right outside of Seth's old house. I looked out the window and what did I see? Mr. Seth standing right under the tree. As the taxi started to pull away I yelled to Elder Nzuki to pay the drive and get out and I jumped out of the moving car. When Seth saw us running over to him, he got the biggest smile on his face. He had gone to a village to work for a few weeks before going to Takoradi and didn't have any phone service there, and his phone had been lost. He had got a new phone a few days before and said he was praying that we would call. I am so happy that taxi stopped there for no apparent reason. Seth is going back to Takoradi today and is going to meet the missionaries on Wednesday. Man oh man, what a week.

So anyway, a lot happened this week. It was an awesome, awesome, awesome week. The most taxing I have had, but the most accomplishing I have had. Today we got transfer news. I'm not going anywhere, another transfer in Moree. Elder Nzuki is still here too. I love you guys so much. It's hard here, but this week was incredible. I can only pray that I will have more weeks like this. The baptism, finding Seth, wow. Thank you so much for everything. I love you guys so much.

-Elder Griffin H. Brown