March 5, 2012

Maakyiooo!!!!!! Hope everything is going well for you guys back in Tejas, life is eyie paaaaaa in Sunyani. The computer has been super slow, so I don't have too much time left, but I'll try to get as much in as I can, it was a great week!! The week was somehow all over the place, and sometimes we felt like we weren't working very effectively, but at the end of the week we had 8 people come to church and had 6 new investigators with baptismal dates, and Appiah was baptized, so... I guess we did ok! Haha. The baptism for Appiah was pretty sweet. We were busy making sure he was ready all week, and he mos def was. It was funny because looking back at our lessons, none of them were your typical lessons at all. In fact, I can't say any of the discussions we had with him actually resulted in us teaching one of the full complete lessons from Preach My Gospel. He is going to be a great help to the church in Nkwabeng. And his wife is coming back up from Kwamo for a little while, so we will be busy trying to teach her this week as well. Sweetest event of the week involved Barnabas & Felicia, the husband and wife I have been teaching on and off since I first got here. At the beginning of the week we read from Alma 32, about faith being a seed, starting small. Then we gave them the Restoration video to watch. They watched it and really seemed to like it. At a later visit Elder McFarland asked a really good question about what Barnabas's desires are. Barnabas answered by saying he had read a verse in Alma 32 after we left that explained what his desires were. Pretty inspired question Elder McFarland asked!!!! The scripture, I can't remember exactly which one, was about how if we just desire to believe, we will be able to come to know all things. Then while Elder McFarland was continuing the teaching, I felt really strong just to invite Barnabas and Felicia to be baptized on 17 March. It seemed pretty crazy, but the thought just kept coming back. So, when Elder McFarland was finished, I came in with that straight, and Barnabas said..... Aane, me pe!!!!!!!! translation, YES!!!!! It was tight. I am way excited for them because they will be the first husband and wife that I have taught baptized at the same time. It’s gonna be sweet!!!!!! hmm what else.... We had our mission tour with Pres. Dickson (of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy). It was one of the best zone conferences I have ever had, especially because it was just the 10 of us Elders in Sunyani. President Dickson gave us some much needed counsel and direction, and he even interviewed all of us. He's a powerful man!!! He gave us all encouragement and made us all a little more excited about the work, because he said that there needs to be a stake here in Sunyani within the next 10 years. Which would be crazyyyyyyyyyyyy awesome. He taught us 6 things we need to do as missionaries to be able to rise to a new level and accomplish miracles: 1. Have faith in the Savior and in your calling. 2. Exact Obedience 3. Plan everyday 4. Study and Prepare by the Spirit. 5. Teach the doctrines and the lessons by the Spirit. 6. Be constant!!!! He emphasized the 6th one just before he finished, be constant. That one ennye easy korraaaaa!!!! But, it is mos def the most important. I also threw up this week, Haha. It was on a dusty road in Ghana with dozens of Ghanaian kids staring at me!!!!! Haha. Welp, that’s about it I got from the week. There was a ton more, but those are the big things! Kweku came to church again and we set a baptismal date for 7 April with him and his friend Albert. I love you guys, you are absolutely the best! Thanks for everything. Yebehyia! -Elder Brown