What a week... it was a way tough week in Kwamo. Lots of stuff going on, some good and bad, and sometimes I feel like I am going crazy, but its all coming along. Doing our best, some times - most of the time - everything doesn't go the way you want it to. Like from Thursday to Sunday, we only had like two teaching appointments that worked out. Every morning we would plan out a full day of appointments... and then no one would be home. It made the days pretty long, but we got through it. A lot of contacting still, but we do have a few serious investigators, so we are doing our best.
We will have a baptism this Sunday, for Eric and Thomas, I am really excited for this one. Eric is so cool. Thomas is sweet too. His wife has come to church with him all three times.
A few things from last week; The way I heard about the missionary couple from Dallas was that I went on splits to a place called Daban a few months ago and I met a member who had joined the church in the 80s, and I asked her how she joined the church. She said there was a missionary couple from Dallas who she met. Since they were from Dallas I though that was kind of cool, and she said she had their address so I thought I would write them haha. So it was kind of random, but I am glad they got the letter. The church has gone from being one or two branches in Kumasi when they were there to about to be divided into 2 stakes, so I thought they might be interested in hearing about what’s going on from a missionary here. So anyway, that’s how they came about.
We started riding bikes this week. Onnye easy koraaaaaaaaaa! Haha it’s not easy riding those things in the hills of Ashanti region! Probably won't ride them to much. But it’s nice when we need to get somewhere quick.
Lets see.... what else.... oh yeah, yesterday after church, President called us to come back to Kwamo quick because they were bringing a new couple missionary up and were passing by our apartment and wanted to show it to them. Our apartment is literally right on the road side of the Kumasi-Accra road (the equivalent of living 10 yards from I-35, no guardrails or anything) and so they wanted to stop by to see inside the apartment. So we got to see President and Sister Sabey one last time, and also go to be the first missionaries to see the Zolls, the new couple. They are from Sandy, UT. They are veryyyyyyyyyyyy nice. They will live in Asokwa and will be in our district. Apparently their assignment is to make sure all of the small groups, like Kwamo, stay in order, so we will have their help it seems like. They will come to our Sacrament on Sunday. Which brings me to another thing adding to my craziness... I am in charge of running church in Kwamo until they call a group leader. So I have to preside at Sacrament meeting, make the program, ask people to give talks, teach classes, etc. for a little while. I think I might go crazy, seriously. For a lot of reasons that is hard to go into details about... but man I hope this stuff works out. So..... pray that Sacrament meeting in Kwamo, Kumasi, Ghana, goes well this Sunday...
So, I said a lot of times I might go crazy, and it might be true, but the week was still sweet :) A lot of new investigators, hopefully some will be serious, and hopefully this Sunday will be a success. The baptism after should make it all good, I am very excited for this one. Eric is so funny, his testimony is so strong, and he lets you know it! And man our recent converts are doing great too. In Elders Q yesterday, I sat next to Cosmos and Thomas, then Cliff was next to Cosmos, Degraft next to Thomas, and Miller next Degraft. Then Eric was sitting right in front of me. I just looked around and smiled about how blessed I have been here, even with all of the trials that have happened. Capped the week well with a nice lesson to Emmanual and Olivia yesterday. Emmanual got in a car accident going to Accra last week, so we hadn't been able to meet them. But luckily he is ok, and yesterday we had a nice discussion and they promised to come to church this Sunday.
Welp, I love you guys. You are the biggest help and strength to me, and I think about every day how thankful I am for what you have done for me. So, keep being awesome and doing all the great things you are doing. I miss tejas... but Kumasi is where its at right now :)
-Elder Brown
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
June 20, 2011
Yoooooo what’s up?? Big news from Kumasi - we are in Kwamo now! Prosper - the mission employee in charge of fixing all the apartments - called us Thursday morning and said to pack our things up, we were moving to Kwamo in a few hours! Haha so we had to get in a hurry to do that. The move took the whole day, it is great to finally be there. They are putting the finishing touches inside the chapel, and they announced at church at UST on Sunday that we will open Kwamo on 3 July. So we will seriously pray for that! Haha. So we live in Kwamo now, pretty crazy. I live inside a chapel... very weird to think. And plus, my whole mission I have lived in an apartment outside of my area, my whole first year I had to travel a solid 30 minutes in the morning and at night to get to my area, but now I just walk out the door of the apartment and I am there. It is pretty nice. We can stop by the apartment for a snack or a drink or if we forget something or whatever. It is just me and Elder Timothy there, so it’s a little different just being us 24/7. We come from completely different worlds with completely different concepts of living, but it is so cool to see how it all works out, we are learning a lot from each other.
The week was very very nice. Just plugging along with the usual. Tuesday we had sweet lesson with Cliff - he is going as strong as ever. We also had a good learning experience on Tuesday. We were walking through Kwamo and were passing a house we had contacted a long time ago. We had contacted an older guy there, made another appointment, but were never able to meet him again in the house (we met him like 3 months ago). We saw him sitting outside his house on Tuesday though, so we went up to talk to him. When we got near to him, he got really mad at us, telling us not to bother come and talking to him, that we weren't sincere at all, and that we didn't need to come to see him anymore. We felt really bad, and we could see he was just really lonely and sad, so we did our best to apologize and keep talking to him. We promised him that we would like to come back and visit him again if he would give us one more chance. At first he said no, but after a little more talking and apologizing, he said we could come back the next few days. We went back a few times through the week, teaching him small small, ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon by the end of the week. So we shall see where that goes! He seems to be happy just to have visitors to talk to, so hopefully the Spirit will work within him to help have a desire to learn more.
Wednesday we had a great lesson with the family who came to church last week. It was a great lesson. They came to church again on Sunday.
Thursday was move day, pretty sweet. Like I said... we live in the chapel - how weird is that! And not to brag, but I am fairly certain I live in the only missionary apartment on the face of the earth that has a baptismal font inside!!!!! Pretty sweet huh?! I shall put it to great use! We will have a baptism on the first day Kwamo opens, just like a story book huh?! Planning on at least 4 people - the family we’re teaching, Eric (sweet news with him later in the email), Gilbert (found out he will come back from Volta region this week!), and Elizabeth. So should be sweet!
