May 21, 2012

Oh boyyyyyyyyy. Alright well it was another week! Glad to hear from you guys again as usual, and I am happy that all has been well since the phone call! The week was good once again. Still just moving forward, trying to find new people to teach, and trying to strengthen the recent converts (which is... everyone in Sunyani :) We had some good teaching experiences this week though. First guy I will tell you about is Princeton (that’s a sweet name btw). The Fiapre elders sent us a text on Wednesday referring this guy to us, they had contacted him in Fiapre. They said he was really interested and wanted to meet with us. So we give him a call and meet him on Thursday. Turns out he is a Nigerian here studying Theology at the Catholic University. Anyway we had a good first meeting just introducing our message and getting to know him. He has been here for a few months, and plans to be in Sunyani for a few years. He had heard about the church from a friend in Nigeria, and researched a little on the net. He was pretty happy that the missionaries in Fiapre contacted him. So anyway, at our second meeting yesterday, he had read the Restoration pamphlet through twice and had questions about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration of the Priesthood. We spent over an hour talking about everything in lesson 1. He thought it was pretty cool, and said that he will go home and pray to know if these things are true, without us even committing him to do that. He's definitely got great potential. We continued to teach the Atta twins, they are moving along nicely. Very smart guys and really intrigued by our message. Anyway, what else happened this week.... went on splits with Elder Morrison in Estates. Another stud missionary in sunyani. I have been so impressed with all these guys here. All of them are such hard workers and are so ready to do the work. Elder Morrison is still relatively young on mission, just about 6 months. He spent his first 6 months in Cape Coast in a place called Kissi. He is from Accra (even though his name is Morrison) and is just a super humble dude. We had a great day and taught like 9 lessons or something... haven't had that in a while. He and Elder Otagba are going to be quite the team in Estates. Hopefully Elder Otagba stays there this transfer. While on splits there we went to teach a recent convert named Shirley. She used to play for the B/A stars, the pro soccer team up here. It was sweet because I realized that I had been there on splits the very first time the missionaries taught her, over 6 months ago. So it was cool to remember that I had a part in teaching her and now she is a recent convert, and a super strong one at that. We had a special meeting yesterday after church, a senior couple came up to give a presentation on Family History - Elder and Sister Houssian from Florida I think. People from all four branches came to learn about Family History, it was pretty cool because they are going on a temple trip next week, so they got even more preparation for it. It’s cool to see all of the members in Sunyani gathered together. Because sometimes we seem small, but then they come together and we are actually pretty big!!!! Elder Houssian has a cool background - his father is Muslim, his mother Jewish. Don't know how he joined the church exactly. Wellp....... Other than that, life is moving on. It hit me big time on Wednesday that my time here is short. Honestly every person we met asked me how much longer I will be here, from Benjamin, to the Mills, to so many other investigators and members.... I wanted to keep it quiet, but it kind of slipped to a few and now everybody knows. It's weird. But all is well!!!!!!!! I am happy the way I am finishing, even though we probably won't have any baptisms before I go. I know I have been doing what I can, and things will happen in the Lord's timing. Love you guys, thanks for everything. -Elder Brown