July 25, 2011

(Griffin and his new companion Elder Nathan)

Congrats to the H-Man! Another Eagle in the nest from the Brown family :) Haha.... A big MO! (congratulations in Twi, way lame, I know) to (wow I almost typed Elder Brian.... I am way too into missionary mode) to Brian on getting into the Master's program!
So this week was pretty legit. Last Monday was a nightmare trying to get out of town after emailing. We literally waited for 2 hours for a trotro. It was ridonkulous. We will try a new route today. But we got home and had a sweet FHE with the Timothys.

The first full week with Elder Nathan was a roaring success. I was apprehensive about having an oboruni companion again, just not really sure what people think when they see two tall white guys walking around their town everyday. Me and him are mos def two of the top 10 tallest guys in Kwamo, and Elder McFarland haha. But any concerns that might come with that are completely demolished when we teach the way we have been teaching. Man this guy can teach better than just about any missionary I have seen. We have got a lot of potential in teaching if we work hard and find people to teach. We had some awesome lessons this week. Last night we taught Josephine again, we brought the Zolls along and it was perfect. Sister Zoll just gave the perfect teaching and testimony to Josephine, and she absolutely loved it. She said she is about this close (fingers very close together) to being ready to be baptized. We will be happy for that one!

Um... what else.... oh yeah we got a couple of new sweet investigators this week. One is named Sebastian. He is a university student. We contacted him on Elder Nathan's first day here, but couldn't meet him again. We stopped by his house Friday night and we were able to catch him at a good time. We started the lesson and just asked if he had ever had questions about God or about life that he couldn't find answers for. He said that right before we came, he was lying on his bed watching television. He said that right when he was lying there, he kept asking himself "Why I am here?? Where am I even going if I were to die right now??" That is the missionary jackpot!!!!!!!!!! So we had a sweet lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and met him again Sunday night. Serious potential there. Another is named Alfred. Alfred is cool because he doesn't speak English. Or Twi. Or Fante. He is a teacher from Cote d'Ivoire living here to learn English, so he only speaks French. He teaches French at Cliff's school, so he is really close to him. One day he passed us on the road, and in his very limited English said he wanted to learn more. One of our zone leaders, Elder Kouakou, is an Ivorian, so we called him to see if he could come and help. He came and me and him taught Alfred on Sunday. It was sweet, I got to parle le francais petit :) Haha very very small, but Alfred thought it was cool. Just a little "Je sais que le prophete Joseph Smith vu le pere celeste et Jesus Christe" Haha. So that was cool. He said that he had a dream like two months ago that I met him and gave him a pamphlet in French that had a specific date written on the back for a time when we would meet again. At the end of the lesson, I gave him a French Restoration pamphlet with the time for our next meeting - 10:00, Samedi :) - written on the back. He just looked at it and looked at me with an amazed look on his face. Pretty cool!
We split our proselyting area into two so we don't have to cross paths all day. We are taking half of Kwamo, divided at the Kwamo market, all the way out to Ejisu - the eastern half of our area. The other guys are taking Fumesua and Aperade along with the other half of Kwamo. Elder McFarland is excited for Fumesua he said - I haven't proselyted there very much. The division will work really well I think. We will be way more productive in going out to the farther areas like Ejisu, Aperade, those kinds of places. I am way excited for Ejisu. It’s actually a lot bigger than Kwamo, a pretty busy place. So Elder Nathan and I will get to take the gospel there for the first time! Should be fun.

Amanda asked if it is weird having an oboruni companion again. And YES it is! I have been with an African for like... 8 months almost? And now I don't even have one in the apartment. It is weird. The days are just a lot different. I miss having an African companion, you learn new things every hour of the day with them, but having an oboruni is awesome as well. It’s different to train an oboruni too, because you have to teach them how to live here in Africa, which is fun. Like eating fufu haha. Elder Nathan is adjusting really well though. He is such a sweet dude. Honestly... he teaches soooooooooooooo well. There’s no way people can deny what we teach! Every lesson has been so spiritual... it’s been awesome.

Welp. Life is going on well in Kwamo for sure. Can't complain, we have sweet investigators, a baptism planned for 7 August, and Kwamo is shaping into a quality branch - maybe even ward! Who knows, if we work hard it could be soon. An Elder's Q president was called yesterday, as well as RS pres, Primary pres, YM and YW pres, clerk, and a few counselors. I am somehow the acting first counselor to Elder Timothy haha. Not sure if group leaders have counselors, but he said that’s what I am haha. So that’s pretty nice to be able to give my input as Kwamo gets established.

Keep living good lives, I love you guys, you are the best, and I promise I am trying my best out here! Love you guys, and a big ayeeko to the Denton 2nd ward from Elder Brown!

