"When you get home, you should come to Fiji ok?" - Mamae Varo

Dear Family,

While elder Varo was Skyping home this Christmas his mom wanted to talk to his companion for a little bit. So I slid in front of the computer and said hello. She asked me how long I have been out on my mission. I said I have only been out for a very little time. "Oh so elder Varo will come home before you come home then?" yes ma. Well after you get home from your mission you should come pay us a visit in Fiji! I work at the hotel so I will get you a room for free and elder Varo can take you to see the sharks!" YES MA! Gotta remember that one. She was a very sweet old lady.

 The best part of Christmas was definitely getting to see you guys. We are lucky that we were able to use a member’s laptop, that may not happen again on my mission. 

Our view of Elder Peters on Skype...it was the BEST Christmas ever! (we are showing him the Golden Oreo cookies that we are going to send in his next package...can you see how excited he is about that?)

All of us gathered around the computer/TV to see and talk to Elder Peters for Christmas.

Christmas in Ghana is very similar to our 4th of July celebration in Kaysville. Except there’s not a water fight parade. Christmas is a very big celebration here. Even the Muslims celebrate the birth of Christ. Lots of people go to very big rock concerts. There’s a lot of fireworks. People wear Santa hats. Christmas lasts about a week here. From Christmas day to new years people are partying. Around the end of November to the beginning of December people will buy a goat and start to feed it well well. It enjoys for a month. Then it cries on the 25th! My time is short but I will write more about the end of year festivities in next weeks email.

On Sunday it was my first time back in our ward for 2 weeks because I have been going out to Bawtjiase. Our investigator Terezah and her less active husband came to church and asked me if she could be baptized next week. To fulfill a yearly goal. I told her that we would be having a baptism on the 10th of January, they agreed. So hopefully we will baptize Edmund and Terezah on the 10th. That is 2 days before transfer. 

I read through the Christmas story in Luke 2 and in 3 Nephi chapter 1 and was thinking about that a lot this week. There are a lot of really cool lessons that we can learn from these 2 chapters especially about families and teaching the gospel. I think it’s interesting what the Sheppard’s did, that we usually don't see in the Christmas movies we watch. As soon as they see the baby Jesus they RUN to go tell others what they have seen. Often times in the movies we just see them in awe and taking a seat to watch. I’m sure they did that, and enjoyed the presence of the savior, but I’m sure as they sat there they began to be filled with a sense of urgency, a sense of "I’ve gotta go tell somebody about this...” type of feeling. As a missionary after a good study, even after a good prayer I get that feeling, "I’ve just gotta tell someone!" feeling. The spirit works in cool ways.

Sorry this email is kinda short. I am a little pressed for time today. We had this huge Christmas party at a member’s house in our zone. They fed us rice, and malt, and fanice. It was SO good. We played musical chairs and I won! So we are getting back a little late from that. 

More to come next week. I apologize for not having my card reader. No pictures this week. Next week don’t worry

-Love, Elder Peters