Elder Kacher from the Seventy June 4, 2018

Well, the rainy season is in full swing. It rains about 90% of the time and its always super muddy. We really didn't get much done this week because of the rain and my comp is having problems with his knees. We also had a mission tour with Elder Kacher of the Seventy on Thursday. It was super good and after I was 1 of 4 in three combined zones that was chosen to have a 1 on 1 interview with him. It was really cool to get to talk to a general authority, he's a powerful man. He asked questions just about me, the work, the mission and few other things.  He said to tell my mom that she should be very proud of me! :) Well we got transfer news on Saturday and to our surprise my companion is leaving. So I'll be getting a 3rd comp here in Tarkwa. I'm glad to stay in Tarkwa though.

Here is an email Elder Kacher sent to my mom and dad...

(Parker is definitely a man of little word...but Elder Brown's mom was so sweet to share with us Elder Browns letter.  He tells the experience from his perspective and I want Parker to be able to remember some extra details! :)
FROM ELDER BROWN'S LETTER HOME:
On Wednesday we had the mission tour with Elder Kacher of the Quorum of the Seventy. I learned so much from him. The church here in Ghana is struggling a bit. He told us that at the time the saints left Nauvoo they were spiritually stronger then the Ghanaians are right now where the church has been established for 40 years plus. He said that West Africa is the highest baptizing area in the world right now, but that Cape Coast and Ghana in general are the lowest. He said this is partly due to the negative mindsets of missionaries and encouraged us all to stop focusing on ourselves and put our faith in the Lord. When we do this miracles WILL happen! Afterwards President Hillam talked to us about sacrifice and how everything in this church requires some type of sacrifice because the Lord requires it of us. During the mission tour Elder Harris and I noticed that President and Sister Hillam kept looking at us. After lunch Sister Hillam gave us both a note that said Elder Kacher would like to meet with us. I’m not gonna lie, when I read that I started to freak out inside! haha. The interview with Elder Kacher was soooo cool. When I walked into the room I could just feel he was a servant of the Lord. After my interview Elder Harris and I were talking to President Hillam and he told us that before the mission tour had started Elder Kacher asked him to pray to know what two elders and sisters he could meet with. President told us he kept feeling the spirit tell him it should be me and Elder Harris. President then told us how rare and special of an occasion it is to have a one on one interview with a Seventy. It was special indeed!!”

1- Vincent, one of our members who proselytes with us

2- Elder Aluse and Chukuneku, Sarah and Lefe

Quick Hello May 28, 2018

Hey Ma, only have a second just lettin ya know I'm doing good, I'll have to talk to ya next week 

Watch for floating Cars May 21, 2018

Well this week was a good week but not very successful. It wasn't very productive because it rained everyday all day this week. When it rains Ghanaians don't want to do anything so everyone we went to just kept saying "oh come tomorrow", but when we'd come the next day, the same thing, "oh come tomorrow" haha. Because of all the rain it's been flooding really bad. I think we've got more rain this week then an entire year back in Idaho. With all the water cars even start just floating down the road.  I was going to get a picture but we decided we better run for our lives.  Hopefully this next week will be more productive. We haven't had a toilet this entire week either. So we have to walk to the chapel which takes about 20 minutes. They needed to replace it and they took 3 days to do that but it didn't work so there still trying to get it working, so 6 days with no toilet.  Other then that things have been pretty normal. I'm doing great and Elder Aluse and I are getting along great and Ghana....is Ghana.

(Update... it took just over 3 weeks to get the toilet fixed... it was fine though.  That’s just how it is here in Ghana!!!)

