Super Busy in the Office...

Hello All!!!

I come to you on yet another somehow successful week in Daban! After 3 short weeks in Bantama with Elder Burdge (awesome) I am back with Elder Anderson in Daban as an office elder.  It's about 9 pm right now as I am writing this so please bear with me! :)

This week was soooooooooo busy!!! On Tuesday was the day that I was picked up to come here to Daban. (I had to wake up early to pack my bags) Then we just dropped off my bags at the apartment and headed to the mission home. As soon as we got there, a lot of missionaries were there who were being called to leadership positions. When we walked up, immediately people started handing me things to give to the president, asking to order things from the office, making requests for me look up certain information, etc..... AHH!  I consider it now as my "Welcome Back" call! haha

Then on Wednesday, we had to wake up at 5 am to take missionaries to the bus station who were going to Tamale and Bolgatanga. (it takes a minimum of 6 hours to get to tamale) (plus 2 onto that to get to Bolgatanga) Then after that, throughout the day, we had gone back and forth from the main bus station, to the apartment, and to the mission home 5 times!!!......... 5 times!!!!! I was pretty exhausted. Also on Wednesday we had 13 new missionaries arrive in the Ghana Kumasi Mission.  When missionaries are new, they will be assigned to trainers. The trainers are just like normal companions but they help in teaching them, helping them adjust, etc.  So that night we had 5 of the trainers sleeping in our apartment.

So on Thursday, we had to get up early again, to get ready and to get the trainers in our apartment to the mission home to be assigned to their new companions.  After everyone got their companions, they talked and got to know each other for a while... then we had to start taking people to their various areas!!! That took quite a while!!

Then on Friday... We had to wake up early AGAIN! At 5 we had to get ready and then take 2 missionaries who had completed their missions to the airport to fly home.  Luckily though after that, we got the chance to go and teach some lessons! (nobody was home though)

Saturday we were blessed with an interesting service opportunity! One of the members in the Daban Branch asked us if we could iron their clothes for them! We said sure, not knowing that she wanted us to iron ALL of the clothes for EVERYONE in their family for the ENTIRE week! It took us forever! But it wasn't too bad! Both me and Elder Anderson got 2 huge baskets full of clothes!!! Anway it was fun and the member was SUPER grateful!

Now my mom wanted me to answer some questions!

Questions...
(Please answer with more than 1 sentence!) : )
Tell me about the ward you attend...  The branch I am serving in is the Daban Branch. It is a really nice branch with very very faithful members! Although it is not large, it has a lot of power with a devoted branch president, faithful auxiliary leaders, and powerful members!
How is your companion? My companion is awesome! He loves to joke around and have fun, but he also knows how to work hard and do what's right!
Have you received any new advice from President? Not very recently, but I will be having an interview with him soon and I'm sure something will be included with that!
Who are you teaching right now?  Well we were teaching a young woman named Elizabeth who just actually just baptized last Sunday!!! She was filled with tears of joy because she was so happy and excited for that day! I was super happy too and also honoured that she asked me to be the one to do the baptism!  We are also teaching another young woman named Esther who is actually a house maid for one of the members.  She is currently on track to be baptized next month! Exciting!

I love you all!!! Have a GREAT week! :)

Odo,

Elder Brandt

Back to the Office...

Hello All!

This week wasn't too shabby! This week we had Zone Conferences!! So it was nice to be able to see a lot of old missionary buddies! The instruction was all about the Holy Ghost, how to listen to him, and receiving personal revelation! 

        "We must learn to be guided by personal revelation"

                        -Ezra Taft Benson

And this week is official transfers! So I have been transferred back to Daban! I will be going back with Elder Anderson (gh). Elder Whipple will not be there because he has been transferred to Bolgatanga! (I already wished him the best of luck!) 

Now Elder Burdge will be getting a new companion, Elder Hepworth.
 

In the ward we have a young man named Isaac. On Wednesday Isaac asked if he could come with us! ALL DAY! We said that would be awesome! We had a pretty awesome day lined up and we had lots of people to see that day! 

But, it wasn't long before all but two of our appointments had failed...  So the two people we were able to see were two of our members!  When we went to both of their houses, we had no idea that they had prepared food for us! So after managing to get down the first one, which was amazing fufu by the way, we headed to second house just to find MORE FOOD! (talk about stomach exercising) (the wrong kind).

Sorry this week the computer is somehow slow.... and my brain too.....

hope you all enjoy your coming week!!! :)

 2 Nephi 25:26

Odo,

Elder Brandt

Hello to All!!!! 

I hope you all had a great week because I did!  Well somehow.. haha but that's ok because I just happy to be writing to all of you again!!!

Every Tuesday we have our District Council, so this week we had our council... like normal... then we went home around 12 or 1230.... like normal... then we prepared lunch..... like normal.... then we ate lunch.... like normal.... then as soon as we finished eating...... we had a HUGE 4 HOUR LONG RAIN STORM! (not normal) I wasn't very fun because the roofing in Ghana is sheet metal... so when you have super heavy rain pounding on sheet metal over your head then you feel like you are stuck with your head in a tin can for about 4 hours! Headache anyone?! :)

On Thursday we had a very special day!  Elder Burdge had his birthday!! My companion is now 20 years old! So to celebrate, we invited some of our other MTC buddies to come and join us at a restaurant call Piri Piri's!  It is really nice for Ghanaian standards, but compared to back home it's a little rinky dink, hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  But long story short, we went there, had a good time, enjoyed each other's company. and wished Elder Burdge a happy birthday and good luck with his future remaining year on Mission!!!

I would also like to wish all of you good luck with your coming week!

Odo!

Elder Brandt