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| Hello from Ghana!!! |
Dear Friends & Family,
This week has gone well. This
morning I just got back from the beach and I have my SD card reader so I am
uploading a ton of pictures, if you have any questions about them, just ask I
will do my best to explain. The beach is super cool.
But last p-day after going to the beach we went and did something even cooler. Elder Kaelin and I took our guitars to Simon Norteys house and the three of us had a little jam session followed by a scripture thought by elder Herrod and some malt's provided by elder brown. It was probably the coolest FHE I have had on my mission so far. Simon is a super cool guy. This last week he was late to sacrament meeting so he wasn't confirmed, but after he pulled me aside, very concerned and said, "on the closing song, nobody was playing the keyboard, why?" I said, "I’m not sure, probably because we don't have anyone who knows that song" (side note - I haven't talked with the bishop about playing the keyboard even though I can, I should get on that, usually they have somebody to play and bishop doesn't live in our area so I don't see him much.) Simon then said, "Well if you can get me a book, I will learn the songs during the week and then on Sunday, there will always be someone to play!" I was pumped, he was baptized a week ago and basically just asked me if he could be the ward organist. Tonight we are taking him to Brother Shadrack Bentum and Sis Deborah's house for a FHE. It will be cool. They are going to teach him about eternal marriage.
The mission has put an extra
focus on working with ward council and helping to strengthen the wards systems
of management. Our ward has no concept or history with home teaching, which is
rather vital and also very difficult for an area that is receiving close to 5
new members every month. So yesterday we went to ward council and it was really
funny because it was the first ward council that I have ever attended, but I
know that it is nothing like ward council at home. The relief society president
was the best; I had to bite my tongue the whole time. She fell asleep and
started snoring, after her nap she busted out some biscuits and a juice box and
had lunch, then at 1:30 (the meeting started at 12:30) she stood up and said,
all right! I’m goin home! And the bishop had to tell her to sit down, wait for
the prayer we were almost done. They have some work ahead of them, but they are
doing ok. We are going to meet with the elders’ quorum president and try to
give him some good ideas about how to go about doing home teaching.
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| Elder Brown, Elder Kaelin, Elder Herrod and Elder Peters at the beach. |
It was light off the other night
and my fan wasn't charged and the church behind us was speaking in tongues all
night and I thought, wow this sucks. I’m drenched in sweat, can't sleep, my
sheets and mosquito net are sticking to my body, these people are screaming, I
don't know how I’m gonna make it through the day tomorrow. And I will be honest
the next day I was really tired. But I remembered something that Amy Wright
said in Sunday school one time, "I’m just gonna have to be tired
later." I got people to see, who need to see me, and I can't let them
down. An elephant's faithful one hundred percent! It’s pretty incredible what
you can do when you put your mind to the work, and your trust in the lord. That
is another cool lesson I was pondering on in Alma 43:1, chapter 26; 11, chapter
27; 17-19 are all Ammon talking about how his joy is in serving the people of
the lamanites. his attitude reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite songs
"I did it all, I owned every second that this world could give, saw so
many places, the things that I did, yah with every broken bone, I swear, I
LIVED!" -One Republic. I realized that I want to be able to say that at
the end of the day. I lived, doing everything I could today to help others come
unto Christ.
Yesterday we had weekly planning
and afterwards were on our way to go and see the Oppong family. they live
really far away on this road (the same one where I thought I was about to get
robbed last time) and so I wanted to take a taxi because its a lot safer than
walking (and we were runnin late) and this really rich guy with a super drunk
old man in shotgun pulled up as we were standing by the side of the road
waiting for a tro, moto or taxi and we started to talk with the rich guy (he
had a really nice Honda accord) he wanted to give us a ride so we accepted. It
was interesting to talk with him. His wife happened to have a baby earlier that
morning and he showed us a picture on his phone, then he told us about where he
lived in UK and how he was visiting Ghana. (He’s Ghanaian though not obruni) he
took us to our destination and then left. We left him with a restoration
pamphlet. But the funniest part was that the super drunk old man would repeat
everything he said but only he would yell it (I’ve noticed when people are
drunk, their volume goes WAY up). So I’m from the UK. YA, THE UK!!!!!! The best
was after elder Herrod said he was from California and the old man just kept
repeating it CALIFORNIA!!!! I LIKE CALIFORNIA!!!!!!! HEY YOU! (Hanging out the
window) THIS MANS FROM CALIFORNIA!!!!!! HEHHE. I wish I would have recorded it.
He was a nice guy, but I couldn't help feel bad for him. I have been asked to
take alcohol and or drugs more on my mission than at home (I never had anyone
directly tell me," here, drink this beer my man" at home, but it
happens all the time here kinda weird) it has helped me SEE the benefits of
living the word of wisdom because I now know how much it destroys our agency
because I have seen it.
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| Abell Osei's baptism. |
Last week when Abell Osei was
baptized he was baptized 5x. It’s because the man baptizing him was baptized
about 5 weeks ago. So he didn't get him in the water all the way several times,
then didn't say the prayer right. it was a little stressful but as I stepped
back I realized how incredible it is that the church is growing so fast that
those who were baptized a month ago, are now baptizing someone else, and what
strong faith the people of Ghana have in following the example of Jesus Christ.
But I did kinda feel bad when we went to teach Abell later that night and asked
if he had any questions and he asked, "Why do you have to be ALL THE WAY
under the water?" I told him about how I had to try several times before I
was actually baptized as well. His mom doesn't speak English but she supports
him the best she can. She bought him a scripture case that is actually really
cool.
Keep livin the life back in Kaysville.
Grandma and Grandpa Peters thank you so much for the letters! Those news paper
clips that you throw in are SO COOL. Especially that one about President
Simpson that is the first time anybody in our mission has seen his picture let
alone knows anything about him! That little paper is like gold so many elders
want to read it. Thank you. The temples around the world is gonna come in handy
too, especially as we are teaching Simon and Abell about temples.
I love you guys a ton!
Love Elder Peters
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| If you don't recall from Elder Peters letter a few weeks ago, this little boy stands on the side of the road every day to wait for Elder Peters to come by and shake his hand. "Ete sein Elder? How are you?" |
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| Shout out to DXC...he LOVES this shirt. |
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