May 23, 2011

Morning morning! Glad that life is still going as normal around the
world... there had been a "prophet" in Ghana or Nigeria or somewhere
that prophesied Jesus was coming on 21 May, it was the talk of the
town this weekend in Kumasi. There was a big billboard in Dichemso
that was telling everybody to repent because Jesus was coming on
Saturday, but... I guess he didn't! Haven't seen the billboard again
yet haha. Anyway, ‘twas another great week in Kumasi. Our baptism went
as planned yesterday - four candidates were baptized: Cosmos, Degraft, Clifford,
and Emmanual, plus one from the UST elders. It was a really sweet
baptism. Of course there was craziness before though. We went to fill
the font before church, and the water pump fuse had blown... so the
font wouldn't fill. So we did it the old-fashioned way - fetched water
from a nearby spigot, and carried it to the font! It took the whole of
Sunday School and priesthood, got a serious work out at church! But
then the service was extra nice since I had the satisfaction of having
filled the font myself haha. This baptism was one of my favorites so
far on mission for sure. It is sweet how everything worked out perfectly.
They will all be confirmed this coming Sunday. All of them were
interviewed by the bishop after their baptisms to prepare for the
Aaronic Priesthood - the UST ward knows how to do business!!! We
didn't even have to ask the bishop to do that.

As for the Kwamo chapel, it looks like
we might move in this week! The tilers are busy at work and all that
is left for our apartment is to install the toilet and sink, which
should be delivered to the apartment today or tomorrow. So hopefully
it works for us to move to Kwamo this week! And then probably the
chapel would be finished by the next Sunday for our first Sacrament
meeting - that is if everything goes perfectly. Which it never does, of
course.

Give my congrats to Jake Gwilliam on his mission call, and wow... was
it seriously a year ago we went to the Colonial?? That is crazy. Time
seriously flies. Glad Hayden's spring game went well, even if he gave
up a td to Connor Crane, I remember that guy was tearing it up his
sophomore year though. I've never heard of the guy that is replacing
JW at QB, but I am sure the ol' Wildcats will continue to romp next
year. Crazy to think football will start up again in a few months. Any
big news with BYU football? Did they get any huge recruits?

Hope Mom is doing great in the UK!!!!! Weird that we are in the same
time zone right now! She is probably enjoying fish and chips by the
river or something right now. While I had a nice meat pie under the
African sun for lunch :) Haha. I splurged and bought some sausage to
put in my stew I will make tonight - 5 cedi's for 4 sausages! So they
better be tasty.

So the big news for the week was the baptism. We have three other people with
Baptismal dates now - Gilbert (the guy who only speaks Ewe), Elizabeth, and Josephine.

We had zone conference on Tuesday, it was nice. Big news: President
Sabey got rid of the no-free-meal rule! So now we can take FMs haha.
We talked about asking questions to get to know the people to start
our lessons rather than just making statements. We focused on that in
our teaching throughout the week, and it seriously helps.

So anyway, I love you guys! I figured out a nice African treat last
night - I call it African Milkshakes. You take some gari (processed
cassava powder), and a lot of cocoa powder, and water, then a lot of
evaporated milk, then stick it in the freezer for a little while, and just
before it freezes, you eat it. Tastes a lot like a milkshake! Or what I
remember about a milkshake... haha. So keep having fun in England mom
(me and Elder Mortensen, my bud from Yamoransa apartment - he is in
Takoradi now - were talking about trying to go to the Olympics next
year in London, that would be way sweet!), and don't go too crazy in
Texas everybody else back there! Go eat Mr. Chopsticks and Chipotle
for me this week, and send all of my love and greetings to everyone in
Denton!!!

