April 25, 2011

Guess what?! It’s HOT in Ghana!!!!! Haha, but actually it’s not as bad today... when we were at the STC station on Wednesday to pick up the new elder to our apartment, I saw a weather report going on the tele a ways off, and I just thought what the weather man was probably saying: "Well, it looks like the warm front that has been in Central Ghana for the past 17 centuries is going to stay for this week, on Sunday we will let you know if its heading out...." Honestly having days that aren't the exact same weather pattern will be awesome! Haha.

No big news with transfers, Elder Obodo left our apartment to go to Yamoransa, my old apartment! The new missionary here is named Elder Nataniel, from Nigeria. He is the man! He has only 6 weeks left on mission and is a stud missionary. He was a zone leader in Takoradi for a long time. Elder Bunker came up to Kumasi from Cape Coast, he will be opening a new area called Pankronum with a missionary named Elder Banda (from South Africa). No other big news though!

The week was pretty sweet. Before I forget, I have to tell you a sweet story from last week I didn’t have time to write. So Sunday night last week, we decided to go visit a guy named Arrested. That’s his nickname... he is trying to get rid of it haha. But everyone calls him that. He has us call him Emmanual though. During the opening prayer, the thought came to my mind just to ask him if there were any problems he was having that we could help with. So we went on with the lesson. Then as we were finishing, I remembered to ask him that question! He said he doesn't know what he is doing as a father and needs help. We had a sweet lesson about families and how if he follows the gospel he will be able to be a great father, and it was just sweet. We asked at the end of the lesson when we could come again and he said "be here 20 o’clock tomorrow". It was sweet, we taught him like 4 times this week, every time he had done more than we had asked him to do when we came again.

This week was a really good week of teaching, not so much contacting/walking around. We averaged like 5 or 6 lessons a day, and most of those people are doing well. Cosmos - still doing well. Not sure if I have told you about Clifford, but he is doing awesome. He told us this week that a few weeks ago, he was done with Christianity, he gave away his bible and wasn't going to worry about God any more. Then a few weeks later we met him, gave him a Book of Mormon, and now he is bearing his testimony about how he knows the Church is true, that he knows that living the gospel is going to be what will make him happy and all of that. Pretty awesome. Degraft is still one of my favorite guys ever - he is so excited to be baptized. Just waiting on the Kwamo chapel to be finished. The Pentecosts had a big Easter convention/"conversion" all week long right in the middle of town. It was pretty interesting. Yelling, screaming, speaking in tongues, people falling all over each other.... it was crazy.

Well, I am sorry to be short today. I love you guys. Easter was sweet, nothing too special here to celebrate though. Just an excuse for people not to work. (Our electricity got shut off on Friday because we ran out of credit, I went to buy some at the place, and the guy didn't come to work bc it was Good Friday... So we went without electricity for a while.) Life is going good, can't complain. Just getting to work, doing the little things that missionaries are supposed to do, and we are starting to see success. Mom asked if our baptism is going to happen at the beginning of May as planned, it just depends on if the Kwamo chapel gets finished anytime soon.... doesn't seem like that’s hopeful though :/ Love you guys!!!!! I think about you every day, the picture on my calendar for April is us at the top of Y mountain, love looking at it! Congrats again to Brian!! Have fun in Texas together :)

Love ya,

-Elder Brown

April 18, 2011

Yo good morning! Great to hear all the updates again, it’s been a good day so far today in Kumasi. Just the usual p-day activity, football and hanging out at the Bantama chapel for a little bit. Today is transfer news, but I am pretty sure I am staying put. The first transfer day in a long time where I haven't been anxious all day! Last week was pretty sweet, but first, thanks everyone for the birthday stuff! My birthday was great, thanks to all of the input from many :) I had frosted flakes and cocoa krispies in the morning, some teriyaki noodles for lunch, and pudding cake thingys for dessert! The Timothy's made some Banku and okro stew that we ate at their house at night, so I am still saving the fettuccini for another night :) And all the gifts are great! I am wearing the sandals even as we speak. They are much better than the one cedi pieces of plastic I have been wearing for the last 10 months :)

