March 14, 2011

Good morning! From Asante land this time instead of Fante. It's been quite an adventure this week...wow. But it's been good.

So, let me get started on the week :) Last Monday I am sure you had fun with the email, with me finding out the transfer news while I was emailing and all that. It was a crazy time haha. After I got the news I felt so weird. Just because I had been so long in Moree, so getting transferred just is pretty crazy to me. Kumasi is sort of the "cool" place to go in the mission. It's the farthest away from the mission home (besides Sunyani but only 10 elders are there) and all that, so everybody wants to go there. Also because it's the biggest city in the mission, so there is more stuff to see, do, and buy. But anyway, more on Kumas in a bit.

My last day in Moree was pretty sad. We went to all of our recent converts, and it was sad having to say goodbye. I decided that the "good-bye" lesson is the sweetest though haha. Every one of the lessons with the recent converts were so spiritual and powerful...it made me want to stay! But I am glad I had that opportunity at least. Elder Nzuki (he is staying in Moree, his companion's name is Elder Mbom) let me do most of the talking, and I felt like I connected so well with each one of those converts. Man it was sweet. We had dinner at the Pratt's to end the night as well, man I miss that family. Sister Suzy's rice and stew was perfect as usual, and then we just sat and chatted for a little while. I am sure we will cross paths again.

So Wednesday was the transfer day! We headed to the STC station about 11, met up with some other missionaries (Elder Rosquist was transferred to Kumasi as well. Also to train) and waited there for the greenies to show up and for the STC bus to get there. President showed up with the new guys, and I met my "son" as they call the elder you train on the mission. His name is Elder Timothy, and he is from Nigeria. He was going to go to Cote d'Ivoire, but got reassigned in the MTC. His name tag is in French and everything. We went up on the STC bus together, about a 4 hour bus ride. They showed WWE wrestling on the tele on the ride up..so ridiculous haha (not that I watched it, promise :) I was pretty scared the whole way up. Training, opening a new area, in a city I have never been to, the city has over a million people...oh man. We got to Kumasi, and what a place it is! It is sooooo big. People everywhere, so many cars, stuff everywhere. It is literally 100 times the size of Cape Coast. Elder Odobo and Elder Kwapong, the guys we live with right now, were there to pick us up and take us back to the apartment. Right now we stay at a place called UST until the apartment is finished in Kwamo. The apartment is actually part of the small chapel they are building in Kwamo. It will be finished in about 3 weeks (hopefully sooner!). But right now we live at UST, and take a 15 minute tro tro ride to Kwamo everyday.

Elder Odobo (my MTC Companion) and Elder Kwapong took us around Kwamo on Thursday. Kwamo is out on the outskirts of Kumasi, and it is pretty much a village. Not much English is spoken...there are other towns in our area that are more modern. My area is HUGE. It is the size of both Cape Coast and Abura zones put together, even bigger than that really. It's insane. We will have a lot of walking to do to see the whole place. There are exactly 3 families that live in Kwam that are members of the church. So about 15-20 members or so. So, we visited all of them, asked for referrals, and than got to work the old fashioned way-contacting. Oh boy I have never done so much contacting in my life. A lot of walking and a lot of "My name is Elder Brown, my companion's name is Elder Timothy, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ...". Elder Timothy doesn't talk very much right now, so it's pretty much me all day. It's fun, we found some cool people, but it is just hard to find serious people contacting. Referrals are always a hundred times more serious. 90% of my baptisms have been member referrals. So pretty much the week was spent contacting. The days seem longer, but I know it will com small small as we continue to work hard. The members that do live in Kwamo are AWESOME. Brother Timothy, who will be our future "group leader" (it won't even be a branch when it opens) is the most stud guy ever. He is currently in the bishopric of the university ward, the ward we go to right now. He will help us so much.

Kumasi is crazy...so big. I haven't seen much yet, but it's going to be fun here, even if Kwamo is quite a ways out from the big city.

Well that's pretty much it, it seems like my time has gone by way faster today. I actually got less time on the computer than I did in Cape Coast I think. I love you guys. I have some serious work to do ahead in Kwamo, so keep praying that everything goes well for me!!! I know it will if I am just obedient and do my best to be a good teacher and example for Elder Timothy.

Love you,

Elder Brown