LOVE,

Elder Kwesi Brown

PS - funny story from the week. We went to watch The Testaments with
one of our investigators this week, Jesse, and when we started the
movie, the English version was not working. French, German, everything
else worked, but not English, it was so weird. He wanted to watch it
really bad though, so he said he would just watch it in French with
the subtitles. But then I thought - well maybe the ASL version will
have the English working, and we can just deal with the little person
in the corner doing the signs. We tried it and the English came, but
the guy doing the signs took up the WHOLE screen and the movie just
played in a tiny box in the corner! It was so funny, but Jesse REALLY
wanted to watch it, so we watched the whole movie that way! It was
awesome!! Haha. Jesse loved it by the way.

May 16, 2011

We had a pretty good week in Kumasi. We waited one week for Degraft's baptism so that we could join the UST elders and have two other candidates ready for this coming Sunday, the 22nd. So we will baptize Degraft, Cosmos, and Miller. Cosmos is so tight. He really wants to know the truth. Every lesson he asks deep deep questions like what it really means to repent, listens to our answers, studies the scriptures, goes and prays about them, and always comes back knowing it’s true. It has been awesome teaching him. Can't wait to see him baptized and at work helping the Kwamo Branch to be established and grow. They finally started the tiling inside the chapel this week; there is a possibility we could move in by the week’s end. Probably still won't have services there for at least a little while longer, hopefully the tilers make quick work though.

Last Monday we had a sweet sweet lesson at the B's house. We got to their house around 7 or so for the lesson, and we started teaching Charles first because Josephine was busy cooking. Charles is a recent convert, just moved here with his family from Accra. He is a really busy businessman. We were able to answer some questions, and then it transitioned perfectly into our planned lesson with Josephine, his wife. We discussed more about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon, and it could not have gone more perfect. She has read quite a bit in the Book of Mormon already, and is loving it. We taught her again this week, read 3 Nephi 11 with her, and she committed to baptism for the 5 June. She has come to church with Charles a couple of times, and is really enjoying church as well. She even cooked us some nice fufu on Monday, and then some delicious rice and stew when we came again Saturday. We are going back tonight to have FHE with them, we are bringing "The Testaments" to watch with them. Hopefully it goes well!

We had some crazy lessons with Clifford this week, man that guy has been prepared for the gospel. Like I said, he came to Stake Conference last week and loved it. We taught him on Tuesday, finished lesson 2, he said that he can't wait for his baptism. Then we taught him on Thursday, and he said he literally couldn't wait for his baptism, that he wanted it to be even right then if we could. The guidelines in our mission is that someone has to come to church 3 times at least before they can be baptized, and since he had only been once, we told him we weren't sure... He was pretty distraught, saying that he can't wait. We taught him The Word of Wisdom and the law of chastity that night, it was crazy because he already knew them, literally he knew. He told us all these stories about how he got a new job a while back, and when he got there there were posters on the walls that were pretty risque, and he took them all down, and he said "you could just feel the Spirit more there after that, and everyone I worked with knew it, too". So that was pretty cool.

I got to be a tro-tro mate Thursday night coming home! The mate is the guy who sits in the tro, hangs out the window yelling where the car is going trying to get people to enter the car, and is the one who collects money from the people on the tro-tro. We got in our tro-tro going home, and the driver didn't have a mate, he was trying to drive, call people, and collect money all at once. I asked if he needed help, and he said sure! So I hopped in the mate's seat, hung out the window yelling "Kejetia-Adum! Kejetia-Adum!Kejetia Adum!" and collected money from all the people on the tro-tro. It was pretty awesome haha. Everyone was laughing at the oboruni acting as the trotro mate. I did an ok job I think, maybe my calling is to stay in Kumasi and be a trotro mate!!!! :)

Everything else is going great, can't really complain! I played pretty well in our football matches today. Had a couple of assists and two goals, so I was quite the scoring machine :) Haha, I am getting better small small. No other big news really, zone conference is tomorrow (YES!!!!), it will be President Sabey's last (weird). I hope maybe we will have a big mission conference before he goes or something, that would be sweet. I was laying in bed last night and I was just thinking "I love my mission". Mission is not easy, to be honest. But I can honestly say that as of last night that, that switch really turned to where I literally love my mission. I thought it again this morning when I woke up, when I was washing my clothes. I wake up and I just think, wow, I love everything about this right now. It’s not easy koraa, but I have really gotten to a point where I am loving every second. Really, every second. Even the hard times, I am just loving it. So life is good :) Have fun in Ireland mom, have fun in Tejas to the rest of the crew, do work at the spring game H, and just keep loving life!!!! I love you guys more than you know!!!! Thanks for everything :) Me do mo paa, na minnim se asore no ye nokore, na me do ma ebusua papaapa!!!!!

