March 13, 2012

The attached picture is Griffin at Lake Bosomtwe with his “descendants” – the Elder he trained, and the Elder he trained, and the Elder he trained.

Happy Tuesday! Sorry I didn't email yesterday, we were in Kumasi all day for PDay. But now I am here! We had a pretty sweet P-Day yesterday, went out into the bush to Lake Bosomtwe with all of the Elders, it was pretty fun. Played football, frisbee, volleyball, and even had a horseshoe tournament. Elder McFarland and I almost won in an epic match against the Dichemso ZLs... but Elder Briggs got 2 ringers on the last throw to come back from 10-6 and win it. So Lame!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well....

Alright well as for the week self, it was sweet. We had ZL council down in Cape, good as always. And the the rest of the week was pretty normal. Barnabas and Felicia are getting ready for baptism on Saturday, so we had a few good lessons with them. I heard from Elder Adams…he told me that he got to be at Andrew Aikins' sealing to his wife in the temple the day he left. How tight is that? Ummmmmmmmmmmmm....................... SO TIGHT?!?!?!

Church was so sweet on Sunday. There were almost 60 people there, and 12 investigators. The sweetest thing was that over 30 people were there right at 10 when church started!!!!! Usually there is about a dozen when church starts. It was sweet to see so many people come, and guess who else showed up....... Femi!!!!! Our recent convert who moved back to Nigeria! Randomly he showed up at church on Sunday! I was just playing the prelude music as usual, and I look out the window to see him walking up, just like he had never left. It was so cool. He received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday as well, so he is set to help the church start growing right away! I am really excited for him because he has so much potential.

Well, biibiara bookoo siisia. Honestly.... things really couldn't be better right now. It’s so crazy to think I am at where I am though....

Well guys, I love you. Seriously I do!!!! Sorry today's email wasn’t super crazy exciting, I had like 14 emails to go through today!!!! Anyway, you guys are awesome, keep going strong!!!!!!

Yebehyia akyire!

-Elder Brown

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

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

January 30, 2012

Ayeeeekoooooo. Life is moving on in Sunyani. Elder Speechly's last week... pretty crazy to send a guy home like this. It’s been awesome, but it just makes me think about my mission a lot and how I want to end and everything. He's really happy with how everything has gone. I am just glad he could put up with me and have a good time his last few months. We have a got a pretty packed week planned, so it should be a pretty amazing last few days for him. That’s all I will really be focused on this week, making sure he has the best time he possibly can - and for the right reasons! He told President in our interviews last week that he is going as happy as he could be, and President thanked me for helping him with that. Well, the sweetest day of the week was Thursday, I will just focus on it for the email. So it started off with interviews with President Shulz. The interview was great, encouraging as always. While the interviews were going, the assistants and Sis Shulz talked to us for a little while. The assistants instructed about Charity. They used my scripture - Moroni 7:45 - so at least I taught Elder Adams one thing :) Of course, charity is my favorite Christ-like attribute, so it was a powerful instruction. After that, Sis Shulz talked about our new mission "theme" or "motto" or whatever you want to call it - "Forever Strong". It’s pretty sweet, we watched that movie at our Christmas Devotional, and everybody really liked it a lot, so President and Sis Shulz thought it would be a great motto for our mission. It'll be a great thing for everybody to remember. So we got a kente bookmark that says Forever Strong on it. I love this mission.... it’s hard... so flipping hard! But I absolutely love it, Ghana Cape Coast Mission..... Oh and that’s so tight Keegan is going to Mozambique! I honestly knew he was going to Africa! Seriously.... I can already see it, Christmas time, H opening his calling ....."Ghana … Mission". Honestly I would cry. We are an African people, I am telling you! So Congrats Keegan!!! AYEEKOO!!!!!!! Alright so after interviews, I got to go on splits with Elder Adams. That was awesome. It was like we were never not companions. Just walking out in Odumase with him, just like old times... it was kinda surreal. It’s weird that we are at the points of our mission that we are at. Him going home... me seeing the end coming.... it was sweet. We taught Atta together, it was a great lesson - like I said, it was like we just picking up where we left off, except this time with him as an assistant and me as a zone leader. We've really grown up huh?! So then we met back up with Elder Speechly who was with the other AP - Elder Hair. They were at a basketball court at the Roman Catholic church in Odumase, playing BBall with a few people (one of whom was an Australian atheist who we had a good chat with). So of course... we had a quick game of 2-on-2. Elder Adams and Elder Speechly vs. me and Hair. Everybody was watching, we were just playing in our missionary clothes, and it was just sweet! The pic I attached is of the four of us (Hair - Speechly - me - Adams) right after we played. And then we jetted off to teach Ivy, the powerful new investigator we have. Since we had the APs truck, we decided that Adams and Speechly would stay and teach Ivy and her family while me and Hair ran back to Nkwabeng to teach Effah there. So we left and taught Effah about Our Purpose in life - another great lesson - and then headed back to Odumase to pick them up from Ivy's house. We got to the house and found them having just finished the lesson, and all of them were coming out with teary eyes and the biggest smiles on their faces. The first thing Elder Speechly said when I saw him was "bro... that was the most powerful lesson of my mission…." They taught her about the Restoration, and when they asked her about how she felt about it, they said that she just paused and sat in silence for like 2 minutes, and finally, all she could say was "I'm touched....". So then both Adams and Speech starting bearing their testimonies, telling her how they were going to finish their missions and go home next week, and they both started crying!!!!! She promised that she would come to church on Sunday, and bring the whole family, and have Adams teach her husband who was in Cape Coast on business. She did come to church, brought the whole family, and things are looking amazing. It’s so sweet that they had that experience together. The Lord really loves us out here.... he knows how hard missions are, and it was amazing to see how much he blessed Adams and Speechly to have that experience together their second to last week in the field. It was just awesome. So, life is great. These last few months have been some of the greatest times of my mission, and I owe a lot of that to Elder Speechly. I love that guy! I know the Lord loves us, and that when we put our trust in him, even if it takes two years, He will bless us more than we can imagine. I know Elder Speechly and Elder Adams felt that on Thursday, and I know that if I keep going strong, I am going to have that too. Love you guys so much. Congrats to J and Marnie!! Congrats to Keegan!!!!! AYEEEEEKOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Another BROWN in AFRICA!!!!!!! WAYADEAEH!!!!!!!!! Love, Elder Brown