Love you guys!

-Elder Brown

July 18, 2011

Gooday mate!!!! You will get why I open with that in a few lines, but first, since I told you about transfers last week, you can take a sec to guess where I am... Takoradi? Akyease? Winneba? Sunyani? South LA? Any guesses??? Well, if you guessed any of those, you are wrong, because i am still in the wonderful land of KWAMO!!! Thank heavens :) Got a new comp though. I am training again, and I got the sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetest son ever. Holy koala bear this guy is awesome. His name is Elder Nathan, and he is from the land down under! (or as Elder Walter Gonzalez would call it, the down underland... funny thing from when he came to speak to us... too hard to explain haha). So yep he is from Australia and he is the man. He is about 6'3'' and 200+, was a rugby player before mish, and was even training in UFC right before he came out... so I a finally not the tallest guy in my area!! It’s pretty legit. Plus he is not even the tallest guy, because we got two other new Elders to Kwamo, Elder McFarland and Elder Newbold. The former is from New Zealand and was a super good rugby player, he is huge, like 6'4", and the latter is from California. Pretty sweet dudes. It’s weird having four in the apartment! We are having a ton of fun together. This week was pretty crazy with the transfers and those sorts of things, so more on that as the email progresses. But basically I am superrrrrrr happy and excited to have the opportunity to train again and especially with this guy, because he is so excited to be here as well, and we are going to get serious work done.

So I got the call from President that I was training again last Monday evening; I thought I was going to leave in the morning, but as the day progressed, I got the feeling I was going to train again, and this time in my same area. And luckily that happened. Elder Timothy got transferred to Odoben, which is way down south near Swedru. But I actually found out yesterday that he is going to Cote d'Ivoire this week, they are calling all the missionaries back there now. Man I loved that guy. I already miss him and his extremely deep voice!!! Haha. He called me yesterday to tell me he was going off to Cote d’Ivoire.

So Tuesday we had a zone meeting at Dichemso, it was pretty good. Pretty much all of the guys that came in Elder Timothy's MTC group got transferred, four of them are off to Cote d'Ivoire now too. That was an interesting experience having all those guys that were called to Cote d’Ivoire here, but they did well. Tuesday we basically just visited a bunch of people. Oh yeah Monday we did FHE for the first time with Thomas’ family. It was really great. Thomas is going to love doing it. But Tuesday we visited everybody, then Elder Timothy packed at night. We had a nice last night together. Bought some fried rice and chicken, went big, got 2.50 worth!!!! That is like a gourmet meal here haha. Then Wednesday morning, we were off to the STC. Elder McFarland actually came to Kwamo in the morning, because he had just been across Kumasi in Bantama. So it didn't take him too long to get there. Then we went with him to the STC, and Elder Timothy was off. Then we just walked around town all day waiting for the STC from Cape Coast to get there, and finally it did! And off stepped Elder Nathan! He is way excited to be in Ghana, and is already loving it. He is working hard, teaching well, and just being a stud all around. One of the most prepared missionaries I have seen. A bunch of sweet dudes came up to Kumasi this transfer. Most importantly my boy Elder Mortensen!!! I was so happy to see him come off the trotro! He has been wanting to come to Kumasi his whole mission, and now he is finally here! He is out at Abuakwa, but we see each other every P-Day. Other sweet guys that came were Elders Lunt, Thompson, Newbold, Stats, Hailermaeram, and a lot of greeenies. Like 8 people up here are training. 4 of the new guys are polynesians. My son from Australia (his ancestry is Tongan), one from New Zealand, another from American Samoa, and a guy from California who is polynesian. So a lot of big polynesians up here! Haha. They are all loving it. Elder Smith is training again (the guy from California, Elder KiniKini) and so is Elder Rosquist again (Elder Bassey, from Nigeria). Can anyone say AMERICAN football?!?! Haha.

Friday was the first day of proselyting with Elder Nathan, it went well. We have some solid people to teach. Taught Anarfie, he asked us what he has to do to go on a mission.

Church was again.... riDONKuLOUS!!!!!! Holy moly. I taught youth class, and then me and Elder Nathan taught the young women... haha. That was a little interesting, but it was about the Priesthood at least. Elder Nathan ate Fufu for the first time, seemed to enjoy it!

So that’s the basics from the week, we are having good people to teach, and are finding more every day. Today as we were walking to the Cafe, we started talking to a guy name Yaw. Turned out he has lived in the Bronx for 8 years, and is back in Ghana for a visit. He was really interested in our missions, and says that he wants us to come and tell us more. He was with his son who is a university student at Accra, and they both seem like cool dudes! They live in Abrepo, so we will hand them to the missionaries there. Tons of people in Kwamo that need to hear the gospel, and now we have four in Kwamo to get it to them!!!