Love from the hills of Asante region,

-Elder Brown Kwesi Poku

May 9, 2011

Note from the family: We spoke to Elder Brown on Mothers Day and had a great connection. He sounded great and said to say Hi to everyone, and thanks for the support. He sent a short note the next day:

Guess I will give a little update on the week since I have some more time after emailing other people. Again, send my regards to everybody around town, I love and miss Denton and the Denton 2nd ward! We are teaching sweet people right now. Degraft and Cosmos will be baptized next Sunday (we postponed Degrafts so Cosmos could join, plus the other Elders have some people). Then in the next few weeks a man named Clifford will be baptized, he is awesome. He came to stake conference yesterday and just loved it. Plus the Brobbey family, along with Gilbert. Gilbert is awesome. He only speaks Ewe, a language spoken in Eastern Ghana (Volta Region). He is Bro. Timothy's brother, and Bro. Timothy is actually an Ewe, so Bro. Timothy translates for us. So Gilbert doesn't understand much at church, but he is loving the gospel! Anyway, I guess I will head out for today, love you guys so much!

-Elder Brown

May 2, 2011

Waiting at the Kumasi Bus Station

At the Kwamo Chapel site

Morning! How is it in Tejas? Hope it is as sweet as ever. It was a great week here in Kumasi. Last Monday we went into central market and went to check out the "Kente Line". Its wear they sell all the African fabrics and stuff. It was pretty sweet, picked up a couple of sweet kente ties. They had one that matched my kente scripture bag perfectly, so I picked that one up. We had an awesome FHE last week with the Timothy family. They invited like half the neighborhood and Bro Timothy gave a great lesson about families. Cosmos came! He loved it, he is coming again tonight. Then we had the most RIDICULOUS free meal ever. Holy Moly it was like a buffet, except they forced you to eat more! Haha. The most giant plate of jollof rice ever, two big pieces of chicken, then they wanted us to eat fufu and banku, then they broke out some mineral, and THEN the best part was their secret recipe drink called vitamilk that was the most heavenly concoction that has ever entered my mouth! Honestly it was SOOOO good. It was just every kind of fruit blended up and mixed with milk basically. It was amazing. They are teaching us how to make it tonight. Oh a note on FMs - I don't know if I had told you this, but we are not allowed to take FMs (free meals) from members unless an investigator is there, so we don't eat at member's a lot. But I have eaten more at members here in Kwamo then I ever did in Moree. But anyway, I was meaning to tell you about this FM we had at the Boateng family's house a few weeks ago. We helped make it and man it was interesting, but ended up really really good. Here's how it went. First we boiled some plantain, then we took the plaintain and mashed it up. Then we added something that looked like a cayenne pepper, then some onion. Then we added peanut butter.... then we took some tiny fishes, the whole fish, and grinded them in as well. Then we took something else too and put it in, can't remember exactly. Then we hardboiled eggs and added that too. It was weird, but delicious. It’s called Eto, it basically looked like a very weird version of mashed potatoes.

