 |
| Stole this from Elder Perry...Elder Peters and Elder Perry got to be companions again for a day, and decided to take a snapshot with a photo of Elder Josh Ward while they were together. |
Dear Family and Friends,
You know its
HOT when you are sitting in Sacrament Meeting and you can feel drops of sweat
running down from your hairline to your eyebrow, slip off of your eyebrow and
fall down and roll down your nose, onto your lip and into your mouth so when
you stick your tongue out (not that I do that a lot in sacrament meeting) you
can taste salt. You wipe your face with your bandana and they just keep coming.
It was really really hot this past week.
Dad you'll
be happy to hear that I don't leave the house without my bandanna, along with
the rest of the missionaries in the Ghana Accra West mission. If you forget
your ‘sweat rag’ (its most common name here among missionaries) you won't be
able to open your eyes all day because they will be full of sweat all the time.
This week my ponderize scripture
was Moroni 7:33 "Christ hath said:
if ye have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient
in me" so despite the heat I had a really good week, having POWER from
on high to help. Something that I have been trying to teach more often to
my investigators and help them understand and apply is that we are completely
in control of our decisions and are accountable for them. As I have been doing
baptismal interviews for missionaries I get the sense from many of their
investigators that they do not understand that what they did to sin was their
own choice. Often they will feel bad, but they will try to justify the action
based on circumstance or lack of financial stability or you name it. Elder Miller
and I have consistently been joking around together about both with
missionaries and people that we wish we could just handle situations like the Penguins of Madagascar, "Don't
give me excuses! Give me results!" I am also learning a lot more about
myself, and really taking a hard look at my personal integrity. Am I giving the
Lord excuses or results? What did I complain about today? How can I change
that?
This story is for James: A funny
thing happened during one of our last lessons on Tuesday. It was like 9:00 and
both Elder Miller, I and Belinda and Joyce (our two investigators) were all
super tired. It was dark and we sat outside of Belinda and Joyce’s house in
their compound. Elder Miller and I sat on a wooden bench while Belinda and Joyce
sat across from us on a concrete lip built into their neighbor’s home. To the
right of Belinda and Joyce was a blue wooden door that looked very worn and was
falling off of its hinges. Half way through the lesson the biggest rat I’ve
ever seen ran under Belinda and Joyce's legs and Elder Miller kicked it raising
his arms up and throwing his wrists back like a disgusted teenage girl
and said ,"yeaugh!" the rat ran away. Belinda and Joyce just sat
there. Elder Miller then turned and looked at me, “Did you see that rat?” I
said, “Ya that it was huge”. He asked Belinda and Joyce, they said no, they
thought it was a cat. Ya that’s how big it was...They thought it was a cat!
Book of
Mormon Battles is the most popular game in the apartment competing with big
name games like Monopoly, Risk, and Uno. Just thought you would like to hear
that. Thanks for sending it.
We have been
going to gym in the morning with this guy in our neighborhood named Michael. He
has a bar and a dumbbell made out of pieces from a car transmission and a
wooden bench. The bench was falling apart though and so Elder Miller and I took
his hammer and my puny Leatherman saw (that actually works really well) and
went and fixed it. Bother Leslie came along with us like he usually does as we
go out to proselyte during the day. We have been building a friendship with him
and are going to start teaching him this coming week. He is a really cool guy.
The
highlight of the week was defiantly going on exchange with Elder Perry. It was
so cool because the friendship that we have had throughout all of high school
and mission was and has been; when we are off the track we can goof around, but
when we hit the track we get to work. it really felt like I was just going on
exchange with any other missionary, yet it was cool to know that Elder Perry
was still my brother in the Lord, that had given himself entirely over to the
work of the Lord (see Alma 17:2-3) I will never forget the lesson that we had
with Emmanuel and his friend Emmanuel (ya people can get really creative with
names sometimes...not:) I hid my camera in my bike helmet and started to film
us teaching the restoration from the start. It was going to be the coolest
video ever, but for whatever reason my camera didn't record it, I think it was
too long and since my camera isn't a video camera it doesn't really take long
videos I guess. But it was super cool to think that I am sitting here half way
around the world with one of my best friends, teaching somebody in Africa and
speaking Twi. If you asked me if I ever thought that was possible 2 years ago I
would have said “No way!”.
Mom - I am
taking good care of myself; I will try to eat more. I have noticed I am eating
a lot less than I did when I came out. It’s hard because there aren't a lot of
vegetables or protein. Strait carbs: rice, bankuu, fufu, bread, can only have
so much nutrition in them. I haven't been running hard, just enough to have fun
every now and again and help my companion. (For whosoever shalt compel thee to
go a mile, thou shalt go with him twain) or something like that, right?
James - I
hope you like the rat story! I also saw a pretty big bat the other day at
night. Keep practicing the piano, one day it will come in handy so much! I am
trying to teach Brother Leslie how to play the piano when I go to practice the
hymns while the other elders are at choir practice on Tuesday nights. I loved
playing soccer in the rain, I always felt like I was in England in the cool big
stadiums when it was raining. Have you seen goal? That might be a cool one for
you.
I love you
all a ton! See you on Sunday! (actually next Sunday the 8th on Mothers Day…then we get to SKYPE!!)
-love, Elder Peters
 |
| Elders Perry and Peters having companionship study. The smiles on their faces tells the whole story. This is pure joy. |
No comments:
Post a Comment