Welp, I Love you guys!!! So Much! Life is GREAT in Kumasi.

Love,

Elder Brown

July 11, 2011

Wazzup!!! Great to hear from everybody this week, got a lot of emails. Got an email from Andrea, and her keyboard wasn't working so it looked like a 4 year old wrote it haha. So it was fun reading that one :)

The last several weeks have just been crazy, but everything is going on well. Week #2 at Kwamo went very well again, had about 75 people at church on Sunday. Brother Timothy is so serious about this stuff. We had like 4 PECs throughout the week. On Saturday we had the sweetest meeting. We just discussed about the program for Saturday and people who could fulfill callings, and about activities and stuff we should do. But then at the end, he just started talking about how he joined the church and the journey he has taken through life. Pretty amazing. Something special IS happening in Kwamo!!!! He interviewed people yesterday to be: Elder's Q prez, RS pres, YM prez, YW prez, SS pres, and Prim prez, and he will have a counseler and a clerk in the next few weeks as well. That’s pretty legit if you ask me! :)

Eric and Thomas were confirmed yesterday, I got to confirm Thomas, we had a member confirm Eric. These two guys are both so serious.

Church just about drained every ounce of mental energy I could possibly procure out of my being. Busy from 7:30 - 9 setting up for church. Then I played the piano at church, and also gave a talk. Which I had no time to prepare for, I completely winged it, but luckily I am pretty good at that. But winging it makes your mind go a little crazy! I spoke about agency, because Bro. Timothy followed me with the Plan of Salvation, so I thought it would fit in well. Then, I had to teach youth class, which I also winged. Just opened up my scriptures to John 17 and went from there haha. So that finished, and then we had Priesthood. I thought someone
was assigned to teach, and there was someone, but guess who? Yep... me. So I winged it for the third time in three hours! Bro Timothy told me the lesson was ch 30 from Gospel principles, so I just went from there, it was about charity. you know how I love charity, so I had fun with that! :) Used my boy Moroni over and over. I guess I did ok winging it again haha. Luckily some guys gave a lot of input, so that was helpful. Oh, and top of all this, guess who came to church at Kwamo?! President and Sister Shulz and the APs!!!! My head was going to explode!!! But, I guess everything went ok. Had 75 people at church, 15 investigators, 2 people got confirmed, and we taught a lesson afterwards to Lizzy, who committed to be baptize 24 July. Entered the apartment around 2 o clock, ate a huge plate of rice, and
zonked on the bed for like 30 minutes. Then.... out the door to proselyte :) Mission is a wonderful ride!

So.... today is transfers... Calls will come later today.

We had interviews with President and Sister Shulz on Friday. They are way sweet. Sister Shulz reminds me of Sister Cochran a lot - just super happy to be doing what she is doing, excited about it, and wants everybody else to be excited about it. And President Shulz is really
funny, but also super serious. Sat down for the interview and he got right down to the point. "So.. Elder Brown. Are you a good missionary?" Pretty serious first question! Haha. Hard to answer that one, but I just said that I am trying my best! It was a sweet interview. This is his fourth mission... wowzers! He knows what he is doing for sure.

So anyway, the time is far spent. Life is going on great, Oh yeah, we got the packages you sent. This was the best package yet. Also got one from Grandma H - Pretzel M&Ms are da bomb! Also got the letter from the Housleys - it seems that Bro Housley was the one I met at the temple in Dallas when I was going for the first time. They had a SERIOUS impact on Kumasi. Honestly got everything started here. Even in Kwamo branch there are people who were taught by the Housleys. Also got letters from my boy rupes in Chile, one of my boyz from BYU. His real name is Elder Myres. And one from Mom with H’s High Adventure pics, lookin’ like a S-T-U-D!!!!

Love you guys!!!! Pray that I am still in Kumasi next week! But, I'll go where He wants me to go ;)

-Elder Brown Kwesi Poku

July 4, 2011

What a week! Things were pretty crazy, but everything seemed to go ok. Still a little rattled at this point... but things are going on. So... well today we had a nice relaxing activity at Bantama chapel. Watched a movie about the church in Africa, called Pioneers of Africa, basically the same stories from the article I found before mission about the history of the church in Africa by a former mission president named Dale Lebaron. So that was pretty cool, always cool to hear the stories and trials and miracles that happened, and see how big things are even still happening now.

