February 27, 2012

The week in Sunyani was as sweet as ever, a lot of great experiences happened for me this week. I am realizing just as with every companion I have had how inspired it has been to have me and Elder McFarland as companions. We are learning a ton from each other. We definitely have things we have to do to lead the zone well, and I feel like the missionaries really feel our love and our concern about their welfare and about the work, and it is helping things enormously. And we are having a great time between the four of us in the apartment - me, Elder McFarland, Elder Brown, and Elder Nwatu. The rest of the transfer is gonna be powerful!!!!! We have just been all over the place teaching this week, we have been so crazy busy, and it’s been the best kind of busy. We have appointments from 10 to 8 every day, and even have more people that we are supposed to be seeing that we just can't find enough time for. We have a lot of recent converts we're working really hard to keep going strong - Effah, Atta, Francis, Voca, Richard, etc. - and so that takes a lot of our time with teaching too. I honestly feel like we don't have a free moment through the days. So it is sweet to be that busy, don't ever have to worry about not having things to do or whatever. Appiah is still our stud investigator. We had some great lessons with him this week. It’s funny, because when we go to teach him, we always have stuff planned out to teach him - the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, whatever - but we never get to it because he has tons of questions and when we do teach something, he just wants to know everything about it. Like this week we had like 3 lessons about the temple. Now he is super stoked to go, we even gave him the "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple" pamphlet. It’s been cool. He is ready to be baptized this Saturday. Remember Barnabas and Felicia? We haven't taught them in forever, but we dropped by their house on the way to Ema & Rita's place and they were in. We made an appointment to come by again and we had a sweet lesson with them. We had a good lesson about how when we show faith, the Lord provides for us. We had another sweet lesson with them last night where we read Alma 32, he really liked it, and I think it will help them have the faith to come to church next week. Kweku came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Rasta man came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He seriously did!!!!!! I was so flippin happy. It was about 15 minutes into church, and I look back to the gate, and see a guy walkin in with huge dreads, a full bushy beard, wearing shorts and a t-shirt and flip-flops and I knew exactly who it was!!!!! It was so tight!!! Seriously, I was so happy. His best friend is Wilson, so Wilson should be able to help him, but I was just so stoked to see him at church. Ya Man!!!!!! Jah Bless!!!! (We had 10 other investigators at church on Sunday..... me and Elder McFarland are gonna DO WORK!!!!) Well Saturday was the sweetest day of the week. We started off by heading out early to help with the chapel cleaning. We went there to find Pres Owusu doing it by himself. So we helped for an hour or so. After we asked if we could have a few minutes to talk to him about a few things. After that meeting, we rushed off to see Appiah. We had like 20 minutes to shower, change our clothes, eat, and ride our bikes to his place, and somehow we did it. During that whole 20 minutes I just felt so good. I had so much energy and such a desire to get to Appiah as fast I could so we could teach him what he needed to hear. We got there and started our planned lesson about the Plan of Salvation. It started fine, and then he asked a question about why there has to be poverty - that he thinks that is keeping more people from worshipping God than anything else. It was tough answering it. But basically we just said that God knows us perfectly, he has put us in these situations for a reason, and that we all have our own duties to perform. We talked about how it doesn't matter if God asks us to sacrifice our strength by walking an hour to church because we don't have money for a car, or if he asks us to pick up and leave for two years to Ghana - it is the same. As I was talking about how it was hard for me to pick up and leave on a mission like that, I could really feel him understanding what life is really all about. It was mos def one of the strongest feelings of the Spirit I have ever felt on mission - and he was mos def feeling it too. It was one of the sweetest lessons I have had. And that just made everything better! I have more energy now then I have had my whole mission, and I can't wait to finish this better than anyone has ever finished. It’s not gonna be easy koraaaa but Imma try!!!!! Well I love you guys!!!!! So so much! Thanks for everything, I couldn't do it without you, and keep being the best!!! I love you! -Elder Brown

