December 26, 2011

Because we talked to Griffin yesterday, there wasn't a "real" email for today :)

December 19, 2011

As for the week, it was legit as usual, great experiences once again. The highlight was the baptism Saturday night, it was a way powerful baptism. The baptism was for Stavoca, as well as for Johnson. Stavoca has such a strong testimony, it is sweet. Every time we taught the days before the baptism, she was just so stoked for it. She has been telling all of her friends about the church, she is already calling it "her" church, it’s so tight. Then Johnson is just a stud young man who has a lot of potential. The baptism was really spiritual! We had it at 7 PM, so it was dark outside, and since we don't have an indoor font, we used our portable one outside. It is the Hamatan season right now - the season where sand from the Sahara blows down into the southern parts of West Africa, which makes it somehow cold at night. (Alright cold isn't very accurate, but let’s just say I don't sweat when I sleep!!!) So in the night it felt really good, probably in the 70s somewhere, and so when we all went outside for the baptism, it just felt so cool. Then, everyone was completely silent for the ordinances - usually there are babies crying or people whispering or whatever, but this one was completely quiet. So we had the stars overhead, and clear black night, and it was somehow cold, and the ordinances went off perfect! It was probably the most spiritual baptism I had. Walking back home after, Elder Speechly and I just had the biggest smiles on our faces and we just kept talking about how awesome everything is here. We both just couldn't stop talking about how much we love Africa... and it’s true, this place really is something. So that was the focus of the week, we were busy preparing them and making sure everything was ready the whole week, and then had a lot of good teaching in between as well. What else from the week.... everyone is travelling for Christmas... which stinks, but oh well. We will be super bust in January because all of our recent converts will come back. They have all either been gone or will be gone the next weeks, so January we will be busy working with them. I went on splits twice this week, Wednesday with Elder Robert (Nigeria) and Friday with Elder Iziegbeaya (Nigeria). I love splits because you get to know the other elders so much better. Obviously working with your companion is the most important, but being able to spend a whole day with them was great. They are both great missionaries. Both young on mission (Elder Robert 6 months, Elder Iziegbeaya 3) and they are both doing great. They both have great companions who are teaching them well. Had great days with both of them, taught a lot and found a lot of new people with them. Had 4 new investigators when Elder Iziegbeaya came - one of whom I contacted on Wednesday with Elder Robert, and he had read the entire Restoration pamphlet three times before we even came on Friday, and wanted a Book of Mormon the second we were there. It was a sweet lesson, have another appt with him on Tuesday, hopefully all goes well! Confirmations went great on Sunday, and everything is going along well. Oh yeah, had a sweet sweet meeting with Al-Sadat on Thursday. We are doing our best to meet all of the recent converts (all of the members! haha) every week to help continue to go strong, and so this week we had a good meeting with Al-Sadat. Anyway, all is sweet in Sunyani. We came to Kumasi today for a football match, it was at Kwamo. Got to see some of my old peeps. Elder Nathan is doing great. We are having our Christmas party on Friday, it’s gonna be sweet. Well my family, I love you and I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. Its going to be a great Christmas season here, I hope you enjoy in NYC, love you guys! Merry Christmas! Afehyia paa!!!! -Elder Brown Merry Christmas from Elder Brown to everybody in Tejas!!!!