So the week progressed well. We had district meeting on Tuesday in Asukwa, it was nice. One of the green elders gave the most awesome instruction ever. Oh man we were laughing so hard.... he is mos def green, but he was doing his best! Going through Tuesday was pretty normal, taught Degraft. Degraft will be baptized next Sunday (15 May). He has progressed so well since we got here. He was a referral we got the very first day in Kwamo. It's been great seeing him progress! Wednesday we did some work to help out at the Timothy's house. We shoveled dirt to fill a big hole - very fun! I love doing manual labor here, haha. Kind of weird, but it’s just nice sometimes. Dad always said "well it’s better than digging ditches" when I would complain about some kind of work - and I have dug a lot of ditches here! And yes it’s true, digging ditches is usually worse than about anything else. We taught Clifford in the afternoon - this guy is serious! We got there, started the lesson, and the whole lesson he was just bearing his testimony about the church, asking what all would be expected of him as a member, all sorts of things. It was awesome, especially bc this was only our third lesson with him! It’s pretty crazy to think about, but man, the Spirit really can work miracles in people. It’s so weird, the thing I have learned more than anything on mission, is that I really do not do anything. At all. Yes I go and I walk around and I talk to people and I teach people, but God does the work. In some amazing way, he does, I am literally just an instrument. A month ago I just had the thought to give Clifford a Book of Mormon, talk for about 10 seconds, and then we were on our way. 3 weeks later we see him, he says he has read it and knows it’s true. Wow.... pretty awesome.

Thursday we got the most prepared, amazing new investigator EVER! Seriously, I am more excited about this person than probably anyone I have taught on mission. So last Sunday a guy came to church named Charles. He is about 40 years old, and he told us that he is a member from Accra, but has just moved his family to Kumasi, it was his first time at church. He said they live in a place called Fumesua - which is the town next door to Kwamo. (Basically like going from Oaks of Montecito to that one subdivision where the Stewart's live, the one with all the writer's names as street names). He said he wanted us to teach his wife - Josephine - so she could be a member. We go to their house on Thursday to teach her, and wow, it was awesome! Josephine speaks as good of English as anyone I have met - she even speaks American English. They have three kids. They live in a nice house, and Charles even has a car! I have never taught anyone that has a car before! It was pretty crazy, teaching in their house was the closest I have ever come to teaching in an American style house before. They have nice couches and a big screen and everything. They are such an awesome family. We sit down to teach Josephine, and she has some great questions and things she wants to know more about. Turns out Charles is a recent convert of less than a year, and Josephine said she had been researching about the church since then. We taught her about The Book of Mormon, and she promised to read from the Title Page though Joseph Smith's testimony, and keep going from there. We were supposed to meet again on Saturday, but the family was driving back from town, and there was bad weather that caused a ton of traffic. But the whole family came to church together yesterday! So we are way excited to teach them.

We taught Cosmos some more throughout the week, he committed to be baptized the last Sunday of May. Should be good for that, he couldn't come to church this past Sunday, but he has already been twice. Also taught Miller Adom, he committed to be baptized as well on the last weekend of May. We are lucky to have a lot of good, solid investigators right now! And more are coming I am sure :)

Yesterday we got to watch conference at church - Saturday afternoon session, and Sunday morning. Man it was awesome. Some few thoughts I had from those talks:

-Elder Johnson's talk on affliction: something interesting he said was that sometimes a specific affliction or trial prepares for something in the future.

-The choir sang "Have I done any good" after Elder Bednar's talk. First off the song itself was sweet, they did a great job with it, but when they sang the line "wake up! And do something more, Than dream of your mansions above," I started thinking about how a lot of times, as a missionary here in Ghana I dream of my "mansions" back home a lot. Food, sports, comforts, music, whatever. Somehow a wake up call to me :) Then, literally right after they sang that line, I started thinking of how good Mr. Chopstix sounded right then!!!! Haha :) I did my best to push that out of my mind :) Man oh man... Mr Chopstix.... ;)
-There were a lot of other things I can't remember now. But President Monson's talk on temples was awesome, of course. Not being able to go the temple here is not fun! Seriously I didn't know how good I had it getting to go every week, whenever I wanted. The one weekend just before I left where I went three times in two days was da bomb. Doing baptisms at the Provo temple all the time with Syd and Matt and Dawn was the best too. I like he said NOTHING can keep us from the temple. A 45 minute drive into Dallas really is nothing when you think about it. Even the four hour bus ride to Accra from here is nothing.