February 20, 2012

Ayeeeko. Congrats to the H-Man!!!!!! The Browns are gonna destroy Provo, because you know how crazy me and H are... haha. And yep, the mission is splitting! So get ready to be one of the first in the Ghana Kumasi Mission Hayden!!!!! Haha that would be so tight. Elder Adams' bro got his call a few weeks before he left to Paris - funny how two brothers can be so different. It'll be sweet to see where H will be off to. They told us at the end of ZL Council that the mission is splitting in July. It will be what we have in our mission right now in Kumasi and Sunyani, plus a small part of Accra mission - a city called Konongo. It will be interesting, since that means there will only be 1 stake (Kumasi) and 1 district (Konongo) plus a handful of mission branches (Sunyani, Bibiani, etc) for one mission. Hopefully that means we will be able to start going to northern Ghana in the next few years - up to Tamale and places like that. So it will be interesting to see what all happens leading up to the split and everything (they said they might announce the Kumasi mission president this week - let me know if you see that), but hopefully I just get to stick up here in Sunyani and watch the sunset... Life has been good the past week, I have just been soooo tired. I can't even describe how tired I have been.... it’s been ridonkulous. Sometimes I feel like I can't function properly. But, I guess that’s just part of the work. Our trip to Cape was an adventure. Long bus rides as usual. Both the rides to Kumasi and to Cape were pretty rough this time around.... but we got to Cape safely and had a nice meal of chili for dinner. Then we just chilled at the mission home - he even let us watch a movie - the Errand of Angels - about sister missionaries.... ha :) ZL Council itself was cool too, more good information - President's job is not easy at all!! Man oh man.... he is doing well, seriously. Anyway, the meeting was cool, and just as it was finishing, that’s when President announced the split. He is sad to see it split (he and Sis Shulz served a couples mission in Kumasi 10 years ago), but I know he is relieved - having a mission this big has been tough I am sure - 160 or so missionaries and it takes him a whole day to drive from Cape to Sunyani (on absolutely terrible roads). Now the waiting begins to see which missionaries end up where. The worst part about the trip to Cape was that we had to take a trotro from Cape to Kumasi..... a trotro!!!!!!!! It was pretty terrible, but we survived. Basically it was 4 hours on a rickety mid 90s 15 passenger bus with absolutely no leg room or personal space... but no wahala!!!!!! Bibiara bokoo!!!! We made it to Kumasi safely, and since it was like 8 at night, we spent the night at the Zoll's place - gotta love the Zolls!!!!!! They are pretty amazing people, and treat the missionaries way too well! They were heading up to Sunyani to clean the Thayne's (the new couple) apartment, so we got to hitch a ride with them, which was much better than a trotro :) They were cleaning the Thayne's place, because they are getting here on Wednesday. It’s gonna be pretty sweet! They are from St. George and are going to be such a big help up here. Just in training the branch presidencies and what not, they are going to have a really big impact. We have a few solid people right now, we had like 8 people come to church on Sunday, a lot of them had come for the first time visiting with their friends though. So hopefully we can turn them into new progressing investigators this week. Our best guy right now is named Appiah, an older man about 55-60 or so. He is scheduled to be baptized on 3 March. We had a good discussion with him about the Book of Mormon on Saturday, and also met his wife who is currently living in, guess where, Kwamo!!!!! Haha that’s so funny, both me and Elder McFarland were there, and she just happens to be living there. Well, all is awesome here, I love Ghana. Mission is great, thanks for your support, congrats again to H, and I love you guys seriously!!!! -Elder Brown

