March 7, 2011

Wassup?!?!? Another beautifully hot day in Ghana. January-March is this hottest time I have heard, so it has been quite toasty. I am pretty used to it now though.

Anyway, the week was sweet, as usual (have I ever said it wasn't? haha). We played some bball today, against a member's youth team. We handled them pretty easily. The court is so ghetto, but it was fun. Today is transfer news day. Haven't heard anything yet, but maybe we will hear something before I leave here. There are 10 new elders coming, so it could be a rather large transfer. Only 1 is leaving though. One of the elders coming is named Elder Brown! He is from Accra.

So last week Monday we got three new elders in the Yammy district. Elder Adams, from Accra, replaced Elder Alba in Mankessim. He had been serving in Cote d'Ivoire for only a few weeks, and then they had to pull everybody out. Then there is also Elder Stats (Centerville, UT) and Elder Togaga'e (Samoa) who were added to Mankessim. It was sweet to meet them all at district meeting on Tuesday. Elder Stats is sweet, he trained my MT, Elder Hatch. And Elder Togaga'e is great too, its funny having the two polynesians in the mission here together, him and Elder Katoa. And Elder Stats and Elder Mortensen went to the same high school in Centerville, so we just have all the connections! Haha Tuesday was proselyting was very normal, just preparing for the baptism and what not.

Wednesday was good, we walked SO much. To start the day we walked at to Abakamonuto to meet Kofi, but Kofi had gone to his mother's house in Moree (Abakamanu is about a 15 minute walk or so from Moree). Then we went to his mother's house, he was there, but we had no translator, so we told him to stay and we would find one. We found one, came back, and he had gone to Abakamonu. We walked all the way...wasn't there. We walked back into Moree, the other parts of the day. Having bikes will be nice one day! We taught a sweet new investigator on Wednesday, named Oben. He is from Sunyani, and moved down here a little while ago with his brother, and so he could go to college down here. I contacted him on Sunday while on splits with a ward missionary, and made the appointment for Wednesday. Most contacts don't come to their next appointment, but luckily, he was there! And on top of that, had kept his promise to read half of the Restoration pamphlet and answer the questions in it perfectly! It was sweet. We taught all of the Restoration, and it went really well. He accepted to be baptized 1 April. He had even talked to a friend at his school that he knew was a Latter-day Saint after he met us Sunday, and had had a good discussion with him. So it looks like he is really prepared.

Thursday we had the interviews for Kofi, Ransford, and Solomon. They all went well! We taught a guy named Sammy too. We had met him at a member's house last week, and we started talking small. We passed him again a few days later, and made an appointment for Thursday. We met, and after we taught Doctrine of Christ, he accepted to be baptized, but said that he was in the Navy and would be going to Sekondi to go to sea for the next 3 months. We were disappointed, but both me and Elder Nzuki (as we found out talking after the lesson) got the impression to just teach about the Book of Mormon, give him a copy, and leave it at that for the next three months while he is at sea. It was a really good lesson, we read small from the Book of Mormon, talked about why it is so important, and then just asked him to take it on the boat with him so he could read it every day. He said he would do it, hopefully he does! Sounds like a Liahona (sorry, Ensign?) article in the making if you ask me. Haha

Friday I went on splits to Abakrampa to do baptism interview for them there.It was a good split, I wasn't looking forward to it, but it ended up really good. We went on a KILLER bike ride out to a small village. TWICE! It was the hardest bike ride I have ever experienced, some serious serious hills. It was bad. I was sweating so hard haha. When I was conducting the interview for the guy there-Ransford, he walks 45 minutes to church every Sunday- I was breathing so hard and was just drenched in sweat. He was even laughing at me at the beginning I was struggling for breath so hard. Abakrampa is a funny, awesome, place. It is a really small village, no English at all really. Elder Smith is a Ghanaian though, so he is able to speak the language with them.

Saturday was the baptism! And of course a little drama as usual. We went up to fill the font Saturday morning, and the water wasn't working. That happens sometimes, but usually we just flip the switch to turn the pump on, and it fills that way. But the electricity was malfunctioning-only at the Yamoransa chapel, nowhere else in Yamoransa or Cape Coast-so the pump wasn't working. We finally found one random spigot on the chapel grounds that was working, so we found a super long hose, hooked it to the spigot, weaved it through the chapel, and into the baptismal font, with about a foot and a half to spare. It filled the font soooo slow though. It took all the way until right when the baptism was starting. But it eventually got filled. We went to Moree to wait at the chapel for the candidates, members, and investigators to show up. They were supposed to be there at 2. At 2:15 there was one member there, our recent convert Kojo, and that was all. By 2:30 a few members were there, but still no candidates. The Saunders were there with the mission van to take people, and so were getting pretty anxious. Finally at like 2:45, Solomon and Ransford rolled up, but no Kofi. We sent everybody that was there with the Saunders, and then stayed at the Moree chapel to wait for Kofi. By 3 he still wasn't there. At about 3:10 we started heading to the station to go to Yamoransa, just having to leave Kofi behind, and literally as we were walking away from the chapel...Kofi and his friends showed up...thank goodness! But all was well, we got to Yamoransa in plenty of time, and the baptism went great. The baptism water was even somewhat clear! It was green, but you could at least see the bottom!

(Elder Mortensen just got a call from President Sabey, he is the new Yamoransa district leader, that means I am going somewhere!!!!! Holy crap this is crazy....I am so nervous now about where I could be going...I have been in Moree for nine months, and now I am fairly certain I am leaving...man this is crazy. Hopefully I find out before I leave the cafe.)

Well I can't really concentrate at all right now. I am so anxious to find out where I am going. I'll try to write a few more things, but it will probably be pretty scattered! So the baptism went great, 11 total people for our district were baptized. Abakrampa baptized 4, and Mankessim 4. Sunday was weird. It was Ghana's Independence Day, and our ward decided to call church after Sacrament meeting finished...they said the Stake President said to do it...but...all the other missionaries said that their wards had all 3 hours of church...so I don't know. So we proselyted for a long time on Sunday! Or it seemed like at least because we didn't have all of church (Man I am so nervous /anxious to find out were I am going!!!!!) Kofi bore his testimony at church, so sweet! I could tell it was a really good testimony, from the small parts I could understand. He thanked me and Elder Nzuki, it made me feel pretty good haha.

I love you guys so much so much. Most likely I will be somewhere else next week. Man Moree has been quite an adventure for me. I have loved it so much, so much. But I think i am ready for a change. Don't know where I might be going, what I might be doing. But I am excited.

I'M GOING TO KUMASI!!!!!!! And I am training a new missionary and opening a new area, called Kwamo. Holyyyyyyyyyy molyyyyyyyyyyy. This is crazy, bye bye Moree :( but hello KUMASI! :)

Love you guys soo so much. Talk to you from Kumasi next week!

-Elder Brown :)