February 28, 2011

Wapume! Hope all is great in Texas. I'm sure it is! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! Hope you're enjoying, I am sure you will go chop some delicious food tonight somewhere (save some for me!) It's been a good day so far here. We went and played some football at the Yamoransa pitch. We combined with Abura zone and played against Swedru zone, who came in on a trotro. It was fun, it is always nice to play at the Yamoransa pitch. It's really secluded so we don't have to worry about any visitors with sticky hands, and of course, its in Yamoransa! We just get to walk there in our moftee! Very sweet. We won I think, I scored one goal. I didn't play too well today. It was fun though. I got some packages too! Thanks for everything in last weeks-everything was awesome! One note about what gets here well and what doesn't. M&M's=very good. The single serving wrapped oreos, chips ahoy, and nutter butters-not so much. If you send them in one of the big packages, they are fine, but not in the ones that have like 4 cookies. They were pretty much powder when they got here. Beef jerky is always good, as are the pasta sauces. Drink packets are the bomb, and of course, EASY CHEESE! Haha it is sooooooo good. So anyway thanks a ton for those. And the packages today are great too. Pictures are always the best, and I am excited to eat the sour punch straws! Stop sending so much candy tough, too much sugar! Haha. My favorites are mashed potatoes, gravy, and pasta sauces- tons and tons of those would be awesome. And the bacon of course! Elder Nzuki also got his package from you guys today too. He really loved it.

Welp, it was another week in Moree. We had district meeting Tuesday like normal, Elder Smith (Accra, Ghana), the father of our district (oldest one on mission) instructed for us. After we went to a nice ghetto chop bar in Yamoransa and chopped some fufu together. It was good as always! Tuesday was a good day for proselyting, taught a lot of people, helping several people get ready for baptism. I feel like we are just teaching the same people over and over though. So we are working to find more investigators and diversify our teaching pool. It's been fun to do that. The three guys we are preparing to be baptized this coming Saturday are doing well. Kofi, a fisherman, doesn't speak a word of English. Then there is Ransford, he is in his early 20s. His friend Isaac, a member, referred him to us a little while ago. He is doing well, we always have to teach him with a translator though. And then there is another we are excited about, Solomon. We contacted Solomon a few weeks ago while we were looking for Ransford to teach him, in fact he was just sleeping on a bench and we woke up, h0ping he could help us. He did, he actually turned out to be one of Ransford's best friends, and then also agreed to meet with us the next day. Solomon speaks really good English, and as we started to teach him, it started slow, but after a few lessons, he started progressing so fast. After about a week and half of teaching, he was ready for baptism. We had just had to make sure he would come to church, and he has! Three weeks in a row! So we are excited for his baptism on Saturday, as well as for Ransford and Kofi.

We did find some new investigators this week that seem cool. 4 of them even speak very good English! It's a Moree miracle! The only thing is that they are all between 18-25. Which is cool, but, I would say 90% of the people I have ever taught have been in the age group.

We have been working some serious days lately...the last two weeks we have probably averaged 10 and a half hours of proselyting daily....man oh man its made us seriously tired, but the work has been picking up because of it. More investigators, more less-active coming to church, more opportunities to serve more activities with the ward. It's fun. Thursday I was pretty dead, I didn't know if I would have the energy to leave the apartment, but, somehow I did! And we stayed out in Moree working non-stop until 9 that day. Usually we leave Moree after it gets dark, (7ish), because there are no lights in Moree, but lately we have been just working through the darkness. It has been fun, because it's so much cooler, it makes you feel better. Def have the spirit more.

Well that was it for the week. We will be busy getting ready for the coming baptism on Saturday. Oh yeah, almost forgot, an emergency transfer is happening today. I am going to Wa...! Just kidding, but Elder Alba is leaving our district, he is going up to Sunyani. We are getting a displaced missionary from Cote d'Ivoire named...Elder Adams! Haha how funny is that? He is from Tema, where the MTC is. He had only been in Cote d'Ivoire on mission for one month. But all the non-Ivorians have been taken out of Cote d'Ivoire now, so we have three new missionaries new to Ghana Cape Coast Mission, met them all today at the football pitch. All are African (two Ghanaians, one Nigerian). Elder Adams will be Elder Bunker's companion in Mankessim, and then also Mankessim will be getting an additional two elders- Elder Stats (transferred down from Kumasi, from Utah) and Elder Togag'ae (from Samoa, transferred from Odoben). So our district will be 10 now, should be fun. Other than that...nothing really! Dad, you better start golfing plenty, you gotta do something! I want you breaking 80 when I am home. And upgrade your 1980s clubs, or use mine at least, so you don't look like a weirdo :) I love you guys TOOOOO much! Hope your anniversary is sweet, hope all goes great for Hs Eagle Project, and congrats to Keegan on getting into the Y!!!!!!!! (I was going to ask that today!) Congrats to Tristan Mayfield as well, and it well be nice to have another Hebertson in Africa soon! That's so tight! Is Greg learning Portuguese with all these Portuguese countries he is going to??

I love you! Thanks for everything, the packages, the letters, the pictures, the emails, the updates, the love, the support. I need every bit of it!

Love,
Elder Brown

PS-CRAM PACK the packages when you send the flat-rate envelopes! As full as they can possibly be! You are leaving valuable space free in those things! :)