February 21, 2011

What's up?! Today has been sweet, we found out last week at zone conference that Bishop McMullin of the presiding bishopric and Elder Gonzalez of the presidency of the Seventy would be coming to our mission, and they came to speak to us today. It was a cool little p-day activity of sorts! It was a really great meeting, only an hour long, but it was good. Bishop and Sister McMullin talked for a little-Bishop McMulling has the most awesome General Conference voice ever. He gave a really powerful instructions, just about the power of our callings- "who we really are" I guess you could say. It was cool, he gave some powerful experience he had while a missionary and mission president in Germany (Sister McMullin also served as a missionary in Germany. Elder Gonzalez was awesome...seriously, he was so funny. I don't know if he was trying to be, but he was the man. He is from Uruguay (Maybe Brian met him there?) and so hearing his accent was pretty cool (I have just been used to British/Twi accents here). He talked mainly about the "fundamentals of Preach My Gospel" that missionaries throughout the world have been directed to focus on. It was cool, he did a role play with some missionaries-him acting as the missionary and the missionaries being the investigators-that taught us a lot about the focus of our first meetings with investigators. Like I have talked about before, we invite people to be baptized in the first lesson now, so he showed us how we can most effectively do that. It was sweet, a really cool dude for sure! Elder and Sister Sitati and Elder and Sister Dickson of the area presidency also attended. AND I got three packages and something from Syd and Matt! So it's been a good day, even the emails I got have been top notch! So thanks everybody :)

Welp, another week is in the books. Everything is starting to blend together. I saw Elder Keller and Elder Bahme on Tuesday at zone conference....seems like yesterday they were walking out of the door of Yamoransa apartment to catch thte STC to Kumasi/Sunyani. But it was like we didn't miss a beat. They're both as awesome as ever, enjoying life together as companions. Their area seems sweet-Winneba. It's a little beach town getting towards Accra. There is a university there so everybody speaks English the say. They both just hit 18 months today...crazy. Maybe one day I will be there!

So like I said, we had zone conference on Tuesday. Zone conference is always awesome. The big news is that we have a new mission goal. Our current one will come to a close this Sunday. This goal will be President and Sister Sabey's last as they are going home in July-so President made it serious and to the point. He said it's the "impossible" goal. So anyway, it is simple, but it's going to be tough. By June 26th, every missionary will help one family who has not been sealed in the temple to go to the temple and be sealed. On top of that, every missionary will baptize someone who has a family member in the church. It's a pretty serious final goal for the Sabey's; it's going to mean a lot for them and for the mission.

We also got a new daily schedule at zone conference! We get to sleep until 6:30 now! I feel like I'm sleeping in everyday haha. We used to wake up at 6 and go to bed at 10, but now we are back on the schedule given in the white handbook. I like it way better. It's geared to let us proselyte in the evenings for longer, which is a more productive time. The reason it got moved up to 6 was because most missionaries' areas had no lights, but now most do. Moree doesn't really though, but its fun proselyting in the dark haha. My birthday will come before the next zone conference, so I got my birthday present at this one! I got a nice carton of milk- I enjoyed it with a nice box of corn flakes. Mos def the best breakfast I have had on the mission.

I did an exchange with Abakrampa on Wednesday, so on Tuesday we went to ABK (abakrampa) to switch. I took Elder Meinzer (SLC) to Moree with me. It was a sweet day. He has had an interesting time in ABK. It's straight village, not much English koraa, and his companion Elder Smith is a Ghanaian. We had a great time in Moree. We have been teaching a lady named Sister Sama, and we taught her husband for the first time.

Thursday was pretty solid..Also Thursday night I stepped in a gutter. I'll just leave it at that. I almost threw up.

Friday we went on splits with the zone leaders. We went with Elder Jackson (Centerville, UT). He is a funny funny man. I swear he is related to the Jacksons (as in Dad's best friend) in some way. He looks so much like them. But he doesn't know...maybe some remote way though. We worked at the chapel in the morning with them, always fun.

Saturday was Godfred's baptism. It was sweeeeeeet..we hiked down to the beach, and had our own little service there. I presided as the district leader. And then Elder Nzuki baptized him in the ocean. It was the first time Elder Nzuki had been in the ocean! He got swept off his feet hard core as they were coming back to the shore, it was so funny. But we could tell that Godfred loved it. It was sweet. We walked with Godfred back to his house and had a small lesson with him there. The Spirit was strong. And then he was confirmed the next day. He was very very happy. Then I sat next to Godfred at church, and I let him use my little hymnbook to sing while I was playing the piano. I saw him after reading in the inside cover--you guys gave me that hymn book when I was baptized! He thought it was pretty cool.

Welp, time is short today. The computer was being dumb, so sorry if I sounded a little perturbed in the email! Haha. we ate octopus last night at the Pratt's, and then when we got in the taxi to go home, I was humming "Onward, Christian Soldiers". I was sitting next to an old old lady (maybe 3 or 4 teeth) who started humming too. I started singing the words, and so did she! We sang all of the first verse together while riding in an old Opel from the late 80s that was about to fall apart, down the palm tree-lined road to Moree Junction. It was legit and the best ending ever to a week.

I love you guys so much! I finished the Book of Mormon this week, we started on Jan. 1 as a mission. It's mos def true and it's awesome. I love the Book of Moroni- he's the man. But that's about it. I am so super excited to rip into the packages tonight! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Elder Brown