"Now you have a testimony..." - Elder Ofusu Hene



Elder Ofusu Hene, Elder Peters, Elder Beya and Elder Beall on the far right.  The Kade District

Second Title: "I packed your angry eyes just in case" - Toy Story

Dear Family & Friends,

Life in the bush is crazy! Everyone speaks Twi, the first question people ask me is, "O Ti Twi?" do you speak Twi? Its great, but kind of frustrating because they LOVE to hear white people speak their language. Sometimes if missionaries from the U.S. learn Twi very very well people will join the church just for that reason, then go inactive when that missionary moves out, so I am super super blessed to have a Ghanain companion who can speak the language. We are hoping to really work with the members here so that the people who were taught in Twi will be able to stay active cuz their friend who speaks their language is still here. Right now I can hear more Twi than I can speak. 

So on the Saturday that we got transfer news the Gbawe apartment got in a trotro to come home from the Weija chapel where we received transfer news. After I got in the trotro I got a call and was talking on the phone and this guy kept tapping me in the back while I was on the phone. After the call was over, irritated, but wanting to be Christ-like I turned around to find the most drunk Saudi-Arabian I have ever met. He was lost and got onto a "local bus" as he called it and wanted to get to Osu. He was on track to go to Lapaz though, which is WAY far away from where he needed to be. He asked me if I was going to a dancing bar too, I said, "no, I’m going to bed its late man...” He would forget where he was going after about 2 minutes and ask the mate again where he was going. Ghanaians (and all of us really) can be really impatient people sometimes and everyone in the tro tro was getting irritated with this guy whenever he would ask where this bus was going again the lady next to him would flip out and tell him its going to Lapaz. When we reached our stop I told him to get out and got him on a car to Circle, the center of Accra, there he would be able to get a tro tro to Osu. It was a really funny experience to guide this drunk dude around.

On Sunday I said goodbye to everyone and it was hard, but not as hard as leaving Lartebiokorshie.

On Tuesday I got up super early in the morning and walked down to Malam Station to pick a taxi to pick up my bags and go to Kaneshie to pick up Elder Beall. After picking up Elder Beall we went to circle and found that the Kade car only had room for 1 person left. But as soon as the taxi pulled up to the station guys swarmed the taxi and took out our bags and dragged them over to the trotro and started tying our luggage to the back of the van with some thick string when we saw how many seats were left they wanted to us to sit on top of each other for the 3 hour journey. This is where I had to get kinda feisty I put on my "angry eyes" and barked at the dudes to drop our bags or I’ll fetch the police under thievery, I didn't ask them to touch my bags, they took something that didn't belong to them. They started asking for money, but I told 'em off. I then asked for the driver, that I wanted to speak directly to him. I refused to respond to anyone, unless they could assure me they were the driver. Finally I got him and asked him where the next tro to Kade would be, he pointed to a different car and I took my bags and went back for Elder Beall's bags and we loaded them inside car and waited for it to fill up. I hate doing that, but sometimes it’s necessary. The trip to Kade was sweet, cramped and dusty but sweet. After going past Ofankor it was just foliage all along the road to Kade. Occasionally we would pass towns on the way like Asamankese and so on; there were a lot of mountains and farms to admire on the journey. Upon getting there a member came to the trotro and helped us unload our bags and called a taxi to come pick us up. That was the first thing I have noticed about the bush is that everyone is really really nice.



Elder Ofusu Hene

Elder Ofusu Hene is a Ghanaian from the Brang-Ahaffo region and is a sweet guy. He is fluent in Twi so that helps us A TON! He is 27 years old and is so grateful that he gets a chance to serve a full-time mission. He talks in a kind of raspy slow voice that would be common to an old fisherman in a cartoon movie. He is really kind, humble, and diligent. he says all the time, "if you haven't _______ before, then you'll have a testimony of it" we were going to a members place on Sunday night who feeds the missionaries a ridiculous amount of Bankuu and he was telling me that I would have a testimony of Sister Amoah all the time on Sunday. It always makes me laugh when he says that.

Typical road in Kade

Kade has a lot of potential and is coming off some great success. I am going to try really hard to keep the momentum going we have two people that we are preparing for baptism on the 19th of March. Mary and Kojo, and they are really awesome because they came to church even though it was Dunso. When we went to church this random white guy was sitting in the congregation with a shirt and tie on and I talked to him a little bit after the meeting. I still couldn't find out his purpose in coming here, but it was fun to talk to him. He was afraid of our branch presidents’ motorcycle and didn't want to ride it home. I thought that was kinda funny.

We also have this cool little town that we go to called Akwatia and we have a lot of potential investigators there. The way we are teaching right now is I will speak and Elder Ofusu Hene will translate and add in his own words and then tell me what he said. Kade is cool it has rained here 3 of the past 6 days I have been here.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Peters

P.S. James I actually haven't seen any new animals here in the bush, except for a rat in our apartment.