Anyway, getting on to the week, Tuesday was a solid day. We met with Bro. A, read the Book of Mormon with him. Sweet to see what the Book of Mormon can do for someone. I am glad we decided to focus on that with him. He has been a member for about 4 months now. We go over what he has read with him, but he really makes sure to understand it really well. He will take a full page of notes for the chapters that he reads. We are at 1 Nephi ch 11 with him now, he read 1 Nephi 8 (tree of life) last week and liked it a lot - esp. how Lehi went to help his family take the fruit too. We always sit underneath a mango tree to teach him, so it was funny to use the mango tree as a way to teach it better. We taught his wife, Regina, and son, Harrison, later on in the week, and Bro. A helped so well. He even started teaching them himself out of the Restoration pamphlet he has. So it was pretty easy to teach them, since they already know! Regina says she wants to be baptized, as well as Harrison, so we will be helping them be ready for when the chapel opens (hopefully first week of May! we can only pray).

Wednesday we worked at the chapel, always nice working there. We worked with Cosmos there, more on him coming! We taught Bro. K again on Wednesday. He is doing really well to read the Book of Mormon, so there is potential!

Thursday of course was a Happy Birthday to me! I can say I was definitely excited going to bed Wednesday night, and the first thought that popped in my head Thursday morning was "It’s your birthday!” That has happened since I was like 12 haha. And it really was a great birthday. Thanks for all the gifts and snacks and food and decoration. It made it all great, a little like home. I put up my own decorations, ate my frosted flakes and smiled to myself all morning. I don't know why, but in the morning I prayed that some little miracle would happen for my birthday. Not that I don't see miracles everyday, but I just asked for something special, even if it just was the stuff from the family, that'd be fine, but I just asked for something. The day went on fine, taught good people, met new people. But then at night, we had an appointment to teach Cosmos for the second time. I was excited for it all day because we had talked to Cosmos even that morning and he said he was ready, he had kept his promise, and was excited to learn more. We were going to meet at the chapel at 7 to teach him, so we get there at 7, and he is not there. We wait til 7:20 or so, still not there. His phone is switched off too. Usually phone switched off during the time of a teaching appointment means "I know the missionaries are going to call me, so I will just switch of my phone so I don't have to talk to them". I was pretty bummed. We walked down to Alma bakery so Elder Timothy could buy bread, and then headed up to the station to catch a car to go home. I was still praying that some miracle would happen, but I had given up hope in meeting Cosmos. A couple of cars passed that we could have gotten in, but people got in them before us. Finally one stopped right in front of us, and we started to get in. As we were climbing in, the man getting out of the car in front of us was none other than...Cosmos. He was late coming back from school (he goes to night classes in Ejisu bc he works at the chapel during the day). His phone had died and he said he was rushing as fast as he could to meet us there. Pretty sure that was my miracle :) We taught Cosmos, it was great, and taught him again on Saturday night - finished the Restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. And he came to church on Sunday... I can't ask for much more can I? Cosmos is a sweet sweet guy. Bro. Timothy took him under his wing when he came to church on Sunday, so he is going to turn him into quite the leader I am sure. I am way excited for Cosmos. And it was all because of that miracle on my birthday...

Well, a lot else happened this week, but my time is running short. It rained like CRAZY last night, the rainy season is really starting! Thank goodness! My birthday was great, and we are getting more serious people to teach. This week was great…I felt more guided by the Spirit than I ever have on my mission. Things are really coming together for me here. I love you guys a lot :) A LOT! :) AND GUESS WHAT!!! YOU ARE GETTING OLD BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE ONE KID THAT IS A TEENAGER :D !! Holy cow! Never thought I would make it here!

Welp, love you guys so much, mission is a wonderful thing!