So now the sweet story about Eric. Man this dude is legit! We couldn't meet him all week because his car broke down and he had to go to Suame Magazine - a GIANT auto shop in Kumasi, it’s like... the size of... like umm, I’m not sure, but its like its own city, just a giant auto repair place - and was there all week. But Saturday we were walking through Kwamo New Site, the far side of Kwamo and we saw his car parked outside a house. We had never been to his house before, we always just met him at the chapel. So we see the car and look at each other both with a "hmmm... I think we should look for Eric" look on our face. And a few steps later, we see Eric sitting outside his house reading his Book of Mormon and Bible. So we go up and talk to him, he was very happy to see us. We sit down to meet, and his wife comes out of the house. She greets us warmly, and we expected to go back and into the house, but without even being invited, she came and sat down for the lesson! Then, their son came back from playing with his friends and sat down for the lesson too. We were pretty anxious to teach a powerful lesson, and think we did pretty well! We did the whole Restoration lesson and were able to help her see the need for a Restoration. We also talked about families and how important those are in the church and to God. Well actually I should say Eric talked about that. So we committed them to read from the Book of Mormon with Eric, and also invited them to come to church with him tomorrow. We weren't too sure if she would come, and when church started on Sunday, Eric and his son were there, but not her. We were bummed, but at least Eric brought his son along. BUT THEN.... just as we were singing the Sacrament hymn, guess who walks in the door?! You guessed it! She did! She wanted to surprise even Eric that she was coming, so she didn't get ready in the morning until after they left in Eric's car. Then she got ready and took a tro-tro to church. It was sweeeet! And they had some sweet discussions in investigator's class. The Relief Society sisters fellowshipped her perfectly, so it was awesome! I had never had a husband-wife family come to church my whole mission, but yesterday, TWO came! It was so cool. And Eric is just there in Elder's Quorum bearing testimony the whole time. It was legit. They were talking about the Word of Wisdom, and he stood up during the lesson and bore serious testimony about how he didn't even know this specific commandment until just then, but he had known it deep inside him his whole life and was so thankful that God let him understand that even before learning the gospel. So his baptism will be 3 July, and if his wife and son progress and keep coming to church, theirs can be then as well!
Cosmos is doing great. You should hear the questions he asks. It’s like God has given him a giant book of questions to ask us, he asks them, then writes down the answer and believes it 100%, and does everything he can to learn more about it himself and apply it in his life. On Saturday we had like an hour and a half discussion about the Plan of Salvation. It was deeeeeeeeeeep-ohhhhhhhhhh. Haha, he knows more about the Plan of Salvation than probably 90% of church members now. And he is just eating it up. He has been seriously studying Gospel Principles as well. He wanted to go to the temple last week to do baptism for the dead - he has gathered info on a bunch of his ancestors - but the ward going didn't have room for him to tag along with their trip. It will probably be good for him to go with Kwamo members.
Well, that’s the sweet news from the week. I am stoked Rory McIlroy won! I told my fellow golfer missionaries this morning that he would win fo sho!
Oh yeah, we had a mini zone conference today. A good-bye to President and Sister Sabey. Pretty weird they are leaving next Wednesday. It was nice. We sang the GCCM song at the end... touching :) I played the piano for it. Messed up a little haha. I am getting rusty. Then we played a full pitch match with President reffing for the last time. It was fun, no score for me, but I am getting better.
Welp.... you guys. You are da BEST! Seriously I love ya love ya love ya! Tell everybody else I love them and that they are great and that I am sorry I can't email them every week, but I am trying to be a good missionary and only email for an hour! That was a bad sentence grammatically I think. Oh well. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Elder Brown
The week was very very nice. Just plugging along with the usual. Tuesday we had sweet lesson with Cliff - he is going as strong as ever. We also had a good learning experience on Tuesday. We were walking through Kwamo and were passing a house we had contacted a long time ago. We had contacted an older guy there, made another appointment, but were never able to meet him again in the house (we met him like 3 months ago). We saw him sitting outside his house on Tuesday though, so we went up to talk to him. When we got near to him, he got really mad at us, telling us not to bother come and talking to him, that we weren't sincere at all, and that we didn't need to come to see him anymore. We felt really bad, and we could see he was just really lonely and sad, so we did our best to apologize and keep talking to him. We promised him that we would like to come back and visit him again if he would give us one more chance. At first he said no, but after a little more talking and apologizing, he said we could come back the next few days. We went back a few times through the week, teaching him small small, ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon by the end of the week. So we shall see where that goes! He seems to be happy just to have visitors to talk to, so hopefully the Spirit will work within him to help have a desire to learn more.
Wednesday we had a great lesson with the family who came to church last week. It was a great lesson. They came to church again on Sunday.
Thursday was move day, pretty sweet. Like I said... we live in the chapel - how weird is that! And not to brag, but I am fairly certain I live in the only missionary apartment on the face of the earth that has a baptismal font inside!!!!! Pretty sweet huh?! I shall put it to great use! We will have a baptism on the first day Kwamo opens, just like a story book huh?! Planning on at least 4 people - the family we’re teaching, Eric (sweet news with him later in the email), Gilbert (found out he will come back from Volta region this week!), and Elizabeth. So should be sweet!
