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| "Eh, Obruni! Oo ti Twi?" (White man, do you speak Twi?) |
Dear Family & Friends,
I'm sure
that some stuff I said in my last letter was kind of strange, but I had a fever
of 103 degrees Fahrenheit and my head was spinning when I wrote last. I was
afraid that I had malaria and called Sister Simpson later that night.
Sunday Night is when everything started, I drank a TON of water and loaded up on medicine to get some stuff done at the cafe and market, but as soon as light went out ending my cafe session, I went home and slept. The next morning, after a night of drinking insane amounts of sugar, a little salt, mixed with water to re-hydrate myself I felt a lot better. We only had one "one-use" thermometer in the apartment so I couldn't take my temperature again, but I knew it was way down. I got up and got ready just like normal, took an ibuprofen and was able to have a rather normal proselyting day.
Sunday Night is when everything started, I drank a TON of water and loaded up on medicine to get some stuff done at the cafe and market, but as soon as light went out ending my cafe session, I went home and slept. The next morning, after a night of drinking insane amounts of sugar, a little salt, mixed with water to re-hydrate myself I felt a lot better. We only had one "one-use" thermometer in the apartment so I couldn't take my temperature again, but I knew it was way down. I got up and got ready just like normal, took an ibuprofen and was able to have a rather normal proselyting day.
The next day
we had a Zone Training Meeting in Asamankese which is about an hour tro tro
ride away from our area. So I got an hour rest to the meeting, the meeting was
3 hours in an air conditioned room in the Asamankese chapel, and an hour ride
home reading the letters from Grandma and Grandpa Peters. The ride from here to
Asamankese is a newly paved road (it used to be really bumpy and dusty) that is
just surrounded by thick tropical jungle the whole way. It was such a blessing
to recover from whatever I got that Sunday night with that much rest.
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| Surrounded by Green Jungle. |
The subject
line of my email comes from two really strange experiences. The first was when
we went to teach Mary her final lesson before her planned baptismal interview
to review the questions and teach about tithing and fast offerings. We had the
baptismal record there and needed to get information about her birthday, and
her parents birthday (sometimes the most difficult part of baptizing someone is
having them find their parents birthday, sometimes you just have to make a good
guess..) Anyway, this adolescent chicken jumped up on my lap and dropped a little
“prize” right on the baptismal record!! I don't know what food it was looking
for, but it happened so fast I didn't know what to do. Then later in the week
we were teaching a lesson on a bench outside of a man's house and the bench was
placed next to the foundation of his house which jutted out from the outer
walls of his house, leaving enough space for a goat to stand in-between us and
the house. As I was explaining something, I felt this tug at the back of my
shirt, I ignored it then a few seconds later I felt it again, harder this time.
I looked behind me and a goat had jumped up on the foundation of the house and
was nibbling at the back of my shirt. So I had some weird animal interactions
this week.
It has been
so cool to teach with Elder Ofusu Hene. Usually the way it works is I teach
something and he translates everything I say into Twi. Even though a lot of our
investigators speak English, they understand a lot better in Twi. All of church
is in Twi, but I have a bit of a conflict in speaking it. Everywhere I go people will come up to me and
ask “Obruni, Oo ti Twi?” (White man, do you speak Twi?) and if I respond they
will call out all their neighbors and each one will ask me “Ete sen?” (how are
you) just to hear me say “Bawkaaa”. It’s
like entertainment for them. I can
understand most of what is said to me, but I’m not speaking it fluently yet.
This past
Sunday we went to visit a young man in our branch who didn't come to church. He
is a recent convert of a few months. As we went to visit him he told us that he
was struggling with a specific commandment, and that he felt like because he
was struggling with this thing that he couldn't come to church, or pray, or
read his scriptures. I opened up to one of my favorite verses of scripture,
Ephesians 6:11-18, and rehearsed to him many of the things that my dad has
taught me over my years as a young man about putting on the armor of God and
how we do this by reading our scriptures and saying our prayers. It was cool to
watch his demeanor change as we explained to him that Satan was sending these
temptations to him because he knows that this young man has great potential. He
isn't feeling temptations because he is broken, but because he is powerful
beyond measure.
In answer to
some of your questions:
Where is Beall from? Bozeman, Montana. He was a wrestler in
High School but also ran XC in the fall and knows a lot of the guys that won
NXN this year. How long has he
been on mission? He is the same age as Elder Herrod on mission How about his companion? Elder
Beya is from DR Congo and served in Gbawe in his training and knows a lot of
the same people I do there. How many people are in your branch there? About 20-30 come to church each week.
It has been
a great week, and I am so happy that I am healthy and I continue the work!
I love you
all!
Love, Elder Peters
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