"Theres all this dough ya see, and its all under A BIG DUBAWYA!" -Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (With lots of pictures)

Dear Friends and Family,

This was a very eventful week. First of all we are currently teaching 3 people with alcohol addictions. that's why the quote about the big W. I always write the lesson next to the persons name we are teaching so restoration is L1, plan of salvation is L2, and so on until you get to commandments then its TI (tithing), CH (law of chastity), and (WW) the word of wisdom. I guess its really rare for someone to have this problem, according to other missionaries, because most people can't afford alcohol. So Francis has a family of 2 kids one girl and one boy, he is also married. (still need clarification on if he's actually married, that's a big problem here because of bride price) he came to us while we were teaching Abigail one day and asked us if we could help him overcome his addiction because he wants to send his kids to school. It was pretty cool, people will literally come up to us and ask us to teach them. We are helping him, we helped him create a plan and sat with his whole family and a friend named Sarfo and talked about ways they can help him, and ways that he can get help from them. I feel way unqualified to help someone break a habit that is so incredibly powerful, but I know that with Gods help, all things are possible. If anybody has any advice, it would be readily welcomed by my companion and I. also we had two dudes almost in a fistfight on the road, and we were walking by and one yelled, "Hey elders!" that always gets our attention because most people just call you obruni and they aren't serious so we don't mind them. They guy said, "help my friend, he wants to go drink and I'm trying to keep him, to tell him it wont do him no good!" The one wanting to apiteshi (alcohol in twi) got mad and stormed off, but we were able to sit down and talk with Stephen about how he can help his friend and taught him the restoration. I'm still not sure if he's serious because he has another church, but we will see.

Rooftop panorama of Elder Peters Area

"We should hang out...BUT HANGING OUT WOULD HAVE TO WAIT" -Kung Fu Panda

We got two pretty good emails from Elder Peters EARLY this morning.  (he was online at 3 AM!!!)

The first one is to answer some of Kaylin's questions.  The second is the general email that he sends to all of us.

We were also lucky to get this photo from his Mission President's Blog.  This was taken the day
Elder Peters arrived at the Accra West Mission home. He is on the left, Elder Conner Mantz is next to him
and on the right next to President Hill is Elder Mitch Perry.

Enjoy:

Dear Mom, 

I really haven’t been to homesick because I know that this is where I am supposed to be, and you are all doing very well at home. That is not to say that I don't think about you very often, I think about you guys all the time, how you’re doing, are you happy, what you’re doing at this time of day. But it hasn't made me depressed. if anything when I think about you guys it makes me happy that I have such a wonderful family, even though I am separated from them, and I miss you, it doesn't get me down or keep me from working. I hope that makes sense...

I am very healthy. My six pack is slowly wasting away though. But I’m doing my best to keep it

"Someday I'll be 18 going on 45, 18 til I die" - Bryan Adams WITH PICTURES!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was full of unexpected and really cool events. First off right after I finished emailing last week, Elder Onen and I were walking back to our apartment and we ran into a guy who was a huge Barcelona fan. We had both just got our jerseys so we were both wearing them. He started to freak out, he was so happy. He was convinced that I was from Spain for some reason I don't know why. As we talked to him we ended up telling him why a Ugandan and American were walking around the streets of Ghana in Barcelona jerseys, to preach the gospel of course! So we contacted this guy, I don't remember his name because he is in Onen's area so I haven't seen him since but it was cool to share a gospel message with him. I think Onen will continue to try to teach him. Sometimes the ways the Lord prepares people may seem kind of ridiculous to us, but He does prepare them.

I have been trying to exercises every morning. I mostly just do XC abs and push ups. Sometimes I will talk someone in my apartment in to going for a run but its rare more than its common. Most of the time they will ride the bike next to me while I run. My goal is to do 300 push ups a day right now. Its going well but as usual my arms aren't really changing in size, in fact they might be getting smaller because protein is so hard to come by. It feels good to start the day that way though. I am also taking up the Josh Ward challenge to memorize a scripture everyday and so far I've done it, but its getting harder. I am up to 39 scriptures now I think, (that was quick math so its probably wrong)

We did this crazy service project this past week. I wrote about it in my journal:

MORE PHOTOS FROM ELDER PETERS

BAPTISMS!!!  Not sure who everyone is in the photo, but I am certain that the Sister Missionaries are on the left and Elder Liera is on the right. 



Elder Onen? (I think) Elder Liera and Elder Peters...sporting his new African Haircut.



Pounding Fufu



"Obruni Cocoa Machi" teaching some local kids about Jesus Christ.

"Thought I'd try out my sea legs!" "But Lt. Dan.. you don't got no legs." "Yes, I know that" -Forrest Gump

In addition to the letter below, Elder Peters sent a few extra notes to some friends and family.  These notes reveal some interesting tidbits of information that are absent from his main letter. Things like:

·      The missionaries in his apartment say that he is starting to slip up and say stuff with an African accent.
·       His Twi is coming along nicely

·      He had 17 investigators at church last week!!! 17!!! WOW!!!

·       He tried to play “All Of Me” (John Schmidt) on one of those electric keyboards that had enough keys (most of them are short all the keys) but it had a really bad delay on the notes so he couldn't play it very quickly.
·       Ghana isn't too hot right now, but we are still in the rainy season. Though it hasn't rained yet while he's been there.
·       The kids all call him “obruni cocoa machi” Twi for “white man red good morning”. They have also nicknamed him “Peta Croch”. I guess he’s a really tall redheaded futball player in England. Kids in Ghana will do that to the white elders, name them after a famous footballer who they think the missionary looks like. (the real player is actually Peter Crouch, he’s 6’8” and plays for Stoke City FC)

Any Guesses as to why the kids in Ghana have named Elder Peters after Peter Crouch?

·         He sees a LOT of lizards in his area that they call “Push-up” lizards because they climb up high on the walls and then do “Push-ups” with their front legs.  Some are over 3 ft. long.