January 30, 2012

Ayeeeekoooooo. Life is moving on in Sunyani. Elder Speechly's last week... pretty crazy to send a guy home like this. It’s been awesome, but it just makes me think about my mission a lot and how I want to end and everything. He's really happy with how everything has gone. I am just glad he could put up with me and have a good time his last few months. We have a got a pretty packed week planned, so it should be a pretty amazing last few days for him. That’s all I will really be focused on this week, making sure he has the best time he possibly can - and for the right reasons! He told President in our interviews last week that he is going as happy as he could be, and President thanked me for helping him with that. Well, the sweetest day of the week was Thursday, I will just focus on it for the email. So it started off with interviews with President Shulz. The interview was great, encouraging as always. While the interviews were going, the assistants and Sis Shulz talked to us for a little while. The assistants instructed about Charity. They used my scripture - Moroni 7:45 - so at least I taught Elder Adams one thing :) Of course, charity is my favorite Christ-like attribute, so it was a powerful instruction. After that, Sis Shulz talked about our new mission "theme" or "motto" or whatever you want to call it - "Forever Strong". It’s pretty sweet, we watched that movie at our Christmas Devotional, and everybody really liked it a lot, so President and Sis Shulz thought it would be a great motto for our mission. It'll be a great thing for everybody to remember. So we got a kente bookmark that says Forever Strong on it. I love this mission.... it’s hard... so flipping hard! But I absolutely love it, Ghana Cape Coast Mission..... Oh and that’s so tight Keegan is going to Mozambique! I honestly knew he was going to Africa! Seriously.... I can already see it, Christmas time, H opening his calling ....."Ghana … Mission". Honestly I would cry. We are an African people, I am telling you! So Congrats Keegan!!! AYEEKOO!!!!!!! Alright so after interviews, I got to go on splits with Elder Adams. That was awesome. It was like we were never not companions. Just walking out in Odumase with him, just like old times... it was kinda surreal. It’s weird that we are at the points of our mission that we are at. Him going home... me seeing the end coming.... it was sweet. We taught Atta together, it was a great lesson - like I said, it was like we just picking up where we left off, except this time with him as an assistant and me as a zone leader. We've really grown up huh?! So then we met back up with Elder Speechly who was with the other AP - Elder Hair. They were at a basketball court at the Roman Catholic church in Odumase, playing BBall with a few people (one of whom was an Australian atheist who we had a good chat with). So of course... we had a quick game of 2-on-2. Elder Adams and Elder Speechly vs. me and Hair. Everybody was watching, we were just playing in our missionary clothes, and it was just sweet! The pic I attached is of the four of us (Hair - Speechly - me - Adams) right after we played. And then we jetted off to teach Ivy, the powerful new investigator we have. Since we had the APs truck, we decided that Adams and Speechly would stay and teach Ivy and her family while me and Hair ran back to Nkwabeng to teach Effah there. So we left and taught Effah about Our Purpose in life - another great lesson - and then headed back to Odumase to pick them up from Ivy's house. We got to the house and found them having just finished the lesson, and all of them were coming out with teary eyes and the biggest smiles on their faces. The first thing Elder Speechly said when I saw him was "bro... that was the most powerful lesson of my mission…." They taught her about the Restoration, and when they asked her about how she felt about it, they said that she just paused and sat in silence for like 2 minutes, and finally, all she could say was "I'm touched....". So then both Adams and Speech starting bearing their testimonies, telling her how they were going to finish their missions and go home next week, and they both started crying!!!!! She promised that she would come to church on Sunday, and bring the whole family, and have Adams teach her husband who was in Cape Coast on business. She did come to church, brought the whole family, and things are looking amazing. It’s so sweet that they had that experience together. The Lord really loves us out here.... he knows how hard missions are, and it was amazing to see how much he blessed Adams and Speechly to have that experience together their second to last week in the field. It was just awesome. So, life is great. These last few months have been some of the greatest times of my mission, and I owe a lot of that to Elder Speechly. I love that guy! I know the Lord loves us, and that when we put our trust in him, even if it takes two years, He will bless us more than we can imagine. I know Elder Speechly and Elder Adams felt that on Thursday, and I know that if I keep going strong, I am going to have that too. Love you guys so much. Congrats to J and Marnie!! Congrats to Keegan!!!!! AYEEEEEKOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Another BROWN in AFRICA!!!!!!! WAYADEAEH!!!!!!!!! Love, Elder Brown