So anyway, I love you guys. It’s not Mother's Day here on Sunday... so.... I am not sure if I get to call on Sunday or not.... haven't asked anyone yet. So we will see I guess. I love you guys a ton! Thanks for everything! I sat next to a little kid on the tro tro today named Kwesi (I am also Kwesi). He was about 4 years old and was going somewhere with his mom and two siblings. He could speak English a little, so we had a nice little conversation. I gave him a piece of gum - the mint chocolate chip kind that Grandma H sent me, so good! - and we just had a nice little ride in the trotro together into town. So Grandma H, you made a little Ghanaian kid’s day today :) Love you!!!!

-Elder Brown Kwesi Poku

PS - letters are en route to a number of people - Sydnie, Matt, Audrey, Dawnielle, Rosa, Grandma H, G&G Brown, so be on the look out for those :)

PSS - yes I get to call on Sunday, don't worry :)

PSS - wow, Osama is dead.... crazy

April 25, 2011

Guess what?! It’s HOT in Ghana!!!!! Haha, but actually it’s not as bad today... when we were at the STC station on Wednesday to pick up the new elder to our apartment, I saw a weather report going on the tele a ways off, and I just thought what the weather man was probably saying: "Well, it looks like the warm front that has been in Central Ghana for the past 17 centuries is going to stay for this week, on Sunday we will let you know if its heading out...." Honestly having days that aren't the exact same weather pattern will be awesome! Haha.

No big news with transfers, Elder Obodo left our apartment to go to Yamoransa, my old apartment! The new missionary here is named Elder Nataniel, from Nigeria. He is the man! He has only 6 weeks left on mission and is a stud missionary. He was a zone leader in Takoradi for a long time. Elder Bunker came up to Kumasi from Cape Coast, he will be opening a new area called Pankronum with a missionary named Elder Banda (from South Africa). No other big news though!

The week was pretty sweet. Before I forget, I have to tell you a sweet story from last week I didn’t have time to write. So Sunday night last week, we decided to go visit a guy named Arrested. That’s his nickname... he is trying to get rid of it haha. But everyone calls him that. He has us call him Emmanual though. During the opening prayer, the thought came to my mind just to ask him if there were any problems he was having that we could help with. So we went on with the lesson. Then as we were finishing, I remembered to ask him that question! He said he doesn't know what he is doing as a father and needs help. We had a sweet lesson about families and how if he follows the gospel he will be able to be a great father, and it was just sweet. We asked at the end of the lesson when we could come again and he said "be here 20 o’clock tomorrow". It was sweet, we taught him like 4 times this week, every time he had done more than we had asked him to do when we came again.

This week was a really good week of teaching, not so much contacting/walking around. We averaged like 5 or 6 lessons a day, and most of those people are doing well. Cosmos - still doing well. Not sure if I have told you about Clifford, but he is doing awesome. He told us this week that a few weeks ago, he was done with Christianity, he gave away his bible and wasn't going to worry about God any more. Then a few weeks later we met him, gave him a Book of Mormon, and now he is bearing his testimony about how he knows the Church is true, that he knows that living the gospel is going to be what will make him happy and all of that. Pretty awesome. Degraft is still one of my favorite guys ever - he is so excited to be baptized. Just waiting on the Kwamo chapel to be finished. The Pentecosts had a big Easter convention/"conversion" all week long right in the middle of town. It was pretty interesting. Yelling, screaming, speaking in tongues, people falling all over each other.... it was crazy.