Love,

Elder Brown

April 4, 2011

On to the week! We had interviews with President Sabey today, I didn't even know we were having them until last night. I was glad they were today though! We talked about a lot of good stuff, it was my longest interview yet. No other P-day activities outside of that. You asked last week if I will go to the central market on P-days. The Central market is absolutely INSANE. I will go there because the food is cheapest and there is cool stuff to see, but man oh man it is another world. I can't explain how crazy it is...missionaries have seen crazy things. So basically that is the story of that haha. I will have to be on my guard in there! This week was my best week in Kumasi so far. I really started to love Kumasi this week. I was laying in bed Saturday night, and I just felt great, no real reason, but I just felt really good. I really felt like the next year or whatever will really be awesome. Not that it hasn't been awesome so far, but it was sweet. We had a great lesson on Tuesday with a man named Gabriel. He is a teacher at a school in Kwamo. We contacted him our first day in Kwamo. We finished the Restoration lesson and introduced the Book of Mormon. He had never even heard of The Book of Mormon before, and was excited to read. Every day when we pass his school he always calls to us and waves with a big smile on his face, so it seems like things are going well! His school is right near to Bro Timothy's new house, so we always tell Bro Timothy that we are teaching the future Kwamo Elder's Q President at the school, hopefully it's true :) We spend a lot of time with Bro Timothy, mostly because the unit in Kwamo is going to depend on him. We pretty much see him every day, whether at the chapel sit or at his house or wherever. Wednesday was a long, hard day. We worked seriously. we were able to teach another future leader in the morning, Francis. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him as well. He said he was in a bad mood in the morning, so hopefully reading has been able to pick his spirits up, we shall see!! Prince came with us again all day, he is the best ward missionary ever! We contacted a funny guy during the day as well, his name is Adom. He is a cool guy, probably in his late 50s or so. He is a businessman and he bragged on his kids the whole time we were with him. All of his kids have graduated university, one lives in the US, one is a professor. It was cool to hear someone care about their kids and take pride and joy in them. So we haven't been able to teach he and his wife together yet, when we went yesterday they were busy doing something, but we are going to go back to teach them this week. I really think the doctrine of the family will be very appealing to them. Thursday was good, we were able to get a lot done. We are working hard to strengthen a recent convert named Bro A. He is a recent convert of a few months, and is doing well. He is about 50 or so. He lives in a village called Okyekrom, about 15 minutes from Kwamo. He is the first and only member there. He is doing well, always at church. We had taught him a few times. He had not started to read the Book of Mormon yet. So we sat down with him and just told him how important the church can be to him, and about how much the Lord needs him as a leader in Kwamo. We talked about a ton of stuff, but eventually got to the temple and about families. We could see his thought process changing as we were teaching him. He was asking what we need to do to teach his wife and his sons, when we could meet, what we could do to help them go to the temple...the wheels are turning. He is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood at Stake Conference in May, and his service will be direly needed with the Kwamo unit when it opens. He will be one of maybe 4 or 5 Melchizedek Priesthood holders. Friday we did our district service project at the Timothy's like we talked about. Elder Adams is the new AP!!! Pretty crazy! He had just been transferred to be a zone leader only 3 weeks ago, and now is the assistant. The old assistant, Elder Wright, is now serving up here in Kumasi, re-opening an area that needs serious work. Elder Adams is serving with his trainer (my grandfather), Elder MacKay as assistants. There were a ton of changes in Bantama zone (the other Kumasi zone) so it will be fun to see all of the new guys. I heard a guy from my district in Yamoransa. Elder Meinzer is coming up here. He is a stud missionary. No changes to our zone (Dichemso) though. The missionaries coming up are all studs. I got word from Moree that three of my investigators down there were baptized on Saturday; Sister Sama, Emmanuel (a friend of my boy Solomon the recent convert) and Anthony, the freshest dressing guy in Moree. Seriously he should work for GQ. Glad to have some fresh guys in the membership of the church :) I was very happy to hear they were all baptized and confirmed. Our first haptism here in Kwamo might not be for a while, so it was good to hear that. We do have a baptism for Miller and Degraft planned on 1 May, so hopefully that will happen. Oh yeah, President told me today that he is pretty sure our apartment in Kwamo will b the only missionary in the whole world that will have a baptismal font in it! How sweet is that?? Haha, it will make baptisms very easy! There is a font right in the middle of the church, it will be sweet to have. Some random thoughts: 1. Pears are delicious. BUT they are not pears. They are avocados. But they call them pears here and they are everywhere, I eat one everyday. 2. G&G Brown sent some Bear Creek (I think, maybe bear creek valley or something like that) soups. They are the bomb! I made one this week and it lasted me for three full meals! Send me some more of those. They sent Tortilla soup and it was awesome. Look for other ones too! Like cheesy ones :) 3. Lucky Dube is tight; he's dead but he made fresh music. Not that I listen to it...promise! But ya know, when you are in the taxi and it's playing, you can't really shut yours off! And I swear Lucky Dube is playing in every taxi in this country. So go check out Lucky Dube Hayden. 4. There were two oboruni's at church on Sunday. They work at the area office in Accra. Not sure why they were here, but man it is weird seeing white people. I feel so awkward, like I don't know what to say. There are a few that live in Kwamo and we pass a bunch on the streets in Kumasi, and I don't know if I should greet them or just ignore them ore what. Very awkward haha. Think that's all. Hope life is GREAT in Texas!!!!! Go Butler! Congrats again Mom! Hope the Rangers keep up the hot streak, did they make any additions in the off season? Last things from the week, we taught a sweet investigator on Saturday, named Clifford. A few weeks ago we met him at Sis Emelia's house, and I felt like I should just give him a Book of Mormon right there. I did, and we didn't hear from him for awhile. But the other day we passed him on the road and he said he had been reading and wanted to meet with us. We had a sweet first lesson, he said he already feels like The Book of Mormon is true, he asked for one to give to a friend. I am glad I followed that impression a few weeks ago! I have only done that a few times here, giving someone a Book of Mormon just like that. We also met a guy in Kwamo on Sunday named Bro Dwimoh. He is a member who used to live in Asokwa, where they have a church. He was even a ward clerk there. But then a while ago he moved to Ejisu, which is even farther out of town, about 10 minutes from Kwamo (it is part of our proselyting area). It is about 45 minutes from any chapel in Kumasi, so he just couldn't go to church. When he met him and told him the church was coming to Kwamo, he was so stoked. He had no idea, but he said he had been praying for a way to go to church for awhile. Now hopefully he can be a leader somehow in Kwamo! He and Bro Timothy are really good friends he said. We have been praying to find future leaders for Kwamo, and it is crazy to see how our prayers our really being answered, in various ways. Welp, that's all for today I guess. I love you guys, thanks for all the support. I got my B-day package today!! I might sneak some stuff early :) haha jk of course! There still are challenges ahead, but it's all what the Lord wants. So I will just keep doing my best! Thanks again and I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Elder Brown PS-HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I am out of time today!!!!!!!!!!!