Well, of course the main news from the week was yesterday, so I guess I will spend the most time on that. Alright, let me try to gather my mind around all that happened.... well during the week we made the final preparations for the chapel opening. Prosper came by and we helped to do some last minute work and such. Saturday we had chapel cleaning, had a great turn out from the members. About a dozen or so people came, including some investigators and we were able to get everything looking fresh and clean for church on Sunday. We started filling the font in the morning, and it started to fill fine, but when it got to about a foot deep... it wouldn't fill anymore... So.... me and Elder Zoll got to work trying to figure out the problem (more on Elder Zoll later, he and Sister Zoll are awwwwesome). The drain was seeping a little, the plumber didn't put the gasket in.... goodness gracious! So we took a plastic bag and maneuvered it in the drain to make it slow up a little. Which worked a little, allowing it to fill, but it would still drain slowly. When we got home on Saturday night, the font was almost empty. Filled it again before we went to sleep, figuring we could top it off in the morning. But we woke up in the morning... and it was completely empty. So we spent an hour bucketing water in while it was also filling with the pump, and luckily it was full just in time for the baptism. No baptisms ever go without a hitch.

So back to church. I was pretty anxious all week. . So I was trying all week just to keep things moving and in order. Sunday came and I woke up pretty nervous and anxious. We asked some members to help out with stuff like teaching Sunday school and primary, and they were serious about it, so that made me pretty happy. Some young men were at the church at 7:30 because I told them to be there early to be ready for the Sacrament, I was expecting maybe 8:45! People started showing up around 8:30, Bro Timothy and his family were there nice and early. Church started at 9 with the chapel about halfway full, a fine turn out. About 40 people or so at first. By the time the Sacrament started though, there was about 80 people there. That’s a lot of people. Our church isn't that big. Most of the new groups like Kwamo avg about 25-30 people. But people seriously came! It was exciting to see. We had 20 investigators there! It was legit It was sweet, out investigators class was overflowing. Seemed like they all had a good time too. We even had an oboruni investigator, her name was Suzy, she had just come here from Austria to be with her husband who just came back to Ghana from Austria. So I even had a white investigator come to church :) I taught the youth class, it was a nice break for me. Funny that teaching a class is a break, but it seriously was. I didn't have to worry about anything for a few minutes except to teach the youth that God has a body. I completely winged it haha. Opened up to John 17:3 and went from there. I had NO time to prepare a lesson thoughout the week. Glad I can do things on the fly pretty well :) Then the baptism of course! It was super hectic again, seemed like a billion people were there, and all of them needed to ask me a question. I have never heard my name called so many times in a period of 3 hours. Luckily the font was full, we got Eric and Thomas changed into their clothes, as well as Cosmos. Oh ps - Cosmos gave the most awesome testimony ever yesterday. Man you would have thought he had been a member for like 10 years. The stake president was very impressed! Oh yeah, the stake president also called Bro Timothy to be the group leader. Thankful for that. We had our first meeting after church, and he is so excited to get started. We are already having our first activity tonight, a ward FHE. The Stake President said when he spoke that if we keep working hard in Kwamo, in the next few months, we could qualify to be a ward. Wow! We got work to do :)

So Cosmos baptized Eric and Thomas. They were both so ready and so excited for the baptisms. And both of their families are looking good to follow in the next few weeks as well. Thomas' wife Patricia and their two daughters always come with them, and Eric's son Sammy always comes to church, and his wife Comfort always loves it when we come to visit. Then we had a nice day of proselyting after church.

Welp, we are going on in Kwamo. We will have interviews with the President Shulz on Friday, it will be cool to meet him. Crazy to think the Sabey's are enjoying Olive Garden and paved roads in the states again... Oh yeah the Zolls! The Zolls are so tight. They came to our church yesterday, and were a big help. We had them give talks on baptism and the holy Ghost. It will be sweet having them in our district, their assignment is to help out with the groups like Kwamo, so they will be a huuuuuuuuuuge help. They are coming to our ward FHE tonight to show a movie.

SOOOOO, I love you guys, and sounds like you are doing great! Hope H's job goes well, sounds like a pretty sweet gig. He will be well known all over town! I have heard of that Chuy's place before from someone. Oh yeah, at the P-Day activity today, Elder Zoll brought his projector and Macbook to show the video... and before he started, he accidently pressed play to the BYU-Utah highlights from last year... Made me so frustrated just watching the highlights (although I wasn't really watching, they just happened to be playing in the same room I was in :) Haha. But man oh man I can't wait to see a football game again! It was so crazy seeing it haha. The work is going on great, have another baptism scheduled for the 24 July (Happy 4th of July!) and things should take off in Kwamo with the chapel open and a serious group leader called!!!! The church is very very true, and God is real. Love you guys

-Elder Brown