Well, I am sorry to be short today. I love you guys. Easter was sweet, nothing too special here to celebrate though. Just an excuse for people not to work. (Our electricity got shut off on Friday because we ran out of credit, I went to buy some at the place, and the guy didn't come to work bc it was Good Friday... So we went without electricity for a while.) Life is going good, can't complain. Just getting to work, doing the little things that missionaries are supposed to do, and we are starting to see success. Mom asked if our baptism is going to happen at the beginning of May as planned, it just depends on if the Kwamo chapel gets finished anytime soon.... doesn't seem like that’s hopeful though :/ Love you guys!!!!! I think about you every day, the picture on my calendar for April is us at the top of Y mountain, love looking at it! Congrats again to Brian!! Have fun in Texas together :)

Love ya,

-Elder Brown

April 18, 2011

Yo good morning! Great to hear all the updates again, it’s been a good day so far today in Kumasi. Just the usual p-day activity, football and hanging out at the Bantama chapel for a little bit. Today is transfer news, but I am pretty sure I am staying put. The first transfer day in a long time where I haven't been anxious all day! Last week was pretty sweet, but first, thanks everyone for the birthday stuff! My birthday was great, thanks to all of the input from many :) I had frosted flakes and cocoa krispies in the morning, some teriyaki noodles for lunch, and pudding cake thingys for dessert! The Timothy's made some Banku and okro stew that we ate at their house at night, so I am still saving the fettuccini for another night :) And all the gifts are great! I am wearing the sandals even as we speak. They are much better than the one cedi pieces of plastic I have been wearing for the last 10 months :)

Anyway, getting on to the week, Tuesday was a solid day. We met with Bro. A, read the Book of Mormon with him. Sweet to see what the Book of Mormon can do for someone. I am glad we decided to focus on that with him. He has been a member for about 4 months now. We go over what he has read with him, but he really makes sure to understand it really well. He will take a full page of notes for the chapters that he reads. We are at 1 Nephi ch 11 with him now, he read 1 Nephi 8 (tree of life) last week and liked it a lot - esp. how Lehi went to help his family take the fruit too. We always sit underneath a mango tree to teach him, so it was funny to use the mango tree as a way to teach it better. We taught his wife, Regina, and son, Harrison, later on in the week, and Bro. A helped so well. He even started teaching them himself out of the Restoration pamphlet he has. So it was pretty easy to teach them, since they already know! Regina says she wants to be baptized, as well as Harrison, so we will be helping them be ready for when the chapel opens (hopefully first week of May! we can only pray).

Wednesday we worked at the chapel, always nice working there. We worked with Cosmos there, more on him coming! We taught Bro. K again on Wednesday. He is doing really well to read the Book of Mormon, so there is potential!

Thursday of course was a Happy Birthday to me! I can say I was definitely excited going to bed Wednesday night, and the first thought that popped in my head Thursday morning was "It’s your birthday!” That has happened since I was like 12 haha. And it really was a great birthday. Thanks for all the gifts and snacks and food and decoration. It made it all great, a little like home. I put up my own decorations, ate my frosted flakes and smiled to myself all morning. I don't know why, but in the morning I prayed that some little miracle would happen for my birthday. Not that I don't see miracles everyday, but I just asked for something special, even if it just was the stuff from the family, that'd be fine, but I just asked for something. The day went on fine, taught good people, met new people. But then at night, we had an appointment to teach Cosmos for the second time. I was excited for it all day because we had talked to Cosmos even that morning and he said he was ready, he had kept his promise, and was excited to learn more. We were going to meet at the chapel at 7 to teach him, so we get there at 7, and he is not there. We wait til 7:20 or so, still not there. His phone is switched off too. Usually phone switched off during the time of a teaching appointment means "I know the missionaries are going to call me, so I will just switch of my phone so I don't have to talk to them". I was pretty bummed. We walked down to Alma bakery so Elder Timothy could buy bread, and then headed up to the station to catch a car to go home. I was still praying that some miracle would happen, but I had given up hope in meeting Cosmos. A couple of cars passed that we could have gotten in, but people got in them before us. Finally one stopped right in front of us, and we started to get in. As we were climbing in, the man getting out of the car in front of us was none other than...Cosmos. He was late coming back from school (he goes to night classes in Ejisu bc he works at the chapel during the day). His phone had died and he said he was rushing as fast as he could to meet us there. Pretty sure that was my miracle :) We taught Cosmos, it was great, and taught him again on Saturday night - finished the Restoration lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. And he came to church on Sunday... I can't ask for much more can I? Cosmos is a sweet sweet guy. Bro. Timothy took him under his wing when he came to church on Sunday, so he is going to turn him into quite the leader I am sure. I am way excited for Cosmos. And it was all because of that miracle on my birthday...