April 11, 2011

Yo wazzup! Great to hear from you guys as always. It is a hot day in Kumasi, but there has been some clouds, maybe it will rain tonight (we can only pray!). It has just been a normal P-Day, woke up, washed, went to Bantama chapel to play some football. I was dead tired so pretty much walked around the pitch the whole time haha. Now we are in town emailing and getting ready to buy some food! The place we go to buy food (Opoku Trading) is the closest thing to a grocery store here. It is about the size of a large gas station. It has Pringles (6 cedis) Twix (1.80 for one), and Oreos (1.80 for a pack of six). Never really buy those, just way too expensive! But at least they have them haha.

Welp, it has been quite the week here...the week was good! After interviews last Sunday we were able to have a pretty good P-Day. And then the week started well with a good district meeting as usual. One of the elders in the district decided to throw himself a little birthday party after district meeting.

Wednesday we worked at the chapel. We could tell they really needed our help, and we offered to work more. It’s honestly the most effective use of our time right now. We were able to get a ton of work done cleaning out rooms getting them ready to be tiled. Bro T. always feeds us after work, his daughter always cooks, and man is it delicious! It’s funny though, I couldn't stand this stuff when I first came. But let me describe it for you. They made us banku - banku is basically a really thick dough made of fermented ground up corn. You add water to the corn and just stir and cook it until it’s thick. Then you make some soup. For this one, it was okro stew. Okro = okra. Okra, tomatoes, onions, pepper, all that kind of stuff. Then you just use your fingers to cut a bite sized ball out of the big ball of banku, and then stick it in the soup, then throw it in your mouth! You just swallow it whole, no chewing necessary. It really was so good haha.