December 12, 2011

Ayeekooooo. Man weeks just fly so fast here.... seems like every day is Monday and I am starting a new week! This past week was pretty crazy, just with going to Cape really. Left early Tuesday morning, made it to Kumasi around 10. Then waited with the Kumasi zone leaders for the STC bus. Our group of zone leaders up here is so tight: Elder Briggs (UT) and Elder Hernandez (UT) are the Bantama zone leaders. They are both really cool. Elder Alba (UT) and Elder Hailermariam (Ethiopia) are the Dichemso ZLs. Me and Elder Alba have been around each other our whole mission so we are pretty tight, and Elder Hailermariam is so tight. He knew Pres and Sis Andrus in Ethiopia, said he got an email from them last week. Then of course me and Elder Speechly. So we had a fun ride down. We had a super nice bus with these big leather seats that reclined super far, so it was pretty comfortable! Got to the mission home pretty early, like 5, and just got to chill the rest of the night with the assistants and Pres and Sis Shulz. Then we had ZL council in the morning. Talked about a lot of stuff, how we are coming along on our goals, how our efforts to have more gospel conversations with new people are going, and several other things. Then, headed back up to Kumasi. It took us fo eva to get back too because we took a different way, went through a gold mining town called Obuasi and ran into traffic. Didn't get back to Kumasi until like 7 so we had to stay the night at Bantama apartment. Slept on the floor in their living room. Also stopped by the Zoll's apartment to drop some stuff, love da Zolls!!!!!! They had a huge baptism this week for some people out in a tiny mission branch way far from Kumasi that hasn't had missionaries in like a decade. Some members there have been teaching people and finally got the ok to baptize them, so Elder Zoll was in charge of getting like 30 people out there baptized last Saturday. Finally got back to Sunyani Thursday morning. We are preparing two people for baptism this Friday. They were supposed to be baptized on Christmas, but they are both travelling for Christmas and want to be baptized before they go. The first is Johnson who I told you about last week, the other is a sweet lady that Joseph referred to us. She has really started to love the Gospel. She came to church like 3 weeks ago, and we have been teaching her since. Her daughter asked us for a copy of the children's hymnbook because she likes Primary so much. She is super super shy but is the cutest little girl ever, we should baptize her with her mom on Saturday as well. Saturday we were able to bust out a solid day. Had a few new investigators, met with the ones being baptized, and made a lot of new contacts. That’s like my favorite thing now, finding new people. Just talking to anyone and everyone to be able to let them know who we are. I never really contacted a lot my whole mission because we had people to teach and I would just go from appointment to appointment, but now we are way more focused on trying to talk to more people, it makes everything more exciting and fun. You never know who you might find! In the morning we fixed up the Bennet's old place because Pres and Sis Shulz were coming up, so they needed a place to sleep. They were coming up to check on Sunyani, do some temple and priesthood interviews, have a training meeting with the Branch Presidencies, and a meeting with the missionaries, oh and interview all the missionaries. Talk about a busy man...... I can't believe how much he goes through…there are 150 missionaries in our mission. So Sunday was cool, a lot of craziness with President being around, all of the members were excited. Our meeting was really really good. As I’ve said before, President is a very inspired man. He gave a sweet instruction about how important our message is, going deep deep into the plan of Salvation, about what it really is we are helping people to know, and then went into how we had to be the best we can to help people learn about that plan. After that instruction, I finally got to have an interview with President. It was really good. The work is not easy in Sunyani....and so it was just nice to sit down and talk about whatever and just know that you are appreciated by someone. He placed a lot of emphasis on my family and education. It was a sweet interview. Played basketball this morning with Elder Adams before he and his new comp - Elder Hair (Illinois) headed back to Cape, and now just enjoying my last moments of P-Day. Mission is sweet and great things are happening. I have gotten a lot of packages, one from Greg and Mindy and the Christmas box from you guys, and two envelopes from Grandma H. Crazy how close Christmas is. Love you guys, -Elder Brown

December 5, 2011

Maaaakyioooooooooooo!!!! Mpaakyew wapumtesen?!! Mennin se bibiara bohkoh. Life is cool in Sunyani town.... Sunyani is so tight. It’s not big by any means. The town center is busy, but you can walk from one side to the other in like 15 minutes. Kumasi was just gigantic, so it’s cool to have this smaller scale place to serve in. Before I forget, Happy birf to H!!!!! That’s crazy..... wowzers. Things are moving along huh?! As for this week deea... it was sweet! We had FHE with a family and it was tight, talk about delicious fufu!!! We played gospel pictionary with them. Funny what little games like that do!!! Sweetest thing about the week: I have become a reggae artist. Remember the recent convert who joined the church after meeting a member on FaceBook? Well, he turns out to be an aspiring reggae musician. I mentioned that I wanted to do a musical number for the party at Christmas, and he was like yeah, I want to too. So we decided to have a jam sesh and it was so tight! He is seriously good! He has got soul, which is all that really matters, especially in Reggae! So he plays the little drum thingy - a gimbay? - and I play the guitar and we both sing. We had like 4 jam seshs last week. Haven't had a serious jam sesh fo eva!!!! So it’s tight to be able to do that and it actually be ok for a missionary to do! So far we have a sweet version of The First Noel down, as well as Joy to the World and Angels We have Heard on High. We have even started to make good friendships with some of his rasta buds because of it (he was super rasta before he was baptized). One of my favorite people right now is a recent convert named Joseph. He recently saw the missionaries, called out to them, and completely changed his life. Now he has such a strong testimony, is doing his best to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, and is referring people to us left and right. hmm..... what else. Went out to a place like an hour outside Sunyani, called Berekum. It was a pretty big place, untouched by missionaries. It is about half the size of Sunyani I would say. It would be cool to go open that place up! We have some solid investigators that are progressing, have a baptismal date for Christmas with a guy named Johnson!! We'll have a white Christmas in Sunyani!!!! So, can't really think of much else. Serving in Sunyani is as awesome as ever. Tomorrow we go down to Cape for ZL council. I'll see my boy Nzuki!!! I love that guy. Probably the biggest thing I learned this week was something I talked about in my farewell talk, but this week it just rang so true. I read that quote from Ezra Taft Benson again, the one about how Christ changes people from the inside out, while the world tries to fix problems from the outside in. It’s crazy.... every day I walk through some pretty big problems that are just unsolvable. Poverty, societal problems, corruption, politics, etc. Some people get mad at us that we are trying to change people before we try to help with all of these big big problems that are around us. But that’s the thing.... Christ didn't come to the earth to fix all of the problems with human society. He came to change people, one by one, which then allows the world to change. It’s not about fixing all of the huge problems around us, it’s about helping people, one person at a time, to find happiness and righteousness and charity. Then the world can change. My man Tom Delonge said something like "if you change the world around you, you can change the world itself." Being in some hospitals this week, seeing some other problems, and having people say some things to me made me realize that this work really is the greatest work in the world, even if other people can't see it. We might not be erecting highways and hospitals and destroying poverty. But we are helping people bring themselves to a better state of being, one by one. So, the problems will always be there, but the gospel is still true. Love you guys!!! -Elder Brown