November 7, 2011

Life is pretty cool in Sunyani… Elder Hernandez and I are together for the day. Then tomorrow I will head down to Cape Coast with Elder Mapanje for zone leader council. So, should be fun again! This time the assistants are taking us, so it will be a very nice ride without any WWE playing the whole time. As for the week behind us, it was legit as usual. That’s what I have realized out here, that sometimes on Monday you look ahead to the week and wonder how anything productive is going to happen. You have no investigators, you are having different problems to work on but you just do the right things and at least one good thing will happen and the week will be a success. We are teaching this guy named Benjamin. We finished out the Restoration, he is reading the Book of Mormon pretty steadily, and started the Plan of Salvation. His only big concern is about why there is so much suffering in the world. We spent a couple hours over a few days basically talking about that question, and he seems to be getting small small every time we come. The Book of Mormon is so good to use with that (2 Nephi 2), so he is taking it in pretty well. Oh, he even asked us if we have Seventies in the church, so it was pretty cool to explain about how the church is organized. He promised he would come to church... Today we played football with some members. It is a holiday here today (Muslim) so they wanted a rematch versus some team they played a few weeks ago. So we teamed up with the members to play some other people, it was pretty fun. I realized though - bc we weren't just playing with other missionaries - that I am very very very very bad. Wish I was good at football... but oh well! Femi came to the match and was super into it - he is really a part of the branch now. He is committed for baptism the 19 November, so everything should go well with that. Oh, I just met a guy at the bus station who has been to Denton before! How sweet is that! He was a truck driver in the US for 6 years, lived in Tulsa. He even knew Owasso! And of course, he has been to Temple Square, so maybe there is a bit of potential there. His name was Abel, and lives somewhere in Kumasi, so hopefully the missionaries there meet up with him. We had a really good lesson with a family out in Odumase - a pretty busy village on the edge of our area - on Friday night. We hadn't met them in a little over a week, so it took a little while to get the lesson going. We explained about the Book of Mormon, focused on the Restoration, and by the end he was pretty excited to read. They are a sweet family and would be great to have as the church gets started in Odumase. They also promised to come to church.... As for someone who did come to church, a guy named Alfred, he is a sweet sweet guy. He is the friend of Al-Sadat. He came to church, in a suit, on Sunday and even bore his testimony, saying he knew it was the church for him and he just felt like there was so much more to learn here. We haven't gotten to sit down and teach him much - but hopefully this week we can. Al-Sadat said he wants to get baptized ASAP. I went on splits with Elder Obasi on Saturday and it was a really good experience. He is about 6 months out, from Nigeria, a very humble guy that wants to do what is right. We taught some great lessons while we were out there, President Sabey told me that I should pray for miracle when I go on splits with missionaries I am leading, and we definitely had some on Saturday. Had one lesson about the Restoration where the guy, Douglas, mos def felt the spirit super strong, and because I taught it a new way from what he had usually been doing, I could tell Elder Obasi learned a lot about what he could be doing as a missionary. It was sweet, splits are tough and sometimes you are a little unsure about how it might go, but this one was great! Well, time is short today, but everything is going cool! Thanks again for everything, the work is going great, Nkwabeng is progressing nicely and the members are learning well! My regards to everyone back in Denton! Oh one last thing. Got a call last night from Cosmos back in Kwamo. He got the Melchezidek Priesthood yesterday. It is just so fulfilling to hear of things like that happening. To think that 9 months ago I had no idea who Cosmos was, and now to know that he has received the Priesthood and has changed his life completely... it is something. Mission is something... The Gospel is something! And it is true, it for sure is true, and brings the real kind of happiness that everybody wants!!

Love, Elder Brown