Thursday night we got to go sleep at the old couple missionaries’ apartment. Man it was like staying in a hotel! The kitchen was like an American kitchen (oven, nice stove, etc.), the living room had AC, there was a water heater, it was the life! Really it was sweet. We still proselyted normally the next day, Elder Butler (Monticello, UT) came on splits with us. He was one of our zone leaders. His companion is Elder Wiah, one of the guys I lived with in Yamoransa. It was sweet being with Elder Butler, he was in the the Army before mission and is a funny funny guy. His prayer in the morning before we left the apartment included the wording "bless us to execute our objectives this day". Pretty awesome. On top of that he really taught me some great things as we were teaching. We also worked at the chapel on Friday. We taught a cool new guy with Elder Butler on Friday, named Bro Kusi. He owns a shop just behind the chapel. We taught him last Wednesday as well, and he promised to read the whole of the Restoration pamphlet. Which he did, answering all of the questions with it. We were able to teach the whole Restoration lesson, and gave him The Book of Mormon to start reading. We were able to see him again later in the week, and it seems he is doing well! He lives in Asukwa, so hopefully he will be able to go to church there soon. We also taught Degraft, he will be one of my favorite investigators for sure. He woke us up with a call at midnight Sunday morning to tell us he was coming to church... funniest guy ever. And he did come to church!

Saturday was solid, we are still trying to find more people to teach... contacting is just difficult. But we did teach a young lady we have been teaching for a little while and had an interesting lesson with her. Her name is Sandra, she has come to church a few times with her friends.

Church on Sunday was really great. It had been a long week and partaking of the Sacrament made me feel so much better. We had four investigators come to church. One of them lives way the heck out in Ejisu, probably 10 minutes past Kwamo, but came to church anyway. That’s a long ways. That is the hardest part right now, the UST chapel is just way too far away for people we invite to church to actually come. So having 4 was really great. Then after church we visited some people, most of the teaching appointments failed, but we were able to have a good lesson to close out the week, with a new investigator named Cosmos (how awesome is that name?) Anyway, we met him in the past week, and went out to his house in Jakye, a village somewhat close to Kwamo. It was a sweet lesson, serious potential with him.

Well, that’s about it really... life is great. Still working hard to start the work in Kwamo, it’s not easy, but that just makes it better! I got a bunch of B-Day packages today, I'm excited for that. I hope all goes well for Brian's graduation, CONGRATS!!!!! Glad to hear the Rangers are tearing it up, and sounds like the Master's was pretty awesome. Missionary work, it’s divine. I am glad to be here. I have serious work to do here, with many different things, and I am glad the Lord has trusted me to do this. I have realized with everything going on here that I have a specific purpose here in Kwamo, in Kumasi, and in Ghana, and that it is going to take everything I have to accomplish it. So just keeping sending all of the love, prayers, and emails (and packages :)) and I will keep doing the best work I can do to make you guys proud! Thanks you so much, I love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Brown

PS - I got packages today. Three from Grandma H, one from you guys. Also a letter from G&G Brown, and a letter from Mom. Thanks everyone :) :)