Well, a lot else happened this week, but my time is running short. It rained like CRAZY last night, the rainy season is really starting! Thank goodness! My birthday was great, and we are getting more serious people to teach. This week was great…I felt more guided by the Spirit than I ever have on my mission. Things are really coming together for me here. I love you guys a lot :) A LOT! :) AND GUESS WHAT!!! YOU ARE GETTING OLD BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE ONE KID THAT IS A TEENAGER :D !! Holy cow! Never thought I would make it here!

Welp, love you guys so much, mission is a wonderful thing!

Love,

Elder Brown

April 4, 2011

On to the week! We had interviews with President Sabey today, I didn't even know we were having them until last night. I was glad they were today though! We talked about a lot of good stuff, it was my longest interview yet. No other P-day activities outside of that. You asked last week if I will go to the central market on P-days. The Central market is absolutely INSANE. I will go there because the food is cheapest and there is cool stuff to see, but man oh man it is another world. I can't explain how crazy it is...missionaries have seen crazy things. So basically that is the story of that haha. I will have to be on my guard in there! This week was my best week in Kumasi so far. I really started to love Kumasi this week. I was laying in bed Saturday night, and I just felt great, no real reason, but I just felt really good. I really felt like the next year or whatever will really be awesome. Not that it hasn't been awesome so far, but it was sweet. We had a great lesson on Tuesday with a man named Gabriel. He is a teacher at a school in Kwamo. We contacted him our first day in Kwamo. We finished the Restoration lesson and introduced the Book of Mormon. He had never even heard of The Book of Mormon before, and was excited to read. Every day when we pass his school he always calls to us and waves with a big smile on his face, so it seems like things are going well! His school is right near to Bro Timothy's new house, so we always tell Bro Timothy that we are teaching the future Kwamo Elder's Q President at the school, hopefully it's true :) We spend a lot of time with Bro Timothy, mostly because the unit in Kwamo is going to depend on him. We pretty much see him every day, whether at the chapel sit or at his house or wherever. Wednesday was a long, hard day. We worked seriously. we were able to teach another future leader in the morning, Francis. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him as well. He said he was in a bad mood in the morning, so hopefully reading has been able to pick his spirits up, we shall see!! Prince came with us again all day, he is the best ward missionary ever! We contacted a funny guy during the day as well, his name is Adom. He is a cool guy, probably in his late 50s or so. He is a businessman and he bragged on his kids the whole time we were with him. All of his kids have graduated university, one lives in the US, one is a professor. It was cool to hear someone care about their kids and take pride and joy in them. So we haven't been able to teach he and his wife together yet, when we went yesterday they were busy doing something, but we are going to go back to teach them this week. I really think the doctrine of the family will be very appealing to them. Thursday was good, we were able to get a lot done. We are working hard to strengthen a recent convert named Bro A. He is a recent convert of a few months, and is doing well. He is about 50 or so. He lives in a village called Okyekrom, about 15 minutes from Kwamo. He is the first and only member there. He is doing well, always at church. We had taught him a few times. He had not started to read the Book of Mormon yet. So we sat down with him and just told him how important the church can be to him, and about how much the Lord needs him as a leader in Kwamo. We talked about a ton of stuff, but eventually got to the temple and about families. We could see his thought process changing as we were teaching him. He was asking what we need to do to teach his wife and his sons, when we could meet, what we could do to help them go to the temple...the wheels are turning. He is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood at Stake Conference in May, and his service will be direly needed with the Kwamo unit when it opens. He will be one of maybe 4 or 5 Melchizedek Priesthood holders. Friday we did our district service project at the Timothy's like we talked about. Elder Adams is the new