So now the sweet story about Eric. Man this dude is legit! We couldn't meet him all week because his car broke down and he had to go to Suame Magazine - a GIANT auto shop in Kumasi, it’s like... the size of... like umm, I’m not sure, but its like its own city, just a giant auto repair place - and was there all week. But Saturday we were walking through Kwamo New Site, the far side of Kwamo and we saw his car parked outside a house. We had never been to his house before, we always just met him at the chapel. So we see the car and look at each other both with a "hmmm... I think we should look for Eric" look on our face. And a few steps later, we see Eric sitting outside his house reading his Book of Mormon and Bible. So we go up and talk to him, he was very happy to see us. We sit down to meet, and his wife comes out of the house. She greets us warmly, and we expected to go back and into the house, but without even being invited, she came and sat down for the lesson! Then, their son came back from playing with his friends and sat down for the lesson too. We were pretty anxious to teach a powerful lesson, and think we did pretty well! We did the whole Restoration lesson and were able to help her see the need for a Restoration. We also talked about families and how important those are in the church and to God. Well actually I should say Eric talked about that. So we committed them to read from the Book of Mormon with Eric, and also invited them to come to church with him tomorrow. We weren't too sure if she would come, and when church started on Sunday, Eric and his son were there, but not her. We were bummed, but at least Eric brought his son along. BUT THEN.... just as we were singing the Sacrament hymn, guess who walks in the door?! You guessed it! She did! She wanted to surprise even Eric that she was coming, so she didn't get ready in the morning until after they left in Eric's car. Then she got ready and took a tro-tro to church. It was sweeeet! And they had some sweet discussions in investigator's class. The Relief Society sisters fellowshipped her perfectly, so it was awesome! I had never had a husband-wife family come to church my whole mission, but yesterday, TWO came! It was so cool. And Eric is just there in Elder's Quorum bearing testimony the whole time. It was legit. They were talking about the Word of Wisdom, and he stood up during the lesson and bore serious testimony about how he didn't even know this specific commandment until just then, but he had known it deep inside him his whole life and was so thankful that God let him understand that even before learning the gospel. So his baptism will be 3 July, and if his wife and son progress and keep coming to church, theirs can be then as well!
Cosmos is doing great. You should hear the questions he asks. It’s like God has given him a giant book of questions to ask us, he asks them, then writes down the answer and believes it 100%, and does everything he can to learn more about it himself and apply it in his life. On Saturday we had like an hour and a half discussion about the Plan of Salvation. It was deeeeeeeeeeep-ohhhhhhhhhh. Haha, he knows more about the Plan of Salvation than probably 90% of church members now. And he is just eating it up. He has been seriously studying Gospel Principles as well. He wanted to go to the temple last week to do baptism for the dead - he has gathered info on a bunch of his ancestors - but the ward going didn't have room for him to tag along with their trip. It will probably be good for him to go with Kwamo members.
Well, that’s the sweet news from the week. I am stoked Rory McIlroy won! I told my fellow golfer missionaries this morning that he would win fo sho!
Oh yeah, we had a mini zone conference today. A good-bye to President and Sister Sabey. Pretty weird they are leaving next Wednesday. It was nice. We sang the GCCM song at the end... touching :) I played the piano for it. Messed up a little haha. I am getting rusty. Then we played a full pitch match with President reffing for the last time. It was fun, no score for me, but I am getting better.
Welp.... you guys. You are da BEST! Seriously I love ya love ya love ya! Tell everybody else I love them and that they are great and that I am sorry I can't email them every week, but I am trying to be a good missionary and only email for an hour! That was a bad sentence grammatically I think. Oh well. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Elder Brown
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
June 13, 2011
We took a zone "field trip" for P-Day, went to go see the Barakese Dam outside of Kumasi this morning. It was pretty cool, it was weird to be the one "guided" through something since pretty much every second of my life is spent trying to "guide" people through stuff. But it was cool. A little lake in the jungle, so I got some sweet pics. Now I am just in town sitting in some nice AC! Haha, you always seem to comment about that :)
Welp... it was a good week. Missionary work is divine. I could end there and say I love you, goodbye, but I guess I will give you some more details :) First off, way to go Mavs! But why oh why while I am in Africa do the Rangers and Mavs and whoever else start to bust out??? Oh well, just the blessings of serving a mission I guess.
The Lord is working in wonderful ways in Kwamo. Yes it is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy frustrating not having the chapel finished, but it’s all coming kakrakakra. The investigators we do have our golden, and even though they have to make some sacrifices to come to church, they are doing it.
Now yesterday was probably one of the coolest experiences I have had on mission yet. Church was nice, I was always get a little frustrated at church because I want everything to go perfectly for the investigators. And then after church is just crazy, everybody is asking you a million questions, everyone trying to get you to do this or that, after church I just want to go home and sleep and be ready for P-Day. So it always takes a little extra effort to walk to the bus station to catch a trotro to Kwamo after church. But, we always do somehow! When we get to Kwamo though, it starts to rain pretty hard. Most of the people we had planned to meet that day lived in Ejisu and were going to come meet us in Kwamo, but because of the rain, it didn’t work out. So we basically had the rest of Sunday without any appointments, which is extremely hard since the next day is P-Day and you just want the week to be over with. The last thing you want is just to have to contact for 6 hours to finish the day. So we were down by Alma Bakery talking to a sister about something, but we knew we had to get going to do something. I racked my brain trying to think of someone to go to, and the only one I thought of was an investigator from way back who came to church once with a member in Kwamo, but who we hadn't been able to meet for like a month, mostly because we hadn't met her husband and we didn't want to go visit her in the house alone. I thought "I am sure she won't be home, its awkward if we visit her because we have not met the husband yet, and he probably won't be home either" and tried to think of something else. But the Elder Timothy said, "lets go see her". I still didn't want to, but since I couldn't think of anyone else, I said why not. So we start walking there, in the rain, and I am just trying to think of what to do next since I was sure she wouldn't be there again or her husband wouldn't be home. We got to the gate of the compound and it seemed like no one was home. I stopped at the gate, but Elder Timothy kept walking up to the door. As he got closer, a man came out of the house. A big guy with his shirt off. I thought "crap, we're doomed…" The man went back into the house without saying a word to us, and came back out with a shirt on. I was still thinking we are just doomed. But then he gets this big smile on his face and greets us. We greet him, and tell him we are missionaries from the Church. His smile gets even bigger and says "No way... 15 minutes ago I asked my wife if the Latter-day Saint missionaries were ever going to come to teach us". And that changed everything! We taught the man along with her, and capped it with a perfect placement of The Book of Mormon. He has been searching for truth for a long time. In his own words he said "The Bible is pretty confusing. Someone ordained of God needs to come along to help us to understand it better and to understand God better". Can't ask for a better start to a discussion about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon. So we had an amazing lesson, he said he would read at least the first 10 pages of The Book of Mormon before we met again, and is way excited to learn more. I had been pretty bummed that all of our appointments failed and just wanted to take a break or wait out the rain or something, but the Lord had other plans. Thankfully Elder Timothy knew to speak up when he felt something to do, and thankfully we followed through on it.