March 28, 2011

What's up everybody?? I had a ton of emails today, thanks everybody for writing. And congrats mom!!! That is awesome you won! Sounds like the tournament has been pretty entertaining. Butler and VCU, that's pretty crazy. I'll be rooting for Butler I think, they should have won last year. So anyway, life is good here in Kumasi. We just played a football match at a really nice pitch, always fun. No scoring for ol' Brown today, but I did ok. I played keeper for one half and didn't let any goals in! It sounds like life is good back in Texas. Hayden is all over the place it seems like. I got some packages last week-two from G&G Brown, one from Grandma H. Awesome stuff as usual! Grandma H sent some salami and pepperoni. Wowzers I forgot how good that stuff was. And G&G Brown sent robin eggs!!!!! Holy moly those are THE BEST!!!! :) Haha So, another week in Kwamo! It has been crazy. Just a crazy crazy last few weeks. Kumasi is so much different in so many ways. I have said that over and over but it's true! The people are different, language, culture, everything. But it's awesome! Everybody talks about Kumasi, and it is always everybody's favorite place. I think I will be a firm Cape Coast man my whole mission, but we shall see! As for the work in Kwamo, it is going good. Like I said it is a little different though. In Moree, we could pretty much meet with our progressing investigators 3-4 times a week. Here, bc a lot of people are busier with work/school, we can only meet maybe once or twice a week. So that means more contacting and more "down" time for us. But we are doing well, days have been going really fast. This week started pretty crazy but it settled down pretty well as the week progressed. Last Monday night we went to FHE with the young single adults in our ward. You asked last week if our ward is big. Yeah it's pretty big; it is right next to the university, so about half of the ward is young single adults and the rest are famliies. It is a very organized, well run ward. Church is in Twi here, still no English. English is funny here in Ghana, obviously it is good, it will help them become a part of the developing world, but it is never used unless it is absolutely necessary. It is always Twi-Twi and Fante are very similar, so it is not too hard making the switch (not that I am that good anyway...) but Twi is actually easier to learn than Fante- it is not as deep of a language. But to show the difference and how it is related, you can see how they say "How are you." For Fante it was "otse den", but for Twi is is "ette sen". So not too much different, but there are definite differences. I am glad to be learning Twi though- it is easier, and there are more books about it. In fact, the book I was studying in Moree was Twi, not Fante. So anyway, the language is still hard, I get discouraged everyday. But then I get excited to learn it everyday as well. Haha. Tuesday I instructed at district meeting. Random, the guy next to me is looking at urbanoutfitters.com! Haha, I miss clothes!!! Getting to Kwamo is a beast everyday. We live right near the university, and we have to walk about 20 minutes to the station to catch a car. Then, at the station, the last three days we have waited for about 45 minutes to get into a tro-tro going to Kwamo, and then the ride to Kwamo is about 10. So by the time we get there I am ready for a break! Haha. I like travelling though. I am going to miss tro-tros in America. Tro-tros are so awesome, if you ever come to Ghana, we will only take tro-tros!!!!!!!!!! Haha. So I can't wait til the apartment/chapel in Kwamo is finally finished! I talked to the guy in charge of building it, Prosper, and he said it will be done by next transfer-the 24 April. So I will be praying! I also aksed him if they could build a basketball court outside the apartment..he said yes!!!!!!!!! Haha I am so pumped for that. Lots of youth activities to go to with that ;) Friday night is SERIOUSLY rained. Elder Akoki and I got drenched!!! It was crazy, I was literally cold. Mos def the first time in 9 months I could say I was cold. It took forever to get a car, but finally we did. We were coming back from a small village called Aprada where we taught one of the most serious investigators, Emmanual. His family are members, and he has come to church twice. On Saturday, we taught another pretty serious guy, Degraft. He stays close to members, and has been progressing pretty well; he has come to church as well. He is a humble guy, we have been really trying to help him to understand prayer as well so he can have good experiences with that. He called me last night to tell me he was about to pray before he went to bed! Haha, so I guess he understands :) The sweetest part of the week was that we got an awesome ward missionary to come with us a few days. His name is Prince, and he stays with Brother Timothy sometimes. He is about 18 years old, and has been a member for about 2 years. He plays on a football club, they train in the mornings, and then he comes to proselyte with us. He is a very good translator, but more important than that, he has a very strong testimony and understands the gospel very well. Prince calls us to find out when he can come. He is awesome! If he comes with us 3 times a week or so, we will be able to do serious work in Kwamo. Other than that, all that matters is that I love you all. So so much. Think about everything that goes on in the world, seeing everything that goes on here, knowing what people go through in life, know what I go through in life, I don't know what I would do without you guys and everybody else back there .So sometimes that just keeps me going. I can't believe March is almost over. Days seem so long, but weeks and months seem so short. So anyway, I hope all is great for you guys, tell everyone in D-town that I love them, tell all the family that I love them. I hope you have a super awesome week! Yabehyia dapen ba! Love, Elder Brown