Happy Mother's Day! May 13, 2018

We've been looking forward to this day for a long time!  It was so great!  Best mother's day since I became a mother!  We loved seeing his smile.. there wasn't hardly a time that he wasn't just full on smiling.  It was wonderful!!! He's very happy! He would talk with his accent and then we would all laugh and then he would laugh because he realized we're laughing at his accent! The longer we talked the more the accent disappeared.  Some of our favorite things he told us were:

-All the kids said they loved the story he told which is maybe an old wives tale that when a white person would come to Africa they would put gum on his chair so that he would get stuck and have to stay.  The way they say it is... "CHIGNON FOAM OTO" 

And that just means hey white boy you have gum on your bum! Ha ha! They yell that to him all the time! 

Also the word for karma is ... OKYEALL (the KY is pronounced like "chi")

-He said once in a while he will see a white man and think to himself "what is he doing here?"  and then the thinks "oh ya I'm white too!"  He says he has turned black!

-A funny thing he said was that if he talks to a baby it always cries.  He says they always tell him its because his eyes are green but he just tells them "It's ok, I know it's because I'm white and it scares them."  They are mesmerized by his green eyes.  They say "oh my gosh, your eyes are a color!"

-He told us was about how different church is and how they can't have announcements until after the closing prayer in sacrament meeting because they all start to chatter about the announcements and will holler their comments and want to ask questions to the Bishopric so they do it after so they can do that appropriately.  He also said it is not rude to just answer your phone right in the middle of a church meeting.  The people just talk a little quieter on the phone or sometimes they don't. ha ha

-Another thing we loved  that he shared was that he said for anyone who is preparing to serve a mission that it would be well worth their time to study and really get to know the Book of Mormon because it really is what you need to know to be able to teach people.  It is really the difference between our church and other churches.  They are already very Christian and a religious people so you need to know the Book of Mormon so you can help them see what more we have in our Gospel. 

One thing Ashlyn loved was that she asked him if he has finished the Book of Mormon again since he got there and he said he's already read it 3 times, the New Testament  once and is working on the Old Testament.  She was pretty impressed! 

-He said he loves all the food there,  it's just all the food that he loves that is not there that he misses. :)

We loved every minute and look forward to Christmas when we can see that cute smile again!

It's my Birthday! May 7, 2018

First of all, Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes.  It was awesome to get a whole bunch of emails.  It's been a good day! It also marks my 8 months exactly.  I have grown a lot, it's hard to describe how but I've grown and I know the mission is really helping me.  I know the scriptures so much more and I have really learned a lot about being self reliant.  How do I keep going day to day?  I don't know I just get up and go do it.  I really do enjoy proselyting. 

Not a lot of different things happened this week, just the usual. I really like Elder Aluse, my new comp. He is really a cool guy.  The area is picking up again.  We have 7 new investigators. I hope everyone is doing good back home.  

I just got a hair cut and it is really short.

New Comp- Elder Aluse April 30, 2018

Hey! this was a good week. I got my new companion Elder Aluse from Kenya. He's a super cool guy and turns out he is one of the best rugby players in Kenya. He played for Kenya's national team. He's been out about 17 months.  He speaks great English but his native language is the Lion king language, hakuna matata language ha ha, it's called Swahili. He is a convert of 2013. 
We got Collins confirmed this week so he's officially a member and is super exited. We also had our branch conference this week and President Hillam, our mission president, gave a good talk on applying ministering in our branches. Other then that it's been a normal week of walking a lot in the heat.

Little Collins and a little golf April 23, 2018

 I can't believe it but its been another transfer. Piutau has  been transfered which is what we were hoping wouldn't happen but it's the Lord that chooses. So I'm excited to get a new comp and Piutau’s exited to go to a new area. This morning me, Jeppson, and Brown all went golfing and it was alot of fun. Never did I ever think I'd be golfing in Africa surrounded by jungle on my mission haha.

 We also had a baptism yesterday. He's a young boy named Collins. Collins is 10 and we’ve taught him since the 1st day I was here in Tarkwa and we never took him serious because he's small and no one in his family are members so no support but he came to church 17 weeks in a row so we decided to baptize him. He's funny and likes black panther. 

He's super excited and loves the church. He was happy he finally got baptized. Other then that its been a good week and I'm doing great.