Well, that’s the main stuff from the week. I am so excited for all our investigators. Our next baptism will be the 3 July. I got a letter from Elder Nzuki today - 10 people have been baptized in Moree since I left! Way sweet! The chapel should be finished by now from what he said in the letter.
Well, I love you guys, so so much! Keep up all that you are doing, I will do my best here! Thanks for all that you do for me. Happy Father's day again dad, and happy birthday to Grandma H! You all are the best!!
Love,
Elder Brown Akwesi Poku
Welp... it was a good week. Missionary work is divine. I could end there and say I love you, goodbye, but I guess I will give you some more details :) First off, way to go Mavs! But why oh why while I am in Africa do the Rangers and Mavs and whoever else start to bust out??? Oh well, just the blessings of serving a mission I guess.
The Lord is working in wonderful ways in Kwamo. Yes it is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy frustrating not having the chapel finished, but it’s all coming kakrakakra. The investigators we do have our golden, and even though they have to make some sacrifices to come to church, they are doing it.
Now yesterday was probably one of the coolest experiences I have had on mission yet. Church was nice, I was always get a little frustrated at church because I want everything to go perfectly for the investigators. And then after church is just crazy, everybody is asking you a million questions, everyone trying to get you to do this or that, after church I just want to go home and sleep and be ready for P-Day. So it always takes a little extra effort to walk to the bus station to catch a trotro to Kwamo after church. But, we always do somehow! When we get to Kwamo though, it starts to rain pretty hard. Most of the people we had planned to meet that day lived in Ejisu and were going to come meet us in Kwamo, but because of the rain, it didn’t work out. So we basically had the rest of Sunday without any appointments, which is extremely hard since the next day is P-Day and you just want the week to be over with. The last thing you want is just to have to contact for 6 hours to finish the day. So we were down by Alma Bakery talking to a sister about something, but we knew we had to get going to do something. I racked my brain trying to think of someone to go to, and the only one I thought of was an investigator from way back who came to church once with a member in Kwamo, but who we hadn't been able to meet for like a month, mostly because we hadn't met her husband and we didn't want to go visit her in the house alone. I thought "I am sure she won't be home, its awkward if we visit her because we have not met the husband yet, and he probably won't be home either" and tried to think of something else. But the Elder Timothy said, "lets go see her". I still didn't want to, but since I couldn't think of anyone else, I said why not. So we start walking there, in the rain, and I am just trying to think of what to do next since I was sure she wouldn't be there again or her husband wouldn't be home. We got to the gate of the compound and it seemed like no one was home. I stopped at the gate, but Elder Timothy kept walking up to the door. As he got closer, a man came out of the house. A big guy with his shirt off. I thought "crap, we're doomed…" The man went back into the house without saying a word to us, and came back out with a shirt on. I was still thinking we are just doomed. But then he gets this big smile on his face and greets us. We greet him, and tell him we are missionaries from the Church. His smile gets even bigger and says "No way... 15 minutes ago I asked my wife if the Latter-day Saint missionaries were ever going to come to teach us". And that changed everything! We taught the man along with her, and capped it with a perfect placement of The Book of Mormon. He has been searching for truth for a long time. In his own words he said "The Bible is pretty confusing. Someone ordained of God needs to come along to help us to understand it better and to understand God better". Can't ask for a better start to a discussion about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon. So we had an amazing lesson, he said he would read at least the first 10 pages of The Book of Mormon before we met again, and is way excited to learn more. I had been pretty bummed that all of our appointments failed and just wanted to take a break or wait out the rain or something, but the Lord had other plans. Thankfully Elder Timothy knew to speak up when he felt something to do, and thankfully we followed through on it.
Well, that’s the main stuff from the week. I am so excited for all our investigators. Our next baptism will be the 3 July. I got a letter from Elder Nzuki today - 10 people have been baptized in Moree since I left! Way sweet! The chapel should be finished by now from what he said in the letter.
Well, I love you guys, so so much! Keep up all that you are doing, I will do my best here! Thanks for all that you do for me. Happy Father's day again dad, and happy birthday to Grandma H! You all are the best!!
Love,
Elder Brown Akwesi Poku
Thursday, June 9, 2011
June 6, 2011
The Kwamo chapel--almost complete!
Elder Brown & Elder Timothy at one of their recent baptisms--
Wow... is it really June?? Time is quite a thing huh? I really can't wrap my brain about what all has transpired the last year for me... it all seems like a big dream. I mean, I have been in Africa for a whole year... what the heck?! Haha. But anyway enough about that, with God time is naught, and so for me, time is naught right now too!
We had another good week in Kwamo. No big news with transfers. Me and Elder Timothy still together in Kwamo, Elder Kwapong's new companion in the apartment is Elder Leko, from Uganda. He was my old zone leader in Cape Coast. Elder Wiah went down to Assin Fosu, our new zone leader is named Elder Kouakou from Cote d'Ivoire. Other than that, nothing really! Starting to feel older and older on mission as more new guys come. There are about 5 greenies in Kumasi now, saw them all today. So with the 6 from the transfer where I started training Elder Timothy, and the 5 in this transfer, there are quite a few guys less than 4 months on mission in Kumasi. It’s nice to feel a little senior haha.
The week was pretty normal. We were in a threesome with Elder Kwapong for a few days. We gotta get more investigators. But it’s hard because Kwamo chapel is STILL not finished. Man its so frustrating. Tons of people we taught where the teaching just can't go much further because they can't come to church. But, we just do what we can. Our sweet new investigator from last week is awesome. We had a lesson with him this week where we started the Restoration lesson. After teaching about the Great Apostasy, we asked him if he believed that the church was lost. He said at first that no, he believed the church survived because the people had the Holy Ghost. We discussed a little more, talked about the Priesthood, Apostles, Prophets, changing ordinances, etc. And by the end of the lesson he said "Wow, my whole life I had never realized those things... I guess the church really was lost". The next lesson we talked about the Restoration and it was Legit! He came to church on Sunday! :D He has his own car so he can drive all the way to UST. He has an old friend who is a member and they had a great time together at church. I am so stoked to baptize an older guy! I have only baptized like 2 people over 30 haha. Well I guess I shouldn't be premature, but I am pretty sure he will get baptized. He loves the Book of Mormon, is already reading that "Family Guidebook" thing from the church that his friend gave him. He is a serious serious guy!
