Elder Brandon Peters: "Life is a Highway, I'm gonna ride it all night long!"

Goofing around with a bunch of Kids, this is Elder Peters in his element.

Dear Friends & Family,

I was thinking more about Lightning McQueen riding across the US in the first Cars movie than I was about Rascal Flats, because I went on the road trip of my life this past Tuesday! I didn't get to proselyte hardly at all on Tuesday.

I went from Accra to Winneba to pick up Elder Pohlsander and to drop off Elder Keddington! I spent a solid 6 hours on a trotro this past Tuesday! But I did get to see our mission from boundary to boundary line along the coast. That was really cool. It was fun to go past Kasoa and Budaburam and see all those places again; I haven't been there for a long time. It brought back fun memories.

Hitching a ride with the Elders

Winneba is sweet! They have this thing called the Aboarkyer festival in which there are two teams and the goal is to catch a deer with your bare hands and present it before the king of Winneba. He stomps on it 3 times and if it is dead after then it means you drugged it or maimed it in some way so you cheated, you have to catch it alive, bring it back alive, with your bare hands. Look it up its sweet.

I learned all this from Elder Brandon Thayne Pohlsander (ya we have the same first name, strange huh?) He is the same MTC as Elder Herrod (who I got a call from last night and he is doing awesome) Elder Pohlsander loves animals. It is his quest to find cool animals and animal parts, and I am excited to join him on it. He’s got African porcupine quills, a monkey skull, a rhino beetle exoskeleton, and a bunch of other super dope stuff that he has found in little shops in Winneba. He also caught a monitor lizard and kept it in his compound in Winneba for a little while. And something called a bush cat. I guess it’s kinda like bobcats at home but his was a baby.

Animal wood carvings in a shop

We won’t be keeping pets in our apt, but it will be cool to have him as a companion. He has a genuine desire to help people come unto Christ and is a really good teacher. He is very smart and really knows his scriptures well.

Oh ya for James: Elder Pohlsander was an assistant to a Taxidermist back home and worked on Lions, Hippos, Rhino's, and a bunch of other cool big game animals that people killed and brought home for him to stuff them. Cool huh?

Oh ya Elder Pohlsander and I taught the primary kids a song yesterday. That has become a weekly thing. Ii teach the primary kids a song. I stole one of the primary song books from a closet in our chapel and it has guitar chords in it so I will be using it to learn to play for them on Sunday. (if I get time to practice at night) WHY DO WE HAVE TO SLEEP!!!!???? I wish I could just be alive all the time!

Handing out stickers to the little kids

I have been trying to learn elder Friday's previous area and pick up some new investigators this past week and it has been rough. We really need some new people to teach and are working really hard on fellowshipping and gaining the trust of members so they will introduce us to their friends and trust us with them.

We have come up with some cool plans to go on exchange with the companionships in our zone. Pres snow wants us to go on 2 exchanges a week. We have decided to do service in the mornings, study around lunch time and then proselyte in the afternoon when everybody is getting home from work. The prime proselyting hours of the day are 4 to 7. So the service in the morning time that we will be doing is I’m having a guy in our ward teach us how to repair fishermen’s nets. He used to be a fisherman when he was younger. I guess that Tuesday is the day that nobody goes fishing because of ancient beliefs. So that works out perfect cuz Tuesdays are great days for exchanges.

Today I am going to visit Mamponse this evening so elder Ferrin and I can see our recent converts there before he goes home this transfer.

I learned something this week that I wanted to share with you guys. I have noticed that there is a lot of mission gossip. I listened to that talk by hank smith called thou shalt be nice and I realized that even though he is pointing this talk to high school kids. It applies to everywhere. We all like our groups, our clubs, our teams, our tribes. Even on mission. I have realized that unofficial popularity contests and forming groups isn't just a "high school" thing. It reminds me of the king-men in Alma chapter 46-48. For some reason these guys think that they deserve to be better than everyone else. They form their little group and it ends up causing huge problems. I am trying to be better at being like Moroni, trying to help missionaries realize that we aren't "ites" but one the people of Christ 4 Nephi 1:17.

Preparing a meal

Mission rocks, Ghana ey3 pa! (Ghana Rocks) Me adwuma pa na yesu kriso din. (I am doing good work in Jesus Christ's name) Me do kyere ghanafo nsempa na yesu kristo wo asan a aba bio! (I love to teach the Ghanaians the good word of the resurrection of Jesus Christ)

Have Thomas help you with that, not sure if it’s entirely correct, but I’m working on it!

Love, Elder Peters

P.S. Elder Ferrin's homecoming talk will be on August 21st in the Lindon 7th Ward. You guys should REALLY go. Like I promise you WILL want to be there and go to his house afterwards, he might have something from me to you...