(Griffin and his new companion)Akwaaba! So...I am sure I seemed pretty stressed and not very focused in my last email...the past two weeks have been one big crazy experience that I am still getting used to. Kumasi is a whole different world, really a whole different mission, and it is all just coming at me at once. Plus training AND opening the new area...it's pretty crazy. I am doing my best and it's all going to be sweet I am sure!!!
So first let me tell you more about Kumasi, I don't think I really talked much about it last week. Kumasi is big...and that's about it. Haha, just kidding. It really is a hundred times bigger than Cape Coast though. There is AC here in the internet cafe I am at, but pretty much only internet cafes and banks will have AC. It feels like the Celestial Kingdom in here though. It is more developed than Cape Coast, but not that much. There are more homeless people, more beggars, so it has more of the high and more of the low. Things are a little more expensive here as well, but there are more things to buy. At the store we shop at they have Pringles and Kellogg's corn flakes and stuff like that. You see a lot of nice cars (Mercedes, Beamers, etc) driving around as well. Kumasi spreads wayyyyy far out. Today we spent almost an hour on the trotro going from our apartment to the place where our activity was. We were stuck in traffic a while, but that still is really far. And we only went about half way across Kumasi. UST stands for University of Science and Technology, or Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. It is right next our apartment. Most of the people that live around us either go to school there or work there. But we travel about 20 minutes everyday on the trotro to Kwamo to proselyte there, and we will be moving there soon. There are two zones in Kumasi, about 40-50 missionaries total. The areas and wards are really spread out, and so that is why they are sending missionaries (like me) to new areas with small chapels to make the church more accessible. Kumasi is pretty crazy, the central market is INSANE. Absolutely insane.
As I said earlier, we live out on the east side of Kumasi, heading to Accra. Kwamo is the last area with missionaries on the east side of Kumasi. This week was good, the work is much harder here than it was in Moree, but that is only because we are opening the new area. In Moree, we always had stuff to do all day long, always had people to meet. Here it is just...contacting. And just as in any other mission, contacting is not very fruitful at all. So it's a different kind of missionary work for me, but its sweet. People in Kwamo have never heard about the church at all, so we truly are bringing the message for the first time to these people. It is pretty cool to think about it that way. Most of the people we have contacted so far have not been very serious, we have taught a few people multiple times, but the few we were teaching told us yesterday they don't want to meet again, one even gave us his Book of Mormon back, he didn't even want to keep it. So that has been hard, I haven't experience too much of that, but it has been a great learning experience. We actually have been able to teach a few member referrals who are doing well, five investigators actually came to church on Sunday, all who came with their member friends/family. Emmanual is about 30, he has a brother that is a member. We were able to teach him this week. He has come to church twice now. Brother Joseph is a recent convert, and we met him and invited his wife and son to come to church with him on Sunday and they did! I felt bad though, I promised the son, who is about 10, that I would bring him a biscuit (crackers they sell everywhere) if he came because he said he would be hungry if he came, but I forgot to bring the biscuit! He was not happy with me haha. Then there was also Emmanual, he works near the Alma bakery- I am not sure if I talked about the Alma Bakery last week! There is a member in Kwamo, Sis Emelia, who owns a bakery there, and it is called Alma Bakery! They are the sweetest people ever!!!! She fills her bread delivering van every Sunday to bring tons of people to church. All of the members in Kwamo that come to church come with her in her van. The other investigator is Sandra, a young woman who we have met with a couple times, she came with her friend Juliet to church. So it was nice to have some people at church from Kwamo, even though they have to travel so far!!
The week of proselyting was good, we were able to work hard every day and teach many people, even if most were not very serious. It is hard because we invite people to church, and there is just no way they can come right now, because UST is so far. They all say they will come when the chapel is finished, so hopefully it will be soon. It will probably be done end of April. Tuesday was a great day. Our district leader is Elder Akoki, who used to be assistant to the president. We had a great district meeting, and then a great day of proselyting after aw well. We went to visit the Timothy family at night, and they are such a great family. Their son, Prince, is going to come proselyte with us tomorrow. I started having some chest pains last Monday, was having a hard time walking, but I was able to get some medication that Sis Sabey told me would work, and it made the pain go down pretty well. It seems like quite a few elders have had this weird lung virus, and I got it as well. But I was able to work everyday, not a big problem. I still feel like there is something there, but there is no pain. It hurts when I try to jump rope or something, but that is it. I was fine playing football today. We met a guy on the trotro going home, named Charles, who I will talk about later.
Wednesday was a lot of contacting, and then we met the Aponsah family at night in Okyerekrom (pronounced, Oh-cheer-uh-krom), a small village a little ways from Kwamo that is part of our area. Thursday we met some sweet new people, a contact named Francis who we will meet again tomorrow. He seems interested. The challenge with Kwamo is the same as Moree-people do not speak English well at all...it's difficult. But Francis speaks perfect English, so teaching people like him is the bomb. I said to Elder Timothy after we taught him the first time that he would be the future Elders Quorum president of Kwamo. We shall see :) Friday we worked at the chapel in the morning, and then every other appointment throughout the day failed, so we contacted!!! Saturday we had to run home in the pouring rain! It is the rainy season now, thank goodness!!! It rained almost every night last week. Last night, we went to meet Charles, the man we met on the trotro on Tuesday, and his family. They live in Okyerekrom as well. We weren't sure if we would meet them, bc he didn't speak English all that well, so we weren't sure if he understood us, but we called him and he said to come! We met his whole family-he is married with 3 kids, as well as his three brothers that stay with him. His wife, Mansah, speaks English really well. We taught a good first lesson, they said they all want to be baptized, but then it started to rain. They would not let us leave in the rain though (it was pouring again) so we sat underneath the porch and talked for awhile. They seem really sweet. Charles loves us, he made us eat fufu with him and he said he wants us to come every Sunday night to eat dinner with his family. So hopefully they progress well!!!!!!
So anyway, my time is small, so I will wrap it up. Thanks for everything, keep praying for me and thinking of me, I need all the help I can get right now!!!!! I am praying for you guys everyday as well, I love you so much. No questions or requests I have today, just prayers and love, good emails, and letters. Love you!!!
-Elder Brown
Accra Time
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