Thursday we went to Dichemso to do a back-up lesson for our temple goal. President Sabey's last mission goal is to have every missionary prepare one family to be sealed in the temple, I probably told you about that a while back. Luckily the family I prepared in Moree went a few weeks ago, but we haven't been able to find families in Kwamo to prepare. We went to Dichemso to teach a family there. It has been a veryyy difficult goal, because so much depends on the other people and the wards! But we have accomplished every goal with President Sabey, so I am sure with the right amount of work, this one will too. We had a SWEET lesson with a recent convert on Thursday. We were going to talk about missionary work, but he asked about the temple. We had an awesome lesson about the temple. We talked about baptisms for the dead and all that stuff, and he is super excited to go and do the work for his parents who have died. Even said that he will be ready in exactly one year to go for his endowment. Pretty sweet! It could even work out perfect to where maybe when I go to the temple just before I go home, he could come for his endowment, that would be Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
It rained like crazy on Friday. It was actually a nice little blessing though. We were at a recent convert’s house visiting him there. He lives pretty far away from Kwamo, in a town called Okyerekurom. He had not been to church in two weeks, so we were concerned about him. We went to teach him, and the lesson was normal. Then the rain started pounding. We made it underneath a small shack (we were teaching under his mango tree where we always meet) and just sat there with him for over an hour. While we were there we just laughed and talked about random things, we got pretty wet because the rain was so strong, so we were laughing about that, and all the kids running around and playing and such. I think it was the best thing for him. As we just sat there and watched the rain come down, we had a nice, easy, fun time together. And he showed up to church a half hour early on Sunday! So it all works out huh? :)
Life is good! Just pluggin ahead as usual. Kwamo chapel should be open in two weeks... who knows though haha. I am not wearing my Heat shirt at all this week! Go Mavs! Who is their starting five again? The Rangers go the World Series... the Mavs to the Finals... WHILE I AM IN AFRICA!!!! That means, dare I say.... BYU in the... no... yep I guess I will say it... BYU going to the National Championship this year :) Haha. I would be so happy... but so mad! The package last week was bomb. General Conference is da best haha. Thanks for the magazine. Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut spread is THE BOMB!!! wow, so good. Send lots of that :)
Welp... I love you guys. Happy Father's Day, Dad. Love you guys, keep doing great things and telling me about it! I will try to here, somehow, someway!
Love,
Elder Brown Akwesi Poku
We had another good week in Kwamo. No big news with transfers. Me and Elder Timothy still together in Kwamo, Elder Kwapong's new companion in the apartment is Elder Leko, from Uganda. He was my old zone leader in Cape Coast. Elder Wiah went down to Assin Fosu, our new zone leader is named Elder Kouakou from Cote d'Ivoire. Other than that, nothing really! Starting to feel older and older on mission as more new guys come. There are about 5 greenies in Kumasi now, saw them all today. So with the 6 from the transfer where I started training Elder Timothy, and the 5 in this transfer, there are quite a few guys less than 4 months on mission in Kumasi. It’s nice to feel a little senior haha.
The week was pretty normal. We were in a threesome with Elder Kwapong for a few days. We gotta get more investigators. But it’s hard because Kwamo chapel is STILL not finished. Man its so frustrating. Tons of people we taught where the teaching just can't go much further because they can't come to church. But, we just do what we can. Our sweet new investigator from last week is awesome. We had a lesson with him this week where we started the Restoration lesson. After teaching about the Great Apostasy, we asked him if he believed that the church was lost. He said at first that no, he believed the church survived because the people had the Holy Ghost. We discussed a little more, talked about the Priesthood, Apostles, Prophets, changing ordinances, etc. And by the end of the lesson he said "Wow, my whole life I had never realized those things... I guess the church really was lost". The next lesson we talked about the Restoration and it was Legit! He came to church on Sunday! :D He has his own car so he can drive all the way to UST. He has an old friend who is a member and they had a great time together at church. I am so stoked to baptize an older guy! I have only baptized like 2 people over 30 haha. Well I guess I shouldn't be premature, but I am pretty sure he will get baptized. He loves the Book of Mormon, is already reading that "Family Guidebook" thing from the church that his friend gave him. He is a serious serious guy!
Thursday we went to Dichemso to do a back-up lesson for our temple goal. President Sabey's last mission goal is to have every missionary prepare one family to be sealed in the temple, I probably told you about that a while back. Luckily the family I prepared in Moree went a few weeks ago, but we haven't been able to find families in Kwamo to prepare. We went to Dichemso to teach a family there. It has been a veryyy difficult goal, because so much depends on the other people and the wards! But we have accomplished every goal with President Sabey, so I am sure with the right amount of work, this one will too. We had a SWEET lesson with a recent convert on Thursday. We were going to talk about missionary work, but he asked about the temple. We had an awesome lesson about the temple. We talked about baptisms for the dead and all that stuff, and he is super excited to go and do the work for his parents who have died. Even said that he will be ready in exactly one year to go for his endowment. Pretty sweet! It could even work out perfect to where maybe when I go to the temple just before I go home, he could come for his endowment, that would be Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
It rained like crazy on Friday. It was actually a nice little blessing though. We were at a recent convert’s house visiting him there. He lives pretty far away from Kwamo, in a town called Okyerekurom. He had not been to church in two weeks, so we were concerned about him. We went to teach him, and the lesson was normal. Then the rain started pounding. We made it underneath a small shack (we were teaching under his mango tree where we always meet) and just sat there with him for over an hour. While we were there we just laughed and talked about random things, we got pretty wet because the rain was so strong, so we were laughing about that, and all the kids running around and playing and such. I think it was the best thing for him. As we just sat there and watched the rain come down, we had a nice, easy, fun time together. And he showed up to church a half hour early on Sunday! So it all works out huh? :)
Life is good! Just pluggin ahead as usual. Kwamo chapel should be open in two weeks... who knows though haha. I am not wearing my Heat shirt at all this week! Go Mavs! Who is their starting five again? The Rangers go the World Series... the Mavs to the Finals... WHILE I AM IN AFRICA!!!! That means, dare I say.... BYU in the... no... yep I guess I will say it... BYU going to the National Championship this year :) Haha. I would be so happy... but so mad! The package last week was bomb. General Conference is da best haha. Thanks for the magazine. Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut spread is THE BOMB!!! wow, so good. Send lots of that :)
Welp... I love you guys. Happy Father's Day, Dad. Love you guys, keep doing great things and telling me about it! I will try to here, somehow, someway!