February 13, 2012

Wow, sorry I didn't email last week! I thought I got something small off to you, but it looks like it didn't send. Last week we dropped Elder Speechly off really early, so I was with Elder Brown and Elder Robert all day. I got my new comp! It’s Elder McFarland from back in Kwamo!!! Pretty sweet huh?! So I got another companion from another different country - he's from New Zealand if you remember. It’s pretty sweet being companions - he is one of the hardest working missionaries in the mission, so he will keep me going strong. So it’s been way cool the last few days just getting right at the work. He is super excited about the work here in Sunyani, and we are both ready to go out and get the work going as strong as ever. So Elder Speechly's last week was pretty dope. We were busy preparing for the baptism, so that was really good to be able to have him focus on something those last few days. The baptism was for Francis, Atta, and Effah. All really solid guys - Atta is so awesome. He is the 70 year old man that is just so funny. He was so stoked for the baptism, and just loves the church, so we are excited to see him keep progressing. Effah is also super excited about the church, he comes to chapel cleaning, and is already coming with us to teach investigators and is just ready for more and more - he told us he wants to go to the temple by the end of this month. Pretty legit! And then Francis is about 20 years old and is a footballer, he plays in a tournament this weekend that we might try to go see. The baptism went off well, in fact even better than just well, we had a fireside along with it, and it was great. About 60 people came, probably about 20-30 were investigators from the 4 different branches in Sunyani. We had 3 recent converts from 3 of the branches give their conversion stories, and everybody really liked it a lot. The baptism went well after that. Then, as the people baptized were changing, Wilson came up to me and said he wanted to sing "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" for the closing prayer, and that he wanted me to play it on the guitar and him to play the drum, haha. So it was pretty sweet! Everybody was singing for Elder Speechly and it was just a really cool way to finish for him. Then his last day, Sunday, we just spent visiting as many people we could, and then capped it with teaching Ivy's family. It was a good last day for him! Then he just packed up his things, and got on the bus early Monday morning... and he was off. Now he is back home! Crazy!!! I found out Saturday that my new comp would be Elder McFarland, and he got here on Wednesday. I was with Elder Brown and Elder Robert from Monday to Wednesday. So this week has just mostly been showing him around the area, introducing him to members and recent converts, and getting to know each other and the area. We have had some good teaching experiences already along with it too. (Oh my gosh before I forget, today at Melcom, the nicest store in Sunyani, guess what I found. 3 amazing things. 1 - Cherry 7UP. 2 - Kettle Chips, the exact some ones we would always get, same brand and everything. And 3.... Toblerone. It was INSANE!!!!!! Haha). So anyway, it’s been sweet so far with Elder McFarland. Everybody is already loving us, and we have a few solid investigators. One is Appiah, Idk if I have told you about him. He was taught everything by the missionaries about 6 months ago - by Elder Russell and Elder Mapanje. He never came to church, and eventually we just lost contact. But about 3 weeks ago, we get a random call and it’s from this guy, Appiah, who at the time, I had never met. He said he wanted to meet with us that very day, so he directed us to his house and we met him there. I recognized him bc I met him once before with Elder Mapanje, but I hadn't seen him since my first day in Sunyani. But, we sat down, and he told us that he was lying in bed that morning and just had a feeling that he join the Latter-day Saint church, so he called us! And now he has a baptismal date for 3 March and has come to church 3 times! Pretty sweet! The Lord really is preparing people!!!!!!! Oh... our apartment got broken into the other night while we were sleeping.... so that sucked. I got like 50 cedis stolen. They just reached through our window. Well, to be honest I can't think of much else!!!!! I am really really excited for getting the work started with Elder McFarland, and we are just going to great things, I can already see it happening. If, of course, we stay humble and willing to do whatever the Lord asks of us!!!!!!!! We've got great potential and it’s going to be fun to see what happens. We have ZL council tomorrow, so I will get to shoot down to Cape Coast again tomorrow, and then we shall continue the work in Nkwabeng!!!!!!!!! Bibiara bokooo paaaaa!!!!!! Wow the power just went out and I almost couldn't send this email!!! You wouldn't have heard from me in two weeks!!!! Haha!!! But I love you guys so much!!! I am so excited for what lies ahead, and tell everybody back there I love em!!! My greetings to all of the great Denton 2nd Ward!!!!! Love you guys!!! -Elder Brown