AP!!! Pretty crazy! He had just been transferred to be a zone leader only 3 weeks ago, and now is the assistant. The old assistant, Elder Wright, is now serving up here in Kumasi, re-opening an area that needs serious work. Elder Adams is serving with his trainer (my grandfather), Elder MacKay as assistants. There were a ton of changes in Bantama zone (the other Kumasi zone) so it will be fun to see all of the new guys. I heard a guy from my district in Yamoransa. Elder Meinzer is coming up here. He is a stud missionary. No changes to our zone (Dichemso) though. The missionaries coming up are all studs. I got word from Moree that three of my investigators down there were baptized on Saturday; Sister Sama, Emmanuel (a friend of my boy Solomon the recent convert) and Anthony, the freshest dressing guy in Moree. Seriously he should work for GQ. Glad to have some fresh guys in the membership of the church :) I was very happy to hear they were all baptized and confirmed. Our first haptism here in Kwamo might not be for a while, so it was good to hear that. We do have a baptism for Miller and Degraft planned on 1 May, so hopefully that will happen. Oh yeah, President told me today that he is pretty sure our apartment in Kwamo will b the only missionary in the whole world that will have a baptismal font in it! How sweet is that?? Haha, it will make baptisms very easy! There is a font right in the middle of the church, it will be sweet to have. Some random thoughts: 1. Pears are delicious. BUT they are not pears. They are avocados. But they call them pears here and they are everywhere, I eat one everyday. 2. G&G Brown sent some Bear Creek (I think, maybe bear creek valley or something like that) soups. They are the bomb! I made one this week and it lasted me for three full meals! Send me some more of those. They sent Tortilla soup and it was awesome. Look for other ones too! Like cheesy ones :) 3. Lucky Dube is tight; he's dead but he made fresh music. Not that I listen to it...promise! But ya know, when you are in the taxi and it's playing, you can't really shut yours off! And I swear Lucky Dube is playing in every taxi in this country. So go check out Lucky Dube Hayden. 4. There were two oboruni's at church on Sunday. They work at the area office in Accra. Not sure why they were here, but man it is weird seeing white people. I feel so awkward, like I don't know what to say. There are a few that live in Kwamo and we pass a bunch on the streets in Kumasi, and I don't know if I should greet them or just ignore them ore what. Very awkward haha. Think that's all. Hope life is GREAT in Texas!!!!! Go Butler! Congrats again Mom! Hope the Rangers keep up the hot streak, did they make any additions in the off season? Last things from the week, we taught a sweet investigator on Saturday, named Clifford. A few weeks ago we met him at Sis Emelia's house, and I felt like I should just give him a Book of Mormon right there. I did, and we didn't hear from him for awhile. But the other day we passed him on the road and he said he had been reading and wanted to meet with us. We had a sweet first lesson, he said he already feels like The Book of Mormon is true, he asked for one to give to a friend. I am glad I followed that impression a few weeks ago! I have only done that a few times here, giving someone a Book of Mormon just like that. We also met a guy in Kwamo on Sunday named Bro Dwimoh. He is a member who used to live in Asokwa, where they have a church. He was even a ward clerk there. But then a while ago he moved to Ejisu, which is even farther out of town, about 10 minutes from Kwamo (it is part of our proselyting area). It is about 45 minutes from any chapel in Kumasi, so he just couldn't go to church. When he met him and told him the church was coming to Kwamo, he was so stoked. He had no idea, but he said he had been praying for a way to go to church for awhile. Now hopefully he can be a leader somehow in Kwamo! He and Bro Timothy are really good friends he said. We have been praying to find future leaders for Kwamo, and it is crazy to see how our prayers our really being answered, in various ways. Welp, that's all for today I guess. I love you guys, thanks for all the support. I got my B-day package today!! I might sneak some stuff early :) haha jk of course! There still are challenges ahead, but it's all what the Lord wants. So I will just keep doing my best! Thanks again and I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Elder Brown PS-HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I am out of time today!!!!!!!!!!!