Love,
Elder Brown Akwesi Poku
May 30, 2011
Morning! It’s already been a long day for me here in Ghana. Elder
Nathaniel, one of the other Elders in the apartment, finished his
mission, so we had to go with him to the bus station to drop him off
to go to Cape Coast. We had to wake up by like 5 to do that, so we
have been up for a while! So for today and tomorrow Elder Kwapong
(Koforidua, Ghana) will be along with me and Elder Timothy. Elder
Kwapong will know who his new companion is by the end of
tonight - today is transfer today again. Man it feels like I am saying
that every week. Transfers seriously fly by. I am almost 100% certain
I will stay in Kwamo, but you never know I guess. The chapel/apartment
is just about finished, they seriously went to work last week. So
maybe we will move in this week, but we have said that many weeks in a
row now :) But now all the tiling is done, the toilet is installed,
and our sink is there, sooo it REALLY might be this week! Haha. So we
might start church there in the next few weeks. It has been pretty
frustrating proselyting in Kwamo without having the chapel there or
living there. President told me when I was transferred here that we
would move in by the end of March.... we have talked a couple of times
about and he has just told me to keep working, it will all work out.
And we have been really blessed to at least have had these baptisms
the last week. If we can baptize people without having a chapel in
Kwamo, I am sure the work will take off once the chapel is there,
whether I am there or not. But like I said, I figure I will be in
Kwamo for a long while... but we shall see!
So it was a nice week in Kwamo. We were focused on getting Cliff,
Degraft, Cosmos, and Miller already to be baptized and to receive the
Aaronic Priesthood, so we were pretty busy with that throughout the
week. Now we gotta go find some new investigators.... lots of
contacting in the days ahead!!! Oh well, it'll be good for me.
Contacting isn't the most fun or productive activity, but I need a
healthy dose of it right now, we have had pretty full days of teaching
lately, but now the pool is somehow... empty. We have three people with
baptismal dates, but they are people that are we can only meet like
once or twice in a week, so it doesn't take up that much time. Maybe
we will have to do some more work getting the chapel ready this week,
not sure really.
Some random things from the week. First, is on Monday we had FHE at the Timothy's
again. Cosmos came again, and we had another investigator there,
Gilbert, who is Bro. Timothy's brother. Gilbert is the guy who only
speaks Ewe (he is from the eastern part of Ghana, Volta Region - Bro
Timothy is originally from there). He's a way sweet dude, baptism
scheduled for the 18 June (or until Kwamo chapel is open, he wants to
be the first baptized there, since he has helped build it). At FHE they
played the funniest game after. They put a chair in the middle of where
we were sitting, and then one person would leave. Then someone would go
and sit in the chair, then go sit back down again in their original spot. Then the
person would come back and would try to guess who was sitting in the
chair. Gilbert thought it was the funniest thing ever, it was
awesome to see him laugh that hard.
We got a sweet new investigator on Tuesday, named Eric. He is a
referral from the UST high priest's group leader. He used to work for
the ECG (electricity company
of Ghana) as some sort of engineer or something, but he has retired
and after a few years he decided to become a taxi driver. So now he
lives in Kwamo. His taxi rank is right next to the chapel, so
we see him all the time. After teaching him on Tuesday, he came
up to us again that night to introduce us to his son. We are going to
teach him again tomorrow, we will meet his wife too. So we are excited
for him!
Cliff is amazing. I can't even really explain. As we taught him this
week to prepare him for confirmation, I can't believe how prepared he
was. Honestly everything is just unbelievable! I can't even explain.
He has already finished Alma. He is the headmaster of a school, and he told
us that at their PTA meeting, he used the Book of Mormon to settle an
argument between parents. There was some "murmuring" and rumors going
around, so he told the people that Laman and Lemuel had the same
problem, and that we need to learn from them and not murmur about what
comes from those who know what’s best for us. He told them that they
needed to be more like Nephi. Wowzers. This guy got a Book of Mormon
in his hands about 2 months ago. He said all of his teachers are ready
to hear the gospel, so hopefully we will meet them all over the next
few weeks.
So anyway, that’s the big news of the week. Yeah there was tons of rain
this week, the thunder is ree-donk-u-lous here. Honestly just sounds
like bombs going off. It knocked out our power on Thursday and Friday,
didn’t get it back til last night. So we had no water or lights this
weekend, not fun!
So I hope everything is going great as school wraps up, finish strong
H. Glad you returned home safe from the UK mom! Pretty cool you got
a nice little adventure like that. I love you guys, mission is going great, just plugging along as best as I can. Maybe I will be in a new city next week, who knows, but
I really love Kumasi, I love Kwamo, I def don't want to leave koraa.
But we shall see. Love you tonsssss!!!!!
Keep living the good life, aka, after the manner of happiness
-Elder Brown
Nathaniel, one of the other Elders in the apartment, finished his
mission, so we had to go with him to the bus station to drop him off
to go to Cape Coast. We had to wake up by like 5 to do that, so we
have been up for a while! So for today and tomorrow Elder Kwapong
(Koforidua, Ghana) will be along with me and Elder Timothy. Elder
Kwapong will know who his new companion is by the end of
tonight - today is transfer today again. Man it feels like I am saying
that every week. Transfers seriously fly by. I am almost 100% certain
I will stay in Kwamo, but you never know I guess. The chapel/apartment
is just about finished, they seriously went to work last week. So
maybe we will move in this week, but we have said that many weeks in a
row now :) But now all the tiling is done, the toilet is installed,
and our sink is there, sooo it REALLY might be this week! Haha. So we
might start church there in the next few weeks. It has been pretty
frustrating proselyting in Kwamo without having the chapel there or
living there. President told me when I was transferred here that we
would move in by the end of March.... we have talked a couple of times
about and he has just told me to keep working, it will all work out.