January 23, 2012

Well the week was sweet as usual. Elder Speechly wanted to have the opportunity to go on splits with everybody before he leaves, so we went on splits three times this week. First was on Tuesday, I went with Elder Brown to Penkwase. It was sweet, we taught a great family. She is ready for baptism, but he still has doubts, so we had a cool discussion, talked about a lot of stuff. He doesn't really know what to do to keep his family strong, so I read Helaman 5:12 - on the sure foundation you cannot fall!!! He liked it a lot, haven't heard if he came to church this week though. Wednesday I went with Elder Robert to Nkwabeng. We had a good day, taught some good lessons. Best one was to Effah at night. Don't know if I have talked about Effah, but he is a sweet dude. He started to come to church when Auntie Mary - one of the most powerful members here - invited him. He came like 3 times before we could sit down to teach him last week. He asked about the Book of Mormon first, so we talked about that, and now we are slowly going through the Restoration so he can understand it perfectly. He has a baptismal date for 4 Feb. Thursday we went to Fiapre to help them with their weekly planning sessions. I sat in on Elder Obasi and Elder Mensah's. They are two very committed missionaries who are going to be a great blessing to Fiapre. Elder Obasi has a stronger testimony of the Restoration than just about anyone I know (he is from Abuja, Nigeria). He knows the scriptures like no one I know and knows how to teach so well - and he is only like 8 months on mission. Then Elder Mensah is a Ghanaian who has been under the wings of powerful church pioneers in Accra his whole life. His brother works at the MTC. So with those two, serious things can happen there in Fiapre. We talked about their investigators and how we can help them out. One man is a pretty powerful guy, believes the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and comes to church early every week... but he just honestly believes the baptism he had in his old church is ok. So hopefully the spirit can touch him in just the right way!!! Then they also have two other powerful guys who could end up being the Melchezidek Priesthood holders they need. I was able to give them a few tips with their planning sesh as well, so it was all around success!!! Friday, Elder Speechly got sick... so that kind of sucked. But we were still able to get out and do some good work by the end of the day. And then went on splits again on Saturday!!! Haha. I went with Elder Mathemba in Nkwabeng. Elder Mathemba is powerful!!! We got a powerful new investigator Saturday morning. Her name is Ivy and she stays out in Odumase. Her and her husband have four kids and they are just a really sweet family. She had met missionaries in town where she works - she is a banker - and wanted us to come teach her family. So we went and had a great lesson. Went back again yesterday and taught about Christ's church and the Great Apostasy, to set up well for the Restoration this week! Hopefully all goes well. Their family would be a powerful pioneer family for Sunyani. Sundays are stressful for me... and they just make me soooooooo tired. But it’s ok. We had a few investigators come to church. President Owusu's wife came. Had a crazy lesson with a dude named Martin. He was a little confrontational at first, asking us why we are called elders, and trying to prove us wrong with the Bible, but by the end we were able to see eye to eye and he realized that he just needs to read The Book of Mormon and figure out if Joseph Smith was a true prophet or not. He said that he has been searching for the truth for a while now, and we promised him that this really really is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, and nothing but the truth!!!! If he reads and prays, he's gonna see it too!!!!! Well, that’s it from the week really! Me and Elder Speechly are going strong just keeping our eyes on the mark!!! Life is great, missionary work is awesome, and I come to know more and more every day that this really is it! Thanks for all your help and support! I love you guys!!! -Elder Brown