April 16, 2012

Alrighty - well I will be sure to make sure this thing saves so that I can send it successfully this time!!!!! Haha. Well we had ZL Council this week, so it was a party as usual!!! Haha. There are four zones in Kumasi now, so we were 10 traveling down to Cape, plus the two elders that drove us. We had a pretty epic "alphabet game" in the car on the way coming home. Narrowly lost to Elder Hernandez. Darn that letter X!!!!!!! It was a nice little trip and pretty pain free, because we went to and fro in the mission van, with all of the other ZLs. We even got to play a little American football in the morning for our exercise - Elder McFarland would make a killer tight end for BYU. Seriously - he made a sweet one handed catch for a TD - reminded me of Dennis Pitta or Johnny Harline!!!!!! Haha. How are things shaping up for BYU football next season? We made it back from Cape on Wednesday night, and got right back to work on Thursday. The big thing for the week was Gabriel's baptism. It was quite a success! We had been emphasizing to him the importance of having his family there, and they all came! They all seemed to enjoy it!!! Now we just gotta teach them!!!! So the baptism was on Saturday, and then we confirmed him and Samuel on Sunday. It all went pretty well! Some other guys in the zone also had baptisms, so we combined at Penkwase for the baptism. We are still having success having people come to church - we had 11 last week, 8 this week - but the difficulty is teaching them. They are all very busy and most of the appointments we make don't work out. But small small!!!! We are just trying to go about doing good and hope that we are able to find some powerful people through that. We helped a lady dig an irrigation stream on Saturday, we pound fufu every chance we get, and we are just trying to keep things cool and show people we are here to serve them. Oh before I forget!!!!!! KWAMO IS A WARD!!!!!! How sweet is that?? We got word that they were organized into a ward on Sunday - Bro. Timothy as bishop. They had 108 people at church on Sunday. Elder McFarland and I were very very excited to hear that. And of course, my Birthday was as awesome as it could be in Ghana. The Thaynes took us out to get pizza - that was pretty sweet :) Thanks to the Thaynes!!!!!! There is a place in Sunyani with legit pizza, so we had a good time there! They also gave us some big news, that Sunyani is going to be organized into a mission district. That is going to be soooooooooo big for the church up here. And thank you thank you thank you for all of the B-Day wishes from everyone!!!! Sorry I can't email everyone back!!!! But I love all you guys!!!!! So, mission is moving along in Sunyani. I have been thinking a lot about this work, how it is difficult, but it truly is going forth just as prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said "no unhallowed can stop the work.... it will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent...." Just think... 18 months ago, there were less than 5 members in Sunyani. Now there are 4 units of the church organized into a district with over 150 members. 9 months ago Kwamo opened as a group with about 50 members.... now they are a ward with over 100. It’s pretty incredible to see the growth, just since I have been here. The work is true!!! I love you guys, thanks for everything!!!!!!! -Elder Brown