And we have been really blessed to at least have had these baptisms
the last week. If we can baptize people without having a chapel in
Kwamo, I am sure the work will take off once the chapel is there,
whether I am there or not. But like I said, I figure I will be in
Kwamo for a long while... but we shall see!
So it was a nice week in Kwamo. We were focused on getting Cliff,
Degraft, Cosmos, and Miller already to be baptized and to receive the
Aaronic Priesthood, so we were pretty busy with that throughout the
week. Now we gotta go find some new investigators.... lots of
contacting in the days ahead!!! Oh well, it'll be good for me.
Contacting isn't the most fun or productive activity, but I need a
healthy dose of it right now, we have had pretty full days of teaching
lately, but now the pool is somehow... empty. We have three people with
baptismal dates, but they are people that are we can only meet like
once or twice in a week, so it doesn't take up that much time. Maybe
we will have to do some more work getting the chapel ready this week,
not sure really.
Some random things from the week. First, is on Monday we had FHE at the Timothy's
again. Cosmos came again, and we had another investigator there,
Gilbert, who is Bro. Timothy's brother. Gilbert is the guy who only
speaks Ewe (he is from the eastern part of Ghana, Volta Region - Bro
Timothy is originally from there). He's a way sweet dude, baptism
scheduled for the 18 June (or until Kwamo chapel is open, he wants to
be the first baptized there, since he has helped build it). At FHE they
played the funniest game after. They put a chair in the middle of where
we were sitting, and then one person would leave. Then someone would go
and sit in the chair, then go sit back down again in their original spot. Then the
person would come back and would try to guess who was sitting in the
chair. Gilbert thought it was the funniest thing ever, it was
awesome to see him laugh that hard.
We got a sweet new investigator on Tuesday, named Eric. He is a
referral from the UST high priest's group leader. He used to work for
the ECG (electricity company
of Ghana) as some sort of engineer or something, but he has retired
and after a few years he decided to become a taxi driver. So now he
lives in Kwamo. His taxi rank is right next to the chapel, so
we see him all the time. After teaching him on Tuesday, he came
up to us again that night to introduce us to his son. We are going to
teach him again tomorrow, we will meet his wife too. So we are excited
for him!
Cliff is amazing. I can't even really explain. As we taught him this
week to prepare him for confirmation, I can't believe how prepared he
was. Honestly everything is just unbelievable! I can't even explain.
He has already finished Alma. He is the headmaster of a school, and he told
us that at their PTA meeting, he used the Book of Mormon to settle an
argument between parents. There was some "murmuring" and rumors going
around, so he told the people that Laman and Lemuel had the same
problem, and that we need to learn from them and not murmur about what
comes from those who know what’s best for us. He told them that they
needed to be more like Nephi. Wowzers. This guy got a Book of Mormon
in his hands about 2 months ago. He said all of his teachers are ready
to hear the gospel, so hopefully we will meet them all over the next
few weeks.
So anyway, that’s the big news of the week. Yeah there was tons of rain
this week, the thunder is ree-donk-u-lous here. Honestly just sounds
like bombs going off. It knocked out our power on Thursday and Friday,
didn’t get it back til last night. So we had no water or lights this
weekend, not fun!
So I hope everything is going great as school wraps up, finish strong
H. Glad you returned home safe from the UK mom! Pretty cool you got
a nice little adventure like that. I love you guys, mission is going great, just plugging along as best as I can. Maybe I will be in a new city next week, who knows, but
I really love Kumasi, I love Kwamo, I def don't want to leave koraa.
But we shall see. Love you tonsssss!!!!!
Keep living the good life, aka, after the manner of happiness
-Elder Brown
May 23, 2011
Morning morning! Glad that life is still going as normal around the
world... there had been a "prophet" in Ghana or Nigeria or somewhere
that prophesied Jesus was coming on 21 May, it was the talk of the
town this weekend in Kumasi. There was a big billboard in Dichemso
that was telling everybody to repent because Jesus was coming on
Saturday, but... I guess he didn't! Haven't seen the billboard again
yet haha. Anyway, ‘twas another great week in Kumasi. Our baptism went
as planned yesterday - four candidates were baptized: Cosmos, Degraft, Clifford,
and Emmanual, plus one from the UST elders. It was a really sweet
baptism. Of course there was craziness before though. We went to fill
the font before church, and the water pump fuse had blown... so the
font wouldn't fill. So we did it the old-fashioned way - fetched water
from a nearby spigot, and carried it to the font! It took the whole of
Sunday School and priesthood, got a serious work out at church! But
then the service was extra nice since I had the satisfaction of having
filled the font myself haha. This baptism was one of my favorites so
far on mission for sure. It is sweet how everything worked out perfectly.
They will all be confirmed this coming Sunday. All of them were
interviewed by the bishop after their baptisms to prepare for the
Aaronic Priesthood - the UST ward knows how to do business!!! We
didn't even have to ask the bishop to do that.
As for the Kwamo chapel, it looks like
we might move in this week! The tilers are busy at work and all that
is left for our apartment is to install the toilet and sink, which
should be delivered to the apartment today or tomorrow. So hopefully
it works for us to move to Kwamo this week! And then probably the
chapel would be finished by the next Sunday for our first Sacrament
meeting - that is if everything goes perfectly. Which it never does, of
course.
Give my congrats to Jake Gwilliam on his mission call, and wow... was
it seriously a year ago we went to the Colonial?? That is crazy. Time
seriously flies. Glad Hayden's spring game went well, even if he gave
up a td to Connor Crane, I remember that guy was tearing it up his
sophomore year though. I've never heard of the guy that is replacing
JW at QB, but I am sure the ol' Wildcats will continue to romp next
year. Crazy to think football will start up again in a few months. Any
big news with BYU football? Did they get any huge recruits?
Hope Mom is doing great in the UK!!!!! Weird that we are in the same
time zone right now! She is probably enjoying fish and chips by the
river or something right now. While I had a nice meat pie under the
African sun for lunch :) Haha. I splurged and bought some sausage to
put in my stew I will make tonight - 5 cedi's for 4 sausages! So they
better be tasty.
