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