Dear Family,
I
bet that you are all freezing in Utah. The weather is hot but nice here. Kasoa
is very dusty though. We have changed the routes we usually take on the main
roads and gone on some back trails because they aren't as dusty.
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| Elder Peters looking forward to getting a new companion...only he doesn't know who it will be??? |
So
we got some transfer news this week. I will be with a ward missionary for 1
week and elder Varo will go to Asum in the Abomosu zone. He is excited to go to
the bush because everything is very cheap. I will miss him. (We found out in other emails that Elder Friday will be the new district leader in Kasoa and that Elder Peters will be working with a Ward Missionary from Kwabenya for the week.)
This
week we baptized Terezah. Now their whole family are members of the church. Her
daughter Afia will be baptized in may because she will turn 8. It’s cool to see
an entire family converted to the church even though Terezah investigated for
more than a year. Something that they do in this ward that I really thought was
cool was after someone is baptized the new members sit on the front row and the
rest of the congregation lines up and one by one shakes their hand and says
"Akwaaba!" welcome to the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day
saints.
This
week I have been praying for new people to find and to teach. On
Saturday we had 4 people stop us on the road and tell us that they want us
to come and meet with them. Usually missionaries will contact others, this time
we had contacts contact us. It was so cool. One of them is named Henry and he
was investigating the church in Weija I think, but then he moved to Kasoa and
didn't know we had missionaries here so he was really happy when he found us.
He called me Sunday morning and told me that he was coming to church
but he never made it. I haven't been able to call him, but I will see him later
this week. Pray for him.
That’s
a short summary of the work in our area.
This
week in my scripture study I read through all of 1 Nephi and am now on chapter
10 of 2 Nephi but there were some cool lessons that I thought about and learned
from these chapters. In 1 Nephi 17:21 Laman says something to the
effect of, shoot Nephi if only we would have hung out in Jerusalem we would
have enjoyed all our stuff, we would have the lands of our inheritance, we
would have been HAPPY. And Nephi goes on to chastise them small... but then in
2 Nephi 5 Nephi lists all these things, after he had separated from his
brothers and he had his own band of people following him, that they do to
"live after the manner of happiness" he has his people keep the
commandments, work, farm, teaches them, builds a temple, and lots of other cool
things. But I noticed that he never said that STUFF made them happy. I have
noticed that people, myself included, sometimes think that having STUFF will
make you happy. And it leads to us not being very happy because once you have
something, you will only want more just like the little mermaid. I learned that
it is our actions that truly make us happy, not things. Anyway it was a cool
lesson that I learned and thought about this past week. Read through those
verses, you'll learn some cool things, maybe you'll even notice some things you
want to set as goals for the New Year.
The
other day while we were at a member’s house there was a small kid named Oheniba
that was causing some small wahala. He is the elder’s quorum president’s son
and is probably about 5. His mom had made us some popcorn in a bowl and given
each of us a soda and we were visiting with their family on
a Sunday afternoon. Mame asked us to sit down and brought us some
stools. Oheniba was clinging to one of the stools and mame grabbed him by the
shorts and yanked him off the stool, but it just tore his pants off. Eventually
she was able to pry him off the stool. I can honestly say the the only Twi I
don't really understand is when mothers are barking at their small kids. It is
also super funny and makes me laugh everytime. Ohineba was then told not to
take any popcorn but would occasionally swipe some and scamper away just out of
the clutches of mame. While mame had her back turned I gave him my bottle of
soda, it only had a little left in it. (He was still pants-less and shirtless
at this point) he scampered away with the Pepsi and stood aways off with the
bottle in hand, then mame saw him. The sun was going down, he stood stark naked
on a small hill, it was like the scene out of a cowboy movie. As his mother
warned him not to drink the missionary’s soda his lips cracked into a beaming
smile as the bottle nozzle went straight into his mouth. Ghana mame's may not
look very fast, but when they are mad they fly, their aclabuni's (stubborn
children) also move rather fast too, but not fast enough for mame. Oheniba got
wooped that night. I felt bad I tried to tell mame that I gave him the soda,
but I wasn't fast enough. I felt bad for him. I gave him a ctr sticker at
church yesterday, maybe it will help (actually it just made him want more so he
stole a bunch off of other kids that I gave them too). He’s a cool kid. I
usually try to give the small kids in the house some of the food or drinks that
members give us because they will bust the piggy bank to feed the missionaries,
sometimes it means that kid number 3 and going doesn't get to
eat tonight because we are feeding the missionaries so I usually try
to sneak them food without offending those who prepared it.
The
mission is changing a lot, President Snow will be here until July and then we
will receive President Simpson from Australia. So I will have 3 mission
presidents. We are also opening winneba zone tomorrow. Elder Vandahei and Elder
Mmbulika will be the zone leaders. I play soccer with both of them
every Monday and I will miss them. We played world cup last week and
elder vandahei and I were team USA and we won the world cup.
Keep
reading your scriptures and preparing for your missions. You will have
incredible experiences that will build your faith SO much as you go forth to
serve. I have seen miracles, I have heard testimonies that would shake the
foundations of any great and spacious building laughing at anyone with desires
to follow Christ. A mission has been such an incredible life changing
adventure. A life that is becoming centered on the atonement of Jesus Christ.
For it is only through him that we can find our joy. Strive to "live after
the manner of happiness" this week. I love you all so much
Love,
Elder Peters
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| The biggest ant hill I've ever seen! |
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