So the big news for the week was the baptism. We have three other people with
Baptismal dates now - Gilbert (the guy who only speaks Ewe), Elizabeth, and Josephine.
We had zone conference on Tuesday, it was nice. Big news: President
Sabey got rid of the no-free-meal rule! So now we can take FMs haha.
We talked about asking questions to get to know the people to start
our lessons rather than just making statements. We focused on that in
our teaching throughout the week, and it seriously helps.
So anyway, I love you guys! I figured out a nice African treat last
night - I call it African Milkshakes. You take some gari (processed
cassava powder), and a lot of cocoa powder, and water, then a lot of
evaporated milk, then stick it in the freezer for a little while, and just
before it freezes, you eat it. Tastes a lot like a milkshake! Or what I
remember about a milkshake... haha. So keep having fun in England mom
(me and Elder Mortensen, my bud from Yamoransa apartment - he is in
Takoradi now - were talking about trying to go to the Olympics next
year in London, that would be way sweet!), and don't go too crazy in
Texas everybody else back there! Go eat Mr. Chopsticks and Chipotle
for me this week, and send all of my love and greetings to everyone in
Denton!!!
LOVE,
Elder Kwesi Brown
PS - funny story from the week. We went to watch The Testaments with
one of our investigators this week, Jesse, and when we started the
movie, the English version was not working. French, German, everything
else worked, but not English, it was so weird. He wanted to watch it
really bad though, so he said he would just watch it in French with
the subtitles. But then I thought - well maybe the ASL version will
have the English working, and we can just deal with the little person
in the corner doing the signs. We tried it and the English came, but
the guy doing the signs took up the WHOLE screen and the movie just
played in a tiny box in the corner! It was so funny, but Jesse REALLY
wanted to watch it, so we watched the whole movie that way! It was
awesome!! Haha. Jesse loved it by the way.
world... there had been a "prophet" in Ghana or Nigeria or somewhere
that prophesied Jesus was coming on 21 May, it was the talk of the
town this weekend in Kumasi. There was a big billboard in Dichemso
that was telling everybody to repent because Jesus was coming on
Saturday, but... I guess he didn't! Haven't seen the billboard again
yet haha. Anyway, ‘twas another great week in Kumasi. Our baptism went
as planned yesterday - four candidates were baptized: Cosmos, Degraft, Clifford,
and Emmanual, plus one from the UST elders. It was a really sweet
baptism. Of course there was craziness before though. We went to fill
the font before church, and the water pump fuse had blown... so the
font wouldn't fill. So we did it the old-fashioned way - fetched water
from a nearby spigot, and carried it to the font! It took the whole of
Sunday School and priesthood, got a serious work out at church! But
then the service was extra nice since I had the satisfaction of having
filled the font myself haha. This baptism was one of my favorites so
far on mission for sure. It is sweet how everything worked out perfectly.
They will all be confirmed this coming Sunday. All of them were
interviewed by the bishop after their baptisms to prepare for the
Aaronic Priesthood - the UST ward knows how to do business!!! We
didn't even have to ask the bishop to do that.
As for the Kwamo chapel, it looks like
we might move in this week! The tilers are busy at work and all that
is left for our apartment is to install the toilet and sink, which
should be delivered to the apartment today or tomorrow. So hopefully
it works for us to move to Kwamo this week! And then probably the
chapel would be finished by the next Sunday for our first Sacrament
meeting - that is if everything goes perfectly. Which it never does, of
course.
Give my congrats to Jake Gwilliam on his mission call, and wow... was
it seriously a year ago we went to the Colonial?? That is crazy. Time
seriously flies. Glad Hayden's spring game went well, even if he gave
up a td to Connor Crane, I remember that guy was tearing it up his
sophomore year though. I've never heard of the guy that is replacing
JW at QB, but I am sure the ol' Wildcats will continue to romp next
year. Crazy to think football will start up again in a few months. Any
big news with BYU football? Did they get any huge recruits?
Hope Mom is doing great in the UK!!!!! Weird that we are in the same
time zone right now! She is probably enjoying fish and chips by the
river or something right now. While I had a nice meat pie under the
African sun for lunch :) Haha. I splurged and bought some sausage to
put in my stew I will make tonight - 5 cedi's for 4 sausages! So they
better be tasty.
So the big news for the week was the baptism. We have three other people with
Baptismal dates now - Gilbert (the guy who only speaks Ewe), Elizabeth, and Josephine.
We had zone conference on Tuesday, it was nice. Big news: President
Sabey got rid of the no-free-meal rule! So now we can take FMs haha.
We talked about asking questions to get to know the people to start
our lessons rather than just making statements. We focused on that in
our teaching throughout the week, and it seriously helps.
So anyway, I love you guys! I figured out a nice African treat last
night - I call it African Milkshakes. You take some gari (processed
cassava powder), and a lot of cocoa powder, and water, then a lot of
evaporated milk, then stick it in the freezer for a little while, and just
before it freezes, you eat it. Tastes a lot like a milkshake! Or what I
remember about a milkshake... haha. So keep having fun in England mom
(me and Elder Mortensen, my bud from Yamoransa apartment - he is in
Takoradi now - were talking about trying to go to the Olympics next
year in London, that would be way sweet!), and don't go too crazy in
Texas everybody else back there! Go eat Mr. Chopsticks and Chipotle
for me this week, and send all of my love and greetings to everyone in
Denton!!!
LOVE,
Elder Kwesi Brown
PS - funny story from the week. We went to watch The Testaments with
one of our investigators this week, Jesse, and when we started the
movie, the English version was not working. French, German, everything
else worked, but not English, it was so weird. He wanted to watch it
really bad though, so he said he would just watch it in French with
the subtitles. But then I thought - well maybe the ASL version will
have the English working, and we can just deal with the little person
in the corner doing the signs. We tried it and the English came, but
the guy doing the signs took up the WHOLE screen and the movie just
played in a tiny box in the corner! It was so funny, but Jesse REALLY
wanted to watch it, so we watched the whole movie that way! It was
awesome!! Haha. Jesse loved it by the way.
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